About the year 2000 this dynasty was followed by the twelfth, a powerful line of kings which ruled from 2000 to 1788 B. C. This was the period of the great Middle Kingdom. The nobles were still strong, and the monarchy was thoroughly feudal in its organization. Three of these monarchs bore the name Sesostris. They raised Egypt to a high degree of prosperity and power. Trade with Punt was resumed, Nubia was conquered to the Second Cataract, which was made the southern frontier of the realm, the mines of Sinai were worked, and one of the kings, Amenemhet III, built a large temple there, at a point now called Sarbut el-Khadem. This temple was explored a few years ago by Petrie.
Trade with Palestine and Syria flourished during this period. A noble of middle Egypt pictured in his tomb some of those who came to trade with him. When the pictures were first discovered, it was thought that they were the sons of Jacob, come to buy corn in Egypt; (see [Fig. 1]).
Sesostris III invaded Palestine before 1850 B. C. and captured a city which was apparently Shechem, though the spelling of the name is peculiar. The kings of this period were buried in tombs of pyramidal form, though the pyramids were not large. One of them built a great administration building at Hawara, which was known to the Greeks as the Labyrinth and was regarded as one of the wonders of the world.
During this and the preceding period a social conscience was developed in Egypt which found expression in a remarkable literature. Extracts from two examples of this, “The Eloquent Peasant” and “The Admonitions of Ipuwer,” are published in Part II, p. [418], ff., [421], ff.
(6) Second Period of Disintegration.—The thirteenth dynasty, which began in 1788 B. C., had not been long upon the throne, when powerful rebellions again broke up the kingdom. Petty kinglets ruled once more in many parts of the land. These kings comprise Manetho’s thirteenth and fourteenth dynasties. The land, disunited, became an easy prey to an invader. Such an invader came. For more than 3,000 years Egypt, protected by her deserts, had lived her life unmolested. The uncivilized Nubians on the south, the Lybians on the west of the Delta, and the uncivilized tribes of Sinai had been easily held in check. But now a powerful invader came from Asia with a well organized, though barbaric army. They conquered Egypt and imposed upon her two dynasties of kings, who ruled for about a hundred years, until they were driven out about 1580 B. C. These kings were Manetho’s fifteenth and sixteenth dynasties. He calls them Hyksos, which has been held to mean “Shepherd Kings,” but which probably meant “Ruler of Countries.” They have been generally believed to be Semitic, though some scholars now think they may have been of Hittite origin. In any event, large numbers of Semites came to Egypt with them, and left many Semitic names in the Delta. Some of these will be discussed below. This invasion broke up Egypt’s splendid isolation and brought her into the current of world events, from which she was never afterward to free herself.
(7) The Empire Period.—At some time before 1600 B. C. a seventeenth dynasty arose at Thebes and began the struggle to expel the foreign kings. This was not accomplished until the founder of the eighteenth dynasty, Amosis I (1580-1577), achieved it. In order to secure freedom from invasion the kings of this dynasty were compelled to follow the invaders into Asia, and in time Thothmes III (1501-1447) conquered Palestine, Phœnicia, and Syria to the Euphrates, and organized it into a compact empire, which held together until about 1360. The kings of this dynasty also carried the conquest of Nubia to Napata, at the Fourth Cataract. They worked the mines of Sinai, traded with Punt, and inaugurated the “empire period,” which lasted in reality till well into the twentieth dynasty, about 1165, and which, for convenience, we count as extending to the fall of the twenty-first dynasty in 945 B. C.
The foreign conquests brought many immigrants to Egypt and also took many Egyptians for longer or shorter periods to foreign lands. Egyptian customs in dress as well as the Egyptian language changed rapidly during this time. The Asiatic conquests of Thothmes III brought Egypt into relations with Asiatic kings, and in time his successors, Amenophis III and Amenophis IV, had an interesting exchange of letters with kings of Babylon, Assyria, Mitanni, and Alashia (or Cyprus), as well as with Egyptian viceroys in Syria and Palestine. Some of these letters are translated in Part II, [p. 344], ff.
Amenophis IV made the first attempt known in history to establish a monotheistic religion. Although it was unsuccessful, it produced a beautiful hymn, which is translated in Part II, [p. 403], ff. The kings of this period were buried in tombs of a new type. These were excavated out of the solid rock, cut deep into the mountain-side. They were all in the famous Valley of the Tombs of the Kings back of Thebes.
The nineteenth dynasty succeeded the eighteenth about 1350 B. C. During a period of weakness between the two, the Asiatic dominions had been lost. These were in large part reconquered by Seti I and Ramses II. The last-mentioned king ruled 67 years, from 1292 to 1225 B. C. He did much building in all parts of Egypt and Nubia. Among his enterprises were the cities of Pithom and Raamses in the Delta. He has long been thought to have been the Pharaoh who oppressed the Hebrews. Early in his reign he fought with the Hittites, but afterward made a treaty of peace with their king and married his daughter. The text of this treaty has been preserved. It is the earliest extant international treaty, and it contained an extradition clause, though this applied to political offenders only. (For head of Ramses, see [Fig. 9].)
Merneptah, the son and successor of Ramses II, has been supposed to be the Pharaoh of the Exodus. His hymn of victory over his enemies is translated in Part II, [p. 311].