Dating Egyptian literary texts: lexical approaches

Simon D. SchweitzerBBAW, Altägyptisches Wörterbuch

Concept of the life span

Timeline --------------------------------------------->Word 1 --------------------------------------Word 2 ---------------------------Word 3 -------------------------Word 4 ---------------------------Word 5 -----------------------

Text ********

Merikare E 106-107: agsw

Khakheperreseneb: qdf

DZA & TLA

TLA

DZA

Khakheperreseneb:life span of rare words

• Middle Kingdom – New Kingdom (or later): wjn, “to push aside; to reject”; vAbb, “crookedness”; sfn, “to afflict” � 3

• Only New Kingdom (or later): nkA, “to think about”; cpp, “strange”; snf, “last year”; qdf, “to gather” � 4

• Middle Kingdom stela & Admonitions: jrt.w, “distress” � 1

Five problems

1. Significance2. Frequency3. Change4. Accident of preservation5. Transmission of text

Sinuhe: nw� ym

B

AOS

Ptahhotep § 117: kAU� nkA

Khety: wtc#f wäA#f� wäA#f wäA#j

pJuja,BD 10

pNebseni, BD 10

Principles for a lexical dating method

• Use all words!• Note the frequency!• Neglect the life span!

3 documents

• A: I am in the house. You are outside the house.

• B: This house is green.

• C: John eats the cake.

Indexing

• A: I am in the house. You are outside the house.

• Index: I, be, in, the, house, you, outside

General index

• I, be, in, the, house, you, outside, this, green, John, eat, cake

Document vector

• I, be, in, the, house, you, outside, this, green, John, eat, cake

• (1|2|1|2|2|1|1|0|0|0|0|0)

• I am in the house. You are outside the house.

Document vector

• I, be, in, the, house, you, outside, this, green, John, eat, cake

• (0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|0|1)

• Cake Cakes

Distances between document vectors

Hierarchical clustering

Nile HymnEloquent

Peasant

Merikare

Man for his Son: only

§§ 9ff.Man for his

Son: remaining

manuscripts

Teaching&

Tale

Teaching&

Hymn

Sinuhe

Kemit

Fishing, Amenemhat, Mythological Papyrus Moscow, Khakheperreseneb, Shipwrecked Sailor, Man and his Ba

Merikare, Ptahhotep,

Eloquent Peasant

Khety

Juru, a Kemit manuscript, Ashmolean Wisdom, Middle

Kingdom tale of Horus and Seth, Hordjedef

Khety, Man for his Son, pRamesseum II, Sasobek

Loyalist Teaching

Khety, Man for his Son, UC 32157, Hay, Neferkare

Nile Hymn

Man for his Son

Loyalist Teaching

Herdsman, Sporting

King

Kagemni, DeM 1675, Ptahhotep C, Sinuhe L, Westcar,

Admonitions, Neferty

Merikare, Ptahhotep,

Eloquent Peasant

Ptahhotep, Merikare, Eloquent Peasant

Ptahhotep, Merikare, Eloquent

Peasant, etc.

Kagemni, DeM 1675, Ptahhotep C, Sinuhe L, Westcar,

Admonitions, Neferty

Kagemni, Westcar, Admonitions, Neferty

Westcar, Admonitions, Neferty

Kagemni, Ptahhotep C