The Enigmatic Netherworld Books of the Solar-Osirian Unity

The ancient Egyptians at times employed a non-standard list of signs and phonetic values, and the resulting texts may be termed "cryptographic"or "enigmatic." Inscriptions based on these alternate sign lists, attested already during the Old and Middle Kingdoms, proliferate during the New Kingdom. By the Ptolemaic period, many of the formerly enigmatic signs and values had become part of standard hieroglyphic texts of the time. The exact principles behind Egyptian cryptography have remained obscure, and the debate, often vitriolic, has centered around the normalizedcryptography of the Graeco-Roman temple inscriptions. Curiously, the earlier enigmatic texts, those which one might reasonably see as the progenitors of the later cryptographic hieroglyphic system, have not entered significantly into the discussion. The present work demonstrates conclusively that the principle of acrophony, as understood by E. Drioton, played virtually no role in the derivation of cryptographic values in enigmatic texts of the New Kingdom. Some of the most lengthy enigmatic inscriptions of the New Kingdom occur in the royal tombs. The three most extensive occurrences of enigmatic writing appear on the Second Shrine of Tutankhamun, on the ceiling of Corridor G in the tomb of Ramesses VI, and on the "Enigmatic Wall"in the tomb of Ramesses IX. This study is the first detailed examination of the texts on the Tutankhamun shrine and in the tomb of Ramesses IX and contains the first treatment of much of the Ramesses VI Corridor G inscriptions. The present investigation has found these three enigmatic texts to be related in theology, iconography, and physical layout. They are based on a common template, incorporating enigmatic texts, Book of the Dead extracts, and a figure of the giant unified Re-Osiris. Together they may be called the Book of the Solar-Osirian Unity.