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.