The Nile Pharaoh

2009-08-01T10:16:00.015+03:00

Color in Egyptian

Art and Jewelry

The Egyptians considered the color of an object to be an integral part of its nature or being. The word iwen was used to signify the concept of color, and could also mean external appearance, nature, being, character, or even disposition.

Not every color and variation has symbolic significance of course. When groups of objects were being depicted, colors were varied to distinguish one object from another. So rows of people or chariot horses may be alternated as light and dark. And color was often enjoyed for its own sake.

Names and uses of colors:

Old Egyptian had four basic color terms:

km,,, or black, hence, Kmt, or "Black Land". The color black carried connotations of fertility and regeneration, and was also the color of the underworld, where the sun regenerated every night. The god Osiris, king of the Underworld, was sometimes referred to as kmj, "the black one." Black stones were used in statuary, and black backgrounds used in some coffins, to evoke those regenerative qualities of Osiris and the Underworld.

khdj,,, or white, was also used from prehistoric times. Chalk and gypsum provided the white pigment used.

White was associated with cleanliness, ritual purity and sacredness and so, was the color of the clothes worn by ritual priests. The Instructions of Merikare speaks of service as a priest in terms of the wearing of white sandals. The floors of temples were made of white calcite. White alabaster was used to make ritual objects such as small bowls to the massive embalming table of the Apis bulls mummification. Many sacred animals such as the Great White baboon were also of that color.

Khdj,,, also meant the metal "silver" and could incorporate the notion of "light": for example, in some texts, the sun was said to "whiten" the land at dawn. White was also used to denote the metal silver, and with gold, then symbolized the moon and sun.

W3d,,, where the "3" actually stands for the "a" that is not our letter A, had its focus in "green", as the term for the mineral malachite. The color green was symbolic of growing things and of life itself. To do "green things" was a euphemism for positive life-producing behavior in contrast to doing "red things."

The hieroglyph that represented w3d was a green papyrus stem and frond, carrying connotations of fresh vegetation and vigor and regeneration. Osiris was often shown with green skin to signify his resurrection, and in the 26th dynasty, coffin faces were often painted green to identify the deceased with Osiris and to guarantee rebirth.

Chapters 159 and 160 of the Book of the Dead give instructions for making an amulet of green feldspar, (though a variety of materials, ranging in color from green to blue, were used) The common amulet of the "Eye of Horus" or the Wedjat is usually green because of the connotations as an expression of the aspects of healing and well-being. Wadjet was the green one, the protective serpent goddess of Lower Egypt (though the color of that royal crown was red.)

Turquoise, or mfk3t, was the most valued of the green stones. Mined in Sinai, it was connected to the deity Hathor, who was called Lady of Turquoise, and as well as to the sun at dawn, whose rays and disk were described as turquoise, and whose rising was said to flood the land with turquoise. Thus, turquoise was also associated with rebirth, and faience figurines in this color were often used in funerary equipment.

Although blue pigment appears on paintings, the Egyptian language had no basic color term in Old Egyptian for "blue." Blue, or irtiu and khshdj, could represent the heavens as well as the primeval flood, and in both it functioned as a symbol of life and rebirth. Blue could also represent the Nile and its offerings, crops and fertility. The phoenix, or benu-heron, an ancient symbol of the inundation, was often painted in bright blue (the actual bird had light gray-blue plumage.) The sacred baboon was also depicted as being blue.

Blue pigment was introduced at about 2550 BCE, based on grinding lapis lazuli, a deep blue stone flecked with golden impurities. Lapis lazuli was the blue stone that figures prominently in much jewelry, but could only be acquired by import. It was called khshdj, and the term was extended to also mean blue. The stone and the color were associated with the night sky and the primordial waters. The rising sun was sometimes called the "child of lapis lazuli."

Blue pigment could also was manufactured by combining oxides of copper and iron with silica and calcium.

dshr,,, meant "red", hence, "Deshret", the "Red Land", the name given to the desert areas on each side of the fertile Nile Valley. Red pigments were derived from naturally occurring oxidized iron and red ocher.

Red was considered a very potent color, hot and dangerous, but also life-giving and protective. It is both the color of blood, relating to life ad death, and of fire, which could be beneficial or destructive. Expressions such as dshr ib, "red of heart" or "furious" are formed from this basic word.

Red is also a color given to the sun, red at its rising and its setting. In papyrus texts, red pigments or "rubrics" were often used to emphasize headings, but also used to write the names of dangerous entities and unlucky days.

Royal statuary was often made of rose or golden quartzite and red granite, which were used to invoke the regenerative properties of the solar cycle and the connection between the kingship and the sun. The obelisk of Senussret at Heliopolis was made of red granite.

khenet,,, or yellow, was symbolic of all that is eternal and imperishable. Anubis, often shown with black skin as a jackal, when depicted as a jackal-headed human male, had a black head with gold limbs and torso.

The color yellow was often associated with the sun disk and with gold, or nbw. Gold was not only associated with the sun, it was also the flesh of the gods, and the divine snake in the Story of the Shipwrecked Sailor was also gold.

Color in Art :

In paintings deities were not often colored to indicate gold flesh. Most male deities were represented with reddish-brown skin, and female with yellow skin. But other colors, as green and blue were indicated above for Osiris, were used.

The fertility deities Min and Amun-Re-Kamutef were shown with black skin. Amun-Re was depicted as blue-skinned from the 18th Dynasty onward, emphasizing his status at that time as king of the gods. The jackal that represented Anubis and Wepwawet was colored black, although most jackals were actually sandy-colored, to signify their funerary role and connection with the underworld.

Kings were often shown painted in different contexts with different colored skin. For example, the eleventh dynasty king Nebhepetre Montuhotep I was shown regularly with reddish-brown skin at his mortuary temple at Deir el-Bahri. But one statue found ritually buried shows him with black skin to symbolize his renewal in the afterlife. In addition, some faces on nonroyal coffins during some periods were also painted black for the same reason. But the most common color for coffin faces, apart from natural red for males and yellow for females, was gold, linking the deceased with the sun god and showing the deceased successfully transformed into a divine being.

Certain colors were often set side by side as well, to signify completeness. For example, red and white, or its alternate hue yellow, find completion together in the colors of man and woman, and the red and white crowns. Green and black are also often used in the same way as the symbolic opposites of life and death.

Some colors were interchangeable. While hair was often shown as black, it was sometimes depicted as blue for the gods. However, they too could also be shown with black hair. The converse could also be true, as illustrated in the example where the god Anubis is shown as blue, as is the mummy. In the pectoral of Tut, Ptah is shown with black hair, the Blue Crown is colored black. In the same way, light blue and green could be interchanged. In that Tut pectoral, the god Ptah, often shown with green skin, is shown here as light-blue skinned.

The heavens may be colored black, though blue is more commonly used. Yellow gold, the color of sun and stars, could also represent the heavens, though its use for such is relatively rare. Black also represented Egypt itself, the fertile Nile soil, but the color green also signified earth as opposed to heaven or the sea.

Horemheb and Ramesses I both used a blue-gray background on the walls of their tombs, perhaps to represent the entrance of the deceased King into the underworld or the heavens. Since the underworld was described in some texts as the field of malachite (a green stone) green could also represent the underworld as well.

Earlier it was stated that male figures, whether divine or human, were given reddish-brown skin tones. Women were given yellow-gold skin tones. A poem from the Papyrus Chester Beatty I describes a female object of affection with "bright skin," arms more "brilliant than gold," and "white-breasted."

Since Egypt included people close to the Mediterranean as well as to sub-Sahara, its people showed many skin tones. But the men of Egypt had to be distinguished from non-Egyptians, from foreigners. Foreign peoples of different races were given appropriate skin colors by stylized characterizations. While Nubians and Kushite kings living to the south of Egypt were depicted as black in contrast to the red-brown skin hues of the Egyptian male, Libyans, Bedouin, Syrians and Hittites, living to the north, west, and closer to the Mediterranean were all shown with light yellow skin, as well as distinctive clothing and hair-styles.

Color in Hieroglyphics:

Hieroglyphics illustrate the dual use of color, one, where objects are given the same hue they have in nature, and two, where objects are assigned colors to which they are symbolically linked. Each glyph had its own color or combination, which was faithfully kept whenever multiple colors were used. Sometimes difference in color was used to distinguish between two otherwise identical signs. Color was omitted in everyday writing, in order to save time or expense, but it was nevertheless viewed as a very real part of a complete sign.

Where the signs were not painted black or red, each sign received its own basic color or combination of colors. The colors assigned to the various signs are in most cases simply the colors of the objects themselves. So signs for leg, arm, hand, mouth, or other body parts, were usually in red, whereas reeds and other plants were green, water was blue, etc. Other objects had more symbolic coloration, for example, metal butcher knife was red, the sickle was green, and the bread loaf was blue.

The Painter’s Work:

The paintings extant in the beautiful tomb of Nefertari are excellent examples of the symbolic and practical uses of color. After the outlines of the scenes were completed, color was applied with coarse brushes made from bundles of palm fibers, or pieces of fibrous wood chewed or beaten at one end.

Dry pigments were prepared by crushing various substances in a mortar or on a grinding palette with a stone pestle. These were then mixed with a water-soluble gum or egg white to bind them. Intermediate shades were derived by laying one pigment over another.

Many of the reliefs seen today in museums and even on the temple and tomb walls in Egypt itself have little of the tints originally placed upon them. But conservation is underway, and hopefully, as with Nefertari’s tomb, the vibrancy of the Artist’s craft, part of the soul of ancient Egypt, will return.

The mediums with which Egyptian artists worked were varied. One of the most easily obtained was limestone, which composed the cliffs to either side of much of the Nile Valley. Other common soft stone materials included calcite (Egyptian Alabaster), a crystalline form of calcium carbonate, sandstone, schist and greywacke. Harder stones included quartzite (a crystalline form of sandstone), diorite, granodiorite, granite and basalt. Stone was almost always used in royal free standing and rock cut temples and tombs after the earliest periods. It was also used to make statues, stelae, offering tables, libation bowls, vessels and other ritual equipment.

Soft stone, whether cut in place such as a rock cut tomb, or carved into blocks as in free standing temples, was usually covered by plaster prior to being decorated. Paint was sometimes also applied to hard stone, but often it was left visible for its symbolism. Hence, black stone such as granodiorite was representative of the life giving black silt left by the Nile inundation, thus symbolizing new life, resurrection and the resurrected god of he dead, Osiris. Red, brown, yellow and gold were associated with the sun, and so stones of those colors, such as red and brown quartzite and red granite, symbolized the sun. Green stone referred to fresh, growing vegetation, new life, resurrection and Osiris as well, who sometimes appears with black skin and sometimes green.

Limestone and other soft stones were carved with copper chisels and stone tools. Hard stones were worked by hammering and grinding them with tools made of even harder stone together with sand, which is basically quartz, acting as an abrasive. Stone vessels were hollowed out using drills with copper bits, together with an abrasive. These tools were also used to apply details and inscriptions to hard stone monuments. Afterwards, the finished object was polished with a smooth rubbing stone.

If the stone was to be painted, the surface had to be smoothed and any holes in the stone or joints between blocks filled in with plaster.

Scenes on stone surfaces were often cut into relief before painting (or when not painted at all). There were two main types of reliefs, consisting of raised and sunk relief. In both, chisels were used to cut around the outlines of figures. Then, in raised relief, the stone of the background was cut away, so that the figures were left standing out from the surface. In sunk relief, it was the figures that were cut back within their outlines, leaving the surface of the background at a higher level. In both methods, the figures were modeled to a greater or lesser extent within their outlines. Traditionally, sunk relief was used on outside walls and raised relief on interior walls, because bright sunlight has the effect of flattening raised relief and enhancing sunk relief. It should be noted that such work could also be applied to plastered surfaces on soft stone.

In Theban tombs which were often simply painted, as opposed to relief-cut, rock cut walls, the walls were first covered with mud that was then plastered before painting. Treated similarly to soft stone, mudbrick was used in houses, palaces and other public buildings. And like the walls in Theban tombs, the mud was prepared for decoration with a layer of plaster.

Prior to actually painting the prepared surfaces of stone or plaster over stone or mudbrick, scenes were laid out by first marking off the area to be decorated and then drawing in the initial sketches in red, to which corrections were often made in black, probably by the master draughtsman in charge of the project.

Squared grids were introduced at the beginning of the Middle Kingdom. Used to assist the artist in obtaining the proper proportions of their figures and often also to lay out the composition as a whole, the grids were drawn out on the surface before the scene was sketched in.

The lines of the grid were either drawn against a straight edge, or more commonly made with a string that was dipped in red paint and stretched taut across the surface before being snapped against it like a modern chalk line.

http://www.touregypt.net/

http://www.britannica.com/

http://www.all-about-egypt.com/

T.N.P

2009-05-15T09:00:00.008+03:00

The Red Chapel of

Hatshepsut and Tuthmosis III

When archaeologists rebuilt the White Chapel of Senusret I in the Open Air Museum at Karnak on the East Bank of Luxor (ancient Thebes), it took many years to carefully arrange the layout of the structure like a big jigsaw puzzle on paper. In 2001, when the Supreme Council of Antiquities decided to rebuild the Red Chapel of Hatshepsut (18th Dynasty) in the Open Air Museum, the process, like all of our modern lives, happened much quicker (though still a number of years), as they fed the architectural elements of the building into a computer. The results are splendid.

What really sets the small monuments, such as the White and Red Chapels, in the Open Air Museum apart is their very well preserved state. When the Pharaoh, Amenhotep III decided to enlarge the temple at Karnak by adding a new facade in the form of two entrance pylons, he pulled down many monuments which he no longer thought relevant, putting their stone sections in the core of the structure. This was the Third Pylon at Karnak.

At the end of the 19th century, a large part of the massive Third Pylon of Amenhotep III at Karnak toppled over during an earthquake. Then, in 1924, the director general of the Egyptian Antiquities Service, Pierre Lacau, ordered his director of works at Karnak, Henri Chevrier, to repair the structure. He had to completely dismantle it in order to do so, and in the process, he discovered some 951 blocks that belonged to a total of eleven different structures used as fill within the pylon. Though many of these blocks were damaged, their encasement in mortar in the pylon preserved their inscriptions and decorations. Chevrier was responsible for reconstructing the White Chapel of Senusret I many years ago, but the blocks from the Red Chapel of Hatshepsut remained dismantled until the 21st century.

The Red Chapel of Hatshepsut was a barque shrine, as we believe was the White Chapel of Senusret I, built with a base and doorways of black granite (or more properly, gray diorite) with walls of red quartzite, from the quarry known as Djebel Akhmar, or "red mountain". Of course, the latter stone explains why the shrine is known as the Red Chapel. Actually, the natural color of the red quartzite varies, so the ancient craftsman painted all the block a uniform red color. It was probably begun about four years before Hatshepsut's death in about 1483 BC, and her nephew and successor (as well as defacer), Tuthmosis III may have continued work on the chapel, but never finished it.

The chapel, which set at the heart of the Karnak complex originally, was probably built to replace the earlier alabaster structure of Amenhotep I. It may have originally rested between her two obelisks in the temple, though this is by no means certain.

For many years the blocks from Hatshepsut's chapel were displayed on low stone bases where visitors could wonder along the blocks and see the exquisite reliefs, carved on both sides, at close quarters. However, in 1997 a decision was made to reconstruct the shrine. This work, actually begun in March, 2000, is now complete (early in 2002). It was undertaken by the Franco Egyptian Center, directed by Francois Larche, with the support of the Supreme Council of Antiquities (SCA). The project was funded by the Accor Company, a consortium that holds about 30 percent of the hotel capacity in Luxor (as of 2002).

The blocks, numbering about 315, were studied to work out their original order. This was not an easy process. Unusually, most of the blocks contained a complete scene, and therefore do not overlap on to adjacent blocks. In fact, they never overlap on the horizontal joints. Some researchers believe that, due to the way in which these decorations occur, that this was indeed the first "prefabricated" building in history, with its decorations complete (though possibly not painted) prior to the building's erection. This of course made it extremely difficult to identify the sequence of blocks within the structure. Also, about half the blocks were missing (some 40 to 45 percent), so modern blocks of stone cut from the same material as the original were required. In some instances, modern brick was also incorporated, which was then plastered over and carefully painted to match the original colors. In order to assemble the building, apparently a study of the notches and dovetails in the blocks was studied

This work resulted in a surprisingly large structure (over seventeen meters in length and over six meters wide) which now dominates the Open Air Museum. It is a striking building with its black granite and red stone walls. It has three doors at the same level and of the same dimensions. The structure is divided into two chambers, with a low plinth in the larger of the two rooms that was used as a base for the barque of the God Amun, who's image was carried in procession between the temples of Karnak and Luxor during the annual celebration that took place at the height of the Nile Flood. In the center of the chapel was apparently located a drain for the waters used in absolution during the celebration.

The decorations of the chapel are particularly rich, with gold paint filling the hollows of the engraving. However, the only unfortunate aspect of this construction is that now many of the inscribed blocks, with their major motif being Hatshepsut and Tuthmosis III interacting with Amun-Min and various other gods, as well as scenes from the Opet festival, the dedication of the chapel, the establishment of the queen as ruler of Egypt and the recording of nome divisions, are more difficult for visitors to actually see since many of the carved scenes are high up in the walls and not always oriented for viewing. It has been suggested that a good pair of binoculars be taken along for a visit if any serious study is intended.

Bottom frieze inside: djedpillars, was-sceptres and ankhs.The frieze of leafs below them is probably lettuce leafs - sacred to Amun-Min.

The barkshrine is dedicated to Amun and his fertility aspect Amun-Min. Both Hatshepsut and Thutmose III are depicted making offerings and performing rituals to Amun. We see the King running in the Heb Sed, there are processions for the Opet with the Bark of Amun carried on the backs of priest, and we see Djehuty pouring purfying water over the King. Seshat records the events and assists Pharaoh in the rituals. A frieze of Sepat deities carry forward offerings around the outer base of the shrine. On the northern side, dancers and acrobats are performing, harpists are playing, sistra are rattled and food is carried forward.

Left: Hatshepsut depicted as man, making the Heb Sed run before Amun-Min.Right: The Bark of Amun on its stand, surrounded by offerings..

Hatshepsut conducts the Bark of Amun across the river to attend rituals on the West Bank.

Seshat, patron deity of records, assists Pharaoh Hatshepsut as she lays down the foundations to a new temple.

Upper register: Female acrobats perform and harpists play for Maat-Ka-Re.Lower register: Male dancers(?) pay homage and women play sistra for Maat-Ka-Re.

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T.N.P

2009-04-29T22:19:00.012+03:00

The White Chapel of

Senusret I

Senusret I was the second king of Egypt's 12th Dynasty, and was the first monarch of the Middle Kingdom to invest in an extensive building program. He constructed a number of temples from the Delta to as far south as Elephantine at modern Aswan, included structures at Thebes . We have evidence of at least 35 sites where he built, yet most of this work is lost to us. This is regrettable, because the art of this period is superb.

One building project that was lost to us, but now is found is the little pavilion built for Senusret I's first jubilee (Sed) festival, which according to custom, occurred during the king's 30th year as ruler (though it is probable that Senusret's festival was held in his 31st year of rule). It was probably built to house the royal barque and is sometimes referred to as a "barque shrine". Popularly known as the White Chapel, it had been disassembled and used as fill in Amenhotep III's Third Pylon at Karnak during the 18th Dynasty. In 1924, the director general of the Egyptian Antiquities Service, Pierre Lacau, ordered his director of works at Karnak, Henri Chevrier, to repair this Pylon, but in order to do so, the pylon had to be dismantled.

It took years to do so, because it could only be done when the Nile was in a low phase, due to ground water. During this work, Chevrier discovered some 951 blocks that belonged to a total of eleven different structures that had been used as fill within the pylon. While many of the blocks were damaged, their reliefs were often in outstanding condition, due to the layers of mortar which had both bound them together and protected the blocks.

This work progressed slowly, but methodically, and after determining the proper block orientation and placement, Chevrier was able to reconstruct almost completely the so called "White Chapel" of Senusret I and the barque shrine of Amenhotep I. Both buildings are now located in the Open Air Museum at Karnak, along with the Red Chapel of Hatshepsut. The White Chapel as a structure is considered by many to be the most elegant, as well as the oldest structure in Karnak today, and Chevier thought that the structure may have once been covered in gold foil, so it could have been all the more glorious.

The White Chapel is a small, simple, but eloquent structure, built of Egyptian alabaster (calcite), most notable for its many inscriptions. It was probably built during the remarkable purity of form in this structure is echoed in the austerity of the temple at Qasr el-Sagha. Ramps led up on either side to the small rectangular building, situated on a platform, in which Senusret I himself possibly sat enthroned during part of his Sed festival. There are twelve pillars around the outside of the kiosk, with another four in the interior that support a complete roof. These pillars are decorated with raised reliefs on all four sides. Between the outside pillars is a low, rounded balaustrade. The different nomes of Egypt (the administrative centers) are recorded in columns on the parapet (base). Within the chapel, the god depicted with Senusret I is usually Amun-Re in his guise of the god of procreation and fertility, Min.

In many of these depictions, the god stands, ithyphallic, on a rectangular pedestal and is swathed as though a mummy, with linen bands crossed over his chest and with two tall feathers attached to the fillet around his head. Longstreamers from the head band hang down his back almost to the ground. His right arm is raised behind him holding a flail, the symbol of kingship. In these scenes, we find tall plants behind Amun-Min that depict cos lettuce which, even today as in antiquity, is regarded as a potent aphrodisiac. The plant was associated with Amun-Min. In other scenes, Amun is depicted in similar dress as the king, again with the tall feathers, usually offering the sign of life to the king. Alas, we find the king being led before Amun by Re-Horakhty, who instead offers the king the sign of life.

In various scenes, the king is shown either wearing the Red Crown of lower Egypt, which interestingly, appears to made of basketry, or the Double Crown of Upper and Lower Egypt.

As an example of the scenes found within this chapel, from a viewpoint inside we see on one of the left central pillars Senusret I, who is offering a ritual conical loaf (shewbread?) to the god, Amun-Min. On the right, the north pillar of the eastern doorway is shown Atum, the Lord of Heliopolis, conducting the king towards Amun-Min, saying to him, "Come in peace, O Senusret, that thou mayest see thy father, Amun Re, who loves thee, that he may give thee the kingship of the Two Lands". Barely discernible on the shaded face of the pillar, the king is followed by his ka and embraces Amun-Min.

In the center of the scene on the pillar which stands at the north east corner of the building, Senusret I is consecrating to the god the sacred mast which he has erected for him and in return Amun-Min says to him, "I who am thy father, O Senusret...I establish thy crown as King of Upper and Lower Egypt on the throne of Horus, living for ever."

As an interesting side note, the White Chapel provides one of the earliest records of a "river-unit". This is a measurement that appears to correspond to 20,000 cubits in length, or about 10.5 kilometers.

Detail of the Finely Carved Raised Reliefs

However, it is not the content of the inscriptions that set this monument apart from almost all others in Egypt, but it is the minute, carved details of the costumes and glyphs, which were usually not engraved but added in paint. The reliefs and hieroglyphic inscriptions are integrally related to the architectural design and are not only some of the best work known from the Middle Kingdom, but of all the monuments in Egypt. Their caring and spacing was never really surpassed.

http://www.touregypt.net/

http://dlib.etc.ucla.edu/projects/Karnak/feature/WhiteChapel

T.N.P

2009-02-10T20:50:00.018+02:00

The Temple of Philae in Egypt

Part II

The Approach to the Temple of Isis

Though the monuments of Philae Island are now located on the nearby reworked Island of Agilika, and Philae is now buried beneath the waters of the lake formed between the Old Aswan Dam and the High Dam, Philae and the neighboring island of Biggeh to the west, in ancient times, formed an integrated religious complex devoted to the cult of Osiris. The ritual focus was Biggeh, the site of the abaton, one of the alleged tombs of Osiris. At Philae, regular visits were paid every tenth day by Isis to the island of Bigeh and the tomb of Osiris.

There are many legends connected to Philae, but the most well known one tells the story of how Isis found the heart of Osiris here after his murder by his brother Seth. Each evening there is a Sound and Light Show which recounts the legends against the magnificent backdrop of the floodlit monuments - a truly magical experience.

Tourist boats on their way to visit the Temples of Philae in Egypt

Philae was dedicated preeminently to Isis, sister-wife to Osiris, and patroness of the Ptolemaic rule. Although Isis was the major deity honored therein, the location of the island on the frontier between Egypt and Nubia meant that cults of Nubia were also featured on theisland,represented by significant cult buildings.

There was some evidence at the actual island of Philae of cult activity in honor of Amun, in the time of King Taharqa, who ruled Egypt between 689 and 664 BC in the 25th dynasty, and who probably built an altar of granite to Amun. Perhaps the Kushites, when invading Egypt, established a stronghold on Philae. Traces of mudbrick houses in trenches between the stone foundations of the later temples and the early nilometer west of the mammisi may date to this period.

The monuments on the island are dominated by the great temple of Isis and its associated structures, which are concentrated in the west and center of the island, on, or adjacent to, a granite outcrop which must have been originally chosen as an embodiment of the primeval hill on which the first temple was said to have rested. This hill was reproduced on the new location of the monuments at Agilika.

The Taharqa altar to Amun is the earliest evidence of structures on the island. The known history of Philae does not go back farther than that, and it was not until the Ptolemaic and Roman Periods that Philae rose to importance. The priests believed their island had a far longer history, and as stated above, an inscription at the frontier on the island of Sehel states that as early as the 3rd Dynasty, Djoser gave them the country from the First Cataract to the island of Derar. (Dodekaschoinoi) During Ptolemaic times they held the gold mines of Wadi Alaki within their administrative sphere.

But the earliest known cult building in honor of Isis, known to the Egyptians as Aset, was a small shrine erected in the Saite period by Psamtik II. This was followed by a further small temple on the granite outcrop, erected by Amasis. So it now seems that the Saite kings introduced the cult of Isis into this area and laid the foundations for her subsequent glorification on the island.

The next evidence of building, and the earliest surviving monument of Philae, dates to the 30th Dynasty. Beginning at the ancient quay where boats now land at the southwestern corner of the great temple, the first structure is the kiosk of Nectanebo I, though one may first notice the obvious seating for the sound and light show. The kiosk or vestibule of Nectanebo is a hall with screen walls linked by graceful columns. Of its original fourteen Hathor pillars, only six remain. The screens between the columns are some six feet high, crowned with concave cornices and rows of uraeus-serpents. The screens are carved with reliefs showing Nectanebo sacrificing to the gods.

From Nectanebo's monument north, there are two colonnades, one on the east side and another on the west of an outer courtyard that leads to the first temple pylon. The western half of the colonnade is the more complete, and is pierced with windows originally looking toward the island of Biggeh. A nilometer descends the cliff from here. The colonnade is about one hundred yards long and contains thirty-one of the original thirty-two columns. The column capitals tops are floral, and remarkable in their variety with no two being alike. Most of the columns show carvings of Tiberius offering gifts to the gods. The ceiling, which is mostly destroyed, is decorated with stars and and flying vultures, while the rear wall has two rows of bas-reliefs of Tiberius and Agustus offering to the gods.

The eastern colonnade was never completed. On the south it abuts the temple of Arsenuphis, or Iry-hemes-nufer just to the north of the vestibule of Nectanebo. Arensnuphis was an obscure Nubian lion-god venerated as the companion of Isis. The temple was built by Ptolemy IV Philopator and extended by Ptolemy V Epiphanes. Here, the reliefs depict Ptolemy V before Isis and other gods, and also Ptolemy IV before Isis, Horus and Unnefer. The shrine was enclosed by walls that are ruined in some places but which have representations of Tiberius worshipping Osiris, Isis, Harsieses (Horus the Elder), Nephthys, Khnum, Satis, Anukis, Arsenuphis and Tefnut.

The eastern colonnade is partly roofed and has seventeen columns, only six of which have their capitals completed. Behind (to the north) of the Temple of Arsenuphis and to the east of the eastern colonnade is the ruined chapel of Mandulis, another Nubian deity. At the northern end of the colonnade is the Temple of Imhotep. In it, Ptolemy V Epiphanes is shown before the deified Imhotep.

Just beyond the temple of Imhotep and the first Great Pylon of the Temple of Isis is the Gate of Ptolemy II Philadelphus, with depictions of the Ptolemaic Pharaoh being led forward by Isis.

Just before the main gateway to the first pylon are two Roman style lions carved from pink granite that have been re-erected on this island from their fallen position on the old Island of Philae. Two obelisks once also stood here, erected by Ptolemy VIII Euergetes II and his second wife, Cleopatra III (who by the way is not the more famous Cleopatra VII). On the base of the eastern obelisk was the inscription complaining to the royal that the priests of Isis at Philae were being forced to refund the expenses of civil and military authorities incurred during their stay on the island.

These obelisks made of pink granite are not lost to us, but may now be found at Kingston Lacy in Dorset in the UK. The eastern obelisk, which measures 6.7 meters tall and weighs six tons, was found on its side half-buried and its western counterpart was badly damaged and only about a third of it remained. They were taken by Mr. Ralph Bankes for his garden. Interestingly, they were partly instrumental in the decipherment of hieroglyphics. The Rosetta Stone bears many inscription of Ptolemy in hieroglyphics, demotic script and Greek. From these inscriptions, it was possible for the French Egyptologist Jean-Francois Champollion to identify the hieroglyphic form of the name, by using the same method, Bankes pointed out the hieroglyphic form of the name, Cleopatra, which was unknown before. But these obelisks, or at least the eastern one, has a more interesting history than this.

Two of the most avid collectors of antiquities in Egypt around this time (1819) were the British Consul, Henry Salt, and the Consul-General of France, Bernardino Drovetti. They both gave money to local chiefs throughout Egypt who then saw to it that other collectors were either warned off or not supplied with labor. It was Salt, of course, who actually obtained the obelisks for Ralph Bankes, and Salt was lucky enough to have as his agent the giant Italian adventurer, Giovanni Belzoni, nicknamed the strongman of Egyptology.

On hearing of this matter concerning the obelisks at Philae, Drovetti claimed that they belonged to him, but grandly ceded the ownership to Bankes. Belzoni, who Salt tasked with their transport, thought that Drovetti had found it impossible to find ways of transporting the first obelisk (the complete, eastern one) through the cataract and had relinquished his claim for this reason. Given the size of the obelisk, he may have been right.

The obelisk was levered and pushed on rollers to a stout wooden pier for shipment, "But, alas," writes Bezoni, "when the obelisk came gradually from the sloping bank and all its weight rested on it, the pier, with the obelisk and some of the men, took a slow movement, and majestically descended into the river."

Nevertheless, Belzoni and his men hauled it out of the mud and got it loaded onto a boat for its journey to Cairo. Yet the story does not end there, for Drovetti had, it seems, not given up. Drovetti's men intercepted Belzoni on his way to Aswan and it was only after a long altercation which ended in gun-fire and the arrival of Drovetti himself that the monument was allowed to proceed on its way. It was shipped to England on the Despatch in May, 1821 and not erected in Bankes garden until 1827. In the interval, Bankes returned to Egypt in 1822 to collect the broken western obelisk.

This leads us up to the first pylon, beyond which is the temple of Isis proper.

http://www.philae.nu/

http://www.bluffton.edu/

http://www.touregypt.net/

http://www.safariegypt.com/

http://www.ancientegypt.co.uk/

T.N.P

2008-11-19T05:00:00.000+02:00

The Temples of Philae on

Agilika Island

Part I

" Before the High Dam "

One of the main sites visited by almost every tour to Egypt is what is billed as Philae, but Philae is actually a nonexistent island now buried beneath Lake Nasser. The island was sometimes visible and sometimes not after the Old Aswan Dam was built, but was permanently submerged by the High Dam.

Philae is an approximate Greek rendering of the local name "Pilak" known from hieroglyphic texts and which may be Nubian in origin. The ancient Egyptians saw in their name for Philae an etymology with the meaning "island of the time [of Ra]", but the island’s history is later than that.

What we refer to today as Philae is the main temple complex relocated from that island, after the High Dam was built, to the island of Agilika. It was the center of the cult of the goddess Isis and her connection with Osiris, Horus, and the Kingship, during the Ptolemaic period of Egyptian History.

Today, there are two dams at Aswan but of course, in ancient times, there were none. Prior to the dams, Philae Island occupied a position at the beginning or southern end of the First Nile Cataract, where the river gathered speed, dropping sixteen feet in swirling eddies and turbulent falls of white water for a distance of three miles. Various pharaohs attempted to calm or at least provide better passage around these rapids. Pepi I built at least one canal, as did Merenre, as early as the Old Kingdom, but later kings would also, such as Senusret III.

During early times, the priests of Philae claimed that the source of the Nile was bottomless and lay beneath the rocks of Biggeh, where half the river rose to flow north and half to flow south. Their rivals were the priests of Elephantine, who made the same claim. Indeed, the river around these islands was even then over one hundred feet deep in places, with confusing waters that could twist and turn in all directions.

This trek of water was hazardous in ancient times, a fact that escapes the modern visitor to Agilika Island. Amelia Edwards, the fearless Victorian Egyptologist saw it differently than we do today. She recounts:

"At Assuan, one bids good-bye to Egypt and enters Nubia through the gates of the Cataract - which is, in truth, no cataract, but a succession of rapids extending over two thirds of the distance between Elephantine and Philae. The Nile - diverted from its original course by some unrecorded catastrophe, the nature of which has given rise to much scientific conjecture - here spreads itself over a rocky basin bounded by sand-slopes on the one side, and by granite cliffs on the other. Studded with numberless islets, divided into numberless channels, foaming over sunken rocks, eddying among water-worn boulders, now shallow, now deep, now loitering, now hurrying, here sleeping in the ribbed hollow of a tiny sand-drift, there circling above the vortex of a hidden whirlpool, the river, whether looked upon from the deck of a dahabeeyah or the heights along the shore, is seen everywhere to be fighting its way through a labyrinth, the paths of which have never yet been mapped or sounded."

Of course, one can still get a glimpse of these cataracts north of the Old Aswan Dam. In ancient times, travelers made their devotions at Philae before continuing through the dangerous territory of the south to the "Land of Ghosts".

On the island of Sehel are more than 250 inscriptions from pilgrims and travelers coming to and going through the area, dating from the fourth dynasty down to the Ptolemaic period. Pepi I cut canals through the cataract to assist boat crews on their way to the calm water above Philae. Harkhuf passed through here on his way to Nubia during the reign of Pepi II. Also here on Sehel is the so-called Famine Stela, inscribed during Ptolemaic times but related to the reign of King Djoser in the 3rd Dynasty. It states that the king decreed that large tracts of land on both sides of the river stretching from Elephantine south should be given to Khnum’s temple, along with one-tenth of all produce and livestock raised as well as taxes on caravans and gold mining. There is an identical decree in the temple of Philae, carved at the base of the eastern tower of the second Great Pylon.

Such was the power of the gods, or at least the belief therein, that according to an inscription on the base of the eastern obelisk standing in front of the Great Pylon, during the reign of Ptolemy VIII, Euergetes II, and Cleopatra III his second wife, the priests complained that they were being forced to refund the expenses of civil and military authorities incurred during their stay at Philae. The priests were not being left enough resources with which to continue sacrifices and libations for the welfare of the royal family. Euergetes II released the priests from further payments.

The Island of Philae lied about four miles south of modern Elephantine, just to the other side of the Old Aswan Dam. It only measured about 500 yards from north to south and 160 yards from east to west, which meant that it was almost entirely covered with temples and other monuments. These were protected from the Nile Flood during ancient times by high walls, quays and terraces. In fact, before the building of the first dam, the Island always stayed clear of the river, safe on its granite foundation against the turbulent rush of the flood with its abrasive silt.

Prior to the building of the Aswan Dam, the engineer in charge, Captain Henry Lyon, was asked to underpin the monuments of Philae so that they could withstand the submersion, which he did. He also excavated part of the site where he discovered the remains of some Christian churches.

After the Old Dam was built, it created a lake extending south some 140 miles back to the Sudanese border. In fact, the height of the dam was at first restricted because of the protests made by people interested in preserving Philae and the other temples and monuments from submersion. Winston Churchill cared little for this. He remarked that:

"This offering of 1,500 millions of cubic feet of water to Hathor by the Wise Men of the West is the most cruel, the most wicked and the most senseless sacrifice ever offered on the altar of a false religion. The State must struggle and the people starve, in order that the professors may exult and the tourists find some place to scratch their names."

Of course, one can still get a glimpse of these cataracts north of the Old Aswan Dam. In ancient times, travelers made their devotions at Philae before continuing through the dangerous territory of the south to the "Land of Ghosts".

On the island of Sehel are more than 250 inscriptions from pilgrims and travelers coming to and going through the area, dating from the fourth dynasty down to the Ptolemaic period. Pepi I cut canals through the cataract to assist boat crews on their way to the calm water above Philae. Harkhuf passed through here on his way to Nubia during the reign of Pepi II. Also here on Sehel is the so-called Famine Stela, inscribed during Ptolemaic times but related to the reign of King Djoser in the 3rd Dynasty. It states that the king decreed that large tracts of land on both sides of the river stretching from Elephantine south should be given to Khnum’s temple, along with one-tenth of all produce and livestock raised as well as taxes on caravans and gold mining. There is an identical decree in the temple of Philae, carved at the base of the eastern tower of the second Great Pylon.

Such was the power of the gods, or at least the belief therein, that according to an inscription on the base of the eastern obelisk standing in front of the Great Pylon, during the reign of Ptolemy VIII, Euergetes II, and Cleopatra III his second wife, the priests complained that they were being forced to refund the expenses of civil and military authorities incurred during their stay at Philae. The priests were not being left enough resources with which to continue sacrifices and libations for the welfare of the royal family. Euergetes II released the priests from further payments.

The Island of Philae lied about four miles south of modern Elephantine, just to the other side of the Old Aswan Dam. It only measured about 500 yards from north to south and 160 yards from east to west, which meant that it was almost entirely covered with temples and other monuments. These were protected from the Nile Flood during ancient times by high walls, quays and terraces. In fact, before the building of the first dam, the Island always stayed clear of the river, safe on its granite foundation against the turbulent rush of the flood with its abrasive silt.

Prior to the building of the Aswan Dam, the engineer in charge, Captain Henry Lyon, was asked to underpin the monuments of Philae so that they could withstand the submersion, which he did. He also excavated part of the site where he discovered the remains of some Christian churches.

After the Old Dam was built, it created a lake extending south some 140 miles back to the Sudanese border. In fact, the height of the dam was at first restricted because of the protests made by people interested in preserving Philae and the other temples and monuments from submersion. Winston Churchill cared little for this. He remarked that:

"This offering of 1,500 millions of cubic feet of water to Hathor by the Wise Men of the West is the most cruel, the most wicked and the most senseless sacrifice ever offered on the altar of a false religion. The State must struggle and the people starve, in order that the professors may exult and the tourists find some place to scratch their names."

So the water level was raised, and the temples and structures on Philae were flooded each year from December to about March, and had to be visited during this time by boat, passing through the Kiosk of Trajan and into the court of the Temple of Isis.

All did not turn out as badly as thought, however. The water ended up saving the temples from erosion by sand storms and helped to remove salt deposits which were damaging to the stonework. Regular inspections of the site showed that it suffered less damage than might have been expected, save for the paintwork that was washed away by the new lake created by the Old Dam.

Then, construction on the High Dam began and, as with a number of other monuments south of Aswan, the temple and other monuments had to either be moved or lost beneath the waters.

In reality, Philae would not have been lost under the water of Lake Nasser itself, but rather the lake that was formed between the High Dam and the Old Dam. It was the only major monument located in this region. it would have been almost permanently submerged, but worse, this small lake is subject to a daily rise and fall of several yards, which would have inevitably eroded the temples completely.

This was accomplished during the 1970s, when the Philae monuments were moved to Agilkia northwest of Philae Island. Since waters already engulfed the monuments at Philae, a coffer dam had to be built around the island and then the water pumped out. This work began in 1972 and was finished in 1980 as a cooperative effort of UNESCO and the Egyptian Antiquity Organization. The new location was carefully landscaped to make it resemble Philae as much as possible. Some 40,000 blocks, weighing about 20,000 tons were moved to the new location.

http://www.akhet.co.uk/

http://www.geocities.com/

http://www.touregypt.net/

http://www.planetware.com/

http://www.ask-aladdin.com/

http://www.sacred-destinations.com/

T.N.P

2008-10-06T11:15:00.000+02:00

Law and the Legal System

in Ancient Egypt

Egypt had one of the first organized governments. Before Upper and Lower Egypt were united, each area was ruled by a king. In 3100 BC, after the country was united into a centralized system of government, it was then divided into 42 nomes, or regions. A governor ruled each region but had to obey the pharaoh.

The pharaoh was the highest authority and had total power over the people. The pharaoh controlled the executive and judicial branches of government and was assisted by many appointed civil servants. When selecting these aides, the pharaoh had to follow the legal rules of seniority and literacy.

Government officials in the Old Kingdom held positions such as the Royal Courtiers, Advisors, Councilors, and Ministers. The Royal Court's status grew over time and covered religious, civil, judicial, and military duties. The Advisor was the highest official in the state, but not a member of the government's higher Council. The Council was comprised of senior state officials who enforced legislation and royal decrees and later assumed judiciary functions. The Minister was the head of the judges.

A number of administrators specialized in handling taxes, finance, public works, and labor distribution on various projects. Egypt was the first country to implement a system for workers in governmental projects such as crafts, industry, agriculture, and construction.

Courts of law existed in all Egyptian regions. Many contracts and papyri about petitions and verdicts prove that there were specific, fixed laws concerning everyday transactions such as inheritance, marriage, grants, wills, land ownership, and other commercial transactions. Everything was recorded and kept in an archive, including wills, title deeds, census lists, orders, tax lists, letters, inventories, regulations, and trial transcripts.

During the Greco-Roman age, the Ptolemaic king took the position of pharaoh and followed the system of central government. Because the priests threatened the invaders' control, the Ptolemies tried to weaken them by stripping the temples of their properties and rights. They later changed their policy and won the priests' support by showing respect to Egyptian beliefs and building more temples. The Ptolemies maintained the country's division into regions with the governor as the head. The governor acquired a military character as the leader of the garrison and its financial administrator. Inside these districts there were exclusive cities for the elite Greek classes to live in, such as Nokratis, Alexandria, and Ptolemia.

When Egypt became a Roman province, the Romans made no changes unless necessary. The Roman emperor became the pharaoh of Egypt and was portrayed in the Egyptian temples wearing the pharaoh's double crown and clothes. The emperor directly managed Egypt's affairs and took the leadership of the Roman Army. A new post was added in the administration which was the chief judge.

After Egypt became an Islamic province, it continued to be governed from abroad. The caliph appointed a ruler who governed Egypt and managed its affairs in the caliph's name.

He supervised collecting "Al-Kharag," which is the tax on agricultural land. Christians and Jews paid taxes and Muslims paid Zakah. The Police Chief was responsible for preserving security and the post official was responsible for the communication between Egypt and the Center of Caliphate.

Law and Order

The Police:

The prevention of crime and apprehension of criminals was the duty of local officials and police forces. They opened investigations following complaints by citizens

To Polemon, epistates of Kerkeosiris, from Tapentos daughter of Horos, of the same village. An attack was made upon my dwelling by Arsinoe and her son Phatres, who went off with the contract relating to my house and other business documents. Therefore I am seriously ill, being in want of the necessaries of life and bodily ... P. Tebtunis 52 , fragmentary [5]114 BCE

They collected clues against suspects by interrogating them and their acquaintances, checking public records, organizing reenactments and applying physical coercion, generally in the form of beatings.

Then, as is still the fact today, most crime was of the petty variety, but in a society where most people lived much closer to the edge of abject poverty, even small thefts might be a serious matter. One such memorandum describes robberies

perpetrated by the workmen of Nakhu-m-Maut. They went into my house, stole two large loaves and three cakes, spilt my oil, opened my bin containing the corn, stole Northern dehu-corn. They went to the house in the wharf, stole half the killesteis (a kind of acid bread) yesterday [baked], spilt the oil.In the third month of the Shemu-season, the 12th day, during the crown feast of king Amen-hotep, l.h.s., they went to the granary, stole three great loaves, eight sabu-cakes of Rohusu berries ..... They drew a bottle of beer which was [cooling] in water, while I was staying in my father's room. My Lord, let whatsoever has been stolen be given back to me... Egyptian publications of MarietteG. Maspero, Etudes de mythologie et d'archéologie égyptiennes vol. 3, 1898

Better connected people might petition regional officials or even the king himself

To King Ptolemy and Queen Cleopatra, his sister, the mother-loving gods, greeting. From Petesouchos son of Petos, Crown cultivator from the village of Oxyrhyncha in the division of Polemon in the Arsinoite nome. I live in Kerkeosiris in the said nome, and there belongs to me in the aforesaid village of Oxyrhyncha a house inherited from my father, possessed by him for the period of his lifetime and by myself after his decease up to the present time with no dispute. But Stratonike daughter of Ptolemaios, an inhabitant of Krokodilonpolis in the aforementioned nome, mischievously wishing to practise extortion on me, coming with other persons against the aforesaid house, forces her way in before any judgement has been given and ... in the village about ... the house, coming in and laying claim to it wrongfully. I therefore pray you, mighty gods, if you see fit, to send my petition to Menekrates, archisomatophylax (archbodyguard) and strategos (commander), so that he may order Stratonike not to force her ways into the house, but, if she thinks she has a grievance, to get redress from me in the proper manner. If this is done, I shall have received succour. Farewell... P. Tebt. 771 [5]From the middle of the second century BCE

Armed with staffs, policemen guarded public places, at times making use of dogs or, probably more rarely, of trained monkeys.

The Criminals and their Crimes:

Although there were differences in how members of the various social classes were treated and judged, neither riches nor nobility raised a person above the law. High treason committed by powerful noblemen and officials was harshly dealt with. Judges and tax collectors abused their powers, above all during times of unrest, and scribes sometimes falsified cadastral data; if they were caught, their punishment could be savage.

As the existence and proper functioning of the state depended on their activities, resisting state officials doing their duty or bribing them had to be suppressed at any cost, as had perjury, false accusations and statements and undue influence on judicial procedure. Misbehaviour had to be punished, honour upheld, peace between neighbours kept, and people's lives and property protected. Not reporting a felony was a crime in itself:

The great criminal, Weren, who was butler.He was brought in because of his hearing the words from the chief of the chamber, and when he had [withdrawn from] him he concealed them and did not report them. He was placed before the nobles of the court of examination; they found him guilty; they brought his punishment upon him... Records of the Harem Conspiracy against Ramses IIIJames Henry Breasted Ancient Records of Egypt, Part Four, § 437

Sacrilege and lese-majesty, twin crimes in a society where the divine and secular were closely interwoven, were especially heinous. They were offenses against what we would see as the worldly institutions of state and king, but in the eyes of the ancient Egyptians rather insults against the gods and the world order they had instituted.

We know of a few, apparently rare attempts on a king's life [28], but there were also lesser transgressions: The pseudepigraphical Famine Stela threatens the impious with He who spits (on it - i.e. on the stela in the temple) deceitfully shall be given over to punishment. Even if this account is fictitious we may suppose that such actions were prosecuted. Robbery, theft and the fencing of stolen goods were criminal offences, particularly the breaking, damaging and looting of tombs:

After collaborating for four years, Amenpenofer, a builder working for Amenhotep, High Priest of Amen-Re Sonter, and seven other builders, woodworkers, farmers and a boatman, decided to break into the pyramid of Sobekmesef. With their metal tools they cut a passage into the pyramid's underground chambers, removed all the obstacles and reached the sarcophagi of the queen and king. They opened the lids and the inner gilded wooden coffins, collected the golden face masks, jewellery, amulets, weighing 160 deben (about 14.5 kg) and burned the remains. They divided the loot into eight parts and were rowed back over the Nile by the boatman.

Whether he couldn't keep quiet, his sudden wealth was noticed, or they had been observed, Amenpenofer was arrested by the city guards and brought to the office of Peser, prince of the city. He bribed a scribe with his twenty deben of gold and was released without being charged. On his return, his associates agreed to redistributing the remaining 140 deben of gold.

The robbers returned with the investigating judges to the pyramids they had robbed. They agreed to reveal all the names of the gang to their master, the High Priest of Amen, but when they were brought before him, only three of the eight were left. The judges requested of the High Priest to apprehend the fugitives.

The mother of Amenpenofer was exiled to Nubia and the builder himself rearrested a few months later and brought to court.

Not just common people committed tomb robberies. Times were difficult during the late Ramesside period. The administration was in disarray and salaries rarely paid on time, if at all. Social upheaval and civil war brought with them sharp price rises. It is no wonder that scribes and priests took part as well in this "redistribution of wealth".

One such gang included a priest named Pen-un-heb, and four Holy Fathers of the God, Meri and his son Peisem, Semdi and Pehru. They began by stealing the golden necklace of a statue of Osiremire Sotepenre, which after melting left them with four deben and six kit of gold. The old Meri divided the loot among them.

Another gang of priests, scribes and herdsmen robbed the House of Gold of Osiremire Sotepenre. The priest Kaw-karui and four of his colleagues occasionally removed some gold with which they bought grain in town. A herdsman after threatening the priests, received a bull they had bought for five kit (about 45 grammes) of gold. A scribe, Seti-mose, who overheard their quarrel, blackmailed them and extorted four and a half kit of gold.

The Law

Justice, represented by Maat [42], the goddess of the World Order, lay with the gods and was immanent and retributive, both in the here-after [33] as in this world. The pharaohs as living gods were the source and executors of justice [43]. The administrative tools for achieving justice among humans were the laws and ordinances.

Thou art Re, thy body is his body. There has been no ruler like thee, (for) thou art unique, like the son of Osiris, thou hast achieved the like of his designs Isis [hath not loved] a king since Re, except thee and her [son]; greater is that which thou hast done than that which he did when he ruled after Osiris. The laws of the land proceed according to his position.....

The Judges

During the Old Kingdom there were seemingly no professional judges. Cases were tried before tribunals of scribes and priests appointed for the purpose, with high officials - sometimes one or even both of the viziers [1] - presiding. Throughout pharaonic history, the justice system remained part of the executive; and many official positions had executive and judicial aspects.

The title of judge was of great significance to its holder. In the tomb of Mehu, a fifth dynasty judge, inscriptions describe him as zAb (judge), Priest of Maat, the Goddess of Truth, Eldest One of the Hall and Secretary of the Secret Decisions of the Great Judgment Court.

Judging became a profession [21] and similar to other professions in Egypt, administering the law ran in families. The father was followed by the son unless something extraordinary happened.

The Trial

The differences between the administration of civil and criminal law were significant. In criminal cases, where the state was the prosecutor, there seems to have been an initial presumption of guilt, and trials were conducted accordingly [27]. Crimes against the state, the king, the gods, and against the person, such as murder and bodily harm, were prosecuted by the state, while victims of robbery, theft, and apparently sexual aggression had to bring their cases before the court themselves [40].

http://history.egypt.com/

http://www.reshafim.org/

http://www.touregypt.net/

http://fathom.lib.uchicago.edu/

http://www.hiddenmysteries.org/

T.N.P

2008-07-07T02:44:00.000+03:00

The mummy

Mummification in ancient Egypt was a very long and expensive process. From start to finish, it took about seventy days to embalm a body. Since the Egyptians believed that mummification was essential for passage to the afterlife, people were mummified and buried as well as they could possibly afford. High-ranking officials, priests and other nobles who had served the pharaoh and his queen had fairly elaborate burials. Also they used to mummify their pets and sacred animals. The pharaohs, who were believed to become gods when they died, had the most magnificent burials of all. In the case of a royal or noble burial, the embalmers set up workshops near the tomb of the mummy.

Mummification

The earliest ancient Egyptians buried their dead in small pits in the desert. The heat and dryness of the sand dehydrated the bodies quickly, creating lifelike and natural 'mummies'.

Later, the ancient Egyptians began burying their dead in coffins to protect them from wild animals in the desert. However, they realized that bodies placed in coffins decayed when they were not exposed to the hot, dry sand of the desert.

Over many centuries, the ancient Egyptians developed a method of preserving bodies so they would remain lifelike. The process included embalming the bodies and wrapping them in strips of linen. Today we call this process mummification.

The process of mummification has two stages. First, the embalming of the body . Then, the wrapping and burial of the body.

Embalming the body

First, his body is taken to the tent known as 'ibu' or the 'place of purification'. There the embalmers wash his body with good-smelling palm wine and rinse it with water from the Nile.

One of the embalmer's men makes a cut in the left side of the body and removes many of the internal organs. It is important to remove these because they are the first part of the body to decompose.

The liver, lungs, stomach and intestines are washed and packed in natron which will dry them out. The heart is not taken out of the body because it is the centre of intelligence and feeling and the man will need it in the afterlife.

A long hook is used to smash the brain and pull it out through the nose.

The body is now covered and stuffed with natron which will dry it out. All of the fluids and rags from the embalming process will be saved and buried along with the body.

After forty days the body is washed again with water from the Nile. Then it is covered with oils to help the skin stay elastic.

The dehydrated internal organs are wrapped in linen and returned to the body. The body is stuffed with dry materials such as sawdust, leaves and linen so that it looks lifelike.

Finally the body is covered again with good-smelling oils. It is now ready to be wrapped in linen.

In the past, when the internal organs were removed from a body they were placed in hollow canopic jars.

Over many years the embalming practices changed and embalmers began returning internal organs to bodies after the organs had been dried in natron. However, solid wood or stone canopic jars were still buried with the mummy to symbolically protect the internal organs.

Wrapping the mummy

First the head and neck are wrapped with strips of fine linen. Then the fingers and the toes are individually wrapped.

The arms and legs are wrapped separately. Between the layers of wrapping, the embalmers place amulets to protect the body in its journey through the underworld.

This is the 'Isis knot' amulet which will protect the body.

This is the 'Plummet' amulet which will keep the person balanced in the next life.

A priest reads spells out loud while the mummy is being wrapped. These spells will help ward off evil spirits and help the deceased make the journey to the afterlife.

The arms and legs are tied together. A papyrus scroll with spells from the Book of the Dead is placed between the wrapped hands.

More linen strips are wrapped around the body. At every layer, the bandages are painted with liquid resin that helps to glue the bandages together

A cloth is wrapped around the body and a picture of the god Osiris is painted on its surface.
Finally, a large cloth is wrapped around the entire mummy. It is attached with strips of linen that run from the top to the bottom of the mummy, and around its middle.

A board of painted wood is placed on top of the mummy before the mummy is lowered into its coffin. The first coffin is then put inside a second coffin.

The funeral is held for the deceased and his family mourns his death. A ritual called the 'Opening of the Mouth' is performed, allowing the deceased to eat and drink again.
Finally, the body and its coffins are placed inside a large stone sarcophagus in the tomb. Furniture, clothing, valuable objects, food and drink are arranged in the tomb for the deceased.

The mummy and its coffin

Wig

Painted coffins from ancient Egypt often show the deceased person wearing a large wig. People wore wigs in real life to special events and on important occasions.

This ancient Egyptian wig is made of human hair attached to a net.

Collar

Ancient Egyptian coffins often showed the deceased person wearing fine jewellery.
Collars like the one painted on this coffin were popular among wealthy and important people in ancient Egypt. They were made up of multiple rows of beads and charms.

Nut

The ancient Egyptians associated the sky goddess Nut with rebirth They believed that Nut swallowed the sun every evening and gave birth to the sun again every morning. Nut often appears on ancient Egyptian coffins.

Scarab

The ancient Egyptians connected the scarab beetle with rebirth, and with the sun's movement across the sky during the day. Thus, scarabs often appeared on coffins and other objects connected with funerals and the afterlife.

Spells

Protective spells were written in hieroglyphs on coffins. These spells helped to protect the deceased person and keep them safe on their journey through the underworld.

'Opening of the mouth' tool

The ancient Egyptians believed that in order for a person's soul to survive in the afterlife it would need to have food and water. A special ritual called the 'Opening of the Mouth' was performed so that the person who died could eat and drink again in the afterlife.

Shabtis

The ancient Egyptians believed that the afterlife was very much like the Egypt that they lived in. Thus, there was a lot work to be done in the home and in the fields.

Shabtis were small figures who would magically come to life and work instead of their 'master' or 'mistress' whenever there was work to be done in the afterlife. Some people had enough shabtis and 'overseers'(to keep the shabtis in order) buried with them so there was one for each day of the year.

These shabtis belonged to a priestess named Henutmehyt

Now his body is ready for its journey through the underworld. There his heart will be judged by his good deeds on earth. If his heart is found to be pure he will be sent to live for all eternity in the beautiful 'Field of Reeds'.

The Four Sons of Horus

During the mummification process, the internal organs were removed from the body. Before about 1000 B.C., the organs were dried and placed in hollow 'canopic jars'.

After about 1000 B.C., the internal organs were often put back into the body after being dried. When this happened, the ancient Egyptians placed solid or empty canopic jars in the person's tomb.

The lids of canopic jars represented gods called the 'four sons of Horus'. These gods protected the internal organs. Hapy was the baboon-headed god who protected the lungs.

The Four Sons of Horus were traditionally the guardians of the internal organs of the deceased. Each was associated with a particular organ, and also with a different cardinal point on the compass.

Imsety the human-headed god looks after the liver

Hapy the baboon-headed god looks after the lungs

Duamutef the jackal-headed god looks after the stomach

Qebehsenuef the falcon-headed god looks after the intestines

Linen

Ancient Egyptian mummies were wrapped in hundreds of yards of linen strips.

This papyrus is a receipt for natron and linen. It states that the mummy will be delivered to the family at the end of seventy-two days.

Headrest amulet

The ancient Egyptians used headrests in this shape in their daily lives. This amulet made sure that the person's head would be supported forever. This headrest amulet is only about two centimetres tall.

Heart scarab

Heart scarabs were placed in the wrappings with the mummy. They had spells carved on them to protect the deceased person's heart from being lost or separated from the body in the underworld

The heart was especially important to the ancient Egyptians because they believed that it was the centre of feeling and intelligence.

Isis Knot amulet

The amulet is a symbol of protection associated with the goddess Isis.

Fingers amulet

This amulet may have represented the fingers of the embalmers.

Jewellery

The ancient Egyptians believed that objects buried with them could be used and enjoyed in the next life. Thus, people were buried with jewellery and fine clothes.

Some of the rings, bracelets and necklaces buried with people had been worn during their lifetimes and some were created just for their burials.

The Challenge ‘The Underworld'

The ancient Egyptians believed that before a person could get to the afterlife, that they had to pass through the underworld. The underworld was a place that was full of terrifying monsters and dangerous animals. A person would need magic to successfully overcome these threats.

The ancient Egyptians chose spells to take with them on their journey. The spells were chosen from a group of spells known as the Book of the Dead. The spells were then written on a papyrus scroll which was buried with them in their tombs.

spell for protction against crocodiles

spell for protction against snakes

spell for turning into a swallow

Now you have been through the dangers of the underworld there is still one obstacle between you and paradise in the afterlife.

The weighing of the heart

Your heart will be weighed against a feather to see if it is truthful and good. If you pass this test, you will in the afterlife. If you fail, your heart will be gobbled up by a monster called Ammit.

Anubis, the God of Embalming

The famous jackal headed denizen of the underworld

The Ancient Egyptians held a great reverence for the Jackal headed god Anubis, who oversaw the embalming and mummification process as well as escorting the deceased through the procedures for entering the underworld. When the person arrived for judgment, they would first declare their purity before an assembly of gods including Osiris. The Ibis headed god Thoth was on hand to record the result of the judgment.

In the 'weighing of the heart' from the Book of the Dead the heart of the dead person was balanced against the feather of Maat, or truth. If the heart was lighter than the feather the dead person was allowed to pass on into the underworld, but if it failed the test then the Eater of souls would devour the deceased.

MUMIFICATION OF THEIR BELOVED PETS

The Ancient Egyptians kept many animals as household pets, including cats, dogs, monkeys, gazelles, and birds.

Pet monkeys and cats are often depicted on the walls of tombs, seated beneath the chair of their owner. These paintings often had magical properties, ensuring that these pets could join their masters after death. In the pictures above, care has been taken to ensure that the pets, like their owners, would have abundant food in the afterworld. The cat has a large bowl provided while the monkey has its favorite fruits. The cat also has a wooden chair leg to scratch (the left paw is actually in the process of scratching!).

The Ancient Egyptians also trained dogs, hawks, and mongooses to hunt with them. And scenes of hunting and pictures of favorite hounds arecommon motifs on tomb walls.

Small faience and wooden models of dogs have also been found in tombsPets were not only present as paintings or models. The mummified bodies of pets have also been found in tombs. A certain Hapymen, buried at Abydos, was so fond of his pet dog that it was mummified and wrapped in linen, and placed at the side of his feet in his coffin. In the Valley of the Kings, in tomb KV 50, a pet baboon and a dog were placed so that they glared at each other in preparation for battle. It is unclear whose pets these rivals were.

Two women, Isitemkheb D and Ankhshepenwepet had pet gazelles (or in the case of Isitemkheb D an ibex?) buried with them. The mummy to the right is a gazelle from the Cairo Museum collection.

Some pets were given quite elaborate burials by their grieving owners. The limestone sarcophagus below shows a cat receiving offerings of food and flowers. It was commisioned by the Royal Son and Chief Artificer, Tithmose, for his pet cat (Mit Rahina, XVIIIth dynasty or later). The hieroglyphic texts along the sides are the sameAs those used for humans.

Although it is possible that some pets were killed when an owner died, it is perhaps more likely that a pet was placed in the tomb of its owner after a natural death. The X-rays of these pet mummies may help to clarify this issue by providing evidence as to the manner of death.

SACRED ANIMALS

Animal cults were common in Egypt throughout its history, although they reached an acme of popularity in the Late and Greco-Roman Periods. Animal cults focused on one specific animal in whom the spirit of the god would reside and be worshipped as such for the duration of the animal’s lifetime. Upon its death it was mummified, and another one, chosen for its special markings, would take its place.

ANIMAL MUMMIES WRAPPING

Animal mummies are wrapped in lots of interesting ways. Some are just wrapped spirally with old linen sheets that are knotted to keep them in place. Others are wrapped so that the head shows details of eyes, nose, and mouth in paint or in attached bandages. In the Roman period mummies were wrapped in elaborate patterns, such as diamonds and squares, using overlapping bandages of different colors and widths.

Late Period mummies of hawks and other birds of prey were first identified as mummies of children until they had been unwrapped! This was because the embalmers wrapped the mummy with a lot of bandages so that it looked baby-sized, and often covered the head area with a car tonnage (made like paper Mache) mask of a human face.

Materials used in mummification. Frankincense is an aromatic tree sap or gum. When melted it becomes a thick, gluey substance that can be used like tar. Natron is a mineral salt which is used to dehydrate a body covered in it.

Who are the mummies?

Over time almost all Egyptians who could afford to became mummies when they died -- a total of about 70 million mummies in 3,000 years. By the 4th century AD, many Egyptians had become Christians and no longer believed that mummification was necessary for life after death. Eventually, the Egyptians gave up the art and science of making mummies.

So where did all the mummies go? Sadly, most were plundered in ancient times by grave robbers and vandals looking for treasures wrapped up in the bandages. Countless mummies were also destroyed during the middle Ages, when they were ground into powders to make supposedly magical potions. Later on, modern treasure hunters blundered into their tombs looking for artifacts and souvenirs. Even industry aided the destruction by using mummies' bandages to make paper or burning their bodies for fuel.

The best preserved mummies are those of the pharaohs and their relatives. These mummies tended to be more carefully embalmed and protected from harm. The mummies that have survived allow us to look back into the past and know something of the ancient Egyptians and their time. Three of the most famous Egyptians mummies are Tutankhamen, Seti I and Rameses II (Ramses the Great).

Tutankhamen

Tutankhamen, known to many as King Tut, was probably just a boy when he was crowned pharaoh in the 18th Dynasty. He was still a teenager when he died of unknown causes and was entombed in the Egyptian Valley of Kings. Although, Tutankhamen was not one of the more distinguished or important pharaohs in his own time, he has a very special place in ours.

Tutankhamen's tomb was discovered in 1922 by Howard Carter. Over the next several years, Carter's expedition carefully uncovered the riches within, including the gold mask above. A number of mysterious deaths that followed the opening of the tomb set off wild rumors of a mummy's curse.

Today, Tut is known to countless people the world over, in part because his is the only pharaoh's tomb ever discovered intact. Tut's burial site had somehow escaped pillaging by grave robbers for over 3000 years. His mummy and its magnificent solid gold sarcophagus, along with wall paintings, furniture, weapons, games and other artifacts have survived to the present, giving us a unique glimpse at the trappings of an ancient pharaoh.

Seti I

Seti I is considered to be one of the greatest of pharaohs and warriors, and was also the father of another very notable pharaoh, Rameses II (or Rameses the Great). Seti ruled in the 19th Dynasty, several generations after Tutankhamen. Surviving accounts of Seti's exploits tell us that he was highly successful at protecting Egypt from such invaders as the marauding armies of neighboring Libya. Seti was also known to have extended his powers beyond the boundaries of Egypt as far east as modern-day Syria.

Rameses II the Great

Rameses the Great ruled over Egypt from 1279-1212 BC, an incredible 67 years. Rameses was legendary in many respects. At a time when most people lived only a few decades, Rameses was about 90 years old when he died. He was a tall man about six feet in height, when the average Egyptian was a little over five feet tall. Rameses had many wives in his lifetime and is believed to have fathered over 100 children.

In 1974, Egyptologists at the Cairo Museum noticed that the mummy's condition was getting worse rapidly. They decided to fly Rameses II to Paris so that a team of experts could give the mummy a medical examination. Did you know that even a mummy needs a passport to travel? Ramses II was issued an Egyptian passport that listed his occupation as "King (deceased)."

Once in Paris, Rameses was diagnosed and treated for a fungal infection. During the examination, scientific analysis revealed battle wounds and old fractures, as well as the pharaoh's arthritis and poor circulation. In addition, experts were able to determine some of the flowers and herbs that were used for the embalming, including lots of camomile oil.

http://www.artsmia.org/

http://www.ancientegypt.co.uk/

http://www.mummytombs.com/

http://guardians.net/egypt/egypt.htm

T.N.P & Shery.K

2008-06-17T00:46:00.008+03:00

Meditation Music

Of
Ancient Egyptian

It almost seems strange that we should know as much as we do about ancient Egyptian music and at the same time have little or no idea of its real nature. We have texts, representations and even extant instruments but virtually nothing on the actual musical compositions that were composed.

Musical instruments ranged from very simple, such as percussion instruments, to very complex, such as harps. Some instruments were strictly (at least in design) Egyptian, while others apparently came to Egypt from the Near East.

Of course, the most basic instruments were percussion and the simplest of these were human hands, used for clapping. Clapping to music is often displayed by singers depicted in Old Kingdom tombs, and even today remains an important aspect of modern Egyptian music.

However, the earliest instruments in evidence are boomerang-shaped clappers, which are not only known in Egypt but also from southern Palestine as early as the fifth millennium BC.

During the pharaonic period, clappers were often decorated with hands or Hathor faces. There were also smaller clappers or castanets.

However, drums did not actually appear until the Middle Kingdom. Initially, these seem to have been drums in the shape of a barrel made from hollowed tree trunks, which became popular in military bands.

Drums in the shape of a goblet and wheel-thrown pots with skin covered tops and open bottoms were introduced around 1750 BC from the Palestinian region. When circular frame drums with a skin stretched across a wooden hoop were introduced during the New Kingdom, other forms of percussion instruments appear to have lost ground. Of course, there was also the sistrum which was a metal rattle or noisemaker, consisting of a handle and a frame fitted with loosely held rods that could be jingled. These were used especially in the worship of Isis.

Finally, there were almost certainly bells, and during the Late Period, Egyptians became acquainted with symbols consisting of a pair of concave discs about 15 centemeters across that were attached to the player's hand with leather straps.

Though simple, percussion instruments can produce interesting and complex music, particularly if used in ensembles. One such large ensemble is depicted in the Middle Kingdom tomb of a singing instructor named Khesuwer. He is shown coaching ten sistrum players and ten hand clappers who have been arranged in neat rows, indicating a highly disciplined performance.

Harp, New Kingdom

Typically, however, percussion instruments cannot produce different pitches, so the use of wind and stringed instruments also became an important aspect of Egyptian music. Both string and wind instruments were used by the ancient Egyptians as early as the Old Kingdom and before.

We can recognize a number of types of wind instruments, including flutes, parallel double-pipes and divergent double-pipes. Of these, the flute is the oldest and is depicted on a predynastic shard as well as on a slate palette from Hierakonpolis. Hence, the instrument could possibly have been invented in Egypt. The original flutes never disappeared altogether and have survived to this day under the Arabic names of nay and uffafa.

Scene showing a male on the left playing a flue, and on the right a parallel double pipe

At first, all of these instruments were made of reeds, though later, the earlier reed pipes were imitated in bronze. They could be short, or as long as a yard in length. There were usually three to five finger-holes. The various types of pipes differed in the construction of the mouth-end of the pipe. Flutes had a sharp wedge resting just outside of the lips. Pipes had a loosely fitting mouthpiece furnished with double and single vibrating lamellae. None of these mouthpieces have ever been unearthed, so their details are unknown, but the parallel pipes that have survived resemble modern Egyptian folk clarinets, called a zummara, with one lamella. Divergent pipes, which only appear at the beginning of the New Kingdom, are similar to Greek aulos that had double lamellae like the modern oboe.

A more complex instrument to produce was the trumpet, such as that found in the tomb of Tutankhamun. These were made of silver and bronze, with mouthpieces of gold or silver. They were sometimes inlaid with gold. Trumpets seem to have had mostly a military use, though they became associated as well with gods such as Amun, Re-Horakhty and Ptah. Though we find the first examples of the trumpet at the beginning of the New Kingdom, it is possible that they existed as early as the Old Kingdom.

Instruments made from animal horns do not appear in any reliefs, but it should be noted that there are terracotta models of such instruments dating to the New Kingdom.

Stringed instruments mostly consisted of lyre, lutes and harps. There were three types of lyre consisting of thin, thick and giant. The thin lyre was used throughout the Fertile Crescent and the Egyptian lyres of this style were merely the southern extension of this form with no local characteristics. Thin lyres were introduced into northern Syria around 2500 BC, and the first depictions in Egypt that we know date to around 1900 BC. They became common in Egypt about five hundred years later.

Thick lyre with larger dimensions and more strings than the thin variety briefly appear in Anatolia around 1400 BC. However, they were used in Egypt from about 2000 BC and into the Greek Period in Egypt. Giant lyres became popular during the reign of Akhenaten. Some were even large enough to accommodate dual players. Though giant lyre players can be seen wearing Canaanite costumes, there are no giant lyres yet known from the Palestinian region. However, in Mesopotamia, giant lyres are known from engraved seals found at Uruk and Susa that date to around 2500 BC.

The New Kingdom lute consisted of a small oblong wooden sounding box, flat on both sides, with six or eight holes, and a long neck, often decorated with ribbons, from which two to four strings were strung. It was played with a plectrum or bare fingers. Similarly to modern string instruments different notes were played by pressing the strings against the neck of the instrument at various spots seemingly marked by frets.

Lutes, similar to mandolins, made their appearance in Egypt during the New Kingdom. They had already gained popularity in the Near East at the beginning of the second millennium BC. Though they gained wide acceptance in Egypt, their use was mostly abandoned during the Hellenistic age, only to reappear once more after the Muslim invasion of Egypt in the mid-seventh century AD. Lutes were typically made with a long oval resonating body made from wood and perhaps partially covered with leather and partially by a thin sheet of wood with an opening to release the sound.

Most all of the instruments were patterned after examples found elsewhere in the Near East, as were stringed instruments such as the lyres and lutes. However, though the harp seems to first appear in Mesopotamia in about 3000 BC, the harps that showed up in Egypt in 2500 BC take on a shape that is uniquely Egyptian. Stringed instruments were more complex than either percussion or wind instruments, and many were indeed finely made with precious materials. For example, we know that King Ahmose possessed a harp made of ebony, gold and silver, while Tuthmosis III commissioned "a splendid harp wrought with silver, gold, lapis lazuli, malachite, and every splendid costly stone."

There were two primary designs for Egyptian harps. The arched harp became dominate in pharaonic Egypt. It was made with a sound box which was joined smoothly to a curved rod encircled by collars for individual strings. The strings stretched between their collars and a rib in contact with the skin over the box. When the collars were rotated, the tension and thus the tuning of the attached strings changed. The second type of harp was angular, with a rod that was stuck through a hole in an oblong box. This arrangement resulted in a sharp angle between the rod and box.

Arched harps in a shovel shape were used exclusively during the Old and Middle Kingdom's, though their size and the position in which they were played varied. However, the New Kingdom a variety of new shapes and sizes of harps appear. They seem to all have been more or less equally popular. Some of these were considerably different than the earlier shovel harps shaped like a hunting bow, though all had the smooth curve characteristic of arched harps. During the Late Period, Egyptians sought the glory of their former empire and looked reflected this desire in archaized designs in architecture, as well as in harp design. The basic shovel harps were reintroduced, but by the Greco-Roman period, the variety of shapes was much reduced.

Though angular harps appear to have been invented in Mesopotamia around 1900 BC, and there they replaced arched harps very quickly, in Egypt their adoption took and complete replacement of the arched harp took more than a millennium. However, when the Egyptian finally did embrace the instrument, they did so with enthusiasm and also with considerable talent. One ancient writer, Athenaeus, reports that an Alexandrian angular harp player's music was so popular that citizens in Rome went about whistling his tunes in the streets.

Surviving angular harps differ from their earlier counterparts in having many more strings. Most of the arched harps have fewer than ten strings, and some as few as three. On the other hand, angular harps typically have twenty-one and as many as twenty-nine strings. Perhaps the Egyptian reluctance of adopting the angular harp implies a reluctance to expand the pitch range of their harp music, but that seems to have changed by the end of the first millennium BC. This also implies an early conservatism in Egyptian music, which was an observation confirmed by Plato's assertion that Egyptians "were forbidden to introduce any innovations in music". Should this be surprising to us? Considering the Egyptian's formality and structured approach to visual art, perhaps not. It is very possible in fact that much of the music corresponded in many ways to its visual counterpart.

Of course, human vocals were an integral part of almost all Egyptian music, and many scholars maintain that instrumental music on its own did not exist in ancient Egypt. Likewise, unaccompanied vocals were also rare. In many instances, we also see a singer accompanying him or herself, such as a singing harpist.

Scholars have sought to discover some form of musical notation system from ancient Egypt, but alas, have been unable to do so. However, some less precise information is available. During the Old Kingdom, singers within ensembles usually made arm and hand gestures, and Hans Hickmann claimed that these arm positions communicated pitches to the musicians. However, recent research seems to refute his theories, and it is now believed that such movement was simply spontaneous responses common to singers even today, though it has also been suggested that these movements may indicate basic stop or start commands.

There is extant a terra-cotta figurine from the Late Period that may be adorned with musical notation. This figure portrays an angular-harp player facing a scribe, who's writing tablet contains signs. Not much survives beyond a few long horizontal lines crossed by numerous vertical strokes. If these signs do represent musical notation, one might expect the length of the verticals to indicate pitches, but the lengths are insufficient to differentiate among the twenty-one strings of the angular harp.

By the early Greek Period, we do finally find definite musical notation on an Egyptian papyri. However, both the music and the notation system is Greek.

Throughout the entire pharaonic period, musicians are often shown in ensembles, though in the Old Kingdom singers were frequently accompanied by a single instrument. During the Old Kingdom, such a group might consist of singers, hand clappers, several harps, a flute and a clarinet style pipe. Originally, only men played the full range of instruments while women seem to have been confined to harps and percussion. However, towards the end of the Old Kingdom, other female musicians appear, and by the Middle Kingdom, mixed gender ensembles are common. In fact, by the New Kingdom, exclusively female groups become predominate.

Various titles provide some information on musician's social organization. The best documented of these were referred to a "hnr". They sang, danced and clapped hands in temples, palaces and funerary settings. This type of group flourished from about 2500 through 1500 BC and during the Ramessid Period. At first, these groups had only female members and overseers, but males integrated these ensembles during the 5th Dynasty and became the sole overseers of such groups during the Middle Kingdom. Royal women were frequently members of these groups, which were attached to palaces, temples and funerary estates. They performed secular music along with sacred singing and also performed for the deceased. The female members of the group wore light dresses and hair braided into plaits, with balls dangling from the ends. Men usually wore narrow belts or kilts.

Other titles denote temple songstresses (or chantresses) who served deities such as Hathor, Osiris and Isis. The number of titles meaning "Temple Singer" seems to indicate a diverse role for sacred music. These songstresses routinely performed in priestly rituals, but there were also grand events such as one that was staged on the occasion of Amenhotep III's sed-festival. Tomb drawing of this extravaganza depict long rows of singers, percussionists and dancers and we are told that their music "opened the doors of heaven so that the god may go forth pure".

There were also several deities associated with music. One of Hathor's titles was "mistress of music" and she was considered the goddess of singers. Bes was often depicted playing instruments, even outside of Egypt, including the lyre, harp, tambourine and the oboe like divergent pipes. Another obscure deity known as the Blind Horus has been identified as the "harp god", though some scholars believe he was simply a patron of the harp players. However, many harpists are depicted as blind, or even blindfolded.

Music also played a part outside of its sacred role. In Old Kingdom tombs, female family members are shown playing instruments, singing and dancing for the tomb owner, a theme that is also repeated in New Kingdom tombs. Private tombs of the Old Kingdom also show occasional scenes of music among farm workers, such as depictions of a flutist wandering about while men cut sheaves of barley.

Women clappers and a single divergent double-pipes player

Some tomb scenes provide us with clues to the forms of Egyptian music. For example a song written in an Old Kingdom tomb appears to have been sung antiphonally by two groups. One group asks a question and the second group answers it. The first group begins with a call and a question, "Oh, Western Goddess! Where is the shepherd?" The second group responds, "The shepherd is in the water beneath the fish. He talks to the catfish and greets the mormry-fish.", The song is concluded with the call, "Oh shepherd of the Western Goddess." The song is accompanied by a scene depicting sheep trampling seeds in the field. The calls and the questions are shown next to the foreman, indicating that he is probably the lead singer. The answers are sung by helpers who drive the sheep across a field. This antiphonal song dates to about 2200 BC, and is considered to be among the oldest known in literature and music.

Bronze sistrum, a sort of rattleLate Period

A larger musical form, the rondo, has been suggested for a harper's song, which decorate the walls of some New Kingdom tombs. In these, a harpist, and in some rare examples, a lute player, is shown beside an extensive text.

The text usually begins by describing the inevitability of death and the futility of life. In these, the reader is encouraged to lie for the moment when told, "Make holiday...put incense and fine oil together beside you...put music before you...give drunkenness to your heart every day."

Some scholars believe that songs were performed in the tomb, while others believe they were intended for life beyond the tomb. Most likely, the songs were sung at a banquet held in the tomb to buoy the spirits of the living. We have no idea of the music for these compositions, but a song in one of the tombs contains a phrase that recurs intermittently seven times. Hickmann suggested that this refrain corresponded to a reoccurring melody, making it similar to a modern rondo.

This type of song also is found in Old Kingdom tombs, but in those they are shorter and have an entirely different character than their New Kingdom counterparts. There, the harpist shares the sage with an ensemble. Altenmuller analyzed the the texts and their visual settings and concluded that the music belonged to a tomb ritual intended to bring back the deceased from the underworld. During this brief spiritual reincarnation, the tomb owner was known as "the deified one", and was enabled to join the musicians by the sheer power of their music.

Cymbals

Bronze cymbals, forming a pair. Breakage around part of rim. Two groups of four parallel lines running round top surface, and hole in top centre for attachment to handle.
Found in a tomb on a site near Naukratis.

Bells

Two bronze bells, forming a pair, tongues are missing.

Neck of harp

Neck of wooden angular harp; circular in section, narrower circumference at base, fifteen pegs still in situ with holes for five more.

fragment of a harp

Wooden neck of harp, both ends broken. In two pieces (a third not traced). Three pegs out of at least five, remain. Lower part gessoed.

Pipe

Seven joined reed pipes, with knob at bottom of each. Fastened with strip of palm-stick at each side tied with string and resin. Smallest reed broken away at top.

Lahun

Length of reed (sealed at each end by joint) with a shield-shaped hole cut through both sides.

Lahun is the name of a modern town at the entrance to the Fayum.

Gurob

Pair of reed pipes, mouthpieces lost, similar holes spaces 1.14 (inches) to 1.24 (inches), practically equal; joined together by resin and linen.

Double reed pipes (clarinet type) in sections which are lashed together at the ends with bitumenised thread; size of sections increases from mouthpiece, one side has four, the other three and a fragment, third section of this side has size holes.

Reed, hollow and clogged, faded traces from zig-zag binding at one end; broken along edges; perhaps a musical instrument.

Important town with palace, town and necropolis at the entrance to the Fayum.

Flute

Thick reed segment, sliced diagonally at one end to form part of a musical instrument.

http://www.touregypt.net/

http://www.aldokkan.com/

http://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/

http://www.umich.edu/~kelseydb/AncientEgypt.html

http://nefertiti.iwebland.com/timelines/topics/music.htm

T.N.P

2008-05-28T23:50:00.001+03:00

Old Predynastic Maadi

The archaeological site of Maadi, for which a modern suburb of Cairo is named, is located on an east-west oriented desert ridge between two wadis at the southern city limits of Cairo. Regrettably, part of this Predynastic site has already been ruined by modern building activities, and the remaining area is under threat from the intrusion of this highly populated area of Egypt.

Maadi is not only the name of an ancient Egyptian settlement, but is also used to define a specific culture of the 4th millennium BC, though by the middle of that period it had already been abandoned. It is closely associated with Buto, the other Lower Egyptian stronghold of early civilization which may predate Maadi, and might certainly have existed concurrently with Maadi.

Parts of the Maadi site was initially excavated in 1918, and the results of this investigation became public in a report to the International Congress of Geography in 1925. Three years later, Egyptologist J. Lucuas visited the site and identified three specific areas of settlement.

Excavations

Maadi, as well as two nearby necropolises, were extensively excavated . By the Department of Geography of the University of Cairo between 1930 and 1953. In the earliest years of this project between 1930 and 1933, the excavations were conducted in cooperation with the German Institute of Archaeology (O. Menghin, K. Bittle). In total, there were eleven archaeological missions carried out by the University of Cairo under the leadership of various Egyptian and foreign prehistorians. Though this work came to an abrupt halt during World War II, four volumes of research were published by various specialists in the fields of natural sciences, pottery, lithic industries, non-lithic objects and cemeteries. Unfortunately.

Throughout this period, a part of the western section of the site was occupied by a military camp and other structures, and was therefore not accessible to archaeologists. However, in the mid 1980s, F. A. Badawy finally received permission to excavate that area, which resulted in the discovery of a very ancient stone building.

Currently, and in cooperation with the Supreme Council of Antiquities and the University of Cairo, parts of Maadi are being excavated by the German Institute of Archaeology in Cairo. In addition to sampling various regions of the site, the stone building excavated by F. A. Badawy has been cleared, and the adjacent area excavated to clarify its stratigraphic relationship to the surrounding settlement.

So far, the findings of this work provide a picture of at least two occupation phases, including one in which wooden posts of different sizes, probably from huts and fences, storage jars fire places and small mud lined pits, occasionally with burnt walls was discovered. Substantial ash deposits also point to industrial activities.

There now is recognized two subterranean or semi-subterranean stone buildings. The one originally excavated by A. F. Badawy is entirely made of stone and was carefully plastered with Nile mud. It has a rectangular plan with rounded corners and an entrance lined by walls from the north. Its interior measurements are eight by four meters, with the floor situated two meters deeper than the upper preserved edge of its walls. So far, this building is completely unique among ancient Egyptian sites.

A second building has now also been discovered within the recent excavation zone. It consists of an entrance corridor of approximately six

meters in length and a one to one and a half meter width, which slopes to a depth of two and one half meters below the upper edges of its walls. This corridor is accessible from

the south by stone steps and communicates with a cave-like main room that has not yet been fully excavated. While the corridor is carefully line with plastered stone, the main room appears to be simply cut into the bedrock.

This second building is similar to others that were found in the older excavations in the eastern part of Maadi, which scholars have connected to the chalcolithic Beersheva culture of Southern Palestine. There is no doubt whatsoever that both buildings date to the Predynastic Period, and thus far, they represent the earliest examples of the use of stone as building materials known in Egypt.

The Settlement

The site of Maadi is located on a narrow ridge in the mouth of the Wadi al-Tih. Though on the surface, it appears to have the typical characteristics of a Northern Egyptian Predynastic farming village, evidence unearthed in this location suggests otherwise. Certainly agriculture was a primary economic factor in this settlement, but there was also an emphasis on trade, metallurgy and foreign contacts that was unknown in other northern sites.

Between about 3600 and 3000 BC, a number of innovations took place at Maadi that brought Egypt into the realm of the international world. Trade dominated this settlement more than any other contemporary sites, and it had few rivals in Egypt even during later periods. Its location within the Wadi al-Tih, the main historic route to the copper mines of the Sinai, together with the presence of housing obviously of a foreign type and pottery, domesticated donkeys, elaborate storage facilities and a well developed copper industry all evidence the importance of it role as a trade center.

Maadi may have in fact originated in order to exploit the Sinai copper mines. Unearthed tidbits in the area include copper bars that are possibly ingots, bits of unprocessed, a miscast head of an ax, and even a possible smelting area, originally identified as a pottery kiln. However, trade may have predated Maadi's copper industry, considering that metallurgy had developed first in other regions like the Mediterranean and Iranian Plateau, and spread into Egypt through trade with foreign lands. Hence, we may note that Maadi was a mercantile community which invested its surplus wealth into metallurgy, transportation and storage.

There can be little question that Maadi benefited from a very favorable geographical position. Not only did it have access to the mainstream of the Nile, just south of where it branches into the Delta, but from there goods could reach the Mediterranean and of course there was also access to the desert frontiers to the east through the Wadi al-Tih. Its ultimate abandonment, however, may have been due to the ease with which its location was imitated by the ancient capital of Egypt, Memphis, located only ten kilometers north of Maadi. Another contributory factor may have also been the fact that after the unification of Egypt, its rulers sought to control and exclude the nomads that undoubtedly provided considerable trade goods to the area.

One of the most obvious evidences of foreign contact at Maadi is a unique type of dwelling that was apparently imported from southern Palestine. Though most of the houses in the settlement were typical of the usual Lower Egyptian variety, having an oval shape with post walls and frames of mud-daubed wickerwork, there were also true underground houses which were unique among the villages of prehistoric Egypt. However, such houses did exist at several sites around Beersheba in southern Palestine, leading archaeologists to believe that they were imports from that area to Egypt, perhaps even housing foreigners at Maadi.

These foreign style structures were constructed with a pit dug two to three meters into the subsoil. There dimensions could be as great as three by almost five meters. Their entrance consisted of a slanting passage with steps that were sometimes faced in stone. Around the walls of the pit, posts were driven into the floor in order to support a roof that was probably made of light materials such as woven mats, the remains of which were discovered in some of the buildings. In the center of the floor, a sunken hearth was constructed.

Within these dwellings, considerable debris was unearthed during excavations, supporting the claim that they were houses as opposed to some sort of ceremonial structure.

However, the subterranean houses are not the only evidence of foreign contact at Maadi. With the exception of "Fayoum A" culture locations, Lower Egyptian sites usually only reveal storage pits and jars associated with individual households. Though such facilities also existed at Maadi, there were two specialized storage areas located at opposite ends of the site. On the southern boundary of the settlement were large, underground storage cellars while on the northern border there were rows of great storage jars, known by the Greek name, Pithoi, that were sunk up to their rims in the soil. The latter pithoi mostly contained foodstuffs such as emmer wheat and barley as well as cooked mutton, animal and fish bone and shellfish. Non-food items included small pots, flints, spindle whorls and jar stoppers. On the other hand, the cellars on the southern boundary of Maadi contianed luxury goods, suggesting a fairly well organized community based system of storage and exchange.

The storage cells measured one to two meters in depth, and could reach a maximum length of almost four meters. Within these cellars, there were at times large pithoi jars sunk into the floors and covered by stone lids. There is also indication that the cellars were at one time roofed over with light timbers. There was also at least one cellar with a retaining wall built of stone, which was one of the earliest uses of that material for building purposes. Some of the cellars were also linked together, which might indicate an increasing wealth of their owners or the settlement at large.

While many of the cellars had been disturbed or filled with trash during later periods, surprisingly, there fortunately remained samples of their original content, providing clues to the goods that were once flowed through Maadi. In one of these cellars that remained sealed, there was unearthed a number of well made stone jars and vases, carnelian beads and a decayed, unidentifiable white substance. In other cellars, jars contained grain and in several examples as many as twelve containers were still in place.

Well made stone jars at Maadi perhaps indicate that at least here Lower Egypt had finally attained the technical competence in stone grinding found in the south, provided they were manufactured in this region. These items, manufactured from a variety of stone including granite, gneiss, diorite, Fayoum basalt, limestone and alabaster, were both well made and attractive. They were usually fashioned as elongated cylinders with flat rims, small handles and flaring, ring-like bases. These were undoubtedly used for commercial purposes, while local limestone was roughly shaped into dishes, bowls, cups and lamps for domestic use.

Carnelian beads may have possibly served as a crude form of trade currency. The beads that were found in the sealed cellar were almost certainly made from material remote from Maadi. It may have originated in the Eastern Desert, and the beads may have also been manufactured elsewhere and brought into Maadi by nomads. These attractive red-orange, translucent carnelian beads were in considerable demand in the ancient Middle East and South Asia during the fourth and third millennia BC. They were also easy to transport and relatively scarce.

There was also found the distinctive black-topped red ware of Upper Egypt, which is not surprising considering the site of ancient Gerzeh lies only about thirty kilometers south of Maadi. Other southern imports included the ubiquitous slate pigment palettes.

Another indication of Maadi's role in foreign trade is the so-called Palestinian pottery unearthed at this site. Maadi contained several ceramic type that, like its subterranean houses, have precedents in the the Beersheba area of southern Palestine. They included ledge-handled jars, round-body lug-handled pots and loop-handled pots with light bodies.

This pottery corresponds well with the discovery of some of the earliest domesticated donkey remains known in prehistoric Egypt Even today, jars are strapped on the backs of donkey or camels by nomads and transported with ease over long distances, and evidences the method that allowed the foreign pottery to be transported over their long journey form southern Palestine.

The Maadi South cemetery

As stated earlier, Maadi choose to invest most of its wealth in trade, storage and metallurgy, rather than fancy tombs and luxury goods as did their southern counterparts in Upper Egypt. However, they were not without some quest for prestige, and just bout the time that foreign contacts accelerated around 3,600 BC, they began to adopt many of their southern neighbors burial customs, though always on a poorer scale. Unfortunately, the early excavations at the three necropolises located in the area were not very well documented, and thus scholars have found it extremely difficult to date many of the burials.

Two of the cemeteries located in Wadi al-Tih and Maadi North, may probably be dated later than the Predynastic period. The necropolis that probably was used by the townspeople at Maadi, Maadi South, and which was luckily the best reported, is located about a kilometer southeast of the town on a low rise in the mouth of the Wadi Digla. Here, Amer and Rizkana unearthed some 468 burials between 1952 and 1953, all distributed over little more than an acre of land. Besides the human burials there were also burials for thirteen gazelles and one dog. At least one of the gazelles had its throat cut in what might have been a ritual sacrifice. The poorest graves were segregated at the western end of the site where the fourteen animal burials occur.

The prehistoric date for this cemetery is supported by the contents of its graves, including artifacts that closely resemble those excavated in the settlement. These included any number of pots of the familiar oval, ring-based variety on smooth red and polished black wares, stone vases of alabaster, basalt and limestone, flake and blade tools, trapezoidal and rhomboidal palettes with beveled edges similar to those of the Naqadan culture, shell pigment containers and combs, bracelets and combs. Of course, there were also carnelian and other colored stone beads. Interestingly, little copper was discovered, presumably because it was simply considered too valuable for trade purposes to bury with the dead.

With the coming of the unification of Egypt, Maadi disappears from our history of Egypt, but it certainly contributed to the future of the empire with its unique cultural and knowledge of trade with the outside world.

As a side note, there is, or was at least until recently a museum at Maadi. It is both difficult to find and difficult to reach, having no signs and no real road. However, we are told that those truly interested in the archaeological site would do very well to seek it out.

http://www.dainst.org/

http://www.touregypt.net/

http://www.springerlink.com/T.N.P

2008-05-20T02:30:00.004+03:00

The Spirits of Nature

Religion of the Egyptians

Ancient Egypt had by tradition a great variety of gods and what today can be labelled as "spirits" and "fairies". The total of them all was over 2.000, but many of them had similar characteristics and appeared all over the country by different names. The huge diversity is due to the fact that before the country was united the Nile Valley was split up into about forty self ruling areas (later to be provinces - so called nomes) where the ruling tribe had its own deities. Almost all gods had one thing in common - they had a count- erpart of the opposite sex and manifested themselves on earth through animals. Thus hundreds of birds, crocodiles, snakes, frogs, turtles, cows, cats etc. were considered to be the living images of a particular god and a natural and indestructible part of the environment in which people lived.All parts of life were covered and there were gods for - beer, plants, digestion, the high seas, female sexuality, gardens, feasting etc. Many of them had lots of duties and were in time combined with each other in a great number of ways. They could also appear in many forms like a goddess (curious even by Egyptian standards) having a head of a bee and body from a hippopotamus. The goddesses are easy to single out in depictions - they always had their legs joined together, while the gods used to be shown striding.

Different towns struggled to have just their local gods as the prime deities in the state religion and thus we have many different religious legends over the years depending upon which town had the greatest influence for the moment. Because of this over the years different gods came into fashion and later went out of style, with exception of a group that was in front right from the beginning and never lost its popularity. These were responsible for vital things like love, joy, dancing, childbirth, justice, cemeteries, afterlife, writing, mummification etc. All aspect of daily life were covered by at least one of these deities, and like people on earth they were members of families, were married and had children. Many ingredients made it possible for common people to identify themselves with them since their personalities were made of both divine strength and human weakness. They did most of the things that ordinary people did, like harvesting, hunting, eating, drinking, partying and even dying. Most of them were depicted as men and women combined with the head of the animal by which they were represented and they could appear in different costumes and be represented by several animals in the Egyptian fauna. In other words - they could appear in many ways and yet some of them were so alike looking that it's impossible to identify them without reading the connecting text. Just looking at the dresses and the regalia they carry along isn't always enough, because they used to borrow objects from each other. This guesswork is a part of the charm when looking in to their in many ways, to us, unlikely world.As to their names today we use a blend of both their original Egyptian ones like Re, Ptah and Amon, and the Greek forms like Isis, Anubis and Horus.

Clothing

When the goddesses and gods were depicted with a human body the variety wasn't so big in the way they were dressed. Not more then half a dozen types of garments make almost one hundred percent of all. From the beginning they all wore white dresses, or at least single colored. This tradition slowly changed over the years and with time the colours and patterns became various. The peak was reached during the Greco-Roman period with outfits like actors in a costume spectacle in a theatre. Excluding the mummy-like creations, here is a type description in brief:

Tunic with suspenders.Male garment, ending above the waistand popular in all times. Example: Re.
Dress with suspenders.Female garment, ended above the waist, and was usually white. Example: Hathor.
The short loinclothShort and skirt-like garment and popular from earliest times. Example: Asar-hap.
The short-sleeved overall From the earliest times very common tight female garment. Example: Isis.
The full-length dressUnusual, sleeve-less and for goddesses. Went up to the neck. Example: Seshat.

Notice that long sleeves were not in fashion in any era of Egyptian history, at least for the gods and goddesses. Their dresses were to a great extent similar to those worn by the upper classes in society during daytime and evenings, and mostly indoors.

Headgear

The gods had a lot of different things to put on their heads, and they surely did. In bright contrast to the stereotyped positions of their bodies the painters and sculptors were keen on giving the heads as much attention as possible. This was obviously initiated by pharaoh himself or the priesthood in order to give their favourite gods as much promotion as possible. The different crowns could give a hint where the god originally came from, and by wearing the combined crown for the whole country, the message was given that this god or goddess was important to all Egyptians. To make them conspicuous all crowns, hats etc. were adorned with plumes, horns, snakes, flowers, sun discs, leaves etc painted in bright colours. Especially during the Greco-Roman era the fantasy and elaboration was significant.

EGYPTIAN CROWNS: The red one was from Lower and the white from Upper Egypt. The double crown represented the whole country. The Atef-crown was worn by Osiris and the type with horns and the sun disc by Re-Horakhte and other gods. The blue helmet-like came during dynasty 18 and was worn by kings and the god Amon.

Besides royal crowns the gods had a lot of other symbols and things to wear upon their heads. In some cases the headgear was necessary to identify the deities in question, when they were dressed the same, as they often were. Here is a selection of personal things helping to identify which goddess is depicted in case the written hieroglyphs don't give a clue. The following objects below are shown in the way that they looked when the bearer in question was facing right. Neit had the a stylised form of her shield and crossed arrows on her head. Isis wore a throne on top, a rather uncomfortable one it seems, and Maát had her standing ostrich feather she was named after. Nephtys had a building topped with a bowl-like object (for collecting rain water?) and Nut had a pot (or a broad vase) upon her head.Selkhet wore the dangerous scorpion (without its deadly sting), and Seshat had the holy Persea-tree with two horns over it as her personal sign. Anat had a stylised cow's uterus as her token. Hathor had several objects in her hat box like cow's horns with the sun disc and her favourite musical instrument - the sistrum, which was a rattle.

Most of these objects worn upon their heads were unique for just one female deity. The solar disc and horns (Hathor) and object of Anat could be worn by others and the very common solar disc with a cobra (not shown) was the insignia of many goddesses.

Regalia

All paintings, drawings, sculptures and reliefs in Egypt followed a traditional scheme, and changes came slowly in time. Lots of artistic expressions didn't alter anything at all, and were the same for 3000 years. Traditional ways of depicting people are among these unaltered expressions of art. The body was normally in profile except for the torso which was shown from the front like the eye, to make the face more expressive. The gods (and kings) depicted were seldom empty handed - they usually carried various objects, and the symbolic meaning of some are still obscure to Egyptologists. The gods usually had the well known ankh-sign in one of their hands, with the meaning in general "life", also to be interpreted as joy of living. Since the Egyptian religion offered eternal life for those who had behaved well on earth, we don't know if this sign of life meant the next or the present one - or possibly both. The other hand was holding a staff or sceptre of some kind, and here we have half a dozen types. Goddesses usually had a sceptre topped with a flower in different colors (like a white lily from the Nile) but this was seldom seen among the gods, possibly because it gave a more soft impression to the observer.

Very common through all times was the Was-sceptre for "command" (see pictures below) and some gods, like Ptah and Osiris, had their own type of this staff.

1) Sceptre with flower often carried by goddesses.
2) The herdsman's crook of god Anedjti, patron of shepherds and protector of domesticated animals.
3) Was-sceptre, stood for domination and power. It was very common among gods/kings in all times.
4) Staff of creator Ptah formed of four "djed-pillars" of order and stability (possibly a human spine).
5) Outfit of Osiris: crook and flail (cattle breeding and farming) plus the Was-sceptre and ankh-sign.

The Myth of Osiris

In the very beginning of time Osiris was king over Egypt and his queen (and sister) was the goddess Isis.

He was beloved by the people whom he told how to worship the gods and grow their crops for their daily bread. His brother Set became jealous and tried to overthrow him and become king himself. When participating in a feast with Osiris as host, Set began to describe a beautiful coffin he had, in a way that made the other guests curious. IsisHe was asked to fetch it and so he did and this was just in line with his plan.

Everyone agreed that it was a magnificent piece of craftsmanship and Set told them that he would give it away for free to whomever fitted exactly into it. Since he had made the coffin himself it was measured to fit one person only - his brother Osiris. When he placed himself in it everybody could see that he was the one who would get i as a present, but the evil Set had other plans. With his brother Osiris still in it, he and his fellows quickly nailed the lid and threw it into the Nile. Queen Isis was overcome by sorrow and began to search all over the land for it, but in vain.

One day she heard that a wonderful tree had sprung on the shores of Byblos in the north on the Eastern coast of the Mediterranean Sea, where the local king had cut it down and built a palace from it.
HorusIsis understood that this was the place where the coffin had come to shore and she went there in disguise. She got a job at the court as a hairdresser for the queen and now when she could walk freely inside the castle she began to look for the coffin, and finally she found it in a remote chamber.

During the night she managed to snach it and embarked a boat heading for Egypt. When she came there she hid in the marshlands in the delta. There she opened the coffin and took a last farewell of her beloved husband Osiris and began searching for a suitable place to bury him. But Set was aware of all this and was hiding nearby. When Isis went to rest for the night he snatched the coffin and cut his brother's body into fourteen pieces and spread them all over Egypt. Isis became furious and asked her sister Nephthys and her son Anubis, to help her to find all the pieces of her husband's body.

They now started a nation wide search that lasted for many years and finally all the part of Osiris' body were found except for the penis which had been thrown into the Nile where it was devoured by a fish. Isis made a wooden replacement for it and then put the whole body together. She now asked the sun god Re to make her husband alive just for one day, which he did, and they could have a last night of love together. The next day Osiris died and his body was embalmed by Anubis who thus made him the first mummy. Isis later gave birth to a son who was named Horus and she did all she could to keep it a secret from Set, but he found them and almost killed them in an ambush.
ThothThey were saved by the god of wisdom - Thoth, and he told them to hide in the reeds in the marshes once more. But as before Set found their hiding place and had more wicked things on his mind. He transformed himself into a snake and gave the little Horus child a fatal bite.

When Isis came back she found her baby almost lifeless, and took him to the nearest village to get help. A wise old woman examined him and found out that it must have been Set as a snake who had bitten him. Thoth came to their rescue once more and drove out the poison from Horus' body and he recovered. He and his mother stayed hiding in the delta until he was a mature man and sometimes he took the form of a hawk and scouted out Set for the final showdown - the revenge on his murdered father. When that moment came they fought for three days until Thoth stopped the fight. They were both taken to the Court of Law in the Underworld and there they presented their versions of the story leading to the combat. The Court did not believe Set, who was sentenced to pull the boat with the sun across the sky forever. Horus now became the new king of Egypt like his father Osiris before him, and the good had finally conquered evil.

Isis put the body of her dead husband in a coffin and had nineteen identical coffins made in which she put duplicates. Priest from Egypt's twenty biggest towns then were given one each and could all thereafter claim that they had Osiris' tomb in their town. Thus many places in Egypt were (and still are) called Abusir - the place of Osiris.

Legends of creation

Ancient Egypt had different stories telling about how the world and all its inhabitants once came to be. The legends varied from province to province along the Nile, but after the unification a handful of them grew more popular and others were forgotten.The priesthood in the cult centres of the creator-gods supported their own version and thus we meet gods like Atum, Re, Ptah, Khnum and Kheper performing the act as The Great Maker, but in different ways. There are no Deluge-legends involved in any of the creation stories of the Nile-people, probably because they had their own big flood every year and the beginning of everything couldn't possibly involve a banality like that.

The most common, and probably one of the oldest stories, said that at the dawn of time there was nothing but the water called Nun, and the first ground coming out of the water was symbolized by fetish called the "Ben-Ben stone". From a slightly irregular shape in time it turned into a broad and short obelisk with a pointed top in a four-side pyramid fashion. Some scholars suggest that this might be the prototype for later pyramids tombs, but others do not. On the Ben-Ben stone stood Atum and he coughed and spat out Shu and Tefnut.

The world creators in short:

ATUM from Heliopolis made everything (even himself) of his own sperm through masturbating or spitting. He then created woman from a bit of flesh from his hand.
PTAH from Heliopolis in Lower Egypt made the world by simply saying words and made earth raise from the water, very similar the story in the Bible.
RE (also from Heliopolis) is told in a rather late poetic legend to be the creator by using a tear from his eye to build all the world.
KHNUM from the island of Elefantine in Aswan in the south, was the creator who made the world and all its people on his potter's wheel. The stuff was mud from the Nile.
PERKHE (representing Re) made all other gods from matter taken from his own body. He also created life (symbolically) every morning by commanding the sun to rise.
AMON from Thebes was during the New Kingdom vaguely connected to the creation of the World, saying that he once (like Atum) had created himself at the dawn of time
THOTH was in Khemenu (Hermopolis) in Upper Egypt, the maker of the world and the first ones he helped to life were four frogs and four snakes, the so called Ogdoad.

The first family

The family from which all the world was built up was the earth god Geb and his wife Nut, goddess of the sky. They had the twins Shu who was god of the cool dry air and his sister Tefnut, patroness of rain, dew and moisture.By command of the sun-god Re they were separated and Geb wept over his loss, and from his tears came all the seas and oceans of the world.

One legend tells that Re for some reason (possibly jealousy) had become angry with Nut and laid a curse on her telling that none of her coming children could be born on any one day of the year. This was a big setback for Nut and Geb who were just planning to raise a family. In their agony they turned to the god of wisdom - Thoth, for advice. He went to his superior, the shadowy and not often depicted moon-god Aah who was in charge of the Egyptian moon-calendar. This old table of time consisted of 12 months of 30 days together making the moon-year of 360 days.

Thoth made him a proposition to gamble about the matter and they started to play a game of dice resulting in victory for Thoth. He thereby won the moonlight of the five additional days of the true astronomical year (in this case July 14-18) and gave it to Geb and Nut who used them for the births of their children. Thus the curse of Re had no effect because the children could all be born outside the official calendar.

In the following years Nut gave birth to five of the most famous deities of Egypt: Year 1 - Osiris. Year 2 - Horus (the Elder). Year 3 - Set. Year 4 - Isis. Year 5 - Nephtys.

The origin of Universe

From the beginning there was nothing but a water chaos called Nun, and from that came the god Atum, who had created himself. He made the earth-god Geb and his sister (and wife) Nut, goddess of the sky. To hold up and fill the sky they had two children, the boy Shu, the god of the air, and a girl Tefnut, goddess of moisture and rain. This family of four was the very foundation upon which the world existed as they represented: earth, water, air and the sky.

The first gods

1) The old tradition from Heliopolis (Iunu) just north of Memphis in Lower Egypt said the creation of all the gods was made by Kheper, who was another form of their local sun god Re. He was self-produced and made the other gods out of the matter of his own body. He was the father of many gods like Osiris, Nephtys, Isis, Set, Horus and others.
2) The priests from Hermo- polis in Upper Egypt declared for their part that Thoth was the primeval god and created the first four couples that built up everything. The first pair was Nun and Nuntet (snakes), who represented and dwelled in the mass of water from which everything emerged. The second was Heh and Hauhet (frogs), who stood for indefinite time and long life. The third was Kek and Keket (snakes), who embodied darkness, and the fourth pair was Niau and Niaut (frogs) representing the void. During the New Kingdom the two latter were replaced by Amon and Amonet.
3) In Sais (in the delta in Lower Egypt) the priests taught the people that their own mighty goddess Neit was behind the origin of the other gods. She was self-begotten and self-produced and mother of the mighty solar god Re.
4) Another story tells that the creation of The World was wet and dark and Atum-Re arose from the Nun and appointed the eight reptile gods above (the so called Ogdoad) to their proper places and brought order from chaos. Here the frogs Niau and Niaut have been changed for Amon and Amonet which tells that this version is of later date (New Kingdom) when Amon had reached a lofty position among the gods.

Creation of man

A very old legend in Egypt told that mankind was divided into four types when they were made on the potter's wheel by the great creator Khnum. He made them all out of mud of various colors from the Nile. The order in which they were made was as follows: First was - Romut, meaning "men", and these were the Egyptians themselves. The second to come from the potter's wheel was - Áamu, the people from the desert mountains east of the Nile. This name was later also used for Asians in general.Number three, called - Temehu, was the fair skinned people from the Mediterranean coast west of the Nile Delta and the oases west of the Nile Valley.The last to be made was - Nehesy, the black people to the south of Egypt, below the province of Nubia. Notable is that the names of these people seem to be very old and originating from the early times when the Egyptians didn't have a name for Asians, which they surely encountered well before the first dynasty as shown in archaeology remains.According to another (much younger) legend mankind was created from a tear that fell from the eye of the god Re, and turned into men and women. The fair-skinned Libyans, considered as "cousins" by the people in the Nile valley, were formed in the same way. The two other people have a tear from Re as their origin too, but in a more irregular way.

The Court in the Underworld

When a person had died he was taken to Underworld where his deeds in life were taken to the Court of Osiris for the final judgement. Since this place also was called "The Island of Fire" it's quite obvious that the Egyptians had knowledge about the burning interior of the Earth though they had no volcanoes in their own country. Before coming there the dead person had to pass a labyrinth of gates and doors and answer questions correctly to pass through. The lion-god Aker let him through the last gate and he was facing the fourteen members of the jury in the Tribunal Hall. There he was allowed to speak about his behaviour on Earth. (Shown in the upper left in the picture below).

Then god Anubis took him into the courtroom presenting him the scale where his heart would be put in balance with the feather of the goddess Máat, patroness of truth and harmony. The procedure was recorded by Thoth - the god of writing and wisdom. Sometimes Thot's animal (a baboon) was sitting on top of the scale ready to adjust the result using a sliding weight.

The deceased enters from the left guided by Anubis. His heart is placed on the scales and the result is recorded by Thoth. Then Horus takes him in front of the judge Osiris for the final verdict. Behind the throne stand Isis and Nephtys.

If the heart of the deceased wasn't too heavy with sins from his life on Earth, he went through and could continue his voyage to the afterlife and was granted a plot of land in the "Field of the Reeds". This was the paradise for the ancient Egyptians - to grow crops for eternity in a land that was the very image of the Nile Valley they just had left.

If he failed the test on the other hand - his heart was immediately devoured by the beast Ammut sitting under the scale ready to have a good blow-out. In that case the dead faced the most horrible future imaginable for the Egyptians - he was denied an eternal life in the land in the West and his soul would be restless forever.

The seven steps to Paradise

1. Crossing the celestial river by Nemty to the "Land in the West".
2. Passing through gates and labyrinths by answering questions.
3. Being let into the great Court of the Underworld by the god Aker.
4. Addressing a jury of 14 judges about the deeds during life on Earth.
5. Taken by Anubis to "Balance of Truth" to weigh his heart for sins.
6. If the heart wasn't heavy, brought by Horus to Chief Judge Osiris.
7. Entering the "Fields of the Reed" (Paradise) and get eternal life.

The Book of the Dead

The Book of the Dead was (in most versions) an illustrated manuscript which consisted of prayers and magical texts to be used during the funeral and read over the dead to ensure the survival in the afterlife.

These texts were a necessary part of the funerary equipment and were thought to help through dangers of the Underworld. Over 150 burial spells were written on papyrus and placed with the dead and the content has been traced back to the Old Kingdom Pyramid Texts from 2.300 B.C. and had probably a long oral tradition before that.

Each nome (province) and even towns had their own version putting text mentioning the local gods in favour. For poor people (i.e. the average Egyptian) there were versions not so elaborated (and expensive) and just containing the essence. A big part concerned the moment when the dead came in front of the jury in the Underworld. There he would make confessions like: "I have not killed or used false weights on my balance, or caused pain to anyone". Then he usually stated things like: "I have given clothes to the naked, water to the thirsty and bread to the hungry" etc, all to convince the jury members of his kind-heartedness.

One spell was spoken in front of a tribunal of 42 gods, and proclaimed innocence of a series of specified sins that covered every kinds of wrong doing. This made the soul worthy to go further into the Judgement Hall where the Court of Osiris (see above) had the final word. Being approved of there he was ready to embark on the Boat of Re to sail to the "Land in the West" for eternal rest.

The human soul - Ba, seen as a bird, hovering over his newly mummyfied master on his bier.

Ka and Ba (body and soul)

The purpose of preserving the body through embalming is clearly shown in the two components the Egyptians thought built up a man's personality. In both cases the physical body was essential for their existence and an eternal life for the deceased.

The Egyptians believed that every person (during life and after) was followed by an invisible double called - Ka. He was created at the moment of birth and stood for "force of live" for the person. He could not be seen or depicted but all big tombs had a "blind door" for him to use. After death a transformation of rebirth took place and every night he was released to give his dead master a spiritual travel to the land of the living. The travel itself was made by his soul Ba (see beyond). This was a link from the tomb to life on earth that was supposed to go on forever. The poor commoners who couldn't afford an embalming were offered small simple statuettes of mummies to give their Ka someone to stand beside in the life beyond and thereby please their life-long companion and get eternal rest themselves.

Ka (left) walking beside the bodyand Ba who was dwelling within.

The human soul was called - Ba and was depicted as a bird with a human face, sometimes with the features of the dead person. The Ba (like Ka) appeared for the first time at the moment of birth, but the Ba was dwelling within the body, and after death in the mummy. During life he was his master's conscience and after death he was himself protected from being misled by evil spirits through rituals and prayers from "The Book of the Dead" performed by priests or relatives. A correct behaviour in both worlds was essential to the Egyptians. After death he was released from the mummy every night and could fly back to the world of the living to check things out. Before sunrise he was back within his master, who thus never lost contact with the world he had left.

The Solar Boat of Re

The story of the sun god Re and the voyage in his boat was one of the most important in Egyptian mythology and concerned the very basics of life for the people in the Nile Valley. It clearly shows the cyclic way of looking at time and life that was at hand since the oldest times for Egyptians.

The religious beliefs in Heliopolis in Lower Egypt told that Re was the creator of men and at the beginning of the fifth dynasty he reached a very lofty position when the kings adopted his name in their titles claiming to be his sons.Re travelled through the waters of heaven in two different boats each day. The first, Madjet ("being strong"), rose out of the east behind the Mount Bakhu and then passed between two sycamore trees. At noon he was transferred over to a small bark by the name of Semektet ("going weak"), and this vessel took him into the sunset in the west at Mount Manu.

He did not navigate the boats himself because this was taken care of by Máat, goddess of justice and stability. She was first mate on the bridge and set the course accompanied by Horus.

The first voyage over the sky.
The life-giving Re (as the sun disk) and the symbol of creation the beetle Kheper on the very first day. Onboard are the gods who had helped to formed the World. The boat was the first land that was created and is held up by Nun, the lord of the watery chaos below from which everything had emerged at the dawn of time - the day before. (See gods Hu and Sia).

The boat was not provided with sails, but had another way to get power to move. It was simply pulled across the sky by the evil god Set who had been condemned to do so for killing his brother Osiris (as told in the Myth of Osiris above).

At night the god Upuaut stood on the prow and navigation was assisted by pilot fish Abtu and Ant, who swam in front of the boat.

The crew consisted of the gods Geb and Heka plus the companions Hu and Sia. They all helped Re to overcome the obstacles set up by those who tried to stop his journey - the three monsters Sebau, Nak, and Apep. The evil creature Apep was the most dangerous one and he took the shape of a big snake or a crocodile.

Under the protection of war god Maahes, Re fought and killed the monsters every day in order for the sun to rise the next morning, and by then they were all alive and kicking again and the daily combat could begin as usual.

Cloudy days were scary to the Egyptians because it might be that Apep had stopped Re in his boat. To prevent this and make things go back to normal again they made extra offerings in the temples to make the sun come back.

A prayer for life
By begging Re to come back in the morning the Egyptians hoped that life should go on as usual.(From a prayer book).

The most critical days, that thankfully did not come often, were those with solar eclipses in different stages. It seemed that Apep was swallowing up the sun, but somehow, after extra ceremonies, Re turned out to be the winner in the end. There were even manuals for people to help to fight this evil snake/crocodile that could jump up from the heavenly waters and attack the boat and the people onboard. Even the otherwise bad god Set took part in the struggle, besides pulling the boat, which underlines the importance of the mission.

The essence of this myth is that the sun (symbolising life itself) was a constant struggle. A lifetime for a man was a similar voyage with the birth and peak of living at noon. At twilight life was coming to an end and people finally reach the glorious Land In the West - the next World, after their short stay on Earth.

By venerating the gods who struggled every day to make the life-giving sun keep shining, order and stability was secured. This was what the chief navigator goddess Máat stood for and she always managed to get the old barge to port.

Burial customs

The basic purpose of mortuary preparation was to ensure the deceased a successful passage into the next world. The tombs were from the very beginning shallow holes in the sand later to be lined with a wall of sun dried bricks or stones and topped by a mound of sand or clay. The substructures were elaborated downwards when pits leading to grave chambers were cut out in the bedrock starting around 3200 BC. The structures above ground developed into bench-like brick buildings (mastabas) later to be made of stone and ending with the great pyramids 2.400 BC, a time span of evolution for almost half a millennium.

The amount of grave goods and offerings (for wealthy people) was increasing and be- came more sophisticated and progress was also seen in the treatment of the body of the deceased - the mummification. This custom first appeared also in about 3200 BC. and steadily progressed technically for the next 2.000 years from simple dehydration (made by the dry climate) to preparations with chemicals.

Originally the dead was placed in a crunched position lying on the side, but with time traditions changed and they were stretched out on their backs.

The religious belief was that the body should be preserved intact for the soul to dwell in the next world. This made kings and other royalties hide their dead protected un- der mountains of stone (pyramids) and later in secret hideouts in the desert cliffs. Unfortunately they did not separate the valuable offerings and grave goods from the mummies, which made the robbers plunder it all during periods of political instability.

Prepared for eternity
Anubis who was the watcher over the cemeteries, also took care of the important mummification.

In the picture he is making an em- balming to make the dead keep his looks in the next world. Without a physical body the soul had no place to dwell and became restless forever.Poor people could only afford small clay figurines as substitute for a preserved body.

Thus the great kings of the Old Kingdom did not come to "the Field of Reeds" after death despite (or probably just because) they tried to protect themselves under moun- tains of stone, which draw attention to everybody, not the least tomb robbers.

The next world was located in more than one place both in a physical and a religious (metaphysical) sense. It could be 1) in the area around the tomb, 2) among the stars, 3) in the celestial regions with the sun god or 4) in the Underworld itself.

All places had one thing in common: they were all located in "The Beautiful West" where the day (and life) ended with the setting sun.The journey to the next world was fraught with obstacles in the Underworld. It was a trip by boat through many gates with tricky questions to answer. The judgement after death (see Book of the Dead above) was a subject often depicted from the New Kingdom and onwards, but the belief was older than that, probably from before the first dynasty 2000 years earlier. It was the final judgement whether the dead had been a good human being or a bad one. Most of them (who had means) passed through by giving offerings to the gods and making declarations of their good behaviour on Earth, true or not.

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http://www.metmuseum.org/

http://www.dragonstrike.com/

http://www.lockware.net/re.net

http://www.nemo.nu/ibisportal/index.htm

T.N.P

2008-05-08T18:07:00.019+03:00

The Birth of Gods

We are able to study the gods of ancient Egypt very well back to the beginning of recorded history (around 3000 BC), and we can also find representations of divine powers back another millennium before the Egyptian began to write down their thoughts. However, since these earliest beginnings of religion in Egypt predate the written word, and the non-written evidence often comes from relatively uncertain contexts and settings and is difficult to interpret, the subject is open to differing opinions.

Man's first gods were the forces of nature. Terrifying and unpredictable, they were feared rather than revered by our ancestors. Yet while much of the world was in darkness, worshipping cruel incarnations of natural forces, a river valley in Africa held a people who followed a different path. They worshipped gods that were beautiful to behold, luminous beings that walked the earth, guiding the human race to Paradise. They had human forms but were much more powerful; yet like humans, they got angry, despaired, fought with one another, had children, and fell in love. They lived lives that were very much like those of the people who worshipped them, the ancient Egyptians.

They were gods to be feared yes, as all gods are, but they were also gods to be loved. What's more, the Egyptians enjoyed talking about the gods.

Like the gods of the Greeks and Romans, the Egyptian gods seemed to be made for storytelling. There were tales to educate, tales to entertain, and tales with morals, and in those stories, the gods didn't seem so far away and unreachable. It was comforting to hear that the gods also wept for those they had lost, to hear about the gods laughing, to learn that the gods faced many of the same problems that the people did, albeit on a grander scale. In learning about the gods on such an intimate level, the Egyptians could better relate to the universe around them.

Nevertheless, various evidence suggests that even very early Egyptians had concepts of spiritualism. The care with which the dead were buried in the prehistoric period, and the afterlife belief implied by that care, certainly suggests that the necessary intellectual sophistication was present for such a belief.

During the true neolithic period in Egypt (Merimda and Fayoum cultures), no representations are known that can be interpreted with any certainty as depictions or symbols of divine power. However, no real conclusions can be drawn from this lack of evidence because the art during that time frame which we have been able to recover consists of pottery vessels and the first cosmetic palettes, none of which have depictions of human beings, animals or objects. Hence, there could have been a worship of fetishes made from perishable materials, though none have been found. The lack of animal burials seems to suggest the absence of divine worship, though future finds could certainly change our perceptions of this period.

During the chalcolithic period, which lasted through most of the fourth millennium BC in Egypt, offers us our first clear evidence for a belief in gods, which is already at this early stage surprisingly multifarious and highly differentiated. Hence, the evidence from this period suggests that earlier worship took place for which no direct evidence has been found. The main sites that evidence the belief in gods during the chalcolithic period are Maadi and Heliopolis in Lower Egypt and Badari and Naqada in Upper Egypt. At all of these locations, animal burials, typically consisting of gazelles and dogs (or jackals), and more rarely cattle and rams, have been found, and the care with which these animals were buried and provided with grave goods evidences a cult of sacred animals or at least of divine powers in animal form.

During this period also, cosmetic palettes begin to assume the form of animals, and finally, by the end of the Predynastic Period, they are richly decorated with animal figures in relief. The most notable examples of these are the "animal palettes" in Oxford and in the Louvre. We also see, from the Naqada I period, figures of animals on decorated vases and in the form of clay statuettes.

Hence, considering this evidence, there can scarcely be any doubt that, at least in the last centuries of prehistory the Egyptians worshiped divine power in animal form. Yet, even in that period there was no pure zoolatry. If these zoomorphic images are not merely totems of tribal groups and do signify manifestations of the divine in some way, the represent a significant stage in the development of Egyptian gods. The idea that the divine might be manifest in animal form is a vital prerequisite for the animals which are shown acting in human ways and which are the major representations of the Egyptian gods at the end of the Predynastic Period.

From the Naqada II period and from the beginning of recorded history, the animals on "standards" and archaic objects of uncertain character which were carried on poles evidence the worship of sacred objects. It would seem that this fetishism was far less important than animal worship, though because these objects were rather perishable, it may have had more importance than we now realize.

What we do not know is whether anthropomorphism, or the worship of deities in human form, took place in predynastic times. Though human figures made of clay and ivory are infrequently found in the Badari culture and even became common in the Naqada cultures, there remains much doubt about these objects. Though they have been repeated interpreted as deities, many pointers lead us to suspect that they may not be. For example, nude, possibly female figures, have been labeled as a "great mother goddess", but in fact, nude statuettes such as these are quite unknown in Egypt during the early historical period. One should also be very skeptical about identifying naked, bearded figures as gods. Such figures may more likely be associated with enemies of Egypt, for foreigners were frequently shown with beards, and captives especially were often naked. Scholars also believe that the fragile nature of clay, from which many of these figures are made, probably also provides evidence that they did not represent gods.

Hence, there is no certain evidence for the worship of anthropomorphic deities in predynastic Egypt, even though such deities as Min, Neith and Onuris, who we find in human form at the beginning of history, were most probably worshiped in prior times.

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Min

Patron of: fertility, sexuality, and travelers through the eastern Sahara.

Appearance: a man with a large erect penis. Sometimes he is shown in the garb of a pharaoh, wearing a feathered crown and carrying a flail.

Description: a very ancient god, Min has become rather popular in the modern era, a sort of resurgence of his cult. Min was honored with a variety of ceremonies, some involving the harvest, others praying for a male heir to the pharaoh. Lettuce was his sacred plant, for it was believed by the Egyptians to be an aphrodisiac. The Greeks identified him with their god Pan, and the Romans believed Min to be the same god as Priapus.

Worshipped: Worshipped widely throughout Egypt by the end of the New Kingdom, his cult centers were at Koptos and Akhmin (Panopolis).

Neith

Patron of: war, impartiality, mummification wrappings, the funeral bier.

Appearance: A woman carrying weapons of war, usually a bow and arrow and a shield.

Description: In the Old Kingdom she was a war deity, invoked as a blessing for weapons, both for the soldier and the hunter. Often weapons were placed in tombs surrounding the mummy as protection against evil spirits. These weapons were consecrated to Neith.

In the New Kingdom her association with funerary rites is even greater. She stands, along with Isis, guarding the funeral bier of the pharaoh. In the New Kingdom the mummy wrappings were considered the "gifts of Neith."

In may stories Neith is found being asked to arbitrate between two sides, her combination of military prowess and impartiality renders her very similar to Athena.

Worship: Cult centers in the Delta in the same area as Sobek, her son.

The Egyptian War God

Onuris

A god of war and hunting who originated at This (the Thinite region) near Abydos, Anhur (Han-her, Inhert)), was more commonly known by his Greek name, Onuris (Onouris). His name (Anhur) literally means "he who leads back the distant one" (which might also mean "Sky Bearer"), which appears to reference the mythical manner in which this god is said to have journeyed to Nubia in order to bring back the leonine "Eye of Re", who became his consort as the lioness-goddess Mekhit. This legend is paralleled by another surrounding the god Shu at Heliopolis, who was supposed to have also brought back the fearsome "eye" as his own consort, Tefnut. However, the name Anhur suggests that the tradition may have originated with him. This nevertheless led to Anhur often being equated with Shu and also to his link to the sun god under the epithet, "son of Re". Onuris was thus supposed to hunt and slay the enemies of his solar-deity father.

Onuris, as a war-like god, was also associated Montu and Sopedu and had a strong rapport with Horus, whose claims he vociferously advocates in the tribunal judging the rights to the Egyptian throne. Later during the Greek period, he was identified with the Hellenistic war god, Ares. The Romans maintained this war-like identity of Onuris as evidenced by a depiction of Emperor Tiberius on a column shaft in the temple of Kom Ombo which shows Tiberius wearing the characteristic crown of Onuris.

The iconography of Onuris that has survived depict him as a standing god, with a beard and a short wig that is surmounted by a uraeu and either two or four tall plumes. He is frequently depicted wearing a long kilt which is often decorated in a feather-like pattern. His right hand is raised as if to thrust a lance (he is also known as the "lord of the lance") or spear, while his left hand holds a length of rope that may be symbolic of his role in capturing his lioness consort. His association with the spear and ropes also provides an inevitable link with the mythological struggle between Horus and Seth, in which the hawk god used the same weapons to entrap and kill his foe, the Hippopotamus.

However, in other instances the rope is absent, and the god may be depicted grasping his raised spear in both hands and at other times neither rope nor spear is present, though his arms are raised as if to hold these objects. This iconography clearly shows that rather than throw the spear, he intends to thrust his spear downward into a subdued enemy. Hence, Onuris controls rather than attacks his enemies.

Though Onuris seems to have originated at This near Abydos in Upper Egypt, his main area of worship in later periods was in the Delta town of Sebennytos (modern Samannud), where he was venerated alongside or as a form of Shu. There is a temple of Onuris-Shu called Phersos (Per-shu) at this site that has been dated to the reign of Nectanebo II, though its construction may have started during the reign of Nectanebo I of Egypt's 30th Dynasty, though worship of Onuris in this location would have predated this temple. Silver and bronze amulets of the god occasionally have been unearthed in Late Period burials elsewhere in Egypt.

Small, silver statue of Onuris with Lance

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Unfortunately, few gods that we may name from later Egyptian times can be traced back into prehistory. For example, while the standards of the prehistoric Egyptians document the existence of hawk cults, they do not really provide any evidence that they depicted Horus, or other known hawk deities. Nor can the opponent of Horus, Seth, be made out with certainty though there were dog-like animals represented. Also, the cow goddess found on the Narmer palette and about three centuries earlier on a palette from Girza, is iconographically more similar to Bat, rather than to the better known Hathor. However, stars added to the image show that she was already a sky goddess, so alongside animal deities, it should be clear now that the Ancient Egyptians were also worshiping inanimate objects, or rather the manifestation of gods through them.

How the predynastic Egyptians viewed the relationship between animals and human beings can perhaps best be seen in the "Battlefield" palette, pieces of which are in both the Oxford and London. The retro of this composition depicts a battlefield crowed with contorted bodies of defeated enemies, while others have been captured and bound. The subjugated enemies, who are naked and without weapons, appear utterly defenseless. The victors are represented as animal powers, consisting of a lion, birds of prey and standards surmounted by birds. However, on other contemporary palettes of the time and in predynastic rock drawings, there are sometimes human hunters.

Yet it seems certain that men of this period felt themselves defenseless without an animal disguise. Mankind had not yet become so dominate, and animals still appear to be the most powerful and efficacious beings. This may explain why, in late predynastic times, the powers that determine the course of events were mostly conceived in animal form.

Then, at the beginning of the historical period, the human view changes drastically regarding the superiority of animals. The earliest documented kings of Egypt retain animal names such as Scorpion, Catfish, Kite (?), Cobra and "Wing-spreader" (probably a bird of prey), but towards the end of the 1st Dynasty, this type of name disappears for good. Apparently, mankind was no longer feeling subjected to incomprehensible powers and so the powers that were worshiped as deities came more and more to show a human face as their original animal or inanimate form changed into a human one.

However, one must not discount the emergence of monarchy and the resultant origin of the Egyptian state, which transformed ancient religion by providing a new focus which unified its different goals and needs. In fact, at this point it might be said that the infancy of Egyptian deities had ended, and there is almost no doubt that the state greatly effected the direction that religion would take.

So this evolution from dynamism to personalism took place shortly after Egyptians began to write, taking place between 3000 and 2800 BC, and while other regions experienced the same transitions, only in Egypt can it be observed and documented. This process has been called the anthropomorphization of powers, and it produced the first gods in human form, though other methods of depicting this anthropomorphization appear at the same time. For example, the cow heads that crown the Narmer palette contain a human face, while the subjugated "and of papyrus" has a human head attached.

Front and Back of the Narmer Palette

Yet, it should be noted that, in many ways, the ancient Egyptians never completely abandoned the power of animals. Hathor, for example, appears to have been one of the earliest deities to be given anthropomorphic form, but even she retained the horns of her sacred animal, the cow, and was frequently depicted in bovine form millennia after her appearance. The Apis Bull also retained immense importance, and the various protective deities were often in the form of animals throughout Egyptian history.

At first the depictions of gods as humans takes on the form of a body without separate limbs. Erik Hornung has pointed out that this cannot be attributed to mummy form, as Osiris and other gods were later depicted, because it would be some centuries before mummification was practiced. However, one must also remember that the dead were probably at this early time wrapped in some sort of shroud. Still, a more likely explanation is the Egyptian tendency in art throughout the historic period to emphasis the most prominent human features. Note even on the Narmer palette the stance of the king as he smites his enemies. As in later artwork, his head is profiled while his chest and shoulders are viewed from the front. His legs once again return to profile. Hence, Egyptians concentrated on essential and unavoidable features of the human form. The archaic figure of a god shows no more and no less than is necessary to evoke an image in human form.

Initially, there were few gods in human form. Min was probably depicted in human form, as recorded on the annal stone in Palermo, but this is a late copy from early records, so it could have been influenced by later statuary. However, an image of Ptah in human form on a stone vase from Tarkhan can certainly be placed in the early dynastic period. Neith and Satis, who in later periods were depicted in human form, are attested by their inclusion in names during the early dynastic period, but whether they were then represented in human form is unknown. However, we can assume that by the end of the at the beginning of the Old Kingdom, Min, Geb, Nut, Shu and Atum were all depicted in human form and already familiar to Egyptians (though no absolutely certain evidence exists).

Interestingly, though the predynastic Narmer Palette displays a cow's head with a human face, during the first two dynasties of Egypt's historical period, purely anthropomorphic deities appeared along side purely animal forms of gods, who were still predominant, such as Horus (hawk), Seth (dog), Apis (bull) and the baboon-form "great white one". It would not be until later that gods combining human and animal elements, which is so characteristic of Egypt, would make their appearance. Only at the end of the 2nd Dynasty do the first gods in human form with animal heads appear on cylinder seal impressions of King Peribsen. The earliest examples in fact show the god Ash, "lord of Libya". The earliest form with a hawks head and a human body is on the 3rd Dynasty stela in the Louvre, representing the god Horus.

Thus, Egypt's ancient representation of gods would be complete, and continue into the later dynasties with remarkably little change over the next several thousand years.

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T.N.P

2008-04-24T18:06:00.022+02:00

The Funerary

Funerary and Other Masks of Ancient Egypt

Many people interested in Egypt are familiar with funerary masks, used to cover the face of a mummy. An example, of course, is the famous funerary mask of Tutankhamun now in the Egyptian Antiquities Museum in Cairo, though certainly most funerary masks were not made of solid gold. However, living persons in ancient Egypt might have employed transformational spells to assume nonhuman forms. Specifically, masked priests, priestesses or magicians, disguising themselves as divine beings such as Anubis or Beset, almost assuredly assumed such identities to exert the powers associated with those deities. Funerary masks and other facial coverings for mummies emphasized the ancient Egyptian belief in the fragile state of transition that the dead would have to successfully transcend in their physical and spiritual journey from this world to their divine transformation in the next. Hence, whether worn by the living or the dead, masks played a similar role of magically transforming an individual from a mortal to a divine state.

fantastic creatures. Some of these are understood to have probably been humans dressed as deities, though the ancient Egyptians probably saw them as images or manifestations of the gods themselves. This was probably most evident in three dimensional representations such as the Middle Kingdom female figure from Western Thebes (modern Luxor), now in the collection of the Manchester Museum and sometimes referred to in earlier texts as a leonine-masked human. Though most certainly a human dressed as an animal, this figure was surely considered an image of Beset.

Two dimensional depictions are more difficult to interpret. The question of the extent to which these depicted masks were used in Egyptian religious rituals has not yet been satisfactorily resolved for all periods of ancient Egyptian history. This may be due to intentional ambiguity. An example is one very common depiction rendered in many mortuary scenes that records the mummification of a body by a jackal-headed being. Such representations may document the actual mummification rites performed by a jackal-disguised priest, though it may also be interpreted as commemorating that episode of the embalmment by the jackal god Anubis in the mythic account of the death and resurrection of the god of the dead, Osiris, whom the deceased wished to emulate. Another example is a ritual procession of composite animal and human figures, identified in the accompanying texts, as the souls of Nekhen and Pe, who carry the sacred bark in a procession detailed on the southwestern interior wall of the Hypostyle Hall in the Temple of Amun at Karnak. Scenes such as this may either be literal records of the historic celebration performed by masked or costumed priests, or alternatively they may represent a visual actualization of faith in the royal dogma, which claimed categorically that the mythic ancestors of the god-king legitimized and supported his reign.

Irregardless, it is thought that the ancient Egyptians did in fact perform some ritual ceremonies wearing such masks, though these ritual objects from the archaeological record are rare. Perhaps this is due to the fragile and perishable materials from which such masks may have been constructed (though surely some were made from gold, thought to be the skin of the gods). We do have an example of a fragmentary Middle Kingdom Bes-like or Aha (perhaps an ancient god and forerunner of Bes) face of cartonnage recovered by W.M. Flinders Petrie at the town site of Kahun. However, this relic may not have been a mask even though it does appear to have eye holes. There was also an unusual set of late Middle Kingdom objects found in shaft-tomb 5 under the Ramesseum that included a wooden figurine representing either a lion-headed goddess or a woman wearing a similar kind of mask, which probably connected in some way with the performance of magic.

However, the only incontrovertible evidence for the use of ritual masks by the living are found from Egypt's Late Period. From that time, for example, we have a unique, ceramic mask of the head of the jackal god, Anubis (now in the collection of the Roemer Pelizaeus- Museum, Hildesheim), dating to sometime after 600 BC, which was apparently manufactured specifically as a head covering. This mask has indentations on both sides which would have allowed it to be supported atop the shoulders. The snout and upraised ears of the jackal head would have surmounted the wearers actual head. Two holes in the neck of the object would have allowed the wearer to view straight ahead. However, lateral vision would have been limited, thus necessitating the wearer's need for assistance, as explicitly depicted in a temple relief at Dendera. In this depiction, the priest wears just such a mask, and is assisted by a companion priest. A description of a festival procession of Isis, which was led by the god Anubis, who was presumably a similarly masked priest, took place not in Egypt but rather in Kenchreai.

Funerary masks had more than one purpose. They were a part of the elaborate precautions taken by the ancient Egyptians to preserve the body after death. The protection of the head was of primary concern during this process. Thus, a face covering helped preserve the head, as well as providing a permanent substitute, in an idealized form which presented the deceased in the likeness of an immortal being, in case of physical damage. Those of means were provided with both a mask with gilt flesh tones and blue wigs, both associated with the glittering flesh and the lapis lazuli hair of the sun god. Specific features of a mask, including the eyes, eyebrows, forehead and other features, were directly identified with individual divinities, as explained in the Book of the Dead, Spell 151b. This allowed the deceased to arrive safely in the hereafter, and gain acceptance among the other divine immortals in the council of the great god of the dead, Osiris. Though such masks were initially made for only the royalty, later such masks were manufactured for the elite class for both males and females.

Beginning in the 4th Dynasty, attempts were made to stiffen and mold the outer layer of linen bandages used in mummification to cover the faces of the deceased and to emphasize prominent facial features in paint. The forerunners of mummy masks date to this period through the 6th Dynasty, taking the form of thin coatings of plaster molded either directly over the face or on top of the linen wrappings, perhaps fulfilling a similar purpose to the 4th Dynasty reserve heads. A plaster mold, apparently taken directly from the face of a corpse, was excavated from the 6th Dynasty mortuary temple of Teti, though unfortunately, this is thought to date to the Greco-Roman period.

The very earliest masks were experimentally crafted as independent sculptural work, and have been dated to the Herakleopolitan period (late First Intermediate Period). These early masks were made of wood, fashioned in two pieces and held together with pegs, or cartonnage (layers of linen or papyrus stiffened with plaster. They were molded over a wooden model or core. The masks of both men and women had over-exaggerated eyes and often enigmatic half smiles. These objects were then framed by long, narrow, tripartite wigs held securely by a decorated headband. The "bib" of the mask extended to cover the chest, and were painted for both males and females with elaborate beading and floral motif necklaces or broad collars that served not only an aesthetic function but also an apotropaic requirement as set out in the funerary spells. Hollow and solid masks (sometimes of diminutive size) were also built by pouring clay or plaster into generic, often unisex molds. To this, ears and gender specific details were than added. These elongated masks eventually evolved into anthropoid inner coffins, first appearing in the 12th Dynasty.

Masks became increasingly more sophisticated during the New Kingdom and Third Intermediate Period. These later masks made for royalty were beaten from precious metals. Of course, an obvious example of such is the solid gold mask of Tutankhamun, though we also have fine gold and silver specimens from Tanis. However, masks of all types were embellished with paint, using red for the flesh tones of males and yellow, pale tones for females. Added to this were composite, inlaid eyes or eyebrows, as well as other details that could elevate the cost of the finished product considerably. Hence, indications of social status, including hairstyles, jewelry and costumes (depicted on body-length head covers) are often helpful in dating masks. However, the idealized image of transfigured divinity, which was the objective of the funerary masks, precluded the individualization of masks to the point of portraiture. The results are that we have a relative sameness in these objects with anonymous facial features from all periods of Egyptian history.

The use of face coverings for the dead continued in Egypt for as long as mummification was practiced in Egypt. Regional preferences included cartonnage and plaster masks, both of equal popularity during the Ptolemaic (Greek) period. The cartonnage masks became actually only one part of a complete set of separate cartonnage pieces that covered the wrapped body. This set included a separate cartonnage breastplate and foot case. During the Roman period, plaster masks exhibit Greco-Roman influence only in their coiffures, which were patterned from styles current at the imperial court. This included both beards and mustaches for males, and elaborate coiffures on women, all highly molded in relief.

However, during the Roman period there were alternatives to the cartonnage or plaster mask. Introduced during this period were the so-called Fayoum portraits, which were initially unearthed from cemeteries in the Fayoum and first archaeologically excavated in 1888 and between 1910 and 1911 by Flinders Petrie at Hawara. Since then, they have been discovered at sites throughout Egypt from the northern coast to Aswan in the south. These were paintings made with encaustic (colored beeswax) or tempera (watercolor) on wooden panels or linen shrouds and were rendered in a Hellenistic style not unlike contemporary frescoes discovered at Pompeii and Herculaneum in Italy. Nevertheless, it is believed that such two-dimensional paintings held the same ideological function as traditional three-dimensional masks. However, these portraits were popular among nineteenth and early twentieth century collectors and this had a tendency to at first isolate them from their funerary contexts. They were studied by classicists and art historians who, basing their conclusions on details in the paintings along, such as hairstyles, jewelry and costume, identified the portraits as being those of Greek or Roman settlers who had adopted Egyptian burial customs. In fact, successful attempts have been made, based on the analysis of brush strokes and tool marks and the distinctive rendering of anatomical features, to group these portraits according to schools and to identify some individual artistic hands.

However, though the portraits do appear at first to capture the unique features of specific individuals, it appears likely that only the earliest examples were painted from live models. Studies have indicated that the same generic quality that permeates the visages of the cartonnage and plaster masks persists within the group of Fayoum portraits that have been preserved and therefore we believe that they served in a similar fashion as the earlier masks.

There may also be evidence for a cultic use of these paintings while their owners still lived. The fact that the upper corners of some of these panels were cut at an angle to secure a better fit before being positioned over the mummy, that there are signs of wear on paintings in places that would have been covered by the mummy wrappings, and that at least one portrait (now in the British Museum was discovered at Hawara still within a wooden frame indicates that the paintings had a domestic use prior to inclusion within the funerary equipment. They may have been hung in the owners home prior to such use.

Yet the iconographic elements, including gilded lips in accordance with the funerary spells 21 through 23 of the Book of the Dead to insure the power of speech during the afterlife, as well as the allusions to traditional deities, such as the sidelock of Horus worn by adolescents, the pointed star diadem of Serapis worn by men, and the horned solar crown of Isis worn by adult females, together with other evidence, emphasize a continuity of native Egyptian traditions. Though the product of the Hellenistic age of Roman Egypt, they date from the end of a continuum of a desire to permanently preserve the faces of the dead in an idealized and transfigured form that began in the Old Kingdom and lasted to the end of pagan Egypt.

The last examples we have of funerary masks are actually painted linen shrouds of which the upper part was pressed into a mold to produce the effect of a three dimensional plaster mask. Some examples of this type of object may date as late as the third of fourth century AD. First unearthed by Edouard Naville within the sacred precinct of the mortuary chapel of Queen Hatshepsut, they were initially and incorrectly identified by him as the mummies of early Christians. However, later analysis by H. E. Winlock, particularly noting the ubiquitous representation of the bark of the Egyptian funerary god Sokar, correctly identified these as further examples of masks consistent with pagan Egyptian funerary traditions, even though certain motifs, such as the cup held in one hand, seem to present the final transition from pagan mask to Coptic icon painting and the portraits of Byzantine saints.

Funerary mask of Amenemope from the 21st Dynasty reign of Amenemope rendered in gold leaf on bronze

T.N.P

Funerary Cones

Artifacts, often in a conical shape made of fired clay bearing stamped funerary text on their circular face, are generally referred to as funerary cones. Though only (about) two sets of these objects have been found in situ, we believe they were inserted as a frieze, with the stamped face exposed, above the doors of Middle and New Kingdom (particularly the 18th through 26th Dynasties) private tombs. These funeral objects were produced for both men and women.

Wiedemann published the first real study of these stamped objects in 1885, which was followed by an additional systematic corpus of the objects by Daressy in 1893. However, a corpus of facsimiles compiled by Norman de Garis Davies and M. F. Laming Macadam, known as A Corpus of Inscribed Egyptian Funerary Cones, published in 1957, provides the key reference source for their study today.

While the Theban necropolis has yielded most known funerary cones, they have also been discovered in a few other locations including as far south as Nubia. The stamped text typically bears the names and titles of the deceased person, often including additional biographical data and epitaphs. Any number of cones might exist for any one person, and they provide us with a considerable amount of the information on many non-royal ancient Egyptians.

The cones may have been used for a variety of functions. Egyptologists suggest that they may have been used to identify the tomb owner (almost like a modern cemetery marker, as an ornamental memorial, as a boundary marker or even as a symbolic offering of bread or meat. Others believe that they may have been used as a symbolic tomb seal, and may been intended to provide protection. Even the stamped, conical end of the cone has been interpreted in several ways. Some believe it represents symbolically the the ends of roofing poles, a form of visitors' card, simply a decorative element, or possibly even the shape of the sun disk.

In reality, the use of these cones is complicated by their variety. While we generally refer to these stamped objects as cones, they could be rectangular, wedge-shaped, flat or bell shaped, and at least one example took the form of a double-headed cone. Their width, length and thickness could also vary considerably, and some of the cones were even hollow. Cones are often found that were painted in various colors, mostly consisting of red, blue or white. But in ancient Egypt, these colors could indicate different materials, including bread, meat, pottery and the red glow of the sun.

In fact, some Egyptologists suggest that the investigation and handling of artifacts referred to as funerary cones has not met the same standards as other pottery items. In fact, collectors and even well known Egyptologists have sometimes mutilated funerary cones in order to preserve only the text, without regard to the objects original shape. Even Petrie admitted to this practice, stating that:

"as the inscriptions are all that is really required, the bulk of the cone was removed, either by sawing, if soft, or breaking, if hard. Thus with a very small loss, I reduced a collection of over 250 to a more manageable bulk. "

The earliest of these cones, have been dated to the eleventh dynasty, but have no inscriptions. Some were very large, measuring some 53 centimeters (20 inches) in length, but their size decreased, particularly during the New Kingdom. They seem most common from the reign of Thutmose I, but apparently their used declined during the Ramessid period.

While funerary cones are mostly associated with the West Bank at Thebes (modern Lu xor), they have also been found at Naga ed-Deir and el-Deir north of Esna. Though the tombs they reference have not been discovered, they was probably located in those general areas. Also, Middle Kingdom tombs at Rizeiqat, Armant, Naqada and Abydos have yielded uninscribed cones. However, beyond these few other cones, none have been found outside of the Theban necropolis.

Most of the cones come from painted, as opposed to sculpted tombs, and conform to the Theban funerary traditions. They may have been thought to be particularly suited to rock cut tombs. They have been discovered in various sections of the Theban West Bank, and are particularly notable in the tombs at Sheik Abd-el-Qurna, dating to the eighteenth dynasty, but are notably mostly absent at Deir el-Medina, where only one example has been discovered.

One of the facets of Egyptology that funerary cones indicate is that their are many more tombs to be discovered. Some of these tombs may be lost to us forever, but currently there are more than four hundred funerary cones that are not immediately assignable to a known tomb at Thebes.

Gallery

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Funerary Figurines including Shabti, Shawabti and Ushabti

In the Predynastic and Early Dynastic period, we find a few examples of what appears to have been sacrificial burials in Egypt, where apparently rulers took to the grave various servants upon their death. However, this barbaric practice was soon replaced with symbolic figures of one nature or another. At first, they took the form of servant statuettes and tomb paintings and reliefs of laborers on the walls of tombs.

The earliest examples of small figurines were wax prototypes that first appeared at Saqqara during the Herakleopolian period and in the 11th Dynasty complex of Nebhepetre Montuhotep I at Deir el-Bahri in Thebes (modern Luxor), where they were shaped as humans, wrapped in linen as miniature mummies and deposited in coffins. These earliest examples had no spells inscribed or other specific words for their purpose, but were nevertheless expected to perform work on behalf of the dead. Model stone statuettes of workers in various professions were commonly placed in tombs during the Middle Kingdom (though in small numbers), and their use was also known from many periods.

Later, many of these figures buried with the dead began to be called ushabti (ushabty, ushebti), shabti (shabty) or shawabti. These figures were made from various materials, including wax, clay, wood, stone, terracotta and rarely bronze or glass, but the most common material was faience. Specifically, their primary tasks appear to have been agricultural work in the afterlife. In the Egyptian netherworld, each hour of the night was associated with a geographic region. These regions were organized just as on earth and consisted of lands donated by the sun god Re to the blessed dead to be farmed for their nourishment. Those owners of tombs of any importance were accustomed to having laborers perform menial work for them while living, and they expected to continue this privilege in death.

Initially, these magical figures were believed to act as a substitute for the deceased himself, although later they came to be regarded as mere servants in the afterlife. Hence, at first they were sometimes fashioned either as mummies or as living persons dressed in fine linen garb, but in later periods their appearance changed more to that of servants. A spell for this purpose appeared in the Middle Kingdom Coffin Texts, and from the New Kingdom the figures were inscribed with Chapter six of the Book of the Dead that reads:

"Oh Ushabi, allotted to me, if I be summoned or if I be detailed to do any work which has to be done in the realm of the dead; if indeed obstacles are implanted for you therewith a man at his duties, you shall detail yourself for me on every occasion of making arable the fields, of flooding the banks or of conveying sand from east to west; 'Here am I', you shall say."

Though various spelling is used to designate these figures, there are basically three uses (ushabti, shabti and shawbti), and while all three are often indiscriminately and incorrectly used, each designation has historical limits to its usage, and in particular, shawabti was restricted geographically to Deir el-Medina and other areas of Thebes. They derived their name from the usage in the Book of the Dead. However, in many cases, only the title and name of the deceased was inscribed upon these figures and therefore referring to all such figures as ushabti, shabti or shawbti is wrong. Hence, the designation of "funerary figurines" is at least accurate for all types in all periods.

Both the spellings of shabti and shawabti appear in early versions of these figures, but the latter term was restricted to the strange stick figures from the Theban area. However, it is probably a dialectical variant and is the least preferable of the three spellings for the general references to these figures.

During the reign of Tuthmosis IV (18th Dynasty), a considerable innovation occurred in these funerary figures which changed them forever. Until that period, the figurines had almost always taken the form of mummies, but now they began to be fashioned with baskets, sacks and hoes or mattocks held in their hands, on the chest or waist. Some had separate models of agricultural tools, which might include model hoes, adzes, wooden yoke poles with bronze bags to hand across the servant's shoulders, and even mudbrick molds. Once this practice was established it became a permanent standard for these figurines. Also, at the end of the 18th Dynasty or the beginning of the 19th Dynasty, the figures were represented in the clothing of the leaving, usually rendered in the garments of the elite, with loose folds and tight pleats.

However, it should be noted that during the 18th Dynasty reign of Amenhotep IV (Akhenaten), who attempted to revolutionize Egyptian theology, some figurines, though continuing to be adorned with agricultural tools, had instead of spell six from the Book of the Dead, an offering addressed to the sun disk, Aten.

Chapter six of the book of the Dead also became more elaborate, though many of the figurines continued to have inscribed only the name and title of the deceased. Beginning in the 21st Dynasty, we first see the spelling of ushebti as the standard spelling in Chapter six, which continued into the Ptolemaic period when the last of these figurines were made. This spelling may have derived from a verb (wesheb) meaning, "to answer", since the spell addresses the figure and tells it to respond when the deceased is called to perform labor in the afterlife.

The number of figures buried with the deceased could vary considerably, and their number also increased over time. While in earlier periods there might be very few buried with the deceased, eventually in the 21st Dynasty there might be as many as 401, consisting of 365 workers for each day of the year, and 36 overseers, provided in boxes created to hold the larger number of figurines These overseers would even be equipped with triangular kilts traditionally worn by higher officials and whips. The ancient Egyptians identified the length of the year and through of the night by observing 36 groups of stars that changed every ten days, so the arrangement of 365 workers and 36 overseers was all astronomically calculated.

However, with that sort of demand for these figures, they became mostly mass produced in terracotta and faience from a mold with indistinguishable features. So many of these funerary figurines were produced that, apart from scarabs and amulets, they are the most numerous of all ancient Egyptian antiquities.

From the 21st Dynasty through at least the end of the Third Intermediate Period, ushebtis were consistently made of blue faience with details in black. During the Late Period, while still made of faience, they were rendered in pastel tones of green or blue.

During the Ptolemaic (Greek) era, a transition of ushebtis resulted in a return to earlier forms, with numerous figurines fashioned once again in mummiform so that once again, those dressed as the living are rare if at all existent.

Gallery

http://www.touregypt.net/

http://www.newton.cam.ac/

http://www.britishmuseum.org/

http://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/

T.N.P

2008-04-02T07:30:00.001+02:00

King Sekhemkhet

and his Pyramid at Saqqara

Almost everything we know about Sekhemkhet ("Powerful in Body"), we know because of his unfinished (Buried) pyramid at Saqqara, and it seems to give us little facts about his life. The only evidence outside of this tomb is a scene depicted at Wadi Maghara in the Sinai which bears his name. It is a military scene, classical in that it probably shows Sekhemkhet, with his raised mace, about to smite his desert enemies. This relief actually shows a procession of Sekhemkhets. In front of the smiting king, who is wearing the White Crown is a second depiction of the king wearing the Red Crown, and in front of him, another of Sekhemkhet back in the White Crown.

However, we are not really sure of much about this king. According to the Turin King-list, Djoser's immediate successor was identified by his personal name Djoser-Ti (Djoserty), and ruled for only six years. It now seems that most Egyptologists believe Djoser-Ti and Sekhemkhet were one and the same person, though some might still argue otherwise. His reign would have been from about 2649 until 2643 BC.

Judging from an inscription on his pyramid at Saqqara, and from its very design, we can also tentatively guess that the great Imhotep survived Djoser, his predecessor, and was again the mind behind the funerary complex works. Also, because of his short reign, and particularly his truncated pyramid, many believe he came to a sudden and unexpected death, though we have no idea what might have caused it.

The Buried Pyramid of Sekhemkhet

Another possible building project of Imhotep may have been the pyramid of Sekhemkhet. Also located at Saqqara, it would be rather remarkable for this pyramid to have been designed by anyone else, or to have belonged to someone other then Sekhemkhet. In many ways, it duplicated elements from the Step Pyramid of Djoser.

Sekhemkhet's step pyramid was perhaps first noticed by a young Egyptian archaeologist named Zakaria Goneim while he was working at Saqqara excavating the pyramid of Unas, just before World War II. When the war erupted, he set out that period in Luxor, but afterwards returned to Saqqara to further investigate the huge, rectangular structure barely visible beneath a sand dune. It was only about one hundred meters to the southwest of the site Goneim had been working before the war, and he could tell that it was roughly oriented north-south.

As he began to uncover the structure, he found that the four corners he had seen beneath the sand dune were actually the walls of an enclosure, and inside were the ruins of a previously unknown pyramid. Soon it was clear that this was a 3rd Dynasty pyramid, because the facade of the perimeter wall, with its facade ornamented with deep niches, was so very similar to the wall that Djoser had built for his complex.

The pyramid was built upon an uneven rock surface, so the builders were forced to level the terrain, building large terraces, of which some were more then ten meters high. Why the king chose this site for his pyramid is a bit of a mystery, though there are some nearby royal tombs from the 2nd Dynasty that may have lured him there.

The perimeter wall was built in to phases. In the first phase, it was a much less radical rectangle. Later it was extended south, and particularly north. With these extensions, it was close to the size of Djoser/s complex. Like Djoser's complex, it has rows of niches alternating in a regular intervals with false doors, though there was probably only one real door in the entire complex, which has never been found. The wall was cased in fine, white Tura limestone. The wall probably stood about ten meters tall, with a walkway and sentry posts just as in the complex of Djoser.

It has been difficult to determine whether the core was originally planned as six or seven steps, but apparently, the pyramid itself was never completed, having only reached a height of about 26 feet. It was built using the accretion layer method with the stones laid inwards at a 15 degree slope. These stones were laid at right angles to the incline. Since the pyramid was unfinished, there was never any casing applied. The pyramid probably had a square floor plan, with sides about 119 meters in length. According to Lehner, if the pyramid was built in seven steps, it would have been higher then Djoser's, rising some 70 meters (230 ft) above its base.

An entrance to the pyramid was found in front of the north wall, leading into a corridor that eventually communicated with the burial chamber. However, this corridor was bisected by a vertical shaft that extended up into the masonry of the pyramid itself. This was a type of security system also found in other Egyptian tombs, specifically at Beit Khallaf, dating to this period. Within the shaft, Goneim found the bones of various animals, including cattle, rams and gazelles, that were doubtless offerings to the deceased. he also found 62 papyri from the 26th Dynasty written during the reign of Ahmose II. Below these were some seven hundred stone vessels and remarkably a gold treasure cache from the 3rd Dynasty.

These artifacts included 21 bracelets, small mussel shells, and faience corals covered with gold leaf. The items are, so far, the oldest gold ornamentation discovered in Egypt. It was no doubt a part of Sekhemkhet's funerary goods, but how it ended up at the bottom of the shaft rather then stolen with the rest of the tomb's content remains a mystery.

About 47 meters before reaching the burial chamber, a U shaped passage leads off to the east, and is lined with a series of narrow, long storage annexes. After the entrance to this auxiliary passage, the main corridor continues. It was between here, and the burial chamber that clay vessel stoppers were discovered bearing Sekhemkhet's name, which is another reason why we attribute the pyramid to him.

The main corridor continues to descend down until reaching first a transverse corridor, and then to the burial chamber just to the other side, some 100 feet below the base of the pyramid. The burial chamber is lined up precisely with the pyramid's vertical axis. The walls within this north-south oriented burial chamber were left unfinished. Inside there apparently remains a highly polished alabaster sarcophagus cut from a single stone. This is very rare, for the only other alabaster we know of used in such a way was in the coffins of Queen Hetephere I, of the 4th Dynasty, and Seti I, of the 19th Dynasty. It also had no cover, but rather a sliding partition.

There is an interesting story related to this sarcophagus and its unique sliding partition. When found, the partition to the sarcophagus was sealed, and even the remains of what he believed to be dried flowers (later determined to be bark and decomposed wood) lay atop it. Furthermore, Goneim also claims that the entrance to the pyramid was blocked by an in tact wall. Goneim was sure he had discovered an in tact sarcophagus still bearing the remains of its owner. Though he was warned by other Egyptologists, notably Lauer, that the substructure had been robbed, he nevertheless created a media sensation. he invited high state officials, journalists, reporters and film teams to the opening. Then came the shock of an empty sarcophagus.

He apparently managed to survive this embarrassment, for after all, he had made a reasonably important discovery by finding the pyramid of Sekhemkhet. Many Egyptology professionals throughout the world had considerable interest in what was probably only the second pyramid built in Egypt.

Just outside of the entrance to the burial chamber, the transverse corridor leads off the the right (westerly) and to the left, and then each makes a 90 degree tern back to the south past the burial chamber. These galleries were also unfinished, and may have been intended to lead to a larger mortuary apartment, similar to the one in Djoser's complex.

Outside of the pyramid within the complex on the south, just as in the case of Djoser's complex, there is also a symbolic south tomb. The superstructure of the tomb consisted of a mastaba built of limestone blocks. It had an entrance on the west side, also like Djoser's complex. From there, a long corridor descended to the east, and like in the pyramid, was interrupted by a vertical shaft. Further down the main corridor, though this tomb had probably not been meant for a burial, the excavators found the fragments of a small coffin that had held the remains of about a two year old child.

The burial chamber in the south tomb was small, but found within it were fragments of thin gold leaf impressed with a pattern imitating reed matting. Also found were animal bones and stone vessels.

Unfortunately, Goneim would never finish excavating the pyramid. Having achieved some amount of fame, he went off to the United States on a lecture tour, and even wrote a book about his discovery named The Buried Pyramid. The book was successful, and even translated into different languages, but when he returned to Egypt, everything fell apart. He was accused of smuggling a large, valuable vessel that Quibell and Lauer had found two years earlier near in the Djoser complex out of the country. There was no hard evidence, only accusations and slander, but it devastated Goneim, who one must remember is also Egyptian. He was repeatedly interrogated by the police.

It was his friend Lauer who attempted to finally help him. In 1957, he tracked the missing vessel to a corner of the Egyptian Museum's depository. But like an Egyptian tragedy, even as Lauer was hurrying back to Saqqara to redeem his friend, Goneim was jumping into the Nile to commit suicide.

In fact, it was Lauer who returned to the site in about 1963 for a hurried search for answers. It was he who discovered the south tomb, along with the south side of the perimeter wall. But unfortunately, no one yet has excavated the mortuary temple or the rest of the grounds. Many questions remain about this pyramid. For example, was Sekhemkhet ever buried, here, and if he was not, what happened to this king. The sealed sarcophagus seems to indicate, though not with certainty, that it never held his remains. By all indications, he came to an abrupt end, if we consider his attempted pyramid as evidence. In fact, most Egyptologist seem to agree that he probably only ruled for about six years. Perhaps he died in some remote expedition, his body never again seen. On the other hand, some future excavation may give us real answers to these questions.

http://www.touregypt.net/

http://www.crystalinks.com/

T.N.P

2008-02-03T05:29:00.000+02:00

The Mortuary

Temple of Amenhotep III

on the West Bank at Luxor

Amenhotep III built not only the largest temple at Thebes (on the West Bank at Luxor), but in Egypt, measuring 700 by 550 meters. It covered 385,000 square meters (4,200,000 square feet). It was even larger than the temple of Amun-Re at Karnak.

The temple's architect was also named Amenhotep, but was the son of Hapu. Unfortunately, it seem that the temple began to decay rapidly, and during the reign of Merenptah, it was actively used as a source of limestone blocks for the temple of that ruler.

The reason for this was perhaps a brilliant, but regrettable religious concept. The temple was apparently uniquely built on the flood plain. The temple was purposely built so low that the inundation of the Nile would flood its outer courts and halls, probably leaving only the inner sanctuary, built on a knoll above water level, dry. Thus, when the water receded, the whole temple symbolized the emergence of the world from the primeval waters of creation. Of course, this did nothing for the temple's preservation, particularly considering that many of the temple walls were built of mudbrick. Aggravating the destruction, many of the massive sandstone pylons and columns were far too heavy for the weak or even missing foundations upon which they were built.

However, we do have Amenhotep III's own description of the complex:

"He did (it) as his monument for (his) father Amen, lord of the throne of the two lands, making for him a splendid temple on the right of Thebes; a fortress of eternity out of good white sandstone - worked with gold throughout. Its floors were purified with silver, all its doorways were of electrum..."

Much of the temple was build during the last ten years of Amenhotep III rule and in conjunction with his three Sed-festivals.

Though this temple has never been fully investigated, the only real remains seem to be the two huge statues we call the Colossi of Memnon, along with a few fragments of pylons, and various statues and column fragments A quartzite stela which has been re-erected but was probably originally one of a pair set up at the entrance to the court describes Amenhotep III's building accomplishments. Also, in the vicinity of the Solar court there are many column bases, though they are overgrown and difficult to spot, along with fragments of standing statues of Amenhotep III as Osiris. Some of the huge column bases are important to Egyptologists, because they reveal foreign place names known in the time of Amenhotep III, including references to the Aegean.

Other statues discovered in the area depict the goddess Sekhmet, sphinxes, some with the bodies of crocodiles and other deities. Ancient documents tell us that there was one seated and one standing statue of Sekhmet for each day of the year. Many other colossal statues were built here, including a pair of striding figures of the king that flanked the northern entrance to the temple, fragments of which also still remain. In fact, some Egyptologists believe that some of the colossal statues in the Ramesseum, including the famous fallen statue of "Ozymandia", were probably usurped from the Amenhotep III complex.

Of course, the Colossi of Memnon actually portray Amenhotep III. Due to an earthquake in 27 BC, these statues became known for a bell like tone that usually occurred in the morning due to rising temperatures and humidity. Thus they were equated by the early Greek travelers with the figure of Memnon, the son of Aurora who's mother, Eos, was the goddess of dawn. The Roman emperor Septimius Severus, seeking to repair the statues, inadvertently silenced them forever.

Side of the Colossi of Memnon showing Nile gods uniting plants of Upper and Lower Egypt

These colossal statues set at the front of the temple, which was located almost directly across the Nile from the Temple of Luxor at Kom el-Hetan. Behind them were two massive courtyards with other seated, colossal statues. There were a total of three pylons. In front of the second set of pylons were two additional quartzite colossal statues, and before the third pylon stood two additional colossal statues made of alabaster. Betsy Bryan has suggested that this was the largest sculptural program in history.

A long processional way similar to that built by the king in the Luxor Temple, lined with sphinxes, stretched from the innermost pylons to a large peristyle solar court.

A considerable part of the temple was dedicated to Amen, but it is also known that the northern part of the temple was devoted to the Memphite deity Ptah, or Ptah-Sokar-Osiris to whom Amenhotep also built a temple in honor of in Memphis.

There is also a small, separate limestone temple dedicated to Ptah-Sokar-Osiris in the northern part of the compound. It had its own gateway flanked by two quartzite standing statues of Amenhotep III. However, it was so destroyed by stone thieves that we can barely guess at its ground plan.

Arial view of the Colossus of Memnon

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2008-01-31T20:24:00.005+02:00

Dynasty 13
1802 - 1649 BC

(Ryholt) (c. 140 years

Dynasty 13 started the Second Intermediate Period (SIP) (some makes the start at dynasty 15) and this era bears many unsolved problems. The first two kings were sons of the last male monarch of dynasty 12 and Upper Egypt was under control at least through the reign of Sobekhotep IV. The capital was Itj-tawy and a traditional belief is that after half the dynasty they kings were forced to move south, but no evidence confirms this. The territory reached north to Bubastis and the borders does not seem to have been changed over the years to the parallel dynasty 14 which controlled the rest of the delta.In the south dynasty 13 seems to have control as far as the second cataract though- out their existens. The two dynasties (13th and 14th) seem to have been getting along quite well but a big question is how all entries in the Turin Canon should be explained. The number of kings (around 60) points to an average reign of 1,5 years for the first couple of dozen rulers and this can hardly be a reflection of a historical fact. One theory (among others) is that the ruling class gave office to marionette-kings and sacked them when they felt like it.

Sobekhotep I

The founder of the dynasty is well attested for and he was the first (male) pharaoh to include Faiyum's crocodile god into his name. He was the son of king Amenemhet IV of dynasty 12 and is incorrectly noted as king number 19 in the Turin Canon, obvious interchanged with king Wegaf in position 21 who was ruling about forty years later.

The duration of his reign is gone from the damaged list, but a probable figure is estima- ted for at least three a period of years around 1800-1797 BC. His prenomen (seen within the cartouche in picture right) means: "Life of Re is Appearing", made by theese hieroglyphs: sunrise (which means "appear"), ankh (mean- ing "life"), and the sun (meaning the solar god). His name occures on at least a dozen building remnants of stone plus some papyrus inscriptions and an axe blade of unknown provenance.

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Sekhemkare Sonbef

King Sekhemkare Sonbef was a son of Amenemhet III and and by some concidered identical to Amenemhet V (see below) and confusion is at hand ordering these insignificant rulers correctly with one thing in common: short periods in high office.

This king is listed as number two in the Royal Canon of Turin, where he possibly succeeded his paternal brother Sobekhotep I.

He thus was the son of the king Amenemhet IV of the dynasty before. His nomen was Sonbef, as written by the last three hieroglyphs at right in the cartouche above.

His throne name was "Mighty is the soul of Re", (wihin a cartouche left), and his Horus-name in the serek right means: "Horus, the one who makes the Two Lands live".

Another find is a stela (below) with his names (center and left) and at right the Nile god Hapi kneeling with offerings on a plate. A cylinders seal with his name (right) was used during his short reign of about 3 years around 1795 BC.

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Amenemhet V

King Amenemhet V had a reign of about three years at least and possibly identical to king Sekhemkare Sonbef above. His reign would have started around 1783 BC. and according to the Turin Canon he was the third king of the dynasty and is noted for a reign of 5-6 years. His throne name was "Sekhem-ka-Re" in the cartouche to the right and means: "Powerful is the Soul of Re", which was a quite common name. His Horus name is seen in the serek to the left and it means: (Horus is) the one who makes the two lands live". There are no mon- uments found from his reign, nor are there any scarab-seals or cylinder seals with his name. The only remain of him is his name written on papyrus and a statue (3/4 of man size) devided into two parts.

from the body, and the Nubian Museum at Aswan (in the picture left). In the latter place this statue, made of hard grey-green stone, was once found in the temple area on the old fortified island of Elefantine in the modern town of Aswan. A positive identifi- cation was made as late as in the 1990s when his name was found written on some of half a dozen fragments from the body which were found fitting the upper part. The artistic style adopted during dynasty twelve is clearly visible in this fragmentary statue (with the exception of the normally big ears). His expression seems also to be more joyful than the grim faces of some of the giants from the dynasty before. Excluding the reconstructed part (in brown) the measures are - height: 35 cm and width: 17,5 cm.

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Amenyqemau

King Amenyqemau had a reign of a few years around 1790 BC. and came to be known better 3,750 years later - in 1957.

While working at South Dashur an American expedition tried their luck by excavating a low structure of mud brick rubble never worked on before. Soon they discovered a substructure that made them determine that this was a pyramid, until then unknown to science.

The owner was soon identified as king Ameny Kemau (Amenyqemau), a little known ruler from the 13th dynasty, and hard to place in the long line of minor regents from this dusky period. In the Turin Canon appears a king by the name Se-hotep-ib-Re with a noted reign of just one year, which may be him. Another sug- gestion is that he was the son of (his prede- cessor?) pharaoh Amenemhet V but this has not been confirmed, but it might be possible.

His name (in the picture right) clearly confirms his status by the signs at the very bottom (the goose and the sun) which says: "Son of Re", meaning nobody but the king. And in the picture left his personal name is seen within a royal cartouche. the place of his pyramid is hard to determine as man made, and looks more like natural formation in the landscape.

The details of the superstructure have almost totally vanished, but it likely was a construction made of a mud brick core cased by limestone. The complex probably didn't have an enclosure wall and any subsidiary tombs has not been found. The remains below surface have been preserved in a better way and are well docu- mented from a second investigation made in the late 1960s.

The entrance and the design of the substructure was made in the line of fashion from the mid thirteenth dynasty architectural design. A huge block of stone (green) was a stopper at the threshold of the buri- al chamber (red). Nothing was found of any mortuary temple, causeway or valley temple. It's doubtful if there ever were any built and if the pyramid itself was ever finished.The base side was originally about 52 meters and the height about 35.

The entrance corridor (picture above) was at the east side, and had two stairways before entering the large antechamber outside the grave chamber holding a huge block of quartzite stone. Into this craftsmen had cut two niches for the storage of the king's mummy coffin and the chest containing four jars with his embalmed inner organs. After the burial a big stone slab outside the door was put into place blocking the entrance to pharaoh's final resting place.

Despite these precautions taken by the architect, the monument was entered by grave robbers who ransacked it of its valuable things leaving only fragments of the canopy chest behind. Luckily for the afterworld it was on these pieces of stone that the king's name was found some 3,700 years later (pictures at top).

The pyramid of Amenyqemau was one of the last monumental pyramids to be built in Egypt and as such it is a valuable object for studying the long development of this famous type of tomb.

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Sobekhotep II

King Sobekhotep II was possibly the pharaoh in office just before the brief reign of king Hor and was possibly the son of his namesake Sobekhotep I who had ruled about a dozen years earlier. He was the second in a row of at least seven kings to bear this crocodile name with the meaning: "Sobek is Beautiful and Pleasing". The duration of his time in office is today generally agreed on to have been two to four years around 1778 BC. and he is identified in the Turin Canon as listed between the little known about king Amenemhet VII (Sedjefkare) and the far better known king Khendjer.

At Deir el Bahri (western Thebes) and Medamud eight km northeast of Luxor, he made additions to the old temples of Mentuhotep I, which were built almost two centuries earlier.

A statue (picture right) made of red granite, shows him sitting on his throne. His throne name (within the cartouche in picture upper left) means: "The Powerful Re Rules and Protects the Two Countries".

His name has also been found on a block of stone from a chapel and an altar from Abydos. At Karnak a fundament from a statue of his is known and in the Petrie Museum in London his name is present on a fragment from a column.

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Hor I

King Hor I has been very well known and his throne name is shown here written within a cartouche in the illustration right. It means: "Re Succours the Heart".

At Hawara by the north side of the pyramid of Amnemhet III a small tomb was found to be his last resting place. Among other things it also contained a wooden statue of him.

This life size (1.7 m) sculpture is today a masterpiece of its kind in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo (picture left).

The statue is depicing the king's Ka (an invi- sible follower) which walked beside every human being in life as well as after death.

It was thought to take possession of the mummified body and was symbolised and shown in hieroglyphic writing as two up-reached arms, and now placed upon his head.

The eyes are made of white and blue glass, a rare colour of the eyes of the Egyptians. The tomb was untouched by robbers and also contained his mummy within a wooden coffin plus some items of the funerary equipment including a wooden chest.

Some indications in the tomb may point to the fact that a later king - Khendjer, took part in his funeral, but opinions among Egyptologists are divided in this matter. Pharaoh Hor had a brief reign (7 months to 2-3 years) around 1776 BC.

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Wegaf

Pharaoh Wegaf (also spelt Ugaf) is in most lists put in first position of the dynasty with a reign of about a good two years around 1765 BC. The Turin Canon gives him - two years, three months and twenty-seven days on the throne.He is likely to have ruled from the capital Itj-tawy as the first in a row of about ten kings who had rather stable rules. His throne name (within cartouche right) means: "Re Protects the Two Lands", and sometimes the signs at row three and at the bottom are left out. At left his per- sonal name Wegaf is seen written with phonetic hieroglyphs.

His remains are rather few (7) and just a single scarab-seal is documented from his time as the senior commander of Egypt's military forces before he became pharaoh.
He is also known from two stelas in Karnak and Lower Nubia in the vicinity of the second cataract (drawing in picture left) and from a statuette in the Museum of Khartoum in Sudan. In the early 1980s a former anonymous statuette on display in the Egyptian Museum was reattributed and determined as being his. A find of an Ostracon (single piece with temporary drawing/writing) from the island of Elefantine in Aswan shows his name together with the nomen of king Senwosret, (which one is unclear). In total half a dozen physical remnants of his are known including a statue (a the Egyptian Museum in Cairo) plus a stela and a statuette (stela seen in drawing left), now both in the museum in Khartum, Sudan.

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Khendjer

Nothing is known of the deeds of this pharaoh. His fame comes from his mortuary complex with his pyramid which was discovered at far south in the burial ground of Sakkara in 1929, and was identified as his two years later.His name was known before, from a stela, but here another throne name was used. For some time the question was if there were two kings called Khendjer, but soon scientists agreed on that it was one and the same pharaoh from the stela found at Sakkara and the one mentioned in the Canon of Turin. His Horus name "Djed Kheperu" (firm is the god Kheper) is seen within a serek to the right, and his reign would have lasted circa 4 years around 1757 BC.

The whole pyramid area of his had once been enclosed by two walls, the outer made of mud brick. The inner one was of limestone and had niches and panels and remains indicated it apparently had replaced an unusual wavy wall, just like the one surrounding the pyramid at Mazghuna South from king Amenemhet IV (see above).

The mortuary temple was located on the east side between the walls and the only remains were bits of reliefs and parts of the pavement from the court yard. Luckily fragments from columns were inscribed with his name, and thereby identifying the constructions as his. Investigations of the fragmentary pyramid lead to the conclu- sion that it once had a base side of 53 meters and a height of about 37.

After having been quarried away over the years it is considerably reduced in height . The rather well preserved capstone of the pyramid was found at the east side, inscribed with the king's throne name - Userkare.

A chapel to the north was built against the pyramid's facade. It stood on a platform and was reached by two stairways.

The pyramid complex of Khendjer once had two enclosure walls and the mortuary temple was placed in between (striped area). Huge stoppers (green) blocked the way to the grave chamber (red).

Fragments of reliefs that once adorned the walls have been found, depicting scenes of offerings and other well known motifs. The entrance was at the west side (picture below) with a stairway leading down to a portcullis that never was engaged and 39 steps further down was a room with stopper number two. Prior to the superstructure the grave chamber was built in a shaft cut out from the bedrock. The huge blocks sealing it from the top were lowered to their final position by a devise making them fall into place when the sand they temporary lay on was drained out from below through small channels, just like from the pyramid at Mazghuna South attributed to Amenemhet IV.

Just outside the inner wall at the north west corner are the underground remains of a small (c. 20 m square) subsidiary pyramid possibly built for his queen. Within the area are also shaft tombs most likely belonging to other family members. All of it was in an unfinished state and never used for burials. An inscription on the sarco- phagus below the queen's pyramid, gives an indication of the duration of the king's short reign - four years. Apart from his tomb all remains left of him is 3 statuettes, 3 cylinder seals, a few scarab seals and a stela.

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Sobekhotep III

Pharaoh Sobekhotep III is placed in the Royal canon of Turin as number 19 in the long row of rulers. His reign is noted in the kings' to have been three years and two months, but the two marks for "years" are so separated that another in the middle is likely to once have been written there. His reign was thus possibly 3-4 years starting around 1749 BC. His throne name Sekhemre (right) have the sign for devine power "sekhem" as a staff of a commander on top under the solar symbol of the god Re.The whole meaning is: "Powerful is Re, Who Makes Two Lands Flourish". He was not of royal stock and his parents (noted in a temple inscription) were commoners. Despite his quite short reign a lot artifacts from his reign are know and among them over 30 scarab seals.

His (none royal) family is well attested for and the names of two of his queens are known - Senebhenas and Neni. From the latter he fathered the daughter Jewetibaw whose name has been found within a cartouche, an honour given a princess just once before in Egyptian history.Remnents of monuments of his are found in el Kab (a small chapel) and Lisht. A few cylinder seals are known and many scarab seals (see picture right). An altar on Sehel Island at Aswan bears his name, and so does an axe handle and a small gold ball, possibly from a necklace. He can be seen as a stone sphinx (Egyptian Museum) and has a statue dedicated to the creator god Khnum exhibited in the Medelhavsmuséet in Stockholm Sweden.

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Neferhotep I

Neferhotep is the first king in a row of several bearing this rather odd name meaning "Beauty and satisfaction" and he was an elder brother to the next king: Sobekhotep IV. The hieroglyph for satisfaction is a loaf of bread on a reed mat (cartouche left) indicating the seriousness the Egyptians had in their relation to food.

He is listed as number 27 in the Turin Canon and noted to have been in office almost a dozen years around 1742-1731 BC. His throne name (within the cartouche in the picture right) means: "Mighty is the Appear- ance of Re". Neferhotep I came from a military family of none royal stock (at least on his father's side) and possibly from Thebes. His queen's name was Senebsen and they likely recided in the main capital from witch the king ruled the country - Itjtawy near Lisht by the Fayum in middle Egypt.

He was the son of a temple priest in Abydos. His father's position helped him to gain the royal image as the king because he did not have any royal blood in his family. Neferhotep is inspirited on some stones discovered near Byblos. Also, they found other stones in Aswan that were carved with texts which documents all his reign. It seems that all his power reached the Delta in the north and the Nubian Nome in the south.

Scarab seal and statue of Neferhotep I

Knowledge about his deeds could be better but artefacts from his reign are many and on Sehel island at Aswan his name is cut into the rocks in seven occasions. He has left two stelae from Abydos made in his 2nd and 4th year in office and another has been found at Byblos in Lebanon. His scarab-seals are more than 60 (one of them is shown in picture above) and two cylinders seals are known. Three statues of him have survived - one at Elefantine in Aswan and two from the Karnak temple area at Thebes. His successor was his youger brother Sobekhotep IV (below) and they might have ruled together because many monument have both their names inscribed.

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Sobekhotep IV

In the Turin Canon Sobekhotep IV is listed in position 21. His throne name (within the cartouche in the picture right) was Kha- ineferre meaning: "Beautiful is the App- earance of Re".He was one of the most powerful kings of the dynasty and is known to have secured the southern frontier by sending troops down into Nubia.

His reign (and his brother's before him) can be concidered as the peak of the 13th dynasty, which was a rather shaky and politically troublesome period. Luckily there is a fine unbroken statue left of him showing his looks (picture left). He is sitting on his throne and his face is made in typical Middle Kingdom style with big ears pointing out. This unique piece is today to be seen at the Louvre Museum in Paris.

He was a younger brother to Neferhotep I whom he succeed- ed on the throne. Their father was a priest and their mother was possibly of royal stock and if so possibly a (grand?) grandchild of Amenemhet III from dynasty 12. His queen was called Tjan and has left an inscription (probably made after her husbands death) where she tells how he went to Heliopolis and studied the old scripts and took a statue of the god Osiris in a procession. It ended in the old capital down at Abydos in the so called "Osiris' Tomb", where the priests performed the well known story of his deeds. The duration of his reign is not noted in the Turin Canon, but is estimated to have been a dozen years around 1732-1720 BC. During his reign the Hyksos made their first appearance, and took control of the town of Avaris in the Delta around 1720 BC, and started their conquest of the week and diversed Egypt.

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Sobekhotep VI

Pharaoh Sokbekhotep VI had the throne name Khahotep Re (within the cartouche right), with the meaning: Perfect In (His) Appearence is Re". He was a ruler from Thebes and probably the son of his predecessor with the same name (and number 5) who is known to have a son bearing this name. His time in office was not very long and his reign as ruler number 25 of this dyna- sty is estimated to a period of about five years (Turin Canon says four) around the years 1720-1715 BC.

Little to nothing is known about his deeds and the only remnent of substance left from his time on the throne besides some (10) scarab seals, (including impressions and a cylinder ditto), is a statuette found in Kerma in Nubia, now in the Museum in Berlin (seen in picture left). This find indicates that Egypt though week, had inluence possibly next to control over this remote region known for its own identity and struggle for independence throughout the long Egyptian history.

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Wahibre

Pharaoh Wahibre (meaning "Re Is Strong Of Heart") had the personal nomen Iaib (also Ibiaw) as seen in the cartouche right. He is noted in the Turin Canon as the 29th ruler and with a possible additional four king in a damage part of the papyrus earlier in the dynasty, he may have ent- ered the throne as number 33 in succsession.

With his successor Aya he is ending a line of kings with well attested rather long reigns and the followers all are estimated for very short periods on the throne.From his almost eleven years in office (10 years, 8 months and 29 days in Turin Canon) around the years 1712-1701 BC. some remains are left that confirms his existence and they are: 1) Nine scarab-seals of
Seal of Wahibrewhich one was found in Byblos (Lebanon). 2) Three cylinder-seals. 3) A bead and stamp seal(?) with his name found at Lisht. 4) A cup from Kahun. 5) A stela of unknown provenance now in the British Museum.

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Aya (Ay, Ai)

The throne name of king Aya - Merneferre (seen within the cartouche right) means: "Beautiful is the Desire of Re". The Turin Canon has Aya in position 33 and he is the king from the dynasty with the longest reign noted - almost 24 years. One theory says that the Hyksos rulers expanded southwards and had captured Memphis by then, making Aya flee to the south from his capital Itj-twy, (which hasn't been found for sure by modern archaeology).Ryholt claims 1997 that nothing of this scenario can be proved by substantial evidence and on the contrary - the border between the two neighboring dynasties 13 and 14 seems to have been quite stable throughout the times.

His reign was for 23 and 3/4 of a year (according to the Royal Canon of Turin) and it likely occurred during the years around 1701-1677 B.C. He has left a lot of remains, among them over 60 scarab-seals (one of them shown in picture left), one cylinder seal, a stone jar with his name and the capstone (top) from his pyramid, found at Khatana (in the north east delta). It's likely to have come from Sakkara where this tomb probably was situated, but today it's not identified with surtainty. A candidate to be his last resting place is a never finished and rather big anonymous monument (and what's left of it) situated southwest of Khendjer's tomb in South Sakkara.

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Dedumes I (Dedumose I)

King Dedumose I had the throne name Djed-hotep-Re (within the cartouche left) meaning: "The One Bringing Lasting Peace". He is known from Manetho's historical work as the king who had to give up his country to the attacking Hyksos people. In this chronicle he is given his Greek name Totemaios.

For some reason he is not present in the Turin Canon and only attested for by remains from Upper Egypt, but this does not mean that the historical scenario told above is not a fact. Another king with the same name and given the number II has initiated a discussion about his true position in the 13th dynasty.

This lack of agreement among the experts is due to the fact that at least three (by some scholars up to five) dynasties were operating at the same time in the split up Egypt.

One possibility might be that Dedumose had to capitulate to the foreign enemies and his followers were marionette rulers, but this is just a suggestion of many from this politically very complicated period.Remnants of his are scant and apart from his names and titles found in single inscriptions, a remarkable stela has been found at Edfu made by an unnamed official giving himself the title "the king's son", and tells Dedumose's all titles and names and among them his Horus-name within a serek (left). It was Wadj-chau, meaning "Fresh at feature" un- derlining his physical fitness necessary to do his job properly in the eyes of the people. This stela is now in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo.

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Dynasty 14

1750 - c. 1670 BC.

(c. 85 years)

Egypt was now split up and dynasty 14 (parallel at least to the mid 13th) was ruling from Xois in the north eastern delta and was (at least indicated by some names) of Asiatic (Hyksos) origin. 32 names in a list which has space (rows) for about 60. Several lists and theories are at hand, like suggestions that they were province leaders, vassals, made up, or ancestors(!) to the living pharaohs. 76 kings ruled for 184 years. The duration of their reigns indicate about two years each on the throne in average, and these unlikely figures still awaits an explanation.

Just a few kings from dynasty 14 are known from seals in shapes of scarabs (see picture), and besides Nehesy's below the only remain of substance is a stone stela.

Nehesy

From Nehesy's reign are left documents where he states that he is the son of a pharaoh, but curi- ously he doesn't say who his father was, which possibly indicates that his statement isn't true. One theory advocates that his father might have been an Egyptian civil servant or a military commander who usurped royal rule in the delta. The throne name of his - Aa-seh-Re (cartouche in picture right) means: "Great in Council is Re". Nehesy has left a row of remnants from his reign: 1) An obelisk at the temple of Seth at Raahu (north east delta). 2) Two stelas at Tell Habwe. 3) A column at Tanis with his mother's name. 4) At least 23 seals mostly from scarab amulets with his name carved into the flat bottom. In the Turin Canon he is listed as the first pharaoh of the dynasty, but a great gap in the papyrus indicates a row of about five kings (see list above) who probably ruled before him. Estimations have been made indicating that these had a rather long reigns compared with most later kings, which makes the time when Nehesy was in charge to have possibly occurred around the year 1705 BC.

The damage Turin papyrus can't give him more than half a year in office. His name Nehesy means "Nubian" in the Egyptian language and may indicate his origin and background, since soldiers from the south by tradition were a great part of the Egyptian military forces.

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http://nemo.nu/ibisportal/0egyptintro/1egypt/index.htm

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