As an Orthodox Jew who has recently discovered about the Collapse, I keep trying to find any references and mentions of such a hugely important and popular event in our Torah. By all accounts, an ancient book that claims total factuality towards history of a people who are directly linked to all (or almost all) nations involved in the collapse, SHOULD reference it in some way, no?
Was there any research done in this field?
My best theory is that the story of Exodus tries to appropriate the late bronze collapse of Egyptian empire. But I have no idea if the timeframes fit at all. Also, it makes me wonder whether people as late as 6th century BC were aware of the Collapse and its' causes?
While there’s always more to say on the subject, you might be interested in some previous answers on the Philistines like this one by u/Bentresh and this by u/kookingpot. There was also an AMA with Eric Cline, author of 1177 BC: The Year Civilization Collapsed.
Edit to add this answer by u/TheHereticKing on the historicity of the Exodus.
Hi there, I’m so glad that you’ve come to this sub with such a great question, and I’m glad you want to broaden your knowledge!
I'm going to preface this by letting you guys know that I'm currently living abroad (in a country where I don't speak the language very well) and couldn't bring my textbook collection with me, so I've provided an answer to the best of my abilities using my uni resources, past lecture slides and also articles and books that I have online access to. If anyone can expand, I'd love to read it!
So my understanding is that you have 3 questions:
You would like to know more about the Bronze age(BA) collapse in the Near East (NE) in relation to biblical accounts.
You would like to know of the Exodus in relation to the BA collapse.
Were people in the 6th century aware of such a collapse?
Ok great! I hope I can answer this for you, but it will be very long, as the history of the NE is a long and convoluted one. As u/Icnielsen has already said, the historicity of the Torah is important to understand when answering this question, or any question regarding what the Torah. I’d like to begin by explaining a the events of the 6th century BCE.
The Babylonians conquered much of the NE between 597-586 BCE, sieging Jerusalem in 586 BCE; destroying and pillaging the Temple and exiling the elites to Babylon, during this time the Israelites were ‘deported’ to Babylon 3 times, the
1st in 597 BCE, - Which saw the exiles of King Jehoiachin and Prophet Ezekiel.
2nd in 586 BCE, -During this year the Temple was destroyed and stripped, and elite classes such as craftsmen and administrators were exiled to Babylon.
3rd in 581 BCE.
The reason I mention the exiles, is because it is commonly accepted by scholars that this is the period in which the exiled Israelites began compiling from both written and oral records the Torah as we know it. It was a pivotal point in Israelite history and we can look at it as the time when the term Israelite stops being appropriate and is replaced with Judaism.
Regarding the Late Bronze Age (LBA) Collapse and Exodus:
One thing to understand about this time period and this region is that without having basic knowledge of the preceding periods and all the ‘players’, diving into it will be a confusing mess. Like diving into Game of Thrones and beginning with the Red Wedding.
Basically before the late Bronze Age Collapse, the super powers in the region were the Kassites (Babylonia), Hittites (Anatolia), Egypt, Mittani (Mespotamia) and Assyria (also Mesopotamia). The way that they were positioned allowed them to function in 5 zones, warring with each other, but also trading and spreading culture. It was a fully integrated international system that essentially ran from Iran to the Agean including Anatolia and Nubia. Especially in the region of the northern Levant there was a definite mixing of Mesopotamian, Hittite and Egyptian culture due to its strategic location at the centre of these city states.
Unfortunately, there is not much evidence for what caused these city states to collapse into a dark age during the LBA. What we do know of the LBA collapse is that there were widespread abandonments of cities – this was due in part to destruction caused by earlier military conquests (Van de Mieroop 2002: 122) and political fragmentation. Unfortunately a direct byproduct of this was the cessation of scribal culture and beginning of what is referred to as a “dark age”. In Egypt, it is possible that ongoing battles with the Sea People as well as trying to maintain its dominance in the Levant caused an internal collapse within Egypt (Miller & Hayes: 33). However, Egypt did not completely disintegrate, but slipped into another period of decentralization, known as the Third Intermediate Period where it was lead by weak rulers.
However, we do have some great primary evidence of the political situation between Egypt and the Levant during the 1300’s in the form of the Amarna letters. These were clay tablets consisting primarily of correspondence between Egypt (New Kingdom), Canaan and Amurru leaders. These letters are pertinent as they record the political situation of the time, and also the existence of many Canaanite city states and correlate biblical sites (Finklestein 1997: 225). In the Amarna letters it is clear that there is political alliances but also mistrust, as well as a group known as the ‘Apiru who have taken advantage of the declining political situation to raid cities. As one letter (EA67) states ‘your land… became friendly with him, my lord. Now he is like the ‘Apiru (Happiru) a runaway dog and he has seized Sumur, the city of the sun, my lord.’
Now assessing all of this and putting it into context for the Exodus:
As per 1Kgs 1:6 the events of Exodus took places 480 Years before Solomon (ca. 960 BCE) so we have a date of 1440 BCE. However, there is no archaeological evidence in Egypt of an Exodus, yet there are many new settlements that begin to appear in Israel c. 1200BCE (Finklestein 1997: 240). Another issue with the Israelite exodus from Egypr is that there is no archaeological evidence that there were Israelites living in Egypt at the time. Furthermore, there is documentary evidence from the Bronze Age showing that there was already a heterogeneous population in the Levant prior to the LBA collapse. Therefore, there is scholarly debate as to whether or not the Israelites evolved out of the pre-existing Levantine cultures around 1200BCE rather than a mass exodus out of Egypt, this is due in part to the similarity of the material culture between potential Israelite and Canaanite material remains (Bloch-Smith & Nakhai 1999: 63). However, it is also argued tha potential new non-native groups settled in Canaan as a result of the political instability at the end of the LBA (Bloch-Smith & Nakhai 1999: 102).
Furthermore, there exists in every culture an archaeology of legitimization, wherein that culture begins to legitimize its existence by writing down its own history. Many times these histories can contain stories which were devised to create a sense of unity within the people who inherited them. Therefore, if we accept that there are at least 600 up to 800 years between the events of the LBA Collapse and the writing of the Torah as one cohesive narrative then it can be seen that the events of Exodus a form of legitimization by Israelite elite during their exile in Babylon. Additionally, if we accept that the Torah before this point had never been written down as a complete narrative but rather passed down as oral tradition then there would have definitely been a cultural memory of the LBA collapse in the same way that Indigenous Australians pass on oral traditions and cultural memories that span c.10,000 years. This would have created a sense of culture and unity within a displaced populace and would have served as a cultural memory. '
Sources:
Bloch-Smith, E. & Nakhai B., (1999) “A Landscape Comes to Life: The Iron Age I”, Near Eastern Archaaeology 62 No.2: 62-109.
Finklestein, I. (1997) “The Territorial-Political System of Canaan in the Late Bronze Age,” Ugarit Forshungen 28: 221-255.
Miller, J. & Hayes, J., (2006) A History of Ancient Israel and Judah, Louiseville.
Van de Mieroop, M., (2007) A History of the Ancient Near East: ca. 3000-323 BC, Oxford, 2nd. Ed.