Dating the "Admonitions": Advance Report MALCOLM LOWERY Malcolm Lowery (B.A. Hons., Newcastle Upon Tyne) is a freelance translator and Editor of the S.I.S. Review, to which he has contributed several articles. Velikovsky places the events recorded in the "Papyrus Ipuwer" contemporary with those of the Exodus, which coincides in the revised chronology with the end of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt. A paper examining the ramifications of this conclusion is being prepared, and is offered here in summary. In his book Ages in Chaos, Velikovsky quotes the Admonitions of Ipuwer as an "eye-witness account of the Plagues", assuming a date for the composition contemporary with the end of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt, where he also places the Exodus. This dating was espoused by Sethe, but only briefly considered by Gardiner, who nevertheless felt it best to avoid too definite a statement in his 1909 examination of the papyrus: "The view that our Leiden papyrus contains allusions to the Hyksos has the better support from the historical standpoint, but philological and other considerations seem rather to point to the seventh and tenth dynasties [between Old and Middle Kingdoms] as those which have provided the background of events." (Admonitions of an Egyptian Sage, Leipzig. 1909, p. 18) Adducing new evidence in his conclusion, he felt able to apply the statements regarding the Asiatics to the conditions of the earlier period, and gave as his final verdict on the Admonitions: It need not be too hastily assumed that their composition was contemporary with the events to which they allude; historical romance was always popular in Ancient Egypt, and there is no inherent reason why the Admonitions, even if referring to the conditions of the Tenth Dynasty, should not have been written under the Twelfth." (p. 111). Gardiner thus settled for a date contemporary with the great flowering of Egyptian Literature during the Middle Kingdom. The consensus, however, is now that the text was composed during the decline of the Old Kingdom, thus antedating other Middle Egyptian works; and this is the view Gardiner eventually adopted (cf. Gardiner: Egypt of the Pharaohs, Oxford, 1961, p. 111). A few scholars, however, have preferred to see the Admonitions as a work of the Second Intermediate Period, as concluded by Velikovsky, John Van Seters assembled a good deal of evidence of different kinds for this view (JEA 50, 1964 13-23), and received the support of William Albright (BASOR 179, 1965, 40f,; BA 36, 1973, 30), as well as being corroborated independently by some late researchers. The survey of the literature treating this topic which is nearing completion will have a number of novel (though not entirely original) conclusions to offer. In furtherance of this research, a growing collection of books and articles dealing solely or extensively with the Admonitions has been amassed, along with many works touching on the work with regard to specific points and a wealth of general literature; but, for the purpose of this summary, we shall approach the questions through Van Seters' paper. Van Seters outlines his thesis under a number of distinct heads. These are:- Ethnic terms. Van Seters indicates that the terms used for foreign people - Nubians, Libyans, Asiatics and others - are, as a group, more appropriate to the Thirteenth Dynasty (and the time of the Hyksos invasion) than to an early period. He cites in particular the passage 14:11-14. Foreign Relations. This rests on the passage 3:6-10. This passage, he feels, using evidence from throughout the Near East, "reflects Egypt's foreign relations and cultural influence beyond its borders in the early Second Intermediate Period" (p. 17). In particular, "the word 'Keftiu' is not found in the Old Kingdom and is even rare in the Middle Kingdom" (p. 16). Social and Administrative Development. Van Seters refers here to two major institutions: slavery and the hnrt. The position of slave (hm), he says, is specifically a product of the M.K.: the O.K. citizen would employ a "servant" (b3k). Yet the term hm occurs in the papyrus no less than seven times. He also sees reference in 6:5-12 to the hnrt or hnrt wr, "Great Prison", which "functioned both as a prison and as a court of law", and to the hpw nyw hnrt "Laws of the Prison". Besides this criminal code the hnrt also held census-lists of slaves. "These records were important for establishing a slave's status.' (p.18) Line 6:7-8 therefore reflects a deliberate attempt to destroy this evidence. Literature. "The genre of literature to which the Admonitions belongs also constitutes a problem for an early date, because it cannot be associated with anything from the Old Kingdom. Its affinities are certainly with texts of the Middle Kingdom. In this it is said to anticipate them, but, in fact, by its evident association with a variety of forms, Gattungen, it certainly follows them." (p. 19). Likewise, the papyrus reflects established M.K. dogmas which would have meant little before this time. The Political Situation. Here Van Seters deals with the way the M.K. was brought low, concentrating on the Asiatic factor. He finds the following circumstances attested by the Admonitions, all of which fit the fall of the M.K. better than the end of the O.K.:- The Asiatics of the Delta have assumed sedentary occupations (4:8), whereas the earlier period knows only Beduins making sporadic border raids or infiltrating to find grazing land; later in the M.K., however, a large element of Egypt's slave population was Asiatic. - Asiatics in Egypt have become assimilated to Egyptian culture, often bearing Egyptian names, frequently rising to positions of authority (1:9; 3:2). - The frontier with Asia is a beaten path, and no longer the source of pride and security it was (3:1; 4:6) - not through inadequate provision, but as a result of the growing trading traffic with countries to the north-east. - The fall of Egyptian authority was abetted by an Asiatic fifth column (originally recruited, suspects Van Seters, as frontier police, a policy which was more successful when applied to the Md3yw of the south: 14:14-15:2), and by Egyptian collaborators (7:2-4). None of these find good parallels in the comparable descriptions of the Instructions for Merikare, the Prophecy of Neferty or the Story of Sinuhe (all XIIth-Dynasty texts), but the linking of Nubians (nhsyw) and Libyans (tmhw) as a threat is matched by formulae in the Execration Texts, for which Van Seters prefers a late M.K. date. It can be seen that the field of enquiry is a wide one. The proposed survey will cover the above areas along with others, dealing with the following questions:- 1. The Papyrus. Though known as The Admonitions, from the section late in the composition which Gardiner rightly identified as the fulcrum of the work, the papyrus consists for most of its length of a catalogue of laments. Our investigation starts with a necessary overview of the work. 2. The Historical Situation. "The content of the Admonitions doubtless reflects a very troubled period in Egypt's history, and this logically offers the alternatives of the First and Second Intermediate Periods." (Van Seters, op. cit., p. 13) Though both of these were times of internal disruption showing remarkable similarities, there are also significant differences which may help establish a frame of reference for the statements in the Admonitions. This situation is complicated, however, by the use of Ipuwer's laments whenever a characterisation of the breakdown of the O.K. is required. Indeed, the wheel has come full circle: Goedicke (ZDMG 112, 239) admits that the "dismal images" of the papyrus "have to a great extent formed our ideas of the end of the Old Kingdom," and Kees (Handbuch der Orientalistik, I. 15) assigns it to this period explicitly because its "Zeitgeist is unmistakeable"! 3. The Literary Context. It is important to appreciate the links between our papyrus and numerous other Middle Egyptian works - besides those mentioned above, we must take note of the Tale of the Eloquent Peasant, the Dispute of a Man Weary of Life with his Soul (the Lebensmüder) and the Lament of Kha-kheper-re-sonbe, among others. This "wisdom literature" can be classified into "pessimistic works" and "didactic treatises" - but the border is a fluid one: many factors are common to a number of works, and influence on or by the Admonitions may be identified. 4. The Author. An historical 'Ipw-wr has been recorded; he was "Master of the Minstrels" at the Memphite court of the O.K. Would we be justified in identifying this man - a noted celebrity - as the author of the Admonitions? Or may this be an example of what Gardiner (Egyptian Grammar, Oxford, 1957, p. 24b) has called "the Egyptians' love of ancient attributions"? Either course would seem to imply that the events described were those of the First Intermediate Period. 5. The Audience. "[Ipuwer] is standing before the 'Lord of All', which is elsewhere an epithet of the great gods, but here no doubt indicates the King." This short statement by Lange (SBPAW 26. 1903, p.602) refers to the only line of the papyrus containing the name of Ipuwer (15:13 - dd.t.n 'Ipw-wr wsb.f n hm n Nb r Dr - "What Ipuwer said when he answered the majesty of the Lord of All") and encapsulates the threads of a controversy which still continues, and seems no nearer resolution. ("Lord of All" - Nb r Dr - as an epithet of the gods is usually applied to Re' or Atum; for Osiris as Nb r Dr see D. Cardona: "The Sun of Night', Kronos III, 1, 1977, p. 36. Nb r Dr as an occasional title of the pharaoh is attested in the salutation to the speaker's son Senwosre, in the Instructions of Amenemhet I. Support for the assumption that Ipuwer is addressing the king is also found in the clear parallels to the situation in the Eloquent Peasant and in the Westcar papyrus, which shows Snofru holding court with his magicians. Nor does the inclusion of hm conventionally translated "majesty", but admitted by Gardiner to be obscure (Grammar, p. 74), clarify the issue; this can likewise apply to gods as well as to pharaohs, and a later interpretation of the term dispenses with the need for a speaker to be dead - as is assumed by several contemporary German scholars for Ipuwer - before addressing the hm of a god). 6. The Good Shepherd. Van Seters makes much of the emphasis placed on the "Middle Kingdom dogma" of the pharaoh as herdsman of his people. Even if we accept that Ipuwer is here addressing the king, a proper reading of the passage in question must reject Van Seters' argument as over-simplified: moreover, a text written before establishment of this dogma may casually well refer to it, but as part of the process of imposing it. (Such traditions did not arise out of the spontaneous expression of the popular will in the manner we take to be normal in modern democracies). 7. The Prophetic Tradition. Lange (op. cit., pp. 606-7) saw a section of the Admonitions (11:13-12:5) as a "Messianic prophecy", a view which has been adopted and modified by some later researchers. The prophetic tradition in Egyptian literature is a long one, which has its roots in the Old Kingdom. Whatever its date, the prophecy in the Admonitions, if we take it as such, is a secondary development of this (though not taken as far as in the Prophecy of Neferty, where it is made post eventum). Again, a comparative investigation of the literature is deemed necessary. 8. Internal Affairs. Corresponds to Van Seters' Social and Administrative Development", and tests his thesis in this area against other available evidence. 9. Social Disorder. There are several theories to explain the upsets in the social fabric evinced by Ipuwer's laments. Advocates of a late dating see it as lawlessness in the wake of the usurpation of government by the Hyksos; those in favour of the early dating see it as a description of the state of anarchy and civil war known to exist after the collapse of the O.K. dynasties; the desperation of suffering caused by famine has also been proposed (among the places broken into are listed the grain stores). 10. Foreign Relations. Discussed by Van Seters above. The assignment of the circumstances referred to in the papyrus is facilitated here, too, by reference to other works of literature, notably the travels of Sinuhe. 11. The Asiatics. Egypt had trouble with foreigners violating its borders throughout its long history, the most lasting threat being from the Asiatics ('3mw). As mentioned above, raids by Beduin bands and trespassing by their herdsman were common in the O.K., and in the conventional scheme, at least it is against these Asiatics that Amenemhet I built his renowned "Wall of the Prince". According to the point in time we choose for the work's composition, we can take the references to the Asiatics to refer either to these or to the Hyksos invaders. On the latter, specialist opinion is divided: the consensus rejects the picture of a shock invasion related by Manetho (Against Apion I, 74-75) and advocates a gradual takeover abetted by Asiatic collaborators (which brings the M.K. Asiatic slaves into the field of study), whilst a minority are determined that Manetho's report be respected and have little time for the idea of a fifth column (hardly necessary to an armed invasion). The identity of these people also affects the conclusions: if Amalekites, a destructive invasion is more likely; if western (Palestinian?) Asiatics, infiltration. Almost the only matter on which conventional opinion at present agrees is the derivation of the Greek word Hyksos from the Egyptian hk3 h3swt, meaning "rulers of foreign (hill-) countries." The forty-year-old remark of an American scholar, that "to touch upon the Hyksos problem is still much like stirring up a hornet's nest", has not yet lost its relevance. 12. Disturbed Cosmic Order. Here we concentrate on the parallels adduced by Velikovsky between our text and the remarkable descriptions in the Prophecy of Neferty (conventionally dated in the M.K.; the prophet formerly known as Neferrohu). Here again the Admonitions must be seen in the wider literary context, and evidence from other fields, such as Schaeffer's Stratigraphie Comparée, needs to be considered. 13. Construction of the Work. As mentioned above, the papyrus divides readily into two sections: the extended and seemingly shapeless catalogue of pessimistic observations and a heterogenous mixture of injunctions, admonitions and hopes occupying the shorter second part. Gardiner (Admonitions, p. 8) saw signs of the author's having spent "but little pains upon the internal arrangement of the long descriptive passage" and considered the repetition of a number of lines at later points in the text strong evidence in support of this finding. Erman, whilst finding cause to question further Gardner's claim that there was no "progress in the thought" in the development of the work, nevertheless does little to alleviate the general impression of amorphousness and over length. It has been left to recent German scholarship to offer a choice of theories to explain the strange construction of the Admonitions, in each case the claim that the text is not the individual creation of a single author raises weighty implications for the dating. 14. Textual Correspondences. Besides the repeated lines within the papyrus, there are several lines and couplets which show strong similarity and in some cases total identity with passages in other known Middle Egyptian works. Earlier researchers reached easy conclusions on the dating of the composition from this. (Erman, noting in which work the lines seemed "more at home", considered the work younger than the Lebensmüder and older than the Instructions of Amenemhet.) A number of factors which, though far from arcane, appear to have eluded earlier scholars, have been given prominence in recent work, and, taken together, strongly support the conclusions mentioned in the last paragraph. 15. Versification. A student of Egyptian metre has established a number of basic differences between the poetry of the O.K. and that composed in the M.K. and later. (These are largely unpublished and require specialist knowledge for a proper evaluation.) Applying these to the Admonitions, he finds that the text is composed in the later metre, but adds the emphatic caveat that this conclusion "is valid solely and exclusively for the final redaction of the overall text"; there is evidence that parts of it may have existed originally in O.K. metre. 16. Conclusions. Taking the above survey with the ambiguous evidence of the linguistic usages found in the papyrus, it becomes clear that those who have spoken for a simple First Intermediate Period dating or for a straightforward Thirteenth Dynasty origin have been too glib, and a broader solution is called for. This will be presented in the full paper; while raising fundamental questions in a number of details, it will offer evidence that Velikovsky was justified in his claim that, as suspected by Gardiner, the Admonitions offer us an eyewitness report of the events at the end of the M.K. Although the paper is now at a late stage, the author will welcome any constructive suggestions or information offered. ____________________________________________________ What Ipuwer Said The flowing selection of lines from the Admonitions has been made to give a general picture of the content of the papyrus, as well as to illustrate the points made by Van Seters, who states that his translations " are primarily those by Gardiner, Admonitions, and Wilson, in Pritchard, ANET, 441-4. However, in a few instances I have adopted other renderings." This selection, while based on Faulkner, is therefore necessarily a composite, though readings differing widely from the consensus have been avoided. Dashes indicate words or passages missing or untranslatable in the papyrus: dots show where omissions have been made in this selection. (1,7) --- what was ordained for you in the time of Horus, in the age of (8) [The Ennead(?) --- The virtuous man goes in mourning because of what has happened in the land. --- (9) --- foreigners have become Egyptians everywhere. INDEED, the face is pale; (10) --- what the ancestors foretold has arrived at [fruition(?)]. --- (2,1) the land [is] full of confederates, and a man goes out to plough with his shield. ... (2,3) INDEED, the Nile overflow, yet none plough for it. Everyone says, "We do not know what will happen throughout the land." (4) INDEED, women are barren and none conceive. Khnum [the Creator-God] fashions men no more because of the conditions of the land. INDEED, poor men have become owners of wealth, and he who could not make (5) sandals for himself is now a possessor of riches. ... (2,10) INDEED, the river is blood, yet men drink of it. Men shrink (?) from human beings and thirst after water. INDEED, gates, columns and walls(?) are burnt up, (11) while the hall(?) of the Palace stands firm and endures. INDEED, the ship of [the Southerners] has broken up; towns are destroyed and Upper Egypt has become an empty waste. ... (3,1) INDEED, the Desert is throughout the land, the nomes are laid waste, and barbarians from abroad have come to Egypt. INDEED, people arrive --- (2) there are indeed no Egyptians anywhere. ... (3-6) INDEED, the builders [of pyramids(?) have become] field-labourers, and those who were in the sacred bark are now yoked [to it(?)]. None indeed sail northward to (7) Byblos today; what shall we do for cedars for our mummies, with the produce of which priests are buried and with the oil of which (8) [kings] are embalmed as far as Keftiu? They come no more; gold is lacking --- and materials(?) for every kind of craft have come to an end.(9) The --- of the Palace is despoiled. How often do the people of the oases come with their festival spices, mats(?) and skins(?), with fresh redmet plants, (10) grease(?) of birds --? INDEED, Elephantine and Thinis(?) [are in the province(?)] of Upper Egypt, (but) without (11) paying taxes owing to civil strife. ...(12) ... To what purpose is a treasury without its revenues? ... (13) INDEED, laughter has perished, (14) and is [no longer] made; it is groaning that is throughout the land, mingled with complaints. INDEED, every dead person is a well-born man. Those who were (4,1) Egyptians [have become] foreigners and are thrust aside. ... INDEED, (4-5) that has perished which yesterday was seen, and land is left over to its weakness like the cutting of flax. INDEED, (6) the entire Delta will not be hidden: the confidence of Lower Egypt is (now) a beaten path. What (7) can one do? ... (8) ... Asiatics are (now) skilled its the crafts of the Delta. ... (5,11) INDEED, the ways are ---, the roads are watched; men sit in the bushes until the benighted traveller comes (12) in order to plunder his burden, and what is upon him is taken away. He is belaboured with blows of a stick, and slain wrongfully. INDEED, that has (13) perished, which yesterday was seen, and the land is left over to its weakness like the cutting of flax, commoners coming and going (14) in dissolution. Would that there were an end of men, without conception, (6,1) without birth! Then would the land be quiet from noise, and tumult be no more. ... (3) INDEED, everywhere barley has perished ... (4) ...The storehouse is empty and its keeper is stretched on the ground; a happy state of affairs!(5) Would that I had raised my voice at that moment, that it might have saved me from the pain in which I am. INDEED, the private judgement-hall [or: prison], (6) its writings are taken away and the mysteries which were [in it(?)] are laid bare. INDEED, magic spells are divulged; shemu and sekhnu spells(?) are frustrated (?) because they are remembered by men. INDEED, public offices are opened and their census-lists are taken away; the serf is become an owner (8) of serfs(?). INDEED, [scribes(?)] are killed and their writings are taken away. Woe is me because of the misery of this time! INDEED, (9) the writings of the scribes of the mat have been destroyed: the corn of Egypt is (now) common property. INDEED, the laws (10) of the judgement-hall [or: prison] are thrown out; indeed, men walk on them in the public places and poor men break them up (11) in the streets. INDEED, the poor man has attained to the state of the Nine Gods, and the erstwhile procedure of the House of the Thirty is divulged. (12) INDEED, the great judgement-hall is a popular resort, and poor men come and go in the Great Houses. ... (7,1) BEHOLD, the fire has gone up on high, and its burning goes forth against the enemies of the land. YEA, BEHOLD, things have been done which have not happened for a long time past; the King has been deposed (2) by the rabble. BEHOLD, he who was buried as a hawk is [devoid of(?)/set simply on(?)] a bier, and what the pyramid concealed has become empty. BEHOLD, it has befallen that a few lawless men (3) have deprived the land of the kingship. BEHOLD, men have fallen into rebellion against the Uraeus, the --- of Re, which makes (4) the Two Lands peaceful. BEHOLD, the secret of the land, whose limits were unknown, is divulged, and the Residence is [or: will be] thrown down in a moment [or: hour]. ... (7) BEHOLD, the land has knotted itself up with confederacies. ... (12) BEHOLD, he who could not built a boat for himself is now the possessor of a fleet; their erstwhile owner looks at them, but they are not his. (13) BEHOLD, he who had no shade is now the possessor of shade, while the erstwhile possessors of shade are now in the full blast(?) of the storm. BEHOLD, he who was ignorant of the lyre now possesses a harp, (14) while he who never sang for himself now vaunts the Songstress-goddess. ... (8,1) BEHOLD, he who had no property is now a possessor of wealth, (2) and the magnate praises him. BEHOLD, the poor of the land have become rich, and [the erstwhile owner] of property is one who has nothing. ... (10,3) LOWER EGYPT WEEPS. The king's storehouse is the common property (4) of everyone, and the entire palace is without its revenues. To it belong emmer and barley, fowl and fish; to it belong white cloth and fine linen, copper and oil; (5) to it belong carpet and mat, --- flowers and wheatsheaf and all good revenues. ... --- (14,l0) in their midst (11) like Asiatics --- Men --- their state(?); they have come to an end of themselves(?); (12) none can be found to stand up and protect themselves(?). --- Every man fights for his sister and saves (13) his own skin. Is it the Nubians? Then we shall make our own protection. Fighting police(?) will hold off the barbarians. Is it the Libyans? (14) Then we shall act again. The Medjay [Madjayu] fortunately are with Egypt. How comes it that every man kills his brother? The troops (15,1) which we recruited for ourselves have turned into barbarians and have taken to destroying that from which they took their being and showing the Asiatics the state of the land; (2) all foreign peoples are in fear of it. ... _________________ Those interested in a closer knowledge of the content of the papyrus are referred to A. H. Gardiner: The Admonitions of an Egyptian Sage (Leipzig, 1909); Erman, tr. Blackman: The Literature of Ancient Egypt (London, 1927), pp. 92-108; Faulkner, JEA 51 (1965), pp. 53-62; Wilson, in ANET, pp. 441-4; or Kaster: The Literature and Mythology of Ancient Egypt (London, 1970), pp. 206-214. As all translation, especially from dead languages, is to some extent a matter of interpretation, two or more of the above may usefully be compared against each other. _________________________________________________________________ \cdrom\pubs\journals\review\v0203\54date.htm