The 13th century BC witnessed the zenith of the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean civilizations which declined at the end of the Bronze Age, ∼3200 years ago. Weakening of this ancient flourishing Mediterranean world shifted the political and economic centres of gravity away from the Levant towards Classical Greece and Rome, and led, in the long term, to the emergence of the modern western civilizations. Textual evidence from cuneiform tablets and Egyptian reliefs from the New Kingdom relate that seafaring tribes, the Sea Peoples, were the final catalyst that put the fall of cities and states in motion. However, the lack of a stratified radiocarbon-based archaeology for the Sea People event has led to a floating historical chronology derived from a variety of sources spanning dispersed areas. Here, we report a stratified radiocarbon-based archaeology with anchor points in ancient epigraphic-literary sources, Hittite-Levantine-Egyptian kings and astronomical observations to precisely date the Sea People event. By confronting historical and science-based archaeology, we establish an absolute age range of 1192–1190 BC for terminal destructions and cultural collapse in the northern Levant. This radiocarbon-based archaeology has far-reaching implications for the wider Mediterranean, where an elaborate network of international relations and commercial activities are intertwined with the history of civilizations.

No abstract

No abstract

No abstract

Architecture is perhaps one of the most important elements in the archaeology of Bronze Age Crete. It is employed as the archaeologist’s lens through which this society, its members and its social structures are viewed. While there are certain general laws concerning architecture and its relation to society, an approach is advocated here in which the visual perception of the ancient user is considered to be the key to the interpretation of the architecture. The human perception of architecture is significant in the mode of construction and the subsequent contextualization of a building within the social network. This principle is illustrated with a discussion of the visual impact of the palaces within Minoan society, possibly enhancing their monumentality and their ability to function as a stage for various performances.