#egyptian history

[spacenoirdetective]

Just imagine this poor guy worked his entire life to make clay models for all the rich people who could afford a good afterlife. One day, he perfects the art of the cucumber so his clients can have cucumber forever in the next realm. A realm with eternal cucumber! And he shows his friends and they all laugh and guffaw and point and say "Dude, dude, dude...DUDE! Your boss is gonna have some eternal DONG, dude!" and he just gets this dejected look on his face. Sadly, he fumbles his way home where he lays the clay cucumber down and starts work on his own sarcaphagus because man, fuck all you guys. I'm gonna have all the cucumber I want in the next life!!!

I know this happens and it looks suspicious but

this image? we have every reason to think it is a cucumber, like it was made in clay models in burials period, it's painted green, it's on the small side of things (9.6 cm or 3 3/4 inch)

oh right and it was placed on a model offering table with small model bread and drinking cup

sometimes a cucumber really is a cucumber.

[blueiscoool]

AN EGYPTIAN BRONZE CAT LATE PERIOD, 26TH-30TH DYNASTY, CIRCA 664-343 B.C.

[alpaca-clouds]

Egyptomania in Europe

So, let me talk about Egyptomania in Europe, if we are already talking about Castlevania Nocturne and history. (Yes, I am very much using this trying to get y'all to learn a bit about history. Because the humanities are important, and history class in school does not really cover this stuff.)

Because, oh boy. While - as I said - technically the dates are not quite right (the Louvre did only open the Egyptian exhibit in 1802), Egyptomania absolutely started in the 18th century.

So, let me talk a bit about Egyptomania, and what kind of inappropriate shit European colonizers did with Egyptian mummies. Because, oh boy. You are in for quite some history there.

The 18th Century, or: "Those are some pretty pyramids, you have there."

The one thing you have to understand about Ancient Egypt is how something about that culture just seems to make sense to people. As I said in the essay on Drolta: Egyptian religion and culture had a ton of staying power. Like, no matter who took Egypt. The Greeks, the Romans... Anywhere they went, they tried to push their own culture onto the people there. Egypt? Yeah, they just started worshipping those gods. I don't know what it is about Egypt that connects so much with people. But there surely is something.

Now, in the 18th century there were several things that came together. Literacy was widely enough spread that for the first time in history people actually could make a living publishing novels. About a third of all men and a forth of all women in France could read by the beginning of the Revolution. And of course the Revolution later pushed for all children to be allowed to learn to read and write. And some of those novels included Egyptian mysticism.

At the same time coffee houses, political societies and secret societies became more popular and those also would include often some Egyptian symbolism. Our dear Americans might be aware of some prominent Egyptian symbolism on their money for examples, which is related to this.

Through this interest, there were a few first actual Egyptiologist starting to arise. Remember: At this time folks knew there were those pyramids, and a couple of graves and been found, but we knew very little about the actual culture, because we could not read hieroglyphics.

Now, there were some few Europeans academics, who at this time seriously engaged with the North African and Arab people, and among them were a handful of people who actually tried to find out more about Egyptian society in antiquity. But they by far were the minority. After all, this time was very racist, and very few saw Egypt as more as a source for mysticism.

However, then the end of the century came around and with it a certain Napoleon Bonaparte, who tried to take Egypt. For context, France and the Ottoman Empire had a shaky alliance through parts of the 18th century. But of course Napoleon broke that alliance, when he decided to invade Egypt for multiple reasons (partly access to the Red Sea and the Nile). He lost the battles that followed, and the Ottomans ended up striking an alliance with the English, but never the less: Napoleon brought back a lot of spoils from Egypt, and made sure those would be introduced into the Louvre in 1802.

And with this he started Egyptomania.

The 19th Century, or: "Do you want some mummy with your coffee?"

Now, the 19th century was kinda the perfect storm of circumstances, that lead to the actual Egyptomania. Because a variety of cultural aspects and historical circumstances lead to western people just getting enamored with this culture.

First of all there was the romanticism movement that started at the end of the 18th century, that was very concerned with beauty, and emotion, and the eternity of the soul. So those ideas that we even early kinda knew that the Egyptians had (they did make those mummies after all) were super interesting. Especially as the romanticism movement also had those ideas about magic and the paranormal, that both Egypt, as well as the "east" kinda played into in popular imagination. This is part of what sparked the whole Orientalism trend. (This is the moment I will tell y'all to just get yourself a copy of Edward Said's book "Orientalism". This really should be standard reading in my view.)

Second - and quite related to this - the mysticism and spiritualism movement got even stronger now. Especially in the second half of the 19th century the spiritualism movement really took over the zeitgeist. Just ask Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, who was pretty darn influential in this. And spiritualism just loved those Egyptian ideas of the afterlife and such. Especially after...

Third: Champollion managed to decipher hieroglyphics in 1823, and with this people suddenly could understand all those writing in those graves and on those papyri that we had found in the desert. And with that we had an understanding of the believe system of the Egyptians. And sure, those things I spoke about earlier today - about how religion shifted and such - was not well understood by the people back then. But they sure fucking loved what they heard about the Duat and the souls and such.

This all really created the perfect storm. No, not for people to have a respectful exchange with the Egyptian culture. What are you thinking? We are talking about 18th century white folks, after all. Some of them were okay, sure. But, in general we are talking about colonialist a-holes.

So, instead they started to look for those graves, treasures and art pieces from Egypt grabbing pretty much everything that was not nailed down. (And let's face it: Nailing stuff down made it harder to take, sure, but they still tried.) Jewelry, art pieces, both the fancy and less fantasy sarcophagi, and all those mummies. In fact mummies were such a popular item of merchandise at this time, that a whole fucking black market started to spring up around them, including people who figured out to make their own mummies. Partly by digging up graves and mummifying the bodies in there. Partly by more... direct means of acquiring dead bodies, if you get my drift.

And those fancy rich western folks sure loved their mummies. Things they would do with those mummies included:

Using them as medicine

Using them as food (yes, this very much qualifies as cannibalism) and as garnish for food

Sniffing them like drugs

Grinding them up to make oil colors with them (there was a color called "mummy brown" that indeed used fresh mummy)

Having fun "mummy unwrapping parties"

I hope, if you have not known this before, you flinched at least a bit at this. Because yeah, it is fucking disgusting - both on a hygienical level, as well as a moral level. And there is a good chance that some of those graves we found empty later on were indeed plundered to provide stuff for the black market during this time. While sure, there were absolutely folks who really started to figure out a lot of stuff about that ancient culture of Egypt, there is also stuff we will likely never know because so much stuff was stolen and then got lost. Some of it might to this day be in private collections, while other stuff truly is lost, after then being stolen during one of the world wars.

The 20th Century, or: "Oh wow, this one grave is actually still complete! Huh!"

The actual science started to get going more towards the end of the 19th century and then at the beginning of the 20th century. But again, this ran into the trouble of finding many graves that had already been robbed. While some of them had of course been robbed over the millennia since their inhabitants had been buried (people had interest in those jewels and what not during the antiquity and the middle ages, obviously). But some also had only been robbed recently due to the rising black market.

This is why we know Tutankhamun so very well, despite him being only Pharaoh for a very short time and not having done anything of note. The big thing about him is not what he archived in life, but the fact that he was one of the few tombs we found that were pretty much fully intact. So from that we learned a whole lot about how such a grave would usually be set up, because the grave had not been stripped for parts. (And yes, obviously the whole spooky story of the curse of the Pharaoh also played a big role in how well known Tut became.)

It was only towards the middle of the century and mainly due to the second World War that the brunt of the Egyptomania was letting off. People still were super fascinated by Egypt, sure, but they were no longer quite as obsessed with it as they had been before. And at least there were no more mummy-unwrapping parties, which I take as a plus.

Though it was only during the second half of the century that there was more critical reception of how Egypt had been plundered. And while it is still not ideal, I will say at least Egypt managed to enforce more of its ownership over her history, than a lot of the other colonized nations.

The main takeaway of this is: You all need to read Edward Said's book Orientalism. And colonial Europe was fucking weird.

[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.

[h0bg0blin-meat]

Akhenaten and Nefertiti

[antiquitiesandlabyrinths]

Ceiling and imagery of the Tomb of the Vineyards, burial of Sennefer, Mayor of the Southern City, Thebes, during the 18th dynasty of Egypt.

Photos taken by me, August 2023

It’s hard to tell which way is up and down when walking through the tunnel leading from the surface into the tomb. Before entering the main chamber there is a small antechamber whose ceiling is quite low, and then a shallow arch which leads to the main room depicted in the above photographs. Both chambers contain a good deal of paintings, however the main chamber holds the most numerous and well preserved paintings, of course. Besides the ceiling, everything is encased in glass.

[floatyflowers]

Back to the past| Dark! Tutankhamun x Modern! Reader

After discovering your fiance's cheating, you didn't expect to make a car accident and get transported to the past.

And not only that but meet Pharaoh Tutankhamun.

Who becomes fiercely protective of you, monitoring their every move to ensure their safety.

He might even go to extreme lengths to eliminate perceived threats.

He declares you in front of others as his wife and royal Possession Tutankhamun insists on having yoy close at all times, whether it's attending royal events together or keeping them within the palace walls.

As he Becomes more possessive as time goes on, Tutankhamun might isolate you from others, limiting your interactions to maintain control over your social circle.

Any attention you receive from none other than him, triggers Tutankhamun's jealousy, leading to intense reactions that range from subtle displeasure to more overt displays.

The young pharaoh gives you symbolic tokens of his love, like unique jewelry or clothing, to strength your connection to him.

Expensive gifts are the way to the woman's heart.

He even built a tomb for you beside his own.

"What do you think of your tomb, my love? I had everything made out of gold"

Like the delusional pharaoh really wants you to be with him in the after life.

He would pretend to be sick sometimes because he enjoys how you worry over him.

Even though you are aware of his tendencies, but you have to bear with it.

I mean what choice do you have?

It's either the streets or be the queen of one of the most famous Egyptian pharaohs.

[heroineimages]

Let's build a Ptolemaic Pharaoh!

Sadly, I ran out of room and had to cut the options about boyfriends, mistresses, and incest.

Thanks to @allbeendonebefore, @ahallister, and @en-theos for the feedback and inspiration!

[baebeylik]

Fragment of a Woodblock Print on Linen. The Cleveland Museum of Art.

From the Mamluk Sultanate of Egypt. 1200s/1300s.

[classicstober]

✨Welcome to ClassicsTober 2024!✨

The idea is to create something – anything – for the prompt. Like other October prompt lists, it can be an illustration, but it can also be text, reference, historical artefact, video, story, translation, pretty much anything you’re interested in from the Ancient Med World that fits with the prompt. There’s no pressure to do every single one, just the ones you like.

This year it’s an ANCIENT HISTORY TAKEOVER! We asked Classicists, Ancient Historians, Archaeologists and Authors we know and love to suggest an ancient personage that they think everyone should know about! And, to combat misinformation and encourage research, we invite you to share your sources with your submission, whether that’s image references, texts, or even a whole bibliography!

✨NO AI USAGE ALLOWED✨

See the ClassicsTober24 Details page for background on each of the names chosen by our friendly Classicists, Archaeologists, Historians and Authors, to get your creativity going! https://greekmythcomix.com/classicstober-24-details/

THE LIST:

1 Regina of South Shields

2 Eumachia

3 Thucydides

4 Cleopatra Selene

5 Pliny the Elder

6 Meleager of Gadara

7 Harmodius and Aristogeiton

8 Boudicca

9 Eritha

10 Vitruvius

11 Julia Felix

12 Homer

13 Zenobia

14 Kallistomache

15 Aesop

16 Elagabalus

17 Iphikrates

18 Tacfarinas

19 Vespasian

20 The Trung Sisters**

21 Marcus Aquilius Regulus

22 Martial

23 Corinna

24 Cleopatra Thea

25 Sappho

26 Vitellius

27 Menander I Soter

28 Crassus

29 Phryne

30 Flavius Cerialis

31 Sejanus

*Ancient Greece and Rome and other near-Mediterranean Ancient cultures

**wildcard!

[skf-fineart]

Head of a Statue of the God Sobek Shedeti

Egypt, Middle Kingdom, ca. 1859-1802 B.C.

Limestone, 21 7/16 × 20 1/16 × 18 7/8 in.

[blueiscoool]

Excavations at Queen Hatshepsut's Temple Reveal Elaborate Burials, Decorated Blocks and Ancient Tools

A number of new discoveries have been made near the mortuary temple of Queen Hatshepsut in Egypt.

Archaeologists working in Luxor, Egypt, recently made several discoveries in the area around Deir al-Bahari (also spelled Deir el-Bahari and Dayr al-Baḥrī), the famous mortuary temple built by Hatshepsut, a woman who ruled Egypt as a pharaoh.

The team found the temple's "foundation deposit" — objects that the ancient builders buried when they began construction of the temple. The artifacts found include an adze, a tool used to cut and shape wood; a wooden hammer; two chisels; a wooden cast model for making mud bricks; and two stones that contain Hatshepsut's cartouches, ovals with hieroglyphs that can represent a ruler's name, Zahi Hawass, a former head of Egypt's Ministry of Antiquities who is leading the excavation team.

The mortuary temple was known as Djeser Djeseru in ancient times, and the adze, hammer, cast model and one of the chisels have inscriptions saying "the good god Neb Maat Re, in the temple Djeser Djeseru, beloved by Amun," Hawass said. Amun was the chief god of Thebes, which is now Luxor. The words "Neb Maat Re" refer to the name and some of the titles of the sun god Re (also known as Ra).

The team also uncovered 1,500 colorful stone blocks that were part of Hatshepsut's valley temple, which was located near her mortuary temple. The valley temple would have been decorated with a variety of scenes, some of which can still be seen on the blocks.

Hatshepsut was a female pharaoh who reigned from about 1473 to 1458 B.C, during the 18th dynasty. She was the stepmother of Thutmose III, who at times served as co-ruler and succeeded her after her death. Hawass said the team found evidence that Thutmose III restored Hatshepsut's mortuary temple sometime after her death. After the death of Hatshepsut, some of her statues and inscriptions across Egypt were destroyed but, in this case, Thutmose III sought to restore her temple.

Other finds in Luxor

The excavation team made a number of other finds in Luxor, including a cemetery dating to the 17th dynasty (circa 1635 to 1550 B.C.), when parts of Egypt were controlled by a foreign people called the Hyksos. Within the cemetery, the team found coffins holding the remains of ancient Egyptians. While excavating the cemetery, the team also found the remains of bows and arrowheads — weapons that would have been used to fight the Hyksos, Hawass wrote in a statement on Facebook. It's possible that some of the cemetery guards took part in the fight against the Hyksos.

The team also found the tomb of Djehuty Mes, who was an overseer of the palace of Queen Tetisheri. There is some debate about which pharaoh she was married to, but Queen Tetisheri lived during the 17th dynasty and possibly into the early 18th dynasty. Inside the tomb, archaeologists discovered a limestone offering table, a limestone funerary stela (commemorative stone slab), and a cosmetics vessel made of alabaster and faience (glazed ceramic), Hawass said.

Aidan Dodson, an honorary professor of Egyptology at the University of Bristol in the U.K. who was not involved in the excavation, said, "For me, the most important is the discovery of the blocks from the valley temple of Hatshepsut." While "her main temple has been extensively excavated and studied since the mid-19th century," Dodson said, "the valley temple was only briefly examined by Howard Carter some 120 years ago."

Analysis of the team's discoveries is ongoing.

By Owen Jarus.

[alpaca-clouds]

Let's Talk About Drolta's Historical Context

Okay, anyone who has been around like fifteen Months ago, when the first season of Castlevania Nocturne released knows the drill. Let's do some history.

I will talk a bit about some historical context of the new season and I am going to start with Drolta, because oh boy, she definitely is an interesting character in this context. After all we learn her backstory this season - and it is actually really interesting.

I am super sorry, right now I cannot do proper screenshots from the flashbacks. So bear with me.

Spoilers for season 2, obviously!

The first scene we see with Drolta is her at a temple of Sekhmet in Southern Egypt in what we get told is 1199 CE. Now, this is interesting. Because this is far, far after the end of anything recognizable as "Ancient Egypt". In 1199 CE what we now know as Egypt was under the control of the Ayyubid dynasty. A Muslim government.

Now, Egypt in terms of religion was a bit of a battleground in the early middle ages.

There is one thing y'all need to understand about the Ancient Egyptian religion. It has a lot of staying power. I have heard so many Egyptologists joke about this. Egypt was colonized so often - and while most other countries got then forced into another religion under the Romans and Greeks, somehow everyone in Egypt during Ancient Times went just and adopted the Egyptian religion. Something that is quite interesting, because Egyptian religion - in terms of anthropology - is an older religion that bears a lot of hallmarks of old religions. I talked about this before: From what we can say, first human religions worshipped animal gods, that then became some sort of chimera, that took up more and more human attributes, before the gods became humanoid in their appearance. And if you know anything about Egyptian religion, than it will be probably that the gods have all their animal aspects, dating it as a bit earlier than the Greek and Roman religion - even though some of the oldest Greek gods also have still their animal aspects (like Pan).

Now, due to the later Roman/Byzantine Empire Christianizing - and Egypt being part of it - Egypt was Christianized as well. And this is where we talk about this one historical figure that somehow haunts me in all my creative persuits: Emperor Theodosius I. He was a hardliner for Christianity. Until he came into power, Christianity was not exactly chill with the pagan religions, but accepted them somewhat. And then Theodosius enacted a decree that set fire to all the pagan temples in the Empire. And they burned down a lot of temples to the old gods. That was the Roman gods, the Greek gods, the Egyptian gods, and some pagan gods of a variety of smaller religions, like the Canaanites and such.

However, again: The Egyptian religion had a hell lot of staying power. So yes, people would often "convert" to Christianity at the point of a sword but secretly still pray to the old gods still.

Between the 7th and the 8th century, Egypt was taken over by the Muslims, and a lot of people converted to Islam. However, as I spoke about before: Muslims were always a lot more chill about other religions. So while people praying to other gods were higher taxed, it was generally just allowed.

In 1199 - as I said - Egypt was under the control of the Ayyubid Dynasty, with the majority of people living there being Muslim.

Realistically speaking, we do not have any historical evidence for any acitve temples to any of the Egyptian deities for after the 9th century, from all I know. While some aspects of the Ancient Egyptian religion were generally were incorporated into Muslim tradition - and still are to this day (like some Ancient holidays are still celebrated in Egypt to this day!) - but from all we know there was no active temple worship.

However, realistically speaking, obviously none of the temples held the actual mummy of an actual god. lol By the time Egypt Islamized, most of the actual mummies of even kings were long forgotten and burried under the sands of the deserts and people practices burial of the dead.

If there had actually been an active temple, yes. It is absolutely possible that this temple would have been attacked and plundered multiple times. And of course anyone still worshipping the old gods would absolutely know that their religion was kinda doomed to disappear. They would be a small holdout. And in this case there is of course the additional aspect of knowing that the goddess one prays to is already physically dead. (Fuck, I need to talk about the worldbuilding in this. I hope I will around it - because I am out of town over the weekend. Argh.)

The attackers we mainly see in the temple are just random bandits. However, the vampire who comes later, definitely wears a specific armor - though this is where I still need to do some research. While I recognize some aspects of the armor, I could not properly place it - because it is definitely a bit too early for Ottomans. (My first thought was Ottoman because of the helmet, but yeah, the Ottoman empire is 250 years out at this point.) The slightly pointed helmet was also used in some part of the Byzantine army, but again, this definitely is something I will look more into.

From there on, of course, her story gets more dominated not by the historical context, but by the fictional worldbuilding.

Something that is however interesting is, that she is of course a member of a cult - and that is by the historical definition of the word, not the modern one.

See, historically speaking cult members where people who among a religion praying to a pantheon served just one deity. In Drolta's case of course this deity is Sekhmet, whom she revears above all the other gods. So much so, that she completely goes against the central cour of the religion at large - which was a religion in which the highest god was a sun god! Ra!

I think in general Drolta goes very strongly back there to something that very much is at the heart of Castlevania's vampire mythology: The way how vampires remain in that world that is changing around them, because the humans in this world are dying, and new humans have new ideas. The world changes - but the vampires are frozen in time.

She holds onto her old religion, that was technically already "dead" when she was born for the first time, and that just dies out further as she cannot die, because she is now a vampire.

In her pursuit of the will of a deity, whose will she thinks she knows, she is ironically very close to Isaac - though other than him, she canot find it in herself to turn it around. Especially after going down that wrong path for hundreds of years.

The interesting part of this though is, that it very much reframes Erszebeth from someone who came in as a colonizer to take the blood - in comparison to someone upon whom it was trust.

[toyastales]

A small statue of Tutankhamun (1341-1323 BC), of gilded wood, depicting Pharoah wearing red crown of Lower Egypt, standing in a papyrus boat made of green painted wood, and gilded, where papyrus details are supposed to appear.

Egyptian Museum, Cairo

[the-cricket-chirps]

Egyptian

Bastet

Between 664 and 610 BCE, Twenty-sixth Dynasty of Egypt (664 BC-525 BC)