Kadimalo inscription from Samna Gharb
(Second Nile Waterfall), Sudan
Translated by Osama Abdel-Rahman Elnur
Date: Eighth century BC
Inscription site: Temple of the Kushite god Didon and Pharaoh Thutmose III. The facade of the temple, near the entrance in the west.
Bibliography: Grapow H., 1940, 76: 24-41; Dunham-Janssen, 1960:10
The view to the left of the engraving
Right: The goddess Isis
Text in front of and above Isis (in four columns, reading from left to right);
(1) (Hence) says Isis, mother of the gods, appointed (2) Ra, mistress of all gods,
“I put (3) rest in the heart of the king’s wife and the king’s daughter Ka(4) [Dimalo, acquitted of sin].”
Facing Isis: Queen Kademalo
Text in front of and above Kadimalo (in two columns, reading from right to left):
(1) Wife of the Great King and daughter of King Kadi (2) Malu, acquitted of sin: “Pray, and accept the lotus flowers.”
Text in front of Kadimalo (one column, reading from right to left):
Wife of the great king, king of Upper and Lower Egypt, and daughter of the king.
Behind the king is a drawing of a female (turning to the right):
Sa widget nb ankh ta
Text
(1) Royal year 14, <month> 2 of winter, day 9 of the month. His Majesty said to the great king's wife (and) the king's daughter, Kitemlu, who was acquitted of sin, “We have been raised up, though we are not among the servants of Amun, there is (2) an enemy, and - to do something 'good' (in) the year that happened to us, Amun caused it to happen to them, there did not... cause it to happen to us, there was a leader... he... in his possession, Amun does - - - (3) the people who catch the bird The watery.... I.... I perform the mass for Amun, the one who does, I did not sharpen my mind to remember the event that happened to me this year, when Amun nodded his head approving (by revelation) that (I) ascended the throne, I recall (4)... my fathers (the first) [-] We rush to me after that (twice) I do it in the mountains of gold and then I know in this year, what power of magic [- -] By a great wife (5)... Thirty leaders [- -] It is a bad thing for the Pharaoh to - With his hunchbacked sword, be careful, fear and retreat are a good thing, go back to the front, all the rebels have been defeated, those [-] who (6) received them, made them. Then... This year regarding the event that happened to me. As for their fathers (the first ones) who were afraid of us, every (potential) rebel was calm Still, they are well together with their wives. (7) It is a good thing to do harm - he does not know it; it is a bad thing to do harm - the people who catch the waterfowl when they know that it will - he is the one who lives. (8) And they are still alive. It is a bad thing to do the good, the injustice that was said... Life/Oath... See, it is good for Amon... although it is not his place ...another place,... until (9) the present time. It belongs to the - of them/my fathers. See, it is not good to drive the herd of Amun's livestock daily; (but) it is good to slaughter "to" the herd of Amun [-] Makarasha (10) All the people of the city curse Makarasha daily. He is... completely like that... since evil (11) does not reach his heart the way it reaches the army. He is the one who does good For all the earth there is evil...which..(12)....(13)....
James's note on his translation of the text into English James 1993:233
The translation given here can best be described as a series of narrations of difficult words with explanations and guesses, for I do not really understand this text. Grammatically, as far as I can convince myself that I have succeeded in identifying the word order of the sentences, the text appears to be a model of the second part of the Egyptian language (Late Egyptian to Coptic) according to Vernus [see Vernus, 1979:81-82]. In this regard, the text corresponds to a series of early Nabataean inscriptions that Priese 1970:24-25 describes as being written in a late Egyptian language, the last of which he believes is the victory inscription of King Piya. When Kammenos's epigraphical study of this text is published in this volume on Semna, we expect to stand on a more reliable basis on which to compose a translation. Vernus,1979:81-82Priese1970:24-25
Laszlo Torok's comment on the text
The text and the accompanying scene have been superimposed over an original view on the facade of the temple built by Tuthmosis III. Although Queen Kadimalo and the unnamed king in the text cannot be matched with any historical figure attested in independent sources, the style and specific details of the text indicate a date dating back to the Third Intermediate Period; The Meroe name of the queen (Kedi-Melu = “good lady” [see Macadam in Dunham-Jenssen1960:10] links the document to the Middle Nile region. The dating of the inscription to the late stage, or more precisely to the period after the New Kingdom of Egypt, and its connection with the history of Kush is generally accepted; however, due to the impossibility of a coherent translation, no historical explanation has been provided [see Grapow1940; Morkot 1991].
The view, Grapow 1940, panels two and three, represent Queen Kadimalo and a princess before Isis. The Queen wears a headdress in the shape of an eagle surmounted by a sun disc with ribbons running down the back; She wears a transparent double dress with short sleeves, a wide necklace and a bracelet. In her right hand she holds a scepter [see Troy1986:189ff.] and in her left hand is a manual teacher. Like the princess behind her, she also wears a star-shaped earring of the type known from depictions of Kushite queens from the period after the Twenty-fifth Dynasty [see Török 1987:nos 31,59,64f.,87a.89,109]. Her body is protected by the eagle god Nekhbet, and on his head is the crown of Atef, spreading its wings over the queen’s head. Between the images of the goddess and the queen, three positions were drawn for offerings, one of which faced the queen and the other towards Isis (note the direction of the flow of the spilled liquid and the cups of the lotus flower). Hence, while the queen offers the lotus to the goddess (see text in front of and behind the Kadimalo figure), she is also the beneficiary of the offerings. The iconographic indication that she was dead at the time the scene was carved is supported by her description of “Maat Haru,” meaning acquitted of sin.
The text, which remains difficult in the face of attempts to translate it coherently, begins its dating with the royal year 14, the second month of winter, the ninth day of an unnamed king who refers to himself as His Majesty (column 1) and Pharaoh (column 5) and records his address addressed to the great king's wife and the king's daughter, Kadimalo. Describing conflicts of an ambiguous nature linked to rebels, gold mines, and herds of livestock of Amun, the king appears to be seeking to gain the support of the (deceased) queen, referring to her powerful magic (column 4, end). Grabow approximated the language of the inscription to the language of the Nesekhon papyrus [PCairo 58032,Cat.Gen.Mus.Caire I,132], which was published by Djinn, which is a decree of Amun in which Penodejm II, Nesekhon's surviving husband, tried to ensure that his deceased wife would not harm him from the underworld [see Ĉerny 1962:39,1999]. Although the two cases are different, the two texts are based on similar interpretations of magic and reflect the same concept of the deceased playing the role of a mediator or dangerous force in the world of the living.
Although it is carved on the facade of a temple, the type of text is partly literal. The history, narrative sections, allusions associating lies with the enemy (column 8), and morally interpreted phrases (columns 5,7,8,9) reflect familiarity with the styles of New Kingdom royal inscriptions, yet the influence of magical texts is clear. Although the scene depicts Queen Kadimalu protected by the eagle goddess of Upper Egypt, possessing the traditional royal rights characteristic of the queens of the late New Kingdom, wearing her dress in the same style as them (for example, the depiction of Nefertari-Meritamut, wife of Ramesses II, in Abu Semeel Desroches-Noblecourt-Kuentz 1968, Pl. 33; and in Tomb 66 in the Valley of the Queens in Thebes: Lange-Hirmer 1967 Pl.LVI, and although the presence of the princess may have been intended to express the concept of female duality [see Troy 1986:107ff.], her name was not written in a royal cartouche, even though her titles were royal. These paradoxes reflect an environment that indicates that Lower Nubia was intellectually under the influence of Upper Egypt in particular, but at the same time they indicate isolation. Desroches-Noblecourt-Kuentz 1968,Pl.33
Historical structure can only be selected by default. The emergence of an independent king and queen in Lower Nubia is conceivable in the late period of the reign of Ramesses The independence of Lower Nubia from Thebes was, however, only temporary; After the death of Banahsi, it seems that it began to rule again through the viceroys of Kush, who were appointed by the rulers of the Twenty-first, Twenty-second, and Twenty-third Dynasties [see: Habachi 1979]. The last viceroy of Kush, Pamiu, is documented in about 775-750 BC. Aston-Taylor 1990:147f.; His position may have been removed as a direct result of the emergence of a new power in Nubia. By the time of Kashta (ca. 760-747 BC) the region of Napata and Meroe became united into one kingdom; During a period of his rule, unfortunately not specifically dated, Kashta appeared in Upper Egypt and claimed kingship over Egypt. Queen Kadimalo, a lady originally from the Meroe-speaking region of the south, can be linked to the northern advance of the nascent Kushite kingdom that prepared the ground for the emergence of Kashta in Upper Egypt. Of course, it is impossible to determine whether Kadimalo was the daughter of a Kushite king and the wife of another Kushite king, and therefore she could belong to the family of one of the direct successors of Kashta himself, or whether she descended from a Kushite royal family but was the wife of a king of the kings of Lower Nubia. Regardless of who was Kadimalo's husband, the unnamed king in the Semna inscription is claimed to have been a legitimate king through the revelation of Amun (column 3) according to the Egyptian royal dogma that was also adopted by the Kushite dynasty. Jansen-Winkeln 1992
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