The Miniminuteman channel is a great resource for learning about history and archaeology. However, I think Miniminuteman is wrong about pyramids and slavery. Specifcally, I think he’s wrong to say “The Great Pyramid was built by like craftsmen and laborers. It was not an enslaved force”, and this video explains why.
Media credits
- Vincent Brown, The Great Pyramid (32351082151), CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Great_Pyramid_(32351082151).jpg.
- Groner/Barringer – Ancient Egypt: Social Classes, https://qrsdhighschool.libguides.com/c.php?g=1198059&p=8762422.
- Haaretz, https://x.com/haaretzcom/status/720835317603835904.
- TheHeshmat, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pyramids_of_Egypt_-_One_of_Seven_Wonders.jpg.
- George Alexander Hoskins (1802-1863), Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Rechmire-Tributszene.jpg.
- Jorge Láscar from Melbourne, Australia – Pyramid of Cheops behind Chephren, CC BY 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pyramid_of_Cheops_behind_Chephren_(14772280566).jpg.
- Ricardo Liberato – All Gizah Pyramids, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=2258048.
- metmuseum.org, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Statue_of_a_kneeling_captive_Egyptianized_Alien_in_Ancient_Egypt.jpg.
- Museo Egizio, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Suole_di_mummia_raffiguranti_due_prigionieri_asiatici_BCH3158.tif.
- https://www.nationalgeographic.com/history/history-magazine/article/egyptian-pharaohs-laws-and-punishments, https://i.natgeofe.com/n/028e8698-946b-49dc-be28-1484fea874b5/04-slaves-mereruka-tomb_16x9.jpg.
- PBT, Understanding Slavery in Egypt, Assyria, and Sparta, https://www.pbslearningmedia.org/resource/e5e7a6e1-72fd-460c-bb6e-52f3afc7255b/understanding-slavery-in-egypt-assyria-and-sparta.
- Smart History, Egyptian Social Organization—from the Pharaoh to the farmer (Part 2), https://smarthistory.org/egyptian-social-organization-from-pharaoh-to-farmer.
- Aidan McRae Thomson, CC BY-SA 2.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Prisoners_of_War,_Abydos.jpg.
- Walkerssk, CC0, via Wikimedia Commons, https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pyramids_in_Giza_-_Egypt.jpg.
Primary source texts
151. P. Mallet III–IV (Dynasty 20: Ramesses lV)
It is the cattle overseer Bakenkhons of the Estate of Amon-Re, King of the Gods, who addresses the policeman Maiseti, the policeman Setemhab, the administrator Paukhed [of] the sacred palanquin of King Userkhare-setepenre-miamon (Setnakht), l.p.h., the cultivator Paiuten, the cultivator Usekhnemtet, and each herdsman of the altar of Amon who is in the district of Kheriu:
As soon as the servant Amenemwia comes to you, you shall set out with him and perform corvée labor for me on the farmlands to which he will take you to be cleared since it is off of them that you will be living. Don’t you proceed to return a complaint! Now look, when Amon-Re, King of the Gods, brought forth the floodwaters for Pharaoh, l.p.h., his son, see, I came to pick out him who should go to perform corvée labor for me and to pick out him who should not go. Don’t you proceed to take an opposing stand when this retainer of mine reaches you in the course of tomorrow, or you will be put in the wrong.
See, I’ve written to provide you with testimony. You are to preserve my letter in order that it may serve you as evidence at some later date.
Edward Frank Wente and Edmund S. Meltzer, Letters from Ancient Egypt, vol. 1 of Writings from the Ancient World (Atlanta, GA: Scholars Press, 1990), 127–128.
102. P. Kahun XII.1 (Dynasty 12: after Amenemhat III)
[Beginning lost] Now [I] was told [that …] is prospering. I’m delighted that I found the royal slave Sobekemhab, for he was in flight. I turned him over to the corvée compound for trial, and […] works for me […] the mortuary temple “Amenemhat (III), the deceased, lives.”
Edward Frank Wente and Edmund S. Meltzer, Letters from Ancient Egypt, vol. 1 of Writings from the Ancient World (Atlanta, GA: Scholars Press, 1990), 83.
88. P. Berlin 10023A (Dynasty 12: Amenemhat III)
It is the mayor and dean of the temple Senwosret who addresses the temple scribe Horemsaf.
I am speaking to inform you that the temple doorkeeper, Sonet’s son Ameny, approached me saying, “I was seized as a substitute for my son, the porter of the temple there, [by] my district officers who said that he is in deficit for the corvée force,” so he said. Now his son has met his labor obligations for me(?). If […].
Address: The temple scribe Horemsaf. Year 11, first month of the [… season, day …]. Delivered by the porter of the temple […]
Edward Frank Wente and Edmund S. Meltzer, Letters from Ancient Egypt, vol. 1 of Writings from the Ancient World (Atlanta, GA: Scholars Press, 1990), 74.
Famine Stele
In its present form, the text is undoubtedly a work of the Ptolemaic period. Some scholars have surmised that it was based on a genuine Old Kingdom decree from the time of Djoser. Others take it to be a complete fiction. In any case, the text puts forth a claim to revenue on behalf of the Khnum temple of Elephantine.
Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature: Volume III: The Late Period (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973–), 94.
But the scribes that belong to you and the overseers of the South shall dwell there as accountants, listing everything that the kɩry-workers, and the smiths, and the master craftsmen, and the goldsmiths, and the …,51 (29) and the Nubians, and the crew of Apiru,52 and all corvée labor who fashion the stones, shall give of gold, silver, copper, lead, baskets of …,53 firewood, the things that every man who works with them shall give as dues, namely one-tenth of all these.
51 I wonder if the unread word might be ḫnrw, “prisoners”?
52 A recent article with extensive bibliography on the much debated Apiru is by M. B. Rowton, JNES, 35 (1976), 13–20.
53 It is not clear what word is written, see Barguet, op. cit., p. 31. Since the edible produce has been listed separately, a species of grain is hardly suitable.
Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature: Volume III: The Late Period (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973–), 100.
Inscription of Uni
36I accomplished all tasks; I numbered everything that is countede to (the credit of) the court in this South twice; all the corvée that is counted to (the credit of) the court in this South twice. I performed the ⌜— — 37— —⌝f in this South; never before was the like done in this South. I did throughout so that his majesty praised me for it.
e For the same use of “count to” see Rekhmire, II, 717.
⌜ Four uncertain words in the original document
— — Four uncertain words in the original document
— — Four uncertain words in the original document
⌝ Four uncertain words in the original document
f This obscure sentence is plainly parallel with the preceding, thus:
1. ypy yḫt nb ypt n ẖnw m rś pn.
2. yry srt yrt ḳd m rś pn; this suggests the rendering: “I exercised the princeship that is exercised ⌜—⌝ in this South.” Sr˙t I would then be a feminine abstract from sr “prince;” but ḳd remains a problem. Possibly my has been omitted before it.
James Henry Breasted, ed., Ancient Records of Egypt: The First through the Seventeenth Dynasties (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1906), 147–148.
Hammamat Inscription
386. This is the only inscription of King Ity known. His pyramid mentioned in the inscription has never been foundb and the place of the king in the series of Pharaohs is uncertain. The inscription is dated in his first year, and records an expedition which was sent to procure the finer stone necessary for the king’s pyramid.
387. Year of the first occurrence (of the numbering), fourth month of the first season, day 2.
— Ihy (Yḥy); Khufu (Ḫwf); commander of the army — Yakhetirni (Yʾḫ˙t yrn(y)).c
Came the ship captain, Ipi (Ypy), and Nekuptah (Ptḥ-n-kʾw) to do the work on the pyramid (called): “Fame-of-Ity” (Yty); together with 200 soldiers and 200 ⌜workmen, making⌝ 200 (sic!).
a Cut on the rocks in the Wadi Hammamat; text: Lepsius, Denkmäler, II, 115 f.; partially Golénischeff Hammamat, VII; Sethe, Urkunden, I, 148; see Maspero, Recueil, 17, 56 ff.
b See Maspero, ibid., 56 ff.
— The loss of a word in the original document
— The loss of a word in the original document
c These names were perhaps later inserted between the date and the following.
James Henry Breasted, ed., Ancient Records of Egypt: The First through the Seventeenth Dynasties (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1906), 174.
Autobiography of Weni
His majesty sent me at the head of this army, there being counts, royal seal-bearers, sole companions of the palace, chieftains and mayors of towns of Upper and Lower Egypt, companions, scout-leaders,4 chief priests of Upper and Lower Egypt, and chief district officials at the head of the troops of Upper and Lower Egypt, from the villages and towns that they governed and from the Nubians of those foreign lands. I was the one who commanded them — while my rank was that of overseer of ⌈ royal tenants ⌉
4 The title i̓mi̓-r ˓w has been much discussed and variously rendered: “caravan-leader,” (Faulkner, Dict., p. 39); “overseer of dragomans,” (Gardiner, Egypt, pp. 96, 99); “overseer of mercenaries,” (H. Goedicke, JEA, 46 (1960), 62, and idem, JEA, 52 (1966), 173; “chief interpreter” (Fischer, Inscriptions, p. 29).
Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature: Volume I: The Old and Middle Kingdoms (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1973–), 20.
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