Battle of Djahy - Historical Background

Historical Background

In Egypt, Ramesses III was fighting to save his country and Empire in the midst of the Bronze Age collapse which was caused by the Sea People's invasion of various Near Eastern Powers. Ramesses III had already previous defeated an attack by the Libyans on the Egyptian Empire's western frontier in his fifth year. But the greatest threat was posed not by the Libyans, but by a group of migrating peoples called the Sea Peoples. These were times of crisis in the Mediterranean as many 12th century B.C. ancient civilizations were destroyed from attacks by the Sea Peoples and other migrating nations. The great Hittite Empire fell together with the Mycenaean civilization and other great cultures including the kingdom of Cyprus and Ugarit. Whatever their origins, the Sea Peoples moved around the eastern Mediterranean, attacking the coasts of Anatolia, Cyprus, Syria and Canaan, before attempting an invasion on Egypt in the 1180s. Although we know that the Sea peoples were great warriors, some evidence also suggests that the Sea Peoples had a high level of organization and military strategy. Egypt was in particular danger because the invaders did not merely want the spoils and goods of the land, but the land itself, and there was no country with better soils and access to gold than Egypt. The Egyptians state that no other country except Egypt could withstand their attacks, as these inscriptions from the mortuary temple of Ramesses III in Medinet Habu clearly establish:

"The foreign countries (ie. Sea Peoples) made a conspiracy in their islands. All at once the lands were removed and scattered in the fray. No land could stand before their arms: from Hatti, Qode, Carchemish, Arzawa and Alashiya on, being cut off at one time. A camp was set up in Amurru. They desolated its people, and its land was like that which has never come into being. They were coming forward toward Egypt, while the flame was prepared before them. Their confederation was the Peleset, Tjeker, Shekelesh, Denyen and Weshesh, lands united. They laid their hands upon the land as far as the circuit of the earth, their hearts confident and trusting: 'Our plans will succeed!' "