c. 1200 BC, the Hittites and Egypt were invaded by a culture known to them as “the Sea People.” Not only a vast army that ravaged Greece and crushed the Hittites, but an entire civilization on the move, a mass migration. Scholars I’ve read have attributed these people to various eastern Mediterranian groups, or an alliance of groups, forced to migrate from massive crop failure or some other fate. However, they had at their disposal a powerful navy and strong land force. The greatest empire on the planet at the time, Egypt, was thrown on the defensive (or rather, counter-offensive).
But who were these people? Where did they come from originally?
A partial list of theorized peoples:
http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/seapeople.htm
* The Peleset, who were non other than the Philistines that gave their name to Palestine.
* The Lukka who may have come from the Lycian region of Anatolia.
* The Ekwesh and Denen who seem to be identified with the Homeric Achaean and Danaean Greeks
* The Sherden who may be associated with Sardinia.
* The Teresh (Tursha or Tyrshenoi - possibly the Tyrrhenians), the Greek name for the Etruscans; or from the western Anatolian Taruisa
* Shekelesh (Shekresh, Sikeloi - Sicilians?)
However, this is a VAST alliance! This would represent a tremendous civlization at the time, and one to rival Egypt! Predating the Greeks, but spanning the Med! And why are they almost completely lost to history outside of their invasion of Egypt?
What’s the dope on this? Tamerlane, can you come to my rescue? 
My guess is, there might have been more than one “Sea People” – that is, the Trojan War and consequent disruptions and migrations might have displaced several populations of several cultures and sent them a-sailing to find more hospitable (or vulnerable) lands. But that’s just a guess.
I think this thread really belongs in General Questions.
There has been a couple months ago an interesting thread on this topic in general question. Or more exactly relevant and interesting posts since the thread was intended to be about the origins of the name of Palestine. You should probably search for it.
And Tamerlane did post in this thread, if memory serves.
I considered it, but I don’t know if there is a factual answer, given that I haven’t found one more specific than the one in the OP, which is rather vague. I also added on the question about why there is no trace of a culture that massive left.
Thanks for the link, clairobscur
I have little to add to what you have probably already dug up. The short answer is that it is just not entirely clear who the ‘Sea Peoples’ were. The Achaeans/Mycenaean Greeks are certainly a good guess for one segment - the Dorian Greek push southwards was occurring at about the same time, which may have certainly prompted a breakdown and attempt by some faction to seek greener pastures ( or it may be that the Dorians were themselves among the ‘Sea Peoples’ ).
The loose-knit Mycenaen state was a significant maritime power in its time, having superseded the Minoans. Finding ships and armies wouldn’t have been a problem and in contrast Egypt didn’t have quite the same martial tradition as the early Greeks. Rich and powerful in this case didn’t necessarily equal superior armies. Egypt, easy to defend from land assault due to the protection afforded by the Nile Delta, was only occasionally a major military power - indeed they often relied heavily on mercenaries/bankrolling allies and by the 20th dynasty the army had rather declined from earlier periods.
Eh, not necessarily. An alliance of a half-dozen ( possibly disrupted/weakened ) tribes is no big thing - ancient alliances were not infrequently far-flung and it may not have been an alliance at all, but just a synergy of eruptions. At any rate if it was ( in part ) the Mycenaens, they did posses a significant civilization, certainly a more sophisticated one than that of the ‘Dark Age’ Greeks that followed.
If they were Achaeans or Dorians, they didn’t pre-date the Greeks, they were Greek, or at least a type of Greek. The Achaeans aren’t quite the same as the classical Greeks, but these were the folks Homer was talking about. And obviously their history isn’t completely lost.
As for any others - we might be talking about rather small populations that just were pretty aggressive and going after fat, easy pickings at a time of crisis. The earlier equivalent of the Cimbri, say - who here remebers much about the Cimbri :)? The Phillistines, whoever they were, occupied the equivalent of modern day Gaza - that ain’t much. The invaders in Egypt were eventually defeated and enrolled as mercenaries to bolster the not-so-terribly-great Egyptian army. The invaders in Anatolia established no solid state structure to replace the Hittites - they just seemed to have succeeded in fracturing the region into assortedstatelets.
Their raids were destructive and roiled the ancient world ( or were a symptom of roiled times ). But they need have represented any unified structure or super-powerful alliance.
A distinct possibility is that this roving culture absorbed others as it moved… but the Sea People referenced in the Egyptian histories I’ve read seem to be rather regimented and organized as a cohesive group - their own naval tactics, for instance, which suggests something other than a loose collection of fleeing peoples. I could be wrong, of course, but navies don’t form from nothingness.
The Trojan War bit is interesting, though. The Greeks conquering so much and attacking the region of Troy would displace a lot of people, and the timing is right. However, this still raises the question (in my mind) of where the navy (one that beat Egypt’s, and would seemingly be a rival to the Myc. Greeks) came from.
Ah, alright, thanks for the perspective, Tamerlane. Interesting piece of history for the region.
Less I was unclear above - Achaeans, for all intensive purposes = Mycenaeans. The didn’t have to rival the Mycenaean Greeks, if they were the Mycenaean Greeks :D.
Actually, the Sea People resulted from an unlikely fusion of human genetic material with brine shrimp. You can get the details from a classic episode of South Park.
The Danites, the seafaring tribe of Israel, who were the Tuatha de Danaan of Ireland and the Danai of Greece.
tho I’m not totally kidding. I do wonder about Lost Tribe lore.