Ostraka aus dem Totentempel des Merenptah in Theben

The aim of the present paper is to give a preliminary overview of the ostraca found during the Swiss excavations in the mortuary temple of Merenptah in the early 1970s and 1990s. The corpus can be roughly divided into non-documentary and documentary ostraca as well as ones bearing painted figures. Among the literary texts the Satire of Trades predominates but other texts are attested as well. Noteworthy is the double appearance of a certain number of them: one being well written, the other in a less skillful script, pointing towards an educational setting with a teacher and a single pupil. The majority of the documentary texts can be identified as dockets of various sort. Some of these bear dates beyond the attested reign of Merenptah and must hence be from a reign of one of his successors (Ramesses III) or intrusive finds connected to predecessors (Amenhotep III or Ramesses II). Other dockets attest a hitherto unknown location for a vineyard called ḫr-Inpw “Tomb of Anubis”. Almost completely absent are texts documenting the daily administrative temple business.