Friday Photo: Two Hypocephali
Two photos today, both of a hypocephalus. Hypocephalus means “under the head” and is an apt name for these objects.
Mysterious and magical, the hypocephali are inscribed pieces of papyrus, sometimes mounted on cartonnage discs that were placed beneath the head of the mummy. Some of the earliest examples originate in the Late Period, around 664 BC. By the Ptolemaic period (332-30 BC), they were made of linen stiffened with plaster. There have even been bronze hypocephali found though these are rare.
Representing the Eye of Horus, scenes that are common to most relate to the daily creation of the sun. The two boats usually present either side of the top section represent the sun during the night and the day. Baboons herald the birth of the sun, represented with four ram heads in the center. Depicted below are the four sons of Horus who looked after the internal organs of the deceased but who are also the gods of the four supports of the sky, which are combined and positioned at the eastern horizon to take part in the resurrection of the dead king with the rebirth of the new sun (see Pyramid Texts, utterances 263, 265, 266, 507, 519, and 512).
The spell around the outside of the disc is usually an abbreviated form of Chapter 162 from the Book of the Dead and says words to the effect of:
‘Cause to come into being a flame beneath his head
for he is the soul of that corpse which rests in Heliopolis,
Atum is his name’.
Here is another one from the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden in Leiden:
This one belonged to Tashenkhons, daughter of Khonsardais and can also be seen in the Global Egyptian Museum.
Credits:
Hypocephali by fmpgoh CC By NC ND 2.0
hypocephalus (rmo leiden, cartonnage thebe ~300 bc) by koopmanrob CC By SA 2.0
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Wow a truly remarkable picture and what a magical piece of history. I must say that I adore this post, just a topic of my heart. Their understanding of duality in nature is truly fascinating, truly plates of Heka. A plate of the here and the after/under-world.
The plates look very beautiful for their time period of 300 B.C, I feel like it has much of the style used in Thutmes III tomb.
I am personal very interested in the functions of the four sons of ancient Egypt, but I find them as being of the seven divine beings. I am deeply grateful for this post and your blog. When I look/study the images, I would call this a ‘quick-guide’ for the deceased to read. I see familiar scenes from different parts of tombs.
At the top you have as I see it a man that seems like he has two heads pointing in each direction, but it is actually two men standing side by side, and looking in each directions, they stand with what is called a standard in this case holding one of the oldest forms of jackal gods Wepwawet. He was said to be the one that would help opening the deceased eyes and mouth, and he would open the ways for them. But it could also be a stander showing the nome of the jackal. In the side is seen Isis and Nephtys, Nephtys praising the Ba and the Ba praising Isis. The boat is the symbolism of the journey across the dark heavens – the same as Ra’s own journey across the night sky. In the middle you have the four headed Ram god, which are four souls rapped in one creational power, mostly referred to the Ram of Mendes. I could go on here, so I will stop.
I deeply thank you for sharing these pieces of history.
Sincerely,
Karima – WB
Hi Karima,
Nice to hear from you again and thanks for the compliments. The hypocephali have long fascinated me so it’s about time I posted a couple of photos. The four sons of Horus also intrigue me. They have so many different aspects and are not at all simple gods.
Glad you enjoyed the post.
Vincent.
Nice information, always good to learn more about these objects. One small mistake, I made the Leiden picture, not the first one.
Thanks for picking that up, I’ve corrected it now. Thanks for allowing the use of your photo too, it’s a beauty.