meta_pixel
Tapesearch Logo
Log in
Throughline

The Aftermath of Collapse: Bronze Age Edition (2021)

Throughline

NPR

Society & Culture, History, Documentary

4.715K Ratings

🗓️ 2 September 2021

⏱️ 56 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

What happens after everything falls apart? The end of the Bronze Age was a moment when an entire network of ancient civilizations collapsed, leaving behind only clues to what happened. Today, scholars have pieced together a story where everything from climate change to mass migration to natural disasters played a role. What the end of the Bronze Age can teach us about avoiding catastrophe and what comes after collapse.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Before we get started, we wanted to let you know where hard at work on two episodes looking at the complex and nuanced history of Afghanistan

0:08.0

Coming to you in early September. All right now on with the show

0:13.3

I'm Romteen Adabluy and I'm Randolph at that and for our last episode in our series movies for your mind

0:20.5

What happens when everything falls apart?

0:22.5

This week the end of the Bronze Age, how an entire network of civilizations collapsed and the clues they left behind and even though it may sound all doom and gloom

0:33.9

It's also a story about how societies can avoid catastrophes and what comes after collapse

0:41.5

There's a story of a people who lived thousands of years ago

1:04.1

Back in the era when King Tut walked the earth when the legendary city of Troy was driving

1:10.1

and when Hamarabi was creating his code

1:16.5

No one knows exactly who they were or where they came from

1:21.0

They are only known as the sea peoples

1:27.7

It is said that wherever the sea peoples went they brought with them more and destruction

1:33.5

They came from the sea and they watched it and none could stand against them

1:40.1

They laid their hands upon the lands as far as the circuit of the earth

1:44.9

Their hearts were confident and trusting as they said our plans would succeed

1:55.1

Not long after the sea peoples arrived the empires they encountered from Greece to Egypt to Afghanistan

2:01.7

began to crumble and entire civilization nearly as complex as ours

2:07.1

Connected by trade, intermarriage and a thriving economic system broke down seemingly overnight

2:14.3

And as time passed and their bones had long faded to dust

2:18.4

The sea peoples were blamed entirely for the sudden collapse of these civilizations in the year 1177 BC

2:27.0

But for thousands of years after a question lingered

2:30.5

Where did the sea peoples come from and were they actually the big bad wolf that blew the whole house down?

...

Please login to see the full transcript.

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from NPR, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of NPR and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.

Copyright © Tapesearch 2025.