Harkhuf's Travels

Author(s): Hans Goedicke

Source: Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Vol. 40, No. 1 (Jan., 1981), pp. 1-20
Published by: The University of Chicago Press
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/544419 .
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HARKHUF'S TRAVELS

HANS GOEDICKE, The Johns Hopkins University

AMONG the entrepreneurs of the Sixth Dynasty who left accounts of their
achievements in their tombs, Harkhuf occupies a distinguished role. The letter written
to him by young Pepi II reflects the king's appreciation of this follower as does the
inclusion of this letter in the tomb's decorations. Aside from this letter, Harkhuf does
not provide any details about the journey which earned him such unusual honors, and
no later activities are mentioned either. Could this mean that Pepi II carried out his
promise saying "my majesty will do great things for you, more than was done for
the god's seal-bearer Bawerded in the time of King Izezi,"1 so that Harkhuf retired
from the dangerous life of an explorer?
It is widely assumed that Harkhuf undertook four expeditions.2 His inscriptions,
however, detail only three journeys; they are all attributed to the reign of MerenreJ I.
The fourth has to be assumed on the basis of Pepi II's letter dated to the king's "year
of the second count," i.e., the third or fourth regnal year. For the geographical and
political situation in the region explored by Harkhuf, a study of the three journeys
under Merenre' I is essential. They must have occurred in fairly close succession, as
Merenrec I's sole reign could not have lasted more than six years;3 or Harkhuf slightly
"beautified" the account by reflecting Merenrec I's early years as coregent as years of
full rule.4 This possibility has considerable appeal because otherwise the expeditions
would have to have occurred at two-year intervals. As the first one was apparently
under the direction of Harkhuf's father Iri, it would seem somewhat surprising that he
should have ventured out alone only two years later. A somewhat longer interval would
seem more likely, although it brings the second and third journey into close succession,
in order that the third one could be completed prior to the end of Merenrec I's reign.
About his first journey Harkhuf reports (Urk. I 124, 9-15): 5 "The majesty of Merenre',
(my) lord, sent me together with (my) father, the 'sole companion' and lector-priest
'Iri, to(wards) Yam in order to explore the way to this country. I accomplished it

1 Urk. I 131, 1-3. Introduction (Oxford, 1961), pp. 99 ff.; G. Kadish,

2 See, E. "Inschriften des Alten Reiches: V "Old Kingdom Egyptian Activity in Nubia," JEA 52
Edel,
Die Reiseberichte des ed. O. Firchow (1966): 23 ff.
Agyptologische Studien (Festschrift
.Hrw-hwjf," Grapow) (Berlin, 3 H. W. Helck,
Untersuchungen zu Manetho und den
1955) (hereafter Edel, FS Grapow), p. 67; M. Licht- dgyptischer K6nigslisten (Berlin, 1956), p. 57; see also
heim, Ancient Egyptian Literature: A Book of my article "The Abydene Marriage of Pepi I," JAOS
Readings, vol. 1 (Berkeley, 1973), p. 23; T. Save- 75 (1955): 180 ff.
Saderbergh, Agypten und Nubien: ein Beitrag zur 4 In co-regencies any dates concern the senior ruler.
Geschichte altdgyptischer Aussenpolitik (Lund, 1941), Only after his death do references to years of the
p. 26 ff.; A. H. Gardiner, Egypt of the Pharaohs: An junior ,co-regent occur and should probably be seen
as a courtesy of the ruling king; see W. K. Simpson,
[JNES 40 no. 1 (1981)] "The Single-dated Monuments of Sesostris I," JNES
15 (1956): 214 ff.
C 1981 by The University of Chicago.
All rights reserved. 5 Edel, FS Grapow, p. 71; for kch, see my The
Protocol of Neferyt (The Prophecy of Neferiti) (Balti-
0022-2968/81/4001-0001 $01.00. more, 1977), p. 89.
1

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2 JOURNAL OF NEAR EASTERN STUDIES

within seven months, and I brought all kinds of products therefrom, beautiful and
exotic. I was praised much about it."
Although the text emphasizes Harkhuf's role, it is more likely that the venture was
actually conducted by his father 'Iri. A man with this name is actually attested at
Tomas during the (early) reign of Pepi I.6 It is frequently claimed that Harkhuf con-
ducted a commercial expedition.' However, the text indicates only that King Merenrec
had sent 'Iri and Harkhuf to Yam "to explore the way there."8 This charge implies
that Yam had not been visited by Egyptians before-at least not in an official capacity.
Such a situation would not exclude all contacts or knowledge about Yam on the part of
the Egyptians. In other words, the predominant feature of Harkhuf's first journey was
the exploration of the way to Yam.
There is no indication how this task was accomplished; only the time needed for it is
specified, namely seven months. Edel uses this indication of travel time as the pivot of
his discussions about the location of Yam.9 There is nothing in the text, as Dixon has
pointed out,10 to support his thesis that the travel time was counted from a departure
from Memphis. The court, which at least to some degree perambulated in the country,1"
could have been at another place when Harkhuf received his charge; it is also impossible
to envisage with what speed Harkhuf traveled or how long or briefly he stayed once he
reached his goal.
Harkhuf's second expedition report makes no direct mention of Yam, but states
(Urk. I 124, 17-125, 11):12

When his majesty sent me the second time, I was alone: I went forth on the "Ivory Road"
and I descended at 'Irrit, from (my) excursion to the desert region of Tr-rs and in a
'IrtU,
period of eight months. And I went down (i.e., north), and I brought (back) of the product
from this country very much, the like of which had never been brought to this land (i.e.,
Egypt) before.
When I descended into the vicinity of the house of the ruler of Z:tw and ,Irrtt I had
explored those foreign lands. Never did I find that any "friend"-overseer of mercenaries,
who had gone forth to Yam, had acted as (my) predecessor.

This account can be divided into three sections with an introductory and concluding
statement. These two statements concern the role of Harkhuf, namely that this venture
was conducted by him alone, different from the previous one at which time he accom-
panied his father, and that his was an exploration of a previously unvisited region. The
first section concerning the expedition details its beginning and concluding points as well
as its duration. The second describes its material success; the third specifies the point of
re-entry into the Nile Valley and the exploration accomplished.
The departure from the Nile Valley is given as hr wit 'bw "on the Ivory Road."

6 See Edel, FS Grapow, n. 5; A. E. P. B. Weigell, A 8 Kadish, "Old Kingdom Activity in Nubia,"

Report on the Antiquities of Lower Nubia (the First
Cataract to the Sudan Frontier and Their Condition in
1906-7) (Oxford, 1907), pl. 58, nos. 7 and 12; Sive-
S6derbergh, Agypten und Nubien, p. 13, n. 7; Kadish,
"Old Kingdom Activity in Nubia," p. 23.
7 For example, E. Otto, Agypten: der Weg des
Pharaonenreiches (Stuttgart, 1953), p. 90; H. A. J.
Kees, Das alte Agypten: eine kleine Landeskunde
(Berlin, 1955), p. 179.
pp.
24 ff., considers wb3 to mean here "to inspect."
9 Edel, FS Grapow, pp. 63 f.
10D. M. Dixon, "The Land of Yam," JEA 44
(1958): 40 ff.
11 Urk. I 241, 2; 243, 3; 245, 3 point to periodic
perambulations of the royal court, as does Urk. I 306,
4; for the latter, see my K6nigliche Dokumente aus dem
Alten Reich (Wiesbaden, 1960), p. 222.
12 See also Edel, FS
Grapow, pp. 71 ff.

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 HARKHUF'STRAVELS 3

Edel,'3 like Yoyotte'4 and Si~ve-Sdderbergh'5 before him, rendered it "Elephantine

road," although )bw lacks a determinative indicating it as a place-name. Dixon originally
accepted the traditional rendering,16 but in a postscript to his discussion related Faulk-
ner's suggestion that wit-:bw should be rendered "Ivory Road," denoting the road on
which ivory was shipped from the south to Egypt. Although he considers this explanation
as possible in principle, he nevertheless voices some misgivings. They evolve primarily
from the fact that until recently the main shipping route for ivory was the Darb el-
Arbacyin and that this desert track ends at Asyut. This argument incorporates some
features not applicable to the situation in Harkhuf's days. As the final destination of any
imported ivory would naturally be the commercial and political center of the country,
the problems of desert travel also have to be taken into consideration. The northernmost
stretch of the Darb el-Arbacyin, from Khargah to Asyut, is the worst portion of the track
even for camels.7" For any desert travel without camels, even if the conditions might
have been somewhat better than in modern times, this track would have been unpassable.
The kind of transportation available in Old Kingdom days would have made it desirable
to shorten desert travel as much as possible. This would entail a routing of the "Ivory
Road" in such a way as to reach Egypt after a minimum of desert travel. While the
Darb el-Arbacyin, with its southern end at El-Fasher in Darfur, appears to have been,
as it also has been until recent times, the main trade route by which ivory reached
Egypt from the southwest, its northern terminal was at Elephantine, which gave the
place its name. This route would not only have been considerably shorter than the
modern link to Asyut, it would also have avoided some of its most difficult portions. In
geographical terms it would have meant that from Selima the route did not turn north
to El-Sheb, Beris, and Khargah, and from there to Asyut but, rather, went in a north-
easterly direction via Bir Abu Tingil, Dunkul, Kurkur to Aswan.
This particular route for Harkhuf's travel was envisaged by Yoyotte as the "route
d'Elephantine" leading from Elephantine to Dunkul.x8 Edel strenuously objected to this
identification and saw in the "Elephantineweg" the route to "Yam" via Elephantine
along the Nile. He found support for his thesis in the absence of naming a departure
point, i.e., a place where the route left the Nile Valley. As he sees the starting point of
the expedition in Memphis, he assumes that all specifications in the text must be related
to Memphis. He further assumes that Harkhuf would have described a use of the route
via Kurkur: "Ich zog aus (abzweigend) von Elephantine auf dem
Oasenweg." His thesis
is open to serious criticism in three respects. First, there is nothing in the text
indicating
Memphis as the starting point of Harkhuf's expeditions. Even if he had made his original
departure from Memphis, there is still no reason to assume that any details about the
journey would concern the travel prior to the departure from Egyptian territory.
Second, "the oasis-route" commenced, as Edel19 established, at Abydos and led to the
oasis Khargah, as had been assumed since Griffith.20 As the main feature of the "oasis-

'3 Ibid., p. 63. Geography and Water Supply (London, 1909), pp. 33 f.;
14 J. Yoyotte, "Pour une localisation du
pays de Sudan Notes and Records 12, pp. 63 ff.
IAM," BIFAO 52 (1953): 174. 18 Yoyotte, "Pays de IAM," p. 174.
15 S~ve-Soderbergh, Agyyten und Nubien, p. 27. "1 Edel, FS Grapow, pp. 62 f.
16 Dixon, "Land of
Yam," p. 54. 20 F. L.
Griffith, "A Detail of Geography in the
'7 Ibid.; see also H. J. L. Beadnell, An Egyptian Inscription of Herkhuf," Proceedings of the Society of
Oasis: An Account of the Oasis of Kharga in the Libyan Biblical Archaeology 16 (1893-94): 50 ff.; Yoyotte,
Desert, with Special Reference to Its History, Physical "Pays de IAM," p. 174.

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4 JOURNALOF NEAR EASTERNSTUDIES

route" is to lead to the great oasis of Khargah, there is no reason to believe that the
w)t-wh:t, "oasis (singular!) road," led to all oases. By its size and economic importance
Khargah exceeds all other oases so much that the use of wh't, "oasis," in reference to it is
not surprising. The track between Elephantine and the Darb el-Arbacyin at Selima has
nothing to do with the "oasis-road" leading from Abydos to Khargah. Third, wit- bw is
clearly recognizable as a land-route. Why should anybody travel through Lower Nubia
on land instead of using the Nile, the natural highway through this region? Even within
Upper Egypt the main mode of travel for ancient Egyptians was by boat and not
by road.2' In large stretches of Lower Nubia the valley is so narrow that there would not
have been space continuously on one side, which would have required repeated crossings
over the river. An "Elephantineweg" ".lings des Niltals" is a geographical absurdity.
Any overland route following the Nile would have to have been on top of the gebel,
where there was, of course, no water. The only overland route south outside the Nile
Valley is the tract leading from Elephantine via Kurkur to Dunkul and from there to
Selima, where it links up with the Darb el-Arbacyin.
Yoyotte had already reached this conclusion22 which Edel rejected out of hand with-
out any argument, except that nobody had previously proposed this identification.23 If
one accepts that Harkhuf traveled south on a land route, no other explanation is possible
than his use of the desert track from Elephantine via Kurkur to Dunkul, unless one
assumes the occurrence of major geographical changes in the area.24
The route called wit ibw by Harkhuf is determined by the geographical features of the
desert southwest of Elephantine. The oases Kurkur and Dunkul constitute the main-
stays for this desert route.
Harkhuf did not travel the entire length of the Darb el-Arbacyin, but, according to his
account, he returned to the Nile Valley to a region called 'Irrtt. This thesis about the
departure and return to the Nile is based on the idiomatic use of pri, "to go forth,"
(Wb. I 519, 20) and h:i, "to descend," (Wb. II 472, 6). That 'Irrtt was located in the Nile
Valley seems certain and has never been questioned. The desert trail from Elephantine to
the Darb el-Arbacyin is linked with the Nile Valley only at two places: there is a track
from Dunkul in the southeasterly direction reaching the Nile Valley at Tomas near
Ed-Derr. It has an extension from Dunkul to the northwest, leading via CAin Nakheila-
Beris to Khargah. The second cross-connection is from Selima to Sakiet el-'Abd, midway
between the Second and Third Cataract. This location is much too far sourth for 'Irrtt,
whose location in Lower Nubia, i.e., between the First and Second Cataract, is generally
agreed upon.25
It results from this that Harkhuf's second expedition followed the "Ivory Road"
from Elephantine until the first opportunity to return to the Nile Valley. This journey
would have led him to Kurkur and Dunkul, and it is at the latter place that he left the
"Ivory Road."
There is general agreement that 'Irrtt denotes the place of Harkhuf's arrival in the

21 It is only in the last

twenty-five years or so that a
continuous highway exists through Upper Egypt to
Aswan. Lower Nubia never had a road, and the only
means of travel was by boat.
22 Yoyotte, "Pays de IAM," p. 174.
23 Edel, FS Grapow, p. 65, n. 1.
24 The translation of w:t 3bw as "ivory/elephant
route" or as "Elephantine route" does not affect this
identification because no other overland route
commences at Elephantine.
25 Edel, FS Grapow, p. 69; Yoyotte, "Pays de
IAM," p. 177; Save-Soderbergh, Agypten und Nubien,
pp. 28 f.; Gardiner, Ancient Egyptian Onomastica, vol.
1 (London, 1947), p. 75*.

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 HARKHUF'STRAVELS 5

Nile Valley.26 This geographical indication does not seem to stand alone, as the text27
has h~i,n(.i) m q v m bd 8. This passage was
"
rendered by Ede128 "und (ich) stieg herab (scil.•aus Jim)hnt.iiber Mhr, Trrz und 'UIrtt
(, die in) Jrtt (gelegen sind,) innerhalb von 8 Monaten," thus expanding a suggestion
first made by Yoyotte.29 In later comments Edel specified his interpretation that h:i
is used in this passage for the descending from the "hdhergelegenen Jim zur memphit-
ischen Residenz." 30 In view of its altitude any move towards Memphisfrom any point
south of it would be a descent. However, there is, as already pointed out before, no
indication in the text that the royal residence at Memphis is the point to which all
time and place specifications relate, just as it is an unfounded thesis that Harkhuf's
activity should be seen as that of a traveling salesman. His exploratory missions have a
distinctly political overtone, which should have affected their schedule.
There is no reason to doubt the use of hii in reference to a "descending movement,"
which, of course, includes the return home from abroad. If, however, the travel was
exclusively in the Nile Valley as Edel assumes, why would Harkhuf have walked when
sailing was the only customary and practical form of travel.31 Thus, despite Edel's
strenuous argumentation, h:i has to be taken here as a reference to overland travel,
which in Egypt is synonymous with travel in the desert. H:i m occurs twice in the account
of Harkhuf's second expedition. In addition to the passage quoted above, there is also
hNi.n(.i)m htwpr Z)tw-'Irrtt, which Edel translated "Ich stieg (aber) herab in die
Gegend des Hauses des Herrschers von Zitw und 'Irtt, nachdem ich diese Fremdlhinder
hk.:
erkundet hatte."32 This rendering entails contradictions and is also grammatically
questionable. As for the latter, the preposition m has no directional connotation, but in its
basic meaning "in, at" designates a fixed place introduced by m. H:i.n(.i) m h:w pr ...
can thus only be rendered "I descended in the vicinity of the house of the ruler .. ." or
"I descended from.. ." ("Ich stieg herab in der Gegend" or "Ich stieg herab von der
Gegend"). If we follow Edel's thesis that Harkhuf, after starting at Memphis, had taken
the "Elephantineweg" leading sourth along the Nile via Elephantine, he would have
passed through 'Irrtt twice with the "house of the chief of Z:tw and 'Irrtt" as the turning
point. The "exploration" (wb:) of "those foreign countries" can only refer to the terri-
tories named earlier, which are thus assumed to have been subdivisions of 'Irrtt. Accord-
ing to Edel's thesis it would be necessary to assume that Harkhuf explored the Nile
Valley of Lower Nubia as far as "the house of the chief," which has been convincingly
located in the Tomas-ed-Derr region. Otherwise, what would be the purpose of des-
cribing only details of the early part of the journey, when it was really intended to Yam,

2s Urk. I 125, 2; see Edel, FS Grapow, p. 69.
27 'Irrtt is located in the Nile Valley by Sive-Sader-
bergh, Agypten und Nubien, pp. 26 if.; see also
Yoyotte, "Pays de IAM," p. 176; Edel, FS Grapow,
p. 70; Dixon, "Land of Yam," pp. 43 f.; K. Zibelius,
Afrikanische Orts- und V6lkernamen in hieroglyphischen
und hieratischen Texten (Wiesbaden, 1972), pp. 88 f.;
Gardiner, Onomastica, vol. 1, p. 75*; Edel, "Die
Lindernamen Unternubiens und die Ausbreitung der
C-GrUzppe nach den Reiseberichten des Hrw-hwjf,"
Orientalia 36 (1967): 133 ff.
28 Edel, FS
Grapow, pp. 69 f.
29 Yoyotte, "Pays de IAM,"
p. 176, suggesting that
m should be rendered as "en passant par," with three
toponyms depending on it, possibly denoting place-
names within 'Irrtt.
30 Edel, "Inschriften des Alten Reiches: XI. Nacht-
rage zu den Reiseberichten des Hrw-hwjf," ZAS
85-86 (1960-61): 22.
31 In areas of Lower Nubia, travel on foot would
be virtually impossible.
32 Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature, vol. 1,
p. 25, "I came down through the region of the house
of the chief of Setju and Irtjet; I explored those foreign
lands."

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6 JOURNAL OF NEAR EASTERN STUDIES

which Edel located in the region of Kerma? These contradictions result from the way the
text was handled.
To begin with, there is the translation "ich stieg herab fiber . for h'i m. First, there
.."
is no attested use of the preposition m which could be used to support such a rendering.
Second, as already pointed out, hTi m lacks a directional connotation. Third, if the place-
names were appositional to 'Irrtt, as first proposed by Yoyotte, accepted by Edel and
emphasized by Dixon by referring to Gardiner, Egyptian Grammar3, ? 90.3, the places
would have to be envisaged as standing in a line of descending significance, the last one
being the smallest subdivision, each one located in the one mentioned previously, and so
on. Nobody is likely to argue that 'Irtt was located in Tr-rz and that the latter was a
subdivision of Irrtt. If the Egyptians had intended the statement which Edel's trans-
lation reflects, it would have required a relative construction, such as * h:i.n(.i) ht...
Tr-rz Irtt ntt m'Irrtt. That Tr-rz and 'Irtt cannot be envisaged as subdivisions of 'Irrtt is
evident also from Edel's later discussions 33 when he found himself forced to accommodate
these presumed subdivisions on a rather limited stretch of the Nile Valley.34
The envisaged subdivisions of Irrtt are read Mhr, Tr-rz and 'Irtt. Posener considered
the possibility that the first contains a formative element *mh,35 while Weigall proposed
an equation with Ramesside Mh,36 a suggestion which Sive-S6derbergh correctly
rejected.37 With the exception of the latter, who transcribed Mchr, there is general
agreement in reading Mhr. \ is the common syllabic orthography of m with a preceding
vowel,38 but it is exceedingly rare in the Old Kingdom, especially for foreign words.39
The erasure --B indicated by Sethe in Urk. I 125, 2 was not given by Schiaparelli or by de
Morgan,40 and is epigraphically improbable because of the prevailing arrangement, which
does not provide any space for an extension of the arm-sign. This detail is important,
because the occurrences of em in Old Egyptian are written without exception as .
occurs in this form only here, which is surprising if it denotes a sub-
S
division of 'Irrtt, i.e., the region between Tomas and Mediq, as Edel,41 and before him
Yoyotte,42 assumed, It would be tempting to identify Tr-rz with later Trs, whose
location is, however, undetermined.43
3Irtt is also unattested elsewhere and the remarks made above concerning Tr-rz apply
33Edel, "Die Landernamen Unternubiens," pp. "Achtungstexte aus dem Alten Reich," MDAIK 29
141, 146. (1973): 105, no. 62; 107, no. 88. The spelling
34 He points out the improbability of having to
in no. 66 (p. 105) would seem to represent the Q1._ proto-
assume three individually named regions on the
type of the syllabic group writing.
30 km. stretch between Tomrs and Mediq and tries to
40 Schiaparelli, "Una tomba egiziano inedita della
overcome the problem by alluding to the possibility
of a somewhat more southern limit of Irrtt. Even VI dinastia," Mem. R. Accad. dei Lincei 289 (1892): 31
ff.; de Morgan, Catalogue de monuments, vol. 1, 1, p.
when it is placed at Aniba, this would only mean that 167.
the area extended 50 rather than 30 km., which would
not make it any more convincing. 41 See in particular, Edel, "Die Lindernamen
35 G. Posener, Princes et pays d'Asie et de Nubie Unternubiens," pp. 140 f.; also idem, FS Grapow, p.
70.
(Brussels, 1940), p. 58; Zibelius, Afrilcanische Orts-
und V1lkernamen, p. 128. 42 Yoyotte, "Pays de IAM," p. 176; Save-Soder-
36 A.
E. P. Weigall, A Report on the Antiquities of bergh, Agypten und Nubien, pp. 18, 27, did not
Lower Nubia: the First Cataract to the Sudan Frontier identify the place.
and Their Condition in 1906-7 (Oxford, 1907), pp. 6 ff. 43 See Zibelius, Afrikanische Orts- und V5lkernamen,
37 Save-Soderbergh, Agypten und Nubien, p. 8. p. 177; whether a connection exists with i3trs (see
38 See Wb. II 45, 8; also Edel, Altdgyptische Gram-
Osing, "Achtungstexte," p. 112) remains uncertain
matik (Rome, 1955-70), ?38. but is feasible. It would imply that *tr corresponds
to it, the latter being the Egyptian equivalent of a
39 One possible occurrence among the names of
execration texts from Giza appears in J. Osing, foreign (Nubian?) word.

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 HARKHUF'STRAVELS 7

to it as well. Beyond this observation any further moves would have to be conjectural
in the absence of any basis for discussion.
When we sum up the discussion up to this point, we ought to distinguish the following
elements in the narrative: first, the heading, stating the royal charge and its execution
without superior, namely, "his majesty sent me a second time alone." This part does not
include any reference to the destination of the mission. According to later indications
Harkhuf was sent to Yam. Second is the specification of the route of departure, i.e.,
from the Nile Valley, and the point of return to it. The latter is given as "I descended
(i.e., returned to the Nile Valley) in 'Irrtt." This section is balanced by juxtaposing
pri.n(.i) hr w:t-:bw with hii.n(.i) m 'Irrtt, each part consisting of an identical number
of elements. However, the intention to convey travel information requires that the point
of return (h]i m) be specific. This excludes the possibility of a string of appositions after
the point of return was stated. Furthermore, up to this point, Harkhuf had not mentioned
the goal of his travels, although its mention has to be presumed in this part of the text
because of the subsequent (Urk. I 125, 6) use of h:st tn, whose demonstrative requires an
antecedent. This cannot be 'Irrtt, and its presumed three subdivisions, because the latter
is the point of return to the Nile Valley and not the origin of the "goods" (inw) Harkhuf
claims (Urk. I 125, 6) to have brought "from this foreign region" (h:st tn).
These observations necessitate an entirely new approach to the text after the mention

of 'Irrtt. The latter completes the specification of the route taken. is not a place-name

but should rather be read m Ch(.i) r h:st, "when I took off to the desert." The construction
m sdm.f with a verb of motion following a sdm.n.f is well paralleled (see Edel, Altagyp-
tische Grammatik, ? 485). h, written here without determinative, I equate with
Ch, "to
fly off," Wb. I. 225. 10.44 Harkhuf seems to have tried a very stylish formulation with
limited familiarity with the orthography; (for the interchange between h and h, see
Edel,
Altdgyptische Grammatik, ? 121.). ml is either a writing for as in the next line
bhst
(Urk. I 125, 6) or it could also be taken as substitute for 'I3m as reflected in its later
mention (Urk. I 125, 11).
Tr-rz and 'Irtt are the names of two specific areas in the "desert" (h:st) or in Yam,
which Harkhuf visited (for the grammatical construction, see Gardinar,
Egyptian
Grammar3, ? 90.3 and my Kdnigliche Dokumente aus dem Alten Reich, p. 14). Earlier
discussions of the "Ivory Road" (wit--bw) led to the conclusion that it was an earlier
routing of the Darb el-Arbacyin, commencing or terminating at Elephantine. Such a route
would touch on the oases of Kurkur and Dunkul. From the latter, as
pointed out above,
a track leads south to the Nile Valley, which it reaches at Tomas, which is, as is
generally
held to be the region denoted in the Old Kingdom as 'Irrtt.45 The identification of
Harkhuf's second journey is now consistent in all details. The two
place-names, Tr-rz

44 See also CT II 223 b, e; 224 d; IV 310 b. The word
is identical to ch, Wb. I 224, 5. The most famous early
occurrence is in Sinuhe R 21 bik ch.f (var. ch.f) hnc
Amsw.f, "the falcon, he took off with his followers,"
where it expresses the abruptness of the departure in
time and space rather than the speed of the ensuing
travel; see H. Grapow, Der stilistische Bau der Ge-
schichte des Sinuhe (Berlin, 1952), ? 4.
45 See Edel, "Die Lindernamen Unternubians,"
pp. 140 f.; Zibelius, Afrikanische Orts- und V61kernamen,
p. 188; Dixon, "Land of Yam," p. 47; Yoyotte, "Pays
de IAM," p. 176; Shive-S6derbergh, Agypten und
Nubien, pp. 15 f.

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8 JOURNAL OF NEAR EASTERN STUDIES

and 'Irtt, require an identification with Kurkur and Dunkul, presumably in this order, if
their listing reflects the progress of the journey.
It was accomplished "within a period of eight months," which covers only the time of
the departure from Elephantine on the "Ivory Road" to the return to the valley at
Tomas. The formulation with m hnt is unusual, and the reason for choosing it is not
apparent.46
The remainder of the description of Harkhuf's second journey consists of two sections.
Both are introduced by hii.n(.i), serving as circumstantial. The first concerns Harkhuf's
success in bringing goods from his journey into the western desert: "When I descended I
brought goods from this desert region very much, the like of which has never been
brought to this land before." HJ:jsttn refers back to the previously mentioned av
(h:st or '3Im) with its subdivisions Tr-rz and 'Irtt, while tCpn in contrast denotes here
Egypt.
The last section concerns additional exploits of Harkhuf after his return to the Nile
Valley in the Tomas region: "When I descended in the vicinity of the house of the ruler
of Z:tw and 'Irrtt, I explored those foreign regions: never did I find that any associate-
overseer of mercenaries, who had gone forth to Yam previously, had done (them)." In
view of the apparent parallelism, h3i.n(.i) here also has to be circumstantial, as in the
preceding section (Urk. I 125, 5).47 The difficulty for the understanding lies in the
preposition m, which can introduce the starting and the terminating point of the descent.
The first makes better sense here, and the meaning appears to be that Harkhuf explored
the desert stretch between Dunkul and TomAs until his final descent into the Nile Valley.
The point of arrival in the Nile Valley is specified as "in the neighborhood of the house
of the ruler of Z:tw and 'Irrtt, " which should be envisaged in the vicinity of Tomas,
where the desert trail from Dunkul reaches the Nile. A location between Ed-Derr and
Aniba appears to be the most likely range for it.
An alternative interpretation of the passage which deserves serious consideration
might be "when I desended in the region of the domain of the ruler of Zitw and 'Irrtt, I
explored those foreign regions." Pr used in the extended sense of "domain" covering an
entire region is found repeatedly.48 This rendering would seem to make better sense than
a reference to the "house of the ruler," especially as there is hardly any reason for empha-
sizing it. M htw, literally, "in the region of," here has the connotation of "within" a
defined area and as such is the special equivalent to its temporal application "during the
time of." 49 It would seem likely that Harkhuf on his return journey merely followed the
Nile from Tomas north instead of using the shorter desert track between Tomas and
Mediq, which he is shown on his third journey. This overland route might have been the

46 The intervening two appositional geographical
terms separated the time specification from the rest of
the sentence. For such a construction a more extensive
formulation than *n ,bd 8 (as in Urk. I 124, 13) might
have been in order.
47 This way of rendering reflects the modern hypo-
tactical thinking structure, while the Egyptian is
paratactical. To reflect the latter the rendering "I
descended . . . and I explored .. ." would be necessary
which remains unsatisfactory for stylistic reasons.
Edel FS Grapow, p. 72, translates as follows: "Ich
stieg (aber) herab in die Gegend des Hauses des
Herrschers von Zgtw und 'Irtt, nachdem ich diese
Fremdlinder erkundet hatte." This statement would
seem tautological because the exploration of Tr-rz
and 'Irit has been stated earlier, just as Harkhuf's
descent into the Nile Valley has already been dis-
cussed in the text.
48 For example, Pr-Hww in Mocalla I 2-3; Pr-Hty
in J. J. Cl1re and J. Vandier, Textes de la premiere
pdriode interm&diare de la Xleme Dynastie, Bibliotheca
Aegyptiaca, vol. 10 (Brussels, 1948), vol. 1, p. 14; see
also H. G. Fischer, Dendera in the Third Millennium
B.C., down to the Theban Domination (Locust Valley,
New York, 1968), p. 149.
49 Fischer, Dendera, p. 48.

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 HARKHUF'STRAVELS 9
common route to Tom s. It is striking that there are no Old Kingdom graffiti between
Derr and Sebuac, as the stretch is difficult to travel on land.
Harkhuf's claim to have been without predecessor is carefully formulated. It applies
only to any "associate-overseer of mercenaries who had gone out to Yam." This would
allow explorers or travelers of the Nubian Nile Valley to have been in the area before
Harkhuf. It results from his claim that Harkhuf had been in Yam prior to his explora-
tions in the realm of the ruler of Zt~w and 'Irrtt. Such a journey to Yam can only be
identified with the early section of Harkhuf's account, i.e., from his departure from
Egypt on the "Ivory Road" until his descent into the Nile Valley in 'Irrtt. This journey,
as pointed out in detail, has to be envisaged on the southern branch of the Darb el-
Arbacyin leading through Kurkur and Dankul. There is no indication whatsoever that
Harkhuftraveledany furtherwest than Dunkulnor any furthersouth than Tomas.
Harkhufdescribeshis third journeyin more detail than the two earlierones (Urk.
I 125, 13-127, 17):

And when his majesty sent me the third time to Yam, I departed from the Thinite district
on the Oasis Road. I discovered that the chief of Yam had gone by himself to the land of
in order to beat the Tmh to the western corner of heaven. When I had gone out in his
Tmnh
support to the land of Tmh, I appeased him, so that he was praising all gods for the sovereign.
And I sent a [report] through a Yamian of the Following-of-Horus to let the majesty of
Merenrec, (my) lord, know that I had gone out to the land of Tmnhin support of the ruler of
Yam, and that I had appeased that ruler of Yam.
I descended successfully at a place which is south of :Irrtt and north of Z0tw. I met the
chief of :Irrtt-Zgtw-W3w3t,which were joined in unity, when I descended with 300 donkeys
loaded with myrrh, ebony, hknw s3t, (a) leopard-skin, ivory tusks, tIni-sticks (and) all beautiful
products. And when the chief of 'lrrit-Z3Lw-W3w3t saw that the troops of the Yamians, who
had descended with me for the Residence, and the soldiers, who had been sent with me, were
strong and numerous, then this chief supported me and gave me cattle and goats and showed
me the ways of the ridges of Irrtt, as the vigilance which I carried out was more excellent
than that of any associate-overseerof mercenariessent to Yam before.
And when the humble servant sailed north by himself towards the Residence, one caused the
"unique friend"-'overseer of the two slaughter-houses, Hwni to come to meet (me) with
boats loaded with date-wine, sweetmeats, bread, and beer.

Likehis two previousjourneys,the thirdone was to Yam. The geographicalspecifica-

tions suppliedfor it differfromthose of the other journeys.They concernthe point of
departureand the route taken. While the secondjourneystartedfromElephantineon
the "IvoryRoad,"the third one, as Edel has conclusivelydemonstrated,commencedin
the Thinitedistrict,utilizinga deserttrail called"OasisRoad."50The latter still exists
and, like the track via Dunkul and Kurkurto Elephantine,is a branchof the Darb
el-Arbacyin.There is general agreementthat Harkhuf'sroute led him to the oasis
Khargah.5' The text does not mention that Harkhuf ever reached it, although this is
implied. The remainder of the account up to the description of the return journey
Edel, FS Grapow, pp. 62 f., 73 f.
50so out the difficulty of the desert route between Asyut
51 First proposed by Griffith, "Inscriptionof Herk- to Khargah even for camels and the impossibility of
huf," pp. 10 ff.; it was followed by A. Fakhry, donkey caravans traveling it. Harkhuf might very
Bahria Oasis (Cairo, 1942-52), vol. 1, p. 10; Yoyotte, well have started from Memphis, but this fact is in no
"Pays de IAM," p. 174; Edel, FS Grapow, pp. 62 f.; way reflected in his account.
Dixon, "Land of Yam," pp. 51, 54. Dixon has pointed

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10 JOURNAL OF NEAR EASTERN STUDIES

(Urk. I 126, 12) concerns two noteworthy events and the sending of a report to the king
about what had happened. The first is the meeting with a/the "chief of Yam," the
second, Harkhuf's journey to T?-Tmh, which followed the meeting with the dignitary.
For the clarification of the geography, defining of the meeting place between Harkhuf
and the chief of Yam is essential.
The route Harkhuf took brought him first to Khargah, which is by far the most
densely inhabited region of the entire Darb el-Arbacyin and, as is generally accepted,
determined the name of the trail leading to it. As wit-:bw, because of its inclusion of the
word 'bw, indicates Elephantine as its end, in parallelism shows that it denotes
the "way" to "the oasis," i.e., Khargah. Itw3t-wh.t
would seem truly disproportionate if the
stretch from Abydos to Khargah had been used as a designation for the entire Darb
el-Arbacyin, which touches on a number of oases. This requires the conclusion that
Harkhuf's first and prime goal was the oasis Khargah. The person he apparently intended
to meet there was, however, absent. Edel was certainly correct in taking gmi with a
pseudoverbal clause depending on it.52 If, however, it has to be concluded that Harkhuf's
prime aim had been to meet "the chief of Yam" and that he found him absent at the end
of the the "Oasis Road," it is necessary to equate Yam with Khargah.
is to be identified with Khargah, where did the chief of Yam go53 in "the land
wit-wh.t,
If Yam
of the Libyan" "to beat the Libyan"? The intention attributed to the chief of Yam "to
beat the Libyan to the western corner of heaven" makes is clear that the chief of Yam
had gone in a westerly direction. Only one region west of Khargah could qualify, namely
the oasis of Dakhlah, as Yoyotte has already understood it.54 Edel, caught in his pre-
conception that Yam had to be a very distant region requiring extensive travel to get
there, assumed that t?-_Tmhdenotes the steppe west of Kerma.55 Kerma was not of any
significance in the Old Kingdom,56 nor is there any reason to conjecture an economically
important region west of Dongola just to suit the thesis of a location of Yam.57 The
stated intention of the chief of Yam to drive the Tmh to "the western corner of heaven"
has no specific geographical connotation but should rather be taken as a general remark.
It does not support an identification of t-_Tmh, "the land of the Libyan," with Dakhlah,
nor does it disprove it. The expression reflects a concept of a world with defined bound-
aries and a heaven above it. This world has Egypt as its center, so that the western
corner of heaven should be envisaged west of Egypt proper and not beyond the limits of
Egyptian conceptionalization.
Upon finding that the chief of Yam had gone to the "Land of the Libyan," Harkhuf
follows him: iw(.i) pri.kwi m-s:.f r t:-Tmh which Edel rendered "Ich zog hinter ihm her

52 Edel, FS Grapow, pp. 67 f.; idem,
Altdgyptische
Grammatik (Rome, 1955-70), ? 585. Pyr. 1180c pro-
vides a convincing parallel as gmi P... z3t Inpw
hsf.ti im.f, "may P find out that the daughter of
Anubis has approached him." Different with Edel, I
believe a prospective rendering of gmi makes better
sense. Edel (Altaig. Gramm., ? 585) assumes that gmi
here has a direct object, but his rendering, "Ich fand
den Fiirsten von J:m, indem er ins Land des Libyers
gegangen war" makes no sense because Karkhuf did
not find, i.e., meet, the chief of Yam; for gmi, see
Wb. V 168, 9 and Edel, Altdg. Gramm., ? 1139.
63For the Old Perfective followed by r.f., see Edel,
Altdg. Gramm., ? 821.
54 Yoyotte, "Pays de JAM," p. 176. The objections
he met in this identification came from his equating
Yam with Dunkul, which led to an improbable
routing, as Dixon strongly emphasized in "Land of
Yam," pp. 50 f.
56 Edel, FS Grapow, pp. 68 ff.; see also idem, "Die
Liindernamen Unternubiens," pp. 154 ff.
56 Dixon, "Land of
Yam," p. 42; Edel, "Inschrift-
en," (ZAS 85 [1960]), pp. 20 f.
67Edel, "Die Landernamen Unternubiens," pp.
154 ff., expanded his geographical identification into a
historical thesis which for lack of a basis remains
hypothetical.

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 HARKHUF'STRAVELS 11

ins Libyerland." 58 Two questions have to be asked concerning this passage. First, what
is its position in the syntactical context, and why does it use the Old Perfective? Second,
what was the purpose of Harkhuf's move?
Edel took the passage as a self-contained unit. The use of the introductory iw, however,
indicates that this sentence should be taken with the connotation of an accomplished
circumstance for the verbal clause following it.59 Consequently, it requires the rendering
"when I had gone out m-s8.f to the land of the Libyans." The compound m-st, literally,
"in the back of," 60 is used idiomatically with verbs of motion in the sense of following
someone or accompanying someone; Sinuhe B 245, hr Styw iww m-s;.i hr sbt.i r Wiwt-Hr;
"then, the Asiatics, who had come behind me, while following me to the Horus-ways,"
is a clear demonstration of m-si used for military escort; see also Urk. IV 651, 17. In
Siut I 278 and 317, m-s: has the meaning of being "serviceable to." Applying the later
usage of m-s8 to the occurrence in Harkhuf's inscription, m-s: has to have there a more
specific meaning than claiming to have pursued the absent chief of Yam.
This leads us to the second question, i.e., what Harkhuf's intentions could have been.
He could not possibly have expected to trade with the chief of Yam during the military
operation. The Chief of Yam would have been without access to any stores of trade goods,
assuming that Harkhuf brought his along into the desert. Equally improbable is Dixon's
view that Harkhuf tried to prevent the hostilities of the chief of Yam as "he would be
working against his own interest in stirring up war, since this would result in the inter-
ruption of commerce." 61 There is neither any indication that the commercial contacts
between Egypt and the oases were so intensive that they required constant attention, nor
is there reason to assume that Harkhuf had any leverage to influence the ruler of Yam,
either politically or militarily.
It would thus seem that Harkhuf's primary concern during his third journey was to
meet the chief of Yam. The latter was at that time conducting a campaign against the
land of the Libyan but had not yet completed it. Harkhuf realized the opportunity to
gain influence with the chief of Yam and to explore previously unknown territory by
accompanying the chief of Yam to the Land of the Libyan. Like the Asiatics in Sinuhe's
journey home, Harkhuf accompanied the chief of Yam as a military escort. The main
activity followed then in the Land of the Libyan.
What Harkhuf actually did in t?-Tmh, "the Land of the Libyan," is not detailed. For
the reasons already pointed out, it could not have been commercial bartering.62
Shtp is
the term used for Harkhuf's action after he had gone out to the Land of the Libyan to aid
the chief of Yam. The term has had two explanations. Edel, different from almost all
prior commentators, took shtp to have only commercial connotation as "(jemanden)
68Edel, FS Grapow, p. 72; Dixon, "Land of Yam," 60oSee Edel, Altdig. Gramm., ? 802; Gardiner, Egyp-
p. 45 interprets this statement freely into "leaving tian Grammar3,? 178.
his asses and most of his goods at the chief's residence, 61 Dixon, "Land of Yam," p. 52, rightly
rejected
Harkhuf, probably with a few companions and a by Edel; see "Inschriften," p. 21.
Yamite guide, set out after him" for the sole objective 62 It is that the
generally assumed journeys re-
"to announce his arrival." According to Dixon, flected in the tomb inscriptions of Aswan had strictly
Harkhuf would have to have had extremely pressing commercial aims; see, for example, H. Kees, Das alte
commercial interests if he ran after the chief of Yam
A'gypten: eine kleine Landeskunde (Berlin, 1957),
for no other purpose. As Dixon admits, no commercial p. 179; H. W. Helck, Geschichte des alten Agypten,
exchanges could have taken place during the campaign Handbuch der Orientalistik 1/3 (Leiden and Cologne,
to the land of the Libyan. 1968), pp. 75 f.; E. Otto, Agypten: der Weg des
56 A good parallel is Urk. I 140, 16-141, 3; Hatnub Pharaonenreiches (Stuttgart, 1953), p. 90; Gardiner,
Gr. 6, 4; 7, 5; 9, 7. Egypt of the Pharaohs: An Introduction (Oxford, 1961),
pp. 99 ff.

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 12 JOURNAL OF NEAR EASTERN STUDIES

zufriedenstellen (durch gute Tauschewaren)" or more freely "gut bezahlen."63 He

assumed that Harkhuf had no commission to conduct an active appeasement or expan-
sion policy, but had only trade interests. According to him, Harkhuf, when learning about
the campaign of the chief of Yam, left "die Esel der Agypter mit ihren Tauschlasten und
ihrer Bewachung in der Residenz des Fiirsten" and with a few Egyptian members of his
staff under the guidance of natives followed the Nubian ruler to announce his arrival.
Upon it, the chief of Yam probably terminated his campaign. The transactions were then
carried out after his return to Yam to the satisfaction of the Nubain ruler. Edel drew
support from the adjoined statement about the ensuing gratefulness of the chief of Yam
to the king of Egypt. This phrase is common in connection with the proper payment of
artisans, so that Edel concluded that shtp means here "zufriedenstellen (durch gute
Bezahlung)."64 While this usage seems beyond doubt, it is nevertheless a specific
idiomatic application, which in no way exhausts the meaning of the word. In Urk. I 136,
13 the broken context hampers a full understanding, but it is certain that no commer-
cial activities are involved; Sabni went out to bring his dead father home. That this
involved some negotiations about passage is understandable, because the success of his
journey depended on the good will of the people through whose country he was proceed-
ing. No trade is involved in the claim of KJr (Urk. I 255, 4-5): 65 iw shtp.n(.i) h3st(yw)
nb n IHnw r-mnh rs.i hr.s hz.kwi hr.s in nb(.i), "When I had appeased all foreigners for the
Residence properly, I watched over it and was praised about it by (my) lord." The only
other connection with foreign matters K:Jr states otherwise is ink hry-sst: n mdt nb(t)
innt m r-':c-h3swt m h}swt rs(ywit, "I was secretary of/for all matters which were brought
from the garrison of the foreigners and from the southern foreign lands"(Urk. I 254, 12.)
Commercial activity does not seem to be implied, but it rather seems that K:r was
concerned with matters dealing with foreigners and their relation to the Egyptian
political establishment. It would seem that Shtp here has the meaning "to appease,"
with the result of loyalty by the foreigners concerned towards the Egyptian administra-
tion.66
This applies also to the inscription of (another) man named Sibni67 who claims: iw
pri.kwi r hn' tzt nt m13 5 iw c((w) shtp.n(.i) hr imntt itbtt nt Wiwitr int tzt nt mrC m
Ww3wt
htp, "I went forth to Wawat with five troops of soldiers and mercenaries with whom
I had made peace on the west and east side of Wawat in order to bring a troop of soldiers
back successfully." It is quite clear that Sabni was concerned with recruiting mercenaries
by making them "peaceful" (shtp). The writing of shtp with the sign - as determinative
is the only parallel to the orthography occurring in Harkhuf's text.
This usage occurs also in the Middle Kingdom, in particular in Cairo 20539 I b, 10-11,
sgrh n.f hryw-sc shtp sbit hr irt.sn, "who makes quiet the bedouin, who appeases the sbit
about their duties.")68
63 Edel, FS Grapow, pp. 52 ff.; idem, "Inschrift- 66 See also Kadish, Old Kingdom Egyptians, pp.
en," (ZAS 85 [1960]), pp. 21 f., with some modifications 29 ff.
see also Dixon, "Land of Yam," pp. 45 f. Edel's view 67 A copy of the text is available in L. Habachi, The
had already been voiced by Swve-S6derbergh, Obelisks of Egypt: Skyscrapers of the Past (New York,
Agypten und Nubien, p. 21. 1977), p. 40, fig. 16.
64
Edel, FS Grapow, p. 53. 6s See J. Janssen, De traditioneele egyptische auto-
65 See idem, Untersuchungen zur Phraseologie der
biographie vddr het Nieuwe Rijk, 2 vols. (Leiden, 1946),
dgyptischen Inschriften des Alten Reiches (Berlin, vol. 1, p. 146.
1944), ? 50 a. It could also be read h3swt or h3st(yw),
the latter being preferable because shtp requires a
human object.

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 HARKHUF'STRAVELS 13

Although there is a wide range of application, all occurrences of shtp have the basic
causative meaning "to satisfy" in common. The assumed meaning "to pay well" or "to
satisfy by good barter" cannot be substantiated. The term is used for the payment of
workers, but not to describe the exchange of commodities.In regard to foreigners, shtp
appears to have the specific connotation of "making someone peaceful," "to establish
peaceful relations with someone," in the sense of integration into the existing social
order.
In Harkhuf's inscription shtp has the basic meaning "to satisfy," "to appease" with
the connotation of establishing peaceful relations. Considering his whereabouts and
position, Harkhuf could not exert any force against the chief of Yam. Any attempt in
this vein could only have led to disastrous consequences. Although Harkhuf had some
military escort (see Urk. I 127, 6), it could never have matched the forces the chief of
Yam could muster. The same considerations apply to the repeatedly stated view that
Harkhuf intervened in the fighting.69 As the chief of Yam was on the offensive, he would
hardly have tolerated any interference with his plans. Harkhuf's actions earned him the
gratitude of the chief of Yam and must have been acceptable to him. As already proposed
in discussing the meaning of m-s:, Harkhuf went to the Land of the Libyan in support
of the chief of Yam. His presence must have improved the power of the chief of Yam and
seems to have tilted matters in his favor. If this is correct, it is no wonder that he was
satisfied. That this move entailed political consequences, in particular that the chief of
Yam established ties with the Egyptian king, is probable, but does not emerge instantly
from the text.
It is certain that either at this time, or shortly thereafter, i.e., in the reign of
Pepi II,
ties to Dakhlah were established, as was recently demonstrated by the spectacular
discoveries of the late Ahmed Fakhry.70 Harkhuf's journey is likely to have opened the
way for this subsequent political development. His visit to Dakhlah was not covered by
his original commission, which is the reason that he reports his move to the
king. His
decision to go further west than he was charged to do was a reaction to the
opportunity
to accompany and assist the chief of Yam. It gives an idea of the caution with which
foreign territories were explored and which is quite different from the prevailing thesis
that the Egyptians of the late Old Kingdom conducted
far-reaching expeditions deep
into Africa.
Two aspects concerning the reaction of the chief of Yam to Harkhuf's services
require
comment. His thanks are directed to the "sovereign"
(itw).71 This designation reflects
the legal relationship between the chief of Yam and the
king of Egypt, as the former is
not a subject under the nswt-bit and thus
acknowledges the ruler of Egypt as itw,
"sovereign." It probably reflects an act of recognition on the part of the chief of Yam,
as is strongly suggested by the later use of the term.72
The second concerns the reason for this professed gratitude.73 Edel's thesis is that the
chief of Yam was overwhelmed by his success in
bartering with Harkhuf.74 Why should
69 See, for
example, Dixon, "Land of Yam," p. 46. International Relations in Egyptian Texts through
70 The late Dr. Ahmed Fakhry most kindly gave me Dynasty X VIII (Baltimore, 1974), pp. 7 f.
the opportunity to study the important texts which
73 Observe the pseudo-verbal construction with hr
he had discovered. and its implicit continuity; see Edel, Altag. Gramm.,
71 See my Die Stellung des Kbnigs im Alten Reich ? 932; Gardiner, Egyptian Grammar3, ? 319 f.
(Weisbaden, 1960), pp. 49 ff. 74 Edel, FS Grapow, pp. 53 f.
72 See D. Lorton, The Juridical Terminology of

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 14 JOURNAL OF NEAR EASTERN STUDIES

Harkhuf be interested in especially pleasing a trading partner instead of pursuing his

own interests or those of the king, whom he represented? (Thus these actions should be
seen in a political light.) For the support received, the chief of Yam not only expresses
his gratitude by "praising all the gods for the sovereign,"75 but also gives his feelings a
material expression. The goods which Harkhuf lists are not to be considered the result of
trading with the chief of Yam but rather as gifts of the latter in appreciation of the
support received from Harkhuf and as expressions of the recognition of the Egyptian
king as "sovereign."
Summing up the right section of Harkhuf's inscription, the investigation has so far
established that Harkhuf left from the Thinite district on one of the branches of the
Darb el-ArbaCyin on which he traveled to Khargah, referred to as "the Oasis."76 The
ruler there is described by Harkhuf as hc~'I:m, "chief of Yam," from which it can be
deduced that Khargah was an integral part of Yam. That Yam is not only Khargah
results from the information to be gleaned about Harkhuf's second journey. Although
Harkhuf went to Yam, he did not touch on Khargah, because he traveled on the more
southern track from Elephantine via Kurkur to Dunkul and from there south to the
Lower Nubian Nile.
The left part of Harkhuf's inscription (Urk. I 126, 7-127, 15) continues the account and
consists of four sections. The first gives Harkhuf's report to the king about his unplanned
journey to the land of the Libyan in support of the chief of Yam. The second specifies
his return to the Nile Valley, the third his journey through Lower Nubia and the some-
what unwilling support he received from the chief of Lower Nubia, and the fourth the
last link of his journey and the reception he received. For the understanding of the partly
destroyed text, Edel's study is fundamental." Only in a number of details will differing
interpretations be proposed.
As discussed earlier, the journey to t:-Tmh and the support of the chief of Yam was
beyond Harkhuf's instructions. Although apparently able to decide independently,
Harkhuf nevertheless sent a report to the king about the developments. Differing slightly
from Edel,78 I propose restoring the partly broken beginning as

[iw h:b.n(.i) smi (?) m-]'`Im(y) n(y) Sms-Hr

r rdit rh hm n Mrnrcnb(.i)
[wnt w(i) pri.kwi r t?-Tmih]m-s) hk:-'I'Im

'[I sent a report (?) with] a Yamian of the Horus-following in order to let the majesty
of Merenre', (my) lord, know
[that I had gone to the Land of the Libyan] in support of the chief of Yam."

vsThe reference to "all gods" is chosen here to
include not only the Egyptian, but also the local gods.
It cannot be compared with Reisner, Giza 2375
(Edel, "Inschriften des Alten Reichs: III. Die Stele
des Mhw-:htj [Reisner G 2375]," MIO 1 [1953]: 331).
78 The fact that some inscriptions from Dakhlah
name a hk1 wh~t "chief of the Oasis" fits into the picture
very well. If we are correct that Harkhuf gave support
in, the conquest of Dakhlah (t3 Tmh) by the chief of
Yam whose center of power was in Khargah, it can be
assumed that from then on Dakhlah was controlled
by the ruler of Khargah. Thus the mention of the
should be taken in the specific meaning
"chief
hk. wh.tof the Oasis," i.e., Khargah, reflecting the
subjugation of Dakhlah under Khargah.
77 Edel, FS Grapow, pp. 54 ff.
78 Idem, p. 72; he renders as follows: "[Ich sandte
den TITEL N.N. zusam]men mit einem Mann aus
]•m zum Gefolge des [Hor]us, um die Majestit des
Merjen-re, meines Herrn, wissen zu lassen, [dass ich]
hinter dem Herrscher von J1m her [ins Libyerland
gezogen war]."

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 HARKHUF'STRAVELS 15

Edel assumed that Harkhuf sent off a member of his expedition together with a local
man. The use of the compound preposition m-c rules out such a thesis because m-c does
not mean "together with" but "in the hand of."79 Thus m-c has to be preceded by the
mention of an object which was "sent" in the hand of a Yamian; Urk. I 136, 1 provides a
supporting parallel, especially also for the employment of local people as messengers. In
view of the length of the lacuna, which Edel gives with three squares, mdt80 would be
too short as a restoration. Urk. I 136, 1 has msiwt, "distinguishing sign," which would not
be suitable here. A word for "report," with smi, Wb. IV 128, or znn, Wb. III 460, is to
be expected.
1:fm(y), "Yamian," was first recognized by Edel as denoting a native messenger. He
also improved the reading to 'I~m(y) , I . He took the latter as a dative and thus
assumed that Harkhuf dispatched his message to the ims-Hr, which he interpreted as a
term denoting "das menschliche Gefolge des K6nigs."8' His view is untenable for two
reasons: first, any message could only be sent "towards" an institution and would thus
require the use of the proposition r; see Urk. I 128, 6; 61, 17. The construction here can
only be genitival. Second, any official report would have to be addressed to the palace or
to the king but certainly not to "the human following of the king." None of the occurren-
ces of ims-Hr cited by Edel is pertinent because they reflect the religious application of
the term. ?ms-I.r is attested once in the Sixth Dynasty (Pepi I) where it denotes beyond
question the "royal followers" in a military sense.82 In the present occurrence it is used
to indicate that the Yamian dispatched with Harkhuf's message was not a mere native,
but was actually a mecenary in the Egyptian military force.83
The second section of the left part of Harkhuf's inscription (Urk. I 126, 11-127, 3)
describes his return to the Nile Valley after "satisfying" or "making peaceful" the chief of
Yam. In the overall composition, Urk. I 126, 12 corresponds to Urk. I 125, 2 in the
description of the second journey, just as Urk. I 125, 14 corresponds to Urk. I 125, 1. In
the account of the third journey, the return is separated from the departure by the
lengthy description of the events with the chief of Yam.
The name of the place where Harkhuf returned to the Nile Valley is missing. It must
have been a rather short name, which Edel estimated as two squares ending with the
determinative pAfl.84 An alternative, which would better suit the context is [ i~l &
-
o 7] hnt 'lrrtt m phwy Zitw, "I descended successfully at a place which
is south of 'Irrtt and north of Z:tw." (For the use of m-htp preceding the geographical
specification, see Urk. I 128, 8.) As Edel,85 following Siive-S6derbergh86 convincingly
demonstrated, the place mentioned here by Harkhuf is to be located in the vicinity of
Tom s. Thus Harkhuf on his third journey to Yam descended into the Nile Valley at the

79 See idem, Altag. Gramm., ? 773; in as fas as m-c
lends itself to the translation "under the supervision
of," it is still used only in reference to physical objects
and not to persons.
80 Urk. I 60, 16; 128, 5, where it is used for a letter.
Edel's restoration of two personal names is untenable.
81 Edel, FS Grapow, pp. 55 f. He mentions the in-
scription of a certain Sabni (see n. 67 above) who has
the epithet h3ty-c smr-wcty whm mdw-Hr n ?ms.f,
"count 'unique friend' who repeats the word of Horus
to his following," which does not mention the ?ms-Hr.
82 Urk. I 214, 15; see also my Konigliche Dokumente
aus dem Alten Reich (Wiesbaden, 1967), pp. 42 ff.; a
more recent translation is offered by Lichtheim,
Ancient Egyptian Literature, vol. 1, p. 28.
83 For wnt introducing a quote from a letter, see my
article "Quotations in Old Kingdom Inscriptions,"
in FS Grapow, pp. 101 ff.
84 Edel, FS Grapow, p. 72, n. 13.
85 Ibid., pp. 59 ff.; idem, "Die
Lindernamen
Unternubiens," pp. 140 ff.
86 Save-Soderbergh, Agypten und Nubien, pp. 16 f.
against Gardiner, Ancient Egyptian Onomastica, 2 vols.
(London, 1947), vol. 2, p. *270.

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 16 JOURNAL OF NEAR EASTERN STUDIES

same place he had on his second journey, where it is described as m h~iw Z'tw-
'Irrtt, "in the vicinity of the house of the ruler of Z~tw and 'Irrtt" or "within the realm
pr-h.c.
of the ruler of Z3tw and 'Irrtt." That the next point in Harkhuf's account is his meeting
"the chief of 'Irrtt-Z7tw- Wiw7t (Urk. I 126, 15) corroborates the thesis about his point
of descent.
Since Harkhuf after his third journey to Yam descended into the Nile Valley in the
vicinity of TomAs, Yam cannot be located in Dongola as Edel insists."' There is only one
direction from which one can descend into the Nile Valley at TomAs and this is from the
north, coming on the desert track from Dakhlah via Beris at Khargah to Dunkul and
from there on the same route used during the second journey into the Nile Valley.
The goods Harkhuf transported on 300 donkeys cannot be used for a geographical
identification. Khargah was on the trade route to Darfur and thus the commodities
mentioned do not necessarily reflect indigenous products of Yam. This concerns in
particular the ivory tusks but also the leopard skin and ebony. They are obviously all
considered precious and serve as an expression of gratitude and recognition by the chief
of Yam to the king of Egypt. The unidentified word s8t might be identical with that
occurring in Pyr. 518 a; 1369 a; 2017 a.
As has often been remarked,88 in the few years between Harkhuf's second and third
journey the political situation in Lower Nubia had changed by its political consolidation
under one rule.89 There is no indication that the ruler was truly hostile towards Harkhuf.
If he mentions in this context the number and strength of his escort, which in part
consisted of Yamians recruited for the Egyptian military service, this is not necessarily
a reflection of impending or barely avoided fighting. It can equally well be taken as a
reason for the local chief's unusual courtesy, due to the impression Harkhuf's caravan
made on him. His reactions are stated as wn in hk h pn hr zbit(.i) hr rdit(.i) k:w Cnh/w hr s8mt
n(.i) w:t nt tzwt nt 'Irrtt, "then that chief accompanied (me), gave cattle and goats to (me),
and guided (me) to the roads of the mountains of 'Irrtt." For zbi, "to accompany," see
Wb. III, 431, 5, though this rendering has problems. A possibly more suitable meaning
is attained by assuming a haplography of hr and emending to * hr zbit <hr(.i)> hr rdit
n(.) .... In addition to the resulting better meaning, this emendation is also supported by
the fact that the two parallel clauses have the same construction, namely an infinitive
followed by a preposition."9
That Harkhuf was pleased to receive supplies of fresh meat is not surprising because
they were unavailable to him during the desert travel. Beyond this, the furnishing of
animals for slaughter appears to have constituted a special favor.91 The last service
extended to Harkhuf by the chief of Lower Nubia is described as hr simt n(.i) wiwt nt
tzwt nt 'Irrtt. These "ways of the mountain-ranges of Irrtt" are to be identified with the

87 If Yam had been in Dongola, Harkhuf would
have followed the Nile, most likely by boat, and there
would have been no reason to single out one point
in the long river journey.
88
Sive-S6derbergh, Jigypten und Nubien, p. 16.
89 Following Edel's explanation of Urk. I 126, 16 I
read dmd.ti m ht wct because the Old Perfective has
to be feminine.
90 See also Siut IV 78; CT I 176 o where zbi hr stands
parallel to mdw hr, "to speak to someone." If taken
this way, Harkhuf apparently refers to the positive
reception he received, advocated by the chief of
Lower Nubia. It throws a curious light on the pre-
vailing customs that the chief "spoke for" Harkhuf
and his party, which seems to imply the limited
authority of the chief over his own people. For zbi hr,
"to advocate somebody," i.e., "to support," see Edel,
Untersuchungen zur Phraseologie, ? 18.
91 Meat for meals was a special treat; see Urk. I
139, 16; Urk. VII 5, 18-21.

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 HARKHUF'STRAVELS 17

overland tracks from Tomas (or Derr) to Mediq as Save-Sdderbergh first suggested,92 later
accepted by Edel.93 By taking these tracks, Harkhuf saved himself the long bend of
the Nile Valley of Sebuac, which is almost impassable on the western bank.94 Edel read
hr s8mt n(.i) wiwt, "machte mir gangbar die Wege," but Wb. IV 286, 12, "to show someone
a road" makes better sense. It does not mean that the chief of Lower Nubia accompanied
Harkhuf but only that he advised him.
It is not specified where Harkhuf finally embarked for his journey to the Residence
(Urk. I 127, 12), There is no indication that he immediately proceeded there with his
entire expedition. Weni's construction of passages through the First Cataract95 and his
passing them with seven vessels would indicate that the First Cataract was to some degree
navigable for riverine traffic. However, Harkhuf is more likely to have marched to Ele-
phantine and to have sailed north from there.96
He had obviously sent an advance report to the Residence, which instigated the dis-
patch of a reception party."' It was under the smr-wcty imy-r skbbwy98 JHwni, who appears
to be unattested elsewhere.99 As a gesture of welcome, he brought not only bread and
beer, but also date wine (bnrit) and some baked goods called mskw;100 in view of its con-
junction with bnrit, "date wine," mskw, is likely to refer to some "sweetmeat."
All of the three journeys which Harkhuf describes in his autobiographical inscriptions
took him to Yam. This applied also to another journey a few years later, which is reflected
in the letter written by the young Pepi II-Neferkarec about a dwarf Harkhuf was bring-
ing from "the land of the horizon-dwellers."11o After an extensive investigation Kuentz
concluded that t-i)htyw denotes "pays des habitants de l'horizon" or "terre des soi-
disant Horizontaux," which he assumes to be distantly to the south or southeast of
Egypt.102 While its location is basically uncertain, it is directly connected with the identi-
fication of Yam. Beyond this, the implicit meaning of:htyw, "horizon-dwellers," deserves
consideraton. Unquestionably a derivative of tht "horizon," this basis limits the term to
an easterly or westerly direction but certainly not to the south, where there is no horizon.
As far as Yam is concerned, this observation limits its placing to the east or to the west of
Egypt.

92 SAve-Soderbergh, Agypten und Nubien, p. 29.
93 See FS Grapow, p. 73.
94 That he used this overland desert track instead
of traveling on the western bank of the Nile-for the
somewhat more passable eastern bank he would have
had to cross the Nile with his big caravan-stands
against Edel's identification of Herkhuf's route
during his second journey; see above, p. 14.
95 Urk. I 108, 13-14.
96 One of the reasons for such an interpretation of
his travel are the 300 donkeys which made up his
caravan (Urk. I 126, 17). Once on boats he would no
longer need them because within Egypt he could reach
his destination by river. One must assume that he
got rid of the donkeys somewhere. As it is unlikely
that he sent them back to the chief of Yam or that he
sold them at Mediq, one might conclude that he
continued the last sixty-five miles to Elephantine on
land.
97 See Sinuhe B 243-45.
98 Edel, as did Helck before him (Untersuchungen
zu den Beamtentiteln des agyptischen Alten Reiches,
Agyptologische Forschungen 18 [Gliickstadt, 1954],
p. 25, n. 82), is certainly correct in rejecting Sethe's
restoration h,3ty-cfor lack of space and for incongruity.
No other title could have preceded smr-wcty and in
the small gap should be restored to the participle is;
for its use, see Edel, Altdg. Gramm., ? 825.
"9The name is curious because of its lack of any
obvious meaning. Only Whhw (see H. Junkr, Giza,
12 vols. MVienna, 1929-55], vol. 2, p. 166) could be
compared, iuti it is orthographic.ily impossible. I
wonder if the name should not be read *Rc-wn-n.i
(similar to R'-wn-n.f) (for the latter see Ranke, Die
dgyptische Personennamen, vol. I [Gliickstadt, 1935],
p. 217, 10).
100 Edel (FS Grapow, p. 73) read it as which
would seem a rather improbable sequencemswk., of radicals;
a graphic transposition seems more likely here.
101 Urk. I 128, 8, "that
you have returned success-
fully from Yam." The report which led to the king's
letter was apparently written after Harkhuf had
returned to Egyptian territory, i.e., presumably to
his home-base at Elephantine.
102 See M. C. Kuentz, "Autour d'une conception
6gyptienne meconnue: I'Akhit ou soi-disant horizon,"
BIFAO 17 (1920): 128 ff.

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18 JOURNALOF NEAR EASTERNSTUDIES

No details about the location of Yam can be established in connection with the first and
fourth journey of Harkhuf. The specifications given concerning the second and third
journey are in some way coherent, at the same time contradicting the proposed identi-
fications. Neither Yoyotte's placing of Yam at Dunkul nor Edel's extremely southern
location of it in the Kerma region is convincing,103 as Dixon has demonstated.104 Although
he refrains from a positive identification of Yam, Dixon makes it clear that Yam could
have lain south of the twenty-second north parallel, a view close to that of Gardiner, who
insisted that Yam had to be not too distant from Egypt because people from Yam were
employed as workmen and as mercenaries in Egypt.s05
Harkhuf went to Yam on two different routes, one leaving from the Thinite district,
the other from Elephantine. Both led onto the gebel, which makes it clear that his
direction was basically westward. On the second journey he reached two specific localities
before descending into the Nile Valley at Tomas. These details, as discussed above,106
allow only an identification with Kurkur and Dunkul reached by Harkhuf on the
southern-most side-branch of the Darb el-ArbaCyin; from Dunkul there is a desert track
south to the Nile Valley, reaching it at Tomas.
The same point is also mentioned in connection with Harkhuf's third journey to Yam.
After leaving on a northern branch of the Darb el-Arbacyin starting in the Thinite dis-
trict, Harkhuf proceeded to the Oasis of Khargah, which is denoted politically as
"the Oasis." From there he continued to the t-_Tmh, "the land of the Libyan," whichwh.t,was
obviously located at a feasible distance from Khargah and which has to be identified with
the oasis Dakhlah, which entered the perimeter of Egypt's political concerns at this time.
After completing his sojourn at Dakhlah in support of the chief of Yam, who obviously
was the ruler of Khargah, Harkhuf descended to the Nile Valley at a point north of
Z}tw and south of Irrtt, which is virtually identical with his point of descent during the
second journey.107
A number of conclusions can be drawn about Yam: first, it was not in the Nile Valley;
second, it was west of Abydos and Elephantine; third, it was comprised of Khargah, and
also Kurkur and Dunkul. This evidence strongly suggests that Yam did not denote a
specific locality, but rather an extensive region which comprised the southern oases. In
its application 'Ifm is thus similar to Md', which, as Posener has demonstrated, applies
to the desert region east of the Nile, the "tribal territory of the Madjoi."'08 Yam
apparently is the equivalent of Md) and is used as a term for the western desert and the
oase6 located there.109 When it is taken in this way, the contradictions in Harkhuf's

103A. J. Arkell, A History of the Sudan: from part due to Harkhuf's activities. Its people appear to
Earliest Times to 1821, 2d ed., rev. (London, 1961), have had a different ethnic affiliation from those of
opted for identifying Yam with Darfur. Yam. The intention to drive them "to the western
104 Dixon, "Land of Yam," pp. 40 ff. corner of heaven" suggests that the people of Dakhlah
105 Gardiner, Ancient Egyptian Onomastica, vol. 1, were ethnically connected with people further west or
pp. 74*-76*, favors a location between the First and northwest. It seems at this point tenable to assume
Second Cataracts. that Dakhlah was the southeasternmost area popu-
106See above, p. 14. lated by Libyans and that it was connected with the
107 For the identification of Z~tw and -Irrtt, see mass of this people via Farafra and Siwah. There is
again Edel, "Die LAndernamen Unternubiens," pp. nothing to support W. H61lscher's thesis (Libyer und
134 ff. Agypter: Beitrdge zur Ethologie und Geschichte libyscher
108G. Posener, et Volkerschaften nach den altagyptischen quellen Wilhelm
"'
83 (1958):
•L)j •)& H61scher [Gltickstadt, 1937], p. 55) of the origin of the
I I ," ZAS 38 ff.
_ Tmhw-Libyans in the deep south, i.e., in the Wadi
109 Dakhlah was
apparently an addition to Yam, in Hawa.

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 HARKHUF'STRAVELS 19

accounts vanish. As a general term If)m corresponds to later sht-i mw,110which denoted
the southern oases in the Western Desert.
Another result from the renewed investigation of Harkhuf's journeys and recognition
that they affected a limited region to the southwest of Egypt is a different evaluation of
the aims pursued. They cannot be seen as commercial enterprises to bring materials to
Egypt but rather represent true explorations with a distinctly political aim. That it was
only curiosity that triggered them is questionable. Major changes affected Lower Nubia
at the end of the Old Kingdom, leading to the appearance of the C-group there. Harkhuf's
journey might be connected with apparent ethnic movements or at least provide a ray
of light in a largely dark region. Two major changes occurred during the short time
covered by his travels. One concerns the Lower Nubian Nile Valley, the other the southern
cases region. The political situation seems to have entered a state of flux in both cases.
The chief of the area of the southern oases had embarked on an expansionist policy and
brought Dakhlah under his control. For doing so he received direct support from the
Egyptians through Harkhuf. What could Egypt's interest have been in supporting this
move? A tenable hypothesis would be that Egypt was interested in directing any ex-
pansionist pressures by the Yamians westward in order to protect the Nile Valley from
them.
The consolidation of Lower Nubia into one political unit might have been directly
connected with this threat emanating from the Western Desert. There is no indication
that the chief of Lower Nubia was in any way hostile to Harkhuf during any of his
journeys. On the contrary, he awarded him assistance and support. The consolidation in
Lower Nubia should thus not be seen as a menace to Egypt but, if it had any political
motivations at all, as a defense against pressures affecting this region.
That neither Harkhuf's attempts to direct the expansionist pressures of the southern
oases region towards the west nor the political consolidation of Lower Nubia were in the
long run successful in protecting the Nile Valley from the Yamians is reflected in the
infiltration and takeover of the lower Nile Valley by the C-group people who had their
origins in the Western Desert.111 While these events begin to form a coherent picture, the
cause of the pressure still remains to be considered. Disregarding the possibility of a
chief's personal drive for grandeur by conquest, which would fall outside the range of
rational historical investigation, there is one possible cause which might explain the
unrest of the Yamians. There are indications of climatic changes beginning with the late
Sixth Dynasty and continuing into the Ninth Dynasty, primarily in the form of increasing
dessication.112 This would, of course, have affected the desert dwellers more than those
living in the Nile Valley where some water supply would always be available. On this
basis the hypothesis can be promulgated that Yamians in the face of adverse climatic
conditions tried to improve their situation by political expansion. The incorporation of
Dakhlah in their relative vicinity must have seemed a logical move.113 Only after this
failed and when Egypt because of her internal weakness was unable to check the pressure,

110 Gauthier, Dictionnaire 112See B. Bell, "The Dark

gdographique, vol. 5, pp.
49 f.
111 See in particular, M. Bietak, Studien zur Chrono-
logie der nubischen C-Gruppe (Vienna, 1963), pp. 144 ff.;
W. Y. Adams, Nubia: A Corridor to Africa (Princeton,
1977), pp. 142 ff.; see also Edel, "Die Litndernamen
Unternubiens," pp. 154 ff.
Ages in Ancient Egypt
I," AJA 75 (1971): 26 ff.; K. Butzer, Early Hydraulic
Civilization in Egypt: A Study in Cultural Ecology
(Chicago, 1976), p. 27.
113There is nothing to support the claim by D. B.
Redford, "The Oases in Egyptian History to Classical
Times, JSSEA 7 (1976): 7 ff., that the oases had been

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20 JOURNAL OF NEAR EASTERN STUDIES

did the Yamians succeed in penetrating Nubia and establishing themselves there.
Putting the few bits of available information together, a dim picture emerges showing
major ethnic movements in the region of Lower Nubia and the adjoining deserts caused
by climatic changes.

under direct Egyptian control since the beginning

of the Fourth Dynasty. For the assumed "overseer of
Farafra," see my comments in MIDK 36 (1980).

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