Genocide, and the Valley of the Kings.
Family, exploration and tomb-building dominated Thutmose’s first few years. He took great care for his five children, bringing on a special tutor for the princes, Paheri. This man, grand-son of Ahmose Ibana represented the culmination of three generations of family fortunes.
Thutmose launches a new tomb in a new location, the Valley of the Kings. Although a small tomb, it is the start of a new era in our story, where royal burials begin to cluster in a single magnificent cemetery.
Finally the King launches a new campaign into Nubia. He leaves record of this at Tombos, a record that suggests his activities were less than admirable- they may even have been genocidal.
Bibliography
- Anthony Spalinger, War in Ancient Egypt, 2006.
- Nicolas Grimal, A History of Ancient Egypt, 1994.
- Ian Shaw (ed.), The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt, 2000.
- W. Vivian Davies, “The Tomb of Ahmose son-of-Ibana at Elkab: Documenting the Family and Other Observations,” 2009. Read online.
Websites
- osiris.net
- the tomb of Paheri
- the tomb of Ahmose Ibana
My congratulations on the more damnatory tone of this particular Nubian campaign, it sure sounds very genocidal from the way you describe it, as for why he went so far south, is it not possible that alongside the desire to push further than his forebears and explore that it was also to find more Nubians to kill?
I find Thutmose’s notion that this is ‘revenge’ a little amusing, the Nubians launched one small raid on Thebes that didn’t even succeed during the 2nd intermediate period, after several hundred years of being militarily occupied by Egypt. The scales of vengeance don’t seem quite even here Thutmose!!
In the last episode you described the altercation with the Mittani as a stalemate, in this episode you seemed to imply it went much more in Egypts favour. Is this a situation like Qadesh where its the subject of academic debate?
I wonder, how did armies distinguish one from another on the battlefield? Since often Egypt fought people from the same ethnic/cultural groups that also existed in their borders. Were there military uniforms in ancient Egypt?