tag:theconversation.com,2011:/ca/topics/ancient-egypt-8784/articles
Ancient Egypt – The Conversation
2024-03-14T19:24:37Z
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/223970
2024-03-14T19:24:37Z
2024-03-14T19:24:37Z
From malaria, to smallpox, to polio – here’s how we know life in ancient Egypt was ravaged by disease
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/581183/original/file-20240312-29-m4tny7.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=55%2C30%2C3338%2C2234&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>The mention of ancient Egypt usually conjures images of colossal pyramids and precious, golden tombs. </p>
<p>But as with most civilisations, the invisible world of infectious disease underpinned life and death along the Nile. In fact, fear of disease was so pervasive it influenced social and religious customs. It even featured in the statues, monuments and graves of the Kingdom of the Pharaohs. </p>
<p>By studying ancient specimens and artefacts, scientists are uncovering how disease rocked this ancient culture. </p>
<h2>Tutankhamun’s malaria, and other examples</h2>
<p>The most direct evidence of epidemics in ancient Egypt comes from skeletal and DNA evidence obtained from the mummies themselves.</p>
<p>For instance, DNA recovered from the mummy of the boy pharaoh Tutankhamun (1332–1323 BC) led to the discovery he <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/20159872/">suffered from malaria</a>, along with several other New Kingdom mummies (circa 1800 BC). </p>
<p>In other examples:</p>
<ul>
<li>skeletal and DNA <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11289521/">evidence found</a> in the city of Abydos suggests one in four people may have had tuberculosis </li>
<li>the mummy of Ramesses V (circa 1149–1145 BC) has scars indicating smallpox </li>
<li>the wives of Mentuhotep II (circa 2000 BC) were buried hastily in a “mass grave”, suggesting <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9186437/">a pandemic</a> had occurred</li>
<li>and the mummies of two pharaohs, Siptah (1197–1191 BC) and Khnum-Nekht (circa 1800 BC), were <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s10072-016-2720-9">found with</a> the deformed <a href="https://www.shorelineortho.com/specialties/foot_ankle_equinus.php">equinus</a> foot which is characteristic of the viral disease polio.</li>
</ul>
<h2>Signs of a disease-ravaged people</h2>
<p>Amenhotep III was the ninth pharaoh of the 18th dynasty, and ruled from about 1388–1351 BC.</p>
<p>There are several reasons experts think his reign was marked by a devastating disease outbreak. For instance, two separate carvings from this time depict a priest and a royal couple with the polio dropped-foot. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577699/original/file-20240224-30-9gt04r.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577699/original/file-20240224-30-9gt04r.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577699/original/file-20240224-30-9gt04r.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=844&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577699/original/file-20240224-30-9gt04r.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=844&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577699/original/file-20240224-30-9gt04r.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=844&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577699/original/file-20240224-30-9gt04r.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1060&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577699/original/file-20240224-30-9gt04r.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1060&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577699/original/file-20240224-30-9gt04r.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1060&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This 18th dynasty panel depicts a polio sufferer.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Polio_Egyptian_Stele.jpg">Wikimedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Statues of the lion-headed goddess of disease and health, Sekhmet, also <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/33227516/">increased significantly</a>, suggesting a reliance on divine protection.</p>
<p>Another sign of a potential major disease outbreak comes in the form of what may be an early case of quarantine, wherein Amenhotep III moved his palace to the more isolated site of Malqata. This is further supported by the burning of a workers’ cemetery near Thebes. </p>
<p>Grave goods also became less extravagant and tombs less complex during this period, which suggests more burials were needed in a shorter time frame. These burials can’t be explained by war since this was an unusually peaceful period.</p>
<h2>Did disease trigger early monotheism?</h2>
<p>Amenohotep’s son – “the heretic King” Akhenaten (who was also Tutankhamun’s father) – abandoned the old gods of Egypt. In one of the earliest cases of monotheism, Akhenaten made worship of the Sun the official state religion. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577700/original/file-20240224-26-gurcmn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/577700/original/file-20240224-26-gurcmn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=755&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577700/original/file-20240224-26-gurcmn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=755&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577700/original/file-20240224-26-gurcmn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=755&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577700/original/file-20240224-26-gurcmn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=949&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577700/original/file-20240224-26-gurcmn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=949&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/577700/original/file-20240224-26-gurcmn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=949&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This panel (circa 1372-1355 BC) shows Akhenaten, Nefertiti and their daughters adoring the Sun god Aten.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:La_salle_dAkhenaton_(1356-1340_av_J.C.)_(Mus%C3%A9e_du_Caire)_(2076972086).jpg">Wikimedia</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Some <a href="https://www.thecollector.com/akhenaten-monotheism-plague-egypt/">researchers think</a> Akhenaten’s dramatic loss of faith may have been due to the devastating disease he witnessed during his childhood and into his reign, with several of his children and wives having died from disease. But we’ve yet to find clear evidence for the role of disease in shaping his theology.</p>
<p>There’s also no direct DNA evidence of an outbreak under his father, Amenhotep III. There are only descriptions of one <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/history-and-civilisation/2021/01/these-pharaohs-private-letters-expose-how-politics-worked-3300-years-ago">in letters</a> Amenhotep III and Akhenaten exchanged with the Babylonians. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580627/original/file-20240308-16-mt400i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580627/original/file-20240308-16-mt400i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/580627/original/file-20240308-16-mt400i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=302&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580627/original/file-20240308-16-mt400i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=302&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580627/original/file-20240308-16-mt400i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=302&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580627/original/file-20240308-16-mt400i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580627/original/file-20240308-16-mt400i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/580627/original/file-20240308-16-mt400i.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=380&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">These clay tablets (circa 14th century BC), inscribed in Babylonian cuneiform, were sent to Amenhotep III or Akhenaten from the ruler Abdi-tirshi of Hazor (modern-day Israel).</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">British Museum</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To confirm an outbreak under Amenhotep III, we’d need to first recover pathogen DNA in human remains from this time, has been found in other Egyptian burial sites and for <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/21993626/">other pandemics</a>.</p>
<p>Also, while many ancient epidemics are referred to as “plagues”, we can’t confirm whether any outbreaks in ancient Egypt were indeed caused by <em>Yersinia pestis</em>, the bacteria responsible for bubonic plague pandemics <a href="https://www.britannica.com/event/Black-Death">such as the Black Death</a> in Europe (1347-1351). </p>
<p>That said, researchers <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/3554655">have confirmed</a> the Nile rat, which was widespread during the time of the Pharaohs, would have been able to carry the <em>Yersinia</em> infection.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579796/original/file-20240305-24-p439xf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579796/original/file-20240305-24-p439xf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579796/original/file-20240305-24-p439xf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579796/original/file-20240305-24-p439xf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579796/original/file-20240305-24-p439xf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=427&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579796/original/file-20240305-24-p439xf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579796/original/file-20240305-24-p439xf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579796/original/file-20240305-24-p439xf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=537&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This 1811 etching depicts the ancient Plague of Athens (circa 430 BC), which may have been caused by <em>Yersinia</em> or a disease with similar symptoms such as smallpox, typhus or measles.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/image/1047063001">The British Museum</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>How were outbreaks managed?</h2>
<p>Much like modern pandemics, factors such as population growth, sanitation, population density and mobilisation for war would have influenced the spread of disease in ancient Egypt. </p>
<p>In the case of war, it’s thought the Hittite army was <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9186437/">weakened by</a> disease spread when it was famously <a href="https://www.khanacademy.org/humanities/world-history/world-history-beginnings/ancient-egypt-hittites/a/the-hittites">defeated by</a> Egyptian Pharaoh Ramses the Great in the battle of Kadesh (1274 BC). </p>
<p>In some ways, Egyptian medicine was advanced for its time. While these outbreaks occurred long before the development of antibiotics or vaccines, there is some evidence of public health measures such as the burning of towns and quarantining people. This suggests a basic understanding of how disease spreads. </p>
<p>Diseases caused by microorganisms would have been viewed as supernatural, or as a <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC1121911/">corruption of the air</a>. This is similar to other explanations held in different parts of the world, before germ theory was popularised in the 19th century.</p>
<h2>New world, old problems</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579797/original/file-20240305-28-cqzgoc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579797/original/file-20240305-28-cqzgoc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/579797/original/file-20240305-28-cqzgoc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579797/original/file-20240305-28-cqzgoc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579797/original/file-20240305-28-cqzgoc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=750&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579797/original/file-20240305-28-cqzgoc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579797/original/file-20240305-28-cqzgoc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/579797/original/file-20240305-28-cqzgoc.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=943&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The funerary mask of Tutankhamun, who died as a teenager.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CairoEgMuseumTaaMaskMostlyPhotographed.jpg">Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Many of the most widespread diseases that afflicted the ancient world are still with us.</p>
<p>Along with Tutankhamun, it’s thought <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laninf/article/PIIS1473-3099(17)30261-X/abstract">up to 70%</a> of the Egyptian population was infected with malaria caused by the <em>Plasmodium falciparum</em> parasite – spread by swarms of mosquitoes occupying the stagnant pools of the Nile delta. </p>
<p>Today, malaria affects about 250 million people, mostly in developing nations. Tuberculosis kills more than a million people each year. And smallpox and polio have only recently been eradicated or controlled through vaccination programs.</p>
<p>More work is yet to be done to detect individual pathogens in Egyptian mummies. This knowledge could shed light on how, throughout history, people much like us have grappled with these unseen organisms.</p>
<hr>
<p>
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<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/did-everyone-in-bridgerton-have-syphilis-just-how-sexy-would-it-really-have-been-in-regency-era-london-180581">Did everyone in Bridgerton have syphilis? Just how sexy would it really have been in Regency era London?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/223970/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Thomas Jeffries does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Beyond the tombs and riches, life in ancient Egypt wasn’t so luxurious, after all.
Thomas Jeffries, Senior Lecturer in Microbiology, Western Sydney University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/219136
2023-12-12T14:42:58Z
2023-12-12T14:42:58Z
Madagascar cave art hints at ancient connections between Africa and Asia
<p>Unique, prehistoric rock art drawings have been discovered in the Andriamamelo Cave in western Madagascar. </p>
<p>I was part of a team that <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/15564894.2020.1749735">discovered and described</a> these ancient treasures. They’re the first truly pictorial art, depicting images of nature with human-like and animal-like figures, to be seen on the island. Until recently, rock art in Madagascar had only yielded a few sites with basic symbols.</p>
<p>The dramatic discoveries contained several surprises, including hints at some remarkable cultural connections. </p>
<p>First, scenes depicted in some cases linked up fairly directly to Egyptian religious motifs from the Ptolemaic period (300-30 BCE). </p>
<p>Second, other inferences from symbols and writing on the walls showed connections to the Ethiopian and Afro-Arab worlds. </p>
<p>Finally, prevalent symbology and motifs evoked a two-millennia-old cave art style from Borneo. </p>
<p>An additional realm of surprises: at least three extinct animals of Madagascar (thought to have been extinct for many centuries) may be depicted – a giant sloth lemur, elephant birds and a giant tortoise. </p>
<p>It has long been believed – and <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/30846019_The_Culture_History_of_Madagascar">evidence</a> has confirmed – that the people, language, and culture of Madagascar are rooted in distant ancient connections to Borneo, an island in south-east Asia, combined with strong influences from continental eastern Africa.</p>
<p>However, who the first Malagasy were, when they arrived, and what they did after that, are all hotly <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S0277379119303282?via%3Dihub">debated</a> topics.</p>
<p>Though our findings are speculative, any information that might be derived from the Andriamamelo Cave evidence is of considerable interest to the reconstruction of Malagasy early history.</p>
<h2>Connections beyond Madagascar</h2>
<p>Our research group – including Malagasy scientists from local institutions, and American, British and Australian specialists – visited the site near the village of Anahidrano on the north-west edge of the 17,100-hectare Beanka protected area in 2013. </p>
<p>Our team spent several days recording the images, surveying and mapping the entire cave, searching for associated archaeological sites, and interviewing local villagers regarding the art. It took several years, however, to search through relevant literature and museum archives to confirm the uniqueness and significance of what we’d found.</p>
<p>We made digital copies and hand-drawings of 72 cave-art objects. These were drawn in black pigment and included 16 animals, six human forms, two human-animal hybrid forms, two geometric designs, 16 examples of an M-shaped symbol, and many other patterns and indistinct forms. </p>
<p>Egyptian connections are hinted at in eight major images, including a falcon (Horus); the bird-headed god Thoth; the ostrich goddess Ma`at and two human-animal figures which were similar to Anubis – an ancient Egyptian god usually depicted as a man with a canine head. </p>
<p>The ubiquitous and mysterious M-figures demand explanation: we suggested, after searching many relevant alphabets, that it is a perfect match for only one, the letter “hawt” (ሐ) in the ancient Ethiopian Amharic alphabet, pronounced “ha”.</p>
<p>Surprisingly, though, we also found this symbol in cave art from Borneo thought to be about 2,000 years old, and in no other cave or rock art throughout the Indo-Pacific region. In some Austronesian languages (the diverse language family that extends from Malagasy on the west to distant Hawaii and Rapa Nui in the Pacific), the word “ha” is a term for the “breath of life”. </p>
<p>All these possible connections remind us that Madagascar’s people, language, and culture are in themselves syncretic, blending African and Asian influences to produce a unique Malagasy people.</p>
<p>The richly detailed and diverse art is notable also for what it doesn’t show. </p>
<p>No Christian, Muslim or Hindu symbolism is depicted, and no relatively modern motifs such as the Latin alphabet, cars, airplanes or flags. Even the ubiquitous zebu (cattle), the culturally paramount symbol of the last thousand years or more in Madagascar, are absent.</p>
<h2>When and whose</h2>
<p>It’s hard to know exactly when these drawings were made. Direct dating of cave art is notoriously difficult, and proved so in this case as the black pigment was made from dark inorganic minerals with only a small component of charcoal we could use for radiocarbon dating. </p>
<p>The presence of extinct animals, and the lack of modern motifs and the alphabet used in modern Malagasy, weigh heavily against the notion of a recent origin for the art.</p>
<p>We suspect that the art is about 2,000 years old – dating back to the time of Cleopatra or before, based on the religious motifs. If it is, that is remarkable and useful to know because it may provide evidence for who colonised Madagascar and when.</p>
<p>If, on the other hand, a set of pre-Christian religious beliefs has survived for centuries or even millennia among certain ethnic groups in very remote areas of the immense island – retaining recognisable influences from Egypt, Ethiopia and Borneo – that would be perhaps more remarkable. Village informants hinted at that possibility, by insisting that the “sorcerer” pictured was a member of a mysterious group of “Vazimba” or “Bosy”) who lived in the forest nearby.</p>
<p>So, whose art is this? We wish we knew, but clues are mostly lacking. The only possible writing, besides the M-figures, is a line of faint script in the lower right corner of this rock-art extravaganza. </p>
<p>Our best guess is that the legible middle six of eight characters, inferred to be <em>sorabe</em>, archaic Malagasy writing in Arabic script, may say “D-A-NT-IA-R-K”. </p>
<p>Does that refer to Antiochus IV Epiphanes? This king of the Seleucid Empire (western Asia) in the Ptolemaic period built a large navy, conquered much of Egypt in 170 BCE, and sent exploring and trading expeditions down the Red Sea and the east African coast. Ivory traders in that period <a href="https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/200009">spread</a> Roman goods as far south as ports in Tanzania south of Zanzibar, to trade with Azania. </p>
<p>Until more art or relevant archaeological evidence turns up for ancient African and Asian influences in Madagascar, we can only speculate.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/219136/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>David Burney received funding from the National Geographic Society for the field research leading to these discoveries.</span></em></p>
Rock art from a Malagasy cave hints at some remarkable cultural connections.
David Burney, Professor of Conservation Paleobiology, National Tropical Botanical Garden, and Adjunct Professor, University of Hawaii
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/214263
2023-11-20T19:00:38Z
2023-11-20T19:00:38Z
Timeless allure: why Australia is filled to the brim with exhibitions on ancient Egypt
<p>Closing last month, this year WA Museum Boola Bardip in Perth was host to a major exhibition <a href="https://visit.museum.wa.gov.au/boolabardip/discovering-ancient-egypt">Discovering Ancient Egypt</a>.</p>
<p>The Australian Museum’s “once-in-a-lifetime” <a href="https://australian.museum/exhibition/ramses/">Ramses & The Gold of the Pharaohs</a> exhibition featuring 181 objects from ancient Egypt opened last week in Sydney.</p>
<p>Just four weeks after that exhibition shuts, the 2024 “winter masterpieces” exhibition at the National Gallery of Victoria in Melbourne will be <a href="https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/exhibition/pharaoh/">Pharaoh</a>, featuring 500 objects in the largest international loan ever from the British Museum. </p>
<p>Why is there such an intense fascination with a civilisation so far removed from our time and place?</p>
<h2>Centuries of Egyptomania</h2>
<p>Few historical cultures seem to have such a hold over the minds of the general public. </p>
<p>Awe-inspiring temples, elaborate mummification rituals, beliefs in afterlife, and contributions to <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books?hl=en&lr=&id=g1ooDwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PP17&dq=ancient+Egyptian+engineering&ots=KkhNGELDL3&sig=myeyhg75-cNDxdZhP8uf25AQmqo&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=ancient%20Egyptian%20engineering&f=false">science, technology, engineering</a> and <a href="https://www.worldhistory.org/Egyptian_Medicine/">medicine</a> left an indelible mark on the course of human progress.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559220/original/file-20231114-23-ceqaiv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559220/original/file-20231114-23-ceqaiv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559220/original/file-20231114-23-ceqaiv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=851&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559220/original/file-20231114-23-ceqaiv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=851&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559220/original/file-20231114-23-ceqaiv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=851&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559220/original/file-20231114-23-ceqaiv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1069&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559220/original/file-20231114-23-ceqaiv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1069&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559220/original/file-20231114-23-ceqaiv.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1069&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Napoleon in Egypt (Jean-Léon Gérôme),, 1953-78.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://artmuseum.princeton.edu/collections/objects/24513.">Image courtesy of the Princeton University Art Museum.</a></span>
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<p>“Egyptomania”, a term coined to describe the West’s fascination with Egypt, can be traced back to Napoleon’s expedition in the late 18th century. <a href="https://www.napoleon.org/en/young-historians/napodoc/bonaparte-in-egypt-2-the-scientific-expedition/">Scientific discoveries</a> and <a href="https://www.ngv.vic.gov.au/napoleon/facts-and-figures/napoleon-in-egypt.html">illustrations</a> from that expedition fuelled worldwide curiosity about the secrets of this ancient land. </p>
<p>A key figure of the Egyptomania was <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Giovanni-Battista-Belzoni">Giovanni Battista Belzoni</a> (1778–1823), an Italian explorer and strongman (and con-man) whose daring adventures and discoveries – including removal of colossal Egyptian statues – added fuel to the fire. </p>
<p>This cultural phenomenon influenced fashion and design. Egyptian motifs, such as lotus flowers, scarabs and sphinxes became popular decorative elements in clothing, jewellery and <a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/erev/hd_erev.htm">home decor</a> during the 19th and early 20th centuries.</p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559224/original/file-20231114-25-84pk4b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559224/original/file-20231114-25-84pk4b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559224/original/file-20231114-25-84pk4b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559224/original/file-20231114-25-84pk4b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559224/original/file-20231114-25-84pk4b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559224/original/file-20231114-25-84pk4b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559224/original/file-20231114-25-84pk4b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559224/original/file-20231114-25-84pk4b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=603&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Armchair featuring Egyptian-inspired designs, attributed to Pottier and Stymus Manufacturing Company ca. 1870–75.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/237">The Metropolitan Museum of Art</a></span>
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<p>Agatha Christie (who was married to archaeologist Max Mallowan and spent many years working on excavations in the Middle East) sent her famous detective Hercule Poirot into the world of mummies and pharaohs in <a href="https://www.agathachristie.com/en/stories/death-on-the-nile">Death on the Nile</a> and set <a href="https://www.agathachristie.com/en/stories/death-comes-as-the-end">Death Comes as the End</a> on the Western Bank of Thebes.</p>
<p>Ancient Egypt’s grip on our collective consciousness manifests <a href="https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/Ancient_Egypt_in_the_Popular_Imagination/bqPVFW-0B3MC?hl=en&gbpv=0">throughout popular culture</a>. Films such as The Mummy and Cleopatra, games such as Assassin’s Creed Origins and popular cartoon TV series <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0386986/">Tutenstein</a> blend historical facts with creative storytelling, perpetuating the mystique and wonder of this lost civilisation. </p>
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<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/2wmzRZzGRtc?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
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<p>Ancient Egypt is a staple in schools. For many Australians, their first introduction to a world beyond their immediate surroundings often comes in the form of ancient Egyptian history in the <a href="https://www.australiancurriculum.edu.au/f-10-curriculum/humanities-and-social-sciences/history/?strand=Historical+Knowledge+and+Understanding&strand=Historical+Skills&capability=ignore&priority=ignore&year=12318&elaborations=true&cd=ACOKFH003&searchTerm=ACOKFH003">national curriculum for year 7</a>. </p>
<p>This portal to history and foreign cultures opened in childhood often results in lifelong fascination. You might ask: how much Egypt can Australians take? It seems the answer is “a lot”.</p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/more-than-a-story-of-treasures-revisiting-tutankhamuns-tomb-100-years-after-its-discovery-193293">More than a story of treasures: revisiting Tutankhamun's tomb 100 years after its discovery</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>A long line of exhibitions</h2>
<p>These latest exhibitions follow a long, near continuous, list of Egyptian exhibitions in Australia. </p>
<p>In 2007, the National Gallery of Australia showcased <a href="https://nga.gov.au/exhibitions/egyptian-antiquities-from-the-louvre/">Egyptian Antiquities from the Louvre: Journey to the Afterlife</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2010-10-30/tutankhamuns-treasures-heading-to-australia/2317636">Tutankhamen And The Golden Age Of The Pharaohs</a> was at the Melbourne Museum in 2011. The Western Australian Museum hosted <a href="https://museum.wa.gov.au/whats-on/afterlife">Secrets of the Afterlife: Magic, Mummies and Immortality in Ancient Egypt</a> in 2013. <a href="https://artsreview.com.au/egyptian-mummies-exploring-ancient-lives/">Egyptian Mummies: Exploring Ancient Lives</a> was at Sydney’s Powerhouse in 2016.</p>
<p>In 2012, the Queensland Museum hosted items from the British Museum in <a href="https://recollections.nma.gov.au/issues/volume_8_number_1/exhibition_reviews/mummy_secrets_of_the_tomb">Mummy: Secrets of the Tomb</a>. The same museum hosted British Museum artefacts again in 2018 in <a href="https://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/national/queensland/egyptian-mummies-digitally-unwrapped-in-brisbane-20180315-p4z4jm.html">Egyptian Mummies: Exploring Ancient Lives</a>. In between, the Queensland University Museum hosted <a href="https://www.uq.edu.au/events/event_view.php?event_id=12181">Egypt: Land of the Pharaohs</a> from 2016–18.</p>
<p>From an <a href="https://www.sydney.edu.au/museum/whats-on/exhibitions/the-egyptian-galleries.html">impressive gallery</a> in Chau Chak Wing Museum in Sydney to the small – and in need of a serious update – gallery in the <a href="https://www.samuseum.sa.gov.au/ancient-egypt-gallery">South Australian Museum</a>, each state also proudly displays its own permanent collection of ancient Egyptian artefacts.</p>
<p>Despite this extensive exhibition history, Australia’s interest in ancient Egypt seems to show no signs of waning.</p>
<h2>Shifting Egyptology</h2>
<p>The new exhibition in Sydney gives a <a href="https://australian.museum/exhibition/ramses/">window into the life and accomplishments of Ramses II</a> who ruled Egypt for 67 years.</p>
<p>The National Gallery of Victoria’s exhibition will aim to deepen visitors’ understanding of ancient Egyptian culture, allowing them to see <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2023/sep/20/national-gallery-victoria-pharaoh-exhibition-egypt-2024-winter-masterpieces">beyond the opulence</a>.</p>
<p>This is part of a broader shift in Egyptology, archaeology and history towards emphasising understanding of <a href="https://www.york.ac.uk/research/themes/egypt/">the lives of everyday people</a>. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559227/original/file-20231114-17-ul1ah1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559227/original/file-20231114-17-ul1ah1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/559227/original/file-20231114-17-ul1ah1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559227/original/file-20231114-17-ul1ah1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559227/original/file-20231114-17-ul1ah1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=382&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559227/original/file-20231114-17-ul1ah1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559227/original/file-20231114-17-ul1ah1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/559227/original/file-20231114-17-ul1ah1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=480&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Painting from the tomb chapel of Nebamen, 1350BC.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/image/244305001">© The Trustees of the British Museum</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-sa/4.0/">CC BY-NC-SA</a></span>
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<p>For a long time, Egyptology was centred on grand monuments, temples, tombs, pharaohs and the elite. We now recognise that to understand a civilisation we need to also explore the lives, activities and contributions of ordinary people.</p>
<p>But these major exhibitions coincide with rising debates about the provenance and repatriation of artefacts. A Tutankhamen exhibition which toured the world just before the COVID pandemic and which was scheduled to <a href="https://www.smh.com.au/culture/art-and-design/sydney-s-blockbuster-king-tut-show-cancelled-for-good-20210317-p57bjb.html">appear in Sydney</a> has, amid <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/av/world-middle-east-53342665">some controversy</a>, finally settled back at home, in the Grand Museum in Cairo, Egypt, where it will – hopefully – remain forever.</p>
<p>Repatriation of artefacts is a sensitive issue that has been gaining momentum in recent years and questions are being raised, even more loudly now, whether institutions such as <a href="https://www.plutobooks.com/9780745341767/the-brutish-museums/">the British Museum should even possess</a> such artefacts. </p>
<p>Zahi Hawass, former minister of antiquities for Egypt, has called for repatriation of stolen heritage and accused western museums of <a href="https://www.newarab.com/analysis/should-british-museum-return-its-egyptian-collection?ssp=1&setlang=en-AU&safesearch=moderate">continuing imperialistic practice</a> by purchasing new artefacts and refusing to return them to their country of origin. Some large travelling exhibitions are already moving away from displaying these artefacts towards immersive digital experiences with great examples in <a href="https://www.visitlisboa.com/en/events/mysterious-egypt">Lisbon</a>, <a href="https://www.oebb.at/en/tickets-kundenkarten/freizeit-urlaub/oebb-plus/wien/tutanchamun">Vienna</a> and <a href="https://visit-gem.com/tut">Cairo</a>. </p>
<p>For now in Australia, though, it is not just artefacts and treasures that will be on display. It is a celebration of human spirit, ingenuity and quest for knowledge. The sands of time have failed to bury our fascination in ancient Egypt.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-discovery-of-the-lost-city-of-the-dazzling-aten-will-offer-vital-clues-about-domestic-and-urban-life-in-ancient-egypt-158874">The discovery of the lost city of 'the Dazzling Aten' will offer vital clues about domestic and urban life in Ancient Egypt</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
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<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/214263/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anna M. Kotarba-Morley receives funding from Australian Research Council. </span></em></p>
A new exhibition in Sydney is just the latest in a long, near continuous, list of Egyptian exhibitions in Australia. How much Egypt can we take?
Anna M. Kotarba-Morley, Lecturer in Museum and Curatorial Studies, University of Adelaide
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/216274
2023-10-30T01:30:47Z
2023-10-30T01:30:47Z
Necromancers, demons and friendly ghosts: humans have been fascinated with the afterlife since ancient Mesopotamia
<p>As Halloween approaches, we start to think about ghosts, monsters, and demons. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556051/original/file-20231026-15-tzkp0x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556051/original/file-20231026-15-tzkp0x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556051/original/file-20231026-15-tzkp0x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556051/original/file-20231026-15-tzkp0x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556051/original/file-20231026-15-tzkp0x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556051/original/file-20231026-15-tzkp0x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556051/original/file-20231026-15-tzkp0x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556051/original/file-20231026-15-tzkp0x.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Grave goods from Ur, Mesopotamia 6000-1500 BC Gallery, British Museum.</span>
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<p>But a fascination with the afterlife and other worlds is not new: <a href="https://www.npr.org/sections/codeswitch/2014/10/24/358555307/the-creepiest-ghost-and-monster-stories-from-around-the-world">ghost stories from all over the world</a> prove it’s been part of the human experience from prehistoric times.</p>
<p>Even before <a href="https://www.bl.uk/history-of-writing/articles/where-did-writing-begin">the invention of writing</a> over 5,000 years ago, humans were being buried alongside goods that could be useful in their afterlife, such as drinking vessels or weapons. </p>
<p>Though there is some debate about the meaning of <a href="https://www.forbes.com/sites/davidbressan/2023/08/29/neanderthal-burial-with-flowers-likely-the-result-of-animal-activity-new-study-finds/?sh=266890ff2c18">prehistoric grave goods</a>, Mesopotamian ghost expert <a href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/death-and-memory/mesopotamian-ghostbusting-irving-finkel">Irving Finkel</a> persuasively argues they reflect a belief something of the dead person would persevere into an afterlife. There, the grave goods could be put to use.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/caveman-instincts-may-explain-our-belief-in-gods-and-ghosts-26945">Caveman instincts may explain our belief in gods and ghosts </a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Mesopotamian demons in popular culture</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.history.com/topics/ancient-middle-east/mesopotamia">Mesopotamia</a>, an historical area located roughly in the region of modern-day Iraq, was home to some of the world’s great empires. </p>
<p>Ancient Mesopotamian ghosts and demons are perhaps best known today from their presence in horror films. In <a href="https://screenrant.com/ghostbusters-movie-influence-speech-cultural-change-busters/">Ghostbusters</a> (1984), Sigourney Weaver’s Dana is possessed by Zuul, a minion of the fictional god Gozer, who was worshipped as a demigod by the Sumerians in the film’s backstory. </p>
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<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556246/original/file-20231026-21-u748sx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556246/original/file-20231026-21-u748sx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556246/original/file-20231026-21-u748sx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=715&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556246/original/file-20231026-21-u748sx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=715&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556246/original/file-20231026-21-u748sx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=715&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556246/original/file-20231026-21-u748sx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556246/original/file-20231026-21-u748sx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556246/original/file-20231026-21-u748sx.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=899&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">The head of Pazuzu, the ancient demon represented in The Exorcist.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/327485">The Met</a></span>
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<p>In the novel and film, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20231005-the-exorcist-and-why-demonic-possession-taps-into-our-darkest-fears">The Exorcist</a> (1973), 12-year-old Regan is possessed by Pazuzu, a fictional demon based on Assyrian and Babylonian mythology. </p>
<p>The mythic Pazuzu <a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/exhibitions/listings/2014/assyria-to-iberia/blog/posts/pazuzu">appears in visual sources</a> from around the 8th century BCE and was considered king of the wind demons. </p>
<p>In contrast to the plot of The Exorcist, Pazuzu’s terrifying visage <a href="https://brill.com/display/book/edcoll/9789004368088/BP000014.xml">was used in white magic to protect children</a> from the lion-headed demonness Lamashtu.</p>
<p>And in <a href="https://www.cbr.com/why-the-evil-dead-banned/">Evil Dead</a> (1981), the evil comes from an ancient Sumerian book, the Necronomicon Ex-Mortis, bound in human flesh and inked in blood, which can release evil into the world when certain passages are read aloud. (The book is actually the fictional invention of writer H.P. Lovecraft.)</p>
<p>The influence of supernatural beings in these works is largely malevolent. But the connection between the living and the dead in ancient Mesopotamia was complex – and sometimes, it was mutually beneficial.</p>
<p>Ghosts were an accepted part of life in ancient Mesopotamia. Death was thought to gradually weaken the connections that bound the deceased person to the land of the living, rather than bring an abrupt, complete exit.</p>
<p>In some areas, this concept has endured. Modern-day science fiction writer <a href="https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20220301-philip-k-dick-the-writer-who-witnessed-the-future">Philip K. Dick</a>, best known for his novel <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/36402034-do-androids-dream-of-electric-sheep">Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?</a> (filmed as <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt0083658/">Bladerunner</a>) presents death in similarly incomplete terms in writings such as <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/What_the_Dead_Men_Say">What the Dead Men Say</a> (1964) and <a href="https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22590.Ubik">Ubik</a> (1969). In these stories, the recently deceased maintain some capacity to interact with the living shortly after death. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-exorcist-believer-is-a-retcon-film-it-imagines-none-of-the-sequels-exist-this-sequel-shouldnt-exist-either-210463">The Exorcist: Believer is a ‘retcon’ film - it imagines none of the sequels exist. This sequel shouldn’t exist, either</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>The first ghost</h2>
<p>In Mesopotamian myth, humanity was created – along with the first ghost – through the death of a rebellious god. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556057/original/file-20231026-19-4as9yx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556057/original/file-20231026-19-4as9yx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556057/original/file-20231026-19-4as9yx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=716&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556057/original/file-20231026-19-4as9yx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=716&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556057/original/file-20231026-19-4as9yx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=716&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556057/original/file-20231026-19-4as9yx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556057/original/file-20231026-19-4as9yx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556057/original/file-20231026-19-4as9yx.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This fragment tells the Babylonian flood story, Epic of Atrahasis.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The origin of ghosts is explained in the Mesopotamian myth of <a href="https://www.worldhistory.org/article/227/the-atrahasis-epic-the-great-flood--the-meaning-of/">Atrahasis</a>, a Babylonian flood narrative often <a href="https://history.howstuffworks.com/history-vs-myth/gilgamesh.htm">paralleled with the story of Noah’s ark</a>. </p>
<p>In this myth, humans are created by senior gods, to perform the menial work of the lesser gods, who have gone on strike. The leader of the rebellion is killed, and his body and blood are mixed with clay to create humans. The spirit of the dead god is also mixed into the new creation, meaning his rebellious etemmu (“spirit”) becomes part of humanity. </p>
<p>The combination of god and earth gives the humans a mortal body and an immortal soul. As long as each human lives, the ghost of the dead god within them is signalled through the steady “drumbeat” of the pulse. </p>
<h2>Friendly ghosts?</h2>
<p>Written sources reflect many types of Mesopotamian ghosts, and many different ways to manage them. The nature of a ghost, either friendly or malevolent, could be influenced by several factors. </p>
<p>Dying in tragic circumstances could create an unhappy ghost, while some ghosts were just innately difficult to get along with – as can sometimes be the case with the living. <a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/toah/hd/magic/hd_magic.htm">Magic spells</a> were used to free a person of a ghost’s presence, and rituals were used to send the ghost safely on its way to the afterlife. </p>
<p>While ghosts, like demons, were viewed as capable of causing harm to the living, they could also be helpful. Family ghosts could protect their relatives from evil and intercede on their behalf with the gods. Families had responsibilities to care for their deceased loved ones by providing them with appropriate grave goods and funerary rituals.</p>
<p>The ability of dead ancestors to help the living with their problems is also reflected in ancient Egyptian sources. <a href="https://www.penn.museum/sites/expedition/funerary-beliefs-of-the-ancient-egyptians/">The Egyptian dead</a> were thought capable of helping the living with everything from earthly problems, such as illness, to supernatural issues, such as a safe transition to the afterlife. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556054/original/file-20231026-17-lfr63b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556054/original/file-20231026-17-lfr63b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556054/original/file-20231026-17-lfr63b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556054/original/file-20231026-17-lfr63b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556054/original/file-20231026-17-lfr63b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=408&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556054/original/file-20231026-17-lfr63b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556054/original/file-20231026-17-lfr63b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556054/original/file-20231026-17-lfr63b.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=512&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Egyption dead were thought capable of helping the living with everything from earthly problems to supernatural issues. (Image: The Egyptian Book of the Dead.)</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Book_of_the_dead_egypt.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Returning from the dead</h2>
<p>Once they were in the afterlife, the dead would <a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-journeys-to-the-underworld-greek-myth-film-and-american-anxiety-82919">journey to the underworld</a> – but this was not necessarily a one-way trip. Behaviours in the upper world, such as mourning rites, had significant consequences for those below. Ghosts and demons were thought capable of periodically rising – and haunting or otherwise interfering with living mortals. </p>
<p>The most famous return from the underworld in Mesopotamian literature occurs in the myth, Ishtar’s Descent to the Underworld. In this myth, the powerful Mesopotamian <a href="https://theconversation.com/friday-essay-the-legend-of-ishtar-first-goddess-of-love-and-war-78468">goddess of love and war, Ishtar</a>, journeys to the underworld and attempts to overthrow its ruler, <a href="https://www.worldhistory.org/Ereshkigal/">Ereshkigal</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556036/original/file-20231026-21-7kl3gu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556036/original/file-20231026-21-7kl3gu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/556036/original/file-20231026-21-7kl3gu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=951&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556036/original/file-20231026-21-7kl3gu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=951&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556036/original/file-20231026-21-7kl3gu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=951&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556036/original/file-20231026-21-7kl3gu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1195&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556036/original/file-20231026-21-7kl3gu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1195&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/556036/original/file-20231026-21-7kl3gu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1195&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Ishtar on a vase held at Louvre.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ishtar_inanna_BaU_vase_Louvre_AO17000-detail.jpg">Marie-Lan Nguyen/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Ishtar is killed by Ereshkigal, but revived through the help of the god of wisdom. She returns to the upper world, and sends her husband, Tammuz, down to the underworld in her place. <a href="https://www.academia.edu/61324123/Zgoll_A_2020_Condensation_of_Myths_A_hermeneutic_key_to_a_myth_about_Innana_and_the_Instruments_of_Power_me_incorporated_in_the_epic_angalta_in_W_Sommerfeld_Hg_Dealing_with_Antiquity_Past_Present_and_Future_AOAT_460_M%C3%BCnster_427_447">Myth scholar Annette Zgoll has argued</a> that the story shows Ishtar bringing the powers of the underworld back with her, making a return from the afterlife possible.</p>
<p>Ishtar is not the only figure from Mesopotamian myth who is connected to the journey between our world and the underworld. The <a href="https://theconversation.com/guide-to-the-classics-the-epic-of-gilgamesh-73444">world’s first epic hero, Gilgamesh</a>, becomes a funerary god after his death. </p>
<p>As a judge of the underworld, Gilgamesh played a critical role in maintaining positive relationships between the living and the dead. </p>
<p>In ritual poetry directed towards family ghosts, Gilgamesh is asked to intervene between a living person and their deceased ancestor. Gilgamesh’s authority over the dead meant his permission allowed deceased ancestors to receive offerings made to them. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/guide-to-the-classics-the-epic-of-gilgamesh-73444">Guide to the classics: the Epic of Gilgamesh</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Who ya gonna call?</h2>
<p>The activities of ghosts in Mesopotamia could also be influenced by human religious specialists. Necromancers could summon ghosts and speak to them – as in Evil Dead’s Necronomicon Ex-Mortis. </p>
<p>Professional necromancers could perform a range of ghost-related functions, such as answering questions from the living, assisting with purification, or performing black magic. </p>
<p>The close bonds between loved ones in ancient Mesopotamia continued after death. Maintaining these ties was thought to enable mutually beneficial relationships between the living and the dead. But neglected spirits were thought to haunt the living and create mischief. </p>
<p>Indeed, there was an element of danger to neglecting the dead: ghosts could possibly turn into <a href="https://www.getty.edu/news/meet-the-mesopotamian-demons/">demons</a>, which might return to terrify the living if they were disturbed or improperly buried. </p>
<p>At Halloween, it’s natural to be afraid of apparitions and otherworldly creatures. But exploring their origins in the ancient world may make them seem less haunting – and perhaps, more human.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/216274/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Louise Pryke does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Some of popular culture’s most famous ghosts and demons have roots in ancient Mesopotamia. What did ancient humans believe about the supernatural? And what stories did they tell?
Louise Pryke, Honorary Research Associate, University of Sydney
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/212156
2023-10-20T15:24:23Z
2023-10-20T15:24:23Z
How Sherlock Holmes, ancient Egypt and a mysterious ‘curse’ inspired Agatha Christie
<p>Agatha Christie published <a href="https://www.agathachristie.com/en/stories/the-adventure-of-the-egyptian-tomb">The Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb</a> in September 1923, almost a year after the <a href="https://theconversation.com/more-than-a-story-of-treasures-revisiting-tutankhamuns-tomb-100-years-after-its-discovery-193293">discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb</a> in Egypt’s <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Valley-of-the-Kings">Valley of the Kings</a>. Her Hercule Poirot short story drew inspiration from the sensationalised folklore of the “mummy’s curse”. <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/George-Edward-Stanhope-Molyneux-Herbert-5th-earl-of-Carnarvon">Lord Carnarvon</a>, sponsor of the excavation, had died on April 5 1923, less than two months after he had entered Tutankhamun’s burial chamber.</p>
<p>Yet, there was another inspiration for Christie’s story: Arthur Conan Doyle’s Sherlock Holmes novel, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/The-Hound-of-the-Baskervilles">The Hound of the Baskervilles</a> (1902). Christie draws on Conan Doyle’s novel in the design and unpacking of the alleged curse which, in both stories, actually turns out to be a sophisticated crime</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/l4p5yJVbnvQ?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Trailer for the 1959 adaptation of The Hound of the Baskervilles.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Christie was familiar with Egypt, having stayed for three months in Cairo with her mother in 1910. The Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb deliberately references Carnarvon’s death at her story’s outset, channelling “Tutmania” and the alleged curse into her fiction. </p>
<p>Poirot is summoned by Lady Willard, the widow of Sir John Willard, who died shortly after excavating “funereal chambers” near the “Pyramids of Gizeh”. Willard’s death, coupled with the deaths of others on the dig, becomes the talk of the day. As the narrator, Arthur Hastings, <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/61262/61262-h/61262-h.htm">observes</a>: “The magic power of dead-and-gone Egypt was exalted to a fetish point.” </p>
<p>While Willard died of heart failure, Poirot reveals that a member of the dig team, Dr Ames, had been exploiting Willard’s death to harness the power of superstition and kill for financial gain. In this regard, and in others, the story mirrors The Hound of the Baskervilles, in which a murderer excavates a family curse as a cover for their crime, in an attempt to acquire Baskerville Hall.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/is-hercule-poirot-autistic-here-are-seven-clues-that-he-might-be-210725">Is Hercule Poirot autistic? Here are seven clues that he might be</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>The power of superstition</h2>
<p>The murderers of both stories rely on superstition to shield them. The Baskerville family live with a curse involving a gigantic hound. It allegedly haunts the family after the evil Sir Hugo Baskerville pursued a woman across the moors to her death. The legend is passed through generations of the Baskerville family.</p>
<p>Sir Hugo’s descendent, Stapleton, who is third in line to the Baskerville estate, deploys the power of the curse. He creates his own demon hound by painting a large dog’s fur with blue luminescent paint and releasing it onto the moors. The sight of what looks like the demon hound kills the owner of Baskerville Hall, Sir Charles. He dies, like Willard in Christie’s story, of heart failure.</p>
<p>But it is how the detectives respond to superstition which cements the connections between the Conan Doyle and Christie stories. Both sleuths utilise superstition to expose the villains. </p>
<p>In The Hound of the Baskervilles, Holmes <a href="https://www.gutenberg.org/files/2852/2852-h/2852-h.htm">warns the new heir</a>, Sir Henry, of the demon legend to keep him off the moor: “Bear in mind, Sir Henry, one of the phrases in that queer old legend … and avoid the moor in those hours of darkness when the powers of evil are exalted.” </p>
<p>Holmes knows, although we do not, that the moor is dangerous for a Baskerville. Not because anything supernatural is afoot, but because the threat comes from a dangerous living animal and its murderous master. When Holmes tricks Stapleton into revealing his hound, the curse is laid to rest.</p>
<p>Similarly, Poirot confirms that he believes “in the terrific force of superstition”. And on the dig site he has a trustworthy member of the team disguise himself as Anubis, “the jackal-headed, the god of departing souls”, to bring the case to a crisis point and unveil the villain.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-tutankhamuns-curse-continues-to-fascinate-100-years-after-his-discovery-193766">Why Tutankhamun’s curse continues to fascinate, 100 years after his discovery</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Conan Doyle’s “elementals” and Christie’s archaeology</h2>
<p>In the first publication of his story, <a href="https://archive.org/details/houndofbaskervil00doyluoft/page/n9/mode/2up">Conan Doyle noted</a> that he “owed its inception” to Bertram Fletcher Robinson. The journalist had told him about an evil Devonshire squire, Richard Cabell, who died in 1677. His ghost, surrounded by fiendish hounds, was reputedly seen on the moors. </p>
<p>Around the same time, Robinson was researching the misfortunes that befell those who handled an ancient Egyptian artefact known as the “unlucky mummy” but that was actually a wooden board used to cover a mummy and painted to look like the person when they were alive. He died shortly afterwards. </p>
<p>Christie’s The Adventure of the Egyptian Tomb also refers to the “unlucky mummy”, saying it was “dragged out with fresh zest” when Willard died after entering the tomb of “King Men-her-Ra”. Even today, the <a href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/Y_EA22542">British Museum confirms</a> that the object has a “reputation for bringing misfortune”, though it explains that this has no “basis in fact”. </p>
<p>Conan Doyle reported to the press that an “evil element” might have caused Carnavon’s “fatal illness” and connected his death with Robinson’s. <a href="https://www.visitportsmouth.co.uk/conan-doyle/blog/read/2023/03/conan-doyle-and-king-tut-b86">Conan Doyle observed</a>: “One does not know what elementals existed in those days, nor what their form might be.” </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/553299/original/file-20231011-17-zrmxow.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="black and white photo of young Agatha Christie" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/553299/original/file-20231011-17-zrmxow.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/553299/original/file-20231011-17-zrmxow.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=753&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553299/original/file-20231011-17-zrmxow.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=753&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553299/original/file-20231011-17-zrmxow.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=753&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553299/original/file-20231011-17-zrmxow.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=946&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553299/original/file-20231011-17-zrmxow.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=946&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553299/original/file-20231011-17-zrmxow.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=946&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Agatha Christie as a young woman in the 1910s.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Agatha_Christie_as_a_young_woman.jpg">The Christie Archive Trust</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Christie’s story demonstrates her engagement with Conan Doyle’s writing, as well as her interest in Egypt. A decade later she became an amateur archaeologist, supporting the digs of her archaeologist husband, Max Mallowan, in the Middle East. </p>
<p>Christie’s story also taps into the global interest in Tutankhamun. By the early 1920s, Conan Doyle – though still publishing Sherlock Holmes stories – was coming to the end of his career, while Christie’s was just beginning. </p>
<p>In the final decade of his life, Conan Doyle embraced spiritualism, a religious movement that proclaimed the dead could communicate with the living. This opened him to the idea of ancient curses. He was, in the words of Sherlock Holmes in The Hound of the Baskervilles, inclined to “supernatural explanation”.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em>Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/something-good-156">Sign up here</a>.</em></p>
<hr><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/212156/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Catherine Wynne does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
It is how the detectives respond to superstition which cements the connections between the Conan Doyle and Christie stories
Catherine Wynne, Associate Dean for Research and Enterprise, Faculty of Arts, Cultures and Education, University of Hull
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/215102
2023-10-16T15:36:34Z
2023-10-16T15:36:34Z
Ancient Egypt had far more venomous snakes than the country today, according to our new study of a scroll
<p>How much can the written records of ancient civilisations tell us about the animals they lived alongside? <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/14614103.2023.2266631">Our latest research</a>, based on the venomous snakes described in an ancient Egyptian papyrus, suggests more than you might think. A much more diverse range of snakes than we’d imagined lived in the land of the pharaohs – which also explains why these Egyptian authors were so preoccupied with treating snakebites!</p>
<p>Like cave paintings, texts from early in recorded history often describe wild animals the writers knew. They can provide some remarkable details, but identifying the species involved can still be hard. For instance, the ancient Egyptian document called the <a href="https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/60690">Brooklyn Papyrus</a>, dating back to around 660-330BC but likely a copy of a much older document, lists different kinds of snake known at the time, the effects of their bites, and their treatment. </p>
<p>As well as the symptoms of the bite, the papyrus also describes the deity associated with the snake, or whose intervention might save the patient. The bite of the “<a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Apopis-Egyptian-god">great snake of Apophis</a>” (a god who took the form of a snake), for example, was described as causing rapid death. Readers were also warned that this snake had not the usual two fangs but four, still a rare feature for a snake today. </p>
<p>The venomous snakes described in the Brooklyn Papyrus are diverse: 37 species are listed, of which the descriptions for 13 have been lost. Today, the area of ancient Egypt is home to far fewer species. This has led to <a href="https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/339159652.pdf">much speculation</a> among researchers as to which species are being described. </p>
<h2>The four-fanged snake</h2>
<p>For the great snake of Apophis, no reasonable contender currently lives within ancient Egypt’s borders. Like most of the venomous snakes that cause the majority of the world’s snakebite deaths, the vipers and cobras now found in Egypt have just two fangs, one in each upper jaw bone. In snakes, the jaw bones on the two sides are separated and move independently, unlike in mammals. </p>
<p>The nearest modern snake that <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6651/9/5/171">often has four fangs</a> is the boomslang (<em>Disopholidus typus</em>) from the sub-Saharan African savannas, now only found more than 400 miles (650km) south of present-day Egypt. Its venom can make the victim bleed from every orifice and cause a lethal brain haemorrhage. Could the snake of Apophis be an early, detailed description of a boomslang? And if so, how did the ancient Egyptians encounter a snake that now lives so far south of their borders? </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="Ancient Egyptian art depicting a hare-like creature battling a snake." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/553356/original/file-20231011-17-79rkof.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/553356/original/file-20231011-17-79rkof.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=616&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553356/original/file-20231011-17-79rkof.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=616&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553356/original/file-20231011-17-79rkof.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=616&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553356/original/file-20231011-17-79rkof.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=774&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553356/original/file-20231011-17-79rkof.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=774&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/553356/original/file-20231011-17-79rkof.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=774&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Representation of Apep (Apophis) in Ancient Egyptian wall painting. Note resemblance to boomslang (above).</span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>To find out, our masters student Elysha McBride used a statistical model called <a href="https://www.mdpi.com/journal/climate/special_issues/Niche_Models">climate niche modelling</a> to explore how the ranges of various African and Levantine (eastern Mediterranean) snakes have changed through time.</p>
<p>Niche modelling reconstructs the conditions in which a species lives, and identifies parts of the planet that offer similar conditions. Once the model has been taught to recognise places that are suitable today, we can add in maps of past climate conditions. It then produces a map showing all the places where that species might have been able to live in the past.</p>
<h2>On the trail of ancient snakes</h2>
<p>Our study shows the much more humid climates of early ancient Egypt would have supported many snakes that don’t live there today. We focused on ten species from the African tropics, the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Maghreb">Maghreb region</a> of north Africa and the Middle East that might match the papyrus’s descriptions. These include some of Africa’s most notorious venomous snakes such as the black mamba, puff adder and boomslang.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/vHtm5wAZgL0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>We found that nine of our ten species could probably once have lived in ancient Egypt. Many could have occupied the southern and southeastern parts of the country as it then was – modern northern Sudan and the Red Sea coast. Others might have lived in the fertile, vegetated Nile valley or along the northern coast. For instance, boomslangs might have lived along the Red Sea coast in places that 4,000 years ago would have been part of Egypt. </p>
<p>Similarly, one entry of the Brooklyn Papyrus describes a snake “patterned like a quail” that “hisses like a goldsmith’s bellows”. The puff adder (<em>Bitis arietans</em>) would fit this description, but currently lives only south of Khartoum in Sudan and in northern Eritrea. Again, our models suggest that this species’ range would once have extended much further north.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/wildlife-wonders-of-britain-and-ireland-before-the-industrial-revolution-my-research-reveals-all-the-biodiversity-weve-lost-208721">Wildlife wonders of Britain and Ireland before the industrial revolution – my research reveals all the biodiversity we've lost</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Since the period we modelled, a lot has changed. Drying of the climate and desertification had set in about <a href="https://doi.org/10.1007/s10437-022-09487-5">4,200 years ago</a>, but perhaps not uniformly. In the Nile valley and along the coast, for instance, farming and irrigation might have slowed the drying and allowed many species to persist into historical times. This implies that many more venomous snakes we only know from elsewhere might have been in Egypt at the time of the pharaohs.</p>
<p>Our study shows how enlightening it can be when we combine ancient texts with modern technology. Even a fanciful or imprecise ancient description can be highly informative. Modelling modern species’ ancient ranges can teach us a lot about how our ancestors’ ecosystems changed as a result of environmental change. We can use this information to understand the impact of their interactions with the wildlife around them.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/215102/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Wolfgang Wüster receives funding from the Leverhulme Trust. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Isabelle Catherine Winder does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Ancient texts are still teaching us new things about the prevalence of wildlife.
Isabelle Catherine Winder, Senior Lecturer in Zoology, Bangor University
Wolfgang Wüster, Professor of Zoology, Bangor University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/213173
2023-09-11T12:24:18Z
2023-09-11T12:24:18Z
The scent of the ancient Egyptian afterlife has been recreated – here’s what it smelled like
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/547243/original/file-20230908-21-bulnwd.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C150%2C1653%2C932&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Burial ceremonies as depicted in the Book of the Dead of Hunefer.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/Y_EA9901-5">© The Trustees of the British Museum</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>To be human is to wonder what happens after we die. Is there an afterlife? If so, what does it look like? But a question you may not have asked yourself is: what does the afterlife smell like? To ancient Egyptians, however, there were very specific answers, and new research has shed light on this aspect of their burial practices. </p>
<p>Analysis of the oils and resins in limestone jars that held the organs of <a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/557553">Senetnay</a>, a noblewoman of the 18th Dynasty who lived around 1450BC, has revealed a carefully formulated mix of ingredients. </p>
<p>Researchers have presented this as “the scent of the afterlife” in a <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-39393-y">scientific report</a>. The smell will be revealed in an interactive exhibition at <a href="https://www.moesgaardmuseum.dk/en/">Moesgaard Museum</a> in Denmark titled <a href="https://www.moesgaardmuseum.dk/en/exhibitions/upcoming-ancient-egypt-obsessed-with-life/">Ancient Egypt – Obsessed with Life</a>, opening on October 13 2023.</p>
<p>Senetnay’s role as a <a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/557553">wetnurse</a> to the future king <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Amenhotep-II">Amenhotep II</a> ensured her place in the afterlife and saw her buried in the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Valley-of-the-Kings">Valley of the Kings</a>. Unfortunately, her remains have not survived. But the embalming resin used for her preparation has. Its scent was both a reflection of her own status in royal circles and a statement of the king’s wealth and power. </p>
<h2>A high-status scent</h2>
<p>Amenhotep II inherited one of the largest empires ever known from his father, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Thutmose-III">Thutmose III</a>. Senetnay was fortunate to live at a time of great prosperity for Egypt and to be part of the king’s entourage. Her canopic jars (containers that preserved the viscera of the dead for the afterlife) were recovered from <a href="https://archive.org/details/annalesduservice02egypuoft/page/196/mode/2up">tomb KV42</a> by <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Howard-Carter">Howard Carter</a> in 1900. </p>
<p>The resin is not typical of an ancient Egyptian burial – even a high status one – as it was extremely expensive, with ingredients from distant lands. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/547240/original/file-20230908-15-up6s5k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A side on portrait of an Egyptian pharaoh wearing a gold hat and eyeliner." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/547240/original/file-20230908-15-up6s5k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/547240/original/file-20230908-15-up6s5k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=763&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547240/original/file-20230908-15-up6s5k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=763&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547240/original/file-20230908-15-up6s5k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=763&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547240/original/file-20230908-15-up6s5k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=958&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547240/original/file-20230908-15-up6s5k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=958&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547240/original/file-20230908-15-up6s5k.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=958&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An image of Amenhotep II from his burial in the Valley of the Kings.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Amenhotep_II_Uraeus.jpg">Wiki Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Such balms, resins and oils used in mummification provided pleasant aromas and practical functions in the preservation process, but also had spiritual significance. </p>
<p>This specific recipe seems to have been mixed specifically for Senetnay as it is different to other samples. She may have had some say in what was used – perhaps even her favourite scent. </p>
<h2>The scent of the afterlife</h2>
<p>Mummified human remains tend to smell relatively benign. The infusion of scented oils and resins has a lasting effect, especially in an undisturbed burial where the scent has been contained. </p>
<p>The <a href="https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/history-technology/mummies-pigments-and-pretzels#:%7E:text=Natron%20is%20hydrated%20sodium%20carbonate,thus%20dry%20out%20a%20body.">salt</a> and <a href="https://www.spurlock.illinois.edu/exhibits/online/mummification/materials.html">palm wine</a> used in the preparation of the body itself also helped to preserve the properties of the other ingredients. </p>
<p>There is often a distinct fragrance of pine or cedar, with some spiciness from cloves, cumin and myrrh, and warm notes from plants, flowers and trees. Senetnay’s balm is based largely around beeswax, plant oil and tree resin, with extra fats, bitumen and other resins. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/547241/original/file-20230908-15-lhgacr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A white vase-shaped ceramic jar with hieroglyphics engraved on the side." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/547241/original/file-20230908-15-lhgacr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/547241/original/file-20230908-15-lhgacr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=811&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547241/original/file-20230908-15-lhgacr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=811&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547241/original/file-20230908-15-lhgacr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=811&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547241/original/file-20230908-15-lhgacr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1020&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547241/original/file-20230908-15-lhgacr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1020&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/547241/original/file-20230908-15-lhgacr.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1020&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A jar Inscribed for Senetnay found in and around the entrance of KV 42.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/557553">The Met</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The ingredients are a snapshot of Egypt’s empire and reach – several came from a considerable distance. Larch tree resin is likely to have been obtained from the northern Mediterranean. South-east Asia (perhaps more specifically India) is present in what is possibly <a href="https://www.newscientist.com/article/2357581-ancient-egyptians-used-exotic-oils-from-distant-lands-to-make-mummies/#:%7E:text=Many%20of%20the%20substances%20were,dammar%22%20is%20a%20Malay%20word.">dammar tree resin</a>. </p>
<p>The researchers have still to establish conclusively if dammar was used – if so, this is an indication of the extent of the ancient Egyptian trade route, stretching to the tropical forests of south-east Asia.</p>
<p>Oils and bitumen from cypress, cedar or juniper add layers of scent, preservative and antibacterial properties. Beeswax is both antibacterial and acts as a binder and sealant. Animal fat adds consistency and carries oils well, and the mixture is heightened with plant and flower oils such as sesame or olive. </p>
<p>The resulting balm would have been intensely fragrant and crucial for the survival of Senetnay’s remains. The written record confirms the close association of scent with life and death. </p>
<p>One ancient Egyptian word for a bouquet or garland was a homonym for life – <em>ankh</em>. A poignant and beautiful 12th Dynasty composition known, among other titles, as <a href="https://archive.org/details/in.gov.ignca.40597/page/n33/mode/2up">The Dialogue of a Man with his Ba</a> (soul) says: “Death is before me today, like the scent of myrrh, like the scent of flowers.”</p>
<h2>Scent at the museum</h2>
<p>Scent is one of our most powerful senses, with the ability to transport us to another time or place by triggering memories, so it is an unusual but effective way to <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17458927.2022.2142012">engage museum visitors with the past</a>.</p>
<p>Smelling what the balm contained conveys much more than just a description would and it can enhance the experience for certain groups of visitors, such as the visually impaired, or those who engage more fully with such displays through an interactive approach.</p>
<p>Intangible aspects of ancient Egyptian funerary practice are by their nature difficult to research, and analysis of embalming materials has tended to focus on the body itself and its wrappings. However, some <a href="https://shorturl.at/mpRX3">research projects</a> have lately been attempting to address this gap in research, including concentration on the treatment of organs such as those of Senetnay. </p>
<p>The experience of an ancient funeral would have encompassed smell, sight, taste, sound, light, darkness and more. While we can reconstruct the process of embalming and burial through artefacts, we are doubtless missing very important aspects of the ritual that connects the deceased with their family, community and the ancestors they hope to join in the afterlife. </p>
<p>The luxuriousness of Senetnay’s provisioning for the afterlife should not obscure how profound and essential the materials and ritual were for her transfiguration in the tomb, complete and perfect for eternity, as fragrant as the gods.</p>
<hr>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=600&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/536131/original/file-20230706-17-460x2d.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=754&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption"></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><em>Looking for something good? Cut through the noise with a carefully curated selection of the latest releases, live events and exhibitions, straight to your inbox every fortnight, on Fridays. <a href="https://theconversation.com/uk/newsletters/something-good-156">Sign up here</a>.</em></p>
<hr><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/213173/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Claire Isabella Gilmour does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
There is often a distinct fragrance of pine or cedar, with some spiciness from cloves, cumin, myrrh, and warm notes from plants, flowers and trees.
Claire Isabella Gilmour, PhD Candidate, Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Bristol
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/212504
2023-08-31T22:47:31Z
2023-08-31T22:47:31Z
What would an ancient Egyptian corpse have smelled like? Pine, balsam and bitumen – if you were nobility
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545665/original/file-20230831-21-ce8wxe.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C130%2C2354%2C1453&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Museum August Kestner, Hannover. Photo: Christian Tepper.</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In 1900 – some 22 years before he discovered the tomb of Tutankhamen – British archaeologist Howard Carter opened another tomb in the Valley of the Kings. In tomb KV42, Carter found the remains of a noblewoman called Senetnay, who died around 1450 BCE. </p>
<p>More than a century later, a French perfumer has recreated one of the scents used in Senetnay’s mummification. And the link between these two events is <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-39393-y">our research</a>, published today in Scientific Reports, which delves into the ingredients of this ancient Egyptian balm recipe.</p>
<h2>Recreating the smells of a disappeared world</h2>
<p>Our team drew upon cutting-edge technologies in chemistry to <a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2023/03/27/world/decoding-how-the-past-smells-scn/index.html">reconstruct ancient scents</a> from jars of Senetnay found in the tomb.</p>
<p>We used three variations of chromatographic and mass spectrometric techniques, which <a href="https://www.chemistryworld.com/features/the-smell-of-history/4016790.article">work</a> by breaking samples down into individual molecules. Specific substances have different assemblages of molecules. Based on these characteristic compounds and through comparison to known reference materials, we identified the different ingredients.</p>
<p>After the excavation by Carter, two of Senetnay’s jars recovered from the tomb made their way to Germany. So, in 2020, we approached the <a href="https://www.hannover.de/Museum-August-Kestner">Museum August Kestner</a> in Hannover about the possibility of analysing the jars with these new methods.</p>
<p>These jars are known as canopic jars. They are made of limestone and were used to store the mummified organs of the ancient Egyptian elite. Somewhere along the way, however, Senetnay’s jars lost their contents. All that remained of the mummified organs were faint residues on the bottom of the jars.</p>
<p>Remarkably, chemical analyses allow scientists to take such trace remains and reconstruct the original contents.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/curious-kids-who-was-the-first-ancient-mummy-110436">Curious Kids: who was the first ancient mummy?</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>An ancient ingredients list</h2>
<p>Our analysis revealed the balms used to coat and preserve Senetnay’s organs contained a blend of beeswax, plant oil, fats, bitumen, an unidentified balsamic substance, and resins from trees of the pine family (most likely larch). </p>
<p>One other substance was narrowed down to either a resin called dammar – found in coniferous and hardwood trees in South-East and East Asia – or Pistacia tree resin. </p>
<p>The results were exciting; these were the richest and most complex balms ever identified for this early time period. It was clear a lot of effort had gone into making the balms. This suggests Senetnay, who was the wet nurse of the future Pharaoh Amenhotep II, had been an important figure in her day.</p>
<p>The findings also contribute to growing chemical evidence that the ancient Egyptians went far and wide to source ingredients for mummification balms, drawing on extensive trade networks that stretched into areas beyond their realm.</p>
<p>Since trees of the pine family are not endemic to Egypt, the possible larch resin must have come from somewhere further afield, most likely Central Europe.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545672/original/file-20230831-19-m8bu2m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545672/original/file-20230831-19-m8bu2m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/545672/original/file-20230831-19-m8bu2m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=330&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545672/original/file-20230831-19-m8bu2m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=330&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545672/original/file-20230831-19-m8bu2m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=330&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545672/original/file-20230831-19-m8bu2m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545672/original/file-20230831-19-m8bu2m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/545672/original/file-20230831-19-m8bu2m.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">This map shows the distribution of potential conifer resin sources in relation to the Valley of the Kings. You can see larches (which belong to the genus <em>Larix</em>, of the family Pinaceae) aren’t found anywhere near Egypt.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-023-39393-y">B. Huber et al., 2023</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The most puzzling ingredient was the one identified as either Pistacia or dammar resin. If the ingredient was Pistacia – which is derived from the resin of pistachio trees – it likely came from some coastal region of the Mediterranean. But if it was dammar, it would have derived from much farther away in South-East Asia.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05663-4">Recent analysis</a> of balms from the site of Saqqara identified dammar in a later balm dating to the first millennium BCE. If the presence of dammar resin is confirmed in Senetnay’s case, this would suggest ancient Egyptians had access to this South-East Asian resin via long-distance trade, almost a millennium earlier than previously thought. </p>
<h2>A perfume for the ages</h2>
<p>Senetnay’s balm would not only have scented her remains, but also the workshop in which it was made and the proceedings of her burial rites – perfuming the air with pine, balsam, vanilla and other exotic notes. The vanilla scent comes from a compound called coumarin, and from vanillic acid, and in this case likely reflects the degradation of woody tissue.</p>
<p>Due to the volatile nature of scents, however, Senetnay’s unique scents gradually vanished once her remains were deposited in the Valley of the Kings.</p>
<p>Earlier this year, we began a collaboration with perfumer Carole Calvez and sensory museologist Sofia Collette Ehrich to bring Senetnay’s lost scent back to life.</p>
<p>The results of this effort will go on display at <a href="https://www.moesgaardmuseum.dk/">the Moesgaard Museum</a> in Denmark in October, as part of its new exhibition: Egypt – Obsessed with Life.</p>
<p>The new olfactory display will be like a time machine for the nose. It will provide a unique and unparalleled window into the smells of ancient Egypt and the scents used to perfume and preserve elite individuals such as Senetnay.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17458927.2022.2142012">Such immersive experiences</a> provide new ways of engaging with the past and help broaden participation, particularly for visually impaired people.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/holy-bin-chickens-ancient-egyptians-tamed-wild-ibis-for-sacrifice-126186">Holy bin chickens: ancient Egyptians tamed wild ibis for sacrifice</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/212504/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Barbara Huber receives funding from the Max Planck Society and the Joachim Herz Foundation. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Nicole Boivin does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
This Egyptian noblewoman was sweetly scented upon her death, researchers have discovered. And they’ve teamed up with a perfumer to recreate her scent.
Nicole Boivin, Professor, Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology
Barbara Huber, Doctoral Researcher, Department of Archaeology, Max Planck Institute of Geoanthropology
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/203659
2023-07-03T12:06:01Z
2023-07-03T12:06:01Z
Ancient Egyptians measured the first hour, and changed how we related to time
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/529468/original/file-20230531-25771-bncig1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C15%2C2048%2C1174&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">A detail from the astronomical ceiling at the Dendera temple in Egypt.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/manna4u/14826645968">(kairoinfo4u/flickr)</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Humanity’s relationship with telling time began before the first written word, making it a challenge today to investigate the origin of many timekeeping units. </p>
<p>However, some time measurement units that derive from astronomical phenomena are quite easy to explain and likely were independently observed in many different cultures across the world. For example, measuring how long a day or a year is uses apparent motions of the sun relative to Earth, while measuring months comes from the phases of the moon.</p>
<p>Yet there are some measurements of time that do not have clear connections with any astronomical phenomena. </p>
<p>Two examples are the week and the hour. One of the most ancient written traditions, <a href="https://pcarlsberg.ku.dk/publishedtexts/">Egyptian hieroglyphic texts</a>, gives us new insight into the origin of the hour. It originated in the area of North Africa and the Middle East, and adopted in Europe before spreading around the world in the modern era.</p>
<h2>Time in Ancient Egypt</h2>
<p><a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/j.ctt14jxv34">The Pyramid Texts</a>, written before 2400 BCE, are the earliest writings from Ancient Egypt. Included in the texts is the word <em>wnwt</em> (approximately pronounced “wenut”), and the meaning-hieroglyph associated with it was a star. From this we gather that <em>wnwt</em> is associated with the night.</p>
<p>To understand the word <em>wnwt</em> and why it is now translated as “hour,” we go to the city of Asyut around 2000 BCE. There, the inside of wooden rectangular coffin lids are <a href="https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/decoding-the-star-charts-of-ancient-egypt/">sometimes decorated with an astronomical table</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="astronomical procession on a temple ceiling" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534602/original/file-20230628-4980-4u2v1a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/534602/original/file-20230628-4980-4u2v1a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=321&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534602/original/file-20230628-4980-4u2v1a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=321&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534602/original/file-20230628-4980-4u2v1a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=321&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534602/original/file-20230628-4980-4u2v1a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534602/original/file-20230628-4980-4u2v1a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/534602/original/file-20230628-4980-4u2v1a.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=404&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Sopdet and Sahu (Sirius and Orion) shown in the left and right-hand boats, respectively, from the East Osiris Chapel on the roof of the temple in Dendera.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Sarah Symons)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The table contains columns representing 10-day periods of the year; the Egyptian Civil Calendar had 12 months each having three 10-day “weeks,” all followed by five days of festivals. In each column, 12 star names are listed, making 12 rows. The whole table represents the changes in the star sky over the course of a whole year, similar to a modern star chart.</p>
<p>Those 12 stars are the earliest systematic division of the night into 12 time-areas, each governed by one star. However, the word <em>wnwt</em> never appears in association with these coffin star tables. </p>
<p>But around 1210 BCE in <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/ancient-Egypt/The-New-Kingdom-c-1539-1075-bce">New Kingdom</a> — the period of ancient Egypt between the 16th and 11th centuries BCE — the link between the number of rows and the word <em>wnwt</em> is made explicit. </p>
<h2>Astronomical instructions</h2>
<p>One temple, <a href="https://openlibrary.org/books/OL13488676M/The_Osireion_at_Abydos">the Osireion at Abydos</a>, contains a wealth of astronomical information, including instructions on how to make a sundial and a text describing the motions of stars. It also contains a star table of the coffin type where, uniquely, the 12 rows are labelled with the word <em>wnwt</em>.</p>
<p>By the New Kingdom, there were 12 night-<em>wnwt</em> and also 12 day-<em>wnwt</em>, both clearly time measures. The idea of the hour is almost in its modern form but for two things. </p>
<p>First, although there are 12 day-hours and 12 night-hours, they are always expressed separately but not together as a 24-hour day. Day time was measured using shadows cast by the sun, while night hours were primarily measured by the stars. This could only be done while the sun and stars were visible, respectively, and there were two periods around sunrise and sunset that did not contain any hours. </p>
<p>Second, the New Kingdom <em>wnwt</em> and our modern hour differ in length. Sundials and water clocks demonstrate very clearly that the length of the <em>wnwt</em> varied throughout the year: long night hours around the winter solstice, long day hours around the summer solstice.</p>
<p>To answer the question of where the number 12 or 24 comes from, we have to find out why 12 stars were chosen per 10-day period. Surely, this choice is the true origin of the hour. Was 12 just a convenient number? Perhaps, but the origin of the coffin star tables suggests another possibility. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531361/original/file-20230612-206189-jorbr6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="ancient remains of an Egyptian temple in the desert" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531361/original/file-20230612-206189-jorbr6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/531361/original/file-20230612-206189-jorbr6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531361/original/file-20230612-206189-jorbr6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531361/original/file-20230612-206189-jorbr6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531361/original/file-20230612-206189-jorbr6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531361/original/file-20230612-206189-jorbr6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/531361/original/file-20230612-206189-jorbr6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Osireion temple in Abydos, Egypt provided a wealth of astronomical information.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Timekeeping stars</h2>
<p>The ancient Egyptians chose to use the bright star Sirius as a model, and selected other stars based on their behavioural similarity to Sirius. The key point seems to be that the timekeeping stars disappeared for 70 days each year, just like Sirius, even though the other stars were not as bright. The Osireion star text gives dates such that every 10 days, one Sirius-like star disappears and one star reappears, for the whole year.</p>
<p>Depending on the time of year, between 10 and 14 of these stars are visible each night. If recorded at 10-day intervals throughout the year, a table very much resembling the coffin star table emerges. By 2000 BCE, the table became more schematic than (in our sense) accurate, <a href="http://aea.physics.mcmaster.ca/">and a table with 12 rows had emerged</a>, resulting in the coffin tables we can see in museums in Egypt and elsewhere.</p>
<p>It is therefore possible that the choice of 12 as the number of hours of the night — and eventually 24 as the total number of hours from noon to noon — may be related to a choice of a 10-day week. </p>
<p>And so our modern hour originates from a confluence of decisions that happened more than 4,000 years ago.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/203659/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Robert Cockcroft received funding from the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. </span></em></p><p class="fine-print"><em><span>Sarah Symons' research related to this article was funded by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada and the McMaster Arts Research Board.</span></em></p>
Some time measurements, like months and years, use the movements of the moon and sun, respectively. But other time measurements, like the hour, aren’t clearly connected to astronomical phenomena.
Robert Cockcroft, Assistant Professor, Physics and Astronomy, McMaster University
Sarah Symons, Professor, Interdisciplinary Science, McMaster University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/206828
2023-06-09T12:28:03Z
2023-06-09T12:28:03Z
Never mind Cleopatra – what about the forgotten queens of ancient Nubia?
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530270/original/file-20230606-17-xfaojz.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=4%2C0%2C1017%2C751&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Jewelry of the kandake Amanishakheto from a pyramid at Meroe.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/1/19/Amanishakheto_Jewellery_03.jpg/1024px-Amanishakheto_Jewellery_03.jpg">Einsamer Schütze/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Jada Pinkett Smith’s <a href="https://www.netflix.com/tudum/articles/african-queens-release-date-cast-news">new Netflix documentary series on Cleopatra</a> aims to spotlight powerful African queens. “We don’t often get to see or hear stories about Black queens, and that was really important for me, as well as for my daughter, and just for my community to be able to know those stories because there are tons of them,” the Hollywood star and producer told a Netflix interviewer.</p>
<p>The show casts a biracial Black British actress as the famed queen, whose race <a href="https://denison.edu/academics/classical-studies/wh/136845">has stirred debate for decades</a>. Cleopatra descended from an ancient Greek-Macedonian ruling dynasty known as the Ptolemies, but some speculate that her mother may have been an Indigenous Egyptian. In the trailer, Black classics scholar <a href="https://www.hamilton.edu/academics/our-faculty/directory/faculty-detail/shelley-haley">Shelley Haley</a> recalls her grandmother telling her, “<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IktHcPyNlv4">I don’t care what they tell you in school, Cleopatra was Black</a>.” </p>
<p>These ideas provoked commentary and even outrage in Egypt, Cleopatra’s birthplace. Some of the reactions have been unabashedly racist, mocking the actress’s curly hair and skin color. </p>
<p>Egyptian archaeologists like <a href="https://scholar.google.com.eg/citations?user=JNvJ2noAAAAJ&hl=en">Monica Hanna</a> have criticized this racism. Yet they also caution that projecting modern American racial categories onto Egypt’s ancient past <a href="https://www.cbsnews.com/news/netflix-cleopatra-black-egypt-controversy-ancient-queen/">is inaccurate</a>. At worst, critics argue, U.S. discussions about Cleopatra’s identity overlook Egyptians entirely.</p>
<p>In Western media, she is commonly depicted as white – most famously, perhaps, by screen icon Elizabeth Taylor. Yet claims by <a href="https://africasacountry.com/2022/03/egypt-and-the-afrocentrists-the-latest-round">American Afrocentrists</a> that current-day Egyptians are descendants of “Arab invaders” also ignore the complicated histories that characterize this diverse part of the world.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530272/original/file-20230606-19-wjoaet.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A stone engraving depicts a woman standing with her arms raised." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530272/original/file-20230606-19-wjoaet.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530272/original/file-20230606-19-wjoaet.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530272/original/file-20230606-19-wjoaet.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530272/original/file-20230606-19-wjoaet.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530272/original/file-20230606-19-wjoaet.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530272/original/file-20230606-19-wjoaet.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530272/original/file-20230606-19-wjoaet.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1131&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A relief depicting the Nubian Kandake Amanitore in the Egyptian Museum in Berlin.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aegyptisches_Museum_Berlin_InvNr7261_20080313_Barkenuntersatz_Natakamani_Amanitore_aus_Wad_Ban_Naga_4.jpg">Sven-Steffen Arndt/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Some U.S. scholars counter that ultimately what matters is to “<a href="https://www.nytimes.com/2023/05/10/opinion/black-cleopatra-netflix.html">recognize Cleopatra as culturally Black</a>,” representing a long history of oppressing Black women. Portraying Cleopatra with a Black actress was a “political act,” <a href="https://variety.com/2023/tv/global/queen-cleopatra-black-netflix-egypt-1235590708/">as the show’s director put it</a>. </p>
<p>Ironically, however, the show misses an opportunity to educate both American and Egyptian audiences about the unambiguously Black queens of ancient Nubia, a civilization whose history is intertwined with Egypt’s. As <a href="https://lsa.umich.edu/anthro/people/faculty/socio-cultural-faculty/ymoll.html">an anthropologist of Egypt who has Nubian heritage</a>, I research how the stories of these queens continue to inspire Nubians, who <a href="https://www.taraspress.com/nubian">creatively retell them</a> for new generations today. </p>
<h2>The one-eyed queen</h2>
<p>Nubians in modern Egypt once lived mainly along the Nile but lost their villages when the <a href="https://aucpress.com/product/nubian-encounters/">Aswan High Dam was built in the 1960s</a>. Today, members of the minority group live alongside other Egyptians all over the country, as well as in <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2740853">a resettlement district</a> near the southern city of Aswan.</p>
<p>Growing up in Cairo’s Nubian community, we children didn’t hear about Cleopatra, but about Amanirenas: <a href="https://egyptianstreets.com/2022/05/23/queen-amanirenas-the-nubian-queen-who-defeated-the-romans/">a warrior queen</a> who ruled the Kingdom of Kush during the first century B.C.E. Queens in that ancient kingdom, encompassing what is now southern Egypt and northern Sudan, were referred to as “kandake” – the root of <a href="https://www.worldhistory.org/The_Candaces_of_Meroe/">the English name “Candace</a>.”</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530269/original/file-20230606-30-hykc0k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A comic book cover showing a Black woman in brilliant blue robes and gold jewelry in front of pyramids." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530269/original/file-20230606-30-hykc0k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530269/original/file-20230606-30-hykc0k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=919&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530269/original/file-20230606-30-hykc0k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=919&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530269/original/file-20230606-30-hykc0k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=919&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530269/original/file-20230606-30-hykc0k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1155&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530269/original/file-20230606-30-hykc0k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1155&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530269/original/file-20230606-30-hykc0k.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1155&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A comic inspired by the story of Amanirenas.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:AMANI_RENAS_COVER_COMPS_03102022-final_sml.png">Chris Walker, Creative Director, Lymari Media/Wikimedia Commons</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://www.npr.org/2010/09/28/130190252/the-true-story-of-antony-and-cleopatra">Like Cleopatra</a>, Amanirenas knew Roman generals up close. But while Cleopatra romanced them – strategically – Amanirenas fought them. She led an army up the Nile about 25 B.C.E. <a href="https://egyptianexpedition.org/articles/the-roman-egyptian-nubian-frontier-during-the-reigns-of-augustus-and-amanirenas-archaeological-evidence-from-talmis-qasr-ibrim-and-meroe/">to wage battle against Roman conquerors</a> encroaching on her kingdom.</p>
<p>My own favorite part of this story of Indigenous struggle against foreign imperialism involves what can only be characterized as a power move. After beating back the invading Romans, Queen Amanirenas <a href="https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=pcgxBwAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PA117&dq=amanirenas+&ots=D_hBdOLBPc&sig=purD9nD2bxHnY9ksPxdlLqUnhEg#v=onepage&q=amanirenas&f=false">brought back the bronze head</a> of a statue of the emperor Augustus and had it buried under a temple doorway. Each time they entered the temple, her people could literally walk over a symbol of Roman power.</p>
<p>That colorful tidbit illustrates those queens’ determination to defend their autonomy and territory. Amanirenas personally engaged in combat and <a href="https://www.taylorfrancis.com/chapters/edit/10.4324/9781315621425-23/women-ancient-nubia-jacke-phillips">earned the moniker “the one-eyed queen</a>,” according to an ancient chronicler of the Roman Empire named Strabo. The kandakes were also <a href="https://books.google.com/books?hl=en&lr=&id=ijAXEAAAQBAJ&oi=fnd&pg=PT38&dq=kandaka+nubian+queens&ots=upazD6-aTO&sig=ES1HSdy1EfrgB1wzvsda30jFvuI#v=onepage&q=kandaka%20nubian%20queens&f=false">spiritual leaders and patrons of the arts</a>, and they supported the construction of grand monuments and temples, including pyramids.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530264/original/file-20230606-23-br78mn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A blocky pyramid of stone with an elegant facade, set against an open blue sky." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530264/original/file-20230606-23-br78mn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530264/original/file-20230606-23-br78mn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530264/original/file-20230606-23-br78mn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530264/original/file-20230606-23-br78mn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530264/original/file-20230606-23-br78mn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530264/original/file-20230606-23-br78mn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530264/original/file-20230606-23-br78mn.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A pyramid of Kandake Amanitore amid the Nubian pyramids of Meroe.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/photo/meroe-pyramids-pyramid-n1-of-kandake-amanitore-royalty-free-image/1169605877?phrase=kandake&adppopup=true">mtcurado/iStock via Getty Images Plus</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Interwoven cultures and histories</h2>
<p>When people today say “Nubia,” they are often referring to the Kingdom of Kush, one of several empires that emerged in ancient Nubia. Archaeologists have recently started to bring Kush <a href="https://www.ted.com/talks/geoff_emberling_what_happened_to_the_lost_kingdom_of_kush/transcript?language=en">to broader public attention</a>, arguing that its achievements deserve as much attention as ancient Egypt’s. </p>
<p>Indeed, <a href="https://www.degruyter.com/document/doi/10.31826/9781463239688/html?lang=en">those two civilizations are entwined</a>. Kushite royals adapted many Egyptian cultural and religious practices to their own ends. What’s more, a Kushite dynasty ruled Egypt itself for close to a century. </p>
<p>Contemporary Nubian heritage reflects that historical complexity and richness. While their <a href="https://www.bbc.com/travel/article/20210922-a-revival-of-egypts-nubian-culture">traditions and languages remain distinctive</a>, Nubians have been intermarrying with other communities in Egypt for generations. Nubians like my mother are proudly Egyptian, yet <a href="https://doi.org/10.5743/cairo/9789774162893.003.0015">hurtful stereotypes persist</a>. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530266/original/file-20230606-15-2nzyjt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Two women with their heads covered and colorful robes sit on a blanket, holding a laptop and an open notebook." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530266/original/file-20230606-15-2nzyjt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530266/original/file-20230606-15-2nzyjt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530266/original/file-20230606-15-2nzyjt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530266/original/file-20230606-15-2nzyjt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530266/original/file-20230606-15-2nzyjt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530266/original/file-20230606-15-2nzyjt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530266/original/file-20230606-15-2nzyjt.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Hafsa Amberkab, right, and Fatma Addar, Nubian Egyptian women who compiled a dictionary, show off a Nubian lexical chart near Aswan in upper Egypt.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/hafsa-amberkab-and-fatma-addar-nubian-egyptian-women-who-news-photo/1210648292?adppopup=true">Khaled Desouki/AFP via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Today, some Black Americans embrace Cleopatra as a powerful symbol of Black pride. But the idea of ancient Nubia as a powerful African civilization also plays a symbolic role in contemporary Black culture, inspiring images in everything <a href="https://www.juviasplace.com/collections/the-nubian-collection">from cosmetics</a> <a href="https://www.dc.com/blog/2020/05/28/dc-debuts-first-look-at-nubia-real-one">to comics</a>.</p>
<h2>Egyptian voices</h2>
<p>Researchers do argue about Cleopatra’s heritage. U.S. conversations about her, however, sometimes reveal more about Western racial politics than about Egyptian history.</p>
<p>In the 19th century, for example, <a href="https://www.ucpress.edu/book/9780520240698/whose-pharaohs">Western interest in ancient Egypt took off amid colonization</a> – a fascination called “Egyptomania.” Americans’ fixation with the ancient civilization reflected their own culture’s <a href="https://www.dukeupress.edu/egypt-land">anxieties about race in the decades after slavery was abolished</a>, as <a href="https://sc.edu/study/colleges_schools/artsandsciences/english_language_and_literature/our_people/directory/trafton_scott.php">scholar Scott Trafton</a> has argued.</p>
<p>A century later, a 1990s advertisement for a pale-colored doll of queen Nefertiti sparked debate in the U.S. about <a href="https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1990/02/26/was-nefertiti-black-bitter-debate-erupts/4e7bdc74-18a6-435e-a5f6-df900cb7f014/">how to represent</a> her race.</p>
<p>Nefertiti’s bust – one of the most famous artifacts from ancient Egypt – is on display at a <a href="https://www.smb.museum/en/museums-institutions/aegyptisches-museum-und-papyrussammlung/collection-research/bust-of-nefertiti/">German museum</a>. Egypt has <a href="https://blog.nationalarchives.gov.uk/nefertiti-affair-history-repatriation-debate/">called for the artifact’s return</a> for close to a hundred years, to no avail. Even Hitler <a href="https://www.hup.harvard.edu/catalog.php?isbn=9780674983755">took a personal interest in the bust</a>, declaring that he “will not renounce the queen’s head,” according to <a href="https://research.manchester.ac.uk/en/persons/joyce.tyldesley">archaeologist Joyce Tyldesley</a>.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530271/original/file-20230606-17-x1xppy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A faded but painted bust of a woman with an exaggerated, large hairdo." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530271/original/file-20230606-17-x1xppy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/530271/original/file-20230606-17-x1xppy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530271/original/file-20230606-17-x1xppy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530271/original/file-20230606-17-x1xppy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=900&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530271/original/file-20230606-17-x1xppy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530271/original/file-20230606-17-x1xppy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/530271/original/file-20230606-17-x1xppy.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1130&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The famed and fought-over bust of Queen Nefertiti.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.gettyimages.com/detail/news-photo/side-view-of-limestone-bust-of-queen-nefertiti-circa-1340-news-photo/635751065?adppopup=true">Francis G. Mayer/Corbis/VCG via Getty Images</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Even today, contemporary Egyptian perspectives are almost absent in Western depictions of ancient Egypt. Only one Egyptian scholar is interviewed in the new Netflix series’ four episodes, <a href="https://www.aljazeera.com/opinions/2023/5/1/cleopatra-was-egyptian-whether-black-or-brown-matters">as he himself notes</a>, and he is employed not by an Egyptian university, but by a British one.</p>
<p>For many Egyptians, this lack of representation rehashes troubling colonial dynamics about who is considered an “expert” about their past. The Netflix series “was made and produced without the involvement of the owners of this history,” argues the Egyptian journalist Sara Khorshed in <a href="https://foreignpolicy.com/2023/05/14/egypt-netflix-queen-cleopatra-race-history-heritage-imperialism-afrocentrism/">a review of the series</a>.</p>
<p>To be sure, there is <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/26528972">anti-Black bias in Egyptian culture</a>, and some of the social media reaction has been slur-filled and racist. Educating people about the stories of Nubian queens <a href="https://www.penguinrandomhouse.com/books/603605/warrior-queens-by-vicky-alvear-shecter-illustrated-by-bill-mayer/">like Amarinenas</a> might be a way to encourage a more inclusive understanding of who is Egyptian. </p>
<p>Yet I believe Egyptians’ frustrations about portrayals of Cleopatra also reflect long-standing concerns that their own understandings of their past are not taken seriously.</p>
<p>That includes Black Egyptians, like my mother. When I asked her if she planned to see the Cleopatra series, she shrugged. She already knows that queen’s story well from its many portrayals on screen, whether <a href="https://www.nytimes.com/1968/03/15/archives/cleopatra-ban-lifted-by-egypt-film-with-elizabeth-taylor-opens-in.html">in Hollywood films</a> or <a href="https://www.imdb.com/name/nm0729780/">Egyptian ones</a>.</p>
<p>“I will wait for the series on Amanirenas,” she said.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/206828/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Yasmin Moll does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organization that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The way many Americans think about racial identity today is hard to map onto the complex history of ancient Egypt and ancient Nubia.
Yasmin Moll, Assistant Professor of Anthropology, University of Michigan
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/205656
2023-06-04T20:04:25Z
2023-06-04T20:04:25Z
‘Good soup is one of the prime ingredients of good living’: a (condensed) history of soup, from cave to can
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527416/original/file-20230522-23-9krgn1.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=8%2C0%2C5455%2C3645&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Hot soup on a cold day brings warmth and comfort so simple that we don’t think too much about its origins. But its long history runs from the Stone Age and antiquity through to modernity, encompassing the birth of the restaurant, advances in chemistry, and a famous pop art icon. </p>
<p>The basic nature of soup has a fundamental appeal that feels primordial – because it is. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.academia.edu/12384834/2015_Speth_When_Did_Humans_Learn_to_Boil_">Archaeologists</a> speculate the first soup might have been made by Neanderthals, boiling animal bones to extract fat essential for their diet and drinking the broth. Without the fats, their high intake of lean animal meats could have led to protein poisoning, so stone age soup was an important complement to primeval nutrition.</p>
<p>The fundamental benefit of these bone broths is confirmed by archaeological discoveries around the world, ranging from a gelatin broth in <a href="https://www.archaeology.org/issues/317-1811/trenches/7056-trenches-egypt-giza-livestock-bones">Egypt’s Giza plateau</a>, to <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-asia-pacific-11981666">Shaanxi Province</a> in China. </p>
<p>The widespread distribution of archaeological finds is a reminder soup not only has a long history, but is also a global food. </p>
<p>Today, our idea of soup is more refined, but the classic combination of stock and bread is embedded in the Latin root of the verb <em>suppāre</em>, meaning “to soak”. </p>
<p>As a noun, <em>suppa</em> became <em>soupe</em> in Old French, meaning bread soaked in broth, and <em><a href="https://quod.lib.umich.edu/m/middle-english-dictionary/dictionary/MED41830/track?counter=1&search_id=24326280">sowpes</a></em> in Middle English. This pairing was also an economical way of reclaiming stale bread and thickening a thin broth.
Wealthier households might have toasted fresh bread for the dish, but less prosperous diners used up stale bread that was too hard to chew unless softened in the hot liquid.</p>
<h2>From rustic to creamy</h2>
<p>New ideas about science and digestion in 17th century France promoted <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/340977432_The_Transformative_Influence_of_La_Varenne's_Le_Cuisinier_Francois_1651_on_French_Culinary_Practice">natural flavours</a> and thick, rustic preparations gave way to the creamy and velvety smooth soups we know today. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527415/original/file-20230522-21-dcc0ot.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="People line up for soup" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527415/original/file-20230522-21-dcc0ot.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527415/original/file-20230522-21-dcc0ot.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527415/original/file-20230522-21-dcc0ot.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527415/original/file-20230522-21-dcc0ot.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527415/original/file-20230522-21-dcc0ot.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527415/original/file-20230522-21-dcc0ot.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527415/original/file-20230522-21-dcc0ot.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The Soup Kitchen, Antonio de Puga, ca. 1630.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Museo de Arte de Ponce</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>New versions of the liquid food were developed by early modern European chefs, such as the <a href="https://archive.org/details/lenouveaucuisini01mass/page/138/mode/2up">seafood bisque</a>, extracting flavour from the shells of crustaceans.</p>
<p>The first restaurant as we understand them today opened in Paris in 1765, and was immortalised for a <a href="https://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k9785063s/f167.item.r=sante">simple broth</a>, a clear soup made from bone broth and fresh herbs. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.rebeccalspang.org/invention-of-the-restaurant">Mathurin Roze de Chantoiseau</a>, the original French restaurateur, created a new type of public space where weary diners could regain their lost appetites and soothe their delicate nerves at all hours. </p>
<p>It may appear to be a contradiction that the first restaurant specifically catered to clients who had lost their appetites, yet it seems perfectly natural soup was the cure.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/revolutionary-broth-the-birth-of-the-restaurant-and-the-invention-of-french-gastronomy-165507">Revolutionary broth: the birth of the restaurant and the invention of French gastronomy</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>Easy and affordable</h2>
<p>Soup was not destined to be limited to fancy restaurants or the long simmering stock pots of peasants. Modern science made it convenient and less expensive for home cooks. </p>
<p>In 1897, a chemist at the Campbell soup company, John Dorrance, developed a <a href="https://www.campbellsoupcompany.com/about-us/our-story/campbell-history/">condensed canned soup</a> that dramatically reduced the water content. The new method halved the cost of shipping and made canned soup an affordable meal anyone could prepare. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527409/original/file-20230522-17-ts8u8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Painting of men at a table" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527409/original/file-20230522-17-ts8u8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/527409/original/file-20230522-17-ts8u8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527409/original/file-20230522-17-ts8u8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527409/original/file-20230522-17-ts8u8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=387&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527409/original/file-20230522-17-ts8u8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527409/original/file-20230522-17-ts8u8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/527409/original/file-20230522-17-ts8u8f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=486&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lunch (The Soup, Version II), Albin Egger-Lienz, 1910.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Leopold Museum, Vienna</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>This revolutionary achievement was recognised at the 1900 Paris Exposition, winning an award for product excellence. Winning the prize was an achievement considering the competition at the world fair. The other technological advances exhibited at the turn of the century included the diesel engine, “talking” films, dry cell batteries and the Paris Metro.</p>
<p>The bronze medallion from 1900 still appears on the iconic red and white label, made famous by pop artist Andy Warhol’s <a href="https://www.moma.org/learn/moma_learning/andy-warhol-campbells-soup-cans-1962/">32 Campbell Soup Cans</a> (1962). </p>
<p>In his work, Warhol appropriated images from consumer culture and the media ordinary people would instantly recognise, from Coca-Cola bottles to Marilyn Monroe. In his famous soup painting, 32 canvases – one for each flavour of soup – are lined up like cans on a supermarket shelf. </p>
<p>Some <a href="https://warhol.netx.net/portals/warhol-exhibitions/#asset/108496">interpretations</a> consider this a commentary on the link between art and consumerism, emphasising the ordinary quality of the everyday object. The artist may also have been influenced by his personal eating habits – he claimed he had <a href="https://whitney.org/collection/works/5632">soup for lunch</a> every day for 20 years. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/polaroids-of-the-everyday-and-portraits-of-the-rich-and-famous-you-should-know-the-compulsive-photography-of-andy-warhol-200081">Polaroids of the everyday and portraits of the rich and famous: you should know the compulsive photography of Andy Warhol</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>‘One of the prime ingredients of good living’</h2>
<p>A steady diet of soup is not guaranteed to inspire famous art, but its appeal is universal. Soup can be humble or fancy, cutting across cultures and classes. </p>
<p>Deceptively simple, the warmth and comfort of soup provide a temporary refuge from the winter chill, comforting the diner from the inside. </p>
<p>The French chef Auguste Escoffier, famous for enshrining the five basic “<a href="https://www.escoffieronline.com/our-guide-to-escoffiers-5-mother-sauces/">mother sauces</a>” in French cuisine, raised soups to perfection in the early 20th century, developing refined preparations that remain classics today. </p>
<p>Escoffier, <a href="https://books.google.com.au/books/about/Escoffier.html?id=JFIDd639wlQC&redir_esc=y">known as</a> “the king of chefs and the chef of kings”, had very <a href="https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/A_Guide_to_Modern_Cookery/KCbkcXHj7qoC?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=escoffier+guide+culinaire&printsec=frontcover">high standards</a> for soup, claiming “of all the items on the menu, soup is that which exacts the most delicate perfection”.</p>
<p>An Austrian apprentice of Escoffier, Louis P. De Gouy, was chef at the Waldorf Astoria for 30 years and wrote 13 cookbooks. </p>
<p>He summed up the appeal of soup in a <a href="https://www.google.com.au/books/edition/The_Soup_Book/1tNmDwAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&printsec=frontcover">volume</a> dedicated to the dish with over 700 recipes:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Good soup is one of the prime ingredients of good living. For soup can do more to lift the spirits and stimulate the appetite than any other one dish.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>From Neanderthal broth to pop art icon, this humble pantry staple has a rich and vibrant history, giving us both nourishment and food for thought.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/205656/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Garritt C. Van Dyk does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Archaeologists speculate the first soup might have been made by Neanderthals.
Garritt C. Van Dyk, Lecturer, University of Newcastle
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/204576
2023-05-05T10:32:21Z
2023-05-05T10:32:21Z
Queen Cleopatra: experts save this poorly scripted Netflix docuseries
<p>The trailer for Netflix’s new four-part documentary series, Queen Cleopatra, was deliberately provocative. Promoting the show as executive produced by actress Jada Pinkett-Smith, it prominently featured historian Professor Shelley Haley declaring that: “Cleopatra was black.”</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/IktHcPyNlv4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">The controversy-inciting trailer for Netflix’s Queen Cleopatra.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Perhaps unsurprisingly, the trailer is pure clickbait. The show itself is a much more complex piece of work.</p>
<p>There are two ways to watch Queen Cleopatra. The first – and easiest – is by paying more attention to the dramatisation of Cleopatra’s life and times than to the academic talking heads. The second is to do the opposite.</p>
<p>If you choose the former, you will find plenty of ammunition for criticism without even touching upon the decision to present Cleopatra, the royal family and the wider Graeco-Egyptian population as black. Although no doubt this is where much supposedly critical analysis will both begin and end.</p>
<p>While the scenery, sets and costumes are sumptuous and evocative (if not entirely historically accurate) the script is terrible and the acting is unable to elevate it.</p>
<p>Adele James does her best with Cleopatra, managing to convincingly portray her as both a naive 20-year-old and a world weary 40-year-old, all the while looking incredibly glamorous. </p>
<p>She is hampered, however, by a <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Julius-Caesar-Roman-ruler">Caesar</a> (John Partridge) who either whispers sinisterly or froths at the mouth, a weak and weaselly <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Mark-Antony-Roman-triumvir">Antony</a> (Craig Russell) and a psychotic-seeming, over-acting <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Augustus-Roman-emperor">Octavian</a> (James Marlowe).</p>
<p>If you choose to focus on the academics, instead of the drama, you will probably be pleasantly surprised. </p>
<p>The documentary features a bastion of experts drawn from the disciplines of classics, comparative literature, ancient history, archaeology, Egyptology and Nubian studies. They refer to literary, documentary and archaeological evidence to support the points they make throughout. Their commentary is specific, detailed and nuanced.</p>
<h2>A monarch of many faces</h2>
<p>The controversy-inciting quotes included in the trailer have been taken completely out of context. In reality, the commentators are keen to differentiate between what we know about Cleopatra and what we do not. </p>
<p>They also stress the extent to which she has become mythologised – a figure of fantasy rather than reality, someone upon whom people can project their own ideas and even desires.</p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522998/original/file-20230426-742-fcoipu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="A silver coin showing Cleopatra's face." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522998/original/file-20230426-742-fcoipu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/522998/original/file-20230426-742-fcoipu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=604&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522998/original/file-20230426-742-fcoipu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=604&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522998/original/file-20230426-742-fcoipu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=604&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522998/original/file-20230426-742-fcoipu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=759&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522998/original/file-20230426-742-fcoipu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=759&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/522998/original/file-20230426-742-fcoipu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=759&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A silver coin showing Cleopatra’s face.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Cleopatra_VII_tetradrachm_Syria_mint.jpg">British Museum</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We do not know the identity of Cleopatra’s maternal grandmother. Her father, Ptolemy XII, was illegitimate and so his mother may well have been an Egyptian courtesan. </p>
<p>Nor do we know the identity of her mother. <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Cleopatra.html?id=85rikTt-kBEC&redir_esc=y">It has been suggested</a>, based on Cleopatra’s ability with the Egyptian language and her devotion to the Egyptian pantheon, that she may have been a member of the family that held the hereditary <a href="https://www.ucl.ac.uk/museums-static/digitalegypt/memphis/highpriestptol.html">priesthood of Ptah</a>. This influential ruling family held high-level positions in ancient Egyptian cities like Memphis. </p>
<p>We have no securely identified portraits of her other than those found on her coins, all of which vary considerably. So any claims as to the specifics of her appearance can be safely dismissed.</p>
<p>As can sweeping statements regarding her identity. Cleopatra was simultaneously Macedonian, Egyptian and Roman. In the habit of <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books/about/Cleopatra_and_Egypt.html?id=OAIuAQAAIAAJ&redir_esc=y">emphasising different aspects of her identity</a> to suit different audiences, she would not have considered herself either white or black, because modern concepts of race <a href="https://www.google.co.uk/books/edition/Race_and_Ethnicity_in_the_Classical_Worl/X6t5EAAAQBAJ?hl=en&gbpv=1&dq=race+in+antiquity&printsec=frontcover">would have been unknown to her</a>.</p>
<p>Additionally, whether she was beautiful or not is not something that concerned her peers. In fact, Greek philosopher Plutarch <a href="https://penelope.uchicago.edu/Thayer/E/Roman/Texts/Plutarch/Lives/Antony*.html">was keen to say</a> that it was her charisma that made her so appealing. It was not until <a href="https://penelope.uchicago.edu/%7Egrout/encyclopaedia_romana/miscellanea/cleopatra/bust.html">300 years after Cleopatra’s death</a> that historians began discussing her beauty at all.</p>
<p>What was more important was that she was rich and in possession of the natural and mineral resources that first Caesar, then Antony and finally Octavian needed to achieve their own political and military aims. </p>
<h2>Airbrushing Cleopatra’s reputation</h2>
<p>I found the modern soundtrack and dialogue (frequent uses of “hi”, “yeah” and, most egregiously, “OK”) far more anachronistic and intrusive than the casting.</p>
<p>The first episode is by far the strongest, both in the breadth and depth of historical material covered and the overall production values. But as the series continues, its limitations become more apparent. The sets and supporting cast start to disappear, the pacing becomes subject to padding and the narrative takes a turn to the speculative.</p>
<p>The documentary also does a fair bit of airbrushing to the queen’s reputation. It seeks to present Cleopatra and her actions in the best possible light while villainising others to manufacture conflict. Her younger sister <a href="https://www.britannica.com/biography/Arsinoe-IV">Arsinoe</a> suffers particularly here.</p>
<p>I can certainly appreciate the desire to focus on Cleopatra rather than the men in her life, but presenting Caesar, Antony and Octavian as so “one note” does not help elucidate the character of Cleopatra, but rather obscures it.</p>
<p>The series does, however, close with the acknowledgement that <a href="https://www.waterstones.com/book/cleopatras-daughter/jane-draycott/9781800244801">her daughter Cleopatra Selene</a> would become an African queen in turn, ruling the Roman client kingdom of Mauretania alongside her husband Juba. As the son of the deposed King of Numidia, in north-west Africa he was definitely a person of colour, as were their children and successors.</p>
<p>It is this conclusion that highlights the fundamental flaw in the documentary’s approach. Cleopatra’s story is all too familiar. </p>
<p>For 2,000 years we have seen version after version of her story, some more historically accurate, others less – but we are far less familiar with other African queens. Not just Cleopatra Selene, but also Cleopatra’s contemporary and neighbour, <a href="https://www.history.com/news/nubian-queen-amanirenas-roman-army">Amanirenas of Kush</a>.</p>
<p>Audiences know – or at least think they know – everything about Cleopatra and are unlikely to be persuaded otherwise, no matter how proficient a documentary might be. But as far as her fellow African queens are concerned, we have barely scratched the surface.</p>
<p><em>Queen Cleopatra is available to stream on Netflix globally from May 10</em></p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/204576/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jane Draycott does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
The modern soundtrack and dialogue feels far more anachronistic and intrusive than the diverse casting.
Jane Draycott, Lecturer, Classics, University of Glasgow
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/200318
2023-03-06T12:05:04Z
2023-03-06T12:05:04Z
I dug for evidence of the Rosetta Stone’s ancient Egyptian rebellion – here’s what I found
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/511957/original/file-20230223-28-pwwi02.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C1185%2C601&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Hellenistic soldiers as depicted in the Nile mosaic of Palestrina.</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.worldhistory.org/image/8268/nile-mosaic-of-palestrina/#google_vignette">World History Encyclopedia</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>The <a href="https://theconversation.com/rosetta-stone-a-new-museum-is-reviving-calls-to-return-the-artefact-to-egypt-195037">Rosetta Stone</a> is not known for its content, but as a lexicon of Egyptian hieroglyphics. The decree inscribed on the stone, however, discusses a violent revolt – largely lost to history – that shaped the trajectory of western civilisation.</p>
<p>Had the young pharaoh Ptolemy V been overthrown, events like the Hasmonean revolt (which established a Jewish kingdom), the affairs of Cleopatra with Julius Caesar and Marc Anthony, and even the rise of Christianity may have looked very different.</p>
<p>Until recently, the story of the struggle between the Greeks and the Egyptians was known only through Greek sources and <a href="https://www.lib.berkeley.edu/sites/default/files/files/TheGreatRevoltoftheEgyptians.pdf">shreds of evidence</a> like graffiti.</p>
<p>Professor Robert Littman, of the University of Hawai'i at Manoa, and I uncovered <a href="https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/00934690.2022.2158569">evidence of the civil war</a> at Tell Timai – the ruins of the ancient city of Thmouis in Egypt’s Nile delta. The archaeological evidence has revealed widespread destruction from the time of the rebellion, 204-186BC.</p>
<p>In 2009, evidence of burned buildings with ceramic vessels still in place first suggested that there had been a catastrophic event at Tell Timai. The destruction was widespread and followed by a levelling and rebuilding of the ruined city. Over the following years, evidence including weapons and unburied bodies that graphically pointed to an episode of extreme violence accumulated.</p>
<p>One of the bodies had old wounds (suggesting he had been a warrior) and unhealed wounds (suggesting he had died violently). A young man was found in a kiln, suggesting he had crawled in there to hide and perhaps died of his wounds.</p>
<h2>Dating the destruction</h2>
<p>Having identified the destruction at the city of Thmouis, we wanted to know why it fell victim to war.</p>
<p>Establishing the precise timing of events in archaeological excavations is difficult. The range from radiocarbon dating, for instance, is often too broad to provide a concise date that aligns with historic records. At Thmouis, however, one room held evidence that allowed for more accurate dating.</p>
<p>A hoard of coins on the floor dated to the reign of Pharaoh Ptolemy IV, while all of the coins from the levelling layer dated to Ptolemy VI. A dinner setting for four also had some distinctive vessels following an Athenian style that placed them in the first quarter of the second century BC during the reign of Ptolemy V.</p>
<p>Ptolemy V Epiphanes, who was just a boy when his father was murdered in 204BC, assumed power in a tumultuous time. The economy was ravaged by foreign wars and there was a growing violent insurrection from the native Egyptian population, who no longer wished to live as second-class citizens while the Macedonian dynasty and Greek imperialists prospered at their expense.</p>
<p>Ptolemy V is known for the Memphis Decree of 196BC in which the priests of Ptah (supporters of the Ptolemaic dynasty) proclaimed the anointment of Ptolemy V as the divine pharaoh of Egypt. In this decree, they outlined Ptolemy’s successful prosecution of the war against the Egyptian rebels and noted his success in besieging a city close to Thmouis.</p>
<p>The decree was inscribed on hard stone and copies were placed in all temples. It was written in hieroglyphs, Demotic and Greek so that all could read it. The most famous copy today was found in the Nile delta by a French officer in 1799. </p>
<p>It proved to be the key that philologist Jean-François Champollion used to decode Egyptian hieroglyphs – the Rosetta Stone.</p>
<h2>What were the consequences of the Egyptian revolt?</h2>
<p>Evidence from other sites in the delta suggested that there were economic and political consequences for those cities that joined the rebellion, such as closing harbours.</p>
<p>Another stone decree gave an account of the Greek general <a href="https://www.academia.edu/19803915/Ptol%C3%A9m%C3%A9e_%C3%89piphane_Aristonikos_et_les_pr%C3%AAtres_d_%C3%89gypte_Le_D%C3%A9cret_de_Memphis_182_a_C_%C3%89dition_comment%C3%A9e_des_st%C3%A8les_Caire_RT_2_3_25_7_et_JE_44901?auto=download">Aristonicus</a> who led some of the forces of Ptolemy V and his campaign to root out the last of rebels at Tell el Balamun, a city just north of Thmouis. </p>
<p>Historical accounts carved on the Rosetta Stone and the Aristonicus stone aligned with the evidence we found at Thmouis. The cities of the central Nile delta played a major part in the great rebellion and their citizens suffered greatly for their part.</p>
<p>The outcome of the Egyptian revolt against Hellenistic imperialism had far-reaching consequences. The Egyptians had appointed their own pharaohs and, with the help of the Nubians, took control of much of Egypt. </p>
<p>After 20 years of conflict, the Hellenistic military machine subdued the rebellion and the last rebel leaders were murdered when they came to negotiate peace at the Nile delta city of Sais.</p>
<p>Had the Egyptians prevailed, Egypt might have taken a different turn. Their traditional gods of Isis and her son Horus, for example, might not have so easily surrendered their identities to Mary and Jesus with the coming of Christianity.</p>
<p>After securing control of Egypt, the Ptolemaic dynasty played a key role in the geopolitics of the eastern Mediterranean. It supported the Jewish revolt against the Seleucid dynasty of Syria, establishing a Jewish kingdom. And, of course, the Ptolemaic Queen Cleopatra was a vital character in the story of how the Roman republic became an empire.</p>
<p>Thmouis was rebuilt as a city full of Greek colonists and soon became the regional seat of power as the Ptolemaic dynasty took power away from Egyptian temple priests who participated in the rebellion.</p>
<p>The transformation of Thmouis from a small tributary town to a regional capital reflects the hand of an oppressive government that wanted to make sure that no major revolt from the people they ruled would ever pose a threat to their control again.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/200318/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jay Silverstein does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
We uncovered evidence of a rebellion so significant, that events such as Cleopatra’s affairs and the rise of Christianity may not have come to pass without it.
Jay Silverstein, Senior Lecturer in Archaeology , Nottingham Trent University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/195523
2023-03-02T06:07:09Z
2023-03-02T06:07:09Z
Five discoveries that changed our understanding of how the ancient Egyptians created mummies
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504886/original/file-20230117-26-38hfhw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C8%2C5607%2C3724&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/stone-pharaoh-tutankhamen-mask-on-dark-1092093353">Merydolla/Shutterstock</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Centuries after the first golden coffins were taken to Europe, ancient Egyptian mummies still vividly capture people’s imaginations. Perhaps we’re awed by the grandeur of their rituals and tradition. But new discoveries keep challenging scientists’ perception of these ancient rites. </p>
<p>As a biomedical Egyptologist, I study mummies to learn about life in ancient populations. Over the last 10 years, I have seen a big change in our understanding of how, why and when mummies were created. This has mostly been driven by new scientific discoveries. Here are five of the most important ones that have changed what we know about this ancient process.</p>
<h2>1. Mummification is older than archaeologists imagined</h2>
<p>For decades, the oldest known mummies came from the Old Kingdom era (c.2500-2100BC) around the time Egyptians started using coffins more. These mummies are rare, but they show signs of being specially prepared by embalmers. Mummies from before the Old Kingdom period were thought to have been created naturally by burying bodies in graves cut into the hot, dry sand. Scientists thought embalming was developed to keep bodies preserved inside coffins. </p>
<p>But chemical tests published in <a href="https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0103608">2014</a> and <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jas.2018.07.011">2018</a> showed that resins and perfumes were already being used to help preserve the skin of the dead over 6,000 years ago, before coffins were common and long before the Old Kingdom era. </p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-MQ5dL9cQX0?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<h2>2. The ‘recipe’ varied across Egypt</h2>
<p>Recent scientific studies of mummies and <a href="https://www.nature.com/articles/s41586-022-05663-4">pots used in mummification</a> revealed how methods differed from place to place and weren’t standardised, as previously thought. </p>
<p>Each region had its own <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/ancient-egyptian-funeral-home-reveals-embalmers-had-knack-business-180974823/">embalming workshops</a> where mummies were produced in a complicated and closely guarded ritual. This secrecy means very few records survived. </p>
<p>Embalmers living in politically important areas such as <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5398fa85e4b07784a2762d33/t/59b1d781a8b2b050d1c1ec73/1504827301089/Changing_Burial_Practices_at_the_End_of.pdf">Thebes</a> (modern-day Luxor) had access to the latest mummification materials, as part of an extensive trade network. In more remote areas such as oases, embalmers had to make do. <a href="https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/11625036/#:%7E:text=Natron%20or%20native%20soda%2C%20a,and%20to%20dehydrate%20egyptian%20mummies.">Natron salt</a>, used to dry the body, was heavy and difficult to transport. Resins and perfumes could be expensive as they were <a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/mummies-unravel-trade-links-of-the-ancient-world-7m0jmw6r8">traded over long distances</a> in exchange for other luxury goods. </p>
<p>Instead, the embalmers in these remote areas developed <a href="https://www.academia.edu/58456672/Mummification_practices_at_Kellis_site_in_Egypts_Dakhleh_Oasis">creative techniques</a>. For instance, they used sticks to make mummy bundles more rigid or to attach body parts that fell off during mummification. They also created composite mummies, made up of the parts of several people.</p>
<p>We don’t fully understand how experimentation in mummification emerged in different areas or time periods. There was probably an element of trial and error though.</p>
<h2>3. Ancient accounts were not always reliable</h2>
<p>The information we have about mummification comes mostly from two ancient Greek writers, <a href="https://www.livius.org/sources/content/herodotus/mummification/">Herodotus</a> and <a href="https://www.livius.org/sources/content/diodorus/">Diodorus Siculus</a>. They describe the steps of mummification such as using a hook to remove the brain through the nose. They also tell us the heart was left in the body because it was thought to be important for the afterlife. </p>
<p><a href="https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1002&context=anthropres">Scientific studies</a> using CT scanning have now shown the rules of mummification were less rigid than Herodotus and Diodorus Siculus thought. Only around a quarter of known mummies have their heart left in the body. And many mummies <a href="https://ir.lib.uwo.ca/etd/453/">still have their brain</a>. If the embalmers did take the brain out, they sometimes used <a href="https://anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ar.24828">different methods</a> to avoid damaging the face. Holes have been found in the bottom of the skull and through different routes into the nose. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Egyptian mummy close up detail with hieroglyphs background" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504887/original/file-20230117-24-azo53o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504887/original/file-20230117-24-azo53o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504887/original/file-20230117-24-azo53o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504887/original/file-20230117-24-azo53o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504887/original/file-20230117-24-azo53o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504887/original/file-20230117-24-azo53o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504887/original/file-20230117-24-azo53o.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Not everyone could afford new linens or coffins for their dead loved one.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.shutterstock.com/image-photo/egyptian-mummy-close-detail-hieroglyphs-background-422842150">Andrea Izzotti/Shutterstock</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>4. Egyptians upcycled coffins</h2>
<p>In ancient Egypt, wood for coffins was scarce and <a href="https://www.ibaes.de/ibaes7/publikation/cooney_ibaes7.pdf">expensive</a>. Not everyone could afford a new coffin or linen wrappings. A good coffin – but not a luxurious one – in the New Kingdom would <a href="https://static1.squarespace.com/static/5398fa85e4b07784a2762d33/t/59b599262278e7557eca6160/1505073457922/Cooney+offprint+-+To+Live+Forever_color_Bleiberg.pdf">cost about five goats</a> or 250 loaves of bread. </p>
<p>Upcycling and recycling are not modern concepts. To save money, embalmers would often <a href="https://kar.zcu.cz/studium/materialy/egy/texty-pro-studenty-2012/Baines_Lacovara2002.pdf">take coffins from tombs</a> already in use. These could be repainted to include the name of the new owner or the parts were sometimes used to fashion a new coffin. Tombs were often raided by robbers looking for valuables, and afterwards they were often left open. This made it easy for others to search the tomb for coffins and wrappings to reuse. </p>
<p>Household linens were also often used as mummy wrappings once they outlived their usefulness. Modern research techniques such as <a href="https://theconversation.com/explainer-what-is-radiocarbon-dating-and-how-does-it-work-9690">radiocarbon dating</a> are showing this practice was widespread. Coffin materials, linen wrappings and other materials are sometimes dated <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jasrep.2022.103784">several hundred years older</a> than the person they were buried with.</p>
<h2>5. The tourist trade scrambled history</h2>
<p>We now know mummies in museums outside of Egypt are <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2352409X21003989#b0210">not always in the coffins they were discovered in</a>. Many mummies are given a historical date based on their coffin style and decoration. The shape, decoration and religious texts on them changed over time. </p>
<p>But in the 19th and early 20th centuries, mummies were sold to tourists, scientists or collectors. Sellers put well-wrapped mummies into coffins from different tombs to encourage people to buy them. The mismatch only comes to light when a mummy is <a href="https://doi.org/10.1017/S0033822200056502">studied scientifically</a>. </p>
<p>It is now illegal to take mummies or any other ancient artefact from Egypt. There are still a lot of mummies left in private houses though, bought more than a century ago and sometimes forgotten about. </p>
<p>Instead of one unwavering tradition, Egyptian mummification was variable. The funerary rituals available to someone demonstrated how important they and their family were. Being mummified using the most up-to-date techniques and materials not only helped secured a person’s position in the afterlife, it was an important sign of status.</p>
<p>It is impossible to know what the next archaeological or scientific find will show us. But one thing is clear: even ancient embalmers had to improvise sometimes.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/195523/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jenefer Metcalfe works for The University of Manchester, UK.</span></em></p>
Several studies have upended what we thought we knew about mummification using scientific dating techniques to reveal some fascinating – and surprising – insights.
Jenefer Metcalfe, Lecturer in Biomedical Egyptology, University of Manchester
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/199155
2023-02-06T16:18:05Z
2023-02-06T16:18:05Z
Archaeologists have discovered a mummy wrapped in gold – here’s what it tells us about ancient Egyptian beliefs
<p>In January 2023, a group of archaeologists excavating tombs in the ancient necropolis of Saqqara, near Cairo, <a href="https://www.sciencealert.com/archaeologists-mayve-discovered-the-oldest-and-most-complete-egyptian-mummy-yet">discovered</a> the mummified remains of a man named Hekashepes, who lived circa 2300BC. Found inside a limestone sarcophagus in a burial shaft, the body and its wrappings are unusually well preserved for the period.</p>
<p>In the 5th century BC, the Greek historian Herodotus of Halicarnassus <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.01.0126%3Abook%3D2%3Achapter%3D86">described</a> the elaborate way Egyptians preserved their dead. The brain was removed through the nostrils with a hook, while the inner organs were removed through a cut in the abdomen.</p>
<p>The cut was then stitched up and the body rinsed with wine and spices. The body was left to dry in a <a href="https://www.thoughtco.com/what-is-natron-119865">natron solution</a> (a substance harvested from dry lake beds and used to absorb moisture) for up to 70 days. After this period, it was carefully wrapped in linen bandages and finally laid to rest inside a coffin.</p>
<p>By the time Herodotus wrote this, Egyptians had been practising mummification for more than two millennia, gradually perfecting the technique through experimentation. </p>
<p>The pre-dynastic mummies of the fourth millennium BC were so well preserved by the dry desert sands – without human intervention – that <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/S030544031830030X">their tattoos</a> are still visible. The earliest attempts to replicate this outcome by artificial means were less effective so Hekashepes represents an early example of successful preservation.</p>
<h2>Why did ancient Egyptians mummify their dead?</h2>
<p>Egyptians had long observed that bodies interred in graves without direct contact with the drying sands tended to decompose and sought to prevent this for religious reasons. </p>
<p>Without a physical body to which it could return, they believed the Ka (soul essence) could not partake in food offerings brought to the cemetery and was instead left to roam the world of the living as a <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/publication/342688525_Experiencing_the_dead_in_ancient_Egyptian_healing_texts">harmful spirit</a>.</p>
<p><a href="https://anatomypubs.onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/full/10.1002/ar.23134">Mummification techniques</a> were developed in order to preserve the body for the Ka. The earliest methods, which emerged no later than the time of state unification circa 3100BC, involved wrapping the body with resin-soaked linen bandages. However, as the intestines were left in place, the body eventually decomposed.</p>
<p>The lack of preserved human remains from this early period means that archaeologists have limited data on demographics, population health, life expectancy and diet. For this reason, the discovery of Hekashepes’ remains is highly significant.</p>
<p>Scientific examination of the body will provide important insight into the mummification techniques used. <a href="https://www.frontiersin.org/articles/10.3389/fmed.2021.778498/full">Scientific analysis</a> of the skeleton and teeth might also shed light on where Hekashepes grew up, what kind of food he ate, his health, his age and the cause of his death.</p>
<h2>How was Hekashepes preserved?</h2>
<p>Hekashepes’ arms and legs had been individually wrapped to give the body a life-like appearance, and the head was painted with eyes, a mouth and dark hair. More striking, however, are the gold leaves that had been carefully applied to give the illusion of golden skin.</p>
<p>According to Egyptian beliefs, <a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/art/collection/search/544874">gold was the colour of the gods</a>, and gilding the bodies of the dead expressed the idea that they acquired divine qualities in the afterlife.</p>
<p>As such, Hekashepes’ loved ones could take comfort in knowing that he would be reborn and rejuvenated in the afterlife, enjoying his favourite food and drink with the gods for all eternity.</p>
<h2>What does the discovery teach us?</h2>
<p>The archaeologists who uncovered Hekashepes’ sarcophagus also discovered, in a nearby tomb, a group of well-preserved limestone statues depicting men, women and children. These images, which only the wealthy could afford, were made to accompany burials as “reserve bodies” for the Ka to inhabit.</p>
<p>The beautiful statues, on which paint is still visible, depict men with athletic bodies and reddish-brown skin. The women are curvy and pale. Both sexes are depicted with luscious dark hair.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/u6tL8Ofoxos?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">Footage of the discoveries in the tomb of Hekashepes.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The images reflect <a href="https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/pdfplus/10.5615/neareastarch.79.3.0174">gender roles</a> in which men took on active roles in the public sphere, while women stayed indoors and looked after the home. Some of the statues depict women engaged in domestic tasks like grinding grain and baking bread, demonstrating the importance placed on women’s labour in the household.</p>
<p>The statues of married couples depict the husbands and wives affectionately linking arms. Some are shown with their children standing or kneeling by their feet.</p>
<p>The images of married couples and families emphasise the importance of the family as the basic social unit in ancient Egyptian society. Kinship ties were maintained in death and the living had an obligation to provide food offerings to sustain their relatives in the afterlife.</p>
<p>The Egyptians believed that, in return for the offerings, the dead could be <a href="https://escholarship.org/uc/item/6bh8w50t">called on for assistance</a>. They could also act as intermediaries between the living and Osiris, the divine ruler of the underworld.</p>
<p>Although it is easy to get the impression that the ancient Egyptians were obsessed with death, the care with which they treated their dead reveals a love for life and a sincere hope of continued existence after death. </p>
<p>The discovery of Hekashepes’ body gives us hope that more well-preserved human remains from the period will come to light and increase our understanding of life in the age of the pyramids.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/199155/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Maiken Mosleth King does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Egyptians believed gold was the colour of the gods and gilding the dead expressed the idea that they acquired divine qualities in the afterlife.
Maiken Mosleth King, Lecturer in Ancient History, University of Bristol
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/197539
2023-01-29T18:33:48Z
2023-01-29T18:33:48Z
What makes archaeology useful as well as exciting? It offers lessons from the past
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504640/original/file-20230116-14-caekqf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Great Zimbabwe</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Shutterstock</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Archaeology is fun. It’s so much fun that sometimes people do not treat it with the seriousness it deserves. Studying the past, through what people leave behind, can offer insights into some of the world’s <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/antiquity/article/making-archaeology-relevant-to-global-challenges-a-global-south-perspective/5F0E4C5D48FDD2D77D4ED1F4402F3740">challenges</a> – like hunger, health, and protecting the environment.</p>
<p>Some of the most impressive archaeological sites in the world include <a href="https://www.economist.com/interactive/christmas-specials/2021/12/18/great-zimbabwe-archaeology">Great Zimbabwe</a>, the Egyptian <a href="https://theconversation.com/racism-is-behind-outlandish-theories-about-africas-ancient-architecture-83898">Pyramids</a> and the Great Wall of China. Side by side with these very old and massive structures are sediments, old bones, seeds, pottery, <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-we-found-the-earliest-glass-production-south-of-the-sahara-and-what-it-means-142059">glass</a>, metals and human <a href="https://theconversation.com/a-cave-site-in-kenyas-forests-reveals-the-oldest-human-burial-in-africa-160343">skeletons</a>. All yield clues about ancient environments, <a href="https://theconversation.com/65-000-year-old-stone-swiss-army-knives-show-early-humans-had-long-distance-social-networks-184648">societies</a> and <a href="https://theconversation.com/at-unguja-ukuu-human-activity-transformed-the-coast-of-zanzibar-more-than-1-000-years-ago-176035">economies</a>. </p>
<p>Archaeological discoveries sometimes grab headlines: Howard Carter’s discovery of <a href="https://daily.jstor.org/the-discovery-of-king-tuts-tomb/">Tutankhamun’s tomb</a> in Egypt in 1922, the <a href="https://education.nationalgeographic.org/resource/terra-cotta-warriors-found">Terracotta Army</a> discovery by local farmers in China in 1974, the spectacular objects of <a href="https://oxfordre.com/africanhistory/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.001.0001/acrefore-9780190277734-e-585;jsessionid=CED15264FBBE42956F1B722E51F56113">Igbo Ukwu</a> in Nigeria, the gold burials of <a href="https://theconversation.com/new-book-on-mapungubwe-archive-contests-history-of-south-african-world-heritage-site-187926">Mapungubwe</a> and the <a href="https://theconversation.com/spectacular-anglo-saxon-burial-uncovered-heres-what-it-tells-us-about-women-in-seventh-century-england-196675">Staffordshire hoard</a> in England are a few examples that come to mind. </p>
<p>At <a href="https://www.routledge.com/Great-Zimbabwe-Reclaiming-a-Confiscated-Past/Chirikure/p/book/9780367638979?gclid=EAIaIQobChMI9e6GmajE_AIVqRkGAB2ASAeQEAMYASAAEgJNufD_BwE">Great Zimbabwe</a>, the excavation team I lead always discovers interesting things that show how this place was once connected across Africa and with India and China. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-we-found-the-earliest-glass-production-south-of-the-sahara-and-what-it-means-142059">How we found the earliest glass production south of the Sahara, and what it means</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>But beyond being interesting, what is the value of these discoveries? The short answer is that they offer lessons from human experience. They show us different options that we could think about and modify to suit changing circumstances. Materials, land use, water storage, cultural practices and ways to manage <a href="https://theconversation.com/archaeology-shows-how-ancient-african-societies-managed-pandemics-138217">health</a> are just some of the kinds of options I mean. </p>
<h2>Lessons from human experience</h2>
<p>For example, of the many “gifts” that the Romans gave to the world, concrete is one of the most studied materials. It has the potential to reduce greenhouse gases known to cause global warming and climate extremes. <a href="https://www.science.org/doi/10.1126/sciadv.add1602">Studies</a> in design and engineering are showing that adapting Roman techniques can improve modern concrete formulations, making them durable and environmentally friendly. </p>
<p>And modern designers have been inspired by <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/mrs-online-proceedings-library-archive/article/abs/craft-knowledge-as-an-intangible-cultural-property-a-case-study-of-samarkand-tiles-and-traditional-potters-in-uzbekistan/CEF57A6A272919D6CD6A3CCC3F331F40">research</a> into ancient tiles used in Asian regions such as Uzbekistan. </p>
<p>Learning from the past also promotes balanced approaches to sustainable farming practices. It can lead to responsible <a href="https://www.thebritishacademy.ac.uk/blog/reclaiming-great-zimbabwes-past-to-learn-lessons-for-the-future">planetary stewardship</a>. For example, we can learn about growing traditional crops such as millet and sorghum that are not only nutritious but also help in <a href="https://theconversation.com/chemical-traces-in-ancient-west-african-pots-show-a-diet-rich-in-plants-177579">biodiversity</a> conservation and heritage protection.</p>
<p>Clues to environmental changes can come from unexpected places. One of the most exciting archaeological discoveries I have worked on is the <a href="https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s11457-010-9059-9">Oranjemund shipwreck</a>. Diamond miners in Namibia stumbled on this in 2008 when dredging sand. A Portuguese ship had sunk in the 1530s and its cargo was on the seabed. Through international collaborations, we rescued 20 tons of copper, nearly 40kg of gold coins, 7 tons of unworked elephant tusks and many other items from the ship. </p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504857/original/file-20230117-18-d5uwp8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504857/original/file-20230117-18-d5uwp8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/504857/original/file-20230117-18-d5uwp8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504857/original/file-20230117-18-d5uwp8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504857/original/file-20230117-18-d5uwp8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504857/original/file-20230117-18-d5uwp8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504857/original/file-20230117-18-d5uwp8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/504857/original/file-20230117-18-d5uwp8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mine workers excavate an ivory tusk found on site of a shipwreck in Oranjemund, Namibia.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Photo by Amy Toensing / Getty Images</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Work by teams bringing together different scientific techniques, such as stable isotopes and ancient DNA, identified the West African forest region as the source of the elephants hunted for their <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0960982220316638">ivory</a>. Most of that elephant population has since disappeared, through unsustainable consumption. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/fossil-tracks-and-trunk-marks-reveal-signs-of-ancient-elephants-on-south-africas-coast-164306">Fossil tracks and trunk marks reveal signs of ancient elephants on South Africa's coast</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>Archaeology also shines a light on the different ways human societies have organised themselves. For example, discoveries of <a href="https://www.worldhistory.org/Bantu_Migration">evidence</a> showing the migrations of different groups of people in Africa show the limitations imposed by the national borders created by <a href="https://www.sahistory.org.za/article/berlin-conference">colonial powers</a>. Before European colonialism, African peoples were connected in different ways. Archaeology presents this African heritage and offers social cohesion as an alternative to <a href="https://theconversation.com/xenophobia-does-not-tell-the-full-story-of-migration-in-south-africa-182784">xenophobia</a>. </p>
<h2>Multidisciplinary discovery</h2>
<p>Another value of archaeology is that it uses multiple <a href="https://theconversation.com/ancient-dna-helps-reveal-social-changes-in-africa-50-000-years-ago-that-shaped-the-human-story-175436">fields of knowledge</a> to discover and interpret findings. Studies of <a href="https://oxfordre.com/africanhistory/display/10.1093/acrefore/9780190277734.001.0001/acrefore-9780190277734-e-68;jsessionid=D5D108B5CB4C4FBAC536C5EE12F12808">precolonial African trade</a>, for example, use multiple sources and techniques such as oral and documentary history, languages and archaeological materials analysis to show that communities in southern Africa were networked with each other and those in central and eastern Africa. Archaeologists recovered iron gongs produced in central Africa at Great Zimbabwe together with a coin minted at Kilwa on the Indian Ocean coast. This shows movement of resources and people within Africa – which is once again a goal through the <a href="https://theconversation.com/africas-free-trade-area-offers-promise-for-cities-but-only-if-theres-investment-187177">African Continental Free Trade Area</a>. </p>
<p>As <a href="https://theconversation.com/archaeological-site-along-the-nile-opens-a-window-on-the-nubian-civilization-that-flourished-in-ancient-sudan-174575">heritage</a>, archaeological discoveries also have economic and intrinsic value. Some of the world’s most visited tourism destinations are archaeological sites – Machu Picchu in Peru is one. This goes against the perception that archaeology is all about discovery for discovery’s sake and that it is a luxury in a hard-pressed world. </p>
<p>Archaeology matters because lessons from the past can put solutions on the table, mixing excitement with problem solving.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/197539/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Shadreck Chirikure receives funding from the British Academy, the University of Oxford, the National Research Foundation of South Africa, and the University of Cape Town. He is affiliated with the University of Cape Town. </span></em></p>
Archaeological discoveries show the different options that have solved human problems over time.
Shadreck Chirikure, Director, Research Laboratory, Professor of Archaeological Science and British Academy Global Professor, University of Oxford
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/193766
2022-11-03T16:55:07Z
2022-11-03T16:55:07Z
Why Tutankhamun’s curse continues to fascinate, 100 years after his discovery
<p>The discovery of <a href="http://www.griffith.ox.ac.uk/discoveringtut/">Tutankhamun’s tomb</a> in 1922 was a monumental event for archaeology. It was the first largely intact ancient Egyptian royal tomb to be found and hence provided major insights into the burial practices of royalty. It also gave a glimpse of what other undiscovered, lost or robbed tombs of pharaohs might have been like. </p>
<p>Tutankhamun was a relatively minor pharaoh. He died young and did not get the chance to leave a larger legacy, so such a lavish funerary provision for him implied even greater treasures in other tombs of more accomplished pharaohs.</p>
<p>Interest in the burial practices of the ancient Egyptians was well-established, with the deciphering of hieroglyphs in 1822 creating a watershed moment for Egyptology, but the discovery of the tomb built on this and brought ancient Egypt to the masses through media reports.</p>
<p>The discovery came just after the first world war, in a period of deep mourning for the losses in conflict. The story of a young man with a family who had died before his time resonated with many. Tutankhamun was a burst of glorious colour in a dark time, which came with the extra draw of the mysteries of the tomb and eternal life. It was also found in a <a href="https://archive.org/details/discoveryoftutan0000burt/page/n23/mode/2up">last-ditch attempt to locate it</a>; Howard Carter had been searching for it for years, and his success made a compelling story of hope, persistence and reward.</p>
<p>It was also a discovery full of mystery and intrigue. An ancient king in a long searched-for tomb full of fascinating objects laden with mystical and primeval meaning. The story captured the public’s imagination and papers at the time capitalised on that interest with a tale of a curse. </p>
<h2>The famous fake curse</h2>
<p>The oft-quoted curse “Death will come on swift wings to him who disturbs the peace of the king” <a href="https://daily.jstor.org/was-it-really-a-mummys-curse/">does not actually appear anywhere in the tomb</a>. There are <a href="https://www.rom.on.ca/en/learning/activities-resources/online-activities/ancient-egypt/religion/tomb-inscriptions-curses">real ancient Egyptian curses</a> but this was not one. Tutankhamun’s curse stemmed from a media battle for readership. </p>
<p><a href="https://www.thetimes.co.uk/article/curse-of-pharaohs-tomb-was-invented-by-rival-reporter-z7gnkw7xg">The Times had the exclusive rights</a> for reporting on the excavation, so speculative stories were published by other newspapers, including the rumours of a curse. This again played on post-Victorian familiarity with <a href="https://theconversation.com/how-tutankhamun-became-a-popular-spirit-at-seances-in-the-1920s-193762">spiritualism</a>, an interest in the gothic in literature and the trend for travellers’ souvenirs, which often included mummified remains or other objects from tombs. </p>
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Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-tutankhamun-became-a-popular-spirit-at-seances-in-the-1920s-193762">How Tutankhamun became a popular spirit at seances in the 1920s</a>
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<p>Readers <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?hl=en&lr=&id=kMo8ROSpOW4C&oi=fnd&pg=PP1&dq=tutankhamun+curse+not+in+tomb&ots=usxg3fJhES&sig=A0YPd3O2ouPjse1_bS0Ad20_f2c#v=onepage&q&f=fals">bought into the idea of a curse with relish</a>. There were also a series of illnesses, accidents and other events the papers attributed to the opening of the tomb. The most notable was the death of Lord Carnarvon, who funded the excavation, on April 5 1923. The cause of death was an infected cut, but the opportunity to connect this with the curse was irresistible.</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Students of Egyptian mysticism … attribute sickness and death to curse laid by Ancient Egyptians on any who dare disturb the rest of a Pharaoh". (Allentown Morning Call, April 5 1923).</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Research since, has, however, <a href="https://www.bmj.com/content/325/7378/1482">thoroughly debunked</a> the idea that those present at the opening met an untimely end. Only a handful of people who were there at the opening died within the next decade and Howard Carter, who would have been a primary target for a curse, died in 1939, aged 64.</p>
<p>Despite us all knowing that curse was fabricated, it has had a long-term effect on the discovery of ancient relics and the perpetuation of such myths. The idea that human remains must be dealt with carefully has been present since the early days of excavation. However, archaeology today is concerned more than ever with the ethics of working with human remains, their interpretation and how they are kept. </p>
<h2>Tutankhamun today</h2>
<p>The discovery of the tomb, the boy king and the myths that surround it still fascinate us today. We now know more about ancient Egyptian culture than a century ago, but a lot of answers still elude us. </p>
<p><a href="http://www.griffith.ox.ac.uk/discoveringTut/burton5/burtoncolour.html">The objects</a> in the tomb are beautifully crafted and full of symbolism and meaning, painted or inscribed with hieroglyphs that in their mystery inspire wonder and intrigue. However, much of the tomb’s contents have never been fully published and there is still ongoing work to catalogue the objects and research the excavation itself. Discoveries continue to be made, including new evidence that suggests <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2022/aug/13/howard-carter-stole-tutankhamuns-treasure-new-evidence-suggests">Carter stole some artefacts</a>.</p>
<p>Tutankhamun and the dig remain in the cultural consciousness. The <a href="https://www.egyptianmuseumcairo.com/egyptian-museum-cairo/artefacts/mask-of-tutankhamun/">golden funerary mask</a> is often the first, or the most memorable, image of ancient Egypt that the public encounters. Many people have become archaeologists or Egyptologists because the striped gold and blue mask captured their imagination so firmly.</p>
<p>The dig also remains the benchmark of excavation, discovery and exhibition. The British Museum’s display in 1972 of selected treasures from the tomb, including the gold funerary mask, is still the Museum’s highest-attended exhibition (<a href="https://twitter.com/britishmuseum/status/699540119657828352?lang=e">1.6m</a> visitors) and arguably the one against all others are compared. </p>
<p>This centenary year has seen hundreds of events associated with the discovery, Tutankhamun himself and his times. With the heritage sector’s increasing focus on <a href="https://www.ucl.ac.uk/archaeology/research/directory/decolonising-archaeology">the ethics of past and present collectors and excavators</a>, the story of the tomb is in the public eye once more, as a focal point for revisiting histories as well as reaffirming Tutankhamun as the most famous face in antiquity.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/193766/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Claire Isabella Gilmour does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
From the curse that the papers latched on to new research suggesting that Howard Carter stole objects from the tomb, Tutankhamun’s discovery continues to grab attention.
Claire Isabella Gilmour, PhD Candidate, Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Bristol
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/193762
2022-11-03T16:49:51Z
2022-11-03T16:49:51Z
How Tutankhamun became a popular spirit at seances in the 1920s
<p>It has been 100 years since the discovery of the tomb of the Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun, the boy king who ruled in the 14th century BC. Tutankhamun’s tomb was discovered in November 1922 by a team of predominantly Egyptian excavators led by the British archaeologist Howard Carter. </p>
<p>Carter’s published account has dominated public understanding of this historic find. His three-volume publication <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/books/tomb-of-tutankhamen/00D375EA253B09047D52253B2C7E79F3">The Tomb of Tut-Ankh-Amen</a> is responsible for immortalising his purported response to his patron, Lord Carnarvon’s question: “Can you see anything?” To which he responded, “Yes, wonderful things.” It also made famous the image of “everywhere the glint of gold” as he first peered into the tomb.</p>
<p>There was a lot of interest in the discovery at the time, which led to a slew of <a href="https://digitalscholarship.unlv.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=2020&context=rtds">newspaper coverage</a>. One story that constantly re-emerged, and remain popular, concerns the story of a mummy’s curse plaguing those involved in the excavations – though the notion that those present at the tomb’s opening met untimely ends has been <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC139048/">thoroughly debunked</a>. </p>
<p>There are other stories and legends about the discovery, the subsequent excavations and their legacies, all of which contribute to a fuller understanding of the sheer and wide-ranging impact of this event.</p>
<p>One such little-known cultural consequence was how the pharaoh started to regular emerge in spiritualist circles after his tomb’s discovery. </p>
<h2>Tutankhamun makes an appearance</h2>
<p><a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/spiritualism/ataglance/glance.shtml">Spiritualism</a>, a religious movement that believes in the survival of the spirit after death and that the spirits of the deceased might communicate with the living, had its heyday in the 19th century. </p>
<p>It had declined in popularity after several high-profile mediums (people who were understood to facilitate this communication) had been exposed as <a href="https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/69973/rise-and-fall-5-claimed-mediums">frauds</a> at the end of the 19th century. But then Spiritualism saw a resurgence during and after the first world war as people attempted to reach lost loved ones.</p>
<figure class="align-left ">
<img alt="An ancient Egyptian funerary mask" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493259/original/file-20221103-26-5hzyge.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/493259/original/file-20221103-26-5hzyge.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=845&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493259/original/file-20221103-26-5hzyge.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=845&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493259/original/file-20221103-26-5hzyge.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=845&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493259/original/file-20221103-26-5hzyge.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1062&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493259/original/file-20221103-26-5hzyge.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1062&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/493259/original/file-20221103-26-5hzyge.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1062&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
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<span class="caption">Tutankhamun’s funerary mask..</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/3/38/Tutanchamun_Maske.jpg">Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
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<p>In the 1920s, a new celebrity spirit started making contact at seances, where a group of people, often in a circle around a table, attempt to contact the dead. Tutankhamun began to transmit messages from “the other side” according to believers, showing up at seances globally. <a href="http://iapsop.com/archive/materials/light/light_v44_mar_1924.pdf">People speculated</a> that he had not made himself known in psychic circles prior to his tomb’s discovery because “the spirit [was] drawn back to thoughts of earth by the attention concentrated on him.”</p>
<p>In one instance, Tutankhamun was said to have been channelled by a medium named Blanche Cooper who worked at the British College of Psychic Science. According to one account, from her mouth came “<a href="http://iapsop.com/archive/materials/light/light_v44_apr_1924.pdf">a deep male voice</a>” which “spoke in a foreign tongue, soft and musical.” Tutankhamun’s communication supposedly listed what might be found within his tomb. The tomb’s discovery stimulated such a proliferation of messages purportedly from the boy king that seance-goers complained that they were “<a href="http://iapsop.com/archive/materials/light/light_v44_apr_1924.pdf">getting a little tired of Tutankhamen</a>.”</p>
<p>Tutankhamun was not always a positive presence, however. <a href="http://iapsop.com/archive/materials/international_psychic_gazette/international_psychic_gazette_v16_n188_may_1929.pdf">The International Psychic Gazette</a> reported a more hostile encounter in 1929:</p>
<blockquote>
<p>Violent supernatural happenings have occurred […] in the studio of Mr Folt, a well-known sculptor who possesses a superb mansion at Vinohrady, […] Prague. Many persons celebrated in intellectual and artistic circles attended a Spiritualistic seance there. Everything proceeded calmly until the conclusion, when a sitter asked that the spirit of Tutankhamen […] should be evoked. </p>
<p>The medium thereupon sank into trance and announced that that spirit was approaching. Then he uttered a cry of pain, accompanied by unearthly shouts of furious anger. And immediately there was let loose in the studio a fearful uproar, with a tempest of wind so powerful that it broke most of the window panes. </p>
<p>The witnesses of this sudden storm were terrified. They rose at once from the table and put up the lights. Before their eyes the studio lay completely devastated. All the statues of Egyptian figures sculptured by Folt had been broken. One of them, in bronze, had been thrown through the window into the courtyard. Another was lying on the floor bearing traces of blood on the lips and forehead. […] These extraordinary perturbations took place with such rapidity that they did not last more than 30 to 35 seconds.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>What such reports indicate is that, for believers,, Tutankhamun’s spirit appeared in a variety of ways from benevolent force to vengeful destroyer; from an individual undisturbed by the penetration of his tomb to an entity driven to rain down havoc upon the heads of those who had violated this sacred space. </p>
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<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/why-tutankhamuns-curse-continues-to-fascinate-100-years-after-his-discovery-193766">Why Tutankhamun’s curse continues to fascinate, 100 years after his discovery</a>
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<p>With the name Tutankhamun very much in the public consciousness again, we are reminded that this is a pharaoh bound to periodically “return” – whether as a ghostly apparition or in research. His manifestation in Spiritualist circles of the 1920s is just one such way in which popular fascination with the pharaoh has manifested itself over the years.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/193762/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Eleanor Dobson does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Some spiritualists in the 1920s moaned that Tutankhamun appeared almost too often.
Eleanor Dobson, Associate Professor in Nineteenth-Century Literature, University of Birmingham
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/193293
2022-11-02T19:02:05Z
2022-11-02T19:02:05Z
More than a story of treasures: revisiting Tutankhamun’s tomb 100 years after its discovery
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492231/original/file-20221028-41785-z6l6eg.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=5%2C0%2C914%2C685&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Howard Carter, Ahmed Gerigar and King Tutankhamun's sarcophagus, opened three years after the tomb was discovered, in 1925. </span> <span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Tuts_Tomb_Opened.JPG">Wikimedia Commons</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>On November 4 1922, a young Egyptian “water boy” on an archaeological dig is said to have accidentally stumbled on a stone that turned out to be the top of a flight of steps cut into the limestone bedrock. </p>
<p>The stairs led to one of the most spectacular archaeological discoveries in history and the only almost intact funerary assemblage of a pharaoh – the Tutankhamun’s tomb.</p>
<p>A century after this discovery, it’s worth revisiting the story of Tutankhamun’s tomb and how it eventually became a symbol for Egyptian nationalism.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/from-crumbling-rock-art-to-exposed-ancestral-remains-climate-change-is-ravaging-our-precious-indigenous-heritage-188454">From crumbling rock art to exposed ancestral remains, climate change is ravaging our precious Indigenous heritage</a>
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<h2>The ‘child king’</h2>
<p><a href="https://egyptianmuseum.org/explore/new-kingdom-ruler-tutankhamun">Tutankhamun</a> is often referred to as a “child king” and the “most famous and least important” of the pharaohs; he was almost unknown to history before the tomb’s discovery. </p>
<p>The son of one of the most controversial pharaohs in history – the champion of monotheism, <a href="https://www.arce.org/resource/akhenaten-mysteries-religious-revolution">Akhenaten</a> – Tutankhamun ascended the throne around age six or so. After a rather uneventful reign of restoring temples and bringing Egypt out from a period of political and religious turmoil, he died sometime between the age of 17 and 19. </p>
<p>The discovery of his tomb full of magnificent and unique objects is more than a story of treasures. This is also a tale of the “roaring 20s” in the Middle Eastern version: a story of a quintessential embrace of class, privilege and colonialism juxtaposed against struggle for political freedom and building of new national identity. </p>
<p>Archaeology 100 years ago was <a href="https://visit.bodleian.ox.ac.uk/event/tutankhamun-excavating-the-archive">very different</a>. </p>
<p>None of the three male protagonists behind the discovery – Howard Carter (the lead British excavator), Lord Carnarvon (the man behind the money), and Ahmed Gerigar (the Egyptian foreman) – were formally trained as archaeologists.</p>
<p>Despite this, Carter is now almost always referred to as an archaeologist, but Gerigar <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/smart-news/remembering-unsung-egyptians-who-helped-find-king-tut-tomb-180980074/">almost never is</a> – further entrenching colonial narratives.</p>
<p>But Carter’s three-decade-long excavation experience, draughtsman’s talent and his meticulousness, allied with the photographic aptitude of <a href="http://www.griffith.ox.ac.uk/discoveringtut/burton5/burtoncolour.html">Harry Burton of Metropolitan Museum</a> and the skills of the Egyptian excavators assured Tutenkhamun’s tomb – the only discovery of its type and arguably one of the most important archaeological finds ever – was recorded in a systematic and “modern” way. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492234/original/file-20221028-23824-ds68eb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492234/original/file-20221028-23824-ds68eb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492234/original/file-20221028-23824-ds68eb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492234/original/file-20221028-23824-ds68eb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492234/original/file-20221028-23824-ds68eb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492234/original/file-20221028-23824-ds68eb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492234/original/file-20221028-23824-ds68eb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492234/original/file-20221028-23824-ds68eb.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
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<span class="caption">Howard Carter examines Tutankhamun’s tomb.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Carter_tuttumb.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The painter who became an archaeologist</h2>
<p>Howard Carter was a young painter who fell in love with Egyptian antiquities while following his father, also a painter, into the houses of London’s elite to add drawings of pets to his father’s portraits. </p>
<p>In 1891, age 17, Carter was recommended as an illustrator to archaeologist Percy Newberry, and joined him at a dig in Egypt at <a href="https://benihassan.com">Beni Hassan tombs</a>. From this first trip to his death in 1939, Carter spent his life mostly in Egypt with short trips back to London to <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/culture/2022/aug/13/howard-carter-stole-tutankhamuns-treasure-new-evidence-suggests">deal in antiquities</a>, including those allegedly stolen from Tutankhamun’s tomb. </p>
<p>After Beni Hassan, Carter became an illustrator for one of the fathers of Egyptology, William Flinders Petrie in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Amarna">Tell el-Amarna</a>, the capital of Tut’s father Akhenaten. </p>
<p>Carter then worked in <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deir_el-Bahari">Deir el-Bahari</a>, the funerary temple of queen pharaoh Hatshepsut, located right on the other side of the limestone ravine known as the Valley of the Kings. </p>
<p>It is here, on the western bank of the Nile I also trace some of my humble early experiences in Egyptology. </p>
<p>Walking at dawn from our base at the Metropolitan Museum house in Deir, which Carter frequented, to the temple, I followed in his footsteps and mused on how lucky he was when the “water boy” stumbled upon a staircase to the tomb. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492233/original/file-20221028-37683-w6q6fo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492233/original/file-20221028-37683-w6q6fo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492233/original/file-20221028-37683-w6q6fo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492233/original/file-20221028-37683-w6q6fo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492233/original/file-20221028-37683-w6q6fo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=596&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492233/original/file-20221028-37683-w6q6fo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=749&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492233/original/file-20221028-37683-w6q6fo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=749&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492233/original/file-20221028-37683-w6q6fo.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=749&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Lord Carnavon and Howard Carter at the entrance to the tomb in 1922.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Howard_Carter_und_Lord_Carnarvon_1922.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>That year, 1922, was supposed to be the last season after seven fruitless years of digging in the Valley in search of Tutankhamun’s elusive resting place. </p>
<p>After clearing the staircase, Carter found the doorway sealed with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cartouche">cartouches</a> – the hieroglyphs which enclose a royal name. He ordered the staircase to be refilled, and sent a telegram to Carnarvon, who arrived from England two-and-a-half weeks later.</p>
<p>On November 26 Carter made a “tiny breach in the top left-hand corner” of the doorway. </p>
<p>Carnarvon asked, “Can you see anything?” and Carter <a href="https://museum.wa.gov.au/whats-on/tutankhamun-wonderful-things/">replied</a> with his famous line: “Yes, wonderful things!”</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492232/original/file-20221028-37112-9r59pd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492232/original/file-20221028-37112-9r59pd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492232/original/file-20221028-37112-9r59pd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=849&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492232/original/file-20221028-37112-9r59pd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=849&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492232/original/file-20221028-37112-9r59pd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=849&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492232/original/file-20221028-37112-9r59pd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492232/original/file-20221028-37112-9r59pd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492232/original/file-20221028-37112-9r59pd.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1067&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Opening the burial shrine in 1924, photographed by Howard Carter.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:The_Moment_Carter_Opens_the_Shrine.jpg">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Across 3,000 years, about 300 pharaohs ruled ancient Egypt. All royal tombs had been broken into by thieves.</p>
<p>The spectacular find of Tut’s tomb was also not a fully intact discovery. The tomb had been looted twice in antiquity, and Carter estimated that a considerable amount of jewellery was stolen. But it is the only surviving almost complete funerary assemblage.</p>
<p>Consisting of over 5,000 objects, only <a href="https://podcasts.apple.com/in/podcast/tutankhamun/id463700741?i=1000460805430">30%</a> have been studied so far.</p>
<h2>A story of its time</h2>
<p>Following <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unilateral_Declaration_of_Egyptian_Independence">Egyptian independence</a> on February 28 1922 and the establishment of an independent <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kingdom_of_Egypt">Kingdom of Egypt</a>, the discovery of Tutankhamun’s tomb became an optimistic symbol for Egyptian nationalists. </p>
<p>After the initial documentation, the official opening of the tomb in early 1924 coincided with the inauguration of Egypt’s first elected parliament.</p>
<p>Despite the new independence, colonial attitudes continued. Lord Carnarvon sold the rights to the story of the discovery of Tut’s tomb to the London Times for a significant sum. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492235/original/file-20221028-41756-ze46zm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492235/original/file-20221028-41756-ze46zm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/492235/original/file-20221028-41756-ze46zm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492235/original/file-20221028-41756-ze46zm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492235/original/file-20221028-41756-ze46zm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=517&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492235/original/file-20221028-41756-ze46zm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=650&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492235/original/file-20221028-41756-ze46zm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=650&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/492235/original/file-20221028-41756-ze46zm.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=650&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Arthur Mace and Alfred Lucas working on the conservation of a chariot from Tutankhamun’s tomb.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Arthur_Mace,_with_a_chariot_from_Tutankhamun%27s_tomb,_during_its_excavation.png">Wikimedia Commons</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Given the delay of a couple of weeks with sending photos on the ship from Cairo to London, Egyptian newspapers and readers were only able to follow the unfolding discovery from reading delayed British press. This caused a lot of resentment among the newly independent Egyptians, especially the middle classes.</p>
<p>Nevertheless, the discovery was very significant for nation building and new national post-colonial identity. </p>
<p>Taha Hussein, a notable Egyptian philosopher of the time, coined a notion of “<a href="https://raseef22.net/article/1074731-are-we-arabs-pharaohs-phoenicians-or-assssyrians-a-question-raised-since-1933-by">pharaonism</a>”. This unified national identity was supposed to transcend religious and ethnic differences between Arab, Muslim, Coptic and Jewish Egyptians. </p>
<p>It remains a tool of propaganda to this day – notably with a parade of <a href="https://www.bbc.com/news/world-middle-east-56508475">22 mummies moving to a new national museum</a> and a lavish re-opening of the <a href="https://grandegyptianmuseum.org">Grand Egyptian Museum</a> soon, where much of the treasures from Tutankhamun’s tomb can be found today.</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/the-discovery-of-the-lost-city-of-the-dazzling-aten-will-offer-vital-clues-about-domestic-and-urban-life-in-ancient-egypt-158874">The discovery of the lost city of 'the Dazzling Aten' will offer vital clues about domestic and urban life in Ancient Egypt</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/193293/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Anna M. Kotarba-Morley receives funding from the Australian Research Council. She had previously received funding for work in Egypt from the Griffiths fund and Society for Nautical Research. She is an expert member of ICAHM - International Committee for Archaeological Heritage Management.
</span></em></p>
The discovery of his tomb full of magnificent and unique objects is more than a story of treasures. It’s also a story of class, privilege, colonialism, political freedom and national identity.
Anna M. Kotarba-Morley, Senior Lecturer in Archaeology, Flinders University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/177551
2022-06-07T02:30:11Z
2022-06-07T02:30:11Z
Why did people start eating Egyptian mummies? The weird and wild ways mummy fever swept through Europe
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467335/original/file-20220607-15494-oycleu.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=0%2C0%2C4000%2C2994&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Why did people think cannibalism was good for their health? The answer offers a glimpse into the zaniest crannies of European history, at a time when Europeans were obsessed with Egyptian mummies.</p>
<p>Driven first by the belief that ground-up and tinctured human remains could cure anything from bubonic plague to a headache, and then by the macabre ideas Victorian people had about after-dinner entertainment, the bandaged corpses of ancient Egyptians were the subject of fascination from the Middle Ages to the 19th century.</p>
<h2>Mummy mania</h2>
<p>Faith that mummies could cure illness drove people for centuries to ingest something that <a href="https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/mumia-the-strange-history-of-human-remains-as-medicine">tasted awful</a>. </p>
<p>Mumia, the product created from mummified bodies, was a medicinal substance consumed <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-gruesome-history-of-eating-corpses-as-medicine-82360284/">for centuries</a> by rich and poor, <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/2540910?seq=1">available in apothecaries’ shops</a>, and created from the remains of mummies brought from Egyptian tombs back to Europe.</p>
<p>By the 12th century apothecaries were using ground up mummies for their otherworldly medicinal properties. Mummies were a prescribed medicine for the next 500 years. </p>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467332/original/file-20220607-15946-mee6wh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467332/original/file-20220607-15946-mee6wh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467332/original/file-20220607-15946-mee6wh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=1039&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467332/original/file-20220607-15946-mee6wh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=1039&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467332/original/file-20220607-15946-mee6wh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=1039&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467332/original/file-20220607-15946-mee6wh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1306&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467332/original/file-20220607-15946-mee6wh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1306&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467332/original/file-20220607-15946-mee6wh.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1306&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A jar used for storing mumia, a medicine made from the ground up remains of mummified humans.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>In a world without antibiotics, physicians prescribed ground up skulls, bones and flesh to treat illnesses from <a href="https://hauntedwalk.com/news/why-did-people-eat-mummies/">headaches</a> to <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2101801/pdf/procrsmed01192-0163.pdf">reducing swelling</a> or curing the <a href="https://pharmaceutical-journal.com/article/opinion/using-a-mummy-as-a-medicine">plague</a>.</p>
<p>Not everyone was convinced. <a href="https://www.sciencehistory.org/distillations/mummies-and-the-usefulness-of-death">Guy de la Fontaine</a>, a royal doctor, doubted mumia was a useful medicine and saw forged mummies made from dead peasants in Alexandria in 1564. He realised people could be conned. They were not always consuming genuine ancient mummies. </p>
<p>But the forgeries illustrate an important point: there was constant demand for dead flesh to be used in medicine and the supply of real Egyptian mummies could not meet this. </p>
<p>Apothecaries and herbalists were <a href="https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2101801/pdf/procrsmed01192-0163.pdf">still dispensing mummy medicines</a> into the 18th century. </p>
<h2>Mummy’s medicine</h2>
<p>Not all doctors thought dry, old mummies made the best medicine. <a href="https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-gruesome-history-of-eating-corpses-as-medicine-82360284/">Some doctors believed</a> that fresh meat and blood had a vitality the long-dead lacked. </p>
<p>The claim that fresh was best convinced even the noblest of nobles. England’s <a href="https://www.thelancet.com/journals/laneur/article/PIIS1474-4422(18)30330-2/fulltext#:%7E:text=After%20having%20a%20seizure%20in,hopes%20of%20a%20speedy%20cure.&text=Death%20by%20doctoring.">King Charles II</a> took medication made from human skulls after suffering a seizure, and, until 1909, physicians commonly used human skulls to treat neurological conditions.</p>
<p>For the royal and social elite, eating mummies seemed a <a href="https://www.independent.co.uk/life-style/history/aristocracy-ate-human-flesh-2287174.html">royally appropriate medicine </a>, as doctors claimed mumia was made from pharaohs. Royalty ate royalty.</p>
<h2>Dinner, drinks, and a show</h2>
<p>By the 19th century, people were no longer consuming mummies to cure illness but Victorians were hosting “unwrapping parties” where Egyptian corpses would be unwrapped for entertainment at private parties. </p>
<p>Napoleon’s <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.co.uk/history-and-civilisation/2021/01/napoleons-military-defeat-in-egypt-yielded-a-victory-for-history">first expedition into Egypt</a> in 1798 piqued European curiosity and allowed 19th century travellers to Egypt to bring whole mummies <a href="https://www.jstor.org/stable/1345912?origin=crossref">back to Europe</a> bought <a href="https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/egyptian-mummy-seller-1865/">off the street</a> in Egypt. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467333/original/file-20220607-24949-7fwow4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467333/original/file-20220607-24949-7fwow4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467333/original/file-20220607-24949-7fwow4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=741&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467333/original/file-20220607-24949-7fwow4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=741&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467333/original/file-20220607-24949-7fwow4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=741&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467333/original/file-20220607-24949-7fwow4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=931&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467333/original/file-20220607-24949-7fwow4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=931&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467333/original/file-20220607-24949-7fwow4.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=931&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">An Egyptian street mummy seller in 1875.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Félix Bonfils/ Wikimedia</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Victorians held <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/british-journal-for-the-history-of-science/article/abs/unrolling-egyptian-mummies-in-nineteenthcentury-britain/56BF3B3408D2E13EB839FFD58CF738B4">private parties</a> dedicated to unwrapping the remains of ancient Egyptian mummies. </p>
<p>Early unwrapping events had at least a veneer of medical respectability. In 1834 the surgeon <a href="https://www.atlasobscura.com/articles/victorian-party-people-unrolled-mummies-for-fun">Thomas Pettigrew</a> unwrapped a mummy at the Royal College of Surgeons. In his time, <a href="http://www.hogarthonline.com/cruelty4.html?javascript=display(%271-1%27)%3B">autopsies and operations </a>took place in public and this unwrapping was just another public medical event. </p>
<p>Soon, even the pretence of medical research was lost. By now mummies were no longer medicinal but thrilling. A dinner host who could entertain an audience while unwrapping was rich enough to own an actual mummy.</p>
<p>The thrill of seeing dried flesh and bones appearing as bandages came off meant people flocked to these unwrappings, whether in a private home or the theatre of a learned society. <a href="https://rarehistoricalphotos.com/egyptian-mummy-seller-1865/">Strong drink meant</a>audiences were loud and appreciative.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467341/original/file-20220607-26-dmbt3p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467341/original/file-20220607-26-dmbt3p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467341/original/file-20220607-26-dmbt3p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467341/original/file-20220607-26-dmbt3p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467341/original/file-20220607-26-dmbt3p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=415&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467341/original/file-20220607-26-dmbt3p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467341/original/file-20220607-26-dmbt3p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467341/original/file-20220607-26-dmbt3p.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=522&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Examination of a Mummy by Paul Dominique Philippoteaux c 1891.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>The mummy’s curse</h2>
<p>Mummy unwrapping parties ended as the 20th century began. The macabre thrills seemed in bad taste and the <a href="https://www.ancient-origins.net/history-ancient-traditions/disrespect-desecration-victorian-mummy-unwrapping-0010129">inevitable destruction</a> of archaeological remains seemed regrettable. </p>
<p>Then the discovery of Tutankhamen’s tomb fuelled a <a href="https://www.sydney.edu.au/news-opinion/news/2017/05/26/desecration-and-romanticisation--the-real-curse-of-mummies.html">craze</a> that shaped <a href="https://www.bbc.com/culture/article/20170420-where-does-the-legend-of-the-mummy-come-from">art deco</a> design in everything from the motifs of doors in the Chrysler Building to the <a href="https://www.artdeco.org/origins-influences">shape of clocks designed by Cartier</a>. The sudden death in 1923 of Lord Carnarvon, sponsor of the Tutankhamen expedition, was from natural causes but soon attributed to a new superstition – “<a href="https://www.historymuseum.ca/cmc/exhibitions/civil/egypt/egtut04e.html#:%7E:text=The%20belief%20in%20the%20mummy's,mosquito%20bite%20that%20became%20infected.">the mummy’s curse</a>”.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467338/original/file-20220607-16-senkyn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467338/original/file-20220607-16-senkyn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467338/original/file-20220607-16-senkyn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467338/original/file-20220607-16-senkyn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467338/original/file-20220607-16-senkyn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=447&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467338/original/file-20220607-16-senkyn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=562&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467338/original/file-20220607-16-senkyn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=562&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467338/original/file-20220607-16-senkyn.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=562&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Howard Carter opens the innermost shrine of King Tutankhamen’s tomb.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">The New York Times photo archive/ Wikimedia</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Modern mummies</h2>
<p>In 2016 Egyptologist John J. Johnston hosted the first <a href="https://www.vice.com/en/article/mbqagn/uncovering-dead-victorian-mummy-unwrapping-party">public unwrapping</a> of a mummy since 1908. Part art, part science, and part show, Johnston created a an immersive recreation of what it was like to be present at a Victorian unwrapping.</p>
<p>It was as tasteless as possible, with everything from the Bangles’ Walk Like an Egyptian playing on loud speaker to the plying of attendees with straight gin. </p>
<p>The mummy was only an actor wrapped in bandages but the event was a heady sensory mix. The fact it took place at St Bart’s Hospital in London was a modern reminder that mummies cross many realms of experience from the medical to the macabre. </p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467336/original/file-20220607-15990-r9cfbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467336/original/file-20220607-15990-r9cfbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/467336/original/file-20220607-15990-r9cfbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467336/original/file-20220607-15990-r9cfbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467336/original/file-20220607-15990-r9cfbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=435&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467336/original/file-20220607-15990-r9cfbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467336/original/file-20220607-15990-r9cfbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/467336/original/file-20220607-15990-r9cfbr.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=547&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Egyptian conservators clean a female mummy dated to Pharaonic late period, (712-323 BC), in the conservation centre of Egypt’s Grand Museum.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Amr Nabil/AP</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Today, the black market of antiquity smuggling – including mummies – is worth about <a href="https://www.abc.net.au/news/2018-10-21/egypts-3-billion-dollar-smuggling-problem/10388394">US$3 billion</a>.</p>
<p>No serious archaeologist would unwrap a mummy and no physician suggest eating one. But the lure of the mummy remains strong. They are still for sale, still exploited, and still a commodity.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/177551/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Marcus Harmes does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
From unwrapping parties to grinding-up mummies to make medicine, Europe has a long and strange relationship with Ancient Egyptian remains.
Marcus Harmes, Professor in Pathways Education, University of Southern Queensland
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/183002
2022-05-13T12:44:53Z
2022-05-13T12:44:53Z
Moon Knight – an Egyptologist on how the series gets the gods right
<p>Marvel’s Moon Knight follows Steven Grant who, despite living quietly as a museum gift shop employee, finds himself drawn into the strange world of Egyptian gods. He discovers that he has other personalities – mainly Marc Spector, a human vessel who is being used to carry out the will of the moon god, Khonshu.</p>
<p>Steven and Marc (both played by Oscar Isaac) struggle to work together to defeat the plans of Khonshu’s former host, Arthur Harrow (Ethan Hawke), who is leading the followers of another god, Ammit.</p>
<p>Part of the fun of watching adaptations of Ancient Egypt for me is analysing the historical content and Moon Knight succeeds in retaining the spirit of the Ancient Egyptian pantheon. While some aspects have been altered for dramatic effect, the six-part series has been well researched and remains quite faithful to the original mythology. </p>
<p>One of its selling points is that it doesn’t simply tread over old ground but brings lesser-known gods to the fore. The result is a show that has the unusual quality of entertaining a popular audience while also keeping the specialists happy.</p>
<h2>Khonshu</h2>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/x7Krla_UxRg?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
</figure>
<p>Khons(h)u, or Khons, was an moon god, known in the age of the pyramids as a violent, blood-thirsty deity. This is perhaps due to his having possibly existed before the state of Egypt was formed, when settlers in the Nile Valley were adapting to their new environments as they moved in and vied for supremacy. </p>
<p>Khonshu mellowed over time, but remained powerful, and is most commonly associated with the gods of the capital city of Thebes, including his father <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Amon">Amun</a>, king of the gods. Khonshu was also associated with time and his name – <em>khenes</em>, “traveller” – likely relates to the journey of the moon through the night sky.</p>
<p>He is usually shown as a falcon-headed man, or a young man in a shroud-like garment. In the series, Khonshu is a tall figure commandingly voiced by F Murray Abraham (and performed by Karim el-Hakim), with a terrifyingly large bird skull for a head and carrying a moon-topped staff. </p>
<h2>Ammit</h2>
<p>Probably best known as the demon who sits at the foot of the scales in the Hall of Judgement in the <a href="https://blog.britishmuseum.org/what-is-a-book-of-the-dead/">Book of the Dead</a>, a set of spells which assist the dead in reaching the afterlife. She is part lion, part crocodile, part hippopotamus (the three animals considered to be the <a href="https://www.mmu.ac.uk/media/mmuacuk/content/documents/mcys/CPD%C2%A0Book-of-the-Dead.pdf">most dangerous</a> in Ancient Egypt). She patiently awaits the heart of the dead, weighed against the feather of truth, should they be found “guilty” by the scales. Her name means “the devourer”. She prevents those who are not worthy from entering the afterlife by consuming their heavy hearts, so that they can’t live on.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Drawing of Egyptian gods on papyrus." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/463003/original/file-20220513-23-308qg3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/463003/original/file-20220513-23-308qg3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463003/original/file-20220513-23-308qg3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463003/original/file-20220513-23-308qg3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=462&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463003/original/file-20220513-23-308qg3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=581&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463003/original/file-20220513-23-308qg3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=581&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463003/original/file-20220513-23-308qg3.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=581&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Osiris with Ammit ‘the devourer’ behind.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/Y_EA10470-3">The Trustees of the British Museum</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/">CC BY-NC</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Moon Knight’s Ammit (voiced by Sara Mubarak) has an imposing crocodilian form. In the series, she doesn’t want to wait for death but to dole out judgment before people can do wrong. However, she has been trapped in a stone idol so her followers are searching for her tomb to resurrect her and restore her to her place as the true arbiter of justice.</p>
<h2>Taweret</h2>
<p>A goddess of the household, Taweret (“the great one”) has a hippopotamus-crocodile hybrid form, sometimes with the claws of a lion. She is fearsome with her bared teeth and often brandishes a blade, to keep away dark forces and protect the vulnerable – pregnant women, new mothers, children – through prayers, spells and amulets. She carries out her protective duties in Moon Knight in the shape of a much friendlier hippo (portrayed by Antonia Salib). Her “Hi!” on meeting Steven and Marc is comically high-pitched coming from her looming form. She is as steadfast and determined as her mythological counterpart (minus the gnashing teeth), helping Marc and Steven in their tasks. In the series, she takes on a role more traditionally held by Anubis, god of mummification, by guiding people into the afterlife. </p>
<p>Other members of the Ancient Egyptian pantheon feature in the chamber of the gods, but have much less screen time. Nevertheless, they play a big role in the movement of the plot, as their judgments have a pivotal effect on how the rest of the show plays out (no spoilers). They are portrayed in the series in the form of their human hosts. In mythology, they are some of the most significant gods of all.</p>
<h2>Osiris</h2>
<p>Lord of the dead, king of the underworld, benign guardian of the afterlife, Osiris is shrouded, wearing a white crown with a cobra, which symbolises rule over the southern half of Egypt. In mythology, he was the first king, and the first to die. He was resurrected by his wife, Isis, and took his place as the personification of the deceased pharaoh, becoming the first mummy and representation of hope in life after death. He is green or black-skinned to represent new life. He is also a god of agriculture and fertility. In the series, he pronounces the gods’ decisions in the chamber through his human host.</p>
<h2>Horus</h2>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Statue of Horus Egypt" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/463008/original/file-20220513-24-fqfg7f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/463008/original/file-20220513-24-fqfg7f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463008/original/file-20220513-24-fqfg7f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463008/original/file-20220513-24-fqfg7f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=400&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463008/original/file-20220513-24-fqfg7f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463008/original/file-20220513-24-fqfg7f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/463008/original/file-20220513-24-fqfg7f.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=503&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Horus is the god of the sky and the son of Osiris.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horus#/media/File:Temple_of_Edfu,_Statue_of_Horus_2,_Egypt.jpg">Wikimedia</a>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/">CC BY-SA</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Horus, son of Osiris and Isis, avenged his father’s murder and took on the role of king, representing the living pharaoh. He battled Seth, his father’s brother, to retrieve the throne and restore order – which is why Horus is heavily associated with the ruling king. Horus is usually shown as a falcon or falcon-headed man. With his father Osiris, they represent the divine nature of the king. </p>
<h2>Hathor</h2>
<p>A goddess of love, music, childbirth and dancing, Hathor is often shown as a cow or as a woman with a cow’s head, ears or horns. She is a very ancient goddess, perhaps dating back to before state formation in Egypt. Hathor is a protector, usually benevolent but vengeful when needed. She was worshipped widely in Egypt and abroad, with cults spreading up the Levant and into Sinai, earning her the title “mistress of foreign lands”.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/183002/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Claire Isabella Gilmour does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Lesser-known gods are featured in the Marvel series, which has pleased experts and fans alike.
Claire Isabella Gilmour, PhD Candidate, Anthropology and Archaeology, University of Bristol
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/180018
2022-04-25T20:01:12Z
2022-04-25T20:01:12Z
Remaking history: using Ancient Egyptian techniques, I made delicious olive oil at home – and you can too
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/454905/original/file-20220329-21-8rqvrl.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=71%2C233%2C3826%2C2137&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Hand Clutching an Olive Branch ca. 1353–1323 B.C. New Kingdom, Amarna Period</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">The Metropolitan Museum of Art</span></span></figcaption></figure><p><em>In <a href="https://theconversation.com/au/topics/remaking-history-116020">this series</a>, academics explain the ways they are recreating historical practices, and how this impacts their research today.</em></p>
<hr>
<p>Olive oil was one of the major commodities in the ancient Mediterranean. Alongside wine, grain and perhaps also <a href="https://www.cambridge.org/core/journals/journal-of-roman-archaeology/article/abs/tracking-consumption-at-pompeii-the-graffiti-lists/E39629AEDBD9B9FBB4643B64EB90EA8D">cheese in some regions</a>, it enveloped and permeated Canaanite, Phoenician, Greek and Roman cultures, and was present in Egypt long before.</p>
<p><a href="https://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0137%3Abook%3D14%3Achapter%3D29">According to</a> the Roman writer Pliny the Elder (1st century CE): </p>
<blockquote>
<p>there are two liquids that are especially agreeable to the human body, wine inside and oil outside […] [the latter] being an absolute necessity.</p>
</blockquote>
<p>Olive oil was used for a broad variety of purposes in antiquity: fuel for cooking, lighting and heating; personal hygiene; craft; and within the daily diet. </p>
<p>Large proportions of Greek, Roman and presumably Phoenician agricultural texts are devoted to the production of oil.</p>
<p>Authors like Columella, Palladius, Pliny and Cato the Elder, and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mago_(agricultural_writer)">now-lost treatise</a> of Mago the Carthaginian – the father of agriculture – debate what tools and equipment are needed, how and where to grow olive trees, what workers are required, and the array of olives and oils. </p>
<p>The detail within these texts is staggering. It extends to precise instructions for creating olive oil as well recipes for various types. Combined with surviving iconography and art that depicts these processes, as well as the archaeological remains of oileries and olive groves, we can attempt to reconstruct these ancient commodities.</p>
<p>This process is termed <a href="https://exarc.net/experimental-archaeology">experimental archaeology</a>. Experimental archaeology is often used to fill gaps in our knowledge and help us understand the practicalities of these production techniques – particularly for objects and processes that are rarely preserved. </p>
<p>This is particularly true for some types of oil presses, which were made almost entirely of organic materials and only survive in exceptional circumstances.</p>
<p><div data-react-class="Tweet" data-react-props="{"tweetId":"1397095003428622336"}"></div></p>
<h2>Recreating ancient Egyptian olive oil</h2>
<p>One of the earliest, if not the first, methods of pressing substances to produce a liquid such as wine or oil was by torsion. </p>
<p>This method involves filling a permeable bag with the crushed fruit, inserting sticks at either end of the bag before twisting them in opposite directions. This compresses the bag, and liquid filters out.</p>
<p>The torsion method is depicted on various Egyptian wall paintings, from the Old, Middle and New Kingdoms. The <a href="https://www.oxbowbooks.com/oxbow/current-research-in-egyptology-17.html">earliest known example</a> is in the tomb of Nebemakhet from around 2600–2500 BCE. </p>
<p>This method lasted millennia. There is evidence for the use of the torsion bag method from pre-industrial Venice, Spain and Corsica, and it is illustrated in early 20th century Italy.</p>
<p>Egyptian depictions of the torsion press have often been assumed to be related to wine production, but we wanted to know: could it also be effectively used to make olive oil?</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A colourful Egyptian wall painting depicting two men twisting a bag to produce a liquid and another man filling clay jars with liquid" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/454722/original/file-20220328-23-1dhsun6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/454722/original/file-20220328-23-1dhsun6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=167&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454722/original/file-20220328-23-1dhsun6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=167&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454722/original/file-20220328-23-1dhsun6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=167&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454722/original/file-20220328-23-1dhsun6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=210&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454722/original/file-20220328-23-1dhsun6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=210&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454722/original/file-20220328-23-1dhsun6.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=210&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Wall painting depicting a torsion ‘bag’ press between two poles. People on either side twist the bag in opposite directions using sticks placed through loopholes. From inside the ca.1450 BCE tomb of Puyemre.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>With a lack of written and structural archaeological evidence – unlike the later Graeco-Roman eras – depictions on wall paintings and in relief are some of our only clues in Egypt.</p>
<p>Accompanied by basic olive crushing methods, known since the Neolithic era and still used until recently, we aimed to use these processes to test how effective they were and what quality of oil was achievable. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/remaking-history-how-we-are-recreating-renaissance-beauty-recipes-in-the-modern-chemistry-lab-176461">Remaking history: how we are recreating Renaissance beauty recipes in the modern chemistry lab</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>It is difficult to determine exactly what cloth was used in antiquity for the bag, so we decided to use a simple cheesecloth.</p>
<p>A mix of green and black olives, still used by traditional Italian producers today to create high quality extra-virgin oil, were harvested in the late Australian autumn season of mid-May. </p>
<p>Following ancient recommendations, they were washed before processing.</p>
<p>Before the torsion occurs, crushing is necessary to tear the flesh of the olive. This allows for the release of oils under pressure. We used a basic mortar and pestle – a technique documented archaeologically since around 5000 BCE. </p>
<p>This was hard work, particularly on the less ripe green olives.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/454717/original/file-20220328-17-1yfec8t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Stones used to crush and press olives to make oil in the ruins of a building" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/454717/original/file-20220328-17-1yfec8t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/454717/original/file-20220328-17-1yfec8t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454717/original/file-20220328-17-1yfec8t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454717/original/file-20220328-17-1yfec8t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=397&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454717/original/file-20220328-17-1yfec8t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454717/original/file-20220328-17-1yfec8t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454717/original/file-20220328-17-1yfec8t.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=499&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A Roman mola olearia to crush olives at Kanytelis (ancient Cilicia, modern Turkey)</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It is not surprising that advances through the Classical and Hellenistic Greek eras were made, including larger rotary mortars, called <a href="https://www.worldhistory.org/image/5645/trapetum-roman-olive-press/"><em>trapeta</em></a> (or later, the slightly different <a href="https://exarc.net/issue-2020-2/at/vertical-olive-crushing-mill-machine"><em>mola olearia</em></a>), allowing greater quantities to be processed with ease.</p>
<p>After crushing, the pulp was placed in a cheesecloth sack and a variety of torsion methods were tested: twisting on both ends; anchoring one end and twisting the other; and first soaking the fruit in hot water to release oils before twisting.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="People twist the end of a bag to produce a liquid, while another person adjusts the bag itself" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/454723/original/file-20220328-21-318gmq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/454723/original/file-20220328-21-318gmq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=253&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454723/original/file-20220328-21-318gmq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=253&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454723/original/file-20220328-21-318gmq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=253&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454723/original/file-20220328-21-318gmq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=317&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454723/original/file-20220328-21-318gmq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=317&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454723/original/file-20220328-21-318gmq.png?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=317&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Example of a single-end torsion ‘bag’ press in a fixed wooden frame.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Wikimedia Commons</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>It was immediately noticeable that gentle pressure worked well, providing a slow but steady drip of liquid and minimising any solid materials being forced through the cloth. Multiple layers of cloth were required to prevent ripping, but this also made the filtration process slower and less permeable. </p>
<h2>A slow and gentle pressing</h2>
<p>A compromise in the middle created the best results: a gentle, slow pressing, anchoring one end and twisting the other. </p>
<figure class="align-right ">
<img alt="A glass with layers of different coloured liquids inside" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/454728/original/file-20220328-17-1oef1nw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/454728/original/file-20220328-17-1oef1nw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=999&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454728/original/file-20220328-17-1oef1nw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=999&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454728/original/file-20220328-17-1oef1nw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=999&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454728/original/file-20220328-17-1oef1nw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1255&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454728/original/file-20220328-17-1oef1nw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1255&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/454728/original/file-20220328-17-1oef1nw.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1255&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">One of the experimental olive oil batches settling. The oil and vegetable water (lees or amurca) layers are easily distinguishable.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Emlyn Dodd</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Some pressing methods separated the oil far quicker, with a fine yellow layer floating on the surface of the vegetable water in just minutes. Other methods did not separate even when left overnight and we were left with a thick brown mixture of vegetable water (the Roman <em>amurca</em>) and oils. Even <a href="http://www.perseus.tufts.edu/hopper/text?doc=Perseus%3Atext%3A1999.02.0137%3Abook%3D15%3Achapter%3D2">Pliny noted</a> “the very same olives can frequently give quite different results”.</p>
<p>The successful jars produced a delicious olive oil. Sharp, bitey and with hints of pepper – just like a nice fresh-pressed extra virgin oil. </p>
<p>Despite the fact that almost no archaeological evidence is known of actual olive oilry facilities in Pharaonic Egypt, with iconography providing the only real clues, this experiment clearly showed it is possible to press olives and produce oil using this frequently depicted method.</p>
<p>It is also an excellent (and relatively easy) method of making your own olive oil at home!</p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/extra-virgin-olive-oil-why-its-healthier-than-other-cooking-oils-176637">Extra virgin olive oil: why it's healthier than other cooking oils</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/180018/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Emlyn Dodd receives funding from the British School at Athens, Australasian Society for Classical Studies, and Macquarie University. He is affiliated with the British School at Rome, Macquarie University, Australian Archaeological Institute at Athens, and the Centre for Ancient Cultural Heritage and the Environment. Thanks must go to Hugh Thomson for collaborating on this experimental work.</span></em></p>
Using Greek and Roman texts, Egyptian iconography and archaeological remains, we have a pretty good idea as to how olive oil was made.
Emlyn Dodd, Assistant Director of Archaeology, British School at Rome; Honorary Postdoctoral Fellow, Macquarie University; Research Affiliate, Australian Archaeological Institute at Athens, Macquarie University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/174575
2022-04-12T13:21:29Z
2022-04-12T13:21:29Z
Archaeological site along the Nile opens a window on the Nubian civilization that flourished in ancient Sudan
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/457490/original/file-20220411-14-3o5xce.jpeg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=85%2C0%2C1839%2C1111&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Thousands of years ago, people in this part of Sudan used underground tombs to bury their dead.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Michele R. Buzon</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span></figcaption></figure><p>Circular mounds of rocks dot the desert landscape at the archaeological site of <a href="http://www.tombos.org">Tombos</a> in northern Sudan. They reveal tumuli – the underground burial tombs used at least as far back as 2500 B.C. by ancient inhabitants who called this region <a href="https://www.academia.edu/11464948/Pastoral_States_Toward_a_Comparative_Archaeology_of_Early_Kush">Kush or Nubia</a>. <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/9781444345940.ch4">As a bioarchaeologist</a> who excavates and analyzes human skeletal remains along with their related grave goods, <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=LiRCKv8AAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">I’ve been working</a> at Tombos for more than 20 years.</p>
<iframe id="vBA2K" class="tc-infographic-datawrapper" src="https://datawrapper.dwcdn.net/vBA2K/" height="400" width="100%" style="border: none; height: 500px;width:320px;float:right;clear:both;margin-left:15px;margin-right:15px" frameborder="0"></iframe>
<p>Discussions about ancient history in Africa are dominated by the rise of Egypt. But there were several societies that rose to great power in the Nile River Valley since the middle of the third millennium B.C., including this often overshadowed neighbor to Egypt’s south. Even though ancient Kush rivaled and, at times, conquered Egypt, there’s been a relative <a href="https://doi.org/10.1093/oxfordhb/9780190496272.013.2">lack of modern attention</a> paid to this civilization. Early 20th century research expanded scholars’ understandings of ancient Kush, but the interpretations had <a href="https://youtu.be/dRL6EDWfqMs">colonial and racist biases</a> that often obscured this civilization’s strengths and achievements.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456906/original/file-20220407-20-dfw5kx.JPEG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456906/original/file-20220407-20-dfw5kx.JPEG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456906/original/file-20220407-20-dfw5kx.JPEG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456906/original/file-20220407-20-dfw5kx.JPEG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456906/original/file-20220407-20-dfw5kx.JPEG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456906/original/file-20220407-20-dfw5kx.JPEG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456906/original/file-20220407-20-dfw5kx.JPEG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456906/original/file-20220407-20-dfw5kx.JPEG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Along its length, the Nile has six cataracts – rocky places with shallow, fast moving water. Tombos is at the Third Cataract.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Michele R. Buzon</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p><a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Michele-Buzon">I’m co-director</a>, with <a href="https://scholar.google.com/citations?user=ukoSn9kAAAAJ&hl=en&oi=ao">Stuart Tyson Smith</a>, of the excavations at Tombos. These burials tell our archaeological team about many aspects of life and death in this place millennia ago. Just like those living along the Nile River today, ancient people dealt with various challenges including environmental changes, sociopolitical transitions and interactions with other groups. Equally important to our discoveries about the past is sharing our findings with the local community and supporting Sudanese who want to pursue archaeology careers.</p>
<h2>Illuminating life and death at Tombos</h2>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456900/original/file-20220407-24-1x6h51.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="a tarp shades people working in a rectangular trench cut out of sandy dirt" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456900/original/file-20220407-24-1x6h51.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456900/original/file-20220407-24-1x6h51.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456900/original/file-20220407-24-1x6h51.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456900/original/file-20220407-24-1x6h51.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456900/original/file-20220407-24-1x6h51.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456900/original/file-20220407-24-1x6h51.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456900/original/file-20220407-24-1x6h51.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Members of the research team looking for subterranean structures.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Stuart Tyson Smith</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The remains of the ancient inhabitants of Tombos reveal information about their <a href="https://doi.org/10.5744/bi.2017.1000">physical activity</a>, as well as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpp.2014.05.002">infection and nutrition</a>. Conditions such as <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpp.2014.03.003">heart disease</a>, <a href="https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0090924">cancer</a> and the <a href="https://link.springer.com/book/10.1007/978-3-030-02544-1">effects of hard labor</a> all leave marks on the human body that provide insights into the epidemiology of disease in the past. They help us trace the factors that play a role in health conditions and their social context. For example, we’ve found the remains of an adult woman and child who <a href="https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ijpp.2019.07.006">lived with a growth disorder</a>, which shows that people with physical differences were incorporated into society.</p>
<p>By analyzing the isotopes, or forms of chemical elements, incorporated into inhabitants’ teeth, we’re able to piece together <a href="https://doi.org/10.1002/ajpa.22235">where they may have lived during childhood</a>.</p>
<p>As the team uncovers what lies <a href="https://youtu.be/vl_BJgYSPSo">beneath the ground</a>, we learn about individual <a href="https://doi.org/10.1111/aman.12524">ancient community members</a>. For instance, we’ve found the remains of an older woman who lived into her 60s and experienced arthritis, a younger woman whose burial included a baby, and a middle-aged woman with a basket full of whole and broken small figurines, beads and other items. Discovering people who apparently lived different kinds of lives lets our team create a picture of who populated Tombos when it was thriving.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456904/original/file-20220407-14-74mpqh.JPEG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Scientists excavate an underground tomb" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456904/original/file-20220407-14-74mpqh.JPEG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456904/original/file-20220407-14-74mpqh.JPEG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456904/original/file-20220407-14-74mpqh.JPEG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456904/original/file-20220407-14-74mpqh.JPEG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456904/original/file-20220407-14-74mpqh.JPEG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456904/original/file-20220407-14-74mpqh.JPEG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456904/original/file-20220407-14-74mpqh.JPEG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Research team members excavating a tumulus burial structure.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Michele R. Buzon</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The tomb structures show us how people wanted to represent themselves and their families publicly after death. We can link body position and the artifacts accompanying the burials to different cultural and religious practices. One well-provisioned <a href="https://issuu.com/sudarchrs/docs/s_n11_smith">burial of a middle-aged man</a> included both a bed and coffin, combining traditional Nubian and Egyptian practices. The tomb also contained bronze bowls, a decorated wooden box, a pile of amulets that were treated as magical objects and a cache of iron weapons, which demonstrate early iron use in Nubia.</p>
<p>We’ve found that when Egyptians ruled Nubians during the New Kingdom empire around 1200 B.C., some immigrant Egyptians and local people selected Egyptian-style pyramid and chamber tombs for their burials. At the same time, some people at Tombos also used the <a href="https://tombos.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/04/Nile-Magazine-No.-13-Apr-May-2018-Tombos_PDF.pdf">local tumulus tomb structure</a> similar to earlier graves in Nubia, showing how much people varied in their choices about burial.</p>
<h2>Involving today’s inhabitants with finds from the past</h2>
<p>Our archaeological team’s ability to successfully build a picture of people from the past relies on active and close engagement with the local community. Our interactions with town residents – through archaeological work, casual conversations over tea and formal presentations of our findings – have shown us that they are proud of the region’s ancient people and wish for themselves and others to know more about them.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/453454/original/file-20220321-14965-1dl1j4r.JPEG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Seven women stand together in a tree's shade" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/453454/original/file-20220321-14965-1dl1j4r.JPEG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/453454/original/file-20220321-14965-1dl1j4r.JPEG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453454/original/file-20220321-14965-1dl1j4r.JPEG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453454/original/file-20220321-14965-1dl1j4r.JPEG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453454/original/file-20220321-14965-1dl1j4r.JPEG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453454/original/file-20220321-14965-1dl1j4r.JPEG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453454/original/file-20220321-14965-1dl1j4r.JPEG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The archaeological team prioritizes sharing their findings with the local community, particularly the women, who are less likely to work at the site as laborers. The author is third from the right.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Michele R. Buzon</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A recent lecture and discussion that my Sudanese colleague, Remah Abdelrahim Kabashi Ahmed, and I held for the women of Tombos showed us how curious they are about the past as well as the present. Remah, who is training in bioarchaeology, and I answered questions such as: What kind of medicine did people use then? How old was the baby at death? Why did people put a bed and jewelry in their tomb? They notice the use of beds in ancient burials that look similar to those carved in recent times. They ask if we as women find the work physically difficult.</p>
<p>Importantly, they tell us that they want more presentations because their male family members who work at the archaeological site with us don’t share with them what we’ve found. As a result, we’ve expanded our outreach in many ways, including by collaborating with the local schools to produce some <a href="https://tombos.org/educational-posters-2/">teaching materials</a> about archaeology, local history and Tombos site findings. We also hosted a teacher and her students on a <a href="https://tombos.org/conversations-with-local-people-in-tombos-by-tomomi-fushiya/">tour of the site</a> to see our open excavations.</p>
<figure class="align-center zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/453455/original/file-20220321-25-kxu7rn.JPEG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="people cluster around a pit in an arid landscape" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/453455/original/file-20220321-25-kxu7rn.JPEG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/453455/original/file-20220321-25-kxu7rn.JPEG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453455/original/file-20220321-25-kxu7rn.JPEG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453455/original/file-20220321-25-kxu7rn.JPEG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=450&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453455/original/file-20220321-25-kxu7rn.JPEG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453455/original/file-20220321-25-kxu7rn.JPEG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/453455/original/file-20220321-25-kxu7rn.JPEG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=566&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A tour of the site by a fifth-grade class is part of the archaeologists’ outreach to the local community.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Michele Buzon</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>We work closely with the Sudanese administrative body that oversees archaeological research, the National Corporation for Antiquities and Museums. But this is not enough. It’s important for foreign researchers to study the past in collaboration with partners from the community and Sudanese academic colleagues. These partnerships are vital steps in working together to create new knowledge about the region’s ancient history and improve upon the exclusionary and racist perspectives of earlier researchers.</p>
<figure class="align-right zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456901/original/file-20220407-20-i4bczk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="Man stands in deep rectangular hole cut from dusty dirt" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456901/original/file-20220407-20-i4bczk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/456901/original/file-20220407-20-i4bczk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456901/original/file-20220407-20-i4bczk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456901/original/file-20220407-20-i4bczk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=800&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456901/original/file-20220407-20-i4bczk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456901/original/file-20220407-20-i4bczk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/456901/original/file-20220407-20-i4bczk.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1005&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Mohamed Faroug Ali in a stone-lined tomb structure.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Stuart Tyson Smith</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nd/4.0/">CC BY-ND</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Tombos team member Mohamed Faroug Ali, a Sudanese archaeologist at International University of Africa in Khartoum, led the creation of the <a href="http://www.amsarc.org">American Sudanese Archaeological Research Center</a>, with the goal of encouraging international research and collaboration in Sudan. We’ve run virtual lectures and provided scholarships for Sudanese students pursuing degrees in archaeology. We’re working toward developing a degree program at the International University of Africa.</p>
<p>Our goal is to support training Sudanese so local people – with more direct connections to the ancient civilization we’re studying – can participate in these archaeological projects at all levels. Promoting and practicing ethical research that includes the people who live in the area today is as important to the Tombos team as learning more about the lives of the ancient inhabitants.</p>
<p>[<em>Understand new developments in science, health and technology, each week.</em> <a href="https://memberservices.theconversation.com/newsletters/?nl=science&source=inline-science-understand">Subscribe to The Conversation’s science newsletter</a>.]</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/174575/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Michele R. Buzon receives funding from the National Science Foundation and the National Geographic Society. The Sudan National Corporation for Antiquities and Museums permits her archaeological research and related activities. She is a founding member and Treasurer of the American Sudanese Archaeological Research Center.</span></em></p>
Promoting and practicing ethical research that includes the people who live in the area today is as important to the archaeological team as learning more about the lives of the ancient inhabitants.
Michele R. Buzon, Professor of Anthropology, Purdue University
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/171414
2021-11-10T14:46:26Z
2021-11-10T14:46:26Z
How I reconstructed an unwritten ancient African language
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/431044/original/file-20211109-25-1jnvile.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">Hausa is the most widely known Chadic language, spoken by some 80 million people or more. It's harder to grasp the history of other, unwritten Chadic languages.</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">Irene Becker/Contributor/Getty Images</span></span></figcaption></figure><p>Africa is humankind’s home continent. <a href="https://humanorigins.si.edu/evidence/human-fossils/species/homo-sapiens"><em>Homo sapiens</em></a>, with the anatomical and cognitive capacity to have human language as we know it today, originated in Africa between 300,000 and 200,000 years ago.</p>
<p>Then, as an abundant fossil and archaeological record <a href="https://humanorigins.si.edu/education/introduction-human-evolution">makes clear</a>, some of our human ancestors left Africa. They spread to neighbouring continents, taking their languages with them. Others remained behind; their descendants speak what we call “African languages”, pointing to these communities’ long histories on the home continent. </p>
<p>There were also those who migrated out of Africa and whose descendants later returned. These include the ancestors of the so-called <a href="https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2215039021000023">Ethiosemitic</a> <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Ethio-Semitic-languages">languages</a> in Eritrea and Ethiopia, some 3,000 years ago. The most recent and dramatic returns came with Arabo-Islamic invasions beginning in 614 CE, <a href="https://www.nationalgeographic.com/culture/article/colonialism">European colonialism after 1492 CE</a>, and the post-colonial work migrations of the 20th and 21st centuries.</p>
<p>One result of all this movement is the geographic spread and continuous development of human languages – most of them unwritten. It is difficult to study and reconstruct them: unlike with excavated finds in palaeoanthropology, human language does not leave fossils behind unless in writing. Very few living or extinct languages left behind written texts. Those that did include the <a href="https://www.worldhistory.org/Egyptian_Hieroglyphs/">Ancient Egyptian hieroglyphics</a> dating back about 5,000 years, and languages ancestral to modern Semitic which left written records that also cover several millennia, the oldest from <a href="https://www.britannica.com/place/Akkad">Akkadian</a> in modern day Iraq in cuneiform script.</p>
<p>For more than 50 years, I have devoted <a href="https://www.koeppe.de/titel_the-lamang-language-and-dictionary-3">considerable research efforts</a> to <a href="https://uni-leipzig1.academia.edu/EkkehardWolff">the study</a> of the so-called Chadic languages. These are spoken west, south and east of Lake Chad (hence their name) in Central Africa. The widely known and best researched Chadic language is <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Hausa-language">Hausa</a>, <a href="https://www.bbc.com/hausa">spoken</a> as one of Africa’s major languages across large parts of West and Central Africa by some 80 million people or more. Unfortunately, knowledge about Hausa’s approximately 200 language relatives in Nigeria, Cameroon, and Chad is coming in only very slowly. </p>
<p>What researchers most want to know is how these languages have developed as a family from a common ancient proto-language; they also want to unpack how languages relate to other and better known language families – Ancient Egyptian, Berber (Amazigh), Cushitic, Semitic, and possibly Omotic – with whom they are assumed to form a common language phylum, <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Afro-Asiatic-languages">Afroasiatic</a>. </p>
<p>The results of my research will be presented in two books. The <a href="http://services.cambridge.org/in/academic/subjects/languages-linguistics/phonetics-and-phonology/historical-phonology-central-chadic-prosodies-and-lexical-reconstruction?format=HB&isbn=9781316519547">first volume</a> focuses on the origin of vowels in these languages. The second and final volume will focus on sound changes affecting consonants in these languages. It is set to be published in 2023. </p>
<p>I used well established linguistic techniques to reconstruct one of the ancestral languages likely spoken a few thousand years ago in the region around Lake Chad in Central Africa and that was ancestral to about 80 present-day languages in the area. Until now, these languages were practically unwritten. </p>
<h2>Proto-languages</h2>
<p>Professional linguists use a number of established tools to unearth language histories even in the absence of written texts. Two of these are <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/internal-reconstruction">internal reconstruction</a> and the <a href="https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1002/9781405166201.ch1">comparative method</a>. These were developed some 150 years ago by the <a href="https://www.britannica.com/science/Neogrammarian">Neogrammarian School</a> in Leipzig, whose scholars successfully reconstructed the Indo-European language family relationships that link modern and ancient European languages like English and Ancient Greek to modern and ancient Asian languages like Urdu and Ancient Sanskrit. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/how-the-queens-english-has-had-to-defer-to-africas-rich-multilingualism-57673">How the Queen's English has had to defer to Africa's rich multilingualism</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<p>My own research targets the linguistic history of the Afroasiatic language phylum. A phylum, in linguistics, is a group of languages related to each other less closely than those that make up a family. Together, the Afroasiatic phylum consists of approximately 400 languages. Most are spoken in the northern half of Africa from Morocco and Mauritania in the west to Egypt and Tanzania in the east, and in adjacent parts of Asia. They rank among the oldest living languages in terms of traceable records. Experts <a href="https://www.britannica.com/topic/Afro-Asiatic-languages">have estimated</a> that Proto-Afroasiatic emerged in Africa between 12,000 and 16,000 years ago. </p>
<p>My research focused on the almost 200 Chadic languages spoken west, south and east of Lake Chad in Nigeria, Cameroon and Chad. They form the largest family within the Afroasiatic phylum. There are four branches; the Central Chadic or “<a href="https://www.oxfordreference.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095509854">Biu-Mandara</a>” consists of about 80 languages. The aim was to reconstruct the sound system and vocabulary of Proto-Central Chadic. </p>
<p>My main source was an <a href="https://www.webonary.org/centralchadic/">online database</a> containing 250 word meanings like “compound”, “cow”, “to eat”, “millet”, etc. with data from up to 66 living Central Chadic language varieties provided by linguist Richard Gravina, who undertook a pioneering effort to reconstruct Proto-Central Chadic in his 2014 <a href="https://scholarlypublications.universiteitleiden.nl/access/item%3A2945012/view">PhD dissertation</a>, though using a different methodological approach. Altogether I ended up analysing about 5,500 words from between four and 50 modern languages. </p>
<p>I meticulously analysed each word to delineate its historical development from Proto-Central Chadic to its present-day forms in modern languages, covering a time-depth of potentially thousands of years. </p>
<hr>
<p>
<em>
<strong>
Read more:
<a href="https://theconversation.com/new-kiswahili-science-fiction-award-charts-a-path-for-african-languages-163876">New Kiswahili science fiction award charts a path for African languages</a>
</strong>
</em>
</p>
<hr>
<h2>A profound view</h2>
<p>No language develops in a vacuum. Almost all the words I researched changed sounds over time. This would partly have been because of the language’s own rules and regularities in inter-generational language transfer. But sound changes are also influenced by locally occurring new speech habits adopted by following generations of speakers and forming new dialects, or by borrowing words and expressions from neighbouring languages. </p>
<p>Nonetheless, languages also retain features of linguistic heritage, like from the ultimate proto-language; in this case, Proto-Afroasiatic. </p>
<p>Proto-Central-Chadic only knew one true vowel, “a”. It used “y” and “w” to serve, at the same time, as vowels “i” and “u” when in syllable-nucleus position (the centre of the syllable). Take the modern Mandara word, <em>ira</em> for “head”. In Proto-Central-Chadic, it was <em>*ghwna</em>. I was able to deduce this by understanding vowel substitutions and word sound changes.</p>
<p>Consonants changed, too. The word for “sheep” was <em>*tama</em> in Proto-Central-Chadic; the m became w, and suffixes changed over time too, leading to the modern Mandara word for “sheep”, <em>kyawe</em>. </p>
<h2>New light</h2>
<p>I hope this work will be a step towards unearthing some of the area’s currently unwritten history. By comparing sounds and words of modern languages, it is possible to detect population movements and migrations in the past, since people adopt sounds and words from other languages with whom they have been in contact over a certain period of time. Reconstructed vocabulary also sheds light on cultural items and people’s habitats, including the spread of ideas and the importance of certain concepts.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/171414/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>H. Ekkehard Wolff does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Reconstructed vocabulary sheds light on cultural items and people’s habitats, including the spread of ideas and the importance of certain concepts.
H. Ekkehard Wolff, Emeritus Professor of African Linguistics, University of Leipzig
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.
tag:theconversation.com,2011:article/156565
2021-05-17T21:19:34Z
2021-05-17T21:19:34Z
The gods of ancient Egypt as seen through ‘BoJack Horseman’
<figure><img src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/398985/original/file-20210505-15-19p85bf.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&rect=3%2C39%2C2193%2C1037&q=45&auto=format&w=496&fit=clip" /><figcaption><span class="caption">'BoJack Horseman' still and figures shown in the tomb of Horemheb from the Valley of the Kings, West Thebes.
</span> <span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Netflix/ Wikimedia Commons) </span></span></figcaption></figure><p>In the <a href="https://www.latimes.com/entertainment-arts/awards/story/2020-06-08/bojack-horseman-brought-plenty-of-laughs">animated series BoJack Horseman</a>, anthropomorphic animals live alongside human characters in a society rife with hedonism, egotism and self-destructive behaviour. The world of ancient Egyptian deities is similar in more ways than one. </p>
<p>The hit American series, produced between 2014 and 2020, and now <a href="https://www.netflix.com/ca/title/70300800">streaming on Netflix</a>, was named for its lead character, <a href="https://www.imdb.com/title/tt3398228/">an over-the-hill television star with a man’s body and horse’s head</a>. </p>
<p>As a PhD candidate researching <a href="https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Jun-Yi-Wong">iconography in ancient Egypt</a>, I am often struck by the manner in which BoJack Horseman and Egyptian iconography - the products of two very different cultures - have arrived at similar solutions in their portrayal of anthropomorphic beings. </p>
<p>In both cases, anthropomorphic animals of various species are portrayed with a certain uniformity. Characters could also be rendered zoomorphically, depending on their role in a given scene.</p>
<figure>
<iframe width="440" height="260" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/i1eJMig5Ik4?wmode=transparent&start=0" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen=""></iframe>
<figcaption><span class="caption">BoJack Horseman trailer.</span></figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Horus and Horseman</h2>
<p>Depictions of animal-headed gods can be found as early as the
<a href="https://www.cornellpress.cornell.edu/book/9780801483844/conceptions-of-god-in-ancient-egypt/#bookTabs=1">Second Dynasty of Egypt (about 2890 – 2686 BCE)</a>. Today, images such as the <a href="https://escholarship.org/uc/item/5s54w4tc">falcon-headed Horus and the crocodile-headed Sobek</a> have become emblematic of Egyptian civilization. However, these examples are merely one of the many ways that Egyptian deities were represented.</p>
<p>The goddess Hathor, for instance, could be represented either as a cow, a bovine-headed woman or a woman with large bovine ears. Generally, the manifestation assumed by a deity is dependent on the scene’s context. This notion can be better explained through the artistic style of BoJack Horseman.</p>
<p>Although the characters of BoJack Horseman are made up of a diverse range of species, they share several common traits. There is a standardization of scale: the titulary character, a horse, stands at roughly the same height as <a href="https://bojackhorseman.fandom.com/wiki/Mr._Peanutbutter">Mr. Peanutbutter</a> (a Labrador Retriever) and <a href="https://bojackhorseman.fandom.com/wiki/Meow_Meow_Fuzzyface">Officer Meow Meow Fuzzyface</a> (a cat). Most characters are entirely human below the neck: birds, for example, have arms that flap like wings in flight. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="animals flying" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392006/original/file-20210326-23-1eoh1it.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392006/original/file-20210326-23-1eoh1it.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=282&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392006/original/file-20210326-23-1eoh1it.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=282&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392006/original/file-20210326-23-1eoh1it.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=282&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392006/original/file-20210326-23-1eoh1it.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=354&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392006/original/file-20210326-23-1eoh1it.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=354&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392006/original/file-20210326-23-1eoh1it.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=354&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Birds in flight in a still from ‘BoJack Horseman.’</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(BoJack Horseman/Netflix)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>These idiosyncrasies add to the show’s comedic effect, but they are also crucial to its coherence and progression. The creatures of BoJack Horseman occupy the same world, where they travel in the same vehicles and dine with the same utensils. This uniformity in character design is what enables a horse, a fish and a human to interact seamlessly. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A line of anthropomorphic figures" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392013/original/file-20210326-21-7yimzd.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392013/original/file-20210326-21-7yimzd.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=276&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392013/original/file-20210326-21-7yimzd.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=276&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392013/original/file-20210326-21-7yimzd.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=276&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392013/original/file-20210326-21-7yimzd.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=347&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392013/original/file-20210326-21-7yimzd.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=347&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392013/original/file-20210326-21-7yimzd.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=347&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Detail from ancient Egyptian stele of Pasjerimin, showing Anubis leading Pasjerimin to the seated Osiris followed by Isis, Nephthys and Hornedjitef.</span>
<span class="attribution"><a class="source" href="https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Pasheryenpakhem_stela.jpg">(Rijksmuseum van Oudheden/Wikimedia Commons)</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>Similarly, Egyptian deities are frequently depicted in direct interaction with a human figure. A common example is where <a href="https://core.ac.uk/download/pdf/96773655.pdf">a god receives cultic offerings from the pharaoh</a>. A zoomorphic depiction here could limit the deity’s ability to grasp objects, or to make gestures that are key to the symbolism of the scene.</p>
<p>Ancient Egyptian artists also placed great emphasis on <a href="https://www.metmuseum.org/art/metpublications/The_Art_of_Ancient_Egypt_A_Resource_for_Educators">balance and proportions</a>. Rendering all figures in an upright posture provides visual symmetry. </p>
<h2>Two legs better?</h2>
<p>The form assumed by the deities also depends on their function in a given scene. The god Anubis, in his role as the protector of tombs, is typically represented as a <a href="https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/4155">reclining canine</a> that resembles the <a href="https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2015/07/african-golden-jackals-are-actually-golden-wolves">African golden wolf</a>. This manifestation serves to underline the animal’s territorial behaviour. Conversely, when Anubis is tasked with a role that requires human dexterity (such as the weighing of the deceased’s heart), he is usually rendered as an anthropomorphic canine.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Image of a canine weighing a heart and lying down" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/398742/original/file-20210504-20-1jz8di0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/398742/original/file-20210504-20-1jz8di0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398742/original/file-20210504-20-1jz8di0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398742/original/file-20210504-20-1jz8di0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398742/original/file-20210504-20-1jz8di0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398742/original/file-20210504-20-1jz8di0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/398742/original/file-20210504-20-1jz8di0.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Detail of Anubis in the ‘Weighing of the Heart’ ceremony and as a recumbent canine.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Wikimedia Commons/The Met)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The same flexibility can be observed in BoJack Horseman. Like other characters in the show, the defining traits of Princess Carolyn - an earnest and career-driven cat - are very much human. In times of emergency, however, she calls upon the agility and nimbleness of a feline. To the audience, this transition becomes perceptible when she stops walking upright and begins moving on all fours.</p>
<h2>Khepri and Apep</h2>
<figure class="align-left zoomable">
<a href="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399018/original/file-20210505-13-cnr1p5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=1000&fit=clip"><img alt="The beetle-headed god Khepri." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399018/original/file-20210505-13-cnr1p5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=237&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399018/original/file-20210505-13-cnr1p5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=923&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399018/original/file-20210505-13-cnr1p5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=923&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399018/original/file-20210505-13-cnr1p5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=923&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399018/original/file-20210505-13-cnr1p5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=1160&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399018/original/file-20210505-13-cnr1p5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=1160&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399018/original/file-20210505-13-cnr1p5.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=1160&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px"></a>
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">The god Khepri, seated on a throne. From the Tomb of Nefertari in the Valley of the Queens.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(kairoinfo4u/Flickr)</span>, <a class="license" href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">CC BY</a></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>A key aspect of Egyptian art is that each entity tends to be depicted in its <a href="https://doi.org/10.2307/4112949">most characteristic view</a>, without foreshortening or other modifications familiar to western traditions. For example, ancient Egyptians depicted human figures using <a href="https://www.ucl.ac.uk/museums-static/digitalegypt/art/whatisaeart.html">an amalgamation of viewpoints</a>: the eye is rendered in full view, the shoulders are depicted from a frontal perspective and the feet are largely in profile. </p>
<p>For many animal species, the most characteristic body part is the head, which is often sufficient for the purpose of identification. Insects, however, are typically too small for their heads to be readily identifiable. </p>
<p>Khepri, the god whose head is represented as a full-sized beetle, reflects the reality that for human observers, a top-down view of the beetle presents a recognizable image. If you are familiar with emojis, you might have noted that insects and other arthropods are often rendered in full; whereas a cat or lion can be represented by their faces. </p>
<p>Although anthropomorphism is found <a href="https://doi.org/10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02136">across various cultures</a>, it is a treatment rarely afforded to insects. The Egyptian preoccupation with the scarab beetle stems from <a href="https://www.wired.com/2014/07/fantastically-wrong-dung-beetle-worship/">its habit of rolling a ball of dung</a>, which is evocative of the sun’s rising. </p>
<p>In BoJack Horseman, insect characters are relatively rare, and they tend to have distinctive bodily features. In one episode, a praying mantis is shown with its characteristic forearms. The scene implies the female is preparing for <a href="https://www.theguardian.com/science/2016/jun/29/having-your-partner-for-dinner-praying-mantis-cannibalism-boosts-fertility-study">sexual cannibalism, a behaviour common among many mantis species</a>. If the mantis was depicted with human forearms, the intimations would likely have been lost.</p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="A cartoon praying mantis leaning into a car window" src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392017/original/file-20210326-23-iyr66w.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/392017/original/file-20210326-23-iyr66w.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=335&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392017/original/file-20210326-23-iyr66w.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=335&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392017/original/file-20210326-23-iyr66w.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=335&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392017/original/file-20210326-23-iyr66w.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392017/original/file-20210326-23-iyr66w.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/392017/original/file-20210326-23-iyr66w.JPG?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=420&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">A female praying mantis salting a male human, ‘BoJack Horseman’ still.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">Netflix</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<p>The artists of BoJack Horseman and ancient Egypt depict anthropomorphic snakes in a similar manner, by replacing the human head with the slender, upper body of a snake rearing upwards. Proportionally, the result is not ideal — <a href="https://books.google.co.uk/books?id=3hgGNb6wM2kC&lpg=PP1&pg=PA106#v=onepage&q&f=false">snake deities such as Apep</a> are depicted with a spindly head far outsized by a headdress. Nevertheless, such depictions show a snake in its defensive stance, a characteristic and memorable image. If the artists had rendered only the snake’s head, it could easily be confused with other reptiles. </p>
<figure class="align-center ">
<img alt="Carving of a snake next to an animated image of a snake feeding a baby." src="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399014/original/file-20210505-19-1ffyoj8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&fit=clip" srcset="https://images.theconversation.com/files/399014/original/file-20210505-19-1ffyoj8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=1 600w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399014/original/file-20210505-19-1ffyoj8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=2 1200w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399014/original/file-20210505-19-1ffyoj8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=600&h=338&fit=crop&dpr=3 1800w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399014/original/file-20210505-19-1ffyoj8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=45&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=1 754w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399014/original/file-20210505-19-1ffyoj8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=30&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=2 1508w, https://images.theconversation.com/files/399014/original/file-20210505-19-1ffyoj8.jpg?ixlib=rb-1.1.0&q=15&auto=format&w=754&h=424&fit=crop&dpr=3 2262w" sizes="(min-width: 1466px) 754px, (max-width: 599px) 100vw, (min-width: 600px) 600px, 237px">
<figcaption>
<span class="caption">Depiction of a snake deity from the Temple of Edfu; a still from BoJack Horseman showing a snake feeding a baby.</span>
<span class="attribution"><span class="source">(Shutterstock/Netflix)</span></span>
</figcaption>
</figure>
<h2>Divine nature</h2>
<p>Ultimately, the richness of the Egyptian pantheon is a result of astute observations and spirited imagination. For its devotees, this grounding in the natural world meant that the divine figures are easy to identify with. </p>
<p>And just like the protagonists of BoJack Horseman, Egyptian gods can be flawed in ways that are strikingly human. <a href="https://www.ancient.eu/Book_of_the_Heavenly_Cow/">In a legend of Hathor</a>, the blood-thirsty goddess was set on destroying all mankind, until she was unwittingly tricked into consuming a pool of red-coloured beer. </p>
<p>As Mr. Peanutbutter might have said, such stories would make for a <a href="https://screenrant.com/bojack-horseman-mr-peanutbutters-iconic-quotes-ranked/">decent crossover</a>.</p><img src="https://counter.theconversation.com/content/156565/count.gif" alt="The Conversation" width="1" height="1" />
<p class="fine-print"><em><span>Jun Yi Wong does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.</span></em></p>
Both the art of BoJack Horseman and of ancient Egyptian artists places great emphasis on balance and proportion.
Jun Yi Wong, PhD Candidate in Egyptology, University of Toronto
Licensed as Creative Commons – attribution, no derivatives.