Arkeoloji’de Bölgesel Çalışmalar Sempozyum Bildirileri, YAS 4 (2014) 89–123 Destructions, Abandonments, Social Reorganisation and Climatic Change in West and Central Anatolia at the End of the Third Millennium BC. Michele MASSA* Abstract This paper offers a reassessment of the horizon of destructions and decline in num- ber of settled communities at the end of the third millennium BC in west and cen- tral Anatolia. This phenomenon, despite being well-known in the archaeological literature, has been so far not analysed in detail. Preliminary results based on exca- vation and survey data are here presented within the context of the increasing social complexity experienced by the late Early Bronze Age communities in the area and the rapid climatic change occurred around 2200-1900 cal B.C. Introduction The transition between the Early and Middle Bronze Ages (2250-1950 cal B.C., hencefor- ward EBA and MBA) is increasingly recognised as a period of substantial changes in the structure of human communities across the Near East, with the collapse of the Akkadian Empire -the first overarching Mesopotamian state- and the demise of many Syrian territo- rial polities 1 , contemporarily with a phase of intense droughts that triggered shifts in eco- nomic strategies, competition over resources and contraction of sedentary occupation in many areas 2 . There is also good evidence that the extensive long-distance trade networks across the Near East and the eastern Mediterranean are in part disrupted around 2200 B.C., to resume around 2000-1950 B.C. 3 * Michele Massa, University College London. 1 Akkermans and Schwarz 2003, 250-84. 2 Kuzucuoğlu and Marro 2007; Wossink 2009, Matthews 2011. 3 Şahoğlu 2005; Beaujard 2011, 13.