Daily Life in Ancient Egyptian Personal Correspondence

Representations and inscriptions on tomb and temple walls and individual stelae have provided considerable knowledge of ancient Egyptian daily life, religious custom and military achievements. However, as visual or eulogistic textual evidence they are unable to provide the insight into the people themselves, their personalities and the events and issues they were concerned with, insight which can be found in personal correspondence. Daily Life in Ancient Egyptian Personal Correspondence addresses a selection of letters from the Old Kingdom up to and including the Twenty-first Dynasty. Under the topic headings of problems and issues, daily life, religious matters, military and police matters, it will show the insight they provide regarding aspects of belief, relationships, custom and behaviour, evidencing the distinctiveness of the data such personal correspondence can provide as a primary source of daily life in ancient Egypt – the extra dimension. Representations and inscriptions on tomb and temple walls and individual stelae have provided considerable knowledge of ancient Egyptian daily life, religious custom and military achievements. However, as visual or eulogistic textual evidence they are unable to provide the insight into the people themselves, their personalities and the events and issues they were concerned with, insight which can be found in personal correspondence. Daily Life in Ancient Egyptian Personal Correspondence addresses a selection of letters from the Old Kingdom up to and including the Twenty-first Dynasty. Under the topic headings of problems and issues, daily life, religious matters, military and police matters, it will show the insight they provide regarding aspects of belief, relationships, custom and behaviour, evidencing the distinctiveness of the data such personal correspondence can provide as a primary source of daily life in ancient Egypt – the extra dimension. Cover 1 Title Page 3 Copyright Page 4 Contents 5 Introduction 7 Problems and issues 11 Letter 1 11 Letter 2 13 Letter 3 15 Letter 4 16 Domestic issues and responsibility 19 Letter 5 19 Letter 6 21 Provisioning 22 Letter 7 22 Letter 8 24 Personal and familial issues 25 Letter 9 25 Letter 10 27 Letter 11 29 Letter 12 31 Summary 33 Daily Life 36 Building work and labour 36 Letter 1 36 Letter 2 38 Husbandry 40 Letter 3 40 Letter 4 41 Letter 5 43 Provisions 45 Letter 6 45 Letter 7 48 Personal topics 50 Letter 8 50 Letter 9 52 Letter 10 54 Raw materials 57 Letter 11 57 Letters 12 and 13 58 Summary 59 Religious matters 61 Religious duties, festivals, and a divine offering problem 61 Letter 1 61 Letter 2 62 Letter 3 64 Letter 4 65 Letter 5 67 The ‘God’s Father Priests of “He of the Camp”’ 69 Letter 6 70 Letter 7 72 Letter 8 73 Letter 9 74 Letter 10 75 Letter 11 77 Letter 12 78 Letter 13 79 Summary 80 Military and police matters 82 Military duties and responsibility 82 Letters 1, 2 and 3 82 Letter 4 87 Letter 5 89 Letter 6 91 An assassination plot 92 Letter 7 92 Letter 8 92 Letter 9 93 Summary 96 Further analysis 97 Aspects of agricultural organisation and natural resources 97 Religious aspects 99 Aspects of feelings and emotion 100 The role of women 101 Delivery 102 Writers and recipients 103 Aspects regarding distinctiveness of data 105 Conclusion 111 Appendix 113 Letters within collections 113 Letters from a specific period 118 Letters grouped by topic 121 Letters grouped by same sender and/or recipient 124 Letters studied with respect to specific aspects of structure and focus 126 In conclusion: other categories of correspondence 127 References 129 Back cover 136 Archaeopress Egyptology 32,Ancient Egypt,personal letters,daily life,people,relationships,belief,custom,language,senders and recipients "Representations and inscriptions on tomb and temple walls and individual stelae have provided considerable knowledge of ancient Egyptian daily life, religious custom and military achievements. However, as visual or eulogistic textual evidence they are unable to provide the insight into the people themselves, their personalities and the events and issues they were concerned with, insight which can be found in personal correspondence. Daily Life in Ancient Egyptian Personal Correspondence addresses a selection of letters from the Old Kingdom up to and including the Twenty-first Dynasty. Under the topic headings of problems and issues, daily life, religious matters, military and police matters, it will show the insight they provide regarding aspects of belief, relationships, custom and behaviour, evidencing the distinctiveness of the data such personal correspondence can provide as a primary source of daily life in ancient Egypt – the extra dimension."--Quatrième de couverture This publication considers a selection of letters from the Old Kingdom up to and including the Twenty-first Dynasty. Under the topic headings of 'problems and issues', 'daily life', 'religious matters', 'military and police matters', it demonstrates the insight such texts can provide regarding aspects of belief, relationships, custom and behaviour This book considers a selection of letters from the Old Kingdom up to and including the Twenty-first Dynasty. Under the topic headings of 'problems and issues', 'daily life', 'religious matters', 'military and police matters', it demonstrates the insight such texts can provide regarding aspects of belief, relationships, custom and behaviour