Papyrus Berlin 10012

The Papyrus Berlin 10012 (also pBerlin 10012 ) consists of the two fragments 10012A VS and 10012B , which were acquired by Ludwig Borchardt in al-Lahun in 1899 and then published for the first time. In the meantime, the papyrus was given to the ancient Egyptian king Sesostris III. assign. The Papyrus Berlin 10012 is one of the main pillars of the ancient Egyptian chronology due to the fragmentary documents that have been preserved regarding the rise of Sothis .

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Papyrus Fragment 10012A VS

Papyrus Berlin 10012A VS - The text in hieroglyphics

Year 7, 25th day of the third month of the season Peret Rehuanch on duty, Zattepihu's son Copy of the letter .... in the temple " Sesostris is mighty, the justified ": The mayor and ruler of the temple, Nebukaure, is the one to whom top reading priest Pepihotep says: “You should know that the Ascent of Sopdet will take place on the 16th of Peret IV ”. It should attract the attention of the lay priests of the (mortuary temple called) "Sesostris is mighty, P8, the justified ”from“ Anubis who is on his mountain and from Sobek [to find?] ”.

The "Papyrus Berlin 10012A VS " was entered as a letter copy in the diary of the mortuary temple of Sesostris II . The mayor Nebukaure transmitted to the on mortuary temple make top lector priest Pepihotep the upcoming heliacal rising of Sirius for the 16th Peret IV .

The name of the king ( Pharaoh ) remains anonymous. In addition to the Sothis date, only the seventh year of the reign and the 25th Peret III as the date of transmission are given. What is remarkable is the finding that there is a period of 21 days between the 25th Peret III and the 16th Peret IV. This fact proves that direct observation of the heliacal rise of Sirius was not necessary for calendar dating and that other facts must have been available as a basis for the forecast.

In Egyptology it is discussed whether a schematized Sothis calendar was used, which is why direct observation was initially unnecessary. Another astronomical event that occurred about 21 days before the heliacal rise of Sirius is also conceivable .

In this context, Christian Leitz and Alexandra von Lieven refer to the diagonal star clocks of the Middle Kingdom , which were used in the coffin texts and which would suggest a previous observation of the early rise of the conspicuous constellation Orion . In the event of any deviations, an error during the subsequent inspection of the Sothis festival would have been automatically corrected by making an entry in the present festival protocol.

Papyrus fragment 10012B

Papyrus Berlin 10012B - The text in hieroglyphics
Year 7, 17th day, fourth month , season Peret Festival of the Emergence of the Sopdet (as a star) Annual fee: preparation of 200 breads and 60 mugs of beer.

The "Papyrus Berlin 10012B" contains information about deliveries for the Sothis festival that followed after the rising of Sothis, which was celebrated on the 17th of Peret IV. Some Egyptologists see the date of the 17th Peret IV as evidence of a one-day deviation from the Sothis ascent and therefore suspect either a typographical error or a schematic precalculation that was corrected by the festival protocol.

The fact that the ancient Egyptian day began with sunrise speaks against this assumption ; However, the heliacal rise of Sirius was consistently counted in the ancient Egyptian records to the twelfth hour of the night of the previous day. The associated Sothis festival always took place on the first day of the year, while the heliacal Sirius rising always marked the last anniversary. The date of the 17th Peret IV does not prove any contradiction or deviation on this basis.

Temporal allocation of the Papyrus Berlin 10012

Ludwig Borchardt decided in favor of the ancient Egyptian king Sesostris III when assigning the Papyrus Berlin 10012 based on his investigations:

"The fragments of the temple diary ... show the same handwriting for the years five to nine - a small, very clear and distinct, bold font that differs quite characteristically from the other fonts that appear on our papyri -. There can therefore be no doubt that the temple diary was kept by one and the same person during these five years. But now the names of kings are mentioned in the records of the ninth year ... Statues of the " blessed Sesostris II. " And of the "forever living", that is, the reigning Sesostris III. From this it follows that the fragments written by the same hand from the year seven, which contain the Sothis dates, were also classified under Sesostris III. were written. "

- Ludwig Borchardt

Initially, Otto Neugebauer and Giulio Farina contradicted Borchardt's conclusions . In contrast, paleographic studies by Georg Möller confirmed Ludwig Borchardt's assumptions. Richard Anthony Parker and William Franklin Edgerton also confirmed Borchardt's conjectures. Further investigations showed that the mayor Nebukaure also in the ninth and eighteenth year of reign of Sesostris III. is occupied. For the subsequent King Amenemhet III. the incumbent mayor bears the name Sesostris in the ninth year of government . Under these conditions there was another indication that Papyrus Berlin 10012 Sesostris III. is to be assigned; thus also confirmed in Ulrich Luft's investigations of the associated Lahunpapyri .

literature

• Ludwig Borchardt : The second papyrus find from Kahun and the temporal determination of the middle realm of Egyptian history. In: Journal for Egyptian Language and Antiquity. 37, 1899, pp. 89-103.
• Marshall Clagett : Calendars, clocks, and astronomy. In: Ancient Egyptian science. Vol. 2, American Philosophy Society, Philadelphia 1995, ISBN 0-87169-214-7 .
• Rolf Krauss: Sothis and moon dates. Studies on the astronomical and technical chronology of ancient Egypt. Gerstenberg, Hildesheim 1985, ISBN 3-8067-8086-X .
• Christian Leitz: Ancient Egyptian star clocks. Peeters, Leuven 1995, ISBN 90-6831-669-9 .
• Christian Leitz: Studies on Egyptian Astronomy . Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1989, ISBN 3-447-02945-5 .
• Ulrich Luft: The chronological fixation of the Egyptian Middle Kingdom according to the temple archive of Illahun. Publishing house of the Austrian Academy of Sciences, Vienna 1992, ISBN 3-7001-1988-7 , pp. 54–57.
• Siegfried Schott: Ancient Egyptian festival dates. Publishing house of the Academy of Sciences and Literature, Mainz / Wiesbaden 1950.
• Alexandra von Lieven: Floor plan of the course of the stars - the so-called groove book. The Carsten Niebuhr Institute of Ancient Eastern Studies (among others), Copenhagen 2007, ISBN 978-87-635-0406-5 .

Individual evidence

1. ↑ ^{a b} Ludwig Borchardt: The second papyrus find from Kahun and the temporal definition of the Middle Kingdom of Egyptian history . P. 99.
2. ↑ Ludwig Borchardt: The second papyrus find from Kahun and the temporal definition of the Middle Kingdom of Egyptian history . P. 101.
3. ^ Otto Neugebauer: Papyrus Berlin 10012 In: Journal of the American Oriental Society. Vol. 61, 1941, pp. 60-61.
4. ↑ Giulio Farina: Il papiro dei re: restaurato. Bardi, Rome 1938, p. 63.
5. ↑ Georg Möller: Hieratic palaeography. The development of Egyptian book script from the fifth dynasty to the Roman Empire . Vol. 1: Until the beginning of the eighteenth dynasty. Hinrichs, Leipzig 1909.
6. ^ Otto Neugebauer, Richard Anthony Parker: Egyptian astronomical texts. Brown University Press, London 1960, p. 178 ff.
7. ^ William Franklin Edgerton: Chronology of the Twelfth Dynasty. In: Journal of Near Eastern Studies . Vol. 1, 1942, pp. 307-314.
8. ↑ Ulrich Luft: Illahunstudien I: To the chronology and the officials in the letters from Illahun. In: Oikumene (Budapest) Vol. 3, 1982, pp. 107-108.