Inscribing the pyramid of king Qakare Ibi: scribal practice and mortuary literature in late Old Kingdom Egypt

<p>This thesis investigates how the burial chamber of the 8th Dynasty pyramid of king Qakare Ibi at Saqqara in Egypt (c. 2109–2107 B.C.) was inscribed. It uses a holistic approach to focus on the textual programme and its unusual aspects in comparison to older pyramids. In doing so, it address...

Full description

Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Alvarez, C
Other Authors: Baines, J
Format: Thesis
Language:English
Published: 2018
Subjects:
_version_ 1826312051993083904
author Alvarez, C
author2 Baines, J
author_facet Baines, J
Alvarez, C
author_sort Alvarez, C
collection OXFORD
description <p>This thesis investigates how the burial chamber of the 8th Dynasty pyramid of king Qakare Ibi at Saqqara in Egypt (c. 2109–2107 B.C.) was inscribed. It uses a holistic approach to focus on the textual programme and its unusual aspects in comparison to older pyramids. In doing so, it addresses issues of textual transmission and of scribal practice in the process of inscribing the walls of subterranean chambers in pyramids. The aim is to contextualise the texts of Ibi within the Memphite tradition of Pyamid Texts and the development of mortuary literature on different media from the late third millennium BCE Old Kingdom to the Middle Kingdom in the early second millennium BCE.</p> <p>The first chapter presents the background to this research and information on king Ibi and his pyramid. The second chapter treats research on the arrangement of the texts on the walls of subterranean chambers of royal pyramids of kings and queens and compares the layout of the texts in the pyramid of Ibi with older pyramids. It then discusses in detail one section on the east wall of Ibi, where the order of spells diverges from other transmitted sequences. The unusual combination of spells and the practice of shortening spells is investigated further in the third chapter, where two sections of texts on the south wall are analysed. The fourth chapter explores garbled texts and discusses processes of copying and inscribing the texts onto the walls of pyramids. The fifth chapter analyses the modifications of the writing system in pyramids, especially the mutilation of hieroglyphs, and how this practice relates to the tradition of altering signs in pyramids. Finally, the sixth chapter synthesises the results of the preceding chapters in two sections. The first section summarises the process of inscribing pyramids and contextualises aspects of scribal practices within it. The second section concludes the thesis with a discussion of the features of the textual programme of Ibi and of how it relates to the broader transmission of mortuary literature.</p>
first_indexed 2024-03-07T08:21:52Z
format Thesis
id oxford-uuid:91f5c89d-1c1e-47e2-9780-1136e4b3b10c
institution University of Oxford
language English
last_indexed 2024-03-07T08:21:52Z
publishDate 2018
record_format dspace
spelling oxford-uuid:91f5c89d-1c1e-47e2-9780-1136e4b3b10c2024-02-01T11:54:43ZInscribing the pyramid of king Qakare Ibi: scribal practice and mortuary literature in late Old Kingdom EgyptThesishttp://purl.org/coar/resource_type/c_db06uuid:91f5c89d-1c1e-47e2-9780-1136e4b3b10cEgyptologyEnglishORA Deposit2018Alvarez, CBaines, JAllen, JPParkinson, RBEyre, C<p>This thesis investigates how the burial chamber of the 8th Dynasty pyramid of king Qakare Ibi at Saqqara in Egypt (c. 2109–2107 B.C.) was inscribed. It uses a holistic approach to focus on the textual programme and its unusual aspects in comparison to older pyramids. In doing so, it addresses issues of textual transmission and of scribal practice in the process of inscribing the walls of subterranean chambers in pyramids. The aim is to contextualise the texts of Ibi within the Memphite tradition of Pyamid Texts and the development of mortuary literature on different media from the late third millennium BCE Old Kingdom to the Middle Kingdom in the early second millennium BCE.</p> <p>The first chapter presents the background to this research and information on king Ibi and his pyramid. The second chapter treats research on the arrangement of the texts on the walls of subterranean chambers of royal pyramids of kings and queens and compares the layout of the texts in the pyramid of Ibi with older pyramids. It then discusses in detail one section on the east wall of Ibi, where the order of spells diverges from other transmitted sequences. The unusual combination of spells and the practice of shortening spells is investigated further in the third chapter, where two sections of texts on the south wall are analysed. The fourth chapter explores garbled texts and discusses processes of copying and inscribing the texts onto the walls of pyramids. The fifth chapter analyses the modifications of the writing system in pyramids, especially the mutilation of hieroglyphs, and how this practice relates to the tradition of altering signs in pyramids. Finally, the sixth chapter synthesises the results of the preceding chapters in two sections. The first section summarises the process of inscribing pyramids and contextualises aspects of scribal practices within it. The second section concludes the thesis with a discussion of the features of the textual programme of Ibi and of how it relates to the broader transmission of mortuary literature.</p>
spellingShingle Egyptology
Alvarez, C
Inscribing the pyramid of king Qakare Ibi: scribal practice and mortuary literature in late Old Kingdom Egypt
title Inscribing the pyramid of king Qakare Ibi: scribal practice and mortuary literature in late Old Kingdom Egypt
title_full Inscribing the pyramid of king Qakare Ibi: scribal practice and mortuary literature in late Old Kingdom Egypt
title_fullStr Inscribing the pyramid of king Qakare Ibi: scribal practice and mortuary literature in late Old Kingdom Egypt
title_full_unstemmed Inscribing the pyramid of king Qakare Ibi: scribal practice and mortuary literature in late Old Kingdom Egypt
title_short Inscribing the pyramid of king Qakare Ibi: scribal practice and mortuary literature in late Old Kingdom Egypt
title_sort inscribing the pyramid of king qakare ibi scribal practice and mortuary literature in late old kingdom egypt
topic Egyptology
work_keys_str_mv AT alvarezc inscribingthepyramidofkingqakareibiscribalpracticeandmortuaryliteratureinlateoldkingdomegypt