Late Bronze Age
The Eastern Mediterranean and Near East c. 1600-1050 BCE: the palace states and trade networks of Egypt, Hatti, Mycenaean Greece and the Levant, and their disruption around 1200 BCE.
Category: Society
- c. 1595 BCEMursili I sacks Babylon
In 1595 BCE (1587 on another chronology) the Hittite king Mursili I sacks Aleppo and Babylon. The Kassites are left to rule Babylonia for some four centuries. Mursili is then murdered by Hantili I, and the Hittite kingdom falls into chaos.
- c. 1500 BCECypro-Minoan script and the Enkomi tablet
The Cypro-Minoan syllabary, derived from Linear A, is used on Cyprus and elsewhere from c. 1550 to 1050 BCE. About 250 inscribed objects survive. The longest early text is a clay tablet found at Enkomi in 1955, c. 1500. It is undeciphered.
- c. 1400 BCEUgarit's scribes write an alphabet in cuneiform
Around 1400 BCE scribes at Ugarit use about thirty signs, pressed into clay, to write the Ugaritic language. The letter order resembles the Phoenician alphabet. The city's archives also use Akkadian, Sumerian, Hittite, Hurrian and Egyptian.
- c. 1400 BCEHittite texts name Wilusa
From c. 1400 BCE, when it joins the Assuwa confederation, to a letter of Tudhaliya IV, Hittite records name a western Anatolian state, Wilusa. It is generally identified with Troy, though not all scholars see that as settled. The texts do not describe a Greek attack on it.
- c. 1360 BCEThe Amarna letters
About 350 letters, mostly in Akkadian, record Egypt's mid-1300s BCE dealings with Babylonia, Assyria, Mitanni, the Hittites, Cyprus and Syrian and Canaanite vassals. Local diggers found them at Amarna around 1887. They contain the first mention of the Habiru.
- c. 1350 BCESherden and Lukka appear in Egyptian records
Some names later grouped as Sea Peoples appear well before 1200 BCE. The Amarna letters mention the Lukka, Denyen and Sherden; Ramesses II claims to repel a Sherden attack on the Delta in his second year, then fields captured Sherden at Kadesh.
- c. 1350 BCESuppiluliuma I makes Hatti a great power
Suppiluliuma I, whose reign is dated c. 1350-1322 BCE with variations, overruns Mitanni's heartland, takes Aleppo and other Syrian kingdoms, and installs Piyassili at Carchemish. Mitanni stays a Hittite dependency until Assyria annexes it under Shalmaneser I.
- c. 1350 BCEUgarit becomes a Hittite vassal
Under Niqmaddu II (c. 1350-1315 BCE) Ugarit, a coastal kingdom in northern Syria, becomes a vassal of the Hittite Empire and answers to its viceroy at Carchemish. Its archives show a busy trading city whose navy later helps Hatti on Cyprus.
- c. 1349 BCEAkhenaten founds Akhetaten (Amarna)
About his fifth year Akhenaten decrees a new capital, Akhetaten, now Amarna, midway between Thebes and Memphis. His reign is dated c. 1353-1336 or 1351-1334 BCE. He favours the Aten; whether his religion was monotheistic is debated. His monuments were dismantled after his death.
- c. 1334 BCEAn Egyptian queen asks Hatti for a prince
The widow of an Egyptian king called NipαΈ«ururia, probably Tutankhamun or Akhenaten, asks Suppiluliuma I for a son to marry. His son Zannanza is killed on the road. Later Hittite prayers link a plague among Egyptian captives to the affair.
- c. 1320 BCEThe Uluburun shipwreck
A merchant ship sinks off southern Turkey around 1320 BCE carrying about 10 tons of Cypriot copper, a ton of tin, some 175 glass ingots, ebony, ivory and Canaanite jars. Found in 1982 and excavated 1984-1994, it points to a Levantine crew with two Mycenaeans aboard.
- May 1274 BCEThe Battle of Kadesh
In May 1274 BCE, on the usual chronology, Ramesses II and Muwatalli II fight near Kadesh on the Orontes. Ramesses proclaims a rout of his enemies, while Hittite records say he was forced to withdraw. Modern historians generally see a draw.
- 1258 BCEEgypt and Hatti sign a peace treaty
In Ramesses II's 21st year (c. 1258 BCE), about fifteen years after Kadesh, Egypt and Hattusili III's Hatti agree a treaty, one of the oldest to survive nearly complete. It was inscribed on a silver tablet; a clay copy found at Hattusa is now in Istanbul.
- c. 1243 BCETukulti-Ninurta I of Assyria takes Babylon
Tukulti-Ninurta I (reigned 1243-1207 BCE, or 1233-1197 on the low chronology) wins a major victory over the Hittites at Nihriya and captures Babylon, carrying off the Kassite king Kashtiliash IV and the statue of Marduk. His sons later besiege and kill him at Kar-Tukulti-Ninurta.
- c. 1230 BCEThe Hittites briefly annex Cyprus
Under Tudhaliya IV (c. 1245-1215 BCE, with other reign dates given) the Hittites invade and temporarily annex Cyprus, then called Alashiya, with help from the navy of Ugarit. The occupation does not last.
- c. 1208 BCEMerneptah repels the Libyans and their allies
In his fifth year (c. 1208 BCE; his reign is dated c. 1213-1203) Merneptah defeats Libyans backed by Sea Peoples in a six-hour battle at Perire, in the western Delta. He claims 6,000 enemy dead and 9,000 prisoners. The Great Karnak Inscription and the Athribis Stele record it.
- c. 1208 BCEThe Merneptah Stele names Israel
A stele of Merneptah records the Libyan and Sea Peoples attacks and a Canaanite revolt. It holds the earliest known mention of Israel ("Israel has been wiped out"), which it treats as a people or tribe, not a city or country.
- c. 1207 BCESuppiluliuma II fights at sea off Cyprus
The last known Hittite king, Suppiluliuma II (reigned from c. 1207 or 1210 BCE), wins a naval battle off Cyprus and is credited with reconquering the island around 1200. Ammurapi of Ugarit is his contemporary.
- c. 1200 BCECypriot sites burn or are abandoned
Around 1200 BCE Maa-Palaeokastro on Cyprus is destroyed by an unidentified attacker, while several other sites are abandoned without destruction. Whether Enkomi and Sinda were burned is disputed, and Kition shows continuity.
- c. 1198 BCETree rings record a drought in Anatolia
Juniper tree rings show severe drought around 1198-1196 BCE, within drier conditions from the 13th into the 12th century. Studies disagree on its effects: plant remains from Syria show little sign of famine.
- c. 1191 BCETausret rules; the 19th Dynasty ends
Tausret rules c. 1191-1188 BCE, first beside Siptah, whose court executed the West Asian chancellor Bay, then alone. Her reign ends in civil war, most likely with Setnakhte, who founds the 20th Dynasty and takes over her tomb.
- c. 1190 BCEAmmurapi writes of enemy ships
Ugarit's last king, Ammurapi, tells the king of Alashiya that "seven ships of the enemy" have burned his cities while his own troops and ships are away. Alashiya's governor replies by blaming people from Ugarit's own country. Help from Carchemish arrives after the sack.
- c. 1190 BCEHattusa is abandoned
The Hittite capital is gradually abandoned over several decades from about 1190 BCE. Fire damage probably came after it was empty. Farmers settled in the ruins in the twelfth century, and some people stayed until the 10th. The causes are disputed.
- c. 1190 BCEUgarit is destroyed
Ugarit is destroyed around 1190 BCE, dated 1192-1190 by a chancellor's tablet, an eclipse and radiocarbon. Hunger preceded the assault, weapons lay in the streets, and the attackers are unidentified. A sword with Merneptah's name was found in the destruction level.
- c. 1187 BCEEmar is destroyed
Emar, a Hittite-ruled town on the Euphrates, is destroyed in 1187 BCE by one dating (the second year of Meli-Shipak II of Babylon), though the siege is hard to date. A text mentions a siege by Tarwi in a "year of distress" (famine). About 1,100 of its tablets are known.
- c. 1185 BCEElam sacks Babylon; Kassite rule collapses
During the reign of Shutruk-Nahhunte of Elam (c. 1185-1155 BCE) the Elamites sack Babylon. The Kassite rule of Babylonia, which had lasted some four centuries, collapses in the early twelfth century.
- c. 1178 BCERamesses III records victories over invaders by land and sea
In his eighth year (c. 1178-1175 BCE) Ramesses III records an invasion by land and sea. He claims victory at Djahy on Egypt's eastern frontier and in the Battle of the Delta, where archers and ships trap the enemy fleet at the Nile mouth. His reign is dated 1186-1155.
- c. 1175 BCEPhilistine culture appears on the Canaanite coast
From about 1175 BCE a distinct culture with local versions of Mycenaean Late Helladic IIIC pottery appears at Gaza, Ashdod, Ashkelon, Ekron and Gath. A 2019 study at Ashkelon found mostly local ancestry plus a southern European-related component. Origins are debated.
- c. 1157 BCETomb workers strike at Deir el-Medina
In Ramesses III's 29th year the workmen who build the royal tombs go unpaid when food rations fail to arrive. It is recorded as the first known labour strike in history.
- c. 1155 BCEA conspiracy against Ramesses III
A plot by the queen Tiye to put her son Pentawere on the throne is set for a festival around 1155 BCE. The Turin Judicial Papyrus records the trials, with 38 death sentences. Ramesses III dies in 1154; a 2012 study found a deep throat cut on his mummy.
- c. 1154 BCEThe Great Harris Papyrus
Commissioned by Ramesses IV, the Great Harris Papyrus lists Ramesses III's temple gifts and expeditions, including copper mining at Timna. An undated passage says he killed Denyen "in their isles", burned Tjeker and Peleset, and settled captured Sherden and Weshesh in Egypt.
- c. 1145 BCEEgypt's hold on Canaan fades
Egypt's territorial and economic strength recedes under the later Ramessides, notably Ramesses VI (1145-1137 BCE). The Egyptian gate complex at Jaffa is destroyed between 1134 and 1115 by radiocarbon. The withdrawal from the Levant is tied to internal turmoil, not one event.
- c. 1100 BCEThe al-Khader arrowheads
Inscribed bronze arrowheads from al-Khader, dated c. 1100 BCE, are described as a "missing link" between the Proto-Canaanite and the Phoenician scripts. No Phoenician inscription is securely dated to the 11th century.
- c. 1077 BCEThe New Kingdom ends
Ramesses XI dies in 1077 BCE (1069 in some chronologies), ending the New Kingdom. Smendes I rules mainly Lower Egypt from Tanis while the High Priests of Amun govern Middle and Upper Egypt in all but name. The Third Intermediate Period begins.