ACADEMY OF SAINT GABRIEL REPORT 1983 http://www.s-gabriel.org/1983 ************************************ 27 Mar 2000 From: (Josh Mittleman) Greetings from the Academy of Saint Gabriel! You asked our help choosing an appropriate name for a woman in ancient Egypt. We have to say at the outset that this culture is outside our area of expertise, but we think we can offer you a little help. We aren't sure just which period interests you. Egyptian civilization existed for thousands of years, eventually overlapping with the cultures of ancient Greece and Rome. The language (and thus naming practices) changed significantly from one period to another, so it is important to match your name to the period you want to re-create. Contact with Europe resulted in substantial change to the Egyptian language; its descendent in the 2nd century AD is called Coptic, which has survived to the present day. Here is a list of some women's names used in Pharaonic Egypt. They are, of course, all transliterated from hieroglyphics [1]. Please note that hieroglyphics did not include vowels, so the vowels in these names have been inserted by scholars, often based on secondary evidence. Scholars have often produced different results by this method. In particular, the e's are very likely to be place-fillers, inserted where scholars believe there was a vowel but aren't certain which one it was. Old Kingdom 2680 - 2258 BC Irwt (Old Kingdom, 5th or 6th Dynasty) Intekes (Old Kingdom, 5th or 6th Dynasty) Nebet-net-ka (Old Kingdom, 5th or 6th Dynasty) Nefer (Old Kingdom, 4th Dynasty) Ni-Inpw-kauw (Old Kingdom, 5th or 6th Dynasty) Sety-hekenet (Old Kingdom, 4th Dynasty) Theset (Old Kingdom) Middle Kingdom 2134-1786 BC Inu (Middle Kingdom, 11th Dynasty) Hekenu (Middle Kingdom, 11th Dynasty) Henut (Middle Kingdom, 11th Dynasty) Itef (Middle Kingdom, 12th Dynasty) Iti (Middle Kingdom, 11th Dynasty) Mayet (Middle Kingdom, 11th Dynasty) New Kingdom 1570-1085 BC Duat-nefret (New Kingdom, 18th Dynasty) Enehy (New Kingdom, 19th Dynasty) Hatshepsut (New Kingdom, 19th Dynasty) Henut-demit (New Kingdom, 19th Dynasty) Henut-nefer (New Kingdom, 18th Dynasty) Henut-wedjebu (New Kingdom, 18th Dynasty) Iay (New Kingdom, 20th Dynasty) Iny (New Kingdom, 18th Dynasty) Kai-neferu (New Kingdom, 18th Dynasty) Meryt (New Kingdom, 18th Dynasty) Tehk-em-sha, short form Ikhem (New Kingdom, 18th Dynasty) Tjepu (New Kingdom, 18th Dynasty) Maya (New Kingdom, 19th Dynasty) Mut-nefret (New Kingdom, 18th Dynasty) Nebet-Yunet (New Kingdom, 18th Dynasty) Nub-ity (New Kindom, 18-20th Dynasties) Renenutet (New Kingdom, 19th Dynasty) Sati (New Kingdom, 18th Dynasty) Yia (New Kingdom, 19th Dynasty) Third Intermediate Period 1085-664 BC Aset-bity, short form of Aset-em-akh-bity: 'a common woman's name of the Third Intermediate Period' Neskhonsu-pakhered (Third Intermediate Period, 22nd Dynasty) Ta-sheryt-akhet (Third Intermediate Period, 22nd Dynasty) Ta-Khaa-en-Bastet (Late Period, 25th or 26th Dynasty) We can suggest a few good books for learning more about ancient Egypt. Nicholas Grimal. 1992. _A History of Ancient Egypt_. Oxford: Blackwell Barry Kemp. 1989. _Ancient Egypt: The Anatomy of a Civilization_. London: Routledge. Hermann Ranke. 1952. Die {A"}gyptischen Personennamen. J.J. Augustin, Gl{u"}ckstadt. (three volumes) One warning: The College of Arms of the SCA will not register names documented only from ancient Egypt hieroglyphic inscriptions, since the culture is outside the scope of the SCA and the language was not readable in medieval and renaissance Europe [2]. We hope this letter has been useful. Please write us again if any part of it has been unclear or if you have other questions. I was assisted in researching and writing this letter by Mari Elspeth nic Bryan, Juliana de Luna, Tangwystyl verch Morgant Glasvryn, Walraven van Nijmegen, Raquel Buenaventura, Talan Gwynek, Adelaide de Beaumont, Antonio Miguel Santos de Borja, and Amant le Marinier. For the Academy, Arval Benicoeur 27 Mar 2000 - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - - References [1] Capel, Anne K. and Glenn E. Markoe, eds., _Mistress of the House, Mistress of Heaven: Women in Ancient Egypt_ (Hudson Hills Press, New York, 1996). [2] Laurel Letter of Acceptance and Returns, March 1995, pp.14-15. In returning a submitted name, Laurel wrote: Another, and more basic, question regarding this submission, is whether and how well pharaonic Egyptian names fit into the scope of the SCA. Rules for Submission I.1. notes that "The Society for Creative Anachronism studies pre-Seventeenth Century Western Culture. The period of the Society has been defined to extend until 1600 A.D. Its domain includes Europe and areas that had contact with Europe during this period." (emphasis added) The Introduction in the Preface of the 1995 Organizational Handbook defines the scope of the SCA even more narrowly: "The Society for Creative Anachronism, Inc. is a non-profit educational organziation devoted to the study of the Middle Ages and the Renaissance. Most of its activities take place in the context of a social structure adapted from the forms of the European Middle Ages...." (emphasis added) And the submitter herself admits that this persona is outside the scope of the Society. In her own words, she is "a traveller, both through space and time, to the period and place of the Society". On the other hand, the College more or less routinely allows Roman and Greek names to be registered. Is this name significantly different from those? If I may quote Harpy: "The cultures of classical Greece and Rome were accessible to medieval Europeans (at least, cultured and literate ones) from written records - records that were deliberately and consciously preserved. But the language of the hieroglyphs was dead; knowledge of the writing system lost completely. Recall that it was only with the late 18th century discovery of the Rosetta Stone, with its trilingual inscription including Greek, that "modern" people were again able to try to decipher the writings of ancient Egypt. A classical Roman name, or a Biblical Hebrew name would in some way be accessible to a medieval European (highly educated scholar), but an ancient Egyptian name would not be something that he could have any knowledge of or familiarity with. There is simply no connection available." In other words, yes, there is a difference. Ancient Greece and Rome "had contact" with Europe during "the Middle Ages and Renaissance" through their writings; pharaonic Egypt did not. Ancient Egyptian names thus appear to be outside the scope and domain of the SCA, much as Australian flora and fauna or Australian aboriginal names are.