Idiosyncrasies in Late Ramesside Hieratic Writing

Abstract

In the search for an answer to the question of how great a degree of variation may be expected in a scribe's handwriting, a study is made of the hieratic of the recently (re)discovered P. Baldwin, the lost half of P. Amiens. ‘Principal’ variations, where, for instance, ‘classical’ instead of ‘cursive’ signs are used, are an indication, when occurring consistently, that two scribes were at work, whereas a sudden improvement of the style with only ‘incidental’ variations is probably due to a single scribe.