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

treaty with Sausgamuwa of Amurru he forbade the latter to
serve as an intermediary for trade between A®®iyawa and
Assyria – the new enemy in the east since Suppiluliumas
I’s decisive victory over Mitanni. Bereft of his stronghold
in western Anatolia, the king of A®®iyawa was no longer
considered a great king, which must have been a recent
development as he was first enumerated among the great
kings in the text of the Sausgamuwa treaty but then deleted.
The ultimate goal of Tud®aliyas IV’s campaigns in
the west, and a further guarantee for the success of his
economic boycot against the maritime trade between
A®®iyawa and Assyria, was the conquest of Alasiya (=
Cyprus), which he achieved near the end of his reign.
Notwithstanding a serious defeat against the Assyrians under
the able leadership of Tikulta-Ninurta (1233-1197 BC)
somewhere in between of the given events, we cannot
avoid the conclusion that the reign of Tud®aliyas IV
marked a high point in the history of the Hittite Empire.
After the death of Tud®aliyas IV, there was a short
reign of his eldest son, Arnuwandas III (1209-1205 BC). In
this period, to be more exact the fifth year of Merneptah
(1213-1203 BC), the Egyptians had to deal with an attack
by the Libyan king Meryey, who was supported by mercenaries
from various groups of the so-called “Sea Peoples”,
viz. the Sherden, Shekelesh, Ekwesh, Lukka, and Teresh.
Merneptah succeeded in defeating this coalition and in
preventing the Libyan king Meryey to settle himself in the
Nile-delta – apparently the latter’s ultimate objective.
Arnuwandas III was succeeded by his brother Suppiluliumas
II (1205-1180? BC). The latter was forced to
reconquer Cyprus-Alasiya, again, which apparently had
taken advantage of the mishap during the short reign of
Arnuwandas III. After his victory, he set up a memorial (=
Nianta at Boazköy/Hattusa) also for that of his father,
who did not have the time to do so. Later in his reign, Suppiluliumas
II was forced to conduct a campaign in western
Anatolia against, inter alia, Masa (= Mysia), Wiyanawanda
(= Oinoanda in the upper Xanthos valley), and
Lukka (= Lycia), the ensuing victory of which he commemorated
in the Südburg monument at Boazköy/Hattusa.
The same Luwian hieroglyphic inscription,
however, shows him very much in control of the imperial
machinery in provinces like Pala, Walma, and
Tar®untassa. 72 The final downfall caused by the Sea Peo-
72 On the Yalburt and Südburg texts, see Woudhuizen 2004a, sections
3 and 7, respectively.
33
ples (this time the Peleset, Tjeker, Shekelesh, Denye(n),
and Weshesh) as vividly described by the letters from Ras
Shamra/Ugarit and Ramesses III’s (1184-1153 BC) memorial
at Medinet Habu, came as a flash of lightning in a clear
sky by total surprise.
Under the energetic leadership of Ramesses III, the
second pharaoh of the 20th dynasty, Egypt survived the
onslaught by the Sea Peoples, who, unsuccesful in their
plan to settle in Egypt, took up their abode in various
places along the Levant, especially in the Philistine pentapolis.
In the former Hittite Empire, there was some continuity
in the earliest phase of the Iron Age at Karkamis,
where the viceregal family planted by Suppiluliumas I
maintained its position through Aritesup and Initesup, and
in the former province of Tar®untassa, where likewise a
descendant of the Hittite royal family, Hartapus, son of
Mursilis, is recorded. According to their inscriptions in
Luwian hieroglyphic, both these branches of the Hittite
royal family claimed the imperial title of great king. Only
after this imperial afterglow, a dearth of material sets in
which lasts to the beginning of the 10th century BC, when
a new royal house at Karkamis under great king
Uratar®undas entered the stage. 73
73 See Woudhuizen 1992-3 and Woudhuizen 2004a: appendix V.