What's Alfred E. Newman doing in Tut's tomb?

I've been wanting to ask about this little guy for good while, and I finally re-discovered my long lost book that contains the photo!! So here he is....maybe one of the resident Egyptologist will be able to enlighten me..?? Please.?
Byrd are you out there??

I thought he looked so out of place when I first read this book. He didn't even seem to be executed with the same skill and care that the other figures were....normally even slaves are drawn beautifully!

Had Alfred E. Newman visited ancient Egypt??!! LOL!

He appears on a shrine from Tut's burial chamber, along with other figures...He's on the left. His face also appears among the hieroglyphs lower down in front of him, but they do not appear to give his 'name', since it is not written as a cartouche.




Quote from the text:

Detail from the second shrine, showing deities of the underworld whom Tut would have encountered in his journey after death.

This seems to be him again on another part of the same shrine....very small, above the full size figure of a goddess.

The goddess Nephthys whose winged arm protectively embraces the second gilt shrine, one of the four which encased the stone sarcophagus of Tutankhamun.

Photos and quoted material are from: "Tutankhamun, The last Journey" Published 1978 in the US, text and photography by William MacQuitty (MacQuitty International Collection, London)

This shrine is gilt over wood, and was one of four which encased the stone sarcophagus. These were huge and practically filled the burial chamber....the author mentions that they might have deterred tomb robbers since in the flickering light they may have looked like a solid wall, so were left untouched. (there were no photos in the book of any of the whole shrines, just a few photos of the details. They sound like 'screens' or 'prefab' cubicles that were freestanding, one inside the other.)

The author did not offer any more explanation or a name for him, even though he mentioned names for most of the other deities and figures that were shown.

I thought that I would eventually come across him in some other book on ancient Egypt, and my questions would be answered....but I've not noticed him. I've even done some looking on the net for him, not exhaustively I'll admit, but a fair amount. But again, no luck.....

So, who is he?? Why is he so homely? Is he more realistically rendered where the others are stylized? Does he appear anywhere else??

[edit on 17-2-2006 by frayed1]

I'll take a look around, but the first thing I noticed immediatly is that it's a front shot of a face. I thought all egyptian paintings and carvings were profile of the face. Interesting.

In almost all cases the head is represented from a side view in outline. In an Egyptian profile, not half but the whole eye stares out from the side of the head. The legs are also in profile, but the body is turned fully to the front, making the figure's body appear twisted. Walking figures have both feet flat on the ground, rather than having part of one foot lifted. Most men are shown in pleated linen kilts and women wear short-sleeved linen dresses. Gods are depicted larger than humans in the same scene.

LINK
-DT

Well, from the text you have it says it's Deities and the only diety I can find that was drawn head on like that was Bes. But that sure doesn't look like the dwarf god.

Exceptions were rare but nevertheless occurred sometimes to facilitate a certain movement of the arms. An interesting exception was the dwarf god Bes, who was depicted in two-dimensional art with his face seen from the front, just like in sculpture.

-DT

Not too easy to find pictures of eh? heh.
Anyways, here's a recreation of the front :




And one of the side...opposite of what you have I believe :




-DT

Thanks for the input, Derek!! Nice shot of the other part of the shrine, I don't think I've seen that one before.

If you find a good site with more of the stuff from Tut's tomb, drop me a link. Does a complete inventory exist online?? ( I'm betting there's a $ book somewhere with a full list, and photos of all, but I'm too strapped to be buying 'picture' books! LOL! Sigh.. )

I had looked at Bes, but he's usually shown with a beard. He's in the list on the left, along with a whole bunch of others...all of which I looked at! ( And the kings list as well.)
www.nemo.nu...

Could he be Amsit ? (Imsety, Mestha,or Ameshet) Human faced, son of Horus....guards the liver... right at home among the underworld types, but he has a different face, a much better looking guy! www.nemo.nu...

Maybe they had a, not so skilled temp artist in that day, or one who just decided to put himself into the 'crowd'.....I've know outdoor billboard painters to do things like that!! ( sort of 'Kilroy was here'.....)??

(Edit for speeling!)

[edit on 19-2-2006 by frayed1]

Hmm! I'm stumped!!

Originally posted by frayed1
Had Alfred E. Newman visited ancient Egypt??!! LOL!

SHHH!!!! DON'T TELL ANYONE!!!! It's a top secret CIA-Reptitling project called... Project Slurpee!

He appears on a shrine from Tut's burial chamber, along with other figures...He's on the left. His face also appears among the hieroglyphs lower down in front of him, but they do not appear to give his 'name', since it is not written as a cartouche.

Probably one of the guardians... a son of Horus is a good guess, but I'll have to go look and see who it might be.

This seems to be him again on another part of the same shrine....very small, above the full size figure of a goddess.

Actually, that's a word/symbol and not a representation of a person or god. It's pronounced 'har' (we think), and means 'face'. I thought it might also refer to 'Geb' (the symbol meaning 'geb' is beside that figure, along with the sign indicating 'give')

I don't think that it's one of the sons of Horus, because the faces of the others are all wrong: nefertiti.iwebland.com...

Is this the shrine that is the duplicate/model of the Shrine of Nekhbet?

(search...google.... search...search... hmmmm... search some more... intersting puzzle...)

Found a bit more information here:
touregypt.net...

You can see this same god in "the Book of the Netherworld" (upper right hand section of the picture) -- so the next part of the puzzle is to see if there's been further work on this particular book.

Originally posted by Byrd
Hmm! I'm stumped!!

(search...google.... search...search... hmmmm... search some more... intersting puzzle...)

Whoa! I stumped Byrd??! I'm sure that won't last for long!

Yep, there he is in the Book of the Netherworld......and he looks just as homely there, so that must be how he's supposed to look, not just one cockeyed artist's whim.....( perhaps there's more than one CIA leak!!LOL!)

Thanks, Byrd......glad I could pique your curiosity!

(PS If you're asking me if this the shrine that is the duplicate/model of the Shrine of Nekhbet, I have no idea.....my book just refers to it as 'the shrine'.)

.

Looks like George W. Bush to me!

WOW I didn't know King Tut loved MAD Magazine!

Don't know who the figure is but the hieroglyphics are probably part of a prayer:

In his hands, Geb holds his face.

or Giving Geb his face. (as in to gaze apon, this is a stretch because if I remember right there is a symbol for "to look apon/at or gaze apon")

Something along those lines anyway.

When I get home tonight I'll thumb through some of my old reference material and see if I find anything good.

[edit on 20-2-2006 by CasualOne]

little known fact, Alfred E. Newmankhamen (later shortened for obvious reasons) was an integral member of King Tut's inner circle of advisors. He was accused of syphoning funds into his own, far smaller, tomb and, when confronted, Newmankhamen devised the now celebrated "what me worry?" slogan.

He was ordered executed by young Tut, who sent his two best spies after the target. They somehow managed to kill him while they also made repeated attempts on eachother's lives.

there is an interesting article here on some reasons why a few of the hieroglyphs likes geb's & hathor's faced outwards - www.perceptionweb.com...

also, if you fancy a game of 'where's wally' there are more pictures of the book of the netherworld here - touregypt.net...

Originally posted by Crakeur
little known fact, Alfred E. Newmankhamen (later shortened for obvious reasons) was an integral member of King Tut's inner circle of advisors. He was accused of syphoning funds into his own, far smaller, tomb and, when confronted, Newmankhamen devised the now celebrated "what me worry?" slogan.

He was ordered executed by young Tut, who sent his two best spies after the target. They somehow managed to kill him while they also made repeated attempts on eachother's lives.

Aha!! I thought he looked shifty!

And, justyc, I have been playing 'where's wally' till my eyes are crossed and vision is blurred......why do they reproduce those illustrations of The Enigmatic Book of The Netherworld sooooo small!?

Thanks for those links, the second one is endless!! I've been reading and following link after link.....even came across the section showing much more of the shrines from Tut's tomb:
www.touregypt.net...

Where our 'faceman'...aka alfred, shows up in the section a of the enigmatic book of the netherworld, the group on the upper right......
touregypt.net...

.....the text says:

"The first two scenes in section A in the upper and lower register each display eight deities. Those in the upper register are in the "caverns of the Duat (?)" and reside in darkness..."

So he's a deity in the 'caverns of the duat'?? Is the 'book of caverns' connected/related to the caverns of duat? Here's the book of caverns:
www.touregypt.net...

Excellent research work, folks. Bravo! I'll add some more tomorrow.

Originally posted by frayed1
justyc, I have been playing 'where's wally' till my eyes are crossed and vision is blurred......why do they reproduce those illustrations of The Enigmatic Book of The Netherworld sooooo small!?

So he's a deity in the 'caverns of the duat'?? Is the 'book of caverns' connected/related to the caverns of duat? Here's the book of caverns:
www.touregypt.net...

well, a little help may come from this handy little (free) tool from here - magnifier.sourceforge.net...

book of caverns and the duat - EEK!!! trust me. you will get endlessly lost in fascinating research, but if you REALLY want to pursue this line, then look into the book of caverns, the book of gates and the book of am duat for info about the egyptian netherworld. as you will soon discover, its not something you can easily sum up here.

anyway, as i mentioned earlier, it is rare for forward facing faces to be portrayed but not unknown. an amazingly detailed example in hatshepsut's temple can be found here - www.geocities.com... and half a forward facing face can be seen on the cover of this mag - www.egyptology.com...

also, a forward facing line drawn face is usually the noun 'hr' (lots of examples here - www.hieroglyphs.net... )

happy hunting

I knew I shouldn't have taken my MAD magazine collection along on the time machine. I'm missing two copies along with my A-4 Skyhawk keychain.
I'm going to catch hell from the Professor for this.