miércoles, 31 de diciembre de 2014

Pectoral showing the inscribed underside of a scarab on a sacred barque

Fragment of a pectoral showing the inscribed underside of a scarab on a sacred barque. Country of Origin: Egypt. Culture: Ancient Egyptian. Date/Period: New Kingdom. Place of Origin: 18th dynasty. Material Size: faience. Credit Line: Werner Forman Archive/Christie's, London . Location: 42.

Roman pottery

Selection of Roman pottery found in Britain, Romano-British and imported. 1st to 4th centuries AD. British Museum, London

Kenna

A vignette from the Book of the Dead of Kenna. The dead man kneels before Osiris. Country of Origin: Egypt. Culture: Ancient Egyptian. Date/Period: 19th dynasty/1295-1186BC. Material Size: Painting on papyrus. Credit Line: Werner Forman Archive/ Nederlandsches Museum van Oudheden te Leyden. Location: 131.

dish

Dish. Country of Origin: Egypt. Culture: Ancient Egyptian. Material Size: ceramic. Credit Line: Werner Forman Archive. Location: 36.

container for eyepaint

Lidded container for eyepaint. Recent analysis of its residual contents have helped demonstrate the sophistication of ancient Egyptian chemistry. Country of Origin: Egypt. Culture: Ancient Egyptian. Date/Period: 19th dynasty, c. 1200 BC. Place of Origin: Deir el-Medina. Material Size: limestone, h = 5.8 cm. Credit Line: Werner Forman Archive/ Musee du Louvre, Paris . Location: 38.

martes, 23 de diciembre de 2014

Quarcite statue of Osorkon


Quarcite statue of Osorkon
From Karnak, Egypt
22nd Dynasty, about 920 BC
Dedicated by Sheshonq, Osorkon's son
...
Hapy, the personification of the River Nile, is frequently shown in human form with a sagging paunchy stomach and heavy breasts. This mixture of male and female characteristics is intended to signify fertility and the richness of the natural world. To reinforce this, the abundance that the Nile brings is displayed by the offering table which the god holds, with its overflowing mass of the produce of Egypt.
Statues such as this have much in common with the 'fecundity figures' placed in rows at the bottom of temple walls; these are intended to represent the fertility and productiveness of the ground on which the temple stands.
The texts on this statue name King Osorkon I (about 924-889 BC) and it is presumably his features that are represented. The small figures on the side and associated texts indicate that the statue was dedicated by Sheshonq, Osorkon's son. Portraits of kings of the Twenty-second Dynasty are very rare, and it would appear that this statue is made to look very like statues of the later Eighteenth Dynasty, perhaps in a conscious attempt to recapture the spirit of the reigns of Thutmose IV and Amenhotep III.
T.G.H. James and W.V. Davies, Egyptian sculpture (London, The British Museum Press, 1983



http://www.britishmuseum.org/explore/highlights/highlight_objects/aes/q/quartzite_statue_of_osorkon.aspx

lunes, 22 de diciembre de 2014

Tomb of Menna

Detail of Papyrus, with a cat stealing the eggs of the water birds. From the Tomb of Menna, painted plaster, first half of the 14th century BC, Thebes

Nile


Sixth Cataract
Henry RIDER HAGGARD (* 1856 , † 14 May 1925) 6th cataract of Nile, 1908.






 Fourth Cataract




 The festival of the Nile as depicted in Norden's Voyage d'Egypte et de Nubie
 Frederic Louis Norden (1708-1742) - This image comes from the Bibliotheca Alexandrina's Memory of Modern Egypt Digital Archive. Click here to view its thumbnail. Its description page can be located in the archive by copying the Arabic-language description above and pasting it into the search box situated in the upper-left corner of this page. This tag does not indicate the copyright status of the attached work




Sundown and the flooded valley near Cairo

Mentuhotep II

Mentuhotep II's cartouche on the Abydos king list.
Head statue of Mentuhotep II originally in Thebes, now on display in the Museo Gregoriano Egiziano, Vatican

Mentuhotep II

Cross-section of Mentuhotep II mortuary temple by E. Naville
Reconstruction of Mentuhotep II's mortuary temple by Édouard Naville. The presence of a pyramid is debated.


Corridor leading to Mentuhotep II's tomb
 Edouard Naville (1844-1926) - Edouard Naville, The XIth Dynasty Temple at Deir el-Bahari, Part 2, Pl. VII b




Outer coffin of Nes-paut-tawy


Outer coffin of Nes-paut-tawy
This outer coffin belongs to a coffin set consisting of a mummy board, an inner and an outer coffin (ÄOS 6261-3), which were found in the Deir el-Bahari cachette. The wood is covered with linen and smoothed on the outside with plaster. Parts of the figures and the sun discs have been modelled in plaster. The paintwork is in the style of the 21st Dynasty and is varnished. The wab-priest Nes-paut-tawy is holding an Isis-knot and a djed-pillar in his hands. Some of the plaster on the wig, the body and the feet has flaked off. This priest was also the owner of a papyrus and some shabtis.
KUNSTHISTORISCHES MUSEUM

globalegyptianmuseum

cofin for a snake

Coffin for a snake. A snake, coiled in a figure of eight, is sitting on a rectangular box, which has a suspension loop on the front at the right and another on the back at the left.KUNSTHISTORISCHES MUSEUM

globalegyptianmuseum

Gebel Barkal

Templo de Amon en Gebel Barkal

domingo, 21 de diciembre de 2014

Sickle made of flint

Sickle made of flint, Egypt, Naqada period, end of the fourth millennium BC, Dagon Museum, Haifa

Naqada I bone figure with lapis lazuli inlays. British Museum

Naqada I bone figure with lapis lazuli inlays. British Museum

Figurilla de la cultura Naqada, Museo del Louvre.

Figurilla de la cultura Naqada, Museo del Louvre.

Cylinder Seal with Winged Genius and Human-headed Bulls

Cylinder Seal with Winged Genius and Human-headed Bulls
Neo-Assyrian period (c. 1000–612 B.C.)
c. 700 B.C.
Blue Chalcedony
H. 1 9/16 in. (4 cm); Diam. 7/8 in. (2.2 cm)
AP 2001.04
This seal shows an Assyrian winged genius between rampant, winged, human-headed bulls. All wear the horned headdress of deities and supernatural beings, and have long curled hair and beards. These semi-divine beings frequently appear on bas-reliefs (like those in the Kimbell's collection), and elsewhere in Assyrian art, especially in connection with the king. A deer is shown at a smaller scale in the space below the inscription. This text, in Assyrian cuneiform states: "Belonging to Nabu-apla-iddin, son of Bel-shuma-ibni . . . "
Kimbel art Museum
https://www.kimbellart.org/collection-object/cyl

Portrait Statue of Pharaoh Amenhotep II

Portrait Statue of Pharaoh Amenhotep II
Dynasty 18, c. 1427–1400 B.C., and Dynasty 19, c. 1279–1213 B.C.
c. 1400 B.C., recarved for Ramesses II (the Great) c. 1250 B.C.
Red granite
40 1/2 x 18 x 15 in. (102.8 x 45.7 x 38.1 cm)
AP 1982.04
This regal figure of Amenhotep II shows him holding the traditional insignia of kingship against his chest—the scepter in the form of a crook in his left hand and the flail or whip in his right. He wears Upper (i.e., southern) Egypt’s distinctive crown, embellished by the uraeus cryptogram, or royal cobra, and a broad collar composed of five bands. His body is enveloped in the jubilee robe—worn by kings at festivals, particularly the Sed-festival—in which he was physically and spiritually rejuvenated. Usually the Sed-festival was observed after a reign of thirty years. Since most pharaohs never reached their thirtieth year, however, some celebrated it prematurely, including Amenhotep II. The sculpture was originally part of a larger figure seated on a throne, which was excavated in 1896 at the Temple of Mut at South Karnak. Fragments of the throne that are now lost bore inscriptions of Ramesses II (“the Great”), who lived more than a century after Amenhotep II. Ramesses usurped this and many other sculptures of his predecessors and converted them into images of himself. In this case Amenhotep’s eyebrows were erased and his eyes, nose, and mouth slightly reshaped to make them resemble those of Ramesses.
 
Kimbell art museum
 https://www.kimbellart.org/collection-object/portrait-statue-pharaoh-amenhotep-ii

Floral wreath

Floral wreath placed on a mummified body of the Ptolemaic or Roman Periods, third century BC to third century AD. This was retrieved by the excavators of the cemetery at Sidmant, near Ihnasiya, the town site of ancient Henennesut (in Greek named as Heracleopolis). The range of flowers and their symbolism changed substantially in these later periods of Egyptian history, as a result of the greater contacts with India to the east and Europe to the north-west.NATIONAL MUSEUM OF IRELAND
From the division of finds excavated by the Egypt Exploration Fund in Sidmant. Given to the museum in 1910.


globalegyptianmuseum

Kom Ombo

Relief from birth-house at Kom Ombo. Top register: Evergetes II and two gods in a boat pass through a papyrus thicket swarming with birds. They are watched ithyphallic Min-Amun-Re. Lower register: Figures representing different regions bearing local produce. Country of Origin: Egypt. Culture: Ancient Egyptian. Date/Period: Ptolemaic period c.140 AD. Place of Origin: Kom Ombo. Credit Line: Werner Forman Archive/ . Location: 77.

jueves, 18 de diciembre de 2014

KAGEMNI Mastaba

In front of him appears a small boat, also of papyrus, which transports three men dressed in a narrow belt and a flap of material allowing freedom of movement, which normally acts as a loincloth to cover their sex and save embarressment . The one of the rear, squatting on his heels, directs the frail craft. The one of the middle throws a line with several fishhooks (several different species of fi...sh can be seen approaching). At the front, a character obviously makes a considerable effort to raise a heavy hooped net of fish. His minimal loincloth is raised around his shoulders. Among the represented species are: carp, mulet, mormyridae (elephant fish), catfish, synodontes, tilapia .... These Nile perch (which are nowadays still found at our fishmongers) are also perfectly identifiable; there are also eels.
KAGEMNI Mastaba
 
osirisnet.net

Bowl

Bowl from Faras painted with a long-eared face. Country of Origin: Sudan. Culture: Nubian. Period/ Date: c. 100 BC - 100 AD. Place of Origin: Faras region, Meroe. Material/Size: Ceramic. Credit Line: Werner Forman Archive/ Sudan Archaeological Museum, Khartoum. Location: 138. DISH

miércoles, 17 de diciembre de 2014

Gaming board and pieces for the games of ''twenty squares'' and senet

Gaming board and pieces for the games of ''twenty squares'' and senet. In the New Kingdom the fate of the deceased in the afterlife was affected by success in playing senet with underworld opponents. The Text on the box records it was owned by the scribe Kha and asks blessings of Thoth and Ptah upon him. Country of Origin: Egypt. Culture: Ancient Egyptian. Date/Period: New Kingdom, XIXth Dynasty. Place of Origin: Saqqara 1294-1279 BC. Material Size: Wood l = 28 cm. Credit Line: Werner Forman Archive/ Egyptian Museum, Cairo . Location: 41.

linen ball from Grave 518 at Tarkhan,

Curator's Choice: Sue Giles, the Curator of Ethnography at Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery, on a linen ball from Grave 518 at Tarkhan, Egypt...

Out of the 10,000 odd objects in our Egyptology collection, when asked for a favourite I always come back to this bit of rag. I feel it connects with ancient Egypt far more than a granite statue, a mummified cat or a painted coffin.

This is nothing more than a linen rag, maybe torn from an old bed sheet or a worn-out tunic, rolled into a ball and tied into shape with a bit of string.

But it was a loved toy for some child, so much so that someone put it into the grave when the child died about 4,500 years ago.

It was the practice to put food, personal belongings and household goods with the dead, for their use in the afterlife.

The excavation report tells us nothing about the child buried in the grave, although the papers of the British School of Archaeology should have notes on their excavations of 1912 – research for a future date.

He or she was also buried with clay pots and a stone bowl, to ensure food and drink in the next world.  But the parents added their ball, so they could play in the afterlife.

Many children in ancient Egypt died young. Parents tried amulets and magical spells to protect their children, but death came frequently despite this protection.

There are carved and painted images on tomb walls of children playing ball games.  It is usually girls shown playing ball, so we might assume that our dead child was a girl.

She might have juggled with two or three balls, or played catch games with her friends.

Whenever I hold the ball in my hand, or look at it on display, I feel a real link with ancient Egypt. That ball was a toy for a child, was played with, was handled and thrown around by the child and her friends.

It wasn’t made especially for burial, or for show.  It was made to be enjoyed.

I can admire the great stone carvings and the painted coffins, with all that they tell us about ancient Egypt and the customs and beliefs of the people.

But I always feel more connected through the smaller objects: the worn mallet that was used by a stone mason or carpenter; the tunic woven and worn by someone; the flowers placed on the coffin; or the toys played with by children, first in life and then, as grave goods, for all eternity."

  • Pharaoh: King of Egypt is at Bristol City Museum and Art Gallery from March 16 – July 21 2013.
  •  
  •  
  •  http://www.culture24.org.uk/history-and-heritage/archaeology/art421468

This relief depicts incense and myrrh trees obtained by Hatshepsut's expedition to Punt



martes, 16 de diciembre de 2014

Nilometro

nilómeto de Elefantina


... cuando el ascenso alcanzaba doce codos, hay hambre; en trece hay escasez; catorce trae alegría; quince seguridad y dieciséis abundancia gozo o placer.
Plinio el Viejo


Ahora el Nilo, cuando se desborda, inunda no sólo el Delta, sino también porciones del país a ambos lado de su curso que se piensa que pertenecen a Libia y Arabia y que en algunos lugares se encuentran a dos días de viaje de sus orillas.
 

Large vase

EL-`AMARNA/AKHETATEN
18TH DYNASTY
 KUNSTHISTORISCHES MUSEUM
This  vase has a rounded body and a pointed base. The short neck ends in a thick rolled rim. The neck and shoulder are decorated with blue stripes. Underneath, graceful dark red flowers have been painted opposite each other. The popular painted floral motifs on vessels of the late New Kingdom are a reference to festivities when vessels were decorated with real garlands of petals and flowers. This applies in particular to jars used for wine and beer.

  EL-`AMARNA/AKHETATEN
18TH DYNASTY
 KUNSTHISTORISCHES MUSEUM

globalegyptianmuseum

Temple of Temple of Amenhotep III at El Kab



"Nemset"-vase

"Nemset"-vase
This blue-coloured vase has a very specific form: It is part of the type of receptacle designated by the term "nemset"-vase. One used it to carry out water libations.
NEW KINGDOM
KMKG - MRAH [07/003]

globalegyptianmuseum

Fragment of terracotta vase with pink surface

Fragment of terracotta vase with pink surface
 This fragment of a terracotta vase shows an enclosure  in which stands the falcon-god Horus above a rectangle, which represents the royal palace and which contains the name (said of Horus) of Semerkhet,  penultimate king of the 1st Dynasty.
KMKG - MRAH [07/003]
globalegyptianmuseum

domingo, 14 de diciembre de 2014

Mummy label

From the 2nd century of our era, the Egyptians produced documents of wood called "mummy labels". They contain short religious formulae mentioning the name, filiation, occupation, age and the date of death of the deceased. This piece in the shape of a sign was intended to be fixed to the mummy of Menouthos, son of Harpalos. The Museum owns a second "label" belonging to the brother of Menouthos (A.1973).

 GRAECO-ROMAN PERIOD:  ROMAN PERIOD


KMKG - MRAH [07/003]+++globalegyptianmuseum

sábado, 13 de diciembre de 2014

mummy label

The mummy label is an emblematic funerary object from the Roman era in Egypt. Attached to the mummy, it was the deceased's identification and passport to eternity. A portrait of the deceased, with an epitaph in Greek, was depicted on one side, while a standard prayer formula in demotic script graced the other.

A Portrait of the Deceased

This exceptionally large label is rectangular in shape and slightly curved on the side. It has a hole in it, through which a linen tie was threaded to attach it to the mummy.
The reverse side has a frontal view of the deceased, and the small curved side reproduces the upper rounded section of a stele. The deceased is wearing a red tunic adorned with two dark bands, and the sleeves are trimmed with a braid of the same color. She is wearing shoes on her splayed feet. Her thin neck supports an enormous head, which is disproportionately large for the body. Two immense eyes fill the triangular face; the thick eyebrows meet above the bridge of the broad nose, which joins the tiny mouth. Three bead pendants hang from her ears. Black lines arranged around her curly hair form a schematic design of an Osiris crown of justification. To the right of the deceased is an altar of horns for incense offerings. Below is an inscription in Greek: "Artemis, daughter of Anaraus, whose mother is Tronchonminis, lived to the age of twenty-one years."
A Roman tabula-ansata-type label is drawn on the front side, while the unused space has been hatched with lines. This imitation label carries a formula in demotic script reading: "May her soul live with Osiris Sokaris, the great god, master of the West, Tamin, daughter of Anarau, whose mother is Tronchonmin, dead in her twenty-first year. May her soul live forever."

Keeping Identity after Death

The imagery on the reverse side was inspired by Ptolemaic funerary steles. Yet the deceased here, shown in a frontal pose, suggests the idea of renaissance and awakening. The importance given to the face, especially the oversized eyes, means that the preservation of the head, linked to that of the name, was of primordial concern, as they reflected her identity and her individuality.
The simultaneous use of Greek and demotic script can be explained by the fact that Greek became the official language once the Ptolemaic kings took power. Yet the Egyptians continued to speak and write their own language, known as "popular" demotic, which developed in the late sixth century BC. It was to die out only in the early fifth century AD.
The use of the wooden label as a means of identification dates from the New Kingdom. During the Roman period, the mummy label was well suited to the mass burials, density and stacking of bodies that characterized the funerary practices of the time.

A Label-Stele

This miniature portable stele was a less expensive replacement for the cumbersome stone monument. The short prayer formula was equally efficient and functioned as a Book for the Coming Forth by Day or the Second Book of Breathing. Given that the priority was to perpetuate the name of the deceased, the majority of the labels were written simply.
This funerary object probably came from one of the necropolises situated on the western bank of the Nile in the region of Akhmim, formerly Panopolis, in Upper Egypt.

Bibliography

M.-F. Aubert, R. Cortopassi, catalogue de l'exposition Portraits de l'Egypte romaine, Paris, musée du Louvre, 5 octobre 1998-4 janvier 1999, Paris, 1998, n 13 ;

W. Seipel, catalogue de l'exposition Ägypten, Götter, Gräber und die Kunst - 4000 Jahre Jenseitsglaube, Linz, O.Ö. Landesmuseum, 9 avril-28 septembre 1989, n 512 :

Catalogue de l'exposition Egyptes...L'égyptien et le copte, Lattes, Musée archéologique Henri Prades, 1999, n 14 ;
http://www.louvre.fr/en/oeuvre-notices/mummy-label

Sarcophagus of Nehy

Sarcophagus of Nehy, viceroy og Kush under Thutmoses III, in the Egyptian New Kingdom; Berlin

viernes, 12 de diciembre de 2014

Statue of a Man

Statue of a Man
Each morning in the temple, the pharaoh, or a priest playing the role of pharaoh, cared for the image of a god in order to protect it from the forces of chaos and assist the god’s daily rebirth. Temple Statue of Pawerem holds a shrine containing an image of the goddess Bastet, while Kneeling Statue of a Man holds a seated figure of Osiris, the god of the dead. Such statues (called naophoros, or “shrine-bearing”) link their owners to the daily temple ritual and associate them permanently with the divine cycle of death and rebirth.
This text refers to these objects: ' 70.88; 37.36E
  • Medium: Stone
  • Place Made: Egypt
  • Dates: 664 B.C.E. or later
  • Dynasty: XXVI Dynasty
  • Period: Late Period
  • Dimensions: 11 15/16 x 3 9/16 x 7 1/16 in. (30.4 x 9 x 18 cm)  (show scale)
  • British Museum
 http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/3791/Statue_of_a_Man#

Stela of Irethoreru


Stela of Irethoreru
Beneath the wings of Horus the Behdetite, a manifestation of the solar god often found on stelae, or commemorative tablets, Irethoreru, at the right, makes an offering to the god of the underworld, Osiris, and his wife, Isis. The different shades of the stone have been successfully exploited for aesthetic purposes. Though the style of the representations is drawn from earlier periods, textual details suggest a Twenty-fifth Dynasty date.
 http://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/3229/Stela_of_Irethoreru/image/16060/image#

Relief on a fallen obelisk at Karnak

Relief on a fallen obelisk at Karnak. Queen Hatshepsut, dressed in the costume of a Pharaoh and depicted as a man, is crowned by the god Amun. Amun and the hieroglyphs denoting his name were defaced during the reign of Akhenaton and restored later Country of Origin: Egypt Culture: Ancient Egyptian. Date/Period: New Kingdom, 18th Dynasty c.1465BC. Place of Origin: Karnak. Material Size: Red Granite. Credit Line: Werner Forman Archive/ . Location: 76.

coffin Sepi

Rectangular outer coffin of general Sepi. At the top panel the name and rank of Sepi are recorded. Under it is a frieze of objects and under that spells concerning the mythical roads of Mehen, nine elliptical roads which the deceased had to go through to approach the sun god Ra, who is unusually seen facing the viewer. Country of Origin: Egypt. Culture: Ancient Egyptian. Date/Period: Middle Kingdom,12th Dynasty c.1900BC. Place of Origin: Bersha, Khemenu cemetery. Material Size: Wood 70x65cm. Credit Line: Werner Forman Archive/ Egyptian Museum, Cairo . Location: 39.

Turin papyrus

Fragments of Turin papyrus - an ancient Egyptian mining map (left half) for Ramesses IV's quarrying expedition, 12th century BC (New Kingdom)