09/11/2021
During the autumn term, our third-year undergraduates read a selection of hieroglyphic texts in Old Egyptian, the phase of the ancient Egyptian language which was primarily used during the Old Kingdom (third millennium BCE).
Last week, we tackled in class the inscription of Rewer, a rather unique text from the Fifth Dynasty (ca. 2450 BCE), pictured here. This inscription makes for a fascinating if cringy reading, as it tells of an accident which occurred in the middle of a formal ceremony carried out by pharaoh Neferirkare Kakai. In the text’s own words, as the ceremony is unfolding, "... the staff that was in the hand of His Majesty got in the way of the foot of the sem-priest Rewer...", with the result—it is generally assume—that the unlucky Rewer, having tripped over the royal staff, may have fallen to the ground, causing a small pandemonium in the midst of what should have been a most solemn ritual.
Luckily, as the text continues, pharaoh Neferirkare forgave poor Rewer on the spot, declaring that he should not be punished and that the story of his mishap—and his royal pardon—should be recorded for eternity in an inscription to be placed within Rewer’s tomb in Giza. ⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀⠀
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Egyptology at Uppsala University offers teaching in all areas of Egyptology, including language instruction at both undergraduate and graduate level for all main phases of the ancient Egyptian language, as well as scripts, from Old Egyptian to Coptic. Look us up on our website for fuller details concerning our teaching offer.
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Image credits: Egyptian Museum, Cairo (open access through the Giza Project at Harvard University).
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