Pfortenbuchstudien. 2 Vols

ALLEN, JAMES P.

Pfortenbuchstudien. 2 Vols. By JURGEN ZEIDLER. Gottinger Orientforschungen, IV Reihe, Agypten, vol. 36. Wiesbaden: HARRASSOWITZ VERLAG, 1999. Pp. 340, 379, illustrations. DM 248 (paper).

The "Book of Gates" is one of the ancient Egyptian compositions known as "guides to the netherworld." First inscribed on the walls and sarcophagi of tombs in the Valley of the Kings, it describes and depicts the twelve gated regions of the netherworld visited by the sun in his voyage from sunset to sunrise. The texts of its sixteen known New Kingdom copies were collated and published, with a translation, by Erik Hornung in 1979-80. [1] Zeidler's study, essentially the publication of his doctoral dissertation, is an admirably exhaustive, if occasionally exhausting, critical analysis of these texts that will appeal to few outside the field of Egyptology and to a limited number of scholars within it.

The Pfortenbuch part of the work occupies the second volume ("Teil II: Kritische Edition des Pfortenbuches nach den Versionen des Neuen Reiches"), which presents Zeidler's transliteration and translation of the texts on facing pages. The translation does not differ markedly from that presented by Hornung, but it does present a number of improvements and alternative readings, so that scholars working with the texts will need to consult both works. The transliteration, lacking in Hornung's study, is a welcome addition, particularly since the texts use quite a few unusual or cryptographic writings. Unfortunately, Zeidler has adopted an extremely cumbersome system of transliteration that attempts to combine lexical, etymological, morphological, phonological, and orthographic criteria: For example, jw, f s:[hd.sup.[r.sup.[subset]],u] f kki.[w.sup.grh] zm[contains][contains]]. [u.sup.md[contains][contains]t] in place of more standard renditions such as jw.f shd.f kkw zn[contains][contains]w. This only succeeds in making the transliteration harder to read, thereby reducing its usefulness. Zeidler's system overlooks the primary purpose of transliteration, which is to provide an indication of the words in the text on which the translation is based. Parsing on etymological, morphological, or phonological criteria is more properly relegated to discussions of these topics. The attempt to reflect hieroglyphic spelling seems particularly ill-considered, not only because of the fundamental difference between the hieroglyphic and alphabetic systems of writing but also because anyone who is really interested in this aspect of the texts will consult the hieroglyphic original anyway.

Zeidler's Studien are presented in the first volume ("Teil I: Textkritik und Textgeschichte des Pfortenbuches"). These include a lengthy introduction on the theory and methods of textual criticism (pp. 11-84), the application of these methods to an analysis of the sixteen New Kingdom sources and their relationship to one another and their theoretical Vorlage (pp. 85- 127), a detailed study of the grammar and language of the texts (pp. 128-208), and a discussion of the history and transmission of the Book of Gates (pp. 209-49). A useful set of appendices occupies the end of volume 1, including not only the usual lists of abbreviations and bibliography, but also tables of the textual variants used to establish the history and relationship of the sources and an extensive index of the verb forms found in the texts, as well as a subject index. The only omission--which is surprising, given the book's otherwise careful attention to detail--is an index of words used in the texts.

Zeidler's interest is clearly in the textual history of the Book of Gates and its grammar, and his contributions in these areas are a particularly valuable addition to our understanding of how such works were composed and transmitted. For any Egyptologist with the same interest in the texts, this study is a welcome and indispensable resource. The work as a whole is extremely detailed, meant for careful study (best in consultation with the hieroglyphic original) rather than casual reading. The typography is also extremely dense, compounded by the author's conventions for transliteration and text-critical apparatus. Fortunately, for those less inclined to wade through these details, Zeidler has supplied a short summary of the book's four main sections (pp. 247-49), with useful cross-references to the more extended discussions. His findings include the reconstruction of six major families to which the New Kingdom copies of the Book of Gates belong, and the conclusion that the work was first composed during the reign of Amenhotep III, about fifty years before its first appearance in the tomb of Harembab.

Zeidler's study does not deal with broader questions such as the meaning of the Book of Gates in Egyptian theology and cosmology or its relationship to other works of the same genre, but this was not the author's intention. Scholars who are interested in these aspects of the texts will be better served by other works, such as those of Erik Hornung. [2]

(1.) E. Hornung, Das Buch von den Pforten des Jenseits, 2 vols. Aegyptiaca Helvetica 7-8 (Basel and Geneva: Agyptologisehes Seminar der Universitat and Faculte des Lettres de l'Universite, 1979-80).

(2.) E.g., Altagyptische Jenseitsbucher: Ein einfuhrender Uberblick (Darmstadt: Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, 1997) and Die Nachtfahrt der sonne: Eine Altagyptische Beschreibung des Jenseits (Zurich: Artemis & Winkler, 1991).