RELG 433 - Biblical Archaeology
Course Notes
The Late Bronze Age, ca. 1,550 - 1,200 BC
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What was going on elsewhere
Mesopotamia
- Ugarit and other centers collapsed.
- General disintegration of cultures throughout the region.
Greece
- This was the period of the "Dorian Invasion" of tribes from the north, displacing or dominating existing peoples, and resulting in the "Dark Age" of Greece.
- Mycenaean civilization collapsed.
- Fall of Troy ?
- Migration of displaced peoples across the Aegean and to the south - probably becoming the "Sea Peoples" and the "Philistines"
Hittites
- Established their kingdom, with the capital at Hattusha, now called Borghaz-koy.
- Competition between Egypt and Hittites for control of Syria and Canaan.
- Battle of Kadesh ca. 1,275 BC, followed by treaties between Egypt and the Hittites - both nations had weakened themselves by the continual fighting. Nobody won - both sides lost.
- Egypt recovered, but the Hittites did not - their kingdom went into a decline.
- Hittites started hiring themselves out as mercenaries - soldiers for hire by other kings.
Copyright © 1999 Shirley J. Rollinson, all Rights Reserved
