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==Early historical references==
===Amarna period===
The earliest known mention of the people called ''Srdn-w'', more usually called ''Sherden'' or ''Shardana'', is generally thought to be the [[Akkadian language|Akkadian]] reference to the "še-er-ta-an-nu" in the [[Amarna Letters]] correspondence from [[Rib-Hadda]], mayor (''hazannu'') of [[Byblos]],<ref>EA&nbsp;81, EA&nbsp;122, EA&nbsp;123 in Moran (1992) pp.&nbsp;150–151, 201–202{{full citation needed|date=September 2018}}</ref> to the Pharaoh ([[Amenhotep III]], [[Akhenaten]] or [[Tutankhamun|Tutankhamen]], c. 1350 BC). Though they have been referred to as sea raiders and mercenaries, who were prepared to offer their services to local employers, these texts do not provide any evidence of that association, and they shed no light on what the function of these "širdannu-people" was at the time.<ref>{{cite journal |last=Emanuel |first=Jeffrey P. |date=2013 |title=Sherden from the Sea: The arrival, integration, and acculturation of a Sea People |journal=Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections |volume=5 |issue=1 |pages=14–27 |doi=10.2458/azu_jaei_v05i1_emanuel |url=https://www.academia.edu/2445831|doi-access=free }}</ref><ref>{{cite conference |conference=AIA annual meeting |year=2012 |last=Emanuel |first=Jeffrey P. |title=Šrdn of the Sea: A reassessment of the Sherden and their role in Egyptian Society |url=https://www.academia.edu/1716287}}</ref>

===Ramesses II===
[[File:Relief Sherden Breasted.jpg|thumb|280px|Members of Ramesses II's Sherden personal guard in a relief in Abu Simbel]]
The first certain mention of the Sherden is found in the records of [[Ramesses II]] (ruled 1279–1213&nbsp;BC), who defeated them in his second year (1278&nbsp;BC) when they attempted to raid Egypt's coast. The pharaoh subsequently incorporated many of these warriors into his personal guard.<ref>{{cite book |author=Grimal, N. |title=A History of Ancient Egypt |pages=250–253}}</ref> An inscription by Ramesses&nbsp;II on a stele from Tanis that recorded the Sherden pirates' raid and subsequent defeat, speaks of the constant threat which they posed to Egypt's Mediterranean coasts:

{{blockquote|the unruly Sherden whom no one had ever known how to combat, they came boldly sailing in their warships from the midst of the sea, none being able to withstand them.<ref>{{cite book |author-link=Kenneth Kitchen |author=Kitchen, Kenneth |title=Pharaoh Triumphant: The life and times of Ramesses&nbsp;II, King of Egypt |publisher=Aris & Phillips |year=1982 |pages=40–41}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |first=Giacomo |last=Cavillier |year=2008 |title=Gli shardana e l'Egitto ramesside |journal=BAR |issue=1438 |publisher=Archaeopress |location=Oxford, UK}}</ref>}}

[[File:Relief Sherden Breasted 2.jpg|thumb|200px|A rendering of two guards from the relief above, in a 19th-century drawing; their equipment is clearly visible.]]
After Ramesses&nbsp;II succeeded in defeating the invaders and capturing some of them, Sherden captives are depicted in this Pharaoh's bodyguard, where they are conspicuous by their helmets with horns with a ball projecting from the middle, their round shields and the great [[Bronze Age sword#Naue II|Naue&nbsp;II]] swords.<ref>Gardiner 1968: 196–197</ref> In Year 5 of Ramesses II they are depicted in inscriptions about the [[Battle of Kadesh]], fought against the [[Hittites]]. Ramesses stated in his [[Kadesh inscriptions]] that he incorporated some of the Sherden into his own personal guard at the Battle of Kadesh.<ref>Battle Inscriptions in Lichtheim 1976: 63ff{{full citation needed|date=September 2018}}</ref>

===Merneptah===
In Year 5 of [[Merneptah]], the Sherden were among the coalition of Sea Peoples attacking Egypt.

===Ramesses III===
After being defeated by Pharaoh Ramesses&nbsp;III, they, along with other "Sea Peoples", would be allowed to settle in that territory, subject to Egyptian rule.

An Egyptian work written around 1100&nbsp;BC, the [[Onomasticon of Amenope]], documents the presence of the Sherden in [[Canaan]].<ref>Giovanni Garbini, cit., p.&nbsp;52{{full citation needed|date=September 2018}}</ref>

The Italian [[oriental studies|orientalist]] Giovanni Garbini identified the territory colonized by the Sherden as that occupied, according to the [[Bible]], by the [[Israelites|Israelite]] [[tribe of Zebulun]] going by the [[eponym]] of ''Sared'', which had established themselves in the northern territory of [[Canaan]].<ref>cf. Garbini, G., ''I Filistei'', Rusconi, Milano, 1997: passim</ref><ref>Contu 2001 b/37–38 and 41–45</ref><ref>Contu 2002: 537 and 546–547</ref> Archaeologist [[Adam Zertal]] suggests that some Sherden settled in what is now northern Israel. He hypothesizes that biblical [[Sisera]] was a Sherden general and that the archaeological site at [[el-Ahwat]] (whose architecture resembles [[nuraghe]] sites in [[Sardinia]]) was Sisera's capital, [[Harosheth Haggoyim]],<ref>{{Cite web |title=Archaeological mystery solved |date=July 1, 2010 |publisher=University of Haifa |df=dmy-all |url=http://newmedia-eng.haifa.ac.il/?p=3309 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100705114906/http://newmedia-eng.haifa.ac.il/?p=3309 |archive-date=July 5, 2010}}</ref> though this theory has not received wide acceptance in the scholarly community.<ref>{{cite journal |author=Emanuel, Jeffrey P. |year=2012–2013 |title=Review of Adam Zertal (ed.), 'El-Ahwat: A fortified site from the early Iron Age near Nahal' Iron, Israel: Excavations 1993–2000 |journal=Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections |volume=5 |issue=2 |pages=57–60 |publisher=Brill |url=https://www.academia.edu/3100219}}</ref>