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Did an earthquake cause the fall of the Greek Bronze Age?

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blopez34

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I don't want to get too controversial here and I know that this is super contested, but is it possible that an earthquake caused the fall of the Greek bronze age? How can such a powerful empire collapsed as a result of the environment? I mean just look at this architecture... Thoughts?

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The Bronze Age collapse is a hot topic. First, historians don't agree as to when it collapsed. Second, people can't agree if it was a natural event, like the earthquake you speak of, that caused it or if it correlated with foreign invasion. Some historians adopt a "one or the other" mindset, others think it was a combination of factors. I've even seen that some speculate that there may have been a plague that contributed. Some researchers have traced the infamous bubonic plague as originating in the Greek Bronze Age.
 
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Don't underestimate the power of mother nature! I don't doubt that an earthquake played a role, but my guess is that it was a combination of a lot of things. Most of them environmental, there's a lot of speculation that there was also many droughts happening at the time. So all these compounding factors could've had a big impact on the civilization.
 
All of these answers could be true. But I do think that such a strong civilization could only fall from an attack. There are many accounts of tribes “from the sea” or “sea people” that were attacking nearby regions at the time.
 
blopez34 said:
I don't want to get too controversial here and I know that this is super contested, but is it possible that an earthquake caused the fall of the Greek bronze age? How can such a powerful empire collapsed as a result of the environment? I mean just look at this architecture... Thoughts?

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Good morning, We have our first visit to Greece scheduled in November and I have been watching some DVD lectures from The Great Courses. Professor McInerny of University of Pennsylvania discussed the end of Bronze Age in one of his lectures. According to him , although there was a massive volcanic eruption on an island about 200 miles north of Crete ( Thera if I recall correctly) there is archaeological evidence that the Minoan settlements on the northern coast of Crete rebuilt after the damage from that event. Professor McInerny theorized that the eruption may have caused substantial damage to Minoan Cretan naval power and economic power but did not end Bronze Age Greek civilization. Based on pottery finds, supposedly Minoan Crete declined several centuries after that volcanic eruption on Thera and Mycenae went into decline even later. I am not a shill for The Great Courses but I do enjoy learning about places before visiting them and recommend combining watching lectures while exercising on the treadmill.
 
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