Middle Kingdom Egypt and the Eastern Mediterranean

During the Middle Kingdom, Egypt had a complex relationship with the region of the Eastern Mediterranean and its peoples, ranging from belligerency to cooperation. The former is reflected in military forays by land and sea into the Levant, while the latter is 21.1 exemplified by royal trade expeditions to the Levant and Sinai; tribute extraction, as recorded in text and art, lay between these extremes. These activities resulted in much-needed material imports originating from the Mediterranean coast (e.g., coniferous longwoods) and even farther afield, which enriched and strengthened the Egyptian crown and the elite. At the same time, over the course of the period in question, “Asiatic” immigrants arrived in Egypt, either by force or by their own volition, and throughout the Nile valley found increasingly more important roles in society and the economy; their acculturation is documented in both texts and depictions. This chapter reconsiders the nature of this relationship based on the most up-to-date data. In particular, the analysis eschews previous explanations that were predicated on the assumption of a unique relationship between Egypt and the northern Levantine port of Byblos. Instead, the evidence suggests the existence of a much more complex web of relationships, based both on maritime and land contacts, with a range of places along the Eastern Mediterranean littoral zone. These relationships were ultimately the basis for the large-scale immigration of “Asiatics” to the Nile delta, whose prominence rose as the Middle Kingdom declined.