Collapse of the Bronze Age: The Story of Greece, Troy, Israel, Egypt, and the Peoples of the Sea [Paperback]

Manuel Robbins (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: June 21, 2001

His Majesty being powerful, his heart stout, none could stand before him.. All his territory was ablaze with fire, and he burned every foriegn country with his hot breath. Egyptian Pharaoh Ramesses II.The bowmen of His Majesty spent six hours of destruction among them. They were delivered to the sword. Egyptian Pharaoh Merneptah.May my father know the enemy ships came. My cities were burned and evil things were done in my country. King of the city of Ugarit to the king of Cyprus. Since there is famine in your house we will starve to death...The living soul of your country you will see no longer. To a Hittite offical stationed in Ugarit.Israel is laid waste, his seed is not. Pharaoh Merneptah. Pharaoh's chariots and his army He cast into the Sea...Book of Exodus.Egypt was adrift and every man was thrown out of his right. There was no leader for years..Pharaoh Ramesses IV.As they (the Sea Peoples) were coming forward toward Egypt, their hearts relying upon their hands, a net was prepared for them....My strong arm has overthrown those who came to exalt themselves. Pharaoh Ramesses III. [of the Greeks] These were destroyed by their own hands and passed to the dank house of chill Hades. Greek writer Hesiod.Returning to Luxor, Egypt, by Nile ship. The author has visited many of the significant archaeological sites mentioned in this book.Front cover, top, Troy VI by Lloyd K. Townsend, bottom, Pharaoh Thotmose IV.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 434 pages
• Publisher: iUniverse (June 21, 2001)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0595136648
• ISBN-13: 978-0595136643
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 7.5 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.7 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #407,158 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

58 of 67 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Very Readable!, March 16, 2002

By 

Kent K. Smith (Cherry Hill, NJ USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Collapse of the Bronze Age: The Story of Greece, Troy, Israel, Egypt, and the Peoples of the Sea (Paperback)

Although this is a history book with lots of names and dates,it is written in a flowing style and comes together nicely. There is no stilted language here. Combing through a massive amount of research material, Robbins has consolidated the information. He then makes educated conclusions about the events leading up to the collapse of mighty civilizations such as Troy, Egypt, Greece, the Hittites and others. People tend to think the Bronze Age ended when the ancients developed hotter fires and iron could be smelted, resulting in better tools or weapons. Wrong! There were cataclysmic internal and external forces working on the civilizations, resulting in their demise or diminution. Humor is sprinkled throughout the book, enhancing the pleasure of reading it. Some of the author's conclusions such as the reasons for the decline of Mycenaean Greece and the origin of the people of Israel are controversial or even counter to some current beliefs. However these conclusions are so well reasoned that they are difficult to dispute. Combining fragmentary written historical accounts,archaeological artifacts, language analysis, myths/legends, oral transmission of history, and other methods Robbins has written a fascinating account.

25 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A solid survey of the Eastern Mediterranean world at the End of the Bronze Age, October 16, 2005

By 

Bruce Trinque (Amston, CT United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Collapse of the Bronze Age: The Story of Greece, Troy, Israel, Egypt, and the Peoples of the Sea (Paperback)

Robbins' "Collapse of the Bronze Age" is a thorough, solidly written survey of the history of the Eastern Mediterranean in about the 12th and 11th centuries BCE, stretching from Mycenaean Greece to Egypt. Robbins presents contending theories about what happened to cause the destruction of so many Greek cities, caused the Hittite Empire to collapse, and nearly ended the ancient realm of Egypt. Unlike some writers, Robbins shuns sensationalist interpretations, frequently warning the reader to judge archaeological evidence cautiously, citing numerous examples where a superficial interpretation of archaeological finds is contradicted by reliable historical sources.

Robbins does not supply final answers to many of the questions asked, but he does provide a good framework for the intelligent reader to continue to explore those questions and seek answers for him- or herself.

27 of 30 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Remarkable Synthesis, June 5, 2005

By 

C. Brennan - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Collapse of the Bronze Age: The Story of Greece, Troy, Israel, Egypt, and the Peoples of the Sea (Paperback)

This book doen not have an author's profile as such, but has the flavor of the "informed amateur" in the best sense -- a non-professional who immerses himself in a number of different specialties and then integrates them in a way that a specialist in any one of them can't. In this case, the subject is the interactions among the various peoples of the eastern Mediterranean at the end of the Late Bronze Age, ending in a collapse of civilization as great as that of Europe at the end of the Roman Empire. Pulling this together involved mastering subjects whose specialists usually don't communicate with each other much -- Egyptologists, Near Eastern archaeologists, Levantine archaeologists, Aegean archaeologists, and Old Testament scholars. Robbins does this easily and in a very readable, even exciting style. He has also produced what I as an archaeologist feel is a great contribution to our understanding of the ancient world.