How Did the Bronze Age Collapse Happen?

The Eastern Mediterranean of the Late Bronze Age was one of the most active regions in ancient history, with numerous great civilizations all interacting and trading with one-another for centuries, yet within a 50-year period it all suddenly came crashing down. So, what happened?

MUSIC:
"Scimitar's Path" by Deskant
"Genie's Bane" by Deskant
"Where Kings Walk" by Jon Sumner
"Golden Sea" by Jon Sumner
"Over the Dunes" by Jon Sumner
(All via EpidemicSound)

👕 MERCH!

📖 SOURCES:
*Just because I have sources doesn't mean my research is infallible. Though I aim for as much accuracy as I can manage, there are likely some facts I have gotten wrong.

THANK YOU, BRONZE AGE+ PATRONS!
Adri Cortesia, Anonymous Freak, Mikkel R P Wilson, Rebanics, Nif Lindsay, Tobi Burch-Rates, Up and Atom

[KhAnubis]

Quick thanks to my friend Virginia Schutte for helping me out with the Jenga clip, since I don't own a Jenga set (or even wooden blocks that look like one). Go check out her channel!

[johneriksson]

Only bornze age kids will remember this

[ryeryeryerye]

KhAnubis : 2020 or not

Me : *softly* Don’t

[sergei]

Last time i was this early the staby-stab-stabs still stabed

[zulthyr]

The Bronze Age collapsed when they discovered the silver medal and the gold medal.

A-Anyways... **gets beaten up for bad joke**

[skalite]

I chuckled at "triangles", laughed out loud at "horsey boys", and was flat out dying at "stabby stab stabs". Well done, I didn't expect that.

[edgardanishh]

Hey if you’re reading this and you’re a mapper? How about make an alternate history of the Bronze Age it will be really fun to watch

[hussain]

It's about time, now the phoenicians can get down to business

[Medjiman]

My favourite theory is that the Trojan war was so costly that it brought down Bronze Age

[PatriotMapper]

Me who builds stuff outta bronze in my garage: *It didn’t*

[artificialgravitas]

A Great Vid on a time period fascinating despite the limited information on it, love it!

[HoH]

I was reading about this earlier this week. Thanks for this video, and very nice use of visual material!

[alexchiheh]

nice ideas, they sound legit and reasonable, it’s a shame we will never truly know what happened but I think that your explanation sounds pretty accurate! Maybe the discovery and wider use of iron could have had a bigger role in this too? Maybe theses large kingdoms based on trade and valuable copper declined because iron became more valuable and important for armies, there were probably other events but maybe there could have been a sort of “arms race” and these civilizations weren’t able to keep up with invaders that were better equipped? Maybe the civilizations just became less important and shifted in to irrelevancy due to the wider spread use of iron and the possible natural disasters which could have noticeably weakened Bronze Age civilizations by the, it’s just a speculation though and I’m probably very wrong. Cool vid anyway, I really enjoyed it. Hi from San Marino

[elihinze]

I've been trying to find a good, short-ish video summarizing the Bronze Age collapse, and this is exactly what I needed! Thank you :)

[ZetaFuzzMachine]

Love to have those different perspectives that multiple history YouTubers provide

[harmonica]

Well done! Enjoyed your balanced theorizing seems very likely

[nkvd]

Oh yes the bronze age, I remember that!

[AverytheCubanAmerican]

Tired of using lame, sad metal? Introducing *bronze* made from special ingredient tin from the far lands of Tin Land. I don't know, my dealer won't tell me where he gets it

[BillMcSwain]

Stabie Stab Stabs...🤣
I'm dyin'

[bobalex]

didn't know khanubis watch historia civilis