The Eighteenth Dynasty Egyptian banquet: ideals and realities Nicola Harrington
Abstract
In this paper I present an analysis of the iconography of banquet scenes in Egyptian tombs dating to the 18th Dynasty (1550–1307 BC), as well as a brief overview of evidence for feasting in the tomb chapel and courtyard, and a discussion of the content and meaning of the songs of harpers and other musicians that often
accompany the scenes. I also consider the use of alcohol and narcotics in accessing gods and the dead, and examine some of the social aspects of feasting, such as community identity, gender issues and the use of banquets as a forum for elite display.
Introduction1
The 18th Dynasty banquet scene is one of the most well-known decorative motifs in elite tombs, due to the striking imagery rarely found elsewhere in Egyptian art. These depictions are generally found on the walls of
broad/transverse halls in Theban T-shaped tombs and the longitudinal halls of tombs at Elkab.2 The banqueting guests face towards the tomb owner in the west (away from the tomb entrance), and are seated in rows, on chairs, stools or reed mats, and given floral collars, drinks and unguent by attendants, who may also anoint them with oil. Male and female musicians playing lutes,
1
I would like to thank the organisers of the Dining and Death conference, Catherine Draycott and Maria Stamatopoulou, for their invitation to participate. I am particularly grateful to Cathie for her constructive criticism and for her patience. Thank you to the anonymous referees for their comments and suggestions, to Natalie McCreesh and Cynthia May Sheikholeslami for sharing their thoughts on unguent cones and festivals with me, and to Miriam Müller for discussing feasting at Tell el-Daba and for kindly supplying a copy of her dissertation. Please note the following abbreviation conventions employed in the paper: TT = Theban Tomb; EK = Elkab; BM = British Museum.
2 E.g. Paheri (no. 3), Renni (no. 7): Porter and Moss 1937, 180, (14)–(15); 183, (5)–(6). There
are exceptions at Thebes, such as Rekhmire (TT 100) and some tombs have more than one separate banquet scene: placement does not seem to be directly linked to dates or features within the tomb, such stelai, statues or false doors. There is insufficient space to elaborate on these issues in this article.
harps, lyres, pipes and drums are often shown along with the lyrics of their songs (Fig. 1). While musicians may be depicted in groups of mixed sex, unmarried male and female guests are rarely shown seated together,
although it is not clear if such gender segregation would have occurred during feasts or whether it is one of many artistic conventions that characterise these scenes (such as the uniformly idealised appearance of the eternally youthful celebrants).
Much has been made of oblique sexual references within banquet scenes3 and their relationship with the Festival of the Wadi,4 with less attention given to the social aspects of feasting with the deceased and whether the images painted on tomb walls were based on actual festivals where the dead and living were thought to interact, or were merely symbolic of events in which the tomb owner hoped to participate after death in a similar manner to the
representations of fishing and fowling in the marshes. Consideration to these aspects is therefore given below.
Definitions of banqueting
Feasting may be defined as the celebration of significant occasions through the formal ceremony of communal eating and drinking.5 The term ‘banqueting’ carries with it the expectation of food consumption, but in common with Near Eastern depictions,6 Egyptian celebrants are most frequently shown with a wine bowl or beer jar, and the emphasis of these scenes seems to be drinking,7 in some cases to excess (see below). There are two types of
3
E.g. Manniche 2003; Derchain 1975; Westendorf 1967.
4Hb (nfr) n int, referred to variously as the ‘(Beautiful) Feast of the Valley’, the ‘Valley Festival’
etc. See Jauhiainen 2009, 147–52, with references.
5
Wright 2004, 133; Jennings et al. 2005, 275.
6 E.g. Du Ry 1969, 53; Barnett and Wiseman 1960, 28 (‘Standard of Ur’). 7
This appears to be a common feature of feasting particularly in mortuary contexts: cf. Wright (2004, 170) for Mycenaean examples; also Campbell-Green and Michelaki 2012, 16 (Bronze Age Crete); Pollock 2003, 25 (Mesopotamia). Milledge Nelson (2003, 84) concludes from grave goods of Late Shang Dynasty China that wine was perceived as more important to the ancestors than meat. For the symbolic and cultural values of meat, see e.g. Wright 2004, 172; Steel 2004, 282–3. Food is shown before guests in several Egyptian banquet scenes indicating that these
banquet scene depicted in 18th Dynasty tombs: the funerary and the mortuary feasts.8 While the words ‘mortuary’ and ‘funerary’ are often used
interchangeably, for the purposes of this paper ‘funerary’ will be employed only in relation to the meal that broke the fast following the tomb owner’s burial,9 and ‘mortuary’ will refer to all other feasts held in the presence of the deceased including those associated with festivals. Post-funeral meals are characterised by their rigid formality, the complete absence of the sense of movement found in mortuary feast imagery, and the uniform seating of guests so that they face the tomb owner and his wife (or mother): the focus is thus on the dead rather than the living.10 Musicians and servants are rarely
depicted.11 The funeral banquet marks a new stage in the relationship between the individual commemorated and their friends and relatives: it establishes the tradition of feasting in the presence of the deceased tomb owner, and the principles of dependence and reciprocity in which the living have the greatest control. The dead were encouraged to ‘come at the voice’ for offerings, invited to participate in banquets, and expected to listen and respond to requests for assistance, but their presence was not always welcome. This relationship is also apparent in modern rural Egypt, where ‘much effort is normally undertaken to dissuade the soul of the departed to
are ‘feasts’ in the strict sense: e.g. Rekhmire (TT 100: Davies 1943, pl. 67). For an example of guests holding food and drinking vessels to their mouths, see TT 254 (Mose: Strudwick and Strudwick 1996, pls 28, 31), although this may be an Amarna period aberration.
8
For an overview of differing interpretations of the types of banquet scenes, see Lichtheim 1945, 185–7. It may be significant in this context that the word for ‘feast/festival’ (Hb) is the same as that for ‘to mourn’ (Gardiner 1957, 580–1). Examples of funerary banquets include TT 112 (Menkheperreseneb: Davies 1933, pl. 24, lower register) and TT 82 (Gardiner and Davies 1915, pl. 7).
9 Frandsen 1999, 135–6; cf. the Prophecy of Neferti: Parkinson 1991, 34–5. 10
This may be similar to the phenomenon of graveside feasting in early Chinese society (Late Shang period), where enlisting the aid of the dead was considered to be of greater
importance than forming alliances with the living: ‘In other words, it seems that the deceased, both the recently departed as well as the more ancient ancestors, were more powerful and desirable allies than their earthly counterparts’ (Milledge Nelson 2003, 65).
11
See, for example, the banquet in the tomb of Hery (TT 12): Galán and Menéndez 2011, fig. 5.
return to the land of the living except for specific feast days and for specific feasts.’12
It is worth noting that ‘mortuary’ feasts may have been held in or near the tomb during the owner’s lifetime, as suggested by several texts:13
Sitting down to divert the heart (sxmx ib) according to the practice of existence on earth, anointed with myrrh (antyw), adorned with
garlands, making [holiday] (irt hrw nfr) in his house of justification (mAa xrw) which he made for himself on the west of Thebes.
These inscriptions accord with Andrey Bolshakov’s suggestion that mortuary cults were established during the lifetime of those possessing tombs and statues, and that such cults were thereby fully functional by the time of their owners’ demise.14
It may thus be the case that the elite feasted in the vicinity of their tombs prior to death, perhaps in several instances honouring those who predeceased them (parents, grandparents, or children, for example) and who were depicted or otherwise commemorated in the building.15 One of the problems presented by harpers’ songs (discussed below) is the fact that they are addressed to the tomb owner as though he is still alive. The song in the 20th Dynasty tomb of Inherkhau16 is particularly unusual in that it was evidently not meant to be seen by visitors as it was painted in the tomb chamber, which would have been sealed following the burial.17 The song
12
Wickett 2010, 130.
13
Amenhotep-si-se (TT 75): Davies 1933, pl. 4; Lichtheim 1945, 182. Cf. Djeserkareseneb (TT 38): Lichtheim 1945, 183.
14
This practice was established in the Old Kingdom: the importance of setting up a mortuary cult and provisioning funerary priests in advance was noted in the 5th Dynasty Instruction of Prince Hardjedef, and reiterated in private monuments of the Middle Kingdom, for example in the stele inscription of Sehetepibre (Lichtheim 1973, 58–9, 127).
15
For example, the tomb of Amenmose (TT 373) contained ancestor busts dedicated to his parents (Habachi 1976, 84–6).
16 TT 359 (temp. Ramesses III–IV, c. 1163): Lichtheim 1945, 201. 17
A similar situation may be seen in the 18th Dynasty tomb of Sennefer (TT 96: Porter and Moss 1960, 202), where scenes of the tomb owner receiving offerings from his wife, some possibly
stands out because the hieroglyphs were inscribed onto a white background rather than onto the yellow that covers most of the walls. Presumably the text was intended as a focal point for the deceased rather than the living. While the song may be addressed to Inherkhau during his lifetime, however, he is introduced as ‘the Osiris’, implying that he was already dead when the burial chamber was decorated. Such apparent contradictions are found throughout the text, and may be indicative of the nature of the tomb as a meeting place for the living and the deceased, as well as being reminiscent of the tomb owner’s hope of regeneration.
The iconography of ancient Egyptian banquets
The term ‘banquet scene’ usually brings to mind the brightly painted images on Theban tomb walls, but such scenes in full or abbreviated form are also found in tombs at Saqqara and Elkab,18 on shrines at Gebel el-Silsila,19 and on stelai, wooden cosmetic boxes, and the lintels of house and shrine doors.20 Egyptian texts indicate that the banquet had certain essential components, whether that be as part of a mortuary meal or religious festival, as exemplified by the ‘secular’ feast for King Amenhotep II depicted in the tomb of Kenamun (TT 93):21
Diverting the heart (sxmx-ib) and seeing good things, song, dance, and music … perfumed with myrrh (antyw), anointed with oil, making
holiday (iri hrw nfr), decked with garlands from your plantation, water lily at your nostril, O King Amenhotep.
The main features of mortuary banquet scenes are the presence of musicians, dancers and attendants, as well as floral collars, water lilies, oil and unguent,
related to the Wadi Festival, were painted on the walls and columns of his burial chamber along with other mortuary images.
18
Zivie 1975, pl. 51; Tylor 1895.
19
Caminos 1955, 52.
20 Roth 1988, 140–1, no. 80; Freed 1982, 203, no. 237; Jørgensen 1998, 312. Cf. the small
golden shrine of Tutankhamun: Harrington 2005/2007.
21
and alcohol (beer and wine). It is unlikely to be coincidental that many of the features in these scenes are related to the goddess Hathor.22 She was associated with mortuary banquets, complete with musicians23 (including harpists) and dancers, from at least the Middle Kingdom (2040–1640 BC),24
and in 18th Dynasty banquets is invoked (if not always explicitly) through the handing of sistra and menats to the deceased.25
The other major deity associated with banquet scenes is Amun, whose festival (the Festival of the Wadi) is mentioned in a few cases and whose bouquet is presented to the tomb owner, usually by his son (Fig. 2).26 The bouquet itself is distinct from other floral arrangements; it consists of an open water lily flower (with or without a central mandrake fruit) with buds on either side and the stalks tightly bound into a long cylindrical shape (Fig. 3).27 A scene in the
22
Hathor was known as mistress of music, rejoicing, dancing, harpists, garlands and incense (Schott 1952, 77–8; 1950, 78). She may also be invoked through the cats sometimes shown beneath the chairs of wives or guests, since it was in this form that she was worshipped at certain sites (see e.g. the tomb of Nebamun and Ipuky, TT 181: Malek 2006, 61, fig. 35), in the same way that Amun may be linked with the geese depicted in some tombs (e.g.
Menkheperreseneb, TT 112: Davies 1933, pl. 24). Monkeys under chairs are considered by some scholars to be representative of love and sexual fulfilment (e.g. Andrews 1994: 66; Derchain 1976: 9), and may thus also be linked to the goddess Hathor.
23
In 18th Dynasty banquets, some female musicians are depicted as though facing the viewer instead of in profile, which provides an iconographic link with the goddesses Nut and Hathor, the principal deities whose faces are shown frontally (Volokhine 2000, 37, 64–5). Parkinson suggests that the women may be depicted in this manner because they are seated in a circle (as in BM Nebamun [BM EA 37984]: Parkinson 2008, 79, fig. 88), but this does not readily explain musicians standing or in procession, unless they are turning while dancing and playing (e.g. Horemheb, TT 78: Brack and Brack 1980, 84).
24 ‘Exalted is Hathor (goddess) of love … when she is exalted on the holiday’: tomb of Senbi at
Meir: Lichtheim 1945, 190; Blackman 1914, 22–3, pls 2–3. See also Wente 1969, 89.
25
E.g. Nebamun and Ipuky (TT 181): Lichtheim 1945, 182; Davies 1925, pls 4, 5, 18.
26 As in the tomb of Nakht (TT 161: Hartwig 2004, cover), where the couple’s daughter also
presents ‘bouquets of Amun and Mut’.
27
In some cases the temple at which the bouquet was blessed is specifically named: in the tomb of Menkheperreseneb (TT 86: temp. Thutmose III, c. 1479 BC), for example, bouquets are presented to the deceased from the mortuary temple of Thutmose III, the chapel of Hathor at
tomb of Neferhotep (TT 49) illustrates the main stages in the process of having the bouquet blessed at Karnak temple, with incense and burnt
offerings presented to Amun in his shrine and a bouquet bestowed by a priest to Neferhotep who is purified with unguent and oils.28 Neferhotep
subsequently gives a bouquet of Amun to his wife waiting outside the temple walls.
Siegfried Schott suggested that most, if not all banquet scenes represented the feast held in honour of Amun, Mut and Khonsu when statues of these deities in their barques were transported from the temple of Karnak on the east bank of the Nile to the sanctuary of Hathor at Deir el-Bahri via the mortuary temples on the river’s west bank.29
He stated that during this festival (the Festival of the Wadi), in parallel with wine being offered to Amun by the reigning king, and being consumed by celebrants, it was also offered to the dead.30 Since the Festival is rarely mentioned in Theban tombs, however, this undermines Schott’s supposition that all 18th Dynasty banqueting scenes must relate to this particular event.31 In fact, tomb inscriptions often express the wish for the deceased to be present at a range of festivals.32 Cynthia May Deir el-Bahri, and the temple of Hatshepsut and Thutmose III at Medinet Habu (Schott 1952, 118; Davies 1933, pl. 17).
28
Tomb of Neferhotep (TT 49): temp. Ay, c. 1323 BC: Davies 1933, pl. 61. This second bouquet (consisting of a central papyrus frond between poppy flowers) is not the same as that presented by Neferhotep to his wife (water lily flower with mandrake fruit and lily buds), suggesting that two separate events may have been merged into one.
29 In ‘joining with’ the goddess, Amun renewed the fertility of the land (Hartwig 2004, 12). By their
presence in the tomb, Hathor and Amun ensured the renewal of the deceased. This is unlikely to be applicable to tombs beyond Thebes, such as Saqqara and Elkab, however.
30
Schott 1953, 76.
31
Schott 1953, 77. Tombs that mention the Wadi Festival or the bouquet of Amun in conjunction with a banquet scene include TT 129 (name lost), TT 93 (Kenamun), TT 56 (Userhet), TT 247 (Simut), TT 112 and TT 86 (Menkheperreseneb), TT 84 (Amunedjeh), TT 49 (Neferhotep), TT 147 (name lost): Schott 1952, 122, 121, 123, 118, 109, 101, 99. Porter and Moss 1960, 244, 190, 111–2, 333, 229–30, 175, 168, 92–3, 258.
32
E.g.Paheri, EK 3 at Elkab: Tylor 1895, pl. 16; Lichtheim 1976, 16. The amalgamation of a variety of feasts and festivals into a single pictorial scene is also attested in Mesopotamia, where the consumption of drink rather than food predominates as in Egypt: it has been suggested that
Sheikholeslami has recently questioned the assumption that all banqueting was tied to the cult of Amun and the Wadi Festival, suggesting instead that in many cases the Festival of Drunkenness, sacred to Hathor, was depicted.33 The discovery of a ‘porch of drunkenness’ in a chapel in the Mut complex at the temple of Karnak, which was dedicated to Hathor by Hatshepsut, seems to support the notion that such festivals were celebrated in Thebes during the 18th Dynasty.34
Unguent cones are frequently depicted on the hair/wigs of celebrants in banquet scenes, including the tomb owner, his wife, and musicians (Fig. 4), and they were also represented in three dimensions on figurines and rock-cut statuary.35 The nature and function of the cones is still a matter of debate, with some scholars considering them to be symbolic of (myrrh-based) perfume36 or abstract concepts,37 and others suggesting that they were physical objects.38 Recent research and excavations have indicated that the cones were at least
drinking in these banquet scenes may symbolise or ‘summarize’ commensal occasions: Pollock 2003: 24..
33
Sheikholeslami 2011. Hathor is associated with inebriation in the magical text known as The Destruction of Mankind, incorporated into the Myth of the Heavenly Cow, first attested in the late 18th Dynasty (Spalinger 2000, 1993). According to this myth, danger and chaos were averted through the judicious use of alcohol (specifically beer). The myth may be the origin of the Festival of Drunkenness (Szkapowska 2003, 234). A festival dedicated to Hathor is depicted in the tomb of Amenemhet (TT 82: Gardiner and Davies 1915, 95, pl. 19), with female musicians and dancers. Bianquis Gasser (1992, 101) states that: ‘Wine is associated with two seemingly contradictory aspects of human life … blood, fertility and human life, but also … with death and the divine’, all of which Hathor encompassed in her varying roles.
34
Bryan 2005; Sheikholeslami 2011.
35
E.g. Markowitz 1999, 206, no. 18; Hofmann 2004, pl. 9 (TTs 178, 196).
36
Cherpion (1994, 81), following Bruyère (1926, 137).
37
Joan Padgham, for example, concludes (2006) that the cones were iconographically linked to the hieroglyph for a heap of grain (aHaw), and were representative of wealth and ‘abundant offerings realised in the next life’ by the tomb owner, or were symbolic of the ‘transition of the deceased between existence in the afterlife and a return to the world of the living [in ba form] brought about by the possession of cult offerings’ (2010). See now Padgham, J. 2012.
38 Simpson 1972, 73; Manniche 1987, 41. Cf. e.g. Papyrus Harris 500, I, 9: ‘My hair [is] laden
in some cases actual mounds of perfumed fat placed on the hair or wig, though the practicality of such an object on the head of a bald man, a dancer, or an attendant is questionable.39 Perhaps the importance of creating a perfumed atmosphere within the restrictions imposed by two-dimensional representation superseded realism in these cases. In banquet scenes, the cones are shown being produced by moulding unguent directly onto the hair/wigs of seated guests. The celebrants are also anointed with oil (Fig. 5), which stains their white linen in a manner reminiscent of descriptions in love poetry.40 Bicoloured clothing41 was introduced around the reign of Thutmose IV (the same period as unguent cones: Padgham 2010) and continued into the Ramesside period. Norman de Garis Davies asserted that the discolouration was caused by unguent (1927, 44–5), and Lise Manniche (1999, 95) also suggests that scented oil was responsible for the shading, noting that although linen does not absorb dye easily, ‘the fibres would absorb the fatty matter and make them supple and shiny. The yellow colour is a means for the artist to show that large amounts of scent have been applied. It is a sign of wealth and opulence’. While this may be true to an extent, it does not explain why the tomb owner is shown with bicoloured garments less frequently than his guests.
The scenes in which coloured clothing is depicted are those of offering (where it is often worn by the recipients), banquets, scenes of adoration, and fishing and fowling. Essentially, bicoloured clothing is not a feature of ‘daily life’ scenes (such as farming and viticulture), and it is more commonly found on women than men. The fact that the tomb owner may be shown in identical
39
McCreesh, Gize and David 2011. I am grateful to Natalie McCreesh for discussing her research with me and for an advance copy of her co-authored article. Excavations at the South Tombs cemetery at Amarna have revealed a waxy cone on the wig/hair of a female corpse (Ind. 150, I54, 13132: Kemp 2010, 3).
40
E.g. O. DM 1266, O CGC 25218 (limbs soaked with camphor oil [tiSps]): Landgráfová and Navrátilová 2009, 120, 141. Love poetry contains themes and imagery that closely parallel that of banquet scenes, including intoxication, mandrakes, lilies, Hathor, oils and anointing, fine linen and spending the day in festivity. It is noteworthy that the poetry dates to the Ramesside Period when banquet scenes were no longer depicted in tombs.
41
garments, one set shaded and one not, suggests that the difference is not related to the clothing itself – that is, the folds of the cloth (contra Parkinson 2008, 74, 91) – but to the occasion on which it is worn. Offering scenes, banquet scenes and rock-cut statuary are related insofar as the deceased anticipated offerings from the living, and these were events or locations at which such offerings were presented. Unguent, indicated by the shading, may have represented the association of the deceased with the divine. The portrayal of scent on those approaching a deity may be symbolic of ritual cleanliness and the pure, elevated state of the justified deceased and his family. Thus unguent was worn in the presence of the divine (which included the blessed dead) and by those wishing to be recognised by the gods as one of them (for example, the deceased before Osiris: P. Ani, Dondelinger 1987, pl. 7).
Coffin Texts Spell 530 makes a clear link between censing with incense and purification:42
You are (twice) pure for your ka, your head is censed with sweet-smelling incense (snTr), you are made strong by means of incense, the fragrance of a god is on your flesh … it equips you as a god . . .
The concept of incense or unguent as a purifying agent continued into the 19th Dynasty (Thompson 1998, 242),43 and it could be used to protect the deceased from the ambivalent, potentially malevolent dead, as indicated in the Coffin Texts Spell 936.44 In summary, the functions of oils, incense and unguent in funerary contexts were to identify the deceased as a god, to
42 De Buck 1956, 121–2, a–i; Faulkner 1977, 153. Cf. Eyre 2002, 173, n. 119. 43
Food could also be purified by censing, as mentioned on the north wall of the Hall of Barques in the temple of Sety I at Abydos: “… with incense to purify the offerings for [the gods’] kas” (David 1973, 264).
44
De Buck 1961, 138; Thompson 1998, 237; Faulkner 1978, 71. For the connection between unguent, the Eye of Horus and the fiery uraeus, see Thompson 1998, 238.
restore and preserve the corpse,45 to protect the deceased from dangers in the afterlife, and to endow the tomb owner and banquet guests with ritual purity (Thompson 1998, 242–3).46
The importance of perfumed substances lies in their association with ritual purity, protection and divinity, because the gods recognised one another by their scent,47 and purity was essential for entering any sacred space, including temples and tombs.
Certain omissions are apparent in banquet scenes, particularly depictions of children and the elderly.48 All participants are shown in the prime of life, in accordance with the function of the tomb and the banquet scene in particular: elite women assisted in their husband’s (or son’s) regeneration and rebirth in the afterlife, and so were represented as youthful with the implication of accompanying fertility.49 The tomb scenes reflect an alternate reality in which ageing, illness and death are non-existent and everyone is captured in an eternally perfect state.50 Captions sometimes designate certain guests (and
45 An inscription in the tomb of Mery (TT 95), for example, states: “Fill yourself with mDt
which comes forth from the Eye of Horus … it will join your bones, it will unite your limbs …”
(Thompson 1998, 232).
46
The protective aspect of unguents may be relevant to the living as well, since the dead were feared as much as they were revered.
47 Protection: Thompson 1998, 242–3. Gods’ scents: for example, in the Book of the Dead Spell
125b, Anubis announces to his entourage that the deceased possesses the necessary knowledge of the underworld and states ‘I smell his odor as (that of) one of you’ (Allen 1974, 101).
48
Children could participate in celebrations where alcohol was available, such as the Deir el-Medina festival of the deified Amenhotep I: ‘Year 7 [of Ramesses IV or VI], third month of Peret, day 29: the great feast of Amenhotep, the lord of the village. The work crew worshipped before him for four whole days, drinking together with their children and their wives.’ (O. Cairo 25234: Hagen and Koefoed 2005, 19, following Černý 1927, 183–4; McDowell 1999, 96; Kitchen 1983, 370). The absence of children (or pregnant women) places the emphasis in these scenes on fertility and the potential for new life rather than subsequent progeny.
49 Sweeney 2004, 67. There are several tombs where the tomb owner’s mother is depicted in the
place of a wife, e.g. Menkheperreseneb, TT 112 (Davies 1933, pl. 24), see further Whale 1989, 261–3.
50
Primarily because such images could potentially harm the tomb owner. On alternate reality, see Sweeney 2004, 67.
less commonly, musicians) as ‘justified’, but in general there are no iconographic distinctions made between the living and the dead.51
Evidence for banqueting in the vicinity of tombs
Elite tombs were divided into three main levels: the superstructure, courtyard and subterranean burial complex.52 These levels also correspond with the realms in which the blessed dead travelled – among celestial deities, mortals, and the deceased and chthonic gods (Fig. 6). The middle sector is the area in which the tomb owner could interact with friends and family members through the media of false doors, stelai, and wall decoration. The focal point of
interaction would have been the statues at the end of the longitudinal hall, which temporarily held the kas when they were summoned to meals, and retained for posterity the images of the deceased in their blessed states. However, given the size of Theban tombs it seems unlikely that guests, servants and musicians could be accommodated in the manner suggested in banquet scenes. While banqueters undoubtedly did visit tomb chapel statues and present offerings to them, the narrow confines of the passageway leading to the niche would have restricted seating and movement in a manner
incompatible with depictions of mortuary feasts. The courtyard with its shaft leading from the burial chamber provided an open area that would have facilitated dining, drinking and dancing, as well as providing free access for the bas of the deceased to interact with the living and to supply corpses with the nourishment provided by the banqueters.53
51
The deceased were often captioned mAa xrw, ‘justified’ or literally ‘true of voice’, i.e. found to be innocent of wrongdoing in the divine afterlife tribunal. E.g. Amenemhet, TT 82 (Gardiner and Davies 1915, pl. 16) – guests; Nebamun, TT 17 (Säve-Söderburgh 1957, pl. 21) – musicians and guests. In the tomb of User (TT 21), the owner’s voice is said to be true against his enemies for ever (Davies 1913, 27, pl. 19, 4), suggesting that maa-kheru may also have had a more general meaning.
52
Kampp-Seyfried 1998, 250.
53
For an overview of the components of a deceased person, including the ka and ba, see e.g. Taylor 2001; Harrington 2013, 3–7, 13–5.
Earlier excavators’ priorities in the clearance of tomb courtyards left major gaps in the archaeological record, as exemplified by the approach of Norman de Garis Davies in his report of work at TT 110:54 ‘Its real doorway … is deeply buried at present and, as the thicknesses of the entrance do not appear to be decorated, little or nothing is likely to be gained by its complete clearance.’ Davies noted that archaeologists at Amarna in the early 1900s were equally selective in their treatment of finds:55 ‘heaps of sherds outside the chief tombs … were thrown out by the excavators, and were already broken for the most part.’ It is likely that much of the evidence for rituals carried out in the vicinity of tombs has thus been irretrievably lost. However, future excavations and even the careful study of archaeological reports for remains of feasting in tomb chapels and courtyards (and in the vicinity of graves/communal commemorative monuments in non-elite cemeteries) may prove rewarding in terms of revealing patterns of mortuary meals and perhaps their longevity.56 In the meantime, there is sufficient evidence to suggest that offering rituals involving the presentation of food and drink, and, at certain times of the year, communal feasting, as part of cultic activity centred around deceased individuals (and their families) did take place at the tomb, though the duration of mortuary rituals in the years following the death of the tomb owner is unclear.57 54 1932, 279. 55 1908, 14, n. 5. 56
For example, the examination of a spoil heap created by the pre-2002 excavators of the Middle Kingdom (12th Dynasty) tomb of Djehutyhotep at Deir el-Barsha (and containing material from the tomb) has revealed a range of pottery types that may be related to feasting as well as offerings for the dead, including plates, cups, bowls and jars (Op de Beeck 2006: 127). Some of these cups seem to have been reused for mixing paint, and the practice of reutilising pottery in antiquity may be a significant factor in the apparent dearth of material from some cemeteries. As Mary Dabney et al. (2004, 202), state, an important preliminary question to ask when dealing with pottery is ‘whether it is reasonable to expect to find large deposits of ceramics from feasts, since the vessels would retain their utility after the meal was completed, and might continue in use afterward’. This may be true of some Egyptian wares as those depicted with banqueters seem to be of the standard type used in everyday life.
57
Such remains have been discovered at Tell el-Daba in the Delta, where a fusion of Egyptian and Hyksos funerary traditions seems to have taken place, with graves being
Teodozja Rzeuska suggests that areas of scorched pavement in the vicinity of tomb chapels in the Old Kingdom necropolis at Saqqara, with remains of charcoal, plants, bones and ceramics, indicate that offerings were burnt for the benefit of the deceased within the funerary complex.58 Such offerings were collected into pottery vessels and deposited in tombs, a practice that seems to have continued at this site into the New Kingdom.59 During the funeral, vases apparently containing wine were deliberately smashed in a ritual known as ‘breaking the red pots (sD dSrwt)’.60
The destruction of the remains of feasting and the vessels used may have marked the end of the banquet, being a way of taking the food and bowls out of circulation,
transferring the essence of the victuals to the deceased and simultaneously restoring the distance between the living and the dead.61 Evidence of the practice of smashing pottery following funerary meals was found in 17th Dynasty tombs at Dra Abu el-Naga, where sherds had been gathered and placed into storage jars before final deposition near the burial chamber, or ritually ‘killed’ by knocking holes into or near the base.62
Evidence of breaking directly attached to houses and interaction with the dead occurring at the tomb doorway. Excavators have discovered offering pits, remains of ritual meals, offering stands, and pottery for libations in the courtyards (Miriam Müller, personal communication January 2013). For a discussion of the pottery, see Müller 2012, 119–82.
58
2006, 295, 297. Similar remains in early Bronze Age Cretan cemeteries have been interpreted as remains of feasting with the dead (Campbell-Green and Michelaki 2012, 17–8).
59
Rzeuska 2006, 297; Quibell 1907, 27, pl. 25.
60
Van Dijk 1986; Willems 1990, 352.
61
For discussions of breaking and burning in mortuary contexts, see e.g. Parker Pearson 1993, 204; 1999, 10; Barley 1997, 178; Pinch 2003, 446 (ancient Egypt); Müller 1998, 798 (Tell el-Dab‘a, Egypt); Mbiti 1969, 154 (Abaluyia of Kenya); Naquin 1988, 43, 57 (China), Rutherford 2007, 226, 227 (Hittites and Mycenaeans); Collard 2012, 25 (Bronze Age Cyprus); Wright 2004, 169 (Mycenae); Dabney et al. 2004, 202 (Mycenae); Borgna 2004, 262, n. 63, 263–4 (Minoan Crete).
62
Seiler 2005, pl. 4b. A similar practice was carried out in the cemetery at Sparta in the late Hellenistic period. Vessels were pierced at the base so that they could not be reused, and were therefore permanent gifts to the dead. Evidence for the ceremonial breakage and burial of vessels was also found in the cemetery, as well as sherds from drinking cups used by relatives during the funeral banquet (Tsouli, this volume).
pots and ‘cult ceramics’ in the vicinity of tombs in the 18th Dynasty was
discovered in enclosures K 91.5 and K 91.7 at the same site.63 The early 18th Dynasty tomb of Djehuty (TT 11) at Dra Abu el-Naga has a pit in the courtyard containing floral bouquets and apparently deliberately broken vessels, and pottery jars used in funerary offerings at the South Tombs cemetery at Amarna also bear ‘killing holes’ on the shoulders and bases.64
Directly in front of the 18th Dynasty tomb of Sennedjem at Akhmim,
excavators found layers of sand, rubble and broken pottery bowls, along with fragments of a ceramic altar.65 The presence of the altar suggests that the vessels may be associated with mortuary cult practices taking place in the courtyard. Such practices evidently occurred in the forecourt of Tjanuni’s tomb (TT 74), where fragments of pottery, reed mats and other debris associated with feasting were recovered.66 Maarten Raven found evidence of an offering cult in the forecourt of the 18th Dynasty tomb of Maya and Meryt at
Saqqara,67 including a pottery assemblage, offering stands, an offering table, a basin and a votive tablet. Food preparation was carried out in at least some Theban tomb forecourts, as is indicated by the presence of ovens;68 several votive chapels at Deir el-Medina possessed ovens as well, indicating that preparation of food took place in forecourts, perhaps on feast days.69
63
Seiler 1995, 187, 191.
64 Lopez-Grande and Torrado de Gregorio 2008; Kemp 2009, 58–9. Dabney et al. (2004, 202)
note that although ceramics might be smashed during a feast or afterwards, at large gatherings the number of people combined with the consumption of alcohol virtually guarantees a number of accidentally broken vessels, and those who had travelled a significant distance to participate would probably discard bowls and cups before returning home. This may be true of large festivals, such as the Feast of the Wadi, where people are known to have travelled from across Egypt to observe the pageantry and celebrate at their families’ tombs (e.g. Harrington 2013, 138).
65
Ockinga 1997, 5.
66 Brack and Brack 1977, 60; Hartwig 2004, 12–3, 43–5. 67
2001, 8.
68
E.g. TT 63; Kampp 1996, 667, figs. 572, 573.
69
Chapel 561, annexe 450 had an oven and a semi-circular enclosure that was possibly a niche for a statue of Renenutet, goddess of food and harvests (Bomann 1991, 59). Chapel 535 also
Courtyards, whether of chapels or tombs, therefore, could have
accommodated food preparation, as seems to have been the case in Bronze Age Crete, for example.70
Although evidence for cultic or communal activity from tomb chapels in the form of pottery assemblages is often compromised (by tomb reuse, robbery or inadequate recording), ceramics, depending on type and quantity, can
indicate the size and nature of offerings and meals held in and around the tomb.71 In the New Kingdom, faience vessels decorated with black painted designs of water lilies, tilapia fish, birds, marsh scenes, and Hathoric imagery were produced, deriving mainly from tomb and temple contexts.72 If they were drinking bowls, the liquid in them may have been magically imbued with the essence of the subjects depicted within (most of the motifs are directly related to regeneration), in the same way that drinking water that had flowed over texts on a ‘healing statue’ were believed to confer their therapeutic properties to the patient.73 The shallow red drinking bowls most frequently depicted in banquet scenes were not differentiated in style or decoration from everyday wares, in accord with the ideology and iconography of banquets that seemed to emphasize community rather than individuality among guests.74 The tomb had an oven (Bomann 1991, 67). Building 528 was associated with chapels 528, 529, 530, 531, and contained an oven, a series of receptacles and a T-shaped basin, a combination that led Bomann (1991, 61–2) to conclude that it had been designed as a mortuary garden (see also Kemp 1986, 21).
70
Campbell-Green and Michelaki 2012, 17.
71
See, for example, Rose 2003 on pottery recording from the excavation of Theban tombs; Hope 1989, 47 on material from the Ramesside tombs of Deir el-Medina. For comparable ceramic assemblages from Prepalatial and Protopalatial Minoan cemeteries, see Borgna 2004, 257.
72
Milward 1982, 141. Bowls of this type have been found in coffins near the face of the deceased (Porter 1988, 138).
73
Ritner 1993, 107.
74
For a physical example from an 18th Dynasty tomb, and a beer jar similar to those depicted in banquet scenes, see Bourriau 1982, 78–9, nos 51, 52. Cf. Borgna 2004, 262–3 (Middle Minoan period Kato Syme); Pollock 2003, 27 (Mesopotamia). Community does not necessarily equate to egalitarianism, however, as suggested by seating arrangements, where some people sat on the floor while others were provided with chairs or stools.
owner, in contrast, is sometimes offered an elaborately decorated, gold-coloured bowl, marking his higher status.75 In Late Shang Dynasty China elaborate bronze containers were used for feasting at the graveside: ‘The presentation was made important by the costliness of the serving vessels as well as the food and wine itself’.76
The act of presenting these bowls in Egypt, captured for eternity in tomb paintings, served to remind the viewer of the tomb owner’s access to expensive commodities, but may also have raised the status of the daughter presenting the bowl in a display of familial unity and wealth. Metal vessels might have been more widely used than is apparent from the archaeological record: gold bowls such as the one found in the tomb of Djehuty77 are depicted being presented to the tomb owner and his wife (or mother, as in the tomb of Nebamun and Ipuky) as part of the banquet
activities,78 and metal vessels are found in museum collections along with the bronze wine strainers also shown in use in tomb scenes.79 The lack of
provenanced examples is probably largely a result of theft and reuse.80
75
E.g. the tomb of Nebamun and Ipuky (TT 181): Porter and Moss 1960, 278 (3). Compare the restriction of precious metal drinking vessels in Bronze Age Mycenae and Crete that suggest convivial habits favouring exclusion rather than cohesion according to Borgna 2004, 263. Wright (2004, 147) notes that the ‘practice of depositing valuable metal vessels in tombs from the Late Middle through the Late Bronze Age in the Aegean indicates the value attached both to the objects and to the activities they symbolize’. He also comments that the ‘presence of drinking vessels in a tomb, especially of silver and gold (but also of bronze or “tinned” clay), may refer to the status of the deceased as one who shares drinks with special companions’ (2004, 147).
76
Milledge Nelson 2003, 86. Alcoholic beverages are in themselves an important element in social display, with dissemination often strictly controlled by certain sections of society, as in Late Cypriot society (Steel 2004, 292). Private production of wine is illustrated in many Theban tombs (e.g. Nakht, TT 52: Shedid and Seidel 1996, 66–7).
77 TT 11: Spalinger 1982, 119–21, no. 107. See also the gold-coloured bowl with a statuette of
Hathor in the centre: Spalinger 1982, 121–22, no. 108.
78
TT 181: Davies 1925, pl. 5.
79
See Poo 1995 for an overview of wine production and consumption in ancient Egypt.
80 E.g. Tomb robbery papyri P. Mayer A and B (Peet 1915a, 177; 1915b, 205–6), which
The functions of banqueting
The main purposes of feasting in cemeteries were ostensibly the
commemoration of the dead and communication with them: the role of feasts in enhancing the status of the tomb owner and his family in this life and the next along with the commensal aspects of banqueting are discussed below. As Tim Campbell-Green and Flora Michelaki point out, while eating is a routine activity, eating in a graveyard is not normal, and to dine in a cemetery emphasizes the specialness of both the place and the occupation, which may be associated with mnemonics and the concepts of remembering and
forgetting.81 Siegfried Schott suggested that barriers separating the dead from the living were breached during festivals through the intoxication of the
celebrants.82 Although alcohol is clearly present in banquet scenes, the extent to which it or its effects may have been strengthened by the addition of
narcotic substances has been the subject of much debate.83 Tomb owners’ daughters are depicted offering footed bowls with one hand and holding small vessels in the other. This may be an allusion to the goddess Mut (who was strongly associated with Hathor), who is said to ‘mix the drink in the cup of gold.’84
If the intention of banquet participants was intoxication (as illustrated by guests, both male and female, vomiting during the feast), it is plausible that
81
2012, 19. For the importance of remembering and forgetting in mortuary contexts see Collard 2012, 30; Harrington 2013, 124–6.
82 Schott 1952, 76–7. Also Daumas 1970, 65. Cf. Ogden 2001, xvii, in relation to Greek and
Roman necromancy; Sherratt 1991 for narcotic consumption in Later Neolithic Europe.
83 Alcohol is described by Jennings et al. (2005, 276) as ‘perhaps the most ancient, the most
widely used, and the most versatile drug in the world’. The use of narcotics in rituals and feasts is a cross-cultural phenomenon, and often restricted to the elite, for example the Aztecs and their use of cacao (Smith et al. 2003, 245–7).
84
Tomb of Horemheb, TT 78: Lichtheim 1945, 184; Brack and Brack 1980, pl. 32a. Alcohol pacified the goddess in her anger (according to the myth of the Destruction of Mankind: Szkapowska 2003, 235), which may be linked with the need to appease (sHtp) the deceased, who could also become enraged and threaten the lives and livelihoods of the living (see, for example, the Instruction of Ani, Papyrus Bulaq IV, 22, 1–3: Quack 1994, 114–7, 182–3, 324–5 (plates); McDowell 1999, 104). Wine for heroic drinking was usually explicitly ‘mixed’ and served in mixing bowls or craters in Homeric epic, the additive usually being water (Sherratt 2004, 325), but see note 108 below.
the contents of these small vials or double vessels when mixed into alcoholic beverages was intended to increase their potency and thereby expedite the process. Anthony Seeger notes that where music and dance accompany the ingestion of stimulants, depressants, or hallucinogens, ‘the structures of the movements and sounds may define the altered experience, or be created by it, or both.’85
An overview of the potential use of narcotics is given below.
Mandrake
The fruit of the mandrake (Mandragora officinarum) is often confused with that of the persea tree,86 although the mandrake has a distinct calyx covering the lower part of the fruit.87 Newberry stated that mandrake fruits, sliced in half and with the calices removed, were incorporated into the floral collarette found on Tutankhamun’s third coffin.88
This would accord with texts such as the harper’s songs from TT 50 and TT 359:89 ‘Put … garlands of water lilies and
mandrakes on your breast’. Mandrake root has intoxicating and narcotic
qualities, but as with opium, it is not clear to what extent these properties were exploited in ancient Egypt. In Assyrian, Canaanite, ancient Greek and
European medieval cultures the mandrake was believed to induce and sustain passion, and in the Bible it is said to cause sexual excitement.90 The scent of the mandrake is unique, described by Fleisher and Fleisher as ‘intoxicating
85
Seeger 1994, 686.
86 Mimusops laurifolia: Murray 2000, 625; Manniche 1989, 121; Germer 1985, 170–1. See e.g.
Germer (1989, 52–3) who rejects earlier interpretations of actual fruit (e.g. Newberry in Carter 1972, 233) and glass models from the tomb of Tutankhamun as mandrake, and identifies them as persea. The glass fruits (Carter no. 585u; JE 61870 and 61871), one bearing a cartouche of Thutmose III, were not photographed by Burton. Germer (1985, 148; 1990) mistakes mandrake fruit for persea in the banquet scene in tomb of Nakht (TT 52) and elsewhere in her discussion of floral garlands.
87
Hepper 2009, 15. Mandrake plants were introduced from Syria and Palestine and established in Egyptian gardens by the beginning of the New Kingdom (Keimer 1951: 391).
88
In Carter 1972, 233. For faience collars incorporating imitation mandrake fruit, see for
example, Eaton-Krauss 1982, 234–5, no. 308. According to Jakow Galil (in Bosse-Griffiths 1983: 66), the mandrake fruit cannot be dried for use in floral collars because it contains too much water: perhaps the pulp was removed to aid the drying process.
89
Neferhotep and Inherkhau, 18th and 20th Dynasties: after Lichtheim 1945, 178, 201.
90
and addictive’.91
The smell is only perceptible when the fruit is fully ripe, and because it spoils quickly it would need to be harvested shortly before use.92 In banquet scenes female guests are shown passing mandrakes or holding them to the faces of other guests (Fig. 7), actions that are also evoked in love
poetry.93 Such texts show an apparent relationship between breathing the scent of mandrake and the loss of sexual inhibitions. The connection between mandrake and lust is also made in Papyrus Harris 500,94 where a woman’s mouth is described as a water lily bud and her breasts as mandrakes.95 Within the context of banquet scenes, however, the emphasis seems to be more on sensuality and creating a relaxed atmosphere, since men and women do not offer mandrake fruit (or water lilies) to one another, but only pass them among members of their own gender.96 Combining mandrake with wine could induce
91 Fleisher and Fleisher 1994, 248–9. Its smell is emphasised, for instance, in O. Hermitage
1125, 2–3 (circa temp. Ramesses IV: Mathieu 1996, 108, n. 363): xnm.k xnm.k mi pA (n) rrm.wt
(‘your smell, your smell (is) like that (of) mandrakes’).
92 In April and May: Newberry in Carter 1972, 234. ‘Ripe mandrakes’ (nA rrm.wt pr.y
) are listed among other desirable plants and flowers in the love poem O. DM 1266/O. CGC 25218: I, stanza 5, line 23: Mathieu (1996, 101; 110, n. 378).
93 O. DM 1266/O. CGC 25218: I, 18–9: Mathieu 1996, 100; cf. Fox 1985, 37; Landgráfová and
Navrátilová 2009, 119.
94
Poem 4, lines 1, 1112: Mathieu 1996, 57. Cf. O. DM 1266/O. CGC 25218: I, 3–5 (Mathieu 1996, 97; cf. Fox 1985, 31; Landgráfová and Navrátilová 2009, 144–5), and O. Gardiner 33913 (Landgráfová and Navrátilová 2009, 146).
95
Landgráfová and Navrátilová 2009, 172. See Derchain (1975, 72) for a discussion of the erotic connotations of the water lily and the mandrake as an aphrodisiac. Kate Bosse-Griffiths (1983: 69) suggested that some foreign women of the royal harem probably ‘brought with them the folklore knowledge of the power of the fruit of the mandragora to arouse passion, to intoxicate, to create sons. To please these women, and perhaps the king himself, the mandragora plant was fetched from foreign countries and made at home in the gardens of the rich where its fruits could be gained without danger.’ She also interpreted the depiction of mandrakes on the small golden shrine of Tutankhamun as intended to ‘strengthen the potency and sexual power that gives life. Yet this power is not restricted to the relation between the king and queen, but is meant to benefit the whole country’ (1983: 72).
96
The connection between sexuality/sensuality and the mandrake fruit is also made in the Song of Songs, 13–14: Fleisher and Fleisher 1994, 250; Fox 1985, 92.
sleep,97 which may be significant if communication with the dead was anticipated through dreams.
Water lilies (‘lotus’)
In the 18th Dynasty the mandrake and blue lily were combined in bunches, with the yellow fruit visible between the lily petals.98 Two species of lily were known to and depicted by the ancient Egyptians: Nymphaea cerulea Savigny (blue) and Nymphaea lotus Linnaeus Willdenow (white).99 The three-day flowering cycle of the blue lily came to symbolise rebirth and the passage of the sun.100 Harer concludes that banquets must have taken place in the morning because the flowers are shown open, and Ossian suggests that they represented an ‘iconographic clock’.101
However, blue lilies are depicted simultaneously in full bloom and as closed buds, often in the same stylised bouquets, which gives the scenes in which they appear a timeless quality.
Aside from a pleasant scent, lily blossoms and rhizomes contain narcotic alkaloids that are soluble in alcohol.102 Both Harer and Emboden have
97 P. Leiden I, 383: Harer 1985, 52. Cf. Simoons 1998, 113–6. A First Intermediate Period letter
to the dead (Wente 1990, 215) suggests that people could sleep in tombs in order to communicate with the deceased.
98
Merlin 2003, 317. This arrangement, with or without the mandrake, was a common means of depicting the bouquet of Amun or other bouquets that were presented in temples before being offered to the dead, e.g. tomb of Pairy, TT 139 (Hartwig 2004, 254, pl. 4,1). According to Dittmar (1986, 125), the bouquet obtained life-giving properties when it was placed before the god, being transformed into a ‘bouquet of life’ (Lebenstrauß) that could give divine powers to the recipient. For a discussion of the bouquet of Amun in Theban tombs, see Muhammed 1966, 96–98.
99 Irvine and Trickett 1953, 363–4. The lotus (Nelumbo as opposed to Nymphaea) was not
present in Egypt in the New Kingdom. Nelumbo nucifera, the eastern sacred lotus, was introduced from India in the Persian period: Germer 1985, 39–40; Hepper 2009, 11.
100
I.e. the flower opened and closed each day for three consecutive days, sinking below the surface of the water in the evening: Ossian 1999, 50; Emboden 1978, 397; Szkapowska 2003, 226. In contrast to some of the other flowers depicted in banquet scenes, lilies blossom all year (Ossian 1999, 52).
101
Harer 1985, 52; Ossian 1999, 59.
102
Harer 1985, 52. Counsell (2008, 208, 215) has challenged this research, however, and suggests instead that the high bioflavonoid content would have provided health benefits.
suggested that lily flowers draped over or around wine jars indicate that the blossoms had been mixed with the contents, and Papyrus Ebers 209 and 479 describe lilies ‘spending the night’ in alcoholic mixtures.103
If this is the case, then the golden vessels passed to the tomb owner and his wife during banquet scenes may be significant as they also have stylised blossoms around the rim, suggesting that lilies were steeping in the liquid. Of the few surviving examples of this bowl type, the Louvre example contains a figure of Hathor in bovine form with a projection in the base through which flower stalks may have been threaded.104 Emboden found lily extract to be a visual and auditory hallucinogen when he tested it on himself, with possible dosage-related emetic effects.105 That sickness from narcotics or alcohol poisoning was anticipated is indicated by the presence of containers apparently provided for the guests’ convenience (Fig. 8).106
Opium
Opium poppies (Papaver Somniferum, as opposed to corn poppies, Papaver rhoeas) are not depicted in Egyptian tombs, but vessels that might originally have contained milky latex extracted from the plant have been discovered in mortuary contexts.107 Robert Merrillees’ belief that the ancient Egyptians used
103
Harer 1985, 54; 1978, 400, fig. 3; Szpakowska 2003, 227; Counsell 2008, 206. The
suggestions of Harer and Emboden are disputed by Sheikholeslami (personal communication, 2011).
104 Spalinger 1982, 121–2, no. 108; see Desroches-Noblecourt 1990, 20, or Hayes 1959, 206,
fig. 121 for a reconstruction.
105
1981, 44, 55, 80. It is possible that plant chemicals, in addition to alcohol, were responsible for at least some of the depictions of vomiting at 18th Dynasty banquets (for instance
Djeserkareseneb, TT 38: Davies 1963, pl. 6). Moldenke (1952: 137) notes that the mandrake ‘is slightly poisonous … being principally an emetic, purgative and narcotic’, and the fruit may therefore also have induced sickness in some guests.
106
Probably pgs or bronze ‘spittoons’, from the verb pgs (old psg) ‘to spit’: Janssen 1975, 429. See also Davies (1925, 15), who mentions the use of a spittoon in the banquet scene of Tetaky (TT 15).
107
opium as both a sedative and narcotic has been widely criticised,108 though his assertion that Cypriot Base Ring I ware juglets imitated scarified poppy heads and hence probably contained juice from the capsules seems reasonable: ‘illiterate or not, one would hardly expect to find anything but tomato extract in a container shaped like a tomato.’109
He cites the discovery of an unscored opium poppy head from Tomb 1389 at Deir el-Medina as evidence for cultivation of the plant by the reign of Thutmose III (1479–1425 BC),110 although because the grave was disturbed Joseph Hobbs has argued that the capsule could be a later intrusive deposit.111 Based on the quantities of Base Ring ware juglets from Cypriot tombs, David Collard (2012, 31) suggests that: ‘the apparent popularity of the consumption of alcohol and opium in Bronze Age Cypriote mortuary ritual may relate to the ability of these substances to simultaneously reduce an individual’s grief and erase their memories of the deceased, allowing the living to focus upon resuming social life without them.’ He also comments (2012, 30) that the addition of a liquid solution of opium to alcoholic beverages would avoid the necessity of drinking large quantities of wine to achieve the desired state. The effect of alcohol and opium as sedatives, causing lethargy, loss of motor-control and impairment of the senses (Collard 2012, 30; Milledge Nelson 2003, 67), may have been understood as a means of communicating with the dead by imitating their condition, since the Egyptian dead (and Osiris, the god of the underworld) were said to be ‘weary’ or ‘weary-hearted’.
Ernesto Schiaparelli’s publication of the tomb of Kha includes a report claiming that morphine, and therefore opium, was present in some of the
108
Merrillees 1962, 292. The medicinal value of opium was apparently recognised in ancient Egypt, since it is cited in Papyrus Ebers (782) as a sedative for crying children (Bisset et al. 1994, 109). Critics: for example, Szpakowska 2003, 225; Counsell 2008, 198. In Homer’s Odyssey, Helen mixes wine with ‘a sedative with euphoric effect’ (νηπενθὲς ἄχολον), thought to be a liquid preparation of opium, given to her by Polydamna of Egypt (Sherratt 2004, 327).
109 Merrillees 1974, 32. 110 Merrillees 1968, 155. 111 Hobbs 1998, 66.
excavated vessels.112 The findings were questioned by Norman Bisset and others, who state that while there is insufficient evidence to suggest that the vases contained opiates, opium may have formed part of the original contents, which has degraded over time.113 The reuse of vessels makes identifying the substances they initially contained problematic, and although Merrillees’ argument for the widespread use of opium is persuasive, particularly with regard to the shape of Base Ring ware juglets, it cannot as yet be conclusively proven that the Egyptians used the dried exuded latex of P. Somniferum as a narcotic or hallucinogen.114
Rituals to protect banqueters from malevolent forces
Banquets were potentially dangerous times for both the celebrants and the deceased, particularly when they continued through the night.115 Various means were employed to ward off demons and the malevolent dead,116 including the use of unguents and oils (which were also used for ritual cleansing),117 mandrakes,118 execration rituals (including breaking vessels;
112
Schiaparelli 1927, 154.
113
Bisset et al.1994, 106. Collard (2012, 26) states that Base Ring ware juglets have been found to contain opium alkaloid residues in early and late examples, and suggests that significant quantities of opium were consumed in ceremonies conduced in the vicinity of Bronze Age Cypriot tombs.
114
Merrillees 1968, 157. Cf. Krikorian 1975, 113.
115 E.g. the Festival of Amenhotep lasted for four days (Hagen and Koefoed 2005, 19; Černý
1927, 183–4) and the Wadi Festival for two (Hartwig 2004, 11), suggesting that they involved night vigils in the same manner as the Festival of Drunkenness (Szkapowska 2003, 236).
116
For an overview of malevolent entities, see Szkapowska 2009.
117 Thompson 1998, 242–3. It is probably significant in this context that Hathor was ‘Mistress of
Myrrh’ (Schott 1953, 78).Oils were also used to pacify and thus neutralise potentially antagonistic spirits of the dead in Mesopotamia: see Dalley 1993, 20.
118
Aside from its scent and association with sensuality, the mandrake had another role that would have been equally significant in the context of rituals and feasts in the tomb: it was used to ‘expel the “influence (aAa)” of gods, the dead, adversaries, and other malign beings’ according to Papyrus Ebers: Dawson 1933, 135; Wreszinski 1913, §182, 225–8, 231, 236. Cf. Simoons 1998, 117.
see above) and the creation of loud noises. The domestic dwarf-god Bes,119 protector of the vulnerable, including infants, pregnant women and sleepers, was invoked through his association with frame drums (as used at banquets and festivals) and musicians.120 The use of drums and other explosive sounds used in life-crisis ceremonies in modern Afghanistan is thought to be
apotropaic, protecting people in liminal states when they are vulnerable to attack from evil spirits.121 The rhythm of drums when played to accompany dancing or in procession unites people in a collective consciousness and can facilitate arousal and trance-like states,122 and it is likely that the use of frame drums by musicians simultaneously invoked protective deities while defending against demons.123
The economic and social implications of banqueting As Susan Pollock (2003, 19), notes:
Commensality – the social context of sharing the consumption of food and drink – is a pervasive feature of agrarian societies, and there are typically strong rules that govern generosity and the sharing of beverages and food … The ways that food and drink are prepared, presented, and consumed contribute to the construction and communication of social relations, ranging from the most intimate and egalitarian to the socially distant and hierarchical …. How one consumes is related to who one is.
119 ‘Bes’ is the collective name given to a group of iconographically similar deities: see Romano
1989.
120
For example the dancing lyre player in the tomb of Nakhtamun (TT 341), depicted with Bes tattoos on her thighs: Davies and Gardiner 1948, pl. 28.
121
Doubleday 1999, 103, 118.
122
Doubleday 1999, 126.
123
Drums were beaten during the night vigil as part of pre-burial rites (Assmann 2005, 295) to protect the dead. An inscription in the temple of Medamud in describing the Festival of Drunkenness states that the inebriated celebrants drum for Hathor ‘in the cool of the night’ (Quack 2010, 348; see also Darnell 1995, 49–50, 54). Amun is also associated with loud noise through the myth of the creation of the world where the silence at the dawn of time was broken by a cry from the god in the form of a great goose: Szkapowska 2003, 232.
18th Dynasty tomb paintings indicate that men were in charge of wine
production, while beer, a staple part of the Egyptian diet, was probably mainly produced by women, who were also responsible for bread-making.124 Beer typically spoiled within a week and would therefore need to be produced in a single batch shortly before it was due to be consumed, whereas wine
remained drinkable for up to five years and could be stored, transported, and used as a tradable commodity.125 The limited shelf-life of beer would have resulted in an intensive period of production prior to a major event, such as a large banquet or festival, which along with related activities such as food processing, unguent and oil manufacture, and the production of floral garlands, reed mats and linen garments, would have required a large, organised and skilled workforce and a substantial economic outlay.126 Feasting thus had the potential to enhance the status and profiles of the officials responsible.
Despite the apparent gendered division of labour, the drinks themselves were not distributed in a manner indicative of sexual bias:127 men and women at banquets are equally depicted with wine bowls and beer jars and intoxicated to the point of sickness.128 Elite women and men are sometimes represented
124
This is in accord with general anthropological trends: Sigaut 2005, 295. See also Sanchez-Romero 2011, 16–7 for a discussion of gendered activities. For an illustration of the division of labour (including women grinding corn), see the tomb of Nebamun, TT 17: Säve-Söderbergh 1957, pl. 22.
125
Jennings et al. 2005, 286.
126
Jennings et al. 2005, 288; Spielmann 2002, 197.
127 This is in direct contrast to Sanchez-Romero’s (2011, 18) observation that women are often
expected to drink less than (and in a different place to) men or to abstain from alcohol altogether. See also Mandelbaum 1965, 282, who notes that drinking is usually considered more appropriate for men than for women.
128
Alcohol does not merely break down barriers between the living and the dead, but also lowers inhibitions, allowing, for example, males to behave in ways that might otherwise be considered inappropriate: ‘Their talk becomes more sentimental, their bodies more
expressive. They hug one another with greater freedom, laugh, cry, and dance in ways that are said to express their true sentiments, their true selves’ (Gefou-Madianou 1992, 13). Thus (sacred) gatherings where alcohol was consumed were important outlets for the expression of suppressed emotions and actions.
on separate registers, but they may be served by either female or male attendants, and couples are frequently shown seated together. According to David Mandelbaum, changes in drinking customs may provide clues to fundamental social changes.129 It is not clear whether drinking practices changed after the 18th Dynasty (when the mortuary banquet scene was withdrawn from tomb decoration), but the Festival of Drunkenness continued to be celebrated into the Greco-Roman period, so it may be suggested that while images of alcohol consumption in the presence of the dead were no longer produced, the practice itself continued.
The communal aspect of drinking is emphasised in texts where daughters130 seem to encourage their deceased parents to overindulge, uttering the phrase often translated as ‘make merry’ (iri hrw nfr),131
while offering a bowl probably containing wine.132 An inscription above one such scene in the tomb of User (TT 21) reads:133
For your ka
Drink, be happily drunk (swri tx nfr), celebrate the holiday!
…
O dignitary who loves wine
and is the favourite of frankincense (antyw),134 may you never be lacking
concerning satisfying your desire inside your beautiful house.135
129
1965, 288.
130
The female figures are often uncaptioned, but when an inscription is provided the women are usually identified as the tomb owner’s daughters, e.g. Nebamun, TT 90 (Davies 1923, pl. 23); Djeserkareseneb, TT 38 (Davies 1963, pl. 6).
131 Lorton 1975; Wiebach 1986, 277–8. 132 For examples see Schott 1950, 127–30. 133
Schott 1952, 82, no. 123; 1950, 127, no. 80; Davies 1913, 26, pls 25, 26. Similar themes may be seen in hymns to Hathor, for which see Szkapowska 2003, 233 with references.
134
Davies 1913, 26, n. 7: i.e. who is never without wine and incense.
In the tomb of Paheri at Elkab, one of the female guests turns to a servant and requests 18 vessels of wine, stating that she wishes to become intoxicated and is parched.136 The sharp contrast between enjoying alcohol during life in the context of banquets and enforced abstinence in the afterlife is suggested in harpists’ and lutists’ songs, where ancestors are described as those whose ‘view is unknown concerning celebrating the holiday: their hearts have
forgotten drunkenness’,137
and funerary laments, such as that in the tomb of Mose:138 ‘he who liked to get drunk is now in a land without even water.’ These laments, inscribed above funeral procession scenes, sometimes in tombs that also contain depictions of mortuary banquets, are superficially similar to harpers’ songs in their apparently ‘heretical’ approach to death and the afterlife.139 They are characterised by a subversive pessimism in which no comfort counters the overwhelming negativity they express.140
The cyclical and recurrent nature of feasting meant that it was an ideal context for the renewal of ideological messages, the perception of temporal continuity
136 EK 3, ‘My insides are (like) straw’: Schott 1950, 129, no. 86; Tylor and Griffith 1894, pl. 7. Cf.
the scene of apparently drunken guests being carried in the 18th Dynasty tomb of Senna, TT 169 (Murray 2000, 578, fig. 23.3).
137 Lutist’s song in TT 158, Tjanefer, 20th Dynasty: Wente 1962, 126–8; Porter and Moss 1960,
270 (16). Distinctions were also drawn between intoxication in secular and religious contexts: drunkenness outside the bounds of festivals was socially unacceptable in Egypt (e.g. the Instructions of Any: Lichtheim 1976, 137), as it was in many ancient cultures, (e.g. Aztec [Smith
et al. 2003, 24]; Greek [Sherratt 2004, 325]). Alcohol consumption occurred as part of collective
religious experiences and expressions of community solidarity, and in this sense may be
compared to modern Mediterranean views of drinking and drunkenness: ‘To eat and drink are by definition acts which imply commensal relations. They cannot or rather should not take place alone, individually. They are acts enmeshed within the collectivity’ (Dimitra Gefou-Madianou 1992, 14). Women in particular are stigmatised for being inebriated as it indicates a lack of self-control, self-respect, and is ‘even regarded as dangerous, an indication of uncontrolled sexuality’ (Gefou-Madianou 1992, 16).
138
TT 137: Sweeney 2001, 44; Lüddeckens 1943, 134, no. 64.
139 E.g. TT 50, Neferhotep, temp. Horemheb: Porter and Moss 1960: 95–6. Assmann 1977, 76. 140 Sweeney 2001, 44–5; Zandee 1960, 91.
