Tjeker

The Tjekker or Tjeker were one of the Sea Peoples and are known mainly from the Story of Wenamun. The name tkr/skl has been transliterated variously as Tjekru, Tjekker, skl, Sikil, Djekker, etc.^[1] and they are thought to be the people who developed the port of Dor during the 12th century BCE from a small Bronze Age town to a large city. They are also documented at Medinet Habu as raiders defeated by Pharaoh Ramesses III of Egypt in years 5, 8 and 12 of his reign.^[2]

1 Origin
2 Settlement at Dor
3 Mythology
4 Notes
5 References

Origin

The origins of Tjeker is uncertain. A possible linguistic connection has been suggested with the Teucri,^[3]^[4] a tribe described by ancient sources as inhabiting northwest Anatolia to the south of Troy.^[5] However, this has been dismissed as "pure speculation" by Trevor Bryce.^[6]

Settlement at Dor

The Tjeker conquered the city-state of Dor, on the coast of Canaan near modern Haifa, and turned it into a large, well-fortified city,^[7] the center of a Tjeker kingdom that is confirmed archaeologically in the northern Sharon plain; it was violently destroyed in the mid-11th century BCE, firing the mud bricks red and depositing a huge layer of ash and debris. Ephraim Stern^[8] connects the destruction with the contemporary expansion of the Phoenicians, which was checked by the Philistines further south and the Israelites. No mention of the Tjeker is made after that time, the period of archaeological and literary silence. The Tjeker are one of the few of the 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".

After two intermediate occupations, the earlier of which has yielded imported Cypriote ceramics as well as Phoenician wares^[9] and is followed by a well-stratified and important Phoenician presence^[10] in the early 10th century the site of Dor fell to the Israelites under David.

Mythology

An ethnic identity, the Tjeker must have formed during a long period of common residency, polity and language. The tradition offers basically two candidates for a homeland: Crete or the Greek mainland, especially Attica. There is no sign of them in Attica beyond the words of a few late mythographers. Cretan mythology is intertwined with their story.

Minoan archaeology would do very well as evidence except that it is not ethnic-specific. The Minoan language remains unknown. Cretan mythology is not tied to any one people. No Tjeker are mentioned in Linear B and possibilities in Linear A depend on the brand of partial "decipherment"; i.e., there is no real decipherment and therefore no reference to the Tjeker.

As a last resort the early scholars in the field turned to modern names; specifically, it was probably Flinders Petrie who proposed a linguistic relation to Zakro.^[11] On the one hand there is no evidence whatever to support the connection. On the other, nothing prevents such a speculation; in fact, a Minoan community and palace has been found at Zakro, the name has the right consonants, modern names do appear in Linear B (though not Zakro), and the eastern Crete location faces the Levant. Some modern scholars do accept the association.^[12]

Notes

^ Grabbe, Lester L. Israel in Transition T.& T.Clark Ltd (1 Aug 2008) ISBN 978-0-567-02726-9 p97 [1]
^ The campaigns are covered under Sea Peoples and are not repeated here.
^ Not to be confused with the Greek hero, Teucer, although he may have been named for the ethnic origins of his mother, a woman of the Troad.
^ 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.
^ Sandars Page 170, "The Tjeker."
^ Bryce, Trevor R.The Kingdom of the Hittites. Oxford University Press, 1998 & 2005. ISBN 978-0-19-924010-4 p.339 [2]
^ Dor XII, c. 1150-1050)
^ Page 31.
^ Dor XI-X
^ Dor IX
^ James Baiki mentioned it on p. 166 of his book, The Sea-Kings of Crete, 2nd edition, Adam and Charles Black, London, 1913, available on-line.
^ Redford, p. 252.

References

Redford, Donald B. (1992). Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times. Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press. ISBN 0-691-03606-3.
Sandars, N.K. (1987). The Sea Peoples: Warriors of the ancient Mediterranean, Revised Edition. London: Thames and Hudson. ISBN 0-500-27387-1.
Ephraim Stern "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 (August 1990), pp. 27–34.
Woudhuizen, Frederik Christiaan (1992). The Language of the Sea Peoples. Amsterdam: Najade Press. ISBN 90-73835-02-X.
Woudhuizen, Frederik Christian. April 2006. The Ethnicity of the Sea Peoples. Doctoral dissertation; Rotterdam: Erasmus Universiteit Rotterdam, Faculteit der Wijsbegeerte.