WTF Happened in the Bronze Age Collapse? (This Video Broke Me) DOCUMENTARY

When I started this documentary, it was my intent to produce a succinct recap of why the Bronze Age Collapsed. However as I began to dig it proved not only difficult to provide a cohesive narrative but also to tie together a web of potential factors which themselves contained many inconsistencies. I had a crisis and couldn't produce the documentary without seriously compromizing the content. This ultimately led me to decide to entirely ditch our usual YouTube video conventions and just present the raw academic papers to you. I hope this pulling back of the curtain proves educational on both the topic of the Bronze Age Collapse and the broader idea of critical thinking.

In this video we cover the following topics. An intro to the Bronze Age Collapse, the claims of destruction of the Bronze Age, the Sea Peoples invasions, the fall of the major powers, and the idea of a total systems collapse.

Sources:

BRONZE AGE

LEVEL OF DESTRUCTION

SEA PEOPLES

CLIMATE CHANGE

MYCENAEANS

HITTITES

NEW KINGDOM EGYPT

Time Stamps:
00:00 Intro
06:10 Bronze Age World
10:10 Levels of Destruction
16:30 The Sea Peoples
26:57 Sea People Origins?
32:40 Climate Change
42:19 Earthquake Storm
44:16 Fall of the Mycenaeans
55:45 Fall of the Hittites
1:04:14 Fall of Egypt
1:14:48 Systems Collapse

#history
#documentary
#bronzeage

[InvictaHistory]

This topic broke me. The research process uncovered a confusing web of posited explanations which in many cases were contradictory, unproven, or outright false. In attempting to piece it all together into a concise video I found that we would have to lose too much nuance. This would have resulted in a video which checked the boxes in terms of listing the leading academic hypotheses but without providing enough context to properly understand them and their nuances. My ultimate decision was to ditch our usual format and just present the academic research to you directly. I believe this "pulling back of the curtain" on this video specifically will help give you a much better understading of the subject and hopefully a more healthy relationship with proper skepticism and inquiry. I'll be listing all my sources in the description so you can read more and I look forward to hearing more from the public/scholars about what we got wrong here. The quest for understanding should be a lively conversation between all of us : )

[Mikeztarp]

I, for one, am shocked the Egyptians lied. Next you'll tell us their pharaohs weren't 20 feet tall and didn't defeat entire armies by themselves.

[syedhassany]

I majored in history, but don’t get to do a lot of research anymore unfortunately. Showing laypeople the research process is actually THE BEST public utility your channel can have. Educational material must always teach people how to teach themselves, and it shows people the actual work of being a historian. You should do many more videos like this.

[wiseSYW]

a dog walks into a tavern, and cannot see anything. therefore the whole bronze age collapsed.

[amirhosseintb]

Im from Iran and due to sanctions i cannot possibly support you in any way, but i want to say, i appreciate your efforts and your absolutely beautiful content and they mean a world to me as you along with other colleagues gave me so much understanding and knowledge of the world and helped me through my intellectual journey in life so far, i feel for ever in debt to you and i believe you deserve all the best for what you do on this platform...i really wish more people supported these types of materials as the world today more than ever needs a better look at where humanity was and how it came to be here today...

[geephlips]

First-time viewer of your channel, so I don’t know what your other ones are like, but I love the approach you took. Actually citing and comparing sources is too uncommon in YouTube videos, and then making the effort to look at how the research has evolved over time is pretty commendable. I also think you do an excellent job of talking in what sounds like your actual speaking voice. Feels like i’m in the room with you. Kudos!

[sarahbettany]

My highest qualification is ResM - I literally have a Masters in Research - this documentary fed my soul in so many ways!
I think it's so important to 'show your workings' like this, to show the critical thinking and the rabbit holes and the wide reaching various paths you have to walk down to bring together a coherent story that inevitably tells you "We don't know, but here's our best guess based on these stressors".
AND ALWAYS GOING BACK TO THE PRIMARY SOURCES!!!!
Just brilliant! Thank you!

[DarkAlleyDan]

This is almost certainly one of the most difficult subjects to tackle, and your acknowledgment of the medium’s difficulty is so true. I have honestly the highest level of respect for not only your integrity, but your ability to grind through it, accept the challenges, and deliver something that isn’t denigrating or reductive to the form. Stellar work, and you’re one of the best in the business. Cheers!

[chardaskie]

To put it bluntly. History YouTube channels are fundamentally changing how society can view and interpret history. I don't think most creators realize just how innovative and important their work is.

Edit: Very glad the comments are talking about the negatives of YouTubers who do not try and spout misinformation but it gets it out to more people who then might take a bigger interest in the subject. The real problem is people who know the secrets of the universe but refuse to share

[benitoharrycollmann]

Saying that the bronze age collapse took place simpy because of the sea peoples, is like saying that Rome fell solely because of barbarian incursions. Theres always more to the story than a single, convenient answer.

Another awesome and informative video, invicta and the team! Keep up the great work 👍

[anthonyshannon]

This is actually an incredible format. Love this and would love to see even more of this behind the scenes meta history! Good work!

[kyles]

It's easy enough to see now with your explanation that it was an Alien xenomorph event that spread through the Mediterranean, and Predator kill-teams had to be tagged in and wipe the slate clean.

Thanks, Invicta!❤

[randohoward]

Sir, this is astonishing work. What an achievement. The spirit of true enquiry is so evident in this project. I've learned much less during whole university courses than I have in the past hour. Thank you! And congratulations on your achievement!

[justintimeagain]

As a history major in college who also grew up playing Total War games and the like, when I found your channel, I was exuberant. This video is probably my favorite video that you have made because it truly shows what historical research should look like and how to approach historical controversies and mysteries.
I can only hope that you would make this sort of video more often because I truly do love this content. I appreciate what you do.

[alanmichael]

I remember studying the Bronze Age collapse when I got my degree in Archaeological Sciences and, yes, it is an absolute mess because we simply *do not know* the answer to, well, anything on this.
The problem is that there were a lot of bad things happening all at once - but there have been plenty of times when lots of bad things happened all at once and we didn't see a widespread collapse.
So there had to be a deciding factor.

Was it the Sea Peoples? We don't know enough about who the hell the Sea peoples were, if they even existed, or how much of an impact they actually had.
And the crazy thing is that this is something that is in common with a whole load of "civilizations/towns that vanished" problems.

Collapse of the Olmecs. We don't know what happened.
Teotihuacan? We don't know what happened.
The collapse of Mesopotamia. We don't know what happened.
The disappearance of hundreds, if not thousands, of settlements in the British middle ages. it is a mystery.

But what makes the Bronze Age collapse (BAC) absolutely infuriating is that the "Sea Peoples" thing got everyone so preoccupied that no-one really spent any time properly fact checking anything outside of the Sea Peoples vs Other causes debate. So we've got decades of nonsense debate.
If you've seen CGP Grey's video on Staten Island you'll understand the effect that has occurred. Only these problems are ten thousands worse with the BAC because its almost every detail like which settlements were actually destroyed/abandoned and when. And also what does and doesn't count as the "sea peoples".

But this is compounded by the fact that we can't definitively say one way or another on almost every single fact.

My feeling of the events is that the "Sea Peoples" are a bit like the "Vikings". Different groups of people using boats to do raids or to settle that have been bracketed into one labelled group for simplicity. With events spanning over 100-300 years. (However the "sea peoples" could well have been different Bronze Age groups attacking each other as well!)
And, just like the Vikings, the destruction conducted by the "Sea Peoples" was greatly exaggerated.

My guess is that we saw a range of differing reasons (including Climate!) that dramatically impacted the economy which meant that some sites that were previously profitable ceased to be so and were abandoned, other sites that were indeed destroyed due to warfare/earthquakes. But I do think it happened over a longer period and I do think that collapse isn't as dramatic as has been claimed.

As mentioned earlier, we have a clear record of loads of medieval settlements in the British Isles that were simply abandoned - and we don't know why - but there's no indication that the entirety of civilization on the British Isles collapsed in the period.

[SamLizziesmom]

I wanted to say thank you for all of your hard work tackling this era. It's hard to put in words how interconnected history is. What happens in one place because of a drought can easily become an assassination in another. I really enjoyed your video.

[numenthehuman]

THANK YOU FOR NOT BLINDSIDING ME WITH THE AD. Its always deeply appreciated when an ad read is either preemptively discussed and / or natural fits with the content. The power of warning the viewer is massively underestimated. Way to many channels will be like "lets get into the video" then hit you with a three minute ad read. I will literally never watch a channels content if theyre willing to be sleezy with the ad placement.

[Borya]

Now this is how you do history! Excellent way to show high school aged students how real research is done and how history is a quagmire of perspectives. The way you go about evaluating evidence and perspectives is an incredibly immersive way to demonstrate that skill. Well done!

[benjamies]

I absolutely love this video style. This is the kind of stuff that made me fall in love with YouTube over traditional media, the individuals ability to personally create content without producers and executives confront the format. I'm glad you did something different. This is awesome so far and I'm only a couple minutes in.

[theheartbeatsdiscord]

You know how people say they feel like they are losing brain cells when they watch something dumb. I feel like I gained a brain cell in this case lol.