The Shardana

by Megaera Lorenz

The Shardana were among the first of the peoples now categorized as "Sea Peoples" to appear in the historical record. They made their first appearance in the Amarna letters (mid 14th c. BCE), serving as part of an Egyptian garrison in Byblos, where they provided their services to the mayor, Rib Hadda (EA 81, EA 122, EA 123 in Moran 1992: 150-1, 201-2).

They would appear next during the reign of Ramesses II, in the mid-13th century BCE. Ramesses erected a number of "rhetorical stelae" at Tanis, unfortunately undated. These texts boast in general terms about the military might of the Pharaoh. Here, the Shardana are represented as enemies of the Egyptians for the first time:

(As for) the Sherden of rebellious mind, whom none

could ever fight against, who came bold-[hearted,

they sailed in], in warships from the midst of the

Sea, those whom none could withstand; [(but) he

plundered them by the victories of his valiant

arm, they being carried off to Egypt] - (even by)

King of S & N Egypt, Usimare Setepenre, Son of Re,

Ramesses II, given life like Re. (Rhetorical

Stela, Tanis II in Kitchen 1996: 118-122)

Later, according to the famous Battle of Kadesh Inscriptions of Ramesses II's 5th regnal year, Ramesses assimilated some of the Shardana into his own personal guard (Kadesh Battle Inscriptions in Lichtheim 1976: 63ff).

The Papyrus Anastasi I, a satirical letter between two scribes dating to Ramesses II's reign, also depicts the Shardana in the role of mercenaries. The author, Hori, attempts to prove his superiority and belittle his correspondent, Amenemope, by describing and discussing a series of hypothetical situations of a type often encountered by government scribes. At one point, he describes the difficulties of organizing a military expedition in Canaan:

Thou art sent on an expedition to Phoenicia (?) at

the head of the victorious army, in order to smite

those rebels who are called Nearin. The troops of

soldiers who are before thee amount to 1900; (of)

Sherden 520 (?), of Kehek 1600, of Meshwesh <100

(?)>, Negroes making 880; total 5000 in all,

not counting their officers. (P. Anastasi I, XV,

p. 19 in Gardiner 1964)

This text offers us an interesting glimpse into the demographics of the Egyptian military during the 13th century BCE. The Shardana seem to have formed a significant contingent of Ramesses II's army.

The Shardana showed up in Egypt again during the reign of Merenptah, when they fought Egypt as part of a coalition of Sea Peoples and Libyans (The Great Karnak Inscription in Breasted 1906: 241-253), 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 by their horned helmets with a ball projecting from the middle, round shields, and large swords (Gardiner 1968: 196-7).

Finally, the Shardana appear in a list of Sea Peoples occupying the Phoenician Coast in a text dating from c. 1100 BCE, the Onomasticon of Amenemope. The Shardana appear in line 268 of the Onomasticon (Gardiner 1968: 194).

The role that the Shardana played with relation to Egypt varies from one text to another. They appear as a contingent of the Egyptian army in a wide array of sources, including the battle inscriptions of Ramesses II, the Anastasi Papyrus, and the Papyrus Harris of Ramesses III, and as an enemy of the Egyptians for the first time under Ramesses II, in the Tanis and Aswan Stelae, dated to year 2 of Ramesses II (Gardiner 1968: 195-6). Ultimately, they seem to have been mercenaries with no fixed alliances, who would fight either with or against Egypt (Zertal, 2001: 228).

In the late 19th century, the French scholar Gaston Maspero suggested that the Shardana were a migratory people originating in Sardis who eventually settled in Sardinia, giving their name to both places. This theory of a migrating group of Sea Peoples was generally accepted in the 19th to early 20th centuries, but, according to R. Drews (1995: 49-72), it has since come to be disputed. There is no evidence in the texts or archaeological record that the Shardana were a migratory people, or that they were migrating to Sardinia from any other place.

According to D. Redford, the Shardana can be equated with the Sardonians of the classical era, a people from the Ionian coast who were skilled in fighting (1992: 243). A battle between the Phocaeans and the Sardonians is recorded in Herodotus' History, book I, 165, in which we are told that the Sardonians were a formidable naval force. In the 14th-13th centuries BCE, the Shardana also had a reputation as pirates, and it is possible that their success in this occupation provided one of the motivations for the activities of other groups of Sea Peoples. However, this idea is tied to the theory that the primary factor in the Late Bronze Age-Iron Age transition was massive pillaging and piracy on the part of certain groups in the Aegean (Redford 1992: 244).

A. Zertal (2001) proposes that the Shardana, who have been connected by some scholars with classical Sardinia, 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 Shardana pottery has turned up at the sites in Israel. El-Ahwat is located at some distance from the coast, which does not match the historical image of the Shardana as maritime people (2001: 229).

I. Finkelstein convincingly refutes Zertal’s thesis in a recent article in the Israel Exploration Journal (2002). Most significantly, he points out that the distinctive “fortification” – the main feature that Zertal uses to identify El-Ahwat with the Shardana - which surrounds the Iron I city actually overlaps some of the buildings in the Iron Age settlement (189-190). This suggests that the wall was built at a later date than the Iron I settlement. Furthermore, the wall is of a type common to hilly areas in the Levant and the Mediterranean, particularly in the Roman period. Furthermore, all of the material remains excavated at El-Ahwat seem to be typical of Iron I Age hill-country settlements, suggesting that the population was indigenous to the area. It is unlikely, therefore, that El-Ahwat represents a settlement of the Shardana. They are still not attested with any certainty in the archaeological record.

Primary Sources

Papyrus Harris, Ramesses III:

Breasted, J. H.

1906 Ancient Records of Egypt. Vol. 4. Illinois: University of Illinois Press.

History, I:166:

Herodotus.

1960 History, Books I & 2. Trans. by A. D. Godley. New York: G.P. Putnam's sons.

Kadesh Battle Inscriptions, Ramesses II:

Lichtheim, M.

1976 Ancient Egyptian Literature. Berkeley: University of California. A representative collection of translations of Egyptian texts of several genres, with notes and bibliographical references.

P. Anastasi I, Ramesses II:

Gardiner, A. H.

1964 Egyptian Hieratic Texts. Georg Olms Verlagsbuchhandlung Hildesheim.

EA 81, EA 122, EA 123, Akhenaten:

Moran, W. L.

1992 The Amarna Letters. Maryland: Johns Hopikins University Press.

Secondary Sources

Drews, R.

1995 The End of the Bronze Age: Changes in Warfare and the Catastrophe ca. 1200 B. C. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

A thorough summary of theories concerning the origins and activities of the Sea Peoples, with a presentation of the author's specific theories concerning these issues.

Finkelstein, I.

2002 El-Ahwat: A Fortified Sea People City? Israel Exploration Journal 52(2): 187-199.

Gardiner, A. H.

1968 Ancient Egyptian Onomastica. New York: Oxford University Press.

Extensive commentary on Egyptian Onomastica, including the Onomasticon of Amenemope.

Herodotus.

1960 History, Books I & 2. Trans. by A. D. Godley. New York: G.P. Putnam's sons.

A translation of the classical history books by the Greek historian.

Moran, W. L.

1992 The Amarna Letters. Maryland: Johns Hopkins University.

Translations of most of the Amarna letters, with notes and commentary.

Redford, D. B.

1992 Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times. Princeton: Princeton University Press.

A history of Egypt from prehistory to the 6th century BCE, with a strong focus on Egypt's relations with the rest of the ancient world.

Zertal, A.

2001The “Corridor-builders” of Central Israel:Evidence for the Settlement of the ‘Northern Sea Peoples?’ Pp. 215-232 Karageorghis, V. and Morris, C. E., eds. Defensive Settlements of the Aegean and the Eastern Mediterranean After c. 1200 B. C. Dublin: The Anastasios G. Leventis Foundation.

An analysis of the peculiar archaeological features of the site of El-Ahwat, with a proposal that the unusual features can be attributed to Sea Peoples settlement. Includes a good summary of the historical sources on the Shardana.

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