Papyrus Ambras is a papyrus which was formerly in the collection of Ambras Castle near Inssbruck, and is now a part of the collection of the Vienna Museum. The first to draw attention to it was the Egyptologist Heinrich Karl Brugsch who published about it in 1876.[1]
Ambras Castle is a Renaissance castle and palace located in the hills above Innsbruck, Austria. Ambras Castle is 587 metres (1,926 ft) above sea level. Considered one of the most popular tourist attractions of the Tyrol, Ambras Castle was built in the 16th century on the spot of an earlier 10th-century castle, which became the seat of power for the Counts of Andechs. The cultural and historical importance of the castle is closely connected with Archduke Ferdinand II (1529–1595) and served as his family residence from 1567 to 1595. Ferdinand was one of history’s most prominent collectors of art. The princely sovereign of Tyrol, son of Emperor Ferdinand I, ordered that the medieval fortress at Ambras be turned into a Renaissance castle as a gift for his wife Philippine Welser. The cultured humanist from the House of Habsburg accommodated his world-famous collections in a museum: The collections, still in the Lower Castle built specifically for that museum purpose, make Castle Ambras Innsbruck the oldest museum in the world.
The Vienna Museum is a group of museums in Vienna consisting of the museums of the history of the city. In addition to the main building in Karlsplatz and the Hermesvilla, the group includes numerous specialised museums, musicians' residences and archaeological excavations.
Heinrich Karl Brugsch was a German Egyptologist. He was associated with Auguste Mariette in his excavations at Memphis. He became director of the School of Egyptology at Cairo, producing numerous very valuable works and pioneering the decipherment of Demotic, the simplified script of the later Egyptian periods.
The papyrus stems from year 6 of the Whm Mswt or Renaissance, an era which started in year 19 of king Ramesses XI of the Twentieth Dynasty. In his year 19 this king started to count anew, with his year 19 either totally or partly coinciding with year 1 of the new era. Since some of the documents from the Whm Mswt are implicitly dated (i.e., without reference to the era), it is not always directly clear from the dateline whether a document stems from the ordinary year count of Ramesses XI or from the Whm Mswt.[2] However, with Pap. Ambras there can be no doubt, since it explicitly mentions the Whm Mswt in its dateline.
Menmaatre Ramesses XI reigned from 1107 BC to 1078 BC or 1077 BC and was the tenth and final pharaoh of the Twentieth dynasty of Egypt and as such, was the last king of the New Kingdom period. He ruled Egypt for at least 29 years although some Egyptologists think he could have ruled for as long as 30. The latter figure would be up to 2 years beyond this king's highest known date of Year 10 of the Whm Mswt era or Year 28 of his reign. One scholar, Ad Thijs, has suggested that Ramesses XI could even have reigned as long as 33 years.
Content
Pap. Ambras is inscribed on the recto only and sums up the content of two jars filled with documents.[3] It is clear that Ambras was meant as an inventory, probably to be stored with the jars themselves. The papyrus states that these documents had been bought back from the people, apparently after they had been stolen during the Suppression of the Theban High Priest of Amun, Amenhotep, which is supposed to have taken place just prior to the start of the Renaissance.
The High Priest of Amun or First Prophet of Amun was the highest-ranking priest in the priesthood of the ancient Egyptian god Amun. The first high priests of Amun appear in the New Kingdom of Egypt, at the beginning of the Eighteenth Dynasty.
Amenhotep was the High Priest of Amun towards the end of the Twentieth Dynasty of Egypt, serving under Ramesses IX, Ramesses X and Ramesses XI. He was the son of Ramessesnakht, the previous high priest of Amun. It is not beyond dispute who succeeded him in office. For a long time it was assumed that he was followed by the High Priest Herihor. However, Karl Jansen-Winkeln has suggested that Amenhotep was instead succeeded by the High Priest Piankh. We know the names of several of his brothers and a sister:
Identification of the papyri
T. Eric Peet has suggested that several of the eight papyri from the second jar are to be identified as well known papyri concerning tomb robberies which have actually come down to us. He identified:[4][5]
Thomas Eric Peet was an English Egyptologist.
-[ recto 2.2-3 ]: Pap. BM 10068, recto
-[ recto 2.4 ]: Pap. Abbott (“The examination of the Pyramid-tombs”)
The Abbott Papyrus serves as an important political document concerning the tomb robberies of the Twentieth Dynasty of Egypt during the New Kingdom. It also gives insight into the scandal between the two rivals Pawero and Paser of Thebes.
The ancient Egyptian document Amherst Papyrus, now known as the Leopold II and Amherst Papyrus, is part of the original court records dealing with the tomb robberies under Ramesses IX and dates to Year 16 of Ramesses IX. It contains the confessions of eight men who had broken into the tomb of Sobekemsaf II and a description of the reconstruction of the crime. It throws light on the practices followed at ancient Egyptian courts: eliciting confessions by beating with a double rod, smiting their feet and hands, reconstructing the crime on site, and imprisonment of suspects in the gatehouse of a temple. The document remains an important document for understanding the importance of burial and the afterlife in ancient Egypt as well as crime and punishment practices in Egypt during the 20th Dynasty.
Sobekemsaf II was an Egyptian king of the Seventeenth Dynasty of Egypt who reigned during the Second Intermediate Period, when Egypt was ruled by multiple kings. His throne name, Sekhemre Shedtawy, means "Powerful is Re; Rescuer of the Two Lands." It is now believed by Egyptologists that Sobekemsaf II was the father of both Sekhemre-Wepmaat Intef and Nubkheperre Intef based on an inscription carved on a doorjamb discovered in the ruins of a 17th Dynasty temple at Gebel Antef in the early 1990s which was built under Nubkheperre Intef. The doorjamb mentions a king Sobekem[saf] as the father of Nubkheperre Intef/Antef VII--(Antef begotten of Sobekem...) He was in all likelihood the Prince Sobekemsaf who is attested as the son and designated successor of king Sobekemsaf I on Cairo Statue CG 386.
-[ recto 2.8-9 ]: (not identified)
-[ recto 2.10 ]: Pap. BM 10053, recto
-[ recto 2.11 ]: (not identified)
-[ recto 2.12 ]: (not identified)
In 2000 Ad Thijs published an article in which he drew renewed attention to the observations of Peet. His identifications differ slightly from those of Peet:[6]
-[ recto 2.2-3 ]: Pap. BM 10068, recto
-[ recto 2.4 ]: Pap. Abbott, but possibly not the copy which survived[7]
All these documents, c.q. texts stem from the first wave of tomb-robbery trials which took place in year 16 and 17 of Ramesses IX. However, as Peet noted, the verso of both Pap. BM 10068 and Pap. BM 10053 contains additional entries which are not described in Pap. Ambras:
-on the verso of Pap. BM 10068 we find two lists, commonly known as the “list of houses”, from an anonymous year 12[8] and the “Šrmt-list” of which the date has not been filled in, but which must be slightly later than the “list of houses” due to the placing of the columns of text on the papyrus.[9]
-on the verso of Pap. BM 10053 we find a text, dating from an anonymous year 9, dealing with thefts from the mortuary temples of Ramesses II and Ramesses III.[10] It is more than likely that these thefts could only have taken place during the chaotic period when the High Priest of Amun, Amenhotep, was temporarily suppressed by the Viceroy of KushPinehesy.
These additional entries on the verso are important texts in themselves and should have been included in the inventory. From this, Peet concluded that these entries were added only after the repurchase of the papyri in year 6 of the Whm Mswt. This would mean that the dates of the “list of houses” (year 12) and the “Šrmt-list” (year 12 or later) would become the highest known for the Whm Mswt.
However, when Peet made his observations, it was still totally unclear where the Whm Mswt should be placed chronologically, so he could never press his case and his observations were more or less forgotten. When the start of the Whm Mswt finally became (correctly) dated to year 19 of Ramesses XI, the texts on the verso’s of Pap. BM 10053 and 10068 became ascribed to the part of the reign of Ramesses XI prior to his proclamation of the Whm Mswt.
Related Research Articles
Neferkare Ramesses IX was the eighth pharaoh of the Twentieth dynasty of Egypt. He was the third longest serving king of this Dynasty after Ramesses III and Ramesses XI. He is now believed to have assumed the throne on I Akhet day 21 based on evidence presented by Jürgen von Beckerath in a 1984 GM article. According to Papyrus Turin 1932+1939, Ramesses IX enjoyed a reign of 18 years and 4 months and died in his 19th Year in the first month of Peret between day 17 and 27. His throne name, Neferkare Setepenre, means "Beautiful Is The Soul of Re, Chosen of Re." Ramesses IX is believed to be the son of Mentuherkhepeshef, a son of Ramesses III since Montuherkhopshef's wife, the lady Takhat bears the prominent title of King's Mother on the walls of tomb KV10 which she usurped and reused in the late 20th dynasty; no other 20th dynasty king is known to have had a mother with this name. Ramesses IX was, therefore, probably a grandson of Ramesses III.
Heqamaatre Ramesses IV was the third pharaoh of the Twentieth Dynasty of the New Kingdom of Ancient Egypt. His name prior to assuming the crown was Amonhirkhopshef. He was the fifth son of Ramesses III and was appointed to the position of crown prince by the twenty-second year of his father's reign when all four of his elder brothers predeceased him. His promotion to crown prince:
is suggested by his appearance in a scene of the festival of Min at the Ramesses III temple at Karnak, which may have been completed by Year 22 [of his father's reign].
Herihor was an Egyptian army officer and High Priest of Amun at Thebes during the reign of Pharaoh Ramesses XI.
Piankh was a High Priest of Amun during the 21st Dynasty.
Paweraa was the Mayor of Western Thebes during a series of tomb robberies that occurred in the Valley of the Kings during the late New Kingdom of Ancient Egypt. In official transcripts of a Tomb Robbery report from Year 16 of Ramesses IX, Paweraa was accused by Paser, the Mayor of Eastern Thebes, of either being involved in the series of Tomb robberies or being negligent in his duties in protecting the royal tombs from incursions by marauding Libyan bands or conventional Egyptian tomb robbers. The vizier Khaemwaset ordered an investigation by a commission of which Paweraa himself was the head. The investigation was considered corrupt by the people of Deir el Medina. In the ensuing trial seventeen work-men from near-by temples were convicted and executed. Paweraa, however, was never charged due to the lack of clear evidence of his guilt. He continued to serve in office while Paser, his accuser, vanished from history, and the robberies continued.
The period of Ancient Egyptian history known as wehem mesut or, more commonly, Whm Mswt can be literally translated as Repetition of Births, but is usually referred to as the (Era of the) Renaissance.
Pinehesy, Panehesy or Panehasy, depending on the transliteration, was Viceroy of Kush during the reign of Ramesses XI, the last king of the Egyptian 20th Dynasty.
The Mayer Papyri are two Ancient Egyptian documents from the Twentieth Dynasty that contain records of court proceedings.
Tyti was an ancient Egyptian queen of the 20th dynasty. A wife and sister of Ramesses III and possibly the mother of Ramesses IV.
Neferronpet was Vizier and the High Priest of Ptah from the reign of Ramesses II to the reign of Seti II.
The Twentieth Dynasty of Egypt is the third and last dynasty of the Ancient Egyptian New Kingdom period, lasting from 1189 BC to 1077 BC. The 19th and 20th Dynasties furthermore together constitute an era known as the Ramesside period.
The Papyrus Salt 124 is an ancient Egyptian papyrus dating to the beginning of the 20th Dynasty. This papyrus is a copy of a letter addressed to the vizier of the time, most likely Hori.
Khaemwaset was an ancient Egyptian vizier of the South, governor of Thebes, and possibly also High Priest of Ptah during the reign of pharaohs Ramesses IX of the 20th Dynasty. He is mainly known for being the vizier who ordered and led the investigation into the royal tomb robberies occurred under Ramesses IX.
Hrere was an ancient Egyptian noble lady of the late 20th-early 21st dynasties of Egypt. Although during her life she must have been an influential person, not much is known for certain about her family relationships. The names of her parents have not come down to us and the identity of her husband is not beyond dispute. She is often seen as either the wife or grandmother of the High Priest at Thebes, Piankh, but it has also been suggested that she may have been the wife of the High Priest Amenhotep.
Cyril Aldred, More Light on the Ramesside Tomb Robberies, in: J. Ruffle, G.A. Gaballa & K.A.. Kitchen (eds), Glimpses of Ancient Egypt, (Festschrift Fairman), Warminster 1979, 92-99
T. Eric Peet, The great tomb-robberies of the Twentieth Egyptian Dynasty, Oxford 1930, 177-182
Jean Winand, À propos du P. Ambras, CdÉ 86 (2011), 32-40
Ad Thijs, "Some observations on the Tomb-Robbery Papyri", in: A.I. Blöbaum, M. Eaton-Krauss, A. Wüthrich (eds), Pérégrinations avec Erhart Graefe, Festschrift zu seinem 75. Geburtstag (Ägypten und Altes Testament 87), 519-536.
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