Ancient Egyptian History

1650 BCE to 343 BCE - The Second Intermediate Period, The New Kingdom and The Late Period

Queen Hatshepsut is famous in Egyptian history for the fact that she was a successful woman ruler and for her claims to power. Hatshepsut claimed upon becoming Pharaoh that she was the daughter of her mother Ahmose and the God Amen. According to the story that she had depicted on her temple at Deir el Bahri Amen was responsible for Hatshepsut’s birth. This is very interesting piece of propaganda. It was not unknown for Egyptian rulers to lay claim to greater achievements in their temples than they earned, but to attempt to cement her rule by claiming divine origin in her birth was a stroke of genius. For the early part of her reign Hatshepsut held titles like “God’s Wife” and “God’s Hand”, but she quickly dropped these and took up the traditional title of Pharaoh, completely usurping power from Thutmose III. She gave these titles to her daughter, which many scholars believe Hatshepsut was trying to groom as her successor. However, her daughter’s life appears to have been short. In the ninth year of her reign, Hatshepsut made her famous journey to Punt. Where exactly Punt was remains unknown to scholars, it is believed that it might be present day Somalia. This was a peaceful trading mission, not an expedition of military conquest. The mission was highly successful and Hatshepsut brought many foreign treasures back to Egypt with her. Like the males rulers before her, Hatshepsut campaigned in Palestine and Nubia.

After reigning for twenty-one years, Hatshepsut died in 1483 BCE; her half-son Thutmose III (1504 to 1450 BCE) then took the throne and ruled until 1450 BCE. Upon her death, or perhaps even before it the building and monuments of Hatshepsut were defaced by an unknown assailant. In many instances her name has been removed from a relief depicting a particular accomplishment and the name of either Thutmose I or II has been added in its place. Some scholars suggest that Thutmose III may be responsible for this vandalism, as his half-mother denied him his rule when he became of age. Other scholars suggest that it may have been Hatshepsut herself who defaced her own monuments.

Shortly after he became ruler, Thutmose III left Egypt to campaign against an Asian army that had been gathering in Palestine. The campaign itself is recorded on the wall of the King’s festival hall at Karnak. The account of his campaign is considered one of the first in human history. According to the relief, Thutmose proclaims that his intentions in Palestine were to defeat a hostile enemy that threatened Egypt. Whether this gathering of armies was the reason for the Pharaoh to go to war, or the Pharaoh’s preparations forced the princes of Palestine to band together against a common foe remains unknown. According to the relief the Egyptian army took a costal road to Palestine. At the city of Yehem Thutmose had three choices in how to approach the fortress of Megiddo, where the Palestinian army was gathered. Thutmose took the most dangerous, but most direct route by going along the Aruna Road through a tight mountain pass. This particular route left Thutmose’s army exposed to attack. Thutmose’s daring paid off. The Palestinians failed to cover the road as they didn’t think anyone would be foolish enough to take to their camp. The Egyptians reached the Palestinian camp outside Megiddo at early dawn and attacked before the Palestinians could assemble. Thutmose was able to annihilate the Palestinian army and the remnants were forced to flee to the fortress city of Megiddo. Despite winning the initial battle, Thutmose’s troops broke rank at the sight of all the treasure that awaited them in the Palestinian camp, and began to pillage. The Palestinians were able to use the opportunity to get their forces inside the city and prepare for the upcoming siege. The battle that could have been won in a single day became a long drawn out siege.

The city of Megiddo was well fortified. Pieces of its great ruined walls still exist today. To besiege the city Thutmose chose to build a ditch around the city and reinforce the ditch with palisades, so that no one could leave the city. After a seven month siege, Megiddo surrendered, though Thutmose did not ravage the town or kill any of the occupants within the city. Rather he took the Palestinian princes and their families back to Egypt with him in order to secure the obedience of the region. While besieging the city, Thutmose had detached a smaller part of his army to plunder the area surrounding Megiddo. As a result Thutmose collected a great deal of booty from his campaign. At Karnak there exists a relief that lists all the treasures he captured in Palestine and brought back to Egypt.

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Throughout the rest of his rule Thutmose carried out several military campaigns. Near the end of his reign he entered into co regency with his son Amenhotep II (1453 to 1419 BCE). Upon the death of Thutmose, Amenhotep II assumed the throne. During his time as coregent, Amenhotep gained valuable military knowledge from his father. Amenhotep was quite the warrior. On one military expedition he managed to defeat and capture several local chieftains single handily. Like his father, Amenhotep campaigned in Syria and Palestine. Though unlike his father, Amenhotep preferred to be at the front of the army, in the heat of battle. As mentioned, he was a skilled warrior, and his exploits probably helped to keep up troop morale. Despite his skills as a warrior and his campaigns, Egyptian power in the region began to wane. The Mitanni, people who inhabited modern day Iraq, and Kadesh were successfully driving the Egyptians back. A campaign in the ninth year of Amenhotep’s reign was able to reassert Egyptian dominance in the Middle East. According to Amenhotep’s the local leaders then vied with each other to make peace with Egypt in order to stem the slaughter. Whether this is true or not remains a mystery, however after his campaign in the ninth year there are no more recorded Egyptian campaigns in Palestine during the rule of Amenhotep.

Next: 1650 BCE to 343 BCE - The Second Intermediate Period, The New Kingdom and The Late Period - Continued
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