0:00

The. French revolution set Europe a blaze.

0:02

It was an age of enlightenment

0:04

and progress, but also of tyranny

0:06

and oppression. It. Was an age of

0:09

glory and an age of tragedy. One.

0:11

Man stood above it all. This.

0:13

Was the age of Napoleon. I'm.

0:15

Effort Rummage host of the Age of

0:17

Napoleon podcast join me as I examined

0:20

the life and times of one of

0:22

the most fascinating and at a dramatic

0:24

characters in modern history. Look.

0:26

For the Age of Napoleon wherever you

0:28

find your podcasts. Part

0:38

Five: Wives and Warriors The

0:40

elaborate record of King Tut

0:42

most the third Queens, and

0:44

the final phases of his

0:47

military career. At

0:55

the end of Ragnar yet, Thirty

0:58

three, approximately fourteen sixty two bc,

1:00

a topmost the third had pulled

1:02

off one of his most impressive

1:05

achievements to date. He. Had

1:07

launched a massive surprise attack against

1:09

as most dangerous foe. Crossing.

1:12

The River Euphrates and Syria topmost

1:14

had struck at the heartland of

1:16

the kingdom of my tiny. He

1:19

had laid waste their farmlands and

1:21

communities, fought at least one battle

1:23

against a local army, and then

1:25

driven them a tiny off in

1:27

defeat. A had erected

1:29

a steeler to his victory, taken a

1:31

hunting trip in Syria and then returned

1:34

back to Egypt and triumph. Now.

1:37

At the beginning of right Know yet?

1:40

Thirty four, The King was riding high.

1:42

Tribute and revenue we're beginning to flow

1:45

into Egypt from it's vessels. More on

1:47

that and a moment and the army

1:49

was rich and plunder from it's campaigns.

1:52

The temples of the land were

1:54

being embellished and expanded, the king's

1:56

monuments well well underway and life

1:58

and the palace. The was comfortable

2:01

and prosperous. The King's

2:03

court was in a good mood as

2:05

Ragnar yeah, thirty four began. As.

2:08

Of fourteen, sixty one Btc a

2:10

tote most was looking ahead once

2:13

more. In a month or

2:15

two he would return to Syria for

2:17

short campaign has ninth and then he

2:19

would return home. Syria was

2:22

quiet this year them a tiny

2:24

was still licking their wounds as

2:26

took photos and as warriors visited

2:28

Syria again they were really just

2:30

doing a bit of policing action.

2:33

The ninth campaign is almost a non

2:35

event, and the historical record we hardly

2:37

hear about it and taught most never

2:39

makes any big deal about it's events.

2:41

It was a quiet moment between the

2:44

massive campaign of Ragnar yeah, Thirty Three

2:46

and the big events that were on

2:48

the horizon. And they were

2:50

some serious changes on the horizon. As

2:53

Egypt's left, it's traditional isolation and

2:55

asserted itself in the world. it

2:57

was inevitable that other powers wouldn't

2:59

notice what was happening. Topmost

3:02

took what he wanted from them attorney.

3:05

You. Don't tend to do that without

3:07

stirring the pot just a little bit.

3:10

So. Let's. Open today's story

3:12

with a look at how the

3:14

world and it's political powers responded

3:16

to the magnificent onslaught of the

3:19

Egyptian army. Many rulers

3:21

you see watched them a tiny

3:23

campaign with interests. Some of them

3:25

watched with alarm. Evidently,

3:28

the message of Egypt's imperial power

3:30

had travelled much further than the

3:32

kingdom of them at honey. It

3:35

had reached the towns of Syria

3:37

and cannot of course, how could

3:39

it not those cities a leper

3:41

of Allah lock you give it

3:43

to net to this Byblos et

3:45

cetera were all very familiar with

3:48

Egyptian military activities. Some of

3:50

them had watched from the sidelines as

3:52

topmost did his thing. Others. have

3:54

been locked in power struggles with the

3:56

egyptian army for years and many more

3:59

avast much authority had been subjugated

4:01

or submitted to the rising power

4:03

of the Pharaoh of Egypt. Naturally,

4:07

word of Pharaoh's power began

4:09

to spread further than these

4:11

lands. First, it went

4:13

eastward, across the Euphrates and Tigris

4:15

rivers, into modern Iraq and Kurdistan.

4:18

Secondly, it went south into southern

4:21

Iraq, the lands which we call

4:23

Babylonia. Finally, it went

4:25

northward into the torus mountains of

4:27

central Anatolia or Turkey. A

4:31

few months after he finished his campaign

4:33

against the Mitanni, Tutmos, sitting

4:35

at home in the royal palace, suddenly

4:38

started to receive a series

4:40

of most unexpected guests. Groups

4:43

of men wearing strange clothing and

4:45

speaking foreign languages began to appear

4:48

at the Egyptian court. They

4:50

were seeking audience with none other than

4:53

the great majesty of the Pharaoh himself.

4:56

These men came as

4:58

embassies, delegations. They

5:00

came from far and wide, and

5:03

they had come as a direct

5:05

result of Tutmos's audacious and impressive

5:07

campaigning up in Syria and northern

5:09

Iraq. These men came

5:11

from the Near East's most formidable

5:13

kingdoms, and they came to Egypt

5:15

in order to offer the very

5:17

best thing they could, their

5:20

friendship. The first

5:22

delegation came from the lands of Babylonia,

5:24

which I mentioned a moment ago. Babylonia

5:27

is, well, it's located in southern

5:30

Iraq and it centers on the

5:32

city of Babylon. Babylon

5:34

is a ruin today south of Baghdad,

5:37

but it was once the meatiest city

5:39

in the world. Babylon, home

5:41

to ruling dynasties from the early

5:43

Bronze Age down to Alexander the

5:45

Great, Babylon, center of the

5:48

first great empire in history. Babylon,

5:51

which some call a mark of

5:53

apocalypse, a herald of religious destruction.

5:57

Well, Babylon was not a

5:59

bad place. at least not broadly

6:01

speaking. I'm sure it had

6:03

its problems, but overall it was

6:05

a relatively accomplished and progressive city

6:07

by ancient standards. In

6:09

an age of almost universal

6:12

autocracy, the Babylonians had codified

6:14

one of the world's earliest

6:16

legal documents, the Code of

6:18

Hammurabi. Babylon itself

6:20

had once been one of the

6:23

largest cities in the world, a

6:25

shining example of what early agricultural

6:27

civilization could offer to humankind. In

6:31

the days of Thutmose III,

6:33

Babylon was far past its

6:35

zenith unfortunately. The kingdom

6:37

had weakened over the centuries until its

6:39

traditional royal household collapsed and the lands

6:41

were taken over by a new ruling

6:44

class. These were a

6:46

people known as the Cassites and they came

6:48

from the Far East. The

6:50

Cassites were Indo-Europeans and as such they

6:53

were more than familiar with the Kingdom

6:55

of Matani. They were hardly

6:57

on good terms with the Matani

6:59

either, which is why the King

7:01

of Babylon responded to Thutmose III's

7:04

campaigns with, well, enthusiasm.

7:07

The King of Babylon at this time

7:10

was a man named Kara Indash, and

7:12

I have to say his titles were pretty cool.

7:15

Quote, Kara Indash, mighty

7:17

king, king of Babylonia, king

7:19

of Sumer and Akkad, king

7:22

of the Cassites, king of

7:24

Akkadunyash. One of those

7:26

king of kings types that crops up in

7:28

Eastern empires a lot. Kara

7:30

Indash, king of Babylon, opened relations

7:32

with Thutmose III the way that

7:35

most ancient kingdoms did so. He

7:38

sent the Pharaoh of Egypt a

7:40

formal diplomatic gift in the hands

7:42

of his ambassadors. The

7:44

ambassadors would offer a message of goodwill

7:46

to the king of the Nile Valley,

7:48

the Suzeran of Canaan, the one who

7:50

had vanquished the hated Matani. Kara

7:54

Indash sent to Thutmose III

7:56

a gift of semi-precious stones,

7:58

a rare menorrhoea. that

8:00

only came from the mountains far to the east.

8:03

He sent a gift of lapis lazuli.

8:07

Lapis lazuli is a blue stone mined

8:09

in the lands of Afghanistan and Pakistan.

8:12

In its natural state it is a

8:15

rich deep blue with hints of purple

8:17

and flecks of what looks like gold.

8:20

When it is polished, lapis lazuli becomes

8:22

a lighter blue and when it is

8:24

ground up it can be used to

8:26

make the colour ultramarine. In

8:29

the ancient world lapis lazuli was

8:31

incredibly rare and so rulers from

8:33

India to Egypt praised this mineral

8:36

highly. Khada Indash

8:38

was making a handsome gift with

8:40

this offering of lapis lazuli. The

8:43

Egyptians I'm sure were very impressed. Unfortunately,

8:46

not a lot of information

8:48

survives about the embassy itself.

8:51

We don't know how many Babylonians there were

8:53

in the delegation or how much lapis lazuli

8:55

they brought, or what their message

8:58

was, or even whether they met the

9:00

Pharaoh himself. It's entirely possible

9:02

that they simply met the vizier or a

9:04

high official. I think

9:06

we can assume that eventually the Babylonians

9:08

did meet Tatmose in person, but

9:11

nothing is certain here. What

9:14

is certain is that the Babylonian delegation

9:16

was the beginning of a very interesting

9:18

couple of years. As

9:20

first one and then another great

9:22

kings began to engage directly and

9:25

diplomatically with the ruler of the

9:27

Nile Valley. In

9:29

fact, over the course of two or three

9:31

years after Regnal year 33, at least three

9:33

world powers

9:35

would make contact with Egypt's kingdom.

9:40

Shortly after the Babylonian delegation left,

9:42

a second embassy arrived from the

9:44

Far East. This

9:47

was an embassy from the land of Ashur.

9:50

But you might know it by another name,

9:52

the Kingdom of Assyria. The

9:54

Assyrians, or Ashuru to the Egyptians,

9:56

were anxious to make friends with

9:59

new powers. They shared

10:01

a border with the Kingdom of Matani,

10:03

and their own influence had been negatively

10:05

impacted by the Matani warlords. Assyria,

10:08

in short, was in a period

10:10

of temporary decline, not quite

10:12

the power they had once been, nor the

10:14

power they would be again one day. At

10:18

the time of Thutmose III, the

10:20

king of Assyria may have been

10:22

named Enlil Nasir. Unfortunately,

10:24

matching the chronologies of Egypt and the Near

10:26

East is a headache at the best of

10:29

times, and these are far from the best

10:31

of times. I'm going

10:33

with Enlil Nasir, but I could very

10:35

easily be wrong, it all depends on

10:37

the dates. Anyway, the

10:40

Assyrian delegation arrived in Thutmose court

10:42

before the end of Regnal year

10:46

33, and they brought with them a very

10:48

nice gift. Like the Babylonians,

10:50

they carried a gift of lapis lazuli,

10:53

but there was more. On

10:55

top of the lapis lazuli, Enlil

10:57

Nasir sent a number of vessels.

11:00

These could either be vases, jugs, drinking

11:03

vessels, or something of that nature. Either

11:06

way, they were probably high

11:08

quality ceramics, likely decorated in

11:10

beautiful patterns, well made, fine

11:12

quality, that sort of thing.

11:15

These were a token of the king's

11:17

friendship, a mark of his esteem, and

11:19

a timely reminder to the Egyptians that

11:22

they were not the only ones dealing

11:24

with the Matani Kingdom. Of

11:26

course, there's still a lot missing from the record.

11:29

We don't know how many Ashru there were,

11:31

or exactly when they came, the month of

11:34

the day. We don't know

11:36

whether they visited Egypt itself, or whether they

11:38

came upon the Egyptian army while it was

11:40

in Syria or Lebanon. We

11:42

still don't know whether they met Thutmose himself,

11:45

so it's kind of like the Babylonian situation.

11:47

We just have the general record that the

11:50

Ashru visited the king of Egypt and they gave

11:52

him these gifts. Beyond that, we

11:54

don't know. Anyways,

11:57

on with the story. The Assyrian

11:59

delegation came once in Regnal

12:01

year 33 and then again several

12:03

years later. Over

12:05

time, and I'm jumping ahead slightly, Assyria

12:08

and Egypt would actually form a

12:10

loose alliance, working together against the

12:12

power of the Mitanni Kingdom. In

12:15

other words, Egypt was now starting

12:17

to acquire some valuable contacts from

12:19

powers far from its lands, powers

12:22

that could aid in the ongoing game

12:25

of international competition. Pretty cool!

12:29

The third great power to visit Egypt

12:31

was one who are going to loom

12:33

large in our story over the next

12:35

few centuries. This was

12:37

a kingdom located far to the north

12:39

of Egypt, beyond the lands of Canaan

12:41

and Assyria, beyond the Euphrates and the

12:44

Taurus Mountains, a kingdom in

12:46

the heartlands of Anatolia, a

12:48

kingdom called Hati. Hati

12:50

is the home of the Hittites, an

12:53

incredibly significant ancient people who now

12:55

enter our story for the very

12:58

first time. Before

13:00

the Hittite delegation arrived in Egypt,

13:02

there are no surviving references to

13:04

this kingdom or to these people.

13:07

So when they arrived at the palace

13:09

of Tatmose III, it is possible that

13:11

the Egyptians had never met Hittites before.

13:15

The Hittites arrived in Egypt early in Regnal

13:17

year 34, carrying

13:19

with them diplomatic gifts, just

13:21

like their counterparts in Assyria and Babylon.

13:24

However, compared to the gifts

13:26

of Babylon and Ashur, these

13:28

were splendid gifts indeed. The

13:31

Hittite delegation brought unique

13:33

objects, silver, high quality

13:35

wood, and even gemstones.

13:39

Perhaps none of these were as exotic

13:41

as lapis lazuli, but they were far

13:43

more valuable as a message of goodwill.

13:46

The value of these items was clear

13:48

and obvious to the Egyptians, and they

13:50

prized high quality wood and silver very

13:52

much. As suggested one

13:54

thing above all, the king

13:56

of the Hittites was very interested

13:59

in gaining total. Moses' friendship.

14:02

The king of the Hittites at this

14:04

time was possibly named Han Tili. There

14:07

is not much to know about him

14:09

historically, at least nothing that was interesting

14:11

to the Egyptians. So I

14:13

will avoid describing the Hittites in too much

14:15

detail here today. I'm going

14:17

to introduce them more when they enter our

14:19

story for real, when they start to make

14:21

a serious impact on affairs. Suffice

14:24

to say, the Hittites are a

14:26

fascinating people and I'm excited to

14:28

introduce them today. They're

14:30

going to play a larger

14:32

and larger role in the

14:34

story of Egypt's empire. There

14:36

will be wars, negotiations, treaties,

14:38

assassinations, and even plagues. At

14:41

times they will be Egypt's friends, at

14:43

other times they will be enemies. The

14:46

stories which come out of the

14:48

relationship between Egypt and the Hittites

14:50

are fascinating, like biblical level stuff.

14:53

All of that begins here with the

14:56

gift from Han Tili to Thutmose III.

14:59

Thank you, Han Tili. The

15:04

diplomatic embassies that came to Thutmose

15:06

III were an incredibly important event.

15:09

Important enough that Thutmose had

15:11

these embassies recorded in royal

15:13

inscriptions. That's not

15:15

something you do lightly, so it

15:18

seems that the Egyptians regarded this

15:20

as a significant moment, both in

15:22

their king's reign and their history

15:24

more generally. Without

15:26

overstating the importance, I think we

15:28

can see these embassies as the

15:31

moment when Egypt was formally recognized

15:33

by other major kingdoms as belonging

15:35

to the club of great powers.

15:38

Until now, Egypt's influence over

15:41

the Near East had been limited.

15:43

They had traded extensively and waged

15:45

the occasional campaign, but

15:47

only Thutmose III had pursued

15:49

a long-lasting plan of conquest.

15:52

Only he had truly pursued

15:54

an empire. It

15:57

was Thutmose III that changed Canaan and

15:59

Sarah's Syria, turning them into subjugated

16:01

vassals of the Nile Valley. Before

16:04

him, campaigns were sporadic. During

16:07

his reign, and later, campaigns

16:10

became almost annual. Egyptian

16:12

soldiers became a regular site in

16:14

the region, and royal officials became

16:16

a part of the Near Eastern

16:18

political landscape. It seems

16:21

only natural to me that this

16:23

should be the moment when great

16:25

kingdoms like Assyria, Babylon, and Hati

16:27

should get in touch with the

16:29

Egyptians. Thutmose's consistent,

16:31

accomplished campaigning paid dividends

16:33

not just in victories

16:36

or plunder and tribute,

16:38

but in diplomatic visibility.

16:41

Egypt was rising quickly, moving away

16:43

from its traditional focus on the

16:45

Nile Valley. Now it was

16:47

entering into a new world and gaining

16:49

a new status, the status

16:52

of great power. Of

16:54

course, for those little powers, those

16:56

small kingdoms, watching all of this

16:59

going on, there was really only

17:01

two options, submit or die. Let's

17:04

take a look at how a few of

17:06

these little princes adapted to the new situation.

17:24

To explore the new international status

17:26

of Egypt, I'm going to focus

17:28

down on one very curious case

17:30

that crops up in this period.

17:33

It is an unprecedented situation as far

17:35

as we can prove, and it hints

17:37

at a rich and complex world of

17:40

which we only have a glimpse today.

17:43

In order to introduce it, I have to explain

17:45

how we found out about it. So

17:47

I'm going to recount a story. Quote,

17:52

A year or two before the First

17:54

World War, local Egyptians living in Thebes

17:56

used to go looking for antiquities on

17:58

the western side. side of the river.

18:02

In 1916 a violent rainstorm came

18:04

in the Luxor district about the

18:06

end of July, and when

18:08

it was over a gang of Arabs

18:10

from a nearby village went up into

18:13

the mountains looking for what might have

18:15

been disclosed by the floods. In

18:18

one place, water was still

18:20

cascading down the cliffs and

18:22

disappearing into a gigantic crack

18:24

high up among the crags,

18:26

and then it came pouring out

18:29

over 40 yards away. To

18:32

see where the water had been, the Arabs

18:34

had to get into the crevice, and a

18:36

rope was lowered into the gloomy depths below.

18:39

Of course everything had to be done

18:41

in absolute secrecy, but the result of

18:44

all their labours far surpassed any dream

18:46

that the gang could have had. Before

18:49

the middle of August it was pretty

18:51

generally known throughout the village and Luxor

18:53

that an extraordinary treasure had been found,

18:55

and even the name of the dealer

18:57

who had bought it was no secret

19:00

to the gossips of the neighbourhood. Among

19:03

the members of the gang of tomb

19:05

robbers was the curious little old Muhammad

19:07

Hamad, who worked for us after the

19:09

war. And his story

19:11

was that a few days after the

19:13

tomb had been found, he and the

19:15

rest of the thieves had already divided

19:17

the hoard of coins which they had

19:19

got from the dealer to whom they

19:21

had sold the treasure. Naturally

19:24

enough, Muhammad's first thought was for

19:26

a brand new wife. The

19:29

one he chose was his junior by a good

19:31

many years, and like thousands of

19:33

upper Egyptian girls, she was as straight

19:36

as an arrow and had eyes that

19:38

looked over the corner of her head

19:40

shawl with an unmistakable invitation. After

19:43

the wedding, Muhammad and all his

19:45

friends, and they had suddenly become

19:47

positively legion, settled into

19:49

the thoroughly enjoyable pastime of

19:51

watching those seemingly uncountable piles

19:53

of round golden coins roll

19:55

after each other downhill into

19:57

the pockets of the shop.

20:01

Then, early one hot summer morning,

20:03

somebody spied a crowd of village

20:06

guards and policemen coming straight along

20:08

the road from Luxor. Muhammad

20:11

and his young wife were wide awake in

20:13

an instant, scared almost to death about the

20:15

gold which had to be got out of

20:18

the house as quickly as possible. It

20:20

was dug up from the dirt and mess in the

20:22

corner, and stuffed in a basket. A

20:25

heap of corn was poured on top of

20:27

it, and off down the steep hill went

20:29

the wife, balancing the basket on her head.

20:31

In among the houses which clung to the

20:34

slope she went, passing one policeman toiling up

20:36

the hill and dropping the corner of her

20:38

shawl just a little while she smiled at

20:40

him. Below, a couple

20:42

of the village guards exchanged some joke

20:45

with her, and then, as she

20:47

was almost clear and safety was just

20:49

around the corner, one last guard

20:51

came climbing up the hill towards her. He

20:55

too came from the village, and he had often

20:57

been the butt of all sorts of jokes by

20:59

the village girls. He gave a

21:01

nasty chuckle, and made a pass at the burden

21:03

on her head with his guards club. There

21:06

was a smacking sound as he

21:08

hit the basket squarely, there was

21:10

a shriek from the girl, and

21:12

downhill rolled the basket, spilling out

21:14

in one wildly confused stream, yellow

21:16

corn and yellow golden coins. Everything

21:19

ended in a frantic gold rush,

21:22

policemen, village guards, and all the

21:24

good people of the area were

21:26

a mad, biting, scratching tangle. When

21:29

it was all over, everyone from the

21:31

police captain on down was exhausted, and

21:33

they all filed home, except

21:35

for Muhammad and a few others,

21:38

who were taken to Luxor for

21:40

further questioning. Of this questioning, nothing ever

21:42

came, and in the end, all of

21:44

the thieves were released, with no one

21:46

the loser, except poor old

21:49

Muhammad and his lost gold. He

21:52

may take the story told about Muhammad Hamad

21:55

as typical of that of all the tomb

21:57

robbers. They had been careful not

21:59

to carry any dirt outside the tomb for

22:01

fear that it might be seen. They

22:04

got what they could by turning over

22:06

every basketful inside. Everything

22:08

had immediately been sold and the treasure was

22:10

out of their hands before the police got

22:13

wind of the affair. However,

22:15

it was rumoured at the time of the

22:18

discovery that the heavier stone vases and canopic

22:20

jars had been buried near the site until

22:22

there should be a good opportunity to move

22:24

them, and this tale started a

22:27

second rush to the mountain. Apparently

22:29

interlopers found many of the vessels buried

22:31

by the first thieves and took them

22:33

into the village where they were hidden

22:36

once more. But that was

22:38

not all. In the

22:40

curious way things happened in Egypt,

22:42

everybody except the inspectors of the

22:44

service of antiquities knew all about

22:46

this tomb and everybody was pretty

22:48

certain who had bought its contents

22:51

from the robbers, but no

22:53

official ever learned his name for

22:55

sure." I

22:59

love this story and I hope you'll forgive me

23:02

for taking the time to recount it. It

23:04

comes from a wonderful publication

23:06

by Egyptologist Herbert Winlock. He

23:09

recounted this in 1948 as

23:11

part of his detailed examination of the

23:13

items that came from this hidden tomb.

23:17

These items mostly found their way

23:19

via dealers to New York's Metropolitan

23:21

Museum of Art. There,

23:23

the items remain to this day

23:25

and they give us a glimpse

23:27

at the unorthodox recovery of some

23:30

wonderful ancient treasures. The

23:32

treasures taken from this tomb were

23:34

the treasures of three Egyptian princesses.

23:37

These princesses were secondary wives

23:39

of Pharaoh Tutmose III and

23:42

thanks to these unusual events

23:44

we now know a surprising

23:46

amount about these women. Our

23:50

three princesses were buried together in

23:52

the same tomb with a whole

23:54

host of jewellery and funerary objects.

24:00

mummies? Well, unfortunately not, but we still have

24:02

a lot of material to reference.

24:04

Thankfully, Egyptologists

24:07

have done the hard work, and now we

24:09

can say a few things about these mysterious women.

24:12

The names of these three princesses were Menuwai,

24:14

Manhata, and Meruta. They

24:16

were buried

24:20

in the seeds some time before

24:23

Regnal Year 42 of Thutmose III. This doesn't tell us

24:27

a lot about their historical importance, obviously,

24:29

with these honored wives or captives in

24:33

all but name. It's kind of hard to say.

24:35

But it is clear that Menuwai, Manhata,

24:37

and Meruta

24:40

went to the afterlife in some

24:42

style. Their bodies were covered in

24:44

golden jewelry, eagerly

24:47

collected by those rubbers. They had rings, necklaces,

24:49

and collars, wig decorations, gold

24:55

and silver mirrors, sandals, toes and

24:58

figment sheaths, heart scarabs, amulets, seeds

25:01

and pendants, ointment jars, canopic

25:03

jars, stone vessels, and all

25:05

kinds of miscellaneous pieces

25:08

that went into the assemblage. In

25:11

short, these three women were encumbed

25:13

in a very respectable manner. Such

25:16

a lavish burial begs the question, what

25:18

was so special about these foreign women?

25:21

Why did they get a funeral of such

25:23

magnificence? There were plenty of royal women

25:25

around at this time. What set

25:27

these three apart? The

25:30

key is in their names. Manuwai,

25:33

Manhata, and Meruta are not

25:35

Egyptian names. Their exact origin

25:39

is unconfirmed, but it is 90%

25:41

likely that these are Syrian or

25:43

Semitic names. Meruta, for

25:47

instance, could be a precursor to

25:49

the Hebrew word marta, which became

25:51

our Martha. Manuwai,

25:53

possibly menwee, could also be Hebrew

25:55

en route, or it could be

25:58

Syrian Semitic. Finally,

26:00

Manhatta is possibly from the

26:02

Hebrew nuveh, or exalted, from

26:05

which we, incidentally, also get

26:07

the name Noah. Now

26:10

I'm no philologist, and I'm working

26:12

on the research of more experienced

26:14

scholars, but it seems

26:16

awfully convenient that a trio of

26:19

Syrian-esque women show up in a

26:21

royal context sometime in the middle

26:23

of Tatmose III's reign. We

26:26

don't know exactly when they were buried,

26:28

there's a 20-year span of possible dates,

26:31

but it is clear that it

26:33

was sometime after Megiddo and sometime

26:35

before Tatmose finished his campaigning. The

26:38

woman probably lived at Memphis, in the

26:40

royal harem which we know existed there.

26:43

You can learn about this harem back in episode

26:45

65c. The

26:48

princess's life in Memphis would have been sheltered

26:50

from 99% of the population. It

26:54

was a life taking place among the

26:56

halls, gardens, and apartments of the royal

26:58

palaces. Memphis, one of

27:00

the major royal residences, was home

27:03

to a huge government community. Overseers,

27:06

high officials, bureaucrats, etc. gathered

27:08

in this area to manage

27:10

the affairs of the country,

27:12

especially the north. Many

27:14

of those officials would be working on affairs

27:16

to do with the lands of Canaan and

27:19

Syria. Likewise, many of

27:21

the servants at Memphis probably

27:23

came as well-respected captives from

27:25

those lands. Manuwai

27:28

Manhata and Maruta probably

27:30

came to the Egyptian court as a

27:33

form of diplomatic gift. We

27:35

know that at least one Syrian lord sent

27:37

his daughter to Egypt in Regnal year

27:40

40. The chief

27:42

sent his daughter as an inu,

27:44

which we translate as gift, to

27:46

the court of the Pharaoh. It

27:48

was a token of goodwill, an offering

27:50

of loyalty, and a way

27:53

to cement relations with the great king

27:55

of the Nile Valley. Now

27:57

I am willing to bet good money that Manuwai Manhata and Maruta are the

27:59

greatest in the why Manhatta and Maruta

28:01

came to Egypt as diplomatic

28:04

gifts, as Inu. Admittedly,

28:06

I wouldn't stake my academic reputation

28:09

on this, but I would bet

28:11

you, say, ten dollars. Why

28:13

do I think this? Well, the

28:16

unique burial of these women

28:18

suggests some things very clearly.

28:20

Firstly, they were obviously honored or respectable

28:23

in some way, so that suggests that

28:25

they weren't given

28:29

the title, Temet Nesut, or

28:31

Wife of the King. Again,

28:33

not something you'd normally do for

28:36

women taken as booty in war,

28:38

you'd just make them concubines. Thirdly,

28:41

their burial in theives near

28:43

the royal cemeteries means that

28:45

they were given privileged status.

28:48

Very few royal wives received this

28:50

treatment, relatively speaking. Put

28:53

those facts together with their vaguely Syrian

28:55

names and the period in which they

28:57

show up, after Thutmose had

28:59

established Egypt as a power in Syria,

29:01

but before he finished his campaigns. And

29:04

the evidence to me suggests that

29:07

these women were sent voluntarily to

29:09

Egypt. They were probably

29:11

diplomatic gifts from Syrian rulers to

29:13

their overlord, the king of Egypt.

29:16

It is possible they were sent as a form

29:18

of insurance for good behavior. You

29:20

have my daughter, and don't invade me. They

29:23

are also quite likely the first such

29:26

women to arrive in Egypt for this

29:28

purpose. There are hints of

29:30

other princesses from foreign lands, like

29:33

a Cretan princess who might have come from

29:35

the Minoan peoples, but only

29:37

Manuwai, Manhata and Maruta

29:39

are definitive, proven. With

29:42

that in mind, I think we

29:44

can afford them the signal honor

29:46

of being the first diplomatic marriages

29:48

in Egyptian history. Please,

29:51

welcome our new foreign ladies.

30:06

So it seems like so far everything

30:08

is just going swimmingly for Egypt. Three

30:11

great kingdoms have gotten in touch with the

30:13

Pharaoh, openly acknowledging that he

30:16

is now one of the great rulers

30:18

of the world, and that Egypt has

30:20

become a great power with influence worthy

30:22

of recognition and respect. On

30:25

top of that, we have small

30:27

kingdoms and principalities in Syria, giving

30:29

their daughters to the king of

30:31

Egypt just to secure his good

30:33

will and perhaps his protection. In

30:36

other words, Egypt is sitting

30:38

very pretty, it's forming alliances,

30:40

making loose friendships, receiving gifts,

30:42

getting tribute, and basically profiting

30:44

in every way it's possible

30:46

to do at this point

30:48

in history. Of

30:51

course, not everyone was too happy about

30:53

what Thutmose had been doing. No

30:55

one was less happy about this than the

30:57

Matani. They were not out

31:00

of the picture just yet, and they were

31:02

getting ready to strike back. After

31:05

his bold campaign in Regnal year 33, Thutmose enjoyed

31:07

about 12 or 18 months of calm and

31:12

peace. The king received those

31:14

diplomatic embassies, and then he set out

31:16

on a short campaign into southern Syria.

31:19

That was a quiet campaign, more of a

31:21

policing action than anything else, but

31:24

peace could not last forever. About

31:27

18 months after Thutmose's surprise attack

31:29

on their kingdom, the rulers of

31:31

Matani were ready to launch a

31:33

counter-attack. Now that they

31:36

had recovered, they could look at reasserting

31:38

their authority and their influence over Syria.

31:41

This was authority that Thutmose had battered

31:43

very strongly, and they were not going

31:45

to take that lying down. The

31:48

Matani were in no position to attack

31:51

Egypt itself, of course. It

31:53

was too far away, and there were too many

31:55

garrisons and small kingdoms in their way. But

31:57

the Matani warlords could still get of

32:00

Thutmose an almighty headache. Left

32:02

unchecked, they threatened the balance of power

32:05

in Syria and Canaan. With luck,

32:07

they could easily undo all

32:09

of the victories that Thutmose

32:11

had spent ten years achieving.

32:14

So the Mitanni warlords, possibly led

32:17

by their king, gathered in the

32:19

heartlands of northern Mesopotamia. Their

32:22

chariot elites, the Mariana, with a

32:24

formidable wing of their army, heavily

32:26

armed and armoured, swift and deadly.

32:29

They were backed up

32:31

by armoured swordsmen, lightly armed spearmen,

32:33

and a great many archers. Together,

32:36

these forces could lay waste

32:39

to towns and hinterlands and

32:41

place fortified cities under incredibly

32:43

powerful sieges. The Mitanni

32:45

had gathered a true strike force.

32:49

Surprisingly, it seems that Thutmose

32:51

was entirely unaware of his

32:53

enemy's plans. At

32:55

the start of Regnal year 35,

32:57

he began yet another campaign in

33:00

Assyria. This would be his

33:02

tenth campaign, and it began like

33:04

any other. He sailed out

33:07

of the Nile Delta in blissful ignorance,

33:09

heading for Bibilos. The

33:11

king took with him a modest army and

33:13

behaved as though this was essentially business

33:15

as usual. Unfortunately, he

33:18

was about to get a rude

33:20

awakening. Thutmose

33:22

and his army proceeded, as normal,

33:25

into Lebanon and Syria. The

33:27

Egyptians visited their local vassals

33:30

and took their obligatory tribute,

33:32

their bakku. If the

33:34

towns failed to comply, or try

33:37

to resist, then the Egyptians made short work

33:39

of them. This campaign was

33:41

straightforward, and the Egyptians

33:43

might be forgiven for being slightly

33:45

complacent. However, this was

33:47

a bad state to be in. They were

33:50

now open to surprise. The

33:53

king and his army carried on into

33:55

central Syria. They approached

33:57

the town of Aleppo, which they had

33:59

visited. back in the Euphrates campaign.

34:02

Aleppo, one of the world's oldest

34:04

inhabited cities, does not figure much

34:06

in our stories yet, but

34:09

the countryside around Aleppo continues to

34:11

be a strategic highway and more

34:13

than one significant battle will take

34:15

place here. Near

34:18

Aleppo, Tatmose and his army came

34:20

to a town called Aruna. At

34:23

Aruna, they received an unwelcome

34:26

surprise. Tatmose's

34:28

scouts returned one day with alarming

34:30

news. Their way, up

34:32

ahead, was blocked. Not

34:34

by a local army or any kind of police

34:36

force or brigands. This was a

34:39

formidable force, a force of the Mitanni

34:41

Kingdom. Tatmose was

34:43

worried. Their enemy had snuck a march

34:45

on them and appeared in Syria without

34:47

their knowledge. Battle it

34:50

seemed was imminent. The call

34:52

went out, to arms, to arms. Tatmose's

34:55

army was drawn unexpectedly and

34:57

almost without preparation into direct

34:59

conflict with the Mitanni army.

35:03

It wasn't an ambush per se,

35:05

more of an unexpected obstacle. That

35:09

vile doomed one of Naharin, the

35:11

Mitanni, had collected horses with their

35:13

people and their armies which stretched

35:15

to the ends of the earth.

35:17

They were more numerous than the sands on

35:20

the seashore. They were intent on fighting with

35:22

His Majesty. The

35:25

Egyptians perhaps had not expected the Mitanni

35:27

to prepare a counter-attack so soon, or

35:30

at least not to show up at the exact

35:32

moment that they were here. The

35:34

situation had all the potential to be

35:36

a catastrophe. In such

35:38

circumstances, Tatmose had two options.

35:41

He could retreat back to safety,

35:43

or he could attack. Now,

35:46

after all we've learned about him, which

35:48

one do you think he chose? Then

35:52

His Majesty closed with them, and

35:54

the army of His Majesty performed

35:56

the charging manoeuvre with their cry,

35:58

Let's get this! As them, then

36:01

His Majesty overpowered these foreigners through

36:03

the power of his father Amun-re,

36:05

and he made a great slaughter

36:07

among those doomed ones of Naharin.

36:10

They proceeded to flee, stumbling one

36:12

upon the other, in front of

36:14

His Majesty." End quote. I

36:18

have to say before I give you commentary on this,

36:21

the annals of Tatmose III may be

36:23

some of my favourite literature from ancient

36:25

Egypt. Not necessarily because

36:28

they're particularly beautiful linguistically, or even

36:30

that well written, but because he

36:32

includes these little moments of speech

36:34

and yelling that really flavour up

36:37

the narrative. You don't

36:39

tend to get these in earlier records,

36:41

and Tatmose seems to show a flair

36:43

for the dramatic. I mean,

36:45

the idea of the soldiers charging forward,

36:47

crying, let's get them! That's

36:50

remarkable, you just don't get that

36:52

normally. I absolutely love it. And I

36:54

almost like to imagine Tatmose trying to

36:56

dictate this to his scribes, waving a

36:59

sword around and saying, and then I

37:01

went left, and the chariots came towards

37:03

me but my might was too great,

37:05

and he's getting all excited and the

37:07

scribes are desperately trying to take it

37:09

down as quickly as they can, and

37:11

then it just winds up in this

37:13

short little paragraph on the wall that

37:15

gives you the slightest hint of how

37:17

Tatmose was probably a little bit of

37:20

a storyteller. Anyway,

37:22

despite what Tatmose tells you, this

37:25

battle was probably not a victory.

37:28

But nor was it a defeat. It

37:30

seems like the Egyptians and the Mitanni

37:32

fought each other to a standstill, a

37:34

stalemate. Then both sides

37:37

withdrew back to their respective

37:39

territories and no further engagement

37:41

occurred. The

37:43

Battle of Year 35, whatever you

37:45

want to call it, was perhaps

37:48

the first great battle that Tatmose

37:50

had fought since his Megiddo campaign,

37:52

a full thirteen years before. Back

37:55

then he'd been about 24, 25, young and vigorous. full

38:00

of power. Now he

38:02

was thirty-seven or thirty-eight, middle-aged

38:04

and probably slowing down. Did

38:07

that play a part? Well, it doesn't

38:09

seem to. Tatmose still went

38:11

into battle audaciously and aggressively. He

38:14

wasn't any more timid than before.

38:17

I think ultimately what happened here

38:19

was that the Egyptians and the

38:22

Mitanni found themselves pretty much equal

38:24

in combat. Neither

38:26

side in this battle had a clear advantage.

38:29

Neither one was necessarily expecting a

38:31

pitched battle. All things

38:33

considered, the Mitanni might have been just

38:35

as surprised by the Egyptians as the

38:37

Egyptians were by the Mitanni. It

38:40

was an unpredicted and unplanned battle.

38:43

That neither side emerged as a

38:45

clear victor was simply because neither

38:47

side was noticeably better than the

38:49

other. Returning

38:52

to Beblos, Tatmose now found

38:54

himself cautious. Any

38:57

attempt to push further into Syria would

38:59

now have to reckon with a powerful

39:01

and well-organized foe – a

39:04

foe capable of meeting the Egyptians in

39:06

open battle and holding their own. It

39:09

was not a defeat, but nor was it

39:11

a victory. The Mitanni had

39:13

now proved their mettle. The

39:15

Egyptians were no longer the unstoppable

39:18

force they had seemed just a

39:20

couple years ago. Now

39:24

Tatmose was at a crossroads. Looking

39:28

back, it seems like he was faced with

39:30

two options. On the

39:32

one hand, Tatmose could continue to

39:34

push against the Mitanni aggressively, fielding

39:37

army after army and venturing out

39:39

year after year. This

39:41

had the advantage of bringing plunder, but

39:44

it would also be costly and it

39:46

would drag the pharaoh into repeated battles

39:48

and encounters. At

39:50

the age of 36+, well into middle age

39:53

for his day, Tatmose probably didn't

39:55

relish that option all that much.

39:58

Still, the Egyptian Egyptians had held

40:00

their own against the Mitanni, and

40:03

despite being unprepared for the battle

40:05

in Syria, they had emerged at

40:07

least relatively unscathed. Perhaps

40:09

the Mitanni would back off again, and the

40:12

Egyptians could seize an advantage over the Syrian

40:14

heartlands. It was worth considering.

40:17

On the other hand, this stalemate

40:19

did represent a unique opportunity. With

40:22

a little finesse and careful planning,

40:24

the Egyptians could very well use

40:26

the situation to buy some time.

40:29

For the last ten years, they had

40:31

been steadily expanding their authority over new

40:34

cities and peoples. If

40:36

Tatmose could attain a peace, that

40:38

might buy some time to consolidate

40:41

that authority and secure his empire

40:43

more completely. In

40:45

other words, this stalemate with the

40:47

Mitanni might conceivably turn into a

40:49

lasting peace, and each

40:51

kingdom could now have an accepted

40:53

and recognized sphere of influence. Having

40:57

that was going to be a bit

40:59

more difficult than might be expected. Before

41:13

we begin, let me set the tone

41:15

with a small flashback. In

41:18

year 22 of his reign, back

41:20

around the time of the Megido

41:22

battle, Tatmose commissioned and directed a

41:24

stele at a place called Armant.

41:27

Armant, or Iyunu Montu, has appeared

41:29

in our story before. It

41:31

appeared back in episode 64 as

41:34

the hometown of a courtier named

41:36

Senenmoot. Senenmoot was

41:38

one of Hatshepsut's most prominent

41:41

authorities and officials. So

41:43

by placing a stele here, Tatmose

41:45

was either honoring Senenmoot or asserting

41:48

his authority in a town that

41:50

had supported Hatshepsut during the first

41:52

22 years of the king's

41:54

reign. Naturally, Tatmose took

41:57

this opportunity to describe himself as

41:59

a king. as grandly as possible.

42:02

On the stealer, he put

42:04

an inscription, an inscription that

42:06

I think summarises the king's

42:08

general attitude towards his campaigns

42:10

and his military personality quite

42:12

nicely. It begins like this,

42:15

quote, ''His majesty made

42:17

no delay in proceeding to the land

42:19

of Jahi or Kanan to kill the

42:21

treacherous ones who were in it and

42:23

to give things to those who were

42:25

loyal to him. His

42:27

majesty returned on each occasion when

42:29

his attack had been affected in

42:32

valor and victory so that he

42:34

caused Egypt to be in the

42:36

good condition like it was when

42:38

Rey was its king.'' End

42:40

quote. The Armad

42:42

Steeler is a good introduction to today's

42:44

episode because I think it sets the

42:47

tone for what Tatmose was hoping to

42:49

achieve when he first set out on

42:51

his long campaigns. When he

42:53

carved the steeler, he was about 24 years

42:56

old, maybe slightly older. So

42:58

when he described himself, it was with all

43:00

the energy and dynamism of a young man,

43:03

one flush with power and eagerness.

43:06

Quote, ''When the king

43:08

shoots at a copper target, all wood

43:10

is splintered like a papyrus reed. His

43:13

majesty offered an example of this to

43:15

the temple of Amun. He

43:17

gave a copper target of three fingers

43:20

width. When he had shot his

43:22

arrow at it, his arrow pierced it and

43:24

stuck out the end to the length of

43:26

three palms. He did

43:29

this to cause the followers of the

43:31

king and the gods to pray for

43:33

the proficiency of his arms in valor

43:35

and in strength. I,

43:37

the scribe, am telling you what he

43:39

did without deception and lie in front

43:41

of his entire army. There

43:43

is no word of exaggeration herein.''

43:46

End quote. He was

43:48

boasts of his strength and his victories, sure.

43:51

But he sets a tone that I think

43:53

is worth remembering. When this

43:55

steeler was carved, the king was young and

43:58

bold, but 13 years later, he

44:00

was Ten years later the world was

44:02

a different place, and Thutmose was a

44:04

different man. We

44:24

resume our story in Regnal year 35,

44:26

approximately 1460 BCE. The

44:31

king is a different man than he was

44:33

when he first set out on his campaigns

44:36

way back in Regnal year 22. Things

44:39

have changed, the world has changed,

44:41

and Thutmose now has to adjust

44:44

himself to new circumstances. In

44:47

year 35, Thutmose and the Egyptian

44:49

army had suffered a setback. Placing

44:52

the kingdom of Mitanni in a pitched battle

44:54

in the middle of Syria, the king and

44:56

his army had come off, not

44:59

worse, but diffident,

45:01

stalemated. The

45:03

power of Egypt was now stretched

45:05

to its utmost extent, the

45:07

power of Mitanni was holding steady. The

45:10

two were thus at equal odds, and

45:12

neither had a decisive advantage. So

45:15

when the dust settled on their thunderous

45:17

clash, the kingdom of the Nile and

45:19

the kingdom of the Euphrates found themselves

45:21

in an uneasy quiet. For

45:24

everyone living through this period,

45:26

these were tumultuous and dramatic

45:28

events. A century later,

45:30

Syrians would look back on the reign

45:32

of Thutmose and describe it as a

45:35

period when the Egyptians were utterly supreme.

45:38

In a letter dating to approximately 1350 BCE,

45:42

a Syrian prince wrote to the Pharaoh

45:44

of Egypt, describing the

45:46

reign of Thutmose III as, quote,

45:49

a time when, at the mere sight

45:51

of an Egyptian king, the kings of

45:54

Canaan would flee. That

45:56

sums it up quite nicely, I think. But

45:58

after year 35, Thutmose's

46:01

activities really shifted. He

46:04

stopped pushing boldly outward and started

46:06

looking inward. The

46:08

pharaoh now began to wind

46:10

down his conquests and started

46:12

looking more towards diplomacy, security

46:14

and fortification. In short,

46:17

he began to consolidate. Now

46:20

when the Egyptians looked at Syria, at

46:22

Canaan and at the coast of the

46:24

Mediterranean Sea, what did they see? Well

46:28

they saw a sprawling dominion of

46:30

territories, cities, farmlands and villages that

46:32

now gave service to the people

46:34

of the Nile. With

46:37

confidence and security, Thutmose and his

46:39

officials could look at the land

46:41

of the Near East and say,

46:43

this is our land. Well

46:46

not quite. There were still

46:48

gaps. There were lands, cities and communities

46:50

here and there that were still left

46:52

out of the Egyptian Empire. Some

46:55

of these were in places where

46:57

logically the Egyptians would be exercising

46:59

authority, but for whatever reason,

47:01

they had overlooked them until now. Well

47:05

Thutmose took the stalemate of

47:07

year 35 as an opportunity to

47:09

correct some of those oversights. There

47:12

were two important borderlands which Thutmose

47:14

sought to control after his campaign

47:16

against the Mitanni. These

47:18

were the district of Nukashii and

47:21

the Syrian lands of Ugarit, Alalak

47:23

and Niyya. We'll tackle

47:25

Nukashii first. Nukashii

47:28

was a triangle shaped district northeast

47:31

of the Syrian city of Aleppo.

47:34

It stretched from Aleppo over to the

47:36

Euphrates River and southward for about 100

47:38

miles. All

47:40

up it was a large stretch of

47:42

what you might call hinterland, lands

47:45

that were roughly empty, buffering the

47:47

region between the Mitanni heartlands around

47:49

Euphrates and the growing Egyptian territory

47:52

south of Aleppo. Nukashii

47:54

was a bit of a no man's land,

47:57

in some ways literally. It

48:00

was not a state, it was just an area. The

48:03

Egyptians called it a district rather than

48:05

a land, just a vaguely

48:07

defined region with no particular

48:09

identity. Why? Well,

48:12

the people who lived in Nukashi

48:14

were tribal and didn't have an

48:16

organized state. This made

48:18

them hard to rule, there was no

48:21

single elite to subjugate or cow into

48:23

submission. This meant that

48:25

any attempt to conquer Nukashi was bound

48:27

to be disappointing, the locals

48:29

were simply too desperate to bring

48:31

under a solid military rule. In

48:34

some ways this suited the Egyptians perfectly.

48:37

Even if they couldn't rule over Nukashi,

48:39

they could at least carry favour with

48:41

the different tribes. Friendly

48:43

tribes could form a buffer zone between

48:45

Egyptian territory and that of the Mitanni.

48:48

Perhaps the Nukashians could even help

48:50

Egypt by raiding Mitanni territory, or

48:53

at least impeding their army's easy

48:55

movement. With a bit of

48:57

luck, the Nukashians could be quite useful.

49:01

Tertmose's policies in Nukashi went

49:03

through two distinct phases. In

49:05

the first he tried to compel their

49:08

submission, he sacked some communities and took

49:10

away plunder. The nature of

49:12

the plunder itself, sheep, cattle and donkeys,

49:14

should tell you what you need to

49:16

know about these people. They

49:18

were pastoral, animal herders. They

49:21

were not wealthy in gold, but in

49:23

livestock. Also the Egyptians took

49:25

what they could, but they would find

49:27

no exotic treasures here. So

49:30

Tertmose soon turned to a second

49:32

phase. A couple of

49:34

years after initially plundering the region, Tertmose

49:37

returned with a more diplomatic

49:39

approach. In an

49:41

attempt to create some kind of political

49:43

order, Tertmose decided to prop up a

49:46

local chieftain as a kind of vassal

49:48

of the Egyptian empire. This

49:51

Nukashian chieftain was named Takua,

49:54

and Tertmose put him in place

49:56

as King of the District of

49:58

Nukashi. This

50:00

was an interesting move, and Tatmose

50:02

even doubled down on the novelty

50:05

factor by making Takawa a rare

50:07

promise. To secure

50:09

the region against Mitanni aggression, Tatmose

50:11

promised Takawa that he would come

50:14

to the aid of Nukashi should

50:16

the land be attacked. This

50:19

is a very rare promise in early

50:21

Egyptian diplomacy. We hear

50:23

plenty about foreign lands giving obedience or

50:25

tribute to Egypt, but it is very

50:28

rare for the Egyptians to state what

50:30

they promised in return. According

50:32

to an official doctrine, Egypt took lots

50:34

and gave very little. So

50:37

Tatmose's move here is remarkable. The

50:40

idea, it seems, was to

50:42

create a political buffer zone

50:44

between Egyptian-ruled territory and Mitanian

50:46

Mesopotamia. Without creating

50:48

a full-on state, Tatmose was

50:50

clearly trying to incorporate Nukashi

50:52

into the Egyptian sphere of

50:54

influence, and strengthen his far-flung

50:56

borders. So the

50:59

pharaoh put Takawa on the throne,

51:01

quote-unquote, of Nukashi. We

51:04

don't know anything about Takawa himself,

51:06

but evidently Tatmose thought him a

51:08

suitable candidate. Perhaps the

51:10

Nukashians were surprised by this. After

51:13

all, they were a spread-out group of nomads,

51:15

not a unified people. But

51:18

then Tatmose's odd move does seem to

51:20

have stuck around in their memory. A

51:22

couple of centuries later, a ruler

51:25

from this part of the world wrote

51:27

a letter in which he referred to

51:29

Tatmose III as the father of fathers,

51:31

in other words, the one who had established

51:34

the current lineage of power. With

51:36

Takawa on the throne of Nukashi,

51:39

Tatmose now theoretically ruled the lands

51:41

from the West Bank of the

51:43

Euphrates to the Mediterranean Sea. Or

51:46

at least he would if Takawa had

51:48

actually obeyed his master's authority. Instead,

51:51

Takawa rebelled against Tatmose just two

51:53

years after the Egyptians put him

51:55

in power. Talk about

51:57

an ungrateful wretch. We're

52:00

not sure if Takua was encouraged

52:02

to rebel by the Matani. I

52:05

think it's pretty likely, but it's also

52:07

quite possible that the nomadic tribes simply

52:10

resented the idea of foreign rule, and

52:12

Takua, trying to keep his throne, decided

52:14

to rebel in order to keep the

52:16

tribes on his side. Either

52:19

way, Takua's crime was obvious.

52:22

He had broken a ritual pact with

52:24

the Pharaoh of Egypt, he had abandoned

52:26

his obligations to Horus, and he had

52:29

openly rebelled. This would not

52:31

stand. Tatmose's response

52:33

to Takua's rebellion was, as

52:35

you may expect, immediate and

52:37

brutal. Tatmose came back

52:39

to Nokashi as soon as he heard

52:41

of the rebellion. He led his soldiers

52:43

into the district and overthrew the power

52:46

of Takua entirely. If there

52:48

was a major battle, we do not hear about it. What

52:50

we do know is that Takua was

52:52

defeated and Tatmose took him prisoner. How

52:56

did Tatmose punish this rebellious king? Well,

52:59

it's not certain, but a tradition

53:01

from later on says that the

53:03

king of Egypt punished Takua by,

53:05

quote, pouring boiling oil all

53:08

over his head. Ouch.

53:11

Talk about a crown for a king. This

53:13

was the end of the Nokashi affair. It

53:16

is a rare blip in Tatmose's

53:19

usually exemplary military record. I

53:21

understand why Tatmose attempted to put a king

53:24

in charge here, but surely he must have

53:26

seen that this was a real gamble. The

53:29

Nokashians were nomads, not accustomed

53:31

to centralised authority. Trying

53:33

to force one on them was a bit of a

53:36

stretch, surely. Anyway, Tatmose's

53:38

soldiers now ravaged the land of

53:40

Nokashi once more and left it

53:42

at that. From here

53:44

on out, we hear very little about these

53:46

people, and for all intents and purposes, they

53:49

leave our story here. Despite

53:51

the setback in Nokashi, the years 1460 to 1455,

53:53

Regnal years 35 to 40, still saw

53:59

a whole host of political victories, to

54:01

balance out that one little failure. In

54:04

a period of intense activity, Thutmose

54:06

waged another series of campaigns into

54:08

the lands of Syria. Now

54:11

avoiding full-on conflict with the

54:13

Mitanni, the Egyptians instead focused

54:15

on some smaller goals, and

54:17

the gains were absolutely worthwhile.

54:20

Aside from subduing tribal nomads, Thutmose

54:23

also worked to fill in the

54:25

gaps around some important Syrian cities.

54:28

Three towns in particular stand out. They

54:30

were Ugarit on the coast of the

54:32

Mediterranean, Alalak dominating an

54:34

important river and several smaller

54:37

towns, and Nia, a region

54:39

that offered excellent wildlife for

54:41

hunting and for resources. Starting

54:45

in year 36, Thutmose began to

54:47

increase his influence among these three

54:49

cities. The first and easiest

54:51

was centered on the town of Ugarit.

54:54

Ugarit was an old city, one of the

54:57

oldest in the world. It was

54:59

located on the coast of the Mediterranean,

55:01

and it had a long-standing tradition of

55:03

wealth and strength in this area. Its

55:06

fortified walls and gates were formidable barriers

55:08

to any conqueror, and you can still

55:10

see these fortifications if you visit the

55:12

place. The Ugarit's control

55:15

of trade coming through their port,

55:17

trade to and from Anatolia and

55:19

via GNC, made them rich. Naturally,

55:23

Thutmose wanted a piece of that,

55:25

and sometime after year 36, he

55:27

sent a battalion of troops to

55:29

Ugarit. These troops, through

55:31

some bit of diplomatic dealing, entered

55:34

the city and set themselves up in a

55:36

barracks. Pretty soon, Ugarit

55:38

was under the guardianship of a

55:40

permanent Egyptian garrison. Just

55:43

like that, Ugarit was Egyptian, and

55:45

Thutmose added another card to his

55:47

diplomatic deck. Being Ugarit

55:49

was a great boon. Thutmose

55:51

and the Egyptians now effectively

55:53

dominated every city along the

55:55

coast of Palestine, Israel, Lebanon

55:58

and Syria. Mediterranean

56:00

traders had to go through Egyptian

56:02

held cities. With the

56:04

proper application of tariffs, this would

56:06

make the Egyptians very, very rich.

56:10

On top of the wealth, the

56:12

occupation of Ugarit also decisively swayed

56:14

the balance of power in Syria

56:16

over to the Egyptian-Sydney. They

56:19

now controlled most of the major cities,

56:21

and Tintmose was pretty much unchallenged in

56:23

the lands west of the Euphrates. The

56:26

board was now in his favor, and other

56:28

cities started to notice this. Of

56:31

course, there were some exceptions, like the

56:34

town of Kadesh or Aleppo, but overall,

56:37

people were very much in favor of the Egyptians.

56:40

In year 39, a diplomatic

56:42

embassy arrived from a Syrian

56:44

town called Al-Alak. Al-Alak

56:46

was a minor city east of

56:48

Ugarit, whose ruling household was technically

56:51

in service to the kingdom of

56:53

Mitanni. Well, Tintmose's

56:55

adventures had forced them to reconsider

56:57

their options, and in year 39,

57:01

they acted on the new situation. The

57:03

king of Al-Alak, a man named Nik

57:05

Meper, sent gifts of silver to the

57:08

court of the king, and

57:10

when he did, he made his good will known.

57:13

This was actually a rather dangerous thing for Nik

57:16

Meper to do. Al-Alak was

57:18

a vassal of the kingdom of Mitanni. Mitanni

57:21

rulers held sway and dominion over

57:23

this region, and Nik Meper's family

57:25

actually came originally from a different

57:27

city, but they had been

57:29

ousted by a Mitanni coup and taken refuge

57:32

in Al-Alak. Later

57:34

they reformed allegiances with Mitanni, but

57:36

surely they never forgot what power

57:39

that kingdom had to enact violent

57:41

change if someone should defy them.

57:45

Nevertheless, Nik Meper disregarded the

57:47

threat, or decided to

57:49

risk Mitanni anger in order to

57:51

appease Egyptian goals. He

57:53

sent Tintmose his diplomatic gift, and

57:55

a statement of good intent. Nik

57:58

Meper promised Al-Alak's luck would

58:00

not encroach on Egyptian territory or trade,

58:02

and the two would leave each other

58:04

be. It was

58:06

the start of a tentative friendship. I

58:09

wonder how the Mitanni king took the news. The

58:12

last of these regions we talk about is

58:14

the region called Nia. Nia,

58:16

you may remember, had been the area

58:18

where Thutmose led a hunting expedition back

58:21

in year When

58:23

the Egyptian army made their fabulous

58:25

crossing of the Euphrates and assaulted

58:27

the Mitanni heartland, they came past

58:29

Nia, which sits in central Syria.

58:32

Then on their way home, they spent

58:34

some time in the region hunting elephants,

58:36

lions, and whatever other game were out

58:38

and about at the time. Nia

58:42

was not really a kingdom or anything, just

58:44

a district with a few small settlements. But

58:47

Thutmose treated this area quite

58:49

interestingly. He didn't try to

58:51

give it a king like Nukashi, and he didn't

58:53

try to give it a garrison like Ygritte. What

58:56

did he do? Well, Thutmose just

58:58

claimed the area for himself.

59:01

In what may be one of the

59:03

earliest records of a hunting estate ever,

59:06

Thutmose took a swathe of Nia and

59:08

entered it into the royal records as

59:10

a personal dominion of the king. The

59:12

land, its animals, and its wealth

59:14

would now belong to the pharaoh

59:17

and his descendants, housed in perpetuity.

59:19

They would hunt and exploit the region for

59:22

their own wealth, as long as their rule

59:24

here endured. Interestingly,

59:26

in order to annex this land, Thutmose

59:28

actually had to take it away from

59:30

none other than the city of Alalak,

59:32

who had just sent him gifts. Fearing

59:36

no retribution and aware that he

59:38

held all the cards, Thutmose carved

59:40

Nia off from the territories dominated

59:42

by Alalak and took it over

59:44

for himself. The effect

59:46

was twofold. It showed Alalak,

59:48

who was boss in Syria now, and

59:51

it enriched Thutmose. Finally,

59:53

it gave him somewhere nice to visit when he was

59:55

in the region, which, as of

59:57

Regnal year 40, was still pretty good.

1:00:00

much every year. We

1:00:18

now come to approximately 1453 BCE, being Regnal

1:00:20

Year 42 of Thutmose III. The

1:00:26

king was now riding high on his

1:00:28

wave of diplomatic and military supremacy. He

1:00:31

had subjugated the towns of Syria almost

1:00:33

to their limits, and only a few

1:00:35

stubborn holdouts continued to resist him. The

1:00:39

main resistor was still, after 20

1:00:41

years, the city of Kadesh. Kadesh,

1:00:44

rich, mighty, and fortified, had

1:00:46

been causing the Egyptians trouble

1:00:48

for decades. It was

1:00:50

the prince of Kadesh that had helped instigate

1:00:52

the Mageda Rebellion back in Year 22,

1:00:55

and after decades of fearsome

1:00:57

raiding and conflict, the city

1:00:59

still remained strong and stubborn.

1:01:03

Thutmose, it seems, had finally reached a

1:01:05

point of no return. With

1:01:07

the rest of Syria under his rule,

1:01:09

or at least deferring to his authority,

1:01:11

Kadesh stuck out like a thorn in

1:01:13

the paw. And things were

1:01:15

only getting worse. The king

1:01:18

of Kadesh, name unknown, was such

1:01:20

a nuisance that Thutmose's royal inscriptions

1:01:22

nearly always refer to him as

1:01:24

the vile king of Kadesh. If

1:01:28

the Nubians are called savages, the Mitanni

1:01:30

called the fallen one, and then the

1:01:32

king of Kadesh was truly reprehensible. You

1:01:35

can civilize savages, and the Egyptians were trying.

1:01:37

You can look down on a fallen one.

1:01:39

But a vile one? They're

1:01:41

just disgusting. In

1:01:44

Regnal Year 42, word came to

1:01:46

the Egyptian court that Kadesh once

1:01:48

again had raised the banner of

1:01:50

rebellion. What was worse,

1:01:52

this rebellion was being supported by troops

1:01:55

from the kingdom of Mitanni. The threat

1:01:57

was real, the issue could not be

1:01:59

ignored. The

1:02:01

rebellion, once it began, spread quickly. Soon

1:02:04

other areas like Tunip were in rebellion as

1:02:06

well. Tunip had submitted

1:02:08

to Tutmo's authority in the campaign of

1:02:11

year 33, the campaign across the Euphrates.

1:02:14

Now, nine years later, they were ready

1:02:16

to fight once more. Tunip

1:02:19

joined the Kadeshi and the Mitanni

1:02:21

and the lands of southern Syria

1:02:23

were now in open rebellion. Tutmo's

1:02:26

responded quickly. In one

1:02:28

of those rare moments where we

1:02:30

get a detailed account of events,

1:02:32

Tutmo's scribe described the campaign in

1:02:34

pretty specific details. It

1:02:36

doesn't have the literary flavour of earlier

1:02:39

accounts, so it's not quite as readable,

1:02:41

but it does give us a pretty

1:02:43

concise itinerary for how the king went

1:02:45

about things. First

1:02:47

of all, Tutmo decided to forgo the

1:02:49

sailing voyage that he normally took, and

1:02:52

instead he marched into Canaan and Syria.

1:02:55

This was certainly a longer journey by

1:02:57

far, but it was worthwhile. By

1:03:00

marching through these regions, Tutmo's could

1:03:02

impress on local towns the importance

1:03:04

of obedience and remind them that

1:03:06

the Egyptians were still strong. Tutmo's

1:03:09

was trying to nip any thoughts of further

1:03:11

rebellion in the bud. The

1:03:14

Egyptians probably also gathered up soldiers

1:03:16

from the various Canaanite regions. Since

1:03:19

so much of the army had been

1:03:21

diverted to monument building at home, more

1:03:23

on that next episode, Tutmo's probably

1:03:25

didn't have the kind of numbers in year

1:03:27

42 that he was used to. Against

1:03:30

the Mitanni back in 33, he had fielded

1:03:32

a good 10,000 men.

1:03:35

In year 42, it wouldn't be surprising if

1:03:37

he was down to a small force of

1:03:39

about 2,000 to 3,000 men

1:03:41

at best. That's a rough estimate, but

1:03:44

it seems more than likely that Tutmo's

1:03:46

army was now much diminished from what

1:03:48

it had once been. Anyway,

1:03:51

Tutmo's marched across the Sinai Peninsula and

1:03:53

up through Canaan. He visited towns on

1:03:56

the way, demanded that they contribute to

1:03:58

soldiers to bulk out. his forces and

1:04:00

collected any tribute that might be necessary

1:04:02

for funding his attack. Food,

1:04:05

I imagine, was a big demand this time.

1:04:08

Tatmose then carried on what the

1:04:10

scribes call the road. This

1:04:13

was probably a road along the coast

1:04:15

which Tatmose used to advance quickly and

1:04:17

quietly so his enemies would not be

1:04:19

aware, to the lands which we now

1:04:21

call Lebanon. Tatmose

1:04:24

gathered his forces together at

1:04:26

a town called Erkata, modern

1:04:28

Arka. There he gathered

1:04:30

tribute and then set out eastward,

1:04:32

plundering resistant towns along the way. We're

1:04:35

not sure why he plundered these towns. Perhaps

1:04:37

they had also joined the rebellion, or perhaps

1:04:40

the king merely wanted to give his army

1:04:42

some experience before the real fighting began. Anyway,

1:04:45

along the way they plundered two or

1:04:47

three towns. Tatmose, in a

1:04:49

moment of generosity, handed over all the

1:04:51

plunder to his soldiers. Normally

1:04:54

the king would take a huge portion of plunder for

1:04:56

his treasury, or to give to the temples. This

1:04:59

time, Tatmose felt it worthwhile to

1:05:01

reward his soldiers materially and give them

1:05:03

more incentive to fight harder. Did

1:05:06

it work? Well, we'll find out. Tatmose

1:05:09

and his warriors came into the lands

1:05:12

of Tunep and Kadesh and immediately began

1:05:14

raiding. In the process,

1:05:16

they finally came face to face with

1:05:18

their true enemy, the Mitani. The

1:05:21

Mitani had sent warriors to Kadesh to help

1:05:23

support the rebellion. Eventually

1:05:25

the king of Kadesh had decided that these

1:05:28

warriors would be best served on garrison duty,

1:05:30

and he set them up in some small

1:05:32

towns in the area. Well,

1:05:34

Tatmose was pretty happy to come across them,

1:05:36

I can tell you. The

1:05:38

Egyptians engaged the Mitani immediately, and

1:05:41

killed 29 of them

1:05:43

apparently, before the Mitani surrendered. This

1:05:46

must not have been a very large battle,

1:05:48

but Tatmose was still pleased with it, enough

1:05:50

to record the numbers in his temple inscriptions

1:05:52

anyway. This all reasserted

1:05:55

the idea of Egyptian supremacy, and it

1:05:57

was probably a valuable boost to his

1:05:59

ego. after that stalemate against the Matani

1:06:01

back in 35. Surprisingly

1:06:04

Tatmose let his victory over the Matani be

1:06:07

the end of the affair for now, and

1:06:10

he soon returned to Egyptian territories in Lebanon.

1:06:13

In effect he left Tunip

1:06:15

and Kadesh unpunished. Why?

1:06:18

Well, it's complicated. Tatmose

1:06:20

probably did not have enough men with him, or

1:06:23

he would have made at least some kind of

1:06:25

attack on Kadesh itself. He

1:06:27

certainly didn't have the means of taking the

1:06:29

city, but under normal circumstances he would at

1:06:31

least plunder the countryside and try to go

1:06:33

to them into open battle, a battle he

1:06:36

would probably win. But

1:06:38

the Kadesh were being poor sports and locking

1:06:40

themselves up in their city. When

1:06:42

fighting came, they let the Matani do it

1:06:44

for them, and hoped that Tatmose would bloody

1:06:46

his nose on their strong city walls. Either

1:06:50

way, the Kadesh were being a stubborn bunch about

1:06:52

this whole rebellion thing. They were

1:06:54

openly defying the pharaoh, but they weren't even

1:06:56

taking the courage to face him directly in

1:06:58

battle. For Tatmose, this would

1:07:00

not do. Tatmose

1:07:03

returned home and plotted his revenge. That

1:07:06

revenge would come, the king just needed a

1:07:08

bit more time. Imagine

1:07:22

how important and annoying Kadesh was.

1:07:25

It may surprise you to learn

1:07:27

that after the rebellion in year

1:07:29

42, Tatmose's royal campaign inscriptions actually

1:07:32

go silent on the issue forevermore.

1:07:35

In fact, they abruptly go silent

1:07:37

on all military campaigning. Not

1:07:40

because the king stopped fighting, we know there were

1:07:42

a couple more wars at least, but

1:07:44

because the royal diaries and annals just

1:07:47

end in the middle of things with

1:07:49

no conclusion. So

1:07:51

from here on out in this story and

1:07:53

the rest of this episode, our events come

1:07:55

from other sources. Fortunately, even

1:07:58

though the king ended his inscriptions

1:08:00

and narratives, others were still around

1:08:02

to pick up the slack. So

1:08:05

the story of the war on

1:08:07

Kadesh and the Egyptians' revenge still

1:08:09

survives, albeit in a more sensationalist

1:08:11

fashion. At this point,

1:08:13

I want to hand the narrative over

1:08:15

to an Egyptian man who was witness

1:08:17

to and participated in these events. He

1:08:20

was a warrior under Thutmose III, and

1:08:23

he fought in the King's army of

1:08:25

retaliation against the Kadeshi people. Let

1:08:28

me introduce to you an Egyptian

1:08:30

named Amun em-hab. Amun

1:08:32

em-hab, or Amun in celebration,

1:08:35

was a soldier and a

1:08:37

lieutenant in the King's officer

1:08:39

corps. He lived in

1:08:41

Thebes and was buried there in a tomb

1:08:43

which survives today. On the

1:08:45

walls of this tomb, Amun em-hab

1:08:47

left an incredibly valuable resource, a

1:08:50

full biography of his deeds in

1:08:52

war, and a set of artistic scenes

1:08:54

showing foreigners like Syrians submitting to the

1:08:57

power of Thutmose III. The

1:09:00

autobiography of Amun em-hab is one of

1:09:02

our best resources for the last campaigns

1:09:04

of the King. Unfortunately,

1:09:07

Amun em-hab wasn't exactly logical

1:09:09

in the way he composed

1:09:11

his autobiography. See,

1:09:13

normally an Egyptian, or at least

1:09:15

you, would plan out an autobiography

1:09:18

in a linear fashion, right? First

1:09:20

I did A, then I did B, then I did

1:09:22

C, etc., etc. Well

1:09:25

Amun em-hab doesn't do that.

1:09:27

He organizes his deeds thematically.

1:09:30

Instead of giving us a nice

1:09:33

chronological record, Amun em-hab groups his

1:09:35

chapters together under a bunch of

1:09:37

different situations. So there's

1:09:39

a section on the prisoners that he captured in

1:09:41

war, and a section on the elephants he killed

1:09:43

on a hunting trip. Then there's

1:09:45

a section of the battles that he fought in,

1:09:48

and finally a section on the trophies he

1:09:50

won in war. Amidst

1:09:52

all this, there's a section that seems

1:09:54

to give us a concise description of

1:09:56

a major battle, the battle where Thutmose

1:09:59

took his revenge. against Kadesh. At

1:10:02

some point in the fifth decade of his reign,

1:10:04

maybe around Regnal year 44 or 45, that's

1:10:08

totally a guess, Tutmose prepared for his

1:10:10

assault. The king gathered a new

1:10:12

army with more soldiers than before and

1:10:15

better prepared and he set out for

1:10:17

Kadesh once more. What

1:10:19

followed seems to have been quite dramatic

1:10:21

for the participants. Amun

1:10:23

M. Haab was part of Tutmose's army

1:10:25

on this occasion and he recorded

1:10:27

for us some of its major events.

1:10:30

Quote, The soldier

1:10:32

Amun M. Haab, justified, says,

1:10:35

I was most trusted of the sovereign,

1:10:38

life, prosperity, health, devoted to the king

1:10:40

of Upper Egypt, steadfast for the king

1:10:42

of Lower Egypt. I followed

1:10:44

my lord in his footsteps in the

1:10:46

northern and southern lands. He loved it

1:10:48

when I was at his heels, when

1:10:50

he was on the battlefield of his

1:10:52

victories, when his strength inspired confidence. End

1:10:55

quote. Amun M.

1:10:57

Haab talks up the king, of course, but

1:11:00

I'm kind of intrigued by his last statement. He

1:11:03

loved it when I was at his heels,

1:11:05

when he was on the battlefield of his

1:11:07

victories, when his strength inspired confidence. Amun

1:11:10

M. Haab outlived Tutmose III. Chances are

1:11:13

he was quite a bit younger than

1:11:15

the king and only started to participate

1:11:17

in the campaigns around Regnal year 33

1:11:20

or so. He makes

1:11:22

no mention of Megiddo, so Amun M.

1:11:24

Haab probably grew up hearing about that

1:11:26

battle, but only got to participate in

1:11:29

war about 10 years later. So

1:11:32

Amun M. Haab grows up in the

1:11:34

shadow of Tutmose III. And what this

1:11:36

results in is a kind of aura

1:11:39

of victory around the king that Amun

1:11:41

M. Haab evokes very specifically. When

1:11:44

he refers to Tutmose being on

1:11:46

the battlefield of his victories, when

1:11:48

his strength inspired confidence, it's

1:11:50

almost as if Tutmose had become a bit

1:11:52

of a living legend, and Amun M. Haab

1:11:54

hints at this for us. He speaks of

1:11:58

these battlefields as if people were in the shadow

1:12:00

of Tutmose III. People knew about the great battles

1:12:02

of the day, Megiddo, Kadesh, Euphrates, etc. Kind

1:12:05

of like how we know about Fallujah,

1:12:08

Normandy, or Stalingrad. Places

1:12:10

where dramatic conflicts see our side

1:12:12

triumph over some other enemy. Given

1:12:16

Thutmose's relentless propaganda about his wars,

1:12:18

it seemed like Egyptians growing up

1:12:20

in his reign perceived their monarch

1:12:22

as a veritable Achilles in the

1:12:24

living sense, a mighty

1:12:26

warrior, unstoppable in whose company men

1:12:29

were always brave and bold. Now

1:12:33

Amun-Emhab talks about various campaigns in

1:12:35

the past, and I've mentioned them

1:12:37

briefly in recent episodes. Let's

1:12:40

just focus down on Kadesh. Amun-Emhab

1:12:42

sort of skips right to the good parts.

1:12:44

He cuts out all the boringness. So I'm

1:12:46

going to do the same. The

1:12:49

Egyptian army came into the lands of Kadesh around

1:12:51

Regnal year 43 or so, and began, as usual,

1:12:55

to plunder them. They took captives,

1:12:57

burned orchards or fields if they

1:12:59

found them, and carried away any

1:13:01

portable wealth. This had

1:13:04

been their habit for twenty good years,

1:13:06

and chances are nobody was surprised by

1:13:08

it. Unfortunately, it hadn't

1:13:10

produced anything in the way of tangible

1:13:12

results. Kadesh always recovered,

1:13:14

and it always continued its resistance.

1:13:18

This time, though, Thutmose was going

1:13:20

for the gold, and Amun-Emhab records

1:13:22

it. Now,

1:13:24

I witnessed the king's prowess while I

1:13:26

was in his entourage. He plundered the

1:13:29

district of Kadesh, and I did not

1:13:31

stray from his side. I

1:13:33

carried off two Mariana charioteers as prisoners

1:13:35

of war so that I might place

1:13:38

them before the king. The

1:13:40

king, may he live forever, gave

1:13:42

me gold of bravery in a

1:13:44

public ceremony. He gave me two collars,

1:13:46

two golden flies, and four rings."

1:13:51

God I love this stuff. Amun-Emhab is

1:13:53

so excitedly proud. He captured prisoners

1:13:56

for the king, gave them to

1:13:58

Thutmose himself, and then would was

1:14:00

rewarded in public by the monarch. For

1:14:03

a middle-ranked soldier, this was a huge

1:14:05

deal. I like to

1:14:07

imagine Amun-Imhar bursting with pride as he

1:14:09

polishes his golden flies and hangs them

1:14:11

over his chest. The Egyptians

1:14:13

were now in the lands of Kadesh,

1:14:16

plundering and overthrowing their enemies. Soon,

1:14:18

they came before the city itself, and

1:14:21

this time they put it under siege. Kadesh

1:14:24

was a well-fortified city, and the Egyptians

1:14:26

had never cracked it before. Apparently,

1:14:29

this time was different, because when

1:14:31

Amun-Imhar picks up his narrative, he

1:14:33

describes the king of Kadesh's attempts

1:14:35

to fight back. Interestingly,

1:14:38

the ruler of Kadesh resorted to

1:14:40

a very unorthodox method of attack.

1:14:44

Then, the king of Kadesh released a

1:14:47

mare, a female horse, and it galloped

1:14:49

into the midst of the army. This

1:14:53

is a really strange tactic, but it does actually

1:14:55

have a logic. The king

1:14:57

of Kadesh was trying to sabotage the

1:15:00

Egyptian war horses, which called their chariots,

1:15:02

by releasing a female into their midst.

1:15:04

Presumably this female was in heat.

1:15:07

The idea was to excite the male horses

1:15:10

into a frenzy. They would go crazy with

1:15:12

lust and become uncontrollable in their attempts to

1:15:14

get at the female. If

1:15:16

lucky, the Egyptian chariotry might be

1:15:19

entirely neutralized by this little trick

1:15:21

of biological warfare. Of

1:15:24

course, it didn't work. Springing

1:15:26

into action, Amun-Imhar himself provided

1:15:28

the violent solution. If

1:15:31

you detest violence towards animals, however ancient,

1:15:33

I suggest skipping ahead about the next

1:15:35

twenty seconds. The

1:15:38

king of Kadesh released a mare, and it galloped into

1:15:40

the midst of the army. I ran

1:15:43

after her on foot with my sword, and I

1:15:45

ripped open her belly with my blade. Thereupon

1:15:48

I cut off her tail, and I showed it

1:15:50

to his majesty. He gave forth

1:15:52

with rejoicing, and the praise filled my

1:15:54

soul. A thrill shot through all my

1:15:56

limbs." The

1:16:00

situation was horrible for the horse, no doubt

1:16:02

about that. But Amun Emhab's

1:16:04

quick action was clearly a moment of great

1:16:06

pride for him. Whether

1:16:08

or not the King of Kadesh's strategy

1:16:10

would have worked, I've read some scholars

1:16:12

who insist that the Egyptian warhorses would

1:16:15

have been gelding or castrated and so

1:16:17

unresponsive to the presence of a mare.

1:16:20

The soldier did not necessarily know that. All

1:16:22

he knew was that the threats to

1:16:24

the chariots, the chariots were all important,

1:16:26

he should protect the chariots. And

1:16:28

he did. That's a pretty good soldier. Tutmose

1:16:32

praised Amun Emhab heartily, and the

1:16:34

soldier gives a secute description of

1:16:36

his gleam. A thrill shot

1:16:38

through all my limbs, he says. You

1:16:40

can just imagine him walking around the camp

1:16:42

that night, big grin on his face, chest

1:16:44

puffed out, and everyone thumping him on the

1:16:46

back for his good work. Amun

1:16:49

Emhab probably had a pretty happy evening

1:16:51

on this occasion. The

1:16:53

siege of Kadesh now continued. Not

1:16:56

lying garrisons had been overrun, their

1:16:58

mataani warriors scattered or slain. The

1:17:01

enemy city was now up against the

1:17:03

might of Tutmose's army. The time had

1:17:05

come to begin attempting an assault. Amun

1:17:08

Emhab was present at this battle, and he gives

1:17:10

us a good sense of what went down. There

1:17:14

was an authorization or command by his

1:17:17

majesty. Every elite warrior, including

1:17:19

myself, of the army should proceed to

1:17:21

breach the high walls which Kadesh had

1:17:23

made. Amun

1:17:26

Emhab's prelude is surprisingly informative.

1:17:29

Thanks to the words he uses, scholars have a

1:17:31

good idea of a.) what

1:17:33

the physical walls were probably like, and b.)

1:17:36

the fact that the Egyptians had an elite

1:17:38

battalion within the army, whose job in this

1:17:40

case was to lead the most dangerous part

1:17:42

of the assault. Amun

1:17:45

Emhab describes the wall of Kadesh

1:17:47

with a very precise Egyptian word.

1:17:50

The word is sebti, and

1:17:52

it tells us that Kadesh's walls ran all

1:17:55

around the city and were built on a

1:17:57

monumental scale. Sebti is

1:17:59

used as a way to usually used to describe

1:18:01

temple walls, and these were

1:18:03

large, complete and monumental. So

1:18:06

when Amun-em-hab says we were going to assault

1:18:08

the sebti, we know that this was going

1:18:11

to be an intense moment in the fight.

1:18:14

Then the use of the term

1:18:16

elite warrior, or ken-en, is also

1:18:19

interesting. It suggests that

1:18:21

there was a special battalion in the army,

1:18:23

or at least a group, who represented the

1:18:25

cream of the crop, the braves of the

1:18:27

Egyptian warriors. How they

1:18:29

got this position is anyone's guess, but

1:18:32

Amun-em-hab is so specific here, he doesn't

1:18:34

call them meshaw or troops, but ken-en,

1:18:36

or elite warriors, that he must be

1:18:39

talking about a group with a distinct

1:18:41

set of honours or identities. Perhaps

1:18:44

it was the troops who at some point had earned

1:18:46

the gold of honor. Amun-em-hab and

1:18:48

others before him speak of being rewarded

1:18:51

with golden amulets for their deeds in

1:18:53

battle. Others receiving this

1:18:55

gold was a warrior's ticket to a

1:18:57

select club within the ranks. You

1:18:59

can almost imagine them having their own tent, guarded

1:19:01

by a bouncer, where they sit around and enjoy

1:19:04

the fruits of their prestige. Kind

1:19:06

of an ancient Egyptian in the club, if you

1:19:08

will. Anyway we're missing

1:19:10

a bit of background context on

1:19:12

the battle itself, but Amun-em-hab gives

1:19:14

us the final phase, the phase

1:19:16

of victory. We don't know

1:19:18

how it reached this exact point. This

1:19:21

would be a moment when some royal inscriptions

1:19:23

would be really helpful, but we don't

1:19:25

have them, so I'll have to summarize what might have

1:19:27

happened. At some point

1:19:29

during the siege, the Egyptians achieved something

1:19:31

that they had been attempting for years.

1:19:34

They finally, after much effort, managed to

1:19:36

make a breach in the mighty walls

1:19:39

of Kadesh. Somehow either

1:19:41

by engineering or siege works, they broke

1:19:43

a gap in the monumental walls, the

1:19:46

sebti, and finally the city was open

1:19:48

to their assault. In

1:19:51

the days before battering rams or catapults,

1:19:53

the ancients were limited mostly to ladders

1:19:55

and arrows for their attacks on city

1:19:57

walls. They would use the bows and arrows.

1:20:00

arrows to scare away warriors on the

1:20:02

top and then rush forward with ladders to

1:20:04

scale the wall. Maybe

1:20:06

this is what Amun Emhab refers to, that

1:20:08

the Egyptians managed to capture a small section

1:20:10

of the wall and hold it and then

1:20:13

had a point to launch attacks from. But

1:20:16

it's unclear. What we do

1:20:18

know is that Amun Emhab was in the

1:20:20

front ranks when the assault was commanded. There

1:20:24

was an authorization by His Majesty. Every

1:20:27

elite warrior of the army, including myself,

1:20:29

should proceed to breach the high walls

1:20:31

which Kadesh had made. I

1:20:33

was the one that breached the wall as the

1:20:35

foremost of all the elite warriors. No one was

1:20:37

ahead of me." Whether

1:20:41

by honesty or boast, Amun Emhab tells us

1:20:43

that he was the first into the breach,

1:20:46

the head of the assault, the foremost of

1:20:48

the king's warriors. With

1:20:50

this act, the Egyptian army

1:20:52

finally broke into Kadesh. From

1:20:55

then on, all bets were off. The city

1:20:57

was put to the sack and the plunder

1:20:59

was for the taking. I

1:21:02

would imagine that after twenty years of

1:21:04

conflict, the Egyptian capture of Kadesh was

1:21:06

savage. Interestingly though,

1:21:09

Amun Emhab describes it in pretty

1:21:11

quiet terms. There is no mention

1:21:13

of massacres or destruction. He

1:21:15

just sticks to one small act. I

1:21:19

came out of Kadesh and I

1:21:21

brought two Mariana charioteers as prisoners

1:21:24

of war. My lord rewarded

1:21:26

me for this, with every fine thing

1:21:28

that the heart could desire." The

1:21:32

capture of Mariana, the general term

1:21:34

for elite charioteers, was an impressive

1:21:37

feat on the surface. Of

1:21:39

course, being in the middle of a fortified

1:21:41

city with narrow streets and no open spaces,

1:21:44

chariots were largely useless. But

1:21:46

the warriors themselves were still a

1:21:49

formidable challenge, probably well-armored and accompanied

1:21:51

by retinues of bodyguards. Amun

1:21:53

Emhab, capturing two of these prizes,

1:21:56

demonstrated great skill in battle, and

1:21:58

in the martial at-night. atmosphere of

1:22:00

the day, this kind of skill

1:22:02

was valued above all others. Amun

1:22:05

Emhab received praise and reward

1:22:07

from King Tutmose. I

1:22:09

think we can presume that a great many

1:22:11

men received this kind of praise after the

1:22:13

victory they had just achieved. Kadesh,

1:22:16

thorn in the paw of the pharaoh,

1:22:18

had fallen. Southern Syria

1:22:20

was now entirely conquered. The

1:22:22

Egyptians had finally won the

1:22:24

great conflict. And

1:22:35

so the great Kadesh campaign came to

1:22:38

its end, and Amun Emhab ends his

1:22:40

biography with this accomplishment. The

1:22:42

fall of Kadesh was the defining moment of

1:22:45

the decade. It tipped the balance

1:22:47

of power back in Egypt's favour, with

1:22:49

Matani's most powerful vassal now

1:22:51

fallen to the Egyptian sword,

1:22:54

Syria was unquestionably under the

1:22:56

authority of Egypt. This

1:22:58

was a remarkable achievement. When

1:23:01

he first set out on his campaigns,

1:23:03

Tutmose III was going up against a

1:23:05

patchwork of Syrian cities and towns, most

1:23:07

of whom were connected in some way

1:23:09

to the Matani. Great

1:23:12

cities like Kadesh were the bastions

1:23:14

of Matani diplomatic power, and the

1:23:16

king of Matani held great sway

1:23:18

all across the region. The

1:23:21

Egyptians entering the fray were a secondary

1:23:23

power at best. Their authority

1:23:25

was mostly limited to the coastal

1:23:27

regions and to southern Canaan. Sure,

1:23:30

they had made some great expeditions

1:23:32

before, like Tutmose I marching all

1:23:34

the way to the Euphrates. But

1:23:37

the sporadic nature of earlier campaigning had

1:23:39

meant that the Egyptian power was limited.

1:23:42

Tutmose III changed all of that,

1:23:45

in the space of just two decades. When

1:23:48

he returned home from his last

1:23:50

campaign, Tutmose and the Egyptians were

1:23:53

overlords of every peace of Syria

1:23:55

and Canaan that had once given

1:23:57

loyalty to the kingdom of Matani.

1:24:00

With a few minor exceptions on the far

1:24:02

northern borders, towns like Aleppo that were

1:24:04

simply too far away, the

1:24:06

major communities of Syria were either

1:24:08

conquered or subservient. What

1:24:10

an incredible achievement. Thutmose

1:24:13

never reached a higher point than this.

1:24:16

The capture of Kadesh in his fifth

1:24:19

decade of power was the utter peak

1:24:21

of Egyptian imperial splendor. From

1:24:23

this point on, Egypt was in the ascendancy.

1:24:26

Other kingdoms were secondary. The people of

1:24:28

the Nile were the most powerful kingdom

1:24:31

in the world. With

1:24:33

the fall of Kadesh, the biography of Amun

1:24:35

Emhab comes to its end. And

1:24:38

so, our narrative of Thutmose III's

1:24:40

campaigns also comes to its end.

1:24:43

Unfortunately I cannot give you a certain date

1:24:45

for the fall of Kadesh. It

1:24:47

was clearly after Rignal year 42, because

1:24:49

that is when the royal annals stop,

1:24:52

and Thutmose makes no mention of Kadesh in

1:24:54

the last inscriptions. So it

1:24:56

must have happened sometime around 43, 44, 45, etc. For

1:25:02

the sake of giving us a ballpark, I'm

1:25:04

going to say that the actual fall of

1:25:06

Kadesh happened in approximately year 45. That's

1:25:09

1450 BCE. A nice

1:25:11

round figure. Wholly arbitrary,

1:25:13

but it's better than nothing. So

1:25:17

the story of Thutmose was, we did

1:25:19

it. We finished it. What

1:25:22

a ride it's been. Because it

1:25:24

seemed like it would be a never-ending litany

1:25:26

of successes and triumphs. But

1:25:28

there were setbacks aplenty, whether it was

1:25:31

the stalemates resulting from direct, pitched battle

1:25:33

with the Mitanni, or

1:25:35

the diplomatic embarrassment of Thutmose's

1:25:37

own puppet king, Thakkua, rebelling

1:25:39

against him. I

1:25:42

think on balance, you would call

1:25:44

Thutmose's reign a supreme success. The

1:25:47

failures, such as they are, never brought

1:25:49

him disaster or any risk of total

1:25:51

defeat. So the Napoleon

1:25:53

of Egypt managed in some ways to

1:25:56

do better than the actual Napoleon, over

1:25:59

a similarly long period. During this period

1:26:01

of time, Tatmose waged wars across the

1:26:03

limits of his world and suffered no

1:26:05

catastrophic defeats like the French emperor did.

1:26:08

Tatmose never had a retreat from Moscow or

1:26:10

a battle of the Nile. The

1:26:13

Egyptians never lost big like the French.

1:26:16

His victories were certainly comparable.

1:26:18

Megiddo compares favourably with Austerlitz.

1:26:20

The Euphrates campaign clearly outstrips

1:26:22

the invasion of Russia. So

1:26:25

who's the great Napoleon? I leave it to

1:26:27

you. Twenty

1:26:30

years of campaigning and war now

1:26:32

come to their ultimate and victorious

1:26:34

end. Tatmose returned home

1:26:36

from the Kadesh campaign at the peak

1:26:38

of his power and authority. His

1:26:41

victory in war was the best recommendation

1:26:43

one could hope for. What

1:26:45

greater proof of the god's favour

1:26:47

and love than these supreme triumphs.

1:26:50

Tatmose, marching home, was utterly

1:26:52

secure and confident in his

1:26:54

power. Part

1:27:10

6. Revisions to the

1:27:12

Past Tatmose III's

1:27:14

monumental building projects and

1:27:17

his curious decision to erase

1:27:19

Hatshepsut from the royal record.

1:27:28

King Menkeper Reh, Tatmose III,

1:27:30

ruled Egypt for more than

1:27:32

fifty years. From

1:27:34

infancy until his last day,

1:27:36

Tatmose was the golden Horus,

1:27:38

the strong bull who arises

1:27:40

in Thebes. In the

1:27:43

course of his reign, an entire

1:27:45

generation of Egyptians were born, grew,

1:27:47

lived and died. Many

1:27:49

people never experienced any other king

1:27:52

but him. But if

1:27:54

anyone looking at the years

1:27:56

of Tatmose's reign expects a

1:27:58

single unchanging continuity. They would

1:28:00

be mistaken. There was plenty

1:28:02

of change in domestic and royal

1:28:04

policies. In many respects, Thutmose shows

1:28:07

distinct phases of evolution or change

1:28:09

in his mindset and attitude. That's

1:28:11

the sort of thing I want to explore today. Because

1:28:15

he ruled so long and left such

1:28:17

a rich historical record, Thutmose

1:28:19

is a rare figure in Egyptian history,

1:28:22

a ruler who emerges from events to

1:28:24

actually give us a sense of his

1:28:27

personality, his mind. Thutmose

1:28:29

is no generic ruler of the

1:28:31

Nile Valley, all archetypes

1:28:33

and idealism. Instead, the

1:28:35

king's heart and mind are

1:28:37

discernible. Thanks to his

1:28:39

rich legacy, we can put together the pieces

1:28:41

to get a good sense of who this

1:28:44

man really was. Parts

1:28:46

of the king's personality are, for us,

1:28:48

already clear. We know

1:28:50

that he was bold and courageous in warfare.

1:28:53

When he led his surprise attack

1:28:55

on Megiddo and risked personal danger

1:28:58

in order to seize advantage, Thutmose

1:29:00

showed his audacity and his determination.

1:29:03

When he commissioned a fleet of riverboats

1:29:05

and had them hauled across Syria just

1:29:07

to cross the Euphrates River, Thutmose

1:29:10

revealed a streak of innovation, a

1:29:12

willingness to think creatively to accomplish

1:29:14

his aims. Those

1:29:16

militaristic and combative traits served

1:29:19

Thutmose well on the field.

1:29:21

But a ruler cannot be antagonistic

1:29:23

at home. Even a pharaoh

1:29:26

needs to maintain the support of those around

1:29:28

him. Mastering the battlefield

1:29:30

and mastering the throne room are two

1:29:32

very different skill sets. So,

1:29:35

who was Thutmose III when he was

1:29:37

at home? Well, now

1:29:40

that we've finished his major campaigns, we

1:29:42

can finally dig into that material. This

1:29:45

is the stuff I've been waiting for. I'm

1:29:47

excited to share it with you. Our

1:29:49

story today begins in Regnal year 40,

1:29:51

which is approximately 1455 BCE. The

1:29:55

king was now about 42 years old,

1:29:57

well into his middle age. At

1:30:00

this time, Tatmose was still dividing

1:30:03

his time between Egypt and Syria.

1:30:06

The campaigns of years 40 to 45,

1:30:08

which I described in episode 74, are

1:30:11

still underway as today's episode takes

1:30:13

place, but they are simply the

1:30:15

background to this story. Today

1:30:18

we're exploring the king's domestic policies.

1:30:20

We're visiting Tatmose at home. But

1:30:24

where was home, exactly? Tatmose

1:30:27

probably divided his home life between

1:30:29

three main locations. When

1:30:32

planning his campaigns, the king probably

1:30:34

resided in the north at the

1:30:36

delta city of Perunetha. When

1:30:39

officiating at major celebrations like Opet

1:30:41

or the Sed Festival, the king

1:30:43

probably stayed in Thebes. But

1:30:46

when he wanted to relax or spend some

1:30:48

quiet time, for that the

1:30:50

king probably stayed at his harem. The

1:30:53

harem of the king was located near

1:30:56

the Fayyum Oasis, the large lake just

1:30:58

south of Memphis. This

1:31:00

was one of the agricultural centers of Egypt.

1:31:03

Since the days of Senuseret I back in

1:31:05

the Middle Kingdom, rulers of

1:31:07

Egypt had been spending time at

1:31:10

the Fayyum in elaborate palaces and

1:31:12

residences. Most of these

1:31:14

are lost, their mud brick buildings buried

1:31:16

by agriculture or dissolved in groundwater. But

1:31:19

the site of Gurob, the harem of

1:31:21

Tatmose III, survives enough to give us

1:31:23

a look at the king's home life.

1:31:26

The harem palace at Gurob

1:31:29

was called Merwer or Great

1:31:31

Canal. It was founded

1:31:34

sometime during the early reign of Tatmose,

1:31:36

possibly on the orders of Queen Hatshepsut.

1:31:39

We know that Tatmose grew up at

1:31:41

this location, so it's possible the harem

1:31:43

palace was where Hatshepsut sent Tatmose in

1:31:45

order to keep him out of her

1:31:47

way while she governed the rest of

1:31:49

the country. Out of sight, out

1:31:51

of mind, that kind of idea. The

1:31:54

harem palace at Gurob, Merwer, was

1:31:57

the center of a full-scale settlement.

1:32:00

It seems like the Royal Palace

1:32:02

was surrounded by a support network

1:32:04

dedicated entirely to its maintenance. The

1:32:07

palace received regular deliveries of foodstuffs

1:32:09

and huge quantities of pottery. Archaeologists

1:32:13

excavating at the palace have discovered more

1:32:15

than 400kg of pottery pieces. That's

1:32:19

nearly 900 pounds of material,

1:32:21

a mighty assemblage. So

1:32:23

Tutmosa's home palace was a bustling

1:32:26

hive of activity. But

1:32:28

this wasn't just limited to servants

1:32:31

and provisions, the palace was also

1:32:33

a producer. Fragments

1:32:35

of papyri discovered at the Harrim

1:32:38

Palace of Tutmose reveal that its

1:32:40

main inhabitants, the royal wives and

1:32:42

concubines, spent a good part

1:32:44

of their time involved in light industrial

1:32:46

work. Specifically, they were

1:32:49

involved in the production of linen.

1:32:52

Working with weavers, the royal women

1:32:54

produced a huge variety of textiles,

1:32:56

much of which survive in the

1:32:58

archaeological record. References

1:33:01

in the papyrus indicate that the

1:33:03

wives of Tutmose were responsible for

1:33:06

weaving the royal headdresses, perhaps

1:33:08

even the ones worn by the king on

1:33:10

official occasions, and things like

1:33:12

cloths and small carrying bags as well. According

1:33:16

to the hieroglyphs, these textiles or

1:33:18

fabrics were of the highest quality,

1:33:21

which either means the royal women

1:33:23

were exceptionally skilled weavers, or

1:33:26

the fact that the cloth was produced

1:33:28

by such prestigious women gave it an

1:33:30

extra level of social quality. I'm

1:33:33

going with the latter. The Egyptians were

1:33:35

so obsessed with reputation and prestige

1:33:37

that it's not hard to imagine

1:33:39

that linen produced at the royal

1:33:41

Harrim was more valued because of who

1:33:44

produced it, not necessarily because it

1:33:46

was any better. Basically,

1:33:48

if you were looking for a prestigious

1:33:50

brand of textile, you couldn't do better

1:33:52

than brand guru. Well

1:33:54

it's the ancient Egyptian equivalent of Prada. It's

1:33:57

all about the name, baby. The

1:33:59

royal women responsible for this production, the

1:34:01

weaving and sewing. They

1:34:03

were more than just invisible producers, they

1:34:06

were high ranking queens and wives, and

1:34:08

they played an important role in the

1:34:10

social and economic life of the Egyptian

1:34:12

court. Over the course

1:34:15

of 40 years or so, Thutmose

1:34:17

married at least seven women. These

1:34:20

royal wives, the Hemet Nesut, came

1:34:22

from a variety of backgrounds. Some

1:34:25

were the daughters of prominent families, others

1:34:28

were marriages of convenience, and some

1:34:30

were matches made to serve a

1:34:32

diplomatic purpose, to create a bond

1:34:34

between the Egyptian court and some

1:34:36

of its far-flung vessels. In

1:34:39

the course of his life, Thutmose had

1:34:41

two, maybe three wives

1:34:43

who were accorded the rank of

1:34:45

weret or great. These

1:34:49

great royal wives were what we might

1:34:51

call the queens of Egypt. They

1:34:54

sat alongside Thutmose at royal events,

1:34:56

and perhaps officiated at some

1:34:58

religious ceremonies as priestesses. They

1:35:01

also produced the best of the

1:35:03

royal children, the most legitimate. These

1:35:06

great royal wives were the ones with

1:35:09

whom Thutmose would produce the next generation.

1:35:11

They were the principal conduit for the royal

1:35:13

succession. Thutmose

1:35:16

married his first great royal wife when he

1:35:18

was about 13 years old. This

1:35:21

queen was named Sat Ia, or daughter

1:35:23

of the moon. She was

1:35:26

probably about 12 or 13 years

1:35:28

old herself, and she came from a

1:35:30

prominent family. Her mother, Ipuu,

1:35:32

had been a wet nurse to Thutmose

1:35:34

III himself when he was a child.

1:35:37

Her father is unknown, but may

1:35:39

have been the man Ahmose Pennekbet,

1:35:41

a prominent courtier and career soldier

1:35:44

who had served Thutmose's grandfather on

1:35:46

campaign and gained great wealth and

1:35:48

respect for his service. So

1:35:52

Sat Ia, or daughter of the

1:35:54

moon, was well connected, and

1:35:56

this may have been why the match with

1:35:58

Thutmose was arranged. Since Thutmose

1:36:00

was about 13 when they

1:36:02

married, we can assume that the marriage

1:36:05

was orchestrated by our dear friend Hatshepsut.

1:36:08

Being at the height of her power,

1:36:10

Hatshepsut could easily direct the young Pharaoh

1:36:12

to his first wife. By

1:36:14

choosing Satya, Hatshepsut may have been

1:36:17

forging greater bonds between the royal

1:36:19

household and a prominent wealthy family.

1:36:22

Thutmose's marriage to Satya

1:36:24

might have been one of political convenience.

1:36:27

Even so, it wasn't too long

1:36:29

before it became fruitful. Satya

1:36:32

bore Thutmose his first son

1:36:35

around Regnal year 14. The

1:36:38

couple were about 16 or 17 years

1:36:40

old. The new prince

1:36:42

was named Amenamhat, or Amun is

1:36:44

at the forefront. This

1:36:47

was an old name, dating back to the

1:36:49

12th dynasty about 500 years

1:36:51

earlier. It was an august

1:36:53

name, the name of numerous respected rulers.

1:36:56

For Thutmose III, a ruler who paid

1:36:58

a lot of attention to history and

1:37:01

the ancestral lineage, Amenamhat was

1:37:03

a very good name indeed. So

1:37:06

Amenamhat was the heir of course, and

1:37:09

it wasn't long before Thutmose started to

1:37:11

put him forward into the public eye.

1:37:14

When the boy was about 10 years old or so,

1:37:16

in 1471 BCE, Thutmose

1:37:19

named him the overseer of

1:37:21

cattle of the king. This

1:37:23

meant that the child, Amenamhat, was

1:37:26

theoretically in charge of the livestock

1:37:28

on the royal estates. So

1:37:31

he was now responsible for an

1:37:33

important part of Thutmose's household assets.

1:37:35

The idea was to teach the

1:37:37

prince early what went into rule

1:37:40

and administration, and more importantly, to

1:37:42

start introducing Amenamhat to the bureaucrats

1:37:44

and the officials he would one

1:37:46

day rule. He was

1:37:48

going to be king eventually, of course, so it was

1:37:50

important to promote him as young as possible. There

1:37:53

could not be any questions about whom Thutmose

1:37:55

had chosen for his heir. Of

1:37:58

course, in practical terms. Scribes and

1:38:00

overseers would have done the actual

1:38:02

work in this job, but it's

1:38:04

possible that Amenemhat began to learn

1:38:07

the art of ruling by assisting

1:38:09

these overseers on the estates located

1:38:11

around the Gurob palace. Since

1:38:14

Gurob was in a very fertile

1:38:16

region, there were probably many opportunities

1:38:18

for the young heir to learn

1:38:21

administration, cattle rearing, and basic leadership

1:38:23

skills. Amenemhat was not

1:38:25

an only child. In

1:38:28

the mean, Satya also produced three

1:38:30

more children for Tatmuz. Over

1:38:33

the course of her life, Satya

1:38:35

gave birth to a second son

1:38:37

named Si-Amun, or son of Amun,

1:38:40

and two daughters, Baket-Amun,

1:38:42

or handmaiden of Amun,

1:38:44

and Nefertari, or beautiful

1:38:46

companion. Apart

1:38:49

from a few small statuettes and

1:38:51

names appearing on artifacts, we know

1:38:53

almost nothing about these three other

1:38:55

children. You see, in

1:38:57

the tradition of the royal household, only

1:39:00

the heir was given any kind of

1:39:02

public visibility. The others were

1:39:04

simply there as Baket. Tatmuz

1:39:07

probably put a lot of his early

1:39:09

hopes on young Amenemhat, but

1:39:11

he was sadly frustrated in these. Some

1:39:14

time after his tenth birthday, we're

1:39:16

not exactly sure when, the young

1:39:18

prince died. The heir

1:39:21

to the throne went to the realm of

1:39:23

Osiris, and Tatmuz was back at square one.

1:39:27

As a double loss, the queen

1:39:29

Satya also passed away some time

1:39:31

in the middle of Tatmuz's reign.

1:39:34

Again, we don't know exactly when she

1:39:36

died, but it was probably around Rek'nor

1:39:38

year 30, give or take. Satya

1:39:41

was buried somewhere, her mummy

1:39:43

does not survive. Perhaps

1:39:46

she was entombed with her son Amenemhat,

1:39:48

perhaps not. Either way,

1:39:50

Satya and Amenemhat now disappear

1:39:52

from our story. At

1:39:55

the age of 32 or so, Tatmuz

1:39:57

was left a widower and without an

1:39:59

heir. Difficult circumstances for

1:40:02

anyone, doubly so for

1:40:04

Tatmose, who already had to suffer

1:40:06

through 22 years of Hatshepsut overshadowing

1:40:08

him. Now it seemed

1:40:10

like life itself was conspiring to

1:40:13

remove his chances at creating a

1:40:15

stable and secure dynasty. The

1:40:17

king needed a new queen, and he needed

1:40:19

one soon. Tatmose's

1:40:22

second great royal wife was

1:40:24

named Merit Ray, aka the

1:40:27

beloved of Ray. Interestingly

1:40:30

Merit Ray's full name was

1:40:32

actually Merit Ray Hatshepsut, but

1:40:35

I am not going down that rabbit hole so

1:40:38

let's stick with Merit Ray. Queen

1:40:41

Merit Ray came to prominence sometime

1:40:43

before Regnal Year 35. We

1:40:46

know this because she soon bore the king

1:40:48

a new son in Regnal Year 36. This

1:40:52

new son was named Amonhotep.

1:40:55

Amonhotep became the new heir to the

1:40:57

throne. Tatmose's succession was back

1:40:59

on track. Of course

1:41:01

technically there was a second son by

1:41:03

Satya named Si Amon, but we hear

1:41:06

nothing about him so I guess we

1:41:08

have to assume that he died young

1:41:10

or was sidelined in favour of a

1:41:12

new eldest son. Either

1:41:14

way Si Amon doesn't appear again. Queen

1:41:18

Merit Ray proved to be very adept

1:41:20

at bearing children. Over

1:41:22

the three decades that she lived with

1:41:24

Tatmose, the queen produced six children all

1:41:26

up. There were

1:41:28

two sons, Amonhotep and also

1:41:31

Menkepere. There were also

1:41:33

four daughters, named Nebet Iyunet

1:41:35

or the Lady of Dendera, one of

1:41:37

the titles of the goddess Hathor. There

1:41:40

were two daughters named Merit Amun or

1:41:43

beloved of Amun. And

1:41:45

finally a princess simply named Iset

1:41:47

after the goddess Isis. We

1:41:50

know almost nothing about these four girls

1:41:52

and I can't offer any commentary. So

1:41:55

all up, by the time he was in

1:41:57

his forties, Tatmose had fathered at least two.

1:42:00

ten children. Some of these

1:42:02

had died young and the king was now living

1:42:04

with his second great royal wife. But

1:42:06

by the time he was forty-two years

1:42:08

old, Thutmose seemed to have a solid

1:42:11

succession in place. As

1:42:13

of year forty when we begin this

1:42:15

episode, the royal family had settled into

1:42:17

the structure that would persist until the end