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The Middle Kingdom Sources and Its Contribution to the Study of Household Religion in Ancient Egypt

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Beyond the obvious: the Middle Kingdom sources and its contribution to the study of household religion in ancient Egypt Susana Mota CHAM, FCSH, Universidade NOVA de Lisboa F RELIGION is one of the most prolific and analysed domains of Egyptian civilization, household religion – the set of religious practices that took place at home – is, in contrast, I one of the least studied. Victim of the numerous difficulties involved in its analysis, household religion has been relegated to the sidelines by scholars and its presence in the bibliography is residual1. Household religion is usually understood as just another element of a broader set which, among other designations, can be named personal piety2. Concerning space and time, household religion is seen as a religious phenomenon only possible to analyse from New Kingdom onwards, and where Deir el-Medina and Tell el-Amarna, while suppliers of material sources, assume an almost total hegemony3. Between 2010 and 2015 a PhD research was conducted devoted to household religion in ancient Egypt focused, mainly, in the material sources. A key result from this research is a data-base gathering the vestiges, with a confirmed or potential religious nature, from 30 settlements, dated from the Early Dynastic Period to the Late Period, located in the Egyptian territory and in Nubia when under Egyptian domination. These sources allow new analyses with more complete and accurate perspectives. One of the ideas that arise is the value and relevance of the Middle Kingdom sources. Thus, the aim of this paper is to demonstrate that although Middle Kingdom sources may not compete with the vestiges from New Kingdom onwards they are sufficient for us to study household religion in this period4. 1 R. RITNER, “Household Religion in Ancient Egypt”, in J. Bodel, S.M. Olyan (ed.), Household Religion in Antiquity. The Ancient World: Comparative Histories, Malden, 2008, p. 171. 2 M. LUISELLI, “Personal Piety (Modern Theories related to)”, in W. Wendrich, J. Dieleman (ed.), UCLA, Encyclopedia of Egyptology, Los Angeles, 2008. 3 A. STEVENS, “Domestic Religious Practices”, in W. Wendrich, J. Dieleman (ed.), UCLA, Encyclopedia of Egyptology, Los Angeles, 2009; R. RITNER, op. cit. 4 All the data presented here may be found at: S. MOTA, O sagrado num espaço profano: a Religião Doméstica no Egipto antigo, Unpublished PhD Thesis, Lisboa, 2015. 24 Susana Mota The Middle Kingdom sources to study household religion in ancient Egypt The sources available for the study of household religion in ancient Egypt during the Middle Kingdom come from 14 settlements: Askut (Nubia), Buhen (Nubia), Elephantine (Upper Egypt), Kom el-Fakhry (Lower Egypt), Kumma (Nubia), Lahun (Lower Egypt), Lisht (Lower Egypt), Mirgissa (Nubia), Qasr el-Sagha (Lower Egypt), Semna (Nubia), Shalfak, (Nubia), South Abydos (Upper Egypt), Tell el-Dab’a (Delta), and Uronarti (Nubia). These settlements are scattered throughout all the considered territory, from the Delta to the Nubian forts, although with greater emphasis in Nubian and in Lower Egypt. The contribution of each settlement varies and is uneven. The values, in percentage, are: 0,2 in Elefantina, 0,4 in Tell el-Dab’a, 0,7 in Kumma, 0,7 in Lisht, 0,7 in Qasr el-Sagha, 0,9 in Askut, 3,1 in Kom el-Fakhry, 3,1 in Mirgissa, 5,5 in Semna, 5,9 in Shalfak, 6,3 in South Abydos, 14,7 in Uronarti, 26,5 in Buhen and 31,5 in Lahun. From these settlements, two should be highlighted: Lahun in Lower Egypt, more precisely in the Fayum region, and Buhen, a Nubian fort. More than 50% of the existing sources originated from these two sites. Despite the dissimilar input of each settlement, they show, as a whole, that this religious practice existed, in the Middle Kingdom, all over the territory. Therefore, this wasn’t a reality confined to a given location. Now that we already know the provenance of the sources, let us look carefully at them. Our research identified 457 vestiges dated from the Middle Kingdom, which represents about 12% of the known sources used to study household religion in ancient Egypt5. In addition, there are seven situations where the bibliography or the reports inform us about the existence of sources but don’t say how many they are6. Although in these cases we don’t have numbers, these vestiges are also important. It should as well be mentioned a set of sources whose dating is inaccurate, i.e., is uncertain if they date from the Middle Kingdom or from the New Kingdom. Therefore, they won’t be considered here. The sources were organized in four categories: architectural structures, decorations, objects and others. Regarding the first group, architectural structures, we have six accounted examples and two situations without exact values. In Tell el-Dab’a were found two niches7. Niches were cavities in the walls of houses where statues, stelae or other religious items could be placed. It was also possible that these structures were used for the placement of other non religious things, like lamps, for example. So, in this case we need more data for a more reliable interpretation. In these two niches weren’t found vestiges that allow us a more accurate analysis, but we should mention that in the same rooms where the niches were found, offering deposits8 were also found, buried in the floor. They consisted of objects such as miniature pottery vessels, remains of cultic meals and/or animal bones. This kind of deposits was only found in this 5 Comparatively, we may say that about 48% of the gathered sources came from Tell el-Amarna and about 6% from Deir el-Medina. 6 See, for exemple, A. MACE, “The Egyptian Expedition 1920-1921 I: Excavations at Lisht” BMMA 16, 1921, p. 12. 7 M. BIETAK, Tell el-Dab'a V. Ein Friedhofsbezirk der mittleren Bronzezeitkultur mit Totentempel und Siedlungsschichten, Wien, 1991, p. 137-138; V. MÜLLER, “Offering Deposits at Tell el-Dab’a”, in Chr. Eyre (ed.), Proceedings of the Seventh International Congress of Egyptologists, Cambridge, 3 - 9 September 1995, OLA 82, Leuven, 1998, p. 799. 8 Considered under the category of objects, typology ‘others’. ENIM 11, 2018, p. 23-32 The Middle Kingdom sources and its contribution to the study of household religion 25 settlement9. Their proximity with the niches seems to create a religious surrounding that makes feasible the idea of the niches as a structure with ritual purposes. The four accounted altars were identified in three settlements: Askut10, Lisht11, and Mirgissa12. Besides these ones more were found in Lisht and in Tell el-Dab’a13 but without concrete numbers. About the altars of Lisht, Mace said: “In many of the houses seems to have been a shrine, in which was placed the rough limestone figure of the household god”14. The existing altars have different features, some being more elaborate and complex than others. At Lisht the structures were simple, consisting of mud brick pedestals placed next to a wall15 or in the centre of the room16. At Lisht we only know in detail one example found in the house A 1.3, located in the West limit of the settlement, which probably belonged to a craftsman. Here was found in the H room, a room which would be the core of the house, an altar in the East side of the southernmost column. The altar was a simple pedestal of mud brick on top of which a stela was found. The stela belongs to Ankhu who had it made for his father Mentuhotep, thus, it was possibly related to ancestors’ worship17. In Askut the structure which we call altar comprises a niche, for the placement of a stela, with an Egyptian type mantel modelled in stucco. In front of it was a pedestal which would be used to place cultic items. The structure was placed in the room 12, in the Southwest sector of the settlement, which is considered a reception and family gathering room18. In an adjacent room was found a stela related to ancestors’ worship. Smith believes that this stela would have been used in the altar which leads him to assign to it a function related to the cult of the deceased kin19. In Mirgissa two altars were identified. Of one of them only remains the base located in the central room of the men’s quarters. The other one is in a better state of preservation and allows us a more complete characterization. This altar was a mud brick pedestal leaning against the West wall of the room. Above the pedestal was a concavity in the wall, a niche, which was complemented by a plastered wooden panel. Traces of red and white paint were present. The lower part of a pottery bowl stand was found on the top of the pedestal20. About the Tell el-Dab’a altars we know very little. Only that they existed and that they were identified in houses. But we don’t know about quantity and characteristics. These scattered and sparse vestiges don’t allow us to infer major conclusions. We realize that 9 M. BIETAK, op. cit., p. 137-8; V. MÜLLER, op. cit., p. 799-803. 10 S.T. SMITH, Askut in Nubia: The Economics and Ideology of Egyptian Imperialism in the Second Millennium B C. London, New York, 1995, p. 128, pl. 7; id., Wretched Kush: Ethnic Identities and Boundaries in Egypt's Nubian Empire, London, New York, 2003, p. 127-128. 11 F. ARNOLD, “Settlement Remains at Lisht-North”, in M. Bietak (ed.), Haus und Palast im alten Ägypten, Wien, 1996, p. 17. 12 D. DUNHAM, Second Cataract Forts: Uronarti, Shalfak, Mirgissa, Boston, 1967, p.
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  • Digital Reconstruction of the Archaeological Landscape in the Concession Area of the Scandinavian Joint Expedition to Sudanese Nubia (1961–1964)

    Digital Reconstruction of the Archaeological Landscape in the Concession Area of the Scandinavian Joint Expedition to Sudanese Nubia (1961–1964)

    Digital Reconstruction of the Archaeological Landscape in the Concession Area of the Scandinavian Joint Expedition to Sudanese Nubia (1961–1964) Lake Nasser, Lower Nubia: photography by the author Degree project in Egyptology/Examensarbete i Egyptologi Carolin Johansson February 2014 Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Uppsala University Examinator: Dr. Sami Uljas Supervisors: Prof. Irmgard Hein & Dr. Daniel Löwenborg Author: Carolin Johansson, 2014 Svensk titel: Digital rekonstruktion av det arkeologiska landskapet i koncessionsområdet tillhörande den Samnordiska Expeditionen till Sudanska Nubien (1960–1964) English title: Digital Reconstruction of the Archaeological Landscape in the Concession Area of the Scandinavian Joint Expedition to Sudanese Nubia (1961–1964) A Magister thesis in Egyptology, Uppsala University Keywords: Nubia, Geographical Information System (GIS), Scandinavian Joint Expedition to Sudanese Nubia (SJE), digitalisation, digital elevation model. Carolin Johansson, Department of Archaeology and Ancient History, Uppsala University, Box 626 SE-75126 Uppsala, Sweden. Abstract The Scandinavian Joint Expedition to Sudanese Nubia (SJE) was one of the substantial contributions of crucial salvage archaeology within the International Nubian Campaign which was pursued in conjunction with the building of the High Dam at Aswan in the early 1960’s. A large quantity of archaeological data was collected by the SJE in a continuous area of northernmost Sudan and published during the subsequent decades. The present study aimed at transferring the geographical aspects of that data into a digital format thus enabling spatial enquires on the archaeological information to be performed in a computerised manner within a geographical information system (GIS). The landscape of the concession area, which is now completely submerged by the water masses of Lake Nasser, was digitally reconstructed in order to approximate the physical environment which the human societies of ancient Nubia inhabited.