Writes of Passage

The British Museum
Great Russell St,
London WC1B 3DG, United Kingdom

Amenhotep III (Amun is satisfied) in the courtyeard was the ninth pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty, who was also known as Amenhotep the Magnificent or Amenhotep the Great and Hellenized as Amenophis III.

According to different authors following the “Low Chronology”, he ruled Ancient Egypt from June 1386 to 1349 BC, or from June 1388 BC to December 1351 BC/1350 BC, after his father Thutmose IV died. Amenhotep was Thutmose’s son by a minor wife, Mutemwiya.

^{EA 6}

Quartzite head of the Egyptian pharaoh Amenhotep III

Eighteenth Dynasty, about 1400 BC

This head and its companion piece (EA 7) exhibited on the other side of the doorway, come from a pair of colossal statues set up in the king’s mortuary temple in western Thebes. 埃及法老阿蒙霍特普三世的石英岩头像

第十八王朝，约公元前1400年

这尊头像及其配套头像（EA 7）陈列在门的另一侧，来自底比斯西部国王墓葬神庙中竖立的一对巨型雕像。

^EA7

Quartzite head of the Egyptian pharaoh Amenhotep III

Eighteenth Dynasty, about 1400 BC

This head of the king wearing the red crown of Lower Egypt is a companion piece to EA 6. The style is typical of sculpture of Amenhotep III, especially in the treatment of the eyes, and foreshadows the artistic mannerisms of the Armana Period at the end of the Eighteenth Dynasty.
埃及法老阿蒙霍特普三世的石英岩头像

第十八王朝，约公元前1400年

这尊头戴红色王冠的下埃及国王头像与第6王朝的头像为姊妹篇。其风格为典型的阿蒙霍特普三世雕塑风格，尤其体现在对眼部的处理上，预示了第十八王朝末期阿玛纳时期的艺术风格。

The British Museum
Great Russell St,
London WC1B 3DG, United Kingdom

This exhibit is in Room 63, The Roxie Walker Galleries Egyptian funerary archaeology explores the ancient Egyptians’ attitude to death and the afterlife, and the preparatios that ensured the successful transition of the deceased from earthy life to immortality.

Gilded rishi coffin of King Antef VI (r c 1571-1560s bc)

17th Dynasty, about 1600 BC From Western Thebes, Dra Abu el Naga

The king’s mummified body is covered with a feather design (rishi in Arabic), symbolising the protective wings of the funerary goddesses Isis and Nephthys. Both are named in spells inscribed down the middle and under the king’s feet.

The reign of Antef VI is relatively well documented, but his dynasty’s realm was confined to southern Egypt. The north was controlled by the Hyknos kings, descendants of Asiatic migrants.

安泰夫六世国王的镀金圣贤棺

第十七王朝,约公元前1600年,出自底比斯西部德拉阿布·埃尔纳加遗址

国王的木乃伊遗体上覆盖着羽毛图案(阿拉伯语中为“rishi”),象征着丧葬女神伊西斯和奈芙蒂斯的守护之翼. 两位女神的名字都刻在棺材中央和国王脚下的咒语中.

关于安泰夫六世统治时期的记载相对详尽,但他王朝的疆域仅限于埃及南部.北部则由亚洲移民后裔的许克诺斯国王统治.

The British Museum
Great Russell St,
London WC1B 3DG, United Kingdom

The Egyptian Wing and Sudan in The BM’s collection is enormous, spreading out in various rooms: #4, #61-#63. The Rosetta Stone is at Room 4. A replica is at Room 1 – the King’s Library.

There is alos the Ptahshepses false door, Ptah, King Antef VI & Amenhotep

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The Brits occupied Egypt since 1882, when Anglo-Egyptian War (1882 July-Sept) broke out. They remained there till 1956.

The Rosetta Stone was taken in 1802, when the Brits defeat Napoleon’s French forces in Egypt in 1801. At that time, Egypt was a province of the Ottoman Empire (1517-1805).

The British Museum
Great Russell St,
London WC1B 3DG, United Kingdom

A piece of Egypt in London.

A beautiful redish stela 石碑 at the Egyptian wing. The following is from the Museum and AI:

stela; architrave | Museum number EA682  | Description

Limestone false-door and architrave 额枋 of Ptahshepses: the architrave, which is carved in fine, detailed, sunk relief, contains five lines of text consisting of standard invocation-formulae to Osiris (奥西里斯 埃及神話中的冥王,九柱神之一) and Anubis (阿努比斯 god of afterlife).

The false door consists of the false door proper with two lines of text on each side containing the titles of Ptahshepses, flanked on both sides by panelled walls carrying the biographical inscription of Ptahshepses in which he describes his birth in the time of Mycerinus (c 2550-c 2503 bc), his marriage to Khamaat, a princess and daughter, probably, of Shepseskaf (a pharaoh who ruled in the fourth dynasty, 26th to mid 25th century bc), and his career under four further kings, continuing down, probably, to Nyuserre (king ??-c 2422 bc) of the Fifth Dynasty.

All the texts on the false door are carved in good sunk relief, very sharply cut. On each side of the door is a long panel bearing representations of food-offerings, carved in fine low relief. The architrave is complete and in good condition. The false door is generally in good condition apart from a few small places where the surface is rubbed. The false door was painted a mottled pink to simulate granite and most of this colour remains. The hieroglyphs 象形文字 were painted green. On the side panels many of the vessels and parts of other objects were painted red; traces of green remain on some of the vegetables and floral offerings. No other colour can now be discerned. There is no colour on the architrave.

 

AI:

Ptahshepses (high priest, 4th and 5th Dynasty of Egypt was an ancient Egyptian official at the end of the Fourth and the beginning of the Fifth Dynasty. His main title was that of a great one of the leaders of craftsmen, that in later periods is the main designation of the High Priest of Ptah.

The false door 石灰岩假门石碑 was excavated from the tomb of Ptahshepses in Saqqara, Memphis, and dates to the 5th Dynasty (around 2380 BC).

False doors were symbolic portals in ancient Egyptian tombs, believed to allow the spirit of the deceased to travel between the worlds of the living and the dead.

The door is painted to simulate granite and is carved with detailed hieroglyphs, including biographical inscriptions of Ptahshepses, who was a high official and son-in-law of King Niuserre.

The inscriptions describe his birth, marriage to a princess, and his career under several kings.