As part of a vast palaeographic project under the guidance of Dimitri meeks (University of montpellier),79 my work is based on records published by the Australian centre for egyptology.80 he overall palaeography project aims to collect as many forms of hieroglyphs as can be gathered from writing of dynasties 1—30, and my assignment is to record the late Old Kingdom signs that appeared in the Akhmim area around el-Hawawish during the period from the late fifth dynasty to the First Intermediate Period. 1t is hoped that this work will not only reveal variant forms which ancient scribes used in the Akhmim area at this time, but will also identify new hieroglyphic forms so far not included in the Old Kingdom palaeographic record.
All students of Egyptology initially rely on A. H. Gardiner’s Egyptian Grammar, and we have come to know Gardiner’s sign list as an indispensable aid in learning to read Egyptian texts. Nonetheless, we need to remind ourselves that Gardiner compiled his work around 1929 — almost a century ago — and it is therefore not surprising that his list of signs does not include hundreds of signs with which present-day scholars are familiar. 1t is the aim of the French Palaeography Project to make available a range of signs, both typical and atypical, for each major period in the Egyptian scribal tradition, so that the compendium of hieroglyphs scholars use will in future be more substantial. Furthermore, the project hopes that the new list will not consist — as it does in part today — of signs that tend to be composites. Hopefully, this new work will provide scholars with a fuller and more accurate guide to the actual hieroglyphic repertoire.
World History
