Bronze Age India and in 1700 BCE along the Yellow River in China. The valleys provided plentiful water and the enrichment of the soil due to annual floods, which made it possible to grow excess crops beyond what was needed to sustain an agricultural village. This allowed for some members of the community to engage in non-agricultural activities, such as the construction of buildings, trade, and social organization. Boats on the river provided an easy and efficient way to transport people and goods, allowing for the development of trade and facilitating central control of outlying areas. Writing likely developed independently in multiple Eurasian civilizations, including Mesopotamia (between 3400 and 3100 BCE) and China (1200 BCE). In southern Europe, the Minoan civilization of the Aegean Islands began around 3500 BC, with the complex urban civilization beginning around 2000 BC. It left behind a number of massive building complexes, sophisticated art, and writing systems. Its economy benefited from a network of trade around much of the Mediterranean. By the 2nd millennium BC, the eastern coastlines of the Mediterranean were dominated by the Hittite and Egyptian empires, competing for control over the city states in the Levant. The Black Sea area was another cradle of European civilization. The prehistoric fortified stone settlement of Solnitsata (5500 BC - 4200 BC) is one of the oldest known towns in Europe. The Bronze Age arose in this region during the final centuries of the 4th millennium. The Bronze Age collapse ended the Late Bronze Age in much of Europe and the Mediterranean region, leading to the Early Iron Age. The Bronze Age collapse may be seen in the context of a technological history that saw the slow, comparatively continuous spread of iron-working technology in the region, beginning in the 13th and 12th centuries BC. The cultural collapse of the Mycenaean kingdoms, the Hittite Empire in Anatolia and Syria, and the Egyptian Empire in Syria and Israel, the scission of long-distance trade contacts and sudden eclipse of literacy occurred between 1206 and 1150 BC. The gradual end of the Dark Age that ensued saw the rise of settled Neo-Hittite Aramaean kingdoms of the mid-10th century BC, and the rise of the Neo-Assyrian Empire. Phoenician expansion from the Levant beginning in the 12th century BC resulted in a "world-economy". The high point of Phoenician culture and sea power is usually placed ca. 1200–800 BC. The Phoenicians and the