Hermione Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
>
> I'm told that these are two useful references:
>
> K.A.Kitchen, "Non-Egyptians recorded on
> Middle-Kingdom stelae in Rio de Janeiro" in
> S.Quirke (ed.) Middle Kingdom Studies (SIA
> Publishing, 1981); 87-90.
>
> William C. Hayes, "A Papyrus of The Late Middle
> Kingdom (Papyrus Brooklyn 35.1446)", Wilbour
> Monographs V (Brooklyn Museum, 1955).
We've probably done Kitchen to death
, but on Hayes there's the following additional material from James K. Hoffmeier's
Israel in Egypt: The Evidence for the Authenticity of the Exodus Tradition (1996, Oxford University Press):
"[...] There is ample documentation during the Middle Kingdom of a significant Semitic-speaking population in Egypt. An oft-cited document that provides information on Semites in Egypt during the late Middle Kingdom is Papyrus Brooklyn 35.1446 [...]. This document, probably of Theban origin and dating to the late Twelfth or early Thirteenth Dynasty, contains a ledger with the names of the servants of an Egyptian estate. Over forty are labeled
c3m or
c3mt (feminine) and bear names of Northwest Semitic type indicating their Syro-Palestinian ethnicity. Since over forty Semites were attached to this single estate in the Thebaid, the number across Egypt, especially in the Delta, was likely considerable. To account for this presence, Hayes suggests that there was a large number of Syro-Palestinians throughout Egypt in the service of Egyptian nobility. In the absence of any historical evidence for major military campaigns into the Levant by the Twelfth Dynasty monarchs which would account for prisoners of war, Hayes suggests that there was 'a brisk trade in Asiatic slaves carried on by the Asiatics themselves, with Egypt' not unlike that reported in Genesis 37:28, 36.
"Since virtually nothing is known of such a slave trade from Egyptian sources, Hayes's explanation alone can hardly account for the significant number of Semites in Egypt during the first half of the second millennium. Recently, a historical inscription of Amenemhet II (1901-1866 BC) has come to light which reports on campaigns into the Levant that resulted in the capture of 1,554 prisoners of war. This demonstrates that some of the Asiatics in Egypt during the Middle Kingdom were transplanted to Egypt as a result of war. This same text also reports that Asiatic rulers and chieftains from Canaan sent individuals as tribute to the Egyptian court. The same text also reinforces what has been known earlier: that Asiatics entered Egypt on commercial ventures. There was commercial contact between Egypt and Canaan as far back as the close of the predynastic and Archaic period (Dynasties 1 and 2). During the Old Kingdom (ca. 2700-2190 BC) commercial contacts between Egypt and the Levant flourished, with Egyptians desiring timber from Lebanon [...].
"While 'slave trade', as Hayes describes it, might account for the presence of some Semites in Egypt during the Middle Kingdom, the evidence now shows that foreigners from western Asia entered Egypt as POWs, as tribute or diplomatic gifts, and as participants in commercial ventures. Furthermore, it is quite logical to believe that a portion of the Semitic peoples in Egypt during the Middle Kingdom and beyond were descendants of immigrants from the First Intermediate Period who had settled in the Delta.
"Other papyri - such as Papyrus London UC XL.1 and the Papyri Berol 10002, 10004, 10021, 10034, 10047, 10050, 10055, 10066, 10111, 10228, and 10323 - point to a significant number of Asiatics (
c3m[w]). While these remain largely unpublished, Ulrich Luft has begun a thorough investigation of these sources. Some of the professions associated with these Asiatics are singers, dancers, temple workers and doorkeepers, couriers, corvee laborers, and mining-expedition workers. While most of them bore Semitic names, others had good Egyptian names like Senusert, but were prefixed by
c3m, indicating their foreign origin despite the Egyptian name" (pp. 61-62).