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Detail of the Inner Coffin of Henettawy

The Chantress of Amun-Re Henettawy died young, still in her early 20s, around the year 1000 BCE and was laid to rest in a tomb that had originally been the final resting place of one of Hatshepsut’s officials some 500 years earlier.

Like most tombs of the time her tomb wasn’t decorated, and so all the visual symbolism necessary for a safe & effective afterlife was painted onto her coffins. This is a detail from the inner coffin, part of the right hand side of the lid around knee level.

The background is painted yellow, to mimic the gold that a royal coffin would’ve been made from. And the whole thing is covered in cobras, which are protecting the deities depicted as well as Henettawy herself. Another repeated motif is the djed pillar, symbolising stablity.

On the left of this section is a scarab beetle who is pushing the sun up into the sky. The beetle’s back legs clutch on to a shen-ring, which symbolises eternity. To the right of this is the creator god Khnum as a ram, being worshipped by Henattawy on the right hand side.

Detail of the Inner Coffin of Henettawy. Henettawy was only 21 when she died, and was buried in a plundered tomb which had previously belonged to one of Hatshepsut’s officals. From MMA59, Deir el Bahri, Thebes. Third Intermediate Period, late Dynasty 21, c.1000-945 BCE. Acc. No.: 25.3.183

Henettawy’s coffin set is now in the Met Museum, and the accession number of this part of it is 25.3.183.

See it on my photo site: https://photos.talesfromthetwolands.org/picture.php?/1547/category/6

I’ve written about scarab beetles & the sun on the blog before: https://talesfromthetwolands.org/2021/05/07/scarab-beetles-creation-and-the-sun/

And I’ve also written about Khnum: https://talesfromthetwolands.org/2020/01/21/shaped-on-his-potters-wheel/

Jigsaw Puzzles:
easier: https://www.jigsawplanet.com/?rc=play&pid=3da693b6ca2c
harder: https://www.jigsawplanet.com/?rc=play&pid=2152b7845106

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Model Boat from the Tomb of Meketre

This rather busy model boat came from the tomb of Meketre, who lived at the tail end of the 11th Dynasty and into the beginning of the 12th Dynasty. He was a very important official, and was buried at Sheikh Abd el-Qurna (near Deir el-Bahri) around 4,000 years ago.

Like so many Egyptian tombs Meketre’s funerary goods were removed by looters before archaeologists got there, in this case in antiquity. However when Winlock excavated it for the Met his team discovered a previously unknown chamber which was full of wooden models.

This boat is one of those models, one of a pair which ensured that the deceased perpetually made the pilgrimage to Abydos for the cult procession of Osiris every year during his afterlife. This boat depicts the way home, as it once had a sail to allow him to sail back to Thebes.

The action happens after death, as the main figure underneath the canopy (who you can’t quite see) is a statue not the living Meketre. What you can see is someone presenting a leg, presumably from a calf, whilst another person holds a scroll for the ritual to be read from.

Model Boat from the Tomb of Meketre. From the tomb of Meketre (TT280), South Asasif, Thebes. Middle Kingdom, Dynasty 12, early reign of Amenemhat I, c. 1981-1975 BCE. Acc. No.: Met Museum 20.3.4

Once found the models were split between the Cairo Museum & the Met Museum (which Winlock was associated with), and this one is in the Met Museum with acc. no.: 20.3.4.

See it on my photo site: https://photos.talesfromthetwolands.org/picture.php?/1634/category/8

I’ve talked about other non-boat tomb models on my blog before: https://talesfromthetwolands.org/2020/11/01/tomb-models/

Jigsaw Puzzles:
easier: https://www.jigsawplanet.com/?rc=play&pid=1033f58e41d7
harder: https://www.jigsawplanet.com/?rc=play&pid=1fa1c96ac3ac

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Incised Ware Bowl

Part of my fascination with early Egypt is the tension between how very old they are and how very recent in terms of the history of our species. This bowl is around 5,500 years old, an incomprehensible span of time, yet humans have existed for way more than 10 times that long.

It was made by someone in the early Naqada II culture, around 3650-3500 BCE. So to an Egyptian from the time of the initial unification of Egypt the people who made this bowl were like people from the Wars of the Roses are to us. A historical artifact to them as well as us!

But still a blink of an eye in terms of the time H. sapiens has been around and even in terms of the time since H. sapiens acquired full behavioural modernity 50,000 or more years ago. People had quite possibly been eating fish from the Nile long long before this pot was made.

It’s also quite a nice looking piece to my mind, and would’ve been nicer still when first made. If you look closely it has traces of white paste in some of the incised decoration, so the decoration must’ve once been very vivid against the black pottery.

Incised Ware Bowl. Provenance unknown. Predynastic Period, Early Naqada II, c.3650-3500 BCE. Acc. No.: 07.228.111

It’s not known where the pot was found, but it is now in the Met Museum (acc. no.: 07.228.111)

See it on my photo site: https://photos.talesfromthetwolands.org/picture.php?/1422/category/6

Jigsaw Puzzles:
easier: https://www.jigsawplanet.com/?rc=play&pid=092fb31caa2d
harder: https://www.jigsawplanet.com/?rc=play&pid=066d40de0b26

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Ostraca from the Tomb of Nespekashuty

Deir el-Bahri was used as a place to bury the elite of Ancient Egyptian society for millennia, most famously in association with the temples of Montuhotep II and Hatshepsut but the burials continued long after this. And any given tomb might be used long after it was first dug.

These pottery fragments (ostraca) illustrate both those points: they were found in the courtyard outside tomb TT312 which was built for Nespekashuty who was a Vizier during the reign of Psamtik I in the 26th Dynasty, but two of the ostraca are from a later date than that.

The two drawings of column tops are probably contemporary to the tomb’s construction and may even be preliminary sketches for the decoration. At the back is an incised design of a crocodile which is probably from a couple of hundred years later during the Ptolemaic Period.

The ostracon to the left is part of a group of textual pieces that seem to’ve been a single scribe practising his writing (and then discarding them) around a hundred years after Nespekashuty’s burial (based on his handwriting style). It lists the days of the month.

The museum doesn’t give a suggestion for the grazing antelope piece, so it presumably isn’t quite close enough in style to any of the other pieces to be sure where it fits in.

Ostraca from the Tomb of Nespekashuty. From courtyard rubbish at the Tomb of Nespekashuty (TT 312, MMA 509), Deir el-Bahri. Late Period, Dynasty 26, reign of Psamtik I, c. 656-610 BCE (except 23.3.30, with a sketch of a crocodile, which is Ptolematic Period, c. 332-30 BCE). Acc. No.s: 23.3.29, 23.3.30, 23.3.34, 23.3.35

All 5 were excavated by the Met Museum at Deir el-Bahri in the 1920s, and are now housed in the museum, acc. no.s: 23.3.29, 23.3.30, 23.3.34, 23.3.35, 26.3.168

See it on my photo site: https://photos.talesfromthetwolands.org/picture.php?/1449/category/6

Jigsaw Puzzles:
easier: https://www.jigsawplanet.com/?rc=play&pid=156213360ecc
harder: https://www.jigsawplanet.com/?rc=play&pid=255023732bcb

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Relief Fragment from the Tomb of Khety

Khety was a high official during the reign of Montuhotep II at the beginning of the Middle Kingdom and was buried in a finely decorated tomb (TT311) near the mortuary temple of the king. It was excavated in 1923 by the Met Museum and some pieces from it are now in the Met.

This piece is from the entrance corridor, but it wasn’t removed by the excavators – instead some time in antiquity (after the tomb was no longer in active use for remembering Khety) the nice white limestone he’d used to line its corridor was hacked out for re-use.

This piece seems to’ve been intended to have a second life as some sort of bowl or platter, you can see it’s hollowed out at the top with a nice curved rim. But for some reason the person working on it discarded it before it was finished, perhaps due to the crack across the body?

Which is nice from our perspective, because it means that the desert hunting scene carved on it hasn’t entirely vanished! In the remaining section we can see a gazelle (avatar of chaos) being brought down by Khety’s arrows and hunting dog as he imposes order on the world.

Relief Fragment from the Tomb of Khety. From Tomb of Khety (TT311, MM508), Deir el Bahri, Thebes. Middle Kingdom, Dynasty 11, reign of Montuhotep, c.2051-2011 BCE. Acc. No.: 23.3.173

It’s now in the Met Museum, acc. no.: 23.3.173.

See it on my photo site: https://photos.talesfromthetwolands.org/picture.php?/1288/category/6

Jigsaw Puzzles:
easier: https://www.jigsawplanet.com/?rc=play&pid=1629a3d28f17
harder: https://www.jigsawplanet.com/?rc=play&pid=21d268a55a87

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A Sphinx of Hatshepsut

Hatshepsut’s mortuary temple at Deir el-Bahri is one of the big tourist destinations on the West Bank at Luxor. It was initially excavated by the Met Museum in the 1920s, and they found quite a number of statues of Hatshepsut which had been smashed up.

These pieces were part of a statue of Hatshepsut as a sphinx, and were one of six similar statues found at the site – this one (acc. no.:31.3.167) and another more complete one ended up at the Met Museum as part of the way finds were divided up during this period.

You can see that the red granite was probably not actually that visible when the statue was first made – most of the paint that remains is blue, most obviously on the beard. There are also traces of yellow on the nemes headdress that Hatshepsut is wearing.

I also find the fragmentary nature of the piece makes it striking and more interesting to look at than a complete one would be – the juxtaposition of the shiny yet textured granite with the very smooth matte filler material draws the eye.

A Sphinx of Hatshepsut. From the temple of Hatshepsut, Deir el Bahri, Thebes. New Kingdom, Dynasty 18, joint reign of Hatshepsut & Thutmose III, c. 1473-1458 BCE.

See it on my photo site: https://photos.talesfromthetwolands.org/picture.php?/1159/category/6

Jigsaw Puzzles:
easier: https://www.jigsawplanet.com/?rc=play&pid=316ff15cc7c3
harder: https://www.jigsawplanet.com/?rc=play&pid=26389bf86824

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Statue of Sebekemsaf, Reporter in Thebes

This is a statue of a man called Sebekemsaf, who lived around 3700 years ago during the 13th Dynasty in the Middle Kingdom. He was an important official and held an administrative office called Reporter in Thebes – which meant he proclaimed and wrote down the orders of the king.

The inscriptions on this statue include the names of his parents who are also named on other monuments in conjunction with other people. This has let Egyptologists construct a family tree for 6 generations of his family, complete with job titles or relationships for many of them.

He’s shown as a rather solid looking man – demonstrating that he’s a powerful individual, and also that he’s wealthy enough and important enough to eat well and do little exercise. The overall look of a bald man in a high waisted long kilt is a common motif for the period.

Statue of Sebekemsaf, Reporter in Thebes. From Armant. Middle Kingdom, Dynasty 13, c. 1700 BCE. Acc. No.s: Kunsthistoisches Museum Ägyptisch Sammlung INV 5051 (head) and 5801 (torso) and National Museum, Dublin 1889.503.1 (base, but this is actually a cast of it not the real thing)

It originally comes from Armant and is now mostly in the Kunsthistorisches Museum in Vienna (acc. no.s: head: 5051, torso: 5801) – the base is in the National Museum, Dublin (acc no.: 1889.503.1) and it’s a cast that’s in this photo. I saw it in the Met Museum in 2015.

See it on my photo site: https://photos.talesfromthetwolands.org/picture.php?/1627/category/8

Jigsaw Puzzles:
easier: https://www.jigsawplanet.com/?rc=play&pid=2c21eb4e7d1c
harder: https://www.jigsawplanet.com/?rc=play&pid=3b766d8e4cee

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Faience Tiles with the Names of Seti II

These two tiles were presumably once part of some decorative piece of furniture. As the Met Museum purchased them from a Greek antiquities dealer in Geneva in 1967 with no record of where they’d come from we’re unlikely to ever find out what exactly they were part of.

They are in the shape of cartouches and contain the name(s) of a king of the 19th Dynasty who we call Seti II – he was a grandchild of Ramesses II. The one on the right has a variant of his birth name: Seti mery en Ptah “The one who belongs to Seth, beloved of Ptah”.

You can see the Seth animal sitting at the top right of the text (you read this one right to left) and Ptah standing with his staff at the bottom left. The left tile also has this name in the bottom half of the tile – but someone has hacked out the Seth animal.

The left tile also has one form of Seti II’s throne name in the top half: User kheperu Ra, mery Amun “The strong one of the manifestations of Ra, beloved of Amun”. As with most throne names of Egyptian kings (even Akhenaten’s) it references Ra.

Faience Tiles with the Names of Seti II. New Kingdom, late Dynasty 19, reign of Seti II, c. 1200-1194 BCE.

They are currently in the Met Museum, acc. no.s: 67.161.1 (l), 67.161.2 (r)

A useful site for seeing how to read Egyptian king’s names, and finding out what they translate as is https://pharaoh.se/

I’ve written about the five names of Egyptian kings on the blog before: https://talesfromthetwolands.org/2019/08/11/the-naming-of-kings/

See it on my photo site: https://photos.talesfromthetwolands.org/picture.php?/861/category/6

Jigsaw Puzzles:
easier: https://www.jigsawplanet.com/?rc=play&pid=0ee0e6c3d70e
harder: https://www.jigsawplanet.com/?rc=play&pid=113c7de0e642

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Statue of Idi

This is a statue of man called Idi who lived around 4,200 years ago during the 6th Dynasty at the end of the Old Kingdom period of Egypt’s history. He was definitely a high official (which is no surprise, as limestone statues are a high status item) and may even have been Vizier.

As with a lot of Egyptian artifacts found before the 20th Century it’s not really known for sure where it came from – it was gifted to Commodore Matthew C. Perry by the Egyptians and subsequently Perry’s granddaughter sold it to the Met Museum in the 1930s (acc. no.: 37.2.2).

It may’ve come from Abydos as there’s a Vizier of the right name and time period buried there, but there’s a little bit of circular reasoning here as he’s thought to be a Vizier because of that tomb … however it’s a pretty rare name in the Old Kingdom so it’s plausible.

Statue of Idi. Possibly from Abydos. Old Kingdom, Dynasty 6, c.2200 BCE. Acc. No.: 37.2.2

See it on my photo site: https://photos.talesfromthetwolands.org/picture.php?/1328/category/6

Jigsaw Puzzles:
easier: https://www.jigsawplanet.com/?rc=play&pid=0dc472446e74
harder: https://www.jigsawplanet.com/?rc=play&pid=3d0e6bcccff6

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Metal Vessels from a Temple Deposit

These 3 metal vases are called situlas and form part of a set used for drinking wine. You can just see the edge of the associated wine strainer at the left of the picture (wine in ancient times had more solid bits than it does now, so you strained it like you do loose tea today).

They are rather beautiful, as well as being made of precious metals (silver for the rear two, electrum in front and gold for the strainer). As well as elegant shape two of them are also decorated around the rim and one at the base with leaf and flower motifs.

They were found in the temple of Bastet at Bubastis as part of a collection of objects that had been buried in antiquity – probably because they were no longer in use for rituals but were still considered sacred so couldn’t just be binned.

The rituals they were used for were probably Festivals of Drunkenness which became a particular part of the worship of Bastet and other goddesses like Hathor in the New Kingdom (which is when these vessels date to), and emulated the drunkenness that pacified these goddesses.

Metal Vessels from a Temple Deposit. From Bubastis. New Kingdom, Dynasty 19, reign of Ramesses II, c. 1279-1213 BCE. Acc. No.s: Jars: 07.228.17, 07.228.18, 07.228.22

They are now in the Met Museum, acc. no.s: 07.228.17, 07.228.18, 07.228.22 (and 30.8.369 for the strainer).

See it on my photo site: https://photos.talesfromthetwolands.org/picture.php?/820/category/6

I have re-told the story of Sekhmet and her rage being pacified with booze (in that case beer) on the blog before: https://talesfromthetwolands.org/2019/07/11/and-she-blew-through-the-towns-like-the-hot-desert-wind/

Jigsaw Puzzles:
easier: https://www.jigsawplanet.com/?rc=play&pid=10055e81ffa7
harder: https://www.jigsawplanet.com/?rc=play&pid=3feb812d2ed5