Publication Date
c. 1160 BC
Type
Document
Language
Egyptian (Ancient)
Digital
Yes
Manuscript
Yes
Physical Dimensions
280 mm x 1195 mm (height x length)
Library
Chester Beatty
Record ID
Pap 1.2
Library Location
Egyptian Papyrus collection
Date
c. 1160 BC
Notes
Second of five large glass-mounted sections from a single papyrus scroll containing the Contendings of Horus and Seth, a series of Egyptian love-songs, an Encomium of Ramesses V, a hymn to the god Amun, a sale of a bull and other memoranda or business jottings, written in heiratic at Thebes during the reign of Ramesses V (c. 1160 BC), the 4th pharaoh of the 20th Dynasty. A colophon at the end of mythological narrative reads: 'It has come to a happy ending in Thebes, the place of Truth (?)'. The scroll was part of a larger 'Theban find' of literary texts, the remainder of which were presented to the British Museum by Edith and Chester Beatty in 1930. This plate containing on its verso the beginning of the first of a series of ancient Egyptian love songs, as well as the end of the Encomium of Ramesses V. It is one of only a few examples of Egyptian love poetry to have survived. Indeed the first stanza is by far the most perfect and intelligible specimen of its type - a Praise Song. This plate contains the first half of a series of songs consisting of seven numbered stanzas. Each stanza begins and ends with a play on its number. The first opens with an elaborate description of the ideal lover: One alone, a sister without her peer, comlier than all mankind. Behold she is like the star-goddess arising at the beginning of a happy year; of sheen surpassing, of radiant skin, lovely of eyes wherewith to gaze, sweet of lips wherewith to speak, she hath not a word too much.
Materyal
Papyrus (material), Ink (material)
Nesne Adı
Scroll (object name)
Müstensih ve Üretim Yeri
Unknown, Thebes
Yazı Tipi
Hieratic script
