Restricted Knowledge, Hierarchy, And Decorum

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Restricted Knowledge, Hierarchy, and Decorum: Modern Perceptions and Ancient InstitutionsAuthor(s): John BainesSource: Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt, Vol. 27 (1990), pp. 1-23Published by: American Research Center in EgyptStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/40000070 .Accessed: 13/02/2014 10:19

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Restricted nowledge,Hierarchy, nd Decorum:Modern Perceptions nd Ancient nstitutions

John Baines

In terms f the history f Egyptology, heissues ddressed n this aper anbe summarizedin the questions f why society hat xhibiteda high degree f inequality nd exclusion hasoften eenpresented s rather niform, ith ree

accessto knowledge nd in theorymeritocraticcareer dvancement, nd how scholars ave re-acted o other pproaches. f that osition s im-plausible, urther uestions ollow.How muchevidence s there orrestricted nd sanctionedknowledge nd what s its ignificancend posi-tion n society nd ideology?What frameworkscanbesuggestedor nterpreting estrictednowl-edgewithin broader ontext?Whydo merito-cratic tatements onetheless ccur n nonroyalbiographies? treat hese n the order given,placing he ighter odern efore hemore arn-est ncient ources.1

1This paper was delivered n a shortened ersion o theARCE AnnualMeeting, hiladelphia, pril 989, nder hetitle Religion,Restriction f Knowledge,nd Hierarchy.At the meeting, parallel xhibition f volumes f De-scription eVEgyptend Diffusionist iews f the Mayaillustrated ronically hetype f attitude o ancient gyptreviewedn Section . I am very rateful oJon Anderson,Marianne aton-Krauss, hristopher yre, rhart Graefe,and Peter Machinist or omments n drafts, o MarjorieFisher or making ooksavailable, o Richard arkinsonandSiegfried ichter or ibliographical elp; nd to othersnamed n the notes. he final ersion as written uringHumboldt-Stiftungellowshipt the University fMiinster.

The issues eviewed re wide-ranging. imited eferencesaregiven ormuchmaterial, ut rather uller nes formoreobscure tems to Egyptologists). itation unfortunatelydoes not imply that works have been studied n depth;partial hough hey re, the references aynonetheless euseful.AmongEgyptological tudies, . Otto, Aufzeich-nungsbediirfnis nd -meidung, A I, 556-59, s ratherloosely rganized nd addresses ewof the ssues coverhere. Peter A. Piccione's paper Mehen, Mysteries, ndResurrection rom he CoiledSerpent, iven t the Phila-

I. Initiation nd EgyptologyEssential components f the unified ision

of Egyptian ulture which discounts estrictedknowledge ave often been assumptions hat

Egyptian houghtxhibited o

great omplex-ity, rganization, r penetration, nd that thepreserved ecord, ith ts possible ntellectual rspiritual laws,might dequately epresent hesociety nd the pread f ts deas. n this view,aspects f which might aveappealedto someof the ncient lite, hevastmajority ho couldnot have had access to written materialswereignored or were of no account. For want ofevidence, t may prove mpossible o say any-thing bout them n the context f this paper,except hat they wereprobably xcluded romits oncerns; ut t would be wrong o ump to

the elated ssumption hat hepreserved ecordgives n adequatepicture f the range f deasand concepts hat xisted, ither mong themor in the elite. Discriminations f knowledgeshould be expected mong the majority, sshould omplex ttitudes, ut these re entirelyinaccessible ormost of the society. t is alsoimpossible oknow how far lite nd noneliteshared he ame deology.

Instances f the unifying nd minimizing p-proach re Georges osener's omment n De ladivinite u pharaon2 hat he Egyptian eople

delphiameeting nd which he has sincemostkindlymadeavailable ome ppears n this ssue f JARCE n pp. 43-52.Whereas iccione s concerned ith exts hat elate mainlyto thenext ife although ome ractices edescribesre lsothis-worldly), focus n contexts f knowledgen this ife.His wider onclusions bout the game of senet relate oinitiations n this ife nd re very elevanto this aper.2 (Cahiersde la Societe Asiatique15, Paris, 1960), iv.Posener's final programmatic ummary, Decouverte e

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JARCEXXVII(1990)

ne pratiquait pas l'espirit du systeme r areview f Klaus Baer'sRank and Title in theOld Kingdom3which states aldly that TheEgyptians erenot ystematic eople. 4 imilarpatronizing iewsare well known n writingson suchtopics s mathematics.5 hesepositionsinvolve tacit ssumption hat Egyptian sys-tem, f t existed,would be like Western sys-tem ; inceno such ystemsreadily dentifiable,no system xisted. hese attitudes re limitingand tend to be self-confirming, ecausetheydiscourage he earch or ystem nd complexity.The examples re revealing. he first s in astudy f kingship, he entral nstitution fEgyp-tian ociety nd culture, hichgenerated hostof conceptions hat re unlikely o have been

lackingn organization;6ystematizing ut very

alien texts escribing heking's role have sincebecome known.7 he second attacks with anundocumented ssumption aer's work,whichfundamentally mproved understanding andhas broadly tood the test f further ork8 byproposing hat there was a system n the eliteadministrative ierarchy. here s something fthe Orientalism ttacked y Edward Said9 inthese approaches,whose premises end to re-inforce he nvestigator's ultural osition.

This is not the only strand n the moderndismissal f specialknowledge f hierarchies f

knowledge. ess patronizing riters n Egyp-

tian religion ftenmaintain similar osition.In very ifferent ays, iegfried Morenz10ndErikHornung n. 6 above)maintain hat gyp-tian religion was fundamentally pen. Thiscouldbe true n that here might avebeen ittleof the mystical nitiation nownfrom mysterycults f the Graeco-Roman orld cf.nn. 95-96ahead) although his oo can be questionedbut in other respects here s much evidenceagainst he ssumed penness.Here, wofactorsmay ome ntoplay.

One of these factors s the proliferation fworks n Egyptian nitiation ynon-Egyptolo-gists. n a sense, heseproject hreads unningback from modern yramidology, reemasonry,and more arious soterica, hrough enaissanceattitudes ohieroglyphs nd Egyptian ntiquity,into ancientHermetic exts11 nd moregeneralancient magesof Egyptian wisdom nd mys-tery,12 nd thence nto pre-Classical gyptianantiquity. Most of these threads re genuine;what s at stake s the writers' nterpretation ftheir ignificance, ependent n whether heysubscribe o the beliefs n question, nd onwhether hey ee such things s having beenpresent n ancient Egypt. Each of the areasmentioned s vast and either he subject f re-search or deserving f research, erhaps notalways by Egyptologists. any have returned

within heir urview, ut n a rather roblem-atic way, ecauseEgyptology egan t the deci-pherment ybreaking wayfrom his radition.Encapsulatingwhat they ejected re the titleand dedication f a book of 1885: The Store-housesof the King, or the Pyramids f Egypt:WhatTheyAre nd WhoBuilt Them, ffered oEgyptologistsnd Freemasons f ll nations. 13An examplemay llustrate roblems f egiti-

macy aced ywork n abstruse opics nd ma-terials. ene Adolphe chwaller eLubicz used

l'ancienne Egypte, BSFE 112 (1988), 11-22, elevates thispoint to a principle of the complexity f reality seepp. 21-22). While this s valid in itself nd all-enveloping systemsare probably not to be sought, this nsight s a problematicstarting-point or tudy.

10Agyptische Religion (Stuttgart, 960)= Egyptian Reli-gion, trans. A. E. Keep(London and Ithaca, NY, 1973).

3 Rank and Title in the Old Kingdom: The Structure fthe Egyptian Administration n the Fifth nd Sixth Dynas-ties Chicago, 1960).

4 T. G. H. James, JAOS 83 (1963),120.5 For a more positive assessment, see G. Robins and

C. Shute, The Rhind Mathematical Papyrus: An AncientEgyptian Text London, 1987), 62-63.

6 Contrast Hornung's comments n system: Conceptionsof God in Ancient Egypt: The One and the Many, trans.J. Baines (Ithaca, NY, 1982),239.

7 E.g., J. Assmann, Der Konig als Sonnenpriester: inkosmographischer egleittext ur kultischen onnenhymnikin thebanischen empeln und Grdbern ADAIK7, 1970).

8 See, for example, N. Strudwick, he Administration fEgypt in the Old Kingdom: The Highest Titles and TheirHolders London etc., 1985),4-5.

9 Orientalism London and New York, 1978).

11See G. Fowden, The Egyptian Hermes: A HistoricalApproach to the Late Pagan Mind (Cambridge, 1986).

12Compare J. D. Ray, Ancient Egypt, in Divinationand Oracles, M. Loewe and C. Blacker, ds. (London, 1981),175-78. I differ rom Ray in seeing the official gyptianpresentation f the cosmos n a less bland light than he does,and thus n assuming more problems t the center.

13ByJane van Gelder nee Trill), London: W. H. Allen.



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RESTRICTEDKNOWLEDGE, HIERARCHY,ANDDECORUM

methods hat have not gained general ccep-tance o hypothesize n Egyptian nthropocen-tric mystic cience,14nd disciples ike JohnAnthony West15 ave disseminated is views.The work of West was reviewed egatively ythe lassicist eter Green, nd West eplied hat

the reviewer id not know he material.16 reenresponded y saying hatnothing n the Egyp-tian texts he knew fitted with the views ofSchwaller e Lubicz;this s true, ut does notanswer he uestion. gyptologists id not nterthis fray, ut Schwaller e Lubicz knew moreabout Egyptian emples han ither is discipleor his critic. agreewith Green n being uspi-ciousof Schwaller e Lubicz'smethod, ut theonly possible priori eason or his uspicionis that chwaller's trategy f mposing mageson ground lans canprove lmost nything.

Schwaller eLubicz omes t the autious ndof such pproaches, hich ange s far field sJoan Grant,17 ho was the reincarnation f anancient gyptian royal, f ourse and BulbulAbdel

Meguidor Umm

Sety.18he claims of

these eopleto nspired nowledge f their ub-ject bypass cademic ndeavor nd cannot beintegrated ith t. For different easons, t isalso difficult o incorporate he principles fTheEgyptianMysteries yArthur ersluis, horegrets hat he modern orld as ost he bilityto think nalogically19nd peopledo not realizethat the Vedasare needed o interpret ncientEgypt.20 et uneasewith uch a statement ies

14See, for example, Rene Adolphe Schwaller de Lubicz,Le temple dans VHomme (Cairo: Imprimerie Schindler,1949);Egyptological eviews: . V. Bothmer, NES11 1952),151-52; A. Mekhitarian, CdE 25/50 (1950), 270-72; ReneAdolphe Schwaller de Lubicz, Du symbole et de la sym-bolique (Cairo: Imprimerie chindler, 1951;reprinted 978,1983, Collection Architecture t Symboles Sacres, Paris:Dervy-Livres; 1977, Brookline, MA: Autumn Press); AEBSuppl. (1960)228:no reviews;R. A. Schwaller de Lubicz, Letemple de VHomme,Apet du Sud a Louxor, 3 vols. (Paris:Caracteres, 1958;reprinted aris: Dervy-Livres, 985):[Au-

thor's own abstract AEB no. 58413]; Egyptological reviews:A. Mekhitarian, A propos du 'Temple de l'Homme',Cahiers du Sud 48 no. 358 (1960/61), 326-47 (part of aspecial section Symbolique du temple egyptien, p. 321-73); J. P. Mayer-Astruq, A propos du papyrus mathe-matique Rhind, CdE 35/70 (1960), 120-39 (a critique ofpart of the mathematical basis of Schwaller's argument);R. A. Schwaller de Lubicz, Le roi de la theocratie pha-raonique (Homo Sapiens; Paris: Flammarion, 1961).The1985reprint f Le temple de VHomme and the 1983 reprintof Du symbole et de la symbolique have complete lists ofSchwaller's books on the fly-leaf. here are also variousworks of the author's wife, sha Schwaller de Lubicz, forexample Her-Bak, Egyptian Initiate, trans. Ronald Fraser(New York: Inner Traditions International, 978; abridged

version first ublished 1967). In addition to these books,Schwaller de Lubicz was the author of a posthumous workon Karnak, with Georges and Valentine de Mire and LucieLamy: Les temples de Karnak: Contribution Vetude de lapensee pharaonique, 2 vols. (Collection Architecture tSymboles Sacres, Paris: Dervy-Livres, 1982). Despite itssubtitle, his is a primarily escriptive work, and is one ofthe most valuable collections of material about Karnak.References o its plates are incorporated n PM II2 (see thepreface, . xiv).

For a comment on Schwaller de Lubicz's research nEgypt, see Mayer-Astruq, dE 35/69 1960), 120.Elevationdrawings of the Luxor Temple prepared under him byLucie Lamy were used in H. Brunner t al., Die sudlichenRdume des Tempels von Luxor (AV 18, 1977), pis. 1-32.Schwaller de Lubicz also influenced ome Egyptologistswhoworked n Luxor at the ame time s him, notably AlexandreVarille and Clement Robichon. In a sense, the approach ofAlexander Badawy, Ancient Egyptian Architectural esign:A Study of the Harmonic System University f CaliforniaPublications, Near Eastern tudies 4, 1965), s comparable tothat of Schwaller de Lubicz. So far s I know, no Egyptolo-gist publishing at present ses similar methods.

15Serpent in the Sky: The High Wisdom of AncientEgypt New York, 1978).

16 Tut-Tut-Tut, New York Review of Books 26 no. 15(October 11, 1979),15-32. Correspondence: The Secrets f

the Pyramids, ibid., 26 no. 20 (20December

1979), 56.Reprinted without hecorrespondence, s The Treasures fEgypt, n id., ClassicalBearings: nterpreting ncient His-tory nd Culture [London], 1989),77-90,290-82.

17WingedPharaoh London, 1937;reprinted everal imes,e.g., Dennis Wheatley Library of the Occult 22, London,1974);Eyes of Horus (London, 1942); Lord of the Horizon(London, 1943); Many Lifetimes London, 1968); draw alsoon reminiscences f someone who knew the author. Thepreface to Winged Pharaoh shows that Grant used con-ventional Egyptological works in constructing he settingfor her narrative.

18Nee Dorothy Eadie. Her posthumous book, Omm Setyand Hanny el Zeini, Abydos: Holy City of Ancient Egypt(Los Angeles: L L Co., 1981), mostly represents he lesscolorful ide of her activities round the temple of Sety atAbydos. n addition, she had significant arrowly Egypto-logical accomplishments and worked for many years onmaterial from excavations of the Egyptian AntiquitiesOrganization.

19(London and New York: Arkana, 1988),5. Arkana s animprint of the same house as Kegan Paul International,which publishes the Studies n Egyptology eries.

20Among Egyptologists A. Varille, La steledu mystiqueBeky N 156 du Musee de Turin, BIFAO 54 (1954), 135,



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not so much n what s said as in its context nthe book as a whole;21nalogy nd comparativemethod re fundamental o ntellectual ctivity.

Some of these works se conceptswhich ub-sequently eacquire espectabilityn Egyptology.The title f the bookof S[otirios]Mayassis, heBook of the Dead is a Book of Initiation,22 ssimilar o that of an article y Jan Assmann,Death and Initiation n Ancient Egypt/'23

which s largely oncerned ith he Book of theDead and is relevant othis paper, yet he atterdoes not cite the former. eviews f Mayassis'work see n. 22) suggest hat Assmann maybe correct n ignoring t, but, as remarked yT. GeorgeAllen, t might till be a sourceofuseful pproaches.

A secondfactor n scholarly neasewith so-terica elates o the composition nd habits fthe Egyptological ommunity. n order o avoidarguing hrough heir ejection f approacheslike that f Schwaller e Lubicz,Egyptologistsadopt similar trategy o that f Green. t s asif they nnounced, s initiates nto a secret ci-ence, hat hemessage f that cience was that theld no secrets nd that antiquity ad none.Because t closes off possible pproaches, hisposition sparadoxical, ut themotivation or tis comprehensible.oo much luralism n meth-ods would leave no commondiscoursewithin

which research ould continue.24 cholars ike

Morenzmayhavehad an additional nstinctivereason for maintaining uch a view, becausethey could have associated ts opposite withabhorrent eatures f the NaziGermany f theiryouth.25In attitudes o ancient estricted nowledge,Christian/agnostic ivisionhas also been dis-cernible, n which Etienne Drioton26 nd Jo-zefVergote,27or xample,maintained hat heknowledgeablen Egypt weremonotheists utdid not publicize their beliefs,while the restremained olytheists. he group who set upmonuments n antiquity as,however, o smallthat they might have been expected o sharesuch deas,or at least not to separate hem srigidly s these uthors wouldwish.For imilarreasons, he proposedrestriction f expressedmonotheistic deas to instruction exts s un-likely, specially ince these texts had a widedistribution mong he lite.This is not to saythat there were not distinctions f knowledgewithin he lite, ut the dea that here ere ys-tematically ifferent undamental eligious e-liefs s implausible.28 ere, a possibletype frestricted nowledge oes not seem to fit tsposited ontext. iews ike those f Drioton ndVergote re rare mongnon- atholicEgyptolo-gists. n arguing gainst the quasi-apologeticposition f these uthors, ornung dopts the

unifying pproach.29 is argument nd conclu-sions re persuasive, ut the unifying pproachitself sproblematic ere s elsewhere.30ollowed a similar ine in comparing macat to Chinese tao.

Here, t may be relevant hat he was influenced y Schwallerde Lubicz (n. 14above).

21 ts title is paralleled by Moret's Mysteres gyptiens(n. 96ahead).

22Full title: Le Livre des Morts est un livre d' nitiation:Materiaux pour servir V tude de la philosophie egyptienne(Bibliotheque d'Archeologie Orientale d'Athenes, Athens:B.A.O.A., 1955);reviews, . G. Allen, JNES 17(1958),147-48;Ph. Derchain, CdE 32/63 1957),42-43; see also Mayassis,Mysteres t initiations de I'Egypte ancienne (Bibliothequed'Archeologie Orientale d'Athenes 2, Athens: B.A.O.A.,1957). I have not been able to consult this work whilewriting this paper, and must cite an opinion from Allen'sreview.

23 Tod und Initiation m alten Agypten, n Sehnsuchtnach dem Urpsrung: Zu Mircea Eliade, H. P. Duerr, ed.(Frankfurt . M., 1983),336-59. Now reprinted n English,trans. M. Grauer and R. Meyer, n James P. Allen et al.,Religion and Philosophy in Ancient Egypt (Yale Egypto-logical Studies 3, New Haven, 1989),135-59.

24 n another context, this is an essential argument ofT. S. Kuhn, The Structure f Scientific Revolutions, 2nd ed.(Chicago, 1969).

25Erhart Graefe emarks hat similar reaction o absoluterule, this time from he outside, seems to color William F.Edgerton's The Government and the Governed in theEgyptian Empire, JNES 6 (1947),152-60.

26For example, n E. Drioton and J. Vandier, es peuplesde VOrient mediterraneen I: L'Egypte, 4th ed. (Paris, 1962),63-64.

27 La notion de Dieu dans les livres e sagesse gyptiens,in Les sagessesdu Proche-Orient ncien (Bibliotheque desCentres d'Etudes superieures pecialises: Travaux du Centred'Etudes superieures pecialise d'Histoire des religions deStrasbourg, aris, 1963),159-90.

28 n some respects, rioton and Vergotewere followingstrategy pursue later n this paper. The point here s thatthere was no mass creation f monuments nd works f art.

29Conceptions of God (n. 6 above),50-60.30Another phenomenon Egyptologists find difficult o

accept s the repeated eprinting f the works f E. A. WallisBudge. In that case, the difficulty s not that the bookscontain hidden knowledge. Rather, scholars, who feel thatBudge's works are below rather than outside the normal



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No writer s independent f an intellectualmilieu. n presenting rguments gainst heuni-fying iew, do not mean o devalue works hatgive an over- traightforward nd enlightenedpicture f Egyptian ociety nd its knowledge;rather, ifferent pproaches may derive fromdifferent odern milieux. However he milieumay change, t has some constant spects, fwhich womay e cited.

First, ny discipline snearly losed nd tendsto seek losure, equiring oth hat particularbody of material nd methods e learned ndthat ormal ualifications r initiation e ac-quired, often with elaborate ituals. n theirinternal ompetition, cholars often ay (andregrettably rint) bout work hey o not likethat he author oes not know the material rhas not earned heproper methods for itherofwhich he eviewers sometimes he rincipalsource and so forth.31 cholarship nd arcaneinitiation reperilously imilar. cademiconfer-ences how resemblancesomeetings f esotericinitiates. Many major changes n scholarshipcomewhen uch losure s broken nd deas reimported rom utside; ut these end obe bestreceivedwhen proposed y internally cceptedpractitioners.32

Second, he egitimizing ide of scholarship,towhich referrednciting dward aid'sOrien-

talism, emains mportant. eople model theirobjectof study o some extent fter what theywould ike a society obe, or they eact gainstthat pproach nd saythat he ociety as bru-tal and repressive. he latter pproach nvolvessomerejection f what riginally ttracted eo-ple to their subject, nd in intellectual asagainst psychological terms t is legitimizedchiefly yplacingEgypt n the wider ontext fother omplex ocieties. othviews mplymoralpositions.

Thus, Egyptologistsannotwelldefend hem-selvesgainst hosewhowould eek rcane nowl-edge in the record by saying either hat therecord as no suchfeatures r that gyptologi-cal methods re open and availableto all andare the

nlyorrect odeof access o the ruth.

Since the xistence f nequality n antiquity sone of the ew eneralizationsn the ubject hatreadily an be termed acts, nd nequality s anorganizing haracteristic f the evidence, t isdesirable o nvestigate hefield f socially on-structed nowledge, ike any other mportantsocial nstitution, or nequalpatterning. partfrom heir ntrinsic orth, hich t maynot befor n Egyptologist o udge, the pproaches fthewriters homEgyptologists ish oexcludefrom heir roup revaluable or hem n point-ing to problems ithin heir iscipline. n par-ticular, pproaches hatwillovercome rejudicesagainst inding omplexity nd systemmust ewelcomed.

In one obvious espect, hesewriters ddresspoint hat s denied ythosewhowould xcludehidden knowledge: y definition, uch knowl-edge could not normally e displayed, o thatthere illbeno more han ragmentaryvidencefor t, or evidence rom pecialcontexts. heresponse f Green oclaims hat uch hings anbe identified n. 16 above), n which he cited

canons of method, suspect the only explanation of thedemand to be that they re bought in the belief that theygive insight nto hidden matters. t is difficult osay how farthis uspicion s ustified.

31Compare, for example, F. Junge on J.-C. Goyon'sreview of H. Sternberg, Mythische Motive und Mythenbil-dung in den dgyptischen empeln und Papyri der griech-isch-rdmischen eit: Rezensionen. Oder: Uber das Blitze-schleudern von Olymp, GM 106 1988),47-50, referring oBiOr 44 (1987), 117-21. This exchange illustrates thesetechniques well because it s explicit; essexplicit ones couldbe cited. For a review of Goyon with comments omparableto his about Sternberg, eeM. Smith, JEA 74 (1988),282-83.Few are exempt from uch criticisms.

32The study of Egyptology based on the sociology ofknowledge by H.-J. Triimpener does not go into these

aspects: Ankiindigung iner oziologischenArbeit iber dieAgyptologie, GM 9 (1974),11-12;Die Existenzbedingungeneiner Zwergwissenschaft: ine Darstellung des Zusammen-hangs von wissenschaftlichem andel und der nstitutional-isierungsform iner Disziplin am Beispiel der Agyptologie(Report Wissenschaftsforschung , Bielefeld:B. Kleine Ver-lag, 1981). A revealing feature of this work is its title,terming he ubject dwarf iscipline, which mplies thatspecial conditions pply to orthodoxy within t. t is difficult

to say whether his s correct eyond the obvious point thatpersonal feelings may surface more than in a larger andmore nonymous group.

Practitioners may be concerned that the fieldworker illnot understand discussion in their subject, but such athought s no more relevant than asking if Egyptologistsunderstand the ancient Egyptians, or if any study of acommunity rom utside understands hat community. Al-though criticism f the fieldworker y his data is awkward,it can be said that Triimpener' essay is based on limitedfieldwork.



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instruction exts, smisleading.nstruction extswere hemostwidely sed iterary exts f anti-quity, nd must be a vehicle or ublic knowl-edge nd wisdom, ot for he soteric; hey lsoaddress relatively ide ange f ocialgroups.

II. Ancient nowledge: estrictions nd Uses

A. PreliminaryA good point of departure orplacing evi-

dencefor estricted nowledgen a rudimentarymodel of the Egyptian lite s the general nethat knowledge s an instrument f power, sintegral o socialization, nd is a resource ub-ject to controls orwhich the basic premise sthat o one knows verything. nequaldistribu-tion of knowledge s virtually niversal, ccur-ring n societies f all types. mall, cephaloussocieties ften ave vital rites f initiation, orexample t puberty. he knowledgemparted nsuch contexts may not seemvery istinctive rmeaningful o the outsider,33 ut this doesnotdetract rom ts significance, uch of whichmaybe in separating ocialcategoriesnd stagesof life. Other forms f learning, uch as self-knowledge n the construction f an identity,can be important n these nitiations, ut arehardly ccessible o the outsider. n addition o

widespreadut restricted

nowledgef this

ort,many ocieties, gain ncluding ery mall-scaleones, ontain ecret ocieties r other pecializedgroups with their wn bodies of knowledge.34Theremaybe supplementary odes f ccess oknowledge, uch s mystical nlightenment. l-though Egyptologists mostly eny that these

existed n antiquity, heevidence or Egyptianreligion nd religious ractice s insufficient oexcludetheir having done so, while analogiesbetween gyptian exts nd Hermetic materialmay upport hehypothesis f uch onceptionsin earlier imes.35n this paper return o thesepossibilities nly n the ase of mysticism. 36

In a complex ociety, nowledgemostly as acomplexdistribution. here can be formal rsubstantive estrictions n secularknowledge;return o these n Section II. A major focus fthe omplex istribution f knowledge s likelyto be religious, ecauseof the prominent ndintegral osition f religion n the nstitutionsofmany ocieties.

Apart rom hisgeneral onsideration, estric-

tion of religious nowledge n Egypt houldbeexpected, ecause access to religious practicewasrestricted, t least s regards ult, ntry ntothe emples, nd related pproaches o the gods:limited physical r organizational ccess s afirst asis for estriction. t would be surprisingif therewerenot ome homology etween ccessto religious enters nd to religious nowledge.On the evel f experience ather han f bodiesof knowledge, eople who could not enter hetemples ouldknow hat thers ould do so andhad experiences hatwerenot generally hared.Since n antiquitymost emple ffices ere held

by men, here s also an asymmetry etween hesexes n religious nowledge,s in most pheresof ife.Yet, espite he xclusiveness f religiouspractice n the egular emples, oth he racticeand its associated knowledgemay have beenmorewidely istributed han ome pecial ormsofreligious nowledge,o which return head;relatively arge numbers f peopleheld templeoffice f ome ort.37 ecorum Section II) makes3Numerous examples are cited by J. Goody, The Inter-

face between the Written nd the Oral (Cambridge, etc.,1987);see also, for example, A. Forge, Style and Meaningin Sepik Art, in Primitive Art and Society, A. Forge, ed.(London and New York, 1973),169-92, esp. 189-91, wherewhat is seen or known cannot be specified n other erms.See further M. Douglas, Dogon Culture- Arcane and Pro-fane, Africa 38 (1968), 16-25 (with some ethnocentricassumptions); valuable discussion by F. Barth, Ritual andKnowledge among the Baktaman of New Guinea (Oslo andNew Haven, 1975),223-31.

34See previous note; also, for example, N. D. Munn,Walbiri conography: Graphic Representation nd CulturalSymbolism n a Central Australian ociety, nd ed. (Chicago,1986).

35See Fowden n. 11above).36For possible allusions to meditation n the Coffin exts,

see Ph. Derchain, De la magie a la meditation, n Lamagia in Egitto ai tempi dei faraoni, A. Roccati andA. Siliotti eds. Atti, Convegno internazionale di studi, Mi-lano . . . 1985,Milan (1987),47-55.

37Among exclusive social forms, cult associations, forwhich most evidence is of Graeco-Roman date, could becited: F. de Cenival, Les associations religieuses en Egypted'apres les documents demotiques (IFAO BE 46, 1972);P. Vernus, Kultgenossenschaft, A III, 848-50. These areprofessional groups rather han people brought together y



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RESTRICTEDKNOWLEDGE,HIERARCHY,ANDDECORUM

evennormal emple eliefs f king offering ogod into a restricted ategory f material, utdistinctively ecret exts nd representations fthe ort discuss n Section I B hardly artookin that ystem. he general estriction f templerelief houldbe seen n rather ifferent erms, sa precondition n the background o the mostrestricted orms f knowledge hat were trans-mitted n written r pictorial orm. hese thenform n inner ayer f restriction, resumablythepreserve f n inner roup f nitiates hoseidentity t s not possible ospecify.

A second type of restriction as a differentcharacter. omains of knowledge nclude thespoken nd the written. either eedbe freelyavailable, nd Egyptian riting as imited o a

tiny proportionf the

people.38his initial

reduction s vital here, because the availableevidence s in written, r written nd icono-graphic ources; or ccessible eriods fhistory,any relevant estricted ral knowledgewill sitwithin what was written ather hanpointingbeyond t. Both n the elite and between liteand others, ral forms f restriction ere roba-bly also generally mportant, ut might ot berelated o the material hat s available to us.Untilwriting ecamewidespread,ral ommuni-cation would have been the prime ontext orthe estriction f knowledge.n the ral context,the means f restriction s partly educed ocialcontact nd selection mong ocialgroups ndoccasions, o that ocial hierarchies nd hierar-chies f knowledgere ikely obeclosely omol-ogous, as are specializations f function, frelevant nowledge, nd, in many ocieties, fsocial ub-groups.

Between ifferent roups n the iterate lite,some restrictions robably einforced ierarchyor afforded field or ompetition nd display,while thers ere rotective f potropaic, elat-ing to the viewof a fragile osmos hatneededreaffirmation, ithinwhich ertain hingsmightbe too portentous ostate r write ublicly sofar s writing as a publicmedium). hese twoaspects annot e separated ntirely.

The restricted nowledge o which omepeo-ple have ccess an be passive nd utilitarian,with what s known erving nly for he per-formance f duties r being necessary eatureof one's position; r it can be active, o that tbrings benefits, otably eligious nes, to theknower. assive knowledge oomaybring res-tige.Muchdisplay f knowledge ill not be inwritten orm, lthough t will often elate owritten materials.When t is written, hat sshown must not reveal what s known. Whathas not been identified n Egypt and seemsimplausible s a formal estriction n who mightacquire the basic knowledge f literacy, hichwould be a prerequisite or ccessto the morerecondite aterial discuss; uch restriction sattested rom ate

BabylonianUruk.39 n the

absence f strong vidence ither way, t wouldbewrong o exclude uch possibility.

B. Restricted eligious ccess nd knowledgeI have uggested lsewhere40hat n OldKing-

dom exampleof passive display s in the n-scriptions f two Fifth nd Sixth Dynasty ighpriests f Ptah, whose titularies nclude omeunparalleled nd probably abricatedtems asedon a list f Memphite odswhichwasoldby hetimewhen hey sed t. Earlier nstances mightbe difficult o identify. he example suggeststwo main points. First, here s an associatedhypothesis hat he hief arly orm or ecordingimportant ultural matters as the tabular ist,which depends n layout nd thus s a writtengenre rather han an oral one, removing heknowledge t contains from general urrency.This preference or isting nd grouping mayhavefurther mplications or igh-cultural rans-mission, ecauset devalues ontinuous ext nd

initiation; connections between them and secret knowledgeare generally ejected.

38SeeJ. Baines and C. J. Eyre, Four Notes on Literacy,GM 61 (1983),65-74.

39P. -A. Beaulieu, New Evidence for the Existence ofSecret Knowledge in First Millennium Babylonia, paperpresented o the American Oriental Society meeting, NewOrleans, March 1989;to be published in 1990.For a partialparallel, see the Graeco-Roman inscriptions discussed atn. 85 ahead.

40 An Abydos List of Gods and an Old Kingdom Use ofTexts, in Pyramid Studies and Other Essays Presented oI. E. S. Edwards, J. Baines et al. eds. (EES OccasionalPublication 7, London, 1988),124-33;one copy of the fulllist: KRI I, 173, 12-176,9.



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narrative. econd, ists ike thesewere reservedand protected n some temples, ut not else-where, nd were probably ot available to allwithin he temple; nly high priests isplayedtheir knowledge f this one. The obvious me-dium for recording hem s papyrus, nd thepreserved opies of the list in the temple ofSety at Abydos re comparable n layoutwithOldKingdom apyri.41

It is difficult o assess he ist's ignificancesa piece of knowledge. ecausenames of godswere o important nd potentially owerful, tmight rant ower. his one does not ppear ocontain anything ery rcane, nd seems un-likely to have a special inherent fficacy. yprevious iew n. 40 above)that he display fthe

priestswas

passive should, however,e

revised. heir useof the istprobably oesmorethan imply isplay heir ccess o t. Byclaim-ing priesthoods f rare separable spects fPtah, hesemen sserted pecialreligious rivi-leges. o far s evidence oes, heywere he nlypeoplewho had those rivilegesapart rom heking, who would probably avehad them s ofright). hus, this ase may ontain oth ctiveandpassive lements f display.42

Elsewhere, heother, ctivemodelof knowl-edge s the morewidespread. eople earn hingsthat nable them o do things, re ntrinsicallybeneficial o them, r have both these spects.Relevant ctions nclude erforming he emplecult. Pepycankh heMiddle f Meir,who statedthat he had entered nto the presence f Hathorof Cusae as her hief riest, isplayed herebynexclusive ction whichwasprobably lso bene-ficial to his ultimate destiny.43 ere, special

opportunities nd knowledge ome together,forming art of a person's isplay f religiousprivilege nd moral tature. his moral taturefits with the charitable nd upright ualitiespeopleclaimed n their iographies s enhanc-ing their tatus nd aiding heir assagento hehereafter.

I assume that the possibilities isplayed nPepycankh's nscription were available fromearly imes.Whereas t used to be claimed hatthe 'democratization f religion rom he kingto the nonroyal lite ccurred n the First nter-mediate Period, this division s probably notneat. The earlier vidence hat has been denti-fied44 ayhave mplications or he spread fpeople's involvement n official ult and their

exploitation f such privilegesn

display.n

certain ontexts, etwider privilegesmight eavailable.The clearest nstance f these s theuse of royal regalia in the object friezes ncoffins, ost of them post-Old Kingdom ndate.45 his could be comparedwith ccess tospecial texts uch as the Amduat see ahead),andmight ave nalogies n this ife.

The difference etween oyal and nonroyalpotential emains lear n the form nd dimen-sion of royal mortuary omplexes nd in theking's claim to perform he cult. But in thelatter ase, this s partly fiction nd partlyfeature f decorum Section II), and someonelike Pepycankh dvertised hat fact. Thereforerelated onroyal estricted ult knowledge ndpractice annot e precisely ated, ut probablyoriginated arly. he materialwhich s attestedas confined othe king discussed head)couldnot in reality ave been kept for him alone.Increased ater evidence or these topics mayrelate o developmentsn the use of writing smuch s to changes n knowledgetself.

An example f knowledge isplayed withoutrevealingmuch of ts nature s in the Eleventh

41See, for example, P. Posener-Krieger, Old KingdomPapyrus: External Features, in Papyrus: Structure andUsage, M. L. Bierbrier ed. (British Museum OccasionalPaper 60, London, 1986),25-41.

42Sir Alan Gardiner, Egypt of the Pharaohs (Oxford,1961),93, seems to have linked the status as high priest ofSabu, the later of the two users of the list, with duties heperformed n exercising protection stp-zi) on a barque(Urk. I, 83, 7-11). Sabu's biography Urk. I, 82-84) gives avery prominent position to royal rituals, and this detailcould perhaps be related to the orientation of interestsimplied by his display of the ist.

43Urk. I, 222-23; A. Roccati, La litterature istoriquesous VAncien Empire egyptien Litteratures Anciennes duProche-Orient, Paris, 1982), 235; for display of the title

overseer of priests, ee N. Kanawati, Governmental Re-forms n Old Kingdom Egypt Warminster, 980),130.

44E.g., the find f Old Kingdom Coffin exts at Balat:M. Valloggia, Balat I: Le mastaba de Medou-nefer : Texte(FIFAO31:1, 1986),72-76.

45G. Jequier, Les frises es objets sur les sarcophages duMoyen Empire MIFAO 47, 1921). Nonroyal mortuary se ofother royal decorative motifs an be established for the OldKingdom.



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obscurewritings, s in the Thirteenth ynastyinscription f Neferhotep, here he king sableto find nd read texts n the archives hat theofficials annot nterpret.53 hus, the mplica-tions of this title emained emarkably imilarfor many centuries. hey point n two direc-tions, oward he eparation f religious ituals,performed n principle ypeopleofhigh tatus,and toward he exclusivenessf writing. hosewho used these itles spired o both kinds ofprestige. n extra eligious vertone o the itlemay be suggested y the introduction f thewriting f hrj-sstj with a figure f Anubis, rAnubis n his chest, n theMiddleKingdom.54

The title hrj-sstj erives rom he root tj/sstjsecret r difficult, 55 hich hould be evalu-

ated for ts widermplications.Many usagesdescribe hings hat are secret r hidden, but

thesemainly ocus n thenextworld,which heEgyptians tated ould not be known directly.This point s encapsulated y the ntroductionto a hymn or he etting un, which terms tssubject the stBw d,jt, secrets f the under-world. 56 xamplesof such usageshave beencollected yHartwig ltenmuller;57he uestionis how far he notion f secrets n this formrelates o the affairs f the iving. Contexts n

which t does relate o them re in the use ofmagic, nd in the notion hat hetrue nameofa god s concealed nd t would bedangerous oreveal t; but much f this vidence omesfromwithin magical exts, nd thus must e suspectas internal o magicaldiscourse.While magicwas a focus f prestige nd has associations ithsecrecy nd restriction, his usage of stj/sstBbrings o decisive nsight nto the rganizationofknowledge.

C. Thesolar ult nd cult nitiation

In the solar cult there re multiple ayers frestricted nowledge, f a more narrowly e-ligious kind than the evidence ust discussed.This material asbeen reated

epeatedly yJanAssmann.58he hourly ymns o the sun godand the two treatises bout the king's role n itwerenot nscribed n anypublicplaceuntil ateRamessid imes. he same pplies to the 'fram-ing text or he itany rom nother iturgicalcycle f olar hymns, hich s first ttested romtheTwenty-first ynasty.59ssentially, ssmanninterprets his oncealment s a safe-keeping fsomething hat was so serious nd importantthat t could notbe made public.

Assmann ssumes hat hehourly ymns, nparticular, re ancient, lthough he does not

give a precisedate for them. The hymns ndtreatises re first ttested rom he temple ofHatshepsut t Deirel-Bahri,where ome rcha-isms n other exts ook as if they re based n

53W. Helck,Historisch-biographische exteder2. Zwischen-

zeit und neue Texte der 18. Dynastie (KAT, 1975), 21-29,esp. p. 22. R. Anthes, Die Berichte es Neferhotep nd desIchernofret iber das Osirisfest n Abydos, in Festschriftzum 150jahrigen Bestehen des Berliner Agyptischen Mus-eums (Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Mitteilungen aus derAgyptischen ammlung 8, Berlin East], 1974),15-49.

54Wb. IV, 298, 12: seit m. See also W. A. Ward, ndex ofEgyptian Administrative nd Religious Titles of the MiddleKingdom, with a Glossary of Words and Phrases Used(Beirut, 1982), nos. 1004-1040; H. G. Fischer, EgyptianTitles of the Middle Kingdom: A Supplement to Wm.Ward's NDEX (New York, 1985),nos. 1004a- 1040a. See alsonext note.

55Wb. IV, 296, end-300, 6 (sstl); 551, 3-556, 1 (stS)(inclusive references or roots of both forms). For furtherexamples, seeD. Meeks,L'annee lexicographique 1-3 (1977-79, Paris, 1980-82), .v. sStS, tl.

56J. Assmann, Liturgische Lieder an den Sonnengott:Untersuchungen ur altdgyptischen Hymnik 1 (MAS 19,1969), 29-31. The root is exceptionally common in theLitany of Re; see E. Hornung, Das Buch der Anbetung desRe (Sonnenlitanei) nach den Versionen es Neuen Reiches,2vols. (AH 2-3, 1975-76); for collections of examples, seeMeeks,AL 1 1977;n. 55above),348,380-81.

57 Geheimnis, LA II, 510-13.

58See especially, Der Konig als Sonnenpriester n. 7above); Re und Amun: die Krise des polytheistischen Welt-bilds im Agypten der 18.-20. Dynastie OBO 51, 1983),22-53. Some details n Assmann's discussions, uch as his laterview that the Treatise was deliberately garbled in theLuxor temple (Re und Amun, 25), are debatable, but hisessential position can hardly e questioned.

The second treatise, ccompanying hepicture f the olarbarque in the evening, has not been interpreted seeAssmann, Re und Amun, 27, n. 15),but preserved ectionsdo not include the word rh know, and it seems to have adifferent rganization from the morning treatise. t alsoappears to be shorter. ee Brunner, Die sudlichen Ra'ume(n. 14 above), pis. 12, 41, scene 69; R. A. Parker, J. Leclantand J.-C. Goyon, The Edifice of Taharqa by the SacredLake of Karnak (Brown Egyptological Studies 8, 1979),pl. 20,p. 42.

59Assmann, Liturgische Lieder (n. 56 above), table onp. 18,text pp. 410-11.



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Old Kingdommodels; hehymnsmight o backto such a date. Other vidence uggests hat henecessary ontext f a group of solar nitiatesshouldbe posited or he Old Kingdom, nd soindirectly upports uch hypothesis.

Pyramid exts pell456,60 hose ore onsistsof hree ossibly olar nvocations but een. 60),concludes, erymuch n the tyle f the Book ofthe Dead: The one who knows t this pellofRe /the ne who performs hem- thesemagi-cal spells f Harakhte /he will be an Acquain-tance rhj) of Re, /he will be a Companion(smr) f Harakhte 855).This is then aried osaythat he king ssuch person, nd so will behelped up to the sky nto the retinue f Re(856).This is the arliest ccurrence f such a

formulaor

knowledge ndthe

ccesswhicht

grants. ince the main body of later specialknowledge s solar seeahead), t s noteworthythat the formula t the end of the spell usessolar names, and seems to be applied only

secondarily o the king.As Kurt ethe emarkedin his commentary, he Old Kingdom courtprovides model or he ircumstancesescribed;the significance f this analogy s uncertain.There re no clear mortuary ssociations n thethree principal nvocations. he spell couldderive rom he olar cult, o that he knowl-edge it describes would be that of one whoperformed hat ult. The spell s unique n thepublished orpus, erhaps n part ecauset wasnot pecificallyoyal.

An exampleof what could be Old Kingdomrestricted aterial n a solar context s theuniquedecoration f the hamber f the easonsin the olar emple f Neuserrec.61his containsencyclopaedic knowledge n a context to

whichhardly nyone

would have access.Theknowledges presumably epicted s exhibitingthe olarcreator's eneficenceoward he ntirecreatedworld. n the temple ontext, t mayoffer forerunner or hemore bviously sotericknowledge f the underworld ollected n theunderworld ooks. Underworld material s in-appropriate or temples, nd the only relatedcompositions nown rom emples re the morecosmographic nd ess mythological ooks fDayand Night n. 119ahead).The mixed pic-torial nd inguistic orm f the Neuserrec eco-ration offers partial analogy to the list of

Memphite ods, which may suggest hat thedecoration ad an early ource r model, eforecontinuous written anguage becamenormal;but the ater parallel of the underworld ooksshows hat uch conventions ould be preservedfor ery ongperiods.62

In another ocial context, he xplicit ormulain the Pyramid exts an be related ononroyalinscriptions f the Old Kingdom.A commonformula enters n the deceased's knowingcertain hings, mostly magical in character.63The deceased s often aidtobe a lector riest,

60PT 852-56(P, M and N); K. Sethe, Ubersetzung ndKommentar zu den altdgyptischen Pyramidentexten V(Gliickstadt, Hamburg and New York, n.d.), 110-20 notingBook of the Dead parallels); E. Edel, Altdgyptische ram-matik I (AnOr 39, 1964), 838;R. O. Faulkner, The AncientEgyptian Pyramid Texts Translated nto English (Oxford,1969),151-52;J. P. Allen, The Inflection f the Verb n thePyramid Texts (Bibliotheca Aegyptia 2, 1984),15, 29A4,

367B,370B discussions f the passage translated ere);T. G.Allen, Occurrences f Pyramid Texts with Cross ndexes ofThese and Other Egyptian Mortuary Texts SAOC27, 1950),86-87, lists no later parallels for his spell. Assmann, Litur-gische Lieder (n. 56 above), 36, points out the analogybetween his passageand formulas n the Book of the Dead.

I am grateful o Rolf Krauss for discussion of this spell.Krauss relates the text to the planet Mars, identified withHarakhte n the Pyramid Texts (this would fit lso with theallusion to the father of Harakhte n 854b);the rednessalluded to in the main part of the spell would then be thatof Mars and not, as Faulkner suggested, f the setting un.The text may perhaps support stellar and solar interpreta-tions. Since it appears to derive from non-mortuary ndnon-royal ource, t may have been a solar spell taken overwith stellar

meaningin the

PyramidTexts. Such an in-

terpretation would not imply that the solar conceptionswereolder than the stellar. ince solar beliefs re not attestedfrom he beginning of Egyptian history, he opposite is aslikely to be the case. What the nterpretation ould assumeis that by the Old Kingdom solar beliefs were well es-tablished outside the mortuary ontext, whereas tellar nesmight be appropriate within that context. There could be avariety f reasons for adapting a solar spell from non-mortuary ontext o stellar urposes.

61PM III2, 319-24; E. Edel and S. Wenig, Die Jahreszeiten-reliefs aus dem Sonnenheiligtum des Konigs Ne-user-Re(Staatliche Museen zu Berlin, Mitteilungen us der Agyp-tischen ammlung 7, Berlin, 1974).

62For a possible very arly date for the Amduat, ee n. 68ahead.

63E. Edel, Untersuchungen ur Phraseologie der a'gyp-tischen nschriften es Alien Reiches (=MDAIK 13:1,1944),19-26,21-23;formulas uoted p. 23,e); p. 24, f .



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who wouldpresumably ave ccess orestrictedreligious nowledge. ne example uns I havelearned very ecretmagical spell of the court(hkj nb stEnj hnw), very ecret ormula sstB)through which one becomes a spirit n thenecropolis, eatly rawing parallel between''court ecrecyn this ife nd other orms hatare effective or he hereafter. n inverted ormis also known, n which heowner sserts hatno potent magical spell was ever concealed

from me (n zp StShkj nb jr.j jqr) Thus, theconnections f knowledge, ecrecyn the wordstj, and magic re made here nd are associatedwith he nner lite,with ult ctivity, nd withwriting.

This material ppears oprovide oth pecific

evidence nd the requisite ocial context orrestricted olar nd related nowledgen theOldKingdom. t remains nlikely hat ther elevantcompositions, uch as the Amduat, ate to theOld Kingdom see ahead),but the First nter-mediate Period is not an insuperable arrierbeforewhich ater phenomena ould not haveoccurred. ince here as no fundamental hangein the position of central ults n relation oking, lite, priesthoods, nd the wider popula-tion between he Old and Middle Kingdoms, tis best to assume that the types f restrictionwhich re more learly ttested rom ater imesapplied lready n theOldKingdom.The treatise n the king's role in the solarcult, which Assmann plausibly dates to theMiddleKingdom, ives fuller nsight nto thecharacter nd purpose f knowledgen the olarcult (only one of two treatises as been de-ciphered). n its central tanzas, heking s saideight times o know particular hings. hethings e knowsform mythologized escrip-tion f unrise. n the mall ompass f the ext,little xplicit ould be said,but n fact othingis revealed; t is like having allusive titles fbooks but no book. When t is stated hat heking knows that secret speech which theEastern ouls speak, he ontent f the peechis not indicated, nd the souls are not identi-fied although his s clarifiedn the ccompany-ingvignette.64he king's nowledgesdisplayed

to the very ewwho might eadthe ext whichthey ouldhardly owhere t wassetup in thetemple), ut the outsider s told nothing. nterms f the ext's rogression, he entral tan-zas about knowledge ead to the final nes inwhich the king's general unction n earth sdescribed, nd t s natural o read he former sa precondition f the atter. his maybe validin terms f the king's egitimation, ut n thecult his knowledge robably as further ean-ings, erving o maintain he sun in its coursethrough is conscious nd aware nvolvement.

Assmann65laces his ext n the ame ontextas the underworld ooks,66 hosesignificancefor hidden knowledge s partly imilar andpartly roader. ike the reatise nd the hymns,

theywere nscribed nly n themost naccessibleplaces, nd were ot disseminated ntil fter heNew Kingdom. he title f the full version ftheAmduat oncerns nowledge,nd this motifrecurs lsewhere n the omposition. dward .Wente67 as collected hese passagesand hasnoted hat hey o not focus n the next worldand are not specificallyoyal, espite heuse ofthese ompositions odecorate oyal ombs. othWente nd Assmanndate the Amduat to theMiddleKingdom.68hus, ts nscription n NewKingdomroyal tombs s far from what thesepassagespoint to as its context nd purpose.The knowledget contains s said to bebeneficialon earth o those whoknow t.69 he Amduat s

64For the relief context, see Brunner, Die sudlichenRdume (n. 14 above), pis. 16, 66. On the conception of the

baboons, seeH. te Velde, Some Remarks on the MysteriousLanguage of the Baboons, in Funerary ymbols and Reli-gion: Essays Dedicated to Professor M. S. H. G. Heerma vanVoss . . , J. H. Kamstra t al eds. Kampen, 1988),129-37.

65Der Konig als Sonnenpriester n. 7 above),esp. pp. 56-57;Re und Amun n. 58above),32-33.

66E. Hornung, Agyptische Unterweltsbucher 2nd ed.(Die Bibliothek der Alten Welt, Der Alte Orient, Zurich andMunich, 1984);id., Das Buck von den Pforten es Jenseits,2 vols. (AH 7-8, 1979-80); d., Texte zum Amduat 1 (AH 13,1987).

67Mysticism

in PharaonicEgypt? JNES

41(1982),161-79.

68H. Altenmiiller, Jenseitsbiicher, enseitsfiihrer, nAgyptologie 2: Literatur, nd ed. (HdO 1, 1, 2, 1970),72,suggests that the text could go back to the Fourth/FifthDynasty. There are, however, no clear linguistic pointers osuch an early date, and extensive edaction f texts nto aterforms f the anguage was uncommon.

69See also further arallels cited by Wente n. 67 above),161-62.



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the nearest ncient ext o an academicbook:there s a full version nd a short ersion, hoseEgyptian designation hwj10 ould almost berendered abstract ; nd in the tomb f Thut-mose II there s an index in the form f aseparate isting f all the divine figures.71heacademic presentation s appropriate or a

text o which ccess s restricted, ut which sstudied nd used in different ays,while theform f copies, n which acunae n the rche-typeswerenot always estored, uggests con-cern with the exact wording.72 ente ees theinitiation ouchsafed o those knowing he

text s quasi-mystical, nd entitles is articleaccordingly.73 lthough his term may stretchthe vidence f the omposition, t s valuable n

suggesting owseemingly ry nd academicknowledge anhave n applicationwhich lacesit on an altogether ifferentevel.

Problemswith the unifying iew of ancientknowledge an be illustrated n this ase. Hor-nung74 ccepts ome of Assmann's rgumentsabout nitiation n the Book of the Dead,75utretains is earlier iew hat what s recorded nthe Amduat nd related ompositions s pureknowledge- Wissenschaft even f it is eso-teric nd fully vailableonly to the king. Henotes hat Assmann oes not pursue he uestionof who initiated whom; but that s in somerespects econdary, ecause n any case the kingalonecould not havebeen he reator nd trans-mitter f such knowledge: ome circle f ini-tiates must haveexisted, nd it is hard to seetheir nowledges disinterested.

The alleged xclusivenessf theking'sknowl-edge has wider mplications. here s no evi-dence hat kings xploited t for political nds,and since he ontexts n which t s revealed reso recondite, his might have been difficult,except n the ense hat t egitimized ny king'srole.But the dea s powerful.Whereas he ircleof initiates knew what the king knew, theirknowledge asprobably ess ignificant ecauseof their different osition. The king acted nmaintaining he cosmoson the basis of thatknowledge hile hey idnot, r did soonlybydelegation. uch distinction, hich asa goodparallel n priestly ractice,would enable theking to retain his unique position while ac-cepting nstruction rom thers, nd wouldal-

low the necessary afeguards or transmission.Nonetheless, oth the Pyramid ext spellcitedaboveand the material n the Amduat uggestthat there was significance n nonroyal olarknowledge,o that he resentation f theking'sposition n the reatise n the olar ult houldnot beacceptedn full.

Whereas his royal exclusiveness annot beaffirmed ithout qualification or traditionalreligion, nd must be seen n the context f agroup of initiates, khenaten sed his uniqueknowledge n argument76nd made t explicitin his Great Hymn it was already mplicitin his cartouche pithet The Unique One ofRec ):77 You are in my heart. There s nonewho knows you /except or your son Nefer-kheprurec acenrec. You ausehim o compre-hend ssdm) your ways nd your might. hisunique knowledge arallels heexclusivism fAkhenaten's eligious nd political position.The earlier oncealed oyal tatement sreplacedby an open declaration. his alteration an beset eside umerous hanges n decorumSection

70E. Hornung, Das Amduat: Die Kurzfassung;Nachtrdge(AgAbh7, 1967),1,2; 27; 36; 55.

71P. Bucher, Les textes des tombes de Thoutmosis II etAmenophisII 1 MIFAO 60, 1932),pis. 14-22.

72See Wente n. 67 above), 164;see also H. Altenmuller,Zur Uberlieferung esAmduat, JEOL 20 (1968),27-42.73For a

negativeview on the

possibilityof

Egyptianmysticism, eeJ. Assmann,Agypten: Theologie und From-migkeit einer fru'hen Hochkultur Stuttgart, 984), 183-87.Because the range of religious practices s poorly known,would not wish to exclude the possibility f ts occurrence.

74Geist der Pharaonenzeit Zurich and Munich, 1989),112-14,215-16.

75 Tod und Initiation (n. 23 above); see also id., DieVerborgenheit es Mythos in Agypten, GM 25 (1977),34-36.

76See D. B. Redford, A Royal Speech from he Blocks ofthe 10th

Pylon,BES 3

(1981),87-102.77M. Sandman, Texts from he Time of Akhenaten BiAe8, 1938),95, 11. 16-17.Translations: M. Lichtheim, AncientEgyptian Literature: A Book of Readings II: The NewKingdom (Berkeley, tc., 1976),99; J. Assmann, AgyptischeHymnen und Gebete Zurich and Munich, 1975),220. Theform of the verb dj.k and the syntax of the passage as awhole are not clear. For general nterpretation f the passage,see J. Assmann, Die 'Haresie' des Echnaton: Aspekte derAmarna-Religion, aeculum 23 (1972),122-24.



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III) attested rom hereign.78 hileAkhenatendrew the full conclusions rom hisroyal pre-rogative nd his officials isplayed heir otalsecular nd religious ependence n him,79 isstatement houldnot be taken iterally. incehisgodwaspoliticallymore han eligiously iffer-ent from hat of the existing new solar reli-gion known from number f texts,80 herewasevidently group f peoplewhodevelopedthese onceptions.81he special haracter f hisknowledge herefore as analogieswith hat fthe raditional ing, ut he drew ifferent, eem-ingly eductiveonclusions rom t.

The association f nitiation nd knowledgecan be paralleled mong the iving, aradoxi-cally, by Chapter 25of the Bookof the Dead,while similar

mplicationsre common n the

notations t the ends of spells in the CoffinTexts nd Book of the Dead (aswell as occur-ring n the bodiesof spells).82 ost peopledidnot have access to these texts. The formulas,which start As for the man who knows thisspell . . , imply hat here re peoplewho willnot know them; knowledge f them givesthecapacity odo something.What hismeansforthe hereafter s not relevant ere, ut the formatof many pells, n which ne gainsentrance oplacesbecause ne knows omething, s likely o

have earthly nalogies, he obvious one beingsome form f nitiation. or Bookof the Dead125, heposition s clearer. Greek apyrus ndother parallels suggest hat the original con-text f its declarations f innocence s initia-tion nto ome evel f thepriesthood.83pecialknowledge oesnot eem obestrongly mplied,but xclusiveness,s well s special ualificationand rituals ssociated ith ntry, ertainly re.

The text f Book of the Dead 125may havebeen part of a restricted ransmission. hispossibility s suggested y the wide temporalspread f relevant ources, ncluding he ne inGreek, nd by details of the text tself whichmayplace t n the First ntermediate eriod rearlyMiddleKingdom.84f this ating scorrect,the

text,r a forerunner ith imilar

rganiza-tion, was transmitted ormany enturies eforeit was used in the Book of the Dead. Thethematic arallels n Graeco-Roman emples85make explicit connections etween nitiationinto he emple nd priesthood n the nehand,and moral qualitiesof uprightness nd gener-osity n the other. n addition, hey orbid hepriests o reveal he mysteries sstS)they havelearned f the gods nd goddessesKomOmbo)or in the temple Edfu);but they o not makeclear to whom these might be revealed. hiscomplex f ideas brings ull circle he type f

claim o religious ccess nd socialrolefound nthe ate Old Kingdom iographies ited n Sec-tion I B above.The Graeco-Roman exts ave

78See J. Baines, Fecundity igures: Egyptian Personifica-tion and the conology of Genre Warminster nd Chicago,

1985),280with p. vii. See also Section 3 ahead.79J. Assmann, Die 'loyalistische Lehre' Echnatons,

S^/s: 8 (1980),9-19.80SeeAssmann, Re und Amun (n. 58 above),96-143, esp.

96-98.81Similarly, osuggest hat Akhenaten omposedhis own

Great Hymn (e.g., D. B. Redford, Akhenaten the HereticKing, Princeton, NJ, 1984, 177, 234)is a little ike assumingthat modern politicians write heir wn speeches.

82E.g., CT VII, 471c-g; translation: M. Lichtheim, An-cient Egyptian Literature: A Book of Readings I: The Oldand Middle Kingdoms (Berkeley, tc., 1973),131-33; T. G.Allen, The Book of the Dead or Going Forth by Day: Ideas

ofthe Ancient

Egyptians Concerningthe Hereafter s Ex-

pressed n Their Own Terms SAOC37, 1974),6, T 1 Sp. 1);41, T 1 (Sp. 31); 58, T 2 (Sp. 64); 65, T 1 (Sp. 72); 113, T(Sp. 136B);these references nclude precise citations of theoriginal sources. Several of these examples emphasize thatthe knowledge may be had on earth, lthough the contextmay imit ts utility othe next world. Very ften he ontextis said to be secret, mysterious, r dangerous. This aspectmay be related s much to the magical character f the textsas to any narrowly soteric ualities.

83R. Grieshammer, Zum 'Sitz im Leben' der negativenSiindenbekenntnis, DMG Supplement 2 (1974), 19-25;R. Merkelbach, ie Unschuldserkldrungen nd Beichten mdgyptischen Totenbuch, in der romischen Elegie, und imantiken Rom (Kurzberichte us den Giessener Papyrus-Sammlungen 43, Giessen, 1987).

84J. Yoyotte, Le jugement des morts dans l'Egypteancienne, in Le jugement des morts Sources Orien ales 4,Paris, 1961),58-65. For further exts that may be relevanthere, see the studies of Assmann referred o in n. 75 above;the initiations in

questionare in the next life, but could

again be modeledon ones in this ife.85Most fully presented by A. Gutbub, Textes fonda-

mentaux de la theologie de Kom Ombo (IFAO BE 47:1,1973),144-84,with references; ieroglyphic ext:J. de Mor-gan et el., Catalogue des monuments e l'Egypte ntique 1:3Kom Ombos 2 (Vienna, 1909), 245 no. 878. See also J.-C.Grenier, emples ptolemaiques et romains, epertoire iblio-graphique: Index des citations 1955-1914 (IFAO BE 75,1979),92-93, 400-401.



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rather essprivileged rotagonists, ut nhabitthe ame estricted,nitiated orld.

D. Other ontexts: osmicrder,magic,

ituals

For the Late and Graeco-Roman eriods, vi-dence or nitiation ould beextended. riedrichJunge assuggested hat he nitiation nto theRoman sis cult fictionalizedn the sis Book ofApuleiusgoesback to Egyptian ractice.86 l-though his arguments re unconvincing n de-tail, becausewhat he describess not distinctivefor particular orm f nitiation, is positionmaybe strengthened y ReinholdMerkelbach'sobservation hat declarations f innocence nLatin poetry re to be associatedwith the siscult

n.83

above).This would ead back to the

living ontext fBookof theDead125 nd showthat ypically gyptian orms ad traveled iththe ult o the Graeco-Roman orld.

Bookof the Dead 125also suggests cosmiccontext n which he declarations, nd perhapswider aspects of religious knowledge, an besited. One declaration tates hat the deceaseddoes not know that which s not.87 his hasbeen glossed s meaning hathe has not over-stepped heorder f things.88 he assertion sthus one of many ommitments o the fragilecosmic rder gainst urrounding nd encroach-

ing disorder. similar oint has been givenmoral dimension y Gerald E. Kadish n hisdiscussion f Coffin ext spells against atingfaeces, rinking rine, nd walking eaddown.89These imagine reversal or he next ife, butthey it in the context f asserting olidaritywith rder. n the ssumed riestly ituation fthe Book of the Dead spell, commitment oorder cquiresmeaning or he iving,who say

that hey avenot overstepped he oundaries fthe permissible.Whereas the average personmight not have the opportunity o pass theseboundaries, hosewhoacquiredknowledge ikethat f the olar cult could run a risk, articu-larly f the only one with the full right o theknowledgewas the king. n such an area, thedivisionbetween nowingwhat was necessaryto maintain the proper order and knowingthings hat hould not be knownmight e fine,and could depend more on degrees f access,initiation, r usage than on what was known.The spell'sdenialmight eem aradoxical, incethe knowledgewould logically be accessibleonly fter ntering hepriesthood orwhich newas a candidate, ut n such ontexts foresight

may ccur,othat his

nterpretationscompati-ble with he ext's unction. he candidatemight

also havedangerous nowledge rom utside hetemple, uch s that f ome magical pells.

The possibility f overstepping he properorder s illustrated n magical pellswhere heperformer hreatens o overturn he cosmos fhis spell does not succeed.90t is unknownwhether hese pells nd use of them, r use ofthem y the wrong people, constitute uch anoverstepping, ut the ffects hey vokemust oso. This association evokes the question ofwhether agic onstitutes estricted nowledge.This is unlikely o be true of magic as such,because t was widelydisseminated n society,while the ideology that magic was there oforestall heuntoward 91 hould mply hat ts

benefits as against he bility o enact pecificperformances were reelyvailable; utparticu-lar categories f magic are very ommonly e-stricted. he appealof the xotic nd obscure sstrong ere, eading to magical texts n otherlanguages, he itation f elaborate edigrees rprecedents or spells, and so forth. his is adifferent ype f exclusivism rom what havebeendiscussing, ecause t advertises ecrecy oreffect ather han reating bsolute oncealment.

86 Isis und die agyptischen Mysterien, n Aspekte derspdtdgyptischen Religion, W. Westendorf d. (GOF 4:9,1979),93-115.

87See C.Maystre,

es declarations d' nnocenceLivre

desMorts, hapitre 125) (IFAO RAPH 8, 1937),25-26, phrase 4;translation, for example, Lichtheim, Literature I (n. 77above), 125with n. 5.

88E.g., Hornung, Conceptions n. 6 above), 181.89 The Scatophagous Egyptian, JSSEA9 (1978),203-17.

For the interpretation of shdhd as head down, seeP. Barguet, e livre des morts es anciens egyptiens Littera-tures Anciennes du Proche-Orient, aris, 1967),89, n. 1 toCh. 51.

90See e.g., S. Sauneron, Le monde du magicien egyp-tien, in Le monde du sorcier Sources Orien ales7, Paris,1966),40-41.

91As the nstruction or Merikarecmay be freely endered:W. Helck, Die Lehre fur Konig Merikare KAT, 1977),86;see,for xample, Lichtheim, iterature (n. 82above), 106.



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JARCEXXVII(1990)6

The emphasis n knowledgen magic s com-parable to what is found n the underworldbooks nd Book of theDead,and further ormalrestrictions repossible. hese re lso suggestedby the folk mage of the magician s lectorpriest nd chief. ince the pells tate hat heconsequences f extreme nowledge n magiccan be so dire, imitations o its use are to beexpected; hey will also help to legitimize t byminimizing discrepancies between what isclaimed and what happens. Nothing ike theanti-sorcery dicts of the Roman Empire isknown rom ative gypt, ut there s evidencethat he Romansconsidered gypt o be a landwith dangerousmagicalknowledge nd associ-ated uchknowledge ith Cheops nd the Great

Pyramid.92Other ypes f religious vidence an be cited.I give some examples, but a full listing simpractical. ne potential ase is the death ofOsiris,which s hardly tated xplicitly n Egyp-tian texts. his omission maynot relate loselyto restricted nowledge, ecause exts hat lludeto his death wouldmake ittle ense f the eaderdid not know about it. A partial xception oHornung's blanket tatement hat he death snever mentioned93 s revealing. This is theMemphite heology, which ays hathe wasburied(?) and, a little later, that he wasdrowned. 94 his text,whosedate s disputedbetween he ater New Kingdom nd the Late

Period, s presented s being a unique ancientmanuscript; ts layout mimics early writtenforms. t is not a conventional ymn r text orperformance, ut an exposition, artly n dia-logue form. s such, t might ot be subject othe same constraints s normal nscriptionalmaterial, o that it could include otherwise

impermissible ontent. ccess o t would urelyhavebeen imited, o it may not break herulethat statement f Osiris' death hould not bepubliclynscribed. ere, ccess ather han nowl-edgewouldbe the rucial oint t stake.

The Twelfth ynasty arrative f Ikhernof-ret95 bout his refurbishing f the temple ofOsiris t Abydos nd subsequent erformance fthemain festival here s a public ounterpart othe tatement f theMemphite heology.Muchof Ikhernofret's ext s allusive rather han ex-plicit. From very much later times, FrancoisDaumas96ointed o a Ptolemaic iographicalinscription hoseownernarrated is devotionto his deity and performance f celebratoryrituals, ut did not name the deity evidently

Hathor or say nything pecific bout her. Hesuggested hatmembership f a restricted ircleof devotees was being displayed. aumas usedsimilar rguments o nterpret n inscription nthe tomb f Petosiris t Tuna el-Gebel,wherethe perverse riting s not characteristic f LatePeriod hieroglyphic n general o much s in-tentionally isleading.97

Amuch arlier odeduseofknowledge roba-bly occurs n the story f The Shipwrecked

92SeeL. Kakosy, Meg egyszer Cheops piramis eltorese-rol es lezarasarol, Once more on the violation and resealingof the pyramid of Cheops] Antik Tanulmdnyok 16 (1969),

195-98. Erhart Graefe very kindly made Eva Dombradi'sGerman translation f this rticle vailable to me.93Conceptions n. 6 above), 152-53.94The context s very broken: H. Junker, ie politische

Lehre von Memphis Abhandlungen er Preussischen Akade-mie der Wissenschaften erlin, 1941),pl. 1, 11. 17c the wordfor burial is a restoration rom trace, ee pp. 38-39), 19;convenient ranslation: ichtheim, iterature : (n. 82above),53; discussion of date and bibliography: H. A. Schlogl, DerGott Tatenen nach Texten und Bildern des Neuen Reiches(OBO29, 1980),110-17.

95K. Sethe, Agyptische Lesestu'cke zum Gebrauch imakademischen Unterricht, nd ed. (Leipzig, 1928), 70-71,no. 14;W. K. Simpson, The Terrace f the Great God at Aby-dos: The Offering hapels of Dynasties 12 and 13 (Publica-tions of the Pennsylvania- ale Expedition to Egypt 5, NewHaven and Philadelphia, 1974), pl. 1. Translation: Lich-theim, iterature (n. 82above), 123-25.

96 Les propylees du temple d'Hathor a Philae et le cult,de la deesse, ZAS 95(1968),16-17. Seealso id., Y eut-il desmysteres n Egypte? Les Conferences e VAtelier d'Alexan-dne (Alexandria, 1972),37-52 (abstract by J. F. Borghouts,AEB 74143). The entry for this article in [M. Morfin],Bibliographic de Francois Daumas, in Hommages a Fran-

cois Daumas I (Institut d'Egyptologie, Universite PaulValery, Montpellier, 986)xiii, states hat t s a resume f anunpublished work. Mme Morfin ery indly nforms me thatsuch incomplete works of Daumas exist as collections of

material rather han consecutive manuscripts, nd that thiswork seems not to have proceededbeyond such a collection,although Daumas referred o the topic often n teaching.Hornung, Geist (n. 74 above), 215-16, seems to allow formystery ults in Hellenistic Egypt, but it is not clear fromhis brief statement whether he considers that these wereamong the native or the thnically Greek population.

97 La scene de la resurrection u tombeau de Petosiris,BIFAO 59(1960),63-80. I have not included here the use ofthe word mystery o describe crucial rites of gods, es-pecially Osiris. See, for xample, H. Schafer, Die Mysterien



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17ESTRICTEDKNOWLEDGE,HIERARCHY,ANDDECORUM

Sailor.98 he story eems o evoke wo mportantreligious onceptions, he end of the cosmos,and the seventy-our orms f the sun god in-corporated n the Litany f Re, but t does notpresent hemdirectly. he Litany belongs othe amegroup f texts s the hourly ymns ndunderworld ooks, nd the non-continuous ormof its initial enumeration ould point to anancient rigin with other ists. suggest hatsome of the reason for the treatment n TheShipwrecked ailor apart from he narrativepotential f things hat re mysterious is inmaking possible an allusion to matters hatcould not otherwise ppear n a literary ext, othat there s a softened ension between hepseudo-folk orm f the narrative nd its con-tent. he

storyas been read n

varying ays,and might avebeenunderstood s variously nantiquity. y rgument ssumes hat ot ll theliterate ould havehad access o suchknowledgeas the seventy-four orms f the sun god (orperhaps the identities f those forms). omemight othave omprehendedhese spects, utother eadings re meaningful, o that he torycouldhave irculated elatively idely.

The inscription n the omb f Petosiris aisesthe uestion f ate hieroglyphic riting nd tscomplexity n comparisonwith that of earliertimes.100his complexity as almost ertainly

accompanied y a reduction n the mall num-bers of those able to read inscriptions. nlyrarely, owever, oes hewriting ave he harac-ter f concealment ather han f laboration or

the ake f nhanced meaning nd symbolism.101The extreme asehere s perhaps heNaukratisstela f Nectanebo ,102 hich s one of the mostdifficult ieroglyphic exts o read, but has thepublic topic of taxation; t wouldbe absurd osee this as restricted, lthough the preservedcopy probably as more to do with display nthe temple han with practical se. The pre-requisite or his development asprobably heLate Period separation f cursive rom iero-glyphic writing, hich meant hat those whoused cursive would have in any case to betrained dditionally o read hieroglyphs. heinner rained roupwaslargely nvolved n thetemples. Thus, this developmentmay relatemore to the exclusivism f a group than to

specialestrictionsf knowledge.

III. The Elite Milieu;Hierarchy nd Decorum

These suggested asesof restricted eligiousknowledge eed to be set n a socialcontext.nonreligious xample s a goodpoint of depar-ture. The Sixth Dynasty nscription f Wenidetails ow ts owner erformed arious ervicesas he ascended heofficial ierarchy. everal fhis actions were xceptional orhis then ank.He heard confidential r secret sstj) egal casewith a vizier while holding an office hose

designation s lost, ogether ith herank f az3b rj(?)-nhn.103 ater, he judged litigationagainst queen in secret, aying hat his wasexceptional or n overseer f the hntj-sj f thepalace. 104 nly the second of these titles ssubstantive, hile 3b rj-nhn s a ranking itle.This fact maygivethe key ointerpretation, sis suggested y the ext'smost triking xample

des Osiris in Abydos unter Konig Sesostris HI (UGAA 4:2,1904);A. Moret, Mysteres gyptiens, rd ed. (Paris, 1927);K. Sethe,Dramatische Texte u altdgyptischen ysterienspie-len, UGAA 10 (1928);E. Chassinat, Le mystere 'Osiris aumois de Khoiak, 2 vols. (Publications de 1'IFAO, Cairo,1966-68); S. Cauville, Les mysteres 'Osiris a Dendera:Interpretation es chapelles osiriennes, BSFE 112 (1988),23-36. Some related phenomena may be relevant to thepresent opic, but they annot be treated ere.The studies ofDaumas are closer to my theme.

98See Interpreting he Story f the Shipwrecked ailor,JEA 76(1990,in press).

99For the text, ee Hornung, Buch der Anbetung n. 56above). For interpretation, ee M.-T. Derchain-Urtel, DieSchlangedes Schiffbruchigen, AK 1 1974),83-104.

100E.g., S. Sauneron, L'ecriture figurative ans les textesd'Esna (Esna 8, 1982);D. Kurth, Die Lautwerte der Hiero-glyphen n den Tempelinschriften er griechisch-romischenZeit Zur Systematik hrer Herleitungsprinzipien, SAE69(1983),287-309.

101Compare, for example, the comments of Daumas,BIFAO 59(I960),78.

102H. Brunner, Hieroglyphische Chrestomathie Wies-baden, 1965), pis. 23-24; translation: M. Lichtheim, AncientEgyptian Literature: A Book of Readings III: The LatePeriod Berkeley, tc., 1980),86-89.

103Urk. I, 99, 2-8. Translations: Lichtheim, Literature(n. 82 above), 18-23;Roccati, Litterature n. 43 above), 187-97. On the title see D. Franke, Ursprung und Bedeutungder Titelsequenz ZBbRS-Nhn, SAK 11 (1984),209-17. InFranke' interpretation, he title tself would imply restrictedaccess to a space, n this ase the royal palace.

104Urk. , 101, 13-102, 7. hntj-sj was related o the notionof elite by Ann Macy Roth in a paper presented to theInternational ongress f Egyptology, Munich, 1985.



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of restricted aterial, hichwas made vailableto Weni ater when he was to lead a militaryexpedition. While he continued o hold thesame office, 'There was revealed o me (or: Iinspected) henumber f these roops; it hadnever eenrevealed o/inspected y ny servant'(bjk). 105This statement might eem almostabsurd, because a commander eeds to knowhow many roopshe is to lead,but t becomesmeaningful f the qualifying Sk s taken ntoaccount. Earlier n the text, lassesof officialsare istedmore han nce, pparently ccordingto a formula, s sr, sch and bjk.106 he pointseems o be that uch nformation ouldnot beavailableto a bSk.The other wodesignationsare not necessarily rranged n a vertical ier-

archy,but could refer o different inds of

status, uch s civil nd religious;107onetheless,the vertical eading s the implest. here ouldbe three broad, hierarchically rganized ate-gories f officials.

It is not known how Weni's three ategoriesmight relate to the principal public forms franking n the equences f titles stablished yBaer,108ut the two are probably onnected.Weni's usage may mply ccess to increasinglyrestricted nowledge s the title hierarchy asclimbed, nd there may have been three mainlevels f restriction; ut this will not be the nlysignificance f the hierarchy. s with heothermaterial eviewed ere, t does not follow hatthe knowledge ould ookvery rofound o theoutsider in this ase t snormally onfidentialand classified nformation. et,because herewereparallelphenomena lsewheren elite ul-ture, here ould be extra anctions nd signifi-cance attached his confidentiality nd secrecy,which ccurs n any dministrative ierarchy.

The meritocracy n Weni'snarrative, hichis most distinctive here he saysthat when hetook post he replaced our revious olders,109runs superficially ounter o its restrictive s-pects.There may eem o be a tension etween

views f a hierarchy s simply xclusive nd assomething ne climbs through bility. Thesecondview s partly hat f a bureaucracy hataspires oefficiency, ut n the political pherethe king would have an interest n promotingthese deasagainstmore ormal nes, f only togivehimself oom for maneuver.Whereas heremight be a contradiction etweenknowledgehierarchies nd claimed meritocracyn the reli-gious sphere, he two may complement achother utside t.

The official cceptance nd display f meri-tocracymay have additional ignificance ere.In the Old Kingdom n particular, eligiousmatter as hardly isplayed n nonroyalmonu-ments, specially ot in relation o the king.

Instead, isplayfocused n individual

iogra-phies, which were mostly onnectedwith theking, r on generalmoralmatters, hich ouldrelate also to the next world. There was noindependent onumental ontext n which in-eage or other entrifugal tatus markers ereexhibited. hus, meritocratic isplay s part ofthe nstitutionalization f the Fifth-Sixth y-nasty ureaucracy. t reinforces he pecialposi-tion of the king nd exploits heexclusions fdecorumsee head) obest dvantage. counter-examplemay llustrate his point. One of thefewOldKingdom nscriptions o narrate ritual

is the arly ifth ynasty ne of Recwer, hichdescribes fateful ncident uring he Receiv-ing of the prow-rope f the god'sboat. 110 hetext s inscribed n the orm f royal ocumentand not as a biography, artly erhaps ecauseof ts exceptional ontent nd partly ecause fthe favor hownby the king n presenting hedocument. he only religious ontent ecwer'scontemporaries ad n their nscriptions as thedisplay of priestly itles. The Sixth Dynastybiography f Sabu n. 40), however, oesrefer otheperformance f rituals.

Meritocracy elates to the conclusions ofWolfgang elck'sUntersuchungenu den Beam-tentiteln esdgyptischen ltenReiches111nd ofKlaus Baer.Baerhardly tudied he mplicationsof the ranking ystem e discovered, xcept o

105Urk. , 103, 2-5; seee.g., G. E. Kadish, Old KingdomActivity n Nubia: Some Reconsiderations JEA 52 (1966),26-28.

106Urk. , 99, 7-8; 101, 6-7.107n later periods, chmostly eferred o the dead.108Rank and Title n. 3 above).109Urk. , 100, 7-8.

110Urk, , 232, 5; Roccati,Litterature n. 43 above), 101-2.111AgFo 18, 1954;approach reviewedby Baer, Rank andTitle n. 3 above),2-8.



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argue hat uccessive ings hanged he equen-ces for their own, essentially olitical pur-poses.112his argument s incomplete, f onlybecausedistinctions f rank n the tate xistedfrom much earlier imes han Baer's standardsequences most probably rom ts beginning.During heOldKingdom, here as no cultural,asagainst olitical, reak hat would orrespondwith he ntroduction f the new system. hatsystem s therefore robably refinement atherthan radical hange.Helck's pproach,whichis more ntuitively ased, ees ycles f rchaismand development s occurring hroughmuch ftheOldKingdom, rguing hat here as magi-cal value attached o the titles nd that ad-ministration evelopedfirst n the basis of

proximity o,and

delegation rom,he

king'sperson.113I suggest hat hese pproaches an be partly

integrated nder the broader oncept f hier-archy,114 hich have used informally n dis-cussing Weni. Hierarchy s the more or lessformalizedtratificationfpeople n arger ocialgroups or within organizations.115se of theterm mplies hat trong aluesare attached ostratification. n rigorous pplications f thetheory f hierarchy, ierarchies re organized n

formal levels - an aspect hatmay r maynotbe relevant n Egypt. or Egypt, hepresence fcentral alues s crucial n the argest ontext,where oyal deology reates hierarchy. helowest evel of this hierarchy onsists f hu-manity n general; nd the godsform hehighestlevel. nterlocking nd subordinate ierarchiesalsoexistwithin he evel f humanity, etweenthe administrative nd title-holding lite andthe rest f society, nd within he lite, n bothsecular nd religious fficial ierarchies. aterialin the Pyramid exts, uch as Spell456 n. 60above), shows that elite hierarchies ormedmodels or elations n thedivineworld oo.

Hierarchy nd ranking re overlapping on-cepts.The official anking f titles ould havebeen

ategorizednder

eadings,s was done n

the nscription f Weni. This possibility ightsupply context ommon oboth phases f theOld Kingdom. The change from kinship-oriented ierarchy, ymbolizedn particular ythe title rj-pct member f the pct, to onebasedmore n administrative ffice, orrespondswith he ise f Baer's ystem t the eginning fthe Fifth Dynasty, ut would not involve asignificant lteration n hierarchy. imilarly, hepost-OldKingdom isappearance f the ystemas a system, s against he ess formal anking ftitles, avors he ssumption hat t refines ier-

archies rather han defining hemor creatingthem.In relation o knowledge, he development

presented y Helck and Baercan be seenas agradual broadening f access to the center ndto restricted rivileges, nd perhaps also toknowledge. n the most general erms, hisde-velopment s normally eldto haveculminatedafter he OldKingdom. orrestric

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Restricted Knowledge, Hierarchy, And Decorum