Administration of the Deserts and Oases: First Millennium B.C.E.

David Klotz

Introduction

Evidence for desert administration is sparse during the early first mil- lennium B.C.E., but activity increased dramatically in Dynasties 26–27, and most extant inscriptional and archaeological remains date to the Graeco-Roman period. Desert travel had always demanded substantial resources and fastidious maintenance. When Egypt was under Achae- menid, Macedonian, or Roman control, manpower was more readily available and consequently more installations popped up across the Eastern and Western deserts. While the Persians and Ptolemies con- tinued to exploit the valuable mineral deposits in the East, they also viewed Egypt from a broader international perspective, and thus the deserts became gateways to profitable trade routes in the Sahara, Red Sea, and Western Mediterranean.

Third Intermediate Period

Since the Eleventh Dynasty, the Western Oases had been linked admin- istratively to Thebes. At the end of the New Kingdom, the High Priest of , , personally oversaw Kharga and Dakhla. Ste- lae from Gebel Antef, west of Thebes, mention Menkheperre in con- nection with stonemasons and horses travelling along desert roads;1 a stone door jamb found at Hibis temple, meanwhile, appears to men- tion the same Theban pontiff and General.2 In the ‘’,

1 J.C. Darnell, “Opening the Narrow Doors of the Desert: Discoveries of the Theban Desert Road Survey”, in: Egypt and Nubia: Gifts of the Desert, Renée Friedman, ed. (London: 2002), 132–36, fig. 3. 2 J. Osing, Denkmäler der Oase Dachla: aus dem Nachlass von Ahmed Fakhry (AV 28; Mainz am Rhein, 1982), p. 39, Pl. 9. Although the name is missing, extant traces sug- gest restoring the title as: “Generalissimo of Upper [and Lower Egypt] (imy-r¡ mšʿ wr n Šmʿ[-Mḥw]),” rather than “Generalissimo who appeases [the two lands] (imy-r¡ mšʿ wr sḥtp [t¡.wy]” (so Osing, who ascribed the monument to Pinudjem); this epithet 902 david klotz the same Menkheperre intercedes on behalf of Theban priests whom Amun had exiled to the oases.3 He also organized expeditions to the Wadi Hammamat in the Eastern desert.4 Fragmentary temple reliefs from Dakhla attest to sporadic temple construction during the Third Intermediate Period.5 The most impor- tant document is the ‘Greater Dakhla stela’.6 This inscription records a visit to Mut by Wayheset, Chief of the Meshwesh and Governor of the Two Oasis Lands (ḥ¡ty-ʿ n p¡ t¡ snw n wḥ¡.t), most likely the Southern or Great Oasis (Kharga, Dakhla) and the Northern Oasis (Bahariya). Sheshonq I had dispatched Wayheset to restore order in the Oases, and the official regulates agricultural disputes concerning wells and irrigation, appealing to the local god Seth for divine authority.7 Way- heset also bears religious titles which link him to Hû (Diospolis Parva), a region closely linked to the Oases via desert roads, and the lunette of the stela appears to depict the Bat-standard (sḫm) sacred to the Seventh Upper Egyptian nome.8 The extent of Pharaonic control of Nubia during the Third Inter- mediate Period is debatable.9 The office of Viceroy of Kush is attested through Dynasty Twenty-Two, and a stela found at Elephantine records of Menkheperre occurs, inter alia, on the Banishment stela (JWIS I, 72, line 8). Another block mentioning a High Priest of Amun, perhaps Menkheperre, was found at Mut: O.E. Kaper, “Epigraphic Evidence from the Dakhleh in the Libyan Period”, in: The Libyan Period in Egypt: Historical and Cultural Perspectives into the 21st–24th Dynasties, G.P.F. Broekman, R.J. Demarée & O.E. Kaper, eds. (EgUit 23; Leuven, 2009), 154. 3 J. von Beckerath, “Die ‘Stele der Verbannten’ im Museum des ”, RdÉ 20 (1968), 7–36; K. Jansen-Winkeln, Inschriften der Spätzeit. Teil I: Die 21. Dynastie (Wiesbaden, 2007), 72–74; see also G. Vittmann, “A proposito di alcuni testi e monu- menti del Terzo Period Intermedio e dell’Epoca Tarda”, in: Aegyptiaca et Coptica. Studi in onore di Sergio Pernigotti, P. Buzi, D. Picchi and M. Zecchi, eds. (BAR 2264; Oxford, 2011), 335–37. 4 A.J. Peden, The Graffiti of Pharaonic Egypt. Scope and role of informal writing (ProbÄg 17; Leiden, Boston, Cologne, 2001), 276. 5 o.E. Kaper, “Epigraphic Evidence from the Dakhleh in the Libyan Period”, 149–59. 6 A.H. Gardiner, “The Dakhleh Stela”, JEA 19 (1933), 19–30; K. Jansen-Winkeln, Inschriften der Spätzeit. Teil II: Die 22.–24. Dynastie (Wiesbaden, 2007), 23–26. 7 for the cult of Seth in Mut see O.E. Kaper, “The Statue of Penbast : On the Cult of Seth in the Dakhleh Oasis”, in: Essays on in Honour of Herman te Velde (EgMem 1; Groningen, 1997), 231–41; C. Gobeil, “Une plaque céramique à l’effigie du dieu Seth à Ayn Asil”, BIFAO 110 (2010), 103–14. 8 Ph. Collombert, “Hout-sekhem et le septième nome de Haute-Égypte II: les stèles tardives,” RdÉ 48 (1997), 53–54. 9 K. Zibelius-Chen, “Überlegungen zur ägyptischen Nubienpolitik in der Dritten Zwischenzeit”, SAK 16 (1989), 329–45.