A Storm in Egypt during the Reign of Ahmose

An inscribed stele erected at Thebes by Ahmose, the first Pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty, documents a destructive storm accompanied by flooding during his reign.

Fragments of the stele were found in the 3rd Pylon of the temple of Karnak at Thebes between 1947 and 1951 by the French Mission. A restoration of the stele and translation of the text was published by Claude Vandersleyen (1967). In the following year (1968), Vandersleyen added two more fragments, one from the top of the inscription and a small piece from line 10 of the restored text, which had been recovered by Egyptian archaeologists in the final cleaning of the foundations.

Each of the two sides of the stele bore the same inscription, allowing Vandersleyen to produce a restored text by collating them. The upper portion, after giving the King's titles and a recitation of religious ceremonies, describes the storm. It is unfortunately the most damaged part of the stele, with the result that there are many lacunae in the meteorological description. The description of the storm is followed by a virtually complete text that specifies the measures taken by the King to relieve the distress of the people and to repair the damages at Thebes.

An English version of Vandersleyen's translation, beginning with the description of the storm, is offered here for the convenient of Aegean specialists. This version is not intended to substitute for Vandersleyen's two publications, which provide the essential information: the physical description of the stele and an authoritative philological discussion of the text and its interpretation. Many of the specific elements of the Egyptian text are unique or rare, and Aegean specialists who wish to cite it must consult Vandersleyen's extensive critical notes.

(7)      ... the gods expressed

(8)      their discontent ... The gods (made?) the sky come with a tempest of (rain?); it caused darkness in the Western region; the sky was

(9)      unleashed, without ... ... more than the roar of the crowd; ... was powerful... on the mountains more than the turbulence of the

(10)      cataract which is at Elephantine. Each house, ... each shelter (or each covered place) that they reached... 

(11)      ... were floating in the water like the barks of papyrus (on the outside?) of the royal residence for ... day(s),

(12)      with no one able to light the torch anywhere. Then His Majesty said 'How these (events) surpass the power of the great god and the wills of the divinities!' And His Majesty descended

(13)      in his boat, his council following him. The (people were?) at the east and the west, silent, for they had no more clothes (?) on them

(14)      after the power of the god was manifested. Then His Majesty arrived in Thebes ... this statue; it received what it had desired.

(15)      His Majesty set about to strengthen the two lands, to cause the water to evacuate without (the aid of) his (men?), to provide them with silver,

(16)      with gold, with copper, with oil, with clothing, with all the products they desired; after which His Majesty rested in the palace - life, health, strength.

(17)      It was then that His Majesty was informed that the funerary concessions had been invaded (by the water), that the sepulchral chambers had been damaged, that the structures of funerary enclosures had been undermined, that the pyramids had collapsed?

(18)      all that existed had been annihilated. His Majesty then ordered the repair of the chapels which had fallen in ruins in all the country, restoration of the

(19)      monuments of the gods, the re-erection of their precincts, the replacement of the sacred objects in the room of appearances, the re-closing of the secret place, the re-introduction

(20)      into their naoi of the statues which were lying on the ground, the re-erection of the fire altars, the replacement of the offering tables back on their feet, to assure them the provision of offerings,

(21)      the augmentation of the revenues of the personnel, the restoration of the country to its former state. They carried out everything, as the king had ordered it.

The stele locates the devastation at Thebes and an area not far to the north. Its upper part mentions a royal residence at Sedjefa-Taouy, located south of Dendera, from which Ahmose journeyed to Thebes by boat (Vandersleyen 1968, 132). This residence, apparently not the one mentioned in line 11, was probably located at Ballas, situated between Coptos and Dendera (Vandersleyen 1967, 151-152; 1968, 132; Smith 1981, 278-281, map p. 12).

As Vandersleyen has pointed out, this elaborate account of a storm and its damages is unique among Egyptian records (1967, 156-157). It is possible that such an unusually violent storm resulted from the Santorini eruption. Such storms can result from volcanic eruptions when temperatures are lowered due to emissions of dust into the atmosphere. The major evidence for this is the Tambora eruption on Sumbawa in Indonesia in 1815, which results in almost continual rains from England to the Baltic in the summer of 1816 (Bullard, 1984 ,512; Lamb 1972). Widespread violent storms and dark skies for periods of days are also documented for volcanic eruptions observed in modern times.

The important papers presented at this Congress by Aston and Hardy and by Druitt and Francaviglia demonstrating that there was a pre-existing caldera on Thera prior to the Minoan eruption will require new calculations of the volume of the ejecta and will considerably modify the current estimations of the global impact of the eruption. Even so, it is possible that the unique documentation of the especially destructive storm in Egypt that is recorded on Ahmose's stele is relevant to the question of the absolute date of the eruption.

According to Vandersleyen, the 'Tempest Stele' cannot be precisely dated within Ahmose's reign, but it must have been erected before year 22, when a character of the King's name was written differently (1968, 132). This would place the event either between 1550 and 1528 BC or between 1539 and 1517 BC, according to Kitchen's recent evaluation of the chronology (1987, 52). Since the stele was erected to commemorate the repairs at Thebes, some time must have elapsed between the storm itself and the erection of the stele upon completion of the repairs. If the storm attested by the stele was caused by the Thera eruption, a date in the reign of Ahmose before year 22 would support the traditional chronology, as recently modified by Warren (see his paper in this Congress).

Hans Goedicke has recently cited the 'Tempest Stele' in connection with an incantation preserved in the Hearst Medical Papyrus (dated to the early 18th Dynasty) which states: 'just as Seth had banned the Mediterranean Sea, Seth will ban you likewise, O Canaanite illness!' (n.d. 165-170). He argues that the banning of the Mediterranean must refer to an actual event, which he locates at Avaris on the Nile delta and dates to the reign of Ahmose before year 22. Such an inundation could support the idea that the storm at Thebes resulted from the Thera eruption.

However, Goedicke has associated the event with the seismic destruction at Thera, which he erroneously dates to the end of LM IA. It is difficult to see how an earthquake could have caused the rainstorm at Thebes. And since the stele specifically mentions that Ahmose was at his residence at Sedjefa-Taouy near Thebes, it cannot be reconciled with Goedicke's reconstruction of the event as occurring in year 11 of Ahmose's reign when he was campaigning against the Hyksos king at Avaris (n.d., 169-170; 1986).

Goedicke has attempted, on the basis of other evidence, to assign the volcanic destruction of Thera to the 6th year of Hatshepsut's reign (n.d., 170-175), a date that seems to be too late, even according to conservative chronologies. But Goedicke cites important geological studies recently initiated by the Smithsonian Institution that should eventually clarify the question of when the eruption occurred in Egyptian terms. The excavation of well-stratified Egyptian sites, such as that of Kom Rabiya at Memphis, also promises to provide important new evidence for the question of the Egyptian date of the eruption in the near future.

Major issues have been raised at this Congress regarding the validity of the scientific methods for evaluating the absolute date of the volcanic destruction of Thera. Until these questions are resolved, and until the new geological and archaeological evidence from Egypt is available, the evidence of the 'Tempest Stele' deserves consideration.

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