| The Start and the End of the 18th Dynasty |
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At the end of the 480 year period Ahmose "Come, fare north at once, do not be timid. See he (
But the messenger was caught by loyal troops to Kamose and the plan was never carried out.
Saul had gathered over 200,000 footmen and 10,000 men of Judah. He besieged Sharuhen for 6 years [400]. From the Egyptian sources the Ahmose Inscription[500] sheds some light on this conflict. This is how these people came to their end as anyone can read in the scriptures allowing the native ruler Ahmose to become the first king of the 18th dynasty. And in the parallel text in the scriptures we read" "And Saul came to [the] city of Amalek, and laid wait in [the bed of] the stream [nakhal]."[800] 1.Samuel 15:5.
These words, "city of Amalek" have always been a stumbling block for commentators. The Amalekites are supposed to have been a small tribe of unsettled Bedouins but it makes sense once we realize they were the Hyksos.
See Numbers 34:5; Joshua 15:4; Joshua 15:47; 2.Kings 24:7.
From the scriptural viewpoint God had charged Israel:
Saul, after his great victory over the Amalekites, engaged himself in a war with the Philistines. He went into this war with a heavy heart (1.Samuel 16:14-18). The prophet Samuel had spoken stern words to him because he had shown kindness to Agog by sparing his life against the instructions of God (1.Sam. 15:3). Samuel killed Agog, never met Saul again, and died. Saul, with the aid of necromancy, tried to get in touch with the deceased Samuel. Again he disobeyed the explicit divine instructions not to consult the spirits of the devil. The day after his visit to the witch of Endor, Philistine archers hit Saul and he and his three sons died, Saul being finished off by his own request by an Amalekite soldier.
The strategic importance of El Arish can be gaged by the fact that here is where nearby Tharu had been constructed. According to excavation evidence this 3 meters thick, walled, enclosure covering 12,000 square meters, was an armory and dates back to the time of Seti the Great.
Ahmose's Links with Minoan Crete
The discovery of fragments of
Careful reading reveals that the authors/editors use circular reasoning in that they try to corroberate dates between Minoan Crete, Mesopotamia and Egypt when both, the history of Crete and Mesopotamia, follow Egyptian chronological dating methods. An example is the clay sistrum, said to originate from the Middle Minoan IA funerary building 9 in the Arkhanes Phourni cemetery, compared to an example in blue faience from the pyramid of Amenemhat I at Lisht. The importance of this borrowing of Egyptian products on Crete implies "knowledge of the use and purpose of the Egyptian instrument; in other words we observe symbolic transfer taking place." [1150]
Here we have an example where the sistrum instrument was borrowed by the Minoans from the Egyptians while many other discoveries seem to indicate Egyptians borrowing or using ideas and products from Crete. Such bi-directional exchanges are normal and may corroborate but do not fix a chronology. See Here for more.
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| Chronological Contacts according to Conventional Dating |
| Cretan PrePalacial EB Age | Early Dynastic, OK, FIP: (3000-1900) |
| Minoan/Cretan Palace Period: MMIB - LMIB | MK to Thutmose III: (1900-1425) |
| Mycanean Period: Mycenaean Knossos & Aegean | Amenophis III: (14th - 13th centuries) |
| Chronological Contacts according to Revised Dating |
| Cretan PrePalacial EB Age | Early Dynastic to OK/MK: (ca. 2000-1450) (EBII-EBIII) |
| Minoan/Cretan Palace Period: MMIB - LMIB | MK to Thutmose III: (ca. 1550-900) |
| Mycanean Period: Mycenaean Knossos & Aegean | Amenophis III: (9th - 8th centuries) |
The Rise of the 18th Dynasty When Israel was at its highest point in its economic achievements under king Solomon, Egypt also was becoming very prosperous and had good relations with the Israelite king, so much so, that Solomon married pharaoh's daughter.[1300] Solomon also had two high Egyptian officials judging by their names, Eli-horeph and Ahiah, sons of Shisha, who were scribes (1.Kings 4:3). This indicates that the relations with Egypt in the days of Solomon and probably also Saul and David were much more complex and Egypt oriented than we might expect. In fact we may state that by virtue of Solomon having married the daughter of Thutmoses II, who had gone out of his way to destroy the remaining Canaanite stronghold of Gezer as a wedding gift (1.Kings 9:16), that he had great influence in Egypt. We may also consider Solomon resorting to forced labor, a common practice in Egypt, as an indication of his affinity with Egypt. The stern method of taxation under Hatshepsut in Egypt, Solomon in Israel (1.Kings 9:21, 22; 10:28; 12:10,11), was first introduced under the Middle Kingdom (12th dynasty) under Joseph (Genesis 41:34,35). Some of what is represented today than as Canaanite culture in archaeology is Israelite culture in revised view. It is incongruous to state that the Canaanites had a more advanced culture than the Israelites during the time of the judges. The reason for that assertion is once again an offset Egyptian chronology. The power of the Canaanites was that they were supported by the Hyksos/Amu/Amalekites whose influence reached clear back to the Euphrates [1350]. When the Hyksos/Amalekites were destroyed it also largely broke the resistance of the Canaanites. The somewhat strange fact that the kings of the 18th Dynasty ruled Egypt from Thebes, far to the south from the Nile Delta while the 12th Dynasty ruled from the Lower Egypt appears to be a result of the intervening centuries of Hyksos/Amalekite domination which may have had a stronger presence in the north causing the newly emerging 18th Dynasty rulers to make their home in the south. Other reasons may have been climatic and environmental changes which made Upper Egypt a more preferred location. At any rate this transition took place from the last native Egyptian rulers, before the foreign take over, and the renewed re-emergency of native rulers under Ahmose and his brother Khamose with the help of the `One'. The Defeat of the Hyksos by Kamose Here is a part of the account of a tablet found by L. Carnarvon in 1908 recounting the defeat of the Hyksos from the point of view of Kamose: "I should like to know what purpose serves my strength, when one prince is in Avaris and another is in Kush, and I sit united with an `A`am (Asiatic) and a Negro - each man holding his slice of the Black Land - who share the land with me. I do not pass him(??) as far as Memphis, the water (?) of Egypt. Behold, he holds(?) Shmun, and no man rests, being wasted(?) through servitude(?) of the Setyu. I will grapple with him, that I may cleave his belly. My desire is to deliver Egypt, and to smite(?) the `A'amu." [1400] Khamose then battled the enemy in the vicinity of Elephantine in the south of Egypt.[1500]
The Rise of Queenly Power |
| The Scriptural Accounts | Non-Scriptural Sources |
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Probably the best known tradesman was Noah whose feat of constructing a giant floating ark must have required skills and tools we cannot appreciate without some more detailed thought. Apparently the ancients had no special difficulties in cutting down large trees and shaping various types of wood as they had no problems in shaping the hardest stones like granite and diorite. To suggest that such work could be done with just stone tools seems rather impossible. We suggest that metal tools were in use long before Noah's time and a Stone Age never existed except perhaps for peoples living on the fringes of civilization. Granted, these peripheral societies living away from city or cultural centers, were the large majority of the world population. We suggest that modern researchers presenting Stone Age cultures apart from Metal Ages introduce, in doing so, a skewed picture of antiquity which lives only in their books. One of the great tradesmen of the distant past was Abraham. Donkey and Camel caravans were the merchants truck fleets of that age. They distributed their wares along the major travel routes from China to North Africa in all directions. Sometimes goods would reach exorbitant prices due to having changed hands so often. The story of the Queen of Sheba and Solomon and the merchant aspects of that visit show how the Egyptians and Israelites sought for ways to eliminate the high prices caused by middle men merchants by trading and selling direct. Shipping lanes were the competition for the caravans in a limited way [Egypt and Levant] for shipping also brought regions together [Egypt and Greece] which never could be reached by caravans. | This section needs still some updating but we intended to present some statements from extra-biblical, historical sources in this section, i.e. Herodotus, Homer. |
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For the latest on the Chronological Origin of the Thutmoside rulers click
Here! Amenhotep III and his Queen Tiye [1600] were among the wealthiest, if not the wealthiest, of the Egyptian kings. Their life is written up in many books and need not be repeated here. This king is of interest, however, because of his connections to the Amarna Age and because of our latest discoveries. There is some evidence for Amenophis (prenomen Nebmaatre) to have visited Akhetaten, the capital of his son Akhnaton. It is based on a discussion of a, with a damaged text inscribed bowl, saying in effect that Nebmaatre was "in Akhetaton", according to F.J. Giles.[1650]
For the latest on Amenhotep III
A tomb (TT226) thought to belong to the time of Amenhotep III, Akhnaton and Akhetaten The central region for most of the 18th Dynasty kings was Thebes and Karnak. Akhenaten changed all this and moved his residential capital some 170 miles further north on the banks of the Nile. Here the `Royal Road' connected the central city with administrative buildings all the way up passed `The Sun Temple' to `The North Palace', Akhnaton's consort's palace, and to `The Riverside Palace', his royal residence. One well known architectural characteristic was Akhnaton's `Window of Appearances'. He may even have been the first monarch to employ such a design. [1800] Akhnaton is also famous for his wives. His Queen was Nefertiti.[1825] The name of his secondary Queen was Kiya, possibly the mother of Tutankhamen. [1850] Archaeologists also excavated and described splendid residences of the nobles of the city of Akhetaten. Among these is the ca. 2850 ft2 (265 m2) home of a vizier by the name of `Nakht', the compound of the sculptor Thutmose of El Amarna as well as a 27 room El Amarna mansion (ca. 5710 ft2), owner unknown. Artists drawings are included. [1900] But the city was not to survive for very long as events unfolded causing many officials to locate their tombs elsewhere, away from Amarna, like near Saqqara. We are told, here the tomb of Raïay or Hatiay, the son of a gold smith, who became a top administrator of the treasury of the temples of Aten in the southern capital and in Memphis, was located. The art work inside reveals his devotion to Akhnaton/Amenophis III. While tombs of other personalities linked with Akhnaton had been damaged, Raïay's survived whatever changes brought Akhetaten down. His beautiful young wife Maïa (was she the wetnurse Maya?), was also provided space in the tomb. But neither was found to be buried in their finished tomb. Why we can only guess at. [2000] Evidence for the Mycenaean Age Paralleling the El Amarna Age This evidence is based on papyrus fragments found by Pendlebury in 1936 in House R 43:2 when he wrote, "finds in this building included a complete Mycenaean vase (the second complete example found on the site) and a number of fragments of papyrus - still awaiting a proper treatment.' This treatment was accomplished by Bridget Leach (Conservation Department of the British Museum). All the fragments of the painted papyrus portion have now been positioned with reasonable certainty. They show 3 accumulations of small fragments (right to left) as part of a battle scene, a) `Libyan archers are depicted attacking a fallen Egyptian in a rocky terrain'; b) the middle scene shows running troops and an archer shooting an arrow; c) running foot soldiers. The significance of these scenes is that they show the unusual feature of a type of helmet on some of the running troops which are said to be remarkably similar to boar tusk helmets as found in Mycenaean images. One of the helmeted figures is also interpreted to wear a cropped ox-hide tunic which also has Aegean parallels.[2100] The Strange Ending of the 18th Dynasty In part based on `Oedipus and Akhnaton', I. Velikovski With the passing of Amenophis IV (Akhnaton) the affairs surrounding the remaining rulers need to be retold so we may understand that there was no such thing as a transition from the 18th to the 19th Dynasty. It was in 1907 that Theodore M. Davis, a business man from Rhode Island, who became interested in archaeological excavations while making a chance visit to Egypt, decided to clear a small area in the Valley of the Kings (Tomb 55). After having exposed several other tombs in times past, this time he found the undisturbed tomb of Yuya [2200] and Tuya, Queen Tiy's parents. Inside Davis found 4 beautifully made canopic jars of alabaster with identically carved lids. The heads were made by master craftsmen. [2300] The eyes were open, the irises and pupils inlaid with dark stones. The jars had once the name of their owner incised in them but now they were chiseled away. Inside the jar he found cloth material which had been soaked in bitumen but nothing else remained. On the floor Davis found gold covered "doors" bearing the name of Queen Tiy. These doors were later judged to have been the sides of the catafalque inside which the coffin lay once enclosed. One of the partly with rubbish covered doors showed the full figure of the Queen engraved into metal foil. She was dressed in a thin, translucent tunic showing the contours of her body. |
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The figure of Akhnaton standing right in front had been chiseled out. The coffin itself was made of wood covered with gold foil and inlaid with precious stones. It had been dropped cracking its side wide open exposing the head and neck of the mummy. The small mummy's head bore the circle of a gold crown. The head and hands were delicate indicating to Davis that he had found the mummy of a female. The mummy wore fine textured clothing and had a perfect set of teeth which turned to dust at the slightest touch. The whole body was covered with pure gold foil sheets but thick enough that when put upright they would not sag. The presence of jewelry, a necklace and gold foil proved that the tomb had never been robbed. Yet, the tomb was extremely disorderly. The burial place chosen also seemed inappropriate for a queen since her servants had better constructed ones than she did. No pictures adorned the walls, it was just a rough cut hole in the ground. Someone had broken the catafalque apart and put some pieces of it on top of some rubble stones in the entrance corridor. The erasure of the names also did not make it easier to solve the enigma. When Gaston Maspero studied the artifacts he found those of Queen Tiy but decided the coffin to have more the appearance of having been made for Akhnaton. Even though the name had been erased, the titles were still legible. He read, "living in truth" an epithet typically used by this king. Hieroglyphics also were typical epithets used by Akhnaton. However, the age determined by the anatomist spoke against this mummy to have been that of Akhnaton who reigned for some 16 years and was a grown man when he became king. Despite the findings of the anatomist, Maspero was joined by Arthur Weigall in declaring the mummy to be that of Akhnaton. They relied upon the fact that in the `foundation' deposits bricks were found bearing royal seal impressions of Akhnaton and again others bearing that of Thutankhamen. There was only one other clue, a prayer or a love song cut with a stylus in the gold foil under the feet of the mummy. This prayer was not included in the report made by Davis and Maspero but was translated and published later. |
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"I inhale the sweet breeze that comes from thy mouth, I contemplate thy beauty every day. It's my desire to hear thy lovely voice like the north wind's whiff. Love will rejuvenate my limbs. Give me thy hands that hold thy soul, I shall embrace and live by it. Call me by name again, again, forever, and never will it sound without response. |
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It read like the parting song of a survivor to the deceased. The text of it had been secreted under the feet. The name of the author had been erased. Later Dr. G. Elliot Smith, a professor of anatomy, examined the remains and declared the body to be male about 25 to 26 years old based on ossification. This age was later reduced to 24 years old by Dr. Derry, who took over the position of Dr. Smith, who agreed to the reduction in age of the mummy. Also, the skull bore evidence of hydrocephalus according to Dr. Smith, an abnormal condition in which the frontal part of the cranium is extended but never the occipital part, as is the case with the cranium of Akhnaton. This finding, too, was later judged a normal family related feature by Dr. Derry. He asked Dr. Engelbach, an Egyptologist, to examine the evidence and determine whose body it could be. He decided it was the mummy of Smenkhare, a favorite of Akhnaton, who also bore those titles.[2320] A comparison of the mummy remains of `Smenkhare' and `Thutankhamen' revealed that they were brothers. This fact has reportedly been confirmed more recently by determining the blood group on the bases of small amounts of remaining skin of the mummy of KV55 as the rare A2 type which also happens to be the type of the mummy of Tuthankhamen. It may be of interest that in the Spring of 2000 two stamped jar handles with the cartouches of Neb-kheperu-ra (Tutankhamun) and Ankh-kheperu-ra wa-en-ra (Smenkhekara) were found during excavations at Tel el Borg in the northern Sinai.[2350] On the subject of the coffin of Akhenaten found in the tomb (KV55) all the inscriptions on the trough and lid are described by W.J. Murnane. [2400] Professor G. Martin concluded that the cartouche of Akhenaten in Kiya's titulary on the coffin lid had not been hacked out, but very carefully cut out, as if in preparation for the insertion of another name. That makes it appear that the coffin was adapted for someone other than Akhenaten. The Mystery Surrounding the Sun God's Servants To borrow in part a title from a late issue of National Geographic magazine focusing on `Raiay' or `Hatiay', the son of a goldsmith who apparently became a top administrator under Akhnaton. The unfinished tomb was found by Alain Zivie who discusses the presumed religious changes taking place during his time. [2500]
The Succession After Akhnaton
Some say the end of Akhnaton was sudden, others it was gradual. His city was abandoned by everyone. Archaeologists could find no evidence that anyone was buried in the tombs of the nobles of Akhet-Aton. Later kings omitted Akhnaton and his heirs in their Karnak and Abydos lists of pharaohs. Where his name should be they wrote: "that criminal of Akhet Aten". [2900] But the account of Herodotus of Anysis going into exile for over 50 years and bringing in the story about Sabacos, the Ethiopian, then, after 50 years returning to become king, could hardly be possible in the life time of one man. Sabacos (Shabaka) belongs to the end of the 8th century BC while Akhnaton lived in the 2nd half of the 9th century BC.
Davis found yet another grave which did not get into the official report but deserved to be recorded.
"A short time ago, I found a small pit tomb three hundred feet from Tiyi's tomb. It was covered with rock and sand about three feet deep. It proved to be about seven feet square and six feet deep. It was filled with white jars sealed with covers." [3100]
We would like to enumerate the following facts about tomb 55 and cite suggested conclusions: |
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Facts about Tiyi, Tut-ankh-amen and Aye 1. Amenhotep III broke tradition by marrying Tiyi [3150] who used a title `Queen's nurse' for having raised Nefretete. 2. Tut-ankh-amen's queen was sixteen year old Ankhesenpaaten. They had two children who were stillborn and their mummies were found in his tomb. 3. In order to establish his right to the throne Ay married the widow of Tut-ankh-amen, Ankhesenpaaten who was renamed Ankhesenamen, his own granddaughter. But not very long and we hear no more of Ankhesenamen. [3200] 4. While Akhnaton and Smenkhare used the appellation `living in truth', Ay used and described himself as one `Who is doing right', a rather unusual appellation in the history of Egypt. 5. The appellation was probably used by Ay to profess that he did his duty to the crown and Egypt by deposing Akhnaton, installing Akhnaton's sons and then siding with the younger son in the brother's conflict and imprisoning Meritaten in the pit tomb. 6. Ay's second wife and his later queen was Ty who bore the same name as Tiy, Ay's sister; the names are spelled differently only for us to be able to tell them apart. 7. The relationship between Ay, Yuya and Thuya was proposed based upon the similarity of the names of the Akhmim family. This Akhmim family was very closely related to the last pharaohs of the 18th Dynasty, and provided not only Queen Tiyi, who married Amenhotep III, but also Nefertiti. Ay is thought to having been Neferitit's father on the basis of his title `God's Father', which is understood to mean `God's Father-in-Law'. Yuya used this same title thought to provide more evidence in favor of the previous supposition regarding Neferitit. But who was the mother of Nefertiti? She was not Ay's later wife, Tiyi, who is described as a nurse. Therefore, they say, it must have been an earlier wife. Yuya was the father of Tiyi according to Cyril Aldred, 1988. See also Damien Mackey's paper first published on CIAS here and compare to Donald B. Redford, `The Monotheism of the Heretic Pharaoh' in BAR, May 1987, p. 16-32. 8. Ay's cruelty toward Meritaten was also dictated by him perceiving the need to prevent some other pretender to the throne from marrying Smenkhare's widow, the eldest daughter of Akhnaton, and by doing so have more rights to the throne than he himself. 9. Nefretete was a daughter of Ay by an earlier marriage who was nursed and raised by Tiyi. [3300] 10. Tutankhamen's tomb had originally been for Ay by his brother in law, Amenhotep III, not far from the tomb of his parents, Yuya and Tuya, in the Valley of the Kings. The tomb was located close to that of Amenhotep III. It is possible Tut's tomb was first planned to be for Smenkhare, when he was king for about one year but neither of the brothers was entombed in it. Aye finished the large tomb for himself. 11. Ay's reign lasted about four years and did not end peacefully. "Anarchy ensued. Thebes was a prey of plundering bands who forced their way into the royal tombs." [3400] 12. The invaders did the greatest damage to the tomb of Ay. It was not an act of robbing but one of violence and vengeance. [3500] 13. It is likely that these invading bands were once before called in by Smenkhare to help him regain the throne. |
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The love poem found underneath the feet of the mummy 1. Smenkhars's nomen name included `Nerfer-nef-ruaten' which once belonged to Nefertiti. 2. From this we should not conclude that Nefertiti wrote a love song to Akhnaton in his grave. 3. The possible allusion to Smenkhare in the poem has nothing to do with the ownership of the coffin itself. 4. The love poem to Smenkhare was written by a female and he was called `brother'. 5. The coffin (KV55) supposedly with the mummy of Smenkhare, bears the royal uraeus at the head and the royal scepter in his hands [3550], was made for Akhnaton and the catafalque for Tiy. 6. The latest identification of the head of the canopic jar lids is that of the eldest daughter of Akhnaton and consort of Smenkhare, Meritaten. Meritaten was the sister or half sister and queen wife of Smenkhare. 7. It appears that the person who secreted the love poem underneath the feet of the mummy was the same who carefully obliterated (not to destroy) the name on her own canopic jars and placed them into the tomb. 8. It appears that Meritaten introduced whatever precious objects she could find into the tomb. 9. Some miniature canopic coffins, one of the enormous gold shrines and adornments which covered the mummy had originally been made for Smenkhare but were usurped for the funeral of Tut-ankh-amen. 10. The intruders to tomb 55 were agents of Ay. They used the same seal - a jackal over nine prisoners - which appears on the door of Tut-ankh-amen's grave and the pit in the rock with the clay vessels in it. |
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The pit in the rock tomb The pit in the rock tomb was found in 1908 and is located 300 feet from Tiyi's, 120 yards from King Tut's and 100 yards from tomb 55. It measured: |
| 7 x 7 x 6 feet according to Davis | 6.5 x 4.25 x 7 feet according to Winlock |
| Inside the tomb numerous objects were found: |
| a) many pots, vessels and small cups |
1) too small to serve more than one meal and therefore hardly suitable for a funeral meal of a group of people. 2) 7 vessels of reddish-brown earthenware, have "labels written rapidly in hieratic from right to left in black ink" reading: corn, dsrt (a drink?), half loaf, grapes". 3) 65 identical, uninscribed cups 4) 1 wine jar 5) a number of bottles 6) several water drinking vessels 7) 60 odd dishes of varying sizes, colors and shapes many of which had been broken and thrown into the larger jars 8) 4 chips from a painted bowl 9) 3 lids of baked clay with a red slip the smallest of which had a thick crust of black soot the other two had traces of what looked like dried lamp oil |
| b) remains of food |
All meat was cooked 1) a shoulder blade from a cow showing hack marks of a clover 2) 4 ribs of sheep or goat 3) the majority of the bones were parts of the skeleton of 9 ducks belonging to 3 or 4 different species 4) bones of four geese of three different species |
| c) remains of some linen cloth |
1. linen with blue-black marks painted on them "The marks were among the most curious I have ever seen." One mark was that giving the last year of the reign of King Tut, the other was woven by hand in white thread into the linen and read:"Long live the Good King Nofer." We are told that Nofer was the name Smenkhare assumed after Nefretete left Akhnaton. 2. 2 of the linens had the last year of the reign of Tut-ankh-amen on them 3. 1 sheet measured 2.44 meters long and 0.61 meters wide. (over 8x over 2 feet) - from this sheet a piece of the width from each side had been ripped off "The sheet is of very fine, tightly woven but not heavy linen, with 36 warp threads and 28 woof threads to the centimeter." [3600] |
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d) six clay impressions of seals - |
1. 3 of these had the distinct cartouche of Tut-ankh-amen 2. 1 seal of the priest of the necropolis of the Valley of the Kings showing a jackal above 9 bound captives. [3700] |
| e) among the rags were three kerchiefs | We are told that these kinds of kerchiefs were worn by women over their hair. |
| f) 6 or 7 hand made flower collars |
flower collars were made of olive leaves, cornflowers and berries of the nightshade None of these collars were as elaborate as that found on the innermost coffin of King Tut and therefore it was assumed that none of those who had used the utensils mentioned had the rank of king |
| g) two very used looking `brooms' | These consisted just of a bushy branch with a cord tied around the handle |
| h) a small, painted plaster mask of a young woman | Such masks were made in the life time of a person usually of higher rank to be later placed into their mortuary chamber. Winlock wrote: "It looks like a miniature mummy mask such as we would ordinarily expect to find on canopic bundles..." |
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Comments: V. thought that this `Pit in the Rock' tomb had been used by the agents of Ay to imprison Meritaten, that she received food there until she used the torn off linen stripes to end her life. [There is no substitute for reading the book though.] Therefore, it could be that the small child depicted in the royal tomb at Amarna for the funeral of Meritaten was young Tutankhamun. For our purposes we can see that the 18th Dynasty ended as a result of the double dealings of the ambitious Ay who brought the heirs of Akhnaton to their deaths possibly at the hands of the enemies. These Libyan enemies took advantage of the power vacuum in Egypt and established the 22nd Dynasty at the passing of Ay. Thus, the ending of the 18th Dynasty reminds us of the end of the 12th Dynasty, both had no heirs ready to wear the crown of Egypt after the death of their last king. There is no insurmountable indication whatsoever that someone like Horemheb lived at this time and took over the reigns of the country. Let us also not forget that the name of Horemheb was found in the tomb of Petamenophis located in the Valley of the Kings, TT33. Petamenophis was a highly placed official during the time of the Ethiopian Dynasty in Egypt. This tomb attracted early on the attention of archaeologists for its great size and ambitious layout in a prestigious location. It was first described by Richard Lepsius in his `Denkmäler' [3800] and judged by Rudolf Anthes and Grapow to be of Ethiopian times. [3900] Therefore, we must follow the account found in Josephus on the three brothers to get the story on Armais/Harmhab as the ancients knew it. At least we have the backing of an ancient source and recommend to our readers to give this some thought. |
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Bridging the 18th and 22nd Dynasty according to the Revised Model In our revision Sheshonk was a contemporary of Pharaoh Tutankhamon and Pharaoh Ay. During the time of the latter's reign it seems the `Stela of Shoshenk' makes references to when it addresses `His Majesty', meaning Pharaoh Ay. Convention assumes `His Majesty' refers to the 21st Dynasty Priest-king Pesibkhenno which does not make sense to us. We must ask the question, `What do we know about Pharaoh Ay and his relations to the Lybians?' Some point to Ay when it comes to the question how Tutankhamen and Smenkhare died. The painted chest from the tomb of Tutankhamen showing Africans/Ethiopians or more likely Lybians waging war against the Egyptians was arranged or supported by Ay to help him come to power. While the evidence is circumstantial, it makes sense in connection with Shoshenk I later coming to power in Egypt itself. There is then an overlap of reignal years probably from the time of Tutankhamen to the end of Ay with Shoshenk I's reignal years. [4000]
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| A few observations and comparisons to the Greek Oedipus story |
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1. The hundred gated Thebes in Egypt was the capital during 18th Dynasty times. [Even though the city had no city wall with 100 gates, its vast temple enclosures gave the appearance of many gates.] 2. Amenhotep III 3. Sudden appearance of female sphinx 4. The shrine dedicated to Hathor of Der el Medinah 5. The colossi of Memnon gave oracular messages 6. Tiy was first the Queen of Amenhotep III. 7. Amenhotep III was the first and only pharaoh who had himself represented in female clothing. [Cyril Aldred, `Bulletin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art', February 1957] 8. The reign of Amenhotep III ended abruptly. 9. Tiy was briefly the sole reigning monarch before the ascendency of Akhnaton. [EA#28] 10. Normal practice would be that the sons of the deceased king would make known his death. In the case of Amenhotep III the persons who made his death known are referred to as `they'; in other words they were not his sons. [EA#29] 11. Akhnaton was a stranger to the Egyptians. It appears he had arrived from abroad. EA letter #29 shows that Akhnaton did not know the correspondents of his father. 12. Akhnaton probably grew up in Mitanni, a kingdom whose exact location is not certain. 13. The sphinx of Thebes was destroyed probably by dropping it from a cliff near the temple of Hatshepsut at Deir el Bahari were many pieces of a broken sphinx were found. [4100] |
1. The seven gated Thebes in Boetia (Greece) was founded by Cadmus and often opposed Athens. 2. Amenhotep III was the model for Laius. 6. Tiy was the model for Jocasta. |
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14. Tiy's brother was Ay and Ay was the father of Nefretete. 15. The parents of Tiy and Ay were Yuya and Tuya. 16. Akhnaton was a son of Tiy. Therefore Akhnaton's daughter with Tiy was also his sister. 17. Akhnaton had apparently at least three daughters: Meritaten, Ankhesenpaaten and Beketaten. He had two sons, Smenkhare and Tutankhamun. 18. Akhnaton had two wives and lived with his mother-wife in incest. His second wife was Nefretete. 19. Parennefer may have been the one who raised Akhnaton when an infant. [A. Erman, H. Ranke, `Ägypten und Ägyptisches Leben im Altertum', (1923), pp. 133-134; C. Aldred, `The End of the El Amarna Period', Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, Vol. XLIII (1957), pp. 30-41] |
14. Ay was the model for Creon. 16. Akhnaton was the model for Oedipus 17. Smenkhare may be the model for Eteocles and Tutankhamun for Polyneices. Meritaten may be the model for Antigone. |
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Valley of the Kings Tomb KV35 presently contains three mummies, walled up in their private chamber. Of the three, the 'elder woman' has been identified as Queen Tiy, Akhenaten's mother and subsequent wife, the '15-year old' boy as Thutmose V, who died too young to reign, and the 'younger woman' is generally held to be Nefertiti, though this identification is uncertain. Conventional history is at a loss to explain why these three mummies should have been singled out for placement away from the others found reburied within the tomb. Our revised history has no such difficulties. As Dr Velikovsky pointed out in Oedipus and Akhnaton, Queen Tiy corresponds to Queen Jocasta in the Oedipus legend, and took her own life. The wisdom teeth in the 'young woman' mummy have not emerged, which makes her too young to be Nefertiti. She is thus Smenkhare's sister and wife, Meritaten, the Antigone who secretly buried her brother's body and was immured living within a pit for her deed. Before long, she took her own life. There is a common link between these 'isolated' mummies: suicide. This points to suicide as the cause of Thutmose V's premature death, and further enables us to identify him as Chrysippus of the Oedipus legend, the youth who took his own life when violated by Laius (Amenhotep III).(PW) |
Additional Discoveries of Interest "Early last November, coinciding with the 75th anniversary of the discovery of Tut Ankhamen's burial chamber, a French archeological team headed by Alain Zivie uncovered a most revealing Ancient Egyptian tomb in Sakkara a few kilometers south west of Cairo, not far from Memphis the sometime administrative capital of Ancient Egypt. Digging into rock below a modern day guest house and cafeteria, the French team discovered what appeared to be at first an Ancient Egyptian nobleman's tomb. A more thorough examination and -- bingo! The underground chamber revealed this was no mere nobleman's place of rest but was the tomb of Maya the divine wet nurse, a beautiful noblewoman whose highborn breasts had been suckled by the Pharaoh God, Tut Ankhamen. Engraved on the adjoining tombs' walls were members of the late 18th Dynasty nobility including priests, grandees, the chief of the royal treasury, ambassadors and three generations from a family of royal painters. At a December 7, 1997 press conference held at the Egyptian Ministry of Culture, Zivie explained that this latest discovery was only the beginning. The French Egyptologist expected further consequential revelations to come out of Maya's near intact tomb. For instance, we may finally uncover who was King Tut's biological mother as opposed to his well known Divine Parenthood. Although we know King Tut Ankhamen was born in Tel al-Amarna and that he was reportedly the son of Amenhotep III (an earlier 18th-dynasty king), to this day no one determined who exactly gave birth to the Boy King. From his time also comes a hunting scene painted on the lid of a box found in his tomb showing the king standing in a chariot with a drawn bow, charging into a herd of running gazelles and ostriches. [4200]
Another unknown which might soon be cleared concerns the court painters depicted on the nearby murals. Are they the same ones who decorated the wonders that survived from that turbulent period? Many questions some of which are about to be answered.
[0100] `Stela of Kamose'; Ahmed Fakhri, `Bahriyah and Farafra', NY, 1974, p. 58. |