Coronavirus. That’s what seems to be on everyone’s mind these past few stressful months. With all the scientific progression we as a society have discovered, it seemed like there was no hurdle that we could not overcome. Yet all of a sudden in the ending of 2019 we were matched with an obstacle that many of us had not experienced in our lifetime, a pandemic. With the world in chaos and the economy going downhill and millions upon millions of people being unemployed, it truly seemed like the end of the world for most people. However, with more and more positive news on a potential vaccine that stigma is slowly going away. Just as we are living through this life changing event, the Minoans, Mycenaeans, Egyptians, Assyrians, and many other ancient civilizations, also went through something similar in the Late Bronze Age (circa 12th century BC). The only difference? Many of those civilizations ceased to exist after their world-ending moment, known as the Late Bronze Age Collapse.
To this day we don’t have a concrete answer of what caused the Late Bronze Age Collapse to happen, but we have some really good theories based on the information and data that scientists and archeologists have discovered in the area. The most commonly accepted theory is that around the 12th century BC, the Mediterranean experienced severe droughts for roughly 150 years.[1] This caused the agriculture to decrease substantially, which caused a famine. Around the same time the Mediterranean was struck with bursts of earthquakes which levelled the cities.[2] Sociopolitical instability caused by the scarcity of agriculture and the destruction of their cities led to multiple cities having a revolution whereby they overthrew the monarchs.[3] As this was happening all the various trading agreements that these civilizations had in place ceased to exist as everyone had their own problems to deal with. Subsequently, these civilizations were invaded by the famous so-called “sea-peoples”. Not much of who they were is known, but historians speculate that they could have been sub-groups in the various civilizations looking for a new place to inhabit to ensure their own survival.[4] The sea peoples were successful in conquering most of the area but had failed when it came to Egypt.[5] Even though Egypt was victorious they still suffered as they were no longer the powerful civilization that they once were.[6] With all of these events happening simultaneously, it caused a domino effect which ultimately ended with a “collapse”. It was considered to be the “perfect storm” to end these civilizations and as the storm settled, only a few of the big civilizations survived, like the Egyptians and the Mesopotamians. Had these events happened at different times maybe these civilizations would have survived the storm.
Compared to today’s society we see some similar trends and events which makes me wonder if we are also headed down a similar path. The way that the Late Bronze Age Collapse had its own “storm”, it appears that we also might have our own “storm” coming. The “storm” of the Late Bronze Age had three factors at play: The Environmental factor (the earthquakes and droughts), Political Instability (revolution to overthrow the monarchs), and the Warfare factor (the invasion of the sea-peoples). As the polar ice caps start to melt at alarming rates, climate change has never been a more serious problem. It has been estimated that by the year 2100, most coastal cities, such as New Orleans, Alexandria, and Miami amongst many other might go underwater if we don’t slow down the process of global warming.[7] Then in late 2019, we were matched with COVID-19, a virus that has caused a global pandemic and single-handedly crippled our markets, unemployed millions of people, and caused the death of over 1.5 million people worldwide.[8] Due to the pandemic, our trades were deeply affected as the supply line tried to adjust for panic buyers. Panic buyers were responsible for the shortage of essential items such as face masks, food, hand sanitizer, and in some places, toilet paper.[9] However, since Canada’s supply line is fairly robust it handled the challenge, and within a few stressful weeks the shortage had ended. Another ongoing issue is the potential political instability that is going on in America. Trump’s loss against Biden has caused a lot of protests which aim to disrupt the nature of American democracy. The most notable protest was in Washington D.C. where there was some violence as counter-protestors and protestors clashed.[10] There also seems to be an increasing number of xenophobes and racists, and due to the virus, the Asian communities around the world, but mainly in North America, have seen an increase in hate crimes.[11] During the Late Bronze Age Collapse, the civilizations had to worry about the “sea-peoples” invasion however, with the growing hatred and xenophobia, it seems like the real threat for political stability and our countries is the divide amongst ourselves and not some foreign country. Our “storm” also checks all three factors: Environmental - the sinking of coastal cities due to the melting of polar ice caps, Political Instability – the protests that are ongoing, and Warfare - the increase in xenophobic/racist hate crimes around the world.
Looking back at the Late Bronze Age, I can’t help but wonder if the civilizations at the time realized that they were in the middle of a collapse because although it may seem like everything is fine in the world, we could very well be in the middle of a collapse of our own and not know it. Looking at the various events that have occurred in the past few years, I can’t help but wonder that we may be on a similar path to those of the past. I am, however, hopeful and confident because while it may seem like 2020 was a bad year, which it was, we have much better technologies, education, and overall, just better global relations with the rest of the world than the Late Bronze Age civilizations had almost 2900 years ago. The pandemic is far from over and we are still seeing the effects of it today, one thing is for certain though: our world won’t ever be the same. If an impeding storm is coming, I think that we are strong enough to fight through it and ensure that our society and culture stays intact for years to come.
[1] Roff Smith, “Drought Led to Collapse of Civilizations, Study Says,” National Geographic News, October 25, 2013, https://www.nationalgeographic.com/news/2013/10/131024-drought-bronze-age-pollen-archaeology/. [2] Nancy H. Demand, The Mediterranean Context of Early Greek History (Chichester, U.K.: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011), 198. [3] Eric H. Cline, 1177 B.C.: the Year Civilization Collapsed (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 2014). [4] HeritageDaily, “Who Were the Sea People? - HeritageDaily - Archaeology News,” HeritageDaily, October 9, 2020, https://www.heritagedaily.com/2020/10/who-were-the-sea-people/135782. [5] HeritageDaily, “Who Were the Sea People? - HeritageDaily - Archaeology News,” HeritageDaily, October 9, 2020, https://www.heritagedaily.com/2020/10/who-were-the-sea-people/135782. [6] Nancy H. Demand, The Mediterranean Context of Early Greek History (Chichester, U.K.: Wiley-Blackwell, 2011). [7] Written by Talia Lakritz, “These 11 Sinking Cities Could Disappear by 2100,” accessed November 15, 2020, https://www.weforum.org/agenda/2019/09/11-sinking-cities-that-could-soon-be-underwater/. [8] “Coronavirus Cases:” Worldometer, accessed November 15, 2020, https://www.worldometers.info/coronavirus/. [9] Nicole Bogart, “'Nobody Was Ready': Retail Council of Canada ,” Coronavirus (CTV News, March 13, 2020), https://www.ctvnews.ca/health/coronavirus/nobody-was-ready-retail-council-of-canada-urges-consumers-to-stop-panicking-as-grocers-stripped-bare-1.4851901. [10] Michael Miller Marissa Lang, “After Thousands of Trump Supporters Rally in D.C., Violence Erupts When Night Falls,” The Washington Post (WP Company, November 15, 2020), https://www.washingtonpost.com/dc-md-va/2020/11/14/million-maga-march-dc-protests/. [11] “Covid-19 Fueling Anti-Asian Racism and Xenophobia Worldwide,” October 28, 2020, https://www.hrw.org/news/2020/05/12/covid-19-fueling-anti-asian-racism-and-xenophobia-worldwide.
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