The Report of Wenamun
1075 BC, April 20th. The day Wenamun, chief procurement officer at Temple Amun, of Southern Egypt, departs to obtain lumber to build a great river barge for Amun-Ra, king of the gods, a strong leader.
When I arrived at Tanis, where Smendes and his wife Tanetamon held court, I gave them the commissioning order from Amun-Ra, and they had it read out. They said, “Sounds great, we'll do whatever Amun-Ra wants."
I spent the rest of April at the palace in Tanis, while Smendes and Tanetamon arranged a cargo ship, set to sail under the command of the captain Mengebet.
We set off into the Great Syrian Sea, (now called the Mediterranean).
It was May by the time we reached Haifa, a Jewish town. Prince Beder gave us fifty loaves of bread, an amphora of wine, and a leg of beef.
But then one of the sailors fled, stealing 1 pound of gold, 4 pounds of silver, and a sealed purse containing 2.1 pounds of silver coin. Total: 1 pound of gold, 6.1 pounds of silver.
The next morning I went to the court of the Prince, and said to him, "I was robbed in your harbor. Since you are the Prince of this land, and the executive officer, find my money! This money belongs to Amun-Ra, it belongs to Smendes, it belongs to the high priest of Temple Amun, Herihor. It belongs to you, it belongs to the goddess Weret. It belongs to Prince Mekmer and Prince Tjekerbaal of Byblos."
He said to me, "Are you serious or is this a joke? Look, I don't understand your statements. If the thief was from my land, boarding your ship in the harbour and stealing your money, then I would do you a favor and compensate you for the loss while I searched for the person. But now a criminal is on the loose in my lands, one of your own sailors! However, stay in port and wait while I search for him."
I waited 9 days, moored in his harbor.
Then I went to him and said, "Look, you have not found my money. I can leave without the money if you provide me with a military escort for the remainder of my trip."
He said to me, "Calm down! If you want compensation, try this, you follow my laws, and the laws of where you are. Therefore on the lawless seas, take what you need. My men will look for the thief here, you look on the water."
I departed, sailing north past Tyre. Sailing north by star sight, until I reached Byblos, the realm of Prince Tjekerbaal.
I moored in the harbor and searched a nearby ship, finding 6.5 pounds of silver, which I confiscated. I said to its owners, "I have seized your money, and I will keep it until you find my stolen money and the thief who stole it. I'm not robbing you, just putting you in bond to me, and deputizing you as the debt collector."
They left port, and we pitched camp on the shore of the harbor of Byblos, feasting that first night. We fully unloaded and pivoted to travel by land.
The Prince of Byblos sent me a message, saying, "Leave my harbor!"
I sent a reply, "Where to? Our ship has left, and we will need you to arrange the return trip to Egypt.”
We were camped on the beach for 29 days, and every day he said to us, "Leave my harbor!"
Now, when he was at temple, his god spoke through one of his pages, putting the page into an ecstatic trance. The page said, "Welcome the god, welcome his envoy. He has been sent by Amun." The very night the low ranking page said this was the night I had finally found a return ship to bring us back to Egypt. Our equipment was packed up and ready to load on the ship, and I was merely waiting till nightfall to secretly slip away. The harbor master came to me, and said, "Stay another day, the Prince requests it."
I said to him, "Every day you've told me to leave your harbor, now you ask me to spend the night? If I do that I'll miss the ship, then you'll again tell me to leave."
He went to the Prince and told him, and the Prince asked the captain of the ship to stay until the next day.
The next morning, he summoned me to his palace while the expedition of Amun waited on the shore. I found the Prince sitting in his tower, his back to a window looking out upon the Syrian Sea, the waves breaking behind his head.
I said to him, "Amun is merciful."
And he said to me, "How long has it been since you departed Temple Amun?"
I said, "Five months exactly today."
He said, "Is that the truth? Where is the purchase order from Amun? You don't have it on you? And where is the letter from the high priest of Amun, which you should also be carrying?"
I said, "They were kept by Smendes and Tanetamun."
He became angry, and said, "Well, so you have neither papers of commission or an introduction from the chief of the temple? Where is the ship to transport the cedars? Smendes assigned you a ship, right? Where is its Syrian crew? Did he say to hire any heathen vessel, so you could be killed and tossed into the sea? Where are the resources of your god? How are they to maintain contact with you?"
I said, "The sailors for Smendes are all Egyptians. He doesn't employ Syrians."
He said, "There are 20 boats in my harbor on their way to Smendes. And on your way up here you passed Sidon, a port with 50 boats in the harbor belonging to Werketer, engaged in commerce with Smendes!"
I was silent a long time.
Then he started questioning me again, saying, "What is your business here?"
I said, "I am seeking to acquire lumber for the shipbuilding of Amun-Ra. What your father did, and your grandfather did, you will also do."
He said, "They traded with me as you say. First you will pay me, then I will supply the lumber. When my predecessors did this, Pharoah would provide six barges, and they arrived with the goods for trade and payment, unloading into my warehouses. But you, what have you brought?" He had the account books brought and read out the line items to me. In total he read off over 220 pounds of payments in silver. He said, "As for the king of Egypt, is he the lord of my lands? Am I his servant? If so, why would he pay me the value of the lumber? Or are these payments merely gifts? Am I your servant? Am I the servant of anyone in Egypt? Quite the reverse, I have merely to shout to the hills, and the sky will open up and the lumber will arrive on the shore. If you provide sails and rope, I'll have the logs bound into a raft, ready to sail direct to Egypt. Do you have rope of enough strength to lash the cedars you wish me to harvest, or am I to supply you also with rope and sails? It takes skill to make a raft like this. You wouldn't want the mast to snap at sea, or the sail to be too big, then you might shipwreck. Look, it was only after Amun joined with Seth that he was able to strike the spark for the fireball. Amun is indeed the creator of all things, but he must also maintain them. Technology emanates from him, as well as punishments. Why are you making these foolish journeys?"
I said, "Wrong! I am not on a foolish journey. There are no ships afloat which do not belong to Amun. On the sea, and also in Lebanon which you claim exclusively. Temple Amun is planning to build a new class of queen ship. Indeed, Amun-Ra told Herihor, who I am the servant of, to send me off, with the timber procurement operation. Look, Amun desires cedar, and I've wasted 29 days sitting in your harbour, while you made assumptions and failed to act. You are lazy in exploiting Lebanons forests. As for your counting off of silver sent by former kings, if you had been vigorous and healthy you would not have traded for money. Your predecessors were exploited by accepting useless bits of rare metals to sell the countries life and health. As for Amun-Ra, he is the master of life and heath, and he was lord of your ancestors. All their lives they were giving offerings to Amun. You too are in servitude to Amun. If you accept Amuns requests you shall prosper and succeed, your whole country and all your people. But do not ask for anything else from Amun-Ra. Lions are proud. Give me the services of your scribe, I'll have him write to Smendes and Tanetamun, the executive officers of the Delta, appointed by Amun to rule Northern Egypt. They will send whatever is requested. I will have him write to send it quickly, to arrive before I leave. In this manner I will compensate you for all expenses."
He gave the letter to his messenger, and he loaded onto a ship a keel log, a bow log, and a stern log, also 4 trees worth of cut lumber, a total of 7 trees, shipping them to Egypt, along with the messenger.
He returned in November. Smendes and Tanetamon sent him back with 4 bowls of gold, a chest of gold, 5 silver bowls, 10 linen tunics, 10 bedsheets of high thread count linen, 500 bolts of clothing grade linen, 500 cow hides, 500 ropes, 1,500 liters of lentils, and 30 pots of salt fish.
Tanetamon sent to me personally 5 suits of fine linen, 5 bedsheets of fine linen, 75 liters of lentils, and 5 pots of salt fish.
The Prince was pleased, and he supplied me with 300 men and 300 oxen, along with forestry managers to lead the crew in the lumber harvest. They cut down the trees, working through the winter. It was January by the time the lumber was delivered to the harbor.
The Prince came to inspect the pile of logs, and sent for me. When I approached him, the shadow of the log pile fell on me. An accountant of his named Penamun said, "Even the brilliance of Ra is snuffed out by this humungous harvest."
The Prince said, "Don't joke with him."
I approched the Prince, and he said to me, "Do you see, I fullfill your needs just as my forefathers met your needs. I have acted in accordance with tradition, but you have not. Here is the lumber, all accounted for and stacked up. You are in charge of shipping, and if you lose it in transit I'm not going to compensate you. If you complain of the anger of the sea you will see my anger. I've done much better then was done for Rameses IX. His messengers waited 17 years here, and finally died here." He said to his accountant, "Show him the tomb of the messengers of Rameses IX."
I said, "I don't want to see it. Rameses IX sent messengers who were human, and he was human. So don't pretend as if a tomb will show them. This time why don't you make a monument to yourself? Write on it: Amun Radiant, Lord of all Gods, sent a trade delegation, led by his envoy Wenamon, to purchase lumber for construction of a great new class of river barge. I cut it, I brought it to port, I assembled the shipping, and I paid the salaries for my crews. I sent them to Egypt with a request to Amun, to grant me 50 years of additional life, beyond my fated amount. And so it was! When another purchasing agent arrives from Egypt, knowledgable of Hieroglyph and reading your name on the monument, they will send you streams of gold, lighting up your palace like the sunset."
He said to me, "That's quite a torrent of words!"
I said, "Well, when I return with the cargo to Temple Amun and they see the size and quality of your lumber they will come again for another harvest. You will make lots of money."
I went to the harbour, to inspect the loading operation. I saw 11 ships, owned by the Jews. They said, "Boycot that man. We won't ship to Egypt!" I was ready to sit down and cry.
Then the Prince's accountant came to me and said, "Whats the matter now?"
I said, "Have you seen the migrating cranes heading south to the Nile Delta? They are coming from the Nemunas Delta, and can fly back and forth as they wish. But as for myself, I am stuck here, and every day more people come to me with bills and debts for me to pay."
He told the Prince what I had said, and now the Prince himself was about to weep hearing how I could not leave. He sent his accountant back to me, along with 2 amphoras of wine, a sheep, and the Egyptian singer Tanetne.
The scribe said to her, "Sing for him, take his mind off his wories." Then he said to me, "Eat and drink, and keep up heart. The Prince will have more to say tomorrow morning."
The next morning the Prince assembled his ministers and went to the Jewish merchants, asking them, "What are you looking to do here?"
They said, "To prevent Egypt purchasing lumber to build a navy, since they are our enemies."
The Prince said, "I cannot stop the agent of Amun from purchasing what he wants. But once he leaves my port you can do what you wish with him."
He made the lumber into a raft, and saw me set sail out of his harbour onto the open sea.
The winds blew me to Cyprus. I washed up on the beach and the townsfolk came out to steal my lumber. I forced my way through to see Hatiba, the Princess of that town. I found her as she was walking on the street. I saluted her and then said to the crowd standing around her, "Is there someone among you who can speak Egyptian?"
One of them said, "I do."
I said to him, "Can you say to my lady that I have heard of her as far as Thebes, where Temple Amun is. They say that if all the world goes to hell, justice will still prevail in Cyprus. But now I see evil being done here as well!"
She said, "What are you talking about?"
I said, "The sea was raging, and the winds blew me to your island, and now your people are attempting to steal my lumber, ruining me. I'm an agent of Amun, look, I should be welcomed at all times! And my crew from Byblos, they are dissapearing. Can you arrange to put my crew back together as well?"
Then she put her town back in order, and said to me, "Will you be spending the night here?"
The remainder of the report is lost.