The Complexity of History

I’m currently reading Eric Cline’s After 1177 B.C.: The Survival of Civilizations (Princeton University Press, 2024). It’s the much-anticipated sequel to his 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed (Princeton University Press, 2014). The latter remains one of the best, up-to-date resources on the very complicated processes that led to the Catastrophe—a term I first heard given by my professor Dr. Lawson Stone to the catastrophic collapse of the socio-political and economic infrastructure that dominated the Mediterranean basin and Mesopotamia from about 1550–1200 BCE. Of course, for biblical studies, the Late Bronze Age was a critical period for the history of ancient Israel. It was the age of the exodus, and its collapse made way for the settlement and establishment of ancient Israel in Canaan. One of the things that Cline emphasizes in 1177 B.C. is that the “systems collapse” at the end of the Late Bronze Age can’t be explained monolithically. That is, this complicated social and cultural collapse can’t be explained through one factor. As he describes, it was a perfect storm.

After 1177 B.C. picks up where the previous work ends, talking about the assassination of Ramses III and the subsequent implosion of New Kingdom Egypt. Eventually, Cline explains that the resulting power vacuum eventually gave rise to many of the smaller polities that are most famous for their roles within biblical history. We are not only referring to Israel, but also Edom, Moab, the Philistines, and more. And as I would expect, Cline describes the complicated processes that gave rise to these polities. And similar to the factors involved with the Catastrophe, the rise of these polities can’t be explained monolithically. In fact, one of the realities that Cline mentions as a contributing factor for the rise of these polities was climate change.

Climate change is a ubiquitous term nowadays, and it’s often understood negatively. It explains unpredictable weather, rise in global temperatures, and all the adverse effects that follow. However, when Cline invokes studies from Dafna Langgut and others (e.g. “Dead Sea Pollen Record and History of Human Activity in the Judean Highlands (Israel) from the Intermediate Bronze into the Iron Ages (~2500–500 BCE),” Palynology 38.2 [2014]: 280–302; “Vegetation and Climate Changes during the Bronze and Iron Ages (~3600–600 BCE) in the Southern Levant Based on Palynological Records,” Radiocarbon 57.2 [2015]: 217–35), he discusses climate change positively…as a factor that contributed to the settlement and development of these biblical polities. For example, the extremely low arboreal vegetation percentages that mark the end of the Late Bronze Age were quite possibly linked to a prolonged drought across the Levant and Mediterranean basin. However, this state of affairs flipped on its head during the Iron Age. During this period, the climate changed and moisture levels rose, resulting in a rise in more arboreal activity. And this rise in activity positively impacted the increase in settlement activity and urbanization (Langgut, et. al., “Vegetation and Climate Changes,” 228–30).

Cline is a master at explaining very complicated events. He has an enviable ability to marshal many diverse studies and bring them all to bear on a singular topic in a way that is enjoyable to read. Believe me, this is not easy to do. Moreover, more than any other work that I have read, both 1177 B.C. and After 1177 B.C. have solidified the realization that important historical developments can virtually never be explained simplistically. The factors that give rise to humanity’s experiences are always complicated.

And perhaps this is the greatest irony of our current age. We live in an information age that is dominated by the proliferation of ideas through Tik-Tok, X, and other media platforms that are designed for and excel in short bursts of information. How can we appropriately explain complex realities on such limited platforms?