Cyprus, The Sea Peoples and the Eastern Mediterranean: Regional Perspectives of Change and Continuity

First paragraph from the Introduction to the volume edited by Timothy P. Harrison

Recent scholarship has begun to emphasize the formative role Cyprus and the Aegean world played in the development of the small territorial states that emerge in the eastern Mediterranean during the early centuries of the first millennium BCE. Central to this discussion has been the contribution of the Sea Peoples, who conveniently have assumed a role as the 'Vikings' of the Mediterranean world, responsible for destroying the venerable Bronze Age civilizations of the ancient Near East, and ushering the region into a historical 'Dark Age' during the ensuing centuries of the Early Iron Age (ea. 1200-900 BCE).