War & Trade With the Pharaohs
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perhaps under Kamose, and two rock inscriptions in Lower Nubia indicate that Egyptians loyal to Kamose were active in the region.
Lower Nubia secure, at least for the time being, it was time to turn north.
King Kamose, unhappy with Egypt’s political situation, called a meeting with his courtiers, and, like the hero in a sword-and-sandals epic, tried to inspire his followers with a powerful speech: ‘To what effect do I perceive it, my might, while a ruler is in Avaris and another in Kush, I sitting joined with an Asiatic and a Nubian, each man having his (own) portion of this Egypt, sharing the land with me. ... I shall engage in battle with him and I shall slit his body, for my intention is to save Egypt, striking the Asiatics.’4
But rather than feeling inspired by their king’s rousing words, the courtiers were far from enthusiastic about his plan. Speaking as one – there’s War and Trade with the Pharaohs.indd 69
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70 War and Trade with the Pharaohs
safety in numbers after all – they explained that Kamose already ruled as far as Elephantine in the south, and as far north as Cusae in Middle Egypt.
Not only that, but the finest fields were already being ploughed for them, and their cattle were allowed to graze in the Delta (and weren’t being taken away). If the Hyksos attack us, they shrugged, then we’ll attack them.
Kamose, unimpressed by his courtiers’ lacklustre response, decided to
royally ignore them. Perhaps after securing the approval of the oracle of Amun, he sailed north with his troops and sent his Medjay mercenaries
ahead to burn enemy villages. Another Medjay patrol was sent to confront an Egyptian ally of the Hyksos, named Teti son of Pepi, at the town of Neferusy (80 km north of the Hyksos border at Cusae). The Medjay ensured that Teti couldn’t escape Neferusy, and the next morning, once Kamose had arrived, the Egyptians attacked the town. By midday, they had destroyed its walls and slaughtered its population. The army divided up the spoils, and then left to attack other hostile towns nearby.
Continuing north, Kamose’s army stopped at Sako – perhaps el-Qes –
where he heard that a Hyksos messenger was travelling along the oasis route, bypassing the Nile Valley, to deliver a message to Kerma. Reacting fast, Kamose sent an army west to Bahariya Oasis to intercept the messenger.
Their mission was successful, and the message – a request for assistance –
fell into Egyptian hands. To provoke the Hyksos, Kamose returned the message to Apepi with an extra note explaining what his troops had done to the district of Cynopolis – a location under Hyksos control.
When the Egyptians finally marched on Tell el-Daba, the Hyksos smartly
hid behind their city walls, leaving Kamose with no battle to fight. Perhaps not wanting to feel like he’d wasted his journey, the king resorted to taunting the Hyksos from outside, yelling that he was drinking wine from Apepi’s own vineyards, pressed by Asiatics that he’d captured. The Hyksos still refused to fight.
So, rather than taunt his enemies a second time, Kamose sent his army to cut down the Hyksos’ orchards, capture women, and seize their goods, including gold, lapis lazuli, silver, turquoise, copper axes, oils, incense, honey, and different types of wood. He may have burned or taken everything that wasn’t nailed down, but Kamose still didn’t manage to take Tell el-Daba. Nevertheless, his army returned home in triumph to find Thebes in celebration.
Egyptian Statues in the Levant: Diplomatic Gifts?
Many Egyptian items dating to the Middle Kingdom have been found
during excavations in the Levant, although it isn’t always clear at which War and Trade with the Pharaohs.indd 70
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The Hyksos and the Kermans: Their Rise and Fall 71
point in history they left their home country. Previously, scholars thought that such items represented Egyptian diplomats operating abroad, but it now seems clear that most were moved during the Hyksos Period. Statues
of Queen Sobekneferu of the late 12th Dynasty were found at Tell el-Daba, for example, as was a statue of King Hetepibre of the 13th Dynasty and
a statue of the king’s mother Senet of 12th Dynasty date. Based on their inscriptions, these monuments originally stood in the regions of Memphis and the Faiyum Oasis and were moved north to Tell el-Daba for some unexplained reason. The Hyksos also carved them with new inscriptions: among the ‘antiques’ re-inscribed with the name of Apepi were four sphinxes of Amenemhat III and a sphinx of Senwosret II. Consequently, scholars argue that many of the Middle Kingdom statues found in the Levant were sent
there by the Hyksos, perhaps as diplomatic gifts.
Made during the reign of King Amenemhat II, a fragmentary statue
group of the Vizier Senwosretankh and his family, and a statue of a daughter of Amenemhat II were excavated at Ugarit. Sphinxes of Amenemhat III were found there too, as well as at Aleppo and Hazor. Numerous Middle
Kingdom objects have also been excavated at Qatna, many in the city’s
palace area; here, a sphinx of 12th Dynasty Princess Ita was discovered broken into 400 pieces. Other Egyptian items were interred with Qatna’s kings: one royal tomb, discovered in 2009, contained hundreds of Egyptian and Egyptian-imitating stone vessels, including one bearing the name of a Middle Kingdom Egyptian princess called Itakayet. Such items were
probably regarded as exotic goods, carved from rare materials. Finally, four broken statues of the Nomarch Djehutyhotep, who held the title ‘the door of every foreign country,’ were discovered at Megiddo. As Djehutyhotep
is depicted bringing cattle from the Levant in his tomb, he may be a rare example of a courtier who actually did travel to Megiddo in life and left his monuments there, rather than being just another post-mortem victim of
Hyksos pilfering.
The Expulsion of the Hyksos and the Occupation of Nubia
Dying in his fourth year as king, Kamose didn’t have the opportunity to continue his war against the Hyksos. Instead, that duty passed to Ahmose –
son of King Seqenenre Tao II and Queen Ahhotep I – who ascended the
Theban throne as a child. A few years later, Apepi, Kamose’s nemesis, also died, passing the Hyksos crown to Khamudi. Liberating Egypt would have
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to wait until the young Ahmose reached adulthood. In the meantime, Queen Ahhotep I managed Egypt’s matter’s of state as queen regent. An inscription at the Temple of Amun at Karnak describes her as the mistress of the Two Lands, caring for Egypt, and looking after the country’s soldiers and guarding them. But goes on to say that she also had to gather up deserters and fugitives, pacify Upper Egypt, and expel rebels. Clearly, not all was well at Thebes – much still needed to be done to strengthen control of Upper Egypt, let alone the north. To add to her military credentials, Ahhotep was buried with a ceremonial dagger and a lapis lazuli axe.
The sources for Ahmose’s final campaign against the Hyksos are
unfortunately scarce and uniformly lacking in detail. From what we can
reconstruct, Ahmose first took Heliopolis before bypassing Tell el-Daba and seizing Tell el-Habua (Tjaru) to its east, probably to cut off the Hyksos’
escape route or to block any support from arriving from the Levant. Only then did he attempt to take the Hyksos capital. Describing this campaign, the Soldier Ahmose Son of Ibana says that he and the Egyptian troops besieged Tell el-Daba and fought multiple battles. Fragments from King Ahmose’s
mortuary temple at Abydos also show archers and chariots at war, perhaps at Tell el-Daba. Eventually, the city fell, and the Hyksos survivors fled to Sharuhen in the southern Levant. The Egyptians pursued, and besieged
the town for three years. Afterwards, Ahmose may have campaigned even
further north, asserting his presence throughout the Levant.
Ahmose had
removed the Hyksos from Egypt, simultaneously reuniting
the Two Lands, ending the Second Intermediate Period, and starting the
New Kingdom, a 500-year period of prosperity. And, though he was related to the 17th Dynasty bloodline, these major achievements led Ahmose to be regarded as the founder of a new royal line: the 18th Dynasty. The king now turned his attention south to Nubia. According to Ahmose Son of Ibana
(who’ll pop up a lot from now on), the Egyptians travelled to an area called Khenthennefer, south of the Second Cataract, where they killed ‘a Nubian bowman’ – perhaps a Kerman leader. The king then faced two rebellions:
a Nubian named Aata led the first in an otherwise unknown location called Tent-taa, and an Egyptian called Tetian led the second; this man had raised an army, perhaps hoping to take advantage of the turmoil in Egypt while King Ahmose was restoring order. Both rebellions were swiftly quashed.
Ahmose now established Buhen as his administrative centre in Nubia,
reclaiming control of the region, and placed the fort under the command of a man named Turi, who would go on to become the first king’s son of
Kush – the overseer of Egypt’s Nubian territory (effectively the vizier of War and Trade with the Pharaohs.indd 72
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The Hyksos and the Kermans: Their Rise and Fall 73
Nubia). Ahmose also built a temple to Amun on the island of Sai, between the Second and Third Cataracts, where a Kerman population lived. This
initiated a new phase of Egyptian temple construction in Nubia. Over the course of the New Kingdom, these new temples would assert Egypt’s rule
over Nubia, encourage Egyptianization, and manage the region’s valuable resources, acting as hubs for redistribution in line with Egypt’s own administrative system. For the next 500 years, Nubia would be an extension of Egypt, rather than a foreign land, a place to be taxed and exploited. Ahmose’s army then pushed further south along the Nile towards the Third Cataract, bringing them closer and closer to their enemies at Kerma. The Egyptians had defeated the Hyksos. Now only the Kermans remained. Egypt’s New
Kingdom ‘empire’ was beginning to take shape.
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The king smiting foreign-
ers was a symbol of Egypt’s
domination of its enemies.
This motif is found from the
start of Egyptian civiliza-
tion. From Karnak Temple.
New Kingdom. Photo: ©
Garry Shaw.
The Egyptian kings recorded their exploits at war in great inscriptions, carved into the walls of their temples. The Annals of Tuthmosis III at Karnak Temple. New Kingdom. Photo: © Garry Shaw.
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The Egyptians often depicted
Nubians in a stylized man-
ner as prisoners. From Abu
Simbel. New Kingdom.
Photo: © Julie Patenaude.
The head of an Asiatic enemy, seen through the spoked wheel of the royal chariot. As with Nubian and Libyan enemies, Asiatics were depicted in a stylized manner. From the Temple of Seti I at Abydos (in a section decorated under Ramesses II). New Kingdom. Photo: © Garry Shaw.
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Egyptian temples were
decorated with images
of defeated foreign cities,
represented as fortified
ovals containing their
names, surmounted by
bound enemies. From
Karnak Temple. New
Kingdom. Photo: ©
Garry Shaw.
The nomarchs of Dakhla Oasis managed trade from the town of Ain Asil.
They were buried in these massive tombs at nearby Balat. Old Kingdom.
Photo: © Garry Shaw.
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The Nomarch Ankhtifi’s foot can be seen above the tiny cartouche of the king. From the tomb of Ankhtifi, Moalla. First Intermediate Period. Photo:
© Garry Shaw.
Archers marching to war with their hunting dogs. From the tomb of Ankhtifi at Moalla. First Intermediate Period. Photo: © Garry Shaw.
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In the New Kingdom, the smiting motif was expanded to include scenes
of the king charging into war atop his chariot, firing arrows at his enemies. Ramesses II at the Ramesseum. New Kingdom. Photo: © Henning
Franzmeier.
In New Kingdom battle scenes, Egypt’s enemies were typically shown in
chaotic disarray, either dying, fallen or fleeing. From the Battle of Qadesh, depicted at the Ramesseum. Photo: © Garry Shaw.
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A mould for a Hittite
shield, as found in situ at
ancient Pi-Ramesses (mod-
ern Qantir). New Kingdom.
Photo: © Projekt Ramses-
Stadt, Norbert Boer.
A dagger found during
excavations at Pi-Ramesses
(modern Qantir). New
Kingdom. Photo: © Projekt
Ramses-Stadt, Axel Krause.
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The Great Temple at Abu Simbel served as a symbol of Egypt’s domination of Nubia in the New Kingdom. Photo: © Garry Shaw.
Ramesses III defeats the Sea Peoples, as shown in this complex battle scene at Medinet Habu. New Kingdom. Photo: © Garry Shaw.
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Ramesses III stands upon fallen enemies to shoot arrows at the Sea Peoples.
From Medinet Habu. New Kingdom. Photo: © Garry Shaw.
To keep track of the number of enemies killed in battle, the Egyptians severed and counted the hands or phalli of those killed. Here, a scribe depicted at Medinet Habu counts the hands of the dead. New Kingdom. Photo: ©
Garry Shaw.
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Chapter 6
Meeting the Mitanni and Assimilating Kush
(1549–1388 BCE)
Was it a knock to their self-esteem? A wake up call to the reality of
the modern world? Simple revenge? Whatever the cause, once the
Egyptians, now under the 18th Dynasty, had chased the Hyksos
across the Sinai and into the Levant, the seeds of expansionism were sewn.
The ‘empire,’ if we can truly call it that (it should perhaps be better catego-rised as a ‘sphere of influence,’ at least in Asia), had not yet begun, but the groundwork had been laid. King Ahmose, or his advisors, probably thought that if the Hyksos could enter Egypt and rule, then why couldn’t they do the same in the Levant? No one at court would stand for a divided Egypt again, but dividing up other kingdoms was perfectly fine.
The scars must have run deep from the Hyksos interlude. Warfare had
always been an important aspect of royal self presentation – we’ve already seen that the image of the smiting ruler dates back to Predynastic times – but this aspect of kingship would now be intensified: warfare and royal martial ability would become central to kingship. Through warfare, the pharaohs could display their strength, leadership, the approval of the gods, their protection of the people, and themselves as upholders of maat (order, justice, balance) – in short, all the aspects of a true and legitimate Egyptian king.
Images of the destruction of foreign enemies would now be writ large across temple walls. Military exploits would be inscribed on stelae placed in temple courtyards, to be read aloud to gathered crowds on special o
ccasions.
Egypt’s technology of war had changed little between the final years of the Predynastic Period through to the end of the Second Intermediate Period.
Now, as a result of the war with the Hyksos, not only had the Egyptians been exposed to more advanced weaponry (the pointy end), but resumed trading relations with the Near East had given them access to all the materials necessary to build their own. But access to materials alone wouldn’t be enough, the Egyptians also had to encourage immigrants with the right technological know-how to settle in Egypt. Chariot building, for example, wasn’t a simple task: just because you can buy all the materials you need to build a car, it doesn’t mean that you can do it yourself, not without the right training.
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Meeting the Mitanni and Assimilating Kush 75
For the Egyptians to construct their own chariots, they needed to bring in experts from abroad, whose expertise would be transferred over time.
But Egypt’s re-entry into the world of international politics required something even more challenging than developing technology and managing an
army: diplomacy. In this time of Bronze Age superpowers, Egypt’s kings and their messengers were forced to deal directly with their foreign counterparts, talking with them as friends whilst simultaneously presenting the same people in temples and tombs as terrified weaklings. The New Kingdom was an age of brother-kings: ultimate rulers – gods in their home countries – forced by necessity to acknowledge that those evil personifications of everything horri-ble, those miserable rulers of foreign lands, had to be treated as equals.
The Wider World
While the Egyptians were dealing with the Hyksos, the wider world
changed. Various international events conspired to bring into existence two powerful empires: the Mitanni and the Hittites, the fates of both intertwined. So, with the stage set, let’s first pull back the curtains and introduce the Hittites. A civilization based in Anatolia (in modern central Turkey), the Hittites had strong expansionist aspirations. Perhaps with this goal in mind, they’d moved their capital city from central Anatolia to the north-east of their territory, to Hattusa, modern Boghazkoy. From there, they’d expanded eastwards, raiding cities in Yamkhad, an independent kingdom that roughly covers the same area as modern Syria. Yamkhad was one of a number of