Abstract
The Amarna corpus contains several references to maritime conflict and related activities in the 14th century BCE, including blockades, the movement of troops, the capturing of ships at sea, and seaborne evacuation. While most of these are encountered in the context of conflicts between Levantine polities, there are clear references to what might on the one hand be called piracy, but on the other hand either acts of naval warfare or naval elements of a larger war effort, on both land and sea. This paper considers the martial maritime activities discussed in the Amarna letters, with particular emphasis on two uniquely controversial groups mentioned in this corpus in the context of maritime violence: the ‘ships of the men of the city of Arwad’ and the ‘miši-men.’ While the men of Arwad are identified with a polity on the Phoenician coast, they are referred to only by this collective term, even when mentioned in lists that otherwise contain only rulers. The miši, on the other hand, are not associated with any specific name or toponym. The purpose of this study is to identify just what can be determined about the roles and affiliations of these two groups in their Amarna context in this period.
References
Albright, W.F. (1942): Review of When Egypt Ruled the East by George Steindorff and Keith C. Seele, JBL 61, 299–304.Search in Google Scholar
Altman, A. (2003): The Mittanian Raid on Amurru (EA 85: 51–55) Reconsidered, AoF 30, 345–371.10.1524/aofo.2003.30.2.345Search in Google Scholar
Altman, A. (2014): The Struggle Among the Lebanese Port-Cities to Control Seaborne Trade in the Mid-Fourteenth Century BCE, UF 45, 11–34.Search in Google Scholar
Artzy, M. (1997): Nomads of the Sea. In: S. Swiny et al. (ed.), Res Maritimae: Cyprus and the Eastern Mediterranean from Prehistory to Late Antiquity (ASOR 4), Atlanta, 1–16. Search in Google Scholar
Artzy, M. (2001): The Medinet Habu Boat Depictions: Can We Trust Ramesses III? In: H. Tzalas (ed.), 6th International Symposium on Ship Construction in Antiquity (Tropis 6), Athens, 35–44. Search in Google Scholar
Baruffi, J.T. (1998): Naval Warfare Operations in the Bronze Age Eastern Mediterranean, PhD dissertation, University of Chicago. Search in Google Scholar
Bass, G.F. (1998): Sailing Between the Aegean and the Orient in the Second Millennium B.C. In: E.H. Cline/D. Harris-Cline (ed.), The Aegean and the Orient in the Second Millennium (Aegaeum 18), Liège, 183–191. Search in Google Scholar
Beckman, G.M. et al. (2011): The Ahhiyawa Texts (SBL WAW 28), Atlanta.10.1002/9781444338386.wbeah24007Search in Google Scholar
Bietak, M. (1996): Avaris: The Capital of the Hyksos: Recent Excavations at Tell el-Dab’a (Raymond and Beverly Sackler Foundation Distinguished Lectures in Egyptology 1), London.Search in Google Scholar
Bietak, M. (2005): ‘Rich beyond the Dreams of Avaris: Tell el-Dab’a and the Aegean World: A Guide for the Perplexed’: A Response to Eric H. Cline, ABSA 95, 185–205.Search in Google Scholar
Bietak, M. (2018): A Thutmosid Palace Precinct at Peru-Nefer (Tell El-Dab’a). In: M. Bietak/ S. Prell (ed.), : Ancient Egyptian and Ancient Near Eastern Palaces. Vol.1. Proceeings of the Conference of Palaces in Ancient Egyt, held in London 12th–14th June 2013, Organised by the Austrian Academy of Sciences, the University of Würzburg and the Egypt Exploration Society (Denkschrifen der Gesamtakademie 83 = Contributions to the Archaeology of Egyt, Nubia and the Levant 5), Vienna, 231–257.10.2307/j.ctvrzgw3b.16Search in Google Scholar
Breasted, J.H. (1906–1907a): Ancient Records of Egypt, vol. 1, Chicago.Search in Google Scholar
Breasted, J.H. (1906–1907b): Ancient Records of Egypt, vol. 2, Chicago. Search in Google Scholar
Briquel-Chatonnet, F. (2000): Le statut politique d’Arwad au IIe millénaire. In: M. Barthélemy/M. E. Aubet Semmler (ed.), Actas del IV Congreso Internacional de Estudios Fenicios y Púnicos, Cádiz, 129–133.Search in Google Scholar
Bryce, T.R. (2003): Letters of the Great Kings of the Ancient Near East: The Royal Correspondence of the Late Bronze Age, London.10.4324/9780203504987Search in Google Scholar
Bryce, T.R. (2010): The Hittite Deal with the Ḫiyawa-Men. In: Y. Cohen et al. (ed.), Pax Hethitica: Studies on the Hittites and Their Neighbours in Honour of Itamar Singer (StBoT 51), Wiesbaden, 47–53.Search in Google Scholar
Bryce, T.R. (2016): The Land of Hiyawa (Que) Revisited, AnSt. 66, 67–79.Search in Google Scholar
Caminos, R.A. (1954): Late Egyptian Miscellanies (Brown Egyptological Studies 1), London.Search in Google Scholar
Cline, E.H. (1998): Amenhotep III, the Aegean, and Anatolia. In: D. O’Connor/E.H. Cline (ed.), Amenhotep III: Perspectives on His Reign, Ann Arbor, 236–250.Search in Google Scholar
Cline, E. H./S.M. Stannish (2011): Sailing the Great Green Sea? Amenhotep III’s ‘Aegean List’ from Kom el-Hetan, Once More, Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections 3, 6–16.10.2458/azu_jaei_v03i2_clineSearch in Google Scholar
Cordani, V. (2011): Aziru’s Journey to Egypt and its Chronological Value. In: J. Mynářová (ed.), Egypt and the Near East – the Crossroads: Proceedings of an International Conference on the Relations of Egypt and the Near East in the Bronze Age, Prague, 103–116.Search in Google Scholar
Cordani, V. (2013): Suppiluliuma in Syria after the First Syrian War: The (Non-)Evidence of the Amarna Letters. In: S. de Martino/J.L. Miller (ed.), New Results and New Questions on the Reign of Suppiluliuma I (Eothen 19), Florence, 43–64.Search in Google Scholar
Davies, N. de G. (1905): The Rock Tombs of El Amarna Part III: The Tombs of Huya and Ahmes (Archaeological Survey of Egypt 15), London.Search in Google Scholar
de Koning, J. (1940): Studiën over de El-Amarnabrieven en het Oude-Testament, Inzonderheid uit Historisch Oogpunt, Delft.Search in Google Scholar
Emanuel, J.P. (2013): Šrdn from the Sea: The Arrival, Integration, and Acculturation of a ‘Sea People,’ Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections 5, 14–27.10.2458/azu_jaei_v05i1_emanuelSearch in Google Scholar
Emanuel, J.P. (2018): Differentiating Naval Warfare and Piracy in the Late Bronze-Early Iron Age Mediterranean: Possibility or Pipe Dream? In: Ł. Niesiołowski-Spano/M. Węcowski (ed.), Change, Continuity, and Connectivity: North-Eastern Mediterranean at the Turn of the Bronze Age and in the Early Iron Age (Contributions to the Study of Ancient World Cultures 118), Wiesbaden, 241–255.10.2307/j.ctvckq4zg.7Search in Google Scholar
Erman, A. (1882): Commentar zur Inschrift des Una, ZÄS 20, 1–29.10.1524/zaes.1882.20.14.1Search in Google Scholar
Erman, A./H. Grapow (1926–1961): Wörterbuch der Ägyptischen Sprache, I-VII, Berlin.Search in Google Scholar
Everson, T. (2004): Warfare in Ancient Greece: Arms and Armour from the Heroes of Homer to Alexander the Great, Stroud.Search in Google Scholar
Gardiner, A.H. (1910): Notes on the Story of Sinuhe (Second Article), RT 32, 214–230.Search in Google Scholar
Georganas, I. (2010): Weapons and Warfare. In: E.H. Cline (ed.), The Oxford Handbook of the Bronze Age Aegean (ca. 3000–1000 BC), Oxford, 305–314.Search in Google Scholar
Glanville, S.R.K. (1931): Records of a Royal Dockyard of the Time of Tuthmosis III: Papyrus British Museum 10056, ZÄS 66, 105–121.10.1524/zaes.1931.66.jg.105Search in Google Scholar
Glanville, S.R.K. (1933): Records of a Royal Dockyard of the Time of Tuthmosis III: Papyrus British Museum 10056 (Part II), ZÄS 68, 7–41.10.1524/zaes.1932.68.jg.7Search in Google Scholar
Grayson, A.K. (1991): Assyrian Rulers of the Early First Millennium BC I (1114 – 859 BC) (RIMA 2), Toronto.10.3138/9781442671089Search in Google Scholar
Greenberg, M. (1955): The Ḫab/piru (AOS 39), New Haven.Search in Google Scholar
Griffith, F.L. (1898): A Collection of Hieroglyphs: A Contribution to the History of Egyptian Writing (Archaeological Survey of Egypt 6), London.Search in Google Scholar
Hankey, V. (1981): The Aegean Interest in El Amarna, Journal of Mediterranean Anthropology and Archaeology 1, 38–43.Search in Google Scholar
Haskell, H.W. (1984): Pylos: Stirrup Jars and the International Oil Trade. In: C.W. Shelmerdine/T.G. Palaima (ed.), Pylos Comes Alive: Industry and Administration in a Mycenaean Palace, New York, 97–107. Search in Google Scholar
Jones, D. (1988): A Glossary of Ancient Egyptian Nautical Titles and Terms, London.Search in Google Scholar
Jung, R. (2007): Tell Kazel and the Mycenaean Contacts with Amurru (Syria). In: M. Bietak (ed.), The Synchronisation of Civilisations in the Eastern Mediterranean in the Second Millennium BC. Vol. 3: Proceedings of the SCIEM 2000–2nd EuroConference, Vienna, 28th of May–1st of June 2003 (Denkschriften der Gesamtakademie/Österreichische Akamdemie der Wissenschaften 37 = Contributions to the Chronology of the Eastern Mediterranean 9), Vienna, 551–570.Search in Google Scholar
Kelder, J.M. (2010): The Kingdom of Mycenae: A Great Kingdom in the Late Bronze Age Aegean, Bethesda.Search in Google Scholar
Kilian-Dirlmeier, I. (1997): Das mittelbronzezeitliche Schachtgrab von Ägina (Kataloge vor- und frühgeschichtlicher Altertümer 27), Mainz.Search in Google Scholar
Knudtzon, J. A. (1915): Die El-Amarna-Tafeln, Leipzig.10.1524/olzg.1914.17.16.248Search in Google Scholar
Kuentz, C. (1928–1934): La bataille de Qadech: les textes (‘Poème de Pentaour’ et ‘Bulletin de Qadech’) et les bas-reliefs (Mémoires Publiés par les Membres de l’Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale du Caire 55), Cairo.Search in Google Scholar
Kyriakidis, E. (2002): Indications on the Nature of the Language of the Keftiw from Egyptian Sources, ÄL 12, 211–219.Search in Google Scholar
Lambdin, T.O. (1953): The Misi-People of the Byblian Amarna Letters, JCS 7, 75–77.10.2307/1359543Search in Google Scholar
Linder, E. (1973): Naval Warfare in the el-Amarna Age. In: D.J. Blackman (ed.), Marine Archaeology, Hamden, 317–324.Search in Google Scholar
Lipiński, E. (2004): Itineraria Phoenicia (OLA 127), Leuven.Search in Google Scholar
Liverani, M. (1974): Rib-Adda, giusto sofferente, AoF 1, 175–201. Search in Google Scholar
Liverani, M. (1998): How to Kill Abdi-Ashirta: EA 101, Once Again. In: S. Isre’el et al. (ed.), Past Links: Studies in the Languages and Cultures of the Ancient Near East (IOS 18), Winona Lake, 387–396.Search in Google Scholar
MacGillivray, J. A. (2009): Thera, Hatshepsut, and the Keftiu: Crisis and Response. In: D.A. Warburton (ed.), Time’s Up! Dating the Minoan Eruption of Santorini (Monographs of the Danish Institute at Athens 10), Athens, 154–170.Search in Google Scholar
Manassa, C. (2013): Imagining the Past: Historical Fiction in New Kingdom Egypt, Oxford.10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199982226.001.0001Search in Google Scholar
Matić, U. (2012): Out of the Word and Out of the Picture? Keftiu and Materializations of ‘Minoans.’ In: I.-M. Black Danielsson et al. (ed.), Encountering Imagery: Materialities, Perceptions, Relations (Stockholm Studies in Archaeology 57), Stockholm, 235–254.Search in Google Scholar
Merrillees, R.S. (1973): Mycenaean Pottery from the Time of Akhenaten in Egypt. In: V. Karageorghis (ed.), Acts of the International Symposium ‘The Mycenaeans in the Eastern Mediterranean,’ Nicosia, 175–186.Search in Google Scholar
Mommsen, H. et al. (1992): Provenance Determination of Mycenaean Sherds found in Tell el Amarna by Neutron Activation Analysis, JArS 19, 295–302. 10.1016/0305-4403(92)90018-XSearch in Google Scholar
Moran, W.L. (1969): The Death of ʿAbdi-Aširta, ErIsr. 9, 94–99.Search in Google Scholar
Moran, W.L. (1992): The Amarna Letters, Baltimore.Search in Google Scholar
Morris, E.F. (2010): Opportunism in Contested Lands, B.C. and A.D. Or How Abdi-Ashirta, Aziru, and Padsha Khan Zadran Got Away with Murder. In: Z. Hawass/J. Houser Wegner (ed.), Millions of Jubilees: Studies in Honor of David Silverman, Cairo, 413–438.Search in Google Scholar
Panagiotopoulos, D. (2001): Keftiu in Context: Theban Tomb-Paintings as a Historical Source, OJA 20, 263–283.10.1111/1468-0092.00134Search in Google Scholar
Parkinson, R.B./L. Schofield (1995): Images of Mycenaeans: A Recently Acquired Painted Papyrus from El-Amarna. In: W.V. Davies/L. Schofield (ed.), Egypt, the Aegean and the Levant: Interconnections in the Second Millennium BC, London, 125–126.Search in Google Scholar
Pryke, L.M. (2015): Trade Routes and Fierce Disputes: The Disruption of Trade Routes in the Amarna Letters, Aram 27, 39–44.Search in Google Scholar
Rainey, A.F. (2015): The El-Amarna Correspondence: A New Edition of the Cuneiform Letters from the Site of El-Amarna Based on Collations of All Extant Tablets (HdOr. 1/110), Leiden.10.1163/9789004281547Search in Google Scholar
Redford, D.B. (2003): The Wars in Syria and Palestine of Thutmose III (CHANE 16), Leiden.10.1163/9789047402053Search in Google Scholar
Rehak, P. (1998): Aegean Natives in the Theban Tomb Paintings: The Keftiu Revisited. In: E.H. Cline/D. Harris-Cline (ed.), The Aegean and the Orient in the Second Millennium (Aegaeum 18), Liège, 39–52.Search in Google Scholar
Sasson, J. (1966): Canaanite Maritime Involvement in the Second Millennium B.C., JAOS 86, 126–138.10.2307/596425Search in Google Scholar
Säve-Söderbergh, T. (1946): The Navy of the Eighteenth Egyptian Dynasty, Uppsala.Search in Google Scholar
Schachermeyr, F. (1949): Welche geschichtliche Ereignisse führten zur Entstehung der mykenischen Kultur? ArOr. 17, 331–350.Search in Google Scholar
Schofield, L./R.B. Parkinson (1994): Of Helmets and Heretics: A Possible Egyptian Representation of Mycenaean Warriors on a Papyrus from el-Amarna, ABSA 89, 157–170.10.1017/S0068245400015343Search in Google Scholar
Schulman, A.R. (1962): Military Rank, Title, and Organization in the Egyptian New Kingdom, PhD dissertation, University of Pennsylvania.Search in Google Scholar
Sethe, K. (1909): Urkunden der 18. Dynastie (Urkunden des Ägyptischen Altertums 4), Leipzig.Search in Google Scholar
Shelmerdine, C.W. (1985): The Perfume Industry of Mycenaean Pylos (Studies in Mediterranean Archaeology 34), Göteborg.Search in Google Scholar
Singer, I. (2011a): A Concise History of Amurru. In: I. Singer, The Calm Before the Storm: Selected Writings of Itamar Singer on the Late Bronze Age in Anatolia and the Levant (SBL WAW 1), Atlanta, 197–242.Search in Google Scholar
Singer, I. (2011b): A Political History of Ugarit. In: I. Singer, The Calm Before the Storm: Selected Writings of Itamar Singer on the Late Bronze Age in Anatolia and the Levant (SBL WAW 1), Atlanta, 19–146.Search in Google Scholar
Spalinger, A. J. (2002): The Transformation of an Ancient Egyptian Narrative: P. Sallier III and the Battle of Kadesh (Göttinger Orientforschungen 4/40), Wiesbaden.Search in Google Scholar
Stockwell, S. (2010): Before Athens: Early Popular Government in Phoenician and Greek City States, Geopolitics, History, and International Relations 2, 123–135.Search in Google Scholar
Stubbings, F. (1973): The Rise of Mycenaean Civilization. In: I.E.S. Edwards et al. (ed.), Cambridge Ancient History II:2, 3rd ed., Cambridge, 627–658.10.1017/CHOL9780521082303.017Search in Google Scholar
Vidal, J. (2008): The Men of Arwad, Mercenaries of the Sea, BiOr. 65, 5–15.Search in Google Scholar
Wachsmann, S. (1987): Aegeans in the Theban Tombs (OLA 20), Leuven.Search in Google Scholar
Wachsmann, S. (1998): Seagoing Ships and Seamanship in the Bronze Age Levant, College Station.Search in Google Scholar
Wilson, J.A. (1933): The Eperu of the Egyptian Inscriptions, AJSL 49, 275–280.10.1086/370397Search in Google Scholar
© 2020 Walter de Gruyter GmbH, Berlin/Boston
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Frontmatter
- Nachruf
- Horst Klengel
- Verbal Serialization in Biblical Aramaic
- Sea Raiders in the Amarna Letters?
- Zum hurritischen Wort immarde
- A Praise Poem of Warad-Sîn, King of Larsa, to Nippur
- A New Manuscript of Ninĝišzida’s Journey to the Netherworld
- Paraphernalia of Funerary Display at Kaneš
- Glossenkeil and Indentation on Hittite Tablets
Articles in the same Issue
- Frontmatter
- Frontmatter
- Nachruf
- Horst Klengel
- Verbal Serialization in Biblical Aramaic
- Sea Raiders in the Amarna Letters?
- Zum hurritischen Wort immarde
- A Praise Poem of Warad-Sîn, King of Larsa, to Nippur
- A New Manuscript of Ninĝišzida’s Journey to the Netherworld
- Paraphernalia of Funerary Display at Kaneš
- Glossenkeil and Indentation on Hittite Tablets