By Garry Shaw for Apollo Magazine
Often, exhibitions of ancient Egyptian artefacts divide their galleries into objects of ‘daily life’ and those associated with ‘burial and the afterlife’, despite most of the objects deriving from the excavation of burials, and the majority of these having been used in life. The Egyptians themselves would probably have been bemused by this division; to them, death was a transition to a different state of being, where life continued. True death only occurred following the judgement by Osiris, king of the blessed dead, when a person could be sentenced to obliteration. To some degree then, preparation for death was a bit like considering what to pack for a move abroad; many of the items used in life would be just as useful in the beyond.
Nevertheless, throughout the Pharaonic Period (3030–332 BC) – the timeframe usually covered by ‘ancient Egypt’ – certain objects specifically associated with death and the rituals necessary for continued survival, such as coffins, had to be specially produced. This is why today, thousands of Egyptian coffins can be found in museums across the world – they are a staple of any collection, and along with mummies, are what museum-goers expect to see. Whether box-like or anthropoid, their wooden surfaces painted with images in striking colours of unusual deities and hieroglyphs, coffins represent ancient Egypt, symbolise it, and in turn, reinforce the popular cliché that the ancient Egyptians were a civilisation obsessed with death – a cliché often countered by Egyptologists, who insist that the Egyptians dedicated so much time to preparing for death because they loved life and feared its end.
Showing posts with label Daily Life. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Daily Life. Show all posts
Sunday, February 28, 2016
Thursday, July 9, 2015
“Window on a lost world”: rediscovered papyri at UBC shed light on ancient Egypt
A reminder for a dinner invitation and a touching letter from a young
man to his mother offer a rare glimpse of daily life in ancient Egypt,
thanks to a recent rediscovery at UBC Library.
It’s believed that the small papyrus scraps, which fit in the palm of an adult hand, are the first of their kind in Western Canada. Both were excavated in Egypt, and made their way to UBC in the 1930s via the University of Michigan.
“Together, they reveal intimate details of life in Roman Egypt,” said Toph Marshall, a professor at UBC’s department of classical, near eastern and religious studies (CNERS). “These documents are a window on a lost world, revealing the daily activities of ordinary people.”
The invitation, similar to a calling or visiting card from Victorian England, summons guests “to dine at the couch of the lord Sarapis.” Meanwhile, the young man’s letter wishes his mother good health; he writes that he thinks of her daily and asks her to visit soon.
The letter is also notable due to some creative handiwork. Parts of it were cut and rearranged in the early 20th century to make it more appealing to the modern sensibilities of antiquities buyers.
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| Scan of a dinner invitation. Credit: UBC Library |
It’s believed that the small papyrus scraps, which fit in the palm of an adult hand, are the first of their kind in Western Canada. Both were excavated in Egypt, and made their way to UBC in the 1930s via the University of Michigan.
“Together, they reveal intimate details of life in Roman Egypt,” said Toph Marshall, a professor at UBC’s department of classical, near eastern and religious studies (CNERS). “These documents are a window on a lost world, revealing the daily activities of ordinary people.”
The invitation, similar to a calling or visiting card from Victorian England, summons guests “to dine at the couch of the lord Sarapis.” Meanwhile, the young man’s letter wishes his mother good health; he writes that he thinks of her daily and asks her to visit soon.
The letter is also notable due to some creative handiwork. Parts of it were cut and rearranged in the early 20th century to make it more appealing to the modern sensibilities of antiquities buyers.
Sunday, June 1, 2014
Museum Pieces - Funerary model of cow giving birth
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| (Photocredit: Royal Ontario Museum) |
Carved and painted wood
Centimetres: 47.2 (length), 21.6 (height), 17.8 (width)
c. 2000 BC
Early Middle Kingdom
Area of Origin: Meir?, Egypt
Area of Use: Meir ?; Egypt; Africa
910.18.16.1
ROM2004_1039_12
Funerary model of cow giving birth
This wooden tomb model dates to the Middle Kingdom (ca. 2055 -1650 BC) and, although such models are commonly placed in tombs at this time, this one is unique in its content. Middle Kingdom models depicting various aspects of daily life activities, especially food production, survive in many examples. The vignette of a cow giving birth is popular in tomb paintings from this period but this wooden model is the only three dimensional example extant. Tomb painting and models were placed in a tomb to ensure the deceased everlasting prosperity, for it was thought that both would magically come to life and work for the tomb owner in the Afterlife. Our model shows that animal husbandry was practised at this early date in ancient Egypt, with one man calming the cow while the other ensures a proper delivery.
Funerary models
Possibly as late as the Early Dynastic Period funerary sacrifices of royal retainers destined to serve the king in the afterlife may have taken place. These practices ceased and the tombs were furnished with figurines of servants and pictures instead.
The need for servants may have been most pressing to those who had been waited upon hand and foot during their lifetime, but people saw also the need to have models of granaries, houses, gardens, of farmers ploughing, of carpenters building furniture, weavers weaving cloth, of model tools and weapons, boats, furniture, animals and even of model offerings.
The models served various purposes. During the Middle Kingdom, when they were more fashionable than at any other time, clay house models, the so-called soul houses, were left on top of pit graves and had the function of offering tables, ensuring the continued existence in the afterlife.
Wooden models of farmers and artisans plying their trade placed in rock-cut tombs on the other hand were destined to increase the material well-being of the tomb owner, and clay granaries to ensure their food supply. The importance the Nile had as a waterway and the place navigation had in mythology is reflected in the great number of boat models; in the tomb of Meketre for instance they made up half of all the models. As funerary boats their role was to further the deceased person's progress through the underworld.
Sources: http://images.rom.on.ca/public/index.php?function=image&action=detail&sid=&ccid=&mid=12295
http://www.reshafim.org.il/ad/egypt/funerary_practices/funerary_objects.htm
Sunday, March 30, 2014
William H. Peck, The Material World of Ancient Egypt - A Bryn Mawr Classical Review
Bryn Mawr Classical Review 2014.03.39
William H. Peck, The Material World of Ancient Egypt. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013. Pp. xiii, 214. ISBN 9780521713795.
Reviewed by Eleni Manolaraki, University of South Florida
From Greek and Roman antiquity to modern popular culture, Egypt has fascinated with its monumental architecture, exotic customs, and mysterious royals (pyramids, mummies, King Tut, to name a few). The enduring appeal of major Aegyptiaca however has traditionally diverted attention away from the Egyptians’ ordinary objects and daily life. This imbalance has been partly remedied by a few important studies,1 but as ongoing excavations and new technologies reveal previously unknown or misunderstood aspects of daily life, revisions and updates are essential. William H. Peck, a retired curator of ancient art at the Detroit Institute of Arts, takes on the task of demystifying Egyptians by examining the materials they used to make daily tasks feasible and comfortable. His panorama of cultural snapshots makes for a thorough and vivid introduction to Egypt’s material culture, especially suited to general readers and undergraduate students. Classicists, historians, anthropologists, and anyone interested in the physical tribulations of ancient or non-industrialized societies will also find this book valuable for its insights into human resourcefulness.
The first three chapters (9-34) are a broad but discerning introduction to the land, its history, and the emergence of material culture as a research field. Egypt’s geography, geology, and climate are emphasized as the prime influences on the form and function of artifacts, from houses and temples to wigs and underwear. A chronological outline delineates royal periods from 5300 BCE to 395 CE, and clarifies terms (‘pre-dynastic,’ ‘old-kingdom,’ ‘first-intermediate,’ etc.) that are used later to date developments in manufacture. Peck draws out significant continuities between periods, but also points out transformations within this vast timeline and cautions against erroneous extrapolations from one period to the next. The last introductory chapter sets developments in the documenting and evaluating of materials within the history of exploration in Egypt, from the Ottoman occupation of the country in the sixteenth century onwards. Peck weaves together historical, political, and methodological landmarks. Highlights include Napoleon’s 1798 invasion of Egypt and the monumental Description of Egypt produced by his expeditionary group, early archaeologists’ destructive probing methods and their discarding of ‘commonplace’ objects, the acquisition of Egyptiana by European museums through unrestricted export policies, the influence of the physical sciences on Egyptology, shifts in museum curatorship from royal to ordinary artifacts, and the contribution of new technologies such as GPS distance sensing and the electron microscope. As research has become more efficient and cultural attitudes have evolved, the Egyptians’ daily practices are understood better than ever before.
William H. Peck, The Material World of Ancient Egypt. Cambridge; New York: Cambridge University Press, 2013. Pp. xiii, 214. ISBN 9780521713795.
Reviewed by Eleni Manolaraki, University of South Florida
From Greek and Roman antiquity to modern popular culture, Egypt has fascinated with its monumental architecture, exotic customs, and mysterious royals (pyramids, mummies, King Tut, to name a few). The enduring appeal of major Aegyptiaca however has traditionally diverted attention away from the Egyptians’ ordinary objects and daily life. This imbalance has been partly remedied by a few important studies,1 but as ongoing excavations and new technologies reveal previously unknown or misunderstood aspects of daily life, revisions and updates are essential. William H. Peck, a retired curator of ancient art at the Detroit Institute of Arts, takes on the task of demystifying Egyptians by examining the materials they used to make daily tasks feasible and comfortable. His panorama of cultural snapshots makes for a thorough and vivid introduction to Egypt’s material culture, especially suited to general readers and undergraduate students. Classicists, historians, anthropologists, and anyone interested in the physical tribulations of ancient or non-industrialized societies will also find this book valuable for its insights into human resourcefulness.
The first three chapters (9-34) are a broad but discerning introduction to the land, its history, and the emergence of material culture as a research field. Egypt’s geography, geology, and climate are emphasized as the prime influences on the form and function of artifacts, from houses and temples to wigs and underwear. A chronological outline delineates royal periods from 5300 BCE to 395 CE, and clarifies terms (‘pre-dynastic,’ ‘old-kingdom,’ ‘first-intermediate,’ etc.) that are used later to date developments in manufacture. Peck draws out significant continuities between periods, but also points out transformations within this vast timeline and cautions against erroneous extrapolations from one period to the next. The last introductory chapter sets developments in the documenting and evaluating of materials within the history of exploration in Egypt, from the Ottoman occupation of the country in the sixteenth century onwards. Peck weaves together historical, political, and methodological landmarks. Highlights include Napoleon’s 1798 invasion of Egypt and the monumental Description of Egypt produced by his expeditionary group, early archaeologists’ destructive probing methods and their discarding of ‘commonplace’ objects, the acquisition of Egyptiana by European museums through unrestricted export policies, the influence of the physical sciences on Egyptology, shifts in museum curatorship from royal to ordinary artifacts, and the contribution of new technologies such as GPS distance sensing and the electron microscope. As research has become more efficient and cultural attitudes have evolved, the Egyptians’ daily practices are understood better than ever before.
Sunday, March 2, 2014
Tales from the Nile
For centuries superstitions have been Egyptians’ daily companions, writes Mai Samih
There are three types of superstitions in Egypt. The first are the superstitions we have inherited from our ancestors, the ancient Egyptians. The second are the ones that have come from foreign conquests, even as far back as the Roman conquest in the first century BCE, and the third are modern superstitions that are the synthesis of ancient and more modern stories.
Among ancient Egyptian superstitions there are many that deal with children. For example, one says that a baby should not be bathed for the first two weeks after birth to protect him from the evil eye. Some people still hold this belief and dress their babies in worn-out clothes. Others go to extremes by putting earth on the cheeks of a newborn child to protect him from the evil eye or by drawing a small blue human hand on its head to prevent it from having cross eyes. This is still practised in some rural areas.
If a child is a girl, some superstitions hold that this means the parents will come into money. During the seboa, the celebration that takes place seven days after a child's birth as seven was a lucky number for the ancient Egyptians, a baby is shaken in a sieve to cleanse it from evil spirits. This is an originally ancient Egyptian tradition that has been practised by many Egyptians no matter what their religious background.
Saturday, March 1, 2014
How Egyptians used gel and curling tongs to look their best 3,500 years ago
By Sarah Graham
Ancient Egyptians used hair gel to style their locks in everyday life, researchers have found.
A study of male and female mummies has found fashion-conscious Egyptians made use of a fat-based product to keep their hair in place.
They used the styling gel on both long and short hair, tried to curl their hair with tongs and even plaited it in hair extensions to lengthen their tresses. It is thought they used these methods in both life and death, with corpses being styled to make sure they looked good in the afterlife.
The incredible discovery was made by archaeological scientists who studied hair samples of 18 male and female mummies, aged from four to 58 years old.
The team, from the KNH Centre of Biomedical Egyptology at the University of Manchester, was led by Dr Natalie McCreesh who studied the mummies as part of her PhD.
Using light and electron microscopes, they found that nine of the mummies had coated their hair in the fatty substance, which is thought to be a beauty product.
Some of the mummies, which were artificially preserved, show the gel was used to prepare the body for the afterlife. But others, which were preserved naturally in dry sand, prove the product must also have been used in everyday life by the vain Egyptians. Bizarrely, even in the artificially-preserved bodies the hair did not contain resins or embalming materials, suggesting the hair was styled separately to the mummification process.
Ancient Egyptians used hair gel to style their locks in everyday life, researchers have found.
A study of male and female mummies has found fashion-conscious Egyptians made use of a fat-based product to keep their hair in place.
They used the styling gel on both long and short hair, tried to curl their hair with tongs and even plaited it in hair extensions to lengthen their tresses. It is thought they used these methods in both life and death, with corpses being styled to make sure they looked good in the afterlife.
The incredible discovery was made by archaeological scientists who studied hair samples of 18 male and female mummies, aged from four to 58 years old.
The team, from the KNH Centre of Biomedical Egyptology at the University of Manchester, was led by Dr Natalie McCreesh who studied the mummies as part of her PhD.
Using light and electron microscopes, they found that nine of the mummies had coated their hair in the fatty substance, which is thought to be a beauty product.
Some of the mummies, which were artificially preserved, show the gel was used to prepare the body for the afterlife. But others, which were preserved naturally in dry sand, prove the product must also have been used in everyday life by the vain Egyptians. Bizarrely, even in the artificially-preserved bodies the hair did not contain resins or embalming materials, suggesting the hair was styled separately to the mummification process.
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