Secrets part II

Tanwetamani and Tanotamun

So far some very heavy "food". Now it becomes more easily. Or also not? We are not sure. This part concerns in names. And it concerns which names we use in our site. Sometimes nevertheless a tricky affair.

That already starts with the name of the city of Luxor. Usually today we say Luxor, in the Anglo-Saxonian countries still frequently the term "Thebes" is used picture right: view across the river Nile - from the East to the West Bank - with the public ferry, the village El Gezira, and the mountains in the back, which for sure carry some more Egyptian secrets). Also in literature for the description of each epoch of the city the term "Thebes" often is used. Nevertheless the term "Thebes" is only a poetic imagination.

Under the name "Wâset" the settlement on the East Bank of the Nile gains meaning as the capital of the fourth district during the Old Kingdom (approx. 2686 - 2181 B.C.). At the beginning of the Middle Kingdom (approx. 2040 - 1782 B.C.) King Mentuhetep I. (approx. 2060 - 2010 B.C.) re-united Lower and Upper Egypt, announced the city as the capital of the state. Under Amenemhat I. (approx. 1991 - 1961 B.C.) Wâset lost its status. Only when Egypt was fighting against the occupation of the semitie Hyksos during the 17th dynasty (approx. 1663 - 1570 B.C.) Wâset, now also named "Nut" or "No", took back again its former leading position. The time of prospertity for the city came during the New Kingdom (approx. 1570 - 1070 B.C.). From this time originate the inheritances of the Pharaohs.

The name "Thebes" was given to the city by the Greek poet and philosoph Homer (around 8th century B.C.) who sang in his "Ilias" from "the hundred gates of Thebes". The Romans called the city "Diospolis magna". In the Islamic time the name "Al Uqsur", the "City of the Palaces" was used, from this Arabic term finally the name Luxor was created. In the ancient history except of the mortuary temples of the kings the West Bank was nameless. Nowadays the area administratively is a part part of the city of Luxor. Anyhow is known as West Bank or by the names of every single village. The term Thebes West is mostly used to express the archeological sites, as we do.

A lively disorder you also find with the names of the kings. It's easy with Rameses because it is one of the dynastic names. But during a long period of time the Greek versions of the kings names were used, since it was unknown, how to pronounce the ancient Egyptian names. Meanwhile a reversal began. More and more you will hear Amenhetep instead of Amenophis, Setoy instead of Sethos or Sety. We also use the ancient Egyptian names. But if your tour guides uses the Greek versions of the names, just ask him for Egyptian names to avoid misunderstandings. If you have luck, he knows both versions.

It becomes more colourful in some special cases. Or did you already heard something about King Tanwetamani ? Or even Tanotamen? If not, don't worry. Because on one hand this gentleman is one and the same, second he did not left a tomb on the West Bank. Therefore his names, the one or the other, will not bother you again. Tanwetamani was the last Nubian ruler in Egypt (664 - 656 B.C.). During his reign Thebes or Wâset was destroyed by the Assyrians. We only like to explain to you, that in literature one king sometimes appears with two different names, which sometimes makes the understanding a little bit difficult. In such cases we will refer at least, that a king is mentioned with two names (picture left: when playing Dominoes in one of the village's coffeeshops the men discuss all important daily topics - may be uncle Ahmed's secrets as well).

It also seems like upside-down in concern of the spelling of Arabic names. Lets take our friend Nagib Machfus as an example. We wrote him only like this, because the Unionsverlag did it. But frequently his first name is written as Naguib, his second name as Mahfouz (pleases us best), Mahfuz, Machfuz or Makhfuz. Select for yourself. It is similar with common names like Mohamed, which you can find written in many variations. We decided to choose always the simplest solution and will go on with this, because unfortunately there are no unified rules for transcriptions from Arabic to Latin letters.

Numbers do never lie?

As we are already with disorder, it still continues. Take three different scientific books and compare the ruling dates of one of the ancient Egyptian Kings. For sure you find three different specifications. May be you are already concerned before. We specified dates, which seemed to be very exactly (Setoy I. 1291 - 1278 B.C.), but set however an approx.in addition.

Simple explanation: Nobody knows exactly the ruling dates of the ancient Egyptian kings, all datas are approximations only. Therefore that approx.. Simplified this inexactness has the following reasons. The Egyptians did not know a year Zero (from where they should know? There was no god, who determined 'From today the years will be counted according to my will', no followers or a date announced by priests for the creation of the world or the birth of a god. The world was finite but timeless). The Egyptians did not have a sequential calendar, were counting the years according to the years of reign of the respective ruler. The year already had 365 days, but in ancient Egypt the additional annual quarter-day was simply forgotten (today the time will be adjusted by a leap year every fourth year). That missing quarter day causes every 100 years a shift of the years for 25 days, nearly one month. Beside this there are some kings and their ruling dates missing in the available sources, which makes it very difficult to build up a structure with exact temporal sequences of every ruler.

Few clarity into the temporal darkness brings a rather complicated astronomical dating. But up to now also this dating is afflicted with errors. Only the datas starting from the year 664 B.C. are considered as exact. Since that time it references between Egypt and the Mediterranean neighbours can be arranged temporally. In this context it is importang to know, that datas concerning rulers in our texts only refer to datas of reign, because the exact datas of life mostly are unsecure. Only rarely it can be indicated, that a certain king came to power for instance in high age (example Merenptah) or ruled as a child king like Tut-ench-Amun.

In order to make with different datas no confusion, we relied with all datings on the patterns of Englishman Peter A. Clayton published in his book "Chronicle of the Pharaohs", London 1994 (of course we luckily can use the German translation, picture right: Already a bit well-thumbed by frequently using: Our practical guide for dates and names of queens and kings). So don't be confused, when you find differing datas with other authors. Sometimes evenly numbers nevertheless are liars - or at least do not provide complete clarity. Approx. or what?

Finally we ask you for apology because of this for a
website too long text. But it seemed for us not little to clarify some facts important for the entire pages, like the confusion with names and datas. In the future we will strive to seize us more briefly. But whether that always folds???
That is another cup of tea. Oh, by the way. Uncle Ahmed for his supply with all dissipations needed much longer than you for reading this long text... (Text and Fotos Wolfgang Sliwka)

Here you might return to part I.