I
have thoroughly enjoyed Ken’s series of lectures guiding us through the
funerary practices of the ancient Egyptians, and can’t believe that next week
is the final one. Hopefully Ken has another course up his sleeve to keep us
going through these difficult times. I have been to the Egypt Centre a few
times, but can’t wait to visit again (especially as Swansea is my home town) when
things get back to normal—well as normal as possible—especially having the
wonderful objects in the lectures in this course and those that were scheduled
for the Conference,
which were subsequently put on line.
The
ancient Egyptians saw the transition from this life to the next as a journey
that was fraught with dangers and uncertainties. In order to overcome these and
successfully reach the afterlife, they believed it was necessary to have a
“good and proper burial” or “qerset
nefret”. To survive this journey, the body needed to be physically and
magically protected. Last week Ken discussed the physical protection of the
body by looking at mummification
and coffins and this week he followed this with a lecture on the magical
aspects. This included discussing the rituals that were performed during the funerary
process, from death to burial, as well looking at magical objects that were
also used to protect the body and ensure the deceased reached the afterlife.
 |
| Fig. 1: Opening of the Mouth rituals on the papyrus of Ankh-hapi (W867) |
The
word for magic in ancient Egyptian is ḥkȝw
– heka and Ken began his
lecture by explaining what magic meant to the Egyptians. Perhaps when we
consider the word magic we think of tricks where things are made to disappear
or negative connotations such as witchcraft. However, to the Egyptians it was seen
as a creative power that was possessed by all the gods, the Pharaoh, all
knowledgeable people, and the deceased. In a funerary context, this power could
be used to solve problems and crises the deceased would encounter on his journey
to the next life. Therefore, funerary rituals, which involved reading texts,
performing actions such as burning incense, and placing magical objects on the
mummy and in the tomb played a part in providing the deceased with the
necessary knowledge to successfully complete the hazardous journey to the
afterlife.
As
the subject of funerary rituals and magic is such a huge topic, I thought that
in this blog I would just concentrate on one aspect, the Opening of the Mouth
ceremony (Otto 1960). I have been studying Egyptology for well over ten years and
was familiar with it, but some of the points raised in Ken’s lecture have
certainly increased my understanding of how complex it actually was. The Opening
of the Mouth ceremony was one of the most well-known and important of the
funerary rituals, part of which is illustrated in a rather beautiful vignette
from a Book of the Dead belonging to a man named Hunefer, which dates to the Nineteenth
Dynasty (fig. 2).
 |
| Fig. 2: Opening of the Mouth from Hunnefer’s Book of the Dead (BM EA 9901, 5) |
Scenes
showing the ritual appear in both royal and private tombs, as well as in the
Book of the Dead. The purpose of the ritual was to reanimate the mummy by
restoring the use of their mouths, eyes, ears, and nose so that they would be
able to breathe, see, speak, and receive nourishment from offerings to sustain
the ka. The rituals, referred to as sȝḫw, transform the deceased into an akh or an “effective spirit” worthy of
reaching the afterlife. I hadn’t fully made the connection that the Opening of
the Mouth had developed from a ritual that was performed during
the Old Kingdom in order to animate statues so that they could act as a safe
vessel for the ka to reside in (Quack
2015). In fact, one of the words in ancient Egyptian used for sculptor is sꜥnḫ,
which literally translates as “the one who makes life”. This also makes it
clear why the adze was used in the ritual, which I always thought was rather
odd—why would they use a workman’s tool in a funerary ritual? As Ken explained,
it relates to the fact that carpenters would have used an adze (fig. 3) when carving the
statues and it would make sense to use the tool used to create it to bring it
to life. Now it all made sense!
 |
| Fig. 3: Opening of the Mouth implements from the tomb of Khaemhat |
I
was particularly struck by the scene Ken showed from the tomb of Khonsu (TT 31)
in which we have written evidence of some actual text used, always useful in
helping in our understanding of the complex nature of ancient Egyptian
religious practices. The scene shows a priest on the right reading from a
papyrus (fig. 4).
This is Khonsu’s son who is the high-priest of Sobek, Usermontu. The text on the papyrus reads “To
do the opening of the mouth for the Osiris, the high-priest, To”.
 |
| Fig. 4: Opening of the Mouth in the tomb of Khonsu (https://www.osirisnet.net/tombes/nobles/khonsou31/e_khonsou31_05.htm) |
Additionally,
I hadn’t understood how complex the ritual was and was interested to learn that
it actually consisted of many episodes. Each had their own rituals,
incantations, as well as specific ritual objects associated with each episode. I
suppose I was used to just seeing scenes in books showing the priest offering
the adze or a snake headed implement to the mouth of the deceased (Roth 1992;
1993). However, as Ken explained, the ritual had 75 episodes.
No complete set of episodes has been found in any tomb, but scholars have been
able to reconstruct the full set by looking at scenes of the ritual found in a
number of tombs, such as those of Rekhmire (TT 100), Menna (TT 69), and Seti I
(KV 17). The tomb of Rekhmire contains 51 of the 75 episodes of the rituals,
with a very useful description of them being found here.
Interestingly, in Rekhmire’s tomb the Opening of the Mouth is shown being
performed on a statue rather than his mummy, which links nicely back to the
original purpose of the ritual (fig. 5).
 |
| Fig. 5: Opening of the Mouth ceremony on the statue or Rekhmire (http://nearchaeology.blogspot.com/2012/02/conclusion-of-opening-of-mouth.html) |
Since
the lecture, I have been spurred on to looking through my books and online to
find out more about the Opening of the Mouth ceremony, which could have taken
up several lectures in its own right. With the new information I gained from
the lecture, I have been able to look at images of the ceremony with new eyes
and gained a better understanding of its role in ancient Egyptian funerary
beliefs.
Bibliography:
Andrews,
Carol 1994. Amulets of ancient Egypt.
London: The British Museum Press.
Engelmann-von
Carnap, Barbara 2018. Zum
Mundöffnungsritual im Grab des Padiamenope (TT 33). Bulletin de l’Institut
français d’archéologie orientale 118, 127–141.
Hornung,
Erik 1999. The ancient Egyptian books of
the afterlife. Translated by David Lorton. Ithaca (NY): Cornell University
Press.
Otto,
Eberhard 1960. Das ägyptische
Mundöffnungsritual. Ägyptologische Abhandlungen 3. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
Quack,
Joachim Friedrich 2015. Das Mundöffnungsritual als Tempeltext und Funerärtext.
In Backes, Burkhard and Jacco Dieleman (eds), Liturgical texts for Osiris and the deceased in Late Period and
Greco-Roman Egypt / Liturgische Texte für Osiris und Verstorbene im
spätzeitlichen Ägypten: proceedings of the colloquiums at New York (ISAW), 6
May 2011, and Freudenstadt, 18–21 July 2012, Studien zur spätägyptischen
Religion 14. 145–159. Wiesbaden: Harrassowitz.
Roth,
Ann Macy 1992. The psš-kf and the ‘opening
of the mouth’ ceremony: a ritual of birth and rebirth. Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 78, 113–147.
———
1993. Fingers, stars, and the ‘opening of the mouth’: the nature and function
of the nṯrwj-blades. Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 79, 57–79.
Taylor,
John H. 2001. Death and the afterlife in
ancient Egypt. London: British Museum Press.
———
(ed.) 2010. Journey through the
afterlife: ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead. London; Cambridge, MA:
British Museum Press; Harvard University Press.
No comments:
Post a Comment