At Thutmose II’s death his queen and
sister, Hatshepsut, had only a young daughter; but a minor
wife had borne him a boy, who was apparently very young at his accession. This
son, Thutmose
III (ruled
1479–26 BCE), later reconquered Egypt’s Asian empire and became an outstanding ruler.
During his first few regnal years, Thutmose III theoretically controlled the
land, but Hatshepsut governed as regent.
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Sometime between Thutmose III’s second and
seventh regnal years, she assumed the kingship herself. According to one
version of the event, the oracle of Amon proclaimed her king at Karnak,
where she was crowned. A more propagandistic account, preserved in texts and
reliefs of her splendid mortuary temple at Dayr
al-Baḥrī, ignores the reign of Thutmose II and asserts that her
father, Thutmose I, proclaimed her his successor.
Upon becoming king, Hatshepsut became the dominant
partner in a joint rule that lasted until her death in about 1458 BCE;
there are monuments dedicated by Hatshepsut that depict both kings. She had the
support of various powerful personalities; the most notable among them was
Senenmut, the steward and tutor of her daughter Neferure.
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In styling herself king, Hatshepsut
adopted the royal titulary but avoided the epithet “mighty bull,” regularly
employed by other kings. Although in her reliefs she was depicted as a male,
pronominal references in the texts usually reflect her womanhood. Similarly,
much of her statuary shows her in male form, but there are rarer examples that
render her as a woman. In less formal documents she was referred to as “King’s
Great Wife”—that is, “Queen”—while Thutmose III was “King.” There is thus a
certain ambiguity in the treatment of Hatshepsut as
king.
Her temple reliefs depict pacific enterprises,
such as the transporting of obelisks for Amon’s temple and a commercial
expedition to Punt; her art style looked back to Middle Kingdom ideals. Some
warlike scenes are depicted, however, and she may have waged a campaign
in Nubia. In one inscription she blamed the Hyksos
for the supposedly poor state of the land before her rule, even though they had
been expelled from the region more than a generation earlier.
Thutmose III proceeded to Gaza with his
army and then to Yehem, subjugating rebellious Palestinian towns along the way.
His annals relate how, at a consultation concerning the best route over the
Mount Carmel ridge, the king overruled his officers and selected a shorter but
more dangerous route through the ʿArūnah Pass and then led the troops himself.
The march went smoothly, and, when the Egyptians attacked at dawn, they
prevailed over the enemy troops and besieged Megiddo.
Thutmose III meanwhile coordinated the
landing of other army divisions on the Syro-Palestinian littoral, whence they
proceeded inland so that the strategy resembled a pincer technique. The siege
ended in a treaty by which Syrian princes swore an oath of submission to the
king. As was normal in ancient diplomacy and in Egyptian practice, the oath was
binding only upon those who swore it, not upon future generations.
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By the end of the first campaign, Egyptian
domination extended northward to a line linking Byblos and Damascus. Although the prince of
Kadesh remained to be vanquished, Assyria sent lapis lazuli as tribute; Asian princes
surrendered their weapons, including a large number of horses and chariots.
Thutmose III took only a limited number of captives. He appointed Asian princes
to govern the towns and took their brothers and sons to Egypt, where they were
educated at the court Most eventually returned home to serve
as loyal vassals, though some remained in Egypt at court. In order to ensure
the loyalty of Asian city-states, Egypt maintained garrisons that could quell insurrection
and supervise the delivery of tribute. There never was an elaborate Egyptian
imperial administration in Asia.
Thutmose III conducted numerous subsequent
campaigns in Asia. The submission of Kadesh was finally achieved, but Thutmose
III’s ultimate aim was the defeat of Mitanni. He used the navy to transport
troops to Asian coastal towns, avoiding arduous overland marches from Egypt. His
great eighth campaign led him across the Euphrates; although the countryside
around Carchemish was ravaged, the city was not taken, and the Mitannian prince
was able to flee.
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The psychological gain of this campaign
was perhaps greater than its military success, for Babylonia, Assyria, and the Hittites all sent tribute in recognition of
Egyptian dominance. Although Thutmose III never subjugated Mitanni, he placed
Egypt’s conquests on a firm footing by constant campaigning that contrasts with
the forays of his predecessors. Thutmose III’s annals inscribed in the temple
of Karnak are remarkably succinct and accurate, but his other texts,
particularly one set in his newly founded Nubian capital of Napata, are more conventional in their rhetoric. He seems to have married three Syrian
wives, which may represent diplomatic unions, marking Egypt’s entry into the
realm of international affairs of the ancient Middle East.
Thutmose III initiated a truly imperial
Egyptian rule in Nubia. Much of the land became estates of institutions in
Egypt, while local cultural traits disappear from the archaeological record.
Sons of chiefs were educated at the Egyptian court; a few returned to Nubia to
serve as administrators, and some were buried there in Egyptian fashion. Nubian
fortresses lost their strategic value and became administrative centers. Open
towns developed around them, and, in several temples outside their walls, the
cult of the divine king was established. Lower Nubia supplied gold from the
desert and hard and semiprecious stones. From farther south came tropical
African woods, perfumes, oil, ivory, animal skins, and ostrich plumes. There is
scarcely any trace of the local population from the later New Kingdom when many
more temples were built in Nubia; by the end of the 20th dynasty, the region
had almost no prosperous settled population.
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Under Thutmose III the wealth of empire
became apparent in Egypt. Many temples were built, and vast sums were donated
to the estate of Amon-Re. There are many tombs of his high officials at Thebes.
The capital had been moved to Memphis, but Thebes remained the religious
center.
The campaigns of kings such as Thutmose
III required a large military establishment, including a hierarchy of officers and an expensive
chariotry. The king grew up with military companions whose close connection
with him enabled them to participate increasingly in government. Military
officers were appointed to high civil and religious positions and by the
Ramesside period the influence of such people had come to outweigh that of the
traditional bureaucracy.
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