The Bronze Age Collapse 

I can hear the old soldiers now, "Back in my day the bronze weapons were twice as heavy and half as effective. You kids have it too easy with this lightweight, unbreakable iron!"

This is my jam. You couldn’t pay me to care about a history teacher talking about any of this back in high school but I live for RU-vid videos like this now.

1 hr of documentary with no ads. You sir are beyond Godsend. Thank you. Thumbs up and love

I studied ancient history in the 1960s. There's so much more information available now. All kinds of sites have been unearthed and extinct languages deciphered. The picture of the ebb and flow of ancient civilizations has become much clearer. Excellent video.

Let's just imagine future historians talking about the Information Age Collapse

I feel like I'm looking through a pinhole of the world of millions of lives and stories, long forgotten. Each kingdom was full of real people with real desires and interests and personalities. In the year 5000, maybe they're thinking the same of us...

3:45 civilization 3 soundtrack kicks in. Real recognise real.

16:31 I've played enough of Civ to know that music anywhere. Well played

This is why I love RU-vid. I feel like I'm watching a TV documentary like I watched as a kid and that they showed in history class, but for free.

I remember when TV was as clear, concise, and interesting as this. Then they sensationalised it, made it emotional, and ruined it.

Can't imagine that this is free, it's like a complete documentary, Thank you so much for your effort. Amazing video!

I got so hyped when the Civ 6 Egypt theme played dueing the Hittite vs Egyptian section. What a great piece of music!

I'm so glad I find these history channels. Hidden gems of RU-vid.

Solid content. I wish the history channel was still like this...simple pictures and footage with narration go a long way.

I’ve probably watched this 20 times because there is so much here. Your other videos are also very well done!

Fantastic! Thoughtful, evidence-based, the history of the region (with maps!) put the collapse in perspective. The best account of the period I have seen so far.

Thank you for not spoiling everything with sweeping dramatic music and sound effects!

I'm so glad this isn't on the History Channel. "Who were the Sea People?" -- *ALIENS!*

The editing and production quality on this is absolutely mental 👌 great work!

You had me at classic Civ music. Press F for all the millions killed by Gandhi.

The content, the narration style and presentation are in stark contrast to the shaking, flashing and shouting so common nowadays and it comes as a relief to watch such great material. Thank you.

I just finished Reading Dr. Clines book, 1177 B.C.: The Year civilization Collapsed. This was an enjoyable recap of the book.

Your videos are great! Clear, eloquent, educational, and easy to watch. Great job!

I like the fact you document the sometimes embellishments of Egyptian Pharos. Other historians have suggested this to. The “Sea People’s “ May not have been much more than Mediterranean pirates taking advantage of the chaos.

Well, I must admit that it has been a long time since I had the pleasure of seeing a good historic documentary. It’s not over the top action, you give accurate information in a such a way that anyone can understand. Such a shame that there are not more of these videos out there. Thanks for this .

This is the most comprehensive presentation I have seen re: The "sea people" and the Bronze Age Collapse. Thank you.

Fantastic video! You are really raising the bar for historical content.

Ahh yes, the wet Mongolians.... who could forget such effective seamen.

This is such a good piece of work. So well produced and clearly done so with passion. Nothing but praise!

It's remarkable how your voice can command so much attention with such a data heavy topic. I can cook or paint while listening to this video and retain a lot of information, even on days with brain fog! ❤

Exceptionally well made. History is largely verbal and that is what makes this stand out. Just listen and it's great, what picture and video you added were a bonus.

Damn Atlantian refugees causing collapses...

This is a coherent and comprehensive look at an era overlooked by most. Great work!

I love your videos. They make me feel so calm and help me get through the work day. The way you begin each sentence as tho its a question is iconic.

This is one of your best documentaries. I watch it again often. Cheers!

bravo, bravo - this is why i stopped paying my tv licence

I just realized how small the channel is! Quality content man, I was like now I want to see the history of the iron age... What, 3 vids ? 8k subs ? Man... Instant sub. =)

Thank you for posting this. I'm very grateful for the educational and edifying content.

Thank you, Charles 💕 i loved this! Very good encapsulation of a huge story.

When discussing the Bronze Age or the Iron Age, way too much stress is placed on the use of the metals to make weapons. An iron sword is no more lethal than a bronze one. A spear tipped with flint cuts pokes holes in people just as good as one tipped with bronze. How Bronze made cultures outcompete copper cultures was that it was harder and made more durable, and more effective TOOLS. Bronze chisels and picks doubled mining production and made ornate stone architecture possible. Bronze axes and adzes cut trees and shaped wood 5 times faster than copper. When iron came around it resulted in tools that were 3-4 times as productive as bronze tools were. It was the economic output that bronze enabled that made bronze cultures more powerful than their copper using rivals- and iron cultures out produced bronze cultures. It had nothing to do with the weapons... except for the fact that the much bigger economy enabled by metal tooling allowed a kingdom to AFFORD to equip a larger army.

This is very well done! Very informative and enjoyable.

The music and content is giving me massive Civ III flashbacks, I remember playing the Wonders of the Ancient World scenario and trying to expand the Hittites into Egypt

Just discovered your content. Started with "The Druids" and loving so far. Consider me a new fan.

The amount of detail is amazing. Well done Mr Histocrat!

These are thorough and fantastic documentaries. Thank you. Pictures and narration are super effective, not only that the script is tied together for cohesive and a well directed style.

Awesome content 👌👍👏 long time viewer here, & you keep on delivering the good stuff! Like the history channel of old, I watch this stuff when I wake up and have breakfast, put on a audio doc' while driving, and fall asleep while listening lol. I'm a history buff 😎😎😎 and always have been. Thanks for all you do, and everyone else who produces quality content!

I spend many hours in my kitchen conjuring up culinary works for my own and others' delight; this is the sort of excellent content which enhances my pleasure in the kitchen.

Thank you for another amazing video. The first video I saw was “The History of England - Documentary”, and loved it. So fascinating to learn about the land of my last names origin. Thank you again. Cannot wait for your next work. Cheers

Wow, what a great video history! Thanks for putting this together. I really enjoyed identifying which games the music came from - I've played all the Civs, and then the Children of the Nile music brought back happy memories of building Egyptian cities, too. Plus, the Wilhelm scream - hard to go wrong with that! :-)

Clear, informative and well presented documentary that does a better job than most the ones you see on TV.

This video goes into great detail about specifics of history which I like. I could watch an hour long video about each one of these civilizations

Magnificent documentary! Superbly explained! One of the better ones on all of RU-vid?

I hear that Civilization 3 soundtrack, I love it

The CIV3 Music is just the icing on the cake! Excellent video!

I watch a lot of bronze age/collapse RU-vid content and this is still one of the best.

Very well researched and presented!! A wonderful collection of images, supportive of the narrative. This is much more professional work than appears on "television". Thank you so much!

A really interesting overview. Clear and concise.

What a great video! This was very well done and thoroughly enjoyable. I watched it all in one sitting

I'm watching again for the 100th time. Needing this right now in light of everything going on.

What’s interesting is following the written language of these cultures and how it connects the different nations and people. Also many symbols that link us with places you would never think.

That civilization 3 background music brought back so many memberberries

I liked this alot. Love when people make informative history documentaries.

Another brilliant episode. Thank You!!

Hearing the Civ2 music, started to make me cry 😂 This video is great, definately saving it.

I really appreciate the effort you make creating these videos. Please continue the good work. You deserve more subscribers.

Great video. I've always been a bit skeptical of the "Sea Peoples" theory. No doubt they existed and played their part, but they almost certainly weren't the juggernaut they are sometimes portrayed to be. Drought, earthquake, volcanic eruption; mix one or more of those with wars and a few poor decisions and you have a recipe for collapse.

Great drone footage so props to you and all the appropriate sources which have contributed to this epic scourge which remains shrouded with mystery. Hopefully more information can be attained using modern analysis.

Thanks for this excellent documentary. Simply done and highly informative. Well done.

Amazing video! Some of the most straight forward, understandable and certainly the most entertaining content for this time period! Thank you so much for making this awesome video!

We learn so much about Egypt in school it's really cool to learn about "the other guys." It's cool to know they were a force to be reckoned with. It makes me wonder what their culture was like, and who would be descended from them toay.

I have watched all your documentaries (currently all 4) and have to say that I loved all of them. Looking forward to more. You are a truly skilled narrator and talented presenter. A really great combination of music, pictures and footage, as well.

Wow. This is the documentary I’ve been waiting for. This is probably the most fascinating period of modern human history to me, with the only exception being pre 10,000BC/Neolithic revolution which I find equally interesting. The quality of the well-researched content and how you present it is BEYOND amazing. So much juicy info, I love how you dont shy away from nuance and detail where appropriate, it’s a rare a available attribute these days. Meticulous is how I would describe your editorial style. Anyway, thank you for making the world a little bit smarter! 🙏

A marvellous illustrative history of Bronze Age.

An excellent production. It reminds me of the documentaries on the history channel when it actually had historical stuff in it. Fantastic work!

Taking families on a “conquest” makes it look as though they were fleeing more than conquering

According to my studies from the History channel. I'm not saying that the bronze age collapses was aliens, but aliens. I love the work you put out man, I'm a big fan of history and the art and narration style you use keeps the episodes enjoyable.

Great documentary. No dramatic music, no unnecessary CGI.... just facts and simple pictures. Awesome

I like how you used the music from the settler stone age of the Civilization games. It's a nice touch.

Well-presented and thought out. Very interesting.

Due to a few mistakes I found early into the video I made the difficult decision to re-upload the fixed video in its entirety. Apologies to anyone who commented/liked previously.

Excellent history channel, I like presentation, narration style, very professional without lousy music, flashing scene... Keep up the good job..

Civilization III music at the beggining made my morning. Such good memories!!!

Very enjoyable content and well narrated. Look forward to more. 👍

The Egyptians lived in the same time period. I think that it's reasonable to think that they weren't lying about the sea-peoples unless very strong evidence to the contrary turns up. A lot of these "questions" that are raised are just silly. "Why did it take them a decade to reach Egypt?" You might as well ask "Why did it take the Goths centuries to reach Rome?" It would be strange if there weren't other reasons for the Bronze age collapse than just a ravaging horde of Barbarians destroying everything but this revisionist history tends to go too far I think (or pretend to for shock value, like "the historians have been wrong all along!" or "This brand new theory makes the old theory false!"). Just because the collapse of Rome was complicated and took a long time and it would be too simplistic to say that "the barbarian hordes destroyed Rome" that doesn't mean that incursions from Germanic peoples and the Huns had nothing to do with Romes fall. I'm sure that the Hittite empires fall, for example, was brought about by other hostile incursions than just the "Sea peoples" but it still seems likely that the Sea peoples were a big contributing factor to making the disaster cascade the way it did and cause so much more damage than previous invasions, conflicts, natural disasters and famines. And there was probably a reason why the Sea peoples started doing what they were doing and why they were successful at it. Maybe a famine, maybe overpopulation. But that doesn't mean that the old theory is false. Just that it, unsurprisingly, doesn't give the whole picture. Also, there's no reason to get hung up on the term "sea"-peoples. Nothing says that these groups were incapable of travelling on land just because they attacked Egypt from the Sea (they are described as having brought carts with them which you'll note are only useful on land). And they were composed of many groups of people. Some of those groups may have had a stronger connection to the sea than others. The Sea peoples probably caused a lot of destruction at the same time of the bronze age collapse because those states were weak at the time so they could take advantage. Maybe they were refugees fleeing famine or maybe (as I've seen suggested) they were mercenaries that hadn't been payed for a long time as a result of the relative peace between the super-powers that preceded the collapse. Whatever the reason the collapse of trade that resulted, combined with the famine and possibly an earthquake or other natural disaster this would have caused a cascading event that we call the Bronze age collapse. Like the Vandal sack of Rome the sea peoples attacks would have been a momentous event that people remembered and could blame for their troubles even if it was more of a symptom of the problem than the cause (or more like the executioner than the judge or the committed crime if that makes sense).

This video takes me back to the documentaries I used to watch on the history channel before it became all aliens. Just watching a random documentary on a Saturday afternoon after the cartoons and before the evening TV

The slight Valley Girl inflection is baffling and hilarious

Very well done indeed. Not the average Slapdash meta-history used to glue populist (Simple) "History" Together. This program requires thoughtful involvement of an interested viewer, too. History is in part, detective work, and is as much taking things to pieces as putting them(back) together. This program "Reverse engineers" popular historical notions such as The Sea Peoples" and goes into what is evidenced in the historical record as it is understood today. Really the sort of program so badly needed in the face of the unfortunate trend toward Revisionism, particularly as involves understanding of Ancient History.

your numbers will bloom soon these videos are made really well

Heard that Civ VI Egypt music and had flashbacks lmao fantastic work

For how critical the BA is to modern population genetics and cultural histories, I can't believe its not THE most studied period

That civ 3 music got me liking the video without thinking.

This sounds like pro Sea People propaganda to me >:(

I really love your videos, keep it up!

Astonishing depiction, keep on doing such a great job!☺️

Great introductive video. Using Rava's art was a nice touch. Cheers!

Good documentary. For further reading I highly recommend Eric H. Cline's Book "1177". He attributes the collapse of the Bronze Age Mediterranen civilizations to far more than just the Sea Peoples. There also seems to be a new direction in historic sciences to take more factors into consideration than just the invasion of a largely unknown foe.

Thank you very much for this update lesson. Simple, clear and merely complete. Until the next state of arts.

Thank you for all you do

This is amazing. More! Oh, I wish the big-budget Hollywood gang could make something like this!

Hittites: *has successful empire* Kaska Peoples: I'm going to ruin this guy's whole career.