Ancient History - Part 55: A Deeper Look Into The Sea Peoples

Let us take an introspective look upon when this troublesome mass migration from the westerners began, leading up to Egypt's successful battlefield engagements against them. The Pisidians who dwelt from Sagalassos along with the feather-crested battle-armored Lycians of Lycia and Carians of Caria (all geographically located throughout modern day Turkey) gathered and pushed southwestward.

According to Egyptian record, no land could stand against this massive horde, and upon their departure from Anatolia, one-by-one the Syrian city-states began to fall. There were two notable divisions amongst this threat to the Near East: 

The shipmen and the land-horde.

First it was Alashiya that was attacked, overrun by shipmen who assaulted from the sea. Upon victory, the migrant fleet next completely overtook the Syrian Gulf of Issus, permanently circling its coastline in its callous occupation. 

The land-horde however marched into Syria en masse. Arvad, Cappadocia, and of course the legendary historic city of Carchemish were not spared. These places of import, their beauty first desecrated, were largely destroyed by this land-horde, with many citizens likely losing their lives as foreign invasions of this nature rarely offer much in the ways of mercy.

The Amurru kingdom (Palestine) was next attacked and leveled, and it was here that the massive push was halted. We know what came next with the battles between Egypt and the Sea Peoples, but massive damage had been done to Egypt's subjects, and the Near East now bore a literal culture war on its hands between the native kingdoms and the invaders.

When you fear nothing, doubt is eliminated. If your enemies project weakness, then the time to attack is immediate. Thusly, the doubtless hordes of the west immediately attacked the Syrian princes, who'd in the past always relied upon the protections of either the Hittites or the Egyptians, themselves noticeably possessing no desire to fight. And it all fell apart. Trade was displaced and there was no preventing the trail that was blazed right through their land. 

This is not to overshadow the achievements of Egypt in defeating the Sea Peoples when it eventually came to thwarting direct attack, but if one thing can be ascertained about Ancient Egypt it is that defending her subjects was not one of her strengths, if the Upper Levant region is any indication.

[THE FORTRESS OF ARVAD]

Ancient History - Part 54: Egypt's Last Stand

Even whilst confusing the growing hostile activity throughout the neighboring Phoenician region as guesswork between Minoan, Philistine, Semitic, or a new tribesfolk, the Empire of the Nile would not sit quietly. The rise of piracy instituted a culture of mercenary versus pirate with Egypt maintaining these independent units via payment of her own treasury, which led to frequent deadly confrontations.

Despite the growing tensions brought by the great movements of people during the 15th century, the Egyptian pharaohs did not place blame for these incursions upon a single nation. Thutmose IV warmly regarded Crete and any gifts from the West as tribute, interpreting such gestures as being honored for his own prestige. He kept his forces away from Crete's shores even as the Minoans opened trade with the Phoenicians, particularly the princes of Syria.

Amenhotep III also chose not to escalate military engagement with the Sea Peoples but, unlike his predecessor, made attempts to properly identify the indistinguishable cultures, to middling results. Customs, culture-wear, language, and racial characteristics were still commonly confused amongst the maritime foreigners flooding into the region.

It wasn't for roughly two hundred more years (1194 BC) that the first Egyptian pharaoh (Ramses III) directly engaged these sea-tribes. In a series of violent clashes, the Egyptian military fought against free Vikings, rival Aegeans, and other freefolk amongst the Phoenician states. Mainly the fight for control of the Mediterranean coasts was of a prime interest to the Egyptian king, and at the height of this war led to Ramses' massively successful defeat of the Sea Peoples' migrant army deep within the Serbonian Bog.

On the side of Egypt was their lone ally the Tursha and the opposing side, the barbarian hordes encompassing bits and pieces of all the mixed cultures who represented a culmination of Egypt's centuries-long disdain. With this migrant army thoroughly destroyed on the Nile's marshland, Egypt stated her objective to defend her borders, along with the nearby coasts of the Near East, though this strong posture would ultimately arrive too late.

Mass migration is always tough. It is an issue met with resistance whether the host nation's leader tasked with dealing with it intends to act or not act. But the reality is that there is only a short window of opportunity, early on, that requires hardline action before things get too hot. This is primarily due to it being a far easier task in defending borders against foreign invaders than to later expel countless semi-assimilated migrants from within, after the fact, when the possibilities for damaging scenarios to the host country or kingdom are limitless.

[RAMSES III - Defender of the realm]

Ancient History - Part 53: The Innocence Of The Minoans

There is much in the way of confusion when it comes to identifiers and datapoints regarding the cultural histories between the differing Mediterranean seafaring peoples, particularly during their great migrations into Asia Minor. Often, aggressive acts of piracy that plagued Egypt were mistaken as Minoan (Crete) in nature instead of Mycenaean. It was commonplace for Egypt to mistake newly established Greek settlements for Philistine settlements, Philistine settlements for Semitic settlements, and so forth.

This situation has thusly created a puzzle box of sorts for contemporary historians to decipher the most likely of tribes in certain situations and events whilst sifting through the occasional erroneous accounts scattered throughout ancient Egyptian record.  The most poignant example is to simply look again between the two ethnically separate Greek nations of the time, the Minoans and the Mycenaeans.

Egypt referenced the term "Northerners" many times and it has been widely interpreted to indicate the Mycenaean-Greeks despite Crete, populated and ruled by the Minoan-Greeks, being geographically another northward contender for the recurring reference.

If "Northerners" refers to the Mycenaean-Greeks then "Keftians" refers to the Minoan-Greek population that dwelled on Crete. Therefore, the Mycenaean-Greeks had the ability of travel-by-sea and the Minoan-Greeks, despite the height of their civilization's peak established during the Middle Kingdom of Egypt's decline, did not. This is not to say that a Minoan or two never departed their isle to the mainland coast of the Levant, but mass migration during this civilization's epoch at the scale of their northwestward neighbors (the Mycenaeans) is widely ruled out as unlikely.

Prior to the rise of Mediterranean piracy, the Minoan civilization had begun to deteriorate (by 15th century BC) marking this newer nautical enemy of the Egyptians as intrinsically Mycenaean-Greek via process of elimination. The "Peoples of the Sea" were never Minoan in nature, did not wear their garb, and it is evidenced that the Minoans actually engaged in fierce skirmishes against them, thwarting invasions from the waters against the very same enemy that would later engulf Egypt's coasts and the adjacent coastlines of Libya and Phoenicia. 

An existential threat to the Empire of the Nile saw the Egyptians lump many differing foreign cultures into the same group, when in fact there were various contrasting tribes who encompassed the invading migrants who first encroached upon their waters and would later infiltrate into her region. It has since been the duty of scholars studying this period to attempt to ascertain the correct correlation and identifications in this steep game of "Who's Who?" ever since.

[MINOAN PALACE - Knossos]