Graffiti-hunting in Abydos, 1884: New Insights from the Notebooks of A. H. Sayce

The Memnonium (Temple of Seti) at Abydos was much visited in the Greco-Roman period, and about a thousand graffiti can be found on the walls from this period in at least nine scripts (Greek, Cypriot, Carian, Aramaic, Phoenician, Sidetic, Latin, Hieratic, Demotic). Modern editions of these graffiti (particularly for Cypriot and Carian) still rely to a significant extent on the work of the Oxford scholar A. H. Sayce who visited Abydos in 1883-4 and again in 1885. Sayce did important work, but his readings are often flawed; furthermore, in his publications he often didn’t record the precise position of graffiti, and later scholars have not been able to find some of them.

In this paper I shall present a new source of information that sheds light on Sayce’s methods, helps us locate some of graffiti he records, and also reveals a few graffiti (e.g. Egyptian ones) that he recorded but never published. The source is Sayce’s original notebooks from his visits to Abydos, which are in the Bodleian Library.

The talk will be followed by a drinks reception in the Buttery (all welcome).