Polish Archaeology in the Mediterranean (14.2002(2003))

WEST SAQQARA

EGYPT


Fig. 2. Reconstruction of the offering place in
Chapel 10, showing the position of jamb
S/01/20 (Drawing K. Kuraszkiewicz)

The text can now be reconstructed as
follows:7-*
(1) \jr\rj hzzwt nb.fjr wpwt nb(t) hlbt.n w(/)8)
hm nj nb.(j) jm.s jw jr.n.(j)9'> s(j) r hz.t
w/'10)
(2) [hm nj] nb.(jj hr.s n jqr.(j) hr hm.fn)
r mjtj.(j) nb wn hmf dj.(f) n.(J) nbw n c?t
njt hzz.fwQj hrp [...] pr-c? [,..]12)
The first sentence of the autobio-
graphical part of the text begins with
a topicalized object of the main clause
introduced by yr.13) The main clause uses
the jw sdm.n.f form, serving as a perfect
tense.l4) Since a passive meaning of this
form is not attested in the Old Kingdom,15-*
the s following the jr.n should be under-
stood as the dependent pronoun sj and thus
object of the verb rather than suffix pronoun
— its subject.
It is worth mentioning that the
sentence begins with a general reference to
“every mission” rather than to any partic-
ular event.16*
It seems most probable that the verb
form used in the main clause of the second
sentence is to be understood as the wn.f
sdm.fiorm, indicating a habitual action in

6) On the decoration of this kind of objects, cf. H. G. Fischer, Dendera in the Third Millennium BC (New York 1968),
Appendix C, 215-220.
7) For the earlier reconstruction see the author's previous report: K. Kuraszkiewicz, PAM XIII, Reports 2001 (2002), esp. 149.
8) On the perfective relative form used here, cf. Edel, AAG, §§ 665-666; see also § 674 (Urk. I, 134.2, 221.5). On the
use of the dependent pronoun as the object of a transitive verb, Edel, AAG, § 668.
9) On the perfective form jw sdm.n.j, cf. Edel, AAG, § 170; E. Doret, Narrative Verbal System of Old and Middle
Egyptian (Geneva 1986), 98-102.
10) On the sdm.t.f form after the preposition r, cf. Edel, AAG, § 734. (On the other interpretation of the phrase jr hztj wj
nb.j — as a prospective relative form, cf. Doret, op. cit., 25, notes 108, 110).
11) Causal circumstantial clause introduced by », cf. Edel, AAG, § 757 f, 850 bb. The use of a mrr.f form in such clauses,
Edel, AAG, § 503; rarely sdm.f without gemination, Edel, AAG, § 510.
12) Possibly head of the embalmers or of the necklace stringers at the Great House, cf. Kuraszkiewicz, PAM XIII, op. cit.,
149, note i.
13) Edel, AAG, § 873.4.
14) Edel, AAG, § 888, Doret, op. cit., 97 ff.
15) Doret, op. cit., references on page 121.
16) On phrases referring to activities in the royal service, cf. e.g. N. Kloth, Die (auto-)biographischen Inschriften des
agyptischen Alten Reiches: Untersuchungen zu Phraseologie und Entwicklung (Hamburg 2002), 175-211.

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