Keftiu (Middle and Late Egyptian ''Keft, Keftu, Kaftu, Kafta, Kefdet, Keftju'';

Old Testament The Old Testament (OT) is the first division of the Christian biblical canon, which is based primarily upon the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, a collection of ancient religious Hebrew and occasionally Aramaic writings by the Isr ...

''kaphtor''; Akkadian ''kaptaritum''; Assyrian ''kaptara'';

Ugaritic Ugaritic () is an extinct Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic language known through the Ugaritic texts discovered by French archaeology, archaeologists in 1928 at Ugarit, including several major literary texts, notably the Baal cycl ...

''kptwr'', ''kptr''; Mycenaean ''kapte''?) in

ancient Egypt Ancient Egypt () was a cradle of civilization concentrated along the lower reaches of the Nile River in Northeast Africa. It emerged from prehistoric Egypt around 3150BC (according to conventional Egyptian chronology), when Upper and Lower E ...

ian sources referred to the region of

Crete Crete ( ; , Modern Greek, Modern: , Ancient Greek, Ancient: ) is the largest and most populous of the Greek islands, the List of islands by area, 88th largest island in the world and the List of islands in the Mediterranean#By area, fifth la ...

and, among other things, its Minoan- Mycenaean inhabitants and trading ships, which had a range as far as Crete. In the 13th century BC, the Egyptians transferred the geographical designation to the Levant. A similar development of localization is noticeable in the writings of the Old Testament. There, '' kaphtor'' was originally the Greek homeland of the

Philistines Philistines (; LXX: ; ) were ancient people who lived on the south coast of Canaan during the Iron Age in a confederation of city-states generally referred to as Philistia. There is compelling evidence to suggest that the Philistines origi ...

. There are also Old Testament texts suggesting that the Philistines were the Sea Peoples who plagued Egypt before the Late Bronze Age collapse. One name often associated with these Sea People, the Tjeker, were a tribe theorized to have originated from Zakros in the far East of Crete. However, in the

Septuagint The Septuagint ( ), sometimes referred to as the Greek Old Testament or The Translation of the Seventy (), and abbreviated as LXX, is the earliest extant Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible from the original Biblical Hebrew. The full Greek ...

, ''kaphtor'' is located in the region of Cappadocia.

Geographical attestation

In Amenhotep III's list of Aegean place names, the villages belonging to Keftiu are mentioned: Kenesch (

Knossos Knossos (; , ; Linear B: ''Ko-no-so'') is a Bronze Age archaeological site in Crete. The site was a major centre of the Minoan civilization and is known for its association with the Greek myth of Theseus and the minotaur. It is located on th ...

), Byschty (

Phaistos Phaistos (, ; Ancient Greek: , , Linear B: ''Pa-i-to''; Linear A: ''Pa-i-to''), also Transliteration, transliterated as Phaestos, Festos and Latin Phaestus, is a Bronze Age archaeological site at modern Faistos, a municipality in south centr ...

), Amnesch ( Amnissos), Keteny (

Kydonia Kydonia ( or ), also known as Cydonia (, ''Kydōnía'') was an ancient city located at the site of present-day Chania near the west end of the island of Crete in Greece. The city is known from archaeological remains dating back to the Minoan e ...

) and Leket ( Lyktos). Texts from Ugarit mention the ancient Egyptian Memphis as the "hereditary land of Crete", together with a geographical description of the location of Crete (kaphtor).

Ancient Egyptian depictions of the Keftiu

The surviving reliefs from the tombs of Theban officials from the New Kingdom date from the reigns of

Hatshepsut Hatshepsut ( ; BC) was the sixth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Ancient Egypt, Egypt, ruling first as regent, then as queen regnant from until (Low Chronology) and the Great Royal Wife of Pharaoh Thutmose II. She was Egypt's second c ...

to Amenhotep II and show the keftiu as gift bearers. The earliest depictions can be seen in the tomb of Senenmut. There, the beardless representatives of the keftiu wear long black hair in a noble appearance. The brownish-reddish skin color corresponds to that of an Egyptian. In the tomb of Amunuser (TT131), the Keftiu, their costume and their gifts are also depicted in an almost culturally accurate manner. In the tomb of Rekhmire, the Cretan envoys were initially depicted with Minoan-Cretan aprons, long open hair and forelocks. Peter Haider dates the vases depicted to the period between 1462 and 1455/50 BC. The subsequent overpaintings, which were carried out by 1436 B.C. at the latest, show the envoys in typical Mycenaean festival style with knee-length aprons decorated with fringes. The subsequent repairs to the wall depictions prove that the ancient Egyptian artists aimed for a detailed depiction. From the same tomb there are inscriptions which have been translated. One such inscription reads: {{Blockquote , text=The coming in peace by Keftiu chiefs and the chiefs of the islands of the sea, humbly, bowing their heads down because of His Majesty's might, the king Menkheperre (Tuthmosis III) Given life forever! When they heard his achievements in every foreign land, their jnw were on their backs, requesting the breath, wanting to be loyal to His Majesty, so that the might of His Majesty will protect them. There are many other linkages between Keftiu (Kaphtor), the Philistines, and other civilizations of the Bronze Age. Of particular note are the so-called "Keftiu Cup" found at the Temple/Palace at Knossos, and what appear to be Philistine war helmets on the famous Phaistos Disc.

Notes

References

Ancient Crete Minoan civilization Ancient Egypt