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Ialadynin the NEAR EASTERN EMPIRES of the FIRST

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Ialadynin the NEAR EASTERN EMPIRES of the FIRST История с.ю.сапрыкин. Загадка греческой эпиграфики: надпись на гробнице жреца теса... I.A.Ladynin strong power, like Mitanni or Hatti, backed them); but it stood no chance against a centralized empire controlling entire Eastern Mediterranean and taking its might from even vaster economic and military resources. No THE NEAR EASTERN EMPIRES OF THE FIRST doubt, the Egyptians took a melancholy notice of this geopolitical change, MILLENNIUM B.C. IN TERMS OF ANCIENT which actually excluded a possibility for their country to regain the status 1 of a great power. The problem to be approached in this paper is to trace the EGYPTIAN TEXTS: THE NAME CTt/Ctt shuffle of power between the Near Eastern empires and Egypt’s inevitable confrontation to them5 as reflected in the Egyptian sources of the First Mil- lennium B.C., as well as the concepts that governed this reflection. An important step in this approach is, certainly, singling out a name, which must have served a denotation for the Near Eastern empires of the First Millennium in Egyptian texts. Fortunately, it is quite certain that The occurrences of Egyptian names for foreign countries and peoples in anumber of sources, to which we will still come down, denote the Persian texts of any epoch can be largely divided in two groups. First, they occur in Ctt 6 CTt/Ctt et al. traditional texts, e.g. in temple inscriptions, on ritual motives, often inde- empire as . This is an ancient name ( ; , ), which was applied since the Early Dynastic period7 to the lands to the North- pendently of any real political events: the best example of the kind is pro- 8 vided by standard enumerations of the so-called «Nine Bows» triumphed East of Egypt; hence its traditional rendering as «Asia» . The people de by kings2; however, there are other, less standard and more realistic, as to noted with the nisba-derivative of this name, cTtyw/cttyw ( et specific historical situations, lists of subjugated peoples and places, whose al.)9, has been appearing in standard scenes since the early Middle King- submission to the king of Egypt had to be affirmed3. Second, these names dom as one of the traditional foes subdued by the Egyptian king (aside with certainly occur in the evidence of real political events; and the present pa- the «Southerners» — ctyw and the «Westerners»— THnwyy)10; besides, the per, though not quite overlooking the former group, will concentrate on name mntyw-nw-Ctt («the Bedouins of Ctt) found regularly its place in the pieces of the latter one dating from the middle till the end of the First standard lists of the «Nine Bows»11 It seems probable that the geographical Millennium B.C. The choice of this period, even apart from the author’s meaning of the name and its derivative was changing as far as the scope of personal interest, is by no means occasional. The macroregion of the Egyptian knowledge of their North-Eastern neighbourhood was spread- Near East and Mediterranean (including Asia Minor, the Aegean islands, ing; similar evolution was postulated with a good reason for the name of and to some extend the Balkan Peninsula) has become a well-integrated HAw-nbw (the denotation of the Mediterranean neighbours of Egypt, by the geopolitical entity already in the Late Bronze Age; though broken at the Greco-Roman period the regular designation for of Greeks12). No wonder, end of the Second Millennium B.C. by the ethnic migrations (of the «Sea eventually this name came to be most appropriate denotation for the vast Peoples», the Balkan peoples, and the Arameans4), this entity re-emerged territories united under Persian dominion. The idea of the present paper is even stronger several centuries later. Its key element at that time came to to check whether it is possible to trace this «imperial» meaning of the term be interregional states uniting, as their kernel part, the regions of Syria- in the epochs before and after the Achaemenids and how far it can be done Palestine and Mesopotamia. The existence of such empires was continu- in both directions. ous, from the period of Assyrian domination at the Near East and to the Before coming down to this task, something more should be said on time when the advent of Rome separated Syria-Palestine from the lands the relevant sources. It has already been said that the names of foreign to the east of it for good (moreover, one might say that in a long run this countries regularly occur in some texts governed by strict rules of tradition. geopolitical reality was re-created by the conquests of Khosrov II Parviz The name Ctt and its derivative cttyw are no exception: in the late First Mil- in the early 6th century A.D., to be inherited in a short run by the Arabs). lennium B.C. and even in the 1st century A.D. we find them in the temple Anyway, the emergence of such states to the North-East of Egypt in the assertions of king’s subordinating the «Nine Bows» (under Ptolemies VII First Millennium B.C. completely changed its position at the region: in the and XIII at Philae13; under Ptolemy XI at Edfu14) and other mentions of preceding millennium Egypt managed to dominate the small kingdoms, his smiting or subduing foreign lands (at Edfu15; at Kom Ombo under Ti- city-states and tribes of Syria-Palestine (though it was difficult, whenever a berius, which is worth special notice since no wars in Asia were waged by История I.A.Ladynin. The Near Eastern Empires of the First Millennium B.C. in Terms of Ancient... this emperor-Pharaoh at all16; etc.17) as well as in the accounts of bringing other monuments as well (e.g. at Kawa31), were by far not successful: the copper, wood and other goods to king, gods or for embellishing a temple developments of the late 8th and the early 7th century B.C. proved Assyria of a tomb (e.g., inscriptions at the tomb of Petosiris18 and on the statue of to have been an insuperable obstacle on the way of the Nubian Pharaohs Djed-Hor the Saviour in the late 4th century19; the inscription on the statue to Asia32. However, it should be noticed that in the scenes of elevating the of Senu under Ptolemy II20; a text at Edfu under Ptolemy VIII Euergetes statues Ctt seems to be rather a geographical notion, while the phrase about II21; a text at Dendera22; etc.). The fact that these statements are traditional «the fortresses of Ctt », on the contrary, brings to mind the political and and, thus, their connection to reality should be described as doubtful hardly military power that established them and allows to see in this name here needs a proof. Nevertheless, the conventionality of these statements does an allusion to Assyria as the empire integrating the entire Near East. It not prevent them from alluding to the true circumstances of their contem- was only several decades before (ca. 728 B.C.) that the standard label «the porary epoch or of the past; in these cases the names of foreign countries fear of His Majesty (spreads) to the frontiers of the Asiatic» in the Stela and peoples in them must be treated as reflecting a geopolitical reality, of Py(ankhy) (Sfyt Hm.f r pH cttyw 33) hardly seemed to allude to a specific together with the statements of doubtless historical importance. state34. Probably, the reinterpretation of the name Ctt in the meaning of a The earliest use of the name Ctt for denoting a Near Eastern empire geopolitical term must have followed the Egyptian «discovery» of Assyria might be attested in the edifice of Pharaoh Taharqa (belonging to the Nu- as the Near Eastern empire; and this, in its own turn, could not have taken bian Dynasty XXV, 690–664 B.C.) near the Sacred Lake of Karnak, which place before the decisive victories of Tiglatpalassar III and Sargon II in the must have been built before the Assyrian invasions into Egypt in late 670s Levant35, which fell exactly between the times of the Stela of Py(ankhy) and B.C.23. In its second room two scenes are present: one of them, on its south the edifice of Taharqa. wall, shows the rite impelling gods Dedun, Sobek, Soped, and Horus (by ele- Next source, in which the name Ctt might be interpreted as a geopolitical vating their statues on a special Tst-support) to subdue foreign lands: Nubia denotation, is the well-known inscription on the statue of Nesuhor (Louvre A90) from the time of Apries (589–570 B.C.)36. The gratitude of this officer (¤t), Libya (*Hnw), Asia (Ctt; written with the specific sign S17* , as of- to the gods of Elephantine for his salvation in a soldier mutiny reads: «...as ten in later texts24), and Upper and Lower Egypt (¥ma MHw)25. The figure you rescued me from the evil occasion, from the soldiers (of the people of) of each deity is accompanied with a standard inscription, which, in the case aAmw, (of the people/country of) HAw-nbw, (of the country of) Asia and (of) of Soped and Asia, reads: «Soped [is raised] on its Tst-support; he is go- the other» (l. 6: mi Sd.tn wi m ct qcnt m-a pDt aAmw HAw-nbw Ctt kiw). ing to carry out his massacre, he is going to stir up agitation. Beware, [O] Asia» (l. 9–10: di Cpdw Hr Tst.f iry Sat.f iry.f Snw my tw irty Ctt26.
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