The Bronze Age collapse (~1177 BC) devastated Greek literacy & historical continuity. By 450 BC, Greeks had only ~300 years of recoverable history via alphabetic records (post-800 BC Phoenician adoption). Their mythology? Often symbolic encoding of lost memory, though not a systematic reconstruction of history 📜
Egypt weathered the crisis better than most powers, though it still entered the Third Intermediate Period with fragmentation and foreign dynastic rule. Its core record-keeping traditions persisted from 3100 BC, though continuity was disrupted during the turbulent post-collapse centuries before recovering under later dynasties.
Greeks lost literacy and historical continuity during the Dark Ages following the Bronze Age collapse.
Mycenaean and Minoan writing systems (Linear A and B) were primarily clerical, not literary.
Key facts claimed:
- The Bronze Age collapse occurred around 1177 BC and devastated Greek civilization
- Egypt weathered the Bronze Age collapse better than most powers but still entered the Third Intermediate Period with fragmentation and foreign dynastic rule
- Egyptians maintained record-keeping traditions from 3100 BC, though continuity was disrupted during the post-collapse centuries before later recovery
- Greeks lost literacy and historical continuity during the Dark Ages following the Bronze Age collapse
- Mycenaean and Minoan writing systems (Linear A and B) were primarily clerical, not literary