No, it was the other way around; the famine of 1198 BC led to an economic collapse that lasted so long that most of the copper miners, tin miners, and smelters

No, it was the other way around; the famine of 1198 BC led to an economic collapse that lasted so long that most of the copper miners, tin miners, and smelters died off and didn't train their replacements. The uptick of ironworking came a few decades later. Doonesbury: "Aha! The Hittites!" "You know their work?" "Complete degenerates. But tough to beat after they invented iron." https://www.gocomics.com/doonesbury/1978/12/26 https://www.gocomics.com/doonesbury/1978/12/26