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A review by seshat59
1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed by Eric H. Cline, Barry S. Strauss
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.