Textual reconstruction of the Egyptian Ritual of the Hours of Day and of its complement for the Hours of Night from within tomb TT 223 in Thebes-West, Egypt

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Erhart Graefe
• Subject Area: Egyptology and Ancient Near Eastern Studies
• Term: from 2015 to 2022
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 272139247

The texts mentioned in the title of the application derive from the pillars (north and south) within the first hypostyle of tomb TT 223 (Karakhamun) of dynasty XXV. In about 1843 at least the western pillar of the southern side (first hour of the night) was still standing in its height of > 3m. In this year R. Lepsius (during his Expedition to Egypt 1842-1845) had "tared it down" in order to remove its vignette (then Berlin 2110). At a certain date unknown before 1976 the ceiling had broken down destroying bigger parts of the walls and all the pillars leaving only stumps. The ceiling of the second hypostyle in 1976 during a visit of mine was still intact; according to my observation it came down ca. 1985. Most of the fragments probably are still present as small splinters up to big blocks and having very different thicknesses ("depths"). The South Asasif Conservation Project started excavation in 2006. Only small parts of the tomb's decoration had been made known during the 19th century, nothing has been published. The mission SACP has secured about 20.000 inscribed or decorated fragments of limestone. It is working in seasons between four and six months a year in order to consolidate and re-erect the tomb's walls and pillars with its decoration. I became interested in the reconstruction of the texts of the pillars of the first hypostyle, because they contain the oldest version of the Ritual of the Hours of day to date. It will be extremely valuable of the scientific edition of the Ritual as a whole beacuse all of its (other) sources only represent fragmentary parts of its original text. It is already proven that the version from TT 223 goes with that of Pabas (TT 279) and not with that of Padihorresnet (TT 196) which means that during dynasty XXVI at least two version were available in the archives.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants