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ANCIENT HISTORY:
RESOURCES FOR TEACHERS
ANCIENT HISTORY:
RESOURCES FOR TEACHERS
Vol. 38 No. 1 - 2008
Reviews Editor:
Dr C.E.V. Nixon
Reviews Assistant
Editor:
Dr Peter Keegan
Editorial Assistant:
Anne Irish
CONTENTS
Parts 1 & 2
Bruce Harris
Boyo Ockinga
Graham Joyner
38
Lea Beness
and Tom Hillard
56
Bill Leadbetter
84
Rosalinde Kearsley
89
Tom Hillard
Edwin Judge
153
Doug Kelly
171
Notes on Contributors
Bruce Harris
Boyo Ockinga
Editor, 19941995
Graham Joyner
Editor, 19911993
Lea Beness
Editor, 2005
Tom Hillard
Bill Leadbetter
Editor, 19961998
Rosalinde Kearsley
Editor, 19881991
Edwin Judge
Editor, 1980
Doug Kelly
Editor, 19731974
EDITORIAL
Girls High. After formally retiring she worked for the Department of
Education on a part-time consultative basis for three more years. Until 2009
she worked for short periods each year for the University Admissions Centre
assessing applications from disadvantaged students for special admission to
university. Margaret was also a long-serving Secretary of the Macquarie
Ancient History Association during which time she carried an enormous load
since divided into a number of portfolios.
Here we mark our appreciation of Margaret by having former editors of the
journal offer diverse contributions, covering Egyptian, Greek and Roman
topics, the universitys Museum of Ancient Cultures, the aims of tertiary
education and Reception Studies. This collection also offers the opportunity
for another fond remembrance. In the last week of his life, Graham Joyner,
editor from 1991 to 1993, gave very gladly his permission to have a new
collection of his earlier notes on various objects in the then Macquarie
University Ancient History Teaching Collection added to this bouquet for
Margaret. The contribution is a timely reminder of Graham Joyners legacy
in that most of the objects described were on loan from his own private
collection and are now part of the Museums holdings. I know that Margaret
will especially value his contribution.
Margaret Beattie was unable, because of ongoing illness, to contribute an
independent offering in the collection, but joins me here in wishing Margaret
Parker all the best for future years.
J. Lea Beness
Editor
Pre-Amarna Ideas
y the time of the New Kingdom, Egyptian ideas of the afterlife had
become rather complex, the result of new concepts being added to the
range of existing beliefs rather than replacing older ones, producing what
Henri Frankfort has defined as a multiplicity of approaches. 1
There are three main concepts that co-existed: a continuation of life on earth
in the tomb, a celestial afterlife and an afterlife in the netherworld, the realm
of Osiris. They are summed up in a popular wish found in New Kingdom
funerary inscriptions from the time of Thutmosis IV onwards that the
deceased may have Ax m p.t n.y Ra.w, wsr m tA n.y Gbb, mAa xrw m imn.tyt n.t
Wsir spirit-being in the heaven of Re, power on the earth of Geb and
justification in the West of Osiris. 2 In the New Kingdom we also encounter
the concept of going forth by day.
1. Continuation of life on earth in the tomb
In the Old Kingdom, the dominant and well attested concept is that the
deceased, having gone through a process of transfiguration conducted by the
lector priest and become an effective spirit 3 (akh iker), continued to live on
earth; the tomb is the house of eternity, and all the deceaseds necessaries
of life are provided for in a material formfood offerings, but also clothing,
jewellery, furniture etc. The actual items are placed in the tomb, but their
provision is also guaranteed by having them, and the production of them,
depicted in scenes that cover the walls of the tomb chapels.
1
2
17
The focal point of the Old Kingdom tomb was the false door, which is where
the physical offerings were placed, the idea being that the ka 4 of the deceased
could come up from the burial chamber and receive the offerings that had
been placed on the offering slab at the foot of the false door. This idea of the
deceased coming through the door is graphically represented in tombs such
as that of Neferseshemptah at Saqqara and the idea of him coming up from
the burial chamber even more graphically depicted in the tomb of Idu at Giza
(Fig. 1).
The ka is the life-force of a person; it is what differentiates a living person from a corpse. It
is nourished by food (also called ka) and is re-united with the body after death. Going to
ones ka (WB III, 430.1, 2) is a euphemism for dying.
18
In the Old and Middle Kingdoms the need for these physical objects was also
met by providing the deceased with models of the various production
processes. 5
This view of an afterlife in which the spirits of the deceased dwelled in their
tombs and were there provided for with all the material necessaries of life is
also revealed in the funerary inscriptions of the Old Kingdom: An offering,
which the king gives, an invocation offering for NN (consisting of bread,
beer, oxen and fowl). Sometimes additional comments are added stating that
the offering is to be made in his tomb chapel of the necropolis in the western
cemetery 6 or requesting that the offerings be made at various festivals, that
are then listed. There are some texts that even state where the offerings are to
come fromthe grain from the granaries and the textiles from the treasury of
the residence 7 which makes it quite clear that we are dealing with earthly,
material matters here.
The idea that ones afterlife was spent in the tomb is also reflected in an
offering formula such as An offering which the king gives, a goodly burial
in the necropolis of the western cemetery, he being followed by his kas to his
tomb of the necropolis. 8
The basic concept that one needed these physical things can be followed back
into pre-historic times, when the range of goods placed in the tomb was very
much smaller than in the Old Kingdom 9 and forward into the New Kingdom,
when the deceased were still provided with all the material necessaries of
life. 10
2. The Concept of a Celestial Afterlife
In the Old Kingdom an important element of royal funerary beliefs was the
concept of the king ascending to the sky to join the sun-god, where he could
enjoy a celestial afterlife. Although texts of non-royal persons sometimes
refer to them crossing heaven, as the clause that follows makes clear, this is
a reference to crossing a body of water on earth to reach the necropolis:
Crossing the heaven in great peace, and going forth to the top of the
5
6
7
8
9
10
See, e.g., J. Taylor, Death and the Afterlife in Ancient Egypt (London 2001) 99107.
G. Lapp, Die Opferformel des Alten Reiches unter Bercksichtigung einiger spterer
Formen. DAI Kairo Sonderschrift 21 (Mainz 1986) 181.
Lapp (n.6) 184.
Lapp (n.6) 152.
See, e.g., the well-known reconstructed Naqada II burial illustrated in Taylor (n.5) fig. 2.
For excavation photographs of the objects in situ, see P. Racanicchi (ed.), Fotografi in
Terra dEgitto (Turin 1991) pls. 7274.
19
Strudwick (n.3) 210, Text 124; cf. also 213, Text 126.
Strudwick (n.3) 215, Text 130 and p. 216.
Lapp (n.6) 115.
A. de Buck, The Egyptian Coffin Texts vol. III (Chicago 1947) 61a, fg.
de Buck (n.14) 115b, gh.
20
As in the Middle Kingdom Coffin Texts, in the Book of the Dead we also
find a number of spells that deal with the transformation of the deceased into
various creatures that ascend to the sky, for example Spell 77, which enables
the deceased to take on the form of a golden falcon. At the end of the spell
the deceased says I dwell amongst those great gods of heaven; the two fields
of offerings are dedicated to me. 17
3. An afterlife in the otherworld, the realm of Osiris
The concept of an afterlife in an otherworld dominated by Osiris is wellattested from the Middle Kingdom onwards, when we encounter it in the
Coffin Texts. This otherworldly realm is sometimes located in the
netherworld, but some texts, for example, The Book of Two Ways locate it in
the sky. 18
To gain entry to the realm of Osiris the deceased needed to be judged before
the court of Osiris. Our earliest references to a general judgement of the dead
are found in the Middle Kingdom; in the Coffin Texts we find the concept of
weighing in the balance on the day of judging characters 19 but it is in the
Teaching for King Merikare that we have the first clear reference to weighing
up the deeds of a person:
16
17
18
19
Translation of the version of the text on the linen shroud of the lady Teny; B. Ockinga, An
18th Dynasty Inscribed Linen Shroud, in K. Sowada and B. Ockinga (eds), Egyptian Art in
the Nicholson Museum suppl. to Mediterranean Archaeology (Sydney 2006) 179189.
p. BM 10477; E.A. Wallis Budge, The Book of the Dead. The chapters of Coming Forth by
Day (London 1898) 165; G. Lapp, The Papyrus of Nu. Catalogue of the Books of the Dead
in the British Museum (London 1997) pl. 27.
de Buck (n.14), 252521; E. Hornung, The Ancient Egyptian Books of the Afterlife, Engl.
transl. by D. Lorton (Ithaca and London 1999) 912; A. Piankoff, The Wandering of the
Soul. Egyptian Religious Texts and Representations 6. Bolingen Series XL:6, ed. by H.
Jacquet-Gordon (Princeton 1974).
de Buck (n.14) 181ce; R.O. Faulkner, The Ancient Egyptian Coffin Texts vol. I
(Warminster 1973) 35.
21
The best known version of the judgement is, of course, to be found in chapter
125 of the Book of the Dead. 21 Life in the otherworld was in many ways
envisioned like life in this worldit was expected that one would have to do
agricultural work, the theme of Chapter 110 of the Book of the Dead, 22 as
well as less pleasant corve work, for which one was equipped with shabtis,
worker figurines, who would do the task in ones place. 23 It was also hoped
that the social network to which one belonged in this life would continue to
exist in the nextin the Middle Kingdom Coffin Texts there are spells that
are intended to reunite a person in the netherworld with their family. 24
4. Going forth by Day
In the New Kingdom, the concept of the deceased going forth by day
becomes a central aspect of belief in the afterlife. 25 Going forth by day is in
fact the Egyptian title of the Book of the Dead. In this context the ba plays a
new and central role. We first encounter the ba of the non-royal person in the
First Intermediate Period and the Middle Kingdom, but it is in the New
Kingdom that it plays a prominent role.
In the New Kingdom it is the ba of the deceased that is able to escape the
confines of the burial chamber and leave the tomb to enjoy the light and air.
The ba is able to join the barque of the sun-god and travel with him across
the sky, but it also enjoys the garden of the tomb, 26 as many texts express, for
example, in Theban Tomb 110 of the Royal Butler Djehuty (time of
Hatshepsut/Thutmosis III):
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
Merikare P5357; M. Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature. vol. I: The Old and Middle
Kingdoms (Berkeley, Los Angeles, London 1973) 101.
For a translation see, e.g., M. Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature. vol. III: The New
Kingdom (Berkeley, Los Angeles, London 1976) 12432.
R.O. Faulkner, The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead (London 1985) 103108 where
vignettes illustrating the fields of the hereafter are included.
Taylor (n.5) 112135.
Spells 131 and 136, Faulkner (n.19) 113, 116.
See J. Assmann, Death and Salvation in Ancient Egypt (Ithaca and London 2005) 209234.
L. abka, Ba, in W. Helck and E. Otto (eds), Lexikon der gyptologie I (Wiesbaden 1975)
5890, where the ba is defined as the personification of the vital forces, physical as well as
psychic, of the deceased, his alter ego, one of the modes of existence in which he continues
to live after death, just as he lives fully as akh, ka, shadow and mummified body.
22
The funerary texts also refer to the ba's freedom of movement, as in Theban
Tomb 72 of Re, priest in the memorial temple of Thutmosis III (time of
Amenhotep II):
transforming into a living ba
to eat what is given him on earth,
going in and out of the tomb/netherworld (imH.t)
striding freely out through the gates of the netherworld. 29
28
29
30
31
The deceased drinking at his pool in the shade of a sycamore personified as a goddess is a
very well attested scene in the tombs of the New Kingdom (see B. Porter and R. Moss with
E. Burney, Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Reliefs
and Paintings. I. The Theban Necropolis Part I. Private Tombs [Oxford, 2nd ed. 1960]
47273 for references to the Theban tombs that include the scene). We also encounter the
tree goddess in Book of the Dead Spell 59, where she is located in the skyFaulkner,
Egyptian Book of the Dead (London 1985) 678.
Assmann (n.25) 216.
Assmann (n.25) 216.
For Spell 146 and Book of the Dead illustrations of the gates and their keepers, see R.O.
Faulkner (n.22) 13436; 13839.
For Spell 92, see Faulkner (n.22) 90 with a vignette from the papyrus of Ani (BM 1074)
showing Ani and his ba leaving the tomb. For ch. 91, see Faulkner (n.22) 89 with the
vignette from the papyrus of Nakht (BM 10471) showing Nakht and his ba returning to the
tomb. Note too the tree, representing the garden of the tomb.
23
making transformations into a living ba that he may see his house of the living,
so as to be a protection to his children daily, forever and ever. 32
The theme is expressed even more clearly in Theban Tomb 82 of the vizier
Amenemhet (time of Thutmosis III):
May you open the mountain of the necropolis,
that you may see your house of the living,
that <you> may hear the sound of singing and music in your dwelling in this land,
that you may protect your children for ever and ever. 33
36
K. Sethe (ed.), Urkunden des gyptischen Altertums IV. Urkunden der 18. Dynastie (Berlin
and Graz 1961) 491.710.
N. de G. Davies and A.H. Gardiner, Tomb of Amenemhet (London 1915) pl. XXVII;
Assmann (n.25) 219.
Faulkner (n.22) 121 with illustration on p. 124 from the papyrus of Nebamun (BM 9964)
showing the owner in front of his house on earth.
E.F. Wente, Letters from Ancient Egypt (Atlanta 1990) 21019; M. ODonoghue, The
Letters to the Dead and Ancient Egyptian Religion, Bulletin of the Australian Centre for
Egyptology 10 (1999) 87104.
R.J. Demaree, The Ax iqr n Ra-Stelae. On Ancestor Worship in Ancient Egypt
Egyptologische Uitgaven III (Leiden 1983).
24
The other area of this life in which, in the New Kingdom, the dead hoped to
participate were festivals celebrated by the living, as attested by textual
sources. 38
Even from this brief survey one can observe just how complex Egyptian
funerary beliefs were by the time of the New Kingdom. We also note the
very obvious mythological nature of many of the conceptsa host of deities,
great and small, are involvedOsiris, Re, Anubis, Thoth, Horus, Hathor, Nut
just to name a few of the more important ones.
Amarna Afterlife
Considering the far-reaching changes in religion introduced by Akhenaten
one would expect to find concepts of the afterlife similarly affected. The
tombs of Akhenatens officials at Amarna provide us with almost all of the
data available to reconstruct the concept of the afterlife of non-royals at this
time and have formed the basis of earlier studies on the subject. 39
37
38
39
25
A situation that affects the range of data available from the tombs should be
noted at the outset, namely the fact that the construction of many of the
Amarna tombs was never completed; in addition, it is generally the inner part
of the chapel, where we would expect to find most of the funerary material,
that is incomplete. Even in cases where their architecture had been
completed, in most cases their decoration was not. But there are one or two
exceptions, for example, the tomb of Huya.
When one examines the reliefs in Huyas tomb, the first thing that one notes
is the total absence of any mythological representations. The only deity who
appears is the Aton, who is represented in a very abstract way. We also note
that the king and royal family appear frequently in the scenes, as does the
temple of the Aten in Akhenatens new city, Akhetaten. (Fig. 2)
Fig. 2 Tomb of Huya East Wall (after Davies, The Rock Tombs of El Amarna III pl. VIII detail)
26
In the shrine, where one would expect material of a funerary nature, we have
processions of offering bearers and mourners and scenes showing the
deceased receiving offerings. (Figs 3 and 4) There is nothing of a
mythological nature in any of these representations. Huya is shown in
mummiform, but this does not necessarily have any Osirid implications
mummification was still practised but with the practical aim of ensuring that
the body be preserved, a desire also expressed in the texts, as in the tomb of
May: Open your eyes so as to see him, that your body may endure. 40
Another tomb in which the shrine has some decoration is that of Any. As one
approaches the shrine one can see the large engaged statue of the tomb-owner
(Fig. 5); the walls are decorated with painted scenes rather than ones carved
in relief (Figs 6 and 7) and they show the tomb-owner seated at an offering
table; that is, the situation is comparable to that in the tomb of Huyaagain
there is no material of a mythological nature.
As interesting as these scenes are, the iconographic data alone are not all that
informative; we need to turn to the texts, to get a better idea of what the
Amarna concept of afterlife was like. In the tomb of Huya, on the east
thickness of the doorway into the shrine, we read the following:
40
M. Sandman, Texts from the Time of Akhenaten, BiAe VIII (Brussels 1938) 60, line 15; W.
Murnane, Texts from the Amarna Period in Egypt (Atlanta 1995) 145.
27
28
Here we have a clear reference to the ba and the implication is that it dwells
in the tomb and receives offerings there.
Another inscription in Huyas tomb is also informative (the same text is also
found in the tomb of Pentu):
May you let me be eternally in a position of favour in my house of
justification; may my ba go forth [to see] your rays and to feed from its
offerings. May one call my name and may one (the ba?) come at the call; may
I partake of the things that come forth from [the presence (i.e., the temple),
may I eat bread, cakes, offering loaves, jugs (of beer),] roast (meat), cooked
(food), cool water, wine and milk, all that comes forth [from the Mansion of
the Aten in Akhet-Aten]. 42
According to this text the ba leaves the tomb to see the Aten. It is invoked by
calling the name of the tomb owner and it receives sustenance from the
offerings made in the temple of the Aten in Akhet-Aten.
In the tomb of Pentu, on the south thickness of the entrance, there is another
wish that is appended to the hymn to the Aten:
May you grant that I may rest in my place of eternity (tomb), that I may unite
with (my) cavern of eternity (burial chamber), that I may go forth and come in
to my mansion (tomb) without my ba being restrained from that which it
desires, that I may stroll as my heart prompts in all its (the tombs) groves
which I made on earth, that I may drink at the edge of my pool each day
without ceasing. 43
Again, we see here that the ba has a central place and that the concepts of the
ba entering and leaving the tomb and spending time in its garden are also
present.
41
42
43
N. de G. Davies, The Rock Tombs of El Amarna Part III (London 1905) pl. XX; Sandman
(n.40) 41; Murnane (n.40) 139.
N. de G. Davies (n.41) pl. II; Sandman (n.40) 34; Murnane (n.40) 131; Assmann (n.25)
218.
N. de G. Davies, The Rock Tombs of El Amarna Part IV (London 1906) pl. IV; Sandman
(n.40) 49; Murnane (n.40) 181; Assmann (n.25) 218.
29
In a text inscribed on the ceiling of the entrance to the tomb of Tutu we read
the following:
You (the tomb-owner) will stand at dawn in your place of eternity to see the
Aten when he rises; may you purify yourself and put on clothing in the same
manner as when you were on earth. 44
Here we see clearly that life after death was seen to be a continuation of life
on earth; one wished to do the same sorts of things as one did formerly. It is
the Aten who revives the deceased:
May you adore the Aten so that he may grant you breath, so that his rays may
rejuvenate your body, so that you may raise yourself and forget weariness as
he vivifies your face through the sight of him. 45
The deceased then goes to the temple, where he worships the Aten:
May you follow Aten, like his favoured ones, in the courtyard of the Mansion
of the Benben, that you may worship his rays when you are in the place of
truth. 46
Once we realise just how central the temple was for an afterlife in Amarna
it was the place to which the deceased went when he woke in the morning,
where he could worship the god and be in the kings presenceit is
understandable why so much of the decoration in all the Amarna tombs is
taken up by representations of the temple.
In Amarna the king clearly plays a central role in funerary beliefs; it is he
who grants the official a burial, as is regularly stated in the inscriptions, such
as that of Ay quoted above. In a prayer addressed to the Aten and the king,
Merire says:
44
45
46
47
N. de G. Davies, The Rock Tombs of El Amarna Part VI (London 1908) pl. XIV; Sandman
(n.40) 72, line 8; Murnane (n.40) 188.
Davies (n.44) pl. XIV; Sandman (n.40) 72, line 10; Murnane (n.40) 1889.
Davies (n.44) pl. XIV; Sandman (n.40) 72, line 13; Murnane (n.40) 189.
Davies (n.44) pls XXVIII, XLI; Sandman (n.40) 93, lines 1011; Murnane (n.40) 112.
30
48
49
50
51
52
53
N. de G. Davies, The Rock Tombs of El Amarna Part I (London 1903) pl. XXXV; Sandman
(n.40) 5, 1011; Murnane (n.40) 156.
Davies (n.48) pl. XXXV; Sandman (n.40) 5, 1415; Murnane (n.40) 156.
Erman (n.39) 126.
Hornung (n.39) 102.
R. Anthes, Die Maat des Echnaton JAOS Suppl. 14 (Baltimore 1952) 27.
Davies (n.44) pl. XXXIII; Sandman (n.40) 100, 1315; Murnane (n.40) 119.
31
of his teaching, but his favour is for the one who knows him, according as you
obey the king, your lord ///. 54
Unfortunately the text is rather damaged, but enough survives to make it very
clear that a good burial, and by implication an afterlife, is dependent on being
obedient to the king.
The texts in the tombs of the courtiers at Amarna often refer to the kings
teaching and the officials emphasise that they are obedient to his
instruction. This teaching no doubt embraced the new Amarna theology,
which dealt with not just the god Aten but also the position of the king. 55 In
Amarna, then, the judgement takes place not in the afterworld but in this
world, and it is the king who sits in judgement, for one is judged according to
whether or not one was loyal and obedient to him and his teaching. In another
text from his tomb Tutu is at pains to emphasise that he was just this:
I do not do what his majesty hates, my abomination is untruthfulness in my
innermost being, it being the great abomination of Waenre (the king). I lift up
maat to his majesty since I know he lives off it, for you are Re, who created
maat. /// my voice was not loud in the kings house; I did not swagger about in
the palace; I did not receive a wrongful reward so as to suppress truth falsely,
but I did what is right (maat) for the king, what I did is what he charged me
with. /// I did not place falsehood within me when I was before him in the
palace ///the praised ones. He rises to teach me every day in as much as I carry
out his teaching, no evil deed of mine being found /// the teaching of the Lord
of the Two Lands. 56
When it is recognised just how central the king was in funerary beliefs it is
no longer surprising that he should appear so frequently in the Amarna
tombs; there is hardly a wall that does not have a scene in which the king and
the royal family play a central role.
There are some relicts of the old funerary beliefs that also need to be
considered.
1. The concept of the netherworld (dat)
In the texts of the Amarna tombs only two references to dat, the
netherworld, are known to me. One comes from a door jamb in the tomb of
Meryre: May he (the Aten) grant power on earth, effectiveness in the
54
55
56
Davies (n.44) pl. XXI; Sandman (n.40) 86; Murnane (n.40) 198.
J. Assmann, Die loyalistische Lehre Echnatons, Studien zur altgyptischen Kultur 8
(1980) 132.
Davies (n.44) pl. XV; Sandman (n.40) 7677; Murnane (n.40) 192.
32
netherworld (dat) and that the ba may go forth that it may refresh itself in the
tomb. 57 The other is in one of the ceiling inscriptions in the pillared hall of
the tomb of Ay:
May your children of your house [lib]ate for you (with) bread, beer, water and
air for your ka, you having stridden freely through the gates of the
netherworld (dat) that you may see Re at dawn at his appearing in the eastern
horizon and that you may see the Aten at his setting in the western horizon of
heaven. 58
Since it is encountered so rarely and all the other texts locate the resting place
of the deceased in the tomb itself, there is a fair degree of likelihood that we
should understand dat here as referring to the burial chamber of the tomb
rather than to the netherworld proper. One could draw a parallel with a text in
the tomb of Pentu:
May you grant that I may rest in my place of everlastingness, that I may unite
with my cavern (TpH.t) of eternity, that I may go forth and enter within my
tomb without my ba being restrained from that which he desires (where TpH.t
59
cavern probably refers to the subterranean burial chamber).
I would see the situation a little differently. The form of the shabtis is not
really the problem, since it need not necessarily be linked to Osiris but could
simply represent the deceased in mummiform; as such, their role is best
understood as being that which funerary figurines originally had, before it
57
58
59
60
61
Davies (n.48) pl. XXXIV; Sandman (n.40) 4.1213; Murnane (n.40) 155C.
Davies (n.44) pl. XXXIII; Sandman (n.40) 101.1518; Murnane (n.40) 120.
Davies (n.43) pl. IV; Sandman (n.40) 49.34; Murnane (n.40) 181.
G.T. Martin, Shabtis of Private Persons in the Amarna Period, Mitteilungen des deutschen
archologischen Instituts, Kairo 42 (1986) 109129, esp. 110.
Ibid.
33
was focussed on freeing the deceased from onerous tasks in the netherworld,
namely to serve as a substitute body. 62 For in Amarna the preservation of the
body after death was also important, 63 and the funerary procession in which
the mummy was taken to the tomb is also attested in a ceiling text in the tomb
of Ay: May you join your place of eternity, may your mansion of eternity
receive you, ox(en) 64 dragging you, an embalmer(?) and lector-priest in front
of you, the (way of) the boat 65 having been purified with milk. 66 Martin
groups the shabtis into five classes; of those that are attributed to the Amarna
period proper, A, C and D are unproblematic: Class A shabtis bear a version
of the funerary formula text and provide the identity of the owner; Class C
shabtis have only the title and name of the owner and those of Class D are
uninscribed. Unusual are those of Class B, which include forms of the
traditional shabti text, which calls upon the shabti to take the place of the
deceased when he or she is summonsed, usually to do unpleasant work in the
netherworld. One of them, that of (I)py (Martin no. 6), does not specify what
he might be called upon to do; the other, belonging to the songstress in the
temple of the Aten Hat-sherit (Martin no. 7), lists the tasks that the shabti
might be summoned to do: to plant the fields, to water the riparian land, to
transport sand of the east to the west. This is indeed unusual, since it is a
clear reference to a life in the traditional other world, whereas the vast
majority of the Amarna tomb texts only speak of a continued existence in this
world. The shabtis of Class E, described as being contemporary or near
contemporary to the Amarna Period, all bear the traditional shabti text of
Book of the Dead Ch. 6; none are definitely provenanced to Amarna, but
several belonged to owners who had tombs at Amarna: Ay, Merire and Huy.
How can Amarna funerary beliefs be characterised on the basis of the
evidence?
62
63
64
65
66
Taylor (n.5) 11213. This role of the funerary figurine in Amarna is also highlighted in a
recent insightful study by K. Widmaier, Totenfiguren ohne Totenreich. berlegungen zu
den kniglichen Uschebti aus Amarna, in Miscellanea in honorem Wolfhart Westendorf,
GM Beihefte Nr. 3 (Gttingen 2008) 153160, esp. 15556.
Hornungs suggestion ([n.39] 126) that in Amarna the mummy had no role to play is
questionable; as mentioned above, in the tomb of Huya, one of the few where the
decoration of the shrine has been completed, he is shown in mummiform, and Amarna texts
(see references in n.40) also indicate that the preservation of the body was desired. On the
significance of the body in the afterlife in Amarna, see also Widmaier (n.62) 156.
Down to the late 18th Dynasty both oxen as well as cows are depicted pulling the sledge,
thereafter cows are predominantly attested J. Settgast, Untersuchungen zu altgyptischen
Bestattungsdarstellungen (Glckstadt,Hamburg,NewYork 1963) 3334.
The boat mentioned here refers to the boat on a sledge on which the coffin is transported.
Sandman (n.40) 101, 78; Murnane (n.40) 119. On the purification of the path on which the
sledge is dragged with milk, see Settgast (n.64) 34.
34
The problem with the evidence of the shabtis of Martins Class B is the same
as that attached to the objects found at Amarna that illustrate the worship of
the traditional godshow are they to be dated? One has to reckon with them
belonging to the late phase or the immediate post-Amarna Period when
earlier, extreme views were relaxed or old beliefs reintroduced; stylistically
they certainly do not belong to the extreme Amarna phase. 67
Our most reliable data is that provided by the material from the tombs, since
the latter can be securely dated to the reign of Akhenaten. This evidence
allows us to reconstruct the following picture:
1.
2.
3.
4.
67
68
69
70
On the various phases of Amarna art, see S. Wenig, Amarna-Kunst, in W. Helck and E.
Otto (eds), Lexikon der gyptologie I (Wiesbaden 1975) 174181.
Apart from the two references mentioned above from the tombs of Meryre and Ay, where
dat probably refers to the burial chamber of the tomb.
The text on the shabti of Py in the translation of Murnane would seem to be an isolated
example of an Amarna text with the idea of ascending into the heavens (Sandman [n.40]
177.9; Murnane [n.40] 182, no. 81): May you go forth into the sky on the arm of the living
Aten. However, the phrase should be read with the preceding phrase: ss(n) TAw nDm n.y
mHy.t pri.t m p.t Hr a.w pA Itn anx To breathe the sweet breeze of the north wind, which
comes from the sky on the arm of the living Aten. Murnanes translation would require pri
+ preposition r, not m. Martin (n.60) 115 has the correct translation.
On this concept of the afterlife, which in effect involves the removal of the boundary
between this life and the next, see C. Reiche (n.39) with references to further literature.
35
What has effectively happened is that funerary beliefs return, more or less, to
a situation comparable with that which existed in the early Old Kingdom,
where they revolved around the king and an afterlife that was located in this
world, centred on the tomb. 71
The move to again place the king at the centre of this system parallels the
changes that Akhenaten made to the dogma of kingship and the place of the
king in religion in general, and personal religion in particular, where he is the
intermediary between the individual and the deity. 72 This posited return by
Akhenaten to earlier funerary concepts is also consistent with the above
interpretation of the Amarna funerary figurines, which sees them as having
their earlier, broader function of serving as a substitute body rather than their
narrower role of freeing the deceased from unwelcome tasks in the other
world.
In the area of funerary beliefs Akhenaten is also a reformer, but we note that
to a large extent his reforms aim not so much at introducing radical new ideas
as at returning to an earlier state of affairs and removing the accretions of the
intervening centuries.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Anthes, R., Die Maat des Echnaton JAOS Suppl. 14 (Baltimore 1952) 27.
Assmann, J., Die loyalistische Lehre Echnatons, Studien zur
altgyptischen Kultur 8 (1980) 132.
Assmann, J., Death & Salvation in Ancient Egypt (Ithaca and London 2005).
Barta, W., Aufbau und Bedeutung der altgyptischen Opferformel
gyptologische Forschungen 24 (Glckstadt 1968).
Buck, A. de, The Egyptian Coffin Texts vol. III (Chicago 1947).
Budge, E.A. Wallis, The Book of the Dead. The Chapters of Coming Forth by
Day (London 1898).
Davies, N. de G., The Rock Tombs of El Amarna Part I (London 1903).
______ The Rock Tombs of El Amarna Part III (London 1905).
71
72
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37