Merneptah vs the Libyans. In 1221 BCE, Egypt faced a crisis. Tribal coalitions from the west, and some “Peoples of the Sea” were marching on the Nile Valley. They came in their thousands, armed and ready to settle. Caught by surprise, King Merneptah and his warriors hastened to the defence…

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Music by Bettina Joy de Guzman; Luke Chaos; and Keith Zizza.

A Crisis in the West

Note for readers: Merneptah’s account comes in several versions. The longest and best-preserved is the “Great Karnak Inscription.”[1] Additionally, there are Victory Column(s) from Heliopolis;[2] and a large (broken) stela from Athribis, now in the Grand Egyptian Museum.[3] Additional references appear on the Victory Stela;[4] and temples in Nubia.[5]

The following takes place over thirty-three days in 1221 BCE. A story comes to us from Mer-ny-Ptah (Beloved of Ptah), the son of Ramesses, King of Egypt. A dramatic tale of war, invasion, and bloodshed.[6]

We’ll tell the tale as Merneptah recounted it, then circle back to explore the details, nuances, and realities.

==

It was the fifth regnal year Merneptah, son of Ramesses, King of Egypt.

The people of the Nile faced a crisis.

Far to the west, in the hinterlands and coastal regions of modern Libya, several tribes had gathered in coalition.[7] Brought together by a charismatic leader, warriors and families alike had packed up their homes and started moving east. They were armed, some riding horses and chariots, and they brought animals too: cattle, donkeys, goats, even sheep. The size of this force is a bit uncertain; but based on the Egyptian accounts, it may have been as large as 30,000 men, women, and children.[8] An entire population on the move.

At the heart of this group was a tribe called Lbw (Rbw), from which we get the word Libya. They probably lived in the coastal region of Cyrenaica, where seasonal rains allow limited agriculture and animal grazing.[9] Unfortunately, times were changing. A drought had begun in the Near East and Mediterranean.[10] It started around 1250 BCE and slowly built over the next hundred years. Along the coasts, the rains may have declined, affecting the grasslands and pasturage necessary for herding. The loss of food production put pressure on the existing population, and “pushed” some groups out of their homeland.

Fortunately, the Libyan traders and nomads had long reported on the fertility of a land in the east. A great river, flanked by green fields, provided abundant grazing land for the cattle, goats, and sheep of the pastoral tribes. The lure of this fertile land pulled the tribes towards the Nile.[11]Thus, in search of greener pastures, the tribes moved east.

Their leader was named Mary son of Dedi (Mary sA Dd), and (somehow) he had brought other chiefs together under one command. They had gathered weapons, and a few allies, and set off towards the Nile Valley.

The Egyptians were entirely unaware of this development.[12] In his royal residence, the pharaoh Merneptah enjoyed the adulations of a recent victory. His army had marched into Canaan, where they defeated foes and sacked cities. Now, the expeditionary force was heading home, crossing the Sinai, and looking forward to a rest.[13]

They would get none.

One Came to Report

In the second month of Shemu-season (around May), a messenger hurried along the roads and waterways of the eastern Delta. They were hurrying towards the great city Pi-Ramesses, and the palace of pharaoh. In their hand, the courier brought a message of ill tidings:

“Year 5, II Smw 1. (A messenger) came to tell His Person (the King, that)… ‘The wretched chief of … the Libu (Rbw), Mary son of Dedy, has descended from the hill country … together with his bowmen… consisting of… the best of every fighter (TAi tp n aHA) and every runner (pHrr) of his foreign land… ; he brings his wife, his children… the great ones (chiefs)… and every foreign country with him (to) transgress the frontiers…”[14]

The messenger probably came from a fortress in the western Delta or the Mediterranean coast. Merneptah’s father, Ramesses II, had established a series of bases along this border zone, to guard harbours, control trade, and watch the movement of peoples.[15] But those were mere outposts, a couple hundred soldiers each; hardly sufficient to withstand the onslaught of a massed tribal movement.

Sea Peoples

The migration of a host, roughly the size of a large city, was cause for great alarm. What’s worse, Mary and the Libu had gathered allies:

“(The enemy comes together with) the Sherden, the Shekelesh, the Akaywasha, the Lukka, and the Tursha…[16]

Merneptah also calls these tribes the “Foreign people of the Sea” (nA xAswt n pA ym).[17] They would later become famous as the “Sea Peoples.” Some of these groups were familiar to the Egyptians. The Lukka were raiders, who had attacked Cyprus and cities in the Levant for the past 130 years.[18] The Sherden, meanwhile, had raided Egypt’s coast in the early reign of Ramesses II (Episode 209).[19] The great pharaoh had defeated those warriors who “came bold-hearted in warships from the midst of the Great Green… none could ever fight against (them)…”[20] Now, Ramesses’ son faced the same threat, renewed with additional allies.

The other groups, Shekelesh, Akaywasha, and Tursha, are less familiar. We’ll come back to them in the next chapter. For now, let’s stay on the desert road.

==

To reach Egypt, Mary and his followers crossed the Sahara. They avoided the coastal road (with its Egyptian forts) and used the desert paths to reach the oases west of the Nile.[21] Here, at places like Siwa, Bahariya, and Farafra, they could graze their herds and avoid the fortified coast. The strategy was effective. By the time the Egyptians knew what was happening, the tribes were already approaching the Nile:

“The (enemies) are robbing (the land’s) borders. Rebels are attacking it every day. They reached the highlands (Dw) of the oasis region (wHAt), and… the district of Ta-Ihu (tA-iHw, Farafra Oasis)… Into the fields Kemet (the Black Land) they have entered… (They have) reached the western border…”

The news arrived in the palace like a thunderbolt. Pharaoh was furious. What good were the border forts and the outposts, if such a host could enter his land unchallenged? As the story goes, Merneptah rose to his feet and roared his anger:

“Now His Person raged like a lion on account of them. (He declared) ‘Listen to the commands of your lord, so that I may cause you to understand: I am the ruler who herds you… like a father nurturing his foolish children. You are trembling like birds! Do you not know the good deeds of (the King’s) doing?’ There was no answer…”

You can imagine the courtiers shrinking back as the monarch bellowed and seethed. One of them, perhaps bravely, piped up with soothing words:

“(These fallen ones are) as crawling things, without giving more than their bellies. As for those who love death and hate life, their hearts are different from those of the rekhyt (commoners)… To fill their bellies daily do they spend the day wandering and fighting. To seek the necessities of their mouths do they come to the land of Egypt (Kmt)… It is like fish upon their bellies that they were brought, their chief being one like a dog, a wretched man, without his heart.”[22]

In short, the enemy may be here, but they were animals. The soldiers of Kemet (The Black Land) would easily triumph, snaring them like fish, wrangling them like dogs.

Full transcript available at www.patreon.com/egyptpodcast

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[1] Davies, Historical Inscriptions of the Nineteenth Dynasty, 151—173; Manassa, C. (2003). The Great Karnak Inscription of Merneptah: Grand Strategy in the 13th Century BC., 153—170; KRI  = Kitchen, Ramesside Inscriptions IV, 2—12; RITA = Ramesside Inscriptions: Translated IV, 2—10; RITANC = Ramesside Inscriptions: Notes & Comments IV, 4—8.

[2] KRI IV, 23, 38; RITA IV, 19—20, 29—30; RITANC IV, 12—13, 20—22.

[3] KRI IV, 19—22; RITA IV, 16—19; RITANC IV, 11—12.

[4] PM II.2 131 [487]; KRI IV, 12—19; RITA IV, 10—15; RITANC IV, 8—11; Davies, Historical Inscriptions, 173—189; Transcription & translation by Mark-Jan Nederhof available online.

[5] RITA IV, 1—2, 29—30; RITANC IV, 1—4, 20—22; Davies, Historical Inscriptions, 189—194.

[6] See Spalinger, A. J. (2005). War in Ancient Egypt: The New Kingdom, 235—238.

[7] For this region and its peoples see: Snape, S. (2003). The Emergence of Libya on the Horizon of Egypt. In D. O’Connor & S. Quirke (Eds.), Mysterious Lands (pp. 93–106); O’Connor, D. (1990). The Nature of Tjemhu (Libyan) Society in the Later New Kingdom. In A. Leahy (Ed.), Libya and Egypt c.1300—750 BC (pp. 29–113).

[8] O’Connor, “The Nature of Tjemhu (Libyan) Society,” 38—45.

[9] Snape, “The Emergence of Libya,” 97—100.

[10] Finné, M., Woodbridge, J., Labuhn, I., & Roberts, N. (2019). Holocene hydro-climatic variability in the Mediterranean: A synthetic multi-proxy reconstruction. The Holocene, 29, 847–863 online; Kaniewski, D., Campo, E. V., Guiot, J., Burel, S. L., Otto, T., & Baeteman, C. (2013). Environmental Roots of the Late Bronze Age Crisis. PLOS ONE, 8(8), e71004 online.

[11] Jung, R. (2018). Push and Pull Factors of the Sea Peoples between Italy and the Levant. In J. Driessen (Ed.), An Archaeology of Forced Migration. Crisis-induced Mobility and the Collapse of the 13th c. BCE Eastern Mediterranean (pp. 273–306); see also Jung, R. (2017, August 22). Push and Pull Factors of the Sea Peoples between Italy and the Levant. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=skRuzlCA8Yo

[12] Grimal, N. (1992). A History of Ancient Egypt (I. Shaw, Trans.), 268—269.

[13] Manassa, Great Karnak Inscription, 21—22, cf. Vandersleyen, C. (1995). L’Égypte et la Vallée du Nil 2, 561.

[14] Compiled from Great Karnak Inscription and Heliopolis Victory Column. RITA IV, 19—20; Manassa, Great Karnak Inscription, 23—27; Davies, Historical Inscriptions, 152, 153.

[15] Snape, S. (2023). What was Zawiyet Umm el-Rakham for? Early Ramesside Strategy in the Libyan West. In F. Hoffmann & M. R. Abbas (Eds.), Perspectives on the Ramesside Military System (pp. 143–155).

[16] Manassa, Great Karnak Inscription, 23—27.

[17] KRI IV, 8:8, 22:7; RITA IV, 7, 19.

[18] See e.g. EA38: Moran, Amarna Letters, 111—112.

[19] KRI, II, 341:1—345:15; RITA, II, 181—183; Peter Brand, Ramesses II: Egypt’s Ultimate Pharaoh, 102.

[20] KRI, II, 289:1—291:10; RITA, II, 118—122.

[21] Manassa, Great Karnak Inscription, 94—99.

[22] Manassa, Great Karnak Inscription, 34—37.

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