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> Egyptian Museum
part 1 - part 2 - part 3 - part 4
The Egyptian Museum, Cairo
part 3. The New Kingdom & TutAnchAmon
The New Kingdom grows into a real imperial power, and Hatshepsut's father is the first Egyptian we know who see the river Euphrates. He instantly names the river "the flood that runs the wrong direction". Of course, a flood should run from south to north as the Nile...
Hatshepsut did not expand the empire but kept the borders strong, but ThothMoses III followed the imperial tradition of his dynasty.
Then suddenly, for the first time in 1500 years, a revolution breaks loose.
Pharaoh Amenhotep III changes his name to EchnAton, and forbid every god apart from the sungod Aton. He destroys temples and kills priests in Waset before he moves north and establishes a new capital in middle Egypt.
Apart from being a good poet (his sun hymn is very much alike the later King Solomon biblical verses) the whole art changes during his revolution.
Above we can see EchnAton in a typical "El Amarna Art" style. His face is long and narrow, his shoulders narrow and the hips are wide. Many see a feminine form in his body, but we don't know if this is a true art expression for a fruitful sun or if EchnAton actually had a body shape very much like this.
What we know is that his reign lasted less than twenty years, and the young Pharaoh TutAnchAmon who followed, was in a historical context a "near to nobody" before Howard Carter found his tomb in 1922 AD. What had happened was that TutAnchAmons tomb which in the first place was not a full royal tomb (more a storage chamber) had been covered with debris from when the full tomb of Ramses III son MernetPtah was made.
The combination of a less important Pharaoh and a hidden tomb under lots of debris made the day when Howard Carter first put up the announcement at Old Winter Palace that a new tomb was found.
Here we can see the outher of the gold laid boxes which contained TutAnchAmons coffins.
Several beds were found in the tomb, and here we see part of one with the goddess Hathor, the goddess which was represented as a cow. Do have a look at the cows at the Egyptian country side, they must be the most beautiful cows in the world - maybe Hathor once put a Venus-spell on all of them?
Another bed is worth to mention, and this his camping bed. Yes it's absolutely a camping bed used when he was travelling or hunting. The very special part with this bed is that it had metal hinges so it could be folded so it took less space during transportation.
Most have seen photos from the fantastic treasures from TutAnchAmons tomb; still some are highlighted more often than others. We want to look a bit at what is not always presented.
Above are two sistrums, rhythmical music instruments which made sound when shaking them.
We find sistrums in many an Egyptian relief's, and often in connection with the goddess Hathor. Her priestesses most often held a sistrum, and many sistrums also had the head of Hathor on top of the sistrum handle.
The Senet game must have been most loved among games in ancient Egypt. If we should compare it with anything today we must say that it got similarities with backgammon as ludo.
Two players could participate where each used different shaped pawns on a game board with 30 squares. The squares was lined in 3 rows, each with 10 squares.
If you sat in front of the game with the long side towards you, you started in upper left square and moved left. Then down to the middle row and there from right to left and on the lowest row again from left to right in a snake like path.
The players used dices to get the numbers they should move each time. Well that will say, no dices but long sticks where one side was flat and the other rounded. Each side had a value and you counted the sticks accordingly. There is a game played by children in villages in Upper Egypt where sticks are thrown, and this is most likely remains of the old Senet game.
There are no rules written down for the game from ancient Egypt, but a few reconstructions has been done, one even was in sale as a board game. Quite addictive, so let's hope this reconstruction will come on the market again one day.
Note also the smaller boxes where the sticks and pawns are put in drawers, much as we have "traveller chess" and alike today.
Here is shown part of one of the necklaces found in TutAnchAmon's tomb. It shows the vulture goddess Nekbeth which represent Upper Egypt and the snake goddess Buto who was the protective goddess for Lower Egypt. Together they represented the United Egypt.
All the kilos with gold found in the tomb of TutAnchAmon are easily quite impressive. But when you get to the museum, look for this necklace and see closely on how the snake body is coiled.
The workmanship needed to make such a piece of work will soon outdo any amount of gold needed, and that's the true treasure of TutAnchAmons tomb as we see it...
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Text & photo, Arnvid Aakre
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