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closeEvidence of climate & collapse of cities ca 1200 BC
Posted by Christopher-Rigg on 19 Sep 2013 at 12:09 GMT
An excellent article. My own research in the 1990s as part of a doctoraal thesis at Utrecht dated the drought 1215-1150. Dendrology (tree annual rings) is another approach that backs up the date. Linguistic evidence including place names suggests that the Sea People and the 'Slave Masters' of Exodus included Cypriotic speakers and Mycenaean Greek speakers. The climate change might be associated with the explosion of Santorini / Thera, though that is placed much earlier in Wikipedia (1645–1600 BC), and could have been triggered by it. In Exodus and Egyptian records, the 'darkness over the land' could be such an explosion. The resulting famine is an element in the traditions of Abraham, Jacob and his sons. Biblical 'Egypt' of that era included Palestine -- Canaan was a province of Egypt. Joseph's 'granaries' were probably in the Upper Jordan Valley. The destruction of Sodom and Gomorrah by fire indicates extreme drought even in the Jordan Valley and could also fall into this period. I view Noah's flood as a tectonic event (probably also around 1215-1150) at the northern end of the Lake of Galilee causing a tsunami running up the Upper Jordan Valley, as happened again in the 2nd Century AD, destroying Beth Saida.