Who were the Sea Peoples?

[Curtis24]

So what's your theory about them? I'm not talking abour race, but rather, ethnicity and geograhic origin. In case you don't know what I'm talking about:


The Sea Peoples is the term used for 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 ḫ3t.w n 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]

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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.





http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sea_peoples

Keep in mind this all conjecture on my part, but:

Personally I think they were the Mycenaean Greeks. Their social structure and cultural beliefs certainly made widespread raiding of the Mediterranean possible. They already a reputation for being pirates. They also had diplomatic relations with Egypt.

Perhaps most importantly, one culture widely believed to be descended from the Sea Peoples - the Philistines - were using Mycenaean architecture.

Plus, some of their own historical narratives backs it up. detailing a long, catastrophic war that the Myceneans engaged in in Turkey. The Odyssey can be read as a metaphor of a long period of migration and instability - Odysseus basically sailing around, stopping and raiding everywhere - representing the Greek armies engaging in widespread looting of the Mediterranean. Thucydides also vaguely mentions some "instability" following the Trojan War, but glosses over it, as if he's embarassed.

Anyway, whats your theory?

[Loddfafner]

Isn't it established that the Sea People were the Achaeans of the Iliad?

[Osweo]

I thought they were the pre-IE Aegean peoples, at least in part. (Some IE opportunists may have joined in too)

The Philistines have been mentioned, and the PLST name seems close to that of the Pelasgians in Greece.

The phenomenon seemed to take in the western Med, too, and I think one name recorded by the Egyptians is seen to echo that of Sardinia.

I'm inclined to link them with the Etruscans and Lemnians. Linguistically, that would make them 'cousins' of IE, according to some theorists.

[Curtis24]

Interesting, but I thought most of the pre-Hellenic Aegean peoples were just absorbed into Hellenic culture.

Let's posit this: they were from the Western Mediterranean. If so, what peoples could they have been? What could have been the explanation for their expansion? A new sailing technology? Or did such a new technology, allow the Mycenaeans a new advantage over the other Near-Eastern, Bronze-Age empires?

[Osweo]

Interesting, but I thought most of the pre-Hellenic Aegean peoples were just absorbed into Hellenic culture.
They were, later on. But there were plenty of non-Hellenic speakers knocking around still in the historical period, even as late as Roman rule in the Aegean.

Let's posit this: they were from the Western Mediterranean. If so, what peoples could they have been? What could have been the explanation for their expansion? A new sailing technology?
IF they were from the West, their names are now forgotten, and they are known only by their archaeological remnants. It may be the case that the islanders around the Tyrrhenian Sea played a big part, but I tend to view the area (see its name - Etruscan) as a westward extension of pre-Greek Aegean culture. Greater seafaring skills are to be assumed for the inhabitants of the more intricate archipelagos than for the inhabitants of the big islands in the west, no?

Or did such a new technology, allow the Mycenaeans a new advantage over the other Near-Eastern, Bronze-Age empires?
These sort of thing usually come down to cultural factors. Newly invigorated warrior codes probably have more relevance than technology, especially in the face of internal weakness of the older established civilisations.

[San Galgano]

There is even the Nuragic civilization of Sardinia who could share something with sea-people.



The late Bronze Age (15th-13th centuries BC) saw a vast migration of the so-called sea people, described in ancient Egyptian sources. They destroyed Mycenaean and Hittite sites and also attacked Egypt. According to some scholars the Sherden, one of the most important tribes of the sea peoples, are to be identified with the Nuragic Sardinians.[9] Another hypothesis is that they arrived to the island around the 13th-12th century after the failed invasion of Egypt. However, these theories remain controversial. A lost work by Simonides of Ceos reported by Zenobius, spoke of raids by Sardinians against the island of Crete, in the same period in which the Sea People invaded Egypt. This would at least confirm that Nuragic Sardinians frequented the eastern Mediterranean Sea. Further proofs come from 13th century Nuragic ceramics found at Tiryns (Crete) and in the Agrigento area in Sicily, along the sea route linking western to eastern Mediterranean.
Bronze model of nuraghe. 10th century BC.

Recently the archaeologist Adam Zertal,echoing the theory already presented in 2005 by Leonardo Melis[10], has proposed that the Harosheth Haggoyim of Israel , home of the biblical figure Sisera , is identifiable with the site of "El-Ahwat" and that it was a Nuragic site suggesting that he came from the people of the Sherden of Sardinia

[Wulfhere]

Jurgen Spanuth, the German archaeologist who discovered a sunken city near Heligoland, believed they came from Northern Europe.

[Osweo]

Jurgen Spanuth, the German archaeologist who discovered a sunken city near Heligoland, believed they came from Northern Europe.

Die Phönizier: ein Nordmeervolk im Libanon. - Osnabrück: Zeller, 1985

:rotfl:

[biancuf]

We take a look to what, Sea People armament, was is use during raids in Egypt. How this weapons are depicted in Medinet Habu Temple. This weapons are German/Celtic weapons> Round Shields/NaueII sword/ Helmets with Horns. NO Micenaens use this tipe of shield, no Aegeans use this kind of shield, they use 8 shape shield. Nordic and Sardinian weapons are linked perfectly. Round shields/same dress/ same swords/same spears/ and Horned Helmets. Atlantic Bronze age is a Celtic network that spread from Paleolitic Age to Bronze age /Sykes> Blood of the Isles. In this time from 2000 ac From north Europe to Iberia/ Galicia/El Argar/Sardinia /Etruria/Sicily spreads a Metal Network that links from the west Mediterranean to Greek Land and Turkey. I think that Crete was the Important link to Libano, and in Crete was made the alleance between West Mediterranears and Pheleset/Micenaens and others mercenaries like Anatolian Pelasgians Lukka . If you take a Look at biggest Nuraghes, you-ll see the first Medioeval Castles evermade in the all World, the same Castle that we' ll find in Central Europe from Celto/Germanic Civilization.

[Sikeliot]

Probably some combination of ancient Cretans, Sicilians, and Sardinians. I do know that a collection of people from these places did end up raiding the Egyptian coast and invading through the north.

[Anusiya]

We take a look to what, Sea People armament, was is use during raids in Egypt. How this weapons are depicted in Medinet Habu Temple. This weapons are German/Celtic weapons> Round Shields/NaueII sword/ Helmets with Horns. NO Micenaens use this tipe of shield, no Aegeans use this kind of shield, they use 8 shape shield. Nordic and Sardinian weapons are linked perfectly. Round shields/same dress/ same swords/same spears/ and Horned Helmets. Atlantic Bronze age is a Celtic network that spread from Paleolitic Age to Bronze age /Sykes> Blood of the Isles. In this time from 2000 ac From north Europe to Iberia/ Galicia/El Argar/Sardinia /Etruria/Sicily spreads a Metal Network that links from the west Mediterranean to Greek Land and Turkey. I think that Crete was the Important link to Libano, and in Crete was made the alleance between West Mediterranears and Pheleset/Micenaens and others mercenaries like Anatolian Pelasgians Lukka . If you take a Look at biggest Nuraghes, you-ll see the first Medioeval Castles evermade in the all World, the same Castle that we' ll find in Central Europe from Celto/Germanic Civilization.

The Peleshet are the Pelasgians (πέλας = πέλαγος = sea), Cycladic people and probaby some Minoan as well. They weren't carrying any shields, only a sword.

This is an interesting vase, which probably depicts Shardana = Sardinians.

http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-O47DfGAyz2k/TqyHbk9Zz9I/AAAAAAAADn0/EYmmIL_s3VI/s1600/%25CE%25BA%25CF%2581%25CE%25B1%25CF%2584%25CE%25AE %25CF%2581%25CE%25B1%25CF%2582+%25CF%2584%25CF%258 9%25CE%25BD+%25CF%2580%25CE%25BF%25CE%25BB%25CE%25 B5%25CE%25BC%25CE%25B9%25CF%2583%25CF%2584%25CF%25 8E%25CE%25BD.JPG

[Smaug]

My theory is that they were an Indo-European people from Eastern Mediterranean, probably of Anatolian or Paleo-Balkanic origin. There are linguistics evidences that point that te Philistines were an Indo-European people.