posted
Rekhyt translated means normal people. Some believe these represented the people of Lower Egypt that were graduall subdued by the Upper Egyptians under Scrpion. Others postulate these were simply foreginers in the Delta region that were assimilated into the soceity of ancient Kmt. What does everybody think about the Lapwings and Rekhyt.
Posts: 8675 | From: Tukuler al~Takruri as Ardo since OCT2014 | Registered: Feb 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
I remember seeing a video that illustrated a carving of a praying lapwing as a symbol of where the regular people were allowed to stand and pray (in Karnak Temple, as I recall).
Posts: 103 | Registered: Nov 2003
| IP: Logged |
posted
So you believe Rekhyt people represented just the regular people? what do you think the meaning of the picture of the lapwings and rekhyt on the narmer palette where many are hung by a noose?
Posts: 8675 | From: Tukuler al~Takruri as Ardo since OCT2014 | Registered: Feb 2003
| IP: Logged |
quote: Early in Egypt's history, the lapwing was a symbol of the people of Egypt under the king's rule. On the Scorpion Macehead (c. 3000 BC), the lapwing is a symbol of the rule of the Upper Egyptian king over the Lower Egyptian people. The bird was an obvious choice to represent the Lower Egyptian people due to its habit of wintering in the Delta. On a 3rd Dynasty statue of King Djoser, he is shown standing on the Nine Bows (the enemies of Egypt), and also on several lapwings. These lapwings are shown with their wings twisted so that they are helpless and unable to fly. In New Kingdom times, the bird's image was more positive. The image of the pinioned birds was transferred to the enemies of Egypt. However, it was still commonly a symbol of the people of Egypt. From the 18th Dynasty forward, the lapwing was often portrayed with human arms in the act of giving praise. The bird was often shown in this pose on a basket with a star. This image is a rebus of the statement, "All the people give praise."
Who was the legendary Menes, Narmer or Aha? Was it probably both and then some other kings as well?
In Kemetian, the words Men and Mene (written without a determinative) mean 'to continue, to be permanent;stable; fixed' and also administer or enforcer.
So was the 'mene' in the names Narmer-Mene(s) and Aha-Mene(s) merely a title rather than an individual king's name? It seems that way to me...
Kemetian attitudes toward the Delta people.
-They referred to them as Tahetu and Adhu (EWB) which means 'swamp dwellers'
-And their dialect as 'Moute n sa n adhu hn sa n Abu' or "the words of a Swamp man (speaking) with a man of Abu." I imagine that they didn't speak 'proper' Kemetian...
From Wikipedia: The word Rekhyt, also romanized as Rechit, referred to a people living in the northern Nile Delta in the Early Dynastic Period of Ancient Egypt, as well as the deity Rekhyt from the Middle Kingdom onwards. The Rekhyt people’s origins are unclear, as they were not yet considered Egyptians at the beginning of the 3rd millennium BC. Their settlement area extended to the border of Retjenu. Early inscriptions and monuments speak of the Rekhyt as mythological inhabitants of the Nile Delta, as all "northern enemies of Upper Egypt" were also among the "inhabitants of Qebehu".
After the collapse of the Old Kingdom and the associated upheaval and religious reorientation, the meaning of the term "Rekhyt" changed. At the beginning of the Middle Kingdom, the name "Rekhyt" was transferred to a new deity. The Rekhyt no longer appeared as a separate people; instead the Egyptians saw a connection with Horus in the earlier Rekhyt people, especially from the New Kingdom onwards. The popular name Rekhyt and its associated meaning was subject to change, and the word Rekhyt came to mean "the common people" as a generic term.
^ There is a lot of meat in the introductory paragraph alone. Strange how this is not discussed in Egyptology circles as much as Nehesy.
Posts: 26688 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
^ Nobody is biting this morsel of a thread?? The Rekhyti of the eastern Delta could very well be the missing link between Egypt and the southern Levant (Natufians?).
Posts: 26688 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
| IP: Logged |
quote:Originally posted by Djehuti: ^ Nobody is biting this morsel of a thread?? The Rekhyti of the eastern Delta could very well be the missing link between Egypt and the southern Levant (Natufians?).
IIRC, one of the predynastic Lower Egyptian cultures (Maadians, I think) had immigrants from Palestine settling among them, living in houses different from the natives. Maybe those are connected to the Rekhyti?
quote:At Maadi, the Predynastic remains cover nearly 18 ha., including the cemetery. In the first half of the twentieth century an area of about 40,000 sq. m, was excavated. The depth of archaeological deposits is almost 2 m., including heaps of refuse preserved in situ, the stratigraphy of which is complex. The excavated structures show that there were three types of settlement remains, one of which is unique in an Egyptian context, strongly reminiscent of the settlements at Beersheba in southern Palestine. It involves houses excavated from the living rock in the form of large ovals measuring 3 x 5 m. in area and up to 3 m. in depth, each of which was entered via an excavated passageway; the walls of one of these subterranean houses were faced with stone and dried Nile-silt mud bricks, but this is the only known instance of the use of mud brick at Maadi. The presence of hearths, half-buried jars, and domestic debris suggests that these were genuine permanent habitations. The other types of domestic structures at Maadi are already well attested elsewhere in Egypt: first, a form of oval hut accompanied by external hearths and half-buried storage jars, and, secondly, a rectangular style of house in which narrow foundation trenches are all that remain of walls that were presumably made from plant material.
posted
^ Yes, and while I don't doubt such immigrants, according to the Egyptians themselves the Rekhyti were natives of the eastern Delta whose territory reached into the Levant. These seemed to be identified with the prehistoric Egyptian culture of Ram at-Harif. Harifian Culture (8,800 — 8,000 B.C.E.)
The Harifians are viewed as migrating out of the Fayyum and the Eastern Deserts of Egypt during the late Mesolithic to merge with the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) culture, whose tool assemblage resembles that of the Harifian. This assimilation led to the Circum-Arabian Nomadic Pastoral Complex, a group of cultures that invented nomadic pastoralism, and may have been the original culture which spread Proto-Semitic languages throughout Mesopotamia. The Harifian is a specialized regional cultural development of the Epipalaeolithic of the Negev Desert. It corresponds to the latest stages of the Natufian culture. Like the Natufian, it is characterized by semi-subterranean houses. These are often more elaborate than those found at Natufian sites. For the first-time arrowheads are found among the stone tool kit. Andy Burns states “The Harifian dates to between approximately 10,800/10,500 years ago and 10,000/10,200 years ago. It is restricted to the Sinai and Negev, and is probably broadly contemporary with the Late Natufian or Pre-Pottery Neolithic A. Microlithic points are a characteristic feature of the industry, with the Harif point being both new and particularly diagnostic – Bar-Yosef (1998) suggests that it is an indication of improved hunting techniques. Lunates, isosceles and other triangular forms were backed with retouch, and some Helwan lunates are found. This industry contrasts with the Desert Natufian which did not have the roughly triangular points in its assemblage. There are two main groups within the Harifian. One group consists of ephemeral base camps in the north of Sinai and western Negev, where stone points comprise up to 88% of all microliths, accompanied by only a few lunates and triangles. The other group consists of base camps and smaller campsites in the Negev and features a greater number of lunates and triangles than points. These sites probably represent functional rather than chronological differences. The presence of Khiam points in some sites indicates that there was communication with other areas in the Levant at this time.” Harifian has close connections with the late Mesolithic cultures of Fayyum and the Eastern Deserts of Egypt, whose tool assemblage resembles that of the Harifian. Fusion with animal domestication elements of the Pre-Pottery Neolithic B (PPNB) culture is hypothesised by Juris Zarins, to have led to the Circum Arabian Nomadic Pastoral Complex, a group of cultures that invented nomadic pastoralism, and may have been the original culture which spread Proto-Semitic languages throughout the region.Posts: 26688 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
| IP: Logged |
posted
Recall Tukuler's thread Delta: Tjehenu or Romitu?, where I laid out the argument that the Delta folk or at least some of them, specifically the western parts of the Delta were directly related to the Tjehenu Libyans if not Tjehenu themselves.
The Rekhyti were thus another group that lived in the eastern Delta and were related to peoples in the Sinai and southern Levant.
We even see hints of this among some dynastic rulers of Delta origin like the Ramessides.
Remember P.K. Manansala's review of X-Ray Atlas of Royal Mummies: In summation, the New Kingdom Pharaohs and Queens whose mummies have been recovered bear strong similarity to either contemporary Nubians, as with the XVII and XVIII dynasties, or with Mesolithic-Holocene Nubians, as with the XVIV and XX dynasties. The former dynasties seem to have a strong southern affinity, while the latter possessed evidence of mixing with modern Mediterranean types and also, possibly, with remnants of the old Tasian and Natufian populations. From the few sample available from the XXI Dynasty, there may have been a new infusion from the south at this period.Posts: 26688 | From: Atlanta, Georgia, USA | Registered: Feb 2005
| IP: Logged |
UBBFriend: Email this page to someone!
Printer-friendly view of this topic