New Kingdom of Egypt

Chronology and Historiographical Overview

The concept of a New Kingdom as one of ancient Egypt's three golden ages was coined in 1845 by German scholar Christian Charles Josias von Bunsen, with the definition evolving substantially over the nineteenth and twentieth centuries.^[4][5] Radiocarbon dating places the establishment of the New Kingdom between 1570 BC and 1544 BC, with an estimated median date of 1557 BC.^[2][6][7] Egyptological chronological models offer several dates for the accession of Ahmose I, ranging from 1570–1546 BC (Edward F. Wente) and 1569–1545 BC (Donald B. Redford) to 1550–1525 BC (Ian Shaw, Kenneth Kitchen, and Jürgen von Beckerath) and 1530–1504 BC (Wolfgang Helck). The end of the period is placed between 1077 BC and 1069 BC with the death of Ramesses XI.^[2][3][8][9]

The New Kingdom encompasses the Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and Twentieth dynasties.^[2][3][6] The later segment of this era, spanning the Nineteenth Dynasty (1292 or 1295 to 1189 BC) and the Twentieth Dynasty (1189 to 1069 or 1077 BC), is also known as the Ramesside period.^[1][2][8] It takes its name from the eleven pharaohs who carried the name Ramesses, beginning with Ramesses I, who founded the Nineteenth Dynasty, and his grandson Ramesses II, the longest-reigning monarch of the dynasty.^[1][2]

The outward expansion of the New Kingdom may have been motivated in part by foreign rule under the Hyksos during the Second Intermediate Period.^[10][11][12] In response to the Hyksos occupation of Lower Egypt and raids led by the Kingdom of Kush into southern Egypt during the seventeenth century BC, New Kingdom rulers sought to build a buffer zone across the Levant and expanded deep into Nubia.^{[10][13][14][15][16]} The Egyptian empire reached its greatest geographical extent during this period, stretching from the Euphrates river in northern Syria to Kurgus near the Fifth Cataract of the Nile in Sudan.^[12][17] At its peak during the thirteenth century BC, the population of the empire was estimated at between 3 and 5 million inhabitants, which constituted approximately 20 percent of the world's population.^[3][18][19]

The Eighteenth Dynasty

The Eighteenth Dynasty marked the rise of the Egyptian empire through military conquests, administrative centralization, and the emergence of Thebes as a principal religious capital.^[3][20][21] The dynasty included rulers such as Ahmose I, Amenhotep I, Thutmose I, Hatshepsut, Thutmose III, Amenhotep II, Amenhotep III, Akhenaten, Tutankhamun, and Horemheb.^{[2][3][6][12]}

Reunification and Early Expansion

Internal instability at the end of the Twelfth Dynasty had allowed nomadic Hyksos rulers to establish control over Lower Egypt by around 1670 BC.^[1] Theban rulers of the Seventeenth Dynasty, including Seqenenre Tao and Kamose, fought against the Hyksos.^[21][22] Ahmose I continued these campaigns around his tenth regnal year, capturing the Hyksos capital of Avaris in the eastern Nile Delta.^[11] He then pursued the retreating Hyksos across the eastern border and besieged the fortress of Sharuhen in southern Palestine for three years before capturing it around 1549 BC.^[11]

To secure the southern border, Ahmose I campaigned into Nubia as far as Buhen.

Amenhotep I succeeded his father Ahmose I and, in his eighth regnal year, led a large military campaign in Nubia that reached the Fourth Cataract of the Nile; nothing is known of any campaigns he led in Asia.^[23] Following their deaths, Amenhotep I and his mother Ahmose-Nefertari were deified as patron deities of the Theban necropolis and ancestral protectors of the Eighteenth Dynasty.^[23] Amenhotep I moved away from pyramid tombs, opting instead for a rock-cut tomb at Dra Abu el-Naga, while his mortuary temple was constructed separately on the desert edge.^[23]

Thutmose I ascended the throne by marrying Princess Mutnofret and mounted extensive military campaigns.^[17][23] In his second regnal year, he led an expedition beyond the Fourth Cataract of the Nile, establishing a southern frontier at Kurgus near the Fifth Cataract.^[17] Thutmose I then marched into Western Asia, advancing through Syria to the Euphrates river near Carchemish, an expanse the Egyptians called the Inverted Water because it flowed south rather than north like the Nile.^[17] Syrian rulers declared allegiance, but stopped paying tribute and fortified their settlements after his army departed.^[24] In Thebes, Thutmose I expanded the temple of Amun at Karnak by erecting an enclosure wall, two pylons, a hypostyle hall, and two obelisks.^[17]

. At Karnak, he constructed a festival courtyard before the temple entrance, which stood until its stone blocks were dismantled during building programs under Amenhotep III.^[24]

The Co-Regency and Rule of Hatshepsut

Following the death of Thutmose II, the throne passed to his young son Thutmose III, born to a minor wife, while Hatshepsut, daughter of Thutmose I and Great Royal Wife of Thutmose II, assumed the regency.^[25][26][27] Hatshepsut subsequently claimed the full royal titulary and regalia, wearing the ceremonial beard and ruling as pharaoh in her own right for about two decades.^[25][26][27] Her administration was supported by trusted officials, including Senenmut, the Overseer of Royal Works and tutor to her daughter Neferure.^[26]

Hatshepsut's foreign policy concentrated on commerce rather than armed conquest.^[26] Temple reliefs at Deir el-Bahari indicate that her reign opened with a brief military expedition into Nubia to protect gold extraction.^[26] Her primary maritime undertaking was a trade expedition to the Land of Punt on the Red Sea coast of East Africa.^[25][26][28] The expedition returned with gold, ebony, animal skins, baboons, myrrh resin, and living myrrh trees that were planted in the temple courtyards of Deir el-Bahari.^[26]

Hatshepsut conducted building operations across Egypt, restoring trade networks that had been interrupted during the Second Intermediate Period.^[25][26] Her mortuary temple, Djeser-Djeseru, designed by Senenmut at Deir el-Bahari alongside the Eleventh Dynasty monument of Mentuhotep II, incorporated three terraced platforms, colonnades, and reliefs of her divine birth from Amun-Ra.^[26] At Karnak, she erected monumental obelisks and expanded the temple complex.^[25][26] Hatshepsut also enlarged the Valley of the Kings tomb of her father Thutmose I to allow both monarchs to be buried together.^[26]

Thutmose III and Imperial Supremacy

Following Hatshepsut's death, Thutmose III assumed independent rule under the throne name Menkheperre, reigning until around 1425 BC.^[29][30] Around his 46th regnal year, a campaign was initiated to chisel away Hatshepsut's cartouches and dismantle her monuments across Egypt.^[31] Arthur Weigall suggested this action was driven by resentment at having been excluded from sovereign power and military conquest during his youth.^[31] Recognized by historians as a skilled strategist, Thutmose III expanded Egypt's military forces and conducted at least 16 campaigns over 20 years.^{[30][32][33][34]}

In his first sole campaign, Thutmose III marched to suppress a rebellion led by 330 Syro-Palestinian princes who had formed a coalition under the Prince of Kadesh at Megiddo.^[30] Rejecting his officers' recommendations to take safer detour routes, the king led his troops through the narrow Aruna mountain pass across Mount Carmel.^[30][35] Emerging into the Jezreel Valley, the Egyptian army launched a dawn attack, routing the allied forces and laying siege to Megiddo for seven months.^[35] The children of the rulers of Kadesh and Tunip were taken as hostages, treated well, and eventually allowed to return home.^[30]

Across 17 known military campaigns, Thutmose III built an empire stretching from northern Syria to the Fifth Cataract of the Nile.^{[12][30][36][37]} In his eighth campaign, he transported boats overland to cross the Euphrates river, surprising the King of Mitanni, pillaging settlements around Carchemish, and forcing the Mitannian monarch to flee.^[36] A catalogue of foreign plants and animals gathered during his 24th regnal year in Syria was carved onto the walls of his festival hall at Karnak.^[30] In total, Thutmose III captured 350 cities and established direct Egyptian administration in Nubia, turning Middle Kingdom forts into administrative hubs.^[36] During his reign, the term pharaoh, previously referring to the royal palace, became a personal form of address for the reigning monarch.^[29][34][38]

The Zenith of Power: Amenhotep II to Amenhotep III

Approximately two years before his death, Thutmose III appointed his 18-year-old son Amenhotep II as co-regent.^[39] Amenhotep II was celebrated for athletic feats; a sphinx stele at Giza recorded that he drove a chariot with the reins fastened around his waist while shooting arrows through thick copper targets.^[39] Reigning 26 years under the throne name Aakheperure, he conducted military campaigns in Syria, subduing Ugarit and securing the allegiance of Kadesh.^[37][39] Amenhotep II was known for treating captives harshly, executing seven Syrian princes and hanging their bodies from the walls of Thebes and Napata.^[39][40] He also introduced the cults of Asian deities into Egypt, including Resheph, Hauron, and Astarte.^[41]

Thutmose IV succeeded his father after setting up the Dream Stele between the paws of the Great Sphinx, recording a dream in which the sun god Horemakhet-Khepri-Re-Atum promised him the throne if he cleared the monument of sand.^[42] Faced with the growing power of the Hittites in Anatolia, Thutmose IV negotiated a peace treaty with Artatama I of Mitanni, cementing the alliance by marrying a Mitannian princess and ceding the border city of Alalakh.^[35] Interest in the solar cult became noticeable from the reign of Thutmose IV onward.^[42]

Amenhotep III (Nebmaatra) reigned for 38 years from around 1390 to 1352 BC, presiding over a period of imperial wealth and diplomatic prestige.^[12][43] He maintained international peace through diplomatic marriages, welcoming Mitannian princesses Gilukhepa (accompanied by 317 women) and Tadukhepa, alongside daughters of Babylonian, Assyrian, and Arzawa rulers.^[35] The Amarna Letters document these international exchanges.^[43]

Amenhotep III directed building programs throughout Egypt, guided by his chief architect Amenhotep, son of Hapu.^[43] He erected the third pylon at Karnak, built the Luxor Temple dedicated to Amun, and constructed a large mortuary temple in Western Thebes fronted by the Colossi of Memnon.^[37][43] On the western bank of Thebes, directly south of the Theban necropolis, he built the Malkata complex, known to the ancient Egyptians as the House of Rejoicing..^[44][45] During the Sed festival of his 30th year, Amenhotep III was deified, and in Nubia the deified king was worshipped as the lunar eye of Ra, paired with his great royal wife Tiye..^[45]

The Amarna Period and Religious Revolution

Amenhotep IV succeeded his father around 1352 BC and was initially crowned by Amun at Thebes..^[12][46] Although his early reliefs followed traditional artistic conventions, he soon elevated the worship of the Aten, the solar disc.^[46] In his fifth regnal year, he changed his name to Akhenaten (Beneficial to Aten), curtailed state support for traditional cults, and moved the royal capital from Thebes to a new site named Akhetaten (Horizon of the Aten, modern Tell el-Amarna) in Middle Egypt.^[12][46][47] Open-air temples were constructed where the Aten was represented as a solar disc emitting rays ending in human hands offering life.^[46]

Akhenaten instituted an exclusive solar religion, proscribing the worship of other gods and sending agents across Egypt around his ninth regnal year to excise the name of Amun and the word gods from monuments.^[12][46][47] Queen Nefertiti performed religious rituals and was depicted on dedicated temple walls.^[46][47] Akhetaten was built in haste and with clear disregard for the lives of its ordinary builders; an anthropological analysis of remains from several large cemeteries of Akhetaten, opened in 2005 by the English society EES, shows traces of injury, hunger, and disease..^[48] The ancient historian Manetho preserved a tradition associating this period with the quarantine of lepers in eastern quarries under an advisor named Amenophis.^[48]

The Amarna Period brought stylistic changes to art and written language.^[46][47] Amarna art abandoned traditional idealization in favor of exaggerated physical forms, depicting royal figures with elongated skulls, thin necks, sagging abdomens, and heavy hips.^[46]

Aided by Akhenaten's apparent lack of interest in international affairs, the Hittites gradually extended their influence into Phoenicia and Canaan and became a major power in international politics..^[49]

Restoration, Dynastic Transition, and Horemheb

Following Akhenaten's death in his 17th regnal year, power passed to Ankhkheperure Smenkhkare, whose identity remains disputed between a male royal relative and Queen Nefertiti ruling under a throne name.^[50] The next pharaoh was Tutankhaten, Akhenaten's son by his own sister, and the young king was married to his sister Ankhesenamun..^[51][52] In his third regnal year, the court relocated to Memphis, traditional cults were restored, and the monarchs took the names Tutankhamun and Ankhesenamun.^[37][51] Tutankhamun's Restoration Stele described Egypt under the Amarna regime as a time when temples had fallen into ruin and the gods no longer answered prayers.^[52]

. Tutankhamun died before reaching age twenty, leaving no surviving children; two mummified stillborn daughters were buried in his tomb.^[52] His tomb (KV62) was discovered intact by Howard Carter in 1922.^[52] A 2010 forensic scan of Tutankhamun's mummy identified fatal chest injuries from an accident or violence as his probable cause of death.^[52]

Following Tutankhamun's death, Queen Ankhesenamun wrote to Hittite King Suppiluliuma I requesting that he send one of his sons to marry her and become king of Egypt.^[53] Suppiluliuma sent Prince Zannanza, but the prince was killed near the Egyptian border.^[53] Suppiluliuma launched retaliatory raids into Egyptian territories in Syria, but Egyptian prisoners carried a plague into Hatti that killed the Hittite monarch and his immediate heir.^[53][54] Ay then assumed the throne and married Ankhesenamun, ruling for four years (1327–1323 BC).^[55][56]

General Horemheb took the throne in 1323 BC, ending the Eighteenth Dynasty.^[56] Horemheb dismantled monuments associated with Akhenaten and his successors, using talatat blocks as fill for pylons at Karnak and usurping Tutankhamun's reliefs.^[56] In his Great Edict at Karnak, he enacted legal reforms reorganizing the judicial system, regulating the police, and penalizing official corruption and unlawful seizures of property.^[56] Having no surviving children, Horemheb appointed his vizier and general, Paramessu, as his successor, who founded the Nineteenth Dynasty in 1292 BC under the name Ramesses I.^[57]

The Nineteenth Dynasty and the Ramesside Era

The Nineteenth Dynasty brought Egyptian military activity and monumental building to a secondary peak.^[49][57]

Ramesses I and the Campaigns of Seti I

Ramesses I was a military commander of the pharaoh Horemheb, who personally named him as his successor, and his family came from Avaris..^[57][58] His family venerated the god Seth, who had been identified with the Canaanite storm deity Baal since Hyksos times, a connection reflected on the 400-Year Stele of Seth-Baal erected during this era.^[58] Examinations of Seti I's mummy and contemporary reliefs show red hair, an uncommon feature in native Egypt associated with Seth.^[58] Ramesses I died after reigning approximately sixteen months; his mummy was looted in the nineteenth century, held at Emory University, and returned to Egypt in 2003.^[57]

Seti I (Menmaatra) reigned from 1290 or 1294 to 1279 BC, restoring Egyptian authority in Western Asia.^[57] In the first decade of his reign he fought a series of wars in western Asia, and his royal stelas mention battles in Canaan..^[59][60][61] Seti I pushed northward into Syria, secured coastal ports, and captured Kadesh and Amurru from Hittite forces under Muwatalli II, erecting a victory stele at the site.^[59] Because Egyptian forces could not sustain permanent garrisons so close to Hatti, Kadesh reverted to Hittite control, and a peace treaty stabilized the frontier on the Orontes river.^[12][59][60] Seti I also fought wars in Libya and Nubia..^[59]

Seti I directed extensive construction projects, restoring monuments damaged during the Amarna Period, opening desert quarries, digging wells along transit routes, and building the Great Hypostyle Hall at Karnak, where battle scenes were carved on the northern exterior wall.^[57][59] At Abydos, he constructed a limestone mortuary temple and the subterranean Osireion, carving the Abydos King List to legitimize his dynasty by tracing direct continuity with past pharaohs.^[57][58] His tomb in the Valley of the Kings (KV17) is the longest and most completely decorated rock tomb in the necropolis.^[57]

The Reign of Ramesses II

Ramesses II succeeded his father in 1279 BC, reigning for 66 or 67 years.^[60][62][63] In his second regnal year, he defeated a raid by Sherden sea pirates in the Nile Delta, taking many captive and enlisting them into his personal guard and army.^[61][64]

In his fifth regnal year (1274 BC), Ramesses II led an army into Syria, resulting in the Battle of Kadesh against the Hittites under Muwatalli II.^{[12][60][63][64]} Deceived by Bedouin scouts into believing the Hittite army was at Aleppo, Ramesses advanced with his household division and was ambushed when Hittite chariotry attacked the marching Re division.^[64] Ramesses rallied his remaining forces and held the position until the arrival of the Ne'arin, an auxiliary unit from the Syrian coast.^[64] The battle ended without a decisive victor, and both rulers claimed success in domestic inscriptions.^[12][60][64] In later campaigns, Ramesses II captured Moab and Edom, took Qatna and Tunip, and reasserted control over parts of Amurru.^[65][66][67]

In his 21st regnal year (1259 BC), Ramesses II and Hittite King Hattusili III concluded the Egyptian-Hittite peace treaty, which the rise of Assyria and unrest within the Hittite realm encouraged the Hittites to accept.^{[12][60][63][64][68]} Preserved in bilingual copies in hieroglyphic and cuneiform, the treaty established a mutual non-aggression pact, a defensive alliance, the extradition of fugitives, and recognized territorial boundaries in the Levant.^[12][60][68] Thirteen years later, the treaty was reaffirmed by Ramesses II's marriage to a daughter of Hattusili III, who was named Maathorneferure.^[60][69]

Ramesses II carried out an extensive building program, constructing the capital of Pi-Ramesses in the eastern Delta near Avaris.^[70] In Nubia, he cut rock temples at Abu Simbel, including the Great Temple with four 20-meter seated colossi of himself and a smaller temple dedicated to Queen Nefertari.^[71][72] In Thebes, he built his mortuary complex, the Ramesseum, completed the Karnak Hypostyle Hall, and erected colossal statues across Egypt, frequently carving his cartouches onto earlier monuments.^{[63][73][74][75]} Ramesses II fathered a large number of children with his many wives and concubines, and the tomb he built for his sons in the Valley of the Kings, KV5, is the largest tomb complex in Egypt..^[76] From his eighth regnal year, he also established a living cult of his own deified self, worshipped alongside Amun, Ptah, and Re.^[77]

Merneptah and Late Nineteenth Dynasty Instability

Ramesses II was succeeded in 1213 BC by his thirteenth son, Merneptah, who assumed the throne around age sixty after outliving his older brothers. Early in his reign, Merneptah had to reassert Egyptian rule in Palestine, destroying Gezer in the process. In his fifth regnal year, he repelled an invasion of the western Delta by Libyan tribes (Libu and Meshwesh) allied with seafaring groups known as the Sea Peoples, including the Sherden, Shekelesh, Ekwesh, Lukka, and Teresh.^[78] The captives were settled in camps to serve Egypt as mercenaries. Merneptah also provided grain shipments to the famine-stricken Hittite Empire, honoring his father's treaty.

Merneptah commemorated these military victories on the Merneptah Stele (the Israel Stele), discovered in his Theban mortuary temple.^[79] The inscription contains the earliest known historical mention of Israel, stating that Israel is laid waste and its seed is no more.^[79] Merneptah usurped earlier monuments on a large scale, turning Amenhotep III's mortuary temple in western Thebes into a quarry.

Following Merneptah's death in 1203 BC, the royal succession was disputed. His son Seti II faced a rival claimant named Amenmesse, who controlled Upper Egypt from Thebes for several years before Seti II recovered the south and erased Amenmesse's monuments. Seti II was succeeded by young Siptah, who suffered from poliomyelitis and was elevated to the throne by Bay, a Syrian scribe who rose to become Chancellor of Egypt.^[80][81] Bay was granted tomb KV13 in the Valley of the Kings, but was later executed in Siptah's fifth regnal year.^[80] Following Siptah's death, Queen Twosret, Great Royal Wife of Seti II, ruled as sole pharaoh for two years (1191–1189 BC). Her reign ended in civil disorder and an uprising led by a Syrian official named Irsu, concluding the Nineteenth Dynasty.^[80][82]

The Twentieth Dynasty and the Late Bronze Age Collapse

The Twentieth Dynasty was the final dynasty of the New Kingdom, characterized by defensive warfare against foreign invasions, economic decline, and the fragmentation of royal authority between Lower Egypt and Thebes.^[1][83][84]

Setnakhte and the Defense of Egypt under Ramesses III

Order was restored by Setnakhte, whose inscription records his struggle to pacify the land, which ended in the second of his three regnal years.^[83] His Elephantine Stele hints that Queen Twosret was to blame for the anarchy that followed Siptah's death and reports a plot by Asiatics in the Delta to seize power over Egypt..^[82] Setnakhte appropriated Queen Twosret's tomb (KV14) in the Valley of the Kings for his burial.^[83]

His son Ramesses III (1186–1155 BC) was the last major pharaoh of the New Kingdom.^[85][86][87] In his eighth regnal year, the Sea Peoples, migrating across Anatolia and the Levant after the fall of the Hittite Empire and coastal Syrian kingdoms, attacked Egypt by land and sea.^[86][88] Ramesses III engaged the invaders in two major encounters: a land battle in Djahy (southern Canaan) and a naval engagement at the mouths of the Nile Delta, trapping the enemy fleet using archers and boarding troops.^[86][88][89] He settled captured Sea Peoples in southern Canaan, where they contributed to the formation of the Philistine pentapolis.^[86][88][89]

Ramesses III also repelled Libyan invasions in his sixth and eleventh regnal years, defeating coalitions of Libu and Meshwesh tribesmen.^[86][89][90] Captured Meshwesh were branded with the king's name and settled in garrison camps in the Delta, where their descendants formed an influential military class.^[86] Ramesses III commemorated these victories on the walls of his mortuary temple at Medinet Habu in Western Thebes, which was constructed as a fortified enclosure with stone battlements and a Syrian-style migdol gateway.^[86]

Labor Strikes, Environmental Crisis, and the Harem Conspiracy

Warfare depleted the royal treasury, while gold shipments from Nubia declined relative to Eighteenth Dynasty levels.^[86][91] In the 29th regnal year of Ramesses III, delays in grain delivery to royal tomb artisans at Deir el-Medina led to the first recorded labor strike in history.^[91][92][93] The artisans stopped work and marched to Theban mortuary temples to demand their overdue grain rations.^[91][92] Although the Vizier of Upper Egypt intervened to distribute grain, administrative problems persisted, including the removal of the Vizier of Lower Egypt for corruption in year 28.^[92]

Economic strain was accompanied by environmental disruption.^[94][95][96] Atmospheric pollutants limited sunlight penetration and reduced global tree growth for almost two decades until 1140 BC, suppressing agricultural yields and lowering Nile inundations.^[94][95][96] Scholars have suggested the Hekla 3 volcanic eruption in Iceland as a contributing cause, though its exact dating remains debated.^[94][95][97]

Near the end of his reign, a secondary wife named Tiye plotted the Harem Conspiracy to assassinate Ramesses III and place her son Prince Pentawer on the throne.^[84][98] Palace staff, harem officials, and military officers joined the plot.^[99] A special court of 12 judges was formed to try the conspirators, sentencing the leaders to death or forced suicide.^[98][99] While judicial records did not explicitly state whether the king died during the attempt, a 2012 CT scan of his mummy revealed a deep knife wound in his throat that severed the trachea and esophagus, indicating that he was killed by the conspirators.^[84][98]

Dynastic Fragmentation and Transition to the Third Intermediate Period

The death of Ramesses III was followed by disputes among his heirs, with his sons Ramesses IV, Ramesses VI, and Ramesses VIII taking the throne in succession.^[98][100] Under Ramesses IV, Egypt lost its Levantine territories, retaining control only over Nubian garrisons and Sinai turquoise mines.^[101][102] In his third regnal year, Ramesses IV organized an expedition of 8,368 men to the sandstone quarries of Wadi Hammamat, led by High Priest of Amun Ramessesnakht. The mummy of Ramesses V suggests that he may have died young of smallpox, but his head also shows a large wound; his burial was delayed until the second year of his successor Ramesses VI, who usurped his tomb.

The High Priests of Amun at Thebes expanded their authority, turning the position into a hereditary office.^[101] Ramessesnakht passed the high priesthood to his son Amenhotep, while other family members served as temple stewards, land managers, and tax directors.^[101] The Wilbour Papyrus, dated to year 4 of Ramesses V, shows that the temple of Amun at Karnak held extensive agricultural lands throughout Egypt, collecting revenue that rivaled the royal treasury.^[103] In year 4 of Ramesses VII, grain prices tripled amid inflation, though river trade along the Nile continued without interruption.

Under Ramesses IX and Ramesses X, Libyan raiders disturbed the Theban region and halted work in Western Thebes, while the rations owed to the tomb workers fell months behind. Starving artisans and local officials plundered royal and private tombs in the Theban necropolis.^[104] The Abbott and Amherst papyri detail the official investigation into the looting of the pyramid tomb of Thirteenth Dynasty King Sobekemsaf II and Queen Nubkhaas, whose mummies were stripped of gold and burned.^[104] Tombs in the Valley of the Kings, including those of Seti I and Ramesses II, were broken into, prompting priests during the Twenty-First Dynasty to transfer the royal mummies to secret caches at Deir el-Bahari (DB320) and the tomb of Amenhotep II (KV35).^[104]

During the reign of the final Twentieth Dynasty pharaoh, Ramesses XI (1099 or 1107 to 1069 or 1077 BC), civil war erupted in Thebes. High Priest Amenhotep was removed from office for eight months, and Ramesses XI summoned the Viceroy of Kush, Panehsy, to restore order. Panehsy later rebelled, seizing control of Thebes until General Herihor pushed him south. Herihor united the offices of High Priest of Amun, Vizier, and military commander, carving his name in royal cartouches in the Khonsu temple at Karnak.^[84] Herihor was succeeded by General Piankh, who fought an unsuccessful campaign against Panehsy, ending Egyptian control over Nubia.^[105] Following the death of Ramesses XI, Smendes took control of Lower Egypt from Tanis, founding the Twenty-First Dynasty, while the High Priests of Amun ruled Upper Egypt, marking the start of the Third Intermediate Period.^[84]

Government and Imperial Administration

The New Kingdom maintained an administrative system designed to manage domestic agriculture and foreign dependencies.^[106]

Central Bureaucracy and Domestic Governance

Domestic governance followed Middle Kingdom precedents, directed by the vizier as the chief legal and administrative official. By the mid-fifteenth century BC, the office was divided into two positions, one vizier for Upper Egypt and one for Lower Egypt. During the Eighteenth Dynasty, some young bureaucrats were educated in temple schools, which strengthened integration between the civil and priestly sectors.

Over the course of the Eighteenth Dynasty, civil appointments shifted from hereditary scribal families toward royal military selections.^[56][107] Scribes had historically dominated the state apparatus, teaching that administrative work was superior to all other professions.^[107] However, foreign campaigns allowed military officers to obtain senior civil and priesthood appointments, eventually superseding traditional bureaucratic families during the Ramesside period.^[107] Horemheb later restructured the judicial system, appointing new judges from the army and issuing decrees against official corruption and unlawful seizures of private land.^[56]

Administration of the Levantine Empire

In Western Asia, Egyptian control was exercised through vassal relationships rather than direct provincial administration.^[106] Thutmose III placed Egyptian overseers over the Syrian region to manage its local kingdoms, and the region was later divided into three provinces with Egyptian governors: Canaan (with its seat at Gaza), Upi or Apu (at Kumidu), and Amurru (at Simurru). The Egyptian overseers in the provincial capitals lived not where the local lords had their residences but on land chosen as politically neutral.

Local rulers retained domestic governance in exchange for annual tribute, military levies, and binding oaths of allegiance.^[106] During his campaigns, Thutmose III had the eldest sons of the kingdoms he conquered taken to Thebes for an Egyptian education. To prevent revolts, the sons of vassal kings were often taken to Egypt as hostages and educated there, and when their fathers died these princes were often placed on the vacant thrones. Egyptian archers and charioteers were camped across Palestine and Syria and were maintained by the vassal states, though the number of Egyptians posted there, soldiers included, was small.

The Amarna Letters show that the Great Kings of the Late Bronze Age (Egypt, Mitanni, Hatti, Babylonia, Assyria, and Cyprus) addressed one another as equals and exchanged prestige goods and royal brides.^[43] In contrast, Levantine vassals wrote to the Egyptian king asking him to punish their neighbours. In the reign of Amenhotep III, Abdi-Ashirta seized power in Amurru and built a kingdom in all but name, which Egypt tolerated; Rib-Hadda, king of Byblos, asked Egypt to act against him but received no help, and after attacks by Abdi-Ashirta's successor Aziru he fled to Beirut.

Direct Colonial Rule in Nubia

Unlike Syria, where Egypt exercised suzerainty over many local kingdoms, Nubia was placed under the direct rule of the Egyptian government. After the conquest by Thutmose III, Nubia was divided at the Second Cataract into Lower Nubia (Wawat) and Upper Nubia (Kush), each with its own deputy governor. Above them a governor, the viceroy called the royal son of Kush, oversaw all of Nubia; he was usually sent from the central government, though the post was sometimes inherited.

Fortresses built in the Middle Kingdom by kings such as Senusret III were repaired and many new ones were built; the Nubian fortresses lost their strategic value and became administrative centres, with open towns growing up around them. The sons of Nubian chiefs were educated at the Egyptian court; a few returned to Nubia to serve as administrators, and some were buried there in the Egyptian style.

Nubia sent Egypt gold said to amount to 300 kilograms each year, which became one of the main sources of revenue for the Egyptian government. Fortresses were built at the exit of the Wadi Allaqi to protect the large arrivals of Nubian gold. Nubia also supplied diorite, used for sculpture. Egypt drew as well on the region's ebony, ivory, perfumes, incense, ostrich feathers, leopards and their pelts, giraffes, hunting dogs and cattle. New temples were built south of Kerma, including at Soleb and Napata, and cults to Amun, Ptah and Horus were established there; Ramesses II built the great temple at Abu Simbel, and under this rule Egyptian culture spread rapidly in Nubia.

Military Organization, Strategy, and Armament

The need to expel the Hyksos led to a thorough reorganisation of the army by the New Kingdom, and the repeated expeditions needed to hold foreign territory required a standing army, so that soldiers came to form a social class of their own.^[107] The New Kingdom army was organized into field divisions, each comprising approximately 5,000 men and named after imperial deities: Amun, Re, Ptah, and Seth.^[108] Each division included 4,000 infantry soldiers and 1,000 charioteers. The infantry was further organized into 20 companies of 200 men each.

The pharaoh had his own retinue, including the King's Charioteer, the King's Bow-Bearer, the King's Armour-Bearer and the King's Barber, who had to follow him into battle. Staff officers included the Master of Horses, who managed steeds and chariots; the Chief of Records, who oversaw muster rolls; and the Keeper of Captives, who handled prisoners of war. Officers and soldiers who distinguished themselves were awarded the Gold of Valor, decorated weapons, tax-exempt land grants, and captive slaves.^[107]

The charioteers were the elite unit, and their equipment, training and upkeep were very costly. Light horse-drawn chariots fought at the front of the battle formation. Traditional weapons included the dagger, the curved sword, the spear, the javelin and the mace, usually made of wood and bronze. From the Hyksos the army adopted the battle-axe, the composite bow of wood, animal sinew and horn, and body armor of leather strips wrapped around the chest and sometimes reinforced with metal plates.

During the late New Kingdom, declining native recruitment prompted the army to rely on foreign mercenaries.^[109][110] Ramesses II enlisted captured Sherden sea pirates into his elite guard and shock troops.^[61][64] Ramesses III settled captured Sea Peoples and Meshwesh Libyans in military garrison settlements in the Delta.^[86][110] These foreign mercenary communities maintained their ethnic identity and later formed autonomous military chiefdoms that founded the Twenty-Second Dynasty.^[86]

Economy, Land Tenure, and Social Organization

The New Kingdom economy rested on agricultural production, institutional land estates, and foreign trade.^[86][103] Wealth flowed into temple foundations and royal administrative departments.^[37][103]

Land Tenure, Temple Wealth, and Taxation

Agricultural land was divided between crown estates and temple holdings.^[103] The Great Papyrus Harris, compiled under Ramesses IV, indicates that temples owned one-third of the cultivated land and one-fifth of the kingdom's population.^[103] Property was concentrated in the Theban temples of Amun, which possessed three-quarters of all temple assets.^[103] The papyrus recorded that the Amun temples held 86,486 slaves, 421,362 head of cattle, 864,168.25 aroura of land, 83 ships, 56 Egyptian towns, and 9 vassal cities in Kush and Syria.^[111]

By comparison, the temples of Ra at Heliopolis held 12,364 slaves, 45,544 cattle, 160,084.75 aroura of land, 3 ships, and 103 cities.^[103] The Memphis temples, third in size, held about one-quarter of the holdings of the Heliopolis temples and one-sixteenth of their land, while all other regional temples combined held less than half of what the Heliopolis temples held. Crown lands included royal landing-place estates, royal farms, royal kat domains, royal Min domains, royal treasury domains, the queen's estates and the harem estates.

Temple and crown estates were further classed into types that included directly managed estates and estates worked by tenant farmers. Some scholars read the Wilbour Papyrus, a land survey and tax assessment dated to year 4 of Ramesses V, as showing that the state kept its right to tax temple property, at an estimated one-tenth of the harvest. Nevertheless, the economic independence of the Amun priesthood grew over time, reducing the revenues available to the royal court.

Slavery, Debt Bondage, and Commerce

Military campaigns produced an influx of foreign prisoners of war during the Eighteenth Dynasty.^[30] Captives from Syria-Palestine and Nubia were assigned to temple estates, state quarries, or granted to military officers as personal slaves.^[30] Cases are known of female slaves freed by marrying free men, and of slaves whom their owners treated as family, who were adopted, became free and inherited property. In contrast, state-owned and temple-owned slaves who did farm labor seem to have lived harsh lives, and runaways were frequent.

During the late New Kingdom, debt bondage emerged as an economic institution.^[112] The appearance of debt slavery reflected commercial capital development, accompanied by the introduction of a specific Egyptian word for merchant (shwty) in administrative texts.^[112][113]

With the end of the Minoan maritime monopoly, Egypt had the chance to trade more widely with other kingdoms. State expeditions sailed down the Red Sea to Punt to obtain myrrh, incense, and ebony.^[25][26][28] Egypt imported finished goods, raw materials and labor: artisans from Syria, Asia Minor and Crete worked in the royal shipyards of the port of Memphis, iron came from Lebanon near Kumidu, and turquoise was mined at Serabit el-Khadim in Sinai.

Daily Life, Family Law, and Living Conditions

Elite homes were usually whitewashed villas of thirty rooms with a separate suite for the master of the house, part of a self-sufficient estate with a stable, a dairy, a bakery and a butchery, and their toilets were seats set on bricks over a removable vessel. Royal and noble furniture, preserved almost intact in tombs, was made of imported ebony or cedar inlaid with ivory, precious metal, semiprecious stones or faience, while most furniture was made of cheap local wood, leather or reed. Little is known of town houses, but paintings show that a house could have up to three stories; towns were noisy and dusty, with crowded narrow streets, and no trace of sewage or drainage systems has been found.

The staple diet was bread and beer. Grinding wheat into flour was women's work, and because flour was sifted outdoors, sand got into it and badly damaged teeth. Beer was made by soaking barley in water and mixing in pieces of lightly baked barley loaves; the mixture fermented, and the finished beer was strained and usually drunk through a straw. The Nile Delta was said to have the best vineyards; men trod the grapes in large vats, the remaining pulp was pressed in a sack twisted between two poles, and the finished wine jars were sealed with wax and marked with the year, the vineyard and the quality of the wine.

Wealthier men and women wore long, carefully pleated skirts. Both sexes wore wigs of human hair secured with beeswax, and on festive occasions placed cones of scented wax on them.. Cosmetics included green malachite and grey galena for eye paint, red ochre for lips, and henna to stain nails, palms, and feet.

Women had the same rights before the law as men: they could conduct official business, make contracts, act as witnesses, speak for themselves in lawsuits, and hold property separate from their husbands.. A wife bore the title Mistress of the House (nebet per) and was responsible for running the household and raising the children.. Marriage contracts established a joint matrimonial fund, with the husband contributing two-thirds and the wife one-third. If the marriage ended, the goods the wife had brought as her dowry, or goods of equal value, were returned to her; at divorce each party could keep their share of the marriage fund, and the divorced wife usually received custody of the children.. Polygyny was practiced by the pharaoh, but commoners were monogamous, though men could maintain concubines.

Religion, Mortuary Practices, and Literature

Religious institutions expanded during the New Kingdom, with the priesthood of Amun-Ra acquiring state influence. Royal mortuary temples came to be built apart from the tombs, and the spoken language of the day was adopted for writing..

The Imperial Pantheon, Amun-Ra, and Personal Piety

Amun, originally only a local god, was raised to the rank of dynastic god, and devotion to Amun-Ra as the god of the kingdom grew.. Wealth acquired from foreign conquests was directed to his sanctuary at Karnak, turning the Theban priesthood into an economic and political institution.^[37] A princess of the royal family held the title God's Wife of Amun at Thebes, an office that gave the royal family greater political influence through the oracle of Amun..

In the reaction to the Amarna religion, a new doctrine held that all gods were in essence three, Amun, Ra and Ptah, to whom Seth was later added, and that in some final sense they were also one.. The earliest evidence of this trinity is on a trumpet of Tutankhamun and is linked to the naming of the three main army divisions after these gods; religious and secular life were not separate..

During the Ramesside period, Egyptian religious practice placed greater emphasis on personal piety rather than communal civic duty.^[114] Individuals increasingly appealed directly to the gods through prayers and small shrines, expressing fatalistic views of divine will.^[114] Oracles were increasingly consulted to resolve legal disputes, criminal trials, and bureaucratic appointments.^[115] Private tombs, whose decoration had until then been mostly secular, came to show only religious scenes..

The Valley of the Kings, Mummification, and Funerary Texts

To safeguard royal burials from looters, New Kingdom pharaohs abandoned the pyramid tomb. Kings were interred in hidden, rock-cut hypogea in the Valley of the Kings on the western bank of Thebes, while their mortuary temples were constructed separately along the desert edge. Royal tombs were excavated and decorated by the artisan community of Deir el-Medina, whose preserved ostraca and administrative papyri document daily community life and labor relations.^[91]

Mummification techniques were refined using crystalline natron salts.^[116] Internal organs were extracted and preserved separately in four canopic jars guarded by the Four Sons of Horus: Duamutef (stomach), Qebhsenuef (intestines), Hapi (lungs), and Imsety (liver).^[116] The deceased were placed in nested anthropoid wooden coffins modeled on the mummiform human shape, with inner coffins displaying elaborate painted religious iconography.^[116]

Funerary formulas that had covered Middle Kingdom sarcophagi were transferred to papyrus, and copies of the Book of the Dead were probably made in the House of Life, an institution of the great temples.. A Book of the Dead could be bought for a very high sum; many copies were made without an owner's name, which was added in blank spaces when a buyer came forward.. Over 25,000 archaeological copies have been recovered. One of the best known chapters, chapter 125, shows the weighing of the heart against the feather of truth of the goddess Maat: if the heart is heavier than the feather, the deceased is devoured by the Great Devourer Ammit, and if it is as light as truth, the deceased enters the realm of the dead..

Literature and the Vernacular Script

Late Egyptian, the vernacular form of the New Kingdom language, appears fully developed in the letters of the Nineteenth and Twentieth Dynasties. Earlier works in Middle Egyptian were copied in schools and in fine papyrus copies, while new texts were composed in Late Egyptian.

Many of the new stories had mythological or allegorical content and drew on popular models rather than the elaborate written genres of the Middle Kingdom. The instruction texts of the New Kingdom reflect the fatalism of the age and, compared with their Middle Kingdom predecessors, show a shift toward passivity and quiet.

Art and Monumental Architecture

The New Kingdom produced monumental architecture and decorative arts characterized by large stone temples and refined relief carving.^[37] Building activity reached across Egypt and Nubia, supported by royal mining and foreign wealth.^[37]

Temples, Pylons, and Palaces

At Karnak, successive pharaohs added pylons, obelisks, and festival courts to the temple of Amun.^[37] The Akh-menu hall of Thutmose III kept part of its painted decoration, including a ceiling of small stars on a blue background, while the Great Hypostyle Hall of the precinct of Amun-Ra, dating mainly from the Nineteenth Dynasty, has 134 columns, most of which keep their decoration. The Luxor Temple, begun under Amenhotep III, had a 100-meter colonnade lined with 14 papyrus columns, whose Opet Festival reliefs were put in place by Tutankhamun, though his name was later replaced with Horemheb's, and it was fronted by the pylon, obelisks and colossal statues of Ramesses II.

Mortuary architecture included Hatshepsut's terraced temple at Deir el-Bahari, designed by Senenmut with three rising platforms connected by ramps, framed against the cliffs of Western Thebes.^[26] The Ramesseum, Ramesses II's mortuary complex, featured hypostyle halls, a fallen colossal statue, and extensive mud-brick barrel-vaulted storehouses that preserved temple grains and supplies.^[73][74] At Medinet Habu, Ramesses III constructed a fortified mortuary temple complex enclosed by mud-brick walls and a fortified stone gate modeled on Syrian migdols.^[86]

The Malkata complex of Amenhotep III, known as the House of Rejoicing, covered approximately 226,000 square meters (2,432,643 sq ft) on the west bank of Thebes, directly south of the Theban necropolis.^[44] Its central area held the pharaoh's apartments, arranged around a columned banquet hall, and a large throne room, while its other main elements were the West Villas, the North Palace, a village and a temple that seems to have been dedicated to Amun.^[44] The temple measured about 183.5 by 110.5 meters, with a forecourt of 131.5 by 105.5 meters whose upper part was paved with mud brick, an antechamber of 6.5 by 3.5 meters, and a hall of 12.5 by 14.5 meters whose ceiling rested on six columns about 2.25 meters in diameter, with evidence that the ceiling was decorated with yellow stars on a blue background.^[44] A second hall of 12.5 by 10 meters had four columns, and at least one room there seems to have served the cult of Maat, while blue faience tiles inlaid with gold around their edges were found in many rooms of the temple's southern part.^[44]

Sculpture, the Amarna Style, and Necropolis Art

Royal sculpture emphasized monumental scale.^[43][71] The reign of Amenhotep III produced 600 seated diorite figures of the lioness-headed goddess Sekhmet, and the Colossi of Memnon, which stood on either side of his mortuary temple, are also images of him. Ramesses II erected seated colossi at Abu Simbel, Tanis, and Memphis, and altered earlier statuary by inscribing his cartouches over previous rulers' names.^[63][73][75]

The Amarna Period rejected older artistic styles, and the court sculptor Bek is said to have been told by the king to depict things as they are seen. Human figures were depicted with pronounced naturalism and exaggerated proportions: elongated heads, slender necks, prominent bellies, and rounded hips, visible on colossal statues of Akhenaten at Karnak and the painted limestone bust of Queen Nefertiti discovered in the workshop of sculptor Thutmose.^[46][117] The chapel to Aten that Akhenaten built at Karnak, later demolished under Horemheb, was made of 35,000 sandstone blocks called talatat, 850 of which show the Sed festival.

After the return to traditional religion under Tutankhamun, reliefs kept a little of the Amarna style's influence, and his nearly intact tomb held a funerary mask of thick gold sheet colored with enamel and an innermost coffin of gold.^[52] Private tomb paintings alternated cheerful scenes of daily life with religious or magical ones, and among Ramesside private paintings those of the Nineteenth Dynasty tomb of Sennedjem at Deir el-Medina are noted for their vivid colors and good condition.

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69. J. H. Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt, Part Three, Chicago 1906, §§415-424
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103. 比率は書籍によって若干異なる。この数値は参考文献『世界の歴史1 人類の起源と古代オリエント』の記述による。
104. Брэстед Дж. Г. История Египта с древнейших времен до персидского завоевания. — Т. 1. — С. 192—193.
105. Стучевский И. А. Рамсес II и Херихор. — С. 145—146, 151—158.
106. イアフメス1世は第15王朝（ヒクソス）の王女ヘルタを後宮に迎え、ヒクソスの地位を継承したことを主張した。
107. エジプト中王国の記事内、『ドゥアケティの教訓』などを参照。
108. Usborne Képes Világtörténelem: Az ókori Kelet.
109. 古代オリエントや東地中海においてシリア地方のセム系集団や印欧語族の集団が活発な移動を見せる一方、エジプト人は定住性が強くナイル川流域から離れることを嫌った。こうした傾向はナイル川が葬祭儀礼と結びついており、来世を迎えるためにはナイル川のそばに埋葬されなければならないというような観念にも見られ、異郷の地で親族が死んだ場合しばしば遺体の回収のしかたが問題となった。
110. 例えばラムセス3世によって定住地を与えられたリビア人や、シリア地方への居住を黙認されたペリシテ人など。
111. 1アロウラは約2735平方メートル。
112. ただしこの債務奴隷は一定の契約に基づいて定められた期間奴隷となるもので終身奴隷ではない。
113. この商人は実際のところ大半が特権を与えられたシリア人を中心とする外国人に過ぎず、独立した商人層がエジプト人の間に確立することは無かった。
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117. «Amarna Art», Ancient Egypt Online