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reviewed 1177 B.C by Eric H. Cline (Turning points in ancient history)

Eric H. Cline: 1177 B.C (2014, Princeton University Press) 3 stars

"In 1177 B.C., marauding groups known only as the "Sea Peoples" invaded Egypt. The pharaoh's …

Review of '1177 B.C' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

This book was informative but proved to be a frustrating read. Historian Eric Cline presents a detail assessment of the complex factors at play which led to the collapse of the Late Bronze Age, an early interconnected “global” system that included Mycenaean Greece, New Kingdom Egypt, the Hittites, Canaanites, Assyrians, and others. This system was connected through trade in tin and copper (required to smelt bronze) across the Eastern Mediterranean.

What I found frustrating was Cline’s tendency to repeat himself through the work. Many of the chapters are arbitrarily divided into numerous subheadings or, rather than taking a sweeping thematic approach, present a plethora of case-by-case studies that inevitably repeat some information. I’ve generally found this type of “ancient” history incredibly frustrating. The fact that we lack a wealth of extant source materials inevitably leads to the hedging of interpretation (Well, we don’t know this; It could have been this, or that, or this, or that) with most historians afraid to take a leap of faith and present the most plausible narrative. That was the case in this volume. I kept wanting Cline to provide a straightforward, coherent narrative that explained this systems collapse with it being implied that all interpretation is subject to change at the availability of new material. Instead, only the last chapter details the “collapse” and, even then, with an enormous amount of hedging and hand-wringing.