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Al-Ahram Weekly 29 June - 5 July 2000 Issue No. 488 
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Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Al-Ahram Weekly 29 June - 5 July 2000 Issue No. 488
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| Published in Cairo by AL-AHRAM established in 1875 |
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Egypt Region International Economy Opinion Culture Features Travel Living Sports Profile People Time Out Chronicles Cartoons Letters Do you know?
By Jill Kamil
DO YOU KNOW that in order to ensure that their enemies would be powerless in the afterlife, the Pharaohs often had them decapitated and castrated?
Although head-smiting scenes are a very common motif in Egyptian art, the castration aspect of these ritualistic slayings has long escaped the attention of researchers. The Palette of Narmer, a stone slab depicting the formation of the first Egyptian kingdom, contains the images of 10 slain foes with their decapitated heads between their legs, but the "sausage-shaped" objects above the heads have long puzzled Egyptologists.
In 1898 the palette's discoverer, Quibell, suggested that they were a horned cap. Similarly, the famed Egyptologist Flinders Petrie, interpreted them as bull horns. But Vivian Davies of the British Museum thinks that Victorian prudery rendered these men a little shy: the mystery objects, says Davies, are amputated phalli.
One of the bodies, she noted, is not crowned with the "sausage", which is "still in its original place, protruding from between his legs." The object in question is a man's penis, and the object on each head is none other "than their otherwise missing member," Davies claims.
DO YOU KNOW that one of the largest collections of ancient Egyptian artefacts is housed in a single chamber in a little known corner of University College in London?
Flinders Petrie (d. 1942) brought over 80,000 artefacts with him from his numerous digs.
Petrie, however, was by no means a plunderer. The first scholar to go beyond the mere hunt for treasure, Petrie rigorously catalogued all he found and formulated a system of dating still used today.
DO YOU KNOW that the fifth-dynasty sun temple of Neferirkare reveals the skill of scribes? Even as far back as 2400BC, temple property was scrupulously administered and archives meticulously maintained. Inspectors checked the documentation of temple activities at regular intervals. Also, the scribes were a cosmopolitan lot.
In the "royal archives" of Tel Al-Amarna, some 400 clay tablets have been found documenting the skill of the scribes working for Kings Amenhotep III and IV (c 1417-1397BC). The tablets record correspondence with the rulers of city-states in the Levant.
From these tablets, we learn that one of the royal scribes working for the ruler of Tyre on the Phoenician coast was actually an Egyptian and the scribes working for the Pharaohs were quite comfortable corresponding with Asiatic rulers in the Akkadian language.
DO YOU KNOW that in a pre-dynastic clay head dating to around 5000 BC we can see many of the traditions and styles associated with Egyptian art for the next 3,000 years?
Aesthetically, the knobby piece of clay may not be much of a work of art, with two holes for eyes, extended nostrils and a puckered mouth, but when taken alongside the works of later periods the modest little piece appears as an archetype of much that followed.
DO YOU KNOW that a recent study by German scholars has revealed that ancient Egyptians had a life span of only between 20 and 30 years? Few survived beyond 40.
The team believes that endemic disease was most likely the dominant factor in cutting life short.
Yet, it was good to be the king: Pepi I lived for over a hundred years and Ramses II lived long enough to father over a hundred sons and daughters.
