Amenhotep III

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Persondata
NAME	Amenhotep III
ALTERNATIVE NAMES	Nibmu(`w)areya in the Amarna letters[3] Amenophis III
SHORT DESCRIPTION	Pharaoh of Egypt
DATE OF BIRTH	{{{Birth}}}
PLACE OF BIRTH	Ancient Egypt
DATE OF DEATH	{{{Death}}}
PLACE OF DEATH	Ancient Egypt

Preceded by: Thutmose IV	Pharaoh of Egypt 18th Dynasty	Succeeded by: Akhenaten
Amenhotep III
Nibmu(`w)areya in the Amarna letters[3] Amenophis III
Colossal Granite head of Amenhotep III Nomen= Amenhotep Hekawaset Amun is Satisfied, Ruler of Thebes[1]
Reign	1388 BC – 1351 BC/1350 BC
Praenomen	Nebmaatre The Lord of Truth is Re[2]
Horus name	Kanakht Emkhaimaat The strong bull, appearing in truth
Nebty name	Semenhepusegerehtawy One establishing laws, pacifying the two lands
Golden Horus	Aakhepesh-husetiu Great of valour, smiting the Asiatics
Consort(s)	Tiye, Gilukhepa, Tadukhepa
Issues	Akhenaten, Crown Prince Tuthmose, Sitamun Henuttaneb, Iset, Nebetah, Smenkhkare (?), Beketaten
Father	Thutmose IV
Mother	Mutemwiya
Died	1351 BC
Burial	WV22
Major Monuments	Malkata, Mortuary Temple of Amenhotep III Colossi of Memnon

Amenhotep III (sometimes read as Amenophis III) meaning Amun is Satisfied was the ninth pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty. According to different authors, he ruled Egypt from June 1391 BC-December 1353 BC or June 1388 BC to December 1351 BC/1350 BC^[4] after his father Thutmose IV died. Amenhotep III was the son of Thutmose IV by Mutemwia, a minor wife of Amenhotep's father who was not the latter's chief royal wife.^[5]

Contents 1 Family 2 Life 3 Monuments 4 Proposed coregency 5 Final years 6 Death 7 References 8 External links 9 See also

[edit] Family

Amenhotep III fathered two sons with his Great Royal Wife Tiye: the Crown Prince Tuthmose who predeceased his father and his second son Akhenaten who ultimately succeeded him to the throne. Amenhotep may also be the father of a third son—called Smenkhkare who would later succeed Akhenaten and briefly rule Egypt as king.^[6] Amenhotep III and Tiye also had four known daughters: Sitamun, Henuttaneb, Isis or Iset and Nebetah.^[7] They appear frequently on statues and reliefs during their father's reign and are also represented by smaller objects with the exception of Nebetah.^[8] Nebetah is attested only once in the historical records on a colossal limestone group of statues from Medinet Habu.^[9] This huge seven metre high sculpture shows Amenhotep III and Tiye seated side by side, "with three of their daughters standing in front of the throne--Henuttaneb, the largest and best preserved, in the centre; Nebetah on the right; and another, whose name is destroyed, on the left."^[10]

Amenhotep III elevated two of his four daughters--Sitamun and Isis--to the role of "great royal wife" during the last decade of his reign. Evidence that Sitamun was already promoted to this office by Year 30 of his reign is known from jar-label inscriptions uncovered from the royal palace at Malkata.^[11] It must be stressed that Egypt's theological paradigm encouraged the king to accept female partners from several different generations.^[12] The Goddess Hathor herself was both mother, wife and daughter of Ra in Ancient Egyptian religion.^[13] Hence, Amenhotep III's marriage to his two daughters should not be considered as incest in our contemporary conception of marriage.

Amenhotep III is known to have married Gilukhepa (the first of a series of diplomatic brides), daughter of Shuttarna II of Mitanni in the tenth year of his reign.^[14] Around Year 36 of his reign, he married Tadukhepa, the daughter of his ally Tushratta of Mitanni.

[edit] Life

Amenhotep III enjoys the distinction of having the most surviving statues of any Egyptian Pharaoh depicting his likeness, with over 250 of his statues having been discovered and identified. Since these statues cover his entire life, they provide the only complete set of portraits covering the entire length of any ancient Egyptian ruler.

Another striking characteristic of Amenhotep III's reign is the series of over 200 large commemorative stone scarabs that have been discovered over a large geographic area ranging from Syria (Ras Shamra) through to Soleb in Nubia.^[15] Their lengthy inscribed texts extol the pharaoh's deeds. For instance, 123 of these commemorative scarabs record the large number of lions (either 102 or 110 depending on the reading) that Amenhotep III killed "with his own arrows" from his first regnal year up to his tenth year.^[16] Similarly, five other scarabs state that the foreign princess Gilukhepa arrived in Egypt with a retinue of 317 women; she was the first of many such princesses who would enter the pharaoh's harem.^[17] Another eleven scarabs record the excavation of an artificial lake he had built for Queen Tiye in his eleventh regnal year.

Regnal Year 11 under the Majesty of...Amenhotep (III), ruler of Thebes, given life, and the great royal wife Tiyi; may she live; her father's name was Yuya, her mother's name Tuya. His Majesty commanded the making of a lake for the great royal wife Tiyi--may she live--in her town of Djakaru. (near Akhmin). Its length is 3,700 (cubits) and its width is 700 (cubits). (His Majesty) celebrated the Festival of Opening the Lake in the third month of Inundation, day sixteen. His Majesty was rowed in the royal barge Aten-tjehen in it [the lake].^[18]

Amenhotep appears to have been crowned while still a child, perhaps between the ages of 6 and 12. His lengthy reign was a period of unprecedented prosperity, and artistic splendour when Egypt reached the peak of her artistic and international power. Proof of this is shown by the diplomatic correspondence from the rulers of Assyria, Mitanni, Babylon and Hatti which is preserved in the archive of Amarna Letters; they document these rulers frequent requests for gold and numerous other gifts from the pharaoh. The letters cover the period from Year 30 of Amenhotep III until at least the end of Akhenaten's reign. In one famous correspondence--Amarna letter EA 4--Amenhotep III is quoted by the Babylonian king Kadashman-Enlil I in firmly rejecting the latter's entreaty to marry one of this pharaoh's daughters:

“

"From time immemorial, no daughter of the king of Egy[pt] is given to anyone."[19]

”

Amenhotep III's refusal to allow one of his daughter to be married to the Babylonian monarch may indeed be connected with Egyptian traditional royal practices or be viewed as a shrewd attempt on his part to enhance Egypt's prestige over those of her neighbours in the international world.

The pharaoh's reign was relatively peaceful and uneventful. The only dated military activity by the king is commemorated by three rock-carved stelas from his fifth year found near Aswan and Sai island in Nubia. The official account of Amenhotep III's military victory emphasizes his martial prowess.

Regnal Year 5, third month of Inundation, day 2. Appearance under the Majesty of Horus: Strong bull, appearing in truth; Two Ladies: Who establishes laws and pacifies the Two Lands;...King of Upper and Lower Egypt: Nebmaatra, heir of Ra; Son of Ra: [Amenhotep, ruler of Thebes], beloved of [Amon]-Ra, King of the Gods, and Khnum, lord of the cataract, given life. One came to tell His Majesty, "The fallen one of vile Kush has plotted rebellion in his heart." His Majesty led on to victory; he completed it in his first campaign of victory. His Majesty reached them like the wing stroke of a falcon, like Menthu (war god of Thebes) in his transformation...Ikheny, the boaster in the midst of the army, did not know the lion that was before him. Nebmaatra was the fierce-eyed lion whose claws seized vile Kush, who trampled down all its chiefs in their valleys, they being cast down in their blood, one on top of the other ^[20]

Amenhotep III celebrated three Jubilee festivals in his Year 30, Year 34 and Year 37 respectively at his Malkata summer palace in Western Thebes.^[21] The palace, called as Per-Hay or "House of Rejoicing" in ancient times, comprised a temple of Amun and a festival hall built especially for this occasion.^[22] One of the king's most popular epithets was Aten-tjehen which means "the Dazzling Sun Disk"; it appears in his titulary at Luxor temple and, more frequently, was used as the name for one of his palaces as well as the Year 11 royal barge and denotes a company of men in Amenhotep's army.^[23]

[edit] Monuments

He built extensively at the temple of Karnak, including at least two pylons, a colonnade behind the new entrance, and a new temple to the goddess Ma'at. Amenhotep III dismantled the Fourth pylon of the Temple of Amun at Karnak to construct a new pylon--the Third pylon-- where he created a new entrance to this structure where he erected "two rows of columns with open papyrus capital[s]" down the centre of this newly formed forecourt.^[24] The forecourt between the third and fourth pylons of Egypt, sometimes called an obelisk court, was also decorated with scenes of the sacred barque of the gods Amun, Mut and Khonsu being carried in funerary boats.^[25] He also started work on the Tenth pylon at the Temple of Amun here. Amenhotep III's first recorded acts as king--in his Years 1 and 2--was to open new limestone quarries at Tura, just south of Cairo and at Dayr al-Barsha in Middle Egypt in order to herald his great building projects.^[26] He oversaw construction of another temple to Ma'at at Luxor and virtually covered Nubia with numerous monuments "including a small temple with a colonnade (dedicated to Thutmose III) at Elephantine, a rock temple dedicated to Amun 'Lord of the Ways' at Wadi es-Sebuam, and the temple of Horus of Miam at Aniba...[as well as founding] additional temples at Kawa and Sesebi."^[27]

His enormous mortuary temple on the west bank of the Nile was, in its day, the largest religious complex in Thebes but, unfortunately, the king chose to build it too close to the floodplain and less than 200 years later, it stood in ruins. Much of the masonry was purloined by Merneptah and later pharaohs for their own construction projects.^[28] The Colossi of Memnon — two massive 18-metre stone statues of Amenhotep that stood at the gateway of his mortuary temple — are the only elements of the complex that remained standing. Amenhotep III also built the Third Pylon at Karnak and erected 600 statues of the goddess Sekhmet in the Temple of Mut, south of Karnak.^[29]

[edit] Proposed coregency

There is currently no conclusive evidence of a coregency between Amenhotep III and his son, Akhenaten. A letter from the Amarna palace archives dated to Year 2--rather than Year 12--of Akhenaten's reign from the Mitanni king Tushratta (Amarna letter EA 27) preserves a complaint about the fact that Akhenaten did not honor his father's promise to forward Tushratta statues made of solid gold as part of a marriage dowry for sending his daughter, Tadukhepa into the pharaoh's harem.^[30] This correspondence implies that if any coregency occurred between Amenhotep III and Akhenaten, it lasted no more than a year at the most.^[31] Lawrence Berman observes in a 1998 biography of Amenhotep III that

"it is significant that the proponents of the coregency theory have tended to be art historians [ie: Raymond Johnson], whereas historians [such as Donald Redford and William Murnane] have largely remained unconvinced. Recognizing that the problem admits no easy solution, the present writer has gradually come to believe that it is unnecessary to propose a coregency to explain the production of art in the reign of Amenhotep III. Rather the perceived problems appear to derive from the interpretation of mortuary objects."^[32]

[edit] Final years

Reliefs from the wall of the temple of Soleb in Nubia and scenes from the Theban tomb of Kheruef, Steward of the King's Great Wife (TT192) depict Amenhotep as a visibly weak and sick figure.^[33] It has generally been assumed by some scholars that Amenhotep requested and received from his father-in-law Tushratta of Mitanni, a statue of Ishtar of Nineveh--a healing goddess--in order to cure him of his various ailments which included painful abscesses in his teeth.^[34] A forensic examination of his mummy shows that he was probably in constant pain during his final years due to his worn and cavity pitted teeth. However, more recent analysis of Amarna letter EA 23 by William L. Moran, which recounts the dispatch of the goddess to Thebes, does not support this popular theory. The goddess' arrival is known to have coincided with Amenhotep III's marriage with Tadukhepa, Tushratta's daughter, in the pharaoh's 36th year; letter's EA 23's arrival in Egypt is dated to "regnal year 36, the fourth month of winter, day 1" of his reign.^[35] Furthermore, Tushratta never mentions in EA 23 that the statue's dispatch was meant to heal Amenhotep from his maladies. Instead, Tushratta merely writes

“

Say to Nimmureya (ie: Amenhotep III), the king of Egypt, my brother, my son-in-law, whom I love and who loves me: Thus Tušratta, the king of Mitanni, who loves you, your father-in-law. For me all goes well. For you may all go well. For your household for Tadu-Heba (ie: Tadukhepa), my daughter, your wife, who you love, may all go well. For your wives, for your sons, for your magnates, for your chariots, for your horses, for your troops, for your country, and for whatever else belongs to you, may all go very, very well. Thus Šauška of Nineveh, mistress of all lands: "I wish to go to Egypt, a country that I love, and then return." Now I herewith send her, and she is on her way. Now, in the time, too, of my father,...[she] went to this country, and just as earlier she dwelt there and they honored her, may my brother now honor her 10 times more than before. May my brother honor her, (then) at (his) pleasure let her go so that she may come back. May Šauška (ie: Ishtar), the mistress of heaven, protect us, my brother and me, a 100,000 years, and may our mistress grant both of us great joy. And let us act as friends. Is Šauška for me alone my god(dess), and for my brother not his god(dess)?[36]

”

The likeliest explanation is that the statue was sent to Egypt "to shed her blessings on the wedding of Amenhotep III and Tadukhepa, as she had done previously for Amenhotep III and Gilukhepa."^[37] As Moran writes: "One explanation of the goddess' visit is that she was to heal the aged and ailing Egyptian king, but this explanation rests purely on analogy and finds no support in this letter...More likely, it seems, is a connection with the solemnities associated with the marriage of Tušratta's daughter; sf. the previous visit mentioned in lines 18f., perhaps on the occasion of the marriage of Kelu-Heba (ie: Gilukhepa)...and note, too, Šauška's role along with Aman, of making Tadu-Heba answer to the king's desires."^[38]

The contents of Amarna letter EA 21 from Tushratta to his "brother" Amenhotep III strongly affirms this solution. In this correspondence, Tushratta explicitly states

“

I have given...my daughter (Tadukhepa) to be the wife of my brother, whom I love. May Šimige and Šauška go before her. May they m[ake he]r the image of my brother's desire. May my brother rejoice on t[hat] day. May Šimige and Šauška grant my brother a gre[at] blessing, exquisi[te] joy. May they bless him and may you, my brother, li[ve] forever.[39]

”

[edit] Death

Amenhotep III's highest attested date are a pair of Year 38 wine jar-label dockets from Malkata^[40]; however, he may have lived briefly into an unrecorded 39th year since wine from his royal estate was only processed in the Autumn by which time he would have been dead while his son Akhenaten now sat on the throne. Amenhotep III was buried in the Western Valley of the Valley of the Kings, in Tomb WV22. An examination of his mummy by the Australian anatomist, Grafton Elliott Smith concluded that the pharaoh was aged between forty and fifty years old at death.^[41] His chief wife Tiye is known to have outlived him for as long as 12 years since she is mentioned in several Amarna letters dating to her son's reign and is depicted at a dinner table with Akhenaten and his royal family in scenes from the tomb of Huya.^[42]

When Amenhotep died, he left behind a country that was at the very height of its power and influence and which commanded immense respect in the international world; however, he also bequeated an Egypt that was wedded to its traditional political and religious certainties under the Amun priesthood.^[43] The resulting upheavals from his son Akhenaten's reforming zeal would shake these old certainties to their foundation and bring forth the central question of whether pharaoh was more powerful than the existing domestic order as represented by the Amun priests and their numerous temple estates.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• Commemorative scarab of Amenhotep III

[edit] See also

• History of ancient Egypt
• Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt Family Tree
• Mitanni

v • d • e Notable Ancient Egyptians
Early Dynastic Rulers	Narmer · Hor-Aha · Menes
Old Kingdom Rulers	Djoser · Sneferu · Khufu · Khafra · Menkaura · Pepi II
Middle Kingdom Rulers	Mentuhotep II · Mentuhotep IV · Senusret III · Amenemhat III · Sobekneferu
New Kingdom Rulers	Hatshepsut · Thutmose III · Amenhotep III · Akhenaten · Tutankhamun · Ramesses I · Seti I · Ramesses II
Other Rulers	Shoshenq I · Piye · Taharqa · Psammetichus I · Ptolemy I · Cleopatra VII
Consorts	Tetisheri · Ahmose-Nefertari · Ahmose · Tiye · Nefertiti · Ankhesenamun · Nefertari · Mark Antony
Court officials	Imhotep · Weni · Ahmose, son of Ebana · Ineni · Senemut · Rekhmire · Yuya · Maya · Yuny · Manetho · Pothinus