Vengeance of Orion

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