War & Trade With the Pharaohs
Page 14
After Hatshepsut’s death, Tuthmosis III was left to rule alone. It seems that the young king must have regarded his grandfather, Tuthmosis I, as a great inspiration, for one of his first actions was to launch a campaign into the Levant, and he spent the rest of his reign attempting to secure the territory that Tuthmosis had once traversed. He even aimed to reach the River Euphrates. Tuthmosis III’s first major campaign was among his most dramatic. The ruler of Qadesh (located in modern Syria), no doubt backed by the Mitanni, had expanded his influence and formed a coalition of city-states against the Egyptians.
This force had gathered at the city of Megiddo – perhaps the southernmost stronghold of this new coalition – with the intention of pushing further south. Perhaps fearing invasion, Tuthmosis and his army departed Egypt, marched overland to Gaza, and onwards to the town of Yehem, reaching it in the twenty-third year of his reign (despite having just become sole king, Tuthmosis incorporated Hatshepsut’s years of rule into his own).
An otherwise inconsequential town, at Yehem Tuthmosis and his advisors
met to discuss strategy and the route to Megiddo. Three options presented themselves: a route that would bring the army out at the northern side of Megiddo, one that brought them out at its southern side, or a march through the narrow Aruna Pass, with its exit close to the city. Tuthmosis favoured the Aruna Pass option, but his troops were worried: due to the narrowness of the Pass, whilst on the march, the army would be in single file, horse behind horse. If they encountered an enemy force, only those at the front would be able to fight. Due to a break in the text relating these events, it’s unclear what happened next; however, it appears that a messenger arrived with extra information, clinching the deal: the king was right all along (of course), and the best option was to march through the Aruna Pass.
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Tuthmosis was not a despot, however (at least, he didn’t like to present himself as such), and so gave those troops afraid of marching through the Pass the option to take a different road. None, of course, accepted his offer.
But perhaps they should have: later, while marching through the Pass, the army’s fears were realized – at least, as far as we can gather from this broken portion of the text. Enemy troops were waiting at its exit, and a small skirmish occurred. Afterwards, the Egyptians set up camp outside the Pass, and the king issued a command, telling his troops to sharpen their weapons in preparation for battle in the morning.
At dawn the next day, messengers entered the royal tent to inform
Tuthmosis that the area was secure. The king duly prepared himself for battle. Speaking about the battle in poetic terms, the Annals of Tuthmosis III
– inscribed on the walls within Karnak Temple – describe Tuthmosis as riding on his chariot of fine electrum, equipped with his weapons of war. The wings of the army went to their positions, and the king was among them,
‘the strength of [Seth pervading] his limbs.’3 The text doesn’t dwell on the details of the battle, but rather on the Egyptians’ success: ‘Then his majesty prevailed over them at the front of his army,’ the Annals relate. ‘Then they (the enemy) saw his majesty prevailing over them when they were fleeing headlong [to] Megiddo with terrified faces.’4 If the account can be trusted, the enemy coalition saw the Egyptian army approaching and fled. Although clearly exaggerated (the Gebel Barkal Stele, which also mentions these
events, says that the battle lasted an hour), this might not be so farfetched.
The Annals say that only 340 prisoners were taken during the battle – a relatively small number – and, more intriguingly, that the Egyptians only took eighty-three hands; as each hand represents a dead enemy, there can only have been a small-scale confrontation.
Showing a shocking lack of discipline, with the battle won, the Egyptian army looted the coalition camp instead of chasing their enemies down, giving the Asiatics enough time to flee and hide within the walls of Megiddo. This resulted in a siege that lasted seven months. ‘Look, [all foreign lands] are placed (together) [in this town according to the command] of Re on this day,’
said Tuthmosis. ‘Because all the great ones of all rebellious northern foreign lands are mixing within it, the capture of Megiddo is the capture of a thousand towns.’5 The Annals provide little more detail about what happened next, but the story picks up in Tuthmosis III’s Gebel Barkal Stele. This says that the siege was a success, with the unfortunate inhabitants pleading with the king for the ‘breath of life.’ When the doors to the city finally opened, the enemy chiefs and their children brought gifts to Tuthmosis III, handily War and Trade with the Pharaohs.indd 83
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including their weapons. And after pledging oaths of allegiance to pharaoh, they were allowed to return to their homes.
Importing Glass
Glass was one of Egypt’s major foreign imports during the New Kingdom. It is rarely found in the country before the 18th Dynasty, at which point, in around 1500 BCE, the Egyptians started importing it as a prestige item (in fact, it became so desirable that those who couldn’t afford it painted wooden vessels to appear as if they were made from glass). Even the two Egyptian words for glass are of Hurrian and Akkadian origin, while ‘lapis lazuli of Babylon,’ mentioned in the Annals of Tuthmosis III, might be a further reference to the material.
Glass makers may have entered Egypt under Tuthmosis III as a result of
his campaigns in the Levant. At this time, the Egyptians, lacking the ability to create the material from scratch, probably imported glass and melted it down to be re-shaped. By the Amarna Period, however, the Egyptians were producing their own raw glass, though it continued to be imported too (as mentioned in the Amarna Letters).
After Megiddo
Tuthmosis campaigned in the Levant on an almost yearly basis after the Battle of Megiddo, pushing Egyptian influence further and further north across the Levant. His eyes were focused on reaching the River Euphrates, where his grandfather had once erected his triumphal stele. The southern Levant was by now firmly under Egyptian control, with the kings of its city-states vassals, forced to pay tribute to pharaoh. Tuthmosis particularly ensured the loyalty of the region’s harbour cities, as this enabled him to transport troops and supplies by boat, something he did during his sixth and seventh campaigns.
Despite the fame of the Battle of Megiddo, to Tuthmosis’ soldiers, the
most important campaign of their lives – the one most frequently mentioned in their tomb autobiographies – was the eighth campaign, launched in the thirty-third year of Tuthmosis’ rule. During this campaign, Tuthmosis and his army finally reached the River Euphrates, fulfilling the king’s dreams, and burned the region’s cities. In order to cross the Euphrates, Tuthmosis had commanded boats be made at Byblos; in pieces, these were transported overland by oxen and carts to its banks, where they were reconstructed. Once on the opposite side of the river, mimicking his grandfather, Tuthmosis erected a stele, marking and reclaiming Egypt’s furthest boundary north. The army War and Trade with the Pharaohs.indd 84
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took local people as prisoners, seized cattle, provisions, and grain, and cut down enemy plantations and fruit trees. After returning across the Euphrates, Tuthmosis, again in imitation of his grandfather, went hunting elephants in the region of Niy. Although it’s recorded that he killed 120, he didn’t have an easy time: the Soldier Amenemhab says that during the hunt, one of these elephants attacked the king. Luckily for Tuthmosis (though not the elephant), Amenemhab reacted swiftly, cutting off the elephant’s trunk and saving his king. For his bravery, Amenemhab was rewarded by the pharaoh.
Managing the Levantine ‘Empire’
During the New Kingdom, the Levant was dotted with a large number of
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br /> city-states, each ruled by their own kings, some more powerful than others.
Of these, the most powerful managed a great deal of territory, and could even hold influence over other, smaller cities. There was frequent competition for land, and they often came into conflict with one another. Political allegiances between states were in a constant state of flux, with diplomatic marriages capable of rewriting entire relationships.
After Egypt’s campaigns in the Levant, each of these kings fell in status: they were forced to take an oath of allegiance to pharaoh and admit their subservience. To the Egyptians, these vassal kings were nothing more than local mayors – men who paid taxes to the Egyptian crown and provided the Egyptian army with supplies, troops, and accommodation whenever a campaign was underway. As long as they kept paying, and didn’t obstruct the flow of luxury goods, the Egyptians gave them little attention, often leaving them to fight and squabble without interference.
Only certain cities, including Tyre, Byblos, and Beth Shean (though
perhaps only from the 19th Dynasty onwards), housed Egyptian garrisons.
Gaza, meanwhile, had a garrison and a commissioner’s residence – home
to a man known as the overseer of northern lands – who had responsibility for overseeing parts of the Levantine territory and made periodic tours of the region. Egyptian royal messengers, travelling between the Levant’s city-states, also enjoyed a high status, and in particular had the power to collect taxes and administer justice.
Nubia in the 18th Dynasty
By the reign of Tuthmosis III, Nubia, as far as the Fourth Cataract, was firmly under Egyptian control, and there’s little evidence for campaigning War and Trade with the Pharaohs.indd 85
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in the region during his time on the throne. The only detailed example is found in the account of the Royal Herald Djehutymose, who before his promotion to herald had been a messenger and overseer of the royal granary.
In this latter capacity, he says that he helped to assemble and recruit troops for a Nubian expedition and organized the food supplies. Despite his purely administrative role, he took captives on the battlefield, suggesting that he also fought personally.
Since the early 18th Dynasty, Nubia as a whole, from the First to the
Fourth Cataract, had been managed by the king’s son of Kush. And like
Egypt itself, Nubia was now divided in two, with Wawat referring to Lower Nubia, and Kush being Upper Nubia. Each division had a deputy governor, who lived locally in one of his region’s major centres: the governor of Wawat lived at Aniba, roughly halfway between the First and Second Cataracts, and the governor of Kush was based at Soleb, before moving to Amara (both towns only a short distance away from the Third Cataract). Upper and
Lower Nubia were further divided into a number of smaller provinces, each overseen by a Nubian vassal ruler.
Between Tuthmosis’ years thirty-seven and forty-one, 200 prisoners
were brought to Egypt from the region of Kush, including four of the ruler of Irem’s children – Irem being a Nubian province, and its ruler a Nubian vassal of Egypt. These children were probably brought to the court to be
‘Egyptianized,’ exposing them to Egyptian culture and thus (theoretically) making them loyal to the Egyptian crown. At the same time, their presence at the Egyptian court would have ensured that the ruler of Irem followed pharaoh’s commands. A similar policy was enacted in the Levant, from
where the children of vassal kings were taken to the Egyptian palace and educated. One scene in the tomb of Menkheperreseneb shows the ruler
of Tunip bringing a small boy, presumably his son, to the Egyptian court, probably for this reason.
Unlike in the Levant, where for the most part Egypt only expected loy-
alty and tribute from its vassal rulers, in Nubia there was a push to transform the region into an extension of Egypt; one way of achieving this
‘Egyptianization’ was through the construction of ‘temple towns.’ These settlements were managed by a commander or mayor, who had the role of
generating income from the temple lands. Egypt’s temples were involved in collecting and storing grain, as well as other goods, which could be redistributed locally or across the country (some went as wages to State employees); in this way, Nubia became incorporated into Egypt’s wider economy. The
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and so played a role in further Egyptianizing the local population, exposing them to Egyptian beliefs and deities.
One of the most important Egyptian temples founded in Nubia under
Tuthmosis III was at Gebel Barkal, a small mountain near the Fourth
Cataract of the Nile. Here, on a site probably already sacred to the Nubians, the Egyptians noticed that a rocky pinnacle resembled a uraeus (a rearing cobra that symbolized royal power) wearing the White Crown of Upper
Egypt, leading them to identify the mountain as the Nubian home of the god Amun. Consequently, Tuthmosis founded a temple and fortress at the foot of the mountain, and a city, known as Napata, developed nearby. Additional temples were built under Tuthmosis’ successors, creating a complex that would later have particular religious significance to the 25th Dynasty kings.
The Composite Bow and Khepesh
In addition to the chariot, one of the main technological developments
adopted by the New Kingdom Egyptians was the composite bow –
a technology that had been known in the Near East for some time.
Composite bows, as the name suggests, were formed of multiple parts.
To make one, a wooden bow was taken, and strips of horn and sinew
were glued to it, making it more elastic and giving it a greater range –
somewhere between 160 to 175 m. As composite bows were more powerful
than standard bows, it was possible for archers to fire arrows with larger bronze heads. In turn, this meant that the Egyptians had to adopt better protection, and so started using bronze shields. The Egyptian word for
quiver, ‘ispet,’ was also imported from the Near East, it being based on the Akkadian word ‘ispatu.’
Another weapon, widely used in the Near East from around 2500 BCE,
and introduced into Egypt during the New Kingdom, was the khepesh, a curved blade used for hacking. It is often shown held by the king in smiting scenes, or being handed to the king by a god as a symbol of certain victory in a coming campaign.
The World Comes to Egypt
Tuthmosis III’s reign was not all about warfare and ‘Egyptianization.’ Egypt’s exploits in the wider world had changed its relationship with its neighbours, and even more-so than previously, the country became a multicultural centre, attracting foreign merchants, messengers, and diplomats. Numerous
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people from the Levant lived and worked in Egypt, acting as shipyard workers, craftsmen, scribes, and vintners, among many other positions. At the royal dockyard of Peru-nefer in particular, a number of foreign people held jobs, and worshipped the gods Baal and Astarte; it’s possible that these came to offer the Egyptians their specialist knowledge of shipping. One shipyard worker even travelled from as far away as the region of Arzawa in western Turkey. Foreigners also achieved high-level positions at court. There was a Hurrian overseer of works named Benya, and a chancellor named Nehesy,
who may have been from Nubia. A man named Pas-Baal, captured during
Tuthmosis III’s wars in the Levant, went on to become chief draughtsman in the Temple of Amun. Egyptian soldiers married Asiatic women.
Across Egypt, there was a greater interest in all things �
�foreign’ than before: Egyptian workshops produced Syrian-style vessels, and Aegean textiles
inspired the decoration of tomb ceilings. Foreign flora and fauna were also of interest: the Annals of Tuthmosis III record ‘two birds that are not known and four birds of this (foreign) country that give birth every day’6 among the gifts from a foreign country – the latter is possibly the first reference to chickens in Egypt. From his year twenty-five campaign in Lebanon, Tuthmosis III also collected plants and flowers; these were donated to the Temple of Amun at Karnak and recorded in detailed reliefs on the temple walls.
Egypt’s enhanced foreign relations also boosted the economy.
Independent countries and city-states brought expensive ‘gifts’ to the pharaoh’s court, many of which were donated by the king to Egypt’s temples.
In the Annals of Tuthmosis III, such gifts arrive from Hatti (the land of the Hittites), Babylonia, Assyria, Cyprus, Alalakh, and mainland Greece, and included copper, lead, wood, silver, lapis lazuli, and even exotic animals.
The foreign delegations bringing these gifts probably stayed at the Egyptian court for some months, enabling deals to be struck and bonds to be forged with courtiers.
Rather than giving gifts, conquered territories sent contributions to the Egyptian court as regular, obligatory tax; in the Annals, this was sent from locations in the southern Levant (showing a stronger hold over this region than the north), and included wine, honey, and cereals. Wawat and Kush in Nubia sent tax in the form of gold, cattle, slaves, ivory, and crops. Egypt’s constant campaigning also brought the spoils of war: from prisoners and chariots, to women, children, and livestock.
Egypt’s nobles must have found this all rather exciting, for it became fash-ionable for them to depict the arrival of foreign delegations in their tombs.
Not only did such paintings show that you were a member of the ‘in crowd,’
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invited to such lavish events, but it also added a touch of the exotic to your tomb. Among the foreigners depicted bearing gifts were people from the