Expedition photography across the ancient world

Ancient Civilizations & Origins · Expedition

How a world ends

What actually collapses when a civilization collapses?

Stops
5
Read time
28 min
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Collapse is rarely one event. It is drought plus trade plus politics plus a bad decade, and the archaeology records the failure in layers. Four cases, one method.

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The route

  1. Stop 01 · c. 1200 – 1150 BCE

    Bronze Age Collapse

    Open Debate

    The reference case: synchronous destruction across an entire connected world.

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  2. Stop 02 · c. 1200 – 1150 BCE

    Sea Peoples

    Open Debate

    The villains of the story, and how thin the source base for them really is.

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  3. Stop 03 · c. 1200 – 1722 CE

    Rapa Nui

    Archaeological

    The island the collapse narrative was built on.

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  4. Stop 04 · c. 1200 – 1600 CE

    Easter Island

    Archaeological

    And the evidence review that has been quietly dismantling that narrative.

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  5. Stop 05 · c. 18,000 – 6,000 BCE

    Doggerland

    Archaeological

    A world that ended without anyone to blame: sea level did it.

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Other expeditions

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