widespread collapse of Bronze Age civilization in the Eastern Mediterranean world at the outset of the period, as the great palaces and cities of the Mycenaeans were destroyed or abandoned. At about the same time, the Hittite civilization suffered serious disruption and cities from Troy to Gaza were destroyed and in Egypt the New Kingdom fell into disarray that led to the Third Intermediate Period. Following the collapse, fewer and smaller settlements suggest famine and depopulation. though paths west died, significant cultural and trade links with the east, particularly the Levant coast, developed from c. 900 BC onwards