28/06/2023, 11:19 What Caused Ancient Egypt’s Decline?

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What Caused Ancient Egypt’s

Decline?
The once-great empire on the Nile was slowly brought to its knees by a
centuries-long drought, economic crises and opportunistic foreign
invaders.

BY: DAVE ROOS

UPDATED: JUNE 8, 2023 | ORIGINAL: AUGUST 10, 2022

What caused the decline of ancient Egyptian civilization? The empire on the Nile
river reached the peak of its power, wealth and influence in the New Kingdom
period (1550 to 1070 B.C.), during the reigns of iconic pharaohs like Tutankhamun,
Thutmose III and Ramses II, who may have been the biblical pharaoh of the Exodus
story.

At its height, the Egyptian Empire controlled an expansive territory stretching from
modern-day Egypt up through the northern Sinai peninsula and the ancient land of
Canaan (which encompasses modern-day Israel, the West Bank and Gaza, Jordan
and the southern portions of Syria and Lebanon).

But starting with the murder of Ramses III in 1155 B.C., the once-great Egyptian
Empire was slowly brought to its knees by a centuries-long drought, economic
crises and opportunistic foreign invaders.

Ramses III, the Last Great Egyptian

Pharaoh
Ramses III ruled Egypt for 31 years and is widely considered the last of the “great”
pharaohs. His reign coincided with one of the most turbulent and challenging

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periods in ancient Mediterranean history, known as the invasion of the “Sea

Peoples.”

The precise identity of the Sea Peoples is still unknown, but most scholars believe
they were an ethnically diverse band of refugees from the western Mediterranean
displaced by drought and famine, who came east looking for new lands to conquer
and inhabit. Marauding fleets of Sea Peoples may have attacked Egypt at least
twice during the reigns of Merenptah and Ramses III.

In 1177 B.C., Ramses III and the Egyptian navy successfully repelled the second
massive Sea Peoples invasion, and the pharaoh memorialized the victory on the
walls of his temple and tomb complex in Medinet Habu.

But the celebration was short-lived, says Eric Cline, an archaeologist and historian
of the Bronze Age, who wrote 1177 B.C.: The Year Civilization Collapsed. Ramses III
was able to fight off the Sea Peoples, but not an assassination plot by a jealous
secondary queen in his harem. According to CT scans of Ramses III’s mummy, the
pharaoh was stabbed through the neck and murdered in 1155 B.C.

“That was the beginning of the end,” says Cline. “After Rameses III, that’s it. Egypt is
never the same again.”

Domino Effect of Bronze Age Collapse

In the 12th century B.C., the entire Mediterranean region went through a
cataclysmic event known as the “Bronze Age Collapse.” For the kingdoms that fell to
the Sea Peoples—or to other contemporaneous calamities like drought and famine
—the collapse was swift and absolute. The Mycenaeans of Greece and the Hittites
of Anatolia, for instance, saw their cities, cultures and even written languages
essentially wiped out.

In part because Ramses III was able to repel the Sea Peoples, Egypt lasted longer,
says Cline. But it eventually fell prey to the same problems afflicting the broader
region: a “megadrought” lasting 150 years or more and the disintegration of a
once-thriving Mediterranean trade network.

“The international connections that had been so prominent and prevalent during
the late Bronze Age are all cut,” says Cline. “In Egypt, the 12th century after Ramses
III is marked by food shortages and political infighting, and also a rapid decline in
Egypt’s role as a major international power.”

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Disease, Lost Resources and Tomb

Robbing
After the death of Ramses III, Egypt was ruled by a string of ineffectual pharaohs
also named Ramses. (Ramses XI, who died around 1070 B.C., was the last pharaoh
of the New Kingdom.) Archaeological records from this period give clues to why
and how Egypt entered such a rapid decline.

For example, the mummy of Ramses V appears to have smallpox scars on his face.
While historians can’t be sure if he actually died from smallpox, records indicate
that Ramses V and his family were buried in newly dug tombs, and also that there
was a six-month moratorium on anyone visiting the Valley of the Kings after the
burials.

Some scholars suggest this may have been one of the first disease-inspired
isolation orders on record—and a possible sign that Egypt was plagued by a
smallpox outbreak at that time.

In addition, during the reigns of Ramses V and Ramses VI, Egypt appears to have
lost control of important copper and turquoise mines in the Sinai peninsula, since
their names were the last of the Egyptian pharaohs inscribed on the sites. Egypt
had probably withdrawn completely from Sinai and Canaan by 1140 B.C., says
Cline.

Then, under Ramses IX, who ruled at the end of the 12th century B.C., Egypt was
rocked by a string of tomb robberies. The economic conditions were so desperate
—and the respect of the pharaoh’s authority so low—that thieves brazenly raided
the tombs of fallen pharaohs for gold and treasure.

“It’s a shocking crime, but the reign of Ramses IX is just the beginning of a sustained
period of royal tomb robberies,” says Cline. “At one point, during the reign of
Ramses XI, they had to move some of the royal mummies for safekeeping.”

Foreigners on the Throne

After the New Kingdom, Egypt was ruled by a succession of foreign powers, further
evidence of its decline as an independent empire.

First came the Libyans, a nomadic people from the western frontier of Egypt,
whose influence and culture gradually took over the seats of power. Shoshenq I, a
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pharaoh of Libyan descent, was the first pharaoh of the 22nd Dynasty, who tried to
restore the glory days of Ramses III by invading the kingdoms of Israel and Judah in
the 10th century B.C.

Then, in the 8th century B.C., the Nubians or Kushites peacefully claimed the
Egyptian throne during a time of political turmoil. A succession of Kushite pharaohs
ruled Egypt for nearly a century as the 25th Dynasty before being pushed out by
Assyrian invaders.

“Once the Kushite kings took over, that was really the end of Egypt as an
independent power,” says Cline. “Then the Assyrians came in, followed by the
Persians, the Greeks, the Romans and then Islam. If you're talking about ancient
Egypt being a power unto itself and being ruled by Egyptians, it was never the same
again.”

Egypt experienced its last gasp of greatness under the Ptolemaic Dynasty (305 to
30 B.C.), a succession of Macedonian Greek pharaohs who ruled Egypt after the
death of Alexander the Great. Cleopatra VII is the best-known of the Ptolemaic
pharaohs, who constructed a magnificent Hellenistic capital in Alexandria.

When Cleopatra and Marc Antony were defeated by the Roman Emperor Octavian
(Augustus) in 30 B.C., Egypt became a province of the Roman Republic, bringing an
end to the last of the ancient Egyptian dynasties.

BY: DAVE ROOS

Dave Roos is a freelance writer based in the United States and Mexico. A longtime
contributor to HowStuffWorks, Dave has also been published in The New York Times,
the Los Angeles Times and Newsweek.

Citation Information
Article Title What Caused Ancient Egypt’s Decline?

Author Dave Roos

Website Name HISTORY

URL https://www.history.com/news/decline-ancient-egypt-causes

Date Accessed June 28, 2023

Publisher A&E Television Networks

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28/06/2023, 11:19 What Caused Ancient Egypt’s Decline? | HISTORY

Last Updated June 8, 2023

Original Published Date August 10, 2022

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