PSW 2491 The Survival of Civilizations After 1177 BCE | Eric Cline

Lecture Starts at 15:30
PSW #2491
March 8, 2024
The Survival of Civilizations After 1177 BCE
Eric Cline
Professor of History, Classics, and Anthropology
Director, GWU Capital Archaeological Institute
George Washington University

In the years after 1177 BCE, many of the Late Bronze Age civilizations of the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean lay in ruins, undone by invasion, revolt, natural disasters, famine, and the demise of international trade. An interconnected world that had boasted major empires and societies, relative peace, robust commerce, and monumental architecture was lost. This lecture will trace the compelling story of what happened during the four centuries after 1177 BCE, across the wide swath of the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean world. It is a story of resilience, transformation, and success, as well as failures, in an age of chaos and reconfiguration. Those that failed to adjust disappeared from the world stage, while others transformed themselves, resulting in a new world order that included Israelites, Philistines, Phoenicians, Neo-Hittites, Neo-Assyrians, Neo-Babylonians, and world-changing innovations such as the use of iron and standardization of the alphabet. It is now clear that this period, far from being the First Dark Age, was a new age with new inventions, new opportunities, and lessons for today.

Eric H. Cline is Professor of Classics, History, and Anthropology and Director of the Capitol Archaeological Institute at the George Washington University. He is also former Chair of the Department of Classical and Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations there. Eric is a National Geographic Explorer, NEH Public Scholar, Getty Scholar, and Fulbright Scholar.

Eric is an active field archaeologist with more than 30 seasons of excavation and survey experience in Israel, Egypt, Jordan, Cyprus, Greece, Crete, and the United States, including ten seasons at Megiddo (1994-2014), where he served as co-director before retiring from the project in 2014, and another ten seasons at Tel Kabri, where he currently serves as Co-Director. He is the author or editor of 20 books and nearly 100 articles; translations of his books have appeared in nineteen different languages. Among them are Three Stones Make a Wall: The Story of Archaeology; Digging Deeper: How Archaeology Works; 1177 BC: The Year Civilization Collapsed and (with Glynnis Fawkes) 1177 BC: A Graphic History of the Year Civilization Collapsed; and After 1177 BC: The Survival of Civilizations (all Princeton).

Eric earned an AB in Classical Archaeology with Anthropology at Dartmouth and an MA in Near Eastern Languages and Literatures at Yale. He studied at the American School of Classical Studies in Athens and then went on to earn a PhD in Ancient History at U Penn. Eric is also the recipient of an honorary PhD from Muhlenberg College.

[ambrosemalone]

Brilliant as always from Eric, a top historian, and as always warm and witty.

[AYLove]

Thank you for making premium contents available to the general public!

[jamesrice]

Thank for making the fascinating period more accessible to the public in your books and lectures. I think its amazing how the ancient world was much more connected than my child and teenage education ever gave it credit for.

[christianfrommuslim]

Cyprus shifting to iron with the unavailability of tin, inaugurating the Iron Age is so enlightening!
The whole story of what happened is fascinating.

[mattstakeontheancients]

This was excellent. Own Dr. Cline’s revised 1177 BC book and just pre-ordered his newest one. Super fascinating period of time.

[CONNELL]

Having watched 'Part 1' some years ago, it's a pleasure to have Dr. Cline providing an update on an extremely fertile topic

[Manic-Main]

Really enjoyed this thank you! Going to check out his books

[DarkFire]

Such a fascinating subject, and an excellent speaker! I could listen to Dr. Cline for hours.

[kimberlyperrotis]

I’m a geologist and it seems to me that more work can done to date any strong earthquakes of this period. Geologists use “fault trenching” and geochronometric dating to study the approximate magnitude and timing of (geologically) recent earthquakes. I haven’t seen any of these studies done in the Eastern Mediterranean that could add to the body of knowledge about the Bronze Age Collapse, or perhaps the results of such studies done for other reasons have not been collated and studied as a whole (these studies are often done before major development projects to assess the potential for earthquakes). Archaeo-Architectural evidence of destruction, like fallen or distorted structures, is not the only type of earthquake evidence that might be available, these standard geologic studies could be done as well. I love Dr. Cline’s books and lectures. Geological investigation could be much more integrated into the field of archaeological research.

[ethandoingstuff]

I am so happy that I can use this hypercomplex socieoeconomic system to consume this incredible information!! ❤❤❤

[davidvennel]

Hello All, this was a great talk, speaker, subject etc. I remember the first talk by Prof. Cline. Also fantastic. Looking forward to the next one!

[lauriebowers]

Thank you for posting this excellent talk.

[michaelcap]

Those darn Sea People. Always causing trouble.

[nancytestani]

That gate is just still Tremendous, awesome. Read so much about Mycenae. I went through that gate, Iwas humbled, I marvelled. So much Time.

[josephwurzer]

This lecture is great. A bit of the old and the new. The lecture is great.

[emilevanderzee]

Very enjoyable, including the questions, and the trilogy reveal 😊

[judithmcdonald]

Although my studies have been Andean pre-history and the links with SE Asia and Antarctica, I have been listening to Dr. Cline's lectures on the BAC for many years. Clues to our future are there. It is our best example of what happens when multiple entities dependent on trade fall. There are still many questions regarding the Sea People, but they are another story--the restless, the pirates, and so forth. I think I'll need the new book!!!

And it really needs to be emphasized on how archaeology is changing so rapidly due to new sciences and tools. We aren't limited to stone buildings and empires or even by what we find on the land. Ocean-archaeology could eclipse digs in the near future as sea level rise gains acceptance and methods of discovery are perfected. Everybody who was anybody lived on the coast. LOL!! Mysteries like Nazca probably have a submerged history. The story is changing as should we.

[bhavens]

new book? yes!!!! thank you! also its the subject I'm most interested in, resilience.

[aliuyar]

Excellent refresh on an already well described historical period.

[EnneaIsInterested]

One of the big post-LBAC shifts is the transition from the Sicilian amber trade, to the Baltic amber trade, probably this is connected to the rise of the Celts and the Germanics, fascinating period in history, the Tollense battle is probably connected to the suddenly-increasing trade bonds post-LBAC between Northern Europe and the Mediterranean.