The London Medical Papyrus (1.101)

Abstract

The London Medical Papyrus, usually dated to the late 18th dynasty (fourteenth century BCE), contains a number of short Semitic magical texts transcribed into hieratic syllabic script (Wreszinski 1912:150-152). Like magical texts of later periods, they are written in a Mischsprache, reflecting their transmission from one group to another. As befits a period when Canaanite vassals wrote to their Egyptian suzerain in Akkadian colored by their own dialects, we appear to be dealing with a mixture of Northwest Semitic dialects (Canaanite and Aramaic), with Egyptian phrases (rendered below in bold letters) and a few Akkadian terms thrown in for good measure. The determinatives used by the scribe show that he understood the texts and provide invaluable guidance to the decipherer. It appears that in these texts, Egyptian k renders Semitic k, and Egyptian s renders Semitic s and s (as well as s and /), against the norm for this period. The notes given below are meant to supplement those of Steiner (1992); 1 they are fullest for those phrases which were not yet deciphered in that article