Vortrag auf der Tagung "Dating Egyptian Literary Texts" (Göttingen, 9.-12. Juni 2010)

1. Dating Egyptian literary texts:
lexical approaches
Simon D. Schweitzer
BBAW, Altägyptisches Wörterbuch

2. Concept of the life span
Timeline --------------------------------------------->
Word 1 --------------------------------------
Word 2 ---------------------------
Word 3 -------------------------
Word 4 ---------------------------
Word 5 -----------------------
Text ********

3. Merikare E 106-107: agsw

4. Khakheperreseneb: qdf

5. DZA & TLA
TLA
DZA

6. Khakheperreseneb:
life span of rare words
• Middle Kingdom – New Kingdom (or later):
wjn, “to push aside; to reject”; vAbb,
“crookedness”; sfn, “to afflict” 3
• Only New Kingdom (or later): nkA, “to think
about”; cpp, “strange”; snf, “last year”; qdf,
“to gather” 4
• Middle Kingdom stela & Admonitions:
jrt.w, “distress” 1

7. Five problems
1. Significance
2. Frequency
3. Change
4. Accident of preservation
5. Transmission of text

8. Sinuhe: nw ym
B
AOS

9. Ptahhotep § 117: kAU nkA

10. Khety: wtc#f wäA#f wäA#f wäA#j

11. pNebseni, BD 10
pJuja,
BD 10

12. Principles for a lexical dating
method
• Use all words!
• Note the frequency!
• Neglect the life span!

13. 3 documents
• A: I am in the house. You are outside the
house.
• B: This house is green.
• C: John eats the cake.

14. Indexing
• A: I am in the house. You are outside the house.
• Index: I, be, in, the, house, you, outside

15. General index
• I, be, in, the, house, you, outside, this,
green, John, eat, cake

16. Document vector
• I, be, in, the, house, you, outside, this, green, John, eat, cake
• (1|2|1|2|2|1|1|0|0|0|0|0)
• I am in the house. You are outside the house.

17. Document vector
• I, be, in, the, house, you, outside, this, green, John, eat, cake
• (0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|1)
• Cake Cakes

23. Distances between document
vectors

24. Hierarchical clustering

28. Nile
Merikare Eloquent Hymn
Peasant

29. Man for his
Man for his Son: only
Son: §§ 9ff.
remaining
manuscripts

30. Teaching Teaching
& &
Tale Hymn

31. Sinuhe

32. Kemit

33. Fishing, Amenemhat, Mythological
Papyrus Moscow, Khakheperreseneb,
Shipwrecked Sailor, Man and his Ba

34. Merikare,
Ptahhotep,
Eloquent Peasant

35. Khety

36. Juru, a Kemit manuscript,
Ashmolean Wisdom, Middle
Kingdom tale of Horus and Seth,
Hordjedef

37. Khety, Man for his Son,
pRamesseum II, Sasobek

38. Loyalist
Teaching

39. Khety, Man for his Son, UC
32157, Hay, Neferkare

40. Nile
Hymn

41. Man for his Son

42. Loyalist
Teaching

43. Herdsman,
Sporting
King

44. Kagemni, DeM 1675,
Ptahhotep C, Sinuhe L, Westcar,
Admonitions, Neferty

45. Merikare,
Ptahhotep,
Eloquent Peasant

46. Ptahhotep,
Merikare,
Eloquent
Peasant

47. Ptahhotep,
Merikare,
Eloquent
Peasant, etc.

48. Kagemni, DeM 1675,
Ptahhotep C, Sinuhe L, Westcar,
Admonitions, Neferty

49. Kagemni, Westcar, Admonitions, Neferty

50. Kagemni, Ptahhotep C
Westcar, Admonitions, Neferty