Shasu

The Shasu (Ancient Egyptian: šꜣsw, possibly pronounced šaswə^[1]) were Semitic-speaking pastoral nomads in the Southern Levant from the late Bronze Age to the Early Iron Age or the Third Intermediate Period of Egypt. They were tent dwellers, organized in clans ruled by a tribal chieftain and were described as brigands active from the Jezreel Valley to Ashkelon, in the Transjordan and in the Sinai.^[2] Some of them also worked as mercenaries for Asiatic and Egyptian armies.^[3]