Blackboard from Giza

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The writing tablet from Giza was discovered in 1904 by the American Egyptologist George Andrew Reisner in the mastaba G1011 in Giza . Because of its detailed listing of the names of gods and the naming of Egyptian cartouche names of rulers ( pharaohs ) from different dynasties , this writing tablet is of great interest for Egyptology . Today the object is listed under inventory no. JE 37734 kept in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

Blackboard from Giza (complete view)

description

The slate was originally in space C found. It may have belonged to the official Mesdjeru and his wife Hetep-Neferet. Mesdjeru carried titles such as “confidante of the king”, “inspector of the strong-on-voice of the treasury” and “overseer of the gold deposits”. His mastaba was found badly damaged; it had been looted by grave robbers in ancient times . His name was found on a lintel discovered here. However, the assignment of the block to the mastaba is not mandatory.

The original dimensions of the object can no longer be estimated because the edge has been lost and many other fragments are missing. The writing board was broken into small fragments, the wood on which it was attached was almost completely rotten. The surface of the board was covered with light-colored gypsum plaster 1–2 mm thick, the inscription had been painted on with red, black and green ink .

The inscription is divided into five sections of different sizes. The first two sections were slightly larger in format than the rest. This is evident from the remaining horizontal dividing lines at the top of the writing board. The first through third sections were divided into vertical columns that were originally intended to contain a text, but the first two remained empty. The fourth to fifth sections are divided into subjects by horizontal lines. Section four contains images of birds, the fifth contains images of fish.

The Gauliste with the most important Gau and administrative centers of the Old Kingdom.

Finally, category three comprises 43 columns with three thematic sequences, each with different lists. They are spread over eleven lines, the first ten are repeated four times, the eleventh only three times. The first text sequence contains the cartouche names of six kings from four dynasties in reverse order. Each king list ends with the sign “Maat” ( Gardiner sign Aa11 ) to indicate the end of the line. The second text sequence includes 26 extant names of deities. Due to the severe damage to the plaster, it cannot be ruled out that there were more originally.

Text sequence three contains a listing of royal domains , mostly burial wards. Their functional assignment results from the fact that some of the names listed appear in the same spelling in numerous mastabas of the Old Kingdom. All 28 domains have been preserved by name, they are divided into seven columns. The oldest known depiction of a fly is recorded in the name of one of the domains.

function

It is not clear for what reason or for what purpose Mesdjeru made the writing tablet. Usually blackboards like this one were a kind of “notepad”. On them, scribes jotted down particularly difficult words and characters so that they could be memorized at home . The writing board made of Mastaba G1011 is neat and detailed, the writer apparently carried out his work with great concentration and care. Therefore, in the opinion of Egyptologists such as Wolfgang Helck , Edward Brovarski and William Stevenson Smith, it is rather unlikely that this writing tablet was a mere writing exercise, rather it was an end product and should serve as a −symbolic− memory aid for the deceased in the afterlife. In the Middle and New Kingdom , these and similar writing boards, along with work utensils such as ink vases, writing rushes and color palettes, became popular grave goods, but are not otherwise documented in the Old Kingdom.

Detail from the king list: from top to bottom the names of the kings Neferirkare, Sahure, Chefren, Djedefre, Teti and Bedjatau can be seen (each repeated four times)

The king list

The following rulers are mentioned in the inscription:

The list of gods

The following deities are mentioned in the inscription:

  • Sokar : Memphite deity of the dead, represented as a falcon in a splendid boat.
  • Nemti : falcon-headed god of the 12th Lower Egyptian district . His name means The Wanderer .
  • Sopdu : Human- shaped god of Asian origin with a long beard, yellowish face and hair tied back. He often carries two Asian prisoners with him and is nicknamed "Lord of Foreign Countries".
  • Horus : patron saint of the pharaohs, the oldest heavenly deity in Egypt.
  • ?: At this point in the text, only the heavily damaged depiction of a bird is preserved. Maybe the bird symbol referring to the god Geb .
  • Bat : Very early documented shepherd god in the form of a resting, mummified ram .
  • Thoth : Documented moon deity since the Old Kingdom . Its heraldic animal is the holy ibis ( Threskiornis aethiopicus ).
  • Sak : Also documented since the Old Kingdom. Since Sak has a crocodile as heraldic animal , it is easy to confuse him with the crocodile god Sobek . However, Sak's heraldic animal has curved its tail under his body, while Sobek's crocodile lets his tail hang down relaxed and always rests on an altar .
  • Neith : Documented war and hunting goddess since the early days . Her emblem is two crossed hunting arrows , wrapped in a thick mat of reeds or tied to a pole, hidden behind a shield.
  • 10 - 13: The names of these four deities are no longer legible due to the damage to the plaster.
  • Nechbet : The crown goddess in the form of a vulture has been occupied since the early days. She was considered the patron saint of the pharaohs and was venerated in El-Kab and Hierakonpolis .
  • ? The reading of this deity is uncertain.
  • Kis : Deity has been documented since predynastics in the form of a man who holds two animal heads with his bare hands. In pre-dynastic epochs, these could be giraffes, lions or snake-necked panthers .
  • Selket : Safely documented protective goddess since the Old Kingdom. Her name means "who frees the windpipe". Your heraldic animal is the scorpion.
  • Sobek: God of the Nile and the annual floods since the Old Kingdom . He was said to let the plants and trees flourish. His cult center was mainly in the Fayum , but he was also venerated as "Sobek of Irut" in the 18th Lower Egyptian Gau. His heraldic animal is a mummified crocodile with only the head free.
  • ? The name of the deity is uncertain, remnants of the depiction indicate the fertility god Min .
  • Onuris : Local deity of the 8th Lower Egyptian Gau documented since the Old Kingdom. He is depicted as a man with a high crown of feathers , he has one or two long harpoons slung over his shoulders. Onuri's fame only increased in the Middle Kingdom .
The list of gods with the most important main and gau gods of the Old Kingdom.
  • Seschat : The goddess of architecture and writing has been documented since the early days. Her emblem is a stylized palm tree that is crowned by a crescent moon. Two ostrich feathers protrude from the crescent moon itself.
  • Chontamenti : cemetery and ancestral deity in the form of a striding jackal , documented since the 1st dynasty , whose inscription prevents confusion with the similarly designed god Anubis .
  • Meret : Documented goddess of the Sedfest since the beginning of the Old Kingdom . She is represented as a tightly clad woman with an outstretched arm, she poses on a pedestal or a gold sign. She accompanied the festivities with singing and cheering.
  • Cherti : Since the 1st dynasty there has been a certain god in the form of a mummified ram, very similar to Bat . In order to avoid confusion, his name was always added to the Aries representation. According to the Egyptians' belief in the dead, Cherti was considered to be a ferryman in the afterlife who brought the dead to the other side of the afterlife for payment.
  • Schesemu : god of drunkenness and viticulture. Young Egyptians performed games and dances for the grape harvest.
  • Anubis : Documented cemetery and embalming deity in the form of a resting jackal, often resting on an altar with a drooping tail , has been documented since the early days . But he can also be represented as a mummified jackal with only the head left free.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c Edward Brovarski: Two Old Kingdom writing boards from Giza. 1987, plate 1.