The Mystery of the “Faience Flute”: A (so-far) Unique Musical Instrument in the Egypt Centre

The blog post for this week is written by John Rogers, a PhD student of Egyptology at Swansea University.

Last May, I was invited to present my research into the musicological collection in the Egypt Centre as part of the first Wonderful Things conference. I focussed on two exciting objects within the collection, a faience “Bes-bell” (WK44) and a mysterious item that has been described as a “faience whistle” (W247).

The Bes-bell, which came to the Egypt Centre from Woking College in 2012, is unusual in that it is made from faience rather than the usual bronze (fig. 1). There are only a few examples of these faience bells surviving today, making the Swansea example, on display in the Games and Music case in the House of Life, a rare and precious example of the musical past. These bells are incredibly small; our one is just 4cm tall. The fact that this bell was made of faience rather than bronze would indicate that it was some form of votive item (Elwart & Emerit 2019, 319–22). Acoustically its shape, even with the lip of the bell, which is now missing, would limit the loudness and sustain of the sound rung out. This would support the idea that this specific example was not for “musical” use, but rather as a protective sound—perhaps similar to bikers’ “gremlin bells”.

Fig. 1: Faience Bes-bell (WK44)

The second object, the “whistle” (fig. 2), is, to my knowledge, rather unique.

Fig. 2: A mysterious “whistle” (W247)

W247 was part of the William MacGregor collection, sold by Sotheby’s in 1922 as pottery (lot 1798), and bought by “Cousins” on behalf of Sir Henry Wellcome for four pounds, fifteen shillings (Hardwick 2011). It was part of a miscellaneous lot, which was summarily described in the sale catalogue as “a quantity of fragments in silver, pottery, wood, stone, and earthenware”. Not too promising! In fact, the lot was dominated by faience beads. However, after buying the lot, it was identified in the Wellcome archives (fig. 3) as “one (?) whistle, made up of alternate white and blue pottery rings on tube. 3¾" long (in two pieces)”.

Fig. 3: Wellcome slip for W247

The whistle then came to Swansea in 1971, receiving its current accession number W247, and is today a favourite of visitors, where until recently it was on display. A few months ago, the fragile state of this unique object led to the decision to have it sent to Cardiff for conservation, which is currently ongoing.

Fig. 4: “mouthpiece” (W247)

While there are typologies of musical instruments in ancient Egypt, W247 does not fit in any of them (Anderson 1976; Hickmann 1949). In fact, while there are many different forms of wind-based musical instrument in ancient Egypt, our mysterious “whistle” doesn’t bear a resemblance to any of them. W247 is, in fact, a complicated object. It comprises a copper-based tube, with decorative rings in alternating colour, which seem to be attached to the tube with some form of gesso. At one end is a “mouthpiece” (fig. 4) that would not be simple to play (if any wind instrument players are reading this, please get in touch with your thoughts!). Interestingly, this mouthpiece seems to have a piece of wooden material gummed inside—the purpose of this is unknown at the moment (fig. 5).

Fig. 5: View inside “mouthpiece” showing wooden material (W247)

Throughout its modern history, the decorative rings have been variously described as pottery, faience, and glass. However, it was only when scrutinising the object, earlier this year, that Ken and I realised two things. The first was that the white rings are made of bone or ivory. The second was that the blue rings are not faience but lapis lazuli (Aston, Harrell & Shaw 2000, 39–40), a material unattested on any musical instrument in ancient Egypt (fig. 6). Furthermore, searches for convincing parallels in the ancient Near East are so far rather fruitless (I would love to hear if a reader knows of any similar examples!). It may be the case that W247 isn’t Egyptian, but perhaps Mesopotamian—an avenue of ongoing research.

Fig. 6: Lapis lazuli ring (W247)

Musicology and the broader study of sound (its forms, contexts, and meanings) in ancient Egypt is a growing subject of study (Elwart & Emerit 2019; Köpp-Junk 2018; von Lieven 2016). While the theory of this discipline is a hot topic of discussion, there is still a need to make more of the source data, the objects themselves, available for research. Therefore, the opportunity to study objects such as W247 (fig. 7), and the mysteries around them, makes working on the musical material in the Egypt Centre so exciting. As part of this work, W247, along with the rest of the musicological collection at Swansea, will be fully published in the near future, including information gleaned from the conservation work being carried out at Cardiff University. This conservation provides an opportunity to take a closer look at the materials in this object. What is the small piece of wood in the mouthpiece (remains of a reed? stopper? detritus?)? Can the binding agent between the tube and the decorative rings tell us more about how this object was made? Why is it decorated with lapis lazuli, and can we find the origin of the material? But more importantly, this work will make the future of this unimposing, but invaluable, object secure for years to come.

Fig. 7: Views of W247

I am grateful to Ken for allowing me to work on the collection and to present at the Wonderful Things conference earlier this year. The dates for the second Egypt Centre conference have been announced: 23–24 May 2020. This conference is sure to build on the strengths of the first, and bring more material currently held in the Egypt Centre to light both for research and the enjoyment of all!

Bibliography:

Anderson, R. D. (1976) Catalogue of Egyptian antiquities in the British Museum III: musical instruments. London: Trustees of the British Museum.

Aston, B. G., J. A. Harrell, and I. Shaw (2000) ‘Stone’. In Ancient Egyptian materials and technology, ed. P. T. Nicholson and G. J. Shaw. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press. 5–77.

Elwart, D. and S. Emerit (2019) ‘Sound studies and visual studies applied to ancient Egyptian sources’. In Sounding sensory profiles in the ancient Near East, ed. A. Schellenberg and T. Krüger. Ancient Near East Monographs 25. Atlanta: Society of Biblical Literature. 315–334.

Hardwick, T. (2011) ‘Five Months before Tut: Purchasers and Prices at the MacGregor Sale, 1922’. Journal of the History of Collections 23, 1: 1–14.

Hickmann, H. (1949) Instruments de musique. Catalogue général des antiquités égyptiennes du Musée du Caire. Cairo: Imprimerie de l’Institut français d’archéologie orientale.

Köpp-Junk, H. (2018) ‘Sound of Silence? Neueste Ergebnisse aus der Musikarchäologie’. In Pérégrinations avec Erhart Graefe: Festschrift zu seinem 75. Geburtstag, ed. A. I. Blöbaum, M. Eaton-Krauss and A. Wüthrich. Ägypten und Altes Testament 87. Münster: Zaphon. 267–283.

Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge (1922) Catalogue of the MacGregor Collection of Egyptian Antiquities. London: Davy.

von Lieven, A. (2016) ‘Sounds of power: the concept of sound in ancient Egyptian religion’. In Religion für die Sinne / Religion for the senses, ed. P. Reichling and M. Strothmann. Artificium 58. Oberhausen: Athena. 25–35.