Table 1: Translations of
the hieratic texts on the map side of the Turin
papyrus
(adapted from Harrell and Brown 1992: Table 1)
______________________________________________________________
Text
Number1 Translation
1 the road that leads
to the sea
2 another road
that leads to the sea
3 the
road of Tent-p-mer [the translation of the last word is uncertain –
it
may be the name of an unknown locality or it may mean ‘treasurer’ or ‘harbor’]
4 mountains of gold
5 mountains of
gold
6 the houses of
the gold-working settlement
7 cistern [or
‘water reservoir’; the text is written on top of the water sign]
8 stela
of Menma’atre, life, health and prosperity! [king Sety I, 1290-1279 BC,
of
the New Kingdom’s 19th Dynasty]2
9 the
road of Ta-menti [the last word is apparently the name of an unknown
locality]
10 the shrine of Amun
of the pure mountain
11 the mountains
in which gold is worked, they are colored pink
12 mountains
of gold and silver [or perhaps ‘mountains of electrum’, where electrum
is
a natural mixture of gold and silver]
13 …the hill of Amun
14 the hill where Amun
rests
15 [not
translatable; appears to be part of a name for some locality]
16 [too
fragmentary to translate, but it appears to be comments on travel from one
unnamed
locality to another; a travel time of
‘one day’ and ‘gold’ are mentioned]
16’ mountains
of gold [appears to be a continuation of 16 but is a separate text]
17 distance
from the gold-working settlement to the mountain of bekheny,…khet
[this
text is repeated three times, apparently for emphasis; the distance in units
of khet
is missing]3,4
18 …the
bekheny-stone that is found in the mountain of bekheny, the
king…[name
lost]
life, health, prosperity, having sent the great magistrates to bring the
portrait
statue
of bekheny-stone…to Egypt. They deposited it in the Place of Truth
beside
the
Temple of Userma’atre setepenre, the great God [i.e., near the Valley of
Kings
at
the mortuary temple of Ramesses II, 1279-1213 BC, of the New Kingdom’s 19th
Dynasty;
also known as the Ramesseum]…left it at the enclosure of the Tomb and
there
it lay being half worked in year 63
19 [not
translatable]
20 the
place in which they work in the great business of bekhen-stone which was
established
as a quarry
21 the measurement
of this…
22 [not
translatable]
23 …of
stone that is pulled by men from the east…3 cubits wide [about 1.6 m]4
24 …bekheny…
25 breadth
of 2 cubits, 2 palms [about 1.2 m]; thickness of 2 cubits, 3 palms…fingers
[about
1.3 m]
26 breadth
of 2 cubits [about 1.0 m]; thickness of 2 cubits
27 …palms…fingers
28 …palms;
thickness of 2 cubits…palms
______________________________________________________________
1 See Figures 2 or 4 for locations of texts. Note that
“…” indicates missing text, untranslated
ancient Egyptian words are
italicized, and comments are given within brackets.
2 All dates in this article are taken from p. 36-37 of
Baines and Malek (2000).
3 Texts 17 and 18 are written in a script that is
bold, calligraphic and near-hieroglyphic in style.
All other texts are written
in a less elaborate hieratic script.
4 The ancient Egyptian units of measure are as
follows: 1 khet = 100 cubits; 1 cubit (the
standardized distance from
the elbow to the tip of the longest finger) = 7 palms (palm widths)
= 28 fingers (finger
widths); 1 cubit = 52.31 cm, 1 palm = 7.47 cm, 1 finger = 1.87 cm.