12. Autobiography of Harkhuf 

Old Kingdom activities in Nubia centered on extracting resources (aromatics, ivory, timber, stones, gold, exotic animals and skins) and people. Harkhuf, a native and governor of Elephantine in Ta-Seti, was involved in conducting state affairs in the region. King Merenra ordered overland caravans with hundreds of donkeys and security detail to travel south. The inscriptions in Harkhuf’s tomb are carved to the right and left of the entrance, and boast about the success of the Lewis and Clark-like expeditions he led. The 1,200-1,800 mile journeys, which likely started at Elephantine, lasted several months each. Harkhuf ventured into the Land of Yam three times, bringing various goods back to Egypt. He interacted with its ruler and ‘pacified him’ as the latter contended with another group (the Tjemeh) in the Western desert. The pacified Yamians then dispatched a security force to accompany Harkhuf in his continuing journey. Stunned by the joint Yamian-Egyptian appearance, the ruler of Irtjet allegedly welcomed and assisted Harkhuf further. The inscriptions also describe correspondence by king Pepi II. The king expressed excitement for a person of short stature that Harkhuf apparently captured in what the description calls the 'Land of the Horizon-Dwellers' (unknown location): in Egypt, people with dwarfism and ancestors of the Mbuti people in central Africa were regarded as proxies of the fertility god Bes, and were frequently made to be ritual dancers. Later in Pepi’s reign a different caravan leader, Mekhu, was killed in Wawat for not paying tribute. His body was released to his son only after he paid a ransom. These stories, as one-sided as they are, speak of the political map in Nubia during the Old Kingdom and early Egyptian attitudes that led to its colonization.