Ancient Black History

Thursday, 1 September 2016

Nineteenth Egyptian Dynasty 1298 to 1187 B.C.E., Siptah, Tawosret

The Pharaohs of the 19th dynasty ruled for approximately one hundred and ten years: from 1298 to 1187 B.C.E. The dates and names in the table are taken from Dodson and Hilton. Many of the pharaohs were buried in the Valley of the Kings in Thebes (designated KV). More information can be found on the Theban Mapping Project website. The Nineteenth Dynasty of ancient Egypt was one of the periods of the Egyptian New Kingdom. Founded by Vizier Ramesses I, whom Pharaoh Horemheb chose as his successor to the throne, this dynasty is best known for its military conquests in Canaan.

XIX Egyptian Dynasty 1298 to 1187 B.C.E.

Amenmesse/Menmire-Setepenre

Ramesses I/Menpehtire 1298 - 1296 B.C.E..
Seti I/Menmaetre 1296 - 1279 B.C.E.
Ramesses II/Usermaetre Setepenre 1279 - 1212 B.C.E..
Merenptah/Banenre 1212 - 1201 B.C.E.
Seti II/Userkheperure 1201 - 1195 B.C.E..
Amenmesse/Menmire-Setepenre 1195 - 1196 B.C.E.
Siptah/Sekhaenre/Akheperre 1196 - 1189 B.C.E.
Tawosret/Sitre-Merenamun 1189 - 1187 B.C.E.

Akhenre Setepenre Siptah or Merneptah Siptah was the penultimate ruler of the 19th Dynasty. His father's identity is currently unknown. Both Seti II and Amenmesse have been suggested. He was not the crown prince, but succeeded to the throne as a child after the death of Seti II.

His accession date occurred on II Peret day 2 around the month of December. Historically, it was believed that Queen Tiaa, a wife of Seti II, was the mother of Siptah. This view persisted until it was eventually realized that a relief in the Louvre Museum (E 26901) "pairs Siptah's name together with the name of his mother" a certain Sutailja or Shoteraja.

Sutailja was a Canaanite rather than a native Egyptian name which means that she was almost certainly a king's concubine from Canaan. However, Dodson/Hilton assert that this is not correct and that the lady was, instead, the mother of Ramesses-Siptah and a wife of Ramesses II. Chancellor Bay publicly boasts that he was instrumental in installing Siptah on the throne in several inscriptions including an Aswan stela set up by Seti, the Viceroy of Kush and at Gebel el-Silsila.

Bay, however, later fell out of favour at Court and last appears in public in a dated Year 4 inscription from Siptah's reign. He was executed in the fifth Year of Siptah's reign, on orders of the king himself. News of his execution was passed to the Workmen of Deir el-Medina in Ostraca IFAO 1254. This ostraca was translated and published in 2000 by Pierre Grandet in a French Egyptological journal. Callendar notes that the reason for the king's message to the workmen was to notify them to cease all work on decorating Bay's tomb since Bay had now been deemed a traitor to the state.

Siptah himself died sometime in his 6th regnal Year. After his death, Twosret simply assumed his Regnal Years and ruled Egypt as a Queen for a brief while. Siptah was buried in the Valley of the Kings, in tomb KV47, but his mummy was not found there. In 1898, it was discovered along with 18 others in a mummy cache within the (KV35) tomb of Amenhotep II. An examination of Siptah's mummy reveals that he died around the age of 16 and likely suffered from polio with a severely deformed and crippled left foot. The study of his tomb shows that it was conceived and planned in the same style as those of Twosret and Bay, clearly part of the same architectural design.

Tawosret/Sitre-Merenamun

Queen Twosret (Tawosret, Tausret) was the last known ruler and the final Pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty. She is recorded in Manetho's Epitome as a certain Thuoris, who in Homer is called Polybus, husband of Alcandara, and in whose time Troy was taken.

She was said to have ruled Egypt for seven years, but this figure included the nearly six year reign of Siptah, her predecessor. Consequently, her sole independent reign would have lasted for slightly more than one full year from 1191 to 1190 BC. Her royal name, Sitre Meryamun, means "Daughter of Re, beloved of Amun."

Theodore Davis identified the Queen and her husband in a cache of jewelry found in tomb KV56 in the Valley of the Kings. This tomb also contained objects bearing the name of Rameses II. There is no consensus about the nature of this tomb. Some (Aldred) thought this was the tomb of a daughter of Seti II and Tawosret, but others (Maspero) thought this was a cache of objects originally belonging with the tomb of Tawosret herself.

After her husband's death, she became first regent to Seti's heir Siptah jointly with Chancellor Bay, whom some have identified as the Irsu mentioned in the Harris Papyrus. Siptah was likely a stepson of Twosret since his mother is now known to be a certain Sutailja or Shoteraja from Louvre Relief E 26901. When Siptah died, Twosret officially assumed the throne for herself, as the "Daughter of Re, Lady of Ta-merit, Twosret of Mut", and assumed the role of a Pharaoh.

Wednesday, 31 August 2016

Nineteenth Egyptian Dynasty 1298 to 1187 B.C.E., Seti II, Amenmesse

Seti II/Userkheperure

Ramesses I/Menpehtire 1298 - 1296 B.C.E..
Seti I/Menmaetre 1296 - 1279 B.C.E.
Ramesses II/Usermaetre Setepenre 1279 - 1212 B.C.E..
Merenptah/Banenre 1212 - 1201 B.C.E.
Seti II/Userkheperure 1201 - 1195 B.C.E..
Amenmesse/Menmire-Setepenre 1195 - 1196 B.C.E.
Siptah/Sekhaenre/Akheperre 1196 - 1189 B.C.E.
Tawosret/Sitre-Merenamun 1189 - 1187 B.C.E.

Seti II (or Sethos II), was the fifth ruler of the Nineteenth dynasty of Egypt and reigned from 1203 BC to 1197 BC. His throne name, Userkheperure Setepenre, meant "Powerful are the Manifestations of Re, Chosen by Re.'

He was the son of Merneptah and wife Isisnofret and sat on the throne during a period known for dynastic intrigue and short reigns, and his rule was no different. Seti II had to deal with many serious plots, most significantly being the accession of a rival king named Amenmesse, possibly a half brother, who seized control over Thebes and Nubia in Upper Egypt during his second to fourth regnal years.

Evidence that Amenmesse was a direct contemporary with Seti II's rule - rather than Seti II's immediate predecessor - includes the fact that Seti II's royal KV13 tomb at Thebes was deliberately vandalized with many of Seti's royal names being carefully erased here during his reign. The erasures were subsequently repaired by Seti II's agents. This suggests that Seti II's reign at Thebes was interrupted by the rise of a rival: king Amenmesse in Upper Egypt.

Secondly, the German scholar Wolfgang Helck has shown that Amenmesse is only attested in Upper Egypt by several Year 3 and a single Year 4 ostracas here; Helck also noted that no Year 1 or Year 2 ostracas from Deir El Medina could legitimately be assigned to Amenmesse's reign. This conforms well with the clear evidence of Seti II's control over Thebes in his first two years which is documented by various documents and papyri. In contrast, Seti II is absent from Upper Egypt during his third and fourth years which are notably unattested here - presumably because Amenmesse controlled this region during this time.

Seti II/Userkheperure

Finally, and most importantly, it is well known that the chief foreman of Deir el-Medina, a certain Neferhotep, was killed in the reign of king Amenmesse on the orders of a certain 'Msy' who was either Amenmesse himself or one of this king's agents, according to Papyrus Salt 124. Seti II promoted Chancellor Bay to become his most important state official and built 3 tombs - KV13, KV14, and KV15 - for himself, his Senior Queen Twosret and Bay in the Valley of the Kings.

This was an unprecedented act on his part for Bay, who was of Syrian descent and was not connected by marriage or blood ties to the royal family. Due to the relative brevity of his reign, Seti's tomb was unfinished at the time of his death. Twosret later rose to power herself after the death of Siptah, Seti II's successor. According to a graffito written in the first corridor of Twosret's KV14 tomb, Seti II was buried in his KV15 tomb on "Year 1, IV Peret day 11" of Siptah.

Seti II's earliest prenomen in his First Year was 'Userkheperure Setepenre' which is written above an inscription of Messuwy, a Viceroy of Nubia under Merneptah, on a rock outcropping at Bigeh Island. However, Messuwy's burial in Tomb S90 in Nubia has been discovered to contain only funerary objects naming Merneptah which suggests that 1) Messuwy may have died during Merneptah's reign and 2) Seti II merely associated himself with an official who had actively served his father as Viceroy of Kush. Seti II soon changed his royal name to 'Userkheperure Meryamun', which was the most common form of his prenomen.

Amenmesse (also Amenmesses or Amenmose) was the 5th ruler of the Nineteenth Dynasty in Ancient Egypt, possibly the son of Merneptah and Queen Takhat. Others consider him to be one of the innumerable sons of Ramesses II. Very little is known about this king, who ruled Egypt for only three to four years. Various Egyptologists date his reign between 1202 BC - 1199 BC or 1203 BC - 1200 BC with others giving an accession date of 1200 BC. Amenmesse means "born of or fashioned by Amun" in Egyptian. Additionally, his nomen can be found with the epithet Heqa-waset, which means "Ruler of Thebes". His royal name was Menmire Setepenre.

Amenmesse/Menmire-Setepenre

It is likely that he was not Merneptah's intended heir. Some scholars such as Kenneth Kitchen and Jurgen von Beckerath follow the traditional view that Amenmesse usurped the throne from Seti-Merneptah, Merneptah's son and Crown Prince who should have been next in line to the royal succession. It is unclear why this should have happened. Kitchen has written that Amenmesse may have taken advantage of a momentary weakness of Seti-Merneptah or seized power while the crown prince was away in Asia.

Seti-Merneptah was most likely the same man as king Seti II, whose reign was traditionally thought to have followed upon Amenmesse's reign. The cartouches of Seti II's tomb in Upper Egypt were deliberately erased and then repainted, suggesting that Seti's rule in Upper Egypt was temporarily interrupted by agents of his half-brother. Confusion generally clouds Amenmesse's reign and location within the Egyptian 19th Dynasty.

However, an increasing number of Egyptologists today such as Rolf Krauss and Aidan Dodson maintain that Seti II was in fact the immediate successor of Merneptah "without any intervening rule by Amenmesse." Under this scenario, Amenmesse did not succeed Merneptah on the throne of Egypt and was rather a rival king who usurped power sometime during Years 2 to 4 of Seti II's reign in Upper Egypt and Nubia where his authority is monumentally attested.

His mother is known to be Queen Takhat, who was either a minor wife of Merneptah or a later royal wife of Ramesses II or both. Some have assumed that Twosret, wife of Seti II, was his sister, making him half-brother to Seti II. Amenmesse's wife was once thought to be a woman named Baktwerel but more recent analysis of his royal tomb proves that she was not a contemporary of this Pharaoh.

Tuesday, 30 August 2016

Nineteenth Egyptian Dynasty 1298 to 1187 B.C.E., Merenptah

Nineteenth Egyptian Dynasty 1298 to 1187 B.C.E., Merenptah
The Pharaohs of the 19th dynasty ruled for approximately one hundred and ten years: from 1298 to 1187 B.C.E. The dates and names in the table are taken from Dodson and Hilton. Many of the pharaohs were buried in the Valley of the Kings in Thebes (designated KV). More information can be found on the Theban Mapping Project website. The Nineteenth Dynasty of ancient Egypt was one of the periods of the Egyptian New Kingdom. Founded by Vizier Ramesses I, whom Pharaoh Horemheb chose as his successor to the throne, this dynasty is best known for its military conquests in Canaan.

XIX Egyptian Dynasty 1298 to 1187 B.C.E.

Merenptah/Banenre

Merneptah (or Merenptah) was the fourth ruler of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Ancient Egypt. He ruled Egypt for almost ten years between late July or early August 1213 and May 2, 1203 BC, according to contemporary historical records.

He was the thirteenth son of Ramesses II and only came to power because all his older brothers, including his full brother Khaemwaset or Khaemwase, had predeceased him, by which time he was almost sixty years old. His throne name was Ba-en-re Mery-netjeru, which means "The Soul of Ra, Beloved of the Gods".

The major event of the reign of the Pharaoh Merneptah (1213 BC-1203 BC), 4th king of the 19th Dynasty, was his battle against a confederacy termed "the Nine Bows" at Perire in the western delta in the 5th and 6th years of his reign. Depredations of this confederacy had been so severe that the region was "forsaken as pasturage for cattle, it was left waste from the time of the ancestors."

The Nine Bows were acting under the leadership of the king of Libya and an associated near-concurrent revolt in Canaan involving Gaza, Ashkelon, Yenoam and Israel. Exactly which peoples were consistently in the Nine Bows is not clear, but present at the battle were the Libyans, some neighboring Meshwesh, and possibly a separate revolt in the following year involving peoples from the eastern Mediterranean, including the Kheta (or Hittites), or Syrians, and (in the Israel Stele) for the first time in history, the Israelites. In addition to them, the first lines of the Karnak inscription include some sea peoples,[24] which must have arrived in the Western Delta or from Cyrene by ship.

Merenptah/Banenre

The Sea Peoples were a confederacy of seafaring raiders of the second millennium BC who sailed into the eastern Mediterranean, caused political unrest, and attempted to enter or control Egyptian territory during the late 19th dynasty and especially during year 8 of Ramesses III of the 20th Dynasty.

The Egyptian Pharaoh Merneptah explicitly refers to them by the term "the foreign-countries (or 'peoples') of the sea" in his Great Karnak Inscription. Although some scholars believe that they invaded Cyprus, Hatti and the Levant, this hypothesis is disputed.

After six hours the surviving Nine Bows threw down their weapons, abandoned their baggage and dependents, and ran for their lives. Merneptah states that he defeated the invasion, killing 6,000 soldiers and taking 9,000 prisoners.

To be sure of the numbers, among other things, he took the penises of all uncircumcised enemy dead and the hands of all the circumcised, from which history learns that the Ekwesh were circumcised, a fact causing some to doubt they were Greek.

There is also an account of the same events in the form of a poem from the Merneptah Stele, widely known as the Israel Stele, which makes reference to the supposed utter destruction of Israel in a campaign prior to his 5th year in Canaan: "Israel has been wiped out...its seed is no more." This is the first recognized ancient Egyptian record of the existence of Israel--"not as a country or city, but as a tribe" or people.

Merneptah Stele

Merneptah was already an elderly man in his late 60s if not early 70s when he assumed the throne. Merneptah moved the administrative center of Egypt from Piramesse (Pi-Ramesses), his father's capital, back to Memphis, where he constructed a royal palace next to the temple of Ptah. This palace was excavated in 1915 by the University of Pennsylvania Museum led by Clarence Fischer.

Naneferkaptah was the royal heir, being the son of Merneptah's royal wife, Queen Isetnofret (Isisnofret), but he, his wife, and their heir died before the death of Merneptah, and their story survives in text. Merneptah's successor, Seti II, was another son of Queen Isisnofret.

However, Seti II's accession to the throne was not unchallenged: a rival king named Amenmesse, who was either another son of Merneptah by Takhat or, much less likely, of Ramesses II, seized control over Upper Egypt and Kush during the middle of Seti II's reign.

Seti was able to reassert his authority over Thebes in his fifth year, only after he overcame Amenmesse. It is possible that before seizing Upper Egypt Amenmesse had been known as Messui and had been viceroy of Kush.

Sunday, 28 August 2016

Nineteenth Egyptian Dynasty 1298 to 1187 B.C.E., Ramesses II

Ramesses II/Usermaetre

Ramesses built extensively throughout Egypt and Nubia, and his cartouches are prominently displayed even in buildings that he did not actually construct. There are accounts of his honor hewn on stone, statues, remains of palaces and temples, most notably the Ramesseum in the western Thebes and the rock temples of Abu Simbel.

He covered the land from the Delta to Nubia with buildings in a way no king before him had done. He also founded a new capital city in the Delta during his reign called Pi-Ramesses; it had previously served as a summer palace during Seti I's reign.

His memorial temple Ramesseum, was just the beginning of the pharaoh's obsession with building. When he built, he built on a scale unlike almost anything before. In the third year of his reign Ramesses started the most ambitious building project after the pyramids, that were built 1,500 years earlier.

The population was put to work on changing the face of Egypt. The Great Temple at Abu Simbel, which took about twenty years to build, was completed around year 24 of the reign of Ramesses the Great (which corresponds to 1265 BCE). It was dedicated to the gods Amun, Ra-Horakhty, and Ptah, as well as to the deified Rameses himself. It is generally considered the grandest and most beautiful of the temples commissioned during the reign of Rameses II, and one of the most beautiful in Egypt.

Four colossal 20 meter statues of the pharaoh with the double Atef crown of Upper and Lower Egypt decorate the facade of the temple, which is 35 meters wide and is topped by a frieze with 22 baboons, worshippers of the sun and flank the entrance. The colossal statues were sculptured directly from the rock in which the temple was located before it was moved. All statues represent Ramesses II, seated on a throne and wearing the double crown of Upper and Lower Egypt. The statue to the left of the entrance was damaged in an earthquake, leaving only the lower part of the statue still intact. The head and torso can still be seen at the statue's feet.

It is believed that the axis of the temple was positioned by the ancient Egyptian architects in such a way that on October 21 and February 21 (61 days before and 61 days after the Winter Solstice), the rays of the sun would penetrate the sanctuary and illuminate the sculptures on the back wall, except for the statue of Ptah, the god connected with the Underworld, who always remained in the dark.

Abu-Simbel Temple

Early in his life, Ramesses II embarked on numerous campaigns to return previously held territories back from Nubian and Hittite hands and to secure Egypt's borders. He was also responsible for suppressing some Nubian revolts and carrying out a campaign in Libya.

Although the famous Battle of Kadesh often dominates the scholarly view of Ramesses II's military prowess and power, he nevertheless enjoyed more than a few outright victories over the enemies of Egypt. During Ramesses II's reign, the Egyptian army is estimated to have totaled about 100,000 men; a formidable force that he used to strengthen Egyptian influence.

In his second year, Ramesses II decisively defeated the Shardana or Sherden sea pirates who were wreaking havoc along Egypt's Mediterranean coast by attacking cargo-laden vessels travelling the sea routes to Egypt. Ramesses posted troops and ships at strategic points along the coast and patiently allowed the pirates to attack their prey before skillfully catching them by surprise in a sea battle and capturing them all in a single action. A stele from Tanis speaks of their having come "in their war-ships from the midst of the sea, and none were able to stand before them".

There must have been a naval battle somewhere near the mouth of the Nile, as shortly afterwards many Sherden are seen in the Pharaoh's body-guard where they are conspicuous by their horned helmets with a ball projecting from the middle, their round shields and the great Naue II swords with which they are depicted in inscriptions of the Battle of Kadesh. In that sea battle, together with the Shardana, the pharaoh also defeated the Lukka possibly the later Lycians), and the Shekelesh peoples.

His records tell us that he was forced to fight a Palestinian prince who was mortally wounded by an Egyptian archer, and whose army was subsequently routed. Ramesses carried off the princes of Palestine as live prisoners to Egypt. Ramesses then plundered the chiefs of the Asiatics in their own lands, returning every year to his headquarters at Riblah to exact tribute. In the fourth year of his reign, he captured the Hittite vassal state of Amurru during his campaign in Syria.

Although Ramesses's forces were caught in a Hittite ambush and outnumbered at Kadesh, the pharaoh fought the battle to a stalemate and returned home a hero. Ramesses II's forces suffered major losses particularly among the 'Ra' division which was routed by the initial charge of the Hittite chariots during the battle. Egypt's sphere of influence was now restricted to Canaan while Syria fell into Hittite hands. Canaanite princes, seemingly influenced by the Egyptian incapacity to impose their will, and goaded on by the Hittites, began revolts against Egypt. In the seventh year of his reign, Ramesses II returned to Syria once again. This time he proved more successful against his Hittite foes. During this campaign he split his army into two forces. One was led by his son, Amun-her-khepeshef, and it chased warriors of the Shasu tribes across the Negev as far as the Dead Sea, and captured Edom-Seir. It then marched on to capture Moab

He, too, then entered Moab, where he rejoined his son. The reunited army then marched on Hesbon, Damascus, on to Kumidi, and finally recaptured Upi, reestablishing Egypt's former sphere of influence.