War & Trade With the Pharaohs
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km. These forts defended the Delta, monitored the movement of people, and perhaps protected trade ships arriving from Crete. Due to the forts’ proximity to one another, the troops could quickly relay messages between them, speeding up the Egyptians’ reaction to any potentially threatening behaviour from passing Libyan groups. Given the clear and present danger posed by the Libyans, as well as the effort expended on constructing these western forts under Ramesses, it’s odd then that Merenptah abandoned them.
Indeed, Merenptah probably wished that he’d kept the forts operational.
In his fifth year on the throne, a coalition of Libyan groups – the Libu and Qeheq – along with the ‘foreign peoples of the sea’ or ‘Sea Peoples’ as they’re better known today, attacked the Nile Valley. Quite unusually, the Egyptians recorded the name of the Libyan chief leading the campaign: he was Mariyu, son of Didi, and he’d brought his wife and children along with his warriors (who’d brought their families as well); this wasn’t a rapid military raid on Egyptian territory, but a migration. Both the Libyans and the Sea Peoples – comprised of various groups from the Aegean and Turkey,
including the Aqaiwasha, Tursha, Lukku, Sherden, and Shekelesh – were
moving due to famine. Merenptah says that his enemies had been in Egypt for some months; by the time of the battle, they’d already reached Bahariya and Farafra Oases, entering Egypt in search of food. They may even have made it as far as Memphis and Heliopolis.
Merenptah gave his troops two weeks to prepare for the campaign,
and was quite assured of success thanks to the god Ptah appearing to him in a dream and handing him the sword of victory. Once these two weeks
had passed, perhaps on a date and location agreed with his enemies, the Egyptians set up camp. After waiting a full day, the Libyans and Sea Peoples War and Trade with the Pharaohs.indd 123
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arrived; it was a large coalition, 16,000 strong, including whole families hoping to settle in Egypt. The battle began at dawn the next day, and lasted for six hours. The Egyptians were ultimately victorious. According to the Egyptians, Mariyu was so afraid that he fled the battle, leaving his sandals, bow and quiver in his haste, as well as everything else that was with him (including his wife). The Egyptians captured all of these goods: silver and gold, weapons, and the chief ’s wife’s adornments, and took them back to the palace with the prisoners.
The Egyptians pursued Mariyu, but he escaped, passing one of Egypt’s
remaining operational western forts during the night. The fort’s commander later wrote to Merenptah saying, ‘If he lives, he won’t be raised up again.
He is fallen, a rebel to his army.’5 As you can imagine, back at home, the surviving Libyans were furious at their chief for abandoning them, leading to infighting among their commanders and tents being burnt. The Egyptian commander goes on to say that the Libyans then appointed a new chief from among Mariyu’s brothers, and that they fought Mariyu whenever they saw
him, indicating that the ex-chief did at least make it home. Despite the political problems he now faced in Libya, being alive and away from Egyptian territory was a positive outcome for Mariyu, because the pharaoh had issued a kill-on-sight order to his officers if they ever came across him in Egypt again. The fortress commander’s letter shows that the Egyptians were keeping an eye on the Libyans after the battle, and received intelligence on the activities of the Libyan leaders. And Mariyu wasn’t the only Libyan to flee the battle: one of Merenptah’s stele, – today known as ‘The Israel Stele’ –
suggests that many others also made a run for it: the archers, for example, are said to have thrown down their bows, unbound their water-skins, and discarded their packs before fleeing.
After the battle, the Egyptian army returned home. Donkeys pulled carts filled with thousands of uncircumcised Libu phalli, while from the Sea
Peoples, who were apparently circumcised, the Egyptians severed a hand
from each body instead. This shows that the Egyptians brought the hands and uncircumcised phalli of defeated enemies back to Egypt, probably to be presented before the gods in heaps. Thousands of prisoners were also taken, the majority of whom were sent to work in the temples or made to fight for the Egyptian army. Others were impaled to the south of Memphis.
Before the battle, the Libyan coalition had tried to encourage an uprising in Nubia, but the ensuing rebellion began too late – the Egyptians had already dealt with the Libyans and were able to send their forces south without distraction. There is little detail about this Nubian campaign, other War and Trade with the Pharaohs.indd 124
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than the harsh punishments inflicted on the rebels of Wawat and Kush.
Regarding the rebels of Wawat, one stele relates, ‘their great ones have been set on fire, in the presence of their relatives(?) (As for) the remainder: their hands were cut off because of their crimes. Others had their ears and eyes carried off and taken to Kush. They were made into heaps in their towns.’6
Merenptah and Ugarit
According to a letter found at Ugarit, under Merenptah, the king of Ugarit asked for an Egyptian sculptor to be sent to his city, for he wanted a statue of the pharaoh to be erected in front of the Temple of Baal. Although Merenptah denied the request, he did send many other luxury goods in place of the sculptor, including ebony and textiles. A sword bearing Merenptah’s name was found during excavations at Ugarit, and the king sent grain supplies to the city, in the same manner as he did for the Hittites; one letter, found in a house at Ugarit, mentions that this grain was to relieve a famine, probably a result of the increasing drought in the region.
Years of Intrigue
Following Merenptah’s death, his eldest son, Seti II, came to the throne, but was challenged soon after by a man named Amenmessu, who was probably
another son of Ramesses II or Merenptah. Partly successful in his bid (but far from being king of the north and south, as he claimed), Amenmessu
ruled the Theban area from the second to fourth years of Seti II’s reign, at which point the usurper suddenly vanishes from history. Afterwards,
Amenmessu’s name was removed from all monuments and Seti II’s put in
its place. Seti died only two years later, after having spent a chunk of his reign restoring royal authority across the country. He was only around twenty-five years old.
The throne then passed to Siptah, a young boy with a deformed left foot, who was probably the son of the usurper Amenmessu and a Syrian woman
named Soteraja – with there being no surviving heirs of Seti II, he seems to have been the only choice left. Due to Siptah’s young age, Tawosret – who had been the great royal wife of Seti II, and was probably a granddaughter of Ramesses II – acted as queen regent, becoming known as the great regent in all the land. At the same time, an intriguing figure suddenly rose to prominence: a man named Bay. Bay had been a royal scribe and butler under Seti II, and, like many royal butlers at the time, was of foreign descent, referring War and Trade with the Pharaohs.indd 125
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to himself on his monuments as ‘a foreigner from that northern land.’ This all changed under Siptah’s rule: Bay would now serve as chancellor in the entire land – a rather epic rise.
Bay is also known from correspondence sent to the king of Ugarit,
Ammurapi; in this letter, which for the most part cannot be read, Bay is referred to as Beya and holds the title, chief of the troops of the great king in the land of Egypt. The content of this letter is unexpected, not only because it shows that Bay held military power, but because letters are normally sent between kings, not from a named courtier to a king. Back in Egypt, equally unexpected are reliefs depicting Bay equal in size to the king and queen.
Size mattered in Egyptian art, w
ith rank communicated through each fig-
ure’s stature. No commoner had ever been shown at the same scale as the king and queen before this time.
On monuments, Bay is also described as one ‘who established the king
upon the seat of his father,’ indicating that he played some role in putting Siptah on the throne; some scholars speculate that he may have been related to Siptah’s Syrian mother, a connection that would explain his sudden rise to power. Bay also began construction of a tomb for himself in the Valley of the Kings. Although various non-royals are buried in the Valley, their tombs tend to be rather small and undecorated – there, the tomb’s proximity to a king’s burial highlighted the individual’s special status, not its decoration.
Bay’s tomb, however, was built and decorated in the royal style, being similar to those made for Siptah and Tawosret. More oddly, the foundation deposits within Siptah’s mortuary temple bear Bay’s name and titles.
Despite his unusual prominence, Bay’s period of influence didn’t last
long. An ostracon, discovered at the village of Deir el-Medina – home of the artisans who excavated and decorated the royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings – records a message delivered by Paser, scribe of the tomb, to the workmen. Dated to year five of an un-named king, but almost certainly Siptah
– the very pharaoh that Bay had helped put on the throne – it describes Bay as ‘the great enemy,’ and says that the king had killed him. Unfortunately, we don’t know what events led to Bay’s fall from grace.
Other events of interest from Siptah’s reign derive from brief statements found on private monuments. One inscription at Abu Simbel, for example, mentions that the Royal Messenger to Every Country and Charioteer of
His Majesty Rekhpehtuf travelled at the king’s command in the first year of Siptah’s reign to install the new King’s Son of Kush Seti. Meanwhile, the Royal Messenger to Every Country Neferhor left a graffito at Buhen’s south temple, saying that in the first year of Siptah’s reign, he brought rewards War and Trade with the Pharaohs.indd 126
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for the governors of Nubia and conveyed the newly installed King’s Son of Kush Seti on his first tour of inspection.
Siptah died in the sixth year of his reign – about a year after Bay’s execution – leaving the throne without a male successor. Consequently, Queen Tawosret came to power as pharaoh, reigning for between eight and eleven years. Although the Near East had been experiencing instability during the last decades of the 19th Dynasty, Egypt’s relations with the Levant continued to flourish. Two hoards of gold and silver found by archaeologists at Bubastis included precious items, seemingly of Syrian origin, inscribed with the names of Seti II and Tawosret, and her name as king has been found on artefacts from Sidon.
The events surrounding the end of Tawosret’s reign – and with her
the end of the 19th Dynasty – remain in shadow. The Elephantine Stele,
inscribed at the start of the 20th Dynasty, refers to an ‘Asiatic’ taking control of Egypt, aided by others. In this text, Egypt is saved from a period of darkness by King Sethnakht, the first ruler of the 20th Dynasty, a man of unclear origins, who dedicated his first two years as pharaoh to restoring order across the country. Papyrus Harris I, from the reign of Ramesses IV, also mentions these complex times, making reference to an Asiatic named Irsu – meaning ‘he made himself.’ This man cannot currently be associated with any known individual (given that Bay was already dead), and so was perhaps an invader: the Asiatic mentioned on the Elephantine Stele.
Taken together, these texts say that before the rise of Sethnakht there had been a time of lawlessness, when temples were neglected and Egyptians fought one another. Then, during the ‘empty years,’ Irsu the Asiatic came to seize power and plunder Egypt. We’re told that the Asiatics fled when Sethnakht arose to restore order, discarding gold, silver, and copper behind them. Through all of this, there’s no reference to the fate of Tawosret, who simply vanishes from history. Perhaps she died without a successor and
chaos ensued. Or perhaps she died during the Asiatic invasion. We may
never know.
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Chapter 9
Sea Peoples, Libyans, and the
End of the New Kingdom
(1187–1064 BCE)
When the curtain rises after the darkness at the end of the 19th
Dynasty, a new king sits on Egypt’s throne: Sethnakht, of the
20th Dynasty. There’s no information about his origins, and he
makes no claim to royal descent on any of his monuments. Still, it’s possible that he was a descendant of Ramesses II, for his name includes mention of Seth, just like Seti I and II. And, as Seth was a popular deity in the north-east Delta, where the Ramesside family originated, there’s at least some possible connection. Otherwise, the only other clue to the circumstances surrounding Sethnakht’s rise to power is his statement that he was chosen by the gods from ‘myriads,’ suggesting competition for the throne. Yet even after his successful rise, problems remained: according to one source, his enemies were only quashed by the second year of his reign.
With order once again restored across the Two Lands, after only four
short years, Sethnakht died, passing his crown to his son, Ramesses III, a man obsessed with Ramesses II. Like his idol, Ramesses III is known for his architectural achievements and his military campaigns. But unlike the second Ramesses, Ramesses III didn’t need to go in search of war – it came to him. Over the thirty-two years of his reign, he faced two Libyan invasions and one by the Sea Peoples. He may have also dealt with a rebellion in Nubia, although the evidence for this is extremely limited. (Nubians are among the people said to have been captured by the king and given to the temple of Amun, and a Nubian war scene is depicted on the walls of the
king’s mortuary temple, among other slight sources.)
Ramesses’ First Libyan Campaign
The first of the Libyan invasions faced by Ramesses III occurred during his fifth year on the throne, an event described in detail – like all his major campaigns – on the walls of his mortuary temple at Medinet Habu in Thebes. He fought this campaign against a coalition of various Libyan groups, namely War and Trade with the Pharaohs.indd 128
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the Libu, Soped, and Meshwesh. Unfortunately, no information is provided as to where the battle took place, though it most probably occurred in the western Delta. The texts do inform us, however, that the Libyans had been crossing Egypt’s borders and were robbing the country on a daily basis.
Further unusual details are provided in the battle account’s prelude:
the Libyans had ‘begged’ Ramesses to appoint a chief to rule them – so
the text relates – leaving the king no choice but to install a ‘child of the Tjehenu’ as chief. The Libyans, despite ‘begging’ for this to occur, then rejected the pharaoh’s appointment, setting in motion the march to war. It’s an odd detail, and perhaps indicates that the Egyptians wanted to impose some kind of central control over what was a tribal society – this would have given the Egyptians a representative among the Libyans to deal with during negotiations. A more compelling reason for the invasion, however, was the widespread famine affecting the eastern Mediterranean world at the time. We’ve already seen how Merenptah battled Libyans, who were fighting to gain access to food. And there’s no reason to think that the situation in Libya had improved by the time of Ramesses III. A second mass movement
towards the plentiful fields of Egypt was an inevitability.
As was normal, before launching his campaign, Ramesses III first secured divine sanction. Depictions at Medinet Habu show the king in the presence of the gods Ptah and Thoth, and being handed a khepesh-sword by the enthr
oned Amun – a symbol of Ramesses’ inevitable success. From there,
accompanied by the war god Montu, standard-carrying priests escorted him from the temple. Surrounded by his troops, who were armed with spears,
bows, khepesh-swords, and shields, he stepped onto his chariot, while soldiers played bugles, sounding the start of war. The king and his charioteers then rode into battle, the infantry running alongside them. In the war scenes, Ramesses is presented as massive in scale, riding in his chariot, crushing his enemies beneath its wheels and the hooves of his horses. In contrast to the ordered, composed image of the pharaoh, the battle raging among
the smaller figures is chaotic: Egyptians shoot their arrows at the Libyan enemies (each dressed in a long robe with pointed beards and a side-lock of hair), who collapse in pain, the arrows protruding from their bodies. Sea Peoples groups are also present, working with the Egyptians, fighting and capturing their enemies, presumably as mercenaries.
The Egyptians successfully defeated the Libyan invasion, and afterwards celebrated at a fortress modestly called ‘Usermaatre Meriamun (Ramesses III) is the Repeller of the Tjemehu-Libyans.’ There, standing at a balcony, Ramesses addressed the assembled elite, the heads of his soldiers bowed.
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In front of them, three piles of hands and two piles of phalli were counted and recorded by scribes. A second celebratory scene shows Ramesses non-chalantly perched on the back of his chariot, watching as his men drag rows of bound Libyans before him. Three additional piles of enemy hands lie in heaps, and a further pile of phalli. The Egyptian troops and foreign mercenaries then marched home, dragging along the bound Libyan prisoners with them – the rope tied around their necks. Back in Egypt, the king presented his prisoners before the Theban triad: the gods Amun, Mut, and Khonsu.