Amenemhet I

The conventional wisdom on Amenemhet I is as follows:

• He was the vizier of Mentuhotep IV (or Mentuhotep III by some reckonings).
• He ascended to the throne after the mysterious disappearance (death?) of Mentuhotep.
• He was assassinated just before his jubilee year.
• His assassins were part of the palace hierarchy.
• Some people think that his own vizier was part of the assassination plot though since the evidence is not very good this is disputed. If true it makes a nice historical symmetry: others did to Amenemhet I what he had done to others.
• Though he seems to have set Egypt on a new course, little survives from his long reign.

Ramses III and the Harem Conspiracy: Papyrus Lee

The second document dealing with the harem conspiracy under Ramses III is Papyrus Lee. The top of the papyrus is missing and so I will start with where the narrative picks up:

Column 1

] any [. . .] of the place where I am to any man on earth. When Penhuybin was the cattle chief and told him: Give me a scroll that will grant me fear and dread. He gave him a scroll of the collection of Ramses III, the great god, his master. It came to pass that a procession attracted  the people, and he reached the side of harem and this other deep sanctuary. It came to pass that he made wax figurines in order to have them taken inside by the agent Itaram for repelling one of the staff and overpowering the rest to steal some of the words inside and take others out. When he was interrogated about them, the truth of every crime and every evil that his heart had invented was discovered. Every one of them was true. He accomplished them all with the other great enemies. Every god and goddess abominated them all. The great capital punishments which the gods pronounced on him were done to him.

 Column 2

] of them. The truth of every crime and every evil that his heart had invented was discovered. [...] was true. [...] other great enemies. Every god and goddess abominated them all. Capital felonies and great abominations of [...] capital felonies that he had committed, he killed himself. When the officials assigned to him learned that he had killed himself [...] Re like him, which the hieroglyphic scrolls say to do.

 Unfortunately, this document is fragmentary and so we do not know the names or even the dysphemisms of the individuals involved in the conspiracy. Most of the action seems to have taken place during a public festival when most of the people were distracted elsewhere and few were left to guard the facilities.

Ramses III and the Harem Conspiracy: Papyrus Rollin

The recent news report (on which see here) that concluded that Ramses III had indeed been assassinated shows that the documents of that affair are not well enough known. There are four main documents. The Juridical Papyrus of Turin, Papyrus Lee, Papyrus Rollins, and Papyrus Rifaud. Papyrus Rollin reads as follows:

It came to pass that he was making potent scrolls for repelling and confusing and making wax figurines and some poisons to weaken the limbs of people. They were administered by Pabakamun, whom Pre did not allow to act as steward, and the other great enemies. They said, "Let them come," and they were allowed to approach. When he was allowed to enter, he did the evils which Pre did not allow to obtain success, and he was examined and the truth of all his crimes and all the evil that his heart invented to do was revealed. The accusations of all the things that he did with the other great enemies like him were true. The things he had done were capital felonies and great abominations in the land. When he understood the capital felonies that he had committed, he killed himself.

The principle conspirator is mentioned again in the Turin Juridical Papyrus. In both cases his name is given as a dysphemism (on which see here).

There are accounts of three harem conspiracies from ancient Egypt. The first is the assassination of Amenemhet I. The second is the assassination of Ramses III. The third is the (possibly fictional) assassination attempt reported in Onchsheshonqy.

The penalty here under Ramses IV is different than that administered in Onchsheshonqy. In the time Ramses III the conspirators are allowed to kill themselves. Not so in Onchsheshonqy, were they are put to death by being burned. We do not know how they were put to death in the time of Sesostris I, but in other cases, he is known to have sacrificed them ending with burning them (on which see here). So the conspiracy which killed Ramses III seems to have been the unusual one with the conspirators allowed to kill themselves.

Great and Spacious Buildings

Professor Barry Kemp of Cambridge is an Egyptian archaeologist whose published views are usually thought provoking. In one of his books he wrote:

“’Great culture’, which in times becomes tourist culture, was not the spontaneous creation of the common man. It is no accident that we meet its manifestations in large religious buildings, in palaces, mansions, and castles. Great culture, which requires patronage and the direction of labour, originates in courts. The wealth, size, splendour, craft standards, and intellectual novelties are part of the instruments of the rule. When well established, a great tradition may have an influence which is felt throughout society. But to reach this stage it has to expand at the expense of other traditions. It has to colonize the minds of the nation.”[1]

Such a statement makes the thoughtful reader of the Book of Mormon wonder if great and spacious buildings (1 Nephi 8:26, 31, 33; 11:35-36; 12:18) really equate with great culture. Interestingly, this quote is at the beginning of a chapter in which Professor Kemp shows how many of the Egyptian temples did not start out as great and spacious buildings.

Ancient Egypt produced great and spacious buildings, beautiful artwork, and an intriguingly picturesque script. By contrast, ancient Israel produced utilitarian buildings, crude artwork, and a scratchy script. But ancient Israel also produced the Bible, a work whose literary history has far outlasted anything any ancient Egyptian ever wrote. The ancient Maya too produced great and spacious buildings, beautiful artwork, and an intriguingly picturesque script. The Nephites, on the other hand, may not have had much of these things but they produced the Book of Mormon.

The three mentions of a lavish building project from the Book of Mormon are undertaken by king Noah who “built many elegant and spacious buildings” (Mosiah 11:8-13) and Riplakish who “did build many spacious buildings” (Ether 10:5-6) and Morianton who was rich “both in buildings, and in gold and silver” (Ether 10:12). All of these kings are depicted as wicked. From a Book of Mormon point of view great and spacious buildings are not signs of righteousness.

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[1] Barry J. Kemp, Ancient Egypt: Anatomy of a Civilization (London: Routledge, 1989), 64.