Wednesday, December 31, 2014
Tuesday, December 30, 2014
Hittites, and ancient histories from sumer accad period onwards
ANCIENT TIMELINE OF CONCORDANCES: Proposal for a new chronology of ancient history
6b - Current Turn Away From Galactic Center: Aries Age. Mayan Day 2 and Night 2.
"Bronze Age & start of Iron Age". Writing (first alphabets). Extensive use of boats for trade, expansion, and exploration.
Indo-European (IE) first sign of movement into Mideast (Hurrians & HIttites)
"The Hittites apparently borrowed the cuneiform writing from the Hurrians who themselves had borrowed it from the Old-Akkadians." - http://www.premiumwanadoo.com/cuneiform.languages/en_phonetique.htm
The original Sumerian script was adapted for the writing of the Akkadian, Eblaite, Elamite, Hittite, Luwian, Hattic, Hurrian, and Urartian languages, and it inspired the Ugaritic and Old Persian alphabets. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuneiform [ORIGIN OF CHINESE SIGNS?] Back / Forward / Open Geographic Chronology in separate window.
6b - Current Turn Away From Galactic Center: Aries Age. Mayan Day 2 and Night 2.
"Bronze Age & start of Iron Age". Writing (first alphabets). Extensive use of boats for trade, expansion, and exploration.
Indo-European (IE) first sign of movement into Mideast (Hurrians & HIttites)
"The Hittites apparently borrowed the cuneiform writing from the Hurrians who themselves had borrowed it from the Old-Akkadians." - http://www.premiumwanadoo.com/cuneiform.languages/en_phonetique.htm
The original Sumerian script was adapted for the writing of the Akkadian, Eblaite, Elamite, Hittite, Luwian, Hattic, Hurrian, and Urartian languages, and it inspired the Ugaritic and Old Persian alphabets. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cuneiform [ORIGIN OF CHINESE SIGNS?] Back / Forward / Open Geographic Chronology in separate window.
| ++++++++++ Converted to BCE ++++++++++ | ||||
| LAST TURN AWAY FROM GALACTIC CENTER: ARIES AGE - Mayan Day 2 and Night 2. | ||||
| M A Y A N D A Y | ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Mayan Sacred Calendar: National Underworld: Heaven 3: Day 2: Germination - 2326 - 1932 The first to branch off [Indo-European] was the Greek-Armenian-Indo-Iranian language community. It must have begun to do so in the fourth millennium B.C. because by the middle of the third millennium B.C. the community was already dividing into Indo-Iranian and Greek-Armenian. - The Early History of Indo-European Languages by Thomas V. Gamkrelidze and V. V. Ivanov (Scientific American - March 1990) ----------------------------------- ca. 2500 - 2000/1700 BC - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hattians THE HATTIANS, METALWORKERS, NATURALISTIC ART: Until about 1800 BC, the region of Anatolia around ancient Hattusa (modern Boğazköy) . . . had been the home of an earlier people, conventionally called Hattians, who spoke a poorly known non-Indo-European language. This extinct Hattic isolate appears to have some affinity with the Northwest Caucasian languages[citation needed]. The name Hetto-Iberian has been proposed[citation needed] for a superfamily comprising Northwest Caucasian and Hattic. The Hattians of north-eastern Anatolia: In close touch with the sources of copper, silver and, to a lesser degree, of gold . . . The treasures found in the royal tombs of Alaca Höyük, together with later discoveries at Horoztepe and Kayapinar HûyÄk, i.e., in the fertile district of Tokat--Amasya, show that they were skilled workers in metal and could turn that skill to good account. Gold vessels, jugs and goblets, are decorated with elaborate geometrical patterns in repoussé work, the shapes and to some extent the patterns being taken over from pottery originals; personal ornaments are executed in gold filigree or in granulated technique. Very remarkable are the animal figures solid-cast in copper and sometimes inlaid with silver, sometimes partly plated by dipping the copper core in an alloy of silver and lead; these oxen and stags are highly conventionalized but still vigorous and true to nature; here again a bulls' head in burnished clay with incised detail shows a similar style in a different medium. Animal figures are in many cases associated with the 'standards' of cast copper, flat circles, half-circles and squares filled in with an open network of criss-cross bars, swastikas, etc., through which may come a stag or a bull; an example from Horoztepe [which is certainly a sistrum] has a procession of deer, ibexes and lions round its rim. Horoztepe has also produced a copper statuette of a nude woman suckling an infant; two rather more crude female figures and one of a child come from a tomb at Alaca Höyük; in all of them there is a very definite feeling for the human body, a naturalness of posture and a softness of curves quite unusual in the primitive figurines of the Middle East; but those are qualities which, like the sympathetic realism of the animal figures, will be recognized again in later Hittite art. The Alaca Höyük tombs date from about 2200 B.C. [Woolley, so old dating?] http://www.noteaccess.com/Texts/Woolley/6.htm [granulat.rtf] The Hattians were an ancient people who inhabited the land of Hatti in Asia Minor in the 3rd to 2nd millennia BC. They spoke a non-Indo-European language of uncertain affiliation called Hattic (now believed by some to be related to the Northwest Caucasian language group). The Hattians may have been connected, in language and proximity, to the Khaldi/Kardu. The Khaldi were a Bronze Age people inhabiting the south-eastern shore of the Black Sea (now part of Turkey). They were related in proximity and probably also in language to the Hattians, an ancient people of Asia Minor, whose Hattic language is now believed to have been related to the Circassian language group. Another ancient ethnic group possibly associated with the Khaldi are the Kardu. The Khaldi, and neighboring tribes Khalib/Chalybes, Mossynoikoi, and Tubal/Tabal/Tibarenoi, are counted among the first ironsmith nations by classical authors. The main sources for the history of the Khaldi are certain well-known works by Homer, Strabo, and Xenophon. As late as in Roman times, the Chaldaei (i.e. Khaldi, homonymous but unrelated to the Semitic Chaldeans) are mentioned as a tribe immediately neighboring the Chalybes in Pontic Cappadocia, or the Pontus Cappadocicus section of the Roman province of Pontus. http://ancient-anatolia.blogspot.com/2006/09/hattians-first-civilization-in-anatolia.html ----------------------------------- About 2300 BC - Semitic invasion of Babylonia became Babylonia; & Amorite invasion of Sumer & Accad became Assyria. (Langdon: Babylonian Menologies and the Semitic Calendar 1935) 2278 - 2217 relatively peaceful, no wars in Middle East ?? | [ > SCYTHIANS?] Iron: when? | ||
2500 BC–2000 BC: Proto-Greek is spoken in the Balkans, Proto-Indo-Iranian north of the Caspian in the emerging Andronovo culture. The Bronze Age reaches Central Europe with the Beaker culture, likely composed of various Centum dialects. The Tarim mummies possibly correspond to proto-Tocharians. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indo-European | Right. It's the Beaker culture that is expanding. Not IE. | |||
| M A Y A N D A Y M A Y A N D A Y M A Y A N D A Y | 2400-2200 - Lifetime of the Archer found buried near Stonehenge, who was born in the central Europe near the Alps (OB, 267) The Andronovo culture, or Sintashta-Petrovka culture is actually a collection of similar local Bronze Age cultures that flourished ca. 2300–1000 BCE in western Siberia and the west Asiatic steppe. The geographical extent of the culture is vast and difficult to delineate exactly. On its western fringes, it overlaps with the approximately contemporaneous, but distinct, Srubna culture in the Volga-Ural interfluvial. To the east, it reaches into the Minusinsk depression, overlapping with the area of the earlier Afanasevo culture.[2] Additional sites are scattered as far south as the Koppet Dag (Turkmenistan), the Pamir (Tajikistan) and the Tian Shan (Kyrgyzstan). The northern boundary vaguely corresponds to the beginning the Taiga. In the Volga basin, interaction with the Srubna culture was the most intense and prolonged, and Federovo style pottery is found as far west as Volgograd. Towards the middle of the 2nd millennium, the Andronovo cultures begin to move intensively eastwards. They mined deposits of copper ore in the Altai Mountains and lived in villages of as many as ten sunken log cabin houses measuring up to 30m by 60m in size. Burials were made in stone cists or stone enclosures with buried timber chambers. In other regards, the economy was pastoral, based on horses and cattle, but also sheep and goats, with some agriculture in clear evidence. The Andronovo culture is strongly associated with the Indo-Iranians and is often credited with the invention of the spoke-wheeled chariot around 2000 BCE.[3] Sintashta is a site on the upper Ural River. It is famed for its grave-offerings, particularly chariot burials. These inhumations were in kurgans and included all or parts of animals (horse and dog) deposited into the barrow. Sintashta is often pointed to as the premier proto-Indo-Iranian site, and that the language spoken was still in the Proto-Indo-Iranian stage.[4] There are similar sites "in the Volga-Ural steppe".[5] The identification of Andronovo as Indo-Iranian has been challenged by scholars who point to the absence of the characteristic timber graves of the steppe south of the Oxus River.[6] Sarianidi (as cited in Bryant 2001:207) states that "direct archaeological data from Bactria and Margiana show without any shade of doubt that Andronovo tribes penetrated to a minimum extent into Bactria and Margianian oases". http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andronovo_culture Sintashta-Petrovka: first prehistoric culture to extend across entire steppe from Urals to the Tien Shan Mountains in western China. (Archaeology March/April 1995) Philological and linguistic evidence indicate that the Rigveda was composed in the north-western region of the Indian subcontinent, roughly between 1700–1100 BC[4] (the early Vedic period). There are strong linguistic and cultural similarities with the early Iranian Avesta [Zoroastrian, ca 1000], deriving from the Proto-Indo-Iranian times, often associated with the early Andronovo (Sintashta-Petrovka) culture of ca. 2200-1600 BC. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rigveda Dating decision - http://www.archaeologyonline.net/artifacts/19th-century-paradigms.html 2230 Gutian invasion disrupts unity of Sumer & Akkad - http://history-world.org/timeline.htm W. N. Henning suggested that the Tocharians be identified with the Gutians (Scientific American - March 1990) 2200 Indus Harappa script: logo-syllabic, meaning that some signs represent words and others serve purely for their syllabic values, or sounds. Which of the three principal families of lan guages spoken in the region might be related to Harappan? One candidate is Munda, a family of languages (spoken largely in eastern India) that seems affiliated with certain languages of Southeast Asia. - Scientific American - March 1983 - (not yet deciphered - 2009) The Harappans cultivated cotton and perhaps rice, domesticated the chicken and may have invented the game of chess and one of the two great early sources of nonmuscle power: the windmill. (The other was the water wheel.) ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The 4.2 kiloyear BP aridification event was one of the most severe climatic events of the Holocene period in terms of impact on cultural upheaval.[1] Starting in ≈2200 BC, it probably lasted the entire 22nd century BC. It is very likely to have caused the collapse of the Old Kingdom in Egypt as well as the Akkadian Empire in Mesopotamia.[2] Also, the drought may have initiated southeastward habitat tracking within the Harappan cultural domain.[3] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/4.2_kiloyear_event ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The final blow was a severe drought in the [Egyptian] region that resulted in a drastic drop in precipitation between 2200 and 2150, which in turn prevented the normal flooding of the Nile.[3] The result was the collapse of the Old Kingdom followed by decades of famine and strife. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Old_Kingdom_of_Egypt 2200-1900 - Middle East climate change (to drier) - 300-year drought 2000 - Third sudden drought leading to the rapid drying up of many of Africa's lakes, leaving layers of dead fish in the sediments. http://www.goldenageproject.org.uk/chronology.html 22nd - 20th centuries - central rule in Egypt broke down. John Darnell found contemporary references to an Egyptian named Bebi, General of the Asiatics. They speculate that, In the course of reunifying his fragmented realm, the reigning pharaoh attempted to pacify and employ roving bands of mercenaries who had come from outside Egypt to fight in the civil wars. Under Bebi's command, there must have been a small army of scribes in the military whose job it was to keep track of these "Asiatics". Scribes apparently came up with an easy-to-learn Egyptian shorthand to enable the captured troops to record their names and other basic information.The Egyptian alphabet was a utilitarian invention for soldiers and merchants. They developed a Semitic script in which the first sound of the Semitic name of an Egyptian glyph came to be the value of that glyph: i.e. the name of the hieratic glyph for house changed from Egyptian pr to Canaanite bayt, and the glyph came to stand for /b/. House and most of the other letters were not uniliteral glyphs in Egyptian: the Semitic alphabet is not derived from the existing Egyptian alphabet, but rather from the full set of hieratic hieroglyphs. [writing] - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Middle_Bronze_Age_alphabets Phoenicians say Taautus (Thoth, inventor of writing), founded Egyptian civilisation ‘Argaric’ culture, Spain: 2250 BC to 1550 BC. [cite] 2200: Oldest Chart of the Atlantic Ocean, recorded at the petroglyphs of Kercado, Brittany (SunGod) The Southern Crossing from Portugal to Central America, recorded at petroglyph of Chao Redondo, Portugal (SunGod) The Northern Crossing from Portugal to America, recorded at the petroglyph of Chao Redondo, Portugal (SunGod) A Nautical Center for Crossing the Ocean, recorded at North Salem, New Hampshire, North America (SunGod) The Discovery of Bermuda, recorded at the Devil's Head Petroglyphis, Harmony, Maine (SunGod) 2175 Gudea rules Lagash - http://history-world.org/timeline.htm 2160 - The centralized power of Memphis fell. Egypt divided. 2150 Gutian dynasty of Sumer //// Tocharians = Gutians? (Scientific American - March 1990) 2150 - 2000 Byblos: Conquest by the Amorites (2150 - 2000 B.C.). The Amorites commenced serious raiding and eventually conquered Byblos over this period. http://thomo.coldie.net/history/byblos ca. 2150 - 2000 Stonehenge II - http://www.themystica.com/mystica/articles/s/stonehenge.html 2134 - 1786 Egypt: Middle Kingdom 2110 Ur-Nammu of Ur unifies Sumer & Akkad - http://history-world.org/timeline.htm 2100 - Uai Bobo in Timor - agriculture 2100 - 1700 Population in Mideast shifts north due to rising salinity of Sumer area - see more below. Rather than being caused by the people, the salinization may have resulted from a diminished flow of the Euphrates and the Tigris rivers. Climatic Change and the History of the Middle East by Arie S. Issar (American Scientist, July-August 1995) 2100 - 1700 chariot: [also see: Archaeology magazine, March/Aprl 1995] 2100 Tying of the horse to the Chariot in Northern Kazakhastan by the Sintashta and Petrovka culture, a sub-culture of the larger Andronovo Culture . There is evidence of the Andronovo Culture’s continued presence in the Southern Russia/Northern Kazakhstan area till 1000 BC. Interestingly, the Sintashta & Petrovka Sub-Cultures, who buried chariots and gave us the evidence, lasted from 2100-1700 BC. And even more interestingly, the Fedorovo sub-culture show evidence of cremation and fire worship dated 1500-1300 BC. http://www.sastwingees.org/2008/03/01/the-real-history-of-india-part-7-chariots-horses-and-thunderbolts/ 2100-1550 - The Middle Helladic begins with the wide-scale settlement in Greece of a people whom archaeologists title the Minyans; a group of monochrome burnished pottery from Middle Helladic (and EH III) sites was conventionally dubbed "Minyan" ware by Troy's discoverer Heinrich Schliemann. Settlements draw more closely together and tend to be sited on hilltops. Middle Helladic sites are located throughout the Peloponnese and central Greece (including sites in the interior of Aetolia such as Thermon) as far north as the Spercheios River valley. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Helladic_period Anatolia: Arrival of the Greeks, on the western coast of Anatolia (between 1900-1400 BC), in four hordes - Ionian, Dorian, Aeolian and Achaean, and the settlement of their colonies on the Thracian Sea shore (today the Aegean Sea). http://www.dacia.org/history/anatol_e.html Beginning at about 1900 BCE artifacts of the Minoan civilization acquired by trade arrived at Miletus.[Anatolia west coast] For some centuries the location received a strong impulse from that civilization, an archaeological fact that tends to support but not necessarily confirm the founding legend—that is, a population influx, from Crete. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Miletus Anatolia: Troy I (just before 2000 B.C.) was poor in gold. But in Troy II (just after 2000 B.C.) Schliemann found a wealth of gold: diadems, ear-rings, bracelets, brooches, together with granulated gold-work and faience beads that surely derived from Crete. (Gold - Sutherland) Some Georgian scholars (including M.G. Tseretheli, R.V. Gordeziani, M. Abdushelishvili, and Dr. Zviad Gamsakhurdia) connect the Pelasgian with the Iberian-Caucasian cultures of the prehistoric Caucasus, known to the Greeks as Colchis. This may sound plausible since there were many autochthonic Caucasian peoples dwelling in Anatolia such as the Hattians before the arrival of the Indo-Europeans. http://www.mlahanas.de/Greeks/History/Pelasgian.html 2000–1500: Catacomb culture north of the Black Sea. The chariot is invented, leading to the split and 15,000 - 10,000 Blood Type B develops in Himalayan highlands (Asia). First appeared in India or the Urals among a mix of Caucasion and Mongolian tribes. Moved on to Eastern Europe, northern and southern China, India. 1964 George F. Dales published a paper in which, after presenting a thorough analysis of the evidence, he completely lambasted the massacre theory . . . Since then, Danino 2006, Kenoyer 1998, Lal 2002 and 2005, Renfrew 1988, Shaffer and Lichtenstein 1999 have adduced further evidence to add successive nails on to the coffin of the ‘Aryan Invasion’ theory. http://www.archaeologyonline.net/artifacts/19th-century-paradigms.html <<< Under Gutian ensi of Lagash, Gudea, ca. 2075 BC (short), Lagash had a golden age. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gutian_period Tocharians be identified with the Gutians (Scientific American - March 1990) 2030 Elamites disrupt unity of Sumer & Akkad - http://history-world.org/timeline.htm 2020 Ishbi-Erra the Amorite ruler of Isin seeks to rebuild unity in the land - http://history-world.org/timeline.htm 2000 Cretan hieroglyphs 2000 - [Continued knowledge about] America, recorded at Stonehenge, England, Britain (SunGod) Barley was introduced into China proper 2000 B.C., the same time it was brought into Britain. (The Key) | Siberia and movement TO THE EAST chariotry, horse sacrifices, and the myth of the horse-headed human 2200 Indus Harappa script DROUGHT WORSENS 22nd - 20th centuries: Egyptian alphabet 2000-1000 travel to Ohio & Michigan - SunGod Mideast: Start of: Salinity > Population shift. [invention of the chariot - local] Expansion from Mediterranean islands moves into mainland central Greece It is argued that this was an influx from Anatolia, due to arrival of the Hittites. But migration from the Cyclades and Crete could account for it. Where are the Anatolian influences? Indeed, it looks like the migration was the other direction: Greece > Anatolia. Did the Cretans move to Miletus to be nearer to metal supplies? [This is the first IE spread. It is TO THE EAST] [& see note above on origin of Chinese.] 2000 Cretan hieroglyphs = Phoenicians ? = Phoenicians ? | ||
| M A Y A N N I G H T | ++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++ Mayan Sacred Calendar: National Underworld: Heaven 4: Night 2: Resistance - 1932 - 1538 The Amorite Period (2000 - 1725 B.C.) was a rather turbulent period in the history of Byblos. The Amorites had unsettled the status quo of the Near East areas. Trade continued however and the temples flourished. Some of the rulers of this time bear names that indicate a relationship to the rulers of the first Babylonian dynasty (also Amorite). http://thomo.coldie.net/history/byblos Assyria a large kingdom: Old (20th to 15th c. BC) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Assyria / 1900s-1400s Assyria - Wikipedia 2000 - 1400 - Wessex, already the ritual centre of England during the Neolithic, continued its dominance during the Bronze Age, with lavish, rich individual burials replacing communal graves. (OB, 272) 2000 - 1000 break-up of Mon-Khmer branch of Austro-Asiatic 1900 - DACO-THRACIA / Hittites = Carpatho-Danubian empire - http://www.dacia.org/history/anatol_e.html ??? Elamite invasion and sack of Ur during the rule of Ibbi-Sin (ca. 1940 BC), Sumer came under Amorite rule. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumer The Amorites were member of an ancient Semitic-speaking people who dominated the history of Mesopotamia, Syria, and Palestine from about 2000 to about 1600 BC. They were troublesome nomads and were believed to be one of the causes of the downfall of the 3rd dynasty of Ur (c. 2112-c. 2004 BC). During the 2nd millennium BC the Akkadian term Amurru referred not only to an ethnic group but also to a language and to a geographic and political unit in Syria and Palestine. At the beginning of the millennium, a large-scale migration of great tribal federations from Arabia resulted in the occupation of Babylonia proper, the mid-Euphrates region, and Syria-Palestine. They set up a mosaic of small kingdoms and rapidly assimilated the Sumero-Akkadian culture. It is possible that this group was connected with the Amorites mentioned in earlier sources; some scholars, however, prefer to call this second group Eastern Canaanites, or Canaanites. Almost all of the local kings in Babylonia (such as Hammurabi of Babylon) belonged to this stock. One capital was at Mari (modern Tall al-Hariri, Syria). Farther west, the political center was Halab (Aleppo); in that area, as well as in Palestine, the newcomers were thoroughly mixed with the Hurrians. The region then called Amurru was northern Palestine, with its center at Hazor, and the neighboring Syrian desert. - http://history-world.org/amorites.htm 1900 - Linear A script [Cyrus Gordon: Minoan (Linear A) was Phoenician (Northwest Semitic) ] = syllabary 2000 - "Sarasvati River dried up 4,000 years ago" Late Harappan 1900-1500 BC (Lothal, Bet Dwarka) - http://archaeology.about.com/od/iterms/qt/indus.htm 1800 Iron age in India - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/18th_century_BC | Mideast: Population shift continues. 1921 - Abraham travels from Ur via Harran to Egypt (Gods of Eden) 1900 - Linear A script Iron: India = tie with Mideast? | ||
Their movement into the region set off a Near East mass migration sometime around 1900 BCE http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hittite_Empire / http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/1900BCE_Near_East_mass_migration | This must be later. | |||
| This period is generally taken to coincide with a major shift in population from southern Iraq toward the north. Ecologically, the agricultural productivity of the Sumerian lands was being compromised as a result of rising salinity. Soil salinity in this region had been long recognised as a major problem. Poorly drained irrigated soils, in an arid climate with high levels of evaporation, led to the buildup of dissalved salts in the soil, eventually reducing agricultural yields severely. During the Akkadian and Ur III phases, there was a shift from the cultivation of wheat to the more salt-tolerant barley, but this was insufficient, and during the period from 2100 BC to 1700 BC, it is estimated that the population in this area declined by nearly 3/5ths. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sumer Rather than being caused by the people, the salinization may have resulted from a diminished flow of the Euphrates and the Tigris rivers. Climatic Change and the History of the Middle East by Arie S. Issar (American Scientist, July-August 1995) When Sumeria was emptied, the people moved north, they became the Scythians, later called the Huns, Parthians, Magyars, Avar. http://www.hun-idea.com/3/03_HUN.htm It might of course be argued that the gold wealth of Troy II was drawn primarily from the gold-mines twenty-odd miles away at Abydos, of which Strabo wrote later, or even from the gold found much farther away at Colchis (washed down by the River Phasis) or in the distant Caucasus (resulting in the early gold culture of the Kuban), and that it was the Hittite invasion of Asia Minor at the end of the nineteenth century B.C. which broke these supplies. (Gold - Sutherland) But it seems to be more probable that the lack of gold in Troy III-V (c. 1800-1500 B.C.) is to be related to the coincident climax of Cretan sea-power and that the new prosperity of Troy VI (c. 1500-1200) reflects the decline and fall of that sea-power, leading in turn to the maritime dominance of the Achaeans and a widespread redistribution of the rich stocks of gold accumulated over the centuries by a now semi-derelict Cnossus. (Gold - Sutherland) | Mideast: end of population shift? [Did this disrupt the power balances in tin supply lines??] | |||
| [Turbulence in Byblos, sack of Ur = people escaping the Mideast:]2000 - 1500 - precious metals joined the Neolithic trade routes, with items such as gold lunulae (ornaments in the shape of a crescent moon) moving from Ireland to Cornwall and Brittany. (OB, 273) (more - quoting Cunliffe) 1934 - Fir Bolg arrive in Ireland - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_High_Kings_of_Ireland Fir Bolg were "short and dark". Established kingship and a system of justice - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mythological_Cycle [sounds like Hittites: Hamurabi etc] <<< Around 1900 BC the Tuatha De Danann, skilled artisans, replaced the Firbolgs and supplied another series of nine kings, who ruled until 1700 BC. (OB) = NEW DATES - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_High_Kings_of_Ireland http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tuatha_Dé_Danann The Tuatha de Danaan had been driven northward from Greece as a result of an invasion from Syria and eventually reached Ireland by way of Denmark, to which they gave their own name ('The Kingdom of the Danaans') and North Britain. (WG) In Medieval literature the region of Scythia is sometimes alluded to as the ultimate Norse homeland in the Danish and Icelandic sagas. - Oppenheimer (OB) 1800 SCANDINAVIA bronze age? - http://www.britam.org/Questions/QuesPhoenicians.html 1800 BC: Beginning of the Nordic Bronze Age in the period system devised by Oscar Montelius. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/18th_century_BC 2300-1600 Unetice Bronze Age culture - Bohemia, Czech Republic, S & central Germany, W Poland [= movement N along rivers] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unetice_culture "The Phoenicians were experts in the production of bronze, as were the Danites in the northern Galilee, and so too were Israelites from the Tribe of Asher and the Israelites on the east bank of the Jordan River around the region of Succoth. ‘…Tyre established a kind of monopoly over the supply of tin to the Middle East. This tin was obtained from "Tarshish," i.e., from Spain and from the British Isles’ [quoting Rawlinson’s Phoenicia, p. 164]. The Phoenicians who supplied bronze to the Middle East may have included Israelite Tribes. / "Excavations at the site of Dan in northern Galilee (Israel) revealed the existence of a well developed metallurgical industry which concentrated on the production of bronze. Analysis of the bronze showed the existence of gold in some specimens, which is said to be a characteristic of British tin and [which] indicates that the tin used in Dan of the Galilee came from Britain [quoting Abraham Birn (July/August, 1987), Biblical Archaeological Review, (BAR), Vol. 4, p. 24]. Later, one of the names given to Cornwall and Devon (in Britain) was Daunonia or Dannonia, and other sources prove that Israelites from the Tribe of Dan were present in the area. The Phoenician mines in Cornwall according to local tradition are all connected with Jews (meaning in their terms Hebrews from Israel in general). Camden, an early British historian, stated that the mines of Cornwall had been worked under the direction of Israelites from the Tribe of Asher. http://www.uhcg.org/Lost-10-Tribes/walt3a-Phonecia.html / Phoenicia - ancient tin mines.rtfd 1800 Hittite alphabet - 13 consonants - not agglutinative [site] 1800 BCE - the Egyptian Wadi el-Hol script discovered in 1999 in Sinai desert by John and Deborah Darnell [writing] (1800) - oldest alphabet, Proto-sinaitic, found in the Sinai desert in 1905 by Sir William Flinders Petrie. Script resembling Hebrew letters, from the site of an Egyptian temple dedicated to a goddess. Surrounding the area were rocks upon which Petrie found farther evidence of this alphabet. "According to biblical tradition, Abraham learned the great ancient secrets from Shem, the son of Noah, also known as Melchizedek. He was the righteous king of Ur and Salem, which is not thought to be Jerusalem. The most important mysteries of the work of creation concern the significance of the letters of the Hebrew alphabet and their relationship to astrology and the mysteries of the calendar, or time itself. Attributing this wisdom to Abraham and Melchizedek places its origin in the eighteenth century B.C.E., the time of the rise of the New Kingdom in Egypt as well as the appearance of Vedic scholars in India." With the discovery of the Proto-Sinaitic alphabet, scientists discovered the missing link between Egyptian hieroglyphs and the Proto-Canaanite script. This discovery reinforced the earlier hypothesis of Phoenician's Egyptian origin. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Phoenician_alphabet | [Who was making these? Not the Phoenicians. Some skill was imported into Ireland at this time. The Tuatha De Danaan?] [Hattian? metal art reappears in Ireland] [Unetice = how the Mideast got to Scandinavia] <<<<<<< 1800 Hittite alphabet 1800 Wadi el-Hol = Egyptian alphabet | |||
| Graves: "1800 BC" zodiac: goat at winter solstice, waterman, fish, ram at spring equinox, bull, twins, crab at summer solstice, lion, virgin, scales at fall equinox, scorpion, bowman(page 380-381) - the zodiac that is still in popular use [actually 3100 - 730] 1793 - Pole Star became Kappa Draconis to approximately 1000 BC. However, because it is so much dimmer than nearby Kochab (Beta Ursae Minoris), Kochab was considered the pole star during that time instead. | ||||
| M A Y A N N I G H T | 1800-1650 Ebla powerful again as location of Amorites - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ebla 1795 Rim-Sin of Larsa defeats Isin & takes over Sumer & Akkad - http://history-world.org/timeline.htm 1786 - first horse-drawn war chariots rolled into Egypt ( = Hyksos) [cite: print-out, possibly from an "Africa as origin" talk] 1770 BC: Babylon, capital of Babylonia becomes the largest city of the world, taking the lead from Thebes, capital of Egypt. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/18th_century_BC 1766 - 1763 - wars between the city-states of Babylon (& code of Hammurabi) - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hammurabi 1760 Hammurapi of Babylon defeats Larsa & takes over Sumer & Akkad - http://history-world.org/timeline.htm -------------------- 1800-1100 Hittites, including Alaca Huyuk, Turkey 18th century - Hittites, who spoke an Indo-European language, established a kingdom centered at Hattusa in N-central Anatolia. The Hittites displaced [or took-over] the previous occupants, the Hattians (who spoke a non-Indo-European language) - http://home.comcast.net/~chris.s/hittite-ref.html ------------------------------------------------------ "Related more to Urdu in this theater is the Hittite language, with a resemblance to Persian and Sanskrit. Hittite, covering a vast territory, had intermingled with Sumerian, Akkadian, Assyrian, Aramaic, Hattian, Hurrian, Lycian, Lydian, and others, and must have exchanged words and idioms. The Hittite king, Suppliliuma, boasted of knowing twelve languages. Hittite vocabulary is thus quite mixed, but its verb flexion bears a resemblance to some Indo-European languages. It reveals the guttural, or laryngeal, sounds as well as the aspirant h found in other Indo-European languages." (Urdu/Hindi: an artificial divide : African heritage, Mesopotamian roots ... By Abdul Jamil Khan - Google Books) ------------------------------------------------------ During the second millennium B.C. a group of people known as the Hittites, who spoke an Indo-European language, ruled over the 'Land of Hatti', in central and eastern Anatolia, that peninsula which is modern Turkey. They had displaced the previous occupants, the Hattians (who spoke a non-Indo-European language), and ruled from the city of Hattusas near the modern Boghazkoy in northern central Turkey, possibly as early as 1900 B.C. Much of the Cappadocian plateau was under their control through satellite kingdoms before 1800 B.C. and they enjoyed a thriving trade with the Assyrians. Around 1800 B.C. Anittas and his father Pitkhanas of Kussara sacked several Hittite cities, including Hattusas, though Anittas laid a curse upon that city and trade broke off until the founding of the Old Kingdom under King Labarnas around 1680 B.C. He and his descendents greatly expanded the region of Hittite control, crossing the Taurus mountains and waging war on Syria and Assyria. Hittite:Hurrian Mythology REF.webarchive ------------------------------------------------------ "Around 1800 BC, for reasons yet unknown to archaeologists, tin became scarce in the Levant, causing a decline in bronze production. Copper, also, came to be in short supply. As a result, pirate groups around the Mediterranean, from around 1800-1700 BC onward, began to attack fortified cities in search of bronze, to remelt into weaponry." http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iron_Age "ca. 1800 B.C. Goods begin to travel widely between cultures north and south. Spearheads, swords, and imported jewelry appear in European tombs, as do pins with wheel-shaped heads, which may refer to the chariot, a powerful status symbol. Throughout Europe, small groups seek status by controlling metals and other resources and acquiring the outward signs of wealth." http://www.metmuseum.org/toah/ht/?period=03®ion=euw 1800 - First copper artifacts ?in the Americas? - Barry Fell: America B.C. | Mideast: Population shift finished: Re-emergence of power centers: Babylon is a transition of power re-emerging in southern Mesopotamia. [This is the first IE entrance into Mideast.] [Perhaps the Hittites came into power by taking over control of the tin supply lines.] <<< Get this | ||
| M A Y A N N I G H T | c. 1750 BC: Nomadic shepherds, the Aryans, enter India from Central Asia and the Russian steppes. Vedic period starts in India. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/18th_century_BC -------------------- 1750 - Cretans had colonized the Peloponnese 1749 – 1712 BC: Mesopotamian Rebellions. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/18th_century_BC 1730 - Hyksos establish themselves at Avaris in Egyptian Nile delta. (30°47'14.71"N, 31°49'16.92"E) = 30 N Latitude 1720 Shift of Euphrates River & collapse of life at Nippur & some other cities of Sumer - http://history-world.org/timeline.htm In the taiga and forest-steppe zone, an important network of contacts stretched from the Ural mountains to the Altai, and gave rise to a common north-Eurasian metallurgical tradition based on the hollow casting of bronzes - http://www.csen.org/koryakova2/Korya.Bronze.html. This was the ancestor both of the Chinese bronze-casting tradition for ritual vessels of the Shang and Chou periods, and of advanced types of hollow-cast weapons and tools (spearheads, axes) in northern Europe. A further impact . . . was the incorporation of the steppe chariot-complex in the later Shang period. Early second millennium BC - Seima-Turbino metallurgy, from the Urals to the Altai, typical products (e.g. socketed spearheads), found as far apart as the eastern Baltic, Bessarabia, the Baikal region and China. http://www.archatlas.org/EastWest/EastWest.php 1725 - 1580 - Over this period, the Hyksos, a Khourrite people mingled with the local population of Byblos. At this time, the people of Byblos were falling more and more under the influence of the Egyptians. http://thomo.coldie.net/history/byblos | IE migration into India Metal artistry again - same area / = lost wax ??? | ||
| M A Y A N N I G H T | 1700 - 1600 BATTLES OVER TIN SUPPLY LINES The change-over from copper to Bronze took place around 1700 BC. http://www.ballybegvillage.com/bronze_age.html1700 - Irish legend has all the so-called mythological cycle of invasions from the Continent done, which is the time of some of the earliest copper-mining in Ireland at Mount Gabriel in Cork. (OB) 1700 - 1500 - A later more extensive series of mines was opened at Mount Gabriel... west Cork... were in use over [Cunliffe in OB] 1700 - copper-working from copper mines on the rocky promontory of Great Ormes Head started - north coast of Wales, near Llandudno. This is the small town of Abergele, the British location with the highest Neolithic genetic input. Was this a Spanish colony? (OB, 269) Abergele, already mentioned as the British location with the highest Neolithic genetic input, on the north coast of Wales, situated near Llandudno. Until the nineteenth century, the nearby rocky promontory of Great Ormes Head had working copper mines. Recent archaeological excavations at Ormes Head reveal evidence of copper-working going back more or less continuously to the Early Bronze Age, 1700 BCE. (OB, 269-270) A later more extensive series of mines was opened at Mount Gabriel... west Cork... [They] were in use over about the two centuries from 1700 to 1500 BC ... Finally we must turn to [north] Wales, where some thirty mining sites are now known ... [F]our ... were in operation in the first half of the second millennium. (OB, 103) 1700 - Milesians arrived in Ireland (Annals of the Four Masters - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milesians_(Irish) http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Annals_of_the_Four_Masters) The last of the legendary invaders were the Milesians (Gaelic) and from Spain and possibly ultimately from Asia Minor. (OB) 1700 - 1700 - there was a large disturbance in Crete, probably an earthquake, or possibly an invasion from Anatolia. The Palaces at Knossos, Phaistos, Malia, and Kato Zakros were destroyed. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Minoan_civilization [but not ended: decline] c. 1700 BC — beginning of the Late Minoan period on Crete The Sintashta & Petrovka Sub-Cultures, who buried chariots, came to an end (2100-1700). <<< The city of Hattush was burned down in a great conflagration around 1700 BC. c. 1700 BC: Indus Valley Civilization comes to an end but is continued by the Cemetery H culture 1700 BC — Belu-bani became the King of Assyria. c. 1700 BC — Lila-Ir-Tash started to rule the Elamite Empire. c. 1698 BC — Lila-Ir-Tash the ruler of the Elamite Empire died. Temti-Agun I started to rule the Elamite Empire. 1691 BC — Belu-bani, the King of Assyria died. c. 1690 BC — Temti-Agun I, the ruler of the Elamite Empire, died. Tan-Uli started to rule the Elamite Empire. 1690 BC — Libaia became the King of Assyria. Hittite: Founding of the Old Kingdom under King Labarnas around 1680 B.C. - Hittite:Hurrian Mythology REF.webarchive 1680s BC — Egypt: Start of Sixteenth Dynasty. 1680s BC — Egypt: Development of leavened bread (date approximate). 1670s BC — Egypt: Start of Fifteenth Dynasty. 1673 BC — Sharma-Adad I became the King of Assyria. 1661 BC — Iptar-Sin became the King of Assyria. 1650s BC — Egypt: Start of Seventeenth Dynasty. c. 1655 BC — Tan-Uli, the ruler of the Elamite Empire, died. 1649 BC — Bazaia became the King of Assyria. 1633 BC — End of the Thirteenth and Fourteenth dynasties of Egypt, start of the Fifteenth dynasty. | Was there a shortage of bronze-work??? v See below: China did plenty of bronze! ? Battle of Cad Goddeu (White Goddess) ? Harappa ends Crete Minoan disruption Babylon ends Last Stonehenge <<< Became the Hittites??? or became Shang??? | ||
| M A Y A N N I G H T | 1627 BC – Beginning of a cooling of world climate lasting several years recorded in tree-rings all over the world.[1] It might have been caused by the Minoan eruption of Thera[2] or the Avellino eruption of Mount Vesuvius.[3] 1627-1600 New absolute dating for the explosion of Santorin/Thira volcano in the Mediterranean - http://www.sciencemag.org/cgi/content/abstract/312/5773/548 1625 BC — Samsu-Ditana becomes King of Babylon (middle chronology). 1621 BC — Lullaia becomes the King of Assyria. 1620 BC — Mursili I becomes King of the Hittite Empire (middle chronology). Hittite: King Mursilis (~1620-1590 B.C.), Labarnas' grandson by adoption, brought down the Old Kingdom of Babylon - Hamurabi's dynasty. This expanded realm, also stretching to Anatolia's west coast, proved to susceptible to internal power struggles. Hittite:Hurrian Mythology REF.webarchive 1615 BC — Shu-Ninua became the King of Assyria. 1601 BC — Sharma-Adad II became the King of Assyria. All from: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/17th_century_BC 1600s BC — The creation of one of the oldest surviving astronomical documents, a copy of which was found in the Babylonian library of Ashurbanipal: a 21-year record of the appearances of Venus (which the early Babylonians called Nindaranna). Aleppo was the capital of the Amorite kingdom of Yamkhad during the Middle Bronze Age (c. 1800-1600 B.C.E.) and was the focus of the Hittites in their overthrow of the Amorite Dynasty in 1595 B.C.E. - http://www.newworldencyclopedia.org/entry/Aleppo [Syria] 1600 - last evidence of Harappan civilization at Harapa, Indus Valley. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Harapa (& WG) alphabet : [1600 bc] Phoenician, North Semitic: `abcdefghjiklmoqrsuwxyz = 22. First appeared at Byblos. Similar to the syllabic Proto-Byblian script of the Canaanites (never deciphered). Phoenician gave rise to Syriac, Arabic, Hebrew, and all the European alphabets. / Two thirds of the letters from Egyptian hieroglyphs, one third from the Cretan script.[2] The earliest Phoenician inscription found to date was written on a potsherd discovered at Bethshemeth, Palestine dating from the 16th century B.C. .[4] http://www.arapacana.com/glossary/misc/letters.html The Byblos syllabary, also known as the Pseudo-hieroglyphic script, Proto-Byblian, Proto-Byblic, or Byblic, is an undeciphered writing system, known from ten inscriptions found in Byblos. The inscriptions are engraved on bronze plates and spatulas, and carved in stone. They were excavated by Maurice Dunand, from 1928 to 1932, and published in 1945 in his monograph Byblia Grammata. The inscriptions are conventionally dated to the second millennium BC, probably between the 18th and 15th centuries BC. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Byblos_syllabary The earliest known alphabetic inscriptions are called Proto-Canaanite and date from 1700 - 1500 BCE. Proto-Canaanite, which may have been an adaptation of Egyptian hieroglyphics, developed into the first true alphabetic writing system: Phoenician. The Phoenicians occupied an area that is part of modern Lebanon, Syria and Israel. Their 22 letter alphabet consisted of pictures of objects but, rather than using the pictures to represent whole words as with pictographs, each letter represented the first sound of the word for the object. The Phoenician alphabet, like earlier Egyptian hieroglyphics, included only consonants, not vowels. This alphabet developed into old Hebrew, Aramaic, and Greek and, eventually, the Roman alphabet we use today. http://www.museum.upenn.edu/Canaan/Writing.html The Proto-Canaanite alphabet is a consonantal alphabet of twenty-two acrophonic pictorial glyphs, found in Levantine texts of the Late Bronze Age (from ca. the 15th century BC), by convention taken to last until a cut-off date of 1050 BC, after which it is called Phoenician. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proto-Canaanite_alphabet The Gilgamesh Epic proper, dates from around 1600 B.C., at the end of the Old Babylonian period, and was composed in Akkadian. (The Time Falling Bodies Take To Light - William Irwin Thompson) 1600 - Gilgamesh Epic - at the end of the Old Babylonian period, and was composed in Akkadian. (WG) The last known construction at Stonehenge was about 1600 BC - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stonehenge (& WG)"The evidence, given in the Gwyn context . . . , for supposing that the oak-cult came to Britain from the Baltic between 1600 and 1400 B.C. suggests that the Beth-Luis-Nion sequence, in which Duir is the principal tree, was at any rate not elaborated before 1600 B.C., though the rowan, willow, elder and alder were perhaps already in sacral use." (page 179) 1600 B.C. = Eastern Mediterranean agricultural year, beginning in the autumn, related to the solar year beginning at the Winter solstice. (WG) The recent discovery in the great barrow of Loose Howe on the Cleveland Moors of a primary burial with no less than three boat dug-outs must henceforward stand at the head of the series and serve to show how the same rite took hold among the seafarers on both sides of the North Sea between about 1600 and 1400 B.C. (WG) | What happened AFTER the Thira erruption = outlet to coast for trade 1600? - alphabet: Proto-Canaanite or Phoenician - 22 consonants | ||
| M A Y A N N I G H T | http://history-world.org/amorites.htm [The Sintashta & Petrovka Sub-Cultures, who buried chariots, came to an end (2100-1700).] 1700-1100 BC Shang dynasty, China (30 degrees N latitude) 1600 Shang China script "The early Chinese bronzes date from the sixteenth century B.C. . . . However, by 1300, Chinese smiths were turning out exquisite cast-bronze ritual vessels which are far superior to contemporary work found elsewhere. . . [Mysteries of the Past, 1977, near p190] Metallurgy: "Recent excavations at Ban Chiang in the northeastern part of Thailand have brought to light . . . iron objects which seem to have been made about 1600 B.C. . . . " [Mysteries of the Past, 1977, near page 190] [Mysteries of the Past, 1977: 1600 - Beginnings of Bronze Age in China] From the sixteenth century B.C. onward three or four attempts were made to simplify the various syllabaries then current in the near East into pure alphabets. The most successful of these was the Phoenician, from which the 'Cadmean' Greek characters derive. 1571-1546 Hyksos Pharaoh Khamudy Aasehre = Cadmus (son of Agenor) 1595 Hittite raid disrupts unity of Sumer & Akkad - http://history-world.org/timeline.htm ? 1595 Hittite sack of Babylon 1575 - 1308 New Kingdom (Egypt) 1575 - Hyksos kings defeated and run out of Egypt by Pharaoh Ahmose, reigns to 1550 (Gods of Eden) 1567 - Egypt expel Hyksos ? 1560- Campaigns of Babylon 1550 - Amenhotep I reign starts What happened to the Hyksos? Sharuhen was an ancient town in the Negev Desert, between Rafah and Gaza. Following the expulsion of the Hyksos from Egypt in the early 1500s BCE, they fled to Sharuhen and fortified it. The armies of Pharaoh Ahmose I seized and razed the town after a three-year siege. The destruction of Sharuhen was merely the first stage of a new policy of pre-emptive warfare waged by the Egyptians. Because the Egyptians of the 17th Dynasty felt deeply humiliated by the 15th and 16th Dynasty rule of the Hyksos (ca. 1655 BCE-ca. 1580 BCE), the Theban dynasty launched an ambitious war, led by Seqenenre Ta'a II, against the foreign king, Apep, to reclaim lost territory. Though his own campaign to expel the Hyksos from Egypt failed, and he himself was killed in battle, his son, Kamose, launched an attack on the Hyksos capital of Avaris. It was his much younger brother, Ahmose I, however, who finally succeeded in recapturing Avaris, razing it, and expelling the Hyksos rulers from Egypt altogether. The profound insult of the foreign rule to the honour and integrity of Egypt could be corrected, and its reoccurrence prevented, only by extending Egypt's hegemony over the Asiatics to the north and east of Egypt. Ahmose I engaged in a retaliative three-year siege of the Southern Palestine citadel of Sharuhen, thereby launching an aggressive policy of pre-emptive warfare. His success was continued by his successor but one, Thutmose I, who extended Egyptian influence as far as the Mitanni kingdom in the north and Mesopotamia in the east, thereby creating what was to become the most extensive empire in the ancient world. Baines, John; Malek, Jaromir; Cultural Atlas of Ancient Egypt; Checkmark Books; Oxford; 2000 Bunson, Margaret R.; Encyclopedia of ancient Egypt; Facts on File; New York; 2002 Quirke, Stephen; Spencer, Jeffrey; The British Museum Book of ancient Egypt; Thames and Hudson, New York; 1992 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sharuhen The Egyptian terms "Hekau-Khasut", "Hyk-Khase" may have any relationship with "Kasdim/Kasdu", that indicates the peoples of Southern Mesopotamia. It is a curious fact that in the same period that the Hyksos were expelled from Egypt, another mysterious people arose in Babylonia: the Kassites (Kasu). They also came from an unknown place and after they lost control of Babylon apparently had not any further history. Very likely, they were direct descendants of the Sumerians, the authentic Kasdim. So here it comes the hazardous hypothesis: the Kassites that took the rule of Babylon may have been the already dethroned Hyksos! Also the Kassites were said to come from the "hill country", and that is why it was thought that such country was somewhere in the Zagros region, but it is not thoroughly proven and the question about the origin of the Kassites is still open. As well as for the Hyksos, the Kassite period is considered to be a "dark age"; another coincident fact is that both peoples were regarded as excellent horsemen. Their language was likely Sumerian, which was in some way related with Hurrian, though it was definitely different. Indeed, both peoples shared many common features, and even though this seems to be a rather unlikely identity, it is interesting the parallelism between Hyksos and Kassites. http://www.imninalu.net/Hyksos.htm The identity of the Hyksos is disputed, but there is little doubt that the Hy-KSOS were the Midianites, i.e. KASSites (=Hebrew KASDIM) or KASKA, enemies of the Hittites. The name of these peoples is perhaps retained in the later Russian and Turkish term KAZAK = "COSSACKs, adventurers, raiders, nomadic shepherds". http://www.lexiline.com/lexiline/lexi49.htm <<< MORE ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- SUMMARY: "Bronze Age & start of Iron Age". Writing (first alphabet). Extensive use of boats for trade, expansion, and exploration. Indo-European (IE) first sign of movement into Mideast (Hurrians & HIttites) | No dark age, says Rohl - see new chronology 1600 Shang China script Thailand: Second use of iron? (First in Anatolia 2700?) Was this an extension of Aryan? | ||
ON TO ARIES AGE Day 3 and Night 3
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Sunday, December 28, 2014
Yuya and Tuyu Semitic mummy Parents-in-law of Amenhotep III from the Valley of the Kings
http://anubis4_2000.tripod.com/SpecialExhibits/YuyaTuyu.htmThe Treasures of Yuya and Tuyu
Text and Commentary by
William Max Miller, M. A.
Left: "...The name of her father is Yuya. The name of her mother is Tuyu..." Commemorative scarab announcing the marriage of Tiye to Neb-Maat-Re
Amenhotep III, which emphatically proclaims the names of her parents.
Photo Credit: Scarab from Alexandre Herrero Pardo's Los Nobles de Egypto website (Los documentos Yuya y Tuya)
Before the discovery of Tutankhamen's opulent treasures, the tomb of Yuya and Tuyu was one of the most important burials to be found in the Valley of the Kings. Discovered on February 5'th, 1905, by James Quibell and Theodore M. Davis, the tomb (designated KV 46) contained one of the most complete and beautifully made sets of funerary equipment then known.
Located between the tomb of Ramesses XI (KV 4) and a tomb from the time of Ramesses III (KV 3), KV 46 provides a good example of a single-chambered staircase tomb architecturally similar to other non-royal tombs found in the Valley (see diagram , showing the tomb's architectural plan, from Davis's The Tomb of Iouiya and Touiyou [London, 1907,] 24.) Dating from the 18'th Dynasty, it contained the burials of Yuya and Tuyu, the parents of Queen Tiye, and its many intact objects give an idea of how a high-status burial from the time of Amenhotep III was provisioned.
High-status the burial undoubtedly was. Yuya and his wife Tuyu were no mere "commoners," elevated to a lofty social position solely by their daughter's royal marriage, as earlier commentators believed, but were probably individuals who had exerted immense political influence during the reigns of Amenhotep III and his father, Tuthmosis IV. The scarabs issued to commemorate the marriage of Amenhotep III to Tiye name her parents prominently in an unprecedented fashion, as though intentionally stressing the royal alliance with this Akhmim-based family. C. N. Reeves argues that the naming of Yuya and Tuyu on the marriage scarabs, which were most likely issued during Amenhotep III'rds second reignal year (when he was still a boy) indicates that the royal in-laws already exerted considerable political clout prior to their daughter's marriage, and may even have functioned as "powers behind the throne" during their youthful son-in-law's early years of rule. The many impressive titles of Yuya and Tuyu (including “God’s Father," “His Majesty’s Lieutenant Commander of Chariotry," “Master of the Horse," “Priest of Min," "Overseer of the cattle of Min, Lord of Akhmim" for Yuya and “King’s Mother of the Great Royal Wife, “Chief of the Harem of Min," “Priestess of Amen," “Chief of the Harem of Amen," and “Chantress of Hathor," for Tuyu) as well as their sumptuous burial in the Royal Valley, support this opinion.
Although their tomb had been robbed of its portable metallic objects and expensive linens in antiquity, most of the major funerary furnishings of Yuya and Tuyu remained intact (see diagram # 2, reprinted in DRN, 150, showing positions of objects in the tomb.) Davis, Quibell, Weigall, and Maspero (all of whom participated in the clearance of KV 46) theorized that the tomb had only been entered by thieves once, but Reeves discerns evidence for three separate intrusions. He believes that KV 46 had probably been first plundered soon after the burials of Yuya and Tuyu, and bases this view on the absence of precious oils from the tomb's remaining contents. The valuable oils so highly prized by the Egyptians did not keep long, and would only have been stolen while they were still fresh. Reeves dates two other possible robberies of KV 46 to the 20'th Dynasty, when gangs working on KV 3 and KV 4 had ample opportunity to enter and loot the smaller burial located so closely nearby. The inclusion by Quibell of two seal impressions bearing the names of Ramesses III (CG 51179-80) in his catalogue of objects associated with the burial would seem to pin-point the time of at least some type of post-interment activity to the reign of that king. However, Quibell did not take these seals into account when formulating his chronology of illicit activity in KV 46, and Elizabeth Thomas, who mentions only one of these seals in her work, considered it to be intrusive and irrelevant to the reconstruction of the tomb's pillaging. She indicates that this seal may even have been found in the filling above the entrance stairway, or in the filling of the stairway itself. Even if the seals cannot be used to date one of the alleged robberies, the fact that KV 46 was found covered by a layer of chippings from KV 3 and KV 4 proves that it could have been robbed no later than the 20'th Dynasty. For a detailed analysis of post interment activity in KV 46, click here or on the link below.
Theodore M. Davis published an account of the discovery of KV 46, including photographic plates of the objects with descriptions written by Percy E. Newberry. The Tomb of Iouiya and Touiyou was his only official publication of the tomb, and lacks the kind of detail required by today's more scientific Egyptologists. However, this work possesses a charm all its own, with its outdated spellings and colorful assumptions helping to convey the romantic ambience of Egyptology during the Gilded Age. You can read the complete version of his report by clicking on the link below. Also, read Arthur Weigall's version of events at this tomb from his book, The Glory of the Pharaohs ([London, 1923,] 127-130.) Weigall adds color to the dry facts recounted by Davis.
Below are images of some of the objects discovered in the tomb. Commentary in quotation marks comes from Percy E. Newberry's descriptions printed by Theodore M. Davis in The Tomb of Iouiya and Touiyou. For a bibliography of relevant publications used in preparing this online exhibit, go to the end of the page. Any online sources of images are acknowledged by link in the photo credit caption accompanying the images. References to deities on this page link to the Egyptian Mythology section of the Encyclopedia Mythica website. Further detailed information on the mummies of Yuya and Tuyu in our XVIII'th Dynasty Gallery III may be viewed by clicking the links for their mummies given below.
Located between the tomb of Ramesses XI (KV 4) and a tomb from the time of Ramesses III (KV 3), KV 46 provides a good example of a single-chambered staircase tomb architecturally similar to other non-royal tombs found in the Valley (see diagram , showing the tomb's architectural plan, from Davis's The Tomb of Iouiya and Touiyou [London, 1907,] 24.) Dating from the 18'th Dynasty, it contained the burials of Yuya and Tuyu, the parents of Queen Tiye, and its many intact objects give an idea of how a high-status burial from the time of Amenhotep III was provisioned.
High-status the burial undoubtedly was. Yuya and his wife Tuyu were no mere "commoners," elevated to a lofty social position solely by their daughter's royal marriage, as earlier commentators believed, but were probably individuals who had exerted immense political influence during the reigns of Amenhotep III and his father, Tuthmosis IV. The scarabs issued to commemorate the marriage of Amenhotep III to Tiye name her parents prominently in an unprecedented fashion, as though intentionally stressing the royal alliance with this Akhmim-based family. C. N. Reeves argues that the naming of Yuya and Tuyu on the marriage scarabs, which were most likely issued during Amenhotep III'rds second reignal year (when he was still a boy) indicates that the royal in-laws already exerted considerable political clout prior to their daughter's marriage, and may even have functioned as "powers behind the throne" during their youthful son-in-law's early years of rule. The many impressive titles of Yuya and Tuyu (including “God’s Father," “His Majesty’s Lieutenant Commander of Chariotry," “Master of the Horse," “Priest of Min," "Overseer of the cattle of Min, Lord of Akhmim" for Yuya and “King’s Mother of the Great Royal Wife, “Chief of the Harem of Min," “Priestess of Amen," “Chief of the Harem of Amen," and “Chantress of Hathor," for Tuyu) as well as their sumptuous burial in the Royal Valley, support this opinion.
Although their tomb had been robbed of its portable metallic objects and expensive linens in antiquity, most of the major funerary furnishings of Yuya and Tuyu remained intact (see diagram # 2, reprinted in DRN, 150, showing positions of objects in the tomb.) Davis, Quibell, Weigall, and Maspero (all of whom participated in the clearance of KV 46) theorized that the tomb had only been entered by thieves once, but Reeves discerns evidence for three separate intrusions. He believes that KV 46 had probably been first plundered soon after the burials of Yuya and Tuyu, and bases this view on the absence of precious oils from the tomb's remaining contents. The valuable oils so highly prized by the Egyptians did not keep long, and would only have been stolen while they were still fresh. Reeves dates two other possible robberies of KV 46 to the 20'th Dynasty, when gangs working on KV 3 and KV 4 had ample opportunity to enter and loot the smaller burial located so closely nearby. The inclusion by Quibell of two seal impressions bearing the names of Ramesses III (CG 51179-80) in his catalogue of objects associated with the burial would seem to pin-point the time of at least some type of post-interment activity to the reign of that king. However, Quibell did not take these seals into account when formulating his chronology of illicit activity in KV 46, and Elizabeth Thomas, who mentions only one of these seals in her work, considered it to be intrusive and irrelevant to the reconstruction of the tomb's pillaging. She indicates that this seal may even have been found in the filling above the entrance stairway, or in the filling of the stairway itself. Even if the seals cannot be used to date one of the alleged robberies, the fact that KV 46 was found covered by a layer of chippings from KV 3 and KV 4 proves that it could have been robbed no later than the 20'th Dynasty. For a detailed analysis of post interment activity in KV 46, click here or on the link below.
Theodore M. Davis published an account of the discovery of KV 46, including photographic plates of the objects with descriptions written by Percy E. Newberry. The Tomb of Iouiya and Touiyou was his only official publication of the tomb, and lacks the kind of detail required by today's more scientific Egyptologists. However, this work possesses a charm all its own, with its outdated spellings and colorful assumptions helping to convey the romantic ambience of Egyptology during the Gilded Age. You can read the complete version of his report by clicking on the link below. Also, read Arthur Weigall's version of events at this tomb from his book, The Glory of the Pharaohs ([London, 1923,] 127-130.) Weigall adds color to the dry facts recounted by Davis.
Below are images of some of the objects discovered in the tomb. Commentary in quotation marks comes from Percy E. Newberry's descriptions printed by Theodore M. Davis in The Tomb of Iouiya and Touiyou. For a bibliography of relevant publications used in preparing this online exhibit, go to the end of the page. Any online sources of images are acknowledged by link in the photo credit caption accompanying the images. References to deities on this page link to the Egyptian Mythology section of the Encyclopedia Mythica website. Further detailed information on the mummies of Yuya and Tuyu in our XVIII'th Dynasty Gallery III may be viewed by clicking the links for their mummies given below.
Tomb Raiders of KV 46!by William Max Miller, M. A.
This page presents a detailed examination of the tomb robbing and
restoration work which occurred in the tomb of Yuya and Tuyu. It
compares the history of KV 46 given by its excavators with the
recent views of C. N. Reeves, and formulates a new reconstruction
of events in the tomb based on an analysis of J. L. Smith's diagram
of the burial chamber as it was first discovered.
The Finding of the Tomb of Iouiya and Touiyou
by Theodore M. Davis
The Discovery of the Tomb of Yuaa and Tuau
by Arthur Weigall
This page presents a detailed examination of the tomb robbing and
restoration work which occurred in the tomb of Yuya and Tuyu. It
compares the history of KV 46 given by its excavators with the
recent views of C. N. Reeves, and formulates a new reconstruction
of events in the tomb based on an analysis of J. L. Smith's diagram
of the burial chamber as it was first discovered.
The Finding of the Tomb of Iouiya and Touiyou
by Theodore M. Davis
The Discovery of the Tomb of Yuaa and Tuau
by Arthur Weigall
Yuya's Sarcophagus--CG 51001
"The sarcophagus is made of coarse grained wood covered with pitch and decorated with figures and hieroglyphic legends in stucco gilt. In shape the sarcophagus is rectangular with a projecting curved cornice around the tip; its lid is rounded on either side of a flat beam running down the axle, and has massive uprights at each end. The joints are mortice- and tenon-pinned, and the roller is dovetailed into the frame of the sledge."--Percy E. Newberry, The Tomb of Iouiya and Touiyou.
Although designed to look like a sledge, this impressive wooden sarcophagus actually had no bottom, and the nested set of coffins which it contained rested directly on the floor of the tomb in which it had been constructed. Noting that the black pitch coating in some places had smeared over the gilding, Quibell believed that it had probably been applied to the sarcophagus in the tomb itself. The decorative scheme resembles that used on 18'th Dynasty "black" style coffins: figures of Isis and Nephthys, with upraised arms, kneel upon nub-signs at the head and foot ends respectively, and figures of protective deities adorn the sides. The five deities on the sides of this particular sarcophagus, however, are not the traditional Four Sons of Horus. Here, two end figures of Thoth, each bearing a standard, face each other, while two jackal-headed figures (Anubis? Wepwawet? Duamutef?) and a human-headed figure (Imseti?) stand between them. The end boards of the lid are decorated with gilded figures of the recumbent Anubis, and the lid itself adopts the form used by the per-nu shrine of Lower Egypt. When it was discovered by the excavators, the lid of this massive sarcophagus was slightly out of alignment. It had been removed by thieves at some point in order to reach Yuya's mummy, and the ancient necropolis officials who restored the tomb replaced it at a crooked angle. The damage to the side panel visible in the photograph may have occurred when the heavy lids of Yuya's outer and second coffins were removed by thieves and thrown against it.
Photo Credit: from private collection. Probably color-tinted print of photo from Davis's The Tomb of Iouiya and Touiyou (London, 1907.)
Yuya's Outer Coffin--CG 51002
"The outer coffin is mummiform in shape, and, like the sarcophagus, is covered with pitch and ornamented with inscriptions and designs in stucco-gilt. The face and hands are gilt; the wig is long and the hair is represented by stripes of alternate black and gold. The eyes and eyebrows are inlaid; the eyebrows and lashes are of dark blue glass, the iris of black obsidian and the white of white marble. Around the neck and upper part of the chest is a broad necklace in gold, and on the wrists are bracelets. Upon the abdomen is a vulture with outspread wings and holding the [shen] rings in its talons..."
--Percy E. Newberry, The Tomb of Iouiya and Touiyou.
"The outer coffin is mummiform in shape, and, like the sarcophagus, is covered with pitch and ornamented with inscriptions and designs in stucco-gilt. The face and hands are gilt; the wig is long and the hair is represented by stripes of alternate black and gold. The eyes and eyebrows are inlaid; the eyebrows and lashes are of dark blue glass, the iris of black obsidian and the white of white marble. Around the neck and upper part of the chest is a broad necklace in gold, and on the wrists are bracelets. Upon the abdomen is a vulture with outspread wings and holding the [shen] rings in its talons..."--Percy E. Newberry, The Tomb of Iouiya and Touiyou.
The outermost coffin of Yuya provides a classic example of the 18'th Dynasty "black" style coffin, which Ikram and Dodson note came into vogue during the reign of Hatshepsut and remained popular until the time of Ramesses II. The coffin is Osiriform, and decorated to resemble a wrapped mummy. Hands, face, inscriptional banding, parts of the wig, and figures of protective deities are all gilded. The non-gilded portions are coated with black 
pitch, which probably held a symbolic significance because the color black was associated with fertility and rebirth (due to the deposit of rich black silt left by the annual Nile inundation in which the new seed was sown.) The deities adorning the sides of the coffin are the traditional Four Sons of Horus: (starting at the foot end) the human-headed Imesti; falcon-headed Qebsennuef; jackal-headed Duamutef; and ape-headed Hapi. These deities also figure prominently in the decorative scheme used for canopic sets, and stand guard over (respectively) the mummified liver, intestines, stomach, and lungs. Tomb robbers had removed the huge lid of this coffin, and it was found on the floor against the side panel of the sarcophagus.
pitch, which probably held a symbolic significance because the color black was associated with fertility and rebirth (due to the deposit of rich black silt left by the annual Nile inundation in which the new seed was sown.) The deities adorning the sides of the coffin are the traditional Four Sons of Horus: (starting at the foot end) the human-headed Imesti; falcon-headed Qebsennuef; jackal-headed Duamutef; and ape-headed Hapi. These deities also figure prominently in the decorative scheme used for canopic sets, and stand guard over (respectively) the mummified liver, intestines, stomach, and lungs. Tomb robbers had removed the huge lid of this coffin, and it was found on the floor against the side panel of the sarcophagus.
Photo Credits: (Top Right) from private collection. Probably color-tinted print of photo from Davis's The Tomb of Iouiya and Touiyou (London, 1907.) (Left) Excavation assistant is dwarfed by Yuya's enormous outer coffin, measuring 2.75 meters in height, shown here soon after its removal from KV 46. (From John Romer's The Valley of the Kings [William Morrow and Company, 1981] 202.)
Yuya's Second and Inner Coffin--CG 51003-51004
"The second coffin...is of wood, coated with stucco and gold- and silver foil, and richly inlaid with glass of various colors. The wig is long and the hair is represented by alternate bands of silver and gold. The hands are of gold foil and project from the [stylized] mummy wrappings. In the right hand is a [djed] amulet; in the left an [Isis Knot.]...The third or inner [coffin]...is carved in wood, coated with stucco and gilt, and richly inlaid with semi-precious stones and coloured glass...the face and ears are exquisitely modeled. Covering the lower part of the abdomen and legs as far as the shins, is a standing figure of the goddess Nut in low relief, with arms upraised...She stands upon a nub sign..."--Percy E. Newberry, The Tomb of Iouiya and Touiyou.
The second coffin of Yuya (on left in color photo) follows the usual pattern of the 18'th Dynasty "black" style coffins, but employs silver foil instead of black pitch to fill in the open spaces left by the traditional gold-leaf decoration. This is an unusual feature, and once more provides an indication of the power and wealth to which Yuya had attained. A metal much more 
expensive and highly prized by the ancient Egyptians than even gold, silver could only be afforded by someone of extremely high status. The decorative symbolism is wholly traditional: the hands hold djed and tet amulets (symbolizing Osiris and Isis, respectively); a vulture representing Nekhbet (for Upper Egypt) and holding shen (eternity) signs in its talons appears immediately below the hands; and, below this, the sky goddess Nut, with upraised arms, kneels upon a nub-sign. On the lid of the foot-end of the coffin (not visible in the photo) appears the goddess Isis in her traditional position in funerary iconography. Her arms are upraised and she, too, kneels on a nub-sign. Yuya's innermost coffin (on right in color photo) follows the same basic decorative scheme as his second coffin. However, this coffin is entirely gilded, and (somewhat unusually) lacks hands. In The Tomb of Iouiya and Touiyou ([London, 1907], 9) Newberry states his belief that this coffin was not originally made for Yuya. He observed indications that the name of an earlier owner had been removed from inscriptions on the sides of the coffin and replaced with the name(s) of Yuya. Lending weight to this view is the fact that the facial features of the portrait masks on the two coffins differ
significantly. The lids of both coffins had been removed by thieves. The second coffin's lid rested on top of the outer coffin lid on the floor against the wooden sarcophagus. The inner coffin's lid perched on its side on the rims of the three coffin basins inside the sarcophagus.
expensive and highly prized by the ancient Egyptians than even gold, silver could only be afforded by someone of extremely high status. The decorative symbolism is wholly traditional: the hands hold djed and tet amulets (symbolizing Osiris and Isis, respectively); a vulture representing Nekhbet (for Upper Egypt) and holding shen (eternity) signs in its talons appears immediately below the hands; and, below this, the sky goddess Nut, with upraised arms, kneels upon a nub-sign. On the lid of the foot-end of the coffin (not visible in the photo) appears the goddess Isis in her traditional position in funerary iconography. Her arms are upraised and she, too, kneels on a nub-sign. Yuya's innermost coffin (on right in color photo) follows the same basic decorative scheme as his second coffin. However, this coffin is entirely gilded, and (somewhat unusually) lacks hands. In The Tomb of Iouiya and Touiyou ([London, 1907], 9) Newberry states his belief that this coffin was not originally made for Yuya. He observed indications that the name of an earlier owner had been removed from inscriptions on the sides of the coffin and replaced with the name(s) of Yuya. Lending weight to this view is the fact that the facial features of the portrait masks on the two coffins differ significantly. The lids of both coffins had been removed by thieves. The second coffin's lid rested on top of the outer coffin lid on the floor against the wooden sarcophagus. The inner coffin's lid perched on its side on the rims of the three coffin basins inside the sarcophagus.
Photo Credits: Top photo from private collection. Probably color-tinted composite of photos from Davis's The Tomb of Iouiya and Touiyou (London, 1907.) Inset photo showing 2'nd and inner coffins from James Edward Quibell's The Tomb of Yuaa and Thuiu. Catalogue Général du Musée du Caire 51001-51191 (Cairo: IFAO, 1908), pl. III. Painting at right showing close-up of Yuya's inner coffin by William Max Miller, copyright 2003. Painting is based on photo from Quibell's The Tomb of Yuaa and Thuiu, pl. V. Detail at left showing face of Yuya's inner coffin from Paul Johnson's The Civilization of Ancient Egypt (HarperCollins Publishers, 1999) cover photo.Yuya's Mummy Mask--CG 51008
"[Yuya's mummy mask] is made of several layers of coarse linen, glued together and coated with plaster. The inside is bitumened, the exterior is gilt. The wig is long, lined, and with bands at the ends. The face is finally modeled. The eyes, eyebrows and eye lashes are inlaid: the eyes are of white marble and obsidian, the eyelashes and brows are of blue glass."--Percy E. Newberry, The Tomb of Iouiya and Touiyou.
At the time of its discovery, Yuya's mummy mask had been seriously damaged by ancient thieves, who had broken it into several sections. It was finally restored by conservator Samir Abaza and placed on display in the Egyptian Museum of Antiquities several years ago, next to the mummy mask of Tuyu, Yuya's wife. (For information on the restoration of this mummy mask, see the article by Dennis Forbes in KMT [7:2] 40-45.) Larger than the mummy mask of Tuyu. this mask displays some interesting stylistic features that tend to date it to the last years of Amenhotep III's reign. As Dennis Forbes points out, "It's exceptionally small nose and over-large eyes hint at the 'juvenalizing'
style favored by the deified Amenhotep III during his last decade." (KMT [7:2] 42.) Photograph of mask in profile at left clearly shows the "juvenalizing" tendencies characteristic of artistic trends late in the reign of Amenhotep III. This would indicate that Yuya had lived to a very old age, past Year 30 of his royal son-in-law's tenure on the throne. Reeves also theorizes that the mask may have been made later than Tuyu's mummy mask (see below.) Because of this--and contra Quibell, Maspero, Weigall, et al--Reeves leaves open the possibility that Yuya may have died after his wife and was thus buried in KV 46 later than Tuyu. (However, see his comments on the canopic jars of Tuyu noted below.)
At the time of its discovery, Yuya's mummy mask had been seriously damaged by ancient thieves, who had broken it into several sections. It was finally restored by conservator Samir Abaza and placed on display in the Egyptian Museum of Antiquities several years ago, next to the mummy mask of Tuyu, Yuya's wife. (For information on the restoration of this mummy mask, see the article by Dennis Forbes in KMT [7:2] 40-45.) Larger than the mummy mask of Tuyu. this mask displays some interesting stylistic features that tend to date it to the last years of Amenhotep III's reign. As Dennis Forbes points out, "It's exceptionally small nose and over-large eyes hint at the 'juvenalizing'
style favored by the deified Amenhotep III during his last decade." (KMT [7:2] 42.) Photograph of mask in profile at left clearly shows the "juvenalizing" tendencies characteristic of artistic trends late in the reign of Amenhotep III. This would indicate that Yuya had lived to a very old age, past Year 30 of his royal son-in-law's tenure on the throne. Reeves also theorizes that the mask may have been made later than Tuyu's mummy mask (see below.) Because of this--and contra Quibell, Maspero, Weigall, et al--Reeves leaves open the possibility that Yuya may have died after his wife and was thus buried in KV 46 later than Tuyu. (However, see his comments on the canopic jars of Tuyu noted below.)
Photo Credits: Upper right: Yuya's restored mummy mask from Ikram and Dodson's Mummies in Ancient Egypt (Thames and Hudson, 1998.) Pl. XIX. Lower left: Yuya's
mummy mask in profile, showing stylistic features common to Amenhotep III's
last years of rule. (Photo by George B Johnson, from KMT [7:2] 43.)
mummy mask in profile, showing stylistic features common to Amenhotep III's
last years of rule. (Photo by George B Johnson, from KMT [7:2] 43.)
Tuyu's Wooden Sarcophagus--CG 51005
"The sledge and sarcophagus are both of a coarse grained wood covered with pitch and decorated with figures and hieroglyphic legends in stucco gilt. In shape, the sarcophagus is rectangular, with a lid in the form of a projecting curved cornice and top of the common Egyptian box shape. Like the sarcophagus of Yuya, the joints are mortice- and tenon-pinned."--Percy E. Newberry, The Tomb of Iouiya and Touiyou.
"The sledge and sarcophagus are both of a coarse grained wood covered with pitch and decorated with figures and hieroglyphic legends in stucco gilt. In shape, the sarcophagus is rectangular, with a lid in the form of a projecting curved cornice and top of the common Egyptian box shape. Like the sarcophagus of Yuya, the joints are mortice- and tenon-pinned."--Percy E. Newberry, The Tomb of Iouiya and Touiyou.
Unlike her husband's, Tuyu's sarcophagus was built with an inner bottom floor. But the sledge runners on which it sits rest on wooden cross-beams. As in the case of Yuya's sarcophagus, the sledge-like appearance of Tuyu's sarcophagus is also purely symbolic. Made of wood coated with black pitch, the lid of this sarcophagus was designed to resemble that of a per-wer shrine of Upper Egypt. Ikram and Dodson note that the cornice of the sarcophagus forms part of its lid--a feature which, they point out, also appears in the granite sarcophagus of Akhenaten, the grandson of Yuya and Tuyu. Gilded figures of Isis and Nephthys with upraised arms kneel on nub-signs at the foot and head end of the sarcophagus respectively, and gilded representations of protective deities identified by Maspero as "the four gods of the West" (i.e., the Four Sons of Horus) line the sides. Tuyu's sarcophagus was also decorated on the inside, where the figures of Isis and Nephthys appear once more along with texts from various chapters of the Book of the Dead. When discovered, the lid and one of the side panels of this sarcophagus had been removed by ancient thieves in order to facilitate the ransacking of Tuyu's mummy.
Photo Credit: from private collection. Probably color-tinted print of photo from Davis's The Tomb of Iouiya and Touiyou (London, 1907.)
Tuyu's Outer and Inner Coffins--CG 51006-51007
"The outer coffin...is made of wood carved and covered with stucco gilt. It is mummiform in shape, the wig is long and the hair is represented by bands of incised lines. The features of the face are very finely modeled. The eyes, eyelashes, and eyebrows are inlaid; the eyes are of white marble and obsidian, the eyelashes and eyebrows of opaque violet glass." The inner coffin is also of wood covered with stucco gilt. Newberry remarks that the "broad necklace is very elaborate, and consists of fifteen rows of conventional flowers and petals and drop shaped beads, which are inlaid in colored glass."--Percy E. Newberry, The Tomb of Iouiya and Touiyou.
"The outer coffin...is made of wood carved and covered with stucco gilt. It is mummiform in shape, the wig is long and the hair is represented by bands of incised lines. The features of the face are very finely modeled. The eyes, eyelashes, and eyebrows are inlaid; the eyes are of white marble and obsidian, the eyelashes and eyebrows of opaque violet glass." The inner coffin is also of wood covered with stucco gilt. Newberry remarks that the "broad necklace is very elaborate, and consists of fifteen rows of conventional flowers and petals and drop shaped beads, which are inlaid in colored glass."--Percy E. Newberry, The Tomb of Iouiya and Touiyou.
Ikram and Dodson point out that Tuyu's outer coffin is unusual because it is entirely gilded--most outer coffin's from nested coffin sets of this period were of the "black" style and partly decorated with a coating of black pitch. The decorative symbolism employed on both
coffins is traditional, with figures of Isis, Nephthys, and Nut surrounded by bands of texts designed to look like mummy straps. These bands are inscribed with prayers and invocations to the gods, and also give the names and titles of the deceased. The ornate necklace on the inner coffin is inlaid and decorated with kheper, djed, and sa signs. Like her husband's innermost coffin, Tuyu's also does not have hands. (See a close-up color photo of the face of Tuyu's inner coffin at the Amigos de la Egyptologia website.)
The excavators of KV 46 discovered that Tuyu's mummy lay only in her innermost coffin within the partly disassembled wooden sarcophagus. The coffin's lid had been removed and left next to the coffin basin on the floor. The lid and basin of Tuyu's outer coffin had been separated and discarded at two different locations in the burial chamber. The positions of the coffin and sarcophagus elements from Tuyu's funerary ensemble provide important clues to the number of robberies which occurred in the tomb. (See Tomb Raiders of KV 46 for more details.)
Photo Credits: Top photo from private collection. Probably color-tinted composite of photos from Davis's The Tomb of Iouiya and Touiyou (London, 1907.) Inset photo showing outer and inner coffins from James Edward Quibell's The Tomb of Yuaa and Thuiu. Catalogue Général du Musée du Caire 51001-51191 (Cairo: IFAO, 1908), pl. IX. Painting at left showing close-up of Tuyu's outer coffin by William Max Miller, copyright 2003. Based on pl. XI of Quibell's The Tomb of Yuaa and Thuiu.
coffins is traditional, with figures of Isis, Nephthys, and Nut surrounded by bands of texts designed to look like mummy straps. These bands are inscribed with prayers and invocations to the gods, and also give the names and titles of the deceased. The ornate necklace on the inner coffin is inlaid and decorated with kheper, djed, and sa signs. Like her husband's innermost coffin, Tuyu's also does not have hands. (See a close-up color photo of the face of Tuyu's inner coffin at the Amigos de la Egyptologia website.) The excavators of KV 46 discovered that Tuyu's mummy lay only in her innermost coffin within the partly disassembled wooden sarcophagus. The coffin's lid had been removed and left next to the coffin basin on the floor. The lid and basin of Tuyu's outer coffin had been separated and discarded at two different locations in the burial chamber. The positions of the coffin and sarcophagus elements from Tuyu's funerary ensemble provide important clues to the number of robberies which occurred in the tomb. (See Tomb Raiders of KV 46 for more details.)Photo Credits: Top photo from private collection. Probably color-tinted composite of photos from Davis's The Tomb of Iouiya and Touiyou (London, 1907.) Inset photo showing outer and inner coffins from James Edward Quibell's The Tomb of Yuaa and Thuiu. Catalogue Général du Musée du Caire 51001-51191 (Cairo: IFAO, 1908), pl. IX. Painting at left showing close-up of Tuyu's outer coffin by William Max Miller, copyright 2003. Based on pl. XI of Quibell's The Tomb of Yuaa and Thuiu.
Tuyu's Mummy Mask--CG 51009
"The mask is made of several layers of coarse linen glued together and coated with plaster. The inside is bitumened, the exterior is gilt. The wig is long, lined, and with bands at the ends; it is secured round the top of the head by a broad fillet composed of a band of lotus petals with a lotus flower and two buds on the forehead."--Percy E. Newberry, The Tomb of Iouiya and Touiyou.
"The mask is made of several layers of coarse linen glued together and coated with plaster. The inside is bitumened, the exterior is gilt. The wig is long, lined, and with bands at the ends; it is secured round the top of the head by a broad fillet composed of a band of lotus petals with a lotus flower and two buds on the forehead."--Percy E. Newberry, The Tomb of Iouiya and Touiyou.
When discovered by Davis and Quibell, the face of this beautiful mummy mask was partly obscured by remnants of Tuyu's discolored linen shroud, which had probably gotten stuck to the gilded features by the oils and liquid resins used by the ancient priests to anoint the mummy. (Sections of this blackened adhering shroud still can be seen at the top and and along the sides of the wig.) Now cleaned, the lovely face of the youthful-appearing Lady Tuyu, Chantress of Hathor, Leader of the Harem of Amen, smiles back at us across a gulf of thirty-five centuries from what must be considered an undisputed masterpiece of ancient Egyptian portrait art. (See Tuyu's mummy mask from a different angle at the The Egyptian Museum of Antiquities website. Then view The Egyptian Museum of Antiquity's display of the mummy masks of Yuya and Tuyu together at the Valley of the Kings Foundation website.)
Photo Credit: Salima Ikram and Aidan Dodson, Mummies in Ancient Egypt
(Thames and Hudson, 1998,) pl. XVIII.
(Thames and Hudson, 1998,) pl. XVIII.
Canopic EquipmentCG 51012--CG 51013
Canopic chests of Yuya (left) and Tuyu (right). Both chests are made of wood coated with black pitch. The inscriptional bands and representations of the gods are gilded, and the over-all decorative scheme closely resembles that employed on the sarcophagi shown above. Images of Isis and Nephthys appear on the fronts of the chests. The goddesses Neith and Selket adorn the back panels. The sides of both chests are decorated with images of the Four Sons of Horus. The lids adopt the form of the per-wer shrine of Upper Egypt, and that on the chest of Tuyu is decorated with the double wedjet (representing the two eyes of Horus, i.e. the moon and the sun,) flanked by two recumbent figures of Anubis. Both chests contained four calcite canopic jars closed with human headed stoppers. These held the lungs, liver, stomach, and intestines of the deceased, which had been wrapped separately like miniature mummies and topped with small human-faced mummy masks. Tuyu's canopic jar and one of her
mummified internal organs are depicted in the photo at right. Reeves notes that stylistic differences between the canopic jars of Yuya and Tuyu indicate that Yuya's had been made earlier, providing further evidence that he had predeceased his wife. (However, see his comments on Yuya's mummy mask, given above.) Lid (on left in photo) is from Yuya's canopic chest viewed from above.
mummified internal organs are depicted in the photo at right. Reeves notes that stylistic differences between the canopic jars of Yuya and Tuyu indicate that Yuya's had been made earlier, providing further evidence that he had predeceased his wife. (However, see his comments on Yuya's mummy mask, given above.) Lid (on left in photo) is from Yuya's canopic chest viewed from above.
Photo Credit: Theodore M. Davis, The Tomb of Iouiya and Touiyou (London, 1907), pl.s X, XVI. Inset photo showing the lid of Yuya's canopic chest and Tuyu's canopic jar with embalmed viscera from James Edward Quibell's The Tomb of Yuaa and Thuiu. Catalogue Général du Musée du Caire 51001-51191 (Cairo: IFAO, 1908), pl. XVI.
Inlaid Wooden "Jewelry Coffer"CG 51118Chest of inlaid wood decorated with gold, ebony, white and red-dyed ivory, and blue faience tiles. The sides are decorated at the bottom with gilded ankh, djed, and was symbols (for
Life, Stability, and Power, respectively) set against a background of fine, stained red linen. The names of Tiye and Amenhotep III, the daughter and son-in-law of Yuya and Tuyu, appear on the sides. At right: the dual cartouches of Nebmaatre-Amenhotep III also appear on the lid of the box above gilded representations of Heh, (the god of "millions of years," i.e. eternity) kneeling on nub signs.
Photo Credit: (Top photo) from Wonders of the Past (Wise & Co., 1937,) facing page 330. This resembles Howard Carter's painting in Davis's The Tomb of Iouiya and Touiyou (London, 1907) but is actually a color-tinted photograph. (Lower photo) from The Egyptian Museum of Antiquities website.
Wooden Openwork ChairCG 51111
Lion footed chair with figures of Bes (the god of health) and Tauret (the goddess of childbirth) standing on nub-signs on the back panel.
Photo Credits: (Top Right) Wonders of the Past (Wise & Co., 1937,) facing page 330. This resembles Howard Carter's painting in Davis's The Tomb of Iouiya and Touiyou (London, 1907) but is actually a color-tinted photograph. (Above) Three views of wooden openwork chair from the National Gallery of Art's Quest for Immortality website.
Wooden "Jewelry Coffer"
CG 51117
CG 51117
Another wooden coffer, bearing the name of Amenhotep III on the lid. It is decorated on the sides with the ankh, djed, and was symbols set against a backing of inlaid blue faience tiles. The top, made of two folding leaves, is decorated with two representations of the god Heh (the god of "millions of years," i.e. eternity) kneeling on nub-signs and bearing cartouches of Amenhotep III on their heads.
Photo Credit: Wonders of the Past (Wise & Co., 1937,) facing page 330. This resembles Howard
Carter's painting in Davis's The Tomb of Iouiya and Touiyou (London, 1907) but is actually a
color tinted photograph.
Chair Inscribed for Sitamen--CG 51113
Gilded wooden chair presented to Yuya and Tuyu by their granddaughter Sitamen, daughter/wife of Amenhotep III. The modeled gesso and gilt decoration on the back panel of the chair consists of a winged sun disc with the place-name Edfu (capitol of the Horus nome of Upper Egypt, approximately 65 miles north of Aswan) on either side. Below this appears a scene showing a dual image of Sitamen receiving gifts of gold necklaces from female servants. The accompanying inscription above the seated princess gives her name: "The eldest daughter of the king whom he loves, Sitamen." The text inscribed above the servants describes the offering of gold from "the lands of the south."
In his book Tombs, Temples and Ancient Art, Joseph Lindon Smith humorously recounts how the Empress Eugenie, while visiting KV 46 during its clearance, unknowingly horrified the excavators by seating herself in this chair. Incredibly, the three-thousand year old wood remained strong enough to support the weight of the elderly Empress, and no damage was done to this priceless antiquity from the era of Amenhotep III. For close-up views of chair decoration, see James Edward Quibell's The Tomb of Yuaa and Thuiu. Catalogue Général du Musée du Caire 51001-51191 (Cairo: IFAO, 1908), pl.s XL (showing inner chair back), XLI (showing chair arm decoration), and XLIII (showing inner chair decoration.)
Gilded wooden chair presented to Yuya and Tuyu by their granddaughter Sitamen, daughter/wife of Amenhotep III. The modeled gesso and gilt decoration on the back panel of the chair consists of a winged sun disc with the place-name Edfu (capitol of the Horus nome of Upper Egypt, approximately 65 miles north of Aswan) on either side. Below this appears a scene showing a dual image of Sitamen receiving gifts of gold necklaces from female servants. The accompanying inscription above the seated princess gives her name: "The eldest daughter of the king whom he loves, Sitamen." The text inscribed above the servants describes the offering of gold from "the lands of the south."In his book Tombs, Temples and Ancient Art, Joseph Lindon Smith humorously recounts how the Empress Eugenie, while visiting KV 46 during its clearance, unknowingly horrified the excavators by seating herself in this chair. Incredibly, the three-thousand year old wood remained strong enough to support the weight of the elderly Empress, and no damage was done to this priceless antiquity from the era of Amenhotep III. For close-up views of chair decoration, see James Edward Quibell's The Tomb of Yuaa and Thuiu. Catalogue Général du Musée du Caire 51001-51191 (Cairo: IFAO, 1908), pl.s XL (showing inner chair back), XLI (showing chair arm decoration), and XLIII (showing inner chair decoration.)
Photo Credit: (Left) Enlargement of carved chair-arm decoration, perhaps in the likness of Sitamen
herself. From Alexandre Herrero Pardo's Los Nobles de Egypto website (Los documentos Yuya y Tuya). (Right) From The Egyptian Museum of Antiquities website.
herself. From Alexandre Herrero Pardo's Los Nobles de Egypto website (Los documentos Yuya y Tuya). (Right) From The Egyptian Museum of Antiquities website.
In The Egyptian Museum of Antiquities, Cairo
Shabtis of Yuya and Tuyu CG 51024-36 & CG 51037-40
Fourteen shabtis inscribed for Yuya and four inscribed for Tuyu were discovered in KV 46. (One uninscribed shabti was also found in the tomb.) Each was inscribed with the shabti text from Chapter Six of The
Book of the Dead--the magical spell for reanimating the statuettes in the Underworld. Yuya's shabtis were made of expensive wood, including ebony and cedar. Tuyu's were of wood plaited with gold and silver. Along with these were found fifteen painted shabti boxes and assorted miniature tools for the shabti work-force to use in the Underworld. These tools (CG 51034-63) consisted of tiny yokes, hoes, picks, and a brick-mold--this latter item being very unusual for inclusion in shabti tool kits (click here for photo of miniature tools from Davis's The Tomb of Iouiya and Touiyou [London, 1907,] pl. XXI.)
Photo Credits: (Left) Wooden shabti of Yuya found in KV 46. From The Museum of Science website. (Right) Photo of KV 46 shabti display in The Egyptian Museum of Antiquities, Cairo, Egypt. From Alexandre Herrero Pardo's Los Nobles de Egypto website. (Los documentos Yuya y Tuya)
Shabtis of Yuya and Tuyu CG 51024-36 & CG 51037-40
Fourteen shabtis inscribed for Yuya and four inscribed for Tuyu were discovered in KV 46. (One uninscribed shabti was also found in the tomb.) Each was inscribed with the shabti text from Chapter Six of The
Book of the Dead--the magical spell for reanimating the statuettes in the Underworld. Yuya's shabtis were made of expensive wood, including ebony and cedar. Tuyu's were of wood plaited with gold and silver. Along with these were found fifteen painted shabti boxes and assorted miniature tools for the shabti work-force to use in the Underworld. These tools (CG 51034-63) consisted of tiny yokes, hoes, picks, and a brick-mold--this latter item being very unusual for inclusion in shabti tool kits (click here for photo of miniature tools from Davis's The Tomb of Iouiya and Touiyou [London, 1907,] pl. XXI.)Photo Credits: (Left) Wooden shabti of Yuya found in KV 46. From The Museum of Science website. (Right) Photo of KV 46 shabti display in The Egyptian Museum of Antiquities, Cairo, Egypt. From Alexandre Herrero Pardo's Los Nobles de Egypto website. (Los documentos Yuya y Tuya)
In the Metropolitan Museum of Art, New York
Shabtis of Yuya, ca. 1391–1353 B.C.E.;
Dynasty 18, reign of Amenhotep III; New Kingdom
Egyptian; Thebes. Painted cedar. Theodore M. Davis Collection,
Bequest of Theodore M. Davis, 1915 (30.8.57)
As a reward for his discovery, Theodore Davis was offered
some of the smaller objects found in KV 46, including the
shabtis shown above. Davis states (in The Tomb of Iouiya
and Touiyou [London, 1907], xxx) that he did not want to
accept these items. He must have changed his mind after writing
his account of the tomb's discovery, because these shabtis ended
up in his personal collection. He willed them to the MMA at
his death in 1915, but, due to lengthy litigation undertaken
by Davis's widow, the MMA could not officially claim
ownership of these items until 1930. (Based on
information from John Larson.--W.M.M.)
Photo Credit: From the website of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Click on the photo to go directly to the MMA page for enlargements
and further data. The Theban Royal Mummy Project's use of this image is
in compliance with the stated Terms and Conditions of the MMA at
www.metmuseum.org.
Shabtis of Yuya, ca. 1391–1353 B.C.E.;
Dynasty 18, reign of Amenhotep III; New Kingdom
Egyptian; Thebes. Painted cedar. Theodore M. Davis Collection,
Bequest of Theodore M. Davis, 1915 (30.8.57)
As a reward for his discovery, Theodore Davis was offered
some of the smaller objects found in KV 46, including the
shabtis shown above. Davis states (in The Tomb of Iouiya
and Touiyou [London, 1907], xxx) that he did not want to
accept these items. He must have changed his mind after writing
his account of the tomb's discovery, because these shabtis ended
up in his personal collection. He willed them to the MMA at
his death in 1915, but, due to lengthy litigation undertaken
by Davis's widow, the MMA could not officially claim
ownership of these items until 1930. (Based on
information from John Larson.--W.M.M.)
Photo Credit: From the website of the Metropolitan Museum of Art. Click on the photo to go directly to the MMA page for enlargements
and further data. The Theban Royal Mummy Project's use of this image is
in compliance with the stated Terms and Conditions of the MMA at
www.metmuseum.org.
Various Small Objects
Some of the smaller objects from the tomb. Top: blue glazed faience kohl tube with
ebony needle and papyrus pith stopper, bearing the cartouche of Amenhotep III (CG 51175). Bottom Row (from left to right): a blue faience djed-amulet decorated with gold foil (CG 51170?) ; a blue-glass/green feldspar heart scarab, originally carved for a man and subsequently reinscribed for Tuyu (CG 51164); and a circular rosette (?)
Photo Credit: Wonders of the Past (Wise & Co., 1937,) facing page 330. These resemble items from Howard Carter's painting in Davis's The Tomb of Iouiya and Touiyou (London, 1907) but are actually separate color-tinted photographs made into a composite.
Some of the smaller objects from the tomb. Top: blue glazed faience kohl tube with
ebony needle and papyrus pith stopper, bearing the cartouche of Amenhotep III (CG 51175). Bottom Row (from left to right): a blue faience djed-amulet decorated with gold foil (CG 51170?) ; a blue-glass/green feldspar heart scarab, originally carved for a man and subsequently reinscribed for Tuyu (CG 51164); and a circular rosette (?)
Photo Credit: Wonders of the Past (Wise & Co., 1937,) facing page 330. These resemble items from Howard Carter's painting in Davis's The Tomb of Iouiya and Touiyou (London, 1907) but are actually separate color-tinted photographs made into a composite.
Go to KV 46 Bibliography
KV 46 Image LinksSince originally publishing this page, a number of other good image resources that photographically document the objects from KV 46 have become available on Flickr. A Flickr member named "yacielcruz" provides an extensive series of beautiful color photos of the Yuya and Tuyu objects as they are exhibited in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo. You may view this photo stream by clicking here. Also, if you have a QuickTime player, Chris Couvee presents an interactive panorama of the second floor of The Egyptian Museum of Antiquities which features some of the objects from the Tomb of Yuya and Tuyu.
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