Djekhy & Son Doing Business in Ancient Egypt

by Donker van Heel, Koenraad

• ISBN13: 9789774164774
• ISBN10: 9774164776
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-05-20
• Publisher: The American University in Cairo Press

Summary

Djekhy and Son, two businessmen living 2500 years ago in the densely populated neighborhoods built around the great temple of Amun at Karnak, worked as funerary service providers in the necropolis on the western bank of the Nile. They were also successful agricultural entrepreneurs,cultivating flax and grain. In 1885, the German Egyptologist August Eisenlohr acquired a unique collection of papyri that turned out to be Djekhy's archive of mainly legal documents. Using this rich trove of evidence, augmented by many other sources, the author has painted a vivid picture of life in ancient Egypt between 570and 534 BCE, during the little-known Saite period. Approaching the subject from both business and personal aspects, he gives us a fresh look at some facets of ancient Egypt that have mostly been hidden from view-such as putting up one's children as security for a loan.

Author Biography

Koenraad Donker van Heel studied Egyptology at Leiden University. He received his PhD on the scientific edition of the papyrus archive of Djekhy & Son in 1996. He has published works on the legal, social, and economic aspects of ancient Egypt, and now works in PR and communications.

Table of Contents

List of Illustrations	p. vii
List of Tables	p. ix
Preface	p. xi
Acknowledgments	p. xiii
Chronology	p. xvii
People	p. 1
The Family	p. 1
Papyrus Mattha	p. 9
Papyri	p. 11
The Box of Muhammad Muhassib	p. 11
The Archive of Djekhy & Son	p. 16
P. Louvre E 7834 and 7838	p. 17
Between 675 and 572 BCE	p. 21
Between 570 and 534 BCE	p. 24
The Saite Restoration	p. 25
Trust: Djekhy 570-549 BCE	p. 35
Just a Businessman from Thebes	p. 35
Trustee	p. 39
Demotic Temple Oaths	p. 41
A Letter from the North	p. 42
Working with Papyri	p. 45
Marital Property Arrangement	p. 46
Papyrus Insinger: A Saite Wisdom Text?	p. 50
The Teachings of Ankhsheshonqy	p. 52
Water: Djekhy 559 BCE	p. 57
A Hostile Takeover	p. 57
A Five-thousand-year Tradition	p. 58
Flax: Djekhy 556-552 BCE	p. 73
Working the Land	p. 73
The Palette of Khonsu	p. 77
Papyrus Rylands 9	p. 79
Into the Flax Business	p. 87
Earlier Work	p. 90
Lease, Harvest, and Tax	p. 93
A Major Deal	p. 94
A Late Payment?	p. 97
The Hand of God	p. 99
Grain: Iturech 550-536 BCE	p. 101
The Second Generation	p. 101
Your Grace or Dung?	p. 104
More than Ten Hectares of Land?	p. 106
The Scribe of the Mat	p. 112
Trust: Iturech 542-535 BCE	p. 115
The Theban Choachytes' Association	p. 115
The Patron Saint	p. 121
Egyptian New Year	p. 127
A Complicated Deal	p. 128
People: Iturech 539 BCE	p. 133
Iturech Buys a Son	p. 133
Earth: Iturech 536-534 BCE	p. 139
A Cattle Keeper of Montu	p. 139
The Lamp Land of Khonsu	p. 140
Not a Real Land Lease	p. 141
The Besmut Family	p. 142
Water: Iturech 536 BCE	p. 145
New Mummies, New Opportunities	p. 145
Cattle: Djekhy 533 BCE	p. 149
Just a Priest from Thebes	p. 149
Ink	p. 151
Hieratic and Demotic: Why Bother?	p. 151
Notes	p. 173
Index	p. 177
Table of Contents provided by Ingram. All Rights Reserved.