1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed (Turning Points in Ancient History) Kindle Edition

[ I have edited this review to correct some flaws pointed out in comments. ]

The other reviewers have already pointed out the book's many fine points; I agree with them that this is a book well worth reading. I had long thought that the Late Bronze Age Collapse was primarily due to the depredations of the Sea Peoples, and this book scotches that idea. Yes, the Sea Peoples played a part in it, but they may well have been just as much Effect as Cause. That is, their rampage may well have been induced by the same factors that brought down other cities.

The real contribution of this book lies in the application of recent archaeological findings to the problem. Over the last few decades archaeologists have built up a steady compilation of data on the cities of the Late Bronze Age, and they have demonstrated that not all those cities were destroyed in wars. Some show evidence of having been wrecked by earthquakes; in others, the destruction is confined to the central palace and government facilities, suggesting that a popular revolt, not a foreign invasion, lay behind the destruction. Other sites, however, do show the kind of general destruction we'd expect from a victorious enemy.

Especially important is the evidence they bring to bear showing that some sort of regional climate change was responsible for the at least some part of the collapse. The evidence indicates a cooler, dryer climate which would have been devastating to the cereal crops on which civilizations are dependent. The cooler climate would have led to repeated famines that would have led to revolts, migrations, and wars - all of which appear in the record of this period.

However, there are two points on which I disagree with the author. The first is the author's decision not to organize the causal factors into some sort of logical pattern. Instead, he declares that all of the factors (climate change, poor harvests, migration, civil disturbance, and war) converged to create a "perfect storm" that destroyed Late Bronze Age civilization in the Near East. That struck me as overly conservative.

My second objection falls on the assumption that a collapse of international trade caused by the piratical depredations of the Sea Peoples added to the collapse. The author several times refers to an 'international system' of trade, likening it to modern globalization. He even goes so far as to suggest that the societies of that time had developed such intricate trade relationships that the disruption of those relationships helped undermine the societies.

The problem arises when you think in terms of economic output. In all early societies, agricultural output constituted the vast majority of economic output. Sure, the historical records teem with stories of gems, spices, precious woods, and metals, but they attracted so much attention only because they were so rare. In terms of economic output, grain was far and away the most important component of all ancient societies. Indeed, in 1790, 90% of all laborers in the USA worked on farms. So let's keep our eyes on the ball here: grain.

Trade in grain was rare and limited to emergency situations, because the transport systems of the Late Bronze Age were incapable of moving grain in bulk. The ocean-going ships of the day had cargo capacities of a few tens of tons. Grain was carried in heavy ceramic jars; a single ship could carry enough food to provide for at most a hundred people for a year. Land transportation was even worse: the inefficient wagons and poor roads of the day did not permit the carriage of large amounts of grain very far. After a few tens of miles, so much of the grain would have to go to feed the dray animals that there just wouldn't be much left at the destination.

Thus, the disruption of trade would have denied rulers their luxuries, but would not have made much of a dent on the economy as a whole.

A postscript to this review: the author of the book, Eric Cline, has graciously responded to my criticisms and finally gotten through my thick head a point that, while not mentioned in this review, came up in the exchange of comments. He has taken a lot of his time to straighten me out, and I deeply appreciate his patience with my errors.

It's a good book, one that fills in a significant gap that can often be seen in other books on the ancient Bronze Age societies. Cline is very, very careful to qualify findings, which makes a lot of sense but also gives the book a vague, indeterminate feel. The fact is that we just don't much about what happened, and the little we do know is not enough to actually construct a strong narrative on the events that led to all of these civilizations falling apart. So, at times, it led me to wonder why I was actually reading this book.

I also find the name to be disingenuous. The year is chosen because that is when we "know" that Ramses III encountered the Sea Peoples in Egypt, but Cline spends a significant chunk of the book underplaying the role the Sea Peoples had in Bronze Age Collapse. In fact, sometimes it feels like he is underplaying the Bronze Age Collapse itself. He is quite quick to point out the cities that were re-populated, that did not suffer as much as first thought, and so forth. Yet he also doesn't, in my opinion, spend nearly enough time in Greece, as the destruction of the Myceneae civilization is much more total than the ones he does focus on. Then again, though, the information we would need to tell that story is just not there.

However, these faults are outweighed by the fact that Cline paints a very, very good picture of what civilization was like at the time before the collapse. The picture he paints is one of, by all accounts, a very cosmopolitan, dynamic, lively society. It's where the vast majority of the book spends its time, and it's clear that is where Cline's interests lie. The problem is that the narrative is set up so that this is merely a prologue to the collapse, yet the way the collapse is soft-pedaled makes the whole thing feel more like a bait & switch. I would have happily read a book on Late Bronze Age civilization that was sold as such, but perhaps the publishers thought selling it as a gripping story of collapse would get more attention (and they were probably right).

I do recommend this book, just don't go in expecting what the title and description says.