As the Bronze Age collapse began across the eastern Mediterranean around 1200 B.C., a mysterious force appeared at sea. Kingdoms were ravaged by a coalition of nautical thieves now known as the Sea Peoples. But who were these warriors and how much did they contribute to the end of the Bronze Age?
Who were the Sea Peoples?
Historians believe the Sea Peoples were not one unified civilization but a coalition of tribes from across the Mediterranean, including the Shekelesh of Sicily, the Shardana of Sardinia, the Lukka and Denyen of Anatolia and the Peleset and Tjeker of the southern Levant.
Scholars hypothesize that the Sea Peoples first emerged around 1250 B.C. after long droughts in the western Mediterranean destroyed crops, caused famine, halted trade and severely weakened major kingdoms. This prompted mass migration to fertile river regions like Egypt, Cyprus, Crete and the Levant (modern-day Syria, Lebanon, Israel and Palestine). But these farmlands and cities were unable to sustain the influx of displaced peoples. As existing bands of raiders and pirates preyed on vulnerable coastal settlements, ordinary citizens might have joined them in order to survive.
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