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Liminal People(s) in the Late Bronze Age Levant? A New Light on Sherden (šerdanu)

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Published/Copyright: August 9, 2022
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Abstract

This article focuses on issues related to political liminality in the environment of the Levant in the Late Bronze Age. It first defines the term and then identifies key population groups that can be considered politically liminal. The main focus is on the so-called Sherden (Akk. šerdanu, širdanu), a group of persons and individuals, which are found in ancient Near Eastern and Egyptian sources spanning several centuries during the second half of the second half of the second millennium BCE. Whether as incoming enemies or as individuals settled on Egyptian soil, they represent one of the key phenomena of the Egyptian New Kingdom. But who were the Sherden and how did their role in the ancient Near Eastern and Egyptian societies change over time?


Corresponding author: Jana Mynářová, Faculty of Arts, Institute of Comparative Linguistics, Charles University, Prague, Czech Republic, E-mail:
This paper was written as part of research funded by the Czech Science Foundation, project GA ČR 18-01897S “Economic Complexity in the Ancient Near East. Management of Resources and Taxation in the third and second Millennium BC.” The abbreviations used in this article are listed on the Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative (CDLI) website available at http://cdli.ox.ac.uk/wiki/abbreviations_for_assyriology (last accessed on 28 May 2021), to which add KTU 3 = Dietrich, Mafried – Loretz, Oswald – Sanmartín, Joaquín, 2013. Die keilalphabetische Texte aus Ugarit, Ras Ibn Hani und anderen Orten. Dritte, erweiterte Auflage/The Cuneiform Alphabetic Texts from Ugarit, Ras Ibn Hani and Other Places. Third, Enlarged Edition. AOAT 360/1. Münster: Ugarit-Verlag; DUL = Del Olmo Lete, Gregorio – Sanmartín, Joaquín, 2003. A Dictionary of the Ugaritic Language in the Alphabetic Tradition, I–II. HdO I/67. Leiden – Boston: Brill; HALOT = Koehler, Ludwig – Baumgartner, Walter – Stamm, Jakob, 1994–2000. Hebrew and Aramaic Lexicon of the Old Testament. Vols. 1–5. Leiden – Boston: Brill; JAEI = Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections; KRI II = Kitchen, Kenneth A., 1979. Ramesside Inscriptions: Historical and Biographical, Vol. 2. Oxford: Blackwell; KRI IV = Kitchen, Kenneth A., 1982. Ramesside Inscriptions: Historical and Biographical, Vol. 4. Oxford: Blackwell; KRI V = Kitchen, Kenneth A., 1983. Ramesside Inscriptions: Historical and Biographical, Vol. 5. Oxford: Blackwell; BES = Brown Egyptological Studies; BiAe = Bibliotheca Aegyptiaca; JdE = Journal d’entrée, Egyptian Museum, Cairo; P. = papyrus.

Award Identifier / Grant number: GA ČR 18-01897S

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Published Online: 2022-08-09
Published in Print: 2022-11-25

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