Anonymous papyrus – Cairo 97

Anonymous
Daressy no no. (from Bab el Gasus, Sadek)

The number 10268 associated to the illustrated Alexandria papyrus is one of a series of numbers given to certain papyri from the second find at Deir el-Bahari. We can therefore confirm its Theban origin and date. Middle or Late 21st dynasty

This anonymous manuscript measures together with the Cairo part approximately 8.4 meters

It contains the last four divisions of the Great Amdouat and a complete version of the Abrégé

For display in the Cairo Tahrir museum in the early 20th century, it has been cut in two: one half contains the version of the Great Amduat and the other half contains the complete version of the Abrégé. Both halves were mounted and framed. The half occupied by the Grand Amduat bears the numbers 14, 7, 35, 5 and was displayed against the wall in the middle of the museum’s south-west staircase (room P 51), while the second half, containing the Abrégé, is still displayed, unnumbered, against the south wall of room P 24 on the first floor. The first half is now on display in Alexandria

On the upper edge of the papyrus, at the height of the eleventh division of the Great Amduat, there is a series of triangular damages which enlarge progressively towards the right. A similar series of damages is found on the upper edge of the Abrégé, enlarging in the same way as the previous ones. It was this analogy in the development of the triangular damages that attracted the attention of Sadek and he concluded that the two papyri were none other than two halves of a single manuscript

The half with the illustrated version is 4.84 m long. The other half in the Cairo Museum could not yet be measured and my estimate is that it is around 3.6 meters

Although Niwinski links this papyrus to the one published in Sadek, he uses a different measure for the length and also mentions the colour red in the text, which I did not find. Possibly these are incorrect registrations

The quality of this papyrus, with its careful drawings and beautiful calligraphy, makes it a remarkable copy. Sadek was tempted to believe that this papyrus was entirely executed by the same artist

The last four divisions of the Great Amdouat represented on this papyrus are divided into three registers. A horizontal space of around 1.5 cm above the upper register is occupied by the introductory texts of each division

The version of the Abrégé, which follows the Grand Amduat, on the right of the illustrated papyrus, is copied in vertical columns of text. In the empty space above the columns on the left the title of the abridged version