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Daughters of Isis - Joyce Tyldesley

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


  6 For further references to Senenmut, consult Dorman, P.F. (1988), The Monuments of Senenmut, Kegan Paul, London.

  Chapter 8 Religious Life and Death

  1 Juvenal, Satire 15, quoted in translation in Lindsay, J. (1963), Daily Life in Roman Egypt, Frederick Muller Ltd, London: 113.

  2 The New Kingdom Tale of the Destruction of Mankind tells how Re decided to eliminate all human life as the people were plotting against him. He created the ‘Eye of Re’, Sekhmet, who started the slaughter, but later repented of his hasty actions. In order to prevent Sekhmet from carrying out a wholesale massacre he mixed red ochre into beer; the goddess, thinking that the red liquid was blood, drank it and became too inebriated to continue her mission of death.

  3 For further references to domestic religion consult: Pinch, G. (1983), Childbirth and Female Figurines at Deir el-Medina and el-Amarna, Orientalia 52: 405–14; Kemp, B.J. (1979), Wall Paintings from the Workmen’s Village at el-Amarna, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 65: 52–3.

  4 Meskhenet’s unusual headdress, which is bound to her head by a circlet, has also been interpreted as two long palm shoots with curved tips.

  5 Budge, W. (1910), Book of the Dead, Text II, Kegan Paul, London.

  6 Ayrton, E.R. (1909), Untitled report in F.LI. Griffith (ed.), Egypt Exploration Fund Archaeological Report 1908–1909, Egypt Exploration Fund, London: 3.

  Selected Bibliography

  Many books and articles include information relevant to our understanding of the life of the Egyptian woman. However, this information tends to form only a minor part of a more general study, and there are very few works devoted exclusively to female-oriented topics. The references listed below include some of the more important and accessible publications with preference given to those written in English; all these works include bibliographies which will be of interest to those readers seeking more detailed references on specific subjects. More specialized references to points raised in the text have been included in the notes.

  Female-oriented Archaeology

  Cameron, A. & Kuhrt, A., eds. (1983), Images of Women in Antiquity, Croom Helm, London.

  Clark, G. (1989), Women in the Ancient World, New Surveys in the Classics 21, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

  Desroches-Noblecourt, C. (1986), La Femme au Temps des Pharaons, Stock/Laurence Pernoud, Paris.

  Lesko, B.S., ed. (1987), Women’s Earliest Records From Ancient Egypt and Western Asia: Proceedings of the Conference on Women in the Ancient Near East, Brown University, Brown Judaic Studies 166, Scholars Press, Atalanta.

  Moore, H.L. (1988), Feminism and Anthropology, Polity Press, Oxford.

  Pomeroy, S.B. (1984), Women in Hellenistic Egypt, Schocken Books, New York.

  Watterson, B. (1991), Women in Ancient Egypt, Alan Sutton, Stroud.

  Wenig, S. (1969), The Woman in Egyptian Art, translated by B. Fisher, Edition Leipzig, Leipzig.

  Contemporary and Modern Observers

  Atiya, N. (1984), Khul-Khaal: five Egyptian women tell their stories, American University in Cairo Press, Cairo.

  Blackman, W.S. (1927), The Fellahin of Upper Egypt, Harrap, London.

  Breasted, J.H. (1930), The Edwin Smith Medical Papyrus, University of Chicago Press, Chicago.

  Diodorus Siculus, Bibliotheca Historica, translated by Oldfather, C.H. & Sherman C.L. (1933–67), Loeb Classical Library, New York.

  Ebbell, B. (1937), The Papyrus Ebers, Levin & Munksgaard, Copenhagen.

  Griffith, F.LI. (1898), Hieratic Papyri from Kahun and Gurob, Bernard Quaritch, London.

  Herodotus, The Histories, translated by A. de Selincourt, revised with Introduction and Notes by A.R. Burn (1983), Penguin Books, London.

  James, T.G.H. (1962), The Hekanakhte Papers and other early middle documents, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

  Lichtheim, M. (1973) Ancient Egyptian Literature I: The Old and Middle Kingdoms, University of California Press, Los Angeles.

  Lichtheim, M. (1976) Ancient Egyptian Literature II: The New Kingdom, University of California Press, Los Angeles.

  Lichtheim, M. (1980) Ancient Egyptian Literature III: The Late Period, University of California Press, Los Angeles.

  Parkinson, R.B. (1991), Voices from Ancient Egypt: an anthology of Middle Kingdom writings, British Museum Press, London.

  Rugh, A.B. (1986), Reveal and Conceal: dress in contemporary Egypt, American University in Cairo Press, Cairo.

  Simpson, W.K., ed. (1972), The Literature of Ancient Egypt: an anthology of stories, instructions and poetry, Yale University Press, New Haven.

  Strabo, The Geography of Strabo VII, translated by H.L. Jones (1932), Loeb Classical Library, New York.

  Watson, H. (1992), Women in the City of the Dead, Hurst & company, London

  History and Geography

  Aldred, C. (1973), Akhenaten and Nefertiti, Brooklyn Museum, New York.

  Baines, J. & Malek, J. (1980), Atlas of Ancient Egypt, Facts on File, New York.

  Brovarski, E., Doll, S.K. & Freed, R.E., eds. (1982), Egypt’s Golden Age: the art of living in the New Kingdom, Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.

  Emery, W.B. (1961), Archaic Egypt, Penguin, London.

  Gardiner, A. (1961), Egypt of the Pharaohs, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

  Hayes, W.C. (1953), The Scepter of Egypt Vol I: from earliest times to the end of the Middle Kingdom, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

  Hayes, W.C. (1959), The Scepter of Egypt Vol II: the Hyksos Period and the New Kingdom, Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York.

  Kemp, B.J. (1989), Ancient Egypt: anatomy of a civilization, Routledge, London.

  Daily life

  Bourriau, J. (1988), Pharaohs and Mortals: Egyptian art in the Middle Kingdom, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge.

  James, T.G.H. (1984), Pharaoh’s People: scenes from life in Imperial Egypt, Oxford University Press, Oxford.

  Janssen, R.M. & Janssen, J. (1990), Growing Up in Ancient Egypt, The Rubicon Press, London.

  Manniche, L. (1987), Sexual Life in Ancient Egypt, Kegan Paul International, London.

  Morenz, S., Egyptian Religion, translated by A. Keep (1973), Methuen, London.

  Spencer, A.J. (1982), Death in Ancient Egypt, Penguin Books, London.

  Stead, M. (1986), Egyptian Life, British Museum Publications, London.

  Wilkinson, A. (1971), Ancient Egyptian Jewellery, Methuen, London.

  Index

  Figures in bold refer to a picture caption on that page.

  Abana, 29, 30, 77

  abortion, 62, 69

  Abu Simbel, 203

  Abydos, 87, 128, 181, 214, 215, 250, 273

  acrobats, 110, 154, 160, 161–2

  administrators, female, 123, 124–5

  adoption, 43–4, 71, 136, 205

  adultery, 60–62

  Africa, trade routes to, 11

  afterbirth, 74–5

  Afterlife and Book of the Dead, 65 clothing in, 163 delights of, 19, 88, 264–5 entrance by examination, 265–6 food in, 101–3 furniture in, 270 games in, 145 jewellery in, 171–2, 174 journey to, 265, 267 King in, 215, 269 materialistic approach to, 261 re-uniting of couples in, 57 ‘second death’ in, 76 sex in, 63 tomb figure paintings and, 23 women in, 272

  agriculture dependent upon the Nile inundation, 5 flourishing economy, 100 importance of, 87–8 inherited right to work land, 46 women in, 124, 137

  Aha, King, 193, 194 see also Menes, King

  Ahhotep, Queen, 199–200

  Ahmose, King (founder of 18th Dynasty), 11, 199, 200

  Ahmose, Queen, 221

  Ahmose, Scribe, 134

  Ahmose (son of Abana), 29–30, 77

  Ahmose Nefertari, Queen, 155–6, 200, 204, 244

  Akhenaten, King, 89, 95, 186, 200, 202, 223, 232, 233, 235–7 see also Amenhotep IV, King

  Akhetaten, 89, 232 see also Amarna

  Akhmim, 200

  Alcandara, 240

  Alexander the Great, King of Macedonia, 8, 13

  Amarna
, 7, 46, 87, 90, 91–2, 107, 157, 184, 186, 232, 236, 256, 257 see also Akhetaten

  Amarna Boundary Stela, 103, 231

  Amarna period, 162, 233

  Amen (a god of Thebes), 51, 57, 204, 205, 211, 220–21, 227, 232, 244, 246–7, 248, 250, 251 First Prophet of, 206 Third Prophet of, 77

  Amen-hir-Khapshef, 203

  Amen-Re, 210

  Amenemhat I, King, 10, 188, 189

  Amenemhat III, King, 219

  Amenemhat IV, King, 219

  Amenhotep I, King, 167, 200, 221

  Amenhotep III, King, 6, 185, 186, 198, 200, 201

  Amenhotep IV, King, 200, 202, 231–2 see also Akhenaten, King

  Amensis/Amense, 230

  amulets, 32, 72, 79, 80, 159, 160, 172, 173, 258, 263

  Anath (war-goddess), 254

  Anatolia, 2

  ancestors bond with, 15, 255 tombs of, 143, 255

  Aneksi, 77

  Anen, Second Prophet of Amen, 201

  ankh sign, 192

  Ankhes-Merire, Queen (first wife of King Pepi I), 195

  Ankhes-Merire, Queen (second wife of King Pepi I), 194–5

  Ankhesenamen, Queen (previously Ankhesenpaaten), 76, 202–3

  Ankhmahor, Royal Architect, 150

  Ankhnesneferibre, last God’s Wife of Amen, 206

  Ankhsheshonq, Scribe, 35, 46, 50, 51, 55, 63, 71, 118

  anklets, 173, 174

  Antigone, 212

  Antylla province, 112

  Any, Scribe, 104, 112

  Apophis, 257

  apprenticeships, 14, 115, 121

  archaeological evidence, bias in, 7, 261

  Archaic Period (1st and 2nd Dynasties), 9, 181, 183, 193, 194, 204, 264

  arithmetic, 114, 115

  army, 12, 83, 114, 124, 126, 208–9

  artisans, 7, 14, 91, 92

  artists, 14, 120, 138, 143, 161, 215

  Ashtoreth, 254

  Ashurbanipal, 12

  Asia, 11, 127

  Assyrians, 12

  Astarte (Canaanite goddess), 162, 254

  Aswan, 2

  Aten, the, 232

  Athenaeus, 112

  Athene, 254

  Athens, 38

  autobiography, 29–30, 274

  Ay (husband of Ankhesenamen), 203

  Ba, the, 267

  Babylon, 13

  Babylon, King of, 185, 186, 201

  Babylonian law, 38

  bangles, 174

  banquets, 53, 99, 101, 103, 109–12, 111, 218

  barbers, 157–8

  barter, 137–41

  Bast (cat-headed goddess), 144, 251, 254

  Bat (fertility goddess), 173

  bathrooms, 147–8

  batons, magic, 259–60

  Bay (‘Great Chancellor of the Whole Land’), 239

  beads, 170, 173–4, 273

  beans, 108, 109

  Bedouin, 109

  bedrooms, 95–6

  beef, 103, 104

  beer, 103, 105, 112–13, 138, 141, 142, 250, 263, 265

  Beni Hassan, 125

  Berlin Medical Papyrus, 33

  Bes (dwarf god), 72, 129, 130, 160, 257, 258, 259

  bilharzia, 148

  Binothris, King, 211

  Bint-Anath, 203

  birds, 89, 108, 143

  birth cycle of birth, death and rebirth, 5, 63 divine, 73 multiple, 75 see also childbirth

  birth bower, 73, 257

  birth rate, 71

  birthing-bricks, 258, 259

  birthing-stool, 73, 74, 258

  Black Land, 2, 5, 220

  Blackman, Winifred, 71–2, 80, 89, 160, 245–6, 258

  board games, 145

  boats, 5, 143–4, 167–8, 215, 251, 262

  Book of the Dead, The, 65, 265, 266

  boys circumcision of, 150 education of, 14, 81, 115–18 enlisting in army, 83 introduction to work, 14, 18 preferred to girls, 68–9

  bracelets, 173, 174

  bread and death, 105, 263 as payment, 103 at markets, 141, 142 free distribution of, 250 making, 25, 90, 97, 102, 104, 105, 141 offered to the gods, 103–4, 105

  breastfeeding, 32, 78–9, 253

  brewers/brewing, 82, 90, 112–13, 138

  bribery, 41, 136, 238

  brothels, 135, 180

  Bubastis, Nile Delta, 144, 251, 254

  building, 10–11, 31, 138, 172, 208, 229, 240, 242

  bureaucracy/bureaucrats, 14, 87, 89, 103, 115, 124, 141, 205, 208, 228, 243

  burial grounds, 126, 215, 272 mounds, 194 see also cemeteries

  burials associated with royal tombs, 181–3 evidence from, 7, 30–31 fashionable, 267 of children, 71–2, 75–6 royal, 171, 195

  Cairo, 10

  calendar, and magical portents, 260

  Cambyses, 13

  cartouches, 191, 205, 216, 219, 219, 220, 229, 231, 236, 237

  cats, 144

  cattle, 106, 141

  cemeteries, 46, 128, 182–3, 187, 267, 272–3 see also burial grounds

  chapels, 255–6

  charms, 79, 80, 154, 173, 245, 246, 258, 260, 263

  Cheops, King, 174, 183

  childbirth, 71–6, 78, 130, 149, 154, 160, 178, 235, 244, 253, 257–60, 262 see also birth

  childcare, 80, 83, 161

  childlessness, 68, 70–72, 173, 245–6

  children affection of parents towards, 66–8, 75, 80 and dowry, 54 and parents’ divorce, 58 and parents’ funerals, 271 and parents’ status, 66 as property, 38 as slaves, 79 boys’ greater status, 68–9 death of, 51, 57, 71–2, 79, 245 illegitimate, 62 illnesses, 79–80 marriage, 51–2, 81 naming of, 68, 76–7 portrayed as nude, 161 Roman women unable to act as guardian of, 39 royal, 184, 185 segregation in play, 124 toys of, 80 working, 123

  circumcision, 150

  civil service/servants, 12, 14, 114, 122, 124, 208, 209, 225, 227

  civil unrest, 6, 10, 188, 190, 199, 213, 216, 239

  class system, 39

  cleaning, house, 94–5

  cleanliness, 93, 146–8

  Cleopatra VII, Queen, 13, 17

  climate, 1, 6, 146, 152, 153

  clothes, 53, 156 and semi-nudity, 161–2 and sexuality, 27 as charm for childbirth, 258 dresses, 165–6, 168–70, 168 dyeing, 164–5 folding, 165 foreign, 46 Hatchepsut depicted as wearing masculine, 223, 224, 236 in Amarna period, 233 materials, 164 mourning, 132, 133 pleating, 165, 169, 170, 233 prices, 166–7 problems in use of evidence, 163–4 theft of, 167 tight (sheath), 24, 168–9, 168, 170 washing, 93–4 white, 23, 93, 165, 169, 170, 264

  Code of Hammurabi, 38

  Coffin Texts, 260

  coffins and decomposition of body, 267 and music, 126 and ‘Opening of the Mouth’ ceremony, 269 and ‘second death’, 76 body awaits burial in, 269 canine, 144 desecration, 237 interment in, 273 miniature, 75 price of, 140 robbing from, 172

  collars, 171, 174

  colours, protective powers of, 173, 260

  conception, 33, 54, 69, 71

  concubines, 27, 60, 125, 160, 179, 180, 181, 185, 190

  contraception, 32, 51, 62–3, 78, 121

  cooking/cooks, 18, 82, 97–9, 98, 108, 109, 123

  corvée, 136–7

  cosmetic boxes, 96, 159

  cosmetics, 146, 152, 153, 159–60

  cottage industries, 138

  cotton, 164

  court cases, 37, 40–42

  court officials, 89, 181, 184

  courtesans, 179, 217

  cowrie shells, 173–4

  Crete, 2

  cults, 8, 122, 144, 162, 192, 232, 243, 244, 246, 247, 249, 253–7, 274

  currency, lack of, 139, 140–41

  ursive hieratic, 117

  cursive hieroglyphic, 117

  Cyrus II, King, 13

  dancing, 25, 110, 124, 126, 127–8, 135, 154, 160, 161–2, 173–4, 257, 269

  dead, the bread offered to, 105 communication with the living, 274–5 Ka and Ba spirits’ need to return to the body, 267

  death and cycle of birth, death and rebi
rth, 5, 63 as a constant threat to family security, 261 efforts to avoid, 263 Egyptians’ apparent obsession with, 17 Hathor as goddess of, 254 of spouse, 56–7 second, 76 women expected to supervise the dying, 262–3

  death-jewellery, 171–2

  deben, 140, 166–7

  Dedi (a widow), 274

  Deir el-Bahri, 195, 222, 223, 226, 227, 229

  Deir el-Medina, 7, 41, 59, 61, 73, 85, 86, 90, 91, 107, 119–20, 120, 131, 138, 149, 167, 244, 247, 249, 255, 256, 257, 271

  demotic, 117

  Demyosnai, 271

  Dendera, 254

  dental problems, 31, 151

  deodorants, 148

  depilatory equipment, 147

  desert, 2, 5, 28, 144, 151, 171, 187, 272, 273

  Deshasha, 21

  Diodorus Siculus, 61, 107, 112, 152–3

  Discorides, 70

  division of labour, 122–3, 124, 137

  divorce, 38, 50, 54–62, 71

  Djau, vizier, 195

  Djehutynefer, 90

  djellaba, 166

  Djer, King, 181, 194

  djeryt, 270

  Djoser, King, 194

  doctors, 14, 31–3, 69–70, 71, 79

  dogs, 144, 181

  domestic work, 18, 91 and lack of women’s education, 15 and tomb paintings, 123 constant demand for, 134 hard physical, 83 occurring outdoors, 84, 89 wife normally responsible for all, 82

  Dorchia, 217

  dowry, 38, 54, 186

  draughtsmen, 120, 138

  Dream Book, 260

  dress, see clothes

  dresses, 165–6, 168–70, 168

  dressmakers, 138

  dwarfs, 181

  dyeing, 164–5

  earrings, 175

  earth mother, 251, 253

  Ebers Medical Papyrus, 32–3, 62, 148, 151, 152, 155

  Edfu, 250

  Edjo (cobra goddess), 256–7

  education, 14, 81, 114–21

  Edwin Smith Papyrus, 31

  Egyptian Empire, 11, 12, 156, 248, 251

  Elizabeth I, Queen, 211

  embalming/embalmers, 23, 155–6, 266, 268 see also mummification

  embalming houses, 66, 151, 268–9

  Emery, Professor W. B., 102–3, 182

  Eretosthenes, 217

 

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