DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4222#0058
48
KOYAL TOMBS OP TEE 1st DYNASTY,
poin^
CHAPTEE VII.
THE INSCRIPTIONS.
By F. Ll. Griffith, M.A., F.S.A.
44. The second campaign at Abydos has
again doubled the mass of known inscriptions
belonging to the period of the earliest dynasties.
This time there are few inscriptions on vases,
but in other classes more material has been
recovered than was the case even last year.
Besides objects dating from the compact group
of First Dynasty kings following Mena, which
formed the bulk of the finds in 1899-1900,
there are this year others, both earlier and later.
General progress and development is observable
from the kings before Mena, through the First
Dynasty and the Second Dynasty, towards the
methods, mannerisms, expressions, and titles
current in the Fourth and later Dynasties. But
in the new finds there is not much that strikes
one as wholly novel and unrepresented in those
of last year, and it is disappointing that there
is no single inscription so extensive even as the
fine stele of Sabef: a series of such monuments
would have cleared up a multitude of difficulties.
In the matter of inscription, therefore, this year's
work is rather calculated to solidify the results
of last year than to start fresh lines of discovery.
Notwithstanding the large quantity of new
material, progress in the reading of these very
archaic inscriptions is likely to be slow. The
titles of the kings and some titles of officials
can be recognized easily by analogous groups
used later with the same meaning ; some proper
names also are fairly obvious; but the interpre-
tation of the rest is almost without exception so
impossible or so hazardous, that one is unwilling
to venture a guess as to the meaning. The
legends, besides being excessively concise, are
in many cases very ill-engraved, and the indi-
vidual signs composing them are uncertain; to
their general sense we have but vague clues
the abundant remains of later times offering no
parallels to the tablet inscriptions and sealings.
Professor Petrie's second instalment of material
follows so quickly on the first that no criticism
of the readings proposed in Part I. has yet
found its way into print. Such criticism is
certain to be forthcoming before long, and cannot
fail to be beneficial. Meanwhile, in my brief
examination of the plates of inscriptions, I have
the advantage of perusing Mr. Petrie's descrip-
tions, with notes of parallel inscriptions and
conjectures as to the meaning of the legends;
as also a conspectus of the titles, etc., found on
the jar-sealings. The latter was quickly drawn
up at Mr. Petrie's request by Mr. Herbert
Thompson, who has annotated it with references
to titles of the later Old Kingdom and has
handed it to me to make use of in this chapter.
I have drawn largely from both, and in most
cases without special acknowledgment. There is
doubtless much more to be said on the subject
of these inscriptions, but there is no time for
research and verification.
45. PI. ii. 1. Apparently a Horus-name
U ; see PL xiii. 1, Avhere the Horus-stand seems
clear, and the hands are turned downwards PI.
8—11. The principal sign here is probably Y
sJm or smJ (hardly T). The group ¥ is
paralleled by ^T^ and "^^ in B. T., i.,
PI. iv. 3, xxxii. 32. According to these Sma is
probably a royal name : otherwise one would be
inclined to translate Sm\'t) Nb'ty, "consort of the
Double Dominion," especially in No. 11, where
the name Neithotep is added, compare v. 13, 14
and xxv. 1. No. 10 is fractured above the Y\
13, 14 seem to read r "i^, suggesting the
name of the goddess Bast (more precisely written
KOYAL TOMBS OP TEE 1st DYNASTY,
poin^
CHAPTEE VII.
THE INSCRIPTIONS.
By F. Ll. Griffith, M.A., F.S.A.
44. The second campaign at Abydos has
again doubled the mass of known inscriptions
belonging to the period of the earliest dynasties.
This time there are few inscriptions on vases,
but in other classes more material has been
recovered than was the case even last year.
Besides objects dating from the compact group
of First Dynasty kings following Mena, which
formed the bulk of the finds in 1899-1900,
there are this year others, both earlier and later.
General progress and development is observable
from the kings before Mena, through the First
Dynasty and the Second Dynasty, towards the
methods, mannerisms, expressions, and titles
current in the Fourth and later Dynasties. But
in the new finds there is not much that strikes
one as wholly novel and unrepresented in those
of last year, and it is disappointing that there
is no single inscription so extensive even as the
fine stele of Sabef: a series of such monuments
would have cleared up a multitude of difficulties.
In the matter of inscription, therefore, this year's
work is rather calculated to solidify the results
of last year than to start fresh lines of discovery.
Notwithstanding the large quantity of new
material, progress in the reading of these very
archaic inscriptions is likely to be slow. The
titles of the kings and some titles of officials
can be recognized easily by analogous groups
used later with the same meaning ; some proper
names also are fairly obvious; but the interpre-
tation of the rest is almost without exception so
impossible or so hazardous, that one is unwilling
to venture a guess as to the meaning. The
legends, besides being excessively concise, are
in many cases very ill-engraved, and the indi-
vidual signs composing them are uncertain; to
their general sense we have but vague clues
the abundant remains of later times offering no
parallels to the tablet inscriptions and sealings.
Professor Petrie's second instalment of material
follows so quickly on the first that no criticism
of the readings proposed in Part I. has yet
found its way into print. Such criticism is
certain to be forthcoming before long, and cannot
fail to be beneficial. Meanwhile, in my brief
examination of the plates of inscriptions, I have
the advantage of perusing Mr. Petrie's descrip-
tions, with notes of parallel inscriptions and
conjectures as to the meaning of the legends;
as also a conspectus of the titles, etc., found on
the jar-sealings. The latter was quickly drawn
up at Mr. Petrie's request by Mr. Herbert
Thompson, who has annotated it with references
to titles of the later Old Kingdom and has
handed it to me to make use of in this chapter.
I have drawn largely from both, and in most
cases without special acknowledgment. There is
doubtless much more to be said on the subject
of these inscriptions, but there is no time for
research and verification.
45. PI. ii. 1. Apparently a Horus-name
U ; see PL xiii. 1, Avhere the Horus-stand seems
clear, and the hands are turned downwards PI.
8—11. The principal sign here is probably Y
sJm or smJ (hardly T). The group ¥ is
paralleled by ^T^ and "^^ in B. T., i.,
PI. iv. 3, xxxii. 32. According to these Sma is
probably a royal name : otherwise one would be
inclined to translate Sm\'t) Nb'ty, "consort of the
Double Dominion," especially in No. 11, where
the name Neithotep is added, compare v. 13, 14
and xxv. 1. No. 10 is fractured above the Y\
13, 14 seem to read r "i^, suggesting the
name of the goddess Bast (more precisely written