In my last post on Hatshepsut's obelisk and its telling inscription, I contented myself that the date of its completion, the 30th day of the 4th month of Shomu, was well within the season of the Nile flooding. I also observed that the inundation should have begun 40 days earlier, around the 20th day of the 3rd month of Shomu, for the waters to have achieved a maximum depth for floating the monument downstream to Thebes from Aswan. Based on all that, I speculated that around 32 years had lapsed since the end of the reign of Amenhotep I.
Having done a little more astronomical research, I find I now have to contemplate [in addition to taking into consideration lunar data from the reign of Thutmose III] a spectacular eclipse in the reign of Mursili II, king of the Hittites, which places the beginning of his reign in a much-accepted 1322 BCE--around the time of the death of Tutankhamun of Egypt. Therefore, I have become convinced that a better date for Year 22 of Thutmose III could be 1457 BCE of the Middle Chronology. The new moon [or "no moon"] for 21 Pakhons in that year would have fallen on Sunday, May 9.
Moreover, it would seem that, counting backwards from 1457, the Year 16 of the obelisk inscription [no matter whose Year 16 it was] we would arrive at 1463. Much study into the matter of when Sirius could best be sighted in that year [progression, etc.] has led me to July 10 or 21 Epiphi [3rd month of Shomu]. Whether this was at Memphis or Thebes, I am still not certain. Regardless, that amounts to 36 years having gone by since the end of the reign of Amenhotep I. If it was really Year 16 of Hatshepsut [using the count of the true king, Thutmose III] that would mandate 20 years for the interim rulers. If it was actually only her Year 13 [she having appropriated 3 years of Thutmose II and made a fictional Year 7 coincide with Year 4 of her nephew, Thutmose III]---the entire 20 years would have belonged to the reign of Hatshepsut's father, Thutmose I. Why, then, did Hatshepsut celebrate a Heb-sed in her Year 15? She might claim that her father had made her a co-king in his Year 2, but 15 and 18 add up to 33. However, 18 and 12 [the actual number of her "Year 15"] add up to 30. Perhaps Hatshepsut was no more scrupulous about math than she was about history. Although I wish I could be absolutely certain of how long Thutmose I and II ruled, there is still room for doubt in that area. However, my shift from the High to the Middle Chronology has led me to ponder something new which is--why did Thutmose go to war in the 22nd Year of his sole reign at the time that he did? I thought that seemed clear enough previously--but now I think there's more to it.
In my article, "Ruler of the Stars", reproduced on this blog, I wrote the following: "In the era of Menkheperre Thutmose III, the months of the civil calendar did not have names, only numbers from one to twelve. Much later, names were derived from the main feast days of each month. Even in more modern times, the farmers said, “Baramhat [Phamenoth], go to the field and fetch.” This means that in this month, which ideally runs through part of April, the harvest is in full swing. Then came the saying, “Barmuda [Pharmouti], pound with the rod”, April/May being the time for threshing. By May/June there is nothing left in the field and that’s why one declared, “Bashans [Pakhons] sweeps the field entirely.” So the sayings remained, but the civil months were only in their proper season for limited times in pharaonic history as their calendar did not employ leap years and therefore wandered through the three naturally-occurring seasons of Egypt, Inundation, Winter and Summer. Only after another 1,460 years did the civil calendar and these seasons synchronize fully once again and the sighting of the star, Sirius [spdt] occurred on New Year’s Day, the beginning of the month of Thaout."
All those who do not believe in what the Hebrew Bible has to say about an exodus from Egypt can tune out now. Or keep an open mind and read on. This will be interesting. Flavius Josephus, a Jewish historian, claimed that this exodus had taken place in the month of Pharmouti. No doubt he was going by the Alexandrian Calendar, which was a reformation of the old Egyptian civil calendar, accomplished in 30 BCE. By the Alexandrian or Coptic Calendar, Pharmouti runs from April 9 through May 8. Of course, that would seem convenient for the 15th of Nisan, the date designated for the great event, generally celebrated in April by the Passover commemoration. And, yes, for many years prior to Year 22 of Thutmose III, 1457 BCE, 15 Nisan did fall in April by retroactive calculation. But, in 1457, 15 Nisan fell on March 27. This may have no significance, as in subsequent years in the reign of Menkheperre 15 Nisan fluctuated between late March and April. In another post here, "From Memphis to Gaza", I wrote regarding the itinerary of Thutmose III on his first big Asiatic campaign: " It only required two days for Meshullam of Volterra to get from Cairo to where the desert began and, at most, the pharaoh's army needed four on foot--unless they by some chance had some business to conduct at Avaris in the eastern Delta. Were it not for a lacuna where it stated the day of departure from Memphis, we might have a pretty good idea if there were any protracted stops along the way to Djaru. If the army went straight through, it probably left Memphis on the 21st Day of the fourth month of winter." That would have been Julian April 9, 1457 BCE. And this is where it gets intriguing.
The fact remains we really don't know the date of departure. It can have been even earlier. Also, Egyptology has generally assumed that, once Hatshepsut was out of the picture, Thutmose went east with a large army as soon as he could in order to show the Canaanites he was no weakling, despite having been second to a woman in his land for so many years. This is but the merest speculation--but what if he had a much more pressing reason to make war on the Levantines, those so-called "rebellious princes"? What if, in Year 22, the Egyptian crops had failed and it was necessary to get wheat from Asia? According to the annals of the ever-victorious pharaoh, numerous sacks of it were collected as spoils that year--at least 207,300 of them. As has been stated, the king's army could hardly leave Memphis any later than the 21st of Pharmouti if one had arrived at Djaru, the fortress, on the 25th. Since the wheat and the rye supposedly ripen in late March or early April in Egypt, that would have left scarcely any time for the men to finish the harvest by April 9, much less for a great army to be mustered from among the peasantry. Not in 1457 BCE!
Moreover, if there is no harvest to speak of and that lack had been known for some time, it was also possible for Thutmose to stop at Avaris in March and make a siege of that city. According to the Book of Exodus, the flax and the barley, which are generally ripe in late February or early March, had matured prior to the damaging hail and the subsequent invasion of locusts. There was nothing green left in Egypt after that--except in the Land of Goshen [the eastern Delta], which had been spared. If there was going to be a year of famine in Year 22, it would not matter who had been spared. Food had to come from somewhere in order to feed the nation. Could one really say "We had a severe shortage and so we stole the crops of the Canaanites?" Better to blame everything on some rebellious princes. Centuries later, Manetho, an Egyptian historian, wrote that a king "Thummosis" besieged Avaris but ended up coming to an agreement with those who had taken refuge within the city, allowing all of what seems to have been a foreign element to depart without bloodshed. If this had taken place in March, there would not have been time for a long siege, anyway, given the likely plan of Thutmose to get to Canaan in time to harvest and take away its winter wheat. At any rate, the day of departure on March 27 would have fallen on a Saturday with the night previous having evidenced a full moon--IF the 15th of Nisan was involved. Even if it wasn't, Thutmose may have gone to war to avoid hunger in his country.
In my article, "Ruler of the Stars", reproduced on this blog, I wrote the following: "In the era of Menkheperre Thutmose III, the months of the civil calendar did not have names, only numbers from one to twelve. Much later, names were derived from the main feast days of each month. Even in more modern times, the farmers said, “Baramhat [Phamenoth], go to the field and fetch.” This means that in this month, which ideally runs through part of April, the harvest is in full swing. Then came the saying, “Barmuda [Pharmouti], pound with the rod”, April/May being the time for threshing. By May/June there is nothing left in the field and that’s why one declared, “Bashans [Pakhons] sweeps the field entirely.” So the sayings remained, but the civil months were only in their proper season for limited times in pharaonic history as their calendar did not employ leap years and therefore wandered through the three naturally-occurring seasons of Egypt, Inundation, Winter and Summer. Only after another 1,460 years did the civil calendar and these seasons synchronize fully once again and the sighting of the star, Sirius [spdt] occurred on New Year’s Day, the beginning of the month of Thaout."
All those who do not believe in what the Hebrew Bible has to say about an exodus from Egypt can tune out now. Or keep an open mind and read on. This will be interesting. Flavius Josephus, a Jewish historian, claimed that this exodus had taken place in the month of Pharmouti. No doubt he was going by the Alexandrian Calendar, which was a reformation of the old Egyptian civil calendar, accomplished in 30 BCE. By the Alexandrian or Coptic Calendar, Pharmouti runs from April 9 through May 8. Of course, that would seem convenient for the 15th of Nisan, the date designated for the great event, generally celebrated in April by the Passover commemoration. And, yes, for many years prior to Year 22 of Thutmose III, 1457 BCE, 15 Nisan did fall in April by retroactive calculation. But, in 1457, 15 Nisan fell on March 27. This may have no significance, as in subsequent years in the reign of Menkheperre 15 Nisan fluctuated between late March and April. In another post here, "From Memphis to Gaza", I wrote regarding the itinerary of Thutmose III on his first big Asiatic campaign: " It only required two days for Meshullam of Volterra to get from Cairo to where the desert began and, at most, the pharaoh's army needed four on foot--unless they by some chance had some business to conduct at Avaris in the eastern Delta. Were it not for a lacuna where it stated the day of departure from Memphis, we might have a pretty good idea if there were any protracted stops along the way to Djaru. If the army went straight through, it probably left Memphis on the 21st Day of the fourth month of winter." That would have been Julian April 9, 1457 BCE. And this is where it gets intriguing.
The fact remains we really don't know the date of departure. It can have been even earlier. Also, Egyptology has generally assumed that, once Hatshepsut was out of the picture, Thutmose went east with a large army as soon as he could in order to show the Canaanites he was no weakling, despite having been second to a woman in his land for so many years. This is but the merest speculation--but what if he had a much more pressing reason to make war on the Levantines, those so-called "rebellious princes"? What if, in Year 22, the Egyptian crops had failed and it was necessary to get wheat from Asia? According to the annals of the ever-victorious pharaoh, numerous sacks of it were collected as spoils that year--at least 207,300 of them. As has been stated, the king's army could hardly leave Memphis any later than the 21st of Pharmouti if one had arrived at Djaru, the fortress, on the 25th. Since the wheat and the rye supposedly ripen in late March or early April in Egypt, that would have left scarcely any time for the men to finish the harvest by April 9, much less for a great army to be mustered from among the peasantry. Not in 1457 BCE!
Moreover, if there is no harvest to speak of and that lack had been known for some time, it was also possible for Thutmose to stop at Avaris in March and make a siege of that city. According to the Book of Exodus, the flax and the barley, which are generally ripe in late February or early March, had matured prior to the damaging hail and the subsequent invasion of locusts. There was nothing green left in Egypt after that--except in the Land of Goshen [the eastern Delta], which had been spared. If there was going to be a year of famine in Year 22, it would not matter who had been spared. Food had to come from somewhere in order to feed the nation. Could one really say "We had a severe shortage and so we stole the crops of the Canaanites?" Better to blame everything on some rebellious princes. Centuries later, Manetho, an Egyptian historian, wrote that a king "Thummosis" besieged Avaris but ended up coming to an agreement with those who had taken refuge within the city, allowing all of what seems to have been a foreign element to depart without bloodshed. If this had taken place in March, there would not have been time for a long siege, anyway, given the likely plan of Thutmose to get to Canaan in time to harvest and take away its winter wheat. At any rate, the day of departure on March 27 would have fallen on a Saturday with the night previous having evidenced a full moon--IF the 15th of Nisan was involved. Even if it wasn't, Thutmose may have gone to war to avoid hunger in his country.
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