Faulkner, R. O. an Ancient Egyptian Book of Hours

Egypt Exploration Society

An Ancient Egyptian 'Book of Hours' Author(s): R. O. Faulkner Reviewed work(s): Source: The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, Vol. 40 (Dec., 1954), pp. 34-39 Published by: Egypt Exploration Society Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3855546 . Accessed: 15/01/2012 10:54 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp JSTOR is a not-for-profit service that helps scholars, researchers, and students discover, use, and build upon a wide range of content in a trusted digital archive. We use information technology and tools to increase productivity and facilitate new forms of scholarship. For more information about JSTOR, please contact [email protected].

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AN ANCIENT EGYPTIAN 'BOOK OF HOURS' By R. 0. FAULKNER

ONE of Sir Harold Bell's interests has always been the course taken by pagan religion in

Egypt afterthe coming of the Greeks, so that the papyrushere described,though written in hieratic and purely Egyptian in character,may, it is hoped, serve his interests in that it emanatesfrom the Ptolemaic period. In the space at my disposal I cannot discuss this text in detail-I hope to do that elsewhere in due course-but it will be possible to say enough to give a general account of its content. The papyrus in question, of which a sample is shown on pl. II, was presented many years ago by Sir Alan Gardiner to the British Museum, where it bears the number 10569. Owing to numerous breaks, its length is uncertain, but the part now extant measured when complete probably between 8 and 9 feet, with a height of I41 inches. As now preserved the papyrus comprises 34 columns each containing between 26 and z8 short lines of text, with 70 unplaced fragments,and it is inscribed on the recto only; down the right-hand edge of each column there has been ruled a faint red guide-line. As is usual with religious manuscripts, it bears no date, but palaeographicconsiderations clearly indicate that it belongs to the Ptolemaic period; a comparisonof the forms of certain signs, e.g. A) Q, A, i, ,,

with those in Moller, Hieratische Palaographie,

vol. III, suggests that this manuscript is a little later than the Bremner-RhindPapyrus (Brit. Mus. IoI88) and should perhaps be dated to the third century B.C. Of its provenance nothing is known, but internal evidence points clearlyto a Memphite origin for the text; apart from the all-pervading Osiris the most prominent deity appears to be Sokar, with Ptah and Apis by no means overlooked, and on the whole the gods of Upper Egypt are avoided; Thoth of Khmun alone of the latter has much attention paid to him, and Amun of Thebes is not even mentioned. In general the gods named are Osiris, Sokar, Apis, Ptah, and the cosmologicalgods of the Heliopolitan Ennead. Other gods, such as Nefertum, Mnevis, Anubis, or the four Children of Horus, are named occasionally, but do not attain to any real importance. The damage the papyrus has suffered is considerable, but the middle portion (cols. 6-23) is fairly well preserved. Col. i is almost entirely destroyed, but it is possible to restore the title of the work in i, i with reasonable certainty as -j[