Wednesday, April 27, 2011

Animals rituals in ancient Egypt. Part B



The most incredible evidence of how much the Heb-Sed was essential to stabilize Egyptian powerful kings on their throne is represented on King Zoser’s the Heb-sed complex.
Picture-1
Picture-2

In fact king Zoser ,the founder of the third dynasty was the first depicted king while performing the ritual that follows the fight of the Heb-sed. History of Ancient Egypt has mentioned a lot of kings that performed the same ritual as for king Montuhotep II who was the re-unifier of Egypt and the founder of the 11th dynasty. Montuhotep II fascinating statue in Cairo Museum about 1700 B.C exemplifies the king while dressed the Heb-Sed outfit”Picture 3”. King Amunhotep II carving from the temple of Amada,1400 B.C,the carving “Picture no.2” represents the pharoah while galloping before god Amun in order to present his thanks for being able to complete the Heb-Sed .
Picture-3
The great influence of the ancient Egyptian Heb-Sed ritual can be traced allover the ancient world and even more obvious in the Greek mythology. The Greek myth of Hercules which describes Hercules famous adventure of fighting the Nemean lion, the picture below represents Hercules while fighting the lion of Nemea.
Picture-4 painted by yasser kamel and it represents Hercules while fighting the lion of Nemea.
By Yasser Kamel to Museumegypt, All rights reserved. Copyrigt©Museumegypt.  

Sunday, April 17, 2011

Animals rituals in ancient Egypt. Part A



Animals rituals in ancient Egypt. Part A

No wonder if the Hieroglyphic characters are in general to represent animals or portions of animal bodies as it belonged to a civilization is African in its core . Back to the early beginnings of the Egyptian cultures the flora and fauna were still rich as Egypt seemed to have a variety of wild animals as for African lions and panthers. Then the gradual change for the global climate such as having more of droughts and dryness had effected the northern African environment which forced many of savannah wild animals to migrate to southern Africa. The remarkable interaction with nature which was still intact had inspired the shapes of the hieroglyphics and its phonograms as for the case of the African lions in the north of Egypt or for the Egyptian vulture in the south of Egypt. The Naqqada “Nakkada”6000-5000 B.C cultures are among cultures that left finds very much relating to the wild nature of ancient Egypt. Naqqada cultures were well located as it occupied middle Egypt where nature was rich in rock formations, hillocks and plains where the savannah could be found. So lions were common as well as vultures and there where man had to confront lions and fight it in order to survive. Soon the lion became to represent a phenomenal force that signed for power and once to be overcome by a man it would sign for the human courage so much later it became what inspired a ritual should be accomplished by the chief of a tribe or by any ruler in order to prove courage , valor and fertility. The ritual of The Heb-Sed was the most essential rite in ancient Egypt that kings had to face to be able to hold throne for thirty years at least, that rite was to include a face
to face physical fight with a lion then later it became replaced with a fight against a bull which could be due to the rareness of lions caused by dryness and droughts.
Nakkada.5000-4000 B.C.Painted by yasser kamel

The very concealed aim for the Heb-Sed rite was to avoid the senility for the ruler as he by circumstances had to enjoy a lot of physical strength in order to lead his nation to a victory. Generally the African mythology can provide a lot of examples for the Egyptian Heb-Sed followed by many nations in Africa as in southern Sudan or in Kenya by the Masai tribe .

African Lion painted by yasser kamel


The Sphinx in ancient Memphis.

The most common tradition in Africa was to dethrone the senile king and crown his heir as most of old kings would not be able to kill a lion in direct fight, but in ancient Egypt kings had a different tactic to follow once they had to execute that rite, just were were keen to accomplish the rite while still been young so they would do it just after one decade of rule in order to keep their throne for another thirty years. The Heb-Sed was to include a throne renewal ceremony for the jubilee of the king as well as a rejuvenation rite. Man in Africa generally and in ancient Egypt specifically used the lion to sign for strength and protection and found in fighting it a great threat to defy, then ancient Egyptian were the first ever to depict their kings with lions statues and images as for the Sphinx of Giza which has a lion body and a man head. By Yasser Kamel to Museumegypt, All rights reserved. Copyrig ©Musegypt.  

Wednesday, April 13, 2011

古代 イジプト人 は ぼっけん を つくりましたね。

古代 イジプト人 は ぼっけん を つくりましたね。

ツタアンクメン の ぶっけん は1400年 紀元前ん 凡そです。

 ツタアンクメン の どうせ つるぎ

日本製刀



古代 イジプト人 は ぼっけん を 造り は  おどろき な 事ね。古代 イジプト は まことに けんどう と けんかく も いました。全体 に イジプト人 は  たいてい つるぎ を どう が つくりられた。カイロ博物館 に ゆうめえ な おうじゃ は ツタアンクメン の どうせ つるぎ と ぶっけん も ある、その ぶっけん は 1400年 紀元前ん 凡そ、それね、  その物 は一番 古く ぶっけん が あります。By Yasser Kamel to Museumegypt, All rights reserved. Copyrig ©Musegypt.             
           

Friday, April 08, 2011

Was Anubis to represent a jackal or else ?



I have been searching in the impact and the influence of Ancient Egypt on the rest of the African culture and the Entire mankind cultures for a long while and ancient Egypt uniqueness never failed to astonish me. Always thinking of the amount of imagination required to innovate the Egyptian gods images and figures, the broad horizon of innovation that created the anthropomorphically gods who were depicted partly human and partly animal or shown as a mixture of two different beings as for god Ra as a winged sun-disc or as for the winged cobra snake or the headed scarab-man god or the winged scarab which has falcon wings once or Buprestidae -beetles wings instead and many other examples are found. In the of Anubis who was depicted as a crouched animal mostly described to be a jackal however to some experts Anubis shape is more to do with a dog most probably a Basenji than a jackal . The Basenji...the Egyptian Barkless Dog is a well-defined breed was tamed and bred by the ancient Egyptians in the old kingdom about 3000 B.C. Then it was introduced by the Greeks to Europe. The Basenji- Dog was kept in ancient Egyptian homes as a pet as for the example of the royal scribe Dedosobek votive stela which goes back to 2000 B.C. The stela represents Dedosobek , his daughter who sits on his lap and a basenji puppy is standing under Dedosobek seat. Anubis was often described to be the guard and the patron for both the mummy and the graveyard and always shown as a follower for the human in origin god Osiris as Anubis was to follow Osiris in everywhere he went. It seems that there was a muddle between the jackal and the basenji dog as being both animals similar in their habit of following human burials as a scavenger as for the jackal or just as a close pet as for the basenji dog.


The picture below is from prince Nekaw tomb in Sakkara, 2500 B.C and it represents him on his seat and his basenji dog.

By Yasser Kamel to Museumegypt, All rights reserved. Copyrig ©Musegypt.

Art in ancient Egypt ! My T.V talk today! I hope you find it enjoyable!💙💙💙

Art in ancient Egypt ! My T.V talk today! I hope you find it enjoyable!