The Bronze Age (c. 3100-1200 BCE) saw the rise of complex civilizations in the Mediterranean and Near East. From creating the world’s first written scripts, complex religious belief systems and rituals, and sophisticated art and architecture, these civilizations created expanding empires through military conquest, extensive trade networks, and political maneuvering. Meet eight of the most important civilizations that defined the Bronze Age in the Near East and Mediterranean.
1. The Sumerians
The Sumerians (c. 4100-1750 BCE) were among the first people to bring civilization to the ancient Near East. They developed their civilization between the Euphrates and Tigris rivers and established many of the cultural hallmarks of the region, including writing, religion, and architecture.
The Sumerians developed the cuneiform script around 3100 BCE. The Sumerians’ linguistic-ethnic origins remain a mystery; it is known that the language was not Semitic or Indo-European. This did not stop the Semitic-speaking Akkadians from using the script and making it, along with their language, the most widely used in the Late Bronze Age Near East. Despite Akkadian eclipsing Sumerian, later Mesopotamian peoples continued to learn Sumerian. The Babylonians and Assyrians studied Sumerian as a revered dead language and translated classic Sumerian texts into Akkadian. Some of these early Sumerian texts include the world’s first legal documents, king lists, and the Epic of Gilgamesh.
Other notable Sumerian contributions were the world’s first city, Uruk, and the Mesopotamian religious ideology around kingship. They also created the temple complex known as the ziggurat, with the first prototype Ziggurat of Ur erected during the Third Dynasty of Ur (c. 2112-2004 BCE).
2. The Amorites
The Amorites were a West Semitic ethnic group that established many Bronze Age states, most notably the First Dynasty of Babylon. After entering Mesopotamia as seminomadic people in the late third millennium BCE, the Amorites created several Middle Bronze Age Kingdoms (c. 210-1550 BCE) in northern Mesopotamia and the Levant. The Amorites established the states of Mari, Yamhad, and Qatna, and possibly Isin, Larsa, and Eshnunna. But the most influential state the Amorites established was in Babylon.
The first two rulers of the First Dynasty of Babylon (c. 1894-1595 BCE) had Amorite, non-Akkadian names, but were followed by three kings with Akkadian names. Hammurabi (ruled c. 1792-1750 BCE) then revived the tradition of using Amorite names. Hammurabi became known for his law code as well as for conquering most of Mesopotamia, assuring the importance of the Amorite people in the Middle Bronze Age.
3. The Canaanites
Most people do not think of the Canaanites as a particularly powerful Bronze Age people because they were divided into several different city-states in the Levant/Syria-Palestine. But the Canaanites played an extremely important role in the development of Near Eastern culture through their language, religion, and geographical location.
The Canaanites are broadly considered a linguistic-ethnic group that was a subgroup of the Northwest Semitic languages. Often considered dialects more than separate languages, the Canaanite dialects included Phoenician, Hebrew, Ammonite, Moabite, and Edomite. The Hebrews and Phoenicians would later be two of the most important peoples in the Iron Age Near East.
The Hebrews laid the foundation for the Abrahamic religions, and the Phoenicians developed the world’s first alphabetic script, developed from the alphabetic script of the Canaanites. The Canaanites also contributed to the Bronze Age geopolitical system linguistically. Many of the Amarna Letters, which were cuneiform documents exchanged by the Great Powers of the Late Bronze Age, were written in Canaanite-Akkadian.
4. The Egyptians
The Egyptians created what was perhaps the world’s most resilient ancient culture, lasting from about 3100 BCE well into the Christian era. Along with Mesopotamia, Egypt has the distinction of being one of the world’s first civilizations. A large part of what drove Egyptian culture to success was its record-keeping, literature, and religious texts, which were the result of the invention of writing in about 3100 BCE. The Egyptians were the first people to articulate the idea of an afterlife in writing, leading to elaborate rituals and the preservation of corpses.
The most obvious legacy of the Egyptians was their art and architecture. Today, travelers from around the world visit the Egyptian pyramids and temples that were built from the Old Kingdom through the Late Period (c. 3000-341 BCE). These monuments have survived the ravages of time partly due to the materials used, but also because of the construction methods Egyptian engineers and workers employed. The enduring nature of Egyptian monuments was good enough for the Greeks to make Khufu’s Pyramid in Giza one of the Seven Wonders of the Ancient World. It is the only ancient Wonder still standing.
The ancient Egyptians were also among the first people to produce statuary. Although others produced three-dimensional sculpture, the Egyptians did so in greater numbers and were the first to produce colossal statuary, which would greatly influence Greek sculpture.
Egypt was also politically and culturally resilient. The Egyptian state collapsed several times, even being conquered by foreigners, but it always rose from the ashes. Pharaonic culture continued until the country became a province of the Roman Empire. The ancient Egyptian language evolved and was spoken for hundreds of years after the last pharaoh ruled the Nile in the form of the Coptic language. Today, Coptic is spoken in church by millions of members of the Egyptian Orthodox Church.
5. The Hittites
Located in central Anatolia (modern-day Turkey) was the Kingdom of Hatti, ruled by the Hittites. The Hittites became known for their language, warfare, and diplomacy, eventually becoming one of the great powers of the Late Bronze Age Near East. Unfortunately, Hatti was destroyed during the Sea Peoples migrations in about 1200 BCE, but their influence continued in the region for centuries.
The Hittites were one of several Indo-European peoples who occupied Anatolia during the Bronze Age, and they were the first Indo-Europeans to develop writing. The Hittites used the cuneiform script to write religious, administrative, and historical texts in their native language of Hittite/Arzawan. After the Hittites’ empire collapsed, several small kingdoms formed in Anatolia and the northern Levant that modern scholars now refer to as the “Neo-Hittites,” and are often mentioned in the Old Testament of the Bible.
Today, the Hittites are best known for challenging the Egyptians for control of the Levant. This conflict culminated in the well-documented Battle of Kadesh (c. 1286 BCE), near the Canaanite city of Kadesh. Muwatalli II (ruled c. 1295-1272 BCE) personally led the Hittites against Ramesses II (ruled c. 1290-1224 BCE) and the Egyptians. Although the Egyptians claimed victory, it was a stalemate and eventually led to peace between the two kingdoms.
6. Ugarit
The city-state of Ugarit was a coastal and economic power that was located on the Mediterranean near the modern city of Latakia, Syria. Although Ugarit was relatively small and usually a Hittite vassal, the city-state was very influential in trade and diplomacy. Ugarit was also a cosmopolitan state where people from around the Mediterranean and the Near East mingled and traded.
In most Bronze Age societies, priests and warriors were among the most important people, but in Ugarit, merchants were the most respected. The king would grant trading permits to Ugarit merchants, who led overland caravans and sea routes. Ugarit played a vital role in the Great Powers system by facilitating trade between the primary members of Egypt, Alashiya, Babylon, Hatti, Assyria, and Mitanni. As the city grew in size and relevance, Ugarit became an early multicultural and multilingual state.
Egyptian, Hurrian, Hittite, Minoan, Cypriote, Mycenaean, Assyrian, and Babylonian merchants lived and worked in Ugarit, giving the city a global vibe. Although Ugarit was a Hittite vassal, its kings used that position as leverage against its many Canaanite neighbors. The kings of Ugarit also used their wealth to send gold to the Hittites instead of men for the Hittite army. Ugarit attempted to use its navy to save the Hittites from the Sea Peoples’ attack, but both kingdoms were destroyed.
7. The Minoans
The Minoans, who emerged around 2700 BCE, are often considered Europe’s first true civilization. Centered on the island of Crete but also other nearby islands, their culture centered on palace cities, such as the famous Knossos. Their palaces were multifunctional, combining economic, political, religious, and manufacturing elements. They are best remembered for their art. Knossos is known for its frescoes of beautiful nature scenes and dolphins swimming. But even more influential than Minoan art was their sport.
Art from Crete demonstrates that the Minoans participated in boxing, wrestling, pankration, and bull jumping, which all continue to be competitive sports to this day. A vase from the Minoan city of Hagia Triada, dated to about 1550 BCE, depicts Minoan men engaging in sports in four separate registers. The men are shown wearing belts, codpieces, and leg wrappings as they engage in boxing, bull-leaping, and possibly pankration. The Greeks later adopted boxing and pankration, while bullfighting became a popular sport in southern Europe. Bull-leaping was particularly important to the Minoans, as it was depicted on many of their frescoes, including on the west and north entrances to the Knossos palace.
The Minoans disappeared around 1450 BCE following a general decline and conquest by the Myceneans.
8. The Mycenaeans
The Mycenaeans were the Greeks before the ancient Greeks, occupying mainland Greece from around 1300 BCE. Calling themselves the Achaeans, they were the inspiration for the Greeks in the Trojan War epic. They spoke an archaic form of ancient Greek that was written in a script known as Linear B, a syllabic script based on the still undeciphered Linear A script of the Minoans.
The classical Greeks inherited their religious pantheon from the Bronze Age Mycenaeans. Late Bronze Age Linear B tablets from the Greek city of Pylos mention Zeus, while Poseidon is mentioned in tablets from Pylos and the Cretan city of Knossos. These were the earliest written accounts of the familiar Greek gods.
The legendary Trojan War is partly recounted by Homer in his 8th-century BCE Greek Iliad and by the Roman poet Virgil in his 1st-century BCE Aeneid. They refer to the attackers of Troy as “Greeks.” These Greek heroes were likely a band of Mycenaeans who took advantage of the Sea Peoples’ invasions during the late Bronze Age. While it is still debated whether the Trojan War ever happened, the story of the conflict was integral to classical Greek culture. This demonstrates the last influence of the Myceneans.
As suggested by the heroic epic, the Myceneans had an aptitude for war, as their conquest of the earlier Minoan civilization demonstrates. Their collapse led to the Greek Dark Ages, dated to around the 8th century BCE, when the classical Greeks emerged.
