Volume 148, Issue 2

The article examines archaeological and epigraphic evidence from the subsidiary chambers of the Early Dynastic royal cemetery at Umm el-Qa’ab/Abydos. Not surprisingly it turns out that this group of people was more diverse than the often used modern descriptions as “artisans and concubines” reveal.

This paper deals with the geography of the region of Sharuna in Middle Egypt. It focuses especially on the toponym wwt-n(y)-Sbk inscribed on P. 10500 A-B, also called “Sharuna Papyrus”. Because the document lacks an exact archaeological provenance, this study is of major interest. Similar place names ( wt + nominal genitive) are analysed. Based on the results obtained, it is highly conceivable that wwt-n(y)-cbk was in the vicinity of the ancient wt-nsw . The geographical situation of Sharuna, the topography of Middle Egypt, the state policy during the III rd millennium in the region and finally the local belief represent elements that fit particularly well with the information conveyed by the place name wwt-n(y)-cbk . Moreover, considering the contents of P. 10500 A-B, an original location of the papyrus in the tomb of one of the of Kom el-Ahmar/Sawaris has been suggested.

The obscure title imȝ-ʿ has received some scholarly attention, but there is still uncertainty regarding its reading and meaning. Even so, there is something to be attributed to the imȝ-ʿ holder very clearly: their high, even very high, position within the structure of the Egyptian elite. This paper, articulated in two parts, aims to provide a prosopographical study of the imȝ-ʿ title from sources dated from the Thinite Age to the end of the Old Kingdom. In this part, the sources of the title are presented in order to examine their nature, their provenance, and the social and historical context of the title’s holder. Eventually, some considerations of the field of activity to which the title is related, the function that it implies, if any, and changes that it experienced through time will be offered. The second part, which will be published in the following issue of ZÄS, will contain the actual prosopographical list consisting of 37 entries, namely the documentation which supports the contents of the present part.

Adolf Erman is one of the founders of modern Egyptology. His life and achievements are deeply connected with the changes in this field, which starting as a romanticized activity and turned into a modern discpline. His extensive correspondence is as important for the history of Egyptology as it is for the general history of science. Because of family connections, Adolf Erman’s estate was almost completely bequeathed to the Bremen State and University Library. Between 2019 and 2021, the whole estate has been described and digitized in a project funded by the German Research Foundation (DFG). The paper describes the estate, its digitization and the range of its possible usage.

The Late Period shaft tombs at Abusir are located in the North-Western part of the Abusir necropolis and were built during a rather short span of time at the very end of 26 th Dynasty, between 530 and perhaps 525 BC. Among those, the tomb of Iufaa stands out by its size and by the extent of its interior decoration. Significant amount of the decorated space in Iufaa’s burial chamber were reserved for a series of texts and images that may be best denoted as a “Snake Encyclopedia”. The individual parts of this textual corpus cover the main parts of the arch of the western wall in the burial chamber of Iufaa. The opposite side of the burial chamber, the arch of the eastern wall, bears two texts (accompanied with images) that concern Underworld/divine snakes as well. Although this “encyclopedia” of Underworld serpentine beings still provides us with much more questions and puzzles than answers and insights, it also sheds a new light upon the religion, cult and afterlife beliefs of the Saite-Persian and Graeco-Roman Egypt. It witnesses the importance of giant snakes or primeval creatures in serpentine form that were believed to dwell in the Underworld and were directly linked to cosmogony and periodical renewal of the sun and of the world. As manifestations of Re and Osiris, the snakes become lords of life and death, hypostaseis of the cyclically rejuvenated Creator. The idea of renewal and rebirth is also closely connected with ritual purity and purification rites. Thus, the “Snake Encyclopedia” is accompanied by a corpus dedicated to the ritual cleansing of the pharaoh and of the deceased, which is represented textually and pictorially on the northern wall of Iufaa’s burial chamber and which features serpentine primordial beings as well. But the focus on not generally transmitted, pre-cosmological concepts is connected to yet another important aspect of the composition and other texts from Iufaa’s tomb, that have most probably served as a compendium of secret knowledge for the magicians of Selket. This motif helps us to interpret one of the main tasks of the composition in focus: it probably served to accumulate and transmit sacred knowledge and to use it to ensure that the deceased would be accepted into the blessed Afterlife.

Various words in Late Egyptian texts present a final sequence –ww that is absent in earlier attestations and does not have any obvious etymological justification. No systematic discussion of these –ww , and not explanation for their use, has been offered so far. The present paper aims at filling this gap through a systematic reassessment of the phonological characteristics of a comprehensive corpus of words displaying this marker –ww . The results suggest that this marker is related in function with the so called spacefillers discussed in Kilani 2017; in particular it appears to be added at the end of words characterized by a stressed back vowel adjacent to a labial consonant w , b , p , f or m , and possibly ˓. Some considerations about the possible underlying linguistic reality and the rational for the use of this marker are added at the end of the article. One instance of the marker –ww in a magic spell of P. BM EA 9997 IV, and its possible role in clarifying a potentially ambiguous pronunciation of the associated verb, is discussed in a final Addendum. An appendix with the reconstruction of the vocalization for the words that survive in Coptic is provided here. A second appendix with the whole corpus is provided as online supplement.

In the tale of Two Brothers , when Bata tells his brother Inpu the whole truth about what happened with his wife, he insults her by calling her , a hapax that has been interpreted in many ways. F. Servajean has proposed to translate the expression by vagin perturbé and associates this “perturbation” with menstruation. The translation is totally adequate, but, given the context in which it is found, it does not seem right to associate it with menstruation. Bata insults the wife of his brother because she has tried to be unfaithful, so it seems more consistent that the “perturbation” of the vagina is due to an act of adultery rather than because of the woman’s menstruation.

The article presents a previously unpublished block coming from the Southern Lower Portico (also known as the Punt Portico) in Hatshepsut’s temple of millions of years at Deir el-Bahari. It contains a depiction of a young Nubian man carrying two mysterious objects. The one is the double tjsw -staff, while the other is most likely a wooden stool. In order to support his identification of the objects in question, the author discusses some parallels coming from early 18 th dynasty private tombs at Thebes.

The article examines the theory of Manfred Görg, who postulated two Egyptian loanwords in the Old Testament in 2003. By an inclusion of phonetic laws, sound changes and cultural-historical aspects, the theory that Liwyatan (לִוְיַתַן) and Nəhūštān (נְחֻשְׁתָּן) are Egyptian loanwords must be rejected.