Travel impressions VIII
During the same reign of Ramses XI, the XXth dinasty succumbs or leaves, despite what says the monarchist propaganda through the bas-reliefs of the temples, in fact the real power is held in one hand by a general of libyan origin, Herihor, high priest of Amon, owner of Upper Egypt and in the other hand, the former vizier Nesubanebdjed, (the Smendes of Herodotus), also a soldier from libyan origin, perhaps Herihor brother, who controlled Lower Egypt.
To Ramses XI was presented a problem with Libyan settlers established at the Delta, proud people who had not changed their names for other Egyptians and that displayed their origins preserving the ancient custom of adorning their heads with two feathers, and who in many cases did not respect basic religious precepts, such as the prohibition of eating fish, unclean thing for an Egyptian due to an Osirian tradition that sanctified the Oxyrhynchus fish (and by extension, any fish) on the grounds of having eaten the phallus of Osiris after his dismemberment at the hands of Seth. Leading these Libyans but absolutely integrated into the Egyptian social structure, were the big bosses of the “Ma” (short for “Meshwesh“), which they owned some lands, enjoyed enough wealth and planned to ignore the authority of king.
It was a time when most of people bordered the absolute poverty, a multitude of artists, goldsmiths, painters, sculptors and artisans unemployed, because all public works had been abandoned, were fairly pissed and staged several revolts that were stifled in exemplary fashion. The blinded channels, were not cleaned, nor repaired the broken levees, roads were difficult and exposed to banditry, looting of royal tombs, in this epoch was not a resource at all negligible for many, a large number of them were plundered then, despite of the very harsh punishments for looters because really, if the robber could make a fortune with his stealing, be caught did not matter because the justice had long since disappeared replaced by the oracle of Ammon and the lawsuits actually were won by dint of checkbook.
Slowly the business structure of Upper Egypt, segregated in many properties, were deteriorating, were not catered to the basic maintenance works, each one only dealing with the self-sufficiency, thus without excedents, the economy continued slowing. The economic moment of the cities of the Delta was very different since the Phoenician trade in the Mediterranean was entering its heyday, and magnates of many northern cities enjoyed great prosperity: Bubastis, Athribis, Sais, Busiris, Mendes, Sebennytos, Farbaitos, Per Sepeda and Buto, were the cradle of great family fortunes, some of Libyan origin which would be relevant in the future, but nothing or very little of that wealth reached to the majority of the population, dragged at the best of cases to servitude. A significant difference between the Upper and Lower Egypt was the presence of armies formed and stable only in the northern cities, the militia of the nomes of Upper Egypt due to the system of immunities, they had not obligation to meet any demands for troops from Thebes, so the Southern army resulted ineffective.
So matters stood when Amenhotep, the high priest of Amon, was charged with an offense that is not specified, a fact which can be interpreted as an attempt to regain control by the monarchy, but had to be reduced by force thanks to Panehesy troops (the “black”), Viceroy of Nubia, called for that purpose by Ramses XI. However, when Herihor, at Amenhotep’s death takes office as high priest of Amon, with the blessing of the king, who will be expelled is Panehesy. It seems that Ramses did not know very well what he did or Panehesy was too ambitious, in any case, the rise of Herihor marks the end of the Ramesside era, and the beginning of what has come to be called Third Intermediate Period or also the end of the New Kingdom.
Herihor after he was appointed viceroy of Nubia by Ramses himself to death Panehesy, ignoring the king or with his consent, thanks to a timely oracle of Ammon, took all the royal prerogatives, founding XXIth dynasty without waiting to be extinguished the XXth. He named his son Piankhi high priest of Amon, who resigned politely to royalty titles, although the latter’s son, would assume the kingship after the long reign of a son of Nesubanebdjed, Psusennes I.
In fact the royal household and the Amon pontificate since the reign of Herihor were always related and maintained a close relationship, so that the religious, economic and military power, were unified although in practice, the monarchy until the death of Ramses XI assumed the appearance of a triumvirate.
Nesubanebdjed from Tanis, represented the economic power of cities and controlled the army of the “Big chiefs of Ma”, but Herihor was, as high priest of Amun, who wielded the royal prerogatives. In short, oligarchs from the Delta concentrated the whole wealth, barricaded behind the libyan army, while the rest of the population languished, a situation that led to a popular uprising with independentists dyes, in Thebes during the reign of Pinedjem, which was suppressed, and rebels exiled to the Libyan oasis of El Khargeh. As it was probably more expensive maintaining them in the Libyan oasis than free them, Menkheperre, brother or maybe son of Pinedjem , manifesting its power doing some miracles, and who had come to Thebes to be invested high priest of Amon, casting accounts, ordered the execution of those who had blood crimes and free to others, thing which was proclaimed as a sample of the goodness of Amun, by means of one of these opportune oracles.
A symptom of the instability of this time, is that the Pharaohs did not hesitate to reuse the most impressive sarcophagus recovered from the looters what they seized from the tombs, such pragmatism, would be unthinkable at another era. Religion had depreciated greatly among the common people, when there is hunger, precedence other priorities, even in order to mock the clergy then, it was released a parody of sacred literature quite scabrous, known today as “The myth of Horus and Seth” . Ignoring the facts, in a flee forward, clergy proclaimed the Uhm Msut “the Age of Renaissance”, hoping to inject some hope or optimism and take back in that way for the religion its lost prestige, but this fact must be clarified: it is not that the people had become atheist, because the people always maintained a deep fervor especially around Osiris and the agrarian cult, ignoring in most cases to Amon, who was a god exclusive of the rulers of Thebes.
Meanwhile, towards the end of the reign of Psusennes I, in Palestine, David seized the territories of Edom until the Jordan river and allying with Hiram from Tiro, established a trade route with which, though damaged the interests of Egypt, financed the kingdom of Israel, recently founded by his father-in-law, Saul, although without the consent of the priests of Adonai.
About twenty years later, after David’s death, there was a fratricidal dynastic crisis from what the pharaoh Psusennes II took advantage to seize the Philistine citadel of Gezer, what later would give as dowry for the wedding of his daughter with Solomon in idea to establish a link between Israel and Egypt that safeguard the interests Egyptians, although at Psusennes II’s death, the policy guidelines with regard to Israel would change fundamentally. Sheshonq, Grand Chief of the Ma, from the rich family of priests of Harsafes at Bubastis, founded the XXIIth dynasty with the unconditional support of the cities of Delta, moving the capital from Tanis to Bubastis.
(will continue)
Al parecer, la rápida prosperidad de Jerusalén perjudicaba mas de lo esperado los intereses comerciales del Bajo Egipto, por lo que no es nada improbable que en realidad el ascenso de Sheshonq fuera propiciado por los lideres económicos de las ciudades ya que, a la muerte de Salomón y en medio de la guerra civil que siguió, cuenta la Biblia que Sheshonq “ cayó sobre Jerusalén, se apoderó de los tesoros de la casa del Eterno y de los tesoros del rey, se adueñó de todo. Se apropió de los escudos de oro que Salomón había mandado hacer..”.
Israel y Judea, estados en los que se dividió el reino de Salomón, tuvieron que aceptar el protectorado egipcio y pagar en adelante el correspondiente tributo, al tiempo que comenzaba para las ciudades del Delta un nuevo periodo de prosperidad, puesto que sus puertos se convirtieron nuevamente en el destino de las rutas comerciales, usurpado durante un tiempo por las ciudades de Israel. Tampoco la ciudad estado de Tiro, a pesar de haber sido en principio un buen aliado, estaba interesada en permitir que el Israel de Salomón desviara parte del comercio hacia sus incipientes puertos instalados en la costa palestina, por lo que parece ser que el reino de Israel no tenia futuro, sin embargo todas las economías de la zona habían estado muy complacidas con un estado militar como el establecido por el ejercito de David que les ahorraba el costoso mantenimiento de una fuerza militar permanente que protegiera las rutas comerciales. Las ciudades fenicias, que presumían desde hacia tiempo de haber perdido el respeto a Egipto, se apresuraron a ofrecer sus tributos, con el doble animo de evitar que el ejercito de Sheshonq se interesara por ellas y por otra parte fomentar el protectorado egipcio en la zona, siempre preferible a la alternativa asiria, que empezaba a levantar cabeza nuevamente.
Después de las extenuantes y continuas guerras que Tukulti-Ninurta impuso al país, que le habían permitido someter a los arameos, apoderarse de la Transtigritania y conquistar Babilonia, una profunda crisis dinastica, tras el asesinato del rey por su hijo, Assur-nasir-apli, deshizo el incipiente imperio asirio y mantuvo el país demasiado ocupado en sus propios problemas internos, hasta el advenimiento de Teglat-phalasar I, quien forzando de nuevo la maquina militar asiria, conquistó nuevamente Babilonia al derrotar a Nabucodonosor I, extendiendo así el Imperio asirio hasta el mediterráneo y hasta las propias fronteras orientales de Egipto.
La dinastia Sheshonquida, disfrutó de riquezas sin medida, como demuestran los sarcófagos de plata maciza de la época, aunque su influencia y su prestigio no iba mas alla de Memphis o Heracleopolis; el Alto Egipto por el contrario, sumido en un letargo financiero atroz, permanecía en manos de los sacerdotes de Tebas, quienes celosos de su modo de vida, cerraban las puertas a los intentos de acercamiento de la monarquía. El desmembramiento feudal estaba tan avanzado en el Delta que en adelante, cada ciudad recreará su propia corte, adorara a sus dioses locales y tendrá su propio ejercito para defender sus propios intereses incluso contra otras ciudades egipcias; prolifera la literatura de caballería, donde heroicos príncipes baten sus armas, con la inestimable ayuda de unos dioses demasiado humanos, al estilo de la Iliada, el Mahabharata o Stargate.
El sumo sacerdote de Heliopolis se declarará soberano, así como el príncipe de Mendes, el de Per-Sepeda o el de Sais, aunque todos ellos debían fidelidad al rey, en la practica, el Delta es ahora un racimo de estados independientes como en la época predinastica. El Alto Egipto ajeno al feudalismo militar, por el contrario, mantiene su unidad en torno a Amón y a Tebas, pero el frágil sistema económico, eminentemente agrícola, se encuentra permanentemente expuesto al carecer del dinamismo comercial necesario para su desarrollo. A pesar de todo, esta incierta situación se prolongaría por más de dos siglos, en virtud de la ausencia de agresiones externas. Sheshonq, puesto que cada uno de los príncipes de las ciudades rivalizaba en riqueza, no acababa de imponer su autoridad fuera de su jurisdicción, de manera que enfocó sus esfuerzos en intentar que el clero de Tebas le reconociera, a tal efecto nombró a su hijo Iuput, sumo sacerdote de Amón, aunque fue inútil, el clero de Amón respondió nombrando a Iuput, a su vez, rey de las dos tierras. Osorkon I, el sucesor de Sheshonq, lo intentó de nuevo, de igual forma, obteniendo exactamente el mismo resultado, tampoco Takelot consiguió legitimar su reinado, ni luego Osorkon II que tuvo que ver como su primo Harsiese, sumo sacerdote de Amón, se proclamaba rey de Tebas y fundaba la XXIII dinastía. Durante el reinado de SheShonq III, Pedubast, rey de Tanis se proclama rey de Leontopolis, consiguiendo hacerse reconocer por el clero de Tebas, Menfis y Heracleopolis, al tiempo que Tefnakht príncipe de Sais, “Gran Jefe de los Libu” y “Gran Jefe de los Ma”, ( otras fuentes lo identifican con el nieto de un tal Basa, sacerdote de un templo de Amón cerca de Sais) se hace con el control de la parte occidental del Delta y funda la XXIV dinastía, de tal forma y durante un tiempo tres dinastías se disputaron, entre revueltas populares, epidemias, miseria y hambre, el control del país de la tierra negra.
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Tags: Farbaitos, Oxyrhynchus, Panehesy, Uhm Msut
Travel impressions VII
For forty-six years, Egypt enjoyed of a peace achieved under the treaty with Hatti, a historic agreement that allowed to Hattusili III conjure the Assyrian menace, but his son and successor, Tutaliya IV, although he maintained the stability in the area, thanks to a intense diplomatic activity with Shalmaneser, he was forced to fight soon with, Tukulti-Ninurta, who nothing but accede to the throne, launched an offensive northward, seizing the region of Subaru to the south of Mittani in order to settle down in the Euphrates, while avoiding to invade the protectorates Egyptians and Hittites.
Assyria along most of its existence, about thirteen hundred years, made extensive use of terror as a form of propaganda, a system which, otherwise, was not of its exclusive use , many and very famous Egyptians kings, Babylonians, Hittites etc. liked to boast publicly of having decapitated, dismembered or unskinned people, although the ferocity of the Assyrian kings was then a topic, a sign of identity, Assurbanipal II, pointed out in detail, about the year six hundred-odd:
“I built a pillar at the gate of the city and skin the chiefs who had rebelled against me and my lord Assur, hanging his skin on the pillar. Some of them were buried in the foundation, others were impaled on stakes on the pillar and others (also) the impaled on stakes around the pillar. I skin many throughout the country and hung his skin on the walls …
I burned many of their prisoners. I captured many troops alive. I cut off the arms or hands to some people, to others I cut off the nose, ears and limbs. I extracted the eyes of many soldiers. I did a lot of living beings and other of their heads. I hung their heads in the trees around the city. I burned your teens, boys and girls … “
Under pressure from Tukulti-Ninurta, in that moment Tutaliya IV sent a bloated army against the Assyrians, to support the Hurrians from Subaru, but to no avail and 28,000 prisoners Hittites were deported to Mesopotamia.
Ramses did nothing then or when, immediately after Mittani fell and remained impassive while Tukulti-Ninurta added to his titles that of king of Babylon, a city that was unable to face his former vassals, seeing on the need to accept the assyrian protectorate. Ramses II, who possessed the most powerful army the world had to recognize the Assyrian sovereignty in the area if they wanted to ensure the commercial traffic.
Ramses II, meanwhile really was not bored at all, he “produced” two hundred children or so and in addition was very busy propagandizing himself through monuments and temples that spread from Nubia to the Delta and beyond their own borders, ad nauseam, erecting and record his name everywhere, even he built his own city which, of course, bearing his name, Pi-Ramses (the city of Ramses), the former Avaris, the city of the Hyksos, abandoning Thebes and doing her, little later, the capital of Egypt . The settlement of the guilds of artists in Deir el Medineh founded by Tuthmosis I, in time of Ramses, grew into a small town. But beyond the borders of Egypt, the world was changing without apparently he could do nothing to prevent it, so Ramses merely was adapting him as far as possible to new circumstances presented and which finally would overflow him , though it was not until his death when began to be felt the financial decline in the country. The root of the problem that it dragged back Egypt to a crisis was on the one hand, the economic policy of the monarchy, which relied primarily on the taxes from the provinces of his empire, taxes and the percentage of trade while at the same time, were giving privileges to the temples, now masters of their own army, consisting of POWs transferred by the monarchy itself, and that also they were owners of most of the arable land, tax exempt and immunized in front of the king’s authority, besides monarchy had to cover the enormous expenses entailed by too much deployment of polished sandstone.
When the Achaeans conquered Troy, gaining access to trade routes of the Black Sea, might seem that the economic expansion of the Achaeans would bring more wealth to Egypt, but suddenly people from the north, the Dorians, had begun to infiltrate into territory Mycenaean assaulting some populations, while the Achaeans at that time just extended their influence to the Anatolian and Syrian coasts. The leak soon became a genuine invasion, a flood that completely devastated the region with the exception of the Athenian Attica. It is possible that the opening of the Black Sea trade route after the destruction of Troy, left without a job or benefit to the peoples from the north of the Mycenaean world, among which were the Dorians, who dominated the northern alternative route , which used the european rivers, for trading with the Colchis. Either way, different groups of people moved over southern Greece and Anatolia, reaching the Aegean islands, pushing indigenous peoples, the mysians, Lydians, Phrygians, Carians and others to flee in disarray leaving their land, going to set in different regions of Libya, Palestine and Italy to dedicate in many cases to piracy.
The invasion did not reach directly to Egypt but ruined the economic fabric of the monarchy, depriving them of provincial taxes and trade taxes, when stopped the influx of ships to ports. In the last times of his reign, Ramses needed to usurp other statues and monuments of the pharaoh Amenhotep III, in the absence of labor, replacing the original names for his own name, carving the reliefs in stone with a depth that would not allow others to do what he had done.
The son and successor of Ramses, Mineptah had to deal with these “Sea Peoples”, first indirectly forced to assist with wheat to the Hittites, who were being invaded by several fronts, and later fighting against a coalition of Libyans, sardanians, Achaeans, Sicilians, Lycians and Etruscans (among all these people were the “Meshwesh” that had been settled peacefully on the western frontier and even in the Delta itself, from Ramses II epoch and many of them were hired as mercenaries) who had invaded the Delta from the west, from Libya, under the direction of such one Meriai, who marched to Memphis sweeping everything away in its path, while synchronously, many foreign prisoners who worked in mines and quarries were rebelling.
Mineptah he did not repress himself an apex with the heterogeneous army of Meriai , busting it totally, but nevertheless the invader leader reached to flee of the carnage, leaving behind him ten thousand casualties and many other prisoners that Mineptah gave to the temples to serving there as slaves. To prevent future uprisings, he ordered the expulsion of foreigners who had been stablished in Egyptian territory (in this time frame is usually is sited the Jewish exodus) unfortunate act that would deepen the economic ruin of the monarchy and specially of the poorer classes, which were gradually descending to the lowest ranks, those that had been occupied for the foreigners prisioners into the economic pyramid of Egyptian society. After properly celebrate the military success, the king marched without delay with the powerful army of Ramses towards the eastern provinces, recovering Palestine quickly (which name come from pelestiu or philisthim, the Philistines, one of the Sea Peoples, of Cretan origin according to biblical sources).
At Mineptah death, the ruin of the monarchy is evident and the throne, for a very short time, fell into the hands of a usurper, such one Amenmes, about who little or nothing is known, then come Queen Tausert, apparently from Ramesside lineage and later Mineptah-Siptah after marrying her. Actually since the death of Mineptah, it was opened a period of genuine chaos in the country, of which mainly took advantage the oligarchs and the authentic nobility of the South: the priesthood of Amun. Bakhenkhonsu, high priest of Amon, despite the crisis, handled enough capital to afford to restore the old palace of the high priests, dating from the Twelfth Dynasty, although in the rest of the country all public works have been abandoned.
From Nubia, which had been stayed away as viceroyalty, Seti II, probably from the lineage of Ramses, marched to Thebes where he was crowned, and at least he was proposed to restore some order, a task that would continue for a short time his son, Ramses-Siptah , and after his death, the country is sinked into the abyss, being broken up into large properties, and the common people definitively dragged the semi-slavery. To make matters worse, a Canaanite named Iarsu, seized the country and delivered it to bands of Libyans, dedicated to plundering and to fomenting instability and terror.
The clergy represented the only real authority, although just most important temples possessed private armies, who used circumstantially in police work and were also eventually able to confront the gangs of Libyans. Sethnakht, of unknown origin or perhaps another descendant of Ramses, with the indispensable support of the clergy, got expelling or reduce to slavery the Libyans bands and the own usurper Iarsu, besides he stopped the governors abuses, restoring the monarchy and founding the twentieth Dynasty, the year 1200 before the current era. Sethnakht associated soon his son Ramses III to the throne, famous king who would restore some glory to Egypt, through its military successes. At Sethnakht death, Ramses III at three times, avoided the invasion of the tangle of peoples who were gathering on the Libyan border. He captured tens of thousands of POWs, among which, he chose staff for the army, and/or his personal guard, because Ramses III needed some troops that the regime of immunities of the temples robbed him, really just the fleet, some divisions of archers and the high command were made up of Egyptians, the divisions of chariots and infantry were composed entirely of foreigners led by their own chiefs.
In a joint maneuver, a large fleet of “Sea Peoples” tried to force the mouth of the Nile while at the same time a large contingent tried to enter in the Delta by ground, evidently they had believed that Ramses would not able to handle two fronts at once, although were wrong and the walls of the splendid palace of Medinet Habu itemize conveniently the carnage . Facing a Syrian port Ramses sank the rest of the invading fleet, but despite all his victories, was unable to regain Palestine. After this, a strange peace prevailed, product by tireness of the great powers, which lasted for more than eighty years, during which, new states would see the light, while former countries languish or even disappear as Ugarit, Amurru, Mitanni or Hatti, although some hittites survived in the cities of Carchemish and Aleppo.
Assyria was too busy slaughtering arameans, who were not less bloodthirsty than themselves, who persistently, invaded its borders, so it was absent from the political scene, like Egypt, where none of the successive Ramses was able to grab the limelight from clergy of Amon, or cushion the ruin of the population, (what it became in rebellion in many occasions, including at the times of Ramses III). By contrast the Phoenician cities that did take advantage of the disappearance of Achaean navigation and of the political independence that they enjoyed, they met a period of prosperity that let them to project themselves into the western Mediterranean and establishing new trade routes between the sicilians, with the Etruscans established in Italy, going so far as Tartessos and even beyond. The Philistines who had wrested its empire to Egypt, founded the Pentapolis (Gaza, Ascalón, Asdod, Gat y Ecrón.)and also had benefits but often faced with the Israelite tribes settled in Canaan from the time of Joshua, are times of the biblical Samson.
After the death of Ramses III, fruit of a sordid palace conspiracy, a matter of jealousy from his first wife by the issue of succession; the apparent splendor of the monarchy of Ramses IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X and XI, was a fiction, power was effectively in the oligarchic, the feudal princes of Lower Egypt and specially in the hands of the temples, the king was not more than the feudal prince with more titles. The economic pyramid then would look much like a thumbtack with the point upward, stable enough but potentially dangerous.
Stele from Israel (The triumph of Merenptah)
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Tags: Colquide, Ramses, Tartessos
Travel impressions VI
The positivist philosophy of Amenofis IV, influenced the poetry, music and especially sculpture, endowing them with a naturalism that broke with the usual fees, it deploying new concepts and new forms affected of a humanism, outside the stereotyped classical formalism,until the point of constituting an own style, the Amarna style.
Politically, Amenhotep IV revived the old confrontation with the clergy of Thebes, which dated to Tuthmosis III, marrying Taduhepa, a princess Mitannian (referred to hereafter as Nefertiti, although there are differing opinions, I personally think that the Nefertiti profile seems not Egyptian) but this was nothing compared with the tremendous conflict which immediately organized when he ordered to ruin with picks and hammers, all the effigies of the traditional gods in the main temples in order to imply that he was serious, there was no god but Aten.
Also ordered, close all temples and expropriating properties and privileges of clergy and the oligarchy, then he delivered the management and administration of all of those things,to new persons from poor backgrounds. The powerful priesthood of Amun was abolished (amazing!), Pharaoh becomes from that moment in the only representative of god and state, at Heliopolitan style, establishing himself as a populist dye absolutism. Aten, as did Ra during XIIth dinasty, proclaims the equality of all men and even also required fraternity. With the worship of Aten is abandoned the usual enigmatic language of the clergy of Amon , in order to speak in street slang, with the evident intention of making himself understood. Also were replaced the old cults that were held behind closed doors inside the temples, with public rites outdoors, in opened solar temples , at XIIth dinasty style.
The clergy of Amun was entertained, meanwhile, spreading dark omens and defamations among the people, poisoning the atmosphere with the abject purpose of causing alarm. Amenhotep IV disgusted, decided to abandon the ambience of Karnak and found a city entirely new, in northern, between Tebas and Menfis, which called Akhetaton (Aten horizon) better known as Tell el Amarna, rounding with this action what it was revealed really as a real revolution directed from the state itself against the power of the clergy.
Amenhotep III had developed an effective policy for peace with neighboring Asian kingdoms, granting loans everywhere, but Amenhotep IV, made the terrible mistake of denying to its Asian allies this money with that his father kept them happy. Denying those loans (probably to meet the huge expenditure involved in building a city entirely new) unexpectedly triggered a series of events those generated an enormous instability in the vicinity of its borders in Asia.
He missed the “friendship” from Hatti that his predecessor had established so hard, and he abandoned to his fate to Dushratta, King of Mittani quien sería asesinado por su hijo Mattiwaza, circumstances that their neighbors took advantage, the Hurrians, to invade the country with the help of Assurballit who would establish an assyrian protectorate in the area, although Mattiwaza escaped and found refuge in Babylon.
Amenhotep IV in view of the situation, was forced to deal directly with Assurballit, which in practice meant acknowledging the existence of the kingdom of Assur, something that greatly angered to Babylon, which until then regarded Assur almost as an province, a vassal state. Burnaburiash II, king of Babylon, to ensure the route to the Mediterranean had to recognize the independence of Assyria, establishing formal relations with the new kingdom, by marrying his son and a daughter of Assurballit. Burnaburiash’s son died before him, so at king’s death, under the pretext of securing the kingdom for his grandson, Assurballit seized Babylon. Mattiwaza once again fled,this time in the direction of Hatti, finding to Suppiluliuma very willing to support it.
The disallowance of Amenhotep IV, urged the king of Hatti to look elsewhere for those resources that the pharaoh denied him, passing to establish relationships directly with Amurru y Kadesh, vassal states of Egypt, which was unacceptable and explicitly prohibited by international treaties, that linked the two countries. Faced with the passivity of the king of Egypt, Assyria began its rise as nation, spreading terror everywhere through blood and fire, a threat against which, the Egyptian presence was quickly diluted within the Asian provinces , Tiro y Biblos became independent in front of the absence of protection, Amurru rebelled with the instigation of Hatti and the cities of Palestine facing each other. Amenhotep IV always wanted to keep the peace but ultimately had to send the general Horemheb to put some order.
Parallel to these developments, the pharaoh kept constant clashes with the clergy of Amun and so difficult had to be these relations than the king near the end of his reign, initiated a rapprochement to the clergy, to minimize the boycott of the priests of Thebes, although it did not work . It appears that then the king maintained a co-regency with Smenkhare, who was married with one of the daughters of the king, Meritaten, with the intention of departing himself step aside from power, to restore the relations with Amon, but he only got that the queen Nefertiti, faithful to Aten, was separated from him.
On the death of Amenhotep IV (causes actually remain unknown) and the Smenkhare a little later, During three years, barely, Nefertiti took the regency on behalf of Tutankhatón, who had been given in marriage to the daughter of Amenhotep IV, Ankhesenpaatón, but the clergy of Amon snatched him when I was twelve years old, taking him to Thebes, where he would be enthroned as Tutankhamen and used to legitimize the restoration of Amun. The result for the Egyptian people was appalling, the pharaoh who still was a child was deliberately involved in the goings-on of Karnak which unleashed the whole institutional perversity imaginable: a word in favor of social justice was automatically associated to the former regime and inmediately disqualified if not even pursued.
All the privileges of the clergy and the oligarchy were restored and even increased significantly and all what had been confiscated from the temples was exponentially compensated. Misery swept through Egypt, mafias and absolute corruption of the administration, devoured the treasure of the state. Tutankhamun sometime raised his voice against injustice for to the followers of Aten: he died at eighteen, He was succeeded by Ay,
an ephemeral and dark official, a staff member of the palace, who apparently had married Ankhesenpaatón, at the Tutankhamun’s death, after the failed attempt of the widow, to marry a son of the king of Hatti, who would be killed during the journey, thereby completely infuriate to Suppiluliuma, who openly declared war on Egypt,however, Horemheb once again halted the offensive effectively, defeating troops of Arnuwanda, Crown Prince of Hatti, son of Suppiluliuma.
It was intended to make dissapear the reign of Amenhotep IV from history, Akhetaton town of Amenophis IV was abandoned, were times of “progroms”, were times of mass conversion, within repression and abuse without measure, even Horemheb himself, sole owner of the army and certainly the most popular and powerful character of the moment was declared himself servant of Amun, coming to stand as the direct successor, obviously anachronistic, of Amenofis II (whom clergy of Amun adored), once attained the throne.
Horemheb came to power thanks to his personal merits, and through the timely intervention of an oracle from Amun, nor lacked to him the support of the oligarchy, after all he was a descendant of a prominent family, representative of the most ancient nobility, although had lost their hereditary privileges, two hundred and fifty years back.
However Horemheb plans did not go through to become a puppet of Karnak, and it became clear the same day of his coronation, when he presented himself with great ceremony as the son of Horus, the old royal god y patron god from the nome of Hutnesut (Nemty)
where his family had exercised the sovereignty,showing himself as a faithful follower of tradition, not precisely from Amun . In fact, his intention, despite appearances, was to continue in the manner possible, the reviled policy of Amenhotep III and IV.
Horemheb was a man close to Amenhotep IV, and although he may be not agree in the radical manner of doing , sympathized with his doctrine. Throughout his reign was concerned to restore justice, placing it in the hands of men chosen by himself from among the best judges of Egypt. Were promulgated decrees against arbitrary taxes that some governors had set for his own benefit and against the bribes to judges and officials, as well as misappropriations of the harvest. In the other hand, Horemheb bolstered the traditional feudal polytheism versus monotheism that affected the clergy of Amun, probably to assert himself on the throne, by virtue of their lineage rights, fact that obviously favored to the oligarchy. Numerous privileges were granted to the clergy of Thebes as well. Once all, both Amun clergy and oligarchy, were more or less satisfied, he snatched the power to prospective candidates of the oligarchy, and sidestepping the religious jurisdiction in dynastic matters, he adopted a man of his choice, Ramses, oblivious to the nobility, from militar career and appointed him his successor .
Horemheb was actually who opened the Ramesside era, he forged the political person of Ramses, who really was only a commander, a warrior who nevertheless conducted the commissioned work promptly, arguably it was only the instrument of Horemheb but surely it was not thus, he had to see something in him that persuaded him to promote him to this job. The clergy of Amun had to accept the unusual decision reluctantly but on the other hand, all their rights had been restored and after all, the theological scheme needs the royal figure of the king, however from the first moment the clergy and the kings were quartered each one in their own positions. The political pretensions of the clergy of Amon showed a strong nationalism and bet for a kind of manorial economy, more closed, less commercial and simultaneously monarchy instead, employed all their efforts, including military ones, to keep open the trade routes and practicing openly a sort of religious heterodoxy, approaching in ritual matters to the Asian customs, what certainly was close to heresy.
Ramses I, was old when he came to power, so he associated the throne to his son Seti soon, whom he would begin a new era of prosperity in Egypt, but the external environment had changed since the last times of Amenhotep IV and Hatti was preparing for war. It started when Muwatalli pushed the Bedouins (shasu) from Palestine to take, which they did, the twenty-three Egyptian fortresses that guarded an important militar route across the zone, though Seti regained control in a few months, taking many prisoners, whose leaders were sacrificed publicly to Amun at Karnak. Seti was ready to face Muwatalli, but before he had to undo an attempted invasion of the Delta by a heterogeneous army consisting of Libyans and Europeans, although later he returned to Syria and defeated the Hittites at Kadesh, at the same time he would obtain from Bentesina, king of Amurru oath of allegiance, although Muwatalli, dethroned him right away, putting in his place to Sabili, faithful of Hatti, converting the triumph of Seti in a partial victory.
Seti, as his father before, associated to Ramses II to the throne soon. He enjoyed the fabulous epoch that economic policy of Seti had brought to Egypt ,so Ramses II was undoubtedly the richest monarch of his time and his army, the most powerful in the world.
The Muwatalli’s movements, those treaties with neighboring vassal states that he was making, were followed with attention by the Egyptian military staff and pending the appropriate time, Ramses organized his army and strengthened his borders, personally inspecting their bases and ports in Palestine and Phoenicia, while Hatti in the meantime is prepared in the north. Ramses trusted in his army and he believe in his final triumph around the city of Kadesh, but in his impatience had paid attention to some false reports and he crossed the Orontes only with the division of Ra, without waiting to the division of Amun,neither to the division of Ptah nor the division of Seth,still far behind,(Ramses I had replaced the old dual division of the army, North and South, by three divisions, each under the patronage of a god, Amun, Ra and that of Ptah, Seth’s being added later, which was mainly composed by Libyans, Europeans and Asians). Fortunately for Ramses II, some hittite spies were caught and forced to confess, informing to the king of the precarious situation in which he was. Quickly sent messengers to the lagged divisions in order to they would expedite the march, while the division of Re was splitted in two by the offensive Hittite and assaulted the own camp of Ramses , who nevertheless handled appropriately their chariots to make flee disorderly to the army of Muwatalli.
Hatti, lost the bellow and the surprise, waived to inflict more wear to his troops and finally is retired, while Ramses also turned and retreated, licking their wounds. Muwatalli avoided new confrontations and he spent the rest of his life to keep busy to Ramses, promoting successive uprisings throughout Palestine. Hatti really could not afford a direct confrontation against Egypt,because he needed his army to defend his own country against the ruthless Assyrian expansionism. On the death of Muwatalli, there was a dynastic crisis from which emerged triumphant Hattusil, aware of the Assyrian threat, sought to restore diplomatic relations with Egypt, inexistent since the times of Amenhotep IV, requesting by letter to Ramses “I took the sovereignty, but you have not sent your ambassador and have not done what is use among kings when they ascend to the throne, like sending rich presents, royal fabrics and perfumed oils”. Ramses responded him politely without ceasing to march to the north, of course. Hattusil got a brief respite he used to forge an alliance with Babylon in order to keep within its borders to the Assyrians. Immediately reinforced the garrison of Tunip to stop the advance of Egypt, but could not slow Ramses, who took the city. The Assyrian Shalmaneser taking advantage of that nobody had no eyes on him, advanced to the Euphrates, threatening Mittani.
Hattusil had no choice but to seek peace with Egypt, he was unable to face Egypt and the Assyrians at the same time, so it agreed to peace with Ramses through a historic treaty, from which says a stele at Abu Simbel, as if Ptah would talk to Ramses: “there are secret annals in the libraries, from the times of Ra to your majesty, but the country of Hatti devise their destinations in a single will with Egypt, this had never happened”, in fact this treaty brought decades of peace in all countries of the region, Shalmaneser seeing himself imprisoned within his own borders, decided to use his energies for internal affairs: he moved the capital from Assur to a new city, Nineveh, although drowned his imperialist ambitions, his frustration would have to be evident.
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Tags: Amarna, Amenophis, Aten, Nefertiti, Taduhepa
Travel impressions V.
should was inaugurating a new dynasty, the eighteenth, beginning with the New Empire.
After some signs of rebellion were crushed at Nubia, Ahmosis was determined to end the threat of the aamu, so that after conquering Avaris, chased the remnants of the hikso army to Sharuhen in the Canaanite coast, where they were strong and devastated the city to such an extent that would never rebuilt. Once extinct in danger of a new invasion, the king spread the devastation to all the cities of Canaan that he could access, in order to build a real policy of terror, both abroad and in the interior, from the beginning, inside the own Egyptian territory was applied to do piles with the hands cut from the bodies of the supporters of Seth, collaborators of the Asian Dynasties (this was an abhorrent behavior that had the practical purpose, of facilitating to the scribes the computation of enemies killed, such as still reflect the bas of Medinet Habu to the time of Ramses III). His successor Amenofis I maintained a protectorate over the cities of Syria, Nubia and the country of Kus (a part of the current Sudan), and he was well remembered in statues and monuments by the subsequent monarchs, but not too much is known of his reign, it seems that here can be applied the English proverb, “no news are good news”.
The influence of the clergy of Amon evolved during the reigns of the several Amenhotep and Thutmosis consecutive, although Amón never again pose a problem because from the beginning, the monarchy left the administration in the hands of officials, so the priests just had got certain control in the exclusive circle of the religion, although determinated political aspects of the succession were so connected to God, due to their intimate relationship with the king, which in some way conditioned its resolution to the approval of the clergy.
The priests were no longer noble, now they are sons of officials, new people, Amun is the supporter of the clergy and monarchy. Amun is the head of the gods of each prefecture and as the representative of the god is the king, therefore the prefectures are subordinated to the monarchy, and by a mystical algorithm similar, clergy supports the monarchy as long as it is who represents Amon. According to some authors, at this time,regarding dynastic issues, Amon is considered the father of the king, if he would have a male descendant (with a real princess, preferably a sister), the new king would take the name of Amenophis (Amenhotep) , if not, then a son of some concubine of the king should marry a real princess and then would take the name of Thutmosis, in fact the clergy of Amon had no objection to make prevail to the wife and sister of Thutmosis II, the famous Queen-king Hatshepsut against Thutmosis III who despite having been chosen when he was a child for the post, though not willingly, he agreed to reign just after the death of the queen. So, they who were called Amenophis, they were directly sons of the King (Amon) and they who were called Thutmosis, they were sons of the law (Thot was the god of law), these sons were “legal” as long as they were married to royal princesses,in order to keep the blood of Amon (of the King, of course) in the dynastic line. Hatshepsut took advantage of this opportunity to assert their rights and to keep the throne to herself, invoking his lineage (of Amon) and the clergy not only did not object, but actually they encouraged the queen, in fact during his reign existed a rather than sacred bond between the monarchy and clergy, for instance, the second high priest of Amon and real great architect, Senmut, fue el amante de la reina y el constructor del impresionante mausoleo que edificó para ella, al lado del templo funerario de Mentuhotep IV en Deir-el-Bahari.
The large size and the sumptuous look that from this time acquired the sacred enclosure of Karnak with the continuing contributions of the several Thutmose and Amenhotep (the ends of the obelisks and a pylon even came to be coated with an alloy of gold and silver called electron), can give us an idea of the magnificence that surrounded the court of the priests of Amun, true kings in their own world.
By accessing the throne Thutmosis III, at start, initially he worked hard in to restore the Egyptian hegemony beyond its borders, thing that he got it when undid the plans of a coalition of cities that tried to face him, and then launched himself to an authentic work of conquest, leading Egypt to become a true empire. Retenu was conquered (the Lebanese-Palestinian coastal strip), and secured his position in the coastal cities of the area to take advantage of the newly confiscated fleet, to use it to transport troops and tasks of supply. Obviously it was not therefore a new preventive raid, this time, Egypt comes to stay. Thutmosis not deposes the native princes in most cases, making efforts to maintain frequent contact with their new Asian provinces without forget harvesting the taxes, of course. Then became entangled with Mitanni, that on several occasions had organized revolts against Egypt, so first conquered Biblos in whose shipyards, he would build boats with cedar wood to cross the Eufrates in order to face the army of Mitanni, who defeated several times, show of force that led automatically to neighboring countries, Hatti, Assur y Babilonia to seek friendship with the king of Egypt, flooding him with gifts, as was customary in such situations. Thutmose III established military bases every 65 km, along the Syrian coast, with the purpose of maintaining the Egyptian presence in the area permanently. However Thutmosis is not only an able military leader, but also showed a well-oiled diplomatic machine, which was applied to establish a policy of conciliation, of good relations with the conquered provinces, beginning a period of stability of what commerce was the direct beneficiary. Moreover, in some ways was the forerunner of a new stage in relations with the clergy, which during the sucesive reigns of the Amenhoteps and Thutmosis , they reduced the political influence of Amon, which it had culminated during the reign of Hatshepsut.
Thutmosis III, during his reign, strived to delete all references he could find of Hatshepsut at temples and monuments,and threw to the quarries, previously mutilated images and statues of the queen. This was not only a mere tantrum child, but that resulted in a stealthy and gradual return to the meaning and religious conception of Heliopolis, more appropriate for the absolute monarchy, although this antique religious centre depended,at this period, of the clergy of Karnak.
Egypt was the principal economic and military power in the known world, but the international language of business was not the egyptian language but the Akkadian, the language of Babylon. On the islands of the Aegean and the Greek coast on the contrary, the Egyptian currency was used, the kedet, and this was well due to the marked economic relations, that from the Twelfth Dynasty Egyptian kept with traders minoans and later with mycenaeans, to the point of being the origin of the port Pharos, that eventually would become Alexandria, Built exclusively for trade with the eastern Mediterranean island. The Egyptian influence is evident in the first doric temples and largely in the own Greek mythology: Cecrops the mythical founder of the first Athens, came from Egypt and also Erechtheus, like Danaus, Egypt’s twin brother, who was settled in the Mycenaean city of Argos, etc.
Waterfront Babylonian commercial empire, which connected India and Anatolia to the Syrian coast, Egypt developed an intense commercial activity thanks to the islands as far as Alasia (Cyprus), even it has discussed the possibility that would exist some kind of protectorate since there is evidence that Egypt recieved taxes from the princes of the islands.
Amenofis II, after the death of Thutmose III, had to quell a rebellion from the Asian provinces, later in order to produce more fear, he ordered to sacrifice publicly six rebel princes in Thebes and one in Napata, the capital of the viceroyalty of Nubia.
Amun, during the reign of Amenhotep II, enjoys with the bloodshed and at the temple of the god were slaughtered the enemies of the monarchy, once, before a battle, that night, while the king piously prayed to Amun “It was ordered to capture victims alive. It was ordered to do two pieces of each one of them all. And here it was all burned. His Majesty was alone, no one was with him. Apart from the palace guard, the troops were already far from the king “(big trail of Mit-Rahineh. Vl. Vikentiev” crossing the Orontes “). Fortunately religious terrorism of Amenhotep II was only a macabre parentheses and Thutmosis IV did not act the same way, he gave way to diplomacy, as had the previous Thutmose, ignoring the rights of the clergy, he bypassed the influence of Amun in dynastic issue, by marrying Mutemuia, a princess of Mitanni, instead of having married a royal princess of Egypt, Mitanni, which at that time feared more danger from the North Hittite, chosen in this way, establishing cordial relations with Egypt, its former enemy.
Amenofis III deepened the divide between royalty and the clergy, mimicking what was done by Thutmose IV, when marrying foreign princesses from all the influential monarchs of the time, indiscriminately ,in a unprecedented diplomatic effort. International relations demanded a kind of religious synthesis which equated to Amun-Ra, with the cult of Shamash, so that the Pharaoh (it is from then when it was start to use the term) as representative of Amun, now a universal god, will appear in the Asian provinces, endowed with a certain mystique additional legitimacy. “The sun …” “my Sun …”, was called the Pharaoh in the protocols and the international diplomatic correspondence; an example of the syncretism reached in this period is the winged Sun disk such as it appears at the top in the mythological pantheons of all the relevant monarchies of this moment.
“Book of What is in the Underworld” although it began during the Twelfth Dynasty, was completed in the time of Amenhotep II and reflects the solar theology own dynasties of Thebes. This book describes the daily journey of the two boats of Ra on the primordial waters of Mu that surround the two worlds, the upper and lower, crossing as Ra-Horakhti in one of them,the sky during the day, and as Iufu (Afu-Ra) through the underworld with the other boat during the night. Every night, Ra, aged, with his aspect of ram, once lost the character of subtle spirit, is assassinated by his own creatures, but if Ra dies, dies with the existence itself, so in order to create it again, Ra, have to reborn each morning, and do it emerging from the mouth of the goddess Mut, with the appearance of a child. All this is very different from the traditional mystique, both Heliopolitan, and that of Hermopolis or Memphis, with which it shares, however, the essence of the solar cult.
The Amun Hymn, was one of the weapons wielded by the monarchy against the clergy, with which distanced itself radically from the elaborated symbolism, such as liked to the priests of Amun, in order to keep in the darkness to the secular world. It was written in colloquial language with the object that could be understood by everyone. Amenhotep III imposed the return to Heliopolitan theology (by which sovereignty resides in the crown without the direct intervention of Amun, removing in this way any authority to the clergy) and prepared the advent of Atón, the radiant solar disk, in order to assimilating it to solar deities of Asia, as already mentioned, trying to establish some religious uniformity in his empire. The sirian Adonai could be a remnant of this intent, given the etymological similarity (Adon in Hebrew means “lord”, Adonai is the royal plural, used to refer to the deity).
Amenofis IV, Akhenaten, would lead to its ultimate consequences, those religious ideas that were sketched by his father, drastically cutting any ties to the classic religious dogma, with the purpose to set up a militant monotheism, completely new, in its place.
Bibliography: Jacques Pirenne ”Ancient Egypt History”
Paul Garelli “Middle East History”
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Tags: Adonay, Ahmose, Akkadian, Alasia, Amduat, Amenhotep, Amenophis, Amun Hymn, Apepi, Apofis, Argos, Assur, Atón, Babilonia, Biblos, book of what is in the underworld, Cecrops, Creta, Danaus, Deir el Bahri, doric temple, Erechtheus, Euphrates, Hatshepsut, Hatti, Kamose, Karnak, Kus, Kush, minoans, Mitanni, Mut, Mutemuia, mycenaeans, Napata, pharaoh, Pharos, Ra-Horakhti, Salitis, Sequenenre, Shamash, Sharuhen, Thera, Thutmose
Travel impressions IV
IV.
Neferkare and Antef I, were followed respectively by Kheti III from Heracleopolis and Uakhankh Antef II from Thebes, they inherited the dynastic conflict, the eternal rivalry between the north and south.
Kheti III, embarked on the ambitious venture of conquer the prefecture of Abidos at the South and also in expel the Asian invaders out of the Delta. Later, his successor, Merikare, would be forced to leave Heracleopolis, fleeing from a citizen revolt prompted by the general uprising of the cities of the Delta, once again they were jealous of its independence, so the king rushed to seek shelter between the princes of Siut, who managed to restore the power to Merikare. The kings of Thebes at that time took advantage of the attrition suffered by both sides to undertake the conquest of the North, in a similar way to as Narmer (Menes) had made a thousand years before.
Heracleopolis and their faithful allies of the territories of Siut and Hermopolis, could not resist a long time, the attacks of the hosts of Antef III, who despite his military success, he would have to immediately deal with the anxieties of the independence of the Delta and the lands of feudal princes, who once again, at this time, they rebelled against the new Theban dynasty , unsuccessfully insomuch as all the territories were “pacified” after several battles. Thereafter, in imitation of the dynasties of Heracleopolis, all efforts of the kings of Thebes were directed to attempt to recover the central role of the monarchy such as it had existed before the feudal period.
Mentuhotep III (Mentu is satisfied), probably was who really conducted that thing of what it already boasted Mentuhotep II: the “pacification” of the Upper and Lower Egypt. But as according to the feudal code, the monarch was then, just the first of the princes, and as the feudal prince only recognizes to the god of his own nomo above him, it was need to impose a religious reform in order to change this fact. During the feudal period, the vast majority of people had fallen into illiteracy, and religious conceptions were denatured, causing an involutional process by which the Upper Egypt had returned to the primitive worship of the goddess mother. Mut at Thebes was the tutelary goddess of the city, in Cusae she was Hathor, in Nekhen she was Nekhbet, etc, on the other hand endures the influence of the cult of Min, who at this time, it traditionally associated with Horus, and that exceeded widely the field of Koptos.
The prefecture of Un (Jmun) as the former colony of Hermopolis (Per Djehuti “Thot’s house”) retained the worship of the prestigious god Thot, around of what is stablished the necessary syncretism , in which the dynasties of Thebes were supported.
It was necessary to construct a new theology, to recover some of the essence of sun worship, if they wanted rid of the feudal monarchy of ballast, and for this effect was updated an archaic god, Amun, to place it into the theology of Thot, in the site that Ra occupied, in the solar cosmogony.
Abidos and Un share importance in religious matters, Amon was promoted from the prefecture of Un, while Abidos remains the center of the cult of Osiris. Once in a lifetime at least it was mandatory for the faithful, a pilgrimage to Abidos, and so much was in that way, that who could not to do it during his life, had to do it after death, for what the dead were provided, into his grave, with tiny symbolic boats with which to reach Abidos. Around this time also the offerings that have traditionally belonged to the deceased, become offerings to Osiris, judge of the dead, in order to motivate this god to be benign with the deceased.
The next goal against the feudal system was achieved by Mentuhotep III, who reinstated the profession of vizier, with the peculiarity that it was no longer , a hereditary title , and therefore it escaped from the feudal framework . In a short time, it is added to the title of vizier, the title of “Hatia”(prince), what placed to the vizier at an equal level of else princes, and later, besides, the vizier came to use the honorary degrees, so baroque, inherited from the era Memphite, such as “Chancellor of the King and director of the High Court and Chief of the Court of the Six Halls”, in this way the King through the vizier, using his legal and administrative power against the nobles, stood at the top of the hierarchical pyramid reconstituted.
Mentuhotep III took pains to keep open the route of the caravans, the Wadi Hammamat, to trade between the cities of the Nile and the Arabian markets and the Punt, (somewhere on the Somali coast), thereby strengthening the tax benefits of the monarchy. Mentuhotep IV opened quarries in the area and Mentuhotep V ended to build a port at Wadi Gasus, which started Mentuhotep IV in the Red Sea coast.
Mentuhotep IV was expelled from the throne probably by some nobles conspirators, putting an usurper Mentuhotep V in his place, who neither lasted so much, due to a new usurper, who was deposed soon afterwards by a man outside the nobility, former vizier of Mentuhotep V, Amenemhat I ( “Amun is underway”,or also “Amun is the first one” ) who founded the Twelfth Dynasty. The feudal princes came to consider intolerable that an official hold to power, so that by dark palace intrigues, they achieved to kill Amenemhat, after several attempts, but they could not do the same with his son, Sesostris I, who inherited the crown.
Besides these political vicissitudes, which also are reflected in the tale of this period “Sinuhe“, dynasties XI and XII were at pains to recover the artistic techniques and construction, which had virtually disappeared and in order to fight against the abandonment, they spreaded temples and all kind of monuments from here to there, even in areas outside the territory of Egypt. Much was lost during the feudal period, however the cities of the North probably had preserved the essence, (several statues, curiously manufactured in wood, are from this period) from which again arise, the Egyptian monumental art, but never exceeded the level reached during the Old Empire. The statue of Mentuhotep II and even the funerary complex in Deir el Bahari built by Mentuhotep IV, are alien to the tradition and represent an innovation, although onwards is tried to seek a return to classicism.
Different beliefs about life in the beyond, which had flourished during the feudal period can be grouped into two systems, the solar model, around Amun Ra and the agricultural religious system, around Osiris in the north and around Min at south, and both systems, the solar system and agricultural system, are laboriously interwoven, into the “Book of the Dead.” The cult of Amun is the cult of monarchy, and the center of this new theology will be the new holy city of Karnak where was built the sanctuary of Amun, from which retains only a small kiosk erected by Sesostris I. Amun (Ra) suffered a quite radical adjustment in the attempt to link him with Osiris, so that now Ra, an inmaterial entity, completely spiritual in its origin, will end up being a spirit only during the day whereas that during the night over the underground trip, it will be Iufu (“meat”, Auf-Ra, the ram), vested with material body, a twisted concept, emanating from the own myth of Osiris, where Ra is “contaminated” with the material world at the time of the resurrection of Osiris, when embrace the body of him, when the creative spirit (Ra) and goodness (Osiris) are mixed .
Amenemhat IV is the last king of the XIIth Dynasty, Queen Sebeknefrure goes after him, possibly as a regent in place of a minor child, but shortly after her it will take the power Sekhemre Khutaui, who inaugurate the XIIIth dynasty. Many kings will take over the power after him, in a matter of 50 years, using the royal names of Amenemhat and Sesostris, which indicates a certain continuity in the policy of centralism of the XII Dynasty. These are dark times for some researchers, as dark is the movement of people that from the north pushes the Bedouins against the boundaries of Egypt, are the times of the biblical Joseph, son of Jacob.
Meanwhile the Achaeans conquered Greece, the Hittites settled in Asia Minor and the Persian and the Medes take over the current Iran; the Babylon of Hammurabi flourished during a brief period, Egypt regains his influence over the coast of Retenu and commercial empire of the Minoans, reaches its zenith. In a world convulsed, Egypt tried to adapt to the new situation, allowing go into its territory to “carriers of flocks”, ie those that demostrated be solvent, instead of closing their borders in front of the human avalanche.
After Seankhtaui Sekhemkare, successor of Sekhemre Khutaui , the country is divided again. Xois and then, Tanis will be the capital of the reign of the North in the hands of the general Semenkhkare Mermesha. Later a new king, Sekhemre Seuadjtaui, would get togheter “the two lands” again. His successor Khasekhemre Neferhotep expanded the egyptian hegemony as far as Byblos. It seems that during the reign de Khaneferre Sebekhotep, the successor of Khasekhemre, the capital of Egypt could have been located in Tanis, a major port relatively close to the Fayum, the fertile land exclusive property of the monarchy since the Heracleopolitans dinasties. During this time, the supplying for the huge volume of people, both indigenous and immigrant, and the attention of foreign demand, transformed the country into a huge barn. A really good administration, in fact some of the kings that followed were sons of experienced officials, for a time kept the economy afloat even if meant a substantial increase of feudal power, given the prevailing agricultural system.
Later, commercial relations are stopped and series of bad harvests caused the lack of supplies for the population, whose result was the fragmentation of royal power, the princes of the nomos, simultaneously, founded dynasties in order to extend his authority here and there by virtue of eventual alliances, for a time there was a XIVth dynasty at Xois,in the Delta, until in a given moment, Upper Egypt appears governed by a certain Didumes (that may be a phonetic perversion of Thutmosis) , and the Lower in hands of the king Nehesi (“black man”) about who some expert think that he already is vassal of those who will invade Egypt soon, the hicsos. We do not know to what extent was a traumatic invasion, because although, the kings of the Empire New will strive to dramatizing those times, apparently they only pretended enhance the splendor of his own time, today is discussed much about this one, in fact it is possible that occupation was a pact between the enigmatics aamu (Asians) also called heqa khasut (foreign kings) and the kings of Upper Egypt, who reportedly surrendered without a fight Lower Egypt, retreating to the south, to their own territories. In practice, although they had to pay the tribute, there is evidence that there were good relations between the kings of the south and the hicsos who abandoned their culture of origin, became accustomed to the Egyptian’s manners quickly and deeply, even embracing the royal cult of Seth, the old and traditional god of Upper Egypt, and taking daughters of the kings of the South for wives. Some of the lists of Egyptian kings that have reached us, fill the fifteenth and sixteenth dynasties with names of the kings of Avaris, the new capital of Lower Egypt.
Bibliography: “Ancient Egypt”, Jacques Pirenne.
“Tale of Sinuhe“. Ancient egyptian literature
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Tags: antef, Avaris, Didumes, kheti, neferkare, Un, Xois
Travel Impressions III
III.
There seems to be no break in the dynastic line between the IV and V dynasty. Sahure and Userkaf could be the children of Shepseskaf, although it is also possible that Userkaf was in fact the son of Princess Neferhetepes, daughter of Djedefre and some high priest of Heliopolis. In any case the essential fact is that, Heliopolis recovers again its influence, and the kings of Dynasty V do not try to supplant to Ra, as Cheops did it, but now appear as their fervent followers, hereinafter: Ra, Hathor and King formed a divine triad. The confrontation existing from Shepseskaf, among the priests of Ra and those of Ptah, it was resolved in favor of Heliopolis, because the Memphite priests appear carrying a title like servants of Ra.
The solar cult acquire hegemony over other religions. The temple of Ra, who as creative consciousness, does not need a house as the other gods, because its liturgy is held outdoors, is really a large terrace with an altar, behind which stands a pyramid truncated from which emerges an obelisk.
During the V Dynasty, the kings donated lands from their own assets to the temples and with those, the priests come to enrich themselves, perhaps to ensure their loyalty, King Neferirkare also granted tax exemptions for the temples, a privilege that ultimately will cost expensive to the crown. The clergy will establish as a new social class, consisting of the hereditary nobility, the “Iry Pat”, the princes, the “Rekh nisut” , who are the relatives of the king, and the “Imakhu”, the faithful. Also the vizier, who is the most senior civil, will adquire the title of Iry Pat, which makes him comparable to the children of kings, I imagine that to support their absolutist policy, the kings of V dynasty were forced to make big concessions. A new type of worker appears, the “perpetual servants” who work in a regime of semi-slavery, although probably many of them, given the circumstances, live significantly better than many free men, as the small landowners outside the nobility, that could not compete with the princes and their amazing real perks.
To cover the enormous costs arising from the luxury of the Court, of the worship and the big constructions, was put in place a new administrative model.The forty-two prefectures (nomos) that make up the country, in administrative matters were reduced to two, the Upper and Lower Egypt, governed by two “directors”.Besides Upper Egypt was in turn split into two, Upper Egypt predominantly agricultural, and the “new towns” from the Middle Egypt, infested of merchants. At the same time, step by step, the nomos will be feudalise, with the approval or consent of the monarchy. Since the reign of Sahure specifically, the prefecture of Un (Hermopolis Magna) is given to the family of Serefenka in a hereditary way . Must see this fact perhaps, the distancing that had emerged between royalty and the common people and the need of the monarchy to be linked to an elite increasingly bulging, created at that purpose.
The solar theology , so closely linked to the royalty, will see decreasing its influence in the country proportionately to the decline of the control of the king, so that over time, the nomos will resurrect their own local cults to the detriment of the solar worship . Appear in that moment the famous “Texts of the Pyramids “, dating back to the Predynastic period, filling the walls of the pyramid of Unas, an archaic trend that reflects the social crisis that represents the boom of the aristocracy and oligarchy, in front of the fall of religion solar and the monarchy, indeed after the death of Unas, his successor Teti, founder of the VI dynasty, came to power thanks to the aristocracy and oligarchy. Really the priests, transformed into princes, will be those that now will govern effectively their nomos, in fact, during the reign of Pepi I, the”nomarch”of Un carries the title of Hatia, hitherto reserved for the vizier and viceroys of Nekhen. At the end of the reign of Pepi I, almost the entire Upper Egypt is in the hands of princes whose office is from hereditary nature and at the same time, they are the great priests of the local god.
The son of King Pepi I, Merenre despite his youth, aware of what was coming over, he tried to curb the power of the feudal princes, placing them under the magnifying glass of a man of his confidence, Uni, who will take the responsability of the justice which was had split into the High Justice (only for the noble), whose power still retained the king, and the Baja Justice, in the hands of the prince of nomos.
Merenre had still certain military power, thanks to the bands of nubians that the King Teti had brought in order to ensure a minimum enough, since the military staff used to be harvested in the nomos and the princes could be reluctant.
The control of income tax, the only economic resource of the king, so small because of the immunities of the temples, also was entrusted to Uni, obviously the king had no trust about the good willingness of the “nomarchs”. King Merenre dies in an unexpected way, fortunately(?)for the feudal princes, and is his brother Pepi II who accesses the crown with just five years old.During the ninety years of his reign, is consummated the collapse of the Ancient Empire. At the end of his reign the own King will do an attempt to regain power, declaring void all the tax immunities granted during the last two hundred years, but the damage in the economic and social situation was so serious and so ridiculous the influence of such decrees, which was forced to unsay.
Given the weakness and disruption of the royal army , the borders of the delta were perfectly transparents to the Eastern tribes who invaded the territory, and were installed around the cities, replacing in many cases to the local workforce. Groups of “Asiatics archers” looted the cities of the delta at intervals, until reaching the Upper Egypt, as a result of these permanent assaults, trade was paralyzed, the fields were abandoned and people had lost their jobs were revolted. Rural areas came to be highly insecure and in all cities including the capital itself, Memphis, was formed such uproar that would not leave puppet with head: the title deeds of the nobility disappeared, most of rich people were despoiled completely, with the support of the petty bourgeoisie and the staff of the civil service. During this period the aristocracy had to beg work to those who were their servants. Merenre II, after a year of his reign, will disappear dragged out by a mob of insurgents. The centralized monarchy finally succumbed in the North, where cities would prosper again now as independent bourgeois republics, while in the South, the feudal princes would fight for the sovereignty.
Now beginning a chaotic period which presents a confusing political landscape, actually known as the first interim period, during which three dynasties coexist simultaneously, in Memphis we have the VII dinasty of what Manetón says that, seventy kings reigned for seventy days, in the other hand, it is find the VIII dinasty with NeferKauhor Neteribau in Abidos, a mere puppet of the prince Shemai from Koptos and finally the IX dinasty with Meribre Kheti I,at Heracleopolis. Dynasty VIII disappears without trace after Demedjibtaui Uadjkare, the successor of Neferkauhor. The independent republics of the cities in the delta and the new towns of middle Egypt, accept the authority of the king Kheti once it reinforced the borders with the support of their own urban militias, but the feudal South rise their weapons against the X heracleopolitan dynasty. In its effort to regain control of the territory, Neferkare of Heracleopolis would push to his ally the prince Hetep of Hierakompolis (Nekhen) and then the son of this, Ankhtifi, to attack the prince Khui of Edfu, an ally of the prince Antef of Thebes. Ankhtifi obedient, resulted victorious and as new Prince of Edfu, then attacked Thebes, allying with the prince of Elephantine. While at beginning did not seem to have gone wrong, the war suffered a slowdown because of a widespread famine that struck the country, after which we do not know how, is the king of Thebes Antef who is presented as a founder of the dynasty XI, who face directly with Neferkare of Heracleopolis. Both Neferkare and Antef died the same year, 2120 before the current era.
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Tags: Ankhtifi, Merenre, Neferkauhor Neteribau, Pepi, Sahure, Serefenka, Shepseskaf, solar cult, Teti, text of Weni, texts of the pyramids, Unas, Uni, Userkaf
Travel impressions II
Intro.
The Pyramids are truly impressive, however we must make an effort to imagine how they were originally, now the monotonous color of the sand, does not give us no clue, neither the unforgivable sellers of souvenirs , nor camels, much less the absurd multicolor procession of tourists. Herodotus describes the land of Egypt during the four months of the flood, like a sea, where the cities were like islands. Assuan´s Dam ended with the endemic epidemics and crocodiles, but stole his magic to the Nile. The pyramids were part of a funerary quadrangular complex , designed as a city with buildings, streets and a canal that brought water from the Nile, so it is possible imagined that the whole should be adorned with gardens. Neither Herodotus nor Diodorus of Sicily made mention about the huge fourth pyramid, maybe because it was separated from the rest or perhaps because it had been already swallowed by the desert or maybe the Persian conquerors built the fortress that would give rise to Cairo with “the bowels of Atum-Ra”, “the elemental hill” that was erected by Djedefre, seven meters and a half larger than the Great Pyramid.
We would have only two hours to try to visualize all this while we trying to get rid of the, always inopportune, vendors of beetles and turbans , besides the omnipresent police, most of them inanimate except the few unfortunate ones they were responsible for the endless task of down to the people of the enormous stone steps, where people were climbed continuously to take pictures, and is that the portraits with the pyramid to the bottom do not provide a precise idea of the volume of such pile of stones.
The awesome Sphinx controls the access to the funerary complex of Gizah, despite of Herodotus never made mention of it, may be it was covered with sand, in the times of Tutmosis IV just the head was free of sand. On the one hand, official arqueologists accept the -7500 as the date of manufacture and the king Khefren as its author. However, a curious group of specialists (the Professor Hawass does not want to hear about them), basing on the observation of certain signs of erosion, apparently caused by the rain, they take back until the -12500 the date on which it was carved,when certainly still rain frequently there, what is not happens at present. they have provided indirect evidence of astronomical kind, to support by the moment their rickety theory, which link the alignment of the three pyramids with the alignment of the stars of Orion’s belt, and also claim that the Sphinx look at the East because it was where the constellation of the Lion appeared in -12500. Moreover there are eminent archaeologists who see the features of Kheops on the head and not those of Khefren, opinions for every taste.
II.
The called the Old Empire begins with Menes, or Narmer or Aha, or it may be that they were all the same person, the kings had the habit of having different names, one of Horus, one nisut-bity (king of the south and north), and a few more besides the grand honorary names.
There are lists of kings, as the papyrus of Turin, or what provide us Manetón, but archeology has shown that they are not very accurate, although it seems to be some consensus and for the beginning of the dynasty was accepted as the approximate date -5000. the I and II dynasties, used all its efforts on maintaining the cohesive of the two lands , but neither the feudal princes of the South nor the bourgeoisie of the cities of the North, put it easy. Initially the kings tried to keep the primal institutions in each region, in the vain attempt to maintain an image of normalcy, until in the reign of King KhaseKhemui, things get ugly. As he ventured on an expedition to Nubia, the feudal prince of Nubt, Peribsen, taking advantage of his absence, was made to proclaim king and Egypt was divided in two, one more time. The war that claimed tens of thousands dead, was won by KhaseKhemui, after which he proceeded to exclude the feudal princes from the political scene and controling the bourgeois through intendants real. Heliopolis remained a sacred city, but the monarchy will no longer require its approval, to legitimize his own power.
The institutions of both North and South were emptied of contents and filling the resulting skeleton administrative with people associate to the king. Over time administrative model of the North also ended up being used in the South.
Besides the solar cosmogony of Heliopolis which dates from the era of the kingdom of Buto, the Thot´s cosmogony survives in Hermopolis , somewhat different, more physical and perhaps more ancient, still influenced by the Asian cosmogony. Solar religion reveals that in the primordial chaos (Nun), although anything had been created yet, Atum, however, was already diluted on it , as the power of generating or the spirit of life, then after recognizing to itself , came to existence, for later, unfolding to itself , to give rise to the god Ra, the concience of Atum.
Atum-Ra created the air (Shu) and the fire (Tefnut) of whose union was born the god Earth (Geb) and the goddess of sky (Nut), parents of Osiris, Isis, Seth and Neftis, two couples who come to signify the principles of good and evil. Nine gods in total, the Ennead of Heliopolis clearly syncretistic is a real jumble that somehow summarizes the various stages through which society had to pass since its inception. Osiris besides of representative of the goodness assumes the role of creator of humanity and all life, also he is Nepri, god of grain, provider of new life, symbol of the resurrection although his main role is the king of beyond, in fact one of his epithets is “The first of the Westerners”. The myth of Osiris is very well known thanks to Plutarch, the legend of this god-man developed since the beginning of the Predynastic period, it seems clear that not only reflects the differences between gods, but also those of the ancient kingdoms of the north and south, also summarizes the close relations between Egypt and coast of Syria from the early times.
In Hermopolis, Thot, into the role of the god Atum, is surrounded by four couples of gods: Nunu and Nunet symbolizing the primal water, Kaku and Kaket, darkness, Hehu and Hehet, space, Niu and Niut, immobility, curiously the elements male and female are represented as frogs and snakes, respectively. The representation of the chaos that contains to Atum (Thot) is a swamp, from which arises a primal hill, on which there is an egg, from where arises the Sun. is a version with evolutionary dye, where things become each other, that differs from the version of Heliopolis, where Ra is the creative will. The idea of the supremacy of Ra was spreaded rapidly, primarily to replace the influence of Horus in the pantheon of gods, too tied to the still recent quarrels between the two lands, in addition, this philosophy was interesting to the royalty, more and more inclined towards absolutism, although however the Kings never left the cult of Horus.
During the III dynasty, was stablished a complex bureaucratic machine, the Civil Service is in itself a new power within the state, and the most senior bosses, over time will acquire the status previously held by the nobility. As for the priests of Heliopolis ended up being appointed directly by the king, may be the case of the legendary Imhotep, chief architect, chancellor (maximum office of the state) of the famous king Djeser and High Priest of Ra. They begin the era of the pyramids builders. By then it was began to use the cartridge (shenu) to contain the royal names.
All workers recruited by the state were free men, with all rights and obligations, only prisoners of war were considered slaves of the king, it seems that law and morality in this respect was very strict, it seems that we can affirm that during the Old Empire did not exist slavery in Egypt.
In Memphis which became a great religious center at the expense of Heliopolis, under the auspices of the monarchy, there was developed a new doctrine, consistent with the ambitions of royalty, in which, Ptah assumed the role of Atum-Ra in the diagram of the solar cosmogony and where in fact all the gods were aspects or avatars of Ptah, emanated from him. From trend monotheistic, shows a remarkable depth, handling concepts like the intelligence or discernment (sia) represented by Horus, the determination or decision (hu) symbolized by Thot, and where Ur (Atum) ancient god of the universe was the heart (the intelligence) and tongue ( the will) of Ptah. Memphite Theology permeated the thinking not only of Egyptians but of the presocratic greek philosophers, and through them to the modern world.
To Snefru, who inaugurated the Fourth dynasty are attributed the crooked pyramid from Dahchur (near from which, Huni had built, shortly before the end of the III Dynasty) and the tower of Meidum clearly influenced by Asian style. While Snefru King will be remembered as a person gentle and humane, his son Cheops (Chufu) go down in history as a tyrant and a despot if we have to believe to the Memphite priests, during his tenure there was a radical break between the clergy and the palace, reaching even to be closed the temples. At this point of absolutism, the royalty is divinized, the king is Ra incarnate, and by extension, the senior management, would become great priests: judges will be priests of Maat (justice), the head of administration will be high priest of Thot (the Law, the Act), etc.
Still is discussed the authorship of the great pyramid of Giza, due to the shortage of evidence that confirm it, only has been found a squalid cartridge painted on a place hidden inside the pyramid, containing the name of Cheops, only physical evidence if we do not take account the testimony of Herodotus, whose on the other hand Diodorus of Sicily contradicts. However, under excessive ego of Cheops, it is plausible to believe that he was the author of such a bunch of stones. The conflict with the clergy, was continued during the mandates of the sons of Cheops; Khefren (Khafra)and Djedefre, but it was relaxed with Hordjedef (who became a vegetarian and chaste, in a moment of lighting, then he wrote a “Sebayt“) and Baufre. Micerinos (Men Kaure) son of Khefren , returned to the pleasure of building pyramids, but his son Shepseskaf tried a revolution, abandoning the name of Ra, the cartridge, the pyramid and all you have to do with solar worship, maybe permeated by the Memphite philosophy, developing a policy of equality both in religious as well as the social, which earned him to be more hated by the upper classes that Cheops himself, though his memory among the most popular was near from the authentic devotion.
Bibl.: Jacques Pirenne, ” History of Ancient Egypt”.
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Tags: Dahchur, Imhotep, Meidum, Shepseskaf, Snefru
Travel Impressions
Intro.
The airport was no different from other airports, long corridors and empty , where no one stops, that lead to the hall of the mechanical gateways, where everyone expects to have no lost their luggage, but this time, before going out, we had to go through the control of passports . Within his cabin, the guard sealed passports with rythmic and repeated blows of tampon, he look us something frown, as if we were partly responsible for the tendinitis that undoubtedly he has to suffer in silence. Then suddenly he made to disappear our documentation behind a curtain that divides the cockpit, where, at least, two or three women dressed almost nuns-like, piled inside that cubicle, they made hardly some kind of testing before returning us, the passport and calm.Like almost everything man, with an identical mustache and haircut, the guide from our agency was waiting for us smiling, with a poster aloft, putting to us aside after a short greeting, as soon as we went out from the metal detector.
At night, travel by minibus to the hotel was a little shocking, move around the city at that time seemed like a really risky thing, an alluvion of vehicles, demanding the pass each other, playing repeatedly their horns, crowded the highways in all directions, while passers with children by the hand, they crossed indolently among the traffic, apparently risking their lifes. I did not see any traffic light, it appeared that there were none, not seemed to be necessary, there was no evidence of anxiety on the faces of those involved, nor I saw any accident , it was surprisingly the normality.
The microbus stopped at a barrier at fifty meters from the hotel entrance, then a soldier with a trained dog was lifted from a kitchen´s chair, and a little bored, they walk around the vehicle, the guide told us,in jocular tone, that they only were seeking bombs. Soon after, we had to cross under the strict supervision of a police officer, a scanner at the entrance to the hotel, I remembered that phrase that the Doctor of Health Abroad said, a few days before , “do not worry, it’s a very peaceful country.” We just leave from the scanner, when in the center of the reception, an elegant circular great room with large windows giving the river, suddenly, we meet to a woman, singing a soft classical melody while she was playing piano at the same time, something which I found disconcerting given the circumstances. I realized that I was an “happy angel” when I paid 30 euros for a visa, to enter the country, on which it had printed that it cost $ 15.
The hotel was splendid, sited in the heart of the city, nestled at the tip of an island in the middle of the river, from what it takes its name. We could sleep there only one night. We breathe, literally, when finally climbed into the room, so tired, after nine hours between shipments, waiting at airports, flights, we just would have four or five hours to rest before starting the next day’s excursion. Until then, everything had been pure routine, but in reality and despite everything, we felt that it had gone quite well. The hotel terrace offered a breathtaking view of the city, the circulatory frenzy seemed to have waned somewhat at this hour, I spent a few minutes away out there, but what kept me there was not the pretty reflection of the lights in the water, it was to know that behind the mist night, behind the lights of the city, within walking distance, on the outskirts, from several thousand years ago, what so far only had been the subject of many hours of reading.
I.
Within the triangle formed by the ancient cities of Iunu (Heliopolis), Jem (Letopolis) and Men nefer (Memphis), it is deploying on the bisector from the vertex of Heliópolis to the incenter, Cairo (Al Qahira Masra, too) is also the point from which it opens up the arms of the Nile delta.
Letopolis acquired dominance, with the approval of the holy city of Heliopolis, after the Coalition Osiríaca of Busiris in Lower Egypt, was defeated by the coalition of Nubt from Upper Egypt, in favor of Seth. Great changes occurred at this time, in the form of government of Lower Egypt and eventually into people’s lives, from the times of the social revolution of Anedjti in Busiris, where the kings were elected by the assembly, before the reign Osiris’s own (yes, earlier) who died at 28 years of his mandate during a battle against the South, until the establishment of hereditary monarchy during the regency of Horus in Letópolis. Changes that did not like in the coalition and caused the sedition of Hermópolis (Per Djehuti) and Sais, and that only forged with the definitive establishment of monarchy of Horus (in the style of Letópolis) in Buto, we do not know how. We know that the reason for the discord was Abydos, Busiris´s colony in Upper Egypt, it was founded by Anedjti to support the expeditions in search of gold. Over time most of the economically strong cities in the delta, founded colonies in Middle Egypt, mainly to protect the traffic of their goods. The war was inevitable and the victory of the coalition under the mandate of Buto against the feudal lords of the South in Edfu, if did not result in the annexation of Upper Egypt, meant the destruction of feudal power. Violent social movements in Upper Egypt rose to Min (god of agriculture at the Osiris style ) to the rank of official religion at the expense of Seth, begining in Ipu (Panopolis), where someone outside the nobility, came to power by a similar process which led to Anedjti in Busiris to wrest control of the upper classes and with the probable support of Buto spread their revolution to Gebti (Koptos), which was important for its connection to the Wadi Hammamat, the route of the caravans to the Red Sea, from there the revolt is extended to all cities in the South, which all of them systematically adopted the new cult of Min, a situation that led to the advent of the monarchy in Nekhen (Hierakompolis) Two states, Nekhen and Buto, a single religion, but did not last long, The absolute power of Buto soon became unbearable for most of the nomos of Lower Egypt that eventually split off, moment that Asian tribes took advantage to invade the territory. The prints from the handle of the knife of Gebel el-Arak seem to see these events. The Hierakompolis monarchy moved his capital downriver, to Abydos (Tinis), ready to face the situation.During this period, was born the first dynasty unified the two lands, monarchy of the south, from its new capital at Abydos took control, struggling with the Asians, and conquering at the same time the delta´s lands. in the Narmer´s palette, you can see the ten decapitated bodies of the magistrates of Metelis (Hermopolis mikra), the city that led the last resistance after that Buto was dismantled. The kings of the south were the first to use the two crowns, the bee of Sais and Buto, with the cane of Nekhen, hieroglyphic symbols of the kings of Upper and Lower Egypt. All these facts are prior to the year -5000, and contemporary with social phenomena that marked the end of the Uruk´s age in Mesopotamia, prior to the establishment of what has been called the Archaic Period dynastic.
References: “History of Ancient Egypt”, Jacques Pirenne.
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Tags: Anedjti, Buto, Gebel-el-Arak, Heliopolis, Hermopolis, Horus, Letopolis, Men nefer, Metelis, Msr, Narmer, Osiris, Uruk
Ethic vs. Capital
French Revolution, after the American independence war, was the climax of a situation of widespread social unrest throughout the Western world in the late eighteenth century. The obvious counter-revolutionary aristocracy opposed a fierce resistance, so the process became a bitter conflict. Concepts such as the political left and right, were born to the world at that time, directly from the French National Assembly. The bourgeoisie, with the invaluable support of the masses, after a decade of revolutionary government, full of intrigues and nonsense, was released from the blood´s rights of kings, the feudal aristocracy and the privileges of the clergy, however, were excluded from his project to the farmers and workers, those who had largely the merit of the success of the revolution, inter alia they argued that only those who have something, they can value it and thus preserve and defend it (?), putting in that way, end once and for all to the democratic sense of the revolution. The Wiki-biographies of Babeuf and Fouché, illustrate suitably this fraud.. (To Fouché is attributed the fatherhood of the phrase “Every man has his price, only it needs to find it out, however he had to send it to Babeuf to the guillotine, could he not determine what was his price?).
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babeuf
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joseph_Fouch% C3% A9
In a short space of time, since the early nineteenth century, the triumphant bourgeoisie was split; the banking sector, the big landlords and magnates of the stock exchange, they assumed the role of the old nobility, emerging as genuine financial aristocracy, detrimental the industrial bourgeoisie, subject to the first, and the petty bourgeoisie, the middle class across the breadth of its social spectrum.
From then until today, the banking sector has the “tablets of destinies” (1), and the example they are giving is regrettable to say the least.
This financial elite, oligarchy in the purest state, is responsible for countless environmental atrocities and anonymous genocides to get economic gain, by too long time. Of course that as a pressure group par excellence,they can afford, among other things, pass the ethic below the triumph arc, there’s the scandal of the AIG in the U.S. , the last to date.
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5gtj03MvkIBjnxibte_d_mH4qMJlQ
http://es.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_International_Group
Man is a creature in certain respects fragile and extremely weak compared to the temptations, and also often confuses easily the success in life, with the economic prosperity and social. Gives the impression that money dehumanizes people, but money is one thing, is not guilty of anything, what really unworthy us of this, is the attitude of some people, it is not economic inequality, is the exploitation of man by man, as a system to hold it.
This outrage which represents the bad distribution of wealth, was in the past more clear than now, the power is in the depths of the dazed sea of the middle class. Today, in the welter of the excessive cities, is very dificult to distinguish by appearance, for his way of thinking or the car you can drive, to the owner of a multinational from a plumber, but this is not really more than one mirage subtly developed for this purpose.
This is why an Islamic fundamentalist does not distinguish between a subway wagon full of ordinary workers, and the luxury cottage property of the multimillionaire president of a football club.
Hinduism holds, whoever allows himself be trapped by the material things, does not escape the wheel of births, which is the worst that can happen to one, the rest religions also rant about selfishness, greed or usury (often in a display of hypocrisy of the worst class), but it is a shame that the burglars, I mean to the magnates,(a wordplay a bit stupid is possible in castilian, but not in English => “magnate” means rich man, “mangante” = burglar) this sort of threats do not impress them at all.
Do with them what was done with the nobility in their day, would stay a little out of place at the moment, those who really have reason to end the present “old regime” are too far and they have no means. I do not speak of the Arab world, although they are victims sufficiently and with means enough, unfortunately they also are too guilty, to lead morally to those excluded from the first world. We’ll see already.
“Doesn´t it happiest who has got more, but who needs less.” I don´t know the source, I like this old saying because it sounds very secular and it can be extrapolated to other meaning levels of the strictly personal. At the corporate level “It is not better the company that has got more assets, but one which does not need subsidies”, even dare I say “It is not better the company that has got more employees, but which requires less” (I am a technocrat, I love science and technology), “It is not better a city because has more hospitals (more police, fire, aldermen, traffic, tourists, etc.)but which requires less”, or “No is the best organization that which has more rules or laws,
but which requires less”, gives food for thought.
Finally I wonder how long the equatorial forests hold, to the pace of logging companies and landowners. The desert is advancing. It Comes to my head a movie where some aliens fairly repulsives, disguised as humans, after infiltrating the political and economic elite, they tried to adapt the earth´s climate , too wet for their vital needs , by forcing desertification. Although their behavior is not very different from those of fiction, I sincerely hope that the influential people, are real human beings and they have grandchildren, to worry about.
We need a new revolution, mankind needs a different society of today, a project in which it trusts, a better model.
(1). In Sumerian mythology “slats of destinations” represent the power, then, just in the hands of the gods.
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Currently, the enigma of the origin of human language is in the hands of paleontologists and archaeologists, linguists have enough task with the invention of the syncretic Indo-european, a myth depending who we listen.
The position of the larynx in humans does not allow us to drink and breathe through our nose at once, which can make the rest of mammals without any difficulty, a disadvantage which also multiplies the possibilities of our phonic apparatus , which puts it directly below the spotlight of investigators, but as neither cartilage nor ligaments nor muscles fossilized, they were forced to point to another part of our morphology, specifically some features of the skull base can provide information about the position of the larynx. Unfortunately due to the scarcity of fossil remains, it is not possible to say whether or not Neanderthals had language (which if so would open the door to speculation about which words we could have assimilated from them) but at least it has been found that the phonetic capabilities of Australopithecus were not higher than those of chimpanzees.
This does not mean that we are the only species that has the ability to verbally communicate with their fellows, leaving aside the still hypothetical language of some aquatic mammals, monkeys are able to give voice alert in front of the presence of a predator using different voices for each of the possible threats and we know that this is so, for the reactions induced in the group: to pay attention to the soil if it is a snake, or up in the case of the eagle, etc. . Moreover, a bonobo named Kanzi understands about a hundred and fifty words of English spoken. However, no primate other than ours, has a deliberately coded language because they lack a suitable phonic apparatus and as the authors of the “chosen species” say: cannot be composed any music for instruments that do not exist, Although it has been shown that chimpanzees and gorillas are capable of learning the language of the deaf and express ideas in this way, in their natural environment they have never felt the need to establish a comprehensive code of gestures, therefore it seems that it is necessary further neurological processes in order to produce it.
We are so accustomed to using words when we express ourselves or when we reflect that we do not realize the importance of language, how far we are from the existence by dint of sensations, pure vital impetus, as the animals and football fans. Faced with the stark natural selection of Darwin, the language represents an effort to bring together the individuals and is the first tool that allows us to list, classify and order, ultimately to analyse, that it is the basis of scientific knowledge and therefore of human progress.
The mystery is served, the debate about the origin of language continues, while the evolutionists are convinced that it was simply the result of evolutionary process and strives to find the evidence, creationists insist on the supernatural intervention, briefly documented through different cultures and sources.
http://www.ucm.es/info/especulo/numero9/atapuerc.html (Spanish)
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