Papiro Ieratico n. 54003: Estratti magici e rituali del Primo Medio Regno by AlessandroRoccati; The Magical Texts of Papyrus Leiden I 348 by J. F. BorghoutsReview by: Leonard H. LeskoJournal of Near Eastern Studies, Vol. 32, No. 4 (Oct., 1973), pp. 495-496Published by: The University of Chicago PressStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/543248 .

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BOOK REVIEWS 495

where an unchanging situation is assumed a priori on the basis of later evidence. It is especially in this connection that the dis- regard for chronology of the evidence is disturbing.

The discussion of itrw, simultaneously investigated by Oertel, Herodots Agyptischer Logos und die Glaubwilrdigkeit Herodots (Bonn, 1970), pp. 39 ff. (which provides a more complete synopsis of previous treat- ments of this question) after carefully weighing the available evidence, supports the view that itrw is a road measure of approxi- mate length (10.5 km.) rather than a specific length. The use of this measure as basis for the computation of Egypt's total area is the topic of the final discussion.

Special mention has to be made of the quality of copies of the textual evidence on which the thesis is based. Those from the Sesostris I chapel at Karnak are in part better than those published by Chevrier and Lacau.

HANS GOEDICKE The Johns Hopkins University

Papiro leratico n. 54003: Estratti magici e rituali del Primo Medio Regno. By ALESSANDRO ROCCATI. "Catalogo del Museo Egizio di Torino: Serie Prima," vol. 2. Turin: Edizioni d'Arte Fratelli Pozzo, 1970. Pp. 63. and The Magical Texts of Papyrus Leiden I 348. By J. F. BORGHOUTS. "Oudheidkundige Medede-

lingen," vol. 51. Leiden: E. J. Brill, 1971. Pp. xvi + 248 + 34 pls. These two exemplary publications of

Egyptian magical papyri will be welcomed not only by those interested in ancient Egyptian magic, religion, and medicine, but also by Egyptologists interested particularly in grammar, lexicography, and palaeography.

Roccati's work is the second volume in the first series (Monumenti e testi) of a general catalogue of the Egyptian Museum in Turin, and it is clear that the Catalogo is off to a good start. The Turin magical papyrus studied here consists of the recto and verso of only one sheet which was inscribed with

vertical lines of virtually unligatured hieratic with some rubricized and horizontal headings. The author ascribes this copy to the early Middle Kingdom and suggests that the text is from the First Intermediate Period. A major new source used for his notes on vocabulary is the Coffin Texts. Rocatti's obvious interest in palaeography probably led to the inclusion of a sign list that adds to the completeness of the publication but is hardly necessary for a text that was written in such a clear hand.

Borghouts's dissertation is also a very complete and carefully done edition of the magical portions of a somewhat larger papy- rus in the Museum van Oudheden te Leyden, which has been attributed to the Nineteenth Dynasty. The magical spells are contained in seventeen columns of hieratic in horizontal lines. The author is interested as much in grammar as in vocabulary, and his references are quite up to date. It is to his credit that he has identified a number of fragments of the spells in this group that had appeared elsewhere.

Both works are easy to use, with photos, transcriptions, readable translations, and glossaries. Borghouts also included several excursuses and went a step further by compiling extensive indexes.

The Middle Kingdom Turin papyrus con- tains four spells for conjuring against serpents, six for protecting the eyes, and probably two for protecting against fish, with one of these specifically for "extracting a fish-bone." The thirty-nine spells of the New Kingdom Leiden papyrus deal with headaches, belly pains, hastening childbirth, keeping one's heart in place, dispelling nightmares, and healing burn injuries. The spells of both these papyri involve mytho- logical characters and incidents usually con- cerning Horus. The rubrics of the later papyrus usually contain instructions for the use of such things as coriander, hematite, grease, twigs, snake skin, and amulets to be applied when reciting the spells. There were fewer spells with such instructions in the earlier text and the ingredients of the prescriptions were simpler, e.g., water, clay.

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496 JOURNAL OF NEAR EASTERN STUDIES

Roccati's translations are more literal than

Borghouts's. Roccati is more apt to suggest meanings for unknown words in his trans- lations without discussing them in his notes, but since he indicates the fact that they are questionable and since it is clear that his suggestions are based on context and deter- minatives, this causes no difficulty. Slightly more confusing are the differences between the text and glossary both with regard to meanings and their questionability. For the photos and transcriptions of the Turin papyrus it would have been helpful to have had an additional note to note e of the recto to the effect that the separate fragment was mounted upside-down and backwards.

LEONARD H. LESKO

University of California Berkeley

The Negative Verbal System of Late Egyptian. By SARAH ISRAELIT GROLL. London and New York: Oxford University Press, 1970. Pp. xxii + 260. $20.00. The great merit of Mrs. Groll's book lies

in her novel approach to the material. This is the semantic approach as opposed to the grammatical approach. Instead of beginning with a construction such as tw.i hr sdm and asking what different meanings it may convey, one begins with a concept such as "general present" and asks what different grammatical constructions may serve to con- vey it. The former is a relatively simple undertaking, for the language itself provides one with a system at the very outset, there being just so many different constructions and no others. The latter is infinitely more difficult since the investigator must work backwards from the existing constructions in his attempt to determine the underlying semantic system which they serve to express. Once the semantic system and the gram- matical system have been delineated, the relation between them may be investigated. It is extremely important that one work with the whole of both systems so as to get the fit between them exactly right, without gaps or overlaps. Mrs. Groll does not seem to have given much thought to these matters

or at least has not bothered to discuss them. Thus, her whole work is built upon a great many unstated assumptions which the reader is obliged to ferret out for himself. She starts right in on the comparison of semantic system with grammatical system without previous distinction between them. This leads to cumbersome and confusing state- ments like the following: "the Pattern tw.i rh.kwi st, which cannot be preceded by bn when indicating the notion of knowing, but instead is made negative by a Parallel con- jugation Pattern, i.e., bw r h.i st" (p. 27). What is meant is that the concept or notion of knowing is expressed by the tw.i rh.kwi/bw rha.i pair of Patterns since the tw.i rh.kwi/bn tw.i rh.kwi pair of Patterns expresses something else (exs. 58-59). The initial failure to separate meaning from form pre- vents her from ever getting beyond details to an overall system. Her final classification of the pairs into Isomorphisms (tw.i m ck/bn tw.i m ck), Counterparts (stp.f/bwpw.f stp) and Parallels (tw.i rh.kwi/bw rh.i) is thus

largely mechanical, in accordance with the degree of similarity between affirmative and negative Patterns, and rather unsatisfying.

Mrs. Groll's approach may be further characterized as descriptive, rather than historical, concentrating on colloquial texts of the Twentieth Dynasty. This is perfectly legitimate, but too strict adherence to one approach can lead to error. For instance, imi tw (pp. 17-20) is much more simply explained as a contraction of imi di.tw (Wb. II 77, 9-11). A similar case appears in ex. 432 where ''\ \ is surely to be read

di.tw as in ex. 96 and in accordance with Excursus 3. A more serious case appears on

page 37 where she says, "the existence . .. of the relative forms.. . does not permit the formation 1. *nty + Perfect-Active stp.f." In the first place "does not permit" is to be replaced by "prevents"; however, "obviates" would be better, for there is nothing un- Egyptian about the combination and it eventually does appear in the Coptic Relative Perfect. Such statements result from a common misconception that one construction disappears and then another is

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