The Ethnicity of the Sea Peoples ~ Dr. Woudhuizen ~ Bronze Age Collapse 

That drum in the beginning got me so hyped up that I kinda wanted to go and sack Egypt with a bunch of my aquatic warriors. 😂

Always love it when an academic says "Of course I studied Luvian."

What are your thoughts on this episode which touches on a variety of topics relating to the Sea Peoples and especially their ethnicity? Special thanks to Dr. Woudhuizen for taking the time to talk with us, we will be having on in the future along with many others to discuss the subjects that they love! Check out our new store! teespring.com/stores/the-history-shop Get your Sea Peoples | Late Bronze Age Merch below! Mugs: teespring.com/new-sea-peoples-mediterranean?pid=658&cid=102950 Hoodies | Shirts | Tank Tops: teespring.com/get-sea-peoples-mediterranean?pid=212&cid=5819 Get your Hittite Merch below! Mugs: teespring.com/HittiteEmpireMug?pid=658&cid=102950&sid=front Shirts | Tank Tops | Hoodies: teespring.com/hittite-empire-shirt?pid=2&cid=2397 Trojan War Merch Below! Mugs: teespring.com/trojan-war-coffee-mug?pid=658&cid=102950 Tank Tops | Shirts | Hoodies: teespring.com/TrojanWarShirt?pid=2&cid=2397 To help us continue doing what we do, considering becoming a Patron on our Patreon and join our private discord community! www.patreon.com/The_Study_of_Antiquity_and_the_Middle_Ages To support the channel by purchasing cool history merchandise check out our affiliate link to SPQR Emporium: spqr-emporium.com?aff=3 *Disclaimer, the link above to SPQR is an affiliate link which means we will make a small commission from your generous purchases, just another way to support the channel!

What timing. I'm reading his paper with the same title right now. Can't wait to listen.

Fantastic! Such a great channel. Big ups, Nick.

**knock, knock** "Who's there?" "Sea people." "Sea people who?" "See people die as we sack your cities!"

Great to hear Dr. fred Woudhuizen .. would love to hear more from him. His books are quite expensive and not yet filtered into the mainstream, so well done and thank you for bringing him in and giving out the link to his paper on the sea peoples.i just downloaded the pdf and look forwards to reading through it.

Love the musical prologue. 💖😎

I found this fascinating especially comments linking Sea Peoples to Central Europe. Also liked the discussion possibly linking Sea Peoples with Philistines. I've heard suggestions in the past related to Phoenicians. Very impressed with Dr. Woudhuizen's presentation. Thank you. I liked and subscribed.

Those the came by sea were Greeks. Not only that, but we know the name of one of them: Odysseus. He described the failed raid on Egypt in Odyssey. „But my comrades, yielding to wantonness, and led on by their own might, straightway set about wasting the fair fields of the men of Egypt; and they carried off the women and little children, and slew the men; and the cry came quickly to the city. Then, hearing the shouting, the people came forth at break of day, and the whole plain was filled with footmen, and chariots and the flashing of bronze. But Zeus who hurls the thunderbolt cast an evil panic upon my comrades, and none had the courage to hold his ground and face the foe; for evil surrounded us on every side. So then they slew many of us with the sharp bronze, and others they led up to their city alive, to work for them perforce.”

I’ve been so excited for this!

Absolutely fascinating - love this subject - great interview! 😝👍

Great video each minut i learned something Thanks to the doctor and you

A profoundly interesting topic, and my thanks to the professor. I wonder how this coalition of at least nine diverse ethnicities came together and functioned during their tour of the Eastern Med. As I read the Egyptian accounts, it sounds like Rameses managed to drive a wedge between them, for example the "settling" of some in a couple of different places. Certainly we are left with a picture of very complex realtionships on all sides at the time of the collapse.

I remeber watching your previous video a few months back, stoked to see if there are new answers

Love the intro beats and trumpets lol.

Excellent discussion. But the elephant in the room that was only briefly touched upon, if at all, in the discussion: What prompted the "Sea Peoples" desperate all-out-attack-plus-migration south and east?

Great seeing Nick getting as excited as me, hearing this stuff!

One of the bestest history channels!

Really awesome channel. Thanks for doing this and getting down to the real bottom line of what we can know

Thank you very much for the documentary, very insightful....

Very interesting guest. More Celts please. My interest in the Celtic peoples began when I first stumbled across the Celtic exhibit at the Neues Museum (Berlin) and then, a week later, found myself in Hallstatt.

I so much wish you also had a full on interview on all the different “Luwian” people’s, the Caunians, the Carians, the Lycians, it’s all quite remarkable... I want to know if the Minoans spoke a language related to Luwian languages or not too...

Great subject love it

Holy moly, nick! I just saw you in Forbes. I've been watching you for years brother. It was so awesome to discover that article. Congratulations

Not just interesting, downright fascinatingly astounding! Keep up the great work. His accent was a bit hard combined with unfamiliar names, perhaps an overlay of some of the spelling of these races and places could help(or perhaps in the description).

Looking forward to the Cline talk!

Thank you!

As far as I understand the Bronze Age collapse, it was preceded by the eruption of Thera/Santorini. It smashed the Minoans, especially her seapower. In the power vacuüm that emerged, many nations started raiding the coastlines of the Eastern Mediterranean. Many nations collapsed under the onslaught of the seapeople, Egypt was the last to face them, she had time to prepare and survived but barely. The collapse of her trading empire led to Egypt's decline, she never recovered. Woudhuizen's knowledge on the subject is profound.

I was watching the Star Trek TNG episode about the Iconians the other day, when it hit me. The Iconians are basically the Space Sea People, blew my mind lol

That doctor has maybe the coolest sounding last name I've ever heard.

Hey SAMA. I read an interesting older paper about the so-called "Sea Peoples." It talked about how some of the names (translations) of them have been strongly influenced by preconceived ideas (because certain hieroglyphs in Egyptian have dual potential pronunciation. For example, 'R' can be 'L' because the Egyptians did not have a hieroglyph for 'L' and 'T' can sometimes be 'S'). Hence the Shekelesh (thought maybe to be Sicilians) is actually from Egyptian T.K.R. (if memory serves). The Greeks remembered Troy but have nothing to say about the Sea Peoples or a Dark Age, which occured right at the same time. The Bible only says that Arameans became prominent at this time (corroborated by their diminishing the Middle Assyrian Empire) and that the Philistines gathered a multi-national force (as did one or two other local enemies of Israel). At this period mythology bordered on the advent of writing and widespread literacy (c. 1050 - 850 B.C.). It's strange that such a major event as the Late Bronze Age collapse/Dark Age and the Sea Peoples are completely absent from mythology and early contemporary records and history. REALLY strange.

Wow! Mind blowing 🤯 info on Philistines and Iron prohibition...excellent interview/guest! BTW his voice with eyes closed stirs up memories Boris Badinoff/Bullwinkle? No disrespect 😁🙏thx again!

Thank you for the history lesson!

thanks for this interview..i'm in

Wonderful, love this topic and Professor. 1 Samuel 13:19-22 is the text that speaks of the Philistines prohibiting Israelite use of iron weapons.

Just subbed dbl thumbs 👍 up! Fascinating well thought out topics questions 😀 just learned the iron and Phillistines sp. ? And iron - lots of info I can listen several times to gather all of the valuable tidbits!! Love it! Indeed priceless Rockstars- in my book.. Thank u !

Phoenicia bloomed actually, you can’t specialize in Mediterranean history without recognizing Phoenician..

How interesting! Connections between Sardinia and Israel have been recently found. Sort of Sardinians building have been excavated in northern Israel, and same buildings (nuraghe) do exist even in Scotland. Amazing how ancient people were travelling all over the places

Great content.

Do you have any videos of the celts? I coouldn't find any, but I'd love to hear all that you've learned about the celts. It would be great to have Barry Cuneliff in a live interview like this. The live interview adds a nice touch.

Nick, what is the music that you used in the introduction? Thank you for the excellent interview with Dr. Woudhuizen.

Great Guest !

There is a cool mod for civ 5 to play as the sea peoples. There special ability is that when they Capture a capital they get a huge culture boost and a social policy. They get the Palastine warrior and the sherden warrior, they both ignore sea movement coast when going to sail or when land on shore. They are a early war-like play style classical domination

Excellent guest.

What is the name of the intro music? I want that. Also great video!

The more I learn about the late bronze age collapse and the sea peoples, the more I want to know what we going on in Central Europe just prior.

Ladies and Gentlemen we present the Sea Peoples Mediterranean Tour! This shirt is for Bronze Age Collapse buffs and fans of the Bronze Age in general! Wear this shirt sporting your favorite history subject and make history matter! The Sea Peoples were a purported seafaring confederation that attacked ancient Egypt and other regions of the East Mediterranean prior to and during the Late Bronze Age collapse (1200-900 BCE). Get yours at the link below! teespring.com/sea-peoples-mediterranean-tour

Fabulous, fascinating, awesome. Why all these adjectives? I keep listening.

The first image in this video that showed three male figures (presumably depictions of the sea peoples) was really telling to me from a cranial morphological standpoint. Most people overlook the precise details in ancient carvings. I also thought that Italians were the descendants of the fall of Troy after the bronze age collapse who colonized Italy and not related to the Celts in terms of the Urnfield culture. It's good to hear new learnings and opinions.

I would like to start an in depth conversation about chariot combat. First, chariortiers were highly mobile, like mechanized infantry of today. This means they could avoid engagement until they sought confrontation. They could skirmish at will and re-engaged as it suited them. If the sea peoples were on foot it means they were extremely vulnerable to this time tested and true combat tactic. Second, this was the bronze age, meaning chariotiers would be protected with bronze armor, which had been completely effective in securing their protection from foot soldier combat temporally up until contact with the sea people. In short, my inquiry is how the sea people countered the chariot combat so well, which nobody had been successful at until then. Its not like nobody had tried before them. Furthermore as the Doctor states is that that the sea people were mariners first, land combat was not their expertise. Did they revolutionize military doctrine? Did they have iron slugs for slingers? If so how did they field and mobilize such highly skilled infantry in strategic deployment? Maybe a combination of both of these. Moreover is how they got the chariotiers to stay engaged once they realized their tactics had been compromised. Mobility in combat it king, a trump card which all of a sudden turns up ineffective as soon as the sea peoples arrive. That is some kind of strange if you ask me!!!

Dr. W is brilliant

Regarding the sea people also including Urnfeld cultures - Marija Gimbutas mentions this in her book "Bronze age cultures in central and Eastern Europe" written in 1965.

For everyone who's wondering, because no question is a stupid question, history requires the invention of writing, since history is the study of documents and inscriptions. Therefore, "pre-history" or "proto-history" refers to the entire period of the human past before we had writing, so roughly 3500 BCE and before. Pre-history would be the lengthy period of human existence before writing, proto-history refers to the period in and around the invention of writing, so shortly before. Okeeee

As we continental Italians say: Don't mess with Sardinians...

I have done some casual reading on this. I cannot remember the source, but apparently there is considerable archaeological evidence of early syncretistic religion that combined Yahweh worship with either Canaanite or Philistine religion (or both).

Fantastic

Very interesting documentary about a fascinating and decisive moment of the Antiquity. It should be very interesting a documentary about those civilizations that originated the Sea People, like the ancient Sardinian Civilization or the Etruscan Civilization. Amazing videos!!!

My thoughts? Absolutely amazing/fascinating!!!!Love how he pulls out the dates and names from memory.This series you intend to do with all these historians is going to be downright phenomenal!!!!Can't wait for more.Its such a help as I for one am totally obsessed with this era.....but don't really know who and what works to study/investigate.....this will be very very helpful.....so can't thank you enough.Personally my curiosity centers to a degree on why.....which I think was touched upon a bit.....anyways thanks in no small measure for your awesome work and sharing it.

That opening song is pretty sweet at 1.25 speed

Urnfield boats would surely be for lakes and rivers in central europe, not suitable for crossing the Med?

This was a great video! This too is one of my favorite mysteries in history, the Sea Peoples! The only thing I wonder though is where the Philistines(Peleset) came from exactly? Were they from the ancient Phelasgians? Who knows? But this video was still kool!

I googled dr. Woudhuizen right away, only to find out he passed away right next to my home town.

I like the music in the beginning. What is it and who is the composer?

The key question which remains to be resolved is what was the impetus for the movement of these various diverse groups. You will recall that during Julius Caesar campaigns, a similar massive movement of peoples from the Denmark region moved southward and circled around central western Europe. The Romans battled them and although significantly reduced by Roman slaughter, they finished settlingup on the Iberian Peninsula. It is thus highly probable that weather conditions, sea level rises, hunger and pressure from

Were the Sea Peoples traders? What goods did they trade? What made their ships better? Who controlled the materials needed to make metal weapons in the empires? Did the Sea Peoples mainly use hit and run tactics, similar to the later Vikings?

From my understanding, but I am not saying I am 100% correct, so let me know what you think: Regarding the Minoan language: The oldest language was a pictographic writing system developed around 2000 BCE known as the Cretan hieroglyphs. Another group of signs was identified as Linear A, developed around 1700 BCE. While Cretan hieroglyphs have a pictorial appearance, Linear A has a linear appearance. It has been speculated that both Cretan hieroglyphs and Linear A represent the same language. Minoan civilization had trade contacts with the advanced Middle Eastern civilizations, with Egypt being the most influential. It is likely that the earliest Minoan writing (Cretan hieroglyphs) was modelled after the Middle Kingdom Egyptian hieroglyphs. Although superficially indeed similar to Egyptian symbols, Cretan Hieroglyphs are clearly distinct in both form and phonetic value. Yet the biggest difference lies in the underlying system itself. Egyptian Hieroglyphs are part of a complex writing system, where most signs have more than one possible reading, dependent on context (similarly to the Japanese Kanji characters). Signs could have both a phonetic (single consonant or syllable) value or an ideogrammatic (word) reading, but could even be utilized as phonetic complements or logograms (a written character that represents a word or phrase, like in Chinese), “reinforcing” the reading of words they were attached to. As many of these duplicities could only be interpreted by a native speaker of Old Egyptian, this system was very difficult to utilize for speakers of foreign languages. Also, the Egyptian system had over 800 different signs, which is an extremely large inventory of symbols compared to Cretan Hieroglyphs (roughly 85 or so different signs are known). Linear A signs identified ranges from 77 to 85 according to different scholars, suggesting that this was a syllabic writing system. Minoan scribes might have took the concept of writing from Egypt, creating their own signs and simplifying the system so that it became almost fully phonetic. Such a low number of individual characters is uncharacteristic of the complex writing systems of the ancient Near East, but it is fully compatible with a simple syllabary (reminiscent of the modern Japanese Hiragana or Katakana writing). Thus, some assume that Cretan Hieroglyphs, similarly to all later Aegean writing systems, were already syllabic in nature. Other scholars see Semitic influences / a relationship to Mesopotamian writings in the Minoan language, but these depend solely on Semitic loanwords, such as “sesame”, a word that appears in both Linear A and B (and also in ENGLISH). One thing is clear: After the rebuilding of the palatial complexes on Crete (with the advent of the so-called “New Palace Period”) the Hieroglyphic script fell out of regular use. A new script has taken its place, called Linear A. The relationship of Linear A and Hieroglyphics is probably comparable to the relation between Egyptian Hieroglyphic and Hieratic/Demotic script. Current available evidence suggests that the underlying system remained essentially the same; it is the shape of signs that suffered profound change due to graphical simplification. Linear A was used much more extensively than Hieroglyphs. Hundreds of clay tablets, inscribed vessels, statues, altarstones and even jewelery testifies its daily use. The triumph of Linear A is also striking in a geographical sense: Wherever Cretan traders went, Linear A followed. Perhaps due to the simplicity of the syllabary, it quickly spread to other regions surrounding Crete. While regularly used on many Aegean islands, sporadic finds suggest that it also reached the Greek mainland as well as the island of Cyprus and the Syrian coast.

@16:30 Actually the Jews had armor, and Saul's was offered to David to use, but David said it was too big, didnt fit. Interestingly they didnt look for a set that fit. It could be Saul had one of the only sets.

I've always thought that sea peoples were the various Outpost, colonies, and merchants that made up the phoneician trade networks that was vast!

Great show! Can you do one on the Horse people, the Phrygians, Scythians etc, of Iran. They didnt like the godess worshippers/spiritists like the minoans , because they sacrificed children to Tannit and Baal.

I think there must’ve been a cataclysm that displaced large coastal/island communities; the valleys in the south of Sardinia, and the ruins there, show evidence of inundation from the seas coming well inland. Around 8000 years ago, Etna suffered a collapse that sent its eastern slope into the Mediterranean; the waves ran up ove 50 feet all through southern Italy and the western coasts of Greece. Something similar could’ve occurred, I think...

Congratulations for this channel, it's awesome! I have a question, for those who are familiar with Mycenaean culture and language. There were two social groups in Mycenaean society that were called "equeta" and "tereta", probably part of the aristocracy. I cannot help but notice the similarity with two names of the Sea Peoples: "Ekwesh" and "Teresh". Is there any link? Is it possible that those "peoples" were actually disenfranchised members of the palacial aristocracy that turned to piracy, or something like that?

One problem with this theory, at the time there was an almost international/global trade aspect to the bronze age civilizations, yet the sea people invaders were unknown to the great empires of the time. It is implausible that they were native to the mediterranean region , not impossible, but highly unlikely.

So the Sea Peoples post date the Hyksos? So once the tech to build long trek ships came (with advanch in metals) the Viking plunder practice takes off.

Thank God for guys like you, because guys like me wouldn't know anything

9 groups of sea people , very interesting. 🤔

Fascinating. Here is a question concerning the iron prohibition. Was Ehud’s dagger forged of iron or bronze? ( book of Judges)

My question is whether the sea people were predominantly iron bearing people? Because if that’s the case, that would account for their secret to success without knowing anything about the laws of attraction. And then the other questions that begs to be answered, is whether the Dorians are contemporaneous with these sea peoples. Were they iron-bearing? was this a matter of northern Iron coming down upon and handily defeating southern bronze? Like somebody got the idea it into his head like “I know what we can do. Now that we have iron, what do you say we head on down to the Mediterranean? Because that would be a nifty distinction and easy to remember.

I need to know where I can get the music from the Intro ? Does anyone know what this is?

Great video so they were a multitude of peoples

I hadn't heard of urnfield before, but when I googled them I saw an interesting picture on this website: www.britannica.com/topic/Urnfield-culture ...do you have a link or know about the bronze cart or wheeled platform that was found in Scandinavia? Apparently a very similar one was found in Turkey, and it was believed they were made in the same place. I have to read up more on urnfield, but the picture reminds me of that wheeled cart ive heard about (probably on your podcast, to be honest) ... I'm curious if there's a connection...?

Enjoyed this. Thank you for posting. Best wishes from Calgary, Canada. 🍁🏳️‍🌈🇨🇦🌸

Philistines are related to pelsets who are Greek pirates from the southern part of Crete I watched an episode on Minoans where mr nick barksdale discusses with a known anthropologist and historian dr Louise hitchcock on his channel on how the Minoans feared pirates living on the southeastern island of Crete.

In addition to the Sardinian and Philistine Sea Peoples settlements in Caanan, the ancient Greek Mycenaeans, aka the DANaoi/DANoi people also settled in Northern Caanan and were later known as the Hebrew tribe of Dan.

Please include maps, it will make easier to follow the conversation. thank you.

I also didn't know that iron was forbidden to be used by the jews. Never heard that important detail before. Iron was basically the ancient equivalent of nuclear weapons.

Ok, the drum ROCKS !!!🤭

My family comes from the isle of Mann so I have Manx heritage and this one thing I read. Said son of japath ,Tiras was considered Thor

I already knew that the Israelites didn't have iron weapons in this time period with the Philistines dominating them. Also the account of King David V Goliath encapsulates the situation of an iron clad giant, with all the technological, weaponry advances of the day, vs a small boy with a stick and a slingshot.

What are the info sources that make us aware of these 'sea people' today in the first place?

Do you know of any research on any effect of volcanic activities in Europe that has happened before the sea people coming in to the picture.. i mean perhaps they experienced it in the past and where aware of the devastating results of a volcanic eruption thats why they decided to group together and move away to a better land they already knew was fertile and safer where they felt it could happen again? Whats your thoughts on this?

Nice lecture.Thanks. The dutsh texting is funny.

The Philistine prohibition against the use of iron by the ancient Israelites comes from 1 Samuel 13:19.

Is that Will and Ariel Durant's world history series next to your head in the right side at ear level?

Is there any archeological evidence of the Philistine's monopoly on iron in the Levant? I think the earliest iron objects found in Philistia are of Iron Age IIB. What do the experts say?

It was about this time that the Celts sailed west from Spain to Ireland

Ethnos-Ethnicity literally means where you were born. The Pelaset (sea people) Philistine Palestine

At 26:00 the host says the boats were influenced by "unfield europe". That was my understanding. Can anyone, please , explain if that expression is correct and what it was meant by this expression?

I am Ingush. We live in Northern Caucasus and call ourself Galgai. Also known as: Colchis Gargareans Kisti Kusti Qalqans/Kalkans/calcans Halka Gligvi Dzurdzuks Gelians Lamoor Loamaro Ingushians Jeirahoi Targimhoi Hamhoi / Hamehi Aegians We are real Caucasians not like many other people living in Caucasus now who migrated here recently. We have mountain village called Djeirah, which might be ancient Jericho. Our main DNA Haplogroup is J2a1b (about 80% of population). Just as Arabs and Jews. I personally believe that Arabs and Jews are coming from us through Ibrahim as. We are the people of towers just like ancient Chaldeans. Even today the swastika is our national symbol and a part of official Ingushian Republic flag. Interesting thing is that in our ancient Ingush language we have a word “Charh” for the wheel.

Homer's Trojan War happened before 1250 BCE without the Greeks seizing Troy, just as the Iliad describes. It was inconclusive and the Greeks went home when strife in their homelands demanded it. (This is the story of the Odyssey) Troy's walls were destroyed by earthquake some time later, maybe 1 generation. (A horse is the symbol of Poseidon, god of earthquakes.) However, the war with the Hittites and the raids of the Sea People were around 1190 BCE, a good 50-60 years after the Trojan War. I believe the Luwians allied with the Greeks at this time, to liberate Cyprus from Hittite control and attack their allies, the Egyptians. This explains the spread of tribes mentioned by the Egyptians. It also explains why so many Greeks were living on the Luwian coast by the end of dark age: Because the Luwians and the Ionians Greeks were ultimately allies. It also explains why the Iliad includes both Luwian and Greek hero songs: Because during the sea raids, those bards were in the same camp, and so fused their songs together (long before Homer).