gold and silver, inside and out, and inlaid with all kinds of precious stones.” Having stripped off everything of value, they set fire to the coffins and the bodies inside. The gold totalled 160 deben, a weight equivalent to 14.56 kilograms. It represented the value of, say, a herd of 250 cattle according to ancient Egyptian prices, and so offered the allure of transforming a poor man’s life (see no. 87, “Gold”).
39.
JACKAL
Prominent among Egyptian images of death is a doglike animal, often called Anubis. But at Abydos, a holy site on the desert edge in Upper Egypt, the animal is called “The Foremost of the Westerners” ( Khenty-amentiu ). “Jackal” is a modern translation, but Egyptian images merged the characteristics of jackals, dogs, and foxes. All scavenge on the desert margins, are frequently nocturnal, and must in the past have found convenient homes in the deserted cemeteries. Jackals also emit an unearthly howling cry.
Anubis was a central figure in the Egyptian afterlife. He assisted Osiris in the Hall of Judgment to which the dead would first be conducted. He presided over the process of mummification, being often called “the one in the place of embalming.” And as a recumbent canine, sometimes colored black, he guarded the tomb.
Egyptians were impressed by jackals” navigational skills over desert tracks. In mythology a group of four towed the heavenly barque of the sun-god. The city of Asyut was the cult center for yet another canine god called Wep-wawet, whose name means “Opener of the Ways.” The main festival at Abydos saw a procession set out across the desert from the temple to the tomb of Osiris, at its head an image of Wep-wawet to “open the way.” People set up small memorial stones in the adjacent desert, some carved with short prayers and even tiny windows, which express a wish to see Wep-wawet and his procession.
40.
ROAD
Although the river Nile provided a fine means of travel from one part of the country to another, many journeys were made by land either on foot or on the back of a donkey, in a carrying chair or even by a wheeled vehicle. One hieroglyph depicts a length of road or track with borders on which grow trees or clumps of vegetation. It writes the word w3t ( wat ), which means both the “road” on which one treads and the “way” of doing something. To “open a way” is similar to the English “make one’s way.” It has the added meaning of removing obstacles from one’s path, rather like the English “make way for,” and was associated with the god Wep-wawet, “opener of the ways.”
We know almost nothing of land routes within ancient Egypt. We can assume that dirt tracks linked towns and villages, but whether kings initiated a road system, especially in later centuries when horse and chariot were common, we cannot tell. A picture of land travel and its dangers is provided by the story of a poor countryman, named Khun-anup, making his long way to market with his laden donkey. He takes a path between the riverbank and a field of barley. An unscrupulous agent of a rich man lays a linen cloth across the path. While the poor countryman protests at the blocking of his way, his donkey turns his head and eats a little of the barley, providing the agent with the excuse he was seeking to confiscate the donkey.
For those who traveled long distances on land, were there hostels where they could stay the night? A manual of advice by the sage Ankhsheshonk (late 1st millennium BC) argues against simply knocking on people’s doors: “Do not stay on the road till evening, saying ‘I am sure of the houses.’ You do not know the hearts of their inhabitants.”
41.
DONKEY
One will look in vain for a hieroglyph of a camel. Camels were latecomers to Egypt and were apparently not used even by the Egyptians” desert neighbors. The donkey was the universal beast of burden, carrying loads on tracks between villages
39.
JACKAL
Prominent among Egyptian images of death is a doglike animal, often called Anubis. But at Abydos, a holy site on the desert edge in Upper Egypt, the animal is called “The Foremost of the Westerners” ( Khenty-amentiu ). “Jackal” is a modern translation, but Egyptian images merged the characteristics of jackals, dogs, and foxes. All scavenge on the desert margins, are frequently nocturnal, and must in the past have found convenient homes in the deserted cemeteries. Jackals also emit an unearthly howling cry.
Anubis was a central figure in the Egyptian afterlife. He assisted Osiris in the Hall of Judgment to which the dead would first be conducted. He presided over the process of mummification, being often called “the one in the place of embalming.” And as a recumbent canine, sometimes colored black, he guarded the tomb.
Egyptians were impressed by jackals” navigational skills over desert tracks. In mythology a group of four towed the heavenly barque of the sun-god. The city of Asyut was the cult center for yet another canine god called Wep-wawet, whose name means “Opener of the Ways.” The main festival at Abydos saw a procession set out across the desert from the temple to the tomb of Osiris, at its head an image of Wep-wawet to “open the way.” People set up small memorial stones in the adjacent desert, some carved with short prayers and even tiny windows, which express a wish to see Wep-wawet and his procession.
40.
ROAD
Although the river Nile provided a fine means of travel from one part of the country to another, many journeys were made by land either on foot or on the back of a donkey, in a carrying chair or even by a wheeled vehicle. One hieroglyph depicts a length of road or track with borders on which grow trees or clumps of vegetation. It writes the word w3t ( wat ), which means both the “road” on which one treads and the “way” of doing something. To “open a way” is similar to the English “make one’s way.” It has the added meaning of removing obstacles from one’s path, rather like the English “make way for,” and was associated with the god Wep-wawet, “opener of the ways.”
We know almost nothing of land routes within ancient Egypt. We can assume that dirt tracks linked towns and villages, but whether kings initiated a road system, especially in later centuries when horse and chariot were common, we cannot tell. A picture of land travel and its dangers is provided by the story of a poor countryman, named Khun-anup, making his long way to market with his laden donkey. He takes a path between the riverbank and a field of barley. An unscrupulous agent of a rich man lays a linen cloth across the path. While the poor countryman protests at the blocking of his way, his donkey turns his head and eats a little of the barley, providing the agent with the excuse he was seeking to confiscate the donkey.
For those who traveled long distances on land, were there hostels where they could stay the night? A manual of advice by the sage Ankhsheshonk (late 1st millennium BC) argues against simply knocking on people’s doors: “Do not stay on the road till evening, saying ‘I am sure of the houses.’ You do not know the hearts of their inhabitants.”
41.
DONKEY
One will look in vain for a hieroglyph of a camel. Camels were latecomers to Egypt and were apparently not used even by the Egyptians” desert neighbors. The donkey was the universal beast of burden, carrying loads on tracks between villages
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