Padiiset's Statue

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Padiiset's Statue
Egyptian - Statue of a Vizier, Usurped by Pa-di-iset - Walters 22203.jpg
Padiiset's Statue in the Walters Art Museum, showing the front view
Material Basalt
Writing Egyptian hieroglyphs
Created1780–1700 BC (Inscription: 900–850 BC)
Discovered1894
Present location Walters Art Museum
Identification22203

Padiiset's Statue or Pateese's Statue, [1] also described as the Statue of a vizier usurped by Padiiset, is a basalt statue found in 1894 in an unknown location in the Egyptian delta [2] which includes an inscription dated to the Third Intermediate Period of Egypt referring to Canaan and Philistia (Palestine). [2] The statue was purchased by Henry Walters in 1928, and is now in the Walters Art Museum. [3]

Contents

It is the second – and last – known Egyptian reference to Canaan, coming more than 300 years after the preceding known inscription. [4] 'The Canaan' in this inscription, and several others from ancient Egypt, is thought to be referencing the city of Gaza. [5] This inscription also refers to Philistia as a toponym, as opposed to an ethnicon (ie. Philistines or Peleset), as is the case in other older Egyptian inscriptions. [5]

Statue

The statue is made of black basalt and measures 30.5 x 10.25 x 11.5 cm, and was created in the Middle Kingdom period to commemorate a government vizier, the traces of whose name, which has been rubbed out, appears on the front on the skirt of the figure, but is illegible. [6] Scholars believe that a millennium after the making of the statue, the original inscription was erased and replaced with inscriptions on the front and back representing "Pa-di-iset, son of Apy", worshipping the gods Osiris, Horus, and Isis. [7]

Inscription and translation

The inscription on the front in one translation reads:

Ka of Osiris: Pa-di-iset, the justified, son of Apy.
The only renowned one, the impartial envoy of Philistine Canaan, Pa-di-iset, son of Apy. [3]

The inscription on the back of the Padiiset statue Egyptian - Statue of a Vizier, Usurped by Pa-di-iset - Walters 22203 - Back.jpg
The inscription on the back of the Padiiset statue

The inscription on the back repeats this name, but is longer, providing additional information. One translation of this reads:

An offering that the King gives' to Osiris Onnophris, the Great God, the ruler of Eternity, that he may permit thy corpse to enter (the tomb), that he may cause thy mummy to become divine, that thou mayest become one with the rays of the Sun, that thou mayest approach thy star in the sky - for the ka of the only excellent one, the really exact one (mtr mc), the impartial, the commissioner (or, 'messenger') of Canaan and Palestine, Pedeeset, the son of Apy [the justified]. [2]

Whether the text should be translated as Canaan and Philistia, or "the Canaan" of Philistia (or the Philistine region of Canaan), [8] or "the Canaan" should be read as referring to Gaza, and therefore, "Gaza of Philistia", is a subject of debate between scholars. [5] How prepositions and conjunctions, and whether there are definitive articles used or not, has much bearing on determining the relationships between Padiiset, Canaan (Gaza), and Palestine. [1] [8]

The name 'P3di3st' is Egyptian and means "the one whom Isis gives", while his patronym 'Apy' (or Abi) is Canaanite, indicating he could be of Canaanite or Levantine descent, [5] or an Egyptian who served Egypt from Canaan. [8] If the text is translated as the envoy/messenger of Padiiset of Canaan/Gaza, or to Canaan/Gaza, also impacts evaluation of his origin and the relationship of this territory to Egypt at the time. [1]

References

  1. 1 2 3 Lemche, p.54
  2. 1 2 3 The Statuette of an Egyptian Commissioner in Syria, Georg Steindorff, The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, Vol. 25, No. 1 (Jun., 1939), pp. 30-33: "At the beginning of the year 1894 was found, reputedly in the Delta, a slightly damaged statuette of black basalt..."
  3. 1 2 Statue of a vizier usurped by Padiiset, at the Walters Art Museum
  4. ↑ Drews 1998, p. 49a:"In the Papyrus Harris, from the middle of the twelfth century, the late Ramesses III claims to have built for Amon a temple in ‘the Canaan’ of Djahi. More than three centuries later comes the next—and very last—Egyptian reference to ‘Canaan’ or ‘the Canaan’: a basalt statuette, usually assigned to the Twenty-Second Dynasty, is labeled, 'Envoy of the Canaan and of Palestine, Pa-di-Eset, the son of Apy'."
  5. 1 2 3 4 Ash, 1999, pp. 56-59.
  6. ↑ Chassinat, 1901, p.98, referring to the older name on the statue from the time of the Middle Kingdom of Egypt on the skirt at front that had been rubbed out: "Au commencement de 1894, on découvrit, dans une localité du Delta dont je n’ai pu savoir le nom, une statuette en basalte noir légèrement mutilée." [translation: "At the beginning of 1894, a slightly mutilated black basalt statuette was discovered in a locality in the Delta whose name I have not been able to know."]
  7. ↑ Helmut Brandl, Untersuchungen zur steinernen Privatplastik der Dritten Zwischenzeit: Typologie - Ikonographie -Stilistik, mbv-publishers, Berlin 2008, pp. 218-219, pls. 122, 180b, 186a (doc. U-1.1).
  8. 1 2 3 The Philistines in Transition: A History from Ca. 1000-730 B.C.E., Carl S. Ehrlich, p65

Bibliography

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