The Abusir Papyri

The Abusir Papyri

Several kings of the Fifth Dynasty selected for their pyramid complex an area of desert northwest of modern Abusir village. In the late nineteenth century, several museums acquired groups of papyrus fragments from the business papers of one cult, that for king Neferirkare Kakai. Together this remains the largest Old Kingdom (about 2686-2181 BC) papyrus find. In the late twentieth century excavations by the Czechoslovak expedition on the site, more papyri were found from two other cult complexes, (1) for king Neferefre (more recently read Raneferef), and (2) for the king's mother Khentkaus.

 http://www.ucl.ac.uk/museums-static/digitalegypt/abughurab/abusir.html

 Abusir Papyri �University College Sheet B� UC 32366

Published: de Cenival and Posener-Krieger 1968: pl.8; commentary in Posener-Krieger 1976: 121-122

Contents:

Series of fragments from middle or lower part of a papyrus roll, gridded, with name-list probably from a roster table of duty for staff on rotating service

From the better preserved parallels such as British Museum 10735.7, Louver E25279 and Egyptian Museum Cairo 602, it is clear that each horizontal line corresponds to one day, and each group of vertical columns to a particular duty in the temple, for example �men to make offerings to statues on festival day�, �men to bring meat and flower garlands from the sun-temple Setibra�. The fragments show that the same individual repeated this task across several days:
Fragment A Ptahhotep

Fragment B AaFragment C Khuenkhnum, Djedikakai, SenebFragment D Ipi, Izy, end of note of task in vertical column �his [...] in/from the temple�Fragment E Merra with note in red �the elder�, Seneb, Djedi, NesqedFragment F Nefer, Neferheteput, Nedjemib, KaFragment G [..]-heteput (?), Neferiretkakai, Kakaihetepet, Kair[su]

Note that, on the eighth day on fragment D, the official Izy did not complete his task, as the recording bureaucrat marked in place of his name a red stroke.