The Sea Peoples: The Ancient Mystery That Stumped Historians For Centuries — And What Modern Science Finally Revealed About Who They Really Were

The Tjeker are one of the more enigmatic groups.

They appear in the Egyptian records associated with the events of Ramesses III’s reign, and they also appear in a remarkable Egyptian text known as the Report of Wenamun — a document from the later eleventh century BCE that describes an Egyptian official’s journey to Byblos on the Phoenician coast to purchase cedar wood.

In the Report of Wenamun, the Tjeker are depicted as a maritime people controlling the port of Dor (modern Tel Dor on the Israeli coast), collecting harbor fees and pursuing debtors — apparently a settled maritime community rather than raiders.

This suggests that the Tjeker, like the Philistines, may have settled in Canaan after the events of Ramesses III’s reign and established themselves as a local maritime power.