Welcome to Litsy!

I'm a fan of Arnold Toynbee and Jared Diamond so I like these cyclical views of history that portray civilizations as organisms that follow "life cycles". The late bronze-age collapse was a period I didn't know much about. I knew about the Kingdom period in Israel, the Minoan collapse, and the Hyksos invasion but I didn't realize that these were all connected as precursors to a "dark age" in the near east. It's a fascinating idea and a fun read.

Very interesting non-fictional book about the collapse of higher civilsations around the Mediterranean in 1177 BC. It is part of a series on turning points in ancient history. I liked it, but the topic is not new to me. For somebody else there might be too many names of people and places and the book might be to scientific. Definitely not an easy read.

Left the creative chaos of Cairo behind to spend some time at my happy place - of course with some beach reads. So you will be seeing some beach reading pictures in the upcomibg week. 😜

I love these, will definitely manage all 4! Thanks for this interesting ( and really useful to #readyourkindle) reading challenge, @CBee!!

Soft pick. It was an interesting read with lots of new information, but focuses heavily on the Aegean and Mediterranean rather than Mesopotamia and Egypt. This isn‘t a bad thing, but not what I was looking for. I did enjoy learning about the Sea Peoples and all of the theories for the Bronze Age Collapse. A great and informative read if you‘re interested in learning about one the greatest catastrophes in human history.

Don‘t know why I have been reading it for the whole two months. It‘s too academic for my liking.

Discussion of the complex and interdependent nations of the Late Bronze Age, and what we know about why they collapsed in the early 12th Century B.C.E. Was it invaders? Insurrection? Drought? Earthquakes? Climate change? Systems collapse? Maybe a combination of several of these, says Cline, and explains why he thinks that. Very interesting but also too academic to say I enjoyed it.

I have always been fascinated by the period at the end of the Bronze Age when the great kingdoms of the Aegean collapsed under the relentless assault's of the Sea Peoples. Cline argues that this view is largely wrong and that the Sea People were a by product of the chaotic collapse of a long established diplomatic and trading community covering Greece, Asia Minor, the Levant and Egypt. A book with concerning implications for current times.