Twelfth International Congress of Demotic Studies 2014
9.15 Uhr
Eröffnung: Martin Stadler, Würzburg
Eröffnung: Martin Stadler, Würzburg
Demotisch entziffern
Moderation: Friedhelm Hoffmann, München
9.30 Uhr
Mark Depauw, Leuven "Demotic and Digital Humanities"
The world of Digital Humanities is in constant flow, with many new (and exciting!) possibilities for scholarship. Demotic can and should not lag behind. This paper presents some of these new avenues, the challenges involved and some first results achieved. Amongst the keywords are: Social Network Analysis, digital edition, transliteration systems (yes...), RDF and Open Access tools in world with Trismegistos identifiers.
10 Uhr
Janet Johnson, Chicago "The CDD is 'done'. Where do we go from here?"
Of course, no dictionary is ever "done". But our original commitment, to provide a supplement to Erichsen's Glossar incorporating vocabulary from texts published between 1955 and 1979, is (more than) complete. What I shall talk about is where the CDD sees itself going in the next few years, a vision based heavily on the discussions with Demotic and IT people at the "Roundtable" held in Chicago following the 2013 Demotic Summer School. I'll provide information about:
1) the current status of each of the letter files and appendices (numbers, months, days of the month; bibliography and abbreviations; text information),
2) some statistics on (current) use of the pdf files
3) the status of font conversion to Unicode font(s), and
4) the NEH application which has been submitted requesting funds to convert the pdfs to a searchable database capable of replicating pages from the pdfs but also capable of incorporating new data and facilitating user-generated searches encouraging in-depth study of Demotic vocabulary and, eventually, texts.
This database will become the basic repository for previously collected material as well as all future data collection. As an on-line project, it will be possible to connect the eCDD with other Demotic, Egyptian, Greek etc., on-line projects and, to the extent and in the manner desirable, interconnect the burgeoning electronic resources. It will also become possible to associate many of the CDD resources (transliterations, translations, photo scans, the entire collection of 1955-79 vocabulary) which are not otherwise available on-line. While providing information about our vision, we also want to open up as wide a discussion as possible with all current and potential users of the CDD in order to understand their desires, visions, and priorities, so it is hoped that a large portion of my presentation will involve discussion among attendees of the Congress.
10.30 Uhr
Kaffepause
11 Uhr
Birgit Jordan, Bad Vilbel "Eigentümlichkeiten der Zahlgestaltung von pMattha Verso"
Der bislang auch als "Codex Hermopolis" oder ähnlich bezeichnete pMattha enthält auf seinem Verso bekanntlich eine Sammlung mathematischer Aufgaben. Die Gestaltung dieser Rückseite weist einige Idiosynkrasien auf, die sich als ungenaue, gar etwas schlampige Schreibungen insbesondere von Zahlen beanstanden lassen (vgl. Lüddeckens/Velte 1976:152). Eine genauere Betrachtung ergibt jedoch, dass sie sparsam gestaltet sind und nur soviel Information liefern, wie zur raschen und eindeutigen Entschlüsselung der Zahlketten nötig ist. die Regel, Zahlen als Brüche zu markieren, sofern sie nicht durch eigene Zeichen geschrieben werden, erscheint eher als Ausnahme: Nur wenn sich aus der Position einer Zahl nicht klar ihre Eigenschaft als "Stammbruch" ergibt, wird sie markiert. Außerdem lässt sich zeigen, dass bei der Schreibung der 5 auch die vertikale Dimension der Schreiblinie zur Vermeidung von Mehrdeutigkeiten eingesetzt wurde. Die bereits vor der Erstedition des mathematischen Textes Aufmerksamkeit erregende Schreibung von "echten Brüchen" in einigen Aufgabentexten wird durch die Unterstreichung des "Zählers" erreicht. Unter diesen Unterstreichungen finden sich manchmal dicke Punkte, für die trotz der Schadhaftigkeit und Seltenheit des Materials eine einheitliche Erklärung möglich ist.
11.30 Uhr
John Tait, London "Dating problems and Demotic paleography"
There are a number of groups of Demotic texts that are currently recognised as posing problems in the study of their palaeography. In particular, difficulties are felt to arise, which hamper attempts to establish their dating on the basis of their hands. Such groups include the various finds of papyri, both documentary and literary, made in the Memphite Necropolis, notably the material that came to light in the course of excavations conducted from 1964, onwards by the Egypt Exploration Society in the North Saqqara area, and particularly within the Sacred Animal Necropolis. The present speaker was for several years able to study a large number of the papyri at first hand. This presentation coniders some of the ways in which attention to details may help in tackling a variety of palaeographical problems, and the relevance of these approaches to other groups of Demotic material.
12-14 Uhr
Mittagspause
Sprache und Textgestaltung
Moderation: Janet Johnson, Chicago
14 Uhr
Leo Depuydt, Norton "On a Few Selected Problems in Demotic Grammar"
At the immediate past five Demotic conferences of Demotic Studies, beginning with the one held in 1999 in Copenhagen and including the one held 12 years ago like the present one in Würzburg, I have reported on investigations into Demotic grammar, on occasion noting how comparatively little attention the grammar of Demotic receives. In 1999, I presented a list of 19 studies published in the preceding decade. In 2011 at Oxford, I updated the list with 24 more items. Since then, the written report of my Oxford paper has kept growing with new material into what is now about ready for publication as a monograph. In terms of organizational principles, this investigation makes an attempt to apply a modus operandi described as follows by F.X. Kugler S.J. in the introduction to his researches on the chronology of ancient Israel, entitled Von Moses bis Paulus (1922), at p. XII:"So schritt denn die Untersuchung...nach oben und unten weiter, doch überall nur da einsetzend, wo wichtige Fragen noch immer ihrer Lösung harrten."
14.30 Uhr
Luigi Prada, Oxford "Divining Grammar: The Contribution of Demotic Divination Handbooks to the Study of some Points of Egyptian Grammar (and Vice Versa)"
Over the past three and a half years, I have compiled a corpus of demotic oneirocritica, inclusive of several unpublished texts (ranging from early to Roman demotic papyri). For scholars of the demotic language, the main interest of dream books has traditionally been their value as a source of rare or unknown lexicon. As this paper will argue, these texts can also help shed light on some wider points of grammar and the use of more common lexical items. All demotic dream books show a highly uniform style, strictly abiding by a series of stylistic rules, which make them a perfect laboratory for the observation of grammar at work. Conversely, once these stylistic rules that distinguish oneirocritica from other divination handbooks are individuated, one can work the other way round, and confidently assign to this genre modest papyrus scraps that preserve even just one of such diagnostic features. This paper will focus on two case studies, where the stylistic conformity of demotic dream books helps clarify wider issues in the understanding of Egyptian (and not only demotic) grammar. One concerns the verb snqy 'to nurse', and the other the well-known euphemistic use of the word xft 'enemy'
15 Uhr
Kaffeepause
15.30 Uhr
Micah Ross, Hsin Chu "A Case Study in Morphology"
In 1914, Grapow described the potential of word forms with and without an m-prefix to alternate with each other. This interchange appears even in the same text. (In 1960, Fecht extended the phenomena to i-prefixes.) Grapow did not present this interchange of word forms as a diachronic variation. The word mxA.t ("balance-scale") appears in pre-Demotic phases of Egyptian language, from the root xAi ("measure"). In Demotic, the word for balance-scale appears as mxy.t (and its variants), while the forms Ax.t and ixy.t refer to the same word int the restricted usage as a zodiacal sign. In Coptic, the two word forms again coalesce into a single term for balance-scale, mashe (and its variants). These word forms are considered in light of Grapow's assessment of the durability of the m-prefix and Osing's description of Egyptian morphology (1976). The presence of similar phenomena for other roots is considered.
16 Uhr
Lawrence Xu, Auckland "Re-evaluation of speeches in the Inaros cycle"
One of the most impressive aspects of the Inaros cycle is the frequent occurence of speeches or character-texts. These speeches are crucial to the analysis and understanding of the interactions and the developement of relationships between characters, as well as establishing their characterisation in the narratological framework within the texts. Such a narratological approach has been used by Steve Vinson in his analysis of Setne I and mentioned by Friedhelm Hoffmann (Der Kampf um den Panzer des Inaros,1996) in the case of the Inaros cycle. This paper will further develop the narratological significance of speeches in the Inaros cycle by applying Conversation Analysis and Cognitive Linguistics, which will offer a deeper understanding of characterisation within the Inaros corpus. In addition, the analysis will present an insight into the reception and presentation of the key characters. Evidence for the analysis will be drawn predominantly from two stories, Contest for the Breastplate of Inaros and Egyptians and Amazons.
Abendprogramm
18 Uhr
Grußwort des Präsidenten der Julius-Maximilians-Universität Prof. Dr. Alfred Forchel sowie des Prodekans der Philosophischen Fakultät I Prof. Dr. Thomas Baier
Öffentlicher Festvortrag:
Prof. Dr. Richard Jasnow
"Why We Do Demotic! - The Mysterious Attraction of that 'Most Evil of all Evil Egyptian Scripts'"
anschließend Empfang in der Gemäldegalerie des Martin von Wagner-Museums
Dienstag, 02.09.2014
Verwaltung und Ökonomie Ägyptens in ptolemäisch-römischer Zeit
Moderation: Sandra L. Lippert, Montpellier
9 Uhr
Gert Baetens, Leuven, "Demotic petitions"
The paper presents the first results of a PhD project on Ptolemaic petitioning practices, funded by the Research Foundation Flanders and supervised by Mark Depauw (K.U. Leuven). In stark contrast to the large number of studies that deal with their Greek counterparts, Demotic petitions have never been the object of thorough examination. This paper wants to remedy this. Starting point will be the evolution of Egyptian petitions to an autonomous genre during the Ptolemaic period. Next its place in the broader social and administrative context of Ptolemaic Egypt will be discussed. Especially important in this respect are possible Egyptian translations of Greek hypomnemata: P. Eleph. Dem. 1 (+ P. Eleph. Gr. 27a), belonging to the archive of the praktor Milon, and col. I-III of the verso of P. BM 10591, recording a petition of the priests of Syene to the strategos Noumenios and advice concerning their request by the legal specialist Totoes.
9.30 Uhr
Willy Clarysse, Leuven/ Dorothy J. Thompson, Cambridge "New Fragments to P.Count 2"
In a double session Clarysse will present the text of the new columns that he has recently discovered in Paris which extend the Arsinoite tax register already published as P.Count 2 (229 BC). These provide a fuller picture of the range of tax-privileged groups but problems remain with the reading of some of the titles. In a follow-up discussion of the significance of the additional information, Thompson will concentrate on the occupational structure of the population.
10.10 Uhr
Brian Muhs, Chicago "The Institutional Models for Ptolemaic Banks and Granaries"
Bogaert (1982) suggested that the institutional models for Ptolemaic royal banks were Classical Greek public chests or treasuries and private banks. Preisigke (1910), however, observed that Ptolemaic royal banks and granaries employed similar administrative systems. In this paper, I will show that Ptolemaic temple treasuries and granaries also used administrative systems similar to those of royal banks and granaries. Greek accounts and other documents from Ptolemaic royal banks and granaries will be compared with Demotic accounts and documents from an early Ptolemaic temple at Nag' el-Mesheikh, and striking similiarities in operating and documentation procedures will be revealed. It seems unlikely that the Ptolemies remodeled the state and temple granary systems after Classical Greek banks, and therefore I will suggest instead that Ptolemaic royal banks were modeled on traditional Egyptian institutions, such as state and temple treasuries and granaries.
10.40 Uhr
Kaffeepause
Moderation: Maren Schentuleit, Heidelberg
11 Uhr
Alexander Schütze, Bonn "Eine ökonomische Analyse demotischer Rechtsurkunden"
Demotische Rechtsurkunden enthalten als Produkte wirtschaftlicher Transaktionen eine Fülle von Informationen über die Motivationen der beteiligten wirtschaftlichen Akteure sowie die konkreten juristischen, wirtschaftlichen und sozialen Rahmenbedingungen, unter denen diese Transaktionen zustande kamen. Seit einigen Jahren wird in den Altertumswissenschaften die sogenannte Neue Institutionenökonomik (NIÖ) als ein Instrumentarium rezipiert, um antike Wirtschaft(en) besser verstehen zu können. Die NIÖ fragt u.a. nach den formellen (z. B. geltendes Recht, Verteilung von Verfügungsrechten) sowie informellen Rahmenbedingungen (soziale Normen, Mentalitäten usw.), die wirtschaftliches Handeln determinieren. In diesem Beitrag sollen anhand von Fallbeispielen die Möglichkeiten diskutiert werden, die das Instrumentarium der NIÖ für eine ökonomische Analyse demotischer Rechtsurkunden bietet.
11.30 Uhr
Lorenzo Uggetti, Paris "P.Tor.Botti 34: some considerations on the administration of the temple of Hathor in Ptolemaic Deir el-Medina"
The bilingual archive of Totoes and Tatehathyris, from the 2nd century BC, was discovered in Deir el-Medina by E. Schiaparelli in 1905 and then brought to the Egyptian Museum of Turin. The demotic texts were first published in 1967 by G. Botti in "L'archivio demotico da Deir El-Medineh". He considered one of them, namely P.Tor.Botti 34 A, to be a payment of the debts of a man, after his death, by his three sons.
Many hints point to a new interpretation of this document: the sons, for example, are attorneys of Hathor in Deir el-Medina; allusion is made to some repair works and expenses made by their father for the temple of Hathor; the other party is the group of the presbyteroi of this temple.
Moreover, a new translation of P.Tor.Botti 34 B-C, i.e. the oath concerning the above-mentioned papyrus, found rolled up with it, may help to better understand P.Tor.Botti 34 A. all these elements.
12 Uhr
Andreas Winkler, Berkeley "Crocodile Priests Collecting Cash - Revenues and the Temple in Roman Tebtunis"
I will discuss two fragmentary Demotic receipts from the first and second centuries AD issued by the priests of Soknebtunis. The older of the two texts is a bilingual receipt for 'Greek' reeds from the reign of Augustus. The other receipt concerns the so-called 'temple-tax' on property transfer, which offers interesting variants on the other texts of this kind published thus far. Despite their incomplete state of preservation, the two texts provide new insights into the organisation of the fiscal regime of the Tebtunis temple in the two first centuries of Roman rule. In addition to the content of these two texts, I will also examine the identity of the priests who issued these receipts.
12.30-14.30 Uhr
Mittagspause
14.30-ca.22 Uhr
Ausflugsfahrt ins Fränkische Weinland
Mittwoch, 03.09.2014
Texteditionen
Moderation: Holger Kockelmann, Tübingen
9.00 Uhr
Kim Ryholt, Kopenhagen "A collection of unique biographical texts on a papyrus"
During recent excavations in the dump next to the temple of Soknebtunis, a number of fragments of a papyrus inscribed with a collection of unique biographical texts were found. My talk will give details of the extraordinary personal details that emerge from the extant biographies and discuss the purpose of the collection.
9.30 Uhr
Maha Akeel, Kairo "Two Demotic Accounts from Nag' El-Mashaykh"
Two demotic ostraca belong to the collections of the Egyptian museum in Cairo and probably date to the Ptolemaic period. Their provenance is the site of Nag' El-Mashaykh, supposed to be the present location of the administrative capital of the eighth Upper Egyptian Thinite nome (T3-Wr). The first of which, limestone fragment, is an account starts with a title followed by unspecified amounts given in certain days for priestly and religious purposes. The other, potsherd, represents an account introduced by a heading, then occur amounts of different materials (barely, oil seeds) given for certain persons in certain days. The scribal features of the latter suggest certain relations with the site of Kom El-Sultan (Abydos)
10 Uhr
Tina Di Cerbo/Richard Jasnow, Chicago "Progress Report on the Documentation of Demotic Graffitti Pertaining to the Ibis and Falcon Cult from Dra Abu Naga'a"
The Spanish-Egyptian Mission headed by Dr. Jose Galan has been active at Dra Abu Naga'a since 2002. Focusing on the Tombs of Djehuty (TT119 and Hery (TT12), they have revealed numerous Demotic graffiti associated with the Ibis and Falcon Cult based there in the Ptolemaic Period. Some of these graffiti are "new", others had already been published as hand copies in Marquis of Northampton, W. Spiegelberg, and P. Newberry, Report on Some Excavations in the Theban Necropolis During the Winter of 1898-9 (London, 1908), 19-25 ("The Demotic Inscriptions"). Our collaboration with the Spanish-Egyptian Misssion, which naturally has emphasized cleaning, conservation, and documentation, has given to us an excellent opportunity to reevaluate Spiegelberg's editions and to reconsider the significance of the corpus as a whole. In this lecture we present some of the results of our project.
10.30 Uhr
Kaffeepause
10.50 Uhr
Joachim F. Quack, Heidelberg "Project presentation: A corpus of demotic magical texts"
Recently, I have launched a project to re-edit all known demotic magical texts, as well as to include as much unpublished material as possible in order to form a corpus which can serve as a counter-part to the well-known collections of Greek-language sources in PGM and SM: however it is planned to pay more attention to the structure of the manuscripts and give more commentary than it was done in PGM. The presentation will discuss some questions related to the project and indicate some first results. This concerns applying the term "magical" as well as the choice of texts to be included or excluded from the corpus. Also, problems of the historical development and the relation to earlier Egyptian as well as Greek and other traditions will be tackled. It will be demonstrated that the writing of magical texts in demotic script started much earlier than it is generally assumed and that some textual traditions span a very long time. Also, "demotic" magic is far from homogenous, and its supposed difference from earlier Egyptian magic is by no means universal to all attested cases.
11.20 Uhr
Kirsten Dzwiza, Heidelberg "Neuedierung des großen demotischen Papyrus London-Leiden"
Im Rahmen eines dreijährigen Forschungsprojekts am Ägyptologischen Institut der Universität Heidelberg werden die beiden zusammengehörenden Papyri P.BM 10070 und P.Leiden I 383 vollständig neu ediert. Bei dieser auch als PGM XIV/pdm xiv bekannten Schriftrolle mit einer Größe von ca. 24x500cm handelt es sich um die derzeit größte bekannte demotische Praxissammlung. Sie umfasst 1254 Zeilen davon 27 in Griechisch und 1227 in Demotisch, mit rund 100 unterschiedlichen Praxisanleitungen, darunter Offenbarungs-, Heil- und Schutzpraxen ebenso wie Schadenspraxen. Die Datierung ist umstritten und wird entweder ins 2., eventuell frühes 3. Jahrhundert, oder ins 4. Jahrhundert verortet, wobei unter Ägyptologen die frühe Datierung präferiert wird. Sprachlich, schriftlich, strukturell und inhaltlich weisen die einzelnen Anleitungen bisweilen große Unterschiede auf. Die einzige vollständige Publikation, inklusive Umzeichnung und Transkription, kurzer Anmerkungen und umfangreiche Indices, ist von Francis LL. Griffith und Herbert Thompson aus den Jahren 1904-05. Eine Detailuntersuchung wie auch eine vergleichende Untersuchung auf der Grundlage hochaufgelöster Photographien und der Originale steht bis heute aus. Diese Lücke will das neue Projekt schließen. Wieviel Potential in dem Papyrus noch verborgen liegt, soll anhand ausgewählter Beispiele veranschaulicht werden. Hierzu werden inhaltliche, grammatikalische und strukturelle Neuerkenntnisse vor- und zur Diskussion gestellt. Finanziert wird das Projekt durch Leibnizpreis-Mittel von Joachim F. Quack, der auch Projektleiter ist.
11.50 Uhr
Cary J. Martin, London "Jigsaw Puzzles in the Bibliothèque nationale de France"
There are more than thirty demotic papyri belonging to the funerary-workers of the Memphite Necropolis, but nearly all of these are from the Archive of the God's Seal-bearers and only four come from that of the Choachytes. The recent identification of further texts in the Bibliothèque nationale de France, however, has nearly doubled the number of texts from the Choachytes' Archive. At first sight these papyri look to be substantial, albeit incomplete, texts, but all is not as it seems. This paper looks at these new papyri, some of the unusual and unexpected information they contain, as well as their contribution to our understanding of the community of funerary-workers at Memphis in the early Ptolemaic Period.
12.20-14 Uhr
Mittagspause
Moderation: Alexandra von Lieven, Berlin
14 Uhr
Rana Sérìda, Kopenhagen "New Inaros Story"
The paper presents a new Inaros story from the Tebtunis temple library in Fayoum. The manuscript (PSI inv. D66) is mainly housed in Florence, in Istituto Papyrologico 'G. Vitelli', with only a few fragments in Copenhagen, in the Papyrus Carlsberg collection. It is one of the longest extant manuscripts so far identified (over 500 fragments), which concerns the living Inaros. I will present preliminary information about the text, the characters involved in the story, as well of the themes that I have so far been able to distinguish.
14.30 Uhr
Deborah Vignot-Kott, Paris "Dans ce monde, il n'y a a rien d'assuré que la mort et les impôts"
Dans ce monde, il n'y a rien d'assuré que la mort et les impôts
Le corpus des ostraca démotique d'Edfou contient un dossier homogène concernant la taxe de la nécropole. Il est daté du règne de Ptolémée II et composé de recus de taxes délivrés à Nespakhy fils de Pasas (23 ostraca) et à Petepsegne fils de Thotortaios (4 ostraca).
Michel Malinine a publié 21 de ces ostraca conservés à l'IFAO en 1961 dans les Mélanges Mariette. En 1990 Ola el-Aguizy y a ajouté un document conservé au musée du Caire. En reprenant l'étude des ostraca apollonopolitains de l'IFAO dans le cadre de ma thèse, j'ai identifié 5 nouveaux texts appartenant à cet ensemble.
La présentation de ces inédits et la reprise de l'ensemble du dossier, ainsi que des comparaisons avec des taxes de provenances différentes, permettront une meilleure compréhension des taxes funéraires à Edfou à l'époque algide.
15 Uhr
Günter Vittmann, Würzburg, "Demotische Ostraka aus Assiut"
Bei den Arbeiten der joint mission der Universitäten Mainz und Sohag in der Nekropole von Assiut wurden in den letzten Jahren im sog. "Hundegrab" ungefähr 60 demotische Ostraka aus dem 2. Jh. v.Chr. entdeckt. Dabei handelt es sich zum großen Teil um Abrechnungen (Bier, Olivenöl, Wein, Weizen) und Namenlisten. Ein eindeutiger thematischer Zusammenhang mit den Hundebestattungen ist derzeit nicht klar zu erkennen, es gibt aber philologische Indizien, die auf einen Zusammenhang der Ostraka bzw. zumindest eines Teils davon mit den Aktivitäten einer Kultgemeinschaft, zu deren Aufgaben auch die Bestattung heiliger Tiere gehörte, deuten.
15.30-15.50 Uhr
Kaffeepause
Soknopaiu Nesos
Moderation: Kim Ryholt, Kopenhagen
15.50 Uhr
Carolin Arlt, Würzburg, "Tax Farming and Monopolies in Ptolemaic Soknopaiou Nesos"
The farming out of taxes and monopolies is a well-known feature of the Greek administration in Ptolemaic Egypt. The rights to these were sold at public auctions, which began with the submission of written bids. Only two actual bids are preserved in the Greek papyri and none in Demotic Egyptian, which is not surprising since the whole procedure was derived from Greek administrative practices. There are, however, fifteen Demotic offers to take over monopolies or dependent sanctuaries from the main temple in Dime/Soknopaiou Nesos that all date roughly to the second half of the 2nd cen. BCE. In this paper, I shall examine these important texts, as they are the only documents that inform us about the procedure in an Egyptian temple, which was similar to that of the royal administration. One of the questions I try to answer is what it means to take over a dependent sanctuary. I will also discuss other texts that document tax farming and the sale of monopolies in Soknopaiou Nesos.
16.20 Uhr
Marie-Piere Chaufray, Bordeaux, "Oil expenses in the temple of Soknopaios"
16.50 Uhr
Sandra L. Lippert, Montpellier "Le village de Dionysias au Fayoum et ses relations avec Soknopaiou Nésos"
Le village de Dionysias, en démotique P3-tmy-n-m3y - situé dans la méris de Thémistos-, est mentionné avec une fréquence étonnante dans des textes documentaires provenant du temple de Soknopaiou Nésos qui, pour sa part, relève de la méris d'Hérakleides. Dans cette communication, on cherchera à éclaircir les liens qui existaient entre ces deux villages, essentiellement entre ses temples et leurs clergés, depuis l'époque ptolémaique jusqu'à au moins le 2e siècle de notre ère.
19.30 Uhr
Weinprobe am Würzburger Stein
Donnerstag, 04.09.2014
Ägypten im internationalen Kontext
Moderation: Francois Gaudard, Chicago
9.30 Uhr
Alejandro Botta "Aramaic and Demotic Legal Terms/Formulae and their Mesopotamian Equivalents"
Previous studies by Porten (1992) and Botta (2013,2014) have presented forty Demotic/Aramaic parallel legal terms/formulae. Ritner (2002) and Botta (2009), set some of those legal terms/formulae within the legacy of the ancient Egyptian legal tradition. Building upon the previous research of Muffs (1969), Cussini (1993), Gross (2008) and others, and my own ongoing research project, "A Dictionary of Ancient Near Eastern Legal Terms and Formulae," this paper places the Aramaic/Demotic legal terms and formulae in their wider ancient Near Eastern context, adding the relevant Mesopotamian parallels. The resulting data provides evidence of both continuity and innovation within the ancient Near Eastern use of technical legal terminology. At the same time, it offers the material necessary for the comparative study of ancient Near Eastern formulae, and the investigation of interaction and influence amongst the legal traditions of the ancient near East.
Chaufray, Marie-Pierre (Bordeaux)
(no abstract)
(no abstract)
10 Uhr
Emily Cole, Berkeley "Commentary in Graeco-Roman Texts"
In 1995, an important conversation concerning the use of commentary in Egyptian sources was begun by Jan Assmann and Ursula Rößler-Köhler in the edited volume Text und Kommentar. In their work, the authors raised questions regarding the nature of exegetical commentary, using Pharaonic materials, including Coffin Text 335 and Book of the Dead 17, to support their claims. It was noted, though not discussed at length, that several Graeco-Roman texts also included commentary. In this paper, I will return to this conversation and extend it to include later sources. In particular, I will outline the essential relationship between translation of different Egyptian language phases and scribal practices for commenting on texts. Several works such as P. BM 10252, the so-called Book of Nut, P. Rhind I and II, and late examples of the Book of the Dead will be referenced. By examining the material appended to source texts, I will attempt to demonstrate how Egyptian scribes used both translation and commentary as compositional tools in their linguistic endeavors.
10.30 Uhr
Eugene Cruz-Uribe, Indiana "Demotic Graffitti from Philae"
This short paper will look at a series of Demotic graffiti found at the temples of Isis on Philae Island. The author has spent a number of visits to the Isis temple where he has examined a large new corpus of Demotic graffiti which numbers almost 500 items. While many oft the graffiti are small, short texts, there are a number of substantive items found in all areas oft the temple. I will also discuss a number of new editions of texts first published by F. Ll. Griffith in his Catalogue of the Demotic Inscriptions from the Dodecaschoenus (1937). The Demotic texts reveal a great deal of information on the interactions of the Nubian groups south of Aswan and the complex interactions between them and the Roman/Byzantine rulers in the area. The paper will address the notion of who were the authors of these graffiti and why they wrote.
11 Uhr
Kaffeepause
Moderation: Willy Clarysse, Leuven
11.30 Uhr
Renate Fellinger, Cambridge "The legal role of women in Ptolemaic Thebes: A case study of cross-cultural influence"
The Ptolemaic dynasty created a 'hybrid state', incorporating Graeco-Macedonian traditions and Egyptian customs, in order to legitimize their rule and to foster relationships with constituencies from both backgrounds. In the legal sphere, this resulted in the co-existence of Greek and Egyptian legal instruments and institutions. Egyptians, Greeks and ethnic minorities, such as Jewish communities, lived alongside each other; cross-cultural interaction and, subsequently, influence was inevitable.
In his Marriage and Matrimonial Property in Ancient Egypt, P.W. Pestman (1961:184) proposed that the role of women degraded due to the influence of Greek law. This paper questions this hypothesis by examining the participation of women in the legal landscape of Ptolemaic Egypt as reflected in Theban documents for money. Key indicators of the legal role of women (for example, the ability to act independently vs. requiring a male guardian) as identified in pharaonic and Classical/Hellenistic Greek sources will be reviewed. Then the legal role of women as portrayed in the dataset will be analyzed through statistical and comparative means. This study forms part of my doctoral research which aims to determine the extent to which Greek legal traditions may have influenced the role of women as reflected in demotic legal practices.
12.00 Uhr
Steve Vinson, Indiana "Moses, Mumbo Jumbo, and the Secret Keys to Universal Power: the "First Tale of Setne Khaemwas" and African-American Egyptomania, 1939-1988"
Studies of the reception of the Demotic "First Tale of Setne Khaemwas" have typically focused on its resonance with Gothic and horror fiction, or its adaptation by mid-Twentieth-century European novelists like Mika Waltari or Thomas Mann. The place of "First Setne" in the African-American reception of ancient Egypt in the same period has hardly been touched on, but it is extensive. Via the translation that had appeared in Flinders Petrie's anthology of Egyptian tales (1895), "First Setne" was adapted by Harlem Renaissance author Zora Neale Hurston in her novel Moses: Man of the Mountain (1939). In this novel, Naneferkaptah is replaced by Moses, who hopes to use the power of the Magic Mook of Thoth to free the Hebrew slaves of Egypt. Moses:Man of the Mountain was itself adapted and parodied by MacArthur Fellowship-winning author Ishmael Reed in his novel Mumbo Jumbo (1971), in which the Magic Book of Thoth is the object of competing searches in 1920s-era Harlem. "First Setne" also figures - albeit indirectly- in the scholarship of Harvard University theorist of African-American literature Henry Louis Gates. Via his analysis (1988) of Reed's Mumbo Jumbo, Gates suggests resonances between "First Setne" and Plato's "Phaidros" and its myth of the invention of hieroglyphs by Thoth - a connection that had been made even more explicitly in the 1970s by Jacques Derrida, and which brings us back to Egyptological interpretations of "First Setne", particularly its resonances with the historic "Book of Thoth".
posted by G.W. Schwendner | 11:22 AM
