The 1200s BC
16 sourced entries across 3 years, inside the 13th century BC. Each year below opens its own page; the lines under it are that year’s highest-ranked entries.
1206 BCE1 entries
- 1206 BC: Approximate starting date of Late Bronze Age collapse, a period of migration, unrest and destruction in the eastern Mediterranean and Ancient Near East, and beginning of the Iron Age in the Near East.
1204 BCE1 entries
- 1204 BC: Theseus, legendary King of Athens, is deposed after a reign of 30 years and succeeded by Menestheus, great-grandson of Erichthonius II of Athens and second cousin of Theseus' father Aegeus. Menestheus is reportedly assisted by Castor and Polydeuces of Sparta, who want to reclaim their sister Helen from her first husband Theseus. Theseus seeks refuge in Skyros, whose King Lycomedes is an old friend and ally. Lycomedes, however, considers his visitor a threat to the throne and proceeds to assassinate him. (Other accounts place these events a decade earlier. See 1210s BC.)
1200 BCE14 entries
- c. 1200 BC: Migration and expansion of Dorian Greeks. Destruction of Mycenaean city Pylos.
- c. 1200 BC: Aramaic nomads and Chaldeans become a big threat to the former Babylonian and Assyrian Empire.
- c. 1200 BC: Collapse of Hittite power in Anatolia with the destruction of their capital Hattusa.