Lessons from the Bronze Age on how to survive societal collapse
They say that there’s no need to panic as an airline passenger unless you see the flight attendants start to get nervous. Well, if you apply that same common wisdom to historians and societal collapse, it’s more than time to start paying attention. In a recent article for The Ancient Near East Today the author of After 1177 BC: The Survival of Civilizations, Professor Eric Cline, writes,
I am not exaggerating when I say that it has really felt to me on occasion as if we are on the brink of societal collapse ourselves, “coming soon to an area near you,” as they say in the movies. When will it happen? What will be our tipping point? I cannot say for certain, obviously, but I strongly suspect that it is a matter of sooner rather than later — a question of when, not if — and that we will need to utilize for ourselves the lessons learned from those who survived a societal collapse more than three thousand years ago, including how to transform rather than simply cope or adapt and to embrace new innovations and inventions as needed.
The vulnerabilities of modern society and the global economy exposed during the Covid-19 pandemic combined with deepening social and political unrest, competition for resources, and the ever-increasing reality of human-induced climate change due to global warming echo the types of events and circumstances that contributed to the Bronze Age collapse. In his new book, Professor Cline points out that it seems in the aftermath of the turmoil at the end of the Bronze Age, some societies recovered more quickly or were better prepared to deal with crisis than others. As he puts it,
…if our own globalized civilization comes to an end, how we deal with it will depend on how total the collapse is and how well we have prepared for it in advance…For those who are looking despairingly into the current abyss of global warming, endless violence, resource shortages, drought, and pollution, there may be some reassurance in knowing that if we develop the right resilience strategies, we may be able to minimize the damage as well as speed up the recovery following a societal collapse. At the very least, we can hope that there will be someone left to pick up the pieces and carry on.
Voices of Ancient Egypt: Half-Hour Hieroglyphs
If you’ve ever wanted to learn hieroglyphs, one of the best places to get started is Egyptologist Melinda Nelson-Hurst’s website, where you can download her free guide to getting started with hieroglyphs. Dr. Nelson-Hurst has been teaching hieroglyphs in the university classroom and online for nearly a decade, and over the summer she will be opening enrollment for an online course. We will share more info with you when registration opens!
What else were we reading this week?
Senenmut's Astronomical Ceiling
Engaging communities in managing the tomb of Amenhotep III at the World Heritage site in Luxor
Mysterious ancient 'Horoscope' scroll unveiled in Judaean Desert
A Roman Head Is Unearthed, but Mysteries Remain
Archaeologists Unearth Intricately Decorated 4,300-Year-Old Tomb Of Palace Official In Egypt
‘Now we know where the dead went.’ Did grave robbers plunder battlefields?
Rome’s Future Is a Walk Through Its Past
After the fall of the Egyptian Empire: review of the Third Intermediate Period settlement at Tell el-Retaba
Harvard Removes Binding of Human Skin From Book in Its Library
In Photos: Painted Old Kingdom mastaba uncovered in Dahshour Necropolis
One more thing…
Did you know the word “Egyptian” actually has 4 syllables? Check out The Cleverly’s bluegrass cover of the Bangles’ 1986 hit, “Walk Like an Egyptian.”