The inscriptions of Ramesses III at his Medinet Habu
mortuary temple in Thebes record three victorious campaigns against the Sea
Peoples considered bona fide, in Years 5, 8 and 12. These campaigns were fought against the Nine
Bows, a traditional Egyptian epithet for the enemy. The inscription states that this arose from a"conspiracy
in their isles."
(interestingly for wargames the campaigns considered
spurious are against the Nubians and Libyans in Year 5 and the Libyans with
Asiatics in Year 11)
The inscriptions reveal that following the battle several
chiefs were captured: of Hatti, Amor and Shasu among the "land
peoples" and the Tjeker, "Sherden of the sea", "Teresh of
the sea" and Peleset.
Leaving aside for the moment that this mentions the Hittites,
the land peoples are nomads, Amorites and Shasu.
The Bedouin nomads Stillman and Tallis call "Donkey
Peoples" were nomadic pastoralists, perhaps better classified as cattle
nomads. Far from being at the fringes of
Near East society they were raiders and travellers across Canaan, following an
ancient way of life.
Having visited Israel I
was struck by the differences in the terrain and more importantly the climactic
zones. The shadow of the mountains pushed
up by the rift that forms the Jordan valley has the effect of creating a shadow
to the east, where rainfall becomes negligible.
The difference is quite startling, only a few kilometres from Jerusalem
the landscape changes to desert. The
shacks of what the guide called "nomadic" people, (and she called
them Bedouin as well) began soon into this zone.
I was sceptical, since these modern "nomadic people"
all seemed to have TV aerials.
One of the contingents for my Bronze age army is a warband
of nomads; they could reasonably be
identified as Shaasu or Amorite, or even as one of the other many tribal groups
from the area. It has been postulated that these nomads later
became the Israelites. and indeed one of the tribes is called the Shaasu of Yahweh. (The
Patriarch Abraham is identified as Amorite)
It should be noted however that different bands would follow different
gods. My plan to model portable shrines
and golden calf type gods is still on track!
I will admit that I used two types of figure for my
Shaasu. The first is Shassu Bedouin
(Desert Nomads) - CSM009, the second Sea
People with Swept Back Hair (Sheklesh) - SEA016. Even a cursory look at these figures shows
that they are very very similar, although the Sheklesh wear the Canaanite style
kilt and are shielded. My nomads then can
field a warband of warriors and a group of skirmishers, as well as a Chief.
A
small but promising force.
The remainder of my painting this week...
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| A warband of Sherden |
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| More skirmishers and civilians for the Canaanites |
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| The Group shot |
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