1177 B.C.: When Civilization Collapsed | Eric Cline

Consider this, optimists. All the societies in the world can collapse simultaneously. It has happened before.
In the 12th century BCE the great Bronze Age civilizations of the Mediterranean-all of them-suddenly fell apart. Their empires evaporated, their cities emptied out, their technologies disappeared, and famine ruled. Mycenae, Minos, Assyria, Hittites, Canaan, Cyprus-all gone. Even Egypt fell into a steep decline. The Bronze Age was over.
The event should live in history as one of the great cautionary tales, but it hasn’t because its causes were considered a mystery. How can we know what to be cautious of? Eric Cline has taken on on the mystery. An archaeologist-historian at George Washington University, he is the author of "1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed." The failure, he suggests, was systemic. The highly complex, richly interconnected system of the world tipped all at once into chaos.
"1177 B.C.: When Civilization Collapsed" was given on January 11, 02016 as part of Long Now's Seminar series. The series was started in 02003 to build a compelling body of ideas about long-term thinking from some of the world's leading thinkers. The Seminars take place in San Francisco and are curated and hosted by Stewart Brand. To follow the talks, you can:
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[Carl Hahn]

50 years ago I remember my Dad joking about how future archeologists would look at our ruins and think that Barby Dolls were fertility goddesses and TV sets were religious altars.

[Social World]

Yeah. And when they find CD's, DVDs, or Blue-rays they will see them as tablets and conclude that we were communicating in binary language. 10011100110011...

[BuggaBoo]

@Social World Nah, they will just think they are coasters, lol

[dnmurphy48]

@BuggaBoo weapons?

[dnmurphy48]

Clever chap your dad :) 👏

[BuggaBoo]

@dnmurphy48 maybe armor used to mitigate laser guns

[Brian Levor]

Wow. Dr. Cline was my professor for Greek History 18 years ago at George Washington University. It was one of the hardest classes I ever took. Dr. Cline offered me no quarter; either I learned a ton of history or I failed. I studied my ass off, got an A on the final, and earned the most difficult 'C' I'd ever receive. It is great watching him now and knowing that I was learning from one of the preeminent experts on this time period in the academic world.

[Tim Friday]

god...i would give anything to allowed a D- in a greek history class taught by Dr. Cline...

[Gábor Erik]

Was it worth it?

[Gábor Erik]

Hiccum Blurpaedius Wtf is Bob Dole? ... Meanwhile I happened to read on. I gather Bob Dole was a good republican. Hold my beer! I go and fetch my gun ...

[Agustín Fodrini]

@Gábor Erik Of course not. That is not the way of knowledge. """Educational""" system is garbage.

[Sea Urchin]

A phenomenal lecture! Dr. Cline is so well versed in the subject that he's able to describe it smoothly and succinctly. A true expert and an academic treasure.

[AJ Everyone]

Just starting the lecture but that sounds like a paid review...

[Railscenes]

Just having an amateur interest in history and retired railway conductor I found this info very relevant to our human activity today. I think the video shown at the beginning was probably the same in 1200 BC. Just different technology. Your use of modern analogy, including jokes, and common language made this lecture a pleasure. Thank you. I was employed on the Santa Fe Railway formed by a man in 1869 , Cyrus K. Holiday, who had a vision of trade with Asia. That vision is still a main stay of what we now call intermodal freight traffic or trade. The Santa Fe completed it’s transcontinental link from Chicago to LA and California ports by 1888. Now the BNSF Ry calls the Santa Fe mainline the southern “Transcon”. However, a large portion of the freight is now carried in containers adapted to be loaded onto large container ships on both east & west coast of the U.S. Some of the freight is trans-global, in that containers are off loaded on one coast onto trains. Then transported across the US and reloaded onto container ships too large to navigate the Panama Canal. Then transported to either Europe, Africa and Asia and visa-versa. It forced the railway systems to modernize and the Santa Fe had that vision to have the infrastructure to adapt to the change and increase in freight traffic. They were a bit slow to pick up the ball, but were way ahead of other railway companies in moving priority freight trains on their passenger mainlines much more efficiently. BNSF take over just boosted the investment needed to speed the mainline up even more on the Santa Fe route. So how much evidence has archeology uncovered to show an evolution of methods of transporting raw material and high value trade items? The tin from Afghanistan would have been a tough trip with heavy loads to meet the demand to make bronze. Camels? Carts? Elephants? Were trade routes trampled down hard and leaving a permanent impression in the earth, then paved over by Roman road system? We can only guess, 🤔 I guess?

[B AM22]

Early 2K, I remember leaving CA by car using 10 and seeing freight cars after freight cars heading into California and on the sides was printed "CHINA." Many family members from Los Lunas and Belen area in NM worked for SFRR, and by the late 30s had moved permanently to CA with the job.

[M P]

V

[Bmrbs]

tldr

[H]

I was a history major, Middle Eastern and North African studies, and I keep coming back to this lecture. There’s so much incredible information here. Unfortunately, it helps us to understand where we’re headed.

[ND]

Agreed. We should always: Look back to the past and find a resolution for securing a new unknown future!

[R C]

I think, biblically, we can also see where we are headed. We can change trajectory, if we really want to

[Ashton Haggitt]

@R C no.

[medexamtoolsdotcom]

Possibly. But there are so many things that are SO unlike anything that existed in other eras of time, that you really can't conclude that history will repeat itself, even if it is similar in many ways to events that have played out many times before. We could be headed for a societal collapse, or what may well prove to be a minor inconvenience to the bringing about of an ultra optimistic transhumanist future. Only time will tell.

[Ruby Band]

wow, thank you Eric Cline ... and everyone else on camera. This was a breath of fresh air. None of you is "full of yourselves". You are humble, intellectual, succinct, and accessible. Just want to let y'all know it is recognized and appreciated.

[Eduardo Sturla Ferrer]

Cline is a rare academic, one that can make complicated themes understandable. At the same time make it fun, engaging and makes you want to investigate more.

[Imagio1953]

Academics used to be a dime a dozen, when I was still too young for College. Now they are harder to find.

[Eric Keith]

Meh. So much of the western historical narrative leaves for more questions than answers, and very dubious at best. For example, up until the mid 1800s, you have many references to the Tartarian empire, including existence on maps of that era, and then it is largely erased from the modern narrative. The Tartarian maps include domain over large parts of what is now Russia and also North America. The language spoken is often said to be an early form of Magyar (currently known now as Hungarian) language. You find in the Americas, evidence of Magyar language spoken by many so-called "first nation" people, who also say, "we aren't the first". What else, also early Spanish maps predating 1850s show the Aztecs had a range from what is today, Salt Lake City to Mexico City. If you look at maps of early American languages spoken, that's exactly what you find. Yet the modern, institutionally supported narrative doesn't follow the facts, but spit out constant spun-up conjecture. Then you have megalithic sites with technology that doesn't match the current narrative, including anthropological findings that support "native mythology" but not "Western" chronological narratives. The explanation? Also, shy is the Smithsonian more secretive than the NSA?

[Avicci Lostboy]

@Eric Keith yup, All major cities in NA were are probly tartarian. We couldnt rebuild those parliment buildings, cathedrals etc if we tried. Nevermind the secrecy behind space program and disaster cycles one of which is coming up in 20 yrs SuspiciousObservers yt channel

[SoulSoundMuisc]

This was excellent. You can tell someone is a true master of their trade or area of expertise when they can explain the material so simply and elegantly. Bravo.

[Hexa Torus]

This guy is awesome. He gives credit to so many other people. You rarely see this and instead see speakers usually give credit to themselves for everything. And he's humorous and makes this story so interesting. Society is lucky to have this person around.

[Marsha Wilcox]

This was fascinating! Eric Cline was very clear, and engaging. I was hesitant when I saw the length of this lecture, but -- totally worth every second! Thank you!

[Russ]

It’s nice to watch something longer than 10 minutes

[Sergio Grez Estudio Creativo]

So amazing and entertaining!!!! Mr. Eric Cline has the power of teach his knowledge in a manner that you forget he's been talking for an hour. I could listen to him an entire day without thinking of anything else. Such an interesting topic and also how important it is for us at the present times. Incredible and passionate presentation, didactic and clear.

[Guy Gordon]

Yes, but I did get a bit tired of every question being answered "all of the above" or "both". :-) Now, I have to admit that's an honest and sometimes correct answer. But more often, in the real world, when you have 5 things supporting something that falls, there's one thing that caused or started it. So the best answer is "we don't know yet which one."

[Carey Tisdal]

I read his book, and I wish I had had this narrative before I read it. I have worked on scientific literacy projects, and teaching storytelling is an underrated approach to helping people hang theories and evidence together. As much as I love methods, I think they may need to be a secondary priority in sharing STEM with the general public.

[Qasim Ahmed]

What I really, really love about this video is that it made me finally understand archeology, and how close it is to forensic science!

[Ralph Baric PhD]

Except that forensics is so incomplete and scattered that's when the extrapolation makes it an art form. History is still written by the winners to project the story they prefer.

[Brendan Wood]

Except Canan was actually Palestine, Syria, and Jordan. Not Israel, Syria and Jordan.

[Lee McLaughlin]

@Ralph Baric PhD yyuûy hi

[Nick🎨🎸Nicometi]

Archaeology

[em te]

Thank you, Long Now Foundation. Great presentation! Did read some of Mr. Cline's book. It is a serious book. His fun humor comes across in his lecturing. I think the details of ancient civilization are so interesting, even more interesting than the theories about it. The high points of his view on the fall of the ancient nations caught in a perfect storm of challenges are much more accessible in this talk compared to the very densely written book.

[David Derner]

Regarding the discussion on iron versus bronze..as a sculptor who pours both bronze and iron regularly I can say that the difference back then was surely the melting temperature..1850F for bronze and 2650F for iron..in ancient times there was no way to cast iron and get to that temp..it was smelted into what was called a bloom and heated red hot and pounded into useful shapes..but not melted..that would take centuries to engineer..also brass was rare because the boiling point of zinc is so close to its melting point that zinc was rarely isolated to create brass..also i really enjoyed this video..cheers...

[Great Bingus]

there are surprising early 'blast furnaces' found that can make crude cast iron but yeah the blast furnaces that would give high quality iron and not cast iron were middle ages not what we think of as the iron age but that is the real iron age

[jemborg]

I have no doubt they would have developed the double bellows eventually but they also had an economy revolving around bronze and an upper class invested in it. Think of the push back from big oil or coal and the conservative class over alternative energy even though it's become cheaper.

[Goodbye Blue Sky]

@CRIMINAL 76 academia won't go near that pillar, just as they avoid most of India. Check out Praveen Mohan

[Jim Craig]

The late bronze age collapse is fascinating, such a brilliant lecture by Dr Cline.

[Kostas Hatjiemmanouel]

A really fascinating history lecture indeed! Thank you professor Eric Cline!

[Matthew Zimmerman]

By far one of the greatest talks, I never wanted it to end. Just absolutely astounding.

[JDavis2000]

I had a class with Professor Cline a few years ago, as you can tell he is a fantastic lecturer. Also has a collection of wonderfully thematic ties.

[Lisa Schuster]

Where does he get them? I took a fun screen shot.

[Arc Anon Drum]

Ask 'the Professor' if he has ever heard of the Cyprus Tree 10:10

[HMQ]

I'm concerned for his wife. If he rolled on top of her she'd go through the mattress like French fries

[Marius]

wat

[Chris King]

This was an absolutely amazing lecture! And I believe he has pointed out very clearly issues that we are currently facing today.

[Tsrif Tsal]

@Steven David Stoffers normalization of risk

[Primus2004]

…. Anything specific?

[Én Vagyok]

Thank you Mr. Cline! This lecture was amazing!

[Danielle Riley]

I believe and have heard elsewhere that late Bronze Age bronze was actually superior or a bit harder than early Iron Age iron. Also you don’t change the base metal of society over night and change doesn’t happen everywhere at once. It would filter around the known world over time. Just think that iron was mined or picked up at one place and processed nearby. That area would be using that iron in everyday life first probably because it’s what they have and it doesn’t require import. This would make it cheaper. Then you wouldn’t export this stuff till you have enough of an excess. Then this gets exported. Small excesses get exported to close places since the freight charges and difficulties would be covered by small export quantities. Once the close market is satisfied then you e port further and further. This has iron filtering across the lands as excess production brings down the price. Then low prices means further transport becomes easier and cheaper. Remember your competing with bronze which has a single source for tin a long way away and freight must have been prohibitive. I thought king tuts dagger was meteoric iron? Testing and all.

[Ki Li Dini]

A great lesson for us, today. The thought, the delivery, and the imagery are unforgettable. Pity few of our "Leaders" seem capable of learning from history.

[mfjdville]

Well, nobody at all seems capable of learning from history for some reason. Every time there is a war we all say 'never again', famous last words.

[Becky D]

We need to elect better educated more caring people. We need to stop considering their wallets when running for office; having money obviously DOES NOT make good politicians, certainly not great ones.

[Colonel__ Klink]

The Tojan war is a fascinating thing because of the cleverness of Homer's epic. This man sung a lie so big, so enthralling that here it is thousands of years later and we have not forgotten the truth. We don't know exactly where the war was fought, that's unimportant, we remember the important aspects. Men of Greece waged a war that lasted for many years and it was so terrible that even when it was over it was not over for the soldiers. They were so scarred by the war that they became lost, unable to truly return home for many years if at all. Thousands of years ago, Homer sung about PTSD... and mocked the very reason why the men paid such a terrible price.

[E Zy]

are you jewish?

[Werner Schroer]

The iron dagger in King Tut's tomb derives with high certainty from an iron meteorite. A recent study using X-ray fluorescence (XRF) spectrometry determined that Tutankhamun’s dagger was made with iron containing nearly 11 percent nickel and traces of cobalt: a characteristic of extraterrestrial iron found in many of the iron meteorites that have rained down on Earth for billions of years.

[Karen Abrams]

I love watching someone teach this subject who thinks this is as much fun to learn about as I do. 🥰

[InnerSpace]

This is a gifted man. You can be sure he has influenced many young minds. What a great role model.

[Joan Pascal]

Love learning...

[Charles Whitehead]

Really enjoyable. The scholarly but engaging way Eric presented this fascinating episode of our history was fantastic

[EliWCoyote]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="84">1:24</a>:55 "Motel of the Mysteries"!! I remember Reader's Digest did an excerpt from that story back in the 80's or so, and it really stuck with me...never expected somebody to bring it up! It was brilliant. They "discovered" that the "ancient burial site" (motel) was surrounded by outward-facing guardians to protect and defend the tomb, with names like "Firebird", "Falcon" and so on... 😂

[Thomas Gilson]

Eric Cline is a top rate speaker and presenter. Had me hooked here.

[alpenglo]

What a wonderful lecture, and great question session afterwards. Well done!

[oldschoolman 144]

The more I study history the more I realize that nothing really changes.

[Graham J. Ellis]

"The man who forgets his history is destined to relive it."

[Stephen]

You won’t be saying that in a few years .

[Becky D]

What a fascinating lecture by Dr. Cline. Lots to think about and consider. Thank you!

[Danielle Riley]

Second time I’ve watched this video. I’m really into this era just as a hobby and the idea of such long lead times for messages and the trust that they were legitimately from the person that it said they were from amazes me. So I purchased your book right now from Apple iBooks.

[Darhan62]

Globalization has been going on since the first explorers and trading vessels set out across the sea. It happens in fits and starts. Sometimes it slides backwards. But with the inexorable advance of technology, I believe it will ultimately unite the world. Hopefully that united world will serve as a hub of exploration, allowing human presence to expand to worlds beyond.

[Donald Neill]

Outstanding presentation and discussion. Nice to see academics keeping an open mind and acknowledging when we don't know what we don't know. And a great take on the practicalities of iron vs. bronze. "How sharp is an iron vs. a bronze dagger?" "Does it matter when it goes into you?" Iron is better, obviously, but it's much harder to produce (higher temperatures, alloys, etc.), and so you wouldn't necessarily want to use it if bronze gives you the 90% solution. But if tin becomes impossible to find...

[ResidualSelfImage]

Bronze is more economical and affordable than iron - iron's strength only becomes noticeable when used for weapons. The upgrade from bronze to iron/steel would be an obvious military upgrade.

[David James]

Don't bring a bronze weapon to an iron weapon fight.

[Trevor Keen]

'Simultaneously' is a relative term. The time span he talks about is around three hundred years, and also that the civilizations bounce back in another few centuries or even decades in altered forms (since a lot of their knowledge and culture does disappear)

[IGB]

This man is an effective educator; he does a really good job of captivating your attention

[Hello 1814]

So this was a great show and I learned a lot and it’s fascinating! Has anybody actually built a systems model based upon any of this to look for how the stressors affected the system. you mentioned a system many times but is anybody actually built a model? that would be very enlightening I think!

[TheLazy0ne]

Given I've only heard about Bronze Age Collapse here and there and had no idea it happened before that and until now it was this mysterious event, I'm glad this exist. It was quite explanatory. Thank you modern age global knowledge network 😌

[karl patterson]

Great talk. This man is superbly well informed and articulate. It was a pleasure to watch.

[Sachin Ganpat]

Fantastic talk. I learned so much in that hour or so I swore it was a 3 hour talk. So much insight into our present as well.

[Karol W.]

This must be the most viewed video about archeology on YT, 2.3 million people at least opened it. Not surprising, this man is amazing!

[Zeromancer]

A truly fantastic lecture. Many thanks, Professor.

[Thomas Kjær Christensen]

🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉🎉

[Finox B]

Fascinating lecture, thanks to Eric Cline for putting it together and the Long Now Foundation for hosting it. I especially found the earthquake sequence to be interesting as I had not heard of this before in the context of the late bronze age collapse. Not sure yet if it's in his book but I had the thought that earthquakes would have wrought havoc on the un-reinforced masonry and mud-brick walls that the cites of these civilizations depended on for protection. This would have helped the sea peoples (or any other invaders in that period) to undermine, batter down or otherwise assault those settlements. I bet someone could write a paper just on that, and I would love to read it.

[Sid Stovell]

Earthquakes still destroying adobe brick buildings in Mexico.

[Craig Hunnel]

I have been in the midst of reading this book when I came across this Very intriguing I do have to say that the dismissive attitude towards the exodus is a bit puzzling Because I believe it may be the key component that ties it all together Especially with such a large displacement of a people group Trade routes disrupted even halted Economic collapse of Egypt and the entire region from Egypt to Syria But that is a discussion for another day I thoroughly enjoyed watching and learning today from a deep learned scholar and archeologist like Dr Cline

[J SUTCLIFFE]

1177 B.C.: When Civilization Collapsed | Eric Cline 1138am 17.5.23 i bet he didnt even know he was on facebook..

[Leonard Niedermayer]

Perhaps the Trojan War in mythology was actually a war against the Trojans who were a sea people. Maybe they even raided Sparta carrying off women, perhaps including the king's wife, and this was a reprisal or a gathering of the Greeks to go after them once and for all and try to make the raids or incursions stop. A lot of mythology often has a non-magical basis in reality.

[Leonard Wei]

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="2600">43:20</a> Thanks for clarifying that story regarding the clay tablets not supposedly sent out in time and were found still in the kiln when the city fell. I've seen it (unknowingly or lazily) repeated elsewhere when they talk about the bronze age collapse.

[Carolyn Rosser]

This was really fascinating, I was so engrossed I didn’t notice the time and was surprised when he finished. The sign of a great speaker is when you don’t believe it finished so quickly because it is so interesting. I could have listened for another hour, such a brilliant explanation. Thank you, I will watch out for more topics from this channel.

[Cen Blackwell]

Absolutely fascinating lecture by Dr. Cline. I'd love to read his proposed 'what if' alternate history book.

[Jaime Osbourn]

@SueDenim Citation needed

[Alien Autopsy]

Eric Cline is a genius. Amazing how he pieced all this together.

[Peter & Pete]

it's easy, alot of it was from his imagination!!

[RandomNAme]

@Peter & Pete you are a professor of what??

[Peter & Pete]

@RandomNAme a professor in identifying BS!!

[RandomNAme]

@Peter & Pete understood, so you dont know a thing

[Peter & Pete]

@RandomNAme well eric cline wasn't around in 1177BC to have known anything in that time. You do realise humans only come to truly know things through experience right?

[Paulus_Neptunus]

The first minutes were a shock to see just how far removed from nature (the natural world as it once was) we are.

[west ho]

Thoroughly enjoyed Eric Clines clear & concise narration & style of delivery in context, melding patterns of the past covered by a larger footprint of the present, hence envisioning the distinct possibilities for our future as an interconnected interdependent global civilization. The recent destruction of existing ruins from the ancient past in a recent wave of destruction by in

[That Blind Guy]

I would love to take a class by this guy. Very engaging and entertaining.

[Frederik Spudnik]

Regarding bronze vs iron The speaker makes a really good point about "a sharp edge is a sharp edge." Don't forget we are talking iron here, not steel. Not to say that carbon didn't get into the iron at all, but people hadn't quite figured out steel yet. So while iron is harder than bronze, it's not like steel. Like bronze, iron is given to bending as well as requiring frequent sharpening (though less frequently w iron).

[Bruin Faber]

Historians come in all breeds some are magical clerks who can take all works of a time and spin them into something cohesive and congruent, some are detectives who can infer so much out of so little and still be accurate, others are bards/artists who can take the mundane and bring them to life in a way no one else can. With ancient (might as well be Pre-) history you find the detectives en masse, but to actually bring life to a time so empty of literature takes talent of all three, and bravo to you sir.

[Melissa Rainchild]

He makes the old cultures come alive, sublime!

[Jake Johnson]

Great history lecture. Really enjoyed this.

[B AM22]

In the late 70s I had a history class with Prof Kern? of U New Mexico, and it was as wonderful to sit in as this was today, and at Albuq HS in the early 60s I had classes with Dr Buskirk and Mr Hannah who totally instilled a love for history and readings via books and magazines that you have mentioned. Thank you for your lecture.

[Talisi Kid]

Joseph Tainter’s “Collapse of Complex Societies” is one of my all time favorites. Had it as a text in college. Bought several copies through the years.

[alex carter]

I wanted a copy back in 2010 when it was very hard to get. Maybe I should get one now.

[John Poole]

Good lecture, well hosted, good questions! Thank you for sharing.

[H]

Incredible lecture! Thank you professor Cline.

[Brendan Wood]

Canan was actually Palestine, Syria, and Jordan. Not Israel, Syria and Jordan.

[Rhien]

@Brendan Wood in 1177 it was called Canaan, it wasn’t until the Roman completely destroyed Judah did hadarin name it Syria palaestina

[Brendan Wood]

@Rhien It's not Israel. Never was and should not be today. Otherwise, It's my religious belief that god promised my people all the most fertile farmland in the heartland of Ontario. Let's start a bank and print currency. Then we can write books, and create a story to rationalize my people taking the farmland. To avoid certain military destruction we must destroy the surrounding provinces military forces preemptively before they are strong enough to take our land back. In the process we must procure all the fresh water sources and limit their food and medical supplies. We will take control of the media and high culture so that we can use it to stir up controversy in the surrounding surrogate nations. We can also ally with a global super power like India or China and create another intelligence agency there modeled after our very own original intelligence agency. Using, media, banking, high culture, and intelligence we will control our surrogate nations and expand our once promised land using fear and influence. Do we have any contacts from the Maxwell family still alive? We may need their services.

[Brendan Wood]

@Seán O'Nilbud It's a parody of revisionist Zionism. It's also spelled "You're"; as in "you are" abbreviated. Here's the rub though; the reason I keep doing it expecting the same outcome is because that's the outcome I'm aiming to achieve.

[Nina Morway]

I took The Great Courses by Dr Cline. I'm "just a 77-y-o history dabbler" but he makes history fascinating.

[Geo Yoshinaka]

what an amazing lesson for us all, thank you for your insight and sharing!

[angrysheepdog]

Eric doesn't mention the catastrophic volcanic explosion of the island of Santorini in the center of the Mediterranean that likely caused huge title waves that destroyed all the major costal cities and beyond. Definitely a game changer.

[Kinda G]

More of Dr. Cline, please.

[boffo63]

Excellent analysis. I'm seeing things in a different light now. It's filled in a lot of missing problems

[헤르메스의 지식 지팡이 Hermes' Knowledge Staff]

His book, 1177 BC The Year Civilization Collapsed, is full of informations, and his writing is clear and beautiful.

[Treklosopher]

Just ordered it.

[Solace Easy]

Poor defense of his book title.

[timishere1925]

@Solace Easy Why?

[iWatchTechTutorials]

@Solace Easy please elaborate, it would be nice to know why you think so. I promise I wont fight you in the comments. Hahaha.

[Ryan Hoolahan]

Th

[Pearl Finn Vedic Astrologer]

Thank you for sharing your wonderful knowledge with us. Fascinating way to spend a wet, windy and cold morning beside the Atlantic Ocean in Galway. As a student of Astrology I have been on a quest to find Gaelic names for the planets and stars. I believe the Cananites might hold the key as their name sounds like the Gaelic word ‘ceannai’ which means trader. They probably would be part of the sea people who came to stay in Ireland. I’d love to learn more, however it would make sense that we had our own language for something as necessary as the stars prior to the Roman/Latin. I’d love to hear what you would have to say about our heritage. Thank you again for taking on your inspirational journey into the ancient past☸️

[Bob Lowney]

I've taught for many years and I am so glad to see that good educators such as Dr. Cline use humor to enhance their effectiveness. I always told my students that Jerry Seinfeld was my muse when creating my lectures.

[Piyushan Abeynayake]

Interesting topic and the presentation by Dr. Cline was very engaging. I'm glad this video popped up on my KZbin Home page this day. Wishing everyone an insightful 2023.

[m mars]

I suppose the highly compelling and consistent chronology which does not include this sudden and mysterious loss of human civilization for hundreds of years at different times is just still not considered by the majority of historians...until Earth cycles of magnetic flips and mini nova of our sun have the massive effects of shifting the planet with oceans water washing over the land masses every cycle that become legends from the few that survive!

[Alda]

Very well researched and presented

[scottybee33]

Fascinating and presented by such a compelling speaker / historian. Thank you for posting.

[charger959]

This was fascinating! Also that added suspense of the falling microphone had me on the edge of my seat till the very end 😆

[gs]

I just love this lecture... And I would hate to take his course. I have awful memory, very picky: I still remember that my history teacher in high school was saying a guy who killed Marco Polo was Lapulapu in a funny way, but can't remember anything else. And it was 20 years ago 🤣😅😭

[zap fan]

Fantastic lecture! Was Odysseus in fact "Sea Peoples"? Roaming around the Med for 10 years makes him a suspect :-)

[stripey7]

The Collapse was also a central concept in Julian Jaynes's book _The Origin of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind_ in which he blamed it on a catastrophic geological event.

[Dan Chadwick]

Professor Cline, this particular point in history holds my interest in a profound way; is there any indication how long a day is?

[FollowersofYeshuaHaMashiach]

Brilliant! If I could go back in time this would have been the direction I would’ve gone. Thank you Dr. Cline

[Caleb Vogt]

What a wonderful talk and Q&A. Thank you for posting this!

[fgc vt]

Great speaker! I wish I had his skills when I lecture to my students.

[Don't Panic]

Fascinating talk about how civilizations end-- especially, applied to present day, how to avoid them, if they even can, what causes them and Trade, globalization, invaders, migration... famine, drought, climate change, dependency... We think of everything as cyclical, that there's little we can control, that much is determined by fate, yet our every priority, policy, intervention and reaction serves to keep us floating mid-river, paddling ever more quickly for the next waterfall, ignoring with contempt the eddies of safety, security and innovation passed along the way. Think there's an attitude we're both too big to manage and too big to fail that's competing with the idea that greater numbers yields greater prosperity, greater resiliency, greater success-- the resultant outcome of this conflict producing an apathy for suffering and a status quo unwilling to evolve toward its eviction. We think of ourselves as risk-takers, yet the greatest risk we can take is to change how we do things... our attitude, our priorities, our orientation to others, our purpose. Fact of the matter is, we only do well when others around us are doing well too. Yet, the age-old dilemma remains: do they do well only when we first do or do we do well only when they first do; is it a mutual dynamic in which none do well unless all do or is it the selfish endeavor that grants peace and longevity and mutual success? Put another way, do we determine our fate, or do we resolve ourselves to fate itself, the greatest adventure ever conceived? I like the latter, like the waterfalls, like living in the present and not knowing the future but think more of the former perhaps leads to better outcomes, prevents a collapse and its causes.

[medexamtoolsdotcom]

I thought virtually all records from that era were sparse at best, like that they didn't even know if Troy really was a real place until fairly recently and even then thought that the legends were only loosely based on the city they found the ruins of, and this guy is talking about trivial events in such detail that he's covering people returning boots to merchants and small business ship manifests for specific trips. It makes me wonder, if there will be historians in the year 5000 will be poring over all the tiny details of our lives today. Their job may well be easier after all.

[HeartTree]

Did he mention the comet of 1486? Any change in our local celestial environment can impact weather. And there is good correlation between comet passes and earthquakes ( there’s a two year window both before and after comet passes where they’ve seen increases in earthquake activity).

[Gregory Rogalsky]

Another great video Eric . Your such an amazing teacher. Stay strong brother.

[florisv559]

Who would build their city on an active fault zone? Who would burn down a food storage in a time of drought? Totally awesome lecture, btw.

[Dave Gray]

I remember that in an undergraduate mythology class the professor postulated that it might have been the Pythagoreans that might have won out over the Athenians, and that Western Civilization might have been on the totalitarian model instead of the democratic model were it not for a few key battles lost instead of won.

[Paul Bowker]

I love history. Humans have been on Earth longer than what is taught in any school.

[amouramarie]

Very interesting! But _for those predisposed to panic, remember:_ the collapse described here may well never have happened if they'd had airplanes and tankers able to ship goods around the planet in hours, or if they'd had trade with the Americas, Asia, or Australia. Our safety is in our connectedness being much greater than theirs. A few strands of hair will snap under pressure where a thick, braided rope of it will not.

[alex carter]

The difference is we have oil and electronics. A good solar flare will take care of the latter, and the former is running out.

[amouramarie]

@alex carter Sure, and one good asteroid can end everything. But as far as reasonable fears are concerned, we can deal with them.

[David Butler]

Your subsequent discussion after the lecture is well thought out. Good job.

[TheEedjit]

Dr Cline got me into history and archeology. Edit - The guy is a hell of a writer and lecturer, totally keeps you engaged.

[David Butler]

I think the biggest question for historians is how and why human beings developed over time so we can better understand human beings evolving in the future. Frankly, the role of elites in the past becomes less and less important.

[Susan Cady]

I watched Dr. Clines archeology lectures on the Great Courses, it was excellent!

[mostmint]

Interesting presentation - and I liked all the historical info, however it is my opinion that if you read headlines from just about any time between now and then they would be filled with similar problems.

[Miquel Àngel]

Could the eruption of Thera and the destruction of what today is know as Santorini, which was the Minoan home, trigger the chain of events that caused the collapse?

[Luke Blackford]

I like that he lays out all of the theoretical causes but doesn’t push a favorite.

[Greg Williams]

One thing the Professor noted in as missing from the the list of things that caused system collapse in 1177 BC was plague. It is interesting that April 2020 was too early in the pandemic for the Professor to add it to the list of calamities present last year when comparing them with those of 1177 BC.

[Albany Organics]

Plandemic

[andrew cobb]

Indeed. C19 didn't keep young males out of armies or the fields, as it turns out.

[Koumudi Ketkar]

Thank you, Dr Cline, for a very informative talk. One question - I understand that around that same time ~3500 years ago), there was a 200 year old draught in the Indus Valley Civilization (IVC). Do you see any similarities between what you mention and the collapse of IVC? Thank you ...... Anil Ketkar

[Einstein Wallah]

anil bhai ... even now european historians are not interested in anything related to india and indians ... both ramayan and mahabharat have mention of chariot warfare ... chariot warfare may have stretched all the way siberia ... bharatvarsh probably existed by the time of wheel invention ... before chariots how people fought? ... may be by using brute force and stone weapons ... or may be they had learned that it was not worth fighting and people were peaceful ... may be people fought for women but all the rest was considered god's free world

[Doge Taxes]

TBH even though you can draw many parallels from the bronze age to now you can pretty much tick all those boxes for pretty much all periods from last 200 years. And honestly factors such as rebellions and famines/droughts were much worse in the 20th century. I do feel our current system is susceptible to collapse such as the bronze age but pretty much any interconnected period of history is. Massive systems collapses like the bronze age aren't common and also take decades to unfold, normally you need many factors compounding to complete break a system. However, if you reach that break point then it all goes to shit.

[Randall Pelaez]

Said before, and MUST be said again…Those who do not KNOW history, are DOOMED to repeat it…