[\m music playing \m\m] >> Dr. Allen Lanham: Well, good morning and welcome to Booth Library and our continuation of our series on ancient Egypt. We are midway through our course and we have a delightful program this morning from our university archivist, Robert Hillman, and to continue looking at the various facets of life during and after the ancient Egyptians. So, Dr. Wafeek Wahby of course, the coordinator. >> Dr. Wafeek Wahby: Good morning and thank you for coming to this session of the "Futuristic Look Through Ancient Lenses" and I like what you said a minute ago, that this is the nearest you can get to Egypt at this time, so I hope you enjoy your trip. You want to know anything about Eastern Illinois University history, here is the man. [laughter]. I ask him about anything, any information that you want to know, 100 years, more than 100 years ago, any pictures, any image--he has amazing memory and amazing resources, so thank you very much for accepting to present. >> Mr. Robert Hillman: Well, first of all, I don't want to set myself up as being an expert on Egypt because I'm definitely not. I'm learning just like quite a few other people, this month, about Egypt and I've been there, which is more than some people have done, but otherwise, I'm not an expert at all. In a way that the term archives is defined today--I'm not going to go into definitions--at least by the professionals, the ancient Egyptians left few archives behind as to the kind of things we have today in archives. Most of the [unclear dialogue] written records, concerning the conduct for their affairs for example, did not survive over time. Also, most of the written records pertaining to the functioning of the kings, the administrators, priests, nobles, merchants, all that kind of thing, most of it did not survive. There's some examples of things that did survive but, for the most part, it didn't. However, what I will argue is that because of the extraordinary measures taken by the ancient Egyptians to preserve, for all eternity, certain aspects of their culture. The things that they did leave behind, survived for all these centuries because of the measures that were taken. And that these things constitute a rich archives, indeed, in place of the kind of things that we think of today as archives--the writings or the scribes, the wall carvings on the temples, the paintings in the tombs, the sculptures, both large and small, and other objects of of physical culture--all these things together constitute the true archives of ancient Egypt. They provide deep insights into the cultural, historical, religious and secular life of the people. That's all we have but, in some ways, it's enough. Thought you might like to see this picture. It's a little bit grainy, but you can sort of get the idea. Some eager travelers here trying to learn about Egypt in three days. >> male audience member: [unclear dialogue]. >> Mr. Hillman: On the left, yes I will admit. That's my sister and my mother--the three of us took this trip to Egypt. >> male audience member: When was that? >> Mr. Hillman: Twenty-nine, well, almost 30 years ago. Next March it'll be 30 years. So we had a lot of fun, we learned a lot, but were not there nearly long enough. It's hard to overestimate the importance of scribes in depicting and preserving, for the future, the culture of ancient Egypt. So I'd like to talk for a little while about them. It's my view that the scribes were the true archivists of ancient Egypt. This slide shows a drawing of a scribe at work, and [unclear dialogue]. Also shown are some of the tools of the trade--all of those are ceremonial versions of them--and an example hieroglyphics and then another example of a more cursive style of hieroglyphics. And the next slide shows a sculpture that the previous drawing was, no doubt, made from because it's almost identical. The sculpture was 2700 to 2100 BC, really old. It looks very modern to me. This one's carved from a stone called grey rock, and the sculpture is of a seated scribe and it dates from 1400 BC, not long before the time of King Tutankhamun. I got several pictures here of sculptures of scribes. This one is made of granite, it dates from 2400 BC, during the Old Kingdom. It depicts an actual scribe, a person known as [unclear dialogue]. This one's carved out of a block of granite around 1300 BC, again about the time of King Tutankhamun. The sculpture also depicts an actual scribe known as Haremhab. And this was carved from a stone on a schist, and it dates from about 580 BC. This sculpture also portrays an actual person, a scribe named [unclear dialogue]. I'm not getting these names right, I'm sure, but that's my version of the names. This one is, was carved out of wood, and about 1300 BC, and this piece shows the royal scribe Amenemopet on the left, and his wife whose name was Hathor. And around the base of it, a hymn to the god Amun-Re was scribed at the pedestal. This is a relief carving from a tomb dating to about 1300 BC, and it also depicts an actual person. He was a royal scribe named [unclear dialogue], the brother of King Tutankhamun's treasurer. He's shown wearing the elaborate court attire of the New Kingdom. This one is a relief carving from a mastabah, or tomb. It dates from about 2500 BC and this piece shows three scribes at work painting hieroglyphics on papyrus scrolls. From these images I think you can begin appreciate the importance of scribes in ancient Egypt. Some even became prominent enough to have their images carved in expensive stones that had to be hauled hundreds of miles, and to be buried in elaborately decorated tombs of their own. So they were very prominent, some of them were very rich and very influential and held other offices other than scribe. Less than 1 percent of the people in ancient Egypt were literate, so these scribes were indeed among the privileged people in the country. Also, there was quite a hierarchy of scribes, and so they had apprentices and experienced scribes, master scribes and royal scribes, and the latter categories of people probably mostly supervised the work of others, but they came with lots of experience to their positions. Scribes were quite often the son of a scribe, so from one generation to the next, they were all scribes--one after the other over hundreds of years' time. This picture is from a museum display obviously and it's a collection of palates and brush holders used by the scribes during the Old Kingdom, so these date from about 2500 BC or so. Red an black were the predominant pigments used, although other colors were sometimes employed. And this one looks just like the other ones, and this dates from 1100 or about 1000 BC. About 1500 years newer than the previous example, so you can see that apparently the scribes and the ancient Egyptian technology didn't improve very fast. It continued the same century after century after century in some cases. This slide shows an apprentice scribe's practice board. It's wood and they could whitewash it and practice their hieroglyphic characters. This dates from about 2000 BC. We saw these pictures right at the beginning. This is the ceremonial brush holder from Tutankhamun's tomb, and the importance of royal scribes was recognized by Egyptian kings to the extent that they are placed in the afterlife of the rulers [unclear dialogue]. Some of the kings may not themselves have been literate, relying instead on their scribes and priests for preparing the way for them in a time to come and for perpetuating their stories for future generations. This of course is a shot of the famous Rosetta Stone--part of it--and along with an image of the man, a French linguist, Jean-Francois Champollion, who was given credit for finally deciphering the Rosetta Stone. It's inscribed in three different languages. The stone was discovered in 1799 by Napoleon's army in the village of Rashid, a name that was Europeanized as "Rosetta". Many ancient structures were later desecrated, so this was one of the stones that had been part of another building at some point, and it was found centuries later in this small village. The Rosetta Stone provided scholars with the essential clues for interpreting hieroglyphic script, and thus helped bring the story of ancient Egypt to life. Here's the actual Rosetta Stone, and it's in the British Museum, as we learned earlier in one of the other presentations. It's made of granite and it measures about 2 feet by 4 feet, roughly. It dates from the reign of Ptolemy V, [00:14:40.13] [unclear dialogue] about 196 BC. Originally part of an ancient temple, as I mentioned, the stone was inscribed with roughly the same message in hieroglyphics, Demotic, and Greek. Okay now I'm going to talk for a while about papyrus and a few other things related to that, but before I do, I've got some examples of papyrus here to pass around. These are contemporary papyri, of course, but there's quite an industry in Egypt of selling these kind of things to the tourists, so I've got a few samples there for you to look at. Papyrus was very integral to the lives of the Egyptians, Egyptian people, and it figured largely in their artwork, their sculpture, their architecture, their cultural identity and their commerce with other civilizations. I've read somewhere that they think they might have even, at one time, tried to figure out how to eat it. I don't think it was necessary because they had a rich granary supply in that country, but there was a thought that they tried to figure out how to cultivate it for food, too. This wall painting is from the tomb of Menna, of a hunting scene in a papyrus thicket, and it dates from about 1400 BC. This is one that was painted or done as a wall painting, 1600 or 1500 BC, and it's from Amarna and it depicts, obviously, ducks in a papyrus swamp--similar to the other one, less elaborate. Consider probably one of the most realistic depictions of Tutankhamun, this wood and stucco sculpture shows the head of the boy king. What's interesting to my little discussion here is that it's perched on top of a papyrus stalk. They could've mounted it on anything, but they put it on top of a papyrus stalk, so that's another indication of how important they thought that plant was to them. This one is made principally of ivory. It's a perfume jar from the tomb of Tutankhamun, and it has papyrus-shaped handles on this side and lotus-shaped handles on the other side. We saw [unclear dialogue] at the beginning too. This is a papyrus, ceremonial papyrus burnisher, and it was placed in the tomb along with other tools. They're sort of ceremonial, but they wanted to be sure that the scribes in the afterlife had their tools of their trade. And what this was used for, when they made the papyrus--after the papyrus was woven together--they would take burnishers and real finely mesh the reeds together, and I'm not an expert on the technology of it, but apparently the papyrus I'm showing is much cruder than the version that they would have had back when they used it as paper and marketed all over the ancient world. In real life, the laborers used much more utilitarian burnishers to press together and smooth the surface of the woven papyrus reeds to create a suitable writing surface. For centuries, Egypt produced large quantities of papyrus, which was used for its own needs and as a major export product to trade for luxury goods and materials not available in their own country. This photo shows the elaborately decorated coffin of a woman named Nesi-Khonsu--the enchantress of Amun-Re she was called--and this dates from the 9th century BC. Depicted on the interior of her coffin are scenes from "The Book of the Dead," but also there's papyrus motif and it's used constantly in the tomb paintings and coffins--it's just a very recurring symbol. Dating from about 1040 BC, this is one of the opening scenes of "The Book of the Dead" of Nany, a woman in her 70's which is pretty rare, to be 70-years-old, that age in ancient Egypt. Books of the Dead were also referred to sometimes as "Books of Coming Forth By Day". The papyrus scroll on which the panel was painted was found in her tomb. On the left of the scene stands Osiris, the god of the underworld and rebirth. The deceased has placed an offering for Osiris on a small table, and stalks of papyrus separate the two images. This is one of the principle images of the scroll found in Nany's tomb. The entire scroll measures more than 17-feet long, unrolled. The scene depicted here shows the climax to the journey of the afterlife. Nany is in the hall of judgment, holding her mouth and eyes in her right hand. And behind her stands the goddess Isis, and in this scene Nany's heart is being weighed for its truthfulness. Operating the scale is a jackal-headed Anubis, who's the overseer of mummification. In the end, according to the hieroglyphic inscription--which of course, I can read, you know--Anubis announces to Osiris that Nany has been found worthy of entering the afterlife, to which Osiris replies "Give her her eyes and her mouth since her heart is an accurate witness". This papyrus is from "The Book of the Dead" from a scribe named Ani, dating from about 1200 BC. The scene depicts Ani's funerary boat with the mummy stretched out on a bed, and below that the Canopic vessels, jars, containing Ani's liver, lungs, stomach and intestines. They were removed from the body and mummified along with the rest of the body, and they separated them and put them in these Canopic jars. The text below the scene recounts the journey that Ani is undertaking to the afterlife. Dating from about 1300 BC, this papyrus painting is from "The Book of the Dead" of Hunefer, and that's the theme of my t-shirt by the way--in case you get the chance to look at it later. In this scene, Anubis, the overseer of mummification--here--is introducing the deceased to the weighing of the heart. And here's still another version of that same scene. This is, dates from about 1250 BC and it shows how important this particular, this was sort of the climax scene of the books of the dead because that's what determined whether the person was worthy or not, and probably there aren't any that weren't worthy because they wouldn't have had a big thing made about them and buried in a big tomb and everything. Dating from about 1000 BC, this scene is from the papyrus scroll "Book of the Dead" from the tomb of Henuttowy, musician priestess of Amun-Re. This scene shows the naked figure of Henuttowy and Thoth, the god of wisdom and writing, who is represented as a baboon. Both figures are paying homage to the solar disc containing the sacred eye as it rises over the mountains. Dating from about 1500 BC, this papyrus panel shows Queen Hatshepsut, but she's dressed as the goddess Isis, and with the god Osiris. The inscription is written in a modified form of hieroglyphics, which was faster for the scribes to execute. And we saw this sample last night. This papyrus sheet shows an even more cursive script known as hieratic. It's thought to be the world's oldest--this particular one is thought to be the oldest surviving surgical document, written in about 1600 BC. The text describes anatomical observations and diagnoses and treatment of a variety of medical problems. In addition to hieroglyphics, scribes were often expected to be literate in hieratics, which was used in non-ritual, non-religious, more routine documents. Okay, I want to turn for a moment to a discussion of the ancient Egyptian temples. Very short. We've seen quite a bit of these before in the course of this symposium, so I won't dwell too much on it, but it's good to remember that many temples did not survive over time. They were cannibalized for their billing materials, a lot of them were and so some of the ones remaining are the fairly newer ones, in some cases. There's a few older ones that do. Of the many temple views that could be shown, I'll present only a few. Typically, the temples were covered in hieroglyphics, from top to bottom--the walls, the pillars, the ceilings--and you've got a good example of it in the program, where everything that you can see was covered by hieroglyphics. These inscriptions served to glorify the particular deity that was being honored by the temple and also the pharaoh's embodiment of that god's qualities. The view shown here is the main approach to the Luxor Temple, built during the reign of Ramses II, or Ramses the Great, in the mid-13th century BC. The temple is guarded by an obelisk dedicated to Ramses and two colossal statues of him depicted as the god Osiris. This scene is from the courtyard of Ramses II, inside the Luxor Temple. And this slide shows the colossal statue of Ramses II at the entrance to the processional colonnade at the Luxor Temple. Note the hieroglyphics I mentioned, some of which is fallen off, around the base and the thrown. Built during the 15th century BC, this slide shows the main corridor through the Temple of Amun at Karnak, which is very close to Luxor. On the left is the obelisks dedicated to Queen Hatshepsut, and on the right is the obelisk of Thutmose I. This slide shows the rock-cut temples of Ramses II on the left, and Queen Nefertari on the right, and these are at Abu Simbel, quite a ways south in Egypt, in the 13th century BC. This is close-up of one of the features in this temple here. This photo is of a colossal statue at the temple of Hathor, Nefertari's temple. What is clearly visible here, as at all of the temples, is a powerful message and the message is sent by the sculptural works, as well as the splendid hieroglyphic inscriptions conveying important messages for future generations. It was the royal scribes who wrote these message on the temples and supervised the artisans who carved them in stone, thus the scribes were, in a sense, archivists, as well as artists and craftsmen. Now I'd like to talk a little bit about the tombs of ancient Egypt. We've seen this before in the course of our symposium--this is the famous step pyramid of the pharaoh Djoser at Saqqara, about the 27th century BC. It's a central figure of a cast mortuary complex surrounded by ceremonial structures. The first Egyptian pyramid ever to be built, this pyramid originally stood about 203 feet tall. It's eroded away to some extent, but it was clad in polished white limestone originally. This structure is considered to be the earliest monumental cut stone building in the world. Inscriptions inside the tomb name the king as Netjerykhet, or something like that. Djoser was the name that was used centuries later to refer to this pharaoh. In addition to being a grave for the ruler, the purpose of the pyramid was to facilitate a successful afterlife for the king so that he could be eternally reborn. Therefore the scribes and artisans who decorated the interior took pains to document the king's life, and to justify his worthiness for eternal afterlife. Interestingly, they even documented and preserved, for all time, the name of the pyramid's architect, a man named Imhotep, who--as I learned last night--was also a physician. So it's just incredible what kinds of things did survive even for 4,000 or 5,000 years, just amazing. Within walking distance of the Step Pyramid of Saqqara is the Pyramid of Unas, who reigned during the 5th Dynasty in the 24th century BC. This photo shows the excavated [unclear dialogue] leading up to the pyramid, as well as the pyramid itself, which has deteriorated far more than the older one, the Step Pyramid. This photo, which was taken inside the Pyramid of Unas, has walls that are completely covered in hieroglyphics and relief carvings. Like the Step Pyramid, the inscriptions here are designed to perpetuate the life of the king and to ensure his safe entry into an eternal afterlife. Clearly the scribes were busy even at this early period, and they were largely successful in their endeavor to immortalize their king. In modern times, when the burial chamber was finally entered, about 1881, very little remained of the contents--grave robbers had long ago gotten there first--but the all-important inscriptions had survived as the archives. This photo shows the burial chamber in the tomb for, built for a man named Sennefer in about 1450 BC at Thebes, which is not far from Cairo. Highly decorated with artwork as well as inscriptions, and of course "The Book of the Dead," this is the tomb of a powerful administrator, but he wasn't a pharaoh himself. He was the highly trusted aide to Amenhotep II . Sennefer held many offices simultaneously, including--or what we might call a mayor of the city of Thebes--the chancellor to the pharaoh, the overseer to the fields and granaries of Amun, the high priest of Amun. Through his many offices, he became rich, powerful and highly respected, and his tomb surely provides ample evidence of his influential life. This is a view of The Valley of the Kings and Queens, located across the Nile from Luxor, and there's a lot of other views that could be taken from further away that maybe gives more of an idea of what the mountains were like there but this is one I chose. Dating from about 1300 BC, this scene is from the tomb of Ramses I. HE was the founder of the 19th Dynasty and the grandfather of the powerful Ramses II. This scene shows the pharaoh flanked by Horus, god of the sky, and Anubis, god of mummification. The tomb is located in The Valley of the Kings. Dating from the 12th century BC, this slide shows the elaborate hieroglyphic inscriptions covering the tomb of Ramses IV, in The Valley of the Kings. This one shows wall paintings from tomb of Ramses VI, dating from the 12th century BC. Inscriptions and paintings from the sarcophagus chamber, this wall depicts "The Book of the Earth," including the reemergence of the sun from the Earth. This photo is the modern day entrance to the tomb of Kind Tutankhamun, who reigned for a brief time in the mid-14th century BC. At the time of my visit here, some 30 years ago, throngs of tourists were still allowed inside of the tomb. I think they have more restricted entrance now. And of course, this is the iconic mask of Tutankhamun, which covered the mummy and this is sort of like one of the main symbols of Egypt. It's used throughout, through all kinds of decorative motifs. I've seen it in person two or three times in exhibits, and I saw it in the museum in Cairo. Made of solid gold, inlaid with bands of lapis lazuli, carnelian, quartz, obsidian, turquoise and colored glass. In a way, even though it's an object, it's an archival piece because it tells so much about ancient Egypt, as do some of these other pieces I'll be showing you. This is a photo of the elaborate found on the mummy of King Tutankhamun, displaying the so-called "Eye of Horus" which was often used as a protective amulet. King Tutankhamun's ceremonial scepter, made of sheet gold beaten on a wooden core. This shaft is in the form of a papyrus flower and stem, and it's embellished at each end with a feather design [unclear dialogue] and inlaid with carnelion, turquoise, lapis lazuli, [unclear dialogue] and glass. The inscription reads, in part--I don't know how they could get all of this in that inscription--but "The good god, the beloved, dazzling of face like the Aton when it shines, the son of Amun, living for ever". This is a decorative box in the shape of a cartouche, with the name of the king, Tutankhamun. Hieroglyphic inscriptions in this form are usually reserved for the king, although occasionally the names of other people of high rank were depicted in cartouches. Of course today, anybody can get a cartouche. It's a main toursist draw, and the companies send representatives on the tour bus, and the first day you're there and you decide whether you're going to order a cartouche, and if you do a couple days later they come back with your finished cartouche of your name. This one's my mother's actually. A cartouche is an oval ring that is a representation of a length of rope--I don't know that you can tell that or not--that is tied at one end. When displaying the name of the king, it symbolized everything that the sun encircled, and is thus an indication of the king's rule in the cosmos. You've seen this box before in the symposium. As Dr. Lanham mentioned earlier, it was a shoe box, so it's not very big but it looks very well ornamented. It's from Tutankhamun's tomb, and depicting the king hunting lions on the top, and at the bottom doing battle against the Nubians--the people that lived south of Egypt. I'm going to show you a series of slides, and each one is going to be like what was inside of the one before. This slide and its contents is an example of the extent to which the tomb builders, scribes and artisans would go to provide for the king's afterlife. The photo shows the exterior of King Tutankhamun's canopic shrine, guarded by four goddesses. Made of wood and guilded in gold, the shrine served to protect the mummified remains of the king's essential eternal organs. Inside that was this--it's an alabaster vessel, holding four alabaster canopic jars containing King Tutankhamun's mummified lungs, liver, stomach and intestines. And then inside of those jars--King Tutankhamun's internal organs were not placed directly into the alabaster jars, however, but within four small coffins of solid gold inlaid with colored glass and carnelian. These were miniature replicas of his middle coffin and his sarcophagus, showing the king as the god Osiris, wearing an artificial beard and holding the crook and flail. Now this slide shows the inside of one of King Tutankhamun's canopic caskets. Inscribed in hieroglyphics, sorry--it was felt that the king would need his internal organs in his afterlife so everything possible was done to preserve them and have them clearly identified, in these hieroglyphic inscriptions in here, as belonging to Tutankhamun. I hope that I've succeeded here in demonstrating that the scribes in ancient Egypt can be seen as the de facto archivists of their civilization. By recording historic happenings, religious rituals, royal events and activities of daily life in such a detailed and permanent way--on temple walls, the walls of tombs and on artifacts concealed in tombs--the ancient scribes preserved the essential elements of their culture and transmitted this wonderful heritage through the ages. Now in case you're interested in going to Egypt, here's your ticket. This is actually the ticket that we used when we flew from Cairo to Luxor and back. Egypt Air. And this is a bank note that I brought back with me. You can see all of the motifs that are used in it still today, and they really revere their past in Egypt and you can tell that they do. Your camel is waiting. That's all I have. [applause]. >> Dr. Wahby: Any questions? Can you do this archivic presentation [unclear dialogue] I wonder. Any questions or comments. >> male speaker: Hey, Bob. Were the scribes part of a priest caste or were they kind of their own caste? >> Mr. Hillman: Well, I think it depended because if they were attached to the king's inner circle, they would be, Most of them would have been part of that, but there were scribes in all walks of life and their were merchants and administrators who were in charge of different parts of the country. You know, the daily affairs of different industries and so forth, and they all had scribes, so I think the answer is most of them were not, but then some were. The ones that succeeded in preserving their work were, because the work of the other scribes didn't survive. Most of the papyrus deteriorated and some things got flooded and destroyed that way, so I think the answer is two-fold. >> male speaker: Thank you. >> female speaker: Most of the scribe was wrote up and down, is that right? Or it could be wrote across? >> Mr. Hillman: Well, I think--I'm not an expert in this at all--but I think it was mostly up and down, although I have seen it the other way. >> Dr. Wahby: I think they did it both ways. But question regarding the scribes that we have seen--do they use pencil or reed or something? >> Mr. Hillman: When they were writing on papyrus, they used, it was sort of like a little reed that had a slant at the end, and one account said they would suck on it to make it sort of flexible so that the pigment would adhere to it and be flexible enough so they could draw with it. >> Dr. Wahby: [unclear dialogue] >> Mr. Hillman: In a sense, yeah. It wasn't a brush like we know today, with bristles and things like that. >> Dr. Wahby: Obviously they used very high quality, or good quality ink. >> Mr. Hillman: They did, yeah, obviously. It's amazing. >> Dr. Wahby: [unclear dialogue]. [laughter] Back to the archiving process--is there anything in your research that says they did it simultaneously as events are going on, or is it kind of aftermath? >> Mr. Hillman: I don't really know that for sure, but because of the time it took to do it, I think most of it would be after the event because it wasn't something they could just scribble enough--they were doing hieroglyphics. Any indication on the reeds--quote, unquote--they used to cut in stone? I mean the method or [unclear dialogue]. >> Mr. Hillman: You know I don't really know for sure how they did that. We've had some talk about it in one of the other sessions I came to. >> Dr. Wahby: It's amazing how accurate the lines are. >> Mr. Hillman: I know, and they've survived all these centuries , so they must have used some kind of a rope to make lines with so that they could have straight lines. I don't read up much on the process of it. >> Dr. Wahby: Question--what is the fascination with this and the [unclear dialogue]. >> Mr. Hillman: Well, I mean this cartouche is--you can come up and take a closer look at it--this is part of my mother's name. She bought it when we were over in Egypt, and I didn't buy one--I like gold jewelry and I didn't want to spend 10 times as much, so I didn't get one. And this is course--I mean I haven't had this more than two weeks or the papyrus more than two weeks. >> Dr. Wahby: Any other questions or comments? I think we need to bring this to a close. [no dialogue].