Mystery 4 of 15
4. Who Were the Sea Peoples?
Around 1200 BC, the eastern Mediterranean entered one of the most turbulent periods of the ancient world.
Egyptian records describe attacks involving several groups that modern historians collectively call the Sea Peoples. Reliefs from the reign of Ramesses III depict dramatic battles involving warriors arriving by land and sea.
But “Sea Peoples” was not necessarily the name of a single civilization, nation, or army. It is a modern umbrella term applied to several groups mentioned in Egyptian sources, including the Peleset, Sherden, Shekelesh, Tjeker, and others.
Where those people came from remains heavily debated.
Researchers have suggested origins or connections involving the Aegean, Anatolia, Cyprus, Sardinia, Sicily, the Levant, and other parts of the Mediterranean. Some groups may have been raiders. Others may have been migrants, mercenaries, refugees, or entire communities displaced by instability elsewhere.
Why It Is Still a Mystery
We have descriptions of these groups mostly from the people who fought them, particularly the Egyptians. Their own accounts are largely absent. Historians cannot even be certain that all of the groups lumped together as Sea Peoples were participating in the same movement or had the same motivations.
They were clearly part of a much larger upheaval. Exactly who they were is still being reconstructed.
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