1177 B. C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed

Stearns, Peter N. et al. World Civilizations: The Global Experience, AP Edition. New York: Addison-Wesley Educational Publishers, Inc., Longman, 2003.

Throughout Guns, Germs, and Steel, Jared Diamond explains the importance of geography in the ways ancient civilizations grew and spread and how some areas were more advanced than others. He began his research when he was asked a question by a Papua New Guinea residence, Yali. Yali had asked Diamond “[w]hy you white man have so much cargo and we New Guineans have so little?” At that point Diamond had no answer and he was curious to find out why Eurasia had a head start in civilizing people meanwhile the other continents were behind. As a result, several differences were made between countries that did not have the same resources as those who were advanced. Some of the developing countries were poor and they had to rely on whatever was given to them through nature. When Diamond went to Papua New Guinea, he discovered that the residences of the island had the same routine as those in the ancient civilizations of Eurasia. They would often hunt for animals and used stone weapons instead of metal.

The Mediterranean served as a basin for the early civilizations. The rich history of the

The Mediterranean region encompasses the Mediterranean Ocean and the surrounding land outside of it. Medieval Europe is a time period, sometimes referred to as the ‘dark ages’, where because of various reasons, many cultural changes occurred. From the decline of the West Roman Empire and its empirical structures (circa 647 C.E.) and the creation of the political system, feudalism, new societies emerged with new cultural elements such as an almost complete loss of education and literacy, while other cultural aspects remained such as the social status of women and the importance of religion, mainly Christianity.

One may ask, who are the Minoans? Well they are considered by many Historians and Archeologists to be the first great European Civilization. Some people believed that this was the mythical land of Atlantis. They were located near the Aegean Sea and lands such as Greece, Troy and Asia Minor. One interesting fact is that these people never called themselves the Minoans. There wasn’t any name listed in the history books for these people but the Ancient Crete Civilization. They were known as the Crete Civilization because they lived on the island of Crete which is now part of Greece. It wasn’t until a 19th century British Archeologist, Sir Author Evans gave them the name, The Minoans. He gave them this name because he believed he had found the legendary palace of King Minos. There has been many civilization collapses over the World’s history, but most can be explained in great detail. There are some that are very mysterious and not definitively explained. The collapse of the Minoan people happens to be one of those mysterious collapses which ranks 3rd in the top ten most mysterious collapses of the world and is still to this day debated on what actually caused their demise. There are many factors that go into the collapse of a civilization, but this kind of catastrophe doesn’t just happen in a blink of an eye this is something that happens over a long period of time. This paper will touch on the climate and environment, the time period and culture, how they became

Eric H. Cline’s main theory is that the “sea peoples” weren’t the only thing that made these civilizations come to an end. Before the book came out, many historians believed that the early civilizations collapsed due to the invasion of the”sea peoples”, but Cline was willing to prove them wrong. He states in his book that,”[...] the Sea peoples may well have been responsible for some of the destruction that occurred at the end of the late Bronze Age, but it is much more likely that a concatenation of events, both human and natural -including climate change and drought,[...] earthquake storms, internal rebellions and ‘system collapse’ -coalesced to create ‘perfect storm’ that brought this age to an end,”(Eric H.Cline,

It is only recently that more reliable studies have brought to light much information about great civilizations that developed

Around 500 CE, change in Eurasia was spurred by the fall of several influential Classical civilizations. The fall of Rome in the late fifth century left Western Europe without a centralized authority and vulnerable to invasion, while similarly in China, the fall of the Han dynasty in the 3rd century left the region in a period of chaos and unorder. The end of empires such as these set the stage for the emergence of post-Classical civilizations in sixth century Eurasia. Furthermore, the Silk Road, a vast network of trade routes spanning across Europe and Asia, played a key role in the spread of goods and ideas between third-wave civilizations in Eurasia. Due to the Silk Road, civilizations of this millennium were connected through transregional interactions and trade, leading to the dispersal of cultures and ideas beyond their origin. These connections led to spread of Christianity

The Bronze Age was a time where a majority of cultures across continents made significant advancements in their metalworking that allowed said cultures to thrive and flourish, and allowed some to even develop extensive written records. It was also the time when the very important metal known as “Bronze” was invented, which was used in said advanced metalworking. Bronze was used a plethora of different ways ranging from beautiful and stunning works of art to new forms of deadly weapons and stronger armors. However, at the very end of the Bronze Age (1500-1200 B.C.E.) Came a time where a wave of sudden violence, despair and darkness descended

purpose: Highlights the collapse of several historical societies and the factors that caused their collapse.

The ancient Greeks and Romans were perhaps two of the greatest civilizations of the ancient world. These two civilizations thrived in their ancient environments which eventually led to a vast amount of prosperity within these two cultures. It is because of this prosperity that these ancient cultures were able to make a variety of advancements in literature, architecture, art and a variety of other fields. These two civilizations also produced some of the ancient world’s greatest writers, leaders, and philosophers. The cultures of ancient Greece and Rome made a number of contributions to western civilization in the form of advancements in literature, architecture, art, government, and philosophy.

A number of complex and enduring empires have dominated large parts of Afro Eurasia, and Meso-America. Among these were the Han Empire in China, the Roman Empire in the Mediterranean Basin, and the Maya in Meso-America. These empires had wealth, power, and they are a vast size, but they all suffered their unfortunate collapse. There are multiple factors that contribute to the collapse of these empires such as warfare, taxes, the environment, problems with the government, religion, and shortage of resources like food and water. The reasons for the collapse of the Han and the Mayan empires are very similar. However, there are also some striking differences of the reasons why these empires collapsed.

The Bronze Age started around 2300 BC in Europe and it consisted of the new found material of bronze. It was an important development in many cities during the time. Bronze was used for a multitude of items including weapons, chariot parts, tools, decorative objects, and ritual vessels. The bronze age eventually came to an end because of four major catastrophes that came around 1200 BC that help shape the first millennium. Climate change, migration, new technology, and administrative innovations was the origin of this change.

The world of Late Antiquity is written by Peter Brown, a Professor of History at Princeton University. This book is an entertaining introductory text to the Late Antique period, AD 150 to 750. Brown delivers an entertaining account and perspective of how and why the Late Antique world came to differ from “Classical civilization.” Instead of focusing on the cause and effect of the civilization’s downfall, Brown emphasizes the changes that occurred and men’s reaction to them. His thesis centers around social and cultural changes and specifically states:

In this essay I will be considering only but one of the many questions that archaeologists analyse when researching the human past. As the title suggests, did civilization, or, a term preferably used by scholars; social complexity, arise from a conflicted band of nomadic people or from a mutual consensus among them? As well as my own thought’s, I will be discussing the ideologies of a number of professionals, both in archaeology and social anthropology, focusing mainly on the early development of the archaic Mesopotamian and Mesoamerican civilisations.