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35 the collapse of the Old Kingdom with a “climate change” that undermined a society founded on agriculture, caused food shortages and food riots, social upheaval, and collapse of authority. But little attention has been paid to a major and perhaps the most important change: in the texts, in the hymns, in the honorific names of temples, it was no longer Ra but from then on Ra-Amon, or simply Amon, who was henceforth worshipped; Ra became Amon—Ra the Un- seen—for he was gone from Egypt. It was indeed a religious change that caused the political and societal breakdown, the unidentified Ipu-Wer wrote; we believe that the change was Ra’s becoming Amon. The up- heaval began with a collapse of religious observances and manifested itself in the defiling and abandonment of temples, where “the Place of Secrets has been laid bare, the writings of the august enclosure have been scattered, common men tear them up in the streets . . . magic is exposed, it is in the sight of him who knows it not.” The sacred symbol of the gods worn on the king’s crown, the Uraeus (the Divine Ser- pent), “is rebelled against...religious dates are dis- turbed . . . priests are carried off wrongfully.” After calling on the people to repent, “to offer incense in the temples . . . to keep the offerings to the gods,” the papy- tus called on the repenters to be baptized—to “remember to immerse.” Then the words of the papyrus turn prophetic: in a passage that even Egyptologists call “truly messianic,” the Admonitions speak of “a time that shall come” when an un- named Savior—a “god-king”—shall appear. Starting with a small following, of him “men shall say: He brings coolness upon the heart, He is a shepherd of all men. Though his herds may be small, He will spend the days caring for them. . . Then he would smite down evil, He would stretch forth his arm against it.” “People will be asking: ‘Where is he today? Is he then sleeping? Why is his power not seen?’ ” Ipu-Wer wrote, and Egyptian Prophecies, Human Destinies