191: Libya Minus One

How the west was won. Around 1298 BCE, King Sety I (Men-ma’at-Ra) attacked the peoples of modern-day Libya and, in a supposedly swift victory, took many captives back to Egypt. The relationship between Libyans and ancient Egyptians is complicated, but we go in search of some answers…

Date: c.1298 BCE (Sety I, year 6).

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Music intro/outro: “Godzilla theme” by Akira Ifukube, cover version by Luke Chaos.

Music interludes by: Keith Zizza, Luke Chaos.

Sety’s War Reliefs at Karnak: Available in Open Access at The University of Chicago.

Select Bibliography:

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

P. J. Brand, Ramesses II: Egypt’s Ultimate Pharaoh (2023).

W. A. Cooney, ‘Egypt’s Encounter with the West: Race, Culture and Identity’, Unpublished PhD. Thesis, University of Durham (2011).

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

A. A. el Magd, ‘Dehumanization of the “Other:” Animal Metaphors of Defeated Enemies in the New Kingdom Military Texts’, Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt 52 (2016), 329–341.

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.

J. C. M. García, ‘Ḥwt jḥ(w)t, The Administration of the Western Delta and the “Libyan Question” in the Third Millennium BC’, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 101 (2015), 69–105.

K. A. Kitchen, Ramesside Inscriptions Historical and Biographical, I (Oxford, 1975).

K. A. Kitchen, ‘The Arrival of the Libyans in Late New Kingdom Egypt’, in A. Leahy (ed.), Libya and Egypt c.1300–750 BC (1990), 15–27.

K. A. Kitchen, Ramesside Inscriptions Translated and Annotated: Translations Volume I: Ramesses I, Sethos I and Contemporaries (Second Publication edn, 2017).

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. O’Connor, ‘The Nature of Tjemhu (Libyan) Society in the Later New Kingdom’, in A. Leahy (ed.), Libya and Egypt c.1300–750 BC (1990), 29–113.

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

The Epigraphic Survey, Medinet Habu, Volume I. Earlier Historical Records of Ramses III (1930).

The Epigraphic Survey, Medinet Habu, Volume II. The Later Historical Records of Ramses III (1932).

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

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