Oriental Institute Museum visit
Dec. 1st, 2012 03:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
We're home from three weeks in the US, during which I managed to wrangle a few hours at the Oriental Institute's museum in Chicago. It's deceptive - it seems small, just a few rooms on one floor of the building, but it's just crammed with goodies. The current exhibit on birds in Ancient Egypt includes a spectacular ibis mummy case and the unwrapped remains of a mummified eagle, some of the gilding still present on the blackened body. The inevitable Sekhmet (OIM 1339) is a gorgeous pink-grey bust, without rosettes on the dress and part of the throne attached to the back. Her gaze is as weighty as it always is, her expression as peaceful as Durga slaying her enemies with ease. There is also a colossal statue of Tutankhamun, beautiful lions from the Ishtar Gate, and an immense lammasu - I walked into the room facing away from it, turned round, and nearly had a heart attack.
Among several other items which caught my eye was a Nineteenth Dynasty stela (OIM 1567) from the Ramesseum, showing the owner worshipping Sobek-Re and an enthroned lion-headed god. The hieroglyphs were too eensy and shallow for me to make out, but the label gave the dedicator's name as Nebaa and the god's name as Iwnet. This sent me on a wild Google chase until I tracked down the puzzling object in a thesis - turns out the owner was one Nebwa, Scribe of the Army of the Lord of the Two Lands, and the lion-headed figure is not a god called Iwnet (Dendera!), but the goddess Wenut. So that's that cleared up.
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Exell, Karen (2006) A social and historical interpretation of Ramesside period votive stelae, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/2631/
Quibell, J.E. The Ramesseum. B. Quaritch, London, 1898.
Among several other items which caught my eye was a Nineteenth Dynasty stela (OIM 1567) from the Ramesseum, showing the owner worshipping Sobek-Re and an enthroned lion-headed god. The hieroglyphs were too eensy and shallow for me to make out, but the label gave the dedicator's name as Nebaa and the god's name as Iwnet. This sent me on a wild Google chase until I tracked down the puzzling object in a thesis - turns out the owner was one Nebwa, Scribe of the Army of the Lord of the Two Lands, and the lion-headed figure is not a god called Iwnet (Dendera!), but the goddess Wenut. So that's that cleared up.
__
Exell, Karen (2006) A social and historical interpretation of Ramesside period votive stelae, Durham theses, Durham University. Available at Durham E-Theses Online: http://etheses.dur.ac.uk/2631/
Quibell, J.E. The Ramesseum. B. Quaritch, London, 1898.
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Date: 2012-12-01 06:53 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-12-01 07:00 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-12-01 07:41 am (UTC)The unpleasant industry of animal mummies is horrifying. :(
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Date: 2012-12-02 01:53 am (UTC)(By a bizarre concidence, Jon is on his way home with Frank's ashes as I type these very words!)
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Date: 2012-12-02 04:33 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-12-02 01:42 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-12-02 01:50 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2012-12-02 03:53 am (UTC)To me, those hieroglyphs look like "Wenu, Lord of Heaven, Mistress of all the Two Lands". It may be that some of the feminine t suffixes have been omitted on the stela or the drawing. The enthroned figure seems to have a breast (or at least more of one than Sobek-Re), and I think I can see Wenut's name a second time in the inscription, this time determined with a serpent. (I just checked, and Quibell sees it too.)
The next thing I want to know is: why Sobek and Wenut?
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Date: 2012-12-02 04:38 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-04-12 09:25 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-04-15 08:29 am (UTC)What is KO 94, 1? I've got the relevant Catalogue des Monuments et Inscriptions from archive.org, but if that's the one, I couldn't spot Wenut. (Mind you, if I'm looking for anything other than a nice big picture or a very straightforward hieroglyphic name, I haven't got a prayer. :)
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Date: 2013-04-16 03:00 pm (UTC)This is what I am suspecting, but can't quite nail it down.
What is KO 94, 1?
I'm not sure myself. The citation came from a PDF I got that doesn't include the abbreviation key. It's probably the volume you mention, but archive.org is down for maintenance at the moment, so I can't check for myself.
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Date: 2013-04-16 03:39 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2013-04-16 07:45 pm (UTC)