NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2001 £2.95 NCIENT EGYPT

THE HISTORY, PEOPLE AND CULTURE OF THE NILE VALLEY

ANCIENTEGYPTANCIENTEGYPTThe Amarna Heresy:The Amarna Heresy:First part ofconference report...

Ancient Egypt Vol 2 Issue 3PLUSNEWS, REVIEWS AND INTERVIEWS

AND OUR SPECIAL TRAVEL SECTION

Our Nine Measures of Magic series concludesHeka at the Louvre

WINAN UNFORGETTABLE TRIPTO EGYPT WITH AWT

NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2001 £2.95

Sex, serpents and subterfuge:Cleopatra in the movies

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May/June 2000Vol 1 Issue 1

Cracking Codes: The Rossetta

StoneThe Mummy

DetectivesThe Lost Tomb

July/Aug 2000Vol 1 Issue 2

Undersea CitiesEgyptology on

the internetRamesses the

GreatFinding Pharaoh

Sept/Oct 2000Vol 1 Issue 3King DjoserValley of the

KingsPlumbing the Secrets of the

Sphinx

Nov/Dec 2000Vol 1 Issue 4

Science v. Archaeology

Lesson of Bahareya

The Temple of Horus

Jan/Feb 2001Vol 1 Issue 5

The Naming of Kings

Egyptian Museum, Berlin

‘Heaven and Hell’

April/May 2001Vol 1 Issue 6

Queen of Egypt:Amelia Edwards

Mapping Ancient Egypt

Treasures of the Pharaohs

June/July 2001Vol 2 Issue 1

Nine Measures of Magic

The Egyptian Underworld

Luxor Museum

Aug/Sept 2001Vol 2 Issue 2

Neb Re: A Ramesside

Offi cialEgyptian Music::

Doug Irvine


Flying over EgyptThe Saladin Exhibition

The Amarna Heresy (Part 2)

Mar/Apr 2002Vol 2 Issue 5Comic Relief:

Humour in Ancient EgyptThe Pharaoh

Hound

May/June 2002Vol 2 Issue 6Hatshepshut:

Egypt’s female Pharaoh

Hatshepsut’s Red Chapel

July/August 2002

Vol 3 Issue 1Birds & Beasts of

Egypt Der El Medina

Egypt’s Emerald Mountain

Sept/Oct 2002Vol 3 Issue 2Birds in ritual

Ballooning above Luxor

Ancient craft skills Part 1

Nov/Dec 2002Vol 3 Issue 3

Monstrous Images

Coptic Cairo: the Hanging Church

Restored


Scientifi c Investigators:

the ‘Savants ‘ in Egypt

Mar/Apr 2003Vol 3 Issue 5

Napoleon:the return of

FranceEgyptian icon?

The camel’s tale

May/June 2003Vol 3 Issue 6

NefertitiCharming the snake and the

scorpion

July/Aug 2003Vol 4 Issue 1

‘Egypt Reborn’at the Brooklyn Museum of ArtNefertiti: Sun

Queen

Back IssuesBack Issues

Oct/Nov 2003Vol 4 Issue 2

Miu! The Egyptian Cat Story

Detroit Institute of Arts

Dec/Jan 2003/4Vol 4 Issue 3

Exploring Khufu’s Pyramid

Desert ImagesEgyptian burial

customs

Feb/Mar 2004Vol 4 Issue 4

Vamping VenusEgptianising Art

The power of porphyry

The Forty Days Road

April/May 2004Vol 4 Issue 5

Venus and the Vamp (Pt. 2)

Boats on the NileThe Oriental

Institute, Chicago

June/July 2004Vol 4 Issue 6The God Seth

Crime and Punishment

Howard Carter and the Goldsmith


What happened at Meidum?

Mummy: The Inside Story

A New Home for the Petrie Museum

Oct/Nov 2004Vol 5 Issue 2

Obelisks in ExileThe Canopic Shrine of

TutankhamunThe Gilf Kebir & Gilf

Uweinat


How old is theSphinx at Giza?

Growing old disgrace-fully at Deir el Medina

The ‘Destruction of Mankind’


The Egyptian Royal Family

Discovering the lost half of a Papyrus

The tomb of Yuya and Thuya

Apr/May 2005Vol 5 Issue 5

Dogs in ancient Egypt‘The Riddle of the

Pyramids’ by Zahi Hawass

Luxor Museum

June/July 2005Vol 5 Issue 6

Tutankhamun’s mummy:

the CT scan resultsThe Island of Elephantine

Ancient Egyptian Houses


Queen Meryetamun at Akhmim

Dressing NefertitiReplica tomb of Thutmose III in

Edinburgh

Oct/Nov 2005Vol 6 Issue 2Rameses II at

Gerf Hussian and the Ramesseum

The Royal MummyA Victorian view of

Egypt


Ancient Egyptian Sphinxes

The Temple of PtahAncient Egyptian

Medicine A Lion of

Amenhotep III


Granite or Quarzite?Rock types in

Egyptian sculptingA soul of NekhenAncient Egypt in

Madrid

EGYPT

Page 14:The AmarnaHeresy con-ference setsome old ideasalongside newresearch; there'sno doubt thatAkhenaten retainshis appeal.

Competition . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .3The second part of our holiday competition brought to you by AE and AWT.

Photostory . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .12Stunning new photography of the sites of ancient Egypt.

Cover feature: The Amarna Heresy . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .14The first part of a report on the recent UK conference.

Vamp, Victim or Vulture? Cleopatra on Film . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .22Egypt has long provided a rich source of inspiration for the arts; and no Egyptian more sothan Cleopatra, as Sean McLachlan reports.

Nine Measures of Magic . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .28The ancient Egyptians used magical power by word and deed to overcome their enemies,explains Dr Panagiotis Kousoulis in the last part of our in-depth series.

Who Sings to his Ka every day: Discovering the Music of Ancient Egypt . . . . . .36Doug Irivine and Miriam Bibby investigate Egyptian musical sources.

FEATURES

TRAVEL

Page 42: A recent exhibition atthe Louvre focussed on Hekaand its practitioners. Artefactsfrom the Museum's own exten-sive collection were on view.

4

CONTENCONTENANCIENTEGYPTANCIENT

Heka at the Louvre...........................................................................................................................42A recent exhibition complements our 'Nine Measures' series, as Cathie Bryan explains.

Leiden has a new view of Egyptology ....................................................................................48Leiden's world class Egyptology collection has a new display; and who better todescribe it than Curator Maartin J Raven.

Page 48: Taking centre stage of the Museum ofLeiden's new display is this magnificent statue ofHatshepsut, reunited from pieces belonging toLeiden and the Metropolitan Museum, New York.

ANCIENT EGYPTNOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2001

DEPARTMENTS

Contents ...........................................................................................................................................................4

Who's who at AE ....................................................................................................................................................6

Subscriptions...........................................................................................................................................................19

Back Issues .............................................................................................................................................45

Coming next issue...........................................................................................................................59

Page 22: ClaudetteColbert, one of themany faces of con-

temporaryCleopatra, joins the

ranks of silver screengoddesses in a look at

how the 'Serpent of the Nile' has beeninterpreted by the Hollywood myth-makers.

REGULARS

Editor's Column . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .7

Ancient Egypt News . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .8News and Views from the world of Egyptology.

Review Panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .52Those Martians finally put in an appearance.

Society Contacts . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .55

Events Diary . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .56Events for the winter season.

Netfishing . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .58Fruity pharaohs? Don't ask.

5

TSTS

NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2001 ANCIENT EGYPT

Page 36: Bastet (right)and musicians (below)

represent thedivine and

human sidesof AncientEgyptianmusic.

Miriam Bibby BA, M Phil, Cert. Egy. Miriam was educated at Nottingham and ManchesterUniversities. As a freelance writer, her work has beenpublished in various periodicals in the UK and USA.She combined her interest in horses and Egyptologyto research her M Phil topic, 'The Horse in AncientEgypt'. She is a former editor of 'Hoofprint' and is amarker for the Manchester University DistanceLearning Certificate.

ABOUT...


ANCIENTEGYPTANCIENTEGYPTThe Amarna Heresy:The Amarna Heresy:First part ofconference report...

Ancient Egypt Vol 2 Issue 3PLUS NEWS, REVIEWS AND INTERVIEWS

AND OUR SPECIAL TRAVEL SECTION

Our Nine Measures of Magic series concludesHeka at the Louvre

WIN AN UNFORGETTABLE TRIPTO EGYPT WITH AWT

NOVEMBER / DECEMBER 2001 £2.95

Sex, serpents and subterfuge:Cleopatra in the movies

EDITOR

Professor Rosalie David BA, PhD, FRSAProfessor David is Director of the MummificationResearch Centre at Manchester University, Keeper ofEgyptology at the Manchester Museum, Director ofthe University of Manchester Egyptology Certificateand Distance Learning Courses and the first womanprofessor of Egyptology in the UK. She is the authorof numerous books and articles on mummies andthe religious practices of the ancient Egyptians, a presenter of TV and radio programmesand an extremely popular lecturer all over the world.

CONSULTANT EDITOR

Sean McLachlan

Sean McLachlan is an archaeology graduate and journalist based in Tucson,Arizona, USA, reporting on science, archaeology and political issues. He has

excavated at sites in the Middle East and Missouri. His other passion is forearly cinema and its interpretation of historical themes.

Panagiotis Kousoulis

Dr Kousoulis gained his doctorate from the School of Archaeology,Classics and Oriental Studies of the University of Liverpool in 1999. He isnow a Research Fellow in the Department of Mediterranean Studies of theUniversity of the Aegean (Rhodes, Greece).

THIS MONTH’S CONTRIBUTORS ARE:

Cathie Bryan

Cathie Bryan holds degrees in Anthropology from HunterCollege and in Egyptian Archaeology from the Institute ofArchaeology, UCL, London, as well as a Business Masters fromNew York University. She has designed computer databases forEgyptian art collections, worked on various projects at theLouvre, Paris (including the exhibition and publication Egypt inParis and offers Egyptian-themed walking tours, also in Paris.

With thanks to:Doug Irvine, Dr Maarten Raven, Angela Dennett and Bob Partridge.

THIS ISSUE’SCOVER PICTURE

The Amarna period provokes greatinterest in students of Egyptologyand a recent conference outlinedsome new - and old - ideas on thereign of Akhenaten and other royalsof the period. The first part of theconference report can be found inthis issue of Ancient Egypt maga-zine. Was Akhenaten a heretic?Opinion is still strongly divided; butexciting new investigations in theValley of the Kings may provide thepossibility to shed further light onAmarna.

6 ANCIENT EGYPT NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2001

FROM THE EDITOR...

With Amarna in mind as aresult of the AugustAmarna HeresyConference, it was likely

that thought would turn to some of theintriguing issues raised by the period,and in particular the mysteries of theoccupant of tomb KV55.

The battered funerary equip-ment in the tomb carries references toQueen Tiye, mother of Akhenaten.The body in the ravagedcoffin has been identifiedvariously as male orfemale over the years. Thecanopic vessels were orig-inally made for Kiya, wifeof Akhenaten, whose his-tory is subject to muchspeculation, and of whomwe have learned much ofthe little we do knowsince the middle of thetwentieth century.

The heads of thevessels, however, werenot, it was pointed out bytwo speakers at the confer-ence (David Rohl and DrAidan Dodson) the origi-nals: they do not fit. Theywere presumed, shortlyafter the discovery of thetomb, to represent Queen Tiye; laterthey came to be identified as Kiya.

The body itself has been thesubject of a recent investigation byexperts Dr Nasri Iskander and JoyceFiler, of the British Museum. Even tothis non-expert eye, the photographsof the skull that accompanied thedescription of the investigation in theBulletin of the Egypt ExplorationSociety were strikingly those of arobust male individual with an excel-lent set of teeth. Separated from thebody, it has been suggested that theskull is that of a different individual.However, communication with JoyceFiler suggests that both body andskull, whether of two different peopleor not, are the mortal remains of ayoung man.

As I thought of this, whileexamining the original photographicrecord of the heads of the canopicvessels, an idea began to emerge. Wehave been conditioned into thinkingby earlier research that the heads rep-resent a queen or princess of the peri-od, be it Tiye or Kiya or another asyet unidentified, which has added tothe mysteries of the KV55. Why dothe heads have to represent a female

at all? To a modern eye,

the heads do appear com-pletely feminine inappearance, but there arenumerous examples ofancient Egyptian art, fromthe Amarna period as wellas other times, thatdeceive in the same way.The eyes are outlined withkohl (both men andwomen wore this) and theNubian style wig gives theimpression of long hairthat we tend to associatemore with women thanmen.

The Nubian stylewig tends to be associatedmore with Amarnawomen than men.

However, this is not exclusively thecase; and in one of the images that ismost frequently identified asSmenkhare (assuming his existence)his figure is shown wearing a similar,although shorter, wig.

Take another look at theimages of the heads of the canopicvessels from tomb KV55, and removethe modern prejudices. Take anotherlook too, at images of Tutankhamun.What do you really see?

Miriam Bibby, Editor.

www.ancientegyptmagazine.com

ANCIENTANCIENTEGYPTEGYPTNOV/DEC 2001 VOL. 2 ISSUE 3

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NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2001 ANCIENT EGYPT 7

EDITOR’S COLUMN

“We have been

conditioned into

thinking by earlier

research that the

heads represent a

queen or

princess of

the period...”

To accompany the AgathaChristie and ArchaeologyExhibition, the British Museum ishosting a series of events whichbegins with the Ancient NearEast Week from Monday 5th until- Saturday 10th November 2001.

The season also includes pre-sentations on the latest archaeo-logical discoveries in the Deltaand Upper Egypt covering sitesover four millennia. The fourThursday lunchtime lectures arefree of charge and start with anoverview of the major discoveriesin Egyptian archaeology over thelast two centuries. The lecturesinclude The rediscovery ofAncient Egypt presented byGeorge Hart (22 November13.15); Senneferi’s tomb atThebes by Nigel Strudwick – (29November 13.15); Balamun, siteof ancient Behdet by JeffreySpencer – (6 December 13.15);and Hierakonpolis with RenéeFriedman – (13 December 13.15).

There will also be a film festivalwhich includes a British MuseumFriends Evening Opening ofDeath on the Nile (4 December2001, 18.00 - 21.00). Entry is £5to non members. That evening,there will also be a lecture byHenrietta McCall: Agatha Christie:Mystery in Mesopotamia and TheEgyptian Sculpture Gallery, theMummy galleries and theParthenon Sculpture gallery willall be open. Other events andworkshops will take place

throughout the evening. In addition, Agatha Christie on

Film will present a series of Britishclassics with a special Saturdayscreening of Lawrence of Arabia(10 November) to concludeAncient Near East Week. All filmsare free and will be screened inthe Clore Education Centre from14.30. Murder on the OrientExpress (8 November), EvilUnder the Sun (9 November),The Mirror Crack’d (20December) and, of course, Deathon the Nile (21 December) willconclude the season to put every-one in the mood for Christmaswith a final juicy mystery.

For details contact the BritishMuseum on 020 7323 8000.

ANCIENTEGYPTANCIENTEGYPT NEWSNEWS

British Museum hosts major newAgatha Christie exhibition

A major exhibition hosted by theBritish Museum this autumn willcelebrate the connection ofcrime writer Agatha Christie toarchaeology. Agatha Christieand Archaeology: Mystery inMesopotamia will be of interestto those who have watched orread Death on the Nile as wellas her lesser known works setin Middle Eastern contexts andwith an archaeological elementsuch as Appointment withDeath and Murder inMesopotamia.

Agatha Christie was marriedto the archaeologist MaxMallowan and spent time work-ing on sites at Ninevah, Ur, andother locations in north easternSyria where she worked as an

assistant cleaning and repairingobjects.

AE readers will find much tointerest them in this exhibition,the idea of Dr CharlotteTrümpler who is Curator ofClassical Archaeology at theRuhrland Museum in Essen,Germany. The items on displaywill include costumes from thefilm Death on the Nile as wellas the Royal Standard of Urand other key archaeologicalpieces. The display also promis-es a reconstructed sleepingcompartment from an OrientExpress train of the early 20thCentury; and visitors couldalways include a trip to see TheMousetrap if they really don’tknow ‘whodunnit’ yet.


Donald Wiseman, Agatha Christie, Max Mallowan and NevilleChittick (left to right ) at Nimrud, 1950. Picture © John Mallowan

Book jacket by RobinMacartney for the first editionof Death on the Nile, theCrime Club, Collins, 1937© Matthew Pritchard

NEWS AND VIEWS FROM THE WORLD OF EGYPTOLOGY

There’s news of a tour to Egyptorganised by the Egypt Societyof Bristol that offers an excellentopportunity to view some of thelesser known sites of Egypt aswell as the best known locations.It’s two weeks long but can betaken as two separate weeks ifpreferred. The first week con-centrates on pyramid sitesincluding Lisht and Abu Rowashin addition to the expected Gizaand Saqqara, Dahshur and soon; but the second week takesin a selection of Delta sitesbeginning in Alexandria beforeprogressing to Rashid (Rosetta),Sais, and finally Tanis. The touris led by Dr Aidan Dodson andthe society is able to offer a veryreasonable price for those whomake bookings through it. The

dates are 7-20 December 2002and more information can beobtained by ringing 0117-9421957 after 7.00 pm.

New Egypt tours by EgyptSociety of Bristol

NEWS


Amenemhet I and Sesostris I are just two of the pyramids ofLisht you can visit on a new Tour.

A wooden statue excavatedfrom the pyramids at Lisht.

Also from the Egypt Society ofBristol comes news of an organi-sation dedicated to helping topreserve the ‘Colossi ofMemnon’ (actually AmenhotepIII) and the surrounding area. Ateam from the GermanArchaeological Institute hasbeen working at the mortuarytemple of Amenhotep III and a

supporting group has formed aninternational charitable founda-tion to help raise funds for thepreservation of the area. Thecontact details are: TheAssociation of the Friends of theColossi of Memnon, Étude deMâitre Nicolas Gagnebin, 2, rueSaint-Laurent, Geneva,Switzerland.

Colossal task awaitsGerman preservation team

What’s going on in Cairo?

One of the two giant statues which are all that remain of theTemple of Amenhotep III.

There's an action packed winterseason at the Burrell Collection inGlasgow to accompany theextended Digging for Dreamsexhibition (now until January2002). On Sunday 11 and 25November, and 9 December2001, Egypt will be brought to lifewith art and storytelling sessionsfor 5 to 11 year olds and 3 to 7

year olds. Belly dancing tutor AnnMcLaughlin will be demonstratingand teaching dance on Saturday24 November, and on Saturday10 November there will be a per-formance of Sands of Time, amusical produced by GNNGProductions by arrangement withScottish Opera. Drawing is fea-tured on 20 October, with the par-

ticipants contributing toproduce large pieces ofEgyptian art.

For details of theseand other events, con-tact and make book-ings by calling theBurrell on 0141 2872550.

Burrell autumn and winterseason events

Visitors to Cairo will find a com-prehensive listing of what’s on inthe city by visiting the pages ofwww.ahram.org.eg/weekly, theweb site of Al Ahram newspaperwhich produces a version forEnglish speakers. The listingincludes galleries, cinemascreening and festivals and is agood way of checking these outin advance of a visit.

Keep up to date with news atwww.ahram.org.eg/weekly

Glasgow’s BurrellMuseum.

NEWS


As we went to press, AEreceived the following messagefrom Egypt's Minister ofTourism, Dr Mamdouh El-Beltagui after the recent tragicevents in the USA:

'We are extremely shockedover the disastrous terroristattack which struck the UnitedStates of America on 11th of

September 2001, and expressour grief and sincere condo-lences to the friendly Americanpeople as well as to the familymembers and friends of the inno-cent victims.

'Egypt, as a peace-makingnation, denounces all acts of vio-lence and terrorism. And as faras the tourism industry is con-cerned, we have created anextremely secure destination,where all visitors enjoy a peace-ful environment. Terrorism repre-sents a serious impediment tothe flourishing of the tourism sec-tor, which is delicately linked tothe notions of peace, securityand hospitality.

'I can assure you that ourcountry will continue to providea safe and secure tourist desti-nation.'

AE endorses Dr El-Beltagui'smessage of grief and condo-lence, and his comments onpeace, security and hospitality,remembering that many nationshave directly suffered as a con-sequence of these recent events.Additional information providedby the Egyptian government out-lines increased security in thewake of the attacks and the can-cellation of the performance ofAida scheduled for October 'as agesture of solidarity with theAmerican nation.' We are alsoadvised that special help andassistance was provided to the1,661 tourists from the USA inEgypt on the day of the attack.

AE has also received a num-ber of messages from readersexpressing their grief, shock andsympathy.

The latest news on airlines aswe went to press was that anumber of carriers stated theywould have to cancel theirflights and ground their planesdue to lack of insurance coverin the wake of the terroristattack on the USA. UK airlineswere meeting with the TransportSecretary Stephen Byers andinsurance bosses to see whatcover could be provided. Therewere also meetings going on inthe US and the EuropeanUnion; the US government wasoffering an airline rescue pack-age of $5 billion to try to over-come the situation.

For further information, checkthe latest on the BBC newswebsite at:http://news.bbc.co.uk/hi/eng-lish/business/

A message from Dr Mamdouh El-Beltagui

Late newson Airlinesand flights

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The Brooklyn Museum ofArt is to host, from 23November 2001 until 24February 2002, an exhibi-

tion of over 140 master-works of ancient Egyptian

art from the BritishMuseum. Eternal Egypt willdisplay items dating from the1st Dynasty until Romanperiod Egypt, includingcolossal statuary. One of the

oldest objects in the exhibi-tion is also one of the tiniest:

a small ivory plaque depositedin the tomb of the first Dynasty

king, Den. The ancientEgyptians skill in working in var-ious media including wood willbe celebrated.

The largest complete item inthe exhibition is one of themagnificent and famous

granite lions from AmenhotepIII's temple at Soleb in Nubia.This piece was restored underthe rule of King Tutankhamun.There are also items from theAmarna period including asculptor's tool for creatingimages of Amarna royalty, thisbeing a moulded plaster face.

The exhibition's guest curatoris Dr Edna Russman, Curator ofthe Department of Egyptian,Classical and Ancient MiddleEastern Art at the BrooklynMuseum of Art. Dr Russmanalso edited the accompanyingcatalogue which includes contri-butions by T.G.H. James of theBritish Museum.

For further details of theexhibition contact the BrooklynMuseum on www.brookly-nart.org. The other venues forEternal Egypt's tour include theNelson-Atkins Museum, KansasCity (12 April until 2 July 2002),

The Palace of theLegion of Honor,San Francisco(10 August until3 November2002), theMinneapolisInstitute of Art(22 December2002 until 16March 2003), theField Museum,Chicago (26 Apriluntil 10 August2003) and theWalters ArtMuseum, Baltimore(21 September2003 until 4January 2004).

Also on tour isthis 18th dynastyushabti of KingAhmose I -- the earliest knownushabti of a king.

‘Eternal Egypt’ exhibition tours world

Researchers from the Americanscience institute, Caltech, cameup with an interesting newEgyptology-linked project earlierthis year. Mory Gharib, an aero-nautics professor and his team,used a kite to raise a 6,900pound (3132.6kg) obelisk to anupright position in the desert atPalmdale. The obelisk is 15 foot(3m) high and was raised in 22mile an hour winds (35.4km per

hour) according to a report inNational Geographic Magazine.

The only technical itemsneeded were a kite, a pulleysystem and a support frame,and the kite succeeded in get-ting the kite flyer, Eric May, intothe air as well. It took about 25seconds to raise the obelisk onthe second attempt. Apparentlythe team is planning a secondproject with an even bigger

obelisk. During the course of thework, the team discovered that ametal ankh, 'long assumed to bemerely (merely? - Ed) a religioussymbol - makes a very goodcarabiner for controlling a kiteline' reported NationalGeographic; but, of course, 'no-one has found any evidence thatthe ancient Egyptians movedstones or any other objects withkites and pulleys.'

The conclusion was thateven without a kite, a dragchute could have lifted theobelisk. However, the teamwondered if there would be suf-ficient wind to lift such a thing inEgypt. Hmmm.

Further details can be foundon a web site at http://news.nationalgeographic.com/news/2001/06/0628_calte-chobelisk.html

Obelisks are no drag with ‘ancient kite’

Head of Amenophis III. dating from 1350 B.C., is just one of theartefacts at the touring Eternal Egypt Exhibition.

NEWS


Far Left: The 6,900 poundobelisk model being lifted,proving at least that theAncient Egyptians could havemoved the obelisks (andindeed other objects) in this way.

Left: Video footage taken byone of the team using a small-er obelisk and a smaller kite.

There is nothing so inclined

to bring out strong feelings

in the follower of

Egyptology than that brief

but peculiar period when

Akhenaten ruled Egypt

from his new city of

Akhetaten. Viewed until

recently as a heretical and

disparate outgrowth from

Egyptian theology and

political ideology and

despite the disreputable air

that hangs about the whole

proceedings, informed stu-

dents are drawn to a love-

hate relationship with

Amarna as with no other

time or place in the long

history of Egypt.

The Amarna Heresy, this year’s jointconference offered by ISIS (theInstitute for the Study ofInterdisciplinary Sciences), and SES,

Sussex Egyptology Society, saw a twofoldincrease in delegates and a new venue at theUniversity of Reading. Despite having a strongtheme, the conference was somehow not asintegrated as last year, with distinct differencesbetween the presentations on mainstreamEgyptology and those giving more personalpoints of view.

Akhenaten the Heretic?John Davis opened on Saturday morning withthe rueful comment that he was aware that thiswas the ‘death slot’ as warm-up man for the fol-lowing lecturers; nonetheless, his well-receivedpresentation gave a very necessary outline ofthe manifold ways in which Akhenaten hadbeen viewed by generations of Egyptologists(and ‘Egyptologists’, it should be said, sincethe term is frequently used rather generously).

He made his own views clear:‘Akhenaten was not astounding, but different’,a theme expanded upon later in the lecture.

Akhenaten, he continued, has receivedpraise (or censure) as the instigator ofmonotheism; Velikovsky proposed comparisonwith Oedipus; other commentators have com-mended him as a visionary, a mystic and a poet.Davis continued that Gardiner held that ‘hewears a fanatical look’; while Pendleburydescribed Akhenaten as ‘a religious maniac’. Agallery of the best-known kings of Egypt wasdisplayed, with the theme that in such compa-ny, was Akhenaten truly outstanding?

Davis concluded on the ‘heresy’ issuethat as the Aten is seen in tombs from earlierperiods, Akhenaten was not a heretic for intro-ducing the Aten, but rather for the closure ofstate temples, the banning of traditional godsand the removal of the name of Amun frommonuments; with Nefertiti as co-regent.

The issue of a co-regencyThe first of the lectures offered by Dr AidanDodson focussed on another co-regency issue –that of Akhenaten (as Amenophis IV) andAmenophis III. His own endearingly ‘Vicar ofBray’ opinion on the subject has now veered (inhis own words) towards the ‘qualified view ofa co-regency’, citing recent work by RayJohnson in support of this.

The divinisation of both AmenhotepIII and Queen Tiye is evident in temples atSedeinga, where Tiye appears as both Hathorand Tefnut, significant deities in the Egyptianpantheon and Soleb, where Amenhotep IIIappears as a deity in his own right.

Around the 30th regnal year of theking, argued Dr Dodson, images of AmenophisIII make him appear more youthful than heactually was, and the child-like imagery is partof the manifestation of the king as solar deity,the ‘dazzling sun’; perhaps the Aten itself?Further, images of the king with pendulousbelly and breasts are precursors of imagery atAmarna. Graffito from the mortuary temple atMeidum, continued Dr Dodson, states that the‘king established his son in his inheritance’.The royal jubilee may have included the eleva-tion of Amenhotep IV into what he describedvividly as a ‘royal divine corporation’, in which

at the LouvreAMARNThe

SPECIAL REPORT

14 ANCIENT EGYPT NOVEMBER /DECEMBER 2001

NAeach of the royal personages plays a particulardivine role: Amun, Hathor, Tefnut and Shu.

The king as divinityCombined images in one lintel of Akhenaten,Nefertiti and four daughters, and on the otherside, Amunhotep III, Tiye, and Bekhetaten sug-gest continuity between the reigns and the ‘pro-motion’ of this divine corporation. Examplesfrom year 3-4 of the reign of Amenhotep IVshow Amenhotep IIIworshipping his owndivine form; and animage of the two kingsmay show AmenhotepIV worshipping hisfather’s ‘divineessence’.

F u r t h e rarchaeological evi-dence of the regencymight come fromThebes, where a figureof Amenhotep IV isshown undertaking actsof worship; there arecartouches ofAmenhotep IV, and fur-ther back, figures ofAmenhotep III andTiye; Tiye is clearly shown holding the hand ofAmenhotep III. ‘Mixing of the dead and livingthrough this sort of physical contact does notoccur,’ said Dr Dodson.

Finally the case of the Amarna corre-spondence was cited, this including letters toAmenhotep III. ‘Why would this old corre-

SPECIAL REPORT

NOVEMBER /DECEMBER 2001 ANCIENT EGYPT 15

Heresy

“Akhenaten

was not a heretic

for introducing the

Aten, but rather

for the closure

of state

temples...”

spondence have been taken to Akhetaten?’argued Dr Dodson, concluding that the busi-ness of state was carried out from Amarna, andthat Amenhotep III was indeed there.

The Royal TombProfessor Geoffrey Martin then took the audi-ence to the royal necropolis at Amarna, situat-ed in a valley leading from the Great Wadi. Hisdetailed presentation reflected his years ofwork at the site, mainly on the Royal Tombconstructed for Akhenaten.

The massive sarcophagus plinthoccupies a major part of the burial chamber. Ofthe sarcophagus itself, only fragments remain,but sufficient, Prof. Martin pointed out, to pro-vide measurements that show it fitted theplinth.

Imagery within the tomb, although

damaged and showing the ravages of time,shows the royal family, Akhenaten, Nefertitiand their daughters, adoring the Aten.Sarcophagus fragments from Queen Tiye’sburial have also been found in the tomb. Afterthe Amarna period, said Professor Martin, bothbodies would have been removed to a cache atThebes. In one unfinished room within thetomb, he found sherds including one with theregnal date of year 17.

Evocation of the AtenThe scenes within the royal tomb have sufferedravages but records exist to show the royalfamily worshipping the Aten, ‘a visual evoca-tion of the hymn to the Aten’ stated ProfessorMartin. ‘As the sun rises, birds and animalscome to life again.’ The scenes include for-eigners, Africans Asiatics and others, allbrought together in worship of the sun’s disc.

Within these scenes are imagesdepicting the death of a royal princess in child-birth. The king and queen mourn the deathwhile courtiers and nurses are in attendance.The Vizier is there too, in the scenes, once withflabellum held over the head of the child.While the whole suggests a gathering to cele-brate a birth, of course in reality the circum-stances have changed to bereavement: ‘TheKing and Queen, god and goddess, are hereshown as distraught human beings,’ saidProfessor Martin, suggesting that at least twoof the Amarna princesses died in childbirth.

While the tomb does not include tra-ditional scenes of the afterlife, funerary equip-ment of earlier periods was certainly still inuse, and one scene shows the equipment ofPrincess Meketaten on one small wall.Canopic chest fragments and ushabti figuresfrom the period are known – over 250 stillexist, some in almost complete form. Woodenboat fragments were also found within thetomb along with large diorite bowl fragmentsdating from earlier reigns as far back as Unasand Khafre, suggesting both continuity ofsome belief and links with earlier monarchs.

Horemheb’s careerProfessor Martin’s second lecture was a guid-ed tour of the originally intended burial site ofGeneral, later King, Horemheb. This is a tombwith which Professor Martin is very familiar; itlies in a ‘street’ of notable officials of the lateNew Kingdom, and it was suggested thatMemphis was always the administrative capi-tal of Egypt, while the burials in the south werethose of rulers.

As would be expected, the tomb con-tains many references to Horemheb’s martial

SPECIAL REPORT


Above: No stranger to contro-versy, David Rohl indulges insome lively debate

Below: An increased number ofdelegates, a new venue and apopular subject produced amemorable conference.

career and there are faint echoes of the Amarnaperiod in one reference to Horemhead as‘Beloved of the Aten’. Professor Martin point-ed out scenes of prisoners of war being‘processed’; the images include violent depic-tions of captive Nubians being punished byEgyptians; there is a possible image of a cap-tive Hittite couple; and at a scene of a royaldurbar of Tutankhamun and Ankhesenamun, itis Horemheb who is the receptionist of all for-eign individuals.

When Horemheb took the throne, hehad a further tomb built in the Valley of theKings, but ensured this secondary royal resi-dence of the afterlife by having the royaluraeus added to it. The tomb was the restingplace of Horemheb’s second wife, Mutnodjmetwho died in the 13th year of her husband’sreign, and within the tomb were found the bro-ken skeletal remains of a woman and a foetus;the woman was aged about 40 and had appar-ently died in childbirth.

On to AkhetatenLucia Gahlin’s lecture took the audience to theheart of the subject with its overview of the siteof Amarna, Akhetaten itself. This secure siteon a plain of 15 sq. miles, with the city to thewest is bounded on the south and east by thenatural boundary provided by the desert cliffs;and within those cliffs to the east, of course, isthe often-commented upon natural opening,‘representing perfectly the hieroglyph forAkhetaten’ as the sun’s disk appeared in it.

Excavations have been carried outthere for over 100 years. Since 1977, work hasbeen carried out by Barrie Kemp under EESfunding.

Research carried out there includesexperimental archaeology. Photographicrecords, including aerial photogra-phy, have also enhanced knowl-edge of Akhetaten, and theoverwhelming impression isof a vast foundation,with the city on the eastbank of the Nile, andcultivation to provide itsfood supply taking placeon the west bank. Thepopulation could havebeen huge; esti-mates suggest45,000 peo-ple.

Harmonious planningTalatats – reused blocks ofstone from Amarna – havebeen found at various sitesaround Egypt, and fromthese, computer-generat-ed reconstructions havebeen made. Lucia Gahlinsuggested that the pro-portions of the GreatTemple, once projected,reflect the limits of thecity; the North RiversidePalace appears to mirrorthe Great Palace, andalso the King’s House tothe south, giving ameticulous example ofcity planning, designedto produce a harmo-nious whole in whichbuildings reflect eachother and the site.

While it isoften hard to identifythe precise function ofparticular buildings,Princess Meritaten isdefinitely associatedwith the North Palace,said Lucia Gahlin.While there has beenremoval of much mate-rial since the 1930’s,remaining limestonelustration benches andother items suggest luxu-rious bathing facilitiesfor the royal family.

From Akhetaten,we gain knowledge

about the

SPECIAL REPORT

NOVEMBER /DECEMBER 2001 ANCIENT EGYPT 17

Above: Central to the religiousworship of the Amarna Royalfamily was the manifestation ofthe sun's disk, the Aten. HereAkhenaten, Nefertiti and theirdaughter raise offerings to theAten, the beneficence of whichto the royal family is made clearin the rays reaching down tothem.

Left: Akenaten and Nefertitisteal a kiss on the great royalchariot of Electrum.

SPECIAL REPORT


daily life of all classes of Egyptian society atthis time; in areas, the housing is mixed, partic-ularly in the north and central area where exca-vations have taken place. There is evidence oflarge estates, with the walled garden areas andwater features that appear often in Egyptianwall paintings, but the basic design for all hous-ing was similar, and simply constructed on alarger or smaller scale depend-ing on the status of the family.

Status housingThe workmen’s village, situat-ed 1-2 km outside the city, con-sisted of 66 identical housesplus one larger dwelling.Associated animal pens havealso been found. Chapels forprivate worship are also associ-ated with the housing, suggest-ing that household deities did,despite popular belief, continueat Amarna.

The massive GreatTemple, or House of the Aten,reflects the other end of thebuilding scale, with its bound-ary extending an enormous750m by 230m. This massive construction, ofwhich next to nothing remains, provided thefocal point of worship by the royal family inthe city of Akhetaten.

Amarna Royal Tombs ProjectThe delegates were then treated to two addi-tional items; a presentation by Dr NicholasReeves, Director of the Amarna Royal TombsProject, and further details of the recent dis-covery of the tomb of the High Priest of theAten at Saqqara. Dr Reeves argued that thereuse of burial equipment in the tomb ofTutankhamun was far greater than previouslyrealised. Tutankhamun’s death coincided withthe removal of Amarna royalty from Akhetatento the Valley of the Kings, thus making thisequipment available to Ay.

Dr Reeves went on to argue that the

next burials of Amarna royalty would be near-by, and that the contentious KV55 burial didindicate the former presence of Tiye. If theirgrave goods were given up for re-use inTutankhamun’s burial, where were the bodies?They must have been in Thebes, concluded DrReeves, concluding that more remains ofAmarna period royalty must be lying in the

Valley of the Kings, or areknown remains still waitingto be identified.

Most readers of AEwill be aware that in 1998 DrReeves, along with FieldDirector Geoffrey Martin,gained the concession to exca-vate in a triangle of landbetween KV56 and KV9. Itwas in this area that Carter hadbegun his search forTutankhamun. Certain anom-alies were known from theground, and the KV56 plans,like those of Tutankhamun’stomb, seemed to avoid thecentral area of the site.

Excavations havealready discovered work-

men’s shelters of the date of Ramesses III – VI,and 1000 items have been discovered, includ-ing gold jewellery.

New discoveriesThe most exciting development, however, isthe discovery, some 4-5m below the groundsurface, of items of Amarna date, includingsherds. Dr Reeves presented a slide of a largeslab of limestone with an image, in charcoal, ofwhat he described as a pot-bellied official in‘typical Amarna dress, with arms raised in ado-ration.’ This, in undisturbed layers in the Valleyof the Kings was clear evidence of ‘AmarnaActivity’.

There was also a fragment of acanopic jar similar to material from KV55, withgrinding suggesting removal of inappropriatetexts, as with KV55. We were left at this pointto await further updates later in the year on thisextremely exciting – and important – project.

AE

The concluding piece from the conference willbe in the next issue of Ancient Egypt magazine,including a report from Professor GeoffreyMartin on the discovery of the tomb of a sig-nificant official – the Priest of the Aten – foundrecently at Saqqara.

“The most exciting

development, however,

is the discovery,

some 4-5m below

the ground surface,

of items of

Amarna date...”

Above: Akhenaten: Egypt'sFalse Prophet by NicholasReeves, Director of the AmarnaRoyal Tombs Project, is the lat-est work to focus on the mostcontentious and discussedmember of the Amarna RoyalFamily.

Publisher: Thames and HudsonPrice:£18.95ISBN: 0500051062

Below: Dr Nicholas Reeves.Amarna Royal Tombs ProjectDirector and Joint FieldDirector. (1998, 1999, 2000)

Below Right: ProfessorGeoffrey T. Martin. AmarnaRoyal Tombs Project (JointField Director, 1998, 1999, 2000)

Alexandria The building looks like an enor-mous spaceship that has crash-landed just missing the sea. Itssloping roof measures 160 metresin diameter and tilts into a shallow wadingpool, which butts against a giant blacksphere rising out of the ground. The rearfaçade makes up for the lack of a tradi-tional front façade with a massive greygranite wall. Chiselled into the stone arehundreds of different letters in various lan-guages from all over the world, symbolis-ing the origins of reading and writing. Alexandria’s new library lies righton the sea-front promenade with readingrooms for 2,000 users cascading overseven terraced levels. The library hasplanned for a collection of eight millionbooks, 50,000 manuscripts, pamphlets andother documents, as well as 50,000 CD-Roms. The aim of the 200-Million-Dollarconstruction is to revive the glorious histo-ry of the ancient “BibliothecaAlexandrina”, which burned to the groundin 48 BC. Here in the world-renownedlibrary of ancient history the most knowl-edgeable minds of that time researchedand produced their greatest works, amongthem Euclid’s treatise on geometry. The“Bibliotheca Alexandrina” housed around750,000 documents, including papyri ofPharaonic date and a whole corpus ofGreek texts, including the work ofAristotle.

A modern wonder?Alexandria’s new library is currently themost prestigious Egyptian project afterToshka, the great greening of an area in thevast desert, south of Egypt. The library isseen as a project that will contribute torediscovering the city. Plans exist to recre-ate the Pharos lighthouse, one of the SevenWonders of the Ancient World, destroyedby an earthquake in the 14th century AD,near the current site of Fort Qait Bey. Throughout the old town paintersare diligently creating a new image, bypainting over the façades in tones of ochre.But most of it is cosmetic in the colour“Potemkin Pink”. It only takes a singleblow with the hand on the old façades tobreak through the fresh plaster and theaged brickwork of old residences and vil-las. The building material is rotten, eatenaway by the ravages of the sea air and theneglect of decades. Alexandria’s architec-tural heritage has been left to decay.

Reading the future ofThe new library of

Alexandria will hold

within it a vast collectionof records in the form ofbooks and manuscriptsin addition to the latestarchiving methods suchas CD-roms. It will alsohold memories of a

varied and schismaticpast, in which it has

been everything from theintellectual centre of theancient world to the

playground of wealthyEuropeans. The city stillexists on a number oflevels, as Claudia HajAli explains.

Left: Ancient Alexandria, epicentre of philosophy,comes vividly to life in thisimage from the catalogue forthe British Museum'sCleopatra of Egypt exhibition. Picture courtesy of the BMP, ©British Museum 2001

3838

ANCIENT EGYPT JUNE/JULY 2001ANCIENT EGYPT JUNE/JULY 2001 JUNE/JULY 2001 ANCIENT EGYPT

JUNE/JULY 2001 ANCIENT EGYPT

39

TRAVEL FEATURE

TRAVEL FEATURE

NETFISHINGNETFISHINGANCIENT EGYPT EXPLORES THE WORLD WIDE WEB...ANCIENT EGYPT EXPLORES THE WORLD WIDE WEB...

The Egyptian Society of

South Africa has an

interesting web site

where you can find

information about

mummies in South

Africa

The home pages of the

West Cornwall Egyptian

Society... yes they real-

ly do ripple!

58

ANCIENT EGYPT JUNE/JULY 2001

Hapy extends a warm welcome from his

beautiful new domain to AE readers

and some new friends at the Forum of

Amun. The Forum is an Internet based

society which includes in its membership both pro-

fessional Egyptologists and what moderator Philip

Gould describes as “lay peoples who love all

things Ancient Egypt.” There are four moderators,

three in the UK and one in the States, and both

membership and post

approval is required to join in.

It’s a very lively group with a

lot of activity and posting; the

site was buzzing with mes-

sages after the recent

Bloomsbury Day School on

the subject of Pyramids and

Power. While controversy is

not avoided (and pyramids

tend to provoke strong reac-

tions in people), it is thankful-

ly made clear who the Forum considers to be its

target audience, and so if one’s fancy lies towards

‘aliens built the pyramids’ this isn’t the place to

go. However, if there isn’t a local Egyptology

group near you, or you prefer

the ongoing group atmos-

phere that the Net can pro-

vide, take a look at the

Forum’s URL at

http: / /groups.yahoo.com/

group/Amun where you will

find further information. In

order to access the postings

you will, of course, need

membership. Another group offering

forum facilities to its mem-

bers is The Ancient Egypt and Middle East Society

(AEMES), featured in our ‘Societies Scene’ this

issue. Visit the group web site on

www.geocities.com/anicent/index.html, and please

note, as is also noted in the British Egyptological

Societies Directory (BES), that ‘anicent’ is correct.

We’ve first news of an overseas group, too.

Keith Grenville, National Chairman of the

Egyptian Society of South Africa has drawn atten-

tion to the society’s own web site on

http://users.iafrica.com/g/gr/grenvill/ where you can

find some interesting information about mummies

in South Africa as well as the events of the society.

Durban Natural Science Museum, for instance, has

a beautiful coffin of Ptolemaic date with its stun-

ningly decorated mummy.

Regular readers of AE will recall the trav-

elling exhibition based on items from Eton College

collected by Major Myers; the Durban mummy, of

the priest Peten-Amun of Akhmim, was collected

by Myers and finally found its way into the South

African collection.

It has been investigated using non-

destructive techniques and a reconstruction made

by Dr Bill Aulsebrook, whose qualification for this

is second to none: he holds a Ph.D. in Forensic

Facial Reconstruction. The resulting display of

coffin, mummy and reconstruction looks truly

stunning on the web site.

Now for two sites that offer you rest and

recuperation after looking at more academic mate-

rial. The first is to be found at www.abkaria.com

and is, I think, a fairly new addition to the pages on

the Net. The introduction says that it is “all about

connecting people living in, travelling to, or relat-

ed by any way to Egypt.” There seems to be a lot

on offer, including groups, forums and

sales exchanges, and so the emphasis

is social rather than Egyptological. If

readers visit the site it would be good

to have some impressions.

Finally, after surfing for

hours, just drift away on the rippling

home page of West Cornwall

Egyptian Society (www.egyp-

tology.btinternet.co.uk). It’s

blissfully relaxing and Hapy

looks forward to more of

your relaxed company

throughout Volume 2

of AE magazine.

HAPY

Don’t forget to log on to Ancient Egypt Magazine’s own Website at: www.ancientegyptmagazine.com

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13

COVER FEATURE

AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2001 ANCIENT EGYPT

Above: After Neb-Re's death,

lintels containing his names and

titles were overturned and reused

in such a manner to suggest a

deliberate removal. Was he seen

as too powerful by the state cen-

tre far away in the Nile Valley?

His lifestyle, with luxury

bathroom accessories, might

give a clue to his authority.

Left: Neb-Re, 'Commandant of

the fort' of Zuwiyet Umm el-

Rakham on Egypt's frontier with

Libya, had access to the best

craftsmen as this remarkable

two thirds life size statue

shows.

ReW

e know the names of more pri-

vate individuals from Ancient

Egypt than from any civilisation

before classical Greece and

Rome. Many of these names come from stelae,

statues or tombs – monumental objects with an

essentially private purpose. By contrast, very

few non-royal Egyptians could make a substan-

tial, acknowledged impact on major public

buildings; this was a privilege and responsibil-

ity of the king. ‘Illicit’ representations of pri-

vate individuals on the walls of royal buildings

– such as Senenmut at Deir el-Bahri – are rare

enough to excite comment.

However, beyond the Nile Valley and

Delta rather more possibilities existed for an

enterprising official to make his mark. In

Nubia, for instance, we can see monuments

erected by the Viceroy Setau for Ramesses II,

but prominently featuring Setau himself. But,

although a posting to the colonies might give

an Egyptian official rather more opportunities

for self-promotion than at home, there were,

obviously, limits to how far one could go in

effectively usurping the predominant position

of the king.The most distant posting known to us

in Egypt’s New Kingdom empire was the

fortress of Zawiyet Umm el-Rakham, on the

Mediterranean coast 300 km west of

Alexandria. Here a fortress-town of 20,000

sq.m. in area and with walls 5 m. thick, guard-

ed Egypt’s maritime trade routes from Crete

and kept a close eye on truculent local Libyan

nomads. This fortress, excavated since 1994

by the University of Liverpool, seems to have

been founded in, and abandoned during or

shortly after the reign of Ramesses II.

So far the Liverpool team has re-

excavated and planned a small, well-built, but

sadly uninscribed temple, which was first dug

up by the Egyptian archaeologist Labib

Habachi in the 1950’s. We have also worked

on the main northern gate of the site –also

first noted by Habachi – which, with massive

stone-clad mudbrick towers, makes clear the

very serious nature of the fort’s military

defences. A major new discovery was the

excavation over a number of seasons of a

series of mud-brick storerooms, each 16

metres long by 3 metres wide, and arranged in

a row immediately to the north of the temple.

The discovery within one of these magazines

of a series of complete pottery storage vessels

of a variety of types from around the Eastern

Mediterranean (such as stirrup jar and

Canaanite amphorae) confirmed Zawiyet

Umm el-Rakham’s role as an important trad-

ing post of the Late Bronze Age.

A more recent development has been

the discovery, in the south-east corner of the

fortress, of a major domestic area made up of

a series of small houses and communal ovens.

This, we assume, is where the garrison of the

fortress actually lived, and excavation in this

area is a major planned activity for the next

few seasons. Work in this area will, we hope,

give us detailed information on what life was

like for an ordinary soldier in a New Kingdom

fortress, and may help us determine with

greater precision the exact size of the garrison

which, on present evidence, we believe to be

over 500 men.But what do we know of the man in

charge of this major outpost of Egyptian

power? Since 1994 the excavations of the

Liverpool team have revealed in several parts

of the site a number of monuments naming

Neb-Re, who is titled ‘Overseer of Foreign

Lands’ and ‘Overseer of Troops’; in effect,

Commandant of the Fort.

The first place we came across this

character was on the limestone doorways of

the nine magazines. The lintels of all nine

doorways bear the cartouche of Ramesses II,

but the lintel from the central magazine,

Did the centralised bureau-

cracy of ancient Egypt, with

its intensive record-keeping

and kingly focus, offer little

opportunity for individual

‘empire-building’ even on a

very minor scale? Perhaps

the lifestyle of Neb Re,

complete with luxury items

such as bath and pedestal

toilet, casts light on an

enterprising official of the

Ramesside period, as Dr

Steven Snape explains.

Photography by Susanna

Thomas

12

ANCIENT EGYPT AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2001

Interesting times forCOVER FEATURE

Neb

WANTMORE?

Right: A sketch of harps, pipes and flutes, asdepicted on an ancient tomb near the pyramids.

Below: Banquet scene: fragment of wall painting from the tomb ofNebamun, Thebes, Egypt. 18th Dynasty, around 1350 BC. A fineexample of a Theban tomb painting. Musicians and dancers entertainguests, dressed in festive clothing. The musicians are perhaps themost striking in the image being representedfrontally rather than in profile. (British Museum)

FEATURE

In last issue’s AncientEgypt, Douglas Irvinedescribed how his inter-est in the music of

ancient cultures devel-oped. In this detailed

article he goes on to

explain that while Egypthas not yielded a set ofwritten music theory ornotation from antiquity,there are other sourcesof information at our

disposal. Doug Irvineand Miriam Bibby

investigate ancient

Egyptian musical

traditions.

‘While we don’t know howancient Egyptianmusic sounded,there’s a set ofbasic sources that inform us aboutancient music in Egypt,’ explainedmusician and composer DougIrvine. ‘Students of Egyptologywill be familiar with the many rep-resentations of musicians andmusical instruments from tombpaintings, reliefs, graffiti and sculp-ture. We depend quite a bit on thesevisual sources to determine whoplayed what instruments, how theinstruments were grouped and held,the performance contexts and how instru-ments changed over time.’

The vivid, lively images of ancientEgyptian musicians, often women, are tantalis-ing in their silence. They represent some of themost relaxed and intimate scenes from ancientEgyptian art. Textual sources yield furtherinformation in the form of titles, particularly infunerary contexts, of musicians and families ofmusicians. ‘One could labour over the interpreta-tion of an ancient musician’s specific action ina tomb painting or relief, but a literate scholarcould simply read the caption over the subject’shead: “Oh well, it says right here that her nameis Ity and she’s a singer.” Mystery solved,’ con-tinued Doug.

Those ancient musicians, often laid torest in relatively wealthy burials, the fine con-dition of their skin and hands providing furtherevidence of their profession in life, cannot

revealto us the details of their work.However, thanks to Egypt’spreserving climate, some oftheir instruments have survivedin good shape and from these,the modern investigator canlearn much about construc-tion techniques without hav-ing to apply destructivemethods, an opportunitywhich does not extend toother climates such asMesopotamia.

‘X-rays weremade of an Egyptianangle harp at the Louvre,for instance,’ explainedDoug. ‘Without having totear into the instrument, a lot of

FEATURE

OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2001 ANCIENT EGYPT

35

34

ANCIENT EGYPT OCTOBER/NOVEMBER 2001

Who Sings to his every day:KaKa DISCOVERING THE MUSIC OFANCIENT EGYPT

FEATURE

or Vulture?VÄxÉÑtàÜt ÉÇ Y|ÄÅ

FEATURE

or Vulture?Vamp,Victim...Vamp,Victim...

When August and Louis

Lumière showed the very

first motion pictures to

an amazed Paris audi-

ence in 1895, no-one

could know they were

demonstrating what was

to become the most pow-

erful artistic medium of

the twentieth century.

Even time would be no

barrier to its creative

potential. Sean

Mclachlan takes us to

the movies, Egyptian-

style.

Only a few months after the firstLumière screening, Thomas Edisonshowed the earliest historical pic-ture, ‘The Execution of Mary,Queen of Scots.’ Historical subjects were oneof film’s original genres. In those first years films were crude,lasting only a minute or so and dealing withsimple subjects such as a vaudeville routine ormilitary march. But by 1910, film times weregetting longer and plots and scenery more elab-orate. Directors expressed their roots in the the-atre by presenting scenes from popular plays.‘Antony and Cleopatra,’ with its romanticstory, exotic setting and Shakespeareanrespectability, was a natural choice. The earliest surviving Cleopatra filmwas made in 1910 by Pathé-Frères, a Frenchcompany that was the industry leader untilWorld War I. It runs slightly longer than tenminutes and all the action takes place on a sin-gle stage. The primitive and cumbersome cam-era remains fixed. Different scenes are con-structed just as in a play, by changing thescenery rather than the location. The creditshave unfortunately been lost.

The film opens in Cleopatra’s court,where the queen is informed of Antony’sarrival. The scene is typically Orientalist:harem girls lounging about, burly Nubians fan-ning her Highness, and every man wearing aNemes headcloth. Cleopatra also wears aNemes, along with a jewelled vest and sheerdress. Despite being heavily covered as allwomen in mainstream films were at the time,so much so that the fateful asp has to bite heron the neck, she gives off an alluring presence.She decides to meet the Roman, and hails herbarge (rowed by more burly Nubians), whicharrives along a river set at the back of the stage.

The scene changes to Antony’s camp. Thereshe quickly bedazzles the Roman leader with afew coy glances and poses, much to the chagrinof Antony’s wife and Octavian. The most elaborate scene comes whenAntony visits her at her palace. She puts onquite a show - gladiator matches, dancing girls- the whole thing looks a bit like vaudeville inEgyptian outfits, but it is enough to inspireAntony to fight Octavian. There’s an uninten-tionally hilarious sequence when a messengerbrings the pharaoh news of the defeat atActium. A furious Cleopatra offers the bearerof bad tidings a glass of poisoned wine. Hegoes through an incredibly acrobatic dyingprocess requiring a serpentine flexibility andmost of the stage. When he is finally finished,two guards nonchalantly chuck him off camera.Antony then arrives at the palace steps withOctavian and his army in hot pursuit, stabshimself, blows Cleopatra a kiss, and promptlydies. Cleopatra retreats to her bedchamber witha pack of weeping, flailing servant girls to joinher lover in the afterlife. By today’s standards the film is clum-sy and overacted, but for audiences of the timeit was state of the art. Few film productions thatyear could match its elaborate sets or numbersof richly costumed extras. This was memorablecinema.

Two years later, American directorCharles Gaskill filmed another version of theepic tale. It starred Helen Gardner, a famousactress who reflected her character’s forcefulpersonality by being the film’s producer andeditor, positions rarely held by women inHollywood even today. She also designed thecostumes, which look inspired by the Pathéversion. Gardner plays the Ptolemaic queen asa vulnerable, lovelorn woman.

FEATURE

Vivien Leigh on stage with Laurence Olivier inAntony and Cleopatra (1951) Picture copyright Mander & Mitchenson.

The 1912 ‘Cleopatra’ was pro-duced at a transition time for filmmakers.Improvements in technology and thedecreasing cost of celluloid made it possibleto make longer and more elaborate movies.It ran nearly 90 minutes when most featuresstill ran an hour or less. But Gaskill andGardner’s confidence didn’t extend to cam-era work. Much of the movie is still filmedas a play, with fixed, mid-range shots. Laterin the film the camera begins to move a bitmore, panning across scenes and givingcloser views of the actors. As fortune turnsagainst the couple at the battle of Actium,the camera cuts between Antony andCleopatra at an ever quickening pace, indi-cating the increasing tension felt by thecharacters. Their anguished looks and histri-onics as their forces fall under Octavian’sonslaught look overplayed to a modern audi-ence, but are still fairly effective. The battle itself is never shown - itwas beyond the producer’s budget. It wasalso beyond the budget to make sets thatdidn’t blow in the wind. On a number ofoccasions walls tremble ominously, creatingan unintentional but apt metaphor forAntony and Cleopatra’s approaching doom.The silver screen’s first sex symbol...Gaskill’s version was popular, but the 1917‘Cleopatra’ by J. Gordon Edwards was a boxoffice sensation. It starred the beautiful andbrilliant Theda Bara. There has probablybeen no other actress in the history of filmthat was better suited for the role. Dubbed‘the screen’s first sex symbol’ by film histo-rian Leonard Maltin, Bara intrigued her fanswith her beguiling looks and bizarre person-


23

‘Antony and

Cleopatra,’ with itsromantic story, exotic

setting and

Shakespearean

respectability, was a

natural choice...22

ANCIENT EGYPT NOVEMBER /DECEMBER 2001

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Subscribing is easy - simply fill in the form below or call our order hotline on0161 273 7007

AE9-01

or Vulture?VÄxÉÑtàÜt ÉÇ

FEATURE

or Vulture?Vamp,Victim...Vamp,Victim...

When August and Louis

Lumière showed the very

first motion pictures to

an amazed Paris audi-

ence in 1895, no-one

could know they were

demonstrating what was

to become the most pow-

erful artistic medium of

the twentieth century.

Even time would be no

barrier to its creative

potential. Sean

Mclachlan takes us to

the movies, Egyptian-

style.

Only a few months after the firstLumière screening, Thomas Edisonshowed the earliest historical pic-ture, ‘The Execution of Mary,

Queen of Scots.’ Historical subjects were oneof film’s original genres.

In those first years films were crude,lasting only a minute or so and dealing withsimple subjects such as a vaudeville routine ormilitary march. But by 1910, film times weregetting longer and plots and scenery more elab-orate. Directors expressed their roots in the the-atre by presenting scenes from popular plays.‘Antony and Cleopatra,’ with its romanticstory, exotic setting and Shakespeareanrespectability, was a natural choice.

The earliest surviving Cleopatra filmwas made in 1910 by Pathé-Frères, a Frenchcompany that was the industry leader untilWorld War I. It runs slightly longer than tenminutes and all the action takes place on a sin-gle stage. The primitive and cumbersome cam-era remains fixed. Different scenes are con-structed just as in a play, by changing thescenery rather than the location. The creditshave unfortunately been lost.

The film opens in Cleopatra’s court,where the queen is informed of Antony’sarrival. The scene is typically Orientalist:harem girls lounging about, burly Nubians fan-ning her Highness, and every man wearing aNemes headcloth. Cleopatra also wears aNemes, along with a jewelled vest and sheerdress. Despite being heavily covered as allwomen in mainstream films were at the time,so much so that the fateful asp has to bite heron the neck, she gives off an alluring presence.She decides to meet the Roman, and hails herbarge (rowed by more burly Nubians), whicharrives along a river set at the back of the stage.

The scene changes to Antony’s camp. Thereshe quickly bedazzles the Roman leader with afew coy glances and poses, much to the chagrinof Antony’s wife and Octavian.

The most elaborate scene comes whenAntony visits her at her palace. She puts onquite a show - gladiator matches, dancing girls- the whole thing looks a bit like vaudeville inEgyptian outfits, but it is enough to inspireAntony to fight Octavian. There’s an uninten-tionally hilarious sequence when a messengerbrings the pharaoh news of the defeat atActium. A furious Cleopatra offers the bearerof bad tidings a glass of poisoned wine. Hegoes through an incredibly acrobatic dyingprocess requiring a serpentine flexibility andmost of the stage. When he is finally finished,two guards nonchalantly chuck him off camera.Antony then arrives at the palace steps withOctavian and his army in hot pursuit, stabshimself, blows Cleopatra a kiss, and promptlydies. Cleopatra retreats to her bedchamber witha pack of weeping, flailing servant girls to joinher lover in the afterlife.

By today’s standards the film is clum-sy and overacted, but for audiences of the timeit was state of the art. Few film productions thatyear could match its elaborate sets or numbersof richly costumed extras. This was memorablecinema.

Two years later, American directorCharles Gaskill filmed another version of theepic tale. It starred Helen Gardner, a famousactress who reflected her character’s forcefulpersonality by being the film’s producer andeditor, positions rarely held by women inHollywood even today. She also designed thecostumes, which look inspired by the Pathéversion. Gardner plays the Ptolemaic queen asa vulnerable, lovelorn woman.


Ç Y|ÄÅ

FEATURE

Vivien Leigh on stage with Laurence Olivier inAntony and Cleopatra (1951)

Picture copyright Mander & Mitchenson.

The 1912 ‘Cleopatra’ was pro-duced at a transition time for filmmakers.Improvements in technology and thedecreasing cost of celluloid made it possibleto make longer and more elaborate movies.It ran nearly 90 minutes when most featuresstill ran an hour or less. But Gaskill andGardner’s confidence didn’t extend to cam-era work. Much of the movie is still filmedas a play, with fixed, mid-range shots. Laterin the film the camera begins to move a bitmore, panning across scenes and givingcloser views of the actors. As fortune turnsagainst the couple at the battle of Actium,the camera cuts between Antony andCleopatra at an ever quickening pace, indi-cating the increasing tension felt by thecharacters. Their anguished looks and histri-onics as their forces fall under Octavian’sonslaught look overplayed to a modern audi-ence, but are still fairly effective.

The battle itself is never shown - itwas beyond the producer’s budget. It wasalso beyond the budget to make sets thatdidn’t blow in the wind. On a number ofoccasions walls tremble ominously, creatingan unintentional but apt metaphor forAntony and Cleopatra’s approaching doom.

The silver screen’s first sex symbol...Gaskill’s version was popular, but the 1917‘Cleopatra’ by J. Gordon Edwards was a boxoffice sensation. It starred the beautiful andbrilliant Theda Bara. There has probablybeen no other actress in the history of filmthat was better suited for the role. Dubbed‘the screen’s first sex symbol’ by film histo-rian Leonard Maltin, Bara intrigued her fanswith her beguiling looks and bizarre person-


‘Antony and

Cleopatra,’ with its

romantic story, exotic

setting and

Shakespearean

respectability, was a

natural choice...

Theda Bara: 1917

Theda Bara's publicity for her 1917Cleopatra stated that she was born in theshadow of the Pyramids; her Gothic styleaugmented the myth. 'Vamp' entered theEnglish language as a result.

Vivien Leigh: 1945

Vivien Leigh's stage performancesmay have enthralled, but her 1946film version of Cleopatra does notconvince. Leigh shot to stardomas Scarlet O'Hara in Gone with theWind; 'I have found my Scarlet,'said the Director as Atlantaburned in the background.

Amanda Barrie:1964

Carry on Cleo, undoubtedlyCarry On comedy at its best,had the inspired pairing of SydJames as Antony and AmandaBarrie as Cleo. The film hasone of the most memorablelines ever, uttered by KennethWilliams as the dying Caesar:'Infamy, infamy, they've all gotit infamy!'

Claudette Colbert 1934

Claudette Colbert was the first screenCleopatra to have a voice - she is con-vincing because 'even she is not sureof her true motives, a bewitchingwoman who leads men to theirdestruction'.

ANCIENT EGYPT NOVEMBER/DECEMBER 2001

ality. She dressed all in black, her angular fea-tures and kohl-circled eyes alluring but faintlymenacing under her square-cropped ravenblack hair.

She claimed to have been born at thebase of the pyramids and gave long, ramblingpress conferences during which she ate rawmeat and regaled reporters with tales of herpsychic powers. She even performed séanceswhere she talked to her dead house pets. Herpublicists hinted that she was a vampire, andthe word ‘vamp’ entered the English languagebecause of her.

Sadly, there is no surviving copy ofthe film. Like so many works of the silent era,no one thought of preserving it. Movies weredisposable, re-releases were rare and there wasno television on which to broadcast old pro-ductions. All copies were either thrown away orallowed to decay. Publicity shots show Bara ather Gothic best, decked out in pseudo-Egyptiangarb and fixing the camera with a hypnotic andalmost menacing gaze. Reviews indicate sheplayed Cleopatra as the strong, seductive, will-ful woman she probably was, but no script sur-vives to tell us more. What may have been oneof the greatest portrayals of the fabled queen islost to history.

But Cleopatra wasn’t to remain silentforever. In 1934, Cecil B. DeMille directed thefirst talking Cleopatra picture, a lavish epic inthe grandiose style of Depression-eraHollywood. At a time of soup lines and theDust Bowl, audiences flocked to movies thatshowed beautiful people in wealthy surround-ings. DeMille made some of the best.

Critics hated it. They called it ‘a com-edy of modern manners in fancy dress.’ But itwas exactly what the audiences wanted.

Despite his lavishness, DeMille was astickler for accuracy. He is said to have stormedonto the set moments before a shoot to removea silver cup from the scene. It was centuries toolate in style, and he wouldn’t tolerate it being inhis picture. Even Colbert’s hairpins were muse-um replicas.

Colbert is convincing as the mercurialCleopatra. Starting as a pouting, spoiled girl,she quickly learns the rules of the political gameinto which she is thrust, eventually manipulat-ing everybody with whom comes into contact.There’s a hardness, a practicality beneath herflirtation that rings true. This could be the realCleopatra - both ruthless and coy - a woman ina man’s world able to hold her own and unafraidto use her one trump card.

Cleopatra sets out to seduce Caesar,played by Warren William, in order to save herthrone from Ptolemy. The two are electric

24

The manyfaces ofCleopatra in

together as powerful rulers locked in a battle ofwills. Both struggle with an intriguing mixtureof self-interest and love as they try to haveboth a relationship and a political alliance. ‘Iam Egypt,’ Cleopatra declares. ‘Only if I makeyou so,’ is Caesar’s reply. Here are two peoplewho are used to being obeyed. They havenever before had to deal with an equal. Theirconflict is never resolved; Caesar goes back toRome only to meet his death.

At first it is the same with Antony,played by Henry Wilcoxon. She sets out todominate him, even taunting him at their firstmeeting, ‘I’m dressed to lure you, Antony.Don’t you know you’re my enemy, you andyour hungry Rome?’

And lure him she does. She showershim with wealth and dazzles him with dancinggirls. In a memorable scene, her slaves pull upa net from the sea and out slither a half dozengirls clad only in seaweed, who presentAntony with jewel-filled oysters. The girlsaren’t the only ones being reeled in.

Cleopatra’s motives are entirely mer-cenary. Having grown callous from the affairwith Caesar, she thinks only of her politicalposition. She even poisons his wine to saveher country, only to realize that she’s fallen inlove. She knocks the deadly draught out of hishand and cries, ‘At last, I’ve seen a god cometo life. I am no longer a queen, I’m a woman!’

This is cold comfort for Antony,belittled after his defeat by his fellow Romans.‘You gave up the world for a woman,’ theytaunt, ‘and the world gives you its scorn forit.’ He dies regretting his foolishness, callingout to the heavens, ‘Antony, the plaything of awoman!’

Femme fataleColbert’s Cleopatra is the ultimate femmefatale. She is seductive and controlling andimpossible to understand since even she is notsure of her true motives, a bewitching womanwho leads men to their destruction.

Not so with Vivian Leigh’s renditionin the 1945 ‘Caesar and Cleopatra.’ ThisCleopatra is nothing more than a silly littlegirl. The movie opens with her hiding in thedesert from both Ptolemy and the Romans.She is found (saved) by Caesar, played by asmug and paternal Claude Rains. Caesar ischarmed by the fluffy and innocent heir to thePtolemaic dynasty and makes everything bet-ter by getting rid of Ptolemy and plopping heron the throne of Egypt. Rains is the indulgentfather trying to make his spoiled daughtergrow up. Forget the whole bit about Caesarion- it never happened. Their romance is reduced

to a chaste peck onthe forehead in thefinal scene. Caesardeparts, promisingto send a ‘realman’ (his words)in the form ofAntony.

Leigh’sCleopatra isd o w n r i g h tpainful to watch.We are treated tosuch queenlystatements as,‘My blood ismade of Nilewater, that’swhy my hair isso wavy,’ and‘When I am old enough Ishall do what I like. I shall be able to poisonthe slaves and watch them wriggle.’ Cleopatrais reduced to a simple child.

Luckily, Joseph Makiewicz saved thesubject in 1963 when he directed the mostfamous version of Cleopatra. StarringElizabeth Taylor and Richard Burton, thisthree-hour epic delves deeply into the motiva-tions and relationships of Antony, Caesar andCleopatra.

The ghost of Alexander the Greathovers over their every action. Many of thekey monologues and conversations happen byhis tomb. Julius Caesar visits the tomb andweeps. Cleopatra asks him why. The rulerreplies, ‘When he conquered the world he was31. I am 51.’ Cleopatra responds by sayingthat if Egypt and Rome united, they could stillconquer the world. After Actium, MarkAntony hides away from Cleopatra inAlexander’s tomb. Besotted with wine, helaunches into a brilliant self-pitying mono-logue about how he is forever in Caesar’sshadow, little knowing that Caesar was livingin Alexander’s shadow.

Makiewicz has hit upon somethinghere - great rulers are still human. They havefaults, conceits and, above all, insecurities.Alexander’s vast conquests created a cult ofpersonality that echoed across the centuries.Most rulers were painfully aware that theycould never match his feats. As the mobs ofsycophants who crowded around every thronethroughout history told these kings of theirgreatness, of their vast fame and gloriousdomains, his name must have crept throughthe dark recesses of their minds. DidCharlemagne wince when his subjects called


FEATURE

25

“Great rulers

are still human.

They have faults,

conceits and,

above all,

insecurities....”

Published to accompany themajor British Museum exhibitionon Cleopatra, Cleopatra's Face:

Fatal Beauty continues the mythof Cleopatra as seductress,

femme fatale and vamp withimages from stage, screen and

art. Quotes from writers throughthe ages continue the theme

and promote the image; but wasit the real Cleopatra? Recentinvestigations suggest a far

more astute and political figure.

him ‘the Great?’ Did the Byzantine emperorslay awake nights dreaming of matchingAlexander’s conquests? Makiewicz shows usthey probably did.

In most films, Antony is more com-pelling than Caeser. He is the one Cleopatratruly falls for. Only in Makiewicz’s treatmentdoes Caesar come to the fore. He is the wiseand confident statesman, secure in his role andable to command respect from his subordi-nates. Burton’s Antony is none of these things.It’s odd that Cleopatra falls for him so com-pletely. Perhaps Antony, who like all ofBurton’s characters wears his heart on hissleeve, is ultimately more trustworthy.

For Caesar, the marriage toCleopatra is at least in part a politicalone. Cleopatra seduces him morewith her dreams of world conquestthan her physical charms.Nevertheless, she is hurt when someservants convince her that he neverreally loved her. When Antonyarrives in Egypt, it is to meet awiser, more calculating pharaohwho sets out to enthrall him. In thefamous barge scene, she intoxicatesand titillates Antony. A drunkenBacchus caressing an Egyptianwoman, obviously meant to portrayAntony and Cleopatra, paradebefore him. It is an act both seduc-tive and humiliating. Antony istaught his place from the verybeginning.

But all does not go accord-ing to plan. Cleopatra finds herselffalling madly in love and the twoare pulled into the vortex of history.Antony is tormented by the memoryof Caesar, the man who came beforehim in all things, even Cleopatra’sbedchamber. Cleopatra, despite herlover’s obvious failings, refuses tobetray him, and so loses her king-dom and her life. It is this dramaticlove triangle, and the world itshook, that makes the story ofAntony, Cleopatra, and JuliusCaesar so fascinating. Makiewicz’sfilm shines because he realized thismore than any other director.

Keeping the story freshThe challenge of Cleopatra for direc-

tors and scriptwriters is a tough one - weall know what happened. They can only playwith history so much before our sense of whatthe story ‘is’ gets in the way. The best versionsof Cleopatra turned this into an asset, by con-centrating on character development and elabo-rate sets. Burton’s tortured Antony, DeMille’ssumptuous palaces, Bara’s enticing femmefatale - these are what keep the story fresh.

Directors had plenty to work with.The historical record is rich in political detailbut tantalizingly vague when it comes to thepeople involved. This allowed filmmakers torecreate the story for each new generation. AsWilcoxon says to Colbert when she asks him ifhe would leave her for another woman, ‘Youare another woman. New, always new, com-pletely new.’

AE


FEATURE

Cleopatra the Egyptian: thetemple foundations of the

Ptolemaic period, with theirunique hieroglyphs, give us ourbest knowledge of daily ritual in

Egypt. Ruling over a diversepopulation may have given the

queen her ability to be allthings to all people, providing

her ability to negotiate with andmanipulate, for a while at least,

the growing power of theRoman empire.

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page 29.qxd 13/02/1950 19:25 Page 1

In the Book of OverthrowingApophis, the longest and mostimportant part, in terms of its magi-cal value, of the Papyrus Bremner-

Rhind (4th century BC), the expression‘what is said consisting of magic’ is fol-lowed by the statement ‘when Apophis isplaced (on) the fire’, indicating that ver-bal expressions (spells) and physicalmodes of action (known as apotropaictechniques) provide the core of ceremoni-al Egyptian magic. Each episode of a ritu-al was composed of a series of threat for-mulae and magical utterances combinedwith a number of symbolic gestures andtechniques. This combination was essen-tial for the effective outcome of the magi-cal procedure.

Spells and conjurationsSpells and oral conjurations form the cornerstone of a magical ritual. The importance ofspells is very well exemplified in the directequation and identification of heka with the spo-ken word. In col. 24/17-18 of the Apophis Bookin the Papyrus Bremner-Rhind we read: ‘Retire,turn back at this magic (heka) which has comeforth from my mouth for Pharaoh!’1 Magicalspeech during the ceremony formed the channelthrough which the magician could activate andreinforce both his magical capabilities and theaccompanied apotropaic techniques.

It was the special meaning andapotropaic force, hidden within the literarystructure of a magical narrative, that caused themobilisation of certain powers and actions dur-ing the course of the ceremony.

The pronunciation of special ‘wordsof power’ could extract, either through theirown verbal ascendancy or in conjunction withother literary elements within the narrative,

specific forces from the mythical and divineworld into the mundane sphere and the situa-tion the magician needed to deal with.

Cultic language was the medium andprocess to access the divine and to link themundane and terrestrial spheres into a unitedceremonial performance.

The mechanisms involved in theassembly and function of a magical narrative

Throughout Egyptian

history, a major focus of

ritual activity was

intended to overcome

personal, divine or for-

eign enemies of the king

or state. Other members

of Egyptian society also

availed themselves of

these apotropaic prac-

tices, which are

described for us in the

final part of our series

by Dr Panagiotis

Kousoulis.

28

FEATURE


PART 3: ‘OVERTHROWING APOPHIS’: EGYPTIAN RITUAL IN PRACTICE

Nine Measures of

MagicNine Measures of

Magic

could vary, from the simple quotation of amythical background (historiola), that com-prises the main point of reference for themobilisation and development of the magicalaction, to more sophisticated literary tech-niques, such as the identification of the magi-cian with a specific god whom he invokes dur-ing the rite (divine speech), the enumeration ofcertain parts of the body with their divine pro-

tection (lists) and specially designed threat andcurse formulae within a broader performativeand liturgical environment.

‘I have overcome the enemies ofPharaoh’Within this ritual environment, the power of theoral incantations was reinforced by the symbol-ic destruction of wax figurines in the form of


FEATURE

Below: Foreign enemies representing subject nations. Among them are Beduins, Nubians,Libyans, Cretan and Babylonians. The enemies kneel in supplication and are tied togetherby a papyrus stem symbolic of Egypt. This frieze adorns the dais of the thrones ofAmenhotep III and Queen Tiye in the tomb of Anen (TT 120), c. 1380 BC. The MetropolitanMuseum of Art’s Collection of Facsimiles, 33.8.8.

Right: Terracotta model of a womanpierced with iron nails, c. 200-300 AD. This figurine wasburied in a pot with a lead tablet inscribedwith a love charm. Louvre inv. E 27145(Pinch 1994, fig. 48).

Left: Four terracotta figurines of boundNubians, c. 20th – 19th centuries BC. Thesewere used in execration rituals (Pinch 1994,fig. 49).

the enemies of cosmic and political order, orthe burning of a sheet of papyrus, with thename and figure of the enemies drawn on it:

‘This spell is to be recited over (an imageof) Apophis drawn on a new sheet of

papyrus in green ink, and (over a figure of)Apophis in red wax. See, his name is

inscribed on it in greenink … I have overthrown

all the enemies ofPharaoh from all their

seats in every place wherethey are. See, their nameswritten on their breasts,

having been made of wax,and also bound with

bonds of black rope. Spitupon them! To be tram-pled with the left foot, tobe fallen with the spear(and) knife; to be placedon the fire in the melting-

furnace of the copper-smiths … It is a burningin a fire of bryony. Its ashes are placed in apot of urine, which is pressed firmly into a

unique fire.’2

Although it is not unlikely that an exe-cration ritual continued occasionally to involvehuman sacrifice, the use of execration figurines

made of wax and drawings on papyri was therule for the majority of the sacrificial actionsperformed during the ceremony.

This special use of objects has its ownsymbolic meaning and apotropaic value, whichrely on the specific material that is used and themagical principle of analogy and similarity thatis expressed between the two poles in the cere-

mony, these being the figurine oriconographic papyrus (the objector medium) on the one hand andthe divine or human enemy (thetarget), on the other.

The similia similibusformulae are traditionallyreferred to as sympathetic orhomeopathetic rituals, but theycan more precisely described as‘persuasively analogical’; ritualof this kind is not based on poorscience or a failure to observeempirical data but rather on astrong belief in the persuasivepower of certain kinds of formu-laic language.

Images of waxThe choice of wax as the basic constructivematerial for the figurines is related to its pecu-liar physical properties, that makes it quite suit-able for magical operations, and to its mytho-logical association with the divine realm: wax


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30

“An object made

of wax is characterised

by its vulnerability

thus, it could easily be

destroyed during

the rite...”

Above: The Pylon Gateway ofthe temple of Horus at Edfu. Itis decorated with the propa-gandistic scenes of the kingsmiting his enemies. Theserepresentations were reflect-ed in the everyday cultic per-formances inside the templeprecinct, where a priest, rep-resented the king, was rituallyslaying images of human ene-mies and divine demons.

Below: Detail from the Eastpylon-gateway of the templeof Horus at Edfu, showingPtolemy XII smiting his ene-mies


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Inset: Detail of the healing statue ofDjedhor, showing Horus tramplingupon crocodiles. This kind of sceneimitates the relevant scenes in thecipi-stele of the Late Period.

Magical healing statue ofDjedhor from basalt (323-317

BC). It was inscribed withmagical spells against

snakes and other maligncreatures. In its front part,

it shows the young godHorus trampling upon croc-

odiles (E. Russmann,Egyptian Sculpture:

Cairo and Luxor,London 1989, 195).


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as a primeval substance was said to be createdby the sun god himself.3 Yet, an object madeof wax is characterised by its vulnerabilityand, thus, it could easily be destroyed duringthe rite. Also, the fact that it can be burnt with-out leaving any ashes distinguishes it as a per-fect symbol guaranteeing the total eradicationof the hostile image that it represents. Thesame attributes could also apply to thepapyrus plant, which was used on which towrite the various spells and draw the hostileimages.

For the Egyptians, the colour green(w3d) was derived from and was associatedwith the papyrus plant (w3d), as a symbol offlourishing (w3d) and eternal renewal. Bothbear, amongst other properties, strong protec-tive attributes expressed in a variety of waysand contexts. ‘Papyrus column’ amulets madeof green stone were regarded as very effectivein expelling evil in the real world and the here-after. From the Ramesside period onwards, andespecially during Graeco-Roman times, lion-headed goddesses, particularly Bastet, Sekhmetand Menhet, carry the papyrus as a symbol ofprotection and elimination of every harmfulnotion or enemy.

‘Spitting upon, trampling andspearing’After the formation of the appropriate imple-ments that could serve as medium and solidpoints of reference for expelling an amorphousadversary, the ritualist commences the magicalprocedure.

According to the rubric of the Apophisbook, quoted earlier, the magical procedure isbasically developed into the following stepswith occasional variations: ‘spitting upon’ (psg)the hostile image, ‘trampling upon’ (sin) it withhis ‘left foot’ ‘spearing’ (hw) it with his ‘spear’(m‘b3) or ‘knife’ (ds) ‘binding’ (q3s) and wrap-ping it in the papyrus, before placing it on thefire (hh).

In addition to the positive, curativeaspects of spitting and its role to the creation ofcosmos, which is envisioned in so manyEgyptian myths and tales, its potential nature asa weapon of destruction and corruption is wellemphasised in the magical texts and well prac-tised in the apotropaic dromena.

Because the act of spitting was hostileand magically threatening, it could be easilyassociated with the ejected venom of serpents,scorpions, insects, and other creatures. Thus,

Representation of the rth-p’tritual (‘subjugating humani-ty’), performed in the templesof the Ptolemaic period. Theking netting wildfowl with thegods Khnum and Horus theBehdet. Temple of Khnum,hypostyle hall, Esna,Ptolemaic period (R.Wilkinson, Symbol and Magicin Egyptian Art, London 1994,fig. 141).

spitting figures prominently in both the recitationsand praxis of execrations directed against wax fig-urines representing the divine demons and theirassociates.

Trampling upon an enemy was a standardgesture in magical rites. It derives from the commonimagery of the traditional enemies of Egypt, repre-sented on the king’s footstool and on the sole of hissandals, so that he was constantly trampling on them.

The same idea is found in funerarymagic. The casting of the hostile image with aspear or knife follows the spitting technique. Infact, this formula dominates the relevant reliefs onthe walls of the Ptolemaic temples. The king, rep-resented by the priest in the everyday re-enact-ment of the rite, spears the enemy (human ordivine) in the presence of the patron deity of thetemple (the temple statue in real life). The sacrifi-cial immolation of the figurines comes as the finalapotropaic step and symbolises the total destruc-tion of the enemy.

The theme of the burnt offering is notnormally considered central to Egyptian ritual, butwhere it is developed, it carries the theme of sac-rifice of the enemy. Quite often, the precise placewhere the fire takes place is clearly stated in therubrics of the magical papyri: ‘To be placed on the

Left: Ptolemy VIIEuergetes II destroys aprisoner before the godHorus the Behdet. Edfutemple, Ptolemaic period(R. Wilkinson, Symbol andMagic in Egyptian Art,London 1994, fig. 155).

Left: Ramesses II withprisoners of war. From theTemple of Amun atKarnak. Dynasty 19 (R.Wilkinson, Symbol andMagic in Egyptian Art,London 1994, fig. 156).

Left: It was the combina-tion of the potency of theword in conjunction withritual action which pro-duced the efficacy of themagical ritual, often enact-ed as a type of play basedon ancient Egyptianmythological stories suchas that of Horus and Seth.


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fire in the furnace of the coppersmiths’4 and, else-where, ‘the furnace (w3w3) shall consume you.’

Preserving the House of LifeThe term w3w3 is a reduplicated form ofthe verb w3 (‘to roast’) meaning ‘fire,flame.’ It is attested quite often in thefunerary texts of the Middle and NewKingdom referring to the divine flame,personified as the uraeus or ‘mistress offire’, that burns up the enemies of Osirisin the Underworld. There is, here, a directconformity between the ritual burning ofwax figures as common cultic practice onearth, and the mythological execution ofcriminals and sinners in the Underworld.Based on this analogy between religiouspractice and funerary dramatisation, therepresentations of such furnaces on thetomb walls could help us conceive an ideaabout their form and liturgical applica-tions, since no information or depiction isgiven in the Apophis Book.

The citation of the word ‘furnace ofcoppersmiths’ implies a metal constructionenduring enough for fusing or melting copper.It might be similar to the one quoted in the latePtolemaic period story Instructions ofAnkhsheshonq, as ‘brazier/furnace of cop-per’and in Papyrus Salt 825, where it intro-duces a whole section of execration practices,part of the rth-p‘t ritual (for the preservation ofthe ‘House of Life’), which is illustrated byvignettes depicting four square furnaces withtwo bound enemy motifs in them, ready to bedestroyed by fire.5

These furnaces could be either artificialor natural constructions, attached to the templesfor this purpose. Their representation could be

traced back, at least, to the MiddleKingdom depiction of a small brazier inthe context of offering scenes. An ovalcavity, 68m deep, in the form of a trun-cated cone, excavated at Mirgissa couldhave served a similar purpose.6 Into thispit were placed five unbroken cruciblesof dried mud, duplicates of the typicalcrucible used for copper smelting.

Since wax does not leave anyresidue after being burned, it was theashes from the papyrus that had to be col-lected ‘in a pot of urine’ and placed, con-secutively, on a new fire. There is a par-allel correlation, here, between a by-product of the human body, the wasteliquid, which has to be discharged from itas totally useless and, somehow, danger-ous for its harmonious function, and thevisible symbolic remains of a superhu-

man foe, which are still regarded malicious untilthey are completely dispersed.

The power of encirclingAfter the burning of the enemy’s physical‘body,’ assimilated to a wax substitute or adrawing on a sheet of papyrus, the magicianendeavours to control his malicious activities inthe Underworld through the magical techniqueof ‘encircling’ (phrt) his ‘shadow’.7 Althoughthe term phr is especially involved in prophy-lactic rites for purification, its destructive,aspects cannot be dismissed.

In the Underworld, the ‘subjugation’yielded by the technique of encircling consist amajor threat for all the parts of the personalityof both the blessed deceased and hostiledemons. It is this function of phr that is meantunder the rubric of this book and is performedby the magician likewise. What actually hap-pens in the ritual against Apophis is the acqui-sition by the magician/priest of a funeraryspell/rite, spell 108 of the 18th Dynasty Bookof Dead, which deals exactly with the sametheme: the deprivation of the power of the ser-pentine demon by the successful use of magicalcontrol (phr):

‘I am the Great of Magic (heka), the son ofNut. My magic (akhu) has given to meagainst you ... I have encircled this sky,

while you are in bonds.’8

There seems to be here a close affiliation ofphrwith both notions of the Egyptian magic, hekaandakhu, which not only confirms the prophylactic andmagical nature of the former, but also it divulges thedivine origin and practice of the technique as a methodto retain cosmic order and to repel the forces of chaos.

The ritual formulae fol-lowed a set pattern ofactions in which thehuman or demonicenemy was first execrat-ed, using images, beforethe final destruction ofthese images by fire.

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There is again here, as with the burn-ing formula above, a direct juxtaposition andintegration between the funerary rites as theseare expressed through the multifunctionalfunerary texts of the New Kingdom, and themagical apotropaic techniques and formulae.

A suitable day and hourThe choice of the suitable day and hour for themagical operation was essential for the success ofthe rite. Such choice was deter-mined by the nature and charac-ter of the rite, as well as the spe-cial mythological bonds thatconnect it with the divine sphere.

Thus, rituals that wererelated to the sun god and hisadversaries, usually took placein the morning, while spellsagainst the dangers of the nightwere performed at dusk. Also,calendars of lucky and unluckydays, where the classification ofthe days was based on events inmyth, play an important role asguidelines for the designation ofthe time the performance.

Very often, a particularrite, like the one against Apophis,could be practised every day. Thisfrequent performance reflects thedaily fight between Apophis and the sun-god inthe Underworld, which was common and welldeveloped theme within the context of the funer-ary papyri, Underworld books and apotropaicsun hymns of the New Kingdom onwards.

Horus of EdfuThe performance of the magical practices with-in the liturgical environment of a temple wasclosely interconnected with all the major reli-gious festivals. Thus, during the festival infavour of Horus the Behdetite, celebrated over

a fourteen day period at Edfu, execrationimages of serpentine images of Apophis,together with those of hippopotami and croco-diles, symbolising Seth, are used in execrationrituals against the enemies of Horus.9

The rituals were completed with the‘striking of the eye’ (of Apophis), the offering ofthe hippopotamus cake, the ‘trampling of fishes’and ‘destruction of all the enemies of the king.’The destruction of the enemies should also have

been part of the Busirite liturgyof the Osiris Mystery performedfrom 23 to 30 Khoiak near thetomb of Osiris in the divinenecropolis at Dendera.

Another allusion tothe Apophis’ destruction as aliturgical component is foundin the Apis bull embalming rit-ual described in the PapyrusVindob. 3873.10

After the mummifica-tion process, the coffin contain-ing the mummy is placed on aboat and is then transported tothe Lake of the Kings in a pro-cession attended by the god-

desses Isis and Nephthys andheaded by the god Wepwawet ofUpper Egypt and the godWepwawet of Lower Egypt,

Horus and Thoth. On the arrival at the Lake theApis is lifted up onto a raised platform, whilepriests sail across the Lake reading from ninesacred books. The Apis then undergoes theOpening of the Mouth ceremony before itreturns to the Embalming House. Two of thenine books being recited by the priests are enti-tled ‘The book of the protection of the divinebark’ and ‘the book of exorcising of (evil).’These rituals could be addressed against anymalign demon or human enemy.

AE

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1. Ph. Derchain, Le Papyrus Salt 825 (B.M. 10051)(Brussels, 1965).2. P. Eschweiler, ‘Bildzauber im Alten Ägypten’,Orbis Biblicus et Orientalis 137 (Göttingen, 1994).3. R. O. Faulkner, ‘The Bremner-Rhind Papyrus I-IV’Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 22-24 (1936-38).4. Y. Koenig, Magie et Magicians dans l’ Egypteancienne (Paris, 1994), chapter 4.5. G. Pinch, Magic in Ancient Egypt (London,1994), 76-103.6. M. J. Raven, ‘Wax in Egyptian magic and symbol-ism,’ Oudheidkundige Mededelingen het Rijksmuseum

van Oudheden te Leiden 64 (1983), 7-47.7. R. K. Ritner, The Mechanics of AncientEgyptian Magical Practices (Chicago, 1994), 74-190.8. S. Schott, ‘Urkunden mythologischen Inhalts.Bücher und Sprüche gegen den Gott Seth’,Urkunden des aegyptischen Altertums VI(Leipzig, 1929).9. S. Schott , 'Totenbuchspruch 175 in einemRitual zur Vernichtung von Feiden,' Mitteilungendes Deutchen Archäologischen Instituts,Abteilung Kairo 14 (1956), 181-89

Further Reading:

Footnotes

1 Faulkner, JEA 23 (1937), 169-70.2 P. Bremner-Rhind, col. 23/6-10and 26/2-6 = Faulkner, JEA 23(1937), 168 and 172; similar tech-niques are used for the destruc-tion of Seth in P. BM 10081, 5/7-10= Schott, Urk. VI, 35-42; cf. idem.,MDAIK 14 [1956], 181-89).3 Raven, OMRO 64 (1983), 28-30.4 P. Bremner-Rhind, col. 26/4 =Faulkner, JEA 23 (1937), 171.5 Derchain 1965, pls. 10-12; com-pare É. Chassinat et al., Le Templed’Edfou (Cairo, 1960), vol IX, pl. 48(Plate 9) and vol. X, pl. CXIV.6 Ritner 1993, 157.7 Ritner 1993, 57-67.8 G. Allen, The Book of the Deador Going Forth by Day (Chicago,1974) 85-6.9 É. Chassinat et al., Le Templed’Edfou (Cairo, 1930), vol. V,134/1-7.10 R. L. Vos, The Apis EmbalmingRitual (P. Vindob. 3873) (Leuven,1993), 52-3, 159-62, and 248-51.

“Rituals that were

related to the sun god

and his adversaries,

usually took place in

the morning, while

spells against the dan-

gers of the night were

performed at dusk...”

FEATURE

In last issue’s Ancient

Egypt, Douglas Irvine

described how his inter-

est in the music of

ancient cultures devel-

oped. In this detailed

article he goes on to

explain that while Egypt

has not yielded a set of

written music theory or

notation from antiquity,

there are other sources

of information at our

disposal. Doug Irvine

and Miriam Bibby

investigate ancient

Egyptian musical

traditions.

‘While we don’t know howancient Egyptianmusic sounded,there’s a set of

basic sources that inform us aboutancient music in Egypt,’ explainedmusician and composer DougIrvine. ‘Students of Egyptologywill be familiar with the many rep-resentations of musicians andmusical instruments from tombpaintings, reliefs, graffiti andsculpture. We depend quite a bit onthese visual sources to determinewho played what instruments, howthe instruments were grouped andheld, the performance contexts and howinstruments changed over time.’

The vivid, lively images of ancientEgyptian musicians, often women, are tantalis-ing in their silence. They represent some of themost relaxed and intimate scenes from ancientEgyptian art. Textual sources yield furtherinformation in the form of titles, particularly infunerary contexts, of musicians and families ofmusicians.

‘One could labour over the interpreta-tion of an ancient musician’s specific action ina tomb painting or relief, but a literate scholarcould simply read the caption over the subject’shead: “Oh well, it says right here that her nameis Ity and she’s a singer.” Mystery solved,’ con-tinued Doug.

Those ancient musicians, often laid torest in relatively wealthy burials, the fine con-dition of their skin and hands providing furtherevidence of their profession in life, cannot

revealto us the details of their work.However, thanks to Egypt’spreserving climate, some oftheir instruments have survivedin good shape and from these,the modern investigator canlearn much about construc-tion techniques withouthaving to apply destructivemethods, an opportunitywhich does not extend toother climates such asMesopotamia.

‘X-rays weremade of an Egyptianangle harp at the Louvre,for instance,’ explainedDoug. ‘Without having totear into the instrument, a lot of

36

Who Sings to his every day:KaKa DISCOVERING THE MUSIC OF

ANCIENT EGYPT

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Right: A sketch of harps, pipes and flutes, asdepicted on an ancient tomb near the pyramids.

Below: Banquet scene: fragment of wall painting from the tomb ofNebamun, Thebes, Egypt. 18th Dynasty, around 1350 BC. A fineexample of a Theban tomb painting. Musicians and dancers entertainguests, dressed in festive clothing. The musicians are perhaps themost striking in the image being represent-ed frontally rather than in profile. (British Museum)

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Arched wooden harp from the tomb of Any, Thebes, Egypt. NewKingdom, 1550-1069 BC. Usually made of wood and inlaid with

bone and faience, harps were often shown inbanquet scenes, decorating the walls of

tombs. (British Museum.)

Left: A painted ceramic vase inthe shape of a woman playing thelute; 18th Dynasty. (BritishMuseum.)

construction details were discovered.’Evidence from reliefs, wall

paintings and some of the hieroglyphicinscriptions and texts of hymns andsongs do mean that we are well advisedon the contexts in which ancientEgyptian music was played.

‘Musicians played an impor-tant role in religious ceremony. Musicplacated the deities and it was an impor-tant part of numerous festivals and ban-

quets. Music was connected to work andlabour and there are beautiful depictionsassociating music with intimacy and sexu-ality. The Egyptians loved music,’ isDoug’s belief.

Evidence for notation?Although there is no evidence for notation,

Doug is of the opinion that a strict musical for-mula must have operated, for temple andcourtly music, at least.

‘I don’t see musicians taking requestsin the Temple of Amun during a ceremony! Itis possible that, within a well-establishedstructure, some kind of improvisation couldhave taken place. Today, Egyptian musicincorporates the use of musical improvisation.However, this only works within an estab-

lished and sophisticated set of musicalrules, and Arabic music, with a 24 tone

musical structure and numerous modes or tun-ings, is among the most highly evolved musi-cal systems in the world. A skilled musicianknows those rules and knows how to conveyindividuality and expression within a set struc-ture. It’s possible that ancient performancescould have worked this way.’

Tuning systemsThe art of ancient Egypt cannot be taken atface value, but since artistic representationsprovide one of the principle sources of evi-dence, art has been used to attempt to identifypossible tuning systems.

‘For example, people have looked atinstruments in tomb paintings to examine andcompare the lengths of strings on a harp. Doingthis, it was thought, would help decipher spe-cific ratiosbetween stringlengths whichcould thentranslate intopitch intervalsand possiblymusical scales.All of this frompictures!’

Dougconcedes thatthis is ‘an


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38

These ivory clappers aremade in the form of hands.Used as a musical instru-ment, clappers were oftenplayed together with sis-

tra, harps and pipes.Photo: © Kate Preftakes

Photography, 1997

intriguing idea, though nothing conclusive hasbeen reached from this approach and itassumes that the ancient artisans were highlyaccurate in recording all the details of theinstruments they rendered. One can actuallytake string lengths from tomb paintings andcreate a system from which music is made.I’m not sure it would have much to do with thesounds the ancients were making, but it wouldfit in nicely with 20th century experimentalmusic concepts.’

In recent years, the music of ancientEgypt has begun to receive, at last, greaterinvestigation than ever before. During the1930’s, a famous radio broadcast of the soundof the silver trumpet from thetomb of Tutankhamun wasmade (and this can be heard, ifthe listener has the appropriatesoftware, on the web-sitewww.newton.cam.ac.uk/egypt)However, the 1990’s have seena different approach toresearch, which involves theparticipation of modern daymusicians from Egypt.

‘During the 1990’s, ateam of scholars and musiciansanalysed some of the Pharaonicflutes on display at theEgyptian Museum in Cairo,’explained Doug. ‘The lateEgyptian nay (flute) virtuoso,Mohammed Effat, performedon the flutes, and at the time hewas considered the flute playerin all of Egypt. The concept ofthe study was this: unlike a stringed instru-ment, whose open strings are capable of pro-ducing a fairly broad range of possible pitches(depending on how they were tuned), a flutehas fixed points from which specific pitchesare made through finger holes.

‘In the study, they recorded both sur-viving and reconstructed flutes and gathered

tables of information ontunings, etc. It was a verysophisticated study. The

real questions and criti-cisms came in the inter-pretation of the data.

It’s too complex toget into, but the

authors drew con-clusions based on

a small num-ber of instru-ments, and

the experts were divided on the conclusionsreached with the information they analysed.

‘No matter what the results were, it’sanother good example of the ways in whichpeople have attempted to uncover some ofthe deepest mysteries surrounding ancientEgyptian music. My feeling is that themusic made by ancient Egyptians willremain elusive, and will simply keep uswondering.’

While studying ancient texts andimages relating to music is of interest in itself,there is a further value to the subject. Musicalinstruments changed over time, with newitems coming into Egypt and perhaps new tra-

ditions and influences.‘That is the great

thing about ancient Egypt.The evidence is so rich, forso long a period of time, thatone can trace musical evolu-tion across thousands ofyears without ever having toleave Egypt. What we see isthat specific traditions exist-ed during certain times inEgyptian history,’ explainsDoug.

‘ D u r i n gthe Old Kingdom,for example, certaini n s t r u m e n t swere used thatare unique tothat time. Theend-blown flute isdepicted most frequently in

the Old Kingdom. This was also a time whenchironomists were employed, a group of musi-cians that made sets of hand signals, the mean-ing of which is not known. Sometimes chiron-omists made hand signals and sang. Even theway the musicians sat was unique in the OldKingdom, with one leg tucked under and theother knee pointing upward. A good exampleof this comes from a 5th Dynasty scene in thetomb of Nenchefka from Sakkara from 2400BC.

‘The scene depicts a flute player, aclarinet player, chironomists and a floorharpist. We know the chironomists appearonly in the Old Kingdom and that the end-blown flutes enjoy prominence then. The floorharp with its gradually curving neck, a largeinstrument, is a type seen only in the OldKingdom.’

The period providing the leastamount of information is the Middle

Above:Bastetshaking a sistrum and

holding an aegis, with kittens ather feet. (British Museum).


“The evidence is so

rich, for so long a

period of time, that one

can trace musical

evolution across

thousands of years

without ever having to

leave Egypt...”

Left: Professional musiciansexisted on several social levelsin ancient Egypt. Temple musi-cians held the office of “she-meyet” to a particular god orgoddess which was a positionof high status frequently heldby women. Musicians connect-ed with royal households werehighly regarded, as were giftedsingers and harp players.Lower on the social scale wereentertainers for parties andfestivals.

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Kingdom, but there is enough to show that newinstruments such as the lyre and lute wereimported. ‘The lyre first appears in tomb paint-ings not in the hands of Egyptians, but in thehands of foreigners, Bedouins. The famouslyre player from Beni Hassan from about 1850BC depicts this very clearly.’

These and other images show thatsome instruments fell from fashion while oth-ers became popular, and that ‘depictions offemale musicians dominate the NewKingdom, along with new instruments.Cultures may not take immediate acceptanceto new instruments. By the New Kingdom thelyre becomes an Egyptian favourite. The evi-dence really helps us to see that Egyptian cul-ture evolved over time and that music evolvedright along with the changing tastes of theculture.’

Ancient Egyptian musical instru-ments also reveal the ingenuity and skill withwhich the manufacturers worked the naturalresources around them. ‘They had access tovarious types of wood, some domestic, someimported. Wood was used for sound boxes andnecks of instruments, or drum shells.

Animal skin was widely used as thesound board of stringed instruments and fordrum heads. Images of harps even depict the

spots on animal hide indicating the type of ani-mal that was used in the making of an instru-ment.’

The ancient Egyptians made use ofboth domesticated and wild animals in the pro-duction of musical instruments. Animal gutand sinew were used for strings. Simple rattleswere made of clay, and bronze was used in theconstruction of sacred instruments such as thesistrum and cymbals. Doug is intrigued by thepossibilities of home-made instruments ‘thatcould have been crafted from recycled materi-als. So far I have no evidence for this type ofinstrument, but it would be hard to imaginesomeone not using basic objects at hand tomake some music with.’

While Hathor and Bes are theEgyptian deities perhaps most associated withmusical traditions, it is evident that music wasan important part of all temple rituals and arequirement of all the gods. ‘Bes is so oftendepicted with the frame drum (one of myfavourite instruments) and I will continue torefer to him in upcoming recordings that incor-porate the frame drum, an instrument thatthrives in modern day Egypt, North Africa andacross the Arab world,’ said Doug.

‘Hathor is connected to love, beautyand fertility and she’s a patron of women and


FEATURE

“There are also

many musical sub-

tleties we’ll never know

about. The virtuoso

musician who played

the lute like no-one

before or since, the

singer whose vocal

abilities were known up

and down the Egyptian

empire......”


of music. Her associations are numerous andoften those associations include music. She’sseen holding the sistrum, the sacred rattle.Even the handle of the sistrum will, at times,have her head carved into the handle. She alsoplays the frame drum.

‘Thanks to written records, we findthat many Egyptian gods and goddesses werehonoured with music making and with musicalreferences. For example, carved hieroglyphson a surviving shoulder harp reveal the words‘sweet is the air Amun’. Ceremonies praisingAmun definitely involved music, and the tex-tual sources go on to reveal whole classes ofsingers, such as “Singers of Amun” and thevery top echelon of musicians, referred to as“Singers in the Interior of the Temple ofAmun”.’

The importance of the musician’s roleis evident in the ‘Short Hymn to the Aten’:

‘Singers, musicians, shout with joy,In the court of the benben-shrine,And in all temples of Akhet-Aten,

The place of truth in which you rejoice.’(trs. M Lichtheim)

We are still left with the mystery ofthese sweet-voiced singers and the music theymade. The songs must have been many and var-ied, from work-songs to bawdy music in thebrothel at Deir el-Medina, from sacred music tomartial tunes, from love songs to the complexthought regarding existence in the words of theblind harper from the tomb of King Intef:

‘Those who built tombsTheir places are gone,

What has become of them?I have heard the words of Imhotep and

Hardedef,Whose sayings are recited whole.

Their walls have crumbled,Their places are gone,

As though they had never been!None comes from there,

To tell of their state,To tell of their needs,To calm our hearts

Until we go where they have gone!’(trs. M Lichtheim)

The passing of time, the mysteries ofdeath, the crumbling of ancient works, haveprovided a theme for poets that has lastedlonger than the builders and the buildings theycreated. This theme occurs in an Anglo-Saxonpoem, set to music by Peter Hamill in the late1970’s, in which an observer comments on

Roman stonework: ‘Strange to behold is the stone of this wall broken by fateThe strongholds are burstenThe work of giants decaying

the roofs are fallenthe towers are tottering

Mouldering palaces rooflessWeather marked masonry shatteringShelters time-scarred tempest-marred

undermined of old

Earth’s grasp holdeth Its mighty builders

tumbled, crumbledin gravel’s harsh grip

Till a hundred generationsof men pass away.’

Human fears and hopes are recognis-able across the centuries, and it is left to themusicians and poets to express these ideas tothe rest of humanity. Does music make theconcept more palatable, or is it simply that theydare to address it? If complex and subtlethought was made available in Egyptiansongs, then this mustsurely have been thecase with the accom-panying music.

‘There arealso many musicalsubtleties we’ll neverknow about. The vir-tuoso musician whoplayed the lute likeno-one before orsince, the singerwhose vocal abilitieswere known up anddown the Egyptianempire,’ Dougbelieves. ‘There aremany questions in mymind concerning howmusic at any one spe-cific time changed asyou travelled up and down the Nile. I would bevery surprised if local songs didn’t differdepending on where in Egypt you were.

‘When people ask me what I think themusic sounded like, I ask them about theirimpressions of ancient Egyptian architecture,artwork, and so on. Their music must havereflected the culture’s many other greatachievements that we in the modern worldadmire so deeply.’

AE

Suggested FurtherReading:

Music and Musicians inAncient Egypt by LiseManniche, published by theBritish Museum Press,London 1991; Catalogue ofAntiquities in the BritishMuseum III: MusicalInstruments, by R DAnderson, BMP, London1976; Les instruments demusique égyptiens au Muséedu Louvre by C. Ziegler, Paris1979.

Above: Rhythm was at thecore of Egyptian religious

practices, rituals and proces-sions. Many percussionists we

have information about werewomen who were highly

trained court musicians oremployed by large temples as

musician priestesses. Malepercussionists often appeared

as military drummers.

FEATURE

TRAVEL FEATURE

Earlier this year, the

Louvre hosted an exhibi-

tion on Egyptian magic

and ritual. Cathie Bryan

takes us through the

revealing items in a

review that compliments

our Nine Measures of

Magic series. The the-

matic exhibition present-

ed objects associated

with magic and sympa-

thetic magic which are

normally dispersed

between the Louvre’s

four Egyptian circuits,

supplemented by related

objects on loan.

This compact exhibition was organisedinto four rooms. Room 1 introducedthe nature of heka as a component ofEgyptian views of the supernatural,

including representations of it as a man sur-mounted by the hieroglyph which writes hisname, as a child with a solar disk, and as ahelper to Horus upon the crocodiles. The forceof heka could be harnessed by mankind as aprotection against visible and invisible enemiesfound in the world of the living, the world ofthe dead and the world of the gods.

Much space was devoted to the classi-cal enemies of Egypt depicted as bound cap-tives. Rendering representations of the enemyhelpless through art and spell was part of themagic needed to defeat him. Cosmic enemiesthe serpent Apophis and Seth and the eternalcycle of their challenges and defeats wereshown alongside the forces of order and good-ness, such as Ma’at, the sun god in his variousaspects and Osiris and Isis. Theirroles were however more complexthan this: Apophis, it is pointed out inthe accompanying catalogue, wasalways defeated, and Seth played animportant role in the Egyptian pantheon,possessing temples of his own. Magicobjects and spells to defeat the gods ofdisorder through ritual by man andthe gods were well illustrated inthis first section.

Re is prominent asdefender of the state, particu-larly in his form as a predato-ry beast such as the ‘GreatCat of Heliopolis.

The programme of Room 2 was magicand religion in the realm of the temple, andmagic and the state. Reliquaries, talismans,magic ‘balls’ bearing the name of a deity, stat-uettes and ex-voto of protective deities andpapyri featured in this presentation of the inter-face between magic and religion. As the headof state, pharaoh’s role in maintaining order onearth and his responsibility to protect the peo-ple (rekhyt) in general and against the classicenemies of Egypt was examined in execrationtexts, sculpture and stelae. The other side ofmagic and the state explored was the impossi-bility of effective rebellion and resistanceagainst the power of the king, as pointed out byDr Kousoulis in his series of articles; magicwas simply viewed as one possible form of

42

at the LouvreHekaHekaANCIENT EGYPT VISITS AN EXHIBITION OF EGYPTIAN MAGIC AND RITUAL


TRAVEL FEATURE


Left: From time immemorial, thegod Bes had associations withthe goddess Hathor and themagic needed for safe parturition.His popularity lasted well intoPtolemaic times.

Left: This winged andcomposite figure, Bespanthée, wearing acrown and with fourarms, exudes a slightlymenacing presencethat evokes the idea ofEgyptian magic. In facthe is associated withbeneficial magic andwas a popular house-hold deity.

Above: Far from beingthe occult and menac-

ing force that magicbecame in early mod-

ern Western society,Heka was an amoralpower that could be

used for either good orill and was regularlyharnessed by priest-

magicians in order tobenefit the Egyptianstate. Images of the

enemies of Egypt,bound and captive,

make a strong state-ment of redress

against wrong-doers.

Below: Images of serpents, and inparticular the great enemy of Re,Apophis, show the inevitable tri-umph of the sun god; the cobragoddess Wadjet extended her pro-tection over the king of Egypt,proving the king's domin-ion over potentiallychaotic forces.

Right: From earli-est times, the kings

showed themselvesovercoming the ene-

mies of Egypt andthis symbolism hadan enduring appealfor magicians and

royalty

rebellion and magical methods aimed at harm-ing the king were treated accordingly.

Room 3 presented aspects of themagician’s ‘user manual’: sources of magicwritings, what to say, necessary gestures, andaccessories and talismans appropriate to theoccasion. Room 4 grouped together diversethemes: threats in everyday life for whichmagic could provide some protection (against,for instance, the anger of the gods, illness anddangerous animals), mythological and histori-cal magicians and the survival of magic inGraeco-Roman Egypt. Highlights includecover boy Bes panthée (cat. 140a) and manyother examples of Bes as a magical helper.Catalogue objects 250 -252 illustrate a lovespell assemblage, complete with the text andfigure of the object of desire as a bound captivepierced by (non destructive) needles.Representations of and evidence for of real-lifemagicians and priests was an intriguing con-

cept. Hetepi, head of magicians, with his bagof magic tools (cat 208) was most impressive.The last section of room 4 examined Egyptianmagic and the occult understood from the 19thcentury through the present.

The exhibition catalogue followsclosely the organisation of the exhibit andincludes essays by exhibition curator MarcEtienne. Since the majority of the objectsrelating to magic are too specialist to appear inthe other guides to the Louvre’s Egyptian col-lection, the catalogue is a useful reference.(The catalogue listing could have been mademore useful by noting the current gallery loca-tion of the objects within the Louvre!) Equallyappreciated is the French point of view, whichthe writer finds is not easily accessible to theEnglish speaking audience, apart from profes-sional Egyptologists or those who visit theLouvre in person.

AE


TRAVEL FEATURE

HERE ARE SOME OF THE TREASURES YOU WILL FIND AT

THE HEKA EXHIBITION AT THE LOUVRE

Catalogue Details

Author: Marc Etienne Title: HEKA: Magie etenvoûtement dans l’Egypteancienne, Paris:

Publisher: Les Dossiers duMusée du LouvreISBN: 2-7118-4030-1Price: 140FF (approx. £13.36p)

Above: The power of the eye:amulets in the form of parts ofthe body were a vital part of theburial equipment of the ancientEgyptians. The eye retains itsappeal into modern times and isa popular image for modernjewellery makers.

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Undersea Cities. Egyptologyon the Internet. Ramesses the

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King Djoser. Ancient ValuesValley of the Kings

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Journey into the EgyptianUnderworld. An Interview with

the Director of the LuxorMummification Museum.


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AUGUST/SEPTEMBER 2001 £2.95

Interesting timesfor Neb Re:A Ramesside officialtells his tale...

Ancient instruments - We interview musicianDoug Irvine

The moving history ofNubian burials

Our series:“9 Measures of Magic”continues

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of a Ramesside official.Egyptian Music: An interviewwith Doug Irvine. The story of

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REPRI1

A scorpion fish, just one of the manyspecies of delicate wildlife living on the

fragile reef that holidaying divers in SharmEl-Sheik can see, but must be aware are

protected.

TRAVELTHE LATEST NEWS AND

TWA TRAVELLERSA news flash in from the Tour Egypt web site at the end ofAugust advised that TWA would no longer offer flights toEgypt after the end of September 2001. Any passengers whohad booked flights after that date would have travel arrange-ments made by TWA on other flights. The number to contactfor further details is (800) 658 2150. Thanks to Jimmy Dunnof TourEgypt.net for providing this information.

RARE IMAGES GIFTED BY FRANCEThe new library at Alexandria has received a gift of a num-ber of electronically created images from France. Includedamongst them are rare historical documents showing theconstruction of the Suez Canal, microfilm images of mapsand construction drawings of the cities of the canal andbooks on Port Said. The award has been made with theassistance of the Suez Canal Friends Association and theEgyptian cultural office in Paris, and training was providedby the Association for a library secretary to become versedin aspects of this unique documentation. For further details,visit the web site at http://www.uk.sis.gov.eg/online/html14/o250821m.htm

MORE SUEZ NEWSThe new Suez Canal Overhead Bridge will be opened offi-cially in October. The 3100m long bridge, which is 20mwide and crosses the canal 70m above the water, is theproduct of a joint Japanese/Egyptian project in which 60%of the total cost of 650 million was provided as a grant bythe Japanese government. The whole project took three anda half years during which the construction teams worked 24hours a day. The project will assist in 'opening up' Sinai andis only one of a number of such projects such as theIsmailia-Rafah line. Ismailia governor Major General FuadSaad Eddin described the project as 'a symbol of co-opera-tion between Egypt and Japan'. It was expected that theopening would be witnessed by a number of vessels fromall over the world.

GUARDING SHARM EL-SHEIK'SHERITAGEAn article in an August 2001 edition of Al-Ahramdescribes the delights of diving holidays in the Red Sea andwarns of the threat to the beautiful but fragile marine envi-ronment there. Jenny Jobbins describes the developmentalong the coast there as 'unequalled in almost any resortanywhere'; 60,000 visitors a week are now hosted by thehotels and dive centres.

While 'the dive centres and the Ras MuhammedNational Park officials maintain the sites with deeply com-mendable care,' Jobbins warns that 'the fragile reef , though,is no match for the numbers.'

If planning a diving holiday in Sharm El-Sheikh,the article contains invaluable information on coral reef 'eti-quette'. Follow the instructions to ensure good diving and thecontinued safety of the coral reefs.


TRAVEL NEWS

The new Library atAlexandria will now househistoric microfilm images(some never seenbefore) of the construc-tion of the Suez Canal.

Canal traffic passesunder the bridgewhile still underconstruction. Thenew Suez Canaloverhead bridgewill be officiallyopened on October 6 andwill connect the Egyptian mainland with theSinai peninsula.

The Giza Pyramids pictured here are Khufu, Khafre andMenkaure; each part of mortuarycomplexes. Each pyramid had anadjoining mortuary temple whererituals for the dead king's spiritand for the Egyptian gods mayhave been carried out. This waslinked by a causeway to a valleytemple near the Nile floodplainthat acted as an entrance tothe whole complex. The Gizacomplexes also include pitsfor funerary boats, smallersubsidiary pyramids andnumerous other tombs.Presiding over the Gizanecropolis is the enigmaticGreat Sphinx.

WEB SITE ADVICETry out a couple of web sites if you're planning a trip toEgypt; the pages of egyptfocus.com are very easy to navi-gate, with useful maps and the advice is equally straightfor-ward and useful, particularly for first time travellers. It's asimilar story at the colourful pages of www.i-cias.com/m.s/egypt where honest, not to say frank, adviceis available and there is a link to BABEL:arabic so that youcan pick up the lingo, not to mention the Encyclopaedia of

the Orient, although the pages of this seemed a lit-tle reluctant to appear. Check it out and tell AEtravel pages what you think.

HURGHADA COMMENTSThere were some pithy comments on the massivedevelopment at Hurghada in the latest issue of thenewsletter of the Egypt Society of Bristol. TheEgyptian government has plans for 150 hotels and amarina, as reported in earlier issues of AE. With plansto expand tourism in Egypt from 1 million visitors peryear to an astounding 12 million in 30 years time, theimpact on Egypt's population and resources will becomea major issue. The newsletter points out the wish of the

Egyptian Minister of Tourism for the proceeds of tourism tohelp Egypt's poor and needy, a central tenet of Islam whichis applied most practically and not just theoretically. 'Whenwill a "poverty levy" be placed on tourists, I wonder?'writes the author of the piece.

KHAFRE OPENSThe pyramid of Khafre re-opened to tourists in July 2001.The Egyptian government has a policy of closing each ofthe three famous pyramids at Giza in turn to reduce thehumidity problem created by the thousands of tourists visit-ing this most popular of Egyptian sites.

TRAVEL LATESTAs AE went to press, world news was still dominated byevents in the USA. The Egyptology community is an inter-national one, and so professionals working in the subjectwere undoubtedly affected, personally and professionally.

How this might or might not alter travel is, at the timeof writing, a complete uncertainty.

With regard to travel to Egypt, AE canonly re-iterate the advice that has always beengiven within these pages: Egypt represents asafe and welcoming tourist destination for themajority of the millions who go there; butmaintain contact with your national consulatefor the latest news, and make sure that you are aregular visitor to the pages of Touregypt.net, theofficial site of Egyptian tourism, where you aresure to find the latest and most helpful advice onEgyptian destinations.


TRAVEL NEWS

NEWSSTORIES FROM EGYPT...STORIES FROM EGYPT...

TRAVEL FEATURE

The National Museum of

Antiquities was founded

in 1818 by King William

I. whose explicit wish

that the new museum

was to compete with the

British Museum and the

Louvre. He could not

have chosen a better

director than Caspar

Reuvens to realise his

ambition, writes Dr

Maarten J Raven,

Curator of Leiden’s

world famous

Egyptology collection,

who tells us about recent

improvements there.

In the first ten years of its existence, theLeiden Museum bought a number of pres-tigious private collections of ancient artwhich earned its reputation as one of the

foremost museums of antiquities in Europe.This is especially true of the museum’sEgyptian department, which ranks as one of theten best collections in the world. On May 17th,after five years of limited access, the LeidenMuseum has finally re-opened its doors on anattractive new display of its treasures.

Taffeh TempleThose who have visited Leiden in the past willrecall the charming situation of the Museum ofAntiquities on the Rapenburg, said to be themost beautiful canal in the Netherlands. Themuseum is housed in a complex of brick build-ings dating to the early 19th century. With theirregular succession of sash-windows and theornamental sandstone gate they look attractiveenough. Upon entering the building, however,one could not fail to notice the less attractiveaspects of this situation. Most galleries werelong and narrow, and formed an illogical mazeof rooms full of unexpected corners and deadends, where visitors soon got lost.

Climate control was notoriouslyabsent, with the consequence that both the vis-itors and the collection suffered from theeffects of heat, cold, and drought. Although theentrance hall with the Egyptian temple ofTaffeh was quite spectacular, the rest of the dis-play was antiquated, unsafe, and impractical.There was no clear educational concept, butinstead the bulk of the material was displayedin a rigorous and rather boring classification:

sculptures, mummies, pottery, jewellery, etc.Visitor’s facilities such as a restaurant, a muse-um shop, or a classroom for school groups werelacking or below modern standards.

It had long been the Museum’s ambi-tion to change all this, but we were dependanton the planning of the Office of Works andwere kept dangling on the waiting-list foryears. Matters took a different course when themuseum (like all national collections in theNetherlands) was privatised in 1995 and it wasrealised that a major building project wasessential for the continued existence of theMuseum of Antiquities as a flourishing institu-tion. The first phase of the project consisted ofa total restructuring of the building.

StorylineWhen the temple of Taffeh arrived in the 1970’s,the former courtyard of the museum was alreadyprovided with an acoustic roof, thus becomingthe largest museum hall in the Netherlands. Nowthis former courtyard was opened both towardsthe surrounding galleries (where the new shopand restaurant, the toilets and wardrobes, and thearchaeological information centre have beeninstalled) and towards the street (allowing anattractive view of the temple and some Egyptiansculptures). Along the other exterior walls of thebuilding, an inner screen wall was erected, allow-ing proper climatisation of the interior and creat-ing shop-windows along the street.

The remaining inner courtyard of thebuilding was roofed over and integrated with theadjacent areas, resulting in spacious new gal-leries for the permanent collections and two large


has a new view of Egyptology

LeidenLeidenTHE NATIONAL MUSEUM OF ANTIQUITIES

TRAVEL FEATURE

halls for temporary exhibitions. The Egyptian department now occupies

a strategic position on the ground floor of themuseum’s new wing, whereas before it was dis-persed over two floors. Just as for the Graeco-Roman, Near Eastern and Dutch departmentsinvolved in the re-installation project, the displayis based on a clear storyline which aims to recre-ate the archaeological context of each object. Forthe Egyptian collection, this has resulted in amixture of a chronological and a thematic dis-play.

Six successive periods are each intro-duced by a key-figure who comments on the cul-tural changes in general and on one specificaspect of civilisation in particular. For instance,the Leiden statue of a scribe is flanked by a wall-panel giving the basic facts about the OldKingdom and about the art of writing. The fol-lowing part of the display then shows a selectionof objects dating to the Pyramid Age, and next toit there is a reading room where visitors can findout about hieroglyphs and other scripts.

Similarly, the Middle Kingdom is linked with thetheme of technology, and the Late Period withmummification.

This apprach enables the visitor tounderstand the gradual changes of Egyptian soci-ety, from an introspective culture focussed on thecapital Memphis to an empire comprising vastareas in the Sudan or along the coasts of Asia,and thereby becoming entangled in the politics ofPersia, Macedonia, and Rome. At the same time,the basic characteristics of this culture, such as itsdependence on the river Nile orits peculiar religion, can be pre-sented in an attractive way.Thus, a presentation of objectshas given way to one of themes.

Scale ModelsA prominent part in the newlayout is played by the use offull-scale reconstructions,using original objects placedin a recreated context. For


(RIJKSMUSEUM VAN OUDHEDEN) IN LEIDEN, THE NETHERLANDS

Below: Reconstruction of a liv-ing-room in an ancient

Egyptian house dating to theNew Kingdom.

Above: New presentation ofmummies and coffins dating to

the Late and Graeco-Romanperiods (7th cent. B.C. – 2nd

cent. A.D.

instance, one of the museum’s MiddleKingdom coffins is combined with anumber of tomb statues, servant mod-els, a canopic box, and a number ofpottery vessels to simulate a tomb-chamber of the period with sandy soiland rock-cut walls. Other reconstruc-tions show an Egyptian living-room,a mummification workshop, or ananimal catacomb. Another means to illustrate the origi-nal setting of objects in the collectionis the use of scale models depictingpyramids, temples, tombs, or houses.The architectural and geographicalcontext of the exhibits is likewiseshown by the photographs and mapsof the wall-panels which introduce

each sub-theme of the dis-play.

Finally, a limit-

ed number of audiovisual elements and com-puters helps to break the monotony of the pres-entation. Thus there are moving images of theNile and of the Museum’s excavations atSaqqara, interactive programmes where visi-tors can find out about mummy research ordecipher hieroglyphic texts, and one can listento the autobiographies inscribed on the votivestelae from Abydos. All of this should help tohold the attention of the numerous schoolgroups who visit the museum, or to attract newvisitors who do not have the habit of coming tomuseums.

During the five-year period of prepar-ing this display, we have made a special effortto find out what the public wants by organisingpopulation research, setting up a number ofhighly diverse temporary presentations moni-tored by visitor surveys, and we even prepareda questionnaire based on a set of trial cases.

Left: The seated statue of Queen Hatshepsutconsists of a torso belonging to the Leiden

Museum and a head and lower halfbelonging to the Metropolitan Museum ofArt. The three parts were re-united in1998.

Right: Two legs of a funerary bed of one of the ‘blackpharaohs’ in the shape of sphinxes with nubianheads. These pieces from one of thecemeteries at Napata (8th-4th cent.B.C.) could be acquired in 1999.

Right: Reconstructedhead of Sensaos, agirl who was mum-

mified in 109 A.D.and whose mummy

was scanned in 1997.

Below: Fragment of a statue of Senenmut,favourite official of Queen Hatshepsut (1473-1458B.C.), with the head of her daughter Nofrure. This

fragment could beacquired in 1997.


TRAVEL FEATURE

HERE ARE SOME OF THE TREASURES YOU WILL FIND AT THE NATIONALMUSEUM OF ANTIQUITIES IN LEIDEN

50

Recent AquisitionsOf course, we have not neglected the interestsof our more scientifically-minded guests. Thewell-known treasures of the Leiden Museumsuch as the mastaba chapel, the New Kingdomsculptures from the tombs at Saqqara, or thefabulous collection of mummies and coffinscan again be admired in a new and attractivepresentation.

Even regular visitors to our collectionmarvel at the amount of unknown material inthe new display: recent acquisitions such as thehead of a statue of Hatshepsut’s favouriteSenenmut, the wonderful bed legs from Napata,or the panel of a canopic box showing a Romancitizen between two ancient Egyptian gods;recent restorations such as the statue of QueenHatshepsut rebuilt from fragments belonging tothe Leiden Museum and the MetropolitanMuseum of Art, the monumental bronze Osirisfigures, or the Coptic textiles; unknown materi-

al brought up from the reserves, such as a quar-ry mark from the Meidum pyramid, relief frag-ments from the Labyrinth at Hawara, or findsfrom the Museum’s excavations of a Meroiticvillage; and the results of modern research suchas a model of the tomb of Maya or the recon-structed head of a mummified Romano-Egyptian girl.

Thus the museum is ready to facethe new millennium. Together with an ambi-tious programme of temporary exhibitions,we trust that the new display of the perma-nent collections will boost the annual numberof visitors and ensure the Leiden Museum itsplace in society. For those who want to pre-pare their visit (and for our virtual visitors) itis perhaps good to know you will find themuseum has an attractive website(www.rmo.nl) where full information is givenon its activities.

AE


TRAVEL FEATURE

51

“Even regular

visitors to our

collection marvel at the

amount of unknown

material in

the new display...”

Above: New presentation of New Kingdom sculptures from Saqqara, with the three tomb statues of Maya and his wife Meryt. Mayawas treasurer of King Tutankhamun. (1333-1323 B.C.) His tomb was relocated by an expedition of the Leiden Museum in 1986.

The cartoon-like humour of a surpris-ing amount of Egyptian funerary artmight come as a revelation to a new-comer to Egyptology. Hieroglyphic

inscriptions, fromthe Old Kingdomonwards, are some-times the ancientworld equivalent ofspeech bubbles orcaptions accompa-nying witty illustra-tions. It might notbe much of a conso-lation once you’redead to be surround-ed for eternity byscenes of side-split-ting mirth, but hon-estly, you’d dielaughing and itwould help to takeyour mind off thecost of the funeral.

E g y p t i a nhumour ranges fromthe bucolic to thesophis t ica tedtaking in allpoints inb e t w e e n ,i n c l u d i n gBenny Hill

and blue jokes and, as Carol Andrewsonce pointed out, frequently veerstowards the Viz end of the humour scale.There’s nothing very alternative about it andnor is it by any stretch of the imagination, inmodern parlance, politically correct. In fact itis often brutal with the physically infirm andforeigners taking the brunt of the ‘jokes’. Sex,foreigners, drunkenness, animals, work, boss-es, the ‘class system’, the misfortunes of

others (especially foreigners), the royal family,swearing and bodily functions – yep, it’s allthere in the humour of Ancient Egypt.

Let’s begin with the mild stuff.Houlihan describes a ‘nursery rhyme’ problemin the Rhind mathematical papyrus whichinvolves ‘7 houses, 49 cats, 343 mice, 2401ears of spelt and 16807 hekat of grain’ based onthe progression of 7x7x7x7x7. Does it remindyou of anything? ‘As I was going to St Ives, Imet a man with seven wives; each wife hadseven sacks, each sack had seven cats, each cathad seven kits: kits, cats, sacks and wives –how many going to St Ives?’ The answer is, ofcourse, one. The old ones are the best.

The knowledgeable reader will findmany old ‘chestnuts’ in this book, such as thestory of the roaring hippopotami that woke theDelta king many miles away, the goose that istaking an eternity to roast in the everlastingstone of a tomb and the ‘twenty half-naked sexyyoung women, wearing only see-through fish-net dresses, rowing King Snofru’s pleasureboat’ (nudge nudge, wink wink); a drunkennanny neglects her charges who are running riot(you can’t get the staff).

There will probably be much that isnew, however, such as the use of nicknames andvivid, mocking descriptions, such as ‘Roy,dubbed the firebrand of the granary. He neither

budged nor

WIT AND HUMOUR INANCIENT EGYPT

REVIEWS


REVIEW PANELREVIEW PANELREVIEWS FROM THE ANCIENT EGYPT REVIEW TEAMREVIEWS FROM THE ANCIENT EGYPT REVIEW TEAM

THE REVIEW PANELTHIS ISSUE IS:

Miriam Bibby Angela Dennett Robert Partridge

Right: How the country folk lived:taken from the wall painting in the

tomb chapel of Baket III at BeniHasan.

stirred since his birth.’Attention is spent, rightly, on the

remarkable papyri in which a wealth of animalsplays out the activities and pastimes of humans.Tongue-in-cheek mice get one over on the cats(Tom and Jerry), a donkey lolls in comfortunder a sun canopy on board a boat and amouse-god is carried along in solemn proces-sion by four jackals.

After several thousand years it is stilleasy to see the humour in these scenes andtexts, but there is a darker message; humour, forthe kings of Egypt, was not just a matter ofhaving a giggle at the antics of a court jester(although Houlihan suggests that dwarves, inparticular, performed this function). It was apotent weapon in their constant striving to getover the message of Egyptian superiority, partof the overall armoury of magic, militarystrength and economic control.

The book devotes its final section tothe Turin ‘satirical-erotic’ papyrus, with illus-trations. Racy stuff. Don’t lend it to a maidenaunt. I lent it to mine and didn’t get it back!

MAB

What does an Egyptomaniacread when he or she needs alittle light relief from all thetext books? Chances are it

will be a novel with an Egyptian theme, ofwhich there are not too many. I found this

to be an ideal book for a relaxing read.The Egyptian Woman tells the

story of Nebetiunet (Nebet), an uppermiddle class lady who is a weaver,seamstress and Chantress of Mut aswell as a busy wife and mother.

The book covers a year inNebet’s llifeand takesplace duringthe early

years of thereign of

Ramesses II. She ismarried to Amenose(Ameny) who is secre-tary to the Tjaty. Nebetand Ameny have sixchildren, three girls, twoof whom are married,and three boys. Thereare other family mem-bers including an inter-fering sister-in-law, andvarious servants, provid-ing a good mix of char-acters. The list of namesat the beginning came invery handy for refer-ence.

The bookchronicles the happyand sad days of any fam-ily. We follow the heart-break of Mutemwiya,the eldest daughter who,after two years of mar-riage, has not yet had ababy, and Khaemwesethe youngest son, who isa trainee scribe but is possibly losing his sight.

Each chapter covers a month and sothe seasons are followed with accompanyingfestivals. These are described in great detail andfeel so real that it is easy to imagine sitting onthe riverbank watching the procession go by.

This is beautifully detailed fiction withhundreds of authentic details which have beenvery well-researched. It didn’t occur to me onceto question any statement, as it was all so cred-ible. The story flowed easily and had an endingwhich cried out for a sequel, which one hopeswill follow soon.

AD

REVIEWS


Title: Wit and Humour in Ancient EgyptAuthor: Patrick F HoulihanPublisher: The Rubicon PressISBN 0-948695-69-2Price: £21.95 (Hardback)

THE EGYPTIAN WOMAN

Title: The Egyptian WomanAuthor: Hilary WilsonPublisher: Michael O’MaraISBN 1-85479-800-6Price: £14.99 (Hardback)

Above: Defecating panic-stricken cats, resourcefulyouths and a mouse magistrate? Just the thing to

dip into when Egyptology gets a little too ordinary...

The number of books published onAncient Egyptian subjects never ceas-es to amaze, although sometimes it isdifficult to get hold of some of the bet-

ter titles in bookshops, whose buying depart-ments tend to concentrate on the more popularor sensational titles.

I have just received a copy of one suchbook to review; it is in bookshops and you may,therefore, be tempted to buy it.

The book has an eye-catching cover(always a good idea). The author tells us how

his interest in ancientEgypt was originallyawakened by a friend whohad written a best-sellingbook Flying Saucers HaveLanded. Not the usual wayto come to the subject Imust admit…but I suspectyou can see where thisreview is heading. TheBibliography included atthe back of The SecretHistory is itself interesting,where, surprisingly, MarkLehner’s title TheComplete Pyramids ofEgypt (an excellent book),stands out like a beaconamongst less credibleworks like AtlantisEnigma, Martian Genesisand Giza Power Plant.

I will admit thisbook has been a strugglefor me to read - and those

of you who know even a little about ancientEgypt will understand why.

Information on pyramid measurementsis given in abundance. Even the Egyptians werenot consistent with their own unit of measure-ment, the cubit, so modern measurements andcomparisons can be meaningless. Too manyfacts and figures can be both confusing and dif-ficult to dispute. We are told that a line drawnthough the Great Pyramid will divide the earthinto two hemispheres (I followed that!) com-prising of equal parts of water and land andanother line can divide the land masses of ourplanet into two equal halves. I can’t dispute this,but I would be curious to see this confirmed bycartographers, and see how accurate the resultsactually are.

I became a little more lost and con-fused in the chapters Sonics in the Ancient

World and Electric Egypt. As one picture cap-tion for the Great Pyramid clearly tells us‘…new evidence suggests that it was a powerplant used by the ancient Egyptian to generateelectricity’. The pyramid was designed, appar-ently, to resonate like a tuning fork. The QueensChamber was a hydrogen generator, and thecorbelled niche there was equipped with a cool-ing tower…. I could go on, but I won’t.

It seems that ‘evidence’ is used veryselectively (now there’s a surprise!). The authorcompletely ignores new discoveries such as theworkmen’s village and tombs at Giza, whichmake it abundantly clear from textual evidencethat the inhabitants were involved in buildingthe tomb of the King, not a power plant.

The ‘mystery’ of how the Egyptian cuthard stones such as granite is examined in depthand ignores recent and conclusive practicalarchaeological results by experts such as DenysStocks, in Manchester.

Apparently the ancient Egyptians mayhave made and used helicopters, submarines,airships and aircraft, as shown in some carvingsfrom Abydos. In fact one of the illustrations (ofsome hieroglyphs, well carved, but slightlydamaged) to my untrained eye actually appearsto show Thunderbird 2. But then I expect youall know this already.

I am sorry, but I just cannot take thisbook seriously, and the really worrying thing isthat I suspect that there might actually be somereaders who will happily part with their £16.99and believe every word! Isn’t that a disturbingthought?

RP

REVIEWS PANEL


Title: The Secret History of Ancient EgyptAuthor: Herbie BrennanPublisher: Judy Piatkus (publishers) Ltd.Price: £16.99

THE SECRET HISTORY OFANCIENT EGYPT

Right: Herbie Brennan

The Ancient Egypt & Middle East SocietySecretary: Mrs Sue Kirk2 Seathorne CrescentSkegnessLincolnshire. PE25 IRPTel: 01754 [email protected]

The Ancient World SocietyChairman: Peter Mitchell99 Belmont AvenueSandbachCheshire. CW11 1BTTel: 01270 [email protected]

The Association for the Study ofTravel in Egypt and the Near EastSecretary: Dr Patricia Usick32 Carlton HillLondon. NW8 0JYTel: 0207 328 [email protected]

Durham Ancient Egypt ForumSecretary : Barry Hetherington22 George StreetDarlingtonCo. DurhamTel: 01325 2823326

The Egypt Exploration SocietySecretary: Dr Patricia Spencer3 Doughty MewsLondon. WC1N 2PGTel: 020 7242 [email protected]

The Egypt Exploration Society –Northern BranchSecretary: Prof. Rosalie DavidThe Manchester MuseumThe UniversityOxford RoadManchester. M13 9PLTel: 0161 275 2634

Egypt Society of BristolChairman: Dr Aidan Dodson c/o Department of ArchaeologyUniversity of Bristol43 Woodland RoadBristolTel: 0117 942 1957

The Egyptian Society (UK)Secretary: Maggie CooperBarn CottageNewtownMilborne PortSherborneDorset. DT9 5BJTel: 01963 251638

Egyptology ScotlandSecretary: F A Walker30 Athole GardensGlasgow. G12 9BD

Friends of the Egypt CentreSecretary: Vivienne Saunders6 Eversley RoadSketty Swansea. SA2 9DATel: 01792 208789

The Friends of the Petrie MuseumSecretary: Jan PictonPetrie Museum of EgyptianArchaeologyUniversity College LondonGower StreetLondon. WC1E [email protected]

Institute for the Study of Inter-disciplinary SciencesSecretary: Carole Keats10 the GreenwayEnfieldMiddlesex. EN3 6TJTel: 01992 719788106662,[email protected]

Leicestershire Ancient Egypt SocietySecretary: Mrs June Joyce1 Ashmead CrescentBirstallLeicester. LE4 4GSTel: 0116 267 5615

The Manchester Ancient EgyptSociety (MAES)Secretary: Victor Blunden12 Thornleigh RoadFallowfieldManchester. M14 7RDTel: 0161 225 [email protected]

North East Manchester EgyptSociety (NEMES)Chairman: Alan Fildes65 Kersal RoadPrestwich Manchester. M25 9SNTel: 0161 773 [email protected]

The North East LincolnshireEgyptology AssociationChairman: Steve Johnson109 Sanctuary [email protected]

North Kent Egyptology Society(RAMASES)Secretary: Mrs Anne Lloyd32 St Margaret’s DriveWigmoreGillinghamKent. ME8 0NRTel: 01634 [email protected]

North Yorkshire Ancient Egypt GroupSecretary: Jo Hirons

26 St James StreetWetherbyLeeds. LS22 6RSTel: 01937 [email protected]

The Northampton Ancient EgyptianHistorical SocietySecretary: Revd. Douglas G Catt195 Billing RoadNorthampton. NN1 5RSTel: 01604 627710

The Plymouth and DistrictEgyptology SocietySecretary: Stevie DoidgeUnderhill FarmTutwellStoke ClimslandCallington Cornwall. PL17 8LUTel: 01579 [email protected]

Poynton Egypt GroupSecretary : Liz Sherman7 Craig RoadMacclesfieldCheshire. SK11 7XNTel: 01625 612641Poyntonegypt.fsnet.co.uk

Prestwich Egyptology ClubSecretary: Mrs Florence Sokol27 Willingdon DrivePrestwich Manchester. M25 1PATel: 0161 773 2886

The South Yorkshire EgyptologySociety (Selket)Adam Cadwell37 Windermere CourtNorth AnstonNr Sheffield. S25 4GJTel: 01909 563629

The Society for the Study of Ancient EgyptSecretary: Mrs Rhoda Payton51 Park RoadBoythorpeChesterfieldDerbyshire. S40 2LPTel: 01246 [email protected]

The Southampton Ancient Egypt SocietySecretary: Norman PeaseBrambletyeWhitenap LaneRomsey. SO51 5STTel: 01794 [email protected]

Staffordshire Egyptology SocietySecretary : Mrs Dawn Williams19 Clare Road

Stafford. ST16 1PXTel: 01785 607949

The Sudan Archaeological ResearchSociety Chairman: Derek WelsbyC/o The British MuseumGreat Russell StreetLondon. WC1B 3DG

The Sussex College of EgyptologyEducation Officer: Robert Scott38 Bulkington AvenueWorthingWest Sussex. BN14 7HYTel: 01903 [email protected]

Sussex Egyptology SocietyChairman: Janet WiltonDownsview CottageWappingthorn Farm LaneSteyningSussex. BN44 3AGTel: 01903 [email protected]

Tameside Egypt GroupSecretary : Anne Marie Lancashire152 Victoria StreetNewtonHydeCheshire. SK14 4ASTel : 0161 366 [email protected]

The Thames Valley Ancient Egypt SocietySecretary: Philip Wickens467 Basingstoke RoadReading. RG2 0JGTel: 0118 987 2878

The Three Counties Ancient History Society Secretary: Michael FareyBox Farm HouseBirlinghamNr PershoreWorcs.WR10 3ABTel: 01386 750223

Wessex Ancient Egypt SocietyChairman: Angela Dennett4 Maclean RoadBournemouthDorset. BH11 8EPTel: 01202 [email protected]

The West Cornwall Egyptian SocietySecretary: Su BayfieldTreen CottageZennorSt IvesCornwall. TR26 3DETel: 01736 [email protected]

SOCIETY CONTACTS


SOCIETY CONTACTSThere are Egyptology societies and groups all over the UK (and the world) offering a range of activities to interestedamateurs. A contact list of societies is provided below. Victor Blunden of the long-established and highly successfulManchester Ancient Egypt Society (MAES) is willing to offer advice to any new groups starting out.

13th Ancient World Society. Trip toLondon to visit Museum of Conservancyand John Soames Museum. Contact PeterMitchell, 01270 764540.

13th Birkbeck College, London. DaySchool: Striking an attitude:Inter-personalrelationships in ancient Egypt and Nubia.With Margaret Judd, Dr Bill Manley,Miriam Bibby and Maria Cannata.Contact Lesley Hannigan, 0207 631 6631.

14th Thames Valley Ancient EgyptSociety. Paul Whelan, The New Kingdomto Beginning of the Late Period. First of10 meetings. Contact Philip Wickens,0118 987 2878.

17th Friends of the Egypt Centre,Swansea. Christina Riggs, The Art ofDying in Roman Egypt. Contact SandraHawkins, 01792 553977.

18th Thames Valley Ancient EgyptSociety. Dr Aidan Dodson, EarlyAncient Egypt. Contact Philip Wickens,0118 987 2878.

19th Poynton Egypt Group. PaoloScremin, Photography – Old Kingdom.Contact Liz Sherman, 01625 612641.

20th Ancient Egypt and Middle EastSociety. Caroline Simpson, Subject TBA.Contact Sue Kirk, 01754 765341.

20th Leicestershire Ancient EgyptSociety. Carol Andrews, The AncientEgyptian Sense of Humour. Contact JuneJoyce, 0116 267 5615.

20th Manchester Ancient Egypt Society.Day School. The Amarna Period. ContactVictor Blunden, 0161 225 0879.

20th – 21st Seven Wonders Travel inconjunction with The BloomsburyAcademy and Bloomsbury Theatrehosts The 3rd Annual Egypt RevealedSymposium: Reports from the Field 2001.Speakers include Dr Zahi Hawass, DrMark Lehner, Dr Kent Weeks and DrSalima Ikram. Contact the Director, TheBloomsbury Academy, Department ofHistory, University College London,Gower Street, London, WC1E 6BT.23rd The Egyptian Society of SouthAfrica. Fr. Roderick Walsh, A Journeythrough Coptic Egypt. Contact KeithGrenville, [email protected]

27th Thames Valley Ancient EgyptSociety. Study Day: Sand & Chiffon:Hollywood’s Vision of Ancient Egypt.Contact Philip Wickens, 0118 987 2878.

27th Sussex Egyptology Society. JanPicton, Who were the Sea Peoples?Contact Janet Wilton, 01903 813203.

31st North Yorkshire Ancient EgyptGroup. Adam Cadwell, Ushabtis. ContactAnne Murray, 01423 861604.

3rd Wessex Ancient Egypt Society. JohnDavis, Who was the Pharaoh of theExodus? Contact Angela Dennett, 01202241973.

5th Tameside Egypt Group. KenDowns, Ramesses III. Contact KenDowns, 0161 367 7703

7th Ancient World Society. The Templesof Karnak and Luxor. Contact PeterMitchell, 01270 764540.

12th Manchester Ancient Egypt Society.Patricia Winker, The History andCollection of the Institute of Archaeology,Liverpool. Contact Victor Blunden, 0161225 0879.

14th Bristol Museum. Dr JeffreySpencer, Preparing for immortality: theancient Egyptian attitude to death.Contact Bristol Magpies via Bristol CityMuseum and Art Gallery, 0117 922 3571.

17th Leicestershire Ancient EgyptSociety. Peter Phillips, The Columns ofEgypt. Contact June Joyce, 0116 267 5615.

17th Thames Valley Ancient EgyptSociety. Tba. Contact Philip Wickens,0118 987 2878.

20th Egypt Society of Bristol. FionaSimpson, Libyans in Ancient Egypt.Contact Dr Aidan Dodson, 0117 942 1957.

21st Three Counties Ancient HistorySociety. Tba. Contact Michael Farey,01386 750223.

23rd Poynton Egypt Group. JudithCorbelli, Alexandria the City. Contact LizSherman, 01625 612641.

24th Sussex Egyptology Society. DrPenny Wilson, Hidden Secrets and LostCities: The Rediscovery of Sais. Christmasparty follows. Contact Janet Wilton,01903 813203.

27th The Egyptian Society of SouthAfrica. AGM followed by EgyptianAuction Sale. Contact Keith Grenville,[email protected]

28th North Yorkshire Ancient EgyptGroup. Dr Penny Wilson, The AmarnaIconoclasts. Contact Anne Murray,01423 861604.

1st Egyptology Scotland. Dr AidanDodson, Shelters for Eternity; AncientEgyptian Coffins and Sarcophagi.Contact the membership secretary, F AWalker, Egyptology Scotland, 30 AtholeGardens, Glasgow, G12 9BD.

1st Thames Valley Ancient EgyptSociety. Quiz and social. Contact PhilipWickens, 0118 987 2878.

1st Wessex Ancient Egypt Society. DrAlix Wilkinson, The Garden in AncientEgypt. Contact Angela Dennett, 01202241973.

3rd Tameside Egypt Group. Christmasmeeting, with talk by Alan Fildes. ContactKen Downs, 0161 367 7703

5th Ancient World Society. PharaohTutankhamun. Contact Peter Mitchell,01270 764540.

5th Friends of the Egypt Centre,Swansea. Peter Reason, Art in theRamesside Period. Contact SandraHawkins, 01792 553977.

8th Ancient Egypt and Middle EastSociety. Christmas Lectures & Dinnerwith lecture by Lucia Gahlin. Contact SueKirk, 01754 765341.

10th Manchester Ancient Egypt Society.Khalid Daoud, Liverpool Excavations atSaqqara: the Kairer Mastaba. ContactVictor Blunden, 0161 225 0879.

11th Egypt Society of Bristol. DavidSingleton, An Investigation of Two 21st

EVENTS DIARY


OCTOBER

NOVEMBER

DECEMBER

Dynasty Painted Coffin Lids (BM EA24792 & EA35287) for Evidence ofMaterials and Workshop Practices.Contact Dr Aidan Dodson, 0117 942 1957.

13th Three Counties Ancient HistorySociety. Lecture and Christmas social.Contact Michael Farey, 01386 750223.

15th Leicestershire Ancient EgyptSociety. AGM & Christmas Social.Contact June Joyce, 0116 267 5615.

17th – 18th University of Birmingham,Department of Ancient History andArchaeology.. Current Research inEgyptology III symposium for graduatesin the British Isles. Contact NinaWahlberg, Rachel Ives, Roberto Gozzoli orDan Lines on [email protected] orwrite to Current Research in EgyptologyIII, Department of Ancient History andArchaeology, University of Birmingham,Birmingham B15 2TT.

5th Wessex Ancient Egypt Society. Prof.Joan Rees, Amelia Edwards: Egyptologistand Novelist. Contact Angela Dennett,01202 241973.

9th Ancient World Society. Abu Simbel.Contact Peter Phillips, 01270 764540.

15th Egypt Society of Bristol. SerenaLove, Memphis: Searching for the OldKingdom Capital. Contact Dr AidanDodson, 0117 942 1957.

18th Poynton Egypt Group. George Hart,Ancient Egypt and the Greek World.Contact Liz Sherman, 01625 612641.

19th Leicestershire Ancient EgyptSociety. Caroline Simpson, Robert Hay’sPanoramas of Thebes/Qurna. ContactJune Joyce, 0116 267 5615.

21st University of Bristol. AmeliaEdwards Lecture. Dr Penny Wilson, TheAncient, the Old and the Imported: recentwork at Sais. Contact University ofBristol, 0117 928 9000.

26th Sussex Egyptology Society. JulieHankey, Arthur Weigall: the Amazing Lifeof My Grandfather. Contact Janet Wilton,01903 813203.

30th North Yorkshire Ancient EgyptGroup. Anne Murray, The Valley of theGolden Mummies. Contact Anne Murray,01423 861604.


JANUARY 2002

Please Note

It is always advisable to check with theshow organisers before attending anevent in case some of the details havebeen changed prior to publication. Ifyou wish to add an event to the AncientEgypt Events Diary please contact theEditor, Miriam Bibby at:

Ancient Egypt Events Diary70 High Street

Langholm Dumfriesshire

DG13 0JH

Tel: 013873 81712 or0879 167 4421

Email: [email protected]

EXHIBITIONS:

Now extended until January 2002.The Burrell Collection in Glasgow, PollokCountry Park, Pollokshaws, Glasgow Tel: +44(0) 141 287 2550 Ancient Egypt: Digging forDreams An interactive exhibition featuringexhibits from the Petrie Museum.

23 November 2001 until 24 February 2002The Brooklyn Museum of Art, New York, USA.Web site: www.brooklynart.org EternalEgypt: Masterworks of Ancient Art fromthe British Museum. An opportunity to viewmore than 140 masterpieces from the BM'sextensive collection of Egyptian art.

8 November 2001 until 24 March 2002The British Museum, London, UK. Tel: +44(0)20 7323 8000. Agatha Christie andArchaeology:Mystery in Mesopotamia.An exhibition celebrating mystery writerAgatha Christie's contribution to archaeology.Includes costumes from Death on the Nile andother Egyptian artefacts.

EVENTS DIARYEVENTS DIARY

Deadline for submissionAll events entries should be received onemonth prior to publication for inclusionin the next issue

NETFISHINGNETFISHINGANCIENT EGYPT EXPLORES THE WORLD WIDE WEB...ANCIENT EGYPT EXPLORES THE WORLD WIDE WEB...

Last issue you were promised moreabout the gods and goddesses ofancient Egypt. A quick search usingone of the best engines available -

Google - brought in quick results of over17,000 pages. There are numerous summariesand lists of the deities of Egypt, provided byboth amateur Egyptologists and academicinstitutions. It’s worth having a look at a num-ber of these since they tend to take slightlydifferent approaches and often providediverse information on the same deity. Onegeneral grumble that comes from surfing isthat few sites provide follow-up references.

Museum sites are often a good startingpoint and this proved to be the case with theRoyal Ontario Museum (ROM) onwww.rom.on.ca/egypt/case/about/gods.htmlThis has a brief but useful introduction to con-cepts behind divinities in Egypt as well as aquite concise and detailed list. The descriptionsof the divinities are well-written with insightand sensitivity. With regard to Hathor in cowform, for example: ‘A herd of cattle was a

beautiful sight because it repre-sented wealth in the form of

food, milk, hides and work,as oxen pulled the ploughsof farmers. Cattle dungwas a valuable fertiliserand had many uses inbuilding. The Egyptiansadmired many qualities in

cows, besides theireconomic benefits.The cow’s carefultending of her calfwas a model for

motherhood.’The Metropolitan Museum in New

York also provides excellent pages on thedeities, with good links and it’s easy to flowaround the Museum's site. This can be foundon www.metmuseum.org/explore/newegypt/htm/ls_gods.htm

Other general sites with listings ofEgyptian deities include www.contrib

.andrew.cmu.edu/~shawn/egypt/gods.html andwww.osirisweb.com/egypt/diector.htm and it’salways worth checking the comprehensivehistory, culture and religion pages onwww.touregypt.net

One thing to watch for is that a num-ber of the personal sites have an eclecticapproach to religion, happily mixing main-stream Egyptological approaches with refer-ences to lesser Egyptological lights (althoughnotorious in other fields) such as AleisterCrowley. One such site (www.tir.com/~laneta/kristi2.html), for instance, refers to the deityHeru-ra-ha as ‘a composite deity in Crowley'squasi-Egyptian mythology, composed of Ra-Hoor-Khuit and Hoor-per-Kraat. Apparentlywithout basis in historical Egyptian mytholo-gy, but the name translated into Egyptian,means something approximating “Horus andRe be praised”.’

‘What is a fruity pharaoh?’ was the dis-tracting question posed by a Chihuahua inNemes headdress at www.neferchichi.com/index.html Fortunately, the site also gave aquotable response: ‘That depends on who youask. To the kids, a fruity pharaoh is a recently-deceased king that has been properly mummifiedto ensure an eternal afterlife. To people with lessactive imaginations, it's a potato-headed orangethat has been preserved by drying.’

To discover how to makeyour own fruity pharaoh, should yoube so inclined, visit the site. Youwill need a potato, orange, plasticbox and various other implements(here's one I prepared earlier). And avivid imagination. The site alsooffers quite a lot of informationon the deities of Egyptincluding a range of clip-artespecially suitable forschool students. Plusyour opportunity tobuy 18 flexible rubbermagnets to decorate yourappliances.

HAPY

Don’t forget to log on to Ancient Egypt magazine’s own website at: www.ancientegyptmagazine.com

Be your own Anubis,mummify an apple, ormaybe an orange. Goon, you know you want

to...



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