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Thutmose III's Karnak City List Kadesh
Amenhotep III City List
Entries from 1-38 out of over 300 Palestinian locations
So many times we see and read the city list of the 22nd Dynasty king Sheshonk, but it is the list of Thutmoses III. which represents the towns he captured as Pharaoh Shishak. Starting from the very top we read the names of cities like `Qadesh' the Holy City, Jerusalem, `Mkty' which many read as Megiddo could also be `Maqtar', 14 miles north of Jerusalem, or it also could be the region surrounding `qds'. According to Hieroglyphic Dicitionaries is tranlated as `mkt' and means `district' or `region', a remarkable resemblance to `mkty'. `Tmsq' could be Damascus, `itmm', Etam. One may ask, if `mkty' is not `Megiddo' where on the list is it then? While it is tempting to suggest `mkty' refers to Megiddo, there were many towns located between Jerusalem and Megiddo. His attack probably being an almost simultaneous attack on Jerusalem and Megiddo, the towns in between which were in the territory of Judah, came later for it appears the Egyptians studiously avoided the territory of Israel, Jeroboam's homeland now. However, if we conclude Thutmoses had the most important towns placed at the head of the list, then Megiddo certainly qualifies for 2nd position. But if Thutmoses sequence was one of the important towns first, how are we to identify #3 `hty', and for that matter the towns right after?
Where some of these locations estates of land owners and not towns? Is it possible that land owners lived sometimes outside the city walls?

Slightly variant spelling of `Kades' from `Sallier Papyrus 3'
Variant spelling of Kades. [Sallier 3 Papyrus]
Smaller hamlets may not have had a sufficiently strong wall to protect from enemy attacks anyway. In times of war they fled to larger cities like Jerusalem.
Other considerations should probably include that the Egyptians used in this name list names which they were familiar with and did not necessarily try to translate Hebrew or Canaanite names, except for the more popular towns. And so it was that the Egyptians were more impressed by `holy' city rather than calling it `Jerusalem'. `Holy' places they were familiar with, Hebrew city names not so much. Why `itmm', if it was `Etam', made the list, we don't know. Perhaps something happened there which made that name stick in their minds. Hard to pronounce names they certainly must have changed to suit their ears.
These considerations may help us realize that, without original instructions, such lists are difficult to interprete. A notable exception may be `qds', `kadesh', Jerusalem, the nerve center of Judah and main target of his campaign.
It is very likely that the city list was compiled from the records of seized property and goods throughout the whole region and not to memorialize the names of towns. Jerusalem made the top, because it was a very rich source of lootable goods. If Megiddo provided rich spoils of war, it made the list, if not, why mention it? No doubt the homes, farms, and places surrounding Jerusalem were next to the city itself rich sources for spoils of war.

A Short Discussion of Two City Lists: Thutmose III and Sheshonk
Just over 100 years after Pharaoh Thutmoses III invaded Palestine to plunder the land, Pharaoh Sheshonk of the 22nd Lybian Dynasty also campaigned in Palestine. However, his motives were not to plunder as much as it was to protect the region from Syrian incursions. His army combed through the valleys and towns of Palestine, no doubt picking up many treasures along the way and probably helping to stem the incursion of the rulers of Damascus at least for a while.
In imitation of the city list of Thutmoses III, his artists carved their account into the walls at Karnak. While we can recognize a few names in the list of Thutmoses, Skoshenks list was more difficult to read recognizable names in. His efforts may have skirted around Jerusalem, unless #13, `rbt - Rabbath' refers to Jerusalem. The best choice for `Megiddo' in his record is #27, mkd(i) . Comparing that to Thutmose's `mkty' we see some similarities and some differences. Deciding if these two names, in revised view written about 100 years apart, represent the same town would heavily depend on which chronology one prefers to follow. Since we think the `mkty' in the list of Thutmoses does not refer to Megiddo, we would suggest the `mkd(i) in Sosenks list is the better candidate.

5 Types of Lists

I. The first type according to Simons is represented by the list of Seti I. at Karnak (List XIII). The main difference having to do with the scene of the king slaying his enemies.
II. This type is only slightly different from (I) with an example from Medinet Habu.
III. Only 2 examples: List XXX from Medinet Habu and a) a small fragmentary List VII and b) from Amenhotep II (List VI).
IV. A very simple form of List found on the bases of colossi and statues. An example are lists from Ramses II at Luxor (List XXII, IX, XVIII; Seti I.- XVI,XV).
V. Described as entirely different from other examples with one example from a large relief in the Ramesseum at Thebes, List XIX.
City List of Amenhotep III
Amenophis III List This base of a statue of Amenhotep III was found in his funerary temple. The base has 12 Aegean sites listed on its left side:
1. Knossos, 2. Phaistos, 3. Kydonia on Crete, 4. Mycenae, 5. Nauplion and 6. Kythera on the Cyclade Islands.

On the right side:
1. Keftiu and 2. Dny (Danay for Greece; `Denyens' in the `Records' of Breasted).
Interpretation: One possible interpretation of the base list is that the towns mentioned on the left side are to be found in the lands mentioned on the right side.
[`Biblical Archaeologist', June 1992, p. 65]
Amenhotep III's Greek Connections

Commenting on pottery sherds found at Kahun Sir Flinders Petrie wrote:

"The main argument for a later date for this Aegean pottery is the fineness of the paste, and the high polish of the surface. No doubt these details appear like those of later times. But there is internal evidence contradicting a late date for these pieces. None are finer or thinner than (12 & 14). ...
22. Another line of evidence may be taken. We know now at Gurob that the style of the earliest Mykenae pottery, the false-necked vase (Bugelkanne) with plain bands, belongs to about 1400 BC (Amenhotep III). MY own quick drawing of this Greek pottery from KahunThat pottery is highly finished, with a bright polish and fine iron glaze of red or orange. Such was already the development of pottery in the Aegean at that age. Who knows what went before that? No one has ever found anything to date before that in Greece. What state the Aegean civilization was in at an earlier date we do not know. It has nothing to do with the historic civilization of Greece; it is a branch of the bronze age of Europe, as much so as Hallstadt or Etruria. That this pottery of Kahun could succeed the Mykenae pottery is in most cases apparently impossible in its very nature. Such pieces as (1, 8, 12 & 14) are all of styles which do not fall into any place in the historical development of pottery from Mykenae downwards, and yet which most certainly came from Greece or Italy." [Sir Fl. Petrie, `The Antiqities of Kahun', p. 10, 11.]

Already at the time Petrie wrote his excavation reports Egyptian chronology was so firmly fixed in their minds that the clues for a later time for Amenhotep III escaped his mind. It seems to us that at that early age, and even today, in the discipline of archaeology, scholars and archaeologists should not have had such a fixed mind set on when these kings lived. After all they were just beginning to study ancient history. This way history has been so widely misinterpreted and assigned to wrong ages that it has become a virtual nightmare to unravel now. But unravel we must.

The Topography of Seti I the Great
Aresa - town in Syria.
The name Pa-aresa (`the Syrian') occurs on a fragment of a stela which used to be in the museum of Freiburg, Germany. [Transactions SBA, later Proceedings SBA, Vol. 4, 1890, p. 31-39]

Notes & References

[010] Henry George Thomkins, `Tribute Lists of Thutmose III, Southern Hall' in TSBA, Vol. IX, 1893, p. 257-280; Lists locations 1-119 in his list which is slightly different in some renditions compared to the list above.



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