D'un monde a l'autre: Textes des pyramides, textes des sarcophages.

• Author: Russo, Barbara
• Position: Book review

D'un monde a l'autre: Textes des pyramides, textes des sarcophages. Edited by SUSANNE BICKEL and BERNARD MATHIEU. Bibliotheque d'Etude, vol. 139. Cairo: INSTITUT FRANCAIS D'ARCHEOLOGIE ORIENTALE, 2004. Pp. vii + 311, illus. (paper).

This book presents the contributions of the "Table Ronde" held at the IFAO from 24 to 26 September 2001.

J. P. Allen concentrates on the presence of dialect features in the Pyramid Texts of the Middle Kingdom. Through a clear philological analysis, always supported by examples and graphics, he concludes his study with five main points, shedding light on particular aspects of northern and southern dialects.

J. Baines investigates the origins of mortuary "texts." His rich analysis concerns "texts," that is, written statements in continuous discourse from royal and official burials, with the aim of recovering the context of their origin. Actually, the author thinks that "texts" might have originated at the end of the Second Dynasty as oral elements performed in offering rituals, first in a temple context (cf. Sahure's funerary temple) and then in royal burials. Since the transition between Sahure's offering fragments and Wenis' inscriptions is lost, Baines takes private documents as his references. He thinks that before the late Fifth Dynasty, "texts" could have been inscribed during the mortuary preparation on lost media around the mummy, suggesting that the coffin was the first support of spells.

The paper of N. Beaux focuses on the palaeographical use of divine determinatives. Through a detailed analysis, supported by examples, the author concludes that the Pyramid Texts show a specific interest in the divine nature, while the Coffin Texts exhibit a desire for classification and organization of knowledge related to the divine.

The use of the most famous resurrection spells is discussed by E. Bene and N. Guilhou. During the Middle Kingdom, this sequence of incantations was split into a principal group PT 213-19, and other two sections: PT 220-22 and PT 245-46. The layout on the bottom and on the lid of the coffin is especially linked to the trip of the deceased one: the lid is the point of arrival of this journey and at the same time the beginning of the dead's voyage in the burial chamber. Innovations are found at Saqqara, with Pyramid Texts added on the lid, and in Upper Egypt, with drawings of star clocks. Moreover, their titles present these spells as "transmutation spells."

C. Berger-El-Naggar presents the...