Tenth International Congress of Egyptologists Abstracts of Papers

XICE – Abstract of Papers
the canopic box of the King Sobekemsaf, stored in the National Museum of
Antiquities of Leiden Museum. In this piece, it is possible to notice that some birds
are with legs and some other are without legs; some rishi coffins, dated to the
Seventeenth Dynasty, stored in the Egyptian Museum of Cairo, show snakes in their
complete form but birds without legs, a mixed practice to mutilate hieroglyphs. Soon,
this custom will be forgotten, till disappears completely during the Eighteenth
Dynasty. The possible explanation for this trend, is that the custom of mutilation of
hieroglyphs raised in north during the end of the Twelfth Dynasty and later moved to
the south, but in Thebes it was not understood completely and soon forgotten.
References:
FORMAN W. and GUIRKE S. (1996), Hieroglyphs and the Afterlife in Ancient Egypt,
London.
GRAJETZKI W. (2003) Burial Customs in Ancient Egypt. Life in Death for Rich and
Poor, Duckworth Egyptology, London.
MINIACI G. (2007) ‘Some remarks on the development of rishi coffins’, in: S.
GRALLERT and W. GRAJETZKI (eds.) (2007) Life and Afterlife in the Middle Kingdom
and Second Intermediate Period, GHP 7, London, 97-103, pl. 7.
PETRIE W.F. (18900, Kahun, Gurob, and Hawara, London.
POLZ D. (2007) Die Särge des Imeni und der Geheset. Für die Ewigkeit geschaffen,
Mainz am Rhein.
SZAFRANSKI Z.E. (1985) ‘Buried statues of Mentuhotep II Nebhepetra and
Amenophis I at Deir el-Bahari’, MDAIK 41, 257-63;
SZAFRANSKI Z.E. (1983) ‘Some Remarks about the Process of Democratization of the
Egyptian Religion in the Second Intermediate Period’, Études et Travaux 12, 53-66.
WILLEMS H. (1988) Chests of Life. A study of the Typology and Conceptual
Development of Middle Kingdom Standard Class Coffins, Leiden.
Hatshepsut at Serabit el-Khadim: some unpublished finds and their historical
implications
Yossi Mizrachy
The temple of Hathor at Serabit el-Khadim is renowned for a variety of exceptional
phenomena related to its structure, decoration and ideological concept. One the most
intriguing features displayed at this site is a group of representations of Hatshepsut;
some are associated with the formative stage of her accession to the throne as a ruler
of Egypt. Among the finds yielded at the site by the expedition of the University of
Tel Aviv during 1968-1978, a few more pieces of the same category had been
discovered and documented. Those unpublished, and barely familiar items, consist of
two representations of Hatshepsut. One of them combines traits of her role as a queen
and a 'great god's wife' with royal insignia of a ruler. Two more pieces are incised
with epithets of unidentified officials of the 'great god's wife' institution. The paper
treats the implications of those finds and their contribution to the understanding of the
process which has led Hatshepsut to her position as a ruler of Egypt. There will be
examined the possibility that Hatshepsut already made use of her position as the 'great
god's wife' in order to press forward with her ambitions, and launch an independent
(economic?) strategy before fully taking her position as a ruler of Egypt.
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