The Banishment Stela or Maunier Stela (Louvre C 256) is an ancient Egyptian stela issued in c.1050 BCE. It contains an amnesty decree of the

21st Dynasty The Twenty-first Dynasty of Egypt (notated Dynasty XXI, alternatively 21st Dynasty or Dynasty 21) is usually classified as the first Dynasty of the Ancient Egyptian Third Intermediate Period, lasting from 1077 BC to 943 BC. History After the r ...

Theban High Priests of Amun The High Priest of Amun or First Prophet of Amun ('' ḥm nṯr tpj n jmn'') was the highest-ranking priest in the priesthood of the ancient Egyptian god Amun. The first high priests of Amun appear in the New Kingdom of Egypt, at the beginning ...

Menkheperre Menkheperre, son of Pharaoh Pinedjem I by wife Duathathor-Henuttawy (daughter of Ramesses XI by wife Tentamon), was the High Priest of Amun at Thebes in ancient Egypt from 1045 BC to 992 BC and ''de facto'' ruler of the south of the country. ...

History

The Banishment Stela was discovered in

Luxor 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 ...

around 1860 by the then French Vice-

Consul Consul (abbrev. ''cos.''; Latin plural ''consules'') was the title of one of the two chief magistrates of the Roman Republic, and subsequently also an important title under the Roman Empire. The title was used in other European city-states throu ...

, Henri Maunier; it was carried to

Paris Paris () is the Capital city, capital and List of communes in France with over 20,000 inhabitants, most populous city of France, with an estimated population of 2,165,423 residents in 2019 in an area of more than 105 km² (41 sq mi), ma ...

in 1884 and exhibited at the

Louvre The Louvre ( ), or the Louvre Museum ( ), is the world's most-visited museum, and an historic landmark in Paris, France. It is the home of some of the best-known works of art, including the ''Mona Lisa'' and the ''Venus de Milo''. A central l ...

where it still is.Sternberg-el Hotabi, Heike (1986). "Die Stele der Verbannten", in: ''Texte aus der Umwelt des Alten Testaments, II/1'', pp. 112–7.
The stela is made from

diorite Diorite ( ) is an intrusive igneous rock formed by the slow cooling underground of magma (molten rock) that has a moderate content of silica and a relatively low content of alkali metals. It is intermediate in composition between low-sili ...

and measures in height and in width. The upper part is poorly preserved, and only a depiction of Menkheperre praying to the god Amun is still visible; the lower portion is in better condition and of the 23 lines of Egyptian hieroglyph text, only the first 4 are mostly lost.

Content

The stela mentions three dates, although it is not entirely clear what happened on them, or even to which reign(s) they belonged. These dates are (in the order in which they appear in the text, which is not necessarily their correct chronological order): *Date A: year 25, third month of the

Season of the Harvest The Season of the Harvest or Low Water was the third and final season of the lunar and civil Egyptian calendars. It fell after the Season of the Emergence (') and before the spiritually dangerous intercalary month ('), after which the New Year's ...

(= month 11), day 29 *Date B: year 25, first month of the

Season of the Inundation The Season of the Inundation or Flood ( egy, Ꜣḫt) was the first season of the lunar and civil Egyptian calendars. It fell after the intercalary month of Days over the Year ('). and before the Season of the Emergence ('). In the modern Copti ...

(= month 1), day 4 or 5 *Date C: year ... , fourth month of the Season of the Harvest, epagomenal days, Birth of

Isis Isis (; ''Ēse''; ; Meroitic: ''Wos'' 'a''or ''Wusa''; Phoenician: 𐤀𐤎, romanized: ʾs) was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion whose worship spread throughout the Greco-Roman world. Isis was first mentioned in the Old Kin ...

According to Von Beckerath, with date C, for reasons of space, the regnal year could only have been relatively low. Acceptable solutions would be: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 10, 11 or 20. The stela apparently reports that in the regnal Year 25 of an unknown

pharaoh Pharaoh (, ; Egyptian: '' pr ꜥꜣ''; cop, , Pǝrro; Biblical Hebrew: ''Parʿō'') is the vernacular term often used by modern authors for the kings of ancient Egypt who ruled as monarchs from the First Dynasty (c. 3150 BC) until the ...

a revolt sparked in Thebes against the Priesthood of Amun. The revolt was suffocated in the same year, and the rebels were banished (date A) into the

Kharga Oasis The Kharga Oasis (Arabic: , ) ; Coptic: ( "Oasis of Hib", "Oasis of Psoi") is the southernmost of Egypt's five western oases. It is located in the Western Desert, about 200 km (125 miles) to the west of the Nile valley. "Kharga" or ...

by decision of the oracle of Amun. Shortly after (date B) Menkheperre was installed as ''

generalissimo ''Generalissimo'' ( ) is a military rank of the highest degree, superior to field marshal and other five-star ranks in the states where they are used. Usage The word (), an Italian term, is the absolute superlative of ('general') thus me ...

'' and High Priest of Amun “by the god Amun himself”; in the early reign of another king (date C), Menkheperre again resorted to the oracle and obtained the recall and pardon of the exiles, just before issuing the stela to celebrate this act. The king whose regnal Year 25 is reported on the stela (date A) could only have been the founder of the 21st Dynasty

Smendes Hedjkheperre Setepenre Smendes was the founder of the Twenty-first Dynasty of Egypt and succeeded to the throne after burying Ramesses XI in Lower Egypt – territory which he controlled. His Egyptian nomen or birth name was actually Nesban ...

, who is generally assumed to have reigned for around 25–26 years. The king who was in charge when the stela was issued (date C) was one of his immediate successors, most likely the ephemeral and poorly known

Amenemnisu Neferkare Amenemnisu was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh, the second king of the 21st Dynasty. Reign Amenemnisu's existence was only confirmed in 1940 when the Tanite tomb of his successor Psusennes I was discovered by Pierre Montet: a gold bow ca ...

, or alternatively but less likely,

Psusennes I Psusennes I ( egy, pꜣ-sbꜣ-ḫꜥ-n-njwt; Greek Ψουσέννης) was the third pharaoh of the 21st Dynasty who ruled from Tanis between 1047 and 1001 BC. ''Psusennes'' is the Greek version of his original name Pasibkhanu or Pasebakhaenniu ...

., §§ 213, 217–8

History

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References

Further reading