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The composition, which the editors entitle the "Book of Thoth", is preserved on over forty Graeco-Roman Period papyri from collections in Berlin, Copenhagen, Florence, New Haven, Paris, and Vienna. The central witness is a papyrus of fifteen columns in the Berlin Museum. Written almost entirely in the Demotic script, the Book of Thoth is probably the product of scribes of the "House of Life", the temple scriptorium. It comprises largely a dialogue between a deity, usually called "He-who-praises-knowledge" (presumably Thoth himself) and a mortal, "He-who-loves-knowledge". The work covers such topics as the scribal craft, sacred geography, the underworld, wisdom, prophecy, animal knowledge, an...
Hieroglyphs, the ingenious picture writing of the ancient Egyptians, are not only a beautiful and fascinating record of a bygone civilization, but also a treasury of puns, double meanings and aesthetic delight. Their pictorial character, often obscured today by concentration on literal sense, engaged the Egyptians as much as it dos a modern audience, and they offer not only direct accounts of life thousands of years ago but intriguing sidelights on Egyptian art, culture and belief. Internationally renowned Egyptologist Professor Zauzich presents a clear and well-illustrated introduction to hieroglyphs, for all enthusiasts and museum visitors. In easy stages he takes the reader step by step through the meanings of the signs and how they can be read. He then takes a dozen inscriptions on monuments, paintings and objects, and shows how to read each one - a feature found in no other guide. The author analyses the background to the signs, and the religion and world view which they embody. Fantastic colour illustrations and detailed line drawings fully clarify this system of pictorial symbology; and detailed appendices give the names of major kings and gods, as well as a hieroglyphic sig
Conversations in the House of Life offers a new translation of a text first published as The Ancient Egyptian Book of Thoth (2005). The composition is a dialogue between a Master, perhaps the god Thoth himself, and a Disciple, named "The-one-who-loves-knowledge." Originally written in Demotic, the text dates to the Graeco-Roman Period (ca. 300 B.C. to 400 A.D.). The dialogue covers everything from how to hold the writing brush and the symbolic significance of scribal utensils to a long exposition on sacred geography. The work may be an initiation text dealing with sacred knowledge. It is closely associated with the House of Life, the temple scriptorium where the priests wrote their books. Th...
Marveling over the tomb treasures of Ramses II and Tutankhamen that have toured U.S. and European museums in recent years, visitors inevitably wonder what the mysterious hieroglyphs that cover their surfaces mean. Indeed, everyone who is fascinated by ancient Egypt sooner or later wishes for a Rosetta stone to unlock the secrets of hieroglyphic writing. Hieroglyphs without Mystery provides the needed key. Written for ordinary people with no special language skills, the book quickly demonstrates that hieroglyphic writing can be read, once a few simple principles are understood. Zauzich explains the basic rules of the writing system and the grammar and then applies them to thirteen actual insc...
Die zu Ehren von Karl-Theodor Zauzich verfasste Festschrift enthalt 37 Beitrage mit der Erstedition von ca. 80 uberwiegend demotischen Texten sowie der Neubearbeitung weiterer, ebenfalls meist demotischer Quellen. Auch zweisprachige Texte sind vertreten. Thematisch handelt es sich um Briefe, Orakelfragen, Urkunden, Lehrtexte, Ritualhandschriften, funerare Texte, Erzahlungen, Inventarlisten, Abrechnungen und Steuerquittungen auf Ostraka, Stein, Holz und Papyrus sowie Graffiti. Chronologisch reicht das Material von der Spatzeit bis in die romische Kaiserzeit und gibt dank der internationalen Herkunft der Autoren einen Querschnitt durch die aktuelle Demotistik. Andererseits wird durch diese Beitrage deutlich, welche Mengen noch unbearbeiteter demotischer Texte bereitliegen. Deren Erschliessung war schon immer und is bis heute ein Hauptanliegen des Jubilars. Ausfuhrliche Indizes zu den bearbeiteten und zitierten Texten, zu Gottern, Herrschern, Titeln, Namen, Toponymen und zu neuen agyptischen Wortern erlauben einen gezielten Zugriff auf das Material. XII + 744 S., 61 Taf., 1 Frontispiz; mit Bibliographie zu K.-Th. Zauzich.
Lotus and Laurel brings together a wealth of essays in celebration of Paul John Frandsen, who has had a distinguished career as a scholar of ancient Egyptian language and religion. The contributors are friends, colleagues, or former students, and all are leading authorities in Egyptology. Evoking Frandsen's wide range of interests, they touch on a breadth of topics, including religious thought and representation; social questions of gender, kinship, and temple slavery; and studies of grammar and etymology. More than a tribute to this important scholar in Egyptology, Lotus and Laurel is a window onto some of the most important work going on now in the field.
The ancient Egyptians were firmly convinced of the importance of magic, which was both a source of supernatural wisdom and a means of affecting one's own fate. The gods themselves used it for creating the world, granting mankind magical powers as an aid to the struggle for existence. Magic formed a link between human beings, gods, and the dead. Magicians were the indispensable guardians of the god-given cosmic order, learned scholars who were always searching for the Magic Book of Thoth, which could explain the wonders of nature. Egyptian Magic, illustrated with wonderful and mysterious objects from European and Egyptian museum collections, describes how Egyptian sorcerers used their craft to protect the weakest members of society, to support the gods in their fight against evil, and to imbue the dead with immortality, and explores the arcane systems and traditions of the occult that governed this well-organized universe of ancient Egypt.
In The Craft of a Good Scribe, Steve Vinson offers a comprehensive study of the Demotic Egyptian First Tale of Setne Khaemwas (Third Century BCE), the first to appear since 1900. "First Setne" is the most important extant Demotic literary text, and among the most important fictional compositions from any period of ancient Egypt. The tale, which is by turns lurid, tragic and ultimately comic, deals with Setne's theft of a magic book written by the god Thoth himself, and subsequently Setne's punishment through a hallucinatory encounter with the ghostly femme fatale Tabubue. Vinson provides a new textual edition and commentary, and explores the tale's cultural background, its modern reception, and approaches to its interpretation as a work of literature.
Third in the series of texts of the The Carlsberg Papyri.
This volume is a Festschrift in honour of Sven Vleeming containing the contributions of thirty-eight friends and colleagues, often renowned specialists in their respective fields. It includes the editions of fifty-four new texts from Ancient Egypt that date from the 7th century BCE to the 2nd century CE and covers a very wide range of subjects in (Abnormal) Hieratic, Demotic and Greek papyrology. As such, it reflects the equally wide range of knowledge of the scholar to whom this book is dedicated.