Malqata Menat | |
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Material | Faience, Bronze, Glass, Agate, Carnelian, Lapis Lazuli, Turquoise |
Size | Length of Counterpoise 14.7 cm (5 13/16 in.) |
Discovered | 1910 |
Discovered by | Museum Excavations, 1910–1911, Division of Finds, Metropolitan Museum of Art |
Present location | The Metropolitan Museum of Art |
Identification | 11.215.450 |
Culture | New Kingdom, Dynasty 18, Reign of Amenhotep III, ca. 1390–1353 B.C.E. |
The Malqata Menat was found by the Metropolitan Museum of Art Expedition in 1910, in a private house near the Heb Seds palace of Amenhotep III in Malqata, Thebes. [1] A menat is a type of necklace made up of a series of strings of beads that form a broad collar and a metal counterpoise. The menat could be worn around the neck or held in the hand and rattled during cultic dances and religious processions. [2]
In 1910, the excavations at Malqata were headed by Herbert E. Winlock, who led the Metropolitan Museum Expedition from 1910 to 1921. [3] While excavating one of the private houses Winlock’s team found the menat, along with two other necklaces in the remnants of a linen satchel. [1] Due to the early date of the excavation the exact provenance of the find is unknown. Excavation notes only specify that it was found in a corner of one of the rooms in a private house and that small traces of the linen bag the jewelry was stored in were still visible when it was discovered. At the end of the 1910 excavation season at Malqata the Metropolitan Museum of Art and the Egyptian Antiquities Service, which was known as the Service des Antiquités de l'Egypte at that time, split the artifacts from the excavation season equally. [4] The Metropolitan Museum acquired the Malqata menat in this division and the artifact is still part of the museum’s collection. It is currently on display at the Met Fifth Avenue in gallery 119.
Menat necklaces are first attested in the Old Kingdom being worn by priestesses of the goddess Hathor. [5] The goddess Hathor was associated with music and dance. Hathor's epithets include "Lady of Music", "Lady of the Chorus Dance" and "Lady of Inebriety, Jubilation and of Music". [6] Priestesses of Hathor are often depicted in ancient Egyptian iconography shaking menats in Hathoric dances. [7] According to Paul Barguet in his 1952 publication "L'Origine et la Signification du Contrepoids du Collier-menat", during the Middle Kingdom the goddess Mut was sometimes called, "Lady of the Menat". [8] Menat necklaces functioned as a material fetish of Hathor, meaning "The menat could bring those who handled it in direct contact with the divine and impart to them the blessings of the goddess". [5]
By the New Kingdom menat necklaces were used by many different cults, not just by priestesses of Hathor. Menats were used in daily offering rituals in temples, in religious festivals and in funerary contexts. [9] In scenes depicting daily offering rituals goddesses are often shown receiving menat necklaces as offerings. [10] The menat was generally depicted being used in combination with the sistrum in cultic rites and dances performed by the priestesses of Hathor and other cultic dancers and musicians. The priestesses of Hathor rattled menat necklaces to honor the goddess Hathor. [5] In ancient Egypt music was believed to calm the gods and placate their anger. The rattling sound that the menat made was intended to pacify the gods. [11] Khener-troupes of dancers were often depicted shaking sistrums and menats. [12] Menat necklaces are often found in funerary contexts both in iconography and in the material record. [13] These goods were all used in the funerary dances depicted in New Kingdom tombs. There are countless depictions of priestess and temple singers with menats in New Kingdom funerary decorations.
The menat was used in many kingly rituals, such as, the Sed-festival and the king's coronation ceremony. [14] In ancient Egypt, the personified goddess of music, Merit used songs and gestures to establish cosmic order. [11] Menats were used by the God's Wives of Amun. The menat also seems to have been associated with protection, regeneration and rebirth, which may be why it was part of royal-divine interaction. [10]
Ancient Egyptian religion was a complex system of polytheistic beliefs and rituals that formed an integral part of ancient Egyptian culture. It centered on the Egyptians' interactions with many deities believed to be present and in control of the world. About 1500 deities are known. Rituals such as prayer and offerings were provided to the gods to gain their favor. Formal religious practice centered on the pharaohs, the rulers of Egypt, believed to possess divine powers by virtue of their positions. They acted as intermediaries between their people and the gods, and were obligated to sustain the gods through rituals and offerings so that they could maintain Ma'at, the order of the cosmos, and repel Isfet, which was chaos. The state dedicated enormous resources to religious rituals and to the construction of temples.
Mut, also known as Maut and Mout, was a mother goddess worshipped in ancient Egypt. Her name means mother in the ancient Egyptian language. Mut had many different aspects and attributes that changed and evolved greatly over the thousands of years of ancient Egyptian culture.
In Egyptian mythology, Sekhmet, is a warrior goddess as well as goddess of medicine.
Hathor was a major goddess in ancient Egyptian religion who played a wide variety of roles. As a sky deity, she was the mother or consort of the sky god Horus and the sun god Ra, both of whom were connected with kingship, and thus she was the symbolic mother of their earthly representatives, the pharaohs. She was one of several goddesses who acted as the Eye of Ra, Ra's feminine counterpart, and in this form, she had a vengeful aspect that protected him from his enemies. Her beneficent side represented music, dance, joy, love, sexuality, and maternal care, and she acted as the consort of several male deities and the mother of their sons. These two aspects of the goddess exemplified the Egyptian conception of femininity. Hathor crossed boundaries between worlds, helping deceased souls in the transition to the afterlife.
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A sistrum is a musical instrument of the percussion family, a form of rattle, used most notably by the ancient Egyptians. It consists of a handle and a U-shaped metal frame, made of brass or bronze and ranging from 30–76 cm (12–30 in) in width. The frame supports sliding metal cross-bars which may hold metal rings. When shaken, the small rings or loops of thin metal on its movable crossbars produce a sound that can vary from a soft clank to a loud jangling. Its name in the ancient Egyptian language was sekhem (sḫm) or sesheshet (sššt) because of the sound it made when it rattled.The ancient Egyptian sistrum had important associations with religious and ritualistic practices concerning various musical and joyful deities.
The Eye of Ra or Eye of Re, usually depicted as sun disk or right wedjat-eye, is an entity in ancient Egyptian mythology that functions as an extension of the sun god Ra's power, equated with the disk of the sun, but it often behaves as an independent goddess, a feminine counterpart to Ra and a violent force that subdues his enemies. This goddess, also known with the theonym Wedjat, can be equated with several particular deities, including Hathor, Sekhmet, Bastet, Raet-Tawy, and Mut. The eye goddess acts as mother, sibling, consort, and daughter of the sun god. She is his partner in the creative cycle in which he begets the renewed form of himself that is born at dawn. The eye's violent aspect defends Ra against the agents of disorder that threaten his rule. This dangerous aspect of the eye goddess is often represented by a lioness or by the uraeus, or cobra, a symbol of protection and royal authority. The disastrous fury and rampages of the eye goddess and the efforts of the gods to appease her are a prominent motif in Egyptian mythology.
Ancient Egyptian art refers to art produced in ancient Egypt between the 6th millennium BC and the 4th century AD, spanning from Prehistoric Egypt until the Christianization of Roman Egypt. It includes paintings, sculptures, drawings on papyrus, faience, jewelry, ivories, architecture, and other art media. It was a conservative tradition whose style changed very little over time. Much of the surviving examples comes from tombs and monuments, giving insight into the ancient Egyptian afterlife beliefs.
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In ancient Egyptian religion, a menat was a necklace closely associated with the goddess Hathor.
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