Onward to Episode 008 - The Middle Kingdom Mariners where we'll cover the maritime connections of Egypt during the Middle Kingdom period. An inscription left by an explorer named Hannu will help us get a grasp on the reopening of trade in the Red Sea, and a literary narrative called The Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor will help us understand the Middle Kingdom mindset as related to the sea. Other topics include the debate about when the Canal of the Pharaohs was finished, the physical evidence of funerary boats found outside a pyramid at Dashur, and a few other scattered topics of note.

Episode Transcript

When we left off, the Old Kingdom had collapsed and the First Intermediate Period had begun. There is little maritime-related evidence from this period, but let’s take a brief look at the synopsis of events from the First Intermediate Period and we’ll get a good idea why there isn’t much in the way of maritime evidence.

Following Pepi II’s death there was a drought, the Nubians waged a war to gain their independence from Egyptian control, and the Egyptian government had become highly unstable because of Pepi’s long reign. All these circumstances culminated in a long dispute over succession to the throne. The seventh and eighth dynasties were periods of relative impotence for the pharaohs. Only one of them managed to hold on to the throne for longer than a year, and that same pharaoh, Ibi, was the only one who managed to complete a monument in his honor. Far had the pharaohs fallen from the decadence of the Old Kingdom.

After the 8th dynasty, Egypt reverted back to the regional power bases that had been the main players before Narmer originally unified Upper and Lower Egypt. Those who controlled Lower Egypt were loosely confederated under the leadership of a ruler from the town of Herakleopolis and are considered to be the start of the 10th dynasty. The 11th dynasty, though, was partially concurrent with the 10th and was made up of rival rulers who controlled Upper Egypt, with their overlord exercising his control from the province of Thebes. As I said earlier, we don’t have much evidence of maritime matters from the First Intermediate Period, but this period came to an end when a Theban ruler named Mentuhotep II emerged victorious from a civil war. After leading the Theban provinces to victory against Herakleopolis, Mentuhotep II began consolidating his power over both Upper and Lower Egypt, effectively reunifying Egypt and ushering in the Middle Kingdom.

As we transition into the maritime history of Egypt’s Middle Kingdom, we’ll take a look at archaeological evidence and the ancient depictions of boats as we have been doing thus far, but one thing that sets the Middle Kingdom apart is the rise of literature as an art form. While artifacts and depictions give us good insight into the technicalities of maritime history, literary works such as the ‘Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor’ give us some of our earliest glimpses into the imaginations of ancient Egyptian sailors and the everyday citizens who wondered what lay outside the Nile Valley.

In today’s episode, we’re going to look at a few artifacts from the Middle Kingdom and then one literary piece that relates to maritime history. First, a landmark early in the Middle Kingdom concerns an explorer named Hannu. He was the first to reopen the trade routes with both Libya and the land of Punt after pharaoh Mentuhotep III ordered him to take ships from the Nile and make the trek over 100 miles east across the wadi that led to the shores of the Red Sea. The following inscription, found inscribed on the rocky walls of Wadi Hammamat, reveals Hannu’s pride at having fulfilled the pharaoh’s orders and having defeated his opposition along the way:

His holiness sent me to dispatch a ship to Punt to bring for him fresh myrrh from the sheiks over the Red Land, by reason of the fear of him in the highlands. Then I went forth from Koptos upon the road, which his majesty commanded me. There was with me an army of the South; . . . every office of the king's house, those who were in town and field, united, came after me. The army—I cleared the way before, overthrowing those hostile toward the king, the hunters and the children of the highlands were posted as the protection of my limbs. Every official body of his majesty was placed under my authority. They reported messengers to me, as one alone commanding, to whom many hearken.

I went forth with an army of 3,000 men. I made the road a river, and the Red Land (desert) a stretch of field, for I gave a leathern bottle, a carrying pole, 2 jars of water and 20 loaves to each one among them every day. The asses were laden with sandals .........

Now, I made 12 wells in the bush, and two wells in Idehet, 20 square cubits in one, and 31 square cubits in the other. I made another in Iheteb, 20 by 20 cubits on each side .........

Then I reached the (Red) Sea; then I made this ship, and I dispatched it with everything, when I had made for it a great oblation of cattle, bulls and ibexes.

Now, after my return from the (Red) Sea, I executed the command of his majesty, and I brought for him all the gifts, which I had found in the regions of God's-Land. I returned through the valley of Hammamat, I brought for him august blocks for statues belonging to the temple. Never was brought down the like thereof for the king's court; never was done the like of this by any king's-confidant sent out since the time of the god. I did this for the majesty of my lord because he so much loved me ....'

J. H. Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt, Part One, Chicago 1906, §§427-433.

Aside from the significance of the fact that Hannu reopened some of the important trade routes to Egypt’s east, trade routes that had been significant during the Old Kingdom, there’s also an interesting line from the inscription that may allude to something that we’ve already mentioned. The line where Hannu states that he “made the road a river” has been seen as possibly alluding to the Egyptian practice of building their seagoing vessels in the Nile Valley and then disassembling them, carrying them east across the wadi of their choice, and reassembling them for use on the Red Sea. If this is indeed the idea that Hannu intended to convey by that line, it’s an apt turn of phrase that captures the commercial functions of roadways, both on solid ground and in the water.

Before we jump over to another of our main items for today’s episode, let’s take a minute to consider a debate surrounding an event that may or may not have occurred during a timeframe near Hannu’s expedition at the beginning of the Middle Kingdom. The Middle Kingdom began somewhere in the vicinity of 2000 BC, give or take. If we assume that Hannu did indeed conduct his expeditions during the reign of Mentuhotep III, then that places their occurrence somewhere near 1950 BC. Our debated event is claimed by the famous Greek geographer/historian Strabo to have occurred during the reign of Senusret III, a pharaoh who reigned in the latter half of the 1800s BC, well into the 12th dynasty.

In his Geographica, Strabo claims that Senusret III oversaw the cutting of a canal that connected the northern part of the Nile River with the Red Sea. This canal would in classical times become known as the ‘Canal of the Pharaohs,’ and the benefit of such a canal is obvious: it would eliminate the need for overland caravans to haul goods the distance from the Red Sea to the Nile. What is more, we have a great deal of evidence to suggest that there was indeed a canal between the two bodies of water in the vicinity that Strabo claimed it to have been located. The main problem, though, is not whether the canal existed, but rather the question of when it was first dug in way that fully connected the Red Sea with the Nile. While Strabo claims the 19th century BC for its construction, Herodotus instead claims that the canal wasn’t fully constructed until the 6th century BC when pharaoh Nekau II oversaw its creation.

While it would be interesting to claim such an early date for the construction of an ancient precursor of the Suez canal, the preponderance of the evidence indicates that the canal wasn’t constructed in full until the 6th century BC, if even that early. Herodotus does indeed recognize the fact that Senusret III constructed canals, but he implies that these canals were smaller offshoots of the Nile for local purposes, rather than one gargantuan project to radically alter the way Egypt communed with the Red Sea. Debate still continues about when exactly the ‘Canal of the Pharaohs’ was first completed, and some maintain that it was never fully finished until the time of the Ptolemaic dynasty.

In the end, regardless of whether Senusret did or didn’t actually complete the canal our next item for today gives us a unique perspective on Egypt’s connection with the Red Sea and the land of Punt that we’ve encountered on several occasions now. The ‘Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor’ is generally seen as being the oldest written shipwreck narrative. It’s ostensibly the account of a shipwreck survivor, and although it reveals a little more about how Egypt viewed the mythical or not-so-mythical land of Punt, and it also gives us one of the earliest examples of sailor’s being able to forecast the weather at sea, the contents of the tale do veer off into the realm of the fantastical and require us to search for the line between reality and fantasy.

If you're interested in hearing the tale in its entirety with some explanatory commentary, I’ve recorded it as a supplementary episode in connection with this one (link here), so it will show up in the feed as any normal episode would do. I’ve named it Episode 008.5 to distinguish it, so if you don’t care that much about the story feel free to skip Episode 008.5. The bare-bones summary that follows is taken from Lionel Casson’s classic work, The Ancient Mariners.

"I had set out for the mines of the king,” the anonymous storyteller relates, "in a ship 180 feet long and 60 wide; we had a crew of 120, the pick of Egypt." The mines must be those in the Sinai Peninsula, so the departure was made from some Red Sea port. The ship's size is imposing; it was no little coaster but a full-fledged cargo vessel. "A storm broke while we were still at sea," he continues; "we flew before the wind. The ship went down; of all in it only I survived. I was cast upon an island and spent three days alone; I stayed in the shade. Then I set forth to find what I could put in my mouth. I found figs and vines, all kinds of fine leeks, fruit and cucumbers. There were fish and fowl; everything was there. I satisfied myself and there was still some left over. When I had made a fire-drill I kindled a fire and made a burnt-offering for the gods."

So far nothing that we couldn't find in the pages of Robinson Crusoe. But things suddenly change:

"Then I heard the sound of thunder and thought it was a wave; trees broke and the earth quaked. I uncovered my face and found that a serpent had drawn near. It was 45 feet long and its beard was 2 feet long. Its body was covered with gold and its eyebrows were real lapis lazuli.

The serpent's looks, it turns out, were deceiving; it was a most considerate and accommodating creature. It took the sailor up in its mouth tenderly, carried him to its lair, listened sympathetically to his story and then comforted him with the news that, after four comfortable months on the island, one of the pharaoh's ships would come along, pick him up, and carry him home. In gratitude the sailor burst out with a promise to bring it thank offerings of all sorts of incense. "Thereupon it laughed at me. And it said, 'I am the prince of Punt and myrrh that is my very own!' " As if to confirm these words, when the rescue ship as prophesied did come along, the serpent sent the sailor off with a full cargo of incense of every conceivable type. Two months later he was safely home."

Casson, Lionel, The Ancient Mariners: Seafarers and Sea Fighters of the Mediterranean in Ancient Times (1959).

Even though this tale of shipwreck and salvation may sound trite to us 4,000 years after it was committed to writing, it’s significant for both its age and what it tells us about how the Middle Kingdom Egyptians viewed and related to the sea. Obviously, there are quite a few interpretational barriers in our way as we try to fully understand this tale. For instance, what were the origins of the story? Was it meant to be a purely historical account or a purely allegorical account? If it isn’t purely one or the other, then which parts of the story are which? As with many pieces of ancient literature, we really don’t know. Various theories have been bandied about all leading to different conclusions. I’ll highlight just a few points that, in my view, tip the scale in favor of viewing this ancient tale as more allegorical than literal, although as we’ve seen, the land of Punt was probably a physical location to which Egyptians sailed at various points in their history.

First off, the ‘Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor’ contains no names with which to identify the characters, not even a name for the story’s narrator, the sailor who was shipwrecked. Were this tale intended to commemorate an actual event, as many Egyptian tales seem more so to have done, then it would be expected for the narrator to share his name and the names of the other people involved.

A second point that weighs in favor of a non-literal interpretation can be seen in the conversations that the sailor has with the serpent after he is stranded on the island. Without going into detail (I’ll save that for the supplementary episode) the conversations focus not purely on rescue or geographical points but also on points of morality, human nature, and whether or not fate or a deity was to blame for the sailor’s shipwreck. The lack of names and the moralizing tone of the conversations between the sailor and the serpent add up to a conclusion that this tale wasn’t intended as a history, even if it was originally based on a sailor who shipwrecked. And, aside from those points, I think the presence of a giant, talking serpent within the narrative should also give us a hint.

Although we can’t precisely date the ‘Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor’, it is an indicator that Egypt’s focus had again turned to foreign trade and expedition by the early Middle Kingdom. That trade began early on, as we saw with Hannu, and timbers excavated near the pyramid of Senusret I at El Lisht give us evidence that Egyptians were again using local timber to construct ships with varying styles of mortise and tenon joints. Everyday boats and even funerary boats were also still in use, as is shown by the growing prevalence of miniature boat models that were buried with various persons during the Middle Kingdom.

Several pristine examples come from the tomb of a man named Meketre who served as both chancellor and as high steward under at least two different Middle Kingdom pharaohs. I’ll include photos of several of these boat models on the website, so be sure to check them out to see exquisite examples of miniature boats from the Middle Kingdom. In addition to the boat models, there’s also inscription evidence from four copper chests that were found hidden in the foundations of a temple near Thebes. These chests bore the engraved name of Amenemhat II, a 12th Dynasty pharaoh who succeeded Senusret I. Inside, they carried a wealthy treasure of various objects from around the ancient world including lapis lazuli from Mesopotamia and silver cups that are identical in design to cups that were designed on Minoan Crete.

Leaving aside the maritime connections of the Minoans for a future episode (although as we just saw, they had some type of connection with Egypt very early in their history) the most important inscribed evidence for maritime activity in the Middle Kingdom comes from a stone block in Memphis that contains the Annals of Amenemhat II. On this block, among many other things, there is mention of at least two separate military voyages to a region that’s been identified as modern day Lebanon, the ancient region the Egyptians called Byblos. The Annals record the ships of both expeditions as returning with a wide variety of spoils, ranging from thousands of prisoners and tons of precious metals to pine resin and the ever-coveted timber from the Lebanese cedar forests.

One voyage mentioned in the inscription seems to have returned with a large concentration of both bronze and malachite, leading scholars to conclude that the Egyptian expedition may have reached to the Mediterranean island of Cyprus. When we consider the fact that the Annals of Amenemhat II that mention maritime voyages are all contained within a single year of his reign, it opens the door to the possibility that both during his reign and during those of other Middle Kingdom pharaohs Egypt was busy with maritime expeditions to the Levant and likely other locales in the eastern Mediterranean.

Sadly, little clear-cut evidence of sea-going ships has been linked to the Middle Kingdom period and almost all maritime artifacts that have been discovered thus far are of smaller, riverine vessels. Recent excavations at Red Sea sites have uncovered some fragmentary evidence of sea-going vessels, particularly at a site called Wadi Gawasis, so maybe more will be found in the coming years. For now, though, the best physical maritime evidence from the Middle Kingdom comes from six boat pits that were discovered outside the pyramid of Senusret III in the years between 1893 and 1895.

Sensusret III reigned at the height of the 12th Dynasty and the Middle Kingdom as a whole, and gained a reputation as a warrior pharaoh who waged several campaigns against Nubia and built a series of fortresses there marking the southern boundary of Egypt’s control. The boats discovered in pits next to his pyramid at Dashur are now known as the Dashur boats and have been variously interpreted, although many now think that they could have been funeral boats like the Khufu ships.

The Dashur boats are much smaller than the completed Khufu ship, each measuring in at around 30 feet long, 8 feet wide, and only four feet high. If these are indeed Senusret III’s funerary boats, then the drastic size difference between the Khufu ship and the Dasher boats could signal either that Egypt’s perception of an ideal boat for the afterlife had changed, or simply that resources prevented the construction of larger ships. Regardless of the reason though, it’s apparent that the Dashur boats, while smaller than previous funerary boats, also show evidence of improvement in construction technique.

Crossbeams are a prominent feature of the boats, providing internal support for the outer shell. Rather than lashing the planks together to hold the mortise and tenon joints secure, the Dashur boats also contain dovetail clamps that secure the planks together from inside the hull. There is some debate about whether these dovetail clamps were original features of the ship’s construction or were added at a later date, but hard proof of the clamps’ date of origin is impossible. In any event, the boats were masterfully built using imported cedar and their decoration is what has led several scholars to conclude that they were funerary vessels. Originally they were all decorated with red, black, and blue lines over a white or green background. The rudder stanchions had representations of hawks' heads on their upper ends, and the rudders themselves were painted with flowers and eyes.

After Senusret III was buried with his boats at Dashur, somewhere in the vicinity of 1800 BC, he was succeeded by Amenemhat III. This pharaoh reigned for almost 50 years, an inordinately long reign in the context of ancient Egyptian pharaohs. As with Pepi II’s long reign that ushered in the First Intermediate Period, Amenemhat III’s long reign led to a succession struggle that drastically weakened Egypt’s central government and power structures. While Amenemhat III was succeeded by either his grandson or step-son who became a fourth pharaoh to bear the same name, his short reign was largely a failure and drought further contributed to Egypt’s instability.

The last pharaoh of the Middle Kingdom was Sobekneferu, the first historically attested female king of Egypt. Unfortunately for her, her reign was also short-lived and when she died with no heirs around 1750 BC, Egypt entered it’s Second Intermediate Period, another time of relative disconnection between Egypt and its foreign neighbors. It was at this same relative historical juncture that Hammurabi died and the Mesopotamian sea trade began to wane, in addition to the shrinking influence of the Indus Valley Civilization.

When we pick up next time we’ll move forward to look at the maritime evidence that crops up after Egypt rises again and transitions into the New Kingdom period.

Sources

• Arnold, Dorothea, Amenemhet I and the Early Twelfth Dynasty at Thebes, Metropolitan Museum J., Vol. 26 (1991).
• Casson, Lionel, The Ancient Mariners: Seafarers and Sea Fighters of the Mediterranean in Ancient Times (1959).
• Funeral Boat Setting out under Sail, Metropolitan Museum of Art. [link]
• García, Juan Carlos Moreno, ed., Ancient Egyptian Administration (2013).
• Hannu Inscription at Hammamat, from James Henry Breasted, Ancient Records of Egypt, Vol. 1 (1906). [link]
• Herodotus, The Histories, (Macaulay's English translation, republished 2004).
• Marcus, Ezra S., Amenemhet II and the Sea: maritime aspects of the MIt Rahina (Memphis) inscription, Int'l J. for Egyptian Archaology and Related Disciplines, Vol. 17 (2007). [link]
• McGrail, Seán, Boats of the World: From the Stone Age to Medieval Times (2009).
• Paine, Lincoln, The Sea and Civilization: A Maritime History of the World (2013).
• Sporting Boat, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. [link]
• Strabo, Geographica, 17.1.25. [link]
• The Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor. [link]
• Traveling Boat being Rowed, The Metropolitan Museum of Art. [link] [link]
• Wachsmann, Shelley, Seagoing Ships and Seamanship in the Bronze Age Levant (2009).
• Wilkinson, Toby, The Rise and Fall of Ancient Egypt (2010).