We don’t know, it could likely be a combination of causes. Most evidence suggests there was a long period of drought that wouldn’t likely have risen to the level of catastrophe but would have placed a steady strain on the region and possibly incentivized people to seek better climates.
Recent evidence suggests that a pandemic, possibly the “black plague” might have spread through the region in that time, which would help explain why some cities were abandoned and the “Greek dark ages” were known largely as a time of smaller villages compared to large cities since as we all know by now- pandemics love crowded urbanized living.
The alluded to “sea peoples” who it is often theorized might have been the or a cause of the collapse might have brought the plague with them.
If we take these and other factors into consideraron it is possible or even likely there were several causes at once.
Given that the area was ravaged by destructive war and there were social and political shifts
prior to the collapse, given that many empires were weakened and we can infer that in many cases the overall security and prosperity of those empires peoples suffered.. if you start adding a persistent drought, even if not a critical drought, attacks from abroad and conflicts, even if not severe enough alone to trigger a mass migration, pandemic, even if alone not enough to cause the collapse..
We start seeing a picture of an area that under those conditions we might intuitively be like “man, if I lived there I would get out…” in that time period.
A modern American example might be the exodus of many from big cities and certain states. Real estate prices and cost of living were generally high in these areas for a long time. Crowding and congestion were generally long time issues. Crime and violence were generally issues.
A pandemic struck and through that pandemic and after many have been leaving certain areas. With California as an example, in addition to the above factors many cite social and political reasons for wanting to leave suddenly. Many of these things have existed in the state for decades or generations before. Many feel recent drought and fires are reasons to leave despite the facts that in most of the state these issues are not critically impacting the average person but serve as more of a constant pressure or annoyance.
Wether some or all of these factors are objectively true (people often cite taxes as one reason for leaving despite the state having some of the lowest overall tax rates for anyone under the top percentages of wealth for example,) the perception of those factors is enough. There can be argument of wether such an exodus was already underway to some measure before covid 19, but it has become a major talking point during and post pandemic. Saying the pandemic triggered such events would be incorrect Saying it exacerbated them might be correct or might not be, but this modern example shows us how easily a combination of factors, even pre existing factors, can either build to a breaking point or with the right catalyst can drive collapse.
Recent evidence suggests that a pandemic, possibly the “black plague” might have spread through the region in that time, which would help explain why some cities were abandoned and the “Greek dark ages” were known largely as a time of smaller villages compared to large cities since as we all know by now- pandemics love crowded urbanized living.
The alluded to “sea peoples” who it is often theorized might have been the or a cause of the collapse might have brought the plague with them.
If we take these and other factors into consideraron it is possible or even likely there were several causes at once.
Given that the area was ravaged by destructive war and there were social and political shifts
We start seeing a picture of an area that under those conditions we might intuitively be like “man, if I lived there I would get out…” in that time period.
A pandemic struck and through that pandemic and after many have been leaving certain areas. With California as an example, in addition to the above factors many cite social and political reasons for wanting to leave suddenly. Many of these things have existed in the state for decades or generations before. Many feel recent drought and fires are reasons to leave despite the facts that in most of the state these issues are not critically impacting the average person but serve as more of a constant pressure or annoyance.