Administrative Documents of Abusir Papyrus Archives
Hana Vymazalová
Czech Institute of
Egyptology,
The papyri
archives from Abusir are of key importance for the
study of organization and economic aspects of the royal funerary complexes of
the
The papyri illustrate the
integration of the royal funerary complexes into the state economy and their
connection with various institutions that provided an economical base for
cemeteries (e.g. residence). The long-term intention of our project is a
detailed interpretation of the Abusir documents in
the context of the economy of the fifth dynasty state. The papyri fundamentally
complement the archaeological sources.
Of particular
importance are the accounts, which they provide unique information concerning
the organization of the mortuary cult in the temples. Although such information
cannot be complete, we can learn a lot about daily incomes and outcomes of the
temple economy. Not only amounts of commodities delivered to or from the
funerary temple were inspected, but also their sources or destinations and names
of responsible persons were recorded. These documents are more or less uniform
and they work with a specific account terminology, which expresses all the
necessary operations. The interpretation of the terminology is not always easy
since most of the accounts are written in table form, lacking their context.
However, in this respect we follow the pioneer work of Paule
Posener-Kriéger.