Middle Bronze Age migrations (Ancient Near East) Ancient North Eurasian ancestry from eastern Europe and the Eurasian steppe associated with a migration of Indo-European speakers, likely proto-Greek. Thus, while this is evidence of Mycenaeans being related to the Minoans, it also provides support of a pre-Greek migration into mainland Greece which was in part ancestral to the Mycenaeans. For reasons unknown, the Hittites moved into central Asia Minor, conquering the Hattians and later adopting their culture and name. This invasion by the Hittites displaced other peoples living in Anatolia, who in turn displaced the Middle Helladic Greek-speaking peoples to the west. This enforced an exodus from Northwestern
Asia word "asa" meaning east. This may be contrasted to a similar etymology proposed for "Europe", as being from Akkadian "erēbu(m)" 'to enter' or 'set' (of the sun). T.R. Reid supports this alternative etymology, noting that the ancient Greek name must have derived from "asu", meaning 'east' in Assyrian ("ereb" for "Europe" meaning 'west'). The ideas of "Occidental" (form Latin "Occidens" 'setting') and "Oriental" (from Latin "Oriens" for 'rising') are also European invention, synonymous with "Western" and "Eastern". Reid further emphasizes that it explains the Western point of view of placing all the peoples and cultures of Asia into a single