Maat in the Egyptian Controlled Southern Levant

Abstract

This paper proposes a new approach to examining the relationship between Egypt and the southern Levant. While the political, economic, and military interests of Egypt in the southern Levant are well established, we ask whether the southern Levant was ever ideologically considered to be part of Egypt proper. In doing so, we examine the evidence, or lack thereof, for the existence of the important political and religious concept of Maat in the Late Bronze Age southern Levant, and how this evidence informs the Egyptian viewpoint toward the southern Levant.