The Bronze Age Collapse
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the Bronze Age collapse, the term used to describe what many perceive as sudden, chaotic change around 1200 BC, mainly in the eastern Mediterranean.
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss The Bronze Age Collapse, the name given by many historians to what appears to have been a sudden, uncontrolled destruction of dominant civilizations around 1200 BC in the Aegean, Eastern Mediterranean and Anatolia. Among other areas, there were great changes in Minoan Crete, Egypt, the Hittite Empire, Mycenaean Greece and Syria. The reasons for the changes, and the extent of those changes, are open to debate and include droughts, rebellions, the breakdown of trade as copper became less desirable, earthquakes, invasions, volcanoes and the mysterious Sea Peoples.
With
John Bennet
Director of the British School at Athens and Professor of Aegean Archaeology at the University of Sheffield
Linda Hulin
Fellow of Harris Manchester College and Research Officer at the Oxford Centre for Maritime Archaeology at the University of Oxford
And
Simon Stoddart
Fellow of Magdalene College and Reader in Prehistory at the University of Cambridge
Producer: Simon Tillotson.
Last on
More episodes
Previous
Clip
-
![]()
Would you rather have a leather or bronze shield in battle?
Duration: 00:53
LINKS AND FURTHER READING
Μύ
Μύ
READING LIST:
Cyprian Broodbank, The Making of the Middle Sea: A History of the Mediterranean from the Beginning to the Emergence of the Classical World (Thames & Hudson, 2013)
Trevor Bryce, The Kingdom of the Hittites (Oxford University Press, 2005)
Trevor Bryce, The World of The Neo-Hittite Kingdoms: A Political and Military History (Oxford University Press, 2012)
Eric H. Cline (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of the Bronze Age Aegean (Oxford University Press, 2010)
Eric H. Cline, 1177 BC: The Year Civilization Collapsed (Princeton University Press, 2014)
Eric H. Cline and David O'Connor (eds), Ramesses III: The Life and Times of Egypt's Last Hero (University of Michigan Press, 2012)
Sigrid Deger-Jalkotzy and Irene S. Lemos (eds), Ancient Greece: From the Mycenaean Palaces to the Age of Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔr (Edinburgh University Press, 2006)
Jared M. Diamond, Collapse: How Societies Choose to Fail or Succeed (Penguin, 2006)
A. F. Harding and H. Fokkens (eds.), The Oxford Handbook of the European Bronze Age (Oxford University Press, 2013)
A. F. Harding, European Societies in the Bronze Age (Cambridge University Press, 2000)
Ann E. Killebrew and Gunnar Lehmann (eds), The Philistines and Other "Sea Peoples" in Text and Archaeology (Society of Biblical Literature, 2013)
C. Mathers, and S. K. F. Stoddart (eds.), Development and Decline in the Mediterranean Bronze Age (John Collis Publication, 1994)
Patricia McAnany and Norman Yoffee (eds), Questioning Collapse: Human Resilience, Ecological Vulnerability and the Aftermath of Empire (Cambridge University Press, 2010)
William L. Moran (ed.), The Amarna Letters (John Hopkins University Press, 1992)
Marc Van de Mieroop, The Eastern Mediterranean in the Age of Ramesses II (Blackwell, 2007)
Amanda H. Podany, Brotherhood of Kings: How International Relations Shaped the Ancient Near East (Oxford University Press, 2010)
Shelley Wachsmann, Seagoing Ships and Seamanship in the Bronze Age Levant (Texas A&M University Press, 1998)
Marguerite Yon, The City of Ugarit at Tell Ras Shamra (Eisenbrauns, 2001)
Μύ
Credits
| Role | Contributor |
|---|---|
| Presenter | Melvyn Bragg |
| Producer | Simon Tillotson |
| Interviewed Guest | John Bennet |
| Interviewed Guest | Linda Hulin |
| Interviewed Guest | Simon Stoddart |
Broadcasts
- Thu 16 Jun 2016 09:00Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4
- Thu 16 Jun 2016 21:30Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ Radio 4
Featured in...
![]()
Ancient Greece—In Our Time
Browse the Ancient Greece era within the In Our Time archive.
![]()
Mesopotamian—In Our Time
Browse the Mesopotamian era within the In Our Time archive.
![]()
History—In Our Time
Historical themes, events and key individuals from Akhenaten to Xenophon.
In Our Time podcasts
Download programmes from the huge In Our Time archive.
The In Our Time Listeners' Top 10
If you’re new to In Our Time, this is a good place to start.
Arts and Ideas podcast
Download the best of Radio 3's Free Thinking programme.
Podcast
-
![]()
In Our Time
Melvyn Bragg and guests discuss the ideas, people and events that have shaped our world.
