SCROLL OF HU-NEFER Tutankhamen’s mummy case (FIG.
3-34) shows the boy-king in the guise of Osiris, god of the dead and
king of the Underworld, as well as giver of eternal life. The ritual of
the cult of Osiris is recorded in the so-called Book of the Dead,a col-
lection of spells and prayers. Illustrated papyrus scrolls, some as long
as 70 feet, containing these texts were the essential equipment of the
tombs of well-to-do persons (see “Mummification and Immortal-
ity,” page 57).
The scroll (FIG. 3-36) of Hu-Nefer, the royal scribe and steward
of Seti I, was found in his tomb in the Theban necropolis and repre-
sents the final judgment of the deceased. At the left, Anubis, the
jackal-headed god of embalming, leads Hu-Nefer into the hall of
judgment. The god then adjusts the scales to weigh the dead man’s
heart against the feather of the goddess Maat, protectress of truth
and right. A hybrid crocodile-hippopotamus-lion monster, Ammit,
devourer of the sinful, awaits the decision of the scales. If the weigh-
ing had been unfavorable to the deceased, the monster would have
eaten his heart. The ibis-headed god Thoth records the proceedings.
Above, the gods of the Egyptian pantheon are arranged as witnesses,
while Hu-Nefer kneels in adoration before them. Having been justi-
fied by the scales, Hu-Nefer is brought by Osiris’s son, the falcon-
headed Horus, into the presence of the green-faced Osiris and his
sisters Isis and Nephthys to receive the award of eternal life.
In Hu-Nefer’s scroll, the figures have all the formality of stance,
shape, and attitude of traditional Egyptian art. Abstract figures and
hieroglyphs alike are aligned rigidly. Nothing here was painted in the
flexible, curvilinear style suggestive of movement that was evident in
the art of Amarna and Tutankhamen. The return to conservatism is
unmistakable.
First Millennium BCE
During the first millennium BCE, Egypt lost the commanding role it
once had played in the ancient Near East. The empire dwindled
away, and foreign powers invaded, occupied, and ruled the land,
until it was taken over by Alexander the Great of Macedon and his
Greek successors and, eventually, by the emperors of Rome.Kingdom of Kush
One of those foreign powers was Egypt’s gold-rich neighbor to the
south, the kingdom of Kush, part of which is in present-day Sudan.
Called Nubia by the Romans, perhaps from the Egyptian word for
“gold,” Kush is mentioned in Egyptian texts as early as the Old King-
dom. During the New Kingdom, the pharaohs colonized Nubia and
appointed a viceroy to administer the Kushite kingdom, which
included Abu Simbel (FIG. 3-22) and controlled the major trade
route between Egypt and sub-Saharan Africa. But in the eighth cen-
tury BCE, the Nubians conquered Egypt and ruled the land of the
Nile as the 25th Dynasty.
TAHARQO Around 680 BCE, the Kushite pharaoh Taharqo
(r. 690–664 BCE) constructed a temple at Kawa and placed a portrait
of himself in it. Emulating traditional Egyptian types, the sculptor
portrayed Taharqo as a sphinx (FIG. 3-37;compare FIG. 3-11) with
the ears, mane, and body of a lion but with a human face and a head-
dress with two uraeus cobras. The king’s name is inscribed on his
chest, and his features are distinctly African, although, as in all
pharaonic portraiture, they should be considered generic and ideal-
ized rather than a specific likeness.First Millenneum BCE 773-37Taharqo as a sphinx, from temple T, Kawa, Sudan, 25th Dynasty, ca. 680 bce. Granite, 1 4 2 43 – 4 . British Museum,
London.
Nubian kings ruled Egypt during the 25th Dynasty and adopted traditional Egyptian artistic types, but the sculptor of the
Taharqo sphinx reproduced the Kushite pharaoh’s distinctly African features.1 in.3-37A
Mentuemhet,
Karnak, ca.
660–650 BCE.