SEA PEOPLES (BIBLICALS)

Peoples of the Sea (another name: Sea Peoples, often referred to in Egyptian sources as "aliens from overseas") is a term referring to multiethnic groups of people of unexplained origin which, as a result of their migrations and invasions, destabilized the political situation in the Eastern Mediterranean during the period around XIII-XII centuries BC. There are many indications that it was the Sea Peoples who led to the collapse of the Mycenaean civilization in today's Greece and destroyed the Hittite state in the area of today's Turkey, Syria and Lebanon. They also posed a serious threat to the New Kingdom in Egypt - especially during the reigns of the pharaohs Merenptah and Ramses III. The Sea People's Warriors, due to their considerable ethnic diversity, were not a rather compact military formation as we understand it today. It is also uncertain whether all of them had relatively uniform weapons. Nevertheless, often these Sea Peoples warriors are depicted in iconographic sources as people armed with large, round shields with a clearly reinforced center of the shield and large, one-handed, double-edged swords. They often have horned helmets on their heads.