The Egypt New Kingdom is the historical period that begins with the reunification of Egypt under Ahmose I (c. 1550 BC ) and that ends around 1070 BC. when the Libyan kings took the throne of Egypt.
These three dynasties are part of it: the eighteenth, eighteenth, and eighteenth—the second transitional period: between the second transitional period and the third transitional period for Egypt.
History of Egypt New Kingdom
( 1550 – 1069 ane ) Dynasty XVIII
With the unification of Egypt and the start of the 18th Dynasty by Ahmosis I, the Egypt New Kingdom began ( 1570 – 1070 BC ). Ahmosis set the boundaries, goals, and bureaucracy of the Middle Kingdom back up. He also revived the land-use program. It helped him keep a fair balance of power between himself and the nomarchs, and the army helped him do that.
The wives and mothers of the pharaohs had very high titles and were very important, and this shows how important women were in the New Kingdom. For many reasons, this is dynasty thought to be the most important in the history of Egypt.
When Ahmose I (Amosis) took the throne at 10, his mother, Ahhetep, took charge of Egypt because he was still a child. He waged war against the Hyksos and drove them out of the country for good. He didn’t stop until he reached Palestine.
People who came up with new weapons could defeat the Hyksos with those weapons. When his military campaign was over, he tried to take over the kingdom. It took Ahmose I three military campaigns to take over all of his lands until the second waterfall. This area was critical to Egypt because it had a lot of gold.
People began to trade with other countries, especially Phenicia and Crete when he was in charge. The building of monuments and temples also started to pick up. Of Cush, which is in the south of Egypt, was a friend of these people.
The same foreign policy used by Amenhotep II, and Dyehutimes IV and used again. Fights against the Mitani people kept going on the Euphrates, and he married the daughter of the King of Mitani to make sure there was peace between the two groups.
He worked to save and restore monuments and temples when there was peace again. It is one of the things the great Sphinx of Giza came from the desert. As a pharaoh, Dyehutimes has slept under the great Sphinx.
He then had a dream where the god Ra said would be made King if the Sphinx cleared of sand. As it was so, he ordered that a stone be put between his legs to remind him that he owed the throne to the god- sun Ra who the Sphinx represented.
His son, Amenhotep III, better known as the Magnificent, took over after his death and led the country for a long time. He was the son of DyehutimesIV and Matenuya, and he named after his mother. A lot of things happened in Egypt during his almost 40-year reign.
As a result, he married a daughter of the King of Mitani named Shuttarna II, and he also married a daughter of the King of Babylon and another of the King of Arzawa.
It shows that he was more of a pacifist than a warlord. Tiy was also married to him. Because the capital was still Thebes, Imenhetep III spent a lot of time in Memphis even though Memphis was still the capital. It meant that Imenhetep III kept up with the small steps its predecessor made to get closer to the clergy of Heliopolis and the solar cult and did so with more force.
While at the same time, he started giving important jobs to the priests of Heliopolis. Amenhotep III built a lot of temples and monuments across the country. The vizier and architect Amenhotep, son of Hapu, was so well-known that he was made a god in the late ages because of his work.
During his rule, he never left Egypt, and he never went to his Asian possessions. They started to become less friendly with each other because of this. After a long time, the palace intrigues began. As an older man, Pharaoh asked to marry his King’s daughter so that the Mitani people would be closer to him. For Princess Tadu-Jeba to marry him, her father sent her.
From now on, we’ll be at a significant time in the history of Egypt. He went through a substantial change in his life’s religious and artistic parts. In this book, you will find the reigns of Imenhetep III (its end), Imenhetep IV / Ajenaton, and TutAnkhAmun.
The Amarniense Period is where we live (Tell el-Amarna). The written records of this time are very many, so it is a well-known stage.
Don’t miss to check out our ultimate guide about the Ancient Egyptian Symbols
Religion in the Egypt New Kingdom
Amon was the main god of the Thebans when it came to religion. Ahmose I also started to spread the cult of Osiris, the god of vegetation, and especially the god of the Lower World or funeral.
Ahmose I was buried in the Theban necropolis. His son, Amenhotep I (Amenophis), took over the throne after his death.
This Pharaoh is best known for making many changes to their funerals. He broke away from the physical connection between the funerary temple and the burial of the kings and queens and built them on their own.
It is believed that he was the Valley of the Kings cemetery founder, although his tomb has not been found there yet.
Imenhetep didn’t have any children, so her sister Princess Amosis gave the rights to her husband, who is now her husband.
Dyehutimes I (Tuthmosis) was the name he took because the right to the throne had been given to him by law, not by birth. Toth is the god of the law, among other things.
I didn’t leave male heirs, either. She married her stepbrother Dyehutimes II (the father was Dyehutimes I and the mother Mutnefert), who ruled Egypt for four years.
Her son Dyehutimes III, who was still a child, took over.
She took over the regency because she had just killed her. During the first few years, he took on the roles of King or queen, depending on what needed at the time.
The so-called Theogamy: The god (in this case Amun) is incarnated in the Pharaoh to beget the heir, who thus receives the right to reign. For example, Hapuseneb was the Vizier and the High Priest of Amun when he was in charge, and Senmut was also the Second Priest of Amun and his royal architect.
Most people know that he went to Opone (Punt) country to look for exotic goods, like precious woods, aromatic resins, incense trees, and three kinds of scented wood (toshep, jasuy, and imet).
He also looked for ivory, gold, and ebony. When Senmut built a temple on one of the terraces of Deir el-Bahari, he made this journey into a picture.
You can take a look at our article about Egyptian Gods and Goddess
Characters of Egypt New Kingdom:
Senmut – Head of Amon’s police force
Queen Hatshepsut’s favorite architect and, maybe, a lover of hers. He was the father of his daughter, Neferure, and took care of her when he was away.
He built the funerary site of Deir el-Medina. He buried in the tomb TT71 on the nearby hill of Sheikh Abd el-Qurna, although he ordered to make another one very close to the funeral temple of Hatshepsut.
Sennefer – The mayor of South City
They were all state servers. Sennefer came from a family that served the state. During the reign of Amenhotep II, his brother named Pairy was the vizier.
He buried in the TT96 tomb on the Sheikh Abd el-Qurna Hill, where he was born.
The decoration, especially its ceiling, is made up of many grapes, which is why it is best known as the tomb of the vines.
Rejmira – The governor of the city and the vizier are both in this job.
He lived during the time of Dyehutimes III and Amenhotep II. He was the vizier, the second most important person after the Pharaoh, and he was the most important person. Sheikh Abd el-Qurna Hill, where he buried in the TT100 tomb, where he buried. This tomb is unusual because it doesn’t have a funerary well, and it means that the idea that Rejmire planted in the Valley of the Kings thrown out.
Rames – The governor of the city and the vizier are both in this job.
He was a vizier in the times of Imenhetep III and Imenhetep IV / Ajenaton. Indeed he lived in Thebes and later in Ajetaton, following his Pharaoh Ajenaton. He buried on Sheikh Abd el-Qurna Hill in the TT55 tomb.
Jonsu
People call him the first prophet of Menjeperra.
He was born in Dyehutimes III, and he lived then. He buried in TT31.
Benia – Supervisor of the Works.
He called Pahekmen. He buried in tomb TT343.
Amenhotep – People who work as viziers and architects.
He was born in Athribis. Under the reign of Amenhotep III, he worked on many things. It was deified in the Ptolemaic Period. The possessor of his funerary temple and his tomb stood at Qurnet Murai.
Userhat
First Prophet of the Ka of Dyehutimes II. He was buried in tomb TT51.
First military campaigns
Ahmose I (1550-1525 BC), despite being a direct descendant of the rulers of the 17th Thebes dynasty, is considered the first ruler of the 18th dynasty because he was a unifier of Egypt.
The King continued his military activity in Asia shortly after his capture of the city of Sharruhan (in the present-day Gaza Strip) (in the last Gaza Strip).
This area was significant for geopolitics and economics because it controlled the main route from Egypt to the north, in the coastal strip.
Ahmose’s first trips to Asia may have been to fight the Hyksos. The cities of southern Canaan appear to have been under the control of Avaris.
The wars against the Hyksos and Asia helped build a well-organized army with a lot of experience.
The best occupation of the kings of the Eighteenth Dynasty was to continue the work of Ahmose, that is, to achieve a military imposition in both Nubia and the Levant, as in the case of his son Amenhotep or Amenophis I (1524 – 1504 AD), which expanded the borders beyond the boundaries of the previous rule.
The son and successor of Amenhotep, Thutmose or Tutmosis I, went on many necessary trips into Canaan and Syria. He reached the Euphrates.
Economy in Egypt New Kingdom
In addition to providing large amounts of tributes, military campaigns made economic expansion possible.
The Pharaonic government organized the mining operations and protected them through a military presence. These include:
- Gold, stone, and diorite (used for making sculptures) from Nubia. There were a lot of gold mines in Nubia that Egyptians ran, and they called the governor of Nubia “supervisor.”
- Copper and turquoise from Sinai.
- Gold, porphyry, and alabaster in the Eastern desert.
In Nubia, Amon is a very popular god, so he was chosen to protect the gold mining there. In Sinai, Hathor, also very popular, was selected to preserve the turquoise mining there.
In Thebes, the mining wealth went to the government, which used it to build and repair public buildings, like temples, palaces, and necropolis.
It was common to bury kings and members of the royal family in the capital. The royal cemetery located in front of Karnak, at the height of Thebes, but on the western bank of the Nile, the opposite one.
Large-scale trade with Asia or other points of the Eastern Mediterranean was booming. It had not been interrupted at any time by the presence of the hicsa in the delta during the Intermediate Period.
They used the Red Sea and the Indian Ocean for a lot of trade at a very high level.
Egyptian sources talk about trade with Punt, which is now Somalia. They found Egyptian artifacts from the 18th dynasty in the equatorial region of East Africa, which, if not indicating the scope of Egyptian trade expeditions, shows how the villages of the Indian basin became more commercially oriented.
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