THEME: Food in crisis THEME FEASTS, FAMINES, AND MEGADROUGHTS
The thriving world of the Late Bronze Age eastern Mediterranean ended in collapse around 1200 BC. Cities burned, kingdoms and empires fell, people migrated, and traditions were lost. Since the 1960s, some have argued that climate change was responsible for the collapse, either in the form of increased climatic variability, drying, or a megadrought. Agriculture, the ultimate foundation of society, was hit, famine struck, and shockwaves rippled out outward through established states, shaking them apart in civil chaos, disorder, violence, and migration. At least, this is what some scholars have suggested. While this apocalyptic story is now taking centre stage, there are reasons to be cautious about accepting it as a historically accurate narrative of the years around 1200 BC.
Disaster or diplomatic hyperbole?
It is certainly true that some of the textual evidence from ca. 1200 BC mentions famine and food shortages in the eastern Mediterranean. Shipments of grain to the Hittites seem to have started
