[AnAmericanMother]

An interesting theory, but I thought that the sudden decline of the cultures in the Eastern Mediterranean and the subsequent population migrations were triggered by the cataclysmic eruption of Thera. It's thought to have been the largest volcanic eruption in recorded history, and it triggered a wide range of climate effects as well as tidal waves, not to mention the legend of Atlantis. We read a good deal about this in my archaeology courses in college, but that's getting longer ago all the time so subsequent scholarship may have headed off in a different direction.

But the first premise, that the catastrophe was "Neither geological nor climatological but rather sociological in character," may be open to challenge.

[aruanan]

But the first premise, that the catastrophe was "Neither geological nor climatological but rather sociological in character," may be open to challenge.

My thought, too. You have to have a high level of communication and interdependence (such as we have today) for a sociological change to create such havoc (like the mass exterminations of the 20th century) and what Obama and others mean to do through carbon taxes.