Shardana

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The Shardana or Sherden sea pirates are one of several groups of "Sea Peoples" who appear in fragmentary historical records (Egyptian inscriptions) for the Mediterranean region in the second millennium B.C.; little is known about them. On reliefs they are shown carrying a round shield and a long thrusting Naue II type sword. They are shown wearing a complicated armour corselet of overlapping bands of either leather or metal, and a horned helmet surmounted with a balled spike at the top. The corselet appears similar to that worn by the Philistines, at Medinet Habu, and is similar, though not identical to that found in tomb 12 at Dendra where Mycenaean IIB-IIIA pottery dates it to the second half of the fifteenth century BCE. The Shardana sword, it has been suggested by archaeologists since Breasted, may have developed from an enlargement of European daggers, and been associated with the exploitation of Bohemian tin. Robert Drews^[1] has recently suggested that use of this weapon amongst groups of Shardana and Philistine mercenaries, made them capable of withstanding attacks by chariotry, which made them valuable allies in warfare.

Contents 1 Early Mentions of the Shardana 2 Connection with Sea Peoples 3 Connections with Sardinia 4 Origins of the Shardana 5 References 6 See also 7 External links

[edit] Early Mentions of the Shardana

The earliest mention of the people called Srdn-w, more usually called Shardana or Serden, is in the Amarna Letters correspondence of governor Rib-Adda, of Byblos (EA 81, EA 122, EA 123 in Moran 1992: 150-1, 201-2), to Pharaoh Akhenaton, at about 1350 BCE. At this time they appear as sea raiders and mercenaries, prepared to hire their services to local employers.

Ramesses II (ruled 1279-1213 BCE) defeated them in his second year (1278 BCE), together with Lukku (L'kkw, possibly the later Lycians), and with Šqrsšw (Shekeleshu, possibly Sikels) in a sea battle of the Mediterranean coast and subsequently incorporated many of these warriors into his personal guard.^[2] A stela from Tanis speaks of their having come 'in their war-ships from the midst of the sea, and none were able to stand before them'. There must have been a naval battle somewhere near the river-mouths, for shortly afterwards many Sherden captives are seen in the Pharaoh's body-guard, where they are conspicuous by their helmets with horns with a ball projecting from the middle, their round shields and the great Naue II swords^[3] with which they are depicted in inscriptions of the Battle with the Hittites at Kadesh. Ramesses tells us, in his Kadesh inscriptions, that he assimilated some of the Shardana into his own personal guard at the Battle of Kadesh.^[4].Little more than a century later, many Sherden are found cultivating plots of their own; these doubtless rewards given to them for their military services. There is also evidence of Sherden at Beth Shean, the Egyptian garrison in Canaan.^{[citation needed]}

[edit] Connection with Sea Peoples

The Shardana were among the first of the peoples now categorized as "Sea Peoples" to appear in the historical record. They showed up in Egypt again during the reign of Merenptah (ruled 1213-1203 BCE), when they fought Egypt as part of a coalition of Sea Peoples (Redford 1992: 248-9), and again in the reign of Ramesses III, where they are featured prominently in the Medinet Habu reliefs as fighters alongside the Philistines. They are depicted both among the Sea Peoples and as allies of the Egyptians, distinguished once again by their horned helmets, round shields, and large swords.

Michael Woods^[5] suggests that the Shardana were an important part of the bands of pirates that disrupted Aegean trade in the end of the 13th century, and that their raids contributed greatly to the collapse of the Mycenaean civilisation.

[edit] Connections with Sardinia

Adam Zertal (2001) proposes that the Sea Peoples, who have been connected by scholars with classical Sardinia (which is named after the Shardana), may have occupied certain sites of central Israel for a short period of time. This theory is based on a marginal similarity between unusual stone corridors and false domes built into the Iron Age I settlement at El-Ahwat and later architectural elements found on Sardinia. Zertal (2001: 228-230) theorizes that these sites may have been established for the Shardana by the Egyptians during the transitional period from the Late Bronze Age to the Iron Age. However, as Zertal points out, the resemblance between the Sardinian sites and El-Ahwat are marginal, and no Sardinian Shardana pottery has turned up at the sites in Israel. The Israel sites are also far from the coast, which does not match the historical image of the Shardana as maritime people.

[edit] Origins of the Shardana

No mention of the Shardana has ever been found in Hittite or Greek legends or documents, suggesting that they did not originate from either sphere of influence. The theory that these people came from the Western Mediterranean, suggested by some who draw attention to the etymological connections between Shardana and Sardinia, Shekelesh with Sicily, and Trs-w (Teresh or Tursci) with Etruscans, is not archaeologically satisfactory, and there is evidence that these people arrived in the areas in which they lived in classical times after the period of Rameses III, rather than before. Generally, Guido^[6]concludes the evidence for the Shardana, Sikel or Teresh coming from the western Mediterranean is flimsy.

Guido suggests that the Shardana may ultimately derive from Ionia, in the central west coast of Anatolia, in the region of Hermos, east of the island of Chios. It is suggested that Sardis, and the Sardinian plain, nearby may preserve a cultural memory of their name. Until recently it was assumed that Sardis was only settled in the period after the Anatolian and Aegean Dark Age, but American excavations have shown the place was settled in the Bronze Age and was a site of a significant population. If this is so, the Shardana, pushed by Hittite expansionism of the Late Bronze Age and prompted by the famine that affected this region of the Late Bronze Age may have been pushed to the Aegean islands where shortage of space led them to seek adventure and expansion overseas. It is suggested that from here they may have later migrated to Sardinia. Guido suggests that if a "few dominating leaders arrived as heroes only a few centuries before Phoenician trading posts were established, several features of Sardinian prehistory might be explained as innovations introduced by them: oriental types of armour, and fighting perpetuated in the bronze representation of warriors several centuries later; the arrival of the Cypriot copper ingots of the Serra Ilixi type; the sudden advance in and inventiveness of design of the nuraghi themselves at about the turn at the first Millennium; the introduction of certain religious practices such as the worship of water in sacred wells, if this fact was not introduced by the Phoenician settlers" (p.187-8).

Furthermore, recent studies by geneticists on the DNA of inhabitants of the inner areas of the island confirm the presence of elements which are in common with those of people from Anatolia, namely y-haplogroups G and I.

Despite these considerations, in Sardinia, the dating of Bronze Weapons and armour similar to the Shardana is only found several centuries after the period of the Peoples of the Sea. If the theory that the Shardana moved to Sardinia after their defeat by Rameses III, then we must assume that the finds in Sardinia are survivals of earlier types. On the other hand, if the Shardana only moved into the Western Mediterranean in the ninth century, associated perhaps with the movement of early Etruscans and even Phoenician seafaring peoples into the Western Mediterranean at that time, we have the problem of where they were located between the period of the Peoples of the Sea, and their eventual appearance as the Nuraghi culture of Sardinia.

These theoretical coincidences (enforced, as said, by linguistic considerations) could allow one to assume that a people of skilled sailors left the Eastern Mediterranean and established themselves in Sardinia. They very probably would have encountered some resistance on their way there. It is also possible that they were explorers. If so, it is likely that only a warrior people like the Shardana could have organised such an expedition. Nevertheless, there are still many questions needing a solution.

[edit] References

[edit] See also

• Sea Peoples
• Sardinian language
• Sardinia
• History of Sardinia

[edit] External links

• The Amarna letters, an Egyptian document which mentions the Shardana people.
• Interview with Giovanni Ugas (in Italian)
• The Papyrus Harris
• Review of relevant literature with links to some (translated) original sources
• Pillars of Hercules (in Italian)
• [1] (SEMITIC SHARDANA)