Sea Peoples of the
Bronze Age Mediterranean
c.1400 BC–1000 BC
RAFFAELE D’AMATO ILLUSTRATED BY GIUSEPPE RAVA
& ANDREA SALIMBETI
© Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
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Sea Peoples of the Bronze
Age Mediterranean
c.1400 BC–1000 BC
ANDREA SALIMBETI ILLUSTRATED BY GIUSEPPE RAVA
& RAFFAELE D’AMATO Series editor Martin Windrow
© Osprey Publishing • www.ospreypublishing.com
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION 4
CHRONOLOGY 6
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND & SOURCES 7
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IDENTIFICATION OF GROUPS 12
Sherden Peleset 5KFLLFS %FOZFO 4IFLFMFTI &LXFTI Teresh
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CLOTHING & EQUIPMENT 31
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8FBQPOTTQFBSTBOEKBWFMJOToTXPSET EBHHFSTBOENBDFT̓
MILITARY ORGANIZATION 39
$PNQPTJUJPOPGUIFIPTUEFQJDUFEJOUIF.FEJOFU)BCVSFMJFGT Leadership
TACTICS 44
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‘THE WAR OF THE EIGHTH YEAR’, 1191 OR 1184 BC 49
5IFJOWBTJPO The land battle The sea battle "GUFSNBUI
BIBLIOGRAPHY 61
INDEX 64
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SEA PEOPLES OF THE BRONZE
AGE MEDITERRANEAN
c.1400 BC–1000 BC
INTRODUCTION
The term ‘Sea Peoples’ is given today to various seaborne raiders and invaders
from a loose confederation of clans who troubled the Aegean, the Near East
and Egypt during the final period of the Bronze Age in the second half of the
"QSJTPOFSDBQUVSFECZUIF 2nd millennium BC.
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Though the Egyptians presumably knew the homelands of the Sea
AGFBUIFSFE SFFEPSMFBUIFSTUSJQ Peoples, that information has since been lost. Many attempts have been made
AUJBSBIFMNFUPSIFBEESFTT5IJT to determine the origins of the various groups from textual and iconographic
JTBEFUBJMGSPNUIFEFQJDUJPOJO evidence, and by study of their material culture as identified in Cyprus and
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the Levant. This material culture is characterized by locally made Achaean-
WJDUPSZ co#$ style pottery, and a considerable but not exclusively Aegean origin has
"VUIPSTDPMMFDUJPO therefore been argued for the multi-ethnic coalition of Sea Peoples.
The reliefs and inscriptions at Medinet Habu in Egypt, together with
Hittite written sources, reveal the emergence of
European populations as an influential power
in the political and military arena of the Near
East and Egypt in the last centuries of the 2nd
millennium BC. The movements of ‘barbarian’
raiders, the crisis of the so-called ‘Palatial’
system, internal quarrels, and the need for new
settlements among the inhabitants of the
Aegean area forced defeated leaders to seek
refuge and new lands in Western Asia. The
records of Pharaoh Ramesses III reveal the
repercussions of such Greek migrations and
conquests among the Egyptians and
neighbouring nations. These newcomers were
among the reasons for a sweeping change in
Late Bronze Age society, and for the fall of the
Palatial societies in Greece as well as the Levant.
Scholars have puzzled over whether the
Sea Peoples were directly responsible for the
collapse of some Late Bronze Age civilizations
or were only one of several catalysts, but their
movement was certainly one of the most
significant migrations in the history of the
Mediterranean world.
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Many of these ‘Northerners’ (as they are called in Egyptian texts) were
well acquainted with the sea; for at least two centuries the Sherden people
had been well known both for their piracy and for their prowess as
mercenaries. The shores and islands of the Aegean, as attested by the pottery
finds classified as Late Helladic IIIC period (LHIIIC, c.1150–1050 BC), were
ravaged by confrontations, while many powerful citadels of Late Bronze Age
Greece crumbled. Some of these, such as Tiryns in Argolis and Enkomi in
Cyprus, became bases for the Sea Peoples and their occasional confederacies.
These events may have provoked the Achaean princes to piracy and a search
for new lands in the East, confronting the Hittites in Asia Minor who stood
in the way of their advances inland from the Aegean. This struggle between
the newcomers and the Anatolian population may have been among the
causes of the Trojan War. )FBETPGWBSJPVTFOFNJFTPG
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By about 1200 BC the tide of invasion from Europe had swept across SFMJFGT UISFFPGUIFNSFQSFTFOU
Asia Minor, broken up the Hittite Empire, and spread out over the coasts of "FHFBOXBSSJPSTXJUIUIF
Anatolia and the Fertile Crescent; here some of the invaders – also involving AGFBUIFSFEUJBSBTUZMFPGIFMNFU
Semitic peoples in their migratory movement – began to settle permanently. *O&HZQUJBOJDPOPHSBQIZUIF
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Amidst all this turmoil, elements of older populations were dislodged; some EJòFSFOUJBUFUIFDIBSBDUFSJTUJDT
mixed with the invaders to form new elements of the migratory flow, and PGWBSJPVTFUIOJDHSPVQT UIF
others simply fled in search of new homes. As the disintegration of the older MPOHIBJSFE CFBSEFEöHVSF
states progressed the Sea Peoples increased in numbers and diversity of tribes, IFSFNBZSFQSFTFOUB/FBS
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extending their attacks towards the south and especially towards the Egyptian NBOXJUIBGSJOHFBOETJEFMPDLT
empire. The rich cities of the Nile Delta were an attractive prize, and the B-JCZBO FY3PTFMMJOJ BVUIPST
political situation in Egypt offered an excellent opportunity for new DPMMFDUJPO ̓
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settlement. Some of the newcomers allied themselves with the traditional
enemies of Egypt, the Libyans, and supported the latters’ efforts to settle in
the Nile Delta, but this attempt was utterly defeated by the Pharaoh
Merneptah in c.1207 BC.
However, in Year 5 of the reign of Ramesses III the Egyptian texts record
troubles in Syria provoked by the invaders, and in Year 8 a more threatening
danger arose. While earlier attacks by the Northerners had been limited to
seaborne raids on the coastal regions of the Delta, now the Sea Peoples were
moving southward not only in a military invasion but in a comprehensive
migration, with their families and possessions, to settle in the Asiatic part of the
Egyptian empire. Ramesses III faced invasions by land and sea, as enemy ships
seem to have co-operated with the main body moving overland. The pharaoh
led out his best forces to meet this threat, including foreign mercenaries, and
claims to have won complete victories in the subsequent battles by land and sea.
Groups of defeated Sea Peoples were settled as guardians over the eastern
frontiers of Egypt, such as the Philistines who were planted along the
Palestinian coast. As the power of the pharaohs slowly diminished into
decadence, these settlers created their own kingdoms, taking possession of
the Palestinian coastal plain that took its name from them. It has even been
suggested that some roamed much further west, since the name of present-
day Sardinia resembles that of one of the seagoing groups who were
prominent among the Sea Peoples.
CHRONOLOGY (BC)
2000–1700 Egyptian inscription from ‘Byblos obelisk’ mentions the
Lukka.
1430–1385 Annals of Tudhaliya I/II list the Karkisa as taking part in
western Anatolian rebellion (Assuwan confederacy) against
Hatti.
1386–1321 So-called ‘Amarna letters’ mention the Sherden, Danuna and
Lukka.
1350 Achaean and Sherden mercenaries serve in armies of Pharaohs
Akhenaten and Horemheb.
1274 Battle of Kadesh inscriptions of Pharaoh Ramesses II the
Great (r.1279–1213) mention the Karkisa and Lukka, together
with the pharaoh’s Sherden mercenaries.
1260 Treaty of Hittite kings Muwatalli II and Alaksandu of Wilusa
binds latter to help former if he campaigns against the Karkisa.
1207 During reign of Pharaoh Merneptah (r.1213–1203), ‘Great
Karnak Inscription’ lists Ekwesh, Teresh, Lukka, Sherden and
Shekelesh among ‘Northerners’ allied with Libyans against
Egypt. On the ‘Athribis Stele’ a list of captured peoples from
the Libyan campaign includes Ekwesh of the Sea, Shekelesh,
Teresh and Sherden.
Late 13th C: Letter from king of Ugarit (in Syria) to king of Alashiya (in
Cyprus) states that the former is left defenceless against the
enemy because all his ships are in ‘the land of Lukka’.
Late 13th or Hittite great king requests from Ugarit extradition of a man
early 12th C: who was formerly a prisoner of the Shekelesh (or Tjekker).
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1191 or 1178: Land and sea victories of Pharaoh Ramesses III over
confederation of Sea Peoples.
1174–1130 Egyptians plant Peleset in garrisons in southern Canaan, and
early ‘Philistine’ settlements are founded in southern Levantine
coastal region.
1114–1064 During 20th Dynasty, under Ramesses XI, Sherden mercenaries
are still mentioned in administrative documents as in service
of royal house and beneficiaries of lands and goods.
HISTORICAL BACKGROUND
& SOURCES
The earliest mention of an ethnic group now considered to be among the
Sea Peoples is in Egyptian hieroglyphics on the ‘Byblos obelisk’. This mentions
kwkwn son of rwqq, transliterated as Kukunnis, son of Lukka (the Lycian).
The next historical evidence is from the ‘Amarna letters’, representing
diplomatic correspondence between 14th-century BC pharaohs and their
contemporaries in Canaan, Mesopotamia, Anatolia and the Aegean. At this
time the Near East was dominated by a group of ‘great kings’ with numerous
vassal city-states under their influence. It is in the vassal correspondence that
the Sea Peoples appear most frequently. The earliest of the letters date from
late in the reign of Amenhotep III, and the latest from the reign of Ay (i.e.
between c.1360 and 1321 BC). The ethnic groups under consideration are
the Sherden, Danuna and Lukka.
The Kadesh campaign of Ramesses II, c.1274 BC
Some of the Sea Peoples are also mentioned in Pharoah Ramesses II’s inscriptions
regarding the battle of Kadesh. This battle against the Hittites was one of the
most significant events of his reign, and took place in Year 5 of his rule (c.1274
BC following the most recent chronology). Although it did not end in a
conclusive victory for either side, it did result in a peace treaty between Egypt
and Hatti and a period of stability in the ancient Near East. The text is divided
into two sections: a bulletin and a poem. In the former, Ramesses mentions,
among the confederation of peoples from Canaan and the Mediterranean
campaigning alongside the Hittites, the Karkisa and the Lukka. Throughout the
text these two peoples are always mentioned in close association with one
another. In the poem the composition of the Hittite confederation is again
described, but another of the Sea Peoples is mentioned in the context of
Ramesses’ own soldiers: the Sherden, formerly captured in battle and put to
work as mercenary troops. These accounts of the battle are important for what
they say about the status of the Sea Peoples at the height of the Egyptian New
Kingdom: the Lukka, Karkisa and Sherden were all significant military forces
at this time, apparently operating mostly as mercenaries.
The victory of Merneptah, c.1207 BC
In the fifth year of the Pharaoh Merneptah (1207 BC) – according to the
sources known as the Great Karnak Inscription, Cairo Column, Athribis Stele,
and Hymn of Victory (aka the Israel Stele) – King Meryey of the Libyans
formed a coalition with several groups of Sea Peoples, and pushed forwards
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