When the Ancient world nearly collapsed!
Why was 1200BC such a terrible time for ancient empires?
Greetings to Gold Level and Silver Level Templar knights! The year 1200BC and the period immediately around it is shrouded in mystery. Ancient empires fell or suffered major catastrophes. Why? What was going on?
When we think of the Dark Ages, we’re normally referring to that period of time after the fall of the western Roman Empire in the late fifth century AD until the Middle Ages. It’s a term that’s increasingly unfashionable. But it’s undeniable that life changed massively after Rome collapse and a great empire was split asunder. Well, go back another thousand years in time - and you find another Dark Ages.
It’s at this time when strange new peoples seemed to suddenly appear bent on invasion. Mycenaean Greece was destroyed at this time and fell silent for centuries. The legendary city of Troy and the Hittite Empire were toppled. So-called ‘Sea Peoples’ swarmed into ancient Egypt and terrorised the Canaanites.
Great cities were laid waste. Thebes, Knossos, Tarsos, Askalon, Byblos and Miletus. The Assyrian and Egyptian kingdoms were able to hold out but Mycenaean Greece and the Hittite Empire were sunk by this onslaught in the late Bronze Age.
The result was a collapse of an early wave of human civilisation that had developed from the growing towns of northern Italy to the glittering citadels of Greece and down to the exotic Minoans of Crete. Sophisticated urban centres crumbled and simple village life resumed. In Greece, the “Linear B” written language of the Mycenaeans disappeared and for 400 years, Greece effectively became an illiterate society once more.
Who were these invaders? One thing we’re pretty certain about is that they weren’t a single ethnic people. The chroniclers of ancient Egypt list five Sea Peoples: the Shardana, Teresh, Lukka, Shekelesh and Ekwesh. Their main unifying characteristic is that they all appeared to come from northern regions. In reality, they came from all points of the compass homing in on the riches of the developing empires.
Why did it happen? As if often the case, these barbaric invaders may already have been well known to the great empires of the time. There’s evidence to suggest that when the Pharaoh Ramses II fought the Hittites for control of the Middle East, both sides were using soldiers recruited from among the Sea Peoples.
From a position of strength, Egypt and the Hittites used the Sea Peoples as a source of mercenary strength in their armed forces. But as often happens, as the Sea Peoples came to know their erstwhile masters better, they began to see weaknesses that could be exploited. When the opportunity arose, they rebelled. Never having forgotten who and what they were - they exacted a bloody revenge on those who had used them as battlefield fodder.
The Hittite Empire was so comprehensively wiped out that its very existence only became known in relatively recent times. Archaeologists are still finding evidence of a wave of fiery destruction that swept from Cyprus across Greece and Asia Minor and down into the Levant. While Egypt survived, it was never again the regional superpower it had been ruling over modern Israel, Lebanon and Syria. The pharaohs would be much diminished.
What happened to the Sea Peoples? Many accounts claim that these destroyers of the world around 1200BC then disappeared into the mist. In fact, they did nothing of the sort.
The Shardana more than likely settled on a large island in the Mediterranean and became the Sardinians. The Teresh and Lukka were probably the ancestors of the ancient Greek Lydians and Lycians. The Teresh became the Etruscans.
Put another way, these barbaric Sea Peoples ended up shaping future great civilisations when the world recovered from their violent arrival. Intriguingly, some believe that one of the tribes of Sea Peoples I haven’t mentioned - the Denyen - may eventually have become the tribe of Dan in biblical Israel. Or, others think they became the Danaoi mentioned in the Illiad of Homer.
Yet another band of Sea Peoples, the Peleset, evolved into the Philistines - from where we get the word Palestine.
Below is an image of the ancient Egyptians trying to repel the Sea Peoples.