Egyptian Early Dynastic inscription Database Online

Database of Early Dynastic inscriptions
By Ilona Regulski

The current database assembles all available Early Dynastic inscriptions, covering the first attestations of writing discovered in tomb U-j (Naqada IIIA1, ca. 3250 BC) until the earliest known continuous written text in the reign of Netjerikhet–more commonly known as Djoser (ca. 2700 BC).[1] The database originated as a computerized Access document containing the collection of sources on which the author’s publication “A Palaeographic Study of Early Writing in Egypt” was based.[2] The latter was kindly reformed into a web compatible application by Prof. Erhart Graefe, former head of the Department of Egyptology and Coptology at the Westfalische-Wilhelms Universität, Münster, Germany, which hosts the database. I wish to express my sincere gratitude to him.[3]

The database contains more then 4500 inscriptions and is constantly updated. Each inscription was assigned a source number. The source list, published by J. Kahl in Das System der ägyptischen Hieroglyphenschrift in der 0.-3. Dynastie, 171-417, was the point of departure.[4] The sequence of the Kahl list is chronological but this could not be followed when new sources were added as they were found. About 700 sources could be added to his collection starting with number 4000. Multiple impressions from the same cylinder seal were incorporated as one source since they are copies of one inscription.

The upper left button SEARCH will give you access to the three forms, which contain all the information collected in the database:

1.       The main search table (left): contains detailed information regarding the date (cfr. Infra), provenance, type of inscription, dating criterion, and some bibliographical references. Some of these metadata will be explained in more detail further down. This table will also give you the source number of the objects, which facilitates the search in the 2 sub-forms.

2.       The depository sub-form (upper right): contains information regarding the present depository of the object.

3.       The sign sub-form (lower right): contains all the signs labelled with the Gardiner or the Kahl sigla and placed between round brackets: for example (E1). The database does not include hieroglyphs.

The upper left button INDEX will help you with finding the used spelling for royal names, sites, etc.:

-          Date / Period

-          Date / King

-          Site

-          Region

-          Locality

-          Depository

 

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