- pri̯.n=j: The rendering here is uncertain. I take the sḏm.n=f in this passage as a second tense, following Kruchten, although he places the emphasis differently; "c’est dans le temple de la Maîtresse du ciel que je suis sorti, en enfant accompli, de la salle des écrits" (Les annales des prêtres de Karnak, OLA 32, Leuven 1989, 179). The sḏm.n=f form has a restricted use in the texts on both statues, occurring as a relative clause or a second tense. I see the focus here as nḏs jqr rather than the location of the "room of writing". The literariness of the term warrants such a focus. However, strict grammatical readings of the passage may not be helpful in understanding the structures used; its effect may be poetic, emphasizing skill with language and metrical patterning.
- nḏs jqr: describes Bakenkhons in his early years on the back pillars of both statues, and is only one of many terms used for childhood in the text. In the Munich statue, the four years Bakenkhons spent as a nḏs jqr form the first stage in his life that is mentioned, preceding his 11 years as a ḥwn in the stable of Sety I. The compound which is common in the First Intermediate Period and Middle Kingdom (Janssen, De traditioneele egyptische autobiografie, Leiden 1946, I, 3–4; G 15–26), is rare in the New Kingdom, nḏs alone having meanings of ‘youth’ or, possibly, ‘poverty’ (see also Loprieno, in: Loprieno, Ancient Egyptian literature (PdÄ 10), Leiden/New York/Köln 1996, 57). It is laden with literary connotations from Middle Egyptian classics but the precise meaning of nḏs in the Middle Kingdom remains unclear (Parkinson, in: Loprieno, Ancient Egyptian literature (PdÄ 10), Leiden/New York/Köln 1996, 142). Doxey observes (Egyptian non-royal epithets in the Middle Kingdom, PdÄ 12, Leiden 1998, 196) that nḏs is not used to identify the protagonist of biographies until the First Intermediate Period texts at Naga ed-Deir. Through the use of this phrase Bakenkhons demonstrates his literary aspirations.

Commentary author: Elizabeth Frood