Book Review: 1177 B.C.--The Year Civilization Collapsed.

Source: Amazon.com

Last month I posted a short excerpt from an article discussing the collapse of Hittite, Minoan, and Mycenaean civilizations. The article cited Eric H. Cline's book, 1177 B.C.--The Year Civilization Collapsed. Intrigued, I subsequently purchased and read Cline's book as part of my continuing study into the decline and collapse of civilizations. The primary importance of Cline's work is to summarize some of the more recent research and discoveries concerning these peoples, and offer some ideas as to their collapse.

The Late Bronze Age (approx. 1570 to 1200 B.C.--and notably, post-Thera) saw 5 (or 6) principle civilizations around the Mediterranean and Near Middle-East: the Minoans-Mycenaeans in and around Greece and the Aegean, Egypt along the Nile and extending control into Canaan, the Hittite Empire controlling most of Asia Minor, the Mittani which occupied the northern Tigris and Euphrates river region, and the Babylonians. The difficulty in studying these civilizations is the paucity of evidence and writings. However, as Cline takes a considerable portion of his book to demonstrate, each of these nations or groupings of nations developed strong international ties with one another. There is evidence of extensive trade between the nations (not only luxury goods, but also bulk goods like tin ore, grain, pottery, and food oils); there are records of treaties and alliances; alliances; embargoes; wars; and, eventually, an exchange of cultural memes (fashion) between the groups. Cline summarizes in his Epilogue:

We have seen that for more than three hundred years during the Late Bronze Age--from about the time of Hatshepsut's reign beginning about 1500 BC until the time that everything collapsed after 1200 BC--the Mediterranean region played host to a complex international world in which Minoans, Mycenaeans, Hittites, Assyrians, Babylonians, Mitannians, Canaanites, Cypriots, and Egyptians all interacted, creating a cosmopolitan and globalized world system such as has only rarely been seen before the current day.

Yet, over a period of some 50 years or so, most of these nations collapsed (and Egypt was left permanently weakened), with many important cities destroyed and abandoned, many to never be reoccupied. These large states were replaced with a "dark age" characterized by smaller, less complex states, and marked a transition to the Iron Age.

For our purposes, the specifics of the evidence supporting the theory of high levels of trade and interdependence is less important than the fact that there was such trade and interdependence, and it suddenly disappeared. The traditional blame for the collapse has been placed on the "Sea Peoples"--an unknown group that invaded the Eastern Mediterranean, raided and destroyed, and then just as mysteriously disappeared. But increasingly the evidence suggests that the Sea Peoples were not a major, let alone a significant, cause of the collapse. First, while there is evidence that some cities were destroyed in battles (based on evidence of fires and arrow heads found in the ruins), it is not clear who was responsible for the destruction. Cline notes that there is evidence that some of the conflict was internal rebellion--evidenced by the targeting of palaces and government buildings--while others clearly involved conflict between neighboring states rather than an invader from the seas. There is also evidence that natural disasters played a role, with numerous cities showing evidence of damage from earthquakes during this same period; and evidence of droughts and famine, and requests for food shipments between some of the nations. Ultimately, though, Cline rejects these as, individually, being able to concurrently bring down all of these civilizations.

Cline also considers the idea of systems collapse--that the nations were so interdependent that a significant disaster to one of the members was enough to start a cascade of collapses in the other nations. Cline, citing Colin Renfrew of Cambridge University, notes that the general features of systems collapse are: (1) the collapse of the central administrative organization; (2) the disappearance of the traditional elite class; (3) a collapse of the centralized economy; and (4) a settlement shift and population decline.

It might take as much as a century for all aspects of the collapse to be completed, [Renfrew] said, and noted that there is not single, obvious cause for the collapse. Furthermore, in the aftermath of such a collapse, there would be a transition to a lower level of sociopolitical integration and development of "romantic" Dark Age myths about the previous period.

Cline points out that other scholars dispute the systemic collapse theory because it does not explain why the palaces and cities were destroyed and burned. However, Cline observes that the post-Late Bronze Age exhibited all of Renfrew's features; and that while the individual problems facing the cultures were significant, alone they cannot explain the collapse, but the combination of disasters, multiplying and causing other disasters, seems to explain the facts. "Perhaps the inhabitants could have survived one disaster, such as an earthquake or a drought, but they could not survive the combined effects of earthquake, drought, and invaders all occurring in rapid succession." Cline then brings in theories of complexity, noting that as systems become more complex and interdependent, maintaining the overall stability of the system becomes more difficult, and the system becomes more liable to collapse and decompose into smaller, more stable systems. Interestingly, though, the evidence shows that the systems of trade continued up to (and perhaps beyond) the collapse. Thus, the final collapse must have been sudden.

The reason for this, and the choice of 1177 BC as a closing date, is that it was in that year, "according to the Egyptian records, that the Sea Peoples came sweeping through the region, wreaking havoc for a second time. It was a year when great land and sea battles were fought in the Nile delta; a year when Egypt struggled for its very survival; a year by which time some of the high-flying civilizations of the Bronze Age had already come to a crashing halt."

If Tainter's work on The Collapse of Complex Societies comes to mind, it think it should. Unfortunately, Cline only obliquely references Tainter in an end note to an early chapter. However, applying Tainter's theory or model, we see evidence of increasingly complex and centralized societies, with a concomitant cost of maintaining such lavish rulers, that was unable to bear certain stressors that they had apparently weathered in earlier times. There simply wasn't enough resources to draw upon. Part of the reason for this may actually lie in the Biblical account.

Standard Bible chronologies place the entry of Israel into Egypt as just before 1700 B.C. However, in his book, Exodus Lost, S.C. Compton gives compelling evidence that the entry into Egypt was around 1628 B.C. based on evidence of when Egypt experienced its time of plenty (around the time of the 1645 eruption of the Anaikchak volcano in modern day Alaska) and famine (approximately 1628 BC, following the eruption of Thera). Thus, the enslavement of a rabidly expanding Canaanite population in Egypt (including the ancient Israelites) would roughly corresponds with the beginning of Egypt's New Kingdom in 1570-1544 BC.  The New Kingdom lasted until about 1069 BC--and is described as the time period when Egypt was at the height of its power and wealth. The Israelites were in Egypt for approximately 400 years. Common Bible chronologies place the Exodus and entry into the Promised Land between 1300 and 1200 BC. Ramses II is generally described as being the Pharaoh of the Exodus, and he ruled from 1279 to 1212 BC--it is believed that the Pharaoh that pursued the Israelites into the Red Sea may have been one of his sons. In any event, this places the Exodus closer to 1200 BC. Using Compton's dating, the Exodus may have actually been just after 1200 BC. In any event, about the time that Egypt lost its Nile delta slave population saw the collapse of the international system. It is possible that combined with the other disasters in the Middle-East, the loss of a significant source of labor and produce was enough to push the systems over the edge. Perhaps just as significantly, the Israelites were withdrawn and isolated from these Bronze Age civilizations just as they were going into a period of collapse and upheaval--the wilderness wanderings could be seen as a "rapture" of sort in this respect.

Cline notes several times in his book the importance of tin to the Bronze Age civilizations, holding a position akin to oil in today's economy. Cline observes that tin was imported to the Mediterranean area from as far away as Afghanistan. However, Cline seems to ignore the importance of Britain as a source of tin. It is probable that at the same time this Mediterranean/Near-Middle East trading empire existed, there was also Celtic kingdoms and empires trading tin and other materials into the Mediterranean by sea or over land. Just as the Vikings later raided a declining and fallen Roman Empire, these might be the Sea Peoples that struck such fear into the Egyptians.

In any event, what followed the collapse of the Late Bronze Age civilizations is perhaps more important. As noted above, the collapse was followed by what has been described as a "dark age." However, Cline points out that recent archeological evidence shows that this "dark age" was anything but "dark." Rather, it appears as this period acted as a catalyst of a new age--"one that would build upon the ruins of Canaanite civilization and would bequeath to the modern Western world a cultural heritage, especially through the Phoenicians and Israelites, of which we are still the benefactors." "From them eventually came fresh developments and innovative ideas, such as the alphabet, monotheistic religion, and eventually democracy. Sometimes it takes a large-scale wildfire to help renew the ecosystem of an old-growth forest and allow it to thrive afresh."

Following a very brief "dark age," was what has been described as the Axial Age:

In 1949 the German philosopher Karl Theodor Jaspers coined the phrase “Achsenzeit” (“Axial Age” or “Axis age” in English) to describe a time between approximately 900 - 200 BCE when “The spiritual foundations of humanity were laid simultaneously and independently and these are the foundations upon which humanity still subsists today.” 

It was a pivotal time in early human history when human beings began to reflect for the first time about individual existence, and the meaning of life and death.

"Jaspers argued that during the Axial Age 'the spiritual foundations of humanity were laid simultaneously and independently in China, India, Persia, Judea, and Greece. And these are the foundations upon which humanity still subsists today.'" John Meyer, writing in Psychology Today, observed:

People who lived on the early side of the axis, some scholars believe, lacked much self-reflection and lacked the concepts, ideas, and thoughts related to such awareness. People who lived on the later side of the axis were essentially contemporary in those aspects of their psychology. 

Before the Axial transformation, human beings told one another myths and other stories about how they came to be. The stories were not regarded as true or false; rather, their truth did not require questioning.  Such was the state of human beings, Jaspers believed, because of a lack a self-reflective, fully conscious self-understanding.  Under such conditions, abstract truths matter not. 

During the Axial-age, however, some scholars argue that dramatic shifts took place in human thought across four geographically distinct regions of the world: India, China, the Middle East, and Greece. 

New ways of thinking emerged that defined the world's psychological culture for all time since. Jaspers wrote: 

What is new about this age...is that man becomes conscious of Being as a whole, of himself and his limitations. He experiences the terror of the world and his own powerlessness. He asks radical questions. Face to face with the void he strives for liberation and redemption. By consciously recognising his limits he sets himself the highest goals. 

Big questions that were specifically psychological in nature emerged: "Who am I?" and "Why are people different?

(See also this article at the New World Encyclopedia).

Turning back to the Biblical account, when Israel first attempted to enter Canaan, those nations were likely still at the height of their power. 40 years later, though, they would have been greatly reduced in power and population. Israel, in many ways, was essentially moving into a post-apocalyptic world. The people they were supposed to conquer were, in all likelihood, mostly gone.

In thinking over this topic that last several days, I believe this collapse actually has far reaching lessons for us as we near the Second Coming. First, as the very collapse illustrates, all complex societies are vulnerable to collapse. The exact mechanism and timing may not be in our power to predict, but that it will occur is without question. However, just as Israel was withdrawn and protected during the period of upheaval, scripture indicates that many of the Saints during the coming collapse will also be protected, and later migrate into areas that have been abandoned and depopulated (the return to Missouri being a prime example). Another important point though is that the destruction of the Late Bronze Age kingdoms paved the way for a great transformation and even greater kingdoms and empires. So too we should look forward to the Second Coming as a transformative event that will likewise usher in new ways of thinking, a new civilization, greater than what is being replaced.