EXECRATION TEXTS

   These texts are found during the Middle Kingdom inscribed on figures and pots that were ritually broken. They contain curses against the enemies of the king, both internal and external. The ceremony of breaking their names may have been thought to render these enemies powerless. The texts range from the general to the specific, giving names of individuals and foreign princes in Palestine and Nubia otherwise unknown. The texts give the earliest citation of the city of Jerusalem.