Egypt Exploration Society

An Early Middle-Kingdom AccountAuthor(s): T. G. H. JamesSource: The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, Vol. 54 (Aug., 1968), pp. 51-56Published by: Egypt Exploration SocietyStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3855903 .Accessed: 23/06/2011 05:14

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AN EARLY MIDDLE-KINGDOM ACCOUNT

By T. G. H. JAMES

THE small document, which is the subject of this paper, is in itself trivial, but it derives some interest from its probable association with the group of Middle-kingdom docu- ments concerned with the affairs of the minor official Hekanakhte, found in the excava- tions of the Metropolitan Museum of Art at Deir el-Bahri.' In offering it in this volume as a small tribute to Professor Cerny, I am very conscious of the debt that I along with all who work on hieratic texts, particularly of the non-literary kind, owe to him. How often has he demonstrated that apparent trivia can in aggregate yield important in- formation! I cannot claim that in the case of the document studied here the information will interest many apart from dedicated text-fanciers, but some points emerge which may in time help towards the understanding of early Middle-kingdom scribal practices.

At present this small papyrus is in private possession in England; it was acquired in Egypt, probably in Luxor in about 1923. No further information about its origin is available.2 The Hekanakhte papers were discovered during the season 1921-2. The papyrus was brought to the British Museum some years ago in an unmounted state, and the document was reconstituted and mounted between glass by Mr. S. Baker, Senior Conservation Officer in the Department of Egyptian Antiquities. Accompanying the papyrus fragments, and clearly belonging to the document in its original condition at the time of dispatch, was a small unbaked mud seal with strands of linen thread passing through it (pl. VI, 3). The impression of the sealing stamp, probably a scarab, is pre- served almost complete and, consisting of elements arranged in a symmetrical design,

can be reconstructed thus: . This pattern is in its components commonplace, but

it is identical to that found on the mud-seal which secured the one Hekanakhte docu- ment found folded and fastened in its state of dispatch.3 Both impressions are approxi- mately 12 mm. long. In general it is hazardous to claim that similar mud impressions were made by a single original, but in the present case the probability that the same sealing agent was used for the two documents is increased by the occurrence of names in the new text which occur also in some of the Hekanakhte texts.

I See T. G. H. James, The Hekanakhte Papers and other Early Middle Kingdom Documents (New York, 1962), I ff., for the discovery.

2 I am grateful to the present owner of the papyrus for these details and also for her kind permission to publish the text here.

3 For a drawing of this seal-impression see James, op. cit. 45. For a detailed comparison, the photograph of the Hekanakhte seal (ibid., pl. 9) should be examined along with that of the new example shown on pl. VI here.

T. G. H. JAMES

Description In its reassembled state the papyrus (pl. VI) measures 27-5 cm. high and 8-5-9-0 cm.

wide. The four edges of the document appear intact except for small losses at the lines of the folds; internally very little has been lost. There are no sheet-joins visible. The material is somewhat coarse and uneven in quality and of a pale straw-colour. The text of the document is written on the true recto, the bulk being contained in seventeen horizontal lines; in addition there are two vertical lines. Inasmuch as the text is not continuous but made up of short independent entries, the writing does not exhibit

significant variations in the darkness of the ink from which estimates can be made of the number of signs written with each dip of the scribe's brush. This recto is palimpsest, and very considerable traces of an earlier text can be distinguished. These traces are most evident at the bottom of the sheet, and from them it appears that the first text was written in vertical lines. Insufficient continuity can be obtained to establish the nature of the text, but the hand is more accomplished than that of the later text, and not dis- similar to the hand of the third of the Hekanakhte letters which was secured with the seal already discussed.' It is not improbable that the earlier text was a letter, for the verso of the document bears an erased docket which may have been the address. It

seems to read thus, ? r but the signs are faint and uncertain. The docket belong-

ing to the second text is written in a single vertical line on the central panel of the nine produced by the folds of the papyrus. For dispatch the document was folded twice

along its length and twice laterally, the resulting packet being approximately 9-5 cm. by 3-0 cm.

Translation

Account of what is in the rw:a

Consisting of northern barley 36': Flax 700 Upland :d barley 20(i

Upland: the house I00

What Nefersebauf brought 2o(i Ip's boatg 30( 'Aha ....'s son(?) ....kheredh 30(0 His father 35(0 ......

i

5(k The women ..... (?) 20.

The old mank Io(i The hit(?)' Io( 'Ab-kaum Io( 2007 nrhw-bundlesn Balanceo 400o(bundles), 3o(khar)

2(khar) .3(khar) in the measuring vesselb

o(bundles)c khar) (o(bundles)e khar) khar) khar) khar) har) i(khar) khar) khar) khar)

Ibid., pl. 8.

I.

2.

3. 4. 5. 6.

7. 8.

9. 10.

II.

12.

13.

14.

15. i6.

52

AN EARLY MIDDLE-KINGDOM ACCOUNT

17. Upland 8(khar) i8. h;(?)P 19. Another ( account of what is )q with Huni (?), without his giving it. vs. I. What is in Tjauwer.s

Commentary a. From its determinative (7,) rw should be a term for a particular kind of district

or area, and not a place-name. b. Two quantities appear to be listed in this line. The amount of the first, the principal

quantity of northern barley, is uncertain because of the lacuna between r and oo; a trace of a thick horizontal line suggests the groups = (8) and Wi (6), the latter being perhaps the more probable. This quantity is followed by the supplementary item

'3(khar) in the measuring-vessel'. It may be surmised that the first quantity was stored in a granary or bin at the time when this inventory was drawn up, and that the small second quantity happened to be still in the measure. Such noting of small quantities postulates either a remarkable attention to detail, or the existence of a situation in which even small quantities were of importance. A shortage of grain is the dominant theme of the letters written by HIekanakhte, cf. James, Hekanakhte Papers, 15, 33; in one of the accounts in that archive a quantity of emmer is listed as being m ipt (ibid., pl. 14, 1. 4). For the notation used for measures of capacity in the early Middle Kingdom see ibid. 116 ff.; the suggestion made there that the tenth-part of the khar, noted as a dot, probably represents the single hekat, is supported by Baer, JARCE i (1962), 35 n. 70,

although de Cenival has more recently maintained that the dot-notation represents double hekats, see Rev. d'Eg. 15 (1963), I42. As in the case of the Hekanakhte documents it is here taken that the ft represents the khar.

c. Flax is usually listed in bundles, but the actual word for bundle is normally omitted. From one account in the Hekanakhte archive (V, 11. 7, 8, 13) it would appear that the word used at this time for 'bundle' was s'rw. In the present text, however, perhaps nrhw should be the word understood, see note n below.

d. akt-land has generally been taken as high-lying land requiring irrigation by artificial means, i.e. what is known as sharaqi-land in modern Egypt, cf. Gardiner, Wilbour, 11, 27 f., who points out, however, that the word was clearly used for general agricultural land as well as specifically 'high' land. This last point is further empha- sized by Baer, op. cit. 40, who regards k4(y)t as ordinary arable or basin land. Its use in the present document in three places (11. 4, 5, 17) contributes little to the determination of the meaning of the term in early Middle-kingdom times. The quantities of barley and flax listed under k;t may be what was grown or what was stored on the k;t. In Hekanakhte document VII, 1. 2, hrw 'low-lying ground' is listed in a context similar to that discussed here, and in my note on it (Hekanakhte Papers, 67) I took it as being 'probably land affected by the inundation as opposed to land irrigated by artificial means'. It is clear, however, that the terms kl(y)t and hrwt cannot be assigned the simple meanings 'high ground' and 'low ground' without qualification.,

' Baer, JARCE I (I962), 40, suggests that hrzv is a low-lying 'island' land.

53

e. The telegraphic style of this entry leaves much of its meaning to be inferred. The size of the numeral is such that flax rather than barley must be intended. mr probably indicates the place where the flax is stored, having been harvested from the kht. It is less likely that the i is to be taken as being necessarily on the k;t. It is possibly the establishment or household with which the entries in the list are centrally concerned.

f. The name Nfr-sbw, which is not given in Ranke Personennamen, occurs in Hekanakhte document VII, 15, written; ) * 11.

g. In Hekanakhte I, vs. 2, a imw-boat is mentioned, and its use for the transporting of grain implied. It is interesting to note that Ip, the owner of the boat in the present text is a woman. For Ip as a female name see Ranke, op. cit. r, 21, 26. Hekanakhte's mother was named Ip.

I. The first sign in this line (q) seems certain, but the general uncertainty of the context hinders interpretation. The following readings are possible: (I)chut '(war)ship' -unlikely, but nor wholly impossible after the imw of the preceding line; (z)r{hwty in the sense of 'man' rather than 'warrior'-also somewhat improbable, but rendered less so by the occurrence of hmwt in 1. i below; (3) a name beginning with rhc, such as rh!-nht; several possible names are given by Ranke, op. cit. 1, 44 (under ih;). It is clear that the line ends with a name concluded by ;$ and determined by @, to be read, probably, . . .hrd. The suggested interpretations of the line are, therefore: (i) 'the rh-boat of... khered', (2) 'the man . . . khered', and (3) "Aha . . . 's son ... khered'. Of these, perhaps (3) is most probable, in that it provides a good basis for the next

entry, 'his father'. Without introduction, 'his father' would have little meaning; but after a name with filiation, both an antecedent for 'his' and the name of the father can be provided.

z. I can offer no convincing reading for the signs preserved at the start of this line; some mal tie name, title or relationship seems required

j. The qualification following kmwt here is quite uncertain. k. Possibly Ziw should be taken as a personal name, cf. Ranke, op. cit. I, 6. I can find

no close parallel for the unusual hieratic form of ]; the reading can hardly be otherwise.

1. The hit, for which I can find no further examples, should be some kind of storage chest or similar, which, from the determinative, must be of wood.

nr. rb-k;w or rb-ihw is known from the Middle Kingdom both as a male and as a female name, cf. Ranke, op. cit. I, 59, 22. See also James, op. cit., text XI, 3, the Harhotpe Bowl.

n. The word nch(w) is the regular term used for measuring flax in the New Kingdom, cf. Janssen, JEA 49 (I963), 69 n. (q), and Helck, Materialien zur Wirtschaftsgeschichte, v, 203 (8i ). The present example appears to be the earliest attested use of the word; in other contemporary documents, sVrw is the word used, see note c above. The con- struction here of numeral followed by noun is irregular, the usual construction for high numbers being 'number m noun' or 'number n noun', cf. Edel, Altdgyptische Grammatik, § 398; Gardiner, Eg. Gr. § 262. In lists of the present kind strict adherence to normal grammatical practice cannot be expected. The terminal w in nrhw is also unexpected;

T. G. H. JAMES 54

tr$

I°, mii,nnf

18

_u PIi

~117

I Il

I I

I Il

n4

tr

< ///>-

I~ I IJ I I I ;?;T,

I

'

.4=

)V i III

1111 ̂ w,

I i) I I Z

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

10

11

12

13

14

15

17

AN EARLY MIIDDLE-KINGDOMI ACCOUNT

PLATE VIA

CD-.

W .1

)

vs. I

)/ w-

19

4.

?j~~ .

n: m..

n A 9 R

n n 0 a : 1 f m t / //,,,; r t 1

n I n t1 nn&3D P a P

n^ fe^//r //t

Ci

nn nn^

PLATE VI

"C' -.tf I/ I

5 '* . *"A ^. .*

2. Verso

AN EARLY MIDDLE-KINGDOM ACCOUNT

3. The Seal i. Recto

AN EARLY MIDDLE-KINGDOM ACCOUNT

the word, from New-kingdom examples, seems to be nrh, and a plural noun should not normally follow a numeral in the constructions noted above. The writing may in fact be a true plural form, incorrectly used.

o. The writing of the word for 'balance, remainder' with the initial w provides substantial support for accepting the reading wd;t for Middle-kingdom as well as New- kingdom examples. Proof has so far been lacking that the earlier reading was other than _dt, because the word in the Middle Kingdom is regularly written with j as the initial sign, cf. Gardiner, Eg. Gr.3, p. 519, U. 28, n. 5. This sign, however, can well carry the value w&d, as it does regularly in the phrase fl. The numbers given here probably indicate the balances of flax-bundles and barley, but there is nothing to indicate with certainty that two separate commodities are involved.

p. The reading offered here is by no means certain, the forms of E and I being both unusual. The relationship of this short vertical line to the rest of the text is also uncertain, although it probably represents a gloss on the horizontal lines 4 and 5 at the same level on the papyrus. A noticeable smudge between the end of these horizontal lines and 1. I8 suggests that something may have been rubbed out; it is a careless deletion, and has produced an effect quite different from that made by the deletion of the first text which originally filled this papyrus.

q. This line, which serves apparently as a heading or comment on 11. 15-I7, may be read fully ky (ss' n ntt) m-r etc. The preposition m-r is elsewhere used in lists and accounts to indicate the location of items when people are involved (m being used for places, see 1. i above and vs. i), cf. James, op. cit., doc. VI. The name Hw.n.(i) is not given by Ranke; the reading seems certain.

r. The final words here incorporate several difficulties. In the translation offered I have taken - for nn (not uncommon still in early Middle-kingdom texts, cf. James, op. cit. 40), the suffix -f after the infinitive, as the subject of the infinitive (cf. Gardiner, Eg. Gr. § 301), and the final word as ;e, although the hieratic form of 4 lacks the short horizontal stroke at the top. The antecedent of sw must be ky, with ss (or some- thing similar) understood. Can the phrase mean than Huni has failed to submit an account of his holding and an estimate has had to be made? The meaning 'present (an account)' for rdi seems plausible, although I have found no good parallel.

s. The place T;w-wr is probably local, and may be a village or an estate. In Heka- nakhte document VII the docket on the verso refers to emmer in a place which I took to be Hs-wr, reading I . In justification of this reading, as against ? 1, suggested by Gardiner, I pointed out that 'the hieratic sign used here lacks the diacritical tick always present in forms of 1 in the Middle Kingdom' (Hekanakhte Papers, 69). In view of the present example, in which the disputed sign possesses the necessary dia- critical tick, there can be little doubt that T;w-wr should be read in the Hekanakhte example also. The final sign, written with great flourish, and with an apparently super- fluous diacritical tick, is probably =, or as in the Hekanakhte example.

Comment

Physical and contextual similarities connect this text with the group of documents

55

56 T. G. H. JAMES

known as the Hekanakhte Papers, and there can be little doubt that they share, approxi- mately, a common date, namely, late Eleventh Dynasty, about 2002 B.c.I The closest link is provided by the seal-impression which suggests that this document was sealed by the same stamp as that used for Hekanakhte document III. One personal name (Nefer-sebau) and one place-name (Tjau-wer) emphasize the connection. Unfortunately, although the form of this new text is not unlike one or two of the lists/accounts of the Hekanakhte archive (in particular VI and VII), it is not possible to derive much help from the main collection to facilitate the interpretation of the new text. It is a list of amounts of barley and flax held in a place called Tjau-wer and in a depository called the rw; amounts are listed under various headings which indicate either how the com- modities were obtained, or how they are distributed within the neighbourhood. A

supplementary list may start with line 15. It does not seem possible to strike a balance between the amounts given, and indeed it is probably not likely that a balanced account is here intended.

See James, op. cit. 6