Category: History And Culture

This winged scarab of the famous Egyptian pharaoh Tutankhamun of the Eighteenth Dynasty, found in his tomb by British archaeologist Howard Carter, is a true masterpiece of goldsmithing.

It dates from the fourteenth century BC and measures 9 cm high and 10.5 cm wide.

The materials used are mainly gold, lapis lazuli, carnelian, and turquoise. Together, they produce a great chromatic impact, as is the case with his well-known funerary mask.

Represented is one of the most repeated subjects of all the iconography of Ancient Egypt: the dung beetle, which used to be placed under the mummification bandages at the level of the deceased’s heart.

In the case at hand, it did not appear under the bandages but rather in a somewhat jumbled box along with other valuables. Its body is made of deep blue lapis lazuli inlaid with golden pyrite, one of the component materials of this rock.

The beetle’s beautiful and showy wings are curved and end in a carnelian solar disk, which the insect holds with its mouth and front legs. It also has two hind legs, less conspicuous than the front legs, and the middle legs were sacrificed in pursuit of the work’s elegance (remember, this beetle has six legs and not four).

Despite the chromatic richness that it presents, it is the blue of the lapis lazuli (which is also exhibited in the wings) that prevails and dominates the whole set.

However, the huge orange solar disk that stands out by itself is very striking, and the curved wings work decisively so that we pay attention to them without forgetting the striking and wide gold border where it is embedded.

The back of the beetle is completely gold and presents a wide ring at the top, so that it can be hung with a cord and worn on the chest, probably at the level of the heart.

Finally, we must remember that the dung beetle was a very popular symbol among the ancient Egyptians—it was considered one of the most important protective amulets available.

These amulets have been found made in a multitude of materials of more and less value. People bought what they could afford. Undoubtedly, those made of lapis lazuli were the most valuable, worthy of the pharaohs themselves, which was like saying it was of the gods.

KV9 is an Egyptian tomb in the so-called Valley of the Kings, located on the west bank of the Nile, at the height of the modern city of Luxor. It is one of the few tombs in the valley that was used by two pharaohs: Ramses V and Ramses VI, both belonging to the mid- 20th dynasty.

Ramses V and Ramses VI

The fourth king of the 20th dynasty, crowned with the name Usermaatre Sekheperenre Ramesses V, and usually known as Ramses V, is little known, and in his barely four years of reign (from 1147 to 1143 BC. , roughly) did not do anything worthy of renown.

Those were empty years, in which Egypt drifted adrift and the situation continued to worsen. The country had long since lost its empire, and poverty coupled with droughts and famine were destroying the place. The division of the country and the lack of will of the pharaohs only made things worse.

When Ramses V joined the list of deceased kings, without pain or glory, he was succeeded by his uncle, one of the youngest sons of the great Ramses III. Called Ramesses VI Nebmaatre-Meryamun, the new Ramses VI ruled seven more years, in which he played the same null role as his predecessor on the throne.

However, the determination of this pharaoh to declare his origin and to supplant the previous kings in numerous monuments is surprising. He would even usurp the tomb originally destined for Ramses V, as can be seen in this article.

KV9 or the tomb of Ramses VI

KV9 is located in a privileged place, very close to the central part of the Valley of the Kings, in a place where the rock is excellent and the density of tombs increases.

It is even practically on the same vertical as the famous KV62 , the tomb of Tutankhamun. Its entrance is immediately north of that of KV10 and is arranged almost parallel to, but further south, KV9 is located in a privileged place, very close to the central part of the Valley of the Kings, in a place where the rock is excellent and the density of tombs increases.

It is even practically on the same vertical as the famous KV62 , the tomb of Tutankhamun. Its entrance is immediately north of that of KV10 and is arranged almost parallel to, but further south, than KV8.

The design of the tomb is very complete, and it is one of the last tombs in the Valley completely finished, and also with an excellent result.

The profile of the place is very simple, with a total absence of attached chambers and the straight axis that all the tombs after the reign of Ramses II present.

The set is that of a tomb without great architectural pretensions, which could be finished without great problems thanks to the fact that it was started by the previous pharaoh, without great haste.

KV9 or the tomb of Ramses VI: Decoration

The tomb of Ramses VI can boast of being one of the best preserved within the Valley of the Kings. Despite having suffered some flood, the state of its paintings is good, and the frescoes and the structure of the place itself have not been seriously damaged.

The decorative program is somewhat different from that used by previous kings and includes for the first time the latest New Kingdom funerary text on its walls: the Book of Earth.

In addition, there is a particular preponderance of the god Ra against the one who usually monopolizes more scenes on these occasions, Osiris.

Excavation

Of all the tombs of the Valley opened in ancient times, KV9 is clearly the most visited and the one that aroused the greatest interest among travelers, coming to be baptized as the “Tomb of Memnon”, believing that the legendary king son of the goddess Eos.

Thus, it is not surprising that no very arduous excavation has been carried out, since the site was practically clear. However, we know that in 1888 Georges Daressy worked in the place and found some small fragments of the grave goods, vessels or coins belonging to the Greco-Roman tourists.

As mentioned above, the tomb is in an enviable state of preservation, with only a few flood damage down to the pillar chamber, and the paintings have not been lost as much as in other tombs.

Upon entering the burial chamber, one could see the outer red granite sarcophagus belonging to Ramses VI, and inside another one made of green conglomerate, whose mask is now exhibited in the British Museum in London. There is no trace of the burial of Ramses V.

The royal mummies

The first question – and perhaps the most obvious – is to know who or who were the definitive occupants of KV9.

Although it is true that the tomb was built and partially decorated by and for Ramses V, death surprised him before seeing the work done, and Ramses VI took advantage of the situation and appropriated the place. Now, was he buried alone or with his predecessor?

There are no remains that indicate the presence of Ramses V in KV9, nor does it seem that there was space for two large sarcophagi, which could indicate that the pharaoh was buried in another place yet to be determined and that Ramses VI would occupy the tomb at ease, which was not originally intended for him.

The limited knowledge we have of their reigns makes it impossible to know for sure if there were family disputes that caused Ramses VI to annul the memory of his predecessor or was simply an opportunist.

It is unlikely that the memory of Ramses V was haunted, since there is still some representation of him in the tomb itself.

Be that as it may, and thanks to the foresight of the priest-kings of the Twenty-first Dynasty, the mummies of Ramses V and VI have survived until today, both found in the hiding place of KV35, the tomb of Amenhotep II.

While the mummy of Ramses V is in an enviable state of preservation, the latter has seemed to suffer greatly at the hands of thieves and during its transfer.

The study of the mummy of Ramses V certifies that the pharaoh died around the age of thirty-five. The analysis of the skin (with the naked eye the numerous vesicles on the face, neck and arms, which are its usual marks), indicates that he died of smallpox, being the first documented case of this disease.

As if this were not enough, the pharaoh suffered from an inguinal hernia and what is worse, a hole has been found in his head that seems to have been made shortly before he died.

A murder or a trepanation to ease the pain of the unfortunate king? Nothing is clear, but carefully analyzing the mummy, up to three possible causes of his death can be found.

As for Ramses VI, his body is much more punished. The right forearm and wrist are torn. Hip bones were found at neck level and, as if this disorder were not enough, an arm of Seti II and the hand of a woman were also found among the bandages.

To be sure, the hasty priests, in their task of wrapping the mummies, did not realize that one of them was taking part of their select neighbors.

At the time of his death, the deceased appeared to be around forty to fifty years old, but the mummy does not leave too clear data on the cause of death. A hole has also been found in the skull of Ramses VI, but this was made post-mortem by thieves in search of valuable amulets.

The ancient Egyptians did not call their sovereigns pharaohs. The word pharaoh was not officially used in Egypt to designate the monarch, as there were other more appropriate expressions such as nesu or “king”, ity or “sovereign”, neb or “lord” and the appellations of Nile of Egypt that floods the country with your perfection or good god.

The term pharaoh begins with the Egyptian word per aa which means “great mansion” (place that emanated from the monarch and not from the different palatial residences) and that was definitely linked to the name of the king from the Third Intermediate Period.

The nature of the pharaoh differed from that of the rest of the mortals, since he was the representative of the gods on earth.

Linked to this idea, the ritual of breastfeeding the future king by a goddess was set up in the coronation ceremony of the monarch, which meant that his human state was moving to a condition close to the deity.

The pharaoh had only one obligation: the conservation and propagation of balance and justice in his territory, encompassed in the concept of maat, since chaos was one of the most feared situations by the ancient Egyptians.

To ensure compliance, the sovereign had to deal with the most relevant issues that made up the social order in the kingdom: impart justice, provide food to his citizens, defend the kingdom from the external threat of the surrounding towns, provide and ensure proper development.

Woman

The throne of Egypt was destined to men, so if a woman ruled the kingdom, she broke the masculine-feminine duality that ordered the world, according to Egyptian belief within the concept of order and chaos.

However, there were several women who rise to power, usually in convulsive periods: Nitocris was the last monarch of the Old Kingdom and Sobekneferu, daughter of King Amenemhat III.

The images that have been preserved of her mix two paradigms: her status as a woman and the political position she clearly occupies as she is touched with the nemes (striped fabric that covered the entire head and was collected as a braid in the nape), typical of the pharaohs and dressed in a female robe and on top a skirt, a typical garment for men.

Hatshepsut, daughter of Thutmose I, of the 18th dynasty in the New Kingdom (~ 1539-1075 BC) and the last is Twosret, daughter of Seti II of the 19th dynasty. And already in Ptolemaic times, Berenice, Arsinoe and Cleopatra queens.

Wife

The pharaoh used to have an extended family that was also strongly hierarchical. Among all its members stood out the figure of the queen who bore the title of “great wife of the king”, the main wife of the pharaoh destined to engender the heir to the throne.

The monarch did not practice monogamy, so he was married to numerous women who differed from the king’s great wife since they were secondary and lived in private stays of the king.

The monarch’s court was an independent institution from an economic point of view, since it owned farms, herds, own lands, warehouses for food and workshops.

The harem organization was carried by a senior official and was protected by a group of armed men, who could also dedicate themselves to protecting the temples.

These women possessed the title of wives of the king and were destined to procreate and did not have a symbolic role as the first.

However, because of the high mortality, the son of a secondary wife could access the throne if the line of succession descended to him, so that his mother became “mother of the king”.

Symbolically, the “great wife of the king” was the female complement of the monarch, as both configured the concept of male-female duality so important to the order of the world in line with the maat.

Her place in court was to always be next to the king, but in a subordinate position and whose submission is enhanced by representing the queen in a size smaller than that of the pharaoh.

The queen could hold other titles besides that of the king’s great wife, such as that of the wife of the god, which was created from the 18th dynasty and that alludes to the cult of Amun in Karnak.

The choice of a queen, whether principal or secondary, could fall within the royal family or on the contrary to be chosen outside their consanguineous circle.

This last option could fall on the daughter of a nobleman or a senior official.

This alternative was increased from the 18th dynasty, when Egypt became a political power of the Eastern Mediterranean and needed diplomatic marriages with foreign princesses to establish its power, as was the case of the kingdom of Mitanni (north of present-day Syria), Babylon, Hatti (Hittite Empire) or the Lower Nubian area.

These unions had two modalities: the links with daughters of vassals, which were practically a gift for the pharaoh, while the latter were marrying the king to create an alliance between her people and Egypt, towns that politically had a similar relevance.

During this time of territorial expansion and flowering of Egypt, no Egyptian princess had to be sent outside her homeland to consolidate foreign policy.

These women came to the Nile Valley with a large entourage and numerous presents for her future husband. However, once installed in her new home, her presence is diluted in the harem, changing her original name to an Egyptian one.

The only assumption in which the consort of a pharaoh could access the government of the kingdom was the regency, in the manner of the goddess Isis with her son Horus, although they were never pharaohs.

There is evidence that some consorts held positions of great relevance, but always under the supervision of the pharaoh.

It is the case of Tiye, the wife of Amenhotep III and mother of Akhenaten, who was the right hand in the government of her spouse and who for some Egyptologists have suggested that she was the promoter of the religious revolution of her son.

Crown Prince

But the essential member of the family of the pharaoh was the crown prince, who ensured the continuity of the dynasty, in addition to guaranteeing order and maintaining the maat.

The succession between father and son was linked to that of Osiris and Horus: in fact the new pharaoh was symbolically transformed into the falcon god.

The passage from one government to another was carried out through a ceremonial consisting of the funeral of the deceased monarch with all that entailed: mummification, culmination of the grave if it was not finished, the transfer of the body and the trousseau, not forgetting the different funeral rituals around the deceased.

The title of son of the king that can be associated with the heir to the throne is ambiguous, because he also referred to the most important positions of the administration.

The image of the firstborn prince is not clearly identified in the iconography, because in a few cases he appears next to the monarch.

In the few examples that this assumption is fulfilled, it is always linked to the need that Pharaoh has to legitimize his reign, such as the case of Seti I and Ramses II, second and third pharaohs of the 19th dynasty.

The education of the heir to the throne was a regulated matter. For this purpose, what could be termed as an official school was created, which in the twelfth dynasty was known as Kap, an institution which only the prince and the sons of high dignitaries could access.

With it the continuity of the hierarchy of the Egyptian elite was facilitated from early childhood. Its importance increased from the 18th dynasty, since it was also attended by the children of the Egyptian vassals, who were to become faithful servants of the monarchy.

In addition to having to attend the Kap, the prince had to complete his education with other subjects that were taught by an official who held the position of father guardian of a son of the king, and taught him the art of war and the writing and reading of hieroglyphs.

The succession to the throne was not always peaceful because having died several children of the first wife, there was the possibility that several children of secondary wives were aspiring to the throne since they had the same rank and age to access power.

And it was not always the sons of Pharaoh who became kings; cases of viziers that became monarchs are known as the founder of the XII dynasty, Amenemhat I, the vizier Ay, father of Nefertiti, who became king after the death of Tutankhamun or the vizier Paramesu, who became pharaoh after the reign of Horemheb and was crowned with the name of Ramses I, first monarch of the 19th dynasty.

In ancient Egypt, some garments differentiated the social classes of those who wore them. They also carried a series of meanings depending on the type of clothing and the person who wore it.

The powerful priestly class in charge of the Egyptian temples used animal skins to cover themselves; they believed that the strength of the beast could influence their own physical strength.

In addition to woven linen, the most common material within everyone’s reach was papyrus, a reed that grows naturally on the banks of The River Nile.

Papyrus, along with vegetable fibers such as branches of palm trees intertwined with ornaments of various metals or semi-precious stones, was how the ancient Egyptians created shoes.

The colors of the dresses and shoes had some symbols:

Yellow represented the eternal, imperishable, and indestructible. Closely related to gold and the sun, yellow was attributed to the god Ra and became the color of the pharaoh.

Green was a symbol of freshness and life, of the Earth and fertility.

Blue was the symbol of truth, life, and rebirth.

White, the color purity; the color of cleanliness and holiness. This color was used to represent the dress of most Egyptians and symbolically was closely related to the priesthood.

Red was the symbol of masculinity; it was associated with fire and blood, but it could also mean destruction and death. It was the color of the desert, naturally opposed to fertility.

Discovered in the tomb of the young pharaoh Tutankhamun were shoes made of gold, wood, ivory, and leather. Some of the sandals had drawings made from beads.

For the ancient Egyptians, sandals were special, respected, and synonymous with magnanimity.

The Governor of Upper Egypt and General of the King’s armies, Uni, said, “I was the one who organized the army, even though my title was Chief of the Pharaoh’s Landowners, and who ensured the good balance of the situation so that none of them took loaves or sandals from those who were on the road.”

There was a difference between footwear for ordinary or daily use and those for ceremonies or funeral acts.

In the last trip, taking into account the belief of life beyond, footwear conserved certain signs of rank. Thus, the priests were embalmed and shod with papyrus sandals; no other material could be used for the footwear, nor could a different sandal model be used for these rites (Herodotus II:37).

White sandals were a sign of purity in funeral rites, and when the deceased wore them, they appeared before Osiris as a symbol that they were free of dust or dirt.

The Luxor Temple. Begun by Amenhotep III and ended by Ramses II , dedicated to Amun-Ra, Mut ( Amun’s wife , represented by a vulture) and Khonsu. It is the sanctuary of ka par excellence.

History of the luxor temple, Egypt

Amun was the local god of Luxor, to make a local god a national one, the priests had to associate their god with two vital elements in the life of the country.

They associated amun with the sun and called it Amun-Ra, and associated him with the Nile, symbolized by the fertility represented by the god Min.

Like every year, the Nile rises in summer and leaves its channel to fertilize its beloved land of Egypt. Amun, who resided in the Temple of Karnak, left his abode carried on the shoulders of his thousands of priests to the river, where he sailed to the abode of his wife, the goddess Mut, in the temple of Luxor.

The result of their union is the god Khonsu, god of the moon, who has his temple behind his father’s temple at Karnak, and the prosperity of the crops for the land of Egypt. The way back was overland, down an avenue of ram-headed sphinxes.

History of Luxor

Luxor, ancient Thebes, capital of the Egyptian empire. For political and geographical reasons, Thebes gradually gained importance during the Tenth Dynasty until it became the capital of the pharaohs of the New Kingdom.

There the god Amun was venerated with sumptuous ceremonies in triad with Mut and Khonsu. With each victory, new and great temples were erected in honor of the god.

Luxor Temple location

The ancient Egyptian capital was divided by a canal, to the south of which Luxor emerged, while to the north the town of Karnak spread.

Luxor is today a small city of 60,000 inhabitants, located on the right bank of the Nile, in the place that corresponds to ancient Thebes.

Luxor meaning

The name of Luxor derives from the Arabic word el-Uqsor, plural of el-Qasr which means camp or fortification, referring to two military camps that were established here in Roman times.

Thebes, which the Egyptians called Uaset, extended into the area that now includes Karnak and Luxor. In this great city (at the time of maximum development it had more than a million inhabitants), capital in the New Kingdom of a kingdom that extended from the Euphrates to Upper Nubia, the god Amun was worshiped in the great temple of Karnak.

Feast of Opet

Once a year, on the occasion of the feast of Opet the “Feast of the Akhet” or the “Beautiful feast of the Valley”, which was celebrated in the second and third month of the flood season, a solemn procession moved the boat sacred from the temple of Karnak to that of Luxor.”

The latter, whose current total length is about 260 meters, was ordered to be built by Amenhotep III ( 18th dynasty ) on a pre-existing cult building erected in the time of Hatshepsut; the queen had also six pavilions built for the stops of Amun’s boat, the sacred route that linked the temple of Luxor with that of Karnak.

In the time of Hatshepsut, the procession of the feast of Opet followed a land route, crossing the avenue of sphinxes that linked the two temples, while from the end of the same dynasty, the simulations of the sacred boat of Amun, Mut and Khonsu, were transported to the temple of Luxor cross the Nile.

Luxor Temple: Architecture

The temple of Luxor, sanctuary of the ka par excellence, measures 260 meters in length and was started by Amenhotep III and finished by Ramses II. It is linked to the Karnak temple by a long avenue adorned with ram-headed sphinxes once, replaced by human-headed sphinxes during the Thirtieth Dynasty.

At the entrance of the temple stands the monumental pylon built by Ramses II, which has a front 65 meters long. In it are carved the bas-reliefs that relate the military campaign of Ramses II against the Hittites and the famous “Poem of Pentaur” is engraved, which celebrates the exploits of the warrior pharaoh.

In front of the pylon, there were formerly two obelisks of Ramses II that rose to the sky to dissipate the harmful forces and attract the celestial powers towards the temple, of which today only the one on the left remains, 25 meters high, since the other it was transported to France in 1833 in the center of the Place de la Concorde.

Surrounding the entrance, two of the six initial colossi, made of granite 15.50 meters high on a 1 meter pedestal, represent the pharaoh sitting on his throne, who guards the access to the temple of ka.

Once through this triumphal entrance, one arrives at the court of Ramses II, adorned by a double row of columns with papyrus capitals, with statues of Osiris in the intercolumniations.

The court also houses the small temple of Tuthmosis III, made up of 3 chapels dedicated to the triad of Amun, Mut and Khonsu.

An imposing 25-meter colonnade then leads us into the court of Amenhotep III, surrounded on three sides by a double row of papyrus columns.

The outer part of the temple also has interesting aspects, with its walls equipped with numerous side chapels whose walls are adorned with scenes of religious ceremonies and, here too, with scenes of the battle against the Syriac-Hittite coalition.