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Sources of Evidence for Ancient Egypt
Sources of evidence are extremely important for any study of history. Ancient Egypt presents
particular problems. The article below provides an overview of the issues connected with the
sources available for Old Kingdom Egypt. Although we will be focusing particularly on New
Kingdom Egypt, there are a lot of similarities that are relevant for us.
1. As you read the article, for each issue identify the key points which we must take
into consideration when examining Ancient Egyptian sources.
Preoccupation with
death
Annual records
Tomb texts
Temple administration
Scientific techniques
Primary Sources of the Old Kingdom
By Jaromir Malek
http://www.bbc.co.uk/history/ancient/egyptians/primary_sources_01.shtml
Preoccupation with death
The historical period that we call the Old Kingdom (2686-2160 BC) was immensely long,
lasting as it did for over 500 years. When it began, the unified Egyptian state was only about
300 years old and when it came to an end, the state still had nearly 2,000 years left ahead of
it. Remoteness in time is one of the main difficulties we encounter when we look for sources
of information about the Old Kingdom. Many simply have not survived.
We know infinitely more about the wealthy people of Egypt than we do about the ordinary
people, as almost all the monuments were made for the rich and influential. Houses in which
ordinary Egyptians lived have not been preserved, and when most people died they were
buried in simple graves with few funerary goods.
Most of our traditional sources of information about the Old Kingdom are those concerned
with death and the rituals surrounding death: these include pyramids, tombs and graves, but
also statues, reliefs and paintings. Even papyri come mainly from pyramid temples. But this
does not mean that death was the Egyptians' only preoccupation.
There are other reasons why so much of our evidence is based on funeral rites. Egyptian
towns and villages were situated in the Nile valley, where old houses were pulled down and
new ones built on the same spot, because space was valuable - so little remains of the older
buildings. Pyramids and tombs, by contrast, were built on desert margins, where the space
was not needed for other buildings, so were left to tell their tale centuries after they were
built. Also, while domestic housing was made of sun-dried bricks, pyramids and tombs were
built of stone - so their chances of survival were infinitely better.
Annual records
There was no history writing during the Old Kingdom but there were annals, brief records of
important events. These are only incompletely preserved. We also have lists of kings,
although they date from later periods, mostly from the New Kingdom, which started about a
thousand years after the Old Kingdom ended. The most important among the annals is the
so-called Royal Canon of Turin, copied in about 1250 BC. In the third century BC, Manetho,
a priest from the town of Sebennytos (Samannud) in the Nile delta, wrote a history of Egypt
based on ancient records. Unfortunately, his work has survived only in brief excerpts.
The Egyptians counted the years of each king's reign, but began again when a new king
came to the throne. There are no astronomical dates known from the Old Kingdom, which
could have provided us with fixed chronological points. The only way of establishing exactly
when each king ruled is by adding up the lengths of the reigns known from the lists of kings
(but these are not complete) or from the dates that survive on contemporary monuments
(although we cannot be sure that the last year of the reign is recorded).
Modern scientific techniques, especially radiocarbon dating (based on the changes in the
radioactive isotope C14), are helpful, but the margin of error is still too large. Other methods,
e.g. that based on astronomical observations reflected in the building of pyramids, have the
potential to be useful, but more work is needed before they can be used with confidence.
Tomb texts
Practically everything that we know about Egyptian kings derives from their monuments. The
Pyramid Texts, which were spells concerning the king's afterlife, began to be inscribed inside
Egyptian pyramids from the reign of King Unas, about 2350 BC. The temples for the king's
posthumous cult were decorated with reliefs and contained many statues, all of which give
us information about the role of the king in Egyptian society. Scenes that show real events
are rare. We must not forget that the purpose of these reliefs was to show an ideal state of
affairs, which the king wished to last forever, not the contemporary reality.
Documents written on papyri were found in some pyramid temples, especially at Abusir.
They concern such matters as lists of priests on duty, records of offerings brought to the
temple, accounts, inventories of temple equipment and passes authorizing access to the
temple. Several settlements of priests, and of craftsmen and artists, involved in the running
of pyramid temples, have been located, in particular at Giza.
Representations carved on the walls of tombs include scenes of everyday life on the owner's
estates and so show how even ordinary people lived and worked. We must be rather careful
when interpreting these scenes and must not take them entirely at face value. They were
included in order to play a role in the tomb owner's afterlife, not as an accurate record.
Sometimes, especially in the later part of the Old Kingdom, the tombs contained biographical
texts. Many are just self-praising but others are real records of the tomb owner's
achievements. This is how one of them, an official called Weni, described a mission
assigned to him by King Merenre of the Sixth Dynasty:
'His Majesty sent me to Hatnub in order to bring a great altar of travertine of Hatnub. I
brought this altar down for him in 17 days. After it had been quarried at Hatnub, I had it
transported downstream in the barge that I had made for it, a barge of acacia wood of 60
cubits in length and 30 cubits in width. It was built in 17 days and in the third month of
summer, when there was no water on sandbanks, it was safely moored at the pyramid of
King Merenre.'
(The travertine, or alabaster, Hatnub quarries are in Middle Egypt, some 186 miles [300km],
south of Saqqara, where King Merenre's pyramid was built. The barge was over 98ft [31.5m]
long and over 49ft [15.75m] wide).
Temple administration
Few Egyptian towns of the Old Kingdom have been located. Elephantine (an island opposite
Aswan, in the region of the first Nile cataract) and Ayin Asil (in the Dakhla Oasis, in the
Western Desert) are the notable exceptions.
We know little about the temples of local gods. But important texts have been found at the
sites of some of these temples, especially at Koptos (modern Qift) and Abydos, both in
Upper Egypt. The texts are copies of documents that were originally written on papyrus, and
are concerned with the temples' administration, especially endowments and exemptions
from taxes and forced labour. One such decree, issued by Pepy II for the temple of the god
Min at Koptos, includes the following clause concerning the temple personnel:
'My Majesty does not allow them to be employed in royal cattle pens or on the pastures of
cattle or the pastures of donkeys and sheep of the department of herdsmen, or on any duty
or forced labour demanded by the royal administration throughout the length of eternity.'
Expeditions abroad
Texts concerning expeditions sent outside the Nile valley have been found in Sinai (Wadi
Maghara and Wadi Kharit), in the Eastern Desert (Wadi Hammamat), and in Nubia. The aim
of these enterprises was to bring back stone for building and for the making of statues, also
semi-precious stones (turquoise) and possibly copper. An inscription on a rock at Wadi
Maghara, in Sinai, records one such expedition sent there by Pepy II:
'The year of the second occasion of the census of all the great and small cattle of Lower and
Upper Egypt... The royal mission which was sent with the god's treasurer Hepy to the
terraces of turquoise. There served with him: pilots and quarry-masters Bekenptah and
Udjai...' [Here follows a long list of names.]
Scientific techniques
Some knowledge of Old Kingdom technology and working procedures derives from pictures,
but most information must be deduced from the monuments and objects that survive from
that time. Certain activities were never shown, for example pyramid building, and written
documents concerning such works have not survived.
Modern scientific methods are now beginning to provide a wealth of information on aspects
of the Old Kingdom society - aspects that we have not known much about, until now. The
study of pottery has become very useful, especially in the search for chronological clues and
trade contacts. The study of botanical (plant) and faunal (animal) remains can show us how
people in the Old Kingdom lived - which plants they cultivated, which animals they bred, and
what they ate.
Examination of human remains informs us of the Egyptians' state of health. Research
concerning different types of stone and metal can also be very revealing: when we establish
from where these materials came, and in what quantities, we can make deductions about
trade contacts, expeditions sent to procure these materials, the state of technology, and so
on.
There is no one way of searching for sources of information concerning the Old Kingdom.
They are all interconnected, and each has a contribution to make. Egyptologists must be
prepared to examine any kind of evidence available, whether it is 'traditional' (archaeological
and art historical - based on monuments; or philological - based on inscriptions), or 'nontraditional' (mostly new scientific techniques). They must be scavengers of information,
leaving no source of information neglected, and must be constantly searching for new
approaches.
Sources of evidence for Hatshepsut’s reign
2. Having considered the broader issue of sources for Ancient Egypt, read page 280-281 of
your text “Sources of evidence for Hatshepsut’s reign” and complete the following table in
your notebook:
Source of Evidence
What does this source offer a study of
Hatshepsut’s reign?
3. Using this information, answer the following question in your notebook:
What strengths and weaknesses exist amongst the sources available for the study of
Hatshepsut’s reign? How will this influence our understanding of her power as
Pharaoh?