Ugarit provides us with the clearest picture of what was happening in
the Near East during the Amarna Age. The community might be called Semitic,
because the official local language (Ugaritic) is clearly Semitic. However,
there was an influential Aegean enclave there, attested by Cypro-Minoan texts,
Mycenaean art objects, and the presence of a Caphtorian god in the Ugaritic
pantheon. Hittites, Hurrians, Alashiyans and other segments of the community
are mentioned in the tablets. Assyrian and Egyptian enclaves are recorded side
by side, though Ugarit certainly did not belong to either the Assyrian or
Egyptian kings. While King Niqmad II of Ugarit paid tribute to the Hittite sovereign
(Suppiluliuma [Ruled about 1380-1346 B.C.]), Ugarit was a member of the Hittite
defensive alliance, rather than a conquered territory. The fact that Assyrian
and Egyptian enclaves flourished at Ugarit shows that Ugarit enjoyed enough
freedom to have peaceful relations with all nations, near and far. What we see
at Ugarit is the interpenetration of commercial empires. At that important
city, at the crossroads of east-west and north-south traffic, representatives
of the Aegean, Hittite, Hurrian, Mesopotamian, Canaanite, Egyptian and other
populations met to conduct their affairs in an international order. (Cyrus H.
Gordon, The Common Background of Greek and Hebrew Civilizations [2d ed.;
New York: W. W. Norton & Company Inc., 1965], 30)
Mercenaries were quite common. David and his successors used
Cherethite3 and Pelethite troops for generations. Indeed, such Philistine and
similar mercenaries, of Aegean origin, did much to spread " Caphtorian
" culture in Palestine and throughout the Levantine coast. The great
empires also used mercenaries. It is unnecessary to enumerate the evidence for
the employment of mercenaries by Egypt, Assyria, Babylonia, the Medes and
Persians, etc. It is clear that war brought about cultural interchange not only
through invasion and conquest, but also by the importation of mercenaries. Let
us not forget that, from Egypt to Iran, Greeks (as well as earlier Aegean
peoples) were renowned as mercenaries. Jews were also mercenaries in
communities like Elephantine. (Ibid., 39-40)
“Caphtor” is the land whence the Philistines came to Palestine. Here we
use the term “Caphtorian” to designate Aegean culture broadly. (Ibid., 40 n. 1)
