The collapse of Syria is similar to the collapse of the Bronze Age in that about 5.5 million Syrians have fled abroad to escape the civil war. The Guardian refers to the war in Syria as “showing no signs of ending. People continue to flee, and refugees in neighbouring countries are now losing hope that they can return. (Melissa Fleming 1)” This is similar to the Sea People raiding the Mediterranean region in that as the condition worsened, the people living there most likely fled and continued to flee and had no hope as to restoring their society.
Sometimes referred to as the Copper-Stone age, the Bronze age first began in around 3000 BC and ended in 1200 BC. The Bronze Age refers to an age in which bronze was the primary metal used for weapons and tools. As is shown in the picture, some of the most common axes were made out of Bronze, and used as both weapons and tools. Even though bronze was fairly expensive, it became the most popular for weapons and tools. The Bronze Age had its peaks and its setbacks, but eventually all ages come to an end. So when the Bronze Age ended in 1200 BC, some historians believe that it was sudden and violent and could have been due to a variety of different reasons. For example, on HISTORY, their editors believe that “Earthquakes, famine, socio political unrest, and invasion by nomadic tribes may also have played a role. (HISTORY par. 22)” The main question in this essay is the main reasons the Bronze age collapsed over a long period of time and pretty violently. The biggest reason for the collapse of the Bronze Age is something called a domino effect. The domino effect is when one thing goes bad, and then the dominoes start falling in a literal sense. The second biggest reason is the fact that sea people warriors raided the Mediterranean region.
The biggest and most logical reason for the collapse of the Bronze age could be due to a domino effect. In a literal sense, a domino effect is one bad thing happening, and then all of the dominos topple over from that first domino. Dr. Cline refers to this idea as a domino plus a multiplier effect. A multiplier effect is when one factor magnifies the effects of every factor. Dr. Cline infers that “They could not survive the combined effects of earthquake, drought, and invaders all occurring in rapid succession. A domino effect then ensued, in which the disintegration of one civilization led to the fall of the others.” This quote is very plausible as one thing such as an earthquake, drought or famine is something that it is possible to recover from, but the combined effects of all of those things happening at once is very, very hard to recover from and become a working society again. This makes sense because natural disasters like earthquakes, droughts, and famine were pretty common in all of those sectors. That is the biggest piece of evidence that it could not had just been one thing, instead, it had to be more than one thing. The Human Journey notes that “One of the possible causes could have been internal conflicts with disobedient soldiers and Colin Renfrew noted that this process “might take as much as a century for all aspects of the collapse to be completed.” he said, and he noted that “there is no single, obvious cause for the collapse.” Obviously, it is pretty hard to pinpoint exactly what happened when and how much time it took, so the logical conclusion Renfrew came to was that it probably took as much as a century and that no one clear reason could be found.
The little we know about the Sea Peoples does not help us decipher what their intent was on inflicting so much violence. They were a group of warriors that wreaked havoc in the Mediterranean. The picture to the right shows how they arrived in their ships/boats ready and attacked Egypt, Turkey, Syria, and Palestine. The sea people consisted of a mix of tribes, Sherden, Peleset, Denyen, Shekelesh and others. Even though they left such a huge mark on history, scholars know almost nothing about their culture or traditions. Dr. Cline stated that the Sea Peoples “are far more shadowy than the lands that they reportedly overran. They left no inscriptions of their own and are therefore known textually almost entirely from Egyptian inscriptions (Dr. Cline 3).” Their shadowness leads to the conclusion that no one knows for sure their intent and/or reason to attack so many places and leave it desolated. We also don’t know where they came from or even who they are specifically. The picture to the right is an inscription the egyptians made of the sea people fighting with what looks to be spears, which shows their direct intent to be violent and most likely unforgiving. There is a small chance that
The second biggest reason for the collapse of the Bronze Age was most likely from the Sea Peoples attacking the Mediterranean. In the book Of Bronze Age Crisis and Collapse by Neil Silberman, he says that “European scholars of the nineteenth century were quick to cast outside barbarians as the mortal enemies of civilization. (Silberman 66)” Maybe the reason European scholars were quick to make outside barbarians the enemies is because they had no other choice but to do that. It is quite obvious that the Sea Peoples caused quite a panic and inflicted a lot of damage to everything..This is most likely because there was more of a chance of there being an external disagreement than an internal disagreement. This is because everyone follows the traditions inside a community, but people outside of the community do not see the same things which leads to disagreements, and in this case, violence.
The Bronze age ending was sudden and unexpected for everyone. The two biggest plausible reasons for this is a domino/multiplier effect and external disagreements with the sea peoples. This is important to note because history tends to repeat itself. For history to repeat this specific instance of an age ending would be very significant and disastrous for everyone. This is why the leaders of our countries need to learn how to communicate in a more efficient way as to prevent these types of disasters happening in the first place.
Works Cited
- Cline, Eric H. 1177 BC The Year Civilization Collapsed. Princeton University Press, 2015.
- “Bronze Age.” History.com, A&E Television Networks, 2 Jan. 2018, www.history.com/topics/pre-history/bronze-age.
- Ruggeri, Amanda. “Earth – The Ancient Copper Mines Dug by Children.” BBC News, BBC, 21 Apr. 2016, www.bbc.com/earth/story/20160420-the-ancient-copper-mines-dug-by-bronze-age-children.
- Dhwty. “The Battle of the Delta: Ramses III Saves Egypt from the People of the Sea.” Ancient Origins, Ancient Origins, 25 May 2015, www.ancient-origins.net/history-important-events/battle-delta-ramses-iii-saves-egypt-people-sea-003119.
- “Sea People Inscriptions in The Mortuary Temple of Ramesses III at Medinet Habu.” The Zoroastrian Religion, realhistoryww.com/world_history/ancient/Misc/Medinet_Habu/Medinet_Habu.htm.
- Fleming, Melissa. “Six Reasons Why Syrians Are Fleeing to Europe in Increasing Numbers.” The Guardian, Guardian News and Media, 25 Oct. 2015, www.theguardian.com/global-development-professionals-network/2015/oct/25/six-reasons-why-syrians-are-fleeing-to-europe-in-increasing-numbers.