Ancient History - Part 52: New Players In Town

Upon the collapse of the Hittite Empire, the former lands of her domain fell into the hands of the local princes and lords of the Levant region, most notably in the case of the Philistines, who up to that point began to settle in Palestine. The necessary documentation required for this era of recorded history for the events that followed relies largely upon Egyptian reports dating back to 1190 BC.

In addition to the Philistines, the Aegeans, or the Kleftians, as the Egyptians preferred to name the Mediterranean seafaring peoples, began to enter Asia Minor and colonize upon Cyprus and other uncontested coastal shores along Anatolia, Syria, and Lebanon. However contrary to ancient Egyptian presumptions, these were more than merely tribes migrating from what we know as modern day Greece, but tribes also originating from Crete, Sicily, Sardinia, and the rest of modern day Italy. Egypt lumped the "People of the Sea" as Greek in origin, but latter-day historians of the age of Great Britain have since matched the names of several deceased as varying all throughout the Mediterranean.

Egypt was firmly placed into the uncomfortable position of seeing foreigners pushing into the lands she once occupied, yet powerless to oppose the rapid changing of the times. New cultures would dominate and carve out boundaries to establish strong heterogenous states, while the empires of old, would follow into the footsteps of Hatta on the long downhill road towards decay.

Egypt's pharaoh, Ramses III thusly felt obligated to act against these new players in town, but the Philistines eagerly awaited this pending challenge, and his army was met and repulsed by a stalwart force of Philistine defenders. Upon defeating the once-great Egyptian power, the new migration seamlessly integrated vast swaths of territory, pathing the way for other tribes to follow. For the first time in centuries, the Semitic peoples were permitted to establish their own leadership to rule themselves, this valiant stand put on full display as a warning for any future would-be conquerors. 

The Achilles' heel to every empire is a loss on the battlefield to a lesser enemy for all to witness. One could argue that with the defeat of Egypt, the Philistines did not merely claim their independence, but signaled the end of Egyptian polity of the Near East, created by Thutmose centuries earlier, once and for all. 

[THE PHILISTINES as depicted by Egypt]

Ancient History - Part 3: The Babylonian Question

Once friendly relations were firmly established with Thutmose III's powerful Egypt, Assyria turned southward to Babylonia. Other than the Mitanni, who once rattled their borders with oppressive raids prior to Egypt's intervention, Babylonia, as ruled by the Kassites, was the nearest neighboring civilization. Following Egypt's grand conquest of the Near East's coast and strategic areas within the Mesopotamia, now was the perfect opportunity for the Assyrian king, Puzur-Ashur IV (1486-1460 B.C.), to address the Babylonian Question.

Would it be peace or war?

The Egyptians had seen fit to allow resident countries to preside over agreed upon boundaries as long as they continued to pay tribute (taxes) in the form of goods and precious rocks and metals used for what passed as currency at that time. How these different peoples interacted with one another was an entirely separate matter.

Not much is known of Puzur-Ashur's reign of Assyria, other than a few short pieces of note:

• He restored the temple of Ishtar, which one might surmise was thoroughly desecrated at the hands and ill-treatment by their immediate neighbors, the Mitanni, though this is unconfirmed. At present, historians have it on record that the temple did fall into a state of decay and he'd restored it back to its once pristine condition, no less fit for Assyria's chief place of reverence.

• While no major battles or wars are accounted for during his lifetime, the Assyrian king did commit strenuous efforts and time dedicated to the building of a new defensive structure, a protective wall for Ashur, their capital city, that would shield the newer southern districts that their growing population had rapidly expanded into, a much needed response to any outside danger.

• But perhaps his grandest recorded accomplishment was the negotiations with the Kassite ruler of Babylon, Burna-Buriash I (1461-1436), where the two met and agreed upon establishing the precise borders between their respective kingdoms. Assyria already carried the experience in such negotiations with the Egyptian empire, that in this case, found themselves as leading the way as opposed to following, and as it was between Thutmose III and Puzur-Ashur IV, it was with Puzar-Ashur IV and Burna-Buriash I.

For the many years that followed, there was a prolonged period of peacetime amongst kingdoms and empires. At one point Burna-Buriash I's successor, Kurigalzu II (1435-1411), was invited by the Canaanites to wage war against Egypt, with a promise of a piece of the Semitic lands that they were so desperately yearning to liberate. To this, Kurigalzu declined, and each of his successors were continually solicited to turn against the great empire of the Near East. Just as their forbearer once demonstrated, each Babylonian ruler also declined, referring to the Egyptian pharaoh as "my brother."

The Egyptians had established dominance for this century (15th century B.C.) by making friends where enemies might once had surfaced. However, as history will often remind, nothing lasts forever, especially in the case of the status quo.