World Civ: Ramses Sacks Palestine and Crete Yealds its Secrets

Back in Egypt, the New Kingdom is taking off. The Thebans have driven out the Hyksos and taken Nubia, introducing their culture to the south. But the focus of power remains near the Delta, where a new Pharaoh, Akhnaton, is shaking things up. He has introduced a curious new religion that is either henotheistic or monotheistic, wherein the sun is set up as the supreme deity, even over Ammon-ra. Understandably unpopular, the poor king is swiftly deposed, leaving his young son, King Tut of SNL fame, to the throne. Sadly, the boy is also quickly done-away with, and a dashing figure steps in, the renowned Ramses II.

Eager to please the disenchanted aristocracy, Ramses declares a return to the old days, launching massive building projects in the image of his forbears, before the Hyksos. And speaking of such, the new king seeks to make sure that such an invasion never happens again, by launching his own invasion across the Sinai and into Palestine. There he encounters the Hittites, and a terrific battle is held at Khadesh, where both forces fight to a standstill before pulling back. Such a political move is significant, because the Children of Israel, the Hebrews, have been hovering about the borders of Egypt’s influence and take advantage of the political vacuum in Palestine, moving in and establishing the Twelve Tribes. But despite their ill usage by the Ten Plagues, the Egyptians are pleased with the presence of an Israeli buffer state and thereafter seek friendly relations with the Hebrews – with the exception of an invasion, as we shall see, by and by.

But back to Crete, how do we know what we know about that place? Historians have to come up with evidence for their stories, after all. The story of Crete began long ago, but the tale of how we came to understand the island’s early history began in the late nineteenth century. Curiously enough, it was a woman who paved the way to a greater Cretan history.

Harriet Boyd, born 1871 – the same year that the legendary Troy was discovered – found that Greece was the place for her love of classic history to flourish. After a war with Turkey in which Harriet served as a nurse, she moved to the newly independent Crete, where she looked on as the Mother Goddess of Knossos was uncovered, along with Linear B tablets. Infused with archeological fervor, Harriet hiked to a likely site of her own near Gournia and began digging, where she struck gold in the form of a complete Minoan town. To crown it all, she uncovered an alter and shrine there, dedicated to the Mother Goddess of Knossos.

But the more that was discovered, the more questions were raised. Why did so many cities resemble Pompeii in that they were so preserved, as though the inhabitants had dropped everything and fled? The most plausible answer was offered by the discovery of a city under the ash of the volcanic island, Thera. After the initial digs were abandoned in the 1800s, archeologists returned in the 1960s to rediscover an advanced town, with beautiful buildings up to three stories tall, showing all the signs of a civilization disrupted by a massive volcanic eruption, powerful enough to devastate the Aegean.