Margaret Benson a 19th Century Amateur Egyptologist & her Discoveries at the Temple of Mut

 At the age of twenty Margaret Benson was taken ill with scarlet fever, and by the time she was twenty-five she had developed the symptoms of rheumatism and the beginnings of arthritis, and so she began to spend winters in Egypt, On her return to Egypt in 1894 she stopped at Mena House hotel at Giza and for a short time at Helwan, south of Cairo, this area was known for its sulphur springs and from about 1880 it had become a popular health resort, particularly suited for the treatment of the sorts of maladies from which Margaret suffered. When Margaret arrived in Luxor again she was greeted by the locals as an old friend. Even today if you return to Luxor you will be greeted by many Egyptians who recognize you from earlier trips and want to welcome you back. People at every turn asked Margaret if she remembered them, and her donkey-boy almost wept to see her.

In January 1895, Margaret achieved the distinction of being the first woman to gain permission to conduct her own excavations in Egypt beginning at the Temple of Mut, The Egyptian authorities agreed to Margaret excavating there as it was felt that she wouldn't make any significant finds, but Margaret surprised them all. The Goddess  Mut's name means mother and she  was the consort of Amun, titled 'Lady of Heaven', and 'Mistress of all the Gods' who was  the mother of the God Khonsu,  and Wife of the major God Amun,  her temple is in the precincts of Amun's earthly home, Karnack Temple.

When Margaret was given permission to work on the Temple of Mut, it was considered to be unimportant, and a site that no one else wanted. On her first visit to Egypt, she had gone to see the temple of Mut because she had heard about the granite statues with cats' heads (the lion-headed images of Sekhmet). The donkey-boys knew how to find the temple but it was not considered a "usual excursion" and after her early visits to the site she said that "The temple itself was much destroyed, and the broken walls so far buried, that one could not trace the plan of more than the outer court and a few small chambers" Margaret had no particular training to qualify or prepare her for the job but what she lacked in experience she more than made up for with her "enthusiastic personality" 

From her letters of the time, it is clear that this was one of the most exciting moments of Margaret Benson's life because she was allowed to embark on what she considered a great adventure. "On January 1st, 1895, we began the excavation" -- with a crew composed of four men, sixteen boys (to carry away the earth), an overseer, a night guardian and a water carrier. A good part of Margaret's time was occupied with learning how to supervise the workmen and the basket boys. Since her spoken Arabic was almost nonexistent, she had to use a donkey-boy as a translator

At the first northern gate it was necessary for Margaret Benson to clear ten or twelve feet of earth to reach the paving stones at the bottom. In the process they found what were described as fallen roofing blocks, there was a lion-headed statue lying across and blocking the way, and also a small sandstone head of a hippopotamus The Lion headed statues were Sekhmet, who was the Egyptian goddess of war and destruction, she protected the Pharaoh in battle. Her husband, Ptah, whose temple is also found in the precincts of Karnack and her son, Nefertem were worshipped here in Karnack Temple. Sekhmet was known as 'the lady of life', and 'the lady of terror', she was the powerful mother goddess and defender of Egypt,  Margaret was thrilled at finding so many statues of the Lion headed Goddess. After working around the west half of the first court and disengaging eight Sekhmet statues in the process, they came on their first important find, near the west wall of the court they discovered a black statue of a man named Amenemhet, a royal scribe of the time of Amenhotep II. The statue is now in the Egyptian Museum in Cairo, but Margaret was given a cast of it to take home to England. 

Margaret wrote to her father :

'My Dearest Papa, We have had such a splendid find at the Temple of Mut that I must write to tell you about it. We were just going out there on Monday, when we met one of our boys who work there running to tell us that they had found a statue. When we got there they were washing it, and it proved to be a black granite figure about two feet high, knees up to its chin, hands crossed on them, one hand holding a lotus. '

The government had appointed an overseer who spent his time watching the excavation for just such finds. He reported it to a sub-inspector who immediately took the block statue away to a store house and locked it up. An appeal was made to Daressy who was kind enough to reverse the decision. He said it was hard that Margaret should not have 'la jouissance de la statue que vous avez trouve' ('the enjoyment of the statue you have found') and so Margaret  was allowed to take it to the hotel where she could enjoy it until the end of the season when it would become the property of the museum. 

As work was continued in the first court other broken statues of Sekhmet were found as well as two seated sandstone baboons of the time of Ramesses III. The baboon represents the ruling pharaoh, as well as knowledge and wisdom.  Baboons in ancient Egyptian literature represent, the knowledge that the ruler gave to his people. The God Thoth manifested as a baboon, and an Ibis bird, as a baboon he is is depicted as heavily maned seated animal, with paws resting on his knees with the lunar disc and crescent on his head, he is the  god of the moon, of learning, and of writing. he recorded all important facts for the King, and was also present in the hall of justice when a deceased person stood before the God Osiris to be judged, Thoth recorded the verdict. He taught the ancient Egyptians to write and he was the creator of languages, the scribe, interpreter, and adviser of the gods, and the representative of the sun god, Re.

The results of Margaret's first season would have been gratifying for any excavator. In a short five weeks the 'English Lady' had begun to clear the temple and to note the errors on the older plans available to her. For the second season in 1896 the work staff was a little larger, with eight to twelve men, twenty-four to thirty-six boys, a overseer, guardians and the necessary water carrier. 

In 1901, after her work at the Temple of Mut was over, she wrote to her mother: "Such a lot of times in my life I've been driven this way and that... things stopped just when I thought I was getting to them, or like Egyptology, opened just when I could do nothing else....". She chose to excavate because it seemed a project of interest to her at a time when her ever-active mind needed stimulation and her health made it necessary to be in the warm climate of Egypt.

Margaret  worked for three seasons at the Temple of Mut between 1895 and 1897, in this time she unearthed valuable evidence of the temple's history. Margaret's companion, Janet Gourlay,  who was also her assistant  in the excavations at the temple of Mut became co-author of the book , 'The Temple of Mut at Asher' published in  1899 . The book  reveals Margaret's devotion to her project and to the temple, her interest in Egyptology, and her keen intellect and wit. 

Theodore Davis Egyptologist & Emma Buttles Andrews mistress & Travelling Companion, who recorded all Davis' discoveries in her Diaries

After her husband was admitted to a mental hospital, and his subsequent death,  Emma Buttles Andrews became the mistress and travelling companion to the millionaire Lawyer and archaeologist Theodore M. Davis, Emma shared Davis' enthusiasm for Ancient Egypt, and together they made a total of 17 trips along the Nile River aboard his yacht the Bedawin, Emma sat in the blazing sun many times where she  created sketches and drawings of Davis' excavations, and wrote in her diaries the excitement they both shared on making a discovery. Unfortunately her diaries were not published

During the  period from 1902- 1913 about 30 tombs were discovered under Theodores sponsorship, the most well known was the discovery of the  tomb of Yuya and Tjuyu, the parents of Queen Tiye, principal wife of Amenhotep III, mother of Akhenaten, and grandmother of Tutankhamun. Despite robberies in antiquity, the undecorated tomb preserved a great deal of its original contents including chests, beds, chairs, a chariot, and numerous storage jars. Additionally, the riffled but undamaged mummies of Yuya and his wife Tjuyu were found within their disturbed coffin sets. Prior to the discovery of the tomb of Tutankhamun, this was considered to be one of the greatest discoveries in Egyptology. The tomb was excavated in February 1905

By 1913, Davis was convinced that either KV54, the Tutankhamun embalming cache, or KV57, Horemheb's tomb, were in fact the tomb of King Tutankhamun. In the 1912 site report, he stated, 'I fear the Valley of the Tombs is now exhausted.' How wrong he was,  as his concession then passed on to Lord Carnarvon who offered the British archaeologist Howard Carter his sponsorship. Theodore Davis had only been working two meters away from discovering the entrance to Tutankhamun's tomb KV62. . In Emma's diaries from those trips researchers are offered rare glimpses into her work with Davis in Egypt. They left Egypt in 1913 to settle back in the United States. Davis died in 1915 and Andrews died in January 1922.

After World War I, in 1918 Carter began an intensive search for the tomb of Tutankhamun, and after six years of searching Lord Carnarvon had finally given up the search to find the tomb of Tutankhamun, and he told Carter he would not continue to finance the work. Carter pleaded with him to reconsider and so Carnarvon agreed to one last season. On Nov 4th 1922 Carters young water boy Hussein Rasoul, tripped over a stone and he told Carter who immediately  instructed the workmen to dig in this area, and to their ecstatic thrill they had discovered the first step to the tomb of Tutankhamun, looking at this young water boy, it reminds us that Tutankhamun was only 9 years old when he became king

The Tomb of Sen- nejem in the workers Village of Dier El Medina

 

Leaving the ferry point you follow the main road  and pass the the Colossi of Memnon, you can collect your ticket to visit the tombs from the office at the side of the roundabout. Heading towards the Valley of the Queens you arrive in a  narrow valley on the right hand side, and here tucked into the hills opposite to the worker’s village of Deir el-Medina on the West Bank of Luxor, you can find the delightful tomb of Sen-nejem, the village foreman, this tomb is stunning, and in vibrant colour.

Sen-nejem was an architect whose tomb was discovered discovered by a Egyptian workers from Quorna, After three thousand years of peaceful rest, on the 2nd of February, 1886 the French Egyptologist Gaston Maspero opened the tomb, Sen-nejem and his sons were fortunate to live during a period of great prosperity for the Village they created two tombs in the valley of the Kings. Thankfully Sen-nejems own tomb had not been found by tomb robbers and so It contained grave household goods, along with shabti's, which  are small figurines with a spell on them so that if the deceased needs help in the afterlife they wake from their slumbers and do all that the deceased requires them to do for him. There was  nine sarcophagi and eleven mummies, they were very beautiful anthropoid, simple or double coffins, finely painted and varnished, and all belonged to members of Sen-nejems family.

Sen-nejem held the title, 'Servant in the Place of Truth,' a  Servant  was ’One who hears the call in the Place of Truth,' Sen-nejem lived during the reigns of Seti I and his son, Ramesses the Great of Egypt's 19th Dynasty, his tomb lies in the workers village, this was a secret village hidden away on the west bank and was created entirely for artisans who were responsible for  creating the tombs of the Kings and Nobles, the artisans worked on their own tombs when they had free time from working in the Valley of the Kings ( the Great Place) and the Valley of the Queens, (the Place of Beauty),  the artisans were cut off and not allowed to leave the village, supplies of food were delivered to them so that the secret of tombs of the Kings or Nobles tombs could not be discovered

The Artisans decorated their tomb walls with scenes of daily life, unlike the tombs of the nobles, who were prominent government officials and their walls showed their work of a vizier or a Judge, or in the tombs of the Kings, which showed the Kings being welcomed and helped through the underworld by the Gods.  A very steep staircase leads to a small entrance chamber which originally had a decorated wooden door, On the walls of Sen-nejems tomb you can see Sen-nejem and his wife Iyneferty working together happily in the blessed afterworld where they sow, plough and reap flax or wheat in the mythical fields of Laru

Above ground Sen-nejems tomb has a courtyard inside which sits a small pyramidion, pyramids were considered to be a ladder to the heavens, the underground section of Sen-nejems tomb had a room with a vault ceiling Sen-nejem, shared this “house of eternity” with his wife Iyinofreti, their son Khonsu, daughter in-law Tamakhet, the lady Isis, who was the wife of their second son Khabekhnet (who had his own tomb built next to Sen-nejem’s), together with their grandchildren. Both Sen-nejem and his wife lived into old age. Sen-nejem and Iyneferty had thirteen sons, two foetuses contained in uninscribed yellow wooden boxes were also found in the tomb 

Sen-nejem was highly skilled in tomb building, and together with the help of members of his own family and of other workers from the village, he was able to build and decorate his own house of eternity.  The tomb is very simple, and very colourful with a narrow stairway leading into a small room followed by the burial chamber and a highly curved ceiling, on the left front wall the scene is of the mummy of sen-nejem in his sarcophagus lying on a funeral bed and protected on the left by Isis and on the right by Nephthys, both in the form of falcons. Under this in a lower register is a scene of the deceased sons bringing him offerings and purifying themselves before his parents while other relatives sit nearby. In the next scene on this wall, the deceased is shown with his wife and is holding a sekhem-scepter, a symbol of power.

The ancient Egyptians believed that the deceased would embark on a subterranean journey, tracing the route of Re, the sun god. After disappearing with the setting sun in the west, Re passed under the world in a boat to return to his starting point in the east. During this journey, the deceased, aboard Re’s boat, would have to confront ferocious creatures barring the way to their new life. The most formidable of these was Apep, a serpent intent on stopping Re’s boat and bringing chaos to the world.

 The majority of the scenes in Sen-nejems tomb represent vignettes, which is a brief evocative description, of an episode from the Book of the Dead, the Book of the Dead is not an actual book in the manner that we would understand, its texts were spells—magic 'road maps' provided to the dead to navigate their way safely through the afterlife,  to help ease the passage of the deceased through the underworld, offering them protection to face the ordeals and terrors lying in wait there, the spells were written on tomb walls, papyrus, and linen bandages, the spells convey the sequence of the journey that takes Sen-nejem through the Underworld until he reaches paradise. Osiris, the God of the underworld, gives life back to Sen-nejem mummy and makes his judgement in the hall of Justice, the scenes are painted on a yellow ochre background, which has the color of an aged papyrus. Sen-nerjem and his wife Iyneferty are shown in adoration of several gods, also shown are two jackals, these are the guardians of the gates to the West, the Kingdom of Osiris, and they are the openers of the road to eternity. There are three lines of inscription between the two rows of deities which appeals to several gods, Atum, Osiris, Khenty-Imentiu, and the Enead, to grant the deceased strength, greatness, power, and dignity. There is a banquet in honor of the deceased, and Sen-nejems  son Bunakhtef, wearing a leopard skin  performs the role of a Sem priest, and he is shown carrying out libation, pouring from a Qeb vessel for his father.  Anubis is shown attending to Sen-nejem’s mummy

It is sad to think that Sen-nejem and all his family lay together for thousands of years in this little tomb, and now they have all been separated and can be found in different museums, along with all their possessions

Saint Catherine & the Monastery Dedicated to her on Mount Sinai Egypt

Saint Catherine of Alexandria, is also known as Saint Catherine of the Wheel, and The Great Martyr Saint Catherine, she was born in 287 as the daughter of the Alexandrian governor, according to tradition, Catherine is considered to be a Christian saint and a virgin, who was martyred at the age of 18 under the instructions of Emperor Maxentius (Marcus Aurelius Valerius Maxentius) who was a Roman emperor from 306 to 312. Before Catherine died she had converted hundreds of people to Christianity. 

Catherine was a princess of noble birth and learned in the sciences, at the age of 14  she became a Christian. When she was only eighteen years old, she presented herself to the Emperor Maximinus who was violently persecuting the Christians and she scolded him for his cruelty,  and endeavoured to prove it to him how sinful it was to worship false gods, the Emperor was astounded at this young girl's audacity, and he  had her  scourged and then imprisoned. Catherine was scourged so cruelly and for so long, that her whole body was covered with wounds, from which the blood flowed in streams. The spectators wept with pity, but Catherine stood with her eyes raised to heaven, without giving any  signs of suffering or fear. Maxentius then ordered her to be imprisoned without food, so she would starve to death. It is said that during the confinement, angels tended her wounds with salve, and that Catherine was fed daily by a dove from Heaven and that Christ also visited her, encouraging her to fight bravely, and promised her the crown of everlasting glory.

The Empress Valeria Maximilla was so eager to meet such an extraordinary a young woman, that she asked the head of the troops to escort her to visit Catherine in her dungeon, on leaving the dungeon both the Empress and the head of the troops had converted to Christianity, then twelve days later, when the dungeon was opened, a bright light and fragrant perfume filled it and Catherine came forth even more radiant and beautiful.

Soon afterwards Catherine, whose faith had increased with all the cruelty, converted many people. The Emperor was furious and condemned Catherine to death on a spiked breaking wheel, but, at her touch the cruel instrument of torture miraculously  shattered. The emperor, was enraged beyond control, and had Catherine  beheaded, Christians believe that the angels carried her body to Mount Sinai and it is here that the fortress style monastery was built in her honour.

St. Catherine’s Monastery is a Greek Orthodox Church dating to the 6th century and located in one of Earth’s holiest places: the valley below Mount Sinai, where the Prophet Moses is believed to have spoken with God and where he received the Ten Commandments. St. Catherine's Monastery was built between 548 and 565 it was constructed by the Byzantine Emperor, Justinian I, and was built to protect the monks who were living in caves and simple huts in the wilds of this sacred area, the monks regularly faced attacks from marauding Bedouins. The monastery in the valley below Mt. Sinai became known as St. Catherine’s after the saint’s remains were found by resident monks, in or around the year 800.  The architect, Stephanos of Aila (Elath), constructed the monastery in the style of a fortress of such monumental design that its walls have stood for over fourteen centuries with little changes, it is located on the Sinai Peninsula, and it ministers to all who come to the site as pilgrims, seeking spiritual consolation and an increase of their faith, it is sacred to Christians, Jews and Muslims. The monastery sits on the mouth of a gorge at the foot of Mount Sinai, near to the town of Saint Catherine, Egypt. The monastery is named after Catherine of Alexandria and is now protected as a UNESCO World Heritage site, it is the place where God called to Moses and instructed him to take off his sandals as he was in a holy place

From early Christian times to the present day, prayer and spiritual dedication have existed at Sinai, it was this area of the desert where God manifested himself as a burning bush and where he gave instructions to Moses, this sacred area gives a special aura to the monastery, and is a destination for pilgrims. 

I dedicate this BLOG to my dear friend Deena Younis, an exceptional young woman and friend