New Levant Chronology


1550 B.C.

Hyksos expelled from Egypt; new model Egyptian army using chariotry and composite bows


1525 B.C.

Thutmose I claims Syria to the Euphrates; consequent war with Mitani intermittent until 1410 B.C.


1500 B.C.

Invention of alphabetic writing in Syria


1400 B.C.

The palaces of Crete destroyed; Mycenaean Greeks dominant in Eastern Mediterranean


1375 - 1350 B.C.

The Armana Age; Ikhnaton's religious reforms; Egypt paralyzed by internal problems; Hittite expansion destroys Mitanni


1300 B.C.

Egyptian revival; wars with Hittites for Syria


1270 B.C.

Peace between Ramses II and Hittites


1230 B.C.

Egypt invaded by "sea peoples"; Troy destroyed by Mycenaeans


1200 B.C.

Iron begins to come into common use; the Mycenaean palace of Pylos is burned; beginning of the breakup of Mycenaean power


1190 B.C.

The Phillistines (one of the "sea peoples") settle along the Palestine coast


1100 B.C.

Egypt loses Nubia; camels in common use in north Arabia; use of lime plaster to make watertight cisterns opens dry areas for settlement


reprinted from The Columbia History of the World, 1972, published by Harper & Row, edited by John A. Garraty & Peter Gay

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