Uriah gets his Philistine headress sorted

Uriah the Peleset.  Still needs work! 

My fellow Petains are well aware of my deep interest in (obsession with) the Ancient Egyptians.  Quite why I am leaving my Egyptian forces until last in my Bronze Age project is a bit of a mystery, however my current painting project  is the Sea Peoples, and more specifically the Peleset.   

I sourced the miniatures from Wargames Foundry (my firm favourite and a range of figures I`ve had a longstanding interest in) and Newline Designs, which match perfectly in size but lack some of the crisp detail.  Much cheaper though!

In the case of the Peleset the main difference between the two ranges is that the Newline have a narrower headress, or reed helmet.

Don`t fancy yours much!  

Not only that, the Newline have some interesting vignette sets, such as the baggage cart, straight from the Stillman and Tallis WRG text illustration.  It is inspired by the Egyptian inscription of the fighting in 1177 BC, but there is something not quite right about it as a cart.  How do you get into it for a start!

The second vignette is the Slave trader.  I`m part way through painting this one up too.  Three slaves, a trader and a guard.  Very useful for the narrative type of games I`m planning.   

Almost everything we know about the Sea Peoples comes to us from the Egyptian inscriptions.   This is a double edged sword.  The inscriptions themselves have to be read in context, and often in cultural and religious context. 

From the Medine Habu reliefs

Broadly, according to the Egyptian texts, the Sea Peoples set up camp in Syria before proceeding down the coast of Canaan and into the Nile delta of Egypt.   They had "conquered all before them," but in Egypt they were faced with something new, a large and regular standing army. 

They were twice defeated—in 1207 and 1177 BC in the old chronology—by Merneptah and Rameses III.   According to the Egyptians the Sea peoples had left behind them a great trail of destruction, indeed the great civilizations of the day—the Hittites, the Mycenaeans, the Canaanites and the Cypriots all crumbled.

The Egyptians describe the Sea Peoples as nine separate groups:  the Peleset, Tjekker, Shekelesh, Shardana, Lukka, Teresh, Ekwesh, Danuna, and the Weshesh.   It is nearly impossible to ascertain who these groups were because we don’t know where they came from.  Actually, with one exception, we don`t  even know where they went!

The exception are the Peleset, the only group that has ever been positively identified, being generally accepted to be the biblical Philistines (who according to the Bible came from Crete)   

The discovery of a Philistine cemetery at Ashkelon in Israel seems to have settled the origins of the Peleset.  Aegean burial practices as well as pottery, radically different from the local Canaanite archaeology.  Professor Cline argues that Ramses settled the Philistines in their five cities after the battle of 1177 BC, and that the excavation of the Ashkelon cemetery can prove this.   

Continuing Egyptian influence in the hinterland of the Philistine pentapolis (I`m really pleased with "pentapolis" it's a word I intend to use in all conversation from now on) suggests a nominal claim on the land conquered by the Philistines.  They may well have been vassals guarding the imperial frontier.  Of course the Philistines quickly rose to a position of power in the region owing to their military superiority over the local population.  

The Osprey illustrations are a useful guide for painting these guys, but I`m still a little wary of the detail needed.  Those reed helmets for instance look great in an illustration but are difficult to paint.   Tackling this on the back of painting my 6mm ancients is probably a good thing.  So it`s fine brushes out, and the best acrylics I have.  30 foot, an ox cart and a Commander in his chariot may not sound a lot, but I really want to get this project right, so it`s taking some time... 

At this point those Egyptians seem as far away as ever!