Ec egypt 6 (nk empire)

The New Kingdom Empire: The 18th Dynasty

Foreign tribute bearers in the tomb of Rekhmire (TT 100) As illustrated in Hopkins, G.A. 1835. Travels in Ethiopia, above the second cataract, London.

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New Kingdom Empire: the 18th Dynasty

• c.1550 – 1300 B.C.; also Late Bronze Age

• Reunification following expulsion of Hyksos

• Importance of Thebes – Temples (east and west banks) and tombs (west)

– Growth of cult of Amun-Re

• New funerary literature

• Looking outwards: – Military focus and empire expansion

– Diplomatic and trade relations

• Major (but some short-lived) changes in kingship

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A selection of the 18th Dynasty Founder: Ahmose (and wife Ahmose Nefertari)

2nd Amenhotep I – founder(?) of Deir el-Medina

=5th Hatshepsut – female pharaoh

=5th/6th Thutmose III – empire builder

9th Amenhotep III – ‘sun-king’

10th Akhenaten (A IV) – new city,

religion and art

13th [Tutankhamun]

15th and final: Horemheb – General

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Thera eruption c.1620-1600 B.C.

Santorini

Pumice found in workshops at Avaris

Ash and waves (within hours)

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The Ahmose ‘Tempest’ Stela

• Inscribed on both sides (allows for reconstructions)

• ‘Tempest of rain’; ‘darkness in the west’

• Great noises and flooding

• Thera eruption, bad storm, or royal ideology?

• Contemporary witness, or later record?

From Wiener and Allen 1998: 4

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Expulsion of the Hyksos: a new start

• Avaris (Tell el-Dab’a) taken

• Sharuhen, Hyksos fortress (southern Israel) then besieged for 3 years

• Defeat credited to Ahmose

Seqenenre Tao II (17th Dynasty)

Ceremonial axe of Ahmose.

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Thebes

• 18th Dynasty – Theban origins

• Memphis still important – administration divided into two (northern and southern counterpart offices)

• Various names: – Waset (feminine form of the word ‘dominion’)

– Niwet (‘the city’)

– Iunu shemau (‘Southern Heliopolis’)

– Thebes – Greek name

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Karnak and Luxor

Left: Temple of Amun, Karnak (photographed in 1914) Below: Temple of Luxor, with mosque of Abu Haggag

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Rise of cult of Amun

• NK pharaohs (Thebans) placed emphasis on his cult • Identified with Re and Min

– Amun-Re – Amun-Min kamutef

• Mut = consort • Khonsu = child • Land and booty donated to temple of Karnak

– major economic powers

• Priests of Amun often in high administrative offices Amun (left), characteristic plumes

broken, and the pharaoh Horemheb Museo Egizio, Turin, C.768

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The west bank of Thebes

Mortuary temples near agricultural zone

Al-Qurn = highest point Pyramid-shaped (?)

Tombs hidden in valleys

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Deir el-Medina – tomb-workers’ village (planned settlement)

• Occupied throughout New Kingdom (18th-20th Dynasties), with break during Amarna Period

• Amenhotep I and mother Ahmose Nefertari worshipped

Kha and Merit (TT 8)

Wealthy. Lived under

Amenhotep III.

Tomb found intact.

Funerary items now in

Turin

Foodstuffs and vessels from TT 8

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New funerary literature

Part of the Book of the Dead of Ahmose 18th Dynasty British Museum EA 9933,3 © Trustees of the British Museum

Book of the Dead: development of Pyramid Texts (OK) and Coffin Texts (MK) on papyrus (can also be on coffins and walls) Other literature includes: Amduat, Book of Gates, Book of Caverns

Book of Gates (carving incomplete). Tomb of Horemheb, KV 57

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• Result of Second Intermediate Period struggles and Hyksos?

• Expansion into Syria/Palestine and Nubia

• Standing army developed inc. mercenaries (e.g. Libyan)

• Ahmose son of Abana – His detailed tomb inscription

documents a military career. – Egyptian name, but parents have

foreign names.

• New territory = new bureaucracy – King’s son of Kush (viceroy) – Vassals

Empire and the rise of the military

Thebes (approx.)

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Empire: warrior kings

Thutmose III, seventh pylon, Temple of Amun, Karnak New Kingdom

Tutankhamun on his ‘painted wooden box’, Carter no.21 ©Griffith Institute, University of Oxford

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Reconstructed chariot Museo Archeologico Nazionale, Florence

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• Royal records of campaigns

• King is brave, heroic and indispensable

• Campaigns sound more important than reality?

• Most detailed in 18th Dyn are of Thutmose III – On the walls of Temple of Karnak

– Several campaigns from Year 23 onwards

– Battle of Megiddo – first campaign; 7 month siege.

– Annals composed 20 years after the events – reliability?

Military annals

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Egypt and its enemies

Stick of Tutankhamun showing bound Asiatic prisoner (Nubian on other side) Carter no.48d ©Griffith Institute, University of Oxford

Footstool of Tutankhamun showing the ‘Nine Bows’ in the form of bound prisoners Carter no.378 ©Griffith Institute, University of Oxford

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Trade and tribute (‘inw’)

• Great powers of the Late Bronze Age: – Babylonia (S. Mesopotamia), Assyria (N. Meso.), Mitanni (N. Syria),

Hatti (Anatolia), Mycenae (Cyprus) and Elam (W. Iran)

• Tribute scenes in tombs (see title slide) – actual visits or stereotypical images?

Lentoid vessel, ‘pilgrim flask’ © www.metmuseum.org Acc. No.29.71

Queen of Punt (Eritrea?), as recorded in Deir el-Bahari by Hatshepsut. Now Cairo Museum, JE 14276

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Ulu burun shipwreck c.1300 B.C.

• Date not certain: dendrochronology (tree rings)

Gold scarab with name of Nefertiti

Explore objects: http://nauticalarch.org/projects/all/southern_europe_mediterranean_aegean/uluburun_turkey/photo_galleries/

Above: Mycenaean pottery Right: nautical archaeologist with copper ‘oxhide’ ingots

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Avaris (Tell el-Dab’a) frescoes

Fresco from Knossos (Minoan culture)

Reconstructed Tell el-Dab’a fresco

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Diplomacy: Marriage bonds and Amarna letters

Scarab commemorating marriage of Amenhotep III and Mitanni princess Gilukhepa. British Museum EA 68507 © Trustees of the British Museum

An Amarna letter British Museum EA 29812 © Trustees of the British Museum

Lingua franca: Babylonian, in cuneiform script Letters to pharaoh from foreign rulers and vassals

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Changes in kingship: Hatshepsut

• Women seemingly important in 18th Dyn royal succession – Pharaohs often married their sisters – Always named in relation to pharaoh e.g. queen = ‘king’s wife’

• Hatshepsut’s royal lineage:

– Thutmose I’s daughter with his primary wife – T II’s half-sister and wife – Regent (in role as queen) for her step-son/nephew T III – From Year 7 of T III: she became pharaoh

• Regnal years of T III still used. • Took throne name (Maatkare), but first name still female • Divine parentage and legitimacy emphasised through

inscriptions (daughter of Amun; chosen by Amun in prophecy)

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Deir el-Bahari – mortuary temple

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Mortuary temple of Mentuhotep II (11th Dynasty)

Mortuary temple of Hatshepsut copying the earlier model. Known as Djeser-djeseru (‘holy of holies’)

Not visible – Temple of Thutmose III to Amun (not primarily mortuary) Known as Djeser-akhet (‘holy of horizon’)

Scenes from the Red Chapel of Hatshepsut, Karnak.

All pharaohs are equal, but some are more equal than others…

• Same titles, regalia (though not always – compare the crowns) and proportions.

• Hatshepsut shown in front • Two pharaohs shown together - unprecedented

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Cross-dressing or just ideology?

Far left: © www.metmuseum.org Inv. 29.3.3/Rijksmuseum van Oudheden, L.1998.80 Left: © Met Museum Inv. 28.318 Above: Cairo Museum JE 53113

Copying earlier styles: compare this with Amenemhat III’s (MK) sphinxes

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Erasure of Hatshepsut

• Died in Year 22 – Thutmose III reigned another 33 years

• Monuments were defaced and she was ignored in king lists

• Revenge? Thutmose III against his ‘evil’ aunt? – Outdated idea

• Legitimacy? • Ensuring correct ideology?

– Woman cannot be pharaoh – Cannot be two pharaohs.

• Erasure was inconsistent

Usurped cartouches of Hatshepsut, showing remnants of her names

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Changes in kingship: Amenhotep III

• Solar symbolism (e.g. scarabs, Sekhmet statues) and colossal style

Left: monumental scarab, Temple of Amun, Karnak Above: ‘Colossi of Memnon’, Kom el-Hettan (mortuary temple of Amenhotep III)

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• Self-deification during life

• Temple of Soleb, Nubia: dedicated to Amun-Re and deified Amenhotep III.

• Temple of Sedeinga, Nubia: Tiye worshipped as a form of Hathor.

Changes in kingship: Amenhotep III and Queen Tiye

Bust of Queen Tiye (divine headdress added under Akhenaten) Ägyptisches Museum, Berlin. Inv. 21834 and 17852 © Ägyptisches Museum, Berlin http://www.egyptian-museum-berlin.com/c52.php

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Changes in kingship: Akhenaten

To be discussed next week

• Major changes in religion, art and kingship

• Like Hatshepsut was erased from history and monuments destroyed.

Akhenaten and family under the rays of the Aten, New Kingdom Ägyptisches Museum, Berlin. Inv. 14145 © Ägyptisches Museum, Berlin http://www.egyptian-museum-berlin.com/c52.php

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Changes in kingship: Horemheb

• General under Tutankhamun and Ay.

• Built tomb at Saqqara before becoming king – Left unfinished

• In later king lists: successor of Amenhotep III – 5 rulers removed from history!

• Successor Paramessu (Ramesses I) was his General – non-royal, military pharaohs – Continued into the Ramesside Period

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Changes in kingship: Horemheb

Horemheb as a scribe © www.metmuseum.org Inv. 23.10.1

Agricultural relief-scene from Horemheb’s tomb at Saqqara. The uraeus-snake (royal symbol) was added after he ascended the throne. Museo Civico Archaeologico di Bologna, KS 1885

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Summary: 18th Dynasty and empire

• Unified Egypt: rich, powerful, mostly stable • Interaction with foreign lands:

– Military expeditions – territory expansion, booty, slavery – Trade – Diplomacy

• Thebes becomes powerful • Amun-Re a national deity • New funerary literature • New portrayals of kingship (not all permanent), e.g.:

– In art: Hatshepsut as a man; Akhenaten’s ‘deformities’ – In ideology: pharaoh is a active warrior – In religion: Amenhotep III as a full god during life

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Additional bibliography

• Cline, E.H. and O’Connor, D. (eds.) 2006. Thutmose III: a new biography, Ann Arbor, MI.

• Hornung, E. 1999. The ancient Egyptian books of the afterlife, London

• Kozloff, A. 2012. Amenhotep III: Egypt’s radiant pharaoh, New York. • Parkinson, R.B. 2008 The painted tomb-chapel of Nebamun,

London. • Pulak, C. 1998. ‘The Uluburun shipwreck: an overview’, The

International Journal of Nautical Archaeology, 27, 188-224. • Ritner, R.K. and Moeller, N. 2014. ‘The Ahmose ‘Tempest Stela’,

Thera and comparative chronology, JNES 73, 1-19. [response to Wiener and Allen 1998]

• Roehrig, C.H. (ed.) 2005. Hatshepsut: from queen to pharaoh, New York.

• Wiener, M.H. and Allen, P. 1998. ‘Separate Lives: The Ahmose Tempest stela and the Theran eruption’, JNES 57, 1-28.

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Image credits The following images are my own (Eleanor Simmance): statue of Amun with Horemheb; Kha and Merit tomb goods; reconstructed chariot, Florence; Horemheb (Saqqara tomb). Images taken from museums are credited in slide where possible.

• Tutankhamun mask: © Carsten Frenzl/Flickr • Seqenenre Tao II: © G. Elliot Smith/Wikimedia Commons • Axe of Ahmose: Saleh, M. and Sourouzian, H. 1987. The Egyptian Museum, Cairo: official catalogue,

Cairo, pl.121 • Temple of Amun, Karnak: © Cornell University Library/Flickr • Temple of Luxor: © Jon Bodsworth/The Egypt Archive • Map of Thebes: http://www.ancientworlds.net/aw/Places/Place/324979 • Book of Gates, KV57: © Unidia-Bruno Sandkühler/Serge Blanc/Christiane Dispot/Osirisnet.net • Thutmose III smiting enemies: Wikimedia Commons (public domain) • Queen of Punt: © Egyptian Museum, Cairo

http://www.globalegyptianmuseum.org/record.aspx?id=15297 • Reconstructed Avaris fresco: © Martin Dürrschnabel/Wikimedia Commons • Knossos fresco: © Harrieta171/Themadchoppa/Wikimedia Commons • Deir el-Bahari temples: © Novic/Wikimedia Commons • Red Chapel scene (left): © The Joukowsky Institute Workplace/Brown University

http://proteus.brown.edu/historyofegyptone10/10228 • Red Chapel scene (right): Markh/Wikimedia Commons (public domain) • Hatshepsut sphinx: © Egyptian Museum, Cairo

http://www.globalegyptianmuseum.org/record.aspx?id=15157 • Hatshepsut cartouches (usurped): Brand, P. UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology s.v. ‘Usurpation of

monuments’, fig.2. https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5gj996k5 • Monumental scarab, Karnak: © UCLA

http://dlib.etc.ucla.edu/projects/Karnak/resource/ObjectCatalog/679 • Colossi of Memnon © Alberto-g-rovi/Wikimedia Commons