The Sea Peoples were an alleged seafaring confederation of groups known to have attacked ancient Egypt before the Late Bronze Age collapse.
Formulated in the nineteenth century, this concept became one of the most famous chapters of Egyptian history, linked to what Wilhelm Max Müller described as “the main issues of ethnography and the primitive history of classical nations.”
The origins of the various Sea Peoples are much debated, with proposals suggesting that they came from western Anatolia or southern Europe.
Although archaeological inscriptions do not explicitly refer to a migration, it is believed that the Sea Peoples sailed across the eastern Mediterranean towards the end of the Bronze Age, invading Anatolia, Syria, Canaan, Cyprus and Egypt.
The Trojan War, often romanticized by Homer, may have had more consequences than previously thought.
Some archaeologists portray it as one of the final acts in what has been controversially called ‘World War Zero’ – an event that is said to have precipitated the collapse of the Bronze Age civilizations of the eastern Mediterranean some 3,200 years ago.
A mysterious and powerful civilization, the Luwians, overlooked by many archaeologists, may have been the catalyst for this war.
By the second millennium BC, civilization flourished throughout the eastern Mediterranean. The Egyptian New Kingdom existed alongside, among others, the Hittites of central Anatolia and the Mycenaeans of mainland Greece.
Yet these civilizations collapsed within a generation. The reasons behind this sudden demise remain controversial, with theories ranging from climate change to earthquake storms and social unrest.
Eberhard Zangger, head of the nonprofit Luwian Studies in Zurich, Switzerland, argues that a crucial piece of the puzzle is missing: another powerful civilization in western Anatolia played a crucial role in this collapse.
This theory, supported by ancient Egyptian texts, describes attacks on Cyprus and Syria by the mysterious ‘Sea Peoples’. Zangger concludes that these enigmatic attackers were in fact the ancient Luwians.
According to Zangger theoryRaiders burned temples and buildings, drove out the ruling class and caused the Hittite civilization to fade into oblivion for three thousand years.
The Mycenaean kings, seeing the opportunity, built a huge fleet and raided the port cities of Asia Minor, eventually destroying the Luwians who were left unprotected due to their vast territory. The Mycenaean and Luwian forces finally united before the famous siege of Troy.
Yet the Luwians have remained completely unknown archaeologically. They do not appear on any political map of the Aegean Bronze Age, and there are still virtually no prehistorians willing to say publicly that the Luwians ever exercised economic and political power.
It used to be believed that the Luwians had no ‘economic or political power’ and that they were too widely spread among smaller kingdoms to pose a threat. In the past, it was even believed that the Luwian territory was inhabited only by nomadic ‘horse people’ who had no political power.
The archaeologists who study the Luwian people note that the inclusion of the Luwians in the Bronze Age battles is the only model that fully matches the excavation results, written documentation and traditions.
While not all archaeologists agree that the Luwians are the mysterious “Sea Peoples,” many support the idea that more research needs to be done in long-neglected western Anatolia.
Christoph Bachhuber, a professor at Oxford, says he is excited about the research because it will draw more attention to western Anatolia and possibly provide the opportunity for an overall better understanding of the area and the ancient civilizations that lived there.
