Land Endowments in the Old Kingdom Private Inscriptions

This paper provides a close reading and commenting of a group of Old Kingdom private inscriptions relating to land endowments assigned for private mortuary cults. The study also examines the terms of such funerary foundations. Endowment texts focus on a procedure for the permanent endowment of areas of land by individuals for funerary purpose in the manner of a waqf, with the land entailed in a single, not-divisible line of succession of kA-priests. Some endowments are specifically royal gifts or authorized by the king. The study illustrates that land was controlled directly in relation to holding the office of kA-priest: where control of land, and the production from it is in effect payment for funerary service. A middle class of priests, who were holders of endowment lands, became visible from the late Old Kingdom onwards, reflecting the development of ancient Egyptian society. The texts here studied are presented in transliteration and translation, and a comment is provided for each text.