After the Pyramids, a New Kingdom

One of these days, Hollywood will make a movie about Egypt’s New Kingdom. It’s a magnificent story about redemption, power, greed, revenge, religion and decline, all set in the world’s first genuine empire.

Until then, “Egypt’s Golden Empire,” appearing tonight on PBS, provides an acceptable substitute. Using documents from the period and a little bit of creative filmmaking, the program brings to life one of the most intriguing periods of Egypt’s vast history. Over a 400-year span, Egypt’s New Kingdom kicked out two groups of foreign invaders, expanded its empire to include much of the Near East, created wealth beyond all previous imagining, established a new religion--and ultimately fell apart in greed and bickering.

The story began around 1570 BC, more than 1,000 years after the pharaohs of Egypt’s Old Kingdom had built the pyramids and the Sphinx. Northern Egypt had been conquered by an Asian group known as the Hyksos, and the Hyksos king had declared himself pharaoh. Southern Egypt was ruled by the Nubians, who had pushed northward from Central Africa.

The Egyptians had been reduced to a small tribe occupying Central Egypt, led by an obscure pharaoh called Segenere Taa I. Segenere and his army were brutally slaughtered trying to expel the Hyksos. The Hyksos king then sent a message to the king of the Nubians, inviting him to join with the Hyksos in trapping and conquering the remaining Egyptians.

Intercepting the message, Segenere’s oldest son Kamose organized another army and captured the first Hyksos town he encountered. He died before he could go any further, leaving behind only his 10-year-old brother Ahmose. By the time he was 20, Ahmose had strengthened the army and attacked the Hyksos capital of Avaris, expelling the foreign invaders.

He then turned his attention southward, expanding his borders well into Nubia and--most important--capturing the rich Nubian gold mines, which would be a source of Egyptian wealth and power for centuries. And that’s just the first 15 minutes of the program.

Fifty years later, on the death of Tuthmosis II, the crown fell to young Tuthmosis III but the actual power fell to his stepmother and co-regent Hatshepsut. Within six years, she had assumed full control of the country and declared herself pharaoh, claiming (falsely) that her father, Tuthmosis I, had designated her as his successor and that the god Amen had briefly occupied her father’s body when she was conceived.

Hatshepsut was the first known female ruler in history, and Egypt grew in power during her reign, especially after a successful trade expedition to the land of the Punt. But Tuthmosis III deeply resented her coup and, when he finally assumed power after 20 years, erased her name from every monument he could find, a pattern that became common throughout the New Kingdom. Her name was lost to history until 1903, when archeologist Howard Carter stumbled on some artifacts that Tuthmosis III had missed and began piecing together her remarkable story.

And so it goes, through a succession of rulers that included Amenhotep III, Akhenaten, Tutankhamen and, ultimately, Ramesses II, who reigned for 67 years. Ramesses survived so long, in fact, that he outlived all the potential heirs whom he had groomed to take his place, and Egypt began an irreversible downhill slide after his death.

Love Notes and Gossip

from Common People

Much of the story is recounted from details on steles and temples, but a surprising amount of information comes from the everyday writings of the common people: letters home from soldiers, intimate love notes and poetry, raunchy gossip and even laundry and shopping lists.

One tomb-builder named Paneb, for example, was a complete rogue. A letter from his son denouncing him notes that, at age 72, Paneb was still causing mayhem in his village by sleeping with the wives and daughters of other tomb-builders.

The empire-building of the New Kingdom shaped the science, culture and politics of the ancient world and served as a model for the Greeks, the Romans and a host of other civilizations that came along later. One could argue that, without the New Kingdom, the world would be a vastly different place today. It’s a movie script just waiting to be written.

“Egypt’s Golden Empire” can be seen at 9 tonight on KCET. For more information about the period and the show, visit www.pbs.org/empires/egypt.