Papyrus Harkness (MMA 31.9.7) preserves a long, virtually undamaged text
written in the demotic script. The original owner and beneficiary of the
papyrus was a woman called Tanaweruow. Born into a prietly family, she
lived in the town of Pernebut in Middle Egypt. After her death, which
occurred on 15 February 61 A.D., an elaborate series of mortuary rituals
were performed for her benefit by her father and others. Papyrus
Harkness preserves a complete record of the words recited during these
ceremonies, in which it would have been employed by those officiating.
After its initial use, the papyrus was buried along with Tanaweruow in
her tomb, where the reanimating and protective powers of the words with
which it was inscribed were supposed to remain effective for all
eternity. The manuscript was disinterred by a person or persons unknown,
and made its way through untraced channels to the Cairo antiquities
market where it was purchased by Howard Carter in the spring of 1922,
not too long before his discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun. In 1924,
he sold it to the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, in whose
collection it has remained ever since. The present volume is the first
complete edition of Papyrus Harkness. The introduction describes the
manuscript's appearance and state of preservation, summarises the
available information concerning its original owner and her family,
analyses the text's contents, their structure, composition, and ritual
significance, and outlines its most salient grammatical and stylistic
features. This is followed by a transliteration and translation of the
papyrus and a parallel version of part of it preserved in another
manuscript, P. BM 10507, a line by line commentary, a bibliography of
works cited, and a full glossary reproducing all the words which occur
in the text in facsimile. The volume concludes with a set of eight
fold-out plates with photographs of Papyrus Harkness.
