Creighton, amusingly, repeats the late Mr Alford’s idea in pedantic detail, right down to the sillier assumptions built into it.

Does it really need pointing out that the Horus name appears in separate inscriptions, in a different scribal hand, nowhere near the cartouche of Khufu?

What am I saying? For Creighton, of course it does.

It has apparently escaped his attention that royal names appeared in all kinds of contexts. A copyist acting as Creighton imagines — merely copying a few of the hieroglyphs following a recognised name — would need to be preternaturally lucky not to copy mere gibberish or phrases obviously inappropriate.

Royal names appear in titles and royal names appear as parts of other names. In funereal contexts, we may find them as components of titles, personal names, estate names, names of pyramids and yes, names of work crews. Names of work crews are what is needed, as the inscriptions in the pyramid end with the character (acting as determinative) which tells us that they are exactly that.

We may note also that the name xwfw appears in the context of the crew name xwfw smrw. Crew names of this form are known for Menkaure, Neuserre and another pharaoh whose name is of uncertain reading. In short, the Khufu example fits in perfectly with later discoveries, the opposite of what we’d expect, if it were a forgery.

We may note in passing the sheer silliness of imagining that Vyse and crew knew enough to produce impeccable 4th-dynasty hieratic, in more than one scribal hand, at at time when leading scholars in the field could not have done so.

So, “Lucky” Howard Vyse, casting about at random, hits upon three royal names, only two of which he’d recognise as royal names and only one of which had been assigned by cutting-edge opinion to the Cheops of Herodotus. Not only that, but finds them in the context of crew names, in 4th-dynasty hieratic: just the right thing to copy into the pyramid! And as a pure guess, he copies and uses the unknown names, which turn out after all to belong to Khufu!

What are the chances?

M.