Aamu () was a name used to designate

West Asia West Asia (also called Western Asia or Southwest Asia) is the westernmost region of Asia. As defined by most academics, UN bodies and other institutions, the subregion consists of Anatolia, the Arabian Peninsula, Iran, Mesopotamia, the Armenian ...

ns in ancient Egypt. It is often translated as "Western Asiatic", but it might refer specifically to

Canaan CanaanThe current scholarly edition of the Septuagint, Greek Old Testament spells the word without any accents, cf. Septuaginta : id est Vetus Testamentum graece iuxta LXX interprets. 2. ed. / recogn. et emendavit Robert Hanhart. Stuttgart : D ...

ites or

Amorites The Amorites () were an ancient Northwest Semitic languages, Northwest Semitic-speaking Bronze Age people from the Levant. Initially appearing in Sumerian records c. 2500 BC, they expanded and ruled most of the Levant, Mesopotamia and parts of Eg ...

. The Egyptologist and linguist Thomas Schneider states that ''ꜥꜣm'' was attested as early as the

Sixth Dynasty of Egypt The Sixth Dynasty of ancient Egypt (notated Dynasty VI), along with the Third Dynasty of Egypt, Third, Fourth Dynasty of Egypt, Fourth and Fifth Dynasty of Egypt, Fifth Dynasty, constitutes the Old Kingdom of Egypt, Old Kingdom of Dynastic Egyp ...

and is likely a loanword from early Semitic term ''drmj'', "inhabitant of the south (of

Palestine Palestine, officially the State of Palestine, is a country in West Asia. Recognized by International recognition of Palestine, 147 of the UN's 193 member states, it encompasses the Israeli-occupied West Bank, including East Jerusalem, and th ...

)". Contemporary Egyptian sources from the time of the wars against the

Hyksos The Hyksos (; Egyptian language, Egyptian ''wikt:ḥqꜣ, ḥqꜣ(w)-wikt:ḫꜣst, ḫꜣswt'', Egyptological pronunciation: ''heqau khasut'', "ruler(s) of foreign lands"), in modern Egyptology, are the kings of the Fifteenth Dynasty of Egypt ( ...

also refer to the latter as . Although they have left no inscriptions in their own language, some of their personal names have turned up in Egyptian records, which are a syntactical and lexical match for

West Semitic The West Semitic languages are a proposed major sub-grouping of Semitic languages. The term was first coined in 1883 by Fritz Hommel.12th Dynasty The Twelfth Dynasty of ancient Egypt (Dynasty XII) is a series of rulers reigning from 1991–1802 BC (190 years), at what is often considered to be the apex of the Middle Kingdom (Dynasties XI–XIV). The dynasty periodically expanded its terr ...

official

Khnumhotep II Khnumhotep II (''ẖnmw-ḥtp, " Khnum is pleased"'') was an ancient Egyptian '' Great Chief of the Oryx nome'' (the 16th nome of Upper Egypt) during the reign of pharaohs Amenemhat II and Senusret II of the 12th Dynasty, Middle Kingdom (20t ...

, at

Beni Hasan Beni Hasan (also written as Bani Hasan, or also Beni-Hassan) () is an ancient Egyptian cemetery. It is located approximately to the south of modern-day Minya in the region known as Middle Egypt, the area between Asyut and Memphis.Baines, John ...

(), shows a group of West Asiatic foreigners, possibly

ites, labelled as ''Aamu'' (), including the leading man with a

Nubian ibex The Nubian ibex (''Capra nubiana'') is a desert-dwelling goat species (Genus ''Capra (genus), Capra'') found in mountainous areas of North Africa, northern and Horn of Africa, northeast Africa, and the Middle East. It was historically considered ...

labelled "Abisha the

" ( ḥḳꜣ-ḫꜣsw, ''Heqa-khasut'' for "Hyksos"). The ''Aamu'' from this relief are further labeled as being from the area of ''Shu'', which may be identified, with some uncertainty, with the area of

Moab Moab () was an ancient Levant, Levantine kingdom whose territory is today located in southern Jordan. The land is mountainous and lies alongside much of the eastern shore of the Dead Sea. The existence of the Kingdom of Moab is attested to by ...

in southern

around the

Jordan River The Jordan River or River Jordan (, ''Nahr al-ʾUrdunn''; , ''Nəhar hayYardēn''), also known as ''Nahr Al-Sharieat'' (), is a endorheic river in the Levant that flows roughly north to south through the Sea of Galilee and drains to the Dead ...

, or generally the southern

Levant The Levant ( ) is the subregion that borders the Eastern Mediterranean, Eastern Mediterranean sea to the west, and forms the core of West Asia and the political term, Middle East, ''Middle East''. In its narrowest sense, which is in use toda ...

, just east of the Jordan and the

Red Sea The Red Sea is a sea inlet of the Indian Ocean, lying between Africa and Asia. Its connection to the ocean is in the south, through the Bab-el-Mandeb Strait and the Gulf of Aden. To its north lie the Sinai Peninsula, the Gulf of Aqaba, and th ...

. File:Word Aamu in two Egyptian scripts circa 1900 BCE.jpg, Word "Aamu" (from right to left) in two Egyptian scripts, in the '' Procession of the Aamu'', circa 1900 BCE File:Aamu hieroglyphs.jpg, A more recent description of the word (left to right, 1898) File:Asiatic people in Book of Gates (rendering).png, Aamu people (𓂝𓄿𓅓𓅱 characters spread alongside each individual) in the

Book of Gates The Book of Gates is an ancient Egyptian funerary text dating from the New Kingdom. The ''Book of Gates'' is long and detailed, consisting of one hundred scenes. It narrates the passage of a newly deceased soul into the next world journeying wi ...

(rendering)

References

Geography of ancient Egypt Canaan {{AncientEgypt-stub