Speaker Details

Dr Mohamed   Raafat
Inspector in the Supreme Council of Antiquities- Ph.D.: Egyptology, Department of History and Egyptology (Egyptology Branch), 2011, Faculty of Arts, Alexandria University.

Presentation Abstract:

The Maryannu in the Western Desert during the Ramesside Period

 Among the chariot warriors of the ancient world, the most flamboyant were probably the Maryannu, elite equestrians who first fought for the Hurrian kingdom of Mitanni in northern Mesopotamia. The term Maryannu probably derives from a Sanskrit term for ‘young man, hero’ and appears to have designated in the Hurrian world an important class of ‘knight’, paid for his services and given authority over particular territory, after the feudal fashion. It was once thought that the term was of Indo-Iranian origin describing an elite caste of horse and chariot-owing soldiers. These people were supposed to represent an Indo-Aryan aristocracy that introduced horses, two-wheeled chariots, and composite bows into the Near East at the beginning of the Late Bronze Age. They were also supposed to have been the ruling elite of the Hurrian Kingdom of Mitanni, the system, and possibly the caste, spreading into the other kingdoms. The theory is now generally discredited and more recent research has shown that Mariyannu is a Hurrian term that seems to have been generally applied to those who were trained as chariot warriors, even if the horses and chariots were supplied by the state. During the time of the Eighteenth Dynasty, the Egyptian military texts often highlight the capture of small numbers of Maryannu, which was equivalent to the capture of a high-level military official, whose lose would be greatly felt by the opposing force. But in the Ramesside period, Maryannu mentioned in Papyrus Anstasi II which dated to the time of King Merenptah (1213-1203 B.C.), among the people which defeated by the pharaoh in his war against the Libyans and the Sea people at the western desert of Egypt, in the fifth year of the king's reign. This is giving us an indication on the presence of Maryannu in the western desert during the Ramesside period for the first time in the Egyptian texts, on the contrary of their presence in Western Asia as the military Egyptian texts used to refer. This research paper will spot the light on mentioning of the Maryannu in the Egyptian texts during the Ramesside period, in order to discuss their historical presence in the western desert.