The Juridical Stela or Cairo Juridical Stela (;
Cairo JE 52453) is an
ancient Egyptian stele issued in c.1650 BCE. Kept at the
Cairo Museum
The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, known commonly as the Egyptian Museum or the Cairo Museum, in Cairo, Egypt, is home to an extensive collection of ancient Egyptian antiquities. It has 120,000 items, with a representative amount on display ...
, its main purpose is to document the sale of a government office.
History
The Juridical Stela was found in 1927 during some consolidation works in the
Great Hypostyle Hall
The Great Hypostyle Hall is located within the Karnak temple complex, in the Precinct of Amon-Re. It is one of the most visited monuments of Ancient Egypt. The structure was built around the 19th Egyptian Dynasty (c. 1290–1224 BC). Its design ...
at
Karnak
The Karnak Temple Complex, commonly known as Karnak (, which was originally derived from ar, خورنق ''Khurnaq'' "fortified village"), comprises a vast mix of decayed temples, pylons, chapels, and other buildings near Luxor, Egypt. Construct ...
(in modern
Luxor
Luxor ( ar, الأقصر, al-ʾuqṣur, lit=the palaces) is a modern city in Upper (southern) Egypt which includes the site of the Ancient Egyptian city of ''Thebes''.
Luxor has frequently been characterized as the "world's greatest open-a ...
), where it was placed during the
New Kingdom
New is an adjective referring to something recently made, discovered, or created.
New or NEW may refer to:
Music
* New, singer of K-pop group The Boyz
Albums and EPs
* ''New'' (album), by Paul McCartney, 2013
* ''New'' (EP), by Regurgitator, ...
. The
stele
A stele ( ),Anglicized plural steles ( ); Greek plural stelai ( ), from Greek , ''stēlē''. The Greek plural is written , ''stēlai'', but this is only rarely encountered in English. or occasionally stela (plural ''stelas'' or ''stelæ''), whe ...
is actually older than the Hypostyle Hall, being issued during the
Second Intermediate Period
The Second Intermediate Period marks a period when ancient Egypt fell into disarray for a second time, between the end of the Middle Kingdom and the start of the New Kingdom. The concept of a "Second Intermediate Period" was coined in 1942 by ...
, and it is dated to the regnal Year 1 of the
Theban Pharaoh
Pharaoh (, ; Egyptian: ''pr ꜥꜣ''; cop, , Pǝrro; Biblical Hebrew: ''Parʿō'') is the vernacular term often used by modern authors for the kings of ancient Egypt who ruled as monarchs from the First Dynasty (c. 3150 BC) until the an ...
Nebiryraw I
Sewadjenre Nebiryraw (also Nebiriau I, Nebiryerawet I) was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh of the Theban-based 16th Dynasty, during the Second Intermediate Period.
Reign
On the Turin Canon he is credited with a 26-year-long reign and was succeeded ...
of the
16th
16 (sixteen) is the natural number following 15 and preceding 17. 16 is a composite number, and a square number, being 42 = 4 × 4. It is the smallest number with exactly five divisors, its proper divisors being , , and .
In English speech, ...
or
17th Dynasty
The Seventeenth Dynasty of Egypt (notated Dynasty XVII, alternatively 17th Dynasty or Dynasty 17) was a dynasty of pharaohs that ruled in Upper Egypt during the late Second Intermediate Period, approximately from 1580 to 1550 BC. Its mainly Theba ...
. The stele is made from
limestone
Limestone ( calcium carbonate ) is a type of carbonate sedimentary rock which is the main source of the material lime. It is composed mostly of the minerals calcite and aragonite, which are different crystal forms of . Limestone forms whe ...
, and measures in height and in width. It is carved with 28 lines of
Egyptian hieroglyph
Egyptian hieroglyphs (, ) were the formal writing system used in Ancient Egypt, used for writing the Egyptian language. Hieroglyphs combined logographic, syllabic and alphabetic elements, with some 1,000 distinct characters.There were about 1,00 ...
text, and it is now housed at the
Cairo Museum
The Museum of Egyptian Antiquities, known commonly as the Egyptian Museum or the Cairo Museum, in Cairo, Egypt, is home to an extensive collection of ancient Egyptian antiquities. It has 120,000 items, with a representative amount on display ...
.
[
]
Content
The text on the stele reports the sale of the office of governor
A governor is an administrative leader and head of a polity or political region, ranking under the head of state and in some cases, such as governors-general, as the head of state's official representative. Depending on the type of political ...
of El-Kab
El Kab (or better Elkab) is an Upper Egyptian site on the east bank of the Nile at the mouth of the Wadi Hillal about south of Luxor (ancient Thebes). El Kab was called Nekheb in the Egyptian language ( , Late Coptic: ), a name that refers to ...
from a man called Kebsi to a relative called Sobeknakht
Sobeknakht was an ancient Egyptian official with the main title '' high steward''. He was in office in the Middle Kingdom under king Amenemhat I of the 12th Dynasty, around 1975 BC. Sobeknakht is known from a block with a relief, once adorning th ...
. It seems that Kebsi contracted a significant debt of 60 gold '' deben'' towards Sobeknakht;[, p. 161] not having the possibility to pay, Kebsi decided to sell his office to Sobeknakht who would become the new governor of El-Kab, with all the benefits that this charge entailed. All the documents necessary for the transaction were brought to the Vizier
A vizier (; ar, وزير, wazīr; fa, وزیر, vazīr), or wazir, is a high-ranking political advisor or minister in the near east. The Abbasid caliphs gave the title ''wazir'' to a minister formerly called ''katib'' (secretary), who was a ...
who checked Kebsi's genealogy in order to confirm that he was indeed the heir of the office.[
The genealogy and all the passages of the government office can be summarized as follows:]Merhotepre Ini
Merhotepre Ini (also known as Ini I or Ini II) was the successor of Merneferre Ay, possibly his son, and the thirty-third king of the Thirteenth Dynasty of Egypt. He is assigned a brief reign of 2 Years, 3 or 4 Months and 9 days in the Turin Canon ...
of the 13th Dynasty
In music or music theory, a thirteenth is the note thirteen scale degrees from the root of a chord and also the interval between the root and the thirteenth. The interval can be also described as a compound sixth, spanning an octave p ...
.
*The now-Vizier Ayameru left the government office to his son Kebsi.
*Kebsi sold the office to Sobeknakht. This happened in the regnal Year 1 of king Nebiryraw I (i.e. the date on which the stela was issued).
The Vizier confirmed that Kebsi was heir of the office of governor of El-Kab. The whole process was sealed in the Vizier's quarters with the participation of witnesses, whereupon Sobeknakht received the rights to the office.[ On a separate note, this Sobeknakht was no other than the father of the more famous governor of El-Kab, ]Sobeknakht II
Sobeknakht II was an ancient Egyptian local Governor at El Kab, El-Kab and a supporter of the Thebes, Egypt, Theban 16th Dynasty, 16th or Seventeenth Dynasty of Egypt, 17th Dynasty during the Second Intermediate Period.
Biography
Not much is kno ...
.
Importance
The monument is considered one of the most important of its kind, because it provides valuable juridical information about the provincial administration in Ancient Egypt, and about both the inheritance of an office and the possibility of trading it.[ The Juridical Stela is also an important temporal link within a quite obscure period of Egyptian history – the Second Intermediate Period – between the 13th Dynasty king Merhotepre and the later Theban king Nebiryraw I.]
References
{{reflist
Ancient Egyptian stelas
17th-century BC steles
1927 archaeological discoveries
Sixteenth Dynasty of Egypt
Seventeenth Dynasty of Egypt
Egyptian Museum