The Bronze Age Collapse

The End Of The World At The Beginning Of The World

Those who are active preppers think in terms of two possible realities.

The most likely scenario for them personally is not a widespread, civilization breakdown, but rather local disasters. One needs to be prepared for earthquakes, hurricanes and other normal disasters, even if it's just the roads being closed for a few days due to snow. (Speaking to you from Michigan.)

As I write this much of the U.S. south is suffering from the after effects of hurricane Helene, with flooding, mudslides, power outages, road closures, cell phone towers washed away and communications being out, all of this leading to people being on their own with poor response from the federal government. This is a warning to all that the government cannot take care of them, since even with their best efforts they are overwhelmed, and you may not get their best efforts.

Dr. Robert Malone wrote this about the post hurricane situation:

https://substack.com/inbox/post/149715904

The other idea is that of the actual crumbling of civilization, in which case there is no help coming from anywhere, and things won't improve for a very long time. There is an entire genre of fiction concerning life in such a situation, but people generally take this to be a far more remote possibility than having to endure local disasters. It's often called TEOTWAWKI, The End Of The World As We Know It, but you won't feel fine.

During the twelfth century BC several early civilizations experienced collapse, though it might be better to think of it as one large civilization built up of connected smaller ones, the collapse was a true TEOTWAWKI, and it's known as the Bronze Age Collapse.

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

From the above linked wikipedia article:

The Late Bronze Age collapse is a term used for a postulated time of widespread societal collapse during the 12th century BC. It has been possibly associated with environmental change, mass migration, and the destruction of cities. The collapse is postulated to have affected a large area of the Eastern Mediterranean (North Africa and Southeast Europe) and the Near East, in particular Egypt, eastern Libya, the Balkans, the Aegean, Anatolia, and, to a lesser degree, the Caucasus. It was sudden, violent, and culturally disruptive for many Bronze Age civilizations, and it brought a sharp economic decline to regional powers, notably ushering in the Greek Dark Ages.

The palace economy of Mycenaean Greece, the Aegean region, and Anatolia that characterized the Late Bronze Age disintegrated, transforming into the small isolated village cultures of the Greek Dark Ages, which lasted from around 1100 to the beginning of the better-known Archaic age around 750 BC. The Hittite Empire of Anatolia and the Levant collapsed, while states such as the Middle Assyrian Empire in Mesopotamia and the New Kingdom of Egypt survived in weakened forms. Other cultures such as the Phoenicians enjoyed increased autonomy and power with the waning military presence of Egypt and Assyria in West Asia.

The Hittite Empire in Anatolia, somewhat corresponding to modern day Turkey, completely collapsed, leaving only scattered settlements. It was a powerful empire that contested with Egypt for control of the Middle East where their empires met. One may recall that Uriah the Hittite was famously betrayed in battle by King David, which would be sometime around 1,000 BC. What was Uriah doing fighting for King David? His home kingdom had long since collapsed, leaving scattered villages of ethnic Hittites.

From https://www.history.com/news/bronze-age-collapse-causes we have:

More than 3,200 years ago, the Mediterranean and Near East were home to a flourishing and interconnected Bronze Age civilization fueled by lucrative trade in valuable metals and finished goods. The great kingdoms and empires of the day—including the Egyptians, Babylonians, Minoans, Mycenaeans, Hittites and more—had the technological know-how to build monumental palaces and employed scribes to keep records of their finances and military exploits.

In a matter of decades, though, that thriving culture underwent a rapid and near-total collapse. After 1177 B.C., the survivors of this Bronze Age collapse were plunged into a centuries-long "Dark Ages" that saw the disappearance of some written languages and brought once-mighty kingdoms to their knees.

Another article is at https://www.worldhistory.org/Bronze_Age_Collapse/, and they have this to say:

The primary causes advanced for the Bronze Age Collapse are:

• Natural Catastrophes (earthquakes)

• Climate Change (which caused drought and famine)

• Internal Rebellions (class wars)

• Invasions (primarily by the Sea Peoples)

• Disruption of Trade Relations/Systems Collapse (political instability)

  Worldhistory's brief synopsis is this:

  • The Bronze Age Collapse (also known as Late Bronze Age Collapse) is a modern-day term referring to the decline and fall of major Mediterranean civilizations during the 13th-12th centuries BCE. The precise cause of the Bronze Age Collapse has been debated by scholars for over a century as well as the date it probably began and when it ended but no consensus has been reached. What is clearly known is that, between c. 1250 - c. 1150 BCE, major cities were destroyed, whole civilizations fell, diplomatic and trade relations were severed, writing systems vanished, and there was widespread devastation and death on a scale never experienced before.

It appears that what started the collapse was a long drought, leading to crop failure, a few earthquakes struck, then warfare would begin over resources, and ultimately long distance trade broke down. Much of the warfare was probably a result of the collapse and not the cause, but it caused further collapse.

Mike Ferris interviewed Samo Burja, founder and president of Bismark Analysis, on his podcast Coffee and a Mike, available on Rumble, and at 24 minutes he begins talking about the bronze age collapse.

https://rumble.com/v5b570l-coffee-and-a-mike-samo-burja-bronze-age-collapse.html

Mr. Burja took the position that the disruption of trade was of first importance, and that civilizations had become very interdependent, with goods being traded large distances. Primary among the goods were tin and copper, used for making bronze, but few areas had their own sources of tin or bronze, and when the collapse began it could not be generally obtained. Mr.Burja compares this to our modern day dependence on computer chips, made in a few very large and expensive plants from materials that are found in a few places, and must be shipped long distances. This is one of our Achilles heels, but only because we have become dependent on the computer industry and internet for commerce. There was commerce before the internet, but now commerce would be at risk without it.

Many areas show a lack of pottery after the collapse for a significant time after the collapse, meaning the area was depopulated.

Both Egypt and Babylon were a bit less affected by the drought since they used large rivers for irrigation.

The eastern Mediterranean was less stressed than points further west, with Cyprus doing better throughout. An important side effect was that, owing to the inability to make bronze, metal workers on Cyprus learned to work with iron, no doubt developing the use of bellows to reach the high temperatures needed.

A factor in the collapse was the invasion of the Sea Peoples, and it's still unknown just who they were, but they came with their women and children, so they were probably refugees. (Unlike ours.)

The Bronze Age Collapse was a true TEOTWAKI, so when you are told such a thing cannot happen, remember that it's happened before.

Don't have nightmares over this since it should be low in your personal list of worries, but our leaders should do what they can to minimize the probability. Making one's own country as a whole more self reliant would be good, which means identifying commodities the lack of which would be fatal to the economy, and either promoting technologies not dependent on them, or finding local sources, or substitutes. (Mules are being used to take supplies into storm damaged areas that vehicles can't reach.) Working to make the people more self reliant would help as well, but that makes them harder to control, not a priority with the present bunch. In addition to the usual prepper like things it's good to know some of the basics of at least one pre-industrial skill, as well as learning to make and use some pre-indutstrial weapons.

Stay Brave, Stay Free