30th century BCE – 10th century BCE
Libya and Egypt’s western frontier
Libyan peoples were pastoral and hunting populations concentrated north of the Sahara who maintained fluctuating relations with Pharaonic Egypt. They faced Egyptian expeditions and frontier fortifications, supplied livestock and military manpower, and increasingly served as soldiers and charioteers. After settlement was permitted in the western Delta under Ramesses III, Libyan groups gained a larger role in Egypt’s defense and eventually provided the ruling houses of the Twenty-second and Twenty-third Dynasties.
Continue exploring
The Story
The excerpt identifies dynastic-period Saharans mainly with Libyans who had concentrated in the northern part of the Sahara. Earlier environmental change pushed pastoralists and hunters toward the margins of their former habitat and sometimes toward the Nile valley. Egyptian accounts interpreted these movements as pressure against the supposedly ordered world of the river, although the actual balance between migration, raiding, and settlement varied over time.
Egyptian responses included military expeditions and defensive construction. Seti I and Ramesses II built a network of fortifications and captured prominent invaders during conflicts in the thirteenth and twelfth centuries before the common era. After two failed attempts to return to the western Delta, Libyans were permitted by Ramesses III to settle there in the twelfth century, in return for a greater contribution to Egypt’s military defense.
Libyan captives were recognizable by feathered headdresses and were valued as soldiers, especially charioteers. They were generally enrolled in the army rather than assigned to major collective labor or domestic service, while their cattle-breeding supported Egyptian consumption through tribute and booty. Their political importance later expanded dramatically: Libyan dynasties ruled Egypt for nearly two centuries under the Twenty-second and Twenty-third Dynasties.
30th century BCE – 10th century BCE
Libya and Egypt’s western frontier
Libyan peoples were pastoral and hunting populations concentrated north of the Sahara who maintained fluctuating relations with Pharaonic Egypt. They faced Egyptian expeditions and frontier fortifications, supplied livestock and military manpower, and increasingly served as soldiers and charioteers. After settlement was permitted in the western Delta under Ramesses III, Libyan groups gained a larger role in Egypt’s defense and eventually provided the ruling houses of the Twenty-second and Twenty-third Dynasties.
Continue exploring
The Story
The excerpt identifies dynastic-period Saharans mainly with Libyans who had concentrated in the northern part of the Sahara. Earlier environmental change pushed pastoralists and hunters toward the margins of their former habitat and sometimes toward the Nile valley. Egyptian accounts interpreted these movements as pressure against the supposedly ordered world of the river, although the actual balance between migration, raiding, and settlement varied over time.
Egyptian responses included military expeditions and defensive construction. Seti I and Ramesses II built a network of fortifications and captured prominent invaders during conflicts in the thirteenth and twelfth centuries before the common era. After two failed attempts to return to the western Delta, Libyans were permitted by Ramesses III to settle there in the twelfth century, in return for a greater contribution to Egypt’s military defense.
Libyan captives were recognizable by feathered headdresses and were valued as soldiers, especially charioteers. They were generally enrolled in the army rather than assigned to major collective labor or domestic service, while their cattle-breeding supported Egyptian consumption through tribute and booty. Their political importance later expanded dramatically: Libyan dynasties ruled Egypt for nearly two centuries under the Twenty-second and Twenty-third Dynasties.
Continue the journey
Other paths related to this story.