Video essay·Wanax TV·2026
Who were the Denyen? (Sea Peoples and Late Bronze Age Collapse)
This video covers more than Cyprus. The description below concentrates on its Cypriot parts, the first of which begins at 12:30.
Chapters
About the video
In this livestreamed episode, the presenter of Wanax TV examines the Denyen, one of the Sea Peoples recorded in Egyptian inscriptions during the Late Bronze Age collapse. The video surveys the campaigns against Merneptah and Ramesses III, reads three Egyptian texts naming the Denyen (the Medinet Habu inscriptions, Papyrus Harris I, and the Onomasticon of Amenemope), and weighs three identifications: Mycenaean Greeks (Danaoi), the kingdom of Danuna in Cilicia, and the biblical tribe of Dan.
Cyprus enters the discussion several times as the kingdom of Alashiya. In the campaign of c. 1175 BC under Ramesses III, the coalition of Peleset, Tjeker, Shekelesh, Denyen, and Weshesh is recorded as destroying Alashiya along with the Hittite Empire and Ugarit. Replying to live-chat comments, the presenter argues that Greeks took part in the Sea Peoples' raids because Mycenaean and then Submycenaean pottery appears on Cyprus immediately after Alashiya's destruction, followed by the Greek city-kingdoms. Against a viewer who places Alashiya in northern Syria, he defends its identification with Cyprus through Linear B, Hittite, and Ugaritic texts and the island's copper trade with Egypt.
Discussing Papyrus Harris I, where Ramesses III claims to have slain the Denyen "in their isles", the presenter suggests that Egypt may have raided Cyprus after Greeks had taken control there, and he cites the final letters between King Ammurapi of Ugarit and the king of Alashiya.
From our collection
Pieces in the Drakopoulos collection of the kinds and periods this talk covers: Mycenaean pottery, Late Cypriot (Late Bronze Age), Cypro-Geometric.
Cypriot Three-Handled Jar in the Mycenaean Style with Running Spirals
Mycenaean pottery
White Painted Plate with a Sawtooth Star on the Underside
Cypro-Geometric
White Painted Plate with Latticed Triangles and Wavy Lines on the Underside
Cypro-Geometric
Large White Painted Plate with Knobbed Handles and a Four-Armed Cross on the Underside
Cypro-Geometric
White Painted Amphoriskos on a Conical Foot
Cypro-Geometric
Bichrome Barrel Jug with Circled End-Knobs
Cypro-Geometric
White Slip II Hemispherical Bowl with Wishbone Handle
Late Cypriot (Late Bronze Age)
Base Ring II Bilbil Juglet with White-Painted Bands
Late Cypriot (Late Bronze Age)
Background
Where to read more on this site before or after watching.
In the compendium
Iron Age Cities and Palaces
The capitals of the Iron Age kingdoms of Cyprus, their palaces at Vouni, Amathus, Idalion and Palaepaphos, their houses, and the volute and Hathor capitals of the period.
In the compendium
Egypt
Ancient Egypt, Cyprus's partner in copper, pottery and prestige goods from the Middle Kingdom to the Ptolemies, who annexed the island.
In the compendium
Hittite Empire and Cyprus
The Late Bronze Age Anatolian empire that claimed Alashiya as a tributary but left almost no material trace on Cyprus.
The period
Late Bronze Age
The Late Cypriot period, c. 1650–1050 BCE, when copper exports made Cyprus an urban, literate trading power before the crisis around 1200 BCE.