Crown, Egypt (for IDD)

Keywords: arts and architecture; cultural history; Egyptian history; government, politics, and law; ideology; image; monarchy; political history

A new approach to analyzing the image of ancient Egyptian kings and gods that focuses on the textual evidence rather than the often stereotyped iconography, and here in particular on the role of crowns in the earlier funerary literature (Pyramid and Coffin Texts). It is shown that crowns and headdresses played a fundamental role in the transfiguration and ascent to the sky of the royal (and later private) deceased of that time, enabling him to assume the form and powers of a celestial god. In this context, they may express such attributes as legitimate rule and radiance, but also stand as symbols and metaphors for cosmic events or the mother(s) of the deceased. A major section reinterprets the famous "Cannibal Spell" (PT 273/274) as a description of sunrise. The study as a whole centers around the Red, White, and Double Crowns of the Egyptian king in its various names, but interpretations of other types, including the Nemes, Khat, Atef, and Double Feathers (Shuty), are also given.

Egyptian crowns and headdresses have been essential in composing royal imagery throughout history. Egyptian pharaohs used various crowns for different purposes; some were used to show authority, while others were used for religious or festival ceremonies. Like their numerous symbolics, which this paper will not discuss, they are also differentiated in shape, size, color, and decorative elements. In addition, many political and religious reforms in ancient Egypt resulted in the increasing variety of crowns and their evolved forms. Scholars have studied iconographic representations of many ancient Egyptian crowns; however, one type, particularly the so-called cap crown or skull cap, has not yet been thoroughly examined. Hence, the focal point of this study will be the existence and decorative evolution of the cap crown, starting from its earliest evidence in the Old Kingdom to the end of the Third Intermediate Period. This paper will present and analyze the different styles and ornamental elements of all known cap crowns through iconographic evidence on reliefs, tomb paintings, and royal statuary. In part, the study's perspectives are limited because only a limited number of preserved iconographic representations are distributed unevenly in space and time. Nevertheless, this paper will help the reader understand the typology of cap crowns in ancient Egypt.

2020

Whereas the crown was a central icon of kingship in ancient Mesopotamia, West Semitic conceptions of kingship differed deeply from their Mesopotamian counterparts. In Iron Age Levantine cultures (including Aramean, Phoenician, and Israelite), the throne was a far more potent symbol of the monarchy than was the crown, as is reflected in the iconography, and especially in texts. Phoenician and Aramaic royal inscriptions, as well as biblical texts, show that the preeminent regalia of royalty in the region were not crowns, but thrones and “shoots,” or scepters. This paper draws on epigraphic, visual, and literary materials from the Levant, as well as comparative evidence not only from Mesopotamia, but also from Egypt and the Hittite world to emphasize the significance of the image of the throne in constructing the image of the monarch in the Levant.

The crown of the divine child was one of the headdresses that transferred from Egypt to the Meroitic Kingdom. It was integrated in the Egyptian decoration program in the early Ptolemaic time. The first king of Meroe to use this crown in the decoration of the Lion Temple in Musawwarat es-Sufra was Arnekhamani (235–218 BCE). It also appeared later in the sanctuaries of his successors Arkamani II (218– 200 BCE) and Adikhalamani (ca. 200–190 BCE) in Dakka and Debod. The Egyptians presented it as the headdress of child gods or the king. In the Kingdom of Meroe the crown was more like a tool to depict the fully legitimised king before he faced the main deity of the sanctuary. To show this the Meroitic artists changed its iconography in such a way that the primarily Egyptian focus on the aspects of youth and rebirth withdrew into the background so that the elements of cosmic, royal and divine legitimacy became the centre of attention. Even if the usage and parts of the iconography were different, the overall meaning remained the same. It was a headdress that combined all elements of the cosmos as well as of royal and divine power.

Journal of Ethnopharmacology, 2005

In this paper, I theorize that the Egyptian White and Triple Crowns were originally primordia of the entheogenic Psilocybe (Stropharia) cubensis, which an Egyptian tale known as Cheops and the Magicians allegorically explained grew on barley, and that Osiris was the God of spiritual rebirth because he personified this and other entheogenic mushrooms. I go on to theorize that the plant known commonly as the Eye of Horus, which the Egyptians included in cakes and ales designed to spiritually rebirth the living and the dead, was an entheogenic mushroom cap entirely analogous, if not identical, to Soma. Finally, I explain why so many scholars failed to discern these identities and relationships for so long.

Current Research in Egyptology, 2007

Abstract The similarity between the two crowns here discussed has long been recognized in modern scholarship. The blue crown is generally considered to represent the legitimacy of kingship but has also been interpreted as representing the king’s mortal nature or, perhaps more often, as a ‘war crown’ while the cap crown is frequently given ‘priestly’ connotations. However, the specific purpose of each crown remains uncertain. The frequency with which certain crowns were worn is now attested, predominantly, in extant iconographic representation; in which usage each crown may be thought to be invested with some meaning, to represent some abstract state or ideal which may have symbolic reference to a king or to the office of kingship itself. An examination of the iconography of the Theban monuments of the New Kingdom period has revealed that in the portrayal of certain ritual festivals specific motifs were adopted which, it can be demonstrated, evolved during the late Eighteenth and early Nineteenth Dynasties. These motifs, which provide a relatively secure context from which the symbolic nature of the blue and cap crowns may be considered further, provide the focus for this paper.

2011

Proceedings of the 12th International Conference for Nubian Studies. The British Museum, London, 1–6 August 2010

Multa per Aequora. Il polisemico significato della moderna ricerca archeologica. Omaggio a Sara Santor, 2018

A few images of queens are preserved from the Neo-Assyrian period, and they all wear a peculiar crown, apparently reproducing a town wall, with square towers. In my contribution, I will take the evidence from relief and glyptics into account, and I will propose some interpretations for this peculiar ornament: what it represented, and why was it adopted by Assyrian queens. I will also try to verify the frequently-proposed hypothesis that the mural crown has a Syrian or Anatolian origin.