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The REAL Story Behind The Bronze Age Collapse | Aaron Bastani Meets Josephine Quinn

Novara Media

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Our guest on Downstream this week is Josephine Quinn, Professor of Ancient History at Cambridge University, the first woman to hold the position.

In conversation with a live audience at EartH Hackney, Professor Quinn and Aaron Bastani examine some of the lesser-known aspects of the ancient world, as told in her book How The World Made the West.

What were the ancient alternatives to democracy? Why should students today study ancient languages, instead of English or mathematics? And did people in the Bronze Age really forget how to write, or deliberately decide to stop?

00:00 Intro
02:05 Why Study Ancient Languages?
06:50 The Ancient World Reveals Political Possibilities
10:33 Demarcating Ancient from Modern History
13:59 On Slavery
19:00 The Bronze Age Collapse
24:08 Collapse Today
25:05 The End of Writing

Thanks to ‪@earthackney‬ for hosting this event.

20 Comments

@ilariabarnett8700 1 year ago

Listening to her just reinforced my ideas that history is not taught at all in British schools. Same for literature. History is taught as “topics” and not as a continuum and it doesn’t link to literature at all. They only teach stuff pertinent to Britain which results in a really narrow view of the world. Not only ancient history but the importance of the Middle Ages and learning about other cultures other than Europe. I was fortunate enough to live in Italy where this was part of the national curriculum. It is really sad.

@Hecatonicosachoron 1 year ago

Since Aaron asked that at the end, by the end of the bronze age the Mycenaean Greeks were using a system of writing that we call today Linear B. This was an adaptation of an earlier Minoan system called Linear A, used first in Crete. Linear B was used exclusively for account-keeping; no literature has been found in that writing system. After the bronze age collapse Linear B disappeared. The Greek alphabet was developed a few hundred years later, which was the first widespread true alphabet, which contained symbols for vowels. In contrast, Linear A and Linear B were syllabaries supplemented with a few ideographic signs.

@marktaylor6491 1 year ago

Churchill said it best. 'The further back you stand. The further forward you see'. Everyone should study ancient history. It helps everything make more sense.

@AmberRussetLeaves 1 year ago (edited)

Absolutely blown away by Josephine Quinn's perspectives on the bronze age collapse, writing (or the lack thereof) and equally as intrigued by her thoughts on studying history to make more sense of the present. Kudos to Novara Media for another eye opening video.

@richlancaster8336 1 year ago

1177 BCE is a great book on the Late Bronze Age Collapse, it tells a slightly different story than the one told here. There is still a lot to verify around the collapsing of entire civilizations, the timing, the actual events, and how bad the damage was. It seems each major site needs a reanalysis of the data to verify what happened to that specific city or state....then add it all back together again....we're missing too much history in order to be clear on what did happen, there's a lot of mystery remaining.

@DebPercy 1 year ago

she is always great to listen to.

@cdineaglecollapsecenter4672 1 year ago

Tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of Eastern Europeans were kidnapped and sold into slavery on the basis of being heathens not Christians in the middle ages. So I think the dominance of religion as a dividing line between peoples goes back to well before the 15th century.

@JohnJones-ct9pr 1 month ago

We know a lot about the Bronze Age collapse from the stream of letters sent from city to city begging for help and sending warnings. They knew how to write -- right until the end .

@kirstyguard6023 1 year ago

really interesting just ordered book.Thanks

@FromNothingICome 1 year ago

"Humans are scary, and we should all learn more obscure languages where we can read about ancient slaughter and sea beasts..."

What a refreshing perspective. lol

10/10

@patrickselden5747 1 year ago

A fascinating conversation - thanks...
☝️😎

@djf1925 1 year ago

Democracy maybe a good idea, but no country really practices it now. Our democracies npw are a farce

@cameronsmith1178 1 month ago

I love this! She is so infectious!

@benp4877 1 year ago (edited)

1. Totally agree that the alien shows are ridiculous and stupid.
2. She said that’s because “Netflix are massive racists”. Eh …? While that might not literally be the craziest thing I’ve ever heard, it’s definitely the craziest thing I’ve heard so far today.

@Empathetik 1 year ago (edited)

I don't think understanding that humans can be diverse means there's no "human nature". It just means that human nature is more diverse than you thought.

@videobyredjade 1 year ago

thank you.

@marktaylor6491 1 year ago

Very good, thank you.

@keithalfred5308 1 year ago

Title is wrong. It's not the 'real story' behind the Bronze Age collapse but a tentative hypothesis. There's an ancient Greek story that there was a great famine among the HIttites and half the population were told to set out on the sea. That sounds more like a disaster of nature than social upheaval.