DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4862#0111
The registra-
tion of the
gold
By measure
And by weight
THE TRIBUTE OF GREATER EGYPT TO AMON
for I was a favorite of the Lord of the Two Lands, in the presence of the
Two Lands. When the chiefs of foreign countries were assembled to-
gether, along with their train, I made reckoning honestly. There was
no falsification of my outlay on account of it. So I was named "Leader
of the Companions" until the day came on which I entered into rest.'"1
Puyemre has two subordinates in the fiscal department (twice seen),
a first and a second "scribe of the temple treasurer." The gold is both
measured and weighed, as the modern banker weighs and counts out
coins to his client. The former procedure seems to have been adopted as
an impressive hint to the foreign embassy that gold was as plentiful as
grain in Egypt, so that a few rings more or less mattered little. We can
see this in Hatshepsut's claim that, with a view to what men would
think, she had measured out the finest electrum for her obelisks "by the
hekat, like sacks (of corn)."2 The scribe, we notice, is not "entering the
electrum" on his papyrus roll, as he does in the weighing scene, but is
only "announcing" as result "Inventory of the electrum: eighty-seven
and a half piled-up hekat measures."3
The assumed indifference displayed in the presence of the contribu-
tors is now abandoned. In the upper scene, the rings are being weighed
and the amount accurately ascertained, before it is handed over to the
four "serving-priests (wennutiu) of the temple of Anion," who wait
patiently to receive it or to attest the amount. A murmur of admiring
1
'Literally "tied up my boat there"; that is, in the next world. In the first column restore
'~5°*^(v3 Ms.- "Lord of Nesut-tawi" may be a false restoration. In the third and fourth columns read
(?) 0%^ " and ^jy^r=* ^^^ r^-rj- The fifth column originally ended with »fl and the sixth and
seventh ran <=>lww^ 7\%T^\& (perhaps "I was made overseer of all the works of the king and was
named"). The last column originally ran /vvwsAl|| ^§ 4_§i^J,i'=- (?)• This, having been erased by the heretics
past recognition, the illiterate sculptor, thinking that the last legible signs spelt "Re," added "lord of the
gods" as the probable reading. If im.f is original, Puyemre cannot have worn the full "wig."
2Breasted, A.R., II, §3ig. Notice that the artist has given the pile of gold the same shape as one
of grain or gum (PI. XXXII). If the rings were, as shown, the same diameter as the measure, it would
hold, when stricken, so many and no more, so that it would be easier to count them. As a matter of fact,
the draughtsman has shown exactly as many rings as there are hekats (rather more than a gallon measure)!
If the rings were minute, however, and the measure a large one, a rough check on the balances might be
secured in this way.
3This verb wbn seems derived from a root bn "to be pointed," seen in bnbn "obelisk." Hence at
any rate the final word-sign here. From "piled up to a point," it might well obtain its meaning "to overflow,
gush out" (Sethe, Urkunden, IV, 385; Borchardt, Zur Baugeschichle, p. 45).
88
tion of the
gold
By measure
And by weight
THE TRIBUTE OF GREATER EGYPT TO AMON
for I was a favorite of the Lord of the Two Lands, in the presence of the
Two Lands. When the chiefs of foreign countries were assembled to-
gether, along with their train, I made reckoning honestly. There was
no falsification of my outlay on account of it. So I was named "Leader
of the Companions" until the day came on which I entered into rest.'"1
Puyemre has two subordinates in the fiscal department (twice seen),
a first and a second "scribe of the temple treasurer." The gold is both
measured and weighed, as the modern banker weighs and counts out
coins to his client. The former procedure seems to have been adopted as
an impressive hint to the foreign embassy that gold was as plentiful as
grain in Egypt, so that a few rings more or less mattered little. We can
see this in Hatshepsut's claim that, with a view to what men would
think, she had measured out the finest electrum for her obelisks "by the
hekat, like sacks (of corn)."2 The scribe, we notice, is not "entering the
electrum" on his papyrus roll, as he does in the weighing scene, but is
only "announcing" as result "Inventory of the electrum: eighty-seven
and a half piled-up hekat measures."3
The assumed indifference displayed in the presence of the contribu-
tors is now abandoned. In the upper scene, the rings are being weighed
and the amount accurately ascertained, before it is handed over to the
four "serving-priests (wennutiu) of the temple of Anion," who wait
patiently to receive it or to attest the amount. A murmur of admiring
1
'Literally "tied up my boat there"; that is, in the next world. In the first column restore
'~5°*^(v3 Ms.- "Lord of Nesut-tawi" may be a false restoration. In the third and fourth columns read
(?) 0%^ " and ^jy^r=* ^^^ r^-rj- The fifth column originally ended with »fl and the sixth and
seventh ran <=>lww^ 7\%T^\& (perhaps "I was made overseer of all the works of the king and was
named"). The last column originally ran /vvwsAl|| ^§ 4_§i^J,i'=- (?)• This, having been erased by the heretics
past recognition, the illiterate sculptor, thinking that the last legible signs spelt "Re," added "lord of the
gods" as the probable reading. If im.f is original, Puyemre cannot have worn the full "wig."
2Breasted, A.R., II, §3ig. Notice that the artist has given the pile of gold the same shape as one
of grain or gum (PI. XXXII). If the rings were, as shown, the same diameter as the measure, it would
hold, when stricken, so many and no more, so that it would be easier to count them. As a matter of fact,
the draughtsman has shown exactly as many rings as there are hekats (rather more than a gallon measure)!
If the rings were minute, however, and the measure a large one, a rough check on the balances might be
secured in this way.
3This verb wbn seems derived from a root bn "to be pointed," seen in bnbn "obelisk." Hence at
any rate the final word-sign here. From "piled up to a point," it might well obtain its meaning "to overflow,
gush out" (Sethe, Urkunden, IV, 385; Borchardt, Zur Baugeschichle, p. 45).
88