Ägyptische Handschriften, Teil 1by Ursula Kaplony-Heckel

Ägyptische Handschriften, Teil 1 by Ursula Kaplony-HeckelReview by: Georges R. HughesJournal of the American Oriental Society, Vol. 95, No. 1 (Jan. - Mar., 1975), pp. 103-104Published by: American Oriental SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/599167 .

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Brief Reviews of Books Brief Reviews of Books Brief Reviews of Books

the editor has dwelt on this in his introduction (p. 4). Some of these, i.e. the Satire on the Trades and excerpts from the Late Egyptian Miscellanies, are now included together with others in the second edition under the heading "The Scribal Tradition and Several Incomplete Instructions." This reviewer wishes to find also in a future edition the story of Cherchuf about the dwarf that, although not being a pure literary piece, is one of the pearls of Egyptian literature.

MORDECHAI GILULA

TEL-AVIV UNIVERSITY

Die Hohenpriester des Sonnengottes von der Friihzeit Agyptens bis zum Ende des Neuen Reiches. By Mo- HIAMED I. MOURSI. Miinchner Agyptologische Studien, Heft 26. Pp. 186 + XVI Plates. Miinchen, Berlin: DEUTSCHER KUNSTVERLAG. 1972. DM 29.

Among the religious centers of ancient Egypt Helio- polis occupied a dominant position throughout its long history, and the influence of its theology on the formula- tion of Egyptian religious belief was paramount. As it is located in an area where archaeological exploration is difficult due to the geographical features, considerably less is known about Heliopolis than about the Upper Egyptian religious centers. While the possibilities of archaeological exploration are lirited, there is consider- able inscriptional evidence pertaining to the holder of the position of high priest in this cult, spanning from the archaic to the Ptolemaic period. The occurrences of the specific designation have not been collected previously in a comprehensive form. In all 57 bearers of the title are listed by name, dating from the First Dynasty to the end of Dynasty XX. The distribution of the material is uneven, with the least occurrences attested for the Middle IKingdom and the Second Intermediate Period. For each case the name of the bearer, his date, the particular place of occurrence, the context of the title as well as copious bibliographical information is supplied. The particular form of the title is specified and when necessary commented on. As a result qualifications and alterations of the title become conspicuous which previously have not been as clearly established. Occurrences of the title without an affiliated name are listed (pp. 109- 129) as well as the use of the title as personal name. The compilation of the material is followed by a detailed discussion of the title, with comments on the particular dress of the priest, his social position and function, political and religious. Extensive and carefully compiled indices complete the study and make the material easily accessible.

While there can be no doubt about the merits of the study, some critical remarks seem in place concerning points which a more careful supervision of the original


MORDECHAI GILULA

TEL-AVIV UNIVERSITY





MORDECHAI GILULA

TEL-AVIV UNIVERSITY




thesis could have eliminated. To list Userkaf of the Pap. Westcar as a historical attestation of the title seems inappropriate. The result is an otherwise unattested spelling of the designation for the Old Kingdom. In the handling of the two longer texts (no. 37 and 39) some rather surprising translations are offered; e.g. The "Priester des leuchtenden Horus" with a reference to Wb. III 215,19 attested only in Graeco-Roman times is of course to be read hm-ntr wfd. ty Hr and is listed Wb. I 269,2; the invocation is directed to the "lecture priests and supporters of Apis, the living son, who speaks out for Ptah" and not to the "Vorlesepriester und is.w-Ar- beiter des lebenden Apis, des Sprechers des Ptah."

In the discussion of the title an appropriate distinction between its Old and Middle Kingdom form is being made, rendering the older as "he who sees the Great One" and the later as "the greatest of the seers." Different from Junker's thesis "the Great" (wr) is not seen as reference to an anonymous high-god, but following Helck is con- sidered to denote the archaic king. However, such an explanation entails certain inconsistencies which a comparison with other Old Kingdom titles construed with wr could have avoided. While an explanation of ivr as reference to the archaic king has many merits, in other titles it is used as qualification, i.e. as genitive, and not as object. A similar situation prevails with mU-Wr which should thus not be rendered as "he who sees the Great One," but rather as "the seer of the Great one." Such a rendering can be better reconciled with the later development of the designation.

The discussion of the title of the high priest is a major contribution towards an understanding of the sun-cult of ancient Egypt and the priesthood connected with it.

HANS GOEDICKE THE JOHNS IIOPKINS UNIVERSITY

Agyptische Handschriften, Teil 1. Beschrieben von URSULA KAPLONY-HECKEL. Verzeichnis der orien- talischen Handschriften in Deutschland, Band XIX, 1. Pp. xx + 301 + 8 pis. Wiesbaden: FRANZ STEINER VERLAG. 1971. DM 116.00.

This is the first of two volumes cataloguing the Egyp- tian manuscripts in Germany in the great series done under the aegis of the Deutsche Morgenlaindischen Gesell- schaft. This volume contains only hieratic texts on papyri, not ostraca, and only those in the Berlin Museum. Furthermore, the texts are all of the Berlin Illahun temple archive from a period of barely a century at the end of Dynasty XII (Sesostris III and Amenemhet III). Even so the catalogue consists of 679 numbers plus a supplement of 4 pieces that were returned to Cairo in 1938 in return for some batches of fragments and another 6 pieces that could not now be found.













103 103 103



Journal of the American Oriental Society 95.1 (1975) Journal of the American Oriental Society 95.1 (1975)

When the work on this catalogue was begun in 1962

the problems seemed almost insurmountable because

numerous labels bearing the museum inventory numbers

had been lost from the glass mountings, presumably during the removal of the papyri to the Soviet Union

from which they were returned to Berlin in 1959. This

difficulty was overcome largely through the discovery

by Cerny of Devaud's careful transcriptions of nearly all of the texts among Gardiner's papers in the Griffith

Institute, Oxford. Borchardt's photographs in the Swiss

Institute, Cairo, although incomplete, were also a help. The bulk of the Berlin collection of Illahun papyri was

acquired just after the appearance of Griffith's publication in 1898 of those found by Petrie in 1889. Schafer

and Reinhardt bought quantities in Cairo in the early

part of 1899 and a two-week excavation in June 1899 by the Germans in the ruins of the pyramid city of Sesostris

II turned up others. This is a catalogue of the precious archive, not a

publication of it. Numerous of the more significant

pieces have been published, principally by Borchardt,

Devaud, Moller and Scharff. Use has been made of dated

pieces, for example, in studies of the chronology of Dynas-

ty XII. Most of the archive has, however, never been

published. In this catalogue a detailed description is given of each

piece or group of fragments. The nature of the section of

temple journal, letter, account, etc., is given, including

any dates, personal or other names, titles, etc. For larger

pieces of texts usually a transcription into hieroglyphs of the beginning and end is given including a translitera- tion of the transcribed portions. When a piece has already been published the reference is, of course, supplied. In

the case of smaller fragments perhaps only an identifiable

word may be transcribed. The catalogue is thus designed to enable the user to judge whether a piece may be of

interest to him so that he may ask for a photograph of it.

The 8 plates show only three sections of the temple journal and three letters.

The indices are not extensive. One index groups the

texts under Stichworter such as letters, temple journal, festival dates, lists of persons, etc. A second lists all the

regnal years (1 through 40) appearing in the texts, and a

third lists all personal names. Three concordances

equate the catalogue numbers with the museum inventory numbers, with the Devaud and Borchardt numbers, and with the Cairo Museum photograph numbers.

The author and her assistants are to be congratulated and thanked for accomplishing a formidable task in so usable a manner.

GEORGES R. HUGHES ORIENTAL INSTITUTE,

UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO

When the work on this catalogue was begun in 1962

the problems seemed almost insurmountable because

numerous labels bearing the museum inventory numbers

had been lost from the glass mountings, presumably during the removal of the papyri to the Soviet Union

from which they were returned to Berlin in 1959. This

difficulty was overcome largely through the discovery

by Cerny of Devaud's careful transcriptions of nearly all of the texts among Gardiner's papers in the Griffith

Institute, Oxford. Borchardt's photographs in the Swiss

Institute, Cairo, although incomplete, were also a help. The bulk of the Berlin collection of Illahun papyri was

acquired just after the appearance of Griffith's publication in 1898 of those found by Petrie in 1889. Schafer

and Reinhardt bought quantities in Cairo in the early

part of 1899 and a two-week excavation in June 1899 by the Germans in the ruins of the pyramid city of Sesostris

II turned up others. This is a catalogue of the precious archive, not a

publication of it. Numerous of the more significant

pieces have been published, principally by Borchardt,

Devaud, Moller and Scharff. Use has been made of dated

pieces, for example, in studies of the chronology of Dynas-

ty XII. Most of the archive has, however, never been

published. In this catalogue a detailed description is given of each

piece or group of fragments. The nature of the section of

temple journal, letter, account, etc., is given, including

any dates, personal or other names, titles, etc. For larger

pieces of texts usually a transcription into hieroglyphs of the beginning and end is given including a translitera- tion of the transcribed portions. When a piece has already been published the reference is, of course, supplied. In

the case of smaller fragments perhaps only an identifiable

word may be transcribed. The catalogue is thus designed to enable the user to judge whether a piece may be of

interest to him so that he may ask for a photograph of it.

The 8 plates show only three sections of the temple journal and three letters.

The indices are not extensive. One index groups the

texts under Stichworter such as letters, temple journal, festival dates, lists of persons, etc. A second lists all the

regnal years (1 through 40) appearing in the texts, and a

third lists all personal names. Three concordances

equate the catalogue numbers with the museum inventory numbers, with the Devaud and Borchardt numbers, and with the Cairo Museum photograph numbers.

The author and her assistants are to be congratulated and thanked for accomplishing a formidable task in so usable a manner.

GEORGES R. HUGHES ORIENTAL INSTITUTE,

UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO

Der Text des "Nilhymnus." By WOLFGANG HELCK.

Pp. 87. Kleine Agyptische Texte. Wiesbaden:

OTTO HARRASSOWITZ. 1972. DM 14.80.

This, the latest in Helck's series of compact, easy to

use publications of Middle Kingdom texts, follows the

format established for those earlier in the series. After

listing all the manuscripts (papyri, ostraca, and writing

boards) containing the Hymn to the Nile and indicating how much of the entire text each of the individual copies

contains, Helck presents the text, transcribed into

hieroglyphs, clause by clause (clauses are separated by verse points in most of the copies), with all the copies set

out one under another. At the end of each stanza, as

indicated by those copies which use red ink to mark the

beginning of a new section, Helck comments on the

text, puts together what seems to him to be the most

likely original text, and translates this with only oc-

casional notes on the translation. He makes no attempt to translate each of the copies. At the end of the volume

he presents his concept of the lines of transmission of

the text, including a tree indicating how he thinks the

various copies may be related to one another.

This, like the other volumes in the series, is well suited

to use in the classroom, especially with Helck's clear

hieroglyphic handwriting and the inclusion of his sug-

gestions for the original text. Sometimes his suggestions differ from all the preserved copies, e.g. stanza Id, where

Helck changes hsl 'to sing' into hs, 'slime,' so that the

Nile inundation is described as 'a slime for Upper Egypt which moistens the fields.' In many cases his changes seem highly unlikely or unnecessary, or even impossible. A few of these are noted here just to warn users of this

book to keep alert. For example, in stanza XIb six of

the preserved copies have nhm n.k d;mw hrdw 'generations of children shout for joy about you,' but the seventh has

[nhm] n.k. [d,]d,t rs[yt] m wrr. Helck accepts this as

the original reading and translates 'the southern council

shouts with joy about you in the cataract.'

From this Helck argues that d?mw hrdw is also corrupt in

stanza VIb, where all the preserved texts have sms sw

(var., nhm n.k) d,mw hrdw 'geneIations of children follow

him (var., shout for joy about you),' and suggests that

the original text read sms siw d_dtd wrt 'the great council

follows him.' Another example, which seems impossible, is his suggestion that the original text for stanza IVd read

swt m dw,t pt t 'whether he is in the underworld, in

heaven, or on earth.' Helck argues in his commentary on this line that swt must be the old independent pronoun third person masculine, and that the copies with sw, none have swt, aie so written by analogy with the Late

Egyptian use of sw in present tense clauses with adverbial

predicates. But the independent pronoun did not serve

Der Text des "Nilhymnus." By WOLFGANG HELCK.

Pp. 87. Kleine Agyptische Texte. Wiesbaden:

OTTO HARRASSOWITZ. 1972. DM 14.80.

This, the latest in Helck's series of compact, easy to

use publications of Middle Kingdom texts, follows the

format established for those earlier in the series. After

listing all the manuscripts (papyri, ostraca, and writing

boards) containing the Hymn to the Nile and indicating how much of the entire text each of the individual copies

contains, Helck presents the text, transcribed into

hieroglyphs, clause by clause (clauses are separated by verse points in most of the copies), with all the copies set

out one under another. At the end of each stanza, as

indicated by those copies which use red ink to mark the

beginning of a new section, Helck comments on the

text, puts together what seems to him to be the most

likely original text, and translates this with only oc-

casional notes on the translation. He makes no attempt to translate each of the copies. At the end of the volume

he presents his concept of the lines of transmission of

the text, including a tree indicating how he thinks the

various copies may be related to one another.

This, like the other volumes in the series, is well suited

to use in the classroom, especially with Helck's clear

hieroglyphic handwriting and the inclusion of his sug-

gestions for the original text. Sometimes his suggestions differ from all the preserved copies, e.g. stanza Id, where

Helck changes hsl 'to sing' into hs, 'slime,' so that the

Nile inundation is described as 'a slime for Upper Egypt which moistens the fields.' In many cases his changes seem highly unlikely or unnecessary, or even impossible. A few of these are noted here just to warn users of this

book to keep alert. For example, in stanza XIb six of

the preserved copies have nhm n.k d;mw hrdw 'generations of children shout for joy about you,' but the seventh has

[nhm] n.k. [d,]d,t rs[yt] m wrr. Helck accepts this as

the original reading and translates 'the southern council

shouts with joy about you in the cataract.'

From this Helck argues that d?mw hrdw is also corrupt in

stanza VIb, where all the preserved texts have sms sw

(var., nhm n.k) d,mw hrdw 'geneIations of children follow

him (var., shout for joy about you),' and suggests that

the original text read sms siw d_dtd wrt 'the great council

follows him.' Another example, which seems impossible, is his suggestion that the original text for stanza IVd read

swt m dw,t pt t 'whether he is in the underworld, in

heaven, or on earth.' Helck argues in his commentary on this line that swt must be the old independent pronoun third person masculine, and that the copies with sw, none have swt, aie so written by analogy with the Late

Egyptian use of sw in present tense clauses with adverbial

predicates. But the independent pronoun did not serve

104 104



Documents

Ägyptische Handschriften, Teil 1by Ursula Kaplony-Heckel