#ancient Egyptian artifacts

[er-cryptid]

Ahmes, “Scribe of accounts of gold” and “Overseer of the works of the god Amun”, kneels holding a stela with a prayer to the sun god Re.

Granite.

New Kingdom, 1550-1300 BC

National Museum of Denmark, Department of Classical and Near Eastern Antiquities

[solitariussanctumartarchitecture]

Bronze figure of a seated cat, From Saqqara, Egypt. Late Period, after 600 BC.

Collection: The British Museum.

It sort of reminds me of the cat Bastet from the Amelia Peabody Mysteries.

[phoenix-joy]

Author & Timestamp: Sarah Kuta for Smithsonian Magazine, April 30, 2024.

Note: this is an emotive topic and it is not one I feel qualified to give an opinion on yet. My sharing of this extract and link neither supports nor argues against any particular viewpoint, it's simply to take note of a conversation that I feel is important.

Extract:

[T]he Chau Chak Wing Museum at the University of Sydney [has] removed fragments of mummified bodies from public display. Museum staffers also plan to rename the “Mummy Room” to more accurately and respectfully reflect mummification’s significance in ancient Egyptian culture.

[...]

Egyptologist Melanie Pitkin, [...] a senior curator of antiquities and archaeology [at Chau Chak Wing], is leading the charge to rethink how the museum displays and interprets its Egyptian collection.

[...]

“For hundreds of years, body parts in museum collections have been treated as objects,” says Pitkin in a statement.  “We have become so accustomed to seeing them on show that we often forget they once belonged to living people.”

For now, the remains are being kept in the museum’s “closely monitored collection store” while curators work to “implement better practices with Egyptian communities and authorities,” according to the statement. In the display, the museum replaced the unwrapped body parts with ancient Egyptian funerary portraits from coffin lids and masks. Curators are also exhibiting a painted portrait from the Roman era.

[Two] completely wrapped, mummified bodies [...] along with 3D visualizations based on CT scans of the remains. The CT scan data of another mummified body [...] also remains on view.

[...]

“In renaming the room, we’d like to focus more on the transformation of the body into an eternal being [...], rather than the body itself,” Pitkin says [...]. “We also encourage visitors to critically reflect on the ethical complexities museums face when caring for human remains.”

[...]

“[Modern] cultural stereotyping [of ancient Egyptian mummified bodies] would elsewhere be recognized as a form of racism, but the ancient Egyptians are not here to object to the ways in which we depict them,” Jasmine Day, an Egyptologist [...], tells the Sydney Morning Herald.

[...]

Around the world, curators and policymakers are also reconsidering their approaches to other types of artifacts. Earlier this year, [...] Harvard University removed a book binding made of human skin from its library, while the Field Museum in Chicago covered some of its Native American artifacts.

/end of extract

[blueiscoool]

An Egyptian almost life-size bronze and wood striding ibis Late Period, circa 664-332 B.C.

[toyastales]

Gold swivel ring featuring an amethyst frog, from the New Kingdom period of Egypt, dating between 1550-1229 BC.

[the-cricket-chirps]

Egyptian

Game of Hounds and Jackals

Middle Kingdom, ca. 1814-1805 B.C.E.

[artifacts-and-arthropods]

2,000-Year-Old Fayum Portraits from Roman Egypt: also known as "mummy portraits," these funerary paintings were often fastened to the coffins of the people they depicted

Above: Fayum portrait of a woman from Roman-occupied Egypt, c.100-110 CE

Fayum portraiture was a popular funerary practice among the upper-class families of Roman Egypt from about 50 CE to 250 CE. Given the high mortality rates for children during this period, many of these portraits depict children and youths, but adults were often featured, too.

Above: portrait of a youth wearing a golden wreath, c.130-150 CE; the wreath and the background of the portrait are both gilded

The population of the Faiyum Delta, where most of these portraits were found, largely contained individuals with both native Egyptian/North African and Greek heritage. The Greek lineages can be traced back to the Ptolemaic period, when the Greeks gained control of Egypt and began to establish settlements throughout the region, gradually leading to a cultural diffusion between the Greek and Egyptian populations. The Romans eventually took control of Egypt in 31 CE, absorbing it into the Roman Empire and colonizing much of North Africa, but the demographics of the Faiyum Delta remained largely unchanged.

Above: portrait of a man with a mole on his nose, c.130-150 CE

Many of these Fayum portraits reflect the same blend of ethnic and cultural roots, depicting individuals with both Greek and native Egyptian heritage (a claim that is supported by both archaeological and genetic evidence). Some portraits may also depict native Egyptians who did not have any European ancestry, but had been integrated into Greco-Roman society.

Above: portrait of a bearded man, c.170-180 CE

These representations of native Egyptians provide us with unique insights into the actual demographics of Roman-occupied Egypt (and the ancient world at large). Non-European peoples are rarely included in depictions of the classical world; it's also interesting to see the blend of cultural elements that these portraits represent.

Above: portrait of a priest of Serapis, c.140-160 CE; the man in this portrait is shown wearing a fillet/crown that bears the seven-pointed star of the Greco-Egyptian god, Serapis

As this article explains:

In the 1800s and early 1900s, Western art historians didn’t know what to make of these portraits. Scholars of Roman history labeled them Egyptian. Scholars of Egyptian history labeled them Greco-Roman. These binary academic classifications failed to capture the true complexity of the ancient (or, indeed, modern) Mediterranean. In reality, Fayum portraits are a syncretic form, merging Egyptian and Greco-Roman art and funerary practices. They reflect the cosmopolitanism of both Roman and Egyptian history.

Above: portrait of a man, c.80-100 CE (left); portrait of a bearded officer, sometimes referred to as "Perseus," c.130-175 CE (right)

Above: portrait of a young woman in red, c.90-120 CE

Nearly 1,000 of these portraits are currently known to exist.

Above: portrait of a man wearing a gilded ivy wreath, c.100-150 CE

Above: portrait of a bearded man, c.150-170 CE

Sources & More Info:

Curationist: Fayum Portraits

Harvard Art Museums: Giving the Dead their Due: an Exhibition Re-Examines Funerary Portraits from Roman Egypt

Getty Museum: APPEAR Project

Getty Museum: Faces of Roman Egypt

National Geographic: Ancient Egypt's Stunning, Lifelike Mummy Portraits

The Athens Centre: The Myth of Whiteness in Classical Sculpture

Forbes: Whitewashing Ancient Statues: Whiteness, Racism and Color in the Ancient World

[museum-of-artifacts]

What the pyramid of Khafre looked like 4,500 years ago compared to today. The pyramids of Giza were originally covered with highly polished white limestones, with the capstones at the peak being covered in gold

[thebaffledcaptain]

Hey. Don't cry. Ancient Egyptian jerboa figurines from ca. 1850 BC, ok?

[doccywhomst]

future archaeologists excavating our dumps, painstakingly sifting through plastic and soil for broken jewelry, mugs, beads, laminated paper, household bills, keys, guns, coins, rings, toys; people who love spoons, pennies, magnets, and rare license plates. specific object collectors of the world, rejoice! thy inheritants shall prosper

[thepastisalreadywritten]

[er-cryptid]

The pyramidion of the tomb of the “Priest of the Apis” Ptah-mose. The dead couple are praying to the sun gods Khepri, Re-Harakhte, and Atum.

Limestone.

New Kingdom, 1340-1290 BCE

National Museum of Denmark, Department of Classical and Near Eastern Antiquities

[solitariussanctumartarchitecture]

Seeing a Large Cat

I have begun reading #9 in the Amelia Peabody mysteries, "Seeing A Large Cat". In the early part of the book, they mention Theodore Davis. Emerson refers to him as a "wealthy dilettante". While Davis was not an actual archaeologist or Egyptologist, he was important in the world of Egyptian archaeology. Davis discovered artefacts relating to Tut. He believed, though, that there were no more relics to be found, once he found the items. Here is the whole story:

[gemville]

Pectoral With Lapis Lazuli Scarab Found In The Tomb Of King Tutankhamun In 1922

Source: thejewelryloupe.com

[blueiscoool]

An Egyptian Faience Sekhmet Third Intermediate Period, 21st-22nd Dynasty, 1070-712 B.C.

[toyastales]

Beautiful Egyptian Faience Hippopotamus (2040-1638 BC); Middle Kingdom, ancient Egypt.

This statuette of a hippopotamus (popularly called "William") was molded in faience, a ceramic material made of ground quartz. A glass-like material associated with rebirth, Egyptian faience was often used to make grave goods, such as this hippopotamus.