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{{Short description|Final Pharaoh of Theban seventeenth dynasty of Egypt}}
{{Infobox pharaoh
| Name=Kamose 
| Image=Coffin of King Kamose 2017.jpg{{!}}150px 
| Caption= Sarcophagus of Kamose, Cairo [[Egyptian Museum]]
| NomenHiero= <hiero>D28:D52-F31-s-A24</hiero>
| Nomen=''Kamose''<ref name="clayton"/><br/> ''Kȝ ms(=w)'' <br/> ''He who is born of the bull'' 
| PrenomenHiero= <hiero>N5-M13-M40-L1</hiero>
| Prenomen=''Wadjkheperre''<br/> ''W3ḏ-ḫpr-Rˁ'' <br/> ''Flourishing is the Manifestation of [[Ra|Re]]''<ref name="clayton">Peter Clayton: ''Chronicle of the Pharaohs'', Thames and Hudson Ltd, paperback 2006. p.94</ref>
| GoldenHiero= <hiero>S29-O4:D21-Y1-N17:N17:N23*N23</hiero>
| Golden = Bik Nebu Seheru-Tawi <br/> ''bjk nbw shrw-t3wj'' <br/> ''The Golden Falcon who satisfies the two lands''
| NebtyHiero= <hiero>F25-Y5:N35-W24:W24*W24</hiero>
| Nebty = Wehem-menu <br/> ''Wḥm-mnw'' <br/> ''He who renews the fortifications''
| HorusHiero =
| Horus= ''Khahernesetef'' <br/> ''Ḫˁj-ḥr-nst=f'' <br/>''He who appears on his throne''<br>
{{Infobox pharaoh/Serekh|Horus=<hiero>N28:D36-D2:Z1-W11*t:f</hiero>||prefix=<hiero>G5</hiero>}}Sedjefatawy <br/> ''Sḏf3-t3wj'' <br/> ''He who nourishes the two lands''<ref>Friedrich Wilhelm von Bissing: ''Ein thebanischer Grabfund aus dem Anfang des Neuen Reiches.'' Tafel 4 (8)</ref><br>{{Infobox pharaoh/Serekh|Horus=<hiero>s-D:f-D40:N16:N16</hiero>||prefix=<hiero>G5</hiero>}}Neferkhabtawi <br/> ''Nfr-ẖ3b-t3wj'' <br/> ''The perfect horus who tames the two lands''<ref name="C. Vandersleyen">Claude Vandersleyen: ''L'Egypte et la vallée du Nil. Tome 2: De la fin de l'Ancien Empire à la fin du Nouvel Empire.''Paris 1995, S. 195</ref><br>{{Infobox pharaoh/Serekh|Horus=<hiero>F35-K4:G1-D58-N11:N17:N17</hiero>||prefix=<hiero>G5</hiero>}}
| Reign=c. 1555&ndash;1550 BC<ref>{{cite book |editor-last=Shaw |editor-first=Ian |title=The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt |year=2000 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=0-19-815034-2 |page=[https://archive.org/details/oxfordhisto00shaw/page/481 481] |url-access=registration |url=https://archive.org/details/oxfordhisto00shaw/page/481 }}</ref>
| Predecessor= [[Seqenenre Tao]]
| Successor= [[Ahmose I]]
| Spouse=[[Ahhotep II]] (?)
| Children=[[Ahmose-Sitkamose]] (?)
| Dynasty=[[Seventeenth dynasty of Egypt|17th&nbsp;Dynasty]] 
| Father= [[Seqenenre Tao]]
| Mother= [[Ahhotep I]]?
| Died= 1550 BC
| Burial= [[Dra' Abu el-Naga']]
}}

'''Kamose''' was the last king of the [[Thebes, Egypt|Theban]] [[Seventeenth dynasty of Egypt|Seventeenth Dynasty]] at the end of the [[Second Intermediate Period]]. Kamose is usually ascribed a reign of three years (his highest attested regnal year), although some scholars now favor giving him a longer reign of approximately five years.<ref>Kim SB Ryholt, ''The Political Situation in Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period'', Carsten Niebuhr Institute Publications, Museum Tusculanum Press, 1997, p.273. {{ISBN|87-7289-421-0}}</ref> 

He was the son of [[Seqenenre Tao]] and the brother of [[Ahmose I]], founder of the [[Eighteenth dynasty of Egypt|Eighteenth Dynasty]]. His mother is unknown, but is thought to be [[Ahhotep I]]. His reign is important for the decisive military initiatives he took against the [[Hyksos]], who had come to rule much of [[Ancient Egypt]].<ref name="Ryholt273"/> His father had begun the initiatives and lost his life in battle with the Hyksos. It is thought that his mother, as regent, continued the campaigns after the death of Kamose, and that his full brother made the final conquest of them and united all of Egypt.

==Campaigns==

===''Casus Belli''===
[[File:WadjkheperreScarabPetrie.png|thumb|left|200px|Drawing of a scarab of Kamose by [[Flinders Petrie]].<ref>Flinders Petrie: ''Scarabs and cylinders with names'' (1917), [https://archive.org/details/scarabscylinders00petr available copyright-free here], pl. XXIII</ref>]]
Kamose was the final king in a succession of native Egyptian kings at [[Thebes, Egypt|Thebes]]. Originally, the Theban [[Seventeenth dynasty of Egypt|Seventeenth dynasty]] rulers were at peace with the Hyksos kingdom to their north prior to the reign of Seqenenre Tao.<ref>Grimal, Nicolas. ''A History of Ancient Egypt.'' p.189. Librairie Arthéme Fayard, 1988.</ref> They controlled [[Upper Egypt]] up to [[Elephantine]] and ruled Middle Egypt as far north as [[Cusae]].<ref name="Cambridge 2:1 290">James, T.G.H. ''Egypt: From the Expulsion of the Hyksos to Amenophis I.'' in ''The Cambridge Ancient History,'' vol. 2, part 1, ed. Edwards, I.E.S, et al. p. 290. Cambridge University Press, 1965.</ref> Kamose sought to extend his rule northward over all of Lower Egypt. This apparently was met with much opposition by his courtiers. It appears that at some point, these princes in Thebes had achieved a practical ''modus vivendi'' with the later Hyksos rulers, which included transit rights through Hyksos-controlled [[Middle Egypt|Middle]] and [[Lower Egypt]] and pasturage rights in the fertile [[Nile Delta|Delta]].<ref name="ReferenceA">"Cambridge 2:1 290"</ref> Kamose's records on the ''[[Carnarvon Tablet]]'' (in the text also parallelled in the Thebes stelae of Kamose) relate the misgivings of this king's council to the prospect of a war against the Hyksos: 
{{cquote|See, all are loyal as far as Cusae. We are tranquil in our part of Egypt. Elephantine [at the [[First Cataract]]] is strong, and the middle part (of the land) is with us as far as Cusae. Men till for us the finest of their lands. Our cattle pasture in the Papyrus marshes. Corn is sent for our swine. Our cattle are not taken away... He holds the land of the Asiatics; we hold Egypt..."<ref name="gardiner"/>}} 

However, Kamose's presentation here may be propaganda designed to embellish his reputation since his predecessor, Seqenenre Tao, had already been engaged in conflict with the Hyksos (for unknown reasons), only to fall in battle. Kamose sought to regain by force what he thought was his by right, namely the kingship of Lower and Upper Egypt.<ref name="ReferenceA"/> The king thus responds to his council: 
{{cquote|I should like to know what serves this strength of mine, when a chieftain in Avaris, and another in [[Kingdom of Kush|Kush]], and I sit united with an Asiatic and a Nubian, each in possession of his slice of Egypt, and I cannot pass by him as far as Memphis... No man can settle down, when despoiled by the taxes of the Asiatics. I will grapple with him, that I may rip open his belly! My wish is to save Egypt and to smite the Asiatic!"<ref name="gardiner">Gardiner, Sir Alan. ''Egypt of the Pharaohs'', 1961, reprint Oxford University Press, 1979, p.166</ref>}} 

There is no evidence to support [[Pierre Montet]]'s assertion that Kamose's move against the Hyksos was sponsored by the priesthood of [[Amun]] as an attack against the [[Set (mythology)|Seth]]-worshippers in the north (i.e., a religious motive for the war of liberation). The ''Carnarvon Tablet'' does state that Kamose went north to attack the Hyksos by the command of Amun, but this is common to virtually all royal inscriptions of Egyptian history, and should not be understood as the specific command from this deity.{{citationneeded|date=November 2021}} Kamose states his reasons for an attack on the Hyksos was nationalistic pride.

===Northern Campaign===
In Kamose's third year, he embarked on his military campaign against the Hyksos by sailing north out of Thebes on the [[Nile]]. He first reached [[Nefrusy]], which was just north of Cusae and was manned by an Egyptian garrison loyal to the Hyksos.<ref name="Cambridge 2:1 291">James, T.G.H. ''Egypt: From the Expulsion of the Hyksos to Amenophis I.'' in ''The Cambridge Ancient History,'' vol. 2, part 1, ed. Edwards, I.E.S, et al. p.291. Cambridge University Press, 1965.</ref> A detachment of Medjay troops attacked the garrison and overran it.<ref name="Cambridge 2:1 291"/> The Carnarvon Tablet recounted this much of the campaign, but breaks off there. Nonetheless, Kamose's military strategy probably can be inferred. As Kamose moved north, he could easily take small villages and wipe out small Hyksos garrisons, but if a city resisted, he could cut it off from the rest of the Hyksos kingdom simply by taking over the city directly to the north. This kind of tactic probably allowed him to travel very quickly up the Nile.<ref>Spalinger, Anthony J. ''War in Ancient Egypt.'' , Blackwell Publishing, 2005, p.3.</ref> The second stele of Kamose (found in Thebes) continues Kamose's narrative with an attack on [[Avaris]]. Because it does not mention [[Memphis, Egypt|Memphis]] or other major cities to the north, it has long been suspected that Kamose never did attack Avaris, but instead recorded what he intended to do.<ref name="Cambridge 2:1 291"/> Kim Ryholt recently has argued that Kamose probably never advanced farther than the Anpu or [[Cynopolis]] [[Nome (Egypt)|Nome]] in Middle Egypt (around the [[Faiyum]] and the city of Saka) and did not enter either the Nile Delta, nor Lower Egypt proper.<ref>Ryholt, pp.172–175</ref> 
[[File:Kamose Siegesstele Luxor Museum 02.jpg|thumb|150px|Kamose's second stela which records his victory against the Hyksos (Luxor Museum).]]

According to the second stele, after moving north of Nefrusy, Kamose's soldiers captured a courier bearing a message from the Hyksos king Awoserre [[Apepi (pharaoh)|Apopi]] at Avaris to his ally, the ruler of Kush, requesting the latter's urgent support against Kamose. Kamose promptly ordered a detachment of his troops to occupy and destroy the [[Bahariya Oasis]] in the western desert, which controlled the north–south desert route. Kamose, called ''"the Strong"'' in this text, ordered this action to protect his rearguard. Kamose then sailed southward, back up the [[Nile]] to Thebes, for a joyous victory celebration after his military success against the Hyksos in pushing the boundaries of his kingdom northward from Cusae past [[Hermopolis]] through to Sako, which now formed the new frontier between the seventeenth dynasty of Thebes and the fifteenth dynasty Hyksos state.<ref>Ryholt, pp.173–175</ref>

Ryholt notes that Kamose never claims in his second stela to attack anything ''in'' [[Avaris]] itself, only "anything belonging to Avaris (''nkt hwt-w'rt'', direct genitive) i.e., the spoil [of war] which his army has carried off" as lines 7–8 and 15 of Kamose's stela—the only references to Avaris here—demonstrate:

Line 7–8: ''I placed the brave guard-flotilla to patrol as far as the desert-edge with the remainder (of the fleet) behind it, as if a kite were preying upon the territory of Avaris.''

Line 15: ''I have not overlooked anything belonging to Avaris, because it (the area which Kamose was plundering) is empty.''<ref>Ryholt, pp.173–174</ref>

The Second Stela of Kamose is well known for recounting that a Hyksos messenger was captured with a letter from Apophis—appealing for aid from the king of Kush against Kamose—while travelling through the western desert roads to Nubia. The final evidence that this king's military activities affected only the Cynopolite nome, and not the city of Avaris itself, is the fact that when Kamose returned the letter to Apophis, he dispatched it to [[Atfih]] which is about a hundred miles south of Avaris. Atfih, hence, formed either the new border or a ''no-man's land'' between the now shrunken Hyksos kingdom and Kamose's expanding seventeenth dynasty state. Furthermore, Kamose states in his second stele that his intention in returning the letter was for the Hyksos messenger to inform Apophis of the Theban king's victories ''"in the area of Cynopolis which used to be in his possession."''<ref>Ryholt, p.172</ref> This information confirms that Kamose confined his activities to this Egyptian nome and never approached the city of Avaris itself in his Year 3.

===First Nubian Campaign===

Kamose is known to have campaigned against the Kushites prior to his third year since the Hyksos king directly appeals to his Kushite counterpart to attack his Theban rival and avenge the damage which Kamose had inflicted upon both their states. It is unlikely that Kamose had the resources to simultaneously defeat the Kushites to the south and then inflict a serious setback on the Hyksos to the north in just one year over a front-line that extended over several hundred kilometres.<ref>Ryholt, pp.182–83</ref>

==Length of reign==
[[File:Gold and Silver Boat of Queen Ahhotep II.jpg|thumb|left|250px|A votive gold barque boat model attributed to Kamose and found in his Chief Queen [[Ahhotep II]]'s tomb at [[Dra' Abu el-Naga']].]]
His Year 3 is the only attested date for Kamose and was once thought to signal the end of his reign. However, it now appears certain that Kamose reigned for one or two more years beyond this date because he initiated a second campaign against the [[Nubia]]ns. Evidence that Kamose had started a first campaign against the Kushites is affirmed by the contents of Apophis' captured letter where the Hyksos king's plea for aid from the king of Kush is recounted in Kamose's Year 3 Second stela:
{{cquote|Do you see what Egypt has done to me? The ruler who is in it, Kamose-the-Brave, given life, is attacking me on my soil although I have not attacked him in the manner of all he has done against you. He is choosing these two lands to bring affliction upon them, my land and yours, and he has ravaged them."<ref>Ryholt, p.181</ref>}} 

Two separate rock-inscriptions found at Arminna and Toshka, deep in Nubia, give the prenomen and nomen of Kamose and Ahmose side by side and were inscribed at the same time&mdash;likely by the same draughtsman&mdash;according to the epigraphic data.<ref name=Ryholt273/> In both inscriptions "the names of Ahmose follow directly below those of Kamose and each king is given the epithet '''''di-ˁnḫ''''', ''Given Life'', which was normally used only of ruling kings. This indicates that both Kamose and Ahmose were ruling when the inscriptions were cut and consequently that they were coregents.<ref name=Ryholt273>Ryholt, p.273</ref> Since Kamose's name was recorded first, he would have been the senior coregent. However, no mention or reference to Ahmose as king appears in Kamose's Year 3 stela which indirectly records Kamose's first campaign against the Nubians; this can only mean that Kamose appointed the young Ahmose as his junior coregent sometime after his third year prior to launching a second military campaign against the Nubians.<ref>Ryholt, p.274</ref> As a result, Kamose's second Nubian campaign must have occurred in his Year 4 or 5. The target of Kamose's second Nubian campaign may have been the fortress at [[Buhen]] which the Nubians had recaptured from Kamose's forces since a stela bearing his cartouche was deliberately erased and there is fire damage in the fort itself.<ref>Ryholt, pp.181–182</ref> 

A slightly longer reign of five years for Kamose has now been estimated by Ryholt and this ruler's timeline has been dated from 1554 BC to 1549 BC to take into account a one year period of coregency between Ahmose and Kamose.<ref>Ryholt, p.204</ref> [[Donald Redford]] notes that Kamose was buried very modestly, in an ungilded stock coffin which lacked even a royal [[uraeus]].<ref>Redford, Donald B. History and Chronology of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt: Seven Studies. Toronto, 1967</ref> This may imply that the king died before he had enough time to complete his burial equipment presumably because he was engaged in warfare with his Kushite and Hyksos neighbours.

==Mummy==
[[File:Dolk van farao Kamosis (ca. 1450 v.C. hout koper en goud) KBR 27-8-2016 11-44-49.jpg|thumb|Ceremonial 23 cm long Wood, Copper and Gold Dagger of Kamose in the Royal Library of [[Brussels]].]]

The tomb of Kamose is mentioned in the [[Abbott Papyrus]], which records an investigation into tomb robberies during the reign of [[Ramesses IX]], about 400 years after Ahmose's interment. While his tomb was mentioned as being "in a good state",<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.reshafim.org.il/ad/egypt/texts/pabbott.htm | title = The Abbott Papyrus | work = reshafim.org.il | access-date = 2007-01-04}}</ref> it is clear that his mummy was moved at some point afterward, as it was discovered in 1857 at [[Dra' Abu el-Naga']], seemingly deliberately hidden in a pile of debris. The painted and stuccoed [[Rishi coffin]] was uncovered by early Egyptologists [[Auguste Mariette]] and [[Heinrich Brugsch]], who noted that the mummy was in very poor shape. Buried with the mummy was a gold and silver dagger, amulets, a scarab, a bronze mirror, and a [[pectoral (Ancient Egypt)|pectoral]] in the shape of a cartouche bearing the name of his successor and brother, Ahmose.<ref name="brier">Brier, Bob. <cite>Egyptian Mummies</cite>. p.259–260. William Morrow and Company, Inc. 1994. {{ISBN|0-688-10272-7}}</ref> 

The coffin remains in Egypt, while the dagger is in Brussels and the pectoral and mirror are in the [[Louvre]], Paris. The name of the pharaoh inscribed on the coffin was only recognized fifty years after the original discovery, by which time the mummy, which had been left with the pile of debris on which it was found, was almost certainly long lost.<ref name="brier"/>

== Stelae ==
Kamose erected two stelae in Thebes that seem to tell a consecutive narrative of his defeat of the Hyksos. The first stele is missing its last part.

The [[Carnarvon Tablet]] also preserves some of the text of the stelae.<ref>James B. Pritchard (ed.), [https://books.google.com/books?id=UEWWCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA232 ''Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament''.] Third Edition (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1969), p. 232.</ref>

===Identification===
As early as 1916, Sir [[Alan Gardiner]] assumed that the First Carnarvon Tablet must be a copy of some commemorative stela of pharaoh Kamose. This was later confirmed when French Egyptologists Lacau and Chévrier were working in Karnak, and made an important discovery of two stela fragments. The smallest of them was found in 1932. And in 1935, the larger fragment appeared. Thus, it emerged that the Carnarvon Tablet text was copied from Kamose's stelas.<ref name="Pritchard">James B. Pritchard, ''[https://books.google.com/books?id=UEWWCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA232 Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament.] Third Edition'' (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1969), p. 232.</ref> These newer texts were published in 1939.<ref name="Pritchard"/><ref>P. Lacau, ASAE, xxxix (1939)</ref>

===Other discoveries===
More recently, some other inscriptions of Kamose were found.

:"Only two stelae of Kamose were known until recently [2016], one of them was also copied to a Dynasty 18 writing table [Carnarvon Tablet] (Redford 1997: nos. 68-69). In 2004 a fragmented inscription with the [[Two Ladies name]] of Kamose was found in [[Karnak]] and labeled the third stela of Kamose (Van Siclen 2010), and in 2008 a further inscription of Kamose was found in [[Armant]] (Thiers 2009)."<ref>Ilin-Tomich, Alexander, 2016, [http://digital2.library.ucla.edu/viewFile.do?contentFileId=2387706 Second Intermediate Period.] In Wolfram Grajetzki and Willeke Wendrich (eds.), UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology, Los Angeles</ref>

==References==
{{reflist}}

== Bibliography ==
{{Commons category}}
*Gardiner, Sir Alan. ''Egypt of the Pharaohs''. Oxford: University Press, 1964, 1961.
*Montet, Pierre. ''Eternal Egypt'', translated from the French by Doreen Weightman. London, 1964
*Pritchard, James B. (Editor). ''Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament'' (3rd edition). Princeton, 1969.
*Redford, Donald B. ''History and Chronology of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt: Seven Studies''. Toronto, 1967.
*Ryholt, Kim SB, ''The Political Situation in Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period (Carsten Niebuhr Institute Publications'', Copenhagen, (Museum Tusculanum Press:1997) {{ISBN|87-7289-421-0}} 
*Simpson, William Kelly (Editor). ''The Literature of Ancient Egypt: An Anthology of Stories, Instructions, Stelae, Autobiographies, and Poetry'' (3rd edition). New Haven, 2003, pp. 345–50 (translation of the Kamose texts).

{{s-start}}
{{s-bef | before=[[Seqenenre Tao]] }}
{{s-ttl | title=[[Pharaoh|Pharaoh of Egypt]] | years=[[Seventeenth dynasty of Egypt|Seventeenth Dynasty]] }}
{{s-aft | after=[[Ahmose I]]}}
{{end}}

{{Pharaohs}}

{{Authority control}}

[[Category:16th-century BC deaths]]
[[Category:16th-century BC pharaohs]]
[[Category:Pharaohs of the Seventeenth Dynasty of Egypt]]
[[Category:Year of birth unknown]]
[[Category:Egyptian rebels]]