Ramesses II’s bodyguard apparently included Shardana warriors, depicted in Egyptian art with their distinctive round shields and horned helmets.

This long prior relationship with Egypt distinguishes the Shardana from some other Sea Peoples groups, suggesting that they were not simply an undifferentiated part of a single catastrophic wave but a group with a more complex, extended relationship with the Egyptian world.

Where the Shardana came from originally is uncertain.

The horned helmets depicted in Egyptian art resemble some Aegean and Anatolian warrior equipment but are not obviously identical to any known type.

The proposed identification with Sardinia (which, in Latin, was Sardinia, and in Greek, Sardō) rests primarily on phonetic similarity and is not confirmed by archaeological or genetic evidence from the island.