ANCIENT
EGYPT
The History, People and Culture of the Nile Valley
The History, People and Culture of the Nile Valley |
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The Head-dress of the Mummy of Rai by Marianne Luban When G. Elliot Smith, the anatomist who wrote The Royal Mummies, unwrapped the body of a woman from the Deir el-Bahri cache, a certain M. Daressy told him that an inscription on the bandages revealed the name "Rai". Smith concluded that this was then the woman who had once owned the coffin in which the remains of Queen Inhapi were found, and who had been the nurse of another queen, Ahmose-Nefertari, wife of Ahmose I.Prof. Smith praised the appearance of the petite lady, writing "The mummy of Rai is the most perfect example of embalming that has come down to us from the time of the early Eighteenth Dynasty, or perhaps even of any period." He also ascertained that the mummy was quite young, as her teeth showed little evidence of wear. All things considered, the anatomist thought that the lady, with her elegant features and form, was "the least unlovely of all the mummies of women that had been spared." As it happened, this particular mummy was discovered lying within a coffin of the Twentieth Dynasty belonging to a "Pa-Hery-Pet", a man.
A view of the head and upper body of the well-preserved mummy of Rai. The finely-braided hair is well preserved and was originally carefully wrapped in linen, some of which was left in place after the unwrapping. Note the indentations on the skin of the forehead of the mummy. However, Smith did not remark upon the deep impression left on the forehead of the woman by what must have been quite a solid and rather heavy object. The indentation appears to have been made by some type of head-dress that had been fitted over the mummy’s large hairstyle at the time of mummification and which had gone askew during the bandaging. The shape of the impression is shown here. Some of the Royal mummies have impressions on their heads caused by bandaging, but in this case there would be little reason to believe that these are bandaging marks, for the bandaging at this time was relatively simple, not like the elaborate geometric patterns seen in Late Period mummies. There are many impressions of lost jewelry on mummies, both royal and non-royal, and even of clothing – such as in the case of Amenhotep II, who has the impressions on his back made by a belt of a "wavy" design that lasted for centuries. (We have some surviving examples of these belts.) To describe the type of head-dress I have in mind, which may have caused such marks, I refer to an interesting mask of that period which had presumably once covered the head and upper torso of the mummy of Sat-Djehuty (now in the collection of the British Museum in London). Gay Robins wrote in The Art of Ancient Egypt that Sat- Djehuty’s tomb had contained linen marked with the name of Ahmose- Nefertari, and remarked upon the mask that its "superb manufacture and extensive gilding suggest a high status for its owner." Robins concluded that Sat- Djehuty may have been a servant of Queen Ahmose Nefertari.Gazing at this beautiful mask, one might imagine that its head ornament must have been patterned after that of a queen of Egypt, the Mut or "vulture" head-dress we see on the heads of certain royal women in the art, even prior to the New Kingdom. However, the headdress of Sat-Djehuty has no uraeus attached to it and apparently never did. What it does have, on close inspection, is centre seams that conform to the impression that is seen on Rai’s brow. The elaborate, braided hairstyle of Rai also resembles the wide hairdo of the mask of Sat-Djehuty. The mask’s hairdo is very possibly a stylized version of those "small plaits, which were then clumped together to form two large club-shaped masses, each 0 m. 28 cent. long and 0 m. 55 mill. in diameter, hanging down in front of the shoulders to the chest. The upper plaits are twice the thickness of those in the lower part of the mass …" (Smith).Judging from the photo of Rai, it is rather difficult to imagine fitting anything over this wide arrangement of braids, but the mask of Sat-Djehuty suggests that the head-dress may have been a pliant one of golden elements fitted together so that one could drape them over the flat crown of the hairstyle but also the protruding clumps of plaited hair – rather like flexible armor. How the head-dress was made to stay in place is a puzzle, but the mark left on the forehead of the mummy of Rai seems to suggest that it actually existed, as painted upon the mask, and was quite weighty besides. It also would have been pressed against the forehead of the mummy by the enveloping bandages.
The splendid gilded and painted mummy mask of Sat-Djehuty, acquired by the British Museum in 1880, just before the "official" discovery of the Royal Mummies at Deir el-Bahri in 1881. The joins in the plates of the head-dress would not have been too obvious on the outer, visible, part of the head-dress, but may have been more prominent underneath, where no one could see how the joining was done. It is those hidden joins that made the impression on the brow of Rai. This would have been a heavy and probably uncomfortable head-dress, probably not intended for everyday wear, but just for special occasions and ceremonies – like any crown – and probably worn for relatively short periods. For the deceased owner this is not a problem as comfort is not an issue. An impression of a different and more complex pattern can be seen across the brow of Queen Inhapi. But Inhapi was the wife of a king, (Seqenenre Tao II) upon whose head a heavy golden crown would not be unexpected. But who were Rai and Sat-Djehuty that they should have been mummified with such a costly (and queenly-appearing) ornament on their braided heads? And why would one of them have been included in the Deir el-Bahri mummy cache in the company of many of the most well known and powerful pharaohs and queens of Egypt? These two ladies must have been very special and favoured servants indeed. Marianne Luban Marianne Luban is a lifelong student of ancient Egypt, living in the United States. For many years she has taken a special interest in the royal mummies. She is the author of the recent work The Exodus Chronicles: Beliefs, Legends & Rumors from Antiquity Regarding the Exodus of the Jews from Egypt (Encino, 2003).Photos from Elliot Smith: The Royal Mummies. Back to Ancient Egypt Magazine - Volume Five Issue Three contents
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