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Tjeker
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The Tjekker or Tjeker were one of the Sea Peoples and are known mainly from the story of Wenamun The name tkr/skl has been transliterated variously as Tjekru, Tjekker, skl, Sikil, Djekker, etc. and they are thought to be the people who developed the port of Dor during the 12th century BCE from a small Bronze Age town to a large city. They are also documented at Medinet Habu as raiders defeated by Pharaoh Ramesses III of Egypt in years 5, 8 and 12 of his reign.
origins of Tjeker is uncertain.
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The Tjekker or Tjeker were one of the Sea Peoples and are known mainly from the story of Wenamun The name tkr/skl has been transliterated variously as Tjekru, Tjekker, skl, Sikil, Djekker, etc. and they are thought to be the people who developed the port of Dor during the 12th century BCE from a small Bronze Age town to a large city. They are also documented at Medinet Habu as raiders defeated by Pharaoh Ramesses III of Egypt in years 5, 8 and 12 of his reign.
Origin
The origins of Tjeker is uncertain. A possible linguistic connection has been suggested with the Teucri, a tribe described by ancient sources as inhabiting northwest Anatolia to the south of Troy. However, this has been dismissed as "pure speculation" by Trevor Bryce
Settlement at Dor
The Tjeker conquered the city-state of Dor, on the coast of Canaan near modern Haifa, and turned it into a large, well-fortified city, the center of a Tjeker kingdom that is confirmed archaeologically in the northern Sharon plain; it was violently destroyed in the mid-eleventh century BCE, firing the mud bricks red and depositing a huge layer of ash and debris. Ephraim Stern connects the destruction with the contemporary expansion of the Phoenicians, which was checked by the Philistines further south and the United Monarchy. No mention of the Tjeker is made after that time, the period of archaeological and literary silence. The Tjeker are one of the few of the Sea Peoples for whom a ruler's name is recorded - in the eleventh-century papyrus account of Wenamun, an Egyptian priest, the ruler of Dor is given as "Beder".
After two intermediate occupations, the earlier of which has yielded imported Cypriote ceramics as well as Phoenician wares and is followed by a well-stratified and important Phoenician presence in the early 900s the site of Dor fell to the Israelites under David.
Mythology
An ethnic identity, the Tjeker must have formed during a long period of common residency, polity and language. The tradition offers basically two candidates for a homeland: Crete or the Greek mainland, especially Attica. There is no sign of them in Attica beyond the words of a few late mythographers. Cretan mythology is intertwined with their story.
Minoan archaeology would do very well as evidence except that it is not ethnic-specific. The Minoan language remains unknown. Cretan mythology is not tied to any one people. No Tjeker are mentioned in Linear B and possibilities in Linear A depend on the brand of partial "decipherment"; i.e., there is no real decipherment and therefore no reference to the Tjeker.
As a last resort the early scholars in the field turned to modern names; specifically, it was probably Flinders Petrie who proposed a linguistic relation to Zakro. On the one hand there is no evidence whatever to support the connection. On the other, nothing prevents such a speculation; in fact, a Minoan community and palace has been found at Zakro, the name has the right consonants, modern names do appear in Linear B (though not Zakro), and the eastern Crete location faces the Levant. Some modern scholars do accept the association.
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