Where the “Sea Peoples” the descendants of Atlantis?
According to Egyptian sources dating back to the 19th dynasty, in a remote time there existed the "Sea Peoples" who, sailing towards the eastern Mediterranean Sea, invaded Anatolia, Syria, Palestine, Cyprus and Egypt. In reality, not much is known about them, nor where they came from. Egyptian sources describe these populations only from a military point of view: “They came from the sea on their warships, and no one could go against them”!
The "Sea Peoples" are the subject of an endless debate still ongoing among ancient history scholars. They are a human group about which very little is known, whose lack of information has favored the flourishing of numerous theories and hypotheses. It is unknown who they were, nor their place of origin nor what happened to them. Therefore, the precise identity of these "sea populations" is still an enigma for scholars.
Some evidence suggests that the identity and motivations of these populations were known to the ancient Egyptians. The little information we have, in fact, comes from ancient Egyptian sources dating back to the 19th dynasty. In reality, Egyptian sources describe such peoples only from a military point of view. On the stele of Tanis we read an inscription attributed to Ramesses II, which reads:
«The Shardana rebels, whom no one ever knew how to fight, arrived from the center of the sea sailing boldly with their warships. No one was ever able to resist them»
The fact that various civilizations including the Hittite civilization, Mycenaean civilization and the Mitanni kingdom disappeared simultaneously around 1175 BC has led scholars to theorize that this was caused by the incursions of the Sea Peoples.
Ramesses' reports of the Sea People's raids in the eastern Mediterranean are confirmed by the destruction of Hatti, Ugarit, Ashkelon and Hazor.
It should be noted that these invasions were not only military operations but were accompanied by large movements of populations by land and sea, in a continuous search for new lands in which to settle.
The Sea Peoples
The term "Sea Peoples" refers to a group made up of ten populations from southern Europe, a sort of confederation, who at the end of the Bronze Age, sailing towards the eastern Mediterranean Sea, invaded Anatolia, Syria , Palestine, Cyprus and Egypt.
The most important ancient sources in which the Sea Peoples are mentioned are the Obelisk of Byblos, dating back to between 2000 and 1700 BC, the Amarna Letters, the Stele of Tanis and the inscriptions of the Pharaoh Merenptah.
Among the populations mentioned in ancient inscriptions, the most intriguing are certainly the Lukka, the Shardana, the Šekeleš and the Danuna.
The Lukkas
The first mention of these people appears in the obelisk of Byblos, where Kwkwn son of Rwqq is named, transliterated Kukunnis son of Lukka.
The Lukka lands are also often mentioned in Hittite texts from the 2nd millennium BC. They denote a region located in the southwestern part of Anatolia. The lands of Lukka were never placed permanently under Hittite control, and the Hittites themselves considered them hostile.
The soldiers of Lukka fought in alliance with the Hittites in the famous battle of Qadeš (ca. 1274 BC) against the Egyptian Pharaoh Ramesses II. However, a century later, Lukka turned against the Hittites. The Hittite king Suppiluliuma II unsuccessfully attempted to defeat Lukka, which contributed to the collapse of the Hittite empire.
The Shardana
The Shardana first appear in Egyptian sources in the Amarna Letters (c. 1350 BC) during the reign of Akhenaten. They are then mentioned during the reign of Ramesses II, Merenptah and Ramesses III with whom they engaged in numerous naval battles.
In the depiction they are depicted with long triangular swords, daggers, spears and a round shield. The kilt is short, they are equipped with armor and a helmet with horns.
The similarities between the Shardana warriors and those of the Nuragic people of Sardinia, as well as the assonance of the name Shardana with that of Sardi-Sardinia, have led some to hypothesize that the Shardana were a population coming from Sardinia or who had settled in island following the attempted invasion of Egypt.
The Šekeleš
The Šekeleš, also called Sakalasa, are mentioned together with eight other members of the Sea Peoples in the inscriptions commissioned by Pharaoh Merenptah (13th century BC). They have been associated with the Siculi, an Indo-European population who settled in eastern Sicily in the late Bronze Age, driving out the Sicans towards the west.
It is not excluded that their emigration to Sicily may have preceded the clashes with the Egypt of Merenptah, if the high chronology of the Pantalic I culture (dated from 1270 BC) and the testimony of Hellanicus of Mytilene, reported by Dionysius of Halicarnassus, according to which the landing of the Sicels in Sicily occurred three generations before the Trojan War, around 1275 BC; Dionysius also reports the dating set by Philistus (twenty-four years before the Trojan War) more or less contemporary with the conflict between the pharaoh Merneptah and the Sea Peoples.
The Danunas
The Danuna, or Denyen, are certainly the most enigmatic. According to legend, the Danuna left the continent of Atlantis to settle on the island of Rhodes. This people worshiped the goddess Danu, a primordial goddess present in the mythology of many cultures (from the Celtic to the Indian). She was represented as a moon surrounded by the serpent and was supposedly considered the mother goddess of the waters.
Greek mythology tells us that the primordial inhabitants of the island of Rhodes were called Telchini. According to the Greek historian Diodorus, these people had the power to heal diseases, modify atmospheric conditions and take on any form they desired. But they did not wish to reveal their abilities, appearing very jealous of them. They were represented in the form of amphibious beings, half marine and half terrestrial. They had the lower part of the body in the shape of a fish or snake, or feet with webbed toes.
A little before the Flood, they had a premonition of catastrophe and left Rhodes, their homeland, to disperse throughout the world. Is it possible that mythology and legends pass on the story of a technologically advanced people, perceived by the ancients as possessing magical powers?
Is it possible that there is a connection between the Danuna and the Talchini? Could they really be the survivors of the continent of Atlantis?
