A Study Of Frontier Governance In Ancient Egypt From The Middle Kingdom To The New Kingdom

Since the time of ancient Egyptian civilization,Egypt has come to be associated with frontier areas,especially Nubia in the south,Syria-Palestine in the north,and Libya in the northwest.Egypt’s early contact with its frontier areas was usually related to trade,resource,wars and other factors.Since the early dynastic period of Egypt,the Egyptian Kings increasingly coveted the rare products in the frontier areas,such as gold,copper,ivory,ebony,amethyst and ruby in the southern frontier areas of ancient Egypt;Copper,olive oil,wine,wheat,cedar,incense and so on from the northern frontier region.From the time of the Old Kingdom,ancient Egypt gradually engaged in trade with the frontier areas and communicated with the local inhabitants through the establishment of a number of fortress.During the Fourth Dynasty,Egyptian settlements were established in Buhen.Egypt’s strategy has always been to protect Egypt’s frontier trade,often accompanied by wars,such as when the founder of the Fourth Dynasty,Snefru led campaigns on Egypt’s southern and western frontiers to suppress Nubian and Libyan unrest.With the evolution of the frontier view of the ancient Egyptian royal family,Egypt continued to expand the frontier areas mainly through military wars,and implemented military,economic,ethnic and cultural governance.The Egyptian king strengthened central rule over the local areas mainly through the governor system and the king’s agents.and installed fortress commanders,messengers and other officials in the fortress to govern between the fortresses.Through the messengers,the commanders of the fortress could better handle the internal and external affairs of the fortress.From the Ancient Kingdom period,Egypt strengthened the central government’s military and political governance of the local areas by establishing forts.From the Middle Kingdom to the New Kingdom period,Egypt established a series of chain of forts in the southern region to strengthen Egypt’s governance of the southern forts,and strengthened Egypt’s governance of the northern frontier forts by establishing the main forts of the "Road of Horus".During the Middle Kingdom,the Kings of ancient Egypt were no longer satisfied with trade,but exercised economic control over the frontier areas by establishing a series of fortress.For example,starting from the Middle Kingdom period of Amenemhet I,the ancient Egyptian Kings established the "Horus Way" headed by the Tjaru fortress to protect the trade of the eastern border of the Egyptian delta,and Sesostris III established a series of fortress groups such as Semna,Askut,Uronati,Safalk,Kumma and Semna South in the southern border to protect the economy of Egypt in Nubia.With the restoration and improvement of the frontier fortress in ancient Egypt,and the importance of the frontier fortress to Egypt’s strategy,the Egyptian king not only managed the economy of the lccfortress,but also the military,political and ethnic aspects of the fortress,They strengthened Egypt’s control over the frontier areas by mining and managing the gold and water resources of the fortress,setting up governors,commanders of the fortress,messengers and other officials,and inculcating the ethnic culture of the residents of the fortress and gradually "Egyptization".During the New Kingdom period,the ancient Egyptian Kings strengthened their control over the northern border areas of Egypt by building new frontier fortress,such as Tell Borg;Deir Balaha and Beth Shan;Further control of Egypt’s southern frontier by rebuilding forts such as Buhen and Elephantine;Ramses II also built the fortress of Zawiyat Um el-Rakham along the western edge of the Egyptian delta(from the Mediterranean to Libya)to prevent the northwest Libyan invasion.In the New Kingdom period,the Kings further strengthened the management of the frontier fortress.By bringing the princes of the frontier area back to Egypt and implementing the Egyptian education,they not only made the residents of the frontier area absolutely loyal to the Egyptian king,but also further deepened the degree of "Egyptization" of the frontier area,and the ethnic and cultural exchanges of the residents inside the fortress became more and more integrated.The frontier fortress of Egypt is an important manifestation of the construction of the Egyptian empire.The fortress served not only as a military defense,but also as an economic link between Egypt and Syria-Palestine,Nubia,and even Libya.The establishment and expansion of the southern and northern border fortresses of Egypt promoted the further exploration of ancient Egypt in Nubia and Syria-Palestine.Granaries,livestock,weapons and troops gradually appeared inside the fortresses,indicating that Egypt strengthened its control over the border fortresses,which played a deterrent role in the border areas of Egypt and Egypt’s neighbors,and consolidated the royal power and influence of Egypt.However,in the late reign of Ramses III,Egypt’s power was seriously weakened and it was unable to fully control the frontier fortress,which eventually provoked the revolt of the people in the border areas of Egypt,and the Egyptian Empire perish.