Following Katherine's references I found several articles on BIFAO [www.ifao.egnet.net] (word to search: cryptographique) dealing with cryptography, at least one in English.

We do know, that the members of the scribal class were proud of their knowledge, and could therefore very well have "showed off" their skills by using cryptic expressions. Moreover, the Egyptians being very keen on puns and wordplays would very much have contributed to this sort of written expressions of talent.
However, looking through the articles at BIFAO I noticed that, interestingly enough, cryptography seems to be used on the walls of the Denderah and Edfu temples! This, IMO, cannot be the result of the playful mind of a scribe, can it? Likewise the text at Seti's at Abydos. Wouldn't these contexts be too sacred to change the written form even slightly? Why then? Could the answer be in the parts of text changed? Does the change make the text say something else in addition to the original one? Or is the answer "for few chosen eyes only"?


Ritva





Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 08/25/2007 04:21PM by ritva.