796
edits
Changes
no edit summary
I keep shouting for them,
But none of them heeds my call.
I know Amun helps me more than a million troops.” <ref> Lichtheim, Miriam. <i>Ancient Egyptian Literature: A Book of Readings.</i> Volume 2, The New Kingdom. (Los Angeles: University of California Press, 1976), pgs. 57-65</ref>
Ramesses was rescued by Moses in the movie, but in the historical Battle of Kadesh it was a contingent of Egypt’s Canaanite allies who saved him. The film does not really show the outcome, but it is generally considered to have been a stalemate with the Hittites and Egyptians later entering into a permanent peace treaty. <ref> Kuhrt, Amélie. <i>The Ancient Near East: c. 3000-330 BC.</i> London: Routledge, 2010), p. 207</ref>
===Historical Fiction in the Film===
[[File: RIIKhepesh.jpg|200px|thumbnail|left|Relief from the Karnak Temple Depicting Ramesses II fighting on a Chariot with a Sickle/Khepesh Sword]]
As historically accurate the depiction of the Battle of Kadesh was in <i>Exodus: Gods and Kings</i>, there were several aspects of it that were also inaccurate. The style of sword that the Egyptians used during the battle and that Moses wielded throughout the film are not indicative of the Late Bronze Age. Before the New Kingdom, the Egyptians imported the sickle sword, which they referred to as a <i>khepesh</i> sword, from the Levant. The sickle sword became the standard sword used by the Egyptians throughout the New Kingdom and numerous pictorial reliefs from Egypt show the Egyptian army wielding them at Kadesh. <ref> Spalinger, Anthony. <i>War in Ancient Egypt: The New Kingdom.</i> (London: Blackwell, 2005). pgs. 17; 198-201</ref>
The battle scene accurately depicted the use of chariot corps by both the Hittite and Egyptian armies, but erroneously depicted cavalry attacks. Cavalry was not fully developed until the Iron Age by the Assyrians for a number of reasons, the most important being that horses were too small in the Bronze Age. Horses were sometimes ridden for reconnaissance or to deliver messages, but they were only utilized with chariots in battle during the Bronze Age. <ref> Drews, Robert. <i>The End of the Bronze Age: Changes in Warfare and the Catastrophe ca. 120 BC.</i> (Princeton, New Jersey: Princeton University Press 1993), p. 251</ref>