Charles University in Prague Faculty of Arts and Philosophy Czech Institute of Egyptology HANA VYMAZALOVA The accounting documents from the papyrus archive of N eferre and their specific terminology Historical sciences - Egyptology Supervisor: Prof. PhDr. Miroslav Verner, DrSc. 2005 m111u 11 11 ~2S:S1133271lllu ~ Filozoficka fakulta Univerzity Karlovy v Praze CESKY EGYPTOLOGICKY USTAV FFUK - KNIHOVNA Sign. -11 ;,._--;: \ •· ........ ' ~ ~) Inv.~. ,v A 1; I {~ \ 'I r, '1 Prohlasuji, ze jsem disertacni pnici vykonala samostatne s vyuzitim uvedenych pramenu a literatury. Obsah 1 Preface 5 2 Abusir papyrus archives 7 2.1 Papyrus archive of Neferirkare 7 2.2 Papyri of Khentkaus II . 9 2.3 Papyrus archive of Neferre 10 2.4 Abusir - a specific necropolis 11 2.5 Character of the preserved documents . 13 2.6 Other Old Kingdom papyrus archives . 15 3 Accounting documents from the papyrus archive of N eferre 17 3.1 Account-tables of recurrent temple revenues 18 3.2 Other records of temple revenues . 29 3.3 Account-tables of the distribution of food . 31 3.4 Small fragments that might be parts of account-tables of distri- bution . 39 3.5 Records of one-off distributions of food 42 3.6 Account-tables of distribution to the members of phyles . 47 3.7 Other accounts relating to phyles 57 3.8 Accounts of grain 68 3.9 Accounts of meat 76 3.10 Account-tables of woven materials, relating to feasts . 80 3.11 Other accounts referring to woven materials . 90 3.12 Records relating to woven materials together with other costly products . 102 3.13 Other documents and small fragments 104 4 Accounting terminology 132 4.1 The anticipated amount - r!Jt . 132 4.2 Actual delivery - km 145 4.3 Arrears- hJw hrj-(. 153 1 4.4 Remainder- wdlw. 159 4.5 Expenses- pr ... 164 4.6 Total- dmd .... 168 4.7 Overall total- dmd sml. 175 4.8 Some unclear terms . 179 5 Accounting documents from the papyrus archive from mortu- ary temple of Neferre 181 5.1 The commodities 183 5.2 The terminology 189 6 Excursus - names and sizes of textiles 191 7 Bibliography and Abbreviations 197 2 Acknowledgements I should like to express my gratitude to Prof. PhDr. Miroslav Verner, DrSc. who gave me the unique opportunity to participate on the work on the papyrus archive of Neferre and the particularly interesting accounting documents. During my labour on this subject, he provided me not only with valuable scholarly supervision but also with kind support whenever necessary. My special thanks also belong to Dr. Eva Pardey for extremely valuable con­ sultations which helped me not to get lost in the complexity of the research. I am grateful for the captivating moments in her hospitable home. I particularly appreci­ ate the attentive guidance provided to me by Dr. Vivienne Gae Callender during the months we spent discussing the accounts in a friendly atmosphere in Cairo. I am thankful for the opportunities to work on my thesis at prominent Egyp­ tological institutions in both Europe and Egypt. My thanks go to Prof. Hartwig Altenmiiller for inviting me to Hamburg Universitat, Archaologisches Institut; to Dr. Stephen Quirke who introduced me to the collections of the Petrie Museum at University College, London; to Prof. Vivian Davies for providing me with the permit­ tion to attend the library of the British Museum, Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan, and to Prof. Bernard Matthieu for enabling me to work in Institut franc;ais d'archeologie orientale du Caire. My work abroad would not be possible without the kind support of The Robert Anderson Research Charitable Trust and UNESCO Fellowship Programme in Support of Priority Programme Areas 2005-2006. I would also like to express my appreciation and thanks to Prof. Dr. Dimitri Meeks and Dr. Vassil Dobrev for their experienced advice and help during my stay in IFAO. I also owe a great deal to the members of the Czech Institute of Egyptology and Czech National Center for Egyptology, especially to my colleagues Doe. Ladislav Bares and Doe. Bretislav Vachala for their scholarly advice on the subject; to Dr. Jaromir KrejCi for his patience and technical help. My special thanks belong to Mgr. Katerina Honskusova and Filip Coppens, M.A. for correcting my text and for all they did for me. To Mgr. Hana Benesovska for her warm friendship and hours of discussions. To Dr. Robert Anderson for his friendship, discussions and endless hospitality. To all my friends, especially Viola, Susanna, Alex and Karel for being with me even at a distance. I would not be able to finish this work without my family and their patience and love. 3 4 1 Preface This doctoral thesis is intended as a basic study of the accounting documents from the papyrus archive of Neferre. Some parts of this work shall be used in the near future for the purposes of the publication of the papyrus archive of Neferre. The archive shall be published in collaboration with and under the supervision of Miroslav Verner, and will encompass the previous work of the late Paule Posener-Krh~ger. In Chapter 2, basic information concerning the Abusir papyrus archives is presen­ ted. This includes short notions about the discoveries of the three papyrus archives in Abusir, about their date of origin, and about the types of records preserved in these archives. Other known papyrus archives from the Old Kingdom are also mentioned in this chapter. Chapter 3 contains a detailed description of all the fragments of accounts from the archive of Neferre, arranged into subchapters following an elaborate classification of the types of accounts. The descriptions of the fragments are very detailed because this study does not include the translations of the texts.1 Thus, they include as much information as possible, and many suggestions concerning the interpretation of these records were added as well. Chapter 4 deals with specific accounting terminology. Each of the terms is studied in detail and its occurrences in the Abusir documents are compared to the examples from other sources. The conclusions are presented in Chapter 5. It intends mainly to sum up the important features of the accounting records and shall be used in the future as a basis for more detailed studies and interpretations. Some of these shall form a part of the publication of the papyrus archive. However, to improve and to elaborate the interpretation of the Abusir papyrus archives seems to be a task for a lifetime. In this work, comparisons with the accounting documents from the archive of Neferirkare2 were often made for two reasons. First, the documents of Neferirkare constitute the only clear parallel to the documents of Neferre, being of the same date, the same character and the same place of origin-the funerary temple (for details see Chapter 2). Second, such a comparison is expected to help specify the 1This was done intentionally with respect to the individual tasks in connection with the prepared publication of the papyrus archive of Neferre, as defined by Miroslav Verner. 2 Posener-Krieger-de Cenival 1968; Posener-Krh~ger 1976 5 character of the described documents, especially in the case of small fragments. As we shall see in Chapter 3, some new types of documents have been distinguished in the archive of Neferre, which are not preserved in the archive of Neferirkare. Thus, the main advantage of comparing both archives is that it undoubtedly helps to make our picture of the economy of the royal funerary complexes in Abusir more complete. 6 2 Abusir papyrus archives Abusir papyrus archives undoubtedly rank among the most significant papyri known from ancient Egypt. They represent a unique example of administrative documents relating to the organisation and functioning of royal funerary cults in the middle of the Fifth Dynasty. Although the preserved groups of papyri constitute only a small part of once huge archives of the funerary temples of kings Neferirkare and Neferre and of queen Khentkaus II, they provide us with highly valuable information concerning the economy of the Old Kingdom royal necropolis. 2.1 Papyrus archive of Neferirkare In 1893, Egyptian sabbakh-diggers came to Abusir necropolis to search for the fertile clay in the ruins of ancient monuments, where the ancient mud bricks had been disintegrating. They have done this many times already but one day they found not only the clay to fertilise their fields, but also a large amount of papyri fragments. The sabbakhin noticed the ancient writing on the papyri and quickly recognised the possibility for profit. When these papyri turned up on the Egyptian antiquity market, they were rapidly purchased by experts. Some of them came into the possession of foreign egyptologists, especially Edouard Naville, Urbain Bourriant and William Matthew Flinders Petrie; other fragments ended up in the Giza Museum. After it became clear that these fragments came from an administrative archive of the Fifth Dynasty king Neferirkare, attempts were made to locate the original site of the discovery. First, Heinrich SchaJer undertook a seven-day digging programme around the pyramid of Neferirkare, with negligible results. Between 1900 and 1908, Ludwig Borchardt continued in this attempt and indeed succeeded in discovering several more fragments of papyri3 in the storerooms near the southeast corner of the pyramid. Although the fragments were small, the significance of this find cannot be underestimated. Since the restorer of the Berlin Museum, Hugo Ibscher, managed to join one of the fragments with a piece of papyrus found by the sabbakhin ten years previously4 (Document 61 B), the place of discovery of Neferirkare's archive was conclusively established. The Abusir papyri rapidly attained a great interest for the world's museums.