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A review by 22_
1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed by Eric H. Cline, Barry S. Strauss
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.