Bronze Age Collapse

16 Questions

What marked a turning point in human history and the end of the Bronze Age around 1200 B.C.E.?

Collapse of many advanced civilizations

Who wrote a letter to the King of Cyprus about enemy ships attacking and destroying cities?

The Hittite King of Ugarit

Which group of people were likely the Sea Peoples, according to the text?

A coalition of groups from Sicily, Sardinia, Crete, and the Aegean coast

What tactic did the Sea Peoples use in warfare, as mentioned in the text?

Exploding outwards in unexpected bursts

What did Egyptian discoveries in Medinet Habu describe about the Sea Peoples?

Several waves of foreign invaders causing widespread destruction

What was the primary mode of warfare for the Sea Peoples, as described in the text?

Fighting on foot with longswords and javelins

What was the impact of the Sea Peoples' fighting style on chariots?

Made them less effective due to their inability to get behind defensive lines

What was the impact of the Sea Peoples' attacks on international trade?

Disrupted international trade and weakened every state in the region

What was the major source of tin during the Bronze Age?

Afghanistan

What is Bronze made of?

9 parts copper and 1 part tin

What is believed to have contributed to the collapse of international trade during the Bronze Age?

Disruptions in the supply chain for tin

What is the most widely accepted theory for the Bronze Age Collapse?

Systems Collapse Theory, which argues that multiple crises led to the collapse

What may have coincided with the migration of the Sea Peoples, according to some scholars?

A 50-year period of massive earthquakes in Western Asia

What was the impact of the environmental emergency in the eastern Mediterranean during the Bronze Age?

Caused widespread crop failures

What was the root cause of the Bronze Age collapse, according to ongoing scholarship?

Not definitively known, ongoing scholarship is exploring multiple factors

What was the impact of the defeat of the Sea Peoples in Egypt?

Led to Egypt becoming a second-rate power and not fully recovering for over a thousand years.

Study Notes

Around 1200 B.C.E., many advanced civilizations faced an existential crisis and collapsed, marking a turning point in human history and the end of the Bronze Age.
This collapse was sudden and widespread, affecting major players like Egypt, Cyprus, Mycenaeans, Hittite Empire, Assyria, and Babylonia.
The Hittite King of Ugarit wrote a letter to the King of Cyprus about enemy ships attacking and destroying his cities.
Cyprus was also under attack, with many cities burned and abandoned.
Mycenaeans in Greece experienced internal instability with signs of battles, mass fires, and popular uprisings.
In Anatolia, every major city may have been partially destroyed, including Troy.
Egyptian discoveries in Medinet Habu described several waves of foreign invaders, called the Sea Peoples, who came on boats and wagons and caused widespread destruction.
Sea Peoples were likely a coalition of groups from Sicily, Sardinia, Crete, and the Aegean coast.
Bronze Age warfare revolved around chariots, which were expensive and required large numbers of infantry for protection.
Sea Peoples fought on foot with longswords and javelins, allowing them to be more mobile and aggressive than their chariot-reliant opponents.- The Sea Peoples were a group of people who used unconventional tactics in warfare, such as exploding outwards in unexpected bursts.
Their fighting style made chariots, which were previously effective due to their mobility, less effective against them.
The defensive lines of spearmen and archers were supposed to protect against the Sea Peoples, but they were able to get behind these lines easily.
In response to these new tactics, defensive lines grew larger and larger.
By the end of this period, Egyptian armies were ten times larger than they were at the beginning.
Egypt was the last state standing at the end of this period, as most of its neighbors had fallen to the Sea Peoples.
The defeat of the Sea Peoples in Egypt led to Egypt becoming a second-rate power and not fully recovering for over a thousand years.
The collapse of international trade during this period is believed to have contributed to the Bronze Age collapse.
Bronze is made by combining 9 parts copper with 1 part tin.
Copper is relatively common, but mining it is difficult. Most Bronze Age civilizations ran their own small mining operations.
Cyprus was a hub of international trade due to its abundant copper deposits.
Tin is extremely rare and not evenly distributed across the Earth.
The major source of tin was in Afghanistan, which was over 3,000 kilometers away from Cyprus.
Disruptions in the supply chain for tin meant that it was no longer possible for Bronze Age civilizations to produce bronze.
The Sea Peoples attacks are believed to have disrupted international trade and weakened every state in the region in a vicious cycle.
Some scholars believe that the migration of the Sea Peoples coincided with a 50-year period of massive earthquakes in Western Asia.
These earthquakes may have been absolutely wrecking the economy in the region, causing cities to be abandoned.
There is evidence of earthquakes destroying cities in Greece, Anatolia, the Levant, and Cyprus.
The environmental emergency in the eastern Mediterranean may have been even more severe than in northern Europe, causing widespread crop failures.
The best current analysis of the Bronze Age Collapse is the Systems Collapse Theory, which argues that the arrival of the Sea Peoples was a medium level threat under normal circumstances but that the civilizations were dealing with multiple crises at once.
The Bronze Age civilizations in Western Asia were dealing with 5 crises at once, each creating a multiplier effect for all the others.
The root cause of the Bronze Age collapse is not definitively known, and scholarship in this area is ongoing.

Test your knowledge about the sudden and widespread collapse of advanced civilizations around 1200 B.C.E., which marked the end of the Bronze Age. Explore the impact of Sea Peoples, disruptions in international trade, and the potential causes of this significant historical event.

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