The Famine Stela is an inscription on a 2.5-meter-high by 3-meter-wide granite slab on Sehel Island, close to the Nile near Aswan, Egypt, that was written in Egyptian hieroglyphs and contains 32 columns. The Famine stela, presumably engraved by King Ptolemy V (205–180 BC) during the Ptolemaic Kingdom, describes seven years of hunger and drought that occurred during the reign of Pharaoh Djoser of the Third Dynasty (2686–2613 BC).
A natural granite slab with a rectangular stela-shaped cutout on its surface had the inscription of the Famine Stela. The upper portion of the stele shows Djoser holding offerings in his outstretched hands in front of three Egyptian deities: Khnum, Satis, and Anuket. The story of the Famine Stela may have been used as a means of legitimizing the authority of Khnum’s priests over the region of Elephantine, as different faiths in Egypt during the Ptolemaic Dynasty jostled for authority and influence. Famous egyptologists like Miriam Lichtheim and Werner Vycichl indicate that the text was created by the local priests of Khnum. They may have created the famine narrative on the Stela to gain religious authority over Egypt, which may have been the motivation behind this fight.
The inscription narrates the tale of Famine Stella and describes how the emperor was incensed and worried about the country’s seven-year harsh drought, during which the Nile had failed to fill the farmlands. This was an intense and helpless period for King. Egypt experienced multiple famines and was dependent on the floodwaters of the Nile. It also recounts how the Egyptian people are suffering from the drought and are acting desperately, disobeying the laws of the kingdom. The king was confused because there were not enough grains, seeds had dried up, people were robbing each other, and shrines and temples were closing. When the stela was originally translated, it was believed that the narrative of a seven-year famine was related to the biblical account found in Genesis 41. Historians and Egyptologists have been fascinated with the story of Famine Stela ever since it was first translated by French Egyptologist Paul Barguet in 1953.
More recent research has revealed that almost all Near Eastern cultures experienced a seven-year famine. For example, Mesopotamian mythology mentions a seven-year famine, and the god Anu prophesies a seven-year famine in the well-known Gilgamesh Epic. A chronic drought is the subject of another Egyptian legend found in the so-called “Book of the Temple.” The Famine Stela offers substantial proof for Egyptologists and historians who have been involved in reconstructing the royal timeline of the Old Kingdom of Egypt because it is one of only three referred-to inscriptions that unites the cartouche name Djeser with the serekh name Netjerikhet (“divine body”) of King Djoser in a single word.
The majority of engravings show the triad, in which pilgrims or patients beg for healing from a disease or success in life; additionally, one of the most significant engravings on the stones documents Senusret III’s (1878–1839 BC) decree to excavate and widen a canal on the western side of Sehel Island for his warships and as a passage for maritime trade.
Read More: Nile Valley, Geological Evolution
