Abstract
Summary This paper presents an analysis of the dates found on ostraca containing the literary composition The Teaching of Khety, also known as The Satire of the Trades. Various aspects of these dates are discussed, for example the palaeography and the placement of the dates on the ostracon, for the purpose of outlining some scribal practices in ancient Egypt. From the dates themselves can be deduced that scribes conducted their literary activities all year round, both during the working week and at the weekend. Finally, the presumed educational context of the ostraca is discussed. The high percentage of dates on ostraca with Khety, in comparison to other literary compositions, suggests Khety was the most popular text used in the training of scribes.
Highlights
Little or no work has been done on the dates which are found on literary ostraca since Andrea McDowell’s article1
Summary: This paper presents an analysis of the dates found on ostraca containing the literary composition The Teaching of Khety, known as The Satire of the Trades
Since Adolf Erman’s influential article on ancient Egyptian school texts, ostraca with literary texts have often been regarded as school exercises38
Summary
In this paper The Teaching of Khety, known as The Satire of the Trades, is used as a case study. It was one of the most popular wisdom instructions of the time, as can be seen from the multitude of ostraca bearing extracts from this literary composition. Khety is the most attested wisdom instruction on ostraca from Deir el-Medina. On some of the ostraca traces of red ink are still visible. Because dates were mostly written in red ink, these traces are very probably the remnants of a date, especially because they occur in the right place for a date (see below)
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