Collapse and Transformation: The Late Bronze Age to Early Iron Age in the Aegean

by Guy D. Middleton (editor)

The years c. 1250 to 1150 BC in Greece and the Aegean are often characterised as a time of crisis and collapse. A critical period in the long history of the region and its people and culture, they witnessed the end of the Mycenaean kingdoms, with their palaces and Linear B records, and, through the Postpalatial period, the transition into the Early Iron Age. But, on closer examination, it has become increasingly clear that the period as a whole, across the region, defies simple characterisation – there was success and splendour, resilience and continuity, and novelty and innovation, actively driven by the people of these lands through this transformative century.The story of the Aegean at this time has frequently been incorporated into narratives focused on the wider eastern Mediterranean, and most infamously the ‘Sea Peoples’ of the Egyptian texts. In twenty-five chapters written by 25 specialists, Collapse and Transformation instead offers a tight focus on the Aegean itself, providing an up-to date picture of the archaeology ‘before’ and ‘after’ ‘the collapse’ of c. 1200 BC. It will be essential reading for students and scholars of the Aegean and eastern Mediterranean regions, as well as providing data and a range of interpretations to those studying collapse and resilience more widely and engaging in comparative studies.Introductory chapters discuss notions of collapse, and provide overviews of the Minoan and Mycenaean collapses. These are followed by twelve chapters, which review the evidence from the major regions of the Aegean, including the Argolid, Messenia, and Boeotia, Crete, and the Aegean islands. Six chapters then address key the economy, funerary practices, the Mycenaean pottery of the mainland and the wider Aegean and eastern Mediterranean region, religion, and the extent to which later Greek myth can be drawn upon as evidence or taken to reflect any historical reality. The final four chapters provide a wider context for the Aegean story, surveying the eastern Mediterranean, including Cyprus and the Levant, and the themes of subsistence and warfare.

Genres: History, Nonfiction

273 pages, Kindle Edition

Published April 9, 2020

Reviews

[Sense of History]

This book contains more than 20 contributions by specialists on the chaotic period in the eastern Mediterranean basin, around 1200 BCE. Eric H. Cline previously marketed it as a total collapse of civilization, which is at best a gross exaggeration (see my review here). Cline himself wrote a contribution to this book, in which he dryly repeats his statements, although they have since been the subject of a lot of criticism, and they are also refuted in the other contributions to this book.

The most nuanced are the contributions of compiler Guy Middleton. They provide a nice overview of the debate about the events in that late Bronze Age period. The assessments from the experts range from 'systems collapse' (Cline and Renfrew), to 'transition' (Johnson) or simply 'change'. More recently, other authors have emphasized the resilience and regeneration of the cultures in the area concerned, which is quite another take on things. The entire debate once again highlights how flawed, unclear and complex the archaeological finds and textual sources are about this period. Middleton's conclusion is clear: “there is an inescapable 'fuzziness' here, which makes the struggle of collapse and causality particularly difficult”. In other words: bold statements such as Cline's are really out of the question here.