TheRundle Foundation forfgyptian fuchaeology NEWSLETTERNo 29 July 1989 Undisturbed Burial at El-Hagarsa Archaeologistsusuallyhavelittleornoexpectationof too discovering undisturbed burials in Egypt. They know only recent well that tombs have been robbed in both antiquity and was times. The discovery of an undisturbed burial of El-Hagarsa and therefore a most rew-arding find for the Macquarie expedition the find was unusual in many ways. while burial chambers usually - as it was sealed after the burial- not to be contain one coffin - r.-sfeneo - t,his tomlc contained 6 coffins 5 adults and a child' The 5 adults were 3 men and 2 women, this is clear in the well as cartonnage covering over the upper part ot the body as whose from the inscrtptiois recorded on the coffins. The child, sex is undetermined at present. is placed in .an un-j-nscribed coffin which may suggest Lhat it was not yet officially named. Above t,he male coffins were placed staffs of office, sandals and bows and arrows. This last feature may explain the curious (The co:-rective burial of all members. of this fanily. similarity of nanes of sons and daughters to those of father and mother i,-,gg""t, according to Egyptian traditlons, that aII are related.) ii-i" possible tnit tney died in the wars which raged in the area during the First tntermediate Period. An application has been tot the Egyptian Antiquj-ties Organisation for X-ray of all""U*iit"a 6 mummj-es with the purpose of establishinq whether the cause of death in all cases was lnjury. The expedition will continue work on the same level of the mount,aln in the coming season in t,he hope of uncovering further evidence on this less-known period of Egyptian civilization. The Activities Committee The members of the Actlvities Cornmittee co-opLed Mrs Margot Glass to the committee and elected Joan Beck and Ann McFarfane as the Committee's representataves on the Board of the Foundation. The Committee members: Joan Pollett (Convenor) 44'3788 Joan Beck (Sec.,/Treas) 805. BB48 Leonie Donovan Margot Glass Valerie Hutchinson Ann McFarfane Sue Paul- Licia Ranucci ChebbY Valkenburg At a meeting in April it was decided to order T-shirts and provide wind-cheaters tor sale at the conference and to refreshments. Both ventures proved very successfuf and a second order of garments has been required. These are now available from Joan Beck (w6A 429). Discussion Group Enquiries have been received regarding further Discussion croup meetanqs. At present there are two options. a) Arabic and b) bj-scussions Group Meetings. If the enrolment for Arabj-c is lnsufficient (the Course is set down to conunence on Friday 28 4 July), then Dj-scussion Group Meetings wj-Il commence on Friday Auqust from 7-9 P'm. in w6A 420. " Eqypt & Ancient Israe]---q-orlfgr-en-ca 1?0 rnembers and frj-ends attended the conference on saturday 13 May at which Professor Kenneth Kitchen, the Visiting Fellow (Melbourne), for 1989, presented two papers and Dr G. Bunnens Mr p. Crockei (Melbourne), Dr D. Barrett (Queensland) and Dr B. Ockj-nga (Macquarie) each presented a paper' Professor Kenneth Kitchen's Visit professor Kitchen, the Foundation's Visiting Fe1low for 1989, spent a very busy two weeks in Austrafia. He gave four Iectures in Melbourne before arriving in Sydney where he lectured at The Museum and at Macquarie university. He also lectured at Moore college and at New England university as well as meeting and conferences at yvunnqt v oradrrat-ey! st-udents and attendlng a Seminar Macquarie University and Newcastle University' Everyone enjoyed meeting Proressor Kit.chen and apprecj-ated the help he so willj,ngly gave to students and 1-o interested members. IMHOTEP THE VIZIER AND ARCHITECT OF DJOSER WHO BECAME IMOUTHES,/ASKLEPIOS THE GOD OF HEALING Imhotep l-ived in the Early Dynastic Period of ESypt. Hj-s floruit occurred during the 19 year rej-gn of King Djoser - Netjerykhet @.2593 2575 B.C.) of the 3rd Dynasty. Since his tomb has not yet been discovered, the contemporary occurrences of the name Imhotep are limited to an inscription on a Statue base of Djoser, found near the entrance colonnade of the Step- pyramid at saqqara, and a graffito at the adjacent unfinished nf D'iostrr' s Horus Sekhemkhet. P_ynrrremi ! qlrru d uvrLLvrv/rcnmnl cx successor Therefore, a reconstruction of Imhotep' s career must depend rert-rar rrvshe:rri v rrJ Iv rrnnnugvf ^ +.rvv!insr-ri nt ions and texts written centuries and even millenia after his death. fndeed. there are two histories llfe. v!^f 4rrrrrvrmh^1-on. eev r-hp rcrnrw uv! J nf hi s I i fe and of his career beyond T,afer oenerations credited him with the design and construction qr-ale nf n'incorrc nrrr:mid enmnlcx the f irqt Iarcro evs+v httildinos in v! vJ vrer i yJ ! qTLLIU UvItrIJrE^, Yu IYJHUF'nvnr m^dc trntirelwv+J v+oF stone He was one of a very smal-l- numlcer of persons in Egyptian history who were raised to the status of a ^ L^i-- €"11r' F--r i ^^r ^-1!' i- +L^ nnA h.i c rn^thanqr------as pel-rlg IUI-Ly IedIa5cLr (Jrlfy flr vtLc z /Lrr uyrro-Ly (c.500 B.C). About this time Imhotep came to be revered as a divine healer and when the Greeks came to Egypt they identified hj-m wit.h their own god of healing Asklepios. By the 5th century T*L^+^h ,.,-^ f l-\6 m:inr n^ti\/a Ffl\/nl- i an doi tV af Momnhi s and A.U. frLLlruuef, wq5 u!]e rLLqJvr !vJye+sra vu!uf uu rrv'rrvr:+r was extremely jmportant throughout the whole land, easily surpassinq Ptah, Amun and Sarapais. The site of the great temple and healing centre of Inhotep place pifgrimage at North saqqara, the Asklepieion, remalned a of Moslem for the sick and troubled throughout the christlan and eras down to the early 19th century! whowaslmhotep?whatwashisbackground?Aninscrlption ofPtolemyIX(c.1108.C.)statesthatlmhotep'smother'Khredu- that she glave birth to inkir, hailed from Mendes in the Detta and the month Epiphi' him at Ankh-tawy in Memphis on the 15th of however, because the These detalls ar; probably late inventions Kingdom piu."_rru*e Ankh-tawy does not appear until the tate ofd 'irra until the 26Lh tr-r" personaf nam-e Khredu-ankh is not attested the time of Darlus ovr]uitv (c . 650 B. c. ) . An inscri-ption of (c.500B.C.)Statesthatlmhotep'sfatherwasacertainKa_nefer other source' From but this claim recei-ves no supporL from any was said to have been the 26t-h Dynascy onwards Imhotep's father thegodptah,He_who_is-south-of_his_wall,LordofAnkh_tawY thatis,theparticularformofPtahworshrppedinMemphisaSa princlpal deity of the clty' craftsman and creator god and as the of Ptah and he too Henceforth Imhotep was known as Great One' Son era the deified became Lord of Ankh-tawy' In the Ptolemaic first time and in lmhotep appears accompanied by a wife for the as goddesses - the these scenes both wife and mother are dressed Khredu-ankh as wife, Renpet-Nofret, as the goddess RenpeL and j-nscriptions indicate that Hathor. However, the accompanying connectj-ons of they had not actually been deitred' The divine that Khredu-ankh the famlly were expaided furtfrer by declaring wasthedaughterofthegodBanebdjec]et(RamLordofMendes)who hadacultplacebesidealakenearSaqqara.Despitethiswefter admitt-ed that there of supposed genealogical data it has to be of Imhotep's real is no reliable infoimation about the members muc-h later era had family. We do know that the Egyptlans of a cometobelievethathisbirthwastheresultofaunionbetween sinqer from Mendes ' a great god and a mere mortal, the temple Khredu-ankh.Thefactoflmhotep'spreviousearth}yexistence hrp birth' death' was acknowledqed i-n that the accepted dates of with great annual burial and resurrectlon *ttt co**emorated festivals of Imhotep festivals at Memphis. There were si-x annual in the Graeco-Roman era. to deify what were the quatities that inspired the Egyptr-ans writers to dub 'and worshrp thrs man and that have inspired modern himtheLeonardodaVincioftheancientworld?Whenthe evidencei-sassessedinchrono}ogicatorderlmhotepappearS and assoclations elusive and entgmatrc, a figure whose aLtributes religious climate of changed wit.n every shift in tfre social and skills and Egypt over the centurj-es' When afl the different the historical period achievements ascribed to Inhotep throughout aresynthesizedint-oacompositepictureheappearsasagenius ofthefirstrank.Thisimageoflmhotepissomewhatartificiaf themselves only however; it tas ptonubry h;ld by the Egyptians attheVeryend'oftheirhistoryandweshou}dbeWaryof projecting the image back in time onto the man himself' gives Imhotep's ' base of Djoser mentioned above' The statue Egypt (one who acted -t;;-- oi thu xi"J-or Lower titles as; s.-rlee-ter to a qovernment xirts ' petnips analoqtous on behalf ot RuIer of the Cn.i1nu.1a:-"-'i i I of the Kins ; deparrmenr ireaail* Noble (an honorary - uncertain) ; nereditary Great Mansion t,i!a''ti'-tg Greatest of very nrghest rank) ; tatle of ;; of Re-Atum (tr't triie of the High-Priest AstronomersZastioioq"t"- at Heliopolis); Chief (?) of Stonemasons and Relief-sculptors (thrs tr-tle was probably assoclated with the priesthood of the craftsman god Ptah but in thi-s lnstance it is almost certainly not the title of the Hlgh-Priest of Ptah). The earLhl-y titfes credi*"ed to Imhotep by later ages were; Count (or Mayor), Vizier, Overseer of Constructions of the King of Upper and Lower Egypt, Overseer of the Pyramid-town (? of Djoser), Chief Scribe of the King, Scribe of cod's Book (a title associared with the sacred scriptorium, Lhe House of Life), Chiel Lector-Pri-est, One-Who-Knows-Spells and createst of Physicians.