Egypt Literature Part III

By | January 16, 2022

According to ask4beauty.com, the temple of Heliopolis probably possessed the inscription bearing the annals, from the prehistoric period up to the fifth dynasty, of which a large fragment is kept in the museum of Palermo. The events are indicated year by year (only the most important), and the height of the flood, of fiscal interest, is also noted. In the Turin museum there are the remains of a very precious chronological papyrus, which gave the list of Egyptian kings, from the mythical god-Sun up to at least the seventeenth dynasty. The years of reign of the individual were reported, sometimes even the duration of life; partial sums calculated the total years of one or more dynasties. Above a part of the temple of el-Karnak there is a compendium of the diary that King Tḥutmóse III had written during his Asian campaigns. The same temple of el-Karnak and that of Luxor are mines of historical information about the pharaohs of the XVIII and XIX dynasty; that of Medīnet Habu instead celebrates Rameśśêśe III. We also have a biography of this sovereign and a very long list of donations made by him to the gods in the great Harris papyrus, which perhaps comes from the archives of that temple. In Napata important documents have been found that illuminate the events of those Nubian monarchs; among all, the account of Pi‛anḫe’s expedition to Egypt is of great value. Also rich in news, often curious, are the inscriptions of Hatnūb, el-Ḥammāmāt and Sinai, left in those quarries as a souvenir from the missions go to each age. Furthermore, tombs and statues provide other interesting data about private citizens. The mastabas of Memphis and the rock tombs of Thebes are well known in this regard. Among the most valuable documents we will mention the biography of Wenej ​​and Ḫawwefḥôr of the ancient kingdom; the inscriptions of the principles of Benī Ḥasan and Asyūṭ for the Middle Kingdom; the biography of Aḥmóśe of el-Kāb for the war of the Hyksos; that of Amenemhábe, companion in arms of Tḥutmóśe III; the inscription of Mentemḥê’e, at the time of Tahraq; the biography of Uṣiḥarreśne, from the time of Cambyses and Darius. A manuscript on leather, in the Berlin museum, tells of the works carried out in the sanctuary of Heliopolis by Zenwq̂śre I and of which the obelisk rising between the fields is still a witness. The struggle between the Theban prince Kamóśe and the Asians in Avaris, described in the “Tablet Carnarvon”, seems to be historical. the biography of Uṣiḥarreśne, from the time of Cambyses and Darius. A manuscript on leather, in the Berlin museum, tells of the works carried out in the sanctuary of Heliopolis by Zenwq̂śre I and of which the obelisk rising between the fields is still a witness. The struggle between the Theban prince Kamóśe and the Asians in Avaris, described in the “Tablet Carnarvon”, seems to be historical. the biography of Uṣiḥarreśne, from the time of Cambyses and Darius. A manuscript on leather, in the Berlin museum, tells of the works carried out in the sanctuary of Heliopolis by Zenwq̂śre I and of which the obelisk rising between the fields is still a witness. The struggle between the Theban prince Kamóśe and the Asians in Avaris, described in the “Tablet Carnarvon”, seems to be historical.

So far the oldest decrees we have date back to the 5th and 6th dynasty. They were found in the temple of Osiris in Abydos, in that of Min in Coptic (Qifṭ) and in a city near the pyramid of Dahshūr; they are stone copies of pharaonic orders for the benefit of the places and their residents, whom they exempt for eternity from tax burdens and servitudes. Two border steles in Semnah from the time of Zenwq̂śre III bear a fiery speech by this king; the other, the inhibition of the Nubians from crossing the border, on foot or by boat, unless they go to the market in Acina. A long decree of the year IV of Sethosis I (1316) concerns the administration of Nubia. We still own the edict with which the pharaoh Ḥaremḥábe represses the robberies that the officials committed to the detriment of the poor people and implements other wise reforms. Of much value for the knowledge of the state administration are two documents in the tomb of the vizier Rḫemirîe in Thebes, one of which indicates the functions that belong to this minister; the second, the investiture speech by the sovereign: “Who above all must practice righteousness is the vizier”. We know from Wenej’s biography that, at the time of Pjôpe I, there was a court trial against a queen; but, having removed the mention of the part he played as a judge, he adds no details. A magnificent papyrus from the Turin museum offers a summary report, perhaps written for the royal archive, of a trial against ladies and court officials at the time of Rameśśêśe III, for trying to revolt the country and replace the ruler with a blood prince. There are numerous documents concerning the robberies committed in the Theban necropolis at the end of the twentieth dynasty; with the connivance of venal officials, the workers of the royal tombs themselves penetrated into them and removed the precious furnishings that were contained therein. From the tomb of a certain Mq̂śe, under Rameśśêśe II, we have news of a cause for inheritance between relatives, which took about thirty years. Sales deeds from the Pharaonic period are rarer. Of the IV dynasty is that of the sale of a house, which was evaluated for a certain amount of unspecified copper. Others from the 18th century deal with the hiring of slaves for a period of certain days. Often there are contracts that were stipulated with priests in order to ensure the funeral service through a pious foundation. The most characteristic are those that, reigning Zenwq̂śre I, the prince of Asyūṭ, Ṣef’ewejḥq̂p concluded with the priests of his city; there were ten of them and they were copied on the walls of his tomb. Special clauses regulate the transmission of the legacy in the future. We also have wills, acts of adoption, inventories, accounting documents, among other things that of the court of pharaoh Śebkḥq̂pe (XIII dynasty). Precious, especially for the workers’ life of the XIX-XX dynasty, a good number above all of ostraca, indicating the days of work, the names of the workers, their absences and sometimes the reasons for them. These notes were then used to compile the diarî of the Theban necropolis, which contained hints of other news items. Those preserved in Turin, of the twentieth dynasty, show that the workers were often withheld their wages in kind and were given after much tumultuousness.

Egypt Literature 3