It is generally stated that in the Egyptian New Kingdom burials the bodies were placed with their heads pointing toward the West because of the Egyptians’ funerary belief that the deceased needed to face the rising sun for their resurrection.
 However, this statement does not fully reflect the actual archaeological data. A survey of the plans of New Kingdom royal tombs shows that some changes in the head orientation took place during this period. Before the New Kingdom Period, bodies were normally placed with their heads pointed to the north. However, the tombs of the 20th Dynasty have a symbolic east-west axis that causes the westward head orientation of royal mummies, whereas in the 18th Dynasty tombs some of the decoration scheme and sarcophagus placements show compromising orientations between the north and west.
 Non-elite burials in the Memphite and Heracleopolitan regions show a tendency different from the royal tombs in that there is more diversity of head orientation. Although about fifty percent of the burials in a given cemetery have the western head orientation, the considerable number of bodies are directed to the north, east and south. Since the burials of the previous periods in these regions do not show such diversity, it seems to be a noticeable feature of non-elite burial customs in the New Kingdom Period.
 A seriation analysis shows that the diversity of head orientation in non-elite tombs is not the result of a historical transition as seen in the royal tombs since it is found among burials of the same period. B. J. Kemp suggests that lower-class people did not ignore the formal concepts of funerary belief, even though they often chose “unsuitable” head orientations. Instead they followed their own sense to decide what was appropriate for them. It might be fair to assume that the diverse head orientations in the New Kingdom burials reflect the ancient Egyptians’ trait of accepting the existence of alternative concepts.

抄録全体を表示

Maat (mꜣꜥt) is an ancient Egyptian comprehensive concept connoting justice, truth, and fairness while focusing on the meaning of the order of the universe. This concept was deified as a goddess of justice or truth (mꜣꜥt) and appeared in various texts throughout ancient Egyptian history. This article analyzes the portrayal of goddess Maat in the Coffin Texts, which are known as funerary texts during the Middle Kingdom. In addition to the Pyramid Texts from the Old Kingdom and the Book of the Dead from the New Kingdom, the Coffin Texts are some of the most important resources for understanding ancient Egyptian religion. The Coffin Texts contain over 1,000 spells and include more than 190 descriptions of Maat requiring further examination.

　Furthermore, this article examines the eight expressions known as the Dual Maat (Mꜣꜥty), written as the dual form of the goddess Maat. The reduplication of a deity who was usually represented in a single form is unique among ancient Egyptian deities. The results of the analysis reveal that the Dual Maat reflected three noticeable qualities of Maat: (1) the dual goddesses had a specific relationship with Sokar, the god of the netherworld (spells 479 and 660); (2) they were independent goddesses that empowered and stood by the deceased (spells 660, 149, and 416); and (3) they developed a unique relationship with Re, the sun god (spells 682 and 693).

抄録全体を表示