WONDERFUL WAM THINGSArticle | Updated 7 months ago CASE 1 Beauty and cosmetics About 5,500 years old, this fish-shaped palette was used as a base for grinding pigments for cosmetics, especially eye make-up. The shape resembles a Nile bulti fish (also called Nile tilapia), an ancient Egyptian symbol of rebirth and fertility. Popular make-up included kohl (galena, lead sulphide) for black and malachite for green. Buried with the dead, palettes, sometimes with chunks of mineral to grind, small containers of kohl and precious calcite containers with perfumed pastes, ensured the dead would be beautiful for eternity. Palette, Abydos. Donor WLS Loat, 1912. Naqada II, about 3500-3200 BC. Pottery kohl container, Esna Tomb E127. Donor John Garstang, 1905.1295-715BC. Calcite ointment container, Thebes. TS Henry, 1898. About 1000BC Modern mineral samples: haematite, malachite, kohl (galena). Adorned and protected for eternity Ancient Egyptian men, women and children wore jewellery such as beaded necklaces, bracelets, rings, anklets and hair ornaments, both when they were alive and on their bodies for the Afterlife. Sometimes they wore amulets, either with the beads or on string. Beads and amulets were powerful things. The colours and materials used could protect someone’s health, help them heal, ward off evil spirits, ensure the protection of the gods, or give good luck. Beads of different ages, Abydos. Most collected by WLS Loat, 1912. New Kingdom to Late Period, 1550-500 BC. 18th Dynasty hair ornaments, Abydos. Thirteen amulets, most probably from Abydos. Donor WLS Loat,1912. Third intermediate Period to Late Period, 1069-343 BC. Protection of the gods include: Horus, Bastet, Shu, Taweret, Bes, Anubis, Osiris. Protection, power, stability, health, rebirth include: weres headrest, crown of Lower Egypt, house, wadj papyrus sceptre. Clay mould for an amulet of the child god Horus, protection against illness. Servants for the Afterlife The Afterlife still required a lot of hard work. Who would grow the crops, provide food and drink, or dig irrigation ditches for the dead? Buried with the dead, the workers to do this are represented by shabtis, small mummy-like figurines, carrying pickaxes, hoes, or baskets. Sometimes they would have a text or ‘spell’ from Chapter 6 of the Book of the Dead, making it clear that when there was a call to work, they would cry out “Here I am!” Faience shabtis, both carry two hoes. 19th Dynasty, about 1200 BC CASE 2 Food and drink for eternity Though pottery containers didn’t hold food or drink, when they were included in burials they symbolised the food and drink that people could consume in the Afterlife. The most basic meal for ancient Egyptians was bread, beer and shallots, but there was a wide variety of tasty foods available, especially if you were wealthy! Just a taste: Low alcohol beer, wine, bread, shallots, leeks, onions, honey, dates, figs, pomegranates, lettuce, cucumbers, peas, beans, lentils, almonds, sesame seeds, dried fruit, milk, yoghurt, cheese, beef, lamb, goat, venison pork, ducks, geese, quail, and wild foods such as animals, and fish. Six Predynastic pots from Abydos and Hierakonpolis, donor John Garstang, and WLS Loat, 1905-1913. From 3700-3200BC. Light in the darkness If you didn’t want to rise with the sun and sleep when darkness fell, how did you light your life? Pottery bowls or simple lamps, filled with oil and a burning wick meant you could have light when you wished. These examples were made in clay moulds, then fired. Popular oils were made from castor, sesame, linseed and olive, while wicks were made from twisting strands of cloth or fibre together. People often greased the wicks with vegetable oil or fat, adding salt to the bowl to stop the oil smoking. Oil-lamps, Ptolemaic to late Roman period frog lamp. Donor WLS Loat, 1912. 3rd century BC to 4th century AD. CASE 3 Animal mummy and coffin for a different snake mummy Not only humans were mummified. Especially after 1000 BC, people mummified animals: their precious pets as companions for the Afterlife, as protection, as food, as offerings to the gods, or as sacred animals. We don’t know exactly why this snake was mummified, but it and the snake originally in the coffin, were probably lodged at shrines by a worshipper of Meretseger, hoping she would hear their prayers for eternity. She was the cobra goddess of the Theban cemeteries. Snake, Naja haje, cobra. Donor TS Henry, 1897. Thebes, about 1000BC. The gods and the Afterlife Ptah Sokar Osiris figurines were popular in Egypt from around 1200 until 30BC. They reinforced the desires of the dead to be reborn and protected by a number of gods. This divine figure of rebirth included Osiris, usually shown as a mummy (god of the dead in the Afterlife) Ptah (an important creator god), and Sokar a creator god of Memphis. Usually the figures have a headdress: an upright pair of model ostrich feathers emerging from a sun-disc and a horizontal pair of ram horns. They also have a small cavity before the figure with a lid in the shape of Sokar as a falcon. Sadly, the headdress and the original box contents are missing. This would probably have been a papyrus with funerary texts to help the dead transform in the Afterlife. Donor R. Howard, 1930s. 1200-30BC. CASE 4 Mummymania Ancient Egypt continues to fascinate us. But why do the movies we watch or the toys we buy turn ancient Egyptian mummies into ghouls and monsters? Ancient Egyptians wanted to be reborn into an Afterlife as people, like they were in real life. Two different styles are shown here – Mummy monsters, compared with lego archaeology. Goosebumps mug, Goosebumps finger puppet, Walking Imhotep. Collected by Jasmine Day 1990s for Moya Smith. Lego pyramid constructed by Angus Moore, and lego set Anubis guarding the tomb. Donated by Moya Smith.