THE EGYPTIANS (C. 1468- 1200 BC)

THE EGYPTIANS (C. 1468- 1200 BC)

History of Palestine

Considerable insight into the status of Palestine after Armageddon was gained through the discovery of the ' Amarna Tablets', a large collection of tablets found at El- Amarna in middle Egypt. These tablets are mostly letters from the royal archives of the pharaohs.

Many of them are written directly from or Palestine, in the period between 1450 and 1350 BC. Some similar documents have also been discovered in Palestine. In short, the tablets show that the Egyptians had left the Canaanite princely houses in control of their own territories, but under the supervision of Egyptian and Canaanite commissioners. Inspectors were appointed to estimate the yield of the harvest in Canaan and overseers collected the revenue. This tribute became the test of Canaanite loyalty to pharaoh.

But what really interested Egypt was the prosperous trade business of the Canaanite seaports of Gaza, Jaffa, Acca, Tyre, Sidon, Byblos and Ugarite, who traded their goods far and wide. The Amarna tablets show that the Canaanites were mostly concentrated in the Coastal cities; the hinterland was but sparsely settled with concentrations around well-water centres as in Megiddo, Shechem, Jerusalem and Hebron. There are some seven letters written from the rulers of Jerusalem- then called Ursalim, or the City of Salam or Peace-beseeching help from pharaoh against marauding bedouin.

When Pharoah Seti I succeeded to the Egyptian throne in 1318 BC, many of the Canaanite city-states ere hostile to Egypt, and even engaged in warlike operations against towns which were still loyal to Egypt. Apparently, the Hitties were behind this uprising. The Hitties had built up a powerful army of charioteers in Asia Minor, and Palestine loomed as a gold coast.

The campaigns of Seti I into Palestine are recorded in a series of scenes carved on the east and north walls of the temple of Amun at Karnak; with reliefs showing action in the field, submission of defeated rulers, and prisoners-of-war being presented to Amun, the national god. Despite Seti's apparent successful military campaigns in Palestine, the Hitties continued pushing and inciting the Canaanite kings against the Egyptians. When Seti's son, Ramses II, succeeded to the throne, he decide on a showdown with the Hitties.

Heading four divisions, each named after an Egyptian god, Ramses crossed the Sinai into Palestine and then into Syria, where the clash of the two superpowers took place in an area called Kadesh. The Hitties unleashed some 3,500 chariots against the Egyptian army. Both sides were so badly beaten that when, on the next day, the Hittie king asked for an armistice, Ramses was only too gald to accept.

The battle of Kadesh undermined Egypt's prestige among the Canaanites and many of the Canaanite sities rebelled; compelling Ramses to return to Palestine to storm its cities. In order to secure Palestine, in 1280 BC Ramses signed with the Hitties history's first international peace treaty; in which Syria was recognized as part of the Hittie Empire, and Palestine part of Egypt's sphere of influence. And to improve relations with his former adversary, Ramses married the daughter of the Hittie king; adding her to his large circle of wives, who allegedly exceeded one hundred.