Ancient History

According to Homer, after a long war with the Trojans, the Greeks committed acts of piracy on their way home. The Homeric explanation fits with the clockwise sweep of attacks around the Mediterranean during this period.

Medusa was not raped by Poseidon and willingly broke her vow to the goddess Athena. For these offenses against her patron goddess, Athena punished Medusa and turned her into a monster.

Most scholars agree that the Philistines were Greek people based on considerable archaeological and written evidence. The Philistines are the one group of Sea People who are easy to identify in the sources. The Sea People were partly or mostly Greek.

Several myths claim Italy was settled by travelers from Asia Minor. Famine is the likely cause of the migration and is confirmed by multiple sources. These migrants may be the Sea People who attacked the Hittites, Egypt, the Levant, and Greece while on their way to Italy.

There is an increasingly large body of evidence that the Late Bronze Age was unusually hot and dry. Written evidence from Anatolia and the Levant suggests severe food shortages. The Sea People were likely migrants fleeing famine.

Luwian speaking people from Western Asia Minor are geographically located where Troy is supposed to have been. They are underresearched but may once have been a powerful empire that attacked the Hittites and fought with the Greeks.

The Sherden, Shekelesh, Teresh, and Lukka can all be linked to places in Anatolia. The Anatolian connection is particularly strong for the Lukka, who are mentioned quite frequently in antiquity.

The formation and expansion of the Urnfield culture in Central Europe caused waves of migrants to travel down into the Mediterranean. This argument is supported by archaeology in the region,

The Sea People mentioned in the Egyptian sources consisted of roving bands of people from various places who turned to piracy. It is difficult to identify their ethnicity because they are not synonymous with any nation. Claims of their existence have been exaggerated by archaeologists.

The Bronze Age collapse can be attributed to climate change, famine, earthquakes, economic difficulties, internal military struggles, and banditry. The Sea people were likely raiders. They were victims of the collapse rather than its principle cause.

For most of the Bronze Age, warfare was fought by armies of charioteers funded by kings. New tactics made use of heavily armored infantrymen (the precursors of the Greek phalanx). This change gave a tactical advantage to small warbands and raiders, undermining the power of Bronze Age palatial kings.