Editing History of the ancient Levant (section)

===Late Bronze Age collapse===
{{main|Late Bronze Age collapse}}
During the 12th century BC, between c. 1200 and 1150, all of these powers suddenly collapsed. Centralized state systems collapsed, and the region was hit by [[famine]]. Chaos ensued throughout the region, and many urban centers were burnt to the ground by famine-struck natives<ref>Cline, Eric H. (2014). Translation of letter RS 20.18 in "[[1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed]]". [[Princeton University Press]]. p.&nbsp;151.</ref> and an assortment of raiders known as the [[Sea Peoples]], who eventually settled in the Levant. The Sea Peoples' origins are ambiguous and many theories have proposed them to be [[Troy|Trojans]], [[Nuragic civilization|Sardinians]], [[Achaeans (tribe)|Achaeans]], [[Sicels|Sicilians]] or [[Lycians]].<ref>{{cite thesis |type=Ph.D. |last= Woudhuizen |first= Frederik Christiaan |date=2006 |title= The Ethnicity of the Sea Peoples |publisher=Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam, Faculteit der Wijsbegeerte|hdl= 1765/7686 }}</ref><ref>{{cite book | first=Robert|last= Drews |author-link=Robert Drews | year=1995 | title=The End of the Bronze Age: Changes in Warfare and the Catastrophe of ca. 1200 B.C | publisher=Princeton University Press | location=Princeton, New Jersey | isbn=978-0-691-04811-6}}</ref><ref>{{citation|title=Herodotus 1.94, the Drought ca. 1200 B.C., and the Origin of the Etruscans|first=Robert|last=Drews |author-link=Robert Drews |journal=Zeitschrift für Alte Geschichte|volume=41|issue=1|year=1992|pages=14–39|jstor=4436222}}</ref><ref>{{citation|title=The Philistines and Other "Sea Peoples" in Text and Archaeology|work=Society of Biblical Literature Archaeology and biblical studies|volume=15|first=Ann E.|last=Killebrew|publisher=Society of Biblical Lit|date=2013|isbn=978-1-58983-721-8|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=gBCl2IQfNioC&pg=PA1}}</ref>

Urban centers which survived Hittite and Egyptian expansions in 1600 BC, including [[Alalakh]], [[Ugarit]], [[Tel Megiddo|Megiddo]] and [[Kadesh (Syria)|Kadesh]], were razed to the ground and were never rebuilt. The [[Hittites|Hittite empire]] was destroyed, and its capital [[Tarḫuntašša]] was razed to the ground. Egypt repelled its attackers with only a major effort, and over the next century shrank to its territorial core, its central authority permanently weakened.