Issue No.589
Heritage
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6 - 12 June 2002 Issue No.589 Heritage |
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New discoveries
Bahariya find
AN EGYPTIAN archaeological team carrying out routine excavations in the Al-Sheikh Subi suburb at Bawiti, capital of Bahariya oasis, have chanced upon a 2,500-year-old sarcophagus containing an intact mummy. It was found in a tomb 12 metres beneath the city's residential area where last year the mission discovered the tombs of the 26th-dynasty governor of the oasis, Deed-Khans-If-Ankle, and his wife.
"The newly-excavated sarcophagus remained sealed as on the day it was buried awaiting discovery by our mission," said Zahi Hawass, who explained that the archaeologists who made the discovery observed that the sealings of the sarcophagus were intact. "It is of quality limestone, and may have belonged to another high-ranking official because this material is not locally available and almost certainly was brought from the Tura quarry south of Cairo," Culture Minister Farouk Hosni elaborated. " Early studies suggest the tomb may have belonged to the influential Badi-Isis family. The mummy was wrapped in linen according to practices prevalent during the 26th dynasty Saite Period," he said.
X-rays have revealed that within the wrappings are a number of scarabs and amulets including the heart-shaped ib.
The wealth of Bahariya in terms of mummified remains is enormous. This is where the treasures from the Valley of the Golden Mummies are housed and, with the newest finds, 234 mummies have been excavated to date.
A rare delivery chair
A JOINT USA/Egyptian team, the former represented by the universities of Pennsylvania, Yale, New York, and the Institute of Fine Arts, has unearthed a 3,700-year-old birthing chair inside the palatial residence of a Middle Kingdom governor near Abydos.The chair, which measures 14 by 17 inches, is made of mud brick and decorated with painted scenes and magical images of the gods whose role was to protect women and aid them in childbirth. On the newly-discovered birth chair, the main scene shows the mother with her newborn child attended on either side by women and by Hathor, the cow-goddess closely associated with birth and motherhood.
According to Joseph Wegner of the Pennsylvania University team, texts show that women in Ancient Egypt -- and well into our era -- gave birth while squatting on two mud bricks. "The upper surface of this birth chair has crumbled away, but the bottom and sides are intact. It is quite possible that the damage was caused by use to support a woman's feet in childbirth over a long period of time and during multiple deliveries," he noted.
Whose chair was it? Wegner has a pretty good idea. He suggests that it may have been made for a noblewoman or a princess named Renseneb who lived in the mayor's house, which was discovered recently and dates back to the Middle Kingdom. It was unearthed in that area of the house clearly identified as the female quarters, where numerous inscribed clay seal impressions were also found. They bear the name of the noblewoman and "king's daughter", and Wegner suggests she may have been a royal princess married to one of the town's mayors.
Child mortality was high in ancient Egypt, where magical objects and special ritual practices were associated with childbirth. The very brick used in the construction of a birth chair was sacred, associated with a specific goddess, Meskhenet, who was sometimes depicted in the form of a brick with a human head.
"The ancient Egyptians likened the birth of a child to the rising sun," Hawass explained. "The magical rituals associated with childbirth were to protect the newly-born child, just as parallel ancient myths related to the birth of the sun-god required his protection from hostile forces. On the sides of the Abydos chair are representations of the sun-god and a collection of magical aids. Such 'sympathetic magic' invoked the divine forces to protect the newborn baby when he was most vulnerable."
Excavations in the Middle Kingdom town named "Enduring-are-the-Places-of-Khakaure; True-of-Voice" (c 1850-1650BC) have been going on since 1994, and positive identification of a mayor's residence was made by the Pennsylvania mission in 1999. This town was organised around the service of Pharaoh Senusert III's mortuary temple, and is seen by Wegner as "a great opportunity to study an ancient mayor's lifestyle".
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