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Iron Age

1,150 BCE

2 recorded milestones at this point in the record.

c. 1,177 BCE – 1,150 BCE
Society
Eastern Mediterranean

Bronze Age collapse and the Sea Peoples

Within a few decades the palace states of the eastern Mediterranean — Mycenae, Hattusa, Ugarit — fell, trade routes in tin and copper broke apart, and literate bureaucracies vanished.

Why it mattered

The collapse ended dependence on long-distance bronze supply chains and pushed smiths toward locally available iron ore.

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c. 1,150 BCE – 800 BCE
Exploration
Levant

Phoenician maritime trade network

City-states such as Tyre, Sidon and Byblos built cedar ships and ran regular routes across the Mediterranean, trading dye, glass, timber and metals.

Why it mattered

Phoenician shipping carried the alphabet west and made the Mediterranean a single commercial world.

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