Storm stele

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As Tempest Stele designating Egyptology a labeled stele , which in Karnak ( Egypt was found) and a natural disaster describes that between the 11th and the 22nd year of the reign of Pharaoh Ahmose I should have occurred. The text describes the effects of a major storm in Thebes and reports on restoration work that Ahmose I had carried out on the country's temples. The interpretation of the content of the storm column is extremely controversial.

Discovery and publication

Parts of the stele were discovered by French archaeologists between 1947 and 1951 in the 3rd pylon of the Temple of Karnak . The stele was first published in 1967 by the Belgian Egyptologist Claude Vandersleyen , who was also able to add two more fragments a year later.

Content and translation

Contents overview

The storm stele describes a natural disaster that is said to have occurred during the reign of King Ahmose I: The sky darkened from the west and a continuous heavy rain began , which lasted for several days. The high levels of rainfall caused a devastating flood of the Nile that destroyed buildings and killed people. An extraordinary darkness is described, which also lasted during the day. The storm was also accompanied by an indescribable noise. After the end of the natural disaster, tombs, temples and pyramids were found devastated. After the floods had receded, King Ahmose I ordered the immediate restoration of the destroyed buildings and ordered the creation and installation of ornate statues of gods.

Translation of the inscription

"[1. Government year. under the majesty of]
[ Horus , with great manifestations], [Lord] within, with perfect (re) birth; Horus of heaven, who administers the two countries, King of Upper and Lower Egypt , Nebpechti-Re , son of Re (Ahmose), he live forever. His Majesty (...) set
out after Re himself had appointed him king. His Majesty had lingered [for some time] at the place "That Feeds the Two Lands,"
[which is in the area] south of Dendera ; Amun-Re , the lord of the thrones of both countries, was meanwhile in Heliopolis in Upper Egypt . [Well] His Majesty had come south by ship to offer him
pure (...) After the great sacrifice (...)
and attention was drawn to this (...). Meanwhile (...) the cult image of this god (...).
where his body had occupied this temple (?), and his limbs were in joy. [Now his Majesty] drove downstream (back)
to the king's residence - life, salvation, health. But this great [God] wished that His Majesty [return to him], [and] (also) the (other) gods asked about
[all] (matters) of their cult activities. The gods caused a rainstorm to come up in the sky: [darkness] in the western region, the sky was
cloudy without a [hole in the cloud], [louder than the voice of the] subjects, stronger [he as]. [The storm raged] over the desert (louder) than the
roar of the Nile springs in Elephantine . Every house and camp they (the king and his retinue) reached - it had collapsed, and those who were in it had perished; their corpses
floated on the water like papyrus things - even as far as the palace chancellery - for a period of (...) days,
(and it was so dark) that a torch could not light the two countries. Then his Majesty said: “Oh how much greater is this than the mode of power of the great God [and than] the nature of the gods!”
His Majesty went down to his boat ; his councils were behind him, while his army shielded (him) on the west and east sides, for there was no (bank) cover (any more) on it
after the god's show of power had come about.
His Majesty came to the Theban residence, the gold (the god) contrasted with the gold of this cult image, so that he (the god) might receive what he had wanted.
Now His Majesty consolidated the two countries and (himself) provided for the flooded areas; He did not pause to supply them with silver and
gold , with bronze , with ointments and clothing and with everything that was still lacking in what was desired. His Majesty rested in the palace - life, salvation, health.
His Majesty was made aware of the (violent) intrusion (into) the holy districts, the tearing down of graves, the destruction of the (dead) temples, and the devastation (or similar) of the graves,
(in short of everything that happened), which (otherwise) had never happened. Then His Majesty ordered the fortification of the temples, which were on the verge of decay throughout the land, and the
(re) repair of the monuments of the gods, their enclosing walls to be erected, the holiness to be placed in a lofty chamber, to hide the secret place, the
To put cult images back in their chapels, which (previously) had fallen to the ground, to set up the fire basins and to set up the altars again, to determine their sacrificial foods (again)
, and to increase the income of the employees in order to (again) the (whole) country ) as if it were in its previous state. One did [everything] as [His Majesty had ordered]. "

- Peter Beylage : Structure of the royal stele texts from the beginning of the 18th dynasty to the Amarna period. Transcription and translation of the texts.

Interpretations

Within the Egyptological as well as historical research different, partly divergent views on the meaning of the inscription are represented. The statements on the storm stele are understood by researchers like Kim Ryholt as a mere metaphor , as an encrypted report on the destruction of Egypt by the Hyksos . Accordingly, the Hyksos incursion would have been compared to a storm and described accordingly. Daniel Polz and others strongly disagree. They raise the question of why a pharaoh should encrypt an enemy incursion into Egypt in such a cryptic manner. Military campaigns and campaigns were always concluded in such a way that a pharaoh was victorious, but they were historically and chronologically unencrypted and their processes were reproduced truthfully. James P. Allen and others see references in certain passages to the fact that there was looting by locals during the storm. This would also explain the brisk building and restoration activity of the rulers during the 17th and 18th dynasties .

Toby Wilkinson and others consider a particularly heavy monsoon rain with an accompanying flood of the Nile to be conceivable.

Malcolm H. Wiener , James P. Allen and others suspect that the Tempest Stele effects of the eruption of the volcano of Santorini describes in Egypt. This so-called Minoan eruption would have devastated large parts of Egypt. As clues they cite the descriptions in the inscription of unusual noise during the storm as well as - in their opinion - also atypical darkness during the storm. The described "noise" was therefore the roar of the earth, triggered by the volcanic eruption; the ash cloud would be responsible for the darkness. In addition, the flood described is shown as too destructive for a simple monsoon rain. It is certain that the Santorini eruption triggered one or more tsunamis . The tsunamis have also flooded the low-lying Nile Delta, which could explain the devastating destruction. Active volcanoes still exist on the Arabian Peninsula today, and it is possible that these also erupted due to the extreme Santorini eruption. Heavy rain accompanies many volcanic eruptions, local heavy rain is caused by the eruption thunderstorms . On the other hand, no deposits of volcanic ash have been found in Egypt that fell during the reign of Ahmose.

In addition, Egypt is one of the few African countries where strong earthquakes occur. There is a correlation between earthquakes and volcanic activity. Therefore it is possible that the Minoan eruption caused an earthquake in Egypt.

Allen and Wiener point out that the Egyptian writers of the New Kingdom sometimes tended to literary exaggeration and this could possibly also apply to the storm stele.

Event dating

Egyptologists like Wolfgang Helck , Thomas Schneider , Rolf Krauss and Friedrich Graf rate the dating of the storm differently. Krauss and Schneider estimate the first year of Ahmose I's reign to be 1539 BC. BC, with Helck for the ninth year of Amenhotep I's reign a period between 1516 and 1505 BC. Indicating. Graf suspects the first year of Ahmose I's reign to be 1541 BC. The creation of the storm stele would take place between 1530 and 1516 BC. BC fall, which in time would roughly coincide with the traditional dating of the Minoan eruption.

The Papyrus Ipuwer contains a very similar description of a natural disaster, but it is dated around 1670 (± 40) BC. u. Z. dated.

literature

  • Claude Vandersleyen: Une tempête sous la régne d´Amosis. In: RdE. 19 (1967), pp. 123-159.
  • EN Davis: A Storm in Egypt during the Reign of Ahmose. In: DA Hardy, Colin Renfrew (Eds.): Thera and the Aegean World III. Proceedings of the Third International Congress, Santorini, Greece, September 3-9, 1989. Volume 3: Chronology. The Thera Foundation, London 1990, ISBN 0-9506133-7-1 , pp. 232-235.
  • Malcom H. Wiener, James P. Allen: Separate Lives: The Ahmose Tempest Stela and the Theran Eruption. In: JNES. 57 (1998), pp. 1-28.
  • Peter Beylage: Structure of the royal stele texts from the beginning of the 18th dynasty to the Amarna period. Part 1: Transcription and translation of the texts. In: Egypt and the Old Testament: Studies on the history, culture and religion of Egypt and the Old Testament. Volume 54, Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2002, ISBN 3-447-04520-5 .
  • Wolfgang Helck: Historical-biographical texts of the 2nd interim period and new texts of the 18th dynasty. (=  Small Egyptian texts. 6.1 ). 3. Edition. Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 2002, ISBN 3-447-02331-7 , pp. 104-110.
  • Andrea Klug: Royal steles from Ahmose to Amenophis III. (=  Monumenta Aegyptiaca. 8). Brepols, Turnhout 2002, ISBN 2-503-99123-8 , pp. 35-46.
  • Joachim Friedrich Quack : Are there written sources on the Thera outbreak in Egypt? In: Harald Meller, François Bertemes, Hans-Rudolf Bork, Roberto Risch (eds.): 1600 - Cultural upheaval in the shadow of the Thera outbreak? State Museum for Prehistory, Halle (Saale) 2013, ISBN 978-3-944507-00-2 , The "storm stele" of King Ahmose, pp. 221–225.
  • Robert K. Ritner, Nadine Moeller: The Ahmose 'Tempest Stela', Thera and Comparative Chronology . In: Journal of Near Eastern Studies . tape 73 , no. 1 . University of Chicago Press, April 2014, ISSN  0022-2968 , pp. 1-19 , JSTOR : 675069 (English, online ).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Claude Vandersleyen: Une tempête sous le règne d'Amosis. In: Revue d'Égyptologie. 19, 1967, pp. 123-159; Claude Vandersleyen: Deux nouveaux fragments de la stèle d'Amosis relatant une tempête. In: Revue d'Égyptologie. 20, 1968, pp. 127-134.
  2. ^ Translation of the inscription on the storm stele ( memento of February 2, 2018 in the Internet Archive ) (English); last accessed on August 24, 2013.
  3. ^ Translation of the inscription on the storm column (German); last accessed on August 24, 2013.
  4. ↑ Kim Ryholt: The Political Situation in Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period, c. 1800–1550 BC (=  The Carsten Niebuhr Institute Publications. Volume 20). The Carsten Niebuhr Institute of Near Eastern studies, Copenhagen 1997, ISBN 87-7289-421-0 , pp. 144, 145, 147.
  5. ↑ Daniel Polz: The beginning of the new empire. To the history of a turning point. (=  Special publication of the German Archaeological Institute, Cairo department. Volume 32). de Gruyter, Berlin 2007, ISBN 978-3-11-019347-3 , p. 9 f.
  6. ^ Toby AH Wilkinson: The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt . Bloomsbury Publishing, London 2011, ISBN 978-1-4088-1002-6 , p. 548.
  7. ↑ Spektrum.de Lisa Leander: Tsunami traces on Israel's coast. epoc-online from October 14, 2009.
  8. ↑ http://www.das-erdbeben.de/aeggypt.htm - Earthquake in Egypt, accessed on August 24, 2017
  9. ↑ http://www.weltderphysik.de/gebiet/planeten/erdinneres/kopplung-von-erdbeben-und-vulkanen/ , accessed on August 24, 2017
  10. ↑ https://www.researchgate.net/publication/259328200_Interactions_between_earthquakes_and_volcano_activity Interactions between earthquakes and volcano activity
  11. ↑ Malcolm H. Wiener, James P. Allen: Separate Lives: The Ahmose Tempest Stela and the Theran Eruption. In: Journal of Near Eastern Studies . 57, 1998, pp. 1-28.
  12. ↑ Friedrich Graf: The Egyptian Faith. Volume 3: Egyptian amulets, pearls, mythology and everyday life . BoD - Books on Demand, 2012, ISBN 978-3-8482-0393-2 , p. 321.
  13. ↑ Malcolm H. Wiener, James P. Allen: Separate Lives: The Ahmose Tempest Stela and the Theran Eruption. In: Journal of Near Eastern Studies. Jan. 1998, Vol. 57, No. 1, pp. 1–28, online at: www.jstor.org, accessed on Sept. 3, 2013.