See, all these other countries have a much stronger interest in the nitty gritty of these things than Americans do. We're busy doing sensible things. And when British do get into it, they bring with them their massive egos and arrogance and by their personalities change up all previous work even to how the subject is discussed.
For sandstone the object is still fairly clear although obliterated in places. The missing portions somewhat capable of being deduced once you get into the mind of the author. Like a crossword puzzle. It helps greatly knowing the mind of the constructor. It really does. Once you see their wily ways of misdirection, see their cute ways of lying then missing bits fall into place.
This stela lies all over the place, rather cutely.
So far as reporting goes, it's worse than our own wholly fake American news.
An example, by way of comparison. Today I woke up to news of the largest mass murder in America in Las Vegas. That's the story. The only story. The reporter is describing a statement by President Trump. She's correct in noting his presentation was straightforwardly presidential as Americans expect. But that's irrelevant to the story, what is he, pharaoh? She adds gratuitously because it's important to her and to her industry and her obvious party affiliation, "although he's often been criticized for this communication through his tweets" They don't like his tweets. They've criticized his tweets, and she's still criticizing his tweets, his form of communication, even now in her report about Las Vegas massacre where that criticism is irrelevant to her report. Her report is Party propaganda.
This story on this stela does the same thing. To the extent that it baffles Egyptologist as to the reason for it's production. It's too weird to be immediately useful. And these things are not cheap to make. It takes a lot of resources to make one.
It lies about its own date of production. The text suggests the action occurs during Ramses II reign. The language is fake archaic. It was actually produced during the Ptolemaic period. The language, its syntax give clues. It tells a fiction based on earlier writings with a few actual facts mixed into it while no other record exists in any of the literature of the two cultures involved.
Pre-Ptolemy statues of gods really were exchanged between courts and Ramses II really did marry a Hittite princess, and there really was a royal scribe named Tutenhab under Ramses II. Those few things are true while everything else about it is false. The language is fake.
I don't know why Egyptologists don't stick with place names as printed, actually chiseled in stone, but they give later Greek names for them that are themselves now extinct. Egyptians wrote Waset, Egyptologist write Thebes. The ruins exist within the modern city of Luxor. I'd rather Egyptologists, German, French, Italian, British, stick with Waset, the city that's gone, but still there, because that's what the hieroglyphs say.
There are translating liberties all over the place.
One of the Egyptian classes I'm following translated a few lines from this stela. The line "now, bring me a learned man and excellent scribe from among you" The hieroglyph for "scribe" is a scribe's palette and brushes. It sticks out among other glyphs for its clarity, and it is used elsewhere on this stela but not here. The class gets it right, it actually reads, "excellent fingers."
It's tricky to read since so many little bits are missing here and there and the inconsistencies throughout, sometimes an 'M" is an owl while other times "M" is a smashed sideways "U" shape, Sometimes "W" is a chick while other times it's a swirled curly-cue. All the switches are legitimate but you have to be facile to read it, and usually carvings in stone are consistent.
The story is about their god Konsu and his two aspects. Actually two separate gold statues. At one point the two statues are placed to face each other and one of them strongly nods. Then the second one strongly nods. The two gods are discussing the matter about which one of them should go, and, man, do these ancient priests have wild imaginations. Their entire lives are wrapped up in the efficacy of these golden statues, they feed and dress them and wash them everyday, they build entire temples to house them, they attribute the most incredible powers to them, they most likely actually do see them nod to each other in their minds. We speak of the god Konsu while Egyptians did not write the name with "K," instead they wrote a type of H sound that starts deep in the throat. They could write a K if they wanted but they didn't, they wrote that other phoneme that English doesn't have, so we could just as easily and more accurately more clearly write the name Honsu, a voiced glottal fricative.
The place name Bakhtan is problematic and the chief reason the stela is dated well after its purported date. Egyptologists banged their heads on this one and at great length decided the place is Bactria. The spelling on the stela mixes real hieroglyphs even more ancient than Ptolemy, with relatively modern hieratics, this for Hittite princess. This was their first clue the whole thing is bogus.
It's propaganda, and what a lot of effort just to harken back to false glory of a previous age. Somehow this made sense to someone in ptolemaic period. The Greeks are in charge after Alexander and they did this to glorify a previous age that was quite good at glorifying itself with its own state propaganda. Even more outrageously than our absurd newscaster does this morning. Hers is subtle compared to theirs. Hers is airwaves going in and out of your ears, theirs was chiseled in stone and carved monumentally. Hers endures for a president's term, theirs endures thousands of years and is still read, still a matter of interest.
My favorite parts are the numbers. They give solid footholds of phrases to peg. The Egyptians carved "Sh-m-w" Shomu, low water, and interpreters write "Season of Harvest." The Egyptians write "prt" Peret, emergence, and the interpreters write, "Season of Growing." While the years and the days are actual numbers and they stick out clear as day. They veritably ring. They write "Drives away the nine bows" and they show two bows for arrows, and nine marks. It means Egyptian traditional enemies although over time the nine enemies never held steady. Eventually it means simply numerous enemies, and it's an epithet for a king, and written, the phrase is very easy to spot because of the nine marks and the two bows.
Ramses is named by his prenomen, Usermaatre Setepenre, and not by his nomen, Ramesses meryamun. Both very easy to spot. Each king had five names, and a whole list of epithets. That's one way to tell who's coffin was used to bury someone else, when the name is scratched out and replaced Or as with Akhenaten, the epithets describe him precisely. They weren't trying to fool us, they were just getting get rid of a name they despised. The epithets, eh, who cares? (Why did they despise him? He wrecked their whole priestly world.)
Here's the story on the stela.
The king goes on a trip to the Hittite court and during his visit they bring out a princess who's sick and none of their doctors can heal her. This has dragged on for months. The girl is out of her mind.
You just have to picture it, it's none of the visiting king's business. The Hittites are admitting their medicine is inferior to Egyptian magic. That's what this stela is bragging about.
The king sends for a physician, not just an ordinary scholar, one who can write very well.
The physician realizes he cannot heal the woman. She's out of her mind! This is going to take a god.
Clever. He knows when things are beyond his ability. He's not going down for this. He doesn't want responsibility for this. Pass it off to someone higher. Pass it off to the priests and their inanimate gold fetish.
They go to the priests of Konsu. They decide they need the other Konsu to go.
They lend the golden Konsu god to the Hittite court. It works. The princess is healed, the demon talked into leaving buttered up by a big party and great conversation.
But the gold statue was not returned. It's kept by the Hittite court. They like that big gold thing sitting in their palace. It works wonders. And it's nice. And it's priceless.
Then finally the prince has a dream of this god growing wings and flying back to Egypt and the dream freaks him out so badly he returns the gold statue immediately to get rid of it.
That's how awesome the gods of Ancient Egypt were, you best believe. They were not to be trifled with. This is the Egypt we know.
The following file was too big by dimensions to put on the front. That's how awesome this ancient propaganda stela is.
1 comment:
It's gorgeous, the writing is so delicate looking.
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