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Amenhotep IIIPharaoh of Ancient Egypt
Country:
 Egypt |
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Biography of Amenhotep III
Pharaoh of Ancient Egypt, Amenhotep III, ruled during one of the greatest periods of the ancient Egyptian civilization. The evidence of this is seen in the grand temple complexes, exquisite sculptures, elegant toilet articles, and many other works of art that are considered masterpieces in the best Egyptian museum collections in the world. Despite the abundance of this evidence, Amenhotep III still remains a figure that is largely mysterious and contradictory. On one hand, he revered the traditional Egyptian gods and built luxurious temples for them, but on the other hand, it was during his reign that the roots of the upcoming Amarna reform were laid when royal self-deification reached unprecedented levels. Hundreds of his portraits are known, however, along with this, there is a lack of written sources about his reign for many years. Despite the seeming accessibility and variety of monuments from this time and the conditional "clarity" of the era, the reign of Amenhotep III still requires serious and detailed research.
Dated Sources
Dated sources that have survived from the reign of Amenhotep III are relatively rare. There are eleven dated royal documents, nine of which belong to the period from the first to the eleventh year of his reign, and two others belong to the thirty-fifth year. The inscription from the first year of his reign is known in Deir el-Bersha, not far from the limestone quarries; this inscription is associated with construction work in the temple of Thoth in Hermopolis, located on the other side of the Nile. The double inscription from the second year in Tura is associated with the resumption of work in the quarries in connection with the construction of the "Temple of Millions of Years" of the king in Kom el-Hettan and possibly in Memphis. Four monuments among the dated ones are commemorative scarabs, with texts mentioning: marriage to a Mitannian princess (tenth year), hunting wild bulls (second year), hunting wild lions (first and tenth years), and the creation of the artificial lake Birket Abu for Queen Tiye (eleventh year). Finally, three stelae from the fifth year of his reign are connected to the only military event of Amenhotep III's time - the campaign in Nubia. After the eleventh year of his reign, all dated monuments seem to disappear until the thirty-fifth year, which is mentioned on two stelae from Gebel el-Silsila, whose texts narrate the extraction of stone for the funerary temple of the king and the construction of a building in honor of Ra-Atum. It is difficult to understand why two decades of relative "silence" followed the first eleven years of Amenhotep III's reign, filled with events and monuments. Some documents that can be relatively accurately dated appear after the thirtieth year of the king's reign and are directly related to the three Sed festivals; they have been found either in the tombs of high-ranking officials who took part in them or in the ruins of the Malkata palace, where some episodes of the celebrations took place. Numerous seals and fragments of wine vessels used during the festivities, containing inscriptions and sometimes dates, have been discovered here.
Private Monuments
If the majority of Amenhotep III's reign is relatively silent and lacks dated documents, many important events of his reign are known thanks to the extensive number of private and courtly monuments. The dated monuments of the reign of Amenhotep III seem like a small drop in the ocean compared to the sea of other monuments, which can be divided into two groups: works of art and the Amarna diplomatic archive. Works of art constitute another, most significant and interesting part of the monuments of the reign of Amenhotep III. They include grand temples of the king and numerous sculptures, among which over two hundred statues of the king occupy a special place, ranging from miniature figurines made of steatite to the colossi of Thebes. Private monuments, despite their abundance and sometimes true perfection, have been overshadowed by the grand monuments of the king. The only exceptions are perhaps the tombs, among which there are both modest painted burial chambers of scribes and priests of the necropolis, and exquisite underground palaces richly decorated with reliefs, often polychrome, depicting the life of high-ranking court officials and the Sed festivals.
Biography of Amenhotep III
Sphinxes depicting Amenhotep III are installed on the University Embankment in St. Petersburg. Amenhotep III was born in Thebes. Numerous surviving documents from the reign of Thutmose IV confirm that he was declared crown prince even during his father's lifetime. Most likely, he ascended to the throne at a very young age - he was not yet ten years old; this fact is supported by many sources and is not surprising, considering that Thutmose IV died too early to have a mature heir. The prince appeared as a child in the images from the tomb of the noblewoman Hekaerneheha, on the statue of his tutor Sebekhotep, and in the inscription from the seventh year of Thutmose IV on the rock at Konosso. Many portraits of the king with extremely young and soft facial features date back to this early period of his reign. The first years of the king's reign naturally passed under the regency, most likely, of his mother - Queen Mutemwiya. Amenhotep III's coronation, apparently, was quick and painless; at least none of the court officials were removed from their positions in connection with the change of the king. Thus, Ptahmes, the high priest of Amun, who held this position in the last years of Thutmose IV's reign, became the mayor of Thebes and the vizier with the accession of the new king. From the first year of his reign, and perhaps from the moment of his accession to the throne, the young king's wife was Tiye. She probably belonged to the provincial nobility and may have had a significant Nubian bloodline. Thus, a long-standing tradition was violated. Usually, pharaohs married their closest relatives to maintain purity of blood, and their sons inherited the throne. But Amenhotep disregarded the customs of his ancestors and elevated Tiye above all his other wives, thus breaking the established tradition. Apparently, Tiye was a smart and energetic woman who undoubtedly had a great influence on her royal husband.
Campaign in Nubia
At the beginning of Amenhotep's reign, Egypt was at the height of its power. There were friendly relations with the kings of Mitanni, Babylon, and Cyprus, so Amenhotep's reign was exceptionally peaceful. Only once did Amenhotep undertake a campaign to Nubia to suppress a rebellion that had erupted there. The campaign in the fifth year, known from numerous sources, is most extensively described in the text carved on the rock between Aswan and the island of Philae. Despite the assertion - "In the fifth year, the king returned. He triumphed in this year in his first campaign, which was carried out through the contemptible land of Kush. He set the borders according to his will. No king has done anything like this, except him, the courageous pharaoh, relying on his power" - the king, apparently, only participated symbolically: traditionally, such campaigns were conducted under the leadership of a person with experience in military operations in the region, often a "royal son of Kush." Under the inscription are the names of six defeated southern peoples, among them the land of Kush.
This campaign is seemingly reported by a poorly preserved inscription in Bubastis and a stele of the king's son of Kush, Merimose, which he installed in Semna, near the 2nd cataracts, on behalf of the king. It all started with a rebellion of the "despicable hostile Kush" under the leadership of a certain leader Ihen, "a braggart surrounded by his army; he did not know that a lion was in front of him. This is Neferkheperure (Amenhotep III), the fearsome lion, who seized contemptible Kush, tearing apart all his leaders in their valleys lying in a pool of blood." Despite the destroyed upper part, the text of Merimose's stele is more informative than the royal inscription, with many details. Merimose recruited an army among the Nubians of Lower Nubia. This army was supposed to act together with the pharaoh's troops, which indicates the extent to which Lower Nubia had been Egyptianized. In the anniversary celebration of the fifth year of Amenhotep's reign, there was a battle with the rebels in Ibhet, a land above the 2nd cataract. The rebels were defeated. The Egyptians killed 312 and took 740 Nubians captive. After punishing the inhabitants of the surrounding areas to prevent further cases of disobedience, Amenhotep went south. The inscription in Bubastis reports that the Egyptian forces reached the "heights of Hua" (the location is unknown, but these heights are mentioned in lists alongside Punt and were probably far to the south), where the king set up camp in the land of Uneshei, to the south of Hua. This was the furthest point of Amenhotep's southward movement. After placing his boundary stela near the "waters of Hora," something that no one before him had done, and collecting a large amount of gold in the land of Karai, Amenhotep returned to Egypt. This "first victorious campaign" of Amenhotep was apparently the only one in which he participated. It is also not entirely clear who actually led the campaign, he himself or his deputy in Nubia, Merimose.
In Asia, Amenhotep's rule was universally recognized. The kings of great powers such as Mitanni and Babylonia flattered the pharaoh and sent their sisters and daughters to his harem. Thus, Amenhotep was married to the sister and daughter of the Babylonian king Kadashman-Enlil I, the daughter of the Babylonian king Kurigalzu I, and the daughter of the Babylonian king Kadashman-Ellil I. Amenhotep also married Mitannian princesses twice. In the tenth year of his reign, he married the daughter of the Mitannian king Shuttarna I, Kelu-hebe (Gilukhepa), and in the thirty-sixth year, he married the granddaughter of Shuttarna I, the daughter of Tushratta, Tadu-hebe (Taduhepa). The great influence of Amenhotep is evident in the fact that when the Syrian kings tried to involve the Babylonian king in an alliance against the pharaoh, he sent them a categorical refusal on the grounds that he was in an alliance with the pharaoh, and even threatened them with war if their alliance were to materialize. The king of Cyprus was in vassal dependence on Amenhotep and regularly sent him a large amount of copper, except for one time when, as he himself states in his defense, his country was hit by a plague. Over twenty items with the names of Amenhotep III and Tiye, discovered on the islands of the Aegean Sea, indicate a short-term resumption of Egypt's connections with this region.
Amenhotep, reveling in his rule over the "world," reached self-deification to the point of worshiping his own idols. However, this worship of the pharaoh was mainly imposed in Nubia, where a magnificent temple dedicated to Amon and the queen was built in Sulb, but even in Memphis, the royal idol received divine honors. In Nubia, in Sedenga, neighboring Sulb, a temple was built where, like a goddess, the favorite wife of the pharaoh, Queen Tiye, was worshipped. A memorial temple for Amenhotep was built near this temple, but little has survived from this building. An avenue of sphinxes, carved from pink granite, was created near this temple, and two huge statues of the pharaoh, the famous "Colossi of Memnon," were erected in front of its pylons, each made from a single stone block, 21 meters high and weighing over 700 tons. The construction of this temple was supervised by the architect Amenhotep, son of Hapu. This same Amenhotep, from the quarries near Heliopolis, delivered two huge sculptures of his lord to Thebes for the state temple in Karnak. At least one of them was 24 meters high. The immense wealth flowing into Egypt from the conquered and dependent countries were the source of such extensive construction activity by Amenhotep III. These riches were so great that Amenhotep could send large amounts of gold as gifts to his faithful allies - the kings of Mitanni and Babylon, and the latter were convinced that there was as much gold in Egypt as there was sand in the desert. The reign of Amenhotep was marked by a boom in trade, which also brought enormous income to the state, as Amenhotep encouraged legitimate trade and properly taxed it. The art of Amenhotep's time combined a desire for grandeur (gigantic columns and buildings) with strict symmetry. The images on the plane conveyed outlines of unprecedented softness and smoothness.
During Amenhotep III's reign, Egypt also maintained contacts with Punt. In the tomb of Amenmes, the mayor of Thebes and a very high-ranking official, there is an image of typical Punt offerings accompanied by local leaders. Another Amenmes, a simple scribe, also reported the arrival of a fleet from Punt to Egypt during the period before the thirty-sixth year of the king's reign. Amenhotep, intoxicated with his rule over the "world," reached the point of self-deification and cultic worship of his own idols. However, this worship of the pharaoh was mainly imposed in Nubia, where a magnificent temple dedicated to Amun and the queen was built in Sulb, but even in Memphis, the royal idol received divine honors. In Nubia, in Sedenga, neighboring Sulb, a temple was built where, like a goddess, the favorite wife of the pharaoh, Queen Tiye, was worshipped. A memorial temple for Amenhotep was built near this temple, but little has survived from this building. An avenue of sphinxes, carved from pink granite, was created near this temple, and two huge statues of the pharaoh, the famous "Colossi of Memnon," were erected in front of its pylons, each made from a single stone block, 21 meters high and weighing over 700 tons. The construction of this temple was supervised by the architect Amenhotep, son of Hapu. This same Amenhotep, from the quarries near Heliopolis, delivered two huge sculptures of his lord to Thebes for the state temple in Karnak. At least one of them was 24 meters high. The immense wealth flowing into Egypt from the conquered and dependent countries were the source of such extensive construction activity by Amenhotep III. These riches were so great that Amenhotep could send large amounts of gold as gifts to his faithful allies - the kings of Mitanni and Babylon, and the latter were convinced that there was as much gold in Egypt as there was sand in the desert. The reign of Amenhotep was marked by a boom in trade, which also brought enormous income to the state, as Amenhotep encouraged legitimate trade and properly taxed it. The art of Amenhotep's time combined a desire for grandeur (gigantic columns and buildings) with strict symmetry. The images on the plane conveyed outlines of unprecedented softness and smoothness.
In the era of Amenhotep III's reign, Egypt also maintained contacts with Punt. In the tomb of Amenmes, the mayor of Thebes and a very high-ranking official, there is an image of typical Punt offerings accompanied by local leaders. Another Amenmes, a simple scribe, also reported the arrival of a fleet from Punt to Egypt during the period before the thirty-sixth year of the king's reign.
