War & Trade With the Pharaohs
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bodies bore injuries inflicted during life, perhaps during combat. The graves of certain members of the elite featured a crescent of cow skulls to one side –
one had around 4,000 skulls. The Kermans buried sheep and dogs within
their tombs too.
Within Tumulus KIII – a massive construction, 90 m in diameter –
excavators found Egyptian statuary, including a statue of a woman named Sennuwy and fragments of a statue of her husband, Hepdjefa, who was
active in Asyut under Senwosret I. The Kermans probably brought these,
and other Egyptian statues, to Kerma as plunder from raids in Egyptian
territory during the Second Intermediate Period. This interpretation is backed up by the inscription of Sobeknakht of el-Kab, an Egyptian who
describes an attack by a king of Kerma on Upper Egypt, aided by allies
from Wawat, Punt, an oasis, and the Medjay. This inscription shows that the kings of Kerma ruled over their neighbouring Nubian territories too. Many campaigns into Egypt must have occurred, for archaeologists at Kerma discovered items taken from temples and tombs from as far afield as Asyut, Thebes, Hierakonpolis, and Elephantine. Still, although the Kermans
clearly launched military campaigns into Egyptian territory, at other times, the two civilizations enjoyed more peaceful relations, reflected by the ongoing trade mentioned above. It’s even possible that some Egyptian artisans lived at the city, for flourishes of Egyptian art – such as a winged sun-disc in royal Tumulus KIII – can be found. Such art, however, may simply have been inspired by Egyptian motifs, rather than created by Egyptian artisans.
Unfortunately, little is known about the kings of Kerma themselves. An
Egyptian execration text mentions a Nubian ruler called Awawa, born of his mother Kouna, but his father’s name is lost; and an Egyptian figurine refers to a king of Kerma named Utatrerses, born of his mother Teti and his father Awa’a – seemingly the Awawa of the other text. Both sources mention further Nubian districts and rulers, perhaps controlled by the Kerman kings.
Other kings attested include Kaa and Teriahi, who seem to have ruled before Awawa and Utatrerses.
Lower Nubia Under Kerman Rule
As the city of Kerma prospered further south, Lower Nubia, now under
Kerman control, became a place where Egyptians, C-group Nubians,
Pan-Grave people, and Kerma Nubians all lived and mingled in the same
space, many involved in the lucrative business of long distance trade. The C-Group built more houses and tombs than in previous times, and more
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Egyptian imports arrived than before, but the threat of violence remained, as shown by the fortification of the C-Group settlements at Wadi es-Sebua and Areika.
In this cultural melting pot, traditions began to fuse. This can be seen quite clearly in a settlement just outside the walls of the fortress of Askut, where a household ancestor shrine was maintained throughout the Second
Intermediate Period. Placed on a bench in a reception room, with an altar for libations, the focal point of this cult was a stele dedicated to a man named Merikare. Although people placed Egyptian votive figurines and food offerings in Egyptian pots before this shrine, they also left offerings in Nubian pots, and a Nubian fertility figure of either Kerman or C-Group origin.
Egyptian and Nubian figurines are found across the settlement at Askut, and intriguingly, many of the other Nubian objects discovered were associated with women; this has led some scholars to argue that Egyptian men married C-Group women at Askut.
The Rulers of Foreign Lands
Returning to the Egyptian Delta now: when the 13th Dynasty weakened, a
north-eastern province centred on the city of Tell el-Daba (also known as Avaris) broke free of Egypt’s centralized State. The kings of this territory are today known as the 14th Dynasty, with many of Asiatic ancestry. These were the descendants of immigrants from the Syrian region, who had settled in Egypt during the late 12th Dynasty – soldiers, administrators, and servants; increasing their wealth and status over generations, they became a powerful local elite with high-level roles in the administration. One burial at Tell el-Daba, dated to the late 12th Dynasty, contained the broken statue of an Asiatic man, twice life-size with a mushroom-shaped hairstyle, painted red, and wearing a long multicoloured robe. He was an important individual, who might even have been an Asiatic prince. Also of late 12th Dynasty date, a seal, mounted on a gold ring and found in a tomb at Tell el-Daba, bears an inscription for the ruler of Retenu – roughly Syria-Palestine. These immigrants built their houses at Tell el-Daba in the style of contemporary homes in north-east Syria, and buried many of their men as warriors. They also constructed Asiatic temples during the 13th Dynasty, close to buildings of purely Egyptian type. Hybrid Egyptian-Asiatic temples were also built. So, by the time that the 13th Dynasty weakened, the 14th Dynasty kings were in a position to transform Tell el-Daba into the north-east Delta’s major hub for Asiatics in Egypt.
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After declaring independence, the 14th Dynasty kings continued to rule
their province according to typical Egyptian administrative practices, with only some adaptations influenced by their original homeland. Although
few monuments are associated with these rulers, archaeologists have found seals and scarabs bearing their names as far afield as the Levant, the 13th Dynasty’s remaining Egyptian territory, and Nubia. This shows that trade continued in all directions and that they enjoyed good relations with the Egyptian royals (despite taking a chunk of their country). Unfortunately, little else is known about the 14th Dynasty rulers other than their names.
Better attested than most, however, is King Sheshi, who appears to have married a Kerman queen called Tati. It was perhaps under their son, King Nehesy – meaning ‘the Nubian’ – that the 14th Dynasty state formally separated from 13th Dynasty Egypt.
Under the 14th Dynasty, a large residence was constructed at Tell
el-Daba, and wealthy individuals were buried in its courtyard – a very
un-Egyptian practice, given that the Egyptians preferred to be buried out in the desert, away from settlements. The Deputy Treasurer Aamu (meaning ‘the Asiatic’) was among those buried in its grounds. This man lived during the mid- to late 14th Dynasty and was interred alongside five sacrificed donkeys, a bronze dagger, and a battleaxe, among other items. Burials from other locations in Tell el-Daba also belonged to warriors, who entered the afterlife with non-Egyptian weapons. Donkey burials are also known in the Levant, for example at Tell el-Ajjul.
Despite their success, and having expanded their influence to encom-
pass most of the Delta, making vassals of the Egyptians along the way, the 14th Dynasty appear to have met an unfortunate end: large communal
graves at Tell el-Daba suggest that a plague rampaged through the city, killing off much of the population. This then gave rise to a new ruling elite, known to us as the 15th Dynasty. Like the 14th Dynasty before them, these were probably the descendants of Asiatics already living in Egypt, who now moved to Tell el-Daba to fill the power vacuum. Nonetheless,
they still referred to themselves as heka khasut, ‘the rulers of foreign lands’
– a title found on 15th Dynasty scarabs, but also on the lintel of King Sikri-haddu, where it is used like a royal epithet; it is from this phrase –
heka khasut – that later Greek writers derived the word ‘Hyksos.’ These 15th Dynasty Hyksos kings ruled the north roughly concurrently with the successive Egyptian 16th and 17th Dynasties, who by th
is time, from their residence at Thebes, controlled territory from the region of Cusae in the Nile Valley down to Aswan.
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Like that of their predecessors in the 14th Dynasty, Hyksos culture continued to display a mixture of Levantine and Egyptian traditions. A palatial compound, built at Tell el-Daba, reflects the influence of both cultures, and two scarabs, each depicting a Hyksos ruler in the manner of an Egyptian king, show the figure holding a twig in one hand and a raised club in the other – motifs associated with the Levantine weather god. Hyksos kings also used Egyptian royal titles, such as ‘Son of Re’ and ‘Good God,’ while retaining their foreign names (e.g. Khayan), written in hieroglyphs. An inscription on the scribal palette of Atu describes King Apepi – sometimes called Apophis – as being able to read hieroglyphs. This king ruled at the zenith of Hyksos power, and seems to have had a particular interest in Egyptian traditions: it was under Apepi, for example, that scribes copied the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus, a work that required a great deal of skill.
One advantage that the Delta’s Asiatic kings had over the Egyptians was access to higher quality weaponry. Egypt had long lagged behind the rest of the world in military technology, and even by the Second Intermediate Period, bronze weapons were rare in Egypt. In contrast, archaeologists have excavated bronze scimitars (called khepesh by the Egyptians), axe heads, spearheads, and daggers, all of Levantine type, at Tell el-Daba. The people of the city also used moulds to produce both Egyptian and foreign style axes.
Still, although the Hyksos are often said to have brought such advanced military technology as the composite bow and the chariot to Egypt, there’s little evidence to back up these claims. Both composite bows and chariots appear to have been adopted from the Near East by the Egyptians and Hyksos at
roughly the same time. And the Hyksos no doubt had them first: the earliest horse bones found in Egypt were excavated at Tell el-Daba, and the first textual reference to horses comes from an inscription of the Theban King Kamose, which describes them being used by the Hyksos. Whatever the
case may be, Egypt’s terrain does not lend itself well to large-scale chariot warfare, and so for the most part, chariots would have been ineffective in the battles of this period. This isn’t to say that the Hyksos weren’t great warriors, however: four pits, excavated in a Hyksos palace, contained severed hands. These were probably cut from fallen enemies, for in the New Kingdom, the Egyptians took hands to keep track of the number of enemies killed.
Whilst ruling northern Egypt, the Hyksos maintained their relations with the Levant, engaging in trade and sending diplomatic gifts. Archaeologists have discovered Levantine pottery in Hyksos graves, and trade further afield is shown through the presence of Cypriot pottery at Tell el-Daba, dated War and Trade with the Pharaohs.indd 66
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to the 15th Dynasty. A fragment of a cuneiform tablet, also found at Tell el-Daba, might show connections with southern Mesopotamia.
The Abydos Dynasty
Recent excavations at Abydos have proven the existence of an additional ruling family, active in the Abydos region during the Second Intermediate Period, roughly contemporary with the 15th and 16th Dynasties. The burials of eight kings from this mysterious line have so far been uncovered, and are currently being studied. Senebkay, one of these kings, came to a violent end. Eighteen wounds are spread across his body, each penetrating to the bone, including in his feet, ankles, knees, hands, and lower back. Senebkay also received three major blows to his head, leaving an imprint of the battleaxes used. It’s thought that he was attacked by multiple enemies, but the identity of his killers is unknown: the most probable perpetrators are the Hyksos, others Egyptians or Nubians. What is clear is that quite a long time passed between his death and the preparation of his body for burial, suggesting that he was far from home. Based on an analysis of his muscle attachments, Senebkay spent a great deal of time riding horses. Another body, found nearby, showed similar evidence. This is curious, for in art, Egyptians are not typically shown riding donkeys or horses, and horses are not thought to have been common in Egypt until the New Kingdom.
The Theban 16th and 17th Dynasties
At the end of the 13th Dynasty, the Egyptian royals either fled south to Thebes to continue their rule, or vanished from history, leaving space for a new Egyptian dynasty to emerge. Either way, the Theban 16th Dynasty was roughly contemporary with the early Hyksos/15th Dynasty phase. During
this turbulent time, the Egyptians lived under constant threat of attack. At Gebelein, King Dedumose II of the 16th Dynasty erected a stele with an
inscription proclaiming that he’d been chosen by the god Horus, and had increased the size of his army. King Montuhotepi commemorated his defence of Thebes on a stele at Karnak Temple, saying that he was beloved of his army, drove back ‘all foreign lands,’ and rescued Thebes. King Ikhernofret, an ephemeral ruler, was ‘a strong king beloved of his army,’ and one ‘who caused his city to be protected when it was immersed, and cared for it with the foreigners; who pacified the rebellious lands for her through the manifest power of his father Amun; who overthrew the guilty ones for her who had War and Trade with the Pharaohs.indd 67
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rebelled against him; and dealt terror to those that attacked him.’3 Nowhere does Ikhernofret say who his enemies were – they may have been the Hyksos, but, as we’ve already seen in the above mentioned text of Sobeknakht, the Kerman kings also launched frequent campaigns into Egyptian territory. In his account of this Kerman campaign, Sobeknakht says that he prepared the town of el-Qab by repairing its ramparts. He also mustered his troops and travelled south to meet the Kerman army. In the ensuing battle, Sobeknakht says, the goddess Nekhbet burned all her enemies, leaving the Egyptians victorious.
Re-conquering Egypt, or at the very least, making themselves more able
to defend their territory, was a major concern of the 16th Dynasty’s successors: the 17th Dynasty Theban kings. To solidify the allegiance of important provincial families, they awarded some nobles the title king’s son, enabling them to feel part of the royal family. The governors of major towns, such as Abydos, Thebes, and Tod, also acted as garrison commanders, and were similarly awarded the title of king’s son – some even married Theban princesses. Meanwhile, the Thebans took the first steps towards creating a professional army, with a fully fledged military hierarchy. For the Egyptians, enough was enough. The scene was set for war.
The Egyptians Strike Back
The Theban King Seqenenre Tao II of the 17th Dynasty probably launched the first campaign against the Hyksos. The Soldier Ahmose Son of Ibana (buried during the 18th Dynasty at el-Qab) says that his father served in Seqenenre’s naval fleet, and this king also constructed a new settlement at Deir el-Ballas, 40
km north of Thebes, which boasted huge defensive walls and a military observation post. It was manned in part by Kerman mercenaries, raising the possibility that Seqenenre first launched a campaign south, securing a portion of Lower Nubia and enlisting the prisoners into his army. More unusually, a literary tale, known today as ‘The Quarrel of Apophis and Seqenenre,’ describes the king as getting into an argument with his Hyksos counterpart: Apepi/Apophis complains that the noise of the Theban hippos is keeping him awake at night, so Seqenenre assembles his courtiers to discuss the matter. Sadly, the text breaks off at this point, but it probably went on to describe the outbreak of war.
The mummy of Seqenenre Tao II provides the most significant evidence
for warfare during his reign. When unwrapped, the body displayed multiple fractures in the king’s skull, caused by a series of violent blows. Experts then matched the shape of these wounds to the types of weapons that inflicted them: two match the shape of a H
yksos-style axe; one was caused by an
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Egyptian axe; the handle of an axe or a mace caused a blunt blow to the nose; and the final injury, perhaps caused by a spear, was below the left ear at the base of the skull. Significantly, Seqenenre’s body displays no other signs of wounds or bone breakage. The only blows were to his head.
It is commonly argued that Seqenenre was either killed fighting on the
battlefield against multiple assailants, or that he was assassinated while sleeping in his palace. Elsewhere, however, I’ve argued that Seqenenre was ceremonially executed following the loss of a battle against the Hyksos. His body was then left where it fell, only to be recovered later by the Thebans.
The remains of King Senebkay, recently discovered at Abydos (see box text) re-enforce this new theory: the extent and spread of the wounds across his body reflect the frantic chaos of fighting multiple assailants on the battlefield. Seqenenre’s wounds, however, are the product of targeted precision, ending with a coup de grâce: the blows were entirely against his head, suggesting that he was not actively fighting at the time of his death, and that he was probably bound and unable to defend himself.
With Seqenenre dead, it now fell to Kamose, probably Seqenenre’s
brother, to deal with the Hyksos and Kerman threat. A letter, sent from Apepi to a newly crowned Kerman king, mentions that Kamose had attacked Nubia, suggesting that the king first sought to weaken his Nubian counterpart and gain access to the region’s gold supplies and mercenaries before tackling his northern enemy. (Apepi also complains that the Kerman king had failed to inform him about his recent coronation – the meanie!) Kamose’s mission seems to have been successful, for by his third year on the throne, a soldier had been assigned to rebuild Buhen fortress’ walls (and archaeological investigations have shown that work was indeed undertaken there at this time). A soldier named Ahmose also mentions a campaign in Nubia,