Update - The Frog in Nefertari's Tomb

 You may remember my confusion about the frog in one of the panels in Nefertari's tomb:

Here is a better quality image from Getty Images . The image is by S Vannini.

And here is a little closer look at the frog.

I ordered an article by Professor Olaf E. Kaper on an "Amphibious Element" in Nefertari's tomb and he explains a bit about the frog that is found on the water pot between Nefertari and the Ibis-headed version of the god Thoth.

His paper explains that to the left of the Queen is spell 94 from The Book of the Dead concerned with providing the dead soul with writing equipment. Okay, but...??!? Prior scholars connect the Frog to rebirth (probably because of those already mentioned fertility connections) or say that it is actually a water pot in the shape of a frog.

Kaper notes that we have no in text references to the frog, but the spell, which hales from a particular 19th Dynasty version of the Book of the Dead reads as follows:

"Spell of requesting a water pot and a palette from Thoth in the necropolis by the Osiris the king's great wife, the mistress of the Two Lands, Nefertari beloved of Mut, justified: O great one who is recognised by his father, keeper of the Book of Thoth;^" see, I have come transfigured, possessed of a soul (ba), mighty and equipped with the writings of Thoth. Hasten to me Aker, who is in the hidden place;" bring me a water pot, bring me a palette and that writing case^^ of Thoth, and the secrets that are in them, (i.e.) the gods. Look at me; I am a scribe. Bring me the effluence of Osiris, that (I) may write (therewith) what the great god says perfectly every day, by the perfection which you have assigned to me, Harakhty. I shall do what is right (jnaat) and I shall attain what is right (maat)".

Kaper suggests that by being able to use the writing implements of Thoth, the transcriber of judgment of earthly behavior of the deceased, Nefertari would be able to write her own judgment. Since the Book of the Dead offers no real solution to why there is a frog on the water vessel, he looks for other instances of frogs and what frogs might mean. It was already suggested that because the flooding of the Nile would bring quantities of mud onto land, it was likely that Egyptians might associate the abundance of frogs hatching from tadpoles in the mud with the fertility and abundance of the Nile. Kaper reminds us of the plague of frogs visited on Pharaoh in the Bible. He also looks to the few other instances of frogs he was able to identify in Egyptian art of the time.  

One of these was an item we had actually seen in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. In the exhibit of the artifacts from the tomb of Tuya and Yuya, there were some "false" vases with various figures on the lids. 

The museum identifies them as false containers for oils because they are limestone vases with only a small space dug out of the inside. They are thus representative of vases that would serve the needs of the dead. Four vases were attached to a wooden board, each has an animal perched on the lid, two have calf's heads, one has a reclining ibex and one is ... a frog. Kaper identifies these as false water vessels, which could thus connect the frog with the water pot depicted as a part of the writing "kit" presented to Nefertari by Thoth on the wall panel.  I think it is a good theory, but if anyone has a better one, let me know.

If you want to read the entire article, here is the information about it:

Kaper, Olaf E., "Queen Nefertari and the Frog, on an amphibious element in the vignette BD 94,"Bulletin of the Australian Centre for Egyptology, 13, (2002) 109-126

Day 6 Part 3 Sept 2: Nefertari's tomb

To be honest I was getting pretty tired by this time, but I was really looking forward to the next tomb. I must have slept some, because I don't remember much about the bus ride to the Valley of the Queens, but I have a few photos of things we passed by.

There is so much going on all over this area, that it would take a genius busybody to be up on everything that is being excavated.

This could be homes of worker artisans which are around this area somewhere, or it could be something completely different. The curvy wall suggests something more recent to me, but who knows!

When they let us out of the bus we walked into the Valley of the Queens.

Once again there was evidence of dozens of other tombs. Every grated entry marked a story (mostly unknown (to me at least)) of a mysterious Noble living thousands of years before.

Eventually we reached a marker. It was pretty unimpressive for marking what some have called the Sistine Chapel of Ancient Egyptian tombs.

Once again the surroundings were inhospitable, hot and barren, but there was a small shed with fans, a water cooler and some information signs set up to shield those waiting from the sun.

Queen Nefertari was the favorite wife of Ramses the Great. She was clearly very important for we have seen her depiction already many times at Karnak and Luxor (and would again of course at Abu Simbel).

Ramses II (the Great) had at least eight wives, two of which were his own daughters and one his sister. He also married two Hittite princesses. Speculation is that Ramses married Nefertari when she was a teenager in order to improve political relations with her homeland of Thebes.

Above you see the ever-present security. I calculate that about 2% of male Egyptians work for the military. Note the scary-looking weapon lying casually on the bench.

This is what the waiting area looked like.  

Visitors are allowed in the tomb for only 10 minutes at a time, because the moisture from breath can be damaging to the paintings and unlike most of the other tombs in the area, the paintings are not covered by glass panels. The limestone in the Valley of the Queens has a particularly high salt content and is more fragile than in some other areas. I fear that some day they will decide that they need to close this tomb to the public entirely, so I feel fortunate to have had the chance to see it, but of course ten minutes is not enough time to do much more than take in the beauty of the setting. Here is the wikipedia layout map of the tomb. Only ten minutes to see the whole thing! Wow!

The entrance stairs (1) are undecorated. So the first view of art comes in room 1 (Chamber C in the official Archaeological designation). C is a roughly 5 meter by 5 meter space with a mural of Queen Nefertari in three forms. (Below) she is shown playing the board game Senet (possibly a predecessor of chess) on the south wall next to the entry stairs. Her Ba (or (mobile) soul) is shown in the middle of the panel and then the queen is depicted again in supplication on the right.

Here is a close up of the Senet game. (Image from the Getty collection.) You can also see the cartouche with her name in the white oval.

The west wall of the chamber C (connected on the right to the image above) shows the benu bird (an egret-like bird variously identified as a heron or stork, but definitely looks like an egret to me!) to the left of the mummified body of Nefertari (who wears a funerary mask and is seen lying on a bier). On either side are the goddesses Nephthys (a sister of Isis with whom she is usually paired in funerary paintings) and Isis (with the throne on her head) both depicted in their "kite" form. The green god on the right is a water god with a hand on a symbol of protection

Below is a view looking toward chamber G. (Note the beetle headed god Kheperi on the left.)

Because he represents the rising sun, he is connected with renewal of life. Speculation is that because dung beetles appeared out of dung, hence nothing, they represented life coming out of nowhere. (Probably they were not aware of the eggs inside the dung). The beetles were also seen rolling around the perfectly round little balls of dung, which were associated with the orb of the sun.  (Photo by Charles J. Sharp from Wikipedia).

Thus the beetles were associated with the sun coming out of nowhere in the morning, or the rising of the sun. Here is a better view of Kheperi. 

Standing in the first chamber and looking east you can see the entrance to rooms 2 and 3. On the far right is Osiris god of the dead (south wall) accompanied by Anubis (east wall) (Osiris has a companion piece on the other side of the opening to recesses and Chamber G in the back). Note the vulture over the far back lintel to Chamber G depicting the vulture god Nekhbet who holds protection charms in each claw.

Here is a detail of the closer lintel showing rows of ureai (upright cobras symbolizing sovereignty) and feathers representative of the goddess Ma'at (goddess of harmony, truth and justice). An unidentified  god (perhaps a version of Horus?) in the center has his hands on ovals containing stylized oudjat (eye of Horus) eyes which are an apotropaic charm of protection. The sky on the ceiling gets its distinctive color by painting blue over an underlayer of black paint.

This is a closer look at the recess which forms an entrance to side chamber G (cut off at the left). Archaeologists label it Recess E (3 on the map above.) We see the goddess Hathor holding a supporting hand behind the falcon-headed god Re'-Horakhty, who is holding the ankh (the sign of life force).

The goddess Neith is seen on the north recess wall (F) between numbers 3 and 4 on the map above. Neith was a huntress/war goddess, who is also associated with weaving. That may be a weaving shuttle that she wears on her headdress. 

She is doubled by the goddess Ma'at on the mirror recess wall to the south. This shot is taken from within Chamber G (4) facing west. In the image above as well as in the mural below Nefertari is presented in her double-plumed crown (which was favored by her ancestor/namesake Nefertari-Ahmose). She is portrayed below as offering linen to the creator god Ptah (depicted in mummy form). The offering is a gift in exchange for the granting of enough linen for the wrapping of her mummy.

On the opposite wall of Chamber G (to the East) is one of my favorite paintings. It depicts seven cows and a bull facing Nefertari, who stands around the corner on the south wall. The painting is a representation of book 148 of the Book of the Dead. (𓂋𓏤𓈒𓈒𓈒𓏌𓏤𓉐𓂋𓏏𓂻𓅓𓉔𓂋𓅱𓇳𓏤,  r(ꜣ)w n(y)w prt m hrw(w)). This text starts to show up in the New Kingdom (circa 1550 BCE). It seems to be a collection of writings to give the spirit of the dead spells and directions for navigating the Duat, or underworld that must be traversed after death. In the image, there are bovines placed beneath an elongated hieroglyph for the sky. They are flanked by was scepters. In front of each is a small altar with vegetable, milk and bread offerings. These seven cows have the power to provide the Queen's spirit with its post mortem needs. The oars below are also referenced in the same passage of the Book of the Dead and relate to being able to maneuver among the stars.

The south wall of that room shows the goddesses Nephthys and Isis flanking the ram-headed god, here identified as Re'. 

If you look at the text at the goddesses knees you might be able to see that the text does an interesting crossover of emblems.

The writing on the left by Nephthys' legs starts with eye, god, throne 

𓁹𓀭𓊨     

and ends with mouth, arm, god, sun,  vertical line.       

𓂋𓂝𓀭

 The writing on the right reverses the order: mouth, arm, god, sun, vertical line and ends with eye, god, throne.  What the text is telling us more or less, that (left): It is Osiris (the god of the underworld) who sets as Re' (the sun god) and (right) it is Re' who sets as Osiris. Thus, the sun that sets in the evening travels through the underworld as Osiris and then Osiris sets as the sun enters the living world.

The north wall shows Nefertari paying homage to Thoth. I have no idea what that frog means specifically here, but frogs were associated with fertility and rebirth. Why it appears along with the god of wisdom and writing, I don't know, but Thoth is often paired with Ma'at in paintings, each standing on across from each other on the barque of the sun.

Heading farther North and down the stairs leading from Chamber C deeper into the tomb, are the stairs (5) leading down to the sarcophagus chamber K (Room 8). This shot faces to the South.

This is the east side of the descending corridor (on the left above). The back wall has Neith on one side and Serket, the scorpion goddess on the other. The image of  Serket, (above left) we have seen before in the tomb of Tutankhamun. She was the goddess of curing snake and venom bites.

The two sides of the descending stair mirror each other in triangular panels. In the small part of the panel, we see (the wings of) Ma'at, Isis and Nephthys. Just barely visible here are the offerings they are receiving from Nefertari (off camera left) on the descending corridor on the west side.

 Below is the version on the east side.  Here Nefertari stands in front of a pile of offerings of bread and vegetables which are being presented to the goddess Hathor (Serket and Ma'at being cut off left). There are two smoking braziers on top of the offering pile. The Queen presents two nemset (ritual vessel)   jars to the goddesses along with the offerings. This version differs from the west side version in a couple of ways. There are meats in the offering pile on the west side and the Queen has plumes on her crown. In the east side version the artist has decided to add more honorific titles above the queen and so she wears a flat crown without feathers.

Here is Nefertari's cartouche on one of the door jambs of the stairway down to the lower level.

Anubis (son of the goddess Nephthys and associated with the weighing of the heart after death) is painted on both sides of the mural depicted above farther toward the north end of the stairway (cut off on the edges of the above image).

The stairway descends to room K (Room 6 or #8 on the map above), which has four square pillars, with gods painted on each of the four sides. The chamber measures 10.4 by 8.2 meters and thus feels more spacious than the areas we have previously been in. A low bench runs around the perimeter of the room and may have been a place for setting funerary objects and a depression in the center is where the sarcophagus must have originally been located. The west side of the room depicts scenes from Chapter 144 (the gates) from the Book of the Dead and the right side concentrates on  Chapter 146 (the portals of this world).

This shot looks north in the direction of chamber (room 7 #10) looking towards the central depression for the sarcophagus. None of the annex rooms on the sides are open to the public and most now contain equipment for measuring and controlling humidity. You can see the so called djed pillar decorations in the back of this shot. The djed is an object associated with Osiris, king of the dead.

Here is a closer shot of the djed pillars shown in the shot above. Sometimes these are seen as being symbolic of the backbone of Osiris.

Above is a view of the west wall which shows characters from The Book of the Dead: the keeper ("he who eats excrement of his hinder parts"), the guardian ("he who eats snakes") and the announcer ("he who curses") of the second gate. Nefertari is cut off on the left, but she is showing her knowledge of the gates and thus her worthiness to go to the other world. Under the middle figure right (not visible) is a "canopic niche" cut into wall probably for Nefertari's embalmed viscera.

The shot below faces east towards chamber O (room 5 # 7 on the diagram). In the back you can see the crocodile god Sobek, who is keeper of the third portal.

Unfortunately neither Nefertari's sarcophagus nor her body were found in the tomb, which was discovered by Ernesto Schiaparelli in 1904.

Below is a view of the east side of the south wall of chamber K (Sarcophagus room with the four pillars), which unfortunately has deteriorated extensively since 1904.

Maybe at some point they will locate the body somewhere else, but in the mean time we have a beautiful monument to her life in Nefertari's tomb.

Day 6 Sept 2 Part 2 The Valley of the Kings: Two tombs at the Valley of the Kings

 As you remember we last broke off in the Valley of the Kings, wandering around looking at enticing entrances to various tombs.

The next tomb we were able to enter was that of Ramses III known as KV 11.

The footprint of this tomb is a bit unique. It was originally being dug for King Sethnakhte. He had three chambers dug and decorated, but then abandoned the project and found a different location. This could be because the construction collided with tomb KV 10. They managed to turn the room into a niche, but then decided to veer off uncharacteristically to the righthand up (while most tombs take a turn to the left as they continue to descend.)

Sethnakhte was Ramses III's father, so the son must have decided to pick up where is father left off.

This is one of the corridors decorated for Sethnakhte containing the litany of Re.

Side niches were decorated by Ramses III often with secular scenes.  

The tomb is sometimes called Bruce's tomb because a noted 19th century traveller James Bruce who made the tomb famous by drawing renditions of blind harpists found in the third corridor niches. I did not capture images of them, but there is a lovely blog that did: Passion Égyptienne.

The third corridor shows Sethnakhte before a variety of deities in lovely renditions.

The fourth corridor begins to focus on images of Ramses III.

These cartouches bear the name of Ramses III

The next tomb we went to was KV2, what our egyptologist guide called a perfect tomb. (I'm not sure I have the division of the tombs in exactly the right place, but I do know that KV2 has those marvelous bright blue and yellow ceilings.)

When you enter you see this marvelous winged being on the ceiling.

Wikipedia has a nice schematic for KV 2 showing the turn to the left characteristic of most tombs.

20th Dynasty tombs tended to be laid out in a pretty straight line and this one is no exception.

Ramsès IV had a really short reign of about 6 years ( 1155-1149 BCE) fewer even than Tutankhamen.

Below is a depiction of the King before the Sun god Ra.

The tomb has been open since Graeco-Roman times and is notable for the abundance of antique graffiti. (If you click on the image, you can make it larger and see the graffiti more clearly.)

The burial chamber has a huge sarcophagus. When it was discovered it had already been broken into and Ramses IV body was actually located in 1898 with a cache of other mummies in KV35 the tomb of Amenophis II.

This is what you see as you approach the burial chamber.

Graffito by ancient scribe Penamun may explain the movement of the mummy. He evidently undertook to get the mummy of Amenophis I moved in 1193 (under the reign of Smendes) according to Reeves and Wilkinson in their book The Complete Valley of the Kings.

The huge sarcophagus is very impressive. You can see an effigy of the King on the top.

Around it are lovely murals with scenes from the Book of Gates and the Amduat, a book telling the story of the sun god's travel through the underworld. This image from the Egyptian Museum shows the nature of those depictions.

The ceiling displays stories from the Book of the Heavens.

They found a few Shabtis and some glass objects in the tomb, but most things were robbed by the tomb robbers.  Far too quickly our time expired and we had to head back to the bus.

Our next stop was the Egyptian home of famed Egyptologist Howard Carter (who discovered the tomb of Tutankhamen in 1922.)

Carter was not a saint.  He was a working class guy, who had little education and evidently a short temper, but he loved Egypt and Egyptology despite never having studied it.

He had an aptitude for drafting and was hired to do drawings of Egyptian artifacts for the Egypt Exploration Fund. He worked under the renowned Flinders Petrie for a year at Amarna and eventually he was appointed Inspector of Monuments for Upper Egypt. During his work in Egypt, he improved protection and access to excavation sites and developed a grid system for the recording of tombs at the Valley of the Kings. He lost his job in the so-called Sakkara Affair, because he favored the side of Egyptian security against the complaints of French tourists. Afterwards he remained unemployed for three years before connecting with Lord Carnarvon to explore tombs in the Valley of the Kings.  

His home was lovely and shows his love of his homeland England as well as his devotion to his work in Egypt.

This is the dining room (which has a large English landscape painting of a faun in the woods on the wall.)

There was a cute little veranda off the dining room where one might sit and smoke or enjoy a cup of tea.

It is a little bit severe, but given the heat of the field, it was probably a nice sanctuary from the heat and dirt.

The home had indoor facilities.

The kitchen was roomy with pots, a scale and even a small mouse trap on the shelf.

These are Zirs or Zeers, a pot in a pot system used to keep foods cool and fresh.

Here is another way that they kept food cool and fresh.

Carter's wife did not come with him to Egypt. There was a single bed room in the house.

There was a also a dark room in the house and this beautiful large format camera.

The most impressive room was a work area that had lots of space for drawing and examining artifacts.

This would be such a nice space for an artist and researcher to work in.

Carter was an interesting person, but I would be amiss if I didn't mention the fact that he wasn't completely honest.  He catalogued thousands of objects over the years, most of which ended up in the Egyptian Museum. When he died, however, a letter was discovered from a friend of his named Alan Gardiner. In it Gardiner accused Carter of giving him a stolen amulet from King Tutankhamon's tomb.

He had received the Order of the Nile from King Fuad I in 1926, but there were also suspicions that he had been pilfering items from his finds. The letter confirmed this information and Egyptologist Henry Burton went through Howard's estate finding an additional 18 items that Carter should not have taken. 

These objects he sent to the Egyptian museum or to the Metropolitan Museum in New York. (The Met has since returned all the objects they received from Burton.)

It is sad that someone who loved Egypt and Egyptology so much could not resist "borrowing" items, but there is no doubt that he contributed greatly to the field of Egyptology and public knowledge about ancient Egypt. 

I took one last look around before it was time to board the bus again.