The Origins of Egyptian Religion

The blog post for this week is written by Yvonne Buskens-Frenken, from the Netherlands. She is a member of the Dutch Egyptology society Mehen and a former student of Egyptology at Manchester University (Certificate 2015 and Diploma 2017). While Yvonne has never been to the Egypt Centre before, she hopes to visit in the near future, perhaps with other Mehen members. This is the second of the online Egypt Centre courses that she has attended.

Last week a new online course was launched by The Egypt Centre entitled The Religion of the Ancient Egyptians, which is led by Dr Ken Griffin. I do find these online lectures and courses absolutely wonderful. Because of Covid-19 we are all, in one way or another, deprived from attending the usual Egyptology lectures held in museums or Egyptology societies. I wholeheartedly embrace these online lectures as they provide a dose of Egyptology. I actually hope this form of lecturing will continue in the future, but without Covid-19 hanging over us!

As a former Egyptology student, the topics discussed are not new or unfamiliar to me but there is always a new aspect to discover or a new angle to approach a certain topic for further (private) study. Within that context, I would like to highlight here some aspects of the first session discussing the origins of Egyptian religion and myths, which I found particularly interesting. One of them is Punt, which popped up twice during the lecture, although indirectly. Dr. Griffin started with the question “what is religion?” This is a subject not easy to discuss or define. I think we all have different opinions and experience it differently. Additionally, at some level, I am sure the ancient Egyptians must have had the same difficulties in experiencing what they understand by what we call religion. Actually, I don’t think they even had a word for religion? To find out how the ancient Egyptians experienced their understanding of religion, we have to search within the available resources. However, when interpreting these resources, they don’t always give us the perfect insight. For example, are these painted pottery decorations you see here on this Predynastic vessel (fig. 1) deities and cults? If so, what did they mean for the ancient Egyptians?

Fig. 1: D-ware vessel (BM EA 35502)

From later periods in Egyptian history, we are able to get more conclusive evidence. Firstly, we can detect what we call state religion, which was performed within the temples. The king acted as the high priest while the temple priesthood performed rituals on behalf of the king. These included daily rituals such offerings, libations, anointing, and dressing the gods. You cannot fail to see these abundant “religious” scenes when you walk through the temples of Egypt, such as that of Sety I at Abydos (fig. 2). There is also the private religion, which I prefer studying over the state religion as it brings us closer to the ordinary Egyptians and is more relatable. I am glad Ken included in his lecture a beautiful ear stela (Toye-Dubs 2016), which shows how much mankind wanted to communicate with the gods: “NN, do you hear me?” The ears of God are depicted on the stela. Here you see three pair of ears, although there are more beautiful examples in museums showing just one large ear. Also interesting within the private religion is the ancestor cult, a form of keeping in contact with and honouring your ancestors by the so-called ancestor busts or ꜣḫ i͗ḳr n Rꜥ stelae (“excellent spirit of Re”) (fig. 3)

Fig. 2: Sety I performing rituals within the temple at Abydos

Gods were venerated in temples, the earliest of which were not built of stone, as the ones in Abydos or Luxor, but from organic materials. The archaic temple at Hierakonpolis is a good example. Some well-known temples in modern Luxor are Luxor Temple and Karnak Temple on the east bank. On the West Bank, Medinet Habu and Hatshepsut’s temple are my favourite places to visit! However, did you ever hear of (or visit for that matter, which I haven’t) the oldest archaic temple in the Theban area, situated on Thoth Hill. This temple on the West Bank of Luxor, dating to around 3,200 BC, was first brought to my attention during a lecture hosted by Mehen some years ago. Petrie already excavated this site over 100 years ago, but it was a team of Hungarian archaeologists who found beneath the Middle Kingdom structure of Sankhkare Mentuhotep III remnants of an archaic stone temple (pottery and architectural fragments are dated to the so-called Archaic Period). The archaic structure had almost the same layout as the Middle Kingdom temple, except for the fact that it had a single sanctuary rather than three. Dr Griffin pointed out in the lecture about its star orientation: the archaic temple differs in its orientation to Sirius by around two degrees from the later structure on Thoth Hill, thus pointing to a shift in the stars (Vörös 1998; Wilkinson 2000, 173).

Fig. 3: Fragment of an ꜣḫ i͗ḳr n Rꜥ stela (A232)

We next looked at the origins of the Egyptian gods, which will be the focus of week two. When studying Egyptology you think “now I know them all”, but then another one pops up. I actually don’t know how many gods even existed in ancient Egypt, but then does anybody? It fascinates me that on the one hand the ancient Egyptians wanted strict rules and order, as can be seen with this king upholding maat (cosmic order). On the other hand, it is somewhat chaotic; countless gods in different forms and in different contexts could be created and depicted, almost as if one could make up one for every occasion. One of my favourite gods from the Egyptian pantheon is Min of Coptos (fig. 4). He is mostly known as being the god of sex and fertility, but I find him interesting as being the god of the Eastern Dessert. Did you know there are cowrie shells depicted on this statue shown here, now in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford? This seems to be a reference to the Red Sea and trade. From Coptos, (trading/military) expeditions were sent through the Eastern Desert. Soldiers, sailors, and craftsmen, all on foot with dismantled ships and trading goods/food loaded on donkeys, trotting towards the Red Sea. From there the expedition continued on ships, which were assembled on the spot, with some going to the “mysterious” land of Punt. The exact location of Punt remains a mystery. While for many the famous Punt expedition during the reign of Hatshepsut comes to mind, expeditions were already being sent during the Old Kingdom (Bard & Fattovich 2018; Breyer 2016).

Fig. 4: Colossal statue of Min from Coptos

The last part of the lecture was about creation myths. Within ancient Egyptian religion you have many creation myths, such as the Hermopolitan myth, the Heliopolitan myth, the Memphite myth, and many other local traditions. From the Heliopolitan myth I like the story of the Great Cackler: Geb was a god of the earth and one of the Ennead of Heliopolis (fig. 5). He was largely worshiped as a goose, his sacred animal, and was already around during Predynastic times. He was also called Gengen Wer, meaning “Great Honker”, who is the personification of creative energy. In his shrine in Bata in Iunu (Heliopolis) he laid the great Egg (symbolising rebirth and renewal) from which the Sun-god arose in the form of a phoenix or Benben. He was given the epithet “The great Cackler” because of the noise he made when the egg was laid. During the lecture on someone asked why a male goose could can lay an egg? Well, it turns out Geb was often considered to be a hermaphrodite (Griffiths 2001, 473). From later times, we have a wonderful text about the Great Cackler (Coffin Text 307) “… He cackled, being the Great Cackler, in the place where he was created, he alone. He began to speak in the midst of silence … He commenced to cry when the earth was inert. His cry spread … He brought forth all living things which exist. He caused them to live. He made all men understand the way to go and their hearts came alive when they saw him… (Clagget 1989, 301–302).

Fig. 5: Geb from the tomb of Pashedu (TT 3)

At the end of the lecture I hear the word Punt again. One could have easily missed it but it was mentioned in the Tale of the Shipwrecked Sailor. Although the Shipwrecked Sailor is more of a tale than a myth, it was presented in this lecture because of its many connotations with gods and religion. The story looks very straightforward, but when analysed and translated it keeps you puzzling over and over again about its meaning. The only surviving copy of the text is now in the Hermitage Museum in St Petersburg. It is about a trading, exploration, or a military expedition from the South and its return to Egypt. One part of the tale is about the sailor telling his story to his master about being shipwrecked on an island full of wonders. He encounters a giant snake (the god), who calls himself the “prince of Punt”. They become friends and the snake tells his unfortunate story to the sailor. The island full of good and abundant food is here mythically described as the Land of Punt, the well-known land/area for trading since early times (Simpson 2003, 45–46. An added bonus to the lecture was a video by Luke Keenan, the Senior Education Officer at the Egypt Centre, vividly retelling the story!

Bibliography:

Bard, Kathryn A. and Rodolfo Fattovich † 2018. Seafaring expeditions to Punt in the Middle Kingdom: excavations at Mersa/Wadi Gawasis, Egypt. Culture and History of the Ancient Near East 96. Leiden; Boston: Brill.

Clagett, Marshall 1989. Ancient Egyptian science: a source book. Volume one: Knowledge and order, 2 vols. Memoirs of the American Philosophical Society 184. Philadelphia: American Philosophical Society.

Breyer, Francis 2016. Punt: die Suche nach dem “Gottesland”. Culture and History of the Ancient Near East 80. Leiden; Boston: Brill.

Griffiths, J. Gwyn 2001. Solar cycle. In Donald B. Redford (ed.), The Oxford encyclopedia of ancient Egypt, 476-480. Oxford University Press: Oxford.

Griffin, K. 2007. An ꜣḫ i͗ḳr n Rꜥ stela from the collection of the Egypt Centre, Swansea. In Schneider, Thomas and Kasia Szpakowska (eds), Egyptian stories: a British Egyptological tribute to Alan B. Lloyd on the occasion of his retirement, 137–147. Münster: Ugarit-Verlag.

Simpson, William Kelly (ed.) 2003. The literature of ancient Egypt: an anthology of stories, instructions, stelae, autobiographies, and poetry, third ed. New Haven; London: Yale University Press.

Toye-Dubs, Nathalie 2016. De l’oreille à l’écoute. Etude des documents votifs de l’écoute: nouvel éclairage sur le développement de la piété personnelle en Egypte ancienne. BAR International Series 2811. Oxford: BAR.

Vörös, Győző 1998. Temple on the pyramid of Thebes: Hungarian excavations on Thoth Hill at the temple of Pharaoh Montuhotep Sankhkara 1995–1998. Budapest: Százszorszép Kiadó és Nyomda.

Wilkinson, Richard H. 2000. The complete temples of Ancient Egypt. London: Thames & Hudson.

Every Ending has a New Beginning

The past four months has been life changing for most people, including all of us at the Egypt Centre. With the Museum closing in mid-March, our main sources of income (shop sales, school visits, and events) have been affected massively. Like most museums, we have been working hard trying to find new ways of engaging with our visitors while also raising funds for the Egypt Centre. Just under three months ago, I started an online Egypt Centre support fund in the effort to raise £5,000. At the time of writing, I am delighted to say that we have smashed this target by raising £8,585! We are most grateful to everyone who has contributed to this fund so far (fig. 1). There are still three days remaining, so if you would like to support the Egypt Centre during these difficult times, you can still do so via the following link! https://wave.swansea.ac.uk/p/egyptcentre/

Fig. 1: Egypt Centre support fund

As has been noted previously on this blog, our Wonderful Things conference planned for late May was moved to a virtual format, with the final lecture of this series taking place on Friday. I must admit, I was quite apprehensive at first about moving it online, but it has proven to have been tremendously successful and has certainly raised the profile of the Egypt Centre. Over the past few months we have hosted seventeen lectures, all of which revolved around the Egypt Centre collection. The lectures have highlighted the diversity of the collection, with many unique objects showcased. The Egypt Centre is very proud of providing a platform for both established professionals and students, from Egyptologists to conservators. In total, 2,691 people attended the live sessions making this a truly international event (attendees from six continents). Sixteen of the lectures were recorded and have been added to our YouTube channel, drawing an additional audience of 3,907 people. We are grateful to all the speakers who have offered their time and expertise on the collection! Thanks also to Sam Powell, an Egypt Centre volunteer and Egyptology Masters student, for co-hosting these lectures. We are also very grateful to the Mehen Study Centre for Ancient Egypt who sponsored these online lectures (fig. 2).

Fig. 2: Mehen Study Centre for Ancient Egypt 

Despite the virtual conference concluding, our online engagement continues. On Friday of this week, the Egypt Centre will be hosting its first virtual quiz. For the most part, questions will focus on the conference, although there will be general Egyptological questions mixed in. To raise funds for the Egypt Centre there is a £2 charge per household, with tickets available here. Yesterday I started my new short course on Ancient Egyptian Religion, which follows on from the well-received Funerary Artefacts of the Ancient Egyptians. As much as possible the course will highlight relevant objects in the Egypt Centre collection. This course takes place of Sunday evenings and is repeated on Wednesday mornings. Therefore, there is still the opportunity for people to sign up for this course via the following link. As with the previous course, I’ll be inviting attendees to write the blog posts from their own perspective. This course fulfils one of the Egypt Centre’s core aims of widening participation.  

Fig. 3: Copper alloy votive statue of Osiris (W85)

While we will continue to offer free online Zoom lectures (details to follow), financial pressures mean that we will also be hosting a series of fundraising lectures. These lectures will take place once a month, with details to be announced in advance of each talk. I’m delighted to announce that the first lecture will be delivered by Dr Ramadan Hussein (Eberhard Karls Universität, Tübingen), the director of the Saqqara Saite Tombs Project (fig. 4). The project was launched in 2016 as a second round of excavation, documentation, conservation, and publication of the Twenty-sixth Dynasty tombs clustered around the pyramid of King Wenis. During the mapping of the site, the project’s team made significant archaeological discoveries. Many readers will have followed the amazing work of the project via the four-part National Geographic channel recent documentary Kingdom of the Mummies. Discoveries include the first and only example of six canopic jars for one person, the first silver mask found in Egypt in more than half a century, and evidence of a mummification workshop. This promises to be a fantastic lecture, so please join us and support the Egypt Centre. Full details and tickets for the event can be found via the following link.

Fig. 4: Egypt Centre fundraising lecture

Another major development to enhance our online presence is the creation of a new online catalogue. We recently received funding from the Swansea University Alumni’s Greatest Need Fund, for which we are extremely grateful. The current online catalogue was launched in 2005 with limited search capabilities. The new online collection catalogue, which has been in development for the past year, has been designed specifically with the Egypt Centre in mind. Sam Powell, as a student at Swansea University and volunteer at the Egypt Centre, used her experience of working with the collection to design a bespoke new platform, which will allow the collection to be appreciated virtually. Through working closely with the Egypt Centre staff, the online catalogue has been honed to ensure that the user experience is as intuitive as possible, and meeting the needs of a diverse collection. Further data cleaning, new entry fields, and other modifications will continue to be made (figs 5–8). The planned launch of the catalogue is the beginning of October to coincide with the beginning of the academic year. Stay tuned for more details in a future blog post!

Fig. 5: New catalogue entry for W491 (1 of 4)

Fig. 6: New catalogue entry for W491 (2 of 4)

Fig. 7: New catalogue entry for W491 (3 of 4)

Fig. 8: New catalogue entry for W491 (4 of 4)

The Woking Loan at the Egypt Centre

The blog post for this week is written by Dr Dulcie Engel, a previous contributor. Dulcie is a former lecturer in French and linguistics and has been volunteering at the Egypt Centre for the last six years. She is a gallery supervisor and associate editor of the Volunteer Newsletter. She has a particular interest in collectors and the history of museums.

In May 2012, the Egypt Centre received a collection of fifty-eight ancient Egyptian objects from Woking Sixth Form College in Surrey, on an initial ten-year loan. The items were originally donated to Woking Girls’ Grammar School in 1958. The school closed in 1976 when it was amalgamated with the Boys’ School to form the basis of Woking Sixth Form College. Through documents and communications with some of the important players in Woking, and other interested parties, I have been able to piece together the story of these objects from their donation to the school in 1958 to the present day. 1958 was an important year for the Girls’ School in Woking: founded in 1923, it finally moved from its original accommodation in six derelict army huts to brand new premises. Additionally, this is when the Egyptian items were donated to the school by Arthur and Margaret Marshall, school governors. Mrs Marshall was a former pupil who later became a town councillor. At the time, the school had an inspirational headmistress, Miss Violet Hill, who actively encouraged initiative in her pupils. One girl was particularly inspired by the Egyptian objects: Anna Bachelier became responsible for looking after the collection, and compiled the first ‘museum’ inventory. She used a basic cataloguing system of numbers, with labels for items, some of which still remain. She was also given permission to take the objects up to the British Museum for inspection. Anna went on to study archaeology at Cardiff and Edinburgh. She became a well-known archaeologist in Scotland under her married name of Dr Anna Ritchie. The School used the objects as teaching aids in Egyptian history, archaeology, and art classes.

Following the closure, amalgamation, and move to new premises in 1976 as Woking Sixth Form College, the objects were kept in the history department, and still used to teach archaeology and art. In particular, they were cared for by head of history Anne Bowey and her successor, Andrew Forrest. In 2001, Andrew made a new inventory and took the items back to British Museum for assessment by Dr John Taylor, Assistant Keeper at the Department of Ancient Egypt and Sudan. After researching their history and provenance, Andrew Forrest gave a talk on the collection to the College governors. When concerns were raised over display and insurance, the collection was placed in a bank safety deposit box in the Woking branch of Lloyds Bank. Andrew left the College in 2008 and in 2011 a change in bank policy led to the items being returned to the College (inside a sports bag). The then Principal, Martin Ingram, consulted the British Museum about the best home for the items, and the Egypt Centre was recommended because of its strong educational ethos. Shortly after, on 31 May 2012, the Woking Loan arrived at the museum (fig. 1).

Fig. 1: Original display of the Woking Collection at the Egypt Centre

It has proved far more difficult to discover how these objects came to be available for donation in the first place, although we can be pretty sure when and where some of them were excavated, and we can make reasonable guesses about how they came to the UK. We can also be fairly sure of the approximate age of many of the items. The two main contenders for ownership before the Marshalls of Woking are the Egyptologists Robert Mond and Flinders Petrie (Bierbrier 2019). However, it must be noted that this is speculation and we actually do not know how the pieces ended up in Woking. Anna Bachelier noted the possible Mond connection back in 1958, but later Anne Bowey notes the suggestion of a Petrie connection. Indeed, we know that some shabtis (fig. 2) came from an excavation directed by Petrie (see below). Mond sponsored excavations, such as those organised by the Egypt Research Account and Egypt Exploration Fund/Society, and would have been given some artefacts. Mond is known to have given away many items in his collection to both individuals and institutions. A Mond connection would be quite serendipitous as there is a strong connection between the Mond family and Swansea (see Engel 2020).

Fig. 2: Three shabtis during the unpacking process

The artefacts are catalogued as WK1–WK58. They were originally displayed together: now the items are placed in the appropriate cases in both galleries. The collection consists of 35 shabtis, 8 amulets, 5 pottery vessels, 3 coins, 2 fretwork wooden pieces, 2 glass bottles, 1 faience bell, 1 wooden Sokar hawk, and 1 faience flower pendant. Below I briefly discuss a selection of them:

With respect to the shabtis, the largest group of objects, 19 are made of faience, 11 of pottery, 4 of wood, and one of limestone (fig. 3). They date mainly from the New Kingdom and the Third Intermediate Period. As some of the shabtis bear distinctive inscriptions and excavation labels, we can trace their provenance with confidence. For example, WK32 is inscribed Djed-Iset (Djedaset). It has a typed rectangular label on the back, reading: ‘ZED-ASET’. Such labels were placed on shabtis distributed by the Egypt Research Account (ERA), set up and directed by Petrie. This shabti can be traced to the 1895–6 excavation of the Ramesseum by James Quibell (1867–1935), financed by the ERA (Janes 2002).

Fig. 3: Limestone shabti (WK34)

Visitors to the museum may well note the group of five faience shabtis, possibly carrying brick moulds. The painted items on the back are depicted in an unusual manner for seed bags, and as the replica brick mould placed next to them in the Technology case (House of Life) shows, the shape is the same (fig. 4). One of this group, WK 35, is inscribed Djed-Khonsu, but the others, which are not inscribed, are so similar that they must belong to the same group: (WK15–17 and WK56). They date from the Third Intermediate Period and range in height from 78–84mm. 

Fig. 4: Shabtis with possible brick moulds

Three of the pottery vessels date from the early Middle Kingdom. WK3 and WK5–6 are similar to each other: coarsely formed partly handmade Nile silt vessels (Nile fabric B2–C1) with slightly pointed ends, of fairly small size (ranging in height from 135 to 160mm). They are most likely to be model funerary vessels, shaped as beer jars. They are very similar to ones found in the foundation deposits of the pyramid of Senwosret I (Arnold 1988: 107–9).

The Bes bell (WK44) in the Music case is perhaps the object in the Woking Loan that has excited Egyptologists the most, particularly as it is relatively rare (fig. 5). It was also voted in 2019 as one of the thirty highlights of the museum and appears in the recently released Highlights booklet. It is a pale green faience bell, 37mm high, formed as a hollow hemispherical Bes head crowned with feathers, with a hole for suspension as well as another, presumably for the tongue of the bell. The tongue itself is missing. This particular item seems to date to the Ptolemaic Period based on parallels, including BM EA 66619 (Anderson 1976, 47). The fact that this is made from faience suggests it was a votive or amuletic item, as it would have been too fragile to shake vigorously. These bells were perhaps worn around the necks of children to protect them.

Fig. 5: Faience Bes bell (WK44)

A favourite of mine is the Sokar hawk (WK21), 96mm high, in the Woodworking case, which dates from the Late Period. The wood is coated in a layer of gesso and painted yellow, white, red, and green (fig. 6). There appears to be an excavation mark in black ink on the base, which reads 25/50. However, it is not an easily identifiable mark, and might well be a catalogue number from one of the earlier owners, or possibly an auction lot number. There is a hole in the base as these wooden birds would have been fixed with a wooden peg onto the base of a Ptah-Sokar-Osiris figure. The figures combine the powers of Ptah, a creator god (mummiform), Osiris, god of death, resurrection, and fertility (represented by the two feathers of his crown), and Sokar, the hawk-headed god of the cemeteries (the bird), particularly associated with Saqqara.

Fig. 6: Sokar hawk (WK21)

The story of the Woking Loan illustrates the lasting power of historical objects to inspire: Mrs Marshall knew her old school would make good use of the collection, and they did. Just as the original sponsors of the ERA and the EES (and individual excavators) knew that gifts of artefacts to museums, universities, and schools would. A far-seeing headmistress let a fifteen-year-old girl take these artefacts up to the British Museum, encouraging her passion, which led to a distinguished career in archaeology. Much later, a history teacher at the College was inspired to discover more about the collection and spread the word through lectures; again, he took these objects to the British Museum. Finally, when the College realised the need for a safer place for the artefacts, it led to another consultation with the British Museum, who recommended a home well-known for its educational programme with schoolchildren and students. Here in the Egypt Centre, object-centred learning has always been an important element of that programme. In normal times, school groups and members of the public can handle artefacts in the gallery; members of the public, museum volunteers, students, and scholars benefit from evening classes, talks, seminars, and conferences, which involve handling artefacts normally kept in display cases or in the stores.

Acknowledgements

I was due to give a talk on the Woking Loan at Woking College in March 2020 and at the Wonderful Things conference in Swansea in May 2020. Obviously the former never happened while the latter was moved to an online format. If you have any further information/suggestions about the provenance of the Woking Loan, please contact me via the Egypt Centre! I could not have done this research without the help of Egypt Centre staff, in particular Carolyn Graves-Brown, Ken Griffin, and Syd Howells. Additionally, Ancient History staff and researchers at Swansea: Christian Knoblauch, Nigel Pollard, and John Rogers. Nor my brilliant Woking correspondents: Richard & Rosemary Christophers at the Lightbox Gallery, Andrew Forrest, Anna Ritchie, the staff of Woking College; and John Taylor of the British Museum.

Bibliography:

Anderson, Robert D. 1976. Catalogue of Egyptian antiquities in the British Museum III: musical instruments. London: Trustees of the British Museum.

Arnold, Dorothea 1988. Pottery. In Arnold, Dieter (ed.) The pyramid of Senwosret I, 106–146. Publications of the Metropolitan Museum of Art Egyptian Expedition 22; The South Cemeteries of Lisht 1. New York: Metropolitan Museum of Art. 

Bierbrier, Morris L. 2019. Who was who in Egyptology, 5th revised ed. London: Egypt Exploration Society.

Engel, Dulcie. M. 2020. The Mond family: Swansea & Egypt, Egypt Centre Volunteer Newsletter (Jan–Mar 2020).

Janes, Glenn 2002. Shabtis: a private view. Ancient Egyptian funerary statuettes in European private collections. Photographs by Tom Bangbala. Paris: Cybèle.

Quibell, James. E. 1898. The Ramesseum. British School of Archaeology in Egypt and Egyptian Research Account 2. London: Bernard Quaritch.

Not all that Glitters is Gold: Treasures of the Dead

The blog post for this week is written by Wendy Goodridge, the Assistant Curator of the Egypt Centre and first ever volunteer at the museum. She started volunteering in 1997 before the museum was officially opened, whilst she was a postgraduate student studying under Professor Alan Lloyd. Wendy worked with the Curator Carolyn Graves-Brown and a few other eager volunteers to transform the empty museum spaces into displays highlighting the collection ready for the grand opening in 1998. She was employed at first as a Museum Assistant in 1998 and in 2003 was appointed Assistant Curator. Wendy took the lead on developing the schools programme, introducing the ‘dummy mummy’, which was made by her sister, and spends a lot of her time on museum administration. Wendy is interested in the extraordinary collector Sir Henry Wellcome and her favourite objects in the museum are the amulets! 

Sadly, we have come to the end of our five-week course, which seems to have flown by really quickly! I have thoroughly enjoyed exploring the various topics especially as Ken has illustrated them so well using the Egypt Centre collection and bringing the objects to life! Doing this course has been a refreshing change from my normal daily work where I really don’t get time to study the collection! Session five was aptly named ‘Treasures of the Dead’ and Ken commented ‘Everything we have seen in the previous four sessions could also be deemed “treasures”’. Today’s session was focusing less on funerary objects and more on personal objects that were used in daily life by the ancient Egyptians, who would have wanted to be buried with them for use in the afterlife. I am not going to be able to report on all the types of ‘treasures’ Ken mentioned, but will choose a selection. We can see ‘treasured’ objects depicted in funerary processions and paintings of the deceased in the afterlife using their ‘treasures’. Possessions such as furniture, clothing, beds and headrests, a fan, games and toys, boxes, and of course lots of wine (fig. 1)!

Fig. 1: Funeral procession in the tomb of Ramose (TT 55)

Ken discussed wooden furniture and explained it was a very common commodity for the afterlife, especially for the elite (Killen 1993, 2018). We examined the beautifully decorated chair of Sitamun in the Cairo Museum, which is decorated with protective beings such as Bes beating a tambour and wielding knives. Was this object made for the tomb or was it used in life also? The Egypt Centre has a wide variety of furniture pieces, including legs of beds, chairs, and stools. Ken highlighted a pair of Egypt Centre wooden bed legs from Akhmim (fig. 2). One is decorated with the image of Bes standing on a protective Sa-sign, with a snake on the other face. The second leg is decorated with the protective being Tawaret with a knife projecting from her feet. Is it possible this bed/couch was used by pregnant women after childbirth for purification, particularly as these beings are known to protect women in childbirth? The Egypt Centre recently presented a lecture by Manon Schutz who discussed the possible use of purification beds for women after childbirth.

Fig. 2: Bed legs from Akhmim (W2052a & W2052b)

Headrests were seen throughout Dynastic Egypt from the Early Dynastic to the Roman Period. They were used by the living as a ‘pillow’ while sleeping, but were also used to prop the head of the mummy during their eternal sleep! Some tomb models show the person laying on their side or on their back. They have a practical use but were also believed to have a symbolic function as a symbol of rebirth. The persons head represents the sun lowering each evening and, hopefully, rising each morning in the horizon, the Akhet! Ken showed a complete wooden headrest (AB80), possibly from Abydos, which was donated to the Egypt Centre by Aberystwyth University in 1997 (fig. 3). It is made of three pieces; a headrest, stem, and base so it is easier to repair and can easily be transported. Headrests are commonly made of wood, but some are made of stone or faience. They are also commonly shown on the inside of coffins from the Middle Kingdom. Some headrests are decorated with the protective being Bes, possibly including our headrest, who would avert your nightmares! Of course, headrests are still used in modern societies today. If you fancy trying one out (after Covid-19 is a distant memory of course!) we have a replica headrest that is used for visitors and school parties. Some find it surprisingly comfy and much cooler than a pillow! For anyone who wants more information on headrests, Ken mentioned the work of Dr Katharina Zinn, University of Wales Trinity Saint David. Katharina has researched headrests and presented at the Wonderful Things 2019 conference as well as for the Friends of the Egypt Centre (Zinn 2018). You can also see our Curator Carolyn Graves-Brown talk about headrests in her Bitesize series.

Fig. 3: Wooden headrest (AB80)

Clothes were not high on the list of items taken into the tomb for use in the afterlife despite being important in life for the elite. Ken discussed the possibility that tomb depictions showing the deceased in fine linen clothes perhaps sufficed as substitutes for the real thing (fig. 4). One fascinating fact we discussed was that most clothes found were deliberately inside out! We had quite a lively discussion about this fact. Had the deceased taken them off this way and they were left inside out so the unwashed clothes had the ‘essence’ of the deceased in the sweat deposited on the garment? Or were they laundered inside out to preserve the linen? The last tale in the Westcar Papyrus tells the story of the magical birth of the first three kings of the Fifth Dynasty: Userkaf, Sahure, and Kakai. Reddedet, wife of Rewosre, a priest of Ra, goes into a difficult labour, and the god Ra, hearing it, sends Isis, Nephthys, Meskhenet, Heket, and Khnum to help her. These deities transform themselves into dancing girls and musicians and go to the home to help with the birth. They find Rewosre, upset over his wife’s condition wearing his kilt ‘upside down’, which can also mean ‘inside out’. Interestingly, it was pointed out in the chat that the modern Arabic word for inside out also means upside down! The kilt was the most popular item of clothing and comes top in laundry lists and a shopping list from Deir-el-Medina! We were lucky enough to have Rosalind Janssen participate in our Experiment and Experience conference. Rosalind has expertise concerning ancient Egyptian textiles and clothes, with a special interest in the Egyptian laundry and pleating techniques (Hall 1985, 1986).

Fig. 4: Elaborate clothing in the tomb of Nebamun (BM EA 37981)

Sandals were another interesting item taken to the afterlife by the elite. These may well have been worn by the deceased in life and they were usually made of plant fibre (fig, 5). What I thought was interesting was they have been found on top of coffins and sometimes inside coffins as though the deceased wants them nearby for quick access when they arise. Just like me putting my slippers by the side of my bed!

Fig. 5: Sandals from the British Museum on loan to the Egypt Centre (BM EA 36201)

The last ‘treasure’ I will mention is jewellery. Many items of jewellery have been found in graves and tombs right through Egyptian history. Was the jewellery intended to enhance beauty and to feel good, worn for protection (amuletic properties), or both? Ken reminded us we shouldn’t put our modern notion of ‘beauty’ and our function of jewellery from ancient Egypt. Ken showed us various pieces from the Egypt Centre collection; one was W793, a beautiful bracelet made of carnelian, quartz (possibly amethyst), and copper, which was excavated by Flinders Petrie at Qau el-Kebir (fig. 6).

 

Fig. 6: Bracelet from the grave of a woman at Qau (W793)

The highlight of the jewellery Ken discussed were four New Kingdom, Eighteenth Dynasty, Amarna collars. They were part of the Berens collection purchased by Wellcome in 1923 and were believed to come from the royal tombs and bodies of the Amarna princesses! The collars are mainly made of faience and include beads of glass and semi-precious stones, such as lapis lazuli and carnelian. W8 has a large central shell shaped, floral pendant flanked by amulets of fish and squatting baboons, Bes and Taweret figures, female deities with staffs, poppy seed cases, a heart, and a row of rosettes. W9 has a rare central female Bes amulet flanked by female deities with staff, a squatting baboon, and two rows of rosettes. W10 has a central heart amulet flanked by a crouching child figure, female deities with staff, fish, and a situla amulet. W11 is a beautiful intricate round collar made of tiny beads with no central pendant. The images of the collars were excellent quality and we were told some took Ken over five days to cut out the background! Ken did a poll and asked which collar was our favourite – W9 the Beset collar won but my favourite is still W11 (fig. 7)! It is not known whether the linen thread is original. I like to hope it is—why use linen for modern threading? Ken discussed the ethics of radiocarbon dating the object; some of the thread will have to be destroyed so losing some of the beautiful beadwork and it would devalue the object if the string is not original. Although some would prefer to find out, others, like myself, would say no!

Fig. 7: Amarna collar (W11)

So many other ‘Treasures’ were discussed that couldn’t be mentioned, such as cosmetics, games, toys, vessels, wigs, mirrors, boxes, and tools of the trade! It was certainly a treasure packed session! On behalf of all those who took the five-week course, I want to say a big thank you to Ken for such interesting sessions, as well as encouraging and patiently answering so many questions. Additionally, to Sam Powell who co-hosted and worked very hard to ensure the sessions ran smoothly! We look forward to the next one on Egyptian religion, which has now been advertised!

Bibliography:

Hall, Rosalind 1985. “The cast-off garment of yesterday”: dresses reversed in life and death. Bulletin de l’Institut français d'archéologie orientale 85, 235–243.

——— 1986. Egyptian textiles. Shire Egyptology 4. Princes Risborough: Shire Publications.

Killen, Geoffrey 1994. Egyptian woodworking and furniture. Shire Egyptology 21. Princes Risborough: Shire Publications.

——— 2017. Ancient Egyptian furniture, 3 vols, 2nd ed. Oxford; Philadelphia: Oxbow Books.

Zinn, Katharina 2018. Did you sleep well on your headrest?—Anthropological perspectives on an ancient Egyptian implement. Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections 17, 202–219.

Ritual and Magic in Ancient Egypt: The Opening of the Mouth Ceremony

The blog post for this week is written by Angela Gray. Angela’s serious interest in ancient Egypt began about eleven years ago when she stumbled across an Open University course on the Nebamun wall paintings in the British Museum. Since then, she has completed many on-line courses with Exeter University (great courses, sadly no longer on offer) and the Manchester University Certificate and Diploma. She has enjoyed attending Bloomsbury Summer Schools and study days in Bristol, at Dillington House, and in Manchester. It was a long held ambition to go to Egypt and this was made possible by a surprise trip organised by her “non-Egyptological” husband in 2018—a wonderful trip taking in amazing sights from Giza to Gebel el-Silsila. Angela has also enjoyed doing some transcribing of auction catalogues and flimsies from the Wellcome collection for the Egypt Centre. She has great plans to introduce her eleven month old granddaughter to ancient Egypt as soon as she’s old enough!

I have thoroughly enjoyed Ken’s series of lectures guiding us through the funerary practices of the ancient Egyptians, and can’t believe that next week is the final one. Hopefully Ken has another course up his sleeve to keep us going through these difficult times. I have been to the Egypt Centre a few times, but can’t wait to visit again (especially as Swansea is my home town) when things get back to normal—well as normal as possible—especially having the wonderful objects in the lectures in this course and those that were scheduled for the Conference, which were subsequently put on line. 

The ancient Egyptians saw the transition from this life to the next as a journey that was fraught with dangers and uncertainties. In order to overcome these and successfully reach the afterlife, they believed it was necessary to have a “good and proper burial” or “qerset nefret”. To survive this journey, the body needed to be physically and magically protected. Last week Ken discussed the physical protection of the body by looking at mummification and coffins and this week he followed this with a lecture on the magical aspects. This included discussing the rituals that were performed during the funerary process, from death to burial, as well looking at magical objects that were also used to protect the body and ensure the deceased reached the afterlife.

Fig. 1: Opening of the Mouth rituals on the papyrus of Ankh-hapi (W867)

The word for magic in ancient Egyptian is ḥkȝw – heka and Ken began his lecture by explaining what magic meant to the Egyptians. Perhaps when we consider the word magic we think of tricks where things are made to disappear or negative connotations such as witchcraft. However, to the Egyptians it was seen as a creative power that was possessed by all the gods, the Pharaoh, all knowledgeable people, and the deceased. In a funerary context, this power could be used to solve problems and crises the deceased would encounter on his journey to the next life. Therefore, funerary rituals, which involved reading texts, performing actions such as burning incense, and placing magical objects on the mummy and in the tomb played a part in providing the deceased with the necessary knowledge to successfully complete the hazardous journey to the afterlife.

As the subject of funerary rituals and magic is such a huge topic, I thought that in this blog I would just concentrate on one aspect, the Opening of the Mouth ceremony (Otto 1960). I have been studying Egyptology for well over ten years and was familiar with it, but some of the points raised in Ken’s lecture have certainly increased my understanding of how complex it actually was. The Opening of the Mouth ceremony was one of the most well-known and important of the funerary rituals, part of which is illustrated in a rather beautiful vignette from a Book of the Dead belonging to a man named Hunefer, which dates to the Nineteenth Dynasty (fig. 2).

Fig. 2: Opening of the Mouth from Hunnefer’s Book of the Dead (BM EA 9901, 5)

Scenes showing the ritual appear in both royal and private tombs, as well as in the Book of the Dead. The purpose of the ritual was to reanimate the mummy by restoring the use of their mouths, eyes, ears, and nose so that they would be able to breathe, see, speak, and receive nourishment from offerings to sustain the ka. The rituals, referred to as sȝḫw, transform the deceased into an akh or an “effective spirit” worthy of reaching the afterlife. I hadn’t fully made the connection that the Opening of the Mouth had developed from a ritual that was performed during the Old Kingdom in order to animate statues so that they could act as a safe vessel for the ka to reside in (Quack 2015). In fact, one of the words in ancient Egyptian used for sculptor is sꜥnḫ, which literally translates as “the one who makes life”. This also makes it clear why the adze was used in the ritual, which I always thought was rather odd—why would they use a workman’s tool in a funerary ritual? As Ken explained, it relates to the fact that carpenters would have used an adze (fig. 3) when carving the statues and it would make sense to use the tool used to create it to bring it to life. Now it all made sense!

Fig. 3: Opening of the Mouth implements from the tomb of Khaemhat

I was particularly struck by the scene Ken showed from the tomb of Khonsu (TT 31) in which we have written evidence of some actual text used, always useful in helping in our understanding of the complex nature of ancient Egyptian religious practices. The scene shows a priest on the right reading from a papyrus (fig. 4). This is Khonsu’s son who is the high-priest of Sobek, Usermontu. The text on the papyrus reads “To do the opening of the mouth for the Osiris, the high-priest, To”.

Fig. 4: Opening of the Mouth in the tomb of Khonsu
(https://www.osirisnet.net/tombes/nobles/khonsou31/e_khonsou31_05.htm)

Additionally, I hadn’t understood how complex the ritual was and was interested to learn that it actually consisted of many episodes. Each had their own rituals, incantations, as well as specific ritual objects associated with each episode. I suppose I was used to just seeing scenes in books showing the priest offering the adze or a snake headed implement to the mouth of the deceased (Roth 1992; 1993). However, as Ken explained, the ritual had 75 episodes. No complete set of episodes has been found in any tomb, but scholars have been able to reconstruct the full set by looking at scenes of the ritual found in a number of tombs, such as those of Rekhmire (TT 100), Menna (TT 69), and Seti I (KV 17). The tomb of Rekhmire contains 51 of the 75 episodes of the rituals, with a very useful description of them being found here. Interestingly, in Rekhmire’s tomb the Opening of the Mouth is shown being performed on a statue rather than his mummy, which links nicely back to the original purpose of the ritual (fig. 5).

Fig. 5: Opening of the Mouth ceremony on the statue or Rekhmire
(http://nearchaeology.blogspot.com/2012/02/conclusion-of-opening-of-mouth.html)

Since the lecture, I have been spurred on to looking through my books and online to find out more about the Opening of the Mouth ceremony, which could have taken up several lectures in its own right. With the new information I gained from the lecture, I have been able to look at images of the ceremony with new eyes and gained a better understanding of its role in ancient Egyptian funerary beliefs.

Bibliography:

Andrews, Carol 1994. Amulets of ancient Egypt. London: The British Museum Press.

Engelmann-von Carnap, Barbara 2018. Zum Mundöffnungsritual im Grab des Padiamenope (TT 33). Bulletin de l’Institut français d’archéologie orientale 118, 127–141.

Hornung, Erik 1999. The ancient Egyptian books of the afterlife. Translated by David Lorton. Ithaca (NY): Cornell University Press.

Otto, Eberhard 1960. Das ägyptische Mundöffnungsritual. Ägyptologische Abhandlungen 3. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.

Quack, Joachim Friedrich 2015. Das Mundöffnungsritual als Tempeltext und Funerärtext. In Backes, Burkhard and Jacco Dieleman (eds), Liturgical texts for Osiris and the deceased in Late Period and Greco-Roman Egypt / Liturgische Texte für Osiris und Verstorbene im spätzeitlichen Ägypten: proceedings of the colloquiums at New York (ISAW), 6 May 2011, and Freudenstadt, 18–21 July 2012, Studien zur spätägyptischen Religion 14. 145–159. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.

Roth, Ann Macy 1992. The psš-kf and the ‘opening of the mouth’ ceremony: a ritual of birth and rebirth. Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 78, 113–147.

——— 1993. Fingers, stars, and the ‘opening of the mouth’: the nature and function of the nṯrwj-blades. Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 79, 57–79. 

Taylor, John H. 2001. Death and the afterlife in ancient Egypt. London: British Museum Press.

——— (ed.) 2010. Journey through the afterlife: ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead. London; Cambridge, MA: British Museum Press; Harvard University Press.