Jacobus Van Dijk

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Jacobus Van Dijk (born 1953) is a Dutch Egyptologist, epigrapher, and philologist of the ancient Egyptian language, who was an Associate Professor of Egyptology at the University of Groningen, The Netherlands. When the university of Groningen decided to discontinue the subject, Professor Van Dijik took early retirement and is now a Professor Emeritus of Egyptology from this University in the Netherlands. [1] Following a brief period at Leiden University, he now works as an independent scholar. Van Dijk studied Egyptology in Groningen with Prof. Herman te Velde, with subsidiary courses in Semitic Languages (especially Ugaritic) and History of Religions, and also followed courses in Ptolemaic and Demotic at Leiden University. He graduated with a BA degree in 1975, followed by an MA with a thesis on The Canaanite god Hauron and his cult in Egypt (1978). In 1993, he gained his PhD with The New Kingdom Necropolis of Memphis: Historical and Iconographical Studies. His research mainly focuses on the history and culture of the late 18th and early 19th Dynasties, but he also wrote on the temple of the goddess Mut and on human sacrifice in Ancient Egypt. [2] [3]

Contents

Career

Van Dijk excavated in several sites in Egypt, working as epigrapher/philologist with the joint expedition of the Egypt Exploration Society, London and the National Museum of Antiquities, Leiden to The New Kingdom Necropolis at Saqqara directed by Geoffrey Martin, which excavated, among others, the Memphite tombs of Horemheb, Maya, and Tia (1981–2003). In 1986, he also joined the Brooklyn Museum Expedition to the Precinct of Mut at South Karnak directed by Richard Fazzini, with which he is still working today.

In 1986, Geoffrey Thorndike Martin the field director of a combined British and Dutch eight person archaeological team that included Jacobus Van Dijk rediscovered the tomb of Maya, Tutankhamun's treasurer, after a 10-year search at Saqqara. [4] [5] Maya's tomb at Saqqara had been partly discovered in the 19th century and the statues of Maya and his wife Merit were removed from the tomb and acquired by the Rijksmuseum van Oudheden in Leiden in 1826. Karl Richard Lepsius later re-excavated Maya's tomb in 1843 and its impressive reliefs were recorded in line drawings and taken to Berlin. [6] Over time, the tomb was covered by sand, and its location had been lost. [7]

In 2001, the New York Times reported that "a limestone relief depicting the head of an Egyptian goddess and dating to the 13th century B.C. was returned to the Egyptian government yesterday by the Metropolitan Museum of Art from New York due to the intervention of Jacobus Van Dijk:

"who recognized it as a piece from the chapel of Seti I, at the ancient pharaonic capital of Memphis. Upon returning home, he confirmed his hunch by checking a French publication where the same goddess's head was featured in a photograph of the Seti I chapel, taken around 1948, the year the site was discovered by archaeologists." [8] [9]

Between 2006 and 2009, Van Dijk and Geoffrey Martin joined forces again in a project to re-excavate the royal tomb of pharaoh Horemheb in the Valley of the Kings (KV57), which produced new evidence on the length of Horemheb’s reign, a hotly debated issue in Egyptian chronology. During the 2006–2008 excavation seasons, they found 168 wine dockets in the tomb which showed that Horemheb, who was the last Dynasty 18 king and assumed the throne within 3 or 4 years after Tutankhamun's death, ruled not more than 14 or 15 years rather than the 27 or 28 years traditionally assigned to him since none of the wine dockets bore a date higher than Year 14 of Horemheb's reign. [10]

In 2011, Jacobus Van Dijk established that Seti I's highest date was not the Year 11 stela date from the Great Temple of Amun, Gebel Barkal in Nubia. He demonstrated that the date should rather be read as Year 3 of Seti I. [11] Van Dijk argued that Seti I's reign was 8 or a maximum of 9 years. In his 2009 paper "The Death of Meketaten", Van Dijk contributed an article regarding the death of Akhenaten's daughter, Meketaten, in honor of the late William J. Murnane in a book which was published by Brill Publishers. [12] Van Dijk wrote in his article's conclusion "....that the scene in Room alpha in the royal tomb at Amarna showing a nurse carrying a newborn baby out of the chamber in which princess Meketaten has just died is a symbolic representation of her death and rebirth and that neither this scene nor its parallel in Room gamma have anything to do with the actual birth of a royal child, let alone that of Tutankhaten [i.e. Tutankhamun]”, as has often been suggested. [13]

Publications

A full bibliography (with PDF) of his publications can be found either on this article's talkpage or on Van Dijk's Homepage website. [14] Dr Julia Harvey (1962–2019), Van Dijk's wife, was also an Egyptologist. [15]

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Akhenaten</span> 18th Dynasty Egyptian pharaoh

Akhenaten, also spelled Akhenaton or Echnaton, was an ancient Egyptian pharaoh reigning c. 1353–1336 or 1351–1334 BC, the tenth ruler of the Eighteenth Dynasty. Before the fifth year of his reign, he was known as Amenhotep IV.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Nefertiti</span> Wife of the Egyptian pharaoh Akhenaten

Nefertiti was a queen of the 18th Dynasty of Ancient Egypt, the great royal wife of Pharaoh Akhenaten. Nefertiti and her husband were known for their radical overhaul of state religious policy, in which they promoted the earliest known form of monotheism, Atenism, centered on the sun disc and its direct connection to the royal household. With her husband, she reigned at what was arguably the wealthiest period of ancient Egyptian history. After her husband's death, some scholars believe that Nefertiti ruled briefly as the female king known by the throne name, Neferneferuaten and before the ascension of Tutankhamun, although this identification is a matter of ongoing debate. If Nefertiti did rule as Pharaoh, her reign was marked by the fall of Amarna and relocation of the capital back to the traditional city of Thebes.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Memphis, Egypt</span> Ancient capital of Inebu-hedj, Egypt

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Seti I</span> Egyptian pharaoh

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Kiya</span> Queen consort of Egypt

Kiya was one of the wives of the Egyptian Pharaoh Akhenaten. Little is known about her, and her actions and roles are poorly documented in the historical record, in contrast to those of Akhenaten's ‘Great royal wife’, Nefertiti. Her unusual name suggests that she may originally have been a Mitanni princess. Surviving evidence demonstrates that Kiya was an important figure at Akhenaten's court during the middle years of his reign, when she had a daughter with him. She disappears from history a few years before her royal husband's death. In previous years, she was thought to be mother of Tutankhamun, but recent DNA evidence suggests this is unlikely.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Horemheb</span> Final Pharaoh of the 18th dynasty of Egypt

Horemheb, also spelled Horemhab or Haremhab, was the last pharaoh of the 18th Dynasty of Egypt. He ruled for at least 14 years between 1319 BC and 1292 BC. He had no relation to the preceding royal family other than by marriage to Mutnedjmet, who is thought to have been the daughter of his predecessor, Ay; he is believed to have been of common birth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tey</span> Egyptian queen and Great Royal Wife of Pharaoh Kheperkheprure Ay

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Maya (treasurer)</span> Treasurer

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Boyo Ockinga is an Egyptologist, epigrapher, and philologist of the ancient Egyptian language, who holds the position of Associate Professor in the Department of Ancient History at Macquarie University in Sydney, Australia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Mutnedjmet</span> Queen consort of Egypt

Mutnedjmet, also spelled Mutnodjmet, Mutnedjemet, etc., was an ancient Egyptian queen, the Great Royal Wife of Horemheb, the last ruler of the 18th Dynasty. The name, Mutnedjmet, translates as: "The sweet Mut" or "Mut is sweet." She was the second wife of Horemheb after Amenia who died before Horemheb became pharaoh.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Amenia (wife of Horemheb)</span>

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Neferneferuaten Tasherit</span> Kings Daughter

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tia (princess)</span> Kings Daughter

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Tomb of Horemheb in Saqqara</span>

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Paser I was the Viceroy of Kush during the reigns of Ay and likely Horemheb. Reisner mentions that the only datable inscriptions for Paser belong to the reign of Ay. The next known Viceroy however is Amenemopet, who is dated to the reign of Seti I. Hence it's possible that Paser I served during the reigns of Ay, Horemheb.

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<span class="mw-page-title-main">Statue of Horemheb and Amenia</span> Double statue of the Pharaoh Horemheb and his wife Amenia

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Meryneith, also named Meryre, was an ancient Egyptian official who lived in the Amarna Period, around 1350 BC. He is mainly known from his tomb found in 2001 at Saqqara. He is perhaps identical with the high priest of Aten Meryre, who is known from his tomb at Amarna.

References

  1. ↑ Academia
  2. ↑ Retainer Sacrifice in Egypt and Nubia", in: Jan N. Bremmer (ed.), The Strange World of Human Sacrifice. Studies in the History and Anthropology of Religion, 1 (Leuven, 2007), 135–155. PDF
  3. ↑ J. Van Dijk, “"Ritual Homicide in Ancient Egypt", in: Karel C. Innemée (ed.), The Value of a Human Life. Ritual Killing and Human Sacrifice in Antiquity. PALMA 26 (Leiden, 2022), pp. 41–52 PDF
  4. ↑ TOMB OF TUTANKHAMUN'S TREASURER REPORTED FOUND Special to The New York Times, February 12, 1986,
  5. ↑ Jeffrey Bartholet, Found: Tut's Treasurer, February 11, 1986, The Washington Post.
  6. ↑ Martin, Geoffrey T. (1991). The Hidden Tombs of Memphis. Thames & Hudson, ISBN   0-500-39026-6. pp.147-188
  7. ↑ Martin, Geoffrey T. (1991). The Hidden Tombs of Memphis. Thames & Hudson, ISBN   0-500-39026-6. pp.147-188
  8. ↑ A Goddess Goes Home: A relief that the Met turned over to Egyptian authorities, Wednesday April 18, 2021, The New York Times
  9. ↑ The Metropolitan Museum of Art 2001 News Statement
  10. ↑ Jacobus Van Dijk, New Evidence on the Length of the Reign of Horemheb PDF, in JARCE 44 (2008), pp.193–200
  11. ↑ The Date of the Gebel Barkal Stela of Seti I PDF, in D. Aston, B. Bader, C. Gallorini, P. Nicholson & S. Buckingham (eds), Under the Potter's tree. Studies on Ancient Egypt presented to Janine Bourriau on the Occasion of her 70th Birthday (= Orientalia Lovaniensia Analecta 204), Uitgeverij Peeters en Departement Oosterse Studies, Leuven - Paris - Walpole, MA 2011, pp.325–332
  12. ↑ Jacobus Van Dijk, The Death of Meketaten, PDF in Peter Brand and Louise Cooper (ed.), Causing His Name to Live: Studies in Egyptian Epigraphy and History in Memory of William J. Murnane. Culture & History of the Ancient Near East, 37 (Leiden/Boston, 2009).
  13. ↑ Jacobus Van Dijk, The Death of Meketaten, PDF in Peter Brand and Louise Cooper (ed.), Causing His Name to Live: Studies in Egyptian Epigraphy and History in Memory of William J. Murnane. Culture & History of the Ancient Near East, 37 (Leiden/Boston, 2009).
  14. ↑ Dr. Jacobus Van Dijk Publications
  15. ↑ Petrie Museum
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