My mother was born in that part of the world — Thrace, present-day Bulgaria. It’s called the Valley of the Roses. The roses grown there are used as the basis of many perfumes. I was told that most if them are exported to France.
I went there when I was a kid and have many fond memories. I remember seeing so many mounds throughout the country. Some were being excavated, but we weren’t allowed to get close to the digs.
As for a catastrophic event as you say, when did the volcano in Santorini explode? Maybe that was the cause of it.
Santorini exploded about 1500 B.C. That prompted the invasion of the eastern Mediterranean by the Sea Peoples. These were the survivors of Knossos. They knew how to smelt iron. Among them were the Philistines. They first tried to conquer Egypt. They failed and settled near Gaza. There is no mention of the Philistines in the Bible at the time of the Patriarchs, but the Philistines are in the land at the time of the Exodus in the 1400s B.C.
Valley of the Roses.
Had a lot of friends and acquaintances that escaped from the Communists in eastern Europe.
One anecdote by a Bulgarian related that the rose crops were one of the few sources of hard cash. So of course the regime “collectivized” the whole process, paying the workers a pittance based on weight of gathered roses.
Seems that the collective commissar was a highly educated city fellow but ignorant of farm work.
The workers figured out how to increase their wages.
A workers committee approached the Red Rose Commissar with an idea to increase the daily harvest.
“Let us start work with first light of dawn when it is cooler that we may work more effectively.”
Delighted the the workers offered much earlier start times all for the glory of the revolution, he consented.
So the workers started picking the roses while they were heavy with the morning dew and made sure to have their harvest weighed before the dew burned off. Same amount of roses picked but quite a bit heavier and more profitable.
Always wondered if the story was true. Some many bits of captive humor had the “stupid” peasants pulling one over the over their more intelligent party overlords.
Like to think it was true, those Bulgars are a clever bunch.