Egypt Exploration Society An Ancient List of the Fortresses of Nubia Author(s): Alan H. Gardiner Source: The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, Vol. 3, No. 2/3 (Apr. - Jul., 1916), pp. 184-192 Published by: Egypt Exploration Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3853756 . Accessed: 17/07/2013 21:17 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp . JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected]. Egypt Exploration Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology. http://www.jstor.org This content downloaded from 137.207.120.173 on Wed, 17 Jul 2013 21:17:44 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 184 AN ANCIENT LIST OF THE FORTRESSES OF NUBIA BY ALAN H. GARDINER, D.LITT. THE interesting paper on the fortresses of Nubia, which Mr SOMERS CLARKE contributes to this number of the Journal, affords me a suitable occasion for the publication of a small discovery of my own on the same subject. Among the papyri found in 1895-96 by Mr QUIBELLin a late Middle Kingdom tomb beneath the Ramesseumn,and subsequently entrusted to me for publication by Prof. FLINDERS PETRIE, was a much-battered roll, the fragments of which were very skilfully put together a few years ago by Herr IBSCHER,of the Berlin Museum. The manuscript turned out to be one of those ratre vocabularies, or collections of words arranged in groups according to meaning, which appear to have served the same purpose in the Egyptian schools as spelling-books, dictionaries and encyclopaedias serve with us. The difficulty of restoring the lacunae, and the many lexicographical puzzles presented by this papyrus have been the cause why I have delayed its publication so long. Even now I am prepared to give no more than an excerpt; and all that I will say at present with regard to the general contents of the treatise is that it comprises a total of 323 different words, besides a kind of postscript containing a very curious series of abbreviations for twenty distinct types of variously marked cattle. Among the categories of words represented are the names of oils, of birds, of plants, of vertebrates, of cakes or kinds of bread, of cereals and of parts of the body. In the midst of these is also a list of geographical names of the highest importance, beginning with the fortresses of Nubia, and continuing with a series of the towns of Upper Egypt. The great value of this geographical section of the papyrus resides in the facts, firstly, that the places appear to be scrupulously arranged in geographical order from south to north, and secondly, that no other list of nearly so early a date has come down to us. The precise date of the manuscript is not quite easy to fix, but we shall not be far wide of the mark in placing it, together with the rest of the papyri belonging to the same find, about one hundred years before the commtencement of the Eighteenth Dynasty. The words are arranged in vertical columns, and every tenth word is accompanied by a number. The Nubian fortresses begin a new column; this is preceded at three different places in its height by the words mnw n "the fortress of," which description, accordingly, was meant to be understood before each individual name. This content downloaded from 137.207.120.173 on Wed, 17 Jul 2013 21:17:44 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions AN ANCIENT LIST OF THE FORTRESSES OF NUBIA 185 The text is as follows:- a The last group in this name is a crux; : (or seems clear, but f____J <:>) the lower sign, which is damaged, shows 9 [ ] points of differencefrom . b Dubious traces of the two lower signs. c Only the horizontal base is left; i is exceedingly probable. * d Palaeographically ~ would be to however the I C-, slightly preferable ; * sense speaks for the latter. Perhaps AAANA. n S q ==^^^t 3 should be substituted for ]; only * a trace remains. L J e nnnn The top of this sign is damaged; nnnn practically certain. f A trace which may well be the @ cross-stroke of [ ]. /_Vs (Next column.) A-1^ Q g l seems certain; a small square L I r-r\ * lacuna follows it, at the top of which a straight horizontal line is still visible. * h 1 Il is by no means certain, look- like a horizontal R"I 1P ing rather wavy sign. * i The last sign is certain, and is a small Km],$ ^? i preceded by space large enough for [ci], but possibly never occupied; AN~S of Zi the tops alone are preserved. Then followsthe list of the towns of Upper Egypt, beginningwith [Ljj ] Elephantine,riJllI Ombos,A [j] Edfu,and so on. This content downloaded from 137.207.120.173 on Wed, 17 Jul 2013 21:17:44 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions 186 ALAN H. GARDINER TRANSLATION. The ' (1) "Repressing- ....... " (D,`r- .....). " ' fortress (2) Khakaure'-justified-is-powerful" (Shm-H 'kwr hrw). of (:3) " Warding-off-the-Bows" ('Itnw-pdwt). (4) " Repelling-the-Inu " (Hsf-'Iwnw). (5) "Curbing-the-countries" (W'f-h'swt). k (6) " Subduing-the-Oasis-dwellers (?)" (Dr- Wtiw). The I (7) Iken ('Ikn). fortress- (8) Buhen (Bwhn). of (9) "Embracing-the-two-lands " ('Ink-t,wi). (1)80 The -(10) " Repelling-thie-Mezaiu " (Hsf-Md,w). fortress - (11) Ma'am (M''). of [(12) Baki (B,'k). (13) Senmet (Snmt). (14) Elephantine (,'bw). (15) . (Dd... ?). (16) (17) Silsilis ([Hn]y). COMMENTARY, In all, there are seventeen names of fortresses to be considered. At first sight it might appear doubtful whether the five names at the top of the second column really refer to fortresses, since the descriptive heading mnw n " the fortress of........" is omitted at this point. However, on any other view it would be difficult or impossible to explain the repetition of the name Elephantine in the sixth place of the second column; and it is reassuring to note that both Senmet (Bigeh) and Yeb (Elephantine) are known, on independenit evidence, to have been localities where fortresses existed. We may, therefore, feel some confidence in regarding the first seventeen names as the names of fortresses or fortified towns, mostly in Lower Nubia, and the following names as those of the various towns of Upper Egypt. The two series of names overlap geographically between Elephantine and Silsilis. The ending of the sandstone formation a little north of Silsilis appears to mark out that place as the natural boundary of Nubia; nowadays, Nubian language, culture and race begin only a few miles further south, at Daraw. This may well be the reason why the list of Nubian fortresses is made to terminate at Silsilis. There is some evidence that in the earliest times Elephantine was regarded rather as an outpost in N ubian territory than as the frontier of Egypt proper; though in the lists of the nomes and of the towns of Egypt, the archetypes of which probably go back to the Fifth Dynasty, the frontier appears to be the First Cataract, or more precisely, the island of Bigeh. We may hazard the conjecture that the co-existence of these two conflicting views may be the explanation of the seemingly unaccountable overlap in the papyrus. This content downloaded from 137.207.120.173 on Wed, 17 Jul 2013 21:17:44 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions AN ANCIENT LIST OF THE FORTRESSES OF NUBIA 187 It will be seen later on that the second and third names in the list of fortresses are identifiable as Semneh (Semnet el-Gharb) and Kurnmeh (Semnet esh-Shark) respectively, so that the southern starting-point of the list may be reasonably assumed to be the extreme limit of the Second Cataract'. By way of anticipation it may be said that, wherever verifiable, the order of the names in the papyrus proves to be the correct topographical order from south to north; this fact ought to prove of value inl the attempt to identify those place-names for which we have little or no corroborative evidence. In the following notes on the individual fortresses I have thought it might be useftll to give suchl references as I have found in the books immediately accessible to me; but I make no claim to anything like bibliographical completeness. The earliest book from which I quote is F. CAILLIAUD'SVoyage a Mdroe, Paris 1826; and for this I sometimes employ the letter C alone. LEPSIUS is, of course, the principal authority: the plates of his Denkmdler aus Aegypten und Aethiopien appeared in Berlin between 1849 and 1858, but the descriptive text dealing with the Nubian ,monuments (Textband v, edited by W. WRESZINSKI)was not issued until 1913; it suffices, as a rule, to quote the text, since references are there found to the plates in the larger work. Professor STEINDOItFF, with several other German archaeologists, visited the Second Cataract in 1899-1900, and made many valuable observations; his complete report has not yet appeared, but I shall frequently have occasion to refer to his preliminary paper, published in the Proceedings of the Royal Saxon Society of Sciences2.