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

land. 562 More revealing is the archaeological evidence presented
by Roger Grosjean. He drew our attention to similarities
of the depictions of Sherden at Medinet with statuemenhirs
from southern Corsica, 563 depicting so-called
Torre-builders, who are identical with the Nuraghebuilders
from Sardinia. 564 These entail: (1) the helmet with
horns, the latter element of which can be reconstructed for
some statue-menhirs on the basis of shallow holes once
holding another material; 565 (2) the corselet with five ribbons;
566 and (3) the long sword (see Fig. 23). 567
(a)
(b)
Fig. 23. Statue-menhirs from Corsica: (a) Cauria (with horns reconstructed
on the helmets), (b) Scalsa Murta (from Grosjean
1966b, Fig. 5; Sandars 1980: 99, afb. 60).
The statue-menhirs in question are assigned on the
562 Donner & Röllig 1964: 63, nr. 46; cf. Dupont Sommer 1948 &
1974.
563 Grosjean 1966a: 70-1.
564 Grosjean 1966b: 194.
565 Grosjean 1966a: pls. 44-6.
566 Grosjean 1966a: pl. 46.
567 Grosjean 1966a: pls. 35-6; 40-1.
113
basis of C 14 datings to the period between 1400 and 1000
BC, with a margin of error of 200 years. 568 They give the
impression of a society of which the members are proud of
their martial qualities and hence excellently fit for service
as mercenaries, in which capacity we encountered the
Sherden in the Egyptian and Levantine sources.
Remaining archaeological evidence is of a circumstantial
nature. As shown by Birgitta Pålsson Hallager,
contacts between Sardinia and the eastern Mediterranean,
especially Crete, can be detected for the later Bronze Age
in the form of Mycenaean IIIB and C (including Late Helladic
IIIC1b) material discovered foremostly in the nuraghe
Antigori in the south of Sardinia, 569 and, as later
distinguished by Joseph Shaw, Italian or Sardinian pottery
from Late Minoan IIIA2-B contexts unearthed in Kommos,
a harbor town in southern Crete. 570 Particularly tantalizing
are the oxhide ingots with Cypro-Minoan signs from the
nuraghi Serra Ilixi and Sant’Antioco in Sardinia, which are
variously dated between the 15th and 11th century BC. 571
According to Guido, one of such Sardinian type of oxhide
ingot was found in Crete, where, in her words, it may belong
to the thirteenth-twelfth centuries BC. 572 As it seems,
then, Sardinia was a source of raw materials (copper) for
the international market (the Cypro-Minoan signs have
only meaningful use as markers for the handling of the oxhide
ingots in the eastern Mediterranean!). 573 Finally, it
deserves our attention that Sardinia constitutes a backward
area – note in this connection that a Bronze Age culture
lingered into the Roman period – , 574 comparable to a third
world country in our present era, which is likely to provide
the more developed eastern Mediterranean with mercenaries
and raw materials.
568 Grosjean 1966a: 90; cf. Grosjean 1966b: 190 (from c. 1500
BC onwards).
569 Pålsson Hallager 1985; Dothan & Dothan 1992: 214.
570 Shaw 1998: 15; cf. Vagnetti 2000: 317; 2001: 88 who is more
outspoken about the Sardinian nature of the dark burnished ware at
Kommos.
571 Guido 1963: 110; cf. Muhly, Maddin & Stech 1988: 283, who
consider the association of oxhide ingots with Mycenaean pottery
likely, even though it is not straightforwardly attested. Note, however,
that Buchholz 1999 : 222 variously dates the oxhide ingots
to the period of 1200 to 700 BC.
572 Guido 1963: 110-1; cf. Pålsson Hallager 1985: 304.
573 So also Buchholz 1999 : 229.
574 Guido 1963: 156.