New Threats
By the end of the 19th dynasty (c. 1295-1186) a new threat was appearing from the west. Lybian tribes began migrating – which, given their military capabilities, effectively meant invading - into the Delta region from the western coastal desert.
The Egyptians built a series of forts to control this nuisance, and under Merenptah (c. 1213-1203 BC) and Ramesses III (c. 1184-1153 BC) inflicted several defeats on them. In the time of Ramesses III, also, a new set of invaders, this time from the north, had to be dealt with. These were the “Sea Peoples”, an apparently diverse group of peoples, some of whom may well have been refugees from Asia Minor, where the Hatti state had recently been destroyed.
These threats seem to have been dealt with reasonably effectively, and Egypt survived as a wealthy and united country. However, internal developments were at work to undermine the centralizing power of the kings.
Throughout the New Kingdom, temples had been accorded high status and a privileged position within the state. The lands and wealth they controlled made them indispensable allies of the king. This wealth and power had gradually been increasing, above all for the priests of Thebes.
It was now that the high priest of Amun at Thebes elevated himself to kingly status, challenging the status of the kings of the 20th dynasty (c. 1186-1069 BC).
Impotence Abroad c. 1153-1069 BC
A civil war broke out which ended with the confirmation of the Theban priest-king’s position as an autonomous ruler within the wider land of Egypt, and the permanent reduction of the pharaoh’s prestige and authority.
The weakening power of the king of Egypt at home soon had its effects abroad. To the south, Nubia was lost to a rebellious general. This cut off Egypt’s supply of gold, on which its commercial/diplomatic influence had been largely based. Local rulers in Palestine and Syria drifted away from their centuries-long Egyptian loyalties.
A glimpse of this decline in Egyptian power is seen in “The Tale of Wenamum”, in which a royal official encounters all sorts of difficulties and humiliations in a journey to and from Byblos. Whatever the exact significance of this tale – was it fiction? – the impression it gives of Egyptian international impotence is unmistakable.
Weakness at Home c. 1069-728 BC
The weakness of the kingdom of Egypt did not mean that there was an immediate fragmentation, however. A rapprochement was worked out between the high priests of Thebes and the kings of the 21st dynasty (c. 1069-945 BC), whereby the high priests seem to have usually recognized the secular authority of the pharaohs. In return, the pharaohs sent their daughters as brides for the Theban high priest; and in due course the families became so intertwined that the Theban high priest Har-Psusennes ascended the throne as pharaoh (c. 959-945 BC).
Similarly, although Libyan tribesmen and their families continued to settle in Egypt as far south as Thebes, and, though culturally assimilated into Egyptian life continued to acknowledge the authority of their own chiefs, this potential internal threat was neutralized for a time when their chief, Shoshenk, himself ascended the throne as the founder of the 22nd dynasty (Shoshenk: c. 945-924 BC; 22nd dynasty: c. 945-715 BC).
Shoshenk may well be the pharaoh who appears in the Bible leading a campaign into Israel just after the reign of Solomon. Egypt was clearly still strong and united enough at this time to project her power beyond her borders. However, the struggles between pharaoh and Theban high priest, and between Libyan settlers and Egyptian officials, had undermined the monolithic structures of power of New Kingdom Egypt. Shoshenk’s successors in the 22nd dynasty ruled the country at a time when provincial centres of power were asserting themselves again.
Kings from Kush c. 728-656 BC
For a time the kings were able to hold things together by co-opting leading provincial families as allies of the royal family through marriage ties and grants of hereditary privileges. The inevitable result of these policies, however, was further fragmentation of power, exacerbated by divisions within the royal family itself as different princes contended with each other. Rival principalities emerged within Egypt’s borders.
It was into this situation that the king of Kush invaded Egypt, culminating in a campaign that brought the entire country under Kushite subjection in 728 BC. The new king, Piy, presented himself in purely traditional terms, and clearly saw himself as a true Egyptian pharaoh. Furthermore, he did not depose the existing kings and princes, but imposed himself upon them as their overlord.
The dominance of Piy and his dynasty (the 25th ) was short-lived, however. A foreign policy which sought to regain Egyptian influence in Palestine brought Egypt into conflict with the huge and aggressive Assyrian empire. A series of Assyrian invasions, in which the invaders were by no means always victorious but which could in the end have only one outcome, resulted in complete defeat for the Nubian kings, their flight back to their Nubian capital, Napata, the sack of the historic city of Thebes, and the occupation of northern Egypt by an Assyrian army.
Next:
The History of Ancient Egypt, Part 5: Foreign Occupation
Article © TimeMaps 2007.
Last updated: 13th August 2007
