Many naval bases were located in and around Egypt in the ancient times of this world. The particular naval base of Peru-nefer was one of the bases established in the Eighteenth Dynasty of the New Kingdom of Egypt. Perunefer is, according to

Manfred Bietak Manfred Bietak (born in Vienna, 6 October 1940) is an Austrian archaeologist.Tell el-Daba or Ezbet Helmy. Support for this theory comes from excavations and digs that were conducted around the area the

naval base A naval base, navy base, or military port is a military base, where warships and naval ships are docked when they have no mission at sea or need to restock. Ships may also undergo repairs. Some naval bases are temporary homes to aircraft that u ...

was believed to be.

Overview

The

pharaoh Pharaoh (, ; Egyptian: '' pr ꜥꜣ''; cop, , Pǝrro; Biblical Hebrew: ''Parʿō'') is the vernacular term often used by modern authors for the kings of ancient Egypt who ruled as monarchs from the First Dynasty (c. 3150 BC) until the ...

s believed to be responsible for this 18th Dynasty naval base are

Tuthmosis III Thutmose III (variously also spelt Tuthmosis or Thothmes), sometimes called Thutmose the Great, was the sixth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty. Officially, Thutmose III ruled Egypt for almost 54 years and his reign is usually dated from 28 ...

(reigned 1479 – 1425 BCE) and

Amenhotep II Amenhotep II (sometimes called ''Amenophis II'' and meaning '' Amun is Satisfied'') was the seventh pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt. Amenhotep inherited a vast kingdom from his father Thutmose III, and held it by means of a few milit ...

(reigned 1427–1401 BCE), located near the Nile Delta. According to Labib Habachi's research, Perunefer was located at Tell el-Daba and

Qantir Qantir () is a village in Egypt. Qantir is believed to mark what was probably the ancient site of the 19th Dynasty Pharaoh Ramesses II's capital, Pi-Ramesses or Per-Ramesses ("House or Domain of Ramesses"). It is situated around north of Faqous ...

, which he identified with Avaris/ Piramesse. These identifications were proved by the excavations of the Austrian Institute and the Pelizaeus Museum,

Hildesheim Hildesheim (; nds, Hilmessen, Hilmssen; la, Hildesia) is a city in Lower Saxony, Germany with 101,693 inhabitants. It is in the district of Hildesheim, about southeast of Hanover on the banks of the Innerste River, a small tributary of the L ...

respectively. Although this information is provided, no Eighteenth Dynasty remains were missing from the site. When military installations were made from the Eighteenth Dynasty, evidence was found in Perunefer's favor. Detailed work from Tuthmosis III and Amenhotep II were found in the form of paintings. These paintings were later to be known as the

Minoan The Minoan civilization was a Bronze Age Aegean civilization on the island of Crete and other Aegean Islands, whose earliest beginnings were from 3500BC, with the complex urban civilization beginning around 2000BC, and then declining from 1450B ...

wall painting A mural is any piece of graphic artwork that is painted or applied directly to a wall, ceiling or other permanent substrate. Mural techniques include fresco, mosaic, graffiti and marouflage. Word mural in art The word ''mural'' is a Spanish ...

s. Along with these recent discoveries, two large harbor basins were found. Jean-Phiippe Goiran and Hervé Tronchère were the paleogeographers who found the evidence of the two harbours. These two men were specialists in the study of ancient harbours, and had access via the canals to the harbours. According to their evidence, they make the assumption that Perunefer accommodated hundreds of ships in the eighteenth dynasty. The first harbour was hard to date, but early evidence pointed to the time of

Horemheb Horemheb, also spelled Horemhab or Haremhab ( egy, ḥr-m-ḥb, meaning " Horus is in Jubilation") was the last pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty of Egypt (1550–1295 BC). He ruled for at least 14 years between 1319 BC and 1292 BC. ...

. Horemheb created a project to build a wall which covered access to the canal which was examined. The second harbor was just beside a recently discovered

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). T ...

palace, probably belonging to

Khyan Seuserenre Khyan (also Khayan or Khian and Apachnan from the West Semitic Apaq-khyran) was an Hyksos king of the Fifteenth Dynasty of Egypt, ruling over Lower Egypt in the second half of the 17th century BCE. His royal name Seuserenre translates ...

, which hints at its date. It was found in a strange spot of the Nile channel, which was believed to have a seasonal lake from time to time. On the

stela A stele ( ),Anglicized plural steles ( ); Greek plural stelai ( ), from Greek , ''stēlē''. The Greek plural is written , ''stēlai'', but this is only rarely encountered in English. or occasionally stela (plural ''stelas'' or ''stelæ''), wh ...

of King

Kamose Kamose was the last Pharaoh of the Theban Seventeenth Dynasty. He was possibly the son of Seqenenre Tao and Ahhotep I and the uncle of Ahmose I, founder of the Eighteenth Dynasty. His reign fell at the very end of the Second Intermediate Peri ...

of the

Seventeenth Dynasty The Seventeenth Dynasty of Egypt (notated Dynasty XVII, alternatively 17th Dynasty or Dynasty 17) was a dynasty of pharaohs that ruled in Upper Egypt during the late Second Intermediate Period, approximately from 1580 to 1550 BC. Its mainly Theba ...

, he mentions destroying hundreds of ships in a large basin, which leads us to believe that our second harbor of Perunefer would be located here. The significance of Perunefer goes slightly beyond the Eighteenth Dynasty though. The harbours were still in use during the Nineteenth Dynasty, according to Papyrus Anastasi III. An interesting fact about these particular harbours of Perunefer was that some evidence points to the fact that these were the basins in use around the time of the biblical character of Moses. The palaces involved and some of the pottery found were excavated around this area, and Tuthmosis III and Amenhotep II are mentioned along with that. Biatek actually was one of the historians involved with this project, and uncovered an even more interesting find. A pot was found that some believe was the pot that Moses could have used during that time. Perunefer is very obscure and there is not much information about this ancient naval base. The Egyptians and their leaders found Perunefer to be of importance, and it continued to thrive. All of the historic information of the naval base is primarily covered by the historian, Manfred Bietak,

University of Vienna The University of Vienna (german: Universität Wien) is a public research university located in Vienna, Austria. It was founded by Duke Rudolph IV in 1365 and is the oldest university in the German-speaking world. With its long and rich hist ...

. In one of his most recent articles about Perunefer, he discusses more about the Minoan paintings and just how pharaonic Perunefer was. When the Austrian Archaeological Institute dug the site of Tell el-Daba, as discussed earlier, it was revealed that the site spanned thirteen acres. Two palaces were located on this land which had a unique taste. The Minoans used a lot of symbolism involving the bull. The bull shows up many times in these palaces and paintings, which were of high quality. According to Biatek, the existence of the hitherto enigmatic palace complexes were supported by the discovery.

Keftiu Caphtor ( he, ''Kaftōr'') is a locality mentioned in the Bible, in which its people are called Caphtorites or Caphtorim and are named as a division of the ancient Egyptians. Caphtor is also mentioned in ancient inscriptions from Egypt, Mari, a ...

ships were also found to be docked at Perunefer as according to the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

Papyrus 10056. The location of Perunefer is believed to be at the site of Tell el-Daba. Tell el-Daba is located on the East end of the Nile River on the Delta. The map above shows the alleged location of Tell el-Daba, and the believed to be location of the naval base, Perunefer. Other ports’ locations are also given on this map, and it seems as if Perunefer had one of the more desirable locations than nearly all of them. The other ports and their harbours are located out of the way of the Nile and more East than the Delta. Perunefer appears to be right on the Nile, and shows to be a good location for trade and a great location for civilizations to reside. Perunefer is much more significant than the average port. This important naval base was used by two well known pharaohs and in use throughout the eighteenth and nineteenth dynasties. Manfred Biatek and other smaller historians helped to bring Perunefer to others, but it seems as if it didn't catch on. The Minoans, Egyptians, Moses, and many others are involved in the history of Perunefer.

References

*Kingdom Naval Base," Egyptian Archaeology 34 (2009), 15-17. , Manfred Bietak - Academia.edu. Accessed November 28, 2017. https://www.academia.edu/10074927/_Peru-nefer_The_Principal_New_Kingdom_Naval_Base_Egyptian_Archaeology_34_2009_15-17. *PhD, Bryant G. Wood. "New Discoveries at Rameses." Accessed November 28, 2017. http://www.biblearchaeology.org/post/2008/10/New-Discoveries-at-Rameses.aspx#Article. Biatek, Manfred. “Minoan Presence in the Pharaonic Naval Base of “Peru-nefer”. Accessed November 28, 2017. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/260099051_Minoan_presence_in_the_pharaonic_naval_base_of_Peru-nefer {{coord missing, Egypt 15th-century BC establishments in Egypt Ports and harbours of Egypt Pi-Ramesses Thutmose III