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#ancientegypt

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Tales from the Two Lands

I rather like the way the Ashmolean had this beaker displayed in 2011, it’s against a replica of a piece of Predynastic Egyptian art (from Hierakonpolis Tomb 100 I think) and lined up with gazelles of some sort surrounding the beaker with its central Barbary sheep.

The Barbary sheep is a mammal native to North Africa which likes arid mountainous conditions, so it is a creature of the desert in Egypt. It’s surrounded by dogs, with upturned curly tails, little short ears and knotted collars where someone could attach a lead. 🧵 1/3

A photograph of a predynastic Egyptian vase. The vase is made of clay which is a dark terracotta colour, and is decorated with a design in white. It is a tall slender vase which narrows towards the neck then flares out again. At the narrowest point and at the base the decoration consists of two rings of white triangles, one pointing up and the other pointing down. In between on the face we see are animals. The central animal is a Barbary sheep, which has a cross hatched body, a long neck with long hair on its underside, a head with a long nose and two long horns coming from the top of the head between the ears. Around it we can see three other animals, which are dogs. These are smaller than the sheep and have shorter neck with no long fur. Their ears are longer and perky, and their tails are short and also perky. Each dog is shown wearing a collar with a knot that protrudes at the front of the neck. The pot is displayed in front of a replica of a rough contemporaneous wall painting, and the object is positioned so that 3 gazelles on the background seem to stand within the vase.
#egyptology#pottery#ancientEgypt
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Erotic Mythology 🌹

Have a beautiful Day of Aphrodite aka Venus' Day aka Frigg's Day aka Friday 🌹

"A robe out-shining the brightness of fire, [...] which shimmered like the moon over her tender breasts, a marvel to see. Also she wore twisted brooches and shining earrings in the form of flowers; and round her soft throat were lovely necklaces"
Homeric Hymn 5

🏛 #Aphrodite, painted casket, Roman Egypt, 250-300 CE

@antiquidons @mythology
#DayOfAphrodite #mythology #GreekRomanArt #ancientEgypt #EgyptianArt

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Jomes
More #Egypt 😄 (there's so much more to come 😅) After the Pyramids of Giza and the Sphinx we visitid the #StepPyramid in #Sakkara. I think that was the only time where we were almost completely alone. It was early afternoon and the temperatures were rising, but still in managable regions in the mid-twenties. It was magical and utterly silent, because this pyramid is far awy from everything else and to me it felt as if it's already the middle of the desert. Sadly, we didn't have much time to soak up the atmosphere because we were on a tight schedule towards the next sight 😅

#SightSeeing #travelling #vacation #AncientEgypt #Sky #desert
Horizontal photo of the Step Pyramid. It's taking up the whole photo, with a bit of pale dusty sky above it and a smooth sand yard in front of it. A single tiny figure in dark clothing is walking towards it (our guide).
Another photo of the pyramid, this time from a bit sideways so two sides of it are visible, one side lying a bit in the shadows with just the edges of the steps illuminated. The photo has been taken from further away, but it looks just as big. There are two tiny people, barely more than two specks, walking towards the pyramid.
#desert
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Jomes
Visiting the pyramids and the sphinx on my first day in Egypt was amazing, but also gave me a taste of the endless amount of people we'd have to fight for some nice pictures in all further locations. It's the definition of mass tourism. Every inch of the paths was covered in people despite it being early in the morning off season.

#Egypt #PyramidsOfGiza #Sphinx #vacation #holiday #travel #travelling #Sightseeing #AncientEgypt #tourism #history
Photo of the Sphinx in front of one of the big Pyramids of Giza. The Sphinx is sitting facing me, surrounded by scattered blocks of sandstone. The pyramid stands in the background, on top of the horizon, towering over everything. Everything is bright yellow sand coloured under a blue sky. There's a haze in the sky, muting the blue to a sandy colour towards the lower horizon. There's a light sandy road leading from the left towards the pyramid past the sphinx. It's filled with people - countless dark spots in various colours.
#history
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Essex Egyptology Group

At our April meeting (Sunday 6th, ONLINE via Zoom), Dr Nicholas Brown will give a talk on "The Valley of the Kings: Its Life and Afterlife".

The Valley of the Kings is arguably one of the most famous archaeological sites in Egypt. For nearly five hundred years, the area was used by the kings of Egypt, their family members, and certain elite courtiers as a sacred necropolis during the New Kingdom (ca. 1550-1069 BC) (1/3)

A scene from a state funeral, taken from the tomb of the pharaoh Tutankhamun, showing a party of twelve high officials dressed in white linen and pulling a rope attached to the funerary sledge.
#ancientEgypt#egyptology#ancientHistory
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Tales from the Two Lands

Egyptian culture isn’t self-contained and isolated from the world, at various times it spills out into other nearby places and sometimes it sweeps back in from those places too. This vulture statue is part of that mixing and diffusing of cultures.

It was found at a place called Sanam Abu Dom, at Merowe in Nubia, about half way between Abu Simbel (in Egypt) and Khartoum (the capital of Sudan) near Gebel Barkal and the pyramids there & at Nuri. So it’s quite solidly provenanced from somewhere other than Egypt.

But it’s quite Egyptian to look at, and the vulture is a key part of Egyptian iconography. Among other associations it’s the animal associated with the goddess Nekhbet, one of the Two Ladies who protects the king, and associated most closely with Upper Egypt. 🧵 1/3

A photograph of part of an ancient Egyptian (or Nubian) statue of a vulture. The statue is made of black granite, which makes the detail in the carving a little difficult to pick out in a photograph. Not all of the statue has survived, and this portion is the head plus one shoulder (and partial wing). The head faces to the left and it's the wing nearest us that survives. You can see just above the wing that there is a broad collar necklace carved into the shoulder of the bird.
#ancientEgypt#egyptology#nubia
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Tales from the Two Lands

A few weeks ago I shared a photo of one of my favourite pieces of Predynastic pottery, a bowl with hippopotami on the rim. It’s not the only example of this sort of bowl, here’s one that’s currently in the British Museum (I photographed it in 2014 when it was on display).

I’m less keen on the proportions of the animals as compared to the other bowl – on this one they look a little lost. And the workmanship is a bit rougher and it also lacks the decorative white lines. The whole thing is just a little more rough around the edges.

However it does have a feature the other lacks: a crocodile to go with the hippopotami! If you look to the left of the front hippo there is a very flat rendition of a crocodile, with its head towards us, two pairs of spread out limbs and tail reaching off into the distance. 🧵 1/3

A photograph of an ancient Egyptian bowl. The pottery bowl is a reddish brown, and roughly shaped with a deep centre & a flared rim. On the rim are 5 little models of hippopotami, the one closest to us is in profile facing to the left, the one a little further to the right faces away from us. Then there is one about a quarter of the rim away at the left facing in to the bowl, and two at the back with their backs to each other facing to each side. Between the one closest to us and the one a quarter away to the left there is a very flat crocodile modelled on the rim just slightly raised up from the otherwise flat surface. It faces towards us, with two pairs of limbs splayed out on the rim and a tail that stretches away to the further away hippo.
#egyptology#ancientEgypt#archaeology
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