The Symbiotic Relationship Between Egypt and Canaan During the 18th Dynasty: and how it developed over Three Millennia

Abstract

When examining Egypt’s relationship with Canaan specifically during the early centuries of the second half of the second millennium BCE, the question of how Egypt maintained control, or hegemony, over the region does not appear to have been adequately answered despite the numerous studies in scholarship over the last century or so. Why did the Canaanites not rebel against Egyptian control when there appeared to be a limited Egyptian military presence permanently based in Canaan up until the end of the 18th Dynasty? There may have been some minor skirmishes, but there does not appear to have been a concentrated effort on behalf of the Canaanite elite to take back control of their land. Was the terrain too difficult to allow a coalition of Canaanite kings to mount and sustain the necessary military effort to repel Egyptian hegemony? Or was city-state rivalry too bitter to allow the formation of a defensible coalition? The aim of this thesis is to examine the relationship between Egypt and Canaan over four millennia (ca. 5000 - 1300 BCE) in order to trace the interaction between the two regions during this period of time. This will then allow an hypothesis to be put forward that Egypt was able to retain control over Canaan because a unique relationship between the two had developed that extended beyond the more standard over-lord/vassal model. Rather than focusing specifically on the one period, an “Annales” approach has been employed with the intention of achieving a greater understanding of how the relationship developed, commencing with the Predynastic period in Egypt coeval with the Chalcolithic period in the Levant. Both archaeological and textual/epigraphic evidence will be explored in order to demonstrate the fluctuating nature of their interaction and provide insights into a symbiotic relationship that evolved over an extended period of time; one of not only cooperation but, in some instances, also collaboration during the 18th Dynasty.