DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.55202#0113
THE TWELFTH TO THE FIFTEENTH DYNASTIES 93
ful, the tribes of near-by Asia would have fallen a prey to the
Egyptians within a very few years.
As it was, however, trading expeditions seem to have been far
more typical of the times than were the few raids among the Beda-
win. Such trade originated both in Egypt and in Asia. Every Twelfth
Dynasty king of Egypt after Se’n-Wosret I has left some article in
Syria which must have got there by being carried to the east by
merchants or by colonists in Egyptian commercial settlements. Such
exports have been found as far away as Byblos and even Adana to
the far north in Asia Minor,6 and of course Byblos remained an out-
standing center of Egyptian influence throughout the period. As for
Asiatic people entering the Nile Valley, everyone is familiar with the
extraordinary fresco in the Twelfth Dynasty tomb of Hnum-hotpe
at Beni Hasan with its lifelike pictures of a whole party of Asiatic
barbarians who came into Egypt on a peaceful visit in those days,
exchanging eye paint for products of the Nile country.7
There are more names of rulers of ancient Egypt for the period
from the Thirteenth to the Sixteenth Dynasties than there are for
all the history of the Nile Valley before that time. This is in spite of
the fact that the four dynasties could have lasted very little more
than two centuries, while Egypt obviously had written records
dated before the close of the Twelfth Dynasty which cover some six
or eight times as long. No great reduction can be made in these in-
numerable names, and the most drastic cutting to eliminate possible
duplications still will leave the vast majority of these kings in the
period. The only possible explanation of this state of affairs must be
that Egypt was split up into innumerable petty kingdoms, aptly
described by the Jew Artapanus of the First Century b.c., who wrote
that King Chenephres—who has been identified with Khaf-nefer-
Ref Sobk-hotpe—was “ruler of the regions above Memphis, for
there were at that time many kings in Egypt.”8 The time which
Artapanus seems to have had in mind lasted from 1778 to 1675 b.c.,
as we shall see.
In the days of Thut-mose III, as we have already noted, an
annalist carved on the walls of a little chamber in the Temple of
Karnak many of the names of the kings of the Thirteenth Dynasty
6 Winlock, MMA Bulletin, 1921, p. 209; Montet, Byblos etl’Egypte.
7 Newberry, Beni Hasan, I, Pls. XXX-XXXI, XXXVIII.
8 Waddell, Manetbo, p. 73, note 3.
ful, the tribes of near-by Asia would have fallen a prey to the
Egyptians within a very few years.
As it was, however, trading expeditions seem to have been far
more typical of the times than were the few raids among the Beda-
win. Such trade originated both in Egypt and in Asia. Every Twelfth
Dynasty king of Egypt after Se’n-Wosret I has left some article in
Syria which must have got there by being carried to the east by
merchants or by colonists in Egyptian commercial settlements. Such
exports have been found as far away as Byblos and even Adana to
the far north in Asia Minor,6 and of course Byblos remained an out-
standing center of Egyptian influence throughout the period. As for
Asiatic people entering the Nile Valley, everyone is familiar with the
extraordinary fresco in the Twelfth Dynasty tomb of Hnum-hotpe
at Beni Hasan with its lifelike pictures of a whole party of Asiatic
barbarians who came into Egypt on a peaceful visit in those days,
exchanging eye paint for products of the Nile country.7
There are more names of rulers of ancient Egypt for the period
from the Thirteenth to the Sixteenth Dynasties than there are for
all the history of the Nile Valley before that time. This is in spite of
the fact that the four dynasties could have lasted very little more
than two centuries, while Egypt obviously had written records
dated before the close of the Twelfth Dynasty which cover some six
or eight times as long. No great reduction can be made in these in-
numerable names, and the most drastic cutting to eliminate possible
duplications still will leave the vast majority of these kings in the
period. The only possible explanation of this state of affairs must be
that Egypt was split up into innumerable petty kingdoms, aptly
described by the Jew Artapanus of the First Century b.c., who wrote
that King Chenephres—who has been identified with Khaf-nefer-
Ref Sobk-hotpe—was “ruler of the regions above Memphis, for
there were at that time many kings in Egypt.”8 The time which
Artapanus seems to have had in mind lasted from 1778 to 1675 b.c.,
as we shall see.
In the days of Thut-mose III, as we have already noted, an
annalist carved on the walls of a little chamber in the Temple of
Karnak many of the names of the kings of the Thirteenth Dynasty
6 Winlock, MMA Bulletin, 1921, p. 209; Montet, Byblos etl’Egypte.
7 Newberry, Beni Hasan, I, Pls. XXX-XXXI, XXXVIII.
8 Waddell, Manetbo, p. 73, note 3.