Hatshepsut - Amarna (from Tour Egypt)

Certainly Hatshepsut is not the first name we think of when looking at finds from excavations at Amarna.

The Cairo Museum has at least one item found at Amarna. Its an inscribed Alabaster vessel.

Tour Egypt has a picture of this item, Museum number JE 57203.

If anyone has information on the discovery of this item, or others of Hatshepsut found at Amarna then please feel free to contact me.

Regards,
Stuart

Foundation Deposits by Tour Egypt

In an earlier post i mentioned foundation deposits. Within the post i said:

"I cannot say for sure why foundation deposits were deemed necessary"

Looking further into this (and there's a good deal of online resources for this) - the placing of foundation deposits was part of a much larger ritualistic ceremony. Information provided by TourEgypt gives us the full ceremony and how foundation deposits fit into it:

Beginning the Construction

1. "Stretching the Cord", thereby fixing the plan of the building.
2. Purifying the area to be built upon by sprinkling gypsum.
3. Digging the first foundation trench
4. Filling the foundation trench with sand
5. Moulding the first brick or bricks
6. Burying the foundation deposits
7. Initiation of the building work

Completion of Construction

8. Purification of the completed temple
9. Presenting the temple to the deities to whom it is dedicated
10. Offering of sacrifices

Thank you to TourEgypt for the information. Although i linked to their site during the original post - i feel it necessary to post the above-to show that foundation deposits are now less of a mystery to me- now that the above is known.

At a later date i will discuss who discovered the various foundation deposits around Deir el Bahri, when they discovered them, what was included and where they are now. A lot more information gathering is necessary before i am able to do this.

Regards,
Stuart

Hatshepsut - Foundation Deposits

http://www.britishmuseum.org/collectionimages/AN00418/AN00418471_001_l.jpg

Foundation deposits have been found in abundance at Deir el Bahri. Essentially each one is a little time- capsule, buried in the foundations at key points during the various phases of building.

What they tell us about Deir el Bahri is very important. I cannot say for sure why foundation deposits were deemed necessary, unless looking into the future and the assurance that people would know who was responsible for the commission and building of such a temple.

The example above, from the British Museum is just one of many objects retrieved from Deir el Bahri. It shows a well carved cartouche on a stone, which are aptly called "name stones". The cartouche - Maat Ka Ra is the throne name of Hatshepsut. Unclear, but present on the left hand side of the stone is an inscription which names "Senenmut, Overseer of the Works"

Such information can suggest that the location of this deposit was part of Hatshepsut's own work, under the watchful eye of her most trusted "friend" Senenmut.


From this we can get an idea of when this part of the temple was built (in the lifetimes of both Hatshepsut and Senenmut). Such information would immediately rule out her predecessors and previous Pharaohs when considering who is responsible for the various stages of the development of Hatshepsut's great mortuary temple, "Djeser Djeseru" (Holy of Holy's).

This is only one example of the information we can gain from such artifacts.

Other types of deposits i have seen include: Model tools, scarabs, plaques, baskets and more.

Please visit the following site for more information on foundation deposits and also a reconstruction of a Deir el Bahri foundation deposit:

http://www.touregypt.net/featurestories/foundation.htm

Regards,
Stuart

Senenmut - The Kimbell Art Museum

The Kimbell Art Museum, Texas, USA.

This is a chance for me to be able to show a Statue of Senenmut, Chief Steward of Queen Hatshepsut.

Two things stand out for me when looking at this statue:

1) - The material used - Gray green schist - is one of my favourite of the stone materials used in Ancient Egypt. I will post a photo of Thutmose III i have (at a later date) which could be my favourite Ancient Egyptian statue. This too is made of schist.

2) - The Rebus -

"A rebus is a message spelled out in pictures that represent sounds rather than the things they are pictures of: for example, the picture of an eye, a bee and a leaf in English might be used to make the English sentence "I Believe," or "eye-bee-leaf." The sentence itself has nothing to do with eyes, bees or leaves".

from: Tour Egypt

The Rebus in this case is the throne name of Hatshepsut, Maat Ka Ra. The upturned arms (Ka) at the foot of the snake (Maat)and the sun (Ra) between the horns atop of the head of the snake.

Regards,
Stuart