AKAWASHA

    The Akawasha ('Ikws) were one element in the alliance of *Sea-peoples who supported the * Libyans in attacking Egypt in Year 5 of *Merneptah's reign. The Egyptian wall-reliefs do not depict the Akawasha but the inscriptions indicate that they, together with some of the other *Sea-peoples, were circumcised; their hands, rather than their genitals, were amputated and piled up for presentation to the Egyptian king when the total of his dead enemies was enumerated.

    One suggestion tentatively identifies the Akawasha with the Achaeans (the Mycenaean *Greeks), but if this is correct, then the evidence relating to the practice of circumcision amongst the Akawasha is puzzling since there are no other indications that the *Greeks were circumcised.