Mysterious NURAGHE civilisation Second part
229Mysterious NURAGHE civilisation Second part
The Sherden (Egyptian: šrdn, šꜣrdꜣnꜣ or šꜣrdynꜣ, Ugaritic: šrdnn(m) and trtn(m), possibly Akkadian: še–er–ta–an–nu; also glossed “Shardana” or “Sherdanu”) are one of the several ethnic groups the Sea Peoples were said to be composed of, appearing in fragmentary historical and iconographic records (ancient Egyptian and Ugaritic) from the eastern Mediterranean in the late 2nd millennium BC. The earliest known mention of the people called Srdn-w, more usually called Sherden or Shardana, is generally thought to be the Akkadian reference to the "še–er–ta–an–nu" in the Amarna Letters correspondence from Rib-Hadda, mayor (hazannu) of Byblos. No mention of the Sherden has ever been found in Hittite or Greek legends or documents, suggesting that they did not originate from either sphere of influence. Some, who see etymological connections in the similarities between "Sherden" and "Sardinians", "Shekelesh" and "Sicilians", and "Trs-w" (Teresh or Tursci) and "Etruscans", suggested that these people came from the western Mediterranean. The theory that postulates a migration of peoples from the Eastern Mediterranean to Sardinia during the Late Bronze Age was firmly rejected by Italian archaeologists like Massimo Pallottino and more recently Giovanni Ugas, who instead identifies the Sherden with the indigenous Sardinian Nuragic civilization