Allen: Two Mummy-Labels in mi-. Carnegh Museum. 219 



in.i\ be in the nominative case, as T/3»/o-is dvy (ar^o) T/Jrjo-eojs 6vy (aTpos) 

 'PoSacAeias, or Ta/tei/e, because the writer does nol think of the 1"-- oi 



t<i<£>/. Since the writer does not know ('.nek declension he gives the 

 to him common form of the nominative used without declension; for 

 there were very few Greeks among those who bore these labels. If 

 we have a ( '.reek unilingual label we may be able to find the Egypt ian 

 form of the name from its occurrence in some bilingual (Demotic 

 and Greek) label, or in some unilingual (Demotic) label, or on an 

 ostrakon, or in some papyrus. But when all these aids fail and we 

 can not establish any combination of Egyptian words or sounds which 

 the name might represent we must leave the question open for a 

 later day to settle. 



Occasionally the title 5 or calling of the dead is given after his name, 

 as dyopurd/xos, ypappxiTei's, icpei's, 7rpo<p?/TT/s, 7rAu'#ei>T?/s, etc. 



Though the fullest form of label, and the simplest form, which gives 

 merely the name of the dead, seem to be the least frequent, the content 

 of the inscriptions varies considerably, the variation being due perhaps 

 to differences of time and place. For example the method of noting 

 the number of years lived varies as follows, if}£a><rcv ir^, c'/JiWcv ItcJv, 



€/8tO)(T£V 0>S €TU>V, jSlWdaVTOS eVLUVTOV, WS €TWV } 6TWV, and L (the sign for 



irSiv), while the number of years is either represented by letters and 

 symbols, or by words (ivtavrov cyds rjfXLaovs), or by both together. 



\i cording to Hall a majority of the mummy-labels in the museums 

 are from Akhmim (Panopolis) and Bompae (Suhag), though this 

 is merely due to chance, Bompae, Psonis and other towns being near 

 Akhmim. But Schmidt 6 says that only a small part of the labels 

 sold as "from Achmim" are really from that place, the majority being 

 from Athribis (Sohag), the present Schech Hammed. 



The specimen contained in the Carnegie Museum which is repre- 

 sented on Plate XVI, is a wooden tablet, 7 perforated at one end, 

 13.5 X 6 centimeters in size. The inscription is in Demotic and Greek 

 written lengthwise. The label is very black, provenance unknown. 



5 Spiegelberg. p. 71*. 



6 Carl Schmidt, "Em Griechisches Mumienetikett aus Achmin," Zeitschr. f. 

 /Egypt. Spr. u. Altertumskunde, vol. XXXIV (1896), pp. 79-81. 



7 Carnegie Museum, Pittsburgh, Pa., Accession Number 4599- Because of the 

 light yellow color of the wood the inscription could not be made clear in a photo- 

 graph. The illustration is from a copy made by Mr. Sidney Prentice, the draughts- 

 man of the Museum. 



