Climate Fluctuations and the History of Egypt's Middle Kingdom

Climate and the History of Egypt: The Middle Kingdom
Author(s): Barbara Bell

Source: American Journal of Archaeology , Jul., 1975, Vol. 79, No. 3 (Jul., 1975), pp.
223-269
Published by: Archaeological Institute of America
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.com/stable/503481
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Climate and the History of Egypt:
The Middle Kingdom'
BARBARA BELL
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Introduction and Survey of Dynasty XII ................................... .....

N ile Levels from the M iddle K ingdom .................................................................. .... 22
Reign of Senw osret I ..................................................................................... .........
Evidence from N ubia ........ ............................................................................... ............ 2
H igh w ater levels (H W Ls) ......................................................... 229
Low water levels (LWLs) ............................................. ......236
Volum e of the great Sem na floods ................................................................................ 238
Evidence from Egypt .................. ............................................. ..... 245
Rainfall in the Middle Kingdom ........................................................................... 247
E g y p t ...................... ........ ........................... ............................................ 247
N ubia ....................................... ............... . . 248
Lake M oeris and the Fayum ........................................................... 249
Early Dynastic ........................................ 252
Old Kingdom ....................................... ...........................252
M iddle K ingdom .......................... . ................. 254
Lake Moeris and the levels of the Nile ................................. .......
Some historical implications of the great floods .................................
Decline of the M iddle Kingdom ........................................ 260
D is c u s s io n.................................................................................................................... 2 6 5
References .......................................................... 266
Abstract
are discussed and rejected, and the
interpreted literally as indicating act
The first major section of this paper (p. 226f)
the peak volume, in those years fo
surveys evidence bearing on the level of the Nile
exist at Semna, is estimated to h
during the Middle Kingdom and the Second Inter-
times that of the larger floods rec
mediate Period, I991 to ca. 1570 B.C. With the
since A.D. 1870. These floods are
exception of the analysis of the range of a "good
reflecting
flood" in the reign of Senwosret a climate
I, most of fluctuation of on
the evi-
duration and
dence comes from excavations stimulated by the are not seen as typic
building of the High Dam at Kingdom, which
Aswan, from appears otherw
now-
floods similar to those of modern tim
flooded sites in Nubia, and from the inscriptions on
textual
the cliffs at the Semna region of and architectural
the Second Cataract, evidence b
fall suggests
long-known and troublesome because that the Middle King
commemorat-
tions
ing flood levels 8 to II m. above the similar
modern to those of the A.D. i8
from
some 27 years in the reigns of rainfalls
King Amenemhet
somewhat IIIless rare than
and his immediate successors. Previous
century. hypotheses
II take this opportunity to thank Professors William Y.
(Boston College).
Adams (University of Kentucky), Karl TheW. Butzer (University
chronology followed in this paper is
of Chicago), and William Kelley Simpson (Museum
Cambridge of Fine
Ancient History, particular
Arts, Boston; Yale University) for their generous interest
the chronology of the and
XIIth Dynasty is kno
encouragement in this work; each ofexactness,
them readso that
the there should be no sig
semi-final
draft and made valuable suggestions among
and comments.
various authorities.
I received
also a number of useful suggestions from Prof. Sterling Dow

77.43.5.162 on Thu, 27 Aug 2020 00:11:17 UTC
224 BARBARA BELL [AJA 79
The second major section
the further hypothesis that(p. 249f)
this failure of the fl
dence bearing on
in the
Egypt-most level
severe between ca.of Lak
2180 and ca. 2
concluded that the lake was in free co
the Nile from Neolithic to Ptolemaic times when B.C., and again for a few years between ca. 2005
the level was artificially reduced. It appears that1992 B.C.-was only part of a widespread clim
more than seasonal fluctuations in the lake level oc-
fluctuation in the direction of greater aridity.
curred from time to time (especially during the drought was severe. It played a significant and
Neolithic), with possible interruptions in the freehaps decisive role in the collapse of many cen
connection, as during the very low Niles and
drought of the First Dark Age. If the connection
of culture which flourished during the E
then was restored with human aid, it appears mostBronze Age, all the way from Greece2 through
Near East to the Indus Valley, and so brough
likely this was done early in the XIIth Dynasty
under Amenemhet I. the First Dark Age of Ancient History as a who
The third principal section (p. 25If) discusses In the present paper, instead of proceeding imm
possible cultural and historical influences of the great
floods recorded at Semna in the last reigns of Dynas-
diately to consider a later Dark Age, I propos
ty XII and early in Dynasty XIII, both while theycontinue with another theme implicit in the fir
were occurring and upon their cessation. There ispaper, viz. the intermediate climatic history
no evidence that the decline in material prosperityEgypt. I propose, that is, to survey the evide
and strength of the central government under Dy- relating to climate from the founding of the X
nasty XIII was associated with any such severe
Dynasty by Amenemhet I in 1991 B.C. to the
failure of the floods and famine as brought on the
First Dark Age. The few known famine inscrip- integration of the Middle Kingdom in the 17
In Egypt of course the essential climatic fact
tions, from El Kab ca. 1750 B.C., do not suggest
the most dire conditions of earlier inscriptions.
the level of the Nile in the season of its annual
However it is postulated that the cessation of theflood. If the crops are to grow well, the flood must
great floods, after the Egyptians had become accus-
be sufficient to overflow the fields and prepare them
tomed to them, required a readjustment of the irri-
gation system in a period of political weakness andfor the sowing of the seeds.
uncertainty about the proper order of royal succes- Dynasty XII, ca. 1991 to ca. 1780 B.C., was a pe-
sion, thus creating a sort of vicious circle which riod of strong central government and general pros-
made the period "darker" than it need have been perity, one of the high points of ancient Egyptian
from either of these factors occurring alone and,civilization." "When through the success of the
under the Egyptian dogma of divine Kingship with
state," and (I would add) through the return of the
the Pharaoh as "rain maker," or more exactly
Nile to generous floods, "the 12th Dynasty Pharaohs
"flood maker," accounts in some degree for the
very numerous and short reigns characterizingdemonstrated their capacity to be gods, they be-
Dynasty XIII. came once more the arbiters and dispensers of
ma'at. To this the Egyptian people were assenting.
INTRODUCTION AND SURVEY OF DYNASTY XII
They were well fed and busy and aware of oppor-
In a previous article (Bell 1971), I advanced theadvancement" (Wilson 1956:143)-
tunities for
hypothesis that the First Dark Age in There
Egyptian
was, to be sure, no ecologically significant
history (generally known as the First Intermediate
revival of the rains over the desert, certainly no re-
Period) was brought on by a prolonged and severe
turn of the Neolithic Wet Phase (see Bell 1971).
deficiency in the annual floods of the Nile. The con-
Although rainfall, occurring only in occasional
sequent famine, amply attested by surviving in-was too rare to be useful, the Nile
cloudbursts,
scriptions, precipitated (I suggested) the collapse
inundations were evidently adequate or more than
ca. 2180 B.C. of the central monarchy adequate
of the during
Old Dynasty XII. I shall discuss what
Kingdom, which was already weakened
can beby theof flood levels during Dynasties XII
known
operation of social and political forces. I and
introduced
XIII in a major section of this paper. From
2 In the previous paper (Bell 1971:5-6), I noted that the
good agreement with the Lerna dates, being 2020 B.C. un-
radiocarbon dates associated with the House of Tiles at Lerna corrected and ca. 2500 B.C. corrected. And Korucu Tepe in
(late EH II) corrected to ca. 2500 B.C., suggesting association
eastern Anatolia yields two dates (P-1628, RC 13, and M-2376,
of the end of EB II in Greece with the end of the Neolithic RC 14) for the end of EB II, which also average close to
Wet Phase rather than with the Egyptian I)ark Age. Recently 2000 B.C. uncorrected.
published radiocarbon dates from the EM II phase at Myrotos, a New date, required by Hintze's discovery of an inscription
Crete (Q-95o/53, RC 12; and Q-0oo2/4, RC 14) average to dated to year 13 of Amenemhet IV; see note ii.

77.43.5.162 on Thu, 27 Aug 2020 00:11:17 UTC
1975] CLIMATE AND THE HISTORY OF EGYPT 225
Dynasty XII, Vandier (1936) wasOutside Egypt,
able to find the
onlyXIIth Dynasty r
one text referring to famine, dominion over Lower
viz. an inscription in Nubia in th
wosret of
the tomb of one Ameny, Nomarch I, who
Beni conducted
Hasan at least
during the reign of Senwosret' I. The
there, Nomarch
in his year 9 (year 29 of Am
year co-regency) and in year 18; a
Ameny states (Breasted 1906:523):
construction of a series of forts in
... When years of famine came, I plowed all
the fields of the Oryx Nome, asthe
far Second Cataract (Emery 1965
as its southern
Nubia apparently
and northern boundaries, preserving its people remained peace
alive, and furnishing its foodreigns
so thatof his son
there was and grandson, bu
none hungry therein.... Then acame
more great Niles,
military-minded pharaoh th
producers of grain and of all things, (but) I did
ecessors, found reason to conduct in
not collect the arrears of the field (taxes) ...
four major military campaigns in U
This inscription no doubt gives the
a picture of these
time of the nor-
campaigns, Senwo
mal situation in a year of lowtheNile, which
building must
of additional forts and t
have occurred from time to time throughout Egyp-
of those already in existence, so tha
tian history, though rarely with such severity
altogether a mostas in
formidable array,
the Dark Ages at the end of the Old Kingdom and
tures of military architecture not pr
again between Dynasties XI and XII.
before the Vandier
Middle Ages (Emery
notes that Griffith believes that the inscription
wosret III established of Semna-the m
Mentuhotep, son of Hepi, dated to
source of year
data on the 25 of an
flood-levels of this era-as
unnamed king, refers to the same famine
the official frontieras Ame-
of his kingdom, and pacified
ny's inscription; but VandierNubia
himself would
so thoroughly that in place
later centuries he was
it in the reign of Mentuhotepworshipped as one of Goedicke
II, while the prime deities of the area.
(JEA 1962:25-35) argues for Ita isstill earlier
now thought dating,
that the Nubian forts were built
under Inyotef II, both kings of Dynasty XI (see
as a defensive measure against Kush, an apparent-
Bell 1971 :I6-I9). ly powerful state in Upper Nubia (Trigger 1965;
But such years of famine were not
Emery typical
1965) oflittle
about which the is yet known, but
reign of Senwosret I, which which
was the
in Egyptians
general "ahave
must pe-considered dan-
riod of great economic development. The the
gerous. In addition provincial
forts served to protect river
cemeteries throughout the country
traffic anddisplay
trade with the very
the south at points (i.e. the
great wealth of the nomes at this time"
cataracts) (Vercoutter
where boats were particularly vulnerable
1967:369). And the king himself was able
to marauders, to cargoes
and where buildhad to be por-
extensively, "from Alexandria taged
to Aswan there this
or towed through; is no
indeed may have
important site where he has not left
been his trace,"
the primary functionwith
of the forts (Adams
at least 35 sites revealing architectural
1971). ruins from
his time; his reign was "one of the
The reign most
of the glorious
sixth king of Dynasty XII, Amen-
in Egyptian history" (ibid). emhet III (1842-1797 B.C.), son and successor of
So also in the provinces. During
SenwosretallIII, isof theconsidered
generally firstto be the
four reigns of Dynasty XII-viz. Amenemhet
most prosperous I Nubia
of the Middle Kingdom.
(1991-1962 B.C.), Senwosret was
I (1971-1928), Ame-
under firm control. Egyptian power was ac-
nemhet II (1929-1895), andknowledged
Senwosretby many of theII
princes of western Asia
(I897-
1878)5-the provincial nobles(Hayes
continued
I96I:48), althoughto
the build
precise relationship
fine large tombs in their several territories.
between Most
these princes and of is still
the pharaoh
these series of tombs come to
quitean endMining
uncertain. during
activitythe
was at a high
level, as indicated
reign of the fifth king, Senwosret IIIby(1878-I843),
many inscriptions from the
a fact which is usually taken as evidence
turquoise that
mines of Sinai and theSen-
diorite quarries of
Nubia
wosret III was able to break the (Hayes 1961).
power ofAmenemhet
the pro- III was able to
vincial nobility and replace them by
build for administrators
himself two pyramids, one at Dahshur
subject to direct royal control.
near that of his father and one near the entrance
4Alternately written Senusret; Greek, Sesostris. regency between the old king and his heir.
" The overlapping dates are correct, reflecting periods of co-

77.43.5.162 on Thu, 27 Aug 2020 00:11:17 UTC
to the Fayum Basin atrecords
cient known Hawara, altho
of the Nile floods, whic
son he wanted a second pyramid
in a fragmentary way the period remai
from ca. 30
He also erected two colossal
ca. 2480 seated
B.C. These records stat
indicate that the
self at Biahmu, averaged
which Herodotus
0.70 m. (or more, depending re upo
cated in the middle
assumption about the zeroMoeris-
of Lake of the scale) hig
which has given therise to
vicinity much
of Old Memphis contro
(near Cairo) d
we shall discuss below in the section
Dynasty I than in subsequent centuries. on
Th
Amenemnhet III known
hasfigures
often been
date from the reigncred
of Senwo
the erection of
the Labyrinth,
of Dynasty a a struct
XII, and state that "good flood"
by some as the mortuary
level of about 21.5temple of
cubits (11.3 m.) hi
at Eleph
Hawara, and described by(6.6
(Aswan), 12.5 cubits Herodotu
m.) at the "house
der surpassing even the pyramids." Ac
Inundation" near Old Cairo, and 6.5 cubits (
ever, Herodotus attributes the Laby
at Diospolis in the northern Delta (Kees 1
Moeris (Ny-maat-re, Amenemhet)
JEA 30:34). The b
highest surviving figure fro
mittee of 12 kings
earlier immediately
records is about 8 cubits (4.2pre
m.) a
metichus, the founder of II-V
average from Dynasties Dynasty
is 1.8 m. Because
B.C.6
is no reason to believe the floods were higher
NILE LEVELS FROM THE MIDDLE KINGDOM
time of Senwosret I than in the early peri
on the contrary some reason-viz. the locat
Reign of Sentwosret I (1971t-928 B.C.).
the In a note
valley temples associated with the roya
elsewhere (Bell 1970), i discussed the mostbelieve
mids-to an- they were lower, it seem
6 The dating of the Labyrinth remains controversial. Argu-
tectonic view, that there are serpentine, case-like windings,
ments for the late date have been presented most recently
in place by
of square rooms, is decidedly refuted.
K. Michalowski (1968 JEA 54:219), while A.B. "The Lloyd
whole (1970
is so arranged, that three immense masses of
JEA 56:8I-Ioo) attributes the Labyrinth to buildings, Amenemhet III. broad, enclose a square place, which is
300 feet
The following description of the results of his 600 explorations
feet long and 5oo feet wide. The fourth side, one of the
of the site of the Labyrinth by Lepsius (1853:83, narrow89-91)ones, is may
bounded by the Pyramid, which lies behind it;
be of interest, particularly to classical scholars it is interested
300 feet square, in and therefore does not quite reach the
assessing the reliability of Herodotus on matters sideEgyptian
wings of the (seeabove-mentioned masses of buildings. A
also note 37): canal of rather modern date, passing obliquely through the
"Here we have been, on the southern side of ruins the Pyramid ofexactly the best preserved portion of the
. . . cuts off
Moeris, since the 23rd May, and are settled among labyrinthian thechambers,
ruins together with part of the great central
of the Labyrinth; for I was certain from the first, square, after
whichweathad
one time was divided into courts . . . . the
made but a hasty survey of the whole, that we are perfectly
chambers lying on the farther side, especially their southern
entitled to designate them under this name: point, I didwhere not, the
how- walls rise nearly ten feet above the rubbish,
ever, imagine that it would have been so easy andfor about ustwenty
to be- feet above the base of the ruins, are to be
come convinced of this . . I caused some excavators to be seen very well even from . . . the eastern side; and viewed
levied from the surrounding villages . . . and ordered them from the summit of the Pyramid, the regular plan of the
to make trenches through the ruins, and to dig at four orwholefive design lies before one as on a map. Erbkam has been
places at once .. occupied ever since our arrival, in making the special plan,
"These lines are written to you from the distinctly recognised
on which every chamber or wall, however small, will be
Labyrinth of Moeris and the Dodecarchs, ... An immense noted down...." (see Lepsius' Denkmdler V.1, Abt. I, BI. 46-
cluster of chambers still remains, and in the centre lies48). the
great square, where the courts once stood, covered with the
"... The fragments of the mighty columns and architraves
remains of large monolithic granite columns, and of others of we have dug up from the great square of the halls,
which
white hard limestone, shining almost like marble. . . . At the
exhibit the name-shields of [Amenemhet III]. . . . We have
first superficial survey of the ground, a number of complicated
several times found the name of [Amenemhet III in a chamber
spaces, of true labyrinthine forms, immediately presented them-
which lay in front of the Pyramid beneath a great quantity of
selves, both above and below ground, and the eye could rubbish].
easily . ... The builder and occupier of the Pyramid is
detect the principal buildings, more than a stadium (Strabo)
therefore determined. But this does not refute the statement of
in extent. Where the French expedition had vainly soughtHerodotus,
for that the Dodecarchs, only 200 years before his
chambers, we literally at once find hundreds of them, time, both had undertaken the building of the Labyrinth. We have
next to, and above one another, small, often diminutive ones,
found no inscriptions in the ruins of the great masses of cham-
beside greater ones, and large ones, supported by smallbers col-which surround the central space. It may be easily proved
umns, with thresholds, and niches in the walls, with remains
by future excavations that this whole building, and probably
of columns, and single casing stones, connected by corridors,
also the disposition of the twelve courts, belong only, in fact,
without any regularity in the entrances and exits, so thattothe
the 26th Dynasty of Manetho, so that the original temple
descriptions of Herodotus and Strabo, in this respect, are of
fully
[Amenemhet III] formed merely part of this gigantic archi-
justified. But at the same time also, the opinion, which was enclosure."
tectural
never adopted by me, and is irreconcilable with any archi-

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19751 CLIMATE AND THE HISTORY OF EGYPT 227
to the evidence of surviving inscriptions, some years
of Niles so low as to cause severe famine occurred,
particularly between ca. 2180 and ca. 2135 B.C. As
has been argued (Bell 1971), this drought in all
.......................
..i......ii . :.ii iji .... ......... probability precipitated the collapse of the Old
Kingdom. The floods ca. 2500 B.C. on the old scale
.A .ARA S INAI averaged around 1.8 m. (or 1.3 m.) above the un-
known zero, so that the water must have failed to
reach even the zero level in some of the famine
f. AY.. M ENI .
years. This, together with the collapse of the cen-
tral government, may well have led to the abandon-
ASY T
ment of the old Nilometer and the subsequent

BDO THEBES adoption of a new one with a lower zero point.
We should note the fact that the figures given by
EL KAB 25::iiiii- ! ii:
ELEPHANTINE 3N Senwosret I describe a "good flood," not any par-
/SLo / CATARACT
0/OR/RE ticular actual flood. It is reasonable to believe,
OUARRY KUN K
however, that in fact the floods were "good," for
TOSHKTA
AB SIMBEL
WoBI HALFA Egyptologists agree that the reign of this king was
a time of high prosperity for Egypt. Moreover his
father, Amenemhet I (g1991-962, including io
SCATARAC
ARGO K years co-regency)--
KERMA claimed in his Instructions to
DONGOLA* JEBAELBE
his son (Wilson 1955:418; see also Bell 1971:18-
NAOTA MEROWE 5/h CATARAC
20): "The Nile honored me on every broad ex-
panse"; that is, the inundations were liberal.
The figures of Senwosret I for the vicinity of
KHARTOUM
Cairo (6.6 m.) would be the same as the average
A USo MBE .........
rise of 6.6 m. from minimum to maximum at the
Roda Nilometer (also near Cairo) over the period
from the seventh century A.D. to 1890, as given
by Popper (1951:225); the average rise for the
years A.D. 642-1521 he gives as 6.5 m., while his
century-averages range from 6.i to 6.94 m., and
the years A.D. 1822-1891 give 6.74 m. Thus it is
MALA LAL 0 reasonable to infer that the floods in the vicinity of
10, Cairo in the early part of Dynasty XII were close
to those of recent centuries, with the zero-point
of the ancient scale being at or near the average
MAP I. The Nile Valley
LWL (low waterand vicinity:
level). But see note 22. open
circles, ancient sites; filled
By a similar circles,
interpretation of Senwosret's figure
modern towns
from Elephantine (Aswan), however, rather higher
that we must infer that the zero point of the scale, floods would be indicated. The range for the years
if it was ever fixed, was changed at some time be- A.D.' 1870-1902 is 8.0 m., and the highest Io-day
tween the Vth and XIIth Dynasties. It is mostmean (in 1878) is 9.0 m. above the average LWL
reasonable to suppose that this change, a lowering(low water level), compared with a value of I1.3 m.
of the zero-point, occurred during the First Inter- given by Senwosret I. Extrapolation8 of the present
mediate Period (First Dark Age) when, according Aswan gauge-discharge curve, shown in ill. i
7 Numerical data on modern gauge levels and flood volumes, Public Works, Nile Control Department, Cairo, 1933-1963.
unless otherwise credited, were obtained from The Nile Basin, 8 A word of caution is in order. Throughout the paper, when-
vols. II, III, IV, and their supplements, produced by H.E. ever extrapolations are used, it should be borne in mind that
Hurst, assisted in the earlier years by P. Phillips, and later by these can be no more than rough approximations, particularly
R.P. Black and Y.M. Simaika, published by the Ministry of as I have a cross-section of the channel to the highest relevant

77.43.5.162 on Thu, 27 Aug 2020 00:11:17 UTC
NILE Aswan cataract

VOLUME, m3 thanx
in the108
alluvial valley of Lower
per day
2 4 6 8 10 20 40 60 80
Egypt, although of course a quayside scale could
also perfectly well have a zero below (or above)
100// LWL." It is also possible, even probable, that the
zeros of the two Nilometers were fixed at different
SE MN A,
times. Since Dynasty M
XII originated from Thebes, K -
which was the capital of the preceding (XIth) Dy-
~ 95
nasty, one could easily conceive that the Elephan-
tine Nilometer was established at an earlier time
E x F1878 8 when the LWL may have been lower. If we assume
.JW ,' --1946-
w - AV 1870-99 o
that the "good flood" of Senwosret I was similar to
z the larger modern floods, which amount to about
90< 1913
i xxo"m."/day, with HWL at about 94.o m., then
SHWL the zero of the gauge would have been at 82.7 m.
LWL Such a zero may have been fixed arbitrarily below
the average LWL, but it is tempting to imagine
that it was set in a period of exceptionally low
LWL such as that just preceding the establishment
- 1900-I
85 - -- AV 1870-99 --
3 5
of Dynasty XII by Amenemhet I in 1991 B.C.,
when according to the Prophecy of Neferty (Er-
I 2 3
m3 x 108 per
man 1927; Bell 1971:71):day
"The river of Egypt is
empty, men cross over the water on foot."
ILL. I. The Nile at A
plotted There is however another factor
against in the problem
volum
Hurst etof interpreting
al the levels given by Senwosret I, a
(1946:123
(dashed lines)
factor which in pharaonicabove
times must have served l
to enlarge the difference between the Elephantine
(from and the Memphis/Cairo readings.
Hurst, Black, This factor is
gests the lake ina
that the Fayum basin. It is generally agreedof
flood
that since Ptolemaic times this lake has taken off
would have a peak vol
about only an insignificant
double thatfraction of the Nile of
flood- t
day waters. But earlier,
mean - from pre-Neolithic down to
8.4xio'm
percent greater than
Ptolemaic times, according to some authorities t
(II.4xio"m.'/day) wh
(e.g. Petrie 1889; Ball 1939), the lake was in more
LWL to or9.0
less free connectionm. at
with the Nile through the A
(Cairo). Hawara channel, and served to reduce flood levels
This sort of discrepancy between flood levels at
in Lower Egypt by draining off a portion of the
Elephantine and at Cairo is found in Greek and floodwaters. Water would then return to the river
Roman times as well. It has been discussed by L.
Borchardt in his monograph "Nilmesser and Nil- in the low season (Ball i939), and the action of
the lake would diminish the range at Cairo, and
standmarken" (see also Kees i96i:50). The dis-
crepancy could be explained (Lyons i906:315) by everywhere downstream of the Hawara channel
assuming that the Egyptians used a zero point be- near Beni Suef, relative to that at Elephantine.
low mean LWL at Elephantine, which would be a The level of the Fayum lake in pre-Ptolemaic an-
more feasible thing to do among the rocks of the cient times has long been a subject of controversy
levels only for Semna (from Lyons 19o6:26o; and Ball 1903). 10 However Lyons's further idea of a gradient of zero-points
If the actual channel width suddenly increases at some gaugediffering from that of the river is a rather inherently implausible
level within the range of interest, the extrapolations will under- idea which should not be accepted without a re-examination
estimate the volume of flow. of the floods throughout the centuries and millennia. Toussoun
9 Explanation of symbols: m' = cubic meters; 1o0 = hun-of the data free from any predisposition to assume a constancy
dred millions = Ioo,ooo,ooo (eight zeros); i6xio8m'/day = (1925:265) considers it evident that the scales of the various
sixteen hundred million cubic meters per day. LWL = low Nilometers found throughout Egypt have no deliberate rela-
water level; HWL = high water level or height of the flood. tion to one another.

77.43.5.162 on Thu, 27 Aug 2020 00:11:17 UTC
1975 1 CLIMATE AND THE HISTORY OF EGYPT 229
among scholars. I shall discuss it at some length
later in this paper because it is an integral part of
the climate history of Egypt and can be discussed
WAD I
BUHEN HA
most appropriately in connection with the MiddleKOR. MEINARTI
Kingdom. We shall there return also to the Nile eDORGINARTI ROCK OF ABUSIR A
levels of Senwosret I, and consider to what extent

MIRGISSA DABENARTI
the diversion of water into the Fayum could ac-
count for the apparent discrepancy between Ele-
phantine and Old Cairo. But first we shall com-
plete our survey of the information available
GEMAI
concerning the Nile flood levels during the Middle

MURSHID
Kingdom.
Evidence from Nubia, HWLs (High Water ASKUT
KAJNARTY
Levels). Rather more clear and tangible evidence

on Nile flood levels is available from the latter part
of the Middle Kingdom, between 1840 and ca. 1770 SHELFAK
B.C., which yields quantitive measurements of S URONART

flood levels relative to modern HWL and LWL.
SEM NA
SKUMMA
SEMNA
0 0
kilometers uM Ao 20
The interpretation of this evidence has been sub- SOUTH
ject to much discussion and controversy, leading to

divergent views on the level of the Nile floods MAP 2. Sites in the region of the Second
Cataract (adapted from Vercoutter 1970: Fig
during the Middle Kingdom. The controversy origi-
nated when Lepsius in 1844 discovered a series of
inscriptions, on the rocks overlooking the river at
positions (Reisner 1929a, b) so that they ca
the SEMNA region of the Second Cataract, thatno ap-quantitative information; these years (
parently recorded flood levels from the late Middle
Dunham and Janssen i96o:129f) are show
ill. 2 by the broken bars, drawn arbitrari
Kingdom. Vercoutter (1966) re-analyzed the phras-
ing of the inscriptions and concluded that the theyaverage height of the solid bars. F.
must undoubtedly be considered meaningful(1972 rec- Jan I6, priv. comm.)"1 has generously
ords of high water levels. available to me for use in this paper the resul
Most of the inscriptions, scattered here and his
therere-examination of the Semna inscription
on rocks of both the east and west bank, come from
his additions to the list are shown by the t
the reign of Amenemhet III (1842-1799 B.C.), broken
but lines and included in the total numbers
we now have also four from Amenemhet IV and given above. Particularly noteworthy are Nos. 501
one from Queen Sobekneferu, the last two rulers
and 508, respectively dated to year 13 of Amenem-
of Dynasty XII; also four from Sobekhotep I, and
het IV and year 8 of Sekhemkare, the highest
two from Sekhemkare, the first two kings of Dy- dates known for these kings. The modern floods,
nasty XIII. Fifteen flood levels from the east bank at the time of the visit of Lepsius, averaged about
have been published by Dunham and Janssen 7.3 m. lower than those recorded in the late Middle
(I96o:Plate XXXII), based on the work of Lepsius Kingdom, and from this has arisen the "Semna
and of Reisner. In ill. 2 these are plotted againstproblem."
date. Most of the inscriptions from the west bank Before proceeding with the Semna problem itself,
are on rocks that have fallen from their original
however, we should note that the question of the
11 The list provided me by Professor Hintze (Humboldt- 506: ( =RIS 19) Amenemhet IV, year 6
Universitiit zu Berlin) contains his reference number, the refer- 507: ( =RIS 18) Amenemhet IV, year 7
ence number assigned by Reisner (I)unham and Janssen 1960) 508: ( =--RIS Io) Sekhemkare, year 8
in case of revised translations, and the date of the inscription, 509: ( =RIS 2) S[m-Re-bw-t;wj [Sekhemre Khutowy]
as follows:
(Amenemhet-Sobekhotep), year 2
5oI: (new) Amenemhet IV, year 13 510: ( =RIS 3) Amenemhet-Sobekhotep, year 3
502: ( =RIS 6) Amenemhet III, year 36 511: ( =RIS 8) Sdf'-k;-Re, year I [probably Sedjefakare,
503: (z.Zt. nicht greifbar in unserm Archiv) in the list of Hayes (1962a) the ninth
504: (?--RIS 8) Shm-k'-Re [Sekhemkare], year 4
505: ( =RIS I6) Amenemhet IV, year 5 king of Dynasty XIII, c.1765_5].

77.43.5.162 on Thu, 27 Aug 2020 00:11:17 UTC
YEARS BC 1840 1830 1820 1810 1800 1790 c 1770

REGNAL YEARS 2 12 22 32 42 2 4 8
24 _
KUMMA I AMENEMHET
TEMPLE 5 9 III13
-K U MMA TE MPLE -IV------ I 5
DYNASTY XIII
22
-60
A
20- O
MK, MEAN HWL -""I.

18 -"
16""
14 I
"
""
I>
I <
II I I : I oI
Crr:
.. .??
12-HWL, "I
LEPSIUS
II
!. ,
I=50>
:::
50 : r
o=--HWL 1901, BALL " : :

IXII "+ " I
iiI"II
I IIw I
A D 2 0 th C ................ N .-
2 11" I I
-140
0-LWL,
-2 LWL, BALL LEPSIUS
AD-20.t C...
ILL. 2. The Semna inscription

in situ inscriptions; dashed
height of in situ inscription
Hintze inscriptions (see n. i
average modern cause flood no disquie level it

complexity. John 190o, Ball preceding (I903), t
Semna in March 1902,
of Ball to Semn reporte
no doubt of the on correctness
the Roda of gau th
cord with the
noted, as the people of Kumm difference in their levels at Semna.
precise spot where
Table i presents a summarythey of the levels12 go mea- t
Nile. My observation
sured by Ball and by Lepsius and relates... them con to
absolute levels above
sius." "The precise spot"mean sea level must using the
year, however, with
figures given by Vercoutter the(1966: I40 n. varia
43).
of the modern flood,
In the report and
of his visit to Semna at the begin-ind
ning of this
termined by Ball century, Ball
and by (1903) proposed
Lepsiu to at-
1.68 m. while the LWLs
tribute the apparent differ
decline in flood levels from the b
given by Ball Middle
beingKingdom to modern lower in
times to an erosion of
12 Ball (1903) does not give the mean of the Middle Kingdom
surprising that the Kumma elevation was the more accurately
levels at Semna, but rather a value of I20.8 or 7.9 m. above measured by Lepsius because all of the in situ inscriptions-
his HWL of 1901, which represents the "lowest group of in- the focus of his interest-are on the Kumma or east bank.
scriptions." Fortunately for greater precision, he gives the levelLepsius's error in the elevation of the Semna temple pro-
of year 23 of Amenemhet III as Io.9 m. above his HWL, which duces an initially puzzling result in Reisner's Plate IX (Dun-
in turn is 12.i m. above his modern LWL; from these data ham and Janssen 1960), where the water level of 5 April
the relation between the scales of Ball and of Lepsius can be 1924-which was about 115.25 at Halfa, close to the average
worked out. Vercoutter (1966:n.43) reports actual measure- modern LWL-appears at 3.90 m. above the zero of Lepsius!
ments only for the two temples, where his figures show a dif- From Table i, it should be around -1-.9 m. It would appear
ference between the levels of the temples which is less than that Reisner determined the temple platform to be 34.0 m.
half of that published by Lepsius; it is clear that Vercoutter's
above the 5 April 1924 water-level, then used Lepsius's figure
"modern LWL" was determined from the Kumma elevation of 37-90 m. for the elevation of the temple. If we use Ball's
using the scale of Lepsius. The elevations of Kumma de- elevation (135-4 m. - 102.9 m. - 32.5 m. on the scale of
termined by Ball and by Lepsius are in good accord, whileLepsius) subtraction of 34.o0 m. gives --I.5 m., in satisfactory
Ball gives yet a third elevation for the Semna temple. It is not
agreement with the expected value.

77.43.5.162 on Thu, 27 Aug 2020 00:11:17 UTC
TABLE 1
Comparison of Nile levels at Semna, in meters, according to the various scales of

Ball (1903), Dunham and Janssen (1960, from 1844 observations of Lepsius),
and Vercoutter (1966: I40, n. 43, meters above mean sea level).
Lepsius- meters above
Levels Ball Dunham-Janssen sea level
"modern" LWL, Lepsius (1o2.9) 0 138.92

March 1902 LWL* o00.8 (-I.94) 136.98
"modern" HWL, Lepsius (113.8) 11.84 150.76
HWL of 1901 112.9 (0o.i6) 149.08
difference, HWL - LWL 12.1 11.8
Mean Middle Kingdom

HWL** (121.9) 19.14 158.06
Year 23 of Amenemhet III 123.8 21.o6 159.98
M.K. mean - modern HWL 9.0 7.30
M.K. mean - modern LWL 21.1 19.14
Base of Temple
Kumma 126.0 23.03 161.95
Semna 135-4 37-90 168.90
Semna - Kumma 9-4 14-9 7.0
* In March 19o2 the volume at Aswan was r-, o.52xiosm.3/da

between the average minimum of 1870-1899 (o.58xios) and of 19
below the LWL determined by Lepsius.
** See n. 12, first two sentences.
the river-bed by some 8 m. that

in the Semna
the floodscataract.
in that period we
With the limited knowledge 8then available
meters higher on ero-they are to
than
sion rates, he was able to further
make a plausible
that the case,
Nile had reac
and his conclusions were reaffirmed by sort
ceased any Sanford and
of rapid cuttin
Arkell in 1933- 3000 B.C., and that the Semna
The erosion hypothesis seemed
mostlyto be supported
before the silt lens was d
by clear evidence that the Paleolithic
low water levels
times.in the
Butzer (1971)
Middle Kingdom, at least in rates
some of
years, wereincision
bedrock close in diori
to the levels of today. Thesonant
various forts
with built in
modern observati
the vicinity of the Second Cataract
channelby pharaohs
floor must ofhave been c
the Middle Kingdom each had a stairway
its present in
level a pro-
long before the
tected position leading down Evento before
the Nile.
theWher-
i960s, howeve
ever these water-stairs are well preserved
various they ex-
difficulties with Ball's
tend approximately to the modern
apart from LWL, thus
his over-estimate o
pointing to a LWL in the Reisner
Middle Kingdom close
(1929b) rejected Ball's h
to recent levels. We shall discuss the water-stairs
of a lack of evidence for levels si
more fully in the section on LWL.
than today's in the New Kingdom
After a re-examination of the geological
would evidence
imply that all the erosion
at Semna, however, Fairbridge (1963)
1840 and rejected
ca. 1560 B.C. Reisner pr
Ball's explanation for the Semna
sort offlood records.
erosion He
hypothesis invo
concluded that very little erosion
collapse of part of the in
had occurred cliff and
the Semna cataract since theingMiddle
of theKingdom and
river channel. The am

77.43.5.162 on Thu, 27 Aug 2020 00:11:17 UTC
possible, however,
parts of appears by
the valley, that the Nile no
flood levels werem
to account for soat large a post-glacial
some time in the change in
past, and for fl
a con-
Moreover the evidence for
siderable period of high
time, several flood
meters higher than
they are
dle Kingdom is not today. Since Wheeler to
confined found it "equally Se
the
tions nor to thecertain
immediate vicinity
. . . that it was there during the occupation
cataract. Ancient offields
the fort," we may associated wit
suspect that he was strongly
Uronarti Shelfak and
are
influenced by the Semna 7 and
inscriptions, 6 m
for a potsherd
and bone fragment
tively above the modern HWL (Wh of unspecified type cannot be
considered alone as (i96i:96),
According to Wheeler compelling evidence. who
interest in evidenceModernbearing on inancien
excavations, set in motion the 1950s
"It would appear possible
by the that
impending disappearance forever of the
many
came sites beneath the
over the present waters of bank
river Lake Nasser, [at
have
to within a short distance
brought ofrelevant
to light a number of items the fo
to the
itself. There is mud
interpretationinof the the sand
Semna inscriptions her
and water
not have arrived by
levels in the other
Middle Kingdom.means.
Others may be ex- .
on his 1931-1932 excavations at
pected as more excavations become fully MIR
published.
er (1961:165) summarizes threefold
In the course of their comprehensive excavationsev
question the atHWL of
in and
Mirgissa, Vercoutter ancient tim
his associates of the
French Archaeological Mission to the Sudan dis-
i. The water-worn surface of the rock is
ly defined at acovered
levela "LowerofFort" or at least a substantial
8.73 m. ab
HWL. From this level down to the lowest segment of fort-wall extending to a level some 15
cleared (4.15 m. above 1931 LWL) the rockm. is below the earlier-known Fort on the top of the
deeply water-worn-all the veins of harder rock
hill, and close to their contour"' 155 m. (Vercoutter
standing out from the surface, well polished.
The upper limit of this wear, taken at different
1965: fig. I; 1970). On stylistic grounds they con-
points, always gives the same level. clude that this fort was built in the earlier part of
2. That part of the rock which was submerged has the XIIth Dynasty, by Senwosret I or his successors,
a surface of salt crystals, which are very thickly
while the well-known Upper Fort was built by Sen-
distributed from the lowest level up to about wosret III (Vercoutter 1970:20-22), although the
6 m. above 1931 HWL.
principal occupation remains are from the early
3. At a slightly lower point, 6.23 m. above 1931
HWL, there is river mud and sand tightly part of Dynasty XIII, ca. 1770 B.C. Most important
packed into a pocket in the rock. At the same for our purposes, they conclude that "all the earliest
point was found, wedged in a crack of the rock, structures of the site below the contour level 155
a small potsherd, a water-polished pebble, and have been washed out by an uncommonly high
a small fragment of bone, hardened almost flood to which occurred between the end of the Mid-
semi-fossilization by water.
dle Kingdom and the beginning of the New King-
The fluvial planation observed in item (i), how-
dom" (Vercoutter 1971 personal comm.; see also
ever, must have required many centuries, even the
mil-chapter by A. Hesse in Vercoutter 1970:51-67).
lennia, and cannot possibly reflect merely the floods
Hesse also reports evidence of structures interpreted
recorded at Semna. Most of it probably developed
as riverside facilities, at a contour level of 149, and
in the fourth and fifth millennia B.C., when there
this elevation, he concludes, marks the normal
is other evidence for floods some 5 to io m. above
HWL of the Middle Kingdom. Hesse (Vercoutter
the modern HWL (Trigger 1965:29). Regarding 1970:53) points out that the water damage of struc-
item (2), salt can move laterally and vertically
tures up to 155 m. is persuasive evidence that such
through rock by capillarity (Butzer i97i) sohigh
this floods were not typical of the Middle King-
point is inconclusive. Few would dispute Wheeler's
dom, contrary to the opinion of O.H. Myers and of
Wheeler. The Egyptians would not have built at
conclusion, now supported by evidence from many
13 Vercoutter's (1965: fig. I; 1966:61; 1970) contour levels

toore-
high, relative to a sea-level zero, by 7.8 m. Study of Table 2
late to a different zero than that used by the gauges of the andNile
maps of the area indicates to me that the discrepancy with
Control Department because of the pressure of time and lack
the Kajnarty gauge levels is closer to II to 12 m., but it is
of a reliable benchmark in the vicinity of Mirgissa to fix the
possible that some of the discrepancy results from an error in
zero; they estimate (Vercoutter 1970:51) that their levels
theare
Nilometer zero.

77.43.5.162 on Thu, 27 Aug 2020 00:11:17 UTC
levels they could expect to be flooded
flood levelsat HWL,
produced and
by a short-lived climate fluc-
thus the destruction up to 155 tuation
m. mustof a few decades
have which
beenresulted in a num-
caused by an exceptional, a truly extraordinary
ber of floods of a magnitude more typical of the
flood "une crue millinaire," some 6 Wet
Neolithic m.Phase
abovethan of that
historic times.
typical for HWL in the earlier part
Turningofnowthe Middle
to evidence from other sites, one
Kingdom. of the most important items, discovered by A. Ba-
It is puzzling that Vercoutter and his colleagues, dawy (1964 Kush 12:52), is a rock inscription at
confronted with this evidence from their site at ASKUT, roughly midway between Mirgissa and
Mirgissa, nevertheless resist the obvious solution of Semna, at the north end of the Sarras region where
identifying their "crue millenaire" with the remark- the channel width is comparable to that at Semna
able floods recorded at Semna, apparently because at least up to modern flood levels (Lyons 1906:260).
of a lack of independent non-archaeological evi- Close by is the modern gauge-station of Kajnarty
dence for the climate fluctuation that would be im- which we shall use presently in an attempt to esti-
plied by such in interpretation. The evidence from mate the flood volumes recorded during the Middle
Mirgissa, interpreted in conjunction with the Sem- Kingdom at Semna. The inscription at Askut re-
na inscriptions, suggests that during much of the cords a HWL dated to year 3 of Sekhemkare, the
XIIth Dynasty the HWL was around 149 m., sim- second pharaoh of Dynasty XIII. Badawy points
ilar to that of the late nineteenth century A.D.14 out that it is important for its "very high level" and
Although the dating is not absolutely secure, Ver- because it proves that inundations were still re-
coutter (1970:20f) concludes that the lower struc- corded and that Upper Nubia was still under Egyp-
tures at the site were built during the reigns of tian rule.'" Vercoutter (1966:140, n. 41) reports that
Senwosret I, Amenemhet II and Senwosret II, the Askut inscription is located at 17.4 m. above the
while the long-known Upper Fort was built under Nile level of 1963 December 16. The level of the
Senwosret III. All of this occurred before the ear-
Nile at nearby Kajnarty on this date, kindly pro-
liest flood inscriptions at Semna, which began only vided me by the Sudanese Ministry of Irrigation,
with the reign of Amenemhet III. The channel is 134.54 m., whence the level of the inscription is
width at Mirgissa at HWL is around 1700 m. (Ver- 151.9 m. From Table 2 it can be seen that this level
coutter 1970:56), and about 400 m. at Semna, so is about 0.5 m. above the average estimated for the
that we should expect the floods to be higher in the Middle Kingdom inscriptions in situ at Semna
latter location; the highest floods, some io m. above (151.4 m. at Kajnarty). The Askut inscription is
the modern at Semna, would be only about 5.7 m. represented in ill. 2 by the point labelled "A."
above the modern at Mirgissa." We shall return This inscription is a severe, indeed fatal, embarrass-
to this point in a later section. The evidence from ment to the erosion hypothesis.
Mirgissa of water-destruction up to level 155 m. Vercoutter's (1966) excavation of a secondary
however appears entirely compatible with interpre- fort at Semna South has provided clear physical
tation of the Semna inscriptions as records of actual evidence for very high floods at some period after
14 It appears impossible to obtain an exact relation between
ume was equal to the modern average and attributes the dif-
the 1931 HWL determined by Wheeler and the various fea- ference between 145 and 149 to a change in the riverbed.
tures excavated by Vercoutter and his associates. Vercoutter
Unfortunately most of the lower-level structures at Mirgissa
(I971 pers.comm.) estimates that Wheeler's level of 7.44 m. were discovered only in the last season before they were flooded
above the 1931 HWL is close to his contour 155 m., which by the rising waters of Lake Nasser, so that they could not
would place the modern HWL at 147.5 m. The average HWL be re-examined after their importance as evidence on ancient
of the current century coincides closely with that of 1931; if Nile levels was fully appreciated (Hesse 1972 pers.comm.).
this falls about 1.5 m. below that judged typical of the Middle 15A rise of 9 to io m. at Mirgissa, corresponding to the
Kingdom, the latter may be imagined as similar to the floods difference between the "crue millenaire" and a modern HWL
of the years A.D. 1870-1898, and almost certainly no larger at 145 to 146 m. is considerably more than could be expected
than the largest floods of the past century. from a Io m. rise at Semna. This fact tends to support Hesse's
However Hesse (Vercoutter 1970:54) determined the modern postulate of a decline of 2 to 4 m. in the level of the riverbed
HWL to lie between 145 and 146 m. from two other mea- at Mirgissa since the Middle Kingdom, assuming that his de-
sures reported by Wheeler. Further, he informs me (Hesse termination of the modern HWL is to be preferred over Ver-
1972 pers.comm.) that the base of the Upper Fort was so coutter's estimate (see note 14). In addition, there is evidence
eroded that it was impossible to identify exactly the levels de- that the river flowed closer to the Upper Fort in the Middle
scribed by Wheeler and therefore necessary to rely on the Kingdom than it does today.
other data given by Wheeler. Lacking evidence to the con-
16 We have now in addition, from Hintze (note II) years 4
trary, Hesse assumes the typical Middle Kingdom flood vol- and 8 of Sekhemkare at Semna, and year I of Sedjefakare.

77.43.5.162 on Thu, 27 Aug 2020 00:11:17 UTC
the on the rocks

building
the at Semna and He
fort. Kumma, infers
of beginning
indicates absence the
early in the reign ofof such
Amenemhet ultr
III, seems wholly
the time the fort was
compelling. But I amunder
not convinced that constr
Vercout-
less certain thanter'she
excavations
that provide quantitative
the evidence eviden on
the HWL at the
conclusion. At the time of the construction
fort of Semna of the
"an ancient alluvial terrace
Fort. In order of the
to construct the water-stair, the Egyp- Ni
south of the main Semna
tians would presumably haveFort,
dug a trench in Verc
the
glacis about io m. wide,
ancient alluvial sloping
terrace, built the stairway, covered to
and built of granite slabs. Beneath
it over and built the protective glacis."7 If they com- i
pleted this work in one
ranean water-stairway builtseason, I see also
no basis for of
running as a tunnel
any firm conclusionthrough
about the HWL at the time the
of a
from the northeast corner
the construction. Since it was notofpossiblethe
to exca- fo
river. Most significantly,
vate the stairs to their end, theythe
cast no lightglacis
on the
LWL, soNile
a thick deposit of it is doubtful that Semna South
silt-a has
typical
(Butzer 1971)-up to
yielded any firm a level
evidence of
against the erosion hy- abo
the modern HWL. This
pothesis-which, silt
however, layer,
is already convincingly V
out, was deposited
demolishedat some
by modern knowledge of time
erosion rates, aft
of the glacis andand the
by the archaeological
stairway evidence from Mirgissa
and,
ographically no and
possibility of local
Askut. The evidence from Vercoutter's (1970) s
peated flooding excavations
of aat Mirgissawadi, indicates
also provides more persua-
importance in the
sive Nile
evidence that the HWL inlevel afte
Dynasty XII before
leading to a heavy
the reignsilting infrom
of Amenemhet III (dated places
Semna) w
ments could notwasbesimilar to the modern.
washed out by t
ing the subsidence of
Convinced that thedisproved
his excavations river."
the ero- O
facts from
the Middle Kingdom
sion hypothesis, Vercoutter (1966) was not inclined we
Fort, from
which
to acceptVercoutter
the most straightforward (at least toconclu
me)
not alternative
permanently of climate fluctuation in He
occupied. absence of believ
inde-
probably constructed during
pendent evidence for the
such a climate fluctuation. He re
III, who is known
postulated thatto
the highhave camp
levels were caused by a
around and above the
partial dam or rather, Second Catar
because of the Askut inscrip-
larged and strengthened existing
tion,"8 a series of partial dams, built by the Egyp-
others to the formidable
tians of the Middle Kingdomarray.
with the object ofFro
(1966) Figure 4,prolonging
it would appear
the period of high water when the cata- th
led below the modern flood
racts were relatively level,
navigable. His reasons for al
time and various difficulties
proposing prev
this, to me incredible, explanation relate
excavating it completely also to the evidence on low-waterto the
levels, plus his lo
by analogy with other
assumption, which I shall forts
argue is completelyof un- th
be near modern LWL. justified, that a rise of 8 m. in the HWL must be
The silt-covered construction gives proof, Ver-
accompanied by a corresponding rise of 8 m. in the
coutter concludes, that at some time in the MiddleLWL.
Kingdom the flood levels were similar to or slightlyBut first we shall finish with the evidence on
less than those of modern times-close to the appar-
HWL. Also relevant here are one (and perhaps
ent convergence point of glacis and tunnel-roof-
two) items found in excavations by the Oriental
and that subsequently there occurred a period Institute
of archaeologists (Knudstad 1966) at SERRA
floods some 8 m. higher. The second conclusion, inEAST (and Dorginarti), although no quantitative
excellent agreement with the flood-level inscriptions
conclusions can be drawn until (unless) details on
17 Some of the 8 m. of silt overlying the glacis maywhichhave
resulted from the rupture of Vercoutter's postulated dam
come from the trench, piled to the sides of the construction
at Semna. This hypothesis, while more attractive than the
and redistributed smoothly by the series of great floods re- of a series of dams, is nevertheless invalidated by
postulate
corded at Semna.
the inscriptions of Hintze (notes 11, 16), three of which record
18 Vandersleyen (1970) proposes to attribute the single in-floods at Semna at dates later than the Askut inscription.
great
scription at Askut in year 3 of Sekhemkare to a great flood

77.43.5.162 on Thu, 27 Aug 2020 00:11:17 UTC
elevations become available. At the Serra East
namely, whatfort,
about the many missing
apparently built originally in the Egyptians at Semna were recording
reign of Senwosret
III, is a constructed basin, presumably a harbor.
why did they fail to record over half
The full depth of the silt-filled harbor could
Indeed, the not be
motives of the Egyptians
excavated, "due to the height of the
ing Nile
the [inlevels
flood De- on the cliffs at S
scure.
cember 1963, 119.6 to i I9.75 m. at Halfa,Lepsius
courtesy(1853)-who himself
of the Sudanese Ministry of Irrigation] and conse-
massive-erosion explanation for the low
quently of the water table in the flood levels-postulated
silt filling the har- that the floo
bour" (pp. 173-74). From study of the deposits
corded with-
at Semna as the frontier of t
in the accessible layers of this the
silt point
the excavators
where the height of the floo
concluded "that the harbour was be
allowed
knownto silt
and up
transmitted througho
possibly from its late Middle Kingdom
further abandon-
suggested it had some conn
ment through transitional periods until
Amenemhet theIII's
New building activity i
Kingdom period of return; that it was allowed
(Denkmdler V:224). to Reisner (1929a)
remain so during the New Kingdom, and is
that there that it
no graduated scale, and th
was thus not a feature of the later fortress,
itself wouldhaving
arrive in Egypt almost a
been filled to a high and dry levelmessagethat
by time."
about it; he postulated that
It is tempting to associate this silting
were of the
for harbor
purely local use, perhaps
with the siltation phase exhibited at Semna South,
navigational aid, to determine the best
and to surmise that the siltation annual
got out of control
shipping fleet to set sail for Eg
during the reign of Amenemhet III.
function would seem also to require
Its excavators considered the fort
scale.of Dorginarti
When the Semna inscriptions are
to be a construction of the Newas Kingdom because
evidence of ultra-high floods, Lepsiu
they found there no remains becomes
from the Middle
more attractive, and I further
Kingdom (Knudstad 1966); the earliest datable
Amenemhet III's famous, but obscu
material came from Dynasties XIX and
works in XX,
the or
Fayum were directed m
late Empire. Nevertheless the fort has certain
reducing fea-
the destruction by these exce
tures suggestive of flood damage in
to Lower
the foundations
Egypt, a hypothesis which
in the early life of the fortress. The damaged
plore furtherbrick-
in a later section. Unfort
work was then apparently given is "a no
stone casing or
evidence that the Egyptians h
glacis where bed-rock did not provide such,of
rapid means [the
communication than
rock] having been piled againstevidence
the brickwork
that theyofused smoke signals,
buttresses and bays to form an even
nals, slopeetc.,
drums, awaywhich would be nece
from them. [The glacis] seems to flood
have been carried
measurements at Semna usef
well below recent low Nile levels proper.
[artificially raised
by the Aswan reservoir] and to have been intended
It seems probable, therefore, that the
as a defense against the Nile as well
wereas recorded
the attacker.
only because of their gr
It also shows that much of the alluvial build-up as
usual height, that
wondrous curiositie
gives the island of Dorginarti its recent
though size can
there came
be no proof, I suspec
later than the establishment of the
forfortress.
the gapsIn in
spite
ill. 2 is more than h
of the lack of evidence for aor Middle Kingdom
accident of preservation. I suspect t
date"1 it is certainly most tempting to associate
corded only the the
remarkably high flo
water damage with the great floods
most of recorded at years had a flood
the missing
Semna. In any case, a contour no map of the
higher island
than the modern-and than
should be most interesting as a clue
yearsto flood levels. XII-and well below
of Dynasty
There is a second and less noticed
all surviving prob-
"Semna inscriptions. This is the p
lem" that may contribute to the solution of the
tification for plotting the fallen inscr
original one. This problem becomesaveragemost striking
level of those remaning in situ
when the data are plotted, as in ill. 2, against
In summary, time:
I take the inscriptions
19 Primarily on stylistic grounds, Adams (1971)
probable indepen-
for the fort of Dorginarti.
dently concludes that a Middle Kingdom origin is the most

77.43.5.162 on Thu, 27 Aug 2020 00:11:17 UTC
that a number of every
extremely
shoal high
(was) flo
lik
... (?)
in the years between it was
1840 anddifficul
1770 B
(sic)
no reason to consider to get
these through
floods as t
because of the time o
Middle Kingdom. Such evidence as h
light, particularly The discord between
from the evidence of the water-sugg
Mirgissa,
were not typical. stairsThen
for LWLs aboutthere
equal to the modern
is and the
of
LWLs in the region of
the inscriptions the
for floods averagingSecond
8 m. above the C
to modern levels, modern
and has long
thiscaused difficulty.
we The difficulty rev
shall
Evidence from has been compounded LWLs
Nubia, by what seems with many
(Low W
scholars
els). Clear evidence hasan implicit assumption that whatever
existed for the som
conditions
ner 1929a, b; I931) that implied the
by the Semna inscriptions, these
forts built
conditions prevailed
of the Second Cataract by throughout
the the Pharaoh
Middle King-
dle Kingdom each dom. But there is nothing
had in the archaeological data
a stairway in
position leading down
or in the inscriptionsto the
themselves Nile.
to compel such an W
water-stairs assumption.preserved,
are well Even before the excavations at Semna
they e
the modern LWL. South and At at Mirgissa
Semna by Vercoutter (1966, West 1970), t
there was noof
just above the level necessity theto conclude that the high
Nile on 1
floods indicated
(Dunham and Janssen I96o:map IX), by the Semna inscriptions and the
the average LWLLWLs of indicated
the by the river-stairs
present of the forts oc- cent
Table 2, and note curred12).
in the same At years or evenURONART
the same decades.
part of the river We stairs
should keep in mind is too athat roofed
the river-stairs of tun
the forts must
ture the closest surviving analogy go to the minimal LWL, not to the to S
particularly well preserved.20 beIn
average LWL, if the forts are to assured1930of
water every
ning of March the water level was year. It is of interest that Reisner con-
sidered that the
over the tunnel floor at loweritspart of the Semna stair was poin
lowest
I967:20 and map later than the at
IV); upper partHalfa (Dunham and the Janssen le
March 1930 was 115-7
1960:7); perhaps the m. Egyptiansand at it Abu
had to extend in
thus 50 to 70 cm. a yearabove the
of unusually low water. Moreoveraverage
it is gen-
At SHALFAK theerally agreed that the forts
lower part were builtof in their most
the r
developedbut
is poorly preserved, form under a Senwosret
quay III, and
was several fou
were probably
7 m. above the water built initiallyof
level under Senwosret
1931 I, in Feb
was close to the modern
either case well beforeLWL the years for at which we Halfa
have
Sir. The Shalfak evidence
quay is thus
of ultra-high floods at Semna. similar
From the
the structures identified
French excavations at as riverside
Mirgissa of course we now fa
have good reason
gissa by Vercoutter (1970) to believe thatand the floods did hisnot co
At Uronarti wassignificantly
found exceed the an inscriptio
modern during the Middle
Kingdom, until lateencountered
navigational difficulties in Dynasty XII or early in b
Dynasty19th
in the spring of his XIII, Mirgissa itself yielding
year upon no exact his
"overthrowing Kush"
dating for the "crue (Wheeler
millenaire." Thus there is 1931 no
1967:34). As translated by the
necessary conflict between Vercoutter
evidence on LWL
reads in relevant and
part:
on HWL; through most of the XIIth Dynasty
each was close to its modern level.
Year 19, fourth month of Akhet season,
... under the majesty of
Vercoutter (1966:142) King
cites in ...
addition, however, Kh
(Senwosret III) an.inscription
. . engraved
The Lord
on a rock in the middle .
of .. p
northward, having crushed the vile Kus
to look for the rapid at Semna,
(navigable) at a height less than
water to 2 m.cross
above
(and) to the present
haul (the boats)LWL of the Nile, and which is believedof t
because
20 The water-stairs at Semna West were also in a roofed Parker, 1971 pers.comm.).
tunnel, part of which survived intact until modern times (Adams 22 Exact location unknown. However there is a particularly
1972). difficult stretch of rapids just upstream of Uronarti, passable
21 Senwosret III, year 19 IV Akhet 2 =- 186o B.C., 2 March only at or near HWL (Dunham 1967:3), and this may well be
Julian and 14 February Gregorian calendar (courtesy of R.A. the location in question.

77.43.5.162 on Thu, 27 Aug 2020 00:11:17 UTC
to have been carved in the reignindicate a ofrise of 2 to 4 m. in the LWL associated
Amenemhet
III, as evidence that the LWLs even
with inSemna
the great thefloods,
time as Iof
shall explain more
this king were not 8 m. higher than the modern.
fully presently.
We noted that,
This argument is open to a threefold in part because
doubt. First, of his erroneous
assumption
the inscription is not dated. Second, that a if
even riseone
of 8 m.
ac- in HWL required
an equal rise of 8 m.there
cepts it as from the reign of Amenemhet, in LWL,is Vercoutter (1966)
no compelling reason to believe wasitledwas
to postulate that thein
inscribed high levels resulted
one of the years for which an ultra-high
not from flood
great floods but from ais series of partial
dams,flood
attested. A notable feature of the with open central channel, constructed by
inscriptions,
the Egyptians
most striking when they are plotted of the Middle
against dateKingdom
as to improve
in ill. 2, is the lack of record for many
the navigability of in
of the river the
the difficult stretches
years. If the Egyptians at Semnaof the Second
were Cataract. He stated himself that the
recording
flood levels, why did they fail dams would only
to record extendhalf
over somewhat
of the season of
higher water,
the years? In the previous section, but would have
I suggested that negligible effect at
they recorded only remarkably lowhigh
water when
floods,navigation
simplyof the cataracts was
because they were so remarkable most asdifficult. The technical
to demand com-possibility of such a
series
memoration. If this is correct, weofmay structures is for engineers
suppose that to evaluate de-
finitively,
the floods in most of the blank years butof
it appears
ill. 2towere
me altogether unlikely,
particularly
at least lower than the lower ones there with partial dams
shown, orwhich would be
no more than 0-5 m. above the modern
readily torn apart atHWL. The edges of their
the unsupported
rock could have been carved incentral
one openings.
of these more
To build such a series of dams
normal years. And third, I seeonno
a river the size of the Nile,
justification for even if it were feasi-
Vercoutter's (1966) assumption
ble, that
seems anaincredible
rise of 8 for
labor m.a very modest
in HWL would necessarily imply
profit. Iasuggest
rise also
ofwe 8should
m. inexpect the ancient
LWL. Egyptians, if they had built a dam at Semna, to
This last assumption is unsound for two reasons.
have undertaken first some leveling and shaping of
Flood levels depend essentially upon the summer
the natural rock of the cataract to provide a more
monsoon rainfall over the Ethiopian highlandsstable and level foundation for their building stones.
while the LWL depends primarily on the rainfallVercoutter emphasizes the lack of other evidence
for the necessary substantial fluctuation in climate
over the East African lake region and the swamps
that would be required to produce such great floods.
of the southern Sudan, so that there is no necessary
It is however doubtful that any but the most subtle
a priori correlation to be assumed between the high
evidence, requiring the most sophisticated tech-
and low levels of the Nile. It has been asserted
niques to discover, could be expected if, as it now
(Brooks 1949) and widely accepted that the levels
appears, the great floods covered less than a century,
of high and of low water in the Roda-gauge rec-
occurring in only some 20 to 30 nonconsecutive
ords, existing with some gaps from A.D. 622, tendyears. I too am aware of no other evidence than
to be positively correlated, although Brooks himself
the items we have discussed from the general region
points out that the correlation is far from exact."3of the Second Cataract. But there is a growing body
While little is known about LWLs, I consider of
it evidence (Butzer et al. 1972) that the levels of
probable that at least some rough correlation does
the East African lakes have fluctuated substantially
exist between the HWL and the LWL of an epoch. in post-glacial times. Although no high (or low)
But there is no reason to assume that each must
lake level has yet been dated to exactly the epoch
rise by an equal amount in meters or gauge level.under discussion here, one high level at Lake Ru-
An equal multiple of increase (or decrease) in vol-
dolf, some 70 m. above the modern surface, has
ume of water seems more probable, and this would
yielded a radiocarbon date of 3250 BP (Butzer et
23 Moreover, if Popper (1951) is correct in his conclusion, begun, there is serious doubt that much is known about the
based on extensive study of medieval Arabic and Egyptian long-term behavior of the LWL. (Popper's interpretation of
texts, that the figures published as "minimum" actually rep- the so-called minima in itself offers interesting possibilities
resent the level of the river on 20 June (Julian), this being the
which I hope to explore elsewhere.)
date when each year daily readings of the Roda Nilometer were

77.43.5.162 on Thu, 27 Aug 2020 00:11:17 UTC
al. 1972),24 or ca. i6oo
variability in
B.C.
the Nile levels
when of late winter
correcte
during
tematic error the reign of Senwosret
resulting fromIII. variation
content of the atmosphere by
Volume of the great Semna the
floods. scale
In this section o
and Ralph (I974). we shall seek an estimate ofit
However the magnitude
would of the re
decades of rainfall much above the modern aver- great Semna floods of the Middle Kingdom, and
age to raise the level of Lake Rudolf by 70 m., so consider the implications for climate history. The
there may well be a closer connection of the rise accuracy of the estimate will be limited by a num-
in lake level with the fluctuation to a wetter climate ber of factors. At once the most important, and now
which produced the great floods recorded at Semna too late to remedy, is the lack of any systematic
than the dates at first suggest. measurement of "modern levels" at Semna over
A final inscription relevant here, which Vercout- even a few years. There is thus no basis for deter-
ter (1966:164) cited as evidence for floods of modern mining exactly the relationship between levels at
size in the reign of Senwosret III, is actually some- Semna and at modern gauge stations where the
thing much more remarkable. It is a record of Nile channel width and gradient of flow may be differ-
level, discovered at the Dal Cataract (about 83 km. ent. We have already noted (see Table i) the dif-
south of Semna) by the survey team directed by ference in modern levels recorded by Ball and by
A.J. Mills, dated to year io of Senwosret III and in Lepsius. We have a cross-section of the channel at
a position close to the modern HWL. We may Semna (Lyons 1906), but it shows a difference of
wonder why the Egyptians chose to commemorate about 13 m. between HWL and LWL, and I have
such an ordinary flood. The answer becomes clear not been able to relate it with useful exactness to
when we have the full date, generously communi-the levels of Ball and of Lepsius.
cated to me by Mills as year io, third month of The lack of any extended series of measurements
Akhet season, 9th day; which is 1869 B.C. Jan. 24 at Semna itself can be compensated for to some ex-
(Gregorian) (courtesy of R.A. Parker, 1971 pers. tent by use of the rather substantial series of mea-
comm.). This date is less than a month earlier than surements that do exist from stations in the region
that from year 19 IV Akhet 2 at Uronarti which of the Second Cataract. Those available are listed
records a troublesomely low water level, and makes in Table 2 with selected data on high and low
it clear that the Dal Cataract inscription does not water levels and on channel-width at high and low
define a normal flood level but records an exception- water. Particularly useful are the gauge readings
ally high level of the winter Nile, about as high as from Wadi Halfa and from Kajnarty. The rise and
the average modern HWL (to be precise, 3-47 m. fall of the Nile at Wadi Halfa in modern times
above the river level on A.D. 1968 April 16), and averages about 7 meters, and "may be taken as rep-
about 3.5 m. also above the normal modern level resenting what would take place in Egypt if there
for late January. There was no modern gauge in use were no dams, barrages, or irrigation, to interfere
in 1968 near Dal, but gauge levels from Argo and with the natural flow of the river" (Hurst 1952:
Merowe to the south, provided by the Sudanese 239). In Kajnarty we have a station rather similar
Ministry of Irrigation, indicate that the river level in situation to Semna, that is with a channel-width
in April 1968 was close to the modern averagenot exceeding 420 m., at least to the level of the
(1912-1957) for January 21-31. The Dal inscription
highest modern flood in 1946. Thus extrapolation
of the Kajnarty gauge-discharge curve, shown in
thus belongs with the Semna inscriptions in indi-
ill. 3, to the I8-20 m. level above the modern average
cating Nile flows substantially in excess of the larg-
est values observed in modern times. The Dal in-
LWL (I31.6 m. above modern sea level) should
give the best approximation we can hope now to
scription of year io III Akhet 9 (1869 B.C. Jan. 24)obtain to the peak volume of flow of the great
together with the inscription from Uronarti, year 19Semna floods of the Middle Kingdom.
IV Akhet 2, provides evidence for an extraordinary As we have noted, any such large extrapolation
24 Indeed some values as low as 3250 BP have been obtainedcarbon 7, R-33, 38, 3300 and 3200 BP. Thus it is not impossible
from samples believed to derive from the Middle Kingdom:that the dated level at Lake Rudolf pertains to the period of
A-205, 206, 207, wood from forts at Semna, Radiocarbon 4 the great floods at Semna. However ca. 16oo B.C. must still be
& 5, 3290, 3300, 316o BP respectively; from Mirgissa, Gif-295considered the most probable date for the sample from the
and 297, 2925 and 3020 BP, Radiocarbon 12; and from Radio-high level of Lake Rudolf.

77.43.5.162 on Thu, 27 Aug 2020 00:11:17 UTC
TABLE 2
Nile gauge levels, in meters above mean sea level at Alexandria, at stations in the
region of the Second Cataract (from The Nile Basin, vol. III & suppls.,
H.E. Hurst et al.)**
Second Cataract
500 m. south of
Halfa Abu Sir Rock Kajnarty Semna
Km south of Halfa 0 12.5 47

Years of data 1890-1957 1920-1957 1931-1957 1901-1912
Average io-day LWL i37

a) 1890-1899 115-5
b) 1905-1930 I15.1 119.4
c) 1931-1955 115-5" 119.6 131.6
Channel width at LWL 520 m. ? 290 m. 40 m.
Average io-day HWL 149

a) 1890-I898 122.5
b) 1905-1930 121.9 125.7
C) 1931-1955 122.35* 126.0 142.4 149
Channel width at HWL 880m. ? 4o0 m. 400m.
Average range, HWL - LWL

a) 7.0 m.
c) 6.8 m. 6.4 m. 10.8 m. 12.o m.
Selected modern HWLs

90oi, Ball 122.0 142.6 149.1
1931, Wheeler 122.2 125.8 142.3
1946, high 123.8 126.9 144.3 151
1941, low 121.0 124.6 140.1
1946 HWL - 1941 HWL 2.8 2.3 4.2 4
Middle Kingdom
Mean of inscriptions 128.0 132 151.4 158.1
in situ
year 30 129.5 133 153-3 160.2

year 15 126.5 130.5 149.0 156
year 9 126.0 148.0 155
"Good flood," Senwosret I

Aswan LWL 84.5 m. 125.4 129 147.4 154
84.0 m. 124.9 128.5 146.5 153
* Artificially raised by operation of the Aswan reservoir.

** In the years 1949-1957 there was also a station at Gemai, 27 km. south of
HWL i39-3 m., range 8.2 m.

77.43.5.162 on Thu, 27 Aug 2020 00:11:17 UTC
NILE VOLUME, m3x 108 per day

the latter has a much narrower channel at low wa-
2 4 6 8 10 20 40 60 80
ter. Ball (1903) reports that the low water at Semna
-' yr 30 flows smoothly through a channel only about 40 m.
/7 wide and at least 20 m. deep, so that Semna itself
would not appear to have presented navigational
SEMNA,MK --K
difficulties at low water."2 This narrowness of the
150/ channel through the Semna dike for a few meters
-yr 15
above LWL probably accounts for the fact that the
flood of 190o (fortunately a fairly typical twentieth
century modern flood) was 12.1 m. above modern
= // LWL, while the modern (1931-1955) floods at Kaj-
S45
narty have averaged only io.8 m. It therefore
LI 4 -1946--
u- L1958- seems probable, if we take the flood of 19o0 pre-
S--1931- ceding Ball's visit as typifying the Semna-modern,
that we should disregard LWLs and with ill. 3 use
only the difference between modern HWL and the
<
140
/x
,.'- --1941-
- H W L Semna flood levels.
The Middle Kingdom floods recorded at Semna,
averaging 9.o m. (see Table i) above the mean
135
zX HWL (142.4 m.) of the twentieth century, or about
LWL 151.4 m. at Kajnarty, would from ill. 3 have a peak
/ .--19 4 7 volume of around 32xIo8m."/day. This would be
about three times the mean peak-volume of the ten
greatest floods (-'io.5xIo"m.') of the late nine-
130 - ' -1931
130 - *-, .......... . . ..,_2 ___. . . . . . . teenth century A.D., and about four times the mean
3 5 I 2 3
m3x peak volume

108 per(7.8xio"m.") of the first four decades
day
of the present century. The cross-section of the
ILL. 3. The
channel (fromNile at
Ball 1903 and Lyons 19o6) occupied K
plotted against
by the great floods at Semna is volume
about 2.2 to 2.4 times
n. 7), and extrapolatio
that occupied by the average modern flood. While
above level of modern floods
this value sets an absolute minimum to the volume
of the Semna floods, the actual value would be con-
is subject to considerable uncertainty, the more so
here where we have little information on the width siderably larger because the velocity of flow in-
creases as the river level rises.
of the channel at Kajnarty above the HWL of 1946.
Ill. 4 shows the relation between gauge levels of
On the positive side, we do know that the channel-
the river at Halfa and at Kajnarty. Over the 27
width was increasing only slowly at Kajnarty over
years available for comparison, the Halfa values
the range of modern floods, and that this condition
rise progressively relative to those from Kajnarty,
continues at Semna up to the level of the highest
presumably due to the operation of the Aswan res-
record from the Middle Kingdom. Over the range
ervoir; the two lines are based on the years 1931-
of modern floods too the channels at Semna and at
1935 and 1951-1955, the former being the lower and
Kajnarty are closely similar in width. And finally,
Kajnarty is just upstream from Askut where that more relevant to our problem. From the extrap-
solitary Nile record from the reign of Sekhemkare olated portion of ill. 4, we can estimate the level of
was found at about 20 m. above modern LWL. On floods to be expected at Halfa in the Semna years.
the other hand, the low-water end of the Kajnarty (Basic to the accuracy of the extrapolation is the
curve is probably less applicable to Semna, becauseassumption-which may or may not be correct-
25 This appearance of navigability assumes a boat steerable This difficulty arises because the deep channel through the
with some precision, and Adams (1972) points out that the dike is only about one tenth the width of the river immedi-
Nile nuggar is "one of the world's least maneuverable craft." ately above and below the dike. In any case, there are other
Vandersleyen (1970) notes that the principal difficulty at Semnastretches of the river between Semna and Halfa that present
arises from a lack of any points of support for hauling a boat.more formidable difficulties at LW than does Semna itself.

77.43.5.162 on Thu, 27 Aug 2020 00:11:17 UTC
floods, of years 23 and 30, could be expected to have
yr 30 .1 risen about 7 m. above the 1931 HWL, very close
SEMNAMK-- to the highest evidence found by the French for
water damage at Mirgissa (Vercoutter 1970). This
' ._ -5/ /_
I damage, I suggest, can be most plausibly attributed
to the great floods recorded at Semna. The climatic
4, // history of Ethiopia is surely not known in such
detail that we can reject this hypothesis simply be-
cause there is no supporting proof for the implied
S,/-1946
2iz r--L.1958
d -1931-
climate fluctuation in these few decades between
r84o and ca. 1770 B.C.
Ill. 5 shows the relation between gauge levels at
D 140 .-1941-
/HWL
Kajnarty and at Aswan, based on the io-day-max-
imum gauge levels at the two stations for the years
so
z
1931-1955. With the old Aswan dam, the sluice
35 gates were fully opened during the flood season, re-
c\J LWL
cj--1947
sulting downstream and at the gauge in a flood level
quite similar to what would have occurred in the
_ fM -1931 absence of the dam. But LWLs were significantly
130 0 -3: 0 q
L 1 1 1 1 1 I I_
raised by the regulation of the discharge from Octo-
2 4 6 8 10 12 14 16
ber onward, so for a minimum point I have plotted
HALFA GAUGE, meters
the mean LWL at Kajnarty from 1931-1955 against
ILL. 4. Comparative gauge levels, observed the LWL at Aswan for 1901-1902, which should in
and extrapolated, of the Nile at Kajnarty fact, from the volume figures, be properly compara-
and at Halfa
yr 30-
that the relative channel widths remain similar at
higher levels.) An average Semna flood (151.4 m. at SEMNA,MK--
Kajnarty) would reach about 128 m. at Halfa, and 150 /1
the greatest flood (i53-3 m., Kaj.) would come to / - yr 15

about 129.5 m. at Halfa. Thus ill. 4 indicates
that the great floods of the Middle Kingdom would
reach a level 6 to 7 m. above the average twentieth " 145
century HWL, and about 4 m. above the highest

z
2
/ ./
-1946
modern (1946) flood actually measured at Halfa. -1931-
These expected levels are summarized in the lower

section of Table 2; the values for Abu Sir were 8 140 -- 1941
derived from a similar graph. < - HWL
Since the channel is wide at Mirgissa, roughly

similar to Halfa and Abu Sir, we should expect sim-
z 0 0
ilar levels there, or from Table 2 about 5.8-6.2 m.
above the 1931 HWL, in good agreement with
-1947
point (3) of Wheeler (1961) quoted in the previous
section. Nearly all the water-wornness of the rock
up to 6.73 m. must have developed at an earlier 130-
- ttt
O -i N) ?oDCO
D0 )O
epoch, not only because fluvial planation is a

85 90 95 100
slow process but because Vercoutter's (1970) exca- ASWAN GAUG
vations at Mirgissa have yielded evidence that the
ILL. 5. Compa
great floods were not typical of the Middle King-
and extrapolat
dom. It is particularly noteworthy that the highest and at Aswan

77.43.5.162 on Thu, 27 Aug 2020 00:11:17 UTC
ble. I have drawn one
modern line
flood of A.D. through
1878 but just over half that of t
the average flood
point and the average of recorded
the at Semna about a cen-
maxima, a
tury later. There
to fit best the various is of course no reason
maxima to believe
without
minimum. Fromthatill. 5
the floods we
were can
gradually increasingsee
during th
Semna floods would fall
that century. within the ran
to ioo m. at Aswan. If
It may be objected that determined
I have used too low a
through the maxima minimum to estimatealone, 151.4
the flood considered "good" m.
corresponds to 98.2 by Senwosretm. I. Howeverat Aswan
Egyptologists generally (Ele
Let us now return to ill. I, where we find agree that this king began the building of the sys-
that a gauge level of 98.2 m. would indicate a vol-tem of Second Cataract forts, and their water-stairs
ume of about 30x1o"m."/day, in gratifyingly good comprise the most solid evidence for LWLs in the
agreement-considering all the dangerous extrapo-Middle Kingdom, and indicate LWLs close to the
lations involved-with the value obtained directlymodern. The modern LWLs were lowest in the pe-
from Kajnarty and ill. 3. Table 3 lists the peak vol- riod 1920-1931 when Reisner and his associates were
umes and levels to be expected at Elephantine forexcavating the forts, so one could probably justify
selected years including a "good flood" of Senwos-a LWL of 84.0 m. for Senwosret I; whence by
ret I. It would be reasonable to assume an uncer- ill. 1, with HWL at 95-3 m., the peak volume
tainty of at least ten percent in the estimates of
would be around 15xio"m.'/day.26 However we
ancient volumes. The greatest flood recorded at must not overlook the possibility, noted earlier, that
Semna during the Middle Kingdom had a peak
the zero of the Elephantine gauge was fixed in the
volume about twice that of the lowest flood re- time when "... The river of Egypt was empty, men
corded, and about four times that of the larger mod-cross over the water on foot . . ," which could give
ern floods.
HWLs similar to that of A.D. 1946. To allow for
For a "good flood" of Senwosret I, we have ofthis possibility, I have included in Table 3 the vol-
course to assume a LWL. If we start with the mean ume to be expected if the zero was at such a very
modern LWL of 84.5 m., we have a HWL of 95.8low level.
m., whence from ill. i a peak volume of I7x As we have noted, Vercoutter (1966) was led into
I om. /day, about 50 percent greater than the greatdifficulties by his conviction that a rise of 8 m. in
TABLE 3
Estimated io-day peak volume, and gauge levels at Elephantine,

for selected great floods in the Middle Kingdom.
gauge levels flood volume
Elephantine Kajnarty ma3xio/day
Amenemhet III
Average 98.2 m. 151.4 m. 31 '3

Max., year 30 99-4 153"3 42 +3
low, year 15 96.7 149.0 21.5+1.5
year 9 96.1 148.0 19.0- I
Senwosret I
Aswan LWL 84.5 m. 95.8 147.4 17 -+2

84.0 95-3 146-5 15-5 I
83-5 94.8 1457 13.5-+1
83.0 94-3 145.1 12.5
82.5 93.8 144.6 o0.8
26Adams (1972) points out that "the
date amount
from theof original
subsequentphase of build
modifications in the Second Cataract Forts [makes
confidently it] very
assume un-
that they reflect the
safe to assume that any of the water stairs
Senwosret I. as we now know them

77.43.5.162 on Thu, 27 Aug 2020 00:11:17 UTC
HWL required a corresponding
With rise of 8limited
our present m. in knowledge on clim
variation,
LWL. But by ill. 3 we can see that the of
a rise great Semna
8 m. in floods could seemin
the LWL at Kajnarty would occurarise only
in a variety
with of ways. The percentage fr
a ten-
each main source
fold increase (from 0.50 to 5.oxio8m.3) incould
the remain
LW constant or it cou
volume. While I cannot say vary
thiswidely.
is impossible, it
The most straightforward hypothes
certainly does not seem the is to assume
most a proportional
likely assump- increase in the volu
tion. If we assume a doubling to tripling
of each of the
of the main LW
tributaries. However study o
volume, we have at Kajnarty a the
rise of 1.5high
relatively m. floods
to 3 of
m. 1946 and 1954 (Hurs
in the LWL, the latter being close
Black, and to the1959:67-71,
Simaika excep- 92-101, 127) sugges
tionally high LWL that followed the unexpected
a previously great flood difficulty. In the flood o
of A.D. 1878. Although it would be reasonable
1946, some to peak volume enterin
15 percent of the
expect a rise of 2 to 5 m. inthe
the LWL
river at Semna
at Khartoum, mainly from the Blue Ni
after a year of great flood, nothing can
was lost by in fact the
overflowing be channel between Kha
known about the LWLs at the time of the Semna toum and the junction with the Atbara. The exte
floods from data now available. And of course the to which this loss would increase progressively fo
LWL could be as variable as the HWL. Particu- a much greater flow of the Blue Nile cannot ev
be estimated without contour maps of the vall
larly if we assume that the years not commemorated
by an inscription had HWLs below the lowest of but the possibility should be kept in mind by
ture investigators.
the inscriptions, there would seem to be no lack
of opportunity for the inscription emphasized by If, on the other hand, the great floods resu
primarily from a further and stronger northwar
Vercoutter (1966:142) to have been carved on that
penetration of the summer monsoon rains, it see
rock at about 2 m. above modern LWL during the
likely that the Atbara would increase in volu
reign of Amenemhet III.
substantially more than the Blue Nile. The pos
Although it is premature to attempt, on the basis
bility of the activation of certain now-dry wa
of data available at present, any extensive discussion
downstream of the Atbara confluence, entering t
of the most probable origin and the climatic im- Nile from the south and west and implying a sub
plications of the great floods recorded at Semna in stantial increase in rainfall over the western Sud
the latter part of the Middle Kingdom, there are
should not be altogether overlooked. A detail
analysis by neutron activation of the chemical co
a few points to be noted. In the twentieth century,
stituents of a core27 of the silts deposited above t
the flood waters of the Nile originate approximately
as follows at maximum (Hurst 1952:242): glacis at Semna South, and comparison with po
sible sources, might well cast significant light
White Nile io percent
the problem and contribute a clearer picture of t
Blue Nile 68 percent
Atbara 22 percent climate fluctuation that produced those great flo
-and many more great floods in the Neolit
At low water by contrast we have era.28
White Nile 83 percent Although significant penetration of the summe

Blue Nile 17 percent monsoon north of the Atbara confluence, either
Atbara o percent the east or west of the Nile, is unknown in mode
times,
Over the year, the volume of the White Nile we have evidence that something of the so
varies
by a factor of 2 to 3, the Blue Nile by adid occur
factor of in year 6 of King Taharka, 683 B.C.
60 to 70, and the Atbara even more, as even
the latter
rained in Nubia "so that the hills glistene
two rivers are swollen by the summer according
monsoon to a surviving stele, and the flood w
rains over the highlands of Ethiopia. very great (Vandier 1936:I24):
27 Because the site is now under water, special coring

bonesequip-
of such swamp-loving fauna as the Nile Lechwe, wa
ment would be required to obtain samples. mongoose, and reed rat. We must therefore imagine that d
28Excavations by Arkell (I96i:26) produced evidence of
ing the Neolithic Wet Phase the Blue and/or White Niles w
floods some 5 m. higher than today in the Neolithicsubstantially
period near higher than today.
Khartoum, and of generally much wetter conditions, attested by

77.43.5.162 on Thu, 27 Aug 2020 00:11:17 UTC
Now wonderous handthing
a of man, that could withstand
occurred its force, men in t
His Majesty,
in were
Hnt-Hn-Nfr,"'
like flies/grains of sand on their town. (The nev
in the time of the
water)predecessors,
was tremendous, it was high in the... and t
his father Amon-Re
like the sky. All the loves him. H
temples of Thebes resem-
bled a swamp, the day ofNile
prayed for an abundant the going-out of
...Amonhis fa
of Luxor [a festival],
Re makes it reality .... when his statue was raised
When the
for the flood of and the
when he entered Nile, itbark,
the Naos of his sacred began
in thiswhen
greatly every day; temple; the peopleitof his city
had were like passed
increasing each swimmers in the
day, itwater flooded
... the
of the southern lands and the low lands of the
north. The land was like an inert primordial We may imagine a similar condition associated in
Ocean, the banks could not be distinguished from Egypt with the great floods commemorated at
the river.... It happened that a downpour from Semna.
the sky, in Nubia, made the mountains sparkle
Vercoutter (1966:137-38) calls attention to a record
as far as their summits [unusual northward pene-
tration of the monsoon rains, particularly in so farof the flood level in year 6 of Senwosret II, dis-
as any causal connection is implied between the covered at the fort of ANIBA during the 1912 ex-
downpour in Nubia and the high flood]. Everyone cavations by Steindorf. Aniba is roughly midway
in Nubia was rich in everything, and Egypt wasbetween Aswan and Halfa. This inscription, in the
also plentiful.... Everyone thanked the King. ... standard form, was located "on one of the blocks
Now this flood, recorded on the quay before theat the base of the main wall" at about 1.40 m. above
the "normal level" of the modern flood. Sometime
Karnak temple, rose to some 84 cm. above the pres-
ent pavement of the Hypostyle Hall, reaching ap- after 1912 the block apparently fell from its origi-
nal position, "probably as a result of a very high
proximately the same height as the crest of the
A.D. 1946 inundation when it overflowed the bankflood subsequent to the excavations." One would
between Karnak and Luxor (Nims 1965:76). As- tend to expect the Aniba fort to have been damaged
by the great Semna floods, and even by those of
suming a rise of io cm. per century in the riverbed
Osorkon III and of Taharka cited above, unless
and floodplain, or about 2.6 m. in the 2629 years
the riverbed has risen since the Middle Kingdom in
between these floods, the flood of year 6 of Taharka
was about 2.6 m. higher than the largest of modernthe vicinity of Aniba (as it has apparently fallen in
the vicinity of Mirgissa).
floods, and perhaps about the volume of the flood of
year 9 of Amenemhet III, the smallest of the great The inscription in the Dal Cataract, commemo-
floods of the Middle Kingdom. Such a flood inrating a water level close to the modern HWL in
modern times, before the construction of the High
late January of 1869 B.C. and substantially in ex-
Dam, would be a horrendous catastrophe for Egypt.
cess of anything recorded in modern times in this
One may wonder whether it was then really such season, also presents difficulties of explanation. In
a glorious event as Taharka's stele asserts, but on
modern times, the most variable tributary in the
the other hand, it is certainly unlike the ancient
winter season is the Sobat, which joins the White
Egyptians to commemorate an unwelcome event Nile just above Malakal, and which in 1918 pro-
with a special stele. duced a January flow of about 300 percent above
A great flood of similar magnitude occurred normal
in and in February over 6oo percent above
its twentieth century normal. The Dal inscription
year 3 of Osorkon III about a century before and
is commemorated-without the suspect enthusiasmimplies a volume of flow of about 7.8xio"m."/day,
--on a wall of the Luxor temple thus (Vandier and at its highest (in any season) the Sobat has
1936:123) : produced only i.o8xio"m."/day (in February 1918).
The highest twentieth century flow of the White
Year 3, first month of season peret, day 2 under Nile at Malakal, downstream of its confluence with
the Majesty of . . . Osorkon III. The water of
Ncin rose.. . in this entire land and it reached the
the Sobat, is about 2.IxIo"m."/day, recorded in De-
two cliffs of the desert as at the origin of the cember 1964. It is doubtful that any great increase
world; the land was in its power, as (in the pow- is possible because of the flatness of the land and
er) of the sea; there existed no dike made by the the very slight gradient, only 16 m. over a distance
29 The frontier region (H. Goedicke 1965 Kush 13:ro2f)
well in
refer to the vicinity of the Nubian capital of Taharka at
Nubia advancing by conquest to Gebel Barkal and the Fourth
Merowe near Gebel Barkal.
Cataract by the middle of Dynasty XVIII; thus the name may

77.43.5.162 on Thu, 27 Aug 2020 00:11:17 UTC
of Iooo km. south of Khartoum of the Third
(Hurst Pylon of the Temple
& Phillips
1938:17). Indeed "in a year of heavy were
Karnak rain practi-
found two fragmen
cally the whole country, fromDynasty
the Ethiopian foot-
stele referring to a great
hills to the Bahr-el-Jebel and the
of aslopes
King of the Lake
Sobekhotep. The relevan
Plateau ['of East Africa], is under water"
(Habachi (Hurst ". ... Year 4,
1974:2IO):
1952:245). Such rain occurred in the
five winter of
epagomenal days under the
1917-1918, producing the highest
godrecorded flow of
(Sobekhotep) . . . His majesty
the Sobat in February 1918, butthe falling
hall of far
thisshort
temple, Hapi [th
of what is implied by the Dal inscription.
Great, has been seen coming towa
This leaves only the Blue Nile.
and The highest
the hall re-temple full of w
of this
corded flow of the Blue Nile in
tythe twentieth
was wadingcen-
in it together w
men... ."
tury in December is o.96xio"m.3/day in 1916, but in
the flood season it is of course
It iscapable oftempting
immediately at least
to identify this king
8xiosm.3/day (i946) and probably
with the more. Thus it Sobekhotep I, whos
Sekhemre-Khutowy
appears that the Dal inscription
year 4,should be is
ca. 1775 B.C., inter-
commemorated by a great-
preted as indicating an extraordinary prolongation
flood inscription at Semna. In 1775 B.C., IV Shomu
of the monsoon rains and/orincludes
remarkable
20 Sep. tostrength
19 Oct., with the epagomena
and early onset of the spring rains
days over
covering Oct. the
20-24,Blue
somewhat late in the yea
forasuch
Nile basin sufficient to produce high waters,
January flowbut of even later dates are
known
some 5xio"m."/day, plus a flow (see
of at n. 45 2xio"m."/
least and nearby quotations from Ba
day out of the White Nile including the
relating to very Sobat.high waters in A.D. i371
prolonged
Nile Levels, Evidence fromand
Egypt.
A.D. i818), so the is
There no
date is no obstacle. A very
known geological evidence for very high floods
serious obstacle, however, is raised by the fact tha
during the Middle Kingdomthe infull
Egypt. This
royal name lack
on the stele is Sekhemre-Seuser-
reinforces the evidence from Nubia, which indi-
towy Sobekhotep; indeed the second part of th
cates that the great Semna floods wereisnot
first names typical
so clearly different that we are oblige
to in
of the period. If they occurred reject
onlythesome
temptation.
25 to Habachi follows Beck
40 non-consecutive years, however, geological
erath's (1965) designationevi-
of Sobekhotep VIII and
dence could hardly be expected nor
dating should
to the its ab-
i6oos, which would bring the epago
sence cause concern. In addition, insofar
menal as the
days within ex- half of September. If
the latter
cess water came from the activation of we
this be correct, normally
must regard the stele as com
dry wadis entering the Nile memorating
from the onesouthwest
of those great floods which occur
between Merowe and Dongola, from that is time,
time to from and one
probably without connec
or two heavy rains over thetion
region-as
to the series suggested
commemorated at Semna. On the
by the stele of Taharka for other
his great
hand we flood--one
should not forget the paucity o
would expect the abnormally high
evidence forwaters
the actualto beof the kings in Dynas
order
of short duration. Insofar as the excess
ty XIII (see n.water
48) andcame
keep an open mind for an
primarily from the Atbara and
earlier Blue
dating Nile
of King one
Sekhemre-Seusertowy Sobek-
would expect a longer duration of HWL,
hotep, making it possiblewith
to see the great flood in
much overflow between Khartoum and
his year 4 as the
part Atbara
of the same climate fluctuatio
confluence available to run back and
which prolong
produced theaseries
high of great floods com-
level. The shorter the durationmemorated
of at Semna.
the very high
waters, the more difficult ofOfdetection would
uncertain significance beinscriptions
are two
any geological evidence. We may
fromin anyofcase,
the reign how-
Senwosret III, cut on the rocks of
ever, hope for the eventual discovery of
the Island of Sehel, archaeo-
which record the making (un-
logical evidence in the form of inscriptions
dated) and/or
and the remaking (year 8) of a canal to
water-damaged structures infacilitate
Egypt the such
passage ofasthethose
cataract at Aswan
found at Mirgissa by Vercoutter (1970) and his
(Breasted 1906), analogous to the activities of Weni
associates. One such possibility
in thewas kindly
reign of Mernere of called
Dynasty VI before the
to my attention by W.K. Simpson.
First Dark Age.Among the whether the
There is no indication
blocks from earlier temples re-used in the building
later canal was made necessary because low floods

77.43.5.162 on Thu, 27 Aug 2020 00:11:17 UTC
had clogged up the old
lower elevation, passages,
as I suggest, they could have been or
wosret III wanted to
more damaged by the use larger
ultra-high floods in the reign b
predecessors forof his
Amenemhet III and his immediate successors.
military campa
Nor should we overlook the
Then because of their damaged possibi
condition, they
channel has become clogged
could be used as quarries by
by later generations with d
down from a local wadi
less strain after
on the conscience than one would a heav
expect
In addition to the
in the case evidence
of well-preserved buildings. from
Moreover M
perhaps Semna South
it seems unlikely in Nubia,
that structures ther
erected in an era
itself a number of archaeological
of floods poin
substantially higher than today should be
argue against theso ultra-high completely buried under the cultivation when
floods be
most of the period, points which
the alluvium has risen at most about 3.5 meters. conce
above the river-level of numerous monuments of It may be significant that the burial chambers
the Middle Kingdom. In considering these we must under the pyramids of Amenemhet I and Senwos-
take account of the rise in the riverbed and in the ret I at Lisht have not yet been explored because
surface of the alluvium, which Ball (1939:162-77) they are full of ground water that seeps in as fast
estimates as about 3.35 m. in the vicinity of Cairo.as it could be pumped out. Use of a strong pump
Unfortunately I have been unable to obtain suffi- in one of the flooded nearby shaft tombs by the ex-
cient information on the elevation of various rele- cavators from the Metropolitan Museum of Art
vant monuments, so that the following paragraphs resulted in lowering the water in the tomb by 40 cm.
are more speculative than I would wish and should and no further. It also lowered the water noticeably
be taken primarily as suggestions for future re- in nearby shafts, indicating that the rock is very
search.
porous (1914 BMMA 9:207). Unfortunately I have
One striking fact is the absence of known Valley not been able to discover any records of the depth
Buildings associated with the Middle Kingdom of the water in any of these tombs, nor indeed any
pyramids of Dynasty XII; they are either com- indication that soundings were taken in an effort to
pletely destroyed or buried under the modern culti- determine the depth by either the French (Gautier
vation to a greater extent than most of the similar and Jequier 1902)30 or the Metropolitan Museum's
Valley Buildings from the Old Kingdom, although excavators at Lisht. At the time it probably did not
surviving traces of causeways indicate that such appear to be of interest. But if the depth of water
Valley Buildings must have existed (Fakhry 1961; in any tomb approached 3.5 m., this would pro-
Edwards 1961). This suggests-although proof or vide evidence for floods no higher than the modern
disproof, if ever possible, must await further ex- when the tomb was built. Whatever the depth of
cavations or at least magnetometer explorations-- the deepest water, its measurement would con-
that the Valley Buildings of the Middle Kingdom tribute toward setting an upper limit on the flood
were constructed at a lower elevation, closer to the levels during the earlier reigns of Dynasty XII.
modern HWL, than those of the Old Kingdom. The role of the Fayum lake, to be discussed pres-
This in turn suggests that the floods were lower ently, should be kept in mind by anyone seeking
in the Middle than in the Old Kingdom. If the to investigate these various levels.
very high floods had ceased already by Dynasty VI, The excavators of the Metropolitan Museum at
concurrently with the ending of the Neolithic Wet Lisht concluded that the Pyramid of Amenem-
Phase, their memory would still be fresh and would het I was thoroughly plundered even of its casing
influence the construction and placing of the Valley stones and reduced to a shapeless mound of mud-
Buildings. If the later buildings were erected at a brick early in the Second Intermediate Period
30 Gautier and Jequier (19o2) do give figures on the depth to begin at about ground level (Figure Io6). It is doubtful
of the water below the surface, but their various figures appear that these two pyramids differ by anything like Io m. in ground
incompatible with one another. Within the Pyramid of Sen- level. In addition, water at the end of a burial shaft of a
wosret I, they excavated a passage ca. 40 m. in length, sloping mastaba nearby the Pyramid of Amenemhet I is reported at
downward at about 25 degrees, and encountered water at a
9.50 m. depth (p. o103), but in Figure 123 water appears at
depth of ca. 22 m. (pp. 5-6). From their Figure 8 (p. 15) the a depth of ca. 20 m. It is evident that this problem requires
water level appears to be ca. I8 m. below the surface around further study by someone with access to both large-scale con-
the pyramid. Beneath the Pyramid of Amenemhet I, a vertical tour maps and to the site itself.
shaft encounters water at ca. 8 m. (p. 94) and the shaft appears

77.43.5.162 on Thu, 27 Aug 2020 00:11:17 UTC
cloudbursts which
(Mace 1921 BMMA i6), a conclusion can turn dry wadis in
derived
from study of the remains of a village
torrents found
for a few hours, as happened in
ber It
around it and even on its flanks. 1923
may(Murray 1967:45f; Sutton 1949
have suf-
fered severe damage in the high
rarefloods of perhaps
occasions, Amenem-once every few year
thesecould
het III's reign, a possibility that storms
bemay reach the Nile Valley
clarified
appear that
by fuller information on the elevation ofthis
theoccurred
desert rather more f
plateau, described as "low" (1926
in the BMMA
nineteenth 21:33),
than in the twentieth
upon which this pyramid was built.
A.D., for If the level
Wilkinson is
(1835:75) wrote: "Sho
annually
out of reach of even great floods, then atperhaps
Thebes; perhaps
the on an averag
five in the which
pyramid was damaged by a cloudburst, year; and mayevery 8 or io years he
fill the
have inspired the precautions for torrent-beds
drainage taken by (wadis) of the mo
the architects of Senwosret IIwhich run to
(see the banks of the Nile. A storm of
below).
this kind did much damage to Belzoni's tomb some
RAINFALL IN THE MIDDLE KINGDOM
years ago." In December 1843 in Aswan, Lepsius
In the previous paper (Bell 1971) I reviewed
(1853:1i9) experienced a violent and particularly
briefly the Neolithic Wet Phase-characterized by rain, and a violent thun-
extensive storm: "Heavy
a rainfall substantially greater than derstorm . . . gathered
at present over on the farther side of the
the Sahara, and probably (although not yet
Cataracts, crossedade-
with a mighty force the granite
quately documented) widely throughout the Near
girdle, and then, amidst the most violent explosions,
and Middle East-and its gradualrolled
decline to valley
down the ap- as far as Cairo, and (as we
proximately the modern level of have
aridity by the
since heard) covered it with floods of water,
end of the Vth Dynasty, ca. 2350such(Butzer 1958,
as had been scarcely remembered before....
1959b, , 1965). There was no ecologically signifi-
Rain is, indeed, so rare here, that our guards never
cant revival of the rains over theremembered
desert duringto have beheld such a spectacle .. "
Middle Kingdom times, no return of athe
About year NWP
before, while exploring the pyramid
(Butzer 1959c:58f); representations
fieldof flora
at Giza, and
Lepsius (1853:53) experienced another
fauna in the art of the period indicate
briefrainfall
but heavycon-
cloudburst, this one presumably
from
ditions indistinguishable from the modern the aridity.
Mediterranean and connected with the
For completeness and the convenience
passage ofof future
a front. In the present century also, oc-
investigators, I shall review what casional
evidence heavyI rains
have have been recorded (see Sut-
found pertaining to rainfall, excluding
ton 1949 the floral
for dates and descriptions).
and faunal material already analyzed It is by
clear Butzer
that the architects of the Pyramids of
(1959c), although no firm conclusions
the Middle canKingdombe Pharaohs considered it ad-
drawn.
visable to take precautions against rainstorms, for
Egypt. The mountainous easternthe
desert
head of has
a lion al-
waterspout"' which drained the
ways received more rainfall than the western
broad (Ball
flat roofs of the pyramid temple of Senwos-
1939; Trigger 1965). Warm moist retairI was
fromfoundthe
among the ruins at Lisht (Hayes
southeast, from the Red Sea, is sometimes blowntrench filled with sand to
1953). And a shallow
inland, to condense on the peaks near
absorbthe sea and
the rainwater flowing off the pyramid was
bring thundershowers, occasionally even
provided violent
around the base of the Pyramid of Sen-
31 Lion waterspouts in Egypt are better known from thethey neglectful of any precaution that might secure the paint-
temples of the Hellenistic period. However they existed asings of the interior from the effects of rain, and the joints of
early as the Old Kingdom. Fakhry (1969:174) reports of thethe stones which formed the ceiling being protected by a piece
temple of King Sahure of Dynasty V, ca. 2480 B.C., at Abusir: of metal or stone, let in immediately along the line of their
"Rain falling on the roof was carried off by lion-headed gar- junction, were rendered impervious to the heaviest storm."
goyles, which projected well beyond the eaves, and fell intoThe waterspouts are described also by U. H61lscher in The
open channels cut in the pavement." And from the EmpireExcavation of Medinet Habu III: "The drainage of rain water
period, on the Medinet Habu temple of Ramses III at Thebes,from one [roof] terrace to another and finally to the outside
Wilkinson (1835:75) noted: "The head and forepart of severalwas a matter of special importance. Very large waterspouts,
lions project, at intervals, from below the cornice of the ex-shaped like the forepart of a lion, form a conspicuous feature
terior of the building, whose perforated mouths, communicat- of the exterior walls of the temple" (p. 21; see also pp. 22,
ing by a tube with the summit of the roof, served as conduits46, and 49; for this reference I am indebted to C.F. Nims).
for the rainwater which occasionally fell at Thebes. Nor were

77.43.5.162 on Thu, 27 Aug 2020 00:11:17 UTC
wosret II at Lahun
have been (Edwards
thought necessary to report such1961),
trivial
tom casing stonesactivities
slip out
officially of
to higher position
authorities and to other a
casing collapse. Perhaps
fortresses." Only one some such
of these dispatches, No. 5, ca
fell the Pyramid from ofElephantine,
Amenemhet I,27 wh
dated to year 3, III Proyet
inspired the precautions (early June 1839 B.C.for
if the assumption
drainage of Ame- t
architects of Senwosret II. nemhet III is correct), appears relevant to climate
These various precautions indicate only occa- conditions. This concerns a small group of Medjay
sional cloudbursts, such as Lepsius experienced who come from the desert and express a wish to
and such as occur in the present century. They serve the "Great House" (Pharaoh) ". . . A ques-
indicate nothing about the frequency of rain. How- tion was put regarding the condition of the desert.
ever Butzer's (1959c) analysis of the flora andThen they said, 'We have heard nothing at all;
fauna represented in art leaves no doubt that rain(but) the desert is dying of hunger'-so they said."
was not sufficiently frequent to be of agricultural After some argument, they were dismissed to their
significance more than it is today. desert. If this event was deemed worth a report, it
In year 2 of Nebtowyre Mentuhotep IV, at the would suggest that the eastern desert and Red Sea
end of Dynasty XI, rain in the Wadi Hammamat Hills32 had suffered one or more exceptionally dry
was deemed worth commemorating by a rock- winters. It is tempting to see in it a hint too that
carved inscription: ". . . Second month of the first unusual aridity in the desert may have played a part
season, day 23 [II Akhet 23 1996 B.C. Febru- in the menace against which Senwosret III cam-
ary 8, Gregorian calendar, courtesy of R.A. Parker, paigned and strengthened his fortifications in Nu-
pers.comm. J . . . The wonder was repeated, rainbia.
fell. The highland was made a lake .. ." (Breasted Nubia. In a previous section, I advanced the
1906:216-17). hypothesis that the great floods between 1840 and
In spite of the rarity of rainfall suggested by this ca. 1765 B.C. were swollen by a greater northward
inscription, however, there must have been nomads penetration of the monsoon rains than occurs today.
living in the eastern desert-as indeed there are It is therefore of particular interest to consider the
today and have been throughout historical timesfragmentary evidence bearing on rainfall in Nubia
(Murray 1935)-because Henenu took with himduring the Middle Kingdom.
an army and sent out scouting parties when he led In the west Nubian desert evidence has been
an expedition to reopen the Wadi Hammamat fornoted by Murray (i95I) against any significant
voyages to Punt in year 8 of Seankhkare Mentuho- rainfall from early dynastic times to the present.
tep III (Hayes 1961; Breasted i906:209). In particular he calls attention to bodies found,
One cryptic fragment of text might suggest that between Aswan and Kuban, in shallow graves
the eastern desert was, in the later reigns of Dynas-from the late predynastic and early dynastic era
ty XII, typically less dry than it is today. A docu- in so remarkable a state of preservation that details
ment containing copies of several dispatches fromof gross anatomy of the eyes and brain could still
one Nubian fort to another was found in Thebes;be identified. However such remarkable preserva-
the dispatches report the comings and goings of tion is not usual in Nubian burials. Murray notes
Nubians who came to Semna and to other forts to further a copper tool dated to the Old Kingdom,
trade their wares, and also mention steps taken to found lying on the desert near the Khafre diorite
keep track of the movements in the desert of thequarry-in the Nubian desert ca. 130 km. NW of
Medjay people (P.C. Smither 1945 JEA 31). InToshka-in a state of excellent preservation when
the publication of these dispatches, dated to year 3 found but now green in Cairo, as evidence of the
of an unnamed king, probably Amenemhet III, aridity of the region over the past 4500 years. Mur-
Smither remarks: "It is surprising that it shouldray inferred also a lack of wind and sandstorms
32Adams (i971) points out "The mere fact that people have always received some rainfall. These, rather than the
could live in the 'desert' would in itself be sufficient to indi-
genuine desert, have always been regarded as the habitat of
cate that there was some rainfall; otherwise human habitation the Medjay (modern Beja). Hence the inscription would seem
would have been impossible . . . the hieroglyphic character to refer to a failure of the rains in the Red Sea Hills, without
which is translated as 'desert' must be presumed to refer toreflecting in one way or another on the normal conditions of
the whole Nile hinterland, including the Red Sea Hills whichthe true desert."

77.43.5.162 on Thu, 27 Aug 2020 00:11:17 UTC
from the fresh and uneroded large appearance
herds of cattle of in- as indicating
scriptions on stelae bearing of the names
Nubia inof theKhufuMiddle and earl
(Cheops) and Sahure, but the times must have been rather
significance of lessthis
arid and thus
permitted
observation is uncertain, because he the
didgrowth
notofreport
more vegetation than at
the direction the inscriptions were
present facing.
(Arkell 1961:66; Emery 1965:159). How-
In these same diorite quarries in (1971)
ever Adams the points
western
out that "vast herds"
desert of Nubia have been found inscriptions
may be an "archaeologist's myth."of What the ar-
the names of Khufu and Dedefrechaeologicalof Dynasty
evidence proclaims IV,
is not that cattle
Sahure and Djedkare-Isesi of Dynasty
were abundant but V, buthad
that they nohigh social and
names from Dynasty VI when alabaster
ritual largely
significance-and probably re-
therefore that they
were not 1965:80).
placed diorite in Egypt (Trigger highly abundant. Whatever else the C-
Murray
(1951) attributes the discontinued
Groupersusewere,oftheythe
werediorite
a fully sedentary, vil-
quarries, apparently ca. 2400 B.C., to the
lage-dwelling peoplefailure
commanding ofsubstantial ma-
their wells. Perhaps the ground-water around
terial wealth-conditions which we thedo not expect
wells had become depleted bytoover-use, for it would
find among pastoralists."
appear from the bodies mentioned In describing his excavations
above that the of the Middle
NWP in this general area had Kingdomendedfort at already
Buhen, begunby by Senwosret I,
ca. 3000 B.C., but after a few Emery (1965:1o9) of
centuries further states: "The two arterial
disuse--
perhaps aided by greater floods and some increase
roads, which were paved with stone and burnt
in rainfall early in the Middle Kingdom-had
brick tiles, each had a drain runnelre-
down the cen-
tre, which suggests that Nubia must have had a
covered enough to make reopening of the quarries
practical for a time in the Middle Kingdom.
greater rainfall The
at that time than it has now; for
names of Dynasty XII kings
such a Amenemhet I, II,
feature would be unnecessary at the present
III, and Senwosret I, II have been
day." To thefound
best of myat this this feature
knowledge,
quarry (A. Rowe 1939 Ann. has Service), but
not been found signifi-
in other forts, although a num-
cantly (?) not that of Senwosret III.
ber of drains After
running from Ame-
particular rooms are
nemhet III the quarries were known
apparently
at Uronartiabandoned
(Dunham 1967:24, 30; Plate
for good, and sooner or later XVIIA,C; map VI),forgotten.
were quite and at Mirgissa (Dunham
I say "significantly (?) not Senwosret
1967:148-52, III"
map XVII; be- 1966:138, n.
Vercoutter
cause the evidence from Semna South
37). We may suggest
may conclude, provisionally, that cloud-
that during his reign the floods were
bursts were not
somewhat moresignifi-
common than they are
cantly greater than modern floods, probably
in the present below
century, perhaps something more
the "good flood" of Senwosret I nineteenth
akin to and some century8conditions
m. (at as described
Semna) below a number of the
by floods
Wilkinsonof Amenem-
(1835) and by Lepsius (1853) for
het III. It is tempting to postulate
Upper Egypt. that the land
of Kush, apparently peaceful after its defeat by
LAKE MOERIS AND THE FAYUM
Senwosret I, was troubled by drought-diminished
rain and/or lower Nile floods-in the
It is now time oftoSen-
appropriate discuss what is kno
wosret III, who found it necessary to conduct at
and what can be most reasonably inferred abo
least four campaigns against Kush and felt im-
the level of Lake Moeris in the Fayum provi
pelled to strengthen and add to the system of forts
from the beginning of dynastic Egypt ca. 31oo B
in the region of the Second Cataract. This might
to the
be a question of rainfall as well time
as of of Herodotus
lower floods,ca. 450 B.C. It is
particularly if we accept the hypothesis thatdone
propriate that this be in a paper on the clim
floods
of the
substantially greater than the Middle Kingdom
modern because the pharaohs
level indi-
cate a more northerly reachthis
oferathe monsoon
were particularly rains
active in the Fayum pro
than occurs today. ince and because we need to investigate wheth
Several investigators havethepointed to
lake might evidence
have functioned as a flood reserv
that the people of the Nubianand
C-Group
thereby account forkept
culture the large difference
33In imagining "vast herds" archaeologists are captured
perhaps in-
"200,000 large and small cattle" by war in N
fluenced by the claim of King Sneferu (ca. 2600 B.C.) to have
(Breasted I906:66).

77.43.5.162 on Thu, 27 Aug 2020 00:11:17 UTC
250 CLIMATE AND THE HISTORY OF EGYPT [AJA 79
tween the Elephantine and theItCairo levels
is generally agreedgiven
that the Fayum lake rose
from I.
for a "good flood" by Senwosret a very low level in the late Paleolithic to
Egyptologists agree that Amenemhet III modern
around +18 m. above built sea level when high
extensively, including irrigation and/or
floods land-recla-
broke through the Hawara channel, linking
mation works, in the Fayum the lake basin toBut
province. the Nile,
sinceand that the lake was
only the most fragmentary in remains
free connectionhave withbeen
the Nile during the Neo-
found, there is no agreementlithic about period. Almost immediately
exactly what thereafter a
he built or about the particulars of his
divergence arisesirrigation
in scholarly opinion. According
and/or reclamation works, ortoeven some, Sir Hanbury
about the Brown
ap- and Sir Flinders
Petrie among
proximate level of the lake in these years. them, the lake remained thereafter
Herodo-
tus (II, ioi and 148-49) credited at a relatively
a Kinghigh level, fluctuating annually in
Moeris--
usually identified with Amenemhet free connection with the Nilethe
III"-with from Neolithic times
construction of a vast artificial lake: "Marvellous as
down to the age of the Ptolemies. This concept
the Labyrinth is, the so-called was challenged
Lake of by Caton-Thompson
Moeris be- and Gardner
side which it stands is perhaps (1929)
evenwho foundastonish-
more artifacts and habitation sites of
ing." We should note particularly what theythat hetosays,
considered be an early to middle Neo-
after visiting the lake in person,lithic
that (Fayum
theA) culture just above the +18 m.
Labyrinth
stands beside the lake, not at some
contour,distance
while theyfrom it. they believed to
found what
He further reports that the lake be late
was Neolithic
3600 (Fayum
furlongs B) artifacts on beaches
in circumference and 50 fathoms at +Io and -2 meters.
(about They accordingly argued
90o meters)
deep in the deepest part, which that thewould make
lake, after rising toit+18am. in the time of
vast lake filling the major part of the
the Fayum Fayum
A culture, de- by stages, with
then declined
pression; and that for six months prolonged
the pauses
water at flowed
the +o0 and -2 meter levels
from the Nile into the lake, and (wherefor sixfound
they also months some artifacts attributed
flowed in the reverse direction. toThe
Dynasty Birket
IV), andQarun,
never did regain a high level
with its surface at -45 m., below or free sea
connection
level, with is
the the
Nile either in the time
meagre modern remnant of Lake of Dynasty XII or in the time of Herodotus.
Moeris.
Modern geologists agree that the The necessity
Fayum for depres-
postulating a decline in late-
Neolithic times not
sion itself is a wholly natural formation, has, however,
a hu- recently been re-
man construction, which attained moved by present
its radiocarbon dates
shapewhich indicate that the
at least some millennia before historic times. But Fayum-B culture is terminal Paleolithic and about
they agree on few other aspects of the history ofa thousand years older than the Neolithic Fayum-A
Lake Moeris. Although the Fayum has been stud-culture (Wendorf et al. 1970), quite the reverse of
ied by a number of able and distinguished schol-what had been generally believed since the work of
ars, both geologists and archaeologists, the level of Caton-Thompson and Gardner. From these new
the lake at various eras between the Neolithic and radiocarbon dates, it seems clear that the lake had
the Ptolemaic has long been the subject of contro- risen by Neolithic times, in two (or more) stages,
versy and incompatible views. Although a defini-stabilizing for a time at the -2 and +-10 m. levels
tive history of the lake requires further field study where the Fayum B artifacts were found, then
with the most modern procedures, it neverthelessrising later to the +18 m. level, with Fayum-A
appears worthwhile to outline here a history of the sites along the shore to the north of this +18 m.
lake during the dynastic period that seems most in lake. And indeed, Said et al.35 (1972), in their re-
harmony with presently available archaeologicalcent examination of several sites along the north-
evidence and with our general concepts of climateern beaches, obtained evidence for four relatively
variation. Ball (1939) provides a convenient his- high levels, progressively increasing from ca. 6150
torical summary of the various conflicting theories to ca. 3900 B.C. (uncorrected C" dates), and sepa-
of the lake which I shall not detail here. rated by intervals of lower lake levels. This sug-
34From his throne name, Ny-maat-re. But it has also been wards I96x:230).
suggested that the name Moeris derives not from the name 30 One of the co-authors, Prof. C.C. Albritton (Southern
of any king but from Mi-wer, the name of both a town on Methodist University), kindly provided me with a copy of this
the lake and of the canal linking the Nile with the lake (Ed-
article in page-proof.

77.43.5.162 on Thu, 27 Aug 2020 00:11:17 UTC
gests that a number of climatethe First Intermediate
fluctuations Period, due to insufficient
affected
the volume of the Nile during floodsthe
(Bell 1971) and/or drifting
Neolithic pe- sand (Butzer
riod. By the time of the Fayum-A 1959a), the lack of Middle Kingdom
Neolithic cul- sites below
ture ca. 3900 B.C. the lake was +18 m.typically
would indicate that the king who restored
around
16.5 m. and at times as high theas
lake20
to free
m. communication
above seawith the Nile by
level. removing accumulated silt and blown sand from
Ball (1939) had developed a compromise view the Hawara channel, thus widening and deepening
and suggested that the claim of Herodotus that it, must have been Amenemhet I, as Ball (1939)
King Moeris had the lake constructed is best un- argued, rather than Amenemhet III. Indeed in the
derstood as meaning that the king caused the lake time of the ultra-high floods attested by the Semna
to be refilled"6 by clearing out the Hawara channel inscriptions the lake would almost surely have re-
which had become silted up-in late Neolithic covered the free connection by itself without hu-
times according to Ball, who to this extent accepted man aid. Once the channel was clear enough to
the interpretation of Caton-Thompson and Gard- permit free communication with the river, then
ner. Such a silting, however, is clearly contrary to according to Ball (1939:Ioof):
the evidence obtained by Said et al. (1972) for a
high lake level during the Old Kingdom. It is still The lake . . . functioned as a combined Nile
possible that the channel was silted up at the be- flood-escape and reservoir, not only protecting
the lands of Lower Egypt from the destructive
ginning of Dynasty XII, but if so I suggest it most
effects of excessively high floods, but also increas-
probably occurred late in the Old Kingdom or ing the supplies of water in the river after the
during the great drought (Bell 1971) of the First flood-season had passed. . ... Amenemhat's [pri-
Intermediate Period. mary] object in improving the channel of com-
munication between the Nile and the lake must
One of the stronger arguments in favor of a high
have been to provide an escape for excess flood-
lake level from Middle Kingdom, or even from
water, rather than to secure increased supplies in
Fayum-A, to Ptolemaic times is the fact that no the river at the low stage; for the Ancient Egyp-
pre-Ptolemaic towns or their ruins have been found tians, practicing as they did only the basin or
below +18 m. (Shafei 1960). In the words of Wil- flood system of irrigation, are not likely to have
son (1955 INES 14:219): "The ancient sites in the been particularly concerned about increasing the
low-stage supplies of the river, while they would
Fayium thus fall into two classes: those running
naturally be anxious for protection against the
from the Middle Kingdom onward, at or above the wide-spread damage, in the shape of breaches of
20-meter contour line, and those from the Ptolemaic the river-banks and destruction of houses and
and Roman period, at or above the o-meter line." gardens, that resulted from very high floods....
This view is supported by the research of Said et ... One of the great merits of the work carried
out by Amenemhat [was] that the higher the
al. (1972). In addition we have the eyewitness tes-
Nile flood, the greater would be the proportion
timony of Herodotus.37 The explanation of Caton- of the flood-waters that would automatically es-
Thompson and Gardner (1929) that Herodotus cape into the lake; for the greater the height to
mistook flooded fields for part of a vast lake is not which the river rose, the greater would be not
persuasive when the depth he gave is reasonable only the cross section of the escaping stream, but
and when he had seen many flooded fields in the also its slope, and therefore its velocity .... Once
the canal had been dug, the escape and the return
region of Memphis and Giza.
flow would take place automatically, so that there
If the Hawara channel became clogged during would be no necessity for artificial regulation; and
36 Ball calculated that only about 5 years of average-modernthis claim would have saved nineteenth century excavators of
floods would be needed to refill the lake from -2 to +16.5 m.this Pyramid much labor. For our period he has also a reason-
and bring it into equilibrium with the low Nile, if it re- able order of the kings: (i) Moeris, "builder" of the lake
ceived about ten percent of each year's flood waters. Ball fur- (Amenemhet I); (2) Sesostris, the great conqueror (Senwosret
ther believed that the lake remained large and in free com-I and III); (3) Pheron, afflicted by an excessive flood, see be-
munication with the Nile from early in Dynasty XII until itlow (Amenemhet III). Not surprisingly, he does have them
was reduced to sea level by land reclamation projects of thedated wrong, to 900 years before his own time, whereas the
early Ptolemies in the third century B.C. reality is around I5oo. Petrie (1927 Antiquity i) pointed out
7 On behalf of the accuracy of Herodotus and the realitythat in general Herodotus's History of Egypt would be vastly
of his visit to the site, it is worth recalling that he mentionedimproved if the sections 124-36 were placed before 00oo-123,
an underground passage into the Hawara Pyramid in theon the assumption that at some time in the past these segments
corner of the Labyrinth adjacent to the Pyramid; attention to of the manuscript had become erroneously transposed.

77.43.5.162 on Thu, 27 Aug 2020 00:11:17 UTC
indeed it is noteworthy that
condition of the channel. Herodotu
Herodotus reports that
mention of any structures for
the priests told him that the Nileregulatin
used to flow
of water in the channel, as he would al
tainly have donealonghad
the base of such
the sandy hillsexisted
of the Libyan i
Even silting-up desert,"''
of until the King Menes closed this channel at awou
Channel
urally prevented; distance
for of the
ioo stades silt
(about 20 km.) upstream
deposited
ing the time of slack
from Memphis water in
and diverted the river intoany
a course ye
be scoured out again by
more or less midway the
between rapid
the two deserts. Sha- ru
water at the next flood season.
fei (1960) believes that this tradition derives from
Ball further notes
Menesthat
having causedthe first
the Egyptians to buildmenti
an
for regulating earthen
the flowdam or weir at Lahun to control
appears to the hav
by Diodorus around 44 into
amount of water flowing B.C., alth
the Fayum basin,
(1960) maintains that
either to the
reduce an excess flow
of flood-water or to pre- w
throughout Pharaonic times
vent the Fayum lake from depriving the from
fields of t
Menes. If such a Lower construction
Egypt. However we have seen that Ball as p
Shafei actually existed, perhaps
believes that a reasonably open channel would auto- trac
someday be found maticallyby a magnetomet
act as a regulator of the flood in Lower
the Hawara channel. Egypt, and that a dam would not serve any useful
Ball's judgment that the channel, once dug oror necessary function. Shafei further considers that
naturally formed, would keep itself clear and free the main channel of the river originally ran in the
of accumulated silt makes it doubtful that the chan-
present Bahr Yusef but was deflected to a more
nel, once formed in pre-Neolithic times, with easterly
a course by the works of Menes. Because
generally accepted high-lake level at about +18 m.of the tradition, although evidence is lacking, it
in the Fayum-A period ca. 3900 B.C. by the new seems likely that Menes did do something remark-
(uncorrected) radiocarbon measurements (Wen-able about the floods, and whatever he did may
dorf et al. 1970), could silt up again except in ahave played no small part in establishing the dogma
period of very weak floods. There is an indicationof the divinity of the King of the Two Lands and
-from the early A-group fireplace found by Save- the popular belief in his control over, and respon-
S6derbergh (1964 Kush 12:25) at Askeit buried be- sibility for the Nile flood and the proper order of
neath some 120 cm. of Nile silt within which were Nature (see Bell 1971:19).
late A-group graves-that the floods were lower Old Kingdom. There is good evidence that the
for a time in the late predynastic than in the earlylake attained to a level of 20 to 21 m. during Dynas-
dynastic period."8 But this evidence does not indi- ty III, IV, and much of Dynasty V, to ca. 2350 B.C.
cate whether they were sufficiently lower to causeOne persuasive item is a man-made road to the
siltation of the Hawara channel. north of the Birket Qarun. The road runs about
Early Dynastic. Menes, legendary founder of the 6.5 km. from a basalt quarry southward to end in
united kingdom of Upper and Lower Egypt-- a "great elongated dump of colossal, weathered
ca. 3ioo B.C. by the chronology of the revised Cam- basalt blocks" (Caton-Thompson 1927 Antiquity
bridge Ancient History-may have done something i) on the north shore of the 21 m. lake, near a tem-
to restore the connection, or to reduce the inflow, ple at Qasr-el-Sagha. Shafei (1960) gives the fol-
depending upon the then level of the floods and lowing elevations above sea level, all arguing for
38 Although it is outside the period we are investigating, it is Amenemhet III, or a little more because the site is a few km.
of interest to estimate the magnitude of flood implied by this downstream of Halfa, perhaps reading I27.0 m. at Halfa.
evidence while we have the gauge levels conveniently at hand. Thus the deposition of the 120 cm. of silt between early and
Sive-S6derbergh (1964 Kush 12:24-25) reports that the fireplace late A-Group times at Askeit would require floods at least as
was found at about 5.7 m. above the present (1963 March 20) large as the smaller floods recorded at Semna in the reign of
level of the Nile, "on the coarse sand and covered with a layer Amenemhet III some 1200 years later. It is to be hoped, that
of 120 cm. of silt. Thus, some time between the Early A- as the method becomes more perfected, thermoluminescent
Group and the Late A-Group the level of the Nile must have dating of pottery fragments from this site will make possible
risen (about 7 m. above the present level) and deposited more a more exact dating of this period of very high floods.
than a metre of silt." Now the level of the Nile on 1963 March " Presumably in the course of the modern Bahr Yusef, now
20 was I19.55 m. at Halfa (courtesy of the Sudanese Ministry a minor branch of the Nile in Middle Egypt which drains
of Irrigation), so that at the time when the layer of silt was into the Fayum lake; and in the judgment of Butzer (1971)
deposited the HWL must have been at least 126.5 m. By never more than a minor branch.
Table 2 this is seen to be similar to the flood of year 15 of

77.43.5.162 on Thu, 27 Aug 2020 00:11:17 UTC
a lake level of 20 to 21 meters when
Underlyifig they
the Gisr were
el-Hadid is a stratified sand-
rock series
built or in use, which was most containing induring
probably places Pottery A, Dynas-
tic, RL 17-22 meters. ... We cannot avoid the
the Old Kingdom:40
conclusion that the Pottery A and Pottery B de-
posits
paved floor of Qasr-el-Sagha represent stages
temple of the historic
+35.00 m. Lake Moe-
ris. [Excavations
top of eastern Qasr-el-Sagha ramp +20.48 m. on the reverse slope of the
beach ] show that in many localities the Gisr rests
top of western ramp +22.04 m. on wind-borne material. This is chiefly a rather
top of the dolerite dump +20.72 m. fine yellow sandrock, structureless on the whole,
and probably only affected by the lake to the
Surviving fragmentary records indicate (Bell
extent of being slightly consolidated. . . . Evi-
1970) that the floods of Dynasty II to early dence
V for flourishing vegetation is seen in very
averaged 70 cm. (or more, depending on the as- numerous calcified rootlets and parts of the trunks
of large trees, which must have grown by a lake
sumption about the zero of the scale) lower than
side upon deposits of an earlier lake. . . . These
those of the First Dynasty. Allowing half a meter
underlying deposits are historic [containing frag-
or so for the rise in the level of the floodplain and
ments of Pottery A]. The Gisr, in its transgres-
lake bed from Dynasty I to IV, it would appearsive character, rests also on deposits probably
that the level of the Fayum lake in Early Dynastic older than those of historic date. These older
times must have been about the same as during deposits are (a) a greenish sandrock, rather bet-
Dynasty IV and V, or 20 to 21 meters. ter stratified (but showing a tendency at the top
to pass into a yellower type of more wind-borne
As shown previously (Bell 1971), the collapse of
appearance), with a fauna distinctive from any of
the Old Kingdom was accompanied (whether
the foregoing, and (b) a travertine-cemented
caused or not) by a number of years of very weak conglomerate of beach-origin, the Beach Conglom-
floods and it is possible that the Hawara channel erate, composed of limestone pebbles, and richly
became silted up so that the lake level fell sub-fossiliferous. The fauna of the Beach Conglom-
erate as well as its field relations unite it with
stantially. On this point clear evidence is lacking.
the upper, yellowish part of the greenish sand-
Surely relevant, although still lacking precise dat-
rock, which latter is stratigraphically the oldest
ing, is the Gisr el-Hadid, an impressive beach ex-lake-sand deposit preserved [and probably Paleo-
tending nearly 50o km. along the southwest of thelithic].
Fayum depression at RL +22 to 25 m., first recog-
The features of primary interest to us here are
nized as a significant feature and investigated by
the Gisr beach itself at 23 m., the layer of wind-
Little (1936:209f). He was subsequently able to
borne sand beneath it, and the next-down layer of
trace this feature nearly all the way around the
slightly consolidated sandrock with Pottery A de-
Fayum, with only a few interruptions, and to
posits at RL 17-22 m. It is tempting, in absence of
identify the Idwa Bank as part of it.
more precise dating, to link the Pottery A to the
Little's more detailed studies were made at a
Old Kingdom, the evidence of trees to the Neo-
point some 8 km. WSW of Qasr Qarun. There
among the sands and gravels of the Gisr el-Hadid, lithic Wet Phase ending ca. 2350 B.C.; the wind-
borne sand to the First Intermediate Period and
under a few cm. of blown sand, he found frag-
ments of pottery (B-series, not to be confused with Butzer's (I959a) drifting dunes of sand invading
Fayum-B of Caton-Thompson and Gardner) ofthe Nile valley of Middle Egypt from the west at
post-Neolithic, dynastic but otherwise uncertain the time of the weak floods (see Bell 1971); and the
date, at RL 22-24 m. And further, Little (1936: Gisr itself with Pottery B to the high floods and
209f) reports: high lake levels of the Middle Kingdom and per-
40 Because it has no inscriptions, the temple at Qasr-el-Sagha Dynasty IV, and in the pavement of two Dynasty V mortuary
cannot be dated with certainty, but it has been attributed temples at Abusir, and further pointed out that basalt was
on stylistic grounds to late Dynasty III (P. Gilbert 1944 widely used in Egypt only during the Old Kingdom. It would
Chron. d'Egypte). appear that the basalt quarry was abandoned about the same
Also relevant to the dating is the fact that, from his analysis time as the diorite quarry in the Nubian desert (Murray 1939),
of various Egyptian rocks, Lucas (1930 JEA 6) concluded that at about the end of the Neolithic Wet Phase. It may well be
the basalt or dolerite used in a number of Old Kingdom monu- that the abandonment of the basalt quarry was caused by
ments most probably came from the Fayum quarry at the declining Nile floods and a silting up of the Hawara chan-
north end of this man-made road. In particular he noted that nel, which made transportation of the large basalt blocks too
this basalt was used in the pavement of the mortuary temple difficult, during the VIth Dynasty. But tangible evidence is
of Khufu (Cheops) and in the sarcophagus of Menkaure of lacking.

77.43.5.162 on Thu, 27 Aug 2020 00:11:17 UTC
haps also to the time of Herodotus
indeed suggesting he made some use of the and Bank- h
Moeris. Recent findings Amenemhet III (Said et
erected a pair al. 1972)
of colossal seated o
tery believed to date from
statues the
of himself, which wereIVth Dynas
seen and reported
buried within lake sediments at an elevation of by Herodotus as seated atop pyramids ioo meters
22-24 m. RL at the foot of the Old Kingdom tem- high in the middle of the lake. In fact the colossi
ple of Qasr-el-Sagha, lend support to this inter- were not in deep water, if in any at all, and Shafei
pretation. However, radiocarbon dating of shells(1960:204) offers a plausible explanation for this
and fossils, and thermoluminescent dating of pot- error by Herodotus. He points out that the lake
tery fragments found in the Gisr and its underly-was divided administratively into a northern and
ing strata will be necessary before the Gisr features a southern lake, as indicated by a stele found by
can contribute their full potential to the history Daressy (1899 Ann.Serv. 1:44-46) among the ruins
of Lake Moeris. of the village of Quta, at the west end of the
Middle Kingdom. If, as I postulate, the lake had dynastic lake (above RL +21 by Shafei's map). The
fallen to a lower level during the First Dark Age,left column of this stele reads "Boundary of the
it had recovered at least to a level of 20 m. by early southern lake of the god Sobk"; the right column
in the Middle Kingdom. Whether this recovery oc- reads "Boundary of the northern lake of the god
curred spontaneously with the return of more Sobk"; and the central column reads "This stele
vigorous floods under Dynasties X and XI, or onlyhas been (erected) on the shore of the lake by the
with the aid of cleaning operations on the Hawarahead of the village of Nekht." Thus, Shafei sug-
channel ordered by Amenemhet I, we have nogests, the priests were telling Herodotus that the
evidence. Petrie (1889) concluded that Amenem- colossi stood on the boundary between the north
het probably reclaimed from the lake the site ofand the south lakes, "in the middle" between the
the capital, called Shed "the extracted" or "sepa-northern and southern administrative divisions;
rated," on the site of the modern Medinet el Fay-whereas Herodotus took "in the middle" to mean
um, and thus established the "land of the Lake." in the deepest part-whence he would infer the
However it now appears that the town of Shedet statues sat atop ioo m. pyramids by adding the
was already known in the Old Kingdom as a cult 90 m. depth of the lake to visible statue bases of
center of the god Sobek (Hayes 1961:50). The some io m. height.
work, then, of Amenemhet I and subsequent XIIth Another item from Herodotus may be noted
Dynasty rulers consisted in reclaiming additionalhere. He wrote that when Sesostris-a king to
land around the town for agricultural use by build- whom he attributed such incredibly wide-ranging
ing dikes and canals for irrigation and drainage. It military campaigns that some scholars have seen
is considered significant of his special interest in him as a legendary fusion of Senwosret I and III
this district that Senwosret II chose to build his and Ramses II, and perhaps Thutmose III-"When
pyramid just north of the narrow defile in theSesostris died he was succeeded by his son Pheron
hills of the desert which constitutes the Hawara [see n. 37], a prince who undertook no military
channel, at El-Lahun, a name meaning "the Mouthadventures. . ... One year the Nile rose to an ex-
of the Lake" (Kees i96i:214). However the major cessive height, as much as eighteen cubits (9-4 m.),
development of the Lake District was in all prob-and when all the fields were under water it began
ability the work of Amenemhet III, who was re- to blow hard, so that the river got very rough. The
nowned there in Classical times, in legend, "forking so far forgot himself as to seize a spear and
having been the first to make the Fayum accessible hurl it into the swirling waters, and for this act
to mankind" (Kees i96i:219). Some archaeologists of presumption ... he became blind. . . ." Any
have suggested that the Idwa Bank was part of the attempt at interpretation of this passage must clear-
dike system built by Amenemhet III, but geologists ly refer to the flood below the Hawara channel
(Little 1936, Ball 1939, Caton-Thompson and Gard-into the Lake Moeris. If we recall the 6.6 m. given
ner 1929) agree that the Idwa Bank is beyondby Senwosret I for a "good flood" in the vicinity of
doubt a natural feature. It remains possible, how-Old Cairo, a figure of 9.4 m. on the same scale
ever, that Amenemhet III could have utilized the for one of the great floods commemorated at Semna
Bank as part of his dike system. seems entirely reasonable.
At Biahmu, on the Idwa Bank-their location Shafei (1960:196) estimates that the high and the

77.43.5.162 on Thu, 27 Aug 2020 00:11:17 UTC
low Nile, near Beni Suef at the
the entrance
Idwa to the
Bank, were perhaps intended to guard,
Fayum, were about 17.8 and with
24.2.the m.
divine power of the Pharaoh, the re-
respectively
claimed
during the IVth Dynasty, with thelands
lakefrom excessive flooding.41
fluctuating
annually between i9.o and 21.0 m.,
In view of given annual
the extremely high floods recorded
floods of modern volume. These levels would rise
in a number of the years of Amenemhet III, it is
to 18.5 and 24.9 m. for the Nile and 18.7 to 21.7 m. reasonable to infer that his legendary work of rec-
for the lake during Dynasty XII, and to 19-7 andlamation in the Fayum involved both the reclama-
26.1 for the Nile and i9.9 and 22.9 for the lake intion of swamplands by improved drainage for nor-
the time of Herodotus, due to the rising of the river-mal years, and the reclamation of portions of the
bed and floodplain caused by the annual deposition lowest desert by irrigation works which could be
of a thin layer of silt. In the case of the great floodsused only in the years of the great inundations.
commemorated at Semna between 1840 and ca. As to the level of Lake Moeris after Dynasty XII,
1775 B.C., we would then expect a HWL in EgyptI have found no information on its condition until
some 4 to 6 m. above normal (from Table 2, Halfathe description by Herodotus ca. 450 B.C. However
column), and if the high water had any substantial it appears that the Fayum was a popular hunting
duration-as it must if it came from the Blue Nile ground, especially for water birds and marsh birds,
-we might expect a lake level 2 to 3 m. above nor-during much of the New Kingdom (Kees i961:
mal, or about 24 m., in good accord with the high- 218), as indeed it was during most of the pharaonic
est post-Neolithic beaches found by Little (1936) period (ibid.:226). A "central island" of the Fayum
and by Said et al. (1972). is known from the New Kingdom, referring proba-
Let us return for a moment to Amenemhet III's bly to the reclaimed land around the capital, and
colossi at Biahmu. Only fragments of their bases suggesting a continued high lake level. While the
have survived to modern times. These were ex- lake may have had its declines in periods of low
amined by Petrie, who noted two items of interestNiles, the lack of pharaonic ruins below 18 m.
in connection with the ultra-high floods that oc- strongly suggests that the lake stood at a high level
curred in the reign of Amenemhet III. Around the in free connection with the Nile during all the pe-
foundations, Petrie (1889:56) noted that the foun- riods when there was significant building activity
dation "ground is black mud with strata of coarse in Egypt.
sand irregularly through it; the sand is native and Lake Moeris and the levels of the Nile. In this
section we shall estimate the effect of a free con-
is so coarse and clean that it must have been brought
in by the bursting of chance dams in the entrance ofnection between Lake Moeris and the Nile on the
the Fayum, which let a mass of water in that swept high and low water levels of the Nile downstream
all before it, and brought with it a rush of desert of the Hawara channel. In particular, we shall con-
soil." In addition Petrie found a fragment of an in-sider whether the two figures given by Senwos-
scription that mentioned restoring works that were ret I for a "good flood" can be reconciled by the ac-
injured. Authorities (Ball, Shafei, Caton-Thomp-tion of the lake, thus whether the "good floods" were
son and Gardner) agree in giving the elevation of
probably significantly in excess of the modern or
the pavement of the courtyard in which the colossi whether it is necessary to assume that the zero of
stood as 18 m. above sea level, and the latter, in their
the Elephantine scale was one or two meters below
argument for a low lake level, emphasize the lack
the modern (and ancient?) LWL.
of Nile silts in the interstices and the lack of water The area of the Fayum basin at the 20 m. con-
rings on the stones of the bases of the colossi. In
tour level is 2100 km.2 or 2IxIo8m.2 (Ball 1939:203).
view of other evidence for a lake level as high as
If the lake level typically fluctuated over about 5
23 m., the lack of water rings would seem rathermeters, from 18 to 23 m., it could take in about
to testify to the formidable dikes-part natural (Id-IooxIo"m." of water from the Nile flood. The loss
wa Bank) and part constructed-in the reclamation
by evaporation is estimated (Ball 1939) at i80 cm./
work of Amenemhet III. The statues, located on year, similar to the modern Birkit Qarun, or about
41 Each colossus stood in a small courtyard surrounded by protection from the great floods, nor from the highest post-
a wall of 6 courses of stone 12-14 ft. (about 4 m.) high Neolithic lake levels detected by Little (1936) and by Said
(Petrie 1889: plate XXVI). Thus the tops of the walls would et al. (1972), these being at 22 to 24 m.
have been at about 22 m., which seems not high enough for

77.43.5.162 on Thu, 27 Aug 2020 00:11:17 UTC
founding of Dynasty
4oxio"m.3 If we assume XII, or possibly
that about in the ear- I5xI
rated during the lier
flood season, then
drought between ca. 218o and ca. 2130 B.C. wi
The lowest LWL in modern
m.42 the lake could actually take in ab records occurred in
It would then 1922, with

have a volume of 0.24xIO0
about or 24 million m.
75xio"m3. to
river over a periodper of
day and9
an estimated
months,43gauge level at Aswanor
of ab
month. 83.5 m. When "the river of Egypt is empty, men
Now the capacity cross overofthe waterthe Aswan
on foot," one is justified to ex- re
1935 and the last raising
pect considerably less than 24 of the
million m.3/day, and hei
dam was some 50xio"m.",
one might reasonably postulateand a LWL of 83.0this,
m. or r
even less. With
ally over the months a LWL at 83.0 m., we have
February HWL
throu
to raise the LWL of
at 94-3 m., andthea volume of Nile by
I2.5xio"m."/day for a abo
"goodevident
Ball 1939:7). It is flood" in the reign of Senwosret
that I, only
Lake
do no more and slightly
would larger than probably
the largest floods of the pastdo
because the outflow
century. of the Aswan res
lated to be At some
greater in point in his reign
the Amenemhet I moved wh
months
river is lowest, his
but the
capital from Thebes to lake would
Itj-towy in the north
most briskly when (Simpson it1963 was
JARCE 2:57-59), and it is reason-
relatively f
Trial calculations44 confirmed that it was not able to assume that the northern Nilometers were
possible, under any plausible pattern of the annualestablished at that time, after the drought had
passed and the LWL returned to near its modern
variation of the Nile, to reconcile the Elephantine
and the near-Cairo figures given by Senwosret level
I. of 84.0 to 85.0 m. at Aswan, giving an an-
The lake is simply not large enough-even atnual
a range of around 9.3 m. there, but I1.3 m. above
range of 6-7 m., and one can hardly conceive of itthe zero of the older Nilometer; and with a range
of about 8.o m. at Halfa and in Egypt above the
having a larger range than the Nile itself down-
Hawara channel, and 6.6 m. below the channel to
stream of the Hawara channel-to take off enough
the lake. Thus we would have in the early part of
water at the flood crest to have enough to return
Dynasty XII above Beni Suef a HWL similar to
over the remaining 9 months to lower the HWL
that of the modern period A.D. 1870-1898 and a
and raise the LWL below Beni Suef to 6.6 m., if the
LWL similar to that for A.D. 1900-1960; below
range above Beni Suef were io.o m. (11.3 m. Beni at Suef we would have a HWL similar to that
Aswan implies about 1o.o m. at Halfa, typical of since A.D. 900oo, and a LWL similar to that of A.D.
Egypt itself). 1870-1899, the somewhat greater range of the floods
We are forced therefore to conclude that if the in the i9oos B.C. being moderated below Beni Suef
zero points of Senwosret I's Nilometers at Elephan-by the free connection with Lake Moeris.
tine and near Cairo each represent a LWL, the two In the latter part of the Middle Kingdom, as we
Nilometers must have been established at different have seen, there occurred a number of years of ex-
times. The Aswan Nilometer indeed must have had tremely high floods, as much as 4 to 6 m. above the
its scale fixed in a period of exceptionally lowmodern-normal in Egypt if the excessive waters
LWL, such as that reflected in the Prophecy of arose from the usual source of Nile flood waters, the
Neferty, in the drought immediately preceding the drainage basins of the Blue Nile and the Atbara
42 Actually Ball (1939:139f) estimates that a 7 m. flood tion in the lake level. And we must have a larger fluctuation
would lead to a seasonal fluctuation of only about 2.5 m. in to allow any hope of reconciling the figures of Senwosret I.
the level of the lake. From its geological section (Little 1936)44 The trial calculations were graphical: I plotted the Halfa
the Hawara channel, if free of silt, had a width of 500 togauge readings, and the volume, separately for each io-day
6oo m. from RL 9 to 20 m. and increased suddenly to 8oo interval
m. using the mean of I890-i899 and the mean of 1912-
at RL 20 m. and gradually to ooo000 m. width by RL 25 m.1927. If To these graphs I then added conjectural curves for
this section is typical, quite a substantial portion of a high
Senwosret's floods, guided by the need to have a range of
Io.o m. above and 6.6 m. below the channel to the lake. The
flood could escape into the Fayum lake in the event of a rela-
tively prolonged flow close to the HWL. difference between the curves would give the inflow to and
43 It should be noted that although Herodotus spoke of the the outflow from the lake. The needed inflow and outflow
lake rising for six months and falling for six months, this is
substantially exceeded the capacity of the lake over a range
of even 7 m.
quite impossible with a seasonal distribution of the Nile vol-
ume similar to the modern and more than a 2-3 m. fluctua-

77.43.5.162 on Thu, 27 Aug 2020 00:11:17 UTC
in Ethiopia. On the other hand,[And if regarding the Fayum:] Belzoni tells us
any significant
that when he
part of the excess waters at Semna visited the
arose Faiyum a
from in May 1819 an
extraordinarily high flood had caused such a quan-
few days of heavy rains over the central Sudan
tity of water to pass into the Birket Qarun that it
south of Dongola, we could expect
rose somea 31/2
much meterssharper
higher than it had ever
flood crest-with the very high volumes
previously been knownestimated
to do by the oldest fisher-
men onaitsfew
in a previous section lasting only shores. days,
[And Linant de Bellefonds re-
con-
ceivably only a few hours; in corded that] (admittedly
this in 1819 or 1820 there occurred a
breach in the northern bank of the Bahr Yusef
somewhat unlikely) case, the volume would be
near Hauwaret el Maqta, causing a disastrous rush
substantially reduced by the time it down
of water reached
the ravine Middle
known as the Bahr-bela-
and Lower Egypt as a result of ma,
flooding
and despite beyond
great efforts its
it had been found
normal limits all the way down the
impossible valley.
to repair It till
the breach is six months
hoped that future research in later, after thewill
Egypt flood had passed us
help (Ball 1939:231-
32).
choose between these hypotheses.
Particularly
In closing this section on high floods noteworthy
and in these
the descriptions-and
Fay-
others (Toussoun
um, it is useful to consider accounts 1925)-is
of the the fact that some, but
unusu-
ally high floods that occurrednot
inall, destructively
A.D. 1817 high floods
andare prolonged
i818at
a high level, keeping
in order that we may form some approximate idea many fields under water be-
yond
of the trouble caused in Egypt the normal and
proper by proper
the season for sowing.
ultra-
Such abnormal
high floods recorded at Semna in duration
the of high waters could
reign of re-
Amenemhet III and his immediate successors. I sult in a poor harvest the following summer. Since
scholars agree that the reign of Amenemhet III
quote from Ball (1939:23I):45
was a time of high prosperity in Egypt we may in-
. Ample evidence that the flood of [A.D. fer that his great floods were not so usually pro-
8I81] was a phenomenally high and destructive
longed as to interfere seriously with the agriculture.
one is ... furnished by the contemporary records
... [which] ... inform us that in the year 1233SOME HISTORICAL IMPLICATIONS OF THE GREAT FLOODS
of the Hegira (A.D. 1817) the Nile rose to such
an extraordinary height at Cairo that the island In this section we shall inquire whether the "his-
of Roda was completely submerged, so that boats torical truth" of a number of years of ultra-high
could sail over it, many villages were destroyed,
considerable numbers of the inhabitants and theirfloods and a period of more than unusually variable
animals were drowned, and there was great lam- flood volumes can illuminate any aspects of the
entation among the fellahin over the loss of theirhistory of the late Middle Kingdom. Four aspects
summer crops ... ; also that in the following yearoccur to me: (i) the unique royal statuary of Sen-
... (A.D. i818), there was a still more disastrous wosret III and Amenemhet III; (2) the "Complaint
Nile flood, the inundation not only reaching to
of Khakheperre-sonbe"; (3) the popularity of the
even greater heights than in the previous year and
sweeping with much violence over the highest name-element Sobek among the kings of the next
banks and destroying all the field-crops, includingdynasty; (4) and the decline in prosperity, without
the cotton, as well as the fruit-trees in the gardens,evidence of severe famine, under Dynasty XIII. In
but also lasting for an abnormally long period, a a previous section, I pointed out some inferences
first slight fall being followed by a renewed rise
which might reasonably be made about the legend-
to still higher levels after Holy Cross Day (Sept.
ary reclamation work of Amenemhet III in the
27), and the waters not subsiding until the Coptic
month of Hatur (Nov. io to Dec. 9), when theFayum. Let us now consider the above four aspects
season for cultivation was past. individually.
45 See also Toussoun (1925:510); unfortunately Toussoun was
passable, the gardens of Elephantine were submerged. ... The
not able to locate any Roda gauge measurements for thesespread . . . and destroyed . . . dwellings of the Isle of
waters
years, nor for any of the years between 18oo and 1823Roda
for his
which ended by being entirely submerged. . . . This
table. In medieval times, the highest flood by a substantial
frightful inundation remained in full force until the end of
margin occurred in A.D. 1360; ". .. The flood that year was
Baba; never had such a thing been seen in Egypt, neither before
of 24 cubits [5-6 cubits or more than 2.5 m. above the nor
normal
since Islam. . . . These great waters were followed by the
of its half-century] . . [the ruler] ordered that they ceasewhich ravaged all of Egypt. .... In the year A.D. 1371,
plague,
proclaiming the height of the flood, because they feared a gen-
the flood was excessive and rose to 22 cubits and more; it re-
eral inundation. The great waters sustained themselves thus,at this level up to the end of Hator (Nov.), which caused
mained
without diminishing, to 25 Baba (Oct.), which caused extreme
the Egyptians much disquiet, because the time for sowing was
grief among the people. The road of the Fayum became im- ...
passed.

77.43.5.162 on Thu, 27 Aug 2020 00:11:17 UTC
(I) Many of the scriptions,
finest portraitcombine
stat
last great kings of
the Dynasty
droughtsXII,ofviz.
th
and Amenemhet to III, stimulate
are distinguished
greater
never found elsewhere
level of inthe
royal
NileEgyp
flo
An erratic
ture, by an "astonishing Nile, ...
realism w
mainstream of pharaonic
level andart" (Aldre
a number
contrast to the norm of eternal
destructive you
floods w
dignity befitting for
a god-king, these
any ruler. Howrul
m
trayed as men, sometimes with "the
king of Egypt who br
is
power ... of an autocrat ... [Senwo
ing the social order
not only so reorganized the Egyptia
the natural order of
in Nubia that he beneficent
was afterward wors
behavior
as a protector of paper
the region, but alsI
(Bell 1971),
pletely the power of the landed
dogma of the nobility
pharao
ducing the nomarchs
ordertoofthe status o
Nature, a
vants"; and sometimes as middle-aged
Viewed against such
illusions, "the careworn
careworn shepherd
features oo
(Aldred i970:45). In only
not the words of
understan
(1965:o03): "Theforebodings
dominating quali
apart-t
heads is that of an intelligent
renity, and thusconsci
to b
ruler's responsibilities and an
mitted, by these aware
ki
bitterness whichargue
this canthatbring.
erratic
. .a
seriousness appears
theeven in the
sole cause forface
thi
Amenemhet III ...to
it suggest
is immediately
that the a
this man lived in a different time
consideration as afro
con
produced the serene
actedconfidence of at
with political
the Old Kingdom." It To
maythe
bepresent
objected(n t
writer, the youngconspicuous
Amenemhet in III the
seem h
itis a difficult thing to portraying
those play the roleAo
but he will do his best to our
latter-to be worth
know
tinguished ancestors. The limited
sive floods. ev
In fact th
available indicates that he succeeded.
levels in the reign of
ret III appears to discovery,
have had an unusua
at the D
successful, if untranquil, reign. Politic
commemorating a wa
ful rulers, as well 10
as the unsuccessful,
of Senwosret m
III
have personal domestic troubles,
makes it ev
reasonable
harem of wives and
beenconcubines,
more erraticand
i
tion Texts suggestunder his within
intrigues predecess
the
hold in the latter part
high, as of
in Dynasty
that yea
1956:159). But it the
is unlikely, and
fields will unp
not be
that an Egyptian king
mal would allow pers
(November) se
problems to be reflected
have time in his
to offic
mature
Montet (1968:67) has wondered
(2) Turning if th
now to
had premonitions of the for
evidence impending
any sort
dynasty: "The days of the
Middle court of
Kingdom is I
numbered .... Perhaps Amenemhet
after the famine re I
that his family and all Egypt
Hasan, and ofwere
uncert
days and the sculptors
plaint ofof Khakhepe
Karnak ca
forebodings." If they had forebodin
Simpson 1972:230f),
that an adequate was
cause is at
born inhand in
the rei
behavior of the Nile, evidenced by
probably wrote his C t

77.43.5.162 on Thu, 27 Aug 2020 00:11:17 UTC
Senwosret III or Amenemhet III.theBecause
suggestionthe avail-
that it might be better understood
able evidence indicates that these
against
reigns
the background
were pros-
of excessive floods, attested
perous, the Complaint is usually taken
themselves toSemna
by the be pureinscriptions. In particular,
literature, an example of the itpessimistic
would be of interestwriting
to investigate whether the
that became fashionable after translation
the First could be clarified
Dark if it were assumed
Age.
to refer to disastrous
Even if the Complaint be taken as inspired by a floods.46
troubled condition, the nature (3) of the trouble
Turning now to item la- three: A unique fea-
mented is completely obscure. tureIofsuggest
Dynasty XIII it could
is the frequent appearance of
make sense, however, as a reflection of the disorder,
the name-element "Sobek," the crocodile god. At
social and natural, consequent least
on five kings bore theover-
over-long, name Sobekhotep "Sobek
is satisfied,"
large floods, or abnormally large as their nomen or
fluctuations inpersonal name, thus
flood level from year to year, presumably from birth. if
particularly The we
last known sovereign
bear in mind the Egyptians' seeming taboo onof Dynasty XII, a Queen Sobeknefru, and two or
more royalties of Dynasty XVII a century later,
literature (openly) critically of the Nile. From
Erman's translation: are the only other instances where Sobek was so
honored in royal names.
... I am meditating upon what hath happened, The crocodile-god, Sobek, Sobk, or Suchos, was
on the things that have come to pass throughoutprimarily a divinity of the water and of vegetation,
the land. Changes take place, it is not like last
year, and one year is more burdensome than the
resident in the Fayum, and in other cult places; he
other. The land is in confusion, become wastebecame particularly important in Dynasty XII and
(?) . . . - - Right is cast out, and iniquity (sitteth) XIII, being mentioned frequently as a patron of
in the councilchamber .... The land is in misery,Dynasty XII kings (Hayes 1961). "The crocodile-
mourning is in every place, towns and villages god Sobek was naturally considered a water-god;
lament. All people alike are transgressors, the
he received worship as a patron divinity in towns
back is turned upon respect. .. [Perhaps looting
after a destructive flood?] . . . Come, my heart,[and times] the special weal and woe of which were
... that thou mayest expound to me the things particularly dependent on water, as was the situa-
that are throughout the land, that are bright andtion on the islands of Gebelein and Kom Ombo, in
lie outstretched [E: in view of all, yet compre- the oasis of the Fayum" (Steindorff and Seele
hended of nonef. I meditate upon what hath
happened. Affliction is come today - - - and 1957).
all men are silent concerning it. The whole land We have already noted the Quta stela referring
is in a great [E: bad] condition. There is noneto the "Lake of Sobk." This god was honored also
free from transgression, and all men alike are by at least two surviving monuments of Amenem-
doing it. Hearts are sorrowful - - -... Men risehet III in the Fayum-the temple to Sobek at Ki-
up early every day to suffering . . .
man Faris (RL +24.0 m.) and the temple of Medi-
This quotation is not presented as evidence for net el Madi (pavement at +25-94 m.: Shafei
anything-it is much too vague-but rather with 1960) in the southwest Fayum to the consort of
46 In a new analysis of this text, Kadish (i973) JEA 59:77-90) series of major provincial tombs come to an end in his reign.
gives brief consideration to this possibility and concludes that However he did this, there must have been those among the
he does not "see any terms in the text which lead to a clima- nomarchs and their families and followers who indeed felt the
tological explanation independent of external information, but
land had come on evil times. Kha-kheper-Re-senebu may have
been one of those. It is certainly unlikely that such a transi-
the possibility that that was the case is very attractive, especially
since it lends some weight to the dating of Kha-kheper-Re- tion in the balance of power between nomarchs and pharaoh
senebu." At the same time Kadish "detected a sense of im- could have occurred without severe distress to the losing pow-
mediacy in Kha-kheper-Re-senebu's distraught state" which ers. In this connection it is of interest to note, from the In-
argues against taking the work as pure literature. "He isstruction
ter- of Sehetep-ibre (a high official under Senwosret III
ribly unhappy over the social and political changes that andhaveAmenemhet III): ". . . Adore the king, Nymaatre [Ame-
taken place. They are basic alterations which he regards as III] . . . The one whom the king loves shall be a
nemhet
morally unacceptable." well-provided spirit; there is no tomb for anyone who rebels
Although we are accustomed to focus on the general against
im- his Majesty, and his corpse shall be cast to the waters"
pression of peace and prosperity during the later reigns of
(Simpson 1972:198f). The statement, ". . . there is no tomb
Dynasty XII, there is nevertheless, I suggest, in what we be-
for anyone who rebels . . ." in conjunction with the ending
lieve of the political situation under Senwosret III another of various series of provincial tombs is suggestive; we may well
neglected possibility for historical significance in this text. Aswonder if the nomarchs may have provoked their suppression
we have noted, Egyptologists generally believe that Senwos-by a rebellion against Senwosret III.
ret III broke the power of the regional nomarchs because most

77.43.5.162 on Thu, 27 Aug 2020 00:11:17 UTC
Sobek (Hayes I96I). Thea Dark
some respects interest
Age in Egypt, of
and pe
het III in the Fayum and
fuller study the popularity
will reveal of
at least partially con
stimulated by more-than-normal
poraneous Dark Ages in other anxiety
lands. But the
flood levels, may well
nothingbe reflected
immediately in the
obvious. Hammurabi of B
of the name-element Sobek
lon forged in the
a substantial empirenext fe
in (probably
tions. The first of upper
thei700s,
Sobekhoteps was bo
although his dates are still debated
bly in the reign of Amenemhet
one does not get an impressionIII, and
of splendid p
may well reflect a desire
perity tochapter
from Gadd's propitiate
in the revised
god. Although the genealogy
Further ofa time
north, this period was Dynasof prosp
still unknown, it seems most
for the Syrian likely
coastal cities, tha
and for Mari on
were descendants Upper
of Euphrates.
Amenemhet III an
The period also saw the b
predecessors by minor
ning of wives or concubine
the Old Kingdom of the Hittites in
(4) Finally, it seems
tolia. In the I6oos, Crete'sthat
probable the
palace civilization
of the ultra-highflourishing,
floods as were the Hittites, andsm
played no main
bringing on the decline
Greece was known as from
belatedly reviving the the Seco
First D
mediate Period, since
Age; thethe last
city states recorded
of Palestine were prospe
comes fairly earlyButin Dynasty
this century XIII.
is obscure and Alt
confused in Me
ultra-high floods were
potamia. probably at first
Thus I shall provisionally adopt theu
and a cause of disaster, once
"Little Dark Age" the
for this Egypt
era in Egypt, the
adjusted to them as a frequent
tle" referring to its known occurren
geographical ex
cessation might well bring
alone and implyingon a about
nothing periodits severo
until a new adjustment
which however could
was almost be made.
surely less than
explore this period of
of the decline
First Dark Age. more ful
next section.
Although this period of Egyptian history is p
DECLINE OF THE MIDDLE KINGDOM
haps the most obscure of any (Smith 1960), a
eral impoverishment after the death of Ame
The conspicuously prosperous period ofhet
theIII
Mid-
is clearly indicated by the absence of
dle Kingdom came to an end about public
1797 B.C.,
buildings and by the small size of the
with the death of Amenemhet III after a reign of tombs, as well as by the scarci
known royal
some 45 years. Dynasty XII itself ended about
decorated tombs in the provincial centers.
I78047 after the much briefer reigns of his two
Neither Amenemhet IV nor Sobekneferu le
immediate successors, King Amenemhet IV and
pyramid that has been identified from wri
Queen Sobekneferu. And a couple of decades later,
evidence, although the remains of two ruined P
the records at Semna of great floods come to an
mids atend.
Mazghuna, about 5 km. south of Dahs
In recent years Egyptologists have come have
to realize,
been attributed to them (Edwards 196
however, that the Middle Kingdom did not
spite of,end
or because of, the some 50-60 kings lis
in a sudden collapse like the Old Kingdom; it Papyrus and other sources for Dy
by the Turin
rather slipped by stages from prosperity
ty XIII, thearemains of only three additional Py
under
strong government into poverty and disorder,
mids of that
this period are known. There is on
lasted, in variable degree, to about 1570 Dahshur
B.C. belonging to a king with the surpr
The next two centuries of Egyptian history, tra-
name of Ameny-the-Asiatic; and two at Sakk
ditionally called the Second Intermediate
one Period,
of unknown ownership and the other bel
present a terminological difficulty, since I had
ing to are-
king with the unEgyptian name of Khe
served the term "Dark Age" for eras of jer.
more wide-these Pyramids are not large, they
While
spread impoverishment, extending throughout
possess the
impressive features, each demonstrating
Eastern Mediterranean and Near East. elaboration
The Secondof devices first used by Amenemhet
Dark Age of Ancient History, in thisand full sense, to make them impregnable to thie
intended
occurred between ca. I200 and ca. 900 B.C. The two
a problem of evident concern to the architec
centuries here under discussion weretheclearly in
Pyramids of the late Middle Kingdom. A
47 Amenemhet IV is now given 13 years, in kareaccord with
will a
be given eight years.
year 13 discovered by Hintze at Semna (n. I ). And Sekhem-

77.43.5.162 on Thu, 27 Aug 2020 00:11:17 UTC
nemhet III and Khendjer each had a aburial
was chamber
man who amassed grain ... who was vi
carved from a single block of quartzite; the
lant during theunfin-
winter. Whenever a famine c
ished and unidentified Pyramid at various/
during Sakkara had
numerous years, I gave grain
such a monolithic chamber estimated toduring
my city weigh 150
each famine . . ." (Vandier 19
tons (Edwards 1961), no small115).
achievement for
And finally, one a
Horherkhoutef of Edfu, af
supposed "age of poverty." commemorating his conventional charities to
needy,
Decorated and inscribed provincial ". .. I one
tombs, gave of
bread to him who had h
the main sources of information about
ger ..." notedthe in First
his tomb (Vandier 1936:1
Dark Age, are also very rare at this
"I gavetime,
grainsuggest-
to the entire country, I saved
ing that no revival had occurredtownof thefamine
from old nom-. . . no one has done wha
archic system that had been suppressed by Sen-
did... ." This tomb is undated, but Vandier c
wosret III (James 1965). Thus the
sidersLittle Dark
it to be in theAge
style of Dynasty XIII.
Thus distribution
set in under a distinctly different we do have evidence
of for famine and
political power than existed at the onset flood
sufficient of the First
during the Little Dark Age, for s
Dark Age. The central government
uncertainaround
number 18oo
of years preceding ca. 1
B.C. was strong, the provincial nobility weak or a condition that is m
B.C. But the texts suggest
non-existent.
less severe than the tzw-famines of the First Da
When we turn to Vandier (1936) forAge.
evidence
It is tempting to associate this famine w
of famine in the years 1800-1570 B.C., we find
the an- story of Joseph, particularly as it is
Biblical
other marked contrast with the Firstonly Dark Age.
documented famine in the Second Intermed
The earlier period gives a much stronger
ate impres-
Period. Exploration of this possibility wo
however,
sion of disastrous famines. After describing Dynas-take us far afield.
ty XIII as an era full of internal struggles and and Upper Nubia also conditions w
In Lower
usurpations, with an artistic as well asmuch
a political
less severe now than in the First Dark
decline, Vandier (1936:18) concludes: "It is almost
Indeed this later period appears even to have
certain that the Egyptians of this epoch amust
timehave
of some prosperity and population gro
suffered frequently from hunger. Texts are, un-
in Nubia (Trigger 1965:Io04).
fortunately, rare, and I was able to find only
Nowthree
as to the role of the Nile, we have see
that allude to a scarcity." that the Semna inscriptions attest that exception
Two of these are tomb inscriptions from El Kab,
high floods occurred in many years of the r
a town across the Nile from the ancient of Nekken
Amenemhet III and his first four success
or Hierakonpolis in Upper Egypt. In the tomb of
However Lepsius (1853:525-26) noted numero
one Sobek-nakht of El Kab was foundremains mentionof temples from the New Kingdom
of a King Sobekhotep. This king, if correctly
moreiden-
or less at the edge of the water at mod
tified by Hayes (1962a:9) as the third of this
highname,
Nile between Semna and Aswan, and sc
belongs at the end of a particularly obscure
ars inter-
generally agree (e.g. Reisner 1929b; Trigg
val between the first two Kings of Dynasty XIII the floods in the New Kingdom w
1965) that
and the relatively well-documented King Nefer-
rather similar to those of modern times. Thu
hotep I who a number of scholars agree in dating
seems clear that at some time, either suddenly
to ca. 1740-1730 B.C. (e.g. Hayes 1962a, Beckerath
gradually, during the Second Intermediate Per
1965). Thus it would appear that the tomb of
the Nile floods must have declined from the h
Sobek-nakht was decorated in the three-year reign
levels recorded at Semna to levels characteristic
of Sobekhotep III, just prior to ca. 1740. The rele-
the New Kingdom and modern times.
vant inscription, translated from the French of
Vandier (1936:114) reads: "... I was a manI postulate
who that this decline in the Nile flo
occurred
protected the afflicted against the powerful rather suddenly, about the time the Sem
. . . who
supplied the granaries of the god ... whoinscriptions
sum- cease, and that the decline was a
moned his entire energy every time he saw an
nificant cause for the decline in prosperity, for
insufficient flood (a small water) ...." onset of the Little Dark Age, traditionally kn
From the tomb of Bebi of El Kab, considered
as the Second Intermediate Period. However I
by Vandier to date from the same epoch: ". .evidence
find no . I to suggest that very severe fami

77.43.5.162 on Thu, 27 Aug 2020 00:11:17 UTC
such as the tzw-famines of
power of a single central thecontinued
government First to D
curred in these years. be respected throughout most of Egypt itself; royal
The ultra-high floods building activities
were were carried on in both the
probably a
welcome and caused much destruction of life and south and the north, and, until late in the eigh-
property early in the reign of Amenemhet III. But, teenth century B.C., Egyptian prestige in Nubia
as they became a frequent occurrence, the Egyp-and western Asia remained largely unshaken. ...
tians apparently adjusted to them and even profitedUntil about 1674 B.C. . . the seat of the govern-
by them, as suggested by evidence that the reign ofment remained . . . in the region of . . . Itj-towy
Amenemhet III was the most prosperous period ..." (Hayes 1962a). Moreover, "creditable imita-
of Dynasty XII. The description of the flood bytions of the buildings, statues, and reliefs" of Dynas-
Herodotus indicates that floods were perhaps simi- ty XII continued to be produced by court artists,
larly high at the time of his visit to Egypt aboutalthough a marked deterioration occurred in the
450 B.C., and no word of his suggests that the floodquality of work produced for lesser patrons, and
he saw was regarded as extraordinary by the Egyp- this work "at best was perfunctory and often
tians of the time: "When the Nile overflows, thedownright bad" (Hayes i953). However material
whole country is converted into a sea, and the culture never did fall to the very low level of the
towns, which alone remain above water, look likeFirst Dark Age (Smith 1965).
the islands in the Aegean. At these times water King Makherure Amenemhet IV, son and heir
transport is used all over the country, instead ofof Amenemhet III, appears to have reigned at least
merely along the course of the river, and anyone13 years (n. ii). He was probably at least middle-
going from Naucratis to Memphis would passaged when he came to the throne, as his father
right by the pyramids instead of following thereigned some 45 years. In spite of a lack of evidence
usual course by Cercasorus and the tip of thefor any brilliant achievements, the reign shows little
Delta."
evidence of any serious decline in Egyptian pros-
Thus once the Egyptians, led by the strong and
perity and prestige (Hayes 1962a) except for the
able King Amenemhet III, had adjusted to ultra-lack of an identified royal pyramid. High Niles
high floods as the normal thing, and perhaps in-
were recorded in his years 5, 6, 7, and 13 at Semna;
creased in population as higher land could be culti- the Sinai mines were worked-probably for the
vated, it seems not unlikely that a cessation of theselast time until the New Kingdom-and Syria ap-
ultra-high floods should bring on a period of pov- parently remained respectful. Amenemhet IV was
erty until a new adjustment could be made bothsucceeded by the "Female Horus," Queen Sobek-
in population and in reorganization of the irriga-
kare Sobekneferu, probably his sister and daughter
tion works to best utilize the new levels. I further of Amenemhet III. Her reign yields one Nile record
suggest that this decline in the average flood level at Semna, in year 3.
combined with political factors to undermine the Although the genealogy of Dynasty XIII is still
stability of the government, while at the same time
unknown, its kings had mainly Theban names-
the apparent weakness of the crown slowed adjust- Amenemhet, Senwosret, Mentuhotep, Neferhotep,
ment to the new conditions, setting up a viciousInyotef, and Sobekhotep-with a few outlandish
circle and making the period a darker one than it exceptions such as Khendjer and Ameny-the-Asi-
need have been from climate changes alone. Weatic-and the kings regarded themselves as legiti-
shall return to this point presently, but first wemate successors to Dynasty XII, striving to up-
shall survey the history of the period in an effort hold the same traditions and system of government,
to localize as well as possible any periods of drought.
and maintaining their capital at Itj-towy, through
For this I follow the chronology of the revised Cam-most of the i7oos. It thus seems probable that at
bridge Ancient History (Hayes 1962a) except for least the first of them, and perhaps all of them,
the adjustment required by Hintze's discoveries. were descendants of the Kings of Dynasty XII, by
It was at one time believed that Egyptian civili-
secondary queens, probably including some for-
zation suffered an abrupt collapse at the end ofeign women. It further seems not unlikely that,
Dynasty XII, but this concept is no longer tenable. with the direct line extinct, the priority of claim
It now appears that for over ioo years, in spite of
to the throne among numerous secondary princes
short reigns and frequent changes of kings, "the would not have been clearly defined, and that this

77.43.5.162 on Thu, 27 Aug 2020 00:11:17 UTC
uncertainty played a major role ence
in to famine
the and insufficient
great num- flood; Khasekhemre
ber of Kings apparently reigning Neferhotep
within I (ca. 1740-1730)
a time-and Khaneferre So-
span too short normally to accommodate bekhotep IV. The latter two were brothers, but
them.
Dynasty XIII begins48 withnot King
sons of Sekhemre-
Sobekhotep III nor of any other king.
Khutowy Sobekhotep I. HisDocuments ancestry from the is reign
un-of Sobekhotep III pro-
known, but because of the change vide valuable
of "information
Dynasty on inthe elaborate ad-
the system of Manetho, Egyptologists tend to of
ministrative organization as-Egypt during the late
sume that he was not a direct descendant of Ame- Middle Kingdom" (Hayes 1962a). An inscription
nemhet IV or Sobekneferu. But the reasons for a on a rock at the First Cataract appears to attest a
change of Dynasty in the system of Manetho are visit there by King Neferhotep I, while a steatite
more often than not obscure to modern Egyptolo- plaque with his name was found at Buhen (Emery
gists; and in the absence of evidence to the con-1965:167) suggesting that he retained control of
trary we may assume that Sobekhotep I was the Nubia; a relief found at Byblos depicts the local
legitimate heir to the throne, probably a son of prince doing homage to Neferhotep (Gardiner
Amenemhet III by a secondary queen. His reign1961:154). A giant statue of his brother, Sobek-
of 5+ years (Hayes 1962a) yields three inscrip- hotep IV, was found at Kerma, believed carried
tions on the flood at Semna, with only that year 4there later by the Kushites from one of the Second
still in its original position. As we have noted,Cataract Forts.
one high Nile was recorded at Askut in year 3 of At or soon after the reign of Sobekhotep IV, it
his successor, Sekhemkare, and two at Semna in appears that the fortunes of Dynasty XIII declined
years 4 and 8. No pyramid has yet been identifiedagain, about I720 B.C., when the Hyksos occupied
for either of these kings. Avaris and much of the eastern Delta (Hayes
After the first two reigns (about 12 years) of 1962a). The origin of the Hyksos is still obscure
Dynasty XIII, the obscuring mists thicken further.and highly controversial and, although it is not
The Turin Papyrus seems to refer to 6 kinglessirrelevant, I do not propose to speculate upon it
years (Gardiner i96i:i15), then gives some 18 here, because this would require a review of con-
more names, most of them attested at least byditions in Syria and Palestine that would take us
scarabs or other minor relics, to be fitted into thefar beyond the bounds of our present investigation
period before ca. 1740 B.C. Somewhere in this of Egypt and its records. No relevant Egyptian
murky period belongs the King Sedjefakare whose records have been found. However, it further ap-
year i provides the last of the high Nile inscrip-
pears that about 1674 B.C. (Hayes 1962a) the
tions at Semna; and for this reason one would like
Hyksos were able to occupy Memphis and Itj-towy,
to place him soon after Sekhemkare. Also to this founding the XVth Dynasty and putting a final
period apparently belong the Kings Ameny-the- end to the irregularly declining phase of the Middle
Asiatic and Khendjer (4+ years). Although proof Kingdom. Shortly thereafter Dynasty XIII appar-
is lacking, it is both tempting and plausible toently expired quietly in the Theban area, where
assume that the famine mentioned in the El Kab around 1650 B.C. Dynasty XVII "arose to keep
tombs, and floods below the modern, occurred inalive the embers of Egyptian independence ."
the "6 kingless years" and that the years were (Hayes 1962a:13).
therefore considered "kingless" since no True Also about this time, that is between 1720 and
Horus sat upon the throne, because by definition a 1674 B.C., the Middle Kingdom forts in the region
True Horus restores Maat and brings good floods of the Second Cataract were burned and appar-
(see Bell 1971:19-21). ently abandoned by the Egyptians. Trigger (1965)
Shortly before 1740 B.C. a few openings appearconsiders it still uncertain whether the Egyptians
in the fog to reveal the three best documentedleft voluntarily or were driven out, and whether the
rulers of the Dynasty: Sekhemre Sobekhotep IIIregion of Lower Nubia thereafter was independent
(3 yrs., 2 mo.), the king mentioned in the tombor controlled by the Kingdom of Kush to the south.
of Sobek-nakht at El Kab and containing a refer-That they left, however, is suggested by the lack
48 Because of the paucity of available evidence on this pe-relevant here, the three Kings with flood inscriptions at Semna
riod, scholars are not in complete agreement on the order, are Nos. 3, 2, and 15 in the Dynasty XIII list of Beckerath
number, and names of the Kings in Dynasties XIII-XVII. Most(1965:222).

77.43.5.162 on Thu, 27 Aug 2020 00:11:17 UTC
of evidence for any
itemrepair
of the evidenceof theflourished
that learning firein dam
Lawrence 1965 JEA 51:72). Emery
Thebes in spite of the general material poverty(196
(1963), and others consider that
of the early years of Dynasty XVII. the fo
stormed and destroyed, by an enemy
Conditions in Lower Egypt under the Hyksos of n
considerable military skill and sophisti
are even more obscure, as no records or monuments
though Adams (1972) does
have survived from not
the periodbelieve
of their rule. How-that
dence suchcompels
ever atan interpretation.
least two Hyksos, Seuserenre Khyan, and
The Kingdom
Kush, centered
Auserre Apophis, of
clearly enjoyed long at Kerm
reigns, 40
of the Third Cataract, appears
years for Apophis, and this in Egypt to have
is generally a a
greatest prosperity during
sign of prosperity. this
Scarabs, seals, and otherperiod
minor
1965); and the large
relics of thesenumber of dis-
kings have been found widely Hyk
found in Kerma suggests
tributed through the that
Near East, it carried
indicating that
stantial trade with the
they carried Delta.
on active trade withThe pros
Crete, Mesopo-
Nubia further indicates
tamia, Kerma, that
and manythere
other places. cannot
As foreign
anything too severely wrong
princes, moreover, with
they and their the
court were proba- flo
16oos and that, forblywhatever
less influenced, or evenreasons,
completely uninflu-the
of Kush adjusted more quickly
enced by the dogma that the king than tha
was responsible
to the cessation of for the adequacy of the Nilefloods.
ultra-high floods.
In spite of the flourishing Vandier (1936) notes that one might expect
condition o
the middle 16oos many remained a time
severe famines in the disorder of the Hyksos of p
Upper Egypt, with period; no
not onlyevidence
could he find no evidenceof qua
for this,
Hammamat or Aswan; but the stele very
of Kamose indicates
few that at tombs
least to-
around Thebes and even
ward the the
end of the reign royal
of Apophis bur
the fields were
very meagre (Winlock 1947), embellishe
well cultivated in the north, and cattle were kept
were with only modest in the Delta mudbrick
by the Thebans (Kees 1961). For the
pyrami
1962a). Also around this time a
Theban courtiers, presenting arguments change
against
in burial customs, warlarge rectangular
with the Hyksos, remind King Kamose: "The wo
cophagi, the best finest of ofwhich were
their fields are ploughed made
for us, our cattle
ported Lebanese cedar, are pastured ingiving
the Delta. Emmerwayis sent for ourto sm
thropoid coffins pigs, ofourEgyptian
cattle are not taken awaysycamor
. . ." (Vandier
change that has been 1936; Keesattributed to prob-
1961; Erman 1927). This occurred the p
the times and the lack of suitable wood for the ably around 1580 B.C., and may serve to point up
large sarcophagi (Winlock 1947). the dependence of Thebes on the rest of the coun-
Recovery proceeded slowly and irregularly. Thetry for any high level of prosperity. The Thebaid
order and dating of the kings at Thebes in Dynasty
is a relatively poor region of Egypt, and the floods
XVII is still controversial. Following the chronol-
need not be particularly low to keep it in a con-
ogy of Hayes (1962a), however, there appears dition
to of semi-poverty when it cannot draw on the
have been some revival in the 1620os and 16ios resources of a united Egypt.
when a King Sekhemre Shedtowy SobekemsafThus we need not, and probably should not, in-
reigned for 16 years; according to records of the
terpret the fact of Theban poverty in the I6oos as
Tomb Robberies that occurred toward the end of evidence that the Nile floods were significantly be-
Dynasty XX, he and his queen had mummies well low those of the New Kingdom. However, intro-
bedecked with gold, although Winlock (1947) sug- duction of the shaduf toward the end of the Hyksos
gests that these records may be a clerical exaggera-period made watering of selected lands practical
tion. Then come several very short reigns, after
outside the flood season (Winlock i947), and may
which we find King Nubkheperre Inyotef VIII,have contributed to recovery from the Little Dark
who was an active builder; he embellished his tombAge.
entrance with a pair of small obelisks, and had in- Although King Wadjkheperre Kamose disre-
scribed on its wall the famous "Song of the Harp-
garded the advice of his courtiers and began a war
er," the theme of which is "eat, drink, and be mer-
to expand the power of his house and reunite Egypt
ry, for tomorrow we die" (Hayes 1962a)--one under his rule, he died while still a young man. It

77.43.5.162 on Thu, 27 Aug 2020 00:11:17 UTC
remained for his brother and successor
"rainmaker" or,Ahmose
more precisely,to
floodmaker. I sug-
capture the Hyksos capital ofgested
Avaristhat thisand
dogma,expel
combined with frequent
the Asiatics from the soil of Egypt, around
severe failure of I574
the floods, could well explain the
B.C. (Hayes 1962a). A few years laterlarge
abnormally Nebpehtyre
number of reigns within a few
Ahmose, Pharaoh of a reunited Egypt,
decades founder
of the First Dark Age. Asof successive kings
Dynasty XVIII (proving that a failed to bring good
change of floods,
Dynastythey were removed or
does not necessarily correspondremoved
to athemselves
change from in thethe
Kingship. I here
ruling family) and of the New Kingdom,
postulate wiped
a similar explanation for the numerous
short
out the vestiges of Hyksos power in reigns of the Little Pales-
southern Dark Age or Second In-
termediate
tine (Hayes 1962a), whereupon the Period.
Hyksos dis-
appear from history. Before theThe end
numerousof veryhis
short reign
reigns to be fitted into
King Ahmose had also reconquered Nubia
the I700oos-some 8 kingsas far
in the years between ca.
as Buhen, where he ordered a1768 and 1740 B.C.-and
rebuilding ofan even
themore obscure,
fort (Emery 1965). but certainly vastly excessive, number for the 16oos,
led Hayes to suggest that the kingship lost its
DISCUSSION
hereditary character during Dynasty XIII, and that
I have advanced the hypothesis that the
kings were Little
elected for a limited period of time
Dark Age in Egypt at the end of the(see
Middle King-
Hayes 1962a:5 for refs.). This hypothesis is
dom was brought on-or at least intensified-by
highly controversial, and to a large extent I agree
a cessation of the ultra-high floods that
with occurred
those who resist the idea of "elected" kings as
often (but not every year) in the reign of
entirely Amenem-
contrary to the Egyptian concept of divine
het III and his immediate successors, and
Kingship. a fall
In possible support of the hypothesis, to
to levels around the modern, which various
be sure, evi-
are several bits of information establishing
dence indicates prevailed during the New
a lack of King-
continuity in the succession, making it
dom as well as during the earlier reigns ofcertain
clear that the Mid-
kings of Dynasty XIII were not
dle Kingdom. I infer that this decline
sons of anyoccurred
king. But the significance of this fact
sometime after 1768 B.C., rather abruptly, and
is obscured by thatcomplete lack of informa-
a virtually
tion on the titles and ranks held by kings' sons
the interval between 1778 and 1745 saw several years
in which the floods fell below theunderNew Kingdom
Dynasty XII-XIII. Apparently they possessed
levels, as evidenced by references tonofamine and since
distinctive titles, in- it is scarcely conceivable
sufficient floods in the tombs of Sobek-nakht and
that each king of Dynasty XII had one and only
Bebi of El Kab. No evidence was found on climate
one son (although no more are known), while there
conditions in Egypt during the Hyksos period, but royal daughters. There is
is evidence of numerous
the prosperous condition of Nubia suggests
mention, uniquelythe
that to my knowledge, of royal
floods were adequate, perhaps close to with
princes NewtheKing-
army led by the co-regent Sen-
dom levels. I further suggested thatwosret
the I,abrupt de-
in the story of Sinuhe.
cline in flood level after ca. 1768 occurred in a
But perhaps thetime
seeming contradiction can be
of unusual uncertainty about the proper order
resolved if we ofelection to the kingship
assume that
succession to the Kingship and set wasup a sort
not open to justof
anyone, but only to descen-
vicious circle, thus increasing the instability
dants of Kings;ofandthe
further that election was re-
government and slowing efficient adjustment to the
sorted to only when no heir existed with a clearly
new flood levels. Uncertainty about the
defined order
superior claimof
or talent for leadership. I
succession is inferred from the change in Dynasty
have suggested previously (Bell i97i) something of
and from the numerous short reigns in for
this sort the theLittle
First Dark Age, where I pointed
Dark Age. out that such a situation of uncertainty could easily
The reader may recall that a similarly excessive arise among the descendants of a king who had
number of short reigns characterized the First several secondary wives, in the event of the extinc-
Dark Age. In my previous discussion of this phe- tion of the line descended from the Great Royal
nomenon in Egyptian history (Bell I97I:I9-2I), I Wife or primary Queen. There is no evidence that
pointed out, with supporting quotations, that a lesser wives were ranked, so it remains entirely
vital symbolic function of the Pharaoh was as obscure how the claims of the sons of such wives

77.43.5.162 on Thu, 27 Aug 2020 00:11:17 UTC
would be ranked family
for priority, especi
of viziers is
King who had fathered them
speculate died
that thebe
v
ranking seemed significant. After
eligible, by long
reason of r
as the 45 years of
ty Amenemhet IIIto
XII, for election (
years of Pepi II), astutely
there could be gran
secured the
great-grandsons) king.
as well as sons the
Knowing to as
f
various claims, notsial
to mention claims
claims when theby
N
to a
higher-ranking princess.
it was erratic atThus
thiswt
ceive how election,to rule
with as list
the vizier with
of eligi
and perhaps also of electors,
erratic Nile, strictly
while wl
hereditary claim, enjoyed
could inthe
certain
gloryeme
an
reconciled with ship.
the Egyptian dogma of d
ship. Under these It circumstances
is interesting and suggestive to compare the also,
out in discussing portraits
the First
of certain Dark
rulers of Dynasty XIII with Age,
relatively easy--especially if XII.
those of the last great rulers of Dynasty the
As floo
meagre in the first
noted inor second
a previous year of th
section, many of the portraits
-for whomever it of Senwosret III and Amenemhet
actively III suggest that
concerned to
a mistake had thesemade,
been Pharaohs "ruled . . . that
by virtue of their
the own recen
king was not the True
personalities.... Horus.
It was the dominating will of the
Fitting in plausibly with
reigning king this
that guaranteed the integritypicture
of the is
notable feature of state, Dynasty
rather than the institution ofXIII,monarchy" that
stability in viziers than
(Westendorf in the
1968:98). By contrast, kings,
kings of and
also a greater hereditary
the succeeding Dynastycontinuity
XIII "obviously no longer in v
in kings. The best documented
possess the qualities of their predecessors and mod-is one A
apparently served els"
as (ibid.).vizier
Indeed, to this non-specialist,
under the statues several
cluding Khendjer, Sobekemsaf
of Neferhotep I (Aldred 1962:fig. 83) and especially I, an
tep III, and perhaps
Sobekhotep IVothers yet
(Wilson 1956:fig. 17a)-among the more
best surviving works from Dynasty
between these (Gardiner i96i; XIII--each ex-
Hayes 1
lieved to be of thepresssame
a melancholy resignation
family that is entirely com-
is the V
ru, under Sobekhotep IV that
patible with the hypothesis (Hayes
his reign and life 1962a
would be terminated
this greater stability inif the floods proved too than i
viziers
meagre. Neither looks
not yet been explained, it as though
wouldhe would resistappear
was either a man and fightexceptional
of determinedly for the throne. It cannot,
political
Talleyrand served both
of course, be inferred thatNapoleon
the brother kings them- and
bons), or that the selves
rapid came to this unhappy end; at most their ex-
turnover in kin
caused primarily pressions
bymaybitter enmities,
reflect only their expectations and b
hostile warring factions, by
their knowledge of the fate usurpations
of various predecessors.
able depositions, etc.
HARVARD (Similarly,
COLLEGE OBSERVATORY though
level, in the First Dark Age we saw t
the priest Merer who References
"offered for thirte
This situation of Adams, William Y.
a single vizier servi
1971 Personal communication.
kings is compatible, at least, with the
that, in a time troubled both by poor
1972 Personal communication.
unusual uncertainty about
Aldred, Cyril the identity o
Horus King,
king would
1962 The a
Developmentbe secretly
of Ancient Egyptian
or expected to commit Art, suicide
Tiranti, London.when his
was not followed 1970
inSome
due season with
royal portraits of the Middle King-
quate to avert scarcity.
dom of Once well
ancient Egypt, Met.establi
Museum J.
several good floods to his
3:27-50. credit, a king
readily survive a Arkell,
season A.J. or two of scar
Since the genealogy of both
I96I A History of the Sudan to 1821, the
London. king

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Climate Fluctuations and the History of Egypt's Middle Kingdom

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Climate Fluctuations and the History of Egypt's Middle Kingdom

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Climate and the History of Egypt: The Middle Kingdom

Author(s): Barbara Bell

Stable URL: http://www.jstor.com/stable/503481

Archaeological Institute of America is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and

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Introduction and Survey of Dynasty XII ................................... .....

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ment of the old Nilometer and the subsequent

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NILE Aswan cataract

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levels of Senwosret I, and consider to what extent

concerning the Nile flood levels during the Middle

Levels). Rather more clear and tangible evidence

B.C., which yields quantitive measurements of S URONART

The interpretation of this evidence has been sub- SOUTH

ject to much discussion and controversy, leading to

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YEARS BC 1840 1830 1820 1810 1800 1790 c 1770

MK, MEAN HWL -""I.

o=--HWL 1901, BALL " : :

ILL. 2. The Semna inscription

average modern cause flood no disquie level it

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Comparison of Nile levels at Semna, in meters, according to the various scales of

"modern" LWL, Lepsius (1o2.9) 0 138.92

Mean Middle Kingdom

* In March 19o2 the volume at Aswan was r-, o.52xiosm.3/da

the river-bed by some 8 m. that

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13 Vercoutter's (1965: fig. I; 1966:61; 1970) contour levels

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the on the rocks

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Km south of Halfa 0 12.5 47

Average io-day LWL i37

Average io-day HWL 149

Average range, HWL - LWL

Selected modern HWLs

year 30 129.5 133 153-3 160.2

"Good flood," Senwosret I

* Artificially raised by operation of the Aswan reservoir.

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NILE VOLUME, m3x 108 per day

m3x peak volume

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Kajnarty) would reach about 128 m. at Halfa, and 150 /1

the greatest flood (i53-3 m., Kaj.) would come to / - yr 15

century HWL, and about 4 m. above the highest

These expected levels are summarized in the lower

Since the channel is wide at Mirgissa, roughly

epoch, not only because fluvial planation is a

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Estimated io-day peak volume, and gauge levels at Elephantine,