A Reassessment of the “Ghurob Shrine Papyrus”

Abstract

This article reexamines a pair of elevation drawings of an Ancient Egyptian shrine preserved at the Petrie Museum of the University College London, which is known as the “Ghurob Shrine Papyrus”. The physical characteristics of two sheets of papyrus show the following striking similarities: Both are about one royal cubit wide, both were drawn over a grid of 14 squares wide of the same dimensions, and the vertical lines of the grid at the bottom edge of the drawing depicting the side view, continue from the top edge of that showing the front view. These characteristics confirm the previous assumption that the two sheets of drawings were originally a single sheet, the side view being at the top, and the front view being at the bottom.

   Observation of the drawings and of the traces of the ink allows a reconstruction of the technique used to draw the grid. Points are marked on each end of the vertical grid lines, and down the grid there are four rows of points at intervals of about 50 cm. This indicates that the lines of the grid were drawn by extending lines using a ruler one royal cubit (about 52.5 cm) long.

   Previous studies dated the elevation drawing to the New Kingdom, or specifically to the 18^th Dynasty. However, a comparison of the size of the grid with other papyrus drawings and a stylistic analysis of the shrine proves that these drawings should rather be dated to the Late Period and afterwards, in particular, from the 30^th Dynasty to the Ptolemaic Period. Judging from the absence of any indication of the actual dimensions and the extraordinary large size of the drawings, they are to be seen as those of an ideal or theoretical shrine instead of an actual construction project.