My review of: 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed (Turning Points in Ancient History) by Eric H. Cline
This book well worth reading, although extremely well-documented with footnotes and an excellent scholarly bibliography, it is readable and not a dry scholarly work (that I feared it would be). I expected it to be only very vaguely analogous to our current times but in many ways was scarily similar.
Late Bronze Age Collapse was actually a period that stretched from 1225 BC to 1130 BC. With destruction and rebuilding in the various nation states, gradually resulting in an overall decline, but with the major decline arguably occurring in 1177 BC with the near collapse of the major power Egypt. If you study anything on the Late Bronze Age Collapse, it is usually said to be primarily due to the invasions and destruction wrought by the Sea Peoples but the Sea Peoples only played a part in a much larger and complex catastrophe.
The similarity to our time, in view of a looming possible TEOTWAWKI event, were:
• The Fertile Crescent-Aegean Europe-eastern North Africa world were connected in a wide-ranging, complex trading network. (A world wide, interdependent system encompassing the nations of the “known” world.)
• There were arguably 4 major military & economic powers (Egypt, Minoan-Mycenaean, Hittites, & Assyria), several lesser and many minor ones aligned in various trade, political and military alliances. (Not unlike the USA, Europe, Russia and China of today.)
• They had one crucial, strategic resource that was vital and needed to be imported from the distant Afghanistan (the only known source at that time) and shipped through torturous routes: tin, the vital component for bronze, the only serviceable metal they knew (not unlike the vital flow of oil today).
• Like today, there were trade embargos, proxy wars, foreign aid, small powers playing big powers against each other, internal politics and religious contentions, illegal immigrants, taxes and more taxes, monopolies and graft (pretty much like we have!).
The author carefully documents evidence from ancient records (stone & clay tablets), excavation of ancient cities, sunken ships, analysis of lake and ocean sediments, and geological studies; all carefully documented and noted.
Synopsis of the Collapse of Later Bronze Age Civilization and Dark Age:
The trade patterns were complex and extensive and a real interdependence developed in order to maintain their way of life. Egypt had grain and gold but needed copper and olive oil (both food and lighting fuel); Canaan had an abundance of olive oil, Minoan-Mycenaean produced superior pottery art items and were one of the foremost sea traders, and Cyprus had most of the copper but needed most everything else. While some of these imports were of minor importance, many were critical to the function of these complex societies.
As to what caused the disruption of this trading system which, in turn, brought about the collapse of Later Bronze Age Civilization's "globalized” world and the introduction of the first Dark Age, it was a combination of events acting synergistically to affect this disaster.
Eerily like our own times, it started, in my opinion, with climate change. After a long period of favorable weather that allowed an unprecedented rise in population, temperatures rose for several decades then plummeted and the entire region became not only much cooler but quite arid. Crops failed sparking famine, disease, wars, social unrests, rebellions, and the displacement of desperate populations from southern Italy, Sicily, the Near East, and areas yet undetermined. These Sea people were actually 6 or more distinctive ethnic groups who came both by sea and by land to raid, plunder and invade. Add to this regional earthquake storms, repeatedly destroying cities, most of which where rebuilt only to be destroyed again a generation or so later.
Archeological evidence shows cities where destroyed repeatedly, not only by earthquakes, but by war and revolt. Burned cities with scattered weapons sometimes were rebuilt by the survivors but sometimes not, probably because the population was exterminated. In some, only the “upper city” was destroyed with the lower city left untouched indicating revolt where the ruling class and wealthy were exterminated. Some of the rebuilt cities showed that the Sea People not only raided but sometimes settled permanently, often merging with the original surviving population.
Requests came from the Hittites king begging his chief enemy, the Egyptian Pharaoh, for grain to be sent to his starving capitol. Great sea and land battles where fought attempting to stave off wave after way of invasions which ground down country after country. Trade by land and, more importantly by sea, was totally disrupted and essentially shut down; resulting in the highest civilizations of the age sputtering and dying.
Could this happen to us today? A real possibility, as we are facing climate change also where temperatures rose for several decades then plummeted which could have devastating effects on the cereal crops on which our civilization also depends. This would lead to famines that would ferment revolts, migrations, and wars, all of which parallels 1177BC and which should give us pause. So too, the disruption of the oil trade today would cripple our society and the nations of the world.
Today our society is also so interdependent and intertwined that the collapse of one major nation would leave all the others extremely vulnerable. Think not? The US has no manufacturers of large transformers at all, requiring shipments from Europe. Even something as common as shoes and boots finds only 2 manufactures left in the US and the list goes on. Whether natural (earthquakes, floods, CMEs and famines) or man-made disasters (biological, nuclear, or EMP terror attacks or war), we could be plunged into a collapse just as profound as that of 1177 BC.
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