Bronze Age Cataclysmic Comet Responsible For The Sea People

The Late Bronze Age collapse of the 12th century BC is one of the greatest and most enduring puzzles of Mediterranean archaeology. A cosmopolitan age, perhaps one of the first true episodes of globalization in human history, which saw the rise of the first historical empires of Egypt and Babylon, as well as the apogee of the Hittite, Minoan and Mycenean civilizations, came within a few years to a sudden and fiery end.  At the same time, a mysterious coalition of peoples, known from contemporary Egyptian inscriptions as the Sea Peoples, appeared on the coasts of Europe, Egypt and the Levant, wreaking havoc on every city or village that they found along their path. Many believe this was the origin of Plato’s story of Atlantis, as retold to Solon by the learned priests of Sais: That of a mighty power that came forth out of the Atlantic Ocean to subdue all of Europe and Africa, as far as Egypt.

Invasions, population movements and destruction during the collapse of the Bronze Age, c. 1200 BC derived from Atlas of World History (2002) (Alexikoua / CC BY-SA 3.0)

Generations of historians have since established a direct connection between the Sea Peoples invasions and the Late Bronze Age collapse. In history, as in many other disciplines, however, correlation does not always mean causation. What then was the role of the mysterious Sea Peoples in the Bronze Age collapse? And from whence did they come to the coasts of Italy, Greece, Egypt, Syria, Lebanon and Turkey?

A gateway into the fortified Philistine citadel of Megiddo, in present-day Israel. (Image: © Marco M. Vigato)