Ancient Minoan families flee devastation and conquest of Crete, and migrate via Cyprus to multicultural Palestine, among wild but advanced Sea Peoples. To keep new homes, these Philistines must keep order on Egypt-Babylon roads of trade. How do they meet the "separatist" Israelites of that land? Will Pharaoh return to devastate them all?
Ancient Minoan families flee the devastation and conquest of Crete, and migrate via Cyprus to multicultural Palestine, among wild but advanced Sea Peoples. Defeated in war and put to work by Pharaoh, these new "Philistines" have a real-world promised land: to keep their new homes, they must rebuild Canaan and keep order on roads of trade from Egypt to Babylon---and if they fail, Pharaoh will return in wrath. So, how do the Philistines' families build new lives from farms to cities and far-flung trade, and how do their new children meet the Canaanites and Hebrews? More, they are meeting the inland mountains' rising Israelites, whose promise from their own god lays claim on all these lands. What social ways promise early peace, and what aggressions lead to open war? If Philistines cannot find a way to marry in (in their ancient customs) with the "separatist"
Israelites and keep trade flowing, Pharaoh will return again to devastate them all. The lives of the Philistines' island-born women, men and children take shape in a turbulent new land, built from their powers of memory---from their pride in the advanced but lost world of their Minoan ancestors, from their sufferings in horrifying wanderings and wars, and from their Earth-religion's unconquerable will and joy to live again. They will survive this new thing "history" and "keep their honey." Based in new archaeology and multicultural myth, the adventurous human stories in People of the Sea take us beyond the one-sided Old Testament accounts, whose ethnocentrism has limited and damaged understanding; and into a new old world where we can recover deep memory of our real archaeological ancestors, with their long-successful human ways of life.
“"People of the Sea is an ancient epic and an astounding recovery of our real, wise and most successful Western ancestors. It shows the goodness and values that were lost as the conquerors wrote their versions of history---a history we should all know, as these relevant new stories can take us once again where humanity yearns to go." Karen Tate, Voices of the Sacred Feminine, Blog Talk Radio”
Jack Dempsey (b. 1955) grew up north of Boston, Massachusetts USA. He began writing freelance in New York City, and then many stays in Greece led to Ariadne's Brother: A Novel on the Fall of Bronze Age Crete (Athens: Kalendis 1996). Earning his Ph.D. in Native and Early American Studies at Brown University, Jack wrote, edited and produced four books and two films in those fields, including New English Canaan by Thomas Morton of Merrymount; Mystic Fiasco: How the Indians Won The Pequot War, and Nani: A Native New England Story. As a professor for 22 years he also focused on college students' public speaking. With appearances from National Public Radio to Crete-TV, he publishes short works at his blog jackdempseywriter.wordpress.com. Working on People of the Sea through the 1990s, Jack created the collaborative multimedia website Ancientlights.org, and revealed ancient Western astronomy with Calendar House: Clues to Minoan Time from Knossos Labyrinth. Residing in Crete since 2015 with Angela his wife, he has published a short biography of the late feminist historian and poet Barbara Mor, and his 2016 book based on public forums is The Knossos Calendar: Minoan Cycles of the Sun, the Moon, the Soul & Political Power (Iraklion: Mystis Editions, also in Greek).
Ancient Minoan families flee the devastation and conquest of Crete, and migrate via Cyprus to multicultural Palestine, among wild but advanced Sea Peoples. Defeated in war and put to work by Pharaoh, these new "Philistines" have a real-world promised land: to keep their new homes, they must rebuild Canaan and keep order on roads of trade from Egypt to Babylon---and if they fail, Pharaoh will return in wrath. So, how do the Philistines' families build new lives from farms to cities and far-flung trade, and how do their new children meet the Canaanites and Hebrews? More, they are meeting the inland mountains' rising Israelites, whose promise from their own god lays claim on all these lands. What social ways promise early peace, and what aggressions lead to open war? If Philistines cannot find a way to marry in (in their ancient customs) with the "separatist" Israelites and keep trade flowing, Pharaoh will return again to devastate them all. The lives of the Philistines' island-born women, men and children take shape in a turbulent new land, built from their powers of memory---from their pride in the advanced but lost world of their Minoan ancestors, from their sufferings in horrifying wanderings and wars, and from their Earth-religion's unconquerable will and joy to live again. They will survive this new thing "history" and "keep their honey." Based in new archaeology and multicultural myth, the adventurous human stories in People of the Sea take us beyond the one-sided Old Testament accounts, whose ethnocentrism has limited and damaged understanding; and into a new old world where we can recover deep memory of our real archaeological ancestors, with their long-successful human ways of life.
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