‘The collapse c. 1200 BC’ in the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean—which saw the end of the Mycenaean kingdoms, the Hittite state and its empire and the kingdom of Ugarit—has intrigued archaeologists for decades. As Jesse Millek points out in Destruction and its impact, the idea of a swathe of near-synchronous destructions across the eastern Mediterranean is central to the narrative of the Late Bronze Age collapse: “destruction stands as the physical manifestation of the end of the Bronze Age” (p.6). Yet whether there was a single collapse marked by a widespread destruction horizon is up for debate. The two books reviewed here successfully reassess the simplistic and catastrophist characterisation of the end of the Late Bronze Age in the eastern Mediterranean and help provide a more nuanced picture.

'崩溃c。公元前1200年发生在爱琴海和东地中海的时期——见证了迈锡尼王国、赫梯国家及其帝国以及乌加里特王国的灭亡——几十年来一直吸引着考古学家的兴趣。正如杰西·米勒克（Jesse Millek）在《毁灭及其影响》一书中指出的那样，整个地中海东部发生一系列近乎同步的毁灭的想法是青铜时代晚期崩溃叙事的核心：“毁灭是青铜时代终结的物理表现。年龄”（第 6 页）。然而，是否存在一次以大范围破坏为标志的崩溃还有待争论。这里评论的两本书成功地重新评估了东地中海青铜时代晚期结束的简单化和灾难性的描述，并有助于提供更细致的图景。