Eric Cline

I'm kidding.

Yes, it is.

But it depends on how you say it.

It is the earliest recorded battle in history.

Yes.

It's not the earliest battle in history.

That's when one Neolithic thug picked up a rock and bashed another one over the head.

But it is the earliest one that is written down.

Because what it seems to have happened is that Thutmose III, when he came to the throne,

In his first year, we think it's about 1479 BC, the Canaanite rulers rise up in rebellion, and he has to march up to Canaan to put down the rebellion.

Well, he took along scribes with him.

They kept a daybook, if you will, a diary, a campaign journal.

And then when they got back, they put up a concise version on the walls of one or more of the temples down in Egypt.

So he says things like, we began marching after 10 days.

We got to the site of Yechem, and we stopped and held a council.

And this is what it says on the wall.

So it is recording what happened.

So we know precisely what happened, but it's from the Egyptian point of view.

So do you believe it or not?

So if you want, I can tell very quickly what he says.