posted
Human sacrifice appears to have been a feature of very early dynastic Egypt, with the servants and retainers of kings being killed in order to be buried with their master (such burials have been found at Abydos). The later use of Ushabti figures contains a memory of this barbaric older practice.
E. A Wallis-Budge, in the first chapter of 'The Dwellers on the Nile' wrote that at the death of a great man several women would be killed in order to attend to his needs in the afterlife. He gave an example Amenhotep II, as several female bodies were discovered in his tomb (kv35) supposedly at the foot of his sarcophagus. I think this may be wrong, especially if said female mummies were the ones which are still in that tomb. These have been identified as other members of the dynasty (including Thtankhamun's mother) whose bodies appear to have been brough from elsewhere.
I suspect that Budge was familiar with the Hindu custom of widow-killing (Suti), which was only recently been suppressed by the British in India, and projected this back onto ancient Egypt. That said Budge goes on to say that the the practice of tomb-sacrifice was replaced by the inclusion of a female statue in the tombs of male deceased, to act as brides in the afterlife. This seems to preherald the Islamic belief in houris.
There is a widespread myth among modern Egyptians that there used to be a custom in ancient Egypt of offering a virgin maiden as a sacrifice to the river (the so-called Bride of the Nile) to ensure the annual flooding thereof. The Muslims say that it endured until the time of the Caliph Omar, who put a stop to it. There is no evidence from ancient Egypt of such a murderous custom. It is first recorded by Plutarch, a first century Greco-Roman writer. It seems he made it up. The Coptic Egyptians may actually have started re-enacting the invented tradition, holding 'Bride of the Nile' festivals using a clay figure as a substitute for the 'bride'. If so this was probably done for the sake of Roman tourists, for as mentioned there is no evidence of making human sacrifices to the river in the past. (Even if it were so, it's unthinkable that actual human sacrifice would have persisted in Christianized Egypt up to the Islamic conquest in the 600s AD.)
Another form of human sacrifice in Ancient Egypt may have been the ritualized killing of prisoners of war. All the temples were adorned with images of the pharaohs smiting captives from their campaigns in Syria, Nubia and Libya, and some think that such scenes were actually enacted.
The Romans (who somewhat hypocritically condemned the human sacrifices performed by other cultures) also used to ritually execute captive enemies at the culmination of their triumphal precessions. Cleopatra's sister Arsinoe was lucky to escape this fate after being paraded in Caesar's triumph (celebrating his victory over both the Gauls and the Alexandrian rebels). The Celtic chieftain Vercingetorix won no such reprieve.
Posts: 870 | From: uk | Registered: Apr 2011
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posted
I always thought that the "Smiting" the Enemies was a ritualistic custom believed by the Egyptians to keep their enemies in line. Similar to Vodoo. The Egyptians also believed that trampling images of their enemies would keep them subjugated.
I don't think their is evidence of large scale Human sacrifice. I mean would that not go against the laws of Maat??
Posts: 8804 | From: The fear of his majesty had entered their hearts, they were powerless | Registered: Nov 2007
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Or similar to intimidation or plain ol' going through with things. What would they're street cred be had they not?
But I've got a question.
Where wasn't their sacrifice by the onset of their civilization? I know everyone on every square inch of the earth may not have been sacrificing, but many were. Sacrifice may seem like something remote and exotic (not in an attractive way) today, but back then cases of it were wide spread.
posted
This topic was discussed several times before (can't find it though not even with the google search method).
I believe the whole virgin maiden drowned in the Nile is a myth if not a foreign ritual since there is no such evidence of it in pharaonic Egypt. The Egyptians did however ritually sacrifice prisoners of war to the gods, and servants were once ritually sacrificed to serve the dead pharaoh in the afterlife in predynastic to Archaic Kingdom times, though this was later changed to wooden ushabti figures in the place of actual people.
In the case of the former-- sacrifice of prisoners. The earliest evidence we have for this is non other than the Narmer Palette.
What is interesting is that the exact ritual shown on the palette was practiced in other African societies such as those in West Africa as pointed out by Diop in his Origins of African Civilization. The African king has given his sandals to his servant behind him, going barefoot to mark the site of the sacrifice as sacred ground. The mace was long noted by Egyptologists as the sacrificial weapon. The African king's servant also holds a kettle of water used for ablutions to purify the king after the act. above the smiting/sacrifice seen are totems. The hawk representing Narmer and his people as it stands on top of a segment of land with reeds and a man's head representing the Delta.
As for the latter ritual of sacrificing servants to serve the dead kings. This was also practiced in other parts of Africa as well as other cultures in the world. Here is one source for this:
There were more on this posted before but I can't find them.
The ritual of sacrificing retainers was also found in Nubia especially the Kushite Kerma kingdom where retainers were buried alive in the tumuli of the dead kings.
A recent handout picture shows the Freninitial excavations of a Neolithic tomb containing a 5,500-year-old man, believed to have been an important leader at the time of death, in El Kadada. French archaeologists in Sudan say they have uncovered the oldest proof of human sacrifice in Africa, hailing the discovery as the biggest Neolithic find on the continent for years.Posts: 26239 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
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quote:Originally posted by -Just Call Me Jari-: I always thought that the "Smiting" the Enemies was a ritualistic custom believed by the Egyptians to keep their enemies in line. Similar to Vodoo. The Egyptians also believed that trampling images of their enemies would keep them subjugated.
I don't think their is evidence of large scale Human sacrifice. I mean would that not go against the laws of Maat??
Ma'at was an ideal of justice, not necessarily peace. Egyptian religion seems to have had a warlike component. Ma'at apparently included the paraohnic duty of waging wars against the enemies of the land. Symbolically demonstrating the paraoh's might (as a semi-divinity) and Egypt's superiority over foreigners seems to have been quite in keeping with the religion, hence all the military events recorded on temple walls in glowing terms. The enemies of the country were, I suspect, seen as the enemies of the gods (even if they worshipped the same gods, as was sometimes the case).
It would be nice to think the pharaohs didn't literally bludgeon prisoners of war (such prisoners would be more useful alive, presumably so maybe only an unlucky few were chosen for this fate).
Posts: 870 | From: uk | Registered: Apr 2011
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quote:Originally posted by Whatbox: Or similar to intimidation or plain ol' going through with things. What would they're street cred be had they not?
But I've got a question.
Where wasn't their sacrifice by the onset of their civilization? I know everyone on every square inch of the earth may not have been sacrificing, but many were. Sacrifice may seem like something remote and exotic (not in an attractive way) today, but back then cases of it were wide spread.
Indeed, if the Egyptians had had nothing to do with human sacrifice they would have been exceptional. All their neighbours had at least traditions concerning it, be it the Caananites, Jews (Jephthah's daughter)... The Carthaginias also seem to have sacrificed their own children. Not sure about the ancient Libyans.
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posted
The Nubian temples also show queens involved in executing enemies. I'm not entiely sure who the enemies are in these cases, (they look like Asiatics). Only on a few occasions were queens thus depicted in Egypt. One such was Nefertiti,who was shown smiting a female captive.
Not all sweetness and light, then!
Here is a Nubian version, I think from Meroe:
Divergences from Egyptian precedent may be observed. The queen appears to have a sword rather than a mace. The king on the other side seems to still be wearing his sandals.
Posts: 870 | From: uk | Registered: Apr 2011
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posted
^ Rahotep is correct. Maat as the concept of order and peace meant preserving such through war and keeping enemies in check. One must at times implement violence to keep the peace. I do believe Whatbox is correct that some of the imagery does serve as ritual imitative magic, wherein what is depicted comes to life i.e. any and all enemies of Egypt will be smitten.
Posts: 26239 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
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posted
Be careful with calling something "Human Sacrifice". Europeans have a very bad habit of applying savage European thinking to African customs which generally have NOTHING to do with what these Eurocentric savages claim it did.
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