1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed - Reading Notes

While reading the Iliad I realized that I have basically no knowledge of the Bronze Age. To remedy this I picked up a copy of 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed by Eric H. Cline. I found it to be a difficult read. It jumped around quite a bit and I was not able to make sense of the book’s organization. The book was also very intent on explaining how we know what we know and went into detail about the different scholars that have contributed to this knowledge and the ongoing conversations about the evidence. This was interesting, but what I really could have used was a chronological “this happened and then this happened and then this happened” kind of book. I also would have liked to get a little more flavor for the personalities or cultures of each civilization discussed in the book.

General Notes about the Bronze Age:

The civilizations of the Bronze Age were much more complex and had significantly more international trade and cultural connections than previously thought. We know this from letters that have been deciphered detailing the extent of trade and recent(ish) discoveries of ancient shipwrecks of international trading vessels.

Bronze Age Collapse

No one knows why the Bronze Age collapsed but it seems to be a confluence of factors including climate change leading to migration leading to conflict. The Bronze Age civilizations had become dependent on international trade and the increased conflict may have led to a system collapse. Throw in a cluster of earthquakes and some internal rebellions and you have yourself a recipe for worldwide civilizational collapse and a Dark Age.

Civilizations of the Late Bronze Age:

Egyptians

The Egyptians are one of the big bad granddaddies of civilization. The pyramids were already 1000 years old by the time the Bronze Age hits its peak.

Minoans and Mycenaeans

The Minoans were a civilization on Crete and predate the rise of the Myceanaeans on the mainland of Greece. Crete was a hub of international trade in the Bronze Age. However the ascendent Myceaneans took over / subsumed the Minoans and their civilization during the late Bronze Age.

Hittites

The Hitties were located in present day Turkey. Troy was part of the Hittite civilization. At one point this civilization controlled territory through the mideast in present day Syria and its southern reach abutted the northern reach of Egypt when it controlled the region of Canaan.

Ugarit

Ugarit was a city within the Hittite Empire, but it was also kind of its own sub civilization. They used a language called Ugaritic which used one of the earliest alphabet systems ever discovered.

Cypiots

The Cypiots inhabited present day Cyprus. They were a big deal because Cyprus had a lot of the raw materials necessary to make bronze.

Canaanites

The Canaanites were another ancient civilization in the near east around present day Israel. In the late Bronze Age they were mostly within the Egyptian area of control.

Mitanni and Assyrians

The Mitanni were a civilization that I knew nothing about. They were located in present day Syria and were apparently a big deal. Towards the end of the bronze age they were replaced by the Assyrians.

Babylonians

Babylon is also a granddaddy of ancient civilization. Babylon already had a multi thousand year history by this point. However, in the late Bronze Age it appears that their power had weakened and they were mostly a regional power. It’s possible that earlier climate change lead to drought conditions in Mesopotamia which helps explain why powers in this region were not as powerful during the Bronze Age.