Egypt Exploration Society

Hieratische Ritzinschriften aus Theben: Palographie der Graffiti und Steinbruchinschriften by Mohamed Sherif Ali Review by: John Coleman Darnell The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, Vol. 90, Reviews Supplement (2004), pp. 29-32 Published by: Egypt Exploration Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3822278 . Accessed: 28/12/2012 19:04
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

Egypt Exploration Society is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded on Fri, 28 Dec 2012 19:04:48 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

2004

REVIEWS

SUPPLEMENT

29

reviewed. Of special interest are objects of the Thirteenth Dynasty found in the 'Tomb of the Lord of the Goats' bearing the name of 'Hotepibre Harnejheryotef' (c. 1770-1760 BC). The question of relations between Ebla and Egypt, explored by Gabriella Matthiae (pp. 415-27), is of special interest to Egyptologists. A lamp with the royal titulary of Khafre (Chephren) and a jar lid bearing the cartouche of Pepi I have been uncovered. How did these Egyptian objects reach this distant location? The author suggests that they travelled either directly or via an intermediary such as Byblos, with whom Egypt had enjoyed direct economic relations since the earliest dynasties. She proposes that Ebla's role as 'the final marketplaces of the long-distance lapis lazuli trade' from Afghanistan might explain Egypt's interest in the region. But this traffic too could have been achieved through Byblian or Ugaritic traders. Currently it remains unclear how the Old Kingdom objects reached Ebla and the nature in more detail the silver bowl and a ceremonial mace of the relationship with Egypt. Matthiae discusses bearing the name of the Thirteenth Dynasty ruler 'Hotepibre Harnejheryotef'. Because it bears the epithet s3 3mw ('son of an Asiatic'), as well as mentioning 'Ptah South-of-his-Wall', Matthiae suggests included that includedthe Delta and extended as far south as that this ruler of Semitic origin controlled an area that Memphis. Bietak believes that this monarch may have been the builder of a Thirteenth Dynasty palace at Tell el-Daba. Because of the 'Asiatic' roots of this ruler, the author regards the presence of these objects at Ebla as 'proof of the ties existing between the king and the Asiatic countries' (p).419). This suggestion is strengthened by McGovern and Harbottle's Neutron Activation Analysis mentioned above, which identified some amphorae as possibly being from Tell Mardikh (p. 151). This volume concludes with a short chapter that investigates the relations between the Aegean and the Hyksos. Philip Betancourt reviews some of the Hyksos Period materials found in Crete, Thera, and Greece, and the Aegean materials from Egypt and the Levant, including the Minoan frescoes from Tell el-Daba, Tell Kabri, and Alalakh (pp. 429-32). His purpose is to determine a model to explain the nature of the contact between these regions late in the MBA. Because the frescoes were not found in Minoan buildings or alongside other Aegean objects, he concludes that they reflect the work of Minoan artisans, and not evidence for a permanent presence of Aegean peoples. He declares that 'The evidence suggests that they did know of each other but that contact was not close' (p. 430). He further concludes, 'The model suggested here is one of casual contact, with Cyprus acting as a bridge between the two areas' (p. 430), a plausible scenario. This cross-disciplinary monograph is a welcome contribution to the study of the Hyksos Period, and will serve as a basis for considerable discussion for years to come. Most of the chapters are exceptionally well illustrated with maps, charts, drawings, and black and white plates. There are problems in many of the articles when Egyptian words are written, as diacritical marks are often missing. Despite this shortcoming, this is a valuable collection of essays.
JAMES K. HOFFMEIER

Hieratische Ritzinschriften aus Theben: Paldographie der Graffiti und Steinbruchinschriften. By MOHAMED SHERIF ALI. Gottinger Orientforschungen IV. Reihe Agypten 34. Pp. xiv + 154 + 291 palaeographic tables. Wiesbaden, Harrassowitz, 2002. ISBN 3 447 03854 3. Price 86. Mohamed Sherif Ali has examined the palaeography of the rock inscriptions in the immediate environs of the main Theban necropolis, those inscriptions primarily published by Spiegelberg, Cerny, Azouz Sadek, and the others who worked on the corpus for the Centre de Documentation. As the title indicates, Ali is concerned with the texts carved and scratched into the limestone of the Theban gebel. The palaeographic discussions and conclusions, especially as regard the rock inscriptions of New Kingdom Thebes, are of considerable interest and importance; the actual palaeography that forms half the book is of at least equal importance. The number of palaeographic tools available for the study of hieratic texts increases slowly but steadily; those available for the study of lapidary hieratic are fewer in number and more scattered, and only the palaeography in Z. 2aba's Rock Inscriptions of Lower Nubia (Prague, 1974) represents a large corpus of texts. Ali first presents a brief overview of rock inscriptions in Egypt (2.1). This is not the focus of the book, and is necessarily somewhat selective. Certainly there are more locations within Egypt proper that have preserved rock inscriptions than the short list Ali provides (pp. 9-11): Wadi Hammamat (citing the Couyat and Montet as well as Goyon collections), Wadi el-Hudi, Sinai (the Gardiner, Peet, and Cerny publication), and Nubia (based solely on the excellent collection by aba), and Wadi Allaqi.1 Ali
I A convenient overview is now A. J. Peden, The Graffiti of Pharaonic Egypt (PA 17; Leiden, 2001).

This content downloaded on Fri, 28 Dec 2012 19:04:48 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

30

REVIEWS

SUPPLEMENT

JEA

90

appears in his list rather to have concentrated on the select portions of the select sites he has chosen to utilize in his study. Some triage was obviously necessary, in order to prevent the study from becoming too unwieldy and to allow the author to concentrate on the New Kingdom Theban rock inscriptions. Interestingly, a number of the Wadi el-Hudi inscriptions Ali discusses are small, free-standing monuments. Their inclusion opens the question of just where a study of rock inscriptions ends; if the corpora are not limited to immovable gebel inscriptions, one could include numerous small monuments with the palaeographic features of rock inscriptions (compare Ali's 1.3).2 This is an avenue for further work, to which the author of this valuable study may perhaps turn his attention in the future. The main focus of the work, and the palaeography at its heart, are based primarily on true rock inscriptions on the face of the Theban escarpment. In 2.2 Ali discusses the palaeographic character of the rock inscriptions. This is an important section of the book, and presents a number of conclusions regarding the blending of hieroglyphic and hieratic sign forms in rock inscriptions. Ali distinguishes three palaeographic types amongst the rock inscriptions he examines: 1) hieroglyphic inscriptions; 2) hieratic inscriptions; and 3) hybrid inscriptions. This third group includes both texts employing a mixture of hieroglyphic and hieratic signs, as well as inscriptions revealing individual sign forms blending hieroglyphic and hieratic elements.3 Based on Ali's analysis of several admittedly limited corpora of texts, approximately 40%of all Middle Kingdom rock inscriptions utilize a mixed hieratic-hieroglyphic orthography, compared to approximately 12% of such texts from the New Kingdom. Although the phenomenon of lapidary hieratic is recognized in a number of publications,4 Ali is the first author to provide such a quantitative basis for the frequency of such texts. Ali believes that hybrid rock inscription palaeography is similar to the so-called book script, itself not far removed from early hieratic. Although his purpose was not to examine Old Kingdom inscriptions in great detail, he does note the existence of a similar, apparently mixed hieroglyphic-hieratic style during the Old Kingdom (see pp. 31-3). Ali rightly points out the similarity of much Old Kingdom hieratic to cursive hieroglyphic forms; he refers to examples from the tomb of Kaiemankh at Giza. In fact, the varieties of semi-hieratic and combined hieroglyphic-hieratic inscriptions attested during the Old Kingdom are slightly more complex than they may seem-one may say that the degree of hieroglyphicity appears to be directly proportional to the elevation of the level of discourse.5 At the conclusion to chapter 2, Ali presents an interesting discussion of the reasons why a cursive or mixed hierolgyphic-hieratic script for a rock inscription may have been chosen. He also raises a number of interesting questions for future work, including considerations of geographical location of the inscription and social position of the carver possibly influencing the script a writer might use for leaving rock inscriptions; hopefully Ali will turn his attention to some of these. On pages 33-5 Ali discusses the interplay of technical ability, location, formality, and education in the production of rock inscriptions. One may at this point raise the vexing question of what to term such inscriptions in a modern language. The book often employs the term graffito/graffiti; this word has a poor connotation in the modern world, and detracts for the essential formality of many of the inscriptions. A term such as the 'Ritzinschriften' of the book's title is perhaps better, covering as it does the inscribed hieratic, hieroglyphic, and hybrid texts of both rock inscriptions and free standing monuments. Perhaps better still, considering that the work concentrates on the New Kingdom inscriptions of the gebel of the Theban necropolis, would be 'rock inscriptions', 'Felsinschriften'.6 In terminology the ancient Egyptians do

2 Compare small monuments such as the stela of the reign of Amenemhat III (JE 59484, currently in the Nubia Museum, Aswan) from the so-called Gebel el-Asr quarries-see the photo in R. E. Engelbach, 'The Quarries of the Western Nubian Desert: a Preliminary Report', ASAE 33 (1933), 72-3 (full publication of this and the other inscribed monuments from the site forthcoming by the author, with the assistance of C. Manassa). 3 Ali also comments upon the use of both hieroglyphic and hieratic versions of the same sign within a single inscription on the basis of a stela of the reign of Amenemhat I, Sinai 30. For this compare the references in J. C. Darnell, Theban Desert Road Survey in the Egyptian Desert, I (OIP 119; Chicago, 2002), 56 (n. b to GTRI 14). 4 See also the comments of Zaba, Rock Inscriptions of Lower Nubia, 261; H. G. Fischer, 'Archaeological Aspects of Epigraphy and Palaeography', in R. Caminos and H. G. Fischer Ancient (eds), Egyptian Epigraphy and Palaeography2 (New York, 1979), 43-4; H. Vandekerckhove and R. Miiller-Wollermann, Die Felsinschriften des Wadi

Hilal (Elkab 6; Turnhout, 2001), 347. The brief discussion of incised hieratic in A. G. McDowell, 'An Incised Hieratic Ostracon (Ashmoleon HO 655)', JEA 81 (1995), 223-4, appears to underestimate the number and significance of hieratic rock inscriptions. 5 Compare the blending of hieratic and hieroglyphic forms in a semi-cursive ink inscription in J. Junker, Giza, XI (Vienna, 1953), 15, fig. 10, and pl. 5e, and the discussion pp. 15-17. Junker also describes the various degrees of cursiveness in the textual content of a number of decorated coffins. Note, however, that being written in hieratic does not lessen the formality, though lapidary hieratic/semi-cursive or hieroglyphic styles may increase H. Willems, The Coffin of Heqata formality-compare (OLA 70; Leuven, 1996), 49 n. 3, noting that more formal bandeau texts need not appear with formal orthography. 6 See the useful discussion of such terminology in Vandekerckhove and Miiller-Wollermann, Die Felsinschriften des Wadi Hilal, 9-11.

This content downloaded on Fri, 28 Dec 2012 19:04:48 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

2004

REVIEWS SUPPLEMENT

31

not appear to have distinguished these inscriptions from those of tombs and temples, nor did they distinguish between hieroglyphic and hieratic rock inscriptions; all apparently were sh3.w, 'writings, depictions'7 and at least some were worthy of the treatment and even label of wd, 'stela'.8 In 2.3 Ali presents an overview of the known rock inscriptions of the Theban necropolis, and in 2.4 he discusses the characteristics of the script. He notes that the inscriptions, predominately New Kingdom, are also predominately in hieratic, as his chronological examination of inscriptions from a selection of other sites would suggest likely for a corpus of New Kingdom rock inscriptions. Purely hieratic inscriptions form an even higher percentage in the Theban corpus than in the other corpora the author examined. Ali demonstrates, nevertheless, the often subtle intrusions of a mixed lapidary hieratic tradition into these often florid hieratic texts.9 He suggests that the use of hieroglyphic and hybrid forms could result from both a desire to suit the style to the medium, and from the possibility that a carver might more easily execute some signs in their hieroglyphic shapes than in their less angular hieratic forms, more suited to reed and ink on papyrus than to knife, chisel, or flint on stone. His discussion of Theban rock inscription 1082 (p. 64) properly observes the desire to employ hieroglyphic forms and both left and right orientations to 'monumentalize' the lapidary hieratic text. In his brief discussion of the entirely reversed (left to right) hieratic inscription 1384 Ali misunderstands the text on the Balat sarcophagus-this appears reversed because the inscription seems to have transferred from inscribed bandages to the inside of the coffin, thereby surviving as a negative, and thus reversed,
image. I0

Although the book in its entirety is to be recommended to all with an interest in hieratic and/or rock inscriptions, the palaeography, the largest portion of the book, is probably the section to which scholars will have most frequent recourse. Rock inscriptions are extraordinarily difficult to copy, and almost any copy can be improved;11 nevertheless, there is no reason to doubt the accuracy of the majority of the copies on which the palaeography is based. Without, therefore, referring constantly to problems and possibilities in the readings of the individual inscriptions in which the signs occur, one may nevertheless offer a few comments on the palaeography: A 10: This sign does not in fact show a man holding an oar, and Ali is right to find this slightly disturbing. When the examples of A 3 are compared with those of A 21, the similarities are apparent; A 3 appears rather to represent a seated variant of the standing man holding a staff. An alternation of standing and seated sign forms is not uncommon for Middle Kingdom hieratic and hieroglyphic texts-compare 2aba, Rock Inscriptionsof Lower Nubia, 80 (note to 1. 5 of inscription no. 56); compare also H. G. Fischer, Dendera in the Third Millennium B.C. (Locust Valley, NJ, 1968), 77, n. 325, 79-82, and 124-5; J. Osing et al., Denkmaler der Oase Dachia aus dem Nachlass von Ahmed Fakhry (AV 28; Mainz, 1982), 35, no. 32, and pls. 7 and 61. Note also the standing version of the man with hand to mouth during the Heracleopolitan Period, originating in a confusion of the normal, kneeling version of that sign with the sign of the seated man (Gardiner Al); see H. G. Fischer, 'Des chanteurs militaires a Gebelein et Hatnoub?', RdE 28 (1976), 153-4. These confusions may derive from the appearance of some standing signs in late Old Kingdom hieratic-compare P Posener-Krieger and J.
7 Compare the description of an hieratic rock inscription as sh;.w in Darnell, Theban Desert Road Survey I, 103 and pl. 83 (WHRI 6B); the plural shb.w there meaning appears to presage the New Kingdom 'document' for the plural-see K. Donker van Heel and B. J. J. Haring, Writing in a Workmen's Village (Egyptologische Uitgaven 16; Leiden, 2003), 110-12. Such inscriptions were considered worthy of protection by the use of threat formulae (compare Zaba, Rock Inscriptions of Lower Nubia, 84; S. Morschauser, Threat Formulae in Ancient Egypt (Baltimore, 1991), 168-70). A Saite text refers to visitors' inscriptions left in a tomb as ssm.w-writings (Wb. IV, 289.13), visitors having written and ws, 'cut', them into the stone of the tomb; see K. P. Kuhlmann, 'Eine Beschreibung der Grabdekoration mit der Aufforderung zu kopieren und zum Hinterlassen von aus saitischer Zeit', MDAIK 29 Besucherinschriften (1973), 207, 11. 14-15, and 210, with nn. 40-1. 8 Compare Wb. I, 398.17; for an excellent example of wd, 'stela', to refer to a lengthy and physically rambling hieratic rock inscription without any border, see G. Roeder, Von Debod bis Bab Kalabsche, II (Cairo, 1911), pls. 106-8 (wd occurs in inscription no. 1, 1. 1). On a rough, free-standing monument of the early Middle Kingdom, with ink inscription and depiction of the owner, the text is hieratic in the vertical texts on the obverse and reverse, and of a hybrid nature in the two horizontal lines in the 'lunette' on the obverse; 1. 5 of the reverse refers to the depictions as twt pn and the inscription apparently as wd pn (see W. K. Simpson, 'An Additional Fragment of a "Hatnub" Stela', JNES 20 (1961), 27). 9 H. E. Winlock, 'Graffiti of the Priesthood of the Eleventh Dynasty Temples at Thebes', AJSL 58 (1941), 146, characterized the authors of Theban rock inscriptions during the Middle Kingdom as having 'affected a minute, cramped, practically hieroglyphic hand which is far less likely to attract attention than the flowing hieratic of Ramesside scribes'. Certainly much of the hieratic is flowing, or at least possessed of calligraphic flourishes, but Ali's work demonstrates again that first impressions may be deceptive. 10 See the discussion in M. Valloggia, Balat, I. Le mastaba de Medou-Nefer I, (FIFAO 31/1; Cairo, 1986), 74-5. For occasional true reversals on the hieratic of coffins, see Willems, The Coffin of Heqata, 543 (references to 'hieratic, orientation of'). 11 For the Theban inscriptions compare R. Jasnow, 'Demotic Graffiti from Western Thebes', in H.-J. Thissen and K.-Th. Zausich (eds), Grammata Demotika (Wuirzburg, 1984), 87-105.

This content downloaded on Fri, 28 Dec 2012 19:04:48 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

32

REVIEWS

SUPPLEMENT

JEA 90

L. De Cenival, The Abu Sir Papyri (HPBM Fifth Series; London, 1968), pal. pl. 1, Gardiner nos. 24, 28, and 32 (fig. 13). D 2: An elongated writing of D 2 foreshadows the abbreviated demotic orthography of hr, 'upon' (compare W. Erichsen, DemotischesGlossar (Copenhagen, 1954), 320, and the form in W. F. Edgerton, Medinet Habu Graffiti Facsimiles (OIP 36; Chicago, 1937), pl. 20, Nr. 47, 1. 2), and probably arises from occasional elongations representing hr +r (compare M. Marciniak, Deir el-Bahari, I. Les inscriptions hieratiquesdu temple de ThoutmosisIII (Warsaw, 1974), 265 [exx. of hr + r from 10, 3; 11, 9; 15, 2; 16, 2; and 20, 6]). D 34: The version in inscription no. 1011, which All compares to A 24, is indeed uncommon, but the form is attested in earlier texts-see H. G. Fischer, Varia Nova (Egyptian Studies 3; New York, 1996), 103 (with nn. 1-2)-and may represent a survival of earlier lapidary hieratic forms. D 57: The two signs G 1 and D 57 in inscription 3485 do appear distinct. Several of the above comments suggest that the palaeography supports one of Ali's major conclusions quite well. Subtle as they may be, features of an already old lapidary hieratic sign list do come through, even in the most outwardly florid and at first glance most fluid and hieratic inscriptions. The commentary to the palaeography (4.1) contains a number of detailed discussions, including an analysis of the sign A 1. Here Ali observes that at least two of the Theban lapidary hieratic inscriptions employ an archaic form of the seated man sign, more like the Middle Kingdom hieratic. As with the use of hieroglyphic signs, the carvers appear to have felt that archaism was appropriate to monumental inscriptions. In 4.1 Ali lists a number of the signs by Gardiner number, and defines them, without further commentary related to the Theban rock inscriptions. These labels without specific commentary could have been omitted, and some space saved. Note that S. Wimmer, Hieratische Paldographie der nicht-literarischenOstraka der 19. und 20. Dynastie (AAT 28; Wiesbaden, 1995), appeared after the completion of the original dissertation (1996, see Ali's p. ix), and is not referenced in the published version here reviewed. Perhaps the most novel section of the book is 4.2, in which the author examines the ink and lapidary hieratic handwritings of several New Kingdom Theban scribes. In particular, the well-known Qenherkhopeshef has a lapidary hand markedly differing from his standard hieratic on P. Chester Beatty III, but occasionally finding an echo in earlier texts from his career-his handwriting appears to have become more scrawling later in life, but even earlier, his lapidary hand shows a number of departures from his book hand. Even in Twentieth Dynasty hands, such as that of Butehamun, lapidary hieratic signs that alone strike one as essentially good, Late Ramesside hieratic reveal a subtle 'lapidary' or 'hybrid' aspect-the mn + n of Butehamun's name reveals a lapidary concept of the signs essentially different from that of the signs in the letters Ali cites for comparison (see p. 144). This is an interesting and useful book, and stimulating to those whom rock inscriptions stimulate. The present reviewer, counting himself amongst that group, commends and recommends Ali's work on the Ritzinschriften aus Theben.
JOHN COLEMAN DARNELL

Gebieterin aller Ldnder. Die Rolle der koniglichen Frauen in der fiktiven und realen Aussenpolitik des
dgyptischen Neuen Reiches. By SILKE ROTH. Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis 185. Pp. xii + 168, figs. 25,

tables 4. Gottingen, Vandenhoek and Ruprecht, 2002. ISBN 3 525 53042 0. Price not stated. This slim volume is a thorough, indeed exhaustive, examination of the role of royal women in New Kingdom foreign policy. The author takes as a basis for the study the contention that during the New Kingdom the intensive contact that occurred between Egypt and the ancient Near East brought about a number of changes in the traditional ideology of Egyptian kingship and in Egypt's actual foreign policy.
The aim is to explore how these changes affected the role of royal women not only within the traditional

Egyptian view of foreign relations but also in the actual dealings of Egypt with foreign powers. The book
therefore divides naturally into two parts: the role of Egyptian royal women in 'fictitious' foreign policy

played out according to the traditional ideology of kingship in which Egypt viewed herself as dominating the rest of the world, and their role in actual foreign policy conducted through the long-established
diplomatic network of the ancient Near East, in which Egypt now participated.

The first part draws on internal Egyptian sources, such as titles and epithets of queens and the
iconography and context of their images. It turns out that there are remarkably few titles that connect queens to areas outside Egypt. Although the title hnwt (nt) t3w nbw appears for the first time in the

This content downloaded on Fri, 28 Dec 2012 19:04:48 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions