Volume 135, Issue 1

The syntactic analysis of the class of elements known as 'preverbal extensions,′ 'conjugation mediators′ or 'preverbals′ is known to be problematic, specifically with regard to nucleus-satellite analysis. In short, it is a matter of debate whether or not the conjugation mediator is to be analyzed as the head of its construction. In the first section of this article, the specific criteria for assessing nuclear status are made explicit, and it is suggested that the conjugation mediators cannot be analyzed as heads or satellites, as for the most part, they do not belong to the verb phrase as such and do not contract a relationship of dependence with the verbal lexeme itself. In the second section, a Demotic construction is analyzed as a pre-Coptic conjugation modifier, closest to Bohairic 'je′. In the third section, some Late Egyptian patterns involving pre-lexemic spatial adverbials are discussed in light of conjugation mediation. The Demotic and Late Egyptian evidence suggests that the phenomenon of conjugation mediation is not an innovation of Coptic, but rather existed as a structural option already in pre-Coptic Egyptian.

The article presents a previously unpublished Ramesside administrative papyrus from the Cambridge University Library (P. CUL MS. Add. 4167). The document is a list of food and drink given to various named individuals, mainly controllers and their wives, as well as a stable master, 'by the hand of′ several soldiers. Its social context is not known, but it may be connected with riverbank trading. Photographs, transcription and translation with commentary are included.

A new translation of the Roman Period inscriptions on the Eighteenth Dynasty contra-temple of Karnak, attached to the rear of the Akh-Menu. These religious texts lead to a reconsideration of the cultic function of this and other contra-temples, previously considered exclusively as locations for popular worship. The inscriptions from the reign of Domitian are primarily solar, associating the contra-temple with the nearby horned altar, sole obelisk, and East temple of Ramesses II, in the section of Karnak called ′the Benben temple.′ The form of Amun in this section was simultaneously ,Amun who hears prayers′ and the newly reborn sundisk who massacres his enemies in the Eastern horizon. The dual role of Amun as healer and punisher (i. e. ,Good Ka, Bad Ka′) combines Heliopolitan theology with the traditional role of gates as places for administering justice, appropriate for the one location where Amun of Karnak could approach the masses, both the faithful and the wicked.