A Nubian campaign took place in year 5 of Amenhotep Ill’s reign and was commemorated on the Island of Sai, as well as at Konosso and along the road south of Aswan. TTie viceroy of Kush may have supervised the military action, but whether this was Merymose or the earlier office-holder Amenhotep is unknown. Merymose left his own inscription at Semna, describing an action against Ibhet (probably Lower Nubia). TTie year 5 campaign was in Kush, perhaps even to the south of the fifth cataract. The building of the fortress of Khaemmaat at Soleb, where the king also constructed a temple, may have been intended to prevent further disruptions from Upper Nubia. The earlier Upper Nubian capital at Kerma was almost directly across the river from Soleb, so the site may have been chosen to underscore Kushite subjection to Egypt.
International relations with the rest of the ancient world were conducted through diplomatic missions. The amount of Egyptian material on the Greek mainland increased dramatically in the reign of Amenhotep III, and the names of Aegean cities, including Mycenae,
Phaistos, and Knossos, appear for the first time in hieroglyphic writing on statue bases from the king’s funerary temple. Letters between Amenhotep III and several of his peers in Babylon, Mitanni, and Arzawa are preserved in cuneiform writing on clay tablets. These letters, many found in the archive of Akhenaten’s capital of Amarna, demonstrate the powerful position enjoyed by Amenhotep III as he negotiated to marry the daughters of other rulers. A strong connection between Amenhotep III andthe Mitanni king Tushratta is apparent in the letters, while the Babylonian king Burnaburiash, who came to power late in Amenhotep’s rule, appears more suspicious of Egyptian strength. The mid-i4th century bc certainly represents one of the high points of Egypt’s influence on the ancient world, and it was the culmination of activities by nearly all the rulers of the i8th Dynasty.
World History
