FIRE CIRCLES
A Revised Translation of the Tulli Papyrus
By R. Cedric Leonard
It was only a few years ago that, while browsing through an out-of-state library, I came across a transcription of the famous Tulli Papyrus--the Egyptian text recording an event which occurred during the reign of Thutmose III of the 18th dynasty (circa. 1480 B.C.)--which has been featured in countless TV documentaries and UFO publications. I've seen the English translation of this document numerous times, but until that day in the library, I had never seen a copy of the Egyptian text itself.
I immediately requested permission from the librarian to make a zerox copy, which was granted. My hope at the time was that I might identify the Egyptian glyphs which had been translated "Fire Circles". However, once I had the opportunity to look at the transcription thoroughly, I realized that I could easily recognize most of the Egyptian writing. So I got out my Egyptian grammar book by E. A. Wallis Budge, and sat down with to seriously translate this fragment of Egyptian writing known as the Tulli Papyrus.
A transcription is a hand-written copy of the original made by the translator from which the rough translation is to be made. Typically this is the first step taken before the labor of translation begins. Existing lacunae are duly noted, along with any other problems. Such a step saves wear and tear on the often fragile original manuscript. Pictured (right) is such a transcription.
http://www.atlantisquest.com/text.gif
Some inscriptions are on rock faces in places which would make it extremely uncomfortable to attempt a translation without this vital step. In some cases rubbings can be made, but in others transcription must be made because of the size of the original, its location, or other difficulties.
This is supposedly the origin of the transcription that I had before me. My next step was to re-copy the glyphs, spacing them to allow for the insertion of the English equivalents underneath (heiroglyphics are often "stacked," while English flows "horizontally"). My effort resulted in what might be termed an Interlinear Translation.
Displayed here is my own spaced transcription with the English equivalents below each group of glyphs. The customary numbers, inserted because of differences in word order between the two languages, will not be used here. Further below is the "smoothed out" English text which makes for a more readable version.
The glyphs translated "Circle of Fire" are aa-xet in Egyptian. I'm not doing an in-depth analysis of the Egyptian text at this point, but I think it is interesting that the glyph which has traditionally been translated "circle" is the normal glyph for "island" (Budge, 1966). In such instances a determinative for water is usually included. Two such examples can be found in Chaps. XXIV and LXXXVI of The Book of the Dead (Egyptian text; Budge, 1960).
But these particular islands are consistantly located by the text "in the sky"--which precludes any idea of these being ordinary islands! In any case, a solid disk seems to be indicated, as opposed to a mere "circle" with nothing in the center. This being the case, I believe the rendering "disk" to be the more accurate. Moreover, the Egyptian "fire" determinative is telling us that these are indeed Fiery Disks; therefore I have decided to revise my previous translation.
Although the manuscript was damaged and contained several lacunae, a certain Prince Boris de Rachewiltz managed to translate it and declared the papyrus to be "part of the Annals of Thutmose III". The following is my "free translation" of the Tulli Papyrus. It may differ slightly from Rachewiltz's translation (which can be found on the internet, as well as in numerous books).
In the year 22, of the third month of winter, sixth hour of the day [...] among the scribes of the House of Life it was found that a strange Fiery Disk was coming in the sky. It had no head. The breath of its mouth emitted a foul odor. Its body was one rod in length and one rod in width. It had no voice. It came toward His Majesty's house. Their heart became confused through it, and they fell upon their bellies. They [went] to the king, to report it. His Majesty [ordered that] the scrolls [located] in the House of Life be consulted. His Majesty meditated on all these events which were now going on.
After several days had passed, they became more numerous in the sky than ever. They shined in the sky more than the brightness of the sun, and extended to the limits of the four supports of heaven [...] Powerful was the position of the Fiery Disks.
The army of the King looked on, with His Majesty in their midst. It was after the evening meal when the Disks ascended even higher in the sky to the south. Fish and other volatiles rained down from the sky: a marvel never before known since the foundation of the country. And His Majesty caused incense to be brought to make peace on the hearth of the gods. And it was [ordered] to be [recorded for] His Majesty in the annals of the House of Life [to be remembered] for ever."
According to Samuel Rosenberg ("UFOs in History"), the Tulli Papyrus was found among the papers of the late Professor Alberto Tulli, former director of the Vatican Egyptian Museum, which involves this startling event recorded during the reign of Thutmose III, as cited by Le Poer Trench (1966.)
An inquiry was sent to Dr. Walter Ramberg, Scientific Attache at the U.S. embassy in Rome, in an attempt to verify the existence of the original manuscript. He replied:
". . . the current director of the Egyptian Section of the Vatican Museum, Dr. Nolli, said that Prof. Tulli had left all his belongings to a brother of his who was a priest in the Lateran Palace. Presumably the famous papyrus went to this priest. Unfortunately the priest died also in the meantime and his belongings were dispersed among heirs, who may have disposed of the papyrus as something of little value."
The original is therefore lost, at present. Its translator, Prince Boris de Rachewiltz, remains the only authority upon whose word alone we must trust as an accurate report of its contents. It's difficult to believe a nobleman such as Prince Rachewiltz would be partner in a hoax, especially since a handwritten hieroglyphic transcript of the original papyrus survives. (I have purposely altered the glyph for "fire circle" on line 10 to the plural "fire circles".)
In favor of its authenticity is the use of un dn, an Egyptian particle (usually left untranslated in English). Hoaxers would not be inclined to use such peculiarities when "making up" a phony text. To illustrate, certain Jewish authors of the New Testament (e.g., II Peter), not knowing Greek as their "first language," sometimes failed to include common Greek particles (in other words, they were not althogether familiar with the use of such niceties, and so did not make use of them).
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Budge, E. A. Wallace, "Book of the Dead," University Books, Inc., New York, 1960.
Budge, E. A. Wallace, "Egyptian Language," Routledge & Kegan Ltd., London, 1966.
Trench, Pierre Le Poer, "The Flying Saucer Story," Spearman, London, 1966.
SEM FÉ, SOU LIVRE.