Were Pharaohs still inscribed on walls and written on papyrus after their deaths?

Question

If so, was it done for historical record, or tradition? Any details on this appreciated. Do we have any instances of artifacts depicting past Pharaohs or events that occurred before they were created?

Answer 1

Yes, but it is unusual, particularly for inscriptions on monuments or in tombs.

To understand why, we need to understand something of Ancient Egyptian art. The key fact to bear in mind is that most Ancient Egyptian art and carved inscriptions were never intended to be seen. They were designed to benefit a divine or deceased recipient.

[If you can get hold of a copy, Principles of Egyptian Art by Heinrich Schäfer is probably one of the best texts that I know on the subject.]

When the acts of a Pharaoh were recorded, it was to emphasise his glory, to show that he had done all the things expected of him, and that (under his rule) everything in the world was as it should be. This last point cannot be understated. The concept of "rightness", that everything in the world was as it should be, was even personified as the goddess Maat. The phrase "all according to Maat" is one that recurs often in Egyptian texts.

Often, when a Pharaoh died, his successor simply appropriated their building projects, replacing their predecessor's name with their own. It was actually far from unusual for a Pharaoh to re-appropriate statues or inscriptions of earlier rulers. This helped "raise their profile" and ensure that the gods knew they were doing a good job as Pharaoh. Perhaps just as important, it also helped ensure that their name lived on after their death.

Sometimes, as in the case of the Temple of Seti I at Abydos, the monument was completed by the Pharaoh's heir (in this case his son, Rameses II). Rameses not only left his father's name in place, but added further inscriptions praising his life. Of course, he included himself in the inscriptions (extensively - and particularly in the second courtyard), noting how he had completed the work on his father's temple as a dutiful son should - all according to Maat.

It is a little less uncommon to find references to deceased (oten long-deceased) Pharaohs in text written on papyrus. The Pharaoh Khufu appears in a number of later stories, for example those in the Westcar Papyrus. These are mostly of the genre known as "wisdom literature". The Westcar Papyrus is written in Middle Egyptian and probably dates to the Second Intermediate Period, perhaps some 800 years after Khufu's death. Another example of a text written after a Pharaoh was dead is the Instructions of Amenemhat. In this case, the text actually purports to be advice given by the deceased Pharaoh himself to his son Senusret I.

As a rule, we can usually tell when the Pharaoh (or indeed anyone else, for that matter) referred to in a text is dead, since they will be given the salutation "justified" (Maat Kheru).