Overview
The Execration Texts are ritual curse lists. Egyptian priests wrote the names of hostile rulers, peoples and places - Nubian, Libyan, Asiatic and even Egyptian - on pots or on clay figurines of bound prisoners, which were then broken or buried to disable the enemies named. Two big groups are known: the bowls published by Kurt Sethe in 1926 (Berlin), and the figurines published by Georges Posener in 1940 (Brussels and Cairo).
The Asiatic section names Levantine rulers with their towns, in a fixed formula: 'The ruler of [place], (called) [name].' Posener's list includes ꜣwšꜣmm (E 45), which Sethe had identified with Jerusalem, and Skmimi (Posener p. 68), which Posener equates with the Skmm of the Sebek-khu stela and 'the biblical Shechem'. ꜣskn (E 2) is identified with Ashkelon.
The texts are magic, not administration. They name the places the Egyptians feared or claimed; they say nothing about tribute.
What the text says (summary)
The ruler of Skmimi, (called) Ibsh-Hadad. ... The ruler of Iskn, (called) Muri.Literal translation (this encyclopedia) of Posener's transliterations and French renderings, Princes et pays d'Asie et de Nubie (1940), p. 68 (Shechem) and E 2 (Ashkelon). No pre-1930 English translation of these texts exists.
What the evidence shows
- Asiatic princes list formula: 'Le prince de [pays] (appelé) [nom]' (Posener 1940, section E).
- E 45: ꜣwšꜣmm, with two princes in the Berlin texts (Sethe e 27-28, f 18); Sethe identified it with Jerusalem (Posener 1940).
- Shechem: Skmimi / Skmmi, ruler 'Ibš-Hadad', a name compounded with Hadad (Posener 1940, p. 68).
- E 2: ꜣskn, ruler Mwri; the Berlin texts spell it with -nw (Sethe e 23-25, f 15); identified with Ashkelon (Posener 1940).
- Saqqara figurines found in 1922 in a mudbrick chapel with five private stelae north of Teti's temple enclosure; rediscovered by Posener in a Saqqara storeroom in spring 1938 and moved to Cairo (Posener 1940, §2).
- Brussels figurines: unbaked clay, c. 30 cm high, bound captives, hieratic texts; bought in Paris in summer 1938 (Capart's foreword to Posener 1940).
Open questions
- Is ꜣwšꜣmm Jerusalem? Sethe (1926) proposed it and Posener (1940, E 45) reports it without objection. The equation rests on the consonants (Egyptian ꜣ can render l/r: ꜣ-w-š-ꜣ-m-m ~ Rushalimum). No text states the place's location.
- Two Jerusalem rulers vs one: the Berlin bowls give ꜣwšꜣmm two princes; the figurine list gives one (name mostly effaced). Whether this reflects a change of ruler across one generation, as Posener argued for the Nubian princes, is his inference from the two series.
Sources
- G. Posener, Princes et pays d'Asie et de Nubie: textes hiératiques sur des figurines d'envoûtement du Moyen Empire, suivis de Remarques paléographiques sur les textes similaires de Berlin par B. van de Walle (Brussels: Fondation Égyptologique Reine Élisabeth, 1940) link editio princeps
- K. Sethe, Die Ächtung feindlicher Fürsten, Völker und Dinge auf altägyptischen Tongefässscherben des Mittleren Reiches (Abhandlungen der Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschaften, phil.-hist. Klasse 1926, no. 5; Berlin, 1926) link editio princeps
Corrected from the earlier edition of this page
- Old entry: 'administrative papyri ... recording and managing foreign tributes.' They are ritual curse texts written on pottery bowls and clay prisoner figurines, not papyri, and they record enemies to be magically neutralised, not tribute (Posener 1940).
- Old entry: 'Written in Egyptian hieroglyphs.' They are written in hieratic (Posener 1940; Capart's foreword).
- Old entry: 'discovered in various locations throughout Egypt ... Various dates.' The two main groups are the Berlin bowls (Sethe 1926) and the figurines from Saqqara (found 1922) and Brussels (bought 1938) (Posener 1940).
- Old entry: 'Mention Jerusalem, Shechem, Ashkelon confirming city existence' - the names are there, but the Jerusalem identification is Sethe's reading of ꜣwšꜣmm, not a label in the text.
- Old entry: 'Dimensions ... up to 30 cm width.' The Brussels figurines are about 30 cm high; the Berlin items are bowls/sherds.
- Old entry biblical links (Genesis 13, Lot's journey; Genesis 12 Abram in Egypt) have no corresponding content in the texts.
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