Back to Cline's 1177BC this afternoon. I came up with a theory about the possible identity of the so-called #SeaPeoples from Chapter 5, "A 'Perfect Storm' of Calamities?". What if the one of the destabilizing forces was the populace rebelling against the #RulingClass -- which spread far and wide!

Cline: "There is one other point to be considered, which has been suggested relatively recently and may well be a reflection of current thinking about the role of decentralization in today's world.

"In an article published in 1998, Susan Sherratt, now at the University of Sheffield, concluded that the Sea Peoples represent the final step in the replacement of the old centralized politico-economic systems present in the Bronze Age with the new decentralized economic systems of the Iron Age -- that is, the change from kingdoms and empires that controlled the international trade to smaller city-sates and individual entrepreneurs who were in business for themselves. She suggested that the Sea Peoples can 'usefully be seen as a structural phenomenon, a product of the natural evolution and expansion of international trade in the 3rd and early 2nd millennium, which carried within it the seeds of the subversion of the palace-based command economies which had initiated such trade in the first place.

"Thus, while she concedes that the international trade routes might have collapsed, and that at least some of the Sea Peoples may have been migratory invaders, she ultimately concludes that it does not really matter where the Sea Peoples came from, or even who they were or what they did. Far more important is the sociopolitical and economic change that the represent, from a predominantly palatial-controlled economy to on in which private merchants and smaller entities had considerably more economic freedom" (pages 141-142).

Earlier in the chapter, "Internal rebellions and social inequality" (page 137) are cited as factors as well (sound familiar?). Cline goes on to discuss other contributing factors -- a megadrought and climate shifts from hot to cold (page 159) -- and the resulting migrations from famine -- as another possible origin of the "Sea Peoples," since some of them came from over land (page 144), and not the sea.

#ClimateChange #WorkingClass #NoRulers #NoKings #1177BC #BronzeAgeCollapse

Speaking of the ruling class, the master's thesis I read this morning about the #BronzeAgeCollapse was interesting, but far from complete. The author (Paul Golightly) is limited by older published studies (the paper is from 2014), and does include a reference to Eric Cline's "The Oxford Handbook of the Bronze Age Aegean" (from 2010), but does not have the depth and breadth of Cline's 1177 BC works cited.

I did find this quote, which I thought was relevant to my posts from yesterday:

"The Mycenaean Age was ruled by wa-na-ka from palaces that were spread across
Greece. Wa-na-ka is the Mycenaean word for #king or leader. With the fall of the Mycenaeans many things disappeared. Among these are luxury items such as gold, silver, ivory, and monumental stone architecture. The wa-na-ka and palaces controlled many aspects of Greek life
and, in many ways, without them one would know very little about the Mycenaeans. It was for the wa-na-ka that art and writing were used and after there were no more wa-na-ka the need an use of these disappeared. One of the most important things that defines a civilization and gives clues to how a people lived is their writing. In the case of the Mycenaeans it was the writing of
Linear B.6 As far as we know Linear B was written only by palace scribes for official business. When the wa-na-ka and the ruling class disappeared, killed in wars and fleeing to other parts of the world, one sees that writing completely disappeared. This proves that the illiteracy in Mycenaean Greece was prevalent. Only the palace and the scribes were able to read or write and the peasants were not able to do so.

"The wa-na-ka and ruling class also controlled luxury items in Mycenaean Greece and the peasants had no need for these items. So, when the wa-na-ka went by the wayside the luxury goods and art disappeared as well. Before the fall there were many examples of gold, silver, and fine art. After this time there is no evidence of these items, almost no graves with gold, gems, or objects of fine craftsmanship. It is assumed that when the wa-na-ka and all types of luxury
goods disappeared, the people who made these luxury goods disappeared. The population was severely depleted after the fall of the palaces.

"It was not only luxury items that were controlled by the wa-na-ka and palaces; they also controlled the economy and most of the excess food that was produced in the area. In fact, the palaces controlled a large portion of the Mycenaean Greek economy; both food and other items went through the palaces, as attested by the tablets found in storage places."

- Golightly, The Light of Dark-Age Athens: factors in the Surival of Athens After the Fall of Mycenaean Civilization, pages 8-9.

https://digital.library.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metadc799552/

#BronzeAgeCollapse #GreekDarkAges #SystemsCollapse #NoKings #NoRules

Back to Eric Cline's updated preface to "1177 BC The Year Civilization Collapsed":

"When the end came, as it did after centuries of cultural and technological evolution, most of the civilized and international world of the Mediterranean regions came to a dramatic halt in a vast area stretching from what is now Italy to Afghanistan and from Turkey down to Egypt. Large empires and small kingdoms, which had taken centuries to evolve, collapsed rapidly, from the Myceneans and Minoans to the Hittites, Assyrians, Babylonians, Mitannians, Cyppriots, Canaanites, and even Egyptians.

"And with their end came a period of transition, frequently described by scholars as the world's first Dark Age. It was not until centuries later that a new cultural renaissance emerged in greece and the other affected areas, settig the stage of the evolution of society as we know it today." (Cline, 1177BC, page xvi).

However, "Some regions in Greece, such as Attica, Euboea, and central Crete, recovered economically from these events faster than others, but life for common Greeks would have remained relatively unchanged as it had for centuries. There was still farming, weaving, metalworking and pottery but at a lower level of output and for local use in local styles," (Wikipedia, The Greek Dark Ages).

In other words, #Degrowth! Also, the foundations of democracy (though limited to Greek male landowners). "Greece during this period was likely divided into independent regions organized by kinship groups and the oikoi or households, the origins of the later poleis. Most Greeks did not live in isolated farmsteads but in small settlements." So, smaller settlements and groups. Kinda what is predicted in some of the #LtG scenarios, but with the added *bonus* of pollution. (There was also #ClimateChange during the #LateBronzeAge, which was marked by droughts and crop failures).

Will we form smaller communities? Will we unite and use technology wisely before it's too late? Time will tell...

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greek_Dark_Ages

#SocietalChange
#SW #LtG #LimitsToGrowth
#HistoryRepeating #BronzeAgeCollapse

So, yes, this is from MSN -- however, it drives in the point about a lot of stuff from the updated #LimitsToGrowth projections.

Slide 4 seems to echo the quotes from Cline's 1177BC regarding resource extraction (tin) and the #BronzeAgeCollapse.

"4. Resource extraction costs skyrocket as materials become exhausted.

"The era of cheap, easily extracted natural resources is ending as mining operations move to increasingly remote locations, tap lower-grade ores, and require more energy-intensive processes to extract the materials that support industrial civilization. This fundamental shift in resource economics creates inflationary pressures that compound across every sector of the economy, making previously profitable activities uneconomical and forcing societies to choose between maintaining current consumption levels and investing in future sustainability.

"Energy return on investment ratios for fossil fuel extraction have declined steadily over decades, requiring more energy input to extract each unit of usable fuel while alternative energy sources struggle to match the energy density and scalability of conventional #petroleum-based systems. The transition costs between energy systems create economic bottlenecks that can trigger the kind of systemic failures that characterize #SocietalCollapse, particularly when resource constraints coincide with other stresses like #ClimateChange, political instability, and demographic transitions."

https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/mit-warns-society-could-collapse-by-2040-and-the-signs-are-already-here/ss-AA1LevRc?ocid=winp2fptaskbarhoverent&cvid=67506a067e5a4905be298b0a363777ec&ei=35#image=5

#Collapse #Change #TheLimitsToGrowth #PlanetaryBoundaries #HistoryRepeatingItself

More from 1177BC...

"There are only a few instances in history of such globalized world systems; the one in place during the Late Bronze age and the one in place today are two of the most obvious examples, and the parallels -- comparisons might be a better world -- between them are sometimes intriguing.

"To give just one illustration, Carol Bell, a British academician, has observed that 'the strategic importance of tin in the LBA [Late Bronze Age] ... was probably not far different from that of crude oil today. At that time, tin is thought to have been available in quantity only from specific mines in the Badakhshan region of Afghanistan and had to be brought overland all the way to sites in Mesopotamia (modern Iraq) and north Syria, from where it was distrbuted to points father north, south, or west, including onward across the sea to the Agean. Bell contianues, 'The availability of enough tin to produce ... weapons grade bronze must have exercised the minds of the Great King in Hattusa and the Pharaoh in Thebes the same way that supplying gasoline to the American SUV driver a reasonable cost preoccupies an American president today!"
- Eric Cline, "1177BC, The Year Civilization Collapsed," Preface to the revised edition, page xvii.

#ClimateChange #Collapse #Change #1177BC #BronzeAgeCollapse #HistoryRepeatingItself #Histodon #ExtractiveIndustries

"According to Joseph Tainter, who literally wrote the book on the collapse of complex societies, 'collapse is fundamentally a sudden, pronounced loss of an established level of sociopolitical complexity.' That was exactly what happened back in 1177 BC."

- Eric Cline, "1177BC, The Year Civilization Collapsed," Preface to the revised edition, page xvii.

#ClimateChange #Collapse #Change #1177BC #BronzeAgeCollapse #HistoryRepeatingItself