At http://phys.org/print390048755.html … amongst the ash of numerous animal sacrifices on a mountain dedicated to Zeus in Greece has been found the skeleton of a human sacrifice, a teenager, and dates back to the end of the Late Bronze Age. This was a time when the Mycenaean Greek kingdoms were overwhelmed in a catastrophe of some kind, most of their towns and villages were completely destroyed (and abandoned). A human sacrifice on a mountain top, directly facing the sky, and as near to the sky one can get, is a clue that something was going on upstairs. An act of propitiation involving human sacrifice suggests a tragic event – and the archaeology reveals the extent of the damage caused by the sky gods. The mountain was even associated with human sacrifice in ancient writings, so we are told, but it is what caused people to make that act that we should be addressing – something highly destructive. Offering up the blood of one victim in the hope of staving off the killing of many others was perhaps a reasonable way to look at things – but would have been driven by fear. People in the Americas were doing the same thing and the Bible preserves the willingness of Abraham to sacrifice his son to a malevolent god. In tradition, the end of the Late Bronze age was associated with the Return of the Heruclidae (little bits of the Herakles comet).
Meanwhile, at http://phys.org/print390041362.html … a rich grave from the Late Bronze Age has been found on Cyprus, with gold objects, pearls, earrings and an Egyptian scarab. The grave dates from between 1600 and 1150BC. Cyprus at this time was part of a trade network between Canaan/Phoenicia with Gypt, and both with the Aegean (and Cyprus).