THE BATTLE OF KADESH: PALEOGRAPHIC NOTES ON THE PAPYRUS OF PENTAURET

Abstract

Purpose. The “Battle of Kadesh,” a historical literary composition recounting one military engagement that happened during a Ramses’s II conflict (XIII century BCE), is known from several sources. The article is devoted to one of them: the hieratic papyrus of Pentauret. All existing translations into modern languages do not pay due consideration to the specific features of the narration preserved in different versions of the text. Moreover, deciphering the writing of the scribe Pentauret by the earlier researchers is frequently inadequate. Criticized mistakes occurring in the generally accepted publications aim to reveal the need for new edition of the manuscript and initialize the individual translation of this document. Methodology. The part of the investigation involving source study is based on the examination of the Late-Egyptian original documents, namely: hieratic manuscripts and hieroglyphic inscriptions available in the form of the published photos, facsimiles or hand-copies. For a comparative paleographic analysis papyri belonging to various archives with common provenance have been studied. Results. The papyrus of Pentauret is the only document in this group where the date of its composition is recorded. To prove that the text was written on the papyrus during Merneptah’s reign, the reason why the epithet ‘great’ was applied to the chief of Ramesses’s II enemies is discussed. A paleographic analysis of the final text fragment has allowed the mistakes occurring in the earlier hieroglyphic transcriptions authored by the foreign researchers to be improved. Thus, a newly constructed hieroglyphic transcription and Russian translation of the colophon is supplied. Scope of application of the results. The article is intended for professionals in political history and source studies of the ancient world.

Keywords

• древний египет
• войны рамсеса ii
• иератика
• ошибки переписчиков