ABSTRACT

The Book of the Fayum text, because of its systematic layout, was expected to reveal reliable information about the place names and geography of the Fayum. The possible points of contact with the Book of the Fayum in Herodotus' fifth century account include the various series of cult-places in the papyrus, the series of mummified crocodiles, the 'images of animals' in the central registers, and also the dimensions of the Fayum. The priests responsible for the temple texts at Kom Ombo were not short of material, and perhaps assume that the Book of the Fayum was simply admired there. Like nearly all Egyptian papyrus rolls, the hieroglyphic version of the Book of the Fayum is basically to be held and viewed with its length, as it is unrolled, stretching from side to side horizontally in front of the reader. Yet the Egyptian audience would surely have seen links with the landscape they knew.