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Research questions are the building block of our platform of scientific inquiry. Key questions are the ones at the heart of a mystery; every other question helps answer one of them.

6questions0answered0with no evidence yet
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Late Bronze Age collapse
Late Bronze Age collapse3 key questions · 6 questions · 0 answered
Open the mystery
QuestionWhere it stands
KeyWere the Sea Peoples a cause of the collapse or a consequence of it?
Most likelyPopulations displaced by famine and the failure of their own states, moving with their families
KeyWhat was the principal cause of the end of the Late Bronze Age palace system in the eastern Mediterranean?
Most likelyNo single cause; several stresses (climate, famine, migration, war, earthquakes, internal unrest) struck…
Did an earthquake storm destroy many of the sites?
Most likelyEarthquakes played at most a local role
How severe and how widespread was the climate change around 1200 BC?
Most likelyA regional shift to drier, cooler conditions lasting about three centuries
Were the destructions clustered in the years after the 1198–1196 BC drought, or spread over a century?
Most likelyMost destructions fall within a few decades after about 1200 BC
KeyWhy was Hattusa abandoned?
Most likelyThe court moved away for political reasons, leaving the capital to decline