On the So-Called Transmission of Schriftkultur in the Self-Presentations of Payeftjauemawyneith

Abstract

This article revisits the issue of Saite copying from earlier sources and, more specifically, addresses the possible transmission of the older phraseology and thematic conceptions of the genre (Schriftkultur or Textkultur) in the self-presentations of Payeftjauemawyneith in late Saite Egypt. The discussion is based on a comparison of textual similarities of his self-presentations on naophorous statues Louvre A 93 and BM EA 83 to the earlier self-presentations of the Old Kingdom text of Djau (stela CG 1431 from Abydos), the Middle Kingdom text of Djefaihapi I at Asyut (Siut I), and the New Kingdom text of Puyemre at Thebes (TT 39)—comparisons already made in the past by other scholars. Although there are similarities between these texts and those of Payeftjauemawyneith, the textual features of his self-presentations do not reflect direct transmission from those earlier texts. Moreover, it is not entirely obvious that the older phraseology of the genre was known to Payeftjauemawyneith. Thus, in this case, there is no evidence the scribes of the texts of Payeftjauemawyneith had any direct, or even indirect, knowledge of Old Kingdom, Middle Kingdom, and New Kingdom texts such as those to which his texts have been compared.