List of sources in the principal modern study of the House of Life (Gardiner 1938)

1. statue of chief physician Wedjahorresnet, now in the Gregorian Egyptian Museum, the Vatican, part of the description of the life of Wedjahorresnet: 'His Majesty King Darius commanded me to return to Egypt ... to establish the bureau of the House of Life [for the exercise of] healing, after being ruined; the foreigners brought me from land to land and delivered me back to Egypt as the Lord of the Two Lands had commanded. I did as His Majesty had commanded me; I founded them with all their men of books, I provided them with all their personnel consisting of nobles, not a poor man's son among them. I placed them in the charge of every learned man, so that they [might teach?] all their work. His Majesty commanded that they be given all good things so that they might carry out all their work. I supplied them with all their powers, with all their requirements which are in writing as they were previously. His Majesty did this because he knows all the power of this art to cause anyone sick to live, to establish the names of all gods in their temples and in their offerings and the conduct of their festivals forever.'
2. two royal decrees of Pepy II found at Koptos, exempting the staff of the temple of Min from supplying the 'requirements of the House of Life'
3. a block from a temple or chapel of king Sankhkara Mentuhotep III at Tod bears the hieroglyphic inscription 'Khnum foremost of the House of Life'
4. the stela of the treasurer Mentuhotep from Abydos (Cairo CG 20539, reign of Senusret I) includes among his titles the phrase 'keeper of secrets of the House of Life'
5. in the tomb-chapel of Iha, overseer of the private rooms of the king, at Beni Hasan, the titles of Iha include the phrases 'overseer of writing in the House of Life, a man to whom all sacred matters are revealed'
6. a man named Keku is identified as 'scribe of the House of Life', alongside a chief physician called Ameny, on a late Middle Kingdom stela from Abydos (Cairo CG 20023)
7. uncertain - a title read by some as 'captain of the House of Life', on a late Middle Kingdom stela from Abydos (Leiden no.49, V 67); the correct reading may be 'captain of the Treasury'
8. hieroglyphic inscription 'House of Life' stamped onto mud bricks of a building in the city of king Akhenaten at Amarna (two rooms, Q 42.19 and 20 on the excavation plan) 400 metres south of the great temple, 100 metres east of the small Aten temple and the House of the King, in the central city
9. among the hieroglyphic inscriptions in the tomb-chapel of Amenwahsu, scribe of god's books in the Amun domain, at Thebes (Theban Tomb 111, Dynasty 19), the title 'scribe of the House of Life' is given once to Amenwahsu himself; he is also called 'one who outlines the inscriptions of gods and goddesses in the House of Life'
10. in the Theban tomb-chapel of Amenwahsu (see no. 9), the title 'scribe of the House of Life' is given to two of his sons, Didia and Khamipet; on a stela now in Tubingen, Khamipet is identified as 'scribe of god's books of the Lord of the Two Lands and as 'one who outlines the inscriptions of all gods in the House of Life' and 'god's father (a category of priest) of Ra-Atum in the House of Life'
11. title 'scribe of the House of Life' held by a man named Yuty, principal individual in the hieroglyphic inscriptions on a stela now in Turin (Egyptian Museum 177)
12. uncertain - a title possibly to be read 'deputy of the House of Life' but more probably 'deputy of the Treasury', in a hieroglyphic rock inscription on the island of Sehel (copied by de Morgan 1894: 95 no.150bis)
13. in the hieratic documents from the trial following a conspiracy against king Ramesses III, two of the condemned hold the title 'scribe of the House of Life'
14. hieroglyphic inscription of Ramesses IV at Abydos, recording the king investigating the records (?) 'of Thoth who is in the House of Life; I have not left unseen any of them all, in order to search out both great and small among the gods and goddesses, and I have found ... the entire Group of Gods, and all your forms are more mysterious than theirs' ('your' addressing the god of the dead, Osiris, principal god at Abydos)
15. earlier of two hieroglyphic rock inscriptions of Ramesses IV in Wadi Hammamat, the desert road from the Nile Valley to the Red Sea at the latitude of Koptos; the king is described as 'excellent of understanding like Thoth, he has entered the inscriptions like the creator of them, he has seen the writings of the House of Life'
16. later of two hieroglyphic rock inscriptions of Ramesses IV in Wadi Hammamat (see no.15), including the following passage 'His Majesty charged the scribe of the House of Life Ramesses-ashahebu, the scribe of Pharaoh Hori, the priest of the temple of Min, Horus and Isis in Koptos Usermaatranakht, to seek out the missions of the Place of Truth (the tomb of the king, and the community of its craftsmen) in the mountain of bekhen-stone, after they had been found to be exceedingly beautiful, being great monuments of miracle-stone'
17. titles and name 'scribe of god's books in the House of Life, king's intimate of the Lord of the Two Lands, overseer of works in the temple of Amun on the west of Thebes, Ramessesnakht', in a hieroglyphic rock inscription on the island of Sehel (copied by J de Morgan 1894: 93 no.130), Ramesside Period
18. title 'scribe of the House of Life of the Lord of the Two Lands' held by a man named Parenen, son of the principal individual in the hieroglyphic inscriptions on a New Kingdom (about 1550-1069 BC) stela now in Vienna (Kunsthistorisches Museum, Egyptian Department, stela 51); the other titles of Parenen are 'scribe of god's books of the Lord of the Two Lands', 'festival-leader of Osiris', and 'first stablemaster, protector of the one who is in the palace'
19. title 'scribe of the House of Life' held by two men, named Amenwah and Iny, in the hieroglyphic inscriptions on a New Kingdom stela now in Bologna (Civic Museum, Egyptian Department, no.1942)
20. damaged and uncertain - reference on a New Kingdom statue Cairo CG Statuen III, 162
21. damaged and uncertain - reference in a New Kingdom inscription Leiden D 83
22. in the hieratic reference compendium known in Egyptology as the Onomasticon of Amenemipet, the man to whom the composition is ascribed bears the title 'scribe of god's books in the House of Life, skilled in his office'; in the section of the compendium referring to titles, this title occurs between the king's scribe and lector-priest who acts as Horus, and the series of priestly titles; Ramesside Period or Dynasty 21
23. in a hieratic incantation for good health, the god Horus who is in Shenut is called 'lord of words, great one in the House of Life, founder in the House of Books' (Papyrus Leiden 347, column 3, line 2), Ramesside Period
24. a section in a series of hieratic incantations for good health bears the title 'first formula of all water charms, of which the supervisors said - do not reveal it to others, a true secret of the House of Life' (Papyrus Harris = British Museum ESA 10042, column 6, line 10), Ramesside Period
25. hieroglyphic inscription beside an image of the amulet of Isis in a shrine 'I am Isis the great, mother of the god, lady of the House of Life, amid the Good House (the embalming tent)', on a coffin in Brussels, no.290, Dynasty 21
26. 'contingent of the House of Life', in a hieroglyphic inscription on the gateway of king Osorkon II at Bubastis, giving scenes of the sed, the main kingship festival (Naville, Festival Hall, pl.8)
27. hieroglyphic inscription on a statue of the chief physician Peftjauawyneit (now Louver A93), recording the restoration of the Osiris temple at Abydos under king Wahibra (Apries), including the following passage: 'I renewed the House of Life after ruin, I established the sustenance of power and of things of Osiris, I put all its regulations into order'
28. demotic petition from year 9 of Darius I, on a papyrus now in Manchester (Papyrus Rylands IX), in which a man named Petiese recalled how his great-greatgrandfather in the reign of Psamtek I had imported a stone stela from Aswan to Teudjoi to be inscribed with his good deeds, for which he 'caused the granite-workers, the engravers, the scribes of the House of Life, and the draughtsmen to be fetched' (column 7, line 16)
29. in the same petition as no.28, Petiese recalls that his grandfather was persuaded by his colleagues to accompany king Psamtek II to Syria with the words 'you are a scribe of the House of Life, so there is nothing they can ask you for which there is not a suitable answer' (in other words, which you cannot answer) (column 14, line 21)
30. hieroglyphic inscription on a magnificent quartzite statue of the Late Period, now Louvre A94, identifying the man depicted Nakhthorheb as 'director of the masters of heka (words of power) in the House of Life'; his main title is 'chief lector-priest'
31. in a Late Period or Ptolemaic Period hieroglyphic rock inscription on the island of Sehel, known as the Famine Stela, the narrative relates an episode set in the court of king Djoser, in which his principal official Imhotep seeks an explanation for seven years of famine, and asks 'that I may enter the Mansion of Life, and unroll the 'Souls of Ra' (sacred books) and lead my action according to them': here in archaising style, 'House of Life' is replaced by the Old Kingdom institution 'Mansion of Life', though that seems to have been connected with food supply management, and not to be related to the House of Life - by the time of this inscription, there was no longer an administrative branch called 'Mansion of Life', and therefore a contemporary reader would have identified the institution here readily as the House of Life
32. in a Late Period or Ptolemaic Period hieroglyphic inscription on a stela, the narrative relates an episode set in the reign of king Ramesses II, concerning a foreign princess called Bentresh (so-called 'Bentresh Stela'); when princess Bentresh falls ill, and an envoy comes from her country to seek help, Ramesses summons the 'personnel of the House of Life and the officials of the Residence'
33. a hieratic papyrus from Abydos, now in the British Museum (ESA 10051+10090), records rituals, including one book to be written down on the first month of Flood, day 20, with the following instructions: 'you must not divulge it; whoever divulges it is to die of a sudden death and instant severing; you must keep far away from it; by it one lives or dies. It is to be read (only) by a scribe of the institution whose name is in the House of Life'. Column 6, line 5 to Column 7, line 7 give an elaborate description of the House of Life to be made in Abydos, illustrated by a diagram.
34. a Ptolemaic Period funerary composition known from numerous sources, and perhaps with the ancient name 'Book of Traversing Eternity', includes the passage 'your heka (words of power) are effective around the House of Books; your provisions come into existence from the House of Life'
35. a version of the passage cited in no.34 on a damaged hieroglyphic stela found at Hawara reads '.. of the chamber of books, you are transfigured from the House of Life, your name is pronounced by the personnel of the House of Life in the reading of its transfigurations' (the word sakhu 'transfigurations' refers to funerary compositions, ritual writings for immortalising a person); on the same stela, an Appeal to the Living (to recite funerary formulae for the dead person) includes the invocation to 'all [scribes?] of the House of Life'
36. a hieratic papyrus of the Late Dynastic Period to early Ptolemaic Period records the ritual for overthrowing Aapep, embodiment of evil, and includes the note 'this is a secret book in the House of Life, not to be seen by any eye, the secret book of the Overthrow of Aapep' (Papyrus Bremner Rhind column 29, line 16)
37. hieroglyphic inscription on a stela dated after year 21 of Ptolemy IV, from Mendes, recording the identification of a new sacred ram of the creator-god as worshipped at Mendes; 'His Majesty sent to the temples of Upper and Lower Egypt to fetch the [personnel] of the House of Life, being the pure-priests of the provinces and the priests of [...], and of the learned men who are in their cities; when the personnel of the House of Life saw it (= the ram), they recognised its markings according to the festival-book'
38. Ptolemaic Period bilingual decrees in Greek and Egyptian tend to open with a formulaic phrase as follows: 'on this day a decree: the temple overseers and priests, the priests who enter into the holy place to adorn the gods with their clothing, together with the scribes of god's books and the personnel of the House of Life and the other pure-priests who come from the two sacred halves of Upper and Lower Egypt'; in demotic the 'personnel of the House of Life' is rendered 'scribes of the House of Life', and in Greek the word is hierogrammateis 'sacred writing scribes'
39. on line 34 of the Decree of Canopus, a bilingual decree from the reign of Ptolemy III, orders for the dead princess Berenice the singing on specific days 'of hymns outlined by the personnel of the House of Life, given to the overseer of instruction of the singers, and a copy written on a roll (i.e. book) of the House of Life'; the Greek version does not mention the House of Life, and simply uses instead the word 'sacred'
40. on line 32 of the Decree of Canopus (see no.39), the crown placed on the statue of the dead princess Berenice comprises symbols that give a cryptographic rendering of her name 'in its forms in the writings of the House of Life'
41. on line 37 of the Decree of Canopus (see no.39), it is specified that the words of the decree are to be 'carved on a block of stone or metal in writing of the House of Life, writing of letters, writing of the Far Islands' i.e. in hieroglyphic script, in demotic script, and in the script of the Aegean - Greek; other bilingual decrees use the term 'writing of god's words' for hieroglyphs
42. a hieroglyphic inscription on a stela from Armant records that the Buchis bull, sacred bull of the local god Mont, born in year 19 of king Ptolemy VI, was installed in year 24 at Thebes in the presence of the god Amenipet and of the king himself, who had travelled for this ceremony 'with his entourage, the priests, the pure-priests, the personnel of the House of Life, and all the multitude of the entire <land>'
43. the hieroglyphic inscriptions on a Ptolemaic Period stela (Louvre C 232) record that it was dedicated by a man called Imhotep, with the titles king's scribe, priest of Mehyt-amid-Abydos, and 'priest of Thoth amid the House of Life'; the Appeal to the Living (to recite funerary formulae for the dead person) begins 'Every pure-priest who enters god's words, who is skilled in writing, and enlightened in the House of Life, who finds the [inscriptions?] of the gods, who enters the documents of the House of Books, who interprets the mysteries of the Souls of Ra (= sacred books), who is skilled in the work of the ancestors, who opens the heart to what is on the wall, who carves chapels and interprets mysteries when coming to Rosetau (= the cemetery), everyone who enters the sacred land'
44. the hieroglyphic inscriptions on a Ptolemaic Period stela (now in Vienna) record that it was dedicated by the same Imhotep, with the same title 'priest of Thoth amid the House of Life', as in no.43
45. the hieroglyphic inscriptions on a Ptolemaic Period stela from Akhmim (Cairo CG 22070) record the owner as a man named Ahmose, with the titles 'robing-priest, who is in the chamber, hesek-priest, dancer, chief lector of Min, shaven-priest, overseer of the desert(-cemetery), overseer of pure-priests of Sekhmet, priest of Thoth amid the House of Life'
46. the hieroglyphic inscriptions on a Ptolemaic Period stela from Akhmim (Cairo CG 22017) record the owner as a man named Horwennefer, with titles including 'keeper of secrets of god's words', 'learned in every chest of the House of Life which is in the Min temple', and 'overseer if teaching of the children of priests, pure-priests and those with entry', and 'scribe of god's books'
47. the hieroglyphic inscriptions on a Ptolemaic Period stela from Akhmim (Florence Archaeological Museum, Egyptian Department, no.7641) record the owner as a man named Pahat, with the titles 'robing-priest, scribe of the House of Life'
48. the hieroglyphic inscriptions on a Ptolemaic Period stela (British Museum ESA 808) record the owner as a man named Wennefer with the titles 'hesek-priest, who is in the chamber, king's scribe of the House of Life'
49. the hieroglyphic inscriptions on a Ptolemaic Period stela (formerly in Hartwell House) record the owner as a woman whose father Padiiset held titles including 'servant of the great god of the House of Life (= Thoth?)', ' overseer of pure-priests of Sekhmet', 'scribe of god's books'
50. a hieroglyphic inscription on one of the walls of the Ptolemaic temple of Horus at Edfu records that a procession 'proceeds to the hall of the House of Life', where 'every ceremony of the House of Life is performed' and 'the interpretation of the naming is made in evening time' (Chassinat, Edfou V, 135, 44-45); for another part of the festival, there is similarly a 'procession to the hall of the House of Life, and the mission is carried out by the priest'
51. the hieroglyphic inscriptions in the chamber identified as the House of Books of the Ptolemaic Period Edfu temple include one reference to Osiris as lord of Abydos and 'he who initiated the House of Life in the work of its lord'
52. in one hieroglyphic inscription in the Ptolemaic Period Edfu temple, the goddess Seshat ('Writing') is called 'lady of plans, lady of writings, foremost of the House of Life'; in the Hypostyle Hall at Karnak the same goddess is said to be 'amid the House of Life'
53. the god Khnum is said to be 'foremost of the House of Life' in hieroglyphic inscriptions in Edfu and Esna temples, Ptolemaic and Roman Periods
54. seven builder-gods are said to be 'foremost of the House of Life' in hieroglyphic inscriptions in Edfu temple, Ptolemaic Period, in one instance with the words 'we equip the House of Life with sacred [things?]'
55. a demotic literary tale, the First Tale of Setne Khamwase, records that one main character in the story had 'no pursuit on earth except walking on the cemetery hill of Memphis, reading the writings that were in the tombs of the Pharaohs and on the stelae of (= written by) the scribes of the House of Life'
56. in a later part of the Tale cited in no.55, Setne goes to the 'cemetery hill of Koptos with the priests of Isis and the high-priest of Isis; they spent three days and three nights searching in all the tombs that were on the cemetery hill of Koptos, turning over the stelae of the scribes of the House of Life, and reading the writings that were upon them'
57. in the First Tale of Setne cited in no.55, at the birth of the son of Setne it is said that ' he was listed in a document of the House of Life' (compare no.33 for name-lists in the House of Life
58. a demotic literary tale, the Second Tale of Setne Khamwase, records that 'the child Siosiri began to learn words of power (?) with the scribes of the House of Life in [the temple of Ptah?]'
59. in the Second Tale of Setne cited in no.58, 'scribes of the House of Life' are accused of sorcery
60. in the Bohairic Coptic version of the episode in the Book of Genesis, in the Bible, chapter 41, 8, 24, the title used for the men unable to interpret the dream of Pharaoh is sphransh, which Battiscombe Gunn considered an abbreviated late form of the old title sesh-per-ankh 'scribe of the House of Life'

Additional examples in Gardiner 1938: 178-9:

Hieratic papyrus Cairo CG 58027, copy of a ritual to protect Pharaoh in the night: column 3, line 14 the book 'must not be seen by any eye except that of the king himself, the chief lector, or the keeper of antyu-gum in the House of Life'; column 4, line 1 reference to 'the great and secret ointment of the House of Life'

Ptolemaic Period hieroglyphic inscription on a block from the temple of Mont at Tod, epithet of the god Khnum 'lord of the House of Life, who is amid Esna'

Dynasty 21 coffins from the second cache of burials at Deir el-Bahri, examples of Isis and Nephthys as 'mistress of the House of Life'

Ptolemaic Period hieroglyphic inscription at the temple of Horus of Edfu, attributing the decoration of the temple walls to the 'great artists of the House of Life' (Chassinat, Edfou VII, 12, 2)

Demotic ostraca in Berlin: no.12980, from Elephantine, mention of a 'scribe of the House of Life'; no.6540 reference to a House of Life

Ptolemaic Period stela in the British Museum: the title written in hieroglyphs 'protector of the place of the living Apis-bull' is rendered in demotic 'scribe of the House of Life'

Two instances of the title 'scribe of the House of Life' in Griffith, Demotic Graffiti of the Dodecaschoenus, I, 304

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