Ipuwer Papyrus

Ipuwer Papyrus

The Ipuwer Papyrus (officially Papyrus Leiden I 344 recto) is an ancient Egyptian hieratic papyrus made during the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt, and now held in the Dutch National Museum of Antiquities in Leiden, Netherlands.[1] It contains the Admonitions of Ipuwer, an incomplete literary work whose original composition is dated no earlier than the late Twelfth Dynasty of Egypt (c.1991–1803 BCE).[2]

Content

In the poem, Ipuwer – a name typical of the period 1850-1450 BCE – complains that the world has been turned upside-down: a woman who had not a single box now has furniture, a girl who looked at her face in the water now owns a mirror, while the once-rich man is now in rags. He demands that the Lord of All (a title which can be applied both to the king and to the creator sun-god) should destroy his enemies and remember his religious duties. This is followed by a violent description of disorder: there is no longer any respect for the law and even the king's burial inside the pyramid has been desecrated. The story continues with the description of better days until it abruptly ends due to the missing final part of the papyrus. It is likely that the poem concluded with a reply of the Lord of All, or prophesying the coming of a powerful king who would restore order.[3][4][1]

Discussion

The Ipuwer Papyrus has been dated no earlier than the Nineteenth Dynasty, around 1250 BCE[1][5] but it is now agreed that the text itself is much older, and dated back to the Middle Kingdom, though no earlier than the late Twelfth Dynasty.[2]

It was previously thought that the Admonitions of Ipuwer presents an objective portrait of Egypt in the First Intermediate Period.[3][6][4] In more recent times, it was found that the Admonitions, along with the Complaints of Khakheperresenb, are most likely works of royal propaganda, both inspired by the earlier Prophecy of Neferti: the three compositions have in common the theme of a nation that has been plunged into chaos and disarray and the need for an intransigent king who would defeat chaos and restore maat.[7] Toby Wilkinson suggested that the Admonitions and Khakheperresenb may thus have been composed during the reign of Senusret III, a pharaoh well known for his use of propaganda.[7] In any case, the Admonitions is not a reliable account of early Egyptian history, because of the long time interval between its original composition and the writing of the Leiden Papyrus.[1][5]

The Admonitions is considered the world's earliest known treatise on political ethics, suggesting that a good king is one who controls unjust officials, thus carrying out the will of the gods.[8] It is a textual lamentation, close to Sumerian city laments and to Egyptian laments for the dead, using the past (the destruction of Memphis at the end of the Old Kingdom) as a gloomy backdrop to an ideal future.[9]

Ipuwer and the Book of Exodus

Ipuwer has often been put forward in popular literature as confirmation of the Biblical account, most notably because of its statement that "the river is blood" and its frequent references to servants running away, but there are also points in which the Ipuwer contradicts the Exodus story as found in the Bible, such as the fact that its Asiatics are arriving in Egypt rather than leaving. The "river is blood" phrase may also refer to the red sediment colouring the Nile during disastrous floods, or may simply be a poetic image of turmoil.[10] The archeological evidence does not support the story of the Exodus, and most historians no longer consider it relevant to the story of the emergence of Israel.[11][12]

See also

References

Citations

  1. 1 2 3 4 Quirke 2014, p. 167.
  2. 1 2 Willems 2010, p. 83.
  3. 1 2 Gardiner 1961, p. 109-110.
  4. 1 2 Grimal 1992, p. 138.
  5. 1 2 Shaw 2013, p. 745.
  6. ↑ Bresciani 1969, p. 65.
  7. 1 2 Wilkinson 2010, p. 174–175.
  8. ↑ Gabriel 2002, p. 23.
  9. ↑ Morenz 2003, p. 103–111.
  10. ↑ Enmarch 2011, p. 173–175.
  11. ↑ Meyers 2005, p. 5–6.
  12. ↑ Moore & Kelle 2011, p. 81.

Bibliography

  • Bresciani, Edda (1969). Letteratura e poesia dell'antico Egitto. Turin: Einaudi.
  • Enmarch, Roland (2011). "The Reception of a Middle Egyptian Poem: The Dialogue of Ipuwer and the Lord of All". In Collier, M.; Snape, S. Ramesside Studies in Honour of K. A. Kitchen (PDF). Rutherford.
  • Gabriel, Richard A. (2002). Gods of Our Fathers: The Memory of Egypt in Judaism and Christianity. Greenwood Publishing. ISBN 9780313312861.
  • Gardiner, Alan (1961). Egypt of the Pharaohs: an introduction. Oxford: University Press. ISBN 9780195002676.
  • Grabbe, Lester (2014). "Exodus and History". In Dozeman, Thomas; Evans, Craig A.; Lohr, Joel N. The Book of Exodus: Composition, Reception, and Interpretation. BRILL. ISBN 9789004282667.
  • Grimal, Nicolas (1992). A History of Ancient Egypt. Oxford: Blackwell Books. ISBN 978-0-631-17472-1.
  • Meyers, Carol (2005). Exodus. Cambridge University Press. ISBN 9780521002912.
  • Moore, Megan B.; Kelle, Brad E. (2011). Biblical History and Israel's Past: The Changing Study of the Bible and History. Grand Rapids, Michigan; Cambridge, UK. ISBN 9780802862600.
  • Morenz, Ludwig D. (2003). "Literature as a Construction of the Past in the Middle Kingdom". In Tait, John. 'Never had the liked occurred': Egypt's View of its Past. Taylor & Francis. ISBN 9781135393625.
  • Quirke, Stephen (2014). Exploring Religion in Ancient Egypt. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 9781118610527.
  • Shaw, Ian (2013). "Pharaonic Egypt". In Mitchell, Peter; Lane, Paul. The Oxford Handbook of African Archaeology. Oxford University Press. ISBN 9780191626142.
  • Wilkinson, Toby A.H. (2010). The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt. London: Bloomsbury. ISBN 9781408810026.
  • Willems, Harco (2010). "The First Intermediate Period and the Middle Kingdom". In Lloyd, Alan B. A Companion to Ancient Egypt. 1. John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 9781444320060.
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