As we know, in the Late Bronze Age, around 1200 BCE, there was a huge society collapse started around Eastern Mediterranean. In that disaster, the population distinctly decreased and many city-states were ruined. The civilizations in the east coast of the Mediterranean had been heavily mauled. When we look back into that era, we pity the lost of fabulous Bronze Age civilization. Meanwhile, we are also able to find implications as the characteristics or symbols of the huge social change.
At the end of the Bronze Age, one of the serious situations people encountered was environmental change. Archaeological researches substantiate that the Mediterranean region had suffered dramatic climate change between 13th and 11th centuries BCE. Scientists confirm that the temperature of Northern Hemisphere sharply decreased during the time period of that huge collapse, the cooling of Mediterranean sea surface brought less precipitation. This had directly led droughts and crop failure. Therefore, the domino of social change had been triggered. Persistent famine would definitely cause chaos and depopulation, and the society had been suddenly weakened. Not only the influence of climate change, at the almost same time of droughts and famine, most Eastern Mediterranean countries, except Egypt, had suffered from perennial earthquakes. The specific impacts of these earthquakes are still not clarified, but one thing could be sure is the continuous natural disasters had further weakened societies and depopulated the whole region.
Simultaneously, warfares had swept the Eastern Mediterranean. In the ruins of the city-states of the Late Bronze Age, archaeologists have found remnants of warfares and city destruction. Widespread arrowheads and fire marks attest to the bygone chaotic scenes. These battles, some were the social disorders inside the city-state caused by the internal factors like famines. Others were invasions from the outside. Actually, a great bunch of foreign invaders, the so-called “Sea Peoples”, attacked the Eastern Mediterranean city-states during the Late Bronze Age Collapse. It is still not clarified where “Sea Peoples” came from, but historians speculate that they are a loose coalition of groups from Sicily, Crete, Sardinia, and the Aegean coast. Or even somewhere else. “Sea Peoples” excelled in close combat, their flexible maneuverability rendered the ubiquitous chariot useless on the battlefield. Their power allowed them to expand and destroy almost every country in the region except Egypt.
The current global society resembles the Eastern Mediterranean society at the end of the Bronze Age in some ways. The first is that countries are very interconnected. In the Late Bronze Age, the Eastern Mediterranean countries had very frequent international trade, in which food, handicrafts, and metals, led by copper, were the main commodities. In addition, the ruling classes of the states also had frequent contacts, the Kings of the city states would communicate by letter. During the great destruction, the city-states had sought military and food aid from each other by letters. This social state is very similar to the current trend of close integration and globalization around the world. Second, not only are the similar social conditions, ancient and modern societies also face similar threats.
First of all, the challenge from environmental change is increasingly serious. The pace of global warming is accelerating, and sea level rise because of the Arctic ice cap melting threatens many coastal cities. Floods and droughts caused by climate change could lead to famine, which is threatening global populations. At the same time, climate change has also caused many forest fires, further worsening the environment. And in this year, humanity faces even greater challenges. The COVID-19. The impact of COVID-19 on the global community is still uncertain, because the pandemic is far from over, and it is difficult to predict whether there will be a more pronounced population decline in the future. But in 2020 alone, the economic depression and massive unemployment caused by the epidemic have brought great impact and hidden danger of social instability to many countries.
Unlike the invasion of foreign enemies at the end of the Bronze Age, the current global social unrest and instability is likely to come from within the society. In recent years, extremist forces have been gaining strength, and racism, terrorism and xenophobia are all likely to increase instability within countries and societies. Compare with external enemies, such contradictions and conflicts divide society and turn different parts of it into enemies. This is an "internal enemy".
The parallels between today's society and the end of the Bronze Age bear witness to the sense of crisis that this growing threat poses. But that does not mean we are about to experience a Late Bronze Age type of destruction. Today, thanks to the complexity and sophistication of modern technology, our society is much stronger than it was 3,000 years ago. Humans are already very adaptable, and technology can help us get through the difficult times we need. Therefore, barring catastrophic collapse, what we are going through is something else — an enormous change. It is often said that the destruction of the old world often represents the birth of the new. In fact, the same was true of the Late Bronze Age Collapse. The civilization of the Bronze Age disappeared and declined, and the civilization of the Iron Age began to rise and develop gradually. We cannot deny that the end of the Bronze Age marked the beginning of the Iron Age. Now we are facing a similar situation. We stand at the beginning of the post-modern society, the natural environment and the social environment are undergoing irreversible changes. From the beginning of the last century, the emergence and rapid development of information and communications technology will redefine society and the relationship between people. The structure of our society is changing accordingly. In fact, compared to a few decades ago, we can clearly feel the change of the world, this is the beginning of a huge change, we are at a turning point in history. This revolution may take hundreds of years, as it did at the end of the Bronze Age, but it is already under way.
Now, history provides us with experience, and we should have the capacity to recognize this change. Unlike 3000 years ago, technology has made us aware of the weaknesses of our society, and we are better able to protect ourselves and the society from harm and destruction. But whatever the case may be, we should be alert to the implications of history. We cannot lose the sense of crisis, so that we can always feel the change happening, and we can better cope with it.
Reference List:
Pomeroy, Sarah B.; Burstein, Stanley M.; Donlan, Walter; Roberts, Jennifer Tolbert; David W. T. and Tsouvala, Georgia. A Brief History of Ancient Greece. New York: Oxford University Press Academic US, 2019.
Drake, Brandon L. “The influence of climatic change on the Late Bronze Age Collapse and the Greek Dark Ages” Journal of Archaeological Science 39, (2012): 1862-1870.
Historia Civilis, “The Bronze Age Collapse (approximately 1200 B.C.E.)” YouTube, July 25, 2020. Video, 23:51. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aq4G-7v-_xI&feature=emb_title
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