in the Mediterranean world because of a widespread drought that devastated the entire area between the 13th and the 10th century B.C. The “pan-Mediterranean drought theory,” originated with the classicist Rhys Carpenter more than 40 years ago. But very few scholars would take it seriously today, and the theory is rarely even cited. There may have been periodic local droughts, but there is simply no archaeological or scientific evidence (pollen analyses, for example) that would support Stiebing’s