HISTORY 26
Lecture Nineteen:
From Territorial Statesto Empires
(c. 1200 - 900 BC)
HISTORY 26
Lecture Nineteen:
From Territorial Statesto Empires
(c. 1200 - 900 BC)
Ba’al Statue, Ugarit(Louvre, Paris)
Ba’al Statue, Ugarit(Louvre, Paris)
Merenptah Baenra(1213 - 1203 BC, 19th
Dynasty)
The Libyans and the ‘Peoples of the Sea’
Battle near Memphis and Heliopolis
An invasion AND a migration
Rameses III Usermaatra Meryamun
(1184 - 1153 BC, 20th Dynasty)
The Peoples of the Sea
The Peoples of the Sea
Ekwesh and Denyen = Achaean and Danaan Greeks (Iliad)
Lukka = Lycians (southern Anatolia) Sherden = Sardinians Peleset = Philistines (Palestine)
The Peoples of the Sea
The Sherden at the battle of Kadesh under Rameses II– Mercenaries in the
Egyptian and Hittite armies (13th c. BC)
Destruction is sporadic and takes place over decades– Ex: The survival of
Carchemish
The AramaeansThe Aramaeans
• Pastoral nomads• Language: Aramaic• Dominate the city-
states of Syria• Assimilate in
Assyria and Babylon• Akkadian remained
the language of government
• Like the Gutians, Amorites, Kassites
• Pastoral nomads• Language: Aramaic• Dominate the city-
states of Syria• Assimilate in
Assyria and Babylon• Akkadian remained
the language of government
• Like the Gutians, Amorites, Kassites
The HabiruThe Habiru
• Semi-nomadic social outcasts
• NOT an ethnic group, but a social group
• Often portrayed as robbers and murderers, but also used as laborers and mercenaries
• Semi-nomadic social outcasts
• NOT an ethnic group, but a social group
• Often portrayed as robbers and murderers, but also used as laborers and mercenariesIdrimi, King of Alalakh,
formerly a habiru
The EnvironmentThe Environment
• Earthquakes• A drying of the climate in the north,
producing crop failure and famine• Grain shipments from Egypt and
Ugarit to the Hittites
• A shifting of the courses of the Tigris and Euphrates in southern Mesopotamia
• Earthquakes• A drying of the climate in the north,
producing crop failure and famine• Grain shipments from Egypt and
Ugarit to the Hittites
• A shifting of the courses of the Tigris and Euphrates in southern Mesopotamia
