played equal roles in the reconquest of northern Egypt without one taking
prominence.136 Säve-Söderbergh 1946, pp. 8–30, reviewed what is known about the expedition to
Punt, which in the event did not involve military action. At p. 34 Säve-Söderbergh
dealt with the Syrian campaign of Thutmose III, in his thirtieth year:
The campaign of this year (Urk. IV, 689f.), culminating in the plundering of
Kadesh, is generally thought to have been the first where ships were used for
the transportation of the army—thus perhaps the first great “amphibious
operation” in history. Direct evidence is, however, surprisingly scanty. In the
Annals this important strategical innovation is only alluded to by the writing of
the word wḍj.t= “expedition, campaign”, here for once with the boat-
determinative, thus indicating the manner in which the king proceeded to Syria.
In his footnote, Säve-Söderbergh notes that the same word appears in Amenhotep
III’s inscription celebrating his Nubian campaign.
137 Säve-Söderbergh 1946, p. 33: “That the Egyptian navy was, occasionally at least,
employed in wars in Palestine to avoid the toilsome desert march, we learn through
the famous inscription of Uni of the 5th dynasty, where Egyptian troops are said to
have been sent to the Palestinian coast in nmj.w-ships (Urk. I, 104) to subdue a revolt.”
138 Some scholars have dated the song as late as the fourth century BC. Brenner 1991,
for example, argued for a post-Exilic date. The consensus, however, remains with
Cross and Freedman 1955. Cross and Freedman argued that the poem is early: the
alleged Aramaisms and “archaizing” language actually demonstrate that the poem is
archaic, dating long before the prose narratives of J and E.
139 Cross and Freedman 1955, p. 239: In the Song of Miriam the wind “is the source of
a sudden squall which overturns the vessels or barges upon which the Egyptian host
had apparently embarked.”
140 Exodus 15:1–2, 5 and 10, translation by Cross and Freedman 1955.
141 Drews 1988, p. 196.
216 Militarism in Greece