Das altagyptische "Zweiwegebuch": Studien zu den Sargtextspriichen 1029-1130.

• Author: Quack, Joachim Friedrich
• Position: Book review

Das altagyptische "Zweiwegebuch": Studien zu den Sargtextspriichen 1029-1130. By BURKHARD BACKES. Agyptologische Abhandlungen, vol. 69. Wiesbaden: HARRASSOWITZ VERLAG, 2005. Pp. xiv + 466, illus. [euro]98.

A composition of texts and images transmitted mainly on the bottom of several Middle Kingdom coffins from the Middle Egyptian Necropolis at Bershe is nowadays widely known as the Book of Two Ways. It is certainly one of the more intensively studied parts of the so-called Coffin texts, treated in two modern monographs, of which one (L. Lesko, The Ancient Egyptian Book of Two Ways [Univ. of California Press, 1972]) focuses on translation problems, and the other (E. Hermsen, Die zwei Wege des Jenseits: Das altagyptische Zweiwegebuch und seine Topographie, OBO 112 [Freiburg/ Gottingen, 1991]) on funerary religion. In addition, several journal articles discuss the material. Still, this new publication compares favorably with all of them, being philologically more precise than Lesko's work and more in-depth concerning the content than that of Hermsen. Besides, it has an obviously new focus, namely textual criticism.

Using methods mainly developed by German Egyptologists from Tubingen, Backes tries to establish the relationship of the different manuscripts to each other, and thus to arrive at a stemma which helps to come as close as possible to the hypothetical original of the composition. This reconstructed text is presented in transliteration and translation and is the basis for the commentary on the content. Fairly extended sections explain which divergent readings are considered as simple errors and which merit a bit more consideration as possible elements of the original, even though the author has chosen in the end to reject them. The effect of this procedure on the form of the text is noticeable, since quite a few passages are singled out as later accretions and delegated to a marginal position in the book, not being relevant for Backes' analysis of the original intent of the composition. In a number of cases, Backes has also rearranged the sequence of the sections in comparison to the edition of the hieroglyphic text by de Buck. The new montage of the textual elements of CT spells 1120, 1122, and 1123 (pp. 113-14, 413-15) is a case in point. The changes make for a rather interesting reading and will doubtless spur renewed discussion. Backes' approach to the study of the original text also means that he deals exclusively with the longer...