Millions of Jubilees

Edited by

Zahi Hawass

Jennifer Houser Wegner

PUBLICATIONS DU CONSEIL SUPRÊME DES ANTIQUITÉS DE L'ÉGYPTIE

Volume 1

Studies in Honor of David P. Silverman

© Conseil Suprême Des Antiquités De L'égyptie, Le Caire, 2010

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‘Medjay’ (no. 188) in the Onomasticon of Amenemope

Kate LiszkaUniversity of Pennsylvania

I would like to dedicate this paper to my professor, Dr. David P. Silverman. His guidance and knowledge has taught me throughout my career as a graduate student. I believe that this study

is particularly appropriate to celebrate the lifetime and scholarship of Dr. Silverman, because it represents a culmination of many of the skills that he originally taught me.

The Nubian ethnic group known as the Medjay first appears in Egyptian historical sources as early as the Sixth Dynasty. The sources which date before the New Kingdom demonstrate clearly that the Medjay ethnic group worked for the Egyptians as mercenaries.1 However, the historical sources of the New Kingdom are ambiguous concerning the mean-ing of the term ‘Medjay’ and the role of the Medjay in Egypt. In 1910, W. Max Müller pos-ited a theory that the term ‘Medjay’ in the New Kingdom no longer distinguished an ethnic group, but rather designated an occupation similar to ‘policemen’ or ‘desert-rangers’.2 This theory was more convincingly restructured by Sir Alan Gardiner in 1947.3 Since his pub-lication of this theory in 1947, most Egyptologists have accepted the theory that the word had lost its meaning as an ethnic designation in the New Kingdom.4 Although this theory is mainly supported by textual references from Deir el-Medina5, the most persuasive evi-dence is the appearance of the word ‘Medjay’ among other occupations in the Onomasticon of Amenemope.6 Although Gardiner devoted an extensive lexicographical analysis to the term ‘Medjay’ in this publication, he put forth little effort to explain the nature and posi-tion of the term ‘Medjay’ in the Onomasticon of Amenemope. In contrast to Gardiner’s work on the topic of the Medjay, Michaux-Colombot has compiled other evidence in an attempt to demonstrate that the term ‘Medjay’ in the New Kingdom does in fact refer to an ethnic group.7 Although the latter body of evidence is compelling, it has yet to explain the appearance of the term ‘Medjay’ among occupations in the Onomasticon of Amenemope. This paper will examine the entry of ‘Medjay’ in the Onomasticon of Amenemope to under-stand better its function within the entire text. Although this paper by nature investigates

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only one text, this text is extremely important for the understanding of who the ‘Medjay’ were in the New Kingdom.

The Onomasticon of AmenemopeThe Onomasticon of Amenemope was originally composed at the end of the Twentieth

Dynasty, no earlier than the reign of Ramesses IX.7b Nine copies of the manuscript exist, all of which date to Dynasties Twenty-one or Twenty-two.8 The term ‘Medjay’, no. 188, appears in only two of copies of this text, namely in the Golenischeff copy9 and in a copy made up of a few papyrus fragments from the Ramesseum.10 The Golenischeff copy, an early Twenty-first Dynasty version, is the most comprehensive and complete. It was found inside of a ceramic vessel at El-Hibeh together with the Report of Wenamun and the Tale of Woe. 11 These three papyri have many similarities in their paleography and orthography. Gardiner suggests that the Golenischeff copy of the Onomasticon of Amenemope and the Report of Wenamun were written by the same scribe.12 However, Caminos suggests that the three texts were written by three dif-ferent scribes, but that they all were ‘products of the same scribal school or copying office’.13

In Gardiner’s commentary on the ‘Medjay’ in the Onomasticon of Amenemope, he assembles an extensive body of textual references in order to trace the development of the term ‘Medjay’. He further examines the titles wr n mDAyw, ‘Chief of the Medjay’, which first appears in the Thirteenth Dynasty14 and the title Hry mDAyw, ‘Captain of the Medjay’ which first appears dur-ing the mid Eighteenth Dynasty.15 Gardiner also briefly looks at the less common title idnw n mDAyw, ‘Deputy of the Medjay’, also known from the New Kingdom.16 Thus the term ‘Medjay’ appears in three titles that are otherwise made up of traditional elements of Egyptian bureau-cratic nomenclature (Hry, wr, and idnw). Medjay’s appearance as a part of these titles supports the theory that the term ‘Medjay’ is used to represent an occupation rather than an ethnicity. These are the only titles that contain the word Medjay in the New Kingdom. Intriguingly, none of these three titles are found in the Onomasticon of Amenemope. Gardiner concludes that each of these titles also indicate an occupation.17

The Onomasticon of Amenemope as a Didactic TextThe beginning of the Onomasticon of Amenemope clearly states that it was intended to be

a didactic text (sbAyt) ‘for clearing the mind, for instruction of the ignorant and for learning all things that exist’.18 Its role as a didactic text is further indicated by the fact that numerous copies of the text exist, two of which are written on ostraca and one of which is written on a writing board.19 Ostraca and writing boards are media that frequently preserve New Kingdom examples of writing exercises. Two papyrus copies (Golenischeff and BM 10474) use red ink to distinguish certain phrases from the rest of the text. School texts also frequently use red ink to highlight a part of the text.20 Furthermore, all of the copies of the Onomasticon of Amenemope are fraught with orthographic errors, and their scribes tended to write out the determinatives fully rather than use the more abstract, contemporary diagonal strokes.21 The combination of all of these elements in one text indicates its use in instructing students how to write.22 Based on their archaeological context, the Ramesseum fragments very likely were part of a text that was used in the scribal school that existed there.23 Onomastica were perfect teaching tools for new scribes of Late Egyptian who learned by the ‘group writing’ of words rather than by indi-vidual phonemes. They were taught to reproduce the words by ‘sight’ (graphic representation) rather than by ‘sound’ (pronunciation). This trend caused determinatives to function more as dividers of words, rather than strictly as aids to indicate the meaning of the word.24 In short, it

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is certain that the Onomasticon of Amenemope was used as a didactic text in scribal training. The appearance of the term ‘Medjay’ in the onomasticon, its orthography, and its position in the list must be examined from that perspective.

The Reading of in the Onomasticon of AmenemopeIn both the Golenischeff and the Ramesseum copies, the term ‘Medjay’ (no. 188) is writ-

ten clearly in the hieratic text. Gardiner transcribed the hieratic as (Golenischeff ) and (Ramesseum)25; he transliterated the word mDAyw. Both examples exhibit the determinatives . In the Golenischeff copy these determinatives appear after , which could serve adequately as the only determinatives for the word. However, in the Ramesseum copy, are the only determinatives that appear in the word. This group of determinatives is highly unusual in the spelling of ‘Medjay’.26 When the signs

stand alone, they can be read as war, ‘fugitive’, or as the title ATw, ‘administrator’.27 Thus, it is plausible that the entry in the Golenischeff copy only is in fact two titles that were reduced to one by Gardiner. could be read as two distinct entries: mDAyw and ATw.28 The word following mDAyw is nw, ‘hunter’ (no. 189). It is implausible for *ATw n nw to be a title, because no other known attestations of these words in combination exist. 29 ATw-officers are present in texts from Deir el-Medina. Their duties are very similar to those of the Hry mDAyw in that village.30 In fact, a witness list in a marriage contract dating to the reign of Ramesses XI (Turin 2021) includes six ATw who may have also held the title Hry mDAyw.31 Thus, mDAyw and ATw are not intrinsically associated, but occasionally occur in similar contexts.

However, there is no reason that Gardiner’s original transliteration of as mDAyw need necessarily be incorrect. Although the spelling is rare, a similar spelling appears in three letters, Berlin 10487, 10488, 10489.32 These three letters all relate the same conspiracy in which the death of two Medjay— —was planned. All three letters were written by the same person, probably on the same day. The letters differ only in the names of the individuals to whom they are addressed. They date approximately to year 10 of the wHm-mswt, during the reign of Ramesses XI.33 The fact that these letters are approximately contemporary to the Onomasticon of Amenemope supports the translation of the entry in the onomasticon as simply mDAyw. Moreover, the Ramesseum fragments of the Onomasticon of Amenemope do not have these extra determinatives. In the Ramesseum copy, these determinatives must belong to mDAyw. This fact is sufficient grounds to validate Gardiner’s transliteration without ATw.

Orthography in the Onomasticon of AmenemopeIn the Onomasticon of Amenemope, ‘Medjay’ (no. 188) is not the only term that displays

unusual orthography. Many of the terms directly surrounding ‘Medjay’ utilize determinatives that do not fit the known meaning of the word (see Appendix). Uncommon determinatives are found in words like iqd ‘builder’ (no. 184-186), xAy n rmny ‘measurer of Remen-Land’ (no. 195-196), and mri ‘groom’ (no. 203). Moreover, determinatives that are commonly attributed to a term’s homonym are mistakenly applied to the term in the onomasticon as well, such as sAqw(ty), ‘stone mason’ (no. 187) and wHm ‘herald’ (no. 197). In addition to errors with deter-minatives, the scribes of the Onomasticon of Amenemope also made basic spelling mistakes. For example, weak vowels and ‘t’s sometimes occur between determinatives, as in iqd ‘builder’ (no. 184-186) and sAwty ‘guardian’ (no. 194, 204). Many of these graphic errors can be attributed to the scribe’s familiarity with ‘group writing’, especially in the words that include an extra ‘t’ or ‘y’. These errors also demonstrate the scribe’s lack of familiarity with determinatives. Complex

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determinatives were most frequently abbreviated to simple diagonal strokes in non didactic texts of the Twentieth Dynasty.34

In short, although the spelling of ‘Medjay’ in the Golenischeff copy of the Onomasticon of Amenemope is unusual when compared to the majority of Late Egyptian texts, it is consistent with the orthography of that single text. Moreover, it is also consistent with the Tale of Woe that was found with the Golenischeff copy of the onomasticon. The Tale of Woe has been noted for its unusual—and even abominable—orthography.35 These features are consistent with texts used as part of scribal training.

The organization of the subsection and group in which ‘Medjay’ appears in the Onomasticon of Amenemope

The entries in the Onomasticon of Amenemope are grouped according to categories that share certain semantic or taxonomic features. Gardiner subdivides the text into 9 large groups.36 ‘Medjay’ appears in Gardiner’s group III, ‘Persons, Court, Offices, and Occupations’ (nos. 63-299). This group is the largest in Gardiner’s schema. Even within the large groups, the items might further be separated into subsections that have something in common.37 Subsections are often vague and not well understood. However, the entries in this group are ordered in a loose, diminishing hierarchy.38 ‘Medjay’ is the first entry in a conjectural subsection in which most words are names of occupations concerning the secu-rity of people, places, or goods (nos. 188-204).

The Onomasticon of Amenemope also includes a subsection of foreigners or foreign loca-tions (nos. 230-294). However, Nubians and locations in Nubia are for the most part mini-mal in that subsection or elsewhere in the text.39 Neither Medja (the land)40 nor Medjay (the people) are listed in that subsection. The single occurrence of the word ‘Medjay’ in the text was purposefully placed among the other occupations.

Entries in the Golenischeff copy of the onomasticon appear in red ink at approximately regular intervals throughout the text. Occasionally an entry written in red is the first word in one of the large groups identified by Gardiner. However, these so-called ‘rubrics’ do not separate subsections.41 For example, nos. 184 and 185 are written in red ink although they fall towards the end of a subsection on craftsmen (nos. 154-187).42 Besides the Golenischeff copy, only the BM 10474 copy of the Onomasticon of Amenemope contains these ‘rubrics’.43 When comparing the use of ‘rubrics’ in the two copies, it is clear that the entries written in red, which indicate the beginning large groups, are the same. However, there is no consis-tency in the remaining ‘rubrics’ that appear elsewhere in the papyri.44 It is likely that the remaining ‘rubrics’ indicate an important feature of the papyrus from which the scribe was copying, such as the beginning of a new line, rather than serve to organize the structure of the text.

The subsection on craftsmen (nos. 154-187), which directly precedes nos. 188-204, has been studied by Steinmann. He notes that there is no simple hierarchy within the subsec-tion, but the first term used, Hmw, is significant in that it is a general term for all crafts-men.45 The last entry among the craftsman subsection is sAqw(ty) ‘stone mason’ (no. 187). Gardiner and others have noted that there is an ‘abrupt transition’ between this entry and the following entry, ‘Medjay’.46 However, sAqw(ty) ‘stone mason’ may have been purposely chosen to appear last in the craftsmen subsection. The word sAqw(ty), ‘stone mason’, is rarely determined with a .47 The use of a determinative may have been purposely chosen to soften the transition into the following subsection on security through a pun on

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the word sAq. If this is the case, then sAq could be considered as part of both groups with two different meanings.48 As the first entry in the subsection on security sAq could also be considered a general term for all security, just as Hmw was a general term for craftsmen at the beginning of its subsection.

Most of the entries among nos. 188-204 are occupations that pertain to the security of people, places, animals, or goods (see Appendix).49 This observation is emphasized by the fre-quent use of the determinatives or which appear in 12 of the 18 entries.50 Moreover, mDAyw (no. 188), nw (no. 189), ski (no. 198)51, mSkb (no. 199), and saSA (no. 200) are some of the known types of specialized police forces discussed by Andreu.52 Counter-intuitively, the onomasticon does not include the basic police force, the sA-pr.53 These specialized police forces protected the royal tombs (mDAyw), quarrying expeditions (nw), the military (ski), the collection of taxes or the transporting of military boats (mSkb), the palace and the royal harem (saSA). That is, these specialized police forces all protect people, places, or goods that are important to the running of the king’s house. To Andreu’s list of specialized police forces, one should add the xt xt (no. 202) who protected the transportation of goods for the pharaoh or the military over land54 and possibly the TAy xaw, ‘Bearers of Weapons’ (no. 201), who Gardiner associated with the military.55

The order of these occupations is not determined by any apparent hierarchy of rank or by what the occupations protected. The lack of hierarchy in this subsection can be seen clearly in nos. 193 (doorkeeper, iry aA) and 194 (guardian, sAwty). At Deir el-Medina, doorkeepers and guardians are frequently mentioned in reference to one another. It is clear the guardians held a higher position than doorkeepers, so much so that being a doorkeeper was a stepping stone to becoming a guardian.56 If the entries were listed hierarchically in the onomasticon, one would expect the guardian to precede the doorkeeper. At Deir el-Medina, Medjay also occasionally appear in the company of the guardians and doorkeepers.57 Two lists of person-nel from Deir el-Medina rank the position of a doorkeeper among other occupations also found in the Onomasticon of Amenemope.58 In the first list, a doorkeeper ranks lower than a potter, which might be seen in the order of entries in the onomasticon. In the second list, a doorkeeper ranks higher than a gypsum worker, a Medjay, and a potter, contrary to the order found in the onomasticon. Thus, it appears that occupations in the security subsection of the onomasticon are all of the same relative status. It does not matter what particular order they fall in among themselves.

The list of words in the Onomasticon of Amenemope occasionally digresses from the theme of a subsection by following a line of semantic connections from one title to another. For example, there is a sequence of nos. 188-192 which begins with the Medjay. In the New Kingdom, they likely acted as a specialized police force who not only guarded the royal tombs, but also worked as desert-rangers.59 Medjay is followed by hunters (nw) whose hunting in the desert trained them well for a job as a specialized police force who protected expeditions into the desert for purposes such as quarrying stone. A clear connection between Medjay and hunters existed, and some people qualified themselves as both Medjay and hunters in their tombs.60 Thus the author of the onomasticon made the semantic connec-tion between Medjay and hunters in the order of entries. However, the mention of hunters naturally leads to the hunting of other animals. The copy of the onomasticon from the Ramesseum fragments includes a harpooner of hippopotami (no. 190A). In both copies a diver is included (no. 190); presumably, he hunts underwater as opposed to the hunter who

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hunts on land. Despite this digression, the text returns to the subsection’s theme of secu-rity. In order to provide a smooth transition from this hunting subsection back to security, the scribe then mentions two titles that deal with the security of animals (no. 191-192). Although the security subsection of the onomasticon is ordered neither by hierarchy nor by what is protected, there is an inherent ‘stream of consciousness’ that permeates the connec-tion from one entry to the next.61

The subsection on security (nos. 187-204) is part of a larger group in the onomasticon. Nos. 63-229 make up Gardiner’s group III, which he entitled ‘Persons, Court, Offices, Occupations’.62 Oleg Berlev convincingly argues that this large section is an enumeration of the king’s house and those who work for it, its goods or its protection. Berlev juxtaposes this group to Gardiner’s group IV, named ‘Classes, Tribes, and Types of Human Being’ (nos. 230-312). He demonstrates that group IV is made up of people who were free and their personal households.63 Thus, the scribe of the onomasticon is purposely juxtaposing these two groups: the king’s house vs. private households. If Berlev is correct, the Medjay (no. 188) clearly fall among people who work for the king in some capacity. Their role as police guarding the Valley of the Kings and the Valley of the Queens, as seen through numerous texts from Deir el-Medina, illustrates how they logically fit into group III of the Onomasticon of Amenemope.64

Nevertheless, one must remember that the Onomasticon of Amenemope was written as a school text. Fulfilling the didactic purpose of such a text, it would enumerate a list of terms that scribes in training would use repetitively in their profession. A scribe who worked for the government would specifically need to know about the Medjay who worked for the king. Therefore, it is fitting that the term ‘Medjay’ appears among other royal occupations that scribes will encounter frequently during their careers. However, the appearance of the Medjay in the onomasticon does not mean that Medjay only worked in this capacity. There could have been numerous Medjay who did not work for the king, but those Medjay were unimportant to the world of a scribe being trained for bureaucratic service.

By examining the term ‘Medjay’ in the Onomasticon of Amenemope, it is clear that the entry in this text refers to members of an occupation who worked within the Egyptian administrative system. The term ‘Medjay’ in the text denotes individuals who worked under the authority of the king. The entry in the Onomasticon of Amenemope does not refer to an ethnicity. Yet, the onomasticon does not reflect on whether or not members of the Medjay occupation were also members of the Medjay ethnicity. The onomasticon does not indicate that members of the Medjay ethnicity no longer existed. Other ethnic Medjay might have worked in another capacity. In short, the term ‘Medjay’ in the onomasticon certainly refers to an occupation in the New Kingdom, but that does not mean that the term was used exclusively to refer to an occupation. Additional use of the term ‘Medjay’ may come to light when evidence outside of the Onomasticon of Amenemope is examined.

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Appendix

On. Nr.65

Gardiner Onomastica, Golenischeff copy Transliteration66 Translation67 Comments

184 68 iqd nDst Potter This is part of the craftsmen section. is an unusual addition.69

185 iqd hnw Potter of hnw measures

This is part of the craftsmen section. is an unusual addition.

186 iqd inbw Builder of walls This is part of the craftsmen section. is an unusual addition. Inbw uses extra determinatives.

187 sAqw-(ty) Stone mason This is part of the craftsmen section. It may rely on a pun to make a transition into the security section. is a typical determinative for its homonym, the verb sAq, ‘to protect’.

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On.Nr.65Gardiner Onomastica, Golenischeff copy G

Transliteration66 Translation67 Comments

188 mDAyw Medjay This is the security section. is an unusual addition. Medjay is plural whereas most entries in this section are singular.

189 nw Hunters—who often policed the desert70

This is the security section. The entry starts a digression into a series of 2-3 entries concerning hunting. The entry is plural like mDAyw.

190 hrpwty Diver This is the digression on hunting. Hunting in water juxtaposes hunting on land by the nw.

190A71 msnw Harpooner of hippopotami

This is the digression on hunting.

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On.Nr.65Gardiner Onomastica, Golenischeff copy Gol

Transliteration66 Translation67 Comments

191 Hry miAt Chief of working quarters (farm/cow building)

This entry returns the sequence back to the topic of security, by linking the hunting of animals with the security of animals.

192 Hry mDt Chief of cattle yard

This entry returns the sequence back to the topic of security, by linking the hunting of animals with the security of animals.

193 iry aA Doorkeeper This is the security section.

194 sAwty Guardian This is the security section.

appears between deter-minatives72

195 -196 xAy n(?) rmnyw

Measurer of Remen-land

The reason for this entry’s appearance is unclear. are unusual determinatives.

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On.Nr.65Gardiner Onomastica, Golenischeff copy Gole

Transliteration66 Translation67 Comments

197 wHm (Military) herald

The reason for this entry’s appearance is unclear, but it is a military position like nos. 198, 201, 202.73 is unusual for the noun ‘herald’, but is more commonly found in the verb ‘to repeat’.

198 ski Assault officer. A type of police force74

This is the security section. is an unusual addition. Skt is the typical transliteration.

199 mSkb Tax officials—A type of police force75 or water transporters for military boats76

This is the security section, but it alludes to securing goods in transport section below.

200 saSA Police in charge of the royal palace and harem77

This is the security section.

201 TAy xaw Bearer of weapons

This is the security section.

is an unusual addition.

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On.Nr.65Gardiner Onomastica, Golenischeff copy Gol

Transliteration66 Translation67 Comments

202 xt xt Land porters for military or royal household78

This is the security section but the entry makes a transition towards occupations concerning the transporting of goods. is a fully unusual spelling.79

203 mri Groom or Squire

This section concerns the t r a n s p o r t i n g of goods. Mri were connected to the loading and transport of goods.80 is an unusual addition.

204 sAwty Ax(t?) Guardian of crops

This section concerns the t r a n s p o r t i n g of goods. It is unclear whether these crops were harvested or not. As with the above sAwty (no. 194), the comes unusually after its determina-tives .

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On.Nr.65Gardiner Onomastica, Golenischeff copy Gole

Transliteration66 Translation67 Comments

205 nfw Sailor This entry begins a section on boat person-nel. It makes a transition by linking the transportation of goods via a boat. is an unusual writ-ing.

206 iry HAt Pilot of a boat This is a section on boat personnel.

207 iry Hmy Steersman This is a section on boat personnel.

Notes1 See among others, A. Gardiner, Ancient Egyptian Onomastica, Oxford, 1947, *82; B. Trigger, Nubia under the

Pharaohs (Boulder, Colorado, 1976), 54-104; S. Giuliani, ‘Medja Sources in the Old Kingdom’, Discussions in Egyptology 42 (1998), 41-54; B. Williams, ‘Medjay’, in: K. A. Bard (ed.) Encyclopedia of the Archaeology of Ancient Egypt (London, 1999), 485-487 and K. Zibelius-Chen, ‘Die Medja in altägyptischen Quellen’, SAK 36 (2007), 391-405.

2 W. M. Müller, Egyptological Researches (Washington, 1910). 72-76.3 Gardiner, Onomastica, *73-*89, esp. *82.4 See among others, A. Erman and H. Grapow, Wörterbuch der Aegyptischen Sprache (Leipzig, 1971), 186; L. Lesko

and B. S. Lesko, A Dictionary of Late Egyptian (2nd Edition), (Providence, 2002), 220; R. Hannig, Großes Hand-wörterbuch Ägyptisch-Deutsch (Mainz, 2005) 380 and A. R. Al-Ayedi, Index of Egyptian Administrative, Religious and Military Titles of the New Kingdom (Ismailia, Egypt, 2006), 282-283.

5 For example, see J. Černý, Late Ramesside Letters (Bruxelles, 1973), 263-278 and A. McDowell, Jurisdiction in the Workmen’s Community of Deir el-Medina (Leiden, 1990), 51-55.

6 Gardiner, Onomastica, *73-*89, no. 188. Gardiner numbered all of the terms in the onomasticon. This paper will refer to those terms only by their numbers rather than the page on which they appear in Gardiner, Onomastica.

7 Michaux-Colombot argues that all Medjay were ethnically Nubian in the New Kingdom. See D. Michaux-Co-lombot, ‘The MD3y.w, not Policemen but an Ethnic Group from the Eastern Desert’, in: C. Bonnet (ed.) Études nubiennes: Conférence de Genève. Actes du VIIe Congrès international d’études nubiennes, 3-8 septembre 1990 (Genève, 1992), 29-36 and D. Michaux-Colombot, ‘Qui sont les Medjay et où se situait leur territoire?’, in: M.-C. Bruwier (ed.) Pharaons Noirs: Sur la Piste des Quarante Jours (Belgium, 2007), 85 and 90-91. Other scholars, however, believe

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the Medjay and the ‘Captains of the Medjay’ are no longer an ethnic group in the New Kingdom. Yet, they believe that ethnicity remains a factor for those who held the title wr n mDAyw, ‘Chief of the Medjay’ (see among others: T. Säve-Söderbergh and L. Troy, New Kingdom Pharaonic Sites: The Finds and the Sites (Uppsala, 1991), 207-209; S. Feriola and V. Fidanza, ‘Los SAsw y los mDAyw en sus relaciones con el estado egipcio’, Revista de Estudios de Egiptologa 2 (1991), 36 and Zibelius-Chen, SAK 36, 401-402).

7b Gardiner, Onomastica, 25.8 Eight of these copies were published by Gardiner, Onomastica, 24-26. The ninth, BM 10474 verso, was published

by F.-R. Herbin, ‘Une Version inachevée de l’onomasticon d’Aménemopé (P. BM 10474 vo)’, BIFAO (1986), 187-198.

9 Gardiner, Onomastica, pls, 7-13.10 Gardiner, Onomastica, pls. 19-21 and W. Spiegelberg, Hieratic Ostraka & Papyri Found by J.E. Quibell, in the Rames-

seum, 1895-6 (London, 1898), pl. 44.11 The exact province is unknown, because it was discovered by local Egyptians and sold on the antiquities market in

1890. See R. Caminos, A Tale of Woe: From a Hieratic Papyrus in the A.S. Pushkin Museum of Fine Arts in Moscow (Oxford, 1977), 1-2 and Gardiner, Onomastica, 27.

12 Gardiner, Onomastica, 28 and C. Nims, ‘Egyptian Catalogues of Things’, JNES 9 (1950), 254.13 Caminos, A Tale of Woe, 3.14 Gardiner, Onomastica, *77, *86.15 Gardiner, Onomastica, *83-*85. These titles are further studied by: Černý, Late Ramesside Letters, 263-278; Säve-Sö-

derbergh and Troy, New Kingdom Pharaonic Sites, 207-209; E. Cohen, Egyptianization and the acculturation hypoth-esis: An investigation of the Pan-Grave, Kerman and C-Group material cultures in Egypt and Sudan during the Second Intermediate Period and Eighteenth Dynasty. (Ph.D. diss., Yale University, 1992), 130-155), and Zibelius-Chen, SAK 36, 401-402 among others.

16 Gardiner, Onomastica, *85, *88; McDowell, Jurisdiction in the Workmen’s Community, 57; Al-Ayedi, Index, 189 and Michaux-Colombot, ‘Qui sont les Medjay’, 85.

17 Gardiner, Onomastica, *83-*85.18 Translation in W. K. Simpson, ‘Onomastica’, in: D. B. Redford (ed.) The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt (Ox-

ford, 2001), 605; see also M. Clagett, Ancient Egyptian Science: Volume One Knowledge and Order (Philadelphia, 1989), 237.

19 Gardiner, Onomastica, 24-26.20 O. Goelet, ‘Writing Ramesside Hieratic: What the Late-Egyptian Miscellanies Tell us About Scribal Education’, in:

S. H. D’Auria (ed.) Servant of Mut: Studies in Honor of Richard A. Fazzini (Leiden, 2008), 103.21 The practice of using diagonal strokes to replace determinatives occurs first in the Twentieth Dynasty in texts writ-

ten by scribes who have completed their training. They appear in ‘common words and formulaic expressions’ and increase the ‘level of abstraction in hieratic’ (Goelet, ‘Writing Ramesside Hieratic’, 108).

22 Ibid., 103-106.23 On which see C. Leblanc, ‘L’École du temple (Ât-Sebaït) et le Per-Ankh (Maison de vie). À propos de récentes

découvertes effectuées dans le contexte du Ramesseum’, Memnonia 15 (2004), 93-101.24 Goelet, ‘Writing Ramesside Hieratic’, 106-107. The existence of this trend in Late Egyptian texts should prompt

scholars to be extremely cautious when attempting to elucidate the meaning of words from their determinatives.25 Only the end of the word is present in the Ramesseum fragments. This fragmented spelling was reconstructed by

Gardiner (Onomastica, pl. 20, line 14) from two pieces of papyri (Spiegelberg, Hieratic Ostraka & Papyri, pl. 44, fragment M6+M10, second line).

26 These determinatives do not appear in any of the typical spellings of the word (see among others: A. Erman and H. Grapow, Wörterbuch der Aegyptischen Sprache (Leipzig, 1971), 186; A. Erman and H. Grapow, Wörterbuch der Aegyptischen Sprache: Die Belegstellen (Berlin, 1982), 270-272; Hannig, Großes Handwörterbuch Ägyptisch-Deutsch,

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380; Lesko, Dictionary of Late Egyptian, 220; Al-Ayedi, Index, 189, 244, 282-283, 391).27 For the definition of ATw, see among others: Lesko, Dictionary of Late Egyptian, 10 and Al-Ayedi, Index, 1. For the

reading of ATw instead of war for this title, see G. Posener, ‘Sur la valeur Phonétique AT > At du signe ’, Rd’É 13 (1963), 127-128. This title is not to be confused with the title wartw, which also can mean ‘administrator’. See among others, R. Leprohon, ‘Some remarks on the ‘administrative department’ (wart) of the Late Middle King-dom’, JSSEA 10 (1979-80), 161-171. S. Quirke, ‘The Regular Titles of the Late Middle Kingdom’, Rd’É 37 (1986), 110; J. Wegner, ‘Regional Control in Middle Kingdom Lower Nubia: The Function and History of the Site of Areika’, JARCE 32 (1995), 152; S. Quirke, Titles and Bureaux of Egypt, 1850-1700 BC (London, 2004), 143.

28 Michaux-Colombot argued that should be read as mDA(yw)-ATw, a title which she consid-ers to be a ‘distinction honorifique’ and considers to be different from the word mDAyw when it stands alone. Thus, she argues that mDA(yw)-ATw—as a conjunction of these two words—is the name of an occupation. She believes that mDAyw is solely an ethnic designation (Michaux-Colombot, ‘Qui sont les Medjay’, 85, 91). Regardless of her re-reading of the title, the word mDAyw is still a distinct element of the occupational title(s) that is (are) present in this entry. If the of the Golenischeff copy are to be read as ATw, then it could very likely be a separate oc-cupation from the word mDAyw. There is no inherent reason why the two titles should be conjoined into one.

29 See among others, Al-Ayedi, Index, 1, 28430 As McDowell explains in detail, the duties of the ATw-officers are very similar to those of the Hry mDAyw. Their duties

are not, however, similar to the duties of the mDAyw (McDowell, Jurisdiction in the Workmen’s Community, 54-58, which is the term that appears in the Onomasticon of Amenemope.)

31 The second column of the witness list in Papyrus Turin 2021 contains 7 lines (15-21). Line 15 reads nA Hryw mDAyw

n pA xr, ‘The (plural) chiefs of the Medjay of the tomb’. This plural title may indicate that it was held by each of the following six people (lines 16-21). These six people are noted by the title ATw immediately preceding their personal names (J. Černý and T. E. Peet, ‘A Marriage Settlement of the Twentieth Dynasty: An Unpublished Document from Turin’, JEA 13 (1927), pl. 15, lines 15-21). It is possible that each of these ATw were also a Hry mDAyw. However it is also plausible that nA Hryw mDAyw n pA Hr, refer to two or more other people whose names are not specified in the witness list (McDowell, Jurisdiction in the Workmen’s Community, 57; J. Janssen, Commodity Prices from the Ramessid Period: An economic study of the village of necropolis workmen at Thebes (Leiden, 1975), 405.

32 Černý, Late Ramesside Letters, no. 21, no. 34, no. 35; translated in E. Wente, Late Ramesside Letters (Chicago, 1967), 53, 69, 69. Michaux-Colombot would also like to read these occurrences as mDA(yw)-ATw (‘Qui sont les Medjay’, 85, footnote 37). She further points to one other attestation of the supposed title mDA(yw)-ATw in an extended version of chapter 167 of the Book of the Dead (Louvre 3248) (‘Qui sont les Medjay’, 85, footnote 37). Because, however, this copy of the Book of the Dead is not contemporary to the late New Kingdom or early Third Intermediate Period and because religious texts often are not comparable to other material, we must discount this example (W. Pleyte, Chapitres supplémentaires au Livre des Morts: Traduction et Commentaire 164-174 (Leiden, 1881), 75; P. Barguet, Le Livre des Morts des Anciens Égyptiens (Paris, 1967), 240).

33 Wente, Late Ramesside Letters, 16.34 Goelet, ‘Writing Ramesside Hieratic’, 108.35 Caminos, A Tale of Woe, 6-7.36 Gardiner, Onomastica, 37; Clagett, Ancient Egyptian Science, 237-239.37 O. Berlev, ‘Bureaucrats’, in: S. Donadoni (ed.) The Egyptians (Chicago, 1997), 92.38 Simpson, ‘Onomastica’, 605.39 In distinct contrast to the numerous northern and western foreigners and their locations (nos. 230 ff.), only a few

Nubians and Nubian locations appear intermittently between nos. 278-294. This section does begin with the general term nHs(yw), but is only followed by obscure locations and some Egyptian establishments in Nubia. This omission of many Nubian territories and peoples may reflect the so-called ‘Depopulation’ of Lower Nubia that occurred in the Twentieth dynasty (T. Säve-Söderbergh, ‘The Egyptianization and Depopulation of Lower Nubia’,

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Kush 15 (1967), 237-242; Trigger, Nubia under the Pharaohs, 134-137; Säve-Söderbergh and Troy, New Kingdom Pharaonic Sites, 6-8; E. S. Cohen, Egyptianization and the acculturation hypothesis, 19-20, 198-200).

40 Gardiner points out that references to the land of Medja decrease exponentially from the Old Kingdom. By the New Kingdom, there are almost no references to the land of Medja. He further suggests that references to the land of Medja from the Middle Kingdom onward were examples of archaizing (Gardiner, Onomastica, *78-*79).

41 Gardiner, Onomastica, 29, 36-37; Nims, JNES 9, 254.42 F. Steinmann, ‘Untersuchungen zu den in der handwerklich-künstlerischen Produktion beschäftigten Personen und

Berufsgruppen des Neuen Reichs’, ZÄS 118, 153. Gardiner notes that the rubricizing of nos. 184-185 ‘seems point-less’ (Onomastica, *72).

43 Herbin, BIFAO 86, 187-198.44 Compare Gardiner, Onomastica, 07a to Herbin, BIFAO, 197.45 Steinmann, ZÄS 118, 153.46 Gardiner, Onomastica, *73 and Steinmann, ZÄS 118, 153.47 Erman and Grapow, Wörterbuch der Aegyptischen Sprache III, 25-26 and Lesko, Dictionary of Late Egyptian, 9. This

determinative is more commonly used in the word sAq ‘to protect’. ‘To protect’ is a secondary meaning of the verb sAq. It more commonly means ‘to pull together’ or ‘to gather together’.

48 Alternatively the scribe who transcribed the text at one point did not recognize a new subsection in the text. The use of this determinative would be an orthographic error based on a homonym.

49 Gardiner does not recognize any connection between nos. 188-204. He does note that entries 197, 198, 201, and 202 are all ‘implying coercion of one kind or another’ (Onomastica, *91). Nevertheless, not all entries between nos. 188-204 deal with security either. Some of the anomalies can be explained (see below and the appendix for nos. 190, 190A, 203). Yet, the reason for the appearance of nos. 195-197 in this subsection is still unclear.

50 Gardiner notes that the use of these determinatives is important in the semantic development of the word ‘Medjay’ (Onomastica, *82).

51 Ski is the first of some lower rank members of the military in this subsection on security, especially nos. 197, 198, 201, and 202 (see Appendix). Curiously, military titles are not grouped together in the text. Instead they occur throughout the Onomasticon of Amenemope. High military positions are found among the king’s entourage and ad-ministrative officials (nos. 77, 87-89, 95-98). Military scribes appear lower (no. 107-108) among moderately ranked officials. Lower rank military positions appear in the subsection pertaining to security (nos. 197, 198, 201, 202). And lastly the commanders of the troops, chariotry, and infantry (nos. 234-237) appear in the fourth large section on ‘Classes, Tribes, and Types of Human Beings’ (see Gardiner, Onomastica, *24-*25; Clagett, Ancient Egyptian Sci-ence, 257, footnote 4).

52 G. Andreu, ‘Polizei’, in: W. Helck & E. Otto (eds.), Lexikon der Ägyptologie (Wiesbaden, 1982), 1068-1071. Andreu does not refer to the Onomasticon of Amenemope in his discussion of police in Egypt.

53 Micheux-Colombot, ‘Qui sont les Medjay’, 84. For information on the sA-pr, see among others, Andreu, ‘Polizei’, 1069. 54 J.-M. Kruchten, ‘Lecture et signification du titre (Onomastica, no 202)’, Cd’É 60 (1985),109-116.55 Gardiner, Onomastica, *24.56 J. Černý, A community of workmen at Thebes in the Ramesside Period (Cairo, 1973), 149, 161-162 and McDowell,

Jurisdiction in the Workmen’s Community, 44 and 47.57 Černý, A community of workmen, 279.58 O. IFAO 351, 2 and O. Gardiner 249, 6 cited in Černý, A community of workmen, 170 and McDowell, Jurisdiction

in the Workmen’s Community, 42.59 Gardiner, Onomastica, *82 and Andreu, ‘Polizei’, 1069.60 Gardiner, Onomastica, *85-*85; Andreu, ‘Polizei’, 1069; Zibelius-Chen, SAK 36, 402 and Säve-Söderbergh and

Troy, New Kingdom Pharaonic Sites, 208.61 Further observations about the connections between terms in this subsection can be found in the Appendix.

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62 Gardiner, Onomastica, 37.63 O. Berlev, ‘Bureaucrats’, 91-94.64 Černý, A community of workmen, 277-279 and McDowell, Jurisdiction in the Workmen’s Community, 51-54.65 Nos. 184-207 were examined in detail in this paper and appendix because these entries all fall under one so-called

‘rubric’. Nos. 184-185 were written in red ink. The rest of the entries are written in black ink until nos. 208-209. As argued above, the use of red ink does not indicate a subsection. Nevertheless, by examining a series of entries that might include more than one subsection, one can also examine the transitions between subsections.

66 The transliterated words presented in this paper follow Gardiner, Onomastica, for consistency, regardless of the other known spellings. This convention is followed for all entries except for no. 202, xt xt, which had been originally transliterated as sw by Gardiner. In 1985, Kruchten persuasively argued for a different transliteration for no. 202 (Kruchten, Cd’É 60; G. Posener, ‘Encore le Titre ’, Rd’É 37 (1986), 150-151.)

67 The translations of the entries below follow Gardiner, Onomastica, unless otherwise noted.68 Entries that are underlined indicate that they were written in red ink.69 ‘Unusual addition’ means that the orthography of this entry in the Onomasticon of Amenemope is not consistent with

other examples of this word that can be found in various references including but not limited to: Al-Ayedi, Index; Erman & Grapow, Wörterbuch der Aegyptischen Sprache; Erman & Grapow, Die Belegstellen, Lesko, Dictionary of Late Egyptian; and Hannig, Großes Handwörterbuch Ägyptisch-Deutsch, 1995.

70 Andreu, ‘Polizei’, 1069.71 Msnw is only present in the Ramesseum fragments and not the Golenischeff copy.72 SAwty is common in the Nineteenth Dynasty, while sAw is prevalent in the Twentieth Dynasty (Černý, A community

of workmen, 149). Perhaps the error in the placement of the ty occurred when the scribe realized after he had written the word that he should have written it with an archaized spelling.

73 Gardiner, Onomastica, *91.74 Andreu, ‘Polizei’, 1070.75 Ibid., 1070.76 Kruchten, Cd‘É, 116.77 Andreu, ‘Polizei’, 1070 and D. Redford, The Akhenaten Temple Project (Warminster, 1976), 109.78 Kruchten, Cd‘É, 116 and Posener, Rd‘É 37, 150.79 Ibid., 109-116.80 Ibid., Cd’É, 114-115.81 See footnote 72.

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