The element mercury, one of the first…

The Kassites who now rule Babylonia aim to continue earlier Mesopotamian traditions as much as possible.

The heliacal rising of Sothis, a dating of the reign of Amenhotep I, followed by that of Thutmose I, occurs in 1517 BCE.

The Hittite conquest of Yamhad, an Amorite kingdom centered at Hala (Aleppo) in northern Syria, the weak middle Assyrian kings, and the internal strivings of the Hittites had created a power vacuum in upper Mesopotamia, where a substantial Hurrian population had also settled, their culture influencing the area.

It is believed that the warring Hurrian tribes and city states had become united under one dynasty after the collapse of Babylon due to the Hittite sack by Mursili I and the Kassite invasion.

This leads to the formation of the kingdom of Mitanni, or Hanigalbat, around 1500 by a legendary king called Kirta.

Thutmose cuts a stele at Tombos, which records that he built a fortress at Tombos, near the third cataract, thus permanently extending the Egyptian military presence, which had previously stopped at Buhen, at the second cataract.

Its erection in the second year of his reign indicates that he had already fought a campaign in Syria; hence, his Syrian campaign may be placed at the beginning of his second regnal year.

This second campaign is the farthest north any Egyptian ruler has ever campaigned.

Although it has not been found in modern times, he apparently set up a stele when he crossed the Euphrates River.

During this campaign, the Syrian princes declared allegiance to Thutmose.

However, after he returned, they discontinued tribute and began fortifying against future incursions.

Thutmose celebrated his victories with an elephant hunt in the area of Niy, near Apamea in Syria, and returned to Egypt with strange tales of the Euphrates, "that inverted water which flows upstream when it ought to be flowing downstream."

The Euphrates is the first major river which the Egyptians have ever encountered that flows from the north, which is downstream on the Nile, to the south, which is upstream on the Nile.

Thus the river becomes known in Egypt as simply, "inverted water."

Nubia rebels against Egyptian rule upon Thutmose's coronation.

According to the tomb autobiography of Ahmose, son of Ebana, Thutmose traveled up the Nile and fought in the battle, personally killing the Nubian king.

Upon victory, he had the Nubian king's body hung from the prow of his ship, before he returned to Thebes.

After this campaign, he leads a second expedition against Nubia in his third year, in the course of which he orders the canal at the first cataract—which had been built under Sesostris III of the Twelfth Dynasty—to be dredged in order to facilitate easier travel upstream from Egypt to Nubia.

This helps integrate Nubia into the Egyptian empire.

This expedition is mentioned in two separate inscriptions by the king's son Thure.

Thutmose I organizes great building projects, including many temples and tombs, but his greatest projects ae at the Temple of Karnak under the supervision of the architect Ineni.

Previous to Thutmose, Karnak probably consisted only of a long road to a central platform, with a number of shrines for the solar bark along the side of the road.

Thutmose is the first king to drastically enlarge the temple.

Thutmose has the fifth pylon built along the temple's main road, along with a wall to run around the inner sanctuary and two flagpoles to flank the gateway.

Outside of this, he builds a fourth pylon and another enclosure wall.

Between pylons four and five, he has a hypostyle hall constructed, with columns made of cedar wood.

This type of structure is common in ancient Egyptian temples, and supposedly represents a papyrus marsh, an Egyptian symbol of creation.

Along the edge of this room he builts colossal statues, each one alternating wearing the crown of Upper Egypt and the crown of Lower Egypt.

Finally, outside of the fourth pylon, he erects four more flagpoles and two obelisks, although one of them (which today has fallen,) will not be inscribed until Thutmose III does so about fifty years later.

The cedar columns in Thutmose I's hypostyle hall will be replaced with stone columns by Thutmose III, however at least the northernmost two are replaced by Thutmose I himself.

Hatshepsut will also erect two of her own obelisks inside of Thutmose I's hypostyle hall.

Thutmose has to face one more military threat, another rebellion by Nubia in his fourth year.

His influence accordingly expands even farther south, as an inscription dated to his reign has been found as far south as Kurgus, which is south of the fourth cataract.

He inscribes a large tableau on the Hagar el-Merwa, a quartz outcrop roughly forty meters long and fifty meters wide, located  twelve hundred meters from the Nile, on top of several local inscriptions

This is the furthest south the Egyptian presence is attested.

During his reign, he initiates a number of projects that effectively end Nubian independence for the next five hundred years.

He enlarged a temple to Sesostris III and Khnum, opposite the Nile from Semna.

There are also records of specific religious rites which the viceroy of El-Kab is to have performed in the temples in Nubia in proxy for the king.

He also appoints a man called Turi to the position of viceroy of Kush also known as the "King's Son of Cush."

With a civilian representative of the king permanently established in Nubia itself, Nubia does not dare to revolt as often as it had and will be easily controlled by future Egyptian kings.

Thutmose's father was possibly Amenhotep I.

His mother, Senseneb, is of non-royal parentage and may have been a lesser wife or concubine.

Queen Ahmose, who holds the title of Great Royal Wife of Thutmose, is probably the daughter of Ahmose I and the sister of Amenhotep I; however, she is never called "king's daughter," so there is some doubt about this, and some historians will speculate that she was Thutmose's own sister.

Assuming she was related to Amenhotep, it could be thought that she was married to Thutmose in order to guarantee succession. However, this is known not to be the case for two reasons.

Firstly, Amenhotep's alabaster bark built at Karnak associates Amenhotep's name with Thutmose's name well before Amenhotep's death.

Secondly, Thutmose's first-born son with Ahmose, Amenmose, was apparently born long before Thutmose's coronation.

He can be seen on a stela from Thutmose's fourth regnal year hunting near Memphis, and he became the "great army-commander of his father" sometime before his death, which is no later than Thutmose's own death in his twelfth regnal year.

Thutmose had another son, Wadjmose, and two daughters, Hatshepsut and Nefrubity, by Ahmose. Wadjmose died before his father, and Nefrubity died as an infant.

Thutmose has one son by another wife, Mutnofret.

This son will succeed shim as Thutmose II, whom Thutmose I will marry to his daughter, Hatshepsut.

It will later be recorded by Hatshepsut that Thutmose willed the kingship to both Thutmose II and Hatshepsut.

However, this is considered to be propaganda by Hatshepsut's supporters to legitimize her claim to the throne when she later assumed power.

The Maritime Revolution (1485-1342 BCE): The Old Whaling Culture Emergence

The Genesis of Arctic Maritime Mastery

The age of 1485-1342 BCE marked a revolutionary transformation in Arctic subsistence strategies as the enigmatic Old Whaling culture emerged along the Eskimo-occupied coasts around 1500 BCE. The Old Whalers appeared suddenly at Cape Krusenstern, representing a mysterious people who lived there during this early period.

This 143-year span witnessed the development of humanity's first systematic whale hunting traditions in the Arctic, as coastal populations developed the sophisticated maritime technologies and social organization necessary to pursue the ocean's largest prey. Alaskan archaeologists found large whale bones in a cluster of semi-subterranean houses at Cape Krusenstern on the Bering Sea, with people quickly dubbed the Old Whaling Culture, initially thought to be the earliest whalers in the world.

Architectural Innovation and Settlement Patterns

During this age, the Old Whaling peoples established distinctive settlement patterns that would influence Arctic architecture for millennia. The site consists of five semi-subterranean winter houses roughly 100 meters away from five above-ground summer houses. The inhabitants used vertebrae within their houses, possibly as a form of furniture - a tradition that would reemerge around 800 AD in the whaling Thule people.

This architectural innovation represented more than mere shelter; it demonstrated a sophisticated understanding of seasonal cycles and the logistical demands of large-scale marine mammal hunting. The spatial organization between winter and summer structures suggests the development of complex seasonal migration patterns coordinated with whale movements.

Maritime Technology and Cultural Identity

The Old Whaling culture's emergence during 1485-1342 BCE represented a fundamental shift in human-environment relationships. Prehistoric settlements were situated and defended so that people could hunt whales, with the importance of whaling in arctic prehistory being clear. The culture developed at strategic coastal locations that provided optimal access to marine mammal migration routes.

Various whaling tools, like special harpoons and butchering tools, are found at the site, though animal remains don't indicate that whales were the main resource extracted there. This suggests the culture was developing the technological foundations and cultural practices that would later enable true systematic whaling.

The Mysterious Origins and Connections

It is unknown who the inhabitants of the site were or what caused the site to be abandoned, with J.L. Giddings stating that the Old Whalers are the mysterious people of Cape Krusenstern. The origins and cultural connections of the Old Whaling settlement at Cape Krusenstern remain a mystery.

This cultural emergence occurred within the broader context of Arctic Small Tool tradition populations, representing either an internal innovation or the arrival of new peoples with distinct maritime orientations. The sudden appearance of this culture suggests rapid technological and social adaptation to Arctic marine environments.

Trans-Beringian Networks

Evidence suggests this maritime revolution was not isolated to Alaska. Recent findings by a Russian-American research team indicate that prehistoric cultures were hunting whales at least 3,000 years ago, with researchers believing sites on Russia's Chukotka Peninsula belonged to the Old Whaling Culture tradition.

This trans-Beringian distribution implies that during 1485-1342 BCE, Arctic populations maintained sophisticated networks of communication and cultural exchange, sharing innovations in maritime technology and whale hunting strategies across the Bering Sea.

Legacy of the Maritime Transition

The age 1485-1342 BCE established foundational elements that would define Arctic cultures for thousands of years. Whaling plays a significant role in the spiritual life of Arctic peoples, who strive to live in harmony with the land and sea and show great respect for the food and other natural resources available in the arctic north.

The Old Whaling culture's emergence during this age represented more than technological innovation—it marked the beginning of the complex spiritual, social, and economic relationships between Arctic peoples and marine mammals that would become central to circumpolar cultures. This 144-year period laid the groundwork for the sophisticated whaling traditions that would later characterize Thule and modern Inuit cultures, establishing the Arctic as a region where human societies achieved remarkable adaptation to one of Earth's most challenging environments.

Groups from southeastern Asia, primarily speakers of the languages (now) classified as Malayo-Polynesian, have begun to spread out to nearby Pacific Islands.

Saipan, along with neighboring Guam, Rota/Luta, Tinian, and to a lesser extent smaller islands northward, seems to have been first inhabited around 2000 BCE.

Evidence of human habitation in Saipan, the second largest of the Mariana Islands in the western Pacific Ocean, dates from around 1500.