1177 BC: The Year Civilization Collapsed (Eric Cline, PhD)
Why Hacker News recommends it
Recommended as an informative and funny hour that serves as a good substitute for his book.
What it is
Archaeologist Eric Cline lectures on the Late Bronze Age collapse around 1177 BC, when interconnected Mediterranean empires fell in rapid succession. He discusses the Sea Peoples and the combined causes of the collapse.
Recommended by 5 HN commenters across 4 different months, 2017 to 2025.
What Hacker News said
Strong rec meseznik · 2017-07 · on “Sea Peoples”
I recently stumbled upon this lecture, definitely recommended it (Sea Peoples introduced @ 08:20): [this video] -1177 BC: The Year Civilization Collapsed (Eric Cline, PhD)
Strong rec itcrowd · 2019-12 · on “Ask HN: Best Talks of 2019?”
Not a talk from 2019, but discovered it this year: "1177 BC, the year civilization collapsed (Eric Cline, PhD)" [this video] Excellent informative and hilarious talk about his (at-the-time) new scientific hypothesis to explain the end of the Bronze Age ca. 1200 BC. Multiple civilizations collapsed within a few decades of each other with the ability to read, write and make high buildings being lost all across the Eastern Mediterranean simultaneously . The Bronze Age is magical and interesting of itself, the talk gives a great introduction as to why we know much more about it than we think.. definitely recommended. Duration ~1 hour (feels like 20 minutes)
Recommends flukus · 2017-07 · on “Sea Peoples”
If your interested then here is a good talk on the various contributing factors: [this video] . Looks like youtube has quite a few more as well.
Recommends qq4 · 2021-01 · on “'Sea Prison': Covid-19 has left hundreds of thousands of seafarers stranded”
Wow haha, only on HN would I read a sea peoples joke. Did you also watch that informative YouTube lecture [0] or did you find out about them elsewhere? [0] [this video]
Recommends DavidPiper · 2021-09 · on “A Tunguska size burst destroyed Tall el-Hammam, Bronze Age city in Jordan Valley”
There is also [this video] by Eric Cline, an (alternative) accompaniment to his book "1177 BC: The Year Civilization Collapsed". - I do recommend the book, but for most folks the YouTube lecture is probably enough detail :)
Cites 1wd · 2020-01 · on “Tin Found in Israel from 3k Years Ago Comes from Cornwall”
From a 2016 talk: "Possible some came from Cornwall though I rather doubt they went up there more than once in a blue moon. There are some tin mines in southern Turkey but not enough. The vast majority came from Afghanistan. Specifically the Badakhshan region of Afghanistan." [this video]
Cites Cactus2018 · 2020-07 · on “Ancient trash heaps reveal the Plague of Justinian’s economic toll”
One of the author's hour long lectures on youtube 1177 BC: The Year Civilization Collapsed (Eric Cline, PhD) [this video]
Cites sergeykish · 2020-09 · on “Small nuclear reactors: tiny NuScale reactor gets safety approval”
As armchair academic I kind of understand you. People live in all sort of horrible conditions today - famine, malaria, diseases. As living person I ask myself what if my home was destroyed by flood? What if there is no water to grow food? What if person from the country which caused most of CO2 emissions [1] expects me to be contempt? Shouldn't I blow them up? Maybe all I need to commit is a good preacher. Last mass migration caused by ISIS. COVID caused reduced oil consumption is enough to make a trouble for oil exporters. Global warming is worse - drought, flood, fires. World is extremely fragile, resources supplied from another part of the world, even today cobalt mining is horrible, what