Pirate Tomb Raiders of the Late Bronze Age Collapse

Thanks to Curiosity Stream for sponsoring the video. Go to curiositystream.com/DanDavis and enter the promo code ‘DanDavis’ for 25% off an annual plan.
Pirates of the Bronze Age Mediterranean raided ships and settlements throughout the era but especially during the period of the Late Bronze Age Collapse.
In fact, the mysterious Sea Peoples who invaded and raided the civilizations of the Near East were themselves pirates based on the islands of the eastern Mediterranean.
These pirates also raided the tombs of more ancient peoples around the Mediterranean and took the wealth within back to their bases in the Aegean, the Adriatic and even further afield.
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Of Odysseys and Oddities- Ed. by Barry Molloy ➜ amzn.to/3H5NsjQ
Warfare in Bronze Age Society - Ed. by C. Horn & K. Kristiansen ➜ amzn.to/3o0f6aD
The Rise of Bronze Age Society - by K. Kristiansen & T. B. Larsson ➜ amzn.to/3r0xkdU
Militarism and the Indo-Europeanizing of Europe - Robert Drews ➜ amzn.to/3tYtFiD
The Sea Peoples - NK Sanders ➜ amzn.to/3r1Sbh2
The Gurob Ship-Cart Model - Shelley Wachsmann ➜ amzn.to/3LTrSC4
Seagoing Ships & Seamanship in the Bronze Age Levant - Shelley Wachsmann ➜ amzn.to/3v7EzDv
The Philistines and Aegean Migration - Assaf Yasur-Landau ➜ amzn.to/3vavFoF
Yo-ho, yo-ho, a seren’s life for me! - Hitchcock & Maeir (2014)
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Video Chapters
00:00 Bronze Age Pirates
01:43 Bronze Age Trade
07:40 Video Sponsorship
08:52 The Sea Peoples as Pirates
12:50 Bronze Age Tomb Raiders

[@DanDavisHistory]

Thanks to Curiosity Stream for sponsoring the video. Go to curiositystream.com/DanDavis and enter the promo code ‘DanDavis’ for 25% off an annual plan.

[@jefferymacneal4941]

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[@jefferymacneal4941]

tttttttt

[@aramisone7198]

But i thought that no one knows who the Sea Peoples were i know that the Egyptians called them by some names and that they came from the north. But the North can be north of Egypt or further north but the names written in your video is it 100% proven that they were the Sea Peoples and if so why do so many say that its unknown who they were ?

[@LudosErgoSum]

Ahhh, the good old days when I pirated clay tablets from The Pirate Clay.

[@PhilosophersLegacy83]

Good ol AC Odyssey

[@tonnywildweasel8138]

LOL 👍

[@ThursonJames]

Highly underrated comment

[@josephsmith3908]

Lmao this needs a award when ppl bought drugs from the original silk road

[@Matt-xc6sp]

You wouldn’t download a chariot

[@cernunos8153]

It’s incredible to think that during a period when chaos ruled, pirate raiders looted tombs that were already ancient, or captured a diverse collection of heirlooms from civilizations throughout the region, and created hordes of treasures spanning hundreds if not thousands of years.

[@feldgeist2637]

never came to my mind that ancient privateers might also have looted tombs, just as we know it from greater armies and more powerful leaders, but makes totally sense tomb raiding was a common thing in my area until just recently and that pirates with even less connection to random dead foreigners wouldnt engage in it is quite unrealistic.....tho, most of the scrap metal hoards I think are just that

[@MisterChenzy]

well that actually describes the ancient greek lifestyle perfectly.. even Homer described it like this

[@guts9817]

I've been a long time fan of yours, Mr. Davis, and a lurker in the comment sections of your videos just as long. I thank you for your work and for your ability to enrich my knowledge regarding the bronze age from not a genetical, but materially cultural view. Your work is adored and appreciated deeply by me, and many others who share my interests. With all respect, an aspiring archeogeneticist from somewhere in the Balkans.

[@DanDavisHistory]

Thank you very much indeed.

[@discipline-my5hi]

Greetings, Struggler.

[@theknave4415]

Thank you, Dan. One reason - of many - that I like your presentations is that you address, either directly or indirectly, the complexity of the different periods you research and study. I, for one, appreciate that approach. ;)

[@goranmilosevic3115]

Part of my family is from this part of Croatia. I know we always had pirates around there, but had no clue it went back all the way to the bronze age. Also never heard about Makarska hoard before. Thank you! I love learning about my ancestors history. Would like to hear more about bronze age in Croatia, east Adriatic and the Balkans

[@zeljosarajevic]

Even in school, the dalmatian/neretva pirates would be mentioned just during the late medieval up to 19th century, and not a word prior to that.

[@TheSonicVEVO]

Going by your name, wouldn't your ancestors be Slavs from modern day Ukraine/Belarus?

[@aramisone7198]

​@@TheSonicVEVO Its not that simple people mixed for thousands of years and there was slavery, women must have gotten pregnant and so on.

[@TheSonicVEVO]

@@aramisone7198 you cant really trace a specific individuals family tree that far back tho. Modern day Croatia was heavily depopulated in Roman times because of the Hunic, Avar , German and Slavic invasions.

[@desdichado-007]

There's supposedly a Greek proverb that goes: "Where there is a sea, there are pirates." These types of things tend to be said because they are true.

[@MisterChenzy]

ancient greeks were a bunch of pirates themselves 😆

[@WokeandProud]

Wait until we officially enter space. 😂

[@thicclegendfeep4050]

A movie about the Bronze Age Pirates, especially the Sea Peoples, would be super cool. We have buried treasure, plundering, adventures on the high seas, swash buckling action, and the catastrophic and violent end of a prosperous system that kept advanced civilization afloat for many many years, turn to ruin as hordes of savage sea raiders rush in to harken the death of their civilization

[@ahar7624]

as long as the Americans don't save the day at the end it sounds perfect

[@joshjonson2368]

You basically described most of Conan lore

[@gibjamie]

Excellently researched and thoroughly engaging Content. Everything that a History channel should be!

[@daniell1483]

I swear, with every video on this channel, I can just about see the events being described playing out like a story. I wish this era of human civilization got more attention in all forms of media like video games and film.

[@conortrotter5755]

Hey Dan! Just wanted to say thank you for releasing such excellent, informative, and well-formed content that still has the clear narrative wit of an author behind it. Your investment of time into the history of the Indo-Europeans got me to reconsider going to college, and now, I'm working towards a Biological Anthropology degree, with the intent of focusing primarily on the history of Indo-European groups and their effects on latter cultures, as well as their origins. I hope to write a dissertation on the Cucuteni Trypilia culture, and the western Mediterranean origins of several of the Sea Peoples, two topics I've invested a ton more time doing personal research on since your videos sparked my curiosity. Anyways, I'll be buying Godborn very soon, and thanks again!

[@DanDavisHistory]

Thanks Conor, that's the best comment I've read in forever.

[@MrAwsomenoob]

I've been kicking around a theory in my head for a while. What if the cause of the historical inspiration for the Trojan war was an act of piracy. Maybe paris' kidnapping of Helen is alagorius of the Trojan kingdom's state sponsored piracy In the aegean. Troy was in a strategic position to control shipping through the northern Aegean and bosphoris strait. I'd imagine since shipping has always been important to greek people if the raiding got so bad isn't it plausible that a number of mycenaean states may have decided that cooperation was necessary to take down a common threat. In that way the Trojan war could be described as a mycenaean police action

[@davids4313]

Hadn't considered this Mr Awsomenoob, but I like your thinking.

[@dinos9607]

1) Troyans were Greeks too. They had merely allied also among other with non-Greeks, further pissing off the mainland-Greece Greeks 2) You can't call a navy of 1200 ships, 80,000 troops and a coalition of several kings lead by a high-king as... "pirates". Unless of course you describe Americans attacking Japan and occupying as an act of piracy. We need to be factual.

[@woodcuzz69]

@@dinos9607 not only did you misread the original comment, you conflated 2 wars over 3 thousand years a part because... of your politics.

[@dinos9607]

@@woodcuzz69 I may read it fast and misread (he wrote it in a manner that does not facilitate fast reading) the piracy thingie, he meant the Trojans being the pirates and Achaeans the police officers - still, apart kidnapping a wife Trojans did not show any such activity elsewhere and seemed to have the reverence of a wider region on the east side of the Aegean. They had no big navy to start off with anyway. As far as we can tell. And their city was built uphill, while no big port of theirs is mentioned. All it all it was a war of business as usual. As for the 2 wars 3000 years apart I have no idea to what other war you are referring to. Anyway I will be mentioning each and every time Troy is mentioned that this was a Greek city as well. Until people put some brains and read its history before doing the sin of mentioning it (or even daring doing the sin of imagining) as a non-Greek city, as aliens, as Martians, little green men or whatever.

[@Amadeu.Macedo]

The mysterious, so-called Sea Peoples surely represent the Bronze age's latest version of pirates...

[@Survivethejive]

Explains why all the tombs in Lycia i visited were empty. Think those tombs you showed at the end are at Tlos?

[@DanDavisHistory]

Yeah I think they're Tlos or Pinara.

[@rachel_Cochran]

Perhaps you two could do a crossover video between you two? A la Jackson Crawford & Simon Roper? Merely a suggestion 😉

[@letthetunesflow]

@@rachel_Cochran Yes please! Dan and those two would be an absolutely amazing collaboration! Especially an Anglo Saxon to Viking age video, where they can all three use their own specialties. Dan Davis would contribute an amazing storytelling ability while being fleshed out and backed up by linguistics, and historical texts contributed by Simon Roper and Jackson Crawford! Could even have Jackson and Simon speak in the Languages of the time! Also I would love a video collaboration with someone like Religion for Breakfast! I’d love to see Dan touch on early Christian Religion and magic with Religion for Breakfast as a guest expert!

[@lemonpossum7894]

Can't wait for herc to join up with Jason and engage in some conan aged piracy, another stellar video

[@mg4361]

Makarska was also a hotbed of piracy in the age of the Roman republic when the piracy of the local Illyrians (Ardiei) was one of the reasons why the Romans invaded. In the middle ages it turned to piracy again. One venetian doge even died there in 887 trying to fight the local Slavs (at that time recently settled) who attacked venetian shipping and refused to convert to Christianity. Now a days it's a lovely resort town that I recommend visiting outside of the main tourist season as it can get quite crowded in July and August.

[@nikbear]

A glass of 🍷 and a Dan Davis video are sheer bliss to unwind after a tough day at work, an utter joy to watch! Thank you for all the hard work that goes into producing them, it is greatly appreciated especially as there is so much crap on the TV these days, your content is food for the mind and the soul 👏

[@tonnywildweasel8138]

Cheers 🍺

[@georgg372]

First to make a sacrifice to the algorithm-gods

[@kai_plays_khomus]

I feel an euphoric hit each time another of your videos gets uploaded - thanks for your first class content, Dan!

[@viemari_lohi]

19:34 Hits different when you know what they are doing to our history and monuments.

[@hauntologicalwittgensteini2542]

Come to think of it, the "Adriatic Hypothesis" seems to be the most likely canidate for the so-called "Sea Peoples' Invasion" during the Bronze Age Collapse. It makes sense for a people who are already sea faring in the first place to be the Sea peoples and no to mention the Mycenean esque art forms and WSH admixture found among the purported descended of the Sea Peoples like the Phillisitine. Also would really appreaciate if you extend your scope to Bronze Age Asia.

[@galloe8933]

YES! More Dan Davis History, this channels videos are some of the best!

[@HimanshuSingh-ce8tf]

Appreciate your hard labor constantly. Would love you to cover culture in subcontinent after Alexander conquest of Asia. :)

[@seanwhelan879]

Dan my friend I just got my alert from youtube for your channel and I'm just home from work, so now for the science bit I'm going to get my grub, ear plugs ,sit back and be enthralled by my favourite history channel this is the feel good factor , thanks so much for all the hard work. Pirate's it just keeps getting better. Peace 🇮🇪

[@shacklock01]

Solid video. Edit: And yeah in regards to about 20 mins in whenever you look at Balklan/Illyrian coastland, its a pirates wet-dream. Any sea terrain like that always is, just look at the Frisian coast during the dark ages/medieval period

[@CelticAugur]

Ah the gods have heard my prayers another fascinating video, well done lad

[@joshuadaniel5371]

Excellent work Danny boy!!! Like always!!! Grandma is still waiting on the new book! 😂 We're both huge fans brother!

[@rnedlo9909]

Maybe, the story of the Greek invasion of Troy was a condensation of years that the Greeks were raiding all over the Mediterranean with the story focusing on one city, whereas in truth there were many cities attacked, some successfully, some not.

[@terryhughes7349]

Great presentation.

[@katipohl2431]

Extremely interesting video. Shared with my contacts.

[@DanDavisHistory]

Thank you very much.

[@vlarep2]

"You could defeat a people in the present, but to really destroy them you had to whipe out the links to their ancestors." Such truth in that quote. Horrifying and powerful.

[@galloe8933]

It's amazing in a sick way, really. They go out, and do their dirt, about the same that any ruler would demand of them anyway, but yeah, do their deed, and get back home to do home stuff for most of the year. Kind of a good life, if you're into that sort of thing.

[@raeray2235]

Thoroughly enjoyed this content. One of my favorite subjects, from one of favorite Orators and historians.

[@TSmith-yy3cc]

Absolutely outstanding as usual! The way you weave riveting narrative and well-researched history is really masterful. Thank you for your work!

[@jethro1260]

Thank you, I recently discovered your channel and am not only enjoying it very much but I am learning so much about history. Again, Thank you.

[@ClassyMonkey1212]

I love your videos man. Really paints a picture of what the world was like back then.

[@Vesnicie]

Ahoy matey, I be an arrrrgonaut!

[@jay5775]

Awesome, another Dan Davis upload. Been waiting for one of these.

[@alastairbrewster4274]

Fantastic , looking forward to this !

[@andresaltosaar9317]

Great video, Dan. Thank you for that!

[@owl6218]

The idea of finding such hoardes - objects from many places and from many times...so interestng. Hope they have a compiled list of all these finds, for people to get to know about them

[@jasonhare8540]

I've long suspected that the so-called bronze age Mediterranean collapse was brought on by combination of poverty , corruption , and last but not least a terrible anger that could not be satisfied with anything less than the destruction of who they saw as responsible for their misery. In other words a Mediterranean spring. Sort of like what we saw in Libya . In short the poor got sick and tired of the rich living like gods and decided to burn the whole thing down as opposed to continuing to live like slaves

[@dudeistpreist5721]

The supply chain broke and the dependency and lack or borders lead to an age of chaos. Egypt barley pulled through.

[@maracohen5930]

The Bronze Age Collapse was also triggered by Climate Shift, and increased seismic and volcanic activity in the eastern Mediterranean/Levant/Anatolia.

[@barkershill]

And then the disappearance of cheap foreign labour led to scarcity of fruit pickers

[@freefall9832]

Time to loot and burn the palaces. The palace rulers were holding the people back with slavery, debt, and control of resources.

[@felixdm7724]

I found this channel about a year and a bit ago now and the video quality has got consistently better as with all other elements of the videos - keep it up!

[@michaelgutierrez9563]

I am very impressed by all that you Share! Thank you for the knowledge!

[@joeshmoe8345]

Great stuff thanks for posting

[@bc7138]

Another great documentary. I liked the imaginative description at the start. It's also interesting to see how Bronze Age Peoples of the Mediterranean would plunder the ancient tombs of enemy peoples. I am familiar with the topic concerning ancient Egypt, but not so much about the rest of the Bronze Age near east & Aegean.

[@ambermarr4557]

Great video!! I am reading Godborn! And looking forward to the other books. Your videos are awesome and so well researched. I could watch them all day hehe 😀😀😀

[@lsmith6036]

Great music and shows

[@MrTomFlan]

Excellent video dan.

[@HistoryBro]

Great vid, Danny... Smashing stuff!

[@DanDavisHistory]

Thank you, Bro.

[@jamespoynor9511]

Man.... your content is always amazing. Thank you for all the hard work.

[@DanDavisHistory]

Thank you very much.

[@fratercontenduntocculta8161]

I love your writing Dan. Very profound stuff.

[@DanDavisHistory]

Thank you very much 🙏

[@sterkar99]

Incredible video as always

[@DanDavisHistory]

Thanks very much.

[@kimmcroberts5111]

I appreciate your work!

[@albreezy]

This channel is criminally under subscribed.

[@cynthiaterrell7290]

So much information in one Show! 👏 👏 👏 👏 Many 😊

[@nickstone3113]

Facinating and informative

[@disenchantedwanderer9033]

Watched this, your videos are really good, I learn a lot, and I like how you dont shy away from explaining the complexities, and that not everything is known and definitely established, but what we DO know, we can begin the process of putting the jigsaw pieces together. And how you expand the topic to include other related issues and connections. I share you vids with friends. Well done to you sir.

[@DanDavisHistory]

Thank you very much indeed 🙏

[@1911Earthling]

This was excellent explanation of Bronze Age collapse. Very good.

[@thomassugg5621]

Can’t wait to get stuck into the video, do you have a favourite era in history to study? At the moment I’m really getting into the 5th to the 11th century’s.

[@DanDavisHistory]

Thank you. I love so many eras, it's hard to say. I really love medieval Europe from 12th century to 15th century. I love the Hellenistic era from Alexander through the Wars of the Successors. Late Republic Rome. So many!

[@lesleeg9481]

What a storyteller! Go Dan!

[@seanwhelan879]

I thoroughly enjoyed that piece of work Dan ,excellent I love the different cultures and places there from , the map's are great in the narration they bring it all together fascinating stuff I'd watch and listen for hour's really get great pleasure from all the episodes, again fantastic, truly great work. Peace all 🇮🇪

[@DanDavisHistory]

Thanks so much Sean, I really appreciate it 🙏

[@tomkus333]

Excellently!!! Tom

[@78jhartung]

Thanks!

[@Sheepdog1314]

excellent = thank you

[@elmersbalm5219]

Fabulous!!

[@thomasputko1080]

Could you recommend a book which would depict all the boats from oldest design to brozne age? Excellent vid btw.

[@DanDavisHistory]

Check out the books of Shelley Wachsmann linked in the description

[@OromeMando]

Great content...subed

[@DanRoddy]

Thanks

[@tonnywildweasel8138]

Shiver me timbers! A Pirate vid! I'll get the rum :-) Cheers to yet another great vid sir! Intresting subject. Greets from the Netherlands 🌷, T.

[@historydocumentary]

Brilliant!

[@DanDavisHistory]

Thanks!

[@madsdahlc]

Hallo from Denmark. Great video Dan Davies . Yes plundering the enemies ancestors would continue on . There evidence of that here in Scandinavia in the viking age . The tomb of ladeby king on the danish island of funen , Gokstad in and Oseberg in norway all shows signs of being opened decades later and raided. Test of wood showels that raiders left begind shows it happened around the same in 960'es -970'es. Around this time the danish king Harald Bluetooth had made himself master of all Danmark and king of norway. And danish historians belived that he ordered the three tombs opened and partly plundered/violated (things like the Sword in the tomb of ladeby king were bent ) was to show that there is he was in charge now and to conquer his enemies ancestors . So it also happened later .

[@genoshistoria3487]

Fascinating.

[@bmo5082]

Great videos. I just wish we really knew what all happened. Including who the sea people really were.

[@AnthonyGarcia-se2yd]

It's about time! 😊

[@davidharrison7072]

Thanks for the enthralling video! I'm curious what sort of evidence we have that grave robbing is intentional cultural damage rather than just because the dead are much less likely to come at you when you try to take their stuff?

[@jamesvandemark2086]

Don't forget the Adriatic- a veritable pirate's punchbowl!

[@ADobbin1]

The more I hear about this period the more it sounds to me like there was a breakdown of central authority in Greece, probably as a result of the trojan war whatever the reality of it was, and the whole area turned into peasant war lords seeking wealth. Given the Illiad says many hero's and great men died in the war it sounds like there were suddenly a lot of aristocrat holdings without a lord which would make it hard for whatever central authority existed to maintain control. Add in the stories I've heard of invasion by people called the Dorians as well as evidence of a large number of big earthquakes as well as evidence of severe drought and you have a rapid collapse of central authority and a lot of greeks going every man for himself.

[@dionadair8195]

Last time I was this early, the Bronze Age hadn't collapsed.

[@Ahab_786]

i hope this channel keeps growing! love the narrative history!

[@letthetunesflow]

Another amazing video!

[@DanDavisHistory]

Thank you!

[@davidgodley521]

I'd heard about the Sea Peoples in other podcasts but didn't know that they could be pirates.

[@fabricdragon]

shared!

[@edmundgrondine4393]

Hi Dan - Great, great work. But... The Peleset are now known to have been living in the far south of today's Turkey. Your Ekwesh were likely Achaeans living on Crete and on the west coast of Anatolia. The Teresh may have been located in western Anatolia, to the north of the Lukka (Lycians). Oh the joys of the modern reconstructions of the ancient Egyptian vowels. Were the Denyens Danaans from the north of today's Greece? But as I said, great work. Thanks.

[@erlinggaratun6726]

A point of interest is that you show Peratis in Greece as you talk of pirates, while etymologically they are the same word

[@mudgetheexpendable]

Wonderful story! Thanks. BTW the Yamnaya's genetic boot-print was very interestingly detailed but hanged if I remember where...will seek & return.

[@rring44]

I am imagining some pirates attacking a small fishing village in Cyprus, capturing people, then torturing them until they told the pirates where tombs were. That seems far more profitable to return home with ancient weapons/ valuables than just normal pirate booty.

[@Cliffwalkerrockhounding]

Good video sir! Sub'd.

[@josephsmith3908]

The sea ppl the most fascinating mystery of the Past

[@larsrons7937]

Brilliant video, well researched and very informative. *Tombraiders?* I guess they were the forefathers of *Lara Croft*

[@dergutehut3961]

Its interesting people had such a sense of the value of old artifacts that where already historic objects at that time. So there was an antiquity trade in antiquity.

[@triskeliosthelastcelt1303]

I love how he changed the pic for the video.

[@MarcusAgrippa390]

I can't help but think how much the guy in the thumbnail reminds me of "The Artist Formerly Known as Prince" having a really bad day

[@ariomannosyemo9090]

So much has changed, but some things have always remained the same.

[@perceivedvelocity9914]

Are those names that those ancient people called themselves? In the modern era we tend to make up names for ancient civilizations.

[@whyukraine]

I know youve covered it a lot before, but could you make a video specifically about the importance of Ukraine to world history, maybe starting with the cucuteni/yamna cultural interaction?

[@DanDavisHistory]

That's a good idea, thanks.

[@KingFluffs]

6:56 Which book is the source that it was a way of life for the aristocracy?

[@deutschlandfurimmer2554]

Well researched with some very good and worthwhile theories.

[@rodrickhatton8636]

Ah yes...ancient pirates. Proper road men and naughty boys innit

[@alecbrown66]

The huge mental lexicon modern that professional and amateur historians forget (and shown as such a big mental misthought, but shown in places such must farm uk, and other Mediterranean sights) that bronze age peoples used limited road networks, but were incredible mariners. From using small log boats and flat bottom barges, to much larger sea going craft following known seaways and rivers to the interior. The rivers and oceans as we today use roads and highways for communication, trade and even war. When you understand that, you can see that bronze age travel was almost as fast and intercontinental travel as rapid as our modern systems. And understanding that, " piracy" could be also down to coastal tribes controlling areas of adjacent seas and waterways, to help increase their tribes wealth and property. Sort of like modern toll roads.

[@SkyFly19853]

So, did they know how to sail the oceans?... 😏