The world of the ancient Egyptians consisted of two major parts: the" Black Earth "(Kmt), which meant Egypt proper with its fertile arable land and fertile climate, and the" desert " — huge alien spaces surrounding the Nile Valley. The correlation and struggle of these two elements determined the entire life of ancient Egyptian society.

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The desert was the ancient ancestral home of the Nile Valley people, it contained untold natural resources, but it was also a constant source of danger. This circumstance was reflected in the complex and very contradictory attitude of the Egyptians to the territories surrounding them. In this paper, one of the aspects of the interaction of the Egyptian state with the surrounding areas is considered — the exploitation of the natural resources of the desert. The purpose of the article is to trace the changes that took place in the minds of Egyptians regarding mining outside the Nile Valley during the Ancient and Middle Kingdoms.

The main sources in this study are inscriptions of participants of ancient Egyptian expeditions for materials (graffiti and stelae), left by them on desert deposits, as well as selected tomb texts. Material collecting expeditions are organized groups of people who worked in mines and quarries on an irregular basis for the purpose of extracting minerals.

Keywords: Ancient Egypt, desert, expeditions, mines, quarries, cult.

THE "DIVINITY" OF THE EGYPTIAN KING

It is not easy for the modern reader, especially if he has no religious experience,to understand and justify the investment of the ancient Egyptians in the construction of pyramids or other funerary and religious buildings. Meanwhile, for the Egyptians of the Ancient and Middle Kingdoms, the need for such construction and the benefits derived from it were obvious.

The nature of the "divinity" of the Egyptian king has attracted close attention of researchers since the work of A. Moret (1902). During this time, many Egyptologists have tried to answer the question of how much of a "god" the Egyptian ruler was. These responses range from unquestioning acceptance of the king's divinity (Frankfort, 1948) to well-founded skepticism (Posener, 1960). However, the nature of royal power in Egypt turned out to be so ambiguous that today it is commonly referred to as a very complex and multifaceted phenomenon that has changed over time and can be noticed even in the most unexpected aspects of Egyptian life [Silverman, 1995; Baines, 1997].

Even in the Early Dynastic period, as well as in subsequent epochs of Egyptian history, the strong-willed side of the king's personality (Ka) was perceived, most likely, as a temporary embodiment of the corresponding emanation of the heavenly and solar deity - Horus (Berlev, 1972; Bolshakov, 2000). It is not surprising that the first royal names known to us are the so-called chorov names, written out in the center of the symbolic royal palace, above which the god Horus himself was depicted in the form of a falcon. The king's will was evidently identical with that of the Choir, and required unquestioning execution, as the wisest and most effective thing that could be produced by an earthly being. At the same time, the connection with the god Horus existed not only at the Ka level - the tsar also embodied other essential manifestations of God. So, in scenes of beating enemies, the ruler appears as an essential embodiment - "A Choir of Powerful Hands" (Demidchik, 2005, p. 17).

The king's unity with Horus did not exclude his connection with other gods. Chief among them was the solar deity, with whom the king, apparently, also shared the same nature. This, however, does not mean that the Egyptian ruler was a god in his own right. Apparently, even in the fourth Dynasty, when the magnificent pyramids were built one after another, the Egyptians did not forget about the simultaneous combination of both divine and human entities in the king. Indeed, one gets the impression that the divine was not the ruler himself, but the functions that he performed: namely

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taking the place of the tsar (later the idea of a royal "position" is formed- [Demidchik, 2005, p. 82-85]) gave the ruler his divine nature, and not vice versa [Posener, 1960, p.20-21; Goedicke, 1960, p. 89-90].

The exceptional position of the Egyptian king is illustrated by the fact that the existence of the world as it is known depends on him: only the ruler can perform the rituals necessary to maintain the universe in a stable state [Bolshakov, 2001, p.246]. Apparently, it was believed that in ancient times the solar deity established the best possible order in the Nile Valley, which was expressed in the concept of Maat. Outside of Egypt, where this order was not established, people suffered from adverse conditions (rain, cold, heat, deserts, mountains, impenetrable forests). However, even in the Nile Valley, the pre-established order was under threat of destruction (meaninglessness), embodied in the idea of Isefet. It was possible to prevent the catastrophe only through regular and correct worship and constant sacrifices (Berlev, 1999).

During the heyday of the Ancient Kingdom, the stable growth of the Egyptian state's economic potential was an indisputable proof of the effectiveness of the king's role in ensuring the preservation of the world. Even in the pre-Dynastic period, it was probably believed that a king could control the flooding of the Nile. However, the impressive achievements of the Egyptian civilization during the third and fourth dynasties made it possible to look at the ruler not only as a participant in divine relations, able to gain favor from the gods, but also as a being able to influence the divine forces and, moreover, to control them through rituals [Frankfort, 1948, p. 34; Demidchik, 2005, p. 19].

The king was considered the son of the Sun, which was reflected in the appearance in the royal titulature of the "solar" name, which is preceded by the title - "son of the Sun". The transformation of the king into the son of the supreme deity was gradual and ended in the era of the Pharaohs Snefru-Khafra (XXVII-XXVI centuries BC). At the same time, a sacrificial formula first appeared in the tombs of Egyptian officials that guaranteed posthumous provision for the deceased on behalf of the Egyptian ruler. Later, the tsar was considered a "junior god", while the Sun remained the "senior god" (Berlev, 1981, p.362; Bolshakov, 2003, p. 47-50).

The environmental crisis, the fall of the Memphis monarchy, and the subsequent turmoil of the First Transitional Period significantly influenced the perception of the tsar and his capabilities. The upheavals that befell Egypt were perceived as a "disease" that engulfed the entire society, but the reason for the" disease", according to the Egyptians, was a decrease in the" effectiveness " of the ritual actions of the king, in the solar nature of which for some reason a certain inferiority crept in [Demidchik, 2005, p.46]. In the era of turmoil and rapid change of rulers, the idea that the divinity of the king is determined primarily by the functions that are assigned to him is fixed: it is not the king himself who is divine, but his service, i.e. cult service to the gods. The roots of this concept go back to the Ancient kingdom and should go back to the idea that the king is the heir of the earth god Geb (Berlev, 1999).

During the Middle Kingdom, Egyptian rulers returned the solar name to their titulature, thus demonstrating the restoration of power over ritual. However, the First Transition period left a deep mark on the Egyptian worldview, and the country's rulers never again received the importance that they had in the age of the great Pyramids.

MINING MATERIALS AS PART OF A UNIVERSAL RITUAL

Throughout the Ancient and later Middle Kingdom, one of the main ways to express the concept of royal power, its significance for the lives of specific people, Egyptian society and the world as a whole, was monumentality. And by-

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This concept was applicable not only to pyramids or temples, but also to the burials of nobles. If in the era of the III dynasty private mastabs were built of raw bricks, then during the IV dynasty, clearly planned necropolises of majestic stone mastabs grew in the shadow of the royal tombs. The construction of such private cemeteries was possible only with the use of state mobilization capabilities, and biographical inscriptions of the nobles of the Ancient Kingdom are full of indications of the assistance that the kings provided in the construction and provision of equipment for their personal burials [Chauvet, 2004, p. 351-400]. The scale of the royal cult construction, therefore, was not limited exclusively to pyramids and temples, but included numerous monuments, which were then transferred for burial and worship to private individuals as a reward for their service.

Grandiose volumes of construction and decoration work required not only workers, but also appropriate materials: stone, wood, metals, semiprecious stones, minerals for paints, the extraction, accounting and distribution of which became one of the most important tasks of the state. In turn, the variety of materials available gave rise to a complex symbolism of stone, metal, and mineral rocks, so that any Egyptian cult structure and many everyday objects were filled with hidden meanings [Aufrere, 1991] .1 The importance of various materials was not only in their physical properties, which made it possible to embody Egyptian ideas about the world and the posthumous existence of people: the materials extracted in the desert were also important in themselves, as part of this world. Thus, the Egyptian temple symbolized the universe in all its complexity, and such a model was bound to combine "earth" and" desert " — two objective realities of the Egyptian world [Aufrere, 1991, p.81-82].

The population of the Nile Valley of the historical period was largely formed from newcomers displaced from the territory of the current deserts as a result of dramatic climate change in the 5th millennium BC (Shaw, 2003, p. 31). Accustomed to living among numerous wadis and caves, the people who came to the valley brought with them already established religious ideas and sought to reproduce the usual ritual practices. The memory of the once-abandoned house must have been preserved for centuries; during the historical period, it found its expression in the close attention of the Egyptians to the various gifts of the desert.

How the Egyptians imagined the processes of formation of various rocks of stone, metals and minerals, one can only guess. It is possible that the appearance of all these materials was associated with the struggle of various natural forces. In this case, their properties were probably explained by various legends involving gods [Aufrere, 2001, p. 159]. Hidden in the mountains under the protection of desert deities, metals and minerals point to the source of all that is divine-the east, where the Sun rises and coincidentally the main mineral deposits are located [Aufrere, 2001, p. 159]. The close connection of individual materials with divine forces is demonstrated by the practice of using them as deposits in the foundation of temples. At the same time, at the beginning of each new year, processions with various metals and minerals were sent to the temples, which were supposed to give the local deity the strength to continue creating the universe [Aufrere, 1991, pp. 731-787].

"According to the most ancient ideas, taking its origin in Maat, in the full eye of the god Hora, and supported by Maat, the god was embodied in the mineral... hidden in the deposits and veins inside the mountain. Then this idea became more complex, and the idea emerged that the gods should draw their powers from the energy concentrated in the earth's interior in the form of the riches of the Eastern Desert... mining of minerals and

1 For example, the differences in the symbolism of alabaster and grauvacca as materials for making royal statues, which can be seen from materials from the Msnkaura temple in Gizz (Friedman, 2010).

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precious stones were supposed to strengthen the divine powers... " [Aufrere, 2001, p. 160]. In some ancient Egyptian temples, at least in later times, special storerooms were built to store individual minerals. These rooms, apparently, symbolized natural deposits - "mineral pools" - and played the same role as hidden natural resources in the desert, i.e. they were a source of replenishment of divine power necessary for the beginning of a new agricultural cycle (Aufrere, 2001, p.161).

THE DESERT AND THE KING

The Egyptians apparently believed that the king's power was not limited to Egypt, but could extend to the surrounding territories. As already noted, any areas outside the Nile Valley where the original order never existed or was lost were called "desert" by the Egyptians, and this concept included not only the actual desert territories to the east and west of the Nile, but also the Middle Eastern countries, the islands of the Mediterranean Sea, the Horn of Africa and Nubia. We do not know how the Egyptians themselves explained the appearance of a "desert" around their state. The reference in the "Teaching of Merikar" to the fact that "the Asian has been fighting since the time of Horus" refers the possible division between the inhabitants of the valley and the inhabitants of the "desert" to the legendary confrontation between Horus and Set [Demidchik, 2005, p.134], but we do not have more specific data.

The divine forces - the same as in Egypt-in the" desert", apparently, acted chaotically, and therefore life there was difficult and even unbearable. However, the king could create favorable conditions in a foreign country-it was only necessary to organize the actions of the divine forces with the appropriate ritual. Thus, in dangerous and unsettled foreign countries, "miracles" were granted by the gods for the king: saving rains came, signs were sent, etc." Arranging "the" desert " in this way, the king acted as a full-fledged creator, the nature of whose actions was close to the world-building activity of the Sun [Demidchik, 2001, pp. 84-88].

All of the above, however, are largely speculative conclusions. They can be made based on the existence in the Phoenician Bible of the title "Sun of the Desert", which was used during the VI dynasty to denote the Egyptian king, and also by trying to transfer the ideas of the Middle Kingdom known to us to the realities of the Ancient Kingdom. Strictly speaking, we have no definite indications from the Ancient Kingdom of the ability of the king to perform "miracles" or, more precisely, the need for the king to perform "miracles" outside of the Nile Valley. So, in one of the wadis to the east of the Nile Valley, several inscriptions from the time of Pepi II have been preserved, indicating the activity of the Egyptians in developing desert routes. Two texts come from Wadi Muilha (ML 5, ML 19) [Rote, Miller, Rapp, 2008, p. 352-353, 368-369] and one from Wadi Duncash (DN 28) [Rote, Miller, Rapp, 2008, p. 312]. They report on the digging of wells, and success in this business is attributed exclusively to the official responsible for the work, and does not imply the intervention of divine forces. "It was I who dug this well together with the workers from Edfu, "says the" patrol chief "Neju in the text ML 5, and about the other well he also adds:"The width of it is the work (of the hands) of the one who belongs to the placenta of the king, the patrol chief of Neju." The scribe Anusu, who left an inscription nearby, mentions the king, but not at all in the role of a divine helper: "I dug these wells (and) gave water to the thirsty and food to the hungry. I didn't allow a fight (?) to occur there. Then I appeared wise before my lord."

However, the lack of direct indications of the Ancient Kingdom era on cases of divine intervention in the affairs of expeditions is made up for by some indirect ones

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with data. The earliest known evidence comes from Wadi Magara in Sinai, where in the time of Pharaoh Sahur, the Egyptian king was first called "the elder god" (Sinai 6) [Gardiner, Peet, and Cerny, 1952, pl. IV], i.e., a complete analog of the solar deity in relation to foreign countries. Theoretically, this implies that he has the ability to change the desert areas according to his desires, corresponding to the idea of Maat.

Another indirect indication comes from the Dakhla oasis, on the borders of which in the era of the Ancient Kingdom there was an expedition village where they were engaged in the extraction of alumina - "desert colors" (Kuhlmann, 2005, p.247-251). The rocks near the village are covered with short texts and separate signs, among which the image of a mountain with water hieroglyphs included in it was very popular - "Mountain of Water", as interpreted by K. P. Kuhlmann [Kuhlmann, 2005, p.270-278]. One of these signs bears the title of Djedefr, king of the IV dynasty, and it is possible that "Water Mountain Djedefr" is an ancient name of the village, which arose under the impression of the spectacle of a tropical storm that passed here during the reign of Djedefr. After witnessing an unusual natural phenomenon, the expedition members associated it with the name of their king-not God! - and the memory of this event continued to live on for some time [Kuhlmann, 2005, p. 270-278]. However, this is only a guess, because the placement of the royal title surrounded by the sign "mountain" can be interpreted differently. For example, the sign of the mountain may have been primary, but the royal name was inserted into the sign that already existed and stood out on the rock surface later.

Under King Niuserra (c. 2445-2421 BC), another interesting image is being created in Wadi Magara. The Sinai 10 rock plaque (Gardiner, Peet, and Cerny, 1952, pl. VI) contains the standard scene of the king beating an Asian and the corresponding captions to it. To the right of the main image, a ritual vessel is knocked out from which a libation is made, and the text: "Thoth, lord of foreign countries: he makes a libation" J. Cerny saw here a possible hint of the discovery of a new well [Gardiner, Peet, Cerny, 1955, p. 60], given, judging by the text, by Thoth.

I would also like to draw your attention to a phrase from Pepi II's letter to the ruler of Elephantine, Horhuief, the text of which was engraved in the tomb of the nomarch (Sethe, 1933, pp. 123-131). At the beginning of the email, it says: "I know the words of your report, written by you for the king in the palace, to say that you have come down safely from Jam with my expedition, and what is the matter with you. You said in your report that you had brought all kinds of gifts, rich and beautiful, given by Hathor, the lady of Imemau, for the soul of King Neferkar of Upper and Lower Egypt, may he live in vo and vo, as far as I know, this is the first evidence indicating the existence of the idea that the riches of foreign countries were gifts from the gods for the tsar. It is characteristic that it is attested from the VI, and not from the IV dynasty.

Finally, the latest evidence dates back to Merenr I (c. 2287-2278 BC). The grandee Una reports in his inscription that after expeditions to Wadi Hammamat, Hatnub, and Elephantine, he was sent to Upper Egypt with the task of digging five canals and building several ships out of wood brought by the Nubians (Sethe, 1933, S. 108-109]. Una completed this task much faster than expected, and he explained his success as follows:"...because more magnificent, more significant, more powerful is the divine power of the king of Upper and Lower Egypt Merenr - may he live in time forever! - than (the power) of all the gods: everything is constantly accomplished according to his will, indicated by his Ka! " [Sethe, 1933, p. 109]. The will-which is referred to in the text - is a special deity inherent in both the Sun and its earthly son, the king. According to the Egyptians of the Ancient Kingdom, once the desire of the royal Ka appears, it turns into its fulfillment.-

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It is irreversible, because the fulfillment of the king's will is ensured by divine power, which nothing can resist [Shahab El-Din, 1993, p. 103].

In the Middle Kingdom era, when the absolute ability of the king to ensure the fulfillment of the divine will of his Ka was called into question, there was a need for additional evidence of the control of the desert by the royal authority. Henceforth, the success of the expedition was perceived as evidence of the granting of mercy to the royal divine power by the patron god of the desert (such as, for example, Min) in order to strengthen the Ka of the king on the throne of Chor (M 113) [Coyat and Montet, 1912, p. 79-81, pl. XXIX].

Materials obtained in the desert also came to be considered a kind of "gift" to the king: "So, truly, it is the Majesty of the god of this noble, lord of the foreign highlands (i.e., Min), who made a gift for his son Nebtauir-may he live in-in order to make him happy and make him stay on the earth. on his thrones in and in, and that he may celebrate millions of hebseds!"2 (M 110) [Coyat and Montet, 1912, p. 77-78, pl. XXIX]. Moreover, this gift was created in time immemorial and, perhaps, specifically for specific monuments: "Min created his goodness (i.e., stone) for the sarcophagus, monument and for monuments in the temples of Upper Egypt - for the expedition of the king, who sits over Both Lands, so that what he wants from the deserts of his father Min was delivered to him"(M 192) [Coyat and Montet, 1912, p. 98-100, pl. XXXVII].

At the same time, the gifts of the "desert" were taken for granted, because the land, by the will and through the gods of the desert, gave only what belonged to the king by right - as the heir to the god of the earth Geb and the main performer of rituals: "The earth gave him what is in it. 3 Geb has entrusted to him what is hidden to them, foreign countries make offerings, hills pray, and every place gives what is hidden in it... for him is all that surrounds the sun's disk; the Eye gives him 4 all that is in it and all that was created by it"5 (WH 143) [Sadek, 1985, pl. XXIII].

In general terms, the mechanism of the expedition, apparently, was as follows. The royal Ka, who is in charge of the needs of a cult whose goal is to maintain Maat, recognizes the need to extract specific material and turns its desire into a will. This will is realized with the help of a divine power that directs a particular official and the expedition led by him to the desert. "I was sent to these mines, (and) the divine power of the king guided my thoughts, "reports Horurr's" treasurer of god " (Sinai 90) [Gardiner, Peet, Cerny, 1952, pl. XXVA-XXVI].

In the desert, the Egyptian squad could expect miracles. The appearance of one of these miracles is described in detail in the inscription M 191: "The repetition of the miracle: the creation of a spring and the opportunity to see the manifestations of this god, the appearance of his divine power to the people of the king! The foreign land was turned into a water stream! Water came out of the solid 6 stone. And they found a pool in the middle of the valley, 10 cubits by 10 cubits on each side, filled to the brim with water, cleansed and freed from gazelles, hidden from enemies and strangers. Previous expeditions of the kings of former times went back and forth through it, and not a single eye saw it, nor did the gaze of men fall on it. It was opened (only) for His Majesty himself. So he (i.e., God) hid it (i.e., the reservoir), because he knew about this very moment. He planned this event well in advance, so that they might see his divine power and know the goodness of His Majesty. He brought an innovation to his foreign highlands for his son Nebtauir, yes

Cheb-sed 2 is a ritual holiday associated with the renewal of the king's powers.

3 Literally: "appointed".

4 The Eye of Horus, symbolizing in its entirety the world and the pre-established order of things-Maat.

5 Literally, " all that has appeared as his creation."

6 Or an "ugly" stone " [Wb. II. S. 290].

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As he lives, those who were in the Beloved Land, the king's subjects in Egypt — Upper Egypt and Lower Egypt-heard this. They bowed their heads to the ground and paid homage to the divine beauty of His Majesty vo and vo [Coyat and Montet, 1912, p. 97-98, pl. XXXVI].

Apparently, "miracles" were performed for the king by the power of the desert deity and were planned in advance. Everything necessary for the cult has already been hidden in the desert since time immemorial-both minerals and metals , and various natural gifts (reservoirs, convenient wadis) that facilitate the way to them. Such gifts emerged gradually, bringing "innovations" to already familiar landscapes. In this case, we may be talking about rainwater that filled the depression in the rock. It is characteristic that the "miracle" in the desert caused the expedition participants to bow before the divine goodness of the king in Egypt itself.

DESERT AND OFFICIALS

This was the ideal royal expedition during the early Middle Kingdom-supported by the divine forces of the desert and perfectly demonstrating the fullness of the king's solar nature, which confirmed his ability to rule foreign regions.

However, already at the end of the Ancient Kingdom, against the background of the gradual weakening of the royal power, another trend appeared. In the reasons for the success of the enterprise, they began to look for the "human factor". At first, it was found, apparently, only in the administrative merits of an official, but later his piety came to the fore. The beginning was made with such seemingly harmless statements as those already quoted above regarding the construction of wells under Pepi II. This ability of a nobleman to act relatively independently in the desert will eventually give rise to the idea of the ability of ordinary mortals to independently influence the gods of the desert.

An important milestone in this regard, of course, was the era of the First Transition Period, when the kings showed their inability to organize the world order in accordance with the principles of Ma'at. Disbelief in the organizing power of kings led to an increased sense of dependence on the gods. Outwardly, this was primarily reflected in the establishment of close ties between the rulers of individual regions (nomarchs) and their subjects, on the one hand, and local deities, on the other.

The destruction of the necropolises and the cessation of royal assistance in the construction of tombs led to the fact that the belief in the existence of a funeral cult for any long time was also shaken. Then the Egyptians began to look for more effective and reliable ways to preserve their name, image and sacrificial formulas necessary for posthumous existence. Erecting a monument outside the tomb, which was always under threat of looting or usurpation, seemed to be the most effective solution to the problem. As a result, private stelae, altars, statues and naos are becoming more popular, which were installed on the territory of temples, under the protection of the gods, or in particularly significant cult centers, for example in Abydos. Of course, these processes could not pass by the expedition inscriptions, because the desert is one of the best places to preserve the name and title. On the one hand, these lands are located on the border of two worlds: in the east and west, the Sun rises and sets, and it is here that the abodes of the gods are located. On the other hand, the destruction or usurpation of the inscription outside the valley was almost safe, and more or less regular expeditions provided the monument with potential readers who could enliven the text with a word.

The first elements of tomb inscriptions appear in expedition texts almost from the end of the IV dynasty. So, about food offerings and all sorts of meat

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The name for the" chief of the militia " of Anhu is probably mentioned in the inscription G 23 (Goyon, 1957, pp. 57-58, pl. IX) (2nd half of the IV dynasty). The second example is the sacrificial table painted, according to R. Anthes [Anthes, 1928, P. 8], next to the cartouche of King Teti in one of the Hatnub inscriptions (Hatnub Gr. 1) [Anthes, 1928, p.18-19, Taf. 9]. The problem, however, is that the drawing of the text in the publication of R. Anthes does not show this image [Anthes, 1928, Taf. 9]. The third example is the appearance in expedition inscriptions of variants of the tomb epithet X ("venerable at X"), indicating the lifetime and posthumous connection of an official with some deity, a king or other master [Chauvet, 2004, p. 137-160]. Well-known cases of using this formula in the expedition inscriptions of the Ancient Kingdom have already been collected by E. Eichler [Eichler, 1993, P. 260], but it is necessary to add graffiti from the time of Pepi II from Wadi Menya, in which the name of the expedition participant is accompanied by the epithet " venerable with his lord "(ML 16) [Rothe, Miller, Rapp, 2008, p. 364]. Finally, during the eighth Dynasty in Wadi Hammamat, the most important tomb formula is found for the first time - an appeal to the living (M 150) [Eichler, 1994, p.71].

During the Middle Kingdom era, the tendency to turn some expedition inscriptions into actual funeral texts only increased. Even during the XI Dynasty, Hatnub graffiti included elements of autobiographies (Hatnub Gr. 11) [Anthes, 1928, Taf. 14]; later this custom was adopted in other quarries (Gasse, 1988, pp. 83-93, pl. VI). Under Senusert I, the tomb formula ("sacrifice given by the king") is first found in private expedition texts (WH 154) [Sadek, 1985, p. 3-4]. Finally, since the time of Amenemhat II, in addition to the mention of parents, other relatives - brothers and sisters-have begun to appear in expedition inscriptions, similar to funeral steles (Sinai 404) [Gardiner, Peet, Cerny, 1952, pl. LXXXIV].

From the end of the Ancient Kingdom, we have the first information about expeditions that were equipped not for the tsar, but for his officials [Anthes, 1928, pp. 21-22, Taf. 11]. The gradual strengthening of the role of local rulers could not but lead to the next decisive step. And at the very end of the Ancient Kingdom or in the era of the First Transition Period (VIII-X dynasty), in the quarries of Hatnub, for the first time there is an indication that the expedition worked thanks to the help of the "divine power" of the nomarch (Hatnub Gr. 9) [Anthes, 1928, S. 23, Taf. 14], and not the king or god of the desert. At the end of the XI-beginning of the XII dynasties, the rulers of the XV nome, under whose rule Hatnub was, already called themselves in the quarries no other than the sons of the local god Thoth (Hatnub Gr. 20, Hatnub Gr. 23) [Anthes, 1928, Pp. 42-47, Taf. 18; S. 52-53, Taf. 20]. This was to explain their right to mine the desert riches and, most importantly, demonstrate their ability to find these riches. At the same time, the first cases of scenes of sacrificial feasting (Hatnub Gr. 14) appear in mines and quarries (Anthes, 1928, pp. 32-33, Taf. 17 ]( except for the controversial example of the sacrificial table from Hatnub Gr. 1), later popular in Sinai.

As a result of the establishment by officials of strong ties with the desert, virtually bypassing the king, evidence began to appear about "private" miracles revealed by the desert gods to a specific dignitary. The first such" miracles " should probably be considered amazing creatures of the desert, which began to be depicted in the tombs of the rulers of the XV and XVI nomes of the late X dynasty.

At the end of the XI dynasty, Egyptian officials began to solemnly tell about the organization of the supply of expeditions, describing it as a real man-made miracle: "An expedition of 3000 people came out (and) I turned the path into a river, and the desert into watered lands. I also gave each of them a skin and a knapsack daily-2 measures each-ds of water and 20 loaves of bread. The donkeys were loaded with shoes: (if) a foot (sandal) was lost, the other was (immediately) ready. In addition, I dug 12 wells in low-lying areas (and) 2 wells in Idahet: one of 20 cubic meters and the other of 30 cubic meters (?) elbows. (Yet) another

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a well at Jaheteb, measuring 10 cubits by 10 cubits in all its depth (?). And when I came to the sea, I built this ship and provided it with all sorts of things, (and then) made a great sacrifice - (killed) bulls, long-horned bulls and goats" (M 114) [Coyat and Montet, 1912, p. 81-84, pl. XXXI].

Another description is even more eloquent: "Made the chief of the army... supply of sacks of ammunition, bags of bread, beer, and all sorts of fresh vegetables from Upper Egypt. I made its wadis green, and its heights pools of water. I filled the country with young people as far as its borders - to the south as far as Chaau and to the north as far as Menat Khufu" (M 1) [Coyat and Montet, 1912, p. 32, pl. III]. Or:" I have turned a foreign country into a river, and lofty valleys into streams of water! " (M 113) [Coyat and Montet, 1912, p. 79-81, pl. XXIX]. Contemporaries, of course, were clear that it was only about providing food and ammunition for expeditions (although the transformation of valleys into streams of water, of course, can be seen as a hint of torrential rain), but the comparisons themselves make us perceive the success in supply as "miracles" — changing the properties of barren lands, which, as previously thought, were covered with water. only the gods and the king were capable. In this respect, the magnificent epithet of the vizier Amenemhat, who led the expedition in the eighth year of the reign of Mentuhotep IV, is eloquent: "the steward of what the sky gives, what the earth gives, and what the Nile brings, the ruler of everything in this land to its borders" (M 110) [Coyat and Montet, 1912, p. 77-78, pl. XXIX].

The idea that the leader of an expedition could personally seek the favor of the gods without resorting to the royal power was fully formed by the beginning of the XII dynasty. Under Amenemhat I, a story appears in Wadi Hammamat about how an official got lost in the desert, but thanks to the help of the desert gods, he was still able to find quarries and successfully complete the work: "I spent eight days searching for this foreign country, (for) I did not know its location. Then I fell on my belly before Min, Mut, Pahet, the great enchantment, and all the gods of this strange land. I threw the incense into the fire. And so, the land was illuminated: it was early morning. The expedition went out to the mountain of this Ra-Henu, following me" (M 199) [Coyat and Montet, 1912, p. 100-102, pl. XXXVIII].

Under Senusert I, who claimed to restore full power over foreign countries and his exclusivity before the kings of the past, references to "private miracles" disappear from the expedition inscriptions. However, as soon as new crisis phenomena appeared, officials again began to turn to the desert gods on their own. Thus, the" Treasurer of God "Horurra tells his future successors:" Look, Hathor gives this (i.e. turquoise) to the one who (generously) supplies (altars)! I saw it myself! I did this myself! I arrived from Egypt discouraged, because I did not know how to find its (i.e. turquoise) color (suitable) because of the heat. The country (this) foreign is hot, the hills are scorching hot and the color (turquoise) suffers." For the success of the expedition, it was necessary to enlist the support of Hathor, the patroness of the Sinai mines. Here Horurra succeeded, which allowed him to achieve the almost impossible - to get a high-quality stone at an unfavorable time of the year: "I did not want (more) beautiful color. Eyes (happy) as if on a holiday! It (i.e. turquoise) is better than in the proven season!". The conclusion that the official offers to future generations is very simple: "Make offerings, make offerings to the lady of heaven, honor Hathor! (If) you do this, it will be good for you; you will get a raise because of what you had to give away. I completed the expedition with great success, and no one raised their voices about my service, which I carried out by offering sacrifices" (Sinai 90) [Gardiner, Peet, Cerny, 1952, pl. XXVA-XXVI].

More details about the sacrifices to the goddess are given by the "treasurer of god" Sebekherheb: "Here I have delivered for her an altar made of faience, fine flax, white flax, various [ ... ].. red flax, I gave bread (and) beer, oxen and birds, incense-burning.

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I have made the feast offerings, I have provided her altars. She guided me with her beautiful advice. I doubled what I did to everyone who came to this place, which is due to the greatness of what I did for her (i.e., Hathor). (As) I live, so is what I have said true!" (Sinai 53) [Gardiner, Peet, Segpu, 1952, pl. XVII].

However, Sebekherheb did not forget about the king, who, in his opinion, made it possible to safely reach the mines: "Those who belong to the royal placenta, friends, that from the palace! So praise the king, exalt his power, honor the king, and see what is done for him: the highlands bring forth what is in them, they reveal what is hidden in them; foreign countries bring their offerings. His father Geb gave it to him..."

GOD'S LAND

At the beginning of the Middle Kingdom, a new term for desert lands appeared in Egyptian sources - ("Land of God"). G. Gedike, who analyzed well-known examples of its use, came to the conclusion that by" Land of God "the Egyptians understood territories that were beyond the control of any political entities - "wild field", which is dominated only by disordered divine forces (Goedicke, 1998, p. 23-28).

The first mention is found in the tomb of the" chief of the desert "Setik from Kubbet el-Hawa [Edel, 2008, pp. 1743-1758, 1811-1813]7 and should refer to the reign of Intef II and the fifth Heraclopolite, the author of the" Teachings of Merikar " [Demidchik, 2011, p.82]. This confirms the opinion of A. E. Demidchik that the concept, most likely, was formed precisely in the era of the First Transition Period [Demidchik, 2005, pp. 174-178]. Gold and copper from the "Land of God" are mentioned in the text between myrrh from Byblos and frankincense from Nubia, so the inscription probably refers to the Eastern Desert. The term is then found in the graffiti of the chief steward of the royal households, Henu (during the reign of Mentuhotep III), and refers to overseas territories: "And when I came to the sea, I built this ship and provided it with all sorts of things, (and then) I made a great sacrifice - (slaughtered) bulls, long-horned bulls, and goats. When I returned from across the sea, I did as His Majesty ordered, and I brought him gifts of all kinds that I found on the shores of the Land of God" (M 114) [Coyat and Montet, 1912, p. 81-84, pl XXXI].

It is very likely that the " Land of God "is a place where the official is deprived of a significant part of the royal protection and is left alone with the divine forces, as, for example, happened with the hero of the"Tale of the Castaway". A. E. Demidchik suggested considering it as an expression of the idea of the Egyptian king's non-sovereignty over certain territories, limited sovereignty over the desert [Demidchik, 2005, pp. 174-178]. And this approach seems quite justified. Indeed, the effectiveness of the royal ritual in relation to the inhabitants of the "Land of God" is greatly reduced, because they, like, for example, the serpent from the tale of the shipwrecked, already have everything that is sacrificed to the gods in the temples of Egypt.

However, the concept of "Land of God" also included well-known and frequently visited territories: the mines of Wadi el-Khudi (WH 145) [Sadek, 1980, p. 90; Sadek, 1985, pl. XXIV], the Red Sea coast (Durham 1735) [Sayed, 1977, p. 139, pl 8; Sayed, 2008, p. 48-55] or Wadi Hammamat (M 110) [Coyat and Montet, 1912, p. 77-78, pl. XXIX]. In this case, it seems to have been a place where the king and the official worked together: the ruler ensured the safe progress of the detachment to the mines or quarries, and the head of the expedition asked for the favor of the gods already on the spot (M 110, M 114) - a situation that could not be imagined in the Nile Valley, completely controlled by the king.

7 I am heartily grateful to A. E. Dsmidchik for pointing out this inscription.

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Please note that the boundaries of the "Land of God" include those deposits that were inaccessible to the Egyptians in the era of the First Transition Period. At the same time, in the quarries of Hatnub, where work was not interrupted even during the time of troubles, the term is never found. It is possible, therefore, that the concept of the "Land of God" was formed as the inhabitants of the "Black Earth" returned to previously known but temporarily abandoned deposits outside the Nile Valley. Explaining this period of oblivion, when the quarries and mines, according to the Egyptians, were in the exclusive power of the divine forces of the desert, the inhabitants of the valley developed the concept of"The Land of God".

The study of the available epigraphic material shows that the division of deposits based on the extracted materials does not fully explain the similarities and differences between the compositions of the expeditions that worked there. The same is true for the traditional division of known deposits by geographical feature in the existing historiography [Eichler, 1993; Seyfried, 1981]. In fact, the composition of material-gathering expeditions was determined by a whole group of factors: the nature of the material being extracted, the distance from the Nile Valley, security conditions, supply difficulties, and dependence on political stability inside Egypt, a combination of which I propose to call the "availability" of the mining region.

All deposits can be divided into easily accessible, medium-accessible and hard-to-reach. Among the easily accessible deposits I refer to those mines and quarries that were located in the immediate vicinity of the Nile Valley or permanent Egyptian settlements. Medium-accessible deposits include mines and quarries that were located far from the main Egyptian settlements, but still within the reach of "private", i.e. non-Royal expeditions from the Nile Valley. Finally, hard-to-reach deposits include those mines and quarries that only royal expeditions could reach from the Nile Valley (this does not exclude that small groups of local residents could work on them independently). Since the early Middle Kingdom, the term" Land of God " has encompassed medium-and hard-to-reach mines and quarries. However, it should be noted that the field availability indicator was not constant and could change over time.

The ideological significance of the Egyptian expeditions for materials was closely connected with the idea of the king's world-building activities as a descendant of the solar deity. At the same time, in the process of changing the ancient Egyptian ideas about the nature of desert wealth in the era of the Ancient and Middle Kingdoms, several stages can be distinguished: III-VI dynasties; VII dynasty 1st half of the reign of Senusert I; 2nd half of the reign of Senusert I-XIII dynasty.

During the Ancient Kingdom, the surrounding territories were probably perceived by the Egyptians as a sphere of exclusive royal responsibility. The desert acted as a kind of fiefdom of the king, inherited from the gods. This ideological attitude naturally fixed the current state of affairs: only the central government was able to organize and provide everything necessary for a large expedition to the hostile - both literally and figuratively-lands of the "desert".

During the sixth dynasty, as the royal power weakened, the texts for the first time recorded the idea that certain foreign localities had their own divine patrons-Hathor, Min, then Sopdu, etc. The appearance of two masters-the king and god - made it possible to create an alternative initiator of the exploitation of desert deposits, who would not act on behalf of palace a on behalf of

8 The main criterion for periodization is the ratio of purely royal functions for the ritual development of desert spaces and the ability of ordinary Egyptians to interact with desert deities (i.e., the measure of ritual accessibility and control of the desert).

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a local deity. At the same time, the idea that desert territories are close in their properties to the sacred territory of the necropolis is becoming widespread, which is why elements of tomb inscriptions began to appear in expedition texts. The necropolis is a place where not only the king acts, but also a person, where a mere mortal (through ritual and his tomb-arranging activities) has the opportunity to directly come into contact with the divine world. The convergence of ideas about the desert and the necropolis allowed the official to act more independently outside the valley and conduct organizational activities there on his own behalf.

At the second stage of mining and quarrying operations (the end of the Ancient Kingdom - Senusert I), these ideological changes led to the fact that the participants of expeditions for materials began to show themselves even more actively in the desert. The possibility of ideologically justifying "private" expeditions for materials organized by dignitaries and nomarchs with the approval of local deities has appeared. It is no coincidence that the only accurately dated expedition to Wadi Hammamat at the end of the eighth dynasty was led by a representative of the temple of the god Mina in Coptos [Coyat and Montet, 1912, p. 91-92, pl. XXXIV — XXXV], and the nomarchical expeditions to Hatnub invariably included representatives of the priesthood of the temple of Thoth in Hermopolis. However, only a few deposits were accessible to "private" expeditions - the nomarchs had neither the strength nor, probably, the great need to make expeditions deep into the desert. As a result, many previously known mines and quarries were abandoned. Having remained out of the reach of the king and the local nome deities, they, apparently, passed in the view of the Egyptians under the power of the divine forces of the desert.

With the restoration of the tsarist power (Mentukhotep II-Senusert I), there is a need for an ideological justification for the return of the tsar to control the expeditionary activity of the state. As a result, the famous texts of the vizier Amenemhat about the miracles performed by the god Mina for King Mentuhotep IV appear.

While in the second stage of mining and quarrying operations, the ordinary members of the expeditions operated in the desert in a ritualistic way rather independently, in the third stage (Senusert I - XIII dynasty), the kings tried to regain ritual power over the desert and its deposits. It is from Senusert I that the story of the legacy of Geb, who entrusted all the gifts of foreign countries to the tsar, appears in the expedition discourse (WH 143) [Sadek, 1980, p. 84-88; Sadek, 1985, pl. XXIII]. At the same time, it is especially popular in the Sinai, where the central government traditionally had no rivals in the operation of mines (Sinai 53, Sinai 106, Sinai 114, Sinai 124A, Sinai 136, Sinai 146) [Gardiner, Peet, Cerny, 1952, pl. XVII, pl. XXXV, XXXVI, XXXVIII, XLIX, XLI].

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

VDI-Bulletin of Ancient History.

BIFAO - Bulletin de l'Institut Francais d'Archéologie Orientale. Le Caire.

GM — Göttinger Miszellen. Beiträge zur ägyptologischen Diskussion. Göttingen.

MDAIK- Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituls, Abteilung Kairo. Wiesbaden, Mainz.

RdÉ - Revue d'Égyptologie. P.

UGAÄ - Untersuchungen zur Geschichte und Altertumskunde Ägyptens. Leipzig.

Wb. I-VI - Erman J.P.A., Grapow H. Wörterbuch der aegyptischen Sprache. В.: Akadcmic Vcrlag, 1935-1971.

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Bolshakov A. O. Drevneegipetskaya sculptura i "khorovo imeni" [Ancient Egyptian sculpture and the "Choral name"].
Bolshakov A. O. Chelovek i ego dvoynik [Man and his double]. Pictorial art and worldview in Old Kingdom Egypt. St. Petersburg: Alstsya Publ., 2001.

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