180: Sety I, Eager to Fight

Sety I (Part 2): The First Campaign of Victory. In 1302 BCE, the pharaoh Men-Ma'at-Ra Sety I led a military expedition to the east. He attacked the Bedouin ("Shasu") in Sinai. Then, he turned his sights on Canaan. The new King was an active warlord, aggressive and eager to fight. Thanks to records at Karnak and elsewhere, we can trace his assault...

• Date: c. 1302 BCE (March - June).
• Website: www.egyptianhistorypodcast.com.
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• Music: Ancient Lyric and Luke Chaos.
• Sources: The war reliefs of Sety I, at Karnak, via the University of Chicago Reliefs and Inscriptions at Karnak, Volume IV: The Battle Reliefs of King Sety I | Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures (uchicago.edu).
• Kenneth Kitchen's Ramesside Inscriptions volume 1. Hieroglyph versions at Internet Archive, English translations at Abercromby Press.
• Peter Brand, Ramesses II: Egypt's Ultimate Pharaoh, out now from Lockwood Press.

Select Bibliography:

W. F. Albright, ‘The Smaller Beth-Shan Stele of Sethos I (1309-1290 B. C.)’, Bulletin of the American Schools of Oriental Research (1952), 24–32.

M. Artzy, ‘From Akko/Acco to Beit She’an/Beth Shan in the Late Bronze Age’, Ägypten und Levante / Egypt and the Levant 28 (2018), 85–98.

P. J. Brand, ‘The Monuments of Seti I and Their Historical Significance: Epigraphic, Historical and Art Historical Analysis’, Unpublished PhD. Thesis, University of Toronto (1998).

P. J. Brand, The Monuments of Seti I: Epigraphic, Historical and Art Historical Analysis (2000).

A. Dodson, Sethy I King of Egypt: His Life and Afterlife (Cairo, 2019).

H. El-Saady, ‘The Wars of Sety I at Karnak: A New Chronological Structure’, Studien zur Altägyptischen Kultur 19 (1992), 285–94.

R. O. Faulkner, ‘The Wars of Sethos I’, The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 33 (1947), 34–9.

A. H. Gardiner, ‘The Ancient Military Road between Egypt and Palestine’, The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 6 (1920), 99–116.

M. Healy, Qadesh 1300 BC: Clash of the Warrior Kings (1993).

K. A. Kitchen, Ramesside Inscriptions: Translated and Annotated: Translations, I (2017).

A. Mazar, ‘Four Thousand Years of History at Tel Beth-Shean: An Account of the Renewed Excavations’, The Biblical Archaeologist 60 (1997), 62–76.

E. F. Morris, The Architecture of Imperialism: Military Bases and the Evolution of Foreign Policy in Egypt’s New Kingdom (2005).

W. J. Murnane, The Road to Kadesh: A Historical Interpretation of the Battle Reliefs of King Sety I at Karnak (1985).

D. B. Redford, Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times (1992).

A. J. Spalinger, ‘The Northern Wars of Seti I: An Integrative Study’, Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 16 (1979), 29–47.

A. J. Spalinger, ‘The Army’, in T. Wilkinson (ed.), The Egyptian World (2007), 118–131.

A. J. Spalinger, War in Ancient Egypt: The New Kingdom (2005).

The Epigraphic Survey, Reliefs and Inscriptions at Karnak Volume 4: The Battle Reliefs of King Sety I (Chicago, 1986).

N. E. Wernick, ‘The Images of Fortifications in the Sety I Battle Reliefs: Comparing Art and Archaeology’, in J. Corbelli et al. (eds), Current Research in Egyptology 2009, Proceedings of the Tenth Annual Symposium, 10 (2011), 157–70.

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