Climate, Warfare and the Collapse of the Bronze Age in the Near East

Middleton, GD

doi:10.1093/9780198969631.003.0001

Climate, Warfare and the Collapse of the Bronze Age in the Near East

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Abstract

Climate change is often cited as a cause of the collapse of ancient states and empires, including in the ancient Near East, usually linked with invasions and migrations. While some palaeoclimatic evidence is suggestive of fluctuations in climate conditions in some areas, the assumption that these must have led to subsistence problems, migration, and collapse is problematic. What is more certain is that warfare was a major driver of state development and interaction, a tool of ancient politics. Conflict between and within states and empires could lead them to fragment. This chapter examines ideas about climate, warfare, and collapse in the Akkadian and Hittite empires and Egypt.