The Writing Hand and the Seated Baboon:

Tension and Balance in Statue MMA 29.2.16

Niv Allon

Abstract

This paper offers an interpretation of statue Metropolitan Museum of Art 29.2.16 and analyzes the
interplay of its two main components, the scribe and the baboon. The statue thematizes the intersec-
tion of writing, adoration and true judgment, while calling attention to points of tension between
the figure of the scribe and the image of the baboon.

Introduction

There is a statue in the Metropolitan Museum of Art that portrays a man writing while seated cross-
legged on the ground (see fig. 1).1 The man holds with his left hand a papyrus, which unfolds on his
lap and falls over his right thigh. He is accompanied by a baboon, holding onto the mans head while
squatting over his shoulders. The statue does not bear any inscriptions, which would allow dating the
statue to a specific reign, but its stylistic features point to the Ramesside period.2
The piece compares to other statues of its time, which were commissioned for and most probably
by the men they depict. As a portrait, it shares many features with biographical texts, as Jan Assmann
argues, one being the self-thematization of an individual in the medium of art, and the other in the me-
dium of language.3 Both media orient themselves towards the preservation of the self and his memory
in the afterlife. Furthermore, portraiture and biographical texts use complex iconic devices to express
the identity of the order-giving, self-thematizing self.4 In the case of the Metropolitan statue, the well-fed
body indexes the affluence of the statue owner and his high status, which allowed him to abstain from

1
New York, MMA 29.2.16; Rogers Fund, 1929. The granodiorite statue was acquired in Luxor, and it is said to have come
from Kurneh in western Thebes. See William Hayes, Scepter, II, 380. A preliminary version of this paper was presented at the
conference (Re)productive Traditions in Ancient Egypt, at the University of Lige, 2012, to whose participants and organizers
I owe great thanks. I should like to extend my gratitude to the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, to the Fellowship Program at the
Metropolitan Museum of Art and to the Department of Egyptian Art. For criticism and advice I am indebted to Dorothea Arnold,
Lamia Balafrej, Ofer Dynes, Orly Goldwasser, Dimitri Laboury, Hana Navratilova, Richard Parkinson, Diana Craig Patch and
Chlo Ragazzoli. To Marsha Hill and Sunny Yudkoff I owe a particular debt of thanks.
2
the squat proportions and summary modeling of the figure, the lack of expression in the broad, flaccid face, and a char-
acteristic coarseness of finish point to a date well down in Ramesside times, Hayes, Scepter, II, 380.
3
Jan Assmann, Preservation and Presentation of Self in Ancient Egyptian Portraiture, in Peter Der Manuelian, ed., Studies
in Honor of William Kelly Simpson, vol. 1 (Boston, 1996), 55.
4
See Assmann, Preservation and Presentation of Self, 5556. On the question of the self in ancient Egypt see Renata Land-
grfov and Hana Navratilova, It Is My Good Name That You Should Remember: Egyptian Texts on Middle Kingdom Stelae (Prague,
2011), xxxxii, and Elizabeth Frood, Biographical Texts from Ramessid Egypt, SBLWAW 26 (Atlanta, GA, 2007), 2829.

93
94 JARCE 49 (2013)

manual labor.5 In addition, the papyrus on the

figures lap attests to the owners literacy, while
the gesture of his right hand emphasizes his writ-
ing skills.
The comparison with biographical texts sug-
gests that nonroyal statues such as MMA 29.2.16
fulfill multiple functions.6 As Stephen Greenblatt
notes, literature, and biographies in particular,
function in three interlocking ways.7 First, they
serve as manifestations of the concrete behav-
ior of their particular author, and with ancient
Egyptian biographies and portraits one may
speak of the self-representation of the patron.
Second, these texts express the codes by which
behavior is shaped,8 conveying social rules and
inspiring their readers to emulate the lives of
their patrons. Finally, biographical texts reflect
upon those codes, commenting on their merits
and their impediments. Building on Greenblatts
theorization of literature, the Metropolitan stat-
ue may be read according to similar lines, as rep-
resentation of a concrete person, as expression
of codes and social rules and as a reflection on
these codes. As the statue represents its owner as
writer, it also thematizes the act of writing while
reflecting on its nature and its limitations.
This article explores, therefore, the Metropoli-
tan statue through these interlocking ways of in- Fig. 1. MMA, Rogers Fund, 1929 (29.2.16), H 22 cm (8
11/16). Photographs The Metropolitan Museum of Art.
terpretation. The first section will speak to the
representation of the statue owner as writer and
to the emphasis on the act of writing during the Ramesside period. The second section will explore in
three parts the interplay of the image of the baboon and the figure of the scribe in relation to literacy
and to writing. Its first and second parts will explore the intersections of writing with mAa.t9 and with
adoration through the interplay of the two components of the statue, the scribe and the baboon. These
readings arise, on the one hand, from the associations of the baboon with the role of Thoth in the trial
of the dead, and on the other with the image of the adoring baboons. Its third and final part will discuss

5
Scribes deride those who physically strain their limbs and rely on physical strength and work in direct contact with the
raw material, see Chlo Ragazzoli, Weak hands and Soft Mouths: Elements of a Scribal Identity in the New Kingdom ZS 137
(2010), 163. On the representation of the corpulent body, see Kent Weeks, The Anatomical Knowledge of the Ancient Egyptians and
the Representation of the Human Figure in Egyptian Art (Yale University, unpublished PhD dissertation, 1970), 99119.
6
Assmann discusses the self-preservation of the individual as another important function of portraiture. This extension of
the self, to use Gells analysis, allows the patron to position himself across time and contexts, in temples or after his death. See Ass-
mann, Preservation and Presentation of Self and Alfred Gell, Art and Agency: An Anthropological Theory (Oxford, 1998), 96154.
7
Stephen Greenblatt, Renaissance Self-Fashioning: From More to Shakespeare (Chicago, 1980), 4.
8
Greenblatts codes follow Geertz definition of culture as control mechanisms plans, recipes, rules, instructions for the
governing of behavior, see Greenblatt, Self-Fashioning, 4, n. 7 and Clifford Geertz, Interpretation of Cultures: Selected Essays (New
York, 1973), 44.
9
Maat was a complex, intertwined, and interdependent sense of ethics that tied personal behaviorsuch as speaking truth-
fully, dealing fairly in the market place, and especially sustaining obedience to parents, the king, and his agentsto the main-
tenance of universal order, see Emily Teeter, Maat, in Donald Redford, ed., The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt, vol. 2
(Oxford, 2001), 319.
 ALLON 95

the tensions that the baboon invites into the reading of the statue as a reflection on writing and on that
which lies beyond its reach.

1. Change of Hands

Scribal statues are often read as representing a man through his profession as a scribe. This inter-
pretation arises from the similarity between the fashion in which these statues are seated and the por-
trayals in tomb art of scribes, who perform administrative tasks while sitting on the ground with their
legs crossed.10 Many scribal statues portray, however, a variety of high-ranking officials such as viziers
and high priests.11 The titles of these officials indicate that they belonged to a wider circle than that
of scribes, who are often described as a sub-elite of intermediary civil servants who were responsible
for the administrative functioning of the Egyptian State and of its temples.12 Delange notes therefore:
Ainsi voyons-nous qu lpoque cette attitude dans la statuaire ne correspondait pas ncessairement
la fonction mme, nindiquait pas un mtier en tant que tel, mais signifiait un tat, celui dun grand
notable.13 Rather than representing a scribe in his profession, these statues portray literate men at the
moment of their engagement with a text.14
The literate figure may engage with the text in two different manners. Several statues portray their
owners reading, while others appear writing, as if holding an imaginary pen.15 Reading and writing
gestures are employed throughout the different periods and their similar distribution may imply that
the variation between the two is insignificant at all times.16 However, their interchangeability is evident
only during the Old and the Middle Kingdoms (see fig. 2).
The New Kingdom continues to employ both gestures, however, the figure in the position of writing
emerges as the more prominent one. This period sees a shift in distribution, as every two out of three

10
The crossed-legged pose is first attested in two dimensional art only in the New Kingdom. Schfer suggests, however, that
tomb art of the Old Kingdom portray this pose albeit differently due to the basic principles of the rendering of nature in two-
dimensional art, see Heinrich Schfer, Principles of Egyptian Art, Emma Brunner-Traut, ed. and John Baines, tr. (Oxford, 1986),
25153; Garry Scott, The History and Development of the Ancient Egyptian Scribe Statue (Yale University, unpublished PhD disserta-
tion, 1989), 107, n.19; Vandier, Manuel 4, 200.
11
Amenhotep who served as a vizier under Amenhotep III owned a scribal statue (CG 590 = JE 28583), as well as Herihor
from the end of the New Kingdom (CG 42190 = JE 36934). For the former see Naville, Bubastis, 3133 pls. 13, 25 [B], 35 [F, F, F];
Borchardt, CG 1-1294, vol. 2, 14546, pl. 106; Scott, History and Development, cat. no. 138. For the statue of Herihor see Legrain,
CG 42001-42250, 59, pl. 102; Georges Lefebvre, Herihor, vizir (statue du Caire, no 42190), ASAE 26 (1926), 6368, and Scott,
History and Development, 297307, cat. no. 172.
12
Ragazzoli, Weak Hands and Soft Mouths, 157.
13
lisabeth Delange, Le scribe Nebmeroutef, Collection Solo 1 (Paris, 1996), 16. See also Martin Stadler, Weiser und Wesir: Stu-
dien zu Vorkommen, Rolle und Wesen des Gottes Thot im gyptischen Totenbuch (Tbingen, 2012), 3; Scott, History and Development,
430; Edith Bernhauer, Die Statuen mit Papyrusrolle im Alten Reich, in Miroslav Brta, ed., The Old Kingdom Art and Archae-
ology: Proceedings of the Conference Held in Prague, May 31 June 4, 2004 (Prague, 2006), 6770. Though arriving at a different
conclusion, Fitzenreiter and Kessler also refute the direct association of the scribal statue with the scribal profession, see Martin
Fitzenreiter, Statue und Kult: Eine Studie der funeraren Praxis an nichtkoniglichen Grabanlagen der Residenz im Alten Reich (London,
2006), 100123; Dieter Kessler, Zur Bedeutung der Szenen des tglichen Lebens in den Privatgrbern/2: Schreiber und Sch-
reiberstatuein den Grbern des AR, ZS 117 (1990), 2143. The Egyptian word zXA.w, which literally means writer, one who
writes raises similar questions, as it is often used in administrative titles and in relation to the scribal profession, see Stephan
Jger, Altgyptische Berufstypologien, LingAeg - Studia Monographia 4 (Gttingen, 2004), 131, n. 3; Chlo Ragazzoli, Les artisans du
texte: La culture des scribes en Egypte ancienne dapres les sources du Nouvel Empire (Sorbonne University, unpublished dissertation,
vol. 1, 2011), 26, 45152, 46676.
14
This article follows Scott, ascribing the term true scribe statues only to statues that show their owners with a papyrus or with
a scribal implement, see Scott, History and Development, 419. Bernhauer also notes this difficulty, coining the term papyrophor
or papyrustrger, in order to separate the formal feature from its interpretation, see Bernhauer, Statuen mit Papyrusrolle, 45.
15
The description of the attitude as reading dates back to earlier writings on ancient Egyptian art, such as Curtius who con-
trasts between the (Vor)lesender and the Schreiber, see Ludwig Curtius, Die antike Kunst (Berlin-Neubabelsberg, 1913), 63.
16
See Edith Bernhauer, Innovationen in der Privatplastik: Die 18. Dynastie und ihre Entwicklung, Philippika27 (Wiesbaden,
2010), 3.
96 JARCE 49 (2013)

Fig. 2. The distribution of the reading and writing scribal statues.

statues represent its owner writing. Furthermore, the reading pose, Scott notes, is primarily found dur-
ing the earlier part of the Eighteenth Dynasty. During the late Eighteenth Dynasty and the Ramesside
period six out of every seven statues depicts a person writing.17 This increase suggests that the shift to
writing reflects more than random preservation, signifying that scribal statues are reinterpreted during
the New Kingdom. Rather than depicting the statue owner as a literate man, he is now represented as
writer.
The developments in statuary representation correspond to a growing emphasis on the writer and
on the act of writing in the realm of literary (re)production.18 This is evident in the colophons of a
variety of texts, which bear indications of the attitude towards the text they accompany.19 The analysis
of the nature of colophons and their development is hindered by the scarcity of relevant material from
the Middle Kingdom. The analysis is further obstructed as the majority of the evidence from the New
Kingdom derives from Deir el-Medina, the population of which boasted such high literacy as to render
it practically incomparable to other sites.20 Nevertheless, the extant material indicates that the colophon

17
Out of the twenty-eight statues that securely date to these periods, see Scott, History and Development, 37677.
18
The term (re)production encompasses the composition of a text as well as production of a manuscript through copying. The
inherent ambiguity of the term allows to circumvent the distinction author/copyist, to which the ancient Egyptian culture would
not easily ascribe. For further discussion see Gerald Moers, Der Autor und sein Werk. Der Beginn der Lehre des Ptahhotep
in der Tradition des Neuen Reiches, in Dieter Kessler, et al., eds., Texte Theben Tonfragmente: Festschrift fr Gnter Burkard,
UAT 76 (Wiesbaden, 2009), 31932.
19
Richard Parkinson, The Tale of the Eloquent Peasant (Oxford, 1991), 9495.
20
See Jacobus Janssen, Literacy and Letters at Deir el-Medina, in Robert Demare and Arno Egberts, eds., Village Voices:
Proceedings of the Symposium Texts from Deir El-Medina and Their Interpretation, Leiden, May 31 June 1, 1991, Center of Non-West-
ern Studies Publications 13 (Leiden, 1992), 8194; Leonard Lesko, Literature, Literacy, and Literati, in Pharaohs Workers: The
Villagers of Deir El Medina (Ithaca, NY, 1994), 13144; Andrea McDowell, Teachers and Students at Deir el-Medina, in Robert
Demare, ed., Deir el-Medina in the Third Millennium AD; A Tribute to Jac. J. Janssen, Egyptologische uitgaven 14 (Leiden, 2000),
21733; Bernard Mathieu, La littrature gyptienne sous les Ramss daprs les ostraca littraires de Deir el-Mdineh, in Guil-
lemette Andreu, ed., Deir el-Mdineh et la Valle des Rois; la vie en gypte au temps des pharaons du Nouvel Empire; actes du colloque
organis par le muse du Louvre les 3 et 4 mai 2002 (Paris, 2003), 121. For a more general discussion on literacy in ancient Egypt see
John Baines, Literacy and Ancient Egyptian Society, in Visual and Written Culture in Ancient Egypt (Oxford, 2007), 3362; John
Baines and Christopher Eyre, Four Notes on Literacy, in Visual and Written Culture; as well as Leonard Lesko, Some Com-
ments on Ancient Egyptian Literacy and Literati, in Sarah Israelit-Groll, ed., Studies in Egyptology: Presented to Miriam Lichtheim,
vol. 2 (Jerusalem, 1990), 65667.
 ALLON 97

undergoes a change in the New Kingdom and especially during the Ramesside period.21 The emphasis
in earlier copies lies, according to Michela Luiselli, in the completion of the manuscript.22 The New
Kingdom saw, however, a shift in emphasis, when colophons often incorporate the name of the copyist.
The real protagonist of these colophons of the New Kingdom, Luiselli suggests, appears to be no
longer the text but the copyist scribe himself.23
The act of writing receives similar attention in the so-called Miscellanies, which serve as texts which
are written for scribes, about scribes and by scribes.24 Ragazzoli notes that writing appears prominent
in this corpus, as it plays a significant role in the construction of the scribal identity as a literate and
educated man: le mtier du scribe tient en effet sa particularit de la pratique de lcriture. Celle-ci est
abondamment thmatise dans la littrature de scribe et participe peut-tre construire une identit
de lettr qui ne renvoie pas uniquement lactivit administrative, au moins comme idal rgulateur.25
This idea takes form in a passage in pChester Beatty IV, which commemorates eight literary figures of
the past, whose names are still known though their tombs have fallen to pieces and their stelae are lost:

Their portals and mansions were made for (them)

They have crumbled.
Their ka-servants are gone;
Their tombstones are covered with soil,
Their graves are forgotten.
Their name is pronounced because of their texts (Sfd),
which they made while they were (alive).
How good is their memory and what they did forever.26
Be a scribe,
Take it to your heart,
so that your name may become as theirs.
Texts (Sfd) are more beneficial than a graven stela, than a solid tomb-enclosure.
They act as mansions and tombs in the heart of him who utters their name.
Indeed, useful in the hereafter
a name in peoples mouth!27
(pChester Beatty IV 2,113,2)

21
See Giuseppina Lenzo Marchese, Les colophons dans la littrature gyptienne, BIFAO 104 (2004), 366.
22
Michaela Luiselli, The Colophons as an Indication of the Attitudes towards the Literary Tradition in Egypt and Mesopota-
mia, in Susanne Bickel and Antonio Loprieno, eds., Basel Egyptology Prize 1: Junior Research in Egyptian History, Archaeology, and
Philology, AH 17 (Basel, 2003), 352; see for example the colophon of the Middle Kingdom copy of The Teaching of Ptahhotep in
pPrisse (19, 9) which ends with the statement jw=f pw HAt=f r pH(wy)=fy mj gm.yt m zXA.w it comes from its beginning to its end as
(it) was found in writing. See Gustave Jequier, Le Papyrus Prisse et ses variantes (Paris, 1911), pl. 10; Zbynek ba, Les maximes de
Ptahhotep (Prague 1956), 65, 17; Friedrich Junge, Die Lehre Ptahhoteps und die Tugenden der gyptischen Welt, OBO 193 (Freiburg-
Gttingen, 2003), 205; for other examples see Lenzo Marchese, Colophons, 360.
23
Luiselli, Colophons, 2003, 352; See also Ragazzoli, Artisans du texte, vol. 1, 576. pPetersburg 1115 is the only exception
to this tendency, constituting a Middle Kingdom manuscript which incorporates a colophon that names its copyist, see Lenzo
Marchese, Colophons, 363.
24
Ragazzoli, Weak Hands and Soft Mouth, 170.
25
Ragazzoli, Artisans du texte, 1, 453.
26
Following Richard Parkinson, Voices from Ancient Egypt: An Anthology of Middle Kingdom Writings (London, 1991), 149.
27
See Alan Gardiner, Hieratic Papyri In the British Museum, 3rd Series: The Chester Beatty Gift (London, 1935), 389, pl. 1819;
Miriam Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature. Vol. 2: The New Kingdom, (Berkeley-Los Angeles-London, 1976), 17578; Lesko,
Literature, Literacy, and Literati, 13844; Hans-Werner Fischer-Elfert, Representations of the Past in New Kingdom Litera-
ture, in John Tait, ed., Never Had the Like Occurred: Egypts View of its Past, Encounters with Ancient Egypt (London, 2003),
12530; Ragazzoli, Artisans du texte, 1, 55255 and II, 4953; Peter Dils in Thesaurus Linguae Aegyptiae (March 2013), cf. http://
aaew.bbaw.de/tla/index.html).
98 JARCE 49 (2013)

The main purpose of the passage is not merely to memorialize these literary figures, but rather to en-
courage the reader to become a scribe and produce similar writings. The text indicates in another pas-
sage, that at the time of its composition there exist no scribes on the level of the eight whom it names.
However, it simultaneously encourages its reader to produce a Sfd.w text, papyrus scroll,28 so that the
readers name will be remembered.
pChester Beatty IV thereby constructs writing as a strategy of reaching posterity. Memory is eternal-
ized, according to the text, through ones writings which carry on his name after his death.29 The praise
of writing makes use of the common funerary vocabulary, when the text states that the wise men ap-
pointed for themselves [Sfd.w m Xrj]-hAb an.w m zA mrr=f sbAy.t nAy=sn mHr.w pA ar pAy=sn Srj.w [the papyrus
roll as a lector] priest and the writing tablet as a loving son. Instructions were their pyramids and the
reed-pen was their son.30 Yet, pChester Beatty IV calls to mind the prevalent funerary discourse on pos-
terityon leaving behind tombs and stelae for future generations to visitjust to dismiss it, as the corpse
disintegrates into dust, descendants pass away and even tombs fall into ruin. The wise men of the past,
the text tells, could foretell the future and knew not to rely on these broken reeds.
While pChester Beatty IV juxtaposes the two discourses on posterity, scribal statues of its period
pursue one without denying the other. Following a similar path to pChester Beatty IV, scribal statues
represent their patrons as writers, thereby deeming them worthy of being remembered in a manner
similar to the literary figures of the past. At the same time, scribal statues follow the prevalent funerary
practices, constituting a material sign, against whose efficacy pChester Beatty IV speaks. The pursuit of
both paths does not resolve the tension between the two, but rather delineate the limitation of each of
them. The image of writing evokes the ephemeral nature of materiality, whether it is an object or a hu-
man being. The material aspect of the statue hints, however, towards a point of tension in the discourse
of pChester Beatty IV itself. Also texts cannot divorce themselves from the material world, and they also
require papyri and reed pens as well as men and women to recite them. Instead of resolving the ten-
sions, the scribal statue plays with both ideas, offering the patron immortalization through materiality
and at the same time, opening up another path to posterity through the image of writing.
Finally, the statue is oriented not only towards the preservation of the individual and his representa-
tion, but functions also as a method to express and reinforce cultural values. The statuary representa-
tion of writing joins the aforementioned discourses about texts and writers, which are voiced in the
Miscellanies and in paratextual elements of literary texts. These, as Ragazzoli notes, participate in the
process of identity construction, and statues of a writing person take part in this process as well. Simi-
lar to the textual discourse, scribal statues reinforce the importance of literacy and the significance of
textual (re)production. Scribal statues differ, however, from textual discourses, which circulate among
the literate and thus participate in an inner dialogue of a highly restricted public. The manifestation of
ideas about writing and about the writer in statuary form allows these concepts to be conveyed to other
groups and to be negotiated without requiring literacy.

2. The Seated Baboon

Let us now turn to the other main component of the statue. The writing man is accompanied by
a baboon, which squats over the mans shoulders and holds onto his head. This motif features in ten
statues of the Ramesside period,31 which appear in different poses: striding, kneeling, and sitting. The
statue owner appears writing in two of these statues: the statue of Ramessesnakht32 and the Metropoli-

28
Wb. 4, 461.1117.
29
For further discussion on posterity through writing see Ragazzoli, Artisans du texte, 1, 46265.
30
pChester Beatty IV, Vs. 2, 910, see Gardiner, Chester Beatty Gift, 3839, pl. 18.
31
The statues were collected and cataloged by Stephanie von Sachsen-Coburg, Die Affenkappe als ikonographisches Element in
der altgyptischen Rundplastik (University of Munich, unpublished MA thesis, 1999).
32
CG 42162, see Legrain, CG 4200142250, 29, pl. 26; Georges Lefebvre, Histoire des grands prtres dAmon de Karnak jusqu
 ALLON 99

tan statue.33 Though the statues differ in size and quality, the statue of Ramessesnakht resembles the
Metropolitan piece, with its owner sitting cross-legged underneath a squatting baboon.34
The baboon attracts various connotations, such as the likeness of the god Thoth in his manifestation
as baboon35 or the image of the sun-adoring primates.36 Rather than interpreting the baboon as an in-
dependent component, it is arguably more fruitful to explore the manner in which the readings of the
two elements of the Metropolitan statue interact.37 As the image of the scribe calls attention to literacy
and to the act of writing, I suggest examining the interplay of the scribe and the baboon accordingly as
a further thematization of writing.

2.1 The Embodiment of mAa.t

Compositions of scribe and baboon signify, according to most scholars, the divine patronage of
Thoth and the inspiration that he bestows over the scribe. Statue MMA 29.2.16 is thus read as a vari-
ant of statuary compositions which first appear in the Eighteenth Dynasty. These statues evoke similar
imagery to hymns to Thoth such as the prayer of pAnastasi V:38

Come to me,39 O Thoth, splendid ibis, the god who desires Hermopolis,
the letter-writer of the Ennead, great one who is in Heliopolis.
Come to me so that you may care for me40
and cause that I be skillful in your office.
(pAnastasi V, 9, 23)

lisabeth Delange compares the hymn, which calls to the god and begs him to approach the caller,
to the two statuettes of Nebmerutef, who is portrayed seated with a papyrus in front of a baboon. The
statuettes, according to Delange, deviennent eux-mmes, dans leur gangue de pierre, un hymne au
dieu Thot.41 Similar to the hymn, the statuettes of Nebmerutef show the human figure in the physical
presence of Thoth, whom the baboon represents. As statue MMA 29.2.16 shows the baboon of Thoth

la XXIe dynastie (Paris, 1929), 17480, 26367, pl. 4A; KRI VI, 531; Scott, History and Development, I. 31213; 340; 35861 and cat.
no. 169; see also http://www.ifao.egnet.net/bases/cachette/?id=9.
33
Statue Louvre E 25398 may represent its owner also as a scribe, though its lower part is now missing, see Vandier, Manuel,
450, 534, pl. 173,1; Scott, History and Development, cat. no. 170; von Sachsen-Coburg, Affenkappe, 1999, 28-30 and pl. 6.
34
As the article focuses on the specific features of the Metropolitan piece, the characteristics of the statue of Ramessesnakht
will be noted only in comparison to the former.
35
For the statuary representations of Thoth as baboon (and as ibis), see Nina Marcos, Thoth, ibis et babouin (University of
Lille, 2012).
36
See Vandier, Manuel, 3. 432, and also Elizabeth Thomas, Papio Hamadryas and the Rising Sun, BES 1 (1979), 9194.
37
This analysis thus takes a different methodology than von Sachsen-Coburgs study of the baboon motif, which surveys the
different statuary types in which the baboon appears at the back of the human figures head, see von Sachsen-Coburg, Affenkappe.
38
pAnastasi V = pBM EA 10244, Gardiner, LEM, 60; Caminos, LEM, 232; Peter Dils in Thesaurus Linguae Aegyptiae (March,
2013). Ragazzoli discusses this hymn within the context of piety of the scribe, see Ragazzoli, Artisans du texte, 1, 53336.
39
n=j was inserted later, as indicated by the lack of space and by the size of the signs, see pAnastasi V, 9, 2 and Gardiner,
LEM, 60a.
40
jr.t sxr.w + dative often carries the meaning of to take care of, or to issue instructions, see Wb. IV, 260, 56. The phrase
may refer more specifically to the control a deity may have on ones fate, see Georges Posener, Philologie et archologie gypti-
ennes, Annuaire du Collge de France 69 (1969), 4012; Philippe Derchain, Hathor quadrifrons: Recherches sur la syntaxe dun mythe
gyptien, Publications de lInstitut historique et archologique de Stamboul 28 (Istanbul, 1972), 37, n. 14; John Darnell, The Enig-
matic Netherworld Books of the Solar-Osirian Unity: Cryptographic Compositions in the Tombs of Tutankhamun, Ramesses VI and Ramesses
IX, OBO 198 (Freiburg-Gttingen, 2004), 255.
41
Delange, Nebmeroutef, 44 ; see also Georges Bndite, Scribe et babouin, au sujet de deux petits groupes de sculpture
gyptienne exposs au Muse du Louvre, MonPiot 19 (1912), 342, pl. I, II.
100 JARCE 49 (2013)

attached to the person, it is often read along the same lines. William Hayes, for example, interprets the
statue as portraying the scribe under the inspiration of Thoth.42
Yet, the shift in the position of the baboon opens up space to consider other readings of the statue.
The change in interpretation arises from the axial shift that the statuary composition undergoes dur-
ing the New Kingdom. As the Eighteenth Dynasty composition positions the baboon to the side of the
scribe, the statue is governed by a horizontal axis. The Ramesside statue differs from the earlier compo-
sitions, aligning the two components of the statue along a vertical line. Rather than sitting aside, the ba-
boon holds onto the head of the scribe, squatting over his shoulders. Dimitri Laboury, who examines an
axial change in royal statues, concludes that it may often operate as an intentional device used to enrich
statuary compositions with new readings.43 The change in axis in the Ramesside composition suggests,
therefore, that the Metropolitan statue invites other interpretations beside the patronage of Thoth.
Such readings can be found in the resemblance of the Metropolitan piece to royal statues in which
a falcon appears at the back of the head of a king. This motif first appears in the Old Kingdom, and
it is assumed also by kings of the New Kingdom such as Thutmose III and Ramesses II.44 In these
statuary compositions, the falcon extends its wings over the head of the king in a gesture that denotes
protection.45 Stephanie von Sachsen-Coburg thus suggests that compositions of scribe and baboon cor-
respond to the position of Horus in the royal statuary, as they accordingly intend to evoke divine protec-
tion.46 However, the relation within the royal composition differs greatly from that which lies between
the scribe and the baboon in the Metropolitan statue. In the royal statuary, the falcon of Horus stands
on the throne or hovers over the kings head. Thus, though it extends its wings over the sovereign, it
does not support itself with the kings help. In contrast, the Ramesside composition places the baboon
on the shoulders of the scribe, holding onto the scribes head in a manner that may be described as far
from a depiction of a transcendent divine power.47
The Ramesside composition evokes yet another image of Thoth that matches the position of the
baboon in the statue and its relatively small scale. Von Sachsen-Coburg also suggests that the motif of
the baboon in the statuary compositions may conjure the figurations of Thoth in the Book of the Dead.
This scene sequence, which appears in the New Kingdom on tomb walls and in Book of the Dead pa-
pyri, narrates the process through which the deceased is vindicated, as his heart is weighed and he is
announced as justified before the gods. Thoth appears in this sequence in a number of scenes: register-
ing the results of the weighing, proclaiming them to the tribunal, and presenting the deceased before
Osiris. Von Sachsen-Coburg thus suggests that the statuary representation of the baboon accordingly
signifies the wish of the deceased, portrayed as statue underneath the baboon, to be aided by Thoth in

42
Hayes, Scepter, II, 380. Vandier, Manuel vol. 3, 450, also discusses the two compositions under the same title Le scribe et
Thot, as representing the scribe with the sacred animal of his patron, Thoth.
43
Laboury analyzes statuary compositions in which the king is shown standing with his hands laid over his kilt in a manner
that express adoration. While at earlier stages of the composition, the king appears either alone or next to a divine figure, during
the New Kingdom the image of the deity appears behind the image of the king, see Dimitri Laboury, De la relation spatiale entre
les personnages des groupes statuaires royaux dans lart pharaonique, RdE 51 (2000), 90.
44
The New Kingdom features a number of royal statues with this motif, such as (1) CG 743 (Thutmose III): Borchardt,
CG 11294, vol. 3, 80, pl. 137; Vandier, Manuel, vol. 3, 392 who assigns this statue to Sethy I; Dimitri Laboury, Le statuaire de
Thoutmosis III: essai dinterprtation dun portrait royal dans son contexte historique (Lige, 1998), 3014; (2) CGC 636 (Ramesses II):
Borchardt, CG 11294, vol. 2, 185, pl. 117; (3) CG 42152 (Ramesses VI): Legrain, CG 4200142250, vol. 3, pl. 15.
45
See Emma Brunner-Traut, Ein Knigskopf der Sptzeit mit dem Blauen Helm in Tbingen, ZS 98 (1971), 1830;
Dominique Valbelle, Le faucon et le roi, in Limpero ramesside: convegno internazionale, in onore di Sergio Donadoni (Roma, 1997),
20520; for further discussion on the falcon motif and on the controversy over its readings see Elke Blumenthal, Den Falken im
Nacken. Statuentypen und gttliches Knigtum zur Pyramidenzeit, ZS 130 (2003), 130.
46
Von Sachsen-Coburg, Affenkappe, 9899. For baboons as protective animals and its relation to the guardian deity in the
tomb, Hapy, see Betsy Bryan and Arielle Kozloff, Egypts Dazzling Sun: Amenhotep III and His World, with Lawrence Berman
(Bloomington, 1992), 22728.
47
Scott adds that in short, the composition seems more closely to resemble a portrayal of a man and his pet, than a man with
his god, see Scott, History and Development, 339.
 ALLON 101

Fig. 3. Weighing of the heart in pAni, pl. III. Trustees of the BritishMuseum.

the juridical process and through transitional stages leading to the afterlife.48 However, the ibis-headed
form of Thoth and his image as a baboon fulfill different roles, which are often kept separate in the
sequence of the trial of the dead.49 When registering the results and accompanying the deceased to the
gods, Thoth appears mostly ibis-headed, while as a baboon he is portrayed in scenes only selectively.
Thoth assumes the figure of a baboon of a relatively small proportions mostly when he is shown on top
of the balance (fig. 3).50
The icon of the baboon on the balance is also prevalent outside the context of the trial of the dead.
In pHarris I, Ramesses III mentions a statue that he intends to commission:

I shall make for you a splendid balance of electrum,

like which was never made since the time of the god,
and upon which sits Thoth as the keeper of the scale,51

48
Von Sachsen-Coburg, Affenkappe, 99. For the role of Thoth in the New Kingdom with regards to the deceased see Patrick
Boylan, Thoth, the Hermes of Egypt: A Study of Some Aspects of Theological Thought in Ancient Egypt (London-New York, 1922), 139;
Claas Bleeker, Hathor and Thoth: Two Key Figures of the Ancient Egyptian Religion, Studies in the History of Religions, Supplements
to Numen 26 (Leiden, 1973), 14550; Christine Seeber, Untersuchungen zur Darstellung des Totengerichts im alten gypten, MS 35
(Munich, 1976), 14754.
49
The two manifestations of Thoth are not entirely interchangeable before the end of the New Kingdom.
50
Several depictions show the baboon next to the balance (pHannover 1970.37) or with a scribal palette (pLeiden 2 and TT 41
and other tombs, mostly of Deir el Medina), see Seeber, Untersuchungen, 151.
51
Wb. 1, 104.5; jr.j-mxA.t appears also as a administrative title in the New Kingdom, see Eva Martin-Pardey, Waage, Ld 6,
1083; Wolfgang Helck, Zur Verwaltung Des Mittleren Und Neuen Reichs, P 3 (Leiden, 1958), 190. Stadler notes that the term jr.y-
Fig. 4. A Representation of a Scale from Medinet Habu, drawing after Medinat Habu 5, pl. 320.
 ALLON 103

as a great splendid baboon, of hammered gold.52

(pHarris I = pBM EA 9999, 26, 1112)

This depiction should be read, as Grandet suggests, in relation to an image from Medinet Habu.
Here, an ibis headed figure of Thoth stands below a scale holding the plummet, and a small figure of
a baboon appears on the balance (see fig. 4).53 In its capacity as the jr.j-mxA.t,54 the baboon scrutinizes
the accurate and proper utilization of the balance. The Instructions of Amenemope further evokes the
image of the baboon and the balance:

Neither tilt the scale,

nor ruin kite-weights
nor decrease the parts of the dbH-measures;
Neither wish (for) a dbH-measure of the field,
nor abandon those of the treasury,
As the baboon sits near the balance,
His heart being the plummet.55
(pBM EA 10474, 17, 1822)

The text warns the reader not to interfere with the weighing of the balance, as the baboon is inspect-
ing the process from nearby. Considering that the balance already appears as a symbol of justice and
just trial in the Middle Kingdom,56 the passage from the Instructions of Amenemope should not be
read only in relation to tasks of weighing and measuring. The text should also be read with respect to
the proper conduct of trials.57
The imagery of the balance is employed also in numerous biographical inscriptions of the Middle
and the New Kingdoms. These texts liken the official to the instrument (mi.ty mxA.t the likeness of a
balance)58 and compare him or parts of his body to the components of the balance (aqA r tx more accu-
rate than a plummet). These ideas appear also in the royal repertoire, as for example in Ramesses IIs
temple at Abydos, where the king is described as tx mtj n rx.yt the precise plummet of the subjects.59
The concept of the body of the official as equivalent to the balance already appears in The Eloquent
Peasant, a Middle Kingdom literary text, which may still have been copied during the Ramesside peri-
od.60 The text comprises nine speeches, which touch upon injustice and mAa.t. In his third speech, the
peasant says:

mxA.t, through which Thoth is described in pHarris I, appears often in vignettes of the trial of the dead as an epithet of Anubis,
and therefore serves as another element in which they converge, see Stadler, Weiser und Wesir, 436.
52
Pierre Grandet, Le Papyrus Harris I, BM 9999, BdE 129 (Cairo, 1994), 1, 260.
53
see Grandet, Papyrus Harris I, 2, 116, n. 480.
54
Spell 30B in the Book of the Dead refers to the keeper of the scale, asking that he wont oppose the deceased in the tribunal,
see for example pNu 5089. As Stadler notes, the text does not reveal whether the deity should be understood as Thoth or as
Anubis, see Stadler, Weiser und Wesir, 436.
55
See Vincent Laisney, Lenseignement dAmnmop, StudPohl 19 (Roma, 2007), 16571 and 348.
56
See Martin-Paredy, Waage, 1084.
57
Doxey also notes that precision and accuracy were closely connected to the concept of justice, see Denise Doxey, Egyptian
Non-Royal Epithets in the Middle Kingdom: A Social and Historical Analysis, P 12 (Leiden-Boston, 1998), 42.
58
See for example Abydos CG 20538, CG 20539 and BM 581. For a discussion and further examples see Doxey, Non-Royal
Epithets, 44 and Elsa Rickal, Les pithtes dans les autobiographies de particuliers du Nouvel Empire gyptien (University of Paris-
Sorbonne, unpublished thesis, 2005), I, 41, 91; II, 1, 210, 213, 507, etc.
59
KRI II, 515: 8; see also Kenneth Kitchen, RITAT 2, 313.
60
Gardiner suggests in the postscript to his article that The Eloquent Peasant was known in the Ramesside period, as a rough
quote of the text appears in ostracon OIC 12074, see Alan Gardiner, The Eloquent Peasant, JEA 9.1 (1923), 25. Nevertheless,
the evidence is far from conclusive, as the rough quote may originate from a common phraseology, which does not require
direct intertextuality with The Eloquent Peasant. See also William Simpson, Allusions to The Shipwrecked Sailor and The
Eloquent Peasant in a Ramesside Text, JAOS 78 (1958), 5051; Pascal Vernus, Lintertextualit dans la culture pharaonique:
104 JARCE 49 (2013)

m Dd grg ntk jws.w

m tnbX.w ntk tp Hsb
mk.tw m-tp-wa Hna jwsw

tx pw ns=k
dbn pw jb=k
rmn.w(y)=f(y) pw sp.t(y)=k(y)

Do not speak a lie, you are the scale

Do not turn aside, you are the standard,
Look, You are one with the scale61

Your tongue is the plummet,

Your heart is the weight,
Your lips are its arms.62
(pBerlin P 3023:19193, 19697)

The relation between the official and the balance is neither described through temporal equation (m
of predication) nor through likening (the preposition mj), but rather through a series of A pw B sentenc-
es.63 Through this construction, the text expresses a general and constant identification between the
official and the balance as instruments of justice.64
I therefore propose that the Metropolitan statue evokes the desired similarity between the scribe and
the balance by placing the figure of the baboon over the mans shoulders. This association is realized
also in the stylistic features of the statue. The horizontal lines of the garment that the scribe is wearing
are broken by the straight tail of the baboon (see fig. 5). Moreover, the even positioning of the legs and
the straight surface of the lap, which are characteristic features of most scribal statues, are (re)interpre-
table as resembling the features of a balance. This imagery suggests that the writing man underneath
the baboon should be seen as mi.ty mxA.t the likeness of a balance, and thus as embodying mAa.t. The
representation of the writing man as just points to a conceptualization of writing as a medium through
which justice is thematized, is also compromised, as we see in The Instructions of Amenemope. There
the reader is warned as follows:

lEnseignement de Ptahhotep et le graffito djmny (Oudi Hammmt n 3042), GM 147 (1995), 1039; Ludwig Morenz, Sa-mut
Kyky und Menna, zwei reale Leser/Hrer des Oasenmannes aus dem Neuen Reich?, GM 165 (1998): 7381.
61
Gardiner reads the phrase as referring to the official and the balance being of the same height. Dils offers a a similar trans-
lation, suggesting however to read the phrase m tp wa Hna with a matching phrase m Ha.w wa Hna, literally in one body with. He
notes that tp can read not only as head but also as person, see Gardiner, Eloquent Peasant, 14; Richard Parkinson, The Tale
of the Eloquent Peasant: A Readers Commentary, LingAegStudia Monographica 10 (Hamburg, 2012), 163; Peter Dils in Thesaurus
Linguae Aegyptiae (March, 2013).
62
See Gardiner, Eloquent Peasant, 14 and also 10, n. 4; Parkinson, Tale of the Eloquent Peasant, 29, and for further com-
mentary see Parkinson, Readers Commentary, 16267. For the most recent publication of pBerlin P 3023 see Richard Parkinson
and Lisa Baylis, Four 12th Dynasty Literary Papyri (Pap. Berlin P. 3022-): A Photographic Record, Verena Lepper, ed., (Berlin, 2012),
4647.
63
See Pascal Vernus, Observations sur la prdication de classe (Nominal Predicate), in James Allen, ed., Proceedings of the
International Conference on Egyptian Grammar (Crossroads III), Yale, April 49, 1994, LingAeg 4 (1994): 32548; Julie Stauder-Pro-
chet, La prposition en gyptien de la premire phase: approche smantique, AH 21 (Basel, 2009), 6264; James Allen, Middle Egyptian:
An Introduction to the Language and Culture of Hieroglyphs, 2. ed., rev., (Cambridge-New York, 2010), 10.6; Parkinson, Readers
Commentary, 163; Foy Scalf, Statements of Identity and the m of Predication, LingAeg 16 (2008), 13551, with noteworthy reser-
vations. Parkinson notes that the passage employs a conventional imagery while heightening the metaphoric distance, between
Rensis wrongdoing and the justice that he was supposed to embody, see Parkinson, Readers Commentary, 16263.
64
Another stela of Ramesses II in Quban praises the king, saying: mxA ns=k aqA sp.t=ky r tx mtj n DHwtj just as your tongue
is balanced, so are your lips more accurate than the precise plummet of Thoth, see KRI II, 355: 1516; Kitchen, RITA 2, 191.
 ALLON 105

Do not moisten the pen in order to transgress

As for the beak of the ibisthe finger of the
scribe,
beware of carrying it (aside),
While the baboon sits in the house of the
eight,
his eye encircles the two lands.
If he sees one who defrauds with his finger,
he seizes his offerings in the flood,
As for a scribe who defrauds with his finger
His son will not be enrolled.65
(pBM 10474, 17, 614)

Compare the text of Amenemope with the

Fig. 5. Back view of statue MMA 29.2.16. Photographs The
Metropolitan Museum of Art.
exemplary work, The Eloquent Peasant of the
Middle Kingdom. There, the emphasis lies on
an oral judicial context through the empha-
sis on the tongue and the lips. In the text of
Amenemope, by contrast, the emphasis lies on
pens and fingers.66 Justice is achieved or trans-
gressed, according to this text, through writing,
and writing becomes a performative mechanism
through which justice can be meted out positive-
ly or negatively. Similarly, statue MMA 29.2.16
thematizes this nexus between justice and writ-
ing, representing the scribe as an agent of justice
by the mere action of inscribing a text.
2.2 Textual Adoration

It is against this background that we consider

other features of writing, that the image of the baboon elucidates. Baboons appear as adorers of the sun
in numerous sources: funerary and religious texts of the New Kingdom describe their chatter at sunset
and sunrise,67 and obelisks and temple walls cast their image in stone.68 Quirke notes that the baboons
were included in the tomb of Tutankhamun, where restricted space allows for only one or two excerpts
from the whole composition that they illustrate. The preference of the baboon over many other details
of the Amduat indicates, according to Quirke, their importance to the Egyptians, who recognized in

65
See Laisney, Amnmop, 16264 and 347, and Ragazzoli, Artisans du texte, 1, 53536.
66
Scribal equipment appears in The Eloquent Peasant in the eightieth speech: jr mAa.t n nb mAa.t ntj wn mAa.t n.t mA.t=f ar Sfd,w
gstj DHwtj Hr.t(j) r jri.t jy,t Do justice for the lord of justice, the justice of whose justice is real, O Reed pen, papyrus and palette of
Thoth, remove yourself from doing injustice (pBerlin P 3023, 33637). Nevertheless, rather than emphasizing the act of writing,
the passage refers to the official as the scribal equipment of Thoth in order to stress that he is only the agent of a higher authority,
see Parkinson, Readers Commentary, 27273.
67
Schfer mentions the baboon among the frequently depicted attendants of the sun see Heinrich Schfer, Altgyptische
Bilder der auf- und untergehenden Sonne, ZS 71 (1935), 17, figs. 1315, 18, 19, 21.
68
Baboons appear, for example, on the Luxor obelisks, see Michel Dewachter, Les cynocphales ornant la base des deux
oblisques de Louxor, CdE 47, no. 93 (1972): 6875. Baboons accompany the rising of the sun with song and dance in a hymn
to Re-Horakhty (pBerlin 3050 VI, 68, see Serge Sauneron Lhymne au soleil levant des papyrus de Berlin 3050, 3056 et 3048,
BIFAO 53 (1953), 69, 7677) and as souls of the east in the treatise, The King as Solar Priest, see Jan Assmann, Der Konig als
Sonnenpriester: Ein kosmographischer Begleittext zur kultischen Sonnenhymnik in thebanischen Tempeln und Grabern, ADAIK. gyptolo-
gische Reihe 7 (Gluckstadt,1970), 2829.
Fig. 6. Re Chapel, Room 18, North Wall, Upper Register, drawing after Medinat Habu 6, pl. 421.
 ALLON 107

the chatter of the baboons symbols of living mystery.69 Figures of adoring baboons also decorate count-
less nonroyal stelae and tombs in Thebes and Memphis, testifying to the importance of these animals
beyond the royal context.70 Chapter 100 of the Book of the Dead says, for example:

Sma.n=i dwA.n=i jtn Just as I sang so did I praise the sun disk,
smA.n=i m jm.wj-hT.t71 having joined the screamers (baboons)
ink wa jm=sn I was one of them.72
(pNu = pBM EA 10477, BD 100, 45)

The passage expresses the wish to join the baboons and to praise the sun god as they do. This aspira-
tion manifests itself also visually.73 Stela M 7315 shows, for example, its owner, Seba, kneeling along
with the baboons, all raising their hands in adoration.74 A similar image also appears in Medinet Habu
(see fig. 6). Seba and Ramesses III do not merely mimic the raised palms of the baboons. They kneel
down to be at the same height as the baboons.
Arguably, the connotations of the adoring baboons do not arise where the image of Thoth is signi-
fied. The adoring baboons are distinguishable from the baboon of Thoth in its various iterations by a
number of characteristics.75 The latter squats on the ground or on a pedestal and rests its palms upon its
knees, while the former stands upright and raises its palms toward the sun. Occasionally, the baboon of
Thoth may appear with a wDA.t eye, reminiscent of Thoths role in bringing back the eye of the sun, or
wearing a lunar crescent upon its head.76 The adoring baboons often accompany the sun in its various
forms, whether it is the sun barque or the sun god in his beetle form of Kheperi.77
Yet the distinction between the baboons, I argue, is rather ill-defined. Images, like the pectoral of
Tutankhamun (see fig. 7) intentionally play with the features of the baboons, blurring the distinctions
between the baboon of Thoth and the figure of the adoring baboons.
Howard Carter recognized the double nature of the baboon. Seated upon pylons on either side of
Khepere, are cynocephalus apes (the spirits of the east), adoring the rising sun (Dawn); they bear upon
their heads the lunar orb and crescent, and therefore represent Aah (i.e. Thoth, the Moon god).78 The
baboons of Tutankhamuns pectoral thus carry characteristic features of both icons, simultaneously
pointing to Thoth as well as to the adoring baboons.79

69
Stephen Quirke, The Cult of Ra: Sun-Worship in Ancient Egypt (London, 2001), 4748
70
For example in the decoration of the Theban tomb of Amenemope (TT 41), Jan Assmann, Das Grab des Amenemope TT
41, Theben 3 (Mainz am Rhein, 1991), 4446, pl. 28b, and stela CG 372416, Ali Radwan, Darstellungen der aufgehenden Sonne
auf einigen Stelen der Ramessidenzeit, in Studien zu Sprache und Religion gyptens. Zu Ehren von Wolfhart Westendorf (Gottingen,
1984) vol. 2, 82526 [3], pl. 2 [b], 3 [a].
71
jm.wj-hT.t is classified with a hieroglyph of a baboon which raises its hands in adoration, see Gnter Lapp, The Papyrus of Nu
(BM EA 10477), Catalogue of the Books of the Dead in the British Museum 1 (London, 1997), pl. 80. For the verb HTt see Wb. 2,
504.78, and also Lothar Strk, Pavian, Ld 4, 919, n. 15.
72
Lapp, Papyrus of Nu, pl. 80.
73
Herman Te Velde, Some Remarks on the Mysterious Language of the Baboons, in Jacques Kamstra, et al., eds., Funerary
Symbols and Religion: Essays Dedicated to Professor M. S. H. G. Heerma van Voss on the Occasion of His Retirement from the Chair of the
History of Ancient Religions at the University of Amsterdam (Kampen, 1988), 129.
74
For a discussion on the gesture of the raised hands, see Brunner-Traut, Gesten, Ld 2, 57778, 1c; Brigitte Dominicus,
Gesten und Gebrden in Darstellungen des Alten und Mittleren Reiches, SAGA 10 (Heidelberg, 1994), 2532.
75
Stadler, Thoth, in Jacco Dieleman, Willeke Wendrich (eds.). UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology, (Los Angeles, 2012), 3, see
http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/2xj8c3qg.
76
For a discussion on Thoths lunar aspects see Boylan, Thoth, 6275, 8387; Stadler, Weiser und Wesir, 20018.
77
The baboon of Thoth often appears in singular form, while the baboons of the rising sun run more frequently in groups.
Tutankhamuns pectoral as well as statue MMA 66.99.55, which represents a single baboon with its palms raised and a back pillar,
indicate that the number of the baboons does not constitute a decisive criterion.
78
Carter 267l-1, see http://www.griffith.ox.ac.uk/perl/gi-ca-qmakedeta.pl?sid=85.127.55.109-1232120701&qno=1&dfnam=
267l-c267l-1. See also Carol Andrews, Ancient Egyptian Jewelry (New York, 1991), 137; see also Erika Feucht, Die kniglichen Pekto-
rale: Motive, Sinngehalt und Zweck (Bamberg, 1967), 92, 178, cat. no. 44.
79
A similar conflation appears also in the baboon figure Louvre E 18996, which portrays a squatting baboon wearing a
108 JARCE 49 (2013)

The baboon may furthermore carry connota-

tions of adoration even without raising its palms.
When royal tombs depict the baboons at the
first hour of the night, the text describes them
as those who make music80 for the god, but the
image shows them resting their palms upon their
knees (see fig. 8).81 Even though the baboons
squat on the ground, the captions and the text,
which the images accompany, indicate that they
are not meant to represent Thoth. They are the
baboons that aid the sun through their chatter,
as it enters the netherworld. The baboon of the
Metropolitan statue may, therefore, evoke ado-
ration even though its palms are not raised, but
rather held onto the head of the scribe.
The baboon of the Metropolitan statue may
thus evoke not only notions of inspiration and
justice, but also of adoration. The writers adora-
tion, however, is not expressed through voice or
gesture, but rather through writing. This idea al-
ready appears in earlier scribal statues that repre-
Fig. 7. Tutankhamens pectoral (Carter num. 267L; JE 61885),
sent their owners copying or composing a hymn.
after Andrews, Ancient Egyptian Jewelry, 136, fig. 119.
The scribal statue of Haremhab,82 for example,
shows the scribe writing, while the text inscribed
on the papyrus opens with the words: dwA DHwtj
jn jr.j-pa.t HA.tj TA.y-xw-Hr-wnm.j-nswt n jm.j-ra-mSa-wr zXA.w-nswt Hr-m-HAb adoring Thoth by the jr.j-pa.t
HA.tj the fan-bearer on the kings right, the Generalissimus, the royal scribe, Haremhab. This caption
describes not only the content of the papyrus, but also the activity, which Haremhab performs in the
statue. Though the Metropolitan statue lacks an inscription, the baboon suggests that similar to Harem-
hab, the writer of statue MMA 29.2.16 is to be understood as engaging in the inscription of a hymn.83

crescent over its head and raising its palms, see Bodil Hornemann, Types of Ancient Egyptian Statuary (Copenhagen, 1969) vol. 7,
1772. Similarly, Kkosy discusses the association of Thoth with obelisks, mentioning a magical gem (no. 183) from Roman period,
which depicts an ibis-headed god as he makes adoration to an obelisks, suggesting that it derives from the scene representing the
hetet (hTt) baboons praying to an obelisk in the usual attitude of adoration, see Alain Delatte and Philippe Derchain, Les Intailles
Magiques Grco-gyptiennes (Paris, 1964), 14445; Lszl Kkosy, Hermetic Obelisks, StudAeg 12 (1989): 236. Kkosy further
notes that this assimilation of Thoth with the adoring baboons may have its antecedents already in Abu Simbel. See also Bryan
and Kozloff who note that statue BM EA 38, which shows a squatting baboon, is carved from brown quartzite, which is particular
associated with the sun god, and thus Amenhotep III did not deny the connection of this baboon with solar deities, Bryan and
Kozloff, Egypts Dazzling Sun: Amenhotep III and His World (Cleveland, 1992), 227.
80
Hss.yw sing, make music (Wb. 3, 164.11165.1; cf. Meeks, Annee Lexicographique, 77.283740; 78.280911; 79.20535);
while the verb may also be translated as give praise, (Hzi, Wb. 3, 154.2155.25), all versions write the participle with the bent
arm (Gardiner D41), see Erik Hornung, Texte Zum Amduat, AH 14, 140. Baboons and other monkeys are often represented with
musical instruments, see Jeanne Vandier dAbbadie, Les singes familiers dans lancienne gypte (Peinture et bas-reliefs), III. Le
Nouvel Empire, RdE 18 (1966), 18587; Cybelle Greenlaw, The Representation of Monkeys in the Art and Thought of Mediterranean
Cultures: A New Perspective on Ancient Primates, BAR International Series 2192 (Oxford, 2011), 26.
81
Their images accompany the text of the Amduat in the other royal tombs, as for example in the tomb of Tutankhamun, see
Nicholas Reeves, The Complete Tutankhamun: The King, the Tomb, the Royal Treasure (London, 1990), 74. The caption above their
images reads: rn.w n.w nTr.w Hss.yw n ra aq=f m dwAt the names of the gods who make music for Re, as he enters the Netherworld,
see Erik Hornung, The Egyptian Amduat: The Book of the Hidden Chamber, David Warburton, tr. (Zurich, 2007), 30.
Statue MMA 23.10.1: Herbert Winlock, Harmhab, Commander-in-Chief of the Armies of Tutenkhamon, BMMA 18, no. 10.2
(1923), 1+3-16; Herbert Winlock, A Statue of Horemhab before His Accession, JEA 10 (1924), 15; Scott, History and Develop-
ment, 31419, cat. no. 161.
83
The statue of Ramessesnakht includes, however, merely the titles of the deceased, see note 32.
 ALLON 109

This image suggests that adoration through text

does not require its recitation. Its very inscrip-
tion may be compared with the profound piety of
the baboons, transforming writing from a vehicle
through which adoration is recorded into the in-
strument through which adoration is performed.

2.3 Subversive Readings

So far, the writing man was characterized

mainly through the connotations raised by the
image of the baboon. The body of the statue
owner plays another prominent role in the depic-
tion of his character. For instance, the perfection
of the physical body attests to the status of the
statue owner, as physical deformities belong in
the visual realm to figures of lower-status.84 His
posture further portrays him as a well-balanced
Fig. 8. The baboons of the 1st hour of the night in the tomb of and self-composed man. As the image of the ba-
Thutmose III, lower register; photographed by Harry Burton boon highlights piety and justice, it reaffirms the
The Metropolitan Museum of Art. idealized image of the statue owner that his body
exhibits.
Several connotations of the baboon interrupt,
however, the harmonious readings of the two
components of the statue, further disturbing the exalted image of the statue owner. The ideal man in
biographical as well as in wisdom texts is the gr mAa.t, the true silent, who avoids exaggeration, exces-
sive words and loudness. Biographies of the Middle and the New Kingdom include, for example, a
negative confession, in which the official states that he refrained from raising his voice.85 The baboons,
however, are known as hTT.w, screamers, chatters, which accompany sunrise and sunset as they dance,
sing and scream.86 This behavior is appropriate to animals (and foreigners), but not to educated of-
ficials.87 Thus, though the baboon sits quietly on top of the human figure, the loud connotations that it
evokes collide with the calm and silent image of the human figure.

84
See Weeks, Anatomical Knowledge, 99119; Gerald Moers, gyptische Krper-Bilder in physischen, visuellen und textuel-
len Medien, ImagAeg 1 (2005), 926; Christina Riggs, Body, in Dieleman and Wendrich, UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology (Los
Angeles, 2010) http://www.escholarship.org/uc/item/8f21r7sj.
85
ni qA xrw=i my voice was not raised, (Urk IV 1031, 9) and bwpw.i qA xrw in KRI VI, 18, 7, see Jean Winand, Temps et aspect en
egyptien: une approche semantique, P 25 (Leiden-Boston), 2006, 134, no. 98. Several versions of spell 125 of the Book of the Dead,
the so-called Negative Confession, incorporate similar phrases, see Gnter Lapp, Totenbuch Spruch 125, Totenbuchtexte, Synop-
tische Textausgabe nach Quellen des Neuen Reiches 3 (Basel, 2008), 136b and 137b; for a more general discussion on spell 125
and (auto)biographies see Miriam Lichtheim, Maat in Egyptian Autobiographies and Related Studies, OBO 120 (Freiburg-Gttingen,
1992), 10344; Jan Assmann, Death and Salvation in Ancient Egypt (Ithaca, NY, 2005), 7786.
86
According to the treatise The King as Solar Priest, the king knows the speech of the baboons Hzi=sn tjA as they sing chat-
ter, Assmann, Sonnenpriester, 17, 21, 29.
87
The verb hTt appears to describe the vocal activity of (1) foreigners and (2) female mourners in the underworld. (1) jwntjw
mnTw HAw-nbwt sTtjw pDtjw-Swt rdj Hr Xt =sn THnw sxt-jmAw Hr xrp n =k jxt =sn SAtjw n =k m hTt jwntjw-people and mnTw-people, islanders
and Asiatics, Pedjtu-Schu are given upon their bellies, Libyans and those of sx.t-jAm oasis bring you their produce, the SA.t-people
hTt for you, see Dieter Kurth, Edfou VII, Die Inschriften des Tempels von Edfu, Abteilung I, bersetzungen, vol. 2 (Wiesbaden,
2004), 230, l. 1014. (2) j(A)kb.ywt wnw=sn Hr=k Hwi=sn n=k m a.wj=sn sbH=sn n=k htA=sn n=k rmi.y=sn, The female mourners strip
their hair because of you, striking with their arms for you, crying out for you, as they hTA for you, crying for you (pParis Louvre
3073, BD 180, 910), see Jean-Louis de Cenival, Le livre pour sortir le jour: Le Livre des Morts des anciens gyptiens (Bordeaux-Paris,
1992), 67, 1114, 29, 85; Gnther Lapp, The Papyrus of Nebseni (BM EA 9900): The Texts of Chapter 180 with the New Kingdom Paral-
lels, The British Museum Occasional Paper 139 (London, 2002), 23b24a.
110 JARCE 49 (2013)

The juxtaposition of the loud baboon and the silent figure points to an even deeper contrast that
threatens the balanced image of the two. Wisdom texts and biographical inscriptions often employ
series of contrasting pairs to delineate desired and abhorred behaviors. These contrasts include, for
example, good and evil, just and biassed, as well as silence and anger. The latter contrast places the
baboon at the antinode of the silent official,88 as the ancient Egyptians associated the animal with loud-
ness, aggressiveness and even anger.89 When The Teachings of Ani warns its reader of displays of biA.t
qnd.t angry character,90 the word is classified with the diagonal stroke (Gardiner M5),
which hieratic often employs in place of complicated signs. This is most probably the hieroglyph of the
baboon , which appears as a prominent classifier for the word qnd, anger, to be angry. 91 This clas-
sification suggests that the baboon served as the prototype of anger in the Egyptian culture.92
Rage and loudness are not only unwelcome behaviors, they may also have devastating effects. The
fourth chapter of The Instructions of Amenemope speaks, for example, of the silent and of the angry
through the metaphor of a tree. The text compares the silent man to a tree that flourishes in the mead-
ow, as its fruits grow sweet.93 The heated man, on the other hand, is like a tree that is about to wither
and die and whose burial is in flames.94 A similar association between anger and self-destruction ap-
pears in a hymn in pSallier I, which compares Thoth to a well in the desert. While the well is accessible
to the gr mAa.t, the truly silent, whose life would be saved by it, the source of water is shut for the pA
Smw, the angry one. According to both images, anger leads to self-destruction and to the loss of all
that the official toiled to achieve.
The tension that underlies the idealized image of the statue owner points to the fragile nature of
success. Affluence is never secured, and jw bw rx pH.w{t}i=kwAD wr.w aA.y xpr m Sw wDb.y xpr m dwA.t,
You do not know your end. Great lakes became dry places, sandbanks turned into depths.95 In order
to avoid mishaps, one needs to learn the writings by heart and closely adhere to their advice.96 When

88
Der Heie ist der Antagonist des idealen wahrhaftigen Schweigers (gr-mAa), see Hans-Werner Fischer-Elfert, Dein
Heier in pAnastasi V 7, 58, 1 und seine Beziehung zur Lehre des Amenemope, Kap. 24, WdO 14 (1983): 83.
89
See Linda Evans, Animal Behaviour in Egyptian Art: Representations of the Natural World in Memphite Tomb Scenes, Studies /
The Australian Centre for Egyptology 9 (Oxford, 2010), 14546. It is worth noting that while aggression and anger are spoken of
in negative terms with regards to officials and courtiers, divine and royal figures are allowed to exhibit such behaviors, see John
Tait, Anger and Agency, in Rune Nyord and Annette Kjlby, eds., Being in Ancient Egypt, Thoughts on Agency, Materiality and
Cognition: Proceedings of the Seminar Held in Copenhagen, September 2930, 2006, BAR International Series 2019 (Oxford, 2009),
82 and Ute Effland, Aggression und Agressionskontrolle im alten gypten, in Nicole Kloth, et al., eds., Es werde niedergelegt als
Schriftstuck: Festschrift fur Hartwig Altenmuller zum 65. Geburtstag (Hamburg, 2003), 7181.
90
Joachim Quack, Die Lehren des Ani: Ein neuagyptischer Weisheitstext in seinem kulturellen Umfeld, OBO 141 (Freiburg, Schweiz-
Gttingen, 1994), 11819, 32728.
91
Wb. 5, 56.1657.12.
92
Blackman and Fairman recognize this attribute of the baboon. As the second occurrence of the word qnd appears in the
phrase qnd=i r xft.jw=k m qnd (Edfou VI, 65,4) with the classifier of the baboon, they translate it as I rage against thy foes as a sav-
age baboon. See Aylward Blackman and Herbert Fairman, The Myth of Horus at Edfu: II. C. The Triumph of Horus over His
Enemies a Sacred Drama (Continued), JEA 29 (1943), 7. For the analysis of the baboon classifier as alternative classification see
Orly Goldwasser, Where is Metaphor?: Conceptual Metaphor and Alternative Classification in the Hieroglyphic Script, in Meta-
phor and Symbol 20,2 (2005), 104. It is noteworthy to mention, though, that Khler counts nineteen words related to rage, only
one of which is classified with the baboon, see Ines Khler, Rage Like an Egyptian: the Conceptualization of Anger, in Maarten
Horn, et al., eds., Current Research in Egyptology 11, Proceedings of the Eleventh Annual Symposium which Took Place at Leiden Univer-
sity, the Netherlands January 2010 (Oxford, 2011), 8196. For further reservations regarding the relation between the classifier and
the classified in words such as qnd, see Daniel Werning, Orthographic Classifier Systems in Three Middle Egyptian Texts (forthcoming).
93
pBM EA 10474, 5.206.12, see Shlomit Israeli, Chapter Four of the Wisdom Book of Amenemope, in Israelit-Groll, ed.,
Studies in Egyptology, vol. 1, 46484.; Laisney, Amnmop, 7279, 33132; Peter Dils, in Thesaurus Linguae Aegyptiae (March, 2013).
94
tA stA tAy=f qrjs (pBM EA 10474, 6.6) The fire is his burial, see Peter Dils, in Thesaurus Linguae Aegyptiae (March, 2013);
Israeli, Chapter Four, 471, 48283; Laisney, Amnmop, 7279, 33132. See, however, Israeli who interprets pH differently, as a
designation to the penetration of the trees roots into the ground.
95
pBoulaq 4, rt. 21.721.9, see Quack, Die Lehren des Ani, 11011; Peter Dils, in Thesaurus Linguae Aegyptiae (March 2013).
96
The 30th chapter of The Instructions of Amenemope discusses its own merits, purifying and enlightening the ignorant, allow-
ing him to interpret the texts and finally to become a courtier (pBM EA 10474, rt. 27.616), see Laisney, Amnmop, 22830, 362.
 ALLON 111

his son raises his doubts about this approach and regarding ones ability to overcome ones nature, Ani
answers with examples from the animal world:

The fighting bull that kills in the stableit did not know how to abandon the arena.
It overthrew its character
and established its teachings (in itself)
It is in the form of a fattened ox.97
(pBoulaq 4, rt. 22,1923,2)

The change in the bulls character came, according to the text, of the bulls own volition. As the bull
is described as the agent of its own change, the text ascribes to a notion of self-fashioning, ones ability
to fashion his own character and identity. Similar to the bull, the reader is exhorted to establish the
teachings in his heart and to fashion his behavior accordingly. Anger ranks among the most prominent
threats to ones advancement, and its destructiveness is often described only by referring to its effect
on another person. As the epitome of anger sits quietly on top of the scribe, it arguably signifies the
mans successful conquest of one of the most destructive behaviors thematized in wisdom texts. Self-
fashioning entails, however, some loss of self,98 and the bull had to abandon its habitat and act violently
against its own character. The baboon may be read also as evoking not only the delicate balance but
also the fragility of its maintenance, as any achieved identity contains within itself the signs of its own
loss or subversion.
Finally, the tension between the baboon and the writing man invites reflection on the limits of lan-
guage and writing. As Te Velde notes, the baboons are often discussed in Egyptian texts as creatures of
secret knowledge and of mysterious language.99 Their knowledge is StA, hidden also through their lan-
guage, which is not simply spoken. It is not a simple language with which human beings usually com-
municate with each other and hardly comparable with one of the languages of mankind.100 The speech
of the baboons is further compared in a magical spell to glowing flames that come out of a mouth
made of fire.101 The words of the baboons are made, according to the text, of a material that would
defy its inscription and consume the papyrus on which it will be written. The mysterious language of
the baboon thus points to the ineffable, to that which lies beyond the reach of human language, and
therefore, cannot be written.102 This suggests that the otherness of the baboon not only threatens the

97
For further comments on the text see Quack, Die Lehren des Ani, 12021; Peter Dils in Thesaurus Linguae Aegyptiae (March,
2013).
98
Self-fashioning always involves some experience of threat, some effacement or undermining, some loss of self, Green-
blatt, Self-Fashioning, 9.
99
The behavior of baboons and of monkeys in general was often interpreted along the lines of human activities, and as Patch
notes the distinctions between human activity and the behavior of monkeys are often blurred, see Diana Craig Patch, et al., Dawn
of Egyptian Art (New York, 2011), 1078. Thereby, one finds corresponding representations of humans and monkeys from the
dawn of Egyptian art: holding a child, Patch, Dawn,109; Abydos II, 25, no. 41, pls. 45; holding an object or perhaps an offering, pl.
4, no. 53; holding a vessel, see Willem van Haarlem, Temple Deposits at Tell Ibrahim Awad, (Amsterdam, 2009), 141, nos. 197202,
pl. 6; wrestling or hugging, see Gnter Dreyer, Elephantine VIII: Der Tempel der Satet. Die Funde der Frhzeit und des Alten Reiches,
AV 39 (Mainz am Rhein, 1986), 112, no. 152, pl. 28; and dressing the hair of another, Hayes, Scepter, vol. 1, fig 138. Likewise, the
chatter of baboons in the morning is understood as similar to human pious activities, while its intangibility characterizes it as a
mystery, cf. Te Velde Mysterious Language of the Baboons, 12937. For further notes on the baboon in ancient Egypt and its
humanness see Dieter, Kessler, Monkeys and Baboons, in Redford, ed., Oxford Encyclopedia, vol. 2. 42832.
100
Te Velde, Mysterious Language of the Baboons, 130.
101
pBM EA 10042, rt. 8, 45, see Christian Leitz, Magical and Medical Papyri of the New Kingdom, HPBM 7 (London, 1999),
4344, pl. 19; Te Velde, Mysterious Language of the Baboons, 131. A similar association of baboons and fiery speech appears
also in the book of Amduat, as two of the singing baboons are named bsy and Hkn.w m bs=f the flaming one, and who praises
with his flame, Hornung, Texte zum Amduat, 141; idem, Book of the Hidden Chamber, 30.
102
Boylan, Thoth, 76, n. 2, notes also that the baboon appears often with scribes, but only seldom would it be shown as
equipped with writing materials, or as himself engaged in writing.
112 JARCE 49 (2013)

idealized image of the statue owner, but also decentralizes the main reading of the statue, alluding to
the limits of writing and to its imperfection.103

3. Conclusions

To the untrained eye, the composition of the scribe and the baboon may seem jarring, when the self-
composed image of the educated scribe meets the baboon, with its wild and violent connotations. To
connoisseurs of ancient Egyptian culture, however, the tension is immediately relieved, as the baboon is
known to serve as a manifestation of Thoth, the divine scribe and the inventor of language. Along with
the mans body, it presents an idealized image of the statue owner, characterizing him as a just and pi-
ous man, who resembles the literary figures of the past, as he composes a text himself.
However, the first impression of the statue should not be discarded so easily, as it points to tensions
that underlie the ideal image of the patron. The baboon is recognized in the ancient Egyptian culture
not only as a manifestation of Thoth, but also as a loud and aggressive animal which represents the
epitome of anger. Its image conjures, therefore, not only notions of adoration and justice, but also con-
notations of abhorred behaviors, which may lead a man down the slippery path of self-destruction and
self-annihilation. Thus, the delicate balance of the scribe who keeps the baboon on top of his head icon-
izes the success of the official along with the pitfalls that await him.
This representation not only expresses the nature of the official but also negotiates concepts regard-
ing texts and writing in a nonverbal form. The statue joins and reinforces textual discourses, rendering
them accessible also to illiterate publics. Through the connotations of the baboon, the statue further
alludes to the role of writing in judgment and in adoration and to the growing importance of the writer
in relation to the text.
Finally, the statue does not only express the importance of writing, but also reflects on its nature.
The statue thematizes writing, which occurs under the inspecting eye of the baboon or with adora-
tion in mind. The statue may thus be read alongside texts of the Ramesside period, which refer to the
performative aspect of writing in contexts other than magic or ritual. Both in justice as in adoration,
writing becomes the mechanism through which actions are not only registered, but also performed. Si-
multaneously, the baboon decentralizes the main reading of the statue and its emphasis on writing and
language, as the language of the baboon is considered mysterious and ineffable. Thus, while the Met-
ropolitan statue can be read as conforming to social codes that are professed in textual sources of its
period, even reinforcing them, it points also to the possibility of the annihilation of the very discourse
that it celebrates: the utter destruction of the scribal projectof advancement through writing and text.

Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York

103
Aelianus of the second century remarks on the baboons, that they have no speech (phtheggontai men oude hen) they howl,
see Te Velde, Mysterious Language of the Baboons, 131.