Abstract

This volume combines diverse approaches to provide a new, broadly-based, contextualised understanding of the decline of Bronze Age societies in the Eastern Mediterranean at the end of the 13th and the first half of the 12th centuries BC with a particular focus on Cyprus and neighbouring cultures. The volume’s five sections contain 19 chapters by leading scholars which deal variously with (1) Egyptian, Ugaritic and Hittite written sources, (2) possible evidence for the destruction, abandonment and transformation of sites, (3) the study of regional and interregional connections based on provenance studies of pottery and other artefacts, (4) the importance of economic resources such as copper and animal supplies, and (5) the contribution of scientific approaches to the general theme, viz. radiocarbon, climatological studies and material analyses. The papers in this volume are the results of the conference The Decline of Bronze Age Civilisations in the Mediterranean: Cyprus and Beyond organised by the editors of the volume and held on January 17 and 18, 2020 at the Department of Historical Studies, University of Gothenburg. In addition, it was the final conference of the project The Collapse of Bronze Age Societies in the Eastern Mediterranean that investigated the causes of disruption in international trade and the ‘collapse’ of Bronze Age civilisations in the Eastern Mediterranean in the second half of the 13th and the 12th centuries BC, focusing on the island of Cyprus which was the centre of interregional trade in this region.