The Ethnicity of the Sea Peoples - RePub - Erasmus Universiteit ...

sociated from that of Mls, a predecessor of the Lydian
king Kandaules (= the one murdered by the first ruler of
the Mermnads, Gyges) who ruled in the second half of the
8th century BC. 495 The Lydian nature of this name is further
emphasized by the attestation in an epichoric Lydian
inscription of Me1llali-, an adjectival derivative in -li- of
Me1l1a. 496
Given the relationship of the name Maleos to Lydian
Melas or Meles, the Tyrrheno-Pelasgian and Lydian traditions
about the inventor of the trumpet appear to be not
competitive in nature, but mere variants of one and the
same story. Evidently, this story must be assigned to the
period in which Lydia was not yet a landlocked power, as
in the time of the reign of king Kroisos (559-547 BC), 497
but still actively involved in maritime trade – with the Pontic
region as indicated by the Lydian supremacy over Abydos
and Daskyleion in the northern Troad recorded for the
reign of Gyges (687-649 BC), 498 and with on the one hand
Al Mina in North Syria in the southeast (via Smyrna) and
on the other hand the island of Pithecussae in the southwest
as indicated by archaeological and epigraphical evidence
from the late 8th century BC. 499
Anyhow, whatever the merits of the Tyrrheno-
Pelasgian or Lydian claims, one thing seems clear, namely
that the priority of the use of the trompet lies with the
Egyptians, as in the reliefs of Medinet Habu we see an
Egyptian trompeteer coordinating the movements of a contingent
of foreign (in casu Sherden and other Sea Peoples’)
mercenaries (see Fig. 22b)!
495 Radet 1892: 76-9; Pedley 1972: 14; cf. Briquel 1984: 267;
Briquel 1991: 332-3.
496 Gusmani 1964, s.v.; cf. Briquel 1991: 333, note 58. According
to Gusmani, loc. cit., Lydian Me1l1a (and hence the related Tyrrheno-Pelasgian
Maleos or Meleos [Briquel 1984: 268]) derives
from Luwian Mala- as in Malazitis, see Laroche 1966, s.v.
497 Herodotos, Histories I, 27; cf. Briquel 1991: 85.
498 Strabo, Geography 22, 1; Pedley 1972: 19; Briquel 1991: 82-3
and note 285.
499 Woudhuizen 1982-3: 99-100, Fig. 7a-c (distinct type of meander);
Woudhuizen 1992a: 155-7, Fig. 2 (inscription mi Maion).
106