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Monday 1 June 2020

From One Priest to Another: Funerary Artefacts from the Egypt Centre and Beyond

Last week I started my five-week short course on the funerary artefacts of the ancient Egyptians. For the next five weeks, the blog posts will be written by some of the students of this course, who will present the weekly theme from their own perspective. The entry for this week is written by the Reverend Jim Collins, a retired Anglican priest from Ottawa, Canada. Jim is very grateful for all he has been learning from the Egypt Centre and the Egypt Exploration Society lectures during the COVID-19 pandemic.

“People are dying to meet us!” So quipped the funeral home director to my pastoral care placement supervisor when I was a theological student attending my first ever funeral in preparation for the priesthood almost forty years ago. I was shocked that he and my boss began cracking jokes. The whole atmosphere had changed as soon as the door was closed to the funeral home director’s car. From giving pastoral care to the bereaved family, we were starting on our way to the cemetery with the casket and funeral procession behind us. Perhaps my boss and the undertaker sensed my own nervousness about being in such unfamiliar territory or they were making light for themselves in an effort to relieve the stress of their own jobs. Yet this experience began more than thirty years of my work as a priest helping people deal with grief and the passage of their loved ones.

Dr. Ken Griffin’s course, Funerary Artefacts of Ancient Egypt, is giving me an excellent opportunity during these Covid-19 times to become more hands on with a very different perspective on the afterlife, and grief, an evidence-based approach to ancient Egyptian funerary beliefs and practices.

Ken describes how during the dynastic Period the Egyptian belief in the afterlife developed. He said that each major new concept, for the most part, was first acquired by the king but as time went on these concepts became available to all. He stated that the idea developed that everybody could be reborn as Osiris—stating that this is related to a controversial idea in Egyptology known as the ‘democratisation of the afterlife’ (Hays 2011; Smith 2009). Could it be that different Egyptians had different perspectives on such matters during different time periods? Certainly as a priest, I find myself imagining that Egyptian priests involved in performing the various rituals over the centuries and millennia would have had different ideas. It is also likely that many of them became deeply attached to the beliefs and liturgies in which they played a role. To me it seems quite likely that many of the funerary artefacts were a celebration of such beliefs and attachments.

In my theological studies, we learned about Anton Baumstark’s Laws of Liturgy, which dealt with both adherence to ancient tradition as well as liturgical innovation.[1] In Christianity, there are many different approaches to death and the afterlife and for me it is interesting to see how some of these phenomena might have played out in ancient Egypt as well. According to Coptic tradition, the Holy Family travelled as far south as Asyut and it does not seem hard to me to imagine that doctrines in Jesus’ teaching, as recorded in the New Testament, may have been influenced by what he and his family were exposed to when he was young. For example, the idea of being born again and even the idea of baptism at the age of thirty might have had a connection to Heb-sed practices in places like Bubastis, especially if Jesus’ family was there for the thirtieth anniversary of Augustus’ conquest, which may have been challenging for Egyptian traditions to address since he had a more distant relationship than the Ptolemies had had.

In his first course lecture, Ken talked about Osiris as the main god of the dead and the importance of the Osiris myth around death, mummification, and the resurrection of Osiris. He said that Egyptians wanted to be associated with the resurrection of Osiris and that there was a common phrase of “the Osiris of N”. While this was clearly associated with the pharaoh in the times of the Pyramid Texts (Old Kingdom), perhaps like Jesus as king in Christian theology, all Christians are invited to become a part of His kingship and resurrection. As with Christianity, to become an Osiris many tests had to be passed. For Osiris, all the parts of the individual had to be reunited with one another. Perhaps this might even have developed into the Pauline doctrine of the Body of Christ, although for Christianity there may well have also been an association with the estranged body of the first chapter of Isaiah which could not be healed with wine or anointing—being healed instead by association and incorporation into the Body of Christ.

Fig. 1: Weighing of the heart scene on the coffin of Iwesemhesetmut (W1982)

Dr. Griffin used a scene from the Twenty-first Dynasty coffin of a musician from Thebes, Iwesemhesetmut (W1982 from Exeter Royal Albert Museum) and a section of papyrus (W867) from the Book of the Dead to illustrate the Egyptian concept of the Judgement of the Dead (fig. 1). As Ken explained, that having declared his innocence of 42 sins, the deceased had their heart weighed against the feather of truth. If righteous, they were declared mꜣꜥ-ḫrw (true of voice). If they led a wicked life, Ammut devoured their heart and denied them access to the afterlife. This concept of divine judgement exists in Judaeo-Christian tradition as well.

Ken spoke of how the Egypt Centre collection displays are divided between the House of Life and the House of Death but that, in fact, almost all the artefacts are taken from funerary contexts. As a priest working in ministry, we were told that we were seen by society as mainly being there for the ‘hatch, match, and dispatch’ milestones of life. To focus only on the buried artefacts is obviously to miss out of many aspects of daily life that are very important to human existence. However, people still want to place things that were important in the lives of those they loved to be with them in death so perhaps we can bridge into that reality as having been true also for the ancient Egyptians.

Fig. 2: Coffin of Herishefhotep I (https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:Tomb_of_Herishefhotep#/
media/File:%C3%84gyptisches_Museum_Leipzig_Herischefhotep_01.jpg
)

For me, the concept of Egyptian priests embracing their own participation in the celebration of Egyptian beliefs in resurrection from the dead, whether being strictly pharaonic or more universal, may also be illustrated by the offerings as depicted on the Ninth to Tenth Dynasty(?) inner coffin of the priest Herishefhotep I. This coffin has interested me for some time now. It was found undisturbed behind a wall at Abusir and was published by Heinrich Schäfer in 1908. It is now in the George Steindorff Egypt Museum at Leipzig University (Schäfer 1908, 42–81, 143–145). The illustrations on this coffin seem to celebrate many areas of priestly life, which largely revolved around preparing and presenting many offerings of various kinds.

Fig. 3: Stela of Pasherienimhotep (W1041)

Having worked as a priest doing many funerals and preaching about the afterlife for decades, I have been finding it interesting to make comparisons. The imagery on the inner coffin of Herishefhotep I seems to demonstrate a lot of the aspects of what would have been important in his ministry as a priest as well as of the theology that would have been central to his faith. A particular highlight for me from Dr. Griffin’s lecture was the second century BCE stela of the priest Pasherienimhotep (fig. 3) from Edfu for which Ken provided the following translation:

An offering which the king gives to Horus of Edfu, the Great God, Lord of the Sky, Dappled of Plumage, who appears from the horizon, Horakhty, Foremost of the Great Place, Osiris, Foremost of the West, Lord of Ta-wer, Lord of Djedet, the Great God, Horus (who) disperses the slaughter of the Two Lands, Osiris, the Great God in Edfu, the Great Pillar in Edfu, Isis the Great, the Mistress in Edfu, the widow who dwells within Ta-wer. Hathor, Mistress of the West, Mistress of the Two Truths in the Hall of Maat. Anubis, he who is in the wrappings, Lord of the Sacred Land, Anubis, Foremost of the Divine Booth, (in order that) they may give a voice offering of bread, beer, cattle, fowl, incense upon the fire, everything good, pure, and sweet from which a god lives, a good burial in the [western cemetery], his heirs enduring upon his seat, for the ka of the Servant of Horus, the sḥtp-ḥm.f-priest, Fighting Arm, Lord of Triumph, Servant of the Kings of Upper and Lower Egypt, Elder of the Portal of Horus of Edfu, Lord of the Sky, one who makes offerings to the gods of Edfu, Scribe of the Troops, Second Scribe of the Temple, God’s Servant of Harpakhered, God’s Servant of Amun of the Storehouse, Overseer of the Wab-priests of Sekhmet, Overseer of Magicians of Serqet, Chief Lector Priest, Scribe of the Divine Book,???, Overseer of the Priests of Horus of Edfu, the Great God, Lord of the Sky, Pasherienimhotep, the justified before Osiris, son of the Third Priest of Horus of Edfu, Harsiese, the justified, made by the Mistress of the House, she who is upon her throne, the Female Musician, Tantise, the justified. Be firm, be firm, endure, endure, (may you) not perish for eternity.

Ken discussed the Osirian imagery of the stela, providing a good overview of the back of the stela also, which is not usually seen when displayed in the museum case. Ken explained that the priest’s name Pasherienimhotep means literally “The child of the god Imhotep”For me, it is interesting to compare this stela to the Djoser statue base (fig. 4) that includes the name of Imhotep (Cairo JE 49889, which was discovered at Saqqara in January 1926.

Fig. 4: Djoser statue base with the name of Imhotep

There is a similar prominence of Djed-columns and Tyet-signs between these two artefacts. Additionally, although the priestly titles are not exactly the same for Imhotep and Pasherienimhotep, it is interesting to see significant points of continuity over some two millennia between the Old Kingdom and the Ptolemaic periods (Romer 2007, 244–245).[2]

For a long time, I have been interested in the accounts in Josephus and the Talmud of the Judean high priest Onias’ construction of a Jewish Temple in Egypt. According to the first century Judean historian Flavius Josephus as well as Rabbinic sources, the Judean high priest Onias, founded a Zadokite temple in the Nile Delta in the second century BCE. His temple, known as Beth (H)onias or the Temple of Onias in Rabbinic sources, is skeptically described as a fulfilment of Isaiah 19:18–19. The Old Kingdom figure of Imhotep, the famed architect of Djoser, may have provided a possible Egyptian inspiration, if not role model, for Onias. The Oniad temple building can also be compared to other Egyptian Temple reconstructions on many sites throughout Ptolemaic Egypt. For example, the great temple of Horus at Edfu, begun in 237 BCE, was still under construction at the time of Onias since the Edfu temple was only dedicated by Ptolemy VIII Euergetes II in 142 BCE, with additions there continuing until 71 BCE (Arnold 2003, 78). It is thus interesting to compare the only surviving inscription from the time of Imhotep with the second century stela of the priest Pasherienimhotep from Edfu. The Old Kingdom statue base containing Imhotep`s inscription has been translated by Nigel C. Strudwick (2005, 129) as follows:
The twin (?) of the king of Lower Egypt.
The seal-bearer of the king of Lower Egypt, first under the king, administrator of the great estate/mansion, iry-pat, great seer, Imhotep, controller of sculptors, maker of stone vessels (?).

The title mꜣꜣ wr, “Great Seer”, was a priest at Heliopolis (Wilson 1997).[3] This title could thus have had a particular importance for Onias. The second century Ptolemaic Edfu Stela of Pasherienimhotep might be seen as a much later Upper Egypt parallel.

Dr. Griffin also points out that the Egyptians appear to have been as reluctant to use the word ‘death’ as we are, preferring a variety of euphemisms (fig. 5).

Fig. 5: Words refering to death in ancient Egypt

As an undergraduate before I was ordained, I took an Ancient Near East course for which I wrote a paper on Maat in the Story of Sinuhe. Over the years, I have read books and articles and attended lectures on ancient Egypt, but since I retired from active ministry I have become quite passionate about Egyptology. I think it is helping me to understand all my years of helping people from fresh perspectives as well as giving me fresh insights into the earliest origins of Christianity.

My first contact with Dr. Griffin was his great lecture on The Life Cycle of an Object - The Lintel of the Overseer of Craftsmen, Tjenti as part of the current ongoing and excellent Egypt Centre online lecture series. Ken also discussed this artefact as part of his course lecture but he presented so many more artifacts from the Egypt Centre about which he also spoke so knowledgeably that I could not help but be drawn further and further into deeper levels of understanding of the funerary beliefs of ancient Egypt. Ken’s love for Egyptology and for the objects in the Egypt Centre collection really shines through, and his careful scholarly enthusiasm is infectious. I am finding Dr. Griffin’s course very stimulating and it is helping me to better understand this important area of cultural history.

Bibliography:
Arnold, Dieter 2003. The encyclopaedia of ancient Egyptian architecture. Translated by Sabine H. Gardiner and Helen Strudwick. London: I. B. Tauris.
Hays, Harold M. 2011. The death of the democratisation of the afterlife. In Strudwick, Nigel and Helen Strudwick (eds), Old Kingdom, new perspectives: Egyptian art and archaeology 2750–2150 BC, 115–130. Oxford: Oxbow Books.
Schäfer, Heinrich 1908. Priestergräber und andere Grabfunde vom Ende des Alten Reiches bis zur griechischen Zeit vom Totentempel des Ne-user-rê. Ausgrabungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft in Abusir 1902–1908 2; Wissenschaftliche Veröffentlichungen der Deutschen Orient-Gesellschaft 8. Leipzig: J. C. Hinrichs.
Smith, Mark 2009. Democratization of the afterlife. Edited by Jacco Dieleman and Willeke Wendrich. UCLA Encyclopedia of Egyptology. Available at: https://escholarship.org/uc/item/70g428wj.
Strudwick, Nigel C. 2005. Texts from the pyramid age. Edited by Ronald J. Leprohon. Writings from the Ancient World 16. Atlanta; Leiden; Boston: Society of Biblical Literature; Brill.
Wilson, Penelope 1997. A Ptolemaic lexikon: a lexicographical study of the texts in the temple of Edfu. Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 78. Leuven: Peeters.



[1] See, for example, the helpful summary: http://psallitesapienter.blogspot.com/2009/07/baumstarks-laws-of-liturgy.html. [2] Romer describes the discovery of this statue base in 1926 at the south east corner of Djoser’s Pyramid by Jean-Philippe Lauer. He further states that “there is something rather different about this man Imhotep. Whatever tasks he may or may not have undertaken in his lifetime, he certainly enjoyed a long-lived fame. A thousand years after he had died, he was still considered to have been a founder patron of the scribes and a ‘Son of Ptah’, the fair-faced god of craftsmen and of manufactory. Later too in Greco-Roman times, his continuing celebrity earned him an apotheosis so that he became a little god of wisdom, a doctor and a scribe so popular that today most museums of Egyptian art have small bronze figures of Imhotep in this later manifestation. as a slight young man with a tight-fitting cap sitting on a plain Egyptian throne with a papyrus scroll upon his lap.” I am grateful to Campbell Price for alerting me to this artefact and reference.
[3] Personal communication with Penelope Wilson (May 19, 2020). Her Ptolemaic Lexicon has been a source of immense inspiration and powerful insights with references to offerings occurring more than twice per each of its more than 1300 pages based on the inscriptions at the Horus Temple at Edfu!

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