Rameses III was one of Egypt’s great warrior pharaohs. The temple he built at Medinet Habu near the Valley of the Kings highlights why. Its walls are inscribed with the story of a coalition of fighters that swept through the Eastern Mediterranean 3,200 years ago, destroying cities, provinces, and even entire empires. “No land stood before their weapons,” the account says. Eventually, invaders known today as the Sea Peoples attacked Egypt. But Ramesses III succeeded where others had failed and crushed them.
Two hundred years after hieroglyphics were first deciphered, allowing us to read the amazing story of Ramesses III, evidence has emerged to support it. We now know that numerous cities and palaces in the eastern Mediterranean were destroyed around that time, often involving the Sea Peoples. The devastation was so widespread that, in one of the few instances in history, some complex societies were plunged into precipitous decline from which they never recovered. It’s no wonder, then, that this so-called Late Bronze Age collapse has fascinated scholars for decades. The same goes for the identity of the mysterious voyage plunderer.
Today, new genetic and archaeological evidence provides the most solid picture yet of what really happened during this dramatic period and who or what was responsible. We are getting it. This shows that many of our ideas about Sea Peoples and Collapse need to be completely reconsidered. It also suggests the surprising idea that the end of civilization may not be as dire as we think.
Before the Sea People arrived, life was…
Source: www.newscientist.com
