Apepi’s memory was reviled by subsequent generations of ancient Egyptians, not least because of his misfortune to have shared a name with the giant snake that embodied chaos in Egyptian mythology. True to this association, Apepi came to be seen as the epitome of evil, representing everything that was bad and shameful about Egypt’s period of subjection to foreign rule. Yet, despite his alien background, he tried, in many ways, to rule as a model monarch. Hero or villain, the ‘Asiatic king’ remains a figure of fascination.
39 | Taa II
K
ING SLAIN IN BATTLE AGAINST THE
H
YKSOS
After generations of political fragmentation and rule by foreigners, the Egyptians turned once again to Thebes for deliverance. In the darkest days of Hyksos rule, a military family had risen to prominence that seemed to offer the same hope of national rebirth as the Intefs and Mentuhotep II (no. 27) had delivered at the end of the First Intermediate Period. While Apepi reigned from his Delta stronghold, a brave Theban called Taa succeeded his father as local ruler. His was a small territory, but it offered the only resistance to foreign domination and might therefore form the springboard for a wider liberation movement. Hence, Taa had the hopes and expectations of a people resting on his shoulders.
Fortunately, he was the right man in the right place at the right time. He was fairly tall for an ancient Egyptian, at 1.7 m (5ft 7in), and he had the muscular body of a fit and active man. His large head was topped by thick, black, curly hair: he was every inch a potential hero in the making. Taa was the son of another Taa and a remarkable mother named Tetisheri, who was destined to be revered as a great ancestress of the 18th Dynasty kings. To judge from later records, she was a forceful and influential woman in her own right, and seems to have instilled in her son a determination that would carry him through difficult and dangerous situations. The younger Taa took as his principal wife his own full-sister, Ahhotep; like her mother, she was a feisty and strong-willed woman who did not hesitate to steel her husband’s resolve for the war that lay ahead. Taa married at least two of his other siblings and by these various wives had a large family, including four sons and as many as seven daughters. Most of his children were named Ahmose, in honour of the moon-god; Ahmose-Nefertari (no. 40) was destined to equal her mother and grandmother in terms of influence.
The royal family, together with their closest advisers and generals, spent much of their time in the town of Deir el-Ballas, north of Thebes itself. The town was strategically located to control river traffic and caravan routes across the deserts. With two fortified palaces, it provided a secure forward position for the war against the Hyksos that all now expected to be launched. Shortly after his accession, Taa – still only in his late twenties or early thirties – decided that the time had come to begin the re-conquest of Egypt. He ordered the attack on the Hyksos to begin. The sense of anticipation and excitement in the Theban camp as the enemy was engaged must have been considerable. However, the liberators, as they now saw themselves, suffered a devastating blow early in the campaign when their leader, Taa himself, was killed in action. He may have been struck from behind – taken by surprise – while riding his chariot. Felled by the initial blows, Taa was set upon by his attackers who inflicted further lethal wounds with their daggers, axes and spears.
In the thick of battle, there was neither the time nor the facilities to carry out the proper preparation of the king’s body for burial. It was hastily embalmed, perhaps on the battlefield, without even straightening the limbs from their death-throes. It was then taken back to Thebes for interment in a royal tomb. The king’s body was placed in a richly gilded coffin, adorned with his image wearing the royal headdress, the protective cobra at its brow. The inscription named the owner, as he would be revered for generations to come: ‘Taa the brave’. Three hundred years after his death, his heroic struggle against the Hyksos was immortalized in literary form, in which it survives to this day: the heroic tale of a young warrior king who gave his life for the liberation of his country.
40 | Ahmose-Nefertari
R
OYAL DAUGHTER
,
WIFE AND MOTHER
The three generations spanning the end of the 17th Dynasty and beginning of the 18th Dynasty were a remarkable period in ancient Egyptian history in many ways, not least in the unusual prominence of royal women in affairs of state. Taa II (no. 39) had been supported and encouraged by his powerful mother Tetisheri and his sister-wife Ahhotep. His son, Ahmose, had the support of an equally influential woman in the shape of his own sister and wife, Ahmose-Nefertari, whose influence continued into the reign of her son, Amenhotep I.
Ahmose-Nefertari was born into the Theban royal family during the reign of her father, Taa II. She witnessed his death in battle against the Hyksos, the accession of her brother-husband and his eventual victory against the Asiatic invaders. She played a central role in overseeing Egypt’s transition from war to peace, and her own family’s elevation from Theban to national dynasty.
In ancient Egypt, religion and politics were inseparable. Ahmose-Nefertari recognized this, and ensured that on the death or retirement from office of her mother, she was appointed by her husband to the highly important role of God’s Wife of Amun. Indeed, Ahmose endowed her and her heirs in perpetuity with land and goods, creating an economic base for the position to equal its politico-religious influence. The Amun priesthood was rapidly becoming the most powerful in the land and Ahmose-Nefertari, as God’s Wife, was able to play a central role in its affairs. The importance of her new position is reflected in the fact that she often chose to use this title alone, rather than King’s Great Wife.
Her role extended into the full range of cultic activities, such as the dedication of ritual offerings, participation in important festivals, and involvement in the construction or restoration of religious buildings. Before Ahmose decided to set up a memorial to his grandmother Tetisheri at Abydos, he sought Ahmose-Nefertari’s approval. Her name was recorded in the texts marking the reopening of the limestone quarries at Tura. Her interest and involvement in new foundations culminated in the reign of her son, Amenhotep I, when she acted as joint patron of a new village for the necropolis workmen engaged in building the royal tombs in the Valley of the Kings. For the rest of its existence, the community of the Place of Truth, as it was called, honoured Ahmose-Nefertari side by side with her son as its patron deities.
Ahmose-Nefertari outlived both her husband and her son, surviving into the reign of her son-in-law Thutmose I. Her remarkable lifetime thus spanned five, perhaps six reigns. Her death, when it came, was an occasion for national mourning. One private stela described it thus: ‘the God’s Wife Ahmose-Nefertari, justified before the great god, Lord of the West, flew to heaven.’ Gone, but not forgotten. Ahmose-Nefertari was to be the inspiration for a succession of powerful women at key moments in the dynasty of which she was the undoubted founder.
41 | Ahmose son of Abana
W
ARTIME NAVAL OFFICER
The liberation of Egypt, the expulsion of the Hyksos, and the reforging of a strong and independent nation were the lasting achievements of the early 18th Dynasty kings. The most detailed and vivid account of these momentous events belongs to a naval officer who took a leading part in all the great battles of the age: Ahmose son of Abana.
Ahmose was born and brought up in the thriving city of Elkab (ancient Nekheb), in the far south of Egypt. His father, Baba, served as a soldier in the army of Taa II (no. 39), and the son must have grown up hearing stories of daring military exploits, understanding that they were part of a wider struggle to liberate Egypt from the hated ‘rulers of foreign lands’. The young Ahmose followed his father into the military, but chose the navy instead of the army. His first commission was on board the king’s ship ‘The Offering’. It was a gentle introduction to navy life, but a short one. After marrying and starting a family, Ahmose was transferred to the northern fleet, actively engaged against the Hyksos enemy. Aboard his new ship, ‘Shining in Memphis’, Ahmose took part in the siege of the Hyksos stronghold of Avaris (ancient Hut-waret, modern Tell el-Dab‘a). The Egyptian fleet engaged the enemy on the city’s main canal. Ahmose found himself in the thick of hand-to-hand combat, but distinguished himself by his valour and brought away a rather grisly trophy of his first armed encounter: the hand of a slain enemy fighter. The king rewarded his bravery with the gold of honour, encouraging Ahmose to further acts of courage.
In the midst of the siege of Avaris news reached the king’s forces of a rebellion in Upper Egypt, led by a disaffected official. If left to gather momentum, such internal strife might prove disastrous for the wider military campaign. So Ahmose son of Abana was dispatched at once to put down the insurrection. His success was rewarded by a grateful monarch with ‘gold in double measure’. Returning to the northern front, Ahmose arrived in time to witness the fall of Avaris to the besieging Egyptian forces. He himself took four prisoners of war, and was allowed to keep them as slaves. The king, determined not merely to drive the Hyksos out of Egypt but to destroy them once and for all, pursued them as far as their Levantine fortress of Sharuhen, to which the Egyptians subsequently laid siege for a gruelling six years. By a combination of resolution and persistence, the Egyptians triumphed. Ahmose’s reward was more gold, and more prisoners of war as slaves.
The next major campaign took place, not to the north of Egypt, but to the south, in Nubia. Having re-established national sovereignty throughout the Nile Valley and Delta, King Ahmose now wished to re-build Egypt’s empire in the southern lands. His namesake the naval officer, by now a battle-hardened veteran, continued to distinguish himself in combat. However, all was not well at home: political opposition to the new Theban 18th Dynasty was evidently stronger than official records dared admit, and the uprising of a few years before had not, after all, been an isolated phenomenon. For a second, well-organized insurrection broke out, led by ‘an enemy from the south’. A detachment loyal to the dynasty, including Ahmose son of Abana, was sent to intercept the rebels; they met at a place called Tynet-ta-amu. The leader of the mutiny was captured together with his followers. Ahmose himself seized two archers aboard one of the enemy ships; he and his fellow sailors were rewarded with slaves and land, to maintain their loyalty. But before the dust had even settled, a third rebellion broke out, led by a man named Tetian. He, too, was eventually defeated, but the atmosphere towards the end of King Ahmose’s reign must have been febrile and awash with rumours of internal revolution. By displaying unswerving allegiance to the Theban dynasty, Ahmose son of Abana certainly earned his rewards.
Ahmose I was followed on the throne by his son Amenhotep I, and the efforts ‘to extend the borders of Egypt’ continued apace. Ahmose son of Abana sailed southwards with the new king to Kush (Nubia south of the Second Cataract), ‘fought incredibly’, captured the Nubian chief, and conveyed the sovereign back again to Egypt in just two days’ sailing. Ahmose was by now speaking patriotically of ‘our army’, and was rewarded for his efforts with gold, two female slaves and the prisoners of war he had already presented to the king. Moreover, he was appointed a ‘Warrior of the Ruler’, a mark of great honour.
Once a soldier, always a soldier: even in his mature years, Ahmose’s personal involvement in military campaigns did not cease. In the reign of Thutmose I, he conveyed the king to a location in Nubia called Khenthennefer, ‘in order to cast out violence in the highlands, in order to suppress the raiding of the hill region’. For his bravery and coolness in difficult sailing conditions, he was promoted to ‘chief of the sailors’, at the head of the Egyptian navy. A second Nubian revolt drew a ruthless response from Thutmose I. At the end of a fierce onslaught, the king sailed back to Karnak, under Ahmose’s direction, with the dead body of the defeated Nubian chief suspended upside down from the prow of the royal boat – a grim warning to other potential rebels.
Ahmose’s long and distinguished military career ended where it had begun, fighting enemies on Egypt’s northern border. But this time, the foe was the Kingdom of Mitanni (ancient Naharin), which in seeking to expand its influence throughout the Levant was threatening Egypt’s own imperial ambitions in the region. At the head of the Egyptian forces, admiral Ahmose accompanied the king into Syria-Palestine (ancient Retjenu) ‘to wash his heart [obtain satisfaction] among the foreign lands’. Fighting on land, Ahmose captured a chariot together with its horses and rider, and presented them to his monarch. He was amply rewarded, with ‘gold in double measure’.
In his old age, Ahmose basked in his many honours: ‘I was presented with gold seven times in the presence of the whole land; male and female slaves, likewise. I was endowed with very many fields.’ He commissioned a rock-cut tomb at his home city of Nekheb with a long text inscribed on the walls to record his achievements for eternity. He had taken part in ten major campaigns under three kings. He had, by his own actions, helped to establish and safeguard the 18th Dynasty on the throne of Egypt. If ever an ancient Egyptian deserved immortality, Ahmose son of Abana certainly did. In his own words: ‘The fame of one valiant in his achievements shall not perish in this land forever.’
42 | Ahmose Pennekhbet
S
OLDIER UNDER FOUR SUCCESSIVE MONARCHS
The story of the military exploits of the early 18th Dynasty, recounted in such gripping detail by Ahmose son of Abana (no. 41), is continued in the autobiographical inscription of his near-contemporary, namesake and fellow inhabitant of Elkab (ancient Nekheb), Ahmose, called Pennekhbet. He, too, served a succession of kings, was amply rewarded for valour in battle, and lived to a great age.
Ahmose Pennekhbet was an infantryman, and saw his first action in the twenty-second year of King Ahmose’s reign. After the successful siege of Sharuhen, the king pushed on deeper into the Levantine coastal area (ancient Djahi), to mop up any remaining resistance to Egyptian rule. Ahmose Pennekhbet was in the thick of the fighting, as he would be for many years to come: ‘I followed Nebpehtyra [King Ahmose], triumphant. I captured for him in Djahi a living prisoner and a hand. I was not separated from the king upon the battlefield from (the time of) Nebpehtyra, triumphant, to Aakheperenra [Thutmose II], triumphant.’
Under Amenhotep I, Ahmose Pennekhbet fought in Nubia and in an unidentified land called Khek. His rewards included two golden bracelets, two necklaces, an armlet, a dagger, a headdress, and a fan. In the campaigns of Thutmose I, he fought in Nubia once again, and against the western Asiatic Kingdom of Mitanni. This loyal service brought even greater acknowledgment, in the form of two golden bracelets, four necklaces, an armlet, two golden axes, six flies and three lions, these last being decorations for valour. Ahmose Pennekhbet’s final active service was under Thutmose II against the Shasu (Bedouin) of southern Palestine. The royal rewards on this occasion were the most valuable yet: three golden bracelets, six necklaces, three armlets, and a silver axe – silver was more valuable than gold in the 18th Dynasty. In an apt summary of his army career, Ahmose Pennekhbet stated: ‘I followed the Dual Kings, the gods; I was with Their Persons when they went to the south and north, in every place where they went. I have attained a good old age having had a life of royal favour, having had honour under Their Persons and the love of having been in the court.’
His final reward as a loyal servant of the dynasty was to be appointed tutor to princess Neferura, the eldest daughter of ‘the Divine Consort, the King’s Great Wife, Maatkara’ (Hatshepsut), whom he also served as treasurer. Ahmose looked after the little girl in her infancy, ‘while she was a child upon the breast’. After a long and highly eventful life, he died in the co-regency of Hatshepsut and the young Thutmose III, oblivious to the former’s grander ambitions, unaware that his last royal employer was about to revolutionize the very monarchy that he had served, so faithfully, under four successive kings.
43 | Hatshepsut
T
