Hatshepsut's Mummy Identified

This is somewhat old news, but since I mentioned the topic on March 26, I may as well explain why some claim that Hatshepsut's mummy has been identified.

Over a century ago, two female mummies were found in a tomb in the Valley of the Kings (KV 60), near the tomb of Hatshepsut. One of the women was in a coffin with an inscription that identified her as Hatshepsut's nurse. The other female had no coffin and could not be identified.

This second mummy had its left arm laid over her chest in a pose associated with 18th Dynasty royal women. The mummy was removed from the tomb in 2005 and was CT scanned in 2006 - 2007. The unidentified mummy was found to have a missing tooth, but part of the tooth's root was left in the mummy's jaw.

A wooden box inscribed with Hatshepsut's name was found in the Dier el-Bahri cache in 1881. This box contained what was believed to be her mummified liver. When the liver was CT scanned it was discovered that the box also contained the tooth that was missing from the unidentified female mummy.

This has led many to state that the unidentified female is Hatshepsut. This is not certain; all we can say is that the liver and tooth came from the body of the unidentified women in KV60. One must admit however, that if this mummy is not Hatshepsut then there are an awful lot of unexplained coincidences associated with this corpse. For instance, it is undoubtably an 18th Dynasty royal woman who was found buried next to Hatshepsut's nurse. additionally, the liver and tooth were found in a box inscribed with Hatshepsut's name.

While it is not absolutely certain that the unidentified mummy in KV60 is that of Hatshepsut, the available evidence sure does point to that conclusion.

If you are interested in some pictures of KV60 and the mummy of Hatshepsut, follow this link to Donald Ryan's website and then scroll down to the "Illustrations" section of the page.

Babylonia in the News

During the course of surfing the web, I have come across some stories about Babylonia in the press that I have not seen before, even though some of the stories are not all that recent. I thought I might provide links to the stories in case anyone else might find them intersting. So here goes:

1) Commentary on the recent Babylonia exhibit at the British Museum.
2) Another article on the same topic.
3) Another article in the London Times discusses ancient astronomy, including a Babylonian document that records sightings of Venus.
4) A stela from the reign of Nabonidus.

Hatsepsut's Perfume to be Re-Created

A team from Bonn University has extracted what is believed to be the residue of perfume from a metal jar belonging to Queen Hatshepsut of Egypt's 18th Dynasty. They are currently trying to identify and "re-create" the perfume.

The article also goes on to state that Hatshepsut's mummy was positively identified in 2007, but my understanding is that the identification is not so posititve.

Here is a link to the story.

Adoption Contract Penalty Clauses

Adoption contracts frequently, but not always, have a penalty clause in them. Penalties may be set for breaking the terms of the contract by either the adopter(s) or the adoptee(s).

The penalties range from being sold into slavery to losing one’s inheritance. Sometimes a payment of some sort would need to be made for violating the terms of the contract. For instance, an adoption contract from Nippur concerns the adoption of three males (Ilum-gamil, Mar-ersetim and Ilsu-bani) by a man named Damiq-ilisu. If any of the three adoptees say “you are not our father” they will be shaved, marked as a slave and sold (see Stone and Owen, “Adoption in Old Babylonian Nippur in the Archive of Mannum-mesu-lissur”, p. 45).

Another contract from the same source (translated again by Stone and Owen, p.46) provides once again for the adoptees to be sold into slavery for repudiating their adopted parents. The parents will forfeit their house and field and pay an additional one mina of silver for violating the terms of the contract.

Why did the Babylonians Adopt?

Typically today people adopt to have additional children to love and raise.

In Babylonia many couples no doubt adopted for the same reason. Some couples want children to fulfill emotional needs, possibly because they can not have more children or may even not be able to have any children. Also, in a second marriage, one or both partners might adopt the child of their new spouse as a way of making one family out of two.

A family might take in children from neighbors or related families if those families could no longer care for the child or if the child had been orphaned. This would serve societies need to make sure that children have a proper family to grow up in.

Another reason to adopt would be to have children to support you in your old age. In ancient Mesopotamia there were no government programs to care for senior citizens; children were expected to care for aged parents. In return, the adoptees would inherit property from the adopting parent(s).

Some adoptions are done by Naditu women. These women were not permitted to marry, so they needed to adopt children to care for them in their old age.

All of this is fairly straight forward and logical, possibly even obvious. Elizabeth Stone and David Owen in their book “Adoption in Old Babylonian Nippur in the Archive of Mannum-mesu-lissur” (see my review of the book) pointed out that there is another, not so obvious, reason to adopt. It seems that the owner of land in Babylonia could not freely sell land. Instead they must keep it within their “family”. If they wanted to sell land to someone who was not a member of their family, they needed to “adopt” that person.

Over the next few posts, I will take a look at some adoption contracts and see how they fit into these categories and what other information they provide to us.

Egypt Wants Stolen Coffin Back

The Egyptian government claims that a coffin comfiscated by United States customs belongs to a 21st Dynasty Pharaoh. Apparently the coffin was being smuggled from Spain to the United States when U. S. Customs officals siezed it.

Here is a link to the story:

http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,510070,00.html

Bent Pyramid to be Opened to Tourists

Zahi Hawass, the head of the Egyptian antiquities service, has announced plans to open the “Bent” pyramid at Dashur to tourists for the first time. The neighboring “Red” pyramid is already open to tourists.

The “Bent” pyramid was probably built by the Pharaoh Sneferu, the father of Khufu (who built the Great Pyramid at Giza).

Dr. Hawass was quoted as saying that archaeologists believe that Sneferu’s burial chamber still lies undiscovered in the “Bent” pyramid, but this is news to me. I am not aware of any archaeologists who have made this claim. I will check into the published material and see if this claim has ever been made before.