By Lewis Loflin | Published May 9, 2025
Around 1200 BCE, about 3,300 years ago, the Bronze Age world fell apart. A long cooling period and a severe megadrought—a very long dry spell—were the main causes, not just volcanic eruptions, earthquakes, or wars. Places like Phoenicia and Egypt survived better thanks to their geography, showing how climate shaped history.
The Earth got colder around this time, hitting a low point about 3,100 years ago, around 1100 BCE. This cooling, seen in ancient ice records from Greenland, made the air hold less moisture, leading to less rain. A megadrought, lasting about 150 years from 1250 to 1100 BCE, made things worse. Old tree rings from Turkey and plant remains from the Sea of Galilee show how dry it got, with little rain to grow crops [Langgut et al., 2013].
The megadrought meant no rain for crops, causing hunger in places like the Hittite lands in Turkey and Mycenaean Greece. Ancient writings from Ugarit, a city in Syria, around 1190 BCE, show they were begging for food. In Romania, the Wietenberg people, who made bronze tools, struggled too, as dried-up plants in the Carpathian region show. Groups called the Sea Peoples took advantage of the chaos to raid around 1175 BCE, but the lack of rain was the real problem [Drake, 2012].
| Issue | Effect | Proof |
|---|---|---|
| Cooling/Megadrought | Hunger, moving, trade breakdown | Ice records, plant remains |
| Thera (~1600 BCE) | Hurt Minoan trade | Tsunami signs |
| Earthquakes | Damaged some cities | Mycenae ruins |
| Wars/Sea Peoples | Raids during chaos | Egyptian writings |
Phoenicia, in modern Lebanon, was by the sea with mountains to the east. Rain from the sea would hit the Lebanon Mountains and fall as water, feeding rivers and springs even during the drought. They also fished and traded, like with Egypt, using their ports, as finds in Sidon from 1200 BCE show. Egypt depended on the Nile River, which got its water from rains far south in Sudan and Ethiopia, areas less hit by the drought. Writings from Pharaoh Ramesses III around 1175 BCE show they still had food to share, unlike other places [World History, 2019].
The Thera volcano erupted around 1600 BCE, about 3,625 years ago, hurting the Minoans on Crete, but that was long before this drought. Earthquakes around 1225 BCE damaged cities like Mycenae in Greece, but there’s no sign of them in Romania. The Sea Peoples and other wars took advantage of the hunger, but they didn’t start it [Nur & Cline, 2009].
The Minoans on Crete fell around 1450 BCE, about 3,475 years ago, when the Mycenaeans took over. The Thera eruption played a part, but the megadrought came later, so it didn’t affect them [Scientific Reports, 2021].
The cooling and drought from 3,300 years ago show how climate can change history, but Phoenicia and Egypt prove location matters. Today’s 1.1°C warming is small compared to that crisis, and we can learn from their survival. Check out my Thera Eruption, Sea Peoples, or Bronze Age Romania on BristolBlog.com.
Acknowledgment: Thanks to Grok, created by xAI, for drafting assistance. Final edits and views are mine.