Holy Was The Birth in The Holy Egypt

Of course, every holy book and religious ritual teaches that giving birth and having offspring is a highly important human act on this earth. No wonder, then, that it would go in the same way in ancient Egypt.

Most ancient Egyptian women laboured and delivered their babies on the cool roof of the house or in an arbour or confinement pavilion, a structure of papyrus-stalk columns decorated with vines.

In the Yogi method, the best way to bear a child is in the water! I believe if we let the newborn child into the water immediately, they would feel happy and free and could more easily grasp their changing world perception.

Childbirth scene, Kom Ombo Temple, partial relief
Photo by G. Blanchard (2006)
via Visualizing Birth

The standard childbirth practice in ancient Egypt has long been known from papyrus texts. It looked more natural as the woman delivered her baby while squatting on two large bricks, each colourfully decorated with scenes to invoke the magic of gods for the health and happiness of mother and child.

Let’s read this interesting report by the brilliant Marie Grillot about an enchanting find and the story of constant upspring in Old Egypt!

On this ostracon, a maternity scene more than 3000 years old…

via égyptophile

Figured ostracon representing a mother breastfeeding her child and her servant – limestone – 19th – 20th dynasty – from Deir el-Medineh
Department of Egyptian Antiquities of the Louvre Museum – E 25333 (previously at the Fouad I Agricultural Museum in Cairo
then in the collection of Moïse Lévy de Benzion, then in that of Robert Streitz, who donated it to the Parisian Museum in 1952)
photo © 2002 Louvre Museum / Georges Poncet

Several figured ostraca* from Deir el-Medineh illustrate this extraordinary, touching moment of motherhood, more precisely of the mother breastfeeding her newborn. The gesture, the tenderness, and the concentrated attention paid to the nurturing function remain immutable across the centuries.

This scene, dating from the 19th – 20th dynasty, is reproduced on a piece of limestone 15 cm high and 11.7 cm wide. The three characters are drawn in red ocher while their complexion is painted in yellow ocher and their hair in black.

It takes place in a beautiful plant setting, under a canopy, supported by columns (only one is visible on the right, the left part being lacunar), covered with lanceolate leaves of bindweed or convolvulus. “The leaves of bindweed have a symbolic meaning with a sexual connotation: they are often present in scenes relating to love and the renewal of life”, explains Anne-Mimault-Gout (“Les artistes de Pharaon”).

Emma Brunner-Traut calls this kiosk “the birthing arbour” and thinks “that it was a temporary building, raised in the open air for the moment of childbirth and that the mother remained there for 14 days until her purification”…

This birth pavilion sheltered the difficult hours of suffering inherent in childbirth, just as it witnessed the intense emotion linked to the miracle of giving life… Its aim was also, most certainly, to benefit the young, give birth calmly, rest and protect her, as well as the child, from potential external risks or dangers. In “Carnets de Pierre”, Anne-Mimault Gout evokes the interesting idea that: “These pavilions were perhaps the ancestors of the mammisis of the Greco-Roman temples, the birth chapels”.

Sitting on a curved stool equipped with a comfortable cushion, the mother is shown, turned to the right and naked, adorned only with a large necklace. Her body, leaning forward, seems to envelop and protect the infant she is breastfeeding. Unfortunately, the time has partly tarnished and erased its representation…

Her undone, untamed hairstyle —typical of that of women giving birth in ancient Egypt—attracts the eye. The hair raised in a totally anarchic manner on the head probably reflects the fact that during these extraordinary days, all the attention was focused on the child, to the detriment of the care given to his physical appearance…

As if to remind her that her new role as the mother should not make her forget her femininity, the young servant in front of her hands her a mirror and a kohol case. These toiletry accessories are, according to Anne Mimault-Gout, “charged with an erotic connotation linked, through beauty, to rebirth”. Young, his thin, slender body is naked. Her hair is tied in a ponytail on the top of her head, falling in a pretty curl over her shoulder. For J. Vandier d’Abbadie, “this hairstyle and the pronounced elongation of the profile evoke the iconography of Syro-Palestinian divinities – in particular, Anat and Astarte -, that is to say, that these young girls with high heads would be young asian maids”…

In her fascinating study “Postpartum purification and relief rites in ancient Egypt” (all of whose rich analyses, unfortunately, cannot be cited here), Marie-Lys Arnette returns to the rites represented on these figurative ostraca of the Ramesside period representing “gynoecium scenes”, as J. Vandier d’Abbadie calls them… “The actions that these scenes depict are indeed rites since they are very close formally to the representations of offerings made to the dead or the gods and follow the same codes: The beneficiary is seated while the officiant approaches them, standing and holding the objects they are about to offer in their hands. These scenes concern the period following birth, and the rites which appear there must allow the purification and aggregation of the mother. It is a question of representing the reliefs, the sequence we can attempt to restore – in a necessarily incomplete manner because the analysis depends on scant documentation”…

These representations are very precious because they are among the only ones that allow us to understand the intimacy of women… But what was their goal? E. Brunner-Traut, in particular, “suggests seeing ex-votos there. We can indeed consider these objects as having been used, in one way or another, in cults linked to fertility, but it is impossible to specify this use further”…

This ostracon, which comes from Deir el-Medineh, is described by Jacques Vandier d’Abbadie in his “Catalogue of figured ostraca, 1937” under the number 2339. It is indicated as having previously been at the Fouad I Agricultural Museum in Cairo. It was then found in the collection of Moïse Lévy de Benzion, owner of a famous store in Cairo, who then offered it at auction under number 36 of his sale on March 14, 1947, in Zamalek. Robert Streitz, a Belgian architect based in Cairo, then purchased it. He kept it for several years before donating it in 1952 to the Department of Egyptian Antiquities of the Louvre Museum. It was registered there under the inventory number E 25333.

Marie Grillot

*Ostraca (singular: ostracon): Shards, silver or fragments of limestone, or even terracotta, which were, in antiquity, used by artisans to practice. This type of “support”, which they found in abundance on the sides of the mountain, allowed them to make and redo their drawings or writings until they reached excellence and were finally admitted to work “in situ” in the residences of ‘eternity.

They are generally classified into two categories: inscribed (hieroglyph, hieratic, demotic, etc.) or figured (drawing, sculpture).

Sources:

Figured ostracon – E 25333 https://collections.louvre.fr/ark:/53355/cl010004032 Jacques Vandier d’Abbadie, Catalog of figured ostraca of Deir el Médineh II.2, n°2256-2722, IFAO, Cairo, 1937 https://archive.org/details/DFIFAO2.2/page/n1/mode/2up Bernard Bruyère, Report on the excavations of Deir el Médineh (1934-1935). Third part. The village, public dumps, the rest station at the Valley of the Kings pass, Cairo, Printing office of the French Institute of Oriental Archeology (IFAO), (Excavations of the French Institute of Oriental Archeology = FIFAO; 16), p. 131-132, 1939 https://ia600606.us.archive.org/30/items/FIFAO16/FIFAO%2016%20Bruyère%2C%20Bernard%20-%20Le%20village%2C%20les%20discharges%20public%2C%20la%20station%20de %20rest%20du%20col%20de%20la%20valley%20des%20kings%20%281939%29%20LR.pdfEmma Brunner-Traut, Die altägyptischen Scherbenbilder (Bildostraka) der Deutschen Museen und Sammlungen, Franz Steiner, Wiesbaden, 1956 Jeanne Vandier d’Abbadie, Two figured ostraca, Bulletin of the French Institute of Oriental Archeology (BIFAO), 1957, p. 21-34, p. 22-23, fig. 2, IFAO, Cairo, 1957 https://archive.org/details/DFIFAO2.2 https://archive.org/details/DFIFAO2.2/page/n69/mode/2up Emma Brunner-Traut, Egyptian Artists’ Sketches. Figured ostraka from the Gayer-Anderson Collection in the Fitzwilliam Museum Cambridge, Cambridge, 1979

The donors of the Louvre, Paris, Musée du Louvre, 1989

Perfumes and cosmetics in ancient Egypt, exhibition catalogue, Cairo, Marseille, Paris, 2002, p. 99, 139, ESIG, 2002

Anne Minault-Gout, Stone notebooks: the art of ostraca in ancient Egypt, p. 36-37, Hazan, 2002

Guillemette Andreu, The artists of Pharaon. Deir el-Medina and the Valley of the Kings, exhibition catalog, Paris, Turnhout, RMN, Brepols, p. 113, no. 53, 2002

Guillemette Andreu, The Art of Contour. Drawing in ancient Egypt, exhibition catalog, Somogy éditions d’Art, p. 320, ill. p. 320, no. 168, 2013

Marie-Lys Arnette, Postpartum purification and relief rites in ancient Egypt, Bulletin of the French Institute of Oriental Archeology (BIFAO), 114, 2015, p. 19-72, p. 30-31, fig. 2, IFAO, Cairo 2015

Hanane Gaber, Laure Bazin Rizzo, Frédéric Servajean, At work, we know the craftsman… of Pharaon! A century of French research in Deir el-Medina (1917-2017), exhibition catalogue, Silvana Editoriale, p. 36, 2017

Tutankhamun: The Most Short-Term and Mysterious Pharaoh!

Tutankhamun and his queen, Ankhesenamun
By Tiger Cub – own work, Public Domain,

King Tutankhamun is one of the most famous rulers ever, thanks to Howard Carter‘s 1922 discovery of the pharaoh’s tomb in Egypt’s Valley of the Kings, sponsored by British aristocrat George Herbert. The find stirred the imaginations of millions fascinated by the boy king’s golden-masked mummy.

The throne of Tutankhamun, the Aten depicted above
By Djehouty – Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0,

He and his tomb are (one of) the most beautiful and, tragically, the most robbed and plundered in ancient Egyptian explorations. No wonder the shining gold and humans’ greed! Nonetheless, the efforts of the good side of humans still try to restore and discover more details of the life of this fascinating man, and they will continue for sure!

Here, we read an exciting story by Marie Grillot and Marc Chartier about a deep investigation and discovery using modern technology.

Tutankhamun: the story continues…

via égyptophile

In November 1922, after ten years of excavations and research in the Valley of the Kings, Howard Carter and Lord Carnarvon finally discovered the first step of Tutankhamun’s tomb, which they had been desperately searching for.

Within this KV62, with an area of just over 100 m², a team of the best experts will work on clearing and saving the objects. Some will devote nearly ten years to it, and the whole world, fascinated by this young pharaoh emerging from oblivion, will marvel at the priceless treasures surrounding him for his afterlife.

For more than 90 years, the number of visitors who have entered the pharaoh’s tomb to absorb a small part of his eternity has continued to increase, endangering his survival. The humidity generated by these visits significantly deteriorated the paintings and generated mould, causing significant damage. This led the Antiquities Department to limit the number of daily visits and close access to the site to the public in 2011.

This context, which seemed inevitable, was understood in 2002, and the basis for constructing a replica of the KV62 was studied.

Illustration Factum Arte

The company Factum Arte, founded by the British painter Adam Lowe and based in Madrid, was chosen to build this replica. The Egyptian Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities and funds from the European Union partially financed it.

Experts in these new technologies have implemented, used, and piloted innovative techniques, the most advanced of which is 3D. In 2009, for many months, the Factum Arte team invested in the tomb to memorize every centimetre with the highest precision. “The first work consisted of carefully recording the relief of the walls and the sarcophagus with a scanner specially designed for the occasion. Its resolution reached one hundred million points per m². Then, the second stage consisted of photographing the paintings with a very high resolution and faithfully respecting the colours.”

Armed with this data, Factum Arte technicians returned to their premises in Madrid, where they began manufacturing the facsimile in the form of hundreds of high-density polyurethane panels. These were assembled on-site to form the four walls of the mortuary chamber. The inauguration of the “double” tomb took place in April 2014.

And this is where another part of this beautiful story begins…

Egyptian Minister of Antiquities, Mamdouh Al Damati, listening to British Egyptologist Nicholas Reeves,
near the sarcophagus of Tutankhamun – Photo: AFP/ Khaled Desouki

Nicholas Reeves, an English Egyptologist and foremost specialist in Tutankhamun, carefully studies the photos taken by Factum Arte in the burial chamber. This room is the only one in the tomb, and it is decorated with paintings: “rudimentary, classic, of austere simplicity” executed on a plaster coating painted yellow. These paintings reflect the ritual name given to it in antiquity: “the Hall of Gold.” He then noticed reliefs which could be blocked openings overtures onto two rooms unexplored until now. By pushing further his reasoning, he believes that one wall (the north wall) would be Queen Nefertiti’s burial place, while the other (the west wall) would be a storage space.

Nicholas Reeves supports his hypothesis – contested, it is necessary to recall, by other Egyptologists – first of all on his interpretation of the frescoes of the northern wall of the tomb (which represent the young king Tutankhamun performing a funerary ritual for his mother, Queen Nefertiti), then on the fact that Tutankhamun died prematurely, at the age of 19, and that, due to lack of an available tomb, the priests would have taken the decision to reopen Nefertiti’s tomb, ten years after his death, to bury the young king in a hypogeum not provided for him.

Jean-Claude Barré
© http://www.HIP.Institute / Philippe Bourseiller

To verify this hypothesis, the Ministry of Antiquities has given the green light to enter noninvasive and nondestructive techniques onto the scene. First of all, infrared thermography is an operation led by Jean-Claude Barré, who came to Egypt as part of the “Scan Pyramids” mission. Based on images captured regularly over 24 hours, this technique can reveal temperature differences, possibly leading to cavities under a given surface. This was indeed the case in the tomb of Tutankhamun, where such temperature differences were detected through the painted coating of the north wall, without it being possible to determine the exact configuration of a hollow space or, even more so, its content.

After some tests in a tomb whose configuration is already known (the KV5) to verify the effectiveness and reliability of the equipment used, the second series of surveys in Tutankhamun’s tomb was carried out using the radar technique. This device was placed 5 cm from the wall to prevent damage.

During the press conference, held in Luxor on November 28, 2015 late in the morning, at the house of Howard Carter, the Minister of Antiquities, Dr. Mamdouh El-Damaty, announced that the radar scans revealed the existence of a large void, with a long corridor, behind what we now know to be a false wall (a “ruse”, a ploy, intended to thwart possible tomb robbers) in Tutankhamun’s burial chamber. It is helpful to remember that the tomb was robbed several times in antiquity.

Hirokatsu Watanabe
Photo Brando Quilici – National Geographic

Analyzes by Hirokatsu Watanabe, a Japanese radar specialist, also provide evidence of a second door hidden in the adjoining west wall.

The Minister declared, “We previously spoke of a 60 per cent chance that something was behind the walls. But now, reading the first analyses, we can assert a 90 per cent probability.”

He specifies that the data collected will quickly be examined more deeply in Japan.

He then mentioned a possible next step: digging a small hole in the wall (on an unpainted space) of the neighbouring room, called the “Treasure Room,” adjoining the “empty” behind the wall in the burial chamber to introduce a browser camera.

Missing fragments of the wall broken by Carter, photographed by Burton
and reconstituted in the replica of the tomb – photo Marie Grillot

It is unthinkable to risk damaging or deteriorating these painted walls. It is helpful to remember that during the second season of excavation, Howard Carter destroyed part of the scene on the south wall and then recovered the fragments. Still, these practices are no longer used today.

The questions remain and even multiply… But one answer is inevitable: Tutankhamun has not finished being in the spotlight!

Marie Grillot – Marc Chartier

To complete the information:

http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/11/151126-nefertiti-tomb-tut-egypt-archaeology/ http://news.nationalgeographic.com/2015/11/151128-tut-tomb-scans-hidden-chambers/ http://english.ahram.org.eg/NewsContent/9/40/171833/Heritage/Ancient-Egypt/Radar-test-underway-before-search-for-Nefertiti-in.aspx

A Kohl Tube, Sky-Blue Deity; A Divine Gift For An Eternal Beauty!

This is a deep blue glazed faience kohl tube. A column is inlaid with light blue on one side of the cylinder. This inscription is placed within a light blue frame. It reads, “The Good God, Lord of the Two Lands, Neb ma’at-re (Amenhotep III). The Kingdom, Wife Tiy, granted life.” A shallow indentation forms a border at the bottom of the tube. Condition: Small cracks at the bottom; blue glaze missing on half of the “neb” sign.

Here is another fascinating story by the brilliant lady Marie Grillot of a deity tube to help compare to divine beauty.

A kohol tube in the names of Amenhotep III and his daughter and wife Satamon…

via égyptophile

Kohl tube of Satamon, daughter and the great royal wife of Amenhotep III – earthenware – 18th dynasty
formerly in the collection of Reverend William MacGregor – acquired by Lord Carnarvon at Sotheby’s London in 1922
arrived at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 1926 by acquisition from the Carnarvon Collection – entry number 26.7.910

This delicate and elegant Egyptian earthenware kohol tube is 14.4 cm high and has a diameter of 1.8 cm. For Jeanne Vandier d’Abbadie (“Egyptian toilet objects at the Louvre Museum”), it was during the New Kingdom that kohol vases or pots which had varied shapes “were very often replaced by kohol tubes. This new form would have been introduced into Egypt under the reign of Tuthmosis III by the Asians. Indeed, it sometimes happens, from this time on, that the servants who assist the lady in her toilet have the Syrian type… These young foreigners hand their mistress the kohol tube into which the stylus is immersed…”

Originally, this tube was a simple Nile reed – hence sometimes its name “flute” -in the hollow of which the makeup was placed. For the wealthier classes of society, artisans were inspired by this natural element. They reproduced it more “luxurious” with more precious materials, ivory, for example, or, in this case, earthenware.

Kohl tube of Satamon, daughter and the great royal wife of Amenhotep III – earthenware – 18th dynasty
formerly in the collection of Reverend William MacGregor – acquired by Lord Carnarvon at Sotheby’s London in 1922
arrived at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York in 1926 by acquisition from the Carnarvon Collection – entry number 26.7.910

In ancient times, kohol was the makeup product par excellence; it was inseparable from the concept of beauty, intimately linked to the enhancement of the gaze. Its use has thus transcended these stretched eyes surrounded by black, which, even today, disturbs and fascinates. Made from powdered galena, it not only highlighted the intensity of the “Egyptian” gaze but also had, in this country where the light is so bright, the reverberation so intense, and the sun so burning, a protective function of the eye.

It was applied using a fine stylus – or stick. With a rounded head and a blunt tip, it could be made of hematite, wood (like ebony), ivory, and sometimes bronze or copper. No stylus is presented with this tube; one can imagine it has disappeared. Likewise, nothing indicates the presence or absence of a small “accommodation” fitted inside to store it. The sealing is also absent: in the more “rustic” models, it was done by a plug of fabric or wood.

In “Amenhotep III, the Sun Pharaoh”, Arielle P. Kozloff provides technical information on its creation: “The colour of the tube is medium blue, which suggests a copper base. This colour was used more frequently towards the end of the reign of Amenhotep III and during the Amarna period, unlike the cobalt-based blues that the king preferred. The dark-coloured inscription is undoubtedly cobalt-based.”

If the object is well made, the vertical inscription presented in a rectangle delimited by a black line in a column of delicate hieroglyphs is precious. Christiane Ziegler (“Queens of Egypt”) translates it thus: “The good god Nebmaâtre [Amenhotep III]; the king’s daughter, the Great Royal Wife Satamon, may she live.” She adds, “We noticed that the king’s name always accompanies that of the woman in his family mentioned on the kohol tubes.”

When we mention the wife of Amenhotep III, we immediately think of Queen Tiyi… Satamon (“The Daughter of Amon”) was the eldest daughter of Tiyi and Amenhotep III. However, explains Christian Leblanc in “Queens of the Nile”: “She distinguished herself especially towards the end of the reign of Amenhotep III by herself becoming the wife of her own father”.

Due to our current morality and contemporary conception of the family, understanding and admitting such a union is often tricky. However, well attested since at least the Middle Kingdom, this incest could only exist in the royal and divine world for reasons of an eminently sacred nature. Ordinary mortals did not practise it.

Relief depicting Satamon from the funerary temple of Amenhotep III
Petrie Museum, London – UC 14373 – museum photo

“The role of princesses was so important that two of them, Satamon and Isis, became ‘Great Royal Wives’ during the last decade of the reign, which in no way diminishes the status of Queen Tiya. Indeed, the “Theological model of divine families on which that of the king’s family was modelled favoured the adoption of different generations of women. Was Hathor not simultaneously mother, wife and daughter of the god Ra?” (Arielle P. Kozloff). Thus, different museums hold kohol tubes, identical or close to that of Satamon, with the names of Tiyi, of course, and Isis.

Its current history is found in the 20th century in the collection of Reverend William MacGregor (1848-1937). This vicar is a “prominent member of the Egypt Exploration Society and the Institute of Archeology of the University of Liverpool. He patronised numerous excavations, notably those undertaken by Naville, Garstang, and Petrie, for which he frequently and actively participated in the field. His remarkable collection of antiquities is unprecedented compared to any other private collection in England, Europe or America” was then specified in the introduction to the sales catalogue when he decided to separate it. One thousand eight hundred objects will be auctioned at Sotheby’s London from June 26 to July 6, 1922.

Reverend William MacGregor, vicar, prominent member of the Egypt Exploration Society, Institute of Archeology, University of Liverpool and patron of many excavations
(Liverpool, 16-5-1848 – Tamworth, 26-2-1937)

Satamon’s kohol tube, presented under lot 255, will be acquired by another great collector, Lord Carnarvon. The same year, it was among the artefacts lent by the British aristocrat for the “Exhibition of Ancient Egyptian Art” at the Burlington Fine Arts Club in London. Percy Newberry, responsible for writing the catalogue, describes it as follows under number 17: “Kohol tube – blue glazed earthenware -, with a vertical line of hieroglyphs in black, giving the names of Amenhotep III and the great royal wife, Sat-amon'”.

Lord Carnarvon died in Cairo on April 5, 1923, shortly after the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb. According to a codicil to his will, intended for his wife, Lady Almina, he had expressed his suggestions on the future of his collection in case she had to part with it, which she did, putting Howard Carter in charge of the negotiations.

Lord Carnarvon – George Edward Stanhope Molyneux Herbert, 5th Earl of Carnarvon
(Highclere – RU – 26-6-1866 – Continental-Savoy Hotel, Cairo, Egypt – 5-4-1923)
and his wife, Lady Almina

Thanks to the generosity of Edward S. Harkness, the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York acquired it in 1926 for $145,000.

This is how this kohol tube bearing the names of Amenhotep III and Satamon arrived in the great New York Museum collections: it was registered under entry number 26.7.910.

Marie Grillot

Sources:

Kohl Tube Inscribed for Amenhotep III and Princess Sitamun https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/544512 Catalogue of the MacGregor collection of Egyptian antiquities, Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge, auction catalogue, sale dates: 26-30 June and 3-6 July 1922, London, 1922 https://www.abebooks.fr/edition-originale/Catalogue-MacGregor-collection-Egyptian-antiquities-Sotheby/31411328486/bd Percy Edward Newberry, Harry Reginald Hall, Catalogue of an Exhibition of Ancient Egyptian Art, London: Burlington Fine Arts Club, p. 34 no. 17, 1922 https://archive.org/details/catalogueofexhib00burlrich Rev William MacGregor https://www.tamworthheritagetrust.co.uk/articles/rev-william-macgregor Jeanne Vandier d’Abbadie, Egyptian toilet objects at the Louvre Museum, editions of the national museums, Paris, 1972
William C. Hayes, Scepter of Egypt II: A Background for the Study of the Egyptian Antiquities in the Metropolitan Museum of Art: The Hyksos Period and the New Kingdom (1675-1080 B.C.), Cambridge, Mass., The Metropolitan Museum of Art, p. 257, fig. 155, 1959
Christian Leblanc, Nefertari, “L’aimee-de-Mout”, Editions du Rocher, 1999 (pp. 185-186 on incest practised in the royal sphere)
Amenhotep III, the sun pharaoh, Meeting of National Museums, 1993
Christiane Ziegler, Queens of Egypt, Somogy éditions d’art, Grimaldi Forum, 2008
Christian Leblanc, Queens of the Nile, The Library of the Introuvables, 2009
Morris L. Bierbrier, Who Was Who in Egyptology, London, Egypt Exploration Society, 2012
Pierre Tallet, 12 queens of Egypt who changed history, Pygmalion, 2013

Published January 6 ago by Marie Grillot

From the Ancient Times to the Modern Era: What Lesson Remains to Learn?

I am sharing an article with you at an unusual time for two reasons. First, today marks the beginning of Spring (around 6.26 am, CET), also celebrated as the ancient Persian New Year. Second, I’ll be travelling to Southern Germany for a few days over the weekend into the next, so I thought it would be an opportunity to write a few words.

This is a joyful celebration to leave behind dark and cold times and welcome brightness and warmth; the only difference to Easter is that this fiesta marks the start of a new year. It all sounds friendly and happy, though, as you might know, there is no happiness left to celebrate in Iran. Of course, the brave Iranians do celebrate it nonetheless, even though it coincides with the mourning Islamic month of Ramadan!

It looks like a never-ending battle between ancient traditional Persian ceremonies and the imposed Arabic religion. I don’t want to shout out like some lofty patriotic people who still try to prove a trampled and destroyed glory that might have been perfectly installed by Cirus the Great during his reign, who had built an enormous empire based on human rights but slowly was destroyed not only by the Arabs but even before that by the latest dynasties and their avaricious religious monks.

One of the most significant mistakes humans can make is relying on who or what they were in the past rather than who or what they are now. This happened in Iran many years ago and continues to happen now, as people keep talking about their glorious history. It seems that Iranian monarchists are attempting to use the pride of ancient Persia to promote their cause, much like how Mussolini tried to do the same with Rome for Italy. However, I struggle to understand these sentiments from my Persian friends here in Germany, who constantly talk about the greatness of Persia and its past strength. But where is that glory now? I believe that traditions can be beneficial if used consciously. A sense of pride can serve as a foundation for creating a better world for all humans.

Anyway, I wish all the people of Iran, every ethnicity or folk, a happy Nowruz with great hope for casting freedom, equality and prosperity all over the country. This will happen because the leaders are women! #Woman_Life_Freedom

I’m finishing this post with a short piece by an Iranian artist, Parisa Alipour. Be safe and well, everybody.🙏💖🌟✌🤗

At the top: Photo by Cory Grace / Freer and Sackler Galleries, Smithsonian Institution

Hope dies last!
Which of the most lasting gifts you can give yourself is that
Live your life this way^*
To enjoy the moment
Don’t be someone’s lame…
✍ #Parisa_Zabli_Pour 📚 @audiobo0ok

Howard “Indi” Carter

Howard Carter, a British archaeologist born on May 9, 1874, in Swaffham, Norfolk, England, is known for his significant contribution to Egyptology. In 1922, he discovered the most complete tomb of King Tutankhamun, which remains one of the most celebrated and richly endowed discoveries in the history of Egyptology. Carter passed away on March 2, 1939, in London.

Here is the story of his accidental discovery of one of the ancient heritages, as we might know it from the acts of the adventurers, with heartfelt thanks to the brilliant Marie Grillot.

The pic at the top via The Collector.

Carter finds a grave under his horse’s hoof!

The tomb called “Bab el-Hossan” discovered in 1900 by Howard Carter, is, in fact, a cenotaph of Montouhotep II: its location (pit), in front of his funerary temple, is visible in the middle-left of this photo (photo Daniel Lefèvre)

via égyptophile

It was in October 1891 that Howard Carter arrived in Egypt to work as a draftsman and copyist for Percy Edward Newberry at the Egypt Exploration Foundation. Then, from 1893, still for the EEF, but this time under the direction of Edouard Naville, he copied the bas-reliefs of Deir el-Bahari intended to illustrate the Egyptologist’s work “The Temple of Deir el-Bahari”.
In this context, the one who, in November 1922, will emerge from oblivion, Tutankhamun will make, in an entirely fortuitous manner, his first discovery…
This “adventure” will stretch over two years and is worthy of Indiana Jones! It began in November 1898, on an exceptionally grey and rainy day in the Theban necropolis and the rocky cirque of Deir el-Bahari.

Carter is concerned about the impact of these rains on the temple murals. So, he decides to go to the site “with his colleague Charles Sillem” to observe and estimate potential damage.

The tomb called “Bab el-Hossan” discovered in 1900 by Howard Carter, is, in fact, a cenotaph of Montouhotep II:
its location (pit) is visible here

While he is in front of the temple of Montouhotep, his horse’s foot sinks into a hole… and they both fall! Carter gets up and hastens to examine what caused the fall. “Looking in the small hole formed there, I saw the traces of stonework”, he relates.

He was very intrigued and then opened up to Edouard Naville. As this sector is not in the area of his concession, he attaches little importance to it and does not encourage him to carry out other investigations.

For his part, Howard Carter will not forget this place; he promises to return there to further the research.

To do this, he knows that he must wait for his professional situation to evolve, which will happen quickly. Indeed, in 1899, Gaston Maspero, back at the head of the Antiquities Service, appointed him general inspector of monuments in Upper Egypt.

The following year, finally feeling free to carry out his first “independent” excavation, Howard Carter returned to the site and saw his intuition confirmed: it was indeed a burial! The work to clear what will be known as “Bab el-Hossan” (the horse’s grave) will prove gigantic!

Portrait of a young Howard Carter (author and date unknown)

The opening, which will have to be enlarged, leads to a corridor dug into the rock, 17 meters deep, leading to a sealed door. The clearing carried out with a large team that nevertheless takes turns tirelessly takes an incredible amount of time.

Behind the door, Carter encounters a new 150-meter corridor leading to a large room. Inside, draped, wrapped, and wrapped in linen, is a giant statue!

A well leads to a second chamber located around thirty meters lower. In it, Carter finds vases, pots, and boat models. In another well, a wooden chest bears the name of a pharaoh. This inscription will allow the statue to be identified.

Statue of Montouhotep II – painted sandstone – from his cenotaph located under his temple of Deir el-Bahari
discovered in 1900 by Howard Carter in what is generally referred to as: “Bab el-Hossan.”
Egyptian Museum in Cairo – JE 36195

It is made of painted sandstone and is 1.38 m high and 0.47 m wide. It represents Montouhotep II, ruler of the 11th dynasty. He sits on his throne, wearing the red crown of Lower Egypt and the white habit of jubilee (sed). His broad face, full lips, and a false beard are black.

Its eyes are painted white with black pupils. His hands are black, and his arms are crossed on his chest in the Osiriac position. His legs, also black, are very thick, even disproportionate. In their “Official Catalog of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo,” Mohamed Saleh and Hourig Sourouzian put forward this interesting hypothesis about the colour of its complexion: “It seems that the statue was painted black before burying it.”

As for Rosanna Pirelli (“The Wonders of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo”), she analyzes this particular representation of the sovereign as follows: “This is a strong and hieratic image of the second unifier of the pharaonic state after Menes. The statue symbolizes the double nature of the pharaoh who, during his lifetime, embodies the falcon god Horus, the mighty conqueror, while in death, he is identified with Osiris, the sovereign of the deceased.

Did Howard Carter discover the tomb of the great pharaoh? Mohamed Saleh and Hourig Sourouzian say, “The statue of Montouhotep had been ritually buried in a vault under the terrace (of his temple) and which seems to have been the initial tomb of the king, before having been transformed into a cenotaph. The entrance from this vault opened into the forecourt of the funerary monument of Montouhotep.”

Montouhotep II (“may Montu be satisfied”) reigned between 2061 and 2010 BC. AD. He led an important policy of cultural and commercial restoration.

Location of the temple of Montouhotep (partly ruined today)
in the rocky cirque of Deir el-Bahari

His funerary complex located at Deir el-Bahari was, perhaps, according to the hypothesis put forward by Edouard Naville, a temple with a double terrace topped by a small pyramid. Today, it is primarily degraded and cannot be visited. However, it can be seen from the temple of Hatshepsut, or better yet, an overview of it from the path linking Deir el-Bahari to Deir el-Medineh, which overlooks it.

This statue, “found under the hoof of a horse,” is exhibited at the Cairo Museum (JE 36195). It represents a magnificent example of the renaissance of Egyptian art from the beginning of the Middle Kingdom…

It is important to point out that, in “Howard Carter, The Path to Tutankhamun”, T.G.H. James tells us that this discovery had not been up to what Howard Carter had expected… “His disappointment was deep enough in itself, but worse still, it was increased by the fact that he had committed the stupidity to inform Lord Cromer, the British Consul General, who actually held power in Egypt, suggesting that it was possible that a tomb, possibly royal, had been found. As Maspero wrote to Naville: ‘ ‘He announced his discovery too early to Lord Cromer. Lord Cromer came to witness his success and is now in despair, having been unable to show him anything of what he had predicted. I console him as best I can because “He’s a really good boy, and he does his duty very well.”

Unfortunately, this experience led Nicholas Reeves to say in “Ancient Egypt: The Great Discoveries” that Carter then decided that, for any possible future discovery, he would wait until he was absolutely sure of what he had found before making the announcement. For Tutankhamun, he adopted this strategy:”…

Marie Grillot

Sources:
Herbert Eustis Winlock, Excavations at Deir El Bahri 1911-1931, The Macmillan Company, New York, 1942 https://archive.org/details/Winlock_Deir_El_Bahari_1911-1931 Thomas Garnet Henry James, Howard Carter, The path to Tutankhamun, TPP, 1992 https://archive.org/stream/HowardCarterThePathToTutankhamunBySam/Howard+Carter+The+Path+to+Tutankhamun+By+Sam_djvu.txt

Nicholas Reeves, Richard H. Wilkinson, The Complete Valley of the Kings, The American University in Cairo Press, 1996
Mohamed Saleh, Hourig Sourouzian, Official Catalogue of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, Verlag Philippe von Zabern, 1997
Francesco Tiradritti, Treasures of Egypt – The wonders of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, Gründ, 1999
Nicholas Reeves, Ancient Egypt. The Great Discoveries, Thames & Hudson, 2002, The Great Discoveries of Ancient Egypt Editions du Rocher, 2001
National Geographic Guide, The Treasures of Ancient Egypt at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, 2004
The Egyptian Museum in Cairo, Abeer El-Shahawy, Matḥaf al-Miṣrī, American Univ in Cairo Press, 2005
Statue of King Mentuhotep the Second http://www.globalegyptianmuseum.org/record.aspx?id=14914 The Egyptian Museum in Cairo, Abeer El-Shahawy, Matḥaf al-Miṣrī

Rocky cirque of Deir el Bahari: on the right, the temple of Hatshepsut; set back, barely visible, the temple of Thoumosis III, and to the left, the temple of Menthouhotep in the courtyard of which Bab El-Hossan was found – photo taken from the Luxor City Facebook page.

Published June 21 2014, by Marie Grillot
Labels: bab el-hossan Carter Deir_el-Bahari hossan the tomb of the horse Montouhotep naville

Cloisonné Gold Pendant, a Timeless Lotus Flower!

This fascinating jewel is not only a designer piece but a symbol of birth and rebirth!
Here is another brilliant article by Marie Grillot about the secret of this magical lotus jewel, which will remain forever.

This pendant comes from the treasure of Princess Mérit (Mereret), whose tomb was found in March 1894 by Jacques de Morgan in the sector of the “northern pyramid” of Dahchour.

Kha and Merit receive offerings on a painted chest from two of their children.
By Museo Egizio

Cloisonné gold pendant of a princess of Dahchour

Cloisonné gold pendant of Princess Merit (Mereret) – gold, carnelian, turquoise, lapis lazuli
Middle Kingdom – 12th Dynasty – Reigns of Sesostris III and Amenemhat III – 1878 – 1798 BC-AD
discovered in his tomb in Dahchour on March 6, 1894, during excavations carried out by Jacques de Morgan
Egyptian Museum in Cairo – CG 53070 – JE 30877 – photo of the museum

via égyptophile

This lovely pendant is made of cloisonné gold, garnished with semi-precious stones. The brilliance that the gems reflect, their perfect execution, and their exceptional state of conservation make it difficult to believe that they are almost… 4000 years old!

It takes the shape of a “convex” shell, the upper part representing an open lotus flower. Its petals, pointing downwards, are made of a delicate and luminous cloisonné composed of turquoise, lapis lazuli and carnelian.

“Under this area, the main decoration develops. The middle is occupied by a carnelian of unusual dimensions: 0 m. 021 millimetres high and 0 m. 026 millimeters wide. Its general shape is close to a circle, part of which is cut by the upper area. All around the carnelian, a decoration is developed made, in the axis, of alternating cloisonné chevrons: lapis, carnelian and turquoise, and on each side, curved serrations of turquoise, leaving between them curvilinear triangles in carnelian followed by other small triangles of lapis, then approaching the upper area, alternating bands of lapis and turquoise and ending with an ellipse in turquoise having as its middle a small ellipse of lapis is framed by a fairly wide edge where the gold is bare. The reverse is made of a concave plate of plain gold, where we see a horizontal ring in the upper part, flat and vertically striated,” explains Emile Vernier (Jewelry and goldwork. Booklet 3).

Cyril Aldred’s interpretation follows: “The pendant… is inlaid with a motif inspired by the lotus flower from which is suspended a crown of stylized flower petals, ending in a pendant of three chevrons”.

As for Nigel Fletcher-Jones (“Ancient Egyptian Jewelry”), he specifies that “The pendant was originally suspended from a chain of gold beads to which twenty-six small oyster shells were soldered at regular intervals”.

This jewel is loaded with symbols and “powers”… Thus, the oyster shell was, for a short period of the Middle Kingdom, an amulet which, according to Carol Andrews (Amulets of Ancient Egypt) “, gave health” and brought well-being to the person who wore it… As for the lotus, which is very present in Pharaonic iconography, it is not only the symbol of birth but also that of rebirth.

The stones used are also loaded with symbolism. In “The Gold of the Pharaohs”, Christiane Ziegler provides these details: “The ‘méfékat’ turquoise was extracted from Sinai where the pharaohs launched mining expeditions. Its luminous colour, evoking the growth of young shoots in spring, was synonymous with vitality and joy. Its presence in the funerary equipment undoubtedly gave the dead the joy of rebirth.” Carnelian, Héréset, “possessed the invigorating virtues of blood”. As for lapis lazuli, she explains to us: “in ancient myths, it constituted the beard and hair of the gods and had virtues comparable to those of turquoise”…

Pyramid of Amenemhat III in Dahchour
Photo by Jacques de Morgan published in “Excavations at Dahshur”, 1894

This pendant comes from the treasure of Princess Mérit (Mereret), whose tomb was found in March 1894 by Jacques de Morgan in the sector of the “northern pyramid” of Dahchour.

In his work “Excavations at Dahchour”, published the same year, he relates: “The underground necropolis that I had just opened was therefore not the tomb of the king, but rather the gallery of the princesses, one of the annexes of the tomb principal. Later, I discovered among the treasures the names of the princesses Hathor-Sat and Merit and the titles of a sixth royal daughter on the worm-eaten remains of a wooden box. Then he adds, “Meticulous examination of the floor of the galleries revealed on March 6 a cavity dug in the rock at the foot of sarcophagus C. The ground was loose,e and the worker’s foot sank into the middle of the moving debris. A few blows of the pickaxe revealed its treasures: gold and silver jewels and precious stones were there, piled up in the middle of the worm-eaten fragments of a box where they had once been kept. “

Georges Legrain, who worked alongside him, was responsible for drawing up the first jewellery catalogue and faithfully reproducing drawings and watercolours. The large number of pieces to be presented will mean that this pendant will be described in a laconic manner: “Bivalve shell decorated with multicoloured stones on its convex part. The main design represents a lotus flower supporting an indefinite red object, from which herbs escape …”

Jacques de Morgan brandishing one of the pieces of Dahchour’s treasure (Princess Khnoumit’s tiara)
during its discovery in April 1894 in the funerary complex of Amenemhat II in Dashour
(drawing published in “L’Illustration” on May 11, 1895)

We can only subscribe to the words of Pierre Tallet in his work “Sesostris III and the end of the 12th Dynasty”: “One last area where the ending 12th dynasty seems to have particularly excelled is that of jewellery. The royal necropolises of this period thus delivered the first truly important collection of Egyptian jewellery, for the most part, intended for women in the pharaoh’s entourage: jewellery and toiletries from Sat-Hathor-Iounet to El-Lahoun, Mereret… These different lots of Precious objects, where gold, silver and various fine stones such as lapis lazuli, turquoise, amethyst and carnelian abound, give an idea of the splendour in which the royal family lived.

This pendant was registered in the Journal of Entries of the Cairo Museum under the reference JE 30877 and in the General Catalogue CG 53070.

Marie Grillot

Sources:

Excavations at Dahchour, Jacques de Morgan, Berthelot, M. (Marcellin), Legrain, Georges Albert, 1865-1917; Jquier, Gustave, 1868-1946; Loret, Victor, 1859-1946; Fouquet, Daniel https://archive.org/details/fouillesdahcho01morg/page/n213/mode/2up Dahchour excavations: 1894-1895, Jacques de Morgan, Wien 1903, http://digi.ub.uni-heidelberg.de/diglit/morgan1903/0049 Jewellery and goldsmiths. Booklet 3, Number 52640-53171, by Mr. Émile Vernier http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k57740426/f96.item.r=52859.texteImage Summary list, booklet published in 1894 by M. de Morgan; Excavations at Dahchour, II; Morgan’s catalogue, 1897 by Morgan Jacques. Letter on the latest discoveries in Egypt. In: Reports of the sessions of the Academy of Inscriptions and Belles-Lettres, 38th year, N. 3, 1894. pp. 169-177; https://doi.org/10.3406/crai.1894.70401 https://www.persee.fr/doc/crai_0065-0536_1894_num_38_3_70401 Jewellery and goldsmiths. Booklet 3, Number 52640-53171, by Mr. Émile Vernier http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k57740426/f96.item.r=52859.texteImage The gold of the pharaohs – 2500 years of goldsmithing in ancient Egypt, Catalogue of the summer 2018 exhibition at the Grimaldi Forum in Monaco, Christiane Ziegler Jewels of the Pharaohs, Cyril Aldred, ed Thames & Hudson Ltd. London, 1978 Ancient Egyptian Jewelry: 50 Masterpieces of Art and Design, 2019, Fletcher-Jones, N, The American University in Cairo Press Ancient Egyptian Jewelry, Carol Andrews, Harry N. Abrams, INC., Publishers, 1991 Amulets Of Ancient Egypt, Carol Andrews, published for Trustees of the British Museum by British Museum Press https://archive.org/details/AmuletsOfAncientEgypt_201707 Treasures of Egypt – The wonders of the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, Francesco Tiradritti

Posted December 21 2021, by Marie Grillot

Labels: CG 53070 – JE 30877 Dachour Dashour de Morgan expo Ramsès II 2023 fouilles 1894 Jacques de Morgan la villette Mereret Merit Mérit or clloisonnée pendeentif

Stele of the Serpent King (Stela of Djet)

It is unimaginable that this Stele is over five thousand years old. Thanks to human curiosity and the joy of discovery, fascinating artefacts continued to appear.

Djet, also known as Wadj and Zet, was the fourth pharaoh of the First Dynasty and Djer’s successor. Djet’s Horus name means “Horus Cobra” or “Serpent of Horus. “.

Here, we read the story of this huge ancient stele by brilliant Marie Grillot, which shows humans merging with the divines.

The title image: Wikipedia

At the Louvre, the stele of Djet, the “Serpent King”

via: égyptophile

Stele of the Serpent King – limestone – circa 3100 – 2900 BC – discovered at Abydos, in the royal tomb (“Z”) of Djet
Necropolis of El-Araba el-Madfouna – Oumm el-Qaab – by Émile Amélineau during the excavations of 1895 – 1896
Department of Egyptian Antiquities of the Louvre Museum E 11007
(by acquisition in November 1904 in Drouot of lot 303 of the Amélineau sale)
photo © 2023 Louvre Museum / Maurice Chuzeville

This large limestone stele, with a current height of 1.43 m and a width of 0.65 m, is one of the oldest monuments in the Egyptian department of the Louvre Museum.

It is dated 3100 – 2900 BC. It comes from the tomb of one of the founding sovereigns of the 1st dynasty and thus bears witness, with elegance and sobriety, to a page of history 5000 years old.

It was discovered in 1895 – 1896 by Émile Amélineau. This Egyptologist, a graduate of the École Pratique des Hautes Études where his teachers included Gaston Maspero and Eugène Grébaut, and also a member of the French Archaeological Mission in Cairo, returned to Egypt in November 1895 to carry out research excavations on a site that he does not yet know… “It was not without great apprehension that I agreed to go and excavate the necropolis of Abydos: the shadow of the great Mariette seemed to guard it against any rash attempt, and I knew, having read his works, that he had searched it for eighteen years. From then on, I wondered what I could discover in such circumstances because I had never been to Abydos… Therefore, I set to work with ardour, and he relates this ardour I preserved during the five months that “the campaign lasted, despite many setbacks and disappointments ” in “The New Excavations of Abydos”.

“Map of the Abydos necropolis, according to Mariette” – published by Émile Amélineau in
“New excavations of Abydos … full account of the excavations
description of the monuments and objects discovered” in 1899

In the necropolis of El-Araba el-Madfouna, “Oumm el-Qaab” (the “Mother of jugs” or “Mother of pots”), of which Jacques de Morgan had granted him the concession, he brought numerous tombs to light – with the help of more than 450 workers! – and several royal burials from the “Thinite” period (- 3100 – 2700 BC). “To the west of the large hill, almost perpendicular to the tomb of Osiris and in the first line”, he relates, he discovers that of the one he will identify as “the Serpent King, whom others have called Dja, or even Djet”. Son and successor of Djer, he was the fourth sovereign of the 1st dynasty and the father of Den, to whom he left power.

This royal tomb – later referenced as “Z” – notably contained this stele, broken into three pieces. “The lower fragment, undecorated, must have been left on site. The stele, which measured 2.50 meters or 2.60 meters in its original state, was significantly more slender. Sculpted in relief on a recessed background, the name of the sovereign is written, one of his names rather, since the kings of the time generally had two,” specifies Jean-Louis de Cenival in “A century of French excavations in Egypt, 1880 -1980”.

Stele of the Serpent King – limestone – circa 3100 – 2900 BC – discovered at Abydos, in the royal tomb (“Z”) of Djet
Necropolis of El-Araba el-Madfouna – Oumm el-Qaab – by Émile Amélineau during the excavations of 1895 – 1896
Department of Egyptian Antiquities of the Louvre Museum E 11007
(by acquisition in November 1904 in Drouot of lot 303 of the Amélineau sale)
published by Émile Amélineau in “The new excavations of Abydos, Report of the excavations of Abydos, 1896-1898”)

In “Ancient Egypt at the Louvre”, Christiane Ziegler makes this enlightening reading: “The sovereign image of a large falcon dominates that of a snake framed by the enclosure of a fortress; the whole reads like a royal name, the name of the Serpent King. The falcon is the personification of the god Horus, protector of royalty. The serpent is the hieroglyph reading DJ or the sign used to write the name of the cobra. The enclosure is the image of the palace, with its raw brick walls reminiscent of a fortress with defence towers; the walls, pierced with high doors, present a succession of projections and recesses crowned with a cornice “.

For Georges Bénédite (“The so-called stele of the Serpent King” ): “It is logical to consider the building illustrated by the serekh as the residence of the Double, that is to say, the Tomb”… In “The Serekh as an Aspect of the Iconography of Early Kingship”, Alexandra A. O’Brien gives us these precious explanations: “The serekh is a way of writing the king’s name. It is generally made up of three elements: at the bottom, a part of the facade in a niche; above, a panel on which the king’s name is written; and, seated on it, a falcon. This is the ‘classic’ model. Sometimes, the falcon is joined by a Sethian animal, replaced by another, completely absent, or joined by a second falcon. This may seem like a simple motive, as the implication of each element is quite easy to explain. The facade of the niches probably represents a large building associated with the king – his palace perhaps or his tomb, and either would serve to represent the wealth, power and authority of the monarch”…

During these three excavation missions from 1895 to 1898, Émile Amélineau discovered hundreds, even thousands of artefacts. According to the legislation in force (law on antiquities of 1891), they were distributed between Egypt and the “digger” during a “division carried out in Abydos under the supervision of Jquier, who replaced Morgan, who was bedridden at this period”, specifies Marc Étienne in “Émile Amélineau (1850-1915). The misunderstood scholar”.

Émile Amélineau, Egyptologist
(La Chaize-Giraud – Vendée, 28-8-1850 – Châteaudun – Eure-et-Loir – 12-1-1915)

The missions have been financed by a company of shareholders (bankers, collectors, etc.), and they expect a fair return on their investments… On his return to France, Émile Amélineau is responsible for selling the artefacts to be able to compensate them. But, faced with the difficulties encountered and the sales deadlines, which promise to be long, he will be forced to reimburse the investors, thus becoming the owner of all the objects brought back. The transactions he then pursued, notably with the Louvre to which he hoped to sell the entire collection, for obscure reasons, did not succeed… Finally, the Egyptologist decided to put his collection up for public sale at the Hôtel Drouot in Paris on November 3 and 4, 1904… “Due to the clauses of the shareholders’ company, three groups were formed by the remains unearthed during the excavations; this is what Amélineau designated in 1904 in the preface to the sales catalogue by the terms ‘first, second and third collection’, designating respectively the product of the excavations of the campaigns of winter 1895 – spring 1896, winter 1896 – spring 1897 and finally winter 1897 – spring 1898 (Amélineau sale, 1904)” specifies Marc Étienne.

At this sale, the Louvre Museum will acquire this stele of King Serpent, presented under number 303. Thus, it will enter its collections under inventory number E 11007.

Marie Grillot

sources:

Stele of the Serpent King https://collections.louvre.fr/ark:/53355/cl010012035

Émile Amélineau, The new excavations of Abydos, Report of the excavations of Abydos, 1896-1898, Imprimerie A. Burdin, Angers, 1896 https://archive.org/details/lesnouvellesfoui00am/page/n5/mode/2up

Émile Amélineau, Mission Amélineau. The new excavations of Abydos, 1895-1896, full report of the excavations, description of the monuments and objects discovered (September 1, 1898) https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k58048302/f438.item.r=jeu

Émile Amélineau, New excavations of Abydos … full report of the excavations, description of the monuments and objects discovered, Ernest Leroux Editeur, Paris, 1899 https://archive.org/details/nouvellesfouille00amel/page/n11/mode/2up

Amélineau sale – Egyptian antiquities found in Abydos. Ivories, carved wood, enamelled earthenware, amulets, scarabs, funerary statuettes, gold and bronze objects, flint, terracotta, and pottery, various sculptures, hard stone vases and cups, steles, tables, and fragments with hieroglyphic inscriptions, etc. Hôtel Drouot Paris, February 8-9, 1904 https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k1247688b/f6.item

Émile Amélineau, The new excavations of Abydos 1897-1898, Ernest Leroux Editor, Paris, 1905 https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k58048302/f438.item.r=jeu

Georges Bénédite, The so-called stele of the Serpent King (Louvre Museum), Monuments and memories of the Eugène Piot Foundation, volume 12, fascicle 1, 1905. pp. 5-18 https://doi.org/10.3406/piot.1905.1260 https://www.persee.fr/doc/piot_1148-6023_1905_num_12_1_1260

Christiane Desroches Noblecourt, Jean Vercoutter, A century of French excavations in Egypt, 1880 – 1980, cat. exp. (Paris, Musée d’Art et d’Essai, Palais de Tokyo, May 21 – October 15, 1981), Cairo, French Institute of Oriental Archeology (IFAO), 1981, p. 6, illus. p. 6, no. 2 Alexandra A. O’Brien, The Serekh as an Aspect of the Iconography of Early Kingship, Journal of the American Research Center in Egypt Flight. 33, 1996, pp. 123-138 (16 pages) https://www.jstor.org/stable/40000610

Guillemette Andreu, Marie-Hélène Rutschowscaya, Christiane Ziegler, Ancient Egypt at the Louvre, Paris, Hachette, 1997, p. 43; 250-251 Marc Etienne, Émile Amélineau (1850-1915). The misunderstood scholar, Archéonil, 17, 2007, p. 27-38, p. 30, fig. 4 https://www.persee.fr/doc/arnil_1161-0492_2007_num_17_1_929

Publié il y a 29th December 2023 par Marie Grillot

Libellés: 1895-1896 1904 3100 – 2900 av. J.-C. Abydos Den Djer Djet Drouot dynastie I E 11007 El-Araba el-Madfouna lot 303 Louvre Oumm el-Qaab stèle roi Serpent thinite tombe “Z” Émile Amélineau

Jean-François Champollion, The Finder of the Key of Ancient Egypt Language.

Jean-François Champollion.oil on canvas.60 x 73,5 cm.*1831
By Léon Cogniet – Musée du Louvre

Jean-François Champollion, a genius who discovered the code of the ancient Egyptian language, also known as Champollion le jeune, was a French philologist and orientalist known primarily as the decipherer of Egyptian hieroglyphs and a founding figure in the field of Egyptology. He is one of the most valuable personalities who helped humanity- along with great support from his brother Jacques-Joseph Champollion- to take a big step towards understanding the human past.

Rosetta stone~ British Museum, London ~ photo by Gloria Bolton

Just imagine these words (holography) written on this vast stone were not decipherable. But now we are not illiterate anymore!

Here, we read an exciting introduction by Marie Grillot about a brilliant Egyptologist and her research on this genius of decoding ancient language.
PS: I wish there could also be a translated clip!

Jean-François Champollion in Egypt: an interview with Karine Madrigal

via; égyptophile

Jean-François Champollion, “The Younger”, decipherer of hieroglyphs, founder of Egyptology
Figeac, December 23, 1790 – Paris, March 4, 1832
Portrait representing him in Egyptian clothing, made by Salvatore Cherubini in Medinet Habou,
in July 1829 – acquired by the Musée Champollion de Vif in June 2022

“Jean-François Champollion in Egypt”: an interview with Egyptologist Karine Madrigal (centre)
directed and filmed in Malqatta by Marie Grillot & Pascal Pelletier

To discuss “Jean-François Champollion in Egypt”, it is in Louqsor that we found the Egyptologist Karine Madrigal…

Since July 2010, she has been studying the 60 volumes of archives of the Champollion brothers deposited in the Departmental Archives of Isère. Through this incredibly rich source, nothing that links the two brothers is foreign to her…

On the one hand, Jacques-Joseph Champollion-Figeac, the eldest, and on the other, Jean-François Champollion, known as “the young one”. Twelve years separate them, Jacques-Joseph will be the godfather of his younger brother and… his pygmalion… He will help and assist him in his education, studies, research, and obsessive quest to understand writing from ancient Egypt.

The Champollion “brothers”: Jean-François Champollion “the Younger” on the left and Jacques-Joseph Champollion “Figeac” on the right
Paintings by Victorine-Angélique-Amélie de Rumilly were exhibited at the Musée de Vif in Isère.

This hard work led to the presentation, on September 27, 1822, at the Académie des Inscriptions et Belles-Lettres in Paris, of his famous “Letter to Mr. Dacier”, which would be the founding act of the decipherment of hieroglyphs and, by the same, will sign the birth of a new discipline, Egyptology…

Jean-François was then 32 years old… In 1824, he was sent on a mission to the Turin Museum to establish the catalogue of the Drovetti Collection. Then, he returned to Italy in 1826 to appraise the Salt Collection. There, he met Ippolito Rosellini, who became his student and disciple. On May 15, 1826, he was appointed curator of the Egyptian section of the Charles X Museum (future Louvre Museum).

But what he wants more than anything is to go to Egypt to carry out a scientific mission… and this project will finally come to fruition…

The Franco-Tuscan Expedition, sponsored by Charles X and the Grand Duke of Tuscany, left Toulon on July 31, 1828, aboard “L’Eglé” and landed on the Egyptian coast on August 18, 1828. It is managed on the French side by Jean-François Champollion and on the Tuscan side by Ippolito Rosellini…

From July 1828 to December 1829, they explored the various ancient sites, from Alexandria to Abu Simbel and even as far as Wadi Halfa… During these eighteen months, the fourteen members – “scholars and technicians” – will have to learn to live and work together… As for the famous decipherer discovering his “promised land”, he finds himself surprised that his deciphering system works “in situ” and on monuments from all periods…

The Franco-Tuscan expedition to Egypt – Jean-François Champollion, seated, centre
and standing to his left holding a sketch, Ippolito Rosellini
Painting by Giuseppe Angelli © National Archaeological Museum of Florence – 19th century, between 1834 and 1836

Thanks to Karine Madrigal’s excellent knowledge, combined with her passion and her undeniable talent as a “storyteller”, it is with joy that we relive, with her, this great and rich adventure from the beginnings of Egyptology…

This interview, prepared and produced by Marie Grillot, was filmed by Pascal Pelletier for Guinée-nouvelles and the Association for the Safeguarding of the Ramesseum (ASR). It was filmed at the French Archaeological Mission of Thebes West house in Malqatta, which Christian Leblanc was kind enough to make available… You can view it by clicking on the photo below:

Published 4 weeks ago by Marie Grillot

Libellés: expédition franco-Toscane Ippolito Rosellini Jacques-Joseph Champollion Figeac Karine MadrigalJean-François Champollion Lettre à M. Dacier

The Ba-Bird And Its Secret!

3 Elements to the Egyptian concept of the soul: Ka, Ba, and Akh .___ ((Ka)) is the life force or spiritual double of the person. The royal Ka symbolized a pharaoh’s right to rule___((Ba)) is represented as a human-headed bird that leaves the body when a person dies.___((Akh)) was a concept of the dead that varied over the long history of ancient Egyptian belief, was associated with thought, but not as an action of the mind; rather, it was intellect as a living entity.

*“May it see my corpse; may it rest on my mummy, Which will never be destroyed or perish.” PAPYRUS OF ANI, New Kingdom, Dynasty XVIII, Collection of The British Museum.*

Our topic in this article is the Ba, the master of soul and body, and we have the chance to read an excellent interview by Marie Grillot with brilliant Michèle Juret and an introduction of her book about the secret of this bird and all we can get to know about it.

Tomb of Irynefer Deir el-Medina (Flickr)

“The ba-bird, second life in ancient Egypt”: the new work by Michèle Juret

via: égyptophile

Inherkaou and his “ba”, represented in the burial chamber of the tomb of this team leader for the Master of the Deux-Terres
TT 359 – Deir el-Medina – 20th dynasty – Ramses III Ramses IV
“The ba-bird, Second Life in Ancient Egypt” by Michèle Juret – published by Books on Demand

A graduate of the École du Louvre and curator of the Montgeron Museum, Michèle Juret is notably “the” biographer of the Egyptologist Etienne Drioton, the last French director of the Egyptian Antiquities Service.

With her new publication: “The Ba-bird, Second Life in Ancient Egypt”, she devotes herself to a theme that is particularly dear to her since it was, from 2002, the subject of her research dissertation. Driven by her interest and passion for this entity flying “between two worlds”, she has never stopped researching and “taming” its multiple and diverse representations… Evoked in several chapters of the “Book of the Dead”, the ba-bird is found on the walls of tombs, on coffins, papyri, steles, statues, offering tables, or even on pectorals and amulets…
As meticulously as it is applied, this well-documented study allows us to understand better this conception of “ba” so intimately – and specifically – linked to ancient Egypt…

Michèle Juret, author of “The Ba-bird, Second Life in Ancient Egypt”
published by Books on Demand in May 2022

MG-EA: To understand what a “ba-bird” is, we must certainly first understand the importance of this “ba” entity in the conception of the personality of the ancient Egyptians.

Michèle Juret: First of all, I would like to thank you, Marie Grillot, for this interview, which allows us to discuss the essentials of this work, namely the observation of the iconography of the ba in the light of the funerary texts.
As you say, it is first necessary to understand the importance of this fundamental entity, a guarantee of survival.

For the ancient Egyptians, the individual is made up of various elements:
The body, immobilized by death, will remain in the grave.
Ka, the vital force, draws its energy from food.
The Akh, celestial spirit, magical power, can be beneficial or evil.
The shadow will enjoy a certain independence.
We commonly translate the ba by the word soul, although the concept is much more complex. An important element is that it is of divine nature. The Alter-ego of the deceased is essential to his survival.

MG-EA: The ba-bird generally presents itself as a composite, anthropo-cephalous being, that is to say, with a human head and a bird’s body: when did it appear, in this form, in the iconography?

Michèle Juret: This half-avian/half-human appearance is the culmination of a slow evolution. From the Old Kingdom, the king’s ba, named in the Pyramid Texts, appears in hieroglyphic writing as a wader with a loop at the base of the neck. In Middle Kingdom texts, it is seen as a bird with the head of the living (human) without this image appearing in the writing. Finally, some amulets and masks decorated with feathers date from this period, and then the rishi sarcophagi will become milestones towards this figure of an anthropo-cephalous bird that we will commonly encounter from the New Kingdom onwards.

Irynefer and her “ba”, represented in the burial chamber of the tomb of this servant in the Place of Truth.
TT 290 – Deir el-Medina – 19th dynasty – Ramesses II

MG-EA: Indispensable to the survival of the being that death has immobilized the ba-bird, he enjoys total freedom… He can enter and leave the grave in, you write, “a moving interdependence with the deceased”? He thus becomes the guarantor of his “post-mortem” future?

Michèle Juret: Indeed, Le ba enjoys total freedom. He will be able to leave the tomb, climb into Ra’s boat, benefit from its rays, drink the regenerating water of the tree goddess, benefit from the food offerings… Every evening, he will rejoin the body of his deceased; their survival depends on their reunion… Observing this iconography transports us into an almost magical world. We follow the entity in its daily comings and goings, alone or accompanying its deceased, maintaining its own life through food offerings or providing this food for the deceased’s ka. Finally, it unites with it in an interdependent guarantee of survival.

Bird-ba of Youya – painted limestone – 18th dynasty – from his tomb KV 46
Cairo Museum – CG 51176

MG-EA: Evoked and invoked in several chapters of the Book of the Dead, associated with the cycle of the sun, it is itself endowed with several “becomings”?

Michèle Juret: Yes, in fact, several futures are possible for him. We have just mentioned the best and most probable, the second life as an alter-ego of the deceased. Let us remember that the post-mortem fate of the ancient Egyptians is complex. A solar destiny will allow him to follow Ra in his boat or a stellar one among the stars, and finally, an Osirian destiny will allow him to cultivate the fields of Ialou. How can we reconcile these notions, which seem contradictory? The ba-bird becomes the answer to this question and the link between these different post-mortem futures. His destiny is divine.

But he could be led towards another destiny linked to that of the heart, a very important element.

The texts also evoke the presence of the ba at the weighing of the heart, a scene of judgment also called psychostasis. In chapter 125 of the Book of the Dead, it is attested through Thoth’s words: “I have examined the heart of Osiris Ani while his ba presents himself, stands as a witness about him…” In the vignette from this papyrus, we see the ba-bird witnessing this judgment. Its future is linked to that of the heart. The Book of Caves gives a version of its annihilation if the heart is declared guilty. While this would be separated from the deceased and thrown into one cauldron, the ba and the shadow would be thrown into another. The deceased would be among the damned, those who no longer have a soul. Like that of the body, the destiny of the ba is linked to that of the heart key of life.

“Birds-ba” represented at the bottom right of this scene from the burial chamber of the tomb of Nebenmâat.
servant of the Place of Truth – TT 219 – Deir el-Medina – 19th dynasty

MG-EA: Your research, targeted on the “ba-birds” of individuals from the New Kingdom, was based on a vast literature and the study of numerous of their representations: their iconography is rich and evolving, and the location where they take place, always full of meaning?

Michèle Juret: Yes, as you say, these representations are loaded with meaning. It was important to bring the iconography closer to the funerary texts. There, we find the reading keys. The analysis of the documentation fully reflects the different situations they express. Furthermore, the location of certain scenes on the tombs’ walls was not chosen randomly but determined according to the theme evoked.

MG-EA: You not only studied their adornments and hairstyle, but to refine their description and relate them to existing species, you also had to develop ornithological talents?

Michèle Juret: Ornaments and hairstyles allowed me, in some instances, to put forward a possible desire to identify with the deceased.
Furthermore, observing the bodily appearance of these birds, another aspect of this study, highlighted different options in the choice of species depending on the chapters of the Book of the Dead that they illustrate. This observation proved fascinating, and I ventured to put forward some hypotheses. Unfortunately, I didn’t have the “ornithologist talents” you mentioned. A specialist from the Natural History Museum helped me a lot with this identification.

Raya and his “ba”, represented in the tomb of this Fourth Prophet of Amon
TT 159 – Dra Abou el-Naga – 19th dynasty

MG-EA: Would you not be tempted, now, to take an interest in the “ba-birds” of the pharaohs and queens?

Michèle Juret: Obviously, it’s a subject that also deserves to be addressed. In this study, I was tempted to quickly evoke the ba-bird of Tutankhamun and especially that of Queen Nefertari, an extraordinary example. On the one hand, its extremely composite body appearance combines both falconiform and anseriform characteristics, two birds with solar connotations. On the other hand, its profile, resembling that of the queen and its crown, the remains of a vulture surmounted by the modius, reinforce this idea of a desire to identify the ba-bird with its deceased.

Nefertari and her “ba”, represented in the antechamber of the queen’s tomb
TT 66 – Deir el-Medina – 19th dynasty – Ramesses II

This iconography fully reflects the importance of the ba in the Egyptian’s concerns for his post-mortem future. It will also be able to completely replace itself and become, in its place, as a substitute, the active element. Survival is in him. This is perfectly expressed on the stele of Neferhotep, which caught the attention of Etienne Drioton…

Comments collected by Marie Grillot

Michèle Juret, The ba-bird, second life in ancient Egypt.”
188 pages – Publisher: Books on Demand
Publication date: 12.05.2022 https://www.bod.fr/librairie/loiseau-ba-michele-juret-9782322420131?fbclid=IwAR1z_prPOSx43ielkTm-o03OaqR-FWrdg6Ky9eBk1Zdyh1eOqSVOI0NMiuU

Published 6th October 2022 by Marie Grillot

Anuket, The Patron Deity of the Nile River

As we continue researching the precious heritages of ancient Egypt, we find more and more feminine Myths of the Goddesses!
Here is another one: Anuket, Anouket, Anukis, the Goddess of Nil.

Anuket (or Anukis, her Greek name) is a Nubian goddess, represented as a lady with a crown of feathers or reeds, with a sceptre, and the well-known ankh of Ancient Egyptian culture. Her name means “she who embraces”, and she was venerated in Sehel and Elephantine. Cairo

Anuket, in Egyptian religion, is the patron deity of the Nile River. Anuket is usually depicted as a beautiful woman wearing a crown of reeds and ostrich feathers and accompanied by a gazelle. She was initially a Nubian deity.

Here, we read an article about a beautiful emblem of this fascinating Goddess by the brilliant Marie Grillot.
I wish everybody a leisurely and peaceful Merry Christmas.💖🌹🥰

This emblem of Anouket in the Louvre attests to her cult in Deir-Medineh

via égyptophile

“Two-faced” emblem of Anouket (Anoukis) – painted wood (tamarisk and shea) – 19th dynasty (around 1295 – 1186 BC)
from Deir el-Medineh – Department of Egyptian Antiquities of the Louvre Museum – N 3534
by acquisition of the Salt Collection in 1826 (Salt n°559) – © 2006 Musée du Louvre / Christian Décamps

Associated with the god Khnum and the goddess Satis, Anouket (Anoukis) is the third divinity of the triad of the First Cataract, or Elephantine triad. She is generally presented as “the daughter of the divine couple” or even “the wife of the god”.

In “Ancient Egypt and its Gods”, Jean-Pierre Corteggiani specifies that one of her titles is: “Mistress of To-Seti, that is to say of Nubia; she is sometimes called the Nubian, although there is no evidence that it actually originated in this region, one of its functions is to guard the southern border of Egypt… And he adds, “As a text from the temple of Edfu clearly explains, if it is up to Satis, assimilated to Sothis, to raise the beneficial flow, it falls to Anoukis (Anouqis) the equally essential task of reduce and thus allow, after the flood has receded, seeds to germinate and vegetation to grow on the land released by the waters.” Therefore, it depends on the food and subsistence of an entire people, a whole country… This can explain the reason for the spread of its cult towards the north, notably to Deir el-Medineh, where it was probably introduced “by the workers who worked in the granite quarries of Aswan.

“Two-faced” emblem of Anouket (Anoukis) – painted wood (tamarisk and shea) – 19th dynasty (around 1295 – 1186 BC)
from Deir el-Medineh – Department of Egyptian Antiquities of the Louvre Museum – N 3534
by acquisition of the Salt Collection in 1826 (Salt n°559) – © 2006 Musée du Louvre / Christian Décamps

Between the high walls of “Set Maât her imenty Ouaset” (“the Place of Truth to the west of Thebes”, today’s Deir el-Medineh), they lived between 60 and 120 families dedicated to digging and decorating tombs of royal necropolises. They had stone houses covered with palm leaf roofs, their own necropolis, and places of worship. Amon, Ptah, Meretseger, and Hathor were celebrated there, but other divinities also had their place. Indeed, as Guillemette Andreu points out in “The Artists of Pharaon”, “Khnoum and his two consorts, Satis and Anoukis, enjoyed great favour in the community, without us knowing if a particular sanctuary was built for them. Likely, one of the numerous devotional chapels located north of the site was occasionally used as a place of worship, but these cults appear essentially private and domestic.

“Two-faced” emblem of Anouket (Anoukis) – painted wood (tamarisk and shea) – 19th dynasty (around 1295 – 1186 BC)
from Deir el-Medineh – Department of Egyptian Antiquities of the Louvre Museum – N 3534
by the acquisition of the Salt Collection in 1826 (Salt n°559)
published here by Dominique Valbelle in BIFAO 75, 1975

This “two-faced” emblem of Anouket made “For the ka of the servant in the Place of truth, Pached, acquitted”, testifies to this cult. On the other hand, in their “Guide to Deir el-Medina”, Guillemette Andreu and Dominique Valbelle recall that “the procession of the emblem of Anouqet is represented in the chapel of the tomb of the team leader Neferhotep”.

Two things are striking in the representations of Anouket: her very particular headdress, we will come back to it, and, more strikingly, her resemblance to Hathor. “As D. Valbelle has shown, this object, whose appearance evokes that of a hathoric sistrum, illustrates a syncretism between Ânouket of Elephantine and Hathor of Diospolis Parva in the context of a local cult in Deir el- Medineh” recalls Christophe Barbotin in “Egyptian statues of the New Kingdom”.

It is made from tamarisk wood, is 27.5 cm high and 13.5 cm wide, and rests on a shea tree base. The support, comparable to a fluted column, is surrounded by horizontal lines. The head surmounts it – in fact, two heads, reproduced identically, “back to back” – of the Goddess. Her face takes the shape of a diamond with rounded contours. The widest part is at the level of the cow’s ears and the thinnest at the chin level. Her large eyes, stretched with a line of makeup, are painted black with a large dark iris, which leaves little space for the white of the eye. They are topped over their entire length by very arched eyebrows, hollow and encrusted with a black material. The nose is flat, and the mouth with drooping corners displays a slight difference on the two sides, one of the upper lip being thinner. The left side of one of the two faces is marked with a long and painful scar.

Anouket’s main attribute, which makes her immediately identifiable, is her high and generous headdress made of ostrich feathers. Christophe Barbotin precisely describes this: “The mortar, painted red with vertical white lines, is topped with feathers with traces of blue and red paint (seven feathers on each side, three on each edge). It is placed on a black-painted cap visible at the top of each face but not on the sides. The top of the feathers constitutes a perfectly flat surface.

This Anouket emblem dates from the 19th dynasty (c. 1295 – 1186 BC). It arrived at the Louvre Museum in 1826 through the acquisition by Charles X – for the sum of 250,000 francs – of the collection of the British consul Henry Salt. Jean-François Champollion will also go to Livorno to draw up a descriptive inventory of the 4014 objects, this one bearing the number 559. In his “Descriptive note of the Egyptian monuments of the Charles X Museum” (1827), he will present it under A.136, “Painted wood. Symbolic head of the goddess Anouké”. Today, it is exhibited in the Sully wing, in room 336, dedicated to the Nile, under inventory number N 3534.

Marie Grillot

Sources:

Anouket Emblem https://collections.louvre.fr/ark:/53355/cl010024883 Jean-Pierre Corteggiani, Ancient Egypt and its gods – Illustrated dictionary, Fayard 2007
Sylvie Guichard, Jean-François Champollion, Descriptive notice of the Egyptian monuments of the Charles 87-88, illus. p. 88, A. 136
Guillemette Andreu, The artists of Pharaon. Deir el-Medina and the Valley of the Kings, RMN; Brepols, 2002, p. 273, ill. p. 272, no. 221a -Andreu, Guillemette; Valbelle, Dominica, Guide to Deir el-Medina. A village of artists, Cairo, French Institute of Oriental Archeology (IFAO), 2022, p. 150, fig. 131 – Barbotin, Christophe, Egyptian statues of the New Kingdom, 1, Royal and divine statues, [Louvre Museum, Paris], Paris, Louvre éditions / éditions Khéops, 2007, p. 146-147, figs. 1-15 p. 238-241, no. 85
Dominique Valbelle, Testimonies of the New Kingdom on the cults of Satis and Anoukis at Elephantine and at Deir el-Médineh, Bulletin of the French Institute of Oriental Archeology (BIFAO), 75, 1975, p. 123-145, https://www.ifao.egnet.net/bifao/75/7/, p. 141-145, figs. 7, pl. XXI-XXIIII, Doc. 10 Jean-François Champollion, Descriptive notice of the Egyptian monuments of the Charles X Museum, Paris, Imprimerie de Crapelet, 1827, p. 7, A.136 https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k1040365n

Publié il y a 15th October par Marie Grillot

Libellés: 1826 Anoukis bois Collection Salt Deir el-Medineh Emblème; Anouket karité Louvre N 3534 Salt n°559 tamaris

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