connotations: Th e earth’s motion on the island of the ship-
wrecked is a sign of divine manifestation or epiphany.
All of these texts place disastrous natural phenomena in
a positive framework. Th e dark and negative eff ects of natural
disasters on people’s lives are found more oft en in Egyptian
magical texts, such as the Calendars of Lucky and Unlucky
Days. Dating to the reign (ca. 1290–1224 b.c.e.) of Ramses
II, the Calendars cast the fortunes of each day of the year in
terms relating to a mythical event or, at least, a mythical de-
piction of a natural event, an archetype. For example: “Th ird
month of the Inundation-season; fourth day: Uncertain! Un-
certain! Uncertain! To move by this earth under the forepart
of Nun. As for anyone who sails in this day: destruction in his
house.” (Nun was a god personifying the primeval waters out
of which the creator god emerged.)
Similarly, a literary work of the late 13th century b.c.e.,
the “Dialogue of Ipuwer and the Lord of All,” blames natural
disasters for the downfall of the Egyptian political authority
and society of the First Intermediate Period (ca. 2134–2040
b.c.e.) and Second Intermediate Period (ca. 1640–1532 b.c.e.).
Th e protagonist of this lament, Ipuwer, describes Egypt as
affl icted by natural catastrophes and in a state of social col-
lapse. Th e poor have become rich and the rich poor; servants
are leaving their masters and acting rebelliously; and warfare,
famine, and death are everywhere.
An inscription on the so-called Famine Stele from the
time of Ptolemy V Epiphanes (r. 205–180 b.c.e.) records a di-
sastrous famine that took place during the reign of the Th ird
Dynasty king Djoser (r. ca. 2630–2611 b.c.e.). Th e text states
that Djoser was worried because Egypt had been gripped by
a drought for seven years, during which time the Nile did not
fl ood. Djoser asked for aid from the priests of Imhotep (a his-
torical high offi cial and architect who had been deifi ed as a
god). Th e priests investigated in the archives of the temple
of the moon god Th oth (who also presided over scribes and
knowledge) in Hermopolis and informed the king that the
god was angry and for this reason did not allow the Nile to
fl ow properly. Djoser ordered off erings sent to try to placate
the god. Th e following night the king had a dream in which
the ram god Khnum, who had created life on a potter’s wheel,
promised an end to the famine. Th e king issued a decree
settling vast riches and resources on Khnum’s temple in El-
ephantine.
Th e ancient Egyptians seem to have had relatively lim-
ited interest in disastrous natural phenomena and, except
for the oldest funerary conceptions in the Pyramid Texts,
rarely mentioned them even in metaphorical terms. Th e
most frequently described phenomenon, the earthquake, is
understood as a marker of epiphany and as a model for the
movement of life.THE MIDDLE EAST
BY LYN GREEN
Natural disasters such as fl oods and earthquakes affl icted
parts of the ancient Near East with relative frequency. Ana-
tolia (modern-day Turkey) and Persia (modern-day Iran) are
still the sites of frequent earthquakes, which in ancient times
were perhaps even more disruptive than they are today: Not
only did they bring death, disease, widespread destruction of
property, and loss of livelihood on their own, but they also
could open up a society to outside attack. One geologist has
used an attack on Jerusalem in 31 b.c.e. as an example of how
the weakening of city fortifi cations caused by a quake could
result in military disaster. Other scientists have tried to link
the end of the Bronze Age cultures of the Near East with
earthquakes and their aft ermath.
Among the many disasters that nature could visit on
humankind in the ancient Near East there were also the oft -
cited examples of plagues of locusts. Th e biblical story of Ex-
odus tells of the various plagues that swept through Egypt,
the eighth of which was a plague of locusts. Swarming locusts
easily cut a path of destruction through cultivated fi elds, de-
nuding them of their crops. Another Old Testament book,
Joel, also speaks of a locust plague and more: “Th at which the
palmerworm hath left hath the locust eaten; and that which
the locust hath left hath the cankerworm eaten; and that
which the cankerworm hath left hath the caterpillar eaten.”
Many seismically active areas of the world, including
those in the Near East, exhibit volcanic activity as well.Rock inscription at Seheil, Egypt, recording a seven-year
famine (Courtesy of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago)
natural disasters: The Middle East 777