Non-Textual Marking Systems in Ancient Egypt (and Elsewhere).

• Author: Darnell, John Coleman
• Position: Book review

Non-Textual Marking Systems in Ancient Egypt (and Elsewhere). Edited by JULIA BUDKA; FRANK KAMMERZELL; and SLAWOMIR RZEPKA. Lingua Aegyptia, Studia Monographica, vol. 16. Hamburg: WIDMAIER VERLAG, 2015. Pp. x + 322, illus. [euro]59.

The richness and diversity of hieratic and hieroglyphic texts from the roughly 3600 years of continuous written tradition of Egypt's hieroglyphic, hieratic, and demotic scripts--not to mention the wealth of Coptic inscriptional material--can overwhelm the historian and archaeologist. As the editors of the volume under review observe, it comes as little surprise that only in the last ten years have volumes dedicated to "non-textual marking systems" in Egypt begun to appear with frequency (Haring and Kaper 2009; Andrassy, Budka, and Kammerzell 2009). The volume under review complements and expands upon those slightly earlier studies, presenting nearly two dozen articles under the headings "Methods & Semiotic," "Architecture & Builders' Marks," "Deir el-Medina," and "Pot Marks" (each with a short introductory overview). The subjects of the various contributions range in date from the Naqada III period to the Graeco-Roman era, with the majority dealing with material of New Kingdom date. The geographical range of the various studies covers the Nile Valley, including sites in the Delta (Tell el-Iswid), the Memphite region (Saqqara), Middle Egypt (Dayr Abu Hinnis, Abydos), the Thebaid, and Gebel Silsila. The parenthetical "and Elsewhere" in the title of the volume does not seem to apply, although the discussions contained within certainly have implications for understanding non-textual marking systems outside of Egypt.

One of the remarkable aspects of the study of non-textual marking systems is the diversity of media on which the ancient Egyptians recorded such systems: stone (natural rock surfaces, quarries, and ostraca), faience, ceramics, and mud brick. In one case, a pot mark may even be present on a papyrus: Andrassy's study of a pottery account from the Gebelein administrative papyri suggests that a large mr-hoe sign drawn between two sections of the account references a pot mark; this article provides a tantalizing piece of evidence for the oft-mentioned identification of pre-firing pot marks as part of the process of inspection at ceramic workshops. Nearly all of the articles in the volume under review are similarly attentive to the interdisciplinary nature of research into non-textual marking systems and...