Who were the Sea Peoples?

The Sea Peoples are a mysterious group from the late Bronze Age that some have blamed for the collapse of many ancient communities, but is that fair?

If you have recently watched The Odyssey, the new Christopher Nolan directed film based on Homer’s epic poem, you will have heard them discussing the threat of the “Sea Peoples.” Interestingly, they are not explicitly named Homer’s original text, but would it surprise you to learn that this mysterious group has historical origins and evidence?

Between 1200 and 1150 BCE, about the time that the fall of Troy is believed to have happened, a wave of destruction swept across the Mediterranean. Cities in Anatolia, Greece, and the Levant were reduced to rubble, their inhabitants either killed or forced to flee. This series of catastrophes, known as the Late Bronze Age Collapse, left behind a clear archaeological record of cities burned, abandoned and never resettled. At the heart of this chaos, historical records identify a shadowy group known as the Sea Peoples.

We get our insight on the Sea Peoples primarily from Egyptian records that survived this era, particularly inscriptions from the Mortuary Temple of Ramesses III at Medinet Habu. These texts describe an enemy arriving in a fleet of ships from “northern countries.” Since the translation of these inscriptions, experts have been fascinated by this mysterious group, who are mixed in with the array of foreign opponents the Egyptians referred to collectively as the “Nine Bows.”

The surviving Egyptian inscriptions provide some clues about the identity of the Sea Peoples, although interpretations are varied and some are controversial. The Egyptians listed various tribes, such as the Denyen, the Sherdan, the Peleset (likely the Philistines), and the Lukka (likely the Lycians). Some of these groups appear to have been well known by the Egyptians, while others were more elusive.

The true nature of the Sea Peoples remains a subject of debate among historians. Were they a single army or something more complex? The carvings at Medinet Habu, which depict women, children, and wagons moving alongside the warriors, suggest that this was not merely a military force, but a large-scale migration of displaced populations.

Some of the leading theories as to their origins are, first, that they were displaced peoples from the Aegean Sea. Second, that they were originally tribes from further north, perhaps from what is now Central Europe. A third theory is that they were more local to Egypt geographically, but were displaced peoples from different tribes all uprooted by the turmoil of the era.

The Sea Peoples are often cast as the villains of the Bronze Age Collapse, blamed for the destruction of major cities from Mycenae to Ugarit, which is more or less the role they play in the background of The Odyssey. However, historians now view them with more nuance. While they undoubtedly engaged in conflict – as evidenced by the panicked letters from the King of Ugarit describing enemy ships burning villages – many experts question if they were the sole cause or merely a symptom of a much larger crisis.

The catastrophe that seemed to spread was likely the result of a general systems collapse caused by a combination of factors that pushed these societies to breaking point. For instance, pollen studies from Sea of Galilee and records of grain shortages indicate a significant environmental emergency that could have led to mass migrations from lands with falling food supplies. Natural disasters such as earthquakes and volcanic eruptions could have driven people from their homelands. The resultant movements and conflicts could then have snowballed, escalated by wars between groups like the Hittites and Egyptians, disrupting trade and having unforeseen consequences down the line.

While the Sea Peoples may have acted as a final, destabilising blow in the late Bronze Age, it seems likely that they were a symptom of the collapse rather than its cause.

Banner Image Credit: Mortuary Temple of Ramesses III: bas-relief mural (Public Domain/Wiki/Archaeologia Homerica, Dorothea Gray)