Archaeological Record

Before turning to the actual texts the question of the archaeological record requires some attention. It needs to be emphasized that the extant material is far from representative in most respects: the bulk of it derives from just a few sites, and we have virtually nothing from the Delta and its important intellectual centers; funerary texts - in particular the Book of the Dead - are far better represented than other literary genres, and the chronological distribution is heavily biased towards the Ptolemaic era for funerary texts and the Roman era for most other genres. The uneven distribution of the material is especially problematic for the first half of the period in focus; the extant material from the Kushite/Saite renaissance is exceedingly sparse, and very little can be dated with certainty to the long, intervening Persian occupation. By contrast the Graeco-Roman Period is relatively well documented. Yet it is clear that only a very small percentage of the extensive text corpus that once existed in manuscript form has survived. This is amply demonstrated by the numerous ritual texts and related compositions that were transferred onto the walls of contemporary temples or mentioned in temple inventories; very few of these survive in manuscripts. Temple inscriptions are not included in the present survey, even when they were undoubtedly copied from manuscripts (Leitz 2008).

Moreover, comparatively few of the archaeological discoveries derive from a context of use; most of the well-preserved manuscripts were found in tombs where they had been deposited, and the majority of fragments similarly derive from cemeteries or from dumps or cartonnage. The main exception is the Tebtunis temple library which represents the only extant temple library from ancient Egypt (general description in

Ryholt 2005a; for religious texts see v. Lieven 2005 and Quack 2006b). It contained an estimated four-hundred literary texts with important works often preserved in multiple copies. The bulk of the papyri date to the first and second centuries ad but many, especially religious texts, draw on a far older tradition. There are also a substantial number of contemporary papyri from the temples of Soknopaiou Nesos and Tanis. A much older collection of papyri in the Brooklyn Museum, c. sixth century BC, similarly derives from a temple context and might be part of a temple library from Elephantine. A few private archives provide glimpses of what types of literary texts an individual might possess in addition to documents. The archives of the katochos Apollonios from Memphis (second century bc; Thompson 1987; 1988: 212-65) and the priest Satabus from Soknopaiou Nesos (first century ad; Schentuleit 2007) are good examples. Apollonios made the only known Greek translation of the Prophecy of Petesis, but he just copied the beginning which describes the fateful dream of Nectanebo II. This selection is clearly related to his personal interest in dreams and their interpretation, and it illustrates how a text originally intended for one purpose might be used for another. Satabus’ archive also includes a prophecy, the only extant copy of the Prophecy of the Lamb, otherwise known from citations, as well as a collection of hymns which he usurped by replacing the earlier owner’s name.

The appreciation of the literature is further impeded by the fact that the vast majority of the extant manuscripts lack a properly recorded or published archaeological context. This is true also for material unearthed during official excavations, even with spectacular discoveries such as the fundamentally important material from Tanis and Tebtunis. In both cases this was found in cellars, but no detailed plans and descriptions of these loci have ever been made available. Another aspect that often receives limited attention is the physical medium itself. Evidence of wear and repair or even notations and jottings is often overlooked or only cursorily described, but this may provide important information about the actual use of the manuscript. Thus, for instance, the Teaching of Chasheshonqy (better known as Onch-Sheshonqy) in the British Museum, which was apparently found rolled up with a mortuary text in a tomb at Akhmim (Smith 1994), has a second protective sheet with remains of a washed-out text added to the original one (personal observation); hence the text was clearly not written simply to be deposited in the tomb. Similarly, one of the Hieratic funerary texts of Nesmin in the same museum has a Demotic inscription on its first sheet that gives instructions for a text to be written and placed within the mummy of the deceased, thus indicating that Nesmin had provided a blank papyrus to be inscribed later with an appropriate text (Martin/Ryholt 2006). Equally significant is the fact that many papyri were repaired with patches in antiquity, thus providing evidence of sustained use.