Both King Amenemhat III and King Amenemhat IV sent gifts to their
new allies, which ended up buried within the mayors’ tombs at Byblos.
Among these gifts was a grey stone vase, and a small chest of obsidian
and gold. On one gold pendant, embellished with semiprecious stones,
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the Mayor Ip-shemu-abi wrote his name in a cartouche. His sickle-sword, also buried with him, bore hieroglyphs, and uraei – symbols of royal protection. Egypt’s royal workshops produced scarabs bearing the names and titles of the mayors of Byblos, which were then sent to the city for them to use.
Cyprus in the Middle Kingdom
Trade between Cyprus and Egypt during the Middle Kingdom is men-
tioned on a recently discovered cuneiform tablet from Tell Siyannu, close to the Syrian coast, proving that relations between the two countries existed.
Furthermore, if Iasy in the ‘Annals of Amenemhat II’ (mentioned above)
can be equated with Cyprus, it would be an early reference to Egypt’s relations with the island. The main problem with this attribution, however, is that there is no evidence for large settlements on Cyprus at this time, and archaeologists haven’t found any Egyptian objects of Middle Kingdom
date there. Nevertheless, wealthy cemeteries are known, particularly those at Lapithos-Vrysi tou Barba and at Bellpais-Vounous, and so undiscovered settlements, perhaps home to the people that interacted with the Egyptians, may lie hidden in their vicinity.
Asiatics in Egypt
By the Middle Kingdom, people from the Levant had been settling in Egypt for centuries, either as prisoners of war, traded as slaves – as highlighted in the ‘Annals of Amenemhat II’ – or as mercenaries. Such individuals now
started to appear more frequently in art. One wooden statue of an Asiatic woman, dated to the early 12th Dynasty and found at Beni Hassan, depicts her wearing yellow boots and a brown garment decorated with zigzags. Her hair is tied upwards, with a band around it, and she carries a baby on her back. A similar statuette, again depicting a woman carrying a baby on her back, also probably dates to the Middle Kingdom. This woman wears a thick cloak, decorated with a chequer board pattern, with a fringe at the bottom and seam at the front; this garment is quite unlike anything typically worn by Egyptian women in art, and highlights the woman’s foreign origins. Her hairstyle is similar to that of the Beni Hassan figurine, and both may have worn combs in their hair. Foreigners with such hairdos are depicted in the 12th Dynasty tomb of Ukhhotep at Meir, where they appear to be either
acting as household or temple servants.
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Foreign slaves often worked as household or temple servants. One stele, now in the Garstang Museum, Liverpool, shows a priest of Onuris named
Si-Anhur ploughing. Behind him, a man labelled as ‘the Asiatic, Sobekiry,’
sows seeds with one hand, taken from a bag carried with his other hand. A female Asiatic servant called Seneb-Ameny-Nebtiti grinds grain. A further Asiatic servant is ‘the brewer, the Asiatic Iry,’ who strains a mash of liquid and dough. Meanwhile, Sobekiry, appearing for a second time, pours beer into jars.
A stele of 13th Dynasty date, now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, shows rows of offering bearers bringing items for the Vizier Reniseneb; among them is an Asiatic woman named Seneb-Reniseneb. Some Asiatics also held specialized positions: the stele of a man named Karu, now in Rio de Janeiro, mentions an Asiatic named Tuti acting as chief of craftsmen, while another man mentioned is the Chief of Craftsmen Aper, born of Ibi. On the stele of Minhotep in Florence, the name of the Asiatic Wahka is included beneath Minhotep’s chair.
One section of Papyrus Brooklyn 35.1446 – a document re-used over the
course of many years – was drawn up by a 13th Dynasty noblewoman named
Senebtisi in order to prove that her late husband, seemingly the Vizier Resseneb, had given her ownership of his estate’s slaves. It lists ninety-five slaves in total, of which at least forty-five were Asiatics of both sexes; on the whole, these performed skilled labour for the household, while the Egyptians worked in the fields. Among the male Asiatics was a house servant, a brewer, cooks, and tutors or guardians of children. Most of the women mentioned were cloth-makers, but a maidservant, magazine employees, and a labourer were also present. Many of the children were too young to work. Although it was normal for Asiatic slaves to be given Egyptian names – usually compounded with that of their owners or with statements that the lord or mistress ‘be well’ – here five of the adults still retain their Semitic names, as do all of the children. Some adults have both Semitic and Egyptian names. Because Asiatics born in Egypt usually have Egyptian names, scholars have suggested that the majority of these people were brought to Egypt shortly before the document was drawn up, and, because Asiatic women outnumber men by three to one, they may have been taken during raids in the Levant, in which most of the men were killed.
Papyrus documents from Lahun – a town associated with the pyramid of
King Senwosret II in the Faiyum Oasis – also attest to an Asiatic presence, many as specialized workers. Living among the villagers were Asiatic temple singers, serfs, doorkeepers, and weavers in the households. At the local temple, there were more Asiatic and Medjay dancers than Egyptians. None, however, performed ritual roles in the temple cult. Without these papyrus documents, Egyptologists would never have known the extent of the foreign War and Trade with the Pharaohs.indd 50
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presence at Lahun because excavations had only revealed metal torques –
a type of necklace popular in the Levant – and Asiatic weights. As metal torques have also been found at sites in other parts of Egypt, the country may have been home to a larger Asiatic population than previously thought.
Egypt’s Relations with Crete
During the Middle Kingdom, there was a sudden explosion of interaction
between the Minoans of Crete and the Ancient Egyptians. The Minoans
imported Egyptian scarabs and stone vessels, or made their own local imitations; perhaps adopted a new form of Egyptian potter’s wheel; and seem to have been inspired by the Egyptians to use hand drills to make stone vessels and seals. Within tombs on Crete’s Mesara Plain, clay coffins, stone cosmetic palettes, and model bread loaves may all have been inspired by Egyptian art, while at the Phourni Cemetery, archaeologists found the earliest Cretan hieroglyphic script, perhaps inspired by Egyptian hieroglyphs.
The Egyptian goddess Taweret was assimilated into Minoan religion, but
rather than protecting mothers and children as she did in Egypt, on Crete, she became a goddess associated with water and sacred stones.
In return for Egyptian goods, the Minoans probably exported silver, timber, spices, herbs, and decorated fabrics. On the ceiling of the tomb of Hepdjefa at Asyut – from the reign of King Senwosret I – artists painted heart-shaped spirals, perhaps influenced by Minoan textiles; and archaeologists have found Minoan pottery at sites across Egypt, including Abydos, Lisht, and Qubbet el-Hawa. The greatest quantity of Minoan pottery sherds in Egypt, however, was excavated at Lahun and Haraga. Representing about thirty-one vessels, these probably entered Egypt as part of palatial exchange. The treasure of Princess Khnumet, a daughter of King Amenemhat II, also reveals Minoan
influence, particularly her bird pendants and painted rock-crystal pendant.
Intriguingly, despite the extensive archaeological evidence for Egyptian contact with Crete, there is only a single reference to the Minoans – called Keftiu – in an Egyptian text from this period, found in ‘The Admonitions of Ipuwer,’ composed in the late Middle Kingdom.
Securing the Western Desert and Oases
Hedjwawesh at Gebelein, and a reference to the Libyans in the ‘Tale of
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of the Western Desert and the oases. Much of what is known relates to border security, for just as they had done in the south (see below), and along the ‘Ways of Horus’ in the east, during the Middle Kingdom, the Egyptians attempted to strengthen their control over their western territory. They constructed a fortress in the Wadi Natrun, on the western side of the Delta, seemingly to monitor and control the movement of people into this region, and appointed officials to travel the borderlands in search of potential threats to Egypt’s security. The Policeman Beb, operating in the 12th Dynasty under Senwosret I, says that he policed all the deserts for the king, and on patrol, travelled to a land called Nehu (location unknown) before returning to Upper Egypt; from the late 11th Dynasty, a man named Kay – the overseer of the hunters of the desert districts – travelled to the oases in search of a fugitive hiding in the west, his mission to bring the criminal back to Egypt; and under King Senwosret I, the Steward and Leader of Recruits Dediku left Thebes to secure the land of the oasis dwellers. During his return journey, he erected a stele at Abydos (perhaps while enjoying a bit of religious tourism).
Egypt and Nubia
Unlike the Levant, which was seen as a place to exploit and send troops when necessary, from the early Middle Kingdom, the Egyptians regarded
Nubia as a place to occupy and dominate – as a land along the Nile, it was an extension of Egyptian territory, and so could be formally integrated into the whole. The C-Group Nubians felt the brunt of this new approach to
foreign policy from the start of the 12th Dynasty, when King Amenemhat
I sent troops into Nubia three times – in his tenth, eighteenth, and twenty-ninth regnal years. His army included the Vizier Antefiker, who says that he slaughtered Nubians in Wawat (Lower Nubia), stripped the land of crops, and burned Nubian homes.
With Lower Nubia’s population devastated by these violent attacks, King Senwosret I set about further exploiting the region’s rich mineral wealth.
He sent expeditions to Toshka in search of diorite, to Wadi el-Hudi for amethyst, and to Wadi Allaqi for gold and copper. The Nomarch Amenemhat
(buried at Beni Hassan) joined Senwosret I on a military campaign to
expand Egypt’s influence further south. It was a success, and Amenemhat returned to the region afterwards to collect gold for his king. Senwosret also commanded an inscription be carved at Wadi el-Hudi, proclaiming that only Nubians who acted as servants for the king would see their descendants live.
The message was clear: submit to Egypt or die.
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Later in the Middle Kingdom, King Senwosret III launched four cam-
paigns into Nubia (in his tenth, twelfth, sixteenth, and possibly nineteenth regnal years). During his sixteenth year as king, he erected a stele at Semna, marking his southern border at the point where the impassable waters of the Second Cataract become navigable again for those sailing south. Here, he describes plundering Nubia’s women and dependents, attacking their wells and cattle, and setting fire to their grain. ‘Aggression is valour, retreat is cow-ardice,’2 the king says, after calling Nubians a people unworthy of respect.
The king then sent a team of men to cut a channel around the dangerous
waters of the First Cataract zone, enabling his ships to sail south, even at times of a low Nile. Luxury goods could now flow into Egypt from Nubia
all year round.
Nubians in Egypt
As in earlier periods, during the Middle Kingdom, Nubians of different ethnicities continued to live in Egypt: there were the Pan-Grave people of the Eastern Desert (known to the Egyptians as Medjay – more about them below); the C-Group of Lower Nubia; and the Kermans of Upper Nubia. And,
although most references to Nubians are found on the monuments of prominent Egyptians – such as the two Medjay servants, Fedeteyet and Mekhenet, shown on a sarcophagus from the mortuary temple of King Montuhotep
II – some commissioned monuments of their own, such as ‘the Nubian
Ankhetneni,’ a wealthy noblewoman, who erected her stele at Dahshur.
Nubians are also attested archaeologically in Middle Kingdom Egypt.
From the 11th Dynasty through to the early Second Intermediate Period,
the C-Group population of Hierakonpolis was buried in the city’s local
cemetery. There, archaeologists found sixty graves, the vast majority built according to C-Group custom and containing distinctive Nubian pottery,
leather skirts, sashes, and jewellery, including rings. One necklace, left as an offering, was composed of around 1,600 tiny faience beads. Living as members of the local community, rather than as foreign slaves, these individuals may have initially entered Egypt to fight for Egyptian nomarchs during the First Intermediate Period.
The Pan-Grave Culture of the Medjay
Among the various Nubian cultures living in Egypt during the Middle
Kingdom were the Pan-Grave people. This nomadic (or semi-nomadic)
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group, known from the Middle Kingdom to the end of the Second
Intermediate Period, were buried in distinctive shallow, oval graves (hence
‘Pan-Grave’), normally marked by an oval tumulus. Within, the dead were placed on mats, lying on their right side in a contracted position, accompanied by pottery vessels and sometimes Egyptian weapons. Cow skulls,
painted red and black, are typically found in the graves too – one cow
skull, found at Mostagedda, bore an image of a man holding an axe and
throw-stick. Pan-Grave burials are most often unearthed in Lower Nubia
and Upper Egypt, but their pottery is attested as far north as Memphis.
Excavations at Hierakonpolis revealed Pan-Grave burials at two different sectors of the site; these contained red-dyed leather garments, some with tassels, and armlets formed of shell plaque beads. Textiles with raised knot patterns were also found, as were beads, most often of ostrich eggshell or blue faience.
The owners of these graves were probably the Medjay mentioned in
Egyptian texts – a people who had their origins in the Eastern Desert,
beside the Red Sea. They enjoyed good relations with the Egyptians, acting as temple security at Lahun and often serving as mercenaries in the army. According to Papyrus Boulaq 18, an administrative text from the 13th Dynasty, one group of Medjay visited the Egyptian court and were given
food. Over the course of the Second Intermediate Period, Pan-Grave burials became increasingly Egyptianized, and they disappear entirely from the archaeological record in the New Kingdom. The word Medjay, however,
continued to be used, often in reference to people acting in police roles, such as the guards of the Valley of the Kings.
The Nubian Forts
The Egyptians’ greatest intervention in Nubia during the Middle Kingdom was a series of mud-brick fortresses constructed between Aswan and the
southern edge of the Nile’s Second Cataract zone, primarily under Kings Senwosret I and III. Each fortress was unique in design, but had similar features, such as massive enclosure walls, fortified gates, ditches, and ramparts.
Between fifty and 300 soldiers lived at any one time in a single fortress, and all were fed by the State. To keep track of who received what, the authorities handed out tokens, their shapes representing different types of bread and inscribed with quantities, which the soldiers swapped for the real t
hing. So that the tokens couldn’t be lost, they were pierced with holes, allowing them to be worn.
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Senwosret I constructed five fortresses between the First and Second
Cataracts to protect Egypt’s interests in the region: namely its access to natural resources. The furthest north were Ikkur and Kubban, flanking the
Nile at the end of the road leading to the Wadi Allaqi gold mining region; these were most probably built to protect Egypt’s gold and copper mining expeditions. The fortress at Aniba, further south, may have been connected with the diorite quarries to its south-west, or was perhaps constructed to keep an eye on C-Group settlements in the surrounding area. At the southernmost extent, close to the Second Cataract, were Buhen and Kor, where trade goods were stored. Buhen was the most elaborate of these fortresses, its enclosure wall protecting administrative, economic, and residential buildings.
Under Senwosret III, some of these earlier fortresses were altered –
Buhen in particular received a new outer enclosure wall, 4 m thick – and new fortresses were constructed in the Second Cataract zone down to
Semna, where the king established Egypt’s new southern border. Of these, the Egyptians used the fortress at Mirgissa as a storage centre for campaigns, and Askut a little further south as a grain reserve. Uronarti was the campaign headquarters, and the fortresses of Semna and Kumma, flanking the Nile, guarded the entrance to Egyptian territory. The Egyptians didn’t build these extra fortresses to protect themselves from the Lower Nubians; for one, it would have been easy for the Nubians to simply avoid them, and two, the Egyptians don’t seem to have regarded the Nubians as a major threat anyway. (In fact, many C-Group Nubians lived in the vicinity of the forts, and the C-Group as a whole prospered during this time, even founding new settlements.) No, these southernmost fortresses were launching pads for campaigns beyond the Second Cataract zone, into territory controlled by the Kerma Civilization (discussed in greater detail in the following chapter).
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