What was life like after the Bronze age collapse? 

"Seemed to have failed at living." I concur with your diagnosis, Doc

When in doubt, be a mercenary, shepherd, merchant, and garrison-farmer in an societal apocalypse

collapse of the bronze age has to be the most mysterious and intriguing episode in human history.

Imagine the shock on the bronze-age people's faces to imagine a world where premium-quality bronze can be had for $2.02 a pound.

Assyrian empire: being torn apart Asur bel kala: ok guys let’s make a zoo

This is the first RU-vid video with a truly convincing sponsor...

That would be such a cool era for an RPG, the ruins of the Bronze Age Collapse

This is awesome! It's sad how easily and quickly this part of history gets overlooked. These periods are rich in history and have so much we could learn from.

This would be an amazing RPG setting

"What happened after this post-apocalyptic age?" *t h i c c Assyria* : allow me to introduce myself

"Wastelanders" - you can see the effects of this even today. Arabian, and Jordanian peoples have a high rate of lactose tolerance. While the Northerners are mostly intolerant (farmers). Living as pastoralists in the harshest desert locales would have necessitated the ability to extract every last calorie, including the +50% locked up in lactose.

It would really open people's eyes to realize that life SUCKED for 99.9% of the time the human race has existed, and that we are the most fortunate and privileged group of humans ever to have lived. Edit: Well, the comments are getting out of control. So here are some stats. The human race is 200,000 years old. For the first 199,800 of those years(99.9%), living conditions were almost universally horrible by modern standard. In 1750, the average life expectancy was only 35 and in 1850, barely 40. In 1850, a quarter of newborn babies didn't survive their first year and a full half died before adulthood. At that time, 80% of world population--even in Europe--lived in extreme poverty, which is to say they were always struggling to earn their next meal. In 2020, that number is down to just 10% of the global population. Anesthesia was invented in 1846, meaning that all medical procedures before then were done without pain-numbing. The first antibiotic, penicillin, was discovered less than 100 years ago--before that, you might have lost a finger from a paper cut. And for those of you who say that the climate change will kill us off, may I gently remind you that our ancestors lived through the goddam Ice Age? And THAT's what I mean when I say we are the most priviliged humans ever to live.

Current year seems like a good time to look into becoming a semi-nomadic pastoralist.

Bronze age collapse is definitely the most interesting topic in history.

Kudos again to you for the map being present all the time, and I may add that putting mountains and rivers really helps us to understand the relationship between geography and civilization development. I can not think of a better way to understand the bronze age collapse than the one you used in this video.

I’ve seen this story told dozens of times but your animated map and voice over really made this a fun watch. Great work.

_Imagine chilling in the bronze age with you fancy trojan pottery & imported Indus valley spices._ Then the *Boaty Bois™* arrive

13:52-13:55: "Hey gimme your shoes" "Okay :("

damn, your raspy voice and somber tone is so great to hear it feels like listening the tales of a mysterious traveller on a dark tavern, he might as well have just been an eyewitness of the very histories he tells

Lebron's Age

The real-life post-apo setting.

It's crazy to think that ancient Egypt had it's own Military Industrial Complex. The more things change, the more they stay the same

We never stop one second to think that the gift of knowledge dissapeared from centuries, no reading or writing, no libraries, no scrolls, no history, a dark spot in history.

Just discovered this channel and I have to say, I'm impressed. I'm not sure if I've seen such a well told overview of this period. New subscriber for sure.

I love how the wastelanders viewed the ruins of the old world as something great lol.

last time I was this early copper was still sold at crappy quality by Ea-Nassir

Wow, excellent video! Very clear and sufficiently detailed. Nice graphics too. Thanks.

I only remember my history class briefly mentioning this period of time but it's interesting to hear about all the specific groups and conflicts of that time. You can make a movie out of this

A total conversion Mount and Blade mod for this period would be sick, especially for Bannerlord !

In the next episode, we will explore the most terrifying group of invaders: The Air Peoples

Does anyone else wonder how life was like during this time, and before the collapse? There's so much we don't know about life and society during this time. So. MUCH. Literally 700+ years before the Roman Republic was born. My mind melts trying to think about it.

This is a great video!!! I love your animation style and your voice over work it perfect!! This is my new favorite ASMR history channel to relax to. Keep it up! ❤️

I would love to see a total war game set in this period. Maybe a scenario dlc for Troy.

the warhammer references on chaos and sickness are not lost. good job

"Scribes seemed to have failed at living" i spit out my coffee lmao

Very well researched, highly informative and wonderfully presented. Excellent video!

17:00 introducing BRONZE! made with special ingredient tin, from the faraway lands of tin land! (Idk, my dealer won't tell me where he gets it.)

Ok, ok, I confess. I was the one who collapsed the Bronze Age. It started with an argument that got out of hand during a game of Jenga.

This feels like a spoiler alert for the 2020's -2030's.

I read a lot about the bronze age collapse. And the roll of the sea peoples. This was a great video about what happened AFTER. Thank you for sharing. Well done.

This adaptation of Dune went in a very different direction.

Man These Original Bronze Age civilazations have had so much potential I wish alternatehistory producers actually looked into these instead of using same cliche tropes

Pretty sure I lived with a guy who called himself "The Viceroy of Kush"

Awesome vid as always! This may be my favorite historical youtuber.

This is the best explanation i've found of this period. I've always been confused by the various invasions of the mountian peoples and always wondered where the Arameans came from and why. This video really describes it all quite well!

Long ago the bronze Age empires lived together in harmony. Then everything changed when the sea people attacked.

"Seems to have failed at living" is now my favourite way of saying "died".

Now I know what Werner Herzog with a North American english accent sounds like narrating the Bronze Age collapse.

Thinking about it, it's kind of amazing that collapses like this don't happen more often.

This would be an amazing setting for anything from a D&D campaign to a TV series. The adventures of a scribe, a butcher, and a priest as they try to survive in their ruined homelands, dodging bandits and raiders.

This is undoubtedly one of the coolest videos I’ve ever seen on RU-vid.

So one thing I've learned all through out history there have been hillbillies in every mountainous country!

Barbarians: At last the land will be ours!!! Assyria: So anyway we got reorganized around a new leader and started conquering.

2:22 "Failed at living." Never heard it phrased that way before, but it is very explanative

Tell me more about this Bronze, it sounds like it might catch on 😉 Great video, always found this region and period of history absolutely fascinating, guess I should subscribe.

Pretty crazy that I stumbled upon this video because I've been learning about this all semester. Video is great! Only thing that I would have maybe added would be that the region of Canaan was indeed its own entity, albeit through a collection of warring city-states, but I can understand why it was simplified through Egypt and the Hittites, given that they relied on them for the most part. One other thing would be the Amarna Letters, which were excellent indicators of what relations amongst the ruling elite of these kingdoms looked like. Otherwise, not too shabby at all!

0:28 The Shang dynasty is certainly a meme dynasty. Most of the sites and kings mentioned by ancient historians were backed by archaeological findings btw. The last king built a large pond filled with booze and on the shores he had an entire "forest" full of meats hung on racks. He would capture thousands of other people from neighboring states and sacrifice them en masse, sometimes by tying them to a large bronze "cannon" filled with burning coal, glowing hot red. When a small rebel army of a few thousands faced the 200 000 strong (allegedly) slave army, the slaves rebelled too and the king burned himself with his palace. Unlike the bronze age collapse the next few years under the new king were considered the best years and every later royal line would try to emulate it.

I once heard a theory that the Phoenicians may have been involved with the Sea Peoples, or at least convinced them to leave them alone, since the Sea Peoples had naval transportation, and many cities of Phoenicia did alright through the Collapse.

Me learning from history to figure out what I should do in the next 20 years

I am new to the channel, and I love your ad reads. The sarcastic spoofing is what this world needs.

Bronze Age Collapse: *exists" Proto-Greece: *chillin*

Your channel is so criminally underrated

It feels like bronze age collapse (and devastation of the earlier 4.2 kiloyear event that destroyed Indus valley, Akkadian empire and nearly everyone else) was the closest humanity has ever gotten to a true apocalyptic and post-apocalyptic horror. ...So far.

I really love your calm measured tone in narration, very soothing

Insane quality on this one. Glad to see how you're always looking for ways to improve on your content, this was a sucess for sure. I'll never stop being curious about the Bronze Age collapse, and this particular topic was very interesting to me since I've always found it hardest to imagine what life was for people in this era. This was very illustrative, so thanks a lot and keep it up!

You've outdone yourself. I'm really loving the egypt segment.

Well done, this was an enjoyable watch.

I just found your channel, I want to say thank you for chronicling what is a very difficult subject area. Isis wiped out so many ancient temples in this area. When you read the Old Testament, this whole time period is chronicled, and the same names of tribes you are dictating is written down in that book. I am truly enthralled with this era of history. Persian, Israelite, Assyrian, Babylonian, Minoan, Canaanite, Philistine, so many advanced civilizations came and went in this small swath of land between the Mediterranean sea and Asia

Your art is improving by a lot!

Always happy to see an update from Epimetheus.

Awesome!!! Glad I found your channel. Time to deep dive!

you really got me when you talked about the sponsorship of the video, strike of genius, truly apreciated

Assirians: I fear no wave of mountains invaders but that thing... *Arameans* It scares me

2000 years later... A many, many, thanks to the merchant's guild. You're all truly welcome!

This was so good I subscribed....I've been reading Christopher Starr's texts on the Ancient World and this brought together so many elements...really well done. Thank You.

I love the artwork that you use for these :O

Really enjoying all the Bronze Age videos!

Love how you changed the narration style, feels much more cinematic.

Truly amazing content don’t stop!!

Wow i had always wondered about this for years its interesting finally someone make a video about this. Bronze age collapse info is just so rare

Hell yeah man I'm excited, your videos rock. As a Assyrian this made me chuckle...now I'm off to buy bronze.

i love the art style

What an amazing video on an under appreciated era of history! Subbed!!

I just discovered this channel and I have to say, wow, what a great source and form of information. Thank you!

Assyria's comeback is the middle east equivalent of what people think is going to happen when they play as Byzantium in EU4

I'm a simple man: I see a new Epimetheus video, I click to watch.

I can't believe I missed this for a whole year. Oh well. I'd just like to say that I consider this the best researched "end of the Bronze Age" video I've seen to date. While I may not agree with everything here, I understand where the differences come from, and know that these differences are totally legit to have because the underlying data is so difficult to interpret. And I like the jokes. Kudos!

Got recommended this video, god I love when the algorithm actually finds me something worthwhile. Really good work.

13:52 Aramean chieftain: "I want your boots"

When he said his sponsor was Bronze I was expecting an Ea-Nasir reference, and then again when he listed merchants as likely survivors

"Failed at living" that's my new favorite line.

I've only just found the channel, but you had me at "butcher, baker, and chariot maker..." Haha

"With the fall of Assyria and the destruction of the Assyrian aristocracy, the Arameans virtually took over Mesopotamia" - Carl Kraeling

Cup of coffee and a new video from my Bronze Age guy Epimetheus - that's what I call a perfect afternoon break.

What a great find. It helps a lot the fact that you illustrate everything

Okay. I was enjoying the presentation, but as soon as you mentioned your sponsor and it was freakin bronze, I laughed loud enough to wake my dog up. You got a sub today, and we’ll earned.

Remember the Ahlamu! Haha. But seriously, we should all be taking notes right now.

Yooo I'm covering this in class today, thank you Epimetheus!!!

And people think history is boring. No, history is fascinating and as important to study today is it will be again in the future-if we have a future.

this is such a funny and interesting video, great work Epimethius!