3500 Years Ago: A World Before Collapse: Part 1
3500 years ago was a time when great empires of different origins warred and politicked. There were heroes and villains. Old gods died and new gods emerged. There was conquest, alliances and wars. Little did the people of that time know the world order and all its players were on course for collapse within the space of a couple of hundred years. This four part series is a story of that world and its fall.
The middle bronze age saw the rise and decline of different peoples all across the map. Well, the map is huge. Rather than bore you with a detailed account of all world events, I have chosen the landscape filled with the most drama- The Ancient Near East.
In about a century between 1250 and 1150 BC, the world observed the collapse of the Egyptian Empire and the Hittites. The city states in the Levant fell and chaos ensued in Canaan. Babylon was pillaged, not for the first time, nor for the last. The “Great Powers of the Near East” were great no more. There were many reasons for this collapse — climate change, natural disasters, class wars and invasion by the mysterious Sea Peoples.
The Players
It wouldn’t do justice to delve deeper into the events that took place without first describing the landscape and its major stakeholders during this time. We begin with Egypt.
Egypt
Egypt was at the peak of its power before the collapse. It was also one of the most ancient. The empire was on its eighteenth and subsequently nineteenth dynasty that together made up what historians now call-The New Kingdom. Some of the most recognizable names from modern times associated with Egypt thrived and ruled in these centuries right before the collapse.
The eighteenth dynasty begins in 1550 BC with the defeat of foreign rulers called Hyksos under the leadership of Ahmose I, the first Pharaoh of this new era. The empire witnesses a significant growth period under him including new territories, alliances, vast building projects, new trade routes, and mining projects.
A few Pharaohs down the line, emerges the fifth pharaoh of The New Kingdom, a woman by the name of Hatsheput in the year 1478 BC. She ruled jointly alongside her two year old child at the time, Thutmose III who ascended the throne a year before but wasn’t ready to rule just yet, seeing as he needed a few more teeth. She had impeccable credentials and a bloodline that featured her as a daughter, sister and wife of a king. She excelled as a pharaoh by recapturing lost trade routes and being one of the empire’s most prolific builders. Her son Thutmose III, ruled for more than 50 years and is widely considered a military genius. He conquered the Mittani, Syria, various cities in Canaan and parts of Nubia, through unparalleled military strategy and sheer resolve.
In 1353 BC Amenhotep IV( later Akhenaten) takes the throne. After so many years of triumph, Egypt was due some amount of turmoil, and he delivered it on cue. At this time the Egyptian religion was polytheistic with the god Amun holding the most power over the people. The Pharaoh has a revelation and disposes off the old gods, shifting to monotheism and bringing the entire empire under one god — Aten. He changes his name to Akhenaten- the living spirit of Aten and shifts his capital from the ancient city of Thebes to the newly built Akhetaten. The new city is incorporated with new monuments and statues in worship of Aten. His rule lasts 17 years and as soon as it ends, the city, the god and all his monuments are destroyed and desecrated. All his influence is wiped out within the decade and later on his name is excluded from the egyptian list of kings.
King Tut the successor of Akhenaten becomes pharaoh in 1333 BC at the tender age of 8. He dies early most likely due to congenital defects, a result of intense inbreeding at the time, but his tomb and its contents have become one of the most popular visits for tourists in the last century. Of the contents, it is worth mentioning King Tut’s dagger, gifted to him by the Hittites. The dagger when first discovered looked like it was made of iron. An iron dagger in the Bronze Age? Albeit very rare other iron artifacts did exist back then, so it shouldn’t seem entirely surprising. However, there was more to the puzzle, because it turned out the metal didn’t just belong to that period, it didn’t belong to any period! The dagger was made of a metal that was of meteorite-ic origin. The conception of such an item at that time was truly a treasure beyond this world, pardon the pun.
Right after his death the eighteenth dynasty comes to an end with the last Pharaohs Ay and Horemheb, neither of whom were from the original line of kings but came from the ruling court. Horemheb was also a military leader of his own might, taking the throne in a coup d’etat over Ay and leading successful campaigns against Amorite cities previously as a general under Akhenaten.
The nineteenth dynasty begins in 1292 BC with Ramesses I who was chosen from Horemheb’s court. His rule was ephemeral, however, his son-Seti I was successful both as a military leader and a builder, only to be outdone by what was to come next.
The most important of the nineteenth dynasty pharaohs was Ramesses II, son of Seti I. He came to rule in 1279 BC. He was a master of both war and building. His building projects were second to none in the entire history of the empire, bar the pyramids. Egypt reached its peak under his rule and he is referred to as the greatest pharaoh of The New Kingdom. Many of those ruins are still on display today, the most popular of which is known as the Ramesseum.
He led many successful military campaigns, in particular, the Battle of Kadesh in 1274 BC showcased his tactical prowess and his military might in its full display. The Battle of Kadesh was fought between the egyptian forces and their quintessential villains of the Bronze Age-The Hittites. More on them later, but for context, they were the other great power in the landscape and always a threat to Egypt’s existence. This event is said to be the largest ever chariot battle fought, involving something in the order of 5000 to 6000 chariots. Caught in history’s first recorded military ambush, he was able to overcome the dire circumstances albeit with some help from forces allied with Egypt. Realizing the campaign was unsustainable, he signed the earliest recorded peace treaty in the world with the Hittite King, Hattusili III.
The dynasty soon entered a decline after Ramesses II, with weak leaders and infighting between the heirs. The final nail in the coffin of The New Kingdom ensued with the Bronze Age Collapse. The empire was never the same and even though it survived the collapse, it existed in a rather reduced form of its former self.
In the next part, we take a look at the other players of the Ancient Near East, contemporaries of Egypt, the Hittites — warriors and technologists, they helped usher in the iron age. We also look at Mittani, a member of the Hatti-Egypt-Mittani power triad, an anomaly of a kingdom, with kings and gods of Vedic origin, completely separated from India. How they came to be is still a mystery, which we will explore in Part 2.
