(ORDO NEWS) — At the end of the 3rd – beginning of the 2nd century BC, the Egyptians rebelled against the Greek-Macedonian rulers of the country. The resistance, which lasted about 20 years, was firmly entrenched in historiography with the name “Great Uprising”.
But the information that has come down to us from a number of written sources – including, by the way, the famous Rosetta Stone – is fragmentary and not always objective. To build a reliable picture, material traces of historical events are needed.
And now they were found – thanks to the excavations of the ancient city of Tmuis in the Nile Delta. Archaeologists have found here numerous evidence of the conflict during the Great Revolt: traces of a fire, weapons and the remains of the dead.
Alien pharaohs
In the last third of the 4th century BC, Egypt entered with optimism: thanks to the campaign of Alexander the Great, the difficult periods of Persian invasions and domination for the Egyptians (525-405 and 342-332 BC) ended.
However, Alexander, having shown respect for Egyptian culture and taking the title of pharaoh, soon left the country to complete the defeat of the Achaemenid state. New administrators began to rule Egypt, and the inhabitants of the country soon forgot how enthusiastically they welcomed their deliverers.
For example, the pseudo-Aristotelian treatise “Economics” (scientists believe that its author was one of the philosopher’s students) describes the abuses perpetrated by the Greek Cleomenes, who was instructed by Alexander to collect taxes coming from the Egyptian nomes (as the Greeks began to call the Egyptian sepatas, administrative units of the state on Nile).
Cleomenes organized requisitions from the nomarchs for the export of grain, and also extorted funds from the priests, threatening to close the temples under various pretexts.
The early Ptolemaic kings, although emphasizing their respect for local traditions, subsidizing the construction of temples, expanding agricultural areas, fighting major abuses, and trying not to aggravate relations with the local elite, still remained outsiders to the Egyptians.
Their active foreign policy and long wars with other fragments of Alexander’s empire required considerable resources.
Greeks and Macedonians became a privileged minority in Egypt, the economic situation of the population worsened, and national feelings, especially among the provincial nobility, were offended by the behavior of strangers.
- More than riots
By the middle of the 3rd century BC, the discontent of the Egyptians resulted in a series of rebellions in different parts of Egypt. The largest of these, the Great Revolt, lasted from 206 to 186 BC. First, it covered the territory in the south of the country, and then spread to Lower Egypt.
Resistance began with an attack on the temple of the god Horus under construction in Edfu.
It is reported by a hieroglyphic inscription in the sanctuary itself: “The large door wing and the gate with double wings of the temple premises were completed in the 16th year of his majesty [Ptolemy IV Philopator, who ruled 222-204 BC]. Then difficulties arose, because ignorant rebels interrupted work on the Throne of the Gods in the south.
The Greek historian Polybius in his work “General History” considers this event to be a natural result of the fact that Ptolemy IV armed and trained about 20 thousand Egyptians in combat techniques in the phalanx for the war against the Seleucid state.
“The fact is that, having armed the Egyptians for the war with Antiochus, the king had excellent orders regarding the present, but made a mistake in the future.
The Egyptians were proud of the victory at Raphia and did not at all want to obey the authorities. Considering themselves strong enough to fight, they looked only for a person fit for leadership, and a short time later they found one, ”he wrote.
In 205 BC, the rebels captured Thebes and crowned their leader under the name Hor-un-nefer (in the Greek transmission Charonnofris).
In the texts of the Ptolemaic state apparatus, this uprising is disparagingly referred to as “riots.” Polybius in his work also speaks of it as an insignificant episode, calling it “a war in which, apart from cruelty and meanness on both sides, nothing remarkable happened: neither land or sea battle, nor siege, nor anything else of the kind.”
However, the Greeks were cunning. The scale of events is at least indicated by the fact that Hor-un-nefer and his successor Ankh-un-nefer (in the Greek reading Haonnofris or Anmakhis; some researchers believe that both names belonged to the same historical person) entered into a military alliance with the Kushite ruler (i.e. Nubia, an independent country south of Egypt) and maintained control of the Thebaid for nearly 20 years.
During this time, separatist sentiments reached the north of the country and covered different segments of the population, including the aristocracy. This is also known from Polybius, who tells that the last representatives of the rebellious nobility of Lower Egypt, Athenis, Pavsira, Khesuf and Irobast, were killed by the Greeks during the surrender negotiations at Sais.
During the uprising, not only fierce battles took place between rebel groups and government troops – both sides actively ruined local farms, on the ruins of which, naturally, the redistribution of property began.
One of the papyri, compiled by an official of the tax department in 186 BC, after the suppression of the uprising, reports: “From the time of the uprising of Khaonnofris, it happened that most of the farmers were killed, and the land dried up,” writes the compiler of the report.
“So… some of the survivors have encroached on the lands bordering their own, and have more than is allowed. Their names are unknown, since no one pays taxes to the treasury for this land.”
And the king defeated the wicked…
What happened during the Great Revolt in Lower Egypt can be judged by the text on the Rosetta Stone (read how it became the key to deciphering Egyptian writing and try to figure out the hieroglyphic inscriptions on your own, you can in our material “Feel like Champollion”).
The Rosetta Stone is a fragment of a stele that refers to the so-called Ptolemaic Decrees. Such monuments were dedicated by the Egyptian priesthood to the royal person in honor of some significant event.
The text of the Rosetta Stele, which was installed in 196 BC, glorifies the deeds of the 12-year-old Ptolemy V Epiphanes, among which is the victory over the rebels in Lower Egypt: to protect against a siege… seeing that discontent had long existed among the wicked people gathered in it, who had done great damage to the temples and all the inhabitants of Egypt, and pitching a camp against it, he surrounded it with embankments, ditches and skillful fortifications… in a short time took the city attack and destroyed all the wicked people.
In addition to the victory over the rebellious Lycopolis, the text glorifies generous gifts to temples, the construction of new sanctuaries, tax breaks (especially with regard to the priesthood), and the promise of amnesty for those representatives of the military class who leave the ranks of the rebels.
The decree, adopted by the priestly assembly in the main temple of Memphis and carved on the Rosetta Stele, established the divine cult of the young ruler. All this was done at a time when the south of Egypt continued to hold the rebels.
Judging by the text of the decree, Polybius was mistaken: during the years of the Great Revolt there were both sieges and storming of cities. Now the evidence that the Greeks had to storm not only Likopol, scientists have found no longer in written sources, but during excavations of another city in the Nile Delta.
Massacre at Tmuis
The ruins of the ancient city of Tmuis (now Tell Timai el Amdid hill) are located in the eastern part of the Nile Delta, about 100 kilometers from Cairo, and cover an area of about 90 hectares. The earliest mention of Tmuis belongs to Herodotus (5th century BC), and the city flourished, apparently, at a later time.
In 2007, the Tell Timai archaeological project was organized to explore Tmuis, and in 2009, scientists began systematic excavations on the hill. In addition to the remains of structures made of mud bricks, the ruins of the temple of Pharaoh XXIX of the Psammut dynasty, who ruled in 392-391 BC, were found here.
This shows that Tmuis was closely associated with the capital of that time, the city of Mendes, the ruins of which lie only 500 meters to the north.
Archaeologists working under the direction of Jay E. Silverstein of the University of Nottingham and Robert J. Littman of the University of Hawaii at Manoa found traces of massive destruction at Tell Timai.
These are, firstly, signs of a great fire – numerous fragments of charcoal in the ground, traces of soot on fragments of ceramic vessels, relief images and cult figurines.
Possible evidence of vandalism was also found: a fragment of a granodiorite statue of Arsinoe-Isis (the deified queen Arsinoe II) with beaten off arms and head, and the head of a terracotta figurine depicting Ptolemy V.
In the same layer, stone shells from ballistas (palintons) with chips from impacts, a lead sling bullet and an arrowhead were found. From this, scholars conclude that Tmuis was under military attack.
The remains of unburied people found in the same archaeological context, who obviously died a violent death, confirm the version that there were battles in the city. Some of the skeletons were completely preserved, while others were left with only scattered bones.
One complete skeleton, belonging to a young man, was found inside a pottery kiln (only the legs remained outside). The researchers suggested that either his body fell on the stove, breaking its roof, or he himself climbed inside the broken stove in the hope of hiding.
Another skeleton, 40 percent preserved, belongs to a man over 50 years old. There are many traces of healed wounds and fractures on the bones.
Artifacts of Troubles
The stratigraphic position of all these finds made in different parts of the excavation area coincides. This means that the armed attack on the city, the fire and the death of people occurred at the same time.
After examining ceramics and coins from the same layer, archaeologists have dated this event to approximately 214-175 BC, that is, the time interval between the end of the reign of Ptolemy IV and the first years of the reign of Ptolemy VI.
Egypt did not experience any foreign invasions during this period. Consequently, Tmuis was stormed by “their own” – and, most likely, this happened during the years of the Great Revolt. Silverstein and Littman do not rule out that Mendez, located next door, suffered the same fate.
It remains unclear who attacked the city and who defended it. The people whose remains were discovered by archaeologists could be both Greeks killed during the attack of the rebels, and Egyptians who died under the blows of soldiers from the punitive expedition of Ptolemy.
Be that as it may, the finds at Tell Timai represent the first archaeological confirmation of the violent fighting during the Great Revolt in the Nile Delta.
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