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Encoding the Sacred: New Lights on Ramesside Enigmatic Writing
Polis, Stéphane; Seyr, Philipp
2021Rethinking the visual aesthetics of ancient Egyptian writing
 

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Keywords :
Ramesside; Enigmatic writing; Cryptography; Hieratic; Transcoding; Egyptian
Abstract :
[en] Enigmatic writing relies on highly creative processes, at the intersection between graphemics and visual semiotics (Werning 2020). When ‘alienating’ hieroglyphic spellings, Egyptian scribes indeed simultaneously considered possible sound values, the figurative dimension of the signs as well as associated mythological motives. This process was most probably supported by brouillons written in cursive scripts on portable media (Haring 2015) and might have been ‘deciphered’ using the same type of devices. The lack of such documents led recent studies to investigate the matter from a strictly theoretical point of view (Klotz & Stauder 2020; Roberson & Klotz 2020). Our paper aims at shedding new light on this transcoding process based on empirical evidence. A fresh analysis of O. Turin CGT 57440 (López 1982: 146–146a) reveals that the hieratic funerary composition on one side is the plain text version of the cryptographic hieroglyphic text on the other side. It is the first known case of transcoding of an enigmatic running text in cursive script on a single document. This ostracon does not only give us the opportunity to compare an enigmatic text with its hieratic equivalent: it also provides a unique glimpse into the New Kingdom scribal approaches to “visual poetry” (Morenz 2008). Furthermore, the text probably refers the actual context in which it was inscribed, namely the tomb of a scribe called Amennakhte. Finally, combining a philological commentary with an examination of the layout and writing practices, we try to answer the following crucial question: should we consider the ostracon as brouillon for a text to be monumentalized or as decoding exercise? In our view, the latter option is much more likely.
Research center :
Mondes anciens - ULiège
Disciplines :
Classical & oriental studies
Author, co-author :
Polis, Stéphane  ;  Université de Liège - ULiège > Département des sciences de l'antiquité > Egyptologie
Seyr, Philipp  ;  Université de Liège - ULiège > Mondes anciens
Language :
English
Title :
Encoding the Sacred: New Lights on Ramesside Enigmatic Writing
Publication date :
19 November 2021
Event name :
Rethinking the visual aesthetics of ancient Egyptian writing
Event organizer :
Rita Lucarelli (UCLA), Stephen Quirke (UCLondon), Hany Rashwan (University of Birmingham)
Event date :
18–20
Audience :
International
Name of the research project :
Crossing Boundaries
Funders :
F.R.S.-FNRS - Fonds de la Recherche Scientifique [BE]
Available on ORBi :
since 22 November 2021

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