Moses and Akhenaten by Ahmed Osman Page A

Year 34 and a second princess a decade later. Details of the treaty, known from both Egyptian and Hittite sources, can be found in Appendix A(ii): The Hattusili Treaty, but the subsequent situation that obtained between the two countries is summed up by Schmidt, an American Egyptologist, in the following terms in his book Ramses II: ‘With Year 30 and the first Jubilee, a time of peace and tranquility seems to have descended upon Egypt; from that year onward, there is no reference to warfare or strife. Building activity seems to have become Ramses’s primary public concern, and, as far as one can tell, the economy of the land prospered.’
    Some of the wars conducted by Ramses II were a continuation of the campaigns against the Shasu that had been initiated by his father, Seti I. There are several references to them, although no specific dates are to be found, at Tanis, one of the Ramesside cities in the north-east of the Delta, south of Lake Menzalah:
    Obelisk V, W. Face:‘… who made a great slaughter in the land of the Shasu’; Obelisk IX, W. Face: ‘… who plunders the Shasu-land’; Stela II: ‘… he has destroyed the inheritance of the Shasu-land and made them [the chiefs] bring their tribute to Egypt for ever and ever’; Stela V: ‘… who made great slaughter in the land of the Shasu’; Stella [VIII], frag. 3:’… the Shasu, taken off as c[aptives…]’; Stela IX, Face B, 3: ‘… who plundered the Shasu-land’.
    We also find at Karnak, south of the Hittite treaty and Ascalon-scene, over a file of prisoners: ‘… the Shasu whom His Majesty plundered’. 3
    Where did these battles against the Shasu take place? Professor Kenneth A. Kitchen of Liverpool University, citing various Egyptian sources, has concluded that Mount Seir formed part of the Shasu-land and is to be equated with Edom of Genesis (36: 8–9). (See also Appendix A (iii): A Dissenting Voice.) Of a number of other names mentioned he says that Bernard Grdseloff, the Polish Egyptologist, has ‘aptly compared Rbn with the Laban of Deuteronomy, 1:1 (and Libnah of Numbers, 33:20–21) and Sm’t with the Shimea thites of I Chronicles, 2:55, all in the area of Seir/Edom, the Negeb, or the Araba rift valley between them’, and concludes that the evidence ‘clearly suggests that Ramses or troops of his raided the Negeb, the uplands of Seir or Edom, and perhaps part of the intervening Araba rift valley … Thus we have evidence for the activity of Ramses II (or at least of his forces) in both Edom and Moab (to the south and south-east of the Dead Sea).’ 4
    Dr Kitchen next proceeds to try to provide possible dates for the military confrontations between Ramses II and the Shasu: ‘It is difficult to place these Transjordanian activities within the general pattern of Ramses II’s Asiatic wars as at present known, and a summary must suffice. The first campaign would be that of Year 4: the “middle” stele at Nahr el-Kelb, north of Beirut, gives this date clearly. The second campaign – explicitly so-called – is that of Year 5 in Syria that ended in the notorious battle of Kadesh. Then a campaign in Year 8 in Palestine, Syria and Phoenicia is commemorated on the rear face of the pylon of the Ramasseum. Then comes the south stele of Ramses II at Nahr el-Kelb, perhaps dated Year 10, indicating further activity in Phoenicia. At some time in this general period belong the Syrian wars commemorated by the Karnak series of reliefs and related scenes at Luxor, besides other traces. However, the Egyptians had also to deal with matters nearer home, in Palestine. An undated scene at Karnak showing the submission of Ascalon is usually ascribed to Ramses II. And in his Year 18 is dated a stele from Beth-Shan that records virtually no concrete facts, but in itself may indicate activity in that region. This brings us to Year 21 and the