MacGregor plaque
The MacGregor plaque (also MacGregor tablet , sandal plaque from King Den ) is an important artifact that probably comes from the mastaba tomb of the ancient Egyptian king ( pharaoh ) Hor Den ( 1st Dynasty ). The plaque was originally the inscription according sandals attached to the king.
Origin and description
The artifact was probably found in the tomb of King Den in Abydos , it comes from the excavations of the French archaeologist , coptologist and Egyptologist Émile Amélineau . Today the tablet is exhibited in the British Museum under the inventory number 1922,0728.2 . It was acquired by the museum in 1922 and was previously in the Macgregor Collection. The tablet is made of worked ivory and measures 4.5 cm × 5.4 cm and is about 0.2 cm thick. The images are engraved and burned.
King Den is shown on the front. He wears a loincloth, a Nemes headscarf with a uraeus snake and an animal tail that he has attached to his backside to his apron. Den is called here by his Horus name. His pose is part of the program of " slaying the enemy ": the king has raised his right hand, it is holding a club. Den has grabbed an enemy by the head with his left hand, the opponent has already dropped to his knees and tried to fend off the king's blow. He can be identified as an Asian by his hairstyle (goatee and Rasta curls ) . To the right of the plaque is the hieroglyphic inscription “First time to strike from the East”, with the jackal standard of the god Upuaut attached . To the left of the plaque is the name of the senior official Inika .
On the back is the depiction of a pair of sandals, the left depiction being badly damaged by scratches.
The plaque was presented in 2010 in the 11th episode of the BBC radio series A History of the World in 100 Objects .
literature
- Wolfgang Helck : Investigations on the thinite period (= Egyptological treatises. Vol. 45). Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1987, ISBN 3-447-02677-4 , pp. 161 & 187.
- RB Parkinson, Whitfield Diffie, Mary Fischer, RS Simpson: Cracking codes: the Rosetta stone and decipherment. Volume 2. California Press, New York 1999, ISBN 0520222482 , p. 74.
- AJ Spencer: Early Dynastic Objects (= Catalog of the Egyptian Antiquities in the British Museum. ). British Museum, London 1980, ISBN 0-7141-0927-4 , p. 65, no.460.
- Neil MacGregor : A history of the world in 100 objects , Beck, Munich 2011, ISBN 978-3-406-62147-5 , pp. 97-102.
Web links
- British Museum : Scientific description under inventory number 1922,0728.2 .
Remarks
- ↑ so in MacGregor, Geschichte der Welt, p. 97 ff.
- ↑ BBC Radio 4: King Den's Sandal Label ; accessed February 25, 2019.