Bronze Age Lost Its Cutting Edge Before Climate Crisis - Truthdig - http://www.truthdig.com/report...
Nov 23, 2014
from
ⓒⓔⓐ,
Roux,
Ken Morley,
Jenny H.,
John (bird whisperer),
ma∟ıĸ,
Passive Apathetic,
Eivind,
d☭snake,
آزاده,
Todd Hoff,
Stephan Planken,
and
Mark H
liked this
"A new study suggests that Bronze Age cultures everywhere collapsed not because of sustained drought or flooding, but because of technological change. The gradual spread of iron foundries and smithies, they say, undermined the economic strengths of those centres with monopolies on the production of, and trade in, copper and tin—the elements in the alloy bronze."
- Maitani
"Ian Armit, an archaeologist at the University of Bradford in the UK, and colleagues base their argument on careful studies of ancient climate, using a combination of pollen data and other evidence, plus 2,000 precision-dated archaeological finds from Ireland, from between 1200 BC and 400 AD. This evidence tells a different, but equally familiar, story."
- Maitani
I was not aware there had ever been a consensus that drought and flooding was /the/ cause. After "the sea peoples did it" went out of fashion, it seems to me they've gone Pete Smith on the problem and just mumble "it's probably a bit more complicated than that" :)
- Eivind
Eivind, and these books on the Dark Ages you have read but I haven't yet? What do they say?
- Maitani
Mumble schmumble, I *clearly* state that it is more complicated than that. As it usually is :) As archaeology is Muddy Guessing With Equipment, though, who can say in this case.
- Pete's Got To Go
The short version would be "we just don't know, and we'll probably never find out," Maitani :) Possible contributing factors I remember: Climate/crop failure, migrations from other areas (most often Europe and Western Anatolia) with war/unrest/crop failure, innovations in warfare, domino effect taking down the trade network node by node, and some complex systems theory thingy that the last guy I listened to reluctantly mentioned by confessed he didn't know that well.
- Eivind
How could technology diffusion, that would have to take place over a very long time, cause a simultaneous collapse over a very large area? It doesn't make sense. It takes a lot for people to leave their homes, their lives. They would adapt. What could possibly be so compelling about an iron culture that would cause agricultural people to just pick up and move? And we don't see a real iron culture evolve until much later, which means the forces could not have been compelling. And we see people move from coastal settlements high into remote protected areas. That's not a technological consideration. People were afraid.
- Todd Hoff
Upon closer examination, the study doesn't seem to be about the Eastern Mediterranean Bronze Age collapse at all, Todd. It's about the later transition from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age in north western Europe, and Ireland in particular. Hard to tell from the article except that dates are way too late. The title of the paper is "Rapid climate change did not cause population collapse at the end of the European Bronze Age."
- Eivind