Valentine's Day: Love is in the air

When I hold my love close
(and her arms steal around me),
I'm like a man translated to Punt
or like someone out in the reedflats
When the whole world suddenly bursts into flower.
In this dreamland of South Sea fragrances,
My love, you are essence of roses.

New Kingdom Love Song (translated by JL Foster).

The ancient Egyptians were clearly not totally morbid people, but like us lived and hoped and loved. So here we have a 'bouquet' of three items associated with love in the Egypt Centre:

AB23, part of a faience sistrum showing the goddess Hathor. Hathor was goddess of drunkeness and love, a gentle contrast to Sekhemet. For more information on this object follow this link: http://www.egypt.swansea.ac.uk/index.php/collection/75-ab23

W961p. A pendant from Amarna showing the deity Bes with tamborine. Bes often appears with Taweret in scenes associated with childbirth. You can find more about this object by following this link: http://www.egypt.swansea.ac.uk/index.php/collection/26-w961p

W1150. A ring bezel, again from Amarna, showing a nude or scantily clad musician with monkey. The figure and monkey are both associated with eroticism. For more information on this item follow this link: http://www.egypt.swansea.ac.uk/index.php/collection/40-w1150

Children's Workshops Coming Up

Our volunteer assistant education officer, Sally Fung has been working really hard recently to organise our children's workshops for half term. Depending on which day children choose they can become an archaeologist for the day, learn about animals in ancient Egypt, and of course carry out a mummification on our dummy mummy.

If you want to know more follow on this link:
http://www.egypt.swansea.ac.uk/index.php/events/424-february-half-term-holiday-workshop

Remember you need to book in advance.

10th anniversary celebrations of Young Egyptologists Workshops - Wendy organising celebrations!

Wendy Goodridge has been very busy organising the celebrations for a whole 10 years of Egypt Centre Young Egyptologists Workshops. It was Wendy's aim to make sure that we targetted all groups and these workshops were specifically for Community First Areas. Children learnt literacy and numeracy but more importantly were given greater confidence through the fun, Egypt related activities such as practising embalming on our dummy mummy, playing the ancient game of Senet and handling real ancient Egyptian objects. And how successful they have been. They were even instrumental in the Egypt Centre being runner up in the widening participation section of the Times Higher Education Annual Awards (though we think we should have won!).

You can find out more about the workshops here:
http://www.egypt.swan.ac.uk/index.php/out-of-school-hours-learning/385-young-egyptologist-workshop

And, if you would like to come along to the celebrations let Wendy know.

A centipede, hedgehog or gazelle?

I have been looking anew at W1155a. It is a faience ring bezel (the decorative part of a ring) and comes from the 'Coronation Hall' at Amarna. But what is the motif? It was catalogued in the Egypt Centre around 1997 as showing a centipede (if you imagine it 'upside down' you can see why. I later thought it was a hedgehog. I now think it is a badly executed gazelle with palm branch. This would make it appropriate for the start of a new year. The palm branch symbolised newness or vigour. But, I am not 100% certain. Any further ideas appreciated.

There is more on it here:

http://www.egypt.swansea.ac.uk/index.php/collection/25-w1155a

Mandrake fruit

I have been putting mandrake related items on the Egypt Centre website and noted that not only do we have at least one mandrake amulet from Amarna, shown above, but also several pieces of wall plaster from the North Riverside Palace. The North Riverside Palace was possibly the main royal residence at the site (Kemp 2006, 284).

Kemp, B. 2006 Ancient Egypt. Anatomy of A Civilisation.

You can see more of our mandrake items at:
http://www.egypt.swansea.ac.uk/index.php/collection/398-mandrake

The missing lion- now found!

EC451 is the head of a figure of a lion deity measuring 3cm in height. The artefact has a hole in the top of its head, presumably for the insertion of a headdress. There are traces of an inked number on the bottom of the piece but it is too damaged to read. 

A very similar, piece is described as coming from a room of a house in Meroe (See Török 1997, Vol 1, 205 and Vol. 2 pl. 168, below). This was one of the pieces Török couldn't track down. The item in the Török volume is illustrated from a Garstang photograph and is so similar to EC451 that it is assumed that EC451 is the same item. Many thanks to the Garstang Museum of Archaeology, University of Liverpool for permission to use this photograph below/left. However, EC451 is much worn compared to the original photograph and there thus remains a slight possibility that the two are different items, though in my opinion, very slight. I think we have the missing lion. 





Most of the items from this area of the house in the Meroe volume appear to be temple furniture or statues of divinities and personal ornaments. Török (1997, 1.205) describes the piece as probably Early Napatan, which dates it to 450-250BC.


The chief lion deity at Meroe was Apedmek, perhaps a form of Amun. It seems likely that this is the deity represented by this faience head.


EC451 was thus probably excavated by Garstang during his 1909-1914 excavations. As far as can be ascertained, the item came to Swansea University in 1971 along with the rest of the Wellcome items which now make up the core of the Egypt Centre, Swansea collection. However, it is not clear how the item was obtained by Sir Henry Wellcome. Various artefacts were given to subscribers to the excavation. The Egypt Centre has a handful of other artefacts from Meroe which are also from Garstang’s excavations. At least some of these were purchased by Sir Henry Wellcome from the MacGregor collection, part of which was sold in 1922 (Sotheby 1922, lot 1321). It is possible that this constitutes one of those items, though the item is not specifically described in the catalogue. It may, therefore, alternatively have either been given to Wellcome for subscription to the Meroe excavations, or may have been purchased from another collection.

We also have other stuff from Meroe, see: http://www.egypt.swansea.ac.uk/index.php/collection/310-meroe



References

Sotheby, Wilkinson and Hodge. 1922. Catalogue of the MacGregor Collection of Egyptian Antiquities, London. 

Török, L. 1997. Meroe City. An Ancient African Capital. John Garstang's Excavations in the Sudan. London: Egypt Exploration Society.  

Amduat scene

Been trying to find out a bit more about this scene. It's a fragment of a Third Intermediate Period coffin. I thought the scene was quite unusual.

It shows the sun-disc with arms embracing the scarab. On either side there is an ankh and the symbols for East and West. At the bottom is the hieroglyph showing the rising sun.

As far as I can tell this shows the last hour of the Amduat. The deceased (evoked by the scarab) travels through the Amduat to be reborn with the new sun. Liptay has written on this.

I only know of one other occurence on a coffin (a coffin from Budapest), does anyone know of more?

For more information see: http://www.egypt.swansea.ac.uk/index.php/collection/300-w648