An Archaeology of Forced Migration

Book excerpt: This collection of papers explores whether a meaningful distinction can be made in the archaeological record between migrations in general and conflict-induced migration in particular and whether the concept of conflict-induced migration is at all relevant to understand the major societal collapse of Bronze Age societies in the Eastern Mediterranean in the late 13th c. BCE. Helped by modern perspectives on actual and recent cases of conflict-induced migration and by textual evidence on ancient events, the different areas of the Mediterranean affected by the Late Bronze Age events are explored.