Some Observations on the British Museum Demotic Theban Archive

Abstract

the writing is certainly t3 8y -t (the text, p. 26, gives t hy -"t, but the line under the t is certainly a typographical error), and the facsimile of the body of the document shows that the supposed m is written as a t3 with a line under it; the reviewers, believing that this line is fortuitous, would read t8 )y t here also. This word probably appears in the Coptic as t()IH S, 1H Sa, nn f, rarely m, "length,"22 and the reviewers would translate "the length of a brick (in width)." ? 7: This should be translated: If you obstruct so as not to let my house be built, I having done unto you according to everything aforesaid, (then) I will build my house without leaving for thee a light well. On the verso, following the name of the father of witness 2, read pj h.m-ntr Mnt, the title of the witness. In 1. 15, p' ss~ ip w (?) is the title of the witness, not part of the name of the father of the witness. BM 10526 AND BM 10527 In both of these documents, p. 30, ?? 4 and 5, and p. 31, ? 7-p. 32, ? 1, the translation should read: .... the house .... concerning which I came against you, saying: "It is mine." (Now) you have done for me its right; my heart is agreed thereto. 22 Crurm, Coptic Dictionary, p. 549a. This content downloaded from 157.55.39.163 on Fri, 18 Nov 2016 04:12:22 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms BRITISH MUSEUM DEMOTIC ARCHIVE 259 Thus party A says that, whereas formerly he had made a claim to the house, now party B has in some way satisfied that claim, rather than that party B has "made (over) the rights therein" to him. The reviewers have nothing to add to what the editor has written on pp. xliv-xlvi as to the raison d'etre of these documents except that the fact that Phib renounces claim to two adjoining pieces of property which formed part of the estate of Djufachi may indicate that Phib's claim to these properties dates back at least to the time of Djufachi himself, when these properties were part of an undivided whole. The witness appearing in BM 10526.Vo./5 and BM 10527.Vo./6, where the editor reads his name P-k. . ,is the same who appears as witness 15 of BM 10525 (cf. the writing of the name on the verso and note the same filiation) where the editor reads P-mn .., probably due to the way the name is written in the list of witnesses on the recto. (On p. 12, n. 1, the editor credits this latter reading to Thompson.) The father of witness 7 of BM 10525 bears the same name, and it is the first element in the name of his son, the second element of which the reviewers would read sy-Nyt. The shorter name is that of witness 1 of Ryl. X, for which Griffith (Ryl., p. 255) suggests the reading P-ss(?), but which in the indexes (ibid., p. 466) he lists among the unknowns. A man of the same name is the scribe of Phil. III and Phil. IV, and this is read by Reich as P-r's . This same name appears again in Phil. II/2 and Phil. X/3, where the person so named is the father of Petiharpre, the owner of one of the houses on the west of the property described. This name is read P-rsy by Reich and P-rs(?) by the editor (p. 50). That this name is identical with that under discussion is shown by its writing in the scribe's copy of Phil. X; the witness copies give interesting variant writings. A name the same as that of BM 10525, witness 5, P3-. . .. -sy-Nyt, is that of the scribe of Ryl. X (315 B.c.) which Griffith (Ryl., p. 255) reads P-nfr(?) .... , but which in the indexes (ibid., p. 466) he lists among the unknowns. This man is the son of Wsr-wr; a person of the same name and filiation appears in Phil. VIII (287 B.c.).Vo., witness 2; the elapsed period of twentyeight years raises some question as to whether both are the same person. The reviewers believe that the various writings of the unread This content downloaded from 157.55.39.163 on Fri, 18 Nov 2016 04:12:22 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms 260 THE AMERICAN JOURNAL OF SEMITIC LANGUAGES group preclude the acceptance of any of the readings suggested, but can offer no other reading.23 For the name of the father of witness 11 the reviewers suggest Nsp'y=w-t3' wy, followed by the title of the witness, p~ hm-ntr 3 nw.