Author: Eric H. Cline
Title: 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed
Publication Info: Princeton University Press, 2014 
Summary/Review:
The Late Bronze Age civilizations of the eastern Mediterranean met with a catastrophic collapse in the 12th century B.C.E. Historians commonly attribute this to an invasion of people called the “Sea People” overwhelming Egypt’s military in 1177 B.C.E. In Cline’s evaluation of the evidence, the Sea People may have actually been refugees of war, natural disasters, and/or a climate crisis. Evidence exists for a cluster of earthquakes, droughts, and internal rebellions at the time before the arrival of the Sea People. The combination of the multiple catastrophes could have lead to the collapse.
The book is sprawling in both time in place as Cline sums up several centuries of history leading up to the collapse of several civilizations including the Greeks, Myceneans, Minoans, Hittites, Assyrians, Cypriots, Canaanites, and Egyptians. Along the way Cline explores the historic origins of the famed stories of Exodus and the Trojan War. Cline is good at explaining what we can learn from written records and archaeological finds, and how both of these have to be interpreted. He’s also good at noting that there typically isn’t enough evidence to know what happened precisely and how historians develop theories based on the facts we know.
Other interesting facts I learned from this book:
- Hatshepsut, who ruled as Pharaoh upon the death of her husband, wore a Pharaonic false beard and men’s clothing and was addressed as “His Majesty.”
- Kings of different nations who were not related used kinship terms like “father” and “son” when addressing one another, creating an artificial family relationship.
- a new type of glue was invented for archaeologists recovering copper ingots from the Uluburun shipwreck to allow them to bring the artifacts up in one piece.
Recommended books:
- SPQR: A History of Ancient Rome by Mary Beard
Rating: ***
Panorama of the Mountains 