Papers by Hana Navratilova
Zeitschrift für Ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde, 2024
References to Thoth in New Kingdom epigraphy in the Middle Kingdom precinct of Senwosret III at ... more References to Thoth in New Kingdom epigraphy in the Middle Kingdom precinct of Senwosret III at Dahshur include two case studies: a literary dipinto and a depiction of an ibis. The fragmentary text might have contained a hymn to the god of writing, or a text resembling eulogy of the scribal profession. Alongside Kemyt, it attests to an emphasis on literacy and specialist knowledge. An image of Thoth articulated the allegiance to the patron of scribes. The New Kingdom writing and visual practices contribute to an understanding of the New Kingdom community involved in the use and destruction of the Middle Kingdom pyramid complex.
In Gerhards, Simone, Nadine Grässler, Svenja A. Gülden, Alexander Ilin-Tomich, Jessica Kertmann, Andrea Kilian, Tobias Konrad, Kyra van der Moezel, and Monika Zöller-Engelhardt (eds), Schöne Denkmäler sind entstanden: Studien zu Ehren von Ursula Verhoeven, 457-485. Heidelberg: Propylaeum., 2023
This contribution presents a unique secondary epigraphy feature from a Middle Kingdom pyramid pre... more This contribution presents a unique secondary epigraphy feature from a Middle Kingdom pyramid precinct: a New Kingdom dipinto probably referring to hrw nfr, or a "beautiful, perfect day". The inscription consists of just two signs, representing the two words, and is located on fragment no. 96.184 from the pyramid temple of Senwosret III at Dahshur. The fragment's primary epigraphy shows a delicate and colourful relief of piled offerings. Writing hrw nfr next to piled offerings in the context of a sacred space might have denoted the cult of Senwosret III, who would be expected to enjoy his post-mortem "beautiful days". The two words close to an opulently laden table with the offerings read as a caption, or a comment, to the scene of an eternal sustenance provision, evocating at once the richness of ceremonial feasts and offering proceedings. The label represents a material trace of visitors’ experience that included a perception of revival of the scene, whilst the sacred space was reread in a new context.
Ragazzoli, Chloé, Khaled Hassan, and Chiara Salvador (eds), Graffiti and rock inscriptions from ancient Egypt: a companion to secondary epigraphy, 275-296. Le Caire: Institut français d'archéologie orientale. , 2023
The Memphite necropolis was an active, living site for most of its ancient history. In the New Ki... more The Memphite necropolis was an active, living site for most of its ancient history. In the New Kingdom, Old and Middle Kingdom pyramid precincts located in the area became the foci of multivalent interests, expressed through secondary inscriptions and images. These graffiti cover a large area from Giza to Dahshur, with significant numbers attested between Abusir and Dahshur. They were produced throughout the New Kingdom, though the 18th Dynasty assemblage is different from later inscriptions and images (19th and 20th Dynasty). The graffiti attest to the writers' political, social, and devotional self-thematisation, as well as to a gradually changing perception of the monuments. The complex social and cultural messages of Memphite New Kingdom secondary epigraphy in pyramid precincts make this corpus particularly intriguing, as it provides access to a range of histories, from individual experience in a monumental space to issues of royal legitimation. Despite the long history of research interest and record-taking, a thorough survey of the secondary epigraphy in Memphite pyramid precincts is still wanting
Lucarelli, Rita, Joshua Aaron Roberson, and Steve Vinson (eds), Ancient Egypt, new technology: the present and future of computer visualization, virtual reality and other digital humanities in Egyptology, 322-344. Leiden; Boston: Brill. , 2023
Project concept "SEE" (Secondary Epigraphy in Egypt) aims at developing a strategy for a research... more Project concept "SEE" (Secondary Epigraphy in Egypt) aims at developing a strategy for a research e-infrastructure concerned with secondary epigraphy in Egypt. It also promotes the articulation of research infrastructures as an organic part of the research landscape of Egyptology. This is a brief introduction of the SEE model, which is a research- and capacity-building digital resource that would enable access to complex information about secondary epigraphy in Egypt, enabling us to reconstruct the history of the sites through analysis of secondary epigraphy.
Walking Dead II, ed. L. Weiss, N. Staring, H. Twiston Davies, 2022
There's a fascination frantic In a ruin that's romantic; Do you think you are sufficiently decayed?
Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt, 2021
A newly excavated ostracon from Abydos bearing the concluding chapter of “The Instruction (a.k.a.... more A newly excavated ostracon from Abydos bearing the concluding chapter of “The Instruction (a.k.a. Teaching) of King Amenemhat” opens up an interesting enquiry. An ostracon found in the immediate vicinity of a New Kingdom royal memorial temple and carrying an excerpt from a major literary text is an important find, as it develops our insight into New Kingdom educational practices and intellectual quests. The range of ostraca types and text genres appearing in the area of the temple of Ramesses II points to a fully functional temple organization with a building phase and an operational phase, with supplies and literate personnel on site, potentially in different administrative roles. Studies in educational and intellectual pursuits, in turn, are key to expanding our comprehension of the functions—and enjoyment—of Egyptian culture.
A History of World Egyptology is a ground-breaking reference work that traces the study of ancien... more A History of World Egyptology is a ground-breaking reference work that traces the study of ancient Egypt over the past 150 years. Global in purview, it enlarges our understanding of how and why people have looked, and continue to look, into humankind’s distant past through the lens of the enduring allure of ancient Egypt. Written by an international team of scholars, the volume investigates how territories around the world have engaged with and have been inspired by Egyptology, and how that engagement has evolved over time. Each chapter presents a specific territory from an institutional and national perspective, while examining a range of transnational links as well. The volume thus touches on multiple strands of scholarship, embracing not only Egyptology, but also social history, the history of science and reception studies. It will appeal to amateurs and professionals alike.
The Oxford Handbook of Egyptian Epigraphy and Paleography, 2020
A search for audiences in ancient Egypt involves an assessment of the concept of cultural communi... more A search for audiences in ancient Egypt involves an assessment of the concept of cultural communications, accepted communicative practices, understanding of space, and other elements. Traces of many communicative acts and performances in antiquity will remain elusive, yet it is possible to recognize dedicated communicative spaces as well as strategies that involved ancient audiences. Edifices and texts targeted their specific audiences, for instance in a royal monumental discourse or a private commemorative discourse included within Egyptian autobiographies. Ancient works of art also often bear marks by a second or a third hand that was engaged in inspecting, changing, copying, as well as destroying them, as well as by visitors, exemplified by graffiti. Apart from the emic audiences, there are also etic audiences, standing outside the Egyptian culture, but constituting a distinct link in the chain of cultural memory.
The paper presents orientalist interests of an remarkable Austrian diplomat and traveller, Anton ... more The paper presents orientalist interests of an remarkable Austrian diplomat and traveller, Anton Prokesch von Osten, in a broader context of Austria Near Eastern policy of the 19th century.
Archiv Orientalni, 2003
The Oriental Academy was an European educational institute established for political and scholarl... more The Oriental Academy was an European educational institute established for political and scholarly purposes in 1754, which became quite distinguished during the 19 th century when many notable scholars and diplomats were educated there. Its importance corresponded to Austrian political interests in the Levant.
Journal of Social History, 2017
Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt, 2013
The Middle Kingdom (ca. 2010–1670 BCE) pyramid complex of Senwosret III at Dahshur contained a nu... more The Middle Kingdom (ca. 2010–1670 BCE) pyramid complex of Senwosret III at Dahshur contained a number of New Kingdom (ca. 1560–1080 BCE) hieratic inscriptions in its different structures. The texts proffer unique evidence for the study of the history of the pyramid complex, as well as of Egyptian literate culture, especially its relation to the uses of the past, and to sacred and ritual spaces. Relations between visual and written culture can also be observed with the help of graffiti that are placed in close contact with preceding decoration of the funerary complex. The preliminary report offers a summary of state of research, a description of hitherto uncovered graffiti corpus, and a perspective on interpretation of visitors’ graffiti in the pyramid complex of Senwosret III.
Pražské Egyptologické Studie, 2020
In 2020, the Czechoslovak and Czech excavations at Abusir celebrate their 60th anniversary. A pre... more In 2020, the Czechoslovak and Czech excavations at Abusir celebrate their 60th anniversary. A presentation of Egyptological activities in temporary exhibitions and museum displays has become an essential follow-up of archaeological work. However, artefacts located in former Czechoslovakia and present Czech Republic have travelled from Egypt in several groups, being only in part directly connected to the excavation work. Nonetheless, all the artefacts have become a part of the public presentation of Egyptology and have a role in a more generalised interest in Egypt. The complex history of travelling artefacts is almost always intertwined with cultural, political, and social histories, and the Egyptian artefacts in Central Europe are no exception. Although the history of Egyptology is not limited and should not be reduced to its political aspect, artefacts have often played the role of being accessories to diplomacy, alongside their cultural message, aesthetic impact and prestige conn...
Thanks for Typing Remembering Forgotten Women in History, ed.by Juliana Dresvina, 2020
Marie Černý (1899-1991), née Hloušková, divorcée Sargant, was a Czechoslovak immigrant to Britain... more Marie Černý (1899-1991), née Hloušková, divorcée Sargant, was a Czechoslovak immigrant to Britain who covered remarkably diverse life roles. She was the wife to two famous publicly known men, but also a woman with her own career, philologist, educationalist, wartime activist, and mother to two daughters, who both had academic careers. She changed her career prospects repeatedly, adjusting and renegotiating her lifestyle, professional involvement, and career expectations - she began as a ground-breaking female student, the first female from her Moravian town to go to a university with the aim of becoming a teacher and a philologist. Subsequently, she became a British housewife in the 1930s, changing her citizenship and her career prospects by marrying the future law reformer Thomas Sargant. Later, as a divorced mother to two daughters, she had to become a professional teacher and educationalist again, and added a participation in the war effort to her portfolio in 1942 to 1945. She moved in diverse social circles, and counted e.g. Dame Katharine Furse among her friends. During the wartime service, she met Jaroslav Černý, Egyptologist turned diplomat. As Marie lost her professional standing after the war, she negotiated yet again a return to domesticity as ‘the Professor’s wife’, when her partner and (from 1951) her husband was offered university positions in London and Oxford respectively. However, she found another role as a supporter of not only the academic career, but also the archaeological fieldwork of her second husband. Her interest in his work on ancient texts was probably not unrelated to her erstwhile philological training. Eventually, her substantial role was recognized - in published works by an international, Egypt-led team, but she remains largely hidden from view both in Egyptology, and in the history of British-Czech relations.
H.Bassir ed., Living Forever Self-Presentation in Ancient Egypt, AUC Press, 2019
En détail – Philologie und Archäologie im Diskurs Festschrift für Hans-W. Fischer-Elfert Ed. by Brose, Marc / Dils, Peter / Naether, Franziska / Popko, Lutz / Raue, Dietrich Series:Zeitschrift für ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde – Beiheft 7, 2019
The biography of Egyptologist Jaroslav Černý (1898–1970) is a complex and as yet incomplete pictu... more The biography of Egyptologist Jaroslav Černý (1898–1970) is a complex and as yet incomplete picture – there are several published works offering either an outline or select details of his career, which allow to focus on different aspects of his research or his life, or indeed an interrelation of both. He is recognised not only as a prolific author, but also his role as a research networker has been acknowledged. Yet since he was also a rather private person, details of his life are emerging only gradually. In this contribution, I shall follow the lead of national versus international position of the scholar, comprising early aspects in his career that involved an informal governmental patronage as well as a participation in an international ‘invisible college’.
Defining a patronage as informal and governmental at the same time may appear as close to an oxymoron, yet it may befit a situation of a scholar without a regular research job but with influential patrons including politicians, as Černý’s circumstances were in the 1920s and 1930s. National or (purported, assumed and actual) political and ‘ideological’ allegiances of Egyptologists are increasingly under scrutiny, often to ‘help to understand the interplay of academe and politics, and the profile of scholarly biographies between 1914 and 1945’.4 However, scholars may often adhere to more than one allegiance and Černý’s career proffers insights into a formation of Egyptological networks beyond political expectations of the day.
In Dorn, Andreas and Stéphane Polis (eds), Outside the box: selected papers from the conference "Deir el-Medina and the Theban Necropolis in Contact" Liège, 27–29 October 2014 , 383-406. Liège: Presses Universitaires de Liège. , 2018
Both Western Thebes and Western Memphis provide abundant evidence of activity of specialised
New ... more Both Western Thebes and Western Memphis provide abundant evidence of activity of specialised
New Kingdom craftsmen — builders, workers, artisans. The works of art and architecture are obviously but one
aspect of the workmen’s presence — their settlements, huts and other traces of their day-to-day existence have
been studied in Western Thebes. No comparable settlement or administrative unit has hitherto been identified
in the area of Western Memphis (and no royal burial site at Memphis is attested for the New Kingdom).
Theban parallels, even if indirect, are however instructive in identifying relevant and less relevant resources in
Memphis, even if they obviously have limitations. The New Kingdom material has a distinct 18th dynasty and
Ramesside phase, whilst the latter is further divided into 19th and 20th dynasty characteristic developments.
Memphis and Thebes do not, so far, offer fully comparable synchronous corpora. The definition of not fully
equivalent, but partially comparable, holds true for the local topography, social setting of the necropolis, and
other aspects. Claiming direct parallels of putative workmen’s communities in the Theban and Memphite
regions would be forced and the unique setting of Deir el-Medina is likely to remain unchallenged. That being
said, a mobility of workforce between the capitals may be suggested with some plausibility. More specifically,
the workmen’s community of a similar character to the Theban Place of Truth — as a discrete organisational
unit — is unlikely in Memphis, but qualified workmen with a similar social background were likely to appear in
necropoleis of both cities.
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Papers by Hana Navratilova
Defining a patronage as informal and governmental at the same time may appear as close to an oxymoron, yet it may befit a situation of a scholar without a regular research job but with influential patrons including politicians, as Černý’s circumstances were in the 1920s and 1930s. National or (purported, assumed and actual) political and ‘ideological’ allegiances of Egyptologists are increasingly under scrutiny, often to ‘help to understand the interplay of academe and politics, and the profile of scholarly biographies between 1914 and 1945’.4 However, scholars may often adhere to more than one allegiance and Černý’s career proffers insights into a formation of Egyptological networks beyond political expectations of the day.
New Kingdom craftsmen — builders, workers, artisans. The works of art and architecture are obviously but one
aspect of the workmen’s presence — their settlements, huts and other traces of their day-to-day existence have
been studied in Western Thebes. No comparable settlement or administrative unit has hitherto been identified
in the area of Western Memphis (and no royal burial site at Memphis is attested for the New Kingdom).
Theban parallels, even if indirect, are however instructive in identifying relevant and less relevant resources in
Memphis, even if they obviously have limitations. The New Kingdom material has a distinct 18th dynasty and
Ramesside phase, whilst the latter is further divided into 19th and 20th dynasty characteristic developments.
Memphis and Thebes do not, so far, offer fully comparable synchronous corpora. The definition of not fully
equivalent, but partially comparable, holds true for the local topography, social setting of the necropolis, and
other aspects. Claiming direct parallels of putative workmen’s communities in the Theban and Memphite
regions would be forced and the unique setting of Deir el-Medina is likely to remain unchallenged. That being
said, a mobility of workforce between the capitals may be suggested with some plausibility. More specifically,
the workmen’s community of a similar character to the Theban Place of Truth — as a discrete organisational
unit — is unlikely in Memphis, but qualified workmen with a similar social background were likely to appear in
necropoleis of both cities.
Defining a patronage as informal and governmental at the same time may appear as close to an oxymoron, yet it may befit a situation of a scholar without a regular research job but with influential patrons including politicians, as Černý’s circumstances were in the 1920s and 1930s. National or (purported, assumed and actual) political and ‘ideological’ allegiances of Egyptologists are increasingly under scrutiny, often to ‘help to understand the interplay of academe and politics, and the profile of scholarly biographies between 1914 and 1945’.4 However, scholars may often adhere to more than one allegiance and Černý’s career proffers insights into a formation of Egyptological networks beyond political expectations of the day.
New Kingdom craftsmen — builders, workers, artisans. The works of art and architecture are obviously but one
aspect of the workmen’s presence — their settlements, huts and other traces of their day-to-day existence have
been studied in Western Thebes. No comparable settlement or administrative unit has hitherto been identified
in the area of Western Memphis (and no royal burial site at Memphis is attested for the New Kingdom).
Theban parallels, even if indirect, are however instructive in identifying relevant and less relevant resources in
Memphis, even if they obviously have limitations. The New Kingdom material has a distinct 18th dynasty and
Ramesside phase, whilst the latter is further divided into 19th and 20th dynasty characteristic developments.
Memphis and Thebes do not, so far, offer fully comparable synchronous corpora. The definition of not fully
equivalent, but partially comparable, holds true for the local topography, social setting of the necropolis, and
other aspects. Claiming direct parallels of putative workmen’s communities in the Theban and Memphite
regions would be forced and the unique setting of Deir el-Medina is likely to remain unchallenged. That being
said, a mobility of workforce between the capitals may be suggested with some plausibility. More specifically,
the workmen’s community of a similar character to the Theban Place of Truth — as a discrete organisational
unit — is unlikely in Memphis, but qualified workmen with a similar social background were likely to appear in
necropoleis of both cities.
The temple of Ramesses II in Abydos hosts almost twenty secondary texts or text groups and almost forty secondary figural drawings (individual as well as figural compositions) dated probably to the late New Kingdom and Third Intermediate Period. The text graffiti attest to a literate presence in the sacred places of a temple that was in operation but allowed for certain appropriation of its spaces by temple staff, or possibly indeed privileged visitors. There are prevalently Egyptograph (hieroglyphic and hieratic) and Greek graffiti. The hieratic and hieroglyphic graffiti include mainly names and titles, and texts comprising:
• The ir.n type frequently attested and discussed in Thebes
• (n) kA n type, also well-attested outside Abydos
• Longer texts - prayer or spell texts.
• Names that also function as ‘captions’ or personal ‘signatures’ in a figural scene.
Figural graffiti in the temple of Ramesses II represent two thirds of the recorded graffiti corpus in the temple interior. Their locations are often alongside or in the immediate vicinity of textual graffiti. One example combines text and image in a manner close to, but not identical with, formal art.
The graffiti are among witnesses to functional and conceptual changes in the temple space. They form several groups distinguished by script, technique, contents, and location. It may be suggested that formalised graffiti capture the appropriation of a sacred space for purposes of a more personalised cult, and lure the divine image out of the shrines to more ‘public’ areas of the temple. At the same time, graffiti locations probably mirror circulation of temple personnel, who set up places of such devotional interest in places where its members possibly congregated during specific moments in the official cult performance.
Eventually, as spaces of a divine and royal memorial temple were in focus of expressions of personal piety, they would appear to be a less common ground for a showcasing of social, professional identity of the literati. However, the elements of scribal culture, personal piety, and awareness of social memory are often present simultaneously in the graffiti practices, as is suggested also by Abydene graffiti possibly containing quotes from Late Egyptian Miscellanies.
Among significant phenomena, there is a development of Cerny's discipline - Egyptology - that changed from living through its golden era of public and scholarly popularity to a more contested, but equally lively science. Capturing elements of a life of someone like Černý, an explorer as well as an exile, means also capturing elements of history of the twentieth century - its violence, its promise, its clashes, and its potential.
Černý focused on collection of sources but did not finish his own synthetic work concerned with life of the workmen at Deir el-Medina. Was there a consistent practice or interest that would have attested to a historian’s inclination at all? Černý’s interest in Egyptian philology was accompanied by an appreciation of archaeological evidence and also of a geographical context of archaeological sites, promoting an integration of material culture and texts to achieve a multifaceted historical account, but how did his research project develop and what underpinned it? The draft follows his early formation that led to his openness to issues of social history informed by academic training (including his own study of sociology) and potentially also by reflections of a career that initially included an academic as well as non-academic social setting. Černý was also a contemporary of the nascent Annales School, although his contact with it might have been indirect at most, and he did not appear to pursue it further.
Bethlem Museum of the Mind, 24 June 2017
Abstract:
In Egypt, epigraphy deals both with text and with art, due to a characteristic interaction of written and visual record. Egyptologists and epigraphers are therefore working both with reliefs and paintings as well as hieroglyphic texts, comprising. the entire monumental record. Epigraphers in Egyptology are also interested in different types or categories of epigraphic record left in anthropogenic environment. Hence, they also go beyond observing the monumental material, or indeed beyond built environment, and are concerned with evidence of visual and written culture in any anthropogenic setting in general, including anthropogenic landscape.
Consequently the graffiti, which are seemingly on the fringe of the monumental record, secondary in chronology and often also in the intent of their writer, are still in the focus of epigraphers in Egyptology, although they have not always been among their preferred material for publication. The graffiti research up until recent decades (historically speaking, the 1960s) shows a sort of pattern - the graffiti were seen as sufficiently important to be recorded in some format. They were used e.g. for purposes of identification or for an assessment of purported identification of a monument owner, or for prosopography or in a search for elements of personal piety. But they were usually not seen as evidence worthy of necessary attention on their own, as a genre with a distinct identity.
Resulting epigraphic records were made with different techniques, forming a chronicle of recording practices, and leaving a large corpus of Egyptological legacy records. On occasion the records in the archives may not only give us more than what can be under common circumstances observed on site - they may also be sole evidence left. However, we need to adjust our readings taking into account the context of practices that produced a particular legacy record we are working with. Each record format has its own potential as well as limits - free hand copies, tracings, squeezes, photographs. It is important to realize the potential without anachronism - a record made in early days of Egyptology often proffers information of high quality, and some early insights into graffiti studies were only developed a hundred or more years after their original publication. Case studies of graffiti will show a range of records, from early hand copies of varying quality to tracings, photographs and eventually amalgamations of several categories of epigraphic material.
Finally, the legacy records accentuate the importance of an Egyptological archive. By an Egyptological archive one may indicate a physical archive storing the records (which, however, is by extension also a place of memory), or a virtual archive of texts and discourses used in a discipline.
In some instances the texts were added centuries, even more than a thousand years, after the host monument had been built. Some specific aspects of the collective mentality and culture of New Kingdom Egypt might have been articulated in the graffiti. It seems likely that inscriptions on monuments of a relatively distant past could have expressed elements of historical awareness, literate culture and religious concern, and that the elements in question could have been adroitly mixed in graffiti to answer requirements of self-fashioning of Egyptian elites.
Located between Giza and Maidum in Egypt, there are four major monuments with visitors’ graffiti. They are the pyramid complex of Sahure in Abusir, the Step pyramid complex of Djoser in Northern Saqqara, the pyramid complex of Senwosret III in Dahshur and the pyramid complex of Sneferu in Maidum. The graffiti texts in the pyramid complexes are often dated to the reign of Thutmose III or the joint reign of Thutmose III and Hatshepsut.
The graffiti found in the four locations convey messages with a wide scope, concerning writers, as well as their audiences. The texts are also rather suggestive of contemporary understanding of the space they were produced within. We can identify recognition both of sacred spaces, and of historical significance of the visited building, specifically in the graffiti within the complex of Senwosret III. Since the visitors had frequently recognised the character of the building – a sacred space with a funerary significance, they were likely capable of decoding some of the signs that surrounded them.
The graffiti were apparently a trace of direct interaction with a recognised monument of the past, moreover with a monument, which contained a wealth of symbolic messages concerning religion and kingship. Yet graffiti are also part of an edifice, and the graffiti location is an important source for the archaeological history of the building. The Memphite graffiti analysis addresses mainly the issues of space appropriation, while recognising also the questions of group identity of the graffiti writers, temporality and manuscript culture, especially as they appear to have been extremely closely related in the visitors’ graffiti.
Recently, the Memphite graffiti corpus has grown in quantity and in quality. Other essential graffiti sites in Egypt, fore mostly Thebes and Assiut, have also been revisited. In this context, going back to the material from the temple of Userkaf also appeared as appropriate.
Helck’s interest in the graffiti was undoubted and it implies no disrespect to his work (which in relation to Besucherinschriften was groundbreaking in many aspects) to say that his tracings do not do full justice to the hieratic writing, especially as regards the graffito of the royal herald Amunedjeh and his party and the so-called “school group” graffito. The photographs (kindly provided by the Schweizerisches Institut für Ägyptische Bauforschung und Altertumskunde ) reveal texts of more elegance and better handwriting than the tracings had suggested. Also some of the translations, and consequently interpretations, may benefit from a new reading.
The present paper intends to revisit three major blocks from the temple of Userkaf, including both the two longest texts (that were written in well-spaced lines, clear brushstrokes and probably with a relatively frequent pen dipping, which assured an even appearance of the handwriting) and shorter and/or fragmented inscriptions.
Table of contents:
List of plates;
Note on the transcription and translation of documents;
Note on e-resources;
Abbreviations; Foreword (by Jaromir Malek);
Author's preface and acknowledgments;
Prologue: 29 May 1970;
Introduction: on strangers, passports, and modernity;
I: A son of respectable parents;
II: Portrait of an Egyptologist as a young man;
III: Fortunes of war;
IV: Professor in rationed Britain;
V: Non-aligned in a divided world?;
VI: Returns;
VII: Legacy records;
Epilogue: of artefacts, books, and letters;
Plates;
Archives;
References;
Index.
Tracing ten key biographies, Ancient Egyptian Scribes examines how these figures kept both the administrative life and cultural memory of Egypt running. These are the Egyptians who ran the state and formed the supposedly meritocratic system of local administration and government. Case studies look at accountants, draughtsmen, scribes with military and dynastic roles, the authors of graffiti and literati who interacted in different ways with Pharaohs and other leaders. Assuming no previous knowledge of ancient Egypt, the various roles and identities of the scribes are presented in a concise and accessible way, offering structured information on their cultural identity and self-presentation, and providing readers with an insight into the making of Egyptian written culture.
Carolyn Graves-Brown, Heidi Köpp-Junk, Gerald Moers,
Joachim G. Quack, Cynthia Sheikholeslami,
Alexandra Verbovsek, Pascal Vernus, Stephen Vinson.
Ancient Egyptian love songs have attracted and puzzled reseachers ever since they were first read. The second volume of the Golden Goddess series includes papers concerning the aspects of the world of Egyptian literary texts, but also cultural history and sensibilities of the ancient civilization – themes addressed include Begriffsgeschichte, textual analysis, literary studies, as well as concerns of historical anthropology and of reconstructing ancient individual biographies. All three major papyri with the love songs, P. Chester Beatty I, P. Harris 500 and P. Turin 1966 are reproduced on colour plates, shown together for the first time. Ancient Egyptian love songs have attracted and puzzled reseachers ever since they were first read. The second volume of the Golden Goddess series includes papers concerning the aspects of the world of Egyptian literary texts, but also cultural history and sensibilities of the ancient civilization – themes addressed include Begriffsgeschichte, textual analysis, literary studies, as well as concerns of historical anthropology and of reconstructing ancient individual biographies. All three major papyri with the love songs, P. Chester Beatty I, P. Harris 500 and P. Turin 1966 are reproduced on colour plates, shown together for the first time.
The graffiti in the Memphite necropolis certainly pose a challenge – for new research, for a new mapping and a systematic re-editing, as well as for comparative perspectives with graffiti corpora in Assiut, Beni Hasan and Thebes. They reveal aspects of social and cultural history in the New Kingdom. It was a period that was marked by new – or newly formulated – phenomena in the Egyptian state and cultural development, and therefore may be repeatedly questioned in the context of internal changes and challenges inside Egyptian society, notably for instance, the identities of Dynasty 18 elites, the innovative archaism or tradition of the period, and also the making of skilled worker communities.
Specific communities might have been characterised by graffiti making – from interested courtiers and high echelon administrators to craftsmen to apprentice administrators – “scribes”. The timing of graffiti is also not without interest, both on a macro- and micro-scale. In the larger perspective, peaks in Thutmoside graffiti production preceded major building activities of the kings; in micro-aspect, local feasts might have played a role in the actual scheduling of the visit.
Graffiti were also left as a mark in the landscape – which was a combination of a memorial place and a place to be tamed – the desert and was recognised as a “memoscape” of importance for local and national memories. The spaces visitors’ graffiti were left in almost always had a degree of liminality – in macro-space a physical ambiguity of the desert, or in a micro-space the peculiar character of a doorway or a gate. There is also liminality of a cultural space – the funerary monument, the chapel where the dead meet the living. It was perhaps a daring, although in the end culturally coherent practice to commemorate oneself in this manner. The strive for personal commemoration lingered throughout the graffiti making of the New Kingdom, despite the fact that the royal identity aspect perhaps waned to be replaced by a new emphasis on local cults.
See also details under Abercromby Press Publications.
In 1925, Jaroslav Černy became the first Czechoslovak Egyptologist to take part in excavations in Egypt, when Bernard Bruyere of the French Institute of Oriental Archaeology in Cairo invited
him to join his mission working at the site of Deir el-Medina in Western Thebes. Twelve years later, thanks to Černy’s contribution to the French excavations, Bruyere donated an extensive collection of finds numbering over 220 pieces from Deir el-Medina to the National Museum, Prague.
The donation of the IFAO included a selection of objects coming from different excavation seasons. The earliest season with which objects included in the collection are supposedly associated is that of 1923/1924. Some objects selected for Prague were discovered in the tomb of Sennefer (no. DM 1159) unearthing of which Černy witnessed in person. It is noteworthy that the skeletal remains of Sennefer, his wife and child are now housed in the Hrdlička Museum of Man, Prague. A substantial part of the finds also originated from the so-called Eastern Cemetery
located at the western slope of Qurnet Murai.
Černy himself collected in Egypt ostraca on behalf of the Oriental Institute in Prague, and created his own collection of antiquities primarily connected with topics of his scholarly interests. All these objects eventually found their way – often uneasily – into the collection of the National Museum – Naprstek Museum of Asian, African and American Cultures, Prague.
In 1996, archival documents relating to Černy’s childhood, several texts of lectures and original plates of his earliest ostraca publication were Donald to the museum by Černy’s relatives.
Scholarly papers produced during the decades of Černy’s scientific career are now housed in the
archives of the Griffith Institute in Oxford where they have been consulted by other Egyptologists. His unfinished works have been completed and prepared for publication by his colleagues and his students. The Czech (formerly) Czechoslovak Institute of Egyptology received Černy’s private library which has helped to raise several generations of Czech Egyptologists.
The present book aims at fulfilling an obligation towards Jaroslav Černy’s legacy, namely to publish collections connected with his name. The komplete publication of the Jaroslav Černy and Deir el-Medina collection is organized into three volumes.
The present volume gives a general overview of the collections, the other two shall be dedicated to the publication of pottery and ostraca, respectively.
With the reviewed title by Thomas Gertzen, the series adds to the growing number of publications that address the history of Egyptology. Despite differences in detail, there is an increasing tendency in international Egyptology to reflect on the history of an endeavour concerned with a concentrated effort to gather and present knowledge on an ancient civilization, and on a subsequent application of that knowledge in its modern context. Gertzen reasonably includes Egyptology as one of disciplines of scholarship under the aegis of the history of science (Wissenschaftsgeschichte). Anglophone readers will notice slight differences in terminology used in German and in English, differences the author himself is aware of (Wissenschaft includes both sciences and humanities, for instance).
As will be shown further, Thomas Gertzen often focuses on the German-speaking areas and their history, but his approach and sources are of a more general interest. He does not evade difficult questions, beginning with Why disciplinary history?, noting that the history of Oriental studies (including Egyptology) long stood for a somewhat easy option in one’s scholarly career, which it would have been, had it consisted only of chronologies and brief biographies. Approached with consistency, this area of study has been anything but. If the ability to reflect on one’s professional formation, approach, goals and context is a sign of a certain maturity of the subject; one might suggest that Egyptology has just grown old enough to be capable of this endeavour. Although Egyptology addressed its own conceptualization and practices previously, it was often a selective effort, whereas recent approaches are more comprehensive.
The correspondence of Egyptologists is as unique and rich a resource for a study of 'scholarly social machine' as are other, better-known corpora of scholarly letters. As such, it proffers also a solid material for history of an intellectual development of Oriental studies.
A follow-up of the handlist will concern correspondence statistics and analysis.
Egyptology has addressed its own conceptualization and practices since at least the beginning of the twentieth century, including reflection – or the lack thereof – on sociological and political perspectives. Studies have both diversified and intensified over the past two decades, with a more conscious appreciation of Egyptology as a fundamentally interdisciplinary endeavour, with established geographical, chronological, and cultural boundaries. The time-boundaries embrace the period from pre-history to the Islamic conquest, the geographical ones the Nile-valley and surrounding areas. Cultural boundaries are set wide, encapsulating all those which have impinged on this chronological-geographical area, but in particular on users of the ancient Egyptian language, both in its hieroglyphic form, and in its final Coptic incarnation. Egyptological historiography benefits from histories of other disciplines; vice versa, it complements other disciplinary historiographies, as well as broader intellectual and cultural history.
For example, colonial and postcolonial studies have highlighted aspects of Western (or European) interest in the ancient and modern history of the colonised regions that were a result, as well as a tool, of national competition and control, which extended into the realms of local memory and history. The productive element of thinking along these lines is obvious: a widening of the scope of the history of science induces a research reflexivity that sensitises practitioners of archaeology and Oriental studies to the context of their activities, and the formation of their practices. However, the approach may be also be developed in a reductionist mode, explaining the production of knowledge predominantly in terms of politics, power and control, offering a rather selective intellectual history. In a mostly sensible attempt to de-mythologise the history of Egyptology, complexities, constraints, as well as individual agency of researchers may be lost, and new ‘myths’ created by over-application of theoretical approaches. A diversified methodology might be more productive, including the adoption of a global concept of the history of science that emphasizes a hybrid production of knowledge.
The panel intends to address the position of Egyptology among histories of humanities and sciences, and the diversity of approaches to Egyptological historiography. Fundamentally, the panel seeks to probe the permanence and disruption of interpretive frameworks and their social and political situatedness, to develop and inform a wider understanding of Egyptological historiography.