Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt
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The Eighteenth Dynasty of ancient Egypt (1550-1292 BCE) – often combined with the nineteenth and twentieth dynasties under the group title, New Kingdom – is perhaps the most famous of all the dynasties of ancient Egypt. As well as a number of Egypt's most powerful pharaohs, it included Tutankhamun, whose tomb, uncovered by Howard Carter in 1922, was one of the greatest of all archaeological discoveries, being relatively undisturbed by tomb robbers. It is rarely known as the Thutmoid Dynasty because all four of the Thutmosis Pharaohs ruled during this period. Hapshepsut, one of a handful of women to be crowned king of Egypt, ruled during this dynasty, as did Akhenaten (also known as Amenophis IV), the "heretic Pharoah" who with his wife Nefertiti instituted the first arguably monotheistic state religion.
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[edit] Foundation
The dynasty was founded by Ahmose the brother of Kamose, the last ruler of the Seventeenth Dynasty. Ahmose finished the campaign to expel the hated Hyksos rulers. With this dynasty, the Second Intermediate Period of Egypt ended, and the New Kingdom of Egypt or the Egyptian Empire began.
[edit] Thutmosids
Thutmose I seems to have not been directly related to the existing royal line, and married into royalty. The later part of the dynasty included Hatshepsut, who effectively ruled during the minority of her stepson, but was later considered a usurper; the first formal relations with foreign countries under Amenhotep III, of which some records were included in the el Amarna letters; and Akhenaten, who instigated the earliest verified expression of monotheism, (although the actual origins of monotheism are the subject of continuing research and debate). Tutankhaman restored polytheism. Scholars believe that Akhenaten's devotion to his god Aten offended many in power, which contributed to the end of this dynasty; he later suffered damnatio memoriae. Although modern students of Egyptology consider the monotheism of Akhenaten the most important event of this period, the Egyptians themselves considered the so-called Amarna period an unfortunate aberration.
[edit] Eighteenth Dynasty timeline
[edit] End of dynasty
The dynasty's final years were clearly shaky: the unidentified widow of King Nibhururiya, now believed to be Ankhesenamun, wife of Tutankhamun wrote to Suppiluliumas I, king of the Hittites, asking him to send one of his sons to be her husband and rule Egypt. Suppiluliumas sent an ambassador to investigate, who reported that the situation was accurately described; however the destined Hittite prince Zannanza was murdered en route on the borders between the Hittite and Egyptian Empires, and the last two members of this dynasty – Ay and Horemheb – came from officials of the royal court. Suppiluliumas I reacted with rage at the news of his son's death by going to war against Egypt's vassal states in Syria and Northern Canaan and captured the city of Amki. Unfortunately, Egyptian prisoners of war from Amki carried a plague which would eventually ravage the Hittite Empire and kill both Suppiluliumas I and his direct successor.
The Nineteenth dynasty of Ramesses I succeeded it in 1292 BC.
[edit] See also
1330-1340
