Marauders swept in from the sea, and the cities of the Bronze Age crumbled before them. Why did they fall so quickly? Support us on Patreon! www.patreon.com/ExtraCredits/
Ah yes, the seven great disasters of the Bronze Age. Volcanic eruptions, meteor impacts, aliens, Godzilla, Frankenstein's Monster, Dracula and Cthulhu.
im from Latakia (the same location of Ugarit) now days in syria, and i live in the Netherlands, i wanted to do a presentation for my class about Ugarit just this week all in Dutch language, and this video came just on time, thank you!!
After Rameses III, Egypt went through a revolving door of foreign occupiers: Nubians, Libyans, Assyrians, Persians, Greeks, and Romans as far as the ancient world goes.
Well the Aeneid tell us that Aeneas and the last Trojans sailed around to find a new home. Virgil never made clear if the wandering Trojans were trouble makers or not.
@@edwardr5793 well if you want to get technical, he wrote the empires in the correct order and ended with the Romans, who conquered Egypt around 300 years after Alexander.
This is why I love listening to music sung in languages I don't speak, and why I typically never look up the lyrics. There's something so satisfying about the potential in a mystery
"If history teaches us anything it is this : always pay your mercenaries. Oh, and don't invade Russia because that never seems to work." Aye, point one is very accurate. And surprisingly often ignored in history. Concerning point two, that has proven true with most invaders. The Mongols are as usual and exception.
yes indus civilization is one of the most developed bronze age civilization and may be you don't know there are many excavation going on and in latest discovery is Rakhigarhi, the biggest Harappan or indus site or settlement . www.thehindu.com/features/friday-review/history-and-culture/rakhigarhi-the-biggest-harappan-site/article5840414.ece but most of peoples approach towards indus is just negative or idiotic they just saying indus just trading with middle eastern civilization they not involve in politics or other......crap . my question is when your title is bronze age they automatically cover all prominent civilization and indus also mysteriously doomed in same period . there are too much biases .
Well zombies don't need to breathe so it would be possible for them to walk on the ocean floor and emerge on very confused and very terrified civilizations. Also, zombies can't shoot bows and burn cities to the ground, but desperate armies dealing with even the possibility of and outbreak on a city can. ...is it just me or does this seem like a nice setting for a tabletop rpg?
They seem to be referring to the Israelite cities that were built along the Jordan River, away from the Phoenicians and Philistines near the coast. They built those after destroying the Canaanite cities.
Something I've always wondered about you guys. When Dan says "I think this" or "This is my opinion or what makes sense to me" is that "me" himself, Dan, or is he speaking as the writer, meaning that "Me" refers to James or whoever wrote the episode? Or do you guys all just have an alien hive consciousness that refers to itself in the singular?
James and Dan, have explained this before in a Q&A. The answer is : "a mix of both". Most of the time "me" means the writer (which in EC is usually James, and in this series i believe is Soraya). But Dan also reviews and edit each script before recording, and he would make slight adjustments on format and style to it, and so, it also reflects "his thinking". TL;DR: ME refers to "Character Dan" regardless of who wrote the script.
They had to be a bit savage because civilization inventions and achievements were abandoned and there was nothing left in written language. I have read they incorporated into their culture only the basic things they encountered after the invasion. Things that were used on daily basis, for example, better pottery, etc.
Maybe now that they've announced Total War Sagas (which are focused on specific events in history) they might focus one of their standalone games on that period.
That would be fucking sick. I don't like Total War and I would play the shit out of that. Imagine, the sea people invading your country, or maybe you *are* the sea people. Hell yeah!
Genetic studies of Philistine graves in the Levant showed that they likely had greek origins, or at least what is now greece. So it seems very likely that if the Philistines were part of the sea people, they were still outside invaders.
Fredrik Dunge nope,both dorians and philistines are greek tribes but from different ancestors..dorians were the closest descenants of pelasgians wich were protogreek and philistines were minoan descenats who lived in anatolia..btw illyrians werent dorians
Fredrik Dunge still phillistines were neither dorian or mycenean ..they were minoans so they were cretan greeks so i dont get why you cla8mthey were illyrians :)
Fredrik Dunge just do your fucking research...anyway i dont give a shit if you believe me or not...but just stop commenting because my phone rings like hell and i cant do my job ..just search phillistine anthropoligy study -minoan-cretan-greeks..you probably will find something
Possibly connected to the fallout from the Trojan War (refugees/displaced peoples/toppled regime/failed states) or the Dorian (sp?) invasion of mainland Greece/Mycenae?
The Xia dynasty is said to have collapsed around 1500 BC, contemporary with the eruption of Santorini, and the records tell that drought, bizarre weather patterns, and an unending winter were the causes of the rebellion of vassal lords which are said to have toppled the dynasty. This correlation points for me to the possibility that the Xia may have been real, or at least a folk memory of a great early kingdom which collapsed alongside many others of its time all over the world.
This is a really interesting series. I like these more speculative episodes that try to make sense of disparate historical records and present incomplete data for us the audience to ponder. It makes me really eager to see you do other topics about ancient history that're based more on archaeology and theory rather than written accounts. This kind of stuff does a great job of diversifying the format.
This entire series is great, but I kudos to your art team! The visual at 3:24 is * chefs kiss*! Visuals to entertain are cool, but visuals that entertain AND clarify are freaking awesome!
Great video!!! I started to watch this channel about 2 weeks ago and I am in love. I find this subject specially interesting and so I am really liking this bronze age collapse videos. I hope you keep up the great work, you are spreading a lot of knowledge to a lot of people! have a great day!!
This is perhaps the most interesting "Extra Credits" series ever. Because it touches one of the fundamental questions. Why is there no direct line of development in human history? Why didnt they invented the steam engine 2000 years before Christ? Why did they made a downfall so often in such a short timeframe compared with the billion years of time past since the creation of life on this planet?
Because its about context. Technology is only utilised if there is a need for it. And the need arises from complex social structures. Ancient Rome had all the technology to create the steam engine, yet it was a slave based economy, ergo there was simply no need for any form of optimisation or improvement in the realm of "beast of burdens". Development of society is the key if you want to integrate any form of technology. Language, interaction, human relations, politics etc. Humanity was simply not ready.
"Technology is only utilised if there is a need for it." Well, yes. But wasnt there a need for fast transportation during the bronce age? We already had a large trade-network there. And they had a fundamental knowledge of mechanics and physics. And the word "Automobile" is a derivate of the old greek word for an autonomous vehicle... So, why was James Watt in the 19th century the inventor of the steam engine and not Platon?
A complex society is more than just trade. again. the fundamental reason for the lack of innovation during the time is again explained by the slave based economy. There was a status qou and there simply wasn't any demand or need for innovation. Nor was there any middle class to speak off. Where they innovated was engineering and war. The economy more or less looked the same during the empires existence. There are seldom a single explanation for things, and i only offer my view of the situation. But, the advent of industrialisation derived from the need to make the textile industry more efficient. and the industrial economy could only develop after society had developed along with it. Everything form norms to culture, identity and language. And, several powerful european economies we're competing to be number one, and as we know, competition is one of the greatest sources of innovation there is. At the time, Rome stood alone in its section of the world.
TOFKAS01 actually, the auto of automobile is still used in modern greek. We just have the word for moveable, witch makes the words ib greek and englisg fairly similiar.
I think this has been the series I have liked most so far, I had no idea about the bronze age collapse since I began watching this. Very interesting stuff
I begin to understand why my feed is filled with Bronze Age Collapse videos! As history experts you are well aware that time is a great circle, or as I think of it, a spiral. We are getting to this point in the cycle again, on several levels, and you are helping me to understand it. I hope others with more decision-making capability than I have are also coming to realize it, and that we as a planet find ways to alter the cycle a little bit.
If only History was taught like that in school, I'd be a lot easier to interest some students. The best History teachers are the ones that know how to tell a story.
I love the recruiting poster at 1:53. It might have been nice to see a "Your Empire needs YOU!" Like the old Kitchener/Uncle Sam poster from WWI featuring a scowling Rameses III.
A lot of articles and historians point to a common event in this period, that if not the main cause, one of: -droughts in many wells -a change in temperatures -erosion of the fertility of the farmlands -volcanic eruptions (hence myths like atlantis, that probably derived from the minoans) These made the gains from farming smaller and despair grew, forcing each nation to resort to war or rebellions. Lots of collapsed walls also indicate a succession of earth quakes during these times, which would not only kill many and destroy buildings, but would cause panic amongst the religious folk that believed that this was a punishment laid down by the gods!
Bryce 0905 I think Egypt was the longest surviving bronze age civilization but due to their God King system Ramses death would have hit hard since I believe he had the longest resign of the pharaohs dying at the age of 82.
Well I mean you could argue the Greeks survived right? The Mycenaeans are sometimes called Greeks, the same name in the same place doesn't necessarily mean they "survived". And even if they weren't future rulers of Egypt claiming they came from the old pre-collapse rulers was a winning strategy for legitimacy points.
Greoge 13 Ueath like the Neo empires that rose after the collapse. Like Neo-assyrian, Neo-Babylonian, and at one point Neo-Hittite. If I'm remembering right ,Egypt didn't collapse into total anarchy but instead lost a lot of territory and would just change dynasty and never recovered from the collapse.
On occasion I'll hear people postulate that religion (specifically the "Christian Dark Ages") are the entire reason that progress has been stifled. It's as if people believe that, without any religion, we would be colonizing planets by now. Although I'm not trying to argue that religion as a whole is entirely innocent in creating problems throughout society, seeing the Bronze Age Collapse and how it led to what essentially was a large scale halt in technological improvement across nations seems to indicate that, despite what some people say, there have been other factors that contribute to decline in sophistication of people groups outside of "Christian ignorance".
@@glacierlegion9439 oh and one more thing, a lot of the advances made by Islamic scholars were made either out of a classical Islamic belief that exploring and understanding the world was the truest form of loving God, or out a practical need to follow their religious beliefs (ie where do you face yourself to pray towards Meca, how do you follow Islamic inheritance laws as outlined in the Quran. How do you make cool artwork that doesn’t feature animals, etc etc)
You said the lessons of history are "pay your mercenaries" and "don't invade Russia," but after watching the rest of the video it seems like a more important lesson might be something along the lines of "try to avoid climate change."
People like stability. Climate change is like throwing a wrench into a finely tuned system and noone knows what the results will be. Sure enough, humanity carried on... and built better societies.... but for once can we do it properly without a few centuries of suffering in between?
climate change wasn't all bad, sometimes it made the climate better. its also likely a major factor in the development of agriculture in the middle east.
The universe can be considered another level of sea; it's huge, and largely unexplored, has many interesting environments and perhaps many forms of life that we're currently unaware of.
"Cities were destroyed and not rebuilt and, after many centuries, reappeared on top of high mountains or hidden in gorges". This story is simply fascinating!!!
Such a cool/weird style you've got! Big words, archaic language, and a funny, cartoonish voice coupled with strong intonation and emotion. It's just... totally f******g awesome!
From what I understand the Bronze Age was a house of cards waiting to collapse. It was too complex for its own good and one flaw crushed the whole system. With that complexity in mind, how long until the Glass Age Collapse?
Joseph Sosa Common misconception: the law of entropy says everything will always get more disordered forever. While it does seem clear from history that all civilizations collapse eventually. It also seems clear that some knowledge and skill transcends each civilizational collapse, and offers its shoulders for the next civilization to stand on. None of that is in defiance of entropy. While it might appear to be an increase in the ordering of human societies, it is only made possible by the existence of the laws of entropy, which ensure that progress and collapse are both, in their own ways, equally eternal. The laws of entropy merely guarantee that, in the next era of history, there will be rubble for us to build on, and tools in the rubble for us to build with. You can call it hubris for people to live their daily lives with no thought for the rubble to come. I'd call it a crime against our children not to put as many tools in the rubble as possible.
Charles as soon as we get hit by a Coronal Mass Ejection and have all electronics unusable, we will be fucked. Hopefully only for a decade before we reestablish our electronic systems but in that time anyone could start an old-school invasion and alter the political landscape
GelidGanef All it's going to take is a drought in the U.S of a similar scale to the dust bowl which effects California, Texas, and the Great Plains. This would destroy food production and would lead to a rise in food prices, rationing, and eventually, out of desperation, riots and looting. The government would try to crack down on this which would make the U.S appear weak and on the verge of collapse, not to mention that this is happening in other countries too, so the U.S dollar would collapse dragging the world economy down with it. Which would lead to destruction across the world due to riots and revolution coupled with invasions by foreign powers attempting to secure food resources.
Obviously you don't realize the ridiculous amount of food the U.S. produces, how much is in storage, how much good food is thrown away, and how many farmers the government pays not to farm. The U.S. exports more food than any other country.
The fact that we don't know how entire civilizations ended is highly disturbing to me. I badly want to see a movie, game, or tv show set in that time now.
That video was amazing, well-done! Especially considering that historical videos seem to be more of a side-piece for you, and most of your focus on video-game design, so again well-done!
I love you guys so much. I have my kids watch these episodes, and it is a great bonding experience for us. That said a lot of that of that has to do with the narration, and the tone of the videos. I have noticed that the older videos are far better designed for sharing with my kids. The newer videos are a little less suitable for a elementary kids.
I remember listening to a scholarly talk on this subject, and I remember that message in a "kiln." I can't remember if it was originally thought to have been in a kiln but later determined to have been in an overturned basket, or vice versa.
"If history teaches us anything it is this : always pay your mercenaries. Oh, and maybe don't invade Russia because that never seems to work." Well said.
Hi I put a comment in the discussion area of your main page, but there doesn't seem to be much action there, so I'm going to put it here too. I just discovered Extra Credits a little while ago, and I've already watched many hours of extra history episodes. I really am enjoying them. I would love to see an episode about Charles Drew, who developed the technique of blood transfusion and saved millions of lives. Thanks for all the hard work you put into these videos :)
My pet theory is the key to the fall was destruction of Minoan Crete. With its thalassocracy - rule of the sea - broken, Sea People were free to roam the Mediterranean, while at same time bringing seaborne trade to complete halt. And as you have already mentioned, trade was crucial to the bronze production itself...
Hey; Thanks, Extra Credits, for pointing me in a few right directions for some research. Now all I have to do is learn all about Bronze Age Anatolia during the time that the Middle Helladic was declining Greece. Yeay, History! :D
The sea people Ramses III is talking about, are the Phoenicians (the world for sea-people is literally, "Phoenicians"). Note that this is the Ramses III almost 700 years AFTER the Bronze Age Collapse of the Middle Kingdom.
A suggestion on the Sea Peoples: it's generally a sensible guess that there was MORE trade over a longer distance than seems obvious. That means peoples as far as what's now Venice, and even Spain, might have heard there were rich people across the sea who'd swap valuable stuff for tin. (Which they'd already been trading to get bronze: swapping raw mtaterial for finished edged tools, armor and weapons.) The distinction between trading and raiding wouldn't be clear for maybe 20 centuries, so you'd have heavily armed ships showing up to see first, what the price was, and second, if maybe stealing wasn't a better idea. Just one ship coming back stuffed with loot from Crete or the Levant, one captain saying "if I'd had 10 ships I could have filled them all", and you'd have dozens. The Mediterranean was like the Mississippi before steam ships -- steal anything, get beyond bowshot from the shore, and a competent sailor could not be caught: no pursuer could have a faster ship. A few centuries piling up wealth makes a damned inviting target for hit and run. One other thought: a localized disease from Western Europe that Eastern Mediterranean folks had never developed an immunity for. Given the very small interchange among peoples (just a few traders mingling), it's not unlikely that a few generations at one end of the Mediterranean would be able to infect the other in a way that everybody they didn't kill with swords or arrows would die accursed, with the 90% mortality rates the First Peoples saw in the Western Hemisphere 3k years later. Refugees (particularly women) who survived could have been unwitting carriers.
"Never invade Russia" is an incomplete rule. The full version would be "never invade Russia shortly before winter". Or you can do it like Polish did and simply rush for the capitol and take their leader in chains to your seat of power.
And make sure russia is in Interregnum, thats how the poles did it. The thing is they only stayed for like two years, and apparently(as far as i know) never actually took the Kremlin.
@@drFocak As far as I remember from the history lessons, the reason that Poles didn't maintained the power in Russia was the religion. It was super likely that a king of Poland was able to put his son on the Russian throne, but that would only be possible if he converted his faith, which was a bit out of question in Poland.
Well except that is exactly what Napoleon did. Contrary to popular belief, he invaded Russia in the summer and made a beeline for their capital expecting to force them to surrender by winter where he and his troops would then take shelter in Moscow. It backfired when the Russians decided to burn their capital, flee into Siberia, and torch the entire path from Moscow back to the rest of Europe. It takes a long time to march 600,000 soldiers to Moscow. Ironically, perhaps had he invaded in the winter, he would not have had to spend a harrowing retreat from Russia in the winter.
Poland didn't really invade Russia. They joined one of the factions in the Russian civil war ("Smuta") and were kind of "invited" to Moscow by their puppet faction. They weren't in position to actually hold Russia by force, so they left when the original deal to put a Polish prince on the Russian throne collapsed due to religious differences. That's not really comparable to the Mongol conquest of Russia.
