Annal stone of Amenemhet II

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Facsimile copy of the Annalenstein

The annal stone of Amenemhet II is one of the few ancient Egyptian annals preserved in the original .

Discovery and Exploration

The annal stone was found in Mit Rahina ( ancient Egyptian Memphis ) by Gerhard Haeny in the early 1970s , who observed inscriptions on the underside of a colossal statue of Ramses II . Together with Sami Farag , the block was lifted in 1974, who also published a copy of the inscription in 1980. A second copy was published in 1982 . Both copies are simple copies; two exact facsimile copies were not published until 1991 and 1992 .

The rose granite block is 188 cm by 250 cm and the remains of 41 vertical columns have been preserved. Another, smaller fragment of this inscription was found by Flinders Petrie around 1908 and published in 1909, although both fragments do not match.

content

Events from the reign of Amenemhet II are recorded on the annals stone . The events of the individual years are reported in a short telegram style, whereby only two years are preserved on the large fragment. The dates have not been preserved. The events listed are largely donations to various temples in the country. But there is also the report of trade expeditions and a campaign to Asia with the listing of the booty made there. The otherwise unoccupied places Jasy and Juai have been destroyed, with 1,554 prisoners brought to Egypt. It is reported by a delegation of children of the princes from Nubia and those from Asia . There is an account of ritual acts such as sacrificing a king and catching birds with a beating net in the Fayum .

Localizations

jꜣssj and jw (ꜣ) j

The toponyms jꜣssj and jw (ꜣ) j mentioned in the text could not yet be clearly identified. Wolfgang Helck reads jꜣssj as aa-r / la-s-ja and equates it with Cyprus ( Alasia ). This would also correspond to the transcription regulations of the 12th Dynasty, according to which the Egyptian aleph (ꜣ) is omitted, whereby jꜣssj becomes jssj - the name of Cyprus already known for the New Kingdom . jw (ꜣ) j identifies Helck with Ura near Korykos on the Turkish southeast coast, while Hartwig Altenmüller suspects it to be in Syria , near the northern border of Egypt. It must be taken into account that the text specifies a campaign duration (by ship) of four months and that both places must be close to one another because of the successive mentions.

ṯmpꜣw

In the annals , a distinction is made between tributes from Nubia, Asia and ṯmponymw , a toponym previously unknown in Egyptology. Hans Goedicke tried to equate this with the ambiguously localized town of Tunip , whose earliest inscribed evidence so far comes from the early 18th dynasty and whose archaeological remains he suspects at Kamid el-Loz . The Asian fortress ṯpꜣ (w) and the Mesopotamian city ​​of Sippur have been considered as further possible localizations .

meaning

The annals gave completely new insights into Egypt's foreign policy at the time of the 12th Dynasty. Until the discovery of the inscription from Mit Rahina, Egyptian activities in the Levant were only known from a stele of General Chusobek . The annals stone provides inscribed evidence of Egypt's political influence in the Palestinian region at this time and indicates intense relationships. If Helck's identification of jꜣssj with Alasia is correct, the annals stone would also be the only inscribed evidence of contacts between Egypt and Cyprus in the Middle Kingdom .

Dating

The dating of the years covered on the stone during the reign of Amenemhat II is uncertain. No year of government is mentioned on the preserved fragments. The only clues are the names of two officials, one of whom is also known from another source. A statue of the head of the marshlands is called Ameny on the stone . This official also appears in a rock inscription that dates to the 43rd year of Sesostris I's reign. The naming of this official indicates that the annals were dated to the early reign of Amenemhat II. A statue of the vizier Ameny is mentioned on the small fragment found by Petrie. Until the 8th year of Amenemhat II's reign, however, a certain Sesostris was a vizier, so this fragment is to be placed after the 8th year of reign. After all, there are events in the annals that may be related to the Sedfest, which was celebrated around the ruler's 30th year. Above all, an expedition to Sinai should be mentioned here, which can perhaps be combined with an expedition there dating back to the year 29. Accordingly, the events on the large fragment may date in the 29th and 30th year of the ruler's reign.

literature

  • Hartwig Altenmüller: Two fragments of annals from the early Middle Kingdom. Buske, Hamburg 2015, ISBN 978-3-87548-712-1 .
  • Hartwig Altenmüller , Ahmed M. Moussa: The inscription of Amenemhet II from the Ptah temple of Memphis, a preliminary report. In: Studies on ancient Egyptian culture. (SAK) No. 18, 1991, pp. 1-48.
  • Julia Budka: The Annals of Amenemhet II. A new testimony to Egyptian activities in the Levant at the time of the Middle Kingdom. In: Gabriele Höber-Kamel (Ed.): Egypt and the Middle East. (= Kemet issue 1/2000 ), Kemet-Verlag, Berlin 2000, ISSN  0943-5972 , pp. 12-13.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Hartwig Altenmüller, Ahmed M. Moussa: The inscription of Amenemhet II. From the Ptah temple of Memphis. A preliminary report. In: SAK No. 18, 1991, pp. 1-48.
  2. ↑ Jaromir Malek, Stephen Quirke: Memphis, 1991: Epigraphy. In: Journal of Egyptian Archeology. No. 78, 1992, pp. 13-18.
  3. ^ WM Flinders Petrie , with a chapter by JH Walker: Memphis I. (= Publications of the Egyptian Research Account. Vol. 15). Quaritch, London 1909, plate 5.
  4. ↑ a b Wolfgang Helck: A Reaching Out of the Middle Kingdom in the Cypriot Area? In: Göttinger Miscellen . No. 109, Göttingen 1989, pp. 27-30.
  5. ↑ a b c Julia Budka: The Annals of Amenemhet II. A new testimony to Egyptian activities in the Levant at the time of the Middle Kingdom. Berlin 2000, pp. 12-13.
  6. ^ Hans Goedicke: Egyptian Military Actions in "Asia" in the Middle Kingdom . In: Revue d'égyptologie. No. 42, Klincksieck, Paris 1991, pp. 89-94.
  7. ↑ Manfred Görg: The relations between ancient Israel and Egypt. From the beginnings to exile (= income from research. Vol. 290). Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt 1997, ISBN 3-534-08426-8 , p. 19.
  8. ^ H. Altenmüller: Zwei Annalenfragmente ... Hamburg 2015, pp. 281–296.