The Ornamental Calcite Vessels from the Tomb of Tutankhamun (Griffith Institute Publications) 9789042937215, 9789042937222, 9042937211

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THE GRIFFITH INSTITUTE University of Oxford

T H E O R NA M E N TA L CALCITE VESSELS F RO M T H E T O M B O F T U TA N K H A M U N BY

LISE MANNICHE

PEETERS

THE O R N A M E N TA L CALCI T E V E SSE L S FROM T H E T O M B O F TUTA N K H A M U N

T H E O R N A M E N TA L CALCITE VESSELS FROM THE TOMB OF T U TA N K H A M U N BY

LISE MANNICHE

PEETERS l e u v e n – pa r i s – b r i sto l , c t 2019

Cover illustration: Burton photo 0010, colourised by Dynamichrome.

A catalogue record for this book is available from the Library of Congress. ISBN 978-90-429-3721-5 eISBN 978-90-429-3722-2 D/2019/0602/76 © 2019, Peeters, Bondgenotenlaan 153, B-3000 Leuven, Belgium © 2019, The Griffith Institute, University of Oxford, 1 St John Street, Oxford OX1 2LG, United Kingdom No part of this book may be reproduced in any form or by any electronic or mechanical means, including information storage or retrieval devices or systems, without the prior written permission from the publisher, except the quotation of brief passages for review purposes.

AC K N O W L E D G E M E N T S I am indebted to the Management Committee of the Griffith Institute for permission to use the notes of Howard Carter and his team and for providing prints of Harry Burton’s photographs and scans of his negatives. In this I was greatly helped by Jenni Navratil and Cat Warsi of the Griffith Institute. I am grateful to the Committee for allowing me to reproduce this material and for accepting my text for publication. Julie Zeftel, of the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York, very kindly supplied a scan of a photograph of the model vase MMA 40.2.4, and I am grateful to the Museum for permission to reproduce it. I am also very glad to have been able to use Mr Sandro Vannini’s colour photographs of the vessels. During the early phase of the publication project I benefitted greatly from inspiring comments by Professor J. R. Harris who also provided additional references. I also wish to thank the late Dr Aly el-Khouly for checking inventory numbers of the objects in the Cairo Museum, Dr G. T. Martin for investigating various details of the objects, particularly the ‘set piece with a boat’, which were not immediately recognizable on the available photographs, and Fania Kruijf for providing details from the exhibition catalogue of 2018. I am also much indebted to the then Institute of Egyptology, University of Copenhagen, for providing working facilities when the project was first undertaken. Further thanks are due to Bert Verrept and the staff at Peeters Publishers for seeing the monograph through the press. Lastly, I am grateful to Dr Jaromir Malek who encouraged me to bring this book to fruition and who copy-edited its text.

CONTENTS acknowledgements list of plates list of abbreviations

V IX XIII

INTRODUCTION

1

CATALOGUE

5

Obj. no. 173: ornamental lamp Obj. no. 174: triple lamp Obj. no. 14: cup or chalice Obj. no. 475: attenuated vase Obj. no. 344: attenuated vase Obj. no. 45: ewer on stand Obj. no. 520: large bell-shaped krater Obj. no. 420: unguent vase of situla form Obj. no. 435: vase with flanking ornament Obj. no. 58: vase with flanking ornament Obj. no. 57: ornamental unguent vase Obj. no. 61: ornamental unguent vase Obj. no. 60: ornamental unguent vase Obj. no. 360: composite unguent vase Obj. no. 210: composite vase upon ornamental stand Obj. no. 579: lion-shaped vessel Obj. no. 211: cosmetic jar Obj. no. 584: vase in the form of an ‘ibex’ Obj. no. 578: set piece with boat Obj. no. 620-1: lid with gosling Model vase in New York, MMA COMMENTARY Purpose of the vessels Before the funeral Symbolic features After the funeral Recent history of the vessels

5 6 8 10 11 12 13 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 25 27 29 30 34 34 37 37 37 41 43 45

L I S T O F P L AT E S Unless otherwise stated the photographs are by Harry Burton © Griffith Institute, University of Oxford. Plate i. Ornamental lamp upon trellis work pedestal (obj. no. 173). Photo © Sandro Vannini. Plate ii. Ornamental lamp upon trellis work pedestal (obj. no. 173). GI neg. 659 (Carter-Mace, ii, pl. xlvi [B]). Plate iii. Triple lamp (obj. no. 174). GI negs. 656C (Carter-Mace, ii, pl. xlvii) and 656F. Plate iv. Cup or chalice (obj. no. 14). GI neg. 456. Plate v. Cup or chalice (obj. no. 14). Photos © Sandro Vannini. Plate vi. Attenuated vases (obj. nos. 475 [left] and 344 [right]). GI neg. 1283 (Carter-Mace, iii, pl. lxxix [B]). Plate vii. Attenuated vase (obj. no. 344). Photo © Sandro Vannini. Plate viii. Attenuated vase (obj. no. 475) and large krater (obj. no. 520). Carter’s cards with drawing of decoration of no. 475, and of decoration and inscription of no. 520. Plate ix. Ewer on stand (obj. no. 45). Photos © Sandro Vannini. Plate x. Large krater (obj. no. 520). GI neg. 1676 (Carter-Mace, iii, pl. lxxix [A]). Plate xi. Large krater (obj. no. 520). Photos © Sandro Vannini. Plate xii. Lid to large krater (obj. no. 620-3). GI neg. 1281 and Carter’s card with drawing of decoration. Plate xiii. Unguent vase of situla form (obj. no. 420), and view inside. GI negs. 1643 and 1655. Plate xiv. Unguent vase of situla form (obj. no. 420). Photos © Sandro Vannini. Plate xv. Unguent vase of situla form (obj. no. 420). Photos © Sandro Vannini. Plate xvi. Vase with flanking ornament upon tazza stand (obj. no. 435). Photo © Sandro Vannini.

X

LIST OF PLATES

Plate xvii. Vase with flanking ornament upon tazza stand (obj. no. 435), and view inside. GI negs. 1661, 1230 and 1653. Plate xviii. Vase with flanking ornament upon ornamental stand (obj. no. 58). GI neg. 469 (Carter-Mace, i, pl. xlviii). Plate xix. Vase with flanking ornament upon ornamental stand (obj. no. 58). Photo © Sandro Vannini. Plate xx. Three ornamental vases (obj. nos. 57, 61, 60). GI neg. 477. Plate xxi. Ornamental vase (obj. no. 57). Photo © Sandro Vannini. Plate xxii. Ornamental vase (obj. no. 60). Photos © Sandro Vannini. Plate xxiii. Composite unguent vase (obj. no. 360). GI negs. 1323, 1651 and 1652. Plate xxiv. Composite unguent vase (obj. no. 360). Photos © Sandro Vannini. Plate xxv. Composite unguent vase upon ornamental stand (obj. no. 210). GI negs. 671 (Carter-Mace, ii, pl. xlviii) and 669. Plate xxvi. Composite unguent vase upon ornamental stand (obj. no. 210). GI negs. 668 and 667. Plate xxvii. Composite unguent vase upon ornamental stand (obj. no. 210). Photos © Sandro Vannini. Plate xxviii. Lion-shaped vessel (obj. no. 579). GI neg. 1254 (Carter-Mace, iii, pl. xlviii). Plate xxix. Lion-shaped vessel (obj. no. 579). GI negs. 1526 and 1650 and card with Carter’s drawing of decoration. Plate xxx. Lion-shaped vessel (obj. no. 579). Photo © Sandro Vannini. Plate xxxi. Lion-shaped vessel (obj. no. 579). Photos © Sandro Vannini. Plate xxxii. Cosmetic jar (obj. no. 211). GI neg. 660 (Carter-Mace, ii, pl. l). Plate xxxiii. Cosmetic jar (obj. no. 211). GI negs. 663 (Carter-Mace, ii, pl. li), 661 and Lise Manniche’s drawing of decoration. Plate xxxiv. Cosmetic jar (obj. no. 211). Photo © Sandro Vannini. Plate xxxv. Cosmetic jar (obj. no. 211). Photo © Sandro Vannini. Plate xxxvi. Cosmetic jar (obj. no. 211). Photos © Sandro Vannini.

LIST OF PLATES Plate xxxvii. Cosmetic jar (obj. no. 211). Photos © Sandro Vannini. Plate xxxviii. Cosmetic jar (obj. no. 211). Photos © Sandro Vannini. Plate xxxix. Vase in the form of an ‘ibex’ (obj. no. 584). GI negs. 1658 and 1614. Plate xl. Vase in the form of an ‘ibex’ (obj. no. 584). Photos © Sandro Vannini. Plate xli. Set piece with boat on pedestal (obj. no. 578). GI neg. 1570. Plate xlii. Set piece with boat on pedestal (obj. no. 578). GI neg. 1222. Plate xliii. Set piece with boat on pedestal (obj. no. 578). GI neg. 1257. Plate xliv. Set piece with boat on pedestal (obj. no. 578). GI negs. 1645 and 1647 (Carter-Mace, iii, pl. lxxiv [A]). Plate xlv. Set piece with boat on pedestal (obj. no. 578). GI neg. 1260. Plate xlvi. Set piece with boat on pedestal (obj. no. 578). Photo © Sandro Vannini. Plate xlvii. Set piece with boat on pedestal (obj. no. 578). Photos © Sandro Vannini. Plates xlviii-xlix. Set piece with boat on pedestal (obj. no. 578). Carter’s cards with details of decoration. Plate l. Lid with gosling (obj. no. 620-1). Photos © Sandro Vannini. Plate li. Lid with gosling (obj. no. 620-1) and horn (obj. no. 92e). GI negs. 1469 (photo, Cairo, Egyptian Museum) and 234 [right]. Plate lii. Model vase, New York, MMA 40.2.4. Copyright New York, MMA. Plate liii. Obj. nos. 385, 435, 578 and 579 in situ. GI neg. 1225. Plate liv. Obj. nos. 57, 58, 60 and 61 in situ. GI neg. 10 (Carter-Mace, i, pl. xxii). Plate lv. Obj. nos. 210 and 211 in situ. GI neg. 591.

XI

L I S T O F A B B R E V I AT I O N S 1. Periodicals and monographs. AJA = American Journal of Archaeology, Boston, MA. ASAE = Annales du Service des Antiquités, Cairo. BACE = Bulletin of the Australian Center of Egyptology, Sydney. Baines, Fecundity Figures = J. Baines, Fecundity Figures. Egyptian Personification and the Iconology of a Genre, Oxford, 2001. Beinlich-Saleh = H. Beinlich and M. Saleh, Corpus der hieroglyphischen Inschriften aus dem Grab des Tutanchamun, Oxford, 1989. Carter-Mace = H. Carter and A. C. Mace, The Tomb of Tut.ankh.Amen, 3 vols., London, 1923-33 (reprinted New York, 1963). (The pagination is different in the New York edition). Cat. Basel 2004 = Tutanchamun. Das goldene Jenseits, Basel, 2004, edited by A. Wiese and A. Brodbeck (numerous editions). Cat. Berlin 1980 = Tutanchamun, Mainz, 1980, with text of the catalogue entries by P. Munro, J. Settgast, and D. Wildung (several versions). Cat. Japan 1965 = Tutankhamun Exhibition in Japan, 1965-1966. Cat. London 1972 = Treasures of Tutankhamun, London, 1972, with text of the catalogue entries by I. E. S. Edwards. Cat. Paris 1967 = Toutankhamon et son temps, Petit Palais, 1967, with text of the catalogue entries by C. Desroches Noblecourt. Cat. USA 1961 = Tutankhamun Treasures, USA 1961-1963, with text of the catalogue entries by R. Anthes. Cat. USA 1976 = Treasures of Tutankhamun, New York, 1976, with text of the catalogue entries by I. E. S. Edwards. Cat. USA 1976 Tutankhamun = Tutankhamun (picture book), Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1976. Cat. USA 2018 = Z. Hawass, Tutankhamun: Treasures of the Golden Pharaoh, The Centennial Celebration, New York, 2018. Cat. USSR 1973 = Sokrovishcha grobnitsy Tutankhamona, Moscow, 1973/1974 (in at least three forms), with text of the catalogue entries by B. B. Piotrovskii and others. Collins and McNamara, Discovering Tutankhamun = P. Collins and L. McNamara, Discovering Tutankhamun, Oxford, 2014.

XIV

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

Davies, El-Amarna = N. de G. Davies, The Rock Tombs of El Amarna, i-vi, London, 1903-1908. Desroches Noblecourt, Toutankhamon = C. Desroches Noblecourt, Vie et mort d’un pharaon. Toutankhamon, Paris, 1963 (translation Tutankhamun: Life and Death of a Pharaoh, London and New York, 1953). Desroches Noblecourt, Amours et fureurs = C. Desroches Noblecourt, Amours et fureurs de La Lointaine. Clés pour la compréhension de symboles égyptiens, Paris, 1995. Descr. sommaire = Cairo Museum, Description sommaire des principaux monuments, Cairo, 1956. Donadoni, Egyptian Museum Cairo = S. Donadoni, Egyptian Museum Cairo, Milan, 1969. Edwards, Tutankhamun = I. E. S. Edwards, Tutankhamun: his Tomb and its Treasures, New York and London, 1976. Egyptian Museum = The Illustrated Guide to the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, edited by A. Bongioanni, M. Sole Croce and L. Accomazzo, with photographs by A. de Luca, The American University in Cairo Press, 2001. Encyclopédie photographique = Encyclopédie photographique de l’art. Le Musée du Caire, Paris, 1949. Fox, Treasure = P. Fox, Tutankhamun’s Treasure, London, 1951. GM = Göttinger Miszellen, Göttingen. Hayes, Scepter = W. C. Hayes, The Scepter of Egypt, i-ii, New York, 1959 (repr. 1978). Hawass, King Tutankhamun = Z. Hawass, King Tutankhamun. The Treasures of the Tomb, with photographs by Sandro Vannini, The American University in Cairo Press, 2007. Hawass, Tutankhamun = Z. Hawass, Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs, with photographs by Kenneth Garrett, Washington, 2005. ILN = Illustrated London News. James, Tutankhamun. The Eternal Splendour = T. G. H. James, Tutankhamun. The Eternal Splendour of the Boy Pharaoh, with photographs by A. de Luca, London/New York, 2000. JEA = Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, London. Leclant, Ägypten, ii = J. Leclant (ed.), Ägypten, ii, Paris, 1980. Lucas-Harris = A. Lucas, Ancient Egyptian Materials and Industries, 4th ed., revised and enlarged by J. R. Harris, London, 1962. El-Khouli, Stone Vessels = Ali El-Khouli et al., Stone Vessels, Pottery and Sealings from the Tomb of Tut‘ankhamun, Oxford, 1993. El Mallakh and Brackman, Gold = Kamal El Mallakh and A. C. Brackman, The Gold of Tutankhamen, New York, 1978. Manniche, Sacred Luxuries = L. Manniche, Sacred Luxuries. Fragrance, Aromatherapy and Cosmetics in Ancient Egypt, with photographs by Werner Forman, London/Cornell University Press, 1999

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

XV

= Egyptian Luxuries. Fragrance, Aromatherapy and Cosmetics in Pharaonic Egypt, The American University in Cairo Press, 1999. Manniche, ‘Salvekrukker’ = L. Manniche, ‘Tutankhamons salvekrukker’, Papyrus 37/1 (2017), pp. 14-27. Nicholson and Shaw, Technology = P. T. Nicholson and I. Shaw (eds.), Ancient Egyptian Materials and Technology, Cambridge, 2009. Noack, Tut Ench Amun = D. M. Noack, Tut Ench Amun, Köln, no date. Perepelkin, The Golden Tomb = G. Perepelkin, The Golden Tomb, Moscow, 1978 (translated from Taina zolotogo groba, Moscow, 1968). Porter-Moss = B. Porter and R. L. B. Moss, Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Reliefs and Paintings, 7 vols., Oxford, 1927-1951; 2nd ed., with the assistance of E. W. Burney and J. Málek, Oxford, 1960 and following. Quaegebeur, J., with a postscript by N. Cherpion, La naine et le bouquetin, ou L’Énigme de la barque en albâtre de Toutankhamon, Leuven, 1999 (the references are to the English text). Rd’É = Revue d’Égyptologie, Paris. Reeves, Complete Tutankhamun = N. Reeves, The Complete Tutankhamun. The King, The Tomb, The Royal Treasure, London, 1990. Riesterer, Das ägyptische Museum Kairo = P. Riesterer, Das ägyptische Museum Kairo (ii). Grabschatz des Tut-ench-amun, Bern/Kairo, 1965. Ross, The Art of Egypt = E. D. Ross, The Art of Egypt, London, 1931. Schäfer-Andrae, Die Kunst des alten Orients = R. Schäfer and W. Andrae, Die Kunst des alten Orients, Berlin, 1925. Seton-Williams, Tutanchamun = M. V. Seton Williams, Tutanchamun: der Pharao. Das Grab. Der Goldschatz, Frankfurt am Main, 1980. Silverman, 50 Wonders = D. P. Silverman, 50 Wonders of Tutankhamun, New York, 1978. Silverman, Masterpieces = D. P. Silverman, Masterpieces of Tutankhamun, New York, 1978. Täckholm, Faraos blomster = V. Laurent-Täckholm, Faraos Blomster, Copenhagen, 1952. Urk. iv: Urkunden des ägyptischen Altertums, Abt. iv: Urkunden der 18. Dynastie, Heft 1-16 (ed. K. Sethe), Leipzig, 1906-9, 1930; Heft 17-22 (ed. W. Helck), Berlin, 1955-8. Übersetzung, Heft 1-4 (K. Sethe), Leipzig, 1914; Heft 5-16 (A. Burkhardt et al.), Berlin, 1984; Heft 17-22 (W. Helck), Berlin, 1961. Vandersleyen, Ägypten = C. Vandersleyen (ed.), Das alte Ägypten, Berlin, 1975.

XVI

LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS

2. Other less common abbreviations. b. diam. exhib. h. l. max. n. no(s). obj(s). opp. w.

breadth diameter exhibition height length maximum note(s) number(s) object(s) opposite width

INTRODUCTION The present work has been hibernating for some 35 years. At the time of its original undertaking editorial problems beyond the control of the author caused the nearly completed work to be shelved, and other projects took its place. In 2014, with an added focus on Tutankhamun and the planned relocation of the finds from his tomb to the new Grand Egyptian Museum near the Giza site, renewed interest in its publication arose, and in 2015 the author was once more encouraged to tackle the subject of the calcite vessels. Mercifully, the original typescript had survived, and it has now been substantially revised and updated for the present publication. The record cards by Carter and Mace with notes by Lucas provided ample material, supplementary information being gathered from various recent exhibition catalogues. Photographs by Harry Burton were originally obtained from the Griffith Institute.1 Since then, these have been reproduced in connection with Tutankhamun exhibitions and related publications, but in the present bibliography mostly references to new and improved photographs have been included, along with mention (as before) of publications of particular interest.2 The descriptions of the objects generally follow those of Carter with certain additions and emendations. Apart from the two lamps and the ‘wishing cup’ which have been placed at the beginning of the catalogue, the order of the objects is typological, starting with vessels of simple design and concluding with the animal shaped vessels and the ‘set piece with boat’. The material from which the present artefacts have been carved has been variously described over the years, Carter and Mace consistently using the term ‘calcite’ which has been retained here.3 Popularly it is known as ‘alabaster’, whereas, more recently, arguments have been put forward in favour of ‘travertine’.4 It is a soft stone, easy to work and to polish. Its colour ranges from almost pure white to yellowish brown, often with clear veins showing in the stone. When thinly cut, it becomes semi-translucent and is thus ideally suited for shaping lamps. It was the material par excellence used for the stone vessels in the tomb of Tutankhamun. That the tomb actually contained more vessels than these is evident from the fact that several lids were found, the vases of which were missing. At least three of the vessels

1

All the original cards by Carter and his team as well as Burton’s photographs are now available on the internet: http://www.griffith.ox.ac.uk/discoveringTut/ 2 The three volumes by Carter and Mace were republished in 2013 in one volume, introduced by D. P. Silverman, published by The Folio Society in London, and included many, but not all, of the Burton photographs. The

king’s name was altered to Tutankhamun throughout. It was accompanied by a slim volume of colour photographs by Sandro Vannini entitled The Tomb of Tutankhamun: The Treasures. 3 Lucas-Harris, p. 59 and pp. 423f. 4 B. G. Aston, J. A. Harrel and I. Shaw in Nicholson and Shaw, Technology, pp. 59-60.

2

INTRODUCTION

were luted to their bases with beeswax, others had been fixed with resin. For luting the lids to the mouths of the vases beeswax was used in five cases, and traces of this adhesive were found on several other lids.5 The objects described here were found scattered in various places in the tomb, some of them presumably in situ where they had been placed at the time of the burial (the burial chamber), others stacked (the antechamber) or heaped together (the annexe) by those who closed the tomb after the robberies, one object (the ‘wishing cup’) being found near the entrance. Almost all of them are unprecedented in Egyptian art, and they have given way to a variety of comments ever since they were first published. Strangely novel, yet typical of the age, are the skilful works of the stone-carver. His ornate vessels wrought of semi-translucent alabaster evoke surprise mingled with curiosity and admiration. Their strange forms seem almost to belong to wonderland. The wishing-cup and tricerion have a particular charm; but the remarkable objects in this class of work are the perfume vases with their flanking ornamentation, the cosmetic jar with a recumbent lion on its lid, and the quaintly heraldic vase in the shape of a lion standing upright in an aggressive attitude; or the ‘centre-piece’ in the form of a boat, with a little figure of a nude girl on the fore-deck, and a puny dwarf at the helm; one cannot but observe how beautifully and how accurately those female figures, as well as the ibex heads on the stem and stern, have been rendered by the court stonecarver who wrought that fascinating ornament.6 In designing (these vases) the stone-cutter gave free play to his fancy, borrowing forms of flowers and animals for their shapes. Some may be heavy and clumsy, while others are distinguished by their elegance and diversity of form.7 Thus wrote Carter when he described the extraordinary calcite vessels found in the tomb of Tutankhamun. Since their discovery their artistic merit has been estimated in different ways. Carter’s view is echoed in a caption to a tinted photograph of the cluster of vases in situ: ‘The Most Beautiful Alabaster Vases in the World’,8 and Lord Carnarvon himself wrote in a letter postmarked 28 November 1922 that the tomb contained ‘the most miraculous alabaster vases ever seen.’9 In 1925, Schäfer and Andrae say with regard to these vases: Das Neue Reich bringt eine Reihe schlanker, schön geschwungener Formen von gefälliger Vornehmheit hinzu.10 In 1958, W. Stevenson Smith is of a different opinion: There can be no doubt that the importation of these hybrid forms (sc. of ‘Syrian taste’) and the demand for novelty and the display of wealth has had a disastrous effect upon design.11

5

Lucas-Harris, pp. 2-3, 7. Carter in E. D. Ross, The Art of Egypt, 1931, p. 45. 7 Carter-Mace, iii, p. 147. 8 The illustration accompanies the article by H. R. Hall in J. A. Hammerton (ed.), Wonders of the Past i-iii, published by The Fleetway House, London E.C., n.d., vol. i, pp. 18-35, and is credited to The Times where the articles originated. The caption probably stems from the same source. I owe this reference to J. R. Harris. 6

9

Collins and McNamara, Discovering Tutankhamun, p. 32. 10 Die Kunst des alten Orients, p. 73. 11 The Art and Architecture of Ancient Egypt, Harmondsworth, New York, etc., p. 212, revised ed. 1981, p. 353.

INTRODUCTION

3

Taste changes through the ages, and in the 1920s the ornamented perfume vases may not have been entirely out of touch with objects displayed in wealthy European houses. With today’s demand for simpler forms, the vases seem to be thought of as impressive, but rather hideous. However, the true merit of the vessels lies in the way the idea behind them has taken physical shape, as W. Seipel says, Die meisten Alabastergefässe… haben bizarre Formen, die bisweilen übertrieben oder manieristisch erscheinen mögen. Sie sind doch keineswegs als Entgleisungen einer nicht mehr überbietender technischen Fertigkeit anzusehen, sondern alle Ausdruck des zur Volkommenheit gesteigerten Versuche, die komplexe Symbolik religiöser Gedanken kunstvoll zu veranschaulichen.12 None of the surviving calcite vessels manufactured before the reign of Tutankhamun are as elaborate and ornamented as these.13 The triple lamp and to a certain extent the second lamp and the wishing cup were undoubtedly inspired by the numerous flowershaped faience goblets of the dynasty. The basic form of vases nos. 57, 60, 61, 210 and 360 is reminiscent of the hieroglyphic sign smꜢ, the shape being closely connected with the idea of the unification of the Two Lands, emphasized by the two heraldic plants used as a flanking ornament. The inlaid decoration on the two attenuated vases nos. 344 and 475 imitates real floral garlands and has parallels in representations of pottery jars. The simple shape of these jars is reflected in receptacles used in banquet scenes in Theban tombs as well as among offerings to the Aten at el-Amarna.14 The fluted body of vase no. 58 is related to the fluting of elaborate metal vessels,15 and the steatite(?) bosses probably owe their presence to the same source: several among the metal vases in the paintings are decorated with greyish dots, presumably representing incrusted semiprecious stones. The origin of this style is somewhere in Syria. Some metal vases of this type were imported16 while others were made in Egypt,17 as were calcite vessels, made of local stone. For further discussion see below, Commentary.

12

In Vandersleyen, Das alte Ägypten, 1975, no. 371. Cf. for example two calcite vases found in the tomb of Iuiya and Tuiyu: T. M. Davies, The Tomb of Iouiya and Touiyou, London, 1907, pls. xxiv, xxv (one of them was ‘stained as with some oily substance’, p. 29). 14 e.g. Davies, El-Amarna i, pls. xii, xviii, xxvii. 13

15 Cf. for example TT 63: Nina de G. Davies, Ancient Egyptian Paintings, Chicago, Oriental Institute, 1936, pl. xlii. 16 ibid. 17 ibid. pl. lxii (TT 181).

C ATA L O G U E Ornamental Lamp upon Trellis-work Pedestal Obj. no. 173; JE 62111; Exhib. no. 184. Dimensions: max. h. 51.4 cm; max. w. 29.5 cm; h. of lamp, 33 cm; h. of pedestal, 18.5 cm, l. 29 cm, w. 13 cm. Bibliography: Carter’s cards (two); ILN, June 27, 1925, figs. on pp. 1292 [lower left] and 1293; Carter-Mace, ii, p. 30, pls. xlv, xlvi; Fox, Treasure, pl. 20; Descr. sommaire [184] with pl.; Porter-Moss, i2, ii, p. 580; Noack, Tut Ench Amun, fig. 44 (colour); Leclant, Ägypten, ii, fig. 334; Manniche, Ægyptens Kunst, Copenhagen, 1981, fig. 79; BeinlichSaleh, p. 62; Egyptian Museum, pp. 286-7 (colour); James, Tutankhamun. The Eternal Splendour, p. 307 (colour); Hawass, King Tutankhamun, p. 75 (colour); Cat. USA 2018, pp. 134-5. Photographs: pls. i, ii. Position when found: original – standing beside the south wall in the south-east corner of the tomb chamber.1 State of conservation: intact. Treatment: cleaned with acetone, soap and warm water alternately. Contents: on the interior of the cup there were traces of the oil it once contained. Description: A plain chalice-like2 lamp with flanking ornament of fret-work of the following device, the details being picked out with black: ḥḥ on nbw-baskets carrying ῾nḫ and a cartouche with respectively the nomen and prenomen of the king upon nbwgold.3 Both sides have rnpt-branches as a margin standing on tadpoles on šnw-rings, all of it symbolizing millions and hundreds of thousands of years of life for the king. The cup of the chalice is composed of one cup fitting into another, having between them, on one of the walls, the following ornamentation in semi-translucent colours: Front: the king seated upon a chair facing right; in front of him the queen facing left and offering him the palm-reeds symbolizing youth. Above them an inscription:

1 2

Cf. Reeves, Complete Tutankhamun, plan on p. 85. For the shape of the bowl see the following item.

3 Front: right prenomen, left nomen. Back: right nomen, left prenomen.

6

CATALOGUE

The perfect4 god, lord of the Two Lands, Nebkheprura, given life for ever. The king’s great wife, his beloved, Ankhesenamun, may she live. Back: two bands of garland ornament, and an inscription between them:

Life to the perfect god, lord of the Two Lands, lord of performing ritual, Nebkheprura, given life. Life to the son of Ra, his beloved, lord of crowns, Tutankhamun, ruler of Southern Heliopolis. The function of this lamp was presumably identical to that of the triple lamp (cf. the following entry), but it was evidently manufactured after the move from el-Amarna. The decoration is only visible when the lamp is lit.

Triple lamp Obj. no. 174; JE 62112; Exhib. no. 182. Dimensions: h. 27 cm: max. w. 27 cm. Bibliography: Carter’s card; Carter-Mace, ii, p. 31, pl. xlvii; Ross, The Art of Egypt, pl. 207 [upper]; E. Drioton, Le Musée Égyptien, Cairo, 1939, pl. 14; Encyclopédie photographique, fig. 119; Fox, Treasure, pl. 19; Täckholm, Faraos blomster, colour fig. opp. p. 230; Noblecourt, Toutankhamon, pl. 23A (colour); Riesterer, Das ägyptische Museum Kairo, no. 34 (colour); G. A. D. Tait in JEA 49 (1963), p. 100; Noack, Tut Ench Amun, fig. 46 (colour); Descr. sommaire [182]; Donadoni, Egyptian Museum Cairo, fig. p. 130 [left]; Vandersleyen, Das alte Ägypten, no. 370; Cat. USA 1976, no. 14, colour pl. 10; Edwards, Tutankhamun, p. 87, colour photograph on p. 86; El Mallakh and Brackman, Gold, p. 233, pl. 139; Seton-Williams, Tutanchamun, p. 187, fig. 134; Leclant, Ägypten, ii, fig. 247; Cat. Berlin 1980, no. 33; A. Gros de Beler, Tutankhamun, Paris, 1999, colour pl. p. 111. Photographs: pl. iii. Position when found: standing on the ground before the folding doors of the great outer shrine (no. 207), at the eastern end.5 State of conservation: intact. 4 The concept of the word nfr is too complex to be translated into a single word, implying among other things youthful sexual energy and radiance. It seems to have been particularly poignant in the Amarna period, cf. its presence

in many of the royal names. In this work ‘perfect’ has been chosen as the most neutral translation. 5 Cf. Reeves, Complete Tutankhamun, plan on p. 85.

CATALOGUE

7

Contents: there were slight traces of oil on the interior surfaces of the cups when first discovered. Description: Calcite lamp in the form of three lotus flowers. From ancient Egypt two varieties of lotus are recognized: Nymphaea lotus L. and Nymphaea caerulea S. The former is white with obtuse petals and five thick sepals narrowed towards the apex, while the latter has acute purple- or blue-spotted petals and lightly pointed sepals.6 In two-dimensional art two basic types are apparent: a white flower with hemispherical outline and a blue one of triangular form. The blue flower was by far the most popular, as for example in banquet and offering scenes as well as in garlands and borders where an entire flower is shown. Elongated, pointed petals on their own are most often shown white (but cf. obj. nos. 344 and 475 below), though closer in shape to Nymphaea lotus than to Nymphaea caerulaea. As a decorative element they are no longer true to their original inspiration. In three-dimensional representations, primarily cups of faience, the predominant shape is that of an inverted cone, corresponding to the triangular shape of relief and painting. The blue/green colour of the material would no doubt have influenced the choice of form of the faience specimens. The white colour of calcite may have inspired the craftsmen to prefer the white lotus which has a rather more hemispherical shape.7 The calcite vessels from the tomb of Tutankhamun are not precise imitations of either white or blue lotus, some being of a rather hybrid form. Hence in the following, and with reference to the colour and outline of the flower in painting, the flowers will be referred to simply as white and blue lotus. In obj. no. 174, the two flanking cups have adopted the shape of opening buds of the blue lotus, the petals being just visible behind the thick sepals. The central flower presents the vaguely conical shape but with the rounded sepals reminiscent of the white lotus dominating the outer surface. The stem of the central flower is in the form of a papyrus column with horizontal bands below the head. With the base of the two stems of the flanking flowers it springs from a circular base. The two smaller flowers have an additional horizontal leaf at the sides. The ornamental lamp is otherwise without decoration. The slight traces of oil on the interior surfaces of the cups of this object prove its purpose as that of a lamp. This particular lamp may of course have been used in daily life, it may even have lit the palace at el-Amarna. But light and fire played a prominent part in the cult of the dead, and the symbolism of the blue lotus relating to the idea of regeneration is well established.8 Thus it is likely that the lamp was destined to be part of the funerary equipment in a royal burial. It was found in front of the doors of the great outer shrine which contained the three other shrines and the sarcophagus and coffins sheltering the royal mummy. Lamps were lit at the couch of Osiris, and light was required to keep off the spirits and demons of the dark. Magic torches buried in the 6

Cf. V. Täckholm, Student’s Flora of Egypt (2nd ed.), Cairo, 1974, p. 144, pl. 39. 7 For white lotus-shaped vessels made of calcite cf. a cup from the treasures of the wives of Tuthmosis III (H. E. Winlock, The Treasures of Three Egyptian Princesses,

New York, 1948, pp. 61-2, pl. xxxv [B]) and those mentioned in n. 9-11 below. 8 P. Derchain, ‘Le lotus, la mandragore et le perséa’, Chronique d’Égypte 50 no. 99 (1975), p. 71 and passim.

8

CATALOGUE

tomb are shown by the accompanying texts to provide protection for the burial chamber. The reasons for the presence of a lamp in the tomb are thus many.9 Carter compared the lamp with the tricerion, the candle stick with three arms typifying the Holy Trinity of the Christian era, and he suggested that the lamp was a symbol of the Theban triad. As the lamp is devoid of inscriptions, this cannot be confirmed, and there is nothing to link the lotus flower with Amun in particular, nor has the Theban triad a place in the ritual of the dead.

Cup or Chalice Obj. no. 14; JE 62125; Exhib. no. 11. Dimensions: h. 18 cm; diam. 17 cm; w. including side ornaments, 30 cm.10 Bibliography: Carter’s cards (two, including note by Lucas); Carter-Mace, i, p. 110, pl. xlvi; Ross, The Art of Egypt, fig. on p. 207 [2]; J. Leibovitch, Ancient Egypt, Cairo, 1938, fig. 107; R. Hamann, Ägyptische Kunst. Wesen und Geschichte, Berlin, 1944, fig. 46, p. 48; Fox, Treasure, pl. 3; Täckholm, Faraos blomster, fig. p. 129 [lower]; Desroches Noblecourt, Toutankhamon, pl. 22B (colour); Descr. sommaire [11] (with pl.); PorterMoss, i2, ii, p. 580; Noack, Tut Ench Amun, fig. 45 (colour); Cat. Paris 1967, pp. 188-9, with colour pl. p. 180; Cat. London 1972, no. 7, with colour pl.; Cat. USSR 1973, no. 41 (including back view); Cat. USA 1976, no. 2 with colour pl. 2; Cat. USA 1976 Tutankhamun, p. 3; T. Hoving, Tutankhamun. The Untold Story, New York, 1978, colour photograph on 14th pl. [middle]; Edwards, Tutankhamun, p. 25, colour photograph on pp. 26-7; Silverman, 50 Wonders, pp. 56-7; Silverman, Masterpieces, pp. 90-1 with colour pl.; El Mallakh and Brackman, Gold, pp. 322-3, pl. 137; Seton-Williams, Tutanchamun, p. 188, fig. 135; Cat. Berlin 1980, no. 39; Beinlich-Saleh, p. 56; Reeves, Complete Tutankhamun, pp. 198f.; James, Tutankhamun. The Eternal Splendour, p. 310; Egyptian Museum, p. 289 (colour); Cat. Basel 2004, no. 91; Hawass, Tutankhamun, pp. 248-9; id. King Tutankhamun, p. 27 (colour); Cat. USA 2018, p. 129. Photographs: pls. iv, v. Position when found: possibly not original, found in the antechamber, inside the blocking of the inner doorway. State of conservation: intact. Treatment: washed with cold water to remove the yellowish film deposit. Particles of brown material removed from inside and spots of brown material from outside with xylol. Contents: apart from the above mentioned nothing. 9 Cf. N. de G. Davies, ‘A peculiar form of New Kingdom lamp’, JEA 10 (1924), pp. 9-14. 10 Cat. Paris 1967 has the following measurements: 18.3 cm, 16.8 cm and 28.3 cm. Cat. London 1972 agrees on

18.3 cm and 28.3 cm, but has 16.8 cm as ‘depth of cup’ (sic also Cat. USA 1976). Egyptian Museum agrees on h. 18.3 cm. Cat. Basel 2004 has h. 18.4 cm, w. 28 cm, diam. of bowl 16 cm.

CATALOGUE

9

Description: Bowl of floral form, carved in low relief on exterior to represent the calyx of whorl of sepals and petals of the white lotus. It is supported on a hollow stem on foot of inverted trumpet shape. Flanking the bowl are buds and flowers of the blue lotus in open-work which spring from the base of the foot and support nbw upon which are ḥḥ holding ῾nḫ, and the symbol of ‘a hundred thousand years’. On the central sepal of the bowl there is the following legend in a rectangular frame, the upper margin of which takes the shape of the sky, all of it incised and filled with blue pigment:

The nsw-bỉty, Nebkheprura, son of Ra; Tutankhamun, ruler of Southern Heliopolis, given life for ever. Beloved of Amun-Ra, lord of the thrones of the Two Lands, lord of heaven. Around the lip of the bowl there is a band of inscription reading from left to right and from right to left, the two inscriptions joining in the ῾nḫ on the front:

a) Life to Horus, ‘Strong bull, fitting(?) of forms(?)’, He of the Two Ladies, ‘Perfect of laws, who pacifies the Two Lands’, Golden Falcon, ‘Wearing the crowns, propitiating the gods’, nsw-bỉty, Lord of the Two Lands, Nebkheprura, given life.

b) Life11 to your ka: you shall spend millions of years, o you who love Thebes, sitting with thy face in the north wind, thy eyes beholding perfection.12

11

The ῾nḫ-sign is shared by the two inscriptions.

12

For nfr see n. 4 and below, pp. 40-1.

10

CATALOGUE

The bowl was intact and apparently contained nothing because, unlike most of the other vessels, this was not a receptacle for storage. It was a drinking bowl. This is established beyond doubt from contemporary reliefs.13 None of the cups represented has the flanking ornament, but the body adopts the hemispherical shape of the white lotus. Other lotus-shaped calcite cups, more or less intact with petals and sepals in low relief, are known, one from the reign of Tuthmosis III,14 another and a fragment from that of Amenophis III,15 and the fourth16 and possibly the fifth17 from the reign of Akhenaten. A few others with plain outer surfaces are also recorded.18 The cup was found just inside the doorway of the antechamber. Carter suggests that this position might not be the original one. Cat. London 1972 claims that it was moved there by the tomb robbers. No pictures exist showing the cup in situ, but it seems to have been overturned, not standing: In front of us, in the doorway—we had to step over it to get into the chamber—lay the beautiful wishing cup…19 As the cup contained no precious oils, it is obvious that the robbers never intended to take the cup away—it would have been incriminating evidence, and perfectly useless to them.

Attenuated Vase Obj. no. 475; JE 62128; Exhib. no. 546. Dimensions: h. 66.2 cm; max. diam. 19.6 cm.20 Bibliography: Carter’s card; Carter-Mace, iii, p. 147, pl. lxxix [B, left]; Riesterer, Das ägyptische Museum Kairo, no. 38 (colour); Descr. sommaire [546]; Götter Pharaonen, Essen, München, Rotterdam, Hildesheim 1978-1979, no. 45 (text by D. Wildung). Photograph: pl. vi [left], and Carter’s drawing on pl. viii [upper]. Position when found: lying on the ground under a mass of miscellanea in about the centre of the antechamber. State of conservation: intact; much stained suggesting use; lip shows traces of luting. Contents: slight residue on inside of bowl.

13 Davies, El Amarna, ii, pl. 32; iii, pl. vi; an unfinished relief now in Berlin (no. 20716), H. Schäfer, Amarna in Religion und Kunst, Berlin, 1931, pl. 31; faience plaque with Tutankhamun himself, G. A. D. Tait in JEA 49 (1963), fig. 1, p. 97; Cat. Basel 2004, fig. 1 on p. 354. 14 H. E. Winlock, The Treasures of Three Egyptian Princesses, New York, 1948, pp. 61-2, pl. xxxv [B]. 15 In the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, JEA 8 (1922), pls. 1, 2 (lower).

16 Hayes, Scepter, ii, fig. 181, colour photograph in MMA Bulletin xxxi, No. 3, Spring 1973, fig. 21. 17 W. M. F. Petrie, Stone and Metal Vessels, London 1937, pl. 32, no. 818. 18 G. A. D. Tait in JEA 49 (1963), p. 96. 19 Carter-Mace, i, p. 110. T. Hoving, Tutankhamun. The Untold Story, New York, 1978, p. 103, did not challenge Carter’s statement. 20 According to Götter Pharaonen, the vase is 62 cm high, the max. diam. being 20.5 cm.

CATALOGUE

11

Description: An attenuated calcite vase inlaid with garland ornament around the neck. There are three garlands: (upper) black and white glass inlaid in a narrow chequered band, and below a garland of light blue faience lotus petals with pieces of semi-translucent calcite in between; (middle) a narrow chequered band in black and white glass and below a border of lotus petals, the petals being of limestone and the pieces in between of dark blue and green faience; (lower) a black and white glass band similar to the other two, and below a garland of lotus petals like the upper one, but in dark blue faience. For further remarks see the following vase. Attenuated Vase Obj. no. 344; JE 62129; Exhib. no. 547. Dimensions: similar to obj. no. 475 (sic Carter).21 Bibliography: Carter’s card; Carter-Mace, iii, p. 147, pl. lxxix [B, right]; Cat. USA 19611963, no. 23; Desroches Noblecourt, Toutankhamon, pl. 40A (colour); Descr. sommaire [547]; Cat. Japan 1965-1966, no. 16; Cat. USA 1976, no. 47 with colour pl. 30 [right]; Edwards, Tutankhamun, colour photograph on p. 208; Cat. USA 1976 Tutankhamun, pp. 44 (in situ) and 45; El Mallakh and Brackman, Gold, p. 324, pl. 142; Seton Williams, Tutanchamun, p. 184, fig. 133; Cat. Berlin 1980, no. 21; Reeves, Complete Tutankhamun, pp. 198f.; El-Khouli, Stone Vessels, pl. 5 [a]; Cat. Basel 2004, no. 92 (colour); Hawass, Tutankhamun, pp. 228-9 (colour); id. King Tutankhamun, p. 270 (colour); Manniche, ‘Salvekrukker’, fig. 5 (colour); Cat. USA 2018, p. 165. Photographs: pls. vi [right], vii. Position when found: lying on top of miscellania in front of the entrance to the annexe (see Carter-Mace, iii, pl. xxx [B]). State of conservation: intact; traces of luting on the lip.22 Contents: slight residue on the bottom of the bowl. Description: An attenuated calcite vase inlaid with garland ornament round the neck. The details are similar to obj. no. 475, except that in the lower garland the blue faience is not quite as equal in tone, the blue being variable. The two attenuated vases are indeed very much alike. The lower parts of the bodies do, however, show a slight difference in the curve, and the calcite is different in appearance: vase no. 475 has clear horizontal veins showing at the lower part of the body, whereas vase no. 344 shows only faint veins and the usual variable shades of yellowish white. The inlaid garlands on the two vases obviously imitate the real flower garlands decorating pottery jars, or the painted decoration on the pottery frequently found by the end of the XVIIIth dynasty. 21 Cat. Berlin 1980: h. 66.2 cm; Cat. Basel 2004: h. 65.8 cm, diam. 19 cm, diam. mouth 9.6 cm.

22 Cat. Berlin 1980: no traces of sealing but traces of use. Cat. Basel 2004: the lip shows traces of gilding.

12

CATALOGUE

Vases of this simple shape can be seen in banquet scenes in Theban tombs23 as well as among offerings to the Aten in the temples at el-Amarna.24 Unlike the following vessels the two attenuated vases may once have contained wine. Both vases show tracings of luting around the lips suggesting that they were once provided with lids.

Ewer on Stand Obj. no. 45; JE 62126; Exhib. no. 34. Dimensions: h. with lid, 29.5 cm; h. of ewer proper, 13 cm; h. of stand, 7 cm; w. and l. of stand, 11.2 cm; diam. at lip, 10 cm; l. of neck, 1.5 cm; diam. at shoulder, 12 cm; diam. at bottom, 9.2 cm. Bibliography: Carter’s cards (two by Mace, one by Lucas); Carter-Mace, i, pl. xviii [extreme right, in situ], cf. Edwards, Tutankhamun, photograph on pp. 63-4; Cat. USA 1976 Tutankhamun, pp. 4-5 [left]; Hawass, King Tutankhamun, p. 40 (colour); Manniche, ‘Salvekrukker’, fig. 4 (colour). Photographs: pl. ix. Position when found: on the lion bed, next to box obj. no. 44.25 State of conservation: break in spout. Treatment: washed with water; brown resinous material removed with acetone. Break in spout repaired with celluloid cement. Contents: nil? Description: Squat ewer with spout and lid on stand. The spout is made of a separate piece of calcite. It is 2 cm long, the oval opening being 1 × 1.5 cm. The disc-shaped lip of the vase is also in a separate piece. The inside depth of the vase is only 6.5 cm, narrowing towards the bottom. An irregular hole perforates the bottom of the jar to connect with the spout. The lid of the vase is of inverted trumpet-shape. The under projection is 2.2 cm. The stand (in a separate block) on square legs has a cornice and torus moulding. On the four sides are panels the decoration of which is duplicated at either side. Front and back panels26 have a figure of ‘Bes’27 flanked by two winged animals. In front of each

23

For example in TT 100 (N. de G. Davies, The Tomb of Rekh-mi-re at Thebes, New York, 1943, pl. lxiv [lower right]); in TT 217 (A. Mekhitarian, Egyptian Painting, Geneva, 1954, pl. on p. 146); and in TT 90 (N. de G. Davies, The Tombs of Two Officials of Tuthmosis IV, London, 1923, pl. vi). 24 Davies, El Amarna, i, pls. xii, xviii, xxviii, etc. 25 Cf. Reeves, Complete Tutankhamun, photograph on p. 81 [upper right corner].

26

The spout of the vase is about half way between the corner and the centre of what is here called the ‘front panel’. 27 The collective term ‘Bes’ is used here although this name is not attested until the 20th dynasty. In the 18th dynasty it may have been Aha. Cf. further in J. F. Romano, ‘Notes on the historiography and history of the Bes-image in ancient Egypt’, BACE 9 (1998), pp. 89-105.

CATALOGUE

13

animal is the hieroglyph sꜢ with an ꜥnḫ-sign above, the entire composition undoubtedly to be read ‘life and protection’. The two side panels have a similar ‘Bes’ figure flanked by winged sphinxes. The lid had been fastened to the ewer by a red cementing material which turned out to be beeswax. The spout was also ‘cemented up’ (sic Carter).28 Hanging round the neck of the ewer there was a strip of linen, ca. 1 cm wide. As it seemed to have had the shape of a complete circle, it may originally have been bound round the lip of the vessel.

Large Bell-Shaped Krater Obj. no. 520 (vase) and obj. no. 620-3 (lid); JE 62123; Exhib. no. 543. Dimensions: max. h. 58.5 cm, 64.5 cm (with lid?); h. of stem piece, 25 cm; max. diam. of lip, 25 cm; max. diam. of foot, 22 cm; lid diam. 21.4 cm. Bibliography: Carter’s cards (four, including drawings), card by Lucas(?); ILN, August 3, 1929, fig. p. 195 (top right); Carter-Mace, iii, p. 147, pl. lxxix [A]; Porter-Moss, i2, ii, p. 580; Descr. sommaire [543]; Beinlich-Saleh, p. 203; James, Tutankhamun. The Eternal Splendour, p. 313; Hawass, King Tutankhamun, p. 268 (colour); Manniche, ‘Salvekrukker’, fig. 14 (colour); Cat. USA 2018, p. 142. Photographs: pls. x, xi, and lid, pl. xii [upper]; Carter’s drawing, pl. viii lower], and lid, pl. xii [lower]. Position when found: the vase was found in the north-east corner of the annexe, under the foot-end of bed obj. no. 466, open and lying on side upon group of baskets obj. nos. 534, 535, and 542, and wine jars obj. nos. 500 and 541. The position of the lid is not indicated. The jar was open and lying on its side. State of conservation: the luting fixing the vase to the support became partially softened from humidity, with the result that the krater is now no longer truly upright upon its stem and foot piece. The lid was broken in several pieces; a slight projection in the centre of its external surface suggests that a handle has broken off. Contents: the residue in this vessel, covering a fairly large area on the bottom and side of the interior, though much disintegrated, was quite plastic when pressed between the fingers. A sample was taken for analysis. Description: A large bell-shaped krater supported by a cylindrical stem and foot of semi-translucent calcite. The krater (one piece) is luted to the cylindrical stem-piece (one piece) with a wax and whiting (stopping) adhesive. Under the spreading lip of the krater a floral frieze is sculpted as if embossed, and the sides are partially fluted, the vase representing a papyrus umbel tied round at the

28

Carter-Mace, ii, p. 167.

14

CATALOGUE

neck and base. Round the neck of the krater the garland ornament consists of a sculptured part with open blue lotus flowers and buds(?) partly painted in red and green, a chequered band in blue, a band of mandrake fruits decorated with green and blue paint, a narrow band with blue decoration, and a garland of lotus petals with red, blue and green decoration, all of it incised and filled with pigments (for the distribution of the colours cf. Carter’s drawing on pl. vi). Round the lower part of the bowl there is a second garland of lotus petals, incised and filled in with red and blue pigment. A panel within a rectangle, the top of which has the form of the sky, on the front of the krater, bears the protocol of the royal couple and a representation of the cobra goddess Wadjet on a papyrus flower wearing the crown of Lower Egypt (as in obj. no. 210 below), all of it incised and filled in with red, green and blue pigments. The goddess is accompanied by the words She gives life and dominion! and the royal protocol is as follows:

The perfect god, lord of the Two Lands, Nebkheprura, son of Ra, lord of crowns, Tutankhamun, ruler of Southern Heliopolis,29 given life for ever and eternity like Ra. The king’s great wife, Ankhesenamun, the beloved of the Horus lord of the palace,30 mistress of the South and the North who lives and is youthful! The inverted trumpet-shaped supporting stem and foot are quite plain. The lid of the krater is shaped like a shallow bowl with rounded base. It is engraved on the external surface with a border of garland design (lotus petals) and a chequered pattern, and in the centre there is an ornament in the form of a calyx and sepals of the mandrake fruit (sic Carter). It is all engraved and filled in with dark blue, green and red pigment.

29

The šmꜥw-sign is reversed.

30

i.e the king.

CATALOGUE

15

Unguent Vase of Situla Form Obj. no. 420; JE 62121; Exhib. no. 627. Dimensions: max. h. 25.8 cm: max. diam. 15.8 cm. Bibliography: Carter’s cards (four); ILN, August 3, 1929, fig. on p. 195 [lower right]; Carter-Mace, iii, p. 147, pl. xlix [A]; Urk. iv. 2056 (k) (text), cf. Übersetzung, p. 379; Cat. USA 1961-1963, no. 22 with pl.; Descr. sommaire [627]; Porter-Moss, i2, ii, p. 580; Leclant, Ägypten, ii, fig. 337; Beinlich-Saleh, p. 188; Hawass, King Tutankhamun, pp. 268-9 (colour); Manniche, ‘Salvekrukker’, figs. 9 and 15 (colour). Photographs: pls. xiii-xv. Position when found: lying on the floor opposite the doorway of the annexe, at apex of box no. 370. State of conservation: wing, one and a half leg and one uraeus missing from the scarab decorating the vase. Contents: robbed, but the finger marks of the hand that indubitably extracted the unguent are still visible on the internal walls of the vessel (pl. xi). The slight residue adhering to the inner walls shows that the contents must have been of the nature of a stiff ointment (of the consistency of cold-cream of today).31 Description: An ornamental vase in the form of a situla, wrought of semi-translucent calcite.32 The vase comprises an inner, thinly wrought vessel fitted into an outer and thicker envelope of open-work and made in two pieces: the upper half having an internal rim fitting onto the internal vessel, the lower portion forming the calyx-like base. The inner vessel is quite plain. The envelope is of open-work and of the following design: a) Collar round rim of garland pattern of petals, incised and the space in between filled with blue pigment. b) A broad band of open fret-work, with details incised, of the following composition: 1) a winged scarab supporting the solar disc with two uraei in its forelegs, and holding the plural strokes and the nb-basket in its posterior legs, thus forming the king’s prenomen which is flanked by two symbols (palm and tadpole) meaning ‘hundred thousand years’; 2) separated from the previous pair by a nfr, two winged cobras with their backs to an ꜥnḫ and supporting the king’s prenomen and nomen between their wings; 3) two pairs of cobras with their backs to an ꜥnḫ supporting the prenomen and nomen of the king.33 The cobras rest on nbw, the entire composition of disc + cobra + gold being perhaps a cryptogram. 31

Sic Carter’s card. For a parallel to the situla-shape of this and the following vase one may compare the calcite vase in the Petrie collection, UCL 30084: W. M. F. Petrie, Stone and Metal Vases, London, 1937, pl. xxxiii [842], cf. JEA 66 (1980), p. 138, pl. xvii [2]. It has an incised decoration of lotus petals and lotus flowers, but is not of the same perfect 32

craftsmanship as that of the vessels from the tomb of Tutankhamun. Two more situla-shaped vases with floral ornaments are in the Field Museum, Chicago, nos. 173285 and 173305. 33 Compared to the previous set, the hieroglyphs of the nomen are reversed, but when seen as arranged around the large nfr they are correct.

16

CATALOGUE

c) A band of hieroglyphic text encircling the waist, incised and filled in with blue pigment, the text beginning below the winged scarab.

The perfect god, son of Amun, lord of the Two Lands, Nebkheprura. May your ka [live?]34 for eternity and ever as ruler.35 You shall spend the lifespan of Ra; and he shall fashion you daily in his own form and shall give to you a sed-festival like Horus upon his throne. Son of Ra, Tutankhamun, ruler of Southern Heliopolis, (Ra) who gives life, endurance and dominion for ever. d) The lower portion of the envelope, i.e. the calyx-like base, takes the form of a white lotus rendered by a whorl of sepals in high relief, between which the whorl of petals forming the corolla are shown in lower relief. The lid of the vase which once sealed it has disappeared.

Vase with Flanking Ornament upon a Tazza Stand Obj. no. 435; JE 62127; Exhib. no. 548. Dimensions: max. h. 47.6 cm; max. w. 29.5 cm. Bibliography: Carter’s cards (two); Carter-Mace, iii, pl. xxxi (in situ); Descr. sommaire [548]; Manniche, ‘Salvekrukker’, fig. 16 (interior, colour). Photographs: pls. xvi, xvii, and in situ, pl. liii. Position when found: thrown on a mass of objects, in the centre of the south end of the annexe (cf. Carter-Mace, iii, pl. xxxi).36 State of conservation: broken into seven pieces scattered among the objects in the south part of the chamber and separated from its lid (see below). One small piece is missing from the stand. Contents: robbed; finger marks on inner walls of the hand that extracted the unguents. The slight residue adhering to the inner walls shows that the contents were of a soft pasty substance of the consistency of a material like cold-cream.37

34

Or better, taking kꜢ as a verb, ‘May your ka contemplate eternity for ever as ruler’. 35 The two concepts are reversed.

36

Cf. Reeves, Complete Tutankhamun, photograph on

p. 90. 37

Sic Carter’s card.

CATALOGUE

17

Description: An unguent vase in the form of a situla supported by a tall ring stand base in two separate pieces. Both are flanked by an open fret-work ornament consisting of papyrus flowers sprouting from ‘lily’38 flowers surmounted by an ꜥnḫ, having an outer margin of rnpt, all of it together symbolizing life and longevity for Upper and Lower Egypt. The details are filled in with blue pigment as is also the incised pattern around the top of the vase consisting of a chequered pattern and a garland of lotus petals. The ring stand is shaped like a stem of papyrus flanked by two plain square posts. According to Carter the lid of this was obj. no. 620-1 (see below p. 34). Vase with Flanking Ornament upon Ornamental Stand Obj. no. 58; JE 62115; Exhib. no. 9. Dimensions: max. h. 65.5 cm; h. of vase, 35.5 cm; h. of table stand, 30 cm; max. w. of vase, including ornamentation, 30.4 cm; max. dimensions of top of stand, 27.5 × 11.5 cm; max. spread of feet of stand, 22.5 × 17 cm. Bibliography: Carter’s cards (two) and one by Lucas; Carter-Mace, i, pl. xlviii, and in situ, pl. xxii, cf. also pl. xviii; Ross, The Art of Egypt, pl. 208 [middle]; Fox, Treasure, pl. 13 (in situ); Porter-Moss, i2, ii, p. 580; Descr. sommaire [9]; James, Tutankhamun. The Eternal Splendour, p. 304 (stand omitted); Cat. USA 2018, p. 102. Photographs: pls. xviii, xix, and in situ, pl. liv. Position when found: original(?), in the antechamber, to the right of the cow couch, with vases nos. 57, 60 and 61.39 State of conservation: chipped and mended anciently. One leg of stand broken and found elsewhere in the antechamber with obj. 52 (fragment 52a). Some faults filled in with calcite. Lid missing. Treatment: yellow discoloration in the form of film washed off in clean water. Contents: brown substance: fatty matter (now largely fatty acids) mixed with some other material not yet identified (similar to contents of obj. nos. 60 and 61).40 Description: Ornamental two-handled vase flanked by papyrus plants growing from ‘lily’ flowers (heraldic plants) and a margin of ‘hundred thousand years’, palm branches on tadpoles and šnw-rings. The ‘lilies’ are connected to the stem of the vase and the rnpt-elements with incorporated ‘stems’. The vase is embellished with blackened steatite(?) bosses and incised detail filled in with black pigment. The bowl of the vase has a decoration of petals in low relief. The table stand is of open trellis-work design with torus and cavetto cornice. 38

This plant of the south has not yet been identified, cf. G. Schweinfurth in L. Keimer, Die Gartenpflanzen im alten Ägypten, i, Berlin, 1924, pp. viii-ix. C. Desroches Noblecourt has argued for an identification with the Musa Ensete, ‘wild banana’, Amours et fureurs, pp. 58-61.

39

Cf. Reeves, Complete Tutankhamun, photograph and plan on p. 80. 40 Some ‘cigarette beetles’ (Lasioderma serricorne) were also present in the vase, see A. Lucas in ASAE 41 (1942), p. 143, cf. obj. no. 60.

18

CATALOGUE

The vase is cut out of one piece of stone rivetted to the stand which is also of one block of calcite. The cement of reddish colour between the vase and the stand is a mixture of whiting and resin.41 This vase is the only one among the calcite vessels which has a neutral, fluted body. This detail was a prominent feature in Syrian metal vases imported into Egypt.42 The Egyptian craftsmen perfected the translation into stone with their usual skill. Ornamental Unguent Vase upon Trellis Table Stand Obj. no. 57; JE 62116; Exhib. no. 6. Dimensions: max. h. 52.9 cm; max. w. 27.7 cm; h. of vase including lid, 36.2 cm; w. of vase, including side ornament, 27 cm; h. of table stand, 16.7 cm; w. of table stand, 27.7 cm; b. of table, 8.2 cm. Bibliography: Carter’s cards (two); ILN, February 3, 1923, fig. on p. 174; CarterMace, i, p. 115, pl. xxii (in situ), cf. also pl. xviii; Encyclopédie photographique, pl. 118; Fox, Treasure, pl. 13 (in situ); Porter-Moss, i2, ii, p. 580; Descr. sommaire [6]; James, Tutankhamun. The Eternal Splendour, p. 308. Photographs: pls. xx, xxi, and in situ, pl. liv. Position when found: probably original, in the antechamber, to the right of the cow couch, with vases nos. 58, 60 and 61. State of conservation: intact; the lid still adhered to the mouth of the vase. Treatment: washed in cold water for removing yellowish film of deposit which covered the surface. Contents: brown substance. Description: Elongated vase imitating the shape of the smꜢ-hieroglyph, with open-work floral ornament carved out of one block of calcite, cemented with a reddish coloured cement (cf. obj. no. 58) to a trellis table stand, also in open-work, and cut out of a single block of calcite. The bowl of the vase bears an inscription within a rectangle surmounted by the sky, incised and filled in with black pigment:

41

Sic Lucas’s card.

42

See above p. 3.

CATALOGUE

19

The flanking ornament of the vase comprises ‘lily’ and papyrus floral design in openwork which, together with the shape of the vase, symbolizes the unification of the Two Lands, and an additional outer margin consisting of a palm branch resting on an incised tadpole sitting on a šnw-ring, together to be read ‘hundred thousand years’. On the lower margin there is a lightly incised pattern. The ‘lily’ grows from a grid of squares and the papyrus has triangular leaves at the lower end of the stem of a papyrus plant. The trellis table stand in open-work has a torus and cavetto-shaped top. The lid which still adheres to the mouth of the vase appears to be disc-shaped, the sealing being secured by means of cloth. Ornamental Unguent Vase upon Ornamental Stand Obj. no. 61; JE 62117; Exhib. no. 8. Dimensions: max. h. 61 cm; max. w. 25.5 cm; h. of vase, 36.5 cm; h. of stand, 24.5 cm. Bibliography: Carter’s cards (two) and card by Lucas; Carter-Mace, i, p. 115, pl. xlvii and pl. xxii (in situ), cf. also pl. xviii; Fox, Treasure pl. 13 (in situ); Porter-Moss, i2, ii, p. 580; Descr. sommaire [8]; James, Tutankhamun, The Eternal Splendour, p. 309 (stand omitted). Photographs: pl. xx, and in situ, pl. liv. Position when found: as obj. nos. 57, 58 and 60. State of conservation: lid missing; repaired anciently. Treatment: washed in cold water to remove a film-like deposit of yellowish tinge. Contents: dark brown substance identified as fatty matter (now largely fatty acids) mixed with some other material not yet identified, similar to contents of obj. nos. 58 and 60. Description: Elongated vase in the shape of the smꜢ-hieroglyph, with open-work floral ornament similar to that of obj. no. 57, except that the design is reversed and more detailed. The vase is cut out of one piece of calcite and cemented to the stand with reddish cement (cf. obj. no. 58). Upon the bowl of the vase there is an inscription inside a rectangle surmounted by the sky, incised and filled in with black pigment, the cartouches being surmounted by double plumes and sun disc:

20

CATALOGUE

The incised pattern on the lower margin is on this vase filled in with green pigment. The ornamental stand is also cut out of one block of calcite. It is of the tall ring stand type, having in open-work at the sides papyrus columns connected to the central ring stand by tendrils of scroll form, adapting the form of the ‘lily’ so that this becomes the other heraldic plant. They have incised central lines filled in with dark green pigment.

Ornamental Unguent Vase upon Ornamental Stand Obj. no. 60; JE 62118; Exhib. no. 7. Dimensions: max. h. 50.2 cm; max. w. 32 cm; h. of vase, 31 cm; h. of stand, 19.2 cm.43 Bibliography: Carter’s cards (two) and card by Lucas; Carter-Mace, i, pl. xxii (in situ), cf. also pl. xvii; Fox, Treasure, pl. 13 (in situ); Porter-Moss, i2, ii, p. 580; Descr. sommaire [7]; Cat. Paris 1967, no. 36, pp. 166-9; Cat. London 1972, no. 3; Carter, The Tomb of Tutankhamen (abbreviated 1972 ed.), pl. facing p. 193 (colour, reversed); Cat. USSR 1973, no. 40 with colour pl.; Cat. USA 1976, no. 10 with colour pl. 5; T. Hoving, Tutankhamun. The Untold Story, New York, 1978, colour photograph on 15th pl. [lower right]; Edwards, Tutankhamun, colour photograph on p. 29; Silverman, 50 Wonders, pp. 54-5; id. Masterpieces, pp. 78-9 with colour pl.; Cat. Berlin 1980, no. 34; James, Tutankhamun. The Eternal Splendour, p. 311; Manniche, ‘Salvekrukker’, fig. 8 (detail with breast, colour). Photographs: pls. xx, xxii, and in situ, pl. liv. Position when found: original(?), with obj. nos 57, 58 and 61.44 State of conservation: lid missing (was cemented to the lip). Treatment: washed in cold water to remove yellowish film covering surface deposited upon from natural results (sic Carter). Contents: blackish and friable substance identified as fatty matter (now largely fatty acids) mixed with some other material not yet identified (similar to contents of obj. nos. 58 and 61).45 Description: Elongated ornamental vase, its shape reminiscent of the smꜢ-hieroglyph, with open-work floral ornament basically similar to objects nos. 57 and 61 (papyrus right, ‘lily’ left), but the decoration from which the plants grow is different in that at the base the triangular leaves of the papyrus spread to the area below the ‘lily’. The vase is cut out of one block of calcite and cemented to the stand with a reddish coloured cement (cf. obj. no. 58). Around the shoulder of the vase a collar of floral petals is incised and 43 Cat. Paris 1967 has h. 51 cm, w. 32.5 cm, b. 13.6 cm. Cat. London 1972 has h. 50 cm, w. 32 cm. 44 Cf. Reeves, Complete Tutankhamun, photograph and plan on p. 80.

45 Including also cigarette beetles as obj. no. 58, cf. A. Lucas in ASAE 41 (1942), p. 143.

CATALOGUE

21

filled in with black pigment. Upon the neck of the vase there is a Hathor head in relief with a collarette and a pendant of lotus flower and buds, incised and filled in with black pigment. On the bowl there are two projecting breasts pertaining to the goddess above. Below, in a rectangle surmounted by the sky, is the protocol of the king.46

On the base of the vase there is the upper part of a lotus calyx pattern incised and filled in with black pigment. The flanking ornament is similar to that of vase no. 57, but compared with vase no. 61 it is reversed when seen from the front (the inscribed side). The ornamental tall ring stand is cut out of one block of calcite and is flanked with ꜥnḫ with human ‘arms’ holding wꜢs in open-work. The lid, now missing, was cemented to the lip of the vase with resin. Hathor heads are not uncommon as decoration on late XVIIIth dynasty pottery, and pottery vases incorporating breasts are known from the predynastic period.47 They suggest that the head of the goddess is not only a decorative element, but that the idea is to represent a ‘goddess receptacle’. One of the epithets of Hathor was ‘mistress of Punt’, ‘Punt’ being almost synonymous with ‘unguent’. Sculptural decoration on Egyptian vessels usually has to do with the intended contents. Along with the two previous ones, this vase has little of the funerary about it,48 but there may yet be an allusion to the idea that in offerings unguent stands for the eye of Horus. As ‘house of Horus’, Hathor shields the eye of Horus in her body.

Composite Unguent Vase Obj. no. 360; JE 62113; Exhib. no. 748. Dimensions: max. h. 68.3 cm; l. of stand, 31 cm; w. of stand, 16 cm. Bibliography: Carter’s cards (two); Porter-Moss, i2, ii, p. 580; Descr. sommaire [748]; James, Tutankhamun. The Eternal Splendour, p. 305 (back of figure clipped); Baines, Fecundity Figures, pp. 226-8; Manniche, ‘Salvekrukker’, fig. 10 (in situ, from Burton).49 46 The signs for t and šmꜥ are missing, and those for ruler and Heliopolis are in incorrect order. Also it has nb tꜢwy instead of nṯr nfr. 47 Cf. Egypt’s Golden Age: The Art of Living in the New Kingdom 1558-1085 B.C., Museum of Fine Arts, Boston 1982, pp. 86-7.

48 Cf. below pp. 38-40. The lotus may be seen as a reference to the pudenda of the goddess, cf. Desroches Noblecourt in Cat. Paris 1967, pp. 166-7. 49 A publication of this object by Christine DuMars is in progress.

22

CATALOGUE

Photographs: pls. xxiii, xxiv. Position when found: broken and thrown onto objects against the east wall towards the right hand door jamb of the annexe. State of conservation: broken intentionally into twenty pieces. Three holes drilled and filled in on the trellis stand suggest that some kind of ornament or vessel other than Hapy was originally intended. The beard of the Hapy figure is missing. Treatment: the twenty pieces have now been assembled. Contents of Hapy vase: robbed; there were traces of residue on the bottom. The contents of the second vase had been robbed from the bottom which had been wrenched off, leaving the stopper intact. Description: Two ornamental vessels upon a plain trellis-work stand, wrought in semitranslucent calcite in three separate pieces. The first vessel takes the shape of the epicene divinity Hapy surmounted by a lotus chalice. The eyes and eyebrows are inlaid white, blue and black glass, and the details of the figure are filled in with blue pigment. In his two hands the god holds the second vessel, a vase of smꜢ-form with flanking ornament consisting of ‘lily’ and papyrus flowers tied in a knot, all of it symbolizing the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt. On the bowl of the vase are the prenomen and nomen of the king, incised and filled in with blue pigment. The incised leaf decoration on the lower margin is also touched up with blue. There are traces of linen binding on the lid and neck of the second vase.

Composite Vase upon Ornamental Stand Obj. no. 210; JE 62114: Exhib. no. 185. Dimensions: max. h. 70.2 cm50; max. w. 31 cm; max. l. 18.5 cm; h. of vase to lip, 32.7 cm; h. of pedestal, 27 cm. Bibliography: Carter’s cards (three) and a paper by Newberry; ILN, June 27, 1925, pp. 1298-9, with figs.; Carter-Mace, ii, p. 34, pls. xlviii, xlix; J. Leibovitch, Ancient Egypt, Cairo, 1938, fig. 108; Täckholm, Faraos blomster, fig. p. 171; Porter-Moss, i2, ii, p. 580; Descr. sommaire [185]; Noack, Tut Ench Amun, pl. 51 (colour, without stand); Riesterer, Das ägyptische Museum Kairo, no. 36 (colour); Vandersleyen, Das alte Ägypten, fig. 371; Edwards, Tutankhamun, colour photographs on pp. 98-9 (front and back); El Mallakh and Brackman, Gold, pp. 323-4, pl. 140; Seton-Williams, Tutanchamun,

50

Leclant, Ägypten: h. 75 cm; Egyptian Museum: h. 70 cm, w. 36.8 cm.

CATALOGUE

23

p. 193, fig. 139; Leclant, Ägypten, ii, fig. 246; M. Saleh and H. Sourouzian, Official Catalogue. The Egyptian Museum Cairo, Mainz, 1987, no. 189; James, Tutankhamun. The Eternal Splendour, p. 306; Egyptian Museum, p. 287 (colour); Baines, Fecundity Figures, pp. 226-8; Manniche, ‘Salvekrukker’, fig. 3 (colour). Photographs: pls. xxv-xxvii, and in situ, pl. lv. Position when found: original—standing within the great outer shrine (obj. no. 207) before the north folding door of the second shrine (obj. no. 237).51 State of conservation: neck of vase badly broken, and the flanking ornamentation distorted from intumescence of the contents. Treatment: cleaned with warm water, ammonia, soap and alcohol, and finished with small quantity of paraffin. The contents dissolved with acetone and warm water applied alternately. Where necessary, parts were mended with glue and paraffin wax applied. Contents: aromatic gum-resin and fatty matter(?). Description: The vase itself has a long, slender neck and wide spreading lips adopting the shape of the smꜢ-hieroglyph, surmounted by a vulture with open wings.52 It is flanked by ‘lily’ and papyrus flowers with gold foil decoration tied into a knot, symbolizing the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt. Beside this ornament there are two Hapy figures carrying on their heads coloured ivory clumps of papyrus (left) and ‘lily’ (right) plants. The details of the figures are in dark blue paint, their ‘aprons’ of ivory. They embrace papyrus and ‘lily’ standards whose calices are wrought of serpentine. Two cobras of sheet gold with inlays and wearing the red and white crowns respectively wind their tails around the standards. The flanking ornament has thin gold foil calix decoration. On the front of the neck there is the following inscription: The perfect god, lord of the Two Lands, Nebkheprura. The South and the North are joined for you under your sandals, and you shall be on the throne of Horus, like Ra, for ever. On the body of the vase a square frame, the upper margin of which is the hieroglyph of the sky, contains the protocol of the king and queen and, to the left in the frame, next to the Lower Egyptian flanking ornament, the cobra goddess Wadjet with the crown of Lower Egypt.

51

Cf. Reeves, Complete Tutankhamun, plan on p. 85. The form of the vulture, blank on the inside (front face), suggests that originally it shielded a figure of the 52

king or similar, cf. Baines, Fecundity Figures, pp. 226-7 and 353-4.

24

CATALOGUE

Attached to her is a wꜢs-sceptre, and it is she who gives life and dominion to the royal couple (cf. obj. no. 520):

Wadjet. She may give life and dominion. The perfect god, lord of the Two Lands, Nebkheprura, son of Ra, lord of crowns, Tutankhamun, ruler of Southern Heliopolis,53 given life for ever and eternity like Ra. The king’s great wife, Ankhesenamun, who lives and is youthful. The trellis open-work pedestal of cavetto and torus moulding rests upon four legs of rectangular shape shod with copper. On its front and back, between the frieze and the rail, is an open fret-work device: the cartouches of the king (front: prenomen, back: nomen) flanked by solar hawks upon nbw-gold, supporting wꜢs-sceptres. The details are painted in dark blue paint. At the sides, the cartouches with solar disc on nbw-gold with the prenomen (right) and nomen (left) of the king are supported by winged uraei on nbwgold with wꜢs signs. The uraeus on the right, ‘the Upper Egyptian’ side (as you look at it), has the red crown and papyrus symbol, that on the left, ‘the Lower Egyptian’ side, wears the white crown and the ‘lily’. The small stopper

the following pattern:

53

was bound onto the lip of the vase with linen bands in

.54

The šmꜥ-sign is reversed. If the present stopper is the original one, a figure of the king (or similar) would have never been in place. If it is 54

not, it suggests that the robbers reached this vessel after all (observation by J. R. Harris).

CATALOGUE

25

Lion-Shaped Vessel Obj. no. 579; JE 62124; Exhib. no. 544. Dimensions: max. h. 60 cm; max. base measurements, 16.5 × 12 cm; diam. at top, 9 cm; l. of separate neck piece, 11.5 cm.55 Bibliography: cards by Carter and Mace (four plus one paper); ILN, August 3, 1929, figs. on pp. 193-4; Carter-Mace, iii, pp. 144, 146-7, pl. xlviii; B. de Rachewiltz, Incontro con l’arte egiziana, Milano, 1958, pl. 78; Riesterer, Das ägyptische Museum Kairo, pl. 35 (colour); Descr. sommaire [544]; Porter-Moss, i2, ii, p. 580; Cat. Paris 1967, no. 35; Cat. London 1972, no. 4; Cat. USSR 1973, no. 42; Cat. USA 1976, no. 53, colour pl. 28; Cat. USA 1976 Tutankhamun, pp. 42-3; Edwards, Tutankhamun, colour photograph on p. 217, detail on p. 216; Silverman, 50 Wonders, pp. 52-3 (reversed); Silverman, Masterpieces, pp. 80-1 with colour pl.; El Mallakh and Brackman, Gold, p. 324, pl. 143; SetonWilliams, Tutanchamun, p. 188, fig. 138; Cat. Berlin 1980, no. 5; A. Gros de Beler, Tutankhamun, Paris, 1999, colour pl. p. 11; James, Tutankhamun. The Eternal Splendour, p. 315, cf. p. 314; Hawass, King Tutankhamun, p. 272 (colour); Manniche, ‘Salvekrukker’, fig. 12 (colour). Photographs: pls. xxviii-xxxi, and in situ, pl. liii. Position when found: standing on the floor in the south-west corner of the annexe, under a number of objects.56 The modius was found separate from the vase, lying on the ground not far away (cf. Carter-Mace, iii, pl. xxxi). State of preservation: found in bad condition, much discoloured and with pieces partly unstuck from humidity. Claws (of ivory?) and earrings missing. Treatment: the pieces were taken apart, cleaned and remounted. Contents: full of a dried blackened(?) fatty substance, probably originally of semi-liquid or liquid nature. Description: Vessel in the shape of a standing lion upon a trellis-work pedestal. The lion stands on its hind legs, right foot forward, having its right arm raised and the left arm resting on the sꜢ-symbol of protection. It has a long tail annulated at the bulbous end which is coloured dark blue. The sculptor has selected the naked-shoulder lion type; the mane around the head and throat has been conventionally treated by small curls which give a sculpturesque effect and exhibit the powerful muscles of the bare shoulders. The mouth is wide open and has a long downward protruding tongue of ivory stained red, and back and front teeth, also of ivory. The eyes are gilt. The ears are pierced for earrings now missing. The nose and the pisiform pad on the forepaws are coloured blue. The claws of ivory(?) are missing. The hair tufts at the back of the

55

Cat. Berlin 1980 adds: width, 19.8 cm, depth, 16.8 cm.

56

p. 90.

Cf. Reeves, Complete Tutankhamun, photograph on

26

CATALOGUE

shoulders are engraved and filled in with blue pigment. The ribs are marked in the modelling of the back. A rectangular frame on the chest contains the protocol of the king and queen filled with a dark blue pigment:57

A neck piece is fitted into the crown of the head of the lion. It resembles somewhat a modius and bears floral decoration (lotus(?) sepals separating a design composed of ‘lily’, papyrus and a rosette). A lid bound with linen (white linen cover bound with brown linen strips) is still attached to it. The floral decoration consisting of stylized papyrus and ‘lily’ surmounted by rosettes and separated by leaves is enhanced by a dark blue background. Below there is a chequered band in blue and red (see Carter’s drawing on pl. xix). The animal vase stands on a trellis-work support resembling a small table. It has a border at the top including a row of mandrake fruits, a band of lotus petals, both with details in green on a background of green, red and blue, and a chequered band engraved and filled in with red and blue pigment. The head and body are hollow and act as the vessel. Head, body and hind limbs, the crown, the two forelimbs, the tail, the sꜢ-symbol and the stand are made of separate pieces of semi-translucent calcite, dowelled and luted together with a wax and whiting stopping. It would appear that during the pilfering of the contents of the various vessels in the annexe, the thieves wrenched off the neck-piece which was fitted and luted into the top of the head of the lion, instead of removing the lid covering the mouth. As the neck piece was fitted several centimeters into the head of the lion and the vessel found in an upright position, it could not have fallen off by itself, unless gases formed by the contents caused it to blow off, which is unlikely. However, the contents of the vessel—some kind of fatty material—are still intact, and there were no traces of the substance ever having been interfered with. Apart from being strongly connected with royalty, the lion possessed apotropaic qualities and as such adorned objects of daily use.58

57 The queen’s title is written with the wr omitted and an extra t. The šmꜥ-sign is reversed. 58 U. [Rössler-]Kö[hler] in Lexikon der Ägyptologie (ed. W. Helck and W. Westendorf), iii, Wiesbaden, 1980,

cols. 1080-90, especially cols. 1086-7. Cf. the following item, obj. no. 211, as well as the lion couch, obj. no. 35, and the throne, obj. no. 91.

CATALOGUE

27

Cosmetic Jar Obj. no. 211; JE 62119; Exhib. no. 183. Dimensions: max. h. 26.8 cm; h. of jar from ground, 17.7 cm; diam. of jar, 12 cm.59 Bibliography: Carter’s cards (two); ILN, June 27, 1925, fig. on p. 1289; Carter-Mace, ii, pp. 34, 35, 206-10, pls. l, li; Ross, The Art of Egypt, p. 209; Fox, Treasure, pl. 22; Täckholm, Faraos blomster, pl. on p. 233; Desroches Noblecourt, Toutankhamon, pl. 43 (colour), fig. 35 (in situ); Riesterer, Das ägyptische Museum Kairo, no. 39 (colour); Descr. sommaire [183]; Porter-Moss, i2, ii, p. 580; Noack, Tut Ench Amun, figs. 49, 50 (colour); Carter, The Tomb of Tutankhamen (abbreviated 1972 ed.), pl. facing p. 128 (colour); Cat. USA 1976, no. 16, colour pl. 10; Cat. USA 1976 Tutankhamun, p. 19; T. Hoving, Tutankhamun. The Untold Story, New York, 1978, colour photograph on 22nd pl. [upper right]; Edwards, Tutankhamun, colour photograph on p. 95, detail on pp. 96-7; H. Stierlin, The World of the Pharaohs, New York, 1978, p. 40; Silverman, Masterpieces, pp. 82-3 with colour pl.; El Mallakh and Brackman, Gold, p. 324, pl. 141; Seton-Williams, Tutanchamun, p. 188, fig. 137; Leclant, Ägypten, ii, fig. 253 (colour); Cat. Berlin 1980, no. 49; Reeves, Complete Tutankhamun, pp. 198f.; Beinlich-Saleh, p. 65; James, Tutankhamun. The Eternal Splendour, pp. 314-15; Cat. Basel 2004, no. 94 (3 colour pls.); Hawass, Tutankhamun, pp. 240-1; id. King Tutankhamun, pp. 78-9 (colour); Cat. USA 2018, p. 171. Photographs: pls. xxxii-xxxviii, drawing on pl. xxxiii, and in situ, pl. lv. Position when found: original(?). Just within the folding doors of the great outer shrine and resting upon the ground. The recumbent lion faced the door.60 State of conservation: one earring upon ‘negro’ head missing. Treatment: the jar was cleaned with warm water and benzene, and waxed. Contents: brown fatty substance (now removed) which was still plastic.61 Description: Cylindrical-shaped jar of calcite of various qualities. The jar is flanked by lotus columns (approximating the shape of a blue lotus flower) which support heads of the god ‘Bes’ with long protruding ivory tongue stained red. The calcite lid of the jar, circular in shape with projections for hinge and fastening, has upon it a recumbent lion, modelled in the round, with forepaws crossed and long protruding tongue of ivory stained red. The eyes are gilt with details painted black. The eyebrows, claws, the end of the tail and the cartouche of the king, preceded by ‘perfect god’, upon the body are painted with dark green paint.

59

Cat. Basel 2004: max. h. 26.7 cm; max. w. 22 cm. Cf. Reeves, Complete Tutankhamun, plan on p. 85. 61 1 lb of organic matter, smelling like coconut. It consisted of about 80% animal fat, with about 10% of some resin 60

or balsam (A. Scott in Carter-Mace, ii, pp. 206-10, quoting results obtained by A. C. Chapman and H. J. Plenderleith; cf. also Lucas-Harris, p. 327, and for the coconut smell of oil ibid. pp. 328-9).

28

CATALOGUE

The exterior surface of the cylindrical jar has decoration lightly incised and filled in with pigment—red, green and dark blue. The ornament comprises two hunting scenes between a garland ornament of lotus petals and wavy lines on top and a ‘palace façade’ panel border at the bottom. Front scene: a lion attacking a bull and two hounds attacking an ibex, with desert flora in the field (dark blue). Back scene: a lion attacking a bull, a hound chasing a gazelle, a gazelle recumbent, a desert hare, and desert flora in the field (dark blue) (cf. drawing on pl. xxii).62 The jar rests upon two rectangular cross-bars of calcite, acting as a kind of pedestal. The four ends of these bars terminate in heads of captives, carved out of black and red stone. The heads back and front represent African negroes (sic Carter) and have small ivory earrings; the heads of the transverse bar carved of red stone represent northerners of Mediterranean type, with their beards detailed in black. The knobs of the jar are of ivory stained red; they were intended to ease turning the lid. The bands upon the drums of the lotus columns are of gold. The columns are inscribed with the royal protocol to be read as one.63

Around the jar there were thin bands of linen. These bands are not visible on photographs of the jar in situ. They may have been removed by Carter when he first entered the tomb chamber. The lion on the lid has been compared with the much larger lions of Amenophis III at Soleb (now in the British Museum), one of which was later inscribed with the name of Tutankhamun.64 The royal character of the lion is well established.

62

Cf. Å. Strandberg, The Gazelle in Ancient Egypt. Image and Meaning, Uppsala, 2009, pp. 68-9 (PhD dissertation, also available online).

63

The signs dỉ ꜥnḫ mỉ rꜥ are distributed incorrectly. The šmꜥ-sign is reversed. 64 Edwards in Cat. USA 1976, p. 124.

CATALOGUE

29

Vase in the Form of an ‘Ibex’ Obj. no. 584; JE 62122; Exhib. no. 545, horn no. 44. Dimensions: max. l. 38.5 cm; w. 18.5 cm (i.e. pedestal); h. to top of head (including pedestal), 27.5 cm. Bibliography: Carter’s card (one); ILN, August 3, 1929, fig. on p. 196; Carter-Mace, iii, p. 147, pl. xlix [B]; ASAE, Supplement, Cahier no. 5, 1947, fig. 13, p. 18; Fox, Treasure, pl. 69; Desroches Noblecourt, Toutankhamon, pl. 44 (colour detail); Riesterer, Das ägyptische Museum Kairo, no. 37 (colour); Descr. sommaire [545]; Porter-Moss, i2, ii, p. 580; Cat. USA 1976, no. 54, with colour pl. 32; Silverman, Masterpieces, pp. 84-5 with colour pl.; Edwards, Tutankhamun, p. 218, colour photograph on p. 219; Cat. Berlin 1980, no. 37; Quaegebeur, La naine et le bouquetin, pp. 120-1, fig. 21 (colour); James, Tutankhamun. The Eternal Splendour, p. 314; Egyptian Museum, p. 289 (colour). Photographs: pls. xxxix, xl. Position when found: resting on the floor, in the south-west corner of the annexe, behind bow-box obj. no. 370.65 State of conservation: the vase has suffered much through usage. The horns were broken off (see below). The beard of the animal was broken off and is lost, and the mouth of the vase which was fixed into the back of the animal is missing altogether.66 Treatment: not known. Contents: not known. Description: An unguent vase of calcite in the form of a horned animal at rest. The animal, generally described as being an ibex, has been suggested by Reed and Osborne to be a composite of an ibex (Capra ibex nubiana) and a gazelle (probably Gazella dorcas). It has the dorsal midline of the back and body of a Nubian ibex and was originally equipped with a beard, while the gazelle characteristics are the facial markings of a dorcas gazelle and the dark knee spot. For the horn, see below. The animal is made in one piece, the tail and ears being separate, as was the vase. The eyes of the animal are inlaid, the eyelids being of bronze or copper, the iris in brown paint and the pupil painted black.67 The tongue is of ivory stained red. The details, i.e. the markings and the hooves and knees, are indicated with dark blue pigment, as is also the prenomen of the king, surmounted by the sun disc and double plumes, on the left shoulder. A dark blue line runs from the base of the tail as far as the mane.

65

Cf. Reeves, Complete Tutankhamun, photograph on

p. 90. 66

See, however, below.

67

Lucas-Harris, pp. 124-5. Carter’s card says ‘inlaid with bronze and glass’.

30

CATALOGUE

At the time of the discovery the horns were missing, but they were probably similar to those of the heads upon a boat, obj. no. 578. A separate horn, obj. no. 92e68 (pl. li [right]), was found in the tomb and on photographs taken after 1947 is shown fitted onto the head of the animal, as it is now exhibited. Its maximum length is 14 cm, width 10.5 cm, thickness at the base 1.9 cm. The base of the horn is cut away to a peg point at the distance of up of 2.8 cm. Traces of reddish glue adhere to the peg, showing that it was fixed to some object (information on a separate card by Carter). Until the examination by Reed and Osborn69 it was believed that the horn was a genuine horn taken from an animal. It now appears that it is made of wood, probably acacia, carved by a human hand. The shape is neither that of a horn of a gazelle nor that of an ibex, but a composite of both as imagined by the artist. The horn is damaged, particularly on its ‘outer’ side. Reed and Osborn suggest that termites were responsible for the damage, assuming that the horn had been lying on the floor with the ‘outer’ side down. However, it was found in a box along with other objects, and termites are not reported from the tomb. When seen by the present author in the Cairo Museum in 1975, fragments of a cylindrical piece of wood(?) were left in the opening on the back of the vase.70 Edwards71 mentions the possibility of a funnel covered with a stone cap, but he ignores the fragments left in the orifice. Were they removed before the London exhibition? Vessels in the shape of an ‘ibex’ or gazelle are known from representations and examples made of other materials.72 Set Piece with Boat on Pedestal Obj. no. 578; JE 62120; Exhib. no. 535. Dimensions: max. l. of boat, 58.3 cm; max. h. (including pavilion), 37 cm: max. w. of beam, 14 cm; max. l. of pedestal (i.e. cornice), 48.5 cm; max. h. 30 cm, max. w. (i.e. cornice), 26.5 cm; max. h. (including pedestal to top of pavilion), 66.8 cm.73 Bibliography: Carter’s cards (three plus five with annotated drawings) (cf. pls. xxx, xxxi); Carter-Mace, iii, pls. xli, lxxiv, pp. 127-30; ILN, July 6, 1929, figs. on pp. 12-13; 68 The horn never had a JE no., but its exhibition no. is 144. 69 C. A. Reed and D. J. Osborn, ‘Taxonomic Transgressions in Tutankhamun’s Treasures’, AJA 82 (1978), pp. 276-80; id. ‘Corrections in the identifications of the alabaster ibexes in Tutankhamun’s treasures’, JEA 73 (1987), pp. 243-4 and pl. xix. 70 This fragment is visible in Desroches Noblecourt, Toutankhamon (1963), pl. xliv, as well as in the German exhibition catalogue (1980), but had apparently been removed when the vase was photographed for the USA catalogue (1976-8). It is not mentioned on Carter’s cards, nor is it visible on Burton’s photographs. It seems, however, to be present in Riesterer (1965).

71

loc. cit. N. de G. Davies, The Tomb of Ken-amūn at Thebes, New York, 1930, i, pl. xx (gift no. 75); cf. also ibid. gift no. 74: gazelle with a lotus flower in its mouth as a spout(?), and pl. xvii (gift no. 48): ‘silver or ivory oryx’. A pottery ibex or goat vase is in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford: JEA 12 (1926), p. 66, n. 1. Wooden containers in the shape of a recumbent gazelle are in the Louvre N 1741 and N 1761: J. Vandier d’Abbadie, Catalogue des objets de toilette égyptiens, Paris, 1972, p. 45. 73 However, Quaegebeur, La naine et le bouquetin, n. 2 observed that the length of the object clearly exceeds its height. 72

CATALOGUE

31

Ross, The Art of Egypt, fig. on p. 210; ASAE, Supplement, Cahier no. 5, 1947, fig. 9, pp. 11-14 [8]; E. Drioton, Le Museé égyptien, Cairo, 1939, pl. xv; Fox, Treasure, pls. 71-2; Täckholm, Faraos blomster, pl. facing p. 128; Egypt Travel Magazine, Special Issue 1954, fig. on p. 43 [lower left]; W. Wolf, Die Welt der Ägypter, Berlin, 1958, pl. 82; Descr. sommaire [535]; Porter-Moss, i2, ii, p. 585; Desroches Noblecourt, Toutankhamon, fig. 184, p. 283, pl. xxiv (colour); Riesterer, Das ägyptische Museum Kairo, no. 32 (colour); Noack, Tut Ench Amun, pls. 47-8 (colour); J. Yoyotte, Treasures of the Pharaohs, Genève, 1968, colour pl. 126;74 H. Carter, The Tomb of Tutankhamen (abbreviated 1972 ed.), pl. facing p. 208 (better print of this colour photograph in I. and L. Swinburne, Behind the Sealed Door, New York, 1977, p. 87); Edwards, Tutankhamun, pp. 222-3 (one in colour); H. Stierlin, The World of the Pharaohs, New York, 1978, p. 52 (colour); Silverman, Masterpieces, pp. 86-7 with colour pl.; El Mallakh and Brackman, Gold, p. 323, fig. 138 (colour); Seton-Williams, Tutanchamun, p. 188, fig. 136; Quaegebeur, La naine et le bouquetin, passim; Egyptian Museum, p. 288 (colour); James, Tutankhamun. The Eternal Splendour, p. 312; A. Gros de Beler, Tutankhamun, Paris, 1999, colour pl. on p. 111; Hawass, King Tutankhamun, p. 273 (colour). Photographs: pls. xli-xlvii, and Carter’s drawings, pls. xlviii, xlix, and in situ, pl. liii. Position when found: resting on the floor in the southwest corner of the annexe, cf. Carter-Mace, iii, pl. xxxi.75 State of conservation: top of roof cracked, earrings of animals, the horn of the animal at stern and the object in the right hand of the princess missing. Treatment: not known. Description: An ornamental boat upon a pylon-shaped pedestal, carved of semitranslucent calcite, engraved and decorated with thin gold, faience, and dark green, red and dark blue pigments.76 It represents a carvel-built boat with round bottom, the prow and the stern rising in a curved line and terminating with head and neck of ibexes having inlaid floral collars of gold, calcite and blue and green faience. The beards of the animals are of dark grey hard stone, and the horns are ‘carved out of horn’. The ears, in separate pieces of calcite, are pierced to receive earrings (now missing except for one pomegranate-shaped earring belonging to the animal at the stern). The facial markings and those on the ears and neck are painted in dark blue pigment. The eyes of the animals are inlaid: the eyelids being bronze or copper, the eyeball crystal, the iris and pupil probably pigment.77

74

Several details, properly red, in this otherwise excellent photograph, have wrongly been touched up with gold. 75 Cf. Reeves, Complete Tutankhamun, photograph on p. 90. 76 It is impossible to tell exactly how the boat is fixed to the plinth without dismantling it. But clearly there is a hole, probably circular, cut in the top of the plinth, and

there seems to be a corresponding ‘tang’ fixed to the bottom of the boat. The tang may be of metal (observations due to G. T. Martin). 77 Cf. a slightly later head, made of bronze, used to decorate a larger boat(?), in Berlin 1104, with a similar ‘rooting’ of the horns, K. H. Priese (ed.), Ägyptisches Museum, Mainz, 1991, no. 142, pp. 324-5.

32

CATALOGUE

The bulwarks (0.3 cm high) show a main deck 38 cm long with amidships a tall pavilion (hollow inside). Four floral columns support the shrine-shaped roof with an architrave, a torus moulding and a cavetto cornice. On the four sides screen-walls, cornice capped, rise nearly half way up the columns.78 They show no doorway, and thus no means of ingress to the pavilion. They are decorated with floral ornamentation and dado. The decoration of the cornice is in red/blue/green/blue, etc. The chequered band below is in blue/red/blue alternating with white. The calcite colour of the lotus petal border contrasts with a blue background, the bases of the petals having alternating dots of two blue/two red. The ‘lilies’ on the left and half way round the front and back sides have alternating red and blue stems, the flowers having red tips and blue petals. The remaining half of the front and back, as well as the right side, have a corresponding pattern of papyrus flowers. The capitals of the columns, growing from bases painted green, are in separate pieces attached to the stems of the columns and the roof with wooden pegs. The capitals are composed of heads of lotus with petals stained red, and of green sepals with a garland of lotus petals on dark blue below a collar of sheet gold. Above, separated from the lotus capital by another golden and blue collar, is a capital formed of an open papyrus flower. Between the capitals and the roof is a square piece made of a blue-black hard stone. The top of the roof is luted to the entablature (carved out of one piece and decorated with horizontal lines originally blue, but now dark green from wax(?) vehicle) with wax and whiting. The sides of the boat are decorated from the prow to the stern with a chequered pattern and a garland of lotus petals on blue background. Round the stern and the prow is a collar inlaid with faience and gold as follows: a chequered pattern of dark blue and green faience, gold, and calcite in its natural state; a border of calcite petals with gold bases on a background of dark blue faience; a border of flowers of calcite and buds of green faience, all flowers and buds having gold tips. On the forepart of the main deck, and facing forward, squats a figure of a nude girl, in calcite with a wig of dark grey-green hard stone, gold earrings, armlets of thin sheet gold and dark blue pigment, and a bead bracelet on each wrist. In her left hand she holds a lotus flower of stained ivory. The object in her right hand is missing. On the aft part of the main deck there is a standing figurine, turning sideways, of a nude girl dwarf of calcite, holding in both hands a punting pole made of stained ivory (now missing?). Her wig with large side-lock is of dark grey-green hard stone, and the pubic triangle is marked in dark green. The dwarf wears similar gilt and painted armlets and a bead bracelet on each wrist. The pedestal stands on four short cylindrical legs. It has torus moulding and cavetto cornice and is hollowed out like a pond. In the centre is a small island-like plinth to support the boat. The boat was probably fixed to the plinth by a tang inserted into a hole cut in the top of the plinth, but without dismantling it, it is impossible to tell the exact nature of the method used. The plinth is decorated all the way round with a frieze

78

Strangely reminiscent of the screen wall in Ptolemaic temples.

CATALOGUE

33

of papyrus flowers and buds similar to those adorning the pavilion. The two outer sides and the back79 of the pedestal are decorated with a chequer and garland pattern as follows: a chequered band consisting of three lines of green, red and blue squares; a frieze of mandrake fruits in the colour of calcite with green sepals on a blue background; lotus petals with red markings at the base on a background of dark green, red and dark blue horizontal bars; blue squares; a border of alternating cornflowers (blue petals and green sepals) and poppy buds (red); blue squares; lotus petals on blue. The upper surface of the pedestal has a garland of lotus petals and one line of squares. The front of the pedestal has, below the frieze of mandrake fruits and above the lower garland of lotus petals, a square frame surmounted by the sky with the prenomen and nomen of the king80 and the name of the queen, surmounted by discs and double plumes (pl. xxxi). They are flanked by the cobra goddesses Wadjet and Neith with wꜢsscepters and šnw-rings, both of them with the legend dỉ.s ꜥnḫ wꜢs, ‘she gives life and dominion’. Compared with similar panels on the other calcite vessels81, the design on this one is filled in with pigments of several colours corresponding to those used for the decoration of the set piece as a whole. The cobra goddesses, the cartouches and surmounting decoration, and the stems of sepals and plants are in blue (the tip of the ‘lily’ being red). The Upper Egyptian crown of Neith is also blue,82 whereas the crown of Wadjet has the proper red colour. The two goddesses sit on the correct heraldic plants corresponding to their crowns. The wꜢs on the right as well as the top of the wꜢḏt have lost their inlays, probably anciently. The colours of the hieroglyphs partly follow the convention for coloured hieroglyphs: Ra in the cartouche, s, the board of mn and the tip of ỉwnw are red; the ỉ and nb are green. The ꜥnḫ, t and dỉ are blue, and the same colour is used for n and plural strokes which are elsewhere frequently black, and for the base of ỉwnw. The ḫpr, invariably black as a hieroglyph, and šmꜥw as well as the stem of wꜢḏ, usually green, have also been given the predominant blue. Yellow pigment was not used, the w being red instead of the conventional white or yellow. When the colour was required by convention, the natural colour of the calcite was sometimes used (as in the mandrake fruits in the garland above); it is somewhat unusual, though, that the sun discs above the cartouches of the king are left bare. Discs are usually red, but in monochrome decoration on the other vessels (obj. nos. 61 and 584) the discs have also been left in the natural colour of the stone. The hieroglyph w presented a problem. The bird is generally yellow with red legs, but here it has been painted red all over. The colour scheme employed for the set piece partly conforms to tradition, but the pigments and material used required a simplification. The dark blue was substituted for

79

Sic Carter’s description and Burton’s photographs. In two publications with colour photographs (Carter 1972 and Edwards 1976), the boat was apparently taken off and set up facing what was originally the back of the pedestal. As now exhibited in the Cairo Museum, the boat is mounted as Carter described it. 80 The šmꜥ-sign has been reversed.

81

Obj. nos. 14, 57, 60, 61, 385, 579, and, including Wadjet, obj. nos. 510 and 520. 82 For the white crown of Upper Egypt rendered in blue glass, cf. obj. no. 261i, discussed by L. Manniche, ‘Body colours of gods and men in jewellery and related objects from the tomb of Tutankhamun’, Acta Orientalia 43 (1982), p. 8 and n. 21.

34

CATALOGUE

black and sometimes green, a colour exchange known elsewhere in Egyptian art.83 The oddities occurring when either blue or the natural calcite was employed for another colour may be explained in that the entire decoration was probably thought of as monochrome and that the two colours did not necessarily carry any symbolism here. For further observations on the piece as a whole see below in Commentary.

Lid with Gosling Obj. no. 620-1; JE 62072; Exhib. no. 1300. Dimensions: diam. 13.4 cm; thickness, 0.8 cm (made to fit an opening of 10 cm); diam. of saucer on top, 13 cm. Bibliography: Carter’s card; Fox, Treasure, pl. 70; Desroches Noblecourt, Toutankhamon, pl. 47 (colour); Descr. sommaire [1300]; El Mallakh and Brackman, Gold, p. 325, pl. 145 (colour); Seton-Williams, Tutanchamun, p. 196, fig. 145 (colour); Leclant, Ägypten, ii, fig. 336; Manniche, ‘Salvekrukker’, vignette on p. 2 (colour). Photographs: pls. l, li [left]. Position when found: in the annexe; a fragment found in the antechamber. State of conservation: saucer broken in several pieces. Description: A flat disc-shaped calcite lid onto the top of which is luted a saucer of thin calcite. In the centre of the latter there is a painted wooden gosling with open wings, gaping beak and stained ivory tongue; luted to the interior of the saucer are four eggs of calcite, the whole representing a nest of four eggs and a young bird. The lid may have belonged to obj. no. 435. For further comments see the following chapter, p. 43.

Model Vase New York, MMA 40.2.4. Acquired from Rogers Fund 1940. There is yet another calcite vessel that may belong in the category of ornamental calcite vessels from the tomb of Tutankhamun, although it is of a slightly different design and less accurate provenance. In the Metropolitan Museum of Art there is a calcite perfume jar which was acquired from Carter’s estate in 1940. It seems to have been common knowledge, and it has been suggested in writing, that it came from the tomb of Tutankhamun.84 83 C. R. Williams, The Decoration of the Tomb of Per-Neb, New York, 1932, pp. 53-62. 84 T. Hoving, Tutankhamun. The Untold Story, New York, 1978, p. 352 (‘the museum’s notes assert that the object is

of the style of Thebes and is “probably from the tomb of Tutankhamun”’).

CATALOGUE

35

Dimensions: h. 10.8 cm. Bibliography: W. C. Hayes, The Scepter of Egypt, ii, New York, 1959, pp. 314-15, fig. 199 on p. 317 (centre); R. Freed, Y. J. Markowitz and S. H. D’Auria, Pharaohs of the Sun. Akhenaten. Nefertiti. Tutankhamun, London, 1999, cat. no. 101 (colour); Manniche, Sacred Luxuries, ill. p. 65 (colour). Photograph: pl. lii. State of conservation: intact, except for damage to back of the stopper. Contents: nil. Description: A vase in the shape of the hieroglyph ḥs with a conical stopper carved in one piece with the jar itself. Due to the minute opening the vase was not made in one piece by means of a boring tool, but in two vertical halves, the back half only hollowed out and the two cemented together with a resinous orange-coloured glue. On one side of the jar there is a figure of a nude girl standing on a lotus flower inlaid in glass and semi-precious stones. The complexion of the girl is cut from a flake of carnelian.85 Her wig is worked of polished obsidian or black glass. The lotus flower is formed of triangles of ‘purple glass, light blue glass and polished carnelian’ (sic Hayes), the base of the flower being decorated with a piece of gold. The inlay was fixed with orange glue. That this little vase was not intended for a practical purpose is suggested by its clean interior and the fact that the opening is virtually non-existent.

85

For the red colour cf. L. Manniche, ‘Body colours of gods and men in jewellery and related objects from the tomb of Tutankhamun’, Acta Orientalia 43 (1982), pp. 5-12; id. ‘Body colour in Amarna art’, in V. Angenot and F. Tiradritti (eds.), Artists and Colour in Ancient Egypt.

Proceedings of the Colloquium Held in Montepulciano, August 22nd – 24th, 2008, Studi Poliziani di Egittologia 1, Missione Archeologica Italiana a Luxor, Montepulciano, 2016 (https://www.academia.edu/34942435/Body Colour in Amarna Art).

C O M M E N TA RY As the majority of alabaster vessels have been discovered in tombs—in fact seldom is an important tomb found without the presence of such jars—it might seem that they were made for sepulchral use only. There can, however, be little doubt that they served their particular purpose in daily life, although perhaps not so much as the ordinary pottery vessels, being more expensive, heavy, and easily shattered. Their special use was for oil and unctuous material, while pottery vessels were restricted principally to wine, beer, water, and the like. The stone vessels made expressly for the tomb are more likely to be recognized among the very ornate examples, which by being of elaborate design were, in the utilitarian sense, of little practical use.1

Purpose of the vessels. Before the funeral. As far as the purpose of the vessels is concerned, most of them were used for storing fragrant oils and fats as shown by the fact that traces of the original contents have been found in several specimens. The material used for such commodities at that time was vegetable oil (from almonds, balanos fruit, moringa nuts, or the seeds of the castor oil plant, flax, and sesame, or olive oil2) or, if a solid mass was required, fat, most often of ox or goose. To this material the fragrance of flowers, resin and spices was added.3 That pottery vessels were also used for storing this kind of ‘perfume’ is suggested by a jar found in the tomb with an inscription in hieratic mentioning an ingredient used in the preparation of unguent,4 and a Theban tomb has a representation of what is undoubtedly the preparation of unguents, eventually to be stored in pottery jars (painted pink).5

1

Carter-Mace, iii, p. 144f. Olive sprigs were found in the tomb (decorating the vulture and uraeus on the outer coffin, see cards for obj. nos. 253-06 and 253-07), and twigs are also represented on a talatât from Hermopolis, formerly in the Schimmel collection, now in New York, The Metropolitan Museum of Art, 1981.449. This relief is currently on long-term loan to the Ägyptisches Museum und Papyrussammlung in Berlin, Ägyptische Kunst aus der Zeit des Königs Echnaton, catalogue of an exhibition in Hamburg 1965, no. 30. 2

3

Lucas-Harris, pp. 85-90, cf. analysis of contents of obj. no. 211, above p. 27. For a comprehensive study of the subject see Manniche, Sacred Luxuries, and for scents available in the Amarna period, id. ‘Duften af Amarna’, Papyrus 30/2 (2010), pp. 24-33. 4 Obj. no. 614a, J. Černý, Hieratic Inscriptions from the Tomb of Tutꜥankhamūn, Oxford, 1965, no. 27 (pḳr). Stalks were found in the jar. Annotation by Lucas on Carter’s card: ‘Umbelliferae. Probably a species of Chalcophyllum’. 5 TT 175, L. Manniche, The Wall Decorations of Three Theban Tombs, Copenhagen, 1988, pp. 35-8, figs. 32, 36.

38

COMMENTARY

The elaborate vessels must indeed have been rather inconvenient for regular use. One may compare them with another receptacle of a complicated design which was represented as having a utilitarian purpose: the metal bowls with flowers growing from the rim in some Theban tombs of the XVIIIth dynasty, occasionally shown used as drinking cups.6 The elaborate and apparently inconvenient shape of the calcite vessels cannot a priori be accepted as an indication of a purely decorative or funerary purpose, yet the inherent symbolism in the design suggests that the greater part of the ornamental vases were indeed manufactured for ritual purposes. Six among the vessels (obj. nos. 211, 385, 420, 425, 435 and 520) have a suitable shape for storing solid unguents, having wide necks, and what remained of the contents of some of them proved it to be the case. It was recorded to be quite plastic or of the nature of cold-cream of today.7 But the majority of the remaining vessels were designed to contain unguent of liquid or semi-liquid nature, such as the now dried-up fatty material inside the lion-shaped vase (obj. no. 579). Although a practical approach may be irrelevant, it remains a question how the liquid might have been extracted through the long, slender necks of some of the vessels. It seems that their weight has never been measured, but they must be quite heavy and some, like obj. no. 360, totally unsuited for tilting and pouring the contents. A long-handled ladle or, for a viscous substance, a siphon or a stick would provide a solution. However, it remains a possibility that the contents of the long-necked vases, and maybe even those of the vases with wide orifices, were not meant to be removed at all, and that the presence of the unguent was purely symbolic, whether in a palace or in a funerary context.8 The inscriptions on the vessels may point to their purpose when considered in combination with their design. The cartouches of the royal couple indicate that the vessels in question were inscribed after the move from el-Amarna, i.e. after the year 3.9 There is no obvious change of names. Some of the vessels have an epithet following the name which suggests that they were primarily connected with the earthly functions of the king. The inscription on obj. no. 420 wishes the king sed jubilees, like Horus, on his throne; the inscription on obj. no. 520 refers to Ankhesenamun as beloved of Horus, lord of the palace (i.e. the king); the inscription on obj. no. 210 declares that the south and the north are united under the king’s sandals while he is on the throne of Horus. 6 TT 90, N. de G. Davies, The Tombs of Two Officials of Tuthmosis the Fourth, London, 1923, pl. xxiii. Good examples of this type of vessel, though somewhat larger, were depicted in e.g. TT 40 at Thebes, Nina de G. Davies and A. H. Gardiner, The Tomb of Ḥuy, Viceroy of Nubia in the Reign of Tutꜥankhamūn (no. 40), London, 1926, pl. xx. In addition to these there are many examples of such ornamental metal vessels being displayed (not handled). 7 Cf. Carter’s card for obj. nos. 420 and 435, above, pp. 15, 16. 8 Numerous details in representations of palace interiors on the Karnak talatât, originally part of Aten temples, as well as in the wall decoration of the tombs at el-Amarna indicate that when the royal couple was present, the buildings

acquired a ritual status. Such details include musical practices with ritual blindfold (L. Manniche, ‘Symbolic Blindness’, Chronique d’Égypte 53 [1978], pp. 13-21) and the implications of the royal marital bed (C. Traunecker, ‘Aménophis IV et Néfertiti. Le couple royal d’après les talatates du IXe pylône de Karnak’, Bulletin de la Société française d’Égyptologie 107 [Oct. 1986], pp. 17-44). 9 For the date of the move from el-Amarna, cf. M. Gabolde, D’Akhenaton à Toutânkhamon, Lyon, 1998, p. 283, and for earlier discussions, D. B. Redford, History and Chronology of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, Toronto, 1967, pp. 156-8; J. R. Harris, ‘The date of the “Restoration” stela of Tutankhamun’, GM 5 (1973), pp. 9-11, contrary to R. Krauss, Das Ende der Amarnazeit, Hildesheim, 1978, pp. 52-3 and 121.

COMMENTARY

39

The king as Horus belongs to the sphere of the living. Whereas the first two inscriptions pertain to vessels with no poignant symbolism in the design, the third belongs to the very elaborate ‘heraldic’ vase with ‘Hapy’ figures (obj. no. 210). Through the common design comprising the ‘unification of the Two Lands’, the remaining unification vases (obj. nos. 57, 60, 61 and 360) may be related to the group, referring to the king as Horus together with the idea of unification. The presence of the name of Ankhesenamun, side by side with that of the king, suggests that the vessels were not solely manufactured for funerary purposes as she was not to be buried at the time, nor would she have been laid to rest in her husband’s tomb.10 Contrary to that of ordinary mortals, the destiny of a king after death was envisaged as being physically independent of that of his earthly spouse.11 It is tempting to place the vessels in an official context that would relate to all aspects of royal life, including for example the coronation of the king.12 Vessels may have been presented to the royal couple in the palace13 and possibly used during the ceremonies

10 A communal burial place for the queens of the XVIIIth dynasty has not yet been discovered and may never have existed. A wife of Amenophis II was buried in TT 358 at Deir el-Bahari (Porter-Moss, i2, i, p. 421). Certain women from the court of Amenophis III may have been buried in the Valley of the Queens, judging from canopic jars said to have been found in the neighbourhood by the beginning of the 20th century (G. Legrain in ASAE 4 [1903], pp. 138-49; 5 [1904], pp. 139-41). However, objects of female members of the royal family have also been found in tombs of kings, having been included there for a variety of reasons. Objects of queen Tiyi were found in the tomb of her husband (Amenophis III) in the Valley of the Kings (Porter-Moss, i2, ii, p. 550), and fragments of a canopy in KV 55 (Porter-Moss, i2, ii, p. 566, cf. G. Perepelkin, The Golden Tomb, pp. 8, 11-12) along with female canopic jars (Porter-Moss, i2, ii, p. 566). A shabti of Nefertiti survived in the royal tomb at el-Amarna (G. T. Martin, The Royal Tomb at El-‘Amarna I. The Objects, London, 1974, no. 256 on pl. 47). For the possible re-burial of Nefertiti see N. Reeves, ‘The burial of Nefertiti?’, Amarna Royal Tombs Project, Occasional Paper No. 1, 2015 (available online at https://www.academia.edu/14406398/The_Burial_of_ Nefertiti_2015). Objects belonging to other women have recently been located in a tomb KV 40 in the Valley of the Kings (S. Bickel and E. Paulin-Grothe, ‘KV 40: A burial place for the royal entourage’, Egyptian Archaeology 45 [2014], pp. 21-4; S. Bickel, ‘KV 40: The tomb of 18th Dynasty princesses and princes’, Kmt. A Modern Journal of Ancient Egypt 25/3 [2014], pp. 22-32). Cf. also fragments of canopic jars belonging to several members of the court of Amenhotep III recently found in Wadi Bairiya: P. Litherland, The Western Wadis of the Theban Necropolis, London, 2014; id., ‘Skaktgravene i Wadi Bairiya. Den glitrende Atens hustruer og hofdamer og deres familiegrave’, Papyrus 36/2 (2016), pp. 4-17. Objects mentioning

Queen Mutnodjmet were found in the Memphite tomb of Horemheb, H. D. Schneider, The Memphite Tomb of Horemheb, Commander-in-Chief of Tutankhamun, ii, Leiden and London, 1996, statue fragments (St. 10), p. 77, pls. 86-7, and canopic jar (no. 261), p. 44, pl. 71. None of these items include inscriptions where the names of king and queen are juxtaposed as on the ornamental vessels discussed here. 11 However, a ‘female presence’, here in the form of the queen’s name, would benefit his rebirth, as also hinted by Desroches Noblecourt in Cat. Paris 1967, p. 188. This was emphasized in items placed in the tomb showing the royal couple in intimate situations (throne obj. no. 91; golden shrine obj. no. 108; ivory box obj. 551). 12 For the date of the coronation of a new king cf. D. B. Redford, History and Chronology of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, Toronto, 1967, chapter i, especially pp. 20-2. Redford implies that the coronation of Tutankhamun took place at el-Amarna (p. 124), whereas M. Gabolde, D’Akhenaton à Toutânkhamon, Lyon, 1998, pp. 291-2 (cf. also p. 283 n. 2013) sees it as having been celebrated in Memphis. Royal regalia were, however, envisaged for Tutankhamun in the Amarna period, the smaller flail being labelled Tutankhaten (photo in Cat. Paris 1967, p. 91), while the larger set has Tutankhamun (Reeves, op. cit. p. 153). A re-coronation may have taken place in due course after the wane of the Aten. 13 That calcite vessels inscribed with the protocol of the royal couple were used in a palace context outside Thebes and Memphis is indicated by a fragment of a ‘large’ jar found at Ghurob (W. M. F. Petrie, Kahun, Gurob, and Hawara, London, 1890, p. 35, pl. xviii [25]). The inscription is very similar to that on obj. no. 579, arranged in a frame surmounted by the sky, but it includes longevity epithets. Porter-Moss, iv, p. 114 lists the object under finds probably from the town north of the temple, whereas Petrie says that it was found with other fragments in ‘a tomb’. If

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(see further below).14 But unguents were also used during the instalment of an officer by the king, and ‘unification vases’ may have been displayed in the throne room and used on such an occasion, as for example when Tuthmosis III placed oil on the head of Taku, grandfather of Addu-niari, to make him vassal to Egypt.15 That the vessels ended up in the tomb along with other items among the king’s private belongings, and even funerary equipment associated with his predecessors, may be due to the unique situation in the palace after the king’s death.16 He was the last male member of the family, and it may have been considered improper to leave anything behind. However, a funerary interpretation of the vessels should by no means be ruled out (see below). The position of some of the vessels (if original) argues for an intimate function, especially of those found within the shrines in the burial chamber. Objects such as the ewer on a stand (obj. no. 45), the attenuated vases (obj. nos. 344 and 475, one of which was much stained suggesting use), the fluted vase (obj. no. 58), which had in fact been repaired in ancient times, the cosmetic jar with the recumbent lion (obj. no. 211), and the ‘heraldic’ lion vase (obj. no. 579), would not be alien to a palace context. The significance of the ‘ibex’ vase is slightly more complex, particularly as the animal as shown is a hybrid. The symbolism of the ibex has not yet been adequately defined (see further below), and that of the gazelle also needs further study. The two lamps (obj. nos. 173 and 174) may have been used during the king’s lifetime, although they would also be suitable as funerary equipment. The inscribed lamp has epithets for the king referring to him as one who has gone through the (sed-festival?) rites, and one beloved of Amun. In the picture visible when the lamp is lit, the queen presents him with a palm branch symbolizing ‘years’ and/or ‘youth’, a concept which would apply to terrestrial as well as eternal life. Although lotus-shaped vessels are represented as being used as actual drinking cups, the inscription on the ‘wishing cup’ (obj. no. 14) is significant: Life to Tutankhamun (full protocol), life(?) to your ka, and the text goes on to mention millions of years for the king when sitting in the breeze from the north, beholding bw nfr. The wish for the benefits of the north wind is common in funerary contexts. The exact meaning of bw nfr is more obscure. Bw nfr (for nfr see above, p. 9) is, for example, what pleases the heart when witnessing music,17 hunting in the desert18 or in the marshes.19 These it was indeed buried in a tomb, it may be a secondary use. There is no mention of the actual shape of the fragment, except that it was ‘large’. Fragments of two calcite lotiform chalices with the names of Amenhotep III, ‘beloved of Hathor, mistress of turquoise’, now in the Ashmolean Museum, Oxford, were found in Sinai in 1905 (W. M. F. Petrie, Researches in Sinai, New York, 1906, p. 138, pl. 145 [1]). As the name and title of the scribe and treasurer Panehsy were added below, these were no doubt royal gifts. 14 ‘Uniting the Two Lands’ was one of the rites performed during the coronation. There is evidence that unguent also played a part (H. Bonnet, Reallexikon der ägyptischen Religionsgeschichte, Berlin/New York, 1952 and 1971, pp. 648-9). Cf. also Baines, Fecundity Figures, pp. 226-7 and 353-5.

15

W. L. Moran, The Amarna Letters, Baltimore/ London, 1987, EA 51, p. 122. 16 A substantial proportion of the items in the tombs of Tutankhamun would seem to have been manufactured for the king’s predecessors, including parts of the golden mask, N. Reeves in The Art and Culture of Ancient Egypt: Studies in Honor of Dorothea Arnold (Bulletin of the Egyptological Seminar 19), 2015, 511-26; id. in Journal of Ancient Egyptian Interconnections 7.4 (2015), 77-9. 17 N. de G. Davies, The Tomb of Rekh-mi-Re at Thebes, ii, New York, 1943, pl. lxiii; id. The Tomb of Ken-amun at Thebes, New York, 1930, i, pl. xxi B. 18 N. de G. Davies, Rekh-mi-re, ii, pl. xliv. 19 N. de G. Davies, The Tomb of Nakht at Thebes, New York, 1917, pl. xxii.

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activities are represented as if taking place in ‘daily life’, but the general idea is much more complex,20 and it may indeed be spelled out that it takes place m st nḥḥ.21 When the king held the cup to his lips, facing north (towards Heracleopolis), he would himself become nfr and imbued with vital energy, like the sun god rising from the flower floating on the primordial waters in that region. Symbolic features. In the preceding pages, reference has been made to some of the symbolic details in the design of the vessels, primarily the emblematic composition of the smꜢ tꜢwy, the ‘unification of the Two Lands’.22 This is generally taken to refer to the prehistoric state of affairs when Upper and Lower Egypt were separate entities eventually to be unified by the first king of the first dynasty, an act required to be repeated, at times out of necessity, but most often as a ritual taking place in order to commemorate the original event and establish it in perpetuity. The identification of the two plants involved is straightforward as far as the papyrus is concerned. Its role is primarily funerary/chthonic, evoking the primordial ocean where life originated.23 The second plant has proven to be more complicated. It is generally taken to be some kind of ‘lily’ (not a ‘lotus’, which, to confuse the issue, is sometimes called ‘water lily’ in literature).24 Based on a re-interpretation of the two plants together, rather than representing Upper and Lower Egypt as geographical entities, an argument for an alternative suggestion as Musa ensete, or wild banana, has been made, proposing that one (the ‘wild banana’) would denote the point from which the inundation originated (south) and the other (the papyrus) the region where it came to fruition (Egypt proper). Accordingly, the act of smꜢ tꜢwy is not related to an initial political reality and ritually re-enacted episode of conquest, but to a cosmic phenomenon: the annual arrival of the inundation which would have coincided with many coronations and subsequent jubilees. This is emphasized by the fact that in the numerous representations of smꜢ tꜢwy it is often ‘Hapy’ figures who are shown ‘tying the knot’.25 With their three-dimensional rendering of the motif, several calcite vessels of Tutankhamun support this attempt at an interpretation, none more so than obj. no. 60, incorporating in its design a Hathor head and two female breasts, the distant goddess personifying the vital arrival from the south,26 obj. no. 210 with two flanking Hapyfigures and a figure of the vulture-goddess Nekhbet of the south protecting the

20 L. Manniche, ‘The so-called scenes of daily life in the private tombs of the Eighteenth Dynasty: an overview’, in N. Strudwick and J. H. Taylor (eds.), The Theban Necropolis. Past, Present and Future, London, 2003, pp. 42-5. 21 BM 37977, Nina de G. Davies, Ancient Egyptian Paintings, Chicago, 1936, pl. lxv; R. B. Parkinson, The Painted Tomb-Chapel of Nebamun, London, 2008, fig. 129 and text on p. 127. 22 M.-Th. D[erchain]-U[rtel] in Lexikon der Ägyptologie, vi, Wiesbaden, 1986, cols. 974-6.

23

Desroches Noblecourt, Amours et fureurs, pp. 56-8. Cf. P. K[aplony] in Lexikon der Ägyptologie, vi, Wiesbaden, 1986, cols. 1146-52 with notes. See also n. 38 in the previous chapter. 25 Desroches Noblecourt, Amours et fureurs, pp. 54-78, 86-7; Baines, Fecundity Figures, passim. 26 Desroches Noblecourt, Amours et fureurs, passim, summarized on p. 78 and with explicit drawing on p. 69. 24

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(missing?) stopper, and obj. no. 58 with flanking ornament consisting of papyrus literally growing from a ‘lily’.27 In their carefully composed decoration these vessels evoke the course of the Nile during an entire solar year, and with their fragrant contents, they would thus be vital tools for the king in his quest for annual rejuvenation and eternal life. The set piece with a boat (obj. no. 578) as a whole has raised a number of comments. Carter himself suggested that it might be related to the other model boats in the tomb and thus have a funerary purpose. The square form amidships is by him called either ‘pavilion’ or ‘sarcophagus’. But he also seems to interpret it as a palace ornament and as being ‘purely fanciful’.28 Kees used the words ‘Tafelaufsatz’ and ‘Festbarke’,29 and Yoyotte called it an ‘ornamental tub with a pleasure boat on top’.30 An attempt has been made to identify the figure at the stern. Because of her frequent depiction in the company of dwarfs, the name of Mutnodjmet, sister of Nefertiti, has been put forward.31 The girl may be a member of the royal family, but there is no evidence as to her identity, unless one takes the presence of the name of Ankhesenamun on the pedestal as pertaining to the figure. The concept of a royal female in a riverine setting has precedents in the wall decoration of a building at el-Amarna, probably the North Palace, and, as many other details in the Amarna universe, in the solar theology of the 5th dynasty.32 In conjunction with the decoration of the prow and stern with ibex heads,33 the two figures on board the boat would seem to provide a clue as to the significance and purpose of this extraordinary ornament. In a talk first given in 1986 and published, with comprehensive notes, posthumously in Dutch, French and English in 1999, Jan Quaegebeur argued for the ‘dwarf’ being the key to the understanding of the piece, in that she is Beset, the female counterpart of ‘Bes’, who provides the missing link to the ibex as a symbol of rejuvenation, the capricorn encompassing also the inherent significance of the gazelle. This in turn leads to the implicit presence of Hathor, also manifest in some of the vessels discussed above. ‘Bes’ has certain characteristics in common with a lion, and Quaegebeur saw the lion vase (obj. no. 579) as a male counterpart to the set piece with boat, confirmed by the fact that they are of compatible dimensions and were found next to each other (as the obj. nos. indicate) in the annexe (see pl. xxxiv). An attempt to identify the apparently royal passenger in the boat would be both hazardous and unnecessary, as the message given by the entire composition is one of overall, eternal significance and having been personalized for the purpose by the

27 id. ib. pp. 69-72. Cf. also the detail on the headpiece of the ‘Hapy’ figure of obj. no. 360. 28 Carter-Mace, iii, pp. 128-30. 29 H. Kees, Das alte Ägypten, Berlin, 1955, concerning fig. 45; 1958 concerning fig. 54. 30 J. Yoyotte, Treasures of the Pharaohs, Geneva, 1968, concerning colour pl. 126. 31 Desroches Noblecourt, Toutankhamon, p. 283; for dwarfs in this context cf. Davies, El Amarna, v, pl. iii; vi, pls. xvii, xxvi, xxviii.

32 W. Raymond Johnson, ‘A royal fishing and fowling talatat scene from Amarna’, Kmt. A Modern Journal of Ancient Egypt 26/4 (Winter 2015), pp. 40-50. 33 In a different context, the long, straight horns of another capricorn, the oryx gazella, is a feature of the hnw bark of Sokar (E. Bro[varski], ‘Sokar. xii. Henu-bark’, Lexikon der Ägyptologie, v, 1984, cols. 1066-7, 1074).

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inscription on the pedestal.34 She represents the aspirations for solar rebirth, and, together, all the elements of the set piece illustrate the king’s last voyage towards it. The final stage is illustrated in obj. no. 620-1, the lid of a vase shaped as a nest where the solar gosling is seen emerging from its egg.35 After the funeral. With rare exceptions the lids and stoppers of all these vessels had been forcibly removed, thrown aside, and their contents poured out and stolen, leaving but a small amount of residue in each vessel. On the inner walls of some of the vessels that contained viscous substances, the finger-marks of the predatory hand that scooped out the precious material are as clear today as when the theft was perpetrated.36 Two separate thefts of quite different nature had taken place in (the annexe). The first theft … was perpetrated by the famous tomb metal robbers, who ransacked the four chambers of the tomb for all such portable material. The second robbery was evidently by another class of thief, who sought only the costly oils and unguents contained in the numerous stone vessels.37 This last robbery had been carefully thought out. The stone vessels being far too heavy and cumbersome to carry away bodily, the thieves came provided with more convenient receptacles, such as leather bags or water-skins (some abandoned water-skins were found in the descending entrance passage), to take away the spoil. There was not a stopper of a jar that had not been removed, not a jar that had not been emptied.38 On the interior walls of some of the vessels39 that contained viscous ointments, the finger-marks of those thieves are visible today. To get at those heavy stone vessels, the furniture piled on top of them was evidently turned over and thrown helter-skelter from side to side. Thus, by realizing the probable cause, the reader may readily guess the effect. – The knowledge of this second robbery throws light upon a problem that had puzzled us ever since the beginning of the discovery of the tomb. Why, throughout its funerary equipment, had quite insignificant stone vessels been tampered with? Why were some of them left empty lying on the floors of the chambers, and others taken out and discarded in the entrance passage? The greases, or oils, that they once contained had, no doubt, a far greater value in those days than possibly we can imagine. It also gives a reason for the tomb having been twice reclosed, as traces on the sealed entrance and inner doorway of the passage signified.40 The tomb as found by Carter was thus not a pristine burial, and as a crime scene the evidence had been interfered with. Most of the ornamental calcite vessels41 were found in the annexe in considerable disarray, which was no doubt originally caused by the

34

Sic also Cherpion in Quaegebeur, La naine et le bouquetin, pp. 160-1, as opposed to Desroches Noblecourt, Toutankhamon, pp. 108 and 283. 35 Desroches Noblecourt, Amours et fureurs, p. 92. 36 Carter-Mace, iii, p. 144. 37 ibid. p. 103. 38 This is inaccurate, cf. below. 39 A. Lucas in ASAE xli (1942), p. 138, ‘Only one vessel shows fingerprints’, is mistaken, cf. our pls. xiii and xvii.

40

Carter-Mace, iii, pp. 105-6. For the prices of oil and fat in Ramessid times cf. J. J. Janssen, Commodity Prices from the Ramessid Period. An Economic Study of the Village of Necropolis Workmen at Thebes, Leiden, 1975, pp. 330-42. Prices seem to have gone down by the end of the period. 41 Obj. nos. 344, 360, 385, 420, 435, 475, 520, 578, 579, 584.

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robbers in search of portable valuables, and then stacked together by the inspectors in the Valley in order to close up and re-seal the doorway. Carter did not have the equipment for dusting for fingerprints, nor would he have considered it to be of prime importance, though even random testing may have been of interest. All of the vases in this room had been emptied, the two situla-shaped ones (obj. nos. 420 and 435) revealing clear finger marks of those who scooped out the contents, the lid of the latter (obj. no. 620) lying ‘among floor rubbish’ in the room with a fragment having strayed into the antechamber. The greatest damage was suffered by the ‘Hapy’ vase (obj. no. 360), the components being torn apart and smashed into twenty pieces. The fact that the vase held by the Hapy figure was emptied from a resulting break at the bottom caused the stopper to remain intact. In the antechamber the four ‘heraldic vases’42 were stacked neatly up against the west wall, between the cow and lion couches. As their contents were gone, this arrangement must be due to the efforts of the inspectors. The ewer on its stand43 had been placed neatly on top of the lion bed. No trace of its contents was recorded at the time of discovery. When entering the antechamber for the first time, Carter had to step over the ‘wishing cup’, lying overturned on the threshold.44 It would probably have been moved about by the inspectors and left there for reasons unknown. The remaining ornamental calcite items came from the burial chamber itself. This room was entered, but it is generally assumed that no one opened the doors of the outer shrine. Possibly the robbers were interrupted and/or already had more than they could carry away.45 The neck of the large ‘heraldic’ vase (obj. no. 210) was ‘badly broken’ and the flanking ornament broken, possibly in antiquity, and, according to Carter, because of gases developing inside. The contents remained otherwise intact(?), as did the stopper. The decoration suggests that a royal figure,46 or another stopper with an integral figure, was intended here in antiquity, but it may not have been executed, or have vanished, before the funeral.47 Along with the ‘cosmetic container’ with lion (obj. no. 211), the contents of which also remained, it stood inside the outer shrine and both would thus have been of prime importance to the future life of the king. So would the two lamps, one found outside (obj. no. 174) and the other (obj. 173) inside the doors of the shrine. It should be mentioned that other items had been taken during the robberies. Aside from the obvious portable items of precious metal almost all glass objects had been stolen and so had linen. Not all the oils and fats were removed to take away as some were clearly used (with strips of linen?) to light the tomb during the plundering.

42

46

43

54ee.

Obj. nos 57, 58, 60, 61. Obj. no. 45. 44 Obj. no. 14. This was not photographed in situ. 45 For the robberies see Reeves, Tutankhamun, pp. 95-8, 198-9.

47

Perhaps similar to the squatting royal figure obj. Cf. previous chapter, n. 54.

COMMENTARY

45

Recent history of the vessels. No sooner had the first pictures of the finds in the tomb appeared that they influenced contemporary cinema. In The Fortieth Door (1924), the heroine is rescued from a tomb which contains, among other things, two calcite vessels corresponding to obj. nos. 58 and 60 or 61.48 The copies are not exact, the stands and the fluting of obj. no. 58 being omitted. In 1955 the set piece with a boat (obj. no. 578) appeared in a frame in E. P. Jacob’s cartoon Le mystère de la grande pyramide, ii, p. 40 (omitting the princess and the dwarf). Replicas of the two lamps (obj. nos. 173 and 174) also featured in a palace interior in the 1954 film The Egyptian, based on the novel by Mika Waltari.49 The vases were eventually transferred to the Cairo Museum.50 In 1927 nine were on display, followed two years later by the remaining lot.51 From 2015, finds from the tomb were being transferred to the newly built Grand Egyptian Museum. This will eventually include the calcite vessels. Some of the calcite vessels have been shown on postage stamps. Among others, the triple lamp (obj. no. 174) was used for a stamp from Egypt, and the chalice and the cosmetic jar (obj. nos. 14 and 211) appeared on stamps from the Emirate of Ajman. Even more spectacular is a series of stamps from the island of Staffa, made of real gold and engraved with subjects from the tomb of Tutankhamun. Among the objects depicted are the chalice (obj. no. 14) and the ‘ibex’ vase (obj. no. 578).52 International exhibitions. 53 A few of the vessels have travelled with Tutankhamun exhibitions shown all over the world. 1961-1966. Obj. nos. 344 and 420 were shown in various museums (18 cities in the USA and 6 in Canada) as Tutankhamun Treasures, in Japan (Tokyo, Kyoto and Fukuoka 1965-66), and in Paris (Toutankhamon et son temps 1967). 1972-1981. In London (1972) and the then USSR (1973), the exhibition Treasures of Tutankhamun included the unification vase with Hathor head (obj. no. 60), the ‘wishing cup’ (obj. no. 14), and the lion-shaped vase (obj. no. 579). When the exhibition toured the USA 48

See K. C. Lahue, Bound and Gagged, New York, 1968, p. 284, and for the original picture Carter-Mace, i, pl. xxii, corresponding to our pl. liv. I am indebted to J. R. Harris for this reference. 49 I am indebted to Richard Parkinson for this reference. For the film cf. R. B. Parkinson, Reading Ancient Egyptian Poetry: Among Other Histories, Chichester, 2009, pp. 251-3. 50 For the one possible exception cf. above, pp. 34-5. 51 The first group, mentioned in the Notice sommaire des principaux monuments from 1927, includes obj. nos. 14, 57, 58, 60, 61, 173, 174, 211 and 280. In the 1930 edition

objects having exhibition nos. up to 914 are included, leaving out only the calcite lid with the nestling bird, exhibition no. 1300. 52 Gold Standard Collection, 1979, with accompanying English text by V. Lee Davies. 53 For exhibitions 1961-1981 see N. Reeves, The Complete Tutankhamun, London, 1990, pp. 212-13. Cf also list of exhibitions and museums in https://en.wikipedia. org/wiki/Exhibitions_of_artifacts_from_the_tomb_of_ Tutankhamun.

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for a second time (1976-78), the triple lamp (obj. no. 174), the recumbent ‘ibex’ (obj. no. 584), the cosmetic jar with hunting scenes (obj. no. 211) as well as one of the attenuated vases (obj. no. 344) were added. An identical selection of objects was shown in then West Germany (Tutankhamun 1980-81 Berlin, Cologne, Munich, Hannover, Hamburg). The other attenuated vase (obj. no. 475) travelled with the Götter Pharaonen exhibition in West Germany and Rotterdam in 1978-79. 2004-2012. In 2004, a major Tutankhamun exhibition was organized in collaboration with the Antikenmuseum Basel and Sammlung Ludwig: Tutankhamun. The Golden Beyond. Tomb Treasures from the Valley of the Kings (originally called Tutankhamen: The Golden Hereafter). Apart from Basel, it went on to be shown in Bonn, Los Angeles County Museum of Art, Museum of Art in Fort Lauderdale, Field Museum Chicago, Franklin Institute Philadelphia, and in the Millennium Dome in London in 2008, followed by a return to the USA in Dallas, San Francisco and finally New York. In the USA, the exhibition was renamed Tutankhamun and the Golden Age of the Pharaohs. It was also shown in Melbourne, Australia in 2011 and in Osaka and Kyoto in 2012. The following calcite vessels were included: the ‘wishing cup’ (obj. no. 14); one of the attenuated vases (obj. no. 344); and the cosmetic jar (obj. 211). 2008-2013. A sister exhibition, Tutankhamun and the World of the Pharaohs, was shown in Vienna from 2008, Atlanta, Indianapolis, Ontario, Denver, Minnesota, Houston, and Seattle in 2013. 2018-2022. A major exhibition entitled Tutankhamun. Treasures of the Golden Pharaoh, The Centennial Celebration, scheduled to tour the world for six years, was inaugurated in San Francisco at the beginning of 2018, to be shown in Paris and London in 2019. Replicas. Replicas of some of the vessels were produced for ‘Tutankhamen’s Tomb’, part of the ‘The British Empire Exhibition’ in 1924.54 In 2002-3 a project was conceived between Paul Heinen and Wulf Kohl for Semmel Concerts, a concert agency in Bayreuth, Germany, and the Egyptian Museum in Cairo to mount an exhibition of replicas from the tomb of Tutankhamun. Over a period of five years replicas to a high standard were produced in workshops in Cairo. A worldwide show was envisaged, and this is indeed what has happened up until the time of writing (2015-16) when new venues continue to be staged for Tutankhamun. His Tomb and his Treasures.55 At times three identical exhibitions have been staged simultaneously. 54 Pages 310-11 of The Illustrated London News of Feb. 23, 1924, featuring preparation for the exhibition, are reproduced in Collins and McNamara, Discovering Tutankhamun, pp. 78-9. 55 Catalogues, originally conceived and edited by Walter M. Weiss, were produced in many languages, the original

one being in English: Tutankhamun. His Tomb and his Treasures, Bayreuth, 2008. Some replicas of the vases with flanking ornament appear in a photograph on pp. 74-5 and in Collins and McNamara, Discovering Tutankhamun, pp. 98-9. The ‘wishing cup’ (obj. no. 14) also featured in the exhibition.

P L AT E S

PLATE I

Ornamental lamp upon trellis work pedestal (obj. no. 173). Photo © Sandro Vannini.

PLATE II

Ornamental lamp upon trellis work pedestal (obj. no. 173). GI neg. 659 (Carter-Mace, ii, pl. xlvi [B]).

Triple lamp (obj. no. 174). GI negs. 656C (Carter-Mace, ii, pl. xlvii) and 656F.

PLATE III

PLATE IV

Cup or chalice (obj. no. 14). GI neg. 456.

PLATE V

Cup or chalice (obj. no. 14). Photos © Sandro Vannini.

PLATE VI

Attenuated vases (obj. nos. 475 [left] and 344 [right]). GI neg. 1283 (Carter-Mace, iii, pl. lxxix [B]).

PLATE VII

Attenuated vase (obj. no. 344). Photo © Sandro Vannini.

PLATE VIII

Attenuated vase (obj. no. 475) and large krater (obj. no. 520). Carter’s cards with drawing of decoration of no. 475, and of decoration and inscription of no. 520.

Ewer on stand (obj. no. 45). Photos © Sandro Vannini.

PLATE IX

PLATE X

Large krater (obj. no. 520). GI neg. 1676 (Carter-Mace, iii, pl. lxxix [A]).

Large krater (obj. no. 520). Photos © Sandro Vannini.

PLATE XI

PLATE XII

Lid to large krater (obj. no. 620-3). GI neg. 1281 and Carter’s card with drawing of decoration.

Unguent vase of situla form (obj. no. 420), and view inside. GI negs. 1643 and 1655.

PLATE XIII

Unguent vase of situla form (obj. no. 420). Photos © Sandro Vannini.

PLATE XIV

Unguent vase of situla form (obj. no. 420). Photos © Sandro Vannini.

PLATE XV

PLATE XVI

Vase with flanking ornament upon tazza stand (obj. no. 435). Photo © Sandro Vannini.

Vase with flanking ornament upon tazza stand (obj. no. 435), and view inside. GI negs. 1661, 1230 and 1653.

PLATE XVII

PLATE XVIII

Vase with flanking ornament upon ornamental stand (obj. no. 58). GI neg. 469 (Carter-Mace, i, pl. xlviii).

PLATE XIX

Vase with flanking ornament upon ornamental stand (obj. no. 58). Photo © Sandro Vannini.

Three ornamental vases (obj. nos. 57, 61, 60). GI neg. 477.

PLATE XX

PLATE XXI

Ornamental vase (obj. no. 57). Photo © Sandro Vannini.

Ornamental vase (obj. no. 60). Photos © Sandro Vannini.

PLATE XXII

Composite unguent vase (obj. no. 360). GI negs. 1323, 1651 and 1652.

PLATE XXIII

Composite unguent vase (obj. no. 360). Photos © Sandro Vannini.

PLATE XXIV

Composite unguent vase upon ornamental stand (obj. no. 210). GI negs. 671 (Carter-Mace, ii, pl. xlviii) and 669.

PLATE XXV

Composite unguent vase upon ornamental stand (obj. no. 210). GI negs. 668 and 667.

PLATE XXVI

Composite unguent vase upon ornamental stand (obj. no. 210). Photos © Sandro Vannini.

PLATE XXVII

PLATE XXVIII

Lion-shaped vessel (obj. no. 579). GI neg. 1254 (Carter-Mace, iii, pl. xlviii).

PLATE XXIX

Lion-shaped vessel (obj. no. 579). GI negs. 1526 and 1650 and card with Carter’s drawing of decoration.

PLATE XXX

Lion-shaped vessel (obj. no. 579). Photo © Sandro Vannini.

Lion-shaped vessel (obj. no. 579). Photos © Sandro Vannini.

PLATE XXXI

PLATE XXXII

Cosmetic jar (obj. no. 211). GI neg. 660 (Carter-Mace, ii, pl. l).

PLATE XXXIII

Cosmetic jar (obj. no. 211). GI negs. 663 (Carter-Mace, ii, pl. li), 661 and Lise Manniche’s drawing of decoration.

PLATE XXXIV

Cosmetic jar (obj. no. 211). Photo © Sandro Vannini.

PLATE XXXV

Cosmetic jar (obj. no. 211). Photo © Sandro Vannini.

Cosmetic jar (obj. no. 211). Photos © Sandro Vannini.

PLATE XXXVI

Cosmetic jar (obj. no. 211). Photos © Sandro Vannini.

PLATE XXXVII

Cosmetic jar (obj. no. 211). Photos © Sandro Vannini.

PLATE XXXVIII

PLATE XXXIX

Vase in the form of an ‘ibex’ (obj. no. 584). GI negs. 1658 and 1614.

PLATE XL

Vase in the form of an ‘ibex’ (obj. no. 584). Photos © Sandro Vannini.

PLATE XLI

Set piece with boat on pedestal (obj. no. 578). GI neg. 1570.

PLATE XLII

Set piece with boat on pedestal (obj. no. 578). GI neg. 1222.

PLATE XLIII

Set piece with boat on pedestal (obj. no. 578). GI neg. 1257.

Set piece with boat on pedestal (obj. no. 578). GI negs. 1645 and 1647 (Carter-Mace, iii, pl. lxxiv [A]).

PLATE XLIV

PLATE XLV

Set piece with boat on pedestal (obj. no. 578). GI neg. 1260.

PLATE XLVI

Set piece with boat on pedestal (obj. no. 578). Photo © Sandro Vannini.

Set piece with boat on pedestal (obj. no. 578). Photos © Sandro Vannini.

PLATE XLVII

PLATE XLVIII

Set piece with boat on pedestal (obj. no. 578). Carter’s cards with details of decoration.

PLATE XLIX

Set piece with boat on pedestal (obj. no. 578). Carter’s cards with details of decoration.

Lid with gosling (obj. no. 620-1). Photos © Sandro Vannini.

PLATE L

Lid with gosling (obj. no. 620-1) and horn (obj. no. 92e). GI negs. 1469 (photo, Cairo, Egyptian Museum) and 234 [right].

PLATE LI

PLATE LII

Model vase, New York, MMA 40.2.4. Copyright New York, MMA.

Obj. nos. 385, 435, 578 and 579 in situ. GI neg. 1225.

PLATE LIII

PLATE LIV

Obj. nos. 57, 58, 60 and 61 in situ. GI neg. 10 (Carter-Mace, i, pl. xxii).

Obj. nos. 210 and 211 in situ. GI neg. 591.

PLATE LV