Roxana Cooper Wrote:
>
> The first Pharaoh of the 12th dynasty was
> described as being the son of a woman of 'ta set'
> (sic) meaning a nubian woman.

To be clear, the Prophecy of Neferti, from which you are getting this, actually says the king would come from a woman of Elephantine region, in the first Upper Egyptian nome of /tA-sty/ (Goedicke 1977: 127; 129; Hannig 1995: 1400b).

During the Old Kingdom the Egyptians applied the name Ta-Nehesy (Egyptian: /tA nHsy/) as a general designation for Nubia, but never was the term Ta-Sety used for Nubia. At the same time, Egyptians gave the name Wawat specifically to Lower Nubia.

The names which the Egyptians used to refer to the various parts of Nubia and its different peoples usually changed depending upon the era and the particular tribal group in a given area. Elsewhere in the Old Kingdom, the names Irtjet, Zatju, and Kaau were used of particular people and areas of the country. The Land of Yam, visited by Harkhuf, Governor of Elephantine, in the late Sixth Dynasty, was apparently located around the Fifth or Sixth Cataracts.

By the the Middle Kingdom onward, the Egyptians regularly used the name Kash (Egyptian: /kAS/) to refer to the powerful independent kingdom based in Upper Nubia, first at Kerma (until that was destroyed by the Egyptians in the sixteenth century BCE), thereafter at Napata, then Meröe. Kash is identified as the Land of Kush in the Holy Bible, first in Gen 10:6. Kush's political dependency was the territory of Sha'at (in the region of the Isle of Sai). Other Nubian land names attested at this time (mostly in execration texts) are: Iryshek, Tua, Imana'a, and Ruket; in the eastern mountains were Awshek and Webet-sepat.

Nowhere does an Egyptian text call any part of Nubia "Ta-Seti". The closest you have is a designation of nomadic Nubians as /iwntiw sti.w/ which means literally 'nomads with bows' (Hannig 2000: 916a).

Reference:

Goedicke, H. 1977. The Protocol of Neferyt (The Prophecy of Neferti). John Hopkins Near Eastern Studies. H. Goedicke. Baltimore/London: John Hopkins University Press.

Hannig, R. 2000. Die Sprache der Pharaonen: Großes Handwörterbuch Deutsch-Ägyptisch (2800 - 950 v. Chr.). Kulturegeschichte der Antiken Welt 86. Mainz: von Zabern.

_________. 1995. Die Sprache der Pharaonen: Großes Handwörterbuch Ägyptisch-Deutsch (2800 - 950 v. Chr.). Kulturegeschichte der Antiken Welt 64. Mainz: von Zabern.

Katherine Griffis-Greenberg

Doctoral Candidate
Oriental Institute
Doctoral Programme in Oriental Studies [Egyptology]
Oxford University
Oxford, United Kingdom