Causes Of The Collapse Of Mycenaean Civilization

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

Ancient Greece became a very influential civilization. Founded by the Minoans who first moved to the island of Crete in around 2000 B.C and lasted to about 1400 B.C. The Minoans developed an advanced civilization and expressed their culture in their constructed palaces. Great monuments were reached at Greece’s Golden Age from around 500 B.C to 300 B.C. They created long lasting contributions in subjects such as Philosophy, Military, Health, and Government.

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.

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 Mycenaeans were the first Greek speaking culture to pop up in the region surrounding the Aegean Sea. They developed a written language using the Greek alphabet. The written language was not used to keep their historical records, but rather they show a complex form of documentation and record keeping of goods that flowed into and out of their cities. These detailed records show the complex system of regional collection and distribution that made up the economy of the Mycenaeans. Internal warfare and riots from the peasant class would eventually lead to the downfall of the Mycenaeans. The next few hundred years would come to be known as the “Dark Age” in Greek

The Maya weren't an empire, but they were a civilization. One known for their extraordinary achievements, such as the Mayan calendar. There wasn't a single factor alone, that caused the end of the Maya civilizations. There are many factors that could have caused the fall of the Mayas. One theory is that increased warfare caused the end of the "Classic Maya Age". Another theory was that the region suffered from a long dry period, & drought. This would have caused a shortage of food & water. And finally, the demands of the Mayan kings, could have caused the people in the city-states to rebell.

In Afghanistan people were trapped in their homes, and objects were not properly tied down. Buildings kill people not earthquakes.

For hundreds of years, the Roman Empire influenced most of the world today by architecture, art, philosophy, engineering, and government. For about 1,000 years, the Empire of Rome was in control of the Mediterranean world. As the empire prospered it was starting to fall apart. Most of the problems occurred from within Rome itself as well as other outside invasions that also led to the fall of the Roman Empire. Most scholars ponder on what exactly led to the decline Rome. The primary reasons for the ¨Fall¨ of Rome were disasters (Doc F), foreign invasions (Doc C/D), and diseases (Doc F).

The Roman Empire falling due to disasters and diseases was a theory which was a top three reason for the fall of Rome. Natural disasters and diseases were responsible for many lost lives in Ancient Rome. In Document F, the text stated, “In the second year of the reign of Valens (366 C.E.)... the Roman world was shaken by a violent and destructive earthquake…” This quote represented an example of one of the natural disasters that hit Rome which was a destructive earthquake. This massive earthquake was responsible for the isolation of citizens weakening the Roman Empire. Another example of a deadly natural disaster was also located in Document F. It stated, “[F]ifty thousand persons had lost their lives in the flood [in the city of Alexandria

in a cataclysmic event. For long it has been debated that Atlantis was not a factual civilization but either counts as one of the many known myths of a destructive deluge, or merely serves as a metaphor for the Greek philosopher Plato to debate the consequences for a society that fails in its moral code of conduct. The extinction of Atlantis was linked in the late 1930s to a volcanic disaster that befell the island of Thera some 113 kilometers from Crete at a time when the Minoan civilization flourished.

The Mayans were a unique civilization with the most sophistication in mesoamerica (1800 BC-250 AD). In this civilization, the major cities include Tikal and Chichen Itza, however independent city-states are run by, kings. Mayans had a polytheistic religion where they believed in afterlife. In addition, Mayans built temples, pyramids for sacrifices, and bloodletting. Yet, they were excellent astronomers. Here priests charted movements of planets, moon, and sun. Also, these distinctive people created calendars, developed a number system, and glyphic writing. Withal their economy was based on agriculture and trade. Nevertheless, what caused this great civilization to collapse? While analyzing the theories, I believe this civilization collapsed, due to: warfare, disease, famine, and disaster/ environmental change.

Civilization flourished during the Neolithic period (7,000-3,000 BCE) (Orfeas Organisation-Greece, n.d.). The Bronze Age (3,000-1,100 BCE.), “saw major advances in social, economic, and technological advances that made Greece the hub of activity in the Mediterranean” (History of Greece: Bronze Age, n.d.). During this time period, there were three different civilizations that identified people at this time. These three civilizations were called the Cycladic civilization which was developed in the Aegean Islands; the Minoans which occupied Crete; and the Helladic which was the civilization of the Greek midland (History of Greece: Bronze Age, n.d.). The Helladic civilization was also called the “Age of Hero’s”, during the Mycenaean era. The Helladic civilization was the source of the mythological heroes such as Hercules, and epics such as the Odyssey (History of Greece: Bronze Age, n.d.). The considered first most advanced civilization in Europe was the Minoans (History of Greece: Bronze Age, n.d.). The Mycenaean philosophy (para. 2) “had a great deal of influence with its legends and Greek language on what later became the splendor of Classical Greece” (History of Greece: Bronze Age, n.d.). The culture that outlasted the Cyclades and the Minoans where the Mycenaeans. They had lengthened their impact over the mainland, Aegean Islands, Crete and the shore of Asia Minor by the end of the 10th c.

There are other theories that tie into the Bronze Age collapse such as other devastating natural disasters (earthquakes in Mycenae), large social revolutions that toppled leaderships, and the possibility of a total system-wide societal collapse that ended everything within that city/empire/civilization(s). All of the factors noted above may have all played a part in the overall collapse, but none of them were the sole exact cause of why it happened. The Bronze Age Collapse was mostly likely caused by the combination of multiple factors and outside sources which brought about the downfall of multiple civilizations such as Egypt, Hatti and Mycenae. However, despite all the violence and chaos the Bronze Age Collapse brought upon the affected empires, there was some good to come out of it. The end is not always just the end, it is sometimes just the beginning. At the end of the chaos, new civilizations rose to power underneath the dust of the old ones, including the prodigious Biblical Israelites, it was also the time said civilizations entered the next major age of civilization, the Iron

Ancient Rome was an empire so dominant, wealthy and economically- stable which came to a dramatic fall in the period of 250AD- 500AD. Ancient Rome faced unexplained unfortunate events which crumbled the Great Empire from the affluent empire to a impoverished society. For centuries historians have timelessly theorised and analysed many debates and research in relation to the Fall of the Roman Empire. What really caused the predominate Roman Empire to fall? Did Rome fall naturally? Was disease, such as malaria a major contributor to the Fall of the Empire, Was man -made infrastructure a problem during Ancient Roman times? Was the fall a natural event? Was the climate changing causing natural disasters? Maybe, perhaps, all the theories interweaved with each other at the same time causing a catastrophic downfall, defeating the Ancient Roman Empire. Edward Gibbon (Gibbon, 1909, pp 173-174.) quoted,

The death of Alexander the Great in 323 BC marks the beginning of the Hellenistic Period and covers 300 years to the invasion of Egypt by the Romans. The word Hellenic refers only to the Greeks, but the term Hellenistic refers to `the Greek-influenced societies that arose in the wake of Alexander's conquest' (Sacks, 105). The Hellenistic world extended from Greece all the way to Afghanistan and resulted in the beginning of the mass spreading of Greek culture. Its central characteristics were the mass empires created by Alexander and his successors, the mingling of Greek and other cultures and the diffusion of religions