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1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed…
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1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed (Turning Points in Ancient History) (original 2014; edition 2014)

by Eric H. Cline

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1,4024913,126 (3.68)39
"In 1177 B.C., marauding groups known only as the "Sea Peoples" invaded Egypt. The pharaoh's army and navy managed to defeat them, but the victory so weakened Egypt that it soon slid into decline, as did most of the surrounding civilizations. After centuries of brilliance, the civilized world of the Bronze Age came to an abrupt and cataclysmic end. Kingdoms fell like dominoes over the course of just a few decades. No more Minoans or Mycenaeans. No more Trojans, Hittites, or Babylonians. The thriving economy and cultures of the late second millennium B.C., which had stretched from Greece to Egypt and Mesopotamia, suddenly ceased to exist, along with writing systems, technology, and monumental architecture. But the Sea Peoples alone could not have caused such widespread breakdown. How did it happen? In this major new account of the causes of this "First Dark Ages," Eric Cline tells the gripping story of how the end was brought about by multiple interconnected failures, ranging from invasion and revolt to earthquakes, drought, and the cutting of international trade routes. Bringing to life the vibrant multicultural world of these great civilizations, he draws a sweeping panorama of the empires and globalized peoples of the Late Bronze Age and shows that it was their very interdependence that hastened their dramatic collapse and ushered in a dark age that lasted centuries. A compelling combination of narrative and the latest scholarship, 1177 B.C. sheds new light on the complex ties that gave rise to, and ultimately destroyed, the flourishing civilizations of the Late Bronze Age--and that set the stage for the emergence of classical Greece"--… (more)
Member:douboy50
Title:1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed (Turning Points in Ancient History)
Authors:Eric H. Cline
Info:Princeton University Press (2014), Edition: Second Impression, Hardcover, 264 pages
Collections:Read but not owned, General Reading
Rating:****
Tags:Read 10/2014

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1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed by Eric H. Cline (2014)

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Showing 1-5 of 44 (next | show all)
Professor Eric H. Cline is an archeologist, and his 2014 book, “1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed” is an effort to bring together all of the archeological and literary information available to date to explain how and why many ancient civilizations in the Aegean, Mediterranean and Near East at the end of the Bronze Age collapsed and, if not entirely disappeared, became much smaller and more insular than they had been previous to that decline. The book takes into account numerous theories about the event or events, while also taking a lot of time showing how all of those ancient kingdoms interacted, particularly with respect to international trade. I was a bit disappointed that the copious footnotes primarily cited sources, with very little in the way of bits of extraneous information that didn’t fit into the main body of the work, but that’s just my little quirk. Given that I read this some 10 years after publication, there could well be newer findings that change some of the ideas outlined in this book, but it remains highly readable for the lay reader such as myself, and the era and events described continue to fascinate thousands of years later; recommended! ( )
  thefirstalicat | Feb 8, 2024 |
"In 1177 B.C., marauding groups known only as the "Sea Peoples" invaded Egypt. The pharaoh's army and navy managed to defeat them, but the victory so weakened Egypt that it soon slid into decline, as did most of the surrounding civilizations. After centuries of brilliance, the civilized world of the Bronze Age came to an abrupt and cataclysmic end. Kingdoms fell like dominoes over the course of just a few decades. No more Minoans or Mycenaeans. No more Trojans, Hittites, or Babylonians. The thriving economy and cultures of the late second millennium B.C., which had stretched from Greece to Egypt and Mesopotamia, suddenly ceased to exist, along with writing systems, technology, and monumental architecture. But the Sea Peoples alone could not have caused such widespread breakdown. How did it happen? In this major new account of the causes of this "First Dark Ages," Eric Cline tells the gripping story of how the end was brought about by multiple interconnected failures, ranging from invasion and revolt to earthquakes, drought, and the cutting of international trade routes. Bringing to life the vibrant multicultural world of these great civilizations, he draws a sweeping panorama of the empires and globalized peoples of the Late Bronze Age and shows that it was their very interdependence that hastened their dramatic collapse and ushered in a dark age that lasted centuries. A compelling combination of narrative and the latest scholarship, 1177 B.C. sheds new light on the complex ties that gave rise to, and ultimately destroyed, the flourishing civilizations of the Late Bronze Age--and that set the stage for the emergence of classical Greece"--
  metlibchurch | Oct 17, 2023 |
Rise and eventual destruction of Late Bronze Age, giving way to the Iron Age. 1177 BC has been chosen as an arbitrary date only. Some events took place a few decades afterwards. The first chapters are concerned with the rise and development of this civilization, stretching from Egypt to Canaan and including mainland Greece and islands in the Mediterranean Sea--Cyprus and Minoan Crete. We see the globalization of that era through trade and intermarriage of the rulers. We are told archaeological discoveries at each step; I most enjoyed the development of underwater archaeology with the invention of scuba gear, the subsequent discovery of sunken ships and their cargo and the author's theories about the Biblical Exodus [in his view not quite the same as the Biblical events] and of Troy [not the same as Homer's epic--written centuries later.] The reasons for the Collapse of that whole civilization were to be found in the last chapter and epilogue, a "perfect storm", so to say, a combination of events. A fact new to me was that the Arabic name of present-day Egypt, Misr, was similar to the word the ancient Egyptians used for their country. I've always wondered about that. ( )
  janerawoof | Oct 15, 2023 |
A bit more dry and rambling than I was expecting, at times this book struck me more as a catalog of relevant archeological digs rather than the sweeping historical narrative I was looking for. ( )
  Autolycus21 | Oct 10, 2023 |
Showing 1-5 of 44 (next | show all)
This book by Eric Cline is the first in the series Turning Points in Ancient History edited by Barry Strauss. In the words of Strauss, this series “looks at a crucial event or key moment in the ancient world”, and the series seems targeted—judging from this first book—at a broad audience of both students and experts in the field. Cline’s book takes as its crucial event the battle between Ramses III of Egypt and the so-called Sea Peoples in 1177 B.C., a point in history that marked the end of the Late Bronze Age in the Eastern Mediterranean. Cline is careful not to suggest that this battle alone was responsible for the wave of destructions dated to the beginning of the twelfth-century; rather, he treats this battle as a point of departure for addressing a variety of calamities—both natural and anthropogenic—that affected much of the Eastern Mediterranean and brought an end to the Late Bronze Age.
 

» Add other authors (3 possible)

Author nameRoleType of authorWork?Status
Cline, Eric H.primary authorall editionsconfirmed
Belza, CeciliaTranslatorsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed
Strauss, BarryForewordsecondary authorsome editionsconfirmed

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"In 1177 B.C., marauding groups known only as the "Sea Peoples" invaded Egypt. The pharaoh's army and navy managed to defeat them, but the victory so weakened Egypt that it soon slid into decline, as did most of the surrounding civilizations. After centuries of brilliance, the civilized world of the Bronze Age came to an abrupt and cataclysmic end. Kingdoms fell like dominoes over the course of just a few decades. No more Minoans or Mycenaeans. No more Trojans, Hittites, or Babylonians. The thriving economy and cultures of the late second millennium B.C., which had stretched from Greece to Egypt and Mesopotamia, suddenly ceased to exist, along with writing systems, technology, and monumental architecture. But the Sea Peoples alone could not have caused such widespread breakdown. How did it happen? In this major new account of the causes of this "First Dark Ages," Eric Cline tells the gripping story of how the end was brought about by multiple interconnected failures, ranging from invasion and revolt to earthquakes, drought, and the cutting of international trade routes. Bringing to life the vibrant multicultural world of these great civilizations, he draws a sweeping panorama of the empires and globalized peoples of the Late Bronze Age and shows that it was their very interdependence that hastened their dramatic collapse and ushered in a dark age that lasted centuries. A compelling combination of narrative and the latest scholarship, 1177 B.C. sheds new light on the complex ties that gave rise to, and ultimately destroyed, the flourishing civilizations of the Late Bronze Age--and that set the stage for the emergence of classical Greece"--

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