What was life like after the Bronze age collapse?

first to build a little bit of context we need to answer the question what was the bronze age collapse explained as fast as possible otherwise it would no longer be just a little bit of context at the beginning of the 12th century bc the most populous prosperous and technologically advanced empires on planet earth were all right next to each other with the notable exception of the shang dynasty in what is now china these states formed a robust interconnected system of economic political and cultural exchange that endured for many centuries and then in the span of a few decades diplomacy trade and prosperity gave way to famine war and chaos the resulting devastation was so severe that even the ability to read and write was lost for hundreds of years in many regions throughout the greater near east in what is now greece written records disappeared for almost 500 years this loss of civilization was so extraordinary that this collapse has often been called an apocalypse this video is about those that survived context over but first before we answer the question who survived let's briefly talk about who did not survive generally speaking if one were a general king queen priest noble or any of the long-established ruling class chances of survival were slim these fine folks were often the first to go they were not only the primary targets of foreign invaders but also loftin fell victim to their own people's wrath when these political and religious leaders who controlled the lion's share of the land's wealth failed to deliver on their promises of safety prosperity and a belly full of food they were naturally blamed for the bad times however war famine and sickness were not caused by poor leadership alone and the bad times became worse conflict became constant and life expectancy was certainly not great for military men also was a bad time to try to stay alive for most non-military men as well farmers who would have been the majority of the population pretty much everywhere mostly died off as irrigation systems were destroyed and marauders roamed the countryside the city folk didn't do any better and probably did a worse job at surviving on average scribes in particular seem to have failed at living given the lack of written records from an ensuing dark age that followed the bronze age collapse in addition to scribes the butcher the baker and the chariot maker and pretty much everyone who lived in towns and cities didn't make it with few exceptions without a massive base of rural farmers well-maintained irrigation and imported goods that were necessary to support a city demoralized city dwellers became the victims of invaders marauders or themselves while life in the big city vanished or greatly diminished there were some exceptions the most notable of which was egypt the year is 1077 roughly 100 years after the bronze age collapse the once mighty egyptian empire has shrank into a shriveled husk of its former glory like its pharaoh ramses the eleventh who is a tired and dying old man he is the last of many pharaohs to be named ramses he is also the last native egyptian pharaoh to rule over a united egypt like his immediate predecessors his long reign was a sad one long gone were the days of god kings beloved by the people throwing lavish parties to celebrate imperial victories and far-off lands the egyptian economy crashed prices of basic goods skyrocketed and taxes were high to maintain the army consequently the malcontented urban population frequently revolted in those times pharaohs were more likely to wage war against their own people than a foreign adversary and rebellions were brutally put down egypt managed to defeat foreign invasions and dominate its own dwindling population while most contemporary empires and kingdoms collapsed part of egypt's strategy was to hire many of the invaders as mercenaries like the sea peoples and most notably many many libyans were hired the army was paid well while egypt's border slowly shrank all was sacrificed to feed the egyptian war machine including the pharaoh's power in the nile delta tanis rose as a rival power center to the old capital of memphis there the strong man's mendes ruled little is known of his origins and path to power but it was likely similar to hero or the ruler of thebes herohor rose through the ranks of the egyptian army eventually becoming not only the egyptian supreme military commander and grand vizier of the south but the viceroy of kush and finally the high priest of ammon at thebes herohor took on some pharonic titles and iconography while still acknowledging ramses the eleventh's authority predominantly in name only the power of egypt's military secular and religious institutions were combined and wielded by one autocrat monopolizing the violence and corruption that have always been a part of power herrera not only held absolute control over his citizens life by the sword but also their afterlife herrera was indicative of the violent brutal and efficient men that came to dominate egypt for centuries to come following ramses the eleventh's death egypt split in two was solidified the two new rival dynasties that formed engaged in a long-standing mostly cold war with each other ramses the 11th was never buried in his tomb instead it became a workshop for stripping ancient mummies of their valuables in a semi-respectful manner even the gold on the coffins was scraped off the methodical manner this appears to have been carried out means these mummies were probably looted by state actors massive spending on the army and an overtaxed demoralized populace made the fabulous wealth buried in the ground a tempting target for state-sponsored looting the new dynasties that had access to temple treasure maps may have not viewed their predecessor's tombs as sacred as before these pharaohs no longer boasted of foreign victories or massive building projects but occasionally boasted a maintenance on crumbling monuments or if they were less honest wrote their names over old masterworks pretending they had built them as an isolated impoverished egypt lingered on those not so fortunate as to live in a post-apocalyptic dystopian dictatorship run by an authoritarian megalomaniac lived a very different life the egyptians credited the prodigal band of mediterranean maritime marauders known as the sea peoples with the destruction of the international system of states they were a part of this view was based off of their own personal experience of being invaded by the sea peoples multiple times while the eastern mediterranean they were familiar with was ravaged and plundered however more than any nautical threat much more insidious formidable and familiar forces played a larger role in bringing the great empires of bronze to their ruin the grand hittite capital city of hatusa was sacked by a coalition of former subjects and new enemies foremost among them were the kaskas a fierce tribe of mountain warriors who were a long time off and on again hittite vassal and now they were out for vengeance like hatusa babylon the intellectual and cultural center of mesopotamia was sacked pillaged and plundered and much of his population massacred by the assyrian king to coltinarta as the city slowly recovered it was sacked again by the elamites plunging southern mesopotamia into a centuries-long dark age the elamites were by far the most organized powerful and populous of all the major mountain peoples of the late bronze age in addition to the elamites there were many more petty kingdoms cities and towns of the anatolian southern caucus and zagros mountain ranges that had long-standing antagonistic relationships with the kingdoms and empires of the flatlands when the much more populous flatlanders were united and strong they pushed their way around they marched their armies throughout the mountains and extorted tribute from the overwhelmed mountain people in exchange for not burning down their crops towns and cities when the tables were turned in times of civil war famine or any other time of weakness the tough impatient mountain people flooded into the flat lands collecting tribute and sacking cities this usually ended when enough organized resistance was mounted or as was sometimes the case the mountain peoples settled among the flatlanders as a new ruling class eventually assimilating into their culture like had been the case with the earlier hurrians gutiens and cassites in contrast to their success in the early decades of the bronze age collapse the warlike assyrians defeated just about every mountain people that attempted to establish themselves in mesopotamia assyria appeared to be on the verge of holding the collapsing age together by their own force of will and brutality until they met their match a people more stubbornly resilient than the mountain peoples and more terrifying than the sea peoples long before the bronze age collapsed during its most stable and prosperous epoch there were those that just didn't fit into society some were criminal fugitives bandits or those who just wanted freedom on the southern periphery of the fertile crescent a multitude of small familial clans eeked out in existence as pastoral nomads a little bit of water or patch of grass could mean the difference between life and death consequently these people were fiercely competitive highly mobile and nearly indestructible in contrast to the mountain peoples who hoarded away wealth of metals and other highly prized resources in their remote citadels the people of the wasteland had very little wealth which the bronze age empires could extort from them so they were usually left alone the wastelanders periodically visited the region's cities and traded sheepskins and other assorted loot with the subtle peoples but their most notable rule in pre-collapse bronze age society was as mercenaries these tough tribal people with an extensive knowledge of the region's terrain would be frequently hired to guide and guard caravans or attack raid or harass one city on behalf of another by the later 12th century bc their time had come the age of epic battles fought between collapsing empires was drawing to a close this gave way to a short period of assyrian dominance over much of the near east but despite their success the empire was exhausted overextended and the land they ruled over was devastated then the floodgates opened and the wastelanders poured in chaldeans sutians and aramaians were the most numerous of the tribal peoples to migrate into mesopotamia the countryside was devastated but in comparison to the wasteland where clans could spend generations fighting over access to a well the depopulated rubble of the old world would have appeared as if the gates of heaven had opened up now they had much better things to squabble over like gold wine slaves and prestige where mass irrigated fields of grains had once stood there was more than enough wild grasses growing for sheep to have a hearty meal or two because of this pastoral nomads thrived after the collapse and their way of life became the dominant lifestyle almost everywhere in the near east and as the sheep population grew so did the population of those who ate them especially the arameans because of their mobile nature the assyrians found it nearly impossible to stamp them out with conventional military means assyrian kings frequently boasted of wiping the aramaians off the face of the earth then a few years later they would boast of defeating them again and again but this time for good the assyrians were not keen on keeping records of their own defeats but three signs point to the likelihood they frequently lost during this period 1. the large number of campaigns they waged against the arameans 2. they made and kept peace with survivors from their old enemy babylon was also being overrun by nomadic pastoralists number three they ultimately abandoned their empire and retreated into their heartland which itself was under aramian assault some of their cities were sacked and even an aqueduct to their capital city was destroyed and it lay and repaired for decades the arameans were everywhere some daring warlords captured remote assyrian mountain citadels and outposts these were used as the base of operations for further marauding numerous small bands of arameans stalked the countryside enslaving rural farmers consequently many refugees flooded into assyria cities this caused food shortages sickness popular unrest and ultimately civil war while many still maintained their nomadic way of life over time many of the illiterate aramian herdsmen became kings many of these kings were merely the rulers of fortified towns and villages built on the ruins of what were one cities there were some legitimately powerful aramean kings and chieftains who could marshal thousands of men into battle however the independent and competitive nature of the arameans meant that they never united into a larger empire and were frequently at war with themselves as they were with almost everyone else in the west there was a chunk of the hittite empire that never fell it transitioned into a collection of loosely allied city-states called the neo-hittites here the aramean onslaught appears to have been slightly more gentle in this case all we know is that around 1000 bc the rulers of many of the city-states there came to have aramean names and the culture gradually became more aramean one possible scenario is that the hittite cities in this region became so sick of being constantly extorted by a never-ending series of aramian warlords chiefs and petty kings that one day they said hey you want to come here and be a real king and defend us from the rest of your buddies that ended up working and a bunch of other cities followed the same strategy the long-standing most powerful and stable aramean kingdom was aram damascus from there the arameans launched many campaigns against the hebrew tribes to their south some scholars believe the hebrews were the habiru mentioned in earlier egyptian records while others think the term habiru was a generic term for some of the wastelanders in the region similar to how alamu appears to have been a generic term for wastelanders to the northeast so it could be said the arameans were alamu but not all alimu were aramians the hebrews also had nomadic pastoralist roots and followed a somewhat similar trajectory as the arameans did gradually becoming city dwellers and founding formidable states despite the chaotic age many of the battered city-states in the levant enjoyed a golden age of sort after things started to settle down a little bit after 1000 bc the region was no longer at the crossroads of powerful empires which allowed the kingdoms and city-states there to thrive and fight amongst themselves for a little while to the south more than 200 years after the bronze age collapse the semi-nomadic libyans that had poured into the nile delta and served in the egyptian army slowly took over the egyptian military government and finally the throne the libyan pharaoh shoshank united the land and for the first time a foreign dynasty ruled all of egypt after the bronze age collapse it was undoubtedly the warlike semi-nomadic herdsmen that proved themselves the best survivalists this ability to survive was in large part due to their mobility they could move away from greater threats and take advantage of weaker targets their society was efficient low maintenance and based around small united family units before i get back to our regular programming a brief message from this video sponsors this video has been sponsored by bronze tired of your copper bending or your iron rusting i recommend you buy bronze and a lot of it why buy bitcoin when you can buy a pound of bronze for a very affordable two dollars and two cents a pound now that is what i call a bargain this video is also sponsored by my fantastic patrons over on patreon who have helped out this channel through the tough times one group of people i believe would have survived at a greater rate than most other civilians would have been merchants they have the ability and know how to travel long distances preferably away from danger they were master negotiators and could possibly barter to save their own life merchants would have known many languages and social customs to get around foreign areas one piece of anecdotal evidence is that during the bronze age collapse the assyrian king asher balcala built the world's first recorded zoo this is while his empire was being torn apart by civil war and aramian tribal incursion so even though goodwill asher belcala may have failed in setting his priorities straight his merchants did succeed in acquiring exotic animals from far-off lands for their king zoo which included an ape and a crocodile their ability to travel through hostile terrain and return with such unwieldy cargo is a testament to the merchant's resourcefulness which may indicate they were good at surviving the greek island of ubia is the only example i can think of where the pre-existing farmers survived and thrived after the collapse once a mycenian backwater the island became a fortress where small family farms grew and banded together in a collective defense centuries later the eubans were the first greeks to emerge from their dark ages establish colonies in far-off lands and rediscover writing what happened after this post-apocalyptic age the short answer is assyria if you enjoyed this video you will probably enjoy my many other videos on the bronze age and the ancient near east this has been epimetheus and thank you so much for watching to the end of the video

Channel: Epimetheus

Views: 1,535,544

Keywords: Ancient history, history, documentary, bronze age, bronze age collapse, What Happened After The Bronze Age Collapse?, bronze age documentary, Hittites, hittite empire, ancient egypt, arameans, assyrians, assyrian empire, assyrian history, elam, bronze age empires, babylon, fall of babylon, sea people, aramaeans, mycenaeans, epimetheus, bronze dark age, canaanites, neo-hittites, near east, dark age, mesopotamia, sea peoples, phoenicians, minoans, bronze age apocalypse, ancient, ancient history

Id: U5RCjvKVL38

Length: 18min 51sec (1131 seconds)

Published: Wed Mar 17 2021