THE FIRST BATTLE

 

I might call Thutmose III a mummy’s boy. His official mother was his aunt, Hatshepsut (above), the second female Pharaoh (who we can be certain of).  She had been the Great Royal God Wife of Thutmose II until he died in 1479 B.C. E.  Thutmose III’s actual father was also Hatshepsut’s own half brother - Egyptian royal family trees tend to lean heavily on inbreeding. 

                

Hatshepsut ran the two Kingdoms of Upper and Lower Egypt (above) for twenty years as Pharaoh, while Thutmose III remained the Pharaoh-in-waiting, since his actual birth mother,  Iset,  had been a "lesser" wife.  And it seems likely Hatshepsut had been pretty distracted in her latter years.

Examination of her mummy (above) in the Cairo museum reveals that besides menopause (she was in her mid-fifties when she died) Hatshepsut suffered from arthritis, diabetes, liver and bone cancer, and really bad teeth. Of course most Egyptians had bad teeth, a by-product of chewing sand in every mouth full of food. 

And what finally put Hatshepsut in her Luxor Temple, on 10 March, 1459 B.C., was blood poisoning caused by an abscess in her gums. And then, finally, after all those years playing second fiddle to his aunt,  Thutmose, the new Pharaoh, a powerful young man with a strain of Nubian blood in his veins, felt the need to reassert Egypt's authority on his northern border. And quickly. 

Within days of ascending to the Throne of Horus, the 22  year old Thutmose III (above) ordered an  army to gather troops and supplies by the last week of August 1458 B.C, at the border fortress of Tjaru in the Nile Delta. 

The immediate threat facing Thutmose was the minor city state of Megiddo, which was flexing it's muscle. Now, this small city, was not a real military threat to the great Egyptian empire. But the crises of Megiddo was a matter of tenderness.  

The northwest border of Egypt was officially drawn where the coastal road crossed the Gaza Wadi. But  beyond that usually dry stream bed were the hills which formed the east bank of the river Jordan. And in those bare and barren hills were the copper mines of southern Canaan.

Stone age pottery kilns could produce temperatures above 1,000 degrees Celsius, which could melt copper.  And when naturally or artificially contaminated with tin or arsenic, copper made bronze.  And bronze tools had many advantages over stone. They were lighter. They held a point and an edge longer. They are easier to shape, easier to sharpen, they are durable and should they break, they can be heated until they softened, and then reformed. Or,  melted and cast into an entirely new tool. 

The Bronze Age had begun about 1,000 years before Thutmose became Pharaoh, and although copper was a relatively rare metal, it was heavily mined along the southern end of the narrow strip of arable land which connects Africa to Eurasia, called the Levantine Corridor,  Egypt had dominated the Levantine since about 1500 B.C.E., but had given up annexing the region because of resistance from the local Semitic population, called the Canaanites. It was the Canaanites who mined the copper and sold bronze to the Egyptians. But they also sold bronze to the kingdom of Mittani, at the northern end of the Levantine Corridor.

Mittani's (above) capital was the city of Aleppo, one of the oldest continuously occupied cities in the world. And Mittani was on the rise, having recently defeated the ancient power of Babylon. King Barattarna of Mittani had made a treaty with Meggido as a challenge to the Egyptians.  He supplied Meggido with bronze chain mail and hundreds of three man chariots. It seemed a low risk strategy as long as  Hatshepsut was sick.  After her death, Thutmose III decided to attend to his  wayward Canaanites, and ordered Meggido to surrender the Mittani chariots.  When they refused, Thutmose moved to reassert Egypt's authority.

There was a delay in gathering the army, and Thutmose did not leave Tjaru until February of 1457 B.C. His Egyptian army was mostly infantry, perhaps 10,000 men, divided into platoons of six to ten men each, consisting of a mix of bowmen and lancers. 

The smaller mobile force of two-horse chariots were not built for long distance travel, and on the march the chariots had to be light enough for each to be carried by their shield men. On this march across the Sinai (the Red Deseret) skirmishers advanced to the front while raiding parties ranged along the flanks, gathering sheep, goats, grain and water for each night’s camp. Behind came the baggage train of ox carts carrying supplies, repair tents and blacksmiths, soothsayers, priests and musicians.

These people were used to walking, and never rode on horseback, so the army did not reach the Philistine fortress of Gaza (“The key to Syria”) until mid-March.  After another 11 days marching up the coastal plain Thutmose’s army entered the port of Jamnia, near present day Tel Aviv. Here they rested while scouts brought word that the Meggido army was awaiting him on the Plain of Esdraelon, in front of the hill fortress of Megiddo. So in early May, with his communications back to Egypt secured by his navy, Thutmose swung inland, toward the small village of Yaham.

In front of Thutmose now rose a line of low hills, stretching from the northwest (Mt. Carmel at 1,740 feet) to the southeast (Mts Tabor & Gilboa, 1,929 feet). Megiddo and the Canaanite army were on the northern flank of these hills, and his generals told Thutmose there were two possible routes to attack Megiddo. 

The most direct route headed due north from Yaham and then turned northwestward on the Via Maris (sea route) to the village of Taanach, before reaching Megiddo. The longer path headed northwest from Yaham along the flank of the mountains before crossing the hills to reach the valley at the village of Yokneam. From there it was an easy backtrack southeastward to Megiddo. 

The Canaanite army had divided their infantry, with almost half guarding Taanach and the other half Yokneam. Stationed at Megiddo (in the center) were the Canaanite chariots with some infantry support, ready to fall upon either approach the Egyptians made.

However there was also a third choice. On the road north toward Yokneam there was a cutoff, a path less traveled, which  ran through the village of Aruna (above, center) and then through a narrow defile, the Musmus Pass, so tight that the army could pass through only single file, before debauching onto the valley directly in front of Megiddo. It was the most direct route, but Thutmose’s men would arrive piecemeal, where they could be destroyed “in detail”, one unit or even one man at a time. But this route also offered the opportunity of surprise. 

It seems that Thanuny feinted toward the two main roads, using perhaps two thirds of the army. But before dawn Thutmose lead his spear and shield men through the pass, single file; perhaps 3,000 men in all. They stepped out of the pass it was about 1:00 p.m., 9 May , 1457 B.C. 

The Canaanite's new chariot were surprised by the Egyptian's sudden appearance, hastily charged at the Egyptian spearmen, and let loose a barrage of arrows. But defended by their shield men, the Egyptian infantry stood firm. And then, the Egyptian ranks opened, and from the defile appeared Egyptian chariots, carried through the pass and reassembled, Like a unanticipated whirlwind they fell upon the fewer Canaanite chariots.

“Even when moving at a slow pace, …(the Egyptian war chariot) shook terribly, and when driven at full speed it was only by a miracle of skill that the occupants could maintain their equilibrium…the charioteer would stand astride the front panels, keeping his right foot only inside the vehicle…the reins tied around his body so he could by throwing his weight either to the right or left…pull up or start his horses by a simple movement of the loins…he went into battle with bent bow, the string drawn back to his ear…while the shield-bearer, clinging to the body of the chariot with one hand, held out his buckler with the other to shelter his comrade.” (History of Egypt Chakdea, etc. G. Maspero. Groilier Society) 

The Canaanites panicked at the sudden Egyptian charge, and their causalities tell the story; just 83 killed, but 240 taken prisoner and 924 chariots and 2,132 horses captured. 

The Canaanite infantry on the wings, now divided by the Egyptian chariots in the center, abandoned Megiddo and scattered in retreat. 

And although the fortress held out for seven months before finally surrendering, from the moment Thutmose III reached the valley  he had ensured his capture of the hill fort of Megiddo, or, in the Canaanite language, Armageddon. And thus ended the first battle recorded in detail in history.

No one came to Meggido's rescue (above). All of northern Canaan and many Syrian princes as well now sent Thutmose III tribute, and even their sons to serves as hostages, all to avoid an Egyptian invasion.

This was just the first of 17 campaigns for Thutmose III. The following year he conquered Mittani, even crossing the Eurphates River.  Now the Assyrians, the Babylonians and Hittite Kings sent him tribute. During his entire fifty-three year reign, Thutmose III captured 350 cities, subjected many peoples, and dominated the middle east from the Euphrates River to the fourth cataract of the Nile. Under his reign, the Egyptian Empire reached it's greatest expanse. He rebuilt much of Karnak, along with 50 other temples up and down the Nile.  

Thutmose III  (above) died in the 54th year of his reign, some 3,500 years ago. He was entombed at Luxor (below).  He is remembered, for good reason, as "The Napoleon of Egypt".

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QUEEN OF DENIAL Chapter Four

  

I know that the Pharaoh of Egypt, Akhenaten, AKA Amenhotep IV (above), died around 1336 B.C.E., at about 50 years of age, in the 17^th year of his reign, possibly of a heart attack. It is hard to speak with certainty after 4, 000 years, and until 2010 the only evidence we had were faint hints carved on the walls of ancient monuments and tombs. 

But using DNA, his mummy (above)  has been identified with a “distinctive, egg-shaped skull, slight spinal scoliosis, impacted wisdom teeth... (and a) cleft palate”.  Combined, these physical characteristics hint at Homocystinuria, an inherited disorder which also often produces glaucoma, which blinds its sufferers. This is what comes from mating with your siblings, as the gene causing this disorder is recessive and develops only when you inherit two copies. But intermarriage was something the Ancient Egyptian nobility often did, keeping the crown and their property, among other things,  in the family. 

If Akhenaten's son had been his co-ruler, then the boy's mother would have been the regent, ruling the nation until the new Pharaoh grew.  But his son (by a “lesser” wife) was not the co-ruler,  Nefertiti was. So on the death of the King, the Queen became the Pharaoh, playing her new role under the name Smenkhkare and/or Neferneferuaten.  She was even depicted in the very un-Queenly activity of wielding a killing mallet (above), dispatching prisoners under the rays of Aten, as her husband had been. This had happened before, when the queen Hatsheput had put on a fake beard and governed for 22 years.  But Hatsheput's Egypt had been unified, while Nefertiti's was a land divided by religion.

Three of her daughters were dead, killed by a plague which  had ravaged Egypt for three years. The followers of Amun Ra saw this as divine punishment for the Aten heresy.  But Nefertiti had been devoted to her husband, and was determined to protect his legacy, their family and their faith.  Her problem was she had few allies inside Egypt.  So she appealed to the only other power strong enough to resist the nobility and the priests, Egypt's mortal enemies; the Hittites.

The only copy we have of the this extraordinary appeal appears in the history compiled by the Hittite King Mursili II. He says the Egyptian Queen dispatched an ambassador to his father, King Suppiluliuma I, with the following plea. “My husband is dead and I have no son. People say that you have many grown sons. If you send me one of your sons he will become my husband for it is repugnant to me to take one of my subjects as a husband.”  The letter did not suggest the Hittite Prince would, in time, become a Pharaoh, but the offer was unique. It would have been as if, an American President had offered to appoint a Russian as Vice President.  And that could never happen, could it?   The ruling Hittite Council were  suspicious and sent their Chamberlain,  Hattu-Zittish , to see of it was a trap.

Neffertiti's response to this envoy was almost frantic. “Why do you say 'They are trying to deceive me?' If I had a son, should I write to a foreign country in a manner humiliating to me and to my country? You do not believe me and you even say so to me!...I have written to no other country, I have written to you. They say that you have many sons. Give me one of your sons and he will be my husband and lord of the land of Egypt.” There it was, the offer to make a Hittite prince the King of Egypt. And that clinched the deal. Mursili II records, “Because my father was generous, he granted the lady's request and decided to send his son.” What a nice guy.

However, the transaction was never consummated. Shortly after arriving on Egyptian soil the Hittite Prince, Zannanza, was murdered.  Suppililiuma I demanded an explanation. “What have you done with my son?...the blood spilled between us is not right.” But the new Egyptian King gave no explanation. It appears a counter revolution had occurred in Egypt.

During the counter revolution, Nefertiti, Queen of the Nile, Lady of Grace, She Who Comes With Beauty, Great King's Wife, His Beloved, Lady of All Women, Mistress of Upper and Lower Egypt, Pharaoh of Egypt, simply disappeared. Her tomb was never occupied. Her mummy, if she ever had one, has never been found. Her name was scratched off almost all of the temples and her legend was systematically smashed. It appears they even broke into the workshop of Thutmose the Royal Sculptor, to smash and destroy all images of this woman. After even the bricks from the walls of Aketaten were scavenged, the broken images of Nefertiti were left behind, to be swallowed by the desert sands.

Her death was just the beginning. Nefertiti's record as a ruler was wiped clean, almost impossible to reconstruct. Some Egyptologists are still arguing about whether she had died years before her husband.  But she did not. The effort to abolish her memory seems too complete to have been merely punishment for a despot. Even a Stalin is remembered with reverence by some. But Queen Nefertiti, Pharaoh Neferneferuaten, seems to have committed a crime far worse than mere tyranny. She was a traitor, to the faith of her people, to the land of her people, to her role which was to produce sons for her King and nothing more.

The casket of Akhenaten, the Pharaoh who betrayed the faith, was defaced (above). But it was also persevered, probably by his son, the boy King Tutankhamen .Some of the grave goods prepared for Nefertit's tomb were re-gifted and found in Tutankhamen tomb instead. But the woman Akhenaten loved more than any other, received no casket. She received no monument.  Her memory was scratched off, discarded, condemning her to three thousand years of silent death.

And then, out of the darkness of seemingly endless time came a wonk, a German nerd, a Teutonic bookworm, to rescue Nefertiti from obscurity. And for this he was branded a thief.

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THE FIRST BATTLE

 

I might call Thutmose III a mummy’s boy. His official mother was his aunt, Hatshepsut (above), the second female Pharaoh (who we can be certain of).  She had been the Great Royal God Wife of Thutmose II until he died in 1479 B.C. E.  Thutmose III’s actual father was also Hatshepsut’s own half brother - Egyptian royal family trees tend to lean heavily on inbreeding. 

                

Hatshepsut ran the two Kingdoms of Upper and Lower Egypt (above) for twenty years as Pharaoh, while Thutmose III remained the Pharaoh-in-waiting, since his actual birth mother,  Iset,  had been a "lesser" wife.  And it seems likely Hatshepsut had been pretty distracted in her latter years.

Examination of her mummy (above) in the Cairo museum reveals that besides menopause (she was in her mid-fifties when she died) Hatshepsut suffered from arthritis, diabetes, liver and bone cancer, and really bad teeth. Of course most Egyptians had bad teeth, a by-product of chewing sand in every mouth full of food. 

And what finally put Hatshepsut in her Luxor Temple, on 10 March, 1459 B.C., was blood poisoning caused by an abscess in her gums. And then, finally, after all those years playing second fiddle to his aunt,  Thutmose, a powerful young man with a strong strain of Nubian blood in his veins, felt the need to reassert Egypt's authority on his northern border. And quickly. 

Within days of ascending to the Throne of Horus, the 22  year old Thutmose III (above) ordered an  army to gather troops and supplies by the last week of August 1458 B.C, at the border fortress of Tjaru in the Nile Delta. 

The immediate threat facing Thutmose was the minor city state of Megiddo, which was flexing it's muscle. Now, this small city, 200 miles northeast of Tjaru,  was not a real military threat to the great Egyptian empire. But the crises of Megiddo was a matter of tenderness.  

The northwest border of Egypt was officially drawn where the coastal road crossed the Gaza Wadi. But  beyond that usually dry stream bed were the hills which formed the east bank of the river Jordan. And in those bare and barren hills were the copper mines of southern Canaan.

See, stone age pottery kilns were just able to produce temperatures above 1,000 degrees Celsius, which could melt copper.  And when naturally or artificially contaminated with tin or arsenic, copper made bronze.  And bronze tools had many advantages over stone. They were lighter. They held a point and an edge longer. They are easier to shape, easier to sharpen, they are durable and should they break, they can be heated until they softened, and then reformed. Or,  melted and cast into an entirely new tool. 

The Bronze Age had begun about 1,000 years before Thutmose became Pharaoh, and although copper was a relatively rare metal, it was heavily mined along the southern end of the narrow strip of arable land which connects Africa to Eurasia, called the Levantine Corridor,  Egypt had dominated the Levantine since about 1500 B.C.E., but had given up annexing the region because of resistance from the local Semitic population, called the Canaanites. It was the Canaanites who mined the copper and sold bronze to the Egyptians. But they also sold some bronze to the kingdom of Mittani, 350 miles north of Megiddo, at the northern end of the Levantine Corridor.

Mittani's (above) capital along the Queiq river, was the city of Aleppo, one of the oldest  continuously occupied cities in the world. And Mittani was on the rise, having recently defeated the ancient power of Babylon. King Barattarna of Mittani had made a treaty with Meggido as a tentative first challenge to the Egyptians.  He supplied them with bronze chain mail and a few three man chariots. It seemed a low risk strategy as long as  Hatshepsut was sick.  After her death, Thutmose III decided to attend to his  wayward Canaanites.

There was a delay in gathering the army, and Thutmose did not leave Tjaru until February of 1457 B.C. His Egyptian army was mostly infantry, perhaps 10,000 men, divided into platoons of six to ten men each, consisting of a mix of bowmen and lancers. 

The smaller mobile force of two-horse chariots were not built for long distance travel, and on the march the chariots had to be light enough for each to be carried by their shield men. On this march across the Sinai (the Red Deseret) skirmishers advanced to the front while raiding parties ranged along the flanks, gathering sheep, goats, grain and water for each night’s camp. Behind came the baggage train of ox carts carrying supplies, repair tents and blacksmiths, soothsayers, priests and musicians.

These people were used to walking, and never rode on horseback, so the army did not reach the Philistine fortress of Gaza (“The key to Syria”) until mid-March.  After another 11 days marching up the coastal plain Thutmose’s army entered the port of Jamnia, near present day Tel Aviv. Here they rested while scouts brought word that the Meggido army was awaiting him on the Plain of Esdraelon, in front of the hill fortress of Megiddo. So in early May, with his communications back to Egypt secured by his navy, Thutmose swung inland, toward the small village of Yaham.

In front of Thutmose now rose a line of low hills, stretching from the northwest (Mt. Carmel at 1,740 feet) to the southeast (Mts Tabor & Gilboa, 1,929 feet). Megiddo and the Canaanite army were on the northern flank of these hills, and his generals told Thutmose there were two possible routes to attack Megiddo. 

The most direct route headed due north from Yaham and then turned northwestward on the Via Maris (sea route) to the village of Taanach, before reaching Megiddo. The longer path headed northwest from Yaham along the flank of the mountains before crossing the hills to reach the valley at the village of Yokneam. From there it was an easy backtrack southeastward to Megiddo. 

The Canaanite army had divided their infantry, with almost half guarding Taanach and the other half Yokneam. Stationed at Megiddo (in the center) were the Canaanite chariots with some infantry support, ready to fall upon either approach the Egyptians made.

However there was also a third choice. On the road north toward Yokneam there was a cutoff, a path less traveled, which  ran through the village of Aruna (above, center) and then through a narrow defile, the Musmus Pass, so tight that the army could pass through only single file, before debauching onto the valley directly in front of Megiddo. It was the most direct route, but Thutmose’s men would arrive piecemeal, where they could be destroyed “in detail”, one unit or even one man at a time. But this route also offered the opportunity of surprise. 

It seems that Thanuny feinted toward the two main roads, using perhaps two thirds of the army. But before dawn Thutmose lead his spear and shield men through the pass, single file; perhaps 3,000 men in all. When they stepped out of the pass it was about 1:00 p.m., 9 May , 1457 B.C. 

The Canaanite chariots, surprised by their enemies sudden appearance, hastily charged at the Egyptian spearmen, and let loose a barrage of arrows. But defended by their shield men, the Egyptian formations stood firm. And then, as the Canaanites withdrew to reform and attack again, the Egyptian ranks opened up and from the defile appeared Egyptian chariots, carried through the pass and reassembled, Like a whirlwind they fell upon the fewer Canaanite chariots.

“Even when moving at a slow pace, …(the Egyptian war chariot) shook terribly, and when driven at full speed it was only by a miracle of skill that the occupants could maintain their equilibrium…the charioteer would stand astride the front panels, keeping his right foot only inside the vehicle…the reins tied around his body so he could by throwing his weight either to the right or left…pull up or start his horses by a simple movement of the loins…he went into battle with bent bow, the string drawn back to his ear…while the shield-bearer, clinging to the body of the chariot with one hand, held out his buckler with the other to shelter his comrade.” (History of Egypt Chakdea, etc. G. Maspero. Groilier Society) 

The Canaanites panicked at the sudden Egyptian charge, and their causalities tell the story; just 83 killed, but 240 taken prisoner and 924 chariots and 2,132 horses captured. 

The Canaanite infantry on the wings, now divided by the Egyptian chariots in the center, abandoned Megiddo and scattered in retreat. 

And although the fortress held out for seven months before finally surrendering, from the moment Thutmose III reached the valley  he had ensured his capture of the hill fort of Megiddo, or, in the Canaanite language, Armageddon. And thus ended the first battle recorded in detail in history.

No one came to Meggido's rescue (above). The surrounding Canaanite cities were not likely to rush now to defend their defeated fellow Philistines.  All of northern Canaan and many Syrian princes now sent Thutmose III tribute, and even their sons to serves as hostages,

But this was just the first of 17 campaigns for Thutmose III. The following year he finished his conquest of Mittani, even crossing the Eurphates River.  Now the Assyrians, the Babylonians and Hittite Kings sent him tribute. During his entire fifty-three year reign, Thutmose III captured 350 cities, subjected many peoples, and dominated the middle east from the Euphrates River to the fourth cataract of the Nile. Under his reign, the Egyptian Empire reached it's greatest expanse. He rebuilt much of Karnak, along with 50 other temples up and down the Nile.  

Thutmose III  (above) died in the 54th year of his reign, some 3,500 years before today. He was entombed at Luxor (below).  He is remembered, for good reason, as "The Napoleon of Egypt".

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