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Veröffentlichungsjahr: 2024
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After 1177 B.C.
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The Survival of Civilizations
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PROLOGUE
Welcome to the Iron Age
The Mycenaean civilization was quickly put out of business by the fierce Dorian warriors after 1200 BC. Early archaeologists and historians in modern Greece embraced the concept of a "Dorian invasion," which brought new types of pins, brooches, burials, pottery, and iron swords. This story became part of the established account in textbooks on ancient Greece and still figures prominently in various compilations. However, it probably never happened. The existence of a Dorian invasion was questioned as long as 1966, and it continues to be questioned today.
None of the "evidence" mentioned above requires the arrival of a new people to explain its existence. Some innovations, such as Naue II swords and violin-bow fibulae, are now known to have already begun in the Bronze Age. Other innovations, such as mastering the technology of ironmaking, only came about after the destruction of the palaces. Mycenaean-style pottery continued for another century and a half after things began collapsing until the middle of the eleventh century BC.
There is also significant evidence of continuity during this period, despite the sudden and total failure of the political and economic systems that had been in place on mainland Greece during the Bronze Age. Archaeological surveys have indicated a dramatic drop in population on mainland Greece immediately after the Collapse. Some survivors simply moved to new areas in Greece or even further away, migrating east to areas such as Cyprus or Canaan or west to Italy, Sardinia, or Sicily.
The Bronze Age Collapse, often referred to as the "first dark age," may not have been the most accurate description of life in the region after the Dorian invasion. Scholars have long considered this period as an age of total illiteracy, poverty, poor communications, and isolation. However, archaeologist Willie Coulson argued that there is no universal definition for a dark age, and that it was a state of stagnation or decline. A dark age can be defined as a time during which a civilization undergoes a decline, with criteria such as the collapse of the central administrative organization, disappearance of the traditional elite class, breakdown of the centralized economy, settlement shift, population decline, loss of writing, and pause in monumental architecture construction.
Joseph Tainter explains that a systematic collapse of a civilization or society often leads to a decline in artistic and literary features, economic activity, and population levels. The Greek poet Hesiod lamented his existence during this period, leading to the moniker "Iron Age" for this period. The question remains whether this was a dark age or if it should be seen as something else, considering the individuals who made up those societies.
The Year of the Hyenas, When Men Starved
In 1155 BC, Pharaoh Ramses III of Egypt was assassinated by a knife to his throat. The Harem Conspiracy, now known as the Harem Conspiracy, was a sordid harem conspiracy set in motion by one of his wives, Tiye, and a lesser son named Pentawere. The details of the four trials of the accused conspirators were found on approximately six papyri, some of which may have originally been part of a single scroll that was cut into sections by an enterprising antiquities thief before being sold to various people and places.
The conspiracy was hatched by Tiye, who wished for her son, Prince Pentawere, to accede to the throne. There were up to forty accused conspirators, both members of the harem and court officials, who were tried in four groups. A number were found guilty and received the death penalty, while several were forced to commit suicide right in the court.
It is not clear whether the plot had succeeded, but CAT-scans of Ramses III's body in 2012 revealed that it had. The assassination set the tone for the coming centuries in Egypt, with evidence of a megadrought, which led to a food crisis and famine in Egypt. After Ramses III's death, his dynasty continued for another four decades, but Egyptian culture and society did not completely collapse or transition to the new world order.
The eight pharaohs who followed Ramses III were all named Ramses (IV to XI), and their reigns witnessed a steady deterioration of Egypt's situation. The first two kings, Ramses IV and V, were on the throne for just ten years between them and did little that merits mention. Ramses V's rule continued to control the copper mines at Timna, in the Sinai Peninsula, but he is the last Egyptian pharaoh whose name is found in that region. His successor, Ramses VI, is the last pharaoh whose name is found at the turquoise mines of Serabit el-Khadim, also located in the Sinai.
When Ramses VI died in 1133 BC, the workmen constructing his tomb accidentally buried the tomb of Tutankhamun, which lay next to it, leaving it for Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon to discover in 1922. His son, Ramses VII, came to the throne in turn, and the problems continued for the next ruler, Ramses IX (ca. 1126–1108 BC). He was on the throne for eighteen years, during which time trouble was increasing in Egypt, specifically in the form of tomb robberies, famine, and disruptions by "foreigners" near the workers village at Deir el-Medina. It may have been at this time that Egypt first lost control over Upper Nubia and the gold mines located there.
Some of the problems from Ramses IX’s time continued into those of his successor, Ramses X, who ruled briefly at the end of the tumultuous twelfth century BC. Principal among these problems were a continuing lack of food and a related reduction in work-related activities (presumably because of hunger) as well as the presence of additional unnamed foreigners in and around Deir el-Medina.
Ramses XI, the longest reigning pharaoh during the Twentieth Dynasty, ruled Egypt for nearly thirty years from 1098 to 1070 BC. His first nineteen years were relatively peaceful, but the second half of his reign was marked by fragmentation and civil war within Egypt. The high priests of Amun in Thebes began competing with the kings to rule the country, leading to the fragmentation of Egypt's administrative structure.
In the second half of his reign, high priest Herihor claimed control over Nubia and Upper Egypt, taking the title of viceroy of Kush and vizier to the pharaoh. This led to the fragmentation of Egypt, and the rulership of Egypt was split among three men: Ramses XI, Herihor, and Smendes. Tomb robbing continued, and royal bodies were moved from their original tombs in the Valley of the Kings.
