This past week was the final session of the Egypt Centre’s short
course on the Gods, Goddesses, and Demons of the Ancient Egyptians. For
this session we examined foreign and child deities. At the end of each week, I
would show an image of a “mystery deity” for participants to identify for the
following week. These were quite difficult and included Iatdit (a goddess
associated with Dendera), Biket (a female falcon-headed deity at Edfu), and
Mestjet (a leonine deity depicted on a stela from Abydos). Thus, at the end of
week 4, I showed them an image of the mysterious foreign deity (fig. 1). Around
five people managed to correctly identify the deity as Mekal, with many others
suggesting Reshep.
Fig. 1: Mekal, Lord of Beth-Shean |
The primary evidence for the god Mekal is a limestone funerary
stela, which was found in 1928 at Beth-Shean (northern Palestine) during
excavations of the University of Pennsylvania Museum. The stela, which is now
housed in the Israel Museum (IAA S-982), depicts an Egyptian architect named
Amenemope and his son, Pareemheb, in the upper register worshipping a deity
called “Mekal (mꜥ-kꜣr), the Great God, Lord of Beth-Shean”. The register
below this depicts two figures (particularly destroyed) before three columns of
hieroglyphs (fig. 2). Based on the palaeography of the hieroglyphs, the stela
likely dates to the Nineteenth Dynasty.
Fig. 2: Mekal Stela |
The stela features Egyptian, Asiatic, and mixed elements.
This includes the was-sceptre and ankh-sign being held by Mekal,
two well-known Egyptian items. The curved bead and horned headgear with
streamers are characteristic of an Asiatic deity. The uniqueness of the
stela—being the only depiction of Mekal known—has resulted on numerous
discussions on its content. Many scholars focus on the identity of Mekal,
linking him with the Canaanite gods Reshep or Baal, or even the Egyptian god
Seth. This blog post does not attempt to add to the discussion, but instead
will highlight a plaster cast of the stela (EC1305) in the Egypt Centre
collection (fig. 3). Readers who are interested in the content of the stela
should see the recent discussion by Levy, which is cited in the bibliography
below.
Fig. 3: Plaster cast of the Mekal stela (EC1305) |
EC1305 is a plaster cast of the Mekal stela, which arrived
to Swansea in 1971 as part of the distribution of the Wellcome collection. The
cast carries the Wellcome acquisition number A131980. The Wellcome flimsy slip
for this number reveals that the cast was presented to the Wellcome Historical
Medical Museum (WHMM) on the 26 November 1933 by “Mr. Starkie; by the
Department of Antiquities of Jerusalem” (fig, 4). “Mr. Starkie” is none other
than James Leslie Starkey (1895–1938), a noted British archaeologist of the
ancient Near East and Palestine in the period before the Second World War (Bierbrier
2019, 442). He was the chief excavator of the first archaeological expedition
to Lachish (Tell ed-Duweir) from 1932 to his death. The excavations at Lachish
were funded (from 1932–1939) by the Wellcome-Marston Archaeological Expedition,
which is presumably why Starkey was acquiring objects for the WHMM. In fact,
the Egypt Centre has four copper alloy weapons/tools (W502–W505),
which are listed as private purchases by Starkey while in Palestine during the
1932–33 season.
Fig. 4: Wellcome flimsy slip for the Mekal stela |
Unfortunately, the life of Starkey was tragically cut short
when, on the 10 January 1938, he was murdered on his way from Lachish to
Jerusalem (fig. 5).
Garfinkel (2016) notes that the murder has been presented as just one more of
the insurgency episodes that were so common in those days. There was, however,
a conflict at Lachish with the local landowners regarding the excavation of the
site’s summit, the expedition’s preferred area. An amicable resolution of this
conflict was never reached between the two sides, and only legal expropriation
of this land by the Mandatory Government of Palestine enabled the excavation of
the upper part of the site. The landowners never received full compensation for
the expropriated land, undoubtedly a strong motive for revenge. Archives (WA/HSW/AR/Lac/B.13) in
the Wellcome Collection provide details about Starkey’s murder, including
reports and newspaper clippings of the time.
Fig. 5: Notice about Starkey (WA/HSW/AR/Lac/F.7) |
The cast of the stela of Mekal has recently been moved to a new display case in the Egypt Centre called Egypt and its Neighbours. This case, which was funded by the Institute of Classical Studies, presents objects from Greece, Rome, Cyprus, Nubia, and the Ancient Near East. The installation of this case was completed just two weeks ago (fig. 6) and will be officially presented to the public by Dr Ersin Hussein at the Egypt Centre’s fiftieth anniversary conference on 15–17 September. Tickets for this free event are available via our Eventbrite page, so come along and join us if you can!
Fig. 6: Cast of the stela on display in the new Egypt and its Neighbours case |
Bibliography
Bierbrier,
Morris L. 2019. Who was who in Egyptology, 5th revised ed. London: Egypt
Exploration Society.
David, Arlette
and Ernest Bumann 2016. Mikael
and Mikeset in Beth Shean. Journal of the Society for the Study of
Egyptian Antiquities 42 (2015–2016), 113–123.
Eggler, Jürg
2006. Mekal, in: Iconography of Deities and Demons in the Ancient Near East:
Electronic Pre-Publication: http://www.religionswissenschaft.uzh.ch/idd/
prepublications/e_idd_mekal.pdf
Garfinkel,
Yosef 2016. The
murder of James Leslie Starkey near Lachish. Palestine Exploration
Quarterly 148: 2, 84–109.
Levy, Eythan
2018. A
fresh look at the Mekal stele. Ägypten und Levante 28, 359–378.
Lipiński,
Edward 2009. Resheph: a Syro-Canaanite deity. Studia Phoenicia 19;
Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 181. Leuven: Peeters.
Münnich, Maciej
M. 2013. The god Resheph in the Ancient Near East. Orientalische
Religionen in der Antike; Oriental religions in Antiquity 11. Tübingen: Mohr
Siebeck.
Rowe, Alan
1928. The new discoveries at Beisan. Discovery 9 (101), 137–141.
Rowe, Alan
1928. The 1927 excavations at Beisan: final report. The Museum Journal
19 (2), 145–169.
Thompson, Henry
O. 1970. Mekal: the god of Beth-Shan. Leiden: E. J. Brill.
Wimmer, Stefan
Jakob 2000. El,
Mekal and Ramses: the statue from Beisān again. Journal of Palestinian
Archaeology 1 (2), 32–35.
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