The Bronze Collapse

Dear friends,

Most of us are aware of the Romans. Those who are interested in history know about their roads, towns, villas and legions. Hadrian’s Wall still impresses in the Borders, and many great churches (Dorchester Abbey being one such) sit atop Roman foundations or were built with Roman cut stone. Our faith was born in the Roman period. War and a failing economy among other things brought the Roman empire to an end in the 400’s and there followed across Europe the period known as the dark ages, when much of the interconnectivity of the preceding civilization was lost. Christianity and the monastic tradition provided the “moral glue” by which society could be reconfigured and bulwarked against barbarity.

Reading around this week ahead of a school assembly on Joshua and the battle for Jericho, however, I learnt that the end of the Roman empire was not the first global civilisational collapse. A far earlier series of catastrophes had brought devastation to the late bronze age in the Mediterranean basin and Near East. The arrival of the tribes of Israel, and the settlement of the hill country of “the land of Canaan” can be dated fairly confidently to this time – around 1200-1150 BC. The “Late Bronze Age Collapse” saw the end of the Mycenaean Empire (think – Greece before the ancient Greeks, and the mysterious palace of Knossos on Crete),  and the Hittite empire, which was located in the centre of where Turkey is now. The upheavals also turned the mighty Egypt of the Pharaohs into a weak shadow of its former self – perhaps akin to the UK in the present day when compared to the UK under Queen Victoria.

What happened? As in our time there appear to have been a whole lot of things happening at once; climate change, including severe drought; multiple calamitous earthquakes, with associated tsunamis; civil wars; disruption to established trade networks; increased social complexity leading to systems breakdown; massive migratory movements by boat. These “Sea Peoples” are hard to identify – their tribes are named by Pharaoh Rameses III – and scholars are divided on whether these peoples are simply roving piratical nomads, or “genuine refugees” fleeing the collapsing Mycenaean and Hittite civilisations. Plus ca change, methinks.

But we see from the archaeological record that major cities were burnt, razed and left in ruins. The sophistication and technological advances of the Bronze age were mostly lost or forgotten. The Habiru peoples, fleeing (taking advantage of?) the decline of Egypt, after a generation in the desert make a home for themselves in the land of Canaan, (formerly a vassalage of the Egyptian Empire, but now neglected and depopulated). Jericho, a smaller place than you might think, stands in the way, but, it, too, collapses in a manner symbolic of its age. You can still visit the ruin mound in the Jordan valley, first excavated by the pioneering British archaeologist Kathleen Kenyon in the 1950’s.

The nation of Israel is forged in a time when empires were collapsing, and old connections are being broken. Disparate tribes are united by their faith in God, and kings who give allegiance to the one God, rather than themselves. Kings are judged good (Josiah) or wicked (Ahab), according to their faithfulness and service of either the people or themselves. The “weakness” of Israel compared to the surrounding nations, often reflected by King David (c 1050BC) in the Psalms, is not a dramatic literary device, but rather a bald statement of realpolitik. Have a look at Psalms 2 and 3. “O Lord, how many are my foes!” (Ps 3:1) The Hebrew scriptures, our Old Testament, bear witness to God, who is above all the earth, all kings, all peoples, and the chaos that any of these can engender. The very beginning of Creation itself is the brooding of the Spirit of God over the waters (which were identified with chaos in Hebrew thought) and the Christian initiation of baptism brings each of us out of the “deep waters of death/chaos” and into God’s marvellous light.

Worship Services for Sunday 1st February

9.30am Family Service at St John’s Stoke Row with Mr Peter Ferguson

11am Morning Prayer at St Peter and Paul, Checkendon with Mr Brian Turner

Prayer pointers

Checkendon PCC meet this evening at the Old Rectory, at 8pm. Stoke Row PCC’s rescheduled meeting is on Wednesday 25th February in church at 7.30pm. Please pray for your church council, and consider whether you might put yourself forward for some service on one of these groups. Your churches rely upon volunteers, as you know.

We remember those who are unwell, or frail, whether cared for at home or in some kind of care setting. Do look out for one another – a note, a card, an email or a phone call doesn’t take long, but it can make a person’s day. Today is also Holocaust memorial day, being the 81st anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz. We are in danger of forgetting what happens when the government decides that it is OK for you to want to murder your neighbour, and sets up a scheme to help you to do it. The first stage of the Holocaust did not involve death camps, rather was a system of murder squads which followed behind the invading Nazi forces on the Eastern front. It is often overlooked that the Nazis were usually assisted by sympathetic local police forces and local officials. Please pray that the factuality of this history is not denied or covered up in our own day.

Please pray for your local school – the pupils, parents, volunteers, staff and leadership teams. Just as churches in villages rely upon goodwill and local support, the same is increasingly true of certainly smaller schools. Thank God for those who care for the children of our communities – parents, teachers, volunteers.

Finally, as stormy January draws on, and the snowdrops pop up reminding us that spring flowers will not be far behind, thank God for the goodness of his Creation, and ask for new eyes to see the wonder that we all too often trample underfoot or pass by on the other side. May the Peace of the Lord be always with you.

Your Rector, Canon Kevin