The disintegration of the Hittite empire introduces a new phase of their history. With it was involved the downfall of the Hatti rulers, indicated by the failure of the archives of Boghaz-Keui after the reign of Arnuandas, two generations after the time of Hattusil, and hence probably about 1200 B.C. In the great combine of land and sea powers against Egypt, which Rameses III. resisted and dispersed,[909] the Hittites again figure among the confederates, but this time no longer as leaders; and subsequently they appear no more in Egyptian history. They had held sway over Asia Minor for about two centuries, a lengthy period for an oriental dynasty, and now they were submerged by historical movements, of which the details are wanting so far as it affected them, though the development of events may be traced in outline. As often in the history of Asia Minor, the tide of immigration that had formerly set westward had now turned, and, sweeping irresistibly from Europe southward and eastward over the Greek world and the Ægean Islands, traversed also the peninsula.[910] The wave which Rameses III. turned away from the Egyptian frontier had swept away the Hatti power, and it may be thought that their part in the movement, like that of others, was migratory rather than warlike, pressed onwards by newcomers from beyond. In the redistribution of power that followed the dispersal of these peoples, the dominant position in Asia Minor seems to have been held by the Muski,[911] whom we presume to be a European people, akin to the Phrygian conquerors of later times.[912] With these newcomers at any rate the Assyrian kings were occupied for half a century. By 1170 B.C., it would appear, they had traversed Asia Minor and descended upon Kummukh, the Hittite state lying around Samsat, between Carchemish and Malatia, upon the Assyrian frontier; and it was not until 1120 that they were driven back by the valorous expeditions of Tiglath-Pileser I. It is possible that the Assyrian king followed up his victories as far as the Black Sea;[913] but in any case the power of the Muski would seem to have been broken and to have gradually declined until reinforced by the Thracian immigrants of the ninth and eighth centuries B.C.[914] In the meanwhile the Hittite states found the opportunity for a remarkable revival. The readiness of these peoples, though no longer politically united, to combine against a common enemy is well shown by the experiences of the Assyrian king, who had no sooner crossed the frontier at Malatia, than he was assailed on his right flank by twenty-three chieftains,[915] while in front lay sixty others whose domains extended to the Upper Sea. Though possibly this expedition lay eastward of the boundary of the Hittite lands, the central Hittite states did not escape from the ambitious raids of the Assyrian king, who crossing the Euphrates on rafts of skin, this time nearer to Carchemish, put Mount