As a layperson untrained in archeology, this is utterly fascinating -- particularly the numerous parallels that can be drawn between 3200 years ago and now. We have a lot still to learn from the ancient world.

Dr. Clines energy for this topic is so infectious! He has me so interested in the late bronze era. Watching this now for a second time!

Very good lecture. After years of history classes and reading history books this in perhaps one of the best explanations of what took place in this area. Thank you. I really enjoyed listening to you. And, yes, history does repeat itself and those who refuse to learn history are destined to re-learn it, i.e. “us today”.

That was an amazing lecture, really got me thinking about things I didn't know about. Also, I love how this is proof that history is always relevant … very similar to the present day.

According to GISP2 Ice Core data, each great civilization of the past reached its peak during a spike in temperature, but then quickly faded in-correlation with the sharp and prolonged spell of cooling that followed. You mentioned earthquakes, there'd probably also be volcanoes which can completely decimate crops by shutting out sunlight, especially during a solar minimum. ps I loved this lecture

Great lecture. The Mayans of South America inherited the belief that time was circular...(thus the Mayan calandar) and that you can forsee the future by looking at the past. They described the rise and fall of nations as "Great Ages" even incorporating the stars as signs of things to come. Interesting that a people halfway around the globe had such knowledge of the world so long ago!

It’s interesting to note that this also relates to events that were happening in the Orkney Islands during the same period. Before circa 1,500 BC we had community burials at sites such as Orkahaugr and The Tomb of the Eagles, and large building projects such as the Standing Stones and the Brodgar Complex. Once we pass that date, there is a huge shift from these practices with more simple burials in cist graves, and a lack of large building projects. When we reach the 1,000 BC point, we then see the return of a more structured society with the beginning of the Broch Builders time...

Thank you Professor Cline, that was a very interesting and informative lecture, delivered with great passion and humor.

I thoroughly enjoyed your presentation and the context you offer about the calamity that various societies around 1177 BC. I wonder if you have also looked at the role of deforestation and limited timber available for shipping and to sustain navies to protect shipping. I had always wondered about the Sea Peoples and their role either as a boogieman or a scapegoat.

I am not into archeology at all, nor history at this level, but I watched it to the end. So well presented.

What a brilliant lecture by Eric Cline. Very informative!

Absolutely loved this lecture, brilliant, accurate, accesible and very humorous! Definitely I have become a follower of Dr. Cline!

Came out of curiosity, stayed an hour because this was the most interesting history lesson I've ever listened to. Why cant middle and high school history classes be taught like this?

When you look at modern time periods like the industrial revolution until today you're still only looking at about 300 years since we were living in a feudal system. Even the universal right to vote in the US is only 60 years old. A lot can happen in these time periods in the ancient world and we just get a glimpse of an event and don't see the gradual creep of prevailing trends.. Great lecture!!

Dr Cline has a lovely, spontaneous & conversational manner of presentation. With humoristic puns, it makes it entertaining. 😊

Très bien informé, étayé, cohérent et en plus Mr Cline est agréable à écouter. Et le sujet est d'actualité, c'est le moins qu'on puisse dire - et aucune chance qu'on trouve ça dans les mainstream. Merci beaucoup pour ces informations et pour la qualité de la prestation.

What a great lecture and to the collapse Eric Cline is describing at 22:26 most certainly vulcanic eruptions should be added, but he probably means that these are results of earthquakes? Indeed what a time to be alive in this age to be able to follow this and other lectures for free. Compared to my history education some 60 years ago the difference is enormous, it is not comparable. A joy to follow these and other lectures at my age!

Very nice accounting of two of the classical cradles of civilization, the Nile & the Tigris-Euphrates. But what about the other two? Would Dr Cline ever write a book on the civilizations around the Indus & Yellow Rivers? There was a lot going on in the 1st century BCE in Asia: Confucius, Lao Zi (Daoism), Sun Zi (Bing Fa, The Art of War), Zoroaster, the Buddha in India, ETC. And plenty before that, too.

This is the second of his presentations I have viewed. He knows his subject. He does not have to refer to notes. He knows his names and his dates. He is clearly a professional in every sense of the word. He knows the names in his field, the state of current digs and research. When I get a chance, I am getting his book. I’m also searching for any videos on this take on Exodus. Most of all, he’s funny and relaxed.

Absolutely loved this and am going to find the book. One thing I’d elaborate on is of the points that we still face now, “Greek economy tanks” isn’t as relevant today, I’d suggest the probable global recession we’re heading into will basically be the equivalent for current times.

I’d be happy to pay to sit thru a class with this man! He was just engaging like my best history professors Points to consider and evidence to support his arguments And in the end for the people who don’t like what he has to say...he clearly says...we don’t really know...this is the hypothesis I’ve worked out but we’re not 100% sure And that makes sense there is no complete one word answer but our society wants that and can’t handle when that doesn’t come out

This is best & most satisfying explanation that I've read/heard on this period in time. The events sound chillingly like what's going on here in the US. Thanks for the AWESOME lecture!👍👍

I'm very interested in the impacts of economic stressors that might have also play a role in the collapse. Based on what I have read, they did have a semi complex market system based on bartering.

This professor is so great! He is so interesting to listen to! And the topic is very interesting. Watched a documentary on History which featured him among the other historians

Excellent presentation! I hope there will be more of these types of lectures. Conscience, informative, and very well presented.

I'm three minutes in and I already love this guy! It's great having access to material like this!

A LONG but fascinating history talk. Took me awhile to appreciate it more fully (I have SO little Anthropology/ Archeology / Antiquities knowledge) - but finally I realized the zeigeist of his talk which most truly is FANTASTIC!!! The collapse that he describes certainly shows that "MULTIPLIER EFFECTS" of grouped CATASTROPHES will cause outrageously devastating COLLAPSES - which is TOTALLY GERMAINE! Much GREATER levels of such MULTIPLIER EFFECTS are most likely present in today's chaos and crises!!! Melting ice happening today is releasing ancient (and most likely other Novel) infectious agents, which will add to the MULTIPLIER EFFECTS which hugely complicate the threats to humans surviving (along with COVID-19).

What an amazing lecture! I could listen to Cline all day.

This was EXCELLENT! Thanks for posting Eric Cline's lecture.

Very informative!! I agree that the Bronze age collapse definitely happened! I strongly believe that the cause of the collapse seems to be never addressed.or if it is,it is downplayed to be a non contributor to the collapse.The Eruption 🌋 of Santorini was 10 times more powerful than the Eruption of Krakatoa.(which influenced world weather for a few years).geologists have have surveyed the Mediterranean basin to assess the impact of the Santorini event.It was to be determined that it was the single most catastrophic event in human history!

Wonderful interesting talk I use to be involved in archeology and did a ten year study in China. 12,000 BC to 500BC. Why does everyone never talk or mentions ancient China. They where very advanced at one point but then every thing seemed to collapsed and eventually started back up all over again. Don’t forget the fact that all the oceans where 400 feet lower back then. Many people traveled all over by foot from continent to continent more than by boat.

Four years later...but so glad I found this or TRshow recommended it to me, anyway I rarely enjoy these lectures but this one had me from the start!! I would pay to hear this guy talk! Thank you sir!!

This causes me to wonder about the state of forests of the time, as they were both the primary source of fuel for processing metals, as well as building materials for both military and civilian purposes. With drought, tree growth and replacement would have slowed greatly, impacting all facets of life and economy and trade.

I've been a proud Bronze Age nerd since the age of about 6. This was a good take on a period that to some extent is being (rightly) re-interpreted in the light of new science, especially genetics.

I have zero direct education in history and archaeology but its my passion to read about it. This was a very good presentation and definitely food for thought. Thanks!

Dr H Klein, why couldn't my history teachers make it as easy as you did to understand this period? 10/10

Excellent historical presentation! This is why I have always loved the story of history! Research backed by evidence and continued speculation. Well done!

Very interesting subject and a fantastic lecture by a gifted educator. Thanks.

Great lecture! I learned a lot. Thank you.

Great lecture with a wonderful balance of sources and argumentation. The Bodrum Museum is now on the list of must visits.

This is brilliant. I've subscribed. You're a gifted teacher. Thank you for putting the pieces together.

Very well informed, supported, coherent, and to top it all Mr Cline is very pleasant to listen to. Plus the topic is o so topical for these days - and no way we'll hear of it from the mainstream. Thanks very much for these informations and for the quality of the service indeed.

I always regretted that the Bronze age was skipped entirely in my world history class. It was mentioned for about 3 seconds and then suddenly jumped to the golden ages of ancient Greek and Rome. I thought that era was just as interesting as the renaissance period.

Love it, I now have a clear view of the history of these incredible civilizations. The history also shows how fragile civilizations are to climate change and how easy they can fail and disappear into the archeological treasure chest.

I’ve had this on my watch list for a long time. It was even better than I had hoped it would be.

Great lecture, very informative!

I love how this Professors doesn't refrain from pointing out when he thinks we don't have good answers. I always felt that we humans are way too much in love with the feeling of "having understood", and because of this, when a hypothesis starts looking good, we rush to cut the remaining corners to force them to fit, in order to be able to think that we got it, that now we know. And the worst part is that we teach those conclusions in school as if they were ascertained facts instead of having the humility to say for example _"... at the best of our current knowledge we believe that_ [atoms are the indivisible building block of matter] [or replace with any of the many scientific certainties that miserably fell later] _but we are not sure because the current evidence is not enough to be sure_". If we taught like this in school, fewer kids would lose interest or respect for science.

I’ve read 3 history books on the subject with much interest given the mystery of who were these violent ‘sea people’ who wreaked so much havoc in the Mediterranean world, with their powerful iron weapons. Archaeologists are now zeroing in on ancient Italians from places as Sardinia. To be fair, the attacks were not exclusively caused by these sea raiders, as others in the region jumped on the bandwagon and also attacked their neighbors. Ultimately though, these ‘sea people’ started this violent descent into chaos.

Amazing, thoughtful presentation. As a student of ancient near eastern civilizations, this brings things together for me in a cogent and careful way that I really appreciated.

So interesting with ancient history. I'm sure we would be blown away if knew all that has happened on this earth.

Excellent Symposium! What is extremely interesting to me is the topic of disease for it was at that time the story of the Exodus began when the Egyptian first born sons according to scripture died of disease or plague as foretold to Pharaoh by Moses as it was about to come upon Egyptian dynasty. Moses apparently was the adopted son of Hatshepsut. Looking forward to viewing 'The Exodus' commentary.

Muy buen libro, yo lo tengo en español, lástima que el video no tenga la opción de traducir al español. Porque no están activados los subtítulos.

This was a wonderful lecture. Very much enjoyed it.

An interesting and informative lecture. Thank you very much.

What a great speaker. Good voice & knows his material. I was never interested in archaeology or anthropology but this was captivating.

What a pleasant lecturer. All professors should watch and listen.

It would be interesting to hear what effect the Santorini explosion and tsunami had on Minoan and other civilisations in the area and could have been the initial trigger for the demise.

What an excellent lucid and enjoyable lecture.

Very good presentation, well thought out, multi-dynamic disaster sequences.

This topic is under so much scrutiny and change as of late. I've heard so many hypothesis' now saying the drought covered the whole of Europe causing the proto-Italic peoples (Latins, Etruscans) downward by proto-Celtic peoples, in turn pushing peoples already living in Italy and its islands away. There is this tremendous interesting period of the end of the Roman Republic that grabs my attention everytime, but the Bronze Age collapse is a great second. Edit: and while I was posting this, the end of vid Q&A session with the audience denotes this hypothesis.

This is what I miss about college sometimes. Listening to a history professor who loves his or her subject.

It’s been a pleasure to listen to this excellent lecture while on a hike in Western Siberia! Greetings from Russia!

His theories are pretty on point, what we know now is that there was a massive environmental crisis in the Mediterranean along with massive earth quakes and other tectonic activity all over the bronze age empires, especially Greece, Thera is an unfortunate example of that. Now the bronze age empires like he said were all reliant upon one another via trade, they of course needed bronze and without bronze well... So to make bronze you need 9 parts copper and 1 part tin, copper was easy to come by in these empires although it could be very hard to mine, Cyprus had a massive copper supply that was easy to mine so you can see why it was so wealthy and important, not only is it just a really key trading location but it has one of the two things that everyone needed in abundance and it was in the middle of all the people who needed it so they were doing really swell. Now tin is the problem in this equation, you only needed a little bit of tin compared to the amount of copper needed for bronze but tin was and still is very rare and unlike copper was also not evenly spread around, the Hittites had a small mine but that wasn't nearly enough and the other tin mines were in Afghanistan, Spain and Cornwall, England, the Afghanistan mine was from what i understand the largest known supply of tin and believe it or not people did make the trips to these places to get tin, now if they were making the trip starting in the Bronze age empires, at the far away mines or were middle men i don't know but i bet it was just about anyone who could make the trip and had the balls to go on such a perilous journey, although there could have been middle points where the tin was brought from the mines that was an easier trip for the Bronze age empires, but that's just me thinking, i haven't heard of anything like that, i'm juts regurgitating what iv'e seen and my own theories mixed in. So back to it, the Bronze age empires were dealing with a massive environmental crisis so famine, drought leading to civil wars and unrest, there is evidence of my cities being destroyed or abandoned before the Sea Peoples even show up, we see this especially in the Mycenaean Civilization where there is a lot of archeological evidence of Mycenaean cities whose population overthrow their ruling class and the Mycenaean palaces which the rulers and ruling class ruled from being destroyed due to the unrest caused by the famine, drought and environmental disasters. Now like i said before everyone is reliant on each other through trade so that everyone can get the tin and copper they need to make Bronze so that they don't collapse and loose the ability to manufacture their at the time advanced technologies and with all these disasters trade took several big hits and each problem just multiplies and becomes worse and worse. The Sea Peoples should have been a manageable threat for the Bronze age civilization if things were still business as usually, but it wasn't business as usual, these empires were in the middle of dealing with 4 separate crisis and were not doing well and when the Sea Peoples show up having also fled from their lands due to the famine, drought and disasters they find the whole region in collapse, the cities are vulnerable, the empires are weak and ravaged so it was easy for them to end the Mycenaean's, Hittites, and Assyrians, Cyprus and others while Egypt and Babylonia crawl out of the inferno alive but fucked up, the Babylonians cutesy of being far away from the Sea Peoples but i'm sure they still had to deal with other invasions and migrations along with all the other issues that everyone else had. Finally Egypt, the only one to throwback the Sea People and not be slam dunked into oblivion, probably because Egypt was attacked the last and the least by the Sea Peoples not to mention Egypt was used to being isolated and independent so they still had some food and water from the Nile and had the least amount of tectonic activity so the Egyptian Pharaohs were prepared for the invasions and not as damaged so although it took their entire army they came out on top. Now just because the survivors were well alive, doesn't mean they were going to go back to business as usual and they could still maintain their previous strength, this was a death blow to the surviving civilizations, their days were numbered and they were shadows of them selves now, there was no more interconnected trade, almost everyone else was gone so their civilization went into decline and their empires either shrank or eventually fell after the exhaustion. It took over 300 years for new civilizations to emerge and for the technological and knowledge damage to come close to how things were before and these news powers eventually finished off the only one who had survived both the storm and the aftermath, Egypt, Cyrus and thus the Persians and Alexander and the Greeks would make the whole region their playground for the foreseeable future until Rome came knocking. Also i didn't include this above but chariots were the center of the bronze age armies and loosing one was like the US loosing a B2 bomber or an aircraft carrier, they were very expensive to make and train and breed the horses along with crewing it with skilled soldiers and unfortunately the Sea Peoples had a very unique and mobile form of foot warfare that allowed them to be very good at destroying chariots and the bronze age armies despite their attempts to adapt such as more than doubling their battle formations withe more spear men and foot soldiers they were still outflanked and crushed by the quick and mobile sea peoples, making your formations longer doesn't do much but make it take a little longer for the enemy to get around and behind you if have shit for mobility and movement coordination.

Best explanation of Bronze Age collapse I've heard presented all in one place. Thanks.

I enjoyed every minute of this lectuer.. the more you know the more you don't.. never thought I will have some real quality time on TRshow.. thanks sir.

I watched this informative lecture two years ago. But, TRshow algorithms recommended I watch it again. It is worth the second viewing.

Terrific presentation! Eloquent speaker, informative slides, fascinating topics that are relevant to what might lie ahead. I plan to watch it again. Thank you! Good for novices and experts both I believe.

A very well presented lecture. Always nice to see a speaker than can weave in and out of the presentation materials like that

a well-reasoned example of how complex interdependent civilisations are vulnerable to chain reactions from local problems becoming magnified into global game-changers.

Interesting. Having not read your book, I would think the time period for collapse in the ancient world was communication dependent; i.e., ships, trade caravans, etc. But now that time period of communication is virtually instantaneous. So the domino effect of a collapse today... do you write or lecture about this factor?

Finally someone who understands, that things don't happen as a singularity. Everything is connected somehow. You really are a professional professor. Keep up the good work and thank you for explaining. I knew there was more to it than meets the eye.

Can't believe I be chillin on this video while eating and working and this is a dang class lecture lol! Love this professor and the video production overall, thanks for sharing!

Well researched and explained. I learned a lot. Good teacher.😊

this guy is stunning I wish I had such professors at my time...

Very well done. Thank you!

Transport by sea was probably pretty low cost. The ships were wind-driven, and the sailors were maybe working for food (there was no money). The ships themselves may have cost less than comparable ships today, being hand-built from trees. Shipping may have been more vital than we think - grain from Egypt may have fed a lot of people. So if drought occurred, as the man says, it may have been caused by, or been accompanied by, changes in wind patterns. If those changes affected trade winds, the shipping network may have collapsed.

Fantastic lecture - thank you!

I wonder if the prevelence of tin from the Cornwall area was greater due to the Atlantic coastal trade route? The coastal sea route takes you down the French coast, to North Africa/Southern Spain and then you could go along Morocco/Libya to Egypt. Most of this would be by sea so would be viable I think. Certainly if they had baltic amber it sounds to me a much easier route.

When I was at school (60's) History was taught as elements on a Line - battle dates, death of kings etc. Later it was looked upon as elements within a Square. Now, and especially with this excellent lecturer, it is a Cube full of moving, interacting elements.

Is there an intrinsic rate of collapse? Is anything known about where population was before system collapse and after? Wonderful and entertaining talk.

I don't understand how anyone can dislike this amazing video!!!

Excellent conference! Impressive the last two slides showing how similar it is the situation nowadays and 33 centuries ago!!

Well now I feel adequately preparared for the way we all know 2020 is headed. Fascinating presentation. Great stuff.

Starting about 400,000 years ago, the focus of volcanic activity shifted to where it has been since then, the center of the present-day caldera. The most characteristic type of activity over the last 400.000 years has been the cyclic construction of shield volcanoes interrupted by large explosive and destructive events like the Minoan eruption about 3600 years ago. In detail, the volcanic evolution of Santorini can be divided into six main stages (Druitt and others, 1989): Akrotiri Volcanoes (approx. 2 mio - 600,000 years ago) Cinder cones of the Akrotiri peninsula (around 600 - 300 ka) Peristeria Volcano (530 - 300 ka) Products of the first eruptive cycle (360-180 ka) Products of the second eruptive cycle (180 ka - 1613 BC) Kameni shield (1613 BC - present)

Enjoyable lecture, congratulations! Some of the most ancient castles from the Bronze Age and earlier in Sardinia are burried under mud with seashells. Were Shardana also wiped away from a tsunami on Sardinian lowlands?

Around 38 minutes in, he mentions a woman sheltering in a doorframe during an earthquake. If you know to do that, it is because you're part of a group that has seen a lot of earthquakes. That's not an intuitive move. In other words, this is not evidence of _an_ earthquake. It is evidence of many earthquakes.

My high respects to Prof Eric Cline 🙏👍

Thank you Mr. Cline, this was amazing.

I came to TRshow to watch cat videos and seventy minutes later. . . Dr. Cline, you are a great lecturer, that was really fun, thank you!

Really enjoyed this lecture!Thanks.

The great lesson of history is that its never THAT simple. As our society increasingly craves simple answers that might be the most important lesson to be learned.

Such a great lecturer !

The Aegean list is very interesting. Could it record a punitive military campaign rather than a friendly visit? I notice the cartouches with the place names all have a figure of a bound captive above them.

This guy is both a great scholar and a great stand-up comedian. Great lecture.

Why in heavens name did l not have this man as a history teacher He is brilliant.

For me as a not-native-speaker it is quite easy understandable. Very good!

Brilliant lecture and a wonderful view of a parallel between a globalized world system and what is taking place today. I have shared this link with a number of my friends. ... Thank you Dr. Eric Cline. Barry Manclark Australia

The fact that this has five million views gives me a smallish amount of hope.

An excellent example of how college should work and did work in my day. Constantly taking you in areas away from your safe zone and challenging you with different ideas.

Still the most entertaining lecture ever made.