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Water Iturech 536 bce

Koenraad Donker van Heel

in Djekhy & Son: Doing Business in Ancient Egypt

The year 536 bce had been a rather hectic business year for Iturech, or at least one that was very well documented in P. Louvre E 7834, 7836, 7838, and 7843. Choachytes needed to collect as many ... More

The year 536 bce had been a rather hectic business year for Iturech, or at least one that was very well documented in P. Louvre E 7834, 7836, 7838, and 7843. Choachytes needed to collect as many mummies as possible.Many mummies meant much work, and much work meant high income. In 536 Iturech had an interest in at least five tombs in the Theban necropolis on the west bank of the Nile.Less

Reconstruction of a 3D Mummy Portrait from Roman Egypt

Alf Linney, João Campos, and Ghassan Alusi

in Images and Artefacts of the Ancient World

This chapter focuses on the reconstruction of the portrait mummy of Hermione, which was excavated in 1911. Hermione lived during the reign of the Roman emperor Tiberius and belonged to the Greek ... More

This chapter focuses on the reconstruction of the portrait mummy of Hermione, which was excavated in 1911. Hermione lived during the reign of the Roman emperor Tiberius and belonged to the Greek immigrants of ancient Egypt who were descendants of the soldiers who have fought Alexander the Great and the Ptolomies. Hermione is believed to have been a school teacher, as her coffin portrait bears the Greek inscription ‘Hermione grammatike’. To reconstruct the face of Hermione, x-ray imaging processes were first employed to gain vital information without moving the painted cartonnage and wrappings of the mummy. Computed tomography and CT scanning technology was also used to provide a measurement of the 3D distribution of x-ray absorption coefficients throughout the scanned volume. This more advanced form of scanning allowed for the creation of 3D reconstruction of the volume. For the 3D reconstruction of the face of Hermione, four methods were necessary. These were the acquisition of 3D data on what lies inside the wrappings, the 3D reconstruction of the skull, the reconstruction of the soft tissues over the skull, and the application of texture to the reconstructed facial surface.Less

Divine Creatures: Animal Mummies

Salima Ikram

in Divine Creatures: Animal Mummies in Ancient Egypt

For most people mummies are synonymous with Egypt. However, it is less well known that the ancient Egyptians mummified animals as well as humans. For the ancient Egyptians, the act of mummification ... More

For most people mummies are synonymous with Egypt. However, it is less well known that the ancient Egyptians mummified animals as well as humans. For the ancient Egyptians, the act of mummification ensured that the body of a creature would be preserved forever, and thus they conferred the potential for eternal life upon it. Throughout history, however, animal mummies, like their human counterparts, had little value as artifacts. Many animal mummies have survived, and are now valued as sources of information on the culture and environment of ancient Egypt. Broadly speaking, animal mummies can be divided into four different types: beloved pets, buried with their owners; victual mummies, consisting of funerary food offerings for humans; sacred animals, worshiped during their lifetime and mummified with pomp upon their death; and votive mummies, dedicated as offerings at the shrines of specific gods to whom these animals were sacred.Less

Painted Hellenes: Mummy Portraits from Late Roman Egypt

Susan Walker

in Approaching Late Antiquity: The Transformation from Early to Late Empire

About one thousand mummy portraits have survived from Roman Egypt. They constitute a unique record in colour of a group of individuals, many resident in the towns and villages of the Fayum, but ... More

About one thousand mummy portraits have survived from Roman Egypt. They constitute a unique record in colour of a group of individuals, many resident in the towns and villages of the Fayum, but others living in the settlements of the Nile Valley and even on the Mediterranean littoral. This chapter explores the changes in representation of these persons in mummy portraits of the later 3rd and 4th centuries ad, when the educated elite of Hellenic cultural affiliation were concentrated in settlements in the Nile valley.Less

Manufacturing Divinity: The Technology of Mummification

Salima Ikram

in Divine Creatures: Animal Mummies in Ancient Egypt

Work carried out on the animal mummies in the Egyptian Museum, as well as in other collections, shows that, like humans, animals were mummified in a variety of ways throughout Egyptian history. This ... More

Work carried out on the animal mummies in the Egyptian Museum, as well as in other collections, shows that, like humans, animals were mummified in a variety of ways throughout Egyptian history. This chapter describes different methods employed for mummification. Mummification basically involves the evisceration and desiccation of the body. Desiccation is done using common salt or natron that draws out the bodily fluids leaving the dry husk. The second method of mummification involves the washing out of the intestines, and drying the body, using natron, before anointing and wrapping it. The third method of mummification uses no incision for evisceration. Rather, oil of cedar or pine was injected into the anus, the orifice plugged, and the liquid left to melt the viscera. A fourth method used on some animal mummies involved defleshing. A fifth variation on mummification involved the total immersion of live birds in vats of melted resin/pitch/bitumen.Less

Protecting Pets and Cleaning Crocodiles: The Animal Mummy Project

Salima Ikram

in Divine Creatures: Animal Mummies in Ancient Egypt

The author of this chapter made a decision to study the animal mummy collection, and initiated the Animal Mummy Project, in cooperation with the Supreme Council of Antiquities and the Egyptian ... More

The author of this chapter made a decision to study the animal mummy collection, and initiated the Animal Mummy Project, in cooperation with the Supreme Council of Antiquities and the Egyptian Museum, with Nasry Iskander being the designated collaborator from the latter institution. This project was one of the first modern, large-scale, non-destructive studies of animal mummies of all species undertaken anywhere in the world. The chapter's author's primary interest lay in studying the process of mummification when applied to animals, to see if chronological and geographical changes/particularities could be mapped, to understand the different categories of animal mummies, and to learn more about the ancient Egyptian environment. The ultimate aim of this project, after the mummies had been examined, was to conserve them, to produce a new, updated Catalogue Général volume as the original one had been rendered obsolete, as well as to reinstall the mummies in a more sympathetic museum environment.Less

The Waning Sun

Aidan Dodson

in Amarna Sunset: Nefertiti, Tutankhamun, Ay, Horemheb, and the Egyptian Counter-Reformation

The construction of tombs for the nobility of Akhenaten's court began soon after the Amarna was occupied, but a sheer amount of work was required in building these tombs. As a result, the tombs are ... More

The construction of tombs for the nobility of Akhenaten's court began soon after the Amarna was occupied, but a sheer amount of work was required in building these tombs. As a result, the tombs are more or less unfinished. Versions of Aten-name are found in their decoration which highlights the monuments, although the order of construction is not clear. However, two tombs, Huya and Meryre II, stand out having a specifically dated relief, which bulk their decoration after Year 12. A version of Meryre II had been carved on the right hand wall of the principal hall tomb-chapel but half of the tomb was still undecorated. The sculptor used the standard pattern in most unfinished tombs in Amarna to decorate the walls on either side of the entrance. This tomb is where Meryre II intended his mummy ultimately to lie.Less

Large-Format Stereo Conversion

Ray Zone

in 3-D Revolution: The History of Modern Stereoscopic Cinema

The process of converting a flat motion picture to 3D is explained using a specific Large Format film, Mummies 3D, as a case study. Director Keith Melton discusses the process. 3D conversion artist ... More

The process of converting a flat motion picture to 3D is explained using a specific Large Format film, Mummies 3D, as a case study. Director Keith Melton discusses the process. 3D conversion artist Tim Sassoon is interviewed.Less

Egypt, a new beginning: foreign relations and internal reforms

Roger Forshaw

in Egypt of the Saite Pharaohs, 664-525 BC

Psamtek I successfully resisted an incursion by western tribesmen in his early years, and by the end of his reign he was successfully campaigning in the Levant against the Babylonian Empire, the new ... More

Psamtek I successfully resisted an incursion by western tribesmen in his early years, and by the end of his reign he was successfully campaigning in the Levant against the Babylonian Empire, the new powerful force in the east. During his fifty-four reign Psamtek reformed the political landscape of Egypt, politically reunifying the country and reforming the administration. This reforming spirit of times was also reflected in art and architecture and one of the most salient features of the culture of this period is archaism. Standards of workmanship in the visual arts, particularly in sculpture, was high. There was a nationwide temple building and renovation programme, and monumental elite tombs were now being constructed such as that of Montuemhat, mayor of Thebes. Changes in funerary practices were evident and the cult of divine animals underwent a considerable degree of development and proliferation.Less

Burn Name Burn: Adalbert Stifter

Laurence A. Rickels

in Aberrations of Mourning

This chapter focuses on the funerary rite of cremation. Cremation was first introduced during a time came when no crypt would be safe from desecration by entrepreneurs whose escapades yielded ... More

This chapter focuses on the funerary rite of cremation. Cremation was first introduced during a time came when no crypt would be safe from desecration by entrepreneurs whose escapades yielded treasure which served as capital invested in new social orders. The original funeral pyre thus burned—and preserved—the complete contents of a mummy’s tomb. Benjamin and Derrida also brought into focus, the arts of magnification which cover the central stations of the mourning process—idealization, spiritualization, and dematerialization—by always investing the otherwise inconspicuous elements they enlarge with a surfeit of meaning. In Stifter’s “Condor”, a “ghostly” contraption of “shrouds” emanates from the funeral pyre of the magnifier.Less

Life and Death in Mexico

Jonathan R. Eller

in Becoming Ray Bradbury

This chapter discusses Ray Bradbury's challenging and traumatizing personal experiences during his and Grant Beach's trip to Mexico that also proved to be a watershed moment in his career. It ... More

This chapter discusses Ray Bradbury's challenging and traumatizing personal experiences during his and Grant Beach's trip to Mexico that also proved to be a watershed moment in his career. It recounts Bradbury's first-hand encounter with strange and frightening things in Mexico, which also provided material for some of his stories such as The Fear of Death Is Death, “The Next in Line,” and “The Candy Skull.” It first describes the abject poverty and the intercultural tension witnessed by Bradbury all around him, along with Beach's irksome behavior that proved to be borne out of his repressed writer's jealousy. It then considers Bradbury's terrified reaction to the catacombs and mummies he and Beach visited in Guanajuato and the misunderstanding that arose between him and Beach. The chapter ends with Bradbury leaving Beach in Mexico to return to Los Angeles.Less

Exploring the Pyramids and Mummy Fields

in How Many Miles to Babylon?: Travels and Adventures to Egypt and Beyond, From 1300 to 1640

The pyramids of Egypt were once described by Pliny the Elder (ad 23–79) as nothing but egocentric and superficial pieces of ostentation on the part of Egyptian monarchs. This is a total contradiction ... More

The pyramids of Egypt were once described by Pliny the Elder (ad 23–79) as nothing but egocentric and superficial pieces of ostentation on the part of Egyptian monarchs. This is a total contradiction to the common belief that they were the granaries of the most holy Joseph, who used them for storing corn during the years of famine. As such, the pyramids were revered by many and a popular destination for pilgrims. This assumption, strongly upheld by Sir John Mandeville, had virtually disappeared by the end of the sixteenth century, when the structures were recognised as the tombs of the ancient pharaohs. One such pyramid is the Great Pyramid of Cheops, a subject of numerous surveys and measurements. From the eleventh century, some Arab authorities believed that mummies had therapeutic values, which they attributed to the actual flesh of the embalmed. The unsavoury medication from mummies became popular as a valuable article of commerce not only in Cairo and Alexandria but also in Europe, where it were peddled for making balms, healing wounds, and for use at baptisms.Less

Muslim Monsters in the Americas

Sophia Rose Arjana

in Muslims in the Western Imagination

This chapter focuses on Muslim monsters in the Americas, beginning with the early monsters cited in colonial records at the time of European contact. These monsters were at times identified as Moors, ... More

This chapter focuses on Muslim monsters in the Americas, beginning with the early monsters cited in colonial records at the time of European contact. These monsters were at times identified as Moors, especially by Spanish explorers, part of what scholars have described as “Maurophilia.” Monsters associated with the Barbary Coast figured importantly in the early American colonial imagination about Muslims, identifying Muslim monsters once again with African monsters. These characters and others were influenced by Orientalism and the monsters of Gothic fiction, which informed the fictive characters that populated Hollywood cinema in the twentieth century, such as the mummy, the vampire, and the zombie. Filmic characters constitute the bulk of this chapter, from the early Hollywood “Easterns” to later films that exhibit an Orientalist aesthetic, Eastern settings, and Muslim characters.Less

Arthur C. Aufderheide (1922–)

Kenneth C. Nystrom and Larry Cartmell

in The Global History of Paleopathology: Pioneers and Prospects

This chapter presents a biographical sketch of Arthur C. Aufderheide. This is followed by a discussion of his contributions to paleopathology. Aufderheide emerged as one of the guiding forces in the ... More

This chapter presents a biographical sketch of Arthur C. Aufderheide. This is followed by a discussion of his contributions to paleopathology. Aufderheide emerged as one of the guiding forces in the elaboration of soft tissue paleopathology. Complementing the case-specific work of prior researchers, his approach pioneered the first large-scale, population-based studies of mummies, allowing researchers to discuss prehistoric epidemiology on a scale not previously possible.Less

Jens Peder Hart Hansen and the Paleopathology of the Greenland Mummies

Niels Lynnerup and Bruno Frohlich

in The Global History of Paleopathology: Pioneers and Prospects

This chapter presents a biographical sketch of Jens Peder Hart Hansen. This is followed by a discussion of his contributions to paleopathology. Hansen's actual involvement in paleopathology began ... More

This chapter presents a biographical sketch of Jens Peder Hart Hansen. This is followed by a discussion of his contributions to paleopathology. Hansen's actual involvement in paleopathology began when he became engaged in the analyses of eight extremely well-preserved human mummies from Qilakitsoq in northwestern Greenland that date back to the fifteenth century. Jens Peder's planning for the study of the Qilakitsoq mummies focused on good science and collegial collaboration. His objectives included new techniques and methods, in combination with traditional anthropological, biological, geological, medical, and forensic techniques.Less

Calvin Percival Bamfylde Wells (1908–1978)

Charlotte A. Roberts and Keith Manchester

in The Global History of Paleopathology: Pioneers and Prospects

This chapter presents a biographical sketch of Calvin Percival Bamfylde Wells. This is followed by a discussion of his contributions to paleopathology. Wells was a key pioneer for the development of ... More

This chapter presents a biographical sketch of Calvin Percival Bamfylde Wells. This is followed by a discussion of his contributions to paleopathology. Wells was a key pioneer for the development of paleopathology in the UK. He had more than 130 publications to his name (1955 to 2006). He did not restrict himself only to inhumed human skeletal remains, as he also dealt with a number of pathological nonhuman remains, mummified remains, and cremated human bone, along with artistic representations of illnesses, surgical instruments, and the treatment of disease. Impressive, however, was the number of skeletal reports he completed for archaeologists (approximately fifty), including for the large Romano-British cemetery at Cirencester, Gloucestershire (1982).Less

Mahmoud Yousef K. El-Najjar (1942–2009)

Abdulla A. Al-Shorman and Jerome C. Rose

in The Global History of Paleopathology: Pioneers and Prospects

This chapter presents a biographical sketch of Mahmoud Yousef K. El-Najjar. This is followed by a discussion of his contributions to paleopathology. El-Najjar made significant contributions to our ... More

This chapter presents a biographical sketch of Mahmoud Yousef K. El-Najjar. This is followed by a discussion of his contributions to paleopathology. El-Najjar made significant contributions to our understanding of ancient disease in three areas: porotic hyperostosis, enamel hypoplasias, tuberculosis, and North American mummy studies. He brought these skills to the examination of many skeletal series excavated in Kuwait, United Arab Emirates, and Jordan, which resulted in numerous skeletal analysis publications.Less

Herbert Upham Williams (1866–1938)

Della Collins Cook

in The Global History of Paleopathology: Pioneers and Prospects

This chapter presents a biographical sketch of Herbert Upham Williams. This is followed by a discussion of his contributions to paleopathology. Williams was an exemplary academic physician who turned ... More

This chapter presents a biographical sketch of Herbert Upham Williams. This is followed by a discussion of his contributions to paleopathology. Williams was an exemplary academic physician who turned to paleopathology in his later years. The San Diego bibliography lists just twelve publications by Williams, but they make up in substance what they lack in number. In his influential 1966 essay, Saul Jarcho included Williams among the eleven founders of paleopathology in the United States, stressing his academic bent, his professionalism, and his extensive use of radiology and histology. Williams' early effort in medical history produced two papers read before the Johns Hopkins History Club (1909). The longer paper begins with an original, thoughtful discussion of Columbian disease introductions in the Old and New World. At the 1926 joint meetings of the American Anthropological Association (AAA) and the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) he presented a description, with histological and immunological analysis, of a Peruvian double mummy bundle from the Field Museum of Natural History in Chicago.Less

Development of Paleopathology in the Nile Valley

Brenda J. Baker and Margaret A. Judd

in The Global History of Paleopathology: Pioneers and Prospects

This chapter describes the individuals who studied aspects of health status or disease among ancient Egyptians and Nubians. It emphasizes the key developments in the formative years of Nile Valley ... More

This chapter describes the individuals who studied aspects of health status or disease among ancient Egyptians and Nubians. It emphasizes the key developments in the formative years of Nile Valley paleopathology up to the UNESCO High Dam campaign initiated in 1960. Mummies figured prominently in the unraveling of this history.Less