Come My Staff, I Lean Upon You: an Iconographic and Contextual Study of Sticks and Staves from 18Th Dynasty Egypt
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The American University in Cairo School of Humanities and Social Sciences Come My Staff, I Lean Upon You: an Iconographic and Contextual Study of Sticks and Staves from 18th Dynasty Egypt A Thesis Submitted to The Department of Sociology, Anthropology, Psychology and Egyptology (SAPE) In partial fulfillment of the requirements for The Degree of Master of Arts By: Nicholas R. Brown Under the Supervision of Dr. Salima Ikram First Reader: Dr. Lisa Sabbahy Second Reader: Dr. Fayza Haikal December, 2015 DEDICATION “All men dream, but not equally. Those who dream by night in the dusty recesses of their minds, wake in the day to find that it was vanity: but the dreamers of the day are dangerous men, for they may act on their dreams with open eyes, to make them possible. This I did.” -T. E. Lawrence, Seven Pillars of Wisdom To my grandmother, Nana Joan. For first showing me the “Wonderful Things” of ancient Egypt. I love you dearly. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS There are many individuals and institutions to whom I would like to express my deepest gratitude and thankfulness. Without their help, encouragement, support, and patience I would not have been able to complete my degree nor this thesis. Firstly, to my advisor Dr. Salima Ikram: I am grateful for your suggesting the idea of studying sticks in ancient Egypt, and for the many lessons that you have taught and opportunities you have provided for me throughout this entire process. I am, hopefully, a better scholar (and speller!) because of your investment in my research. Thank you. To my readers Doctors Lisa Sabbahy and Fayza Haikal, thank you for taking the time to review, comment upon, and edit my thesis draft. Your ideas, suggestions, and encouragement have been essential for the completion of my MA degree at AUC. Many institutions generously provided permissions for the use of their material throughout my thesis. I am very grateful for their generosity and help with gaining high- resolution photographs to use. These institutions and museum include: the Petrie Museum of Archaeology, the British Museum, the Griffith Institute at the University of Oxford, the Musée du Louvre, the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, the Museo Egizio di Torino, the Ägyptisches Museum und Papyrussammlung in Berlin, and the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden in Leiden. A special thank you goes to the individuals who delivered services that were more than generous and provided me with extra information that was immensely useful: Carl Graves, of the Egypt Exploration Society, Kathy Zurek-Doule, of the Brooklyn Museum of Art, Janice Kamrin of the Metropolitan Museum of Art, and Ola Seif, from the AUC Photo Archive, Rare Books and Special Collections Library. The Registration Collections Management and Documentation Department at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo has on a number of occasions given me access to important data in the museum’s archive. Additionally, the members of their staff have continuously been helpful and have encouraged me throughout the thesis writing process. I am indebted to all of their generosity and support. A special thank you is directed to the Ministry of Antiquities, for permissions to use information, data, and photographs for figures herein. While living in Cairo, the libraries of the American Research Center in Egypt, the Netherlands-Flemish Institute in Cairo (NVIC), the German Archaeological Institute in Cairo (DAI), along with the Rare Books and Special Collections at the American University in Cairo, proved essential for researching all aspects of sticks and staves in ancient Egypt. To their staff I am most grateful for their professional services and overall helpfulness. I also wish to thank friends, colleagues, and professors who gave insight, photographs, iii and general references throughout my thesis writing experience. Thanks are due to Dr. Nozomu Kawai, of Waseda University, and Dr. Andre Veldmeijer, visiting research scholar at AUC, for their feedback on my thesis ideas and for many fruitful discussions regarding sticks and staves in ancient Egypt. A special thank you to Dr. Mariam Ayad of AUC for help with interpreting scenes from the Opening of the Mouth ritual. Then to Gabriel Natal, Katherine Piper, and Dr. Louise Bertini of AUC, thank you for generously providing personal photographs which became figures throughout the thesis. Last, but certainly not least, for my family: thank you for not only sacrificing time away from me, but for supporting my endeavors and instilling in me the strength and courage to pursue what I love. I love you all very much. iv ABSTRACT Sticks and staves are some of ancient Egypt’s most versatile tools: they can function as badges of status, walking aids, tools for farmers, weapons for guards, or any combination of these. Though earlier studies have examined the names and types of staves from all periods of ancient Egypt, no former scholarship has exclusively examined the ways in which sticks are used in tomb decoration from the 18th Dynasty. By looking at how the staves are used in elite tomb decoration, one is able to understand how the staff had both a practical use as well as symbolic meaning associated with it. The current study focuses on elite tomb decoration from the 18th Dynasty necropoleis of Memphis, Amarna, Thebes, and el-Kab. What follows is a survey of known 18th Dynasty staves, either from excavated contexts or museum collections, to see how the physical evidence matches with what is depicted in the tombs, as well as to understand the role of this artifact within ancient Egyptian burials during the 18th Dynasty. Results indicate that some sticks served multiple purposes: used as a sign of social rank, but also as a tool with which to punish or protect. Other sticks, however, are used exclusively as funerary offerings or badges of status for the figure carrying them. Additionally, it has been found that officials, after death, carry both the mdw staff and the wAs scepter to indicate their divine transformation. This is due to the staves’ associations with the cardinal directions, embalming tents, and/or their frequent use by deities. The physical survey of sticks shows that staves were an important part of the burial of the deceased, and that they were either purpose-made funerary offerings or daily life objects which were then ritually transformed into sacred items. The deceased, in the afterlife, used their sticks to aid in achieving divine status, traverse the path between this world and the next, and to indicate their authority amongst the dead. v TABLE OF CONTENTS i. List of Figures viii ii. List of Tables, Images, and Charts xi iii. List of Abbreviations xii I. Introduction, Literature Review, Methodology, and Scene Typology 1 1. Past Work 2 2. Paleopathological Studies of Staff Use 4 3. Methodology 6 4. Tomb Scenes: How Best to Approach Their Study 8 5. Scene Typology 9 6. Thesis Organization 14 II. A Survey of Sticks and Staves from ancient Egypt 15 1. The Straight Staff 17 2. The mdw Staff 18 3. wAs and Dam Scepters 23 4. The pD-aHa 28 5. The abt Staff 31 6. The Ams Staff 34 7. The mks Staff 36 8. The awt Staff 37 9. The Forked Staff 40 10. The Lotiform Staff 41 III. The Iconographic Study: Depictions of Sticks and Staves in the 18th Dynasty 63 1. The Memphite Necropolis 64 2. Amarna 67 3. Thebes 69 4. el-Kab 72 5. The Function of Staves in Funerary Art of the 18th Dynasty 74 6. Discussion 91 7. Closing Remarks 106 IV. The Analysis of Physical Staves from the 18th Dynasty 131 1. The 18th Dynasty: Sticks From Intact or Nearly-Intact Burials 132 2. New Kingdom Staves Without Intact Burial Provenance 142 3. Comparative Material: Senebtisi, Sesenebnef, and Sennedjem and Khonsu 147 4. Discussion 151 5. Summary 164 V. An Ethnographic Analysis of Sticks and Staves in Contemporary Egypt 175 1. Staves in Contemporary Egypt 175 2. Staves in Modern Africa 178 3. Materials and Styles of Current Egyptian Staves 179 4. Agricultural Uses of Sticks in Modern Egypt 179 5. Guards and Saises Runners 180 vi 6. Staves in the Marketplace 181 7. The Staff of the Egyptian Reis 181 8. Final Notes and Observations 182 VI. Conclusions: the Use and Function of Staves During the 18th Dynasty 193 Appendices A. Depictions of Staves from Memphis 208 B. Depictions of Staves from Amarna 211 C. Depictions of Staves from Thebes 212 D. Depictions of Staves from el-Kab 229 E. Physical Staves from the 18th Dynasty 230 F. Concordance of Museum Artifacts Discussed in Thesis 234 Bibliography 240 vii LIST OF FIGURES FIGURE 2-1: STRAIGHT WALKING STICK FROM GUROB. UC7929. 43 FIGURE 2-2: STRAIGHT STAFF OF WAH, FROM HIS 12TH DYNASTY TOMB AT THEBES. MMA 20.3.206. 43 FIGURE 2-3: FAIENCE VOTIVE PLAQUE, FROM ABYDOS. OIM E7911. 43 FIGURE 2-4: VOTIVE STELA OF SABEF, FROM ABYDOS. EM JE 34416. 44 FIGURE 2-5: 3RD DYNASTY STATUE OF SEPA, LOUVRE A. 36 AND A. 37. 45 FIGURE 2-6: AN ATTENDANT OF REKHMIRE (TT100), WHO CARRIES A STRAIGHT, YELLOW STAFF. 45 FIGURE 2-7: RELIEF FRAGMENT OF RAHOTEP AND NOFRET FROM MEIDUM. EM TR 19.11.24.3. 46 FIGURE 2-8: IVORY LABEL OF KING DEN, FROM ABYDOS. BM EA 55586. 47 FIGURE 2-9: AN IVORY LABEL FOUND AT ABYDOS. OIM E6146. 47 FIGURE 2-10: DRAWING-BOARD DEPICTING THUTMOSIS III. BM EA 5601. 48 FIGURE 2-11: 4TH DYNASTY CANOPY OF QUEEN HETEP-HERES. EM JE 57711. 48 FIGURE 2-12: DETAIL OF THE CABIN CANOPY FROM THE SOLAR BOAT OF KHUFU. 49 FIGURE 2-13: DETAIL OF THE DECK CANOPY OF THE SOLAR BOAT OF KHUFU.