Collapse of Mycenaean Culture
The Mycenaean culture on mainland Greece flourished between 1600-1200 BC with an abrupt collapse that has long intrigued archaeologists. Mycenaeans built huge fortified palaces or citadels, constructed elaborate tholos tombs, and had a yet un-translated writing system on clay tablets (Linear A and B). They even collaborated with other major cities in the sack of Troy around 1250 BC. Early explanations for the collapse of Mycenae blamed barbarian invaders, but later explanations turned to more external sources.
Rhys Carpenter’s (1966) book, Discontinuity in Greek Civilization, proposed a prolonged drought in the region of Mycenae (but not the Attic Plain near Athens) during this time:
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"... there is only one solution that will meet all the varied aspects of the case, and that answer is famine, a dropping of the food supply below the critical level for subsistence. And by famine I do not mean an occasional failure of several consecutive harvests, but such an enduring and disastrous destruction of the annual yield as only a drastic climatic change could have occasioned" (Carpenter 1966:18). |
Research by Bryson et al (1974), based on atmospheric circulation patterns over that region, demonstrated that such a drought pattern was possible, and analysis of converging lines of evidence suggested that such a drought was probable.
Using the Archaeoclimatology Macrophysical Climate Model (MCM), we may compare the modeled history of those two neighboring areas to see whether such a pattern can be detected. The above graph shows the modeled annual precipitation for Kalamata in the southern Peloponnesus (same climatic region as Mycenae) and Athens on the Attic Plain. The MCM provides additional support to the hypothesis and suggests that when the Peloponnesus became dry around 1200 BC, the Attic Plain did indeed not have a corresponding drought, even though its net precipitation was less.
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