The decline of Mycenae
During the second half of the thirteenth dentruy BC the fortunes of this successful people started to change. A series of fires swept across the Mycenaean world in c.1250 BC, another about 50 years later, and another some 50 years after that. The first wave destroyed most of the houses outside the citadel at Mycenae; the second took the citadel itself, together with those at Dendra, Tiryns, Krisa, Bla, and Thebes. Further strongholds went in the third wave of destruction.

But the Mycenaean culture did not disappear with these blows to its fabric. In fact, it seems unlikely that external invasion was the cause of the destruction, since Greek culture remained Mycenaean after the palace burnings had taken place. Natural causes do not seem to have been to blame--there is no evidence of any drought that may have caused the fires; the destruction looks deliberate.

Wilkinson l990:43

Ur, the city of Abraham's people, was one of the largest towns in Mesopotamia. It was well placed at the centre of an agricultural region on the marshy but fertile land between the two rivers. Ur has a long history, during which two periods in particular stand out as fascinating today. The first, almost 4,000 years before the birth of Christ, was the time of the great royal burials, which tell us so much about the lives and deaths of th early kings and courtiers. The second great epoch in the history of Ur was the Sumerian revival around 2000 BC, when the ziggurat, the most famous building in the city, was constructed.

Wilkinson l990:95