Hieratische Ritzinschriften aus Theben.

• Author: Manassa, Colleen
• Position: Book Review

Hieratische Ritzinschriften aus Theben. By MOHAMMED SHERIF ALI. Gottinger Orientforschungen, IV. Reihe, vol. 34. Wiesbaden: HARRASSOWITZ VERLAG, 2002. Pp. xiv + 154, tables. [euro]86 (paper).

The omission of rock inscriptions from major paleographies of cursive Egyptian scripts, such as Georg Moller's Hieratische Palaographie, has relegated the study of incised hieratic to the background, despite publications such as Zybnek Zaba's Rock Inscriptions of Lower Nubia that have made the first steps toward improving our understanding of hieratic paleography outside of papyrus sources. Fortunately, for hieratic rock inscriptions in the immediate vicinity of the major Theban necropoleis (published prior to 1996), Ali's comprehensive volume represents another great step in this direction.

A number of scholars have recognized that rock inscriptions, especially those at quarry sites, exhibit a mixture of hieratic and hieroglyphic forms. (1) Few, however, have explicitly described the features of these texts, (2) and [section]2.2 of the work under review is an excellent contribution to the understanding of this phenomenon. While the complete paleography at the end of the volume focuses on New Kingdom Theban inscriptions, chapter 2 provides a useful overview of the paleographic characters of the texts from major quarry and rock inscription sites. (3) The primary features of the hybrid texts are elucidated and small reproductions of a few examples of the texts in question make the discussion extremely useful as an introduction to the paleography of rock inscriptions. Ali distinguishes two categories within the hybrid texts--those that contain hieratic signs and hieroglyphic signs and those in which individual signs display a "hybrid ductus"; often both categories occur within a single text.

However, Ali's discussion of the defining features of rock inscription paleography omits one important characteristic: the fluidity of the relative size of signs in rock inscriptions. For example, even in nicely carved hieroglyphic texts, signs that in monumental texts appear quite small, such as the t-loaf, can assume the size of much larger signs, such as the r-mouth. (4) The alteration of relative size is another indication of greater familiarity with hieratic--the frequency of ligatures in Middle Kingdom hieratic would have made it difficult for an ancient Egyptian scribe to determine the "correct" size of the hieroglyphs, without a working knowledge of monumental...