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These groups, including the Sea Peoples known from the texts of the period, moved by land and sea, assaulted cities and disrupted trade routes. All this caused a severe economic crisis which developed from north to south and reached Canaan. “It was an all-out war on dwindling resources,” says Ben-Dor Evian.
The study shows that the dry period ended around 1100 BCE and was followed by a wet period that helped many of the uprooted groups to settle down, especially in the hilly areas of Canaan and Syria. A century or two later these groups established the territorial kingdoms of the Iron Age, among them Israel and Judah.
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The results of the researcher’s study appeared in a university journal Tuesday and will be published elsewhere soon .
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