papyrus
- Museum number
- EA10769,25
- Title
- Object: Papyrus Ramesseum 16
- Description
-
P. Ramesseum 16, Frame 25. Papyrus written on the recto and on the verso in hieratic script. The recto contains a magical text with spells for protection, including ones against evil dreams, and on the verso there is a continuation of this text. The text is written in horizontal with some vertical lines. This frame contains page 25. The papyrus was a half-height roll.
Gardiner described the way this papyrus is written as follows: 'the writing provides an early example of the rounded forms characteristic of the Hyksos period and particularly conspicuous in the famous Carnavon Tablet No. 1. Here that feature is exaggerated to a degree which often makes decipherment extremely difficult, so that although Smither made an admirable start and I have succeeded in reading a good deal more, prolonged study will be needed before a satisfactory transcription can be offered' (Gardiner, The Ramesseum Papyri, 1955, 16).
In his edition, Gardiner provides a translation for lines 3-4 of this page: 'Hail to thee, sweet of love, youthful power who art in Djedu' (Gardiner, The Ramesseum Papyri, 1955, 16).
The papyrus is part of the collection of papyri found with a bundle of pens in a chest from a plundered late 13th dynasty tomb under the Ramesseum, apparently belonging to someone like a lector priest. Two of the papyri from the chest are in the Egyptian Museum Berlin (P. Ramesseum A and D); the objects are in the Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge and the Manchester Museum.
The papyri are very fragile, apparently due to dampness in the tomb-shaft. This papyrus was mounted on sheets of gelatin by Hugo Ibscher.
- Dimensions
-
Length: 21.50 centimetres (frame)
-
Width: 15 centimetres (frame)
- $Inscriptions
-
- Curator's comments
- P. Ramesseum 16 page 25.
A. H. Gardiner, The Ramesseum Papyri (Oxford: Oxford University Press 1955), 15-6, pl. 59.
P. Meyrat, Le Papyrus Ramesseum XVI (Geneva: University of Geneva 2008), 28, pl. 25 [dissertation].
On the conservation of the papyri: B. Leach, 'A conservation history of the Ramesseum Papyri', JEA 92 (2006), 225-40.
On the tomb: R. B. Parkinson, Reading Ancient Egyptian Poetry: Among Other Histories (Chichester and Malden: Wiley-Blackwell 2009), 138-72.
- Location
- Not on display
- Condition
- Papyrus Survey:
Condition Details:
Papyrus: fractured, fragile, powdery, skeletal
Black ink
Backed: gelatin (cockled)
Backed: gelatin (cockled)
Supported overall: white paper (cockled)
Mount Details:
Sandwich: glass
Binding: cloth
Object Priority: B
Mount Priority: A
Overall Condition: B
Curatorial condition comment:
fair
- Acquisition date
- 1956
- Department
- Egypt and Sudan
- BM/Big number
- EA10769,25
- Registration number
- 1956,0714.18.25
- Additional IDs
-
Miscellaneous number: Frame.25
