The past
week of the Egypt Religion course was devoted to Priests and Priestesses. Dr. Griffin
treated the class to an energetic romp through this massive topic, vividly
illustrated by texts and artefacts from the Egypt Centre collection and other
museum holdings. The course was structured to present a look at how these
individuals were chosen, how they were classified, and what they did. As always,
he was comprehensive but never boring: who knew that the crew carrying a
processional barque could be referred to as a sepa (for centipede)?
Compared
with the typical introductory lecture to this topic, Dr. Griffin generously
gave equal time to the women, going far beyond the typical gloss over of Amenirdis
and Nitocris. This blogger would like to expand on one of his more intriguing
inclusions: Karomama, the daughter of pharaoh Osorkon I. During the Twenty-second
Dynasty, ~870 BC, she ruled in her own right as the Divine Adoratrice of Amun
at Karnak, Daughter of Re, Mistress of Diadems, wearing royal insignia with her
names in cartouches. Dr. Griffin shared her figurine of bronze and precious
metal inlays (N 500) from the Louvre (fig. 1). It stands 59 cm (or 23 in) high and was assembled
from separate elements cast from a variety of alloys using the lost-wax
technology (imported to Egypt from Cyprus during the late New Kingdom to early
Third Intermediate Period). The etched writing and other details were inlaid
with precious metals using a technique termed “damascening”.
Fig. 1: Statue of Karomama (N 500) |
The inscription
tells us that this statue was commissioned by her chamberlain and Overseer of
the Treasury, Ahentefnakht. The statuette is worn and missing many of its metal
inlays, its nuanced patina, and other originally-colorful effects; but some of
the gold leaf highlights are still present. She is shown as a queen with a
severe expression, wearing a short wig and high crown, barefoot and striding
forward, wearing a wide sleeved, close-fitting pleated dress giving her the appearance
of being wrapped by wings. She appears to have been holding objects each hand,
perhaps musical instruments such as the menit-necklace or the sistrum, or
attributes of her office such as the flail, baton, or fly-whisk.
Fig. 2: Shabti of Karomama (BM EA 74324) |
Karomama’s
statue was discovered in Karnak and acquired by Champollion in 1829 before
being presented to the Louvre. She is also known from an “unprovenanced” green
faience shabti (fig. 2)
in the British Museum (EA 74324) and a usurped statue of a priest holding a
naos in the Berlin Museum (2278). The statue had been usurped in the Twenty-second
Dynasty by a priest who altered the inscription to depict Karomama Meryetmut,
who is shown shaking two sistra in front of a seated statue of Amen-Re (fig. 3). She wears a
flowing dress, and the short Nubian wig crowned by a large modius of a vulture
protecting a large uraeus. The inscription mentions that she is the daughter of
the King’s Wife Nebettawy Henuttawy. Either her mother was named Henuttawy,
titled as Lady of the Two Lands, or her unnamed mother carried the titles Lady
of the Two Lands and Mistress of the Two Lands. In 2014, the tomb of Karomama
was rediscovered underneath the temple of Tuya within the Ramessesum complex (Gautheir
2017; Lurson 2017; Lurson & Mourot 2018; Moje 2017).
Fig. 3: Karomama before Amun Re (Dods |
Below are
four views (figs 4–7) of a famous and fascinating statue, which is a “related
object” to that of Karomama: the Princess and wab-Priestess Takushit,
#110 in the National Archaeological Museum, Athens. This piece was found in Lower Egypt in 1880, on the hill
of Kom Toruga, near Chos village on Lake Mareotis, south of Alexandria. It was acquired and donated by Ioannis Dimitriou (1826–c.1900), who was a cotton and
industrial merchant working in Egypt. He was a major donor of ancient Egyptian
artifacts to the Athens Museum and he also excavated on his home island of
Lemnos.
Fig. 4: Statue of Takushit (National Archaeological Museum, Athens 110) |
This statue is larger than Karomama’s; at 69 cm (or 27 in), Takushit
is just under half life-sized. It is a technological marvel, hollow-cast in
separate large sections using the lost-wax technique, and then assembled using
gold rivets. Takushit was cast using the black-bronze alloy process imported
from the Middle East, which imparts a stunning shiny black patina to the
finished product. Black-bronze is an alloy containing 8% gold and 8% silver
added with the typical 12% tin to refined copper metal. This material was
highly prized and the Egyptians identified it as a “precious metal” along with
silver and gold. Karomama’s artisan employed black-bronze strips for some of the
inlays in her statuette.
Fig. 5: Rear view of the statue of Takushit (http://odysseus.culture.gr/h/4/eh431.jsp?obj_id=4510&mm_id=1908) |
Takushit’s
complete surface is covered with a
luminous latticework of divine figures and imagery, inscriptions and floral decorations
worked from narrow inlaid strips of electrum metal, in the damasking technique
used for Karomama’s statue. The etchings were inlaid with precious metals
and ivory inlays were employed for the eye sockets, eyebrows, and toenails. The
original base is missing but the soles of each foot carried a metal tang for
insertion into a base of some type.
Fig. 6: Close-up on Takushit's legs |
Takushit
is presented barefoot, with the forward left foot conveying a sense of movement
in a walking stance, adding to the realistic appearance of this statue. She
displays the symbols of her religious office and high social standing: the bent
left arm would have held the fly-whisk scepter indicating her office, and the
extended right a menit musical instrument used during temple ritual. She
wears a protective wesekh-collar and two bracelets. Her
voluptuous body is emphasized by a full-length, fitted dress that seems almost
diaphanous. Lower bands carry offering formulae fitting the votive character of
the piece: “hetep-di-nesut on behalf of the princess and wab-priestess
Takushit, daughter of Akanosh II, great chief of the Ma [Libyans]”. Prayers are
addressed to the deities depicted on offering tables: Onuris, Mehyt,
Osiris-Anedjty, Isis, and Harendotes, all worshiped in Takushit’s northeastern
Delta homeland. On her back is a large djed-pillar, the funerary symbol
of “stability”, linked to inscriptions referring to her as a “justified
Osiris”.
Fig. 7: Side view of Takushit's statue |
Takushit lived
approximately 200 years later than Karomama, during the Third Intermediate Period, late Twenty-fifth
Dynasty (ca. 670 BC). Although
Takushit’s family was Libyan, her name translates as “the Nubian”, perhaps
through marriage to a member of the ruling Kushite dynasty. While she was
alive, her statue was part of the permanent ceremonial equipment of the temple
she served; during festival processions it would have been carried in the
barque alongside the god’s cult image. After she died, it was buried within her
sanctuary-precinct tomb, according to the custom of the time. As the statue
embodied both votive and funerary functions, it was buried with her.
This
blogger is sad to point out that next week ends our Short Course on religion. However,
Dr. Griffin promises a stirring look at the Ancient Egyptians in full-throated
religious party mode, as he takes on their Festivals and Processions. We can
look forward to imaging the roles that Karomama and Takushit would have played
on these stages!
Bibliography:
Ayad, Mariam F. 2009.
God’s Wife, God’s Servant: the God’s Wife of Amun (ca.740–525 BC). London; New
York: Routledge.
Delange, Élisabeth,
Marie-Emmanuelle Meyohas, and Marc Aucouturier 2005. The
statue of Karomama, a testimony of the skill of Egyptian metallurgists in
polychrome bronze statuary. Journal
of Cultural Heritage 6 (2), 99–113.
Gauthier, Nicolas 2017. De la mère du roi à l’épouse du dieu:
première synthèse des résultats des fouilles du temple de Touy et de la tombe
de Karomama / Von der Königsmutter zur Gottesgemahlin: erste Synthese der
Ausgrabungsergebnisse des Tempels von Tuja und des Grabes von Karomama, 87–94.
Bruxelles: Safran.
Jurman, Claus 2016.
Karomama revisited. In Becker, Meike, Anke Ilona Blöbaum, and Angelika
Lohwasser (eds), “Prayer and power”:
proceedings of the conference on the God's Wives of Amun in Egypt during the
First Millennium BC, 61–88. Münster: Ugarit.
Lurson, Benoît (ed.)
2017. De la mère du roi à l’épouse du
dieu: première synthèse des résultats des fouilles du temple de Touy et de la
tombe de Karomama / Von der Königsmutter zur Gottesgemahlin: erste Synthese der
Ausgrabungsergebnisse des Tempels von Tuja und des Grabes von Karomama.
Connaissance de l’Égypte ancienne 18. Bruxelles: Safran.
Lurson, Benoît and
Franck Mourot 2018. From the foundations to the excavation: a
stratigraphy-based history of the temple of Tuya. In Pischikova, Elena, Julia
Budka, and Kenneth Griffin (eds), Thebes
in the first millennium BC: art and archaeology of the Kushite period and
beyond, 193–213. London: Golden House Publications.
Moje, Jan 2017. Die
Uschebtis von Karomama Meritmut G: ein Überblick. In Lurson, Benoît (ed.), De la mère du roi à l’épouse du dieu:
première synthèse des résultats des fouilles du temple de Touy et de la tombe
de Karomama / Von der Königsmutter zur Gottesgemahlin: erste Synthese der
Ausgrabungsergebnisse des Tempels von Tuja und des Grabes von Karomama, 103–112.
Bruxelles: Safran.
These figurines are so beautiful!!
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