Unpacking the Sea Peoples

So, unpacking the Sea Peoples.  Don`t get excited... I mean literally unpacking.  Go back a couple of years when I was teaching Shakespeare to kids who were, mostly, never going to understand it anyway, the word unpacking had a different meaning.  It seems to me that just about every historian who ever looked at the Sea Peoples came up with a different theory about them, and most are so fence sitting and non committal that they should never have wasted their time unpacking them in the first place.  

After my Sea Peoples somewhat interesting encounter with airport security, I finally reached home in Cyprus and began to sort them out.  Well over 120 shiny new 28mm figures, from three different manufacturers, the weight was quite startling.  When I add 20mm washers for bases as well as flock and paint they will weigh a damn sight more.  The flock came through security pretty much unmentioned by the way, as did several tubes of Vallego paint.

Bearing in mind that I left the Egyptians and Libyans in Durham I reckon my Bronze age project is pretty much on track.

Firstly this huge pile of metal is not just my Sea Peoples.  There are three Canaanite chariots and a couple of packs of Syrian spearmen in there too.  My reasoning is that I may need someone to raid, and that I wanted to have a go at the Canaanites too.

The Sea Peoples are divided into horned helmet wearers, reed circlet style helmet wearers and a group of guys in wrap around turbans who will be filler for any shortfall in the two main groups.

I`ve also brought three packs of "Civilians" over.  Most of these are Foundry, but I also bought some Newline.  The slave trader with his human property will make a nice vignette, as will the Peleset baggage wagon with an ox and crew.  Please don`t let Phil Barker know but this is not a war wagon, just a baggage element! 

Lastly I have "Old Nestor," in his chariot, with a gang of streakers as my Acheans.  

The Sea Peoples in helmets are my Sherden.  I have some issues with this helmet as portrayed on some of these figures.  My commander (Uriah as it happens) wears a helmet interpreted from the Egyptian reliefs.  It seems to be a bronze pot helmet style with bronze horns and an insignia disk above.  Egyptian scribes were exact, and the colouring of these on the reliefs is almost always light yellow, interpreted as meaning bronze.  

Examples of similar shaped helmets have been found around the Mediterranean, (but not of bronze) and not of this exact type.  They have not been found in Egypt.  Evidence has been based on the Warrior Vase, the Medinet Habu reliefs, and the "Ingot God" from Enkomi, down the coast from me here in Cyprus.  That disk has been interpreted as denoting the Shardana in Egyptian service, differentiating their "mercenary" status from the enemy.  That is of course supposition.  To be honest we don`t even know if it was a disk or a ball since one of these has never been found.  It has been interpreted as an "eye of Ra," or just a sun god disk, but we can`t really be sure of it`s significance at all. 

These three figures are three sculptor's interpretation of the Sherden. (they are probably the sculptor's interpretation of Angus McBrides's interpretation but there you go...)  Since only Egyptian Royalty or Maryannu would wear helmets, and the Minoan and "Greek" archaeology finds seem to point to largely non metallic helmets being worn by foot troops, its interesting to see that the central figure (Wargames Foundry) is much more detailed, and may even be an interpretation of a boars tusk helmet, although some Greek examples are decorated bronze.  His scale armour also indicates that this figure is not in Egyptian service.  Although I haven`t cleaned the casting up yet it`s still easy to see why I am such a fan of Foundry.  This little guy has animation, leaning into a run.  

The Northstar figure on the right, aside from being much taller, is dressed in Egyptian fashion and wears the helmet disk. The Newline figure on the left is less well detailed but also seems to be in Egyptian service.  I think that I can live with the less crisp detail in the interests of mixing different poses into my Sherden warband. 

I have a lot of painting to do.