The Bronze Age
A gap in the curriculum
The Bronze Age
ScopeBroad enough for its own sub-branch
AfterAgainst the Grain
Leads toPost-Bronze Age Mediterranean societies
Lineage13 books back to the Big Bang
I also do not know much about the Bronze Age. Against the Grain explains how the first civilizations arose, but I do not really understand what kinds of civilizations they became. I know that many of them eventually collapsed, helping to produce the ancient Mediterranean world that followed, but the civilizations themselves remain a major gap in my understanding.
Claude’s take
Antiquity in the tree begins with states already formed; the Bronze Age is where cities, writing, and the first empires actually appear.
Candidate reading
- 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed — Eric H. Cline
- The Kingdom of the Hittites — Trevor Bryce