PolledHistory: Friday Bonus - The Bronze Age Collapse

Today's historical bonus episode is about the bronze age collapse (c. 1200 BC).

The Bronze Age Collapse was a short period of sudden destruction of order and prosperity and the loss of large civilizations, many technologies, trade, and literacy. But what was the Bronze Age, the era that ended with it?

The Bronze Age was a time of formidable empires in the Near East - such as Egypt, in the form of New Kingdom Egypt, the Hittites in Anatolia, the Babylonians in Mesopotamia, and in Greece Mycenaea, among others. It was a very long period of prosperity and growth. Let's introduce the world before the collapse first, specifically the civilizations there.

There was Egypt in North Africa. It was wealthy, powerful andd sophisticated. Egypt at the time was less of a dry desert and more of a fertile and green place because of the Nile River - an extremely advantageous river. This allowed them to grow in wealth from commerce. The Nile was also a good waterway for transportation, as most Egyptian cities were on the banks of the river. Egypt was also rich in other natural resources such as gold from the south. The Egyptians expanded out of the Nile river valley and into the Levant.

To the north, one of the tivals of the Egyptians were the Hittites. They were also powerful and relied on their abundance of two important materials: tin and copper. These metals were needed in making bronze, which at the time was the resource that was used for tools, weapons, and articles and often traded. They took the very rare and scarce tin from some mountains and copper from Cyprus.

The Assyrians to the east in Mesopotamia and were another military bunch. They outlasted the other empires for about a century. The Assyrians, however, did not have any ports on the Mediterranean, a big disadvantage for them, so they had to fight to try to get a foothold on the Levant. 

Lastly are the Mycenaeans of Greece. Before the more stereotypical Ancient Greece is a more unknown society called the Mycenaeans. They were a seafaring civilization that cooperated in trade. They were an industrial powerhouse and had complex forts and palaces.

Now let's see the collapse in motion. By the beginning of 1200s BC is the first mention of some collapse. We know the king of the city of Ugarit wrote a letter to the king in Cyprus. The letter basically says that some enemy have arrived from ships and have attacked the city. However, the king of Ugarit does not have infantry or chariots - as they were stationed in a city called "Khatte". Khatte was the capital of the Hittites, and the cith was also known as Hattusa.

The Hittites promided to send the city of Ugarit (which was under the Hittite Empire) help, but it was too late and the city of Ugarit was sacked and much of it was destroyed. But the king of Cyprus was also facing his own problems. The cities were also under attack there.

In Greece, the Mycenaeans have also a bad situation. There is evidence of weaponry in the cities of Mycenaea and evidence of fires. This is probably an uprising where local kings were overthrown by others. Generally, many cities were abandoned for different problems, including famine and natural disaster.

In Anatolia was another dire time. Cities were destroyed and abandoned. Even the capital, Hattusa, was abandoned. All the cities were stormed and burned mysteriously. There was some regionwide disaster. But we don't know why. 

However, we do have some reasoning. We found some archaeological evidence. We found some inscriptions. The inscription from the pharaoh tells us of some foreign invaders that arrived on the coasts. These foreign countries were unstoppable and the empires shaken, defenseless. The Egyptians called these people "The Sea Peoples".

The Sea Peoples are probably a group of groups coming from the west: probably from Sardinia, Crete, Sicily, etc. We know they wore certain hats such as feathered caps, horned helmets, or leather caps, and we know some wore tunics and some wore armor. They migrated east and attacked for some reason we'll try to uncover later on.

The Sea Peoples have ravaged all the other countries before they had attacked Egypt. The Mycenaeans, Hittites, Canaanites, Cyprians, etc. The Assyrians and other more inland civilizations did not get destroyed, but affected. They were too strong to resist and this is because of the nature of the Bronze Age.

The Bronze Age relied on chariotry. Most warfare in the Near East at the time were done with these things. Chariots are horse-powered-carts driven by a charioteer. First, they were more of a vehicle of transportation, but then become a military vehicle that basically everybody in the Bronze Age used. Bronze Age chariots involved two horses that pulled a wagon of two humans - a person to drive and a person to shoot. The Horses were well-trained for speed and agillity. The archers used a type of bow called a composite bow which was smaller, more accurate, more long-ranged, and lighter. Chariots were extremely strong, but expensive anc costly. 

The Sea Peoples did not have chariots, but rather used swords and javelins and were agressive. Their strategy was not organized but rather spontaneous, but this gave them an advantage. Chariots could outrun one man, but not ten or a hundred. The sea peoples would suddenly charge from different directions and would easily destroy a chariot. Bronze age infantry were often spearmen, which meant they had to be very orderly while in motion, but the Sea Peoples' infantry did not need to be very orderly. The armies had to be larger and wider to respond to this new strategy.

Egypt probably repelled the Sea Peoples, but their power would diminish. They would never recover as a independent state. But the Sea Peoples were not the only player in the Bronze Age Collapse.

Resource scarcity is another player in the collapse of the prosperous Bronze Age. Bronze Age civilizations needed bronze - this fusion of tin and copper, 9 parts of copper and 1 part of tin. Copper was common but diffucult to mine, and like we said before, Cyprus was the copper center of the known world at the time. Cyprian copper was easy to mine. Tin was scarce and mostly made in the land of the Hittites, but that Hittite mine was small. The Sea people's attacks attacked the trade of bronze and attacked the production of bronze in Cyprus and Anatolia. 

Weirdly, the Sea People migration coincidentally was during the same time of a fifty year period of earthquakes. Only Egypt was left out of the earthquake thing.

But what pushed the Sea Peoples to attack the east? Around this time, there was an environmental emergency, causing famines and starvation, making the Sea Peoples have to move eastward. But this environmental emergency was actually worse in the  Eastern Mediterranean and Near East. Climate was probabky another player in the Bronze Age collapse which also caused internal conflict.

So the Bronze Age collapse was:

Climate -> Sea Peoples Migration and Climate Crises -> External Threats and Internal Threats -> Destruction.

The Bronze Age Collapse was a huge loss for order, civilization, technology, and trade. Never again was civilization as sophisticated until the Classical Era hundreds of years later. That's all for today.

Next Week Topic: The Crisis of the 1st Century BC