Copies of Egyptian Characters, circa Summer 1835–A
Source Note
Copies of Egyptian Characters, [, Geauga Co., OH, ca. Summer 1835]; hieratic characters in unidentified handwriting; one page; Kirtland Egyptian Papers, CHL.
Bifolium with leaves measuring 13½ × 7¾ inches (34 × 20 cm). Each leaf contains about thirty-seven blue lines that are now faded. Judging from the size of the paper, the color and number of lines, and the spacing between the lines, it appears the paper used for this document may also have been used for “Valuable Discovery,” circa Early July 1835, perhaps linking the two documents in both purpose and time of creation. The recto of the first leaf is inscribed with characters, and the remaining three pages are blank. Slight wear and small tears are present along the three outer edges of the paper, and the left edge has some minor folding, suggesting that this sheet was placed in a bound volume (perhaps the Grammar and Alphabet volume). This document has no later pagination or classification marks, which suggests that it was not with other related documents when they were labeled in the late nineteenth or early twentieth century. This document was, however, presumably included with the Egyptian material identified in various Historian’s Office inventories throughout the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, which suggests continuous institutional custody.
This document contains nine lines of characters on the top half of the page, while the bottom half contains some scattered characters, two drawings of baboons, and a drawing of a priest offering water.
“Schedule of Church Records. Nauvoo 1846,” [1]; “Inventory. Historian’s Office. 4th. April 1855,” [1]; “Historian’s Office Inventory, G. S. L. City March 19, 1858,” [1]; “Historian’s Office Catalogue Book March 1858,” [7], Historian’s Office, Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904, CHL; see also Historian’s Office, Journal, 17 Oct. 1855.
Historian’s Office. Catalogs and Inventories, 1846–1904. CHL. CR 100 130.
Some of these characters are found on Miscellaneous Scraps of Book of the Dead for Semminis, ca. 300–100 bc. According to Egyptologists, these characters come from portions of chapters 1–7 and 10–14 of the Book of the Dead for Semminis. (Ritner, Joseph Smith Egyptian Papyri, 159–165, 204; Rhodes, Books of the Dead, 25–35.)
Ritner, Robert K. The Joseph Smith Egyptian Papyri: A Complete Edition, P. JS 1–4 and the Hypocephalus of Sheshonq. Salt Lake City: Smith-Pettit Foundation, 2011.
Rhodes, Michael D. Books of the Dead Belonging to Tshemmin and Neferirnub: A Translation and Commentary. Studies in the Book of Abraham 4. Provo, UT: Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, Brigham Young University, 2010.
For a discussion of the illustrations of baboons and the hieratic characters accompanying them, see Ritner, Joseph Smith Egyptian Papyri, 165–166; and Rhodes, Books of the Dead, 35.
Ritner, Robert K. The Joseph Smith Egyptian Papyri: A Complete Edition, P. JS 1–4 and the Hypocephalus of Sheshonq. Salt Lake City: Smith-Pettit Foundation, 2011.
Rhodes, Michael D. Books of the Dead Belonging to Tshemmin and Neferirnub: A Translation and Commentary. Studies in the Book of Abraham 4. Provo, UT: Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, Brigham Young University, 2010.
For a discussion of this figure and the hieratic characters accompanying it, see Ritner, Joseph Smith Egyptian Papyri, 165–166; and Rhodes, Books of the Dead, 35.
Ritner, Robert K. The Joseph Smith Egyptian Papyri: A Complete Edition, P. JS 1–4 and the Hypocephalus of Sheshonq. Salt Lake City: Smith-Pettit Foundation, 2011.
Rhodes, Michael D. Books of the Dead Belonging to Tshemmin and Neferirnub: A Translation and Commentary. Studies in the Book of Abraham 4. Provo, UT: Neal A. Maxwell Institute for Religious Scholarship, Brigham Young University, 2010.