After 1177 BCE: The Survival of Civilizations

Sunday, May 19, 2024 at 7:30 PM at B’nai Israel

After 1177 BCE: The Survival of Civilizations

Eric Cline

In the years after 1177 BCE, many of the Late Bronze Age civilizations of the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean lay in ruins, undone by invasion, revolt, natural disasters, famine, and the demise of international trade. An interconnected world that had boasted major empires and societies, relative peace, robust commerce, and monumental architecture was lost.

After 1177 BCE will trace the compelling story of what happened during the next four centuries across the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean world. It is a story of resilience, transformation, and success, as well as failures, in an age of chaos and reconfiguration. Those that failed to adjust disappeared from the world stage, while others transformed themselves, resulting in a new world order that included Israelites, Philistines, Phoenicians, Neo-Hittites, Neo-Assyrians, Neo-Babylonians, and world-changing innovations such as the use of iron and the alphabet.

It is now clear that this period, far from being the First Dark Age, was a new age with new inventions, new opportunities, and lessons for us today.

Eric Cline is Professor of Classical and Ancient Near Eastern Studies at George Washington University

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Donald O Kane