Byrd Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> I think you may be trying to view the ancient
> Egyptians through the eyes of moderns.
>
> Bob Wrote:
> --------------------------------------------------
> -----
> > [ one might well ask what the 50 yr old
> Hatshepsut
> > was doing in the same tomb as her wet-nurse,
> but
> > we'll press on ].
>
> Actually, these wet nurses were members of the
> royal family who had been assigned these duties.
> She may have been the daughter-wife or
> sister-wife, etc, of Hatshepsut's father and held
> other titles in her lifetime.
>
> While we dismiss wet nurses as unimportant in our
> society, to the royals of ancient Egypt they were
> quite important.

I have the upmost respect for wet-nurses, and would certainly welcome one or two in my own tomb.


> > firstly..., why would a tooth in any casket
> > inscribed with a pharoah's name necessarily
> have
> > anything to do with that particular pharoah[
> maybe
> > someone just had toothache and hoped for a
> > reprieve by positing an old tooth into the
> shrine
> > of a powerful personage]
>
> Because the tombs were hidden. If they were going
> to do that (you mention something that's an
> European practice but not an ancient Egyptian
> practice), then they would take the tooth to one
> of the temple shrines.
>
> > And the other thing.., even Zahi had to admit
> that
> > the cadaver of this particular mummy was not
> that
> > of your average run-of-the-mill ancient AE
> beauty
> > queen..., which is seriously at odds with the
> few
> > unmutilated effigies of Hatshepsut.., who was
> a
> > delight to the eye.., a real little charmer.
>
> I've seen the images (the tour of the Hatshepsut
> material came to Dallas last year) in person, and
> frankly they're not 'beauties' but rather the
> fstandard and stylized portraiture of the day.
> Hatshepsut was not necessarily beautiful... or
> even pretty. But she was powerful and could have
> her portrait done to suit her.

> Heck, if I was going to order a portrait for
> posterity, I assure you it wouldn't be of this
> longhaired dumpy little middle aged woman (which I
> am) but an athletic and young and vibrant and
> attractive woman (which I never was.)

I would also have welcomed you even as a longhaired, dumpy little middle-aged woman in my own tomb, Byrdy- along with that brace of wetnurses- just think of what a party we could have had.

cheers,