The Egyptian Coffin Texts, Volume 8
Middle Kingdom Copies of Pyramid Texts
by James P. Allen
With the appearance of this volume, the Oriental Institute marks the true completion of the Egyptian Coffin Texts Project , an international cooperative program begun by James Henry Breasted and Alan H. Gardiner in 1922 and edited by Adriaan de Buck from 1935 until his death in 1959.
With the appearance of this volume, the Oriental Institute marks the true completion of the Egyptian Coffin Texts Project , an international cooperative program begun by James Henry Breasted and Alan H. Gardiner in 1922 and edited by Adriaan de Buck from 1935 until his death in 1959. When published in 1961, Volume 7, de Buck’s final volume, was announced as “the last volume of the autographed Coffin Texts in the contemplated Project” (p. vii), although the Oriental Institute had never produced the autographed edition of Pyramid Texts within the Coffin Text corpus that had been explicitly promised in the introduction to Volume 1. Assumed to comprise a “distinct” and “foreign body” within the Coffin Texts, these long-lived spells were “reserved for later” (p. xi). After a lapse of forty years, a formally renewed Coffin Texts Project was authorised by the Director of the Oriental Institute in 2001, with the goal of completing the Oriental Institute’s outstanding commitments. The translation volume once envisioned and entrusted to Tjalling Bruinsma had been rendered unnecessary by the publications of Robert O. Faulkner in 1969 ( Pyramid Texts ) and 1973-1978 ( Coffin Texts ), which serve to engage scholars and laymen alike. Glossaries, bibliographies, symposia, and detailed textual studies appeared, but the critical edition of Middle Kingdom Pyramid Texts remained unaccomplished. By careful examination of the Oriental Institute’s original collation sheets and unpublished sources from Lisht, James P. Allen, after years of concentrated study, has now fulfilled the task admirably. It is hoped that the new edition stimulates discussion not only of the longevity of the Pyramid Texts, but of the nature of the Coffin Texts themselves. While Breasted insisted that the Pyramid Texts were “sharply distinguished” from the Coffin Texts, the frequent appearance of “Pyramid Texts” on coffins (among the narrowly defined “Coffin Texts”) leaves this opinion open to question. Ironically, the one coffin acquired in Chicago by Breasted for study by the Coffin Texts Project (OIM 12072) contained only “Pyramid Texts” and was therefore excluded from the initial seven volumes. Now at last these Middle Kingdom texts on a coffin can be examined among the “Coffin Texts” (Robert K. Ritner, Director, The Egyptian Coffin Texts Project, 2001-05).
- By (author) James P. Allen
Other Titles in this Series
Ancient Settlement Systems and Cultures in the Ram Hormuz Plain, Southwestern Iran
Excavations at Tall-e Geser and Regional Survey in the Ram Hormuz Area
Volume 140
The Temple of Khonsu. Volume II
Scenes and Inscriptions in the Court and the First Hypostyle Hall
Volume 103
Temple of Khonsu, Volume 3
The Graffiti on the Khonsu Temple Roof at Karnak: A Manifestat
Volume 123
Tell Hamoukar, Volume 1. Urbanism and Cultural Landscapes in Northeastern Syria
The Tell Hamoukar Survey, 1999-2001
Volume 137
The Amuq Valley Regional Projects, Volume 1
Surveys in the Plain of Antioch and Orontes Delta, Turkey, 1995-2002
Volume 131
Reliefs and Inscriptions at Luxor Temple, Volume 1
The Festival Procession of Opet in the Colonnade Hall
Volume 112
The Egyptian Book of the Dead
Documents in the Oriental Institute Museum at the University of Chicago
Volume 82
Excavations in the Plain of Antioch III
Stratigraphy, Pottery, and Small Finds from Chatal Hoyuk in the Amuq Plain
Volume 143
Archaeology of the Bronze Age, Hellenistic, and Roman Remains at an Ancient Town on the Euphrates River
Excavations at Tell Es-Sweyhat, Syria Volume 2
Volume 125
The Origins of State Organisations in Prehistoric Highland Fars, Southern Iran
Excavations at Tall-e Bakun
Volume 128
Town and Country in Southeastern Anatolia, Volume II
The Stratigraphic Sequence at Kurban Hoyuk
Volume 110
Old Babylonian Public Buildings in the Diyala Region. Part One
Excavations at Ishchali, Part Two: Khafajah Mounds B, C, and D.
Volume 98
The Oriental Institute Hawara Papyri
Demotic and Greek Texts from an Egyptian Family Archive in the Fayum (Fourth to Third Century B.C.
Volume 113
Kerkenes Special Studies 1
Sculpture and Inscriptions from the Monumental Entrance to the Palatial complex at Kerkenes, Turkey
Volume 135
Town and Country in Southeastern Anatolia, Volume 1
Settlement and Land Use at Kurban Hoyuek and Other Sites in the Lower Karababa Basin
Volume 109
Cuneiform Texts from the Ur III Period in the Oriental Institute, Volume 1
Drehem Administrative Documents from the Reign of Shulgi
Volume 115
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