2. The Bronze Age Collapse - Mediterranean Apocalypse

Sometime around the year 1100 BC, right at the end of the Bronze Age, a wave of destruction washed over the Eastern Mediterranean. It wiped whole civilizations off the map, and left only ash and ruin in its wake. This catastrophe, known as “the Late Bronze Age Collapse”, has become one of the enduring puzzles of archaeology. I want to explore how so many societies could collapse all at once, and seemingly without warning, as well as examine the lessons it might teach us in our increasingly globalised and interconnected world. Chapters: 0:00 - Intro: The Ruins of Hattusa 2:30 - The Mysterious Wave of Destruction 3:37 - Introduction and Welcome 5:53 - The Iliad, Odyssey, and The City of Troy 11:38 - Mediterranean Civilizations 13:05 - Trade between City States 15:00 - Bronze 18:16 - The two main sources of information from this era 20:02 - First Theory of Decline: The Sea Peoples 21:50 - Ugarit 30:51 - Egypt and Ramses III 42:00 - The Decline of Mycenae, Hattusa, Elam, Babylon 44:35 - Babylon 48:08 - Second Theory: The Growth of Iron Use 50:30 - Final Theory: Climate Change 53:15 - Eruption of Hekla 3 56:35 - An Alternative View of the Sea Peoples 1:00:21 - Closing Thoughts