WOMEN IN EGYPT

WOMEN IN EGYPT

How the status of women in Egypt changed during the

Ptolemaic Period

http://www.ancient.eu/uploads/documents/DISSERTATION_-_WOMEN_IN_EGYPT__3RD_DRAFT__-_full_text.pdf

Donation stela

Donation Stela
Egyptian, Classical, Ancient Near Eastern Art
On View: 19th Dynasty to Roman Period, Martha A. and Robert S. Rubin Gallery, 3rd Floor
One of the most characteristic monuments of the Third Intermediate Period (circa 1070–653 B.C.) is the donation stela, a commemorative inscription that records the gift of land to a temple or a member of the temple staff. The texts give the conditions of the gift and the penalties to be incurred by anyone violating the terms. The punishments are usually couched in the form of curses, which, contrary to popular belief, were rare in ancient Egypt.
In the frame above the text on this stela a triad of gods associated with the city of Mendes stands facing the Libyan prince Hornakht, ruler of Mendes at the time. The prince wears the characteristic Libyan feather on his head and a short kilt with a transparent overgarment. Acting as mediator, he presents the hieroglyph for "fields" to the assembled deities. Behind him stands a flute-playing priest with a shaven head, a member of the temple staff to whom the fields are being given. Named Ankhpakhered, he was flutist of the god Horpakhered (Harpocrates), whose name means "Horus the Child" and who is shown standing between Hornakht and the god Osiris.
MEDIUM Limestone
Place Found: Mendes
DATES year 22 of Sheshenq III, ca. 804 B.C.E.
DYNASTY XXII Dynasty
PERIOD Third Intermediate Period
DIMENSIONS 20 1/2 x 12 3/4 x 2 1/2 in., 41 lb. (52.1 x 32.4 x 6.4 cm, 18.6kg)  (show scale)

Brooklyn Museum

https://www.brooklynmuseum.org/opencollection/objects/3762

JOSEPH LINDON SMITH The Man and the Artist

JOSEPH LINDON SMITH

The Man and the Artist

BY

Dr. M. Mahdi Allam

http://www.gizapyramids.org/pdf_library/allam_smith.pdf

Medamud

Kheruef

anzarinas. tumba de Kheruef

Low-relief depicting Princess Maritites

Low-relief depicting Princess Maritites

Egypt, Old Kingdom, 4th dynasty (c. 2500 BC)

Fragment of a limestone low-relief taken from the tomb of Princess Meritites and her husband Akhtihetep, in Giza. The piece shows two female figures (the two daughters of Meritites and Akhtihetep) flanking a cartouche composed The canonical representation of the two figures, who are facing left before an important person who would be shown on the next block, partially reveals the use of some conventional rules in the pose for wall reliefs. Thus, the trunk is simultaneously seen from the front and in profile, the heads are in profile while the eye is seen frontally.

The small block of limestone still has traces of green, the only surviving colour from the piece’s original chromatic variety since reliefs were generally painted.

https://gulbenkian.pt/museu/en/works_museu/low-relief-depicting-princess-maritites/

mask

A finely made gilded silver Ancient Egyptian 30th dynasty mummy mask from the Gulbenkian museum belonging to an unknown person. It is catalogued as Inv. No. 62 in the Gulbenkian collection

Pottery ushabti

Pottery ushabti with linen grave clothes of T3y-ms. 19th Dynasty. From Heracleopolis Magna, Egypt. The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, London. With thanks to the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, UCL

Statue of Ranefer

Statue of Ranefer, High Priest of Ptah during the 5th dynasty. Limestone, from Saqqara, now in the Cairo Museum

W. M. Flinders Petrie (1853-1942) - Petrie (ed) in Ancient Egypt, 1914, MacMillian and Co. & British School fo Archaeology in Egypt, University College, London

Fragment of a relief from the cult temple of Sahure.

Fragment of a relief from the cult temple of Sahure. It shows Syrian tribute in the form of bears and a vessel. Country of Origin: Egypt. Culture: Ancient Egyptian. Date/Period: 5th dynasty c.2467-2435 BC. Place of Origin: Abusir. Material Size: h=38.5cms. Credit Line: Werner Forman Archive/ Egyptian Museum, Berlin . Location: 50.

The four magic bricks

The four magic bricks

At the time of the burial of the king or a notable, four of these unbaked bricks are placed in niches of the vault at the four cardinal points. They serve as support for four specific amulets: in the west, the pillar Djed; in the east, the recumbent Anubis; in the south, the flame; and in the north, a mummiform figure on a pedestal, which also underwent the opening ritual of the mouth. These amulets are associated with chapter 151 of the Book of the Dead, whose vignette represents them, and whose text is written in hieratic or hieroglyphic on the bricks. The text specifies how the amulets should be made, which direction they should lie, and what role they should play in protecting against the dangers coming from the four cardinal points. The earliest examples date from the eighteenth dynasty: the first niches appear in the royal tomb of Amenhotep II. The latest examples are known from the reign of Nectanebo I, after a hiatus of some centuries between the XXI dynasty and the Late Period.

picture: Sennefer TT96A

osirisnet.net

TT82, the tomb of Amenemhat

TT82, the tomb of Amenemhat

This tomb can be distinguished from the other tombs of the time by the quality of the realization of the scenes, as depicted in the scenes of offering to ancestors and artists (see bs-38021), or the offering table before Amenemhat. The composition is airy, balanced, the drawing is very regular and precise, and the colours are particularly well chosen in certain scenes, as they are complementary, with brick red and Verona green for example. The scenes are well composed, even though they are as banal as the representations of offerings and banquets, which are very numerous in Amenemhat’s tomb.

But like all Egyptian artists, the one of the tomb shows great accuracy in the observation of animals, especially the observation of their gait, which seems even more natural than that of men

TT82, the tomb of Amenemhat

osirisnet.net

Book of the Dead of the Goldworker of Amun, Sobekmose,

Book of the Dead of the Goldworker of Amun, Sobekmose,

 probably reign of Thutmose III to reign of Amunhotep II, circa 1479-1400 B.C.E., Saqqara, Egypt, Papyrus, ink

Brooklyn Museum

Nebsen and Nebet-Ta

Pair statue of husband and wife Nebsen and Nebet-Ta. New Kingdom, Dynasty XVIII, reign of Thutmose IV or Amenhotep III, c. 1400-1352 BCE

Brooklyn Museum

Beat net dress

beat net dress

This dress was excavated by Guy Brunton at Qau in 1923-24. In 1994 and 1995 two conservators, Alexandra Seth-Smith and Alison Lister, re-constructed the dress.


The dress may have been worn for dancing in Dynasty 5 (c. 2400 BC). Each of the 127 shells around the fringe are plugged with a small stone so that it would have emitted a rattling sound when the wearer moved. When it was being conserved, it was thought to fit a girl of about 12 and to be worn naked.
Guy Brunton commented that the dress reminds us of the story of King Sneferu going on a sailing trip on the palace lake, recorded on a papyrus dating from around 1800 BC. The King gets twenty young women to row a boat and, to relieve his boredom, orders:

"Let there be brought to me twenty women with the shapeliest bodies, breasts and braids, who have not yet given birth. And let there be brought to me 20 nets. Give those nets to these women in place of their clothes!"

The point of the story is that the behaviour of the King is outrageous rather than normal, but this tale has been used to make the bead-net dress into an erotic and exotic garment.
When Janet Johnstone, an Ancient Egyptian clothing consultant, made a replica of this dress she found that the bead-net dress was too heavy to be worn when placed directly on the naked body. Janet also discovered that due to its ‘netting’ structure it could fit women of all shapes and ages.
Is it therefore our imaginative reading of the dress that makes it erotic?

^Petrie Museum
 https://www.ucl.ac.uk/culture/petrie-museum/bead-net-dress

Templo de Abidos

The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology: Characters and Collections

The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology: Characters and Collections 

format: 255x192mm

Paperback

ISBN: 978-1-910634-04-2

The Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology first opened its doors in 1915, and since then has attracted visitors from all over the world as well as providing valuable teaching resources. Named after its founder, the pioneering archaeologist Flinders Petrie, the Museum holds more than 80,000 objects and is one of the largest and finest collections of Egyptian and Sudanese archaeology in the world. Richly illustrated and engagingly written, the book moves back and forth between recent history and the ancient past, between objects and people. Experts discuss the discovery, history and care of key objects in the collections such as the Koptos lions and Roman era panel portraits. The rich and varied history of the Petrie Museum is revealed by the secrets that sit on its shelves. 

About the author

Alice Stevenson is the Curator of the Petrie Museum of Egyptian Archaeology, UCL. She was previously Researcher in World Archaeology at the Pitt Rivers Museum. Her academic specialisation is Predynastic and Early Dynastic Egyptian archaeology, but she has a broad range of interests including the history of archaeology, anthropology and museums. She has written and co-edited many works.