From the Bookshelf of Read With Me!…

1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed

Eric H. Cline,

Barry S. Strauss (Preface)

Start date: January 1, 2023

Finish date: January 31, 2023

Discussion: January 2023

Find A Copy At

Libraries

Group Discussions About This Book

Showing 2 of 5 topics — 10 comments total

January 2023

The Bell Jar
By Tina , Creator · 6 posts · 9 views

last updated Jan 12, 2023 05:03AM

Tender Is the Night
By Tina , Creator · 1 post · 9 views

last updated Jan 01, 2023 03:33PM

What Members Thought

Jan 24, 2019 Dave Schoettinger rated it liked it

I have long been amazed at the wealth of information which archaeologists derive from the remains of human activity centuries before. I guess I should not be surprised that they cannot always agree on the significance of stuff that, after all, they found in the dirt.

It seems that during the 13th century BC (or, if you are European or born after 1975, bce) civilization was doing well in the eastern Mediterranean and there was a great deal of trade among the Egyptians, Hittites, Mycenaeans and ot I have long been amazed at the wealth of information which archaeologists derive from the remains of human activity centuries before. I guess I should not be surprised that they cannot always agree on the significance of stuff that, after all, they found in the dirt.

It seems that during the 13th century BC (or, if you are European or born after 1975, bce) civilization was doing well in the eastern Mediterranean and there was a great deal of trade among the Egyptians, Hittites, Mycenaeans and other inhabitants of the area. Then in the early 12th century many of these societies fell upon hard times with a number of large cities being destroyed or abandoned. 1177 was chosen as the year symbolic of this phenomenon as it was in that year that Egypt was attacked by a group they called the Sea People. Some scholars have blamed the Sea People for what they saw as a general collapse of civilization at this time. Others are not so sure. In this book, Professor Cline reviews the evidence, critiques other assessments of the situation and presents his own views. To me, the most fascinating aspect of the book was the description of how archaeologists piece together information from what they find and how they come to conclusions as to what happened at sites like Ugarit centuries before. (I never heard of Ugarit either, but it's in what is now northwest Syria and apparently it's kind of a big deal for research of this period because, unlike many other sites, it was never rebuilt after being destroyed in the early 12th century).

I won't spoil the suspense by giving you Cline's summary, but I will point out that almost all of the cities that met an untimely fate during this period were surrounded by walls. Cline wrote this in 2014 so he was unaware of the Cult of the Wall which has recently become so important to some in the US. I suspect, however, that walls are no more the security panacea of the 21st century than they were 3300 years earlier. I understand that just below the destroyed walls researchers found remains of baseball caps that read "Make Ugarit Great Again", but Professor Cline does not comment on this. ...more

5 likes · Like · see review

Jun 24, 2021 Tina Haigler marked it as to-read · review of another edition

Group Home Bookshelf Discussions

Photos Videos

Send invite Members Polls