bronze age collapse

bronze age collapse Latest

Nov 26 Blog

The Last Days of Hattusa

By: Trevor Bryce

In the latter part of the second millennium B.C., the Hittite empire was a Near Eastern superpower. Then, suddenly, the empire collapsed and Hattusa was invaded and destroyed.

Depiction of captured “Sea Peoples,” some of whom are identified with the early Philistines, from the temple of Medinet Habu in Egypt. Courtesy Photo Companion to the Bible, Joshua

Sep 11 Blog

The Philistines Are Coming!

By: Nathan Steinmeyer

The traditional view of the biblical Philistines sees them as an organized and powerful force that moved in and conquered part of the southern Levant […]

Aug 19 Blog

Who Were the Philistines?

By: Nathan Steinmeyer

Mentioned throughout the Hebrew Bible as terrifying fighters, the Philistines were ancient Israel’s greatest enemy … or were they? Decades of excavation at Tell […]

Jul 9 Blog

The Expulsion of the Hyksos

By: Noah Wiener

In the 16th century B.C.E., Ahmose I overthrew the Hyksos and initiated the 18th Dynasty and the New Kingdom of Egypt. Recent archaeological discoveries at Tel Habuwa shed new light on Ahmose’s campaign.

Apr 25 Blog

Who Were the Hittites?

By: Ellen White

Archaeology tells us a lot about the Hittites—and the Neo-Hittites too. But it’s hard to reconcile this with the Hittites of the Bible.

Feb 18 Blog

Who Were the Minoans?

By: Noah Wiener

Crete’s Minoan civilization has long been considered Europe’s first great Bronze Age society. But who were the Minoans? A recent DNA study suggests that the Minoan civilization comprised of local Europeans rather than outsiders.

Jun 29 Blog

What Caused the Bronze Age Collapse?

By: Megan Sauter

Earthquakes. Drought. Famine. Plague. War. Mass migration. Sadly, we are not strangers to these phenomena. Neither were those who lived in Mediterranean kingdoms during the […]

Nov 14 Blog

Early Bronze Age: Megiddo’s Great Temple and the Birth of Urban Culture in the Levant

By: Noah Wiener

Megiddo’s Great Temple is a structure that, according to its excavators, “has proven to be the most monumental single edifice so far uncovered in the EB I Levant and ranks among the largest structures of its time in the Near East.”

Oct 14 Blog

Epilepsy, Tutankhamun and Monotheism

By: Noah Wiener

Tutankhamun died at a young age with a feminine physique. His closest relatives all shared similar features and fates. Imperial College London surgeon Hutan Ashrafian suggests that the royal family may have had an inherited disorder: frontal lobe epilepsy.

Jun 28 Blog

Bronze Age Collapse: Pollen Study Highlights Late Bronze Age Drought

By: Noah Wiener

What caused the Bronze Age collapse? A study of pollen grains in sediment cores beneath the Sea of Galilee and the Dead Sea provides a different view of the Bronze Age collapse.

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