The Mycenaeans were destroyed, the Hittites disappeared from the stage of history, Ugarit disappeared from the map. Were the Sea Tribes really behind all this?
Since the beginning of history, mankind has both admired and feared the ocean for its potential to bring strange beings and powers, whether good, evil or strange. This was particularly evident during the Late Bronze Age, when the waters of the eastern Mediterranean gave rise to an army of marauders known as the Sea Tribes, who attacked and destroyed great empires such as the Mycenaeans, Hittites and even Egyptians.
At least that is what some historians think. Unfortunately, the Sea Tribes left behind neither written sources nor material culture. So we do not know for certain who they were, where they came from, or even if they really existed.
What we do know, however, is that in the late 13th and early 12th centuries BC, all the major Bronze Age civilisations went into a sudden collapse – a phenomenon historians call the Late Bronze Age Collapse. Many factors have been proposed that may have triggered this catastrophe: climate change, epidemics, and a hypothetical major conflict dubbed ‘World War Zero’.
However, a relief in the mausoleum of the Egyptian pharaoh Ramses III points to a different explanation. The relief depicts a chaotic battle between a group of Egyptian archers and a naval force armed with spears, and may represent an attempted invasion by the Sea Tribes in 1,175 BC.
The accompanying inscription states that these mysterious sea-borne enemies consisted of an alliance of tribes named Peleset, Thekel, Shekelesh, Denyen and Weshesh, and that these tribes came from Sicily, Sardinia, Cyprus and Anatolia. Referring to the civilisations that the Sea Tribes destroyed before reaching Egypt, the inscription reads as follows:
‘No country could stand against their weapons: Hatti, Kadesh, Carchemish, Arzava and Alashiya… all were destroyed at the same time.’
A cuneiform tablet found in Syria tells of the sacking and destruction of the once powerful kingdom of Ugarit by the Sea Tribes. Radiocarbon dating of artefacts from a Bronze Age battle in the region suggests that this attack may have taken place around 1,190 BC. This fits with the narrative that the Sea Tribes won a series of victories before coming against Ramses III.
However, the advance of the Sea Tribes was halted in Egypt. Some sources suggest that these groups later settled in Palestine and became the Philistines. Nevertheless, despite their defeat, the damage they inflicted on Egypt may have contributed to the collapse of the New Kingdom a century or so later.
However, while the only evidence we have is a temple built by a pharaoh seeking to glorify himself, it is clear that our knowledge of the Sea Tribes and their historical role is quite limited. Some scholars even doubt whether they really played a role in the collapse of Bronze Age civilisations.
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