This paper originally written as a discussion paper with informal citation.
ASH-3200: Ancient Near Eastern Societies
Dr. Tiffany Early-Spadoni
University of Central Florida
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| Medinet Habu Relief |
Causes of the Late Bronze Age Collapse in the Ancient Near East
Towards
the end of the Late Bronze Age, the area around the Mediterranean Sea
experienced a sudden political and economic collapse. Following this collapse, only the Assyrian
Empire and the considerably weakened Kingdom of Egypt would continue in existence
in any form that was previously recognizable.
The reason(s) for this collapse are not completely known, but for the
last century, it has been assumed by scholars that it was due to incursions by
groups known mysteriously as the “Sea Peoples.”
What we can say is that beginning in the 15th century BCE,
several large powers, Egypt, the Hittite Empire in Anatolia, the Mitanni in
Upper Mesopotamia, and the Kassite Babylonian Kingdom in Southern Mesopotamia
began to control the area of the Ancient Near East (Early-Spadoni, Peoples of
the Late Bronze Age). These four “great
powers,” along with smaller kingdoms in the Levant and Mediterranean (such as
the Canaanites, Minoans on Crete, Cypriots on the Island of Cyprus, and perhaps
Mycenean Greece) developed international trade between themselves and areas
along the Mediterranean Sea. This trade
network became fundamental to a strong economic structure in the area. We have evidence of the extent of
relationship between these kingdoms and the nature of trade from the archive of
letters at Amarna. The Amarna letters
give us a glimpse into the correspondence between the Egyptian Pharaohs
Amenhotep III and Amenhotep IV (otherwise known as Akhenaten) and the various
kings of the other empires. The record
of Sea Peoples is from Pharaoh Ramses III, on the Medinet Habu inscription in
his 8th year (c. 1177 BCE).
He relays that no lands could stand before them and lists several cities
that were laid to waste by the Sea Peoples.
The problem is this may be a misinterpretation of the Ramses text. In addition, other sources do not corroborate
this scenario. The reality of the
collapse may be much more complex than this implies.
Unfortunately,
there are few written sources that speak directly to any type of cause for the
Late Bronze (LB) collapse. The primary
sources we have are Egyptian inscriptions, of which the Ramses inscription is
one. However, this is an important
source for understanding what may have occurred. In addition to these inscriptions, we do have
some written texts from outside Egypt that help to shed light on the
situation. Primarily, the knowledge we
have comes from archaeological data. First,
let us look at the Medinet Habu inscription.
Here, Ramses II does not actually call these groups “sea peoples” as if
they were completely unknown. In fact,
he lists the names of the peoples who it appears came in waves (Eric Cline,
1177: The Collapse of Civilizations, pg.
3). Thirty years prior to Ramses’
recorded events, his predecessor Merneptah also recorded battling with these
peoples as recorded on the Merneptah Stele.
However, Ramses does not suggest that the entire are of the Near East
succumbed to these groups. According to
Jesse Michael Milleck, in an online article on ANE Today, titled “What Actually
Happened in Syria at the End of the Late Bronze Age,” Ramses does not mention
Ugarit at all, but he does mention Carchemish.
We know that the Sea Peoples likely started their campaign around Ugarit
and then worked southward towards Egypt.
Early scholars assumed Ramses III was referring to the entire area. So, what caused the complete collapse of the
area? Cline believes it was a result of
multiple issues, which include climate change, drought, famine, and the
destabilization of the international trade economy, along with both external
and internal war (Cline, Online Lecture Series, Oriental Institute, Feb. 15,
2015). As previously stated, one of the
main sources we have for understanding the period is through archaeology. Archaeological data paints a picture of what
may have been occurring during this time period. What we do not see is large scale destruction
of cities across the area. The cities of
Qatna and Hama show archaeological evidence of destruction, but it is dated to
the mid-15th century BCE.
Likewise, the destruction of Alalakh is dated to around 1300 BCE
(Milleck, What Happened in Syria?).
However, archaeological data from around the Mediterranean, including
Cypress, Tell Tweini in Syria, and from the bottom of the Sea of Galilee and
the Dead Sea all show evidence of climate change during this period (Cline,
Online Lecture, OI). Letters that we
have from the King of Ugarit and the King of the Hittites both show pleads for
help due to widespread famine (Cline, Online Lecture, OI). Cline refers to a “Systems Collapse” whereby
several factors contribute to the decline of economic and political
stability. We could likely look at the
Hittite Empire as a microcosm of what was occurring in the region. In his book “The History of Anatolia and of
the Hittite Empire,” J. G. MacQueen argues that multiple factors led to the
decline of the Hittites. MacQueen agrees
that the area suffered from climatic change that led to widespread harvest
failures, and thus famine. This lack of
food led to movements of peoples internally from both the north and the
west. From the north, the Kashka people
continued their onslaught upon the Hittites (MacQueen, History, pg. 1097). While the archaeological data does not
support widespread war across the region, with what we do have, we can probably
piece together a likely scenario of events.
During the Late Bronze Age Period, a shift in climate to the region
brought about catastrophic crop failures and resulted in widespread
famine. This resulted in mass internal
and external migrations of peoples within nations and without. Lack of resources severely damaged the
existing international trade economy, furthering the decline. A series of internal and external pressures,
along with invading groups from outside the area led to a complete collapse of
internal structures for most of the political groups of the Near East.
Of
course, during this period we have several limitations and biases to our
sources. This first of which is that we
simply do not have widespread writings across all areas. While we have tantalizing clues about
invading peoples and famine, they do not offer us a complete picture. In some of the major texts we do have, there
are still fundamental unanswered questions.
For example, in the Medinet Habu inscriptions, while Ramses provides us
a list of the names of the invading peoples, we cannot conclusively determine
where these people came from. Where they
from islands in the Mediterranean? From
mainland Greece? A combination of these?
And while we do have evidence of destruction from invading parties, for
example the letter of the King of Ugarit to the King of Cyprus, where the
former is desperate for help, we do not have a clear date reference for when it
was written nor does it tell us who was invading (Cline, Collapse, pg. 9). The archaeological evidence shows us that
Ugarit was burned and then abandoned, but we cannot be sure the details that
caused this without supporting written evidence. And finally, we have to overcome several biases
that have led to a standard response when asked what caused the LB
collapse. This first is a bias on the
part of Ramses III, albeit we can probably forgive him for this. He could not possibly have understood the
complex web that connected climate change with drought. While he likely had an exceptionally good
understanding of the connection between drought and harvest failure and
subsequent famine, he likewise may not have been able to connect that to
migrations of peoples. In his eyes, it
is easier to understand bands of warriors attacking everywhere. The second bias is larger. It is the result of early scholars taking one
piece of evidence and making a sweeping conclusion as to reliability. Again, I refer to the Medinet Habu
inscription and Ramses III. The text was
misunderstood to begin with, and then the understanding of the text was
projected out to explain cause and effect for events across a large region that
likely occurred over a period of decades up to a century to unfold.
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