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The article examines the use of the T-passive in the ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts. Various functions of the T-passive are identified, including stative, marker for previous circumstances, and subjunctive. The use of the T-passive as a marker for previous circumstances is the most common. The distribution of the various functions varies within the Pyramid Texts. Data on the number of occurrences of certain verbs in the Pyramid Texts is also provided. [Extracted from the article]

The Milky Way's name and role in ancient Egyptian culture remain unclear. One suggestion is that the Milky Way may have been a celestial depiction of the sky goddess Nut. In this work, I test this association using an interdisciplinary approach. In the first part of this paper, I combine astronomical simulations of the ancient Egyptian night sky with primary Egyptian sources to map the goddess Nut onto the Milky Way. With her head and groin firmly associated by primary texts with the western and eastern horizons, respectively, I argue that the summer and winter orientations of the Milky Way could be construed as figurative markers of Nut's torso (or backbone) and her arms, respectively. In the second part of this paper, I situate Nut within the global, multicultural mythology of the Milky Way. Specifically, I show that Nut's roles in the afterlife and the autumn bird migration are consistent with similar roles attributed to the Milky Way by other cultures. Finally, I show that Nut's identification with the Milky Way may even have echoes in contemporary African conceptions of the Galaxy. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Scholars have long recognized that some Pyramid Text utterances display signs of age that indicate a pre-monumental history of use. Two utterances in particular, PT 355 and PT 662, have been dated by scholars as early as the Pre- or Early Dynastic, based on lines interpreted as describing a pre-pyramidal royal tomb-form (a mudbrick mastaba or a sand grave). This article evaluates the assumptions upon which these claims are based and uses this question to examine the complex interaction between lexical semantics, religious beliefs, and material culture. This article will show that tomb terminology is not a definitive indicator of an early date of composition of Pyramid Text utterances, as the association of lexemes with specific archaeological building-types is problematized by innovations in language, religion, and architecture that occurred in the early Old Kingdom, as well as changes in modern scholarship's understanding of the context and use of the Pyramid Texts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analyzing Pyramid Texts allows us to provide clues concerning the way the ancient Egyptians conceived of the divine body of the deceased, which was radically different from the human body. A metaphorical substitutive system can be highlighted through which every part of the human body is replaced by a divine one. More precisely, according to the Egyptian perspective, the deceased acquires new hard element (qs.w) and new soft elements (jwf), among which is a new skin, constituted by the ritual bandages of linen. He also gets a new conscience (jb) by the means of the "canopic jars," in order to become a new form of the creator himself. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The journey of the sun-god Re, vividly depicted in the Books of Amduat and Gates, made him face many obstacles that might prevent reappearance at the beginning of every day. Among these obstacles, stand Apophis, the enemy of Re, enemies of Osiris, and the guilty dead, who are either the enemies of Re or Osiris. Dedicated procedures must be taken to overcome and punish them, as delineated in texts and scenes. These methods include annihilating through the fire, falling into fiery pits; restraining with ties, and killing by knife-yielding. This last method is the subject of this article, as the author questions, whether those targeted by the knife in these Books were the same and whether knife-yielders were only deities or perhaps also other figures. Finally, the function of those deities is explored in other religious texts. Whereas, the purpose of this study is to compare the two books (Amduat and Gates); therefore, it was preferable to rely on the full version for each. Accordingly, scenes from the Amduatfrom the tomb of Thutmose III will be cited, and those of the Gates will be from the alabaster sarcophagus of Seti I, although there is also reliance on some scenes found in other tombs such as the tomb of Horemheb.

The variety of liturgies that make up the Pyramid Texts converges in ensuring the ingress of the pharaoh into the corporation of the gods. The so-called sacerdotal texts, among which is the sequence PT 213-222, is part of the socalled Resurrection Ritual Group, which complemented the materiality of regeneration (food and drink, weapons, clothes, standards, etc.). In these resurrection texts it was the ritualistic priests who mediated at the behest of Pharaoh, which is why they are expressed in the third person. The particular case of PT 222 implies an alternation between the second and third persons on whom the priest officiates the liturgy. Although PT 222 is part of a larger liturgy, it is the only statement of the whole in which this “dialogical” relationship is established in the midst of a preparatory priestly introduction and an ascent and union with the sun god. An analysis of this particular utterance is what we propose in this article. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

[Ar] المعبود بابف(ى) فى الديانة المصرية القديمة تهدف هذه الورقة البحثية إلى جمع المعلومات المتاحة الخاصة بالإله بابف(ى) لتحديد الشخصية الحقيقية لهذا الإله الذى كان واحدًا من الآلهة الثانوية وكان نادر الظهور سواء فى النصوص أو المناظر على الرغم من وجود كاهنات له، مما يشير إلى وجود تأثير له فى المجال الديني. هذه الورقة هى ايضًا محاولة لتحليل الأشكال المختلفة لاسمه ودلالتها، وايضًا تحليل دوره فى الديانة المصرية القديمة من خلال إشارات فى نصوص الأهرام، نصوص التوابيت، الكتب الدينية ومختلف النصوص التى ذُكر فيها الإله، بالإضافة إلى الكاهنات اللاتى ارتبطن بخدمته. [En] This paper collects the available information concerning the deity Bapef (y) to determine the character of this minor deity who is rarely attested in texts and scenes. However, his clergy has been documented which means that he had an impact on the religious sphere. This paper also attempts to collect and analyze the various forms of his name and its significance, and to analyze the role of Bapef (y) in ancient Egyptian religion through the Pyramid texts, Coffin texts, personal monuments, religious books, and various texts where the deity is mentioned.

The aim of this paper is to contribute to the discussion of the relationship between manuscript and epigraphic traditions in premodern cultures by addressing aspects of the monumentality of writing in the context of Ancient Egyptian tombs near the end of the third millennium BC (the late Old Kingdom). Ritual texts inscribed on the walls of subterranean chambers of kings' and queens' pyramids at Saqqara are known as 'The Pyramid Texts', the earliest known mortuary corpus of any civilization. The texts, which are inscribed in hieroglyphs, are carved, decorated, and painted in green. They are laid out in columns and cover surfaces up to three metres high in the main chambers and in the passages leading to the entrances of the pyramids. While the texts were performed during rituals and recorded in writing in contexts that are now lost, the carved hieroglyphic forms in the pyramids make it possible to glimpse the extent of manuscript culture and scribal practices of this period. The process of inscription involved not only reconfiguration from manuscript to wall, but also reinterpretation of the texts in terms of the spatial, architectural, and symbolical context of the tomb. This paper investigates the idea of monumentality in relation to the way these texts were reconfigured in the pyramids.

The gods Asb, Asbt, Asbw, and AXb, AXbt, AXbw are six minor gods that are authenticated mainly from the Middle Kingdom Coffin Texts. Their names which could have reflected an aggressive attitude towards the deceased, are by no means, do not express clearly their function. Only the plural form, namely AXbw and Asbw, who carry this negative aspect, especially when it comes to the earth-gods Akrw who played an outstanding role in the field of netting. It is worth mentioning that using nets and traps in fishing and fowling is evident in many texts in the realm of mythology. Netting the dead, which was expressed for the first time in many of the Coffin Texts passages, was embodied - in addition to these texts- in the vignettes accompanying the Chapters 153A&B of the Book of the Dead. It can be argued, therefore, that this rite could have been originated in the Old Kingdom Pyramid Texts. This was through the function played by the earth-gods Akrw, who were the catchers or fishers, using their nets or traps to prevent the deceased from arriving to the Otherworld or even wandering into it. This raises the question, whether these gods, either in their singular or plural, feminine or masculine form, do they have the same function or not, this is the object of this article.

Abstract: This article deals with one of the few secondary Egyptian deities that appeared in the ancient Egyptian religion, which is Tkmy deity, since this deity has played some important religious roles. The article aims to identify the meaning of the name of this deity and its various forms of writing at the time of its appearance, in addition to its form and its relationship to other deities and the religious roles that this deity played in the ancient Egyptian religion. يتناول هذا البحث إحدى المعبودات المصريَّة الثانويَّة القليلة الذكر والظهور في الديانة المصريَّة القديمة، وهو المعبود (تكمي) Tkmy، ورغم ذلك فقد لعِب هذا المعبود بعض الأدوار الدينيَّة المُهِمَّة، ويستهدف البحث التعرف على معنى اسم هذا المعبود، وأشكال كتابته المختلفة وقت ظهوره، وهيئته، وعلاقته بالمعبودات الأخرى، والأدوار الدينيَّة التي لعبها هذا المعبود في الديانة المصرية القديمة.

The purpose of this study is to trace the Old Egyptian roots of the Panther’s figure, symbolising the Saviour in the zoological mystery play Physiologus created in Egyptian Alexandria. Taking into account the opinion expressed in the literature about the loss of the predator’s features in the Panther and its transformation in the Physiologus into a sexless image, this article draws on textual and visual material and traces those characteristic features of the Panther in ancient Egyptian mythology which remained inherent in its image in the Physiologus. In order to accomplish this task, the article demonstrates the following features of its image which, as the author argues, go back to the Old Egyptian tradition. This is the initial unity of the Panther and the Serpent, which is seen in early monuments of the Old Egyptian culture, i.e. the palettes of the Early Dynastic period from Hierakonpolis, where one can observe a combined image depicting the unity of both animals. According to the surviving sources, their rupture and hostility, as well as the transformation of the Panther into a defender of the Sun God, are refl ected in the Pyramids Texts of the Old Kingdom (III millenium B.C.), where the female Panther, Mafdet, acts. She kills the Serpent, who is an enemy of the Sun God. The article also studies the Egyptian roots of the ideas about the Panther’s multicolouredness, refl ected in the Physiologus. The article cites data related to the attitude of the Egyptians to the skin of the Panther as a personalised model of cosmos. An example is the apparel of the priests and of the deceased in front of the sacrificial table, as well as the head of the Panther on various objects, e.g. attire items, magic wands. Besides, the formation of the image of the Panther as a zoological personification of the Saviour was arguably infl uenced by her role as a carrier of souls of the dead in the other world. To support this view, the magic wands of the Middle Kingdom are studied, on which are depicted the mythical images of a winged Panther with the head of a falcon, the carrier of the head of the deceased, as well as the fi gures of Tutankhamun riding on a black Panther, which were found in his sepulchre. Arguably, the Panther’s features as the protector of the Sun God and the transformer of the souls of the other world had led to its personifi cation in the image of Christ.

The knot was one of the most important symbols in ancient Egyptian texts, including the Pyramid texts, coffin texts or the Book of the Dead. This paper looks closely at the knot in Ancient Egyptian texts. It signified a symbol of life, flourish and sovereignty in the pyramid and coffin texts as well as The Book of the Dead. It also represents a symbol for the beginnings of life in the doctrines of creation in Ancient Egyptian believe. It appears in solar myths symbolizing the light of the sun and its daily cycle. For these reasons, the knot was used in amulets as a symbol of protection and conservation of the body.

This paper investigates the orthographies of the word rmṯ in the Old Kingdom and the factors impacting them. It is based on a survey of texts that include this word. It aims to identify features of spelling originality and means of dissemination of orthographical forms. The study also urged with its pronunciation, its plurality and singularity, the nature and significance of its determinatives. Finally, the study concluded that there is an obvious orthography-system of this word which could be geographically, and chronology traced. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analyzing early pieces of evidence for a phenomenon has always been a problematic task and it can be more difficult when dealing with a religious topic. Anachronistic opinions have often been projected onto historical sources in this kind of research, which leads to inaccurate interpretations and findings. This paper concentrates on early testimonies for the ancient Egyptian god Kheprer, the deity of the morning sun and autogenesis. It discusses some previously suggested Predynastic, Early Dynastic, and Old Kingdom sources (such as finds of beetles in vessels, the so-called Libyan Palette, the Giza writing board, figures of beetles, personal names and titles, and Pyramid Texts) that may refer to this deity. This study focuses mainly on the problematic issues in the interpretations of those finds, thereby demonstrating that the only secure evidence for Kheprer comes from the Pyramid Texts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Magazine General Union of Arab Archaeologists is the property of General Union of Arab Archaeologists and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Ancient Egyptian texts have been found with instructions on how they should be performed. Recitation, speech acts, and declamation are related to the action of speaking out loud in religious-ritual and juridical contexts, as well as for entertainment. Recitations are used in contexts that demand a correct wording or the power of words as utterance. Speech acts are performative or operative texts, which have an effect by being spoken out loud and result in a change of the persons or objects that are addressed by the text. Declamations are a performance of literary compositions to an audience. The basis on which texts can be considered as part of a recitation, speech act, or declamation are not only in-text terms but also indications of their performance-context, their localization in an accessible place, and their performance by an authorized person.

Upon death, the Egyptian was the object of a series of ceremonies performed by priestly officiants. The stages of the procedure largely correspond to the practical steps taken following death. These were: taking the corpse to a place of embalming, the embalming itself, taking the corpse to the tomb, and interment. The words and actions of the rituals superimposed upon these practical matters had a clear metaphysical purpose: funerary rituals were intended to elevate the mortal to the superhuman.

Copyright of Magazine General Union of Arab Archaeologists is the property of General Union of Arab Archaeologists and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The paper offers some preliminary considerations concerning the distribution, composition, and orientation of the elements comprising the decoration of the burial chamber of Meru, TT 240. The tomb, situated within the North Asasif slope, dates to the last phase of the reign of Mentuhotep II Nebhepetra. The repertoire of the decorative elements found in Meru's burial chamber may be traced back to the Old Kingdom, while some peculiarities in their distribution and orientation seem to be a consequence of the introduction of the Pyramid Texts, a post-Old Kingdom novelty in the decoration of a non-royal burial space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The pyramid texts are funerary spells which were found in eleven pyramids of old kingdom kings and queens. This paper deals with the phenomenon of excluding some spells of the old kingdom pyramid texts after their first attestation. This study assigns the term "Untransmitted spells" to identify these spells which were attested in a certain pyramid while not reselected once again in the other pyramids. The paper focuses on those of Unis pyramid, which has 38 un-transmitted spells, trying to answer two essential questions: why these spells emerged only once in the pyramid of Unis and were not transmitted or reselected into the other old kingdom pyramids? Were these spells transmitted or reselected and became a part of the re-contextualization program after the old kingdom or not? The study suggests three reasons for the phenomenon in question depending on the investigation of the Pyramid Texts editing during the old kingdom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Egyptian religion is characterized by a remarkable degree of continuity, but changes did nevertheless occur in the religious sphere from time to time. One often-cited instance of such a change is the so-called democratization or demotization of the afterlife in the First Intermediate Period. This study examines the evidence for the development in question, concluding that no such change actually took place, albeit not for the reasons advanced by others who have arrived at the same conclusion previously. Based on the results obtained in the examination of this particular problem, a number of general points are then made about the methodology to be employed in the study of religious change in ancient Egypt as a whole.

This article explores the role of donkeys in ancient Egypt through a lexicographical lens. It presents the terminology used for the animal in religious texts focusing on three case studies. Firstly, the most common word used for donkey aA, which appears in economic, literary and religious texts, will be examined. The second section will look into the entity hiw opening to a world of fantastic beings and hybrid creatures. And finally we will see that the number of signs associated to donkeys multiplied in the Ptolemaic period and are generally connected with the god Seth. With these three short investigations, different facets of the donkey are explored, revealing an animal that can be both an evil being and a threatening tool. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The linguistic worldview of the Beyond in the religious thought of the ancient Egyptians is clearly distinguished from the beliefs of other ancient nations. The author of the paper intends to analyse it as contextualised in the Pyramid Texts, based on her translations of the diagnostic spells. This is an analysis of the linguistic view in the translation from the hieroglyphic Egyptian into Portuguese, making some comparisons of the translations of the spells into English. Some obstacles or difficulties in this translation are evinced. Using methods of analysis of the Egyptian language, we may better understand the way of thinking of the Egyptians. The linguistic worldview method, namely the verbalised interpretation of reality which was developed by J. Bartmiński, his colleagues and collaborators, can be exceptionally useful. By means of an in-depth linguistic analysis of the fragments of the world's oldest religious texts translated into contemporary languages, one can develop a much more complete scholarly discussion. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Religious writings are usually treated in the same way as mythological narratives. It is consistently forgotten that they express faith. They were testimonies of people’s beliefs. They were designed to verbalise transcendental reality – to express the Inexpressible. When one comprehends and digests these facts, a scholar is far better able to perceive the predicament, the arduousness of the scrutiny of this genre of written sources. While studying the written sources the image we would like to recapture is an image scattered in words and phrases, in language. It is embodied in language itself. Thus, the author of the paper scrutinised the world’s oldest religious texts – the Pyramid Texts and the Coffin Texts, against a backdrop of general remarks, to show the uniqueness and specificity of analysis and interpretation of this type of sources. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

( En ) In the ancient Egyptian religion, the ferryman was generally called (¡r.f-HA.f) and depicted as a sailor or a boatman standing in the stern of a papyrus boat. The Egyptian ferryman is known from the funerary texts: Pyramid Texts of the Old Kingdom, Coffin Texts from the Middle Kingdom, Book of Dead from the New Kingdom, texts from Greco-Roman temples and other textual resources in about 21 names and titles. It was necessary for the deceased to summon a ferryman at his crossing, that he would navigate the soul through the winding waters of the Underworld, naturally by means of a magic formula, in which the mystic name of the ferryman was contained. In all of these sources we find his names, titles, epithets, roles, functions, and relations with other deities of ancient Egypt. As he was a god in the Netherworld and the ferryman of the dead, he may be the origin of the Greek ferryman CHARON of HADES. The idea of the ferryman of Netherworld is not found in ancient Egypt and Greece only, but also found in other ancient cultures as in Yorubas of south Nigeria, Mesopotamia, Ancient Europe, Rome, and Norse (Bronze-Age of Denmark). The paper will try to give a detailed idea about this important and sacred personality in the Underworld and in ancient Egyptian religious beliefs through the textual sources from different periods and comparable ideas from other cultures ( Ar) في الديانة المصرية القديمة کان "النوتي" أو "المراکبي" يطلق عليه @r.f-HA.f وکان يصور کبحار يقف في مقدمة قارب البردي. إن "المعداوي" المصري معروف في النصوص الجنائزية: نصوص الأهرام من الدولة القديمة ومتون التوابيت من الدولة الوسطي و کتاب الموتي من الدولة الحديثة و نصوص المعابد في العصرين اليوناني والروماني ومن مصادر نصية أخري في حوالي 21 اسما ولقبا. وفي کل تلک المصادر نجد أسمائه وألقابه وصفاته وأدواره ووظائفه وکذلک علاقاته مع المعبودات الأخري في مصر القديمة. ولقد کان من الضروري للمتوفي أن يستدعي أو ينادي علي نوتيا في عبوره، ذلک لأنه سوف يبحر بالروح خلال المياه الملتفة للعالم الآخر، وبطبيعة الحال عن طريق صيغ سحرية والتي تتضمن الأسماء الغامضة والخفية للمراکبي. وبما أنه کان إلها في عالم الآخرة وبحارا للموتي فإنه ربما کان الأصل الحضاري للمراکبي اليوناني Charon العالم السفلي. إن فکرة بحار العالم الأخروي لم توجد في مصر القديمة واليونان فقط، ولکن وجدت أيضا في بعض الحضارات والثقافات الأخري، مثل: Yorubas في جنوب نيجيريا، وبلاد مابين النهرين Mesopotamia، وأوروبا القديمة، وروما، وحضارة Norse بالدنمارک (العصر البرونزي). تحاول هذه الورقة البحثية إعطاء فکرة تفصيلية عن هذه الشخصية الهامة والمقدسة في عالم الموتي والمعتقدات الدينية المصرية القديمة من خلال المصادر النصية من الفترات المختلفة والأفکار المقارنة من الحضارات الأخري

The notion of Duat plays a major role in ancient Egyptian funerary beliefs. Yet, a single definition of this notion is impossible to achieve, as it underwent a process of evolution over thousands of years without ever designating just one unambiguous place at a time. In this context, an approach based on cognitive linguistics and on the significance of the determinatives accompanying the word Duat can be exploited to shed more light on this elusive concept. The focus will be here on the Pyramid Texts and the Coffin Texts as well as the intermediary phase of transmission of the funerary literature during the period between the end of the Old Kingdom and the beginning of the Middle Kingdom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Old Kingdom descriptions of bodily decay are surrounded by assertions of revivification and the maintenance of a proper offering ritual. Thus, the contexts of lines describing bodily decay are first examined, focusing on Pyramid Text (PT) Utterance 684. The problems of preventing the decay of the corpse, and curing conditions of the living body associated with decay were interrelated in ancient Egyptian thought. Already in the Old Kingdom, terminology surrounding wet, drippy decay ( rḏw , fdt , ḥw Ȝ and ḥw Ȝȝ .t ) was clear and well developed; sometimes incorporated into the offering ritual through association with libations; and paralleled in medical literature. In contrast, terminology which appears to refer to dry decay ( jmk , rpw ) is rare, and does not have more general uses outside of mortuary literature. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The main purpose of this article is the publication and study of two wooden lids in El-Ashmunein Magazine. Illustrated drawings are produced for the first time. The complete text of the five columns of hieroglyphs on the lid No.1410 and of the four columns of the lid No. 1411 are the Nut formula, PT 638-639 (sections a-d), which were incorporated later into the last part of the 178th chapter of the Book of the Dead. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]