Famine Stela
The Famine Stelae is an inscription located on Sehel Island, near Aswan in Egypt.
The top part of stela depicts three Egyptian deities, Khnum, Satis and Anuket. In front of them Djoser faces them carrying offerings with hands outstretched. The texts states[1] that the king is upset and worried, as the land of Egypt had been gripped by a drought for 7 years, during this time the Nile did not flood. Djoser asks for aid to the priests of Imhotep, its minister, who decide to investigate in the archives of the temple of Thoth in Hermopolis. A priest informs the king who the Nile was controlled by Khnum in the island of Elefantine, in the south of the valley. The god is angry and for this reason he does not allow that the waters of the Nile flow properly. Djoser orders offerings to be carried to the south, to try and placate the god. In the following night the king had a dream in which saw Khnum, who promised an end to famine. The king issues a decree for Khnum, in which he offers to the temple to the god in Elefantine the region between Aswan and another place (whose name is lost, but is probably somewhere in Nubia), with all its wealth.
It probably was written during Ptolemaic times (likely during the reign of Ptolemy V Epiphanes), but claims to record events of the time of Djoser, in the 3rd Dynasty.
Notes
References
- Barguet, Paul (1943). La stèle de la famine à Séhel. Cairo: Imprimerie de l’Institut français d’archéologie orientale du Caire.
- Yan Haiying (1998). "The Famine Stela: A Souce-Critical Approach and Historical-Comparative Perspective". In Christopher John Eyre (eds.) (ed.). Proceedings of the Seventh International Congress of Egyptologists; Cambridge, 3–9 September 1995. Leuven: Uitgeverij Peeters. pp. 515–521.
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- Vandier, Jacques Victor Edmond Raymond (1936). La famine dans l’Égypte ancienne. Cairo: Imprimerie de l’Institut français d’archéologie orientale du Caire.