Que sait-on vraiment des « Peuples de la mer » ?

J. VANSCHOONWINKEL, "Que sait-on vraiment des « Peuples de la mer » ?", in L. PLEUGER (ed.), «  Du Nil à la mer. L'Égypte au fil de l'eau – From the Nile to the Sea. Egypt along the Water » (CEA, 24), Brussels, 2024.

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At the beginning of his reign (around 1177 BC), Ramses III defeated a coalition of peoples who were trying to enter Egypt from the eastern Delta. These “Sea Peoples” as historians have globally called them are a strictly Egyptian reality, because it is the Egyptian inscriptions and reliefs that reveal them to us. However, the Egyptian texts have preserved the names of the different ethnic groups. Unfortunately, these ethnonyms do not provide decisive help in their identification. Consequently, many origins and identities have been put forward or suggested, including Etruscan, Trojan, Italian, Philistine and even Mycenaean. A rereading of Egyptian texts and Near Eastern documents, as well as a better consideration of archaeological evidence, including a meticulous iconographic examination of the bas-reliefs of the temple of Medinet Habu, will attempt to better determine the contributions and limits of these documents and will thus allow us to favour certain leads and definitively rule out others. Such an analysis also provides an opportunity to better understand the causes of this movement of peoples.

 

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