The Kamose Texts

"To what effect do I perceive it, my might, while a ruler is in Avaris and another in Kush, I sitting joined with an Asiatic and a Nubian, each man having his (own) portion of this Egypt, sharing the land with me."

This quote, attributed to the 17th Dynasty pharaoh Kamose, encapsulates the political situation in ancient Egypt during the era in which he ruled. Modern historians call this time the "Second Intermediate Period". Its predecessor, the "Middle Kingdom", is considered a period of sophisticated art and literature, and its successor, the "New Kingdom", a time of great empire and power. Between these two "high points" of Egyptian civilization centralized rule broke down, and Egypt was ruled by three, or possibly four, different kings at once. In the north, kings descended from West Asians ruled from Avaris (they were later known as the Hyksos, which literally means "foreign rulers"), while a family of "native Egyptians" ruled from Thebes. Between them, a short lived group of kings ruled from the ancient city of Abydos, likely until they were killed off by either the Hyksos or the Thebans. Meanwhile far to the south, Egypt's traditional foil, the Nubians, had built a large empire based in the city of Kerma, and were encroaching on what had always been Egyptian territory. Perhaps as a result of the political instability of the time, textual and archaeological evidence from this period is scarce, and constructing its history has been notoriously difficult.

One of the few surviving texts from the Second Intermediate Period (2IP) are a group of inscriptions called the "Kamose texts". Kamose was the last Theban king of the 2IP before his brother Ahmose succeeded the throne, launching a new dynasty and inaugurating a "golden age" in Egyptian history by expelling the Hyksos and Nubians from Egypt and establishing the beginnings of a vast empire. These texts seemingly tell the story of Kamose's attempt to do the same, possibly laying the groundwork for his younger brother's later success. They describe a series of military excursions undertaken by the king in Thebes against the Hyksos king Apophis in Avaris, and an unknown king in Nubia (Kush). These texts consist of 3 parts:

Given so few alternate sources for this period, it is hard to critically assess the veracity of the story being told in these texts. They come from a king whose family would ultimately defeat and/or subjugate the Nubians and the Hyksos, and the bias contained within them is obvious. So the question becomes not only, "what can this text tell us about this period?" but also, "how does this fit in with the few other data points we have from this period?" Given all this data perhaps we can make an attempt to determine the extent of control, or spheres of influence, of each of these power during this time.

To start to get at some of these questions, we will look at the beginning of Part 1 (The First Kamose Stela & the Carnarvon Tablet) in which Kamose expresses his displeasure at the situation within Egypt to his council of high officials, while they describe the current state of geopolitical affairs. As you scroll through the story, the map on the left will display the locations mentioned in the text to give you an idea of where they are talking about.

We now turn to an examination of artifacts known to have been associated with either Kamose or Apophis. The maps below contain all the known artifacts of the two kings which: a) contain their name in the form of royal titulary carved into them, and b) we know where they came from and have a good idea of where they were during the 2IP. Each picture will give a brief description of the object, while the map will give a general indication of where it comes from.

***Some images are not available because the objects are either unpublished, lost, or unavailable.

The map below contains the locations of the artifacts explored above, as well as the territorial map created based on the locations mentioned at the begining of the Kamose texts for comparison.

As much as we'd like to trust and rely on the artifacts we have looked at so far, there are a number of factors that must be taken into consideration before we can fully understand what we are dealing with.

Less than half of the provenanced artifacts from these two kings were actually found in an archaeological context that suggests they were placed there contemporary with their reigns (20 vs 21 artifacts). In other words, we know that these objects have not just been laying in the sand where they were dropped for the past 3,500 years. To give one example, nearly every sphinx listed above that is attributed to Apophis and Avaris was actually found in the ancient city of Tanis, about 25 kilometers away. It's believed that these sphinxes actually originated further south in an area known as the Fayum, were moved to Avaris by Apophis, then moved to the neighboring city of Piramesses some 250 years later, and then moved to Tanis 200 years after that (which is ultimately where modern excavators found them). All this is to say that attempting to discern where these objects were located during the 40 year reign of Apophis, or the 3-6 year reign of Kamose requires careful study, and is usually no more than an educated guess.

Additionally, our ability to return to some of these sites and look for more evidence is either restricted or impossible. Modern development may occur directly on top of old sites, making them inaccessible without moving the living population currently occupying the area. The displacement of people to allow for access to archaeological sites is morally dubious, especially since many of the people who historically have been displaced by such activity are often economically marginalized to begin with. This consideration was given short shrift when the High Aswan Dam was built near the Egypt/Sudan border in the 1960s and 70s. The dam provided Egypt with hydro-electric power and stopped the Nile's annual flooding, but also created Lake Nasser, one of the world's largest man-made lakes, which displaced over 100,00 people. In addition to the loss of these peoples' homes, 22 major archaeological sites now sit at the bottom of the lake, with no hope of being revisited. Five objects in this study (13%) came from sites that are now inaccessible, two of which were carved into the living rock, and are now underwater.

When reconstructing the past, which should we trust more, the biases of texts, or the incompleteness of archaeology? It is clear to me, and hopefully to you as well, that both must be used in tandem, and even then, the final picture is often left more confused than clear. The data may be contradictory and inscrutable, but periods of great transition are always complex but worthy of our attention. It would be the defeat of Apophis' son at the hands of Kamose's brother which would unify Upper and Lower Egypt and usher in the 18th Dynasty and the New Kingdom, a "Golden Age" which saw Egypt at its height of dominion, power, and wealth. That we know little about the circumstances which gave rise to this monumental transformation is unfortunate, but not surprising, as it is buried 3,000 years in the past and under the remains of an empire. But this only reinforces the fact that every object and every clue is worth examining closely and carefully, because there isn't much, and every bit of data is important.

Hopefully this project gave you a better idea of what ancient Egypt was like at the end of the 2IP through an exploration of its most important text and associated artifacts. I also hope that it highlighted some of the difficulties inherent in studying this period.

The list of objects compiled for this project was created by cross-referencing the following sources and adding other objects which I came across in my studies:

• The Political Situation in Egypt during the Second Intermediate Period by Kim Ryholt & Anthony Spalinger
• Later Life of Middle Kingdom Monuments: Interrogating Tanis by Marsha Hill
• How to Build a Capital: The Second Life of Pre-Ramesside Materials in Pi-Ramesses by Barbara Gilli

Once I had an established list of objects attributable to Kamose and Apophis, I read through any works published about each piece in order to determine:

• Where the object was found/If it could be prevenanced
• Where it was believed to have been placed during the 2IP, if difference from provenance
• Any additional interesting notes

GPS coordinates were then given to provenance and original 2IP locations using google earth. Since many of these objects were discovered prior to the invention of GPS, their coordinates referenced the general area or site. Archeological reports from the late 1800s/early 1900, where far more general in their descriptions of site and object locations, and so some educated guesses had to be made by me to give some objects coordinates.

This information was entered into an excel spreadsheet, which was then manipulated and used to create the above maps and data visualizations in ArcGIS and Tableau, respectively.

Additionally, William Kelly Simpson's translation of the Kamose texts was used to identify the locations named in part 1 of the texts, which again were given coordinated using google earth. The glyphs used in this project which accompany his translation were taken from Historisch-Biographische Texte Der 2. Zwischenzeit Und Neue Texte Der 18. Dynastie by Wolfgang Helck, and typed in a digital form my me, using a hieroglyphic text creation program called Jsesh.

This page was created using the ArcGIS Storymap platform.

• Gilli, Barbara. “How to Build a Capital: The Second Life of Pre-Ramesside Materials in Pi-Ramesses.” In Mit Archäologischen Schichten Geschichte Schreiben: Festschrift Für Edgar B. Pusch Zum 70. Geburtstag, edited by Henning Franzmeier, Thilo Rehren, and Regine Schulz (Hildesheim: Verlag Gebrüder Gerstenberg, 2016), 139 - 176.
• Habachi, Labib. The second Stela of Kamose and his struggle against the Hyksos ruler and his capital. Blückstadt: J.J. Augustin, 1972.
• Helck, Wolfgang. Historisch-Biographische Texte Der 2. Zwischenzeit Und Neue Texte Der 18. Dynastie. Wiesbaden: Otto Harrassowitz, 1983.
• Hill, Marsha, "Later Life of Middle Kingdom Monuments: Interrogating Tanis" in Ancient Egypt Transformed: The MIddle Kingdom, edited by Adela Oppenheim, Dorothea Arnold, Dieter Arnold and Kei Yamamoto (New Haven & London: Yale University Press, 2015), 294 - 336.
• Pharaonen und Fremde: Dynastien im Dunkel. Wien: Eigenverlag der Museen der Stadt Wien, 1994.
• Ryholt, Kim, and Adam Bülow-Jacobsen. The Political Situation in Egypt During the Second Intermediate Period, c. 1800-1550 B.C. Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, 1997.
• Shaw, Ian. The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt. New York: Oxford Univeristy Press, 2003.
• Simpson, William Kelly. The Literature of Ancient Egypt: Third Edition. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2003.