Volume 5, No. 2 ISBN 0 620 054883 September 1988 Published by The South African The Archaeological Society P.o. Box 15700 Digging Vlaeberg 8018 South Africa Stick Editor: Margaret Avery EDITORIAL With this issue of The Digging Stick I have taken over as Editor from Mrs Shirley-Ann Pager, who has many other responsibilities on her hands and is also about to visit Austra­ lia, as she mentioned in the last issue. I should like to thank her on behalf of all our members for a job well done. We are deeply in her debt for all the time and effort that she has put into The Digging Stick over the last five years; to her the newsletter owes both its name and its success. This issue of The Digging Stick will complete the present volume in essentially the format that we have come to know but with some small changes. With the new volume next year the format will change further and our newsletter will expand to become a magazine. I wrote to all our members a few months ago outlining my suggestions for a magazine and asking for your response. This was very positive and ex­ tremely encouraging (see the article below) and Council has agreed that we should go ahead, first with a fairly small magazine but building on this as we see how it goes. ***** ARTICLES AN EGYPTIAN ENIGMA A.J.B. Humphreys Shabtis (or Ushabtis) are small mummy-shaped statuettes that were entombed with Egyptian pharoahs. They were images of servants who would perform the tasks demanded by the pharoah in the other world. These shabtis were of the most varied types and materials, some masterpieces in their own right, others rudimentary. About 20 years ago I acquired two clay shabtis, one of which is shown here and is 163 mm tall. Given their availability and the general state of the 'antiquities' market in Egypt, it seemed unlikely that they were genuine but they were never­ theless interesting specimens that made attractive orna­ ments. Consultation with various experts over the years, as 2 The Digging Stick (5) 2 well as some reading on the subject, has shown that al­ use only by those employed as archaeologists, any more though, as expected, the shabtis are not genuine they do ex­ than it is suggested that these people should be precluded hibit some exceptional features that are perhaps worth de- from contributing to the magazine. Despite one expressed scribing. reservation that 'professionals' are normally bad at writing general articles, the aim would be to encourage this as much These shabtis are imitations of forms typical of the later as possible because they are largely the people with the period of Egyptian history, that is, from the Twenty-first knowledge. Practice and experience can only improve Dynasty onwards (after about 1000 B.C.). What is of interest matters! In this connection it could also be a good idea to is the cartouche on the chest. (Cartouche is the term for the persuade lecturers at Branch meetings to send in a written oval shape containing the hieroglyph of the pharoah's name.) version of their talk (Branch Secretaries please note). The name represented on the cartouche is that of Tuthmosis III (1504 - 1450 B.C.), one of the greatest pharoahs of the 9f those who answered the question about membership Eighteenth Dynasty. The shabtis are thus not copies of real Involvement, 123 out of 128 approved of this idea. Here it examples, as is often the case with fakes, but a pastiche of at should be pOinted out that I was referring to sending in least two separate elements - form and pharoah. A further reports, letters, raising issues and the like. In the matter of point of interest is that, although the tomb of Tuthmosis III sending in reports, it was good that 77 people said they has been found, no shabtis are known to have come from it. would do this. Another 37 said that they would not but I think This particular cartouche should therefore appear on a shabti that some of these were being bashful because they said that of any type. they did not have the expertise. Perhaps they will be encouraged when they see that the idea is not to be too high­ But the story does not end there. In a recent book, The powered. At the same time it should be said that standards Exodus Enigma (1985), lan Wilson suggests that the exodus will be maintained; not everything will be published just be­ of the Israelites did not take place at the end of the Late cause it is submitted. Also, please do not be offended if your Bronze Age as is generally believed but at the end of the report is either sent back to you for correction or altered Middle Bronze Age. If Wilson's theory is correct (and he pre­ before acceptance. There will probably have to be a fair sents a very convincing argument) it would mean that the amount of editorial initiative, at least in the beginning, to make pha.roah at the time of the exodus was our friend Tuthmosis ::;ure that the style and format are properly established. It is Ill. It is pure coincidence, of course, but it does add an Important to set good precedents right at the beginning. This interesting new dimension to the 'history' of shabtis. should, incidentally, allay fears that standards may slip. Whatever else the shabtis prove, they certainly do provide Most people (84 as against 8) thought that branches should tangible support for the words '0, what a tangled web we take extra copies and I hope that this means that members weave, when first we practise to deceive'! will be willing to make sure that these are sold or distributed outside the Society. Hopefully the magazine will become a Department of Anthropology, University Of the Western Cape, 7530 powerful educational tool for the dissemination of information Bellville. on prehistory and the conservation of the evidence. (This is another major reason for making sure that the content is of a high standard.) Membership involvement could become very ***** important at this distributional stage. Copies sold, as suggested, at Branch meetings could also perhaps persuade more people to join the Society as weli as spread information. Some people added the proviso that Branches should not be obliged to take copies and this was certainly not the idea. They might, though, have to put in pre-publication orders, at NEW MAGAZINE least in the beginning, so that we can determine how many copies are to be printed. Margaret Avery On the educational front more than one person suggested First of all I should like to say thank you to all those who took the need for a junior section to encou rage more family the time to return the questionnaire, and especially those memberShip, not to mention those children who mysteriously who made suggestions and wrote letters or phoned me. 145 develop an interest in archaeology without any family forms were returned, of which an extremely encouraging 133 involvement. This section might include a question-answering were in favour of the magazine. It looks as though I may not service and a competition. Would Branches like to sponsor a have made my intentions clear to some of those not in favour competition prize? and perhaps I should try to sort out some confusions. For instance, if the Society is above the heads of laymen, as was It was also very heartening to have 26 people say that they stated, this is preCisely why I suggested the magazine; the were willing to become involved in the production of the Bulletin does not serve the same purpose proposed for the magazine. Some thought that they would be unable to assist magazine. Beyond this, the aim will not be to compete with because they live in different parts of the country but they the Bulletin but, effectively, to expand The Digging Stick; to should be encouraged by the fact that a member in England increase the number of publications is certainly not the idea. I volunteered to send information culled from archaeological tried to distinguish between the journal (= Bulletin or magazines there. This would also be in line with one person's scientific publication) and the magazine (= expanded request for international coverage. Others could be regional Digging Stick or popular publication) which will be comple­ correspondents or take on certain aspects of production, mentary and not in competition. Another proposal was that, even at long distance. People can expect to be taken up on instead of introducing a magazine, we should rather make a their offers in the very near future. determined effort to reach a wider readership through other existing magazines with large circulations. This would not Most people were obviously sufficiently keen on having a provide a service for Society members, which was my magazine to accept the possibility of a slight rise in primary objective. subscriptions (105 said that they would not mind; 24 said that they would). One suggestion was that members be given the There was some problem with the question of 'profeSSional' option of receiving the Bulletin and/or the magazine but this versus 'lay', 'popular' or what have you. For a start, I was in would unfortunately not help as printing fewer copies would no way suggesting that one was somehow better than the make each publication more expensive. On the other hand, if other. Standards of content comparable to those of the the membership were to become sufficiently large this could Bulletin will be established but the style and intention of the be a possibility.