Oh, yeah, and about those boat guys...

After over a year of research I am no clearer about the Late Bronze Age Collapse than I was when I started. And, yes, this is partially because it is complicated. Very complicated. But the larger reason is because there is no academic consensus. Textual evidence is sparse and often untrustworthy, and archaeological evidence is selective -- in mostly the wrong ways.

In another direction, I've been unable to find any significance in whatever spot I pick out along a somewhat arbitrary line drawn from strictly historical to nearly pure fantasy. There doesn't seem to be a clear advantage in mechanical plotting, in market, in research effort, anything. Best I can say is that you could impose an arrow of "serious" vs. "light-hearted" along that same axis, but even that is arbitrary.

Oh, I suppose I could say that researching something that is archaeologically defensible would probably be more expensive. The references are more likely behind paywalls, in journals, in books that cost in the hundreds of dollars. Renting Hercules Conquers Atlantis would be a bit cheaper.

And, oh, the questions. The Mycenaean weavers are documented in palace records as being paid in grain. Which doesn't by itself make a meal. So one presumes some of one's grain ration would be traded for vegetables, olive oil, etc. To a state-run store? To local farmers in a barter system? I tend towards the former because of the way the Mycenaeans seemed to have their finger in everything. Which makes one suspect strongly there were official rules, and there was graft by said officials, and there were regulations attempting to control said graft, and the whole thing became as complex and dysfunctional as the Soviet economy at its worst.

But is this really defensible? You get glimmers of similar processes happening in Egypt, amid the workers at the Valley of Kings.

So many questions. Many of the weavers had children. Did the fathers work? Were they raised communally? Was being childless looked down upon? Some of them entered the country as slaves. Were there slaves in the weaving hall? Were they manumitted? How "free" were the "free" workers, anyhow?





So call that the "Real History" version. Keep the action around Knossos, at least for one book. Tell the story of the late bronze age within this teacup, and from the perspective of someone who never has the ear of kings.

Step two is spice it up a little; add revolution and secret cults and the coming of the Sea People. Plus add the Egyptian Scribe to our cast, at least.

Then there's the "Tale of..." version. Real people are documented as having made some pretty crazy journeys during the period. So Knossos is merely the start point of a tour of more than one hot spot of the Mediterranean. This is still ordinary people, but now getting into extraordinary scrapes (well, extraordinary in peaceful times. During the Collapse, crazy things happen to lots of people.)

Step past that is when these perhaps-lucky protagonists become Hero Protagonists. They become larger-than-life people that can survive escapades others might not. The Cretan becomes a seer, the scribe becomes healer and scholar, the Athenian becomes a mini-Xenephon.

Then add more magic. In this version, there are forces afoot, perhaps greater dangers lurking behind the visible destruction and conquests. The scholar can now work magic and everyone becomes impossibly skilled at arms.

And at some nebulous point here I have to drop my current cast and start working with people that vaguely resemble those of the Trojan War epics. Because now we move the Trojan War into the main focus. First version of that is new technologies; something new in the Troad that causes the Mycenae to have to go all 300 on them...or start up their Apollo program and start getting Steampunk Roman. This is the purest "Baen Books" version, where the historicity of almost everything is sort of defensible -- at least until things go East.

Then we stop worrying about most links to history and just wholesale enlist Homer's cast and throw them up against Atlantis.

And finally we toss out even those sources and we end up with demigods and heroes from across Greek mythology confronting a Disney version of Atlantis. (And, yet, we are still closer to known history than Xena, Warrior Princess).




So I guess I know one other thing. Wilusa (Troy) is one kind of story. Atlantis is another. And the two don't meet. So if I want to play with my weaver of Knossos, Atlantis, and yes probably most named characters of the Trojan War, are off the plate.