The Sea People were many very diverse tribes. No one knows why they chose to unit and invade from the Mediterranean when they did.
They weren't motivated by great conditions at home, that's for sure. Think of this also as a migration for climactic reasons and you're halfway home.
Some speculate they may have been displaced by an volcanic eruption on Santorini, but the timing is not quite right. The invasions was a couple hundred years after the eruption, but perhaps the geologic dating was off, or perhaps the effects of the eruption lasted that long and it took the survivors a few generations to unite and move on?
Santorini erupted 1628/27bce. The Sea Peoples invasions are generally placed at about 1200bce. That is more than a 400 year difference and, although the Santorini eruption took out the northern Minoan ports and depopulated Western Anatolia with its toxic cloud, those areas were not affected in a long-lasting manner except for the degradation of the Phoenician and Minoan shipping trade and the repopulation of Western Anatolia with newbies. There was a great transfer of power among civilisations at 1600bce that was kick-started by the eruption on Santorini, but that event did not result in the Sea Peoples' invasions and migrations over four centuries later.
There was a great transfer of power among civilisations at 1600bce that was kick-started by the eruption on Santorini,
But it may have crippled Minoan power enough to allow mainland Greece to develop the power to eventually defeat the Minoans and burn Knossos.
The story of the Minotaur is a thinly disguised rendition of how Crete subjected Greece.
Something is wrong here. War, disease, death, destruction, hunger, filth, poverty, torture, crime, corruption, and the Ice Capades. Something is definitely wrong. This is not good work. If this is the best God can do, I am not impressed.
But it may have crippled Minoan power enough to allow mainland Greece to develop the power to eventually defeat the Minoans and burn Knossos.
The story of the Minotaur is a thinly disguised rendition of how Crete subjected Greece.
That is certainly what happened while at the same time the Phoenicians were being back-doored by the ascending Hittite Empire, and were caught between them and a newly hostile Egyptian presence after Ahmose recaptured northern Egypt from the Hyksos in 1580bce. Remember, Phoenicians were Canaanites with boats. The Hyksos were a mix of tribes including Canaanites.
Bear in mind that after the Sea Peoples settled down the Mycenaen and Hittite empires were a memory. Although the Egyptians were also attacked by the Sea Peoples at the Delta, Rameses was able to repulse them. If the Mycenaeans were pulling the strings, then I imagine their empire would not have fallen.
A component of the story that is ignored is the climactic downturn at the end of the 13th century and the migration of peoples en masse from the Black Sea and surrounding areas to points south. They not only came by boats, but also came by land.
From what I understand they weren't subjecting Greece, just grabbing virgins. Sounds somewhat like an ancient rendition of Let's Make A Deal ... you give me a virgin every year and I don't attack your country. Whaddya say?
It was the Greeks who wrote the story and one suspects it is allegorical in nature.
Something is wrong here. War, disease, death, destruction, hunger, filth, poverty, torture, crime, corruption, and the Ice Capades. Something is definitely wrong. This is not good work. If this is the best God can do, I am not impressed.
