Outside Egyptology connections between landscape and lithics have been explored (e.g. Saunders 2001). Within Egyptology Aufrère (1998) has discussed the relationship between prospector deities and Graeco-Roman towns well situated for mining, such as Dendera (map 6) and Edfu (maps 2 and 8), and in Chapter 4 I have discussed flint and mountain links. In this section, the naturally strange shaped flint nodules of 19th – 20th Dynasty Deir el-Medina (map 7) are discussed within the context of a specific geographical and religious landscape, Thebes west. As these nodules are unknapped they might be considered irrelevant to knapped flint. While it is inconceivable that the Egyptians did not understand that these too were made from flint, and thus they should be considered in a complete study of the ideology of flint, perhaps we should not expect their ideological associations to be identical to that of knapped flint.
To modern eyes these flints often take the form of a spheroid resembling a planet within its belt, some joined, some forming concretions. Pitt Rivers (1882, 385) states that they ‘cover the débris at the foot of the cliffs in such profusion that they are termed by the Arabs ‘nuktah,’ or drops which they suppose to have been rained from heaven’. While, the word ‘nuktah’ more accurately means a ‘strange thing’43, the fact that Pitt Rivers seems to have been told that these come from heaven is apposite, as will be shown.
The nodules are enhanced by black, brown and yellow paint to more closely imitate animals, deities and pregnant women, which relate to the specific landscape and social context in which they are found. A more detailed description of this research is given in Graves-Brown (2006b). In this thesis I only discuss the relationship
43
182 between landscape and flint nodules in terms of primeval qualities, connections with the celestial and with creation, areas which also seem apparent in knapped flint. Graves-Brown (2006b) also deals with themes of the feminine in rebirth and of emergence).
The eastern bank of Thebes (map 7) largely consists of the city and the temples of Luxor and Karnak. The western bank of Thebes was largely the site of mortuary temples and tombs of royalty and high officials from the Middle Kingdom onward. The area is hilly with limestone bearing flint. The central necrolis is overlooked by a large hill known as the Qurn (glossary). It is from this area that the nodules are found.
Utilised nodules are of two types: those embedded in stelae and those which are freestanding. Both are particular to New Kingdom Thebes west and tend to occur in village shrines (Bruyère 1930, 60; 1934, 69–70). More recently Reeves (2003, 2) excavated further examples from a workman’s shelter. Others were found within houses together with other votive items such as stelae (Bruyère 1939, 276–277), usually in a front room containing a ‘lit clos’. Rooms containing these structures at Deir el-Medina were loaded with ritual and sexual images and appear to have had a cultic function (Meskell 1999, 99–103). Thus, context in shrines or front rooms suggests a ritual function.
Those that are inserted in stelae are certainly votive, given the general votive nature of stelae, their archaeological context, and the descriptions thereon. Votive offerings tend to be used to mediate between worlds (Lévi-Strauss 1966, 225ff). What better items to fulfill this role than artefacts with a miraculous origin, not manufactured products of human hands?
A listing of pre-1986 publications concerning stone curiosities, can be found in Helck (1986, 1018–1019). These include: Bruyère (1930, 60; 1934, 69–70; 1939, 144, 276–7, 199-200); Keimer (1940). Two stelae are not included in Helck’s list: Bankes Stela number 4 (Černý 1958); and Turin no. 50047 (Tosi and Roccatiti 1972, 80, no. 50047). Additional publications concerning these flints include Aufrère (1999, 76) and Reeves (2003).
Very recently (11/2009) 9 flint objects, 5 are in the shape of lunar disk within crescent (CK1026-1029, CK1199), one polished piece of indeterminate type (CK892) and three enhanced natural pebbles (CK1023-1025) have been published (Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale and The Supreme Council of Egyptian Antiquities, 2009). These items come from the Karnak temple cache (glossary) excavated by
183 Legrain in 1903. Items from this cache date from the New Kingdom to the Ptolemaic Period.
A number of the freestanding nodules suggest armless, pregnant females. This form, with collar, heavy wig, and frequently female genitalia, appear to emerge from a lotus. Bruyère (1939, 144, pl. 45; Keimer 1940, 8–9) saw a parallel in the ancestor busts from Deir el-Medina. A closer parallel can be seen in certain amulets (Keimer 1940, 18–19). Unfortunately the illustrations are not clear enough to determine the object type. They may be heart scarabs (glossary). Ramesside heart scarabs are strikingly similar to the flint nodules, particularly an example from Gurob (maps 3, 4
and 5; UC27791, now in the Petrie Museum; Petrie, Griffith and Newberry 1890, 36,
pl. 24.8). This is almost identical in shape and decoration to the flint nodules, but is made of blue glazed material with green inlay.
Other nodules are animal shaped, of which some are associated with deities: the hippopotamus inscribed stx aA pHtj rSnj tw imi pt n nTrw nbw ‘Seth, great in strength,
raging in the sky for all the gods’ was found in a votive chapel (Bruyère 1934, 69–70, fig. 50; Keimer 1940, 11); and the crocodile with inward curved tail and lotus was discovered in a house (Bruyère 1939, 276–277, fig. 149; Keimer 1940, 12–14). The crocodile is of the same style as that on a Middle Kingdom paddle doll and on apotropaic wands (glossary; Keimer 1940, 13), probably representing Sobek. In a chapel with a stela dedicated to Thoth, a flint concretion taking a snake-like form was unearthed and interpreted as a probable offering to Meretseger (glossary; Bruyère 1930, 60, fig. 25; Keimer 1940, 15, pl. 9). Additionally there are: a male with beard (Keimer 1940, 7, fig. 1); a seated person with hand to mouth (Keimer 1940, 7, fig. 2); a horse or dog (Keimer 1940, 10, fig. 7); a bird (Keimer 1940, 12, fig. 9); and two winged scarabs (Keimer 1940, 16, fig.16 and fig. 17). Finally, at Deir el-Bahri (map
7), a mortuary temple site Werbrouck (1949) found a flint transformed into the head of
a cobra.
Three examples of stelae with nodule inclusions are published. In all three, the flint is incorporated in the design and not an accidental inclusion. A stela with nodule in the shape of an akhet, or as Bruyère suggests, the full and crescent moon (Bruyère 1939, 199–200, pl. 23; Keimer 1940, 16–17, pl. 10), was found in the house of Penmenefer. The positioning of the uraeus (glossary) on the left suggests the moon, and the stela inscription begins jaH-aA-imy-ra…., ‘the great moon which is in Re’. The moon, usually in the form of Thoth, was particularly revered at Deir el-Medina, occurring frequently on stelae from the locale (Sadek 1987, 111).
184 Bankes Stela number 4 (Černý 1958), now in Kingston Lacy, originally had a curiously shaped nodule cemented into its rounded top. The nodule itself has been lost but the Wilkinson notebook (cited in Černý 1958) shows that the stela originally contained a flint. Černý describes the flint shape as ‘the solar disk’. Alternatively it could embody the full moon within a moon disk, as in Bankes Stela 6 from the same publication. Bankes Stela number 4 stela depicts a boat with scarab on the left and child on the prow on the left. The scarab possibly alludes to either the last hour of night, or morning, the scarab suggesting solar rebirth. A child sits on the boat bow suggesting the Night Boat (Assmann 1995, 49–50, footnote 63). The inscription is to Amun-Re the sun god, so the inclusion of the akhet, the morning sun rising above the horizon, would be most appropriate, though a moon metaphor cannot be ruled out.
Another stela of this type belonged to the scribe Ramose (Turin Museum no. 50047; Tosi and Roccatiti 1972, 80). It is dedicated to Thoth and depicts him in his ape form. The flint nodule is depicted atop an offering table mirroring Thoth’s headdress of full moon atop a crescent.
A wider exploration of meanings behind such oddities may help explain those at Deir el-Medina. Odd shaped stones, including flints, fossils, meteoric iron and iron pyrites, were thought to originate in heaven and were called biA (Wainwright 1932b; Roth 1993, 72). As Roth points out biA can mean ‘marvel, miracle’, a categorization likely to have included the Deir el-Medina (map 7) nodules given the metonymic association in text between biA and ds (flint), discussed in Chapter 6. BiA is also associated with Hathor (Aufrère 1991 I, 103).
Texts show that minerals, including flint, have mountain connections (4.2.6) and that flint is linked with another primeval entity, the snake (Graves-Brown 2005, 58–59; and Chapter 6). Flint-snake-mountain forms a fuzzy set congruent with the serpent simulacra of western Thebes (Donohue 1992) and Gebel Barkal (map 9; Kendall 1988). Likewise, mountains and snakes are closely connected (Aufrère 1991 I, 21–22). The creational metaphor of the Theban mountains shows clearly in New Kingdom motifs of the Hathor cow emerging from the Theban hillside. The use of the mountains as a cemetery, their association with Meretseger, etc., results from, and enhances, their sacred nature. Flint from here would be particularly potent.
Text and iconography describe the primeval hill (connected with mountains) rising out of the primeval waters (Allen 2000, 126–127). It appears plausible that the Egyptians saw evidence for the primeval, creational waters in the area around Thebes. Several of the flint nodules of Thebes west take the appearance primeval forms
185 (Graves-Brown 2006b), others are fossilised sea shells. One is reminded of the Qurn of Thebes, and its likeness to the primeval mound emerging from the waters of chaos (Richards 1999, 88). Similarly, the lotus embellishments of the armless, pregnant female nodules (Bruyère 1939, 168–74; Keimer 1940, 7–9, pl.7) conjure images of emergence from primeval, watery beginnings. Like the famous wooden head of Tutankhamun arising from the lotus, these fertility-made-concrete nodules arise from the primeval Nun (glossary). The watery beginnings attributed to these nodules may enhance a connection between flint and the Inundation (6.3.2.5).
Fertility aspects are made more plausible by the possibility that the Egyptians believed minerals ‘gave birth’. Certainly later Greek writers, notably Pliny (Nat. Hist. XXXVI.29) and Theophrastus (On Stones) considered that stones gave birth to other stones. Related to this, Éliade (1977, 29–30) and Halleux (1974) comment on the sexualization of minerals in antiquity.
In Chapter 6 the solar, particularly the scarab form, and the lunar connections of flint, are discussed. In New Kingdom Western Thebes, as elsewhere, the sun as Re, was a paramount god. The solar significance of the flints is apparent through the image of Nut (glossary) pregnant with the sun-disk and the lotus, the scarab and the akhet, motifs of the nodules. Archaeologically, the protuberant nature of the nodules in the stelae recalls the scarab of New Kingdom and later pylon-shaped (glossary) pectorals. The depiction of emergence in 3D is particularly strong at this time. The deliberate inclusion of the nodule suggests that it is not just the protuberance that is important, but rather the material from which it is made. If only the shape were important this would be manufactured from the limestone matrix. It is the flintiness of the nodule within the matrix which is significant. The scarab is khepri ‘who comes into being’, a creature of birth, the sun-god in the morning. Studies of pylon pectorals suggest that the pectoral is a functional means of supporting the scarab, which emerges in the New Kingdom. At the same time, texts indicate that the pylon is replete with birth metaphor and can also represent the mountain (Finnestad 1998). Like the nodule in the Kingston Lacy stela, the pectoral scarab is frequently shown in a solar boat. While not denying a functional reason for the pectoral, one is tempted to see a link in the Egyptian psyche between emergent flint/scarab/stela from rock/pectoral/mountain.
Additionally, the shape of the round-topped stela is sometimes said to suggest the mound rising at the beginning of creation. If this were the case at Deir el-Medina, perhaps the round-topped stela mirrored the Qurn (map 7).
186 The night sky as an agent of renewal is manifest at Thebes through
representations of Nut, and the motif of the celestial cow emerging from the mountains. At Deir el-Medina, the moon, as Thoth-moon (glossary), was held in particular esteem (Sadek 1987, 111). The lunar connection also relates to these nodules. The form of the flint nodules portrays possible lunar connections. Reeves (2003) states that those flints, where one semi-spherical nodule appears to cradle another, resemble stylised akhets, while Keimer (1940, 13 fig.14) envisions a solar disk between horns. However, is it not possible to see a moon disk in crescent, particularly as amuletic versions of these were popular in the New Kingdom44? Certainly, it appears from the Bruyère stela (1939, 199–200) and the Turin Museum stela that at least some of these flints were lunar metaphors. They could even be both solar and lunar. The Eye of Horus (moon) and Eye of Re (sun) were interchangeable in Egyptian minds (Darnell 1997, 35).
Textual evidence, though much of it later, links minerals with the moon.
However, as early as the Pyramid Texts, Thoth carries the mds knife, a knife which can be understood in flinty terms (2.3.2.3 and Chapter 6). Thoth is a lunar deity who carries Seth, who is also flinty (Graves-Brown 2005, 65 and 6.4.2), and who could be considered lunar in a loose sense (Aufrère 1991, 36–37). Aufrère (1999; 2001, 159–60) outlines later textual evidence for Egyptian belief in minerals growing by moonlight and explores the lunar connections of curiosities in general. In relation to connections between Eye of Re goddesses and minerals, he notes that such goddesses tend to be associated with the moon, for example Isis and Tefnut (Aufrère 1999, 74). Flint too has lunar links and is closely connected with the Eye goddesses (Graves-Brown 2005, 62–64 and 6.2.2.3). Finally, from later Dendera (map 6; Dendera X, 258, 11–12; Cauville et al. 1997 I, 138) comes a parallel between the sun and the moon, both of which are flint (written without the stone determinative) and shining gold (HD mk m
nbw).
The Theban curiosities may well be connected with the Inundation. In the 2nd Century AD Carlsberg Papyri 5 (Smith 1998, 1078), the god in the full moon brings the Nile Inundation from the Primeval Ocean. These papyri also describe the
Inundation as giving birth to minerals (Smith 2002, 116–117), though here again we are comparing 19th Dynasty artefacts with Roman Period texts.
44 While the moon disk is not specific to the New Kingdom, its popularity is perhaps shown by common
187 In conclusion, I suggest that recognition of simulacra in flint nodules may even have influenced the siting of Thebes as a holy spot, enhancing the creational aura surrounding the mountain range. It is increasingly argued in material culture studies that physical properties of the environment influence the world-view (Jones 2004, 332). Use of these quasi-artefacts suggests it is more likely that it was the strange shape, rather than the material which was important. Nevertheless, as flint was widely used in ancient Egypt it would seem likely that this influenced the way flint was considered. Additionally, in western Thebes, flint used for manufacture of artefacts was mined as a by-product of tomb building (Seton-Karr 1904; Miller 1985, 229; Miller 1987) and tabular flint, as well as the unusual shaped nodules, are highly visible within tombs. This metonymic association with flint tool manufacture as a by-product of tomb building, a religiously important activity, may have led to an ideological connection between the two, the strange shapes reinforcing the sublimity of flint. As one might expect from a study of unknapped nodules, when compared to the
metaphoric connections of knapped stone, some new metaphoric connections become apparent, notably that of the feminine and of emergent properties. There are
similarities between knapped flint and these simulacra, namely their celestial, mountain and snake connections.
The study of the strange nodules of the Theban hillside illustrates the value of context and temporality in material culture for creation of metaphoric meaning.