Egyptians understood the pharaoh to be the living embodiment of the god Horus, the source of law and morality, and the mediator between gods and humans. His connection with the divine stretched to members of his family, so that his siblings and children were also viewed as in some ways divine. Because of this, a pharaoh often took his sister or half-sister as one of his wives. This concentrated divine blood set the pharaonic family apart from those of other Egyptians (who did not marry close relatives), and allowed the pharaohs to imitate the gods, who in Egyptian mythology often married their siblings. A pharaoh chose one of his wives to be the “Great Royal Wife,” or principal queen. Often this was a relative, though sometimes it was one of the foreign princesses who married pharaohs to establish political alliances.
The familial connection with the divine allowed a handful of women to rule in their own right in Egypt’s long history. We know the names of four female pharaohs, the most famous being Hatshepsut (hat-SHEP-soot) (ruled 1479-1458 b. c.e.). She was the sister and wife of Thutmose II and, after he died, served as regent for her young stepson Thutmose III, who was actually the son of another woman. Hatshepsut sent trading expeditions and sponsored artists and architects, ushering in a period of artistic creativity and economic prosperity. She built one of the world’s great buildings, an elaborate terraced temple at Deir el Bahri, which eventually served as her tomb. Hatshepsut’s status as a powerful female ruler was difficult for Egyptians to conceptualize, and she is often depicted in male dress or with a false beard, thus looking more like the male rulers who were the norm. After her death, Thutmose III tried to destroy all evidence that she had ever ruled, smashing statues and scratching her name off inscriptions, perhaps because of personal animosity and perhaps because he wanted to erase the fact that a woman had once been pharaoh. Only within the last decades have historians and archaeologists begun to (literally) piece together her story.
Though female pharaohs were very rare, many royal women had power through their position as “Great Royal Wives.” The most famous of these was Nefertiti, the wife of Akhenaten. Her name means “the perfect (or beautiful) woman has come,” and inscriptions also give her many other titles. Nefertiti used her position to spread the new religion of the sun-god Aton. Together she and Akhenaten built a new palace at Akhetaten, the present Amarna, away from the old centers of power. There they developed the cult of Aton to the exclusion of the traditional deities. Nearly the only literary survival of their religious belief is the “Hymn to Aton,” which declares Aton to be the only god. It describes Nefertiti as “the great royal consort whom he! Akhenaten! Loves, the mistress of the Two Lands! Upper and Lower Egypt!” Nefertiti is often shown the same size as her husband, and in some inscriptions she is performing religious rituals that would normally have been done only by the pharaoh. The exact details of her power are hard to determine, however. An older theory held that her husband removed her from power, though there is also speculation that she may have ruled secretly in her own right after his death. Her tomb has long since disappeared, though in 2003 an enormous controversy developed over her possible remains. There is no controversy that the bust shown above, now in a Berlin museum, represents Nefertiti, nor that it has become an icon of female beauty since it was first discovered in the early twentieth century.
Questions for Analysis
1. Why might it have been difficult for Egyptians to accept a female ruler?
2. What opportunities do hereditary monarchies such as that of ancient Egypt provide for women? How does this fit with gender hierarchies in which men are understood as superior?
During the nineteenth century b. c.e. the native kingdoms in Anatolia engaged in suicidal warfare that left most of the area’s once-flourishing towns in ashes and rubble. In this climate of exhaustion the Hittite king, Hattusilis I, led his army to victory against neighboring kingdoms.
The Coming of The Hittites (ca. 1640-1200 B. C.E.)
The Hittites, like the Egyptians of the New Kingdom, produced an energetic and able line of kings who built a powerful empire. Perhaps their major contribution was the introduction of iron in the form of weapons and tools. Around 1300 b. c.e. the Hittites stopped the Egyptian army of Rameses II at the Battle of Kadesh in Syria. Having fought each other to a standstill, the Hittites and Egyptians first made peace, then an alliance. Alliance was followed by friendship, and friendship by active cooperation between the two greatest powers of the early Near East.
The Hittites and Egyptians next included the Babylonians in their diplomacy. All three empires developed an official etiquette in which they treated one another as "brothers,” using this gendered familial term to indicate their connection. These alliances facilitated the exchange of ideas throughout the Near East. Furthermore, the Hittites passed much knowledge and lore from the Near East to the newly arrived Greeks in Europe. The details of Hittite contact with the Greeks are unknown, but enough literary themes and physical objects exist to prove the connection.
This cult standard represents Hittite concepts of fertility and prosperity. (A standard is a flag or emblematic object raised on a pole.) The circle surrounding the animals is the sun, beneath which stands a stag flanked by two bulls. Stylized bull's horns spread from the base of the disc. The symbol is also one of might and protection from outside harm. (Museum of Anatolian Civilizations, Ankara)
The Battle of Kadesh ushered in a period of peace and stability in the Near East that lasted until the thirteenth century b. c.e. Then, however, foreign invaders destroyed both the Hittite and the Egyptian empires. The most famous of these marauders, called the Sea Peoples by the Egyptians, launched a series of stunning attacks that brought down the Hittites and drove the Egyptians back to the Nile Delta.
The Fall of Empires and the Survival of Cultures (ca. 1200 B. C.E.)
Sea Peoples Invaders who destroyed the Egyptian empires in the late 13th century; they are otherwise unidentifiable because they went their own ways after their attacks on Egypt.
Section Review
The iron-wielding Hittites were the first Indo-Europeans to become important in the Near East.
The Hittites at first fought the Egyptians, such as at the Battle of Kadesh, but then they made peace and included the Babylonians in their fraternal alliance, easing the flow of ideas throughout the three empires and the region.
The Sea Peoples disturbed this peace, resulting in the downfall of the Hittites and the withdrawal of Egyptians to the Nile Delta.
The Phoenicians combined sophisticated seafaring with urban life.
A huge group of communities across the Near East maintained local character while also sharing and helping to develop further common cultural elements from Egypt and Mesopotamia.
The Egyptians took the lead in the recovery by establishing commercial contact with their new neighbors. With the exchange of goods went ideas. Both sides shared practical concepts of shipbuilding, metal technology, and methods of trade that allowed merchants to transact business over long distances. They began to establish and recognize recently created borders, which helped define them geographically and politically. When the worst was over, the Egyptians made contact with the Semitic peoples of Palestine and Syria, whom they found living in small walled towns. Farther north in the land soon to be named Phoenicia (fi-NEE-sha), they also encountered a people who combined sophisticated seafaring with urban life.
The situation in northern Syria reflected life in the south. Small cities in all these places were mercantile centers, rich not only in manufactured goods, but also in agricultural produce, textiles, and metals. The cities flourished under royal families that shared power and dealt jointly in foreign affairs. These northerners relied heavily on their Mesopotamian heritage. While adopting Babylonian writing to communicate with their more distant neighbors to the east, they also adapted it to write their own north Semitic language. At the same time they welcomed the knowledge of Mesopotamian literature, mathematics, and culture. They worshiped both their own and Mesopotamian deities. Yet the cultural exchange remained a mixture of adoption, adaptation, contrast, and finally balance, as the two cultures came to understand and appreciate each other.
A pattern emerged in Palestine, Syria, and Anatolia. In these areas native cultures established themselves during the prehistoric period. Upon coming into contact with the Egyptian and Mesopotamian civilizations, they adopted many aspects of these cultures, adapting them to their own traditional customs. Yet they also contributed to the advance of Egyptian and Mesopotamian cultures by introducing new technologies and religious ideas. The result was the emergence of a huge group of communities stretching from Egypt in the south to Anatolia in the north and from the Levant in the west to Mesopotamia in the east. Each enjoyed its own individual character, while at the same time sharing many common features with its neighbors.
How did early peoples evolve from bands of hunter-gatherers to settled farming communities? (page 3)
Paleolithic period (p. 3) nomads (p. 3)
Neolithic period (p. 3)
For thousands of years Paleolithic peoples moved from place to place in search of food. Only in the Neolithic era — with the invention of new stone tools, a reliance on sustained agriculture, and the domestication of animals — did people begin to live in permanent locations. These villages evolved into towns, where people began to create new social bonds and political organizations. Stonehenge is one example of the collective effort and imagination of a Neolithic community.
How did the Sumerians create a complex society in the arid climate of Mesopotamia? (page 4)
The earliest area where these developments led to genuine urban societies is Mesopotamia. Here the Sumerians and then other Mesopotamians developed writing, which enabled their culture to be passed on to others. Their religious beliefs reflected a pessimistic view of the world in which the gods could bring destruction without concern for human life. The great Sumerian poem, the Epic of Gilgamesh, shows them grappling with questions of life and death that are still of importance today. The beginnings of patriarchy and social class inequalities can also be seen in their culture.
How did the Babylonians unite Mesopotamia politically and culturally and spread that culture to the broader world? (page 11)
The Sumerians established the basic social, economic, and intellectual patterns of Mesopotamia, but the Semites played a large part in spreading Mesopotamian culture to the broader world through both conquest and commercial exchange. First the Akkadians and then the Babylonians came to power in the region. Under Hammurabi, the Babylonians were able to unify Mesopotamia politically and culturally. The law code of Hammurabi illustrates the king’s intentions to regulate the lives of his people and promote social harmony.
How did Egypt’s geography contribute to the rise of a unique culture, and what was the role of the pharoah in this society? (page 13)
Around the same time in Egypt, the fertile Nile valley and other natural resources contributed to the rise of a wealthy and insular culture. The Egyptians too developed their own writing system and religious beliefs, and they undertook monumental building projects that required sophisticated organizational and intellectual skills. Under the strong central leadership of the pharaoh, Egyptian life was stable and predictable. The Hyksos brought Bronze Age culture to the Egyptians when they settled the Nile Delta.
How did the Hittites rise to power, and how did they facilitate the exchange of ideas throughout the Near East? How did the Egyptian and Mesopotamian cultures survive the fall of empires? (page 17)
Finally, the Hittites, an Indo-European people, entered the Near East from the north. Distant ancestors of the modern folk of Europe and the Americas, the Hittites introduced iron tools and weapons to the region. Along with the Egyptians and then the Babylonians, they developed an alliance that facilitated the exchange of goods and ideas throughout the Near East. Near East peoples received hard knocks from hostile invaders beginning around the thirteenth century B. C.E., but key social, economic, and cultural patterns survived to enrich future generations.
1. Quoted in S. N. Kramer, The Sumerians: Their History, Culture and Character, 1963. Reprinted by permission of the publisher, the University of Chicago Press. John Buckler is the translator of all uncited quotations from a foreign language in Chapters 1-6.
2. J. B. Pritchard, ed., Ancient Near Eastern Texts, 3d ed. (Princeton, N. J.: Princeton University Press, 1969), p. 372. Hereafter called ANET.
3. Quoted in A. H. Gardiner, "Ramesside Texts Relating to the Taxation and Transport of Corn,” Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 27 (1941): 19-20.
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Irrigation (p. 4) cuneiform (p. 8) polytheism (p. 9) nobles (p. 10) clients (p. 10) patriarchal (p. 10) law code (p. 12) Amon-Ra (p. 14)
Book of the Dead (p. 14) pharaoh (p. 15) pyramid (p. 15)
Hyksos (p. 16)
Bronze Age (p. 17) monotheism (p. 17) Indo-European (p. 17) Sea Peoples (p. 20)
World History
