Series:

Studia Demotica

2 primary works • 4 total works

Volume 12

Cover of Demotic Graffiti and Other Short Texts Gathered from Many Publications
As continuation of the two preceding volumes of Short Texts with
demotic votive inscriptions (vol. I) and mummy labels (vol. II), this
volume brings together all but 800 demotic and Greek-demotic graffiti.
These are in principle all the graffiti published in periodicals, congress
proceedings and colloquia and Festschrifts, as well as in
monographs that are not exclusively concerned with demotic graffiti
(chiefly excavations reports). The texts are presented in topographical
order from South to North, with those from a single monument kept
together. The texts show the full gamut of themes encountered in demotic
graffiti, which are more varied than their reputation would suggest: the
commemorative inscriptions often have more to offer than just names and
provide information about the careers of the inscribers, occasionally even
touching on historical events of a larger scale. Specifically the numerous
and variegated graffiti from the stone quarries in Middle Egypt and at
Tura and Masara opposite ancient Memphis deserve to be mentioned because
many of these texts are published here for the first time. Several
clusters of these quarry graffiti belong to the first demotic texts that
were recorded in the nineteenth century, and they constitute the only
extant copies for many texts that have now been destroyed.
In
addition, there are some three hundred brief inscriptions on various
objects such as coins, hieratic papyri and mummy linen, stelae, sculptors'
models and plaques, various vases and amphoras, containers for embalming
materials, dishes for the preparation of kyphi, and various other
objects. Although only a few of these may be regarded as proper graffiti,
most of them show a comparable close relationship with the objects on
which they are to be found - for example the notes on stelae, papyri and
mummy bandages, or the marks on wooden coffin boards or drums of stone
columns - which is why we have collected them in this volume, trusting
that the reader will not be misled as to their nature by the title of the
volume.
There are also some sixty further additions to Short
Texts volumes I and II: some stelae, a number of mummy labels and
strips of mummy linen, including two previously unpublished linen pieces
from Lille University.

Volume 13

Cover of The Erbstreit Papyri

The Erbstreit papyri, nineteen papyri with twenty texts, now dispersed over five different collections, represent a bilingual dossier that was collected in Antiquity as a result of inheritance disputes. They were once part of a family archive kept in the Upper-Egyptian town of ancient Pathyris, modern Gebelein. The disputes started after the death of the woman Tamenos, daughter of Panas alias Hermokrates, when members from several branches of her family claimed the plots of land she had bequeathed to her children. A series of lawsuits ensued which were dealt with by a wide range of officials, starting with the local Provost Nechoutes up to the Viceroy Boethos, to be settled eventually before the Greek high court from Ptolemais in Middle Egypt when in session in Thebes. The dossier is composed of written evidence produced by the parties, court minutes, court decisions, copies of temple oaths and amicable settlements. One of the attractive features of the dossier are the Greek translations of Egyptian pieces of evidence presented in the Greek courts. The volume provides a substantial introduction outlining the respective stages in the juridical dealings as well as (re-)editions of and comments in detail on the Greek and demotic texts. Appendixes on bilingualism and on Graeco-Egyptian double names as well as indexes and photographic plates complete the volume.

v.3

Cover of The Gooseherds of Hou (pap. Hou)
This dossier of thirteen early demotic documents from the last years of the reign of Dareios the Great and from the brief reign of the ephemeral native king Psammetichos IV, a time of apparent prosperity in Egypt, relates to various agricultural affairs. Thanks to the great variety of their contents, the detailed commentary constitutes a veritable conspectus of the study of early demotic documents and shows what may be achieved in this fact at present. The book's most notable advances are those made in the diverse domains of state and temple administration, cattle breeding, agriculture, metrology ('money'), grammar, vocabulary, and the legal formulary of early demotic contracts. These texts are here published in annotated transcriptions and translations with complete word indexes, and also represented in photographic plates. A long and innovative excursus investigates the exact derivation of a great number of demotic signs, thus placing the transcription of early demootic on a more certain footing than it previously had, while occasionally the results have repercussions for our transcription of New Kingdom hieratic proper.

v.9

Cover of Demotic and Greek-demotic Mummy Labels and Other Short Texts Gathered from Many Publications
In continuation of the demotic votive inscriptions collected in Short Texts Volume I, this volume brings together some 650 demotic and Greek-demotic mummy labels. These are in principle all labels published to date, but this number also contains some fifty unpublished labels as well as some fifty of which only the Greek, not the demotic side had been published previously. Of some two-hundred labels from which the names had been excerpted for use in our onomastic repertoria, the complete text is here published for the first time. In order to enhance the usefulness of this volume, also the demotic inscriptions on mummy linen, coffins, mummy boards and mummy masks, as well as those on the containers of mummified fauna and a number of small funerary papyri are included in this volume, some 260 texts in all. Thus the funerary theme has been treated fairly completely for the demotic texts, except for the demotic funerary stelae which will make up a separate Short Texts volume of their own.The volume is of course completed by Concordances with previous editions and by full Word Indices.
Five Appendices treat of various textual, onomastic and palaeographic problems chiefly concerning the mummy labels, which bring new insights in these domains for the Roman period.