The correspondence between Egypt and Alashiya that survives in the Bronze Age archives shows a close diplomatic relationship between the two powers, focused primarily on the copper trade — Cyprus was one of the primary sources of copper in the Bronze Age Mediterranean, and Egyptian access to Cypriot copper was economically vital.

The Ugarit texts include desperate messages to the king of Alashiya describing Sea Peoples attacks.

The “enemy ships” that appear in the final Ugarit tablets are described as coming from multiple directions, including apparently from the sea to the north and west — consistent with attacks by maritime people operating in the eastern Aegean and perhaps based partly in Cyprus.

Archaeological evidence from Cyprus shows significant disruption around 1200 BCE, with several sites showing destruction levels consistent with violence rather than simple abandonment.

But unlike the mainland sites, many Cypriot centers continued to exist in some form after the disruptions — perhaps because the island’s copper resources made it valuable enough that people wanted to maintain, rather than simply destroy, access to it.