Papiro Ieratico n.

54003: Estratti magici e rituali del Primo Medio Regno by Alessandro Roccati; The Magical Texts of Papyrus Leiden I 348 by J. F. Borghouts Review by: Leonard H. Lesko Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Vol. 32, No. 4 (Oct., 1973), pp. 495-496 Published by: The University of Chicago Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/543248 . Accessed: 30/10/2013 12:58
Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

.
JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact support@jstor.org.

The University of Chicago Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and extend access to Journal of Near Eastern Studies.

http://www.jstor.org

This content downloaded from 134.58.253.30 on Wed, 30 Oct 2013 12:58:01 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

BOOK REVIEWS

495

vertical lines of virtually unligatured hieratic with some rubricized and horizontal headings. The author ascribes this copy to the early Middle Kingdom and suggests that the text is from the First Intermediate Period. A major new source used for his notes on investigated by Oertel, Herodots Agyptischer vocabulary is the Coffin Texts. Rocatti's obvious interest in palaeography probably Logos und die Glaubwilrdigkeit Herodots (Bonn, 1970), pp. 39 ff. (which provides a led to the inclusion of a sign list that adds to more complete synopsis of previous treat- the completeness of the publication but is ments of this question) after carefully hardly necessary for a text that was written weighing the available evidence, supports the in such a clear hand. view that itrw is a road measure of approxiBorghouts's dissertation is also a very mate length (10.5 km.) rather than a complete and carefully done edition of the specific length. The use of this measure as magical portions of a somewhat larger papybasis for the computation of Egypt's total rus in the Museum van Oudheden te Leyden, area is the topic of the final discussion. which has been attributed to the Nineteenth Special mention has to be made of the Dynasty. The magical spells are contained in quality of copies of the textual evidence on seventeen columns of hieratic in horizontal which the thesis is based. Those from the lines. The author is interested as much in Sesostris I chapel at Karnak are in part grammar as in vocabulary, and his references better than those published by Chevrier and are quite up to date. It is to his credit that Lacau. he has identified a number of fragments of HANS GOEDICKE the spells in this group that had appeared elsewhere. The Johns Hopkins University Both works are easy to use, with photos, transcriptions, readable translations, and Papiro leratico n. 54003: Estratti magici e glossaries. Borghouts also included several rituali del Primo Medio excursuses and went a step further by Regno. By ALESSANDROROCCATI. "Catalogo del compiling extensive indexes. Museo Egizio di Torino: Serie Prima," The Middle Kingdom Turin papyrus convol. 2. Turin: Edizioni d'Arte Fratelli tains four spells for conjuring against Pozzo, 1970. Pp. 63. and The Magical serpents, six for protecting the eyes, and Texts of Papyrus Leiden I 348. By J. F. probably two for protecting against fish, BORGHOUTS. "Oudheidkundige Mededewith one of these specifically for "extracting lingen," vol. 51. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1971. a fish-bone." The thirty-nine spells of the Pp. xvi + 248 + 34 pls. New Kingdom Leiden papyrus deal with These two exemplary publications of headaches, belly pains, hastening childbirth, Egyptian magical papyri will be welcomed keeping one's heart in place, dispelling not only by those interested in ancient nightmares, and healing burn injuries. The Egyptian magic, religion, and medicine, but spells of both these papyri involve mythoalso by Egyptologists interested particularly logical characters and incidents usually conin grammar, lexicography, and palaeography. cerning Horus. The rubrics of the later Roccati's work is the second volume in the papyrus usually contain instructions for the first series (Monumenti e testi) of a general use of such things as coriander, hematite, catalogue of the Egyptian Museum in Turin, grease, twigs, snake skin, and amulets to be and it is clear that the Catalogo is off to a applied when reciting the spells. There were good start. The Turin magical papyrus fewer spells with such instructions in the studied here consists of the recto and verso earlier text and the ingredients of the of only one sheet which was inscribed with prescriptions were simpler, e.g., water, clay.

where an unchanging situation is assumed a priori on the basis of later evidence. It is especially in this connection that the disregard for chronology of the evidence is disturbing. The discussion of itrw, simultaneously

This content downloaded from 134.58.253.30 on Wed, 30 Oct 2013 12:58:01 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions

496

JOURNAL OFNEAREASTERN STUDIES

or at least has not bothered to discuss them. Thus, her whole work is built upon a great many unstated assumptions which the reader is obliged to ferret out for himself. She starts right in on the comparison of semantic system with grammatical system without previous distinction between them. This leads to cumbersome and confusing statements like the following: "the Pattern tw.i
rh.kwi st, which cannot be preceded by bn

Roccati's translations are more literal than Borghouts's. Roccati is more apt to suggest meanings for unknown words in his translations without discussing them in his notes, but since he indicates the fact that they are questionable and since it is clear that his suggestions are based on context and determinatives, this causes no difficulty. Slightly more confusing are the differences between the text and glossary both with regard to meanings and their questionability. For the photos and transcriptions of the Turin papyrus it would have been helpful to have had an additional note to note e of the recto to the effect that the separate fragment was mounted upside-down and backwards.
LEONARD H. LESKO

when indicating the notion of knowing, but instead is made negative by a Parallel conjugation Pattern, i.e., bw rh.i st" (p. 27). What

is meant is that the concept or notion of knowing is expressed by the tw.i rh.kwi/bw
rha.i pair of Patterns since the tw.i rh.kwi/bn

tw.i rh.kwi pair

something else

of Patterns
58-59).

expresses
The initial

University of California Berkeley The Negative Verbal System of Late Egyptian. By SARAH ISRAELIT GROLL. London and

(exs.

failure to separate meaning from form prevents her from ever getting beyond details to an overall system. Her final classification of the pairs into Isomorphisms (tw.i m ck/bn
tw.i m ck), Counterparts (stp.f/bwpw.f stp) and Parallels (tw.i rh.kwi/bw rh.i) is thus

New York: Oxford University Press, 1970. Pp. xxii + 260. $20.00. The great merit of Mrs. Groll's book lies in her novel approach to the material. This is the semantic approach as opposed to the grammatical approach. Instead of beginning with a construction such as tw.i hr sdm and asking what different meanings it may convey, one begins with a concept such as "general present" and asks what different grammatical constructions may serve to convey it. The former is a relatively simple undertaking, for the language itself provides one with a system at the very outset, there being just so many different constructions and no others. The latter is infinitely more difficult since the investigator must work backwards from the existing constructions in his attempt to determine the underlying semantic system which they serve to express. Once the semantic system and the grammatical system have been delineated, the relation between them may be investigated. It is extremely important that one work with the whole of both systems so as to get the fit between them exactly right, without gaps or overlaps. Mrs. Groll does not seem to have given much thought to these matters

largely mechanical, in accordance with the degree of similarity between affirmative and negative Patterns, and rather unsatisfying. Mrs. Groll's approach may be further characterized as descriptive, rather than historical, concentrating on colloquial texts of the Twentieth Dynasty. This is perfectly legitimate, but too strict adherence to one approach can lead to error. For instance, imi tw (pp. 17-20) is much more simply explained as a contraction of imi di.tw (Wb. II 77, 9-11). A similar case appears in ex. 432
where
''\

is surely

to be read

di.tw as in ex. 96 and in accordance with

Excursus 3. A more serious case appears on page 37 where she says, "the existence . .. of the relative forms.. . does not permit the formation 1. *nty + Perfect-Active stp.f."

In the first place "does not permit" is to be replaced by "prevents"; however, "obviates" would be better, for there is nothing unEgyptian about the combination and it eventually does appear in the Coptic Relative Perfect. Such statements result from a common misconception that one construction disappears and then another is

This content downloaded from 134.58.253.30 on Wed, 30 Oct 2013 12:58:01 PM All use subject to JSTOR Terms and Conditions