The globalizing connections that defined the European Bronze Age in the second millennium BC either ended or abruptly changed in the decades around 1200 BC. The impact of climate change at 3.2 ka on such social changes has been debated for the eastern Mediterranean. This paper extends this enquiry of shifting human–climate relationships during the later Bronze Age into Europe for the first time. There, climate data indicate that significant shifts occurred in hydroclimate and temperatures in various parts of Europe ca. 3.2 ka. To test potential societal impacts, I review and evaluate archaeological data from Ireland and Britain, the Nordic area, the Carpathian Basin, the Po Valley, and the Aegean region in parallel with paleoclimate data. I argue that 1200 BC was a turning point for many societies in Europe and that climate played an important role in shaping this. Although long-term trajectories of sociopolitical systems were paramount in defining how and when specific societies changed, climate change acted as a force multiplier that undermined societal resilience in the wake of initial social disjunctures. In this way, it shaped, often detrimentally, the reconfiguration of societies. By impacting more directly on social venues of political recovery, realignment, and reorganization, climate forces accentuate societal crises and, in some areas, sustained them to the point of sociopolitical collapse.

公元前 2000 年欧洲青铜时代的全球化联系在公元前 1200 年左右的几十年里要么结束了，要么突然改变。 3.2ka气候变化对地中海东部地区社会变化的影响一直存在争议。本文首次将青铜时代晚期人类与气候关系变化的探究延伸到欧洲。在那里，气候数据表明欧洲各地的水文气候和气温发生了重大变化。 3.2 卡。为了测试潜在的社会影响，我审查和评估了来自爱尔兰和英国、北欧地区、喀尔巴阡盆地、波河流域和爱琴海地区的考古数据以及古气候数据。我认为公元前 1200 年是欧洲许多社会的转折点，而气候在塑造这一转折点方面发挥了重要作用。尽管社会政治体系的长期轨迹对于定义特定社会如何以及何时发生变化至关重要，但气候变化充当了力量倍增器，在最初的社会分裂之后削弱了社会的复原力。通过这种方式，它塑造了社会的重构，而且往往是有害的。通过更直接地影响政治复苏、重新调整和重组的社会场所，气候力量加剧了社会危机，并在某些地区将危机持续到社会政治崩溃的地步。