1. Who were the Sea People? 71

2. Do Now Observe the following illustration and answer the following:
What is happening?
Where do you think this event is taking place?
Who do you think is winning? Why?

4. Who were the Sea People?
The “Sea People” were a loose group of tribes that raided the ancient world between 1200 and 1000 BCE.
We don’t know much about them: where they’re from, why they came, nor even why they suddenly disappeared.
As historians, we will use artifacts to determine who these people really were.

6. Who Were the Sea Peoples?
The Sea Peoples were sea raiders on a grand scale. In 1190 BCE one of the scribes serving Ramses III described the Sea Peoples as a tour de force both on land and at sea — a combination of men, women, and children whose numbers grew as they raided and moved through coastal regions. Their forces were allegedly a formidable and savage group of warriors who were so feared that “no land could stand before their arms.”
We are not really sure where the Sea People came from. Some scholars conclude that the Sea Peoples were from the Aegean area or Anatolia, were Greek, or were even the original inhabitants of the fabled lost city of Atlantis. One of the main theories regarding their formation into a unified civilization is that various separate tribes were forced into a southern migration as a result of hard economic times, driving them to pillage and piracy.
The Sea Peoples raided relentlessly on the east coast of the Mediterranean, liberating any and all goods and capturing men, women, and children who could be sold as slaves. They ultimately controlled entire ports, cities, and surrounding lands. According to many historians, the Sea Peoples’ attacks brought about the collapse of key Mediterranean powers during the Late Bronze Age between 1600 and 1000 BCE, including the Greek and Hittite empires in Anatolia (the Asiatic area of Turkey) and northern Syria.
After two failed attacks on Egypt, one in 1203 BCE and another famous battle around 1180 BCE against Rameses III, the Sea People withdrew and eventually disappeared from the Mediterranean. No one is really sure what happened to them. Some claim that the Phoenician and Philistine civilizations were in fact Sea People that settled down. Others claim that Ancient Troy and even Ancient Rome were founded by the descendants of Sea Peoples.

7. “I am the ruler who shepherds you
“I am the ruler who shepherds you ... as a father, who preserves his children, while ye fear like birds ... [Shall the land be wasted and forsaken at the invasion of every country, while the Nine Bows plunder its borders and rebels invade it every day? ... They spend their time going about the land, fighting, to fill their bodies daily. They come to the land of Egypt to seek the necessities of their mouths ... Their chief is like a dog, a man of boasting without courage…”
~ Merneptah ( BCE), Pharaoh of Egypt, before a battle with the Sea Peoples.
“My father, behold, the enemy's ships came (here); my cities(?) were burned, and they did evil things in my country. Does not my father know that all my troops and chariots(?) are in the Land of Hatti, and all my ships are in the Land of Lukka?...Thus, the country is abandoned to itself. May my father know it: the seven ships of the enemy that came here inflicted much damage upon us.”
~ Ammurapi ( BCE), King of Ugarit, to the king of Alasiya.

8. “The foreign countries (ie
“The foreign countries (ie. Sea Peoples) made a conspiracy in their islands, All at once the lands were removed and scattered in the fray. No land could stand before their arms: from Hatti, Qode, Carchemish, Arzawa and Alashiya on, being cut off [ie. destroyed] at one time. A camp was set up in Amurru. They desolated its people, and its land was like that which has never come into being. They were coming forward toward Egypt, while the flame was prepared before them. Their confederation was the Peleset, Tjeker, Shekelesh, Denyen andWeshesh, lands united. They laid their hands upon the land as far as the circuit of the earth, their hearts confident and trusting: "Our plans will succeed!"
~ Inscription from the burial temple of Rameses III (1186 – 1155 BCE), Pharaoh of Egypt

9. Questions for Discussion
What did the Sea People want?
Why were they so feared?
Was there a way violence could be avoided?
Did the Sea People intend to be violent?
Based on this new information, who really were the Sea People?