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karp76's review against another edition
3.0
“In a complex system such as our world today, this is all it might take for the overall system to become destabilized, leading to a collapse.” The title promises a bold and valiant premise and delivers neither. This reads like a graduate paper or nothing more than an academic review. Again, a title as bold and promising as this, beckons readers, all readers to come, let me whisper the interesting and fascinating to you. The common reader will be put off at best and completely lost at worst. The text is dry and academic and affords that you must have at least a sturdy survey of LBA Mediterranean and Levant culture. Is not all a waste. The last 30, 40 pages moves away from the academic survey into Cline's own thoughts and feelings, the narrative lightening and changing to his tone, gathering and dissecting the last 150 odd pages into a more palatable digestion, but still it does not deliver on its promised title. This is one for the student, not the reader.
caitlinsumnerauthor's review against another edition
3.0
Usually don't abandon books but absolutely could not hold my interest, and this is my field of study!
seshat59's review against another edition
3.0
1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed was a very informative, speculative book on the factors that contributed to the end of the Late Bronze Age. Like all matters in ancient history, having absolute certainty is nigh impossible, and I’m glad Cline posited various factors while still leaving matters open to future discovery and evidence — and the interpreting discretion of his readers. However, if you’re hoping for someone to make new, overwhelming conclusions based on the evidence, this book is not for you. Instead, it’s more of an overview/amalgamation of the many theories that led to the ultimate decline.
The beginning of the book focuses on how interconnected and globalized the various Mediterranean empires and kingdoms were due to their reliance on maintaining complex trade routes. I appreciated this overview due to my own skewed knowledge that favors the Minoans, Mycenaeans, and Egyptians versus the trading ports of the Levant and Canaan. It is amazing at how complex those trading connections were and also how those connections were so tightly associated with each kingdom’s central ruler.
This first portion of the book relies a great deal in interpreting the primary source material, with some sensationalism, alas, thrown into the mix as well. Cline searches for real examples of the Trojan War and Exodus before ultimately—at last—pooh-poohing them in the face of the overwhelming dearth of evidence. (Further sensationalism continued with an unnecessary detour into the discovery of Tutankhamun‘ tomb. Despite claims of 20th Century Egyptomania bearing some relevance upon Bronze Age internationalism, I’m not fooled by this irrelevant inclusion.)
Like all major civilizations’ ebbs and declines, there is no one outstanding outlier to have triggered The End, but Cline neatly displays scientific, archaeological, and historical evidence for the complex system that led to the Bronze Age’s ultimate end: to recent confirmation of drought due to pollen analysis, excavated evidence of cities’ destroyed and/or abandoned, earthquakes, and migrations, this book is a recommended read for Bronze Age aficionados.
The beginning of the book focuses on how interconnected and globalized the various Mediterranean empires and kingdoms were due to their reliance on maintaining complex trade routes. I appreciated this overview due to my own skewed knowledge that favors the Minoans, Mycenaeans, and Egyptians versus the trading ports of the Levant and Canaan. It is amazing at how complex those trading connections were and also how those connections were so tightly associated with each kingdom’s central ruler.
This first portion of the book relies a great deal in interpreting the primary source material, with some sensationalism, alas, thrown into the mix as well. Cline searches for real examples of the Trojan War and Exodus before ultimately—at last—pooh-poohing them in the face of the overwhelming dearth of evidence. (Further sensationalism continued with an unnecessary detour into the discovery of Tutankhamun‘ tomb. Despite claims of 20th Century Egyptomania bearing some relevance upon Bronze Age internationalism, I’m not fooled by this irrelevant inclusion.)
Like all major civilizations’ ebbs and declines, there is no one outstanding outlier to have triggered The End, but Cline neatly displays scientific, archaeological, and historical evidence for the complex system that led to the Bronze Age’s ultimate end: to recent confirmation of drought due to pollen analysis, excavated evidence of cities’ destroyed and/or abandoned, earthquakes, and migrations, this book is a recommended read for Bronze Age aficionados.
tsharris's review against another edition
4.0
A bit slow going in some places and I thought Cline's attempts to appeal to a broader audience by claiming parallels between the Bronze Age eastern Mediterranean world and the contemporary world were a bit forced. Nevertheless, useful review of state of knowledge regarding the Bronze Age collapse, including findings from archaeological digs.
ryzar's review against another edition
challenging
informative
reflective
medium-paced
Cline does a great job of explaining the complex web of civilizations in the Late Bronze Age Mediterranean and how they may have collapsed. I really appreciated how he never tries to make a single definitive claim for why they collapsed but presents the options and the evidence in an accessible manner.
paperrhino's review against another edition
3.0
A fascinating book that misses out on some opportunities. 1177 B.C. is an argument in book form as to the cause of the fall of the interconnected civilizations of the Eastern Mediterranean at the end of the Late Bronze Age. The bulk of the book presents the archaeological and historical evidence for economic and social interconnections of the civilizations of that time including the Egyptians, Hittites, Minoans, Mycenaeans, Babylonians, etc. Once the author establishes the high degree of interconnections he presents the evidence that most of these civilizations, kingdoms, and empires collapsed. Next the author presents several theories about the cause of the collapse, some natural like climate change, and others man made like the invasion of the mysterious Sea Peoples. Finally, the author presents his theory for the collapse.
Where this book excels is reinforcing how much interaction there was between the late bronze age civilizations. He also does a good job of driving home exactly how long ago this was. While the pyramids at Giza are over 1000 years old at this point, the Trojan War takes place during this period, the first mention of Israel as a people appears, classical Greek civilization is several hundred years away, and the Roman empire is around 1000 years away. The book also does a good job of keeping the material presented accessible to people who are not experts in bronze age archaeology which gives the impression that the book is intended for a non-academic audience.
However, I believe the author missed an opportunity to make the book more entertaining. Much too much time is spent going over the many inscriptions and clay tablets, their provenance, and their contents and consequently less time is spent on the story. Consequently the book reads like a thesis or dissertation rather than a book for a popular audience. Perhaps that was deliberate but the book is not advertised as an academic publication. If the author had taken the approach of presenting the material as a narrative rather than as an argument the material would have been even more accessible and entertaining. A good example of a book that uses this approach is The Punic Wars by Goldsworthy.
Despite my middling rating I would recommend this book to anyone interested in ancient history.
Where this book excels is reinforcing how much interaction there was between the late bronze age civilizations. He also does a good job of driving home exactly how long ago this was. While the pyramids at Giza are over 1000 years old at this point, the Trojan War takes place during this period, the first mention of Israel as a people appears, classical Greek civilization is several hundred years away, and the Roman empire is around 1000 years away. The book also does a good job of keeping the material presented accessible to people who are not experts in bronze age archaeology which gives the impression that the book is intended for a non-academic audience.
However, I believe the author missed an opportunity to make the book more entertaining. Much too much time is spent going over the many inscriptions and clay tablets, their provenance, and their contents and consequently less time is spent on the story. Consequently the book reads like a thesis or dissertation rather than a book for a popular audience. Perhaps that was deliberate but the book is not advertised as an academic publication. If the author had taken the approach of presenting the material as a narrative rather than as an argument the material would have been even more accessible and entertaining. A good example of a book that uses this approach is The Punic Wars by Goldsworthy.
Despite my middling rating I would recommend this book to anyone interested in ancient history.
22_'s review against another edition
5.0
Somehow, in mid-January 2017 I watched Dr Eric Cline’s lecture to the famed Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago on February 25, 2015.
It was really great—you know how some books and some topics, an author can satisfy all your curiosity in an hour-long talk? There was some risk of that with this talk, but my wonderful library system delivered an audiobook version of this book narrated by Andy Caploe, who must have gotten some instruction in the pronunciation of Late Bronze Age names like Suppiluliuma the Hittite king, Burna-Buriash the Kassite-Babylonian king, and Shutruk-Nahhunte the Elamite because it was wonderful to hear these names and now be able to pronounce them.
I am so happy I was able to go through the entire book because of the details are absolutely fascinating and gorgeously-presented. Cline emphasizes in the beginning that it’s important to understand what collapsed circa 1177 BCE, and spends the majority of the book doing that, thereby painting a beautiful portrait of flowing international goods, culture, letters, royal spouses, and more between Egypt, the Mitanni, the Hittites, the Mycenaeans, Crete and Cypress, Canaan, Babylonia, Libya, Nubia, and more. Spending a few days immersed in our reconstruction of this cosmopolitan world was a moving experience for me.
A smaller part of the book details not so much the collapse as how we can know anything about what ended it all, the specific archaeological details that were pieced together to get that picture, and the way people have understood the collapse over the years. This part is also fantastic. Far too many history books and podcasts summarize the results of archaeological or textual analysis without getting into the gritty details of what constituted that analysis.
My favorite example of Cline’s detailed exposition of specific archaeological excavations is when he discussed the Uluburun and Cape Gelidonya shipwrecks (which went down sometime in the 1200s and 1300s) excavated by George Bass, whose team invented underwater archaeology. Cline gave enough juicy details about the excavations here that I was moved to get my hands on George Bass’ “A History of Seafaring”, a large and well-illustrated book that was alas published before the Uluburun wreck was first discovered by (get this) a sponge diver but after the field was well-established by Bass and his colleagues.
The last part of the book is about why, and as the least interesting, most fluid, and most unknowable part of the whole story, thankfully occupies the least space. Cline says it in more words, but the reason why this cosmopolitan urban world order collapsed is because, well, shit happens.
Finally, I’ll share my hot tip for successful audiobook consumption. I usually don’t do audiobooks these days because I drive, and I can’t take notes during a drive. However, I managed to borrow the ebook as well as the audiobook, and thankfully my work and family duties are relaxed enough that I’m able to spend a few minutes after arriving at my destination to skim the parts I just listened to on my ebook reader to make notes and highlight the most striking points. This way, I got the best of both worlds—excellent pronunciation guidance and a dramatic reading, as well as an annotated text.
I am really looking forward to Dr Cline’s forthcoming book, “Digging Up Armageddon” about the history and archaeology of Megiddo, where twenty cities have been found, built over three thousand years! If you’re on Twitter, it’s worth following him.
It was really great—you know how some books and some topics, an author can satisfy all your curiosity in an hour-long talk? There was some risk of that with this talk, but my wonderful library system delivered an audiobook version of this book narrated by Andy Caploe, who must have gotten some instruction in the pronunciation of Late Bronze Age names like Suppiluliuma the Hittite king, Burna-Buriash the Kassite-Babylonian king, and Shutruk-Nahhunte the Elamite because it was wonderful to hear these names and now be able to pronounce them.
I am so happy I was able to go through the entire book because of the details are absolutely fascinating and gorgeously-presented. Cline emphasizes in the beginning that it’s important to understand what collapsed circa 1177 BCE, and spends the majority of the book doing that, thereby painting a beautiful portrait of flowing international goods, culture, letters, royal spouses, and more between Egypt, the Mitanni, the Hittites, the Mycenaeans, Crete and Cypress, Canaan, Babylonia, Libya, Nubia, and more. Spending a few days immersed in our reconstruction of this cosmopolitan world was a moving experience for me.
A smaller part of the book details not so much the collapse as how we can know anything about what ended it all, the specific archaeological details that were pieced together to get that picture, and the way people have understood the collapse over the years. This part is also fantastic. Far too many history books and podcasts summarize the results of archaeological or textual analysis without getting into the gritty details of what constituted that analysis.
My favorite example of Cline’s detailed exposition of specific archaeological excavations is when he discussed the Uluburun and Cape Gelidonya shipwrecks (which went down sometime in the 1200s and 1300s) excavated by George Bass, whose team invented underwater archaeology. Cline gave enough juicy details about the excavations here that I was moved to get my hands on George Bass’ “A History of Seafaring”, a large and well-illustrated book that was alas published before the Uluburun wreck was first discovered by (get this) a sponge diver but after the field was well-established by Bass and his colleagues.
The last part of the book is about why, and as the least interesting, most fluid, and most unknowable part of the whole story, thankfully occupies the least space. Cline says it in more words, but the reason why this cosmopolitan urban world order collapsed is because, well, shit happens.
Finally, I’ll share my hot tip for successful audiobook consumption. I usually don’t do audiobooks these days because I drive, and I can’t take notes during a drive. However, I managed to borrow the ebook as well as the audiobook, and thankfully my work and family duties are relaxed enough that I’m able to spend a few minutes after arriving at my destination to skim the parts I just listened to on my ebook reader to make notes and highlight the most striking points. This way, I got the best of both worlds—excellent pronunciation guidance and a dramatic reading, as well as an annotated text.
I am really looking forward to Dr Cline’s forthcoming book, “Digging Up Armageddon” about the history and archaeology of Megiddo, where twenty cities have been found, built over three thousand years! If you’re on Twitter, it’s worth following him.