The Ahmose ‘Tempest Stela’, Thera and Comparative Chronology Author(s): Robert K. Ritner and Nadine Moeller Source: Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Vol. 73, No. 1 (April 2014), pp. 1-19 Published by: The University of Chicago Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/10.1086/675069 . Accessed: 07/04/2014 12:08 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org. . The University of Chicago Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of Near Eastern Studies. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 128.135.12.127 on Mon, 7 Apr 2014 12:08:07 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions The Ahmose ‘Tempest Stela’, Thera and Comparative Chronology ROBERT K. RITNER AND NADINE MOELLER The Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago Part I: The Tempest Stela (Robert K. Ritner) Introduction In 1994, the Aegeanist Karen Polinger Foster brought to my attention a presentation delivered by Ellen Davis ive years previously. Within her lecture, Davis had introduced the evidence of a unique Egyptian stela into the complex discussions regarding the absolute date of the volcanic eruption at Thera (Santorini).1 Karen’s question to me was fairly simple: was there anything in the wording of the stela that could justify a link with the Thera event? After reviewing the Davis article and the edited text of the stela, I became convinced that the possibility existed, particularly since the text as translated intentionally suppressed its most striking phraseology. Previously published for an Egyptological audience by Claude Vandersleyen, the fragmentary stela recounts the devastations and reconstructions resulting from an extraordinary cataclysm in early Eighteenth Dynasty Egypt.2 While storms can be noted in 1 Ellen N. Davis, “A Storm in Egypt during the Reign of Ahmose,” Thera and the Aegean World III: Proceedings of the Third International Congress, Santorini, Greece, 3–9 September, 1989, ed. D. A. Hardy and A. C. Renfrew (London, 1990), vol. 3, 232–35. 2 Claude Vandersleyen, “Une tempête sous le règne d’Amosis,” RdÉ 19 (1967): 123–59, and “Deux nouveaux fragments de la Egyptian literature,3 Ahmose’s Tempest Stela is without parallel in extending the destructive efects to the entirety of the country. The remarkable nature of the event, described in unprecedented detail, is stressed by the text itself, which attributes the disaster to divine displeasure (recto ll. 6–7), while yet declaring that it was greater than divine wrath and exceeded the gods’ plans (recto l. 10). The collaboration between Karen and myself, entitled “Texts, Storms, and the Thera Eruption,” was published in the Journal of Near Eastern Studies (1996).4 My contribution, of course, was as an Egyptologist, not an Aegeanist or volcanologist. Two years later, a response was published in the same journal by Malcom H. Wiener and James P. Allen, who denied the link, insisting that the text is “consistent with the nature of monsoon-generated Nile loods, stèle d’Amosis relatant une tempête,” RdÉ 20 (1968): 127–34. A re-edition of the two faces of the text was published in Wolfgang Helck, Historisch-Biographische Texte der 2. Zwischenzeit und neue Texte der 18. Dynastie, 2nd edition, KÄT 5.2 (Wiesbaden, 1983; reprint of 1975), 104–10. 3 Cf. Vandersleyen, “§ 7 - Conclusion,” RdÉ 19 (1967): 156–57. 4 Karen Polinger Foster and Robert K. Ritner, “Texts, Storms, and the Thera Eruption,” JNES 55/1 (1996): 1–14. Hereafter, references to “Foster and Ritner” or “Ritner” without further speciication refer to this work. [JNES 73 no. 1 (2014)] © 2014 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved. 022–2968–2013/7301–001 $10.00. 1 This content downloaded from 128.135.12.127 on Mon, 7 Apr 2014 12:08:07 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 2 F Journal of Near Eastern Studies and characteristic of a genre of texts describing the restoration of order by rulers.”5 In addition, the text was dated by these authors (on the basis of a restoration) to the coronation of Ahmose, and their interpretation assumed interference from the (unmentioned) Hyksos (pp. 3, 17 and 19–20). The section by Wiener concluded with a formal list of challenges for our response (pp. 27–28), provoked by the need to defend Wiener’s own forthcoming chronological studies (p. 1, n. 2). Given the long delay in my response, some explanation is perhaps necessary. Karen has continued to contribute articles on Thera, most importantly for Ahmose a 2009 joint article on “The Thera eruption and Egypt: pumice, texts and chronology.”6 Speciic discussions of the Tempest Stela in that article are discussed below, and its chronological issues are taken up by Nadine Moeller in Part II of this article. Not wishing to be drawn into an ongoing academic dispute, I regularly assigned both articles in classwork, as evidence of varying interpretations of the same historical text, and hoped for others to critique the translations in print. While our 1996 article has been cited in both scholarly and popular writings over the years (often in regard to the Exodus),7 no one has yet challenged Allen’s translation revisions. Malcom H. Wiener and James P. Allen, “Separate Lives: The Ahmose Tempest Stela and the Theran Eruption,” JNES 57/1 (1998): 1–28, citation on p. 1. Hereafter, references to “Wiener and Allen” or “Allen” without further speciication refer to this work. 6 Karen Polinger Foster et al., “The Thera eruption and Egypt: pumice, texts and chronology,” in David A. Warburton, ed., Time’s Up! Dating the Minoan eruption of Santorini (Aarhus: 2009), 171–80. 7 See, inter alia, Eric Cline, “Rich Beyond the Dreams of Avaris: Tell el-Dabʾa and the Aegean World—A Guide for the Perplexed,” The Annual of the British School at Athens 93 (1998): 199–219, esp. 215; James K. Hofmeier, Israel in Egypt (Oxford, 1997), 150– 51; Donald Redford, “Textual Sources for the Hyksos Period,” in E. Oren, ed., The Hyksos: New Historical and Archaeological Perspectives (Philadelphia, 1997), 16; K. S. B. Ryholt, The Political Situation in Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period c. 1800–1550 B.C. (Copenhagen, 1997), 144–45; S. Manning, A Test of Time (Oxford, 1999), 192–202; K. A. Kitchen, “Ancient Egyptian Chronology for Aegeanists,” Mediterranean Archaeology and Archaeometry 2/2 (2002): 11; Andrea Klug, Königliche Stelen in der Zeit von Ahmose bis Amenophis III, Monumenta Aegyptiaca VIII (Turnhout, 2002), 35–46 (this is the publication of a 1998 dissertation including a full transliteration based largely on Helck, with additions by Allen; see p. 37, n. 282); and Thomas Schneider, “A Theophany of Seth-Baal in the Tempest Stela,” Ägypten und Levante 20 (2010): 405–409. More popular treatments include Siro I. Trevisanato, The Plagues of Egypt (Piscataway, NJ, 2005), 108–109; Ian Wilson, The Bible is History (Washington, D.C., 1999), 46–51; and the review 5 After a respectful interval of seventeen years, and with a conference dedicated to the issue of Thera and Egypt, it now seems appropriate to provide a detailed reply.8 It should be noted that in contrast to the edition of Allen, my earlier article provided transliteration and discussion for only three critical passages in the Tempest Stela (recto ll. 12, 15 and 18), with deference to the initial publications by Vandersleyen (and Wolfgang Helck) for the remainder of the text.9 Allen’s published revision thus applies most directly to the readings of those initial publications, but the full editions by Vandersleyen, Helck and Allen, and the 1997 translation by Donald Redford, will be examined in the following analysis. The initial section of this joint paper will examine what the Tempest Stela truly describes. Chronological implications, and the evolving dating of the Thera explosion, are related but distinct matters; these will be addressed in Part II by my colleague Nadine Moeller. The Text of the Stela The Ahmose stela, comprising multiple fragments recovered from clearance of the third pylon at Karnak, consists of a single text in horizontal lines, copied on both sides of a calcite block that once stood over 1.80m tall. The side conventionally termed the “recto,” “face” or “front side” (or Vorderseite) had horizontal lines painted red, with incised hieroglyphs highlighted in blue pigment. The reverse face was unpainted. Despite the identity of the content, the layout of the text difers on the two faces, with the recto occupying eighteen lines and the spacing on the verso expanded to twenty-one lines. Above the horizontal body of each text is a lunette with two addorsed scenes and brief vertical labels.10 Unlike the parallel text, the two lunette labels display minor variation in wording. Both faces preserve dual scenes of the king followed by a female deity of fecundity carrying ofering trays by M. Bietak, “The Volcano Explains Everything—Or Does It?,” Biblical Archaeology Review 32/6 (November/December 2006): 60–65. 8 This paper derives from a lecture for the colloquium Thera, Knossos, Egypt, sponsored in Chicago by the Hellenic Museum and The Oriental Institute, October 20–22, 2011. 9 Foster and Ritner, 5, n. 24. 10 For the suggested height of the stela and description of the lunette scenes, see Vandersleyen, “Deux nouveaux fragments,” 127–30. While Vandersleyen interpreted the fragmentary male igures (with bull’s tail, ankh and lost staf) as Amon, Helck (HistorischBiographische Texte, 104) has recognized the igure as Ahmose. This content downloaded from 128.135.12.127 on Mon, 7 Apr 2014 12:08:07 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions The Ahmose ‘Tempest Stela’ of foodstufs (dfꜢw), vegetables (rnp.t),11 and “what the earth creates” ([q]mꜢ.t tꜢ) to lost igures of Amon. The text proper begins with the royal titulary on the irst horizontal line (recto 1 = verso 1): (1) [ʿnḫ(?)12 Ḥr ʿꜢ ḫpr.w Nb.ty Twt-ms.wt Ḥrnbw Ts-tꜢ.wy ny-sw.t bı͗.ty Nb-pḥ.ty-Rʿ sꜢ Rʿ ʾlʿḥ-ms ʿnḫ d.t (1) [Long live (?) the Horus “Great of Manifestations,”13 He of the] Two Ladies “Pleasing14 of Birth,” the golden Horus “Who binds the Two Lands,” King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Neb-pehty-Ra, son of Ra, Ahmose, living forever. The initial line thus states the king’s full string of titles with at most an initial, clichéd insertion of , “Long live!” Allen, however, has reconstructed an unprecedented, nonextant line of vertical text in the lunette in which he restores the partial phraseology [ḥsb.t 1 . . . ḫr ḥm n] “[Regnal year 1 . . . during the Incarnation of].”15 Much—if not most—of Allen’s subsequent interpretation of the Tempest Stela is based on this unsubstantiated addition, which justiies his link of the text to Ahmose’s coronation in year 1 and the king’s initial conlicts with the Hyksos. Allen’s justiicaOn both faces, the irst ofering igure is followed by the label dfꜢw, with the reverse adding rnp.t. The second igure of the face contains traces that may represent either [rn]p.t nb “all vegetables” or ḫ.t nb.t “all things” (so Vandersleyen and Helck), while the second igure of the reverse has [q]mꜢ.t tꜢ. All of these are stock phrases for the standard scene they accompany. 12 So Helck (Historisch-Biographische Texte, 104), but the closest parallel from the reign, S. Cairo 34001 (the so-called “irst Ahmose stela”), omits this before Ḥr ʿꜢ ḫpr.w; see Pierre Lacau, Stèles du Nouvel Empire, CGC (Cairo, 1909), 1 and pl. 1. 13 Inluenced by the reductionistic approaches of M. Buber and F. Rosenzweig for 1:1 translation of ancient and modern vocabulary (considered but rejected by W. W. Hallo and K. L. Younger, the editors of The Context of Scripture [Brill, 1997], p. xxvi), Allen (p. 3) translates “Developments;” see his discussion of the word ḫpr.w in Genesis in Egypt, Yale Egyptological Studies 2 (1988): 29–30. As the term applies to the existence (“happen/become/be”) as well as the forms and aspects of humans, gods and objects (and the Coptic descendant certainly translates “become, come into being”: see Walter Crum, A Coptic Dictionary [Oxford, 1939], 577–80), the restricted translation “develop” and “developments” is infelicitous and brings extraneous English nuances. 14 For twt “pleasing/beautiful,” see Wb. V, 258–59, esp. 258 §IIIa; Allen (p. 3) translates “Perfect.” 15 Allen’s translation is again idiosyncratic for the more standard “under the Majesty of.” As drawn, the lacuna in Allen’s hand copy is too long for an expected month date, but as the entire column is unlikely, that is of little consequence. 11 F 3 tion for the insertion is the comment by Vandersleyen that the lunette scenes are not symmetrically divided and leave a little extra space at the left edge.16 From Vandersleyen also, Allen has derived his assumption that the events of the stela occurred during the coronation of the king, since Ahmose “perhaps” was irst recognized by Ra at the royal residence of the opening scene.17 Even if this were true (and there is no independent evidence for it), the events of the text need not be related to the coronation itself, and Vandersleyen was correct in noting: Au point de vue chronologique, la forme du signe de la lune, dans le nom d’Amosis, indique seulement que la stèle n’appartient pas à la in du règne, car à partir de l’an 22 au plus tard, le signe a la forme d’un croissant ouvert vers le bas.18 Allen’s imagined, initial column is highly unlikely. Not a single example of such an arrangement is found in the Cairo corpus of New Kingdom stelae edited by Lacau, and the most obvious parallels—S. Cairo 34001 and 34002, also from the reign of Ahmose— begin the body of the text with the irst horizontal line below the lunette.19 Neither begins with a regnal date, and S. Cairo 34001 exactly duplicates the Tempest Stela’s opening titulary (with no initial ) and also dates to within the irst twenty-two years of the king’s reign (employing an upturned lunar crescent in the spelling of Ahmose). On the Tempest Stela, any extra space at the left of each lunette may have contained text, but that will have been a label for the scenes of the vignette, in accordance with standard Egyptian practice and customary favor for lefthand (i.e., rightfacing) scenes.20 While the lunette of S. Cairo 34001 Allen: 6; and Vandersleyen, “Deux nouveaux fragments,” 129. Allen: 6–7, notes on ll. “0” and 2. Vandersleyen’s cited suggestion, however (“Deux nouveaux fragments,” 132), is less dogmatic. He refers to the king’s “installation” at Sedjefa-tawy (perhaps Deir el-Ballas) “qui est peut-être le lieu où << Reʿ avait accordé au roi son pouvoir(?)>>.” 18 Ibid., 132. 19 Lacau, Stèles du Nouvel Empire, 1–6 and pls. 1–2. Allen’s proposed arrangement is equally absent from the corpus gathered by Klug, Königliche Stelen; Klug rejects Allen’s restoration of the lunette and inserts ʿnḫ at the lost beginning of l. 1 (ibid., 37, n. 283). 20 The deity would face right toward the advancing king and ofering bearers. For the right-facing orientation as dominant in Egyptian art, see the remarks of Gay Robins, Proportion and Style in Ancient Egyptian Art (Austin, 1994), 21; and H. G. Fischer, “More Emblematic Uses from Ancient Egypt,” Metropolitan Museum Journal 11 (1976): 127–28. 16 17 This content downloaded from 128.135.12.127 on Mon, 7 Apr 2014 12:08:07 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 4 F Journal of Near Eastern Studies difers from that of the Tempest Stela, one simply cannot ignore the strong parallelism in the contemporary textual layout of the two Ahmose documents. Any formal reference to “Year one” can be dismissed. No less important is another overlooked but contemporary text that efectively repudiates any association of the phraseology of the Tempest Stela with the king’s coronation. That evidence concerns the next section of the stela in lines 1–2 (recto and verso). Only text lacking in both exemplars is placed in brackets. ͗ın Rʿ [rdı͗ s]w m ny-sw.t ds⸗f swd n⸗f nḫt r wn mꜢʿ.t over an earlier (“Long live!”), but there is no reason to disbelieve the Egyptian text,24 and for contemporary readers there was obviously no disjunction between the year three date and the reference to Ra’s earlier appointment. The Carnarvon Tablet shows no correction and is unambiguously dated to “Regnal year 3.”25 This dating is long after Kamose’s accession, which efectively refutes Allen’s argument that in the parallel text of Ahmose “The wording suggests that the king’s visit to Karnak took place shortly after his accession, in his irst regnal year.”26 Rather, in both the Kamose and Ahmose stelae, the texts stress the respective kings’ titles and legitimacy before locating the narrative’s action. In the Kamose text, the text immediately following relates that “His Majesty spoke in his (Theban) palace to the council of oicials who were in his following.” In the Ahmose stela, the setting is shifted, with the king away from Thebes (recto and verso ll. 2–3) and Amon. Spatial diferences on the two faces already appear at the end of line 2, and for convenience the following transliterations and translations are divided according to the shorter recto27: It was Ra himself [who appointed] him as king of Upper Egypt and who assigned to him power in very truth.23 ͗ıst grt ḥms.n ḥm⸗f m dmı͗ n SdfꜢ-TꜢ.wy [m ww n tp] n.t rs.t ʾlwn.t (3) ͗ıst r⸗f ʾl[mn-Rʿ nb ns.wt TꜢ.wy] m ʾlwnw Šmʿw In both cases, the mention of Ra’s appointment immediately follows the opening of the text with the full royal titulary. Here, however, there can be no possibility that the main narrative is associated with a coronation, since the Kamose stela is explicitly dated to ḥsb.t 3, “Regnal year 3”! The year dating was cut Now, His Majesty dwelt in the town of Sedjefatawy (“Provisioner of the Two Lands”) (3) [in the district just to] the south of Dendera. Now then, A[mon-Ra, Lord of the Thrones of the Two Lands,] was in Heliopolis of Upper Egypt (= Thebes).28 The form is unquestionably a narrative ininitive, commonly used in royal narrative texts. The particles (ı͗)st r⸗f do not restrict the following narrative form, and remarks by Allen (p. 6) on supposedly preferred constructions hardly support the creation of a phantom column. With the removal of the supposed column “0,” Allen’s suggested [ḫf]t is unlikely. Cf. the similar ͗ıst gr.t + sdm.n⸗f in l. 2 and ͗ıst r⸗f + noun and adverbial adjunct in l. 3. 22 In the broken context, the sdm⸗f form may be circumstantial: “since Ra himself had appointed him . . .” 23 Text from the Carnarvon Tablet exemplar; for the editions, see Helck, Historisch-Biographische Texte, 82–83 (quoted text on p. 83); cf. the translation in Labib Habachi, The Second Stela of Kamose (Glückstadt, 1972), 48; from A. H. Gardiner, “The Defeat of the Hyksos by Kamōse: The Carnarvon Tablet, No. I,” JEA 3 (1916): 98; and B. Gunn and A. H. Gardiner, “The Expulsion of the Hyksos,” JEA 5 (1918): 45. Contra these authors, the phrase ds⸗f applies to Ra, not a “veritable” king. The passage is thus parallel with the intent of the Ahmose stela: Ra himself has made the royal appointment. Allen: 3, correctly attributes the phrase to Ra and not the word for king. 24 Signiicantly, it is not corrected to “regnal year 1,” nor was a vertical column added. As noted above, texts of this period may open with ʿnḫ. For reasons of space, the writing of ḥsb.t omits , but this is not unique; see Wb III, 26 and the comments by Gardiner, “Defeat of the Hyksos”: 97. In any case, for the intended Egyptian audience, the wording certainly does not require a date in the irst regnal year. 25 Ibid., pl. XII (l. 1) and p. 97. 26 Allen: 7. 27 The translation in Foster and Ritner: 11–12 (Appendix A), gives line numbers based on the twenty-one lines of the text of the verso (wrongly termed “recto,” ibid.: 11). 28 For the localization of Sedjefa-tawy, see references ibid.: 6–7. Allen’s critique (p. 7) of Helck’s restoration [m ww n tp, lit. “in the district at the head of ”] has no impact on the king’s presence at the site “south of Dendera.” Redford, “Textual Sources,” 31, n. 176, suggests an unreferenced *[nt]nt, “foreland.” As generally noted, Sedjefa-tawy was the inal Horus name of Ahmose’s predecessor, Kamose; see Jürgen von Beckerath, Handbuch der ägyptischen Königsnamen, MÄS 20 (Munich, 1984), 82. Contra Allen: 7, fol- [s]t r⸗f ͗ıw.t21 ḥm⸗f [. . .] (2) [dh]n.n sw Rʿ r ny-sw.t ds⸗f Now then, His Majesty came [. . .] (2) Ra himself had appointed him22 to be king of Upper Egypt. The closest parallel for this reference to the divine appointment of Ahmose appears in the “First Stela” of his immediate predecessor, Kamose: 21 This content downloaded from 128.135.12.127 on Mon, 7 Apr 2014 12:08:07 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions The Ahmose ‘Tempest Stela’ Why Ahmose was in Sedjefa-tawy we are not told, but it need not be because he “had been crowned outside Thebes, perhaps at his residence at Ballas.”29 In contrast, the text is speciic about his reason for travel to Thebes, where he oiciated at the installation of a new, portable cult image of Amon with accompanying oferings (recto ll. 3–5 = verso ll. 3–6):30 ͗ın ḥm⸗f ḫnt r r[dı͗.t n⸗f31 t ḥnq.t ḫ.t nb(.t) nfr.t wʿb[.t] ḫr m-ḫt tꜢ ʿꜢ[b.t . . .] (4) [. . . s]n(?)32 ḫr dı͗.tw ḥr m [. . . w]w pn ͗ıst gr.t sšm[w n ntr pn . . .] (5) [. . .] ḥʿ.w⸗f hnm m rꜢ-pr pn ʿw.t⸗f [h]r ršw[.t . . .] It was His Majesty who went south (“upstream”) in order to [give to him bread, beer and everything good and] pure. Now after the ofering, [. . .] (4) their(?) [. . .]. Then attention was given in33 [. . .] this [dis]trict. Now then, the cult image [of this god . . .] (5) [. . .] as his body was installed in (lit. “united with”) this temple while his limbs were in joy. [. . .] Allen felt compelled to emend the beginning of this preserved passage to a simple narrative form (wn).ı͗ n ḥm⸗f, “then His Incarnation . . . ,” since in his opinion the so-called participial statement (“It was his Majesty lowed by Manning, Test of Time, 195–96, and Schneider, “Theophany of Seth-Baal,” 406 and 408–409, this palace name in no way indicates Ahmose had just become king and was locally crowned. 29 Allen: 7. 30 Ibid.: 8, incorrectly numbers the end of this passage on the Face, l. 6 and the Back, l. 7. 31 So restored reasonably by Allen, ibid. The following, standard phrase restored by Helck was rejected by Allen for reasons of space, but the content will have been similar. 32 As suggested by Allen: 7–8. If correct, the reference may be to oferings or other divine images. 33 In contrast, Vandersleyen, “Fragments,” 131, translated “on mettra sur . . . ,” while Allen (pp. 7–8) inserted an unexpressed subject “they”: “and they were put on the . . . .” More likely is the idiom rdı͗ ḥr “to give attention” (Wb. III, 126) which, as noted by Allen (p. 8), can be construed with a variety of prepositions to indicate “concerning X.” Allen has assumed that my 1996 translation indicated a similar use of the preposition “m,” but a prepositional phrase of time or circumstance is quite possible here: m hrw pn (“on this day”), m ḥb (in the festival/ritual) , or m + sdm⸗f (m wdn⸗f “in his ofering” = “when he ofered”), etc. In the broken context, no deinitive restoration is possible, but the text surely stressed the proper beneicence of the oferings. Klug, Königliche Stelen 38, n. 295, has repeated Allen’s assumptions. F 5 who . . . ” ) “seems unmotivated in the context.”34 On the contrary, no emendation is necessary; the king was in Sedjefa-tawy while the mobile statue35 of Amon was in Karnak. The passage stresses the propriety of the royal actions, with him journeying personally to Karnak,36 performing appropriate oferings and attending to local details so that the god was successfully installed and pleased. This proper action sets the stage for the unexpected events in the following section (recto ll. 6–8 = verso ll. 7–10). (6) [. . . ͗ıst gr.t nt]r pn ʿꜢ ḥr Ꜣby.t [. . .]w ḥm⸗f [. . .] ntr.w ḥr šn.t ḥ[d]n.w⸗sn [ʿḥʿ.n rdı͗.n] ntr.w (7) ͗ıwt p.t m dʿ n ḥ[(w)y.t kk].w m rꜢ-ʿ ͗ımnt.t p.t šnʿ.tı͗ n wn.t [Ꜣbw qꜢ.tı͗ r ḫ]rw rḫy.t (8) wsr.[tı͗ r . . . khꜢ ḥ(w)y.t] ḥr ḫꜢs.wt r ḫrw qr.t ͗ı my.t Ꜣbw [. . . Now then,] this great god desired [. . .] His Majesty [. . .] while37 the gods complained of their discontent.38 [Then] the gods [caused] that the sky come in a tempest of r[ain], with [dark]ness in the condition of the West,39 and 34 Allen: 7. As always, Allen employs the German transcription system, substituting jn for ͗ın. 35 The portability of the image is inherent in the name of the image (sšmw “what is led/guided”), written with walking legs; see Wb. IV, 291. 36 Cf. the use of the participial statement in the First Kamose Stela to stress the contrasting role of deity: “It was Ra himself [who appointed] him as king” (above, n. 22). 37 Allen: 10, restores [jw] in the lacuna, which—if correct— would convert this into a main clause. 38 Cf. Wb. V, 519 šnt, “to revile/oppose/vent anger,” written šnt in this period. For ḥdn(w), “opposition/disagreement,” see Wb. III, 214. 39 Translated by all earlier editors as “in the western region.” The phrase m rꜢ-ʿ ͗ımnt.t is unusual and subject to more than one interpretation, since rꜢ-ʿ can mean either “position/place” (Wb. II, 394/9) or “condition/situation” (Wb. II, 394–95); cf. m rꜢ-ʿ mt, “in the condition of death.” Foster et al. (“Thera eruption and Egypt,” 177), opt for a literary metaphor here implying “a darkness like that of the West,” and this seems the literal meaning of the expression: “darkness in the condition of the West,” i.e., the Underworld. A meaning “in the west” would be unexpected given the following phraseology for directions. If the author simply wished to indicate that the darkness was localized in the western direction, no rꜢ-ʿ need have been used; cf. the simple [ḥr] ͗ıꜢbt.t ḥr ͗ımnt.t, “in/on the East and in/on the West” in recto l. 11. Cf. Wiener’s challenge (p. 28): “why were the tempest and darkness perceived in the west, when Thera lies mostly to the north and the direction of winds carried the tephra strongly to the east?” The later mention of crowds “on the East and West” of the river experiencing the storm’s efects (recto l. 11) does not indicate the direction of the wind and rain and thus cannot be used to exclude a northern origin. The issues of wind This content downloaded from 128.135.12.127 on Mon, 7 Apr 2014 12:08:07 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 6 F Journal of Near Eastern Studies the sky being in storm40 without [cessation, louder than] the cries [lit., “voices”] of the masses, (8) more powerful [than . . .], [while the rain howled41] on the mountains louder than the sound of the underground source of the Nile42 that is in Elephantine. Having devised a restoration in which the king returns north (wn.jn ḥm.f ḫd r hnw pr-ʿꜢ ʿnḫ (w)dꜢ s(nb) jst grt), Allen then understands that Amon desired his direct return ([ʿn s]w ḥm⸗f [ḫr.f]),43 but nothing securely supports these guesses, and other restorations are possible. Since hieroglyphic spellings are lexible in arrangement and spacing, and the main text differs by three lines on the two faces as a result, Allen’s many restorations based on space are inherently problematic. Ahmose does return to Thebes later in the preserved verso l. 14, so one departure is likely. The same line also records that Amon “received what he desired,” but that is stated to be gold for his statue, not the return of the king.44 Whatever Amon desired and the king did or failed to do, the gods were unhappy and voiced complaint. Allen has misidentiied the term šnt as the word for “to ask for” (Wb . IV, 495) with a following ḥ[n]w.t direction and tephra concern only the initial eruption, not the afterefects, and may be irrelevant. See Part II by Nadine Moeller below. 40 Wb. IV, 507/3–9, “Unwetter, Gewölk,” and cf. ibid., 502– 503 šnı͗.t, “hailstorm,” secondarily “cloud.” Despite the Wb. (Unwetter = thunderstorm) and the determinative of raining sky, Allen insists (p. 10) that the word is limited to “cloud/beclouded.” 41 So restored by Helck, see Wb. V, 136/14; and R. O. Faulkner, A Concise Dictionary of Middle Egyptian (Oxford, 1962), 286–87. The term means “bellow, raise the voice, rage furiously.” 42 For these holes (usually dual qr.ty) as supposed sources of the Nile at Elephantine, see Wb. V, 58; and Claude Vandersleyen, “Une têmpete sous le règne d’Amosis,” RdÉ 9 (1967): 134–35. See also the “Famine Stela,” trans. by R. Ritner in W. K. Simpson, The Literature of Ancient Egypt, 3rd edition (New Haven, 2003), 387: “twin caverns” (l. 7) and 390: “two sockets” (l. 20). My 1996 translation stressed the connected “cataract” at Elephantine on the basis of the noise mentioned in the text; cf. Vandersleyen: “du bruit des rapides sur les rochers” (“Une têmpete,” 135). For this writing of Ꜣbw, “Elephantine,” see Wb. I, 7/18. D. Redford, “Textual Sources,” 16 and 31, n. 178, misread Ꜣbdw, rendering “Abydos.” In an attempt at editorial comparison, Manning (Test of Time, 196) stated that “Redford is surely correct,” but there is no lexical basis for his preference. This normal writing of Elephantine also appears in the irst Kamose stela; see Helck, Historisch-Biographische Texte, 85. For the sound of the cataract, see Schneider, “Theophany of Seth-Baal,” 406, n. 13. 43 See Allen: 8–9. 44 Contra Allen: 18. See Redford, “Textual Sources,” 31, n. 177: “Possibly, in view of what follows, a desire that the divine image be plated(?) with gold was expressed.” See also Schneider, “Theophany of Seth-Baal,” 406, n. 15, for the ambiguity of Amon’s wish. “service” (Wb. III, 102/8–9), but the immediate context—with the gods’ resultant release of a violent storm—demands the alternative šnt, “to revile/ oppose/vent anger,” regularly written šnt in this period (Wb. V, 519). Rather than “service,” the following restoration ḥ[d]nw “opposition, disagreement, complaint” (Wb. III, 214) is more itting, and was rightly selected by Vandersleyen and Helck. Allen’s objection (p. 10) was that “the notion of the gods ‘expressing displeasure’ immediately after the description of Ahmose’s homage to Amun and (probably) other gods in Karnak connotes an unlikely disparagement of the king’s actions.” Again, however, the “immediacy” of this disjunction is the result of his own artiicial reconstruction of lost text. The removal of the divinities’ expression of anger removes the motivation for the storm, and, in any case, the gods’ hostile sending of a storm cannot be disputed. The destructive efects of that storm are detailed in the following section (recto ll. 8–10 = verso ll. 10–12), which contains the irst of three passages that explicitly extend the devastation to the entire country and that irst attracted my attention:45 wn-ı͗n pr nb ͗ıwy.t nb.t spr.t⸗sn [. . .] (9) [. . . hꜢ.wt⸗sn(?)46] ḥr mḥ(ı͗).t ḥr mw mı͗ smḥw n.w dy.t47 m rꜢy ḥr ʿhnwty ḥn.ty r hrw(10)[. . .] n sḥd.n tkꜢ ḥr tꜢ.wy Then every house, every quarter48 that they (scil. the storm and rain) reached [. . . their corpses(?)] loating on the water like skifs of papyrus outside49 the palace audience chamber Ritner: 5–6. So restored by Helck, Historisch-Biographische Texte, 107. One might also imagine [mt] (9) [. . . ͗ımy.t⸗sn nb.t] ḥr mḥ(ı͗).t ḥr mw: “died (9) [. . ., with everything in them] loating on the water.” For the use of mt, “die,” for inanimate objects, cf. “The Shipwrecked Sailor,” ll. 37–38: ʿḥʿ.n dp.t (38) mt “Then the boat died.” Cf. also Redford’s restoration (“Textual Sources,” p. 16): “[collapsed and the detritus was] in the lood of water.” 47 See Faulkner, Concise Dictionary, 320 and Allen: 11. 48 For the meaning “quarter” of a city, rather than “habitation” (as Allen: 3), see W. Erichsen, Demotisches Glossar (Copenhagen, 1954), 23 = Wb. I, 49. Redford “Textual Sources,” 16, translates without comment: “Then every house and hut [where] they had repaired [collapsed and the detritus was] in the lood of water.” The common word “to reach/arrive” (Wb. IV, 102–103) recurs in recto l. 12 = verso l. 14. Redford’s “repair” is used in the sense “to betake oneself/go.” 49 For discussion, see Vandersleyen, “Une têmpete,” 137: m-ry.(t)-ḥr for m-r(w)y.t-ḥr; see Wb. II, 404–405 (m-rw.t). Allen: 3, translated “in the doorway,” rather than the compound preposition, as did Redford, “Textual Sources,” 16: “at the very gate.” 45 46 This content downloaded from 128.135.12.127 on Mon, 7 Apr 2014 12:08:07 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions The Ahmose ‘Tempest Stela’ for a period of [. . .] days [. . .] while no torch could be lit in50 the Two Lands. Unlike typical rainstorms, this event lasted for an extended period. Although the number of days is now lost, the size of the lacuna as measured by Allen would best it 4–5, 7–9, or even as many as 14–19 or 24–29 days. 51 Construction debris, household furnishings and— if Helck’s restoration is correct—human victims are washed by the driving rains into the river. Given the repeated focus on the rainstorm from l. 7 onward, Allen’s suggestion (p. 13) that “the darkness was so intense that not even a torch could relieve it” is possible but uncompelling. Darkness is mentioned only once in the introduction to the storm and even then is noted secondarily to the rain. Most importantly, the reference to the “Two Lands” in this passage is critical and was discussed in detail within my original paper (pp. 5–7). By use of the pregnant phrase tꜢ.wy, “Two Lands,” the text explicitly extends the range of the storm to the entire country, North as well as South. As the term is never used to indicate only a portion of Egypt (Wb. V, 217–19), there can be no question of a limited, Theban storm, nor even a parallel with the more extensive storm that ranged between Luxor and Cairo twenty years ago in 1994. As will be seen below, the broad expanse is reiterated twice more in the text to leave no doubt of the author’s quite literal intentions. Despite this repetition, modern commentators have been uncomfortable with the wording for no reason other than their own expectations. Vandersleyen translated the passage “sans qu’on puisse allumer de torche nulle part”52 and explained “litt. ‘dans les deux terres.’ Comme l’evénement parait très localisé et que la stèle est pauvre en hyperboles, la traduction explicite: ‘dans toute l’Égypte’ ne s’impose pas.”53 Davis’ translation necessarily followed that of Vandersleyen: “with no 7 one able to light the torch anywhere.”54 However, the Ahmose text does not use the basic terms for a bland “any/everywhere” (bw nb, s.t nb.t, etc.), and the supposed localization of events derives only from the deliberate suppression of all passages (here and below) to the contrary. Redford (“Textual Sources,” 16) and Allen (p. 3) have also translated “the Two Lands,” but the latter author disputed its contemporary sense. That suggestion will be discussed below. The text continues with the king’s initial response to the storm (recto ll. 10–12 = verso ll. 12–14): dd-ı͗n ḥm⸗f wr.wy nꜢ r bꜢ.w n ntr ʿꜢ [r s]ḫr.w ntr.w hꜢ.t pw ͗ır.n ḥm⸗f r ͗ım(11)w⸗f qnb.t⸗f m-ḫt⸗f mšʿ[.t(?)55 ḥr] ͗ıꜢb.t ͗ımnt.t ḥr ḥꜢp.w nn ḥbs.w ḥr⸗s m-ḫt ḫpr56 bꜢ.w (12) ntr spr pw ͗ır.n ḥm⸗f r hn57 WꜢs.t nbw ḥs m nbw sšm pn šsp⸗f Ꜣb.n⸗f 58 Then His Majesty said: ‘How much greater this is than the wrath of the great god, [than] the plans of the gods!’ His Majesty then descended59 to his boat, (11) with his council following him, while the crowds [on] the East and West had hidden faces, having no clothing on them after the manifestation of the wrath of (12) the god. His Majesty then reached the interior of Thebes, with gold confronting gold of this cult image, so that he received what he desired. This translation generally follows that of Vandersleyen, whose analysis can be found in his publications.60 Allen’s edition includes several diferences in interpretation that impact the signiicance of the text as a whole. First of these is the issue of the god’s bꜢ.w, translated by Allen as “impressive manifestation.” The real meaning of the term is the more forceful “display of terror-inducing might,” with an overtly Davis, “A Storm in Egypt,” 232. So Vandersleyen, “Une tempête,” 141. Helck and Allen restore mšʿ[⸗f] “his army.” 56 The word ḫpr is overlooked in Allen’s translation. 57 Allen: 14, misread the text as r hn n. 58 As the antecedent of this relative form is the masculine nbw, one need not restore Ꜣb.(t).n⸗f, contra Allen: 14. 59 Literally, “It was a descending that His Majesty made . . .,” not “What His Incarnation did was to go down . . .” For the distinction with sdm pw ͗ır.n⸗f, see Ritner, “Some Problematic Bipartite Nominal Predicates in Demotic,” published online at http://oi.uchicago. edu/pdf/bipartite_nominal_predicates.pdf, at footnotes 36–37. 60 New is my addition (Ritner: 11) of a translation for Vandersleyen’s unexplained ḥs m “confronting” (Wb. III, 159), adopted also by Allen but transcribed as ḥz m, using a phonetic “z” that had become obsolete in the Old Kingdom. 54 55 50 For the common use of ḥr for “in” Egypt, see Wb. III, 131/28 (noted in Ritner: 5). Schneider, “Theophany of SethBaal,” 405–406, treats tkꜢ as “the luminary” (= Ra), assuming a contrast with the presumed royal installation at the beginning of the text. While hymns can equate Amon with a torch (as noted by Schneider), he is mentioned by name in such igurative passages; a more literal interpretation is probable here. Contra Klug, Königliche Stelen, 39, n. 318, the English translation “be lit” need not be a grammatical passive, see Wb. IV, 225; Vandersleyen “Une têmpete,” 140; and cf. Allen: 12–13. 51 For possible estimates of the lost number, see the discussion by Allen: 12. 52 Vandersleyen, “Une tempête,” 133. 53 Ibid., 140, textual n. 24. F This content downloaded from 128.135.12.127 on Mon, 7 Apr 2014 12:08:07 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 8 F Journal of Near Eastern Studies hostile nuance of “wrath” that is well established61 and appropriate here, given the destructive force of the divine action. The bꜢ.w of a god (Min-Amon) is also associated with torrential rain in the records of a Wadi Hammamat expedition under Nebtawyra at the end of Dynasty Eleven: Repetition of a wonder (bı͗ Ꜣ.t), making rain (ı͗r.t ḥw), seeing the manifestations (ḫpr.w) of this god, giving his bꜢ.w to the masses, making the hill country as a lood, lowing forth of water upon the roughness of the stone, inding a well in the midst of the valley.62 In this example, however, the torrent produces a favorable result: the opening of a previously unknown well in the desert. In both the Ahmose and Nebtawyra records, the rain is quite real—not metaphorical—and, contra Ryholt and Manning, the bꜢ.w of Amon simply cannot be equated to the destructive force of the Hyksos in the Ahmose example.63 The Ahmose text’s further statement that those on the east and west lacked ḥbs.w (“clothing”) after the manifestation of the god’s bꜢ.w proves that this is a reference to the speciic rain event, not a general metaphor for long term Hyksos domination.64 Manning’s declaration that “the full See R. Caminos, The Chronicle of Prince Osorkon (Rome, 1958), 122, n. i; J. F. Borghouts, “Divine Intervention in Ancient Egypt and its Manifestation (bꜢ.w),” in R. J. Demarée and J. Janssen, ed., Gleanings from Deir el-Medîna (Leiden, 1982), 1–70 (esp. 11); A. H. Gardiner, “The Gods of Thebes as Guarantors of Personal Property,” JEA 48 (1962): 62, n. 3; and R. K. Ritner, The Libyan Anarchy (Atlanta, 2009), 143, l. 37. 62 A. De Buck, Egyptian Reading Book (Leiden, 1948), 77. 63 Manning, Test of Time, 197–99; Ryholt, Political Situation, 144–45, who assumes that “since the stela was set up shortly after the expulsion of the Fifteenth Dynasty, it seems more obvious to regard it as a metaphor, which was perhaps inspired by an actual storm.” Schneider, “Theophany of Seth-Baal,” 405–409, associates the storm and the second mention of bꜢ.w with Seth-Baal, deity of the Hyksos. Contra ibid., 406–407, it seems unlikely to separate “the bꜢ.w of the great god” (= Amon, Recto l. 10) from “the bꜢ.w of the god” (= Seth) in the subsequent lines (Recto ll. 11–12). While the Seth igure is commonly used in writing words for “storms” (cf. dʿ, šnʿ), this is true even when that god is not the actor. In the absence of any direct mention of Seth or Baal, Schneider’s suggestion cannot be proved, though Seth might have been one of “the gods” whose anger is mentioned. The designation of Seth as “Lord of the gods” (in a proposed restoration, ibid., 407) also seems unlikely in a Theban context if the text were based on the religious conlict that he assigns to it. For other proponents of the “Hyksos metaphor,” see Klug, Königliche Stelen, 45. 64 For the efect of raging water on linen kilts, see Wolfgang Helck, Der Text des “Nilhymnus,” Kleine Ägyptische Texte 4 (Wiesbaden, 1972), 53 and 58, when Thebes becomes a swamp, tools are 61 text is not really about a speciic lood”65 is correct only in that the catastrophe is a rainstorm, not a riverine lood. The issue of the unmentioned Hyksos will be discussed below. Following Helck’s restoration mšʿ[⸗f] instead of Vandersleyen’s mšʿ[.t], Allen has insisted that Ahmose’s army was “on the east and west (banks) providing cover, there being no covering on them” (p. 3). This interpretation, in turn, is used to speculate that “the extra measure of security may have been deemed necessary either because of the unrest attendant on Ahmose’s ongoing struggle with the rival Hyksos regime or because the king feared being overwhelmed by a population demanding relief from disaster, if not both” (ibid., 19). None of this speculation is supported by the text. Allen inds Vandersleyen’s straightforward analysis “grammatically possible,” but contrary to his own understanding of what the text should say: “it yields an odd image” (ibid., 13). In contrast, Allen’s use of “cover” to mean military action and concealment (ibid., 13–14) is not attested in Egyptian records and is an import from modern English. His citation of Wb. III, 65/2–8 includes no notion of “providing cover” in the modern sense. One military context for ḥbs is attested in the much later Piye stela (l. 32), but there it is a designation of a quite physical covering: ͗ır.t trry r ḥbs sbty, “A talus was made to clothe the wall.”66 Here the earthen “clothing” is intended to help scale the wall, not conceal it. In any case, Allen’s speculation cannot be taken, as it is by Manning (Test of Time, 199), as simple fact. Vandersleyen’s analysis is, however, not odd. The meaning “crowd/gang” for mšʿ is certainly attested before the Late Period (contra Allen: 13).67 The use of ḥꜢp “to conceal” is common with body parts (Wb. III, 30), and an idiom “concealing the face” (ḥꜢp ḥr) to indicate embarrassment can be compared with another expression of similar construction: tꜢm ḥr “to veil the face,” i.e., to be indulgent (Wb. V, 354/18).68 The cast aside, ship ropes are lost, and “there is no clothing (ḥbs.w) to clothe (ḥbs).” The word is the same as in the Tempest Stela. 65 Manning, Test of Time, 198. 66 Ritner, Libyan Anarchy, 471 and 481. 67 Cf. Wb. II, 155/12 “gang” in a quarry (Middle Kingdom); Dimitri Meeks, Année Lexicographique III (Paris, 1979), 133 “foule”; and R. O. Faulkner, “Egyptian Military Organization,” JEA 39 (1953): 38: “in such cases it would be absurd to interpret mšʿ in a military sense” (in re. “gangs” of masons, etc.) 68 Cf. also ḥbs ḥr “to hide the face” (Wb. III, 64/12–14) as noted by Vandersleyen, “Une tempête,” 141 n. 30. For “to conceal/mask” in the literal sense, see below, recto l. 17 = verso l. 19: “to conceal/mask the secret places” (of temples). This content downloaded from 128.135.12.127 on Mon, 7 Apr 2014 12:08:07 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions The Ahmose ‘Tempest Stela’ meaning of ḥbs as “clothing” is basic (Wb. III, 65–66, and cf. below recto l. 14), and the following ḥr⸗s “on it” cannot refer to the masculine mšʿ[⸗f] nor “back to the preceding jꜢbtt and jmntt” (Allen: 13), since that would require an emendation to ḥr⸗s{n}, “on them.” In short, there is no emphasis in the text on enhanced security. What is evident, however, is that the storm has impacted the populace on either side of the king’s southerly procession on the Nile. The text’s mention here of “East” and “West” refers only to the crowds along the river, not the direction of the tempest, which may have originated in the North. The text concludes with an extensive section detailing the king’s actions to remedy the destruction (recto ll. 12–18 = verso ll. 15–21): wn-ı͗n ḥm⸗f (13) ḥr snm.t tꜢ.wy ḥr sšm.t mḥy.wt n ḥ[d]⸗f 69 ḥr snm.t s.t m ḥd m nbw m ḥmt (14) m mrḥ.t ḥbs.w m gꜢw.(t)70 nb n Ꜣbw sndm pw ͗ır.n ḥm⸗f m hnw pr-ʿꜢ ʿnḫ wdꜢ snb wn-ı͗n.tw ḥr sḫꜢ.t (15) ḥm⸗f ʿq dꜢt.wt71 whn ͗ısy.w ḫbꜢ ḥw.wt wʿ mr.w ͗ıry.t tmm(16).t ͗ır ʿḥʿ.n wd.n ḥm⸗f srwd rꜢ.w-pr.w nty.w wꜢ r dꜢm m tꜢ pn r dr⸗f smnḫ mnw.w n.w ntr.w ts.t (17) snb.wt⸗sn rdı͗.t dsr.w m ʿ.t šps.t ḥꜢp s.(w)t štꜢ.wt sʿq.t sšm.w r kꜢr.w⸗sn wn(18)n.w m ptḫ r tꜢ sš ʿḫ.w sʿḥʿ ḫꜢ.wt smn.t pꜢ.wt⸗sn qb ʿq.w n ͗ıꜢwty.w rdı͗.t tꜢ mı͗ tp.t⸗f-ʿ72 ͗ır-ı͗n.tw mı͗ wd.t.n nb.t ḥm⸗f Then His Majesty (13) began to reestablish the Two Lands, to give guidance (or “a conduit”)73 69 So restored by Helck, Historisch-Biographische Texte, 108. For the meaning, see Wb. III, 213/7. Allen (p. 14) suggests n Ꜣb⸗f “he did not stop,” but the thin traces do not it the wider and deeper Ꜣb-sign; cf. Ꜣbw in recto l. 12 and verso ll. 10 and 16 in Vandersleyen, “Une tempête,” pls. 8 and 9. 70 Literally, “in every bundle of desiring.” For gꜢw.(t) (Wb. V, 153/3), see Vandersleyen, “Une tempête,” 144–45, textual n. 41. Allen: 15 rejects this reading in favor of gꜢw “lack” (Wb. V, 152), and translated “with every need that could be desired,” but this would rather be “from every lack of desire” (using m gꜢw Wb. V, 152/10–11), which does not it the sense. Allen’s objection to gꜢw.(t) is based on the absence of the otiose feminine ending: “since the inal t of gꜢwt, ‘bundle’ is absent.” As Allen notes elsewhere that this ending is dropped (smn[t], p. 16) or might be so (Ꜣb[t].n.f, p. 14; ḥnw[t], p. 10), this objection is not creditable. 71 Given the features listed following this word (tomb chambers, funerary mansions and pyramids), Ryholt’s rereading (Political Situation, 145) of spꜢ.wt “nomes” is unlikely. 72 Wb. V, 285/2: “like its earlier condition.” As noted below, this is not an expression of “primordial” or “original” condition (contra Allen: 6, and Manning, Test of Time, 198). 73 Commentators (Allen:, 3 and 14, “guide/lead”; Ryholt, Political Situation, 144, “lead”; Redford, “Textual Sources,” 16, F 9 for the looded territories.74 He did not f [ail] in providing them with silver, with gold, with copper, (14) with oil and cloth comprising every bolt that could be desired. His Majesty then made himself comfortable (= seated himself) within the palace (life! prosperity! health!). Then His Majesty was informed75 (15) that the mortuary concessions had been entered: the tomb chambers collapsed, the funerary mansions undermined, and the pyramids fallen76—what had been made rendered non-(16)existent (lit., “what had not been made”). Then His Majesty commanded to restore the temples that had fallen into ruin in this entire land: to refurbish the monuments of the gods, to erect (17) their enclosure walls, to provide the sacred objects in the noble chamber, to mask the secret places,77 to introduce into their shrines the cult images which were (18) cast to the ground, to set up the braziers, to erect the altars, to establish their bread oferings, to double the income of the personnel, to put the land into its former state. Then it was done in accordance with all that His Majesty had commanded. “condition”) have generally rejected Vandersleyen’s understanding of sšm.t in the sense of “evacuate/drain” luids, but it is incorrect to state that “the verb sšm, ‘to lead,’ is not otherwise attested in relation to water” (Ryholt, Political Situation, 144). As Vandersleyen properly pointed out, the word is used to designate a Lower Egyptian canal “The Conductor” in Hellenistic times (Wb. IV, 291/22), and more importantly, it is a basic term used to describe vessels that conduct luids throughout the body in New Kingdom medical texts; see H. von Deines and W. Westendorf, Wörterbuch der medizinischen Texte 2, GMÄA 7/2 (Berlin, 1962), 180. The translation adopted here allows for the reasonable interpretation that being a conductor for the looded territories entails draining them. 74 The writing of mḥy.wt (Wb. II, 122) excludes Ryholt’s suggestion (Political Situation, 144) of mḥty.wt, “northerners” (Wb. II, 126/4–5). 75 For sḫꜢ (+ n), ‘to bring to mind/mention (to),’ see Faulkner, Concise Dictionary, 240; and cf. Allen: 15. Contra Klug, Königliche Stelen, 41 n. 327, there is no serious contrast here between the Allen and Ritner translations. Klug’s translation “erinnern” of this passage leads her to assume reference to actions in the distant past (ibid., 45) rather than to the recent storm. This is unnecessary. 76 For the term wʿ(ı͗)/wʿwʿ/wʿꜢ, “topple/fell/injure,” see Vandersleyen, “Une têmpete,” 147; Dimitri Meeks, Année Lexicographique I (1977) (Paris, 1980), 83; and Allen: 16. There is no need to emend the text to wdı͗ as Klug, Königliche Stelen, 41 n. 331. 77 Or, without the plural restoration, s.(w)t “place(s),” as Redford (“Textual Sources,” 16): “the place of the mysteries.” Note, however, that the plural is regularly dropped in contemporary texts; cf. s.t for s.(w)t “place(s)” in the second Kamose stela, l. 17: wbd⸗ı͗ s.(w).t⸗sn, “I burned their place(s)” (Helck, Historisch-Biographische Texte, 93). This content downloaded from 128.135.12.127 on Mon, 7 Apr 2014 12:08:07 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions F 10 Journal of Near Eastern Studies While the literal meaning of smn is “to make irm/ establish,” the context of restoration indicates a “reestablishment” of previous conditions, again explicitly extended to “the Two Lands.” As admitted by Vandersleyen, the common phrase smn tꜢ.wy signiies putting both halves of the country in order, or “organiser l’Égypte” (Wb. IV, 134/1–3), and that broad meaning is certainly indicated here, not an unattested, restricted reference to organizing “the two banks” of the Nile near Thebes. 78 This second mention of the entire country is completed by the inal summary of the king’s actions: “Then His Majesty commanded to restore the temples that had fallen into ruin in this entire land.” The phrase m tꜢ pn r dr⸗f is unambiguous, but once more Vandersleyen has qualiied it as an expression for “anywhere”: “Étant donné le charactère très localisé des pluies en Égypte, tꜢ pn r dr.f doit représenter un adverb général: <<partout>>, plutôt qu’une hyperbole étendant le désastre à toute l’Égypte.”79 Like more recent commentators (Allen, Ryholt, Manning), Vandersleyen has allowed his knowledge of common, modern storms to ignore what is in fact unique in the Ahmose Tempest Stela. This stance is particularly egregious in the case of Manning, who ignores the unique phrases as “metaphorical,” then faults Foster and Ritner who “fail to explain why their single example is so special.”80 The terminology ḥr tꜢ.wy, smn tꜢ.wy and tꜢ pn r dr.f is self-reinforcing in its expected meaning and without parallel as “metaphorical.” Allen (p. 19) has suggested a novel way to accept the translation but reduce its implication: . . . if the stela dates to the beginning of Ahmose’s reign, as argued above, the phrases ‘Two Lands’ and ‘this entire land’ cannot have had their usual literal reference to the Nile Valley and the Delta combined, since the latter, at least, was still under the control of the rival Hyksos regime. Nonetheless, the use of these phrases in the text does suggest, as Foster and Ritner have seen, that the storm was not limited to the See the reinterpretation by Vandersleyen, “Une tempête,” 143, textual n. 36. 79 Ibid., 148–49, textual n. 54. 80 Contra Manning, Test of Time, 197, we noted (Foster and Ritner: 5) that storms were a “recurrent feature” in Egyptian life and literature, but not “that similar accounts exist in many sources.” Nothing similar to the expressed extent of the Tempest Stela’s storm is attested. 78 Theban area. More likely it afected the entire extent of Egypt under Ahmose’s care. While the assignment of the text to Ahmose’s initial year has been shown to be dubious, so is the claim that contemporary references to Egypt would be limited to areas of Theban control. No examples for this supposition are provided by Allen, yet contrary evidence is readily found in the stelae of Ahmose’s immediate predecessor, Kamose. Precisely this issue of the extent of “Egypt” is at the heart of the irst Kamose stela. The Theban king remonstrates with his courtiers: sı͗Ꜣ⸗ı͗ sw r ͗ıḫ pꜢy⸗ı͗ nḫt wr m Ḥw.t-wʿr.t ky m Kšı͗ ḥms.kwı͗ smꜢ.kwı͗ m ʿꜢm nḥsy s nb hr fdq⸗f m tꜢ Km.t psš tꜢ ḥnʿ⸗ı͗ nn sny sw šꜢʿ r Ḥw.t-Ptḥ mw n Km.t . . . ͗ıb⸗ı͗ r nḥm Km.t For what end am I cognizant of it, this power of mine, with a chieftain in Avaris and another in Cush, while I sit joined with an Asiatic and a Nubian, each man having his slice in this portion of Egypt?81 The one who divides82 the land with me, there is none who can pass by him as far as Memphis,83 the water of Egypt . . . My desire is to rescue Egypt.84 For Kamose, “Egypt” clearly included the entire country, whether controlled by Thebes or not. When his courtiers demur with a position like that of Allen, the king is angered: “We are at ease holding our portion of Egypt. . . He (the Hyksos ruler) holds the land of the AsiFor the meaning of tꜢ Km.t, see Gunn and Gardiner, “Expulsion of the Hyksos”: 45, n. 7; and John C. Darnell, “Articular Km.t/Kmy and Partitive kHme (Including an Isis of Memphis and Syria, and the Kmy of Setne I 5,11 west of which lived Ta-Bubu),” Enchoria 17 (1990): 69–81. 82 Gardiner’s translations prefer the English synonym “share,” but it must be stressed that Egyptian psš indicates independent possession of a portion of a divisible whole, not co-operative ownership. Kamose complains that his Theban power is pointless, since authority in Egypt is separated between rulers. 83 The spelling is a variant of Ḥw.t-kꜢ-Ptḥ, as generally recognized without further comment; see Gardiner, “Defeat of the Hyksos”: 99 and 102. Other examples have long been known, see H. Gauthier, Dictionnaire des noms géographiques contenus dans les textes hiératiques (Cairo, 1927), vol. 4, 70. 84 Helck, Historisch-Biographische Texte: 83–84; and cf. Gunn and Gardiner, “Expulsion of the Hyksos”: 45–46; L. Habachi, The Second Stela of Kamose and His Struggle Against the Hyksos Ruler and His Capital (Glückstadt, 1972), 48; and Gardiner, “Defeat of the Hyksos”: 99 and 102. 81 This content downloaded from 128.135.12.127 on Mon, 7 Apr 2014 12:08:07 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions The Ahmose ‘Tempest Stela’ atics; we hold Egypt. Then he who would come and who [acts against us], we would then act against him.” Then they were displeasing in the heart of His Majesty.85 In a broken passage the king replies that “I shall go north to do battle with the Asiatics so that success happens . . . his86 two eyes weeping, the entire land87 [acclaiming me?] the mighty ruler in Thebes, Kamose who protects Egypt.”88 If the courtiers might consider the Theban realm “Egypt”—even while acknowledging that it is but “our portion of Egypt”—oicial protocol will not tolerate that notion, and Kamose insists that his actions will impact “the entire land” so that he be a ruler “who protects Egypt” and not just Thebes. The same concept of Egypt prevails in the second Kamose stela, in both the speech of Kamose and his Hyksos opponent, Apophis. Kamose describes his punishment of collaborators (ll. 17–18): I laid waste their cities, I burned their places, which were made as red mounds forever because of the damage they did within this portion of Egypt (tꜢ Km.t)—the ones who caused them to serve the Asiatics when they overran Egypt (Km.t) their mistress.89 Similarly, Apophis advises his Nubian ally to attack the Theban portion of Egypt since Kamose and his army are at Avaris: Look, he is here with me; there is no one who is waiting for you in this portion of Egypt (tꜢ Km.t). Look, I shall not grant him a path until you arrive so that we may divide the towns of this portion of Egypt (tꜢ Km.t).90 Helck, Historisch-Biographische Texte, 85–86; and cf. Gunn and Gardiner, “Expulsion of the Hyksos”: 46; Habachi, The Second Stela of Kamose, p. 48; and Gardiner, “Defeat of the Hyksos”: 103–104. 86 Presumably the Hyksos ruler. 87 tꜢ mı͗ qd⸗f (Wb. V, 77/IIa). 88 Helck, Historisch-Biographische Texte, 87; and cf. Gunn and Gardiner, “The Expulsion of the Hyksos”: 45–46; L. Habachi, The Second Stela of Kamose and His Struggle Against the Hyksos Ruler and His Capital (Glückstadt: 1972), 48; and Gardiner, “Defeat of the Hyksos”: 104. 89 Helck, Historisch-Biographische Texte: 93–94; cf. Habachi, Second Stela of Kamose, p. 49. 90 Helck, Historisch-Biographische Texte, 94; cf. Habachi, Second Stela of Kamose, 49. 85 F 11 The contrast between “this portion of Egypt” and “Egypt” or “the entire land” is carefully maintained in contemporary records before the reuniication of Egypt. It is hardly possible that Ahmose would reverse this ideology of Egypt in the following reign while continuing the anti-Hyksos policy of his brother. That this ideology was unchanged is proved by the autobiography of Ahmose, son of Abana, who served as a soldier during Ahmose’s campaign against the Hyksos and later recorded his military deeds in their territory, designated as tꜢ Km.t: “And when they fought in this portion of Egypt (i.e., Avaris), I brought away a male living prisoner.”91 A Question of Metaphor and Parallels It is the unique quality of the Tempest Stela that has led to attempts to reinterpret its basic nature, recasting it as hyperbole, unintentionally broad in phraseology (revising “Two Lands,” or “the entire land”), or as political metaphor for the Hyksos occupation and the topos of restoration of divine order by new kings. As expressed by Ryholt, “surely the alleged destruction is far to (sic) severe too (sic) have been caused by a storm alone.”92 That, of course, is the whole point of the text: this is not a typical storm but a far more cataclysmic event. Ryholt further speculated: The very fact that the storm should have afected the whole of Egypt, as the stela claims, is itself very improbable . . . it seems more obvious to regard it as a metaphor, which was perhaps inspired by an actual storm.93 Ryholt’s metaphorical storm is the Hyksos invasion: “All the circumstances for which the storm is blamed are actually events for which the Hyksos can be seen as responsible.”94 Obviously, this ill accords with the speciic mention of rain and thunder, and it fails to account for the critical fact that the Hyksos are unmentioned, as is any reference to warfare, so that Ryholt must characterize the text by stating “there is reason to believe that it is deliberately kept ambiguous.”95 This supposed ambiguity (i.e., the 91 Sethe, Urk. IV, 4/3 (l. 11); cf. Gunn and Gardiner, “The Expulsion of the Hyksos”: 49. 92 Ryholt, Political Situation, 144. 93 Ibid., 144. 94 Ibid., 144. 95 Ibid., 144. This content downloaded from 128.135.12.127 on Mon, 7 Apr 2014 12:08:07 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 12 F Journal of Near Eastern Studies failure to mention the Hyksos) is “because of the humiliation caused by their invasion and occupation.”96 Before confronting the question of “humiliation” and suppressed references, it is important to refute the notion that the terminology of destruction necessarily implies Hyksos or human activities. This assumption is raised directly in Weiner’s concluding set of challenges: “Why is the Stela interpreted as implying an unmentioned earthquake, given the presence of terms indicative of human destruction and neglect?” (Wiener and Allen: 27). The ready reply is that Egyptian meteorological terminology is all based on human actions. Rain “smites/ hits” (ḥwı͗); thunder is a “voice” (ḫrw); and storms “rage” (nšnı͗).97 Waters can “enter” (ʿq),98 “go/send forth” (bs), “swallow” (ʿꜢm), “encircle” (dbn), “submerge” (smḥ), “carry of/seize” (tꜢı͗), “overthrow/ collapse” (whn—as in the Tempest Stela), and make temples “fallen into ruin” (wꜢ r wꜢs/dꜢm—also in the Tempest Stela), etc.99 The “human” destruction need not be human at all.100 As the destruction is never said to be of human origin, so the Hyksos are certainly irrelevant to the events of the stela. Foster et al. (“Thera eruption and Egypt”: 178) have rightly noted that Egyptian texts dealing with the Hyksos have no hesitation in mentioning them directly by name, and references to their conquest are by no means reticent due to a supposed “humiliation.” The literary tale of Seqenenre mentions Egypt’s “misery” and his opponent Apophis explicitly, Ibid., 144. Wb. III, 46–49 (ḥwı͗); Wb. III, 324–25 (ḫrw); Wb. II, 340– 41 (nšnı͗). 98 Vandersleyen, “Une tempête”: 147, textual n. 46. 99 See Ritner, Libyan Anarchy, 417 (bs l. 2) and 419 (ʿꜢm l. 33, smḥ l. 35, dbn l. 38); E. F. Wente, “The Tale of the Two Brothers,” in W. K. Simpson, The Literature of Ancient Egypt, (3rd edition, New Haven, CT, 2003), 86 (tꜢı͗); and the personal name TꜢı͗-Ḥp-ı͗m⸗w, “The Inundation has seized them”; and Jacques Vandier, La famine dans l’Égypte ancienne, RAPH 7 (Cairo, 1936), 125–26: “The southern dyke behind Memphis has been overthrown (whn) [by] its (“the Inundation’s) waters.” Contra John Baines, “The Inundation Stela of Sebekḥotpe VIII,” Acta Orientalia 36 (1974): 54, n. 38, the königsnovelle format is no reason to deny the reality of this breach in the reign of Amasis; cf. the Dibabieh Stela of Smendes, n. 118, below. For wꜢy r [wꜢs], see Ritner, Libyan Anarchy, 102–103 (l. 5). 100 There is certainly no speciic indication of “neglect” in this instance of buildings “fallen into ruin”; contrast the Speos Artemidos description of children playing on abandoned temples, lapsed festivals and lack of respect in Redford, “Textual Sources,” 17. For responses to other challenges by Wiener, see now Schneider, “Theophany of Seth-Baal,” 407–408. as well as the latter’s “inlammatory message” and the Theban’s formal acquiescence to it.101 Both Kamose stelae mention the “Asiatics” prominently and do not shy away from admitting that they “overran” Egypt or that Kamose’s power is lessened by their own.102 The second stela emphasizes that the Hyksos have “wrongly seized” Egypt and would make Kamose into a mere “chieftain” while Apophis was “ruler.”103 The autobiography of Ahmose son of Abana cites the Asiatics as being in control of Avaris without hesitation,104 and even the retrospective Speos Artemidos text of Hatshepsut describes the “Asiatics” in Avaris and their agency in “overthrowing what had been made.”105 In sum, within the relevant New Kingdom texts the Hyksos and their perceived misdeeds are never masked by metaphor, contrary to the assertions of Ryholt, Allen and Manning. Closely tied to the assumption of the “Hyksos metaphor” is the recasting of the stela as a purely symbolic and formulaic expression of the restoration of order from chaos at the inauguration of a new king. This notion was strengthened by Allen’s misleading translation of putting the land “in its former state” as “like its original situation.”106 Once the connection to the inauguration of Ahmose is dismissed with Allen’s phantom “line 0,” of course, this assessment is already untenable, but an examination of the genre of such inauguration texts also quickly shows their lack of similarity to the Tempest Stela. Ironically, the text most often cited as a supposed parallel, “The Destruction of Mankind,” is a mythological account unrelated to any king’s actions and thus alien to the royal genre.107 More appropri- 96 97 E. F. Wente, “The Quarrel of Apophis and Seknenre,” in Simpson, Literature of Ancient Egypt, 69–71. 102 See above, nn. 82 and 89. 103 Helck, Historisch-Biographische Texte, 91; cf. Habachi, Second Stela of Kamose, 48. 104 See above, n. 91. 105 Redford, “Textual Sources,” 17; Gunn and Gardiner, “Expulsion of the Hyksos”: 55. Contra H. Goedicke in H. Shanks, “The Exodus and the Crossing of the Red Sea,” Biblical Archaeology Review 7/5 (1981): 42–52; and Wilson, The Bible is History, 136–37, the statement that “the earth has removed their footprints” is a reference to the sweeping efect of wind blown sand, not a cataclysmic storm, and is preigured in the text by reference to the ritual of “Bringing away the foot(print)” to conclude oferings; see Redford, “Textual Sources,” 16 and 31, n. 187. 106 Allen: 6. The text does not use the terminology for original times: m sp tpy (Wb. V, 278/3–4) or m pꜢw.t tꜢ (Wb. I, 496). Contrast tpy-ʿ “previous/former” (Wb. V, 283). For the misunderstood implication of Allen’s translation, see Manning, Test of Time, 198. 107 Contra Allen: 19 and Ryholt (Political Situation, 145). For a translation, see E. F. Wente, “The Book of the Heavenly Cow,” 101 This content downloaded from 128.135.12.127 on Mon, 7 Apr 2014 12:08:07 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions The Ahmose ‘Tempest Stela’ ate texts are the Prophesy of Neferti,108 the previously noted Speos Artemidos text of Hatshepsut,109 the Tutankhamun Restoration Stela,110 the encomium on the accession of Ramses IV,111 the Harris Papyrus112 and the Elephantine stela of Sethnakht.113 The encomium is the purest representative of the genre, with only formulaic expressions. Notable in all the remainder of these compositions is the speciic emphasis on social and political chaos, entailing administrative failure by previous Egyptian rulers and complications regarding foreigners. In these concerns, the genre is closer to the content of the irst Kamose Stela than to that of the Tempest Stela, yet none would consider the Kamose Stela to contain only a non-literal “metaphor” or generic “topos.” On the contrary, all of these “restoration” texts have a clear basis in historical fact, with the role of the king given special emphasis.114 Even if the Tempest Stela belonged to this group, that would not invalidate its historical nature. However, none of the “restoration” texts privileges climactic disruption, though Neferti has two brief passages noting the disruption of the river and winds as pendants to the detailed social and political disasters.115 in Simpson, Literature of Ancient Egypt, 289–98. Recounting Ra’s salvation of mankind with a lood and the origin of gods, this is a text of creation, not restoration, and is hardly a model for the Tempest Stela. Also mythological is the Persian Saft el-Henna naos tale, included by H. Goedicke, “The Chronology of the Thera/Santorini Explosion,” Ägypten und Levante 3 (1992): 57–62, esp. 61. The late naos tale is confused by Manning (Test of Time, 197) with an inscription of year 7 of Hatshepsut (Speos Artemidos)! 108 See Vincent A. Tobin, “The Prophecies of Neferty,” in Simpson, Literature of Ancient Egypt, 214–20. 109 See Redford, “Textual Sources,” 16–17. 110 James B. Pritchard, ANET (3rd edition, Princeton, NJ, 1969), 251–52. 111 Ibid., 378–79. The text in passing notes customary good inundations, but nothing extraordinary. 112 Ibid., 260. 113 F. Junge, Elephantine XI: Funde und Bauteile (Mainz, 1987), 55–58 and pl. 36. Perhaps one may add to this list the Karnak inscription of Merneptah, but the supposed reference to a storm in line 9 is questionable, as the critical word dʿ is uniquely spelled with the road and evil-bird determinatives, not the wind hieroglyph. It is translated in Wb V, 534/12 as “laid waste,” which better its the context. No further storm imagery is used, but again the emphasis on political chaos is explicit. The term is translated “stormy” in Colleen Manassa, The Great Karnak Inscription of Merneptah: Grand Strategy in the 13th Century BC, Yale Egyptological Studies 5 (New Haven, CT, 2003), 16–17. 114 The will of the gods is typically mentioned, but this is not exclusive to the genre. 115 Tobin, “Prophecies of Neferty,” 216–17. The text then continues with mention of “foreign birds” settling in Egypt, employ- F 13 In its exclusive concentration on weather damage rather than on systemic social collapse, the Tempest Stela is set apart from this group and inds its closest link in texts of weather anomalies—storms and loods. One example of this genre, from the Wadi Hammamat, has already been introduced above.116 Other examples include the Inundation Stela of Sobekhotep VIII,117 the Dibabieh Quarry Stela of Smendes,118 the Karnak Flood Text of Osorkon III,119 and the multiple stelae recording the “Extraordinary High Nile” in the reign of Taharqa.120 All record unusual water events, and all are historical, not metaphorical. Two (the Osorkon and Taharqa examples) have associated lood level marks that corroborate the descriptive texts. Even within this group, however, the Tempest Stela stands apart. The Wadi Hammamat text records a quite local downpour and even though the inundation afects the whole of Egypt, the Sobekhotep, Osorkon and Taharqa texts all conine their description of impact to the temple of Karnak and Thebes alone. The importance of Thebes, and Theban Amon, is evident from the text of the Tempest Stela and its placement in Karnak, but the Ahmose document sharply difers from all of these texts in its emphasis on countrywide disruption. Its terminology is without parallel, which is inexplicable if these expressions were commonplace and accepted “metaphors” or “topoi ” in the genre. To this list should be added a further text, almost certainly from the reign of Ahmose as well. A docket on the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus from year 11 includes the notation that during the epagomenal days, on the birthday of Seth, “There was a giving of his voice (= thunder) by the Majesty of this god.” The following birthday of Isis witnessed “heaven making ing a well-known symbol of enemies (birds) explicitly designated as “foreign.” Such a designation does not accompany the storm of the Tempest Stela. 116 See above, n. 62. 117 Helck, Historisch-Biographische Texte, 46–47; John Baines, “The Inundation Stela of Sebekḥotpe VIII,” Acta Orientalia 36 (1974): 39–54, and “The Sebekḥotpe VIII Inundation Stela: An Additional Fragment,” Acta Orientalia 37 (1976): 11–20; and L. Habachi, “A High Inundation in the Temple of Amenre at Karnak in the Thirteenth Dynasty,” SAK 1 (1974): 207–14. Baines, “Inundation Stela”: 54, n. 38, notes the real events of the Sebekhotep and Taharqa texts “which should probably be compared rather with the storm in the reign of Aḥmose” in contrast to texts of the restoration of world order. 118 Ritner, Libyan Anarchy, 101–104. 119 Ibid., 415–21 and 39. 120 Ibid., 539–45 and 81 (four stelae and two level markers). This content downloaded from 128.135.12.127 on Mon, 7 Apr 2014 12:08:07 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions F 14 Journal of Near Eastern Studies rain (ḥwı͗.t).”121 Like the Tempest Stela, this is a literal, not igurative, record of atypical thunder and rain, and it is further proof that the scholars under Ahmose paid close and particular attention to matters of weather. Clearly, they had reason to do so. What Ahmose experienced and recorded was not a typical storm, nor a masked reference to Hyksos destruction and royal defeat of primordial chaos. Any royal action may evoke religious reference, but one cannot reduce royal acts to mere symbolic statements—particularly when the terminology does not it. Whether the Tempest Stela records the actual events of Thera or later after-efects cannot be proved conclusively since the text cannot be expected to state that the storm “originated in Santorini” or “among the ḤꜢ.w-nb.wt (Aegean islanders).” The authors could not have known that. What it does state is that this storm was unparalleled in intensity and extent. Resistance to the linkage of Thera to the Tempest Stela has been motivated less by the text itself than by the chronological implications of such a link. With newer and better dates for the eruption, there yet remains another possibility for reconciliation, to be explained in the following section by Nadine Moeller. If Thera cannot be moved to Ahmose, it is becoming clearer that Ahmose might be moved toward Thera. It is important, however, to repeat two critical points: disconnecting the stela from Ahmose’s coronation does not require a date late in the king’s reign, and the events described need not be testimony of the initial explosion, but rather of climactic after-efects that would have continued for some years. Part II: The Date of the Thera Eruption (Nadine Moeller) the irst article by Foster and Ritner was published, the absolute date for the Thera eruption was still a matter of debate, and two date ranges had been proposed that were about 100 years apart from each other.122 On the basis of archaeological evidence, the Minoan eruption had been placed at some time during the last quarter of the 16th century B.C. (ca. 1524–1500 B.C.), which corresponds to the early 18th Dynasty in Egypt. Meantime, radiocarbon dates and tree-ring data combined with evidence from ice cores pointed to a date about a hundred years earlier, in the 17th century B.C., where it would take us to the end of the Egyptian Second Intermediate Period.123 This situation changed considerably in 2006, when a study of new radiocarbon dates was published of samples taken from a branch of an olive tree that had been buried alive during the Thera eruption.124 The tree had been covered by several meters of pumice, but remnants of its branches and leaves have been excavated providing good evidence that the tree was alive when the eruption happened. Another fortunate inding was that the complete set of tree rings of the branch had been preserved. This made it the ideal short-lived example for radiocarbon dating that would ofer a 14C date with a much more limited error range than before. A series of calibrated radiocarbon dates from a deined sequence of tree rings in the olive tree branch was obtained.125 Since olive trees in general have slightly uneven and often scarcely visible tree rings, x-ray tomography was used to identify the complete number of rings in a section of the branch including its bark.126 The calibrated age range that has been obtained for the outermost ring (which marks the year the eruption happened) is now at 1621–1605 Foster and Ritner: 8–9. These two possibilities have generated many publications arguing for one or the other date. See for example the debate between Manning, Test of Time, who favors the high chronology for the Aegean region while Manfred Bietak defends the younger date in his “Science versus Archaeology: Problems and Consequences of High Aegean Chronology,” in The Synchronisation of Civilisations in the Eastern Mediterranean in the Second Millennium B.C. II, ed. Manfred Bietak, Denkschriften de Gesamtakademie 29 (Vienna, 2003). 124 See Walter L. Friedrich et al., “Santorini Eruption Radiocarbon Dated to 1627 - 1600 B.C.,” Science 312 (2006); Sturt W. Manning et al., “Chronology for the Aegean Late Bronze Age 1700–1400 B.C.,” Science 312 (2006); and Michael Balter, “New Carbon Dates Support Revised History of Ancient Mediterranean,” Science 312 (2006). 125 Manning et al., “Chronology for the Aegean Late Bronze Age”: 566. The calibration was made by using the IntCal04 curve. 126 Friedrich et al., “Santorini Eruption,” ig. 1c. 122 123 The New Evidence for the Date of the Eruption The Minoan eruption of Santorini has been for the past decades one of the main issues regarding the absolute chronology of the eastern Mediterranean region. The exact date for the eruption is a very important marker and reference point for linking and synchronizing various loating chronologies in the eastern Mediterranean and the Levant. In 1996, when Helck, Historisch-Biographische Texte, 78 (col. III, ll. 1–3). These dockets are suggested to be linked to Thera in H. Goedicke, “The End of the Hyksos in Egypt,” in L. Lesko, ed. Egyptological Studies in Honor of Richard A. Parker (Hanover, NH, 1986), 37–47. 121 This content downloaded from 128.135.12.127 on Mon, 7 Apr 2014 12:08:07 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions The Ahmose ‘Tempest Stela’ (1σ, 68% conidence) and 1627–1600 B.C. (2σ, 95% conidence).127 The very tight date range for both the 1σ and 2σ values shows clearly the extremely high precision of the date for this event. The previously proposed younger date around 1520 B.C. can now be fully excluded in view of these new scientiic results. After the initial publication of the results in 2006, several concerns were raised as to the reliability of the dates obtained.128 In a recent publication from 2009, the same group of scientists who had carried out the initial dating and research wrote a follow-up article in order to respond to these questions.129 None of the arguments against the accuracy of the Thera eruption dates brought forward give any reasons for concern as they could all be satisfactorily answered. The recently-established date range for the Thera eruption can be regarded as secure and reliable; any younger date in the 16th century B.C. can now be safely dismissed according to this new evidence. B.C. Implications for Egyptian Chronology The Current Standing of Egyptian Absolute Chronology As outlined in Part I of this article, the Ahmose tempest stela contains very unusual descriptions of a natural catastrophe, which focused on the widespread destruction caused by a very strong storm. It has also been proposed that there is a link between the eruption of Thera and the kind of efects being witnessed in Egypt as described on this stela. Now with the new absolute dates established for the Thera eruption, it is necessary to investigate how this its to Egyptian chronology and the dates for the reign of king Ahmose, the irst ruler of the 18th Dynasty. In 2010, new results for a radiocarbon-based chronology for dynastic Egypt were published within the framework of the Egyptian Chronology Project at the Research Laboratory for Archaeology and the History Ibid., 548. See for example various points raised regarding this debate by Malcolm H. Wiener, “Cold Fusion: The Uneasy Alliance of History and Science,” in Tree-Rings, Kings, and Old World Archaeology and Environment, ed. Sturt W. Manning and Mary Jaye Bruce (Oxford, 2009). 129 Walter L. Friedrich et al., “Santorini Eruption Dadiocarbon Dated to 1627–1600 BC: Further Discussion,” in Tree-Rings, Kings, and Old World Archaeology and Environment, ed. Manning and Bruce. 127 128 F 15 of Art, University of Oxford.130 The analysis incorporates statistical models in combination with radiocarbon dates, a new method which has provided a much more precise data set for the absolute chronology of Egypt. The published results show that from the New Kingdom and later, the dates correspond quite well to the previously proposed historical dates with an error margin that falls between twenty-four and eleven years while the dates of earlier periods such as the reigns dating to the third millennium B.C. show more of a discrepancy of about an average of seventy-six years.131 For a long time, Egyptian chronologies have been established by means of a variety of historical and archaeological sources that ofer primarily relative chronological sequences for dynastic Egypt—such as king-lists, monumental records, textual sources and ceramic sequences to name just a few. Those were then tied to absolute dates by means of a small number of ancient astronomical dates, which come mostly from the Middle and New Kingdoms.132 The fact that many of the recorded celestial and lunar phenomena occur at regular intervals has been a promising starting point for establishing several ixed dates within the Egyptian chronology. Unfortunately, these observations are strongly dependent on the location from which they were made in antiquity, but this information was not clearly stated in the records. Thus a number of very diferent dates are possible, a fact that adds too many uncertainties and has generated a never-ending discussion amongst scholars. Other attempts to synchronize the Egyptian chronology with absolute chronologies established for neighboring civilizations are only feasible from the mid-18th Dynasty of the New Kingdom onwards.133 However, radiocarbon dating, a method that generates independent absolute dates, has been frequently criticized in the past because of large error margins (between 100 and 200 years at the 2σ (95%) range) Christopher Bronk Ramsey et al., “Radiocarbon-based Chronology for Dynastic Egypt,” Science 328 (2010). 131 Ibid., 1556, table 1551. 132 See, for example, recent discussions about Egyptian astronomical data by Ulrich Luft, “Priorities in Absolute Chronology,” in Synchronisation of Civilisations . . . II, ed. Bietak and Rolf Krauss, “Arguments in Favor of a Low Chronology for the Middle and New Kingdom in Egypt,” in ibid. 133 See, for example, the latest article by on this topic by Kenneth A. Kitchen, “Egyptian and Related Chronologies - Look, no sciences, no Pots!,” in The Synchronisation of Civilisations in the Eastern Mediterranean in the Second Millennium B.C. III, ed. Manfred Bietak (Vienna, 2007). 130 This content downloaded from 128.135.12.127 on Mon, 7 Apr 2014 12:08:07 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions F 16 Journal of Near Eastern Studies that are too wide for the precision needed for dating Egypt’s dynasties.134 In order to solve this issue and provide a more reliable data set, the above-mentioned Oxford project was set up. The Oxford team carefully chose selected samples that were short-lived plant remains held in museum collections in order to minimize large error ranges and achieve high precision. Such samples used for radiocarbon dating included selections of seeds, pieces of basketry and plant-based textiles as well as fruits.135 The choice of these was based on the condition that they were directly linkable to particular reigns. Charcoal, wood and mummiied material was excluded because of possible contamination or inherent older ages, which is the case for wood and charcoal. Most samples were chosen according to the archaeological context and relation to a known king, but this of course comes also with some uncertainties, since most of the samples were excavated in the 19th and early 20th centuries, and most of them come from funerary contexts. In some cases, several diferent samples from the same context were dated to check for internal consistency. For the actual measurements, only very small quantities of each sample were used because the radiocarbon measurements were made by accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS). By the end of this procedure, a total of 211 AMS radiocarbon dates had been generated, of which 188 were considered reliable. Those are the ones that were further used in the statistical models. Of these 188 dates, 128 were from the New Kingdom, 43 from the Middle Kingdom and 17 from the Old Kingdom.136 The statistical model that was followed in order to establish the necessary high-precision chronological sequence is called the Bayesian modeling approach.137 For this method, the radiocarbon dates were combined with additional historical information such as regnal length and order.138 Uncertainties in regnal lengths are quite small for periods like the New Kingdom, which lie at 1–2 years as a margin of error (except for Horemheb and Thutmose II), but this becomes less precise for the earlier periods, and this had to be quantiied in the model, too. Additionally, environmental information was included when necessary.139 Because the regnal lengths had been included in these models, it is important to stress that the results that are generated cannot be used to provide independent regnal length information! Results for the Early New Kingdom The use of regnal order and length together with radiocarbon dates shows the best results for periods which also have the highest number of radiocarbon dates, such as the New Kingdom (128 dates). Here the average calendric precision is twenty-four years (2σ 95% range) or eleven years for the 1σ 68% range for accession dates.140 This is the period that concerns us most in connection with the Ahmose stela. However, no dates were obtained for the Second Intermediate Period preceding the New Kingdom because of the Ibid., 1555. See Christopher Bronk Ramsey, “Bayesian Analysis of Radiocarbon Dates,” Radiocarbon 51, no. 1 (2009), for more details on the use of Bayesian analysis for radiocarbon dates. Bayesian statistics provide a good framework for radiocarbon dates. C14 “dates” are not dates at all, but measurements of an isotope ration. To interpret them as dates, it is necessary to perform some statistical analysis using a calibration curve. 138 The dates published in Ian Shaw, The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt (Oxford, 2000) were used for this model. The order of reigns did not include any absolute dates. 139 Such as the known depletion of radiocarbon levels relative to the calibration curve which corresponds to a shift to older dates by 19± 5 14C years; see Ramsey, “Bayesian Analysis of Radiocarbon Dates,” 1555; Michael W. Dee et al., “Investigating the likelihood of a reservoir ofset in the radiocarbon record for ancient Egypt,” Journal of Archaeological Science 37 (2010). Such a phenomenon probably linked to the perennial inundation has been noticed for the Old Kingdom, particularly the 4th Dynasty. 140 Ramsey et al., “Radiocarbon-based Chronology for Dynastic Egypt,” 1555. 136 Historical and archaeological data can often provide a range of ± 30 years or less, a fact which has led many scholars to refrain from using 14C data altogether. Another factor that makes it diicult to have archaeological samples radiocarbon dated is that there are currenly strict regulations in place that prohibit any export of samples from Egypt. The only radiocarbon laboratory in Egypt is currently located at the Institut français d’archéologie orientale (IFAO) in Cairo, which does not have an accelerator mass spectrometry (AMS) facility and thus requires large sample sizes. This excludes the submission of many short-lived samples (such as seeds) that are ideal for acquiring precise dates. In the near future, however, AMS might be possible at the IFAO, and we expect this laboratory, which is currently seeing the submission of all archaeological samples from excavations in Egypt, to play an increasingly important role. 135 See Ramsey et al., “Radiocarbon-based Chronology,” 1557 no. 1530. As the impressive list of institutions from which samples were used shows, many botanical samples came from the Oxford University Herbaria, the Natural History Museum in London and the famous Royal Botanical Gardens at Kew. 134 137 This content downloaded from 128.135.12.127 on Mon, 7 Apr 2014 12:08:07 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions The Ahmose ‘Tempest Stela’ lack of samples that can be associated with a speciic king. The best-dated ruler for the early New Kingdom is Thutmose III, for whom twenty-four radiocarbon samples were obtained. The results show that his rule was about 15–20 years earlier than the conventional dates provided by Shaw and Hornung.141 However, no samples from any of his predecessors have been obtained and the dates for Amenhotep I and Ahmose are based on the estimated maximum number regnal years, which are twenty-one and twenty-ive years, respectively. There is of course the uncertainty for both Thutmose I and Thutmose II (three to four, or thirteen years?) that needs to be taken into account, as well.142 Ahmose’s reign falls under this newly established chronology at a date that is about ten to ifteen years older than previously assumed, and it is realistic to say that the low chronology which dates him to 1539– 1514 B.C. is very unlikely in the view of the dates obtained for Thutmose III. According to the currently known historical records for Ahmose, year 22 is the last attested regnal year and his reign length has been estimated at twenty-ive to twenty-six years maximum.143 Counting backwards using the maximum number of regnal years, Ahmose’s reign is now suggested to have started between 1566 and 1552 B.C. (at the 1σ, 68% range) and 1570 to 1544 B.C. (for the 2σ range 95%). Already these dates show that twenty to thirty years of uncertainty still remain here. Another factor of much debate and inconsistency is the length of the Second Intermediate Period, for which no date was obtained simply due to the problems of acquiring samples that can be securely connected to a speciic ruler’s reign. According to the new model, the reign of Amenemhat III is well deined with ten samples showing also a slightly older reign of about a decade. If the beginning of the 13th Dynasty holds true,144 then the period from the accession of the irst king of The absolute dates published by Shaw, Oxford History are mean estimates made from various publications. The other source used is by Erik Hornung, Rolf Krauss, and David Warburton, Ancient Egyptian Chronology 83 (Leiden, 2006), “Section 1, the Near and Middle East.” 142 Rolf Krauss, “An Egyptian Chronology for Dynasties XIII to XXV,” in The Synchronisation of Civilisations in the Eastern Mediterranean in the Second Millennium B.C. III, ed. Manfred Bietak (Vienna, 2007), 182–83. 143 Christophe Barbotin, Ahmosis et le début de la XVIIIe dynastie (Paris, 2008), 67. 144 Although there is this much debate about the identity of the irst ruler: for a summary, see Ryholt, Political Situation, 315–21. 141 F 17 the 13th Dynasty up to the end of the Second Intermediate Period lasted for about 200 years, which is in fact much shorter than earlier estimates.145 However, from an archaeological perspective, especially in view of the latest results from the Middle Kingdom and Second Intermediate Period contexts at Tell Edfu, for which a complete and well-documented stratigraphic record exists, this time span seems much more realistic. It also its well to the observed archaeological formation processes (life span and use, abandonment and re-building of major mud-brick buildings) as well as cultural developments (such as the evolution of the ceramic repertoire) recorded at Tell Edfu.146 A recent discovery of more than forty clay sealings naming the Hyksos ruler Khayan at Tell Edfu found in the abandonment layer of a large administrative building complex have contributed additional data to the debate of the chronology of the Second Intermediate Period. They were found together with nine sealings of the 13th Dynasty king Sobekhotep IV, who usually is considered to have reigned almost eighty years prior to Khayan. The new archaeological evidence now suggests that these two reigns lie much closer together than previously thought, and tend to corroborate the shorter time span for the Second Intermediate Period.147 Implications for the Date of the Eruption In view of the new date for the Thera eruption and the recent evidence for an older chronological sequence in absolute terms for the New Kingdom and the Middle Kingdom, Ahmose is currently dated between thirty to ifty years later than the volcanic event. However, as has been shown in the discussion of Egyptian absolute chronology, the dates for Ahmose are by no means fully ixed yet.148 Additionally, there is a problem 145 See, for example, Thomas Schneider, “Das Ende der kurzen Chronologie: Eine kritische Bilanz der Debatte zur absoluten Datierung des Mittleren Reiches und der Zweiten Zwischenzeit,” Ägypten und Levante 18 (2008), who suggests a time span between 270 and 304 years for the 13th and 17th Dynasties. 146 In order to obtain more data on this issue, a series of radiocarbon samples have been submitted to the IFAO laboratory. The irst results will be made available in the near future. 147 Nadine Moeller, Gregory Marouard, and N. Ayers, “Discussion of late Middle Kingdom and early Second Intermediate Period history and chronology in relation to the Khayan sealings discovered at Tell Edfu,” Ägypten und Levante 21 (2012): 87–121. 148 It has to be noted that if the older calibration curve IntCal98 is used, the dates for the Thera eruption have a slightly lower limit, This content downloaded from 128.135.12.127 on Mon, 7 Apr 2014 12:08:07 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 18 F Journal of Near Eastern Studies related to the absence of any reliable absolute chronological data for the Second Intermediate Period.149 In view of the unusually detailed description of a major climatic event on the Tempest Stela, combined with the shifting chronology, we must now consider the possibility that the Thera eruption had been witnessed by Ahmose himself. Furthermore, the eruption certainly afected a large part of the eastern Mediterranean and would have remained part of an oral tradition that was fresh in the memory of the people for a long time afterwards. But the stela emphasizes the fact that Ahmose himself witnessed the event, which seems to exclude him using a second-hand account. Another plausible explanation for the unusual thunderstorm Ahmose described is that it might have not been the eruption itself, but its aftermath—a shortterm climate change episode that afected a very large region including all of Egypt. This climatic episode would have severely interrupted the usual weather patterns in Egypt, which might have been the reason why it was commented upon in the textual record, such as in the Tempest Stela and the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus. The “Tempest” episode, marked by increased storms and rainfall, probably lasted only for a few years, which is not long enough to be detectable, for example in the pollen record.150 This would still place Ahmose close in time to the eruption itself. From modern volcanic eruptions such as the one at Krakatoa in A.D. 1883, it is known that numerous after-efects include darkened skies, lower temperatures and chaotic weather patterns lasting several years.151 It would be interesting to investigate whether a slight drop in the average temperatures by extending down to 1575 B.C. (2σ), while the high limits would remain almost the same, see Walter L. Friedrich et al., “Supporting Online Material for Santorini Eruption Radiocarbon Dates to 1627–1600 B.C.,” Science 312 (2006). 149 The author is currently preparing a new project on the absolute dates of the First and Second Intermediate Periods in Egypt. 150 For example, the most recent study on climatic changes detected in Egypt does not provide any evidence for the 17th century B.C., but clearly shows drier conditions during the First Intermediate Period; see Christian E. Bernhardt, Benjamin P. Horton, and Jean-Daniel Stanley, “Nile Delta vegetation response to Holocene climate variability,” Geology 40 (2012). 151 It is unlikely that the eruption caused the collapse of the Minoan civilization of Crete, but its climatic impact was certainly signiicant for several years; see the discussion by Sturt W. Manning and David A. Sewell, “Volcanoes and History: a signiicant relationship? The case of Santorini,” in Natural Disasters and Cultural Change, ed. Robin Torrence and John Grattan (London, 2002). one to two degrees Celsius would lead to an increased formation of severe thunderstorms over Egypt, but no such study is currently available to our knowledge. In a recent article about the precise stages of the eruption at Thera and its aftermath, F. W. McCoy summarizes various phenomena that Late Bronze Age peoples in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean are likely to have experienced.152 These phenomena sound remarkably similar to the various observations mentioned in the Ahmose stela: 1. A deafening explosion (the Krakatoa explosion was heard at a distance of more than 4,000km; the Thera eruption is supposed to have been stronger than the former!); 2. earthquake-like shaking of the ground that could be felt by the people living on the surrounding islands; 3. darkness over the region covered by the tephra cloud, particularly strong closest to Thera and lasting for more than one day, maybe even a few days (such darkness has been witnessed at a distance of 600km for two days after the eruption of Mount Tambora in Indonesia, where the explosion was also heard at least as far as 2,000km away);153 4. thunderstorm-like weather conditions that developed within the eruption plumes and extremely strong rainfall in the southern Aegean region; and 5. severe destruction of the coastal regions in the Aegean and Eastern Mediterranean Sea from several tsunamis. In this context, the superior strength of the Thera eruption154 to those volcanoes for which we have historical records needs to be emphasized; it remains 152 Floyd McCoy, “The eruption within the debate about the date,” in Time’s up! Dating the Minoan eruption of Santorini, ed. David Warburton (Athens, 2009), 88–90. This is mainly based on comparisons with historical data from various recent large eruptions, none of which was as strong as the one at Late Bronze Age Thera. 153 The distance between Thera and Dendera is approximately 1,320km, and 750km between the Delta and the island. 154 The Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI) of the LBA eruption at Thera has been estimated to be greater than 7. For comparison, Mt. St. Helens had a VEI of 5, Krakatoa a VEI of 6 and Tambora a VEI of 7. McCoy states that Thera was at least 1.5 times stronger than Tambora, see ibid., 84. For further information about how the VEI is calculated, see Christopher G. Newhall and Stephen Self, “The Volcanic Explosivity Index (VEI): an estimate of explosive magnitude for historical volcanism,” Journal of Geophysical Research: Oceans 87 (1982): 1231–38. This content downloaded from 128.135.12.127 on Mon, 7 Apr 2014 12:08:07 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions The Ahmose ‘Tempest Stela’ diicult to estimate the precise range of regions being afected and by what intensity. Some traces for the Thera eruption have been found at the settlement site of Tell el-Dab’a in the eastern Delta. During those excavations, pumice was found in secondary contexts, such as workshops in which it had been used as abrasive material and collected speciically for this use.155 Only a few traces of pumice were directly deposited in the Delta by aeolian forces, while most of the pumice had been washed ashore in the form of pumice rafts, which constitute a loating mass of pumice that has formed on the ocean surface after volcanic activity.156 This opens up many further questions: for example, how long did it take for these rafts to arrive at the Egyptian seashore and how long See Max Bichler et al., “Thera Ashes,” in Synchronisation of Civilisations . . . II, ed. Bietak; for further details, see Bietak, “Science versus Archaeology,” 28. 156 See also Foster et al., “The Thera eruption and Egypt,” 174–76. 155 F 19 did they lay there before people realized the beneits of pumice and started collecting it? Again, further studies are needed to evaluate the presence of pumice found in these archaeological contexts, which seems to provide only limited information for the chronological discussion at the moment. As a inal point, it is necessary to emphasize that such a major natural catastrophe as the volcanic explosion under consideration would have seriously affected a wide range of civilizations around the eastern Mediterranean; it would have remained in people’s memories for a long time. That said, it is remarkable that we have no concrete records of accounts from anywhere in this region by people who had witnessed the Thera eruption more closely. An inlux of new data is obliging us to revise the chronology of the Middle Kingdom, Second Intermediate Period, and the New Kingdom. It is now time to consider the possibility that the Tempest Stela is indeed a contemporary record of the cataclysmic Thera event. This content downloaded from 128.135.12.127 on Mon, 7 Apr 2014 12:08:07 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions