The treaty remained in effect, and peaceful relations persisted, until the fall of the Hittite empire under pressures from both the Assyrians and the migrating Sea Peoples (who ushered in the Iron Age), just about the beginning of the reign of Ramesses III of Dynasty 20. The Hittite empire would be succeeded - in name only - by the biblical Hittites, the Neo-Hittites ofNorth Syria; and Egypt would be left as the only remaining one of the three original superpowers. In an inscription dated to his fifth regnal year, Merenptah, the successor of Ramesses II, mentions that he had supplied shiploads of grain to Hatti after a disastrous crop failure (Kitchen 1982: 215; Davies 1997: 156-57).45 In the historical inscription of his year 8 at Medinet Habu, Ramesses III describes the destruction of Hatti by the Sea Peoples (presumably under its last known king, Suppiluliuma II, the younger son of Tudhaliya IV):46 “No land could stand before their arms” (Edgerton and Wilson 1936: 53; Peden 1994: 29). The lands of Qode/Kizzuwatna, Carchemish, Arzawa, and Alasiya/Cyprus also fell in the same series of assaults, as did Ugarit and Troy. Egypt, itself in turmoil at the time, was in no position to come to Hatti’s aid.
Nevertheless, the Egyptian propaganda machine, always operating at a fever pitch, continued to portray the Hittites in typically xenophobic fashion. In a series of undated battle scenes, set pieces from his great temple at Medinet Habu, Ramesses III - eager to emulate his illustrious predecessor, Ramesses II - anachronistically records fictitious victories over three Hittite-controlled towns! (Edgerton and Wilson 1936: 94-96).47 At Karnak he also borrows freely from Sety I in describing himself as “one who has trampled down the Hittites and slain their chief - (all) thrown to the ground in (pools of) their (own) blood” (Epigraphic Survey 1936: pl. 82A).48 The symbolic value of
Hatti as an enemy overcome was maintained down into the Roman period (Gauthier 1927: 188). However, it was not a time for celebration. There would be no “peace dividend,” as Egypt was already suffering the beginnings of internal instability - the economic, social, and civil disorders which characterize the end of the New Kingdom. Shortly after the death of Ramesses III, Egypt would lose all claim to superpower status for the better part of two centuries - just as the Israelite and Philistine/Palestinian kingdoms were organizing themselves in Canaan. But that is another story.
World History
