Why the Bronze Age Collapsed
This article from Hacker News's 'Works in Progress' section explores the Bronze Age collapse, a period around 1200 BC when major powers like the Egyptians, Hittites, Assyrians, Babylonians, and Mycenaean Greeks mysteriously vanished or declined. It highlights the Battle of Kadesh between the Egyptians and Hittites as a significant event preceding this widespread societal breakdown, noting its detailed historical reconstruction through Pharaoh Ramesses II's reliefs.
Why it matters
Understanding the Bronze Age collapse offers crucial insights into the fragility of complex societies and the potential for widespread civilizational breakdown, providing historical context for studying resilience and vulnerability in modern times.
Works in Progress Sep 28, 2026 336 22 40 Share In our first article from Issue 27, Patrick Fitzsimmons explains what really ended the Bronze Age.
Over three thousand years ago, on a plain beside the Orontes River in Syria, two great armies clashed in what may at the time have been the most colossal battle ever seen: the Battle of Kadesh. The two combatants, the Egyptians and the Hittites, together put forward tens of thousands of soldiers and over five thousand chariots, making the number of combatants comparable to some smaller First World War battles, and quite likely bigger than Agincourt, Hastings, and Yorktown. It was also the first battle whose events can be reconstructed in detail, as Pharaoh Ramesses II afterwards commissioned elaborate stone reliefs depicting the battle as a monumental victory, which remain in temples dotted across modern Egypt to this day.
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