Tenth International Congress of Egyptologists Abstracts of Papers

XICE – Abstract of Papers
ceremonies. The Upper Egypt is represented by the falcon Horus from Hierakonpolis,
the Lower —by perched heron. The inscription contains the toponim Dbawtj, the
ancient name of Pe (Buto), which stresses the connection of the heron to the certain
site. It is possible to suppose that this heron is an ancient deity of Buto, heron
Djebaut. The hypothesis about existing of the heron cult in Buto let us to extend the
localization of the region that was represented by a heron on a Libyan palette. It is
possible to interpret it as a symbol of the Delta region (Buto) besides the generally
accepted variant as one of the northern Upper Egyptian nomes. In our opinion, idea
about simultaneous existing of two centers of the heron cult – in Lower Egypt (Buto)
and Upper Egypt (Hwt-bnw) is preferable. The existence of the heron cult in the Upper
Egypt during the Old Kingdom confirms stela, which was found in Kom el-Ahmar
(Hardai). The “house (Hwt) of heron” is mentioned here also. Most of the Egyptologists
called it “house of Benu”(Hwt.-bnw) and identified this site with well known Hwt-bnw
located either near modern Sharuna or to the south of Hardai, between Hardai and
Hwt-nswt. It is obvious that Hwt-bnw was the center of Benw worship, but the question
is —since what time the name of Benw has a determinative of heron? The lack of
written sources prevents us from definite conclusions. We found just one example
from the Old Kingdom —the geographical list from the tomb of Mehu, where the
name of Hwt-bnw is written completely: the name of Benu is followed by the
determinative of heron. Moreover, in the Pyramid Texts (§1552 а-с) Benu is a small
bird (wagtail or plover), local Heliopolitan deity. Therefore, from our point of view, it
is quite disputable to consider the “house of heron” of the Old Kingdom as a “house
of Benu” (Hwt-bnw), taking into account, that we have several heron deities in the
Pyramid Texts (heron-aHaw, heron-nwr and heron-baH).
It is worth to point out that the herons as well as the other representatives of
Egyptian fauna were depicted as real creatures also. The depiction of the birds hunting
was one of the favorite subjects of the tomb painting since the time of the Fourth
Dynasty. Starting from the Middle Kingdom, herons were intentionally depicted aside
of the main subjects of hunting. In spite of the lack of written evidences, we can
consider the existence of the ritual taboo to kill herons.
Cretulae on papyrus from the Ancient Egypt” – witness through the
impressions on clay [poster]
Maira Torcia
Kha’s funerary equipment at the Egyptian museum in Turin: resumption of the
archaeological study
Marcella Trapani
I have recently resumed, together with my colleagues Egyptologists of the
Soprintendenza per i Beni Archeologici del Piemonte e Museo delle Antichità Egizie
(i.e. the National Archaeological Bureau for Piedmont and Egyptian Museum), the
methodical study of the funerary equipment from Kha’s tomb. The equipment is
entire (except for a lamp, which is at the Egyptian Museum in Cairo) and is kept at the
Egyptian Museum in Turin. In the limits of this work, I studied the following classes
of materials: pottery, stone vessels, metal vessels, professional equipment, writing
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