How fall of Bronze Age civilisations holds lessons for modern world

The collapse of several Mediterranean civilisations in the Late Bronze Age may have been caused by cascading instability across networks of political alliances and trade, according to simulations. That may hold lessons for preventing a similar disruption of the modern world’s global economy.

The Late Bronze Age collapse between 1200 and 1100 BC saw a number of civilisations crumble, including the Mycenaeans in Greece and the Hittites in Anatolia. Others, including Egypt’s New Kingdom, were left weakened by the…