Volume 147, Issue 1

The role of women in the processes of fertilization and procreation in ancient Egypt has been traditionally regarded as passive. This article sets out to challenge this view, by introducing the new evidence that the study of the Hemusets provide. The Hemusets have been largely neglected by the Egyptological scholarship, and consequently, their important contribution to the discussion of fertilization is still ignored, but this research examines for the first time their relevant textual and iconographic sources. This investigation shows that the Hemusets are involved in the creation of food and provision of fertility for both lands and humans. Furthermore, the sexual ambiguity of their iconography, and their chthonic nature frames them in a broader Mediterranean context of androgynous creative goddesses.

This article takes a fresh at the geographical term mw-qd , usually transcribed as “inverted/reverse/encircling water” (or the like) and often identified with the river Euphrates in Mesopotamia or the Red Sea or a part of it. After an overview of the attestations of the term, the former ideas of the researchers and the discussion of grammatical and lexical details, a new effort tries to show that there would have been at least two or three locations bearing this name: the region on the Upper Nile in Nubia between the Fourth Cataract and Kurgus, where the Nile takes a characteristic bend in its course, further a region on the northern coastal area of the Red Sea, perhaps the region of Qoseir, and at last a river in Asia, perhaps the Euphrates.

This study aims to understand the title of jmy-rꜣ ḏꜣḏꜣ.t n(y.t) mꜣꜥ-ḫrw , worn by the High Priest of Osiris Wennefer (Ramesses II). The author shows it can not be interpreted as an administrative title but rather as a ceremonial function related to certain episodes of the great feast of Osiris at Abydos.

Publication of an amuletic papyrus of the early post-Ramesside Period found in the tomb of Saroy (TT233) invoking the protection of the four akh-spirits. The text, which is the earliest attested to specify the names of the spirits, is analysed in the context of the known parallel texts and of the references to the four spirits.

Decades of restorational processing of the writing surface, papyrus, have resulted in observations of detailed material structures that can vary depending on the production site. This paper presents characteristic traits of the papyrus material that comes from Elephantine manufactories. This material is clearly distinct from material from other places, for example Thebes, Illahun, and Tebtunis. The differences lie less in the various color nuances than in the papyruses’ general physical characteristics, fiber structure, and special surfaces. All visual observations and all simple measurements made so far have received support from natural-scientific investigations for quite some time now.

Harkhuf’s facade, inscribed with diverse types of texts, is a unitary composition. Inscriptional layout on that facade is highly complex and contributes directly to the rhetoric of the texts as inscriptions. The facade inscribes royal agency at the place, in the far south, that is farthest away from the Memphite center. Patterns of motion, out of the Valley and back to the Residence, are emphasized spatially on the wall. Along with an episodic narrative mode in the event autobiography, inscribed royal speech set Harkhuf and his monument as examples for posterity. As other facades subsequently inscribed at Qubbet el-Hawa demonstrate, this example was emulated indeed. Part I. Texts, genres, forms The architrave: offering formulae, ideal autobiography and other ritual texts Right and left sides of facade: expanded titulary and event autobiography The outer right of the facade: the royal letter Part II. The inscribed facade Verbal rhetoric: the facade as a unitary inscription Inscriptional layout on the facade The inscription as an event Harkhuf’s reception and emulation in inscribed facades at Qubbet al-Hawa

In this article it is argued that the traditional view concerning the Gods Wife of Amun Maatkare is untenable. It is impossible to square the date of her coffins with her appearance as a young girl during the reign of Smendes. In 1984 A. Niwiński published an article in which he postulated the existence of no less than three scribes called Butehamun. Although his hypothesis was very soon afterwards falsified, the problems with the funeral equipment of Butehamun which led him to his remarkable theory have never been adequately dealt with. Like Maatkare, Butehamun himself is dated to the start of the 21 st Dynasty, whereas his coffins point towards a much later date. For both problems an alternative solution is proposed.

Although mutilation is a well-known process of Egyptian hieroglyphic writing system, its involvement in signs’ figurativity and iconicity has benefited of less attention. Yet, the mutilation practice could have deep consequences for the grammatological nature of hieroglyphs, implying alterations in our analysis of the whole Egyptian scriptural functioning. Thus, this paper aims to shed light, through examples of mutilated signs, on the iconic essence of the affected hieroglyphs: does the alteration of a sign impact its iconicity and, due to this, its raison d’être in a clause or a lexeme? Since there are kinds of mutilation, do they result in various implications in our linguistic analysis of the sign? Moreover, what metonymical relations can we observe in this process? These linguistic and psychological issues will allow to complete our understanding of the mutilation practice and, consequently, of the essence of hieroglyphic signs.

The article contains the edition and discussion of a rarely encountered form of petition ( ꜥn-smy ) from the Ptolemaic Fayum, which today is kept by the British Museum in London. The text was submitted by a lesonis of Soknebtunis to the chief of police in Mouchis. The document concerns a dispute between two priests from two different localities, Kerkeneith and Tebtunis, over agricultural lands and a harvest. The text is not only an addition to the small corpus of such petitions but also informs about juridical, economic, and religious life in the Fayum under the Ptolemies. It furthermore sheds light on business connections among members of various crocodile priesthoods in the Fayum.