---
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title: "1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed (Turning Points in Ancient History)"
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# 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed (Turning Points in Ancient History)

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Review: Peak Tin - The historian writing about the Aegean Bronze Age faces an uncomfortable choice. They can take a point of view and make a compelling narrative but only at the cost of simplifying or ignoring the scanty and contradictory evidence. Or they can delve into the complexities and the current arguments in the field at the cost of providing a confused turmoil into which the reader is lost. Eric Cline does very, very well at charting a course between those extremes; he makes it possible to follow the story while exposing and exploring the counter-evidence and competing theories. The late bronze age in the Aegean, as he describes so eloquently in the opening chapter, is a frighteningly familiar world; wide-spread nets of trade and economic interdependence, a complex weave of diplomatic relationships, the pressures of environmental change and a growing undercurrent of violence. In what seems like a blink over half the great players were seemingly wiped from the map (although all may not be as it seems there). One can't help thinking of the phrase "Too big to fail" and wondering if there is a warning here for us. It is also a fascinating, vibrant time. And a time in which foundational legends were being laid; set in this time, though not neccessarily happening in it, are the Greek myths, the Homeric epics that shape so much of the self-perception of the Western world, the events of Exodus...and this is also the height of Egypt's power, the New Kingdom, from where also comes so many of the stories and myths which would be recorded and elaborated in the Ptolemiac. The book is long, but still too short for the subject. Fortunately it is packed with citations. And dense, too; I am on my fourth or fifth reading and I'm still finding new things to explore. As with all history, but particularly history of the Ancient World, archaeology and the associated fields have seen incredible advances over the past years. Even Egyptology, buttressed by the volume of texts (and the historical accidents that made them translatable rather early on) is changing paradigms almost daily. In my humble, amateur opinion, it isn't worth reading a history written more than twenty years ago unless you are interested in the history of history. Fortunately, then, this is a recent book by someone who is active in the field. He honestly explores outmoded concepts such as the Dorian Invasions and manages to give both a historical perspective and ways in which the concept is still useful in a more modern conception. Oh, right. And it is incredibly readable for the amateur and the non-specialist. This is a serious history, make no doubt about it (the pages and pages of citations should tell you that). But it is fully accessible to any reader.
Review: Equal parts fascinating and disappointing - "1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed," by Eric H. Cline, is a short and engaging book of archeological evidence and theory that kept me so glued to the pages that I finished it in one day. Unfortunately, I found the book as disappointing as it was fascinating. It wasn't what I thought it would be. Nevertheless, I was pleased with what it did contain and that's why it is getting four stars. Let me explain. This book does an excellent job of setting forth the raw summarized archeological evidence supporting the concept that virtually all Late Bronze Age civilizations in the Aegean, the Eastern Mediterranean, and the Near East collapsed beginning in 1197 BC (with the Sea Peoples' successful invasion of Egypt) and continuing like a wave of disintegration across the basin over the many decades. What followed was a mini-dark ages lasting many centuries before civilization once again rebounded in the Iron Age. Cline's book summarizes the primary source evidence demonstrating how these Late Bronze Age civilizations were dependent on a highly complex system of regional trade in luxury items, foodstuffs, essential raw materials, ideas, and specialized high-technology experts. He also presents evidence showing how this system broke down and collapsed as the result of a "a concatenation of events, both human and natural--including climate change and drought, seismic disasters known as earthquake storms, internal rebellions, and `systems collapse' that brought this age to an end." As to an overall theory for this process, the author believes that the answer can be found by applying "complexity theory" to the evidence. I whole-heartedly agree! But this is exactly the point at which the author completely failed me. In my estimation, Cline did a very poor job of showing the evidence in support of that idea. I certainly don't pretend to be an expert in the science of complex adaptive systems, but it soon became clear to me that I may have actually read more on this new science than he has. The author did a very fuzzy job of describing how the evidence might support the application of complexity theory to this particular situation. In particular, the author could have presented evidence from related sciences in support of this idea. I wanted to see evidence from archaeobotany (the study of plant remains), zooarchaeology (the study of faunal remains), archaeopedology (the study of soil and uses of the soil), and paleoclimatology (the study of ancient climates). In my estimation, we won't fully understand these events until their evidence is given equal weight. Two years ago, I did a college-level independent study and report on the collapse of the Bronze Age Mycenaean civilization. So, I am well-acquainted with the evidence pointing toward complexity theory as the root cause. At that time, I read evidence concerning deforestation, erosion, drought, soil fertility depletion, and other environmental causes that may have been significant causal factors behind the rebellions and the emergence of the "Sea Peoples." I don't see this evidence in Cline's book...just brief mention that some of this may be involved. Perhaps this quote might help. It comes from one of the major scholars studying and applying complexity theory to a wide number of issues. The scholar is Yaneer Bar-Yam. He is head of the New England Complex Systems Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He says: "A networked society behaves like a multicellular organism; random damage is like lopping a chunk off a sheep. Whether or not the sheep survives depends on which chunk is lost. And while we are pretty sure which chunks a sheep needs, it isn't clear--and may not even be predictable --which chunks of our densely networked civilization are critical, until it's too late. When we do the analysis, almost any part is critical if you lose enough of it. Now that we can ask questions of such systems in more sophisticated ways, we are discovering that they can be very vulnerable." The actual text of Cline's book is only 177 pages in length, so it is a fairly small book that can be read in a brief amount of time. The rest of the book consists of detailed notes, a glossary of important ancient people in the book, and a bibliography. I enjoyed it. I learned a great deal. I would definitely recommend it together with the caveats I've noted above.

## Technical Specifications

| Specification | Value |
|---------------|-------|
| Best Sellers Rank | #78,629 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #44 in Archaeology (Books) #124 in History of Civilization & Culture #278 in Ancient Civilizations |
| Customer Reviews | 4.2 out of 5 stars 2,824 Reviews |

## Images

![1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed (Turning Points in Ancient History) - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/816R+Sus+OL.jpg)

## Customer Reviews

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Peak Tin
*by M***Y on August 10, 2018*

The historian writing about the Aegean Bronze Age faces an uncomfortable choice. They can take a point of view and make a compelling narrative but only at the cost of simplifying or ignoring the scanty and contradictory evidence. Or they can delve into the complexities and the current arguments in the field at the cost of providing a confused turmoil into which the reader is lost. Eric Cline does very, very well at charting a course between those extremes; he makes it possible to follow the story while exposing and exploring the counter-evidence and competing theories. The late bronze age in the Aegean, as he describes so eloquently in the opening chapter, is a frighteningly familiar world; wide-spread nets of trade and economic interdependence, a complex weave of diplomatic relationships, the pressures of environmental change and a growing undercurrent of violence. In what seems like a blink over half the great players were seemingly wiped from the map (although all may not be as it seems there). One can't help thinking of the phrase "Too big to fail" and wondering if there is a warning here for us. It is also a fascinating, vibrant time. And a time in which foundational legends were being laid; set in this time, though not neccessarily happening in it, are the Greek myths, the Homeric epics that shape so much of the self-perception of the Western world, the events of Exodus...and this is also the height of Egypt's power, the New Kingdom, from where also comes so many of the stories and myths which would be recorded and elaborated in the Ptolemiac. The book is long, but still too short for the subject. Fortunately it is packed with citations. And dense, too; I am on my fourth or fifth reading and I'm still finding new things to explore. As with all history, but particularly history of the Ancient World, archaeology and the associated fields have seen incredible advances over the past years. Even Egyptology, buttressed by the volume of texts (and the historical accidents that made them translatable rather early on) is changing paradigms almost daily. In my humble, amateur opinion, it isn't worth reading a history written more than twenty years ago unless you are interested in the history of history. Fortunately, then, this is a recent book by someone who is active in the field. He honestly explores outmoded concepts such as the Dorian Invasions and manages to give both a historical perspective and ways in which the concept is still useful in a more modern conception. Oh, right. And it is incredibly readable for the amateur and the non-specialist. This is a serious history, make no doubt about it (the pages and pages of citations should tell you that). But it is fully accessible to any reader.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Equal parts fascinating and disappointing
*by B***E on May 9, 2014*

"1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed," by Eric H. Cline, is a short and engaging book of archeological evidence and theory that kept me so glued to the pages that I finished it in one day. Unfortunately, I found the book as disappointing as it was fascinating. It wasn't what I thought it would be. Nevertheless, I was pleased with what it did contain and that's why it is getting four stars. Let me explain. This book does an excellent job of setting forth the raw summarized archeological evidence supporting the concept that virtually all Late Bronze Age civilizations in the Aegean, the Eastern Mediterranean, and the Near East collapsed beginning in 1197 BC (with the Sea Peoples' successful invasion of Egypt) and continuing like a wave of disintegration across the basin over the many decades. What followed was a mini-dark ages lasting many centuries before civilization once again rebounded in the Iron Age. Cline's book summarizes the primary source evidence demonstrating how these Late Bronze Age civilizations were dependent on a highly complex system of regional trade in luxury items, foodstuffs, essential raw materials, ideas, and specialized high-technology experts. He also presents evidence showing how this system broke down and collapsed as the result of a "a concatenation of events, both human and natural--including climate change and drought, seismic disasters known as earthquake storms, internal rebellions, and `systems collapse' that brought this age to an end." As to an overall theory for this process, the author believes that the answer can be found by applying "complexity theory" to the evidence. I whole-heartedly agree! But this is exactly the point at which the author completely failed me. In my estimation, Cline did a very poor job of showing the evidence in support of that idea. I certainly don't pretend to be an expert in the science of complex adaptive systems, but it soon became clear to me that I may have actually read more on this new science than he has. The author did a very fuzzy job of describing how the evidence might support the application of complexity theory to this particular situation. In particular, the author could have presented evidence from related sciences in support of this idea. I wanted to see evidence from archaeobotany (the study of plant remains), zooarchaeology (the study of faunal remains), archaeopedology (the study of soil and uses of the soil), and paleoclimatology (the study of ancient climates). In my estimation, we won't fully understand these events until their evidence is given equal weight. Two years ago, I did a college-level independent study and report on the collapse of the Bronze Age Mycenaean civilization. So, I am well-acquainted with the evidence pointing toward complexity theory as the root cause. At that time, I read evidence concerning deforestation, erosion, drought, soil fertility depletion, and other environmental causes that may have been significant causal factors behind the rebellions and the emergence of the "Sea Peoples." I don't see this evidence in Cline's book...just brief mention that some of this may be involved. Perhaps this quote might help. It comes from one of the major scholars studying and applying complexity theory to a wide number of issues. The scholar is Yaneer Bar-Yam. He is head of the New England Complex Systems Institute in Cambridge, Massachusetts. He says: "A networked society behaves like a multicellular organism; random damage is like lopping a chunk off a sheep. Whether or not the sheep survives depends on which chunk is lost. And while we are pretty sure which chunks a sheep needs, it isn't clear--and may not even be predictable --which chunks of our densely networked civilization are critical, until it's too late. When we do the analysis, almost any part is critical if you lose enough of it. Now that we can ask questions of such systems in more sophisticated ways, we are discovering that they can be very vulnerable." The actual text of Cline's book is only 177 pages in length, so it is a fairly small book that can be read in a brief amount of time. The rest of the book consists of detailed notes, a glossary of important ancient people in the book, and a bibliography. I enjoyed it. I learned a great deal. I would definitely recommend it together with the caveats I've noted above.

### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ The causes: Maybe this. Maybe that. Maybe something else.
*by A***N on November 12, 2017*

This book is very strong as a non-technical summary of the Hittite and Ugarit power centres and their correspondence. The main weaknesses are the attempts to determine causes of events. The author often explains causes as maybe this, or maybe that, or maybe something else. In other words, he rarely succeeds in pinning down the causes of things. The author describes very effectively, and in some fascinating detail, how the ruling classes of the numerous power centres of the eastern Mediterranean region communicated with each other about their administrations, armies and personal issues. However, most of the archaeology tells us predominantly only about the ruling classes and their collapse. Presumably the societies continued after the collapse of ruling élites, but without the central control, taxation and oppression. Thus 1177 BC should not be thought of as the date of collapse of civilisation, but rather the collapse of the ruling élites. There's an interesting early case of game theory on pages 29-30, where a king decided to take the most difficult path to attack a town, rather than the two easier paths, because the enemy would place all of their defences at the easy approaches. This is similar to the Calais-versus-Normandy decision in WW2. But this early game-theory-like thinking was in 1479 BC. Two small sections of this book could have been more useful at the beginning. The two-page map on pages 110-111 is a very useful overview of all of the individual towns which collapsed, and the 4-page "dramatis personae" on pages 181-184 gives useful perspective for all of the personalities which appear in the narrative. They would have been more useful just before page 1. I wondered about the name Ahhiyawa for Mycenaean Greece. It looks pretty clearly like an early form of Achaea. So I'm not sure why this was not discussed. There's a little error on page 37, where the activities of Schliemann in the "mid- to late eighteenth century" are discussed. Wrong century, I think. Pages 139-179 are concerned principally with speculation as to the causes of the apparent "collapse of civilization". These are the weakest pages in the book. The most meaningless and implausible explanation given by the author is that the international order became too complex. He invokes some kind of "complexity theory", which he himself admits on pages 169-170 is "possibly pseudoscientific" and "does not really make all that much sense". I would omit the word "possibly". The main problem which I see in the idea that "civilization" collapsed is that it was really only the palaces and a few towns which collapsed and were not re-built. Also, the written correspondence would naturally disappear if local power centres collapsed. The fact that the ruling 1% lost their ability to rule the 99% does not imply that the 99% just disappeared into thin air. (Remember that only the ruling class had access to reading and writing.) It seems that the rulers at that time had over-leveraged their power, in the same way that the Roman Empire over-leveraged its power, finally depending on foreign mercenaries which it could no longer pay. (Too much outsourcing!) And of course, if the 99% get no benefit from supporting the lavish life-style of the 1%, they might not consent to be ruled by them. And then, for example, they might burn down the palaces and loot the towns and cities. Despite its failings, this book deserves a strong 5 out of 5 for all of the fascinating correspondence of the Hittite and Ugaritic kingdoms which I didn't know much about before. If there is a lesson for the present, it might be that excessive concentration of power and wealth in the ruling classes might not be good for long-term stability.

## Frequently Bought Together

- 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed (Turning Points in Ancient History, 1)
- After 1177 B.C.: The Survival of Civilizations (Turning Points in Ancient History)
- 1177 B.C.: A Graphic History of the Year Civilization Collapsed (Turning Points in Ancient History, 4)

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