Updates from Fabian Boudville
Fabian Boudville is an active reader who sends me very interesting updates. Here are some of his latest:
On the 13th Year of Takelot III
I have some news for you. In Kennth Kitchen’s first 1972 book on the Third Intermediate Period in Egypt, Kitchen thought the anonymous Year 19 king at Wadi Gasus whose Year 19 is equivalent to Year 12 of Piye was Takelot III. However, he switched his opinion as to the king;s identity to Iuput II of Leontopolis in his 2nd edition 1986 TIPE book. However, most scholars have doubted Kitchen’s new proposal that Iuput controlled Wadi Gasus in Middle Egypt far from the Delta because Iuput II’s authority in the Delta alone was very tenous–he didn’t even control Memphis which was under the authority of Tefnakht of Sais. .
It seems now that Kitchen was right in the first place in 1972–the Year 19 king was likely Takelot III all along. A Dutch-Flemish institution called PalArch has now posted a short abstract of Olaf Kaper’s upcoming JEOL paper on the new Year 13 stela online. (see page 10 below.) Before this discovery, Takelot III’s highest Year date was only his Year 7. From a friend in Holland, I know it is a donation stela by the Chief of the Shamin Libyans, NesDjehuti, who also appears in the Smaller Dakhleh Stela which dates to Year 24 of Piye. (see Janssen, JEA 54(1968) pp.166-71)
http://www.palarch.nl/Archaeology/pro-2005-1-3.pdf
PS: I also wrote an article on Wikipedia on Takelot III which includes data from Berlin Papyrus 3048 which likely mentions Year 14 of Takelot III, not II. Regards. Fabian
Here is the URL: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Takelot_III
On the South Saqqara Stone:
Have you heard about the South Saqqara Stone? You didn’t mention it in any of your discussions on Merenre, Pepi I or Teti. It is a VI Dynasty Annal document that was carved during Pepi II’s reign. Although partly erased, it still preserves valuable inscriptions and several year dates from Pepi I, Teti’s and Merenre’s reigns. It also confirms that Pepi I died in the Year of his 25th Cattle Count and that Teti had a 12 year reign. Michel Baud and Vassil Dobrev published it in the 1990’s in the French serial BIFAO.
Please note the author’s estimate of the reign lengths of Teti, Userkare, Merenre and Pepi I. According to them, the Cattle Count was BIANNUAL in Dynasty 6. Its data is definitely more reliable than Manetho or the Turin Canon which were composed thousands of years later. PS: the Usurper Userkare definitely exists–he is mentioned in this document itself.
Here is a web link to the story below in English. Regards. Fabian
http://xoomer.virgilio.it/francescoraf/hesyra/ssannals.htm