Personal and Political Crises in 1776 BCE
Dynasty 12 ends with a remarkable twist: Neferu-Sobek, a woman, takes the throne and rules as a King. Her reign lasts three years, ten months, and twenty-four days, ending in 1776 BCE. With her death, a 205-year-old legacy comes to an end, and the Middle Kingdom passes from our story. We explore these tumultuous times through a famous text: The Man Who Was Tired of Life.
Bibliography
- Aidan Dodson and Dyan Hilton, The Complete Royal Families of Ancient Egypt, 2010.
- Wolfram Gratjetzki, The Middle Kingdom of Ancient Egypt, 2006.
- Nicolas Grimal, A History of Ancient Egypt, 2006.
- Raymond O. Faulkner, “The Man Who Was Tired of Life,” Journal of Egyptian Archaeology (1956).
Dear Dominic,
thanks again for this great episode. I was quite interested in the BA story (would also point out some parallels to the Book of Hiob), and read some more versions (also English, but mainly a German one from Alexander Scharff (1937)).
I have to say, I cannot find a problem with the ‘logic’ of both ‘protagonists’:
The human is the one, who wants to take his life (because of – according to him – unbearable hardship), thus committing suicide. While the BA (one maybe also call it the ‘conscious’ of proper/Maat behavior) is refusing to support this his wish of an untimely and ‘unkosher’ self inflicted death at the last judgment. So the human is pained that his BA might witness against him before the divine judgment and thus he will not pass to the proper underworld, but will perish. That’s what he is frustrated about and tries to convince the BA to allow and support him (while hoping that also some ‘compassionate’ gods will understand that he actually had ‘no choice than to take his life’ in such horrible circumstances) in his plan to take a pain relieving ‘short cut’.
When the BA says that the human is ‘rejecting the west’ I understand it not as his wish to live, but to the contrary, his wish to take his life in an improper way before it’s time and thus not reaching the proper west.
I thought about it and came to the same conclusion, it’s like the ba is threatening him, as in
” Fine let’s go before the gods and get it sorted out”
Then the man knowing it’s not good, falls into despair and argues with his ba and his calls to the different gods is for understanding about why he is taking the shortcut to afterlife
Then his ba ridicules him and asks him to man up.
And then at last the ba takes a soft stance and makes him understand.
If Amenemhat IV came to the throne in 1798 BCE and reigned for nine years and his successor Neferu-Sobek reigned for three years till 1776 BCE, is there doubt regarding the dates or if there was another king in between? I do like the way you give life to Neferu-Sobek and her sister. There is a super article about the latter’s tomb on the Al Fayoum website.
All dates are approximate. At this point in history the timeline is so vague and poorly attested that I find it best to leave gaps, to allow for future discoveries. Please view dates as rough guides only