the second invasion by the Sea Peoples, ending in their cataclysmic fight against the Egyptians under Ramses III during the eighth year of his reign, in 1177 BC, is a reasonable benchmark that can be taken as representative of the entire Collapse and allows us to put a finite date on a rather elusive pivotal moment and the end of an age. It was a year when great land and sea battles were fought in the Nile delta; a year when Egypt struggled for its very survival; a year by which time some of the rich and powerful civilizations of the Bronze Age had already come to a crashing halt.
