Overview

At the end of the thirteenth century B.C., the major powers of the eastern Mediterranean, Anatolia and Egypt, entered a period of political turmoil, economic privation, and population shifts that resulted in deep permanent changes in the cultural identity of the ancient world. The Hittite empire in Anatolia (modern-day Turkey) collapsed and disappeared completely; the civilization of Mycenaean Greece was utterly destroyed; cities in Syria and on the coast of the Levant were sacked and abandoned; and Egypt, having lost its territories in Syria and Palestine, just managed to maintain its borders. The ensuing period of disruption lasted for several hundred years. Various circumstances combined to produce this period of collapse, but the migrations and invasions of different population groups throughout the Mediterranean world were a...