Kamose in hieroglyphs
praenomen or throne name
nomen or birth name

Kamose was the last king of the Theban Seventeenth Dynasty. He was a relative of Sekenenra Tao II and the uncle of Ahmose, founder of the Eighteenth Dynasty. His reign fell at the very end of the Second Intermediate Period. While it is uncertain when Kamose died, recent archaeological discoveries place his death around 1549 BC after a reign lasting about 5 years, rather than 3 years, as is traditionally assumed. (Ryholt: 273) His reign is important for the decisive military initiatives he took against the Hyksos, who had come to rule much of Ancient Egypt. It has been suggested that Hieroglyph (French Wiki article) be merged into this article or section. ... copied from http://fi. ... copied from http://fi. ... copied from http://fi. ... copied from http://fi. ... Thebes For the ancient capital of Boeotia, see Thebes, Greece. ... Categories: Articles to be expanded ... Tao II called the Brave was the Pharaoh of Egypt of the Seventeenth Dynasty based in Upper Egypt during the Second intermediate period circa 1574 BC.He was the son and suscceessor to Tao I the Elder and Queen Tetisheri. ... This name may refer to (amongst others): Ahmose I, a pharaoh of ancient Egypt and founder of the Eighteenth dynasty. ... Known rulers, in the History of Egypt, for the Eighteenth Dynasty. ... The Second Intermediate Period marks a period when Ancient Egypt once again fell into disarray between the end of the Middle Kingdom, and the start of the New Kingdom. ... Centuries: 17th century BC - 16th century BC - 15th century BC Decades: 1600s BC 1590s BC 1580s BC 1570s BC 1560s BC - 1550s BC - 1540s BC 1530s BC 1520s BC 1510s BC 1500s BC Events and Trends The city of Mycenae, located in the northeast Peloponnesus, came to dominate the rest... The Hyksos (Egyptian heka khasewet meaning foreign rulers, Greek ) were an ethnically mixed group of Southwest Asiatic or Semitic people who appeared in the eastern Nile Delta during the Second Intermediate Period. ... Khafres Pyramid (4th dynasty) and Great Sphinx of Giza (c. ...

Over the years, the previous independent native princes in Thebes appear to have reached a practical modus vivendi with the later Hyksos rulers, which included transit rights through Hyksos-controlled Middle and Lower Egypt and pasturage rights in the fertile Delta. One text, Carnarvon Tablet I, found in Thebes, relates the misgivings of Kamose's council of advisors when the king proposed moving against the Hyksos, whom he claimed were a humiliating stain upon the holy fabric of Egypt. The councillors clearly did not wish to risk disturbing the status quo: Thebes For the ancient capital of Boeotia, see Thebes, Greece. ... Map of Upper and Lower Egypt Ancient Egypt was divided into two kingdoms, known as Upper and Lower Egypt. ... NASA satellite photograph of the Nile Delta The Nile Delta is the delta formed in Northern Egypt where the Nile River spreads out and drains into the Mediterranean Sea. ...

"...we are at ease in our (part of) Egypt. Elephantine [at the First Cataract] is strong, and the middle (of the land) is with us as far as Cusae [near modern Asyut]. The sleekest of their fields are plowed for us, and our cattle are pastured in the Delta. Emmer is sent for our pigs. Our cattle have not been taken away....He holds the land of the Asiatics; we hold Egypt..."

There is no evidence to support Pierre Montet's assertion that Kamose's move against the Hyksos was sponsored by the priesthood of Amun as an attack against the Seth-worshippers in the North (i.e., a religious motive for the war of liberation). The Carnarvon Tablet does state that Kamose went north to attack the Hyksos by the command of Amun, but this is simple hyperbole common to virtually all royal inscriptions of Egyptian history, and should not be understood as the specific command from this god. Kamose states his reasons for an attack on the Hyksos was nationalistic pride: in this same text he complains that he is hemmed in at Thebes between the Hyksos in the north and the Nubians of Kush in the south, each holding "his slice of Egypt, dividing up the land with me...My wish is to save Egypt and to smite the Asiatics!" Elephantine Island, showing the nilometer (lower left) and the Aswan Museum. ... There are six classical Cataracts of the Nile between Khartoum and Aswan, counted upstream. ... Asyūṭ (Arabic: أسيوط, derived from Ancient Egyptian through Coptic Syowt) is a city in modern Asyūṭ Governorate, Egypt. ... Binomial name Triticum dicoccon Schrank Emmer wheat is a low yielding, awned wheat. ... Amun (also spelt Amon, Amoun, Amen, and rarely Imenand, and spelt in Greek as Ammon, and Hammon) was the name of a deity, in Egyptian mythology, who gradually rose to become one of the most important deities, before fading into obscurity. ... This article or section is missing references or citation of sources. ... Today Nubia is the region in the south of Egypt, along the Nile and in northern Sudan, but in ancient times it was an independent kingdom. ... Aerial view of the pyramids at Meroë Kush or Cush was a civilization centered in the North African region of Nubia, located in what is today northern Sudan. ...

So it was that in his Third year, Kamose embarked on his military campaign against the Hyksos by sailing north from Thebes at the head of his army. He surprised and overran the southernmost Hyksos garrison at Nefrusy, just north of Cusae, and proceeded to march his army as far north as the Cynopolite nome which belonged to the Hyksos kingdom of Avaris, rather than the city of Avaris itself according to Egyptologist Kim Ryholt's latest scholarly research. (Ryholt: 172-175) The nome of Cynopolis included the Faiyum region of Middle Egypt and the important city of Sako. As Kamose states in his Year 3 stela: I sent forth a strong troop which was in advance to lay waste Bahariya Oasis while I was in Sako to prevent any enemy from being behind me." (Ryholt: 173) For people named Garrison, see Garrison (disambiguation) Garrison House, built by William Damm in 1675 at Dover, New Hampshire Garrison (from the French garnison, itself from the verb garnir, to equip) is the collective term for the body of troops stationed in a particular location, originally to guard it, but... Avaris, thought to be located at Tell el-Daba (some still argue for different locations), was the ancient capital of the Hyksos dynasties in Egypt. ... Kim S B Ryholt is a Danish Egyptologist, who works at the Carsten Niebuhr Institute (Publications) of Near Eastern Studies at the University of Copenhagen. ...

A stela discovered at Thebes continues the account of the war from where the Carnarvon Tablet ends. His followers captured a courier bearing a message from the Hyksos king Aa-woser-ra Apopi at Avaris to his ally the ruler of Kush, requesting the latter's urgent support aaginst Kamose. Kamose promptly ordered a detachment of his troops to occupy and destroy the Bahariya Oasis in the Western Desert, which controlled the north-south desert route. Kamose, called "the Strong" in this text, ordered this event to protect his rearguard. Kamose then sailed back up the Nile to Thebes for a joyous victory celebration after his military success against the Hyksos in pushing the boundaries of his kingdom northward from Cusae past Hermopolis through to Sako in the Faiyum which now formed the new frontier between 17th Dynasty Thebes and the Hyksos state. (Ryholt: 173-175) Ryholt notes that Kamose never claims, in his second stela to attack anything in Avaris itself, only "anything belonging to Avaris (nkt hwt-w'rt, direct genetive) ie: the spoil [of war] which his army has carried off" as lines 7-8 and 15 of his stela--the only references to Avaris here--states: Stele is also a concept in plant biology. ... An Egyptian deity wards off the snake-like Apep In Egyptian mythology, Apep (also spelled Apepi, and Aapep, or Apophis in Greek) was an evil demon, the deification of darkness and chaos, and thus opponent of light and Maat (order/truth), whose existence was believed about from the Middle... El Waha el Bahariya (Arabic: الواحة البحرية), (meaning the sea-oasis) is an oasis in Egypt. ... The Nile ; Ancient Egyptian iteru), a river in Africa, is accepted by most authorities as being the |longest river on Earth]]. The Nile has two tributaries, the White Nile and Blue Nile, the former being the longer of the two. ... Avaris, thought to be located at Tell el-Daba (some still argue for different locations), was the ancient capital of the Hyksos dynasties in Egypt. ...

Line 7-8: "I placed the brave guard-flotilla to patrol as far as the desert-edge with the remainder (of the fleet) behind it, as if a kite were preying upon the territory of Avaris."

Line 15: "I have not overlooked anything belonging to Avaris, because it (the area which Kamose was plundering) is empty." (Ryholt: 173-174)

Reign Length

His Year 3 is the only attested date for Kamose and was once thought to mark the length of his reign. However, it now appears certain that Kamose reigned for one or two more years beyond this date because he initiated a second campaign against the Nubians. That Kamose had started a first campaign against the Kushites is confirmed by the contents of Apophis' letter which Kamose's men had captured. Apophis' plea for aid from the Nubian king to counter Kamose's attacks is recounted in the Kamose's Year 3 stela:

Do you see what Egypt has done to me? The ruler who is in it, Kamose-the-Brave, given life, is attacking me on my soil although I have not attacked him in the manner of all he has done against you. He is choosing these two lands to bring affliction upon them, my land and yours, and he has ravaged them" (Ryholt:181)

Two separate rock-inscriptions found at Arminna and Toshka deep in Nubia give the prenomen and nomen of Kamose and Ahmose side by side and were inscribed at the same time—likely by the same draughtsman—according to epigraphic data. (Ryholt: 273) Ryholt observes that in both inscriptions "the names of Ahmose follow directly below those of Kamose and each king is given the epithet di'nh which was normally used only of ruling kings. This indicates that both Kamose and Ahmose were ruling when the inscription were cut and consequently that they were coregents." (Ryholt: 273) Since Kamose's name was recorded first, he would have been the senior coregent. However, no mention or reference to Ahmose as king appears in Kamose's Year 3 stela which indirectly records Kamose's first campaign against the Nubians; this can only mean that Kamose appointed the young Ahmose as his junior coregent sometime after his third year prior to launching a second military campaign against the Nubians. (Ryholt: 274) The target of Kamose's second Nubian campaign may have been the fortress at Buhen which the Nubians had recaptured from Kamose's forces since a stela bearing his cartouche was deliberately erased and there is fire damage in the fort itself. (Ryholt: 181-182) Buhen was an ancient Egyptian settlement situated below the Second Cataract. ...

Redford notes that Kamose's burial was very modest, in an ungilded coffin lacking even the royal uraeus. Ryholt estimates a reign of 5 years for Kamose in his 1997 book on the Second Intermediate Period and dates this king's at 1554 BC to 1549 BC. (Ryholt: 204) The Uraeus (plural Uraei or Uraeuses) is a stylised upright cobra (or snake / serpent), used as a symbol of sovereignty, royalty, deity and divine authority in ancient Egypt. ... The Second Intermediate Period marks a period when Ancient Egypt once again fell into disarray between the end of the Middle Kingdom, and the start of the New Kingdom. ... (Redirected from 1554 BC) Centuries: 17th century BC - 16th century BC - 15th century BC Decades: 1600s BC 1590s BC 1580s BC 1570s BC 1560s BC - 1550s BC - 1540s BC 1530s BC 1520s BC 1510s BC 1500s BC Events and Trends The city of Mycenae, located in the northeast Peloponnesus, came... (Redirected from 1549 BC) Centuries: 17th century BC - 16th century BC - 15th century BC Decades: 1590s BC 1580s BC 1570s BC 1560s BC 1550s BC - 1540s BC - 1530s BC 1520s BC 1510s BC 1500s BC 1490s BC Events and Trends History of ancient Israel and Judah - earliest date for Amhose...

Bibliography

• Gardiner, Sir Alan. Egypt of the Pharaohs. Oxford: University Press, 1964, 1961.
• James, T.G.H. "Egypt: From the Expulsion of the Hyksos to Amenophis I." Chapter VIII, Volume II of The Cambridge Ancient History Revised Edition. Cambridge: University Press, 1965.
• Montet, Pierre. Eternal Egypt, translated from the French by Doreen Weightman. London, 1964
• Pritchard, James B. (Editor). Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament (3rd edition). Princeton, 1969.
• Redford, Donald B. History and Chronology of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt: Seven Studies. Toronto, 1967.
• Ryholt, Kim SB, The Political Situation in Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period (Carsten Niebuhr Institute Publications, Copenhagen, (Museum Tusculanum Press:1997) ISBN 87-7289-421-0