After Merneptah had beaten off an initial wave of Sea Peoples, it was followed almost half a century later in the reign of Ramesses III by a second wave that was to have enormous implications. The reliefs from Medinet Habu report that in the 8th Year there was a ‘‘league on their islands’’ consisting of Sherden, Shekelesh, Tjeker, Weshesh, Tursha, Danuna, Peleset and more besides. Coming from the north, it seems to have been more of a migration of peoples, quite unlike the campaigns that had occurred under Merneptah. The kingdoms of Arzawa, Hatti, Qedi, Karkemish, and Alashja (Cyprus) were destroyed, and destruction layers have been found from Hattusas in the north through Ugarit down to south Canaan. For the most part the Egyptian hold on the Levant was broken. The Sea Peoples were first stopped at the gateway to Egypt, where they were beaten in a land battle and in a sea battle at the mouth of the Nile in the East Delta. Ramesses III, following the example of his role-model Ramesses II, integrated some of the Sea Peoples into his army and settled others in the Levant. The best known of these are certainly the Peleset (‘‘Philistines’’) after whom the Romans named the province of Palestine.
The origins of the Sea People are still debated. The Danuna and Aqaiwasha seem to be Danaans and Achaeans - that is, Mycenean Greeks, but the identification of other groups is more difficult. Are the Sherden from Sardinia, or was Sardinia their destination? Are the Tursha the same as the Tyrsenoi of later Greek texts, and thus the same as the Etruscans? According to ancient sources the Etruscans came from Asia Minor (Herodotos 1.94) which so far has yet to be proved. A Cretan origin is often assigned to the Philistines, mainly because of the Hebrew Bible, which describes them as an alliance of‘‘Kreti and Pleti’’ (e. g. 2 Sam 8.18). Connected to this question of their origin is the issue of the cause of their wanderings. In the Migration Period which ended the Western Roman Empire, the invasion of Germanic tribes into the Roman-controlled Mediterranean was caused by the invasion of the Huns from the central Asian steppes. Pushing the Germans in front of them like a blister, the Huns played a major role in the destruction of the Ancient World. However, a similar scenario cannot be proved for the Late Bronze Age. This may be due to missing sources, but, without knowing the exact origins of the individual tribes of the Sea Peoples, it is impossible to give a reason for their migration. Were they themselves fleeing from other migrating peoples? Did they leave their places of residence because of natural catastrophes, droughts or wars? Were they even complete tribes, or just parts of them? Only the migrations from the Aegean allow some basis for speculation, where the occurrence of earthquakes can be demonstrated at the end of the Bronze Age. It was probably these earthquakes, amongst other things, that dealt the death blow to the Mycenaean world, which had already been weakened by still unexplained factors.
World History
