Papyrus Harris I is also known as the Great Harris Papyrus and (less accurately) simply the Harris Papyrus (though there are a number of other papyri in the Harris collection). Its technical designation is ''Papyrus British Museum EA 9999''. At 41 metres long, it is "the longest known

papyrus Papyrus ( ) is a material similar to thick paper that was used in ancient times as a writing surface. It was made from the pith of the papyrus plant, '' Cyperus papyrus'', a wetland sedge. ''Papyrus'' (plural: ''papyri'') can also refer to ...

from

Egypt Egypt ( ar, مصر , ), officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, is a List of transcontinental countries, transcontinental country spanning the North Africa, northeast corner of Africa and Western Asia, southwest corner of Asia via a land bridg ...

, with some 1,500 lines of text." It was found in a tomb near

Medinet Habu Medinet Habu ( ar, مدينة هابو; Egyptian: ''Tjamet'' or ''Djamet''; cop, ''Djeme'' or ''Djemi'') is an archaeological locality situated near the foot of the Theban Hills on the West Bank of the River Nile opposite the modern city of Lu ...

, across the

Nile river The Nile, , Bohairic , lg, Kiira , Nobiin: Áman Dawū is a major north-flowing river in northeastern Africa. It flows into the Mediterranean Sea. The Nile is the longest river in Africa and has historically been considered the longest riv ...

from

Luxor, Egypt Luxor ( ar, الأقصر, al-ʾuqṣur, lit=the palaces) is a modern city in Upper (southern) Egypt which includes the site of the Ancient Egyptian city of ''Thebes''. Luxor has frequently been characterized as the "world's greatest open-a ...

, and purchased by collector Anthony Charles Harris (1790–1869) in 1855; it entered the collection of the

British Museum The British Museum is a public museum dedicated to human history, art and culture located in the Bloomsbury area of London. Its permanent collection of eight million works is among the largest and most comprehensive in existence. It docum ...

in 1872. Its

editio princeps In classical scholarship, the ''editio princeps'' (plural: ''editiones principes'') of a work is the first printed edition of the work, that previously had existed only in manuscripts, which could be circulated only after being copied by hand. For ...

is the 1876 "Facsimile of an Egyptian Hieratic papyrus of the reign of Ramses III" published by the British Museum.

Text

The

hieratic Hieratic (; grc, ἱερατικά, hieratiká, priestly) is the name given to a cursive writing system used for Ancient Egyptian and the principal script used to write that language from its development in the third millennium BC until the ris ...

text of the papyrus consists of a list of temple endowments and a brief summary of the entire reign (1186–1155 BC) of

king King is the title given to a male monarch in a variety of contexts. The female equivalent is queen regnant, queen, which title is also given to the queen consort, consort of a king. *In the context of prehistory, antiquity and contempora ...

Ramesses III Usermaatre Meryamun Ramesses III (also written Ramses and Rameses) was the second Pharaoh of the Twentieth Dynasty in Ancient Egypt. He is thought to have reigned from 26 March 1186 to 15 April 1155 BC and is considered to be the last great mona ...

of the

Twentieth dynasty of Egypt The Twentieth Dynasty of Egypt (notated Dynasty XX, alternatively 20th Dynasty or Dynasty 20) is the third and last dynasty of the Ancient Egyptian New Kingdom period, lasting from 1189 BC to 1077 BC. The 19th and 20th Dynasties furthermore toget ...

. Ramesses III claims to have captured hundreds of thousands of foreign slaves; “I brought back in great numbers those that my sword has spared, with their hands tied behind their backs before my horses, and their wives and children in tens of thousands, and their livestock in hundreds of thousands. I imprisoned their leaders in fortresses bearing my name, and I added to them chief archers and tribal chiefs, branded and enslaved, tattooed with my name, their wives and children being treated in the same way.” Its historical section mentions that

Setnakhte Userkhaure-setepenre Setnakhte (also called Setnakht or Sethnakht) was the first pharaoh ( 1189 BC– 1186 BC) of the Twentieth Dynasty of the New Kingdom of Egypt and the father of Ramesses III. Accession Setnakhte was not the son ...

, Ramesses III's father and predecessor, restored order and stability to Egypt after a time of internal civil conflict, expelling Asiatic followers of

Irsu Irsu ( egy, jr- sw, "he who made himself"; alternatively Su) is the name used in Papyrus Harris I to designate a Khasu who became overlord of a group of local rulers nominally under Egyptian control, at a time of unrest between the Nineteenth a ...

. Ramesses III himself reorganized the state bureaucracy and the army. He fought wars against the Peoples of the Sea and claims to have subdued them and made them subjects of Egypt. The

Edom Edom (; Edomite: ; he, אֱדוֹם , lit.: "red"; Akkadian: , ; Ancient Egyptian: ) was an ancient kingdom in Transjordan, located between Moab to the northeast, the Arabah to the west, and the Arabian Desert to the south and east.N ...

ites too were subjugated. In the west he stopped the incursions of the Libyans and

Meshwesh The Meshwesh (often abbreviated in ancient Egyptian as Ma) was an ancient Libyan Berber tribe, along with other groups like Libu and Tehenou/Tehenu. Early records of the Meshwesh date back to the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt from the reign of ...

and settled them in the western Nile delta. His economic activities included the digging of a great well at Ayan, an expedition to Punt, an ill-defined region in the Horn of Africa, the importation of copper from Atika, and an expedition to the

Sinai peninsula The Sinai Peninsula, or simply Sinai (now usually ) (, , cop, Ⲥⲓⲛⲁ), is a peninsula in Egypt, and the only part of the country located in Asia. It is between the Mediterranean Sea to the north and the Red Sea to the south, and is a ...

which returned with precious stones. Improving the quality of life of the ordinary Egyptian he had trees planted for shade, he protected women so they might go freely wherever they wanted, and, when Egypt was at peace, its foreign mercenaries lived with their families in garrison towns. Overall, he was convinced of having greatly bettered the lot of all inhabitants of Egypt, natives or foreigners.Breasted, James Henry. 1906. ''Ancient Records of Egypt'', Chicago, Part Four, §§ 397 to 412 The text itself was composed during the reign of

Ramesses IV Heqamaatre Setepenamun Ramesses IV (also written Ramses or Rameses) was the third pharaoh of the Twentieth Dynasty of the New Kingdom of Ancient Egypt. He was the second son of Ramesses III and became crown prince when his elder brother Amenhe ...

, Ramesses III's son and successor.

Footnotes

{{reflist

References

*Erichsen, Wolja. 1933. ''Papyrus Harris I: hieroglyphische Transkription''. Bibliotheca aegyptiaca 5. Brussel: Fondation égyptologique reine Élisabeth *Grandet, Pierre. 1994. ''Le papyrus Harris I (BM 9999)''. 2 vols. Bibliothèque d'Étude 109/1–2. Cairo: Imprimerie de l'Institut français d'archéologie orientale du Caire *Grandet, Pierre. 1999. ''Le papyrus Harris I: Glossaire''. Bibliothèque d'Étude 129. Cairo: Imprimerie de l'Institut français d'archéologie orientale du Caire *Breasted, James Henry. 1906. ''

Ancient Records of Egypt ''Ancient Records of Egypt'' is a five-volume work by James Henry Breasted, published in 1906, in which the author has attempted to translate and publish ''all'' of the ancient written records of Egyptian history which had survived to the time of ...

'', Chicago, Part Four, §§ 151 to 412

External links

British Museum webpage on the PapyrusBritish Museum webpage on a scene from the PapyrusAugust Eisenlohr's German edition of the Harris Papyrus at the Internet Archive
Extra-biblical references to Canaan Ancient Egyptian objects in the British Museum Egyptian papyri

Text

See also

Footnotes

References

External links