Morph Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Contrary to modern usage the Ancient Egyptians
> orientated themselves to face southwards. "
>
>
> If they wanted to go North did they walk
> backwards...?

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Of course not. What is meant by this is that the Egyptian mental "map" was oriented to face the Nile flood source, which was south of Egypt.

Hence, as I noted in my research on Egyptian attitudes toward direction and orientation:

From the Egyptian viewpoint, the concepts of what was in front and rear also led to the extending beliefs of “left” or ”right” as value-laden concepts. Since the ancient Egyptians oriented themselves within their country from the direction of the Nile’s origin point (the south), the positive aspects of “front” and “back” also took on cardinal directional indicators from these basic physiological orientations, being south and north, respectively. Similarly, based upon the physiological orientation of front/rear, the right and left of the body also came to signify certain values in the Egyptian mind – based from the continuing flow of logic of directional bearings (Frankfort, Frankfort et al. 1977 <1946>: 43).

Cardinal directions – that is, north, south, east, and west – were, as noted above, derived as objective points from the original physiological orientation of the body in space. The function of cardinal directions is to define places external to the body at far points. However, defined directions are more than functional: they are the “...zones which serve for orientation within the world of empirical perception: each [direction] has a specific reality and significance of its own, an inherent mythical life” (Cassirer 1955: 98). For the ancient Egyptian, such directions were terms used for the limits of creation, drawing of borders between the inhabited and controlled lands of divine creation and the world’s original undefined state (Brunner 1957: 614).



In the Egypto-centred universe, the definition of the four cardinal directions was originally conceived in relation to geographic and physiological indicators, as we have shown (See Fig.1, supra). Orienting themselves in their land from the direction of the Nile River’s flow, the “top of the map” for the ancient Egyptian world view began from the south.



From this facing direction, body directional values were associated with the corresponding cardinal directions, which later took on symbolic, cultic and ritual dimensions as the reflection of the cosmos was extended to major aspects of Egyptian life (Brunner 1957: 617; O'Connor 1995: 274; Wilkinson 2000: 62 ff.) (See Fig. 2, supra). Thus, “west” was deemed as a “positive” direction linked with the right hand, while “east” was linked to the left hand, with a less favourable status, particularly in the New Kingdom (Morenz 1975: 281). The direction of “north” seems to have held a negative or ambivalent position in value, although it was relegated to the idea (following from the Egyptian southerly orientation of direction), as a direction behind a person’s orienting perception (Frankfort, Frankfort et al. 1977 <1946>: 43). As Frankfort further notes, it should be taken as significant that elements for the phrase for “northernmost border,” /pHww/ are also to be found in the expression of /Xr pHwi/, also has the meaning of “behind” and “subordinate,” while the phrase /Hr pHwi/ carries the sense of being “behind one’s head” (Frankfort, Frankfort et al. 1977 <1946>: 43; Hannig 2000: 914a, 633a and 633b, respectively). (Griffis 2002: 13-16)

Reference:

Brunner, H. 1957. Zum Raumbegriff der Ägypter. Studium Generale 10: 612-620.

Cassirer, E. 1955. The Philosophy of Symbolic Forms. Vol. Two: Mythical Thought. R. Manheim. New Haven and London: Yale University Press.

Frankfort, H., H. A. Frankfort, et al. 1977 <1946>. The Intellectual Adventure of Ancient Man: An Essay on Speculative Thought in the Ancient Near East. Oriental Institute Essay. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

Griffis, K. 2002. Traversing the Far-Land: Post-Amarna through early Ramesside Royal Tombs as Sacred Landscapes in Ancient Egypt. M. A. Thesis (Egyptian Archaeology) (Unpublished). Institute of Archaeology. University College London: London.

Hannig, R. 2000. Die Sprache der Pharaonen: Großes Handwörterbuch Deutsch-Ägyptisch (2800 - 950 v. Chr.). Lexica 3. Kulturegeschichte der Antiken Welt 86. Mainz: von Zabern.

Morenz, S. 1975. Rechts und Links im Totengericht. Johannes Leipoldt zum 75 Geburtstag in Verehrung und Dankarbeit. In E. Blumenthal, S. Hermann and A. Onasch, (ed.), Siegfried Morenz: Religion und Geschichte des alten Ägypten. Gesammelte Aufsätze: 281-294. Köln/Wien: Böhlau Verlag.

O'Connor, D. 1995. Beloved of Maat, the Horizon of Re: The Royal Palace in New Kingdom Egypt. In D. O'Connor and D. P. Silverman, (ed.), Ancient Egyptian Kingship: 263-300. Probleme der Ägyptologie Bd. 9. W. Helck. Leiden: Brill.

Wilkinson, R. H. 2000. Gesture. In D. B. Redford, (ed.), The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt, 2: 20-24. Oxford: Oxford University Press.

HTH.

Katherine Griffis-Greenberg

Doctoral Candidate
Oriental Institute
Doctoral Programme in Oriental Studies [Egyptology]
Oxford University
Oxford, United Kingdom