Sea People: a case. Shardana on the base of Egyptian inscriptions and Sardinian statuettes

Confirming the feature of population basically practical, "Nuragic people" had developed arts just during the Iron Age, including stone carvings or statues, but mainly in the form of little statues in bronze, typically representing the chief of the village ("Sardus pater"), hunting or fighting men, animals, more rarely women.
The variety of warriors and armaments represented by the Sardinian bronze statuettes of the Iron Age can be taken as an indirect proof of the presence of many kinds of Sea Peoples in Sardinia. In fact, these sculptures show similarities with three different Sea Peoples: Shardana, Philistines and Teresh. That’s shouldn’t be considered strange if we think nuragic people showed a territorial organization based on cantons and actually Romans (centuries later) called populations living in different cantons with different names. Moreover in Egyptian inscriptions the Sea Peoples' ships appear to have no oars (which could indicate new navigation techniques) like in the Sardinian bronze statuettes.

There are also etymological connections between Shardana and Sardinia, Teresh and tower builders,
Philistines and Pelasgians. In Egyptian inscription Shardana weapons appears similar to that worn by the Philistines; moreover there is a deep analogy between Sardus Pater (the Sardinian deity of the 1st Millennium) and the Philistines national god, Dagon. Bronze statues and coins typically portray the Sardus Pater with Philistine clothing and helmet and above all, the helmet is represented covered with feathers, exactly as in the Egyptian pictures. But we have also an important connection between Sardinia and Teresh; Strabo, a Greek historian, said Etruscans (they may have been the people called by Egyptians Teresh) and Ilienses (Sardinian inhabitants) were Tyrrheni! Actually both Etruscan and ancient Sardinian language have lots of similar words.
An ancient Egyptian text say a Shardana servant was able to speak and understand all different sea raiders that were invading Egypt at the end of the Bronze Age! So all they could be part of a same ethnic origin: that of Pelasgians.

The debate, about whether Shardana were Nuragic people or they just arrived in Sardinia after the Sea People invasion of Eastern Mediterranean, has not been solved.
The Shardana are one of several groups of "Sea Peoples" who appeared in Egyptian inscriptions in the second millennium B.C.; groups that disrupted Aegean trade in the end of the 13th century and their raids contributed greatly to the collapse of all Mediterranean civilisation.
In the earliest mention of the Shardana people, they appear as mercenaries, later they are depicted both among the sea raiders and as allies of the Egyptians, distinguished by their horned helmets, round shields, and large swords.
If Shardana arrived in Sardinia in the 12th or 11th centuries where they were living before? 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.
Phoenicians started to come in Sardinia around 1000 B.C. and a legend say people who gave the name to the island, firstly were assimilated by the natives and then pushed off Sardinia before the Phoenician arrival. In this regard there’s no evidence of eastern innovation in Sardinia introduced by dominating leaders, arrived as heroes from the developed East after 1175 B.C. (the end of Sea Peoples Invasion). In addition, I wonder, why nuragic people should produce statuettes to commemorate disappeared foreign invaders?
If a people of skilled sailors left the Eastern Mediterranean and established themselves in Sardinia, why in the Early I Millennium, Phoenicians found the South West coast of Sardinia desolated?

In favour of the correlation between nuragic people and Shardana we can say the Sardinian pottery and metal finds of the 11th century show an abandonment of eastern stylistic reference, but with several affinities with the past Sardinian art.
In an Iron Age settlement of central Palestine (El-Ahwat) there are (for the Eastern Mediterranean) unusual stone corridors and false domes connected by scholars with nuragic Sardinia, probably built by Sea people originally arrived in that area from this island via Aegean lands.
Moreover, after the Sea People invasions, Well Temple and Sardinian fictile material were also found in the archaeological sites of the Central and Eastern Mediterranean.

The Eagean culture of El Argar built in Iberia a system of signaling fortresses similar to the Sardinian one. But during the 14th century it collapsed in a catastrophic way and disappeared; probably something was changing in the Western Mediterranean in that period. Actually, in Sardinia the Nuragic people started building complex and fortified Nuraghes, demonstrating the enduring and profound fight for the land in this area.

But during the 12th century BC Sardinia was characterised by a "revolution": the nuraghes were abandoned and often partially demolished or set on fire.
Then, nuragic developments ended before the building of the so-called "Nuragic villages” typical of the Iron Age. So in several sites humble dwellings and small huts were built on the demolished Nuragic structures and stones were often recycled in various ways for their construction. The new constructions of the Iron Age weren’t characterised by megalithic techniques, but they were built with natural stone and with scarce skill.
If the decline of Nuragic civilization in Sardinia and the decline in use of bronze tools in favour of iron ones could be correlated, surely the decline of the Nuragic civilization and the turbulent events of the Mycenaean and Eastern society are clearly related.
Around 1200 B.C. the level of the sea in Sardinia coastal area suddenly increased of three meters! That’s can be a good explanation of all troubles Sardinia had in that time and maybe this natural phenomenon also interested other lands in the Mediterranean Sea.

Our hypothesis: from the 17th century, after the fall of Minoan Civilization, western Pelasgians had been involved in the control of the Mediterranean trade in tin and bronze, but from the 14th centuries big turbulences (both political and environmental) in their land put their role and power in crisis. Then, they moved to the eastern part of the Mediterranean basin.

Hittite and Egyptian texts show that in the 13th century BC, the oriental area of the Mediterranean basin was invaded by peoples coming from West. All towns and reigns in the Eastern Mediterranean were destroyed, only Egypt resisted, but it was so severely weakened that lost important lands like those in Palestine.
Probably this western people (coming back to their land of origin) firstly settled in the Aegean area, from where they moved assaulting ships and coastal towns.
Finally, the big disorder around 1200 B.C. determined the end of the Bronze Age; actually not in Sardinia, where people kept on using the precious bronze for few centuries more. And that happened not because they didn’t know how process iron! In fact the oldest processed iron found in the western Mediterranean area comes from Sardinia.


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SEA PEOPLE Confirming the feature of population basically practical, "Nuragic people" had developed arts just during the Iron Age, including stone carvings or statues, but mainly in the form of little statues in bronze, typically representing the chief of the village ("Sardus pater"), hunting or fighting men, animals, more rarely women. The variety of warriors and armaments represented by the Sardinian bronze statuettes of the Iron Age can be taken as an indirect proof of the presence of many kinds of Sea Peoples in Sardinia. In fact, these sculptures show similarities with three different Sea Peoples: Shardana, Philistines and Teresh. That’s shouldn’t be considered strange if we think nuragic people showed a territorial organization based on cantons and actually Romans (centuries later) called populations living in different cantons with different names. Moreover in Egyptian inscriptions the Sea Peoples' ships appear to have no oars (which could indicate new navigation techniques) like in the Sardinian bronze statuettes. There are also etymological connections between Shardana and Sardinia, Teresh and tower builders, Philistines and Pelasgians. In Egyptian inscription Shardana weapons appears similar to that worn by the Philistines; moreover there is a deep analogy between Sardus Pater (the Sardinian deity of the 1st Millennium) and the Philistines national god, Dagon. Bronze statues and coins typically portray the Sardus Pater with Philistine clothing and helmet and above all, the helmet is represented covered with feathers, exactly as in the Egyptian pictures. But we have also an important connection between Sardinia and Teresh; Strabo, a Greek historian, said Etruscans (they may have been the people called by Egyptians Teresh) and Ilienses (Sardinian inhabitants) were Tyrrheni! Actually both Etruscan and ancient Sardinian language have lots of similar words. An ancient Egyptian text say a Shardana servant was able to speak and understand all different sea raiders that were invading Egypt at the end of the Bronze Age! So all they could be part of a same ethnic origin: that of Pelasgians. The debate, about whether Shardana were Nuragic people or they just arrived in Sardinia after the Sea People invasion of Eastern Mediterranean, has not been solved. The Shardana are one of several groups of "Sea Peoples" who appeared in Egyptian inscriptions in the second millennium B.C.; groups that disrupted Aegean trade in the end of the 13th century and their raids contributed greatly to the collapse of all Mediterranean civilisation. In the earliest mention of the Shardana people, they appear as mercenaries, later they are depicted both among the sea raiders and as allies of the Egyptians, distinguished by their horned helmets, round shields, and large swords. If Shardana arrived in Sardinia in the 12th or 11th centuries where they were living before? 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. Phoenicians started to come in Sardinia around 1000 B.C. and a legend say people who gave the name to the island, firstly were assimilated by the natives and then pushed off Sardinia before the Phoenician arrival. In this regard there’s no evidence of eastern innovation in Sardinia introduced by dominating leaders, arrived as heroes from the developed East after 1175 B.C. (the end of Sea Peoples Invasion). In addition, I wonder, why nuragic people should produce statuettes to commemorate disappeared foreign invaders? If a people of skilled sailors left the Eastern Mediterranean and established themselves in Sardinia, why in the Early I Millennium, Phoenicians found the South West coast of Sardinia desolated? In favour of the correlation between nuragic people and Shardana we can say the Sardinian pottery and metal finds of the 11th century show an abandonment of eastern stylistic reference, but with several affinities with the past Sardinian art. In an Iron Age settlement of central Palestine (El-Ahwat) there are (for the Eastern Mediterranean) unusual stone corridors and false domes connected by scholars with nuragic Sardinia, probably built by Sea people originally arrived in that area from this island via Aegean lands. Moreover, after the Sea People invasions, Well Temple and Sardinian fictile material were also found in the archaeological sites of the Central and Eastern Mediterranean. The Eagean culture of El Argar built in Iberia a system of signaling fortresses similar to the Sardinian one. But during the 14th century it collapsed in a catastrophic way and disappeared; probably something was changing in the Western Mediterranean in that period. Actually, in Sardinia the Nuragic people started building complex and fortified Nuraghes, demonstrating the enduring and profound fight for the land in this area. But during the 12th century BC Sardinia was characterised by a "revolution": the nuraghes were abandoned and often partially demolished or set on fire. Then, nuragic developments ended before the building of the so-called "Nuragic villages” typical of the Iron Age. So in several sites humble dwellings and small huts were built on the demolished Nuragic structures and stones were often recycled in various ways for their construction. The new constructions of the Iron Age weren’t characterised by megalithic techniques, but they were built with natural stone and with scarce skill. If the decline of Nuragic civilization in Sardinia and the decline in use of bronze tools in favour of iron ones could be correlated, surely the decline of the Nuragic civilization and the turbulent events of the Mycenaean and Eastern society are clearly related. Around 1200 B.C. the level of the sea in Sardinia coastal area suddenly increased of three meters! That’s can be a good explanation of all troubles Sardinia had in that time and maybe this natural phenomenon also interested other lands in the Mediterranean Sea. Our hypothesis: from the 17th century, after the fall of Minoan Civilization, western Pelasgians had been involved in the control of the Mediterranean trade in tin and bronze, but from the 14th centuries big turbulences (both political and environmental) in their land put their role and power in crisis. Then, they moved to the eastern part of the Mediterranean basin. Hittite and Egyptian texts show that in the 13th century BC, the oriental area of the Mediterranean basin was invaded by peoples coming from West. All towns and reigns in the Eastern Mediterranean were destroyed, only Egypt resisted, but it was so severely weakened that lost important lands like those in Palestine. Probably this western people (coming back to their land of origin) firstly settled in the Aegean area, from where they moved assaulting ships and coastal towns. Finally, the big disorder around 1200 B.C. determined the end of the Bronze Age; actually not in Sardinia, where people kept on using the precious bronze for few centuries more. And that happened not because they didn’t know how process iron! In fact the oldest processed iron found in the western Mediterranean area comes from Sardinia.

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