HIST 200 - Seminar: The Sea Peoples and the Collapse of the Bronze Age

FDR: HU
Credits: 4
Planned Offering: Spring 2012

Prerequisites: Permission of the instructor and successful completion of HIST 109, 110, or 111. The crucial period encompassing the collapse of the Bronze Age in the Levant and in Greece saw the fall of powerful kingdoms (the Myceneans, the Hittites, individual states on the Syrian coast) and the weakening of the Egyptian Old Kingdom. A long dark age followed. When the dust cleared new peoples and states emerged on the scene (Hebrews, Assyrians, Philistines, Phoenicians, Phrygians, Dorian Greeks, etc.) The causes of the crisis are still hotly debated as is the chronology of the period. The era, which also saw the fall of Homer’s Troy, played a key role in later foundations myths (Greek, Italian, North African, even British). This course focuses on the various historical controversies that vie to explain the problem (climate change, system collapse, changes in military technology, disease, barbarian raids, piracy, “failure of nerve,” etc.)Sanders.