P RO C E E DI N G S OF T H E X I

INTERNATIONAL CONGRESS
OF EGYPTOLOGISTS
F l o r e n c e , I t a l y 23 - 30 A u g u s t 2 0 1 5
MUSEO EGIZIO FIRENZE
Florence Egyptian Museum
fields.

edited by
Gloria Rosati and Maria Cristina Guidotti

Archaeopress Egyptology 19
CAMNES
Center for Ancient Mediterranean
and Near Eastern Studies
Proceedings of the XI International
Congress of Egyptologists

Florence Egyptian Museum

Florence, 23-30 August 2015

edited by

Gloria Rosati and Maria Cristina Guidotti

Archaeopress Egyptology 19
 Archaeopress Publishing Ltd
Gordon House
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ISBN 978 1 78491 600 8

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 Contents

XI International Congress of Egyptologists ......................................................................................................................... x

Preface .............................................................................................................................................................................. xiii

Papers
Development of Old Kingdom pottery: three cases studies (‘Cemetery of the Workers’, Heit el-Ghurab
and the Khentkawes Town)...................................................................................................................................................1
Sherif M. Abdelmoniem
Of Min and moon – cosmological concepts in the Temple of Athribis (Upper Egypt) .........................................................7
Victoria Altmann-Wendling
Les relations entre l’horloge stellaire diagonale et le corpus des Textes des Sarcophages
dans le sarcophage intérieur de Mésehti : le temps et les décans .....................................................................................14
Bernard Arquier
The Qubbet el-Hawa casting moulds – Late Period bronze working at the First Cataract ................................................19
Johannes Auenmüller
Overlapping and contradictory narratives in Ancient Egyptian visual programs ............................................................26
Jennifer Miyuki Babcock
Sāmānu as a human disease in Mesopotamia and Egypt ...................................................................................................29
Susanne Beck
The pyramid as a journey – cultic encounters between father and son in the Pyramid of Pepy I ....................................35
Nils Billing
The Ancient Egyptian dialects in light of the Greek transcriptions of Egyptian anthroponyms ......................................41
Ana Isabel Blasco Torres
Dalla sabbia alla teca: esempi di interventi conservativi eseguiti su alcuni papiri del Museo Egizio di Firenze.............46
Paola Boffula Alimeni
New evidence on the king’s son Intefmose from Dra Abu el-Naga: a preliminary report .................................................53
Francisco L. Borrego Gallardo
The Merenptah Sarcophagi restoration project.................................................................................................................59
Edwin C. Brock and Lyla Pinch Brock
Egyptian names and networks in Trismegistos (800 BC – AD 800).......................................................................................64
Yanne Broux
The Ptolemaic dedication of Archepolis in the Bibliotheca Alexandrina: materiality and text .......................................69
Patricia A. Butz
Bernard V. Bothmer and Ptolemaic sculpture: papers on Ptolemaic art from his archives held at the
Università degli Studi di Milano .........................................................................................................................................75
Giorgia Cafici
The Tell el-Maskhuta Project .............................................................................................................................................81
Giuseppina Capriotti Vittozzi and Andrea Angelini
Silence in the Tale of the Eloquent Peasant: themes and problems ......................................................................................87
Ilaria Cariddi
Progetto Butehamon. Prospettive e ricerche nella necropoli tebana ................................................................................92
Giacomo Cavillier
Notes on the inscribed Old and Middle Kingdom coffins in the Egyptian Turin Museum .............................................. 103
Emanuele M. Ciampini

i
Rethinking Egyptian animal worship (c. 3000 BC – c. 300 AD): towards a historical-religious perspective.................... 107
Angelo Colonna
Before and after the Temple: the long-lived necropolis in the area of the Temple of Millions of Years
of Amenhotep II – Western Thebes ...................................................................................................................................112
Anna Consonni, Tommaso Quirino and Angelo Sesana
Papyri with the Ritual of the Opening of the Mouth in the Egyptian Museum in Turin ................................................. 120
Federico Contardi
Notes for a building history of the temple of Ramesses II at Antinoe. The architectural investigation ......................... 124
Michele Coppola
Animal mummies in South African collections ................................................................................................................ 131
Izak Cornelius, Salima Ikram, Ruhan Slabbert, Liani C. Swanepoel, Frank Teichert and Tiffany van Zyl
Nouvelle lecture d’une scène de la théogamie d’Hatshepsout ......................................................................................... 137
Alice Coyette
Worship and places of worship in the Greco-Roman town at Marina El-Alamein........................................................... 140
Grażyna Bąkowska-Czerner and Rafał Czerner
Middle Kingdom coffin of Khnum from the National Museum of Warsaw ...................................................................... 148
Dorota Czerwik
Non-destructive analysis on 11 Egyptian blue faience tiles from the 2nd and 3rd Dynasties ........................................ 154
Joseph Davidovits and Frédéric Davidovits
Scenes from the Amduat on the funerary coffins and sarcophagi of the 21st Dynasty.................................................. 159
Cássio de Araújo Duarte
Votive pottery deposits found by the Spanish Mission at Dra Abu el-Naga .................................................................... 166
Elena de Gregorio
The building activity of Pinudjem I at Thebes ................................................................................................................. 172
Gabriella Dembitz
The ‘Book of Going Forth by Day’ in the funerary chamber of Djehuty (TT 11): past, present, and future .................... 177
Lucía Díaz-Iglesias Llanos
The pre-Egyptological concept of Egypt as a challenge for Egyptology and the efforts to establish a research
community .......................................................................................................................................................................184
Florian Ebeling
The Gebelein Archaeological Project, 2013–2016 ............................................................................................................. 188
Wojciech Ejsmond
Trois nouvelles harpes découvertes à Thèbes ouest: Quel apport pour l’égyptologie ? .................................................. 192
Sibylle Emerit
The ‘pantheistic’ deities. Report from research on iconography and role of polymorphic deities ................................ 198
Grzegorz First
Études sur le cadre de vie d’une association religieuse dans l’Égypte gréco-romaine : l’exemple de Touna el-Gebel ... 203
Mélanie C. Flossmann-Schütze
Forme di imitazione egizia nella decorazione architettonica di Nea Paphos .................................................................. 209
Leonardo Fuduli
Ahmose-Sapair in Dra Abu el-Naga: old and new evidence ............................................................................................. 215
José M. Galán
The Moon god Iah in ancient Egyptian religion ............................................................................................................... 222
Gudelia García-Fernández
Expression of loyalty to the king – A socio-cultural analysis of basilophoric personal names dating to the Old and
Middle Kingdoms .............................................................................................................................................................228
Christina Geisen

ii
Love and gold in cross-cultural discourse in the Amarna letters .................................................................................... 233
Graciela Gestoso Singer
Some unpublished inscriptions from Quarry P at Hatnub ............................................................................................... 237
Yannis Gourdon and Roland Enmarch
Names of eye parts in different text genres: a contribution to technical language in ancient Egypt............................. 242
Nadine Gräßler
The transformation of Theban Tomb 39 (TT39). A contribution from a conservation viewpoint in terms
of its history after dynastic occupation .......................................................................................................................... 247
Dulce María Grimaldi and Patricia Meehan
The complete corpus of viticulture and winemaking scenes from the ancient Egyptian private tombs ........................ 254
Maria Rosa Guasch-Jané, Sofia Fonseca and Mahmoud Ibrahim
Des étoiles et des hommes : peurs, désirs, offrandes et prières ...................................................................................... 260
Nadine Guilhou
Cracking a code: deciphering the marks of the royal necropolis workmen of the New Kingdom .................................. 266
Ben Haring
The Egyptian Dionysus: Osiris and the development of theater in Ancient Egypt .......................................................... 271
Allison Hedges
The Abydos Dynasty: an osteoarchaeological examination of human remains from the SIP royal cemetery ................ 276
Jane A. Hill, Maria A. Rosado and Joseph Wegner
You up – I down: orientational metaphors concerning ancient Egyptian Kingship in royal iconography
and inscriptions ................................................................................................................................................................283
Shih-Wei Hsu
Image processing. Elaboration and manipulation of the human figure in the Pyramid Texts................................................ 287
Francesca Iannarilli
Hieroglyphic inscriptions on precious objects: some notes on the correlation between text and support .................... 291
Agnese Iob
Predynastic precursors to the Festival of Drunkenness: beer, climate change, cow-goddesses, and the ideology of
kingship ............................................................................................................................................................................296
Victoria Jensen
Crowdsourcing in Egyptology – images and annotations of Middle Kingdom private tombs ........................................... 303
Peter Kalchgruber and Lubica Hudáková
‘To build a temple in the beautiful white stone of Anu’. The use of Tura limestone in Theban architecture ........................ 308
Christina Karlshausen and Thierry De Putter
The motif of the kiosk during the first half of the 18th dynasty ..................................................................................... 313
Edyta Kopp
A heritage in peril: the threat to Egypt’s urban archaeological sites .............................................................................. 318
Peter Lacovara
Le sḏm.f circonstanciel. Une forme verbale rare en néo-égyptien littéraire ................................................................... 320
Vincent Pierre-Michel Laisney
Amduat type papyri in the Pushkin State Museum of Fine Arts, Moscow ....................................................................... 325
Nika Lavrentyeva
Carving out identities in the Egyptian desert: self-presentation styles adopted by the ancient
travelers of Kharga Oasis ..................................................................................................................................................328
Nikolaos Lazaridis
Ya-t-il une « fabrique d’albâtre » et un atelier de tissage au Ramesseum ? .................................................................... 333
Guy Lecuyot

iii
Deux nouvelles ‘Recommandations aux prêtresʼ datées de Ptolémée X Alexandre Ier .................................................... 339
Nicolas Leroux
Scenes representing temple rituals on some 21st Dynasty coffins .................................................................................. 345
Éva Liptay
Building B, a domestic construction at Tell el-Ghaba, North Sinai ................................................................................. 351
Silvia Lupo, Eduardo Crivelli Montero, Claudia Kohen and Eva Calomino
The Montecelio Obelisk in Rome ......................................................................................................................................357
Lise Manniche
The role of e-learning in Egyptology: ‘Hieroglyphs: Step-by-Step’ website as a case study............................................ 362
Ahmed Mansour and Azza Ezzat
The function and importance of some special categories of stars in the Ancient Egyptian funerary texts,
1: AxAx- and iAd-stars .........................................................................................................................................................368
Alicia Maravelia
Chapel of the tomb belonging to Amenhotep III’s Vizier, Amenhotep Huy. Asasif Tomb No. 28, Luxor-West Bank.
Excavation results: ‘Vizier Amenhotep Huy Project’ (2009–2014) .................................................................................. 377
Francisco J. Martín-Valentín and Teresa Bedman
Objets découverts dans des tombes thébaines situées sous le Temple de Millions d’Années de Thoutmosis III
à l’ouest de Louxor ............................................................................................................................................................384
Javier Martínez Babón
Fish offerings found in Area 32 of the archaeological site of Oxyrhynchus (El-Bahnasa, Egypt).................................... 389
Maite Mascort Roca and Esther Pons Mellado
The Akh-menu of Thutmosis III at Karnak. The Sokarian Rooms ..................................................................................... 394
Julie Masquelier-Loorius
The 13th Dynasty at Abydos: a royal tomb and its context .............................................................................................. 399
Dawn McCormack
The transmission of the Book of the Twelve Caverns .......................................................................................................... 405
Daniel M. Méndez Rodríguez
A new reading of Problem No. 53 in the Rhind Mathematical Papyrus. The limits of proportionality .......................... 410
Marianne Michel
The ang-morphs in Coptic and their grammaticalization in Later Egyptian .................................................................. 416
So Miyagawa
‘Augmented Reality’ technology and the dissemination of historical graffiti in the Temple of Debod .......................... 422
Miguel Ángel Molinero Polo, Alfonso Martín Flores, Jorge Martín Gutiérrez, Cristóbal Ruiz Medina,
Lucía Díaz-Iglesias Llanos, Fernando Guerra-Librero Fernández, Daniel Miguel Méndez Rodríguez,
Luis Navarrete Ruiz, Manuel Rivas Fernández and Ovidia Soto Martín
The Min Project. First working seasons on the unpublished Tomb of Min (TT109) and Tomb Kampp -327-:
the Tomb of May and a replica of the Tomb of Osiris ...................................................................................................... 427
Irene Morfini and Milagros Álvarez Sosa
Figurative vase painting from the First Intermediate Period through to the Fatimid Dynasty: a continuity? .............. 433
Maya Müller
Basic considerations on the construction of pyramids in the Old Kingdom ................................................................... 437
Frank Müller-Römer
Die Verwendung von Münzen in pharaonischer Zeit ....................................................................................................... 441
Renate Müller-Wollermann
In the footsteps of Ricardo Caminos: rediscovering the ‘Speos of Gebel el Silsila’.......................................................... 445
Maria Nilsson and Philippe Martinez
The folding cubit rod of Kha in Museo Egizio di Torino, S.8391 ...................................................................................... 450
Naoko Nishimoto

iv
The mystery of the ‘high place’ from the Abbott Papyrus revealed? The results of the works of the
Polish Cliff Mission at Deir el-Bahari 1999–2014.............................................................................................................. 457
Andrzej Niwiński
The mummies of the ‘Three Sisters’ in the Museo Egizio: a case study. Conservation and studies of textiles and
bandages ...........................................................................................................................................................................462
Cinzia Oliva and Matilde Borla
Technical aspects of faience from Hierakonpolis, Egypt – a preliminary report ........................................................... 468
Marina Panagiotaki, Elizabeth Walters, Yannis Maniatis and Anna Tsoupra
Horus Seneferou ka-s : quand le dernier souverain de la Ire dynastie devint la première femme pharaon de
l’Histoire à porter un nom d’Horus ..................................................................................................................................472
Jean-Pierre Pätznick
The Herakleopolis Magna Project: seasons 2012–2015..................................................................................................... 480
M. Carmen Pérez-Die
The Stelae Ridge cairns: a reassessment of the archaeological evidence ........................................................................ 485
Hannah Pethen
The Italian-Egyptian Mission at the Monastery of Abba Nefer at Manqabad: results of the first four
seasons’ work ....................................................................................................................................................................491
Rosanna Pirelli, Ilaria Incordino, Paola Buzi and Anna Salsano
Wedjat-eyes as a dating criterion for false doors and stelae to the early Middle Kingdom.............................................. 499
Melanie Pitkin
La collection égyptienne du Musée Sandelin à Saint-Omer (France) ............................................................................... 506
Jean-Louis Podvin
Some remarks on the Egyptian reception of foreign military technology during the 18th Dynasty:
a brief survey of the armour.............................................................................................................................................513
Alberto Maria Pollastrini
Medical re-enactments: Ancient Egyptian prescriptions from an emic viewpoint ......................................................... 519
Tanja Pommerening
Textual layers in Coffin Texts spells 154–160 .................................................................................................................... 527
Gyula Priskin
The cat mummies of the Società Africana d’Italia: an archaeological, cultural and religious perspective ...................... 532
Maria Diletta Pubblico
Khnum the Creator: a puzzling case of the transfer of an iconographic motif ............................................................... 538
Maarten J. Raven
Temple ranks in the Fayyum during the Ptolemaic and Roman Periods: documentary sources and
archaeological data ...........................................................................................................................................................543
Ilaria Rossetti
Le musée de Mallawi: état des lieux après les destructions et projets pour l’avenir ...................................................... 549
Ashraf Alexandre Sadek
A new light on Coptic afterlife (O.4550 from the Coptic Museum in Cairo) ..................................................................... 553
Hind Salah El-Din Somida Awad
The lost chapels of Elephantine. Preliminary results of a reconstruction study through archival documents ............. 556
Daniele Salvoldi and Simon Delvaux
Doors to the past. Rediscovering fragments in the new blockyard at Medinet Habu ..................................................... 563
Julia Schmied
Les dépôts de fondation de la Vallée des Rois : nouvelles perspectives de recherche sur l’histoire de la nécropole
royale du Nouvel Empire ..................................................................................................................................................568
François C. A. Schmitt

v
Economic mentalities and Ancient Egyptian legal documents ........................................................................................576
Alexander Schütze
Excavations in the ‘Temple of Millions of Years’ of Thutmosis III ................................................................................... 581
Myriam Seco Álvarez
Rituels funéraires au temps de Hatchepsout : le sanctuaire de la tombe de Djehouty et ses parallèles ........................ 587
José M. Serrano
The so-called Book of Two Ways on a Middle Kingdom religious leather roll ................................................................... 594
Wael Sherbiny
Ibyc. PMGF 287 and Ancient Egyptian love songs ............................................................................................................. 597
Anna Sofia
The Physiologus in Egypt ....................................................................................................................................................603
Marco Stroppa
A survey of astronomical tables on Middle Kingdom coffin lids ..................................................................................... 608
Sarah L. Symons
Blue painted pottery from a mid-18th Dynasty royal mud-brick structure in northwest Saqqara ................................ 613
Kazumitsu Takahashi
Studies on BD 17 vignettes: iconographic typology of Rw.tj-scene (New Kingdom – Third Intermediate Period).......... 619
Mykola Tarasenko
Were components of Amarna composite statues made in separate workshops? ............................................................ 626
Kristin Thompson
Research on Old Kingdom ‘dissimilation graphique’. World-view and categorization ................................................... 633
Simon Thuault
La funzione del tempio tolemaico di Deir el-Medina alla luce dell’archeologia .............................................................. 638
Claudia Tirel Cena
The ‘geography’ of the hierogrammateis: the religious topography of the Western Harpoon
(7th Nome of Lower Egypt) ...............................................................................................................................................644
Elena Tiribilli
The Ancient Egyptian shabtis discovered in the regions of Roman Illyricum (Dalmatia, Pannonia) and Istria:
provenance, collections, typological study and dating .................................................................................................... 650
Mladen Tomorad
From Egypt to the Holy Land: first issues on the Egyptian collection in the Studium Biblicum Franciscanum,
Jerusalem ..........................................................................................................................................................................656
Benedetta Torrini
Tradition and innovation within the decoration program of the temple of Ramesses II at Gerf Hussein ...................... 661
Martina Ullmann
The Egyptian Execration Statuettes (EES) Project ............................................................................................................ 667
Athena Van der Perre
A new long-term digital project on Hieratic and cursive hieroglyphs ............................................................................ 671
Ursula Verhoeven and Svenja A. Gülden
Hierakonpolis Faience, 2005–2013, with context and accompanying finds – a quest for chronology
and possible use ................................................................................................................................................................676
Elizabeth J. Walters, Amr El Gohary, Shelton S. Alexander, Richard R. Parizek, David P. Gold, Recep Cakir,
Marina Panagiotaki, Yannis Maniatis and Anna Tsoupra
The Berlin Plans from the New Kingdom Period.............................................................................................................. 680
Yoshifumi Yasuoka
The career of Nakhtmin (TT 87) as revealed by his funerary cones ................................................................................ 686
Kento Zenihiro

vi
Object biographies and political expectations: Egyptian artefacts, Welsh Heritage and the regional community
museum .............................................................................................................................................................................693
Katharina Zinn
Who am I - and if so, how many? Some remarks on the ‘j-augment’ and language change ............................................ 701
Monika Zöller-Engelhardt

Poster presentations
Vocabulaire de l’Égyptien Ancien (VÉgA). Plateforme numérique de recherche lexicographique ................................. 709
A. Almásy, Ch. Cassier, J. Chun-Hung-Kee, F. Contardi, M. Massiera, A. Nespoulous-Phalippou and Fr. Rouffet
Pottery from the early Roman rubbish dumps in Berenike harbour............................................................................... 711
Agnieszka Dzwonek
A sequence of five 13th Dynasty structures at Memphis ................................................................................................. 714
Rabee Eissa
Funerary culture of the Memphite region during the Early Dynastic Period ................................................................. 717
Barbora Janulíková
3D-Reconstructions of Late Roman fortresses in Egypt ................................................................................................... 718
Dmitry Karelin, Maria Karelina and Tatiana Zhitpeleva
The Roman Imperial cult temple at Luxor: its architecture and possible connection between Roman and Egyptian
cultures .............................................................................................................................................................................720
Irina Kulikova and Dmitry Karelin
One of the earliest discovered houses at Memphis .......................................................................................................... 722
Hanan Mahmoud Mohamed
Reden und Rufe, are they kingly patterns? A first step towards an explanation of the origin(s) of speech captions
in ‘daily life’ scenes in private tombs ...............................................................................................................................724
Aurore Motte
Étude pluridisciplinaire de têtes de momies (Lyon)......................................................................................................... 725
Annie Perraud, Matthieu Ménager, Pascale Richardin and Catherine Vieillescazes
Progetto Osiris: valorizzazione delle piccole collezioni egizie ........................................................................................ 727
Massimiliana Pozzi Battaglia e Federica Scatena
Study and restoration of two mummies from the Moulins Museum ............................................................................... 729
Noëlle Timbart

List of papers presented at ICE XI.....................................................................................................................................731

Massimiliano Franci

vii
 Love and gold in cross-cultural discourse in the Amarna letters

Graciela Gestoso Singer

Senior Researcher
Centro de Estudios de Historia del Antiguo Oriente
Pontifical Catholic University of Argentina

Abstract
This contribution analyzes the relationship between the circulation of gold, inter-state alliances, and the concept of love in the cross-cultural
discourse in the Amarna Letters. The letters record the exchange of gifts between great kings on several special occasions: a new coronation,
a jubilee, an alliance, and inter-dynastic marriages. This paper focuses on deliveries of gold associated with inter-dynastic marriages between
Mitanni, Babylon, and Egypt as they relate to the framework of the bonds of brotherhood, friendship, and love between great kings. In addition
to the gold exchanged between courts during the negotiation of inter-dynastic marriages, the Amarna correspondence records deliveries of gold
statues of foreign kings, daughters of kings (as brides), and gods/goddesses. Idioms employed in the correspondence as a means of persuasion
and political ideology, including expressions such as ‘the abundance of gold’, the ‘exchange-rate of love’, the ‘bonds of brotherhood’, and the
‘deeds of their ancestors’, reveal various interests that influenced inter-state relations during the Amarna Period.
Keywords
Amarna; love; gold, exchange; marriages

Introduction
The Amarna Letters indicate that during the reigns of
Amenhotep III and Akhenaten (14th century BC), diplomatic
contacts and economic transactions became more
pronounced, as exemplified by an increase in marriage
alliances and by the large volume of gifts exchanged between
rulers. The lexicon of the texts reveals various interests that
influenced inter-state relations, including the following:
1) the establishment of new alliances through diplomatic
marriages; 2) the constant reassertion of brotherhood ties
between the great kings; 3) references to the abundance of gold
as a means of persuasion; and 4) references to transactions
between previous generations of rulers as an expression of
political ideology. In this paper, I will concentrate on one of
these politico-economic relationships – deliveries of gold
associated with inter-dynastic marriages between Mitanni,
Babylon, and Egypt – in the framework of the bonds of
brotherhood, friendship, and love between great kings. This
essay analyzes the relationship between deliveries of gold,
inter-dynastic marriages, and the concept of love in the cross-
cultural discourse attested in the Amarna correspondence.1
Love in the Amarna letters
The great kings of the ancient Near East were united by bonds
of brotherhood, friendship, and love. In particular, they were
linked as brothers-in-law through inter-dynastic marriages
(EA 4: 15–18). Kings in mutual correspondence call each other
‘brother’ and characterize their alliance as brotherhood,
friendship, and mutual love (Liverani 1990: 197–8; Zaccagnini
2000: 144). The Akkadian letters employ the term ‘love’
(râmu/ra’āmu) in diverse senses according to the context and
according to the political ideologies of the various parties.
First, the word ‘love’ is used as an expression of brotherhood,
the most basic political relationship between the great kings.
When Tushratta of Mitanni speaks of a relationship between
equals, he uses the term ‘love’. He says to Akhenaten: ‘Since
you were friendly with my father, I have accordingly written and told
1 3
I would like to express my gratitude to Julia Fridman (University of
Tel Aviv) for her assistance as this paper took shape.
you so my brother might hear of these things and rejoice. My father
loved you, and you in turn loved my father. In keeping with this love,
my father gave you my sister’ (EA 17: 21–8).2
Second, the term ‘love’ is used to communicate loyalty in
relationships between great kings and kinglets. For example,
Akizzi of Qatna writes to the Pharaoh: ‘My Lord, just as I love the
king, my Lord, so too the king of Nukhashshe, the king of Nii, the king
of Zinzar, and the king of Tunanab; all of these kings are my Lord’s
servants’ (EA 53: 40–4). In fact, to love the Pharaoh means to
serve him. Rib-Hadda of Byblos defines loyalty to the Pharaoh
in terms of love: ‘Half of the city loves the sons of Abdi-Ashirta
(who fostered the rebellion); half of it loves my lord’ (EA 138: 71–3).
In return, the Pharaoh is expected to love his loyal vassal: ‘If
the king, my Lord, loves his loyal servant, then send back the men (…)
to guard the city for the king’ (EA 123: 22–8).3
Finally, the word ‘love’ is used as a rate or a measure of the
relative generosity of a gift-exchange. On a few occasions the
ruler of a foreign country affirms his wish to demonstrate
a tenfold increase in his love for the Pharaoh.4 ‘I (Tushratta
of Mitanni) show you (Akhenaten) ten times more love than I did
to your father (Amenhotep III)’ (EA 27:12). In these cases, the
foreign ruler says that he will multiply the amount of gifts
sent to the Pharaoh by ten: ‘I (Tushratta) will give ten times more
than what my brother (Amenhotep III) asks for’ (EA 19: 68–9; EA
27: 18). The gifts sent by the king of Mitanni to the Egyptian
court are primarily luxury goods, such as jewelry, horses,
chariots, and servants (EA 19: 80–5). These prestigious goods
are given as greeting-gifts (šulmānu) and as proof of love and
brotherhood. Tushratta writes to the Queen Mother, Tiye:
‘Let him (Akhenaten) treat me ten times better than his father
(Amenhotep III) did. I send as your greeting-gift [x] scent containers
filled with sweet oil, and a set of stones’ (EA 26: 56–7, 64–6). In
exchange, Tushratta asks for great quantities of raw gold:
‘May my brother send me in very great quantities gold that has not
been worked’ (EA 19: 59–61).
2
EA 20: 1–8; EA 21: 1–12; EA 23: 1–12; EA 24: 1–2; EA 27: 1–3; EA 28: 1–4.
For the Amarna Letters, see Rainey 2015.
EA 121: 61–4; EA 158: 36–8.
4
EA 19: 9–16; EA 26: 32–3; EA 27: 12, 37–40; Liverani 1990: 220, n. 13.

ICE XI (2017): 233–236 233

Graciela Gestoso Singer
To conclude, in the Amarna Letters, the term ‘love’ bears
three different meanings: 1) an expression of brotherhood
between great kings (pattern of reciprocity); 2) an expression
of loyalty of the vassals to the king (pattern of centralization);
and 3) a rate or a measure of gift-exchange between kings of
equal rank (pattern of exchange) (Gestoso Singer 2003: 81–3).
Gold in the Amarna letters
Gold was sent as greeting-gifts between courts, wedding-gifts
and dowry during negotiations of inter-dynastic marriages,
and royal and divine statues. Good relations between great
kings were expressed by a constant flow of goods, or greeting-
gifts (šulmānu): ‘Between kings there is brotherhood, friendship,
peace and good relations. If there is plenty of (precious) stones,
plenty of silver, plenty of gold’ (EA 11: Rs. 22–3); ‘From the time
my ancestors and your ancestors declared a mutual friendship, they
sent beautiful greeting-gifts to each other’ (EA 9: 6–10; Zaccagnini
2000: 145).
In the view of the great kings, gold from Egypt was the most
valuable and desirable metal. All the rulers saw gold as a
measure of friendly relations: ‘If your purpose is graciously one
of friendship, send me much gold’ (EA 16: 32–3). However, they
phrased their requests for gold in different ways. For Mitanni
gold was a sign of love, or an affirmation of a close alliance, or
a means of acquiring status in the inter-regional community:
‘May my brother send me much gold, show his love for me, and
glorify me before my country and my foreign guests!’ (EA 20: 71–7;
Westbrook 2000). The king of Assyria used similar reasoning to
argue that his status entitled him to a larger gift of gold: ‘I am
the equal of the king of Hanigalbat, but the gold that you sent me is
not enough for the payment of my messengers on the journey to and
back’ (EA 16: 26–31). The king of Babylon, on the other hand,
avoided any reference to status and stressed the role of gold
in creating an image of friendly relations between Babylon
and Egypt in the eyes of the inter-regional community: ‘The
neighboring kings might hear it said that the gold is much. Between
kings there is brotherhood and friendship’ (EA 11: Rs. 20–2).
When negotiating for Egyptian gold, the great kings
attempted to lower its value by stressing its abundance
(Liverani 1990: 214–5). The leitmotif of the kings of Mitanni
and Babylon in their letters to the Pharaohs is the assertion
that ‘In my brother’s country (Egypt), gold is as plentiful as dust’.5
The Assyrian king continues with economical directness: ‘One
simply gathers it up. Why are you so sparing of it?’ (EA 16: 14–6).
The Babylonian king complains about a historical decline in
the generosity of Egyptian shipments of gold: ‘My ancestors
and your ancestors sent beautiful greeting-gifts to each other, but
my brother has now sent me only two minas of gold’ (EA 9: 6–13;
Westbrook 2000). Finally, when requesting gold from Egypt,
the great kings state that they need the metal for a specific
purpose: the kings of Babylon ask for gold for their new
buildings;6 the king of Assyria asks for gold because he will
build a new palace (EA 16: 16); the king of Mitanni needs gold
for a mausoleum for his grandfather (EA 19: 44–5; EA 20: 20–
2). In short, the great kings phrase their requests for Egyptian
gold in a way that neither compromises their prestige nor
betrays a desire for wealth.
5
EA 19: 59–62; EA 20: 46–59; EA 27: 45–51, 104–9; EA 29: 143–7; cf.
Zaccagnini 1995: 66–7.
6
EA 4: 40; EA 5: 13, 15, 19; EA 7: 63; EA 9: 15–6; EA 11: 30.
International Congress of Egyptologists XI
Gold is abundant in the lists of wedding-gifts and dowry
included in negotiations of foreign marriages. Even in the
case of inter-dynastic marriages, gold is required in exchange
for women, such as the daughters of the great kings: ‘If you will
send me the gold about which I wrote to you, then I will give you my
daughter’ (EA 4: 41–2).
The Egyptian system of obtaining foreign women in order
to achieve worldwide power and prestige is the converse of
the Kassite and Mitannian practice of giving away daughters
for gold. In a letter, the Pharaoh ironically emphasizes the
Babylonian king’s willingness to exchange his daughter for
gold gifts, which is impossible from the Egyptian perspective:
‘It is nice, that you give away your daughters in order to obtain gold
gifts (liqta) from your neighbors’ (EA 1: 61). No other great king
is as reluctant as Pharaoh to permit his princesses to travel
to foreign courts: ‘From time immemorial no daughter of the
king of Egypt is given to anyone’ (EA 4: 6–7). Thus, on the one
hand, the Babylonian king sought to increase his prestige by
obtaining an Egyptian wife, whatever her rank: ‘Send me a
beautiful woman, as if she were your daughter. Who could say that
she is not the king’s daughter?’ (EA 4: 12–3). On the other hand,
the Pharaoh could easily increase his prestige by obtaining
a genuine princess from a foreign land. Once she arrived in
Egypt, however, her status or rank became irrelevant to the
Pharaoh (Liverani 1990: 275–7; Schulman 1979). Accordingly,
when the Pharaoh negotiates for a bride, the daughter of a
Levantine kinglet (such as the ruler of Ammiya) and the
daughter of a great king (such as the king of Mitanni) are
treated differently according to their status, but when the
women arrive at the Egyptian court, they are both presented
in the same way before the inner audience. The arrival of the
Levantine woman is described as part of the foreign ‘tribute’
(inw),7 while the arrival of a Mitannian princess is presented
as part of the ‘marvels’ (bi3t) sent by the chief (wr) of Naharina
(Mitanni).8
Gold comprises a substantial portion of the wedding-gifts
sent from Egypt to the king of Babylon in the framework of
inter-dynastic marriages (Zaccagnini 1985: 593–605; 2000:
150). Akhenaten sends ‘1200 minas of gold’ to Burnaburiash II
as a bridal gift to secure his marriage to a Babylonian princess
(EA 14 II: 34). EA 13 and 14 deal with gifts exchanged between
the royal houses of Egypt and Babylonia. The former text was
probably the inventory of a dowry sent by Burnaburiash, but
it is too poorly preserved to be interpreted. EA 14 was sent
by a Pharaoh named [Napkhuru]ri-ia, and it lists the gifts sent
probably by Akhenaten to Burnaburiash, the king of Babylon,
on the occasion of his marriage with a Babylonian princess,
including ‘gold, raw glass, stones, gold necklaces, gold vessels with
oil, gold and silver jewelry, 19 gold rings, 13 gold bowls, one gold
statue of the king’s wife, one gold statue of the king’s daughter, four
chariots, two beds, and six thrones overlaid with gold’ (Cochavi-
Rainey 1999: 8–23).
Perhaps the king of Mitanni did receive a large amount
for his sister (EA 17) or daughter (EA 22), as specified in
7
‘The tribute (inw) of the chiefs of Retenu (Syria): the daughter of a chief,
ornaments of silver, gold, real lapis lazuli, and 30 servants’ (The Annals of
Thutmose III, in Urk., IV, 668: 17–669: 3).
8
‘The Great Royal wife Tiye, may she live! The name of her father is Yuya;
the name of her mother is Tuya. Marvels (bi3t) which were brought to
his Majesty: the daughter of the chief (wr) of Naharina, Shuttarna, Gilu-
Khepa (Kelu-Khepa), 317 women of her harem’ (The Marriage Scarab of
Amenhotep III, in Urk., IV, 1738: 234).
234
 Love and gold in cross-cultural discourse in the Amarna letters
EA 16: 22–5: ‘When the king of Hanigalbat (Mitanni) wrote to
your father (Amenhotep III) in Egypt, he sent 20 talents of gold to
him’. Unfortunately, we have no record of this gift from the
Egyptian side of the correspondence.
In the case of the king of Mitanni, the Amarna Letters record
the list of gifts sent by Tushratta to Amenhotep III, in Year 10
of the latter’s reign, as part of the dowry of the Pharaoh’s new
bride, princess Kelu-Khepa (Gilu-Khepa): ‘As the greeting-gift
of Kelu-Khepa, my sister, I am sending her a set of gold toggle-pins,
a set of gold earrings, one gold mashkhu-ring, and one stone scent
container full of fine oil’ (EA 17: 5, 41–5); ‘And, now, as the greeting-
gift of my brother, I sent one gold cup with inlays of genuine lapis
lazuli in its handle; one maninnu necklace with counterweight, 20
pieces of genuine lapis lazuli and 19 pieces of gold, its centerpiece of
genuine lapis lazuli set in gold (…); ten teams of horses; ten wooden
chariots; and 30 women and men’ (EA 19: 80–5; EA 20: 80–4; EA
21: 33–41).
At the end of his reign, Amenhotep III was in negotiations
with Tushratta to marry his daughter, Tadu-Khepa, after the
death of Kelu-khepa, possibly of plague. The brief lists of gifts
for the first bride (during Year 10) are overshadowed by the
gifts sent to Egypt with the second Mitannian princess, Tadu-
Khepa, who married Amenhotep III in his 36th year. The list
of gifts sent by Tushratta includes horses, chariots, bronze
weapons, jewelry, and precious stones. The colophon of EA 22
confirms the nature of the gift, sent as dowry for Tadu-Khepa:
‘It is all of these wedding-gifts that Tushratta, the king of Mitanni,
gave to Amenhotep III, the king of Egypt, his brother and his son-in-
law. He gave them at the same time that he gave Tadu-Khepa, his
daughter, to Egypt and to Amenhotep III to be his wife’.9
To summarize, Amenhotep III’s pursuit of foreign princesses
probably arose in part from his desire to maintain peace
and prosperity during his era (Podany 2010: 195). The more
princesses he married, the more royal fathers-in-law he had
who would send him gifts and support him. The non-Egyptian
kings were pleased and enjoyed the status that came from
presenting a daughter and gifts to the Pharaoh (Meier 2000:
171) and receiving in return a vast sum of gold.
Besides the gold exchanged as gifts between courts during
the negotiation of inter-dynastic marriages, gold statues of
foreign kings, of their daughters (as brides), and of gods and
goddesses were presented from one king to another.
Gold statues of foreign kings and brides were sent from the
Egyptian court. The Amarna Letters indicate that the Pharaoh
sent to Mitanni gold statues of Tushratta, the Mitannian
king; Kelu-khepa, his sister; and Tadu-Khepa, his daughter: ‘I
(Tushratta) asked your father (Amenhotep III) for statues of solid
cast gold, one of myself and a second statue, a statue of Tadu-Khepa,
my daughter’ (EA 27: 19–23); ‘Also, may my brother (Amenhotep III)
erect a molten gold image of my sister (Kelu-Khepa), the wife of my
brother’.10 Tushratta, however, complained about the quality
of the statues, which were not made of solid gold but rather
of wood covered by a thin layer of gold. He even asked Queen
Tiye to intervene: ‘I had asked your husband (Amenhotep III) for
9
EA 22 IV: 43–9. Moran (1992: 57, 61, n. 56) reads NÍG.BA.MEŠ SAL.
UŠ.MEŠ for the wedding-gifts, sent from Tushratta to the Pharaoh,
but Pintore (1978: 19, 149, n. 53) prefers the term terkhatu, in the sense
of dowry. Cf. EA 24 II § 14: 60–1; EA 25 IV: 65–7; Cochavi-Rainey 1999:
53.
10
EA 24 III § 25: 76–8, 90–1. cf. EA 29: 50–4, 182–9.
International Congress of Egyptologists XI
statues of solid cast gold (…). But, now, your son (Akhenaten) has
(sent) gold-plated statues of wood’ (EA 26: 30–45). The letters
indicate that the king of Mitanni was losing prestige in front
of the dignitaries or elite (inner audience) and the foreign
delegations (outside audience): ‘I (Tushratta) gathered together
all my foreign guests. My brother, before all of them, [the gold that
he sent] has now been cut open. They were sealed […]. But, they (the
statues) were full of [holes/wood], and they (the guests) wept, saying:
Are all of these gold? They do not look like gold. May my brother send
me much gold that has not been worked (…)! May Teshub and Amun
grant that my brother show his love for me, and glorify me before
(the men of) my country and all my foreign guests!’ (EA 20: 47–51,
71–7).
Deliveries of gold statues of gods and goddesses are registered
in the Amarna Letters as well. The letters document the
journey of a statue of the goddess Shaushka/Ishtar from
Mitanni to the Egyptian court during the reign of Amenhotep
III. Shaushka/Ishtar was known as the goddess of war, fertility,
and healing, and statues of her were used in rituals performed
before military actions, in times of disease, and for marriage
alliances and births (Gestoso Singer 2016).
In five of the Amarna Letters,11 sent by Tushratta of Mitanni
to Amenhotep III, the goddess Shaushka/Ishtar is mentioned
in the context of political alliances and inter-dynastic
marriages. In the letters sent by Tushratta she is referred
to in three ways: 1) Shaushka/Ishtar, without epithets, a
local Hurrian goddess with healing properties; 2) Shaushka/
Ishtar of Nineveh, with a mixed Hurrian-Assyrian character,
who was elevated to the rank of the main goddess in the
personal pantheon of Mitannian kings (such as Shuttarna and
Tushratta) and was associated with the royal house; and 3)
Shaushka/Ishtar, the ‘Mistress of Heaven’, who entered the
Egyptian court with an astral aspect, distinctive of the Semitic
and Egyptian deities (Gestoso Singer 2016; Oliva 1999: 54–6).
In EA 23: 13–32, Tushratta informs Amenhotep III of the
departure of the statue of Shaushka: ‘Thus Shaushka of Nineveh,
mistress of all lands (says): “I wish to go to Egypt, a country that I
love, and then return.” Now I herewith send her, and she is on her
way. Also, in the time of my father (Shuttarna), she (Shaushka) went
to this country (Egypt), and just as earlier she dwelt there and they
honored her. Now, may my brother honor her ten times more than
before! May my brother honor her, (then) at his pleasure let her go
so that she may come back. May Shaushka, the Mistress of Heaven,
protect us, my brother and me, 100,000 years, and may our mistress
grant both of us great joy. And let us act as friends. Is Shaushka only
for me my goddess, and for my brother she is not his goddess?’
According to the Amarna Letters, the goddess did not travel
alone, but with Shimige, a Hurrian sun-god: ‘I (Tushratta) have
given him my daughter (Tadu-Khepa) to be the wife of my brother,
whom I love. May Shimige and Shaushka go before her! May they
make her the image of my brother’s desire’ (EA 21: 13–20). These
last lines of the cuneiform text are followed by three lines of
Egyptian, written in black ink using the hieratic script: ‘Year
36, 4th month of winter, day 1. One (the king) was in the southern
villa of the House of Rejoicing’ (Moran 1992: 62, n. 6). This note
indicates that the letter was received in Year 36 of Amenhotep
III, after his marriage with Tadu-Khepa. Indeed, this was not
the first time the goddess had visited Amenhotep III, for she
11
EA 19: 24; EA 20: 25; EA 21: 15, 18; EA 23: 13, 26, 31; EA 24 I: 76; EA 24
III: 98.
235
Graciela Gestoso Singer
had traveled to Egypt in Year 10 of his reign on the occasion
of his marriage with Kelu-Khepa (EA 19: 6; EA 17; Oliva 1999),
his previous Mitannian bride (EA 23: 18–20). Thus the visits
of the goddess or the travels of her statue were, on at least
two occasions, connected with the solemnities associated
with inter-dynastic marriages between Mitanni and Egypt
(Gestoso Singer 2016).
In EA 24, Tushratta informs the Pharaoh: ‘As now my brother
loves me, as now I love my brother. May Teshub, Shaushka, Amun,
Shimige, Ea-Sharri and all the gods love us in their hearts very, very
much! And we, between us, are one, the Hurrian land and the land
of Egypt. I am the King of the land of Egypt, and my brother is the
King of the Hurrian land’ (EA 24 I: 74–8, II: 68–72). In this letter
Tushratta uses the expression ‘all the gods’ without making a
distinction between the Hurrian gods and the Egyptian gods.
In addition, he affirms that these gods will give an abundance
of love to both kings. ‘Love’ here is not only an expression of
affection, but also a term that communicates good political
relations between both parties, who are united by ties of
brotherhood, love, and friendship. Statements such as ‘We,
between us, are one, the Hurrian land (Mitanni) and the land of
Egypt,’ ‘I am the King of the land of Egypt, and my brother is the
King of the Hurrian land’ (EA 24), and ‘This country is my brother’s
country, and this house is my brother’s house’ (EA 19) reaffirm
the idea of union between the two parties. This union could
be expressed not only by an alliance through marriage or an
inter-state treaty, but also by the blessing of the gods of the
two states, who act collectively on behalf of both lands or
countries, Mitanni and Egypt, which are ‘One’ (Smith 2010:
63–5).
EA 24 is unique among the letters sent by the Mitanni king,
reflecting at least three different levels of religious discourse:
1) a form of basic communication, through the blessings of
the gods; 2) theological reflections, in the form of phrases
such as the ‘oneness of lands on both sides’, and 3) examples
of praxis, such as the delivery of a statue of the goddess
Shaushka. Ultimately, good relations between the two states
are expressed not only in rhetoric but also in deeds. The
kings are called brothers and act, in a broad sense, as part of
an inter-state family under the protection of their gods or a
family of gods: ‘May my gods and the gods of my brother protect
them!’ (EA 21: 32). The presence of the goddess, materialized
in a statue, symbolizes the union between the two parties
(Gestoso Singer 2016).
Conclusions
Great kings were united by bonds of brotherhood, friendship,
and love. This terminology allowed kings to conduct inter-
state political relationships as if they were ruled by traditional
kinship norms. Ties of brotherhood were reinforced by
festivals, banquets, and enthronement celebrations. Foreign
brides in inter-dynastic marriages and gold in gift-exchanges
were both embedded in a cross-cultural discourse that enabled
kings to gain power and prestige beyond their borders.
Nevertheless, gold was the most desirable commodity for a
king who wished to elevate his rank among the inter-state
elite. The importance of prestige goods is attributed to their
scarcity in other states, the craft labor involved in their
International Congress of Egyptologists XI
manufacture, and their association with intangible powers
(such as the goddess Shaushka) or exotic and distant lands
(such as the unknown and distant Other). The rhetoric of the
Amarna correspondence, which employs motifs such as the
abundance of gold, the exchange-rate of love, the bonds of
brotherhood, and the deeds of ancestors both as a means of
persuasion and as an expression of political ideology, reveals
various interests that influenced inter-state relations during
the Amarna Period.
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Gestoso Singer, G. 2003. The term ‘love’ in the Amarna Letters.
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Gestoso Singer, G. 2016 (forthcoming). Shaushka, the traveling
goddess.
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the Near East ca. 1600–1100 B.C. Padova, Sargon srl.
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R. Cohen and R. Westbrook (eds), Amarna Diplomacy: The
Beginnings of International Relations: 165–73. Baltimore and
London, The Johns Hopkins University Press.
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culto sirio de Ishtar: 53–6. Murcia, Universidad de Murcia.
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durante i secoli XV–XIII. Rome, Istituto per l’Oriente: Centro
per le antichità e la storia dell’arte del Vicino Oriente.
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Shaped the Ancient Near East. Oxford, Oxford University
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of the Cuneiform Letters from the Site of El-Amarna based on
Collations of all Extant Tablets. Leiden and Boston, Brill.
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Kingdom. JNES 38: 177–93.
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Discourse in the Biblical World. Grand Rapids and Cambridge,
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Letters. JAOS 120: 377–82.
Zaccagnini, C. 1985. On Late Bronze Age marriages. In S. F.
Bondi (ed.), Studi in onore di Edda Bresciani: 593–605. Pisa,
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internazionali del Vicino Oriente durante il Tardo
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236
 Some unpublished inscriptions from Quarry P at Hatnub

Yannis Gourdon
IFAO

and Roland Enmarch

Liverpool

Abstract
A preliminary presentation of some of the results of the Hatnub Epigraphic Project, which has been working at Hatnub Quarry P since December
2012, and which aims to provide a full photographic and epigraphic record of the surviving texts. Before the inception of the project, no epi-
graphic study of the Hatnub texts in situ had been undertaken since Georg Möller’s visit in summer 1907, the results of which were published
by Rudolf Anthes in 1928. Nearly all the remaining in situ texts identified by Möller have been located, as well as over 80 previously unpublished
texts and images. This paper surveys two groups of texts: first, those datable to the reigns of Merenra I and Pepy II; secondly, the texts datable to
the late First Intermediate Period/11th Dynasty, which mention the nomarchs of the adjacent Hare nome. As well as highlighting improvements
in understanding the long-published texts, two newly discovered inscriptions are preliminarily presented: a text dated to the first regnal year of
Merenra I, and a text commemorating a scribe of the portal Ahanakht, who was responsible for creating a number of the other long-published
texts from the time of nomarch Neheri I.
Keywords
Hatnub; alabaster; inscriptions; Old Kingdom; nomarch

Hatnub is today the best-known source for the stone known
variously as travertine, Egyptian alabaster, or calcite. The
toponym ‘Hatnub’ covers a region of several square kilometers
of the the Eastern Desert in Middle Egypt, approximately 18km
south-east of the site of the city of Amarna. The region preserves
rich traces of ancient activity, most notably in the form of a well-
preserved road connecting the quarries to the Nile valley, and
extensive traces of huts and occupation debris. However, only
two of the quarries in this region (Quarry P and Quarry R) are
thus far known to contain texts of the Pharaonic period.
These quarries have been known to Egyptology since 1891,
and the most significant study of the texts at Hatnub was
undertaken by Georg Möller in the summer of 1907. Möller
did not live to see the full publication of his work, which was
undertaken by Rudolf Anthes in 1928, working from Möller’s
copies and notebooks.1 This has remained the definitive
edition of the Hatnub texts to the present day. Since 1928
there has been further archaeological investigation at
Hatnub (see e.g. Shaw 2010), and the content of the Hatnub
texts themselves has been extensively discussed in a large
number of Egyptological works. However, there has not been
significant further on-site epigraphic study of the actual texts
at Hatnub. Moreover, Anthes’ publication contains hand-
drawn facsimiles of the texts, but no photographs. Anthes
also notes that he himself had not visited the site, and in a
couple of places indicates that he is not sure how to interpret
the comments made by Möller in his notebooks.
The current Hatnub Epigraphic Project2 aims to produce a full
epigraphic and photographic record of the surviving texts from
1
Anthes divided the texts into ‘Inschriften’ (carved/incised texts,
mostly in hieroglyphs) and ‘Graffiti’ (texts executed solely in red
paint/pigment, almost entirely in hieratic), and for convenience we
follow his conventions here when discussing the previously published
texts. Our work has, however, highlighted the problematic nature of
this division, with an increasing number of texts that do not fit neatly
into either category.
2
Co-directed by Yannis Gourdon and Roland Enmarch, with the
Hatnub. Work has so far focused on one part of the landscape,
Quarry P, which contains the overwhelming majority of
previously known texts from the site. Quarry P today takes the
form of a 28m-deep open-cast oval approximately 76 x 50m,
with a descending entryway leading down into it from the
north-west (c. 80m long in total, with a width varying between
9 and 7m, narrowing towards the bottom). During the first three
years of the project, between 2012 and 2015, our objective was
to identify and verify the previously published texts in Quarry
P, and to seek unpublished texts. Nearly all of the remaining
in situ texts noted by Möller were identified, as well as over 80
previously unpublished images and texts, some of which are
quite substantial. Chronologically, most of the texts in Quarry
P fall into two main groups: 1) those of the Old Kingdom, and
2) those contemporary with the nomarchs of the adjacent Hare
nome (such as Ahanakht I and Neheri I), whose dating remains
disputed but probably spans the late First Intermediate Period to
the 11th Dynasty (see Willems 2007: 84–7). This paper provides
a preliminary discussion of some of the long-known, and some
newly discovered, texts belonging to both these groups.
Texts with names of kings Merenra I and Pepy II
Anthes (1928: Inschriften I–III, V–VIII, Graffiti 1–3, 6–7)
reproduces 12 official texts (i.e. beginning with a royal
protocol) of the Old Kingdom carved in hieroglyphic signs or
painted in hieratic. Most of them – 10 to be specific – date
back to the 6th dynasty. We will focus here on those bearing
the names of kings Merenra I and Pepy II:
Known texts
Merenra I:
Anthes’ inscription VI, dated to the king’s 11th year, might
have been left by Weni of Abydos (see Gourdon 2016: 152–3).
generous support of IFAO, the British Academy, the Michela Schiff
Giorgini Fondation, the Egypt Exploration Society and the Fonds
Khéops pour l’archéologie, and with the kind assistance of the MSA.

ICE XI (2017): 237–241 237