Lecture2

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University of California, Riverside *

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010

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Anthropology

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Oct 30, 2023

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Lecture 2 - Collapse of the Bronze Age World 1100’s BCE The Bronze Age World Civilizations ■ 8 civilizations become 7 civilizations mesopotamia, egypt, china, nubia (aka kush), anatolia, near east, greece (soon to be 4 civilizations) ■ Collapse was culmination of internal and external factors ■ Great civilizations do not collapse unless they've been weakened internally first ■ Many different causes that can weaken a great civilization ● Bad leadership, civil wars, crime, economic decline, climate change, natural disasters ● All these civilizations were monarchies, ruled by a king or pharaoh who exercised absolute power literally possessed the power of life and death over his subjects ● This position was usually hereditary, and you cannot change your father’s son - nor vote him out ■ Government is no longer run eﬃciently Pastoralists ■ External factors ● Invasions by neighboring pastoralist tribes ■ Civilizations usually had advantage over pastoralist during the bronze age ● HOWEVER LMAO ■ Larger populations Larger armies, organizations, forts, chariots (pastoralists did not use chariots), etc. ■ Pastoralists had developed new and improved military technology and new ideas on how to use their new technology in battle ● Overcome the chariot on the battlefield!!!! Voila, the javelin!!! ● This new technology spread very quickly ● Late bronze age brought the javelin ● Lighter armor, grieves, and longer & stronger swords to overpower short people with short swords ■ Obtained the power to destroy 3 of the great Bronze Age civilizations and ruin another ■ The fact that pastoralists were able to overcome the chariot was the leading reason they could cause the bronze age to collapse The Catastrophe Mycenaean Greece

■ Indo-europeans, attacks began in the northwest, near Athens in Greece ■ 1400, the period of Mycenaean Greece was after the mycenaeans defeated the minoans ■ The minoans were native to Greece, mycenaeans were not so the minoans taught them all they knew!!! ● Then mycenaeans became too powerful and tore apart the minoans ■ Divided into dozens of independent city states ● Greatest city was Mycenae = ~200,000 people ■ Internal problems were numerous for the mycenaeans (they were not unified) ● Drought (already dry area), deforestation, ﬂooding, soil exhaustion, soil erosion decreased food supply desire for war ● Warfare became endemic between mycenaeans city states, economy began to decline quite dramatically ● 1100s/1200s ■ Pastoralist people were super smart, they were good at boats and ships!! (Mycenaeans were pastoralists before coming and invading Greece) ■ External: invaded from the North by pastoralists in the early 1200s, late 1100s BCE ● Preparations for attack were rather ineffective ● Cities strengthened their walls ● “Ithnus of Corinth” wall was built to prevent people from coming down ● Forts built along the coasts for protection ● Preparations to secure sources of water dug underground tunnel from sea to city for water ● All of their efforts failed ■ Someone came in and destroyed every single mycenaean city state including mycenae and pylos ● After burning, killing, etc, the pastoralists just wander away with taking nothing ■ Mycenae holds on for another few years before being attacked again, once and for all ■ Someone came in and destroyed Pylos too, the entire population was gone, and nothing ever recovered ■ Greece enters a long dark age

● 95% of the people are gone, one way or another ■ 50 people in Athens survived (on top of the acropolis) The Hittite Empire ■ Internal problems combined with invasions by pastoralist tribes ■ Every single hittite city was destroyed, including the capital at Hattusa in the early 12th century ■ The hittite empire essentially vanishes from history ■ Anatolia is plunged into a long dark age Cyprus ■ All majors cities in cyprus were destroyed ■ A dark age began The Near East ■ Every single city in the near east, destroyed ■ 1179: Ugarit (you-guh-rit) ● A letter survives from the last day of the city, written by the king to his neighbor describing the situation ■ Near east is plunged into a dark age Egypt ■ Rameses III (r. 1186-1154) ■ Four different invasions by “sea peoples” and other tribes ■ Egypt survives by adopting technology and tactics of invaders ■ Weakened by attackers, it never recovers ■ The end of the last great period of ancient egyptian history Epilogue End of the Bronze Age World

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