SUMMARY

DOCUMENTS
ON THE HISTORY OF THE HIGH-PRIESTLY FAMILY
FROM MEMPHIS (IVI CENTURIES BC)

by MAXIM PANOV

Speciality: Historiography, source studies and methods of the historical research.

The paper is submitted by the author to the Institute of Oriental Studies of the Russian
Academy of Sciences, Moscow, in candidacy for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy.
This is the first dissertation written in the Russian Federation on the hieratic,
hieroglyphic and demotic texts from the Ptolemaic period.
The study deals with a new analysis of the evidences preserved in the documents
belonged to the families of the Memphite and Letopolite high-priests in the Ptolemaic and
early part of the Roman periods. The aim of the research is to examine the previous studies and
discussions of the monuments in question and collate every inscription with its original or
high-quality image(s). Thereby, the investigation results in the publication of the improved
hieroglyphic transcription of the texts, specification of the date of some objects, presentation of
transliteration, Russian translation and comments, compilation of the indexes of royal names,
titles and occupations, toponyms, mentioned in these sources, presentation of a
prosopographical reference-list of the members of two dynasties and systematization of the
information relating to their history.
The overall structure of the study consists of Introduction, three chapters, Conclusion,
Bibliography and three Supplements.
Introduction specifies the field of the study, defines the objectives of the research, its
chronological frame and a methodological principle, offers a justification for the study, points
out the value and significance of the research, its scientific novelty and highlights the
approbation results. The complex approach to the text study is postulated as the main
methodological principle, i.e. the source itself and all evidences it comprises, without
discarding the minor lines and ignoring any references to the document only for extracting the
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special requested part of information or giving a translation of the perfectly clear passage, are
of the prior importance. For this reason not the individuals, named in the records, but the
sources themselves are treated as the structural items. The reason for selecting this corpus and
the importance of its study are based on four factors. Firstly, today, about 185 years after the
first publication of the monuments under study, not every record has its hieroglyphic
reproduction completely corresponding to the original. Moreover, the regular
misrepresentation of the text by the scholars has invoked the doubt about the adequacy of the
text interpretation given in the early editions. Secondly, the historical analysis seeks for the
translation based on the improved copy of the texts, which reflects the up-today stage of the
study of the language of the specified period. Thereby, a number of earlier translations into
European languages should be revised; practically all monuments discussed in this paper have
been unknown for Russian readers and for the development of the Russian Egyptology and
Oriental studies in general these first interpretations provide new socio-cultural evidences of
the Ptolemaic Egypt. The third point consists in the assumption that every new research
connected with the textual criticism should bring new knowledge concerning the pecularities
of the language, in this particular case the Late Egyptian. The final point is connected with
the publication of the artefacts since any fundamental research should be based on the reliable
sources.
The main outstanding features of the work are:
deciphering of the early copies of the poor preserved or missed monuments;
the first edition of the hieroglyphic transcription for the papyrus fragments Wien
3862, Louvre N 3084 and the corrected version for Zagreb E-598;
the first publication of the sources (stelae BM 390, BM 393, Louvre IM 77,
Bordeaux 8636, Louvre IM 3731, statues base Louvre E 3036, seal impession MMA
10.130.1563, statue Chicago F 31697, cosmetic container WAG 48.1381, ushebti UC 40122,
ushebtis Bologna 21922195);
use of the infra-red photos for reading the stelae BM 377 and BM 392, and
ultraviolet photos for the stelae BM 379 and BM 393;
comparative analysis involving the records from all stages of Egyptian language
based on the authors database Corpus;
typesetting of the hieroglyphic inscriptions by the authors text-editor Hieroglyphica.
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The key ideas of the dissertation have been discussed by the author in his monography
on Russian translations of the Egyptian texts and thirteen articles published in the chief peer
reviewed journals in 20072013 in Russian, German and English.
Chapter I (High Priests of Memphis) serves as an introductory for the following
research which focuses on the textual study. It centres on the general questions concerning the
origin of the dynasty, the history of the family and the social status of its members. The author
presents two registers of persons (eighty-seven and a parallell group of seven individuals)
given in alphabetical (Cyrillic) order, which comprises information from Prosopographia
Ptolemaica, kinship, life years of the individuals. Genealogical data represented in a format of
a descendancy chart demonstrate the family relationship of the Memphite and Letopolite high
priests. The investigation involves the revealing of some new personal names; the transcription
and proper reading of others are discussed in the section devoted to the problems of
onomastics.
Chapter II (Sources on the history of the priestly family) contains description,
bibliography, transliteration, translation and comments to 75 sources, divided into six groups
of records. The first part (History of Finding and Research) provides the background of the
investigation. A brief survey of the history of finding is presented: the provenance of the
sources, bibliographical notes of the first collectors and antiquaries. The review of the previous
scholarship marks strong and weak aspects of every fundamental work. The classification of
the monuments based on the visual features is supplied in the second part.
The main corpus of the monuments for the Memphite line includes the following
objects: stela BM 379, stela BM 390, stela BM 375, papyri Wien 3862 and Zagreb E-598, stela
Wien 162, statue Alex. 27806, papyrus Louvre N 3084, stela Wien 153, seal impression MMA
10.130.1563, sarcophagus AMT 3-c, stela BM 391, stela Wien 125, Cyrene statues fragments,
a lost stela from Saqqara, statues Alex. 17533 and 17534, statue Cherchel 94, stela Louvre IM
77, stela Wien 82, stela UC 14357, stela BM 147, stela BM 377, stela BM 886, stela Ash.
1971.18, ushebti UC 40122, stela BM 392, stela BM 188, stela BM 184, statue Pushkin
I.1.a.5351, cosmetic container WAG 48.1381.
The main group of the monuments for the Letopolite line consists of the following
items: relief Talbot, mummys bandage UC 32428, sarcophagus Louvre D 13, ushebtis
Bologna 21922195 and Hermitage 918, stela BM 380+26804, sarcophagus Firenze 2179,
sarcophagus M 46, mummys bandage Louvre 3058, statue M 14460, statue Strasbourg
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1381, statues base Louvre E 3036, sarcophagus M 38, stela Louvre C 316, stela Bologna
1943, stela Louvre A 328, sarcophagus Louvre D 6, stela BM 378, mummys bandage Turin
1870,1, papyrus AMS 19, stela Louvre C 124, stela CGC 31103, stela CGC 31099.
The next three parts of the chapter deal with the supplementary monuments discussed in
connection with the history of the priestly elite from the Memphite region: sarcophagus Louvre
D 12, stela BM 393, stela BM 387 and stela BM 383; stela 389, statue Louvre N 2456, statue
Chicago F 31697, stela Bordeaux 8636 and stela Wien 130; coffin Wien 230+247, stela BM
382, stela Louvre IM 3731, stela Saqqara-Sekhemkhet, stela Louvre IM 8.
The final part of the chapter is devoted to the study of the outstanding sources an
inscription from Edfu temple, statue Michalidis and stela M 2118.
Chapter III (Indexes) lists the regnal years, the royal names and names of the
members of the royal family, toponyms, featured in the discussed records. The index of all
priestly titles and honorific designations in hieroglyphic and demotic writing is also included.
Two subsections bear the results of the linguistic analysis of the sources. The first catalogues
new or rare hieroglyphic signs and their phonetic values revealed in the large corpus of the
inscriptions under study. The second registers all the prepositions occured in hieroglyphic
texts.
Conclusion summarizes the findings, implications and research aims for the further
study.
Supplement A is a catalogue of the images and hand-copies of the inscriptions under
discussion (183 plates).
Supplement B is a line-by-line publication of the stela Ash. 1971.18 based on the high
resolution image of The Ashmolean Museum and . . . Reymonds hand-copy. The
transliteration of the text is supplied.
Supplement C is the first compilation of 26 slips representing a hand-copy of the
inscription of the stela BM 147 with its German translation prepared by K. Sethe for the Berlin
dictionary about 100 years ago, now available on-line in Das digitalisierte Zettelarchiv (TLA).