A New Letter to the Dead

REVEALED BUT UNDISCOVERED: A NEW LETTER TO THE DEAD* JIR& Í JANÁK, Charles University, Prague

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n 1930, Alan H. Gardiner published his article “A New Letter to the Dead” in the Journal of Egyptian Archaeology.1 It concerns the letter inscribed in First Intermediate Period hieratic on a red-pottery vessel (a stand without a bottom and with a lip at the top) that is now in the Oriental Institute Museum in Chicago (No. 13945). The text is arranged in eight vertical columns with a short column added between columns 6 and 7. It reads as follows: This is a reminder of what I told you in reference to myself: “You know what Idu said in reference to his son: ‘As for whatever has been or will be there, I will not let him suffer from any affliction’. Do the same for me!” Behold, this vessel has been brought in order that your mother will perform the litigation. It would be nice if you supported her. Moreover, grant that there be a healthy son born to me. You are indeed a mighty akh! And behold, it is those two, the maid-servants, Nefertjentet and Itjai, who have caused Seni to be afflicted. Confound them. Prevent for me every affliction that is directed against my wife; you know that a wrong is done thereby. Prevent it completely! As you live for me, the Great One shall praise you, the face of the Great God shall be glad over you, and he shall give you pure bread with his two hands. I also beg for a second healthy son for your daughter.2 I have divided the text into five paragraphs. Each of them addresses a single theme or problem. The first presents an introduction and an attempt to persuade the dead person to be helpful. The writer, who is probably the son of the deceased, reminds his father of an appeal for help, similar to the help a man called Idu had promised his son. The second part refers to the indefinite litigation that the mother of the deceased should make in the

* I am indebted to my colleagues Renata Landgráfová, Filip Coppens, and Vivienne G. Callender for their useful comments and assistance. 1 JEA 16 (1930): 19–22, which presents photographs of the hieratic text by J. H. Breasted and the hieroglyphic transcription and English translation of the letter by Gardiner. 2 Other translations: A. H. Gardiner, “A New Letter to the Dead,” in JEA, pp. 19–22; G. Roeder, Der Aus[JNES 62 no. 4 (2003)] ç 2003 by The University of Chicago. All rights reserved. 0022–2968/2003/6204-0004$10.00.

klang der ägyptischen Religion mit Reformation, Zauberei und Jenseitsglauben, Die ägyptische Religion in Texten und Bildern, Band 4 (Zurich and Stuttgart, 1961), pp. 269–73; M. Guilmot, “Lettres aux morts dans l’Égypte ancienne,” in Revue de l’histoire de religions 170 (1966): 16–18 (only a portion of the text is translated); B. Brier, Ancient Egyptian Magic (New York, 1980), p. 202; E. Wente, trans., Letters from Ancient Egypt, ed. E. S. Meltzer (Atlanta, 1990), pp. 213–14; S. R. Keller, “An Egyptian Analogue to the Priestly Blessing,” in M. Lubetski, C. Gottlieb, S. R. Keller, eds., Boundaries of the Ancient Near Eastern World: A Tribute to Cyrus Herzl Gordon, Journal for the Study of the Old Testament, Supplement Series 273 (Sheffield, 1998), p. 339.

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afterlife. The main section of the text follows. It deals with a request for a healthy son. It is probable that the author is convinced that his wife Seni is unable (or unwilling) to bear a child due to an affliction, which he blames on two maid-servants. Thus, he asks his deceased father to prevent the affliction. It is, however, also possible that the request for a son and the preclusion of the affliction are two different pleas. The fourth portion of the letter contains a blessing that is granted to the dead person for his aid. The supplement, a sentence inserted between columns 6 and 7, represents a request for a second healthy son for the daughter of the deceased. G. Roeder,3 however, offers a different interpretation. He understands the final sentence as a summary and has another interpretation of the relationships among the persons involved. In his translation, Seni is still the wife of the writer, but she is also the daughter of the deceased, who is thus the writer’s father-in-law. What is striking about this letter is the content and the form of the second paragraph. The previously suggested translations are as follows: “Behold now there is brought (to thee) this vessel in respect of which thy mother is to make litigation. It were agreeable that thou shouldst support her”;4 “Siehe aber, dieser Krug soll gebracht werden, wegen dessen deine Mutter ein Urteil der Rede macht”;5 “Behold now, this pottery vessel is brought with respect to a litigation which thy mother is causing. It would be good if thou would support her”;6 “Now I have brought this jar stand over which your mother should institute litigation. May it be agreeable for you to support her”;7 “Behold, now this vessel is brought (to you, that) your mother will litigate concerning it. It would be pleasant that you should support her.”8 The original text can be transliterated as follows: m.k grt in.t t· mnt·t ¡rt mwt.k wqº-mdw ˙r.s nqm wf·.k s(y). I believe the only reason for mentioning the mother’s litigation is to inform the deceased about it and to ask him to join her. If it were an actual call for litigation, it should have been much more precise. Thus, this sentence should be understood as a reference to an unknown action that the writer’s grandmother is to perform for him in the afterworld.9 After briefly examining the content, we should note the term mnt·t, used to describe a vessel. In the earlier translations, it is identified with the stand, though sometimes with uncertainty.10 The term mnt·t is rare and probably was used for a vessel (a bowl) that held water or some other liquid.11 It would thus be very odd to call a bottomless stand mnt·t. The assumption is that the term mnt·t refers to the yet undiscovered bowl, which was originally placed upon the stand and which actually held another letter. This would also explain the brevity of the litigation note, for the story behind it would have been told in the undiscovered letter. Thus, we can partially reconstruct the undiscovered letter now. It comes from the time of the First Intermediate Period. The text was inscribed upon a vessel (probably a bowl)12 that was placed on the top of a stand and was written by a man to a woman who was prob-

3 4 5 6 7 8 9

Cf. Roeder, Der Ausklang, pp. 269–73. Gardiner, “A New Letter to the Dead,” p. 20. Roeder, Der Ausklang, p. 272. Brier, Ancient Egyptian Magic, p. 202. Wente, trans., Letters, p. 213. Keller, “An Analogue,” p. 339. Brier’s suggestion that the mother is still alive (cf. Brier, Ancient Egyptian Magic, p. 202) is less

probable. 10 Cf. “A New Letter to the Dead,” p. 21. 11 Cf. Wb. II, p. 92; Gardiner, “A New Letter to the Dead,” p. 21. 12 Since the use of a bowl for this purpose was common, it is probable that a bowl was also used in this case.

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ably his grandmother. The reason for composing it was to convince the recipient to litigate on behalf of the sender at the afterworld trial. This type of motif was common in the letters to the dead.13 There must have been a third person, most probably also dead, who had been a menace to the man. It was this malefactor against whom the woman was to litigate. We can also assume that the matter of the legal action was serious, such as, for example, depriving the person of his inheritance, as was the case in other letters. This example adds to the number of known letters to the dead but, unfortunately, not the number of preserved ones. Perhaps it is in some private collection or yet to be discovered. 13 Cf. M. O’Donoghue, “The ‘Letters to the Dead’ and Ancient Egyptian Religion,” in the Bulletin of the Australian Centre for Egyptology 10 (1999): 99–101.