Author: Raffaele D'Amato, Andrea Salimbeti
Illustrator: Giuseppe Rava

About This Product
This title features the latest historical and archaeological research into the mysterious and powerful confederations of raiders who troubled the Eastern Mediterranean in the last half of the Bronze Age. Research into the origins of the so-called Shardana, Shekelesh, Danuna, Lukka, Peleset and other peoples is a detective 'work in progress'. However, it is known that they both provided the Egyptian pharaohs with mercenaries, and were listed among Egypt's enemies and invaders. They contributed to the collapse of several civilizations through their dreaded piracy and raids, and their waves of attacks were followed by major migrations that changed the face of this region, from modern Libya and Cyprus to the Aegean, mainland Greece, Lebanon and Anatolian Turkey. Drawing on carved inscriptions and papyrus documents - mainly from Egypt - dating from the 15th-11th centuries BC, as well as carved reliefs of the Medinet Habu, this title reconstructs the formidable appearance and even the tactics of the famous 'Sea Peoples'.

Contents

• Introduction: who were the Sea Peoples?
• Chronology
• The historical sources: the Byblos obelisk; the Armana letters; Rameses II and the Battle of Kadesh inscriptions; the Libyan despatch to Merneptah; the Medinet Habu reliefs of Rameses III; the Onomastican of Amenemope
• The different groups: Shardana
• Sherden, Danuna, Karkisha & Lukka, Peleset, Shekelesh
• Tjekker, Sea Wheshesh
• Clothing & military equipment: headdress, helmets; corselets; shields; spears & javelins; swords & daggers; chariots
• Military organization: chariots and infantry; siege warfare; naval warfare
• Campaigns: as pirates and Egyptian mercenaries, 14th century BC; the Kadesh campaign, 1285 BC; first Egyptian campaign, 1207 BC; fall of the Hittite Empire, c.1200 BC; the War of the 8th Year, 1184 BC; Libya, 1180 BC; Western Mediterranean, c.1100 BC
• Sites, museums & bibliography
• Index