Dahamuntsu - the designation of the Dowager Egyptian Queen in the Hittite sources, who sent an envoy to the ruler of the Hittites Suppilulium I with a request to send her one of the princes as husbands. Dahamuntsu is not the name of a widow, but the Hittite graphic transmission of the Egyptian title “ta-hemet-nesu” ( Egyptian t3-ḥm.t-nsw) , meaning “royal wife” [1] . The Queen’s real name remains controversial: she could be the nameless Queen Nefernefruaton , who ruled after the death of Akhenaten and Smenkhkara [2] ; or the Dowager Ankhesenpaamon , who was the wife of the late Pharaoh Tutankhamun [3] , the third daughter of Nefertiti and Akhenaten.
This is one of the most unusual and controversial events in ancient Middle Eastern history [4] .
Content
Written sources
Information about this has been preserved on clay tablets of the Bogazkoy archive , discovered in central Anatolia (modern settlement of Bogazkale in Turkey ). In ancient times, the capital of the Hittite kingdom , the city of Hattus , was located here [5] . The report on 7 tablets, fragments of letters from Dahamuntsu in Akkadian language and outline answers of the official letter of Suppillium I after the murder of Zananza were preserved [6] .
Historical background
Towards the end of the Amarna period, the Hittites, Mitannians and Egyptians fought for control of the modern territory of Syria . The governor of Egypt in the province of Amurru, Prince Asiru, joined the Hittites and concluded an agreement with them. Suppillium I approx. 1340 BC e. besieged the powerful Mitannian fortress Karkemish [7] . The Egyptians hastened to regain control of the lost territory and advanced their troops to Kadesh .
After Kinza (Kadesh), which was subordinated to my father (Suppilium I), came the troops and chariots of the Egyptians. And Kinza attacked [8] .
In the camp of the Egyptians, panic began when they learned about the conquest of Amk and the death of Pharaoh.
The request of the Egyptian Queen
During the siege of Karkemish at the end of summer, Suppillium I received a letter from the Dowager Egyptian Queen, who is called Dahamunts in Acts of Suppillium:
And while my father was in the country of Karkemish, he sent Lupakki and Tarhuntatsalma to the country of Amk. And they went, attacked the country of Amk and brought to my father captives, bulls (and) sheep. When the people of Egypt heard about the attack on the country of Amk and they were afraid. And since in addition their master (by name) Piphururia died, the queen of Egypt, who was Dahamunzu, sent a messenger to my father. And she wrote to him like this: “My husband has died, but I have no son. You have, they say, many sons. If you give me one of your son, (then) he will become my husband. I will never take my subject and make him my husband! ”And when my father received this (message), he called the council of great people:“ This [thing never] happened [to me]. ” And so [it happened that my father] sent Hattusatsiti to Egypt (and told him so): “Go! Bring me the right word. Couldn't they be talking about me? Perhaps they have some son of their master? And you bring me the true news back! ” [1]
Suppillium I sent an envoy to Egypt to verify the authenticity of the writing of the Egyptian queen. After 8 days, Karkemish fell, and Syria - from the Euphrates to the sea - was subject to the Hittites. Telepinu became king of Aleppo , and the other of the royal sons, Piyassili, became king of Karkemish. Finally, the kingdom of Kizzuvatna , now in isolation, made peace and was recognized as a friendly, almost equal power [7] . Suppillium I overwintered in the capital of Hatti, and in the spring the envoy of Hattusatsiti returned with the Egyptian dignitary Hani. They brought the queen's answer:
Why do you say so: "Are they not deceiving me?" If I had a son, would I write to another country about my own humiliation (s) of humiliation of my country? And you did not believe me and even say so to me! The one who was my husband died. I don’t have a son. I will never take my subject and make him my husband! I haven’t written to any other country, but I have written (only) to you! You, they say, have many sons. Give me your one son and he will be my husband, and in Egypt he will be king! [1] [9]
Even after receiving confirmation from Egypt, Suppillium I was afraid of the Egyptians' revenge for the seized territories, as evidenced by his conversation with the envoy of Hani
... He said to Hani, the ambassador of Egypt: “I have been kind to you. But you suddenly hurt me. You attacked the man of Kintz, whom I defended from the king of the country of Hurrians. When I heard about it, I was angry. And I sent warriors, and chariots, and military leaders. They went and invaded your borders, the country of Amk. And when they attacked the country of Amk, you must have been scared. And so you all ask my son from me as if I should give it to you. But he will be your hostage, but you will not make him king. ” So Hani then answered my father: “Oh my lord! This is the humiliation of our country! If we had the son of our king, would we go to a foreign country, would we ask the gentleman to come to rule us? The one called Nibhururiyas died, but he did not have a son. Our master’s widow is single. We ask that our master’s son become king in Egypt, we ask that he become the husband of a woman, our mistress. We did not turn to any other country. Only here we came. Now, O our master, give us your son! ” [9]
The name of the pharaoh in the Hittite sources is recorded by Nibhururiyas, which is an inaccurate reproduction of the throne name of the pharaoh Tutankhamun - "neb-heperu-Ra " [2] ( Egypt. Nb-ḫprw-Rˁ) - "the living incarnation of Ra."
The Killing of Zannanza
In the end, Suppillium I made a decision and chose one of his sons, Zannanzu . A friendly treaty was concluded between Egypt and the Hittite kingdom, which states:
In the old days, the country of Hatti and Egypt were friendly with each other, and now agreement will also be established between them. Let the country of Hatti and Egypt be constantly in harmony with each other! [9]
- from the annals of Mursili II
Soon, disturbing news came to the court of Suppilium I: "The people of Egypt killed Cannanzas", "Cannanzas is dead !" [6] . According to some Egyptologists, the assassination of Zannanza could have been the work of those forces that "were not profitable to strengthen the power of Ankhesenpaamun, and above all Eye , as well as the commander Horemheb , who led the struggle of Egypt with the Hittite expansion in Syria during the reign of Tutankhamun" [3] .
[When] my father heard [about] the murder of Tsannantsy, [he Tsanna] began to mourn for Ntsu, and addressed the god [m ...] like this: “Oh gods! I ... did not cause [evil] but, the people [of] Egypt [that] [caused it] to me, and [they attacked] the borders of my country ” [1] [9]
- KUB XIX, persons. st., 5-11.
Suppilium I was angry and blamed the killing of the Egyptian son. Allegorically, he writes that "the falcon tore the little chicken." In this expression, a number of scholars see a hint of the guilt of Horemheb, whose name contains the name of the falcon god Horus . By that time, Egyptian-Hittite relations had already deteriorated due to hostilities of Crown Prince Arnuwand II . He crossed the Egyptian border and took away thousands of prisoners who brought the plague to Anatolia, from which Suppillium I died [4] . There is no evidence of plague in Egypt.
Notes
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 V.G. Ardzinba. Hettology, hattology and hurritology. - Collection of works in 3 volumes. - Moscow-Sukhum: Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian Academy of Sciences, 2015. - T. 2. - 654 p. - 1000 copies. - ISBN 978-5-89282-636-5 .
- ↑ 1 2 Marianne Eaton-Krauss. The Unknown Tutankhamun. - Bloomsbury Publishing, 2015 .-- S. 13 .-- 209 p. - ISBN 9781472575630 .
- ↑ 1 2 I.A. Stuchevsky. Interstate relations and diplomacy in the Ancient East. - M .: Nauka, 1987 .-- S. 75 .-- 311 p.
- ↑ 1 2 Francis Breyer. Egypt and Anatolia: Political, Cultural, and Diplomatic Contacts between the Nile Region and Asia Minor in the 2nd Century BC = Ägypten und Anatolien. Politische, kulturelle und sprachliche Kontakte zwischen dem Niltal und Kleinasien im 2. Jahrtausend v. Chr .. - Vienna, 2010 .-- S. 171.
- ↑ Hans Gustav Güterbock. The Deeds of Suppiluliuma as told by his son, Mursili II . - New Haven: sn, 1956-01-01.
- ↑ 1 2 Theo PJ van den Hout. Falcon and chick: the new pharaoh and the Hittite prince? (German) = Der Falke und das Kücken: der neue Pharao und der hethitische Prinz? // Zeitschrift für Assyriologie. - 1994. - No. 84 . - S. 64–70 .
- ↑ 1 2 Oliver Gurney. Hittites. - Science, 1987 .-- 234 p. - (In the wake of the disappeared cultures of the East). - 30,000 copies.
- ↑ Jörg Klinger. 3: Der Tatenbericht des Suppiluliuma I // Herrscherinschriften und andere Dokumente zur politischen Geschichte des Hethiterreiches. - Texte aus der Umwelt des Alten Testaments. - Gütersloh: Gütersloher Verlags-Haus, 2005 .-- S. 147-150. - ISBN 3-579-05288-8 .
- ↑ 1 2 3 4 Vyacheslav Vsevolodovich Ivanov. Moon falling from the sky. The ancient literature of Asia Minor. - M .: Fiction, 1977.