Eric H. Cline

I acknowledge that I was very negative about Cline’s first book “1177 BC, the Collapse of Civilization”: although his detailed account was quite nuanced, he completely missed the mark with the title, the introductory chapters and his conclusion. Yes, there was definitely something going on in the Late Bronze Age (between 1200 and 1100 bce), in the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean. But no, this was not a collapse of civilization, not completely in that area, and certainly not outside of it. With this sequel, “After 1177 bc”, Cline actually proves me right (not that he necessarily had to): this book is full of nuances on his previous book. Progressive insight, shall we say?
More in my History account on Goodreads: https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6156600070.… (more)

Very detailed (perhaps too detailed for casual interest) overview of the history of archaeology connected to the site of Hisarlik in Turkey where Schliemann famously declared Troy had been found. It's by necessity also a history of the development of archaeology as a discipline, from the earliest "gentleman-scholar" types like Schliemann turning over massive amounts of earth looking for the best trinkets, to the contemporary use of narrow trenches, multidisciplinary analysis and nondestructive ground penetrating radar (Korfmann).

Cline gives you the 'one the one hand' and 'on the other' for most of these issues; Schliemann himself is a controversial figure, but you don't get the portrait of a villain (as some sources now paint him), but also his later reform, and what progress he actually made (clumsy or not). Similarly on the topic of Troy, the entire lecture series leaves the question of whether Hisarlik is Troy partially up in the air, trying to give you enough information to have an educated guess for yourself. Cline himself (spoiler?) comes down on the side that it is (but says he changes his mind on this often), in a particular layer of the long occupied and rebuilt site.

The uncertainty of earlier discussions of this topic has been swept aside by "new" data at the time of this recording (copyright 2006), but that still leaves 20 years of later work. Korfmann's excavations are covered as new, and he finished in 2005. Point being that while this is relatively up to date (given the long debates on this topic), there's inevitably a lot not covered.… (more)