Coffin mask of the Satdjehuti Satibu
| Coffin mask of the Satdjehuti-Satibu | |
|---|---|
 The coffin mask fragment
|
|
| material | Sycamore wood , stuccoed and gilded, eye inlays made of copper (eyelid), marble (eyeball) and obsidian (iris), inscribed on the back |
| Dimensions | B. 60.3 cm; D. 34 cm; |
| origin | Unknown |
| time | 2nd Intermediate Period , late 17th Dynasty , around 1575 BC Chr. |
| place | Munich , SSÄK , ÄS 7163 |
The coffin mask of the Satdjehuti Satibu is an art object from the 17th Dynasty of Ancient Egypt and was created around 1575 BC. It is of great scientific importance as it is a fixed point in the genealogy of the Ahmosids and in several respects a missing link , u. a. in the development of the Egyptian Book of the Dead and the Rishi Coffins at the end of the Second Intermediate Period . The coffin mask was acquired by the State Museum of Egyptian Art in Munich and is currently one of the major works on display there.
meaning
The coffin mask is a fragmentary headpiece of an anthropoid wooden coffin . As an important feature, it mentions the name and title of the Satdjehuti-Satibu , as well as their descent from Tetisheri, and thus provides a fixed point in the genealogy of the Ahmosids. It also contains the earliest known version of the Theban Book of the Dead editorial office and is considered the starting point for the art of the New Kingdom .
Iconography and typology
The most striking iconographic element of the mask is an extremely voluminous wig with a vulture hood over it . The wig is only fragmentary and probably reached to the chest. It is a variant of the three-part long hair or strand wig, which is also found in the iconography of female deities. Possibly it can be continued into a long snail wig, which ends in large volutes twisted over hair discs . The rear 41 hair strands alternate in blue and gold, with 21 hair strands being blue and 20 being gold. The blue strands of hair on the front part of the wig were subsequently gilded, which is so far unique in the known coffin masks of ancient Egypt. This was probably intended to achieve a uniform golden front of the coffin, like the sarcophagus of Ahhotep II, the surface of which is almost entirely made of gold .
Over the wig is an asymmetrical vulture hood in the form of a vulture bellows, which holds the Schen-Ring in its claws. The position of the vulture's hide on the apex of the wig is an important dating criterion. The stranded wig and vulture hood together form the earliest clearly established evidence of this combination after the end of the Middle Kingdom in the coffin mask of the Satdjehuti Satibu . The rectangular depression on the forehead and the trapezoidal impression above it suggest that a uraeus snake was embedded in the mask .
In the iconography of statues of the royal wives of the New Kingdom, the combination of vulture hood, Uräus and Hathor wig is typical. The coffin mask seems to be a prototype of these statues. Satdjehuti-Satibu thus seems to have been a “royal consort” herself, although this title does not appear on the mask itself. Overall, the trapezoidal face, the possible Hathor wig and the small ears represent an iconographic, formal and stylistic allusion to the goddess Hathor, whose sanctuary in Deir el-Bahari was especially venerated at that time.
Coffin reconstruction
Due to the dimensions of the mask, the total length of the coffin can be estimated at just over 2 m. According to the iconographic and stylistic classification, the associated coffin would belong to the older Rishi group. It follows that Satdjehuti-Satibu probably died before the end of the 17th dynasty.
Inscription and texts
The inside of the mask is completely labeled. On 30 lines, of which the lower ones have been largely destroyed, there are the Book of the Dead verses 124 (“Spruch to descend to the Tribunal of Osiris ”), 83 (“Spruch, to take shape as a phoenix ”), 84 (“Spruch, to take shape as heron ") and 85 (" saying, to take shape as a living Ba , ... "). The writing is black and red, italic hieroglyphs were predominantly used , but here and there also hieratic symbols . Palaeographically , the individual forms of the hieratic signs can be classified in the 12th / 13th dynasty . Since the coffin mask is dated to the 17th dynasty, it represents a fixed point in the creation and tradition of the Book of the Dead. It is the oldest evidence of the Ahmosidic Book of the Dead texts. The choice and sequence of the sayings is common until the early 18th dynasty.
The coffin mask is also the only evidence that coffins were found on the inside of coffins up to the late 17th dynasty. At the beginning of the 18th dynasty, texts on the books of the dead were only written on shrouds , later on papyri (books on the dead) were added. Here, too, it represents a “missing link”, because previously texts from the Book of the Dead were known on the shrouds of Tetisheri (JE 96805) and the “king's daughter” Ahmose (Turin 63001), who only died at the beginning of the 18th dynasty.
The name and the title of the owner appear in hieratic symbols between the texts of the Book of the Dead:
"King's daughter (and) royal sister Satdjehuti, called" Satibu ", the justified, born of the king's wife Teti-Scheri."
The fact that Tetisheri is not named as “justified” (deceased) suggests that she probably survived her daughter. Satdjehuti-Satibu is not referred to as the “royal consort” herself, although iconography classifies her as such. Such a mention would probably have caused confusion, since Tetisheri already bears this title.
Manufacturing techniques and materials
Computed Tomography
The analysis by the computed tomography showed that the coffin mask was made from a single piece of wood that had grown severely twisted. As with the coffin of Ahhotep II, the ears were made separately and fastened with dowels . An adhesive was also used between the ears and the wooden surface for a better hold . On the left outside there is a wide, deep-seated wooden wedge , which served as a connection to the coffin tub. The nose was also made separately and only inserted afterwards. It was only during the CT examination that it was found that it has a different wood structure from the rest of the mask.
Wood analysis
The analysis of the wood was carried out with the help of microscopy and microanatomical examinations . A loose wood chip (17 × 9 × 3 mm) from the left break edge of the coffin mask and a loose round dowel from the rear edge of the joint were examined. The result was that the wood of the mask comes from a sycamore , while the dowel is made of tamarisk wood , which is very strong and hard.
Analysis of the surface materials
The surface materials were examined using scanning electron microscopy with energy-dispersive X- ray microanalysis , X-ray diffractometry (vertical goniometer ), microscopy, proton- induced X-ray spectroscopy , and wavelength- specific electron beam microprobe . It was found that the joints between the wooden parts had been sealed and the rough surface had been smoothed beforehand for the coloring . A beige , single-layer primer consisting of calcite and chalk was applied to the outside . The chalk, with enclosed foraminifera and coccoliths , comes from the limestone of Egypt, which was formed marine in the Eocene . The calcite contains a natural contamination of quartz and brown ocher . The sharp-edged quartz grains probably come from the Theban area.
The inside primer under the inscription is coarser-grained and contains more quartz. It contains additions of magnesium and iron-containing carbonates , which should ensure better and more resistant writability. The signing was done with red ocher , the bars were applied with a kind of injection molding , in which coarser calcite particles were used than in the primer. These consist of finely powdered white mussel shells , which are found in the Red Sea , the Mediterranean Sea and the Nile Valley . In the wig area, the gilding or a blue layer of Egyptian blue paint lies directly on the primer or the webs , which was around 1575 BC. Was used particularly frequently. The mask is almost completely gilded with gold leaf , the gold layer is partly over the Egyptian blue. There are up to 2 superimposed, approx. 10 µm thick layers of gold leaf.
The gold leaf is composed of 92% gold, 6% silver and 1% bronze , a soft alloy that is easy to deform. Thus the gold does not come from the Egyptian eastern desert , because there the gold content is between 80% and 85%. However, no clear information about the gold source can be determined. It could be panning gold from the Wadig Valley or the Nile sediments in Nubia . Naturally purified gold from the upper parts of gold quartz veins , which is produced by the weathering of pyrite , would also be possible . The composition of the gold leaf is largely constant, the silver content is 9% only in small areas on the back of the head and the chin, which suggests a later addition. A slightly fluctuating copper content and a different surface treatment ensure that the gold leaf differs in color in places.
Analysis of the eye insoles
The wavelength-specific electron beam microscope and stereo microscopy were used to examine the eye insoles . The eyes were worked separately and only inserted afterwards. Each eye is made up of 3 parts: the eyelids made of copper, the eyeball made of marble and the iris made of obsidian . The marble used is the only reliable evidence of its use before the New Kingdom. The eyelids are made of very pure copper sheet. The composition corresponds to the composition of the copper from Timna in Israel , but there are no reliable provenance assignments of copper artefacts to other known copper deposits.
The eyeballs are made of white marble, which occurs in the Egyptian eastern desert. Due to the rounded shape of the eyes, the marble likely didn't come from a quarry but was naturally formed. It has a degree of hardness of 3 and is therefore very soft, so it is well suited for processing. The obsidian iris also comes from the Egyptian eastern desert. It contains porphyry small inclusions of well-crystallized pink orthoclase and gray quartz, occasionally also small cavity fillings of bluish hauyn ( mineral of the sodalite series ).
Work process
The manufacturing process can be precisely reconstructed based on the analyzes . First, the primer was applied to the outside of the wood surface to level out any unevenness and enable an even layer of paint. Then a red preliminary drawing of the strand wig and the vulture hood was made. Then the bars were modeled and the strands were trimmed in blue. Then the gold leaf layer was applied and this was additionally strengthened with an adhesive, presumably egg white . Then the blue strands were subsequently gold-plated. Finally, the inside was primed, lined and labeled without a preliminary drawing.
The coffin lid did not consist of a single tree trunk, but was made with the patchwork technique, which was also used for the sarcophagus of Ahhotep II. The coffin mask, like the other Rishi coffins of the 17th dynasty, consists of the trunk of a sycamore that was approx. 20 m high. Normally, royal coffins were made of valuable cedar wood from Lebanon , but since trade links were cut off by the Hyksos , local sycamore wood had to be used. It was not until the beginning of the 18th dynasty, when the Hyksos were expelled from Egypt, that cedar wood was used again as a material.
The obsidian iris was inserted into a conical recess in the eyeball and attached with a black, very hard adhesive, possibly bitumen. The eyes are clearly different, the iris of the left eye is much larger than that of the right. A slight inclination and an imperceptibly asymmetrical arrangement create a slightly cross-eyed impression. The eyelids are each cut and shaped from a single piece of copper sheet. A sophisticated spring mechanism ensures that it fits perfectly into the eye sockets. The eyelids were fixed again with a resin-like material.
The injection molding process of the webs is quite unique and represents a technological innovation . The decor on other coffins was always scratched. At the beginning of the 18th dynasty, a wooden relief was made in the upper part of the coffin and then covered with gold leaf Scribing technique retained. The coffin mask is thus again a "missing link", and the economical injection molding process was probably abandoned because it turned out to be very sensitive and unstable.
literature
- Alfred Grimm, Sylvia Schoske: In the sign of the moon. Egypt at the beginning of the New Kingdom (= writings from the Egyptian collection . Volume 7 ). State Collection of Egyptian Art, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-87490-691-4 .
Remarks
- ↑ Major works in the Munich collection . On: smaek.de ; last accessed on July 10, 2014.
- ↑ Similar to the coffin of Ahhotep II.
- ↑ Similar to the coffin of the Seqenenre .
- ↑ The positioning on the vertex occurs at the beginning of the 18th dynasty, while the vulture hide moves to the back of the head in the middle of the 18th dynasty.
- ↑ Similar to Ahhotep II.
- ↑ As was customary in the 19th and 20th dynasties , during the 18th dynasty the cursive book of the dead was used .
- ↑ The Ahmosids compiled the texts of the Book of the Dead, which first appeared in the 12th and 13th dynasties, and edited , systematized and canonized them.
- ↑ The above 4 proverbs were usually followed by Proverbs 82, 77, 86, 99B, 119, 7, 102, 38A, 27, 14, 39, 116, 91 and 64. These proverbs were probably also attached to the rest of the coffin wall.
- ^ Alfred Grimm, Sylvia Schoske: In the sign of the moon , 1999, cover page.
- ↑ Sycamore and tamarisk are the two most common types of wood in Egypt.
- ↑ 98.8% weight of copper, 0.9% lead , 0.2% arsenic and 0.08% antimony , but no tin .