The dead soldiers

Egypt had two basic obsessions, the ‘next world’ and ‘warfare.’ There is overwhelming evidence to support Egypt’s obsession the former with numerous mummies disinterred on a regular basis, but there is no evidence to support Egypt’s other obsession – that of war. The lack of archaeological evidence is very important and provides overwhelming support for the GKS. We will consider this in the light of the lack of human remains.

It is of course impossible to calculate exactly how many men died in battle, however, I have worked out that over a period of 3,000 years, the very least we could expect is well in excess of over 300,000 men killed in action (see book). This is a very conservative figure; the number is, in all probability much, much higher. Also, this doesn’t include the enemy dead, so if the annals are anything to go the figure would be ten times this amount i.e. running into the millions. Remembering, the Egyptians smote the enemy with ruthless efficiency and never lost a battle.

How could so many men disappear of the face of the Earth?

Partridge in an attempt to explain the whereabouts of the fallen in his book ‘Fighting Pharaohs’ proposes that the Egyptian soldiers were indeed buried close to the battle field:

‘On campaign, most soldiers who were killed in action were probably buried close to the place they died.’ (Partridge, 2002, p 126)

Partridge here fails to take into account that to step outside Egypt was a step outside any chance of immortality; the afterlife would become nil and void, and besides we return to, where’s the evidence?

Although slightly contradictory Partridge continues.

“We do not know where most soldiers were buried, especially those who died away from Egypt . Small burial sites have been found at some of the fortifications. But it must be presumed that those of high status would have had there bodies returned home for burial. (ibid)

Points of note, the tentative “we do not know,” “probably” & “presumed” are used in the above. With so many battles shouldn’t the archaeological evidence be overwhelming? Equal perhaps to that of Egypt’s other obsession – the afterlife?

To single out the following sentence.

“Small burial sites have been found at some of the fortifications.”

Partridge gives no reference here, however isn’t it common sense to presume that if they were in anyway connected to any of Egypt’s major campaigns that he would have followed this up and, more importantly archaeologists and Egyptologists would beware of this by now. Essentially, this would be a major discovery and Partridge would be verifying his own work, but he doesn’t.

Perhaps archaeologists aren’t looking in the right place and the fallen were buried somewhere close to the battle?

As discussed, to step outside Egypt was a step outside immortality, so to be buried outside Egypt goes against everything the Egyptians lived for, literally. So, this is a none starter especially when taking into account the 70 day mummification process. However, for argument sake, let us assume they were buried close to the battle as some believe.

“The dead had to be buried close to where they fell which was generally in foreign soil, a fate many Egyptians dreaded.” (Reference)

The question remains, where are they? In dying for king and country, no doubt they were, at the very least given a decent burial along with full military honours, but nowhere outside Egypt will you find remains of Egyptian soldiers. No mass war graves, no carved stela, no cenotaphs or otherwise inscribed with “killed in action… fighting the vile Asiatics” – nothing! A fact epitomised at Megiddo.

What of the enemy dead?

“Fallen enemies were often mutilated and their corpses left to the crows, vultures and other scavengers” (ibid).

If found, they shouldn’t be difficult to identify in that the Egyptians apparently cut of their right hands (& in many cases penises) in order to count them (why not simply mark them with a stick? One, two, three…). Although highly unlikely, are we to presume the victors cleared these up and buried them in mass graves, or perhaps there was always just enough survivors to carry out this gruesome task, either way, if this was done at Megiddo, it has to be the most incredible clear-up operation ever known to man. To reiterate, no enemy remains, no Egyptian remains, no battle artefacts, no mass graves, no memorials, etc, etc.

I consider the lack of archaeological support irrefutable evidence in support of the GKS, but how am I to prove this? Perhaps I should join the archaeologists at Megiddo, dig yet another hole and reiterate what they’ve been saying for a hundred years or more – “look …, nothing!” Or perhaps I should appeal to people’s common sense?

Archaeological evidence from Egypt

I don’t see any point in readdressing the possibility of transporting thousands of decomposing dead soldiers back to Egypt, given the scorching climate and the distances involved I deem this absolutely impossible. Further, who in their right mind would undertake such a gruesome task?

Moreover, the archaeological evidence doesn’t support this, insofar as, nowhere in Egypt (or beyond) do we find mass war graves, cemeteries, or even cenotaphs that correlate with the many hundreds of ‘scared’ battles recorded on temple walls throughout the Nile Valley.

It seems the veneration of those killed in action just doesn’t exist in Egypt or beyond its borders – no monuments, cenotaphs, memorials or otherwise inscribed “here lies, killed in action, fighting for king and country at Megiddo” – nothing!

To say this is odd would be an understatement; what of the families of those who died in combat, wouldn’t they insist on the construction of some kind of memorial and cenotaph in honour of their fallen, perhaps even setting aside days of remembrance? Apparently not.

Surely, if such conflicts did indeed take place here on earth and not above as I contend, there should be thousands of wars graves, and if the fallen were not brought back, the very least we could expect is a few hundred cenotaphs or inscribed monuments. Perhaps evidence enough to equal Egypt’s other obsession, the next world.

That said, as stated earlier, the Egyptians undoubtedly fought battles and there is some scant evidence to support this. All can be explained in the context of the GKS

Sixty Egyptian soldiers found in Deir el-Bahari

“A mass-tomb found in Deir el-Bahari contained 60 bodies of slain Egyptian soldiers who perhaps lost their lives in Nubia . That these soldiers were given a burial so near the king’s own funerary monument, demonstrates how much importance was attached to them.”

http://www.ancient-egypt.org/index.html

This is a very, very rare discovery, to date the only location in Egypt where we have dead soldiers numbering more than one! It is presumed these soldiers died fighting for Mentuhotep, this maybe so but there are no inscriptions to verify this. No inscriptions honouring these apparent loyal subjects. Certainly nothing to link the soldiers with any of Egypt’s scared battles. If these soldiers did take part in one of Egypt’s recorded battles, as presumed then we have to ask, where are the other many thousands of dead soldiers from Egypt’s other wars? We have millions upon millions of mummies verifying Egypt’s obsession with the afterlife but only one mass warrior tomb, which incidentally, is dated to the Middle Kingdom, so we haven’t even reached the height of Egypt’s military might of the New Kingdom. It doesn’t add up; there should be thousands of similar mass warrior tombs.

The rarity of this find correlates with my premise that the earthly Egyptians engaged in conflicts and skirmishes (and possibly civil war) but on a scale nowhere near, and totally separate to anything recorded in the sacred annals. These were reserved for the celestial kings.

Rare Egyptian soldier

The fact that the above is a rare discovery is proven by a recent article from the National Geographic News.

Rare Egyptian “Warrior” Tomb Found.

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2008/02/080215-egypt-coffin.html
(scroll down)

The article speaks for itself, however, I’ve extracted a few points of note.

“An unusual…”

“…may contain the mummy of an ancient warrior…”

“The discovery of burials belonging to soldiers and mercenaries, who had elevated status in the wartime society, are even rarer…”

“We don’t know about the origin of Iker,” Galán said. “We don’t even know if he was Egyptian, Nubian, or Libyan.”

And of course, the heading “rare.” Rare, because there is a gigantic void when it comes to unearthing Egypt’s deceased warrior soldiers. We have many dead kings (without a scratch), but we do not have the ‘killed in action’ soldiers.

I would also add there are no inscriptions linking Iker with any major battle and there’s no evidence to suggest he was KIA. If it turns up that he fell fighting for the king, this would be a major discovery, the only one of its kind. But it shouldn’t be!

Given Egypt’s obsession with warfare and given all things normal the above article should read something along the lines of “Yet Another Egyptian Soldier Found” or perhaps “Another Cache of Soldiers Found.” As we can see the opposite couldn’t be more true!

A drawing of the reliefs at the Temple of Luxor depicting the Battle of Kadesh. The bottom register shows Ramesses/Mars II (shown larger = planetary body) single-handedly charging the enemy. A practice any modern day commander would cringe at. Despite our history books containing very detailed accounts of this, ‘battle of battles’ the location of Kadesh has yet to found! A Prediction on which my theory stands. The Battle of Kadesh as with all Pharaonic battles will never be archeologically verified because they were all wars fought in the heavens. (Ramesses = “Re (the red sun) has fashioned him” i.e. the red Mars).

Seqenenre Tao

The nearest we get to a high ranking official meeting with a brutal death is a Theban Price called Seqenenre Tao (see photo).

Seqenenre Tao met a violent death this is without doubt. He had apparently been stabbed behind the ear, his cheek and nose had been smashed with a mace, and smacked above the right eye with a battle axe. It has been suggested Seqenenre was probably killed during battle with the Hyksos (Shepherd kings).

There are a few problems with this, firstly although his head is bashed in his arms are in one piece, this suggests he may not have died in battle (certainly not battle ready) because the tendency is to protect yourself by raising your arms when blows are reigning down, resulting in broken or lacerated arms. Seqenenre shows signs of neither, so this means either the first blow rendered him incapacitated resulting in death or we have to look for alternative possible circumstances surrounding his death. It has been noted by some experts that his wounds show signs of healing, suggesting he may have recuperated somewhat only to eventually succumb to his wounds. Due to the angle of the blows some have even suggested Tao probably died lying on his side while sleeping.

It is merely an assumption by Egyptologists that Seqenenre died fighting the Hyksos (Shepherd kings) as there are no inscriptions to verify this. You would think if Seqenenre ventured north to engage the Hyksos at the very least he’d be ‘battle ready.’ While we’re on the subject, we know practically nothing about the Hyksos; this is because they were rouge, unrecognisable ‘shepherd moons’ dominating a chaotic sky.

We are faced with the same basic questions raised above; if Seqenenre was slain fighting the Hyksos, then where’s his loyal KIA infantry? The expulsion of the Hyksos apparently took place within Egypt’s borders, so here we have no need to transport rotting corpses across deadly terrain; the Egyptians merely have to recover the fallen, mummify them and bury them with full military honours. Here we have a chance for the archaeological evidence to correlate with the written word. But alas it just doesn’t happen. No fallen soldiers (Egyptians or otherwise) from the time of the Hyksos.

Ahmose son of Ebana

Although there exists no slain soldiers that can be conclusively linked to Egypt’s annuls of war, we do have some apparent first hand accounts of Egyptians either claiming to have fought in battle or scribes recounting certain events (Note; none killed in action).

One such account comes to us via the tomb of Amose, son of Ebana.

Ahmose, son of Ebana, was an officer in the Egyptian army during the end of the Seventeenth Dynasty (the Second Intermediate period) and the beginning of the Eighteenth Dynasty (the New Kingdom ). He fought at Avaris, Sharuhen (in Palestine) and in Nubia in the service of Seqenenre Tao II, Kamose, Ahmose I and Tuthmosis I. Ahmose received many honours for his bravery in battle and recounted his deeds on the wall of his tomb. (Source; http://www.ancientegyptonline.co.uk/ahmoseebana.html )

Same question as above, where’s Ahmose’s fallen comrades?

Ahmose wasn’t killed in action; this is surprising considering how many pharaohs he fought under. He must have been about 60 in his last battle, an incredible feat as the average life span was about 40 years (some say 30).

Ahmose’s tomb inscriptions and other similar battle biographies are as a result of humans venerating their celestial doubles (kas) and have little, if anything to do with events here on earth (GKS). The skies of earth were awash with bodies perceived as courtiers, viziers, priests wearing leopard skins (similar to Jupiter’s pizza coloured moon Io – Photo above), fans bearers (Also Io’s fan bearing attribute; Below left), nobles, concubines, overseers and other dignitaries. And of course, masses upon masses of trailing boulders, or as perceived by the Egyptians, the infantry. Ahmose, I believe was once a large Moon of Mars, hence, a Crew Commander.

” I have been rewarded with gold seven times in the sight of the whole land…”

“Then the gold of valour was given me, and my captives were given to me as slaves.”

There are a number of references the king rewarding certain loyal subjects with gold, be it gold rings or gold collars. This is Mars belching out enormous great rings of scolding hot ‘golden’ lava from its many volcanoes. These landing on close proximity moon sized bodies or in this case Ahmose, son of Ebana. The ‘captives’ reference is Ahmose, as a moon, gravitationally capturing smaller boulders as he and the pharaoh (Mars) heroically crash headlong into vast clouds of enemy debris.

Jupiter’s moon Io Volcanic Eruption Plume on Jupiter’s moon IO YouTube.

A CHALLENGE!

I would like to challenge Egyptologists and archaeologists to provide substantial archaeological evidence for any of the major Pharaonic battles that are supposed to have occurred in ancient times. I am not referring to a few broken bones, the occasional sword, a battle axe or even a few broken chariots. The Egyptians fought many battles over a 3,000 year period and therefore there should be an abundance of archaeological evidence including the bodies of tens of thousands of dead soldiers.

This really is the crux of the matter – Egyptian or otherwise, where are the hundreds of thousands of soldiers killed in action from ancient times?

I can provide evidence from the surfaces of Mars, Mercury and the Moon as these heavily cratered planets provide the real legacy of pharaonic battles.

This is a crucial point because if I am wrong, if concrete evidence is provided, my theory would fall apart and that would be the end of the GKS. I am prepared to take this risk because I am confident that my theory as presented is accurate and entirely correct.

I wonder how many other ‘alternative’ authors would be brave enough to set such a challenge!

Update: 12th Aug 2008

The above ‘challenge’ includes the Greek Pharaoh Alexander the Great and his conquest of the ancient world.

The Battle of Gaugamela. Forget the Greek propaganda and story telling, where’s the archaeological evidence to support any of battles attributed to Alexander the Great? To be precise, where’s the KIA soldiers? Where does it say – “here lies (name…) killed in action fighting for his beloved god (son of the sun) Alexander.” What of the enemy, where’s the hundred of thousands of soldiers slain by Alexander and his army – where’s the thousands of mass graves, cenotaphs or otherwise? I could go on and ask exactly where is Alexander the Great buried?

Update: 20th Aug 2008

For those that believe the archaeological evidence for ancient battles is not forthcoming because the ancients were somehow the Houdini’s of recycling. In other words the dearth of battle artefacts is a result of the victors gathering up every single item and reusing them.

Further research reveals this to be nonsense.

The words of Arrian, a 2nd century historian writing on the first major battle of Alexander the Great – the Battle of Issus.

“By order of Alexander all the dead (Alexander’s men) were buried with their arms and equipment the day after the battle.”

So much for recycling!

One would presume Alexander adopted the same burial practice throughout his numerous campaigns. So here we have thousands upon thousands of dead soldiers interred with full military equipment at KNOWN ancient battlefields (this doesn’t even include the enemy dead).

The question remains – where are they?

Time to dust of them metal detectors!

Alexander, “beloved of Amun (sky god),” “chosen by Re” (literally), was just one of the many names given to either Mars or Mercury as they were named and renamed many times over as divine kings of earth.

On going discussion on ‘The Nonexistent Battles of the Pharoahs’ over at the Graham Hancock message board.

Update: 5th November 2008.

Still no verifiable archeological evidence.

Update: 16th November 2008

I put forward my idea of the nonexistent pharaonic battles to John Anthony West (Sphinx dating fame). This is what he had to say.

On the point of the mostly non-existent battles, I quite agree. Perhaps our one point of agreement. There were surely battles of some sort, somewhere, but those endlessly repetitive scenes (extending down into Ptolemaic times when they most certainly were not taking place) though perhaps based initially on an actual battle or two, are symbolic; the King (forces of light) vanquishing the forces of darkness, the precondition of entry into the sacred space of the sanctuary.

I wonder why he took this stance – could it be he is actually listening to the archaeological evidence, more specifically the lack of it?

Update: 25th January 2009

I assert that the archetypal image of ancient god kings smiting their enemies, which can be found in scenes from Egypt through to the fertile-crescent and Anatolia, are time honoured recordings of battles in the heavens and have little if anything to do with events here on earth. And, although I’ve suspected for some time that some Egyptologists do actually question the authenticity of Egypt’s countless battles it difficult to get anything in writing. However, a colleague of mine (Jno) has brought the following to my attention. As can clearly be seen, some experts do actually take the stance that a number of Pharaonic battles at least, “DID NOT TAKE PLACE !”

The visual depiction of Egypt ‘s enemies and their role became so prevalent that it is difficult to distinguish in the archaeological and textual sources between purely ritualistic and rhetorical references to foreigners and genuine historical records. Repeatedly, we find examples of battles, and king’s smiting enemies that in fact, did not take place, but were mere copies of earlier scenes.

The reliefs in the Old Kingdom mortuary temples of Sahure at Abusir and Pepi II at Saqqara , as well as the Late Period temple of Taharqa at Kawa, include stock scenes of a Libyan chief being smitten by the pharaoh, while the victim’s wife and children beg for mercy. However, the personal names for the Libyans in all three scenes are repetitions and therefore suggest that these reliefs did not actually record historical events, but were rather an elaborate icon of Kingship.

Taken from http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/enemies.htm

An Egyptian Warless Model?

I was also recently pleased to learn that eminent military historian, lecturer and journalist John Keegan also favours a ritualistic warless Egypt model right up until the New Kingdom era.

Prof. Garrett G. Fagan quoting military historian John Keegan OBE. Source ‘Great Battles of the Ancient World.’ Leture (The Teaching Company).

“Eminent military historian John Keegan has recently argued an extended version of the warless Egypt model. Keegan points out that the Egyptian soldiers down to the New Kingdom era are shown only with bow, spear, sword, mace and shield. They have no helmets and no body armour. Soldiers thus equipped will simply not rush into battle to face wounds inflicted by the spear, the sword or the axe. Also, for nearly fifteen hundred years image of the pharaoh smiting enemies with the mace remained virtually unchanged, of which Keegan infers a highly ritualised form of warfare among the ancient Egyptians.

As an analogy he points to the flower wars of the Aztecs. In these strange encounters, Aztecs and neighbouring armies would converge on an agreed site but exchange captives rather than fight a true battle. The armies met, there was much provado and shouting and perhaps an individual challenge or two. Then the field between the two armies was scattered with red petals to represent blood (hence the flowers wars) and the captives were exchanged to be sacrificed later.

Perhaps this is the meaning of the smiting Pharaoh fixed image. It represents a ritual of execution following none lethal battles. And so Keegan concludes, the people of Egypt over a period of fourteen hundreds may very well have been spared the reality of wars other people later experienced it elsewhere altogether.”

My question remains, did the ‘sacred’ ancient battles take place or not? If so, why weren’t the many hundreds of thousands of fallen memorialised? The criteria seems to based on the quantity of literal sources, inasmuch, the more accounts we have of a particular battle, then this somehow deems it to have taken place. This is very poor logic, almost ‘cherry picking’ as to what did or didn’t occur. Ancient battles should be verified by good old fashioned irrefutable archaeological evidence, but they are not.

Most ‘alternative’ writers such as myself can be easily dismissed by simply turning the subject round to hard evidence, and yet, here I am, turning the tables and asking scholars for hard evidence!

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