At different times Egypt established trading posts, garrisons, and other installations abroad. In the late Predynastic and First Dynasty, Egypt exhibits intense activity in south-west Palestine, especially at ‘En-Besor (Gophna 1995: 269-80). This site contained an Egyptian-style building, imported pottery and artefacts, and local imitations of Egyptian items alongside indigenous Canaanite materials. However, it remains debated whether this activity represents trade, military conquest, or colonization.
In the Old Kingdom, Egypt established fortified settlements at Ain Asil in Dakhla Oasis, at Kor in Lower Nubia, and possibly at Ras Budran in South Sinai. The settlement at Kor may appear as early as the Second Dynasty, but the main occupation yielded artefacts and sealings bearing the names of several kings from the Fourth and Fifth Dynasties (Adams 1984: 170-3). The settlement encompassed at least 50 by 75 m and featured Egyptian-style stone and mud-brick dwellings, workshops, copper smelting furnaces, and a rough stone enclosure wall.
The Middle Kingdom expansion into Lower Nubia was accompanied by numerous forts and fortified settlements (e. g., administrative, industrial, and trading posts), and seasonal quarry and mining camps that co-existed alongside the indigenous Nubian C-Group population (Williams 1999: 575).
In contrast, New Kingdom Egypt colonized Nubia (Smith 2003) and placed garrisons at key locations in the Levant to control local city states (Morris 2005). Important Egyptian installations appear at Gaza (e. g., Ramesside granite blocks from a temple?), Tell Mor (a small fort), Lachish (an Egyptian-style temple), and Beth Shan (Egyptian-style temples, housing, and anthropoid coffins). Under Thutmose III, Egypt’s Levantine empire was organized into the provinces of Canaan (Palestine), Upe (Damascus to the Beka Valley), and Amurru (West Syria), with an Egyptian headquarter city at Gaza, Kumudi, and Ugarit (later Sumur). Each headquarter city had a fort, garrison, and storehouse under an Egyptian commander (Redford 1992: 203-7). Egypt’s Levantine empire disintegrated in the reign of Ramesses VI.
Egypt experiences a brief resurgence in imperialism in the Saite period. Psamtik I and Necho II dispatched troops to Syria to bolster Assyria against Babylonian attacks. The Assyrian headquarters at Carchemish displays significant Egyptian influence: House D had Egyptian architectural features and artefacts, such as a stone slab with a corvetto cornice, a royal signet ring (Psamtik I), and mud sealings (Necho II) (Mumford 2007). Other influences during the Late Period include an Egyptian-style shrine at Amrit (e. g., a lotus capital and corvetto cornice), stone anthropoid sarcophagi (mostly at Phoenician sites), and stelae portraying Egyptian deities and iconography at Byblos.
World History
