Volume 146, Issue 2

Lists of workmen of the 21 st dynasty mentioned on ostraca of the Valley of the Kings and graffiti of the Theban Necropolis have not been fully studied. We analyzed 113 workmen, scribes and foremen of the Tomb named in these documents. A comparison of the composition of the crew between lists of the 21st dynasty and lists of the reign of Ramesses XI allowed their chronological ordering. A model of the progressive renewal of individuals with time in securely dated lists of the Ramesside Period was built to date the 21st dynasty lists. Results suggest that Renaissance lasted about 12 years, was followed by a period of about 11 years and then by another one associated with Pinedjem I. These results support the chronology and dating system proposed by K. Jansen-Winkeln with dates referring to the pontificate/reign of Herihor, Pinedjem I and Menkheperre. Consequences on the composition of the gang of workmen, their activity and individual chronology and prosopography are analyzed.

New interpretation of Berlin, Ägyptisches Museum 11405. The object shows traces of voluntary mutilation not dissimilar to the much older ‘reserve heads’. Some elements have been left unfinished. In the light of iconographic parallels in some reliefs, the combination of two embracing scarabs with a human head is identified as an image of Ptah as creator-god.

The three lines I, 17–19 of Berlin P3029 are reconsidered, e. g. the value and meaning of two groups of hieratic signs whose interpretation to date is controversial. Furthermore, it is argued that this text of Middle Kingdom origin does not give any precise hint which kind of monument ( ḥw.t ) Sesostris I wanted to build in Heliopolis besides a canal or lake.

The inventory number H 219 of the Badisches Landesmuseum Karlsruhe contains the faience shabti of a Memphitic mayor. These civil rulers, subordinate to the king, are mainly responsible for the administration and organisation of the city and its subordinate area, whereby they form the highest regional-administrative instance. Although the Karlsruhe shabti has already been published, its owner has not yet been brought into contact with the circle of Memphite mayors. The aim of this article is to rearrange the chronological order of the known Ramesside officials and to position the owner of the Karlsruhe shabti within this group.

Response to “Out of the Mouths of Babes” by Benjamin Hinson (ZÄS 144/1). The alleged word for “child” is based on an erroneous reading. Parallels show this is a very different epithet (“he who ejaculates the Nun waters”), most likely denoting Atum.

The commonly accepted etymology of the Arabic toponym et-Tôd as being directly descended from Ḏrtj is diagnosed as incomplete and complemented by a missing intermediate stage: ( p' ) T(w)t(we) = ⲡⲧⲟⲩⲱⲧ, a pseudetymology “the Chapel/Temple” is first attested in a Demotic inscription of the Ptolemaic period and again in two Coptic ostraca of the 6 th century CE, probably referring to the temple of et-Tôd and born of a desire to make new sense of the better attested variant ⲧⲟⲟⲩⲧ in which the original etymology was no longer recognizable. Ongoing coexistence of both forms might also explain Arabic variations. The etymology of et-Tôd furthermore shows that two distinct Demotic words for “image” and for “chapel/temple” survive but are obscured by their identical spelling in Coptic as ⲧⲟⲩⲱⲧ, which dictionaries have identified only with the former.

During his reign, King Ay had a speos built in Akhmim, known as the speos of el-Salamuni. Its façade displays a monumental inscription, which contains a long eulogy to the king uttered by the overseer of works, Nakhtmin. For the composition of this inscription, its author had recourse to the Prophecy of Neferti . This paper investigates the ways and means of this recourse. First, el-Salamuni’s inscription is transliterated, deconstructed, and translated. Then, locutions and verb forms belonging to the first part of the inscription and of the Prophecy of Neferti are compared. This comparison shows that whilst conceiving a unique text, the author of the inscription used locutions and verb forms specific to the Prophecy to compose a text structured like it, thereby allowing the reader to readily call the Prophecy to the mind. A lexical comparison of both texts completes this examination. Next, an investigation of Ay’s deeds related in the inscription reveals the importance of the notion of benefactions ( ȝḫ.t ), with the speos of el-Salamuni being an exemplification of what being ȝḫ means for the king. Furthermore, although Ay’s deeds praised by Nakhtmin in his eulogy look like a collection of random deeds, they do in fact illustrate different facets of the one pivotal and dominant deed that is central to Ay’s actions: the restoration of communication between the gods, the king and the people, for which purpose the speos happens to be a medium. This investigation also shows that by recourse to the Prophecy , Ay is made into a messianic king, likened to Ameny. Then, in order to explore the reason of the recourse to the Prophecy of Neferti , the speeches of Neferti and Nakhtmin are considered in relation to each other. Based on their common witnessing function, it can be deduced that the author of the inscription considered Neferti to be a true prophecy. This leads to the question of the genre of the Prophecy and of el-Salamuni’s inscription. It is proposed that the inscription is an epideictic text. For convincingly classifying el-Salamuni’s inscription as a rhetorical epideictic composition coming under the Aristotelian rhetoric, the essential features of this genre are sought. As a matter of fact, an audience, a kairos , an appropriate ethos for the speaker, an argumentation founded on the logos, but also a strong pathos, can be characterised. As for the thesis of the discourse, it is understood that if the communication with the gods is restored and if the people take advantage of it, it is thanks to Ay’s personal values. The temporality of Nakhtmin’s encomium, who relates events from his present, the focus of the text on virtue, as well as its dispositio , complete the list of the essential features of an epideictic composition. In conclusion, the notion of propaganda is reassessed, and el-Salamuni’s inscription as an epideictic text reinstated as a long-term socio-political discourse, as a composition admittedly aimed at establishing absolute confidence of the audience in Ay, but also at reinforcing social cohesion and cultural identity, a function probably required after the Amarna Period.

In the Theban tomb of Djehuty (TT 11) we have the representation of a ritual apparently focused on surrounding the funerary monument. The objective of this paper is the reconstruction of the scene, and the text that accompanies it, thanks to the parallel of TT 20 (Montuherkhepeshef). This allows us to link this ritual to the Pap. Ramesseum E and other antecedents of the Old and Middle Kingdom. An interpretation within the historical, religious and cultural context of the age of Hatshepsut-Thutmose III, and a possible relationship with the Middle Egypt background of the owners of TT 11 and TT 20 is also proposed.