Archaeologist Cline began by declaring that the time he would most like to be
transported to is the Late Bronze Age in the Mediterranean—the five centuries
between 1700 and 1200 B.C. In those centuries eight advanced societies were
densely connected—Egyptians, Assyrians, Babylonians, Canaanites, Hittites,
Cypriots, Minoans, and Mycenaeans. They grew to power over two millennia, but
they collapsed simultaneously almost overnight. What happened?
The density of their connection can be learned from trade goods found in
shipwrecks, from Egyptian hieroglyphs and wall paintings, and from countless
well preserved clay-tablet letters written between the states. The tin
required for all that bronze (tin was the equivalent of oil today) came from
Afghanistan 1,800 miles to the east. It was one of history’s most globalized
times.
In the 12th Century B.C. everything fell apart. For Cline the defining moment
was the battle in 1177 B.C. (8th Year of Ramses III) when Egypt barely defeated
a mysterious army of “Sea Peoples.” Who were they? Do they really explain the
general collapse, as historians long assumed?
Cline thinks the failure was systemic, made of cascading calamities in a highly
interdependent world. There were indeed invasions—they might have been
soldiers, or refugees, or civil war, or all three. But the violence was
probably set in motion by extensive drought and famine reported in tablet
letters from the time. Voices in the letters: “There is famine in our house.
We will all die of hunger.” “Our city is sacked. May you know it! May you
know it!” In some regions there were also devastating earthquakes.
The interlinked collapses played out over a century as central administrations
failed, elites disappeared, economies collapsed, and whole populations died
back or moved elsewhere.
In the dark centuries that followed the end of the Bronze Age, romantic myths
grew of how wondrous the world had once been. Homer sang of Achilles, Troy,
and Odysseus. Those myths inspired the Classical Age that eventually emerged.
Cline wonders, could the equivalent of the Bronze Age collapse happen in our
current Age?
—Stewart Brand
s...@longnow.org <mailto:s...@longnow.org>
[NOTE: These SALT talk summaries are now available on Long Now’s new
publication on Medium <https://medium.com/the-long-now-foundation>. You’ll find
photos and slides from each talk, along with further links and invitation to
comment.]_______________________________________________
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