HIERATIC OSTRACA OF THE RAMESSIDE PERIOD IN THE EGYPTIAN MUSEUM, CAIRO: DOCUMENTATION, CLASSIFICATION AND COMMENTARY by ABDEL RAHMAN SALAH HAFEZ ABDEL SAMIE A thesis submitted to The University of Birmingham For the Degree of MPhil in Egyptology Institute of Archaeology and Antiquity School of Historical Studies The Birmingham University October 2009 University of Birmingham Research Archive e-theses repository This unpublished thesis/dissertation is copyright of the author and/or third parties. The intellectual property rights of the author or third parties in respect of this work are as defined by The Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1988 or as modified by any successor legislation. Any use made of information contained in this thesis/dissertation must be in accordance with that legislation and must be properly acknowledged. Further distribution or reproduction in any format is prohibited without the permission of the copyright holder. Abstract We have dealt in this dissertation with 31 ostraca from the Valley of the Kings with various texts. They all attribute to Th. Davis and Carter/ Carnarvon’s excavations. They can classify into administrative, literary, Funny-signs and few jar labels. From this spectrum of contents, we may understand that the Valley of the Kings was not merely such sacred and inaccessible area surrounded by walls as used to be described by some scholars. Coordinated minor institutions may have probably based therein, being administered by a large headquarter settled somewhere in western Thebes. These small administrative stations were in charge of preparing works to be executed into some group of tombs in the vicinity. That can explain the reason why we find some artefacts of a certain king somewhere else other than the area where his tomb is located. An example of this phenomenon is the east foot-hill of KV 47 (King Siptah) where we have found a considerable number of artefacts for several kings whose tombs were in the nearby area of this king. The corpus of this research has revealed that workmen might have probably exploited the Valley of the Kings as a place where they could temporarily settle down. This hypothesis may be corroborated by the recent excavations which have discovered a wide-spread of huts throughout the main valley along with its lateral ones. The increase of workmen’s number which took place sometime during the ruling years of Ramses IV would have probably constricted the authority to build these huts as a sort of temporary inhabiting extension to the neighbouring settlement of Deir el Medina. Dedication I dedicate this entire work to my late mother whose soul has been always my inspiration and to my wife who is the source of my force….. Acknowledgments I am deeply grateful to the great help of Dr. M. Bommas who has granted me the opportunity to pursue this project through an academic place. I am very appreciated to his scientific guidance which demonstrates that he has saved no effort to direct me all along the course of this work. I am also indebted to the crucial scientific advices of Dr. T. Leahy to polish and enhance the final outcome. I would like also to thank Mrs. Patsy Gasparetti, the English native editor who has kindly revised my English. Table of contents Introduction i Edition of Texts 1 Dating 115 Interpretation 126 Classification 143 Funny Signs Perspective 154 Conclusions 160 Abbreviations 164 Bibliography 166 List of proper names 192 Deities, Kings, Royal epithets & Princes Ranking titles 194 Personal names 195 Documents quoted 199 List of illustrations Abbreviated word “fig” comprises transcription and facsimile of the same ostracon Illustrative map showing the findspots of 131 ostraca in the Valley of the Kings Illustrative map with records taken from 133 the inventory registers of MMA Illustrative map with huts discovered so 134 far in the Valley of the Kings KVO 1 Pl. I, fig. 1a, b KVO 2 Pl. II, fig. 2a, b KVO 3 Pl. III, fig. 3 KVO 4 Pl. IV, fig. 4a, b KVO 5 Pl. V, fig. 5a, b KVO 6 Pl. VI, fig. 6 KVO 7 Pl. VII, fig. 7a, b KVO 8 Pl. VIII, fig. 8a, b KVO 9 Pl. IX, fig. 9 KVO 10 Pl. X, fig. 10 KVO 11 Pl. XI, fig. 11 KVO 12 Pl. XII, fig. 12 KVO 13 Pl. XIII, fig. 13 KVO 14 Pl. XIV, fig. 14a, b KVO 15 Pl. XV, fig. 15a, b KVO 16 Pl. XVI, fig. 16 KVO 17 Pl. XVII, fig. 17 KVO 18 Pl. XVIII, fig. 18 KVO 19 Pl. XIX, fig. 19 KVO 20 Pl. XX, fig. 20 KVO 21 Pl. XXI, fig. 21 KVO 22 Pl. XXII, fig. 22 KVO 23 Pl. XXIII, fig. 23 KVO 24 Pl. XXIV, fig. 24 KVO 25 Pl. XXV, fig. 25 KVO 26 Pl. XXVI, fig. 26 KVO 27 Pl. XXVII, fig. 27 KVO 28 Pl. XXVIII, fig. 28 KVO 29 Pl. XXIX, fig. 29a, b KVO 30 Pl. XXX, fig. 30a, b KVO 31 Pl. XXXI, fig. 31 Introduction As assistant curator in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, I have been charged to conduct several documentation processes on the unpublished material held by the museum. Prof. Dr. Mamdouh el-Damaty (the former General Director) had assigned me of the task of compiling an inventory registration of the uncatalogued hieratic ostraca spread throughout all departments of the Egyptian Museum. During the course of my search, it was rapidly revealed that there are great numbers of ostraca spread throughout different departments’ storage magazines along with those held in the basement storage area. They are quite diverse in terms of their scripts: hieroglyphic, hieratic, Demotic, Coptic, Greek and Aramaic ostraca. The bulk of these ostraca is stored in very poor conditions and most have never been systematically registered. Of all these unregistered ostraca, the hieratic ones predominate in terms of quantity. I estimate that there are considerably more than 1000 hieratic ostraca left out of a proper scientific treatment, excluding the high number of the same type in the basement. That has prompted me to put this issue on the table for taking serious action. At the beginning of the last century, G. Daressy had published a major group of hieratic ostraca from the Valley of the Kings,1 followed by J. Černy, who published another group, the majority of which is also from the Valley of the Kings.2 Since 1935, no-one has ever conducted a systematic study over the massive piles of hieratic ostraca left totally abandoned in the museum’s storage magazines. One of the chief reasons to conduct this study is that the ink of a great number of the ostraca has been dramatically effaced. This is a result of the elevated amount of humidity trapped in the Egyptian Museum. Dust mixed with moisture fills in the pores on the surface of a large number of ostraca and causes a dramatic disappearance of ink. The recovery of surviving texts is one of the primary aims of this study. If tangible action towards the salvage and conservation of this material is not expeditiously undertaken, there is a great risk in the nearest future of losing such important data that could well materially contribute to the existing knowledge of the Ramesside Period. The salvage process requires high interest and collaboration from all the concerned parties to 1Daressy 1901, passim. 2Černý 1935, passim. i document, at a highly scientific level, this material and bring it to the light in order that the ostraca can be systematically documented and returned to public display in the Egyptian Museum. Egyptian and international visitors alike would then be afforded the opportunity of seeing completely unknown material that has been long excluded from public viewing. Therefore, it is not only in the interests of the Egyptian Supreme Council of Antiquities to bring this unknown material to light but there also is likewise a broader, international need for documenting these objects, their data is in a state of great precariousness. This study is considered a part of a more extensive documentation process on the entire corpus of hieratic ostraca held in Cairo Museum. Of this large ware, we have selected 31 ostraca which may vary from each others in terms of contents. KVO 2, KVO 3, KVO 4, and KVO 11 can be classified as delivery accounts to certain items in the Valley of the Kings. Whereas KVO 1, KVO 7 and KVO 8 are lists of workmen absent or present on certain days, KVO 10, KVO 16 and KVO 28 are notes as preparation for coming works. Some literary religious texts are also represented in ostraca KVO 12, KVO 13 and KVO 15. The scribal exercises were also a common outcome in the Valley of the Kings. That has been demonstrated by KVO 14 which comprises some numbers written in vertical lines. On chief of all these various contents, there has come KVO 29 to demonstrate that there might have been some affiliated intuitions in the Valley of the Kings to fulfil the daily needs of such community of workmen. Our selection to such disparate textual types was carried out to give a picture of sustained and diverse activity of the workcrew within the Valley of the Kings extending beyond their basic work duties. The stela draft and other archaeological finds, discussed in the dissertation and found recently in the site, contribute effectively to this point of view. The catalogue part of this study (edition of texts) occupies the major part of this dissertation in terms of size. Each ostracon has been exposed with picture, facsimile and transcription; a detailed commentary accompanied with some philological aspects on the terminology used by scribes was integrated as well.