Ancient Pirates: Sea Peoples Land Battle wit the Eyptians - "Medinet Habu Temple"

The land battle scenes give the observer some sense of the Sea Peoples’ military organization. According to the artistic representations, the Philistine warriors were each armed with a pair of long spears, and their infantry was divided into small groups consisting of four men each. Three of those men carried long, straight swords and spears, while the fourth man only carried a sword. The relief depicting the land battle is a massive jumble of figures and very chaotic in appearance, but this was probably a stylistic convention employed by the Egyptians to convey a sense of chaos. Other evidence suggests that the Sea Peoples had a high level of organization and military strategy.

A striking feature of the land battle scene is the imagery of ox-pulled carts carrying women and children in the midst of a battle. These carts seem to represent a people on the move.


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Ancient Pirates: Sea People and battle with the Egyptians - "Medinet Habu Temple"

 

The battle between the Sea Peoples and the Egyptians (Medinet Habu)

From the textual evidence on the temple walls, it appears that the Peleset and the Tjeker made up the majority of the Sea Peoples involved in the year 8 invasion.  In the artistic depictions, both types are depicted wearing a fillet (a ribbon used as a headband), from which protrudes a floppy plume and a protective piece down the nape of the neck. 

Their armament included long swords, spears and circular shields, and they are occasionally shown wearing body armor.  Other groups, such as the Shekelesh and Teresh, are shown wearing cloth headdresses and a medallion upon their breasts. The weaponry that they carried consisted of two spears and a simple round shield.  The Shardana soldiers are most obviously armored in the artistic depictions, due to the thick horned helmets that adorn their heads.

The land battle and sea battle scenes provide a wealth of information on the military styles of the Sea Peoples. The reliefs depicting the land battle show Egyptian troops, chariots and auxiliaries fighting the enemy, who also used chariots, very similar in design to Egyptian chariots.  Although the chariots used by the Sea Peoples are very similar to those used by the Egyptians, both being pulled by two horses and using wheels with six spokes, the Sea Peoples had three soldiers per chariot, whereas the Egyptians only had one, or occasionally two. 


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Ancient Pirates:Who were the sea peoples?

The "Sea Peoples", who we are told of on reliefs at Medinet Habu and Karnak, as well as from the text of the Great Harris Papyrus (now in the British Museum), are said to be a "loose confederation" of people originating in the eastern Mediterranean. From their individual names, we believe that they may specifically have come from the Aegean and Asia Minor. However, regardless of their organization as a "loose confederation", they did manage to invade Egypt's northern coast and apparently mounted campaigns against the Egyptians on more than one occasion. 

When the fleets of the Sea Peoples and the Egyptians clashed in the epic battle at Medinet Habu about 1178 BC., the two adversaries both relied on ships with a revolutionary feature: loose-footed rigging that allowed the vessel to tack into the wind and to maneuver even in poor wind conditions. Both ships also feature a crow’s nest, a perch at the very top of the mast in which a sailor could position himself and act as a lookout for approaching enemy ships.

Sea Peoples Warship
Battle of the Delta, 1178 BC
Medinet Habu
Mortuary Temple of Ramesses III
Luxor, Egypt

DIONYSOS & THE TYRRHENIAN PIRATES

Dionysos, depicted as a youth in bright blue robe, drives the Tyrrhenian pirates from the ship with an illusion of wild beasts. The men are shown swimming in the sea, partially transformed into dolphins.

Ancient Pirates

Ancient pirates escape with loot and slaves in tow in this illustration.

Corbis Images

Given the number of small islands to hide either in wait for an ambush or after a successful expedition, the Aegean and Mediterranean seas made the perfect incubators for the earliest pirates. The word pirate can be traced back to the Greek word "peiran," meaning "to attack, make a hostile attempt on, try,"

In other words, from its inception, piracy has been equated with daring.

Pirates were so successful during these days that it evolved into an occupation around which formed a community that passed on from generation to generation. Known collectively as "Sea Peoples," given that pirates were typically organized groups of people from diverse backgrounds, these pirates typically targeted vessels belonging to the dominant naval power at the time: Egypt. Some of the earliest historical references to piracy come from Egyptian tablets.

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Pirates: Mediterranean

It may be reasonable to assume that piracy has existed for as long as the oceans were plied for commerce

The earliest documented instances of piracy are the exploits of the Sea Peoples who threatened the Aegean and Mediterranean in the 14th century BC. In classical antiquity, the Illyrians and Tyrrhenians were known as pirates, as well as Greeks and Romans. During their voyages the Phoenicians seem to have sometimes resorted to piracy, and specialized in kidnapping boys and girls to be sold as slaves.

In the 3rd century BC, pirate attacks on Olympos (city in Anatolia) brought impoverishment. Among some of the most famous ancient pirateering peoples were the Illyrians, populating the western Balkan peninsula. Constantly raiding the Adriatic Sea, the Illyrians caused many conflicts with the Roman Republic. It was not until 168 BC when the Romans finally conquered Illyria and made it a province that their threat was ended.

Romanized Liburna during Trajan's Dacian Wars.

During the 1st century BC, there were pirate states along the Anatolian coast, threatening the commerce of the Roman Empire in the eastern Mediterranean. On one voyage across the Aegean Sea in 75 BC,[9] Julius Caesar was kidnapped and briefly held by Cilician pirates and held prisoner in the Dodecanese islet of Pharmacusa. The Senate finally invested with powers to deal with piracy in 67 BC (the Lex Gabinia), and Pompey after three months of naval warfare managed to suppress the threat.

As early as 258 AD, the Gothic-Herulic fleet ravaged towns on the coasts of the Black Sea and Sea of Marmara. The Aegean coast suffered similar attacks a few years later. In 264, the Goths reached Galatia and Cappadocia, and Gothic pirates landed on Cyprus and Crete. In the process, the Goths seized enormous booty and took thousands into captivity. In 286 AD, Carausius, a Roman military commander of Gaulish origins, was appointed to command the Classis Britannica, and given the responsibility of eliminating Frankish and Saxon pirates who had been raiding the coasts of Armorica and Belgic Gaul. In the Roman province of Britannia, Saint Patrick was captured and enslaved by Irish pirates.

Pirates: Ancient Egyptian

Although pockets of civilization inhabited the continents of Africa, Asia, Europe, and the Americas long before, great cities of the ancient world emerged about five millennia ago and merchants in one urban center established trading links in another. When the first pirate attack occurred remains a mystery, but surviving historical records pinpoint these sea raiders in the Mediterranean. Ancient Egyptian and Minoan writings include tales of their raids at sea and on land. The earliest recorded incident – inscribed on a clay tablet while Akhenaton, an Egyptian pharaoh, reigned – depicts pirates attacking a ship in 1350 BCE. Another early account provides details of Ramses III’s attack against the Sea Peoples, whom the Egyptians called the Nine Bows, in 1190 BCE. Their raids on the Nile Delta were so devastating the land no longer sustained life. The bloody battle between Ramses’ forces and the Nine Bows involved archers and hand-to-hand combat, but the latter were eventually defeated. An inscription at Medinet Habu, the pharaoh’s mortuary temple at Thebes, records this battle and shows the Nine Bows’ vessels with prows shaped like birds’ heads and sails rather than oars.

Scholars trace the origins of “pirate” to the Ancient Greeks, who first incorporated it into their language around 140 BCE. Peirato referred not to the sea robbers we associate with “piracy,” but to mercenaries who allied themselves with one political faction or city state against another faction or city state. These fighting men were led by an archipirata (sometimes translated as archpirate, but meant “pirate captain”). For example, Plutarch wrote around CE 100:

The power of the pirates [peiratiki] had its seat in Cilicia . . . until they no longer attacked navigators only, but also laid waste islands and maritime cities. And presently men whose wealth gave them power, and whose lineage was illustrious, and those who laid claim to superior intelligence, began to embark on piratical [peiratike] craft and share their enterprises, feeling that the occupation brought them a certain reputation and distinction . . . Their flutes and stringed instruments and drinking bouts along every coast, their seizures of persons in high command, and their ransoming of captured cities, were a disgrace to the Roman supremacy.” (Rubin, 8-9)

Plutarch, however, lived during Rome’s supremacy, and, while his view conformed to that of an earlier age, the Romans saw these “pirates” as enemies because they endangered the Roman State and the senate declared “war against the Pirates.” Even so, the Latin meaning of “pirate” still differs from our concept of the word, for they deemed the pirates “enemies” rather than “outlaws.”

Piracy On High Seas At Lowest Level In 6 Years, Report Says

Troops from the EU Naval Force warship FS Aconit intercepting a group of suspected pirates off Somalia in March 2012. Multinational naval patrols in the area have been partly credited with reducing incidents of piracy.

In November, the United Nations and World Bank issued a report saying that pirates operating off the Horn of Africa had The most famous incident there, the seizure of the MV Maersk Alabama, occurred in 2009. The capture of the container ship inspired the film , starring Tom Hanks.

Piracy at sea has hit a six-year low, thanks largely to a steep drop in attacks by Somali pirates operating in the Indian Ocean, according to a

The maritime watchdog says there were 264 strikes against shipping worldwide last year — a drop of 40 percent since attacks peaked in 2011. And there were just 15 attacks off the coast of Somalia; by comparison, that same area saw 75 attacks in 2012 and 237 the year before.

"The single biggest reason for the drop in worldwide piracy is the decrease in Somali piracy off the coast of East Africa," Pottengal Mukundan, IMB's director, said in a statement.

The report credits "a combination of factors, including the key role of international navies, the hardening of vessels, the use of private armed security teams, and the stabilizing influence of Somalia's central government" for the decrease.

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Oil Soaked Pirates in Gulf of Guinea

In the early hours of 18 January 2014 a 75,000-ton tanker, the MT Kerala, vanished off the coast of Angola. A sophisticated pirate gang hijacked the Greek-owned vessel, disabling its identifications system and communication equipment, and painting over its identifying markers.

More than a week later and 1,300 miles away, the hijackers released Kerala off the coast of Nigeria, after offloading 12,270 tons of its diesel cargo to other ships.

The Kerala hijacking marks the southernmost expansion of Nigeria’s pirate gangs, but represents only one subset of piracy in the Gulf of Guinea. The waters of Gabon and Equatorial Guinea each suffered pirate attacks in the first week of 2014.

Off Nigeria—the epicenter of western Africa piracy—there have been at least 12 attacks against various types of vessels this year, resulting in multiple kidnappings. Within the swampy maze of the Niger Delta, militants-cum-pirates have robbed passenger vessels, kidnapped oil workers and ambushed security-force patrols.

This level of organized piracy—as distinguished from opportunistic robberies against berthed and anchored vessels—can be sorted into two different categories: tanker hijackings for product theft and maritime kidnapping for ransom.

Both forms are intertwined with the regional oil industry, but their distinct perpetrators, targets, and trend lines warrant separate looks. First, tanker hijackings.

 In Search of Black Gold

Tanker hijackings aimed at large-scale cargo theft first appeared off Benin in December 2010 and spread to the waters of Nigeria, Togo, Côte d’Ivoire, Gabon, and Angola in subsequent years. This western Nigeria-based criminal enterprise is highly organized and intelligence driven, allegedly with the involvement of high-powered political, business, and military patrons. As an suspected hijacker captured near Lagos explained:

“We do not work in isolation. We have a network of ministries’ workers. What they do is to give us information on the location and content of the vessels to be hijacked. Once we complete the assignment, we would inform the pointsmen who thereafter, contact the cabal that takes charge of the hijacked vessels. We usually meet at a designated point on the high sea, from where they would offload the contents from the hijacked vessels and thereafter, deposit them in various oil facilities for distribution by oil marketers.”

The pirates who hijacked Kerala targeted the ship based on foreknowledge of its cargo, location and intended movements. Using a stolen tugboat as a “mother ship,” the hijackers made a multiday voyage all the way to a Luanda anchorage and then selected their target from some 30 other vessels in the area.

After hijacking the ship, the pirates sailed towards the Republic of Congo where they made their first sale of stolen diesel. The hijackers later made two more ship-to-ship transfers off the southwest coast of Nigeria before abandoning Kerala on 26 January.

If the pirates sold the diesel for half of its $10 million market price, they and their sponsors netted some $5 million in an operation that lasted just over a week.

The geographic scope of this particular crime demonstrates the expansive multinational network of informants and buyers hijack syndicates employ. While the leadership of the gangs is Nigerian, they are thought to recruit regionally, as indicated by the testimony of captured pirates and reports of pirates speaking both English and French during attacks.

A Product of the Environment

Nigeria produces some 2 million barrels of oil per day, but has the capacity to refine less than a fifth of that. Crude oil is exported to foreign refineries and then brought back into Nigeria and sold at government subsidized rates—a process that provides ample opportunity for corruption, theft, and piracy of all sorts.

The pirates’ hunting ground—the dense backlog of tankers waiting at anchorage across the region—is a product of this peculiar market. So too is the pervasive acceptance of black market petroleum—be it from illegal refineries in the Niger Delta, or illicit ship-to-ship transfers—that enables stolen cargos to be so quickly flipped.

The fact that MT Itri, a tanker hijacked by pirates off Abidjan, Côte d’Ivoire, in January 2013, was detained a year later for allegedly receiving stolen fuel from Kerala reveals how deeply intertwined piracy is with the West African petroleum black market.

Feeling the Effects

Financial losses from tanker hijackings have been borne by regional states and the maritime and petroleum industries. Port authorities in Benin reported a 70 percent drop in maritime traffic after pirates snatched a dozen tankers from the country’s waters in 2010 and 2011. Underwriters from the Joint War Committee now include the littorals of Nigeria, Benin and Togo as high-risk areas where additional insurance premiums apply. Fears that Luanda might suffer a similar fate may have motivated the Angolan Navy to make an unsubstantiated claim Kerala’s crew had faked their pirate attack.

The Norwegian Maritime Authority has advised its members to implement the same anti-piracy security measures—such as vessel hardening, extra watch posts, and crew drilling—in Angolan waters that are mandatory off Nigeria, Benin, and Togo. Intertanko, the tanker industry’s leading trade association, has meanwhile revised its piracy clause to allow ship owners to wait further offshore from customary anchorages deemed unsafe, with the additional cost passed on to the charter company.

A Downward Trend

Heightened naval patrols and vessel security measures appear to be showing some success, as both the number of tanker attacks and successful hijackings have declined from a 2011 high. Prior to the taking of Kerala, there had not been a successful tanker hijacking reported in the Gulf of Guinea for over five months.

 Cargo theft syndicates are narrowly selective, targeting tankers fully laden with refined product at a handful of dense anchorages. As a response, regional states have concentrated limited naval resources to implement safe zones around pirate-prone anchorages off Cotonou, Benin, Lomé, Togo, and most recently, Lagos, Nigeria.

While maritime security has traditional been a low priority for West African armed forces, the spread of Nigerian piracy and its associated economic losses have prompted a flurry of regional naval acquisitions and international training and assistance programs. There was an increase in naval interventions in pirate attacks in 2013, with Nigerian, Togolese and visiting French naval forces all intercepting would-be tanker hijackings.

Vessel security and situational awareness has also improved as revised best management practices—such as the employment of local armed security, extra watch duty and the use of “citadel” safe rooms—become more widely applied.

Furthermore, there is evidence to suggest that the lucrative gains from tanker hijackings have inspired less organized and effective hijackers. There were at least two occasions in 2013 where pirates boarded tankers only to find that they were at ballast, indicating a lack of cargo intelligence. On Jan. 1, 2014, pirates boarded a gas carrier 55 nautical miles off Gabon, but, in an uncharacteristic move, retreated as soon as the crew raised an alarm. Opportunistic pirates, rather than organized criminal syndicates, are now responsible for 20 percent of tanker attacks, according to Nigerian sources reporting to regional security expert Dirk Steffen.

The Strategic Horizon

Naval patrols and vessel vigilance has partially succeeded in pushing tanker hijackers away from their old hunting grounds in the waters west of Lagos. The syndicates, it would appear, are conducting fewer, but more specifically focused, attacks against high-value targets off anchorages where piracy is not anticipated.

Given the infancy of the oil industry in the western Gulf of Guinea, the pirate gangs are likely to continue their trajectory towards the anchorages of established oil producing and refining states further south, threatening tankers off Gabon, Republic of Congo, and Angola. Opportunistic hijackers, meanwhile, will remain a risk for vessels operating close to shore off Togo, Benin, and western Nigeria.

West and Central African states are making incremental steps towards regional maritime security coordination, but information-sharing, maritime domain awareness, and long-range interdiction capacity remain problematic.

While partners such as the United States and European Union have increased training and assistance support, there is no current indication that international naval operations will be mounted in the Gulf of Guinea similar to the Gulf of Aden. Foreign armed guards aren’t an importable panacea, as only local security forces are permitted in the territorial waters of West African states.

The Gulf of Guinea is not the Horn of Africa and tanker hijackings are not occurring in a vacuum. Rather these pirates are an offshore manifestation of oil sector criminality and cogs in a regional illicit fuel market.

A long-term solution to West African piracy requires oil sector transparency and anti-corruption reform, increased refinery capacity in Nigeria and a cooperative maritime security regime that spans the region.

With no end in sight, the targets of these attacks must adapt to an ever-evolving threat. As Kerala discovered, these pirates will strike when least expected and where help is a world away.


 
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