Peoples of the Sea

(also Sea Peoples), the conventional designation for the tribes or peoples that originally inhabited possibly the Balkan Peninsula or Asia Minor.

The Peoples of the Sea are mentioned in Egyptian sources of the 13th and 12th centuries B.C. as having attacked the borders of Egypt from the sea (sometimes in alliance with the Libyans) and later via Syria, Phoenicia, and Palestine. The destruction of the kingdom of the Hittites and other states was ascribed to them. The names of some Peoples of the Sea exist solely in Egyptian script indicating only consonants. Only a few have been identified, including the Lycians, the Philistines, and possibly the Danaans (Achaeans). It has been suggested that the Trojan War was to some extent connected with the migrations of the Peoples of the Sea.