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Ancient Archives and Seal Impressions - A Problem for Chronological Research During the field campaign 2001 at Tell el-Dab'a/'Ezbet Helmy a series of impressions of mud papyrus sealings were found within the refuse of scribe offices. The offices were attached to palace workshops belonging to the Tuthmoside period. However, the seal impressions proved to be already about 150 years old at that time, they were nearly all from the Hyksos Period. Four sealings had impressions with the name of the Hyksos Merwoserre' Yaqeb-Her and they were found in combination with other seals from the same period, some seals with names of contemporary officials, some seals with deeply cut figural motives. The whole assemblage shows us four things. 1. In Avaris there existed archives during the Tuthmoside period with papyri dating back at least 150 years. 2. Old papyri were reused or re-examined, thus producing old seals within much younger contexts. 3. It is therefore dangerous to use seal impressions for dating, even if the same name appears several times in the same context. 4. Merwoserre' Yaqeb-Her seems to have resided in Avaris and should be considered to have been one of the kings of the 15th Dynasty. |
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