Daughters of Isis - Joyce Tyldesley

by Daughters of Isis- Women of Ancient Egypt (epub)

  Most women were included in stone-cut tombs in their role as wives and daughters, and in these cases the relevant male burial naturally took precedence, with the female taking a subsidiary role just as she would have done in her husband’s or father’s home. It is particularly noticeable that the decoration of these shared tombs relates almost exclusively to the male deceased and his survival in the Afterlife, while the text on the wall details the life and achievements of the man with only a passing reference to the activities of his wife. It would appear that the woman was expected to enter the Afterlife not so much as a person in her own right but as a part of her husband’s entourage. As has already been noted, women are allocated a passive role in almost all tomb scenes so that often the only time a wife can be seen acting independently of her husband is when she is depicted mourning at his funeral. There is no standard scene showing a widower grieving for his lost wife.

  Do not delay building your tomb in the mountains; you do not know how long you will live.

  Late Period scribal advice

  The majority of women were buried in individual graves dug into the desert sand of the village cemetery. These local cemeteries remained in use for remarkably long periods, slowly spreading and shifting as the number of interments increased so that the Late Period graves might be sited some distance away from the original Old Kingdom burial ground. Within the cemetery the graves of the less important people were either arranged around the more impressive tombs of the major local dignitaries or simply dug into the next available and unoccupied patch of desert. The location of each middle-class grave was then marked either by a simple wooden or stone stela or by a more impressive tomb superstructure; the graves of the illiterate peasants appear to have been left unmarked.

  Local burial customs gradually evolved as the Dynastic period progressed, but the majority of interments always included a wooden coffin and an assortment of grave goods. Some of these goods were sex-specific so that while pottery and stone vessels or wooden headrests could be included in both male or female inhumations, some objects such as mirrors and certain items of jewellery were only found in women’s graves. Ayrton and Loat, who directed the excavation of part of the Old Kingdom Abydos necropolis, have left us a detailed description of the recovery of a virtually intact female burial. It is worth quoting their description at some length, as it provides us with a vivid insight into the practicalities of an ordinary Egyptian woman’s funeral:

  The skeleton (a woman) lay on the left side, with the head to the north-west, arms to the sides and knees slightly drawn up. Under the left temple were the remains of a wooden pillow. Before the face stood a large alabaster vase, behind the head was a flat red pottery vase with handles, and at the back of the neck a small red polished pottery vase.

  Before the breast lay a large copper mirror with a lotiform wooden handle, behind the knees was a large polished red pottery vase and a copper needle. Round the neck were two strings of glazed steatite beads, one with a large carnelian bead in the centre, and the other supporting a steatite button seal with the figure of a hornet cut on the face.

  On the lid of the coffin, over the knees, was placed a small red pottery vase, and against the outside of the coffin at the feet leant a large globular vase of rough pottery, over the mouth of which was placed an inverted red polished pottery bowl with a spout.6

  The strongly held Egyptian belief in ghosts and spirits meant that death did not necessarily bring an end to communications between husband and wife, and it was relatively common for the surviving partner to write to his or her dead spouse, asking for intercession in some personal or domestic problem. The 19th Dynasty letter written by a husband who believed that his dead wife was haunting him has already been quoted in Chapter 2. A similar letter, written during the Middle Kingdom on the surface of a red bowl, asks that the priest Intef, the husband of the widow Dedi, should use his influence to frighten off the evil spirits who are making his wife’s serving-girl ill: ‘If you don’t help in this matter, your house will be destroyed… fight for her and watch over her, save her from all those who are causing her harm.’ The bowl would have been used as an offering vessel in Intef’s tomb. Less abrupt is the Middle Kingdom stela set up by Merirtifi to his dead wife Nebitef, asking that she should help him while he is ill. He promises that, if she appears to him in a dream, he will increase her mortuary cult:

  … Look, I am your beloved on earth, so fight for me and intercede for my name… Drive off the illness of my limbs. May you appear as a blessed one before me, so that I may see you fighting for me, in my dream.

  The dead in turn communicated with the living via their funerary stelae: commemorative stones or plaques which were set up either in the necropolis or the temple, and which usually included some autobiographical information together with a request that passers-by should repeat a prayer for the continued well-being of the deceased. Naturally, it was the prerogative of the husband to erect a stela for his dead wife, and it was he who chose the text. The stela of the Lady Taimhotep, who lived and died during the Graeco-Roman period, is unusual in providing us with some details of her life and early death. It tells how she married at fourteen years of age and bore three daughters and a long-awaited son before dying aged thirty. It then goes on to lament the cruel fate which has snatched her from her beloved husband and children, reflecting the stylized pessimism of the Late and Graeco-Roman Period approach to death:

  Oh my brother, my husband. My friend and high priest. Do not weary of drink and of food, of drinking deep and loving… The west is a land of sleep where darkness weighs on the dwelling place. Those who live there sleep as mummies. They do not wake to see their brothers, and cannot see their fathers or mothers. Their hearts forget their wives and children… Turn my face to the north wind at the edge of the water. Perhaps then my heart will be cooled in its grief.

  First Intermediate Period stela showing the Ladies Hetepi and Bebi, daughters of the Steward Sennedjsui.

  The elaborate dress and coiffure of a New Kingdom lady.

  Old Kingdom pair-statue of a husband and wife.

  Stela of Iteti, accompanied by his three wives and two of his daughters.

  Middle Kingdom family stela featuring the scribal assistant Iy together with his wife, his children and his parents. The precise role of the six ‘Ladies of the House’ shown towards the bottom of the stela is unknown.

  Middle Kingdom model of a female dwarf carrying a child on her hip.

  The dwarf god Bes.

  Fragment of an ivory ‘magic wand’ with protective deities.

  Wooden tomb models of two servant women, each carrying a box and two ducks.

  Cord fertility dolls of the Middle Kingdom.

  Reed brush and basket, typical household implements of the New Kingdom.

  Large basket…

  … containing a foldaway stool.

  New Kingdom ladies listening to a musician.

  Wooden model of a djeryt.

  The morning toilette of the early Middle Kingdom Queen Kawit, shown on her sarcophagus.

  Bronze razor with a handle in the form of a duck’s head and neck.

  Bronze mirror with lotus-shaped handle.

  Model sandals from a Middle Kingdom tomb.

  Ivory and slate bracelet from Nagada tomb of Queen Neith-Hotep.

  Middle Kingdom cosmetic pots, cosmetic grinder and applicators.

  Queen Nefertari representing the Goddess Hathor on the façade of her Abu Simbel temple.

  Queen Hatchepsut receives the Royal ibs-crown from the god Amen-Re.

  The mortuary temple of Queen Hatchepsut at Deir el-Bahri, Thebes.

  The ‘God’s Wife of Amen’, possibly Amenirdis I.

  The goddess Hathor and the falcon-headed god Re.

  The mummy of the Lady Ray.

  Tomb of a rich New Kingdom lady.

  Historical Events

  Years Before Christ

  EGYPTIAN LOCAL CHRONOLOGY

  EGYPT

  NEAR
EAST

  EUROPE

  3000

  Archaic Period (Dynasties1–2)

  Unification of Egypt

  Queen Neith-Hotep

  2500

  Old Kingdom (Dynasties 3–6)

  Djoser step-pyramid at Sakkara

  Great Pyramid of Khufu at Giza

  Sargon establishes the Akkadian Empire

  Standing stone alignments at Carnac, France

  2000

  First Intermediate Period (Dynasties 7–11)

  Ascendancy of Ur

  Major building phase at Stonehenge, England

  Middle Kingdom (Dynasties 11–13)

  Theban Kings re-unify Egypt

  Queen Sobek-Nofru

  Hammurabi King in Babylon

  Palace period in Minoan Crete

  Second Intermediate Period (Dynasties 14–17)

  Hyksos kings in Northern Egypt

  1500

  New Kingdom (Dynasties 18–20)

  Queen Hatchepsut

  Queen Nefertiti

  Tutankhamen

  Ramesses II

  Destruction of Minoan Crete

  Ascendancy of Mycenaean civilization in Aegean

  1000

  Third Intermediate Period (Dynasties 21–25)

  BEGINNING OF THE IRON AGE IN THE EASTERN MEDITERRANEAN

  Kings at Tanis

  Nubian kings

  Solomon builds temple in Jerusalem

  Assyrian Empire

  Traditional date for foundation of Rome

  500

  Late Period (Dynasties 26–31)

  Nebuchadnezzer and the Babylonian Empire

  Battle of Marathon

  Parthenon built in Athens

  A.D.O

  Ptolemaic Period

  ALEXANDER THE GREAT

  Egypt part of Roman Empire

  Parthian Empire in Persia

  Notes

  Full details of books referred to in shortened form will be found in the Selected Bibliography.

  Introduction

  1 Although Herodotus wrote his book when Egypt was living under Persian rule, he is able to provide us with a wealth of data relevant to the preceding dynastic age. His observations, together with those of other visitors to Egypt – principally the historian Diodorus Siculus and the geographer Strabo – have proved a useful source of facts which would otherwise have been lost. However, it is wise to treat all such sources with a degree of caution. Herodotus was not a particularly discriminating observer, and at all times he placed a great deal of trust in the reported tales of others. Indeed, there is actually no direct proof that Herodotus ever visited Egypt, and some of the more obvious omissions from his text, such as his relatively short account of Thebes, have led several authorities to suggest that his guide may have been based on the reported observations of others. As Strabo himself stated: ‘Both Herodotus and others talk much nonsense [about Egypt], adding to their account marvellous tales, to give as it were, a kind of rhythm to relish.’

  2 This quotation now has a slightly ironic quality as the once substantial temple has almost completely disappeared.

  3 The problem has been compounded by the reluctance of many egyptologists to examine and record domestic sites while impressive temples and tombs remain to be uncovered. All too often important finds have been equated with spectacular or valuable finds, and the best-known egyptologists are generally those who have had the luck to uncover burials rich in gold.

  4 Kahun was built as a temporary town lying at the mouth of the Faiyum and was occupied for about one hundred years during the construction of the pyramid of the Middle Kingdom Pharaoh Senwosret II. It was subsequently abandoned. The village at Amarna (ancient Akhetaten) was occupied for approximately twenty years by the workmen employed to build the capital city of the New Kingdom Pharaoh Akhenaten. In contrast, the village of Deir el-Medina, nestling in a valley of the Theban hills opposite modern Luxor, had a continuous occupation of over 400 years. This site has provided us with a veritable treasury of information on the daily lives of the ordinary people associated with the excavation and decoration of the royal tombs in the nearby Valleys of the Kings and Queens. For a detailed review of life in these and other model communities, consult Kemp (1989).

  Chapter 1 Images of Women

  1 Until relatively recently this potentially fertile field of research has been relegated to the background of archaeological and historical studies which have tended to concentrate on the élite and spectacular at the expense of the more mundane. Unhappily, the spectacular is usually associated with male achievements; it is almost invariably the more down-to-earth which is most relevant to women’s studies. It is, of course, not only women who have suffered in this way. Our knowledge of all societies is based far more on the atypical actions of the most prominent citizens than on the daily labours of the masses, and the lives of large groups of men have also been ignored in our reconstruction of the past. While spectacular burials and impressive monuments still attract universal interest, there is now a growing demand for information about the more basic details of ordinary life. It is also recognized that the painstaking excavation of a domestic site, or even a rubbish dump, can provide a wealth of information which may not be as intrinsically valuable as a spectacular treasure-trove of gold artefacts but which may be equally important for our understanding of the past.

  2 These tombs do not necessarily demonstrate that the queens of Egypt were economically powerful in their own right. On the contrary, it is obvious that the Old and Middle Kingdom queens’ pyramid and mastaba tombs were built as subsidiaries to the far larger pyramid complex of the king. Although the New Kingdom queens were important enough to be accorded an individual and expensive funeral, their high status was clearly a direct result of their marriage.

  3 Most societies which normally expect their females to adopt a non-aggressive role do generally approve of their women fighting at times of national or local emergency. Petrie, W.F.M. (1897), Deshasheh, Egypt Exploration Society, London.

  4 Following this reasoning, potentially threatening subsidiary figures included in tomb scenes, together with animal- and human-like hieroglyphs included in the commentary, were often depicted either without their legs or cut in half at the waist. This deliberate disablement was seen as a wise precaution, preventing the otherwise dangerous images from coming alive and menacing the principal occupant of the tomb.

  5 Harris, J.E. & Wente, E.F. (1980), An X-Ray Analysis of the Royal Mummies, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

  6 Heqanakht was the priest of the funerary cult of the Vizier Ipi, based at Thebes. He lived during the early part of the Middle Kingdom, when Egypt was still suffering from the disruption of the anarchic First Intermediate Period, and was often forced to make business trips to the north of the country. While away from home he wrote a series of letters in which he attempted to impose long-distance control over both his local business interests and the behaviour of his quarrelsome and discontented family. These letters were preserved by their recipients, and eventually found their way into the shaft of a secondary grave dug into the courtyard of Ipi’s tomb. The letters of Heqanakht have been published in translation by James (1962).

  7 Christie, A. (1945), Death Comes as the End, Collins, Glasgow.

  8 It is this type of bias in the written record which has led some feminist historians to suggest that a clear distinction should be drawn between ‘History’, the recorded past written with an upper-case letter H, and ‘history’, the actual and complete past, recorded or not, written with a lower-case letter h. All men and women have played an equal role in the development of ‘history’, while ‘History’ was often made by an exceptional, educated and privileged male élite. Those interested in the use of this convention should consult Lerner, G. (1986), The Creation of Patriarchy, Oxford University Press: 4.

  9 Abana, or Ibana, is the mother of Ahmose.

  10 The Late Period ‘autobiography’ of the Lady Taimhotep, written by her
husband after her death, is an exception to this general rule. An excerpt from this autobiography is quoted at the very end of Chapter 8 in this book.

  11 English translations of the medical papyri are included in the selected bibliography at the back of this book.

  12 Greek and Roman fiction always held a more ambivalent attitude towards women, and the scheming female was a standard character in classical literature.

  13 Egypt received a variety of cultural influences from her neighbours, and it would be both interesting and informative to give some consideration to the prevailing social customs of all these states. Unfortunately, although women’s studies are rapidly becoming an acceptable aspect of Near Eastern archaeology, there are still relatively few publications dealing with the women of the Near East; this lack of accessible information is particularly striking when compared to the attention which has been focused on the women of the classical world. Lesko (1987, ed.) has attempted to redress this problem and provides a useful bibliography for those interested in Near Eastern women’s studies.

  14 It would be a mistake to interpret the laws of Hammurabi too literally, as they appear to have been written as a guide to good behaviour rather than as a strict rule. We know that some women did conduct legal transactions on their own behalf, and wealthy widows were able to exercise a considerable degree of control over their private lives. Nevertheless, the rules do give a good indication of the values of society, and of the legal position of women within the community.