Enigmatic compositions: What do the ancient scribes have to tell us? An emic perspective on cryptographic practices during the New Kingdom

Recent years have witnessed a substantial increase of interest for the so-called ‘cryptographic’ — more appropriately labelled ‘enigmatic’ — compositions. In the footsteps of Erik Hornung, scholars such as J.C. Darnell, A. von Lieven, L. Morenz, J.A. Roberson, and D.A. Werning have significantly advanced our understanding of the orthographic principles, underlying mechanisms, and contextual functions of these non-standard uses of the hieroglyphic system during the New Kingdom. The volume Enigmatic writing in the Egyptian New Kingdom, edited by D. Klotz and A. Stauder, as well as its companion, the Lexicon of ancient Egyptian cryptography of the New Kingdom by J. Roberson, can be seen as key milestones in this respect, topping off twenty years of research in the field. One dimension, however, is almost systematically absent from those studies, namely the one of the agents who composed, copied, monumentalized, deciphered and interpreted these enigmatic texts. For the New Kingdom, this is all the more surprising that the community of Deir el-Medina, who was in charge of building and decorating the royal tombs in which many of these texts occur, provides an ideal setting for studying such questions. Vice versa, the studies and handbooks that deal specifically with the inhabitants of the village of craftsmen and with their written production do not address directly the question. The aim of this talk is to fill this gap, providing a systematic overview of the types of evidence that can be used in order to better our understanding of the Egyptian perspective about these particular uses of the hieroglyphic system.