Meshwesh

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Meshwesh

The Meshwesh (often abbreviated in ancient Egyptian

Egyptian language

Egyptian is a branch of the Afro-Asiatic languages language family along with the Chadic languages, Berber languages, Semitic languages, Cushitic languages and possibly Omotic languages languages....
as Ma) were an ancient Libya

Ancient Libya

Berber people

Berbers are the indigenous ethnic groups of North Africa west of the Nile Valley. They are discontinuously distributed from the Atlantic to the Siwa oasis, in Egypt, and from the Mediterranean to the Niger River....
) tribe

Tribe

A tribe, viewed historically or developmentally, consists of a social group existing before the development of, or outside of, states.Many anthropologists use the term to refer to societies organized largely on the basis of kinship, especially corporate descent groups ....
from Cyrenaica

Cyrenaica

Cyrenaica or Cirenaica is the eastern coastal region of Libya and also an ex-province or state of the country in the pre-1963 administrative system....
. During the 19th

Nineteenth dynasty of Egypt

The Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and Twentieth Dynasties of ancient Egypt are often combined under the group title, New Kingdom....
and 20th

Twentieth dynasty of Egypt

The Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and Twentieth Dynasties of ancient Egypt are often combined under the group title, New Kingdom. This dynasty is considered to be the last one of the New Kingdom of Egypt, and was followed by the Third Intermediate Period....
Dynasties

Dynasty

A dynasty is a succession of rulers who belong to the same family for generations. A dynasty is also often called a "Royal House", e.g. the House of Saud or House of Habsburg....
, the Meshwesh were in almost constant conflict with the Egyptian state. In the late 21st Dynasty, increasing numbers of Meswesh Libyans began to settle in the Western Delta region of Egypt. They would ultimately take control of the country during the late 21st Dynasty

Twenty-first dynasty of Egypt

The Twenty-First, Twenty-Second, Twenty-Third, Twenty-Fourth and Twenty-Fifth Dynasties of ancient Egypt are often combined under the group title, Third Intermediate Period....
first under king Osorkon the Elder

Osorkon the Elder

Akheperre Setepenre Osorkon the Elder was the fifth king of the Twenty-first dynasty of Egypt of Egypt and was the first pharaoh of Libyan extraction in Egypt....
.

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Encyclopedia

The Meshwesh (often abbreviated in ancient Egyptian

Egyptian language

Ancient Libya

Berber people

Tribe

Cyrenaica

Cyrenaica or Cirenaica is the eastern coastal region of Libya and also an ex-province or state of the country in the pre-1963 administrative system....
. During the 19th

Nineteenth dynasty of Egypt

The Eighteenth, Nineteenth, and Twentieth Dynasties of ancient Egypt are often combined under the group title, New Kingdom....
and 20th

Twentieth dynasty of Egypt

Dynasty

Twenty-first dynasty of Egypt

Osorkon the Elder

Akheperre Setepenre Osorkon the Elder was the fifth king of the Twenty-first dynasty of Egypt of Egypt and was the first pharaoh of Libyan extraction in Egypt....
. After an interregnum of 38 years, during which the native Egyptian kings Siamun

Siamun

Neterkheperre or Netjerkheperre-setepenamun Siamun was the sixth pharaoh of Ancient Egypt during the Twenty-first dynasty of Egypt. He built extensively in Lower Egypt for a king of the Third Intermediate Period and is regarded as one of the most powerful rulers of this Dynasty after Psusennes I....
and Psusennes II

Psusennes II

Titkheperure or Tyetkheperre Psusennes II [Greek language ???s?????] or Hor-Pasebakhaenniut II [Egyptian language ?r-p3-sb3-?ˁ?--n?wt], was the last Pharaoh of the Twenty-first dynasty of Egypt....
assumed the throne, they ruled Egypt throughout the 22nd

Twenty-second dynasty of Egypt

The Twenty-First, Twenty-Second, Twenty-Third, Twenty-Fourth and Twenty-Fifth Dynasties of ancient Egypt are often combined under the group title, Third Intermediate Period....
and 23rd Dynasties

Twenty-third dynasty of Egypt

The Twenty-third Dynasty of ancient Egypt was a separate regime of Meshwesh Berber people Pharaoh, who ruled ancient Egypt. This dynasty is often considered part of the Third Intermediate Period....
under such powerful kings as Shoshenq I

Shoshenq I

Hedjkheperre Setepenre Shoshenq I , also known as Shishak, Sheshonk or Sheshonq I , was a Meshwesh Pharaoh of History of Ancient Egypt--of Ancient Libya ancestry--and the founder of the Twenty-second dynasty of Egypt....
, Osorkon I

Osorkon I

The son of Shoshenq I and his chief consort, Karomat A, Osorkon I was the second king of Egypt's Twenty-second dynasty of Egypt and ruled around 922 BC-887 BC....
, Osorkon II

Osorkon II

Usermaatre Setepenamun Osorkon II was a pharaoh of the Twenty-second dynasty of Egypt of Ancient Egypt and the son of Takelot I and Queen Kapes....
, Shoshenq III

Shoshenq III

King Usermaatre Setepenre or Usimare Setepenamun Shoshenq III ruled Ancient Egypt Twenty-second dynasty of Egypt for 39 years according to contemporary historical records....
and Osorkon III

Osorkon III

Usermaatre Setepenamun Osorkon III Si-Ese was Pharaoh of Egypt in the 8th Century BC. He was the famous Crown Prince and High Priests of Amun at Thebes Osorkon B, son of Takelot II by his Great Royal Wife Kamama-Merytmut II....
respectively. Their reign only came to an end with the invasion of the Kushite 25th Dynasty

Twenty-fifth dynasty of Egypt

The Twenty-Fifth Dynasty of Egypt, also known as the Ethiopian or Nubian dynasty, was a line of rulers originating in the Kingdom of Kush. They reigned in part or all of Ancient Egypt from 760 BC to 656 BC.....
in Year 20 of Piye

Piye

Piye, was a Kushite king and founder of the Twenty-fifth dynasty of Egypt who ruled Egypt from the city of Napata, located deep in Nubia, Sudan....
.

That the Meshwesh were of Libyan

Ancient Libya

Ancient Libya was the region west of the Nile Valley. It corresponds to what is now generally called Northwest Africa. Its people were the ancestors of the modern Berber people....
origin is explicitly stated in a genealogy contained on the stela of Pasenhor (dated to the reign of Shoshenq V

Shoshenq V

Shoshenq V was the final king of the Twenty-second dynasty of Egypt of Meshwesh Berber people which controlled Lower Egypt. He was the son of Pami according to a Year 11 Serapeum stela from his reign....
, where the Great Chiefs of the Meshwesh (including the kings of the 22nd Dynasty) are stated to be the descendants of "Buyuwawa the Libyan." The Libyo-Berber origin of the Meshwesh is also indicated in their personal names (such as Osorkon, Takelot, Nimlot, Shoshenq, etc.) and a handful of non-Egyptian titles used by these people that are related to both ancient and modern Berber languages

Berber languages

The Berber languages are a group of closely related languages spoken in Morocco, Algeria, Tunisia, Libya, Egypt, as well as by Berber people communities in parts of Niger and Mali....
.

History

The Meshwesh are known from ancient Egyptian

Egyptian language

Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt

The Eighteenth Dynasty is perhaps the best known of all the dynasties of ancient Egypt. As well as a number of Egypt's most powerful pharaohs, it included Tutankhamun, whose tomb, uncovered by Howard Carter in 1922, was one of the greatest of all archaeological discoveries, being completely undisturbed by tomb robbers....
, where they are mentioned as a source of cattle provided to king Amenhotep III

Amenhotep III

Amenhotep III was the ninth pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt. According to different authors, he ruled Egypt from June 1391 BC-December 1353 BC or June 1388 BC to December 1351 BC/1350 BC after his father Thutmose IV died....
's palace at Malkata

Malkata

Malkata was an Ancient Egypt palace complex located on the western bank of the Nile River at Thebes, Egypt, in Egypt, in the desert to the south of Medinet Habu....
. This indicates there may have been some trade relations between the Meshwesh and the Egyptians at the time. At the very least, it can be said that the Egyptians were familiar with the Meshwesh. For the remainder of the 18th Dynasty, information about Meshwesh or Libyans in general is sketchy. There are, however, representations of Libyans (perhaps Meshwesh) from the reign of Akhenaten

Akhenaten

Akhenaten , was a Pharaoh of the Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt, who died 1336 BC or 1334 BC. He is especially noted for attempting to compel the Egyptian population in the monotheism worship of Aten, although there are doubts as to how successful he was at this....
, including a remarkable papyrus

Papyrus

Papyrus is a thick paper material produced from the pith of the papyrus plant, Cyperus papyrus, a wetland Cyperaceae that was once abundant in the Nile Delta of Egypt....
depicting a group of Libyans slaying an Egyptian. However, the papyrus is fragmentary, so it is not known what the historical context was.

The relations between the Libya

Libya

Libya , officially the Great Socialist People's Libyan Arab Jamahiriya , is a country located in North Africa. Bordering the Mediterranean Sea to the north, Libya lies between Egypt to the east, Sudan to the southeast, Chad and Niger to the south, and Algeria and Tunisia to the west....
ns and the Egyptians

Egyptians

Egyptians is the name of the nationality and Mediterranean North African ethnic group native to Egypt.Egyptian identity is closely tied to the Geography of Egypt, dominated by the lower Nile Valley, the small strip of cultivable land stretching from the Cataracts of the Nile to the Mediterranean Sea and enclosed by desert both to the Easte...
during the Ramesside Period

Ramesside Period

The Ramesside Period encompasses the Nineteenth dynasty of Egypt and Twentieth dynasty of Egypt of Ancient Egypt. It is named after "Ramesses", the name taken by the majority of the rulers of Egypt dating to this period of time....
were typically one of constant conflict. Battle reliefs at Karnak

Karnak

The Karnak temple complex, universally known only as Karnak, describes a vast conglomeration of ruined temples, chapels, pylons and other buildings....
from the reign of Seti I

Seti I

Menmaatre Seti I was a Pharaoh of Ancient Egypt , the son of Ramesses I and Queen Sitre, and the father of Ramesses II. As with all dates in Ancient Egypt, the actual dates of his reign are unclear, and various historians claim different dates, with 1294 BC – 1279 BC and 1290 BC to 1279 BC being the most commonly used by scholars today...
depict the king in combat with Libyan masses; however the text only describes the Libyans as being Tjehenu, one of the generic terms for "Libyan" in the Egyptian language

Egyptian language

Ramesses II

Ramesses II was the third Egyptian pharaoh of the Nineteenth dynasty of Egypt. He is often regarded as Ancient Egypt's greatest, most celebrated, and most powerful pharaoh....
, the Egyptians constructed a series of coastal fortresses running west to the region of Marsa Matruh

Marsa Matruh

Mersa Matruh is a seaport in Egypt. It stands some 240 km west of Alexandria, along the shore of the Mediterranean Sea, on the main highway from the Nile Delta to the Libyan border....
, including at al-Alamayn and . The presence of these fortresses indicate a serious threat from the west, and Ramesses does claim to have overthrown Libyans in various rhetorical texts. However, as with Seti I, he does not specify if Meshwesh were involved or not.

During the reign of Merneptah

Merneptah

Merneptah was the fourth ruler of the Nineteenth dynasty of Egypt of Ancient Egypt. He ruled Egypt for almost ten years between late July or early August 1213 to May 2, 1203 BC, according to contemporary historical records....
it seems that the early warning system from his father's time had fallen into disrepair as there was an unexpected Libyan invasion into the Nile Delta and the Western Oases

Oasis

In geography, an oasis or cienega is an isolated area of vegetation in a desert, typically surrounding a spring or similar water source. Oases also provide habitat for animals and even humans if the area is big enough....
in Year 5 of his reign. Unlike his predecessors, Merenptah states in his battle reliefs at Karnak that it was primarily the Libu

Libu

The Libu were an ancient north African tribe, from which the name Libya derives.Their occupation of ancient Libya is first attested in Egyptian language texts from the New Kingdom, especially from the Ramesside Period....
tribe who led the conflict, but that Meshwesh and Sea People

Sea Peoples

Merneptah Stele

The Merneptah Stele ? also known as the Israel Stele or Victory Stele of Merneptah ? is an inscription by the Ancient Egyptian Pharaoh Merneptah , which appears on the reverse side of a granite stela erected by the Pharaoh Amenhotep III....
, also known as the Israel Stele.)

About twenty-five years later, during the reign of Ramesses III

Ramesses III

Usimare Ramesses III was the second Pharaoh of the Twentieth dynasty of Egypt and is considered to be the last great New Kingdom king to wield any substantial authority over Egypt....
, the growing conflict between the Egyptians and Libyans came to a head. This time, it was the Meshwesh who instigated the conflict, though other Libyan tribes and their Sea People

Sea Peoples

The Sea Peoples is the term used for a confederacy of seafaring raiders of the second millennium BC who sailed into the eastern shores of the Mediterranean, caused political unrest, and attempted to enter or control Egyptian territory during the late Nineteenth dynasty of Egypt, and especially during Year 8 of Ramesses III of the Twentieth dy...
allies were involved in fighting two major campaigns against the Egyptian king, in Ramses III's Regnal Years 5 and 11. The Year 11 campaign was concerned almost exclusively with the Meshwesh, however. Ramesses claimed victory, and settled the Meshwesh in military concentration camps in Middle Egypt in order to force their assimilation into Egyptian culture and press them into military service for the Egyptian state. According to Papyrus Harris I

Papyrus Harris I

Papyrus Harris I is also known as the Great Harris Papyrus and simply the Harris Papyrus . Its technical designation is Papyrus British Museum 9999....
, Ramesses "settled [them] in strongholds of the Victorious King, they hear the language of the [Egyptian] people, serving the King, he makes their language disappear." A Third Intermediate Period

Third Intermediate Period of Egypt

The Third Intermediate Period refers to the time in Ancient Egypt from the death of Pharaoh Ramesses XI in 1070 BC to the foundation of the Twenty-sixth dynasty of Egypt by Psamtik I in 664 BC, following the expulsion of the Nubian rulers of the Twenty-fifth dynasty of Egypt....
text mentions there being at least five "Fortresses of the Meshwesh" in the area of Herakleopolis Magna

Herakleopolis Magna

Herakleopolis Magna is the Greek language name of the capital of the Twentieth nome of ancient Egypt. It was called Henen-nesut, Nen-nesu, or Hwt-nen-nesu in Egyptian language, meaning 'house of the royal child.' Later, it was called Hnas in Coptic language, and Ahnas in medieval Arabic language writings....
; these were probably the ones established by Ramesses. However, despite Ramesses III's attempts to deal with Libyan immigration into Egypt, he was unable to put a stop to it. Throughout the 20th Dynasty

Twentieth dynasty of Egypt

Ostracon

An ostracon is a piece of pottery , usually broken off from a vase or other earthenware vessel. In archaeology, ostraca may contain scratched-in words or other forms of writing which may give clues as to the time when the piece was in use....
and papyri mention attacks by Meshwesh tribesmen as far south as Thebes

Thebes, Egypt

Thebes was a city in Ancient Egypt located about 800 km south of the Mediterranean, on the east bank of the river Nile . It was the capital of Waset, the fourth Upper Egyptian Nome ....
, where the workmen of Deir al-Madinah

Deir al-Madinah

Deir el-Madinah is an ancient Egyptian village which was home to the artisans who built the temples and tombs ordered by the Pharaohs and other dignitaries in the Valley of the Kings during the New Kingdom period ...
were forced to seek protection inside the mortuary temple

Mortuary temple

Mortuary temples were temples constructed adjacent to, or in the vicinity of, royal tombs in the Middle Kingdom of Egypt and New Kingdom periods of Ancient Egypt....
of Medinet Habu

Medinet Habu

Medinet Habu is an important Egypt archaeology and tourism locality on the Theban Necropolis of the modern city of Luxor.Somewhat ambiguously, the toponym Medinet Habu can refer to either:...
.

Meshwesh

History

See also