Early Middle Kingdom Research Articles

An early 12th Dynasty “Appeal to the Living” (Stela Musée Rodin Inv. No. co 1305)

Publication of the early Middle Kingdom stela Musée Rodin Inv. no Co 1305, which features the Appeal to the Living in a rather individual version. Also the phrase jnnt Hapj m Htp dj nswt deviates from the usual. It could be a regional variant characteristic for the monuments produced in Antaeopolis. An origin from this area is not contradicted by other arguments, like theophoric names composed with Nemty.

A Fragment of a Diagonal Star Table from the Los Angeles County Museum of Art (LACMA M80.202.500)

This article offers the edition of two columns of a so-called diagonal star table that are inscribed on a wooden batten (LACMA M80.202.500) that was once affixed to the underside of the lid of a Middle Kingdom coffin. The two columns follow the Kenmet table format, bringing the number of known artifacts preserving Kenmet tables up to eleven. The item is without provenance, but, like the other Kenmet tables, is likely from the site of Assiut and dates to the early Middle Kingdom.

An Ancient Egyptian Diagonal Star Table in Mallawi, Egypt

Diagonal star tables (also called diagonal star clocks) are ancient Egyptian texts that relate sequences of star names to 10-day periods of the Egyptian civil year. The surviving examples are from the early Middle Kingdom (around 2100 b.c.), with one partial New Kingdom version (around 1200 b.c.). Geographically, the coffins on which the tables occur are predominantly from the necropolis of Asyut in Middle Egypt, with single examples from each of Thebes, Gebelein, and Aswan being the exceptions. The partial New Kingdom version is unique in layout and location, occurring in a monumental context in the Osireion at Abydos.The number of known diagonal star tables is small: thirteen were discussed in 1960 by Neugebauer and Parker in vol. i of their Egyptian astronomical texts (hereafter EAT 1), the first collection of the genre.1 This number had risen to twenty-three well-described examples by the beginning of 2013,2 with a further two tables whose existence was known but whose details were not.3 This paper describes one of these two tables (the other remains out of the sight of academia in a private collection in Europe).The coffin designated by the siglum S2Mal has been noted in Willems,4 Zitman,5 and Lapp.6 Its original location in the necropolis at Asyut is unknown, but it was apparently excavated by Kamal in the 1913-14 season7 and now is on public display in the Monuments Museum in Mallawi, Egypt. The museum number for the coffin is 567 and the owner's name is Hr-htp(w).& The coffin is one of three in the back right corner of the main hall of the museum.The coffin is in a glass case with access to all four sides. The lid is displayed on top of the coffin but raised about eight inches and supported by three wooden frames. The star table itself on the underside of the lid is well spaced and generally clearly legible. The decan (star or asterism) names are rendered in a style typical of Asyut in turquoise with black outlines, and each decan name is followed by a large star determinative in light yellow or white with no central dot. The table's columns are separated by thick turquoise vertical lines outlined in black; thinner black lines separate other regions. The background is yellow and some areas of chipping reveal bright white plaster beneath.The lid's three cross-braces or battens are all present and attached to the lid. The plaster and paint on these battens appear darker than the other parts of the table and the signs are largely illegible. However, traces of decan names and separating lines indicate that all three battens belong to this coffin and are correctly placed.The table is laid out in standard format for a diagonal star table.9 It is divided into four quadrants by a horizontal strip with an offering formula across the middle of the table and a vertical band with four figures (mainly obscured by the middle support). The order of figures in the vertical band can still be determined: the sky goddess Nut and Meskhetiu (the Foreleg, our Big Dipper or Plough) above the horizontal strip and Sahu (approximately equivalent to Orion) and Sopdet (Sirius) below. The offering formula starts with the large red dot characteristic of diagonal star tables, followed by an offering to Re in all his places, to Meskhetiu in the northern sky, and a voice offering of bread and beer to Hr-htp(w), the coffin's owner. The formula then becomes largely illegible because of a horizontal crack between the lid planks. The middle support also obscures part of the formula.The top row of the table contains the decades of the civil year in red. A further four rows precede the horizontal strip and five rows follow it. This table is therefore the only nine-row diagonal star table so far described. The uneven distribution of rows around the horizontal strip is not unique, but is a feature only previously seen in one other partial table, K6, S23L (see Table 1 for an index of tables) which has thirteen rows. …

Three Rulers in Nubia and the Early Middle Kingdom in Egypt

Three Rulers in Nubia and the Early Middle Kingdom in Egypt

Zum großen Revisionsprozess der funerären Texte in der XI. Dynastie

Abstract This article discusses the transmission of pictorial scenes with a focus on style and iconography. Thus the coffins of the early Middle Kingdom do not only depend on textual transmission (CT) but also on pictorial transmission (including longer scenes). This article deals especially with the pictorial tradition of the coffins T 3 C, G 1 T and A 1 C and its origins. Attention is also paid to the socio-economic setting of the process of transmission.

Divine Beings at Work: A Motif in Late First Intermediate Period and Early Middle Kingdom Mortuary Texts*

Three mortuary compositions dating to the Eleventh and Twelfth Dynasties contain the same motif associated with the subservient work (b3k) of beings of divine nature on behalf of divine recipients. The motif in each case forms part of a larger compositional unit. All three attestations share structural and contextual features, which involve variants of a specific model of the community of the gods and the dead. Apart from the detailed analysis of the motif and the related model, the article aims at revealing major patterns in the interplay between models of work in human society and in the society of the divine world.

A new interpretation of Problem 10 of the Moscow Mathematical Papyrus

Although much discussed, the original intent of Problem 10 of the Moscow Mathematical Papyrus continues to be an unresolved question. This essay proposes a possible solution to the issue by joining together aspects of two theories on the subject advanced in the 1930s by W. W. Struve and T. E. Peet. From this point of beginning it is shown that the problem’s “basket” may originally have been intended to be understood as being of a specific actual size, thus revealing a set of correlations and insights regarding early Middle Kingdom mathematical capabilities and grain measurement concerns.

Plasmodium falciparumin Ancient Egypt

To the Editor: Malaria is a disease caused by parasites of the genus Plasmodium. The infection is transmitted to humans through the bites of female mosquitoes of the genus Anopheles. Four species of Plasmodium are pathogenic to humans, and each leads to different clinical features: P. falciparum causes severe malaria with undulating high fever (malaria tropica); P. malariae, P. vivax, and P. ovale cause less severe clinical courses of disease with the manifestations of malaria quartana (P. malariae) and malaria tertiana (P. vivax and P. ovale). Literary evidence for malaria infection dates back to the early Greek period when Hippocrates described the typical undulating fever (1), highly suggestive of plasmodial infection. Although it is believed that malaria widely affected early pre-Hippocrates populations, until now only 1 study, which used molecular analysis, clearly identified P. falciparum in a Roman infant dating back to the 5th century AD (2). Two other studies used molecular analysis to identify more recent plasmodial DNA in ancient human remains, i.e., from 100–400 years ago (3,4). A substantial number of nonspecific amplifications in these previous studies raised concerns as to the specificity of current molecular markers for ancient malaria (3,4). In this report, we describe the unambiguous identification of ancient DNA (aDNA) for P. falciparum in ancient Egyptian mummy tissues from ≈4,000 years ago. We analyzed 91 bone tissue samples from ancient Egyptian mummies and skeletons. The Egyptian material derived from the Predynastic to Early Dynastic site of Abydos (n = 7; 3500–2800 BC), a Middle Kingdom tomb in Thebes West (n = 42; 2050–1650 BC), and various tomb complexes in Thebes West, which were built and used between the Middle and New Kingdom until the Late Period (n = 42; c. 2050–500 BC). All samples were first tested for Plasmodium spp. DNA by using the heminested PCR for the 18S rDNA primer targets usually used for malaria identification (5). Direct sequencing was performed on those with positive amplification products. Thereby, a high number of amplification products of various sizes (including the expected size) were detected. However, on sequencing, all amplicons provided nonspecific products. Consequently, in a second set, all material was tested for the P. falciparum chloroquine-resistance transporter gene (pfcrt gene) (6,7), which was also further characterized by direct sequencing. In this second set of experiments, 2 of the 91 ancient Egyptian samples tested positive for the 134-bp fragment of the pfcrt region of P. falciparum (Figure). The specificity of the amplification was verified by sequencing, which showed 99% sequence concordance. The result was verified by parallel analysis in 2 independent laboratories; observations were fully concordant. The 2 positive samples originated from 2 different tomb complexes dating from the New Kingdom until Late Period (1500–500 BC). Each sample was obtained from adults who had osteopathologic evidence of chronic anemia. No positive results were found for the earlier samples from the Predynastic to Early Dynastic or Middle Kingdom periods. Figure PCR amplification of a 134-bp fragment of ancient DNA of Plasmodium falciparum in Egyptian mummies. Lane 1, molecular marker; lanes 10 and 11, 2 negative controls. One (lane 6) of 8 samples shows a positive amplification product (arrow). Specificity of ... Previously, immunologic tests have been used to investigate the presence and incidence of malaria in ancient Egyptian mummies (8,9). Because >40% of all samples and 92% of samples from persons with bone lesions suggestive of chronic anemia tested positive for the P. falciparum histidine-rich protein-2 antigen, doubts as to the specificity of those tests have been raised. Our study unambiguously identified P. falciparum aDNA in Egyptian mummy samples, thereby proving a specific infection by falciparum malaria in ancient Egypt. With respect to the infection incidence, our molecular analysis suggests a more realistic frequency than had been previously suggested by paleoimmunologic methods. Consequently, the aDNA analysis is superior with respect to the reaction specificity, so that the latter should not further be used for that purpose. This report adds another infectious disease to the spectrum of paleomicrobiology in ancient Egypt, thereby further explaining the previously postulated influence of infectious diseases on the low life expectancy for ancient Egyptian populations (10). Molecular detection of pathogen aDNA can be used not only to identify a certain disease, but it may also provide information on disease frequency, evolutionary origin, and pathways.

Die Datierung der Nomarchen von Hermopolis aus dem frühen Mittleren Reich - eine Phantomdebatte?

The paper argues for a new interpretation of the dates which are given in some graffiti from Ḥatnūb belonging to the early Middle Kingdom. It is suggested that these dates do not refer to the nomarch-ship of 'ḥ3-nht (I), Nḥr.i (I) and Dhw. ti-nht (IV) but stand for the reign of a king, even though this king is not mentioned by name. This interpretation presents a new chance to date the nomarchs from Hermo-polis, and their tombs at Dair al-birsā along with their equipment, more precisely within the reigns from Mentuhotep II to Sesostris I. It also includes some reflections regarding the chronological relationship between the graffiti from Ḥatnūb and other documents dating from nearly the same period.

Relating Middle Kingdom Pottery Vessels to Funerary Rituals

Recent scholarly literature shows an increasing awareness of the necessity to synthesize multiple approaches when analysing mortuary data. An integrated approach is also followed in the present study, which examines two pottery types that are characteristic for the First Intermediate Period and early Middle Kingdom on the one hand, and for the more advanced Middle Kingdom on the other. By integrating information from the objects themselves and information derived from representations and texts, an attempt is made to relate the pottery vessels to rituals carried out before, at, or after the funeral. The first pottery type evaluated in the present article is a narrow pointed jar with funnel-shaped neck, mainly popular in the northern part of Egypt during the First Intermediate Period. An analysis of the fabric of examples from the Royal Museums of Art and History in Brussels combined with pictorial evidence on object friezes of Middle Kingdom coffins enables us to relate the vessel to purification rituals carried out in the ibw, the Purification Tent. The second type of vessel discussed here is a wide-mouthed jar in Marl C, often labelled as a 'zir' and occurring at a number of sites during the Middle Kingdom. By evaluating shape and fabric of the vessels, ink labels, and iconographic information on the containers we suggest that this type of vessel was used in ritual purifications. It is probably to be identified with the snw-vase, although vessels with other shapes are also sometimes labelled snw.

Some Notes on the Funerary Cult in the Early Middle Kingdom: Stela BM EA 1164

Discussion of certain changes to the funerary cult during the Early Middle Kingdom, specifically those related to the numbers and the categories of the funerary priests involved in the rites. This study is based on an important Eleventh Dynasty source, stela BM EA 1164, which presents the main elements of two contracts between the owner and two funerary priests, a ḥm-k3 and a ẖry-ḥb. Alongside the identification of the priestly title imy-ḫnt wr, the philological analysis of these contracts is developed in order to consider the sociological and historical background and in order to shed light on the roles of Thebes and Memphis during this period.

The Chinese Neolithic: Trajectories to Early States (review)

Reviewed by: The Chinese Neolithic: Trajectories to Early States Robert D. Drennan (bio) Li Liu . The Chinese Neolithic: Trajectories to Early States. Cambridge:Cambridge University Press, 2004. xvi, 3.0 pp. Hardcover $105.00, ISBN 0-521-81184-8. The archaeological summary of a major region is a difficult genre-practically doomed to failure from the outset because regional experts will find inadequate attention to their own favorite sites or will disagree with the overall perspective adopted by the author, and because outsiders, for whom such books are presumably written, will almost certainly go away feeling confused by a welter of unfamiliar details and either lacking a coherent synthetic view or suspecting that the one they have gained is a filter through which only selected information has passed. Part of the problem is that, both as authors and readers, we tend to take too broad a goal for regional summaries; they really should not try to be all things to all people. It is thus a delight to report that, despite what the title might imply, Li Liu has not here attempted to summarize The Chinese Neolithic. The book's subtitle is the key; instead of a summary of "the archaeology" of the Neolithic in China, this book is actually an incisive and analytical comparative study of state origins, focusing on the antecedents to the first states in the middle and lower Yellow River valley. As such, the book has a clear objective and a well-defined point of view; it has a great deal to say, to several audiences, including experts in Chinese archaeology, specialists in other aspects of China studies, and those interested in complex society origins in any part of the world. Much of Liu's previous work revolves around the subject of early complex societies in China, and some of that work reappears here, along with new additions to it, all of which is in a more synthetic context. The focus is on the Longshan culture, spanning the time between about 3500 and 2500 B.C.-a period during which a number of different societies or polities with relatively complex organization existed in a vast area some 1600 km across. Liu characterizes these societies as "chiefdoms," a usage that is certain to raise the hackles of some archaeologists, who will fail to realize that this does not imply that these societies were organized just like Hawaiian chiefdoms right before European contact. Rather, this label quickly puts the subject of the book into a global comparative context alongside societies of very roughly similar scales and levels of complexity. We realize we are talking about societies in the realm of the Mesoamerican Olmec, the North American Mississippian, or the European late Neolithic and early Bronze Age, for example, not Incas, Aztecs, Babylonians, or Middle Kingdom Egyptians. This is an extremely useful characterization, and in defiance of the supposed typological straight-jacket of such evolutionary terms, Liu sets right to work reconstructing not only the features of social, political, and [End Page 210] economic organization Longshan societies shared (with each other and/or with chiefdoms elsewhere in the world) but also the differences between Longshan societies and other chiefdoms, and the considerable amount of organizational variation to be observed among Longshan societies themselves. The volume begins with two introductory chapters: the first is largely theoretical and deals with a series of thorny conceptual, historical, and definitional matters, whereas the second concerns environmental reconstruction for the Longshan period. The next three chapters discuss "Household Subsistence and Ritual," "Spatial Organization and Social Relations in Communities," and "Community Burial Patterns" for Longshan and earlier periods. Chapter 6 takes up "The Development and Decline of Complex Societies in the Central Plains," with a heavy emphasis on settlement patterns at the regional scale, and chapter 7 does the same for the eastern and western parts of the Longshan culture area, down and up the Yellow River, respectively, from the Central Plains. Chapter 8 deals with the emergence of the Erlitou state from its Longshan antecedents, and the final chapter summarizes what has been learned and calls for further research. As a comparative study of the societies that led up to and eventually produced what...

Approaching the Hereafter (CT Spell 440)

Coffin Text Spell 440 is one of a number of texts recited during the funeral of the early Middle Kingdom. It consists of three parts, the first introducing the deceased, the second addressing the two mourning women accompanying the coffin and the third closing the burial.

The Rock Inscriptions of Tjehemau at Abisko

Rather than being rudely carved and incomplete inscriptions in imperfect Egyptian, the rock Inscriptions of Tjehemau, carved near Nag el-Wasiya in the district of Abisko, are a single, well-executed text in colossal lapidary hieratic. The present examination demonstrates that the inscriptions form a single, continuous text of considerable literary and historical merit, containing much of grammatical and lexicographic interest. Tjehemau describes a career in which he ranges widely through the Western Desert, depicts the rejoicing of the city of Thebes, gathered in celebration on the riverbank as the desert warrior descends, and quotes the Theban song of praise. The placement of the sections of the inscription within the landscape mirrors the content of the text - a military life beginning on the Nubian Nile, journeying west, south, and north with the forces of early Middle Kingdom Egypt, and returning to the Lower Nubian Nile.

The Meaning of Menial Labor: "Servant Statues" in Old Kingdom Serdabs

Serdabs, the inaccessible chambers adjoining elite tomb chapels of the Old Kingdom period, were built to hold of the tomb owner, members of his family, and other dependents.1 In the late Fourth Dynasty, and more commonly after the middle of the Fifth Dynasty, serdabs also began to include small depicting people performing everyday tasks, most often some aspect of food preparation, such as grinding grain and straining beer. James H. Breasted, Jr., in the title of his Egyptian Servant Statues, 2 gave the conventional designation for these which assumes both their identity and their function. They are generally thought to have represented anonymous servants and to have insured that the dead person in whose tomb they were found would have servants in the afterlife to prepare food and do other work for him. Because of the humble tasks they are shown performing, these have often been compared with the sacrificed workers found around royal and elite tombs of the First Dynasty, with the wooden figures of workers depicted in early Middle Kingdom models of estate workshops, and with the shabtis that develop in the later Middle Kingdom. The nature and purpose of these Old Kingdom however, have never been questioned or fully investigated. A careful assessment of the tasks depicted, the archaeological context in which the appear, and the texts that are inscribed on a few examples suggests that these had a more complex purpose than merely to supply labor. For this reason, these will here be referred to as serving statues, which is a more neutral term than servant statues in that it does not presuppose the identity of the people depicted or the purpose of their representation.3

By donkey train to Kufra?—How Mr Meri went west

In 1990, about 30 km southwest of Dakhla oasis, the most remote settlement in Egypt’s Western Desert, a hieroglyphic rock inscription was discovered that turned out to be the first clear evidence of an Ancient Egyptian presence so far into the Sahara (Burkard 1997). The short text states that a higher official named Meri went out to meet (?) oasis dwellers. Details of translation, interpretation and palaeographic dating of the text are a matter of discussion among Egyptologists, but it clearly seems to be of Old or Early Middle Kingdom origin. The home of the ‘oasis dwellers’ can reasonably be inferred as lying further west or southwest. However, the nearest places with permanent water in these directions are the Kufra Oasis in Libya and the wells of Djebel Uweinat, which lie, respectively, some 600 km and 500 lan away. How was it possible to master such distances under the then already prevailing hyperarid conditions by the only available means of transportation, a train of donkeys that have to drink at least every three days?

Zur Datierung und Interpretation der Lehre des Ptahhotep

It is argued that the instruction of Ptahhotep is not an Old Kingdom work, as has been suggested. The arguments in favour of an early date are critically evaluated. The transmission, language and content of this literary work lead to the conclusion that the work was composed in the early Middle Kingdom. The text seems to fit into a Middle Kingdom context much better than an Old Kingdom environment. Ptahhotep was artificially archaized, the attribution to an Old Kingdom vizier is a means of increasing the credibility of the work.

Some Remarks on the Epagomenal Days in Ancient Egypt

RECENT discussion has once more centered upon the transitional five days of the Egyptian Civil Year.' Not too surprisingly the religious orientation of scholars has been coupled with a calendric one, especially as the quintet was of crucial importance to the ancients who were warned to be especially careful during this period.2 In fact, it was after the final day of the twelfth month, Mesore (4 Smw), that the agents of the goddess Sekhmet were sent not merely to harm but also virtually to annihilate man. As early as the Pyramid texts we read of them as days of the Birth of the Gods, a tradition that is first specified in one of the Harhotpe documents of the Early Middle Kingdom.3 At that time, all of the five deities associated with each day are recorded: Osiris, Horus, Seth, Isis, and Nephthys. Just as these specific gods and goddesses associated with their own day are first recorded in inscriptions dated to the Middle Kingdom, the tradition of Sekhmet and her messengers can be traced back to the same period.4 References to the epagomenals, of course, can be found in such texts as the Niuserre Temple Calendar of Dynasty V or the private feast lists of Khnumhotep 2 at Beni Hasan and those recorded on the Coffin of Ma, the latter two dated to the Middle Kingdom, as well as one of the Harhotpe documents as previously noted.5 But perhaps of greater significance to a chronologist than to

The Cenotaph of the Sekwaskhet Family from Saqqara

The publication of a series of five limestone offering niches from the private cenotaph of the Sekwaskhet family of the early Middle Kingdom. The monument, excavated to the north of the Teti pyramid by Firth and Gunn in 1921–22, is now displayed in the Cairo Museum (JE 55618). The family was associated with the cult of the Teti pyramid.

A Fragmentary Letter of the Early Middle Kingdom

Over the past half-century the publication of Egyptological documents of whatever kind has scarcely kept pace with their steady accumulation, and those which belong to an earlier era of scholarship may be in danger of being forgotten. Some of the larger museums could indeed be said to stand in need of re-excavation, and even the lesser collections, such as those here in Copenhagen, may still produce an occasional find of surprising interest. The fragmentary letter published here (pl. V) was brought to my notice by Dr. Adam BiilowJacobsen, who discovered it among the Greek papyri in the University's Institut for Klassisk Filologi together with a smaller fragment and the whole of a stately funerary papyrus of the late New Kingdom.1 The bulk of the Greek material was purchased in Egypt around 1930, and, in his preface to the first volume of the serial publication, Carsten Hoeg wrote: Omnes igitur papyri nostrae mercatu comparatae sunt. Sequitur ut ubi loci sint inventae ignoretur cum ea quae papyropolae de hac re proferant nulla fere sint; velut papyros quasdam nostras quas alicubi in regione quae nunc Faijum vocatur scriptas esse constat venditor in vico Gebelen inventas inaniter affirmavit.