Late Bronze Age Collapse

Bronze Age Collapse (BAC) World History

Overview

Invasions, destruction and possible population movements during the collapse of the Bronze Age, beginning c. 1200 BCE.

• also referred to as the "Late Bronze Age collapse" in that the events happened "late" in the Bronze Age period
• a period of social, economic and political disruption, warfare, famine & illiteracy
• marked by collapse of major state powers, including New Kingdom Egypt, Hittites, Kassites (Babylonia), Mycaenean kingdoms
• the archeological record shows that nearly every city between Greece and the southern Levant (modern Lebanon/Israel)
  • urban areas that survived were in Phoenicia (in modern Lebanon/Syria), Assyria (modern Iraq)

Vocabulary

Maryannu

• from Sanskrit marya for "young warrior"
• chariot-mounted aristocratic warriors
  • were granted land and status in exchange for military service
  • largely similar to the Roman Equine class or Medieval knights
• Maryannu military technique was to over-run the enemy with chariots
• see "Military techniques" here

Habiru

• from Akkadian ḫabiru for "dusty, dirty"
  • also written as hapiru or apiru
• Habiru were nomads, herders, mercenaries, outlaws, laborers, escaped slaves
  • who were not under direct state control
  • largely located along the Levant (Eastern shores of the Mediterranean Sea)
  • were not of common ethnicity or language
• some groups were rebels from larger states, including from the Egyptians
• some had organized, hereditary leadership (kings or warlords) that negotiated with more organized states
  • could serve as mercenaries and laborers
• during the BAC, Habiru likely contributed to the chaos and destruction of cities
  • people fled the cities and joined for formed new Habiru

Possible causes

Climate change & drought

• drought and cooling conditions may have prevailed throughout the period
  • the Middle Bronze Age Cold Epoch lasted from 1800-1500 BC
    • likely made more severe by major volcanic eruptions, including Thera in Greece (1620 BC)
      • which largely contributed to the collapse of the Minoans, Middle Kingdom Egypt,
  • a period of general warming followed, 1500-800, which would have led to increases in population and trade
  • however, this warming was interrupted during the BAC period
    • evidence of drought:
      • reduced tree cover (forests) in Mediterranean region
      • reduced Nile River flow
      • level of the Dead Sea dropped by up to 150 ft
• the Hekla 3 volcanic eruption in Iceland accelerated the cooling and/or caused a period of cooling and dryness
  • dated at 1021, 1135 or 1159 BC
  • drought & famines recorded in Egypt in 1159 BC may mark the eruption
  • one of the most powerful eruptions since the end of the Ice Age
  • it cast ash across the atmosphere, blocking or partially blocking sunlight across the Northern hemisphere for possibly up to four years
    • such volcano-caused climatic events are called "volcanic winters"
  • regardless, the BAC had started before the eruption
• impacts of droughts & cooling:
  • reduced growing season
    • soil depletion
    • longer winters
  • crop failure leads to
    • famine
    • trade decline
    • social unrest
  • changes in vegetation and/or forest cover impact animals and herding
  • migration
    • causes competition over land
    • puts pressure on food supplies
    • fighting, raiding, unrest
  • political instability
    • in larger ancient societies, the legitimacy of central rule is derived from divine authority (of the gods)
    • therefore, if there are problems, the rulers are seen as having lost the favor of the gods and thus their authority

Metallurgy technologies (cast bronze & iron-making)

Mining areas of the ancient Middle East. Boxes colors: arsenic is in brown, copper in red, tin in grey, iron in reddish brown, gold in yellow, silver in white and lead in black. Yellow area stands for arsenic bronze, while grey area stands for tin bronze

• metallurgy = working with metals to make tools, weapons, etc.
  • metallurgy requires access to ores, wood for high-heat to melt them, and techniques to mix metals in order to re-form them into useful weapons and tools
• bronze is made from tin and copper
  • bronze is expensive and difficult to make
  • Bronze weapons were used by elites
  • its ingredients and manufacture shaped trade routes and exchanges between states
    • tin and copper are not generally found near one another
    • wood is needed for furnaces that could reach needed temperatures to forge bronze
• cast bronze
  • "forged" metal is shaped and hardened by hammering
    • forged bronze is stronger than "cast" bronze, but more difficult to make
  • "cast" metal is pouring molten metal into a mold or die
    • cast metal, whether iron or bronze is easier and cheaper to make and replicate
• iron-making
  • iron-making started in central Europe and spread into the Middle East
    • the Hittites adopted iron-making around 1500 BC
      • see Iron- The secret weapon (periclespress.net)
    • iron ore is plentiful and widespread
    • unlike bronze, iron can be made with locally-found ingredients
      • therefore iron-making does not require access to trade networks
    • iron is easier to work than bronze and thereby more easily replicated
      • therefore, iron weapons were more plentiful
      • and lower-classes had access to them
  • early iron-making used "wrought" iron
    • "wrought" = "worked" or hammered and shaped
    • tin and bronze melt at lower temperatures than iron ore (tin has relatively low melting point)
    • however, iron becomes "workable" below its melting point
    • casting iron was developed much later (possibly 400s in India and China)
  • into the late Bronze Age, Hittite and other iron workers discovered how to add carbon to iron without making it too brittle
    • the advantage that it required lower heat to be workable
• into the BOC, iron-working became important since copper and tin trade routes were disrupted

Military techniques

• with greater quantities of replicable "cast" weapons
  • armies of more soldiers had access to weapons that were before reserved for elites
  • the mryannu were likely easily defeated by masses of soldiers using superior and more quantities of thrusting weapons such as long swords and javelins, as well as more easily fabricated spear and arrow heads
  • Homer used the word for "spear" as a reference to "warrior"

Greek "Dark Age"

• approx. 1100-800 or 750 BC
• the BAC led to collapse of Mycenaean kingdoms of Greece
• the events are thought to be documented in the Iliad regarding the Battle of Troy
• followed by the "Archaic period," 850 or 750 to 450 BC
  • marked by growth of Greek city-states (poleis) and general population

Summary questions

• Why did more things happen more quickly after the BAC than before it?
• To what extent did the spread of iron-making impact the events of the BAC?