Right? In the books, they seem to have actually taken the breakup pretty badly. They tried real hard to get us back and it wasn't until they saw us with our new French girlfriend that they accepted it was over.

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I tend to think that they were "large" civilizations in central-northern europe too. I'm sorry I can't give the source right now but they were some archeologists who found in northern germany a kind of battleground that happened in the early bronze age with a lot of corpses indicating a battle of thousands of men If I recall correctly. We know that they got a lot of amber that greeks really liked. Again I cannot tell the source right now but I remember that scholars found an ancient neolithic city in the balkans, I think they estimated the city with approx 5000-10 000 souls ( I mean real archeological papers not ancient origins lol). And it leads to the environment, aegean had stones, egypt sand, mesopotamian canals and northern-central european had big big forest. So any colossal structure ( in my oponion) would be more related with woodwork. I don't see why a culture in relation with early greeks and passing knowledge wouldnt have build a big city and temples with all the ressources they got in wood and "money" made with trading.

Annnnnnnnd I find I have ‘The Anarchy’ in my kindle library already. Lol a good reminder to go read it!

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I will look into these thank you!

A mass migration to more populated and thriving civilizations? If say conditions were generally getting worse wouldn't cities be the first to suffer while smaller populations could survive and as such people would vacate cities, or is it the other way around, I am unsure

It's very possible. There are lots of records of the various rulers sending each other both the raw materials they depended on for their economies as well as the prestige goods they used to demonstrate their superiority and right to rule.

Will look, thank you!

Thank you so much! Appreciate your kindness 😎

You are absolutely right I didn't think about the bias that exists with these theories because of the records that exist. Your points also make me wonder how much the Minoan and Mycenaean turmoil affected their counterparts across the Mediterranean, as in whether they themselves were a major factor leading to general collapse or they were victims of a larger chain of events along with everyone else

Along with the other answer it could also be considered a sort of golden age for the Mediterranean civilizations, at least when they were all so prevelant and diverse.

I just feel people talk about a chain of events occurring in the Mediterranean, but there aren't nearly as many answers for what caused the migration and incursions from the North into the Mediterranean. I got suspicious however after seeing there were relics from Europe that indicated the potential for a massive shift in culture in the region, preceding as well as at the same time the collapse of the Bronze age was put in motion, it's an interesting coincidence to me

Definitely looking for source materials, not just theories thank you!

The west to east trend only seems to be true because most of the people in the east were the ones writing. Could have been people going the other way too but because there are fewer sources it creates the impression that there wasn't.

As for period, the turbulence went on for a much longer period than that. Take Crete - the Minoans suffered several palatial destructions in the 2-300 years before the 'final' collapse in 1200BC, including the invasion/transition into Mycenaean culture. The same is true across the board. There may have been a cluster around the 'end' of the bronze age, but considering how hard it is to date things cohesively, these could have been generations apart and represent totally different events.

Someone referred to the eruption at Thera that wiped out the Minoan settlement there, by itself however it's tragic, but I wouldn't think devestating enough to affect the rest of the Mediterranean

But were there large civilizations in Europe (Central-North) at the time or was it mainly still comprised of tribes and smaller civilizations?

I did see the maps of affected cities, and it was almost bone chilling to me to see the amount of human civilization that just outright failed, it makes the whole series of events and humanity's survival all the more fragile

Elaborate? What motive WOULD the Dorian's have had to invade, and what lead to the hypothesis falling out of favor?

I agree it is not at all the definitive idea of what occurred, based off of this educated guess work there is a general trend of moving west to east however which I find interesting. Thank you for referring to Central Europe I was unsure if there is current evidence towards any major events occurring but I imagine it seems unlikely, especially if they did not keep any records it will be nearly impossible for us to learn what truly happened over there.

Referring to your last point I believe I have seen much which refers to the successive collapses occurring in a 50-75 year span, however this definitely neglects the early stages of a collapse that are more hidden, that number focuses only on the dates when each city collapsed

The podcast "Tides of History" has had some very interesting episodes on the Bronze Age Collapse.

Episodes 111-114 were pretty great and on topic. Episode 106 also directly addressed the question. It's a great series.

https://wondery.com/shows/tides-of-history/season/4/?epPage=12

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Call of Civilizations episode is great. Available as a podcast as well