The Disruption of Labor Mobility: A Socioeconomic Hypothesis on the Origin of the Sea Peoples.

 After reading 1177 BC: The Year Civilization Collapsed, by Eric H. Cline, I have spent some time reflecting on the causes and dynamics of the Bronze Age collapse. Based on those readings and my own analysis, I present here my hypothesis about this complex historical process.

1. Problem Statement.

The Late Bronze Age crisis (1200 BC) is traditionally viewed as a multifactorial collapse (climate, economy, invasions). However, the exact nature of the "Sea Peoples" remains a subject of debate. There is a disconnect between the view of these groups as "mysterious external invaders" and the evidence that they possessed a deep knowledge of the routes and strategic points of the eastern Mediterranean. I propose that Egypt's transition from a system of city-states to a nation-state with rigid borders acted as a catalyst for conflict by disrupting pre-existing migratory dynamics.

2. Literature Review / State of the Art.

Exchange Networks: The economic system was highly integrated among Egypt, the Hittites, the Mycenaeans, and Canaan.

Semi-Nomadic Groups: There are records of groups such as the Habiru or Shasu who acted as itinerant laborers, mercenaries, and artisans.

State Control: During the New Kingdom, Egypt implemented the "Way of Horus," a network of fortresses and customs posts in the Sinai that militarized transit.

3. Main Hypothesis.

If bureaucratic centralization and the hardening of Egyptian borders during the New Kingdom disrupted the transit routes and economic niches of semi-nomadic groups and itinerant workers, then these groups (who possessed internal geographical and military knowledge) were forced to form armed coalitions (the Sea Peoples) to forcibly access the resources and distribution centers from which they had been excluded.

4. Objectives.

General: To analyze the correlation between the militarization of Egyptian borders in the Levant and the emergence of warfare by heterogeneous coalitions.

Specific: To determine the degree of labor specialization of the groups mentioned in Egyptian texts before the collapse. Mapping the routes of the Sea Peoples' attacks against traditional trade routes.

Evaluating whether changes in the customs administration of Ramesses II and III chronologically coincide with the first mass migrations.

5. Proposed Methodology

Study Design: Comparative historical analysis and archaeology of mobility.

Sample: Administrative texts from the Amarna Letters, inscriptions from Medinet Habu, and records from Ugarit.

Variables:

Independent: Rigidity of the state border and control of customs routes.

Dependent: Frequency and composition of attacks by heterogeneous groups.

Control: Paleoclimatic data (droughts) to isolate the economic factor from the environmental one.

6. Expected Results

It is anticipated that the Sea Peoples will show a technical and geographical composition suggesting that they were "insiders" of the economic system. The sites of greatest destruction are expected to coincide with former nodes of seasonal employment or centers for the exchange of raw materials where these groups previously operated peacefully.

7. Recognized Limitations

Chronology: Egypt was already a centralized state long before the crisis, which makes it difficult to attribute the collapse solely to the "invention" of borders.

Source Bias: Most of the information comes from the official Egyptian perspective, which tends to demonize foreigners.