Shabaka Stone

The Shabaka Stone, sometimes Shabaqo, is a relic incised with an ancient Egyptian religious text, which dates from the Twenty-fifth Dynasty of Egypt. In later years, the stone was likely used as a millstone, which damaged the hieroglyphs. This damage is accompanied by other intentional defacements, leaving the hieroglyphic inscription in poor condition.

Provenance

Historical origins

Originally erected as a lasting monument at the Great Temple of Ptah in Memphis in the late eighth century BCE, the stone was at some point removed (for unknown reasons) to Alexandria.Template:Sfn From there, it was transported by a navy vessel from Alexandria to England. It was brought back as ballast along with a capital of an Egyptian column, fragments of a Greco-Roman black basalt capital, two fragments of quartzite lintel of Senusret III, and a black granite kneeling statue of Ramesses II.Template:Sfn In 1805, the stone was donated to the British Museum by George Spencer, 2nd Earl Spencer (1758–1834), who was First Lord of the Admiralty and since 1794 the trustee of the museum.Template:Sfn In 1901, the stone was deciphered, translated, and interpreted for the first time by the American Egyptologist James Henry Breasted.Template:Sfn The monument has remained at the museum to the present day.Template:Sfn

Dating

The stone's dedicatory introduction claims that it is a copy of the surviving contents of a worm-ridden, decaying papyrus found by the pharaoh Shabaka in the Great Temple of Ptah.Template:Sfn Homer W. Smith dates the original text to the First Dynasty, calling it "the oldest written record of human thought".

Breasted, Adolf Erman, Kurt Sethe, and Hermann Junker all dated the stone to the Old Kingdom.Template:Sfn The stone is archaic, both linguistically (its language is similar to that used in the Pyramid Texts of the Old Kingdom) and politically (it alludes to the importance of Memphis as the first royal city).Template:Sfn As such, Henri Frankfort, John Wilson, Miriam Lichtheim, and Erik Iversen have also assessed the stone to be from the Old Kingdom.Template:Sfn However, Friedrich Junge and most other scholars since then have argued that the monument was produced in the Twenty-fifth Dynasty.Template:Sfn Today, scholars feel it is clear that it cannot predate the Nineteenth Dynasty.

Composition

The stela is around wide, with the left side height estimated at and the right side about .Template:Sfn The written surface is in width and on average, in height.Template:Sfn The rectangular hole in the center is , with eleven radiating lines ranging in length from ,Template:Sfn comprising an area across.Template:Sfn

In 1901, Breasted identified the stone as a rectangular slab of black granite. While other scholars postulated that the monument was a slab or basalt or a conglomerate stone, a recent analysis by a scientist of the British Museum revealed the stone to be green breccia originating from Wadi Hammamat.Template:Sfn

Content

File:British Museum 2024-10-03w.jpg

Detail of hieroglyphic inscription

The text includes two main divisions with a short introduction and an ending summary. The first division relates the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt. Ptah works through Horus to accomplish this unification. The other is a creation myth, the "Memphite Theology" or "Memphite Drama", that establishes Ptah as the creator of all things, including gods.

The text stresses that it is in Memphis that the unification of Egypt took place.Template:Sfn The inscription also states that this town was the burial-place of Osiris, after he drifted ashore.Template:Sfn

Introduction and titulary of the King

The first line of the stone presents the fivefold royal titulary of the king: "The living Horus: Who prospers the Two Lands; the Two Ladies: Who prospers the Two Lands; the King of Upper and Lower Egypt: Neferkare; the Son of Re: [Shabaka], beloved of Ptah-South-of-His-Wall, who lives like Re forever."Template:Sfn The first three names emphasize the king's manifestation as a living god (especially of the falcon-headed Horus, patron god to the Egyptian kings), while the latter two names (the king's throne name and birth name) refer to Egypt's division and unification.Template:Sfn

The second line, a dedicatory introduction, states that the stone is a copy of the surviving contents of a worm-eaten papyrus Shabaka found as he was inspecting the Great Temple of Ptah.Template:Sfn

The Unification of Egypt

Lines 3 to 47 describe the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt under the god Horus at Memphis.Template:Sfn The text first declares the political and theological supremacy of the Memphite god Ptah, the king of both Upper and Lower Egypt, and the creator of the Ennead.Template:Sfn The inscription then describes how Horus, as a manifestation of Ptah, initially rules Lower Egypt while his rival Set rules Upper Egypt.Template:Sfn However, Horus receives Upper Egypt from Geb, becoming the sole ruler of the land.Template:Sfn

The Memphite Theology

Lines 48 to 64 recount the creation myth known as the Memphite Theology.Template:Sfn Ptah, the patron god of craftsmen, metalworkers, artisans, and architects was viewed as a creator-god, a divine craftsman of the universe who was responsible for all existence.Template:Sfn Creation was first a spiritual and intellectual activity, facilitated by the divine heart (thought) and tongue (speech/word) of Ptah.Template:Sfn Then, creation became a physical activity carried out by Atum, who, created by Ptah's teeth and lips, produced the Ennead from his seed and hands.Template:Sfn

Thus it is said of Ptah: “He who made all and created the gods.” And he is

Ta-tenen, who gave birth to the gods, and from whom every thing came

forth, foods, provisions, divine offerings, and all good things. Thus it is

recognized and understood that he is the mightiest of the gods. Thus Ptah

was satisfied after he had made all things and all divine word. . . . Indeed,

Ptah is the fountain of life for the gods and all material realities.

Summary

Lines 61 through 64 summarize the text as a whole.Template:Sfn

Purpose

According to Ragnhild Bjerre Finnestad, there are three theories on the possible purpose of the Shabaka text:

1. To assert the supremacy of the Memphite theological system over the Heliopolitan
2. To claim the hegemony of the Memphis and its priesthood over Heliopolis and its priesthood
3. To present an ontology.Template:Sfn

As a temple text written down and set up in the temple of Ptah, it is likely that the Shabaka Stone served a religious, cultic-theological purpose, placing its subject matter within a cultic frame of reference.Template:Sfn

Damage

Projecting from the rectangular hole in the center of the stone are radial rough stripes, which destroyed the inscription within a radius of 78 cm, measured from the middle of the stone.Template:Sfn According to the secondary literature on the monument, this damage occurred because the stone was re-used as a millstone.Template:Sfn The oldest reference speculating the stone's use as a millstone is found in the display of the British Museum of 1821.Template:Sfn However, the stone could instead have been the foundation of something round, possibly a column or a pillar.Template:Sfn

Some parts of the stone were intentionally cut out during the Dynastic Period.Template:Sfn This included the name of Seth (line 7), a god which was condemned during this time.Template:Sfn Additionally, Psamtik II or Psamtik III erased the proper name and throne name of Shabaka from the stone.Template:Sfn Psamtik III then engraved his name onto the stone, but his name was in turn erased by the Persians during their conquest.Template:Sfn

See also

• List of individual rocks

External links

• The Shabaka Stone, English translation by M. Lichtheim