Tempest Stele

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The Tempest Stele (alt. Storm Stele) was erected by Ahmose I early in the eighteenth dynasty of Egypt, circa 1550 BCE. The stele describes a great storm striking Egypt during this time, destroying tombs, temples and pyramids in the Theban region and the work of restoration ordered by the king.[1]

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[edit] Interpretation

There are Egyptologists who believe the stele to be propaganda put out by the pharaoh, the "tempest" being the depredations of officials of the embattled seventeenth dynasty of Egypt drawing upon the financial resources of the temples during the escalating conflict with the Hyksos.[2] This would constitute an official re-writing of history, for which there are other parallels, such as Hatshepsut's Speos Artemidos, which records "storms" that similarly destroyed temples, which she restored during her reign, while pointedly cursing the Hyksos and "toppling what had been made" there.[3][4]

[edit] Alternate theories

Upper Egypt is dry climatically, and flash floods as described in the stele are rare.

Prof. Donald Redford of Penn State University, one of the world's leading Egyptologists, gave the following comment on the stele:

“ We have this very interesting stele which is dated to the reign of Ahmose, [which] records a tremendous catastrophe that happened to Egypt. We’re not quite clear what it was, but it involved rain and thunder and lightning and such a storm that rarely happens in northeast Africa... a dry area. It [seem]s peculiar to me that the Biblical tradition preserves the memory of plagues, you know, which involve climatic cataclysms and here we have from the very time this curious stele.” [5] ”

[edit] References

  1. ^ Shaw, Ian. The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt. p. 290-210 Oxford University Press. 2000. ISBN 0-19-280458-8
  2. ^ Shaw, Ian. The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt. p. 290-210 Oxford University Press. 2000. ISBN 0-19-280458-8
  3. ^ http://www.ancientneareast.net/texts/egyptian/speos_artemidos.html The Speos Artemidos Inscription of Hatshepsut, accessed August 17, 2007
  4. ^ Wiener, Malcolm H. and Allen, James P. The Ahmose Tempest Stela and the Thera Eruption. Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Vol. 57, No. 1 (Jan., 1998) p.20
  5. ^ Jacobovici, Simcha. (2006). The Exodus Decoded. [TV]. The History Channel.

[edit] Bibliography

[edit] External links

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