Dating of literary ostraca with the Hieratische Paläographie der nicht-literarischen Ostraka der 19. und 20. Dynastie by Stefan Wimmer : an experiment

Abstract

For around one hundred years the Hieratische Paläographie by Georg Möller was the only diachronic and diatopic chrestomathy. It was used for all kind of purposes, from identifying signs to approximately dating texts – not just literary ones, for which the chrestomathy was principally produced, but also administrative texts. With the publication of Wimmer’s Hieratische Paläographie in 1995, there now existed a chrestomathy for administrative texts from Deir el-Medine, covering a period of around 250 years. As an experiment, Wimmer’s palaeography was tested as a means of dating literary texts, which were exemplified by a pre-existing small group of signed and, therefore, quite well-dated texts. On the one hand it could be shown that this works quite well, whilst on the other it demonstrated that earlier identified signs relevant for dating, such as (D51 + D40) and (Aa1), are quite reliable tools. Local idiosyncrasies could be detected, as could exceptions to the changes observed in the use of signs over time owing to the human factors, which always have an impact in studies into handwriting styles.