another look at ostracon mfa boston 11.1498

Another Look at Ostracon MFA Boston 11.1498Author(s): David BergSource: Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt, Vol. 30 (1993), pp. 57-69Published by: American Research Center in EgyptStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40000227 .

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Another Look at Ostracon MFA Boston 11.1498*

David Berg

Over thirty years ago, Jaroslav Cerny published a brief discussion of the ostracon referred to in the title of the present article. He stressed, in his introductory paragraph, that the only reason that the article was appearing at that point in time was the fact that he had made a promise to Sir Alan Gardiner, a promise that Cerny had not expected to have to honour so soon. Indeed, he states that

I am therefore bound to honour my promise, albeit with some hesitation, since on the actual purpose of the ostracon I cannot offer more than a guess and much of the inscriptions remains obscure to me. On the other hand, though the result of my efforts to inter- pret it is to me unsatisfactory, there is perhaps some justification in making known a document which is not clear in every respect, in the hope that others may succeed where I have failed.

What followed this eloquent caveat lector was a brief description of the ostracon and a translation of the texts with minimal commentary. Cerny believed that the ostracon had served as

a substitute for a more costly formal stela. Thii view was accepted by Kitchen who character- ized the piece as a "Monumental Ostracon."

Over the past few years, I have had the op- portunity to study both ancient Egyptian oracle and donation texts. It was through these initial studies that I first recognized the nature of the texts on the recto of Ostracon MFA Boston 11.1498. Therefore, a synopsis of the results of this earlier work would not be out of place here.5

Oracles in ancient Egypt (at least up into the 26th Dynasty) can be divided into two genres. The first, and best known, dealt with juridical matters. An oracle of this type was referred to by the Egyptians as a biSyt. The other oracular genre consisted of oracles of protection and were known as hrtw. While sharing similar if not identical rituals, hrtw and bilywt were different in both purpose and result. The non-juridical oracles (i.e., hrtw) were rendered in favour of a person, who was usually but not always alive at the time of the rendering, with the express purpose of protecting that person in this life from a long catalogue of evils, misfortunes, and ill- nesses. In those cases where the recipient of the oracular favours was already dead, the protec- tive powers of the god were said to extend into * I would like to thank Rita Freed of the Museum of Fine

Arts, Boston, for permission to publish the photographs that accompany this article. Peter Der Manuelian of that same institution was kind enough to send me copies of the photographs; and to him as well go my thanks. I benefited greatly from a discussion with Edward L. Bleiberg of Mem- phis State University apropos of the term irt bjk. Finally, my special thanks go to Timothy Kendall, also of the MFA, Bos- ton, who facilitated my research in every way. 1

JEA 44 (1958), 23-25. According to the accession records, this object was purchased in Luxor and subse- quently lent to the MFA by Joseph Lindon Smith in 1909. It was given to the museum as a gift by Mary S. Ames in 191 1.

1 Ibid., 23.

3 Ibid., 24. 4 KRIIV 358, 12. KRIIV 358, 14-360, 2 is a transcription

of all the texts on this ostracon. The present writer's collation of the texts, made in April 1991 in Boston, differs slightly in places from that of Kitchen; these differences will be indicated below.

5 These results formed the larger part of my doctoral dis- sertation "The Genre of Non-Juridical Oracles (hrtw) in An- cient Egypt," University of Toronto, 1988. This material will appear as the first section of my forthcoming book Studies in Ancient Egyptian Oracles, to be published within the Studies in

Egyptology series.

57



58 JARCE XXX (1993)

the next world. The hrtw-oracles were rendered as a result of a land donation to the temple of the oracular god by the recipient of the oracular favours. In other words, ^rtr/;- oracles were the quid pro quo of land donations to temples. These gifts of land were the very same as those commemorated by that large group of documents known to scholars as "donation stelae."

Using the above conceptual framework as well as the actual physical layout of the texts on the ostracon itself, I will demonstrate below that the hieroglyphic texts of Ostracon MFA Boston 11.1498 could not have been a "stela" by intention. Rather, I will elucidate the archival nature of that piece. Taking the texts on the recto as a complete unit, I will suggest a reconstruction of the decoration of the actual stela of which Texts I- III were but a record.

A Monumental Ostracon?

The practice of using ostraca instead of the more expensive carved stone stelae is well attested in ancient Egypt, especially during the New Kingdom and the Third Intermediate Period. Examples are legion and may be found in almost every catalogue of figured ostraca. With few exceptions these ostraca/stelae are decorated in such a manner so as to be viewed from along a single plane: the decorative orientation is such that the object can be looked at without having to be moved in order that the viewer see all parts of the decoration equally well. In a few cases, a text that is complementary to the decoration on the recto will appear on the verso of the same ostracon; however, a

multiplicity of viewing planes on a single surface is not attested. Each of those ostraca with decoration on each side was meant to be turned

only on one axis when viewed. On the other

hand, Ostracon MFA Boston 11.1498 has three texts on the recto,9 each of which displays a

viewing plane that is independent of and different from that of the other two (see fig. 1, a). The unrelated hieroglyphic text on the verso

(i.e., Text IV) is oriented with the vertical text on the recto, i.e., Text I (see fig. 1, b). Text I is written in vertical columns with the individual

hieroglyphs facing right. Text II is written hori-

zontally, left to right. Text III, also horizontal, is read right to left. Texts II and III, which flank Text I, are written on axes that are at 90° to that latter.

That the texts on this ostracon are but records of other documents is the conclusion that one must draw from this multiplicity of

viewing planes. The archival nature of this

piece is further corroborated by a textual fea- ture that appears in Text IV on the verso. This text is written in the same hand as those on the recto.10 It is in four vertical columns read right to left. The second and fourth columns each end with the words "for the ka of,"11 with a blank space left for the name and possibly the related titles.12 This sort of deliberate omission would be unusual in the text of an actual monu-

ment, but would be quite understandable in the context of an archive where the name would either be obvious or, perhaps, unimportant. However, the omission of the name is not of itself the deciding criterion for the archival nature of any given document.13 Beyond the

6 The dichotomy referred to here as "monumental/archival" is to be understood as designating whether a text was intended for public or private display on the one hand, or whether its purpose was solely the preservation of data on the other.

E.g., B. E. Petersen, Zeichnungen aus einer Totenstadt, pls. 19, 20, 22; E. Brunner-Traut, Die Altdgyptischen Scherbenbilder, pls. 29, no. 78; 32, no. 87; A. Gasse, Catalogue des ostraca figures de Deir el-Medineh 5efasc, pl. 15, no. 3166. See Brunner-Traut, Egyptian Artists' Sketches, 2-3 and 7-8 for comments on this use of ostraca.

8 E.g., J. Cerny, Ostraca hieratiques, pl. 98; M. Werbrouck,

Bulletin des Musees royaux d'art et d'histoire, ser. 4, 25 (1953), figs. 25 and 26; G. Daressy, Ostraca (Catalogue General), pls. 6 and 7 (CG 25029).

9 The designations "recto" and "verso" are used here following Cerny and Kitchen.

10 The hieratic text on the verso (KRITV 359, 13-360, 2) would seem to postdate the writing of Text IV as the hieratic occurs on a surface that surely would not have been the first choice of the scribe.

11 XR/IV359, 10 and 12. 12 The blank space in the fourth line is considerably

longer than that in the second. This may merely be a func- tion of the fact that this was the end of the entire text; the unwritten name (and titles?) would not have taken up all of the rest of this line.

13 Certain shabties, for example, display blank spaces where the name was to have been inserted (e.g., H. D. Schneider, Shabtis II, 77, no. 32.3.1-4); and the same phe-



ANOTHER LOOK AT OSTRACON MFA BOSTON 11.1498 59

Fig. la. Fig. lb.

viewing planes and the blanks, we must, in the present example, also take into account the fact that Text IV on the verso is not directly related to the texts on the recto. It thus seems highly unlikely that Ostracon MFA Boston 11.1498 had ever been used as a "stela." To the contrary, various features would indicate that it was actually an archival record of a monumental document.

The Texts

Text I

Text I (recto lines 5 and 6), in its present state begins with the damaged figure of a god

followed by those of the goddess Mut and the god Khonsu; the damaged figure is obviously that of Amen-re. The two complete figures are portrayed each standing under the ^-hieroglyph and we should understand the figure of Amen-re as having been so depicted. Given the large size of these three figures relative to that of the hieroglyphs in the texts, their placement (i.e., at the top of the column), and their appearance (i.e., detailed headdress and captioned by undersized hieroglyphs), they should not be taken as mere hieroglyphs. Cerriy and Kitchen were influenced in this matter by the phrase di.sn . . . "They give ..." that occurs immediately after the figure of Khonsu - "Di.sn postu- lates the formula "^ at the top of the line."16 Yet if we assume that the damaged cartouche at the top of recto line 6 (i.e., the nomen Meren- ptah Siptah) was more or less the same height as

nomenon is attested on some Book of the Dead papyri (e.g., E. Naville, Das dgyptische Totenbuch der 18. bis 20. Dynastie. Einleitung, 54 (Ab); 97 (Pa).

14 KRI IV 358, 14-15. For the purposes of this article, I have numbered the lines on the recto from right to left when holding the ostracon so as to be able to read Text I.

15 Not on them as stated by Cerny, JEA 44 (1958), 23, n. l;see KM TV 358, 14.

16 Cerny, TEA 44 (1958), 23, n. 1.



60 JARCE XXX (1993)

the intact cartouche at the bottom of recto line 5 enclosing the praenomen, as seems likely, and if we further assume that the originally intact figure of Amen-re with its associated pt- hieroglyph was the same height as the Khonsu figure and its p ̂ -hieroglyph, then there would not appear to have been enough room for the posited group htp di nsw. One might suggest that the top of recto line 5 jutted out beyond the top of recto line 6 thus providing space for the beginning of the htp di nsw formula. However, there is no indication that that situation actually obtained. What is more, the absence of the phrase n kj n, "for the ka of," that one might expect if this were indeed a htp di nsw formula, would also suggest that there is no need for us to reconstruct such a formula at the top of recto line 5. Roughly similar captions (i.e., with dative and cartouche [s]) are attested throughout the Ramesside period and we may assume, therefore, that the beginning of Text I is intact as it now stands (save for the damage to the figure of Amen-re, etc.). The logical conclusion that follows from this is that the three divine figures were here used to indicate graphic representa- tions of these gods on the "monument."

The text reads:

They (i.e., Amen-re, Mut, and KhonsuA) give eternity as King of the Two Lands and eternity as Ruler of JoyB to the King of Upper and Lower Egypt Akhenre-Setepenre [the son] of Re [Merenptah-Si]ptah, the beloved of Amen- re, King of the Gods, Lord of Heaven, Ruler of the Ennead, given life, stability, and dominion like Re forever and ever.c

A The antecedent for the third person plural suffix pronoun must be the figures of the gods. B This particular gift of the gods is attested elsewhere during the Ramesside epoch. Two close parallels date to the reign of Ramesses IV,18 but others occur throughout the texts of Dynasties 19 and 20. 19

c The rest of the line was left blank; this was not indicated in KRIYV, 358, 15.

Text II

Text II consists of the seventh, eighth, and ninth lines of the recto. It reads:

The Overseer of the [City],A the Vizier, the Steward of the Mansion of Millions of Years of the King of Upper and Lower Egypt Akhenre- Setepenre in the House of Amen upon the West of Thebes, Hori,B he saysc when extolling [the . . . of]D Amen-re, "The life (of the supplicant) is yours. E The favours (asked for by the supplicant) are under your authority. Power, (duration of one's) lifetime, veneration, and burial are by command of your ka. ConvinceF the Viz[ier Hor]iG of the (worthiness of the supplicant of the aforementioned) favours because H he (the supplicant) is zealous1 [saying T (the supplicant) have come] bearing my things (i.e., the donated fields)^ in order to make profit forK the Lord of the Gods'."

A Cerny understood the traces here as being from the group dd mdw in. Kitchen, on the other hand, took the damaged group to be from the title imy-r niwt. Following my collation of the text, I can concur with Kitchen's reconstruction.

B The documents of this individual that date to this reign are to be found in KRI IV, 357, 5-362, 2.2^

c Or, perhaps, "he saying." D The traces in this lacuna are difficult. Cerny discerned %|S ft23 whereas Kitchen suggested *\ ̂ as a possible rendering. The present writer thought that he could make out the following traces: | y'\ just before the name of the god.

The expression dd.sn (dd.f) m swds is well attested.2 In virtually every example of this phrase or, alternatively, whenever the second verb is attested independently, swds is followed

17 E.g., KRIW 498, 15; II 555, 11 and 12; VI 381, 10; also,

II 905, 8 (twice); IV 195, 12-13; and VI 715, 12. 18 KRIW 38, 13-14 and 45, 4-5. 19

E.g., KRIWl 2, 15; I 83, 13; I 84, 7-8; II 353, 10; VI 57, 12; VI 459, 13-14.

207EA 44 (1958), 23, n. 2. 21 £ft/IV358, 16 and note. 22 See, too, W. Helck, Materialien zur Wirtschaftsgeschichte

des Neuen Reiches, 108-9, and idem, Zur Verwaltung des Mitt- leren und Neuen Reiches, 328-29 and 460-62.

23 /EA 44 (1958), 23, n. 3. 24 KRIW 359, 1 and note. 25

E.g., W. Erichsen, Papyrus Harris I, 1, 3; KRI II 285, 7; E. F. Wente, Melanges MokhtarU, 348, 3; Champ. Not. II, 106; and also Champ. Not. II, 94.




by a direct or indirect object.26 It is unlikely, then, that the lacuna contains anything but the object of the verb swds; this is contra Kitchen's suggestion of the vocative prefix.27 Generally speaking, the object of the verb swSs, "to ex- toll," is either the king dr a god. If the lacuna hides a reference to Siptah, one may perhaps see the group ^^J in the extant traces. In this case, the following divine name would be part of the speech of Hori, to wit: "... Hori, he says when extolling [this good god (i.e., Siptah)], "Amen-re! The life is yours.'

" Yet the complete absence of any further reference to the king in this text or in Text III renders this construction unlikely.28 Alternately, we may posit the first part of a bound construction X-Amen-re in the lacuna: "... Hori, he says when extolling [the X of] Amen-re, 'The life is yours.'

"29 A further but related alternative would be to take the value of X as an epithet of Amen-re.30

E Predicative use of the possessive independent pronoun (Cerny-Groll, A Late Egyptian Grammar2, 20-21. The use of the definite article in this and following phrases is a reflection of the fact that the context is ceremonial; a specific life and specific favours are being referred to here.

Whereas we might have expected the donor of the plot of land to have been mentioned by name in the texts on the recto as well as in all other donation texts, this does not always seem to have been the case. In some instances, the donor is either not mentioned at all or only referred to obliquely.31 We must conclude that in those instances, as in the present case, the com- memoration of the donation of a plot of land to

a temple by an individual was not the impetus for the creation of the donation stela.

F Imi hsw(t) m ib, literally, "Place the favours in the heart' is based on the known idiom rdi m ib. This latter has been rendered by scholars variously as "ihn auf einen Gedanken brin-

gen,"34 "to determine,"35 "to prompt,"36 and "suggerer." It appears to refer to a process whereby one individual's (or deity's) thoughts on a particular matter are accepted by another individual or, occasionally, where an individual considers a possible course of action and comes to a conclusion. I would tender "to convince" or, perhaps, "to persuade" as suitable render- ings of this idiom. Given the context of the present example (i.e., a /wt^-oracular ceremony), it seems that what was required of the god was not a suggestion, prompting, or deter- mination of the "favours," but, rather, a clear indication of whether the supplicant was wor- thy of receiving them (see below). Hori is here asking Amen-re to render an oracle.

G The traces at the end of this line are all that is left of the word indicating in whose heart the favours were to be placed; to wit, the person that needed to be convinced. Both Cerny and Kitchen have taken the traces as beine those of the £?-bird for the title tjty, "vizier. They were influenced in this by the presence of i or at the extant beginning of recto line 9, taking these hieroglyphs as the end of the name of the vizier, Hori. One would in fact expect a reference to him at this point in the text as he did serve as the intermediary at

26 See Wb IV, 63-64, CDME, 216, and L. Lesko, DLE III, 21-22 for examples.

27 XR/IV359, 1 and note. 28 As will be shown below, Text I is actually a caption to a

scene and is not part of the "text" per se. 29 For example, a passage from CG 42231 reads kch.i

m-fijt {m)sktt dwj ntr swds bjw.f(G. Legrain, Statues et statuettes de rois et de particuliers III, 76).

30 A passage from Papyrus Harris I, 25, 2-3: dd.in nsw wsr- mjct-rc mry-imn cnh wdj snb pj ntr cj m swds it.fntrpn spsy (i)tm nb tDiuy iwnw rc-hr-jhty (W. Erichsen, Papyrus Harris I, page 29) has epithets occurring before the divine name but after SWdS.

31 See D. Meeks, in E. Lipinski, State and Temple Economy in the Ancient Near East II, 629ff. for comments. This source will be referred to hereafter as Meeks, Les donations aux temples.

32 Cerny' s rendering of this passage by "Give favour to the heart of ..." ignores the presence here of the preposition £=. (JEA 44 [1958], 23).

33 E.g., KRIll 274, 5-9; Urk. IV 134, 14; 198, 5-6; 1282, 5; 1283, 4; HTBM III, pl. 5; K. Sethe, Lesestiicke, 86, 13; A. H. Gardiner, LEM, 47, 13 (hSty); Wb. II, 468, 3 Beleg. 34 Wb. II, 468, 3.

35 A. H. Gardiner, Egyptian Grammar3, §184 and, also, §303. 36 CDME, 155. 37 D. Meeks, AnLexl, 224 and III, 176. 38 The favours in this case had already been determined

by the words immediately preceding (i.e., imi hsw(t), etc.). Note well that these favours are typical of ^rft^oracles (see below).

39 JEA 44 (1958), 23 and KRIIV, 359, 2.

40 These two hieroglyphs are not apparent in the pho- tograph but were discernible when the present writer ex- amined the ostracon. KRI IV, 359, 2 omits the seated man-determinative.



62 JARCE XXX (1993)

this oracular event (see below). The only caveat that I have here concerns the shape of the traces at the end of recto line 8. The duckling, if that indeed is what was written, is portrayed here with its beak open whereas in almost every other example on this ostracon, the beak is de-

picted closed and is shown as long and droop- ing in form. The only exception is a possible occurrence at the end of recto line 2 where the bird has an open beak. However, I do not see at this point any reason to reject ^[ty hr]i as the most likely reconstruction of the traces.

Note the use of oratio obliqua here; we would

expect "Convince me ..." H< See A. Erman, Neudgyptische Grammatik,

§621. 1 Contra KRI IV 359, 3, the third person

masculine singular suffix pronoun is quite clear on the ostracon itself: J2,j)«[^- Its placement under the verb proper suggests that either there was no determinative written or that the determinative is now in the lacuna to the im- mediate right of the verb; this latter would be unusual but hardly impossible.

The Vizier Hori was acting as intermediary at the oracular ceremony. It is highly unlikely that Hori's "zeal" or any other attribute was in ques- tion. We know from other texts recounting the /^to-oracular ceremony that the intermediary requested the quid pro quo from the god for the

supplicant (i.e., the donor of the plot of land).

He (the intermediary) repeated in the presence of Ptah, this great god, saying "My good lord. Will you graciously accept the donation from my hand, of the field which PN (the do- nor) gave to you? Will you give to me his re- ward of life, prosperity, health, a long life, and a great old age and will he possess it forever and ever?" Then this great god agreed greatly.43

and

When PN (the intermediary) donated fields ... in order to ask for him (the donor) life,

prosperity, health, a long life, and a great good old age in the favour of his lord . . .

Therefore, we might expect that tnr refers here in some way to the donor/supplicant and specifically his generosity in having donated land to the temple.

The verb tnr can mean "to be strong, profi- cient, or zealous."45 Tnr in this latter sense is used in a text from Medinet Habu also in the context of benefactions to a temple:

I did not forget his chapel. My heart was zealous in doubling the feasts and food offerings from that which existed formerly.

Tnr appears as a noun in a similar context in

Papyrus Harris I 42, 1:

May you complete for me the benefactions (nj tnrw) that I did for you, O father.

We may take mi tnr. fas Hori's reference to the

supplicant's act of donation. J Coming out of the lacuna, we are con-

fronted by an unexpected change in person. Hitherto, the speech of Hori has used the third

person to refer to both the speaker and to the unnamed supplicant. Yet here we read " . . . hr ht.i\ "... bearing my things." The lacuna must hide a marker indicating a new speaker since Hori respectfully refers to himself in the third

person when addressing the god as he does when making reference to the supplicant. The

phrase in the first person presently reads [. . .] n[. . .]hr ht.i r irt b?k n pi nb ntrw. It seems to end Text II, as the rest of this line was left blank (not indicated by KRI IV 359, 3). As we would

expect the verb dd, "to say," to appear as the marker of direct speech, it probably appeared in the lacuna. While it is possible that the sdm.f form was used, it is more likely to have been m dd, the quote in the first person being cited to

provide a concrete example of the "zealous-

41 See recto 3, 4, and 7. 42 See my forthcoming Studies in Ancient Egyptian Oracles.

E. Iversen, Two Inscriptions Concerning Private Donations to Temples, pl. 1, lines 6-8.

44 Y. Koening, ASAE 68 (1982), 113, 1-6. 45 Wb. V, 382, 6-10, and see, too, 384, 2. 46 KRIV, 42, 11-22. 47 Erichsen, Papyrus Harris I, 47, 2. See, too, KRI II, 328,

13-14 for a similar context with tnr.




ness" of the supplicant. Therefore, we may reconstruct mi tnr.f[m dd . . . ]n[. . .] hr ht.i, etc.

The ' - ^ and the trace below it give us a clue as to what was written after m dd. Given that we have limited space in the lacuna and that hr ht.i is a prepositional phrase, the A - ^ either repre- sents a radical of the missing verb itself, or the marker of the sdm.n.f form. In either case, the traces under the A - % noted by KRI and confirmed by my collation, must be all that remain of the first person singular suffix pronoun sub-

ject of the missing verb. We would thus have either [. . .]n[.z] or [...]. n[.i]. The latter par- tial reconstruction brings to mind the verb ii, "to come," that, in the sdm.n.f form, is well attested in similar contexts. The present passage should thus read, mi tnr.f[m dd n].n[.i] hr ht.i r irt bBk n pB nb ntrw.

K- irt bBk n. See Wb. I 428, 5, "jemandem zinsen (u. a.)"; Wente has likewise remarked that irt

bBkw.f 'to do his work' should be taken, perhaps, "... in the sense of 'produce his revenue'."49 In the present context of land donation, perhaps "service" is not quite correct and some nuance of material profit should be recognized here.50

Text III

Text III is written on the first, second, third, and fourth lines of the recto:

The herdsman of the vizier Hori, the one who has appeared in Thebes, of Memphis,A has [come?]6 with a herdc because of the access toD hisE (the supplicant's) things, to Amen [. . .] his forms, AmenF being in Pnoubs.G Amen said H when he appeared,1 "As to the vizier whoJ will [. . .] , he will not be sated through maat,K he will not follow Amen

during any of his festivals. L As to [any]M one who will se[ize]N [. . .] (his) heart will be joyful when (he) follows the Lord of the Gods."°

A> Both Kitchen and Cerny have taken pB hc m wBst as a proper name,51 yet this is probably not the case. The lack of a seated-man determinative after the &>is£-hieroglyph (unlike the situation that obtains with the name of the vizier elsewhere on the ostracon)52 and the unique- ness of p d- hc-m-w d st 3.s a name would suggest that

actually we are dealing here with two epithets of the vizier: pB hc m wBst and n mn-nfr. There exists at least one other example of Hori being referred to as "of Memphis" and he is known to have functioned in an official capacity during this reign in the Theban region; thus pB hc m wBst is quite understandable as an epithet here.

As was mentioned above, the donor and the individual chosen to administer the donated land for the temple need not be mentioned by name in the text.

B A verb of motion is probably missing here. The ' - N above the ideogram for herdsman is not likely to be a phonetic complement for the title mniw since one might expect ^\Q. or vari- ants to have been written as well. As the context does not easily permit a genetival adjective or the dative preposition, I would suggest that we are to understand the sdm.nf form of a verb of motion as having been written in the lacuna.

The traces are not exactly as shown in KRIYV 359, 4. They appear to be IN^JV The exact

identity of this verb of motion is uncertain; however, it quite likely had the sense of "to come" (see below Note D).

c Wb. I 154, 12-14. D n ck hr. For the preposition n plus infini-

tive, see Erman, Neudgyptische Grammatik, §423. We know from other donation texts that an individual (or individuals) was appointed to manage the donated land for the temple. The phrase ii hr.swas used in some cases to de- scribe the appointment of these managers

48 See the convenient list in O. Perdu, RdE 30 (1978), 103, n. 24. Note that there is a possible trace of the top of the second missing reed-leaf hieroglyph directly to the left of the /^v

49 E. Wente, Late Ramesside Letters, 69, n. b. 50 See E. L. Bleiberg's work on the terms inw and bBk in

JARCE 21 (1984), 155-68 and JARCE 25 (1988), 157-68.

51 KRITV, 358, 12 and^EA 44 (1958), 24. 52 See above, for my corrections to the occurrence of the

name as recorded in KRITV, 359, 2. 53

Cerny, JEA 44 (1958), 24, n. 9; note the related epithet also recorded in that footnote. See, too, KRITV, 281, 12: hri m,DC-hrw n inb hd.

54 See the relevant documents collected in KRI TV 358, 5-11; 360, 4-361, 16; and 281, 11-13.

55 See Meeks, Les donations aux temples, 644ff. 56 Ibid., 645 and n. 176. The managers of the pre-Saite

period are not necessarily members of the clergy: see, for



64 JARCE XXX (1993)

and [zz?] n ck hr ht.twf seems possibly to have had the same or a similar nuance. The verb ck here has the sense, attested elsewhere, of

having access to something or someone generally restricted.

E Read ht.twf? For twf, a variant of the third masculine singular suffix pronoun, see Cerny- Groll, 27.

F The divine name appears to have been written as ^ ̂ .

G imn m pi nbs. Cerny remarked that "The determinative c~a shows that PS-nbs is a building or locality, though probably not the town Pr-

nbs, Tivovy/, in Nubia . . . Against this, one could argue that there existed a cult of Amen in Pnoubs while "Amen in the Christ's Thorn- tree" is unattested elsewhere. The matter is

perhaps settled by the inscription on a bronze

cup that was found in a tomb at Kerma. This

inscription reads in part w£SfJ^ if S1! - U, "... for the ka of the wcb-priest of Amen of

(P)noubs Penamen, justified.' As the word

¥f " is here definitely a writing of the top- onym Pnoubs, the C3 determinative that appears in the example of this word from Ostracon MFA Boston 11.1498 need not be taken literally. The ostracon text is referring to the Nubian town.63

H dd imn. The use of this idiom in the context of oracular events is well known from texts re-

cording both biSyt- and /artu^oracles. The ex-

amples from the latter genre that occur on donation stelae are of particular interest here. The phrase dd.f is used to introduce, as in the

present example, the so-called curse formula(e),

yet the identity of the "speaker" is always am-

biguous.66 That these curse formulae were acti- vated by the oracular event is clear from the text of the donation stela CG 4532767 where we read,

. . . Repeating, he (i.e., the intermediary) said

"My good lord. Will you kill any person, any evil man of the entire land who will contest it from him for ever and ever? Will you cut out their names from the entire land, Sekhmet

being after their wives, Nefertum being after their children?" Then this great god nodded

greatly.68

Therefore, we may take the phrase dd imn in the present text as a "shorthand" reference to the procedure at an oracular event.

1 iw.f hcw. A reference to the procession at

which oracular events typically occurred. J Kitchen has reconstructed the passage

missing in the lacuna at the end of this line and the beginning of the next as f§?c 1^ A~ ^xlS^y, etc.69 The traces that I could discern at the start of the lacuna at the end of line 3 do sug-

example, Urk. IV, 1373, 5 (= Meeks Corpus Number 18.6.39), Urk. IV, 2078, 13 (= 18.12.1), Ch. Zivie, Giza au deuxieme millenaire, 179 (= 18.13.3), B. Bruyere, FIFAO XX/2 (1952), 57, 7-8 (= 19.3.9, but not listed in Meeks, Les donations aux temples, n. 176).

57 E.g., D. Meeks, AnLexl, 74; and perhaps relevant here, Z. Zaba, Les maximes de Ptahhotep, 124 (145).

58 Cerny, JEA 44 (1958), 24, n. 1. 59 See S. Sauneron and J. Yoyotte, BIFAO 50 (1952), 163,

n. 4 and 164, n. 2. Of interest here is D. Inconnu-Bocquillon, RdE 39 (1988), 47-62.

However, note the interesting reference to the "Book of the secrets of Amen that are upon the writing tablets of zizyphus-wood (Christ's thorn tree)" in N. de Garis Davies, The Temple ofHibis III, pl. 31 and E. Cruz-Uribe, Hibis Temple Project I, 120.

61 C. Bonnet and D. Valbelle, BIFAO 80 (1980), 9. 62 See the discussion in ibid., 11. 63 For a bibliography of the discussion concerning the

location of Pnoubs, see Inconnu-Bocquillon, RdE 39 (1988), 47, n. 4.

64 See, for example, A. H. Gardiner, JEA 19 (1933), pl. 5, 8-6, 9 (in the context of the "appearance" [sh°] of the oracular god [see D. B. Redford,7EA 51 (1967), 117, n. 5 on the similarity in meaning of the simplex hc &r\d the causative shc in these contexts]); Epigraphic Survey, The Temple of Khonsu II, pl. 133, 8; G. Foucart, Le tombeau dAmonmos, pl. 31; G. Maspero, ZAS21 (1883), 73, 20; 74, 22 and 26 (twice).

65 E.g., V. Golenischeff, Papyrus hieratiques, 178, 43; 179, 53; I. E. S. Edwards, Oracular Amuletic Decrees II, pl. 5, 92; pl. 6, 31, 53, and 58; pl. 15, 95; pl. 21, 108; a complete list would be considerably longer (see my forthcoming Studies in Ancient Egyptial Oracles, specifically the section entitled 'References to hrtw-orac\e procedure' in Chapter 3 of the first study). bb E. Graefe, Armant 12 (1974), Fig. 2, line 5 (= Meeks Corpus Number 22.0.4); J. J. Janssen,yEA 54 (1968), pl. 25, 9 and 10 (= 23.XV.24); G. Daressy, RT 18 (1896), 53 with a different verbal form (i.e., m dd) (= 22.7.9); G. T. Martin, The Tomb of Hetepka, pl. 44, n. 158 (= 26.3.0) where the verb is actually dd-mdw and the speaker clearly the god.

Iversen, Two Insacriptions, 3ff. 68 Ibid., pl. 1, lines 8-9. 69 KRIYV, 359.




gest a word or phrase that begins with <=>. How- ever, the second trace is indeterminate, and there does not seem to be any definite trace of Kitchen's *~* as in fl.70 It is unfortunate that the apodosis of the conditional clause (i.e., [b]n sjy.f hr mjct) is not attested in the other curse formulae from those donation stelae known to me. Consequently, while Kitchen's suggestions are possible and even plausible, they have yet to be confirmed.

K This use of the verb s3i, "to be satisfied, to be sated," plus preposition hr, is paralleled by a passage from Papyrus Harris I, 78, 11: iw.sn sSw thw hr ihjhSy, "they being sated and drunk through rejoicing.' L This phrase is not attested on any other donation stelae known to me. Beyond the clear tone of disfavour, its import is obvious in light of the known practice of rendering both types of oracles (i.e., bilyt and hrtw) during proces- sional festivals: there will be no recourse to divine justice for the vizier guilty of whatever act is now lost in the lacuna.

M ir nty nb as both Cerny (op. cit., 24, n. 4) and Kitchen (KRIYV, 359, 7) have suggested. N The verb being, in all likelihood, tBy "to seize," as is attested in other curse formulae from donation stelae.73

The lacuna after tSy is bipartite in nature. In the first place, we have the break immediately after tSy at the end of recto line 2 and perhaps continued at the beginning of recto 1 where a not inconsiderable portion of that line is now also missing. Contiguous with the lost fragment at the beginning of recto 1 is a blank space in that same line; it is apparent from the edge of the ostracon until the beginning of the word ndm. Upon examination, this blank surface seems never to have been written upon. It is

thus difficult to reconstruct what the intended formulae could have been. One should note in this context that the curse formulae on several other donation stelae are given in abbreviated forms. It is, therefore, quite difficult to reconstruct what the ancient writer intended to be understood by the apparently shortened form of the curse. Ndm hSty, the first words appearing in recto 1, are hardly a suitable apodosis for ir nty nb r tBy. ° For ndm h3ty, see Wb. II, 380, 8. Given that the preceding clause (at least as preserved) would demand an apodosis outlining the pun- ishment for "seizing," we once again have a clear indication that some of the curse formulae in this text were written only in very abbreviated form. The implied and missing protasis here would probably be similar to the following sentiment: "As to the one who establishes them (the donated units of land)." It is interesting that the only other example of the verb ndm known from the curse formulae of the corpus of donation stelae also seems to have been written without a suitable protasis: see Stela OIM 13943. However, as the phrase ndm rn.fhr-tp tS in that other example occurs in a series of "negative" results and, furthermore, it is not the last in that series, it is quite possible that Leahy is correct in suggesting that the phrase be emended to read as a negative. However, a negative apodosis would be nonsense in the context of the present example.

As it seems that ndm hjty sms nb ntrw was an apodosis of a curse formula, it is quite probable that the subject was implied, to wit: ndm hSty(.f) sms(.f) nb ntrw, the suffix pronoun referring in both cases to the protagonist of the protasis. Unlike the earlier and negative apodosis (recto 2), here the do-gooder is allowed to par- ticipate in the divine procession with all its con- commitant benefits. 70 When asked by the present writer to re-examine this

section, Timothy Kendall of the MFA, Boston, wrote that there was "... possibly a tiny trace of a third [sign], which Kitchen restores as a~-n." (emphasis his; personal corre- spondence dated September 5, 1991).

Erichsen, Papyrus Harris I, 96. On this practice, see, for example, J. Cerny in R. A.

Parker, A Saite Oracle Papyrus from Thebes, 36. 73 See J.-L. Chappaz, Geneva 30 n. s. (1982), 77, n. L add-

ing: M. Mogensen, Inscriptions hieroglyphiques du Musee na- tional de Copenhague, 38-39 and pl. 18 (= Meeks Corpus Number 26.1.22, line 4).

74 This space is not indicated in KRIYV, 359, 7.

See, for example, Morgensen, Inscriptions hieroglyphiques, 37 (= Meeks Corpus Number 22.7.0); K. A. Kitchen, JARCE 8 (1969-70), 60, n. 6 (= 22.8.22); J. Vandier, La revue de Louvre et des Musees de France 2\ (1971), 98, fig. 7 (= 26.2.1a).

76 A. Leahy, RdE 34 (1982-1983), 86, line 5 (= Meeks Corpus Number 26.2.11).

77 Ibid., 89, n. v. Kitchen has cross-hatched the area below the walking

legs-determinative of the verb sms in his copy (KRIYV, 359, 7). However, I could see no traces of the suffix-pronoun or any other hieroglyph there.



66 JARCE XXX (1993)

TextIV

Text IV consists of four vertical columns of hieroglyphic script on the verso.

[. . .]A you awake at the fourth (hour?B) and arise for (the performance of) priestly hour- duty.0 Cleanse yourself0 in order that you don (garments of) fine linenE [. . .] good(?)F [. . .]. May your heart be intoxicated and your countenance joyfulH in order that one be glad1 every day for the ka ofJ [...]. [. . .] well in the hands of AmenR when I was aban- donedL having survived him (i.e., the deceased)^ who knows how to keep safeN anyone who follows him, who is efficient for him who acts loyally0 [. . .] any revered one in order that the sun-disk of heaven illumi- nate the ka ofJ [...].

A There is a vertical trace apparent just above the first radical of the verb nhs. This trace is not indicated by Kitchen.

B- Reading hr 4.t (wnwt) as suggested by Cerny.80 See Cerny-Groll, A Late Egyptian Grammar2, 85, for the feminine ending. A rough parallel for this idiom can be found in Papyrus Lansing 9, 7.

c Cerny suggested that wnyt might be the precursor of wny > OYOEIN, "light." How- ever, the fourth hour of night can hardly be associated with the light of dawn.83 Here, wnyt is in all probability a variant of wnwt "priestly hour-duty." D For hcw.k, "yourself," see Gardiner, Gram- mar^, §36. Another possible translation is "May your limbs be clean." On the priestly practice of bathing for purification prior to participation in the cult, see A. B. Lloyd, Herodotus Book II. Commentary 1-98, 166-67, adding, with reference to Chaeremon, the studies of P. W. van der Horst: Chaeremon Egyptian Priest and Stoic

Philosopher, 21 and n. 45; and in M. Heerma van Voss et al, Studies in the History of Religions, 68 and n. 63.

E For wnh with a direct object, see Caminos, LEM, 139. An interesting parallel from a similar context (i.e., ritual purification of a celebrant) comes from the text recording the instructions given by King Piye (Piankhi) to his army concerning their approach to the Temple of Amen at Karnak: "Enter into the water. Purify yourselves in the river. Clothe (wnh) yourselves in pure (garments)." The "fine linen" of the present text would be the equivalent of such "pure garments" in the Piye text. However, the wearing of clothing made from pSkt, "fine linen," is not in itself an indication of ritual pu- rity. Indeed, it would seem to first denote a certain level of luxury when used out of a temple context.86 But this is not to deny that pjkt-linen was the tissue of choice for ceremonial garb. F

Following the reconstructions of both Cerny and Kitchen. However, I am not at all convinced by their "[. . . all] beautiful [things ...]."

G th ib.k. From the context, it is clear that this is not a reference to mere inebriation due to the consumption of alcoholic beverages. The allusion is surely to a joyous state of mind.

H For wnf hr.k, see Wb. I, 319, 17, adding E. Chassinat and F. Dumas, Le temple de Dendera 8,92, 11 and 110, 5.

L Contra Cerny,90 I do not see .tw here as a reference to the protagonist of this text. Rather, the joyful heart and smiling face of this individual (i.e., the priest) during the ceremony (i.e.,

79 KRIYV, 359, 8.

80 JEA 44 (1958), 24.

81 A. H. Gardiner, LEM, 108, 4; also, R. A. Caminos,

LEM, 405. 82

JEA 44 (1958), 24, n. 5. O. Neugebauer and R. A. Parker, Egyptian Astronomical

Texts I, 95ff. especially 100-107. 84 See Wb. I, 317, 3-8 for this term.

85 See N. Grimal, La stele triomphale de Pi {cankh)y au musee du Caire, 27, 6-7 for this text. The word here translated as "pure (garments)" (i.e., tp-s) actually has the sense of something ritually cleansed. It is only the context that provides the sense of garment: see A. H. Gardiner, JEA 21 (1935), 220, n. 2.

86 For example, see W. Helck, Der Text der "Lehre Amenem- hets I. fur seinen Sohn,

" 28; J. Lopez, Ostraca Ieratica I, pl. 1,

2-3; M. Muller, Die Liebespoesie der Allen Agypter, pl. 12, 10. See S. Sauneron, Les pretres de Vancienne Egypte, 2nd

ed., 47 for general comments. Also, A. B. Lloyd, Herodotus Book II. Commentary 1-98, 166 and 341-43. Of interest here as well is Y. Mottier, BSEG 13 (1989), 117-20.

88 JEA 44 (1958), 24 and KRIYV, 359, 9 respectively. For the verb thi/thi with the extended sense of "to be

joyful," see W. Erichsen, Demotisches Glossar, 654. 90

TEA 44 (1958), 24.




the hour-duty) will be a comfort to others. May we see in this use of the impersonal suffix pronoun a reference to the family of the deceased?

While Cerny understood hnts.tw to be a circumstantial clause, I prefer to see it as being finalis in force: non-initial prospective sdm.f after an initial prospective sdm.f If the .tw does refer in a general way to the priest, the sense might be that any and every officiant in this ceremony is joyous; in that case, hnts.tw could be a circumstantial form. I consider this less likely a possibility than the finalis clause.

J The blank here (and once again in this text) after nk? n strengthens the impression that we are here dealing with an archival document.

K See the study by I. Shirun-Grumach in Studies in Egyptology Presented to Miriam Lichtheim II, 836-52. The lacuna in the present text, however, impedes our full use of that article here.

L Both Cerny and Kitchen have considered the seated-man hieroglyph in the apparent hjc.tw.i sp hr.fas being redundant.92 However, I am loathe on several grounds to regard the presence of this hieroglyph as being due to a mere scribal error. First of all, the scribe did not make any other such mistakes (at least none that are apparent to us) thus demonstrating a certain level of care taken in the writing of these texts. Secondly, the hieroglyph in ques- tion was clearly written and occupies a portion of the text column by itself; it could not have been overlooked easily by the scribe. Finally, we must remember that the context here is damaged since the beginning of this text column is now missing.

This seated man hieroglyph may serve one of two functions here: that of first person singular suffix pronoun or that of determinative. In the latter case, we would be dealing here with a name, either imn-hjc-tw or hjc-tw-imn.9^ This

would mean that the preceding term hr cwy would be the compound preposition "in the charge of."94 Yet this would indicate that what follows is an encomium to this named individual and it is clear that the elements of said encomium are more suitable to a god or a king than a mere mortal.

On the other hand, by taking it as a suffix pronoun, we are presented with a text wherein the unnamed son(?) bears witness to his faith in the god Amen now that his father (i.e., the individual whose name was not written after the n kj n) is deceased. In effect, the text praises both Amen and the deceased parent at the same time: Amen as father to the orphan. The form is probably the circumstantial sdm.f. M For this sense of the verb spi, see R. A. Caminos, A Tale of Woe, 22. The form is probably the stative: sp.Q. See the preceding note for the reference to the father(?).

N The traces mentioned in KRIW, 359, 11 seemed to the present writer to be the determinative fl . ° Read iri hr mw[.f]. There may have been more text now lost at the bottom of this column. There is a probable trace at the top of the next column before the traces of the imlh- hieroglyph: jffc .

While the first three texts on this ostracon

appear to have been copies from the same monument (i.e., a donation stela), Text IV is different enough to warrant its exclusion from that particular source. Text IV is mortuary in nature; the first part appears to be the instructions for a priest's participation in a mortuary ritual while in the second part, the "owner of the text refers to his deceased father and the god Amen by the same terms, thus blending filial love with religious piety.

91 Cerny-Groll, A Late Egyptian Grammar2, 457-58. 92 JEA 44 (1958), 24, n. 8 and KRIW, 359, 10. 93 See, for example, H. Ranke, PNl, 262 for names con-

structed with Hdc plus a dependent pronoun plus a divine name (e.g., hDC-sw-(n)-imn). Could these names and others be references to the practice of abandoning children? An interesting study of this phenomenon during the period from late antiquity until the Renaissance is J. Boswell, The Kindness of Strangers although he does not deal at all with the pharaonic period.

94 Cerny-Groll, Late Egyptian Grammar, 115. For the term h,DC used when expressing the "leaving"

or "abandoning" of a loved one by the deceased, see J. Zandee, Death as an Enemy, 53-54.

By the term "owner," I am referring to the person who commissioned the eventual monument upon which this text would appear or had appeared. Whether the ostracon itself was the property of the "owner" or the scribe (if they were not one and the same person) will probably never be known.



68 JARCE XXX (1993)

There are examples from the corpus of donation stelae where the donation text proper is

accompanied by a religious text of a different genre. For example, the first line of the four- line text of Stela TE 37889 consists, for the most part, of a "call" to Amen-re. Another donation stela, found at the Nilometer at Roda, has four of its seven text lines taken up by a htp di nsw formula." However, these types of occurrence are very rare. As was pointed out above, the graphic distribution of the texts on the recto of MFA Boston 11.1498 makes it very unlikely that we are dealing here with a "monumental" ostracon. When we also consider the presence of the hieroglyphic texts on the verso of the ostracon as well as the hieratic accounts, the archival nature of Ostracon MFA Boston 11.1498 can be considered as proven.

The Stela Reconstructed

The actual appearance of this stela will not be known for sure until the happy day of its discov- ery. There are too many options, unknowns, and imponderables to allow us to come to any conclusion as to the relative placements of Texts I - III on the "monumental" stela (as opposed to the archival ostracon). Of course, this should not prevent our consideration of the problem as long as it is realized that the results are but hy- pothetical. At any rate, an attempt at speculative reconstruction is clearly un geste qui s'impose within such an exercise as the present article.

We have seen that the three figures at the top of the first line of Text I (recto line 5) should not be taken as mere hieroglyphs but rather as indicating the presence of the graphic repre- sentations of Amen, Mut, and Khonsu on the

actual stela. They may have been depicted in a single file within a hierarchial sequence (i.e., Amen, Mut, and then Khonsu) under a single heaven-sign or, possibly, each figure under its own such hieroglyph; each divine figure would have had the appropriate name written in a caption beside it. An alternative arrange- ment would involve understanding each of the three figures from the ostracon to be a shorthand form for a representation of the barque of the god(dess) and its complement. The barque figures need not have been arranged in a single file. Further possible reconstructions could involve permutations or combina- tions of the above suggestions.

That the figures of the gods were depicted as facing that of the king is highly likely. The hieroglyphic section of Text I (i.e., excluding the figures of the gods) demands the presence of such a royal figure. The hieroglyphic section of Text I was the caption to the scene at the top of the stela. Whether the caption was inscribed between the figure of the king and those of the gods or even elsewhere is not evident. However, it would seem safe to assume that the text on the stela was written in vertical columns following the example of the ostracon.

It is possible that there were one or more figures depicted as accompanying that of the king. Likely candidates here would be the vizier Hori, who seems to have acted as the intermediary at the oracular event, and/or the unnamed supplicant/donor.

Given that the curse formulae are generally the final passages of the texts on the donation

Yet other donation stelae have texts that may make reference in some manner to a deceased person as the apparent posthumous donor and/or as the individual whose mortuary cult benefited from the donation (e.g., R. A. Fazzini, Egypt Dynasty XXII-XXV, pl. 33, 2 [Meeks Cor- pus Number 22.7.25]; Janssen, JEA 54 [1968], 165-72 [= 23.XV.24]). However, these references are different from the present description of the ritual and following ex- plicit confession of faith.

98 G. Legrain, ASAEl (1906), 227 (= Meeks Corpus Num- ber 26.1.10).

99 E. Drioton, BIE 20 (1937-38), 231-45 (= Meeks Cor- pus Number 26.0.0a).

loo Trris is a very common configuration in the scenes on donation stelae where two, three, and even four deities are depicted.

See, for example, the scene from the foi^-oracular inscription of Djehutymose, son of Suawyamen, at Karnak (J.-M. Kruchten, Le grand texte oraculaire de Djehoutymose, passim) remembering that bByt- and /irtt^oracles seem to have had very similar ceremonial techniques. 102 E.g., G. Daressy, ASAE21 (1921), 139 (= Meeks Corpus Number 22.0.00a); Iversen, Two Inscriptions, pl. 1 (= 22.5.16); W. Spiegelberg, RT 35 (1913), 43 (= 22.8.28); G. Daressy, ASAE 15 (1915), 143 (B) (=22. 10.00c); P. A. Spencer in A. J. Spencer, Excavations at El-Ashmunein II, 58 and pl. 100 (not in Meeks Corpus). See, too, B. L(etellier) in Naissance de Vecriture. Galeries Nationales du Grand Palais 7 mai - 9 aout 1982, 282 (= 22.2.0) and R. el Sayed, Documents relatifs a Sais et ses divinites, pl. 7 (= 24.1.8) for related configurations.




stelae, it is probable that what we have been calling Text III did indeed appear below Text II on the actual stela. Judging from the layout of these two texts on the actual ostracon, we should visualize them as having been written in horizontal lines; this is exactly what one might expect on a donation stela. However, there is a problem in reconstructing the orientation of these two texts on the stela. On the ostracon, Text II is written left to right, while Text III displays the opposite orientation. Such a phenomenon would be unique on a donation stela. The reasons for a bipartite configuration of this nature are not readily apparent.

In publishing the foregoing, I hope to have rescued from darkness a text of no little impor- tance. Ostracon MFA Boston 11.1498 (recto) provides us with a better understanding of the

ceremony incorporating the hrtiv-oracle and its preceding donation of land to the temple, the former being the quid pro quo of the latter. With- out a doubt, this ostracon is one of the most important documents extant for the on-going study of the oracular phenomenon in ancient Egypt, allowing, as it does, a clearer look at the relationship between the temples and the laity of that time period. When we add to those texts on the recto the priestly instructions, etc., of the verso, one may be forgiven the sense of surprise felt at the virtual obscurity within which this ostracon has dwelt since Cerny's initial attempt at decipherment. Hopefully, the present treat- ment will stimulate further discussion of these texts, be it critical or complementary.

Toronto, Ontario

