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How Long Was the Reign of Ḥoremḥeb? Author(s): J. R. Harris Source: The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, Vol. 54 (Aug., 1968), pp. 95-99 Published by: Egypt Exploration Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3855911 Accessed: 08/11/2010 18:10 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use, available at http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp. JSTOR's Terms and Conditions of Use provides, in part, that unless you have obtained prior permission, you may not download an entire issue of a journal or multiple copies of articles, and you may use content in the JSTOR archive only for your personal, non-commercial use. Please contact the publisher regarding any further use of this work. Publisher contact information may be obtained at http://www.jstor.org/action/showPublisher?publisherCode=ees. Each copy of any part of a JSTOR transmission must contain the same copyright notice that appears on the screen or printed page of such transmission. JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact
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HOW LONG WAS THE REIGN OF HOREMHEB? By J. R. HARRIS
ANY attempt to challenge the generally accepted view' that Horemheb reigned for between 25 and 30 years requires some justification, for it might be thought that the availableevidence has long been exhausted.Yet the bearingof one particulardocument appears in fact to have passed unnoticed, and in that it belongs to that class of ostraca non litteraireswhose appreciationwe owe to Professor Cerny it seems an appropriate motive for the present note, offered in token of his outstandingcontributionto Egyptology and in personal gratitude for his teaching and guidance. The essential facts may brieflybe recapitulated.Only three regnalyears of Horemheb have survived intact in contemporary inscriptions-Year i in the temple of Ptah at Karnak,2Year 3 in the Theban tomb of Neferhotep (No. 50),3 and Year 8 in a graffito in the tomb of Tuthmosis IV.4 A further date is partially preserved on a fragmentary stela and could be Year 5 or 7, although a higher figure is not impossible,s and Year 7 is later attested from two Ramessid ostraca,6the year in each case being of Horemheb's actual reign.7 Beyond this there is uncertainty. The Manethonian tradition is clearly corruptbut may conceal an originaltotal of 12 years 3 months,8a graffitofrom Medinet Habu has been thought to indicate a reign of some 27 years,9a well-known date in the inscriptionof Mes is generallytaken as provinga similar length,10and latterly a Year 28 and a Year 30 on dockets from El-'Amarna have also been ascribed to Horemheb.11 The validity of the higher dates is open to question. The least convincing are the two derived from the 'Amarnadockets, which hitherto have been assigned to Amenophis III (so figuring in discussion of his alleged co-regency with Akhenaten)12and for whose attribution to Horemheb there is no foundation. Not only is it unlikely that any dockets from El-'Amarna postdate the third or fourth year of Tut(ankhamun,13 but difficulties raised by the presence at Akhetaten of wine jars labelled in Years 28 1 With the notable exception of Helck and Otto, Kleines Worterbuchder Aegyptologie, I39.
2 Urk. IV, 2132 (832); Hari, Horemheb et la reine Moutnedjemet, 390, pi. Ix.
3 Urk.
, 277
(853);
, Horemheb, 403, pl. lxviii.
Carter and Newberry, Tomb of ThoutmosisIV, xxxiii-iv, figs. 7-8; Urk. iv, 2170 (849); Hari, Horemheb, 5 Hari, Horemheb, 300, pl. I, fig. 82. 393, pl. Ix. 6 Ostr. B.M. 5624: Erman, Zwei Aktenstiicke(SPAW 19 (1910), 330 f.); Blackman, JEA 12 (1926), 176 f., 4
pls. xxxiv-v;
Urk. Iv, 2162 (844); Hari, Horemheb, 400, pl. lxvii, fig. 86. Ostr. Toronto
(A. II):
Gardiner,
Thompson, and Milne, Theban Ostraca, I6 a f. 7 It may be noted that the same official Thutmose is named in Ostr. B.M. 5624 and in the graffito in the tomb of Thutmosis IV (above, n. 4). 8 Helck, Untersuchungenzu Manetho (Unt. xvIII), 69; but cf. Hornung, Untersuchungenzur Chronologieund 10 See below, p. 96 nn. i , II. 9 See below, p. 96 nn. 2-6. Geschichte, 39. 1 Redford, JNES 25 (I966), 123-4, following a suggestion of Giles. 12 Cf. Fairman in Pendlebury, City of Akhenaten, III, 154; Helck, Mitt. Inst. f. Orientforschung,2 (954), I3 Cf. Fairman in Pendlebury, CoA, II, 159-60. I96-7, § I.
J. R. HARRIS 96 and 30 of Amenophis III are now removed by the publication of a similar jar label of Year 3I from the tomb of Tut(ankhamun.IThe significance of the Medinet Habu graffito is also dubious. When first published2 it was interpreted as marking the accession of Horemheb and his usurpation of the mortuary temple from Ay, the Year 27 being regarded as an inclusive date like that in the Mes inscription.3It has since been recognized that Horemheb did not himself employ a method of dating to include the period from the death of Amenophis III, and the graffito, with a crucial reading altered in the final publication,4has thus been thought to refer to some visit made to the temple by Horemheb in Year 27 of his actual reign5or to his final entry there at his death in that same year.6 It has, however, been pointed out that on the original reading (supported by the first published facsimile) the text may equally relate to a visit made in Year 27 of Ramesses II, and further that the hieratic is suggestive of such a date.7 To this one may add that the epithet applied to Horemheb 'beloved of Amun, who hates his enemies and loves . .
is more in keeping with
Ramessid prejudice8than with his personal attitude.9 The date recorded in the inscription of Mes'I is less controversial,the sole question being whether the reading should be Year 58 or 59.1 Since Loret first made the point it has been widely accepted that this is an inclusive date incorporating the reigns of Horemheb's four predecessors,some 32 years in all,12and thus implying a minimum of 26/7 years for Horemheb himself. Neither the actual reading nor the broad conclusion is to be challenged,3 though it should be emphasized that no other example of an tCerny, Hieratic Inscr. from the Tomb of Tutrankhamin, 3-4, 24, pl. v (no. 25). Cf. anomalous dockets from Malqata (Helck, loc. cit., above, p. 95 n. 12). 2 Holscher,
Exc. at Ancient Thebes 1930/3
(OIC. 15), 5,
53, fig. 35.
Hblscher, loc. cit.; Borchardt, Die Mittel zur zeitlichen Festlegung, 85. 4 Anthes in Holscher, Exc. of Medinet Habu, Ir, io6-8, fig. 90, pi. 51 c. 5 Anthes, loc. cit.; Wilson, JNES 13 (I954), 128; Redford, JEA 45 (i959), 36; id. JNES 25 (I966), 123; Hornung, Unt. zur Chron. u. Geschichte,39. 6 von Beckerath, Tanis und Theben, 104; Hari, Horemheb,353-5. 7 Fairman iinPendlebury, CoA III, 157-8; Helck, Unt. zu Manetho, 68 n. 3; Kitchen, Chroniqued'Egypte, 3
40 (1965), 313 n.
2.
8 Cf. the text published by Erman, ZAS
42
(I905),
io6-9.
9 Much has been made of Horemheb's supposed despite of his four predecessors, whose memory he is alleged to have persecuted by destroying their monuments and by the arrogation of their regnal years. Except, however, in the case of Ay, whose name he may have erased for personal reasons, the available evidence does not support this view. That Horemheb was guilty of usurpation, notably at the expense of Tutcankhamfn, cannot be denied, but this was a common enough Egyptian practice, and his erasures were by no means indiscriminate. His action in dismantling the Aten shrine(s) at Karnak also had precedents, the buildings being removed not vengefully, but to provide for extensions to the temple of Amun, and the blocks packed neatly as core material, without defacement. It is clear, moreover, that Horemheb did not abolish the Memphite precinct, which was still in existence in the reign of Sethos I, nor is there any proof that it was he who systematically destroyed the temples at El-'Amarna itself. The presence there of fragmentary monuments bearing his name would indeed suggest the contrary, and it is logical to suppose that the site was in fact razed under Ramesses II, by whom large numbers of blocks were undoubtedly re-used at Hermopolis. IO
Loret, ZAS 39 (1901),
I f.; Gardiner, Inscription of Mes (Unt. IV, 3). Cf. Hari, Horemheb, 405-9.
Both Loret and Gardiner read 59, and this has recently been reaffirmed by Redford, JNES 25 (I966), I23. For the reading 58 see Borchardt, Die Mittel zur zeitl. Festlegung, 85 n. 5, followed by von Beckerath, Tanis u. Theben, I04. 12 i.e. I8 years for Akhenaten and Smenkhkarec and 14 years for Tutcankhamun and Ay. For convenience I have taken mean figures (as elsewhere), admitting the possibility of a short independent reign for Smenkhkarec. 13 It is unlikely that the date should represent anything but an 'aera post mortemAmenophistertii', though other suggestions have been made. II
HOW LONG WAS THE REIGN OF HOREMHEB?
97 inclusive date is known. It is evident that the existence of the 'Amarna kings was ignored officially in the Nineteenth Dynasty (or at least under Sethos I and Ramesses II),' but there is no indication that it was common practice to assign their regnal years to Horemheb. In a papyrusfragmentof this period the death of an individualis ascribed to Year 9 of 'the rebel' (or 'the rebellion'),2the inscriptionof Mes itself refersto negotiations which took place under Akhenaten as having occurred in the time of 'the enemy of Akhetaten'3-with the corollarythat 'the time (hw) of Horemheb'4will specify his actual reign-and the mention of Year 7 of Horemheb in the two Ramessid ostraca already cited5 is additional proof that dates within the 'Amarnaperiod were identified by some alternative means. The authority of the Mes date is therefore uncertain-it may derive simply from the document copied in drafting the inscription-and in the event the possibility of confusion or mere error cannot be discounted.6 Essentially, then, the evidenceis reducedto the following: (a) a run of incontrovertible dates spanning Years i to 8; (b) a presumed figure of I2 years 3 months in Manetho; and (c) a minimum of 26/7 years by calculation from the Mes inscription. The discrepancy of some 20 years between (a) and (c) is the more marked in that the first 8 years are consistently documented, and the absence of a single contemporarydate thereafter is surely significant. Indirect evidence, however slight, is thus of some importance, and any such indications may now be considered. It has been claimed that the apparent death of two Apis bulls during the reign of Horemheb is proof that he ruled for a considerable period,7 but in fact the argument is equivocal. Not only were the burials of the bulls rather unusual,8 suggesting that they had taken place within a short interval(and one not necessarilyunderHoremheb),9 but no calculation based upon the 'average'life of an Apis has any validity. Of eight bulls known to have died during the reign of Ramesses II, the first and second were buried in Years 6 and26,, the third in Year 30, 3 and the remaining five over the next in the i.e. lifetime of Khaemwese,Iowhile again in the Twentieth Dynasty 25 years, five were entombed within the 27-year reign of Ramesses XI." Little can be deduced from the career of Horemheb himself, for although it is probablethat he was no longer young by the time he ascended the throne, his early life is too obscure for any estimate of his age to be convincing. Setting aside attempts to identify him with Paatenemheb,I2his first authenticatedappearanceis in the reign of Tut'ankhamun, at which point he had already attained high military and civil rank13 Cf. the Abydos and Saqqara king-lists and an ostracon published by Sauneron, Chroniqued'Egypte, 26 (195I),
46-9.
2
Gardiner, JEA 24 (1938), 124.
3 Line S.I4.
Lines N.3, N.II, and N.I2. 5 Above, p. 95 n. 6. 6 One may suspect a simple miscalculation, but a corruption through hieratic is also feasible (if perhaps unlikely) as is some kind of 'Verldngerung'such as is found in Manetho (cf. Helck, Unt. zu Manetho, 81 .). 7 Hari, Horemheb,356-8. 8 Mariette, Le Se'rape'umde Memphis, 8-i I; Mariette and Maspero, Se'rape'um,66-7. 4
9 Cf. Petrie, History of Egypt, 11, 245-6.
10 Mariette, Serapeum, 12-I6; Porter and Moss, Top. Bibl. III, 206-7. One of the burials (Mariette, Serapeum, pi. 21) may, however, be later (cf. Petrie, History of Egypt, III, 85). " Mariette, Serape'um,i6; Porter and Moss, Top. Bibl. III, 207. 12 Cf., most recently, Drioton and Vandier, L'Agypte4, 350; Hornung, Unt. zur Chron.u. Geschichte,4o0n. 86; 13 Cf. Hari, Horemheb, 35 f. Helck, Zur Verwaltung, 371-4, 487-7; Hari, Horemheb,pls. xxiv a-c.
98
J. R. HARRIS
and will have been a mature man (as indeed the New York statue would suggest). But this need not imply that he was more than say 35-40 when Tutankhamiin became king, and on this basis he would have been about 75-80 had he reigned the 26/7 years suggested by the Mes inscription. This is an advanced age, but comparable to that attained in all probability by Ay. The degree of activity in the architectural field under Horemheb is perhaps of greatersignificance,for apartfrom instances of usurpation,principallyto the detriment of Tut(ankhamfin, the total volume of building undertaken was not exceptional.' Though no direct comparisons are feasible, the work attributableto HIoremhebfalls short of that accomplished by Sethos I within a period of no more than I5 years, and does not approachthe achievementsof, for example, the 32-year reign of Ramesses III. Moreover, it may be noted that the Theban tomb of Horemheb was only partially decorated at the time of his death2 (whereas that of Sethos I, though on a grander scale, was virtually completed), and even allowing that he alreadypossessed another at Memphis, the fact that his royal resting place in the Valley of Kings remained unfinished would seem to militate against a reign of any considerable length. The document alluded to in the opening paragraphis the text of a letter preservedon an ostracon in Toronto.3 The piece is one of four reproducedas a model exercise, but, as with other examples, the content is clearly that of an actual letter.4 It is in fact a communication addressed to the vizier Khay by a chief of police named Mininiwy [sic], in the course of which he remindshis master that he has been in the vizier's service since Year 7 of Horemheb.5The date of the originalletter is not recorded,but it cannot in any circumstancesbe earlier than Year I6 of Ramesses II, when Paser was still the southern vizier,6 and may well be considerably later, the earliest extant reference to Khay as vizier being of Year 30.7 That the writer was indeed chief of police late in the second decade of the reign is confirmed by a legal document in which he appears as a witness.8Again the date of the text itself is lost, but the proceedingsare concernedwith the purchase of a female slave said to have taken place in a Year 15 which will have been that of Ramesses II. At the time of the original transactionthe slave in question was still a girl, and it may thus be deduced that the action recorded in the papyrus is of a somewhat later date. The significant point to emerge is that Mininiwy was a necropolis workman in Year 7 of Horemheb and was still active as chief of police some time after Year i6 of For a summary cf. Hari, Horemheb, 321 f., and, for work at Karnak, Barguet, Le Temple d'Amon-Re a Karnak, index s.v. Horemheb. 2 Cf. Davis, Tombs of Harmhabi and Touatankhamanou; Thomas, Royal Necropoleis of Thebes, 92, 95-6; Porter and Moss, Top. Bibl. I, ii, 567-9. 3 Ostr. Toronto (A.II), rt. 12-30: Gardiner, Thompson, and Milne, Theban Ostraca, i6g-k. 4 Cf. Erman, Ag. Schulerhandschriften,15-I6. 5 'Another communication to my lord, to the effect that I am the aged servant of my lord from Year 7 of King Djeserkheperur'.' 6 Cf. Yoyotte, Orientalia, 23 (1954), 227; Helck, Zur Verwaltung, 3II-15. 7 Cf. Helck, Zur Verwaltung, 321-2, 456-8. 8 P. Cairo, 65739: Gardiner, JEA 2I (I935), pls. xiii-xvi. The name (1. 23) is fragmentary, but I40-6, clearly the same.
HOW LONG WAS THE REIGN OF HOREMHEB?
99 Ramesses II-a combination of the two sources might suggest a date somewhere between Years 20 and 25. But assuming that he became a workmanat the age of 18-20, the allowance of a minimal 26/7 years for Horemheb would mean that he lived to be about 75-80. This is not in itself an impossibility, but it is scarcely probable that any man should have remainedchief of police at such an age. Acceptance of a shorter reign of 8 or even 12 years for Horemheb would eliminate this anomaly.' No firm conclusion is yet possible, but a reappraisalof the availableevidence reveals the frailty of deductions based on the Mes date, and suggests that the lower totals derived from contemporary sources and from Manetho are worthy of favourable consideration. This is not the place to discuss the chronological implications of such a revision, though it will be apparentthat any substantial reduction in the number of years allotted to Horemheb demands acceptance of the earlier of the two possible dates for the accession of Ramesses II. Retention of the 1290 alternative would place the reign of Horemheb (and those of his immediate predecessors) outside the limits imposed by external synchronisms,2 but a viable sequence is possible taking the higher date of I304.3 Allowing some 15 years for the reign of Sethos I and a maximum of 2 for Ramesses I, the beginning of the Nineteenth Dynasty will fall in I32I/20 of Ramesses I thus coinciding with the era a7Torr Ievopecws4 and the first year of Horemheb in either 1329/8 (for an 8-year reign) or 1333/2 (for 12 years) (the accession
-neither of which is precluded by comparativeevidence.5 At the same time
I504
is
virtually ruled out as a possible date for the accession of Tuthmosis III,6 the mean total of the eight reigns down to Horemheb being insufficient to fill a gap of at least 170 years (to 1333/2), whereas the more acceptable date of I490 can be accommodated to either of the suggested alternatives.7 I I have assumed that Mininiwy's
words are not to be taken literally, but simply to mean that as a necropolis
workman he was in the vizier's service over the years. Any suggestion of a personal association with Khay from Year 7 of Horemheb would raise additional difficulties, for Khay was still vizier in year 44 of Ramesses I I -some 80 years later, given that Horemheb reigned for 26/7 years. Khay would then have been no less than 0oo. 2 Cf. Hornung, Unt. zur Chron. u. Geschichte, in particular ch. ix (pp. 63 f.) and ch. xiv (pp. 107 f.). 3 Recently reasserted by Rowton, JNES 25 (I966), 240-58. 4 For the identification of Menophres with Ramesses I see Montet, CRAI I937, 418-26; Cerny, JEA 47 (1961), 150-2. 5 The dating of EA9 presents a certain problem if in fact the recipient was Tut'ankhamun (for recent discussion see Edel, JNES 7 (1948), 14-15; Vergote, Toutankhamondans les archives hittites, 11; Campbell, Chronologyof the Amarna Letters, 62; Hornung, Unt. zur Chron. u. Geschichte,66). On the above reckoning the letter cannot be placed earlier than 1343/2 or I347/6, with the rider that Burnaburiash II was still alive at this point, and possibly as late as 1340/39 or 1344/3 (allowing that the letter may have been written at any time during Years 1-4 of Tut'ankhamun). This predicates acceptance of a low date for the accession of Kurigalzu II (c. I34I/40?), and of a short span for the two preceding reigns, whose brevity is not contested. On the other hand, correspondingly lower dates for the reign of Akhenaten allow a more satisfactory overlap with Ashuruballit I. 6 Already shown to be impossible by Parker, JNES i6 (1957), 38-43; cf. Hornung, Unt. zur Chron. u. Geschichte, 56-7. 7 The fixing of 1490 and 1304 as the correct dates for the two accessions would of itself necessitate a reduction in the number of years allotted to the eleven kings from Tuthmosis III to Sethos I. Even a minimum total will exceed the i86 years available, with only two openings for a substantial adjustment-one the acceptance of a long co-regency between Amenophis III and Akhenaten, the other a curtailment of the reign of Horemheb.
