Amenemheb, a wily and resourceful military officer, served Menkheperre through the course of his many campaigns, and nearing death had a summary account of several of the most memorable incidents of his long life engraved on the walls of his tomb in the necropolis of Thebes.[9]  We shall have cause to return several times to Amenemheb's tomb to read his memoirs. For the time being we are content with an introduction to this notable and with the opening lines of his tomb inscription. Breasted provides an English translation of what he describes as a "very important supplement to the Annals" but complains that it "does not insert the dates of the campaigns nor follow a chronological order". He is, of course, mistaken.

The old soldier seems to have narrated to some scribe, who recorded them, the more important incidents and adventures of his career as they occurred to him, without attempt at order, beyond the involuntary association of events that belong to the same campaign. BAR II 574

    The officer, Amenemheb; he says;
    I was the very faithful one of the sovereign, L.P.H., the wise-hearted of the King of Upper Egypt, the excellent-hearted of the King of Lower Egypt. I followed my lord on his expeditions in the northern and southern country. He desired that I should be the companion of his feet, while he was upon the battlefield of his victories, while his valor fortified the heart.
    I fought hand to hand in the land of Negeb (N-g-b'). I brought off three men, Asiatics, as living prisoners.
    When his majesty came to Naharin (N-h-r-n) I brought off three men from the fight there; I set them before thy majesty as living prisoners. BAR II 579-81

        Breasted, who is typical of the consensus scholarly opinion, considers the reference to a battle in the Negeb as a reference to Menkheperre's later skirmish with the Shasu, a tribal group which occupied the Gaza region at sundry times in the late Egyptian period. The Shasu, he notes, were encountered by Menkheperre on his 14^th campaign. Therefore Amenemheb cannot be following any chronological order.

        But we wonder why Amenemheb would begin his annals with the Shasu incident, which, as we will soon see, deserved only a passing mention in the annals, and why he would neglect to mention entirely the battle of Megiddo, by far the most significant incident in the illustrious career of Menkheperre. The battle of Megiddo was the dominant event in the 1^st campaign. We expect it to be mentioned first. And the reference to Naharin immediately following agrees precisely with the substance of our argument in the previous chapter, that the Egyptian king, or at least his army, reached the Euphrates in his first campaign of victory. The first two lines, read in the most reasonable manner, describe the events of the year 616 B.C. precisely as we have described them. At least in this instance Amenemheb is not speaking out of order. We expect therefore that he will continue to detail the events of his life sequentially, and that the inscription following will document the next great Egyptian excursion into the north of Syria, the sequence of battles which took place on the 5^th and 6^th campaigns in the years 610 and 609 B.C.. The memoirs continue:

    Again I fought hand to hand (on) that expedition in the land of 'The-Height-of-Wan' (W-'-n) on the west of Aleppo (H'-r'-bw). I brought off 13 Asiatics as living prisoners, 13 men; 70 living asses; 13 bronze [spears]; the bronze was wrought with gold --."
    Again I fought (on) that expedition in the land of Carchemish (K'-ry-k'-my-a-sh'). I brought off -- -- as living prisoners. I crossed over the water of Naharin (N-h-r-n), while they were in my hand, to -- --; I [set] them before my lord. He rewarded me with a great reward; list thereof: -- --.
    I behold the royal victories of the King Menkheperre, given life, in the country of Senzar (Sn-z'-r'), when he made a [great] sl[aughter] [among] them. I fought hand to hand before the king, I brought off a hand there. He gave to me the gold of honor; list thereof: -- -- two silver rings.
    Again I beheld his bravery, while I was among his followers. [He] captures [the city of] Kadesh (Kd-shw); I was not absent from the place where he was; I brought off two men, lords (m-r'-y-n') as [living prisoners; I set them] before the king, the Lord of the Two Lands ... He gave to me gold because of bravery, before the whole people -- -- --; list thereof: of the finest gold: a lion; 2 necklaces, 2 flies, 4 arm rings.

        The second expedition, mentioned in lines 2-4, describes the 6^th campaign (609 B.C.), a fact confirmed by the mention of the assault on Kadesh at its conclusion. Three distinct battles are recorded for this campaign. Only the third, the Kadesh incident, made its way into the Annals. The second battle must be viewed as an earlier phase of the assault on Kadesh and should not be distinguished from that incident. Sinzar is located no more than a days march north of Kadesh. An Egyptian army traveling from Carchemish to Kadesh would naturally pass through the country surrounding Sinzar. Apparently some skirmishes in that region preceded the assault on the town of Kadesh. Amenemheb distinguishes the Sinzar and Kadesh incidents for personal reasons.

        Our attention is focused on the first of the three battles recorded by Amenemheb for this 6^th campaign, a battle fought in the "land of Carchemish". In the context of the revised chronology this must refer to Piankhi's loss to the Babylonian and Median armies at Harran. Although we find no specific mention of Harran, reference is made to a crossing of the Euphrates, which clearly implies a destination distinct from the city of Carchemish. Apparently the designation "land of Carchemish" was a regional term which included the former Assyrian stronghold. Support for this claim is forthcoming from the text of the Hebrew Bible. We recall that Neco, en route to Harran in support of Ashuruballit, in his brief dialogue with Josiah prior to the death of the Judean king, specified Carchemish as his destination.

After all this, when Josiah had set the temple in order, Neco king of Egypt went up to fight at Carchemish on the Euphrates, and Josiah marched out to meet him in battle. (2 Chron 35:20)

        The timetable reproduced below summarizes the chronology of the years 610-609 B.C. argued in the preceding pages. Note that we have simply reproduced table 5, which was based on the testimony of the Chronicle and the Hebrew Bible (small script) and superimposed the evidence forthcoming from the Annals and Amenemheb's journal (capitalized text).
 
 

The 7th Campaign.

        The 7^th campaign of Menkheperre/Piankhi, which occupied the year 608 B.C., was apparently restricted to the Mediterranean coast, where he received tribute from his vassal princes. In spite of his recent setback at Harran, and the downfall of his Assyrian ally, Piankhi continued to command the allegiance of Upper Retenu. There is no indication in the Annals that his sovereignty over the lands west of the Euphrates was forfeit. The rebellions in Kadesh and Arvad, which had immediately followed Piankhi's losses in the vicinity of Harran, and were perhaps spawned by those defeats, had been put down. Syria remained under Egyptian control.

        There is no further mention of Egypt in the Chronicle until the year 606/605 B.C., which corresponds to the 8^th campaign of the Egyptian king. That campaign, and the two which follow on its heels, will occupy our attention throughout the next chapter. There remains for us to discuss here two neglected issues from the 6^th campaign - the Mariannu and the Josiah succession. Both contribute marginally to our argument.
 

The Mariannu

        When Amenemheb mentions the siege of Kadesh in his discussion of the 6^th campaign his attention is directed toward the honors he won. He personally captured "two men" whom he identifies as "lords (m-r'-y-n')", for which he was duly rewarded. The term mariannu is Semitic. As recognized by Breasted in his translation, the Egyptian here most likely represents the Aramaic word for "lord". But this raises a problem, not discussed by Breasted.

        When Immanuel Velikovsky wrote Peoples of the Sea, the semi-final book in his Ages in Chaos series, he remarked on the presence of this word in a text of Ramses III, supposedly written in the 12^th century B.C.. According to that inscription, Ramses is quoted as stating:

I organized my frontier in Zahi, prepared before them (to whit) the princes, the commanders of the garrison, and the Mariannu.[11]

Who were these Mariannu, the only trustworthy allies of Egypt? At first it was suggested that Mariannu is the Aramaic word Mareinu, meaning "noblemen." But who could they have been, the foreign warriors in the Egypt of the twelfth century, called by an Aramaic name? Aramaic is a Semitic language that supplanted Hebrew in Palestine after the Babylonian exile, in which parts of the Books of Ezra and Daniel, and later the Talmuds, were written; at the beginning of the present era it was the everyday language of the Jews in Palestine. The oldest Aramaic inscriptions date from the ninth and eighth centuries.[12]

The Josiah Succession

        We have several times quoted the Hebrew Bible in its references to the death of Josiah, the brief reign of his son and successor Jehoahaz, and the almost immediate replacement of Jehoahaz by Eliakim, another son of Josiah, on orders from pharaoh Neco.

Jehoahaz was twenty-three years old when he became king, and he reigned in Jerusalem three months. The king of Egypt dethroned him in Jerusalem and imposed on Judah a levy of a hundred talents of silver and a talent of gold. The king of Egypt made Eliakim, a brother of Jehoahaz king over Judah and Jerusalem and changed Eliakim's name to Jehoiakim. But Neco took Eliakim's brother Jehoahaz and carried him off to Egypt. 2 Chron. 36:2-4

        It is absolutely clear that these actions were taken subsequent to the loss at Harran and immediately following the suppression of the rebellion at Kadesh. There can be no doubt, in view of what we know about the circumstances of the rebellion in Kadesh, that Jehoahaz had also decided that the time was right to declare independence from Egypt. His removal from office and deportment to Egypt were the result. Jehoahaz had reigned only three months. It was September/October, 609 B.C.

        At the identical moment in the Annals, i.e., immediately following the account of the successful siege of Kadesh, we find Menkheperre declaring as a fait accompli the identical dual actions among his subject princes, namely, the appointment of a successor for subject kings (chiefs) who have died, and the deposition to Egypt of their sons. Can there be any doubt that he has Jehoahaz in mind?

Year 30. Behold, his majesty was in the land of Retenu on the sixth victorious expedition of his majesty.
(He) arrived at the city of Kadesh (Kd-Shw), overthrew it, cut down its groves, harvested its grain. (He) came to the land of Sh-y-wt, arrived at the city of Simyra (S'-my-r'), arrived at the city of Arvad ('-r'-t-wt), doing likewise to it.
List of the tribute brought to the souls of his majesty by the chiefs of Retenu in this year.
Behold, the children of the chiefs (and) their brothers were brought to be in strongholds in Egypt. Now, whosoever died among these chiefs, his majesty would cause his son to stand in his place. List of the children of chiefs brought in this year: (x+)2 persons; 181 slaves, male and female; 188 horses; 40 chariots, wrought with gold and silver (and) painted. BAR II 464-67

        The sandstone stela of Piankhi found by Reisner at Napata (already discussed in our second chapter), that which contains the first three titulary names of Thutmose III, records in lines 16-23 a remarkable speech in which Piankhi declares his absolute sovereignty over subject princes. We quote Reisner's translation:

Speech of the Son of Ra, Lord of Crowns, ... . He says
Amon of Napata has given to me to be ruler of every land.
He to whom I say: You are king, he shall be king:
He to whom I say: You are not king, he shall not be king.
Amon of Thebes has given to me to be ruler of Egypt (km)
He to whom I say; make ceremonial appearance (as king),
[he shall make ceremonial appearance (as king)]
He to who I say: Do not make ceremonial appearance, he shall not make ceremonial appearance.
Every one to whom I give my favor(face), his city can not be destroyed except it be by my hand.
The gods make a king; the people make a king; but Amon made me.
Whoever of these governors does not make gifts to me, Weret-Hekauw....[13]

        In September/October 609 B.C. Jehoahaz was deposed by Menkheperre Necao. The same month of that same year the event was the subject of boasting by Menkheperre Thutmose. Some time later the memory of the event was acknowledged publicly on the sandstone stela of Menkheperre Piankhi. We wonder when Egyptologists will awaken to the fact that these names belong to one and the same king!