The third parent of the Cronid generation of speaking people
Copper created, in nothing with the generation that is not similar to the previous one.
With spears. Those people were powerful and terrible. Loved
Terrible business of Ares, violence. They did not eat bread.
Stronger than iron was their mighty spirit. No one to come close
I did not dare to go to them: they possessed great power, And unrestrained arms grew on the shoulders of the powerful.
They had armor of copper and copper of their dwelling, The work was done with copper: no one knew about iron.
The terrible power of their own hands brought them destruction.
All descended unchanged; and, no matter how terrible they were …
Hesiod "Works and Days" [/right]
We have finished publishing materials on the history of the Minoan civilization, written, so to speak, "in hot pursuit." But the interest in the topic turned out to be so great that it became necessary to expand it and consider several more important issues directly related to it. In particular, this is the question of the death of the civilization of Minoan Crete, which occurred due to the catastrophe, the consequences of which made the island vulnerable to external invasion. However, the end of the Minoan civilization was, in fact, the end of the entire Bronze Age. Rather, these two events surprisingly coincided in time. Such coincidences in history happen all the time, but what happened there? There was … "bronze collapse" - say archaeologists and historians, who call this term the transition from the Bronze Age to the Iron Age, which occurred almost simultaneously in the states of the ancient Near East and the Eastern Mediterranean (in the Levant, Asia Minor and Greece). Here, the change of eras turned out to be associated with truly catastrophic changes both in the social order and influenced the loss of many technological skills and cultural traditions, such as writing. The destruction of all large state formations took place, not to mention the cities. The period of the first "dark ages" began in Europe (known in Greece as the "Greek Dark Ages").
Cast bronze sword copying earlier designs with a wooden hilt. (Lyon Museum, France)
Chronologically, all these sad events took place in 1206-1150. BC NS. It was then that the invasion of the "peoples of the sea" occurred, the Mycenaean kingdom, the Hittite state in Anatolia and Syria perished, and the domination of Egypt in Syria and Canaan was also put to an end, although the Egyptian state itself survived. Gone is the Mycenaean linear script and the Luwian script. Almost every city located between Troy and Gaza was destroyed and after that it was no longer inhabited: for example, cities such as Hattusa, Mycenae and Ugarit were abandoned forever.
Model of an ancient Minoan ship.
The catastrophe that took place during this period led to very serious regressive phenomena in almost all spheres of spiritual life and in the field of material culture. The art of shipbuilding, architecture and architecture, metalworking technologies, weaving, and even more so painting were all at once thrown back centuries and revived only a thousand years later, in the era of the late Greek archaic. For example, the myth of the death of King Minos in a bathtub as a result of boiling water fed through a pipe by the king of Sicily was considered a complete fiction even in the Hellenistic era, since in the Mediterranean only in Rome during the empire appeared pools that had separate pipes for hot and cold water supply. Previously, it was simply impossible to think of this, although the Cretans knew how long ago. The palaces of Knossos and Festus in several floors and the stone houses of the townspeople equipped with sewerage systems in cities on the island of Santorini and on the Ionian Islands - all this seemed to have dropped out of the history and consciousness of the people of that time.
Palace at Knossos. North entrance. Reconstruction by Arthur Evans.
In every major Hittite city, a layer of destruction was found dating back to the end of the Bronze Age, and the Hittite civilization, as archaeological finds indicate, did not manage to return to the previous level that preceded this catastrophe. By the way, ancient Troy was also destroyed at least twice, and only then it was finally abandoned, so that only the Romans built their city on the same hill.
Eight-shaped shields - painting of the palace at Knossos, Hall of the Colonades.
In Cyprus, the cities of Enkomi, Kition and Sinda were captured, plundered, and then burned, and again sometimes twice, after which people left them completely. In the city of Kokkinokremos, many treasures of metal products were found. But since they were found by archaeologists, this clearly indicates that the owners of these treasures did not return for them. At the same time, the “bronze collapse” in Cyprus did not lead to its decline, but, on the contrary, to its heyday, which then continued until the 10th century BC. NS. That is, it is very possible that it is Cyprus, rich in copper deposits, that has become a kind of "base" for the "peoples of the sea." And it was from him that they made their raids into the Levant, and then brought the plundered loot here.
Perhaps this is how the warriors of the "peoples of the sea" looked, who brought so much trouble to the civilizations of the Ancient East. Artist J. Rava.
Excavations of the city of Ugarit show that massive destruction took place after the reign of Pharaoh Merneptah. The texts on clay tablets, which were burnt by the fire that raged in the destroyed city, speak of invasions from the sea, of cities that by that time had already been destroyed by the "peoples of the sea." In one of the texts, there is a report about the absence of the Ugaritic fleet, which was busy patrolling the coast.
Pharaoh's sherdens fight the Philistines. Artist J. Rava.
By the time of the coup of Horemheb, the Shasu nomads began to pose an increasingly serious threat to Egypt. Ramses II, after the epochal battle of Kadesh, began a war with them. Egypt and its successors Egypt defended, but the cities of Ashdod, Ashkelon, Akko and Jaffa were destroyed and were empty for more than thirty years.
People of the Minoan era loved to decorate themselves …
… But what is the use of these ornaments if you have nothing to eat, or enemies come from the sea that you cannot repel? (Archaeological Museum of Heraklion, Crete)
In Crete, none of the palaces of the Mycenaean era could survive the catastrophe of the Bronze Age. In the Peloponnese, 90% of the settlements were destroyed. And what about people? People died! Then came the "Greek Dark Ages", which lasted more than 400 years. Sociologists define the century as the life of three generations. Since life expectancy was shorter at that time, it is hardly a mistake to consider that century as four generations. That is, 16 generations have changed during this time. That's how long it took to get back to the old level of culture. And a new rise began only in the era of geometric ceramics.
Hydria in the style of geometry. 750-700 biennium BC NS. (Louvre)
The indigenous population of Crete fled from the raids of the "sea peoples" high in the mountains. It was difficult to get there, it was easy to defend, but it was just very, very inconvenient to live there.
Reliefs in the temple of Medinet Abu in Egypt. From left to right: captive "Sea Peoples" - Labu, Shekelesh, Canaanites and Pelesets.
The Assyrians, however, managed to fight off the invasion of flies at Tiglathpalasar I. But both Assyria and Babylon had a very hard time. In addition, Babylon also suffered - it was plundered by the Elamites led by Shutruk-Nahhunte, after which it lost its significance for a long time.
Another Egyptian relief depicting the naval battle of the Egyptians with the "peoples of the sea."
The Sea Peoples invaded Egypt through Libya. They included Achaeans, Siculs, Lycians, Sherdens (or Shardans - possibly Sardinians?) And Tirsen, after which, under Ramses III, a new attack of the Philistines (Pelasgians?), Cheker (Tevkrov?), Sherdens and Danaans followed.
Map of migrations of the peoples of the Mediterranean in the era of the "bronze collapse". Rice. A. Shepsa
It is clear that the memory of such a terrible tragedy has survived in the memory of people, although it was sufficiently mythologized. A number of ancient authors reported the time before this catastrophe as a lost "golden age". For example, Hesiod wrote about the epochs of the Golden, Silver and Copper Ages as heroes separated from his cruel Iron Age by the Age.
Warriors at all times loved to flirt with pretty women! Artist J. Rava.
There are many points of view regarding the possible causes of the "bronze collapse". This is, for example, the super-powerful eruption of the Hekla volcano, dating back to 1159 BC. e., although a number of archaeologists date it to a later time.
Region of the Aegean Sea during the volcanic eruption on the island of Santorini. Rice. A. Shepsa
Harvey Weiss, an expert in Middle Eastern archeology at Yale University, studying droughts in Greece, Turkey and the Middle East, believed it was a prolonged drought, which sharply worsened the socio-economic situation of an entire region, to be the cause of inevitable wars and migrations. This is quite consistent with those ancient Greek sources that report a severe drought that began soon after the Trojan War.
Bronze daggers from 2200 to 1600 BC. (Lausanne Museum)
A number of scientists, considering the finds of many swords of the Naue II type from the south of Eastern Europe, and the Egyptian and Ugaritic reports of the invasion of the "Sea Peoples" indicative, see migrations as the main reason for the catastrophe that happened. Not without reason, shortly after the reign of Pharaoh Ramses II, the Egyptians built several fortresses along the Libyan coast precisely in order to resist the "sea peoples". However, what caused this migration? Primitive greed for "old" and rich peoples? The traditional desire of the poor from the rich to “take and divide everything” or were there some deeper reasons, perhaps hidden from us?
Casting mold for spearheads, approx. 1400 - 1000 BC (Somerset County Museum)
The "iron concept" of Leonard Palmer, for example, says that since it was at this time that iron metallurgy was discovered, and it was more accessible than bronze, armies with iron weapons were able to defeat armies using bronze weapons and chariots, although weapons from iron and was at first of the worst quality. However, over time, they began to believe that the final transition to tools and weapons made of iron took place after the "catastrophe of the Bronze Age" ended. That is, it was not iron in itself that caused the “bronze collapse”.
Casting mold for casting a bronze sword, approx. 800 BC Württemberg, Stuttgard.
Could bronze production decrease due to the reduction in tin supplies? Yes, it could. But why? Have the tin mines been exhausted or something else happened? Most likely, it was a systemic collapse that affected not only the Eastern Mediterranean. In Central Europe, one can also observe a noticeable regression between the period of the culture of the fields of burial urns of the 13th-12th centuries. BC NS. and later Hallstatt culture in the X-IX centuries. BC NS. - that is, the time of the synchronous "Greek Dark Ages" that began after the collapse of the Mycenaean civilization. But then again, what caused the crisis in several systems of the then society?
Bronze swords from the National Museum of Copenhagen.
There is a purely military point of view of the historian Robert Drews, who believes that new types of weapons and armor, in particular cast (rather than forged) spearheads and long piercing-cutting swords of the Naue Type II type, appeared in the eastern Alps and the Carpathians around 1200 BC. n. e., led to the emergence of massive armies, ousted the army of professional warriors with piercing swords-rapiers. And then bronze was completely replaced by iron (without changing the design of the sword itself). Homer often uses the word "spears" as a synonym for the word "warrior", that is, it was this weapon at this time that began to play a major role in the war.
The chariot warriors gradually lost their former role … Artist J. Rava.
These weapons began to be used by the proto-hoplites, who were now able to successfully repel the attacks of war chariots, and it was they who crushed the armies of the former slave states, whose military power was based precisely on the use of war chariots. As you can see, there are plenty of hypotheses, but how everything was actually said, of course, no one will undertake, it was all a very long time ago!
