engleski

Sea People – revisiting a Late Bronze Age catastrophe

The ending of Late Bronze Age on Levant is marked with events that are commonly described as „catastrophical“. Historiography explains those crisis years as a result of the movements of Sea People, mentioned in several Egyptian as well as Hittite sources. While there is a relative scarcity of reliable sources that would enable us to form a clear picture of the effect the Sea peoples have had on LBA Levant, there is an abundance of theories and assumptions. In recognition of the fact that analyses made so far have focused primarily on the military aspects of their activities we believe that a thorough reinterpretation of the available texts and archaeological evidence is warranted. Even though we have accumulated extensive knowledge of the cities that were destroyed and archaeological field research continues to provide us with fresh insights, our approach will focus more on the wider context of Late Bronze Age Levant. More importantly, without going deeper into an analysis of the origin or the nature of the Sea Peoples alliances, we would like to give a new perspective on the people themselves by analysing the social and political structures they encountered. By focusing on the social and political processes within the LBA Canaanite city states we will attempt to reconstruct a possible integration and assimilation of certain elements of the Sea Peoples.

Sea Peoples; Syria; Ugarit; Palestine; Late Bronze Age

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