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Works by Melinda Hartwig

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I should begin by saying I’m not a professional Egyptologist; just an amateur who has read some books and taken some courses over the years. Tomb Painting and Identity in Ancient Thebes is a scholarly publication, with numerous footnotes and references, but it was written clearly enough that an amateur could follow it. Author Melinda Hartwig concentrates on tomb painting during the reigns of Thutmose IV and Amenhotep III, coming up with 30 tombs that met her criteria of being datable to the time period under study and sufficiently intact that they could be analyzed.

Hartwig proposes that the Egyptian tombs she studies are “machines” to project the occupant’s “soul” into the afterlife; “soul” is in quotes here because the ancient Egyptians believed there were a number of entities that would potentially survive after death: the ka, the ba, the šwt, and the rn. The ka was created at an individual’s birth and survived after death; it required food and drink; and could inhabit the mummified corpse or statues or paintings in the tomb. The ba was depicted as a human headed bird and although it normally inhabited the tomb it could fly out and wander around the outside world. The šwt, “shadow”, is acknowledged by Hartwig to be a “mysterious” entity and had a number of forms; the rn is the deceased name – literally – it doesn’t seem like the Egyptians believed the name had a soul-like posthumous existence but rather that it’s preservation and use were necessary for the continued existence of the other soul components. Hartwig observes that all these elements – plus the deceased mummified body, the tomb itself, and the appropriate magical formulae – would be combined to make the deceased into an akh, a spirit that would exist for eternity.

Hartwig then describes construction features and techniques of tombs in her study area and time period. Part of the tomb was publicly accessible – passersby were encouraged to enter, inspect the paintings and writing, and make offerings or at least recite the standard htp-di-nsw funerary prayer, which would cause the various mentioned items and provisions to magically appear for the deceased. (I’ve been known to recite this prayer myself when visiting Egyptian tombs, and usually add something in addition to the standard “bread, beer, fowl, flesh, cloth and all things good and pure on which a god lives” – for example, “a iPhone with unlimited voice and data” or “late model limousine with a gas card”; if it’s working things are getting interesting in the Amduat). Hartwig goes on to characterize tomb painting into various “icons” – a “royal kiosk” icon, a “tribute” icon, a “banquet” icon, and so on, and offers explanations for the things depicted. The book concludes with appendices listing the particular tombs Hartwig studied, figures, and plates.

As mentioned this is a very scholarly work; there’s often more footnotes than text on a page, but I still found it a relatively easy read. If you’re looking for beautiful tomb paintings, you’d be better off with a different book; Hartwig picks tombs that meet her date standards, which are not necessarily the most attractive ones. It might have been useful to incorporate some of the figures into the body of the text but that isn’t the standard for scholarly publications. I also would have liked to know a little more about the functions of the various “souls”; for example, is it the ka, the ba, the šwt, or the akh that gets its heart weighed against a feather? Which one of the souls gets to go to the Fields of the Blessed? Which one ends up in the Solar Boat with Amon-Ra fighting off Apep? However, soul destinations aren’t Hartwig’s main point here. Recommended if you have a casual or better interest in Egyptology.
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setnahkt | Mar 28, 2019 |

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