Abstract:
The "Sea Peoples" or "peoples of the sea" was a term coined by the Egyptians to describe the massive heterogenous assortment of tribes who corporately invaded Egypt and the eastern Mediterranean during the fourteenth to twelfth centuries B.C. Fourteenth century descriptions identify: the Lukka. Masa and Derden; thirteenth century records describe the Shardana, Lukka, Meshwesh, Teresh, Ekwesh, Shekelesh, Tursha (Etruscans?) and Akaiwasha (Achaeans?); twelfth century records speak of the latter plus the Tjekker, Denyen (Derden?), Weshesh and the all important Pelest - the Philistines. They could not in anyway be described as a single culture, but various tribes linked by ethnic, religious or trade interests. Ramses III said of them, "they conspired in their islands, and developed a conspiracy." Ramses III, Medinet Habu inscription. See Appendix I.5, Sources. Merneptah said they went about like roving mercurial pirates plundering and pillaging to keep themselves alive. The best historical comparison is perhaps to the European Crusaders two millennium later, who spoke different languages yet functioned as a corporate army under a common purpose, notwithstanding internecine fighting. See p. 69. Donald Redford and Alessandra Nibbi do not accept the phrase "Sea Peoples,' deriding it as an artificial modern construct, neither do they acknowledge the Sea Peoples as a distinct culture outside the Asiatic culture of the Nile Delta. Donald Redford, "War of the Egyptians and the Sea Peoples," EBA97-4, Invasion of the Peoples & The End of the Bronze Age, audio cassette lecture series, California Museum of Ancient Art, California, 1997; Alessandra Nibbi, The Sea Peoples and Egypt, Noyes Press, New Jersey, 1975,p.2-3.
