A Description of the Sea Peoples
This term refers to various populations from the Aegean-Balkan area who poured into the Near East and Egypt at the end of the Bronze Age, perhaps as a backlash and continuation of the "Dorian" invasion and the collapse of the Mycenaean kingdoms. A first group, composed of the Eqweš or Ekveš (Achaeans), Tereš, Lukka (Lycians), Šardana, Šekleš, was stopped by Pharaoh Merenptah around 1225 BC.
A second group composed of Peleset (Philistines), Zeker, Šekeleš, Danuna or Denyen (Danaans), Wešeš, after wreaking havoc in Anatolia, Syria, and Cyprus, was stopped by Pharaoh Ramesses III in 1190 BC. Philistines and Zeker settled on the Palestinian coast. The role of the Sea Peoples at the end of the historical and archaeological phase of the Bronze Age has often been exaggerated: while coastal cities like Ugarit were destroyed by them, they hardly pushed as far as the Hittite capital (which fell in those years but for other reasons).
Their passage, however, provided an opportunity to unleash a crisis that was primarily internal (social and political) and created a vacuum in which other populations (Kaskei and then Phrygians in Anatolia, Arameans in Syria) and the so-called mountain peoples from the Zagros descended.
ŠARDANA [Šerden]
They are also mentioned in Ugarit and El Amarna. They are a non-Indo-European population allied with Egypt at Qadeš (Ramses II) and with Ramses III.
They wore horned helmets, suggesting their origin might be Balkan, Caucasian, or from northern Syria. Their name may be related to Sardinia (Sardinia), and some authors read in the Phoenician text of a Nora inscription the phrase be-šardan. In the Sardinian megalithic culture of the nuraghi, the small bronze figures representing warriors closely resemble the engravings of Medinet Habu and other artifacts found in Cyprus; indeed, the spread of megalithic statues in Corsica coincides with the final phase of the natives' war against the Šardana invaders. Inevitably, these latter, armed with bronze weapons and armor, prevailed over the islanders, who had only stone or obsidian-tipped arrows for combat. The Šardana nearly demolished all megalithic localities in the southern part of the island and used the remains of toppled menhirs to build defensive walls around their villages.
LUKKA
They also appear in Amharic texts. They are Indo-European peoples who fought alongside the Hittites at Qadeš. They were dangerous pirates along the coasts of Cyprus and southern Anatolia. It seems that the Hittites considered them a true coastal state linked to the sea. For some, their center was in the Sea of Marmara, but their name can be related to Lycia, which later became their second and then main seat.
EKWEŠ [Akawaša]
They could be the Ahhiyawa of Hattusas and Ugarit, who disturbed the Hittite kingdom on its western frontier. It is plausible that they were the Mycenaean Greeks, who had already settled in western Anatolia (Greek Miletus could be the Millawanda/Millawata of Hittite texts). It is more difficult to prove the hypothesis that they were the Trojans. (Some believe that Ilion (the name of Troy) might be the Wiluša of the Hittite archives). Even accepting the equation Ahhiyawa = Achaeans, it does not necessarily mean that Ahhiyawa = Ekweš. The problem is that the Ekweš of Merneptah were circumcised, a very unusual practice among Indo-Europeans, including the Mycenaean Greeks! However, scholars currently tend to accept the triple identity Ekweš = Ahhiyawa = Achaeans.
TEREŠ [Turša]
Already mentioned by Tudhaliya IV. Non-Indo-European peoples, they lived north of Assuwa (near the Troad and in Lydia); it seems to have a direct relation tereš = taruiša = tirsenoi = Tyrrhenians (Etruscans), supporting Herodotus's hypothesis about the Anatolian origin of the Etruscans, who migrated in search of other lands with their king Tyrrhenus following a famine. According to Diodorus Siculus, their people are oudeni allw eqnei omoglossion, that is, unlike any other people in language; yet, testifying to their spread in the Mediterranean, there is an epigraphic document, the Lemnos Stele, in which a language very similar to Etruscan is attested. Some scholars relate their name with the Hebrew Taršiš and with the Hispanic Tartessos.
ŠEKELEŠ
They have been related to Sicily and the Siculi, but perhaps it would be more correct to relate them to the Sicani since they were very likely non-Indo-European peoples; they arrived on the island after being repelled in Egypt.
PELESET
They are the Philistines of Indo-European origin. They do not appear in the documentation of Hatti. According to the Bible, they come from Caphtor (Crete?). Their artistic culture exhibits Mycenaean traits. Other authors prefer to place their origin in northern Syria or the Caucasus. It's possible that they passed through Caphtor from these areas. They gave their name to Palestine.
TJEKER or ZEKER
They recall the name of Teucer, founder of Salamis (Cyprus), and eponymous of the Teucri (in the Troad) similar to the Peleset, they come from Anatolia. They are mentioned by the Hittites. They seem to be a seafaring people in a group in which the Peleset were people who lived only on the mainland.
DENYEN
They could be the Anatolian Danuna of the El Amarna texts. It is likely that they came from southeastern Anatolia or from regions north of the Orontes River. A possible representative of theirs would be Mukšuš (in Hittite; Mpš in Phoenician; Μόψος in Greek). The link with the Achaeans is suggested by the similarity of the name with that of the Dànai, another name for the Mycenaean Greeks. They could have settled on the eastern coast, with the Peleset and Tjeker. Once mixed with the Hebrews, they would have given rise to the tribe of Dan, which unusually lived in contact with the sea.
WEŠEŠ
Perhaps in relation with Wiluša (Ilion-Troy).
