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Part one of my notes
I'm up to the papyri I'm most interested in -- the ones Niwiński calls "the new redaction [of the Book of the Dead] of the 21st Dynasty", ie the ones with all the strange new imagery. So I thought I'd start a new posting.
(p 132) Niwiński divides them into groups, starting with "the figural hieroglyphic papyri":
- more pictures than text
- the etiquette's on the right; you read the scroll right to left.
- the writing's in hieroglyphs (as opposed to hieratic), arranged in vertical columns
- the etiquette and vignettes, and often the border, are coloured
- the content is mostly chapters of the Book of the Dead, but there are new illustrations invented at the start of the 21st Dynasty
- included a limited repertoire of BD spells (some taking on the function of others, some changed)
"... among those belonging to the subtype under discussion, several "families", or groups of the papyri of analogous contents can be distinguished, being probably reflection of the origin of these papyri from the same workshop, where the same patterns of texts and scenes were used." That's extraordinary -- we're almost down to the individual artist here. I wonder where the new patterns came from? Perhaps a master artisan said, right, this is what we're doing now? Maybe after discussions with a priest?
The judgement scene (BD 125, and also representing BD 30B) is the most common scene on Niwiński's papyri, often accompanied by BD 126. (I'm confess I don't know my BD chapters very well so I'm going to have to look some of this up. Can't wait for more libraries to have The Oxford Handbook to the Book of the Dead). There's a new scene of purification, called BD 195, on many papyri, and many have BD 149/150. BD 186, the Hathor-cow emerging from the mountain, is popular on papyri and coffins (p 140). Rituals are sometimes represented (p 143).
(p 139) "The creativity of the Theban artists of the period expressed itself in a great number of figural variations of the same theme, each papyrus being, practically, a unique combination of the motives, even within the same family', or series of papyri." In the judgement scene, Osiris can be replaced by the sun-god.
As well as variations on chapters from the Book of the Dead and other afterlife books, there were new theological compositions, such as the scene with Geb lying beneath Nut (p 147). In a small number of cases, scenes from the Amduat crop up on a papyrus titled "Book of the Dead" and vice versa (p 150).
(p 151) This type of papyrus first appears at the start of the 21st Dynasty and is in full swing by the middle, until the end of the reign of the High Priest Pinudjem II. There are still "sporadic" examples after this, but they've disappeared by the 22nd Century.
The next subcategory of papyrus Niwiński considers (p 152) is similar to the above, but:
- in black ink only, with occasional use of red
- quality of the drawings varies
- many more pictures than text
- probably got started under the High Priest Menkheperre and went until the end of the 21st Dynasty
(Fig 45 is the bizarre version of Osiris that got this whole obsession going. I love all this crazy post-New Kingdom iconography, the crazier the better. You get so used to the staid, traditional representations in coffee table books, and then bam, Osiris has a donkey's head and Sekhmet is a hedgehog.)
Niwiński puts the papyrus of Nesitanebetasheru (aka the Greenfield Papyrus) into its own category, with 87 chapters of the Book of the Dead and lots of extra hymns etc, written in hieratic, all illustrated in black ink.
Almost all of the other papyri Niwiński considered have the Amduat. Some have just the last four hours of the book, some include content from the Book of the Dead, and some have contents closer to the Litany of Re, even though they're entitled the Amduat.
The Amduat starts out in royal tombs, as does the Litany of Re. Amduat papyri for private individuals were introduced at the start of the 21st Dynasty, or the end of the 20th, in what Niwiński calls "the Renaissance Era under Ramesses XI and the HP Herihor". Mummies were usually buried with two papyri, a Book of the Dead and an Amduat (but sometimes it's only the title that tells you which is which -- p 236).
Niwiński groups the Amduat papyri into four main groups:
- the ones that resemble the Litany of Re (and perhaps BD 168)
- the more traditional ones, closer to those found in royal tombs
- the ones that resemble the Book of the Dead
- the bonkers ones (my favourite)
The first group, the Litany of Re-like papyri, are divided into many panels, each one containing one form of the "united Osirian-solar aspects of the Great God", each one labelled with that form's name. These appeared while Herihor was High Priest and disappeared under Pinudjem II. There are also two papyri which have, as well as the catalogue of the forms of the Great God, "additional iconographic representations".
The next group is based on the Amduat as it appears in royal tombs. Typically there's the etiquette at right, then the last four hours of the Amduat, read left to right, so that the 12th hour is up against the etiquette. The papyri are illustrated in black and maybe red. They first appear in the middle of the 21st Dynasty.
There's a variation where, instead of the normal 3 registers, the figures are laid out in 1 or 2 registers, presumably because the papyrus was too small! The content of these may be "transformed under the influence of other iconographic compositions, and owing to an individual artistic invention of the drawer." Another variation from the late 21st Dynasty is short, usually lacking the etiquette; the four hours are represented by a few figures each.
Next up are the papyri which include motifs from both the Amduat and the Book of the Dead -- how much from each varies from papyrus to papyrus. Ideally, mummies were buried with a BD (in a papyrus sheath) and an Amduat (wrapped with the mummy -- p 213), so even if there were Book of the Dead content, the papyrus must have still been seen as an Amduat. On the other hand, for some burials such as those with only one papyrus, they might have played the role of both texts at once.
The last group comprises papyri which include stuff from the Amduat, the Book of the Dead, and other compositions as well, such as the Book of Caverns, Book of Gates, and Book of the Earth. One subgroup of similar papyri have the deceased worshipping a series of figures from the BD (p 192-3). There's a tendency to cram as much stuff onto the papyrus as possible -- figures, symbols, etc. The figures are often transformed from their original appearance, and new scenes invented by the 21st Dynasty artists appear. This group includes the papyri sometimes called mythological papyri, although Niwiński argues against using this term. Similarities between some of the papyri suggest that the same artist would prepare both of the papyri for the same burial. OTOH sometimes there is a "striking contrast" between them (p 214).
A few bits and pieces:
(p 219) "Poor people buried without coffins or papyri could only rely on the magical protection furnished by the religious texts and representations on papyri and coffins belonging to other deceased persons lying in the same tomb-cachette."
(p 220) The decorations on coffins were an extension of the papyri -- they didn't duplicate their contents. eg Sutimes' outer coffin has the Litany of Re type figures, instead of the expected papyrus (though there's a bit of repetition of the BD stuff on the inner coffin, eg the Weighing of the Heart scene). In the late 21D/early 22D there was more duplication.
(p 236) The fact that papyri vary so widely in quality indicates that you didn't have to be high-status and rich to be entitled to a funerary papyrus.
(p 237) In the 22nd Dynasty the papyri soon settle down into hieratic BD without pictures and traditional Amduats. In turn the Amduat papyri disappear some time during the later Third Intermediate Period.
Good grief, I'm finished!
Andrzej Niwiński. Studies on the Illustrated Theban Funerary Papyri of the 11th and 10th Centuries BC. Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis 86. Göttingen, Vandenhoeck u. Ruprecht, 1989.
I'm up to the papyri I'm most interested in -- the ones Niwiński calls "the new redaction [of the Book of the Dead] of the 21st Dynasty", ie the ones with all the strange new imagery. So I thought I'd start a new posting.
(p 132) Niwiński divides them into groups, starting with "the figural hieroglyphic papyri":
- more pictures than text
- the etiquette's on the right; you read the scroll right to left.
- the writing's in hieroglyphs (as opposed to hieratic), arranged in vertical columns
- the etiquette and vignettes, and often the border, are coloured
- the content is mostly chapters of the Book of the Dead, but there are new illustrations invented at the start of the 21st Dynasty
- included a limited repertoire of BD spells (some taking on the function of others, some changed)
"... among those belonging to the subtype under discussion, several "families", or groups of the papyri of analogous contents can be distinguished, being probably reflection of the origin of these papyri from the same workshop, where the same patterns of texts and scenes were used." That's extraordinary -- we're almost down to the individual artist here. I wonder where the new patterns came from? Perhaps a master artisan said, right, this is what we're doing now? Maybe after discussions with a priest?
The judgement scene (BD 125, and also representing BD 30B) is the most common scene on Niwiński's papyri, often accompanied by BD 126. (I'm confess I don't know my BD chapters very well so I'm going to have to look some of this up. Can't wait for more libraries to have The Oxford Handbook to the Book of the Dead). There's a new scene of purification, called BD 195, on many papyri, and many have BD 149/150. BD 186, the Hathor-cow emerging from the mountain, is popular on papyri and coffins (p 140). Rituals are sometimes represented (p 143).
(p 139) "The creativity of the Theban artists of the period expressed itself in a great number of figural variations of the same theme, each papyrus being, practically, a unique combination of the motives, even within the same family', or series of papyri." In the judgement scene, Osiris can be replaced by the sun-god.
As well as variations on chapters from the Book of the Dead and other afterlife books, there were new theological compositions, such as the scene with Geb lying beneath Nut (p 147). In a small number of cases, scenes from the Amduat crop up on a papyrus titled "Book of the Dead" and vice versa (p 150).
(p 151) This type of papyrus first appears at the start of the 21st Dynasty and is in full swing by the middle, until the end of the reign of the High Priest Pinudjem II. There are still "sporadic" examples after this, but they've disappeared by the 22nd Century.
The next subcategory of papyrus Niwiński considers (p 152) is similar to the above, but:
- in black ink only, with occasional use of red
- quality of the drawings varies
- many more pictures than text
- probably got started under the High Priest Menkheperre and went until the end of the 21st Dynasty
(Fig 45 is the bizarre version of Osiris that got this whole obsession going. I love all this crazy post-New Kingdom iconography, the crazier the better. You get so used to the staid, traditional representations in coffee table books, and then bam, Osiris has a donkey's head and Sekhmet is a hedgehog.)
Niwiński puts the papyrus of Nesitanebetasheru (aka the Greenfield Papyrus) into its own category, with 87 chapters of the Book of the Dead and lots of extra hymns etc, written in hieratic, all illustrated in black ink.
Almost all of the other papyri Niwiński considered have the Amduat. Some have just the last four hours of the book, some include content from the Book of the Dead, and some have contents closer to the Litany of Re, even though they're entitled the Amduat.
The Amduat starts out in royal tombs, as does the Litany of Re. Amduat papyri for private individuals were introduced at the start of the 21st Dynasty, or the end of the 20th, in what Niwiński calls "the Renaissance Era under Ramesses XI and the HP Herihor". Mummies were usually buried with two papyri, a Book of the Dead and an Amduat (but sometimes it's only the title that tells you which is which -- p 236).
Niwiński groups the Amduat papyri into four main groups:
- the ones that resemble the Litany of Re (and perhaps BD 168)
- the more traditional ones, closer to those found in royal tombs
- the ones that resemble the Book of the Dead
- the bonkers ones (my favourite)
The first group, the Litany of Re-like papyri, are divided into many panels, each one containing one form of the "united Osirian-solar aspects of the Great God", each one labelled with that form's name. These appeared while Herihor was High Priest and disappeared under Pinudjem II. There are also two papyri which have, as well as the catalogue of the forms of the Great God, "additional iconographic representations".
The next group is based on the Amduat as it appears in royal tombs. Typically there's the etiquette at right, then the last four hours of the Amduat, read left to right, so that the 12th hour is up against the etiquette. The papyri are illustrated in black and maybe red. They first appear in the middle of the 21st Dynasty.
There's a variation where, instead of the normal 3 registers, the figures are laid out in 1 or 2 registers, presumably because the papyrus was too small! The content of these may be "transformed under the influence of other iconographic compositions, and owing to an individual artistic invention of the drawer." Another variation from the late 21st Dynasty is short, usually lacking the etiquette; the four hours are represented by a few figures each.
Next up are the papyri which include motifs from both the Amduat and the Book of the Dead -- how much from each varies from papyrus to papyrus. Ideally, mummies were buried with a BD (in a papyrus sheath) and an Amduat (wrapped with the mummy -- p 213), so even if there were Book of the Dead content, the papyrus must have still been seen as an Amduat. On the other hand, for some burials such as those with only one papyrus, they might have played the role of both texts at once.
The last group comprises papyri which include stuff from the Amduat, the Book of the Dead, and other compositions as well, such as the Book of Caverns, Book of Gates, and Book of the Earth. One subgroup of similar papyri have the deceased worshipping a series of figures from the BD (p 192-3). There's a tendency to cram as much stuff onto the papyrus as possible -- figures, symbols, etc. The figures are often transformed from their original appearance, and new scenes invented by the 21st Dynasty artists appear. This group includes the papyri sometimes called mythological papyri, although Niwiński argues against using this term. Similarities between some of the papyri suggest that the same artist would prepare both of the papyri for the same burial. OTOH sometimes there is a "striking contrast" between them (p 214).
A few bits and pieces:
(p 219) "Poor people buried without coffins or papyri could only rely on the magical protection furnished by the religious texts and representations on papyri and coffins belonging to other deceased persons lying in the same tomb-cachette."
(p 220) The decorations on coffins were an extension of the papyri -- they didn't duplicate their contents. eg Sutimes' outer coffin has the Litany of Re type figures, instead of the expected papyrus (though there's a bit of repetition of the BD stuff on the inner coffin, eg the Weighing of the Heart scene). In the late 21D/early 22D there was more duplication.
(p 236) The fact that papyri vary so widely in quality indicates that you didn't have to be high-status and rich to be entitled to a funerary papyrus.
(p 237) In the 22nd Dynasty the papyri soon settle down into hieratic BD without pictures and traditional Amduats. In turn the Amduat papyri disappear some time during the later Third Intermediate Period.
Good grief, I'm finished!
Andrzej Niwiński. Studies on the Illustrated Theban Funerary Papyri of the 11th and 10th Centuries BC. Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis 86. Göttingen, Vandenhoeck u. Ruprecht, 1989.
