Fifteen Men on a Dead Seren's Chest, Yo Ho Ho and a Krater of Wine

Recent research by the authors using accounts of pirate culture in historical times and studies of pirate geography, proposed an interpretive framework for understanding the Sea Peoples as pirates who plundered some of the great centres of the Bronze Age, before settling in various parts of the Mediterranean. Furthermore we have suggested that at least some of their leaders assumed the title seren, derived from the Indo-European title tarwanis, meaning warlord or military leader. As in historical eras, we suggested that the tribes of the Sea Peoples were made up of individuals from ethnically and culturally mixed backgrounds that coalesced around particular Aegean symbols in order to form a cohesive identity. Here, we build on that research to further elaborate the role of the tarwanis as military leader of the Sea Peoples and practices of feasting and social drinking to solidify their identity.∗