The Bronze Age collapse around 1200 BC saw the sudden disappearance of major eastern Mediterranean powers like Egypt, the Hittites, and Mycenaean Greeks. The article argues that the spread of locally-produced iron weapons, which democratized access to superior military technology, fundamentally altered the political equilibrium and made it difficult for centralized empires to maintain dominance.
Archaeologists in Turkey discovered a 3,400-year-old fragment of the Treaty of Kadesh, the world's oldest known peace treaty signed around 1269 B.C. between Egyptian pharaoh Ramesses II and Hittite king Hattusili III. The cuneiform tablet fragment, unearthed at Hattusha, contains text about refugee treatment and adds to previously known portions of this Bronze Age peace agreement.