Ancestor Worship and Mortuary Ritual in Ancient Egypt

225 Pages·2013·38.62 MB·English

by  Nicola Harrington

LIVING WITH THE DEAD
Ancestor Worship and Mortuary Ritual
in Ancient Egypt
Nicola Harrington
Oxbow Books
Oxford and Oakville
Published by
Oxbow Books, Oxford, UK
© Oxbow Books and the author 2013
ISBN 978-1-84217-493-7
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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Harrington, Nicola.
Living with the dead : ancestor worship and mortuary ritual in ancient Egypt / Nicola
Harrington.
p. cm.
Based on the author’s thesis (doctoral)--Oxford University, 2010.
Includes bibliographical references.
ISBN 978-1-84217-493-7
1. Funeral rites and ceremonies--Egypt. 2. Ancestor worship--Egypt. I. Title.
BL2450.F8H37 2013
393.0932--dc23
2012040015
Front cover illustration: Sennedjem, his wife and two young children, offered a libation by his eldest
son. Burial chamber of the tomb of Sennedjem (TT 1), Deir el-Medina, 19th Dynasty. © Heidelberger
Ramessiden-archiv, 40107. Reproduced with the kind permission of Eva Hofmann.
Printed in Great Britain by
Hobbs the Printers Ltd, Totton, Hampshire
Dedicated with love to my Mother
Catherine Harrington

Contents
List of fi gures and tables ..........................................................................................................vii
Introduction ...............................................................................................................................ix
Acknowledgements ..................................................................................................................xii
Timeline ...................................................................................................................................xiii
Maps .........................................................................................................................................xv
CHAPTER 1: The Nature of the Deceased: Constituent Parts, Character, and Iconography ....1
Characteristics of and terminology relating to the dead .......................................................1
Constituent elements of the dead ..........................................................................................3
Iconography: distinguishing the dead from the living ........................................................15
The malevolent dead ...........................................................................................................22
Conclusions .........................................................................................................................27
CHAPTER 2: The cult of the ancestors ...................................................................................28
Mortuary cult and society ...................................................................................................28
Evidence for mortuary cult .................................................................................................34
Conclusions .........................................................................................................................63
CHAPTER 3: Places of interaction with the dead ...................................................................65
Houses .................................................................................................................................65
Tombs/tomb chapels ............................................................................................................86
Shrines and chapels .............................................................................................................97
Temples ..............................................................................................................................99
Conclusions .......................................................................................................................101
CHAPTER 4: Times of interaction between the living and the dead:
funerals, festivals, and banquets ...............................................................................103
Funerals .............................................................................................................................103
Festivals and banquets .......................................................................................................113
Conclusions .......................................................................................................................123
CHAPTER 5: Attitudes to the dead ........................................................................................124
Commemoration of ancestors and the maintenance of cults: ideals and realities ............124
Tomb robbery, the desecration of human remains, damnatio memoriae, and fear
of the deceased: confl icts between the living and the dead ......................................127
vi Contents
Placing the dead within the landscape ..............................................................................131
Reuse of tombs, cemeteries and funerary equipment: prioritising the living
over the dead? ...........................................................................................................133
Tomb graffi ti: form and function ......................................................................................137
The death and burial of children: an example of attitudes to those on the fringes
of society ...................................................................................................................139
Conclusions .......................................................................................................................145
CHAPTER 6: Conclusions: living with the dead in ancient Egypt .......................................146
Bibliography............................................................................................................................151
Index .......................................................................................................................................197
List of Figures and Tables
Figure 1. Inherkhau greets his ba.
Figure 2. The akh [iqer] en re Panakht.
Figure 3. Rock-cut statues with unguent cones.
Figure 4. The shadow and the ba in the vicinity of the tomb.
Figure 5. The deceased seated before a ka-table.
Figure 6. The tomb owner holding a sekhem-sceptre and staff.
Figure 7. Bust of Ankhhaf, which was located in a mud-brick chapel attached to his tomb at Giza.
Figure 8. Inherkhau receiving mandrake fruit; an ankh hangs from his outstretched hand.
Figure 9. The fi gure of Nakhtamun rises above the scales of justifi cation, holding the symbol of life in
both hands.
Figure 10. Ptahhesy depicted as an akh iqer en re.
Figure 11. Statue of Sennuwy holding the stem of a water lily fl ower.
Figure 12. Headrest for the deceased, protected by serpent-spitting deities.
Figure 13. Diagram of cycles of dependency and reciprocity.
Figure 14. Stela of Ankhren with an appeal to the living.
Figure 15. ‘Breaking the red pots’ by a female mourner.
Figure 16. Statue, offering basin, and false door of Akhmeretnisut in situ in his mastaba. © Museum of
Fine Arts, Boston.
Figure 17. Statues in (now enclosed) courtyard, with a stela and plinth for offerings.
Figure 18. Anthropoid or ‘ancestor’ bust in limestone.
Figure 19. Anthropoid or ‘ancestor’ bust in faience.
Figure 20. False door (right) with a yellow-painted central panel, built into a house wall.
Figure 21. The house of Djehutynefer as depicted in his tomb.
Figure 22. Lits clos in adjacent houses at Deir el-Medina.
Figure 23. Plan of the village of Deir el-Medina.© IFAO.
Figure 24. Pillar with a niche, probably for a stela or an ancestor bust.
Figure 25. Statuette of Mersu holding a water lily.
Figure 26. Sketch of a typical 18th Dynasty elite Theban tomb.
Figure 27. Profi le and section of a typical elite 19th Dynasty Theban tomb.
Figure 28. The stela/offering table of Senpu: an example of the commemoration of several family members
in a single monument.
Figure 29. The tomb owner (akh) drinks from the t-shaped basin in his courtyard while his ba hovers
overhead.
Figure 30. Model of a tomb courtyard with the deceased emerging to receive offerings.
Figure 31. Opening of the Mouth and the resurrection of the dead.
Figure 32. Khaemhet greets the rising sun in the doorway of his tomb.
Figure 33. Sunk relief inscription on door jamb, highlighted with yellow paint.
Figure 34. Deities (Ipet and Hathor) possibly representing the chapels that Ani (whose tomb is also depicted)
wished to continue visting after death.
Figure 35. Anubis (or a priest in a mask) tends to the mummy of Sennedjem in a canopied enclosure.
Figure 36. The Opening of the Mouth ritual at the entrance to the tomb.
Figure 37. Diagram of a tomb courtyard showing the location of structures and participants.
Figure 38. Tomb courtyard with niches for stelae on either side of the doorway.
Figure 39. Female mourner in a grieving pose reminiscent of Isis.
viii List of Figures and Tables
Figure 40. A bereaved woman, dressed in typical grey mourning attire, weeps and throws dust into her
hair while touching her husband’s coffi n.
Figure 41. Banquet guests holding mandrake fruit and a water lily blossom.
Figure 42. Banquet scene in the tomb of Djeserkareseneb.
Figure 43. Guests and musicians in a scene from the tomb of Nebamun.
Figure 44. Part of the banquet scene in the tomb of Rekhmire. On the lowest register, the tomb owner’s
deceased mother is served by a living attendant.
Figure 45. Banquet scene in the tomb of Userhet; the text mentions the Wadi Festival.
Figure 46. The bouquet of Amun.
Figure 47. Musicians and dancers from the tomb of Nebamun.
Figure 48. Banquet scene in the tomb of Nebamun and Ipuky.
Figure 49. Banquet and festival scenes in the tomb of Neferhotep.
Figure 50. Scene in the tomb of Tetiky that seems to show festivities in the tomb courtyard.
Figure 51. View from a house at Deir el-Medina towards the tomb chapels in the west.
Figure 52. View across the northern end of Deir el-Medina, the chapels (left), and the temple of Hathor
(far left), towards the Theban necropolis and the east bank of the Nile.
Figure 53. View across the Theban necropolis towards Deir el-Medina and the path to the Valley of the
Kings.
Figure 54. Deceased child (Taia, justifi ed) beneath a chair in the burial chamber of Sennedjem’s tomb.
Figure 55. Stela of May, depicting the tomb owner, his wife and a deceased child.
Table 1 Essential elements of the living and the dead.
Table 2 Evidence for cultic activity in New Kingdom houses.
Table 3 Lit clos decoration.
Table 4 New Kingdom tombs with sunk and raised relief. Based on own observations.
Disclaimer
Images are by the author unless otherwise stated. All reasonable attempts have been made to
contact copyright holders where appropriate.
Introduction
Although the relationship between the living and the dead has been touched upon in several
general studies and some more specifi c articles, the phenomenon of ancestor cults and associated
activities in Egypt have not been covered in great depth. In this book, which evolved from my
doctoral thesis, I address the issue of ancestor worship, drawing together a diverse range of
sources in order to present as complete a view as possible.
Funerary remains have to a large extent shaped our understanding of Egyptian culture, and
evidence is biased towards those who had the means to create lasting monuments. The specialised
nature of sites such as Deir el-Medina and Amarna may mean that the beliefs and practices of
their inhabitants were entirely incompatible with those of people living in non-elite settlements
about which comparatively little is known, and anthropological data is useful in shedding some
light on gaps in our knowledge that can only be satisfactorily fi lled by future excavations. The
purpose of incorporating ethnographic examples is to show that the ancient Egyptians were not
alone in their behaviour in relation to events such as death and childbirth, and to offer insights
from other cultures where relevant evidence is lacking.1 This concern with presenting a less
westernised view of ancient cultures has been expressed over the last generation in Egyptology
and the Social Sciences2 and Anthropology and Egyptology: a developing dialogue3 among
others. For example, Gerhard Haeny noted:4
… as long as we continue to view Egyptian art through our usual looking glasses, studying it by
methods and judging it by standards derived from our modern civilization, our endeavours can
give an answer only to the question of what aesthetic or other satisfaction Egyptian art may bring
to us … New approaches have to be tried, new methods have to be developed. It almost demands
that we jump over our own limitations.
In incorporating a range of ethnographic data, I hope to place ancient Egyptian culture in a
wider perspective, to build on attempts to engage Egyptology with anthropological methodology
and materials,5 and to further understanding (or stimulate debate) about the role of the dead in
society in general.
Previous studies
In her 2001 doctoral thesis, Aspects of the interaction between the living and the dead, Clare
Plater discusses letters to the dead, reserve heads, warnings to visitors and appeals to the living,
medical texts, magical practices, and the role of saints, across a wide spectrum of Egyptian
history, from the Old Kingdom to the Late Period. She does not consider funerary or mortuary
1 Cf. Baines 2007: vi; Weeks 1979: 21.
2 Weeks 1979.
3 Lustig 1997.
4 1979: 94.
5 E.g. Meskell 1999.