The ships of the Sea Peoples

The 13th century BC witnessed the zenith of the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean civilizations which declined at the end of the Bronze Age, ∼3200 years ago. Weakening of this ancient flourishing Mediterranean world shifted the political and economic centres of gravity away from the Levant towards Classical Greece and Rome, and led, in the long term, to the emergence of the modern western civilizations. Textual evidence from cuneiform tablets and Egyptian reliefs from the New Kingdom relate that seafaring tribes, the Sea Peoples, were the final catalyst that put the fall of cities and states in motion. However, the lack of a stratified radiocarbon-based archaeology for the Sea People event has led to a floating historical chronology derived from a variety of sources spanning dispersed areas. Here, we report a stratified radiocarbon-based archaeology with anchor points in ancient epigraphic-literary sources, Hittite-Levantine-Egyptian kings and astronomical observations to precisely date the Sea People event. By confronting historical and science-based archaeology, we establish an absolute age range of 1192–1190 BC for terminal destructions and cultural collapse in the northern Levant. This radiocarbon-based archaeology has far-reaching implications for the wider Mediterranean, where an elaborate network of international relations and commercial activities are intertwined with the history of civilizations.

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“…The Sea Peoples were seaborne foes [13], [14], [15] from different origins [6], [12]. They launched a combined land-sea invasion (Fig.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Sea Peoples, from Cuneiform Tablets to Carbon Dating

et al. 2011

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“…The well‐known relief in the mortuary temple of Ramesses III (1184–1153 BC) in Medinet Habu, Egypt, represents the sea battle between the fleets of the pharaoh and the Sea Peoples (Edgerton, ), and it has long attracted the attention of scholars (Faulkner, : 9; Marx, ; Landström, : 111–113; Casson, : 37; Wachsmann, ; Basch, : 67–69; Roberts, : 55; Vinson, : 44–45; Jones, : 59–60; Bradbury, : 50–52; Wachsmann, : 29–32, 251–254; Emanuel, ; Mark, ; Whitewright, ). This relief is believed to contain the earliest representation of a brailed sail.…”

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confidence: 99%

Loose-footed Sails of the Egyptian New Kingdom Ships

Belov

2019

International Journal of Nautical Archaeology

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The relief from the temple of Ramesses III (1184–1153 BC) in Medinet Habu is often considered to be the most ancient representation of a brailed sail. According to many researchers, the loose‐footed sail and the system of brails were invented in the ancient countries of the Syro‐Canaanite coast and were later adopted by the Ancient Egyptians. However, iconographic material from Ancient Egypt testifies to the indigenous origin of a loose‐footed sail. The article presents an unknown relief from the Amarna period (1352–1336 BC) that further supports this hypothesis.

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“…349). The difference between these and the hulls of the Sea Peoples’ ships (Wachsmann, : 191–5) with their vertical stems, alien to the Egyptian boatbuilding tradition, is quite unambiguous (Landström, : 139; Basch, : 115–18).…”

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Did Ancient Egyptian Ships have Keels? The evidence of Thonis‐Heracleion Ship 17

Belov

2014

International Journal of Nautical Archaeology

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This paper presents the debate over the presence or absence of keels in the construction of Egyptian ships of the dynastic period. It contains an analysis of ship representations and models dating to the 18th-20th dynasties of the New Kingdom (c.1539-1077 BC) that provide evidence for the introduction of keels in Egyptian shipbuilding, and new archaeological material from excavations at Thonis-Heracleion that sheds more light on the question.

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The ships of the Sea Peoples

Cited by 22 publications

References 15 publications

The Sea Peoples, from Cuneiform Tablets to Carbon Dating

The Sea Peoples, from Cuneiform Tablets to Carbon Dating

Loose-footed Sails of the Egyptian New Kingdom Ships

Did Ancient Egyptian Ships have Keels? The evidence of Thonis‐Heracleion Ship 17

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