lJ'fie rr.gyptian 'Perspective on .7Vfittani When Akhenaten came to the throne, he inherited a long and complicated history of relations with Mittani. The Syrian kings were long-time foes who had become diplomatic allies, and, as such, surely represented a great deal to Akhenaten. An understanding of how the Egyptians portrayed Mittani (more often termed "Nahrin" by the Egyptians) throughout the Eighteenth Dynasty can aid our understanding of Amenhotep III and Akhenaten's per- ceptions of their Mittani contemporary, Tushratta. Early Contacts: Thutmose I Egypt most probably sent its first military expedition into the Syrian regions held by Mittani during the reign of Thutmose I, although no contemporary reference to "Nahrin" or "Mittani" (Mtn) remains to us for this earliest cam- paign.l The dearly established accounts of Thutmose 1's Syrian expedition derive from the monumental rock-carved tomb inscriptions of Ahmose, son of Ebana, and Ahmose Pennekhbet, both of whom hailed from the city of Nekheb (Elkab) in Upper Egypt. Although these specifically refer to Thut- mose 1's campaign in Nahrin, the inscriptions were the work of the soldiers' descendants in the mid-Eighteenth Dynasty. The accounts, therefore, were formulated in the wake of Thutmose Ill's startling victories in Syria. The only certain contemporary monument that has seemed to make ref- erence to the Mittani expedition of Thutmose I is the Victory Stela of Year 2 left at the Third Cataract in northern Sudan: "His southern boundary is as far as the frontier of this land, the northern as far as that inverted water (mw ~d) which goes downstream (northward) in going upstream (southward)" (Urk. IV, 82-86). For decades, this text has been interpreted to contain a reference to the Egyptian engagement with Nahrin/Mittani was extremely limited in the be- Euphrates, which flows from north to south - a direction opposite to that ginning of the Eighteenth Dynasty. Skirmishes with Mittani vassals in Nahrin of the Nile. The "inverted water" was later interpreted by scholars to mean first occurred during Thutmose r's reign, but the conquest of northeastern re- also the Red Sea, into which the Euphrates emptied.2 Further research into gions did not occur for another thirty-six or more years, when Thutmose III the meaning of mw ~d led to Louise Bradbury's argument that the region de- began his Syrian expeditions. Rather, the consolidation of a Nubian empire scribed in the Tombos inscription is rather that of the Fourth Cataract in the occupied the interests of Thutmose II and Hatshepsut, bringing as it did northern Sudan, where the Nile flows from north to south, rather than along enlarged amounts of unwo1ked gold to Egypt and consequent fame for the 3 its normal route. In light of Bradbury's and others' discussions, it must be rulers throughout the Near East. concluded for now that an implied reference to the Euphrates cannot be con- Perhaps Thutmose I, on his brief expedition to Syria, encountered ene- firmed. Direct references to Nahrin and Mittani, both commonly applied in mies and war technology beyond the capability of Egypt's armies, which Egyptian documents to the Hurrian state, occur with certainty only in the almost certainly had fewer chariots than Mittani at the time. Had there been reign of Thutmose III, although the soldiers buried at Elkab claimed to have substantive territorial or material acquisitions made, it is difficult to believe fought there under Thutmose 1. The account of Ahmose, son of Ebana, prob- the mention of Nahrin would not have appeared prominently in the pre- ably inscribed late in the reign of Thutmose III, informs us that Thutmose I served monuments of Thutmose I, Thutmose II, or Hatshepsut. Far more first reached Retenu (an unspecific designation for the southern Levant) and likely is the supposition that Thutmose I found the Mittani vassals to be su- then relates that "his majesty arrived at Naharina; his majesty (life, pros- perior military powers and that he departed after leaving an inscription and perity, health) found that foe martialing the battle troops (fsf skw). Then perhaps conducting an elephant hunt in Nii to the south. his majesty made a great slaughter among them; numberless were the living It was left to Thutmose III to develop an army capable of conquering prisoners which his majesty brought away from his victories" (Urk. IV, 9- the Mittani vassals. Having done so, through his references to the carving of 10). Both Ahmoses claimed to have captured a chariot and horses, the son stelae in Syria, Thutmose III may well have recast Thutmose r's activity in of Ebana having been rewarded doubly because he also delivered the Mittani Syria into a context similar to his own description of empire building. This elite alive, on the chariot. Neither soldier described the region in any way, had the benefit of underlining how much more the third Thutmose had ac- nor is it clear from the context to whom Ahmose son of Ebana referred as complished than the first, while at the same time promoting the connection "that foe" of Naharina. between the two sovereigns. Since Hatshepsut had relied heavily on her posi- Only when read with Thutmose III's Annals for the Eighth Campaign in ~ion as Thutmose r's daughter, it would have been advantageous at home for Year 33 does the meaning of the inscription by Ahmose, son of Ebana, be- Thutmose III to develop his own association with the founder of the reigning come slightly clearer. In the report of the Eighth Campaign, Thutmose III Thutmoside line. recalled his grandfather's accomplishment in Nahrin (Urk. IV 697). He stated that "he set up another (stela) beside the stela of his father, the King of Upper From Conflict to Coexistence: Thutmose III to Amenhotep II and Lower Egypt, Aakheperkare (Thutmose I)." This was in a region that required the crossing of a river, which Thutmose III then used to transport If we may conclude from the absence of texts that Mittani was, until Year 33 of troops. (The claim that it was the Euphrates cannot be confirmed.4) Again, Thutmose III, a rival too powerful to be mentioned in Egyptian monumental the phrase "that foe of Nahrin, the defeated," occurs, but here it is specified inscriptions, then the king's conquest of the Syrian vassals was a truly sig- that it was his towns and villages that Thutmose III conquered somewhere nificant achievement. The hitherto poorly attested state of Nahrin suddenly to the north of Nii, itself specified as being in Nahrin (Urk. IV 698). The appears in every type of hieroglyphic inscription: in addition to the Annals booty list from this foray includes three rulers (wrw), implying the vassals of Thutmose III inscribed in stone within Karnak temple" the king's appar- of the Mittani king (Urk. IV 698). Therefore, "that foe of Nahrin," as used ent crossing of the Euphrates (Pbr wr) 5 appears in the Gebel Barkal Stela in the Thutmose III Annals, may well have referred to the Mittani ruler in (Urk. IV 1232) from the Fourth Cataract in Nubia, on a Karnak obelisk (now Washukanni and, given the nearly contemporary composition of the Elkab in Istanbul, Urk. IV 587), on the Poetical Stela from Karnak (Urk. IV 613), "autobiographies," to Thutmose I as well. We must conclude, however, that and on the Armant stela (Urk. IV 1245-46). References to Nahrin also occur among the numerous toponym lists from the reign.6 At the same time, the wet (TT 92).9 In the latter's tomb are also two scenes showing war materiel, king's contemporaries composed autobiographies for their own tomb chapels including Syrian-style helmets, armor, chariots, and weapons, as described and there related their involvement in the Nahrin expeditions. Among the in the Annals.1o One of these scenes was part of a presentation before Amen- most famous of these texts is TT 85 (Urk. IV 890-95), by Amenemheb, called hotep II, newly ruling alone following the death of Thutmose III; the other Mahu, who described his experiences in several campaigns in Syria: he men- formed part of an accounting scene that included horses and piles of precious tioned Nahrin, a toponym called W'n', west of I}J-r-bw, probably Aleppo, metal rings, as well as captives. and Karkemish (KJrykJ-mys). Amenemheb specified that he saw the victories The participation in the conquest of Syria, including Nahrin, by a newly of Thutmose III in Snt,!3r, Zinzar on the Orontes, and he boasted of taking formed Egyptian military elite is memorialized in at least eleven Theban two men, mariannu, as captives at Qadesh. He continued to echo the Years tombs from the reign of Thutmose III and early in that of Amenhotep II, in 33-42 campaigns by then referring to Thutmose Ill's elephant hunt in Nii addition to numerous private statue and stela inscriptionsY In these tomb and, finally, to the Qadesh siege mentioned for Year 42 in the Annals. chapels, the emphasis was on the captives of military expeditions and on the The amount of booty taken during the Syrian campaigns was impressive, wars or soldiers themselves, as much as it was upon luxury items acquired both for the ruler and for his soldiers. With the exception of the aftermath of from foreign deliveries. The military aspect of Egyptian-Mittani encounters the Year 33 Eighth Campaign, throughout the Annals revenue from Naharin was to be short-lived, however. Rather, the prestige of things Syrian began - either the plunder of the army or what the king captured (~Jk or kf') - was to soar.