Product Description

The Bronze Age came to a close early in the twelfth century b.c. with one of the worst calamities in history: over a period of several decades, destruction descended upon key cities throughout the Eastern Mediterranean, bringing to an end the Levantine, Hittite, Trojan, and Mycenaean kingdoms and plunging some lands into a dark age that would last more than four hundred years. In his attempt to account for this destruction, Robert Drews rejects the traditional explanations and proposes a military one instead.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #238886 in Books
• Published on: 1995-12-22
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 264 pages

Review
[The End of the Bronze Age] provides a concise overview of the problem and the present state of our knowledge.... Drews has produced a thought-provoking work with an intriguing thesis, informative and thorough in its scholarship, sound and imaginative in its arguments.
(J. P. Karras The Journal of Military History )

[Drews] has differentiated between evidence and speculation so that those who will continue to debate the Catastrophe can use the book effectively. What is more important is that he has laid to rest some archaeological factoids which in their turn were based on no more than guesswork.
(David W. J. Gill Bryn Mawr Classical Review )

Unusually sophisticated.... Well argued and learned.
(A. M. Snodgrass The Times Literary Supplement )

Customer Reviews

Thought provoking! Great contribution to study of BA warfare
Drews draws together a great variety of sources from the Bronze Age Aegean and Near East, and presents them in a very accessable format. His review of theories on the collapse of the Bronze Age and the inherent problems that each presents is thorough and provides an unsurpassed introduction to the study of this period. Unfortunately he replaces previous monolithic causes with his own one. His own theories push the evidence too far, and have been dismissed out of hand - unfortunately the good along with the bad. The backlash against his arguements has in itself rejuvenated the debate, and his work is to be commended for this. Whether one agrees with his ideas or not, the work as a whole is an excellent source for the critical reader, and has an extensive bibliography.

Intriguing cultural argument, but quite annoying to read
Interesting insight into the nature of the "Catastrophe" that appears to afflict Bronze Age civilisation around 1200BC in the Mediterranean area, in which it is argued that the changing technology of war played a leading part, as opposed to other factors previously argued, such as environmental causes or "migrational movements".

Drews deals in quite detailed, minute arguments, drawing examples from contemporary texts and art evidence. Quite a specialist book, though, and very much one that doesn't cross the boundaries of its particular field, which is a good or a bad thing depending on your point of view.

One annoying habit though - the author won't translate phrases and quotes for those of us who are not multi-lingual, which means he will be backing up a point with a reference which is inaccessible without a dictionary. Lengthy footnotes would then discuss this untranslated phrase in great detail, which was beyond irritating to this reader. Surely it wouldn't have hurt to print both the original and the translation phrase in this case.?