The inscriptions in the tomb of Ahmose, son of Ibana, at Elkab describe the defeat of the Hyksos by his namesake King Ahmose, as well as the latter’s siege of the stronghold of Sharuhen in southern Palestine, and his campaigns in Kush, the capital of which was the city of Kerma near the third Nile cataract. The completion of this Nubian
Campaign was left to Amenhotep I (1525-1504 bc), and a series of monuments on the island of Sai commemorated the victories of both rulers; it is possible that all of these were erected by Amenhotep I, but the fact that Ahmose was active in the region is not disputed.
Early i8th-Dynasty levels at Avaris (Tell el-Dab'a) record the name of Ahmose, and the several kings who succeeded him. During this time, several monumental buildings decorated with Minoan frescos were in use at the site (see Chapter 8). Certainly this fact suggests that there was increased contact with the Aegean, even if only through itinerant artists commissioned to undertake or oversee the work. Since weapons found in the small coffin of Queen Ahhotep I (mother of Ahmose), in her tomb in western Thebes, illustrate Aegean or east Mediterranean motifs and craft techniques applied to Egyptian objects, the exotic foreign elements prized in the Delta appear to have been valued in Thebes as well, at least in an adapted form. Actual Aegean objects contemporary with the early i8th Dynasty are far more difficult to document in Egypt, although Egyptian small-trade items occur in fair numbers in Crete, and to a lesser degree on the Greek mainland. However, it remains unclear (if not doubtful) whether there was direct diplomatic exchange between Egypt and Crete in the early i8th Dynasty. Ahmose and his immediate successors may instead have continued to participate in an east Mediterranean exchange system, just as the Hyksos had. Whatever the case, the creativity in forging an Aegeanizing style, as seen on the objects of Ahmose’s time, as well as the Minoan-style paintings at Tell el-Dab'a, did not survive the early part of the i8th Dynasty. Ultimately, as was frequently the case in periods of strong kingship, traditional Egyptian iconography dominated. The few elements that persisted (the ‘flying-gallop’ motif, for example) were quickly adapted to more familiar iconographic contexts.
Ahmose’s most immediate construction project appears to have been within the capital of Avaris, which he had wrested from the Hyksos. Manfred Bietak’s excavations have identified an early i8th-Dynasty palace platform abutting a Hyksos fortification wall. Seals naming the rulers of the i8th Dynasty between Ahmose and Amenhotep II have been found in later strata, but Bietak considers that Ahmose was the builder of the original palace complex decorated with Minoan frescos. He may have had other building projects in the Delta region, but Avaris was certainly planned to be a major centre—quite likely commercial—for the new government to utilize. It is clear from excavations during the 1980s and 1990s that Memphis was also redeveloped in the early i8th Dynasty: as the river moved eastwards, land was reclaimed and used for new settlement. Ceramic sequences and royal scarabs indicate that, already in the reign of Ahmose, Memphis was being resettled following a hiatus that may correspond to the wars between Thebes and Avaris, described in Chapter 8.
The temple monuments from the last years of Ahmose’s reign constitute the foundations of a traditional pharaonic building programme, honouring gods whose temples had flourished in the Middle Kingdom—Ptah, Amun, Montu, and Osiris. Ahmose certainly venerated the traditional deities of Egypt’s cult centres. Ahmose’s affiliations with the moon-god lah (represented in the ‘Ah’ element of his name) are best attested in the inscriptions on the jewellery of Ahhotep I and Kamose (1555-1550 BC), which describe Ahmose as ‘son of the moon-god, lah’. This god’s major cult centre is unknown, despite the ubiquitous presence of the ‘Ah’ element in the royal family names. Perhaps, at the very time that he effected the reunification, Ahmose began to have his name written with the lunar crescent of lah pointing its ends downward. All monuments showing this form of the name Ahmose must, therefore, date after years 17 or 18 of his reign. Being the first king in more than 100 years to be able to erect monuments for the gods of both southern and northern Egypt, Ahmose opened limestone quarries at Maasara with a view to building at Memphis, the old and venerated northern centre, and also at Thebes, the home of Amun and Montu. Although his constructions at Memphis have not been found, some from Thebes, and elsewhere, are still extant.
Ahmose undoubtedly made significant contributions to the cult of Amun at Karnak. If he had lived longer, he would perhaps have begun the rebuilding in stone of far more buildings there, but his surviving monuments nevertheless comprise a doorway and several stelae, as well as perhaps a boat shrine, probably located near the entrance ways to the temple. His desire to be recognized as Amun’s pious dedicant would, therefore, have been apparent not only to those whose priestly offices or elite status gained them access to the god’s home, but also to the lesser inhabitants of Thebes who were able to visit the front courtyards only at festival times.
Several limestone stelae recording major episodes connected with Karnak temple are known from Ahmose’s reign—probably all from the last seven or so years of the reign. On two stelae discovered in the foundations of the Third Pylon at Karnak, the king presents himself as a propitiator and benefactor to the temple. On one of these, the so-called Tempest Stele, the king claims to have rebuilt the tombs and Pyramids in the Theban region destroyed by a storm inflicted on Upper Egypt by the power of Amun, whose statue appears to have been left in extreme want. Ahmose describes the fact that the land was covered with water and that he had brought costly goods to support the restoration of the region. The other stele from the Third Pylon (known as the Donation Stele) records the purchase by King Ahmose of the ‘second priesthood of Amun’ on behalf of his wife, the god’s wife of Amun, Ahmose-Nefertari. The cost of this office was paid to the temple by the king, thus making him its benefactor again, and also securing the tie between the god and the royal family.
A third stele of Ahmose, from the Eighth Pylon court at Kamak, dates to year i8 of his reign; it extols the universal power of the royal family, and details the cult equipment that Ahmose had fashioned and dedicated to Karnak temple; gold and silver libation vessels, gold and silver drinking cups for the god’s statue, gold offering tables, necklaces and fillets for the divine statues, musical instruments, and a new wooden boat for the temple statue’s processions. The objects donated by the king to Kamak are the most essential cult furniture, and their dedication may indicate that the temple was utterly without precious metal objects at this point. It is impossible to say whether this would have been due to the action of a great storm, as the king asserts in the Tempest Stele, but temple cult objects, along with royal burial objects, might also have been important financial resources for the Thebans during the arduous years of the 17th Dynasty.
It is important to note the great dearth of precious metal objects known from Upper Egypt in the Second Intermediate Period. Only with the funerary equipment of Ahmose’s mother, Ahhotep, and the mummy of Kamose is there evidence again of extravagant gold royal funerary objects, such as were known in the Middle Kingdom. Despite the claims of tomb-robbers several hundred years after the Second Intermediate Period, that they had robbed the gold-laden body of King Sobekemsaf II of the 17th Dynasty, only comparatively modest coffins and funerary objects have been recovered for the period preceding Ahmose. Could the king’s Karnak inscriptions have been an official explanation for the impoverishment of the Theban region and, more importantly, Ahmose’s role in restoring the riches of the Kamak temple and its god? This is not to suggest either that there was no tempest in Ahmose’s reign or that there was no purchase of the ‘second priesthood’ for Ahmose-Nefertari, but rather that these particular events might have been recounted on the stelae simply in order to suit historico-religious purposes.
World History
