Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-pftt2 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-05-16T20:48:39.255Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

4 - The Khetem-Border-Posts in the Delta during the New Kingdom

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 February 2024

By
Claire Somaglino
Edited by
Katherine Blouin
Katherine Blouin
Affiliation:
University of Toronto
Get access

Summary

Human space is transformed into territory through multiple types of delineation, from closed limits materialised in the landscape (such as fortresses, barriers, etc.), to open and blurred limits forming transition areas, known and practised by actors. In the kind of territorial state which Egypt had been since its birth, it was essential for the rulers to spatially mark the limits of their sovereignty. During the New Kingdom, the economic and political integration of the border districts was made possible thanks to the khetem border posts and their administration. The aim was to ensure the integrity and security of the kingdom, by investing or even overinvesting in its periphery, in terms of political decision, discourse and representations. The king and his administration were well aware that the integrity of the state was at stake in these border zones. Yet, in spite of the uniformity of the discourse, and the fact that the same name was applied to all border posts around Egypt, as well as the same title to the person in charge of these settlements, it appears that the system adapted to and was intimately linked with the local situation and the specificities of each border region.

Keywords

HistoryArchaeologyEgyptNileDeltaBorderTerritoryNew Kingdom
Type
Chapter
Information
The Nile Delta
Histories from Antiquity to the Modern Period
 , pp. 158 - 184
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2024

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Abd el-Maksoud, M. 1998. Tell Heboua (1981–1991), Enquête archéologique sur la Deuxième Période Intermédiaire et le Nouvel Empire à l’extrémité orientale du Delta. Paris, Ministère des Affaires étrangères, Éditions Recherches sur les civilisations.Google Scholar
Abd el-Maksoud, M. and Valbelle, D. 2005. ‘Tell Héboua-Tjarou. L’apport de l’épigraphie’, RdE 56: 1–44.Google Scholar
Abd el-Maksoud, M. and Valbelle, D. 2011. ‘Tell Héboua II. Rapport préliminaire sur le décor et l’épigraphie des éléments architectoniques découverts au cours des campagnes 2008–2009 dans la zone centrale du khétem de Tjarou’, RdE 62: 1–17.Google Scholar
Abd el-Raziq, M., Marchand, J. and Somaglino, C. 2022. ‘A Regional and International Hub of Trade: New Data about the Harbour of Clysma/al-Qulzum’, in Redon, B., Schneider, P., Durand, C. and Marchand, J. (eds.), Networked Spaces, The Spatiality of Networks in the Red Sea and Western Indian Ocean, Proceedings of the Red Sea 9 conference, 2–5 July 2019 in Lyon. Lyon, 107–118.Google Scholar
Amer, A.A.M.A. 1985. ‘Tutankhamun’s Decree for the Chief Treasurer Maya’, RdE 36: 17–20.Google Scholar
Bietak, M. 1975. Tell el-Dab’a II, Der Fundort im Rahmen einer Archäologisch-geographischen Untersuchung über das Ägyptische Ostdelta, ÖAW IV. Vienna, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften.Google Scholar
Bietak, M., Marinatos, N. and Palivou, C. 2007. Taureador Scenes in Tell el-Dab‘a (Avaris) and Knossos, DÖAW 43. Vienna, Verlag der Österreichischen Akademie der Wissenschaften.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Bonhême, M.-A. and Forgeau, A. 1988, Pharaon, les secrets du pouvoir, Paris, Armand Colin.Google Scholar
Burkard, G. 2006. ‘Das ḫtm n pȝ ḫr von Deir el-Medine: seine Funktion und die Frage seiner Lokalisierung’, in Dorn, A. and Hofmann, T. (eds.), Living and Writing in Deir el-Medine. Socio-Historical Embodiment of Deir el-Medine Texts, AH 19. Basel, Schwabe, 31–42.Google Scholar
Butzer, K.W. 1976. Early Hydraulic Civilization in Egypt. Chicago–London, The University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Butzer, K.W. 2002. ‘Geoarchaeological Implications of Recent Research in the Nile Delta’, in Van den Brink, E.C.M. and Levy, T.E. (eds.), Egypt and the Levant: The 4th Through the Early 3rd Millennium B.C.E. London–New York, Leicester University Press, 83–97.Google Scholar
Caminos, R.A. 1954. Late-Egyptian Miscellanies, BES I. London, Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Champollion, J.-F. 1844. Notices descriptives conformes aux manuscrits autographes rédigés sur les lieux, t. I. Paris, F. Didot Frères.Google Scholar
Davies, N. de G. 1922. The Tomb of Puyemrê at Thebes. New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art.Google Scholar
Davies, N. de G. 1943. The Tomb of Rekh-mi-Re at Thebes, PMMA Eg. Exp. 11. New York, The Plantin Press.Google Scholar
Davies, V.W. 2001. ‘Kurgus 2000: The Egyptian Inscriptions’, Sudan and Nubia 5: 46–58.Google Scholar
Dhennin, S. and Somaglino, C. 2022. ‘Un temple de Ramsès II au Kôm el-Nogous (Plinthine): nouvelles données sur l’implication ramesside en Maréotide’, BIFAO 122, 179–208.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
El-Aguizy, O. 2015. ‘Une stèle de famille de Saqqara. Reconsidération’, in Castellano, N. et al. (eds.), Ex Aegypto lux et sapientia, Homenatge al professor Josep Padró Parcerisa, Nova Studia Aegyptiaca IX. Barcelona, Universitat de Barcelona, 203–217.Google Scholar
El-Aguizy, O. 2018. ‘The khetem of Tjaru, New Evidence’, Nehet 6 [online]: 1–7, https://nehet.fr/index.php/test/2-uncategorised/50-sammaire-revue-nehet-6.Google Scholar
Epigraphic Survey. 1986. The Battle Reliefs of King Sety I, Reliefs and Inscriptions at Karnak 4, OIP 107. Chicago, The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago.Google Scholar
Espinel, A.D. 2006. Etnicidad y Territorio en el Egipto del Reino Antiguo, Aula Aegyptiaca-Studia 6. Barcelona, Bellaterra.Google Scholar
Favard-Meeks, Chr. 1989. ‘Le Delta égyptien et la mer jusqu’à la fondation d’Alexandrie’, SAK 16: 39–63.Google Scholar
Galán, J.M. 1995 Victory and Border, Terminology Related to Egyptian Imperialism in the XVIIIth Dynasty, HÄB 40. Hildesheim, Gerstenberg.Google Scholar
Gardiner, A.H. 1911. Egyptian Hieratic Texts, Series I: Literary Texts of the New Kingdom, part I, The Papyrus Anastasi I and the Papyrus Koller, Together with the Parallel Texts. Leipzig, H.C. Hinrichs.Google Scholar
Gardiner, A.H. 1912. ‘The Stela of Bilgaï’, ZÄS 50: 49–57.Google Scholar
Gardiner, A.H. 1937. Late Egyptian Miscellanies, Bibliotheca Aegyptiaca VII. Bruxelles, Éditions de la Fondation égyptologique Reine Elisabeth.Google Scholar
Gardiner, A.H. 1941–1952. The Wilbour Papyrus. London, Published for the Brooklyn Museum at the Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Gardiner, A.H. 1947. Ancient Egyptian Onomastica, 2 vol. Oxford, Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Gardiner, A.H. 1948. Ramesside Administrative Documents. Oxford, Griffith Institute, Ashmolean Museum.Google Scholar
Gohary, S. 2009. The Twin Tomb Chapel of Nebnefer & his Son Mahu at Sakkara. Cairo, Supreme Council of Antiquities.Google Scholar
Hayes, W.C. 1951. ‘Inscriptions from the Palace of Amenhotep III’, JNES X: 35–56, 82–112.Google Scholar
Hoch, J.E. 1994. Semitic Words in Egyptian Texts of the New Kingdom and Third Intermediate Period. Princeton, New Jersey, Princeton University Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hope, C. 1978. Malkata and the Birket Habu: Jar Sealings and Amphorae. Warminster, Aris and Phillips.Google Scholar
Kanawati, N. 2002. Tombs at Giza II, Seshathetep/Heti (G5150), Nesutnefer (G4970) and Seshemnefer II (G5080), ACE Reports 18. Warminster, Aris and Phillips.Google Scholar
Kemp, B.J. 2018. Ancient Egypt, Anatomy of a Civilization. New York: Routledge.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Koenig, Y. 1979. Catalogue des étiquettes de jarres hiératiques de Deir el-Médineh, no.6000–6241. Cairo: Institut français d’archéologie orientale.Google Scholar
Koenig, Y. 1997. Les Ostraca hiératiques inédits de la Bibliothèque nationale et universitaire de Strasbourg, DFIFAO XXXIII. Cairo, Institut français d’archéologie orientale.Google Scholar
Kraemer, Br. and Liszka, K. 2016. ‘Evidence for Administration of the Nubian Fortresses in the Late Middle Kingdom: the Semna Dispatches’, JEH 9/1: 1–65.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
KRI = Kitchen, K.A. 1975–1993. Ramesside Inscriptions. Historical and Biographical, 8 vol. Oxford, B.H. Blackwell.Google Scholar
Kruchten, J.M. 1981. Le Décret d’Horemheb: traduction, commentaire épigraphique, philologique et institutionnel, Bruxelles, Éditions de l’Université de Bruxelles.Google Scholar
Leahy, M.A. 1978. Excavations at Malkata and the Birket Habu 1971–1974, The Inscriptions, Warminster, Aris and Phillips.Google Scholar
Liszka, K. and Kraemer, Br. 2016. ‘Evidence for the Administration of the Nubian Fortresses in the Late Middle Kingdom: P. Ramesseum 18’, JEH 9/2: 151–208.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Liverani, M. 1990, Prestige and Interest, International Relations in the Ancient Near East, 1600–1100 BC. Padova, Sargon.Google Scholar
Liverani, M. 2001. International Relations in the Ancient Near East, 1600–1100 BC, Studies in Diplomacy, Hampshire, New York, Palgrave.Google Scholar
Lussault, M. 2003, ‘Territorial (Modèle)’, in Lévy, J., Lussault, M. (eds.), Dictionnaire de la géographie et de l’espace des sociétés, Paris, Belin, 917–919.Google Scholar
Lussault, M. 2007. L’Homme spatial. La construction sociale de l’espace humain. Paris, Seuil.Google Scholar
Marcolongo, B. 1992. ‘Évolution du paléo-environnement dans la partie orientale du Delta du Nil depuis la transgression flandrienne (8000 BP) par rapport aux modèles de peuplements anciens’, CRIPEL 14: 23–31.Google Scholar
Moreno García, J.-C. 1999. Ḥwt et le milieu rural égyptien du IIIe millénaire. Économie, administration et organisation territoriale, Bibliothèque de l’École Pratique des Hautes Études 337, Paris, H. Champion.Google Scholar
Moreno García, J.-C. 2010. ‘La gestion des aires marginales: pḥw, gs, ṯnw, sḫt au IIIe millénaire’, in Woods, A., McFarlane, A. and Binder, S. (eds.) 2010. Egyptian Culture and Society, Studies in Honour of Naguib Kanawati, vol. II, CASAE 38. Cairo, Publications du Conseil Suprême des Antiquités de l’Égypte, 49–70.Google Scholar
Morris, E.F. 2005. The Architecture of Imperialism. Military Bases and the Evolution of Foreign Policy in Egypt’s New Kingdom, PdÄ 22. Leiden–Boston, Brill.Google Scholar
Naville, E. 1890. The Mound of the Jew and the City of Onias: Belbeis, Smanood, Abusir, Tukh el-Karmus, 1887, The Antiquities of Tell el-Yahûdîyeh and Miscellaneous Work in Lower Egypt during the Years 1887–1888, EES Memoirs 7. London, P. Kegan.Google Scholar
Petrie, W.M.F. 1906. Hyksos and Israelite Cities. London, The School of Archaeology, University College.Google Scholar
Picouet, P., and Renard, J.-P. 2007. Les frontières mondiales, origins et dynamiques. Nantes, Éditions du Temps.Google Scholar
Piehl, K. 1888. Inscriptions hiéroglyphiques recueillies en Europe et en Égypte. Leipzig, J.C. Hinrichs.Google Scholar
Posener, G. 1947. ‘Les douanes de la Méditerranée dans l’Égypte saïte’, RPLHA 26: 117–131.Google Scholar
Pumpenmeier, Fr. 1998, Eine Gunstgabe von seiten des Königs, ein extrasepulkrales Schabtidepot Qen-Amuns in Abydos, SAGA 19. Heidelberg, Heidelberger Orientverlag.Google Scholar
Rainey, A.F. 2015. The El-Amarna Correspondence, A New Edition of the Cuneiform Letters from the Site of El-Amarna Based on Collations of all Extant Tablets, HdO 1 110. Leiden–Boston, Brill.Google Scholar
Razanajao, V. 2007. ‘Tell el-Balamoun: considérations toponymiques autour de la ville la plus septentrionale d’Égypte’, in Goyon, J.-Cl. and Cardin, Chr. (eds.), Actes du neuvième Congrès international des égyptologues, Grenoble, 6–12 septembre 2004, OLA 150, 2 vol. Leuven–Paris–Dudley (Mass.), Peeters, 1575–1585.Google Scholar
Redmount, C.A. 1989. On an Egyptian/Asiatic Frontier: An Archaeological History of the Wadi Tumilat, vol. I–IV, PhD. Chicago, Faculty of the Division of the Humanities, Department of Near Eastern Languages and Civilizations.Google Scholar
Rzepka, Sl. 2007. ‘Tell el-Retaba, Season 2007’, PAM 19: 143–151.Google Scholar
Rzepka, Sl., Hudec, J., Jarmuzek, L., Dubcova, V., Hulkova, L., Odler, M., Wodzinska, A., Trzcinski, J., Sefcakova, A., Sojka, P., Fulajtar, E., Černy, M. and Tirpal, J. 2015. ‘From Hyksos Settlers to Ottoman Pipe Smokers. Tell el-Retaba 2014’, Ä&L XXV: 97–165.Google Scholar
Rzepka, Sl., Wodzinska, A., Hudec, J. and Herbich, Th. 2009. ‘Tell el Retaba 2007–2008’, Ä&L XIX: 241–280.Google Scholar
Schmitt, L. 2005. ‘Le temple de Gebel Abou Hassa’, BIFAO 105: 357–404.Google Scholar
Snape, St. 2013. ‘A Stroll along the Corniche? Coastal Routes between the Nile Delta and Cyrenaica in the Late Bronze Age’, in Fr, Förster. and Riemer, H. (eds.). Desert Road Archaeology in Ancient Egypt and Beyond, Africa Praehistorica 27. Köln, H. Barth Institut, 439–454.Google Scholar
Somaglino, Cl. 2010a. Du magasin au poste-frontière dans l’Égypte ancienne: étude lexicographique du vocable khetem, unpublished PhD, Paris-Sorbonne University.Google Scholar
Somaglino, Cl. 2010b. ‘Les “portes” de l’Égypte de l’Ancien Empire à l’époque saïte’, EAO 59: 3–16.Google Scholar
Somaglino, Cl. 2013, ‘Notice mnnw’, in Dhennin, S. and Somaglino, Cl., ‘Présentation du projet de Lexique multilingue des termes géographiques de l’Égypte ancienne et médiévale’, Carnet de recherches Systèmes toponymiques [online], http://systop.hypotheses.org/358.Google Scholar
Somaglino, Cl. 2014. ‘Du delta oriental à la tête de l’Égypte: la trajectoire de Paramessou sous le règne d’Horemheb’, EAO 76: 39–50.Google Scholar
Somaglino, Cl. 2016. ‘La stèle de Héni et la géographie de la frange orientale du Delta à l’Ancien et au Moyen Empire’, BSFE 193–194: 29–51.Google Scholar
Somaglino, Cl. 2017, ‘La toponymie égyptienne en territoires conquis: les noms-programmes des menenou’, in Favry, N., Ragazzoli, Chl., Somaglino, Cl. and Tallet, P. (eds.). Du Sinaï au Soudan: itinéraires d’une égyptologue, Mélanges offerts au Professeur Dominique Valbelle, Paris, De Boccard, 229–242.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Somaglino, Cl. and Tallet, P. 2013. ‘A Road to the Arabian Peninsula in the Reign of Ramesses III’, in Förster, Fr. and Riemer, H. (eds.). Desert Road Archaeology in Ancient Egypt and Beyond, Africa Praehistorica 27. Köln, H. Barth Institut, 511–518.Google Scholar
Stanley, J.-D. 2002. ‘Configuration of the Egypt-to-Canaan Coastal Margin and North Sinai Byway in the Bronze Age’, in Van den Brink, E.C.M. and Levy, T.E. (eds.). Egypt and the Levant: Interrelations from the 4th through the Early 3rd Millennium B.C.E. London–New York, Leicester University Press, 98–117.Google Scholar
Tallet, P. 1998. Le vin en Égypte ancienne à l’époque pharaonique, PhD. Paris-IV Sorbonne University.Google Scholar
Tallet, P. 2003. ‘Notes sur la zone minière du Sud-Sinaï au Nouvel Empire’, Bulletin de l'institut français d'archéologie orientale 103, 459–486.Google Scholar
Tallet, P. 2012. La Zone minière pharaonique du Sud-Sinaï, Catalogue complémentaire des inscriptions du Sinaï, MIFAO 130.1, 2 vol. Cairo, Institut français d’archéologie orientale.Google Scholar
Tawfik, S. 1991. ‘Recently Excavated Ramesside Tombs at Saqqara. 1. Architecture’, MDAIK 47: 403–409.Google Scholar
Urk. IV = Sethe, K. and Helck, W. 1955–1961. Urkunden der 18. Dynastie. Berlin, Akademie-Verlag.Google Scholar
Valbelle, D. 1994. ‘La (les) route(s)-d’Horus’, in Berger-el-Naggar, C., Clère, G. and Grimal, N. (eds.), Hommages à Jean Leclant, BdE 106/4. Cairo, Institut français d’archéologie orientale, 379–385.Google Scholar
Valbelle, D., Abd el-Maksoud, M., Carrez-Maratray, J.-Y. 2013. ‘Ce nome qu’on dit “tanite”’, Études et travaux XXVI/1, Mélanges en l’honneur du Prof. K. Mysliwiec pour son 70e anniversaire: 699–712.Google Scholar
Von Pilgrim, C. 2010. ‘Elephantine – (Festungs-)Stadt am Ersten Katarakt’, in Bietak, M., Czerny, E. and Forstner-Müller, I. (eds.). Cities and Urbanism in Ancient Egypt: Papers from a Workshop in November 2006 at the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Denkschriften der Gesamtakademie 60, Untersuchungen der Zweigstelle Kairo des Österreichischen Archäologischen Institutes 35. Vienna, Österreichische Akademie der Wissenschaften, 257–270.Google Scholar
Von Pilgrim, C. 2021. ‘Die Festung mit Palast von Ramses III. in Tell el-Qolzum’, Ägypten und Levante XXXI: 487–512CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yoyotte, J. 1970, ‘Frontières’, in Posener, G., Dictionnaire de la civilisation égyptienne. Paris, Hazan, 119–120.Google Scholar
Yoyotte, J. 2001. ‘Le second affichage du décret de l’an 2 de Nekhtnebef et la découverte de Thônis Heracléion’, EAO 24: 24–34.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×