The Bronze Age Collapse: The End of an Era

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[jasonnikolauk]

I have often wondered if “the Odyssey” is an allegorical telling of the Bronze Age collapse given that the story tells of the crippling if not complete downfall of many regional powers of the time. Even the heroes own Ithaca would not likely survive as a local power once the power vacuum caused by the loss of the majority of the local “nobility” took hold.

[TheRedneckGamer]

The bronze age collapse is a really deep rabbit hole to fall down that I have lost myself in for days before, it is absolutely fascinating.

[chrisschultz]

Simon is probably one of the best narrators I've heard. His dolcett British tones convey Information, Intelligence and Irony is a smooth, easy to digest flow. Thanks, Simon.

[becnal]

“1177 bc the year civilization collapsed” is a pretty good book about this if you’re interested in learning more.

[Dogs]

I’m always down for videos on the Bronze Age, it’s not covered very often by many, but has a lot of importance and intrigue.
Thank you, fact boy and co!

[traveler]

one of my favorite things about the internet.. learning

[kae]

I think what I like best about this channel, out of all your channels, is how you just silently stand up and walk away at the end. It drives home the gravity: there is nothing more to be said, no way to soften it.

[SC-zqcu]

13:36
Iron isn't always stronger than bronze. In fact the iron made in the early days of the iron age were about as soft as bronze. Iron only surpassed bronze in hardness and springiness when people started to make it into steel, large scale production of which happened much later almost near the end of the classical era. The reason iron destabilized the bronze age world was because of its relative abundance to tin, one of the key components of bronze. Before iron became popular large scale production of bronze was only possible by the very wealthy because of the rarity of tin and tin mines. After iron became popular almost anybody could make a tool or a weapon which was about as useful as a bronze one. This made the pre-existing power structures meaningless and was a major reason for the collapse.

[Wkumar]

I love thinking about how complex this age really was. I also enjoy thinking about how this collapse impacted the Hebrew stories that later gave birth to the Hebrew Bible.

[detroyes]

At 12:17, the video mentions several ancient Greek cities, and images of their ruins are shown. HOWEVER... the image shown for Thebes is that of the Thebes in Egypt, NOT the Thebes in Greece. Remember... there were actually two different cities in the ancient world called "Thebes", one on the Nile in Egypt, and the other in Greece, NW of Athens.

[aaronleverton]

I imagine the Sea Peoples arriving off the coast of Egypt and what followed to be basically the same as what happened to Lindisfarne in 793.

[carolynrosser]

Absolutely thrilled there was no sponsor ads!! Just enjoying the concise information. Wonderful.

[loke]

That letter was found among other copies of sent letter so the context tells us it was sent. If the recipient ever got it is another matter (source: 1077 BC: The Year Civilization Collapsed by Eric H. Cline). It could have been sent the day before the city fell or years earlier, it is impossible to say but it sounds more dramatic if it was the day before or never was sent at all so everyone is going for that.

I recommend the book I mentioned, it goes very deep into details in a way a 16 minutes vid really can't including explaining several centuries before and what happened after. There is an audio version of it as well (not an add).

There are also several in details vids here on YouTube but even 2 hours is a bit short to explain how an entire civilization collapsed due to a whole bunch of occurrences that by themselves wouldn't been more then a short economic slump.

It was so bad that some places like Greece lost the technology of writing for hundreds of years, kinda like if we suddenly went back to medieval technology. Even the survivors had a very bad time the next few centuries, Ramses III eventually got killed and Egypt got another of it's intermediate periods.

The difference between a bronze weapon and an iron weapon was not as great as people think though. The early iron weapons were not of great quality and similar to bronze weapons in strength, the difference is that the material were far easier to get. Tin you had to import from Cyprus, Afghanistan or Cornwall and was very expensive. Iron is basically everywhere.
Even after iron weapons were introduce, bronze were popular among rich people. So it wasn't that iron was better (at the time) but you could equip far more soldiers with them unless you had a nearby source of tin.

That changed as the technology of iron working improved but that change was far off when Ramses III fought the Sea people.

[anthonyfrench]

absolutely love the Jenga analogy!! couldn't explain geopolitical issues better than this❤

[Leapordskin]

The Elder Scrolls Oblivion weapons lineup was a lovely touch to showcase iron weaponry!

[TheAndroidNextDoor]

I'd love an episode of the Battle off Samar in WW2. Easily one of the greatest battles in Military history where a collection of American destroyers, destroyer escorts, and escort carriers had to face off against a Japanese armada consisting of cruisers, battleships and the largest battleship in history.

[sbcee]

Been waiting on this one, Simon; thank you. For some reason, I half expected maybe you'd shed new light on the whole affair. Such is the weight I recently find your narratives have on me.
Anyways, great video, and thanks for manning the helm of seemingly 23 different You Tube channels! Your hard work is appreciated, my dude!

[DuckAllMighty]

I've looked quite heavily into the Collapse, bc it's simply fascinating. Some major factors for the Collapse, was the tin mining and trade and how fragile and expensive that whole system was, with repeated wars, droughts and famine, the tin trade broke down. Around the same time iron was discovered and it was found to be way easier to mine and work with and especially everyday tools could easily be made in a cast.
Bronze was still better for weapons, even after the collapse, since steel production hadn't totally been figured out yet, but by the time of the Roman Empires heyday, bronze was only used for ornamental and decorative stuff, since steel had been figured out and was just better in any way.
But anyways a fascinating and well made video.

[Dank-gbjn]

It would be interesting to see more about the Philistines. I have only heard of them through biblical studies classes, or passing mentions, and never in great detail.

[prussianhill]

You should do the Toledo War next, a most unusual war fought between Michigan Territory and the state of Ohio over the Toledo strip. A war mostly fought in Congress and in back rooms, in which no deaths (or near enough) occurred.