Jin Shoufu: Six key words to excavate the mysterious and glorious ancient Egypt

2022 is a memorable year for Egyptology.

In 1822, the French scholar Champollion successfully deciphered hieroglyphs, marking the birth of Egyptology. For two hundred years, countless scholars have given new life to the silent ancient Egypt.

In 1922, British archaeologist Howard Carter discovered Tutankhamun's tomb in the Valley of the Kings in Egypt, awakening a terrifying treasure that had been sleeping for a thousand years.

On this year's World Book Day, the surging news "Exploring the Five Mysterious Ancient Civilizations" special topic kicked off, in the ancient Egypt topic, Fudan University History Department Professor Jin Shoufu approached the archaeology, cultural relics and unsolved mysteries of ancient Egypt with us. Here, we review this "excavation journey" with six key words. The following is an excerpt of some of the lectures.

01 Sphinx and the first egyptian archaeologist

Who can be called the first egyptian archaeologist?

More than 3,000 years ago (about 1400 BC), Thutmose IV, king of the Eighteenth Dynasty of ancient Egypt, cleaned up the sand where the Sphinx was buried and erected a stone tablet between the front paws of the Sphinx, which Egyptologists call the "Monument of Dreams".

However, the "Monument to Dreams" does not describe the construction time and process of the Sphinx as scholars expected, but rather records a wonderful experience. It is said that when Thutmose IV was still a prince, one day he went out hunting, and it was sleepy and hot at noon, and he fell asleep in the shadow of the Sphinx. In the dream, Sphinx, as a deity, told Thutmose IV that if he could remove the sand that was hiding over him, he would let Thutmose IV, who was still a prince, ascend to the throne. When Thutmose IV woke up, he cleaned up the dust and sand that had buried the Sphinx according to God's will, and he did ascend to the throne. And he may have inadvertently become the first person in Egyptian archaeology. For more than 3,000 years, the Sphinx has stood in the Middle of the Sahara Desert and witnessed the ups and downs of ancient Egypt.

Egyptian archaeology originated in Thutmose IV, but people began to travel and interpret Egypt as a destination, but it began with the Greeks.

Long before Herodotus, the great Greek poet Homer had described the grandeur of ancient Egypt. In Homer's pen, it was a magical land, growing a variety of plants that could be used as medicines, and there were many skilled doctors and wizards. The ancient city of Thebes, now Luxor, is known by Homer as the "City of a Hundred Doors".

Two viewpoints of the Theban ruins, Anthony Carden, etched, circa 1802

During the Reign of Psametic I during the Twenty-sixth Dynasty of Egypt, the Egyptian army had many mercenaries from the Ionian and Aegean regions. The king also set up a trading area specifically for Greek merchants in the Nile Delta. This also created favorable conditions for Herodotus to travel to Egypt later.

"Egypt is a gift from the Nile." From 450 BC to 440 BC, Herodotus traveled to Egypt, lamenting the annual flooding of the Nile, and also wrote this famous saying that has been passed down through the ages.

02 Pyramid

According to Herodotus, he once saw a huge labyrinth in Egypt, and although the pyramids were so magnificent that he could not describe them, the labyrinth made him feel even more incredible in comparison. Some classical writers believe that the labyrinth on the island of Crete, the first island in Greece, was also influenced by the Egyptian labyrinth, but it has not been verified so far. The winds of the Sahara Desert have been blowing for thousands of years, and all that remains before our eyes is the pyramids and the conjectures associated with them.

Regarding the pyramids, the West roughly records them from two lines, one is the written record of classical writers, and the other is from the Old Testament. In the Old Testament, Joseph was sold to Egypt by his brothers and reused for interpreting his dreams for Pharaoh. Joseph told Pharaoh that his dream foreshadowed seven good years and seven famine years in Egypt, and suggested that Pharaoh collect surplus grain and store it in a granary for famine during the good year. Devout Christians associate the pyramids with this legend, believing that they are "Joseph's granary."

Thousands of years later, the Pyramid of Khufu, the largest surviving pyramid in Egypt, has become the only surviving building in the Seven Wonders of the World. In the Middle Ages, the Arabs thought that the pyramids contained treasures, so they left a robbery cave on the north side of the Pyramid of Khufu, and this robbery cave has become the entrance to the interior of the Pyramid of Khufu when we travel to Egypt today. On weekdays, hundreds of thousands of visitors enter the pyramids here every day and touch ancient Egypt thousands of years ago in the narrow cemetery.

03 Obelisk

It is no exaggeration to say that the obelisk is one of the masterpieces of ancient Egypt that can be compared to the pyramids.

In 30 BC, after Augustus conquered the Ptolemaic dynasty of Egypt, he transformed Egypt into a province of the Roman Empire. After this, Augustus ordered the transport of at least three obelisks from Egypt to Rome as a symbol of power. These obelisks, one of which stands in the Champ de Mars, became the pointer of the sundial. Some German scholars have found that a few days before and after Augustus's birthday, the top of the obelisk shadow, which is used as a pointer, can be projected onto the altar of peace. Today, there are still more than a dozen obelisks of various sizes in the city of Rome, more than in Egypt.

St. Peter's Square, Vatican City

The oldest and complete obelisk still stands in front of the ruins of the former Temple of Heliopolis in the northeastern suburbs of Cairo. It was built during the reign of Pharaoh Thessos I of the Twelfth Dynasty of ancient Egypt.

At the entrance to the Luxor Temple, a pair of obelisks originally erected by order of Ramses II of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt remains, and the other was presented to the French Emperor by the Governor of Egypt in the 19th century and is still erected today in the Place de la Concorde in Paris.

The obelisk preserved in front of the Luxor Temple (left) and the obelisk in the center of Paris (right), the left image is derived from visual China

The French had obelisks, and the British were not far behind. In 1878, they also took an obelisk from Egypt and stood by the River Thames. What we later called "Egyptology" can also be said, in a sense, a by-product of the two great powers of Britain and France in their struggle for hegemony in Europe and even in the world.

From Rome and Vatican City to Paris, London, and New York, Obelisks can be seen in many places as we travel the world today. As the French thinker Georges Bataille put it, "The obelisk is the most tenacious obstacle in the process of returning everything to dust.".

04 Memnon Colossus

The Nile divides the ancient city of Luxor into east and west banks, and the valley on the west bank is the seat of the princes and nobles and administrative departments during the New Kingdom of Ancient Egypt, and is also the place where the vast majority of civilians lived. Today, the old buildings are long gone, and only two stone statues stand there alone, the northern one known as the Memnon Colossus.

Colossus of Memnon (right)

Who is Mennon? Why call it the Colossi of Mennon? Mennon, the son of Eos, the goddess of dawn in ancient Greek mythology, and King Tinottos of Ethiopia, the prince of Troy, fought valiantly against Achilles and was stabbed to death in the chest. Legend has it that the statue would make a cry-like sound in the early hours of the morning, which the ancient Greeks believed to be the death of Mennon calling for help from his mother, Ios, at dawn.

Another theory is that the site of the two statues was the entrance to the temple of Amunhotep III during the New Kingdom, but now the temple is gone. The sound at dawn is because of the earthquake in Egypt before, the statue appeared cracks, the temperature difference between day and night was too large, resulting in water vapor in the cracks, the temperature rose sharply before the sun came out, and the water vapor in the cracks evaporated to make a sound.

The sound of the Colossus of Memnon became a spectacle at the time. Later, a devout Roman emperor ordered his men to repair the cracks in the stone statues, and the so-called sound of dawn ceased to exist.

05 The Birth and Development of Egyptology

Although ancient Egyptian civilization was active thousands of years ago, Egyptology was only two hundred years old.

Before Champolyan deciphered hieroglyphs, European scholars tended to interpret ancient Egypt religiously. Plotino, the founder of Neoplatonism, believed that the hieroglyphs of the ancient Egyptians were pictorial characters, and this concept gradually became deeply rooted in the hearts of the people and reached its peak during the Renaissance. According to these people, hieroglyphs are not words in the general sense, but are special forms of pictorial representations that record the will of God and divine knowledge.

Napoleon and Champollion

By the end of the 18th century, Napoleon had an expedition to Egypt. In addition to the soldiers in his expeditionary force, there were about 160 scholars. After arriving in Egypt, on August 24, 1799, Napoleon established the Egyptian Institute, and the members of the Institute decided to organize and publish the pictures collected in Egypt, and from 1809 to 1829, the 23 volumes of the Egyptian Chronicle were published successively.

French scholars measure the Sphinx

On July 15, 1799, a captain officer of Napoleon's army found a stone stele near the Egyptian port city of Rosetta, and a few years later, after the defeat of France, this stele came to England and became the treasure of the British Museum, which is the famous Rosetta Stone.

Rosetta Stone

The Rosetta Stone tablets are inscribed with greek, ancient Egyptian hieroglyphs, the holy script and the mass script, and three forms of writing, providing a key to the decipherment of hieroglyphs, and the person who grasped this key was the young French scholar Shang Bolian. At that time, in addition to Shang Bolian, there were other scholars who tried to decipher hieroglyphs, but scholars generally believed that it was only using shapes, and only used phonetic symbols when describing foreign names. Until the phenomenon of Shang Bo Liangfa could also be used as letters, with the role of phonetics, this clue also became the key to his deciphering hieroglyphs.

Manuscript of Champollion's treatise on Egyptian grammar

In 1822, at the age of 32, Chambollion announced to the world that he had successfully deciphered hieroglyphs, giving the ancient Egyptian civilization, which had been silent for more than a thousand years, once again make its voice heard.

However, whether the father of Egyptology was Napoleon or Champollion is also disputed in the West.

After hieroglyph deciphering

After the hieroglyphs were deciphered, the British best-selling novelist Amelia Edwards contributed to the development of Egyptology. She used the fees and funds raised to create the Egyptian Expeditionary Society in 1882, funding many archaeologists to go to Egypt for excavations. On his deathbed, Edwards donated his private collection and savings to University College London, where he established the Edwards Chair in Egyptology, the first Professor of Egyptology in the English-speaking world.

In 1892, William Petrie became britain's first professor of Egyptology. In 1914, the Egyptian Expeditionary Society founded the Egyptian Archaeological Journal, the first professional journal of Egyptian archaeology in the English-speaking world. Edwards and Petrie also founded the Society for the Preservation of Ancient Egyptian Artifacts, which aims to prevent the loss of ancient Egyptian artifacts.

Known as the "Father of Egyptian Archaeology" and the "Father of Scientific Archaeology", Petri spent 60 years of archaeological careers in Egypt and Palestine, excavating more than 60 sites of great historical significance and cultural value, publishing more than 100 excavation reports and monographs, writing nearly 450 papers and more than 400 commentaries.

Precious photographs taken by Petrie at the entrance to the burial chamber

06 The Curse of the Mummy and the Pharaoh

Much of our romantic imagination of the mummy today comes from literature from the 19th and early 20th centuries.

In 1840, the French writer Gertier created "The Mummy's Foot", which tells the story of a young man who bought a mummy's foot in an antique shop and dreamed of the owner of that foot, a beautiful ancient Egyptian princess, and the two fell in love at first sight. There are countless similar passages at the time, and from these romance novels, we can see the curiosity and yearning of modern people for the special ways used by the ancient Egyptians to pursue the afterlife.

In addition, Conan Doyle, the author of "Sherlock Holmes", invented a new theme - an evil mummy can be resurrected, and it will pose a great danger and cause unprecedented destruction. In 1907, Conan Doyle's friend Robinson died of typhoid fever, and Conan Doyle was convinced that his death was due to close contact with mummies at the British Museum. Since then, claims such as the curse of the mummy have been on the rise.

Tutankhamun Tomb with the Excavators who died

In 1922, British archaeologist Howard Carter discovered the tomb of Tutankhamun, the pharaoh of the Eighteenth Dynasty of Egypt, in the Valley of the Kings, and a series of subsequent stories gave the "curse of the pharaoh" a near-perfect source.

"To anyone who enters My grave with an unclean body ... I'll grab him by the neck like a bird, and I'll cast fear in his heart. "It is rumored that in the tomb of Tutankhamun, this terrible curse is engraved, so that every digger will not die.

On 5 April 1923, the patron of the excavation, Lord Caernarfon, died in Cairo. The British popular novelist and fanatical mystic Corelli complained that Kanafon may have died of a mummified curse, and then newspapers followed suit, and when officials tried to correct the rumors, it was to no avail. Conan Doyle also gave a special interview to the media. At this time, he already firmly believed in the so-called soul-summoning theory, and the remarks he made also played a role in fueling the spread of rumors.

Mr. and Mrs. Carter and Lord Caernarfon

There are two main reasons why Kanafon's death caused such a sensation.

First, of course, because Kanafon himself was the rich man who financed Carter's more than a decade-long archaeological excavations in the Valley of the Kings; second, after World War I, Kanafon was also a little nervous, and he sold patents to the Times reporting on the excavation process and results, which also meant that other media outlets lost the opportunity to directly report on this sensational worldwide sensation and attract countless eyeballs. The Tomb of Tutankhamun contains tens of thousands of burial objects, and in the world of the world of Post-World War I, the news of the excavation, collation and finalization of these artifacts and finally put into museums is particularly important. It is conceivable how strong the jealousy and hatred of the Times must have been in the media not only in Britain, but also in Europe, so these media also spread rumors outside, and the "curse of the pharaoh" was even more widespread.

The "Death of Kanafon" in the British media

In reality, however, with the exception of Kanaphon, who died of blood poisoning caused by a skin infection during shaving, the rest of the archaeologists who entered Tutankhamun's tomb were not surprised.

The famous Egyptologist Gardner also visited Tutankhamun's mausoleum to help Carter sort out the burial items, and he died in 1969 at the age of 84;

Delhi, who was in charge of medical testing of Tutankhamun's body, died in 1969, nearly half a century after the discovery of Tutankhamun's tomb;

When the Tutankhamun Mausoleum was opened, Kanaphon's daughter was present, and she lived until 1980;

Most importantly, even Carter died in 1939, 17 years after the "curse" of 1922.

Even so, for 100 years, people's imagination of "curses" has never stopped. Whether it is "The Mummy" and "The Return of the Mummy" around the millennium, or "The Extraordinary Adventure of Adella" in 2011, the mummy of thousands of years ago has been "reborn" again and again in literary works and movie blockbusters.

Q&A

1. KV4EVER: Why are pyramids shaped like this?

Jin Shoufu: I think there are two reasons, one is that according to the records of ancient Egyptian literature, the ancient Egyptians worshiped the sun very strongly, whether it is obelisks or pyramids, the tips at the top of them are very important. In the ancient Egyptian temple of the sun, there was a pointed stone in the shape of such a spire and a square column. Also in the Shape of the Pyramids that we just mentioned in Heliopolis, Sun City, there is a running stone that is also in the shape of a pyramid. In the ancient Egyptian tradition, it symbolized the first mounds or islands to reveal chaotic water in the early days of creation. So the ancient Egyptians believed that the shape of the pyramid was the place where the first rays of sunlight landed after the sun rose in the east in the morning, and it was also the place where the phoenix of the 500-year cycle of life they believed was settled.

In addition, from another point of view, it seems that human beings can only build a building that rises from the ground and even towers like a cloud. Similar buildings have appeared in the Americas and elsewhere in Europe. Perhaps according to the archetype theory of the Swiss psychologist Jung, we subconsciously have such an archetype (Archetype) about the shape of the building, the relationship between people, and the standard of artistic aesthetics.

2. Beef noodles for breakfast: Teacher, what do you think of the statement that the Xia Dynasty came from ancient Egypt?

Jin Shoufu: Of course, this is "folk science", and the West also has it, and before Shang Bolian deciphered the hieroglyphs, many Western scholars deliberately described Egypt as very "lofty". After deciphering hieroglyphs, many people also wanted to interpret the ancient Egyptians from a religious or other more alternative point of view, and for a long time they absolutely did not accept the interpretation of object shapes in Egyptology. Others were disappointed and disappointed to learn of Shang Bolian's conclusions, believing that the original hieroglyphs were just like that.

Since then, two camps have been formed, one is what we call the academic community, according to The Deciphering of Champolyan, many scholars have added and explored little by little, and most of the hieroglyphs that are left now can be read. The other camp, as I understand it, is to interpret it differently to a greater or lesser ulterior motive. Regarding the Xia Dynasty, some people say that it originated from ancient Egypt, and another view is that the ancient Egyptian civilization was imported from Hunan, just as some people think that the pyramids were built by aliens, and some people say that the pyramids are the terminal buildings that aliens need when they land on the earth, and so on.

3. Studious Little Frog: Hello Teacher Jin! May I ask the ancient Egyptians about their cultural and kinship?

Jin Shoufu: At the beginning of the history of the Egyptians, in 3000 BC, their ethnic group was composed first of semites from West Asia and The Semites from North Africa, and now scholars have changed the racist terms of "Semites" and "Miths" to the concept of "Afro-Asiatic". Both in descent and language, the ancient Egyptians had elements of both West Asia and North Africa. Later, Egypt was conquered by Assyria, Babylon, Persia, Macedonia, Byzantium, Turkey, etc., coupled with intermarriage, religious changes, etc., and it is now impossible to confirm the identity of Egyptians from the ethnic point of view.

The above is the content summary of the "Exploring the Five Mysterious Ancient Civilizations" good lesson Ancient Egypt. Pay attention to "The Paper", review the lecture video, and interact with more guests!