Field Notes

012

Curator’s Choice

Ivory Pyxis
5 1/2 inches long
Louvre Museum

In 1929 French archaeologist Claude Schaeffer began uncovering Late Bronze Age Ugarit, modern Ras Shamra on the Mediterranean coast of northern Syria. Outside the ancient city, among the limestone cliffs of the bay of Minet el Beida (White Harbor), Schaeffer soon discovered a series of tombs containing astounding grave goods: Mycenaean vases, faience pottery, Egyptian alabaster vessels, ostrich egg shells, terracotta and bronze statues.

Among the most beautiful of Schaeffer’s finds at the necropolis is this delicate, 13th-century B.C. ivory, now in the Louvre. Only five-and-a-half inches in diameter and carved from an elephant’s tusk, it once formed the lid of a cosmetic box, or pyxis.

The pyxis shows a simple scene: An elegant, bare-breasted woman seems to be feeding grain to a pair of leaping goats. The various elements in this carving, however, derive from all over the Mediterranean: Egypt, Anatolia, the Aegean and Syria. The woman’s single forelock and elaborate curls, for example, resemble hair styles of priestesses in frescoes from Crete, Mycenaean Greece and Thera (modern Santorini). Her naked breasts and prominent nipples, on the other hand, are Levantine in style—and the highly symmetrical arrangement of the lid’s figures is reminiscent of Near Eastern cylinder seals.

What does the scene represent? Our lady is probably a fertility figurine, and she closely resembles depictions of the goddess Astarte/Ishtar/Inanna. In ancient Near Eastern art, sacred trees, animals, monsters and mythical figures—such as this fertility goddess flanked by images of wild goats—are often depicted in a state of calm equilibrium, in order to suggest nature’s balance and the renewal of the seasons.

Schaeffer went on to make spectacular discoveries at Ugarit. Perhaps his most famous find was the remains of a library, containing clay tablets written in a then-unknown script. It took only a few months for French and German scholars to decipher this new writing, which turned out to be an alphabetic script used to encode a West Semitic language related to Old Hebrew. But Schaeffer and later scholars discovered many, many other things at Ugarit—Hurrian songs, Canaanite myths, Hittite tablets and Egyptian faience—indicating that Late Bronze Age Ugarit was an early metropolitan city, a Hong Kong of the ancient world.

In that sense, our ivory lady is a lovely symbol of Ugarit itself. All of the known world, it seems, went into her making.

This article is based on an interview with Annie Caubet, director of the Louvre’s Department of Ancient Near Eastern Antiquities.

013

Ramesses I, Lost or Found?

Mapping Mummies in Atlanta

Using computerized tomography (CT scans) and imaging techniques, researchers at Atlanta’s Emory University Hospital have created three-dimensional images of nine Egyptian mummies—including one which may be the pharaoh Ramesses I (1295–1294 B.C.).

The mummies were scanned from head to toe, and over 1,000 digitalized cross sections were electronically reassembled into a three-dimensional whole, much as slices of bread can be stacked into a rounded loaf. Radiologists then directed computers to take virtual journeys through the mummies’ body cavities and assemble 3D images of their faces—all without unwrapping the bodies or disturbing them in any way.

The researchers discovered that one male mummy’s soft inner organs had been replaced by tightly rolled linen (see photo above) inserted through an incision made in the abdomen. The mummy’s brain had also been removed and his skull filled with molten resin. These mummification techniques were in vogue during the reign of Ramesses I and were reserved for persons of royal status.

Some scholars have speculated that this particular mummy is none other than the missing Ramesses I. The mummies of Ramesses’s son Seti (1294–1279 B.C.) and grandson Ramesses II (1279–1213 B.C.) were discovered long ago. Betsy Teasley Trope, an assistant curator at Emory’s Carlos Museum, thinks she spies a family resemblance: “They (all) have very distinctive facial features.”

014

Egyptian Orthopedics

A False Toe from Ancient Thebes

Pathologists at Ludwig-Maximilians University in Munich got a surprise last year while examining an early first-millennium B.C. female mummy: On the mummy’s right foot was a wooden prosthetic toe, attached to the foot with a linen sock and laces.

Egyptian embalmers often used prosthetic limbs in preparing mummies for burial—to make the deceased “complete” for her voyage through the afterlife. This mummy’s prosthesis, however, was no postmortem addition; scuff marks on the bottom of the toe suggest that it was actually used for walking.

The mummy was excavated at a Theban necropolis by archaeologists from the German Institute of Archaeology and Egypt’s Supreme Council of Antiquities. The excavators then asked the Munich pathologists, led by Dr. Andreas Nerlich, to examine the mummy.

Some 3,000 years ago, this 50- to 55-year-old woman was suffering from numerous medical problems, including severe arteriosclerosis and mineral deficiency in the leg bones, Dr. Nerlich told Archaeology Odyssey. Because the woman’s legs were in such poor condition, she probably didn’t walk very much—which may have resulted in the loss of the toe, perhaps due to gangrene.

The area of the foot around the missing toe had begun to heal, indicating that the woman was still alive when she lost the digit. Indeed, the prosthesis was skillfully constructed, allowing its owner some flexibility while walking. It was also carefully designed to let the woman keep up appearances: Painted dark brown, the false toe was nicely finished off with a toenail.

015

Cuneiform-by-Mail

You, too, can learn to read Middle Eastern cuneiform and Egyptian hieroglyphics.

The adult education program of the University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute makes long-distance learning easy by offering correspondence courses throughout the academic year. Recent classes have included “Cuneiform-by-Mail,” “Hieroglyphs-by-Mail” and a series of audio-taped lessons on “Egypt at the Dawn of History.”

Taught by university professors and graduate students, these courses are open to anyone 18 years and older and range in price from $185 to $245. No grades, no credit, just 12 to 16 weeks of archaeological edification (and feedback by snail mail). Contact: The Oriental Institute Education Office, 1155 East 58th Street, Chicago, IL 60637 (Tel.: 773–702-9507).

015

What Do You Know About the Hurrians?

1) Who were the Hurrians?

a) a Semitic people from the Arabian peninsula
b) the ancestors of modern Hungarians
c) a group who migrated into northern Mesopotamia around 3000 B.C.
d) followers of the Phoenician god Ba’al-Hammon

2) Kumarbi, the Hurrians’ principal god, was associated with the central Hurrian city of

a) Ur
b) Tashkent
c) Urkesh
d) Ebla

3) A Hurrian text found at Ugarit, in modern Syria, contained

a) the dowry of a Hurrian princess betrothed to a Syrian king
b) a musical score for a Hurrian religious anthem
c) a treasure map, showing where a Hurrian king buried the palace gold
d) trade routes for north Mesopotamian merchants

4) Hurrian peoples formed the Mittani kingdom in

a) the late fourth millennium B.C.
b) the mid-second millennium B.C.
c) the early Iron Age
d) the Hellenistic period, after Alexander’s death

5) The most important source for the decipherment of the Hurrian language is

a) a letter sent from a Mittani ruler to Amenhophis III
b) a bill of lading from Ugarit detailing a shipment of gold and ivory
c) a cuneiform tablet describing a gift of linen garments
d) a Hurrian text with a translation in archaic Canaanite

6) The still-undiscovered capital of the Mittani kingdom was

a) Kizzuwatna
b) Nuzi
c) Shangri-la
d) Washukkani

7) Some Mittani deities were worshiped in

a) India
b) the region of modern Germany
c) Subsaharan Africa
d) Gaul

8) Interdynastic marriages sealed the peace between the Mittani kingdom and

a) the Babylonians
b) the Assyrians
c) the Macedonians
d) the Egyptians

Answers

1) c, 2) c, 3) b, 4) b, 5) a, 6) d, 7) a, 8) d

014

OddiFacts

What’s in a Name?

When you hear a news report delivered by Sandor Vanocur, you are experiencing the eternal influence of Alexander the Great (356–323 B.C.). Evidence of Alexander the Great’s greatness can be found in the enduring popularity of his name throughout Asia Minor, Russia, Europe, the Indian subcontinent and the English-speaking world. Russian Alexandrs, Saschas and Sandels; Muslim Iskanders; German-Yiddish Senders, Sandors and Sand’ls; Spanish Alejandros; and English Alexanders and Alecs continue to pay linguistic tribute to the Macedonian warrior king.

Curator’s Choice
Ivory Pyxis5 1/2 inches longLouvre Museum