Carnarvon Tablet on:
[Wikipedia]
[Google]
[Amazon]
The Carnarvon Tablet is an ancient Egyptian inscription in
Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament.
Third Edition'' (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1969), p. 232. These newer stelae were published in 1939.P. Lacau, ASAE, xxxix (1939) On tablet no. 2 there is a heavily damaged inscription.
Photographs of the inscription
2nd-millennium BC literature 1908 archaeological discoveries Ancient Egyptian stelas Individual wooden objects Archaeological discoveries in Egypt Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt
The Carnarvon Tablet is an ancient Egyptian inscription in hieratic
Hieratic (; grc, ἱερατικά, hieratiká, priestly) is the name given to a cursive writing system used for Ancient Egyptian and the principal script used to write that language from its development in the third millennium BC until the ris ...
recording the defeat of the Hyksos
Hyksos (; Egyptian '' ḥqꜣ(w)- ḫꜣswt'', Egyptological pronunciation: ''hekau khasut'', "ruler(s) of foreign lands") is a term which, in modern Egyptology, designates the kings of the Fifteenth Dynasty of Egypt (fl. c. 1650–1550 BC).
T ...
by Kamose
Kamose was the last Pharaoh of the Theban Seventeenth Dynasty. He was possibly the son of Seqenenre Tao and Ahhotep I and the uncle of Ahmose I, founder of the Eighteenth Dynasty. His reign fell at the very end of the Second Intermediate Period ...
.
Discovery
It was found in 1908 byLord Carnarvon
Earl of Carnarvon is a title that has been created three times in British history. The current holder is George Herbert, 8th Earl of Carnarvon. The town and county in Wales to which the title refers are historically spelled ''Caernarfon,'' havi ...
on two wooden tablets covered stucco
Stucco or render is a construction material made of aggregates, a binder, and water. Stucco is applied wet and hardens to a very dense solid. It is used as a decorative coating for walls and ceilings, exterior walls, and as a sculptural and a ...
in fine plaster. It was discovered amongst pottery debris on a ledge close to the entrance of a tomb near the mouth of the Deir el-Bahari
Deir el-Bahari or Dayr al-Bahri ( ar, الدير البحري, al-Dayr al-Baḥrī, the Monastery of the North) is a complex of mortuary temples and tombs located on the west bank of the Nile, opposite the city of Luxor, Egypt. This is a part of ...
valley.
Howard Carter
Howard Carter (9 May 18742 March 1939) was a British archaeologist and Egyptologist who discovered the intact tomb of the 18th Dynasty Pharaoh Tutankhamun in November 1922, the best-preserved pharaonic tomb ever found in the Valley of the K ...
believed this tomb to date from the Seventeenth 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 ...
. But actually it is now believed that the tablet goes back to the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt -- only a little later.
On the reverse side of tablet no. 1 is inscribed the beginning of ''The Maxims of Ptahhotep
''The Maxims of Ptahhotep'' or ''Instruction of Ptahhotep'' is an ancient Egyptian literary composition composed by the Vizier Ptahhotep around 2375–2350 BC, during the rule of King Djedkare Isesi of the Fifth Dynasty. The text was discovered ...
''.Gardiner, p. 95. On the obverse side of this tablet is a description of Kamose's victory over the Hyksos.
The tablet is believed to be a shoolboy's exercise, but the text proved to be very important.
As early as 1916, Sir Alan Gardiner assumed that the First Carnarvon Tablet must be a copy of some commemorative stela of pharaoh Kamose. Less than 20 years later, his thesis was confirmed when French Egyptologists Lacau and Chévrier were working on the Third Pylon of Karnak and made the important discovery of two stela fragments. The smallest of them was found in 1932. And in 1935, the larger fragment appeared.
Thus, it emerged that the text was copied from Kamose's stelas in 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 ...
.James B. Pritchard, Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament.
Third Edition'' (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1969), p. 232. These newer stelae were published in 1939.P. Lacau, ASAE, xxxix (1939) On tablet no. 2 there is a heavily damaged inscription.
Contents
In the inscription, Kamose exclaims (in a translation byJames B. Pritchard
James Bennett Pritchard (October 4, 1909 – January 1, 1997) was an American archeologist whose work explicated the interrelationships of the religions of ancient Palestine, Canaan, Egypt, Assyria, and Babylon. Pritchard was honored with the Go ...
):
Let me understand what this strength of mine is for! (One) prince is inSirAvaris Avaris (; Egyptian: ḥw.t wꜥr.t, sometimes ''hut-waret''; grc, Αὔαρις, Auaris; el, Άβαρις, Ávaris; ar, حوّارة, Hawwara) was the Hyksos capital of Egypt located at the modern site of Tell el-Dab'a in the northeastern r ..., another is in Ethiopia, and (here) I sit associated with an Asiatic and a Negro! Each man has his slice of this Egypt, dividing up the land with me. I cannot pass by him as far asMemphis Memphis most commonly refers to: * Memphis, Egypt, a former capital of ancient Egypt * Memphis, Tennessee, a major American city Memphis may also refer to: Places United States * Memphis, Alabama * Memphis, Florida * Memphis, Indiana * Memp ..., the waters of Egypt, (but), behold, he hasHermopolis Hermopolis ( grc, Ἑρμούπολις ''Hermoúpolis'' "the City of Hermes", also ''Hermopolis Magna'', ''Hermoû pólis megálẽ'', egy, ḫmnw , Egyptological pronunciation: "Khemenu"; cop, Ϣⲙⲟⲩⲛ ''Shmun''; ar, الأشموني .... No man can settle down, being despoiled by the imposts of the Asiatics. I will grapple with him, that I may cut open his belly! My wish is to save Egypt and to smite the Asiatics!
Alan Gardiner
Sir Alan Henderson Gardiner, (29 March 1879 – 19 December 1963) was an English Egyptologist, linguist, philologist, and independent scholar. He is regarded as one of the premier Egyptologists of the early and mid-20th century.
Personal life
G ...
provides the following alternative translation, noting the control of Upper Egypt
Upper Egypt ( ar, صعيد مصر ', shortened to , , locally: ; ) is the southern portion of Egypt and is composed of the lands on both sides of the Nile that extend upriver from Lower Egypt in the north to Nubia in the south.
In ancient ...
by the Kerma culture
The Kerma culture or Kerma kingdom was an early civilization centered in Kerma, Sudan. It flourished from around 2500 BC to 1500 BC in ancient Nubia. The Kerma culture was based in the southern part of Nubia, or "Upper Nubia" (in parts of present ...
of Nubia
Nubia () (Nobiin: Nobīn, ) is a region along the Nile river encompassing the area between the first cataract of the Nile (just south of Aswan in southern Egypt) and the confluence of the Blue and White Niles (in Khartoum in central Sudan), or ...
:
Notes
{{reflistReferences
*Alan H. Gardiner, ‘The Defeat of the Hyksos by Kamōse: The Carnarvon Tablet, No. I’, ''The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology'', Vol. 3, No. 2/3 (Apr. - Jul., 1916), pp. 95-110. *Battiscombe Gunn and Alan H. Gardiner, ‘New Renderings of Egyptian Texts: II. The Expulsion of the Hyksos’, ''The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology'', Vol. 5, No. 1 (Jan., 1918), pp. 36–56. *James B. Pritchard, ''Ancient Near Eastern Texts Relating to the Old Testament. Third Edition'' (Princeton: Princeton University Press, 1969).Further reading
*The Earl of Carnarvon and Howard Carter, ''Five Years' Explorations at Thebes'' (London: Henry Frowde Oxford University, 1912), plate xxvii, xxviii and pp. 36–37.External links
Photographs of the inscription
2nd-millennium BC literature 1908 archaeological discoveries Ancient Egyptian stelas Individual wooden objects Archaeological discoveries in Egypt Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt