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Notes -
There are some parts of history, especially ancient history, where we have very little documentation. The third century crisis in Rome, the Mayans, the Carthaginians, are all examples. Which “black hole” in history most interests you?
If I had to pick, I would love more info on the Parthians/Arsacids. They ruled Iran for 500 years and were the Romans most perennial rivals. We don’t have any native narrative history from there, and really have to piece things together from minimal evidence.
The Bronze Age Collapse gets some attention at the moment, and there have been quite a few interesting articles on it. WiP had one contender that it simply was Iron's higher availability and the resulting decentralisation of power. But it's hard to tell because we have relatively little direction documentation, it's mostly either archeology on one hand and indirect, mostly mythologized centuries-later stories on the other. These are IMO among the most interesting periods, just enough info to make informed guesses instead mere idle speculation.
I kinda get where that piece is coming from, but I think it kind of fails simply because it doesn’t deal with the difficulty of working with iron. It would be like saying “okay, silicon is as common as sand, therefore we can decentralize information because all you need to do to get silicon and therefore computer chips is to go to a beach and start digging. Not really. You have the raw material, but unless you have the skills and and technology necessary to work with that material, you aren’t really going to get anywhere close to equality with those with the ability to use iron.
I personally think a large part of the collapsing states was simply rot. The leadership hadn’t really developed much beyond where they were hundreds of years ago, the people, used to being a part of an empire were less industrious and self controlled and often dependent on luxuries from abroad rather than local stuff. So social vices proliferate, industry and innovation decline, and sooner or later someone comes along and topples the old order simply because the foundations had been eaten away.
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