Kamose was the last Pharaoh of the
Theban Seventeenth Dynasty. He was possibly the son of
Seqenenre Tao
Seqenenre Tao (also Seqenera Djehuty-aa or Sekenenra Taa, called 'the Brave') ruled over the last of the local kingdoms of the Theban region of Egypt in the Seventeenth Dynasty during the Second Intermediate Period. He probably was the son an ...
and
Ahhotep I
Ahhotep I ( egy, jꜥḥ- ḥtp (.w), alternatively Anglicized ''Ahhotpe'' or ''Aahhotep'', " Iah (the Moon) is satisfied") was an ancient Egyptian queen who lived circa 1560– 1530 BC, during the end of the Seventeenth Dynasty of Egypt. She ...
and the uncle of
Ahmose I
Ahmose I ( egy, jꜥḥ ms(j .w), reconstructed /ʔaʕaħ'maːsjə/ ( MK), Egyptological pronunciation ''Ahmose'', sometimes written as ''Amosis'' or ''Aahmes'', meaning " Iah (the Moon) is born") was a pharaoh and founder of the Eighteen ...
, founder of the
Eighteenth Dynasty. His reign fell at the very end of the
Second Intermediate Period. Kamose is usually ascribed a reign of three years (his highest attested regnal year), although some scholars now favor giving him a longer reign of approximately five years.
His reign is important for the decisive military initiatives he took against the
Hyksos
Hyksos (; Egyptian '' ḥqꜣ(w)- ḫꜣswt'', Egyptological pronunciation: ''hekau khasut'', "ruler(s) of foreign lands") is a term which, in modern Egyptology, designates the kings of the Fifteenth Dynasty of Egypt (fl. c. 1650–1550 BC). ...
, who had come to rule much of
Ancient Egypt.
His father had begun the initiatives and lost his life in battle with the Hyksos. It is thought that his mother, as regent, continued the campaigns after the death of Kamose, and that his full brother made the final conquest of them and united all of Egypt.
Campaigns
''Casus Belli''
Kamose was the final king in a succession of native Egyptian kings at
Thebes. Originally, the Theban
Seventeenth dynasty rulers were at peace with the Hyksos kingdom to their north prior to the reign of Seqenenre Tao. They controlled
Upper Egypt
Upper Egypt ( ar, صعيد مصر ', shortened to , , locally: ; ) is the southern portion of Egypt and is composed of the lands on both sides of the Nile that extend wikt:downriver, upriver from Lower Egypt in the north to Nubia in the south. ...
up to
Elephantine and ruled Middle Egypt as far north as
Cusae.
[James, T.G.H. ''Egypt: From the Expulsion of the Hyksos to Amenophis I.'' in ''The Cambridge Ancient History,'' vol. 2, part 1, ed. Edwards, I.E.S, et al. p. 290. Cambridge University Press, 1965.] Kamose sought to extend his rule northward over all of Lower Egypt. This apparently was met with much opposition by his courtiers. It appears that at some point, these princes in Thebes had achieved a practical ''modus vivendi'' with the later Hyksos rulers, which included transit rights through Hyksos-controlled
Middle
Middle or The Middle may refer to:
* Centre (geometry), the point equally distant from the outer limits.
Places
* Middle (sheading), a subdivision of the Isle of Man
* Middle Bay (disambiguation)
* Middle Brook (disambiguation)
* Middle Creek (d ...
and
Lower Egypt
Lower Egypt ( ar, مصر السفلى '; ) is the northernmost region of Egypt, which consists of the fertile Nile Delta between Upper Egypt and the Mediterranean Sea, from El Aiyat, south of modern-day Cairo, and Dahshur. Historically ...
and pasturage rights in the fertile
Delta.
["Cambridge 2:1 290"] Kamose's records on the ''
Carnarvon Tablet'' (in the text also parallelled in the Thebes stelae of Kamose) relate the misgivings of this king's council to the prospect of a war against the Hyksos:
However, Kamose's presentation here may be propaganda designed to embellish his reputation since his predecessor, Seqenenre Tao, had already been engaged in conflict with the Hyksos (for unknown reasons), only to fall in battle. Kamose sought to regain by force what he thought was his by right, namely the kingship of Lower and Upper Egypt.
The king thus responds to his council:
There is no evidence to support Pierre Montet's assertion that Kamose's move against the Hyksos was sponsored by the priesthood of
Amun
Amun (; also ''Amon'', ''Ammon'', ''Amen''; egy, jmn, reconstructed as ( Old Egyptian and early Middle Egyptian) → (later Middle Egyptian) → ( Late Egyptian), cop, Ⲁⲙⲟⲩⲛ, Amoun) romanized: ʾmn) was a major ancient Egypt ...
as an attack against the
Seth
Seth,; el, Σήθ ''Sḗth''; ; "placed", "appointed") in Judaism, Christianity, Islam, Mandaeism, and Sethianism, was the third son of Adam and Eve and brother of Cain and Abel, their only other child mentioned by name in the Hebrew Bible. ...
-worshippers in the north (i.e., a religious motive for the war of liberation). The ''Carnarvon Tablet'' does state that Kamose went north to attack the Hyksos by the command of Amun, but this is common to virtually all royal inscriptions of Egyptian history, and should not be understood as the specific command from this deity. Kamose states his reasons for an attack on the Hyksos was nationalistic pride.
Northern Campaign
In Kamose's third year, he embarked on his military campaign against the Hyksos by sailing north out of Thebes on the
Nile
The Nile, , Bohairic , lg, Kiira , Nobiin language, Nobiin: Áman Dawū is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa and has historically been considered ...
. He first reached
Nefrusy, which was just north of Cusae and was manned by an Egyptian garrison loyal to the Hyksos.
[James, T.G.H. ''Egypt: From the Expulsion of the Hyksos to Amenophis I.'' in ''The Cambridge Ancient History,'' vol. 2, part 1, ed. Edwards, I.E.S, et al. p.291. Cambridge University Press, 1965.] A detachment of Medjay troops attacked the garrison and overran it.
The Carnarvon Tablet recounted this much of the campaign, but breaks off there. Nonetheless, Kamose's military strategy probably can be inferred. As Kamose moved north, he could easily take small villages and wipe out small Hyksos garrisons, but if a city resisted, he could cut it off from the rest of the Hyksos kingdom simply by taking over the city directly to the north. This kind of tactic probably allowed him to travel very quickly up the Nile. The second stele of Kamose (found in Thebes) continues Kamose's narrative with an attack on
Avaris. Because it does not mention
Memphis or other major cities to the north, it has long been suspected that Kamose never did attack Avaris, but instead recorded what he intended to do.
Kim Ryholt recently has argued that Kamose probably never advanced farther than the Anpu or
Cynopolis Nome in Middle Egypt (around the
Faiyum and the city of Saka) and did not enter either the Nile Delta, nor Lower Egypt proper.
According to the second stele, after moving north of Nefrusy, Kamose's soldiers captured a courier bearing a message from the Hyksos king Awoserre
Apopi at Avaris to his ally, the ruler of Kush, requesting the latter's urgent support against Kamose. Kamose promptly ordered a detachment of his troops to occupy and destroy the
Bahariya Oasis in the western desert, which controlled the north–south desert route. Kamose, called ''"the Strong"'' in this text, ordered this action to protect his rearguard. Kamose then sailed southward, back up the
Nile
The Nile, , Bohairic , lg, Kiira , Nobiin language, Nobiin: Áman Dawū is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa and has historically been considered ...
to Thebes, for a joyous victory celebration after his military success against the Hyksos in pushing the boundaries of his kingdom northward from Cusae past
Hermopolis
Hermopolis ( grc, Ἑρμούπολις ''Hermoúpolis'' "the City of Hermes", also ''Hermopolis Magna'', ''Hermoû pólis megálẽ'', egy, ḫmnw , Egyptological pronunciation: "Khemenu"; cop, Ϣⲙⲟⲩⲛ ''Shmun''; ar, الأشمون ...
through to Sako, which now formed the new frontier between the seventeenth dynasty of Thebes and the fifteenth dynasty Hyksos state.
Ryholt notes that Kamose never claims in his second stela to attack anything ''in''
Avaris itself, only "anything belonging to Avaris (''nkt hwt-w'rt'', direct genitive) i.e., the spoil
f war
F, or f, is the sixth letter in the Latin alphabet, used in the modern English alphabet, the alphabets of other western European languages and others worldwide. Its name in English is ''ef'' (pronounced ), and the plural is ''efs''.
Hist ...
which his army has carried off" as lines 7–8 and 15 of Kamose's stela—the only references to Avaris here—demonstrate:
Line 7–8: ''I placed the brave guard-flotilla to patrol as far as the desert-edge with the remainder (of the fleet) behind it, as if a kite were preying upon the territory of Avaris.''
Line 15: ''I have not overlooked anything belonging to Avaris, because it (the area which Kamose was plundering) is empty.''
The Second Stela of Kamose is well known for recounting that a Hyksos messenger was captured with a letter from Apophis—appealing for aid from the king of Kush against Kamose—while travelling through the western desert roads to Nubia. The final evidence that this king's military activities affected only the Cynopolite nome, and not the city of Avaris itself, is the fact that when Kamose returned the letter to Apophis, he dispatched it to
Atfih which is about a hundred miles south of Avaris. Atfih, hence, formed either the new border or a ''no-man's land'' between the now shrunken Hyksos kingdom and Kamose's expanding seventeenth dynasty state. Furthermore, Kamose states in his second stele that his intention in returning the letter was for the Hyksos messenger to inform Apophis of the Theban king's victories ''"in the area of Cynopolis which used to be in his possession."'' This information confirms that Kamose confined his activities to this Egyptian nome and never approached the city of Avaris itself in his Year 3.
First Nubian Campaign
Kamose is known to have campaigned against the Kushites prior to his third year since the Hyksos king directly appeals to his Kushite counterpart to attack his Theban rival and avenge the damage which Kamose had inflicted upon both their states. It is unlikely that Kamose had the resources to simultaneously defeat the Kushites to the south and then inflict a serious setback on the Hyksos to the north in just one year over a front-line that extended over several hundred kilometres.
Length of reign
His Year 3 is the only attested date for Kamose and was once thought to signal the end of his reign. However, it now appears certain that Kamose reigned for one or two more years beyond this date because he initiated a second campaign against the
Nubia
Nubia () (Nobiin language, Nobiin: Nobīn, ) is a region along the Nile river encompassing the area between the Cataracts of the Nile, first cataract of the Nile (just south of Aswan in southern Egypt) and the confluence of the Blue Nile, Blue ...
ns. Evidence that Kamose had started a first campaign against the Kushites is affirmed by the contents of Apophis' captured letter where the Hyksos king's plea for aid from the king of Kush is recounted in Kamose's Year 3 Second stela:
Two separate rock-inscriptions found at Arminna and Toshka, deep in Nubia, give the prenomen and nomen of Kamose and Ahmose side by side and were inscribed at the same time—likely by the same draughtsman—according to the epigraphic data.
[ In both inscriptions "the names of Ahmose follow directly below those of Kamose and each king is given the epithet ''di-ˁnḫ'', ''Given Life'', which was normally used only of ruling kings. This indicates that both Kamose and Ahmose were ruling when the inscriptions were cut and consequently that they were coregents.][Ryholt, p.273] Since Kamose's name was recorded first, he would have been the senior coregent. However, no mention or reference to Ahmose as king appears in Kamose's Year 3 stela which indirectly records Kamose's first campaign against the Nubians; this can only mean that Kamose appointed the young Ahmose as his junior coregent sometime after his third year prior to launching a second military campaign against the Nubians. As a result, Kamose's second Nubian campaign must have occurred in his Year 4 or 5. The target of Kamose's second Nubian campaign may have been the fortress at Buhen
Buhen ( grc, Βοὥν ''Bohón'') was an ancient Egyptian settlement situated on the West bank of the Nile below (to the North of) the Second Cataract in what is now Northern State, Sudan.
It is now submerged in Lake Nasser, Sudan; as a res ...
which the Nubians had recaptured from Kamose's forces since a stela bearing his cartouche was deliberately erased and there is fire damage in the fort itself.
A slightly longer reign of five years for Kamose has now been estimated by Ryholt and this ruler's timeline has been dated from 1554 BC to 1549 BC to take into account a one year period of coregency between Ahmose and Kamose. Donald Redford notes that Kamose was buried very modestly, in an ungilded stock coffin which lacked even a royal uraeus
The Uraeus (), or Ouraeus (Ancient Greek: , ; Egyptian: ', "rearing cobra"), ''(plural: Uraei)'' is the stylized, upright form of an Egyptian cobra, used as a symbol of sovereignty, royalty, deity and divine authority in ancient Egypt.
Symbol ...
. This may imply that the king died before he had enough time to complete his burial equipment presumably because he was engaged in warfare with his Kushite and Hyksos neighbours.
Mummy
The mummy of Kamose is mentioned in the Abbott Papyrus, which records an investigation into tomb robberies during the reign of Ramesses IX, about 400 years after Ahmose's interment. While his tomb was mentioned as being "in a good state", it is clear that his mummy was moved at some point afterward, as it was discovered in 1857 at Dra' Abu el-Naga'
The necropolis of Draʻ Abu el-Naga' ( ar, دراع ابو النجا) is located on the West Bank of the Nile at Thebes, Egypt, just by the entrance of the dry bay that leads up to Deir el-Bahari and north of the necropolis of el-Assasif. The ...
, seemingly deliberately hidden in a pile of debris. The painted and stuccoed coffin was uncovered by early Egyptologists Auguste Mariette and Heinrich Brugsch
Heinrich Karl Brugsch (also ''Brugsch-Pasha'') (18 February 18279 September 1894) was a German Egyptologist. He was associated with Auguste Mariette in his excavations at Memphis. He became director of the School of Egyptology at Cairo, produci ...
, who noted that the mummy was in very poor shape. Buried with the mummy was a gold and silver dagger, amulets, a scarab, a bronze mirror, and a pectoral in the shape of a cartouche bearing the name of his successor and brother, Ahmose.[Brier, Bob. Egyptian Mummies. p.259–260. William Morrow and Company, Inc. 1994. ]
The coffin remains in Egypt, while the dagger is in Brussels and the pectoral and mirror are in the Louvre
The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...
, Paris. The name of the pharaoh inscribed on the coffin was only recognized fifty years after the original discovery, by which time the mummy, which had been left with the pile of debris on which it was found, was almost certainly long lost.
Stelae
Kamose erected two stelae in Thebes that seem to tell a consecutive narrative of his defeat of the Hyksos. The first stele is missing its last part.
The Carnarvon Tablet also preserves some of the text of the stelae.
Identification
As early as 1916, Sir Alan Gardiner assumed that the First Carnarvon Tablet must be a copy of some commemorative stela of pharaoh Kamose. This was later confirmed when French Egyptologists Lacau and Chévrier were working in Karnak, and made an important discovery of two stela fragments. The smallest of them was found in 1932. And in 1935, the larger fragment appeared. Thus, it emerged that the Carnarvon Tablet text was copied from Kamose's stelas.[James B. Pritchard, ]
Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament.
Third Edition'' (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1969), p. 232. These newer texts were published in 1939.
Other discoveries
More recently, some other inscriptions of Kamose were found.
:"Only two stelae of Kamose were known until recently 016
HV-016 is a former military unit of Norway, that was a part of the Home Guard. It was established after 1985 to "stop terror- or sabotage actions that could weaken or paralyze Norway's ability to mobilize its military and its ability to resist".
...
one of them was also copied to a Dynasty 18 writing table arnarvon Tablet Arnarvon Islands are a group of islands in Solomon Islands. They are located in Isabel Province and nearby to Wagina Island in Choiseul Province.
Geography
The Arnavon Islands consist of:
* Major islands:
*# Sikopo
*# Kerehikapa
*# Maleivona
* Mi ...
(Redford 1997: nos. 68-69). In 2004 a fragmented inscription with the Two Ladies name
The Nebty name (also called the Two-Ladies-name) was one of the " great five names" used by Egyptian pharaohs. It was also one of the oldest royal titles. The modern term "Two-Ladies-name" is a simple derivation from the translation of the Egypti ...
of Kamose was found in Karnak
The Karnak Temple Complex, commonly known as Karnak (, which was originally derived from ar, خورنق ''Khurnaq'' "fortified village"), comprises a vast mix of decayed temples, pylons, chapels, and other buildings near Luxor, Egypt. Constru ...
and labeled the third stela of Kamose (Van Siclen 2010), and in 2008 a further inscription of Kamose was found in Armant
Armant ( ar, أرْمَنْت; egy, jwn.w-n-mnṯ.w or ''jwn.w-šmꜥ.w''; Bohairic: ; Sahidic: ), also known as Hermonthis ( grc, Ἕρμωνθις), is a town located about south of Thebes. It was an important Middle Kingdom town, which w ...
(Thiers 2009)."[Ilin-Tomich, Alexander, 2016]
Second Intermediate Period.
In Wolfram Grajetzki and Willeke Wendrich (eds.), UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology, Los Angeles
References
Bibliography
*Gardiner, Sir Alan. ''Egypt of the Pharaohs''. Oxford: University Press, 1964, 1961.
*Montet, Pierre. ''Eternal Egypt'', translated from the French by Doreen Weightman. London, 1964
*Pritchard, James B. (Editor). ''Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament'' (3rd edition). Princeton, 1969.
*Redford, Donald B. ''History and Chronology of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt: Seven Studies''. Toronto, 1967.
*Ryholt, Kim SB, ''The Political Situation in Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period (Carsten Niebuhr Institute Publications'', Copenhagen, (Museum Tusculanum Press:1997)
*Simpson, William Kelly (Editor). ''The Literature of Ancient Egypt: An Anthology of Stories, Instructions, Stelae, Autobiographies, and Poetry'' (3rd edition). New Haven, 2003, pp. 345–50 (translation of the Kamose texts).
{{Authority control
1549 BC deaths
16th-century BC Pharaohs
Pharaohs of the Seventeenth Dynasty of Egypt
Year of birth unknown
Egyptian rebels