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

ples as mere pirates goes Helck’s denial of a migrational
aspect to the period of the upheavals set in motion by the
expansion of the bearers of the Urnfield culture – whereas
in his Die Beziehungen Ägyptens zu Vorderasien im 3. und
2. Jahrtausend v. Chr. of 1971 he still held the Phrygian
migrations from the Balkans to Anatolia responsible as a
prime mover for the ensuing catastrophe.
An even more extreme position with reference to the
migrational aspect of the upheavals of the Sea Peoples than
the one maintained by Helck was presented by Alexandra
Nibbi in her The Sea Peoples and Egypt of 1975. According
to this author the Sea Peoples are all Asiatics living in
the Nile delta, with the exception of the Peleset, the identification
of whom with the Philistines from Palestine as
proposed already by Champollion she accepts. At the
background of Nibbi’s views lurks the interpretation of
what is generally considered as the Egyptian words for the
Mediterranean sea (w3d-wr “great green”), islands (ww),
and sea (ym) as references to the Nile delta and inland
lakes here. She even went as far as to suggest that Retenu,
which is generally considered as an indication of the Levant,
is a reference to the Nile delta, too. I think it is not
advisable to follow Nibbi in her extremist standpoint. 77
In the next year, 1976, August Strobel published his
Der Spätbronzezeitliche Seevölkersturm, Ein Forschungsüberblick
mit Folgerungen zur biblischen Exodusthematik,
which offers a wealth of detailed information on the individual
groups of the Sea Peoples and the Near Eastern
texts in which they appear, and hence may serve us as a
valuable reference book. However, it is less outspoken
about the matters which primarily concern us here, like the
origins of the Sea Peoples, the causes for the catastrophe –
though Strobel favors a severe drought in this respect – and
the articulation of the Sea Peoples’ ethnicity.
Still a classic in the field is Nancy K. Sandars The Sea
Peoples, Warriors of the ancient Mediterranean 1250-
1150 BC of 1978, which two years afterwards appeared in
Dutch translation as De Zeevolken, Egypte en Voor-Azië
bedreigd, 1250-1150 v.C. – both editions being highly
77 In variant form Nibbi’s extremist point of view has recently
been embraced by Yves Duhoux, according to whom (2003: 272)
“la base opérationelle des envahisseurs était le centre du Delta”.
Although I am not challenging the fact that, for example, w3d-wr
“great green” in certain contexts does refer to the Nile and the Red
Sea, it certainly goes too far to deny that in other contexts, like
that of the Sea Peoples, it clearly denotes the Mediterranean Sea.
39
valuable for their rich illustrations. 78 However, as far as
the origins of the individual population groups are concerned,
the author happens to be wavering between the
views of de Rougé on the one hand and Maspero on the
other hand. Thus the Sherden are in first instance linked up
with either Sardinia or Sardis, whereas later they are supposed
to have migrated from Cyprus or North Syria to Sardinia.
Similarly, the Shekelesh are now associated with
Anatolia and then with southern Italy and Sicily. Only with
respect to the Teresh Sandars straightforwardly committed
herself to an Anatolian homeland, be it Lydia or the Troas.
The latter region is also considered the place of origin of
the Tjeker and, less persuasively, of the Weshesh, whilst
the Lukka, the Ekwesh, and the Denye(n) are more or less
conventionally identified as the Lycians of southwest Anatolia,
the Akhaians of western Anatolia, the Aegean islands
or mainland Greece, and the Danuna of Cilicia, respectively.
Finally, the Peleset are, like the Teresh, traced back
to an Anatolian homeland. Also as far as the causes of the
catastrophe are concerned, Sandars’ position is rather diffuse,
now stressing internecine war and internal decay (=
systems collapse), then economic crisis and last but not
least attacks from hostile tribes or states along the borders.
This unsatisfactory mixture of causes of the catastrophe
should not surprise us, because, as long as the problem of
the origins of the Sea Peoples remains unsolved, the related
problem of these causes can in fact not possibly be
adequately dealt with.
In his book on Caphtor/Keftiu, subtitled A new Investigation,
from 1980, John Strange also pays some attention
to the Sea Peoples (pp. 138-142; 157-165). In doing so, he
is exceptional in presenting the spelling of the five ethnonyms
recorded for Medinet Habu in Egyptian hieroglyphic
writing. As far as the origins of the Sea Peoples
are concerned, however, he adheres to common views in
the literature at the time according to which most of them
originated from Asia Minor (Denye(n)), particularly its
western outskirts (Lukka, Shekelesh, Teresh, Tjeker), but
some came from farther west, the Aegean (Ekwesh), or
north, the Caucasus (Sherden), and the Balkans (Peleset).
Crucial to his main theme, the identification of Biblical
Kaphtor and Egyptian Keftiu with Cyprus, is the fact that a
substantial number of the Sea Peoples can be shown to
have colonized the Syro-Palestine coast from the latter is-
78 Cf. the reviews of this book by Muhly 1979 and Snodgrass
1978.