DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.55202#0103
GRAFFITI OF THE PRIESTHOOD
83
deceased. Everything in this tomb is for the spirit of Sobk-fo, the
Lector, deceased.” In the middle of this already confused inscription
the son has unexpectedly introduced the name of that “Montu-
hotpe’s son Se’n-Wosret” who was a JF7f&-priest of Sefankh-ka-Ref
and whose name we have already noticed some half-a-dozen times on
these rocks.27
The great majority of the graffiti are limited to bare signatures,
with a title and sometimes with the father’s name for identification-
rarely with the name of a grandfather.28 As we have already noted,
these were priests of subordinate grades, and they do not give us a
very glowing picture of the literacy of the general run of their order
in Thebes during their generation. A glance at Spiegelberg’s fac-
similes inspires us with no very high idea of their calligraphy, and
sometimes we may even doubt whether their often meager abilities
could carry them beyond signing their own names—and very crudely
at that. As was the style of the day, they usually wrote from right to
left and preferably in vertical columns. About one in four drew lines
to separate the columns or scratched a frame around their writing,
and a certain JLW-priest Montu-hotpe had the effrontery to draw a
royal cartouche around his name and title.29 About a dozen others
drew very crude pictures of themselves, sometimes, like Nofer-ebod,30
within a shrine.
The most interesting peculiarity of the orthography perhaps origi-
nates in a contemporary idiom of the spoken language. It would seem
that the name of the sun-god Re<* as an element of names was often
left unpronounced in the current speech, for King Neb-hepet-Ref is
here sometimes simply called Neb-hepet,31 and those named after
him were often called likewise;32 and Se^ankh-ka-Rer, both as a
king’s name and as a personal name, was often similarly clipped in
the local dialect.33
From the parts of the cliff where these graffiti are to be found there
is a wide panorama of the distant eastern bank of the Nile, easily
taking in all of Middle Kingdom Thebes where it was clustered about
27 Nos. 33-35.
28 Nos. 3, 6, 12, 19, 24, 27, 33.
29 No. 57; Spiegelberg, Pl. 103, pp. 924 f.
30 No. 1; Spiegelberg, Pl. 107, p. 968.
31 Nos. 10, 16, 17, 33?, 47.
32 Nos. 6, 19, 21, 23, 26-29. Sethe, Achiung feindlicher Fiirsten, Kblker und Dinge auj
altagyptischen Tongefass-scherben (1926), p. 67.
33 The king: Nos. 36, 38, 47; an individual: No. 45.
83
deceased. Everything in this tomb is for the spirit of Sobk-fo, the
Lector, deceased.” In the middle of this already confused inscription
the son has unexpectedly introduced the name of that “Montu-
hotpe’s son Se’n-Wosret” who was a JF7f&-priest of Sefankh-ka-Ref
and whose name we have already noticed some half-a-dozen times on
these rocks.27
The great majority of the graffiti are limited to bare signatures,
with a title and sometimes with the father’s name for identification-
rarely with the name of a grandfather.28 As we have already noted,
these were priests of subordinate grades, and they do not give us a
very glowing picture of the literacy of the general run of their order
in Thebes during their generation. A glance at Spiegelberg’s fac-
similes inspires us with no very high idea of their calligraphy, and
sometimes we may even doubt whether their often meager abilities
could carry them beyond signing their own names—and very crudely
at that. As was the style of the day, they usually wrote from right to
left and preferably in vertical columns. About one in four drew lines
to separate the columns or scratched a frame around their writing,
and a certain JLW-priest Montu-hotpe had the effrontery to draw a
royal cartouche around his name and title.29 About a dozen others
drew very crude pictures of themselves, sometimes, like Nofer-ebod,30
within a shrine.
The most interesting peculiarity of the orthography perhaps origi-
nates in a contemporary idiom of the spoken language. It would seem
that the name of the sun-god Re<* as an element of names was often
left unpronounced in the current speech, for King Neb-hepet-Ref is
here sometimes simply called Neb-hepet,31 and those named after
him were often called likewise;32 and Se^ankh-ka-Rer, both as a
king’s name and as a personal name, was often similarly clipped in
the local dialect.33
From the parts of the cliff where these graffiti are to be found there
is a wide panorama of the distant eastern bank of the Nile, easily
taking in all of Middle Kingdom Thebes where it was clustered about
27 Nos. 33-35.
28 Nos. 3, 6, 12, 19, 24, 27, 33.
29 No. 57; Spiegelberg, Pl. 103, pp. 924 f.
30 No. 1; Spiegelberg, Pl. 107, p. 968.
31 Nos. 10, 16, 17, 33?, 47.
32 Nos. 6, 19, 21, 23, 26-29. Sethe, Achiung feindlicher Fiirsten, Kblker und Dinge auj
altagyptischen Tongefass-scherben (1926), p. 67.
33 The king: Nos. 36, 38, 47; an individual: No. 45.