Late Bronze Age · About 1200-1150 BC

The Bronze Age collapse

Within about fifty years, the Hittite Empire, the Mycenaean palaces and great ports like Ugarit were gone. Students investigate drought, raiders, earthquakes and broken trade, and decide how a connected world could fall apart.

Teach it live New Open on the map
Length
50 minutes
Ages
13–16
On the map
3 steps, 1250 BC to 1177 BC
Live lesson
7 rounds, 3 on the map
Worksheet
Two A4 pages, with Classroom
You need
A projector; phones for live

Live lesson · new in Classroom

Teach it live. The class answers on their phones.

Put the board on the projector. Students join with a six-digit code, no account needed, and tap the map: where was the frontier, where did the grain come from. Their pins drop in together when you reveal, and the closest student takes the round.

€19 per month: every lesson live, every worksheet, cancel anytime. Rome at its height runs live for free.

A live lesson on the projector: the class's pins on the map around Alexandria, the closest students listed beside it A student's phone: the question and a map to tap
7 rounds
3 places to find on the map, quiz questions, a class vote and a one-line answer.
About 15 minutes
Run it as the map step, or to open the discussion. You move on with the space bar.
A report
Every answer, per student and per round, to read back or print after the lesson.
1

Introduction

5 min

Read aloud

Within about fifty years, the Hittite Empire, the Mycenaean palaces and great ports like Ugarit were gone. Students investigate drought, raiders, earthquakes and broken trade, and decide how a connected world could fall apart.

By the end of the lesson, students can

  • Name the kingdoms and cities that fell or shrank around 1200-1150 BC.
  • Explain at least three possible causes of the collapse and how they were linked.
  • Use Egyptian sources to discuss who the "Sea Peoples" were.
2

Explore the map

15 min

Project the map, or let students follow on their own devices. Each step opens the map at the right year and place.

a

1250 BC

A connected world

Open the map in 1250 BC. Find Mycenaean Greece, the Hittite lands, Egypt and the ports of the Levant. Turn on Trade Routes. How did these kingdoms depend on one another?

Open this view on the map
b

1150 BC

Drought

Drag the time slider to 1150 BC and turn on Weather of History. Read about the drought. Which kingdoms does it say were hit? What else might have gone wrong at the same time?

Open this view on the map
c

1177 BC

Egypt holds on

Travel to Thebes. On his temple at Medinet Habu, Ramesses III showed his battle against the Sea Peoples, around 1177 BC. Why do you think Egypt survived when others fell?

Open this view on the map
3

Class discussion

15 min

Pick two or three. They run from what happened to why it mattered.

  1. Within about 50 years, kingdoms that had lasted for centuries fell. Why might many problems at once be worse than one big one?
  2. Egyptian reliefs blame the "Sea Peoples". Were they invaders, refugees or both?
  3. Kingdoms traded copper, tin and grain over long distances. How could a broken trade network bring down a kingdom?
  4. Writing disappeared from Greece for about 400 years after the palaces fell. What is lost when a society forgets how to write?
  5. Some historians compare the collapse with risks in our own connected world. Do you think that comparison is fair?
4

Game round

10 min

Play one round of Rule History as Ramesses II. His son Merneptah and later Ramesses III faced the crisis that followed his reign. Discuss: which of Ramesses II's choices, such as peace with the Hittites, may have helped Egypt survive?

Open Rule History
5

Worksheet

5 min

This worksheet comes with Classroom

€19 per month unlocks every worksheet, every live lesson and the class workspace. The free lesson prints without a subscription.