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by Burak Eldem
Most historians name the era of 1650-1550 BCE as "The Dark Age" in the history of Ancient Near
East. The scholar who pioneered this idea was Benno Landsberger and it was him, who first used
the term "The Dark Age" in one of his essays (1). Many respectable scholars supported this
approach, among them were Assyrologist Leo Oppenheim and historian Michael Roaf. The term refers to a certain period in ancient history
for which we almost have no documents or records at all. Oppenheim marks the beginning and end of this era as "between the last kings of
the Hammurabi dynasty and the first kings of the Kassite period" (2). Other scholars roughly suggest 1640-1500 BCE.
This "Dark Age" approach covers a time frame when the "super powers" of the ancient world
seemed suffered the consequences of an unprecedented event which caused them to weaken and finally got them on their knees.
Egypt: "Hyksos rulers" or the "revenge of the disdained Egyptians"?
Around 1640 BCE, towards the end of the "Middle Kingdom", central authority in lower Egypt
seemed suddenly to perish and the rulers of
the land fleed to the southern city of Thebes leaving the capital in Memphis, while some nomadic tribes supposedly coming from Asia were
plundering the towns around the Nile delta. For more than a century, it is believed, these "foreign invaders"
dominated Egypt and established a new state in the northern part of the land, called the
"Hyksos Kingdom". Just who were those "Hyksos" people? We do not have much clue but mainstream
Egyptology suggests that they were the coalition of some nomadic tribes, wandering around the
eastern borders of Egypt and at
one time they attacked and defeated the ruling dynasties, then invaded the northern part of the land. The so-called "Hyksos Rulers" could only
be overthrown around 1550 BCE by pharaoh Ahmose I and the order was finally restored in Egypt, marking the
establishment of the New
Kingdom.
However, there are lots of controversial points in this approach. How could those nomadic
plunderers dare to attack the mighty Egypt and managed to defeat its regular armed forces? Why did they choose to
settle down in lower Egypt instead of the usual "plunder-and-leave" strategy of the barbaric tribes? And more importantly, just why did
they call themselves "Egyptians", bared Egyptian throne names, built a new city on the eastern part of the delta, called Avaris, to defend the
land? Donald McKenzie draws our attention to these confusing points, using the references from 3rd century BCE historian Manetho:
"The Hyksos overwhelmed the land at the close of the Fourteenth Dynasty. Then they chose for a king 'one of their own people'.
According to Manetho his name was Salatis, and with him begins the Fifteenth Dynasty. He selected Memphis as his capital, and there 'he
made Upper and Lower Egypt pay tribute', while he left garrisons at places which were 'considered to be proper for
them'. Did the Hyksos, therefore, effect merely a military occupation of Egypt and compel the
payment of tribute to a controlling power in Asia? On this point we obtain no clear idea from
Manetho, who proceeds to state that the foreigners erected a strongly fortified town called
Avaris--afterwards destroyed by the Egyptians--and there they kept a garrison of 240,000
men, so as to secure the frontier from the attacks of the Assyrians, 'who, they foresaw, would invade Egypt'. Salatis held military reviews
to overawe all foreigners." (3)
McKenzie asks a very good question: If an invading army received "tributes" from the country it
invaded, this could only mean a
"transfer" of the payment directly to a central power which had probably sent those armies towards their enemies. Do we know any powerful "Asiatic" kingdom
during 16th century BCE, which would match
the "Hyksos concept" presented in some official documents of Egyptian New Kingdom? No, we definitely do not know. No "central point", no
"main land", no "established kingdom" somewhere near the eastern borders of Egypt. Then, what do we
know instead? The so-called invaders
loved and tried to protect Egypt, as if it was their own "homeland". As McKenzie stated, they built a fortress and kept a garrison of 240,000
men near the eastern border of the land. Against whom? Assyrians, as Manetho claimed? No, it simply cannot be,
because the upper Mesopotamia
was facing the attacks of other nomadic plunderers called the "Indo-Europeans" those days and they could not even think of attacking Egypt. Again, as McKenzie
says:
"Whatever enemy the Hyksos feared, or prepared to meet, it was certainly not the Assyrians, who were at the time fully occupied with
their own affairs; they had not yet attained to that military strength which subsequently caused the name of their god Ashur to be dreaded
even in the Nile valley." (4)
Then for whom were these defensive precautions, fortresses and garrisons? Did not the Hyksos
come from the "East" themselves? Were not they the "Asiatics"? So, against whom they were protecting Egypt,
against themselves?
The Egyptian name for the newly built city of so-called Hyksos, Avaris, was
"Hwt-wart" being "Headquarters of the Department" or perhaps the "Administrative Office" as John Van Seters
suggested.(5) The "Hyksos Kings" were bearing an Egyptian name, the name of their newly built
city was in fact Egyptian, they claimed they were Egyptians so where does this "Asiatic invaders"
tale come from? The answer is simple: From
the very rare official texts of some New Kingdom pharaohs. Though the Egyptian dynasties after Ahmose I did not like to mention "those dark
days" and avoid to recall the period called " The Hyksos Era" which they thought was a "shame" for the
history of Egypt, some 18th and 19th
dynasty pharaohs left us very brief notes on "foreign invaders". These were, in fact, nothing but the fragments of political propaganda,
directly produced by the official ideology of the state. After Ahmose defeated the northern kings and the
order was finally restored in
Egypt, the pharaohs of the New Kingdom wanted the people to believe that, their country had experienced a foreign invasion of a barbarian Asiatic tribe. More than one
thousand years after the Hyksos period,
historian Manetho wrote:
"They were a people of ignoble race who had confidence to invade our country, which they
subdued easily without having to fight a battle. They set our towns on fire; they destroyed the
temples of the gods, and
caused the people to suffer every kind of barbarity. During the entire period of their dynasty they waged war against the people of Egypt, desiring to exterminate the
whole race... The foreigners were called
Hyksos, which signifies 'Shepherd Kings'." (6)
Manetho's sources were, nothing but the official scripts of some New Kingdom pharaohs of course; the records which were written to serve the
official ideology, like these lines of female pharaoh Hatshepsut:
"I have restored what was cast down, I have built up what was uncompleted, Since the Asiatics were in Avaris of the north land,
And the barbarians were among them, destroying buildings, While they governed, not knowing Ra." (7)
The rulers of Lower Egypt between 1640-1550 BCE were very unpopular for the New Kingdom
pharaohs without any doubt, because they had shaken the unified situation of the Empire and had
it divided. Only some barbaric,
aggressive, foreign tribes could do that, so they could only be Asiatics, the "Amu". Modern egyptologists conceived the stories of New
Kingdom pharaohs and Manetho's writings and came to a conclusion which suggested Egypt had been invaded by some
Asiatic tribes around 1640 BCE
and a "Hyksos Kingdom" was established in Northern Egypt, with a new capital and foreign rulers. In fact, they had not much choice, because
very few written records or fragments could be found regarding that period (as it was a "Dark Age" as Benno
Landsberger stated.) And second, they somehow liked the "invasion theory" because it helped to
explain another "darkened" thing in Egyptian history: The existence of a Hebrew population around
the Nile delta and their
emergence to Palestine later, as it was told in the Book of Exodus. There had been
an Asiatic Kingdom in lower Egypt and its foreign rulers allowed nomadic Israelites to
settle down around Avaris (perhaps it was
Biblical Goshen). Then, after the Hyksos were defeated by pharaoh Ahmose and the New Kingdom was established, the Israelites became
slaves who finally left Egypt against the will of an unknown pharaoh (most Egyptologists
believe it was Rameses II) and immigrated to Palestine.
In fact, there are no solid evidence to support this idea, other than the official state documents of
some New Kingdom pharaohs. A few
findings in some graves around the eastern delta, looked like supporting the "Asiatic invasion" theory at first: Some ornaments found in the graves were bearing
"Asiatic" characteristics, or some graves
had Asiatic names carved on some stone slabs. But as W. Flinders Petrie's works in the region clearly suggested, most of these findings
belonged to an area well before the so-called Hyksos invasion. (8) Actually, some Asiatic immigrants, mercenaries or
merchants had been
settled down around the Eastern Nile delta since 1900 BCE, which obviously suggested they were not the remnants of the "invading
forces".
While the orthodox Egyptology seemed keen on accepting the "invasion" theory, all the evidence
suggested a very different and an obvious
fact: Lower Egypt were attacked and plundered by some nomadic tribes around 1640 BCE but it had by no means been an "invasion" and there had
never been a "Hyksos Kingdom". Instead, the disdained Egyptians of suburbia or countryside around
Eastern Nile delta, along with some
"Asiatic" immigrants, had started a "revolt" against the arrogant noble class and the central authority in Egypt, which eventually had
succeeded to get the throne. The former "elites" were driven to the south, and a new Egyptian Kingdom was established in lower
Egypt by
those "second class" Egyptians. So, it was a "civil war" and a revolution instead of an
invasion - and the crucial question is not
"Who were the Hyksos?", but "How could those weak, poor, ordinary Egyptians dare to revolt against the mighty pharaoh?"
My suggestion is very obvious: they found the courage to stand up and seize the throne in lower Egypt, because a very extraordinary thing was
happening which abruptly weakened the central authority and caused the pharaoh and the nobles in his court to flee to the south: It was an
unprecedented global catastrophe (that would eventually lead a social and political chaos), just after 1650 BCE.
The Collapse of the Minoan civilization
The Minoan civilization of the Aegean Sea is among the first great kingdoms that flourished all
around the world about 3100 BCE. Their origin is not clearly known but The Minoan people is
thought to arrive the Aegean islands coming from the Near Eastern lands as early as the
first half of 4th millennium BCE. They were the most advanced ship-builders, so the mighty fleet and navy
they owned helped them to be among the most important and powerful civilizations of the Middle
Bronze Age. Their writing, called "Linear A" is yet to be deciphered (but was proven not to be of
Greek origin like "Linear B") so we do not
have much helpful documents about their culture and history. But anyway, the ruins of ancient cities and palaces, the magnificent
paintings on the walls and the outstanding instances of pottery suggest an advanced civilization in Mediterranean Sea.
Furthermore, the Minoans
were the most important merchants of the Ancient World, along with Assyrian Trade Colonies, and they were managing almost all the sea trade between Near East,
Egypt, Anatolia and southeastern Europe. The
accounts on other civilizations' records suggest a Minoan dominancy in trade activities all along the Mediterranean coasts. The most important
Minoan cities were built on some principle islands like Crete, Rhodes, Thera (Santorini), Sisam and
Cyprus; but the evidence suggest that they
were also controlling some mainland cities along the Aegean coasts as well.
Some time around 1650 BCE, some "unexpected" things happened in eastern Mediterranean Sea and its consequences eventually led to the collapse
of this mighty civilization. Both the archaeological and geological evidence now suggest a chain of natural catastrophes as the main reason
of this almost sudden collapse. It was the famous Greek archaeologist Spyridon Marinatos, who first suggested this catastrophe to explain the
collapse of the Minoan civilization. Then in recent years, geologists' researches has proved his theory to be right.
What was that unprecedented catastrophe, which shook almost all the ancient world around 1650
BCE and caused not only physical destruction
but a social and political chaos which made historians think of a "Dark Age" in history? The most powerful element in this story was a horrible
eruption of a volcano in Aegean Sea: The Thera (Santorini) Volcano.
"The eruption of Santorini in Greece in 1650 B.C. was one of the largest (VEI=6) in the last 10,000 years. About 7 cubic miles (30 cubic
km) of rhyodacite magma was erupted. The plinian column during the initial phase of the eruption was about 23 miles (36 km) high. The
removal of such a large volume of magma caused the volcano to collapse, producing a caldera. Ash fell over a large area in the eastern
Mediterranean and Turkey. The eruption probably caused the end of the
Minoan civilization on the island of Crete." (9)
Vulcanologist Dr. Floyd McCoy compares the nature of this catastrophe with a relatively recent and a well-known one, the Krakatoa eruption in
1883, and comments:
"Estimates of the volume of material displaced by the Thera eruption indicated an intensity five or six times as great as that of
Krakatoa..." (10)
Dr. McCoy also calculates that the Thera eruption was a VEI=7 event which was far greater than any recent one we witnessed in modern times.
And concludes that it really was a "colossal" geological catastrophe:
"This eruption was almost 10 times bigger than we thought. It had been about a 6. This puts it at 7.0 on the Volcanic Explosivity Index, which
ranges from 0 to 8. It would thus have had a more damaging and lasting effect on the region's agriculture, trade, infrastructure and fleets,
which could have eventually contributed to the Minoan collapse. It's my opinion that this eruption changed the whole course of Western
civilization," (11)
Krakatoa is a good example since its whole course and effects are relatively fresh in collective memory. In his 1980 article in Science
Digest, Robert Jastrow refers to the same comparison by saying:
"Two titanic volcanic explosions occurred in the Mediterranean in the fifteenth century BC, one on Mount Vesuvius and the other on the island
of Thera near Crete. Each dwarfed the great explosion of the Krakatoa volcano in 1883." (12)
The eruption had both short-term and long-term effects around the region: Strong quakes and
aftershocks followed the main event in eastern Mediterranean; city walls, palaces and forts were destroyed not
only in the islands but in the cities of eastern shores as well. Mega tsunamis hit the lands as far as the ancient Lebanon, Palestine and
Northern Egypt. As Charles Pellegrino wrote:
"On the west cost of Turkey, just north of the island of Rhodes, is a small body of water whose shoreline is like an ever-narrowing funnel.
Its open mouth faces west, toward Thera, and anyone living behind that mouth might just as well have been a flea located in the throat of a
cannon. As the shock wave surged east between increasingly confined shorelines, the waters piles higher and higher until at last they
became a foaming white mountain eight hundred feet tall. The wave penetrated thirty miles inland, in the general direction of Mount
Ararat; and when it receded, it dislodged house-sized boulders, scoured the soil and carved out channeled scablands." (13)
The geological evidence suggests that the first event, which initiated the whole chain of
catastrophes, was a great earthquake, occurred in Eastern Mediterranean. A Belgian scholar and writer, Jan Driessen from
Leuwen University mentions of this "triggering quake":
"Some time before the eruption, a serious earthquake caused substantial damage at Akrotiri but
also on Crete and some islands of the Dodecanese
(Kos, Rhodes). Blot (1978) suggested a causal link between intermediate-depth earthquakes and volcanic eruptions and, in the case
of Santorini, a delay of two to five years is assumed. Repairs were undertaken at Akrotiri, including the
demolition of dangerous walls, the shovelling aside of earthquake debris and the construction of
squatter habitation. Rehabilitation work was interrupted when the volcano started to erupt. The
emission of gases, smoke and ash forced
the inhabitants to flee." (14)
If the first triggering force was an earthquake around 1650 BCE and if a delay of two to five years is assumed between the quake and the
volcanic eruption, then the Thera incident very likely took place some time around 1645 BCE, just like most scholars suggested. But it was not
the final phase of the catastrophic chain; in fact, it was just a "beginning". Driessen continues:
"The eruption and collapse of the caldera undoubtedly caused a tsunami or massive
shock-generated sea-wave. Such a tsunami, dating to the second millennium BC, has been identified in the seabed between Crete
and Santorini." (15)
The earthquakes, the eruption itself, the new quakes it had triggered and the mega tsunamis were horrible enough for the ancient world, but
perhaps the most effective phase of the Thera event was when the thick and huge ash-clouds covered the sky which made "the days a total
darkness", spoiling the crops which could not access to sunlight for photosynthesis, ash and sulphure rain
which made the "rivers turn to blood". The stories in Biblical Exodus were nothing but the
sediments of the ancient memories related to a horrible catastrophe (including the mega-tsunami which probably stroke to shores of Northern Nile delta
and reffered to as "parting of the Red Sea" [which in fact was the "Sea Of Reeds"] in Book of Exodus.)
"It is here suggested that a combination of natural catastrophes, namely first a massive
earthquake, followed soon after by the Santorini eruption, inflicted a serious blow on Minoan
society. The Santorini eruption served as a catalyst, which, through the considerable damage
it caused, triggered off a disintegration process. The archaeological evidence suggests a severe economic dislocation following the eruption,
which forced local centers to adapt and to assume greater independence from the palace centers." (16)
The most fearful short-term effects were the eruption itself, and the darkness it caused when the
Sun and the Moon were hidden behind the
thick ash clouds for days or perhaps even for weeks. The second step was the ash layers, covering the ground (as high as 1 meter in some
places like Rhodes). The geological evidence suggests a wide spread emission of ash, because Santorini ash
were found all over Crete, in
the Black Sea, in inland Anatolia, in the Nile Valley, Syria and Israel as Driessen stated. But the long-term effects were not less frightening:
"The relatively high fluorine content of Santorini tephra may well have been poisonous, polluting
water supplies, killing animals and destroying agriculture because of photosynthesis prevention. The
volcanic dust can also have lingered on in the atmosphere, affecting the transmissivity, and, if the sulphuric acid aerosol was
considerable, climatological anomalies will have resulted, producing a so-called 'volcanic winter' and environmental stress. From the Tambora,
Krakatau and more recent eruptions, we know how such events have severe effects on climate and hence agriculture." (17)
China: A "heaven-sent" catastrophe to defeat the tyrant King
How far could the effects of this "volcanic winter" reach? Some ancients texts from China,
belonging to the end of the Xia Dynasty may give us a brief idea:
"In the twenty-ninth year of King Chieh, the Sun was dimmed...King Chieh lacked virtue...the Sun was distressed...during the last years of
Chieh ice formed in [summer] mornings and frosts in the sixth month [July]. Heavy rainfall toppled temples and buildings...Heaven gave
severe orders. The Sun and Moon were untimely. Hot and cold weather arrived in disorder. The five cereal crops
withered and died." (18)
Chieh was the last king of the mighty Xia Dynasty. Although the chronologies for early Chinese
dynasties are controversial among scientists, we have some reasonable clues which could date the reign of
Chieh between 1670-1630 BCE. James Legge for instance, points out a solid date for the beginning of Kau Dynasty (the successor of Shang
Dynasty) which was 1122 BCE. Legge also states that some ancient books written on bamboos had mentioned of 30 rulers in a total of 508 years
time span, for Shang Dynasty. (18) So, if we add these 508 years to the beginning of Kau (and end of Shang) on 1122 BCE, it gives us a certain
date for Shang's ascension to the throne and also the end of the Xia Dynasty: 1630 BCE.
The corrupt, despotic King Chieh of the Xia Dynasty was defeated by Shang's first king Tang, after a revolt and a civil war some time
around 1630 BCE: A date, which seems almost simultaneous with the chain of catastrophes which shook the entire ancient world. Chieh was a
powerful king as Bernhard Karlgren says, but he was also a tyrant - a cruel leader who tortured his own people and therefore was considered a
sinner (19). But it was not easy to defeat a Xia King as powerful as Chieh and seize the throne in ancient China. However, all the ancient
records suggest that "the forces of nature" had helped somehow to prince Tang to overthrow the cruel king. As Joseph
Campbell stated, just before the final attack, "the Heavens showed a decree" and the Sun
and the Moon's cycles were disturbed, heat and cold were mingled. (20)
In 1997, during the second SIS (Society for Interdisciplinary Studies) Cambridge Conference, David Pankenier from Stanford University
presented a paper, entitled "Heaven-Sent: Understanding Cosmic Disaster in Chinese Myth and History":
"David Pankenier suggests that, contrary to what has generally been supposed, legends and rituals from Bronze Age China may reflect actual
events. In particular, around the time of the transition from the Xia to the Shang dynasty in the middle of the second millennium BC, there
is a story of ten suns appearing in the sky and then, a few years later, of five planets criss-crossing, and stars falling like rain,
after which there was an earthquake and then a drought. It would not be difficult to see this as an indication of the appearance of multiple
comets in the sky, and impact-induced catastrophes." (21)
Conclusion: The reason for the "Dark Age" was the 1650 Catastrophe
We can safely conclude that, a chain of powerful natural catastrophes including the Thera eruption, that had occurred around 1650 BCE, had
global impacts from Ancient Egypt to China. And where else?
- A chain of earthquakes demolished the cities of Harappan civilization along Indus valley and
caused the course of the Sarasvati river to change, which led to drought and famine in the region. Most of the
Harappan cities were abandoned between 1650-1600 BCE and remained desolated until 1500's.
- Thousands of miles away, in Yucatan peninsula and along the Mexican plain, the founders of an ancient civilization called "La Venta - San
Lorenzo Culture" by scholars, suddenly faced a collapse and after their disappearence, a new and mysterious civilization emerged, called The
Olmecs, just after 1650 BCE.
- In South America, near the coast of Peru, a highly advanced civilization around the ancient city of Caral (founded ca. 3000 BCE)
was demolished and abandoned mysterously some time after 1650 BCE.
- In eastern and southeastern Anatolia, Indo-European immigrants seized power and conquered almost all the Hatti city states, unifying the
whole region under one flag, just after 1650 BCE. Those warlords (now called the Hittites) even dared to attack and plunder Babylon, who
could not get the power to resist them.
The all evidence suggest an unprecedented global catastrophe which had shaken almost all the ancient world, causing a social and political
chaos. Some powerful dynasties and kingdoms of the era collapsed, while some others were experiencing an unexpected rise. It is almost certain
that the catastrophes between 1650 and 1630 BCE were among the most important factors that
changed the course of human civilization. As Professor Harvey Weiss from Yale University said in
1996, mainstream science keeps on ignoring the strong role the catastrophes played on
economical, social and political chaos:
"For decades, one could say, catastrophes were so unfashionable among archaeologists that we ignored the evidence in front of our noses. We
sought other explanations for social collapses because we wanted them to be true. The dramatic data now emerging may change this
picture".
REFERENCE NOTES
(1): Benno Landsberger, "Assyrische Königsliste und 'Dunkles Zeiter'"
(2): Leo Oppenheim, "Ancient Mesopotamia - Portrait of a Dead
Civilization"
(3): Donald McKenzie, "Egyptian Myth and Legend"
(4): Donald McKenzie, op. cit.
(5): Bruce Williams, "Archaeology and historical problems of Second
Intermediate Period"
(6): Cited by Donald McKenzie, op. cit.
(7): Cited by Donald McKenzie, op. cit.
(8): W. Flinders Petrie, "Hyksos and Israelite Cities"
(9): Volcano World,
http://volcano.und.nodak.edu/vwdocs/volc_images/europe_west_asia/santorini.html
(10): Dr. Floyd McCoy, "Ground Truth, Earthwatch Research Report"
(11): GeoTimes, February 2004,
http://www.geotimes.org/feb04/feature_Geoarch.html
(12): Robert Jastrow, "Hero or Heretic?", Science Digest, Sep/Oct '80
(13): Charles Pellegrino, "Unearthing Atlantis"
(14): Jan Driessen, "Towards an Archaeology of Crisis: Defining the
Long-Term Impact of the Bronze Age Santorini Eruption"
(15): Jan Driessen, op. cit.
(16): Jan Driessen, op. cit.
(17): Jan Driessen, op. cit.
(18): A Chinese text from c.1600 BCE. Cited by Charles Pellegrino, in
"Unearthing Atlantis".
(19): Bernhard Karlgren, "Legends And Cults In Ancient China"
(20): Joseph Campbell, "The Masks Of God: Eastern Mythology"
(21): Proceedings of the Second SIS Cambridge Conference,
http://www.knowledge.co.uk/sis/cambproc.htm
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