Recent comments in /f/history

pleasureboat t1_izgwldb wrote

Reply to Conflict in Central Europe leading to Bronze Age Collapse by Gideonn1021

The sea peoples were almost definitely all Mediterranean and very likely mostly Greek.

However, looking beyond the Mediterranean for causes of the collapse is certainly a good idea. The collapse certainly involved a breakdown of the bronze trade, whose ingredients were sourced in large part from northern Europe. If migrations cut off those trade routes, it could certainly be a contributing factor.

32

Tycho-Brahes-Elk t1_izgw1dz wrote

Reply to comment by IsleroAvispao in Simple/Short/Silly History Questions Saturday! by AutoModerator

Peter Hagendorf wrote a [retrospective; he wrote it all in 1649] diary of his rather extensive soldiering during the 30-Years-War [the diary covers 1625 - 1649] - for both sides.

There is some really dark humor in it; one believes he takes sardonic pleasure in retelling some of his misfortune.

It is lamentable that he didn't include how he went from mercenary without a job after 1649 to becoming judge and mayor of Görzke, Brandenburg.

2

Rememberthat1 t1_izgurh1 wrote

Reply to comment by Rememberthat1 in Conflict in Central Europe leading to Bronze Age Collapse by Gideonn1021

Yes it fu ked everything during that time, a millennial(s?) of relation, trading, economy between very distanced culture. But the biggest problem is we do not have direct written knowledge/artefacts of bronze age central-northern europe, exept that there were a lot of trade routes for amber and other goods. It leads to think that maybe they were good relations between europe up-north and aegean regions. Again there's no artifact proving that they were smelting iron during that time (central-northen europeans)

2

Rememberthat1 t1_izgtg9w wrote

Reply to Conflict in Central Europe leading to Bronze Age Collapse by Gideonn1021

God I love this subject, one of the most interesting event in ancient history. First, I remember that there's a map illustrating the sacked cities with dates that were documented and survived the centuries, like in hellas, anatolia, ugarit, levant, egypt. It seems that it started around the aegean sea, again of what we know of. There's the dorian invasion theory attached to it, that supposedly they came from the north (thrace, epirus, illyrian) or maybe farther who knows, there's an good research about DNA of early greeks very closely related to "georgians" near caucasus. Did it start with only one greedy/wary nation ? We know that the sea people were a coalition (dwelling in their islands far away on the dark sea; a approximation of what I remember a pharaon (rameses II?) said about them)

11

jkershaw t1_izgt9ts wrote

Reply to Conflict in Central Europe leading to Bronze Age Collapse by Gideonn1021

This map is not in any way authoritative, it's guesswork. For example, no one knows who the 'sea people' were or if they were even one group at all rather than lots of bands of different displaced people.

Most evidence suggests that there was not a lot going on in central Europe at this point. All the big empires were in the south or East of the med, and these empires were highly interconnected and interdependent (like the modern world). Thus catastrophic events like famines, eruptions (Thera) or political collapse in one place might have been amplified and taken down the others. It's called system collapse.

That said, we really don't know a lot about this period. Gaps in the material record could be hiding anything. The theory I explain above is simply the most likely based on the incomplete evidence we have.

EDIT: Plus 'collapse' is a weird concept considering it happened over hundreds of years. Generally, there was a decline, but it's very hard to pin it to a single cause when it happened over such a long period.

75