Towards the close of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, of which Amenhotep III and Akhenaton were the last great kings, two well-defined migrations were in progress.  The Aramaean folk-waves had already begun to pour in increasing volume into Syria from Arabia, and in Europe the pastoral fighting folk from the mountains were establishing themselves along the south-eastern coast and crossing the Hellespont to overrun the land of the Hittites.  These race movements were destined to exercise considerable influence in shaping the history of the ancient world.

The Aramaean, or Third Semitic migration, in time swamped various decaying States.  Despite the successive efforts of the great Powers to hold it in check, it ultimately submerged the whole of Syria and part of Mesopotamia.  Aramaean speech then came into common use among the mingled peoples over a wide area, and was not displaced until the time of the Fourth Semitic or Moslem migration from Arabia, which began in the seventh century of the Christian era, and swept northward through Syria to Asia Minor, eastward across Mesopotamia into Persia and India, and westward through Egypt along the north African coast to Morocco, and then into Spain.

When Syria was sustaining the first shocks of Aramaean invasion, the last wave of Achaeans, “the tamers of horses” and “shepherds of the people”, had achieved the conquest of Greece, and contributed to the overthrow of the dynasty of King Minos of Crete.  Professor Ridgeway identifies this stock, which had been filtering southward for several centuries, with the tall, fair-haired, and grey-eyed “Keltoi” (Celts),[413] who, Dr. Haddon believes, were representatives of “the mixed peoples of northern and Alpine descent".[414] Mr. Hawes, following Professor Sergi, holds, on the other hand, that the Achaeans were “fair in comparison with the native (Pelasgian-Mediterranean) stock, but not necessarily blonde".[415] The earliest Achaeans were rude, uncultured barbarians, but the last wave came from some unknown centre of civilization, and probably used iron as well as bronze weapons.

The old Cretans were known to the Egyptians as the “Keftiu”, and traded on the Mediterranean and the Black Sea.  It is significant to find, however, that no mention is made of them in the inscriptions of the Pharaohs after the reign of Amenhotep III.  In their place appear the Shardana, the Mykenaean people who gave their name to Sardinia, the Danauna, believed to be identical with the Danaoi of Homer, the Akhaivasha, perhaps the Achaeans, and the Tursha and Shakalsha, who may have been of the same stock as the piratical Lycians.

When Rameses II fought his famous battle at Kadesh the Hittite king included among his allies the Aramaeans from Arabia, and other mercenaries like the Dardanui and Masa, who represented the Thraco-Phrygian peoples who had overrun the Balkans, occupied Thrace and Macedonia, and crossed into Asia Minor.  In time the Hittite confederacy was broken up by the migrating Europeans, and their dominant tribe, the Muski[416]—­the Moschoi of the Greeks and the Meshech of the Old Testament—­came into conflict with the Assyrians.  The Muski were forerunners of the Phrygians, and were probably of allied stock.