The Ethnicity of the Sea Peoples - RePub - Erasmus Universiteit ...

have seen, the Teukroi were living in the Troad at the beginning
of the 5th century BC, their being taken as prisoners
of war probably results from a rationalization which
tries to cope with the situation that Teukros, although being
at home in the Troad, fights on the Greek side in the Iliad.
Like the Philistines and Danaoi, a part of the Teukroi
evidently founded themselves new homes in the coastal
zone of the Levant. At least, in the Wen Amon story from
the first half of the 11th century BC, we are confronted
with Tjeker settled at Dor. According to Wen Amon’s
vivid testimony, they still were a maritime force to reckon
with at that time, since eleven Tjeker ships were blocking
his way from the harbor of Byblos when, having accomplished
his mission, he wanted to return to Egypt. 527
The maritime adventures of the Teukroi presumably
dating to the period of the upheavals of the Sea Peoples
call to mind the career of the Trojan hero Akamas as recorded
in Cypro-Minoan texts from Enkomi and Ras
Shamra/Ugarit dated to the final phase of the Late Bronze
Age. 528 Here we encounter Akamas at first in Linear C
texts as a representative of what appears to be the Trojan
town Malos (between Palaescepsis and Achaeium, opposite
the island of Tenedos) and of Ephesos engaged in
maritime trade, receiving goods at Enkomi529 and delivering
goods at Ras Shamra/Ugarit. 530 Next, he turns up in
the more evolved Linear D texts as Akamu Ilu “the Ilian
Akamas” 531 and Akamu Eleki nukar -ura “Akamas of
Ilion, the great enemy”, who in the latter instance is recorded
to have defeated (tupata “he smote”) the principal
527 Pritchard 1969: 25-9; see section 5 above.
528 Best & Woudhuizen 1988: 108; 116-7; Best & Woudhuizen
1989: 53-4; 59; 62; 64.
529 Cylinder seal Inv no. 19.10, see Woudhuizen 1992a: 110 ff.;
115, lines 15-7; cf. section 5 above. Like that of Alexandros (<
Greek alex “to ward off, protect” and anr “man”), the name of
Akamas is of Greek type, being derived from Greek akamas “untiring”,
see LSJ, s.v. This cannot be attributed to poetic license of
Homeros, as these names, next to in the Homeric epics, appear in
contemporary texts. Apparently, therefore, representatives of the
Trojan nobility had intermarried with Greek colleagues as early as
the Late Bronze Age – be it on a voluntary basis or involuntarily
as examplified by Alexandros/Paris’ rape of Helena.
530 Tablet RS 20.25, see Woudhuizen 1994: 519; 530, lines 1-2;
15; cf. section 5 above. For Malos in the Troad, see Cramer 1971:
88. In line with a suggestion by Jan Best, the element ati in atipini
is interpreted as a reflex of PIE *éti “and” as represented in Greek
eti, Phrygian eti- and Latin et, see Frisk 1973, s.v., as well as Celtic
eti, see Delamarre 2003, s.v.
531 Best & Woudhuizen 1988: 104 (Tablet Inv. no. 1193, line 3).
109
of the text (-mu “me”) in what from the context appears to
be a naval battle. 532 This last mentioned passage strikingly
correlates to the information from the correspondence between
the king of Ugarit and his superior, the king of Cyprus-Alasiya,
as unearthed in Ras Shamra/Ugarit,
according to which the Ugaritic fleet is stationed in the
coastal region of Lycia, but enemy ships nonetheless have
broken through the defense line and are now threatening
the coasts of the eastern Mediterranean. 533 Anyhow, it is
clear that Akamas from Ilion in the course of events had
grasped the opportunity and turned his maritime profession
from trader into raider – a common change in the history
of Mediterranean shipping. 534
The expansion of the Trojans, first by means of trade
to Cyprus and Ras Shamra/Ugarit, and subsequently by actual
colonization to Cyprus, again, and the Levant, is
archaeologically traceable in the distribution of Trojan
grey ware – not a widely desired export product, but evidence
of real presence of Trojan traders and/or settlers.
This ware is found in concentrations on Cyprus, especially
at Kition and Hala Sultan Tekke, in Ras Shamra/Ugarit,
and Tell Abu Hawam (= Haifa) in the neighborhood of the
Tjeker town Dor, in a variety dated to the late 13th or early
12th century BC (see Fig. 21). 535 The impetus for the Trojans
to find new homes abroad is formed by the invasion of
their territory by new settlers from the European continent,
causing the destruction of Troy VIIa (c. 1180 BC) 536 and
the subsequent (in Troy VIIb1-2) introduction of buckle
ceramic. 537 Unfortunately, the Tjeker town Dor is not well
excavated: at least it seems clear that the site was destroyed
in the Late Bronze Age and subsequently characterized
by Philistine ware. 538 As opposed to this, the
nearby Tell Abu Hawam has been better explored and
shows, next to a destruction layer at
532 Best & woudhuizen 1988: 105 (Tablet Inv. no. 1687, line 15);
cf. section 5 above.
533 Hoftijzer & van Soldt 1998: 343-4, RS L 1, RS 20.238, and
RS 20.18; cf. section 5 above.
534 Ormerod 1924; cf. Woudhuizen 1992a: 117-8.
535 Buchholz 1973: 179-84; Heuck Allen 1994: 42.
536 For the twofold destruction of Troy, first at the end of VIh (c.
1280 BC) by the Mycenaean Greeks and then in the time of the
upheavals of the Sea Peoples at the end of VIIa (c. 1180 BC), see
Schachermeyr 1980: 460 ; Schachermeyr 1982 : 106.
537 Rutter 1975, who likewise attributes the presence of this ware
in southern Greece at the beginning of Late Helladic IIIC to Balkan
invaders.
538 Dothan 1982: 69.