Pap. New York, Brooklyn Museum 47.218.50, a-c | Confirmation of Royal Power at the New Year Papyrus
Verena M. Lepper
Artefact metadata
Martina Grünhagen; Verena Lepper; Daniela C. Härtel
TEI encoding
Daniel A. Werning
Sandro Schwarz
Ägyptisches Museum und Papyrussammlung, Berlin
Berlin
v2.1
Licence for this TEI document: Creative Commons, Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 Unported (CC BY-SA 3.0)
New York, Brooklyn Museum
New York, Brooklyn Museum
Pap. New York, Brooklyn Museum 47.218.50
Pap. New York, Brooklyn Museum 47.218.50, a-c
Paul O'Rourke's papyrus catalog 8/15/16
This papyrus contains rituals in favor of the king, but gives very often only the beginning of the corresponding recitations.
The first ritual scenes have to be done at every feast of the earth and refer to the cleaning, anointment and clothing of the king. The following ritual scenes are more specific as they ensure the heritage of the king.
The Egyptian New Year was linked to the annual flood of the Nile, which renewed the land's life, and to the accession to the throne of Egypt's kings. It was also believed to be a time when malign forces might threaten the required cyclical renewal of the divine order (Ma`at) that governed the universe. Its text reveals it to be a guide for use by the priest directing ceremonies protecting the king from the dangers of the end of the year and consecrating the inauguration of a new year of prosperous rule.
The text has been interpreted as a ritual used for the renewal of kingship at the time of the Egyptian New Year. The text contains many mythological allusions, some clearly understood, others less so.
Papyrus roll, probably from a temple's library.
(unknown/uncertain)
(Unknown)
Confirmation of Royal Power at the New Year Papyrus
papyrus
papyrus
Measurement of the two boxes and the glass plates according to Brooklyn Museum, Confirmation (2017):
Largest fragment of Pl. a: 270 x 500 mm
Frg. of Pl. b: 239 x 726 mm
Frg. of Pl. c: 255 x 716 mm
Measurements: height, 26.6 cm.
Dimensions: h. range of 22‑25 cm. ; l. 194 cm.
- object's condition: incomplete
Roll of papyrus.
The lower part is evenly damaged. There are small fragments wtihout direct joins, but their positioning relative to the first and second column is clear.
In addition, there are damages at the right margin and the right upper part.
Dimensions:
Overall: 9 13/16 × 76 3/8 in. (25 × 194 cm)
a: Glass: 14 3/16 x 27 9/16 in. (36 x 70 cm)
a: Largest Fragment: 10 5/8 x 19 11/16 in. (27 x 50 cm)
b: Frame: 14 7/16 x 31 5/8 in. (36.7 x 80.4 cm)
b: Object: 9 7/16 x 28 9/16 in. (23.9 x 72.6 cm)
c: Glass: 13 3/4 x 32 5/16 in. (35 x 82 cm)
c: Object: 10 1/16 x 28 3/16 in. (25.5 x 71.6 cm)
- text's condition: incomplete
Condition: Relatively good. One end very fragile and breaking. Beginning of roll is blank and so document may be intact. Can be opened with safety and mounted. Unrolled and mounted by Serge Sauneron in 1966.
Twenty columns of between twenty and twenty-seven lines of text. Hieratic text comprising the annual renewal of Egyptian kingship.
Description: twenty columns of text with line numbers ranging from twenty to twenty-seven, composed in black and red ink. The text has been interpreted as a ritual used for the renewal of kingship at the time of the Egyptian New Year. The text contains many mythological allusions, some clearly understood, others less so.
col. 1: 22 lines
col. 2: 22 lines
col. 3: 22 lines
col. 4: 23 lines
col. 5: 25 lines
col. 6: 24 lines
col. 7: 22 lines
col. 8: 25 lines
col. 9: 26 lines
col. 10: 26 lines
col. 11: 24 lines
col. 12: 27 lines
col. 13: 26 lines
1 line (header)
col. 14: 25 lines
1 vertical line
col. 15: 25 lines
col. 16: 18 lines
col. 17: 25 lines
The columns 14, 15 and 16 are subsumed under one headline. In front of these columns, there are notes written in red.
The lines of the most columns differ in length and the columns vary in their width. Only the first three columns and column 13 as well as 17 are not lists.
Inscribed in Hieratic in red and black.
palaeography
According to Sauneron, Le papyrus magique (1970), viii: part of a private library of a lector priest or a physician; library of a religious center (chapel of gods of healing, sanatorium or House of Life)
According to Goyon, Confirmation (1972), 13 n. 4: part of a private library of a magician; library of a temple or House of Life.
“Bequest of Theodora Wilbour from the collection of her father, Charles Edwin Wilbour.”
Egypt
Lower Egypt, 13th nome
Heliopolis
probably from a temple's library. Container marked “4 SM. Roll”. Not known, probablyElephantine.
Egypt
Upper Egypt, 1st nome
Elephantine
bequest
New York, Brooklyn Museum
“Bequest of Theodora Wilbour from the collection of her father, Charles Edwin Wilbour.”
This papyrus was found inside a trunk of Charles Wilbour with other papyri in the 1940s: Fragments of papyri stored in metal boxes and papyri rolled-up in paper were discovered. The note „Elephantine, Feb. 1896“ on some of these rolls makes clear that Wilbour acquired objects from this location during his last stay in Egypt (autumn 1895 - spring 1896). In addition, there are joins between one of these papyri and fragments of Berlin that come from the Rubensohn excavations in Elephantine. Indeed, the exact conditions of the find and of the provenience of all papyri is not known. This papyrus collection is heterogeneous with regard to the script, language and dating. Therefore, a common find is impossible and it is unsure if all hieratic papyri belong together. For reasons of content, the papyri cannot even come from the same place in Egypt.
It was assumed that the Brooklyn papyri came from the area of Heliopolis. However, Quack points out: "Die angenommene Herkunft des Fundkomplexes aus Heliopolis stützt sich auf keinerlei positive Indizien, heliopolitanische Theologie in den religiösen Texten ist in der Spätzeit in ganz Ägypten verbreitet. Vor allem würden die Erhaltungsbedingungen in Heliopolis kaum den Fund derart vollständiger Rollen erlauben. Dagegen ist bekannt, daß Wilbour viel Material in Elephantine angekauft hat; gerade die medizinischen Texte würden auch gut zu den nachweislich in Elephantine gefundenen Papyri (heute in Berlin) passen." (Hoffmann & Quack, Anthologie (2007), 361), n. a)
(For a summary of the history of acquisition und provenience, see Strukturen und Transformationen des Wortschatzes der Ägyptischen Sprache. Text- und Wissenskultur im Alten Ägypten, Papyrus Brooklyn 47.218.50 (2017))
permission for publication upon enquiry only
Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art
New York, Brooklyn Museum
The unrolled packets of papyrus and the fragments of the metal boxes found in a trunk (see provenience) were inventoried by Cooney under the inventory number 47.218.xxx, which contains 158 units. (Guermeur, Le papyrus hiératique iatromagique (2015–2016), 13–16).
This object is distributed on three glass plates (a-c). (According to: Brooklyn Museum, Confirmation (2017))
Bequest of Miss Theodora Wilbour from the collection of her father, Charles Edwin Wilbour.
-
-
-
-
-
-
VIII-IX
2-9
308-318
361, n. a
33-93
67-81
13-16
75-81
84
439 ff
75-83
214 ff
59, note 30
29, note 70
93-110
272-274
35-46
113 ff
73-102
28-29 fig. 16
27-34
140
32 no. 15
368 no. 1
138 no. 2
45-53
760-761
(Unknown)
Amulet charm
documentary
account
horizontal format
vertical format
administrative document
bill
commentary
contract
horizontal format
documentary | contract | promissory note
vertical format
dedication
dept instrument
diary
foundation charter
hypomnema
horizontal format
vertical format
indictment
Documentary | Jar Label
legal document
letter
"Urkundenformat"
horizontal format
letter address
private
transversa carta
vertical format
list
name list
onomasticon
product list
marriage contract
names
note
oath
vertical format
offer
documentary | official
documentary | official letter
Order for payment or delivery
documentary | order to arrest
petition to the king (enteuxis, mkmk)
proskynema
act of worhsip wšt.t
name
Documentary | Ration List
receipt
tax receipt
tombstone
will/testament
Documentary | Wooden Label
drawing
commentary
vigniette
literary
biography
commentary
eulogy
historic
lamentation
narrative
prose
verse
poetry
wisdom
instruction
proverb(s)
(no inscription)
(other)
petition to the emperor
Prescription
religious
Christian
commentary
dedication
divination
litany
magical
oracular inquiry
Gnostic
Islamic
religious | Islamic | amulet
dedication
divination
litany
magical
oracular inquiry
ritual
Jewish
dedication
divination
litany
magical
oracular inquiry
ritual
Manichaic
Mesopotamian
polytheistic Aramaian
polytheistic Egyptian
dedication
divination
litany
love charm
magical
oracular inquiry
ritual
unclear religion
dedication
divination
litany
magical
oracular inquiry
religious-literary
Christian
Biblical
New Testament
Old Testament
commentary
eulogy
hymn
lithurgical
monastical
myth
patristic
prayer
Gnostic
commentary
eulogy
hymn
prayer
Islamic
commentary
eulogy
hymn
myth
prayer
Qurʾānic
Jewish
commentary
eulogy
Hebrew Bible
hymn
myth
prayer
Manichaic
commentary
eulogy
hymn
prayer
Mesopotamian
commentary
eulogy
hymn
myth
prayer
polytheistic Aramaian
commentary
eulogy
hymn
myth
prayer
polytheistic Egyptian
Book of the Dead
Coffin Text
commentary
eulogy
hymn
myth
prayer
Pyramid Text
unclear religion
commentary
eulogy
hymn
myth
prayer
scientific
astronomy
Book of Dream
commentary/gloss
math
calculation
essay
geometry
medicine
essay
prescription
scientific | Alchemical presciption
scientific | astrology
horoscop
writing exercise
(unclear)
Akkadian
Arabic
Aramaic, Imperial
Carian
Egyptian
Coptic
Akhmimic
Bohairic
Fayumic
Middle Egyptian / Oxyrhynkhitic
Old Coptic
Sahidic
Sub-Akhmimic
Demotic
Early Demotic
Early Demotic - Ptolemaic Demotic
Ptolemaic - Roman Demotic
Ptolemaic Demotic
Roman Demotic
Late Egyptian
Later Egyptian
Middle Egyptian
Middle Egyptian, Classical
Middle Egyptian, Late
Neo-Middle Egyptian
Old Egyptian
pre-Coptic Egyptian
pre-Coptic Egyptian / Greek
Ptolemaic
Egyptian languages
English
German
Greek, Ancient
Greek, Ancient or Coptic
Hebrew
Hebrew, Ancient
Late Aramaic
Latin
Libyan
Mandaic
Meroitic
Nabataean
(none)
(not identified)
Nubian
Old Nubian
Old Persian
Pahlavi
Phoenician
Semitic language
Syriac
Uninscribed
Late Aramaic
Arabic
Aramaic, Imperial
Carian
Coptic
Coptic Cursive
Coptic Half-uncial
Coptic Uncial
Egyptian
Cursive Hieroglyphs
Demotic
Early Demotic
Early to Middle Demotic
Late Demotic
Middle Demotic
Middle to Late Demotic
Hieratic
Abnormal Hieratic
Archaic Hieratic
Late Hieratic
"Späthieratische Buchschrift"
Middle Hieratic
"Mittelhieratische Buchschrift"
"Mittelhieratische Kanzleischrift"
New Kingdom Hieratic
"Neuhieratische Buchschrift"
"Neuhieratische Kanzleischrift"
Old Hieratic
Hieroglyphs
Cryptography
Hieroglyphs | Late Period
Ptolemaic
Greek
Greek or Coptic
Hebrew
Latin
Meroitic Cursive
Meroitic Hieroglyphs
(none)
(not identified)
Pahlavi
Phoenician
Syriac
uninscribed
Condition: Relatively good. One end very fragile and breaking. Beginning of roll is blank and so document may be intact. Can be opened with safety and mounted. Unrolled and mounted by Serge Sauneron in 1966.
Twenty columns of between twenty and twenty-seven lines of text. Hieratic text comprising the annual renewal of Egyptian kingship.
Description: twenty columns of text with line numbers ranging from twenty to twenty-seven, composed in black and red ink. The text has been interpreted as a ritual used for the renewal of kingship at the time of the Egyptian New Year. The text contains many mythological allusions, some clearly understood, others less so.