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THE SEA PEOPLE AND THEIR MIGRATION |
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CHAPTER 4: Migration Routes As Seen Through Pottery and Archeology
We have been focusing on the Late Bronze Age LB II- 1400 to 1200 BC continuing on to Iron I-1200 to 1000 BC. Birney addresses the difficulties of this type of archaeological argument in her statement one of the limits in conducting a study of the Iron Age is the inconsistent use of terminology applied to describe the locally produced Mycenaean pottery in the various sites of the Levant and Cyprus.204 The definition of the Sea Peoples pottery Myc III: 1 and Myc IIIC:1b came from Furumark’s work at classifying LHIIIC pieces from sites in Greece. Furmark divided LHIIIC into two phases, an early phase (Mycenaean IIIC: 1), and a later phase which was Sub-Mycenaean. Further subdivisions Myc IIIC: 1a, b and c were started, each corresponding to specific levels at Mycenae.205 The specific origin of Myc IIIC:1b was shards of pottery found in the IX-X layer at Mycenae.206 Elsewhere in Cyprus, the same term Myc IIIC:1b was given to pottery found in LCIIA/LCIIIA post destruction strata at Sinda and Enkomi connected with Mycenaean culture.207 Further away in the Levant, Myc IIIC:1b characterized local pottery made of clay and copy imports. Birney specifies that Myc IIIC:1b in the Levant carries chronological and stylistic significance as well as the specific implication of the ethnic identity of the potters.208 This classification is also used by Dothan and Bunimowitz in describing early Philistine pottery from Ashdod, Tel-Miqne, and Ekron.209 It needs to be pointed out that most scholars agree that the LHIIIC wares are either made by craftsmen from Cyprus or locally produced in Cilicia.210 A specific pot, the FS284 deep bowl was found a lot in LHIIIB and IIIC layers across the Levant. It was locally imitated quite early in that period at Akko and Ugarit.211 This pot style seems to be a token of the Sea Peoples settlement. Barako generalizes this movement as connoting a series of settlements characterized by the same, intrusive culture which forms a distinctive path or trail.212 In this discussion we will try to follow that trail, tracked by Barako, with its remains dug up by archaeologists. The Mycenaean-style IIIb-c pottery that we assign to Sea Peoples can be found in Cilicia and Syria as well as in the Levant in the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age. Here pots are found with pieces of Aegean and Anatolian domestic items that can be shown as evidence for the arrival of immigrants.213 Through the trail of pottery found and through various destruction levels we can follow this intrusive Aegean culture with its cooking pots and weaving evidenced as Aegean style cooking jugs, band-handled cooking pots, and spool weights used by women, objects which define the household.214 Birney states that the evidence indicates that they were culturally influenced by the Aegean and Anatolia. Therefore, pointing out the significance of Mycenaean IIIC pottery as their indicator.215 Barako helpfully outlines:
We can pick up their migration route in the ancient region Kode, known to us as Cilicia. From the inscription of Ramesses III we are told-- and the archaeology backs up this story--that “No land could stand before their arms, from Hatti, Kode, Carchemish, Arzawa, and Alashiya on; …In Amor [,] they desolated its people, and its land was like that which has never come into being”.217 According to archaeological remains Carchemish carried on inhabited. We are told an enemy of Ugarit was stationed in nearby Mukish, which was known as the Amuq region in the south before the destruction of Ugarit in 1185 B.C.218 The next city-state listed by Ramesses III is Arzawa. This is thought to be in Asia Minor. Alashiya, as we have said earlier, is identified with Cyprus. The territory of Amor is known as Amurru, on the southern Syrian coast. Birney identifies it with the Tell Kazel, which was destroyed.219 The city of Hama is the only other Levantine city known to archaeologists to have been damaged during the Late Bronze Age to Early Iron Age.220 Archaeology tells us that Tarsus, in Cilicia was a settlement and branching-out point for the Sea Peoples.221 As a Hittite city it would have been targeted. Birney also marks Mersin and Kazanli as places where the Sea Peoples settled.222 Archaeological evidence shows that the Mycenaean-style pottery appeared across the Cilician plain and also at several sites on the coast located to the southwest of Tarsus named Tomuk Huyuk, Hudude Huyuk, and Soli.223 Birney sums up that the probable point of entry for this foreign population in Cilicia would appear to be by sea, either by the ‘beachheads’ established along the south eastern coast of Tarhuntassa and the southwestern coast of Kizzuwatna being Tomuk, Hudude Huyuk, Huyuk, or through Tarsus to the Cilician plain.224 In the Iron Age Mycenaean-style pottery is found here and shows that populations spread inland.225 It has been confirmed that the Cilician occupation predates Syrian settlement.226 This supports the theory that the Sea Peoples originated from Cilicia and Asia Minor. As we trace the Sea Peoples to Syria we arrive at Ras Shamra, then Ras Ibn Hani, as well as Tell Kazel.227 Ras Shamra was the capital of Ugarit and this site has been excavated. Ras Ibn Hani has a Late Bronze Age palace that was destroyed and then occupied where nearby places had been abandoned.228 In Syria, the three major Amuq sites of Chatal Huyuk, Tell Ta’yinat, and Tell Judeideh all appear to be filled with an intrusive immigrant population. They exhibit markers typical of Aegean households. Such as Aegean style cooking pots, Mycenaean-style pottery, and weaving loomweights, as well as some elite markers categorized as psi figurines.229 These are things that would have been carried by the women and children who are shown in the pictorial inscription (at Medinet Habu) traveling in ox carts. According to Birney Ain Dara and Tell Afis held Aegean settlers.230 The continuing spread of Mycenaean influence is from Amuqian spreading outwards into the Iron II levels.231 Birney sets the boundaries of Aegean influence in Tille Huyuk, with settlements to its south and west edges.232 Philistine pottery categorized as Mycenaean IIIC:1b has been found in abundance in the Philistine Pentapolis including Ashdod, Ashkelon and Ekron (known as Tel Miqne). Barako states it has clear precidence in the Aegean world.233 To give some background, Mycenaean IIIC:1b pottery dates c. 1175 BC in the Early Iron Age and imitates what are called fine wares from the Aegean region produced during the Late Bronze Age (c.1400-1200 BC).234 This generic type of pottery is known in Canaan only after the Philistines arrived.235 The Philistines would have had to transport those items necessary for the establishment of the settlements that they founded immediately upon their arrival as well as their families on the journey.236 This would explain the archaeological remains of loom weights, and cooking pots as well as wine containers that are used everyday domestically. Ramesses III sets the scene with his description “they were coming forward toward Egypt, while the flame was prepared before them”.237 We were wondering about this remarkable flame. Was it the army of pyromaniacs that made the victims remember the flame? Or could it be what Irad Malkin brings out in Religion and Colonization in Ancient Greece (cited in Barako’s article) when he notes a religious policy that “in order to remain connected with Homer, (ancient Greek) colonizing parties brought with them a flame from the common hearth located inside the assembly hall of the mother city; this sacred flame was used to light the central hearth of the newly established colony.” For Barako there could have been a fire-bearer among early Mycenaean culture settlers.238 In mainland Greece also seen in Mycenae and Pylos, the hearth is a monumental circular feature, built in the center of the throne room and surrounded by four columns.239 Copying this, wealthier homes surrounding the palatial centers in Greece were also constructed with single large freestanding hearths in the center main room of the house, each surrounded by two or four circular or rectangular columns, found at LHsIII Argos, Lorakou and Midea.240 In other areas thought to have been tranversed by the Sea Peoples such as Cyprus, free standing hearths appeared in the LCIIIA layer at sites such as Maa- Palaekastro and Enkomi. These are found in places used for large gatherings in buildings and in public assembly halls.241 These hearths are accepted as a trail of the Sea Peoples on Cyprus.242 Following them to their land named Philistia, monumental hearths were recognized in cultic settings at Tell Qasile, Ashdod and at Tel-Miqne. 243 We can follow a trail of broken pots left by the remnants of the Sea People and see where they settled even if only for a short time. More long-term evidence has been found with their hearths discovered in homes and public gathering halls. Let us move on to another assessment of the roads and paths they may have taken out of Asia Minor and into Syria and the Levant. Chapter 5: How Did They Travel? It has been debated by Barako and Yasur-Landau whether the Philistines got to Canaan by sea or by land. Their articles appeared in Biblical Archaeological Review in March/April of 2003. Then Barako went on to write a thesis entitled The Seaborne Migration of the Philistines, going into detail weighing the possibilities of both a sea and land migration route. The Egyptians show both modes of attacks in their Medinet Habu reliefs. The invaders’ name alone implies traversing water, as well as various groups of them being known as pirates to the Hittites, and of course, living on ships. Two Bronze Age ships have been found by underwater archaeologists in recent years containing ox ingots of the metals useful to these people. The modern findings of the Uluburun and Cape Gelidonya shipwrecks are physical proof of Bronze Age shipping traffic. Instead, the pictorial representations of women and children in ox drawn carts, can point towards a land migration. It is thought that the Philistines were a mix of peoples from various areas and their migration occurred in waves, rolling through many regions.244 A route later known to the Roman world as the Via Maris had seen a lot of traffic in the ancient world. It was the coastal road thru the Levant.245 Asia Minor’s western coast has been proposed by many scholars as the homeland for the Sea peoples. These Lukka and Arzawa Lands have a coastline that is serpentine and mountainous, making overland travel hazardous and difficult according to Barako.246 He tells us that throughout antiquity: There were no major land routes along the coast between Miletus and Antalya. In order to travel eastward from the area of Miletus, it is necessary to follow an inland route along the Meander River Valley until linking up with the great eastwest road across the Anatolian Plateau. This route passed through Pisidia in the area of the Lake District, then went past the southern end of the central Salt La ke (=Tuz Golu), and, finally, turned south following the Calycadnos Valley into the Cilician Plain. The route roughly corresponds to the later Persian Royal Road; however, it was undoubtedly used in earlier times. The journey from Miletus to Tarsus along this route is approximately 820km in length and covers mostly mountainous terrain.247 While crossing the Cilician Plain, east-west overland travel in antiquity went inland because of the swampy terrain near the coast created by the merging of the Tarsus Cay, Seyhan, and Ceyhan Rivers into the Mediterranean Sea.248 In Adana the main road crosses the Seyhan River to Osmaniye and Mycenaean pottery was found in many sites.249 Following the trail, “the main route then turned southward and ran along the coast until Alexandretta (=Iskenderun), where at the Beilan Pass it goes into the ‘Amuq plain”.250 Barako continues to explain that this inland route goes around the Amanus massif, where cliffs drop off at the sea stopping anymore overland travel along the coast.251 In describing the Beilan Pass: It crosses an extension of the Amanus mountain Range known today as Kizil Dag and opens into the ‘Amuq Plain, a fertile valley that parallels the coast of the Mediterranean Sea. In the Late Bronze Age, Alalakh now known as Tell Achtana, was the capital of the province of Mukhish, dominating the ‘Amuq Plain. Ancient Alalakh is found at the southern end of the plain, beside the opening of the Orontes River and 100 km south of the Beilan Pass. Although the best north–south route from the Beilan Pass is through the southern’Amuq Plain, it would have gone around Alalakh to the west. Therefore with trade in mind it seems that the main road used in antiquity circled around what we call the Lake of Antioch, thereby passing directly through Alalakh.252 Alalakh was supposedly destroyed by the Sea Peoples, but was in decline prior to that destruction.253 Birney mentions many of these sites as having archaeological remains in form of Tell’s (see my chapter 6). Traveling south from the Amuq Plain they had a choice of two routes:
Barako continues to outline the route: 40 km south of Alalakh, the Nahr al-Kabir which was ancient Rahbanu there is a pass between the Jebel al-Aqra and the Jebel Ansariyyah. Further ahead lay the coast and the kingdom of Ugarit.255 These geographical explanations of the land routes from Asia Minor to Syria and the Levant are important in showing the obstacles the Sea Peoples would have encountered in traveling by land. Upon reaching the diminishing kingdom of Ugarit, we can look back to the Ugarit letters shown in my chapter 1 as being epigraphical proof of the presence of the ships of the Sea Peoples. Ugarit was losing power and the Sea People had rushed into the power vacuum that opened and are reputed to have attacked Ugarit. The king of Ugarit, Hammurabi tells another king, “They have been setting fire to my [Ugaritic] cities and have done harm to the land.”256 This may suggest a two-pronged attack as many scholars have concluded. At the northern outpost of Ugarit lies Ras el-Bassit that is thought to be the Late Bronze Age Simuru, or Himulli, or classical period city-state Poseideion.257 Paul Courbin, the archaeologist, tells us the site was evacuated and abandoned then set on fire before arrival of the Sea Peoples.258 This pattern of events appears repeatedly and has been blamed on the invading Sea Peoples. At Ras Shamra we can see a clear destruction level examined. It has been dated between 1195-1185 BC.259 The Early Iron Age layer found Mycenaean IIIC: 1b pottery generally carried by the Sea Peoples. Continuing their trail, between the kingdoms of Ugarit and Siyannu is Tell Sukas now called Suksu which ended in partial destruction; this destruction is blamed on the Sea Peoples.260 Barako concludes the probable overland route taken by migrating Sea Peoples through Syria would follow along the coast.261 Of those sites already excavated, almost all have layers of destruction dated to around 1200BC. This was the proposed time of the wave of the Sea Peoples migration.262 The origin of this material culture of these invaders is to be found in the Aegean/Mycenaean world.263 For any group to travel from Greece or any islands in the Mediterranean they must have used ships to traverse the water. Barako thinks it is quicker and more logical to travel by sea.264 In this Settlement pattern pointed out by Barako only Tarsus, Ras Ibn Hani, Akko, Dor, Qasile, Ashdod, Tel Miqne, and Ashlelon have shown significant evidence for a Sea Peoples domestic presence.265 The farthest away from the sea, is Tarsus at 16 km away, on the Cydnus River. Ras Ibn Hani has bays on both its left and right. Akko is only 700m off the sea near the Na’aman River and has a couple of bays. Dor has a quay as well as lagoons and bays. Quasile is only 2km in and 200m from the Yarkon River. Ashdod is 4km inland from the sea. Ashkelon is on the sea. Therefore Barako concludes all sites can be accessible by sea, and most can harbor safe anchorages, except Tel Miqne which isn’t accessible to water.266 The “Naval Battle” carvings at Medinet Habu show that these invaders arrived in Egypt inside boats or ships. Larger ships were used frequently for eastern Mediterranean trade and transport. For Barako, it is possible to suggest that the oxen and carts of the Philistines carved at Medinet Habu and discussed immensely by scholars were carried as cargo on their ships.267 There is enough room in these ships to hold the carts or even the wood from which they were made in raw material form. Barako thinks that the Philistines could have built those carts once they arrived in Canaan and proceeded overland from there to invade the eastern Delta of Egypt268 The Ulubrun shipwreck, recently found, had as much as 15 tons of preserved cargo.269 These ships could have carried a migrating population. Ships could have used the summer sailing wind from the Aegean mainland, or Asia Minor to sail to the Levant or Egypt.270 To sail from Egypt or the Levant back, they would have had to use the southerly land breezes along the coast from Egypt to Asia Minor and then island-hopped around the Aegean.271 One of the raids on Egypt was dated to April, which would have been at the beginning of the sailing season. Barako concludes that “5,000 people (100 ships x 50 passengers) and their supplies” could have been taken across the Mediterranean in a sailing season; this migration came in waves and was an ongoing process for years.272 To conclude it is feasible that these ancient emigrants could have traveled by land or by sea and arrived in the Levant or Egypt. Barako has argued that both were possible. Both modes of travel are found in the Egyptian evidence. Ships are depicted as well as ox carts carrying their household and supplies. What we are interested in now is why any of these tribes would have wanted to leave an established homeland. Chapter 6: Why Did They Leave Their Homeland? “An incontrovertible fact about the Mediterranean region today [is that] from Egypt to Israel, and from Turkey to Greece to Italy, ruined cities and shattered buildings litter the Mediterranean countryside,” according to Nur and Burgess.273 They continue to question “why are so many of the ancient buildings and monuments in ruins?” Why were they left desolate and abandoned? What toppled the Cyclopean masonry? The scattered ruins of the ancient world may be blamed on the intensity of previous earthquakes.274 So what defines the intensity of an earthquake? The definition of intensity, according to Nur and Burgess is the catalogued amount of damaged the jolting causes to structures and topography, as well as how much people’s normal lives are disrupted.275 Lives were catastrophically disrupted by drought, famine, and earthquakes in this particular time period. Starting at the end of the thirteenth century, we see evidence of the termination of the Bronze Age when every city-state and palace region in the eastern Mediterranean world was destroyed.276 Again we must question what was the catalyst of this rubble? Strange reminds us that in the past, around 3500BC, a climatic change ended the Chalcolithic Age. Then in the Early Bronze I period c.3000 BC there was rapid depopulation, abandonment and many migrations.277 Again around 2300- 000 BC cities were abandoned again and the people became migrating nomads.278 What was the cause for movement? A pattern is emerging although it is prior to our focus of 50 years of migration c.1250-1150BC; it states clearly there are repeated climatic woes in this area of the Mediterranean. It is well known that the Hittite Empire fell around this disruptive time, and all of the Mycenaean palaces were leveled between the end of the 13th century and the beginning of the 12th century BC. It becomes apparent people from Asia Minor migrated to the Levant during the chaos prevailing the fall of the Hittite Empire. Assyrian records provide more evidence of 12th century migrations from Asia Minor into the Levant and northwestern Mesopotamia.279 According to Stiebing populations from Cilicia in Anatolia, migrated to the Levant during the chaos of the early 12th century BC and filled the vacuum left by the withdrawal of the waning Hittite Empire.280 We have previously established that Asia Minor was a departure point for the Sea Peoples before their going into Syria, the Levant, and Egypt. Ugarit, a Hittite city was weakened when it was hit with a tidal wave, earthquake and the resulting secondary fires after which the Sea Peoples saw their chance to invade.281 An earthquake hypothesis has been put forth in the past. It was thought impossible with the scientific evidence of the 1940’s. At this time we will reopen that earthquake hypothesis here in this paper with new published scientific evidence. More ruins and damaged layers have been found dating to the Late Bronze Age in the eastern Mediterranean and Aegean area. Therefore some archaeologists have concluded that earthquakes, another destructive force of nature, were involved. We are talking about evidence of layers of destruction found in over 50 digs. Stiebing postulates that Megiddo and other Levantine urban areas were toppled by a strong earthquake.282 Evidence can be found in the form of cracked walls, toppled columns that tell a story, and crushed skeletons that can show the weight an earthquake can drop. Nur, whose specialty is Earth Science and Geophysics, explains that with the new science of archaeoseismology and geological findings we can infer that earthquake storms could have caused the ruins of the late Bronze Age. When an earthquake storm hits, one earthquake triggers another along a fault line putting pressure on the next fault resulting in hundreds of miles of tension and shaking over decades.283 Nur and Cline talk about strains on faults that put increasing pressure on the fault until it is released in a chain reaction of domino like earthquakes set off at different times following one another down the fault. They define earthquake sequences taking place in the ancient past as being called earthquake storms.284 An earthquake storm was believed to have had a duration of 50 years during the period of 1225 to 1175 BC; which could figure in the demise of the Late Bronze Age civilizations in the eastern Mediterranean.285 They continue to connect earthquake prone sites with devastated Late Bronze Age sites. For a visual examination refer to figure 11. The first to think of earthquakes as being responsible for the destruction of the Bronze Age was:
This would easily explain all of the broken sherds of pottery found at archaeological sites as well as the ruined and abandoned cities of the Bronze Age. Earthquakes bring down walls crush people that are near heavy debris and they also break anything fragile that is in the way of something heavier. When the pillars of your community are toppled it could be perceived that the gods may be angry with you. If the gods of the land were not on your side it was time to move on. Ancient deities were absorbed by newcomers to the areas where they were predominant. These marauding tribes were led to wander in search of new homes in their ox carts carrying what was left of their lives and families to more prosperous land. An effect of the earthquakes, drought and crop failure was the migration of Sea Peoples out of Asia Minor and into a failed attempt at Egypt then into Syria, and the Levant. Other archaeologists such as Kilian who excavated Tiryns, have been arguing for awhile that earthquakes were the downfall of this and many other sites like Mycenae c.1200 BC.287 A geoarchaeologist, Zangger, proposes a flash flood relating to Tiryns’ earthquake that buried the lower town 18 feet deep.288 The destruction of ancient Midea, in the Argolid, is also thought to be owed to an earthquake at the beginning of the 12th century BCE with the evidence being the way the walls were broken and found.289 We are told the experts excavating the layer of Troy VI between 1750-1250BC, wrote that they are confident in blaming this layer of disaster on a severe earthquake.290 Geoarchaeologist Rapp concluded that the foundation crumbled because of earthquake shaking “in the underlying unconsolidated materials” causing the destruction of Troy VI.291
Nur and Cline explain in contrast that, when a site is destroyed by warfare, which is Drews’ opinion on these destructions, rather than earthquakes, the evidence is different. One example is Aphek, Israel, where the debris showed arrowheads.293 Drews opposes the earthquake theory because of the lack of casualties at the time of his writing. Drews’ own theory refutes this climatic theory, and he has set out to disprove anything except the military explanation for the upheaval. Challenges faced by both the earthquake archaeology and Drews’ interpretation are “to determine whether the destruction of a site was caused by an earthquake, by human attack, or by some nonseismic natural cause”.294 Drews has pointed out 47 sites that were destroyed between 1225-1175 BC.295 This 50 year period is our focus although it may be necessary to go outside it occasionally in order to show a pattern. Modern excavation has found proof, skeletons at: Mycenae, Tiryns, Midea, Troy, Thebes in Boeotia, Karaoglun in Anatolia, and the Menelaion in Sparta; which can refute Drews’ dismissal of earthquake.296 Such massive and wide-ranging range destruction must have set in motion the waves of Sea Peoples. “The final Bronze Age destruction levels occur over a span of 50 years (c. 1225-1175 BC),” as is pointed out by Nur and Cline, as well as Drews.297 It is also common knowledge, from literary evidence, as shown in the Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt, that the Sea Peoples migration waves were over a 50-year period. These facts can be put together, and we can see the link. A cause consisting of proposed climatic disaster leaving rubble and food shortages resulted in an effect of migrations of many different people around the Mediterranean. The most recent treatment is in Nur’s and Burgess’ book Apocalypse: Earthquakes, Archaeology, and the Wrath of God. The review featured in the American Journal of Archaeology by Barber calls it a “‘wake-up call’ and a ‘must read’ for any archaeologist who works in an earthquake zone”.298 Barber rings a wake-up bell that “if the archaeologists would only pay attention to the seismic evidence at their sites, it would help the geologists chart the very phenomena that continue to cause so much destruction in these densely populated areas”.299 Unfortunately up until now:
Moreover, French tells us “in the immediate aftermath of Schaeffer’s great work (1948)” archaeologists were taught to avoid earthquakes as an explanation.301 The main point against Schaeffer was that there was not sufficient evidence at that time for megaearthquakes, or knowledge of “earthquake storms” and it would have taken an unbelievably large earthquake in that region to do that much damage. Now we are aware of the Northern Anatolian Fault Zone. It explains that the Turkish plate is pushed westward because of the northward movement of the Arabian Plate and the resistance by the Eurasian plate.302 Earthquake records of 1948 were lacking the fine-tuned detail and use of technology we have at our disposal today. With scientific detail we can be more conclusive today. Roth concludes that most earthquake storms of the western North Anatolian Fault Zone occur in areas of high right lateral shear stress.303 By living in an earthquake zone and studying seismic activity, both Nur and Barber have something solid to say about archaeoseismology. Archaeoseismology is a new cross disciplinary science studying how earthquakes affect archaeology. These new sciences have a lot to offer to the archaeologist in his quest to find out the truth about the past. Barber, as an archaeologist, argues about using cross-disciplines “to understand when to solicit those scientists for their expertise and how to receive intelligently the help they offer”.304 There is a recurring theme that many buildings were never lived in or rebuilt after their destruction, presumably by earthquakes in the Late Bronze Age.305 Nur and Burgess ask, as many of us have, why so many of the Bronze Age monuments and towns were left in ruins? 306 Unfortunately, the remains, either from unrecorded amateur archaeology or from collapsed arches; leave it difficult to go back and distinguish what is from earthquake damage and what is from violent human activity. Arrowheads were prime evidence that war was pervasive. As Nur emphatically states his main point is not to debate over the exact timing of each earthquake, “but to uncover evidence of important destruction by earthquakes in antiquity”, before it is passed by, and to try to estimate the seismic hazards of ancient Tells.307 Nur and Burgess point out that looking back to prehistory, the earthquake pattern is similar to what it is today.308 Nur and Burgess place their ground-motion map over Drew’s map of the 47 destroyed Bronze Age sites (see figure 11) and can conclude that sites are within the Northern Anatolian Fault Zone and the chances of being badly damaged by earthquakes are high. Back in time, one of the first archaeologists, Evans believed Knossos was destroyed by an earthquake. In “his reconstruction of events, ca.1400 a moderate earthquake…happened to strike Knossos on a March day, when the south wind called the Notios was blowing; lamp fires were upset, other open fires were disrupted, and the Notios fanned them into a blaze that destroyed so much of the palace that the king and his court decided to abandon it and set up their administration on the Greek mainland, at Mycenae”.309 Nur and Burgess update us with the current information that Evans’ hypothesis was along the lines of thinking with the plate tectonics pattern. New evidence proves that Crete is at the top of the African plate and has been devastated because of this many times over. Crete is in a dangerous seismic zone. The nine dirt layers of the Minoan Age may show evidence of many mega- earthquakes. Another famous early archaeologist, Blegen believed Troy VIh, the “royal city at Hissarlik” underneath the more famous Troy VIIa, to have been destroyed in a conflagration and seismic jolting ca.1275 BC.310 Podzuwit, using the ceramic evidence agrees that Troy VIh had a devastating earthquake.311 Mylonas places the cause as an earthquake for the so called “Catastrophe in the Peloponnese”, that is the Troy VI layer.312 Iakovides, in 1977 is convinced that the destruction at Mycenae [LH IIIB] was the result of many secondary earthquake fires.313 Iakovides, also concludes that new pieces of evidence link earthquake fires to the last quarter of the 13th century BC.314 Another excavator following the earthquake hypothesis was Kilian in 1980. In charge of the dig at Tiryns, he believed that the blame should go to an earthquake. Tiryns, Mycenae, and Midea were destroyed by a quake and the fires resulting from the chaos.315 Astrom, who was in charge of the dig at Midea, went back to the site in 1983 and worked toward the same conclusion that “it too had been ruined by a quake”.316 Astrom is backed up by Taylour, an earlier British excavator who admitted that “a minor fire or possibly an earthquake” was responsible.317 Astrom has proof that Midea was destroyed in a conflagration (ash deposits were found everywhere, with an ash layer 40 centimeters thick near the interior of the Cyclopean wall).318 All of these prominent scholars have now concluded, in favor of a significant role for earthquakes, although fully aware of the scorn previously directed at Schaeffer. To Summarize many historians and archaeologists now believe that earthquakes struck Ugarit, Midea, Myceane, Knossos, Troy and Tiryns.319 The most significant agnostic is Drews. Even he admits “that this is a zone of high seismicity and earthquake damage is almost certain”. He goes on to admit that earlier levels of Troy III, Troy IV, and Troy V were affected by quakes.320 Historians reconstruct that, after a quake, the survivors repaired any damage done and got on with their lives. We do occasionally hear of cities being utterly destroyed by natural events. We know that Thera and Pompeii were destroyed by volcanic eruptions, another example of extreme conditions uprooting populations. Nur and Burgess take us to the faults along the Jordan River Plain where the violent movement during an earthquake can change water-saturated sand or silt, near the river into a fluid that rises up to the surface at this time, creating mud volcanoes and sand volcanoes.321 We are told this would be “unequivocal evidence of an earthquake, and the age of the layer where it reached the surface would provide a means of fixing the earliest possible date for the event”.322 By sampling mud or sand volcanoes at a site, one can determine if past earthquakes jolted the site. Another natural threat to the Mediterranean area is represented by undersea earthquakes that can cause tsunamis that can wreck havoc on coastal settlements. Tsunamis were a threat into the past as they are to the present and future, as we see in ancient written accounts. When lives are disrupted from the norm with extreme weather destroying their homes and food supply, it drives people to do things such as attack prosperous lands or migrate looking for a better life. All of this academic discussion points to different climate changes and seismic changes affecting the Sea Peoples and pushing them to migrate away from disaster and towards the prosperous lands of wealth. What I have been trying to point out throughout this paper is that farm land that produces grain, ore deposits that produce raw materials for weapons, and access to trade routes were all coveted by the Sea Peoples, food being the most prominent necessity. This list is what brought them to Egypt, the Levant, and even, perhaps, other more distant lands. Nur and Burgess relate the challenge is to place the earthquake knowledge of today into the blanks of written history and the archaeological record.323 What are needed are more studies done in the science of paleoseismology at Bronze Age sites. This takes paleoseismic samples in the faults to document the number and rate of earthquakes during prehistoric times. Paleoseismology involves the checking of fault zones strata for ancient earthquakes signs. To understand such waves of earthquakes, better we turn to the issue of tectonic earthquakes and their causes. The elastic rebound theory establishes that when the stress is more powerful than the friction holding both sides of the fault together then the plate boundary slips and an earthquake occurs. The more the ground moves, the greater damage incurred. The Peloponnese of Greece, Cyprus, and Crete have reverse faults that are also denoted as thrust faults. Nur and Burgess explain that rocks on one side are pushed up and over the other side.324 In another category are the North Anatolian fault in Turkey, and the Dead Sea Transform in the Middle East which are categorized as strike-slip faults. These are defined as places where two plates slide horizontally beside each other. The Dead Sea area in the Levant is close to many of our Philistine towns that eventually harbored a part of the Sea Peoples. The Dead Sea is 411 meters below sea level so that it could have been susceptible to a tsunami. This makes it vulnerable to a variety of natural hazards. We now know why there is different terrain from west to east in the Levant and south to north in the eastern Mediterranean. Geology and plate tectonics explain the formation of mountains, and valleys that are scientific explanations that the ancients did not have. Looking for ancient earthquakes at an archaeological site requires unusual skills in locating faults and searching out damage such as repaired walls.325 Ancient walls that have been bisected by fault motion can sometimes be found.326 The scattered ruins of the ancient world may then at times be owed to the intensity of previous earthquakes. Intensity is the amount of damage the shaking causes to an area that has human activity. Comparing modern damage to ancient-city sites, one may note our building structures in modern society are different from the buildings constructed in prehistoric Turkey. Without the knowledge and standards of today, there would be more ruins such as the damage shown in ancient cities given the same level earthquake. Modern science has proven that narrow ridges or small hills, can vibrate more than other areas when hit with seismic waves therefore increasing damage during and after an earthquake. Nur and Burgess explain “even where topography is flat, areas composed of poorly consolidated materials, like loose, water deposited sediments or improperly compacted artificial fill” sustain damage in even small earthquakes.327 Most ancient settlements were founded close to a spring of fresh water for the necessities in life. These areas become desirable destinations for many people over time. These become what the Hebrews call tel and the Arabs call Tell. These piles of dirt and left over layers of previous settlements, debris and pottery become the archaeological history of an area and or people. When a city was destroyed by any means, the survivors, being the old or new residents took up residence on the destroyed site, clearing away the debris the best they could and building atop the layer of destroyed earth. This earth becomes the loose sediment and loosely consolidated materials which, when hit by another earthquake shift even more because it is not solid earth that was built upon. In the desert lands like Libya and Egypt, alluvial fans appear in the mountains and water erodes the rock which becomes soft ground that can be settled. Though it may seem pleasant to stay on, the nearby mountains have been built from active faults.328 Building codes became the norm with reinforced masonry after scientists did research on what types of construction would stand and what would fall. This progression of humanity has protected us from surprise earthquakes and minimized the damage. The horizontal stress portrayed in some earthquakes could decimate unreinforced public buildings of the past. Stone blocks do not sway with the earth therefore they broke under the strain of the horizontal stress. When the stones crumbled they became a death trap to anyone or anything in the vicinity. We have proof of this in the skeletons found at Dor in Israel. Even poorer dwellings such as mud brick is built heavily and therefore would “collapse” during an earthquake and would do harm. The ancients’ normal construction was to build cities on top of old rubble in the prime settlement spots that were usually “on a base of alluvium (loose, water-deposited sediments)”.329 Significantly, these Tells or mounds are mostly abandoned now. These piles of ruined cities were unstable for future dwelling to be safe under more modern techniques of construction. In all archaeological sites we find layers of time and the traces of different inhabitants who were lost in some sort of destruction. The current problem is that most archaeologists are not alert to earthquake evidence or to the specific kinds of damage that are proof of earthquakes because they are not cross-trained in geophysics or earth sciences nor do they have an expert on hand in a known earthquake area. One sign of earthquake damage is “displacement of the ground surface”.330 Earthquakes or fault motion can tilt walls that can be found askew in a dig. Horizontal markers can cut through “walls, streets, or aqueducts”.331 Ruins are the evidence left behind in an earthquake. The best evidence for a past earthquake is fallen columns. Ancient ruined sites are rife with them. When searching for evidence, one must see whether the columns all fell in the same direction. These columns must encompass a whole building or all the buildings in the area.332 What has happened to leave these clues is that when the ground quakes the dirt under the columns moves rapidly one way.333 Then in the opposite direction is where one finds the columns toppled and sometimes lying in pieces.334 Evidence like this was found in Susita, Israel although the particular earthquake of 749 CE was not in our time period. 45 Km south is ancient Bet Shean, also destroyed by an earthquake of the same time. One may correlate the area of disturbance and its proof of seismic disturbances in our past. What was found were stone columns fallen from the main streets and left in ruins parallel to each other.335 Investigation has shown that Bet Shean was overtaken by a sesimic disturbance also.336 This is further proof that the area is seismically active. The Dead Sea Transform has often been studied by modern scientists. We can trace earthquake damage through walls as well. Nur and Burgess explain these markers: A single site in any given earthquake generally has one axis where the shaking is the strongest. Walls oriented perpendicular to this maximum-shaking axis are more likely to collapse in moderate earthquakes, leaving walls that are oriented parallel to the shaking axis intact or less badly damaged. When many similar oriented walls at a site have fallen in the same direction, particularly when they buried grain, gold, or other valuables in their fall, the action of an army is an unlikely cause. We find such damage in many different sites, including some layers at Troy, Jericho, and Mycenae.337 What we look for in these walls is the “repair record: patches of different block sizes, stone types, and workmanship”.338 Egypt too has suffered damage from earthquakes in the past. Karnak and Luxor show damage especially at the Ramesseum of Rameses II. Unfortunately, the best evidence is for the earthquake in 27 BC.339 That does not mean that this was the only one quake in this region; on the contrary it is a good indication that Egypt too is seismically quite active. Alexandria’s lighthouse was hit by many earthquakes before it fell into the sea. During August 8, 1303 AD a “massive seismic event in the Mediterranean was felt in a huge area, including Crete, Egypt, Rhodes, Jordan, Syria, Palestine, Turkey, and Cyprus, and it was followed by a large tsunami” or seaquake.340 Although this was much later than our time period, geologic time is on a much grander scale and the time span is not as far off as we may surmise. The point of noting this example is that similar catastrophic activity could and did happen in our past. Nur and Burgess point to “long term seismic hazards of ancient sites”.341 Nature measures time in longer periods than generations. Tsunamis or sea-quakes have flooded Greece many times. What written proof has survived to our time was written by Thucydides about an earthquake during the Peloponnesian War, c.426 BC (Thucydides III.89).342 His narrative is based on eyewitnesses: “numerous earthquakes occurring…About the same time that these earthquakes were so common, the sea at Orobiae, in Euboea, retiring from the then line of coast, returned in a huge wave and invaded a great part of the town, and retreated leaving some of it still under water; so that what was once land is now sea….”343 This can happen on a smaller scale where waves can be seen on lakes and inland seas created from an earthquake with an epicenter somewhere else.344 These are defined as seiches which could be seen on “the Dead Sea and the Sea of Galilee” when an earthquake was felt in antiquity.345 Archaeoseismology can use underwater landslides as evidence when using radiocarbon for dating earthquakes.346 These seismites, sometimes called mixed sea layers, have been used in confirming numerous historical accounts of earthquakes in the Middle East area.347 Earthquake is connected with conflagration. Fire spread out of control resulting in ash layers are found in many archaeological layers. It is clear that fires were a secondary threat to anyone near the aftermath of an earthquake. In one way they can help later generations understand the past is the preservation of “mud bricks and tablets”.348 Crushed skeletons found in layers of archaeology can be evidence of past earthquakes. Forensic anthropology is the study of these skeletons. The time an earthquake strikes can have an effect on who is harmed. If they are inside as opposed to being outside, can determine what they are near and what the dangers are of being caught under rubble. Real proof of earthquakes has recently been unearthed at both Dor and Mycenae in the form of crushed skeletal remains. Sakellarakis and Sapouna-Sakellaraki found an old Minoan temple in Anemospilia, Crete during 1979. Three skeletons were found crushed by what they think was an earthquake c. 1700 BC. One skeleton, presumed a priest had an iron and silver ring still on a finger bone. Had this been a raid the precious ring would have been looted. The excavators believe that earthquake stopped a human sacrifice was hypothesized by a medical anthropologist on account of the color of the bones of the victim. The temple had a fire, and there was ash and burned stones present.349 Some speculate that foreshocks that come before a big quake could have been the reason why this human sacrifice was being made. Such fear could have driven people away from their homes to settle in another safe place. The city of Dor, a town of the Sikils or Tjekker, known by Wen-Amon, was thought to have been destroyed by an earthquake. The evidence for this conclusion is a skeleton found during Sterns’ dig in 1993. Rocks and broken potsherds were found under and protruding from a female skeleton. A rock wall had fallen on the body and pulverizing and forcing her into the earth foundation.350 These skeletons were found in a way that strongly suggests to experts that an earthquake was responsible for the way in which they were left. We have just gone through many climatic reasons such as drought, or earthquakes, and seaquakes which should be considered when assessing why these tribes would have left a broken homeland. Where did they choose to go? Egypt was known as the richest land, and, as I have noted, was coveted by the Sea Peoples. It is known that they attacked Egypt on more than one occasion and were repelled with great slaughter. The other land of promise and wealth was the Levant where at least three of these tribes settled. Strange tells us “the Philistine city- states must have supplemented their economy with trade, at least in the case of Gaza and Ashkelon, both lying on the coast”.351 He continues to exemplify the value of this land in which “Gaza was connected to the Arabian trade and one of the tribes constructed a harbor at Dor.352 This explains the cross-roads of trade that made this land worth more than other areas. To get a bigger picture “at the same time the Philistines controlled a part of the trunk road between Egypt and Assyria, which gave them a key position in the trade between Egypt and Mesopotamia”.353 These areas equaled power and money from trade. It is also known that there were metal deposits in the ancient Levant. The real lure was that, as Strange tells us, “there must have been an agricultural basis for the economy [since] the area is well suited for cereals and there is evidence of animal husbandry”.354 Strange reminds us that the Philistines introduced or brought with them the krater pottery into the Levant that helped with the trade of viticulture in Ashkelon.355 A people on the move for greener pastures leaving a broken homeland heard of lands with abundance through traders and set their sights on these coveted lands. It is logic and human nature that leads people to better our situation in any way possible be it a land route or sea route. Chapter 7: Famine Causing Migrations Ancient people, as nomads and shepherds migrate to sustain life for their families. Gathering food is the core of human life. Herbs and grain as well as meat kept humans alive. Their economy was based on agriculture.356 When that is taken away, it is human nature to seek it out. Whether it is from hunger or war, they are striving for a better life. Through trade networks they may glimpse and experience a better way of life. This may lead to plans of migration and the coveting of others' prosperity. If you cannot earn a living normally then becoming a pirate or outlaw became seductive. In this chapter we will discuss reasons why the confederation of tribes known as the Sea Peoples left their homeland and risked death for the entire families in making this move. It is a fact that they traverse the Mediterranean. They also crossed land in their journey to get where they wanted to be. Unfortunately they did not win the battle that ensued for the prize land of Egypt; they were repelled, and many were killed and those left settled as prisoners in this land of wealth. Their sharp skills as metal smiths and seasoned fighters won the Sherden respect from the Pharaohs and a place in the Egyptian army. This later gave them the opportunity to be stationed in garrisons in the Levant, a prosperous place, and to eventually carve a piece out of this landscape for themselves and their families. There is an interesting inscription from an earlier time of the Egyptian 12th Dynasty (1991-1786 BC), with Achtoes III relating to his sons:
This explains the desire to be nomads in this time period and for generations after. It points out the lack of food in their land and their war-like tendency trickling down into the 12th Century BC. Nibbi neatly tells us “The reason for the Libyan invasion of Egypt around this time is said to be hunger”.358 Hunger is a strong force and can motivate many. There were frequent food shortages. Egypt was known as the grain provider of the Mediterranean as well as the Levant that was under Egyptian control. These prosperous lands called out to those in need. Nibbi further factualizes that “On inscriptions the Pharaoh is made to declare that famine is the cause of the Libyan’s unauthorized entry into the country”.359 This clearly states that from an Egyptian perspective it was engraved for future generations that famine was a catalyst. Later historians Diodorus and Herodotus tell future generations of a “famine that forces people from Syme, Naxos, and Sardis to emigrate”.360 Once again the pattern emerges. Famine could lead to the consumption of rats in desperation causing disease. Bubonic plague is hinted at in more than one source. Redford points out “contemporary documents from Egypt and Ugarit speak of famine in Anatolia”.361 Again ancient sources from two distinct powers list famine in the region of the Sea Peoples departure. Dagan is known as the primary deity of the Philistines, one of the tribes of the confederation, and it “is found in the Bible, but never clearly as a deity, rather as the common noun ‘grain’ ”.362 Is it possible that Dagan was worshipped for a steady food supply such as grain and fish? Ancient peoples turned to the gods when faced with any catastrophe while modern archaeologists blame the Bronze Age catastrophe on human causes such as war. Babylonia offers more written evidence of drought, famine and unusually high temperatures, as recorded in their Erra Epic with “characters personifying the troubles besetting Babylonia prior to the ninth century BCE-‘scorched (earth)’ (Erra), ‘Fiery sun’ (Ishum), and ‘plague’ (the Sibitti demons).”363 We turn to the Assyrians for more climatic woes. Stiebing points out an Assyrian letter written around 1090 BC detailing the lack of rain that year and no harvests were picked. This extreme weather stood out enough so that officials left records for future generations. An Assyrian chronicle dating to 1082BC states that a famine so bad occurred that people ate one another’s flesh. This clearly shows desperation. Drought, famine and hunger are counted at minimum of 14 times in texts dating from the 11th and first part of the 10th centuries BCE.364 The pattern emerges. We are left records from all the major powers in the area about food shortages. Drought leads to crop failure and that leads to hunger which leads to desperation and/or death. In the turmoil there were many deaths. This is significant. Populations of Greece declined by as much as 75 percent, Sumerian populations declined by 25 percent, and in the Diyala region of Iraq by about 75 percent.365 There was recorded migration by those that survived. They left in search of sustenance. This drought hypothesis has justified the evidence. It has happened in the past, it happened during the 50-year period we have focused on for the migrations, and it happened later in Alexandria. This repeated erratic weather pattern hits the eastern Mediterranean every 500 years or so.
Although there are mixed opinions of modern scholars on whether to believe Herodotus, and many do not, his peers and generations afterward did believe this in course of events. Merneptah’s speech reminds us that the invading Sea Peoples “come to the land of Egypt, to seek the necessities of their mouths”.367 This manifest tells us that they were in search of food and if Egypt was a source of grain then that was where prosperity was to be found. It is important to reiterate here the part of the Israel stela that reveals the desolation of the Sea Peoples in:
This piece of textual evidence reveals a clue that “their going about is stopped in a single day”, could this refer to an earthquake? Was their homeland left in broken ruins? This passage goes on to highlight “all his possessions were food for the troops”. With a scarcity of food this would be a prized possession and a necessity to sustain life. This collapse at the end of the Bronze Age and widespread movement must have had a catalyst. Records of Egypt from 1182-1127BC explain that the price of wheat had risen to 8-24 times its original price and stayed inflated for the remainder of the century.369 Food became more precious and harder to come by. Grain shortages occurred not only in Egypt, but in the Hittite area and Mesopotamia. Drews generalizes that “climatic explanations for the end of Bronze Age civilization have been prevalent in English language scholarship on both the Aegean and the Near East for the last twenty years: drought has been found responsible for the Catastrophe in the Levant and Hittite Asia Minor and even for the subsequent decline of Mesopotamia.”370 Even a hard-core skeptic admits that opinions for the last twenty years have leaned in the direction of the drought hypothesis. In 1965 Carpenter came up with the thesis that “Bronze Age centers of Greece fell victim to an intense and prolonged drought and to the disorders occasioned by the drought”.371 Carpenter envisioned at the end of the thirteenth century BC the drought was so bad that people were pushed to migrate.372 This connects the inflation of wheat with a proposed drought and a result of migration. Strobel’s Seevolkersturm tells us that that a drought happened at this time.373 Strobel thinks that a severe drought in Asia Minor pushed the tribes there to move towards the south-eastern Mediterranean and then on to the western Mediterranean.374 Carpenter brings out their desperation and violent tendencies brought on by hunger. This is what led to the emergence of outlaws and pirates. Recent scholarship has been uncovering more and more evidence indicating that there most likely was a climatic change in the area we have been talking about between approximately 1300 and 950 BC.375 We should explore what evidence we have on any climatic changes during these millennia. Stiebing lets us know that dendochronology records show in tree rings that changes were happening in the climate, especially in the northern hemisphere during the time periods 1300 and 1000BC. This is confirmed by levels of various lakes, movements of glaciers and changes in peat bogs.376 Proof comes from a tree found in Gordion, Asia Minor that showed evidence of extremely dry periods of time around 1200 BC.377 For Stiebing, other evidence showing that glaciers in the Himalayan and the Karakorum mountain ranges of Asia both began melting between 1200-1150 BC.378 Also, the annual monsoon rains that normally hit the Indus Valley were way below normal.379 All of these different clues point to drought and climate change from what was previously perceived as normal. Kay and Johnson concluded that after 1250 BC, the flow of the Tigris and Euphrates fell rapidly, and reached its low point around 1150 BC and returning to normal after 950 BC.380 Archaeological sites in Israel tell us the vegetation changed from Mediterranean to Saharan; these data are brought to our attention by Stiebing. He further summarizes that this seemingly long-term drought was a catalyst to the ongoing wars, population decline, piracy, migrations, power vacuum, disruption of life and generally spreading destitution. This would have spiraled out of control into the sacking of cities and hoarding of food and what resources were left. Therefore when lives became disrupted, trade became harder. Hostilities were everywhere people were desperate and scared. Refugees were wandering and raiding became normal occurrences. The drought is believed to have stopped around 1150 BC and 1100 BC. Farming is thought to have resumed around this time. This erratic weather and catastrophes affected all peoples of the Mediterranean region. I turn now to an earlier instance. Weiss in 1993 found evidence of a drought in Syria at Tell Leilan. He links it to the end of the Akkadian Empire in Mesopotamia during the span between the Early Bronze Age to the Middle Bronze Age. This research establishes a pattern of climatic catastrophe that pushed people to search for a better life in more self-sustaining areas such as Egypt. The grass literally becomes greener in the neighboring territory, and the sustenance and stability of wealth is luring and coveted by these Sea Peoples. Many controversial theories have flourished about why the Bronze Age collapsed. Here we have surveyed a few such as drought leading to crop failure, resulting in famine, and earthquakes that have been thought to have contributed to the ruins of the Bronze Age and emigration of the Sea Peoples. I have not tried to argue who the Sea People were in some essentialist sense or have become; those theories from other scholars who have had more time to ponder have been presented here. I believe that the evidence left behind which was presented in chapter one, and the fine scholarship that I have discussed in chapter two, having attempted to identify the Sea Peoples ethnicities and locations represent significant contributions to solving the mystery of the Sea Peoples. Chapter three pieces together the different names of the Sea Peoples and where they are said to have migrated or lingered. Chapter four digs in the dirt for their trail of broken pottery and theorizes with the help of scholars of our day what areas they occupied domestically or left their mark upon with trade. Chapter five goes on to ask how they traveled when migrating. Barako has gone into detail in his PhD dissertation whether they traveled by Sea or by land. I happen to think both on the basis of the Egyptian evidence showing ships as well as ox carts carrying families. Chapter six asks why they left their home-land. The answer lies in the climate changes felt in the last period of the Late Bronze Age. The theory is that many large earthquakes were set off along a fault system resulting in what is called an earthquake storm. Geologic time is measured in greater lengths than human time and fifty or one hundred years is a small period to encompass on this grand scale. One earthquake triggers another which devastates whole regions. This can be in the form of earthquakes or tsunamis which are set off by undersea quakes, both destroyed unreinforced masonry which was the basis for buildings in this time period. This thesis has been brought up in part in the past and was repeatedly refuted for lack of evidence. Evidence has been found dating to 1225-1175 BC.381 It is now believed that earthquakes probably struck at Mycenae, Tiryns, Midea, Thebes, Pylos, Kynos, Lefkandi, the Menelaion, Kastanas, Thessaly, Korakou, Profitis Elias, Troy, Karaoglun, Hattusa, Ugarit, Alalakh, Megiddo, Ashdod and Akko.382 This massive ruination led to staggering population losses and Mediterranean-wide migrations. This thesis has been brought up in part in the past and was repeatedly refuted for lack of evidence. Schaffer lost his reputation on a theory of earthquake damage. He did not have archaeoseismology, paleoseismology or dendochronology to supplement his finds. Our modern breakthroughs in science ought to be highlighted. Science has come a long way since the Egyptians carved the story of the Sea Peoples in stone. Chapter seven reiterates their conclusion in favor of a famine which led to migration for greener pastures, mineral wealth, and trade. We also have Tigris’ and Euphrates’ diminishing river levels and other emerging climatic changing knowledge. Drought is shown in retreating glaciers. That brings up the point in which I have the floating hypothesis of earthquake destruction and the previously formed drought hypothesis. These theses look at both as factors in an evolving erratic weather pattern. Both have evidence that comes back again and again. I have cited many different ancient cultures that recorded these food shortages in their epigraphical records. It was an abnormal time and was left behind in records for future generations to learn from. With the earthquake hypothesis, many prominent archaeologists and specialists have put forth speculation that in, at least, 50 different sites of the eastern Mediterranean, earthquakes and sometimes secondary fires were the cause of their ruin. We now know of the phenomena of earthquake storms. The story is in the layers of earth we try to read for clues to the past more studies in paleoseismology must be done and published. The long time enigma of the Sea Peoples and their mark left on the Late Bronze Age has puzzled scholars for millennia, myself catching the hunger to study them. The desperate lengths a people will go to sustain their families is remarkable and these tribes left wide sweeping changes for us to study. Somehow this confederation of tribes has touched our lives, as we try to glimpse the past and fill in the unwritten pages of their life story for future generations who may well be curious about what really happened to move these tribes through life-threatening hard-ships to reach the wealthy lands of Egypt and the Levant. No one will ever really know for sure unless a firsthand account from the tribes themselves is found. We have never found evidence of their side of the story, just the foreign perspective. Therefore we are left with their story written from the enemies’ perspective. The missing piece of the puzzle may still be buried somewhere, hidden from modern historians who have to trust their gut instincts to relay theories on how these people moved and lived. I could only wish for more time and evidence to study this perplexing and enigmatic group. Here I close my study, once again to cover with dust until the next scholar opens the never ending story of the Sea Peoples.
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202 John Strange, “The
Philistine City-states” in A Comparative Study of Thirty City-State
Cultur S, ed.
Mogens Herman Hansen (Copenhagen: Det Kongelige Danske Videnskabernes
Selslab. 2000), 134.
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