Historical Background
In the 12th century BCE, the Sea Peoples (also known under several other names, such as Tjekker, Peleset, and Sherden) invaded the Middle East from the eastern Mediterranean. They destroyed and plundered Hattusha, capital of the Hittite Empire, and also attacked Syria and Palestine where many cities were burned and ruined. (Carchemish was one of the cities which survived the Sea People's attacks.) Cyprus had also been overwhelmed and its capital ransacked. Since the Medinet Habu inscriptions depict women and children loaded in ox-carts, the attackers are believed to be migrants looking for a place to settle. Their attacks are reported, for instance, in letters by Ammurapi, the last king of Ugarit, pleading for assistance from Eshuwara, the king of Alasiya:
- "My father, behold, the enemy's ships came (here); my cities(?) were burned, and they did evil things in my country. Does not my father know that all my troops and chariots(?) are in the Land of Hatti, and all my ships are in the Land of Lukka?...Thus, the country is abandoned to itself. May my father know it: the seven ships of the enemy that came here inflicted much damage upon us".
The Sea People invasions are often listed among the causes or symptoms of the Bronze Age collapse. Ramesses had previously fought the Sea Peoples in southern Lebanon, at the Battle of Djahy. Ramesses III describes a great movement of peoples in the East from the Mediterranean which, caused a massive destruction of the former great powers of the Levant, Cyprus and Anatolia:
- "the lands were removed and scattered to the fray. No land could stand before their arms, from Hatti, Kode, Carchemish, Arzawa, Alashiya on being cut off. "
Read more about this topic: Battle Of The Delta
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