TWO MUMMY-MASKS FROM THE DAWN OF THE NEW KINGDOM by Aidan Dodson

21 Pages·2011·0.37 MB·English

by  Aidan Dodson

ORIENTALIA LOVANIENSIA
ANALECTA
————— 204 —————
UNDER THE POTTER’S TREE
Studies on Ancient Egypt
Presented to Janine Bourriau
on the Occasion of her 70th Birthday
edited by
DAVID ASTON, BETTINA BADER, CARLA GALLORINI,
PAUL NICHOLSON and SARAH BUCKINGHAM
UITGEVERIJ PEETERS en DEPARTEMENT OOSTERSE STUDIES
LEUVEN – PARIS – WALPOLE, MA
2011
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CONTENTS
EDITORIAL FOREWORD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . XI
H.S. SMITH — Janine – A Teacher’s Tribute . . . . . . . XIII
P.G. FRENCH — Janine – A Husband’s View . . . . . . . XV
Elham Ahmed EL-TAWEIL, Mahmoud Mohamed EL-SHAFEI, Mohamed
ALI ABD EL-HAKIEM, Mohamed Naguib REDA, Nermeen Shaa-
ban ABAYAZEED, Shaimaa Rasheed SALEM, and Sherif Mohamed
ABD EL-MONAEM — Mother of the Ceramicists نييراخفلا مٔا
Umm El Fakharyien – A Students’ Tribute . . . . . . XIX
TABULA GRATULATORIA . . . . . . . . . . . . . . XXI
JANINE’S BIBLIOGRAPHY . . . . . . . . . . . . . . XXV
ARTICLES IN HONOUR OF JANINE BOURRIAU
Susan J. ALLEN
Fish Dishes at Dahshur . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
Sally-Ann ASHTON
Ancient Egyptian Hair-Combs in the Fitzwilliam Museum
Cambridge . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 19
David ASTON
t pÌrt wty. The Saqqara Embalmers’ Caches Reconsidered;
Typology and Chronology . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Marie-Pierre AUBRY, Christian DUPUIS, Holeil GHALY, Christopher
KING, Robert KNOX, William A. BERGGREN, Christina KARLSHAUSEN
and Members of the TIGA Project
Geological Setting of the Theban Necropolis: Implications for
the Preservation of the West Bank Monuments . . . . . 81
Bettina BADER
Vessels in Ceramics and Stone: The Problem of the Chicken
and the Egg? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 125
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VI CONTENTS
Donald M. BAILEY
Wine Containers: Aswan Flasks . . . . . . . . . . 173
Pascale BALLET
Les ateliers hellénistiques de Bouto (Tell el-Fara’in) et le
«décor surpeint» (Overpainted) . . . . . . . . . . 189
Daphna BEN-TOR
Political Implications of New Kingdom Scarabs in Palestine
during the Reigns of Tuthmosis III and Ramesses II . . . . 201
Elizabeth BETTLES, with a contribution by Olaf E. KAPER
The Divine Potters of Kellis . . . . . . . . . . . 215
Charles BONNET
La Nubie face à la puissance égyptienne . . . . . . . 253
Rosalie DAVID
Ancient Egyptian Medicine: An Appraisal Based on Scientific
Methodology . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 263
Catherine DEFERNEZ
Four Bes Vases from Tell el-Herr (North-Sinai): Analytical
Description and Correlation with the Goldsmith’s Art of
Achaemenid Tradition . . . . . . . . . . . . . 287
Jacobus VAN DIJK
The Date of the Gebel Barkal Stela of Seti I . . . . . . 325
Aidan DODSON
Two Mummy-Masks from the Dawn of the New Kingdom . 333
Amanda DUNSMORE
A Wedgwood Canopic Vase in the National Gallery of Victoria . 349
Dina A. FALTINGS
Did the Ancient Egyptians have Bottle Brushes? Some Con-
siderations about Milk Bottles in the Old Kingdom . . . . 355
Carla GALLORINI
A Cypriote Sherd from Kahun in Context . . . . . . . 397
Alison L. GASCOIGNE and Gillian PYKE
Nebi Samwil-Type Jars in Medieval Egypt: Characterisation
of an Imported Ceramic Vessel . . . . . . . . . . 417
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CONTENTS VII
M. Cristina GUIDOTTI
Quelques curiosités typologiques de la céramique d’Antinoopolis 433
Yvonne M. HARPUR
Earthenware Vessels in Old Kingdom Two-dimensional Art:
Their Manufacture and Direct Use by Minor Human Figures . 441
Rita HARTMANN
Ritzmarken auf Brotformen aus der frühdynastischen Siedlung
von Tell el-Fara’in/Buto . . . . . . . . . . . . 469
Ulrich HARTUNG
Eine elfenbeinerne Gefäßdarstellung aus dem prädynastischen
Friedhof U in Abydos/Umm el-Qaab . . . . . . . . 483
Colin A. HOPE
Possible Mid-18th Dynasty Examples of Blue-Painted Pottery
from the Egypt Exploration Society’s Excavations at Memphis 495
Salima IKRAM
A Ceramic Divinity for a Divine Ceramicist . . . . . . 513
Helen JACQUET-GORDON
Miniature Pots . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 521
W. Raymond JOHNSON
A Ptah-Sokar Barque Procession from Memphis . . . . . 531
Peter LACOVARA
A Nubian Model Soldier and the Costume of a Kerma Warrior 541
Anthony LEAHY
‘Necho’ in Late Period Personal Names . . . . . . . 547
María J. LÓPEZ GRANDE
Field Notes from Dra Abu el-Naga on the First Intermediate
Period/Early Middle Kingdom Pottery . . . . . . . . 575
Sylvie MARCHAND
La transposition céramique dans l’Égypte Ancienne . . . . 603
Geoffrey T. MARTIN
The Dormition of Princess Meketaten . . . . . . . . 633
Aurélia MASSON
Jarres au décor polychrome du Musée Pouchkine: manifestations
originales de la tendance archaïsante des 25e-26e dynasties? . 645
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VIII CONTENTS
Marleen DE MEYER, Stefanie VEREECKEN, Bart VANTHUYNE, Stan
HENDRICKX, Lies OP DE BEECK and Harco WILLEMS
The Early Old Kingdom at Nuwayrat in the 16th Upper
Egyptian Nome . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 679
Paul T. NICHOLSON
“I’m not the saggar-maker, I’m the saggar-maker’s mate…”:
Saggar Making and Bottom Knocking in Stoke-on-Trent as a
Guide to Early Saggar Technology . . . . . . . . . 703
Hans-Åke NORDSTRÖM
The Significance of Pottery Fabrics . . . . . . . . . 723
Lies OP DE BEECK and Stefanie VEREECKEN
Pottery from Sidmant and Haraga in the Royal Museums of Art
and History, Brussels . . . . . . . . . . . . . 731
Mary OWNBY
Through the Looking Glass: The Integration of Scientific,
Ceramic, and Archaeological Information . . . . . . . 751
Stephen QUIRKE
Petrie’s 1889 Photographs of Lahun . . . . . . . . . 769
Maarten J. RAVEN
Desheret Bowls and Canopic Jars . . . . . . . . . 795
Pamela ROSE and Gillian PYKE
Snakes and Udders: Ceramic Oddities from Qasr Ibrim . . 809
Teodozja I. RZEUSKA, with an Appendix by K.O. KURASZKIEWICZ
An Offering of a Beer Jar or a Beer Jar as an Offering? The
Case of a Late Old Kingdom Beer Jar with an Inscription from
West Saqqara . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 829
Margaret SERPICO, with an Appendix by Ben STERN
The Contents of Jars in Hatshepsut’s Foundation Deposit at Deir
el-Bahri and their Significance for Trade . . . . . . . . 843
Karin N. SOWADA
An Egyptian Imitation of an Imported Two-Handled Jar from
the Levant . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 885
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CONTENTS IX
Kate SPENCE, with a drawing by Will SCHENCK
Air, Comfort and Status: Interpreting the Domestic Features of
“Soul Houses” from Rifa . . . . . . . . . . . . 895
Sally SWAIN
A New Interpretation of Two “C”-Ware Vessels from
el Mahasna . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 915
Pierre TALLET
Deux nouvelles stèles rupestres sur le plateau de Sérabit
el-Khadim (Sud-Sinaï) . . . . . . . . . . . . . 933
Ana TAVARES and Sabine LAEMMEL
Some Post-Old Kingdom Pottery from Giza . . . . . . 949
René VAN WALSEM
Scenes of the Production of Pottery in Old Kingdom Elite
Tombs of the Memphite Area. A Quantitative Analysis . . . 977
Helen WHITEHOUSE
Egyptian Blue and White: A Ceramic Enigma of the Early
19th Century AD . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1001
Anna WODZINSKA
Pottery and Chronology. Preliminary Remarks on Ceramic
Material from Tell el-Retaba . . . . . . . . . . . 1015
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TWO MUMMY-MASKS FROM THE DAWN OF
THE NEW KINGDOM
Aidan DODSON1
One of my most instructive — and productive — experiences as a
student was working as an intern in the Department of Antiquities in the
Fitzwilliam Museum at Cambridge, while studying for my MPhil in
Museum Practice & Archaeology at the University in 1985/6. This coin-
cided with Janine’s tenure as Keeper of that department, and during the
year or so I worked there I learnt a vast amount not only about how a
museum worked, but also how to work with objects. As my time at the
museum coincided with the preparations for the splendid ‘Pharaohs and
Mortals’ exhibition of Middle Kingdom art, held in Cambridge from 19
April to 26 June, and Liverpool 18 July to 4 September 1988,2 I also came
away with a far better understanding of how objects should be published.
Accordingly, I present this short note on a pair of objects that were the heirs
of Middle Kingdom tradition and which I trust will be of interest to her!
A feature of a number of the mummy masks of the last years of
the 17th Dynasty and early years of the 18th is the small size of their
faces. This can be traced back to a group of masks that transformed the
head of the mummy into a ba-bird, the tiny human head being melded
into the body and wings of a bird (e.g. fig. 1).3 This in many ways
created a miniature version of the rishi coffin that is such a diagnostic
feature of the 17th Dynasty and the immediately following decades.4
1 University of Bristol.
2 J. BOURRIAU, Pharaohs and Mortals: Egyptian Art in the Middle Kingdom (Cam-
bridge, 1988).
3 Cairo JE 45629, from shaft MMA 3 in the court of Asasif tomb HC 37, dating some-
where between the beginning of the reign of Ahmose I and the early years of Thutmose
III: see A. DODSON, ‘A Funerary Mask in Durham and Mummy Adornment in the Late
Second Intermediate Period and Early Eighteenth Dynasty’, Journal of Egyptian Archaeol-
ogy 84 (1998), 96-97, pl. XV.2. A further example, from Beni Hasan tomb 287, datable
by pottery to the late Second Intermediate Period to the early Eighteenth Dynasty (ibid.
95-96, pl. XV.1), was hitherto believed to be wholly lost, but Ashley Cooke, Curator of
Egypt & the Near East at National Museums Liverpool, now kindly informs me that two
fragments survive there under the accession number 55.85.34, originally received on loan
from the Liverpool University’s Institute of Archaeology.
4 Pace the remarks of Edna RUSSMAN (Eternal Egypt: Masterworks of Ancient Art
from the British Museum [London & New York, 2001], 204 n.3), who insists that the
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334 A. DODSON
It seems to have been a more literal development of a combination of a
full-size face with a bird’s body and wings seen around the end of the
13th Dynasty.5
However, the ‘pure’ conception of the rishi coffin and mask as a sim-
ple unadorned ba rapidly broke down, and variations appeared that
clearly show the way in which manufacturers lost touch with the original
conception of the design. In the case of coffins, a particularly instructive
piece is British Museum EA 54350, where the uncomprehending artisan
has overlaid the mummy-strap motif first found on Middle Kingdom
anthropoid coffins over the rishi pattern — thus rendering the ba earth-
bound, its wings strapped to its sides!6 In the case of masks, the concep-
tion of the mask as representing a ba is also lost, the face growing in size
and the avian body feathering and wings becoming merely a frame to the
visage and an auxiliary decoration of a tripartite wig.7 This winged fram-
ing of the face would periodically reappear later, including many coffins
from northern Egypt of the later Third Intermediate Period8 and a number
of female coffins from Thebes of the same period.9 The small face also
survived, albeit for a much shorter time, being found on at least one
mask of the early 18th Dynasty that had lost all avian features, and has
a simple tripartite wig.10
wings of both coffins and masks represent the wings not of the dead person (i.e. of the
ba), but of Isis and Nephthys. While the wings seen on some later masks (see below) and
coffins may belong to additional protective beings (e.g. on the coffins of Tutankhamun,
where they overlie the rishi feathers), examination of the earlier rishi masks and coffins
clearly show that the wings belong to the dead person.
5 Cairo CG 28109, cf. P. LACAU, Sarcophages antérieurs au Nouvel Empire (CCG;
Cairo, 1904), I, pl. xxiii.
6 From Asasif HC 41: N. REEVES and J.H. TAYLOR, Howard Carter before Tutankha-
mun (London, 1992), 100.
7 E.g. British Museum EA 29770 (A. DODSON, ‘A Funerary Mask in Durham’, 94-
95, with refs; pl. xiv.3; RUSSMAN, Eternal Egypt, 204-207 [106]) and Manchester 7931
(A. DODSON, ‘A Funerary Mask in Durham’, 98, pl. xv.4).
8 J.H. TAYLOR, ‘Coffins as Eevidence for a “North-South Divide” in the 22nd–25th
Dynasties’, in: G.P.F. BROEKMAN, R.J. DEMARÉE and O.E. KAPER (eds.), The Libyan
Period in Egypt. Historical and Cultural Studies into the 21st–24th Dynasties: Proceed-
ings of a conference at Leiden University, 25–27 October 2007 Egyptologische Uitgaven
23 (Leiden, 2009), 387-388, pls. ii-iii, v-vii, ix-xi.
9 E.g. J.H. TAYLOR, ‘Theban Coffins from the Twenty-second to the Twenty-sixth
Dynasty’, in: N. STRUDWICK and J. H. TAYLOR (eds.), The Theban Necropolis: Past,
Present and Future (London, 2003), pls. 46, 61, 64.
10 Durham Oriental Museum EG 733 (ex-W.Eg.F.1: A. DODSON, ‘A Funerary Mask in
Durham’, 84, 93-95, pl. xiv.1–2; A. DODSON, ‘Funerary Mask’, in: C. BARCLAY, R. GROCKE
and H. ARMSTRONG, Treasures of the Oriental Museum, Durham University (London,
2010), 134-135.
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TWO MUMMY-MASKS FROM THE DAWN OF THE NEW KINGDOM 335
A mask that presents an early stage of the debasement of the pure rishi
type is to be found in the World Museum, Liverpool, where it bears the
number M11020 (figs. 2-5).11 It came to the collection from that of Joseph
Mayer (1803-1886)12 in 1867, who had in turn apparently acquired the
piece from Joseph Sams (1784-1860),13 whose collection had been
formed in 1832/1833.14 63 cm high and 36.5 cm across the shoulders, at
first sight the mask seems to follow the pattern of the ‘pure’ rishi masks,
with its tiny face and heavy feathering, but closer inspection shows it to
be rather different.
A glance at the brow shows that, rather than being part of a bird, the
face is actually surmounted by a green-blue, yellow-striped, tripartite
wig. The wings actually overlie the wig and belong to a falcon that is
placed on the crown of the head, looking to the deceased’s right. Its tail
is draped down the back of the wig, the legs and talons splayed on either
side of the occiput. As such it follows the pattern of royal statues with
protective falcons behind their heads, such as the famous figure of Kha-
efre (Cairo CG 14).
Indeed, the mask is exceptionally well protected by divine figures. On
the rear, below the wig, is a goddess with outstretched wings; unfortu-
nately she bears no identifying insignia, but is presumably one of the
tutelary goddesses par excellence, Isis and Nephthys. Not only this, but
also the interior of the mask has a similar pair of goddesses protecting
11 V. SCHMIDT, Levende og døde i det gamle Ægypten: Album til ordnung af Sarkof-
ager, Mumiekister, Mumiehylstre o. lign (Copenhagen, 1919), 87 [457], states erroneously
that the piece is in Cairo; cf. DODSON, ‘A Funerary Mask in Durham’, 97, n.27; a similar
error is his placement in Cairo of the anthropoid coffin of Khnumhotep from Deir Rifeh,
now Edinburgh National Museums Scotland A.1909.713.5 (B. MANLEY and A. DODSON,
Life Everlasting: Ancient Egyptian Coffins [Edinburgh, 2010], 27-28 [2]). The mask had
otherwise only been included in C.T. GATTY, Catalogue of the Mayer Collection I: The
Egyptian Antiquities (Liverpool, 1877), 26 [131], where it is condemned as “Very late
period”, a fate shared by many “unusual” pieces over the years. Indeed, Manchester 7931
(see n. 7) long languished with a ‘Ptolemaic’ date and then a ‘sixth century BC’ date.
M11020 does not seem to feature in the 1852 catalogue of the Mayer collection (Anony-
mous, Egyptian Museum, No. VIII, Colquitt-Street, Liverpool [Liverpool, no date but
ca. 1852]) — but see n.14, below.
12 W.R. DAWSON, E.P. UPHILL and M.L. BIERBRIER, Who Was Who in Egyptology, 3rd
edition (London, 1995), 281-282.
13 Ibid. 372.
14 The mask seems to be the “Mask a very fine one ornamented with painted figures,
both inside and out and having also inscriptions. Perhaps about 3 feet in length, very
perfect and very curious” that appears as number 277 in the MS “Catalogue of Antiquities
from Ancient Egypt. Manuscript catalogue of the Egyptian collection which Mr Mayer
purchased from Mr Sams of Darlington” (Liverpool M12077). My thanks go to Dr Cooke
for this and other useful information, as well as permission to publish.
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336 A. DODSON
the face and back of the head of the once-enclosed mummy. Unfortu-
nately both are badly damaged and, at present, only the lower parts are
visible. The front goddess stands on a nb-sign, and wears a yellow dress
that ends just above the ankles (wearing two anklets); only the top part
of the legs and waist survives of the rear goddess. Newberry identified
them as Isis and Nephthys,15 but it is unclear whether this was based on
traces of insignia or was pure supposition. Such ‘interior’ goddesses are
seemingly without parallels in masks, although of course one finds cof-
fins and sarcophagi in which the dead person has a divine figure — often
Nut — above or below them.16
A pectoral in the form of a winged scarab is shown suspended on
substantial straps around the deceased’s neck, the straps extending across
the multi-row polychrome collar, with pendants around its lower margin.
The form of the pectoral itself has a number of parallels extending over
a long span of time.17 Finally, the area surrounding the pectoral is
adorned by columns of black text on a white background, giving a stand-
ard Ìtp dí nsw formula:
Ìtp dí nsw (n) sír Ìnty-ímnty n†r ¨
nb b∂w dí.f prt-Ìrw t ÌnÈt kw pdw ss mnÌt
sn†r mrÌt
Ìt a nbt nfr(t) wbt n ¨nÌ(t)
n†r ím b sn n k n
á µ
a Written with a in error for a
b Signs written out of order
The name of the deceased is missing; on first inspection, one might
have taken the view that it could have been broken away with the
‘tongue’ that once extended from the lower margin of the ‘bib’, which is
also missing from most known masks of this and related types.18 Cer-
tainly in the case of British Museum EA 29770 this resulted in the loss
15 On the museum record card.
16 She is regularly found on the floor or reverse of the lid from the New Kingdom
onwards, joined by Sokar during the latter part of the Third Intermediate Period.
17 E.g. Cairo JE 85790, JE 85787+85793+85797, JE 85788+85794+85799, JE
85789+85795+85799A: Pasebkhanut I cf. P. MONTET, La nécropole royale de Tanis II.
Les constructions et le tombeau de Psousennès à Tanis (Paris, 1951), pl. cxv-cxviii, 507-
510; it forms the central motif of JE 61948-49: Tutankhamun, cf. T.G.H. JAMES,
Tutankhamun (Vercelli, 2000), 224-225; C. ALDRED, Jewels of the Pharaohs: Egyptian
Jewellery of the Dynastic Period (London, 1971), pl. 93; JE 85785+85791+85796: Paseb-
khanut I cf. P. MONTET, Psousennès, pl. cxliv, 505.
18 Cf. A. DODSON, ‘A Funerary Mask in Durham’, pls. xiv.1-3, xv.4.
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