War & Trade With the Pharaohs

by Garry J. Shaw

  sor to Tuthmosis, had no need to prove himself at war, and even if

  he’d wanted to, there wasn’t much opportunity to do so anyway; instead, Amenhotep dedicated himself to producing art and architecture on a grand scale – the next time you see a large statue of the goddess Sekhmet in a museum, there’s a good chance that you can thank Amenhotep for commissioning it. There’s also a good chance that that beautiful statue of King Ramesses II you’ve always admired was also commissioned by Amenhotep,

  and later usurped by the better-known pharaoh. In fact, there are more surviving statues of Amenhotep III than of any other Egyptian king.

  Many of Egypt’s great temples also benefitted from Amenhotep’s patron-

  age, in particular Luxor Temple, and his mortuary temple on the west bank of Luxor – the largest mortuary temple constructed in Egypt – today most famous for the Colossi of Memnon, the two royal statues that still guard its entrance. Rather than spending his time directing troops on campaign like his predecessors, Amenhotep enjoyed the more pleasant side of life – perhaps too much, given that he had himself (quite unusually) portrayed portly and wearing a fringed tunic on a serpentine statue now in the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

  Amenhotep also found unusual ways to spread word of his achievements.

  Large commemorative scarabs bearing summaries of events from his coro-

  nation through to his tenth year have been found across the Mediterranean world; it’s probable that these were handed out to loyal courtiers and visiting dignitaries, and afterwards were traded, passed from person to person, and eventually ended up all over the place. ‘Brand Amenhotep’ certainly had good PR. Of the various subjects recorded on these scarabs, there were the king’s lion and bull hunts; the arrival of a Mitanni princess – Gilukhepa, sister of Mitanni King Tushratta – for marriage (one of two Mitanni princesses he would marry); the digging of a lake for his great royal wife, Queen Tiye, to sail upon; and a celebration of the parents of Queen Tiye. At the same War and Trade with the Pharaohs.indd 96

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  time, the king also experimented with royal presentation in Nubia, where at Soleb and Sedeinga, he built temples dedicated to the royal cult, divinizing himself in his own lifetime (something else that Ramesses II would later copy). Through art and architecture, Amenhotep III proclaimed himself a god on earth: if he couldn’t win glory on the battlefield, he’d at least tick every other box on the royal list of clichés.

  But this isn’t to say that warfare didn’t occur under Amenhotep III, it’s just that he had little interest in the opportunities available; there were at least two campaigns in Nubia during his reign, but Nubia – by now heavily Egyptianized – held little attraction. Faced only with minor rebellions, the challenge just wasn’t there for the aggressive pharaoh seeking glory.

  The first of Amenhotep’s Nubian campaigns occurred in his fifth year

  as king, but there’s little information about it. As was often the case, a messenger came to inform the king that an enemy in Kush was planning

  a rebellion. The king duly sent out his army, who slaughtered their enemies and severed many hands. If the text is to be believed, 30,000 prisoners were taken, and Amenhotep set free as many as he liked, so that

  there’d still be some people left living there. The Nubian rebel leader was called Ikheny, described by Amenhotep as a ‘boaster.’ According to the

  king, Ikheny ‘didn’t know the lion that was in front of him: Nebmaatre

  (Amenhotep III) is the savage lion whose claws grasped impotent Kush.

  All its chiefs were trampled throughout their valleys, (being) overthrown in their (own) blood, one on top of another.’1 Amenhotep III’s second

  campaign was led by his King’s Son of Kush Merymose, whose account

  is inscribed on a stele at Semna. This rebellion is blamed on the people of Ibhet, who were planning an attack on Egyptians in Nubia. Merymose

  assembled an army and attacked the Nubians during the harvest season,

  taking 740 prisoners and killing 312.

  Relations with the Levant, on the other hand, continued to prosper. As

  already mentioned, Amenhotep married a sister of Mitanni King Tushratta, and later married a second Mitanni princess, named Tadukhepa. For this

  second marriage, letters preserve discussions about the dowry and its contents, and mention Tadukhepa’s planned arrival in Egypt. Such family ties brought Amenhotep and Tushratta closer together, to the extent that after Amenhotep’s death, Tushratta wrote to the widowed Queen Tiye, saying

  that he had mourned the death of his ‘brother.’ Letters record snippets of the peace treaty established between the Mitanni and the Egyptians too.

  Amenhotep’s northern vizier was also of Levantine origin. His name was

  Aper-el, and he’d been a child of the royal nursery – brought up and educated War and Trade with the Pharaohs.indd 97

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  at Egypt’s court. His son became an overseer of horses, and recruited men for military service and labour projects.

  Interactions with people from the Aegean are also found under Amenhotep III. Fourteen locations in the region are mentioned on a statue base from the king’s mortuary temple at Thebes, and a kneeling Minoan is shown in the tomb of Anen, brother of Queen Tiye. More unusually, a medical text from Amenhotep’s reign mentions a spell for curing an Asiatic disease, and proceeds to present the spell as pronounced in the Minoan language.

  The Amarna Letters

  Perhaps the best-known sources for international diplomacy during the

  reign of Amenhotep III, and into the reigns of his successors, are the

  Amarna Letters (so-called because they were found at the site of Tell

  el-Amarna). Providing an insight into the diplomatic correspondence

  between Egypt and its neighbours, about 380 of these small clay tablets are known, covering a period of about twenty years, give or take a few. Each is inscribed with cuneiform script, and in the Akkadian language: the lingua franca of the day. On the whole, the letters are responses to the pharaoh, often quoting from the original letters sent, providing us with some much-needed context. The letters fall into two categories: a minority represent letters sent between the pharaohs and the great kings of the Near East, such as those of Babylon, Assyria, Hatti (the land of the Hittites), Mitanni, and Cyprus, while the rest represent correspondence between Egypt and

  her vassal kings in the Levant. (Indeed, one fifth of the letters come from Ribaddi of Byblos, an Egyptian vassal, who seems to have been a rather

  obsessive letter writer.)

  For the great kings of the Near East, irrespective of how they presented themselves back home, in the world of diplomatic correspondence they were equals, and referred to each other as ‘brothers.’ Over time, these powerful states became interconnected and interdependent, reliant on one another for luxurious trade goods to flaunt their status at home. Diplomatic marriage and luxury goods were the main topics of conversation, not political discussion. Some letters also include messages of congratulations between the great kings, particularly when one ascended the throne, as well as – more entertainingly – complaints, particularly regarding the non-arrival or the poor quality of gifts sent. As you might expect, the great kings took offense easily, so all efforts were taken to ensure that proper procedures were carried out and etiquette followed.

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  But this could not always be achieved. King Kadashman-Enlil of Babylon, for example, sent a complaint to Amenhotep III after hearing that the chariots he’d presented to Egypt as a royal gift had been displayed among those sent by Egypt’s vassal kings, and not reviewed separately. He regarded the situation as an insult. King Tushratta of the Mitanni was simil
arly offended, but by gifts sent to him by the Egyptians. Standing before his assembled court and dignitaries, Egyptian messengers among them, Tushratta ceremonially unveiled the gifts sent to him from Amenhotep III, only to discover that not everything was made of gold! (Perhaps he should have taken a peek at them before assembling the crowd?) On a later occasion, under King Akhenaten, Amenhotep

  III’s successor, Tushratta complained that Egypt’s gift of a solid gold statue turned out to be merely gold-plated wood (shocking!). Probably after double-checking the materials of all the other gifts he’d received, he wrote to Akhenaten asking him to speak with his mother Tiye about the matter. And, to emphasize his displeasure further, he also sent a letter directly to her.

  As with any club, you couldn’t just turn up and expect to be admitted:

  there were rules for joining the league of extraordinary kings, and sometimes the efforts of one kingdom to join annoyed certain existing member states.

  This was the case with Assyria, resurgent at the time and wanting to be recognized as a great state. The letter sent by King Ashuruballit I of Assyria to Akhenaten wasn’t particularly offensive in itself: as you might expect, it includes some polite talk, the offer of gifts, and Ashuruballit’s acceptance that his predecessors had not yet had a close relationship with Egypt.

  Nevertheless, a rising Assyria posed a threat to the Hittites, who weren’t pleased with the country’s attempts to woo the Egyptians. The Babylonians likewise had their own complaints, particularly as they regarded Assyria as part of their own territory. Their king, Burnaburiash II, wrote to Akhenaten, saying that he hadn’t sent the Assyrians (his ‘own subjects’) to the Egyptians and wanted to know what they were doing. He then told Akhenaten not to

  do business with them, and to send them away ‘empty-handed.’ Despite

  these complaints, the Egyptians continued to have diplomatic ties with

  Assyria, even after Ashuruballit I sent a message moaning about the lack of gold among the latest diplomatic presents from Egypt. (His reason? He was building a new palace and needed the gold for adornment of course.)

  Syrian Traders in the Tomb of Kenamun

  On the walls of his Theban tomb, Kenamun, the mayor of Thebes under

  Amenhotep III, included a unique scene of Syrian traders arriving in Egypt War and Trade with the Pharaohs.indd 99

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  to exchange goods. This scene is special due to the detail of the foreign boats and the clothing worn by the Syrians, as well as it being the only depiction of foreign traders disembarking from their vessels to bring goods to an Egyptian market. Although the location of the event is not stated, given Kenamun’s position it probably occurred at Thebes.

  This detailed scene shows two large sailing vessels, connected by ropes to seven smaller boats, which have reached the shore. The ships’ crews wear highly detailed clothing, and are quite clearly Syrian due to their distinctive beards and hairdos (although some have shaved their beards). Men unload cargo, carrying it on their shoulders or in their hands, and some have carried a selection of items before Kenamun, who may have been making purchases on behalf of the local authorities, including the granary of Amun. Large vessels of wine or oil have been brought, as well as two large bulls, and vessels containing precious metals; the latter are quite elaborate in some cases: one is decorated with the figure of a bull, and another has a bull’s head-shaped stopper. Two women and a young boy are perhaps being traded as slaves.

  The Syrians bring other items before private traders, both men and

  women, who have set up their small booths on the riverfront. One of the shopkeepers owns a set of scales. Others display various items hanging

  around their stalls, including textiles, sandals, and foodstuffs. One Syrian merchant offers a large jar of either oil or wine to a shopkeeper.

  The Reign of Akhenaten

  Amenhotep III died after thirty-eight luxurious years on the throne, leaving a plump mummy and his son Amenhotep IV to take power. Thus began

  one of Egypt’s most unusual phases, referred to by scholars as the Amarna Period. Soon after ascending the throne, Amenhotep IV changed his name

  to Akhenaten and refocused Egypt’s state religion on the Aten, the sun disc, eventually proscribing the official worship of all other gods. With radical changes made to religion, art, and architecture, it wasn’t long before the king announced a change of royal residence too. This new city, dedicated to the Aten, would be called Akhetaten (‘The-Horizon-of-the-Aten’), better known today as Tell el-Amarna.

  Although in older Egyptological literature Akhenaten is often presented by scholars as a pacifist, more focused on his religious movement than warfare, this interpretation is not accepted today. It’s true that there’s little evidence for large-scale campaigning, but this shouldn’t be interpreted as the king having no interest in defending Egypt’s interests abroad. Of the War and Trade with the Pharaohs.indd 100

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  campaigns known from the time of Akhenaten, one was certainly waged in

  Nubia. This occurred during the king’s twelfth year on the throne, when a rebellion was instigated by the people of Ikayta, a gold mining region in the desert just south-east of the First Cataract. Like his father, Akhenaten felt no need to personally accompany his Nubian campaign, and so instructed the King’s Son of Kush Djehutymose to put an end to the uprising. Although

  the details of the campaign aren’t clear, it seems that the Nubians retreated north of the mining region’s wells, but were later discovered and dealt with harshly; Djehutymose took 145 captives, including twelve children, and

  there were 225 enemy casualties. The Egyptians then impaled the captured Nubians as punishment.

  Meanwhile, there were developments in Hatti – the land of the Hittites.

  In year twelve, while Akhenaten’s troops were fighting the rebellious

  Nubians, the Hittite Empire under King Suppiluliuma I was entering a

  phase of expansion that would have major repercussions throughout the

  Near East. Known as the ‘Great Syrian Campaign,’ this wave of expansionism effectively ended the Mitanni Empire. The Hittite military advance

  began as a way of halting an anti-Hittite uprising in Isuwa, in south-east Anatolia. But rather than turning back afterwards, happy to have dealt with the troublemakers, the Hittites continued onwards to the Mitanni capital of Washukanni, forcing King Tushratta – a friend and relative by marriage to both Amenhotep III and Akhenaten – to flee. Tushratta was eventually murdered by one of his sons – an unfortunate end to one of Egypt’s clos-est allies. With Mitanni territory now under Hittite control, Suppiluliuma placed Tushratta’s brother, Shattiwaza (who had married into the Hittite royal family) on the Mitanni throne to rule in his name. The Hittites next turned their attention to the Mitanni vassal states in Syria, absorbing them into their expanding empire. Among them, unexpectedly, was the city of

  Qadesh, at the time, an Egyptian vassal.

  In these tumultuous times, Qadesh had the unfortunate luck of being

  caught between a number of competing powers: the Hittites to the north; Egypt’s vassals to the south; and the state of Amurru to the west. It also stood at an important entry point into Egypt’s Levantine territory from the north-east, giving the Egyptians a tactical reason to want to retain possession of it.

  By the reign of Akhenaten, the possibility of losing Qadesh hadn’t worried the pharaohs for generations; it had remained firmly under Egyptian control since its capture by Tuthmosis III’s army. It would have remained securely in Akhenaten’s hands too if it weren’t for the overeager actions of one individual: the city’s king, Shutatarra. Seeing the Hittite army (who apparently War and Trade with the Pharaohs.indd 101

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  had zero interest in t
aking Qadesh) nearing his territory, Shutatarra decided that the best defence was a good offence, and launched an attack, provoking the Hittites. Suppiluliuma’s army swiftly defeated Qadesh’s forces, took the city for themselves, and deported Shutatarra to Hatti. Afterwards, the Hittites put Shutatarra’s son, a man named Aitakama, in charge of Qadesh as their latest vassal king. Things were starting to get messy.

  What followed was a fair amount of double play behind the scenes. After taking power in Qadesh, Aitakama wrote to Akhenaten expressing loyalty to him and absolutely, definitely not to the Hittites. At the same time, Akhenaten was receiving letters from his other vassals, who claimed that Aitakama had been trying to tempt them to switch allegiance to the Hittites; Akizzi of Qatna, for example, wrote to Akhenaten saying that Aitakama had reached out to him, asking him to come to the king of Hatti, but he’d replied, saying that he was a servant of the king of Egypt. By writing to Akhenaten, the vassals were clearly (and cleverly) covering their own backs, just in case they were somehow implicated in Aitakama’s treason. Meanwhile, Suppiluliuma

  was acting as if everything was business as usual, sending friendly letters to Egypt and pretending that nothing had changed.

  At some point in the last years of his reign, Akhenaten must have felt

  that enough was enough, and started planning a campaign to retake Qadesh.

  His vassals – perhaps again fearful of being implicated in Aitakama’s disloyalty – now fell over themselves in a desperate bid to prove their support for the king: Abimilki of Tyre wrote to Akhenaten, pointing out that the ruler of Beirut had offered the pharaoh one ship, the ruler of Sidon had offered two ships, but he would offer all his ships! What happened next is unclear, as we have no further details about the campaign. If it did in fact go ahead, Akhenaten can’t have been successful, for Aitakama continued to rule as king of Qadesh into the reign of Tutankhamun and the city didn’t yet return to Egyptian control.

  Getting to Know Amurru

  The Amarna Letters are a wonderful source for learning about the relations between the various vassal states of Egypt and the rulers of these lands.