Hughes, G.R. (with contributions by B.P. Muhs & S. Vinson). 2005. Catalog of Demotic Texts in the Brooklyn Museum. – Chicago, The Oriental Institute (Oriental Institute Communications No. 29)

Abstract

This catalogue of the Demotic texts in the Brooklyn Museum is the product of many decades’ work by the late George R. Hughes, and has had a more than usually difficult publication history. Several attempts were made to find funding for the publication between its completion in 1985, and Hughes’ death in 1992. Happily, it has now been published under the auspices of the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, of which, appropriately, Hughes was once Director.

The Demotic papyri in the Brooklyn Museum derive from various sources, but the bulk of the collection was acquired by Charles Edwin Wilbour in Egypt between 1887 and 1896. The Museum received Wilbour’s collection in several lots, in 1916, 1935 and 1947. Wilbour kept careful records of his acquisitions in notebooks, and marked ostraca with the place and date of acquisition. Unfortunately, the texts have since been organised according to a number of intersecting and overlapping systems of catalogue or accession numbering (for which Hughes’ catalogue provides helpful concordances). In 1937, the Brooklyn Museum also acquired the collection of the New York Historical Society, which was itself composed from three private collections. Read more...