Quittungen.

• Position: Book review

Quittungen. Demotische Dokumente aus Dime, vol. 2. By SANDRA L. LIPPERT and MAREN SCHEN-TULEIT. Wiesbaden: HARRASSOWITZ VERLAG, 2006. Pp. viii + 283, plates. [euro]68.

In an attempt to understand the economic and religious modes of production, modern scholars often fall into the trap of trying to understand ancient Egyptian culture using the lens of a modern interpretive model. We have often then read modern prejudices and motivations into the actions of ancient rulers and officials. One aspect of ancient Egyptian culture that needs constant examination is that of the Egyptian temple and what role that institution played. From earliest times we know that the economic livelihood of an area was tied to the management of the local temple and how that temple interfaced with the centralized Egyptian government. By the time of the Roman emperors the Egyptian temple was no longer a free-standing institution with significant land holdings as endowment. In fact, some have seen the signs of the death of Egyptian culture tied to the restrictions placed upon the temples, especially by the Ptolemaic kings and reinforced during the Roman period. It is from the Roman period that the temple-related documents examined by Lippert and Schentuleit are derived.

The sixty-nine documents presented in this fine volume mostly reside in the Egyptian Museum, Berlin collection and all derive from the town of Soknopaiu Nesos (Dime) in the Fayum. They date to the first two centuries a.d. All of the texts are written in the late Egyptian script known as Demotic. As noted in the Introduction, the project to edit these Demotic texts was begun forty years prior by K.-Th. Zauzich, who serves as editor of the series and mentor to the authors.

The volume is organized in a relatively straightforward manner. The introduction provides a history of the finding of the texts, a description of the formulae used within the Quittungen, discussion of the peculiarities in the writings and spellings of the Roman period Demotic in which the texts are written, and a summary of the nature of temple economic functions. The chapter ends with a listing of the holders of the various offices held by individuals as mentioned in the texts. The bulk of the volume consists of the catalog of texts, which includes transliterations, translations, textual commentary, and some remarks about the nature of the contents of each text. The volume finishes with a bibliography, glossary of Egyptian words, a...