Princeton (2024) p/b 356pp £20.00 (ISBN 9780691213026)
When the first incarnation of this book appeared in 2014, Peter Jones’ review for Classics for All’s Reading Room, while containing several caveats, concluded: ‘Well-written, very fairly argued and excellent value, it will set the agenda for Late Bronze Age studies for some time to come’ (https://classicsforall.org.uk/reading-room/book-reviews/1177-bc-year-civilisation-collapsed). Ten years later, having already undergone one revision in 2021, it now reappears in an altogether unforeseen and unexpected form—as a graphic novel.
Retaining its basic structure and arguments, it begins with a historical survey of the 15th to 12th centuries BC—tracing the fortunes and interconnectivity of the peoples of the eastern Mediterranean, including Egyptians, Hittites and Eqwesh/Ahhiyawa/Greeks (Minoan-style frescoes appear in Pharaoh Thutmose III’s palace; Cypriot copper ingots were brought to mainland Greek Tiryns; and shipwrecks such as that at Ulu Burun in Turkey reveal well-furrowed trade routes); it then addresses the thorny question of why this rich network of societies ended around (the somewhat arbitrary date of) 1177 BC.
As previously, C. suggests a combination of interrelated reasons (an environmental crisis beginning around 1300 BC, with earthquakes and ‘megadrought’, migrations, plague, war, the collapse of trade, and social upheavals, none sufficient in themselves to topple civilisations, but each causing instability and magnifying the effects of others), which bodes ill for us today. As C. and F. reflect in grim conclusion: ‘All civilizations eventually experience violent shifts of material and ideological realities such as destruction or re-creation. Also, if several geopolitical crises occur in parallel, and many states can’t handle the situation properly, due to lack of resources, poor leadership, or internal conflict, it could cause catastrophic outcomes all over the world.’
This is all serious stuff, which makes Princeton’s decision to present it as a graphic novel seem all the braver. Readers are guided through the material by two late-Bronze-Age young people, Pel, described as ‘a member of the marauding Sea Peoples’, and Shesha, an Egyptian scribe, who luckily is sufficiently nerdy to be able to translate a wide range of documents, sufficiently knowledgeable to explicate historical data, but sufficiently engaging not to irritate. Together they take readers on a journey through time (four centuries and more) and space (the entire eastern Mediterranean), introducing key players (pharaohs, kings, merchants and so on) and visiting important sites such as Hattusa, Ugarit and Mycenae. Occasionally, they are joined, too, by C. and F. themselves, with C. contributing academic heft to their observations.
At first this technique is disconcerting. When Pel announces on page 1 that ‘it’s the late 12th Century BC’, my heart sank, but as the book progresses its knowing, sophisticated humour and clever pedagogy become clearer. That initial statement is there to put us on our mettle, and the bold, intriguing, and imaginative nature of this new approach becomes ever more compelling, a clever mix of fact and ‘fun’, enlivened by F.’s graphic reimagining of the Bronze Age world. Her drawings may not be to every reader’s taste. Many of the colours are quite muddy, and do not convey the vibrancy of the Bronze Age, but perhaps this is a characteristic of graphic novels. I do not know.
David Stuttard