New Papyri from Bab el Gusus? The Prosopography and Provenience of Papyrus HM 84123

A Book of the Dead papyrus in the Huntington Library belonged to a woman who was a “singer of Amun” (šmʿ.t n Ỉmn) named Taaatemperamun (Tȝ-ʿȝ.t-m-pr-Ỉmn). A working hypothesis is presented that she may be the same person who owned the Amduat papyrus Cairo S.R.VII.10242 (written Tȝ-ʿȝ.(t)-(m)-pr-Ỉmn), thereby potentially identifying the missing manuscript from the commonly attested set of Book of the Dead and Amduat papyri found in mortuary assemblages of the Twenty-First Dynasty during the Third Intermediate Period. In the course of discussing the evidence for this working hypothesis, an argument is made that previous proposals for identifying four separate personal names (ȝs.t, ȝsty, Tȝ-ʿȝ.(t)-Ỉmn, and Tȝ-ʿȝ.t-m-pr-Ỉmn) as belonging to a single individual should be rejected. In reassessing these claims, the most recent research suggests that the assemblages in which their manuscripts were discovered had been configured in an ad hoc fashion in antiquity. Thus, this article argues that attention to the original owners’ names must remain an important criterion for identifying ancient individuals and suggests caution in assuming different names belonged to the same individual without more specific evidence for confirmation.