The great invasions which destroyed late Bronze Age civilization came from two directions. From the northwest a variety of tribes, called by the Egyptians the "sea peoples," began raiding the eastern coasts of the Mediterranean . . . [by] 1200 B.C. the Hittite empire was destroyed. . . . While these invasions from the northwest swept over Greece, Asia Minor, and the Mediterranean coasts, other hordes of invaders came from the southeast, from the fringes of the Arabian desert. . . The movement began early: the Israelites were already in Palestine before 1220 B.C.
—The Columbia History of
the World, 1972