Iron Age Shipyards, Harbours and Emporia in the Mediterranean

The eastern Mediterranean maritime trading networks of the Bronze Age fractured following the disruption of the Bronze Age collapse. Many of the major maritime trading hubs in the Levant, such as Ugarit (destroyed between 1190 – 1185 BC), Ashkelon and Ashdod (both destroyed about 1190 BC), had gone. In Anatolia, Troy and Miletus were burned between 1190 and 1180 BC. In the Aegean, Tiryns and Pylos suffered a similar fate about 1190 and 1180 respectively. On Cyprus, Kition was destroyed about 1200 BC, Enkomi was abandoned about 1190 BC and Hala Sultan Teke followed suit about 1150 BC.

Survivors of the collapse, Byblos, Tyre, Sidon and Arvad on the modern Lebanese coast and Athens, Asine and Lefkandi in the Aegean would emerge during the Iron Age as nuclei of traders who would spread across the Mediterranean from east to the far west establishing trading posts, colonies and emporia. On Cyprus, Kition now under new management, bounced back soon after the collapse to provide that vital link between the copper mines and the Levant.