Bronze Age Collapse Theory

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

A second reason Rome fell was because of the natural disasters such as earthquakes and tsunamis. For example, according to The History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman empire, “. . . the Roman world was shaken by a violent and destructive earthquake . . .” (Doc. F)This illustrates that the earthquake that hit Rome destroyed just about all of their culture. This also illustrates that many people died and were injured. This is important because Rome was already falling, so the earthquake hitting made it even easier for the Roman empire to fall. This is also important because many Romans lost their houses so they had to move to find somewhere new to live and support their families, which made their population smaller. With the cities’ populations smaller it made less

As a result of fulfilling desires, civilized Sumerians were required to use the resources around them at their disposal. A “tablet-box of cedar” and a “clasp of bronze,” would have required cedar trees to be cut down and bronze to be made from mined iron and copper. Unfortunately, due to overconsumption and necessity of these items, an irreversible amount of environmental degradation occurred, providing evidence that yet again, civilized Sumerian culture represented through the “tall, magnificent, and terrible,” King Gilgamesh is the worst version of humanity.

All of these civilizations came and went at different times throughout the duration of Bronze Age Greece. All of them were drastically important in maintaining the great power of the area during a time of such havoc and turmoil. Much like anything in life, all good things must come to an end eventually. The Bronze Age Greece almost completely fell by 146BC. There are a number of different reasons why the collapse of the Bronze Age Greece occurred. In the following sections we will discuss several reasons for the collapse of this once great society.

All the way from the start of civilization through to the Early Christianity there has been a pantheon of; destruction, recognition, wars, cultural diffusion, religious breakthroughs, laws that have been established, kings and queens crowned and dethroned. The Mesopotamian Civilization it was the land between two rivers the Tigris and the Euphrates Rivers that civilization first began.

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,

The Roman Empire took over after the Greeks fell and it thrived over the years. But when the Pax Romana came along, the empire was developing a “soft belly” which was becuase of the upper class becoming lazy and losing their edge. At this point is where they fall. The reasons for the great empire fell because of their government, military, and the natural disaster problems.

In the kingdom of Benin, making castes with bronze was introduced to the rest of the world. “Now this kind of work is done with clay, and wax, and red metal (copper), and soldier (zinc) and lead, and fire…Next it is set aside to cool, then (the outside covering of clay) is broken off,” (Document 7). The art of creating bronze castes was very popular in Benin and the popularity soon spread to most of Northern Africa.

This disaster caused many deaths and worked toward the end of Rome. Many of the cities directly on the Mediterranean suffered great loss and economic devastation. Not long after this terrible disaster came diseases that no person or city-state in Rome was prepared for. This disease was even more instrumental in the downfall of Rome than the massive earthquake. In World Civilizations: The Global Experience, several authors said, “More important in initiating the process of decline was a series of plagues that swept over the empires...

Question 1: The Bronze Age was the time that bronze is a primary metal used to make weapons and other tools. Mycenaeans contributed to this time through Greek culture and the growing power of monarchies. A civilization called the Minoans the Bronze Age focused on trade and the quality of what they were trading. If the trade was better than the goods were made better. The age that came after bronze was iron.

It was also the end of Pax Romana. So why did the Roman Empire Crumble? There were many reasons why Rome fell but the most important reasons are because of foreign invasions, military problems, and poor political leadership, among the 3 main reasons, the most important reason is poor political

Although it was believed that the Roman Empire would never come to an end, inevitably it fell. The Roman Empire is an extremely historic empire that left a massive legacy behind. It collapsed during the fifth century. The empire was having serious military struggles. They received threats from other European tribes along with diminished military funding. A military who does not have proper funding will slowly fall apart. Other than the military, the Roman Empire had a few key social and cultural problems that helped with the fall of the empire in the west. The fall of the Roman Empire in the west occurred due to a rise in Christianity, contrast between rich and poor, and a decline in population.

Metalurgy first made an appearance in Europe during the Neolithic. (Levack et al 2009:16) Architecture improved and in many areas dwellings were made with sturdy supplies like stone and brick. Some villages, particularly in Southwest Asia, were surrounded by impressive stone walls for protection against enemies. (Leonard 1973:18)

The Roman empire collapsed due to pressure of invasions by barbarians in the west and the Persians in the east. Generals that were rivals murdered emperors and overtook the throne. Economy declined and the state kept taking more and more taxes and resources from the citizens. In the west, in the fifth century, Roman authority collapsed and in the east a Christian Roman Empire survived in the city of Constantinople and turned into the Byzantine Empire.

Civilizations of the Stone Age were known for their use of stone implements, while the Bronze Age is signified by the use of bronze tools and technology. The Bronze Age is part of the three-tiered classification system of ancient civilizations described by Christian Jürgensen Thomsen: the Stone Age, Bronze Age, and Iron Age. The Bronze Age occurred at overlapping and slightly different times in various parts of the world. This is due in part to the limited availability of copper-tin ores. Certain places, like western Asia, did not see Bronze until trade brought this metal to the region. Notable civilizations during the Bronze Age were the Minoans, Mycenaeans, Hittites, and Egyptians. The Bronze Age dates from 3200-600 BC in Europe and 3300-1200 BC in the Middle East. The Bronze Age collapse occurred around 1200 B.C.E. What followed was a dark age of decreased literacy and technology and a significant reduction in population.