Kamose's victory report
The victory report of Kamose has on contemporary monuments of the 17th dynasty of the 16th century BC. The content of the campaign of the ancient Egyptian king Kamose against the Hyksos .
Primary sources
Carnarvon writing board
The writing tablet was named after Lord Carnarvon, who found the wooden tablet written on both sides in 1908 in Dra Abu el-Naga near Thebes . It is 25 cm high and 51 cm wide and contains 17 lines of text in hieratic script . On the back of the Kamose report is the beginning of the work “Wisdom of Ptahhotep” and a drawing of the game board.
By means of paleographic investigations, the writing tablet could be dated to the end of the Second Intermediate Period , but at the latest to the first decades of the 18th Dynasty . It is located in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo with inventory number 41790 .
Fragments of the first kamose stele
Two fragments of stelae were recovered from the third pylon of the Karnak Temple in 1932 and 1935, and they belong in the upper right half of the destroyed limestone stele. Both fragments have a total width of 56 cm, a length of 104 cm and a thickness of 38 cm. On the basis of the fragment sizes, calculations were made for the formerly existing original stele, from which a width of 200 cm and a height between 270 cm and 400 cm were assumed.
Fifteen horizontal lines remained of the content, which correspond literally to the Carnarvon writing board, but have a wider hieratic typeface. The text begins at the beginning and has been preserved approximately to the point of the second Kamose stele. The fragments of the stelae are exhibited under the inventory number 11.1.35.1 in the Cairen Museum in Egypt.
Kamose's Sesostris stele
The second stele of Kamose, which is rounded at the top, is also made of limestone and is 125 cm wide, 231 cm high and 28 cm thick. It was found largely undamaged in 1954 in the first courtyard of the Karnak Temple in a colossal statue of the New Kingdom . The only thing missing from the round stele is a broken 15 cm piece. The stele originally comes from the 12th dynasty . Inscriptions and depictions of Sesostris I can still be seen on one side .
A winged solar disk is attached to about two thirds of the stele . The two associated uraei are with the inscription " The of Behedet provided, Lord of heaven." The text itself includes thirty-eight lines of hieroglyphic inscription . Just like the fragments of the first stele, the hieroglyphs were painted blue and made with red dividers. Next to the last six lines there is a standing man with the inscription “Der Vorsteher der Siegler, Neschi”. The text begins in the middle and contains Kamose's reports up to the end of the campaign. There must therefore still exist a second associated pillar stele that contains the beginning of the event; however, it has not yet been discovered. The preserved stele is currently exhibited in the Upper Egyptian Luxor Museum of Ancient Egyptian Art .
content
The council meeting
At the beginning, the steles report how the king convenes a council and tries to convince his followers of his plans to drive the Hyksos out of Egypt:
“In the third year of the mighty king in Thebes, Kamose , whom Re had appointed as the real king and to whom he had truly given power. His Majesty spoke in his palace to the gathering of his grandees who were in his entourage: 'I would like to know what use my strength is for when one ruler is in Auaris and another in Cush , and I rule together with an Asian and one Nubians, each in possession of their part of this Egypt, and I cannot pass him as far as Memphis . See he holds Chemenu , and no one has any rest from the pillage because of their dependence on the Setiu . I'll wrestle with him and slit his body open. It is my wish to liberate Egypt and destroy the Asians. '"
At first, the council reacted very anxiously. The conditions in Egypt were assessed peacefully and no further worries were made:
“Then the great ones of his council said: 'See, all are devoted to the Asians as far as Kusae . We are undisturbed in our part of Egypt. Elephantine is strong, and the middle part is on our side as far as Kusae. Men order the best pieces from their countries for us. Our cattle graze in the papyrus march. Grain is sent for our pigs. Our cattle are not taken away '. "
Military attacks and arrival in Auaris
But as usual in an Egyptian king's novella , the king was ultimately able to convince his followers of the military attack.
The first stele further tells how Kamose's army advanced one after the other against the Setiu in the north and captured cities of vassals such as Neferusi , Perschak, Perdjetgen and Initentchenet:
“I dragged their cities and burned their places down, they were made red ruins forever because of the damage they had done in this Egypt; they had made themselves slaves to the Asians and had abandoned Egypt, their mistress. "
Furthermore, the second stele describes how the Theban fleet is advancing further and further north and then finally reaching the city and fortress of Auaris:
“I arranged the fleet one behind the other, bow to stern , when my elite flew across the river like a hawk, my golden ship ahead, and I was at their head like a divine hawk. I had a strong protection force inspect the edge of the desert while the rest of them ravaged the Auaris area like a bird of prey. I saw his wives on the roof of his property as they peered from their waiting areas towards the shore without moving. They saw me peering like young [mice] in their holes through the loopholes on their wall. I said, 'This is an attack! See, I have come and I will succeed, for the rest of the land is already in my possession and my situation is excellent. As far as there is a strong Amun , I will not spare you. I won't let you go out into the field without attacking you. Vicious, miserable Asian! See, I will drink wine from your vineyard, the Asians that I catch will be pressed for myself. I will destroy your residence and cut down your trees. I dragged your women to the ships and captured your cavalry . I have not left a plank of the hundreds of ships made of fresh cedar wood , which were filled with gold, lapis lazuli , silver, turquoise and countless bronze battle axes ... '"
The description agrees with the city of Auaris with its fortifications as well as artificially created vineyards and tree plantings with the excavation findings in Tell el-Daba . Auaris, however, turned out to be impregnable, at least nothing is reported about a direct attack on this city.
Letter from the Hyksos king
Elsewhere on the second stele it is mentioned how a letter from King Apopi I was intercepted in the oasis of Bahrija , who turned to the ruler of Kush in a cry for help :
“From the ruler of Auaris. I, Aaweserre, son of Re, Apapi, greet my son, the ruler of Kush. Why did you come to power without letting me know? Have you not seen what Egypt is doing against me? His ruler, Kamose the Strong, gifted with life, harassed me on my territory without my attacking him, exactly as he did against you. He chooses these two countries to harm them, my country and yours, and he has already devastated them. Come, move north, be without fear! See, he is here with me and there is no one waiting for you in this Egypt. I won't leave it off until you get there. Then we will divide the cities of Egypt and our two countries will be happy with joy. "
As can be seen from this letter, Kamose seemed to have dared to attack Nubia beforehand .
The text of the second stele ends with Kamose triumphantly returning to Thebes .
See also
literature
- Alfred Grimm, Sylvia Schoske: In the sign of the moon. Egypt at the beginning of the New Kingdom (= writings from the Egyptian collection . Volume 7 ). State Collection of Egyptian Art, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-87490-691-4 .
- Labib Habachi : The second Stela of Kamose and his Struggle against the Hyksos-Ruler and his Capital. (Series: Communications of the German Archaeological Institute, Cairo Department. (MDAIK) Vol. 8) Zabern, Mainz 1972, Tf. IV-VII, Fig. 9, 10, 12 and 13.
- Ursula Kaplony-Heckel : The war campaign of the Ka-mose against the Hyksos. In: Otto Kaiser : Texts from the environment of the Old Testament (TUAT); Vol. 1, Delivery 6; Historical-chronological texts III. Mohn, Gütersloh 1985, ISBN 3-579-00065-9 , pp. 525-534.
- Gabriele Höber-Kamel: From the Hyksos to the New Kingdom. In: Kemet. Issue 2, 2003, ISSN 0943-5972
- Pierre Lacau: Une stele du roi Kamosis. (Series: Annales du service des antiquités de l 'Égypte. (ASAE) Vol. 39) Institut Français d'Archéologie Orientale, Cairo 1939, pp. 245–261.
Web links
- Reshafim: inscription of the pillars (English)
- Inscriptions of Kamose in hieroglyphics ( Memento from November 27, 2006 in the Internet Archive )
Remarks
- ^ Limestone, Cairo Temp. 11.1.35.1
- ↑ Luxor J.43
- ↑ With an estimated 30,000 inhabitants. Alfred Grimm, Sylvia Schoske: In the sign of the moon . P. 64.