Egyptian Journal of Archaeological and Restoration Studies "EJARS " An International peer-reviewed journal published bi-annually

Volume 6, Issue 1, June - 2016: pp: 49-57 www. ejars.sohag-univ.edu.eg

Original article

TWO UNPUBLISHED WOODEN LIDS NOS.1410 AND 1411 IN EL- ASHMUNEIN MAGAZINE

Safina, A. Egyptology dept., Faculty of Archaeology, Fayoum Univ., Egypt.

E-mail: [email protected]

Received 29/2/2016 Accepted 14/5/2016

Abstract The main purpose of this article is the publication and study of two wooden lids in El- Ashmunein Magazine. Illustrated drawings are produced for the first time. The complete text of the five columns of hieroglyphs on the lid No.1410 and of the four columns of the lid No. 1411 are the Nut formula, PT 638- 639 (sections a-d), which were incorporated later into the last part of the 178 th chapter of the Book of the Dead.

Keywords: Baboon coffin lid, Pyramid Texts, The underground galleries at Tuna el-Gebel.

1. Introduction The two sycamore wooden lids Gebel (c) [2]. Similar burials were found with which we are concerned in this at Saqqara where, after mummification, paper were probably presented to El- most of the upper level baboons were Ashmunein Magazine by S. Gabra (a) . linen-wrapped and each was deposited They were bequeathed to the museum in its own purpose-built rectangular as part of a collection of wooden wooden box without a plaster filling. objects (b) [1] probably all made in the The boxes were placed in niches which same carpenter’s workshop since they were sealed with limestone slabs [3,4] . exhibit the same style of simple vertical These baboons were the living images lines bearing of hieroglyphic texts in of the god Thoth and therefore black ink with the Nut formula for the worshipped during their lifetimes. They deceased baboon running down from were then mummified and buried in the the head to the foot. The exact galleries. The introductory line of the provenance of these objects is not text reinforces this by saying “Osiris of known; the archive of the magazine of the baboon, justified ”. The complete El-Ashmunein Museum provides no text in the five columns of hieroglyphs information. I would suggest that the on the lid No.1410 and of the four two lids in the present paper and all of columns of the lid No. 1411 is the Nut the pieces in this wooden collection formula, PT 638- 639 (sections a-d), probably came from Hermopolis where according to its phrasing, the sky- they may have been placed as part of goddess Nut is to spread herself over complete boxes for enclosing the the deceased as Stt-pt , perhaps “lake- mummified bodies of baboons in the lady of the sky” and protects the underground Ibis Galleries at Tuna el- deceased as the “Great Sieve”. The

49 phrase might, specifically denote the wooden fragments with Inv. Nos. 263 salt lake sources for natron, Wadi and 264 in the Mallawi Museum [1] . Natron and /or the upper Egyptian Furthermore, they were also written on sources near Elkab. If so, this widely- the sarcophagi Nos. 10 and 11 in Berlin attested passage PT 638 would provide Museum [7] , on a later coffin lid from a “sacramental interpretation” for the Hawara [8] and on about ten lids stored sieving of natron over the body at present in El-Ashmunein magazine presumably the crucial stage in the as part of a collection of wooden physical treatment to preserve the body objects (d). The texts of the two lids do of the deceased [5] . These very popular not contain clear dating criteria, such as texts were also written on non-royal royal names or events, although I would coffin of Nekht-ankh and Khnum- suggest that they are to be dated to the Nekht, dating back to the 17 th dynasty end of the late period or to the early and discovered in their tomb in the Ptolemaic period. The version of the PT cliffs of Deir Rifeh [6] . Another 638- 639 (sections a-d) comes as hieroglyphic version of a few portions follows: of these texts were inscribed on two

§ 638a § 638b § 638c § 638d § 639a

The last part of the 178 th chapter of the Book of the Dead comes as follows:

467. 16 468. 1 468.2 468.3 468.4

2. Lid No. 1410 2.1. Description This piece is of light brown wood of trapezoid is clearly visible on the left good quality, fig (1-a, b). Its side. One side of the lid bears five clear dimensions are as follow: height 49 cm handwritten vertical lines of inscriptions width 43 cm and thickness varying from the upper to the lower edge. The between 3 and 4 cm. Six peg holes were vertical lines are framed by five vertical made in its edges, two of them still black lines. The other side bears one nfr filled with wooden dowels. So it is hieroglyph. This may have been merely immediately clear that this was the the ancient testing his brush after method used to attach the lid to the rest first dipping it in the black ink, since of the coffin (e) [9] . A vertical break the single glyph was written on the hard which makes its shape slightly surface and is not seen on the

50 corresponding lids. It could possibly one. The characteristic neatness and have been written on purpose to regularity of the chirography make the determine that the mummified baboon signs easily legible. is male or he is regarded as a beautiful

a b

Figure (1) Shows a lid No. 1410. Photograph. b lid drawing by the author.

2.2. The Hieroglyphic inscriptions

2.3. Transliteration and translation  Dd mdw Wsir pA aany mAa-xrw (I) psS.t (II). s mwt.  .k Nwt (III) Hr.k m rn.s n ^tA-pt (IV) rdi.t.s wn.k m.  nTr (V) n xftyw (VI).k Xnm (VII). s tw m-a xt nb Dw (VIII).  m rn.s n $nm-wrt (IX) twt wr imy msw.s Htp.  n.k Gb mry.f tw Wsir pA aany mAa-xrw.

51  Words spoken, Osiris (of) the baboon, justified, your mother Nut spreads herself.  over you in her name of Sheta-pet. She causes you to be.  a god, without enemies against you. She defends you from all evil things.  in her name Khnmet-wert. You are the eldest of her children, Geb is  satisfied with you. He loves you (oh) Osiris (of) the baboon, justified. 2.4. Textual commentary (I) Wsir pA aany mAa-xrw , There originated, and to which all returned. is only little variation of this formula The Pyramid texts repeatedly refer to displayed on different lids from Nut as giving birth as well as receiving Saqqara as shown, Wsir iaH or Wsir- the dead [23]. (IV) ^tA-pt, is a proper @p [10] and also Wsir pA hb mAa-xrw name of the goddess Nut that occurs [2] . Aaany is twice spelled upon the lids twice in the Pyramid Texts as ^t-pt (p) Nos. 1404 and 1411 (f) [11-14] . (II) [16]. In the Book of the Dead it occurs psS.t, is a verb which can be translated as ^tt-pt (q) [22]. On two lids from El- as “to spread out” (g) [11,15] . It occurs Ashmunein magazine it occurs as ^tA- already in the Pyramid Texts and refers pt (r) . Naville translated it as “Veil of the mainly to the goddess Nut who acts as Sky” [24], whereas Allen T. G., gave the protectoress of the deceased king (h, i) the translation “the goddess of the Wadi [16]. This verb is also found associated Natrun oasis” [17]. (V) In the Book of with Nut in many examples from the the Dead, this line is as follows: “She Book of the Dead (j, k, l) [17]. The makes you as a follower of the great Sarcophagus itself is the goddess Nut god” [17]. (VI) #ftyw, plural strokes [18,19] . (III) Mwt.k Nwt is a funerary are clearly written upon the lids Nos. title reflecting the goddess Nut as the 1398, 1401 and 1411. (VII) The universal cradle for the resurrection parallel of the Book of the Dead uses after death, protecting, nursing and the verb nHm “to save”(s) [11] instead of bearing the deceased baboon [20] . In Xnm as follows: nHm.s tw m-a xt nb Dw. Pyramid Texts (m) [16], coffin texts (n) “she saves you from everything evil”. [21] and the Book of the Dead (o) [22] , (VII) Dw, this reading involves a reversal she is said to be the enfolding and of signs which may be acceptable in hugging mother of the deceased view of the second lid No.1411. (IX) pharaoh, a union that euphemistically $nm.t-wrt, this epithet is attested and denies death, transferring the king’s mentioned for Nut in the Pyramid existence from the terrestrial mortal Texts (t) [16], Coffins Texts (u) [21] and world to the celestial divine realm of Book of the Dead [22] , it was written gods, whose mother [ mw.t nTrw] was later as $nm.t-wrt, meaning a sieve, considered to be Nut [20] . The sky indicating that the sky came to be thought goddess as the body from which all life of as resembling a huge sieve [25].

3. Lid No. 1411

3.1. Description The dimensions of this lid are: horizontal black line at the top. height 50 cm, width 46 cm, thickness However, the inscribed surface is varying between 3 to 4 cm as shown in slightly crude and this creates difficulties fig (2-a, b). Nine peg holes were made in reading some signs, particularly at in its edges, seven of which are still the top of the second column and in the filled with wooden dowels. It bears four middle and lower part of the third handwritten vertical lines of inscriptions column. Comparisons with the previous from the upper to the lower edge. The lid show that all the signs clearly vertical lines are framed only by one belong to the same PT 638- 639

52 (sections a-d). The only difference more script and several signs between the two lids is the chirography. are awkwardly written. The reverse is This change dramatically into a much even more irregular .

a b

Figure (2) Shows a lid No. 1411. Photograph. b lid drawing by the author.

3.2. The Hieroglyphic inscriptions

3.3. Transliteration and translation  Dd mdw Wsir pA aany mAa-xrw psS.t.s mwt.k Nwt Hr.k m rn.s n ^tA[-pt](X) .  rdi.t.s wn.k m nTr (XI) n xfytw.k Xnm.s tw m-a xt nb Dw (XII).  m rn.s n $nm-wrt twt wr imy msw.s Htp.n.k Gb(XIII).  mry.f tw Wsir pA aany mAa-xrw.

53  Words spoken, Osiris (of) the baboon, justified, your mother Nut spreads herself over you in her name of Sheta [-pet].  she causes you to be a god, without enemies against you, she defends you from all evil things.  in her name Khnmet-wert. You are the eldest of her children, Geb is satisfied with you.  he loves you (oh) Osiris (of) the baboon, justified".

3.4. Textual commentary

(X) ^tA-[pt], here the text seems based on the previous lid. (XII) Dw, to have omitted the second part of Nut’s despite the slightly crude surface name, pt (N1) judging by the other lids remains, traces of a bird sign (G37) are in this collection and by comparisons visible at the end of this line. (XIII) with the version in the Book of the Msw.s Htp.n.k Gb , there are traces of Dead. (XI) NTr, the scribe has omitted damaged signs at the end of this line the divine determinative of the falcon which are clearer in the more complete upon the standard (G7) in this line- text of the previous lid.

4. Results * The two lids are from the coffins of surfaces of the two lids and on variant sacred baboons which were brought lids in El-Ashmunein Magazine. from all over Egypt to be laid to rest * The deceased baboon is analogous to in the subterranean galleries at Tuna Osiris lying both as a mummy in the Duat and as the force of rebirth in el-Gebel. They may be from gallery C. Nut’s womb which is the embodiment * The paleography and distinctive of the sarcophagus itself [19] . orthography of the two lids point to * The shared features of the two lids the early Ptolemaic period. suggest that they were produced in a * Quoted protective spells from the single workshop and inscribed by the Pyramid Texts are inscribed on the same scribe.

5. Discussion & Conclusion

The two lids with hieroglyphic and therefore they can be dated only by inscriptions described in this paper are internal criteria or by imprecise introduced and concluded with indications in the handwriting. The mortuary formula of the deceased vocabularies of the two lids are baboon as follows: Wsir pA aany mAa essentially Old Egyptian mixed with xrw . None of the texts are inscribed Middle and Late Egyptian orthography. with the name of a reigning pharaoh Examples of these are presented below:

* This word is of a date * or are two varied writings; the nd (v) first one is typically of Old from the 22 dynasty onwards Kingdom (z) [11,16, 29] , but the other [1,11,12]. one is of a date from the 22 nd Dynasty onwards (aa) [7, 8,11, 30] . * This word with two strokes * or are variant writings; the (w) crossed is typically Middle Kingdom first abbreviated one is typical of the (bb) [11,26] . Old Kingdom [11, 16] but the other one exhibiting plural strokes is * This abbreviated writing is of a date from the 22 nd Dynasty typically late (x) [7,8, 11, 27, 28] . onwards (cc) [7, 8, 11] .

54 * The 2 nd person singular * is characteristic writing of independent pronoun twt is the PT (ee) [16] . (dd) characteristic of the PT [16]. The two texts focus on the Egyptian concept of the afterlife. goddess Nut, who stretches her body Coherent evidence shows that no protectively over the corpse of the mistakes were made in writing the two mummified baboon in her name Shet- inscriptions, apart from inattention in pet, This imagery is seen in the texts the first column of the second lid where and depictions of her with protective the name of Shet-pet is written with wings on numerous sarcophagi dating only the first signs of the group and in from various periods where she is the second column where the divine always the defender against everything determinative of the falcon (G7) on the evil so that a god would have no standard was omitted (G7). Despite enemies in her name of “ Khnmet-wert ”. these points, the small number of The deceased baboon is analogous to grammatical errors together with the Osiris lying both as a mummy in the careful handwriting demonstrates the Duat and as the force of rebirth in Nut’s work of a competent scribe. The same womb, which is embodiment of the style, context, handwriting and peg sarcophagus itself. In the texts studied holes with wooden dowels in the edges here the deceased is addressed not only used as a stretching technique make it by a name or an epithet but also as easier to imagine that they were Osiris himself as, “Osiris of the produced in a single workshop and baboon” [19], he was therefore the son inscribed by the same scribe, suggesting of Geb and Nut as cited previously. that they date back to the same period. This vision lay behind the ancient

Endnotes (a) I am very grateful to professor Piers with a Hieroglyphic Inscription in the Lither land, Director of the New Macquarie University Museum of Kingdom Research Foundation and Ancient Cultures, ZÄS, 137(2), pp.98- professor Michael Jones, American 103. Add to that some items of these Research Center in Egypt, for their wooden collection bear fire effects careful reading and for their many that were happened exclusively in the useful corrections and insightful subterranean galleries of Tuna el- comments. Gebel. (d) Beside this collection there are some (b) This collection bears inventory numbers as follows: 1369, 1395, wooden lids bear and 1397, 1398, 1399, 1400, 1401, 1404, inscriptions still unpublished till now. 1405, 1407, 1409, 1410, 14011. Add (e) As a technique also used in human to that two wooden lids from Mallawi wooden coffins see, for example, Museum Nos. 263-264, see Za ghloul, Elzbieta, D.S. (1968). Coffins found El., (1994). An Ancient Egyptian in the area of the Temple of pyramid text on two wooden fragments Tuthmosis III at Deir el-Bahari, BIFAO from the Mallawi Museum, MDAIK , 66, p.174. 50, pp. 307-308, plate 52 (a-b). (f) Wb, I, 41 (7-8); LGG, I, 136. For (c) The same feature is regularly found in variant baboon-names from Tuna el- one lid from Tuna el- Gebel with a Gebel see, Kessler, D., (1989). Die hieroglyphic and a demotic inscription , heiligen Tiere und der König, Teil 1: see Mark, D., (2010). Words Spoken Beiträge zu Organisation, Kult und by Osiris or the Ibis? An Ibis box Theologie der spätzeitlichen Tierfrie-

55 dhöfe, ÄAT , 16, Wiesbaden, pp. 211- (r) Lids Nos. 1396, 1400, still 216; Boylan, P., (1922). Thoth, the unpublished till now. Hermes of Egypt, Oxford University (s) Wb. II 295 (12)-297 (4). press, London, pp. 173-200. (t) PT, §827c; §834c; §838a; §842d;

(g) Wb, I, 560 (13-16); Lesko, §1608a. Dictionary, I, I57. (u) CT, VII, 9u. (h) PT, §580a. For the similar spell see, (v) Za ghloul, El., (1994). An Ancient §638d. Egyptian pyramid text on twowooden (i) PT, §825a. fragments from theMallawi Museum, (j) Allen, T. G. BD, 168 a. MDAIK , 50, p. 308; Wb, I, 41 (5); (k) Allen T. G., BD, 168 b. LGG, I, 136. (l) Allen, T. G. BD, 178O. (w) Wb, I, 560(13). (m) See for instance, PT, § 1a, 2a; §441b; (x) Wb, II, 15 (3). For close parallel texts §580c; §616d; §626b; §638d; §825a; see, El-Sayed, R. (1978) BIFAO 78 §827b; §838a; §842d. pp.461-464-465. (n) CT, VII, 3g-j. (z) Wb, II, 464 (4); PT§ 638b; Urk, I, 35, (o) BD, 181, 6. 12. (aa) Wb, II, 464 (2). (p) PT, 580c; M.A. Murray, Op. cit, Pl. (bb) Wb, III, 276 (12); PT§ 638b 19; The parallel from the Papyrus (cc) Wb, III, 277 (2). W.551 Column 7, 1. (dd) PT § 638d. (q) BD, 468, 1. (ee) PT § 639a.

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