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COURTESY OF IONE MYLONAS SHEAR

COLOSSAL COLLAPSE. Around 1200 B.C., earthquakes hit numerous Mediterranean sites. Archaeologists digging at Mycenae, located in southern Greece, found evidence of earthquake damage, including the remains of six victims buried in destruction debris. The woman seems to have died suddenly when a house collapsed around her. After a stone crushed her skull, she was buried beneath rubble. Although such isolated disasters might have been overcome, their occurrence alongside other natural and manmade catastrophes likely triggered a wider systemic collapse of the Late Bronze Age kingdoms.