Thutmose III had devoted so much energy…
1425 BCE to 1414 BCE
Thutmose III had devoted so much energy to expanding Karnak that Amenhotep's building projects are largely focused on enlarging smaller temples all over Egypt.
He begins construction at Luxor in 1417 BCE on the second great Theban temple complex, built, like the temple at Karnak, on the east side of the Nile.
Contemporary Egyptians know Luxor as Waset, or No, meaning "the city."
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Tudhaliya temporarily opens the southeastern routes to Syria by defeating Aleppo and halting the expansion of the Hurrian state of Mitanni.
He also campaigns against enemies in the Anatolian west and southwest in an attempt to reconquer previously held territories, but with only temporary success.
The Mitanni nation has grown stronger during the reign of Shaushtatar but the Hurrians are keen to keep the Hittites inside the Anatolian highland.
Kizzuwatna in the west and Ishuwa in the north are important allies against the hostile Hittites.
There is a consequence into Shaushtatar's expansion into Palestine: war with Egypt.
Despite Mitanni's advantage that Palestine has a significant Hurrian population at this time, the war will be difficult to win.
During the planning stages, however, Shaushtatar dies, and his son Artatama I negotiates with the pharaoh Amenhotep II over an alliance.
Thutmose III has expanded and consolidated Egyptian control over an empire of unprecedented size in Africa and western Asia.
He has established an efficient administration in the conquered territories, in which vassal kings and chiefs are required to pay heavy tribute to the pharaoh’s viceroys and send their successors to be raised in Egypt.
Thutmose’s son succeeds him in about 1425, after a twenty-eight month co-regency, as Amenhotep II.
Crete is possibly overrun by invaders from the Greek mainland in about 1420.
Knossos remains the island’s chief center, but the massive palace here is destroyed, probably for the last time.
The Later (Second) Palace at Phaistos is burned down in about 1420 BCE in the course of the Mycenaean conquest of Crete and never rebuilt.
The town, however, continues to be inhabited.
A mixed art—known as Mycenaean, after the principal mainland center—develops throughout the Aegean after 1420 BCE, based on Minoan traditions but more grandiose, less lifelike, and with a greater emphasis on scenes of warfare and hunting.
The Amarna letters refer to Artatama, a Mittanian king, as an ancestor who established an alliance with Thutmose IV of Egypt.
According to modern interpretation of scarce available sources, Artatama had come to power when the Mitanni kingdom was severely weakened by the Hittite invasion.
Facing the perils of fighting a war on two fronts, the Hittites in the north and Egypt in the south, Artatama had approached Amenhotep II with an offer of peaceful division of contested lands in Syria.
A peaceful resolution of an old conflict could grow into a political and military alliance, but the Egyptians suspected foul play and would deny a definite answer for years.
Little is known of Artatama, who left no inscriptions.
At one point during the reign of Thutmose IV, the Egyptians propose a marriage between Thutmose and Artatama's daughter, but for unknown reasons Artatama rejects the offer.
The Egyptians have to make seven consecutive marriage proposals before Artatama finally agree.
Thus, Artatama may be the father of Queen Mutemwiya and the maternal grandfather of Amenhotep III.
Artatama is succeeded by his son Shuttarna II.
He has fought much less than his father, and his reign has seen the effective cessation of hostilities between Egypt and Mitanni, the major kingdoms vying for power in Syria.
Tudhaliya I flourishes around in the early fourteenth century as an early ruler in the Hittite Empire period.
Proper numbering of the Hittite rulers who bore the name Tudhaliya is problematical.
There was a Hattian era figure who bore the name Tudhaliya who may or may not have ruled as king.
Other reconstructions insert a Tudhaliya directly after Muwatalli I, but before the Tudhaliya discussed here.
Some scholars call Tudhaliya I the first king of the New Kingdom, or Empire.
Others give this honor to Suppiluliuma I. Tudhaliya may have been the grandson of the Middle Kingdom ruler Huzziya II.
He may have been the direct successor of Muwatalli I, having overthrown him.
The exact sequence of succession at the beginning of the New Kingdom is uncertain, however, because of the difficulty of placing Hattusili II.
Tudhaliya I's reign includes a period of co-regency with Arnuwanda I, his son-in-law and adopted son.
The most famous event of Tudhaliya's reign is his conquest of the Assuwa league, a confederation of states in western Anatolia formed to oppose the Hittite empire.
The list of its members contains twenty-two names, including [...]uqqa, Warsiya, Taruisa, Wilusiya and Karkija (Caria).
Assuwa is believed to be the origin of Asia.
Of the many component territories within Assuwa, Wilusiya is commonly identified with Ilion (Troy) and Taruisa with the surrounding Troad, and Warsiya may be associated with Lukka (Lycia).
However, identification of [..]uqqa with later-attested Lukka (Lycia) is problematic, because that would put the Assuwa league both north and south of Arzawa in southwestern Anatolia.
Assuwa appears to lie north of Arzawa, covering the northwestern corner of Anatolia.
Tudhaliya I temporarily opens the southeastern routes to Syria by defeating Aleppo and halting the expansion of the Hurrian state of Mitanni.
He also campaigns against enemies in the Anatolian west and southwest in an attempt to reconquer previously held territories, but with only temporary success.
Arnuwanda, who succeeds Tudhaliya, proves unable to defend even the core of the revived Hittite kingdom against continuing attack from all sides. (His successors—Hattusilis II, Tudhaliya II, and Arnuwanda II—will be no more successful.)
Thebes, capital of Egypt, has become the largest city of the world, taking the lead from Memphis.
Amenhotep II's reign is usually dated from 1427 to 1400 BCE; he is buried in a tomb in the Valley of the Kings.
Amenhotep's most important son, Thutmose IV, a possible usurper who in any case who succeeds his father, and whose most celebrated accomplishment is the restoration of the Sphinx at Giza and subsequent commission of the Dream Stele.
According to Thutmose's account on the Dream Stele, while the young prince was out on a hunting trip, he stopped to rest under the head of the Sphinx, which was buried up to the neck in sand.
He soon fell asleep and had a dream in which the Sphinx told him that if he cleared away the sand and restored it he would become the next Pharaoh.
After completing the restoration of the Sphinx, he placed a carved stone tablet, now known as the Dream Stele, between the two paws of the Sphinx.
The restoration of the Sphinx and the text of the Dream Stele would then be a piece of propaganda on Thutmose's part, meant to bestow legitimacy upon his unexpected kingship.
Little is known about his brief ten-year rule.
He suppressed an uprising in Nubia in his Eighth Year around 1393 and was referred to in a stela as the Conqueror of Syria, but little else has been pieced together about his military exploits.
His rule is significant because he was the New Kingdom pharaoh who established peaceful relations with Mitanni and married a Mitannian princess to seal this new alliance.