Was this the original ‘Famine Stela’?

by Damien F. Mackey “Almost two millennia later, a fairly similar story would be told on the famous “Famine Stela” about the pharaoh Djoser’s making lavish donations to the temple of Khnum on Elephantine in order to terminate the seven years’ famine”. Arkadiy Demidchik Arkadiy Demidchik, member of Saint-Petersburg State University, Oriental Faculty, has picked up what he calls “a fairly similar story” between the famous Ptolemaïc Famine Stela on Sehel Island and a far more ancient document of Wahankh Intef and Nakht-Nebtepnefer Intef of Egypt’s so-called Eleventh Dynasty (wrongly dated here): A ‘Famine Stela’ Episode under the Early XIth Dynasty https://www.academia.edu/36620751/A_Famine_Stela_Episode_under_the_Early_XIth_Dynasty This is what Arkadiy Demidchik has written about it: On the orders of the early Xlth dynasty kings Wahankh Intef and Nakht-Nebtepnefer Intef, the chapels for the gods Satet and Khnum on Elep[h]antine were constructed with stone doorjambs, lintels, columns, etc. This is the oldest example of pharaohs’ monumental stone building for gods in provincial temples. What was the incentive for this grand and labor-intensive innovation in the troubled times when the young Theban monarchy controlled only a smaller part of Egypt? Careful scrutiny of the inscriptions from the chapels shows that Khnum was invoked there first and foremost as the lord of the sources of the Upper Egyptian inundation, believed to be situated at the First Cataract. Together with a good number of other texts examined in the paper, this indicates that the Intefs’ stone building project on Elephantine was undertaken in order to deliver their Theban kingdom from too low or unseasonable Nile floods which resulted in poor harvests. Almost two millennia later, a fairly similar story would be told on the famous “Famine Stela” about the pharaoh Djoser’s making lavish donations to the temple of Khnum on Elephantine in order to terminate the seven years’ famine. The idea of K[h]num’s revelation to a king in a dream, which is said to have happened to Djoser, is also attested as early as in the XXth century BC. [End of quote] But this is not all. The same Arkadiy Demidchik has also been able to point to what he has called: A Northern Version of the “Famine Stela” Narrative? https://www.academia.edu/36620738/A_Northern_Version_of_the_Famine_Stela_Narrative Here he writes: According to the “historical” introduction to the royal decree to the “Famine Stela” on the island of Sehel, the king Djoser managed to cease the seven years’ famine only due to the discovery of the source of the Upper Egyptian inundation and its gods by the sage Imhotep. However, since the Egyptians usually distinguished also Lower Egyptian inundation, with its own source near Heliopolis, there must have existed a kind of “northern” version of the “Famine Stela” story with Imhotep’s discovering the Heliopolitan source, regulated by Atum with his entourage. As early as 1999 this was pointed out by O.D. Berlev. There are mentions of “7 years” when the inundation-Hapi did not come, of the “temple of Atum of Heliopolis” and its high priest Imhotep on British Museum hieratic papyrus fragment 1065, first read by J. Quack. Could this not be scraps of that “northern” version of the “Famine Stela” narrative? [End of quote] Clearly, we are in the time of the highly famed Imhotep (Third Dynasty), the biblical Joseph, son of Jacob, when there occurred a seven-year Famine (Genesis 41-47). In various articles, now, I have multi-identified this great sage of Egypt, who became, in fact, a quasi-Pharaoh. For one, he, not the Egyptian Pharaoh of the time, Horus Netjerikhet/Netjerihedjet (3rd/11th dynasties), was Djoser (Zoser). The name “Djoser” wrongly became attached later to Horus Netjerikhet. On this, see e.g. my article: Enigmatic Imhotep – did he really exist? https://www.academia.edu/120844277/Enigmatic_Imhotep_did_he_really_exist The oldest stone architecture is associated with Imhotep and the Step Pyramid. https://www.ancient-egypt-online.com/imhotep.html “[The Step Pyramid] was the first pyramid built, as well as the first structure of any kind of cut stone”. So, when I read above about (emphasis added): “Wahankh Intef and Nakht-Nebtepnefer Intef … the chapels for the gods Satet and Khnum on Elep[h]antine were constructed with stone doorjambs, lintels, columns, etc. This is the oldest example of pharaohs’ monumental stone building for gods in provincial temples”, I must begin to wonder if the two Egyptian names presented here, presumed to be pharaonic, must actually pertain to Imhotep himself under some of his many guises: Joseph, whose coat was of many colours, was a man of many names https://www.academia.edu/121428289/Joseph_whose_coat_was_of_many_colours_was_a_man_of_many_names In this article I came up with a plethora of potential historical identifications for the biblical Joseph. Thus: The multi-named Joseph From what we have just read, Joseph's names may include Imhotep; Khasekhemwy-Imhotep; Hetep-Khasekhemwy; Khasekhem; Sekhemkhet; Den (Dewen, Udimu); Khasti; Uenephes; Usaphais (Yusef); Zaphenath paneah; Ankhtifi; Bebi and perhaps also: Hemaka; Kheti From stark obscurity, the historical Joseph now abounds! And I suspect that this will not exhaust the potential list of Egyptian (also including some Greek) names for the biblical Joseph. With reference to that last statement, can we now enlarge our list to include those Eleventh Dynasty famine-related (perhaps) names above, Wahankh Intef and Nakht-Nebtepnefer Intef? The latter is poorly known, and I expect that these names would pertain to just the one person. The name Intef may well connect with Ankhtifi as an abbreviation of it. I have already written of this Ankhtifi as one acting as if he himself were the very Pharaoh of Egypt: Ankhtifi of ancient Egypt substituting for the king https://www.academia.edu/121998381/Ankhtifi_of_ancient_Egypt_substituting_for_the_king and: Egypt’s high official, Ankhtifi, outboasts even great Senenmut https://www.academia.edu/120059538/Egypt_s_high_official_Ankhtifi_outboasts_even_great_Senenmut Taking Intef (I-III) as a whole, we read the following most interesting information: https://ancientegyptonline.co.uk/intefiii/ …. [Intef] is also thought to be the father of Montuhotep II, who successfully reunited Egypt. This view is supported by a relief found at Wadi Shatt el-Rigal (near Gebel es-Silsila) and the decoration on a block of masonry in the temple of Montu at Tod which seems to depict Montuhotep II with three kings named Intef (Intef I, Intef II, and Intef III). However, it is also proposed by some that Montuhotep II was not related to Intef III, but wished to be associated with him to ensure his position as pharaoh. Now, Mentuhotep II Netjerihedjet is my Eleventh Dynasty Pharaoh of the Famine – he being the same as Horus Netjerikhet of the Third Dynasty. Just as the Eleventh Dynasty Intef was the supposed father of Mentuhotep II, so had I noted of the Third Dynasty Khasekhemwy that he is thought to have been the father of Horus Netjerikhet, adding: “Khasekhemwy, as Joseph-Imhotep, was indeed a “Father to Pharaoh” (Genesis 45:8)”. The Pharaoh, of course, was not the blood son of Joseph, “but”, as said above, he “wished to be associated with him”. It happened in antiquity that a powerful Vizier would be called “father”, as in the case of the wicked Haman - a non-Persian - in the Book of Esther (8:11): “[Haman] so completely enjoyed the goodwill that we extend to all nations that we regarded him as our father before whom all should bow down, and we proclaimed him to rank second in line to the royal throne”. Intef’s (so-called II) long floruit in Egypt is well suited to Joseph, who lived to be 110. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Intef_II “Wahankh Intef II (also Inyotef II and Antef II) was the third ruler of the Eleventh Dynasty of Egypt during the First Intermediate Period. He reigned for almost fifty years from 2112 BC to 2063 BC.[2] …. …. After the death of the nomarch Ankhtifi, Intef was able to unite all the southern nomes down to the First Cataract. After this he clashed with his main rivals, the kings of Herakleopolis Magna for the possession of Abydos. The city changed hands several times, but Intef II was eventually victorious, extending his rule north to the thirteenth nome”. But what I am tentatively proposing is that Intef was this Ankhtifi. And that he was the biblical Joseph, whose coat of many colours matched his many colourful names and titles in ancient Egypt.