Petrie Museum Unofficial Page

Petrie Museum Unofficial Page This page celebrates a great museum - the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, UCL, and the work of the Friends of the Petrie Museum (PMF) to promote the Museum, organise lectures and events, and raise funds for conservation of objects in the museum.
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Q is for Qasr Ibrim (YB) Qasr Ibrim means "the castle of Ibrim" in Arabic and is derived from the Meroitic name Pedeme w...
29/07/2020

Q is for Qasr Ibrim (YB)
Qasr Ibrim means "the castle of Ibrim" in Arabic and is derived from the Meroitic name Pedeme which became Primis in later classical texts and Phrim in medieval Coptic.
Before the building of the Aswan High Dam and the creation of Lake Nasser, the site was situated on the highest of three headlands on the east side of the Nile, about 60 km north of Abu Simbel. Nowadays it is one of the few archaeological areas still peeking out of Lake Nasser's water. On photo 1 you can see the actual state of the site as it was in 2008. Only visible are the remnants of the church, the rest is below the water surface.
The earliest document found on the site is a stela dated to the eight year of the reign of Amenhotep I now in The British Museum. The earliest important building is actually the temple of the Nubian king Taharqa (25th Dynasty). But there is also evidence of earlier fortifications dated to the Middle Kingdom and later on. During the New Kingdom the place must have been important as well as four shrines dedicated to the Nubian form of Horus (Horus of Miam), and the gods Khnum, Satis and Hathor were erected together with statues in the niches of Egyptian kings of that time. On a rock on the headland south of Qasr Ibrim, a stela of king Sethy I with his viceroy of Kush was carved. This stela is saved during the Unesco campaign and is now to be seen at New Kalabsha (south of the Kalabsha Temple).
During the late Ptolemaic period the first proper fortifications were built but more details are known from the Roman period when the Romans occupied Ibrim after driving the Nubians far back into Nubia. In 21 BC the Nubian made a peace treaty with the Romans. After that period Ibrim flourished again and the Taharqa temple from the 25th Dynasty was rebuild. Also new temples were added. New inhabitants arrived like the so called X-group ( or Ballana- group) which settled after the collapse of the Merotic kingdom in about 450 AD. The Blemmye and Nobatae tribes from the Eastern and Western deserts visited Ibrim as well. Some time after the fall of the Meroitic Kingdom Christianity arrived on the island and the temple of Taharqa was converted into a church, the present Isis temple destroyed and in the 7th century AD the cathedral church was built (Virgin Mary). From the eleventh century Ibrim beqame the headquarters of the eparch. In 1517 AD Egypt was conquered by the Ottoman Turks and soon after Lower Nubia was annexed as well. In 1811 Ibrim was finally abandoned.
More information about excavations on the site and some stunning photos about the site of Qasr Ibrim browse through issue Sudan & Nubia bulletin 15 2011, to read online here https://issuu.com/sudarchrs/docs/s_n15_rose

Photo 1 View of Qasr Ibrim 2008 (photo YB)
photo 2 UC 75916: Fragment ofa limestone block with part of horizontal line of painted hieroglyphs, perhaps the words 'alabaster (vessels) and [in]cense' (cloth bundle on right, painted red with green tie, and top of yellow netjer-hieroglyph on left); from the 1984 division of finds from the Egypt Exploration Society excavations at Qasr Ibrim,
Photo 3 UC 19596 Transport and storage vessel made of fired Nile silt pottery from the X-group AD 350-500 Cemetery 193 tomb 133 (photo YB)
Photo 4 UC 2376:Rough ware bowl in brown/black chaff filled pottery with rounded base, carination and slightly flared rim. Found in a an 'X-Group' house
Photo 5 UC2380 Carved ivory plaque, with winged male figure in relief, from wooden toilet chest , X Group house at Qasr Ibrim
Photo 6 UC2373 Sandstone stela inscribed in Greek for Georgios, Bishop of Ibrim in Lower Nubia, from the second tomb south of the Great Church about eleventh or twelfth century AD
(source: J. Gohary Guide to the Nubian Monuments of Lake Nasser and Digital Egypt for Universities)

Q is for Qasr Ibrim.

Qasr Ibrim means "the castle of Ibrim" in Arabic and is derived from the Meroitic name Pedeme which became Primis in later classical texts and Phrim in medieval Coptic.
Before the building of the Aswan High Dam and the creation of Lake Nasser, the site was situated on the highest of three headlands on the east side of the Nile, about 60 km north of Abu Simbel. Nowadays it is one of the few archaeological areas still peeking out of Lake Nasser's water. On photo 1 you can see the actual state of the site as it was in 2008. Only visible are the remnants of the church, the rest is below the water surface.
The earliest document found on the site is a stela dated to the eight year of the reign of Amenhotep I now in The British Museum. The earliest important building is actually the temple of the Nubian king Taharqa (25th Dynasty). But there is also evidence of earlier fortifications dated to the Middle Kingdom and later on. During the New Kingdom the place must have been important as well as four shrines dedicated to the Nubian form of Horus (Horus of Miam), and the gods Khnum, Satis and Hathor were erected together with statues in the niches of Egyptian kings of that time. On a rock on the headland south of Qasr Ibrim, a stela of king Sethy I with his viceroy of Kush was carved. This stela is saved during the Unesco campaign and is now to be seen at New Kalabsha (south of the Kalabsha Temple).
During the late Ptolemaic period the first proper fortifications were built but more details are known from the Roman period when the Romans occupied Ibrim after driving the Nubians far back into Nubia. In 21 BC the Nubian made a peace treaty with the Romans. After that period Ibrim flourished again and the Taharqa temple from the 25th Dynasty was rebuild. Also new temples were added. New inhabitants arrived like the so called X-group ( or Ballana- group) which settled after the collapse of the Merotic kingdom in about 450 AD. The Blemmye and Nobatae tribes from the Eastern and Western deserts visited Ibrim as well. Some time after the fall of the Meroitic Kingdom Christianity arrived on the island and the temple of Taharqa was converted into a church, the present Isis temple destroyed and in the 7th century AD the cathedral church was built (Virgin Mary). From the eleventh century Ibrim beqame the headquarters of the eparch. In 1517 AD Egypt was conquered by the Ottoman Turks and soon after Lower Nubia was annexed as well. In 1811 Ibrim was finally abandoned.
More information about excavations on the site and some stunning photos about the site of Qasr Ibrim browse through issue Sudan & Nubia bulletin 15 2011, to read online here https://issuu.com/sudarchrs/docs/s_n15_rose

Photo 1 View of Qasr Ibrim 2008 (photo YB)
photo 2 UC 75916: Fragment ofa limestone block with part of horizontal line of painted hieroglyphs, perhaps the words 'alabaster (vessels) and [in]cense' (cloth bundle on right, painted red with green tie, and top of yellow netjer-hieroglyph on left); from the 1984 division of finds from the Egypt Exploration Society excavations at Qasr Ibrim,
Photo 3 UC 19596 Transport and storage vessel made of fired Nile silt pottery from the X-group AD 350-500 Cemetery 193 tomb 133 (photo YB)
Photo 4 UC 2376:Rough ware bowl in brown/black chaff filled pottery with rounded base, carination and slightly flared rim. Found in a an 'X-Group' house
Photo 5 UC2380 Carved ivory plaque, with winged male figure in relief, from wooden toilet chest , X Group house at Qasr Ibrim
Photo 6 UC2373 Sandstone stela inscribed in Greek for Georgios, Bishop of Ibrim in Lower Nubia, from the second tomb south of the Great Church about eleventh or twelfth century AD
(source: J. Gohary Guide to the Nubian Monuments of Lake Nasser and Digital Egypt for Universities)

Q is for Qau Tomb 562 (AB) Qau tomb 562 is particularly well known for its extraordinary New Kingdom deposit of 2-3 tons...
28/07/2020

Q is for Qau Tomb 562 (AB)
Qau tomb 562 is particularly well known for its extraordinary New Kingdom deposit of 2-3 tons of fossilized and mineralized animal and human bones well wrapped in protective coarse linen made from flax, which were accompanied by a remarkable selection of objects made of bone and ivory that were wedged in between the bones. The tomb itself dates to the Second Dynasty and when Guy Brunton excavated it, he said that everything had been thrown "pell mell into the mouth of the tomb” some 4ft below the modern surface.

Tomb 562 is located at Cemetery 400 at Qau el Kebir, which is located 45km south of Assyut and 5km east of Tima on the eastern bank of the Nile. Qau’s ancient Egyptian name is Tjebu. Its Greek name was Antaeopolis, after the great Greek god Antaios (Antewy). It was the capital of the 10th Upper Egyptian Wadjet Nome. Its modern name Qau el Kebir means “Big Mountain,” referring to the hills of the Eastern Desert. The site was identified as the place where Horus and Seth fought their last great battle.

It took several weeks to clear the deposit. Many of the objects were cosmetic but there was a big variety of types, including a staggering number of whole or broken kohl tubes, human and animal figurines, decorative inlays, mirror handles, spoons, cups, lids, knobs, hooks, a lion’s head, a seated cat, a harpoon, and a duck dish. Larger items included an alabaster mortar, an alabaster vase, a limestone hippopotamus, a mace-head, and items made from fossil wood. Brunton describes the artefacts as “not of a very high level.” Although he picks out one or two of the human representations for special mention and says that the animal figurines show “much fine feeling for nature” he concludes that “the impression that the sculptors were well trained on good models but were not capable of rising to more than a provincial celebrity.” Many of the bones were of hippopotami, often very large pieces.

Brunton intended to devote a special monograph to the bones, but never did so. The deposition of fossil bones with artefacts is not unique in Egypt. In 1905-06 Schiaparelli found fossil bones in a tomb near those of the Qau nomarchs that included horses, pig, deer, antelope, cat, crocodile, tortoise and fish, and was dominated by hippopotamus, all thought to date to the Pliocene (c.1.8 million years ago). In Matmar a circular pit containing fossil bones wrapped in linen accompanied by ivories was found by Brunton in 1929-31 near the 19th Dynasty temple dedicated to Seth.

Welvaert suggests that the priests of the 10th Nome identified the fossil bones with Nemty and gathered them to keep them safe in spite of the fact that Nemty was often a discordant and certainly an ambivalent deity, associated with negative aspects as well as positive, including his association with Seth. The overwhelming dominance of hippo bones in tomb 562, some very large and heavy, supports that idea that the aspect of Nemty closely associated with Seth was what drove the priests to collect the bones. Hippopotamus was often associated with Seth. A 19th Dynasty stela from Qau, also in Cemetery 400 shows a hippo in a papyrus swamp being worshipped. Five columns of inscription are almost illegible but the name of Seth was mentioned and it is probable that the hippo in the scene represented Seth.

Seth was worshipped in both the 10th and 11th Nomes, but the mythology, investigated by Walvaert, was complex. Welvaert says that the main deity of Qau was Antaios. The temple dedicated to Antaios was built by Ptoelmy IV and destroyed by a Nile flood in 1821. The name was written as two falcons in one or two boats or, rarely, two Seth animals. As the Horus cult spread, the two falcons were seen as both Horus and Seth combined in the one deity, Nemty. In a positive guise, on the solar barque his Horus component acted as guide whilst the Seth component acted as protector. A more negative aspect to his mythology concerned his greed as the ferryman in the “Contendings of Horus and Seth,” in which Isis successfully tricks him with the payment of a gold ring to carry her in disguise, in direct opposition to his orders. Nemty was punished by the removal of his toes, which meant that in his falcon form he could never again perch. Nemty shared various characteristics with Antaios including being identified with fossil bones.

The bones are now held in the Natural History Museum and are being studied by Dr Diane Johnson with EES funding to employ a variety of techniques and technologies to discover more about the deposits. She hopes that her research will cast more light on a Seth cult at Qau el Kebir. Artefacts accompanying the bones are held in a number of collections.

References:
Brunton, G. 1927. Qau and Badari I.
Brunton, G. 1930. Qau and Badari III.
Welvaert 2002. The fossils of Qau el Kebir and their role in the mythology of the 10th nome of Upper-Egypt. Zeitschrift für Ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskund. Volume 129, Issue 2.

Digital Egypt
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/museums-…/digitalegypt/…/tombs/562.html
Egypt Exploration Society - Previous Fieldwork
https://www.ees.ac.uk/the-iron-bones-of-seth
Egypt Exploration Society – Current British Archaeology in Egypt 2017
https://www.ees.ac.uk/news/cbae-2017-in-review

Q is For Qau Tomb 562

Qau tomb 562 is particularly well known for its extraordinary New Kingdom deposit of 2-3 tons of fossilized and mineralized animal and human bones well wrapped in protective coarse linen made from flax, which were accompanied by a remarkable selection of objects made of bone and ivory that were wedged in between the bones. The tomb itself dates to the Second Dynasty and when Guy Brunton excavated it, he said that everything had been thrown "pell mell into the mouth of the tomb” some 4ft below the modern surface.

Tomb 562 is located at Cemetery 400 at Qau el Kebir, which is located 45km south of Assyut and 5km east of Tima on the eastern bank of the Nile. Qau’s ancient Egyptian name is Tjebu. Its Greek name was Antaeopolis, after the great Greek god Antaios (Antewy). It was the capital of the 10th Upper Egyptian Wadjet Nome. Its modern name Qau el Kebir means “Big Mountain,” referring to the hills of the Eastern Desert. The site was identified as the place where Horus and Seth fought their last great battle.

It took several weeks to clear the deposit. Many of the objects were cosmetic but there was a big variety of types, including a staggering number of whole or broken kohl tubes, human and animal figurines, decorative inlays, mirror handles, spoons, cups, lids, knobs, hooks, a lion’s head, a seated cat, a harpoon, and a duck dish. Larger items included an alabaster mortar, an alabaster vase, a limestone hippopotamus, a mace-head, and items made from fossil wood. Brunton describes the artefacts as “not of a very high level.” Although he picks out one or two of the human representations for special mention and says that the animal figurines show “much fine feeling for nature” he concludes that “the impression that the sculptors were well trained on good models but were not capable of rising to more than a provincial celebrity.” Many of the bones were of hippopotami, often very large pieces.

Brunton intended to devote a special monograph to the bones, but never did so. The deposition of fossil bones with artefacts is not unique in Egypt. In 1905-06 Schiaparelli found fossil bones in a tomb near those of the Qau nomarchs that included horses, pig, deer, antelope, cat, crocodile, tortoise and fish, and was dominated by hippopotamus, all thought to date to the Pliocene (c.1.8 million years ago). In Matmar a circular pit containing fossil bones wrapped in linen accompanied by ivories was found by Brunton in 1929-31 near the 19th Dynasty temple dedicated to Seth.

Welvaert suggests that the priests of the 10th Nome identified the fossil bones with Nemty and gathered them to keep them safe in spite of the fact that Nemty was often a discordant and certainly an ambivalent deity, associated with negative aspects as well as positive, including his association with Seth. The overwhelming dominance of hippo bones in tomb 562, some very large and heavy, supports that idea that the aspect of Nemty closely associated with Seth was what drove the priests to collect the bones. Hippopotamus was often associated with Seth. A 19th Dynasty stela from Qau, also in Cemetery 400 shows a hippo in a papyrus swamp being worshipped. Five columns of inscription are almost illegible but the name of Seth was mentioned and it is probable that the hippo in the scene represented Seth.

Seth was worshipped in both the 10th and 11th Nomes, but the mythology, investigated by Walvaert, was complex. Welvaert says that the main deity of Qau was Antaios. The temple dedicated to Antaios was built by Ptoelmy IV and destroyed by a Nile flood in 1821. The name was written as two falcons in one or two boats or, rarely, two Seth animals. As the Horus cult spread, the two falcons were seen as both Horus and Seth combined in the one deity, Nemty. In a positive guise, on the solar barque his Horus component acted as guide whilst the Seth component acted as protector. A more negative aspect to his mythology concerned his greed as the ferryman in the “Contendings of Horus and Seth,” in which Isis successfully tricks him with the payment of a gold ring to carry her in disguise, in direct opposition to his orders. Nemty was punished by the removal of his toes, which meant that in his falcon form he could never again perch. Nemty shared various characteristics with Antaios including being identified with fossil bones.

The bones are now held in the Natural History Museum and are being studied by Dr Diane Johnson with EES funding to employ a variety of techniques and technologies to discover more about the deposits. She hopes that her research will cast more light on a Seth cult at Qau el Kebir. Artefacts accompanying the bones are held in a number of collections.

References:
Brunton, G. 1927. Qau and Badari I.
Brunton, G. 1930. Qau and Badari III.
Welvaert 2002. The fossils of Qau el Kebir and their role in the mythology of the 10th nome of Upper-Egypt. Zeitschrift für Ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskund. Volume 129, Issue 2.

Digital Egypt
http://www.ucl.ac.uk/museums-static/digitalegypt/qau/tombs/562.html
Egypt Exploration Society - Previous Fieldwork
https://www.ees.ac.uk/the-iron-bones-of-seth
Egypt Exploration Society – Current British Archaeology in Egypt 2017
https://www.ees.ac.uk/news/cbae-2017-in-review

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University College London, Malet Place
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Nearest Tube Stations: Russell Square, Goodge St, Warren St, Euston, Euston Square Buses: 10, 24, 29,59, 68, 73, 168

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This may make next year's Bloomsbury hieroglyph courses a little easier. 😁
Online lecture about Meroe this Sunday £4 for non-Essex Egyptology members [email protected]
Painting: Flinders Petrie Admiring a Find, the Ramesseum, Western Thebes (1895), Henry Wallis. Courtesy University College London Art Museum - see: https://www.apollo-magazine.com/henry-wallis-pre-raphaelite-book-review/
https://www.academia.edu/42154700/the_planimetry_of_the_BENT_PYRAMID
https://mymodernmet.com/royalty-now-historical-figures-modern-portraits/
The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology has been innovating for many years, using digital platforms to make their collections and background information accessible to anyone with a computer, tablet or smartphone. This is a really nice smartphone app that provides introductory information about the Petrie and its collections. I've played with it, and it works really well.
https://see.news/pharaohs-set-september-11-to-calculate-first-calendar-ever/
Call for papers on ancient Egyptian architecture and related matters
UC11099 -> 3D print -> mold -> wax casting
Egypt's Heartland Colloquium: Egypt's Heartland: Regional Perspectives on Hierakonpolis, Elkab and Edfu - July 18, 2019, Ashmolean Museum, Oxford * * Colloquium Abstracts and flyer now online * * Visit the Hierakonpolis-online website for more information
I always enjoy trawling through the Petrie Museum's online catalogue (http://petriecat.museums.ucl.ac.uk/). Lots of treasures to be found, of which this tiny little vessel of hippopotamus ivory is one.
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