The Bronze Age Collapse (also known as Late Bronze Age Collapse) is a modern-day term referring to the decline and fall of major Mediterranean civilizations during the 13th-12th centuries BCE. The precise cause of the Bronze Age Collapse has been debated by scholars for over a century as well as the date it probably began and when it ended but no consensus has been reached. What is clearly known is that, between c. 1250 - c. 1150 BCE, major cities were destroyed, whole civilizations fell, diplomatic and trade relations were severed, writing systems vanished, and there was widespread devastation and death on a scale never experienced before.

The primary causes advanced for the Bronze Age Collapse are:

  • Natural Catastrophes (earthquakes)
  • Climate Change (which caused drought and famine)
  • Internal Rebellions (class wars)
  • Invasions (primarily by the Sea Peoples)
  • Disruption of Trade Relations/Systems Collapse (political instability)

When the collapse had run its course, the Mediterranean region entered a “dark age” in which iron replaced bronze as the metal of choice, diplomatic and trade relations were nearly non-existent, and art, architecture, and general quality of life all suffered in comparison with the Bronze Age.

What followed the Bronze Age (c. 3300 - c. 1200 BCE) was the Iron Age (c. 1200-550 BCE) which was a period of transformation and development and, overall, not nearly as “dark” as 19th- and early 20th-century CE scholars believed. The Iron Age seems to only have appeared so to these writers when contrasted with the grandeur and prosperity of the Bronze Age, but, even so, while civilizations rebuilt and developed going forwards, much was lost which could not be replicated and the lessons of the Bronze Age Collapse for the present day are especially pertinent at the moment when the globally-linked world most closely resembles the intricate network of nations which characterized this era.

The Bronze Age

This era saw the development of civilization in every region of the Mediterranean and in every aspect. The Bronze Age is the period best known for its advances in culture, language, technology, religion, art, architecture, politics, warfare, and trade.

As each political entity became more stable and centralized, trade flourished until, by around 1350 BCE, Assyria, Babylonia, Egypt, the Hittite Empire, and the Kingdom of Mittani were closely tied to one another in a network of trade and diplomacy referred to by modern-day scholars as the “Club of Great Powers” (Ancient Egypt, van de Mieroop, 188). This was a close-knit, international, web of relationships between the most powerful monarchs of the age and its existence is well-established through the Amarna Letters of the 14th century BCE, correspondence between the kings of Egypt and other nations.

These cordial relationships meant prosperity for the people of the lands involved. Trade flourished, as evident in the grand building projects of the New Kingdom of Egypt among other evidence, and each nation prospered through the ties of trade and diplomacy. This entire way of life would drastically alter for the worse beginning in the mid-to-late 13th century BCE, and this is the so-called Bronze Age Collapse. When it was over, of the nations which made up the Club of Great Powers, only Egypt would remain intact and then in a greatly reduced form

Causes of Collapse

From the time of the French Egyptologist Gaston Maspero (l. 1846-1916 CE, who first coined the term “Sea Peoples” in reference to the invading forces of the 13th and 12th centuries BCE in 1881 CE), the causes of the Bronze Age Collapse have been presented by scholars as linear, happening in a set sequence

The problem with the linear concept of causes is not just that it is too simple – all of these civilizations had survived invasions and earthquakes and instability before – but because it always assumes a set date for when the collapse began and ended and then finds historical events which fit the narrative and support that date. It is far more probable, as advanced by scholars such as Eric H. Cline, A. Bernard Knapp and Stuart W. Manning, and Brandon L. Drake, among others, that all of these pressures were brought to bear on Mediterranean civilization in quick succession, perhaps almost simultaneously, so that they could not recover from one catastrophe before another was upon them. Cline refers to this phenomenon as “a perfect storm of calamities” and explains:

Perhaps the inhabitants could have survived one disaster, such as an earthquake or a drought, but they could not survive the combined effects of earthquake, drought, and invaders all occurring in rapid succession. A “domino effect” then ensued, in which the disintegration of one civilization led to the fall of others. (165)

With that in mind, the causes of the Bronze Age Collapse must be considered as suggestions of probabilities as far as dates go, but a general time span is accepted (roughly c. 1250 - c. 1150 BCE) and certain aspects of the collapse during this period, such as climate change, assert themselves more profoundly because there is no record of such events, to such a degree, prior to this period of the collapse.

  • Natural Catastrophes: Knapp and Manning point out that earthquakes in the Mediterranean were commonplace this would have been no different in the 13th-12th centuries than previously. They maintain that it is hard to be certain which were destroyed by earthquakes and which by invasions or internal rebellion (113). Knapp and Manning also note the possibility of “earthquake storms” – a series of earthquakes in rapid succession – which might account for widespread destruction.

  • Climate Change: Archaeologist David Kaniewski cites climate change as the pivotal factor in the collapse, claiming “the abrupt climate change at the end of the Late Bronze Age caused region-wide crop failures, leading towards socio-economic crises and unsustainability” . This crisis, Kaniewski notes, would then have caused the mass migrations/invasions which were recorded by the people of Cyprus, Anatolia, and Egypt

  • Internal Rebellions: Class wars – defined as the lower classes revolting against the privilege of the elite – is cited as another cause. During the reign of Ramesses III (1186-1155 BCE), the first labor strike in history is recorded when payment to the tomb-builders at Deir-el-Medina was not delivered.

Invasions: The Bronze Age Collapse was once attributed solely to the invasion of the so-called Sea Peoples between c. 1276-1178 BCE. The identity of this coalition is still debated in the present day but, whoever they were and wherever they came from, they wreaked havoc on the civilizations of the Mediterranean.

  • Disruption of Trade Relations/Systems Collapse: The severing of commercial and diplomatic ties has also been cited as a cause for the collapse but this cannot be posited as primary as there was no reason why the Great Powers would have suddenly decided to end relations and allow their cultures to devolve or their actual civilizations to end. The disruption of trade would have to be the culmination of earlier stressors.

The Dark ages

The golden age of the Club of Great Powers and the resultant prosperity became a memory, and this memory was recorded in myth, most notably in Greece in the 8th century BCE by Homer and Hesiod, both of whom remind a reader of a great age in the past, now long gone, which was far superior to the present.

Cline ends his book, 1177 BC: The Year Civilization Collapsed, on the optimistic note that, from the ashes of the Bronze Age Collapse, came the seeds of the civilizations which would produce the modern world. This is no doubt true but, as he also notes, one is left to wonder what the modern world might be like if there had been no Bronze Age Collapse.

Even so, the parallel between the period of the collapse and the modern-day seems quite striking in that now, as then, the world is intimately linked through global trade and diplomacy and the downfall of one nation is certain to affect the fortunes of every other.

Megathreads and spaces to hang out:

reminders:

  • 💚 You nerds can join specific comms to see posts about all sorts of topics
  • 💙 Hexbear’s algorithm prioritizes struggle sessions over upbears
  • 💜 Sorting by new you nerd
  • 🌈 If you ever want to make your own megathread, you can go here nerd

Links To Resources (Aid and Theory):

Aid:

Theory:

Remember nerds, no current struggle session discussion here to the general megathread, i will ban you from the comm and remove your comment, have a good day/night :meow-coffee: