Understanding Collapse
Ancient History and Modern Myths

Understanding Collapse explores the collapse of ancient, complex civilizations, such as the Roman Empire, the Maya, and Easter Island.

Guy D. Middleton (Author)

9781316606070, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 26 June 2017

462 pages, 28 b/w illus. 18 maps
22.9 x 15.2 x 1.9 cm, 0.73 kg

'The book is successful in defending collapsology as an area of research in its own right, and the introduction is deeply thought provoking and provides an excellent route into the topic.' Anthony Smart, European Journal of Archaeology

Understanding Collapse explores the collapse of ancient civilisations, such as the Roman Empire, the Maya, and Easter Island. In this lively survey, Guy D. Middleton critically examines our ideas about collapse - how we explain it and how we have constructed potentially misleading myths around collapses - showing how and why collapse of societies was a much more complex phenomenon than is often admitted. Rather than positing a single explanatory model of collapse - economic, social, or environmental - Middleton gives full consideration to the overlooked resilience in communities of ancient peoples and the choices that they made. He offers a fresh interpretation of collapse that will be accessible to both students and scholars. The book is an engaging, introductory-level survey of collapse in the archaeology/history literature, which will be ideal for use in courses on the collapse of civilizations, sustainability, and climate change. It includes up-to-date case studies of famous and less well-known examples of collapses, and is illustrated with 25 black and white illustrations, 3 line drawings, 16 tables and 18 maps.

List of figures
List of tables
Acknowledgments
Preface
1. Introducing collapse
2. Egypt: the old kingdom falls
3. Akkad: the end of the world's first empire
4. The Indus Valley: a truly lost civilisation?
5. The end of Minoan Crete
6. The kingdoms of Mycenaean Greece
7. The Hittites and the Eastern Mediterranean
8. The fall of the Western Roman Empire
9. Collapse and revolution in Mesoamerica
10. The classic Maya collapse
11. Collapse in the Andes
12. Angkor and the Khmer
13. The incredible survival of Rapa Nui
14. Conclusions
15. Bibliographic essay.

Subject Areas: Classical Greek & Roman archaeology [HDDK], Archaeology by period / region [HDD], Archaeological theory [HDA], Industrialisation & industrial history [HBTK], Social & cultural history [HBTB], Ancient history: to c 500 CE [HBLA], History: earliest times to present day [HBL], Historiography [HBAH], History: theory & methods [HBA]