Surprising Survivors

Contrary to popular belief, the Bronze Age collapse did not wipe out all the Bronze Age city-states. Sure, the empires of the Mycenaeans and Hittites disappeared. The empires of the Assyrians, Babylonians and Egyptians were severely weakened and contracted but, certain city-states, formerly vassals of those empires, survived. These were to provide the core for the Iron Age resurgence. It is hardly surprising that, given the dependence of their former empire on overseas trade, the newly forming Neo-Assyrian empire created a similar dependency on maritime centres of trade.