Information AboutKamose |
| CATEGORIES ABOUT KAMOSE | |
| 1558 bc deaths | |
| pharaohs of the seventeenth dynasty of egypt | |
|
Kamose was the last king of the Theban Seventeenth Dynasty . He was the son of Sekenenra Tao II and the brother of Ahmose , founder of the Eighteenth Dynasty . His reign fell at the end of the Second Intermediate Period ; it is uncertain when Kamose died, but reliable sources place his death around 1550 BC after a reign lasting more than 3 years. His reign is important for the decisive military initiatives he took against the Hyksos , who had come to rule much of Ancient Egypt . Over the years, the independent native princes in Thebes seem to have reached a practical ''modus vivendi'' with the later Hyksos rulers, which included transit rights through Hyksos-controlled Middle and Lower Egypt and pasturage rights in the fertile Delta . One text, '' Carnarvon Tablet '' I, found in Thebes, relates the misgivings of Kamose's council of advisors when the king proposed moving against the Hyksos, whom he claimed were a humiliating stain upon the holy fabric of Egypt. The councillors clearly did not wish to risk disturbing the status quo: :"...we are at ease in our (part of) Egypt. Elephantine the First Cataract is strong, and the middle (of the land) is with us as far as Cusae modern Asyut . The sleekest of their fields are plowed for us, and our cattle are pastured in the Delta. Emmer is sent for our pigs. Our cattle have not been taken away....He holds the land of the Asiatics; we hold Egypt..." There is no evidence to support Pierre Montet's assertion that Kamose's move against the Hyksos was sponsored by the priesthood of ns of Kush in the south, each holding "his slice of Egypt, dividing up the land with me...My wish is to save Egypt and to smite the Asiatics!" So it was that in his third year on the throne Kamose embarked and sailed north from Thebes at the head of his army. He surprised and overran the southernmost Garrison of the Hyksos at Nefrusy , just north of Cusae, then led his army as far north as the neighborhood of Avaris itself. Though the city was not taken, the fields around it were devastated by the Thebans. A Stela discovered at Thebes continues the account of the war from where the ''Carnarvon Tablet'' ends. His followers capture a courier bearing a message from the Hyksos king Aa-woser-ra Apopi at Avaris to his ally the ruler of Kush, requesting his urgent support. Kamose promptly ordered a detachment of his troops to occupy the Bahriya Oasis in the Western Desert, which controlled the north-south desert route. Kamose, called "the Strong" in this text, then sailed back up the Nile to Thebes for a joyous victory celebration after what was probably not much more than a surprise spoiling raid in force which caught the Hyksos off guard. This Year 3 is the only one attested for Kamose, which may be the length of his reign. Donald Redford notes that Kamose's burial was very modest, in an ungilded coffin lacking even the royal Uraeus . BIBLIOGRAPHY
|
|
|