The End of the Bronze Age

Rating:
Summary: Catastrophe without Catastrophism?
Review: Drews has written a book surveying the conventional views, both contemporary and those which have endured. The author discusses various possible explanations for the seeming universal destruction of civilizations throughout the region. It's worth reading, but suffers from reliance on the mistaken consensus chronology of the ancient Near East.

While this is a mostly academic work, most adults won't have any trouble with it.

Those interested in the Bible and its synchronisms with other ancient peoples would do better to read one of the works listed below, but will find things of interest in this book.

See also Immanuel Velikovsky's (new and used) "Ages In Chaos", "Ramses II and His Time", "Peoples of the Sea", and "Worlds In Collision", as well as David Rohl's "Pharaohs and Kings", Peter James' "Centuries of Darkness", Ryan and Pitman's "Noah's Flood", Mary Settegast's "Plato Prehistorian", and Robert Schoch's "Voices of the Rocks".

Rating:
Summary: Excellent book on a fascinating subject
Review: Drews, Robert. The End of the Bronze Age: Changes in Warfare and the Catostrophe ca. 1200 B.C. Princeton University Press, 1993. 12+252 pp. Ill., maps

Between approximately 1200 and 1150 B.C. a great disaster befell the civilized world of the Ancient Eastern Mediterranean. The cites and fortified places of Crete, Myceneae, Anatolia and upper Mesopotamia were suddenly overrun and burned by a people who left few traces beyond widespread destruction. Lower Mespoamia and Egypt were threatened but escaped devastation Robert Drews, a Professor of Classics at Vanderbilt University, attempts to explain who did this and how.

His balanced book first considers the Bronze Age in general and then systematically surveys the destruction of the various locales during what he terms "The Catastrophe," (the first half of the 12th c. B.C.) He devotes several chapters to surveying the causes of the event that has been proposed in traditional scholarship-earthquakes, volcanic eruptions, systems collapses, mass migrations and the appearance of iron weapons in the early Iron Age. His own explanation is a combination of several of these, plus what might be called innovations in military organization and weaponry.

During much of the Bronze Age, great powers like Egypt and the Hittites relied primarily on the use of chariots on the battlefield, from which charioteers shot arrows at the enemy and broke up mass formations of ground troops. Beyond the movement of "runners" between the chariot lines, there was no real use of infantry as a tactical arm. In fact, the infantry was usually regarded as defensive element. The catastrophe was caused, according to Drew, by the sudden and unexpected appearance of a new military force (called the "Sea People" by the Egyptians) throughout the eastern Mediterranean at the beginning of the 12th century. For about 50 years the invaders roamed the region and ravaged civilizations that has been founded on bronze metallurgy They were equipped with new weapons (thrust and slash swords, javelins, etc.) and defensive armor (helmets, greaves, corselets and small, round shields). In the absence of hard documentary evidence, the author infers that a new military organization accompanied these material advances, resulting in a new type of fighting force, one that relied on the fighting ability of the individual man in infantry formations and the increasing use of iron weapons. In the final analysis, these 12th century fighters bear a striking resemblance to Greek hoplites and their phalanxes in the Heroic Age.

Drew's book is closely reasoned, variously building on or critiquing the work of other important scholars in the field; it is methodically, if not brillantly, written. He provides a detailed bibliography of his sources and a general index that at best can only be termed "thin." He provides passable illustrations of some of the principal visual sources (stelae, tomb inscriptions etc) for his arguments but musters only a single map and, at that, a very poor line drawing of the eastern Mediterranean that shows no real detail. Drew offers no startling new evidence for the mystery of the 12th BC but does review the problem with authority and suggests a solution that relies on a recasting of the known information. His book will be read and commented on by those who have an interest in the effects of warfare, migration and external threats by precivilized peoples on the ancient civilizations of the eastern Mediterranean and upper Mesopotamia. Recommended.

Rating:
Summary: Study this book!
Review: This is a great book that anyone interested in ancient history should have and be familiar with. Drews fills in a long neglected area of study on ancient warfare during the 16th to 12th centuries BCE. Most books simply explain what happened. Drews shows "why" it happened. He shows how and why the Bronze Age civilizations came to an end, and in the process opens a new window into the ancient world.

Warfare during this time was based on the chariot. Drews presents a wide range of ancient records (including Egyptian) with solid reasoning to show how chariots were used. He covers their advantages and consequent limitations. His presentation of the development of infantry weapons and tactics is most significant. The Bronze Age civilizations depended too much upon the chariot. When new infantry weapons and tactics became widespread, the shift in power brought about their downfall.

It is clear the empires during this time period (i.e. the Egyptian New Kingdom and the Hittites), were on a precarious balance. They were not as strong or powerful as historians have suggested, nor did they collapse because of drought or catastrophe.

Rating:
Summary: Well done and interesting account
Review: This is an excellent book on an important and transitional period of history that saw the beginning of a new "dark age" after about 1200 BC. This was a critical period in the history of the ancient world, a time that saw the end of the great, elite city and state civilizations of Greece, Mesopotamia, Anatolia, Minoan Crete, and even to some extent of upper Egypt.

During this time the Mycenaean civilization was attacked from the north by an unknown race, and The Sea Peoples attacked and defeated Crete, Minos, cities of the coastal Levant, the Hittites, and as I mentioned, even upper Egypt and Mesopotamia suffered somewhat, although the Sea Peoples were stopped and defeated by Egypt. They might even have been responsible for the fall of Mycenaean Greece. They were originally thought to have come from further north in Europe, but it seems more likely now that they were from the area around the Black Sea.

Drew's theory is that the Sea Peoples use of better equipped infantry with more modern iron weapons, including better swords but also better armor shields and helmets for defense, instead of Bronze Age metal weapons and battle chariots, allowed them to defeat their seemingly stronger and more powerful opponents.

Another important facet of the book is the author discusses the important technological innovations of the period and how that affected military tactics, strategy, and technology, such as the widespread use of the battle chariot, and how that ultimately may have contributed to the fall of the region's great civilizations at the hands of the Sea Peoples. The author also does an excellent job of discussing the other competing theories of the fall and overall, this is a well-researched and well-written account of this important period in ancient history.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Analysis of the End of the Bronze Age
Review: Towards the end of the bronze age in the eastern mediterranean, around 1200 BC, most of the great cities of the region were destroyed. In this excellent book, Robert Drews summarizes the facts of and existing theories for this catastrophe, and proposes a new theory of his own: that new weapons and accompanying military doctrine resulted in the defeat of the agricultural city states and empires of the time. Only when they reached Egypt were the aggressive "sea peoples" finally defeated.

The book opens with a description of the catastrophe at the end of the bronze age, listing 44 cities throughout Greece, Asia Minor, Syria and the Levant that were destroyed - including some very well known ones like Troy and Mycenae - and describing the general pattern of destruction. Drews then continues by summarizing the existing theories for this catastrophe - earthquakes, migrations, ironworking, drought, systems collapse, and raiders - and convincingly demonstrates why none of these explanations is sufficient to explain the scope and details of the catastrophe.

Drews then sets the stage for his own military explanation of the catastrophe by describing both bronze age warfare dominated by elite chariot troops with spear armed infantry in a defensive supporting role, and the later iron age warfare dominated by infantry with mounted cavalry in support. He then presents his own theory: that use of infantry in a more active role, with javelins and heavier slashing swords, enabled "barbarians" to defeat the chariot armies of the great agricultural civilizations in the area and sack their cities.

Drews presents a lot of good evidence and cogent argument in support of his theories. The book does have a few flaws - Drews sometimes uses French and German quotations without translation, and he does not always examine the evidence for his own arguments as critically as he does the evidence for competing explanations - but these flaws are minor and do not really detract from the value of the work. Whether or not one ultimately accepts Drews' explanation as true, the book as a whole is an excellent analysis of the events of this important chapter history.

Rating:
Summary: Excellent Analysis of the End of the Bronze Age
Review: Towards the end of the bronze age in the eastern mediterranean, around 1200 BC, most of the great cities of the region were destroyed. In this excellent book, Robert Drews summarizes the facts of and existing theories for this catastrophe, and proposes a new theory of his own: that new weapons and accompanying military doctrine resulted in the defeat of the agricultural city states and empires of the time. Only when they reached Egypt were the aggressive "sea peoples" finally defeated.

The book opens with a description of the catastrophe at the end of the bronze age, listing 44 cities throughout Greece, Asia Minor, Syria and the Levant that were destroyed - including some very well known ones like Troy and Mycenae - and describing the general pattern of destruction. Drews then continues by summarizing the existing theories for this catastrophe - earthquakes, migrations, ironworking, drought, systems collapse, and raiders - and convincingly demonstrates why none of these explanations is sufficient to explain the scope and details of the catastrophe.

Drews then sets the stage for his own military explanation of the catastrophe by describing both bronze age warfare dominated by elite chariot troops with spear armed infantry in a defensive supporting role, and the later iron age warfare dominated by infantry with mounted cavalry in support. He then presents his own theory: that use of infantry in a more active role, with javelins and heavier slashing swords, enabled "barbarians" to defeat the chariot armies of the great agricultural civilizations in the area and sack their cities.

Drews presents a lot of good evidence and cogent argument in support of his theories. The book does have a few flaws - Drews sometimes uses French and German quotations without translation, and he does not always examine the evidence for his own arguments as critically as he does the evidence for competing explanations - but these flaws are minor and do not really detract from the value of the work. Whether or not one ultimately accepts Drews' explanation as true, the book as a whole is an excellent analysis of the events of this important chapter history.