I'm winding down this helpful read that will end my study of the Bronze Age. As I've written lately, the Bronze Age is a period of which little is know for certain, making it frustrating for the lay historian like myself.
This book studies the collective collapse of several Mediterranean cultures around 1200 B.C. that would down the Bronze Age.
When I first began my study of Greek history in the 1990s the belief was that the Dorians had ended the Bronze Age rule of Mycenae. That theory has since been debunked by archaeologists, who know see the Dorians as later settlers in the region.
Others theorize that it was earthquakes, droughts, invasions by the "Sea Peoples" or internal rebellion that ended the Bronze Age.
Cline concludes convincingly that it was a combination of all of the above. His thesis that the civilizations under discussion, situated in mainland Greece to Cyprus, Asia Minor, the Levant and Egypt, were highly interconnected - the first global economy - rings true. It wasn't just a few diplomatic missions, but dependent economies for trade, along with diplomatic marriages and other regular exchanges that tied them together.
And these interconnections made them more susceptible to downfall as the various earthquakes, droughts, invasions and rebellions took place across the region. There was no one reason, but rather a variety of reasons that brought down the interconnected region leading to the dark age that followed. True chaos reigned over the course of decades.
One side note, as this authoritative book was published recently in 2015. As I move forward with my studies I need to place a strong preference on recent publications, rather than older. Science is moving rapidly, and as much as I enjoy Herodotus, Schliemann, Evans and Petrie, if I'm searching for the truth I need to rely more on recent developments.
Duly noted.
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