Volume 6 Number 3, Winter 1995

THf,OSTRASONJ

EGYPTIANSTUDYSOCIETY

Ji l l Taylor

ESS STAFF LIAISONDr. Robert Pickering

THE OSTRACOIV is publ ished three t imes per year by members

of the Egyptian Study Society. The ESS, a support group of

the DENVER MUSEUM OF NATURAL HISTORY, is a non-profi t

organization whose purpose is to study ancient Egypt.

Art icles are contr ibuted by members on a voluntary basis'

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@1995 Egypt ian StudY Society

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IN THIS ISSUE

PAGE ARTICLE1 The Oldest Paved Road

by Thomas Bown & James Harrel l

5 The lmpact of GeograPhYby Tim Pepper

11 Tau, An Egyptian Board Gameby Graeme Davis

14 Lecture Notes:Egypt & Mesopotamialn Search of a RoYal TombEgyptian Sacred ArtBrewers, Bakers, and BuildersThe Flood Protection PlanDeir el Bahri and Temple of Mentuhotep

22 House of Scrol ls by Stuart weir

Judy GreenfieldSandy KernsDavid Pepper

Frank PetteeMary PratchettCheryl Preyer

THE OLDEST PAVED ROADFAIYUM DEPRESSION, EGYPT

ByThomas M. Bown and James A. Harrell

Ahout the Authors: Thomas Bown grew up inlowa and graduated from lowa State Universitywhere he studied earth science and ancienthistory. Bown received his Ph.D. in geology atthe University of Wyoming in 1977. He servedas expedition geologist for the Duke University/

Thirteen segments of an ancient stone-pavedroad are preserved in the desert of the northernFaiyum Depression of Egypt. Al though part ofthe road was known as ear ly as 1905, i t hasbeen largely ignored since then and itssigni f icance has gone unrecognized. This art ic lefocuses on the distr ibut ion, preservat ion,construct ion, use, and ant iqui ty of the road.More detai led treatment of these topics, as wellas the basal t quarr ies, quarrymen's camp, quay,and other associated sites, is presentedelsewhere (Harrel l and Bown).

Earl ier Invest igat ions:In 1905, pioneer

Faiyum geologist , H.J. L. Beadnel l , record-ed the approximateposit ion of a 4.2 ki lo-meter- long "ancientquarry road " on amap accompanylnghis reoort on thegeology of the FaiyumProvince of Egypt(Fig. 1, segments 3-5). His text made noment ion of the road,but i t is c lear f rom thedesignat ion on hismap that Beadnel lpresumed that i t ledto then undiscoveredquarr ies in basal tcapping Gebel elOatrani , the highescarpment border ing

Cairo Geological Mu-seum PaleontologicalExpeditions to theFaiyum Depressionfor l4 years, andhas research pro-jects in Utah,Wyoming, Egypt,Ethiopia, Argentina,and Uruguay. He isnow employed atthe U.S. GeologicalSurvey in Denverwhere he /s aspecialist in mammalevolution, paleosols,

and trace fossils ofsocial insects.

James Harrell /soriginally fromsouthern Californiawhere he earned hisB.A. in earth sci-ences from Cal-ifornia State University in Fullerton. He went onto receive his M.S. in geology at the Universityof Oklahoma and, in | 983, his Ph.D. in geologyat the University of Cincinnati. Since then hehas been a geology professor at the Universityof Toledo specializing in sedimentary petrology,archeological geology, geologic hazards, andgeostatistics. For the last six Years he has beendoing field research in Egypt on the sources andvarieties of stone used in ancient Egyptiansculptures and monuments.

Figure 1. Locat ion of the paved ancient quarry road in the Faiyum

Province of Egypt. The dest inat ion of the road was the quay, south

of the Qasr el Sagha escarpment, which formerly lay on the north

shore of ancient Lake Moeris.

lEd. Note: 1 km = 0.6 mi.1 cm : 0.4 in.

Page 1

1m = 3.3f t .1 kg = 2.2lbs. l

the northern part of the Faiyum Depression. Inclassic studies of the prehistory and geology ofthe northern Faiyum, Caton-Thompson andGardner added another 0.6 km to the knownlength of the road {Fig. 1, segment 2), a l thoughthe bear ing and locat ion of th is road segment ontheir map departs s igni f icant ly f rom i ts t ruecourse. They suggested that the object ive ofthe ancient basal t workers was not quarry ing,but rather col lect ing loose blocks of basal t foundon the scree slopes of Gebel el Oatrani .Al though Caton-Thompson and Gardner br ief lydescr ibed the road, nei ther they nor Beadnel lwere aware of i ts t rue age, and as late as 1991the road was thought to be a Middle Kingdom

Winter 1995

construct ion because of i ts c lose geographicassociat ion wi th the 12'h Dynasty Oasr el Saghatemple (Kemp, Arnold).

New Discover ies: Dur ing reconnaissance geo-logic f ie ldwork on Gebel el Oatrani in 1987 byBown, two new paved road segments and thesmal ler basal t quarry (wi th about 1 ,2OO cubicmeters of rock removed) were discovered (Fig.

2l , . Seven addi t ional paved road segments, oneunpaved segment, the larger (east) basal t quarry(wi th more than 4O,OO0 cubic meters of rockremoved), and the remains of the quarrymen'scamp were located by Harrel l and Bown in1993. The new addi t ions to the quarry road{the f i rst s ince the study of Caton-Thompsonand Gardner)col lect ively totalmore than 1.4km of pavedreaches and atleast O.2B kmof unpavedroao.

Distr ibut ion andPreservat ion:The ancientroad trendsnorthwest, be-tween 32O" and350". l t has acumulat ive len-gth of about11 .7 km andspans the short-est d istancebetween the basalt outcrop on Gebel el Oatraniand the northern shore of ancient Lake Moeris.This length includes 13 segments (Fig. 1segments 2-5; Fig. 2; segments 1a-1i) in which4.47 km of pavement is preserved; one O.28 kmsegment (Fig. 2; 1 j ) that was never paved; andseveral intervening stretches of about 6.77 kmwhere the road has been obl i terated by erosion(Figs. 1&2). Of the paved segments (Fig. 3) ,seven (0.87 km) were surfaced with f ragmentsof basal t , and six (3.6 km) were paved withsandstone or coquinoid [consist ing of cementedcoarse shel l designsl l imestone f lags (Figs. 1-3).The unpaved segment (Fig. 2) is a s imple path,2.O-2.2 m wide, f rom which al l pebbles andWinter 7 995

larger rock fragments have been swept to theside.

From the basal t quarr ies to the quay on LakeMoeris over nine km away, the road descends140 m in elevat ion but local ly r ises in elevat ionas i t passes across the northwest-dipping (at upto 4 ' ) cuesta s lopes of the el Ekhwat el Talataand Oasr el Sagha escarpments.

Construct ion: The volume of paving mater ialused in bui ld ing the road is about 8,000-8,500cubic meters. Combined with the total amountof basal t removed f rom both quarr ies (about41,2OO cubic meters), the road construct ion andthe operat ion of the quarr ies resul ted in the ac-

quis i t ion andtransportat ionof approxim-tely 50,000cubic meters(about 1 .5 x108 ki logams)of rock.

The type ofmater ia l usedin road con-structron wasdetermined bythe closestoutcrop ofsui table rock.In areas closeto Gebel elOatrani , th iswas basal t

taken from scree slopes or desert outwash f lats.Farther away f rom the escarpment, s labs ofcalc i te-cemented sandstone and coouinoidl imestone were pul led up and carr ied to the roadsi te (somet imes from distances of more than aki lometer) . Logs of s i l ic i f ied wood are commonlocal ly where the road passes over upper Eocenerocks on the cuesta below the el Ekhwat elTalata Escarpment (Bown and Kraus), and thismater ia l was used for about 70 m of roadsegment 3 (Fig. 3b). The basal t p ieces areirregular f ragments wi th maximum dimensions ofabout 25-50 cm. Sandstone slabs about 5-20cm thick and O.3-1.0 m in diameter were orefer-red in bui ld ing the f lagstone port ion of the road.

Page 2

Figure 2. Detai l of the Gebel el oatrani escarpment showing the branches of roadsegment ' l , the west and east basal t quarr ies, and the quarrymen's camp discoveredby the authors between 1987-1993.

The best preserved parts of the road surface

have a remarkably uni form width of 2 '0-2 '2 m

QJ m : 4 ancient Egypt ian cubi ts) . Rockpieces were laid t ight lYtogether in one laYer on

the natural sandY surfaceof the desert without

benef i t of a roadbed.Larger s labs of rock weregeneral ly ut i l ized to

border the margins of the

road, and these wereplaced with a straightedge to the outside to

maintain paral le l road

margins (Fig.3a). Al-

though i t appears thatsome effort was made to

seek out and jo in rockswith more-or- less nat-

ural ly f i t t ing margins,there is no evidence thatany stones were shaPedprior to being set inplace. Evidence is alsolacking as to whethergaps between the slabswere f i l led wi th mud orother mortar. Nei ther is

l ikely to have survivedseveral mi l lennia of

def lat ion.

Use: The ancient roadwas clear ly bui l t to faci l -i tate the t ransport ofbasal t f rom the quarr ies

to a basal t -surfaced quay

on Lake Moeris wherethe blocks were loadedonto barges. Most of

th is lake has since dr ied

up. The modern rem-nant, now by - BirketOarun, l ies 65 m belowand 8 km south of thequay. The largest sur-

viv ing t ransported block (more than 1 cubic

meter and weighing more than 3,000 Lg) l ies on

the quay. The paving stones show no signs ofgrooving or breakage such as would be expec-ted i f s ledges had been used. This suggests the

Page 3

sledges were Pul led overwere laid across the road

the sledge. A simi lar tech-nique was emploYed forconstruct ion ramPs assoc-iated with some MiddleKingdom pyramids (Kemp).With the use of Planks, thef lag-stone pavement wouldshow nei ther wear norbreakage by the weight ofthe laden sledge.

Age: Mud-brick streetswere in use in Sumerianand Indus ci t ies at least asear ly as 2500 BCE(Forbes); however, credi tfor construct ing the oldestf lagstone roads has tradi-t ional ly been given to theMinoans (Forbes, Pendle-bury, L"y). These peoplebui l t extensive net-worksof extra-urban "high-ways"connect ing several cretantowns and ports; and asophist icated paved roadof dressed stones survtvesnear their capi ta l ofKnossos. At the ear l iest ,the Minoan road is con-temporaneous with theEgypt ian 1 1 'n Dynasty(about 2O4O-1640 BCE).I t appears to be of aboutthe same ant iqui ty as theMycenaean polygonal s labroads on Skyros (about21OO to 1600 BCE; seeForbes, Merdinger, Cas-son). Pottery f rag-ments inthe basal t quarr ies and onthe quay date the Faiyumquarry road to the OldKingdom (Jones) andpart icular ly to the Fi f th and

Sixth Dynasties (2465-2134 BCE; Baines andMalek). The Faiyum road is, therefore, the

oldest known surviving f lagstone-paved road in

the world and predates those on Crete andSkyros by possibly as much as 5OO years '

Winter 1995

possibi l i ty that thewooden planks that

and advanced with

Figure 3a. Section of well-preserved flagstone roadalong the southern part of road segment 19, just southof the quarrymen's camp (Fig. 2l ' Note theremarkably uniform width of rcad l2'1 m at surveyingcompassl and the straight margins'

Figure 3b. Logs of s i l ic i f ied wood making up about 70 mof ancient quarry road near the middle of roadsegment 3 (Fig. 1) . The road var ies between 2.Q-2.2m in width. View to southeast.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Arnold, D. BlllLDlNG lN EGYPT. Oxford Univ Press,London,1991.

Baines, J. and J. Malek. ATLAS OF ANCIENTEGYPT. Facts-on-Fi le, New York, 198O.

Beadnell, H.J.L. THE TOPOGRAPHY AND GEOLOGYOF THE FAYUM PROVINCE OF EGYPT. Cairo:Survey Department, 19O5.

Bown, T.M. and M.J. Kraus. GEOLOGY ANDPALEOENVIRONMENT OF THE OLIGOCENE JEBELAATRANI FORMATION AND ADJACENT ROCKS.FAYUM DEPRESSION, EGYPT. U.S. GeologicalSurvey Prof . Paper, No. 1 452, 1 988.

Casson, L. TRAVEL IN THE ANCIENT WORLD.: Allen& Unwin, London, 1974.

Caton-Thompson, G. and E. Gardiner.EXPLORATIONS IN THE NORTHERN FAYUM.Ant iqui ty, September, 1927.

Caton-Thompson, G. and E. Gardiner. THE DESERTFAYUM. Royal Anthropological Inst i tute, London,1 934.

Forbes. R.J. NOTES ON THE HISTORY OF ANCIENTROADS AND THEIR CONSTRUCTION. N.V. Noord-Hol landsche Uitgevers-Mi j , Amsterdam, 1934.

Forbes. R.J. BITUMEN AND PETROLEUM INANTIAWTY. E.J. Br i l l , Leiden, 1936.

Harrel l , J.A. and T.M. Bown. An Old Kingdom BasaltAuarry At Widan el Faras and the Auarry Road ToLake Moeris ln the Faiyum, Egypt. JOURNALAMERICAN RESEARCH CENTER lN EGYPT, Vol. 32,in press 1995.

Jones, M. POTTERY ANALYSIS, in Harrel l andBown's An Old Kingdom Basalt Quarry At Widan elFaras and the Auarry Road To Lake Moeris In theFaiyum, Egypt. JOURNAL AMERICAN RESEARCHCENTER lN EGYPT, Vol. 32, in press 1995.

Kemp, B.J. ANCIENT EGYPT-ANATOMY OF ACIVILIZATIOIV. Routledge, New York, 1989.

Lay, M.G, WAYS OF THE WORLD-A HISTORY OFTHE WORLD'S ROADS AND OF THE VEHICLESTHAT USED THEM. Rutgers Univ. Press, NewBrunswick, N.J. , 1992.

Merdinger, C.J. ROADS THROUGH THE AGES'Mil i tary Engineer, Yol. 44, 1952.

Pendlebury, J. A HANDBOOK TO THE PALACE OFMINOS. Macmil lan, New York, 1933.

W;nter 1995 Page 4

THE IMPACT OF GEOGRAPHYON ANCIENT EGYPTIAN HISTORY

By Tim Pepper

About the Author: PePPer, a senior atFairview High School in Boulder, visited Egypt inl99l with the Pyramid Study Group. Thisarticle was originally written for National HistorYDay, 1994, where it placed second in the Stateof Colorado, and earned him a trip toWashington DC for the national competition. ltreceived a special recognition award from theArab World And lslamic Resources Leaguealso wrote another article for The Ostracon,about Nile River Pollution (May, 1992).

Al though the Greek histor ian Herodotus saidEgypt was "the gift of the r iver," other factors,such as the surrounding deserts and the Ni leDelta, s igni f icant ly inf luenced ancient Egypt ianhistory and su-bstant ia l ly con-tr ibuted to thatc iv i l izat ion'sear ly develop-ment. l t wi l l beshown thatEgypt ian com-merce, cul ture,rel ig ion, archi-tecture, andeven nat ionaluni ty were al lheavi ly inf lu-enced by i tsgeography.

To gauge theimpact of geo- 'graphy on theciv i l izat ion ofancient Egypt,

Period, the land t i l ted s l ight ly, a l lowing theancient bay to drain. Unl ike today, waterdrainage off the African highlands at that t imewas nei ther seasonal nor the only source ofmoisture to the land, for Egypt st i l l receivedfrequent rainfal l (Butzer 1964, p.3O2).

Gradual ly, dur ing the Miocene Epoch (24 mi l l ionto 5 mi l l ion years ago), vert ical erosion on theEgyptian plain, in addit ion to a further r ise in thelevel of the land, formed an enormous gorge,between six and nine mi les wide, whichconf ined the Ni le to approximately i ts presentcourse (Murnane, p. 16). Dur ing the Pleistocene(2.5 mi l l ion to 16,OOO years ago), masses ofloose debris were deposited by the river,forming terraces on top of the harder deposi tson the sides of the gorge (Butzer 1964, p.180).

Thirty-thousand years ago thethe Egypt ian Ni le, the White

main t r ibutary ofNi le, had not yet

jo ined with theEGYPTIAN TIME FRAME

i t is necessary to understand how the land'stopography evolved. Egypt is commonlypictured as a dry and sandy desert wi th ther ibbon of the Ni le running though i t , but th iswas not always so. As recent ly as 5O mi l l ionyears ago, al l of Egypt up to modern-day Luxorwas submerged under the waters of theMediterranean Sea (Murnane, p.15). However,about 40 mi l l ion years ago, dur ing the Eocene

Page 5

Blue Ni le or theRiver Atbara.Whi le theWhite Ni le,which or ig i -nates f romCentral Af r ica,contr ibutes themost constantand steadyf low, the BlueNi le and RiverAtbara carryseasonal runoffwater from therains on theEthiopian pla-teau. Between25 and 30thousand yearsago, the chan-

nels connect ing the main Ni le to the Ethiopianr ivers were formed. As a resul t , the Egypt ianNi le f looded annual ly, leaving a new deposi t offer t i le topsoi l which became the foundat ion forEgypt 's later agr icul tural success. The addi t ionof the annual Ethiopian orographic [ f rommountainsl runoff , coupled with a coincidingdrop in rainfal l , made the Ni le the pr ime sourceof water for Neol i th ic Egypt (Murnane, p.18).

YEARSBEFORE

PRESENTGEOLOGICAT

EPOCHCULTURAL

ERADYNASTYNUMEER

DATE(circal

HISTORICALPERIOD

58 mi l l ion Eocene

37 mi l l ion Ol iqocene24 mi l l ion Miocene

5 mi l l ion Pl iocene

2 mi l l ion Pleistocene

700,ooo Paleol i th ic

10,ooo Holocene Neol i th ic

6,OO0 Predvr

Dvnast ic 31 50 BCE Archaic

i l l 2686 BCE Old Kinqdomvt l 2181 BCE 1st Intermediate Pd.

xl l 2040 BCE Middle Kinqdom

xill 1782 BCE 2nd lntermediate Pd.

XVII I 1 570 BCE New Kinqdom

XXI 1069 BCE 3rd Intermediate Pd.

XXVII 525 BCE Late Period

Greek 332 BCERoman 30 BCE

Byzantine AD 323ls lamic AD 642

Sources: Murnane, Hoffman, WORLD BOOK

Winter 1995

By the beginning of the Old Kingdom (c '2686

BCE), ancient Egypt was in fundamental ly the

same geological state as today's modern Egypt.

Since that t ime, the course of the Ni le has

gradual ly migrated eastward, leaving al luvial de-

posits on the western side of the Ni le val ley

(Figure 1a, a cross-sect ional v iew of the Ni le

Val ley).

Ancient Egypt ianscal led thgir countrY

Tawy - , the"Two Lands".Whi le th is usual lyref erred to the di f -

f erent geographic

locat ions of up-stream (Upper)

Egypt and down-stream (Lower)

Egypt, i t might alsodenote the twocontrast ing lands of

RA

Kemet c- INg,

" the black land",made fert i le by thesi l t f rom thef looding Ni le, and

15tnA

Deshret E ':f" g"the red land " ,named for the colorof the surroundingdeserts (James,p.17t ' . Both theNi le Val ley and i tsencirc l ing desertsinf luenced andbenef i ted theancient Egypt ians.

The Ni le alsoprovided an essen-t ia l means of com-municat ion and transportat ion, for no place inthe val ley was more than a few mi les away fromthe r iver and, unt i l the New Kingdom, when thehorse and wheel were introduced to Egypt, landtravel was by foot or donkey. Dur ing the annualinundat ion, when most of the cul t ivated landand roads were f looded, the Ni le was even moreimportant as a means of t ravel (James, p ' 21).

Itl,linter 1995

Due to the prevail ing winds and the f low of the

Nile, a boat could be carried by the current oneway down the Ni le, or i t could raise a sai l and be

blown by the wind the other way upstream.The speed of travel along the river northwardsand southwards helped to keep Egypt unitedunder one government for a lmost al l of i ts

dynastic history - astart l ing result of thegeographic f eatureof wind patterns.

The regularity of theinundat ion, coupledwith sunny, c loud-less skies that arecommon throughoutthe Egypt ian year,al lowed Egypt ianagr icul ture to be re-markably product ive,especial ly comparedto other ancientciv i l izat ions (James,p.251. The highproductivity of theland can be shownby the fact thatdur ing the RomanPeriod, most ofRome's grain camefrom Egypt, andRome came to relyheavi ly on Egypt forf ood (Time Li fe,p.76). However,even though the Ni legeneral ly f loodedwith rel iabi l i ty , therewere t imes whenthe inundat ion wassigni f icant ly lowerthan usual (Figure

2l ' . During low-flood years l i fe became harsh forthe populat ion and famine occurred. At theset imes, the k ing would have to increase taxes topurchase adequate food suppl ies for the nobi l i ty .Such a s i tuat ion may have even led to thedownfal l of the Old Kingdom, creat ing the Firstlntermediate Per iod @. 2181-2O4O BCE), whendrought s igni f icant ly af fected the ent i re MiddleEast (Bel l , pp.1-261. A story wr i t ten about the

Page 6

fdcof irrd Ni le Yol lcA Crcu Stct ion N?ot Tdhto

a. Cross Sect ion, Middle Egypt.

b. Longi tudinal Sect ion, Ni le Del ta

Figure 1. River deposits over time in the Nile Valley(Butzer 1976, PP.15 &22l '

First lntermediate Period, cal led TheAdmonitions of lpuwer states,

"...Lo, the river is blood,As one drinks of it, one shrinks from people

And thirsts for water.. .

The land is iniured...Lo, the desert claims the land..."

(L ichtheim, Vol . 1, p.149).

During the Middle Kingdom (c. 2O4O-1782BCE), the priest Heqanakht wrote a series ofletters home that described diff icult t imes:

"-..Now, the inundation is not very high, is it? Look,our rations are fixed for us in measure with theinundation. Endure this, each one of You! Look, I'vemanaged to keep you alive up to todaY...A message:'Being half alive is better than death altogether. Look,one should say "hunger" onlY about real hunger. Look,they are starting to eat people here. Look, theY haven'tbeen given such rations in any place here..."'

(Parkinson. pp.1 01 -1 O7).

The Ni le inundat ion not only inf luenced food

product ion, but i t a lso deposi ted mud, the main

ingredient in adobe br icks. These required lessski l l to make and were much easier to t ransportand handle in bulk than was stone. The word"adobe" i tsel f comes from the ancient Egypt ian

word Djebet, SJ3, signifying 'brick. ' Thisword passed into Arabic and was transferredinto Spanish dur ing the Moorish occupat ion ofSpain (James,1994). The rawmater ia ls formud-br icks layprofusely at hand,for Ni le mud wasalmost unl imitedand was replacedeach year dur ingthe annual f lood.Adobe bui ld ingsprovided ample protection in Egypt, since stormswere rare, and the houses of the people - frompeasants to k ings were bui l t out of br ick.These houses could be easi ly enlarged, div ided,or modif ied to sui t the owner 's needs (James,p.206).

f n ancient t imes, the plant Cyperus papYrusgrew in abundance in the marshes and pools of

Page 7

Egypt (James, p.921. The ancient Egypt ians hadmany uses for this plant and wasted l i t t le. l ts

stems were used as a pr imit ive bui ld ing mater ia l ,or when separated into r ind and pith, they weresometimes turned into a f iber used for boxes,mats, ropes, cord, and the writ ing materialpapyrus. Furthermore, the f lowers of the plantwere used for decorative purposes, making itone of the most useful plants to any civi l izationin history (James, pp. 31-321. Rel ig iousarchitecture was also inf luenced by the marsheswhere papyrus grew. The reeds and plantswhich grew around the banks of the r iverinspired temple archi tecture, which of ten hadcolumns carved to resemble reed stalks (Montet,pp.3OO-302).

The desert around the Ni le Val ley provided otheradvantages to ancient Egypt ian c iv i l izat ion inaddi t ion to the r ich "gi f ts" of the r iver. Near thevalley, from Lower Egypt to south of Luxor, arel imestone deposits which provided a strong,last ing, and readi ly avai lable bui ld ing mater ia lthat made monumental Egypt ian archi tecturepossible (Murnane, p.1 5). Without the largel imestone deposi ts, such structures as the manypyramids of Egypt would never have been bui l t ,s ince other bui ld ing mater ia ls would have beenei ther too f ragi le or too expensive. Sandstonedeposi ts, found pr imari ly between Luxor and

Aswan, replacedl imestone in theNew Kingdom (c.1570 - 1070BCE). Becausethis stone waseasier to quarry,the great templesof the laterperiods were buil tf rom i t (James,1994).

The Western Desert had l i t t le to offer theancient Egyptians except for the large oases ofel Kharga, el Dakhla, and el Bahr iya (Figure 3).These oases, which were sporadical ly cul t ivated,were used for places of banishment of pr isonersand as waypoints for the t racks which l inked theNi le Val ley to coastal L ibya and The Sudan'

alibrated CtaDates lor lncreosed [s&e Volunes andfor Stean Dischoryein the iaharc snd Eost Altiio rincc 5000 8.C.

Figure 2. Recorded flood heights (meters) 20'n century levels.(Butzer 1976, p.31)

l8S0l-UIt f t t0Utf lCY (p.. 250 yrr.)

Winter 1995

The Eastern Desert, however, was heavily used

in antiquity. With i ts wealth of hard volcanic

rocks, i t provided many semi-precious stones

used for jewelrY, of w@were agate, amethYst, | , . i i ,carnel ian, chalcedonY,feldspar, garnet, jas-per, onyx, rock crYstal,and turquoise. TheEastern Desert alsoprovided large depositsof gold, grani te, andcopper (James, P.32;also see Figure 3 forlocat ions of resources).

The geographical bar-r iers of Egypt al lowedtrade to take place butmade invasion di f f icul t .The northern coast l inehad very few goodharbors, s ince marsh-land surrounded al l ofthe mouths of the Ni leat the Del ta. To theeast and west wereextensive deserts, andto the south thecataracts of the Ni leprevented easy pas-sage to and from innerAfr ica (Breasted, pP.6-71. Whi le thesebarr iers didn' t constr ictt rade - for the ancientEgyptians often tradedf or such commodit iesas incense f rom Punt(perhaps Ethiopia),lapis lazul i f romAf ghanistan, ivoryf rom central Af r ica,wood f rom Lebanon,and pottery f romCyprus theyprevented large armiesf rom enter ing thecountry (Erman, PP.

&E^::!:"

wf'

Late Period. The Tale of the ShipwreckedSailor, writ ten during the Middle Kingdom, gives

evidence that the Egyptians actively traded withles; the story is about a merchant

iiiJu"li gffiPmamat

sai lor who is shiP-wrecked on a far-offis land dur ing a t radingmission (Lichtheim,pp.21 1-2151 .

Not content to merelycope with their geo-graphical l imi ts, theancient Egypt iansundertook massiveprojects to improve theland around them.During the 12'hDynasty of the MiddleKingdom (c. 1 991 -1782 BCE), powerfulpharaohs, such asSenusert l l l f 878'1841 BCE), d ivertedvast amounts of theannual Ni le f loodwaters into LakeMoeris in the FaiyumDepression. Theyused this lake as astorage pond for i r r iga-t ion water long afterthe inundat ion hadreceded, s igni f icant lyincreasing their arablecrop land and f oodproduct ion (Breasted,pp.192-193). Otherexamples of ancientEgypt ian publ ic workprojects include drain-age and irr igation ofthe Delta and canalsbui l t to c i rcumvent therapids at the FirstCataract of the Ni le.

Ancient Egypt ian re-l ig ious bel ief s were

Figure 3.

494-51 9). Simi lar ly, Egypt ian goods were

traded throughout the Mediterranean, especial lyby Greek and Phoenic ian merchants dur ing the

Winter | 995

A map of the natural resources of ancient Egypt(Harr is, P.131

Meditenanean Sea

M€SrONt

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centered around fami l iar geography and weregreat ly af fected by i t . The annual f looding of

the Ni le and i ts deposi t of the r ich soi l gave thePage 8

Egyptians their characterist ic idea of rebirth, forevery year the land would replenish i tsel fthrough the f lood. Another not ion of rebir th forthe Egypt ians came from the sun and the stars,for both disappeared and reappeared at regularintervals. They compared the durat ion of daywith the durat ion of l i fe, and at the end of eachl i fe (day), the person's

spir i t would jo in the sunwhose barque sai led intothe Amduat, or Nether-wor ld; thus, s ince the sunset in the west, the ancientEgypt ians came to equatethe west with the realm ofthe dead.

Next to their pyramids, thekings of the Old Kingdomburied f u l l -s ized sai l ingships (Figure 4), to al lowthem to journey up to jo in

the sun god, Ra, and toaccompany him towardsthe west as the sun setinto the Underworld. The

realm of the dead even had

a simi lar layout to the landof Egypt: a main r iverval ley, cataracts and otherhazards in the r iver, agr i -cul tural f ie lds, and cyclesof day and night. TheEgypt ian concept of paradise, the Field ofReeds, was merely an extension of dai ly l i fe,wi th each worker performing the tasks of theirformer profession, though their eternal workwas never supposed to be harsh, and theirendeavors would always be successful . TheEgypt ians even stocked their tombs with toolsand everything they could possibly need in theafter l i fe (Spencer, pp. 1 39-1 64).

The Pre-Dynastic Egyptians probably locatedtheir graves in the desert because they had morepermanence than graves in the moist soi l of ther iver val ley. Since l i t t le or no provis ion wasmade to keep sand out, i t often entered thegraves and leached al l the moisture out of abody, saving the corPse from decaY'

Page 9

Many samples of these types of burials havebeen found with the hair and skin st i l l adher ingto the bones. Exposed by animals, erosion, orthe accidental cut t ing of a new grave into an oldone, these natural ly preserved bodies probablyinf luenced the ancient Egypt ian process of bodypreservat ion (Spencer, P. 30).

Later, however, natron

suppl ies f rom several oasesprovided another al ternat ive:mummif icat ion, an elaborateprocess which involvedremoving al l the per ishable

organs, desiccat ing thecorpse in a bed of natronsal ts, and wrapping i t inl inen. This great ly en-hanced the preservat ion ofthe body which was soessent ia l to the ancientEgypt ian rel ig ion. Theybel ieved the image, or the"genius" of a person, theka, could only survive i f i tcould rest in a recognizablebody of the deceased dur ingthe day (Erman, pp.306-

308).

In the Old Kingdom, desertgraves were replaced bymastabas ( f unerary bui ld-

ings) and pyramids, which protected the bodyf rom the surrounding sands. These tombsproved to be easy to rob and they, in turn, werereplaced by rock-cut tombs, which in the NewKingdom, were secretly made by the kings toprotect their bur ia ls. Each sepulcher was of tendiv ided into rooms and furnished l ike a house.These tombs could not have been made withoutthe ancient Egypt ians' great ski l l in surveying, ascience that grew out of the need to redrawboundaries af ter the annual inundat ion. Theneed to quickly and accurately reestabl ishboundar ies played a factor, later, in the successand the short bui ld ing t ime of the vast funerarycomplexes of the New Kingdom. Surveyingreached i ts peak in dynast ic t imes (Spencer,pp.74-85).

Winter 1995

ln conclusion, ancient Egypt 's nat ional uni ty,stabil i ty, commerce, architecture, and rel igionwere strongly inf luenced by i ts naturalgeography. Furthermore, the changes in cl imateand topography substantial ly contributed to thedevelopment of dynast ic c iv i l izat ion. TheEgyptians adapted to their environment, tookadvantage of i ts natural benefits, and carried outirr igation and other improvement projects toenhance their c iv i l izat ion. These character ist icsled Egypt to become a major world power asciv i l izat ion advanced. Mi l i tary geniuses, such asAlexander the Great, Jul ius Caesar, andNapoleon Bonaparte, were al l motivated toconquer Egypt so that they, too, could benef i tfrom her strategic location and advantageousgeography.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Baines, John and Jaromir Malek. ATLAS OFANCIENT EGYPT. Facts on Fi le Publ icat ions, 1984.

Bell, Barbara. The First Dark Age in Egypt,AMERICAN JOURNAL OF ARCHAEOLOGY, Vol. 75,1975, pp. 1-26.

Breasted. James H. A HISTORY OF EGYPT. CharlesScr ibner 's Sons: N.Y. , 1912.

Butzer, Karl W. EARLY HYDRAULIC CIVILIZATION lNANCIENT EGYPT: A STUDY IN CULTURALECOLOGY. Univ. of Chicago Press: Chicago, 1976.

Butzer, Karl W ENVIRONMENT ANDARCHAEOLOGY: AN INTRODUCTION TO PLEISTO-CENE GEOGRAPHY. Aldine Pub.: Chicago, 1964.

Dixon, Dougal, Ed. THE PLANET EARTH. WorldBook, Inc. : Chicago, 1989.

Erman, Adolf. LIFE IN ANCIENT EGYPT. Dover:N.Y., 1971.

Harris, Geraldine. ANCIENT EGYPT, CULTURALATLAS FOR YOUNG PEOPLE. Facts on File: N.Y.,1 990.

Hoff man. Michael A. EGYPT BEFORE THEPHARAOHS. Dorsett Press: N.Y., 1990.

James, T.G.H. AN INTRODUCTION TO ANCIENTEGYPT. Harper & Row: N.Y., 1979.

James, T.G.H. Personal interview of March 27 '1994'

Winter 1995

Lichtheim. Miriam. ANCIENT EGYPTIANLITERATURE. VOLUME 1. THE OLD AND MIDDLEKINGDOMS. Univ. of Cal i fornia Press, 1975.

Montet, Pierre. EVERYDAY LIFE IN EGYPT. Univ. ofPennsylvania Press: Phi ladelphia, 1958.

Murnane, W.J. THE PENGUIN GUIDE TO ANCIENTEGYPT. Penguin Books: N.Y., 1983.

Parkinson, R.B. VOICES FROM ANCIENT EGYPT.Bri t ish Museum Press. 1991.

Spencer, A.J. DEATH lN ANCIENT EGYPT. PenguinBooks: N.Y.. 1982.

Time-Life Ed. EMPIRES ASCENDANT, TIME FRAMESEA/ES 4OO BC--AD 2OO, Alexandria Virginia, 1987.

Wilson. John A. THE CULTURE OF ANCIENT EGYPT.Univ. of Chicago Press: Chicago, 1956.

Wooden cosmetic spoon with lid.The British Museum, 5966, 18th DYnastY.

Page 1O

TAUAN ANCIENT EGYPTIAN BOARD GAME

by Graeme Davis

About the Author: Graeme Davis was anOstracon editor until he left Denver. However,he has kept in touch and has been our reporterand 'ambassador' at large. Davis is now livingin Washington DC. He now works for Magnetlnte-ractive Studios, designing CD-ROM gamesand nonfiction products and lnternt Webservices.

tA slightly different version of this article first appeared inKMT, A MODERN JOURNAL OF ANCIENT EGYPT, Vol. 4,No. 2, entit led "Reconstructing Rules for the AncientEgyptian Game of Twenty Squares (Tau was renamed thegame of 20 squares)." Used with permission of KMT.I

Most readers are famil iar with senet, or senat,the Egypt ian board game found in the tomb ofTutankhamun andelsewhere. Severalmodern versions ofth is game have beenpubl ished commercial-ly with various sets ofrules.

Tau, although a lessfamous game, seemsto have been just aspopular in ancientEgypt. In fact, morethan one senet board has been found to have atau board on the back. The layout of the boardhas some intr iguing simi lar i t ies to the famousgame boards found in the royal tombs at Ur ofthe Chaldees, which date some 1,500 yearsear l ier . Tau may also be the same as the gameof polis mentioned in Plato's Republic. All in all,tau seems to have a pedigree which is at leastas dist inguished as that of senet, and does notdeserve to be overlooked.

As with almost any ancient game which has notsurvived into the present day, i t is d i f f icul t toreconstruct the rules of tau. This art ic lerepresents one person's attempt at this, butreaders are warmly encouraged to experimentand adapt and use whatever rules they f indbest.

Page | 1

In trying to deduce a set of rules for tau, I havetried to draw as much information as possiblefrom the actual boards and pieces and avoidedthe inf luence of other people 's reconstruct ionsand rules f rom games which seem to be simi lar .At least one set of rules for the Ur game iscommercial ly produced (and protected bycopyr ight ! ) , but th is may not be much help inreconstructing tau. In the f irst place, thedifferences in board layout wil l affect playsigni f icant ly; secondly, the dice wi th the Urgame seem to have been two-sided rather thanthe four-s ided " long die". Besides, a s imi larboard and pieces do not necessar i ly imply s imi larrules. Just th ink of the number of games thatcan be played with a conventional set ofcheckers!

The Gaming Set: Like senet, tau seems to havebeen played with ten"men" to a s ide. Theywere even the samepieces on some occas-ions, f or i t is notuncommon for a gaming

set to have a senetboard on one side, a tauboard on the other anda drawer to hold thepieces and dice. Thedice were " long dice"(Fig. 1) : short wooden

st icks of square cross-sect ion, marked l , l l , l l l ,and X. The same markings are found on the lastfour squares of the senet board, so there is l i t t ledoubt that the dice were intended to give ascore from 1 to 4 rather than O to 3.

The playing pieces ranged from plain, pawn-shaped objects to miniature works of art,something l ike the chess knight but wi th theheads of dogs, l ions, or occasional ly, men ratherthan horses. Although senet was probablyplayed with ten pieces to a side, tau may haveused only seven, l ike i ts predecessor from Ur. lnal l l ikel ihood, the precise rules and the numberof pieces may have varied from time to t ime andplace to place - th is was very common in thetime before written rules became the norm.

II il i l tX

Figure 1. Long die wi th exploded view

Winter 7 995

The Board: The tau board {Fig. 2) was roughlybanjo-shaped, with a central f i le of 12 squaresand two side f i les of four squares each. l t issimilar to a boardfrom Ur (Fig. 3) butthe side-squares ofthe short-er end arestraight-ened out intoa single f i le.

Some but not al lof the tau boards found have marked

squares. The most str ik ing is an ivory examplefrom Enkomi in Cyprus which has rosettesplaced in every fourth square -- an arrangementwhich is almost identical to the placement of thef lower designs on one of the boards f rom Ur.Other boards are marked differently or not at al l .

The Rules: The f irst question which needs to beanswered is whether tau is a race game or a wargame. The elongated shape of the board, andthe fact that there is a s ingle t rack for much ofthe way, strongly suggests a race game.

Most games from the ancient Mediterraneanarea were race games; and war gamesdraughts, chess and i ts ancestors, the Vik inghnefatafl, and the Roman ludus latrunculorumwere nearly always played on square boards. Atthe t ime tau was played, most of the c lassic wargames had not yet been invented.

Having decided that we're deal ing wi th a racegame, now we must decide the direct ion ofmovement around the board. This comes downto a s imple choice: do pieces enter the board onthe end square of the center f i le, or on the endsquares of the side f i les? The latter seems morel ikely, as th is gives each player a chance to "setup" his pieces in thesafety of the side f i lebefore batt le is joinedon the center f i le.Play in the otherdirection results in afeel ing of ant ic l imax --once a piece hasturned the corner intothe safety of a side-f i le, i tinstead of the tension ofthe last move.Winter | 995

Sta r t t .

Figure 2. Tau Board Start /

Thirdly, and most diff icult, i t is necessary todecide on the meaning of the marked squares.The f lowers on the board from Ur and the later

one f rom Enkomi donot suggest anything;nei ther do the birds di f -ferently placed on aboard f rom Ak-hor.Some players may de-cide, l ike the ancientowners of unmarked

boards, to do without special squaresal together. The possibi l i t ies are almost endless.The special squares might give the player wholanded on them another move or some penal tysuch as a move backwards. A piece on amarked square might be safe from capture ormight cost i ts player a f ine i f the game wasplayed for money.

Some possibi l i t ies can be discounted. Forexample, i t is unlikely that a marked squaregives immunity from capture since three markedsquares - at the bottom of each side-f i le and atthe end of the center f i le - are squares wherecapture by surrounding is impossible (rules forcapture are discussed later) . ln the end,somewhat subject ively, I decided that landing apiece on a marked square gives a player a f reeturn. This makes players concentrate theirtactics on reaching as many marked squares aspossible; and means that no matter how far aplayer may be in the lead, his opponent canalways come back through a combinat ion oflucky throws and shrewd moves.

Capture might be by displacement ( i .e. movingonto a square currently occupied by an enemypiece wil l knock it off the board). However, areference by Plato to the game of polis suggests

that capture in thisgame is by sur-rounding. The name ofthe game means "c i ty,"and Plato used thegame as a metaphor forGreek city-state poli-t ics. The only real c luehe gave about playing

the game was a suggest ion that a player shouldkeep al l h is dogs ( i .e. dog-headed playing pieces)together so that none is captured. This

Page 12

Figure 3, Game board from Ur, with "flower" spaces marked

is certain to f in ish,batt le maintained to

suggests that pieces could be captured by being

cut off and surrounded' Since dog-headedpieces were popular for both senet and tau(some dist inguished Egyptologists have

suggested that the pieces represent the jackal-

headed god Anubis) , i tcould be that the Greekgame of pol is is descendedfrom tau.

Reconstructed Rules forTau: Having made var iousdeductions, conjectures,and inspired guesses fromthe avai lable evidence, i t 'st ime to set down some rules and see i f theywork! As I 've already said, I make no claimsabout authent ic i ty, s ince no trace of Egypt ianrules for tau has yet been found' Different ideasof how the game might be played are found inthe references cited below, and readers shouldfeel free to experiment with rules unti l they havesomething that sui ts their own preferences. Myonly c la im is that the fo l lowing rules f i t thecomponents, are playable, and provide enter-ta in ing and moderately chal lenging games'

But enough disclaimers-on with therules. . .Each player has ten pieces (seven i f ashorter game is preferred). The board is placedbetween the players so that each player has aside-f i le near him. The game uses a four-s ideddie, which can be obtained from most hobbygame stores. A six-sided die may be used ifpref erred, but given the placement of themarked spaces (every fourth square), th ischanges the tact ical aspects of the game'

Play begins with al l pieces off the board' Eachplayer rol ls the die, and the player wi th thehigher score moves f i rst . The die is re-rol led inthe event of a t ie. The players then take turnsrol l ing the die and moving.

A player moves by rol l ing the die and moving apiece the indicated number of squares. Theplayer may choose to move a piece which isalready on the board or to move a new piece

onto the board. Pieces are moved onto the

board at the squares marked START on Figure2. A player may have any number of p ieces on

the board at a t ime, but no square may hold

Page | 3

The object of the game

Figure 4. Capture. Piece A is captured,but pieces B and C are not.

more than one piece. A piece may move over

an occupied square into a free square, but may

not move into an occupied square'

is to move al l yourpieces off the boardf rom the squaremarked END on Figure2. An exact rol l isrequired to move apiece off the board -for example, a pieceon the END squareneeds a rol l of 1 tomove off the board.

A player must move, i f possible, even i f th isresul ts in the immediate capture of the movingpiece. l f a player cannot move any piece thenumber of squares indicated by the die rol l , theturn is lost and play passes to the other player.

Pieces on the center f i le may be captured byenemy pieces. A piece is captured if there is anenemy piece on both s ides of i t (see Figure 4).Captured pieces are returned to their p layer, andadded to the stock of pieces which have not yetentered the board.

A piece which lands on a marked square ent i t lesi ts player to throw again and make anothermove. There is no l imi t to the number of moveswhich may be made in a s ingle turn by th ismeans. A player may choose to decl ine a f reemove.

The winner is the f i rst p layer to move al l h ispieces off the board.

REFERENCES

Bell, R. C. BOARD AND TABLE GAMES FROMMANY CIVILIZATIONS. Dover Publications, Inc.:New York, 1979.

Falkener, E. GAMES ANCIENT AND ORIENTAL.Dover Publ icat ions, lnc. : New York, 1961.

Ridgeway, William. The Game of Polis and Plato'sRep. 422 E, JOaLRNAL OF HELLENIC STUDIES 1898,p.288-290.

Woolley, Sir Leonard. EXCAVATIONS AT UR: ARECORD OF TWELVE YEARS WORK. Thomas Y.

Croywel l Co,: New York, 1954.Winter | 995

I--

LECTURE NOTES

Blue glazed hippo. Tomb ot Senbi, Meir. Metrcpolitan Musaum of Art, NY

EGYPT AND MESOPOTAMIA:ANCIENT RIVALS. ANCIENT FRIENDS

Presented by Robert Chadwick

ESS Meet ing, May 1995Notes by David Pepper & Jill Taylor

Robert Chadwick, a dual US/Canadian ci t izen,teaches at John Abbott Col lege in Ouebec. Hehas a Ph.D. f rom the Universi ty of Montreal . AnAssyriologist and archeo-astronomer, he haspubl ished a book in the First Civ i l izat ion Ser iescalled ANCIENT EGYPT AND ANCIENTMESOPOTAMIA. Originally from Denver, hecredi ts the beginnings of h is interest in theancient World as having started with his visits tothe Denver Museum of Natural History as achi ld.

Chadwick's lecture was wel l received, and thispopular speaker compared these twocivi l izations by putt ing side-by-side sl ides on thescreen: ancient Egypt on the lef t , and ancientMesopotamia on the r ight . He maintains that ,a l though they are both far away in distance andt ime, they have a relat ionship to our c iv i l izat ion,due to their impact on pre-classical t imes.Egypt, for example has given us the 365 daycalendar, the 24 hour duy, and paper.Monotheism was also f irst experimented with inEgypt. Writ ing and the wheel came from Sumeraround 3500 BCE, and the f i rst ser iousattempts at astronomy and astrology were donein Mesopotamia.

Surpr is ingly, there never was a group of peoplecal led Mesopotamians, nor was there a languagecal led Mesopotamian. The word Mesopotamiameans "between the r ivers." l t is essent ia l ly ageographical term. The Tigr is and Euphratesrivers both start in the Zagros mountains and

Winter 1995

run some 1,500 km to the sea. They ran pastcit ies l ike Babylon (which means the "gate ofthe gods") , down to the marshlands of thePersian Gulf . This area was home to theSumerians in the th i rd mi l lennium BCE, theBabylonians in the second mi l lennium BCE, andthe Assyr ians in the f i rst mi l lennium BCE.Cradled by the rivers, the inhabitants ofMesopotamia were widely inf luenced by thediverse ethnic peoples of the surrounding lands.Mesopotamia was, and is, a mult i -cul tural , mult i -l inguist ic part of the world.

When the Tigris and Euphrates r ivers f lood, theybrought renewed soil , and renewed l i fe to thisarea. But what made this area different fromEgypt was that these rivers f lood in the spring,just about the t ime the harvest came in. Anearly f lood actually endangered or evendestroyed the harvest, and in some years leftthe people wi thout any food. About 2900 BCEthere was a story in Sumer about a man whobui l t a boat and took his f r iends and his fami lyand rode out a violent storm and its result ingcataclysmic f lood that lasted for seven days andsix nights. ln Egypt, the Ni le was perceived as apeaceful and benevolent r iver, so there was nof lood story. Unl ike the Ni le, the Mesopotamianr ivers ' current and wind go in the samedirect ion. Hence, large canal systems were bui l tnext to the rivers to pull the boats up againstthe winds and current using human or animalpower.

The term, Egypt, however, refers not only to apart icular area, but also to a s ingle group ofpeople wi th a common language. l t was,therefore, a uni- l ingual, uni-cultural society.Egypt's surrounding deserts also helped to keepit isolated f or most of i ts history. Like i tsMesopotamian counterparts, the Nile was a l i fe-giving river, bringing water and soil nutr ients tothe people. The Nile, however, f looded after theharvest was completed, and before new cropsneeded to be sown. The opposing wind andwater currents of this r iver also made travel byboat much easier than i t was in Mesopotamia.

The fact that Egypt's borders were more secure,meant that her people had more t ime and energyto devote to large-scale building projects, andher rulers could more easi ly move large numbers

Page l4

of people for longer distances up and down ther iver into an area as temporary labor. Dur ingthis same t ime in Mesopotamia, her people werebui ld ing defensive works and ci ty wal ls, for notonly did they have to contend with outsideinvaders more often, their city-state systemmeant they fought each other more often thannot.

Mesopotamia's c iv i l izat ions inf luenced Egypt in anumber of ways. Writ ing appears to havedeveloped in Mesopotamia in the middle of thethird mi l lennium BCE from picto-grams, and theidea of wr i t ing was quickly picked up by theEgypt ians wi th in a few hundred years. TheMesopotamians also used clay tablets andstamped them with a cyl inder seal to identifythe owner of the document. These cyl inderseals were also adopted by the Egyptians whoput their own engravings on them.

Chadwick spoke of the story of Gi lgamesh, andhis quest for immortal i ty. In Mesopotamian lore,humans were pre-dest ined to die, only the godshad immortal i ty, and when a person died, helost h is status upon enter ing the Underworld,which was not a pleasant place to go. l t was avery pessimistic vidw of l i fe-after-death. So theMesopotamian motto was " l ive for today."

As we know, the Egypt ians had a very di f ferentview of death. They anticipated a wonderfulafterl i f e, and prepared f or i t by constructingelaborate tombs and mummify ing the body.Their two basic opt ions for the af ter l i fe werethe Gent leman Farmer, and the Hunter 's andFisherman's Paradise. Hence the Egypt ian v iewof l i fe-after-death was very optimistic.

Whi le Egypt had i ts pyramids, Mesopotamia hadi t z iggurats. Some people have claimed that thepyramid inf luenced the ziggurat , but they havebeen proven to have been buil t later than theStep Pyramid in Egypt, and both serve entirelydi f ferent funct ions. Made of mud br icks, aziggurat could reach 150 feet in height, and i thad a stairway up the outside. l t was meant tobe cl imbed and had a temple on top. This wasthe place the priests went to be elevated abovethe profane world. They were temples, nottombs.

Page 1 5

After about 1,000 years of isolat ion, theEgyptians broke out of the Nile val ley andstarted to bui ld an empire. About 1550 BCE theEgyptians conquered Palestine and reached theborders of the Mitanni , who l ived inMesopotamia. The international correspondenceof that t ime was in Akkadian, and a cache oftablets writ ten in that language has been foundat Amarna [known as the "Amarna letters"]. Forexample, the k ing of the Mitanni recorded thathe sent a statue to king Amenhotep l l l to healhim of a s ickness.

About 8OO years later, the Assyrians f romnorthern Mesopotamia conquered most of themid-east, pushing through Egypt as ' f ar asAswan, but they did not hold the country forvery long. Using siege engines and batter ingrams, they were cal led the Prussians of theancient wor ld. They conquered the 2sthDynasty of Egypt, the Kushi te rulers of theEgypt ians. The Assyr ians also capturedprisoners for slave labor, deport ing them enmasse back to Mesopotamia. One record shows200,000 Egypt ians l iv ing in Mesopotamian landsbeing assimi lated into Assyr ian cul ture. Therewas no such migrat ion in the other direct ion.

Some books claim that the Egypt ians wereadept astronomers, but Chadwick feels theywere not. Whi le the Old Kingdom kings bel ievedthat part of their soul, the akh, would f ly off tojo in the eternal stars, they only had names for afew constel lat ions, and about 40 stars.

As Chadwick's lecture drew to a c lose, theaudience was sorry that i t was ending. Heconcluded by pointing out that he had providedevidence that while at t imes these twocivi l izations were ancient r ivals, there were alsoper iods of extensive borrowing and copyingwhen they were ancient f r iends.

Winter 1995

IN SEARCH OF A ROYAL TOMBPresented by Daniel C. Polz

ESS Meet ing, June 1995Notes by Richard Harwood

Following the growing tradit ion of outstandinglectures by equally outstanding professionalEgyptologists, the June 1995 ESS program waspresented by Dr. Daniel C. Polz. Trained in hisnative Germany and a graduate of the Universityof Heidelberg, Polz has been Assistant Professorof Egyptology at UCLA since 1991. He iscurrently the Director of the UCLA Excavation atThebes, which, in conjunction with the GermanInstitute of Archaeology, has been excavating thenecropolis at Dra' Abu el Naga to the immediatenortheast of the Valley of the Kings. This lectureoutl ined the project 's attempt to locate andidentify the lost tomb of Amenhotep I andsummarized the project 's results through the1 995 season.

Amenhotep I was the second pharaoh of the 18'n' Dynasty (1525-1504 BCE), some 50 years before

the jo int re igns of Hatshepsut and Tuthmosis l l l .Fol lowing the expuls ion of the Hyksos (1 550BCE) by his father, Ahmose, Amenhotepreorganized the government and extendedEgypt's holdings from Palestine well into Nubia.He is regarded as the founder of the workmen'svi l lage at Deir el Medina and by the end of the18'h Dynasty was deif ied as the founder of theValley of the Kings.

Interestingly, however, Amenhotep I 's tomb hasnever been posit ively identif ied, although he isknown to have been buried somewhere in theTheban necropolis based on the discovery of hismummy and sarcophagus in the area. Threetombs to date have been proposed as that ofAmenhotep l. Most current Egyptologists accepta tomb near Dra' Abu el Naga, identif ied byHoward Carter in 1916, as the t rue bur ia llocation. Polz disagrees. For the past twoseasons, he has been excavating another tombhe believes may be the actual tomb ofAmenhotep l.

One of the many problems encountered inidentifying any tomb of this period is that royal

Winter | 995

tombs were uninscribed and undecorated unti lthat of Tuthmosis l l l (KV 34), nearly 75 yearsafter the death of Amenhotep l.

During this fascinating lecture, which wasaccompanied by excellent sl ides, Polz traced hisquest for the "real" tomb. His primary guide wasthe Abbott Papyrus in the British Museum whichdetai ls the inspection of numerous tombs by highoff icials during the t ime of Ramses lX. Thisdocument l ists the tomb of Amenhotep I as beingintact at that t ime (c. 1 125 BCE); measures it at"120 cubi ts I197 f t . l in depth [or width] f rom thestele"; and locates i t "north of the Temple ofAmenhotep of the Garden". Unfortunately, manykey words in the papyrus are subject to severalinterpretations.

Polz and his team obtained a concession toexcavate in the northeast half of the vi l lage ofDra' Abu el Naga and in the cl i f fs above thevil lage. Following their interpretation of theAbbott Papyrus, the group soon located two largeforecourts and a nearly hidden tomb entrance inthe cl i f fs above the vi l lage. The tomb was notunknown, having been documented by SirGardner Wi lk inson in 182O.

The forecourts were buried under four to f ivemeters of debris, and the project 's most recentseason was spent clearing this area. Theentrance to the tomb turned out to be a vert icalshaft with a passage branching off from it. Atthe end of the passage was a small chamber inthe wall and a separate anthropomorphic recessin the f loor which may have served as thelocation of a burial. There were no clues in theshaft, the passage, the chamber, or in the recessas to whom the tomb originally belonged.

Nevertheless, Polz believes this tomb may be thatof Amenhotep I for a number of intr iguingreasons:

1. In addi t ion to the tomb of Amenhotep l , theAbbott Papyrus records the inspection ofseveral other tombs, none of which l ie withinthe Valley of the Kings. l t is, therefore,reasonable to assume that, despite the factthat Amenhotep was considered to be thefounder of the Valley, his tomb does not l iewithin i t .

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2. The two forecourts contain artifacts from along period of t ime fol lowing the actual burial.Most notable are the objects from the tomb ofRamses Nakht, High Priest of Amun duringthe reigns of Ramses lV lhrough Ramses lX: amud brick with a broken royal cartouchecontaining two glyphs that may be part of theprenomen of Amenhotep l; the remains of amud brick pyramid in front of the tomb ofRamses Nakht; and the sandstone fragmentsof stelae, chapels, etc. dating from the reignsof Ramses l l through Ramses lX. l t is welldocumented that Amenhotep I was deif ied bythe end of the 1 8'h Dynasty as the founder ofthe Valley of the Kings, therefore, i t would beappropriate for the off icials of succeedingpharaohs to bui ld monuments near the bur ia lof Amenhotep's tomb.

3. The forecourts continued to attract rel igiousattention for at least two mil lennia, asevidenced by their use by Coptic Christ ians.

4. The tomb Polz found measures 120 cubi tsfrom the front of the forecourt (where stelaetradit ionally would have been erected) to theback of the wall of the tomb, as recorded bythe Abbott Papyrus. In order to arrive at thesame measurement, Howard Carter had toinclude the depth of the so-called "grave-robbers shaft" of the tomb he proposed, ameasurement that would probably not havebeen made by the tomb inspectors during thereign of Ramses lX.

5. The tomb is directly north of a known templeof Amenhotep I as opposed to the tombidentif ied by Howard Carter, which is onlyvaguely north of the same temple.

The spring 1996 season of the UCLA Excavationat Thebes wil l be spent in the f inal clearance ofthe two forecourts of the tomb. Dr. Polz hasgraciously offered to return to Denver to updatethe ESS on further developments in thisimportant and excit ing project,

VVVVV

EGYPTIAN SACRED ART:THE POWER AND THE GLORY OF THE TEMPLE

Presented by Floyd Chapman

ESS Meet ing, July 1995Notes by Jill Taylor

Sti l l another perspective of ancient Egypt waspresented to ESS members by fel low memberand extremely talented historical art ist, FloydChapman. The audience was primed for theforthcoming lecture with a preview of Chapman'sextraordinary paintings set up in the back of theauditorium: an historical depict ion of Tutankh-amun in the sacred sanctuary, a mysticalportrayal of Nefert i t i being touched by the one-god, Aten, and f inal ly and the most remarkable, adetai led, archeological ly accurate, ful l-colorreconstruction of a painted wall rel ief located inthe Temple of Ramses l l l at Medinet Habu. Thismagnif icent scene depicts Ramses l l l kneelingbefore the Theban tr iad [Amun, Mut, and Khons].This temple was the only signif icant buildingproject produced during the reign of Ramses l l l(1194-1163 BCE), and the last major work ofEgypt's Dynastic Period.

Chapman's enthusiasm for his work camethrough clearly as he discussed the results of hisin-depth research on temple paintings anddecoration as well as the mythologicalsignif icance of their imagery. He explained thatwe cannot truly appreciate or understand thesacred art of the ancient Egyptians withoutknowing the fundamental concepts and beliefswhich shaped their world view.

Organizing his lecture into three parts, Chapmanfirst explained the mythological origin andfunction of the temple and the role of i tsdecoration in fulf i l l ing that function. Next, hediscussed the role of the pharaoh in the Egyptianworld view, and then he explained hismethodology for producing his authoritat ivereconstruction of the above-mentioned MedinetHabu scene.

It was explained that the Egyptians had elaboratemythology which told how the creation wasproduced through several phases. Theemergence of the temple was an integral part of

Page 1 7 Winter 1995

each phase of creation. The temple provided

shelter for the deities and acted as a defense

against the forces of chaos which threatened to

reabsorb al l vestiges of the phenomenal world

back into the Realm of the N9nexistent' To the

Egyptians, every temple was a necessity to assist

the gods in their eternal work of sustaining the

physical and spir i tual creation -- in other words'

the divine order, Ma'at '

There were two types of temples in ancient

Egypt: the cult and the mortuary' The cult

temple was the home of a specif ic god or

goddess, and the mortuary temple was dedicated

to the worship of the deif ied pharaoh' Each

temple was structured as a symbolic microcosm

of the world just after creation. The basic

elements consisted of a pylon, forecourt,

hypostyle hall , barque room, and sanctuary with

adjacent subsidiary rooms' Since any and al l of

these components could be mult ipl ied, and often

were by successive pharaohs, no two temples

were exactlY al ike.

The Egyptians believ"i ,n "

universal force called

hike (what we might cal l magic). This force was

the agency through which the creator produced

and sustained al l of creation, and al l supernatural

acts were produced both both by gods and men'

The Egyptians believed that once the ri tual of the

opening of the mouth was performed upon the

carved and painted images decorating every inch

of the temple walls, these same images became a

living reali ty by means of hike, thereby, insuring

the perpetuation of the divine order of Ma'at,

while chaos was kePt at bay.

Chapman's methodology in reconstructing his

temple wall scene included studying in great

detai l (sometimes with a magnifying glass!) the

remarkable scenes throughout this beautiful

temple, which sti l l retain much of their original

polychrome decoration. Much research went into

determining the "rules" for decorating temples'

The "cannon of proport ions" which set up the

grid system for the wall paintings was fol lowed

from the time of Narmer through the 25'n

Dynasty. The Egyptian palette had only six or

seven colors: red, blue, yel low, green, white'

black, and (in the New Kingdom) a l ight-blue or

turquoise. Chapman sought out the t iniest traces

of patterns and colors in order to produce a

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painting iust as the ancient Egyptians would have

seen it before t ime and man took their effects'

From his great attention to detai ls, i t was

apparent that Chapman's paintings were truly the

result of a labor of love of this fascinating culture

known as ancient EgYPt.

Cosmetic S7oon, Petrie Museum(uc 14365)

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BREWERS, BAKERS, AND BUILDERSPresented by Dr. Mark Lehner

DMNH Lecture, September 1995Notes by Judy Greenfield

Dr. Mark Lehner, perhaps best known as theworld 's foremost expert on the Sphinx, beganhis career in Egyptology as a graduate studentat the American Universi ty in Cairo. Hesubsequent ly earned his Ph.D. in Egyptologyfrom Yale University. Lehner has been featuredin numerous magazines and appeared inNATIONAL GEOGRAPHIC publications and films.When he's not overseeing the Giza PlateauMapping Project , of which he is director, Lehneris working on three pending books: THECOMPLETE PYRAMIDS. ARCHEOLOGY OF ANIMAGE: THE SPHINX, and GIZA REPORTS.

The Great Pyramids, wi th their grandeur andsheer massiveness, have intoxicated explorers,Egyptologists, Egyptophi les, and vis i tors al ikesince the rediscovery of these monuments in thelast few centuries. But who were the "l i t t leguys" who toi led to build these great structures?Where were their towns located in relation tothe Great Pyramids? How were the armies ofworkmen fed? And, most importantly, How didthey bake their bread?

The last quest ion was one that our guestlecturer, Lehner, set out to answer. Some otherinsights about the l i fe of these workmenemerged from this quest.

The lecture focused on the t ime period 3OO to500 years after the f irst unif ication of Egypt,dur ing the glory days of the Old Kingdom.Monuments and f ine sculpture, including thebarque of Khufu and, of course, the pyramids,attest to the technical sophist ication and art istryof the era. Much is known about the upperechelon of society from this period but l i t t leabout the common folk who formed the base ofthe economrc pyramid.

Lehner was perplexed: something important wasmissing from the Giza Plateau. Where were thetowns belonging to the many people who bui l tthe pyrarnids, th is "missing si lent major i ty"? He

Page l9

scrutinized maps of the Giza Plateau as well i tsgeology and topography. A cone of mud, usedto seal a jar, held the tantal izing clue: "Overseerof Bakeries." Towns to accommodate thelaborers had to be in the vicinity. Lehner choseto excavate an area south of a massive stonewall near the pyramids, 200 yards long, withcolossal gates 21 feet high. He hi t pay dir twhen a worker accidental ly gouged the desertf loor wi th a back hoe, reveal ing rect i l inear mudand stone wal ls, Bread pots - th ick, bel l -shapedvessels - came to l ight . Lehner, wi th the help ofthe backhoe operator, had discovered two intactbaker ies, s ide by s ide.

Al though scenes from ancient tombs (notably ofTi , in Saqqara) depict the bread baking processin great detai l , some of the features uncoveredcould not adequately be explained. Thesemysterious features include a series of semi-c i rcular craters in the layers of ash on the f loorand four ceramic vats. Plus, a paleobotanist ,using f lotat ion methods, recovered only bar leyand emmer wheat seeds, nei ther of which hasthe gluten content of the wheat we use today.Gluten enables bread to r ise and lends a l ight ,spongy texture.

At this point, the lecture became part mystery,part comedy, and ut ter ly fascinat ing. Lehnerdecided to repl icate an Old Kingdom bakerybased on his f indings, wi th funding from theNat ional Geographic Society which f i lmed theprocess. l t took the Egyptian workers a merethree hours to create an exact replica of theancient bakery - which had taken the crewmonths to excavate!

Lehner enlisted the help of Ed Wood from Utah,an ancient yeast specialist and author ofWORLD SOURDOUGH BREADS OF ANTIAUffYYeast was the way to circumvent the "glutenproblem." Ed Wood successful ly captured wi ldyeast in Egypt by "bait ing" i t with potato waterand this was used to leaven the experimentalbread. The bake:of f commenced using emmerand bar ley ( in a 1O-2Oo/o to 80-90% mixture).After innumerable modif icat ions and manyinedible t r ia ls and errors, a "successful" loaf ,a lbei t dense and coarse, was produced.Mysteries were solved in the process. Thearcheological "craters" were f ormed by the

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rounded bottoms of the bread baking vessels,nestled in hot ash to cook. And the need forfour vats became apparent: one each for yeast,water, f lour and mixing. Baking bread, Lehnerlearned, was performed on a massive scale (to

fuel workers) and was not undertaken for specialoccasions, as once thought.

Last winter, Lehner and his team discovered thatthe baker ies were only part of a huge mudbrickbui ld ing. Another area contained dishes, plates,very long and low benches, jar stands, f l intblades, and f ish bones. This, in ef fect , waswhat remained of a very large mess hall for theworkers.

The lecture ended on a sober ing note. Theencroaching ci ty of Cairo threatens to obl i teratethese remarkable ruins which have so much totel l us about everyday l i fe of the "Litt le Guys"who bui l t the Great Pyramids.

RRRRRTHE VALLEY OF THE KINGSFLOOD PROTECTION PLAN

Presented by John Rutherford

ESS Meet ing, October l 995Notes by Judy Greenfield

Dr. John Rutherford is current ly involved inconservat ion ef for ts in the Val ley of the Kings.He has worked extensively in the Val ley as aconsul t ing engineer and was involved in part ia l lyc lear ing and surveying the tomb of Ramses l l(KV-7).

The geomorphological problem with the Val leyof the Kings can be explained, according toRutherford, by imagining the Val ley as a giantbath tub. Rainwater pours down the steep-sided val ley and drains out through the Val leyentrance. Typical ly, the area receives a merecentimeter of rainfal l each year. Yet, every 200to 4OO years, the Val ley exper iences f lash f lood-ing dur ing which rainwater and rock debr is pourinto the warren of tombs, causing a mult i tude ofproblems. The most recent f lash f lood

rMinter 1995

inundated the Val ley a year ago, in October1 994.

The Valley tombs are cut into cl i f fs formed ofTheban l imestone, a semi-hard stone. Thequal i ty of the l imestone decreases with depth,and is under la in by Esna shale. Shale,composed of c lay minerals, is notor ious forswell ing upon contact with water. Water enterstombs through the opened entrances to tombsand through f issures through the l imestoneoverburden.

Damage may be direct ly or indirect ly caused byfloodwater as was i l lustrated by Rutherford'sdramat ic s l ides. Direct damage includes loss ofpaint and surface layers of the tomb whenmoisture draws sal t in solut ion to the surface.When it crystal l izes beneath the surface layer, i tcauses rock and surface (somet imes paint ! ) tospal l of f . Floodwaters, laden with sand anddebr is, swir l ing through the structures, causedamage by abrasion. The water i tsel f candissolve paint which is bound with water-sensi t ive media. Indirect ly, f loodwaters swel lshale columns abutt ing the l imestone. Upondrying, the shale shr inks, causing tensionf ractures and eventual ly col lapse. Anotherindirect resul t of inundat ion is s l ippage ofmassive blocks of stone along jo ints.

Rutherford proposed some ways of mit igat ingf loodwater damage. The Egypt ian organizat ion,the Supreme Counci l of Ant iqui t ies, hasimplemented i ts own measures, some of whichhelped the Val ley of the King tombs weather the1994 f loods. However, some proved inef-fect ive. Possible methods of minimizing f looddamage include lowering pathways through theVal ley to create deeper channels for runoff ,seal ing rock jo ints, ra is ing and reinforcingentryways, removing tai l ings and debr is f romthe vic in i ty of tombs, and seal ing doorways.Such efforts may extend the l i fe of the tombs5OO or, perhaps, 1 ,OOO years. lnevi tably,despi te al l measures, these monuments wi l lreturn to the elements from which they werecreated.

Rutherford also discussed the ethics governingconservation of the tombs as set forth by threeorganizat ions and also acknowledged paradoxes

Page 2O

inherent in these guidel ines ( for example, don' treconstruct original art i facts but do make certainyour reconstructions are dist inct f rom theor ig inals!) . Tomb preservat ion, we learned, isno black and white matter.

At the conclusion of h is very wel l -organizedlecture, Rutherford distr ibuted an opinion poll ofsorts. The ARCE Egyptian Antiquit ies Project,through funding by the United States Agency forInternat ional Development (USAID), wi l l sponsora team of Egypt ian and American engineers andscient ists to survey the Val ley of the Kingstombs. Ul t imately, the team wi l l prepare a l is tof measures to help protect the tombs againstf loods and other natural agents of deter iorat ion.The audience was asked to rate the tombsaccording to their ar t is t ic, archi tectural , h istor ic,economic, re l ig ious, and overal l s igni f icance.The results of the survey wil l be relayed to theteam who wi l l decide which endangered tombsreceive top priori ty for preservation measures.I t 's exci t ing that ESS members can part ic ipate inthis study by providing input on their favor i teVal ley tombs. Perhaps the ESS membership wi l lbe t reated to a sequel to th is lecture in thefuture. and we wi l l learn the resul ts of the tombsurvev.

ffiffiffiffiffiMORTUARY TEMPLE OF MENTUHOTEP II AND

AN OVERVIEW OF DEIR EL BAHRIPresented by Richard Harwood

ESS Meeting, NovemberNotes by David Pepper

Harwood is a graduate of Dartmouth University,and Duke Universi ty Law School . He has vis i tedEgypt three t imes, th is past year wi th the Val leyof the Kings Mot i f Al ignment Project , a groupworking under the direct ion of Richard Wi lk insonof the Universi ty of Ar izona. He has also spentsome t ime researching Mentuhotep l l 's Templeat the Metropol i tan Museum's archives in NewYork City. Harwood recently retired from hisposit ion as head of the Trust Department atBank One in Colorado SPrings.

Page 21

Harwood began his ta lk by descr ib ing his f i rstv is i t to Deir e l Bahr i . His tour group spent t imelooking around Hatshepsut's mortuary templeand then started up on the overland trai l to theVal ley of the Kings. l t was on the ancient t ra i l ,just above Deir e l Bahr i , that he not iced thatthere was another large structure just to thesouth of the Temple of Hatshepsut. Ouicklyleaving the over land hike, he rushed back downto the s i te of th is other monument, only to beturned away by guards f rom the Pol ish Mission,who were working on another smal l temple, thatof Tuthmosis l l l , nest led in between the Templeof Hatshepsut, and the other large structure hehad not iced. On a subsequent v is i t he f inal lygot to explore th is ruin: the Middle Kingdomtemple of Nebhepetre Mentuhotep l l .

Mentuhotep's temple had been standing f orsome 600 years when the archi tect Senenmutbegan erect ing Hatshepsut 's f unerary templebeside i t . Hatshepsut 's monument was simi larin design to the older temple, as i t was t ieredwith s loping ramps leading from one level toanother. Later used as a quarry, and subjectedto rock s l ides, the ear l ier temple of Mentuhotepquickly fe l l out of use and became forgotten.

Harwood traced the history of the f irstintermediate per iod. He explainied how theInyotef fami ly dynasty became powerful enoughto be proclaimed rulers, f i rst of Upper Egypt,and then of a l l Egypt i tsel f , under one of theInyotef descendants, Mentuhotep l l .

Mentuhotep Nebhepetre broke with the tradit ionof his ancestors, who were buried at el Tarif f ,and located his tomb opposi te the ancient c i tyof Waset (Thebes) in the bay at Deir e l Bahr i .Bui l t in the shape of a "T", i t served as bothmortuary cul t center and his bur ia l p lace.lmpressively designed with t rees and gardens,the complex featured a unique layeredappearance which was copied in Hatshepsut 'slater structure. l ts courtyards were surroundedby many round and octagonal columns, andHarwood took us step-by-step through theruined front gates, passed the now desertedgardens, and onto the plat form of the templeitself .

Winter 1995

Investigated in the early years of this century bythe Metropoli tan Museum, intact tombs forMentuhotep's many wives, and some nearbytombs of his court iers were found. HowardCarter himself even discovered a main burialchamber in the oft-used serendipitous way ofhaving his horse stumble into a hole in theground! Another shaft tomb, nestled into thecli f fs behind the temple, was probably used forthe royal burial i tself, but Mentuhotep's mummyhas never been located.

For addi t ional informat ion on this fascinat ingsite, see the two-part art icle writ ten by Harwoodin the Summer/Winter 1994 & Summer 1995issues of the Ostracon.

HOUSE OF SCROLLS

Old Kingdom.

Most imposing is a larger-than-l i fe Old Kingdomlimestone sculpture of a standing man, un-fortunately missing the head. I did not knowsuch monumental sculpture was made in the OldKingdom, st i l l less for anyone below the statusof king. l t may have been part of a familygroup, s imi lar to other groups of two or morefigures from royal and noble tombs and chapelsat Giza. These groups frequently show thewomen with an arm around the waists of theirmale relatives, in a gesture which may indicateaffect ion, support , approval , or some othertender qual i ty. The workmanship of th is piece isexcellent, f ar superior to the poor survivingimages of several important kings from the sameperiod. We can suppose the kings had evenfiner statues and regret that they are lost. Afew f ine royal f igures do exist, such as thestatue of Khafre in Cairo and the f igures ofMenkaure found by Reisner bur ied in Menkaure'stemple at Giza, and now in Boston.

There is also a statue of the off icial, Rawer,f rom the same per iod, carved in wood. l t 'sabout two feet high, and very well preserved,including the paint . I found the l ikeness ent i re lybel ievable as a representat ion of a uniqueperson, though the museum label c la ims i t is atypical formal portrai t of no part icular indiv idual .Of course, i t does fol low the formal style.Decide for yoursel f , i f you go.

There are three low-rel ief panels f rom the OldKingdom: two as mirror images f lanking a tombdoor and another with registers showing boatwork. I was surprised to f ind that the OldKingdom boatmen wore nothing but a bel t .There is a nice stele from Abydos, about twofeet high, with a typical offering scene. Part ofthe surface was protected from damage in someway in the past, and the paint is fa i r ly wel lpreserved. One can see an elaborate pattern ofcolored circles painted on the offering table -

something which would never be perceived i fthe paint were missing.

Other sculptures include a f ine head of Sesostrisl l l , wi th his normal weary look, and a f ine blackbasal t hawk from the Ptolemaic or Late Per iod.There are several bronze f igures of gods from

Page 22

MUSEUM REVIEW

THE NELSON-ATKINS MUSEUM OF ARTIN KANSAS CITY

Reviewed by Stu Wier

About the Reviewer: Stu Wier has degrees ingeophysical sciences. He currently works atNOAA in Boulder developing new waYs toimprove weather forecasts for the NationalWeather Service. Wier also worked on theWinchester Excavations in England in | 969, and/'s the compiler of the "Reader's Guide toAncient Egypt" published bV the ESS. His visitto Kansas City was occasioned by a wedding."The artifacts were more interesting than thewedding," he said.

The Nelson-Atkins Museum has a smal l butgood collection of sculpture and art i facts fromthe ancient Mediterranean area. There are abouttwo dozen sculptures, sculpture f ragments,rel iefs, and art i facts from ancient Egypt, al l ofhigh qual i ty. Near ly hal f of them are f rom the

Winter 1995

the Late Period, pretty typical, which is to saynot really high quali ty. However, there are someother Late Period pieces of superb workmanship,notably a rel ief showing the pharaoh offering toAnubis.

For New Kingdom fans there is a surprise: twogold buttons or sequins said to be from KingTut 's tomb. There is no explanat ion of howthey got to Kansas City. There is also acommon incised rel ief of young Ramses l l .

These are only some of the objects on display.l f you love Egyptian art and are in Kansas Cityfor a day, th is is wel l worth a v is i t . l f you havenot seen high-quali ty Egyptian art i facts before, Iwould especial ly recommend i t . You may bedel ighted to f ind yoursel f in the presence of thereal th ing and surpr ised by the qual i ty of

THE DENVER MUSEUM OFNATURAL HISTORY2001 Colorado Blvd.Denver, CO 80205

EGYPTIANSTUDYSOCIETY

workmanship.

Located at 45th and Oak Streets, the museum isopen 10 AM - 4 PM Tuesday-Thursday, 10-9PM Fr iday & Saturday, 1-5 PM Sunday, and isclosed Mondays and major holidays. Admissionis $4 for adul ts; $2 for adul t students, and $1for chi ldren age 6-18 (under 6 is f ree).Saturdays, admission to the permanentcol lect ion is f ree. Lunch is avai lable in theRozelle Court, a beautiful l tal ian Renaissancesett ing; dinner is served only on Fridays. Call(816) 751-1278 for informat ion.

NNNNN

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@ x$r[t

Winter 1995