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Étiquette : Offrande funéraire

Publié le

The Lady of Elephantine: Five Women Mysteriously Buried under the Causeway of Thutmose III

Lecture in the Charles K. Wilkinson Lecture Series on ‘Feminizing the Landscape: The Female Form in the Ancient Near East, Egypt and the Islamic World’, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, June 27, 2024

Par Frédéric Colin, Chaire Marc Bloch de l’USIAS, Université de Strasbourg, CNRS, UMR 7044 Archimède

Abstract: Introduction by Diana Craig Patch, Lila Acheson Wallace Curator in Charge, Department of Egyptian Art, The Met.

  This lecture presents the current state of research on the discovery of a group of coffins belonging to four or five women, buried in a secondary position in the fill of a ramp built by Thutmose III in western Thebes. The five coffins were buried in a single phase and directly covered with debris. Starting from the observation that this arrangement is unusual, the conference tries to answer two questions: what are these coffins doing in this strange context? Who are these people who deserve such an atypical burial, when at the same time they deserve such a beautiful burial?

  To address the second question, the lecture discusses the interpretation of the inscriptions on the coffins, the study of the associated objects, and the study of the characteristics of the skeletons, in order to determine the sex, gender, and social status of the deceased. The study is based on an X-ray procedure carried out in situ using portable equipment.

  The answer to the first question is based on the systematic 3D modelling of the stratigraphy, according to the principle of a ‘matrioshka doll’ pattern. This contextual analysis, combined with the results of excavations by Howard Carter and Ambrose Lansing (for the Metropolitan Museum) before and after the First World War, suggests that the coffins were moved to the ramp in an operation that was both opportunistic and respectful of past generations. Their new location gave them a front row seat to attend the ceremonies of the “Beautiful Festival of the Valley”, during which the boats of Amun, Mut and Khonsu were carried along the processional causeway.

  In conclusion, the study shows that the decoration of the coffin of one of the deceased, Lady Ta-Abu, highlights women’s agency in funerary ritual in a highly original way. While different kinds of gender staging are attested in the decoration of female and male coffins from this period, the artist has entirely feminized the funerary scenes depicted on Lady Ta-Abu’s coffin.

  Two details are particularly interesting: one could be a representation of a typical “grape offering”, in which children receive special attention under the guidance of adult women. The other detail reveals an instance of the same ritual event being documented in both 2D and 3D formats. The 2D representation is of the ideal scene, while the 3D objects are those that were actually left behind by the officiating women.

Cite this paper as: Frédéric Colin, « The Lady of Elephantine: Five Women Mysteriously Buried Under the Causeway of Thutmose III », Lecture in the Charles K. Wilkinson Lecture Series on ‘Feminizing the Landscape: The Female Form in the Ancient Near East, Egypt and the Islamic World’, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York, June 27, 2024, https://clae.hypotheses.org/4019, consulté le XX/XX/XXXX.

Publié le

Leçon inaugurale de la Chaire Marc Bloch de l’USIAS

Des sables de Bahariya aux ors de la cour de Thèbes : un parcours d’égyptologie interdisciplinaire

Par Frédéric Colin, Chaire Marc Bloch de l’USIAS, Université de Strasbourg, CNRS, UMR 7044 Archimède

Abstract: With an introduction by David Le Breton, USIAS Chair of Anthropology of Contemporary Worlds.

     An Egyptologist is traditionally thought of as a specialist in the ancient history of a chrono-cultural area defined by linguistic and cultural criteria: the Nile Valley and the bordering regions that were home to populations whose writing and language were documented for over 3,000 years, from the third millennium BC to the first millennium AD.

     In theory, Egyptology is a synthetic discipline, involving archaeology (studying objects and structures discovered on excavation sites), philology (editing ancient texts), history (combining archaeological and textual sources to answer historical questions) and other fields from social sciences and humanities that can shed light on the dynamics of societies. In reality, researchers and institutions tend to specialise in one of these sub-fields. From an epistemological point of view, this specialisation is a spontaneous phenomenon that may be required to advance increasingly sophisticated knowledge. However, it also generates reassuring internal and external disciplinary boundaries, which owe more to contingent traditions of teaching than to the objective needs of advancing knowledge.

     The lecture will include several examples to illustrate the value of scientific wandering that often overpasses artificial borders, provided that one dares to take a temporarily naive look at a well-known problem, which can generate unexpected creativity.

     It will also emphasize the usefulness of developing first-hand experimental techniques and skills to which we do not always pay the greatest attention in the humanities because of an affinity for theory and idea-driven knowledge. From this perspective, testing and improving archaeological applications of digital photogrammetry in the Egyptian collection of the University of Strasbourg and on the excavation site of the Assasif proved fundamental to be able to capitalise on an important chance discovery in 2018, 2019 and 2021. The photogrammetric method that was systematically used to document the excavation, both for the stratigraphy and for the objects, provided valid support for the contextual interpretation of the finding. Without this flexible, accurate and rapid tool, the highly unstructured context from which the five 3,500-year-old coffins came would have made real-time data recording and post-excavation interpretation extremely difficult. This method has also allowed the rigorous recording of a “crime scene” that attests to acts of vandalism against funerary monuments in Pharaonic antiquity, of which modern and recent examples in the context of the antiquities market are much better known.

Cite this paper as: Frédéric Colin, « Des sables de Bahariya aux ors de la cour de Thèbes : un parcours d’égyptologie interdisciplinaire », Leçon inaugurale de la Chaire Marc Bloch de l’USIAS, 1er juin 2023, https://clae.hypotheses.org/3989, consulté le XX/XX/XXXX.

Publié le

Un miroir hathorique en contexte au début de la 18e dynastie (Assassif, 2019)

Par Frédéric Colin, Université de Strasbourg, CNRS, UMR 7044 Archimède, Fellow USIAS

Abstract: Publication of a bronze mirror figuring a bifrons head of Hathor, four lionesses and a papyriform column. It was uncovered in December 2019 amongst a rich assemblage of objects accompanying a mummy, within a sarcophagus from the beginning of the 18th Dynasty. As the first published record of the catalogue of artifacts found during the excavations of the French Archaeological Mission in Asasif – and in the circumstances of a worldwide lockdown because of pandemic –, this article will serve as a template for our project of contextual publication in rapid and full open access. May the usefulness for scholarly information of this fast result-report process overpass the defaults of a preliminary bibliographic survey.

Pdf : Colin_2020_Catalogue_Assassif_2019_1244_P_4
Figure 1. Miroir Assassif-2019-1244-P, face A. © Frédéric Colin, 2019.

Identification et caractérisation du miroir (fig. 1-2)

Numéro de fouille : Assassif-2019-1244-P.
Numéro d’inventaire : Salle 33 du Magasin Carter, inv. n° 700. Le Ministry of Tourism and Antiquities a inventorié l’objet sous un numéro d’inventaire unique, commun aux items découverts dans le même sarcophage (Assassif-1244-A-Q), selon le principe d’un enregistrement contextuel.		 Lieu de conservation :
L’objet a été déposé en décembre 2019 dans le magasin Carter à Gourna et est conservé dans des compartiments sur mesure au sein d’une boîte regroupant les pièces provenant du sarcophage Assassif-1244.
Dimensions :
Poids 1,622 kg. Hauteur maximale du miroir 26,9 cm. Diamètres vertical et horizontal du disque 12 et 14 cm. Largeur maximale du support arqué (de la pointe d’une extrémité à l’autre) 11,5 cm. Longueur de la lionne à la droite d’Hathor, sur la face A 3,16 cm. Distance de la base de la crinière en collerette à l’oreille droite de cette lionne 1,06 cm. Longueur de la lionne à la gauche d’Hathor, sur la face A 2,9 cm. Distance de la base de la crinière en collerette à l’oreille droite de cette lionne 1,05 cm.		 Matériau et état de conservation :
Alliage cuivreux doré. L’objet a été trouvé complet. Les images publiées dans le présent dossier montrent le miroir dans l’état où il se trouvait au moment de la découverte, avant toute restauration. Des particules de dorure, présentant parfois l’aspect de gouttelettes, sont conservées en divers emplacements, en particulier sur la face A. L’examen macroscopique suggère qu’une des causes de la détérioration de la dorure est le développement de la corrosion de l’alliage cuivreux sous-jacent1, mais cette hypothèse devrait être confrontée à une étude archéométrique.

Datation de l’artefact :
Aux origines de la 18e dynastie, d’après les parallèles typologiques de miroirs datés, d’après la typologie mixte du sarcophage contenant l’objet (couvercle rishi, cuve à fond blanc) et selon la datation au radiocarbone d’une sangle scellant un autre sarcophage rishi au sein du même assemblage (1633-1501 cal BCE à 2 σ, 95,4%, Pôle d’archéométrie de l’IFAO, Laboratoire de datation par le radiocarbone, Rapport d’analyse IFAO-0825).
Datation du contexte de découverte :
Vers la fin du règne de Thoutmosis III, d’après la position topographique et la séquence stratigraphique (cf. ci-dessous).
Figure 2. Miroir Assassif-2019-1244-P, face B. © Frédéric Colin, 2019.

Contexte archéologique

Cet artefact fait partie de l’ensemble des objets qui accompagnaient la momie contenue dans le sarcophage AS-2019-1244, au nom d’une dame Ta-abou (Tỉ-Ȝbw). Il cohabitait ainsi avec un pot à kohl (AS-2019-1244-C et O) et son bâtonnet applicateur (AS-2019-1244-M), deux cuillères en bois figurées (AS-2019-1244-E et G), trois rasoirs (AS-2019-1244-H, K2 et K3) dont deux rangés dans un étui en bois (AS-2019-1244-K1), un panier en vannerie (AS-2019-1244-B et F), un filet (AS-2019-1244-L), un rhyton en faïence bleue (AS-2019-1244-D), un petit vase en terre cuite à engobe noir brillant conservant une poudre orange (AS-2019-1244-J), pourvu d’un couvercle en albâtre (AS-2019-1244-N), un vase (AS-2019-1244-I) et son couvercle (AS-2019-1244-Q), contenant apparemment des restes alimentaires figés, un appuie-tête en bois (AS-2019-1244-A), ainsi que des graines et des fruits dispersés dans la cuve. Continuer la lecture de « Un miroir hathorique en contexte au début de la 18e dynastie (Assassif, 2019) »

  1. Comparer par exemple avec la stratigraphie de la corrosion d’une dorure couvrant une statue en bronze dans Robcis et alii 2017, fig. 6. [↩]
Publié le

Early 18th Dynasty Burials at Al-Asasif, Luxor (Field Seasons 2017-2019, MoTA, Ifao, University of Strasbourg)

By Frédéric Colin, Université de Strasbourg, CNRS, UMR 7044 Archimède, Fellow USIAS

with the collaboration of Eweis Abdel Rady (MoTA), Yunis Ahmed (IFAO, Cairo), Nerea Bernabeu (Strasbourg Univ.), Sonia Brahimi (Strasbourg Univ.), Garance Clapuyt (Brussels Univ. & Strasbourg Univ.), Jean-Philippe Droux (Strasbourg Univ.), Christian Dupuis (Mons Univ.), Bruno Gavazzi (Strasbourg Univ.), Eman Hagag (MoTA), Cassandre Hartenstein (Strasbourg Univ.), Ayman Hussein (IFAO, Cairo), Khalid S. Essa (Cairo University), Sylvie Marchand (IFAO Cairo), Filippo Mi (Strasbourg Univ.), Sayed Mohamed Abd el-Rahim (raïs, Luxor), Sayed Mohamed Ahmed (MoTA), Simone Nannucci (Strasbourg Univ.), Sayed Mohamed el-Qurany (MoTA), Olivier Onézime (IFAO, Cairo), Anita Quiles (IFAO, Cairo), Asmaa Sayed (MoTA), Héloïse Smets (Strasbourg Univ.)

Abstract: Paper about the discovery in Al-Asasif, in 2017-2018, of a secondary cemetery installed in a construction earthwork of the causeway leading to the temple of Thutmose III, in Dayr al-Bahri. The assemblage of funerary objects and the decoration of one of the sarcophagi provide complementary evidence of the pattern of offerings by the participants in the funeral, all of whom are female except for one young boy.

Cite this paper as: Frédéric Colin et alii, “Early 18th Dynasty Burials at Al-Asasif, Luxor (Field Seasons 2017-2019, MoTA, Ifao, University of Strasbourg)”, paper at the workshop “Upper Egypt: The Last Five Years of Archaeological Discovery”, organized by Luxor University, September 6, 2020, https://clae.hypotheses.org/860, accessed XX/XX/XXXX.

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