The Beit El-Wali Temple of Ramesses ll

Plate 8 is an exact depiction--or as exact as one can make it--of the famous battle where Ramesses ll defeats the Nubians. The hieroglyphic tanslation stresses how overpowering the Egyptian army was. Over the head of a woman with two children is the following translation: "...{T}hey are unknow. We have not yet known {such} rage. He is like Seth in the sky."

From The Prehistory of Egypt by Beatrix Midant-Reynes, we read: "We can feel reasonably sure of the emergence of two early Predynastic kingdoms, one in upper Egypt (the Amrarian culture), where Seth was the main diety, and the other in the Delta (the Gerzean culture...(p. 6)"

The state mentioned above was ruled my Menes who we have shown is Nubian--and when he untited the nation of Egypt, he included part of Nubia in his Egyptian conquest (p. 6).

Plate 8 shows a large Ramesses ll in a very large chariot overcoming fleeing Nubians. A closer look at the plate shows the same characteristics on all of the individuals in the battle--Egyptians and Nubians--with the one exception of Ramesses ll who is drawn differently. These drawing depict Africans--including what may be his two sons who are in chariots behind him.

Furthermore, additional translations state that the Egyptians have shown their power against the nine bows and that they have destroyed the Northerner--both references to Nubia.

What is of interest to me is how--even in the 19th Dynasty--Africans are being utilized to fight Africans (Ramesses ll's two sons are drawn the same way as the Nubians) leading me to believe Egypt was more an African state than anything else.

Plate 8 can be found in the Oriental Institutes Nubian Expedition Volume 1 by Herbert Ricke, et al in the book, The Beit of El-Wali Temple of Ramesses ll, published by the University of Chicago.