Episode 32: The Repeating of Births

Amenemhat I (Part One): the Prophecy of Neferty

The new ruler of Upper and Lower Egypt, Amenemhat I, has seized power after his predecessor’s death. Now, Amenemhat must make himself legitimate. To do this, the King commissions a laudatory work, the Prophecy of Neferty, to justify his rule.

Meanwhile a courtier named Khnum-hotep establishes a new lineage of provincial governers at Menat-Khufu (Minya), near modern Beni Hasan.

Khnumhotep and Beni Hassan

• Summary at Wikipedia.
• Photos by Kairoinfo4u, Flickr.
• ANE TODAY – 201607 – The Beni Hasan Tomb Painting and Scholarship of the Southern Levant – American Society of Overseas Research (ASOR)

Amenemhat I

• Overview of reign and records at SLU.edu.
• Overview of records at UCL.
• Detailed summary of reign at Wikipedia.

Names and Titles

• Horus: Wehemmesut (Seheteptawy)
• Two Ladies: Wehemmesut (Seheteptawy)
• Golden Horus: Wehemmesut (Zema)
• Throne name/Prenomen: Se-hetep-ib-Re
• Personal name/Nomen: Amun-em-hat (Amenemhat)

Wives

• Neferitatenen. Mother of Senuseret I.
• Dedet (uncertain).

Monuments

• Residence city of Itj-Tawy (location unknown).
• Pyramid complex at al-Lisht, Wikimedia.

Texts

• The “Prophecy of Neferty,” at UCL.
• The “Instructions of Amenemhat,” at UCL. Later versions at Wikimedia.

Images

• Collected images of Amenemhat I at Wikimedia.
• Miscellaneous objects and art of Amenemhat I at the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

The Twelfth Dynasty

• Summary at Wikipedia.
• Summary at ancient-egypt.org.
• List of Kings (Dynasties 11 and 12) at UCL.
• History: The Twelfth Dynasty’s rise to power in Lisa K. Sabbahy, Kingship, Power, and Legitimacy in Ancient Egypt, 2020. Cambridge University Press.
• History: Late Middle Kingdom at UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology.
• Family tree at Wikipedia, based on Dodson and Hilton, Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt, 2004.