Counterpoint: https://www.amazon.com/1177-B-C-Civilization-Collapsed-Turni...

> Ask medieval historian Michael McCormick what year was the worst to be alive, and he's got an answer:

This seems likely to be biased by asking a "medieval historian". Are we surprised that his answer came from the period he studies?

The book is great too:

https://www.amazon.com/1177-B-C-Civilization-Collapsed-Turni...

If you are interested in this kind of history, you might be interested in this book:

1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed

Which looks at the cosmopolitan trading civilizations of the Eastern Mediterranean during the 1400-1177 bc era, and how it collapsed.

https://www.amazon.com/1177-B-C-Civilization-Collapsed-Turni...

There were pretty extensive trading networks in the late Bronze Age[1]. I'm not sure what the accepted timeframe for the Trojan War is now, whether it is in that late bronze age period or has been pushed up into the following dark age, but it does increasingly seem that voyages around Greece and the greater Mediterranean as in Homer would not be that unusual.

[1] https://www.amazon.com/1177-B-C-Civilization-Collapsed-Turni...