Pirates of the Mediterranean – A View from the Bronze Age, In: N. Jaspert & S. Kolditz (eds.) Seeraub im Mittelmeerraum: Piraterie, Korsarentum und maritime Gewalt von der Antike bis zur Neuzeit. Padeborn: Verlag Wilhelm Fink, 2013, pp. 49-66. (original) (raw)


The difference between warfare and piracy, particularly when it comes to naval conflict in the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age Eastern Mediterranean, has been in need of theoretical attention for some time. While both terms are frequently used, the acts themselves remain imprecisely delineated. This paper endeavors to begin the process of exploring to just what degree that is possible.

[publisher's description] In Naval Warfare and Maritime Conflict in the Late Bronze and Early Iron Age Mediterranean, Jeffrey P. Emanuel examines the evidence for maritime violence in the Mediterranean region during both the Late Bronze Age and the tumultuous transition to the Early Iron Age in the years surrounding the turn of the 12th century BCE. There has traditionally been little differentiation between the methods of armed conflict engaged in during the Late Bronze and Early Iron Ages, on both the coasts and the open seas, while polities have been alternately characterized as legitimate martial actors and as state sponsors of piracy. By utilizing material, documentary, and iconographic evidence and delineating between the many forms of armed conflict, Emanuel provides an up-to-date assessment not only of the nature and frequency of warfare, raiding, piracy, and other forms of maritime conflict in the Late Bronze Age and Late Bronze-Early Iron Age transition, but also of the extent to which modern views about this activity remain the product of inference and speculation.

This paper surveys exchanges in the Bronze Age Mediterranean from the perspective of the seaports that served to transfer goods, in contrast to impressions derived primarily on the textual and/or artifactual record.

Since ancient times, it has been considered that the high point of Cilician piracy took place in the second half of the 2nd century BCE and the first half of the following. The main object of this paper is to demonstrate that the link between the Cilicians and the practice of piracy derives from earlier ages. Therefore, in the period that we have just defined, what we find is only an uncontrolled expansion of Cilician activities all over the Mediterranean Sea. The reason why this phenomenon did not happen before is that the highest powers in the area were well aware, over several centuries, of the warlike and maritime skills of the inhabitants of Cilicia, and tried to use them for their own profit. In order to do so, they enlisted them in their troops, thus taking advantage of their maritime expertise, and establishing a pattern of behaviour that would keep on happening during later historical periods. The main subject of this work is, therefore, to explain how the Eastern Mediterra...

Galaty, Michael L., William A. Parkinson, John F. Cherry, Eric Cline, P. Nick Kardulias, Robert Schon, Susan Sherratt, Helena Tomas and David Wengrow 2009 Interaction Amidst Diversity: An Introduction to the Eastern Mediterranean . In Ancient State Interaction: The Eastern Mediterranean Bronze Age, edited by W. A. Parkinson and M. L. Galaty, pp. 29-52. Santa Fe, NM: School for Advanced Research Press.

The appearance of the brailed rig and loose–footed sail at the end of the Late Bronze Age revolutionized seafaring in the eastern Mediterranean. The most famous early appearance of this new technology is found in history’s first visual representation of a naval battle, on the walls of Ramesses III’s mortuary temple at Medinet Habu. In this monumental combat scene, both Egyptian and Sea Peoples ships are depicted with this new rig, as well as top–mounted crow’s nests and decking upon which shipborne warriors do battle. The identical employment of these innovative components of maritime technology by opposing forces in this battle suggests either some level of previous contact between the invaders and those responsible for designing and constructing Egypt’s ships of war, or shared interaction with a third party, perhaps on the Syro–Canaanite coast. This article examines the evidence for the development of the brailed rig in the eastern Mediterranean, and explores the possibility that at least one group of Sea Peoples, who may have comprised a key part of the international economy of the Late Bronze Age in their role as “pirates, raiders, and traders” (Georgiou 2012: 527) – Artzy’s “nomads of the sea” (1997) – played a similarly integral role in the transference of maritime technology between the Levant, Egypt, and the Aegean.

Whilst numerous studies have focused on various aspects of the Late Bronze Age 'world system' (such as the exchange of objects, raw materials, animals and plants, specialist craftsmen and artists, and even diplomatic marriages), the role of the military in the exchange of technologies and ideas has remained remarkably understudied. By highlighting a number of artefacts that have been found throughout the eastern Mediterranean, this paper seeks to explore the role of the military and, especially, mercenaries as a conduit of knowledge and ideas in the Late Bronze Age eastern Mediterranean and beyond.