Ceremonial Execution and Public Rewards

Ceremonial Execution and Public Rewards: Some Historical Scenes on New Kingdom Private Stelae by Alan R. Schulman Review by: William A. Ward Journal of Near Eastern Studies, Vol. 51, No. 2 (Apr., 1992), pp. 152-155 Published by: The University of Chicago Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/545507 . Accessed: 02/11/2012 11:49 Your use of the JSTOR archive indicates your acceptance of the Terms & Conditions of Use, available at . http://www.jstor.org/page/info/about/policies/terms.jsp

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recording of the Eighteenth Dynasty "Book of the Dead" copies, the historical aspect of the promulgation of this tradition is not given the attention one might like to see. Despite some efforts, the question of what generated the form of funerary writings commonly designated as "Book of the Dead" in the end remains unanswered. It should be said that the book contains vast amounts of detailed information for anyone interested in diving into the complexity of the written tradition of a corpus of religious writing. A word has to be added about editorial policy, which has nothing to do with the undisputed merits of the study itself. Egyptological research is an ongoing process and whatever is achieved, impressive and convincing as it might appear, is lastly a stepping-stone to, one hopes, an ever-increasing understanding of ancient Egypt and the ancient Egyptians. It is an unending dispute over a specific human manifestation, and the awareness of the relativity of the efforts in no way diminishes the accomplishment. The merits and viability of the intellectual effort, however, ought to be in a meaningful balance with the pecuniary aspect of their presentation. The series, which is produced by off-set from author-supplied stencils, is priced at a level of intentional rip-off. It might be time to contemplate the aims of Egyptological publishing. HANS GOEDICKE

The Johns Hopkins University

Ceremonial Execution and Public Rewards: Some Historical Scenes on New Kingdom Private Stelae. By ALAN R. SCHULMAN.Orbis

Biblicus et Orientalis 75. Freiburg, Switzerland: UniversitUtsverlagand Gottingen: Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, 1988. Pp. xxix + 223 + 35 figs. + 6 pls. 74 Swiss francs.

This work is the latest in a series of studies by Schulman on various iconographic themes found on New Kingdom Stelae. Among these are his articles on the Opening of the Mouth

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Ceremony,' the 3h ikr n Rc stelae,2 and several essays on the Canaanite deity Reshep.3 All of Schulman's research is thorough, and he has done much to explain why given scenes or themes appear repeatedly on funerary and other stelae of the New Kingdom. The basic thrust of his research is that many scenes are not stereotypes but are records of real events in which the owners of these stelae participated. The present volume consists of two more iconographic studies: scenes showing the king giving rewards of gold to individuals, and the traditional scene of the king about to crush the head of a kneeling captive before him. Schulman defines these two scenes as follows (pp. 140-41). The granting of gold collars to favored officials was a private matter where the emphasis is on the recipient of the gold and the honor being conferred. This scene thus belongs primarily to the repertoire of private tomb art. The theme of the king slaying captives was a public affair with the emphasis on the king himself, performing an act of thanksgiving to the gods for their support in battlefield victories. This theme is found in monumental art only in a temple context which carries over to private commemorative stelae. The thesis of this book is that both the awarding of gold collars and the king ritually slaying enemies were real events that took place before a public audience. One cannot argue otherwise concerning the awarding of gold. Artistic and literary sources combine to show that giving gold collars and other gifts to deserving officials was indeed a common way by which a king rewarded service to the state. Such an important event in an individual's life was therefore a suitable moment to be portrayed in his tomb chapel reliefs or on a stelae. ' A. R. Schulman,"The IconographicTheme: 'Opening of the Mouth' on Stelae," JARCE 21 (1984): 169-96. 2 Idem, "Some Observations on the Stelae," BiOr 43 (1986): 302-48.

3h ikr n Rc-

3 Idem,"TheWingedReshep,"JARCE16 (1981): 69-84; "Reshepon Horseback,"JSSEA7 (1977): 13-17; "ReshepTimesTwo,"in W. K. Simpsonand

W. M. Davis, eds., Studies in Ancient Egypt, the Aegean, and the Sudan: Essays in Honor of Dows Dunham on the Occasion of His 90th Birthday, June 1, 1980 (Boston, 1980), pp. 157-66.

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But I am not very comfortable with the idea that representationson private stelae of the king slaying captives reflect a reality. Schulman feels that on stelae of the New Kingdom-his material dates from the mid-Eighteenth Dynasty to the beginning of the Twentieth-this smiting scene reflects "a real event which took place at a specific time, after a successful military operation, in a real temple" (p. 57). When this motif appears on private stelae, it means that the owner of the stela was himself present in the courtyard of a temple and personally witnessed the royal club smashing the head of a sacrificial victim. The "triumphalsacrifice" of human victims was therefore a very real part of the victory celebrations upon the completion of a successful military campaign and was open to public view. It was recorded on private stelae since individuals who had been present at such ritual sacrifices looked upon that event as a significant highlight of their lives. I must admit that my reluctance to embrace the idea of Egyptian kings practicing human sacrifice to show gratitude to their gods after winning a war stems partially from my own view of the Egyptian character. They could be as brutal in battle as any of their contemporaries; no society in history has been immune from the collective and individual barbarity that makes brutes of otherwise ordinary people when they go off to war. But it is quite a different thing to postulate the planned, public execution of captured prisoners by grateful rulers as a "thank you" to deities who have cast their blessings of victory over the land. One expects this of the Assyrians, not the Egyptians. This just does not seem to me to be part of the Egyptian national character, nor is there reason to believe they thought their gods required human sacrifice in any context. When it comes right down to it, Schulman's argument is basically one of analogy. He notes (pp. 4 and 195) that other scenes depicted on private stelae-for example, a god delivering an oracle, the performance of the Opening of the Mouth Ceremony-do reflect real events in which the owners of these stelae took part. This indicates that many so-called conventional scenes, such as the deceased making offerings to a god, represent actual events and

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are not just repetitious artistic devices to emphasize piety, or the like. This is all quite true, but we have more than just artistic representations to prove it is true. We know from literary sources that statues of deities delivered oracles in public places, that the Opening of the Mouth Ceremony was very much a part of Egyptian funerals, and that people did make offerings to the gods. To find such events portrayed on private stelae presents no problem. We know that ordinary Egyptians witnessed and took part in such events. That an individual would record a particular event of personal significance in his own life is natural, and there is ample supporting written documentation. The public, royal sacrifice of captives as envisioned by Schulman, however, has no documentation other than the rather rare portrayals themselves on a mere score of stelae. He does offer a long list of Egyptian barbarities as indirect literary evidence in support of the supposed royal sacrifice (nn. 121-23, pp. 89-91), but these were acts committed during war or its immediate aftermath. For the public human sacrifice he postulates, only the small group of twenty-one stelae collected in this study have a direct bearing on the problem at hand. Several of these stelae have no text, or the text is broken off, but in none of the extant inscriptions on the rest is there any hint that the scene they accompany was a real event. These inscriptions consist of the usual praises of the king and the names and titles of those who erected the stelae. The only textual evidence brought to bear on the question is the Amada Stela of Amenhotep II (p. 46), which notes that this king, having killed seven enemy chieftains, brought their corpses back to Egypt to be hung from temple walls at Thebes and Napata. But this is quite a different matter. The text clearly states that these enemies were killed in Canaan, not in a ritual human sacrifice in Egypt. Again, this was an act of war. A major objection, then, to Schulman's theory is that there is no supporting literary evidence. No theory can be proved on the basis of analogy alone. This is not to say that this particulartheory should be rejected out of hand. Some of Schulman's arguments are valid. On several of these stelae, for example, the smiting scene is shown

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within a temple and, in two cases, the entrance pylon is likewise portrayed with the smiting scene behind the entrance as if in the open, outer temple court. He is surely correct in believing that the figures of the deities before whom the smiting takes place are actual cult statues brought out for the occasion. Given these facts, it follows that a public ritual did take place and that this ritual was considered by some Egyptians of the New Kingdom to have been sufficiently personally importantto them to be recorded on private commemorative stelae. My main objection to the whole idea is the assumption of an actual human sacrifice before the cult statue of a god. Schulman repeatedly emphasizes that what took place was the real execution of real people. If so, then why should the god Ptah be so prominent on these stelae? Of the twenty-one stelae, most portray the cult statue of the god before whom the king slays his enemy: Amon-re is shown three times, Seth and Horus one time each, Ptah appears on thirteen of these documents. Ptah was not a god of war, nor is there anything in his cult which suggests that the offering of human sacrifices was appropriateto his worship. That Ptah appears so frequently on these stelae is best explained by the fact that Memphis was the northern capital of Egypt and the primary cult of that city was that of Ptah. The royal ceremony in question, whatever its nature, would therefore be celebrated at Memphis more frequently than anywhere else, and in the temple of Ptah, the city's foremost deity. In short, I can accept Schulman's theory that a public ceremony did take place from time to time in which the king "slew" an enemy in the presence of a cult statue of a deity, but was this an actual execution? I think not, since it would be a unique example in Egyptian cultural history of human sacrifice which, if I understand the Egyptians at all correctly, was a concept foreign to their mentality. The solution lies in a different direction. Religious drama played a significant role in Egyptian ritual whereby simulated events were staged,4 and it seems to me that this is what is 4Cf. K. Sethe, Dramatische Texte zu altaegyptischen Mysterienspielen (Leipzig, 1928); B. van de

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involved here. The motif of the king clubbing enemies kneeling before him is one of the more common artistic themes from archaic times on. It would appear that during the period when Egypt controlled an empire-which about equals the time-span of the stelae Schulman has collected-this age-old royal motif came to be included in victory celebrations as a stage re-enactment of the eternal triumph of Egypt over her enemies.5 It was not necessary to actually kill someone in this ritual, only to go through the motions which would suffice to serve the purpose of announcing yet another successful war. Even without a real human sacrifice, the simulated act alone would leave a deep impression on those who saw the drama, enough to move some to record it on a commemorative stela of their own. In general, this book takes us one more step toward an understanding of the private stelae of New Kingdom Egypt. Schulman's thesis that significant events in the lives of individuals were illustrated on their stelae, funerary or otherwise, is a refreshing one, and he has shown that this can be a fruitful avenue of research. In the present case, he has collected ample evidence on two such events-the public awarding of gold to royal favorites and a temple ritual concerned with royal victory celebrations at the conclusion of successful Walle, "Les Originesegyptiennesdu theatredramatique,"CdE9 (1930): 37-50; E. Drioton,"A la recherchedu theatrede l'ancienneEgypte,"ArtsAsiatiques 1 (1954): 96-108. A reassessment of ancient Egyptian drama has re-

cently been undertaken by L. B. Mikhail,who offers somewhat different interpretations.See his "The EgyptologicalApproachto Dramain AncientEgypt: Is it Time for a Revision?,"GM 75 (1984): 19-26; 77 (1984):25-33; 78 (1984):69-77; 79 (1984): 1929; andby the sameauthor,"DramaticAspectsof the OsirianKhoiakFestival,"GM81 (1984):29-54. 5 It is not inconceivablethat victorycelebrations for any given militarysuccess, in the form of stage productions,were performedat several main cult centersthroughoutthe land. The primeexampleof this, of course,is the RamesseumDramaticPapyrus, the scriptfor a coronationplay.To allowall of Egypt to participatein this importantevent, the play was taken "on the road"so that Egyptianseverywhere mightwitness this simulatedcrowningof theirnew ruler.

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military operations. While I believe he has gone too far in explaining the latter, there is little doubt that the smiting scenes shown on private stelae do reflect an actual event. That I prefer to place this in the realm of religious drama rather than human sacrifice does not deny the reality of the event itself. The book includes drawings of all the stelae discussed and photographs of those published here for the first time. The text is copiously documented and fully annotated. The only lack in the format is an index without which any book is somewhat less easy to use.

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objects are shown in line drawings, usually the back, side, and base, which is the proper way to publish scarabs. Photographs of the base designs are included on plates at the end of the volume. The collection ranges in date from the Twelfth Dynasty to post-Empire times and runs the gamut from very poor to rathergood craftsmanship. As should be expected in a collection of this kind, there are a few locally made imitations. Among these are no. 16, with a CyproPhoenician design; no. 61, a crude scaraboid; no. 76, an amethyst scarab with a griffin and ibex design, certainly the finest piece in this WILLIAMA. WARD collection; no. 120, a stone scarab with a winged griffin design. Brown University While the editors have done a first-ratejob with Giveon's partially finished manuscriptand notes, there are a few points which deserve comment. Nos. 2 and 4. From Tell Abu Zureiq, they were found in a disturbed tomb the contents of Scarabs from Recent Excavations in Israel. By which cover the whole Middle Bronze Age. RAPHAEL GIVEON. Edited by DAVID WARBURBoth have designs including standing male TONand CHRISTOPH UEHLINGER.Orbis Biblicus figures engraved in a quite un-Egyptian style; et Orientalis 83. Freiburg, Switzerland: Uni- both are made of green jasper, a material not versitditsverlagand Gottingen: Vandenhoeck ordinarily used in Egypt for scarabs before the & Ruprecht, 1988. Pp. 114 + figs. + 9 pls. New Kingdom. The Thirteenthto Fifteenth DyThis work was only partially finished at the nasty date assigned to these scarabs is too gentime of the author'sdeath so that a good deal of eral. I would place them at the very end of the credit must go to the editors for the uniform Hyksos period, the lower limit allowed by the excellence of the final product. Posthumous context, though the material, style of design, works which must be completed by others are and the head and back types would normally sometimes completed rather badly;' fortu- point to a later date.2 Both pieces are probably nately, this is not the case with Giveon's book. locally made rather than imports.3 This small volume contains 122 items, mostly scarabs found in excavations in Israel, and is a welcome addition to the growing 2 The simplelunateheadsare of a type characterrepertoire of these objects with archaeological istic of scarabs madebeforethe MiddleKingdomand contexts. This work takes the form of a cata- werethen veryrareuntiltheEighteenthDynasty.The logue in which each entry gives a description large V-shapedmarkingson the elytra are perhaps of the object, parallels, precise archaeological meant to representthe humeralcallosity, although this detail is not normallyshown with plain backs. provenance, date, and bibliography for previSimilar appearon a scarabfroma MB IIC ously published pieces. It is arranged by site contextmarkings in O. Tufnell, Lachish, vol. 4 (London, with a short paragraphgiving the pertinent in- 1958), pl. 32:112, and on scarabsof Apophiswho formation from the excavations at each. All the ruled duringthat period;idem, Studieson Scarab Seals, vol. 2 (Warminster,1980), nos. 3438, 3451, 3457, and3458. See my reviewof P. Lacau,Les Nomsdes parNote also the hardstonescarabin idem,Lachish, ties du corps en Jgyptien et en seimitique (Paris, vol. 4, pl. 36:236, with a design almostidenticalto 1970), in Bibliotheca Orientalis 29 (1972): 18-23. thatof no. 4.