Tenth International Congress of Egyptologists Abstracts of Papers

XICE – Abstract of Papers
The demonic beings mentioned in the papyri of the New Kingdom announce the
important role that a vast group of supernatural beings (inhabitants of the netherworld,
guardian-demons in the temples, demonic animals and divine emissaries), play in the
late pharaonic religion until the Greco-roman period. This post-doctoral research,
sponsored by the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation, is the starting point of a
wider study on demons, which are attested also on other categories of magical objects
such as statues, stelae and coffins of the Late Period, besides the texts and
iconography of the Ptolemaic temples.
"Sounds of the Underworld"
Colleen M Manassa
Images from ancient Egyptian tombs and temples allow us to recapture the visual
aspects of ritual and mortuary activity, but the accompanying sounds and smells are
more difficult to reconstruct. The sacred “illustrated manuscripts” known collectively
as the Underworld Books provide surprising insights into the role of sound in
Egyptian theology. Baboons jubilate at the arrival of the sun god in the Book of
Amduat, who may appear as the corpse the “Netherworldly baboon” in the Litany of
Re, and the king himself imitated these solar creatures in the course of temple rituals.
The denizens of each hour of the night in the Book of Gates mourn when the
doorleaves of the portal slam shut, and Late Period mortuary rituals suggest that
architectural models of these Netherworldly portals were constructed and manipulated
during dramatic re-enactments of Underworldly events.
Some of the most complex and theologically significant sounds appear within the
Eighth Hour of Amduat, and New Kingdom royal tombs and Nectanebid through
early Ptolemaic Period sarcophagi record a specific sound heard in each cavern of this
division of the night. The sounds include the buzzing of bees, striking cymbals, the
pleasure cry of the “bull of bulls”, the wail of mourners, the cry of a tom-cat, a war
cry, the sound of banks crashing into Nun, and the screech of the divine falcon. The
New Kingdom sources of the Book of Amduat do not provide any solution to these
superficially unrelated sounds heard within each sandy region of the Netherworld.
However, three Nectaenbid through early Ptolemaic Period sarcophagi, those of
Nectanebo II (British Museum EA 10), Tjaihepimu (Berlin 49), and Djedher (Louvre
D9), include a text at the end of the middle register of the Eighth Hour of Amduat that
is otherwise unique to these monuments and indicates the underlying theological
significance of the sounds heard in the Eighth Hour. This additional text, which I have
termed the “Amduat Cosmogony”, describes the deceased as the primeval creator
deity, drawing on the identity of Tatenen as creator of the Hermopolitan Ogdoad as
well as the rich Amun theology of the Ramesside and post-Ramesside Periods. The
Late Period “Amduat Cosmogony” thus provides one of the most significant direct
links between the Underworld Books and the extensive corpus of solar hymns, while
casting light on the true significance of the sounds of the Eighth Hour of Amduat:
they are the sounds of creation.
The buzzing of bees in the first cavern is not particularly loud, but alludes to
honey and the creative powers of the god Min. The second and fourth caverns contain
positive sounds —music making and the cry of sexual satisfaction. In the third and
fifth caverns are heard the sounds of mourning and a raging demand. All of these
sounds are appropriate to a celebration of the sexually regenerated Osiris. His death is
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