Tjeker

{{Short description|Poorly understood ancient Mediterranean group}} {{infobox ethnic group | group = Tjeker | native_name = {{center|<hiero>G47-Z1*k:G1-r-Z1-T14*A1*Z3:N25</hiero>}}<br/>''Ṯ3k3r''<ref>Frederik Christiaan Woudhuizen: ''A Historiographic Outline.'' In: Frederik Christiaan Woudhuizen: ''The Ethnicity of the Sea Peoples.'' = ''The ethnicity of the sea peoples''. 35–42, here P. 36, (ref: Dissertation, Erasmus Universiteit, Rotterdam 2006; [https://www.yumpu.com/en/document/view/15569339/the-ethnicity-of-the-sea-peoples-repub-erasmus-universiteit-/36 Digitalisat]).</ref><br/>''Tjeker''<br/>''Checker'' | native_name_lang = Ancient Egyptian | image = Pulasti (Philistine) and Tsakkaras (painting).png | caption = The Tjeker and Peleset battling the troops of Ramesses III during the Battle of Djahy}}

The '''Tjeker''' or '''Tjekker''' (Egyptian: ''ṯꜣkꜣr'' or ''ṯꜣkkꜣr'') were one of the Sea Peoples during the end of the Late Bronze Age and early Iron Age.

==Origin== As with other Sea Peoples, the origins of the Tjeker are uncertain. Their name is an Egyptian exonym, usually romanized as ''tkr'', and expanded as ''Tjekru'' or ''Djekker''. As such there is no consensus on the original form or etymology of the name, or the origin of the people. They have sometimes been identified with the Sicels of Sicily, who are also linked to ''Shekelesh'': another exonym attributed to a different group amongst the Sea Peoples. Another theory, put forward by Flinders Petrie, links the ethnonym to Zakros, in eastern Crete.<ref>James Baikie mentioned it on pp. 166, 187 of his book ''[https://archive.org/details/theseakingsofcre19328gut The Sea-Kings of Crete]'', 2nd edition (Adam and Charles Black, London, 1913).</ref> Some other scholars have accepted the association.<ref>Redford, p. 252.</ref> A possible identity has been suggested with the Teucri, a tribe described by ancient sources as inhabiting northwest Anatolia to the south of Troy.<ref>The identification of Tjeker and Greek Teukroi, Latinized to ''Teucri'', was first made by Lauth in 1867, and was repeated by François Chabas in his ''Études sur l’Antiquité Historique d’après les sources égyptiennes et les monuments réputés préhistoriques'' of 1872, according to the Woudhuizen dissertation.</ref><ref>Sandars Page 170, "The Tjeker."</ref><ref>{{Cite web |title=Death from the Waves - the Sea People |url=https://www.gordondoherty.co.uk/writeblog/death-from-the-waves-the-sea-people |access-date=2025-03-10 |website=GORDON DOHERTY, AUTHOR |language=en}}</ref> However, this has been dismissed as "pure speculation" by Trevor Bryce.<ref>Bryce, Trevor R.''The Kingdom of the Hittites.'' Oxford University Press, 1998 & 2005. {{ISBN|978-0-19-924010-4}} p.339 [https://books.google.com/books?id=ySQz9MW1Q0AC&dq=Tjekker+Teucri&pg=PA338]</ref>

==History== ===Late Bronze Age=== During the early 20th Dynasty of Egypt, Ramesses III (c. 1190 BCE) defeated the Sea Peoples including the Tjeker in Year 5, Year 8 and Year 12 as depicted at his Mortuary Temple at Medinet Habu.<ref>The campaigns are covered under Sea Peoples and are not repeated here.</ref> One scene shows the Tjeker and Peleset battling the troops of Ramesses III during the Battle of Djahy.

===Iron Age=== During the late 20th Dynasty of Egypt, under Ramesses XI (c. 1100 BCE), the Tjeker and its prince Beder are mentioned in the Story of Wenamun. They are thought to be the people who developed the port of Dor in Canaan during the 12th century BCE from a small Bronze Age town to a large city.

====Settlement at Dor==== The Tjeker may have conquered the city Dor, on the coast of Canaan near modern Haifa, and turned it into a large, well-fortified city (classified as "Dor XII", fl. c. 1150–1050), the center of a Tjeker kingdom that is confirmed archaeologically in the northern Sharon plain. The city was violently destroyed in the mid-11th century BCE, with the conflagration turning the mud bricks red and depositing a huge layer of ash and debris. Ephraim Stern<ref>Page 31</ref> connects the destruction with the contemporary expansion of the Phoenicians, which was checked by the Philistines further south and the Israelites.

The Tjeker are perhaps one of the few Sea Peoples for whom a ruler's name is recorded — in the 11th-century papyrus account of Wenamun, an Egyptian priest, the ruler of Dor is given as "Beder".

According to Edward Lipinski,<ref>Page 96</ref> the Sicals (Tjekker) of Dor were seamen or mercenaries, and ''b3-dỉ-r'' (Beder) was the title of the local governor, a deputy of the king of Tyre.

No mention of the Tjeker is made after the story of Wenamun.

==Notes==  {{Reflist|2}}

==References== *{{cite book | author= Lipiński, Edward | authorlink= Edward Lipinski (orientalist) | year=2006 | title=On the Skirts of Canaan in the Iron Age: Historical and Topographical Researches | url=https://books.google.com/books?id=837DDbYsxAoC&pg=PA96 | accessdate=1 May 2013 | publisher=Peeters Publishers | isbn=978-90-429-1798-9 | pages=96–}} *{{cite book | author=Redford, Donald B. | authorlink=Donald B. Redford | year=1992 | title=Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times | publisher=Princeton University Press | location=Princeton, New Jersey | isbn=0-691-03606-3 | url-access=registration | url=https://archive.org/details/egyptcanaanisrae00redf }} *{{cite book | author= Sandars, N.K. | authorlink1= Nancy Sandars | year= 1987 | title= The Sea Peoples: Warriors of the ancient Mediterranean, Revised Edition | publisher= Thames and Hudson | location= London | isbn= 0-500-27387-1 | url-access= registration | url= https://archive.org/details/seapeopleswarrio00sand }} * Stern, Ephraim (August 1990). "New Evidence from Dor for the First Appearance of the Phoenicians along the Northern Coast of Israel" ''Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research'' No. 279, pp. 27–34. *{{cite book | author=Woudhuizen, Frederik Christiaan | year=1992 | title=The Language of the Sea Peoples | location=Amsterdam | publisher=Najade Press | isbn=90-73835-02-X}} * Woudhuizen, Frederik Christiaan (April 2006). ''[http://hdl.handle.net/1765/7686 The Ethnicity of the Sea Peoples]''. Doctoral dissertation; Rotterdam: Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam, Faculteit der Wijsbegeerte.

Category:Sea Peoples Category:Asia in Greek mythology