Posted on 05/13/2016 7:38:33 AM PDT by SunkenCiv
The Trojan War was a grander event than even Homer would have us believe. The famous conflict may have been one of the final acts in what one archaeologist has controversially dubbed "World War Zero" -- an event he claims brought the eastern Mediterranean Bronze Age world crashing down 3200 years ago.
And the catalyst for the war? A mysterious and arguably powerful civilisation almost entirely overlooked by archaeologists: the Luwians.
By the second millennium BC, civilisation had taken hold throughout the eastern Mediterranean. The Egyptian New Kingdom coexisted with the Hittites of central Anatolia and the Mycenaeans of mainland Greece, among others.
In little more than a single generation, they had all collapsed. Was the culprit climate change? Some sort of earthquake storm? Social unrest? Archaeologists can't seem to agree.
Eberhard Zangger, head of international non-profit, Luwian Studies, based in Zurich, Switzerland, says that's because one crucial piece of the puzzle is missing. Another powerful civilisation in western Anatolia played a crucial role in the downfall (see video below)...
So what do other archaeologists make of this idea of a lost Luwian civilisation? Many stopped trying to impose this sort of monolithic cultural identity on ancient peoples decades ago, says Christoph Bachhuber at the University of Oxford.
"Archaeologists will need to discover similar examples of monumental art and architecture across western Anatolia and ideally texts from the same sites to support Zangger's claim of a civilisation," he says.
The textual evidence available is mainly from post-Bronze age and it paints a slightly confusing picture, which could be seen as both supporting and undermining Zangger's theory, says Ilya Yakubovich, a historical linguist at the Philipp University of Marburg, Germany.
(Excerpt) Read more at newscientist.com ...
:’) My pleasure, and this is just one of two topics about it — FR roooools!
Nice lookin’, still no such thing as the “Sea Peoples” in the second millennium.
https://luwianstudies.org/app/uploads/2017/09/Luwian-Studies.jpg
https://luwianstudies.org/app/uploads/2018/03/News_606_Sea-Peoples-Invasions.jpg
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