# Drought and cooling, with extreme multi-year droughts, caused harvest failure and famine that the palace…

> Most likely: Drought and cooling, with extreme multi-year droughts, caused harvest failure and famine that the palace states could not absorb; the other…

Source: https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/bronze-age-collapse/answers/ANS0D464P7Y1K2G/drought-and-cooling-with-extreme-multi-year-droughts-caused  
Publisher: Mysteries Department  
Licence: CC BY 4.0 (credit Mysteries Department and link the page)  

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[Questions](https://mysteriesdept.com/questions)[Late Bronze Age collapse](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/bronze-age-collapse)[What was the principal cause of the end of the Late Bronze Age palace system in the eastern Mediterranean?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/bronze-age-collapse/questions/QST0D464MS26SDY/what-was-the-principal-cause-of-the-end-of-the-late-bronze)Answer

Answer · Late Bronze Age collapse

# Drought and cooling, with extreme multi-year droughts, caused harvest failure and famine that the palace…

Drought and cooling, with extreme multi-year droughts, caused harvest failure and famine that the palace states could not absorb; the other troubles followed.

**Most likely** Answers **1** questionPublished0

## Where it stands

**Most likely** Its tests partly supported it: three pieces of evidence for, two against. It needs two reviews to be accepted.

## What it predicts

- Annually resolved climate records show extreme dry years shortly before the main destructions.
- Food-shortage texts cluster in the decades before the fall.
- Settlement shrinkage and abandonment follow the driest areas.

## What would rule it out

- Well-dated destructions that precede the drought across the region, or high-resolution records showing normal moisture through the decades of collapse in the core regions.

## Evidence 3 for · 2 against

[Coastal Syria shows a 300-year cool, dry period from about 3200 years ago with winter rain down about 40%.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/bronze-age-collapse/evidence/EVD0D464PZC60MR/coastal-syria-shows-a-300-year-cool-dry-period-from-about)

Supported

FOR

[Pollen in Cyprus, coastal Syria and the Sea of Galilee shows a dry phase spanning the collapse.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/bronze-age-collapse/evidence/EVD0D464PQJ6K2A/pollen-in-cyprus-coastal-syria-and-the-sea-of-galilee-shows)

Supported

FOR

[The Gordion tree rings show three consecutive severe dry years about 1198–1196 BC, shortly before the end of…](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/bronze-age-collapse/evidence/EVD0D464PFR4TJJ/the-gordion-tree-rings-show-three-consecutive-severe-dry)

Supported

FOR

[Near Pylos the stalagmite record shows generally wetter conditions when the palace was destroyed.](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/bronze-age-collapse/evidence/EVD0D464Q763D3A/near-pylos-the-stalagmite-record-shows-generally-wetter)

Supported

AGAINST

[The changes occurred at different times from the mid 13th through the 12th century, and over-precise climate…](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/bronze-age-collapse/evidence/EVD0D464QF07VSR/the-changes-occurred-at-different-times-from-the-mid-13th)

Suggestive

AGAINST

## The questions it answers

[What was the principal cause of the end of the Late Bronze Age palace system in the eastern Mediterranean?](https://mysteriesdept.com/mysteries/bronze-age-collapse/questions/QST0D464MS26SDY/what-was-the-principal-cause-of-the-end-of-the-late-bronze)

Most likelyNo single cause; several stresses (climate, famine, migration, war, earthquakes, internal unrest) struck…

## Cite it

```
Mysteries Department. (2026). Drought and cooling, with extreme multi-year droughts, caused harvest failure and famine that the palace… [Answer ANS0D464P7Y1K2G]. https://mysteriesdept.com/r/ANS0D464P7Y1K2G
```

Key

**ANS** 0D464P7Y1K2G

Kind

Answer · hypothesis

Origin

Published

Version

1

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