Travel Talks: The Collapse of the Bronze Age and the Birth of Greek Gods: Travel to the Ancient Mediterranean

What happened to bring about this sudden collapse of a vibrant and resilient civilization? How did the Greek dark age give us The Iliad, The Odyssey, and Percy Jackson?

3,000 years ago, the Aegean Sea was a bustling hub of culture and trade. People lived in urban high-rises and coastal cities without fortifications. Artisans created elaborate pottery and figurines, systems of writing proliferated and a purple dye extracted from shellfish was more valuable than gold. But a millennium of advancement came to a sudden and violent end near the year 1200 BCE, beginning a 400-year dark age in the region.

What happened to bring about this sudden collapse of a vibrant and resilient civilization? How did the Greek dark age give us The Iliad, The Odyssey and Percy Jackson?

Presenter: John Larison, MFA '07, novelist and OSU lecturer, for this fascinating look at the ancient Mediterranean.

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