When in 1937 Hermann Grapow described demotic ‘as the most evil of all evil Egyptian scripts’,1 he clearly had never had occasion to look at an abnormal hieratic papyrus. If he had done so, he would have quickly realised that, if demotic were the most evil, abnormal hieratic must be the Devil’s Spawn. In the early days of Egyptology, abnormal hieratic and demotic were not differentiated; they were both ‘démotique archaïque’ (Eugéne Revillout). It was Francis Llewellyn Griffith (who else!), who was the first Egyptologist to separate them, when he established that, in Dynasties 25 and 26, there were actually two cursive administrative systems operating alongside each other in Upper Egypt. Since then, a few brave (foolish?) Egyptologists have attempted to edit abnormal hieratic texts. For most of these, one publication, occasionally two, was enough. But there are exceptions. Just three. First, of course, is Michel Malinine, the ‘grandmaster’ of abnormal hieratic. The magnitude of his achievements does not need repeating here. Second, Günter Vittmann, a contributor to this volume, and the author of many important text editions and studies since the 1990’s. And third, the honoree himself. Koen, however, was not content to just publish abnormal hieratic texts. He wanted Egyptologists, beyond the traditional rather narrow group of specialists, to be able to read and understand the script. But more on that in a moment; let’s start at the beginning.
Koen studied demotic and abnormal hieratic in Leiden in the late 1980’s under Pestman and Vleeming. His doctorate (awarded in 1996) was the publication of an archive of 22 abnormal hieratic and early demotic papyri contained in the Eisenlohr lot in the Louvre, along with two related texts in the British Museum. While individual papyri from this archive had been spasmodically published over the preceding century, there had hitherto not been any serious attempt to study it in its entirety. As well as making these important texts accessible to the Egyptology community through reliable translations, Koen’s work was of particular significance, and represented a great leap forward over previous studies, in identifying when and how the demotic script and legal tradition from the north infiltrated and then supplanted that of abnormal hieratic in the south.
While over the next decade he continued to publish abnormal hieratic papyri, he was also employed in developing the Leiden based Deir el-Medina Database (from 1997 to 2004). This was initially with Ben Haring, and after 2000 with Rob Demarée and Jaana Toivari-Viitala (Rob having been involved from the start as an advisor). The first stage was the creation of the database. This sounds simple but of course involved, especially in the initial stages, a lot of trial-and-error with a new electronic database. Together, Koen and Ben started by producing c.500 handwritten records on paper until Hans van den Berg had a first version of the programme for the database ready. From then on, they could create electronic records immediately, while also both keeping their own indexes of English keywords, Egyptian terminology and proper names etc. Every few weeks they would sit together and compare indexes to make sure they had entered similar data in precisely the same way. When Rob and Jaana also started to create records, every team member checked the work of one other. Koen’s and Ben Haring’s book Writing in a Workmen’s Village (2003) was an offshoot of this database work.
The employment situation at Leiden University forced Koen out of Egyptology for the period from 2004 to 2012 and he developed other skills as an editor, copywriter and translator, which he continues to this day. Thankfully, for the future of abnormal hieratic,2 circumstances in Leiden were to change and Koen was able to return to the University in 2012 as part-time Lecturer in Demotic and Abnormal Hieratic. This was a new beginning, and Koen was determined to make up for lost time. By inaugurating a fully-fledged course in the script, he effectively established in Leiden what we should now refer to as an Abnormal Hieratic School (ahs). In the first semester this attracted no less than eight participants and over the following years there has been a steady influx of students from other countries. However, this on its own was not enough. So, with a zeal bordering on the evangelical, he set out to bring the study of abnormal hieratic into mainstream Egyptology. First, in 2013, he published online a teaching manual – A Very Easy Crash Course in Abnormal Hieratic – and, in that and the following year, An Abnormal Hieratic Reading Book (in three parts), followed by an Abnormal Hieratic Palaeography. He prepared an intensive one-to-two-day abnormal hieratic workshop, which he then held in myriad venues across Continental Europe, the UK and even on one occasion venturing to the West Coast of the USA. This was all in addition to the lectures, workshops and masterclasses that he organised in Leiden. The result? There are today more people able to read the script than at any time since the middle of the sixth century BCE.
Although Koen put considerable emphasis on teaching, this was not at the expense of his academic publications. He regularly produced a series of articles for journals or Festschrifts. These included text publications and discussions of particularly problematic reading problems (of which there were many), and also reflected his interest in the law, social history and the economy of ancient Egypt. However, his most important work in this period was the first full edition (in 2021) of the eight papyri belonging to the abnormal hieratic business archive of the Theban choachyte Petebaste son of Peteamunip (P. Louvre E 3228 A–H). In this there was a particular focus on abnormal hieratic palaeography, making the volume an important companion to the online material.
Throughout his career Koen has always sought to communicate not just with Egyptologists and fellow travellers, but also with the wider public. After visits to conferences or meetings, since the beginning of the 1990s he regularly produced small privately-printed booklets that he sent to friends and colleagues (and later ‘published’ online) with a tongue-in-cheek account of what had been happening outside the formal proceedings. Shortly after his return to Egyptology in 2012, he began with Djekhy & Son a series of publications for the non-specialist in which he used the ‘dry’ papyrus documents from the New Kingdom, Third Intermediate and Late Period to conjure up a vivid and often hilarious picture of everyday life in ancient Egypt. Three further volumes, all published by the American University in Cairo Press, have followed at regular intervals to critical acclaim.
In his usual inimitable way, Koen concluded one article with the comment that the appearance of a Festschrift always carries a subtle message, ‘right, you’re at the end of the line pal’. However, and paraphrasing what Koen himself wrote at the time, abnormal hieratic would be totally lost without you, so do continue to delight and surprise us for many years to come. Because if you don’t, we might drop the moniker abnormal hieratic and use ‘späthieratische Kursive’, ‘Kursivhieratisch’, or ‘late cursive hieratic’ instead. And we know you would hate that.
Cary J. Martin
Honorary Research Fellow, University College London
Postscript
This publication would never have been produced without the ongoing help and support of Cisca Hoogendijk, who proof read the entire manuscript and drew up the index of Greek words and Greek sources, and of Elena Hertel in compiling Koen’s bibliography and in checking the indexes. We are particularly grateful to Gert Baetens and Ben Haring for their assistance, as well as those who were involved in the often thankless (albeit not in this case) task of formal peer-reviewing – Adrienn Almásy-Martin, Charlotte Dietrich, Katrin Gabler, Fredrik Hagen, Richard Jasnow, Anthony Leahy, Claudia Näser, Brian Muhs, John Tait and Günter Vittmann – along with Robert Kade, Kim Ryholt and Petra Hogenboom-Meijerink, and to all the authors who have contributed to the volume. It goes without saying that we have been fortunate in the commitment of the staff at Brill, especially Vincent Oeters, Giulia Moriconi and Gera van Bedaf. The typesetting of what is a most difficult manuscript must have been very challenging, and we can imagine that, by the end of the process, they might not share quite the same enthusiasm as the honoree for abnormal hieratic.
H. Grapow, ‘Review of Erichsen, Demotische Lesestücke’, olz 40 (1937), p. 487.
Or as one of the contributors to this Festschrift were to remark: ‘One of the finest moments in 21st century Egyptology … was the return of our friend Koen to the university world of Leiden after a long absence due to the need to make a living’.
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