Origins of Great Ancient Civilizations | The Collapse of the Bronze Age (Lecture 9)

Lecture 9: Between 1225 and 1050 B.C., the great empires of the Late Bronze Age fell in the wake of migrations and barbarian invasions usually associated with the advent of iron technology, but the imperial order of the Late Bronze Age did not collapse so much as fragment. Civilization in Egypt and Babylonia exhibited continuity between the Bronze and Iron Ages, whereas urban, literate civilization was disrupted in the Levant, Anatolia, and the Aegean world—all regions that adopted alphabetic writing in the Iron Age. In the Late Bronze Age, kings of the Near East and petty dynasts of the Aegean world, facing rising administrative and military costs, had recruited greater numbers of barbarian warriors. Innovations in weapons and tactics undermined the dominance of the chariot and shifted the military balance to the frontier peoples.

In the Aegean world, the palaces of Achaean lords were sacked; in Asia Minor, the Hittite Empire fell. The Sea Peoples swarming out of these regions ended Egyptian imperial rule in the Levant by 1050 B.C. The ensuing world of the Early Iron Age was politically divided and culturally diverse. The great palaces of Mycenaean Greece disappeared in favor of small communities destined to evolve into the city-states of Classical Greece. Phrygians dwelled in central Anatolia, while Neo-Hittite kings ruled over the former southeastern Hittite provinces. The Levant was shared between the Aramaeans, newcomers, and the Canaanites, who had redefined themselves as Phoenicians and Hebrews. Even in Egypt and Babylonia there was change, for Libyan and Nubian military elites dominated the Nile valley, and the Assyrians aspired to rule Babylon.

Further Reading:
Robert Drews, The End of the Bronze Age: Changes in Warfare and the Catastrophe ca. 1200 B.C.
N. Sandars, The Sea Peoples: Warriors of the Ancient Mediterranean, 1250–1150 B.C.

Lecture 10: https://www.bitchute.com/video/rsO0kgPNnOoA/