RAFAEL BARAGAÑO

Right Gilded Cartonnage Mask of Yuya – Spell 151B of the Book of the Dead describes the funerary mask as an indispensable element for the protection of the head of the deceased. It was placed immediately over the head of Yuya’s mummy. It shows him wearing a long wig.. The eyebrows and eyes are inlaid with blue glass. He wears an elaborate collar that extends beneath his wig. The exact portrayal of Yuya’s facial features achieved here made it possible for his soul to recognize him and return to his mummified body, thus ensuring his resurrection.

Left Gilded Cartonnage Mask of Thuya – This gilded plaster mask once covered the head of the mummy of Thuya, mother of Queen Tiye, Pharaoh Amunhetep III’s wife. Her wig consists of long striated hair passing behind the ears tied with a floral band. She wears a broad collar with several rows of inlays. This mask was discovered broken into two pieces, and was restored in 1982. At that time, the restorer partially removed the linen gauze originally glued to the mask, exposing the marvelous face of this lady with her exquisite smile, enlivened by eyes inlaid with blue glass and quartz with touches of red.

1st Gilded Gold. Bed of Thuya – This bed is of a traditional type. It is distinguished for the refinement and proficiency of its manufacture. Some parts of the bed are covered with thin sheets of gold. It is the largest and best preserved of all three beds discovered inside KV 46. Each of the front and back sides of the footboard is divided into three panels by means of two pairs of papyrus stems covered with thin sheets of gold. The figures of the three front panels of the footboard are carved in plaster and covered with sheets of gold. They show god Bes and goddess Taweret.

2nd Bronze Plates. Bed of Thuya – The front side of the footboard is divided into three panels by means of two pairs of papyrus stems covered with thin sheets of gold. Each pair has two papyrus stems facing each other and their buds form knob-like swellings in the center. Each panel is decorated with a figure of god Bes in plaster and covered with a sheet of silver.

3rd Black & White painted. Bed from the Tomb of Yuya and Thuya – New Kingdom, 18th dynasty, reign of Amenhotep III (1388-1350 BC) Thebes, Valley of the Kings, Painted wood. This bed was found with two other ones in the tomb of Yuya and Thuya, parents of Queen Tiye, the wife of King Amenhotep III. The wood’s painted black with geometric decoration in white mitating ivory inlays. The legs are in the form of lions’ feet. The mattress was plaited of linen strings, recently restored.

This bed consists of a wooden frame with a papyrus mat over it. A double cover of coarse cloth stitched down the side was stretched over it. A clay bed in the shape of the body of Osiris was placed on it and barley planted seeds were planted in the clay. When the plants had grown to a height of about 15 cm, a double cloth was laid over them and the whole was. wrapped with a series of strips of cloth. This bed is related to a religious ritual for the god Osiris, who represents resurrection and rebirth.

Two sets of dummy stone vases, each vase is completely solid, were found for the first time in the tomb of Yuya and Thuya, glued onto wooden bases painted with red, and the other painted black. Their symbolic role was reinforced by carving the first set lids of each one to represent an animal: the other set decorated their lids with rosettes in high relief. It seems that all these shapes are related to the afterlife principle. The frog and the ram are symbols of regeneration, and the two calves of the rebirth of the sun. This regeneration is achieved in the name of Yuya, which appears on every vase inside a golden yellow rectangle under the protection of the god of the dead, Osiris.

The Canopus Decree is part of a series of bilingual inscriptions inscribed in three scripts -hieroglyphs, demotic and Greek. The most famous is the Rosetta Stone, which provided the key to deciphering hieroglyphs in 1822. This Canopus Decree records a great assembly of priests held at Canopus on 7 March 238 BC in honor of Pharaoh Ptolemy III Euergetes, his wife Queen Berenice II, and their daughter Princess Berenice. It discusses topics such as military campaigns, famine relief, Egyptian religion, and governmental organization in Ptolemaic Egypt. It also mentions the king’s donations to the temples and his support for ancient cults, and states that the stela should be erected in all temples of first, second, and third rank. Ptolemaic, reign of Ptolemy III Euergetes I, 246-221 BC Kom el-Hisn, Limestone.

On September 27th, 1822, the French Egyptologist Jean-Francois Champollion made an official announcement that he had successfully decoded the ancient Egyptian language after ten years of tireless work. His breakthrough was confirmed in 1866 with the discovery of the “Decree of Canopus,” a lengthy bilingual inscription that validated Champollion’s entire system of decipherment. Champollion’s approach was based on his knowledge of Coptic, which he learned from an Egyptian priest named Yohanna Shaftchi, as well as the theory proposed by the German scholar Kircher, who believed that Coptic was an extension of the ancient Egyptian language. Deciphering hieroglyphs was not an easy task, and it took many attempts before Champollion finally succeeded. However, his success was preceded by several previous attempts, which were equally important. One of the earliest attempts was made in the 4th century by Apollo Nelliakos, who wrote a book called “Hieroglyphica”. In the 10th century, the Iraqi chemist and historian Ibn Wahshiya Nabati wrote a book entitled “Shouk al-Mustaham fi Mairfat Rummuz al-Aqlam”, which demonstrated his ability to distinguish between hieroglyphic symbols that had phonetic values and those that were known as “determinatives”. In the 13th century, the alchemist Abu al-Qasim al-Iraqi wrote a visually striking Arabic manuscript called “al-Aqalim al-Sab’ah” (Book of the Seven Climes). The manuscript includes both correct and fanciful phonetic values of hieroglyphs. Athanasius Kircher, a German Jesuit priest, contributed the right direction by presupposing that the hieroglyphs recorded an earlier stage of Coptic and had phonetic values. However, his interpretation of the hieroglyphs in his book “Oedipus Aegyptiacus” was extraordinary. Later, in 1806, Austrian scholar Joseph Hammer translated the work of Ibn Wahshiyya into English and published it in London. Baron Silvestre de Sacy, who was Champollion’s teacher, reprinted the work in 1810. Following the discovery of the Rosetta Stone, Thomas Young, an English physician and a former collaborator of Champollion, made a significant breakthrough in understanding Egyptian hieroglyphs. He found that the names of Kings were written inside cartouches and was able to read the name of King Ptolemy V inscribed on the Rosetta Stone in 1815. During his joint work with Champollion, they developed an initial alphabet consisting of 12 signs, which helped them to decipher the hieroglyphs.

Royal Annals of the Old Kingdom: Cairo Fragments (CF) of the Palermo Stone (PS), Museum. Material: Basalt, Provenance: Unknown (Memphite area?), Date: 5th Dynasty (c. 2350 BCE), The Cairo Fragments of the Palermo Stone are what remains of a large royal inscription (royal annals) engraved with the list of kings from late prehistory and the Early Dynastic Period (c. 3200 BCE) to the middle of the 5th Dynasty (c. 2350 BCE). Four fragments (CF 1-4) were purchased on the antiquity market between 1910 and 1912, whereas a fifth fragment (CF 5) was donated to the museum in 1963. Two more pieces of the original inscription are kept in Palermo (Italy) and London (United Kingdom) and are also without secure provenance. Together these fragments represent the oldest surviving royal annals from Egypt and form the primary written source for Old Kingdom history. The inscription not only records the names of Egypt’s kings during the time span indicated above, but also the main historical events which occurred in their respective reigns, according to year or, more commonly, according to “cattle counts”-an important event, of both economic and ideological significance, which took place every two years. The rulers preceding the period of the unification of Upper and Lower Egypt (the so-called “Predynastic Period”) are also depicted at the top of the list wearing different crowns according to their geographical affiliation. In most cases only the inscription on the “recto” of the fragments is legible (see reconstruction), whereas the “verso” is extremely damaged and thus difficult to read. The latest royal name that is attested on the inscription (verso of the PS) is that of Neferirkare, third king of the 5th Dynasty. Therefore, it is likely that the stone was commissioned by one of his successors.