Presents for the King

This blog post has been written by Jaap Jan Hemmes, who lives in a small village in Friesland in the north of the Netherlands. For a long time, he has had a great interest in ancient Egypt has had the privilege to visit Egypt annually. Among the rich heritage ancient Egypt offers, he is particularly interested in the Theban area with its impressive temples and tombs of the elite as well as of royals. Besides that, he can lose himself in Egypt’s remains from the Old and Middle Kingdom. Indispensable during his visits is a camera, with which he has built up an extensive collection of images that, on request, are used for publication.

Opposite the modern city of Aswan, the Nile Valley shows one of its most dramatic landscapes. The strip of the fertile, cultivated land is reduced to a minimum and the desert almost touches the longest river on earth. Before the huge dams were built at the end of the nineteenth century and the second one in the middle of the twentieth century, the landscape must have looked similar to today (fig. 1).

Fig. 1: Aswan, Qubbet el-Hawa with tombs of the nomarchs of Elephantine

 

In ancient Egypt, the country was divided into nomes (administrative districts). The very south area of Syene (Aswan) formed the first of over forty nomes, each with a ruler, or Nomarch, appointed by the King and or Vizier. Ta-seti, the southernmost part of Egypt, the country’s first nome of Upper Egypt (fig. 2) was an ideal starting point for travelling southward in order to control and protect trading routes and collect much appreciated precious African commodities such as incense, ivory, gold, panther and leopard skins, and ostrich feathers.

Fig. 2: Ta seti, ‘Land of the Bow’, the 1st nome of Upper Egypt. 
White Chapel of Senwesret I, 12th dyn.; Karnak, Open Air Museum

One of these nomarchs who chose to be buried near his hometown was Harkhuf. He was the nomarch of Elephantine and lived in the Old Kingdom during the Sixth Dynasty (under the rulers Merenre I and Pepi II). Harkhuf carried a great number of impressive titles: Count, Governor of Upper Egypt, Royal Seal Bearer, Sole Companion, Favourite of his Lord (the king), Lector Priest, Chief of Scouts, Chamberlain, Warden of Nekhen, and Mayor of Nekheb. On request of his sovereign, he undertook several journeys to the area of Yam, which was located in the south of Sudan or in the Libyan Desert. 

After a dutiful life—as he states—Harkhuf, as so many others, wished to be remembered for his great achievements. Ideally, the preferred place for a burial was on the West Bank of the Nile, the side where the sun sets. Qubbet el-Hawa (“dome of the wind”, see fig. 1) opposite Aswan offered a very suitable burial place for its governors, from the Old Kingdom onwards. On the façade of his tomb, facing east in the direction of the rising sun, records of his expeditions were carved, and it is notably his fourth expedition that mentions a very special service for his king, Pepi II. 

When Merenre I died, he was succeeded by Pepi II (throne name Neferkara; c. 2278–2184 BC), who was about six years old (fig. 3) when he ascended the throne. His regnal duties were attended by officials and probably his mother Ankhesenmerire II (also known as Ankhesenpepi II). It is said that Pepi reigned for 94 years!

Fig. 3: Pair statue of queen Ankhnesmeryre II and her son Pepi II on her lap
© Brooklyn Museum of Art, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund 39.119           

 

With the royal court at Memphis, some 900km from Aswan, the kings of the Old Kingdom onwards granted estates to great nobles in order to ‘buy’ their loyalty. Unfortunately, for many kings, this loyalty was not guaranteed as nomarchs sometimes operated as rulers in their own right. Harkhuf seems to have remained most loyal to his kings. 

On the right side of the entrance of Harkhuf’s tomb, he is depicted in a traditional way (fig. 4). Standing, facing the entrance, he holds a sekhem-sceptre in his left hand (“having power, control”) and a long stick in his right, both symbols of dignity. He wears an elaborate wig and a rich collar.

Fig. 4: Harkhuf

 

Above and in front of him, as well as on the left side of the tomb entrance, are the accounts of his first three expeditions (under Merenre I) to Nubia. The main purpose of the first, apparently under the direction of his father Iri, was the exploration of the way (“open the way”) to Yam that hadn’t previously been visited. This expedition lasted seven months. “I brought back all sorts of tribute, beautiful and rare and I was praised for it very highly). The second expedition lasted eight months. “I returned carrying tribute of this land in very great numbers, of a kind which nobody had ever brought to Egypt before”. During his third journey, Harkhuf probably faced political issues with the ruler of Yam, but negotiations resulted in mutual satisfaction and Harkhuf could return home without problems.

Harkhuf let the boy-king Pepi II know that he was returning with “all kinds of great and beautiful gifts”, including a pygmy from “the lands of the horizon-dwellers”, (i.e., “from the ends of the earth”). Harkhuf compared his prize to the pygmy brought from Punt in the reign of the Fifth Dynasty ruler Isesi, and noted that never before had a pygmy been brought to Egypt from Yam. In “regnal year 2, month 3 of (the inundation season) Akhet, day 15”, Pepi II wrote Harkhuf the following letter, the text of it was copied and carved on the extreme right part of the façade (fig. 5). I omitted parts of the translation (in italics between brackets):

Fig. 5: The king’s letter to Harkhuf

 

“(…) Come back, at once, to the north, to the residence (Memphis). Leave (everything) and bring with you the pygmy which you have brought from the land of the inhabitants of the horizon, alive, in good health and strong so that he may dance for the God (the king) and make him gladden and delight the heart of the king of Upper and Lower Egypt, Neferkara (Pepi II), may he live eternally!
If you come with him in the ship, set worthy men around him on both sides of the boat and take care that he does not fall in the water. If he lies down to sleep during the night, have worthy men to lie beside him in his tent; go and check ten times in the night. My Majesty wishes to see this pygmy more than all the tribute of mine-land (Sinai) and of Punt. If you reach the residence and the pygmy is with you, alive, in good health and strong, My Majesty will do great things for you,  more than was done for the god’s seal-bearer/treasurer, Bawerded, in the time of king Isesi (…). (fig. 6)

Fig. 6: Some words from the letter of Pepi II

This text is the only complete royal letter dating from the Old Kingdom, more than 4000 years ago. Imagine the excited reaction of the child-king Pepi II when Harkhuf arrived with the pygmy at the residence!

Visiting the rock-cut tombs of Qubbet el-Hawa nowadays is a bit of an exhausting climb, but one is more than rewarded with a fantastic panorama and, of course, with most interesting tombs including Harkhuf’s. By pronouncing his name again and again, there or at home, one helps realising Harkhuf’s wish to live and be remembered for eternity!

 

Literature:

Anonymous (ed.) 1999. Egyptian art in the age of the pyramids. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art, distributed by Harry N. Abrams.

Clayton, Peter A. 1994. Chronicle of the pharaohs: the reign-by-reign record of the rulers and dynasties of ancient Egypt. London: Thames & Hudson.

Goedicke, Hans 1981. Harkhuf’s travels. Journal of Near Eastern Studies 40 (1), 1–20.

Hannig, Rainer 2015. Großes Handwörterbuch Ägyptisch - Deutsch (2800–950 v. Chr.): Marburger Edition, 6th ed. Hannig-Lexica 1. Mainz am Rhein: Philipp von Zabern.

Lichtheim, Miriam 2006. Ancient Egyptian literature. A book of readings, volume I: The Old and Middle Kingdoms. Berkeley, CA; London: University of California Press.

Rice, Michael 1999. Who’s who in ancient Egypt. Who’s Who series. London; New York: Routledge.

Wilkinson, Toby 2019. Lives of the ancient Egyptians. London: Thames & Hudson.