This
is a matter which is frequently brought up in discussions about Atlantis. In
order to get off on the right foot, it is best to establish some basic facts
with the Wikipedia:
Sea Peoples
From Wikipedia, the
free encyclopedia
The Sea Peoples were a confederacy of seafaring raiders
of the second millennium BC who sailed into the eastern Mediterranean, caused
political unrest, and attempted to enter or control Egyptian territory during
the late 19th dynasty and especially during Year 8 of Ramesses III of the 20th
Dynasty.[1] The Egyptian Pharaoh Merneptah explicitly refers to them by the term
"the foreign-countries (or 'peoples'[2]) of the sea" (Egyptian n3 ḫ3s.wt
n<.t> p3 ym[3][4]) in his Great Karnak Inscription.[5] Although some
scholars believe that they invaded Cyprus, Hatti and the Levant, this hypothesis
is disputed.[6]
[At this juncture I might inject the comment that few
things in science are NOT disputed and the mere fact that a hypothesis is
disputed can be of no especial significance as far as the evidence for the
theory actually goes-DD]
Historical contextSee also: Bronze Age
collapse
The Late Bronze Age in the Aegean was characterized by the raiding
of migratory peoples and their subsequent resettlement. The identity of the Sea
Peoples has remained enigmatic to modern scholars, who have only the scattered
records of ancient civilizations and archaeological analysis to inform them.
Evidence shows that the identities and motives of these peoples were not unknown
to the Egyptians. In fact, many had been subordinate to the Egyptians or in a
diplomatic relationship with them for at least as long as the few centuries
covered by the records.
Some groups were not included in the Egyptian
list of Sea Peoples, as they operated primarily on land. Among them were the
'prw (Habiru) of Egyptian inscriptions, or 'apiru of cuneiform ("bandits").
Sandars uses the analogous name "land peoples."[7] Some people, such as the
Lukka, were included in both categories. It has been suggested that one of the
groups of Habiru were the Hebrews.[citation needed], but the modern scholarly
conclusion is that "the plethora of attempts to relate apiru (Habiru) to the
gentilic (i.e. biblical word) ibri are all nothing but wishful thinking."[8]
Select groups, or members of groups, were used as mercenaries by the
Egyptians.
Documentary records[edit] Byblos obelisk
Obelisk temple,
ByblosThe earliest ethnic group[9] later considered among the Sea Peoples is
believed to be attested in Egyptian hieroglyphics on the Byblos obelisk found in
the Obelisk Temple at Byblos in modern day Lebanon. The inscription mentions
kwkwn son of rwqq-( or kukun son of luqq), transliterated as Kukunnis, son of
Lukka, "the Lycian".[10] The date is given variously as 2000 or 1700
BC.
Early Amarna age
The Lukka appear much later and also the Sherden
in the Amarna Letters, perhaps of Amenhotep III or his son Akhenaten, around the
mid-14th century BC. A Sherden man is an apparent renegade mercenary,[11] and
three more are slain by an Egyptian overseer.[12] The Danuna are mentioned in
another letter[13] but only in a passing reference to the death of their king.
The Lukka are being accused[14] of attacking the Egyptians in conjunction with
the Alashiyans, or Cypriotes, with the latter having stated that the Lukka were
seizing their villages.
Reign of Ramesses II
Ramesses II, painted
reliefRecords or possible records of sea peoples generally or in particular date
to two campaigns of Ramesses II, a pharaoh of the militant 19th Dynasty:
operations in or near the delta in Year 2 of his reign and the major
confrontation with the Hittite Empire and allies at the Battle of Kadesh in his
Year 5. The dates of this long-lived pharaoh's reign are not known for certain,
but they must have comprised nearly all of the first half of the 13th century
BC.[15]
In his Second Year, an attack of the Sherden, or Shardana, on the
Nile Delta was repulsed and defeated by Ramesses, who captured some of the
pirates. The event is recorded on Tanis Stele II.[16] An inscription by Ramesses
II on the stela from Tanis which recorded the Sherden raider's raid and
subsequent capture speaks of the continuous threat they posed to Egypt's
Mediterranean coasts:
"the unruly Sherden whom no one had ever known how
to combat, they came boldly sailing in their warships from the midst of the sea,
none being able to withstand them."[17]
The Sherden prisoners were
subsequently incorporated into the Egyptian army for service on the Hittite
frontier by Ramesses. Another stele usually cited in conjunction with this one
is the "Aswan Stele" (there were other stelae at Aswan), which mentions the
king's operations to defeat a number of peoples including those of the "Great
Green". It is plausible to assume that the Tanis and Aswan Stelae refer to the
same event, in which case they reinforce each other.
The Battle of Kadesh
was the outcome of a campaign against the Syrians and allies in the Levant in
the pharaoh's Year 5. The imminent collision of the Egyptian and Hittite empires
became obvious to both, and they both prepared campaigns against the strategic
mid-point of Kadesh for the next year. Ramesses divided his Egyptian forces,
which were then ambushed piecemeal by the Hittite army and nearly defeated.
However, some Egyptian forces made it through to Kadesh, and the arrival of the
last of the Egyptians provided enough military cover to allow the pharaoh to
escape and his army to withdraw in defeat; leaving Kadesh in Hittite
hands.[18]
At home, Ramesses had his scribes formulate an official
description, which has been called "the Bulletin" because it was widely
published by inscription. Ten copies survive today on the temples at Abydos,
Karnak, Luxor and Abu Simbel, with reliefs depicting the battle. A poem, the
"Poem of Pentaur", describing the battle survives also.[19]
The poem
relates that the previously captured Sherden were not only working for his
majesty, but were also formulating a plan of battle for him; i.e., it was their
idea to divide Egyptian forces into four columns. There is no evidence of any
collaboration with the Hittites or malicious intent on their part, and if
Ramesses considered it, he never left any record of that
consideration.
The poem lists the peoples which went to Kadesh as allies
of the Hittites. Amongst them are some of the sea peoples spoken of in the
Egyptian inscriptions previously mentioned, and many of the peoples who would
later take part in the great migrations of the 12th century BC.
Reign of
MerneptahI am the ruler who shepherds you ... as a father, who preserves his
children, while ye fear like birds ... [Shall the land be wasted and forsaken at
the invasion of every country, while the Nine Bows plunder its borders and
rebels invade it every day? ... They spend their time going about the land,
fighting, to fill their bodies daily. They come to the land of Egypt to seek the
necessities of their mouths ... Their chief is like a dog, a man of boasting
without courage ...Speech of Merneptah before the Battle of Perire, from the
Great Karnak Inscription.
The major event of the reign of the Pharaoh
Merneptah (1213 BC–1203 BC),[20] 4th king of the 19th Dynasty, was his battle
against a confederacy termed "the Nine Bows" at Perire in the western delta in
the 5th and 6th years of his reign. Depredations of this confederacy had been so
severe that the region was "forsaken as pasturage for cattle, it was left waste
from the time of the ancestors."[21]
The pharaoh's action against them is
attested in four inscriptions: the Great Karnak Inscription, describing the
battle, the Cairo Column, the Athribis Stele (the last two of which are shorter
versions of the Great Karnak), and a stele found at Thebes, called variously the
Hymn of Victory, the Merneptah Stele or the Israel Stele. It describes the reign
of peace resulting from the victory.[22]
The Nine Bows were acting under
the leadership of the king of Libya and an associated near-concurrent revolt in
Canaan involving Gaza, Ashkelon, Yenoam and Israel. Exactly which peoples were
consistently in the Nine Bows is not clear, but present at the battle were the
Libyans, some neighboring Meshwesh, and possibly a separate revolt in the
following year involving peoples from the eastern Mediterranean, including the
Kheta (or Hittites), or Syrians, and (in the Israel Stele) for the first time in
history, the Israelites. In addition to them, the first lines of the Karnak
inscription include some sea peoples,[23] which must have arrived in the Western
Delta or from Cyrene by ship:
[Beginning of the victory that his majesty
achieved in the land of Libya] -i, Ekwesh, Teresh, Lukka, Sherden, Shekelesh,
Northerners coming from all lands.
Later in the inscription Merneptah
receives news of the attack:
... the third season, saying: 'The wretched,
fallen chief of Libya, Meryey, son of Ded, has fallen upon the country of Tehenu
with his bowmen---- Sherden, Shekelesh, Ekwesh, Lukka, Teresh, Taking the best
of every warrior and every man of war of his country. He has brought his wife
and his children ----- leaders of the camp, and he has reached the western
boundary in the fields of Perire'
Athribis Stele, garden of Cairo
Museum"His majesty was enraged at their report, like a lion," assembled his
court and gave a rousing speech. Later, he dreamed he saw Ptah handing him a
sword and saying, "Take thou (it) and banish thou the fearful heart from thee."
When the bowmen went forth, says the inscription, "Amun was with them as a
shield." After six hours, the surviving Nine Bows threw down their weapons,
abandoned their baggage and dependents, and ran for their lives. Merneptah
states that he defeated the invasion, killing 6,000 soldiers and taking 9,000
prisoners. To be sure of the numbers, among other things, he took the penises of
all uncircumcised enemy dead and the hands of all the circumcised, from which
history learns that the Ekwesh were circumcised, a fact causing some to doubt
they were Greek.
Letters at Ugarit
The ruins of Ugarit.Some Sea
Peoples appear in four letters found at Ugarit, the last three of which seem to
foreshadow the destruction of the city around 1180 BC. The letters are therefore
dated to the early twelfth century. The last king of Ugarit was Ammurapi, or
Hammurabi (c. 1191–1182 BC), who, throughout this correspondence, is quite a
young man.
The earliest is letter RS 34.129, found on the south side of
the city, from "the Great King", presumably Suppiluliuma II of the Hittites, to
the prefect of the city. He says that he ordered the king of Ugarit to send him
Ibnadushu for questioning, but the king was too immature to respond. He
therefore wants the prefect to send the man, whom he promises to
return.
What this language implies about the relationship of the Hittite
empire to Ugarit is a matter for interpretation. Ibnadushu had been kidnapped by
and had resided among a people of Shikala, probably the Shekelesh, "who lived on
ships." The letter is generally interpreted as an interest in military
intelligence by the king.[24]
The last three letters, RS L 1, RS 20.238
and RS 20.18, are a set from the Rap'anu Archive between a slightly older
Ammurapi, now handling his own affairs, and Eshuwara, the grand supervisor of
Alasiya. Evidently, Ammurapi had informed Eshuwara, that an enemy fleet of 20
ships had been spotted at sea.
Eshuwara wrote back and inquired about the
location of Ammurapi's own forces. Eshuwara also noted that he would like to
know where the enemy fleet of 20 ships are now located.[25] Unfortunately for
both Ugarit and Alasiya, neither kingdom was able to fend off the Sea People's
onslaught, and both were ultimately destroyed. A letter by Amurapi (RS 18.147)
to the king of Alasiya—which was in fact a response to an appeal for assistance
by the latter—has been found by archaeologists. In it, Ammurapi describes the
desperate plight facing Ugarit:
My father, behold, the enemy's ships came
(here); my cities(?) were burned, and they did evil things in my country. Does
not my father know that all my troops and chariots(?) are in the Land of Hatti,
and all my ships are in the Land of Lukka?...Thus, the country is abandoned to
itself. May my father know it: the seven ships of the enemy that came here
inflicted much damage upon us.[26]
Ammurapi, in turn, appealed for aid
from the viceroy of Carchemish—a state which actually survived the Sea People's
onslaught—but its viceroy could only offer some words of advice for
Ammurapi:
As for what you [Ammurapi] have written to me: 'Ships of the
enemy have been seen at sea!' Well, you must remain firm. Indeed for your part,
where are your troops, your chariots stationed? Are they not stationed near you?
No? Behind the enemy, who press upon you? Surround your towns with ramparts.
Have your troops and chariots enter there, and await the enemy with great
resolution!"[27]
Reign of Ramesses III
Temple of Ramses III at Medinet
HabuPharaoh Ramesses III, the second king of the 20th Dynasty, who reigned for
most of the first half of the 12th century BC, was forced to deal with a later
wave of invasions of the Sea Peoples—the best recorded in his eighth year. The
pharaoh records the Sea People's activities in several long inscriptions from
his Medinet Habu mortuary temple:
The foreign countries (ie. Sea Peoples)
made a conspiracy in their islands, All at once the lands were removed and
scattered in the fray. No land could stand before their arms: from Hatti, Qode,
Carchemish, Arzawa and Alashiya on, being cut off [ie. destroyed] at one time. A
camp was set up in Amurru. They desolated its people, and its land was like that
which has never come into being. They were coming forward toward Egypt, while
the flame was prepared before them. Their confederation was the Peleset, Tjeker,
Shekelesh, Denyen and Weshesh, lands united. They laid their hands upon the land
as far as the circuit of the earth, their hearts confident and trusting: "Our
plans will succeed!"[28]
No land could stand before their armsSee also:
Bronze Age collapse
The ends of several civilizations around 1175 BC have
instigated a theory that the Sea Peoples may have caused the collapse of the
Hittite, Mycenaean and Mitanni kingdoms. The American Hittitologist, Gary
Beckman, writes on page 23 of Akkadica 120 (2000):[29]
A terminus ante
quem for the destruction of the Hittite empire has been recognised in an
inscription carved at Medinet Habu in Egypt in the eighth year of Ramesses III
(1175 BC). This text narrates a contemporary great movement of peoples in the
eastern Mediterranean, as a result of which "the lands were removed and
scattered to the fray. No land could stand before their arms, from Hatti, Kode,
Carchemish, Arzawa, Alashiya on being cut off. [ie: cut down]"
Ramesses'
comments about the scale of the Sea Peoples' onslaught in the eastern
Mediterranean are confirmed by the destruction of the states of Hatti, Ugarit,
Ashkelon and Hazor around this time. As the Hittitologist Trevor Bryce
observes:[30]
It should be stressed that the invasions were not merely
military operations, but involved the movements of large populations, by land
and sea, seeking new lands to settle.
This situation is confirmed by the
Medinet Habu temple reliefs of Ramesses III which show that:[30]
the
Peleset and Tjekker warriors who fought in the land battle [against Ramesses
III] are accompanied in the reliefs by women and children loaded in
ox-carts.
Checking the onslaught
Further information: Battle of the
Delta and Battle of Djahy (12th century BC)
The Nile Delta todayThe
inscriptions of Ramesses III at his Medinet Habu mortuary temple in Thebes
record three victorious campaigns against the Sea Peoples considered bona fide,
in Years 5, 8 and 12, as well as three considered spurious, against the Nubians
and Libyans in Year 5 and the Libyans with Asiatics in Year 11. During Year 8
some Hittites were operating with the Sea Peoples.[31]
The inner west
wall of the second court describes the invasion of Year 5. Only the Peleset and
Tjeker are mentioned, but the list is lost in a lacuna. The attack was
two-pronged, one by sea and one by land; that is, the Sea Peoples divided their
forces. His majesty was waiting in the Nile mouths and trapped the enemy fleet
there. The land forces were defeated separately.
The Sea Peoples did not
learn any lessons from this defeat, as they repeated their mistake in Year 8
with a similar result. The campaign is recorded more extensively on the inner
northwest panel of the first court. It is possible, but not generally believed,
that the dates are only those of the inscriptions and both refer to the same
campaign.
In Ramesses' Year 8, the Nine Bows appear again as a
"conspiracy in their isles". This time, they are revealed unquestionably as Sea
Peoples: the Peleset, Tjeker, Shekelesh, Denyen and Weshesh, which are
classified as "foreign countries" in the inscription. They camped in Amor and
sent a fleet to the Nile.
The pharaoh was once more waiting for them. He
had built a fleet especially for the occasion, hid it in the Nile mouths and
posted coast watchers. The enemy fleet was ambushed there, their ships
overturned, and the men dragged up on shore and executed ad hoc.
The land
army was attacked and routed as it crossed the Egyptian border. Additional
information is given in the relief on the outer side of the east wall. The land
battle occurred in the vicinity of Zahi against "the northern countries". When
it was over, several chiefs were captive: of Hatti, Amor and Shasu among the
"land peoples" and the Tjeker, "Sherden of the sea", "Teresh of the sea" and
Peleset.
The campaign of Year 12 is attested by the Südstele found on the
south side of the temple. It mentions the Tjeker, Peleset, Denyen, Weshesh and
Shekelesh.
Papyrus Harris I of the period, found behind the temple,
suggests a wider campaign against the Sea Peoples but does not mention the date.
In it, the persona of Ramses III says, "I slew the Denyen (D'-yn-yw-n) in their
isles" and "burned" the Tjeker and Peleset, implying a maritime raid of his own.
He also captured some Sherden and Weshesh "of the sea" and settled them in
Egypt.[32] As he is called the "Ruler of Nine Bows" in the relief of the east
side, these events probably happened in Year 8; i.e., his majesty would have
used the victorious fleet for some punitive expeditions elsewhere in the
Mediterranean.
The Onomasticon of Amenope, or Amenemipit (amen-em-apt),
gives a slight credence to the idea that the Ramesside kings settled the Sea
Peoples in Canaan. Dated to about 1100 BC, at the end of the 21st dynasty (which
had numerous short-reigned pharaohs), this document simply lists names. After
six place names, four of which were in Philistia, the scribe lists the Sherden
(Line 268), the Tjeker (Line 269) and the Peleset (Line 270), who might be
presumed to occupy those cities.[33] The Story of Wenamun on a papyrus of the
same cache also places the Tjeker in Dor at that time.
Survivors
A few
states, such as Byblos and Sidon, managed to survive the Sea Peoples' invasions
unscathed. Despite Ramesses III's pessimism, Carchemish also survived the Sea
Peoples' onslaught. King Kuzi-Teshub I, who was the son of Talmi-Teshub—a direct
contemporary of the last ruling Hittite king, Suppiluliuma II—is attested in
power there.[34] Kuzi-Tesup and his successors ruled a mini-empire from
Carchemish which stretched from "Southeast Asia Minor, North Syria...[to] the
west bend of the Euphrates"[35] from c. 1175 BC to 990 BC.
Hypotheses
about the Sea Peoples
A number of hypotheses concerning the identities and
motives of the Sea Peoples described in the records have been formulated. They
are not necessarily alternative or contradictory hypotheses; any or all might be
mainly or partly true.
Philistine hypothesis
Main article:
Philistines
The archaeological evidence from the southern coastal plain
of ancient Palestine, termed Philistia in the Hebrew Bible, indicates a
disruption[36] of the Canaanite culture that existed during the Late Bronze Age
and its replacement (with some integration) by a culture with a possibly foreign
(mainly Aegean) origin. This includes distinct pottery, which at first belongs
to the Mycenaean IIIC tradition (albeit of local manufacture) and gradually
transforms into a uniquely Philistine pottery. Mazar says:[37]
... in
Philistia, the producers of Mycenaean IIIC pottery must be identified as the
Philistines. The logical conclusion, therefore, is that the Philistines were a
group of Mycenaean Greeks who immigrated to the east ... Within several decades
... a new bichrome style, known as the "Philistine", appeared in Philistia
...
Sandars, however, does not take this point of view, but
says:[38]
... it would be less misleading to call this 'Philistine
pottery' 'Sea Peoples' pottery or 'foreign' pottery, without commitment to any
particular group.
Artifacts of the Philistine culture are found at
numerous sites, in particular in the excavations of the five main cities of the
Philistines: the Pentapolis of Ashkelon, Ashdod, Ekron, Gath, and Gaza. Some
scholars (e.g. S. Sherratt, Drews, etc.) have challenged the theory that the
Philistine culture is an immigrant culture, claiming instead that they are an in
situ development of the Canaanite culture, but others argue for the immigrant
hypothesis; for example, T. Dothan and Barako.[Several authors have emphasized
that the Sea Peoples that settled in Canaan gave impetus to the great age of
Phoenician sea power which followed. Indeed, experts have emphasized that there
is no Western Mediterranean presence of the Phoenicians until after 800 BC.
Having the advance information of Sea People allies would give the Phenicians a
clear advantage in going back the other direction and making new settlements in
Tunisia, Sicily and at Tartessos-DD]
Minoan hypothesis
Two of the
peoples who settled in the Levant have traditions that may connect them to
Crete: the Tjeker and the Peleset (Philistines). The Tjeker may have left Crete
to settle in Anatolia and left there to settle Dor.[39] According to the Old
Testament,[40] the Israelite God brought the Philistines out of Caphtor. This
view is accepted by the mainstream of Biblical and classical scholarship as
Crete, but there are alternative minority theories.[41] Crete at the time was
populated by peoples speaking many languages, among which were Mycenaean Greek
and Eteocretan, the descendant of the language of the Minoans. It is possible,
but by no means certain, that these two peoples spoke Eteocretan.
It is
also worth noting that recent examinations of the eruption of the Santorini
Volcano occurred very close (estimated between 1660-1613 BC) to the first
appearances of the Sea People in Egypt.[42] The Volcano and its aftermath
(fires, Tsunami, weather changes and famines) would have had wide ranging
effects across the Mediterranean, Levant and particularly Greece and could have
been the impetus for invasions of other regions of the Mediterranean.
For
more details on this topic, see Caphtor.
Greek migrational hypothesis
Main
article: Mycenaean Greece
The identifications of Denyen with the Greek
Danaans and Ekwesh with the Greek Achaeans are long-standing issues in Bronze
Age scholarship, whether Greek, Hittite or Biblical, especially as they lived
"in the isles". If the Greeks do appear as Sea Peoples, what were they doing?
Michael Wood gives a good summary of the question and the hypothetical role of
the Greeks (who have already been proposed as the identity of the Philistines
above):[43]
... were the sea peoples ... in part actually composed of
Mycenaean Greeks - rootless migrants, warrior bands and condottieri on the move
...? Certainly there seem to be suggestive parallels between the war gear and
helmets of the Greeks ... and those of the Sea Peoples ...
Wood would
also include the Sherden and Shekelesh, pointing out that "there were migrations
of Greek-speaking peoples to the same place [Sardinia and Sicily] at this time."
He is careful to point out that the Greeks must only have been an element among
the peoples, and that their numbers must have been relatively small. His major
hypothesis,[43] however, is that the Trojan War was fought against Troy VI and
that Troy VIIa, the candidate of Carl Blegen, was sacked by essentially Greek
Sea Peoples. He suggests that Odysseus' assumed identity of a wandering Cretan
coming home from the Trojan War who fights in Egypt and serves there after being
captured[44] "remembers" the campaign of Year 8 of Ramses III, described above.
He points out also that places destroyed on Cyprus at the time (such as Kition)
were rebuilt by a new Greek-speaking population.
Aeneas flees burning
Troy carrying his father Anchises and leading his son Ascanius by the hand.
Woodcut by Ludolph Büsinck.[edit] Trojan hypothesisMain article: Troy
The
possibility that the Teresh were connected on the one hand with the
Tyrrhenians,[45] believed to be an Etruscan-related culture, and on the other
with Taruissa, a Hittite name possibly referring to Troy,[46] had been
considered by the ancient Romans. The Roman poet Virgil refers to this belief
when he depicts Aeneas as escaping the fall of Troy by coming to Latium to found
a line descending to Romulus, first king of Rome. Considering that Anatolian
connections have been identified for other Sea Peoples, such as the Tjeker and
the Lukka, Eberhard Zangger puts together an Anatolian
hypothesis:[47]
The Sea People may well have been Troy and its
confederated allies, and the literary tradition of the Trojan War may well
reflect the Greek effort to counter those raids.
Mycenaean warfare
hypothesis
This theory suggests that the Sea Peoples were populations from
the city states of the Greek Mycenaean civilization, who destroyed each other in
a disastrous series of conflicts lasting several decades. There would have been
few or no external invaders and just a few excursions outside the Greek-speaking
part of the Aegean civilization.
Eteocles and Polyneices in combat in
the war of the Seven against Thebes, an example of Mycenaean fratricidal
conflict. Painting by Giovanni Battista Tiepolo.Archaeological evidence
indicates that many fortified sites of the Greek domain were destroyed in the
late 13th and early 12th century BC, which was understood in the mid 20th
century to have been simultaneous or nearly so and was attributed to the Dorian
Invasion championed by Carl Blegen of the University of Cincinnati. He believed
Mycenaean Pylos was burned during an amphibious raid by warriors from the north
(Dorians).
Subsequent critical analysis focused on the facts that the
destructions were not simultaneous and all the evidence of Dorians came from
later times. John Chadwick championed a Sea Peoples hypothesis,[48] which
asserted that as the Pylians had retreated to the northeast, the attack must
have come from the southwest, the Sea Peoples being, in his view, the most
likely candidates. He states that they were based in Anatolia and, although
doubting that Mycenaeans called themselves "Achaeans", speculates that "... it
is very tempting to bring them into connexion." He does not assign the Greek
identity to all of the Sea Peoples.
Considering the turbulence between
and within the great families of the Mycenaean city-states in Greek mythology,
the hypothesis that the Mycenaeans destroyed themselves is long-standing[49] and
finds support by the reputable Greek historian Thucydides, who
theorized:[50]
For in early times the Hellenes and the barbarians of
the coast and islands ... were tempted to turn to piracy, under the conduct of
their most powerful men ...
they would fall upon a town unprotected by walls
... and would plunder it ... no disgrace being yet attached to such an
achievement, but even some glory.
The connection of these predations to
the fall of Mycenaean Greece and, more widely, to the Sea Peoples is a logical
outcome. Although some advocates of the Philistine or Greek migration hypotheses
(above) identify all the Mycenaeans or Sea Peoples as ethnically Greek, the
cautious Chadwick (founder, with Michael Ventris, of Linear B studies) rather
adopts the multiple ethnicity view.
See also: Achaeans and Mycenaean
Greece
Italian peoples hypothesesSee also: Nuragic civilization, History of
Sicily, History of Malta, and Tyrrhenians
Theories of the possible
connections between the Sherden to Sardinia, Shekelesh to Sicily, and Teresh to
Tyrrhenians, even though long-standing, are based mainly on onomastic
similarities.
The Sardinian architecture produced by the Nuragic
civilization was the most advanced of any civilization in the western
Mediterranean during the Sea Peoples epoch, including those in the regions of
Magna Graecia. More importantly the depictions of the arms and armour of the
Shardana Sea Peoples in Egypt do seem to correspond to thiose of the Sardinians
(see below)
The pre-Roman Sicels are known from a number of locations,
including Sicily, presumed named after them. The Tyrrhenian Sea gives some
credence to the story of Tyrrhenus mentioned above.
No evidence has been
uncovered yet to settle the enigmatic Italian connections of these Sea Peoples.
The self-name of the Etruscans, Rasna, does not lend itself to the Tyrrhenian
derivation, although linguist Glen Glordon has suggested an earlier form
T'Rasena or even T'Lasena which would explain Greek and later Roman names. He
has further suggested that T'Lasena contains the pre-Greek Thalassa (Sea)
etymology. Assertions in various articles and books that the Sherdens definitely
were or were not from Sardis or some ancestor state have no foundation in the
evidence. The Etruscan civilization has been studied, and the language partly
deciphered. It has variants and representatives in Aegean inscriptions, but
these may well be from travellers or colonists of Etruscans during their
seafaring period before Rome destroyed their power. The entire Etruscan
civilization can scarcely be explained by a few ships of Teresh or even a whole
fleet. [The Etruscan area is however one area that had clear prior ties to the
Sardinians with similar art and architecture, and the Etruscans could easily
contain a Sea peoples component combined with other collections of native
peoples and refugees-DD]
Archaeology is equally enigmatic. About all that
can be said for certain is that Mycenaean pottery was widespread around the
Mediterranean and its introduction at various places, including Sardinia, is
often associated with cultural change, violent or gradual. These circumstances
appear to be enough for archaeological theorizers. The prevalent speculation is
that the Sherden and Shekelesh brought those names with them to Sardinia and
Sicily, "perhaps not operating from those great islands but moving toward
them."[51] More recent genetic evidence indicates that the populations in those
regions are more related to the people of Anatolia than to anywhere else, but
this evidence is not event- or period-specific.
Anatolian famine
hypothesis
A famous passage from Herodotus[52] portrays the wandering and
migration of Lydians from Anatolia because of famine:
In the days of
Atys, the son of Manes, there was a great scarcity through the whole land of
Lydia ... So the king determined to divide the nation in half ... the one to
stay, the other to leave the land. ... the emigrants should have his son
Tyrrhenus for their leader ... they went down to Smyrna, and built themselves
ships ... after sailing past many countries they came to Umbria ... and called
themselves ... Tyrrhenians.
Connections to the Teresh of the Merneptah
Stele, which also mentions shipments of grain to the Hittite Empire to relieve
famine, are logically unavoidable. Many have made them, generally proposing a
coalition of seagoing migrants from Anatolia and the islands seeking relief from
scarcity. Tablet RS 18.38 from Ugarit also mentions grain to the Hittites,
suggesting a long period of famine, connected further, in the full theory, to
drought.[53] Barry Weiss,[54] using the Palmer Drought Index for 35 Greek,
Turkish, and Middle Eastern weather stations, showed that a drought of the kinds
that persisted from January 1972 would have affected all of the sites associated
with the Late Bronze Age collapse. Drought could have easily precipitated or
hastened socio-economic problems and led to wars. More recently, Brian Fagan has
shown how mid-winter storms from the Atlantic were diverted to travel north of
the Pyrenees and the Alps, bringing wetter conditions to Central Europe, but
drought to the Eastern Mediterranean.[55]
[The theories of Jurgen Spanuth
involving catastrophic changes in climate at this time are also interesting.
Famines are also likely to be associated with warfare and invasions from outside
territories.-DD]
See also: Tyrrhenians and Phoenicians
Invader
hypothesis
The term invasion is used generally in the literature concerning
the period to mean the documented attacks implying a local or unspecified
origin. An origin outside the Aegean also has been proposed, as in this example
by Michael Grant: "There was a gigantic series of migratory waves, extending all
the way from the Danube valley to the plains of China."[56]
Such a
comprehensive movement is associated with more than one people or culture;
instead, a "disturbance" happens, according to Finley:[57]
A large-scale
movement of people is indicated ... the original centre of disturbance was in
the Carpatho-Danubian region of Europe. ... It appears ... to have been ...
pushing in different directions at different times.
If different times
are allowed on the Danube, they are not in the Aegean: "all this destruction
must be dated to the same period about 1200."[57]
The following movements
are compressed by Finley into the 1200 BC window: the Dorian Invasion, the
attacks of the Sea Peoples, the formation of Philistine kingdoms in the Levant
and the fall of the Hittite Empire, when in fact, those events required at least
a few hundred years. [The Sea peoples could also easily have been active for a
few hundred years in all. Gypsies have remained intact as an ethnic group on the
move for far longer-DD]
The archaeological evidence is treated in the
same way. Robert Drews[58] presents a map showing the destruction sites of 47
fortified major settlements, which he terms "Major Sites Destroyed in the
Catastrophe". They are concentrated in the Levant, with some in Greece and
Anatolia. The questions of dates and agents of destruction remain for the most
part unanswered in detail, without which no single catastrophe or related
catastrophes can be postulated beyond the level of pure speculation.
The
invaders, that is, the replacement cultures at those sites, apparently made no
attempt to retain the cities' wealth but instead built new settlements of a
materially simpler cultural and less complex economic level atop the ruins. For
example, no one appropriated the palace and rich stores at Pylos, but all were
burned up, and the successors (whomever they were) moved in over the ruins with
plain pottery and simple goods. This demonstrates a cultural
discontinuity.
Whether all the discontinuities were sufficiently
contemporaneous to warrant a theory of great waves of invasion another question.
Ethnic identities from the Danube and beyond are in short supply in the
records.
Serbonian Bog
The name of the Serbonian Bog (Arabic: مستنقع
سربون) applied to the lake of Serbonis (Sirbonis or Serbon) in Egypt relates to
the Sea Peoples. When sand blew onto it, the Serbonian Bog appeared to be solid
land, but was in fact a bog[quicksand]. The term is now applied metaphorically
to any situation in which one is entangled from which extrication is
difficult.
The Serbonian Bog has been identified as Sabkhat al Bardawil,
one of the string of "Bitter Lakes" to the east of the Nile's right branch. It
was described in ancient times as a quagmire, in which armies were fabled to be
swallowed up and lost.
The term Serbonian came from the name of the
Sherden (also known as Serden or Shardana) sea pirates, one of several groups of
Sea Peoples who appear in fragmentary Egyptian records in the 2nd millennium
BC.[citation needed]
Notes1.^ A convenient table of sea peoples in
hieroglyphics, transliteration and English is given in the dissertation of
Woodhuizen, 2006, who developed it from works of Kitchen cited there
2.^ As
noted by Gardiner V.1 p.196, other texts have
ḫ3sty.w
"foreign-peoples"; both terms can refer to the concept of "foreigners" as well.
Zangger in the external link below expresses a commonly held view that "sea
peoples" does not translate this and other expressions but is an academic
innovation. The Woudhuizen dissertation and the Morris paper identify Gaston
Maspero as the first to use the term "peuples de la mer" in 1881.
3.^
Gardiner V.1 p.196.
4.^ Manassa p.55.
5.^ Line 52. The inscription is
shown in Manassa p.55 plate 12.
6.^ Several articles in Oren.
7.^ Page
53
8.^ Anson F. Rainey, Unruly Elements in Late Bronze Canaanite Society, in
"Pomegranates and golden bells" ed. David Pearson Wright, David Noel Freedman,
Avi Hurvitz, (Eisenbrauns, 1995) p.483
9.^ See also the Woudhuizen
dissertation of 2006 for a fuller consideration of the meaning of
ethnicity.
10.^ T.R. Bryce, The Lukka Problem - And a Possible Solution,
Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Vol. 33 No. 4, October 1974, pages 395-404. The
first page is displayable at jstor.org. The inscription is mentioned as well in
the Woudhuizen dissertation, page 31.
11.^ Letter EA 81
12.^ Letters EA
122, 123, which are duplicates. See the paper on this topic published by Megaera
Lorenz, The Amarna Letters at the Penn State site.
13.^ EA 151
14.^ EA
38
15.^ Uncertainty of the dates is not a case of no evidence but of
selecting among several possible dates. The articles in Wikipedia on related
topics use one set of dates by convention but these and all dates based on them
are not the only possible. A summary of the date question is given in Hasel, Ch.
2, p. 151, which is available as a summary on Google Books.
16.^ Find this
and other documents quoted in the Shardana article by Megaera Lorenz at the Penn
State site. This is an earlier version of her article, which gives a quote from
Kitchen not found in the External Links site below. Breasted Volume III, Article
491, p.210, which can be found on Google books, gives quite a different
translation of the passage. Unfortunately, large parts of the text are missing
and must be restored, but both versions agree on the Sherden and the
warships.
17.^ Kenneth Kitchen, Pharaoh Triumphant: The Life and Times of
Ramesses II, King of Egypt, Aris & Phillips, 1982. pp.40-41
18.^ Grimal,
pp.250-253
19.^ The poem appears in inscriptional form but the scribe,
pntAwr.t, was not the author, who remains unknown. The scribe copied the poem
onto Papyrus in the time of Merneptah and copies of that found their way into
Papyrus Sallier III currently located in the British Museum. The details are
stated in THE BATTLE OF KADESH on the site of the American Research Center in
Egypt of Northern California. Both the inscription and the poem are published in
"Egyptian Accounts of the Battle of Kadesh" on the Pharaonic Egypt site.
20.^
J. von Beckerath, p.190. Like those of Ramses II, these dates are not certain.
Von Beckerath's dates, adopted by Wikipedia, are relatively late; for example,
Sanders, Ch. 5, p. 105, sets the Battle of Perire at April 15, 1220.
21.^ The
Great Karnak Inscription.
22.^ All four inscriptions are stated in Breasted,
V. 3, "Reign of Meneptah", pp. 238 ff., Articles 569 ff., downloadable from
Google Books. For the Great Karnak Inscription see also Manassa.
23.^ J.H.
Breasted, p. 243, citing Lines 13-15 of the inscription
24.^ The texts of the
letters are transliterated and translated in the Woudhuizen dissertation and
also are mentioned and hypotheses are given about them in Sandars, p. 142
following.
25.^ The sequence, only recently completed, appears in the
Woudhuizen dissertation along with the news that the famous oven, still reported
at many sites and in many books, in which the second letter was hypothetically
being baked at the destruction of the city, was not an oven, the city was not
destroyed at that time, and a third letter existed.
26.^ Jean Nougaryol et
al. (1968) Ugaritica V: 87-90 no.24
27.^ RSL I = Nougayril et al., (1968)
86-86, no.23
28.^ Medinet Habu inscription of Ramesses III's 8th year, lines
16-17, trans. by John A. Wilson in Pritchard, J.B. (ed.) Ancient Near Eastern
Texts relating to the Old Testament, 3rd edition, Princeton 1969., p.262
29.^
Beckman cites the first few lines of the inscription located on the NW panel of
the 1st court of the temple. This extensive inscription is stated in full in
English in the Woudhuizen thesis, which also contains a diagram of the locations
of the many inscriptions pertaining to the reign of Ramses III on the walls of
temple at Medinet Habu.
30.^ a b Bryce, p.371
31.^ The Woudhuizen
dissertation quotes the inscriptions in English.
32.^ This passage in the
papyrus is often cited as evidence that the Egyptians settled the Philistines in
Philistia. The passage however only mentions the Sherden and Weshesh; i.e., does
not mention the Peleset and Tjeker, and nowhere implies that the scribe meant
Egyptian possessions in the Levant.
33.^ Redford, P. 292. A number of copies
or partial copies exist, the best being the Golenischeff Papyrus, or Papyrus
Moscow 169, located in the Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow (refer to
Onomasticon of Amenemipet at the Archaeowiki site). In it the author is stated
to be Amenemope, son of Amenemope.
34.^ Kitchen, pp. 99 & 140
35.^
Kitchen, pp.99-100
36.^ Reford p. 292
37.^ Ch. 8, subsection entitled "The
Initial Settlement of the Sea Peoples."
38.^ Ch. 7
39.^ See under
Tjeker.
40.^ Amos 9,7; argument reviewed by Sandars in Ch. 7.
41.^ One is
cited under Caphtor.
42.^
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2006/04/060429124854.htm
43.^ a b Ch. 7,
"The Peoples of the Sea."
44.^ Odyssey XIV 191-298.
45.^ Sandars Ch.
5.
46.^ Wood Ch. 6.
47.^ Eberhard Zangger in the Aramco article available
on-line and referenced under External links below.
48.^ Chadwick, p.
178.
49.^ See "Mycenaean Society and Its Collapse", a module of Exploring the
European Past by Jack Martin Balcer and John Matthew Stockhausen at
custom.thomsonlearning.com. They quote passages from the books of several
experts to give a spectrum of views.
50.^ The History of the Peloponnesian
War, Chapter I, Section 5.
51.^ Vermeule p. 271.
52.^ I.94
53.^ Wood p.
221 summarizes that a general climatological crisis in the Black Sea and
Danubian regions as known through pollen analysis and dendrochronology existed
about the year 1200 BC and could have caused migration from the north.
54.^
Weiss, Barry: (1982) "The decline of Late Bronze Age civilization as a possible
response to climatic change" in Climatic Change ISSN 0165-0009 (Paper) 1573-1480
(Online), Volume 4, Number 2, June 1982, pps 173 - 198
55.^ Fagan, Brian M.
(2003), "The Long Summer: How Climate Changed Civilization (Basic Books)
56.^
Grant, The Ancient Mediterranean, page 79.
57.^ a b Finley, page 58.
58.^
Pages 8-9.
[edit] SourcesBeckerath, Jürgen von (1997). Chronologie des
Pharaonischen Ägypten. Mainz. Mainz.
Beckman, Gary, "Hittite Chronology",
Akkadica, 119/120 (2000).
Breasted, J.H. (1906). Ancient Records of Egypt:
historical documents from the earliest times to the Persian conquest. Chicago:
The University of Chicago Press. Volume II on the 19th Dynasty is available for
download from Google Books.
Bryce, Trevor (1998). The Kingdom of the
Hittites. Oxford University Press. ISBN 978-0199240104.
Chadwick, John
(1976). The Mycenaean World. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. ISBN 0 521
21077 1.
Dothan, Trude & Moshe (1992). People of the Sea: The search for
the Philistines. New York: Scribner.
Dothan, Trude K. (1982). The Philistines
and Their Material Culture. Jerusalem: Israel Exploration Society.
Robert
Drews (1995). The End of the Bronze Age: Changes in Warfare and the Catastrophe
of ca. 1200 B.C.. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. ISBN
0691048118. Parts of this book are displayed as a Google Books
review.
Finley, M.I. (1981). Early Greece:The Bronze and Archaic Ages:New and
Revised Edition. New York, London: W.W. Norton & Co.. ISBN
0-393-01569-6.
Gardiner, Alan H. (1947). Ancient Egyptian Onomastica. London:
Oxford University Press. 3 vols.
Grant, Michael (1969). The Ancient
Mediterranean. New York: Charles Scribner's Sons.
Grimal, Nicolas (1992). A
History of Ancient Egypt. Oxford: Blackwell.
Hasel, Michael G. (1998).
Domination and Resistance: Egyptian Military Activity in the Southern Levant,
ca. 1300-1185 B.C.. Brill Academic Publishers. ISBN 9004100415.
Kitchen, K.A.
(2003). On the Reliability of the Old Testament. William B. Eerdsman Publishing
Co.
Manassa, Colleen (2003). The Great Karnak Inscription of Merneptah: Grand
Strategy in the Thirteenth Century BC. New Haven: Yale Egyptological Seminar,
Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations, Yale University. ISBN
0-9740025-0-X.
Mazar, Amihai (1992). Archaeology of the Land of the Bible:
10,000-586 B.C.E.. Doubleday. ISBN 0-385-42590-2.
Oren, Eliezer D. (ed.)
(2000). The Sea Peoples and Their World: A Reassessment. Philadelphia: The
University of Pennsylvania Museum of Archaeology and Anthropology.
Redford,
Donald B. (1992). Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times. Princeton, New
Jersey: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-03606-3.
Sandars, N.K. (1987).
The Sea Peoples: Warriors of the ancient Mediterranean, Revised Edition. London:
Thames and Hudson. ISBN 0-500-27387-1.
Vermeule, Emily (1964). Greece in the
Bronze Age. Chicago and London: The University of Chicago Press.
Wood,
Michael (1987). In Search of the Trojan War. New American Library. ISBN
0-452-25960-6.
Woudhuizen, Frederik Christiaan (1992). The Language of the
Sea Peoples. Amsterdam: Najade Press. ISBN 90-73835-02-X.
Woudhuizen,
Frederik Christiaan. April 2006. The Ethnicity of the Sea Peoples. Doctoral
dissertation; Rotterdam: Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam, Faculteit der
Wijsbegeerte.
Zangger, Eberhard (2001). The Future of the Past: Archaeology
in the 21st Century. London: Weidenfeld & Nicolson. ISBN
0-297-64389-4.
External links
Philistine Kin Found in Early
Israel, Adam Zertal, BAR 28:03, May/Jun 2002.
The Sea Peoples and the
Philistines: a course at Penn State
Egyptians, Canaanites, and Philistines in
the Period of the Emergence of Early Israel, paper by Itamar Singer at the UCLA
Near Eastern Languages & Culture site
"Who Were the Sea People?", article
by Eberhard Zangger in Saudi Aramco World, Volume 46, Number 3, May/June
1995
PlosOne dating the Sea People destruction of the Levant to 1192-90
BC
The Origins of the Sea Peoples, undergraduate paper by Joseph Morris
published by Florida State University Classic Department
The Sea Peoples and
Annales: A Contextual Study of the Late Bronze Age, Master's Thesis of Daniel
Jacobus Krüger, published at the University of South Africa site
"The Battle
of the Nile - Circa 1190 B.C.", article by I Cornelius in Military History
Journal, Vol. 7., No. 4 of the South African Military History
Society
Invasion routes by The Sea
Peoples in late Mykenian Times. Note that the Sea Peoples overran the Mykenians
before moving on, and that settlements were made as land conquests in both
Greece and Asia Minor as part of the progression.
Some
depictions of the Sea Peoples and their ships and gear, from Egyptian records.
Below, Some portraits of the Sea Peoples.
There
is a tradition of making bronze statuettes of what I call Skinny soldiers" in
Prehistoric Sardinia, and many experts call them Nuraghic figures. But they
derive from even older sources in Iberia (Rock art of marching soldiers from
between 7000 and 4000 BC, and a "Handsome young man" Skinny-soldier from Iberia
follow):
The same types of equipment as
shown on the small stauettes are also carved onto larger Megaliths turned into
statues on Sardinia. More importantly, they are exactly like the Sea Peoples
known as Sherdana as depicted in Ancient
Egypt
.
Horned Helmets did NOT go
with Vikings, by the way: it was the Sea People-Pirates that wore them instead.
Incidentally the same sorts of bronze figurines were also made in Scandinavia,
where their trade partners seeking amber had introduced the
style.
The
Nuraghic culture itself is named after compact drystone structures known as
Nuragha, which range from circular enclosures to cylindrical towers like
Scotland's brochs to elaborate castle-like fortifications with multiple walls
around a central keep or area of final redoubt. These are very similar to the
corresponding structures in Iberia known as Castros and which go back to the Los
Millares culture at the beginning of the metal age and the beginning of the
Megalithic. Moreover, the same sort of "Skinny Soldier" bronze figures also
occur in Iberia where they have said to go back to the local Rock-art tradition,
to which the figurines are generally comparable.
While several experts have
recognised the Dark Age which came after the fall of Mycenae, few have remarked
on the Geometric art tradition which spread and became dominant during that Dark
Age. It is found primarily in Greece but also in Italy including the Etruscan
lands, and Asia Minor and Palestine; and later it became general throughout the
Mediterranean. But it is derived from Iberian Megalithic and North-African
traditions, where the abstract and geometric mode was always more important than
strict Naturalism. And there is a widespread diffusion of bronze figurines much
like the Nuraghic ones, including into Phillistia/Palestine/Phoenician lands.
The tradition still goes back to the Iberian rock art, and this can be told from
the animals like horses and deer as well as the human figures. The Geometric is
what you would call a syncretic culture taking from different sources and
melding together into something new that works for both of the older
traditions.
Similar bronze statuetts and geometric
decorations-and the same stule for depicting horses, deer, birds and
longboats-appeared in Italy and Central Europe at this time. The style also made
its new appearanc in Greece under the term of Geometric art, and it included
such traits as running waves and swastikas that were popular in bronze age
Megalithic Europe long before they became popular in
Greece.
Etruscan
horse, and early Greek depiction of a man with a Centaur. The "Heavy-Leg" effect
is also a trait
featured in some other Iberian rock-art and it is
thought to have some similarity to rock art found in the Sahara and other parts
of Africa.
The geometric forms associated with such
decoration on European Megalithic and African pottery goes back to earlier
geometric incisions made on ostrich eggshells in Africa. Since they have the
same pattern as flash inside the eyes when going innto or out of
unconsciousness, they are thought to describe what is happening in a trance
state and quite possibly during the ritual taking of certain drugs. When such
patterns appear on Mayan monuments they are called "Graecas" because the
patterns reminded somebody of Greek Geometric pottery. In the case of the Mayan
decorations as well, it is likely that they are again trying to make reference
to the trance state, possibly even inducing it by using it as a hypnotic
pattern.
http://www.oubliette.org.uk/Sixc.html
Oceanus and Phorcys with Ceto below.
There was a book in the library that I was
very fond of as a teen-ager and I have not seen a copy of it in ages. Its name
was
Gods With Bronze Swords by Cosa deLoverdo and it was basically a
straightforeward retelling of Greek hero stories as virtual history of the
Mykenian period. The author basically maintained that the mythical language was
a sort of a code: when Hercules wrestled the Nemean Lion, he was actually
fighting a brigand whose emblem was a lion and when Hercules defeated him, he
had the right to bear his armour and become the "New Lion". Among other facets
of the theory was the continuing reference to the Monsters of mythology as the
Phorcyds, the children of Phorcys and Ceto (or porpoise and whale, or seal and
whale-it is not sure what was originally meant at this point) They could also be
called the Oceanids because they were the children of Oceanus. De Loverdo said
that this family of monsters represented a powerful rival culture to the Greeks
in ancient times, remnants of a wide-flung former Atlantean Empire that still
shared common symbols and probably a common language. The Monstrous children of
Phorcys and Ceto were Pirates but where they had their home establishments they
were not thought of as so monstrous-ordinarily they were pretty Nymphs like the
Hesperidaes or even the Gorgons (Medusa was supposed to have been beautiful and
later transformed to be ugly) So the various myths of Perseus and Hercules and
Bellerophon were all accounts of raids these heroes had made against the
Phorcyds, carrying off trasure and Insignis. De Loverdo also suspected that
Pegasus was an especially fine Phorcyd ship owned by the Gorgon faction, and so
on down the line.
The common symbols of the Phorcyds do seem fairly
obvious, a round sunface mask and probably masks made by winding snakelike vines
into frames around the face (a "Green Man" siort of effect), Volcano-symbols,
prominent symbolism odf such creatures as snakes and octopi or giant squids; and
belief in the Evil Eyes and the use of a variety of specific charms to avert its
evil influence. Most of these traits can be identified as belonging to
Megalithic Europe. The "Harpies" were evidently originally birds that carried
the souls of the dead to the otherworld but also their physical
manifestation-vultures who had the more practical task of eating away the
perishable remainsso that the bones might be more satisfactoily dealt with. And
if they did not have regular totems, their warrirs had distinctive animal
emblems that they were very much attached to and identified with on a personal
level-lion and bull, goat and crab, scorpion and even gadfly. and all of these
characters appear in mythology.
And my contention is that the Phorcyds
clearly refer to the Peoples of the Sea-more especially certain individuals
and/or settlements of them. The time scale would be just about right. Their
"Nymphs" might well mean that their main religious functionaries and oracles
were ordinarily female.
This illustration shows Echidna, daughter of
Ceto and a "Sea-Serpent" herself, mother of the Hydra, Cerberus, the Chimera
(shown below) and the two-headed giant Cacus. All of these are creatures which
Herculrs fought and all of these would be references to individual Phorcyd
warriors according to the book
Gods With Bronze Swords. And individual
warriors of the Sea People by my interpretation.
Painting shows the Hesperidea nymphs,,
Phorcyd women associated with the "Islands in the West" and hence traditions
about Atlantis.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phorcydes
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Echidna_(mythology)
http://www.theoi.com/Pontios/Phorkys.html
Atlantipedia
Entry for The Sea Peoples
http://atlantipedia.ie/samples/a-z-listing/
http://atlantipedia.ie/samples/sea-peoples/
Sea
Peoples
The Sea Peoples is the name given to an unidentified group
of allies who invaded Egypt in the 2nd millennium BC. Their exact origin has
been a matter of intense speculation. The debate regarding their true identity
has been ongoing for a long time and will probably continue as long as the
chronologies of the Middle East are not fully harmonised to the satisfaction of
all.
The Oxford Companion to the Bible[605] is certain that the Sea
Peoples were originally Mycenaean, who, following the collapse of their
civilisation at the end of the Late Bronze Age moved south. They were repelled
by the Egyptians and then moved on to the Levant where they later became known
as the Philistines.
[This is somewhat of the conventional idea. Unfortunately
we also find that the Sea Peoples fought with the Mykenians prior to their
collapse and that while SOME Sea Peoples evidently settled in Palestine, that
information is not enough to specifically equate them as
Philistines.Phillistines are important in Biblical records owing to their
monopoly in iron use and that can only have come from the Hittites in this early
age.--DD]
Jürgen Spanuth, not surprisingly, referred to them as
the North Sea Peoples[015] and offered a range of evidence from Egyptian
inscriptions at Medinet Habu to support this idea. This evidence includes a
variety of features that Egyptians used to portray the Sea Peoples such as types
of swords, shape of ships, shields and helmets as well as hair, clothing and
shaving fashions. He then identified these Scandinavians as Atlanteans who later
attacked Egypt. Quite recently Spanuth’s ideas have been echoed by Walter Baucum
in his Bronze Age Atlantis[183].
Quite a number of writers have
identified the Atlanteans as the Sea Peoples whose invasion of the Eastern
Mediterranean has been recorded in some detail by the Egyptians. One such early
identification was by Spyridon Marinatos.
One of the latest to join this
school is Dr. Rainer W. Kühne, who not only makes the same identification, but
using satellite images, he believes that he has pinpointed the capital of
Atlantis in Southern Spain. His website has a list of comparisons of Atlanteans
and Sea Peoples(a).
[IMHO these statements are all
basically correct and they are additive. The Sea Peoples did include a
contingent from Tartessos which in turn had control of Atlantic Bronze Age Trade
to the North, the importance of which cannot be underestimated. Spanuth's North
Sea inhabitants, The Tartessians and the Sardinians would all be united by
politicalalliances, economical ties and probably genetics since all of them were
Megalithic cultures. It is fair to call the Megalith-buildres the descendants
and Heirs to the Atlanteans.--DD]Erick Wright, a regular
contributor to Atlantis Rising forums, has now concluded(b) that Atlantis was
located in modern southern Turkey and that Atlanteans were among the Sea Peoples
who attacked Egypt in 1200 BC. [Modern Southern Turkey undoubtedly included a
colony of Atlanteans in the past, as well as Cyprus. That does not necessarily
equate Turkey to Atlantis when Atlantis is specifically separate from Asia
Minor, Greece OR Libya according to Plato since they are both compared and
contrasted in the dialogues.-DD]
The Tuatha de Danaan invaded Ireland in
prehistoric times. Having noted that Dan/Don/Danu were ancient words for water,
it is not such a wild supposition that the Tuatha de Danaan were at least a
constituent part of the Sea Peoples, an idea promoted by Leonardo Melis. [Some
of the Sea Peoples are specifically CALLED Danaans. This links them to the older
Pelasgians BTW]
David Rohl, a high profile archaeologist, has
proposed[232] an Anatolian homeland for most of the Sea Peoples listed by the
Egyptians. [This goes against many traditional identifications which seem to
specify Etruscans and Tartessians as well as the Sardinians mentioned
below-DD]
Frank Joseph contends that conflict between the Egyptians and
the Sea Peoples was part of the Trojan War[108 p11]. [This theory and the
preceeding one are both almost certainly wrong on account of the deliberate
distinction Plato made between Atlantis and Asia Minor-DD]
Another
unexpected twist is the claim, by the discoverer of the Phaistos Disk, Luigi
Pernier, that the characters used on the Disk are similar to the representations
of the Sea Peoples at Medinet Habu. [the feathered headdress is
illustrated-DD]
The most radical suggestion regarding the Sea Peoples has
come from Jim Allen who has drawn attention to the similarity of their headgear
with that of Amazonian ‘Indians’(c). [This is not really so radical. The
similarity of the feathered headdress to a "Red Indian's war bonnet" has been
noted in many of the commonly-available books since the late 1800s. see photos
at top of this blog page--DD]
(a)
http://www.beepworld.de/members62/rwk_atlantis/
(b)
http://forums.atlantisrising.com/ubb/Forum1/HTML/000855.html
(c)
http://www.atlantisbolivia.org/headgear.htm
Also
see: Shardana
http://atlantipedia.ie/samples/shardana/
RAMESES III:
THE PICTURE OF the seal shown with
this article, carries the inscription `Belonging to Shema, servant of Jeroboam'.
The seal was found in archaeological excavations at Megiddo in Northern Israel
during the Turkish occupation of the land. The original seal is carved in
jasper, while the picture is of a bronze cast taken from it. But the striking
feature of the seal is the roaring lion that was used as a symbol for the
southern kingdom of Judah.