Magical Bricks and the Bricks of Birth

Egypt Exploration Society
Magical Bricks and the Bricks of Birth
Author(s): Ann Macy Roth and Catharine H. Roehrig
Source: The Journal of Egyptian Archaeology, Vol. 88 (2002), pp. 121-139
Published by: Egypt Exploration Society
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3822340 .
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MAGICALBRICKSAND THE BRICKSOF BIRTH*
By ANN MACY ROTH and CATHARINEH. ROEHRIG
Four mud-bricks inscribed with spells from Chapter 151 of the Book of the Dead are often found in the burial
chambers of royal and elite tombs dating from the New Kingdom. These bricks can be shown to represent the four
bricks that supported women during childbirth. The use of bricks in a mortuary context is thus metaphorical,
replicating the equipment of an earthly birth in order to ensure the deceased's rebirth into the other world. Such
bricks may also have been used in the 'Opening of the Mouth' ritual, both at funerals and in temple foundation
ceremonies. In connection with their role at birth, bricks also appear at the judgment a person faced after death.
Like other artifacts surroundingbirth in Egypt, bricks of birth had parallels in ancient Mesopotamia.
Magical bricks: the archaeologicalevidence
the New Kingdom, four magical bricks were often placed in niches in the burial
DURING
chambersof royal tombs, and in some privatetombs and burialsof the Apis bull as well.'
two
The bricks and their associatedfigures were preservedin the tomb of Tutankhamun;2
bricks were found in the tomb of Horemheb,3 and, surprisingly,bricks inscribed for
AmenhotepIV/Akhenatonwere foundin KV 55.4 Otherinscribedbricksbearthe namesof
AmenhotepII, ThutmoseIV, and two Apis bulls buriedin the reigns of AmenhotepIII and
Ramesses II,5 as well as variousqueens and privateindividuals.
Each of these four bricks was associatedwith one of four amuleticfigures:a recumbent
jackal on a shrine,a mummiformimage, a reed thatrepresenteda flame, and a djed-pillar.
Usually the bricks bore the text of a spell from Chapter 151 of the Book of the Dead,
* Some of the argumentsin this articlewere presentedby A. M. Roth at the Holmansymposiumat FordhamUniversity
in 1994; in a talk for the Religious Studies departmentat the University of Pennsylvaniain 1994; and at the Annual
Meeting of theAmericanResearchCenterin Egypt in 1997. The authorsaregratefulfor the commentsof these audiences
and also to Kent R. Weeks, for allowing them to draw upon the field records of the ThebanMappingProject,most of
which have now been publishedin K. R. Weeks (ed.), Atlas of the Valleyof the Kings (Publicationsof the ThebanMapping Project 1; Cairo, 2000).
1The principalpreviousstudiesarethose of E. Naville, 'Les quatresteles orienteesdu Musee de Marseille',in Comptes
rendusdu congresprovincialdes orientalistes,Thirdsession, I (Lyons, 1878), 275-93; J. Monnet, 'Les briquesmagiques
du Musee du Louvre', RdE 8 (1951), 150-62; E. Thomas, 'The Four Niches and Amuletic Figures in Theban Royal
Tombs',JARCE3 (1964), 71-8; and M. Heermavan Voss, 'An EgyptianMagical Brick', JEOL 18 (1965), 314-18. For a
recent additionto the corpus of non-royal bricks, see D. P. Silverman,'Magical Bricks of Hunuro',in P. Der Manuelian
and R. Freed (eds), Studies in Honor of WilliamKellySimpson(Boston, 1996), II, 725-41.
2 N. Reeves, The CompleteTutankhamun
(London, 1990), 71.
3 T. M. Davis et al., The Tombsof Harmhabiand Touatdnkhamanou
(London,1912), 106.
4 M. Bell, 'AnArmchairExcavationof KV 55', JARCE27 (1990), 103, no. 17, describesthe northernbrick, the most
legible, as inscribedfor Nfr-hprw-R'w'-n-R',a prenomenthatis used both duringhis earlierreign as AmenhotepIV and
his laterreign as Akhenaton.The northernand southernbrickswere largerand bettermade than the easternand western
ones, which were inscribedin hieraticratherthanhieroglyphic.Thomas,JARCE3, 75, states thatthe owner's name was
not preservedon either of these cruderbricks, and they may have belonged to someone else.
5 Monnet,RdE 8. 150-62.
122
ANN MACY ROTHand CATHARINEH. ROEHRIG
I
JEA 88
North- Mummiform
Image
Castsdownthecaster-down
and
pushesasidethepusher-aside
West- DiedPillar
Keepsofftheone whosesteps
arebackwards
andwhoseface
is hidden
'
East- AnubisJackal
Repelstheangerand
rageof an inimical
being
South- Reed/Flame
Prevents
sandfromchoking
thesecretchamber
FIG. 1. A diagram showing the protective functions and amuletic figures associated with the
magical bricks in Book of the Dead Chapter 151, aligned according to the cardinal
points specified in their spells.
describingthe protectivefunction of the amuletic figure and a cardinalpoint designating
the wall into which they were to be inserted(see fig. 1).6In these spells, the jackal is identified as the god Anubis, but the other figures are not explicitly identifiedwith divinities.7
The full text of this chapter,given in Book of the Dead manuscripts,8gives detailedinstructions for the treatmentof the bricksand figures:the bricksare to be unbaked;the mouthof
the mummiformimage is to be opened;andthe djed-pillaris to be of faience andelectrum,
anointed,andwrappedin royallinen. The figuresareto be attachedto the bricksandplaced
in niches cut in the appropriatewalls of the burial chamber.The niches should then be
covered. In one case, the preparationof the bricks is said to requirean officiant who has
neithereaten fish and small cattle nor approacheda woman.
Despite these specific directions,the placementof the bricksandfiguresvariesconsiderably in the few depositions preservedin situ. In the tomb of Tutankhamun,the sole royal
burialchamberin which all four niches were found with theircontents sealed inside, only
the mummiformimage and its brick were in their properposition in the north wall. The
jackal and its brick were placed in the west wall ratherthanthe east; the djed-pillarand its
brick were in the south wall ratherthan the west; and an anomalousfigure of Osiris was
attachedto the brickassociatedwith the flame, which was set in the east wall ratherthanthe
6 The translationsof these protective actions, which seem to vary somewhat, are here taken from those given by
Thomas,JARCE3, 71, which are in turnbased upon Gardiner'stranslations.Morerecenttranslationsinto German,based
on a collation of all the published and many unpublishedsources, may be found in B. Liischer, Untersuchungenzu
TotenbuchSpruch151 (Studienzum altagyptischenTotenbuch2; Wiesbaden,1998), 258-9, 262-3, 267-8, 271-2. These
spells were also occasionally inscribeddirectlyon the amuletas well, for example, on a djed-pillarin the Saqqaratomb of
Maya. See M. J. Raven, The Tombof Maya and Meryt, II: Objects and Skeletal Remains (Egypt ExplorationSociety
ExcavationMemoir65; Leiden, 2001), 5, 48 and pi. 21, 38. (We are indebtedto the commentsof a JEA reviewerfor this
reference.)
7 M. J. Raven, 'PapyrusSheaths and Ptah-Sokar-OsirisStatues', OMRO59-60 (1978-9), 251-96, has discussed the
mummiformfigure as one of a numberof possible precursorsfor the Ptah-Sokar-Osirispapyrussheathsof laterperiods.
He points out thatthe figure (often called a shabtiin secondarydiscussions)is designatedin the spell only as a twt, thatis,
a male statue.
8 The four parts of this Chapter associated with the bricks are sections 151 d through g. See Lischer, Untersuchungen
zu TotenbuchSpruch151, 170-204.
2002
MAGICALBRICKS
123
south.9 A fifth brick, accompaniedby a reed and inscribed with the spell that normally
accompaniesthe flame, was found to the east of the burialchamber,at the entranceto the
'Treasury'.10Furthermore,althoughthe full text of Chapter151 directsthatonly the djedpillar was to be wrappedin linen, the priestswho preparedTutankhamun'sburialwrapped
in linen all the amuleticfigures placed in niches exceptthe djed-pillar.1T
Variationsin the natureof the amuleticfigures and the disposition of the bricks are not
unique to Tutankhamun'sburial.Among bricks of AmenhotepII, the only two surviving
figures were both jackals, one associated correctly with the eastern brick and the other,
incorrectly,with the southernbrick.12In the tomb of ThutmoseIV, the jackal and its brick
were found partiallysealed into a niche on the south side of the sarcophagusinsteadof the
east.13In KV 55, althoughthe bricks were found in the properrelationshipto one another,
each deviated from its properposition by 270?.14 M. Bell has argued,however, that the
tomb had a theoreticalorientationdifferentfrom its true orientation;in terms of the theoretical cardinaldirections,the bricks in KV 55 were accuratelyplaced.15Her discussion
raises the perplexingquestion of how the ancientEgyptiansunderstoodthe orientationof
the burialchamber,andthe properpositions of the brickswithinit, which will not, however,
be dealt with here.16The anomalies in the placement of the bricks also occur in private
tombs: in TT 32, fragmentsof two westernbricks were found, perhapsto compensatefor
the lack of an easternone.17Contraryto the spell's instructions,the brickniches in the later
9 For the positions of the bricks and illustrationsof them, see Reeves, CompleteTutankhamun,
71.
10The location of the flame and its brick is describedby HowardCarterin The Tombof Tutankhamen:Discovered by
the Late Earl of Carnarvonand Howard Carter,III (London, 1933), 33. This brick appearsin none of HarryBurton's
photographsof the tomb's interior,but from Carter'spublishedaccount,one gets the impressionthat it was on the floor
between the carryingpoles of the largeAnubisfigure.Unlike the examplesfrom othertombs,Tutankhamun's
jackal brick
seems to have been fashioned as a crudeminiatureof this image of Anubis crouchedon his gilt pylon.
11Reeves, CompleteTutankhamun,
71.
12Thomas,JARCE3, 74.
13H. Carterand P. E. Newberry,The Tombof ThoutmosisIV (Westminster,1904), 10. This is actuallythe south-west
wall, but the Egyptiansunderstoodit as the south; see n. 16 below.
14For placementof these bricks, see Bell, JARCE27, 111 fig. 5.
15JARCE27, 116-17. The apparentancientorientationof the tomb, which was followed by Ayrton,took truewest as
north.
16Few of the royal burialchambersare orientedprecisely on the cardinalpoints, and only two preservea clear indication of what the Egyptiansunderstoodas the orientationof the burialchamber.In the tomb of Horemhab(KV 57), the
walls of the crypt, which is located at the far end of the burialchamber,are inscribedwith the cardinalpoints: the back
wall is 'north', the rightwall is 'east', the wall parallelto the entrancewall is 'south', andthe left wall is 'west'. Thus, in
this tomb, the sarcophagushas its head oriented towardthe east. In the tomb of TuthmoseIII, the twelve hours of the
Amduatare arrangedaroundthe walls in such a way thatit is clear thatthe left wall as one enterswas understoodas north,
the far wall as east, the right wall as south, and the entrancewall as west. In this tomb, then, the head of the sarcophagus
is orientednorth.
In KV 55, the only tomb in which four brickshave been found placed in the properrelationshipto one another(butnot
in actualconjunctionwith the cardinalpoints), they were placed so as to protectthe entireroom and all of its contentsthe shrineof Tiye as well as the wooden coffin thatmay have containedher son, Akhenaten,whose nameis writtenon two
of the bricks.If one assumesthatMarthaBell's reconstructionof the burialchamberis correct,andthatthe wooden coffin
was found more or less in situ, the head of this coffin was oriented south (accordingto the bricks), and the shrine is
orientedwith its front to the west.
There seems, in fact, to be no consistent orientationof the body in the royal tombs, althoughthe head is most often
placed eitherto the northor to the west.
17L. Kakosy, 'Magical Bricks from TT 32', in J. H. Kamstra,H. Milde, and K. Wagtendonk(eds), FunerarySymbols
and Religion: Essays Dedicated to M. S. H. G. Heerma van Voss(Kampten,1988), 60-2. Kakosy associates the second
westernbrick with the extrabrick in the tomb of Tutankhamun.
124
ANN MACY ROTHand CATHARINEH. ROEHRIG
JEA 88
royal tombs were not covered, and some bricks were baked.'8Clearly,the magical bricks
and images were often incorrectlypreparedand placed.
Althoughthe bricks themselves are rarelypreserved,niches for them are found in most
royaltombsfromthe middleof the EighteenthDynasty (AmenhotepII) throughthe middle
of the Nineteenth Dynasty (Mereptah), and possibly also in the tomb of Ramesses III.
Like the in situ deposits,they show considerablevariationin placement(see Table1). Niches
have also been noted in the tombs of several contemporaryqueens, including Sit-Re,
Nefertari, and Bint-Anti,'9and in KV 5, the tomb of the sons of Ramesses II. No niches
have been found in privatetombs, wherethe bricksseem simply to have been placed on the
floor aroundthe burialchamber.This type of distributionis found in KV 55 and may also
have occurredin the earliestroyaltombs, KV 38, KV 20, and KV 34, whereno niches have
been identified.20
TABLE1. The Placement of Magical BrickNiches in New KingdomRoyal Tombs2'
low
Layout
paired
pairedor
4 walls
paired
Location
sides of sarcophagus
ends/sides of sarcophagus
or symmetrical22
sides of sarcophagus
floor
4 walls
clustered at theoretical west23
low
low
high
high
high
high
mid-height
mid-height
4 walls
4 walls
paired
paired
paired
paired
paired?
two only
clusteredat west
symmetrical
ends of sarcophagus
ends of sarcophagus
ends of sarcophagus
ends of sarcophagus
sides of sarcophagus
ends of sarcophagus
Tomb
KV 35
KV 43
Owner
AmenhotepII
ThutmoseIV
Placement
low
low
WV 22
AmenhotepIII
KV 55
?
KV 62
WV 23
KV 57
KV 16
KV 17
KV 7
KV 8
KV 11
Tutankhamun
Ay
Horemheb
Ramesses I
Seti I
Ramesses II
Memeptah
Ramesses III
18For bakedexamples, see D. Silverman,'Magical Bricks of Hunro', in P. Der Manuelian(ed.), Studies in Honor of
WilliamKellySimpson(Boston, 1996), II, 732-3, who suggests thatit was only importantthatthe bricksbe unbakedprior
to theirinscription.Bricksmight also be bakedduringsubsequentfires in the tomb.However,it seems morelikely thatthe
baking of some brickswas simply anotherof the many ways in which the spell's instructionswere disregarded.
19Thomas, JARCE3, 72. She suggests that the tombs of four other queens, Mut-tuy,Nebet-tawy,Meryt-Amun,and
Henutmi-Re,also had such niches.
20 It seems likely thatthe burialof ThutmoseIII includedbrickssince two brickswere found in the privatetomb of his
(TT 82). It is even possible that brick niches lie concealed beneaththe paintedwalls of the
contemporary,Amenemnhat
burialchamberin ThutmoseIII's tomb (KV 34), or that they were unrecognizablein the crumblingwalls of KV 20, the
tomb of Hatshepsut.
21This list adds three tombs to those listed by Thomas, JARCE3, 72: those of AmenhotepII (strangelyomitted by
Thomas),Memeptah,and Ramesses III. The two latterare somewhatanomalous,Memeptahcontainingmultipleniches,
and Ramesses III only two. The position of niches was determinedusing the notes and plans of the ThebanMapping
Project,generouslymade availableby its director,KentR. Weeks.A travelgrantfromThe MetropolitanMuseumof Art
to C. H. Roehrigallowed her to check and expandupon this information.
22The existence of eight possible brickniches in KV 43 (seven in the cryptareaandone largerectanglepaintedon the
south wall of the burialchamber,just to the left of the entrance)can be interpretedin both ways. The unfinishedniches
may representfalse starts,or they could indicatean evolving understandingof the meaningof the niches and the bricks.
23Therewere no brickniches in the burialchamberof KV 55, butthe placementof the bricksin the chamberresembles
the arrangementof the niches in KV 62, Tutankhamun'stomb.This tomb is includedfor comparison.
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MAGICALBRICKS
125
In the royaltombs wherebrickniches exist, the niches arenearlyalways carvedin the walls
thatimmediatelysurroundthe sarcophagus.Thus, in fully realizedtombs wherepartof the
burialchamberfloor was cut away to form a crypt for the sarcophagus,the brick niches
were cut into the walls of the cryptandnot placed aroundthe burialchamberas a whole. In
abbreviatedtombs, where the complete royal plan was never achieved,the burialchamber
itself served as a crypt-its floor sunk well below the level of the preceding corridoror
chamber,and brick niches carvedinto its walls.24
The height of the niches also varies.Fromthe tomb ofAmenhotep II throughthe tomb of
Ay (KV 35, WV 22, KV 62, WV 23), the niches were usually placed relativelylow, about
ohane The
m above the floor, never exceedingthe height of the sarcophagus.
exception is
the tomb of Thutmose IV (KV 43), where the two niches cut in the pillar were 2.85 and
of th crypt.However,in Horemheb'stombthroughthatof Ramesses
2.28 m abovethe floorther
1
II (KV 57, KV 16, KV 17, KV 7) the niches were placed muchhigher,only about 15-20 cm
below the ceiling.
The increasedheight of the niches may be relatedto anotherchange that seems to have
takenplace duringHoremheb'sreign.The brickniches foundin earlierEighteenthDynasty
tombs were closed and covered with plaster,following the instructionslaid out in Chapter
151 25In the tombsbuiltfor Horemheb,Seti I, andRamessesII, however,the niches seem to
have been left open.26These later tombs differ from the tombs with closed niches in that
they are decoratedwith relief ratherthan simply painted decoration.In the intervening
tomb of Ramesses I (KV 16), which was again simply painted,the niches are placed near
the ceiling in the walls at the head andfoot of the sarcophagus,butthese were coveredwith
plasterandpaintedover as in the earlierEighteenthDynastytombs. Since the placing of the
bricksand amuletsandthe closing of the niches with plasterprobablytook place duringthe
funeraryritual,there would not have been time to decoratethe areas over the niches with
the relief found in the rest of the tomb.The change in height may reflect securityconcerns,
as suggested by Thomas,27but it may also reflect a change in the beliefs aboutthe bricks
themselves.
The niches were usually paired. In the earliest tombs, they were pairedin the walls on
either side of the sarcophagus,but in laterperiods,the niches were overwhelminglypaired
on the walls at its head and foot. The most intriguing of the early tombs is that of
ThutmoseIV,where seven niches were laid out aroundthe crypt:two at the head andtwo at
24This is true of the tombs of Tutankhamun,Ay, and Ramesses I.
25Thomas,JARCE3 73-4, cites Carter'sexcavationaccountsmentioningthatthe 'secret'niches were 'plasteredover
andcolored to matchthe finishedwall', in the case of Tutankhamun'stomb, and 'plasteredover', in the case of Thutmose
IV's tomb. The brick niches in the tomb of AmenhotepII also seem to have been plasteredover and paintedto blend in
partiallywith the dado of the wall decoration.However,the niches in these tombs were nevertrulyhiddenfrom view. The
plasterclosing of AmenhotepII's niches bulges out from the surfaceof the walls; ThutmoseIV's burialchamberwas left
completely undecorated;andin Tutankhamun'stomb, the niche in the east wall was carvedinto an undecoratedsection of
the wall, and the smoothedplasterover the otherthreeniches would have made them easily detectable,as one can see in
HarryBurton'sphotographsof the tomb.
26The tomb of Seti I (KV 17) shows this especially clearly, since the decorationhas been designed to incorporatethe
niches ratherthanhide them.
27JARCE3, 76-7. Thomasarguedthatthe earlyniches were originallycut low because a largeniche cut into the upper
partof a pillar might have weakenedit structurally.In the latertombs, all niches were cut into the walls of the chamber
itself ratherthan the pillars, which allowed them to be cut higher,perhapsto protecttheir contents duringthe funeral.
However,the niches cut for magical bricks were shallow, and regardlessof theirheight above the floor would not have
significantlyweakenedpillars, as demonstratedby the two niches cut high in a pillarin the tomb of ThutmoseIV.
126
ANN MACY ROTHand CATHERINEH. ROEHRIG
JEA 88
the foot of the sarcophagus;two morein one of the pillarson the left side; anda third,larger
niche in the wall on the right side of the sarcophagus.It is possible that the bricks were
placedin theseside niches,sinceone was foundin situin the lowerpillarniche.It is interesting
that the two niches in the pillar are positioned one above the other, and the single large
niche in the wall opposite is big enough to have accommodatedtwo bricks,one stackedon
the other,perhapsseparatedby a shelf.28
In the threetombs built immediatelyafterthe AmarnaPeriod,the niches were cut in all
four walls of the burialchamber.In KV 23 (Ay), the niches areevenly spaced,but in KV 62
(Tutankhamun)the niches in the northernand southernwalls were placed towardsthe far
western end, so that the northern,southern,and western niches clusteredtogether in the
western partof the tomb. The four bricks found in KV 55 also form a pattern,with three
bricks clusteredtowardsthe theoreticalwestern end of the tomb (actuallythe south), although only the western brick was placed in a niche.29This clusteringat the west may be
relatedto the fact thatthe headof the sarcophaguswas placedto the west.30KV 5, the burial
place of several sons of Ramesses II, has four apparentbrick niches in one large chamber,
and these cluster to the northas well as the west, that is, the niches in the northand south
wall are placed towardsthe west, while those in the east and west walls areplaced towards
the north.31Placementon all four walls was also preferredin three queens' tombs dating
from the early NineteenthDynasty,but they seem to have been positioned symmetrically,
like those in the tomb of Ay.32
It is clear from the archaeologicalevidence that actualplacementof magical bricks and
niches within the burialchamber,and even the pairingof the bricks with their associated
magical figures, vary considerablyfrom what is prescribedin Chapter151. These variations may be the resultof alternativetraditionsor theological developments.
Book of the Dead Chapter 151: the theoretical positions
Chapter151 of the Book of the Dead appearson papyriand occasionally on tomb walls as
a griddedvignette (see fig. 2). At the centerof the vignette,the mummyof the deceasedlies
on a lion bed under a canopy, tended by Anubis. The mourningsisters take their accustomed places, Nephthysat the head of the mummyandIsis at the foot, andthe four sons of
Horusare depictedin the cornersof the scene. Along the four sides areplaced the amuletic
28The bricksmay also have been stackedin the tomb of RamessesIII, wherethereare
only two niches, both tallerthan
they are wide.
29Diagramsof these placementscan be seen in Reeves, CompleteTutankhamun,
85; Bell, JARCE27, 111. The 'niche'
in KV 55 was probablythe beginningof a storagechamber,and was certainlynot a standardbrickniche.
30The head of Tutankhamunwas clearlypositionedto the west. The coffin found in KV 55 was placed with its head to
actual east (theoreticalsouth), and thus does not correlatewith the clusteringof the bricks towardsthe theoreticalwest;
however,this coffin is usuallythoughtto havebeen secondary.The positionsof the panels of the burialshrinesuggest that
the originalburialwas placed along the theoreticaleast-west axis of the chamber,althoughif the head was at the theoretical west, the body must have been insertedinto the shrinefeet first, in contrastto the placementof Tutankhamun.
31Weeks (ed.), Atlas of the Valleyof the Kings, sheets 12 and 14. This chamber,numbered5 on
plans of the Theban
MappingProject,is to the northof the great pillaredhall in the tomb. No sarcophagusor burialhas been found in the
chamber,but it has not yet been fully excavated.(The middle cross-section on sheet 14 cuts throughroom 5, apparently
bisecting the niches on the northernand southernwall; the southernniche is not shown.) We are gratefulto E. Brock for
bringingthese niches to our attention.
32Judgingfrom plans publishedby Thomasin TheRoyal Necropoleisof Thebes(Princeton,1966), 215, andmeasurements made by the ThebanMappingProjectin 1980, the niches in these tombs areroughly symmetricallyplaced around
the burialchambers,allowing for the positions of doorways.
2002
MAGICALBRICKS
I
I
127
~~~LeL----~~~~~~~
--Nk
I
FIG. 2. The vignette depicting Book of the Dead Chapter 151 in the tomb of Sennefer (TT 96)
(accompanying texts omitted).
figures, accompaniedby their spells. The rectanglesof the grid that sometimes surrounds
them may representthe magical bricksthemselves.With some consistency,the southbrick
and the flame associatedwith it areplaced at the head of the mummy,while the northbrick
with the mummiformfigure is at its feet.33The othertwo bricks are consistently oriented
with respectto the top andbottomof the scene, ratherthanthe mummy:the djed-pillarand
west brickare shown at the top andthe figureof Anubis on his shrineandthe east brickare
at the bottom. The position of these last two figures with respect to the cardinal points was
thus accurateonly when the mummywas turnedso thatits head was to the left and its feet
to the right, as it is in figure 2. In most examples, however,the head is to the right and the
feet to the left, the conventionalorientationof a recumbantfigure in a right-to-lefthieroglyphic inscription,and in such cases, the bricks associated with the djed-pillarand the
jackal are not correctlyplaced.
The arrangementof the figures andthe bricksaroundthe mummyof the deceased makes
it clear thatthe centralpartof the vignetterepresentsthe burialchamber,or more likely the
burialcrypt.34 The positions of the bricks illustratethe placementin the surroundingfour
walls prescribedin the accompanyingspells. As noted above, however,this distributionis
rarein the Valley of the Kings. In the royal tombs where the niches were paired,the place33This would imply thatbodies of the dead were theoreticallyorientedwith theirhead to the south;in fact, the actual
orientationis extremelyinconsistentduringthe New Kingdom,althoughnorthand,to a lesser extent, west seem to be the
most popularorientationsfor the head of the mummy (see n. 16 above).
34This has been pointedout previously;see, for example,N. Davies andA. Gardiner,TheTombofAmenemhet(No. 82)
(ThebanTombSeries 1; London, 1915), 116-18; R. 0. Faulkner,The Book of the Dead (Austin, 1990), 146 and 148.
128
ANN MACY ROTH and CATHARINE H. ROEHRIG
JEA 88
ment of the bricksand the guardianfigures was necessarilydifferentfrom the four cardinal
points prescribedin the spells accompanyingthem. The bricks of ThutmoseIV, for example, were all inscribedwith spells indicatingone of the cardinalpoints, despite the fact that
they were probablypairedat the northand south of the crypt.35This consistentinaccuracy
suggests thatthe prescribedpositions of the bricksat the four cardinalpoints were, in most
royaltombs, subordinatedto a strongerreasonfor arrangingthe bricksin pairs.These alternativepositions, it will be arguedbelow, are relatedto the natureand origin of the bricks.
A parallelto this discrepancycan be seen in the placementof the canopic deities in the
Chapter151 vignette at the four angles of the burialchamber.To judge from the burialof
Tutankhamunand the remains of four-compartmented canopic chests inscribed for
Hatshepsut,ThutmoseI, Akhenaton,and Horemheb,in an actualroyal burialthe canopic
organs were placed togetherand apartfrom the sarcophagus,ratherthan at the corers of
the burialchamber.In the case of Tutankhamun,the organsseem to have been placed in the
compartmentsof the canopicbox in roughlythe same arrangementthatthey had had inside
the king's body, and the box was orientedin the same way, with the upperorgans to the
west, just as the head of the body was to the west (see fig. 3).36 In the body, the lungs lie
above the liver and stomach,but the liver does lie on the properright side of the body (that
is, on the left to an observer)and the stomach on the properleft (right for an observer),
slightly lower than the liver. The intestines lie below both. The canopic box would have
more exactly duplicatedthe naturalpositions of the organhad it been turnedslightly counter-clockwise;however,the position of the liver and lungs, with the liver on the left, above
(thatis, to the west of) the stomachand intestines,with the stomachon the right,represents
a schematicreplacementof the organsin theirnaturalpositions.
//
/
I
-?
a
I Lung
Lung
'
/ 'Liver
/Liver
Y/
'
Xi
"
Liver Lungs
"
e
Intes- Stotines mach
Stomach
(b)
( a
FIG.
)
D(a)
N
3. A comparison between the alignment of the canopic organs in the human body (a) and the
alignment of the canopic compartments in the canopic chest of Tutankhamun(b).
35 Carter and Newberry, Tomb of Thoutmosis IV, 9-10.
36 The relative positions have been deduced from the
diagram provided by Reeves, Complete Tutankhamun, 120, and
the orientationwas determinedby in situ photographsof the shrine.
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MAGICALBRICKS
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In the vignette for Chapter151 of the Book of the Dead, the naturalplacementhas been
modified. Although the arrangementof the four sons of Horus with respect to each other
mimics that of Tutankhamun'scanopic chest, and also the normal arrangementof these
deities when they are depictedon a coffin or sarcophagus,37the organsare separated,lying
in each of the four cornersof the schematicburialchamber,ratherthantogetheras they are
in the body and in the canopic chest. Thereis thus a tension between a theoreticalconfigurationof the internalorgans,depictedprotectivelyaroundthe mummy in the Chapter151
vignette, and their actualposition in the burial,where they were placed togetherin a schematic duplicationof their naturalpositions, perhapsfor more effective functioning.Like
the actualplacementof the canopic organs,the position of the magical bricks in the tomb
chambermay representtheir natural,functionalposition in life, as opposed to their theoreticalposition in the Chapter151 vignette.
Magical bricks as bricks of birth
Previousstudiesof magicalbrickshavenot investigatedwhy suchhomelyobjectsas unbaked
mud-bricksshouldbe includedamongroyalandelite burialequipment.While the equipment
and rituals the Egyptians used to ensure resurrectionafter death could be derived from
many sources (creationmyths; the accounts of the resurrectionof Osiris; the path of the
sun; andritualsconnectedwith temples, statuededications,offeringsto the gods, androyal
coronations),ordinarymud-bricksplay no role in any of these. The richest sourceof metaphors for a resurrectionafter death, however, is that of human conception and birth.
Desroches-Noblecourtand Westendorf38have arguedfor the implicationsof sexual union
to be found in the burialequipmentof Tutankhamun,and others have dealt with the same
theme in the decorationof privatetomb chapels.39Apparently,the dead person re-engendered himself upon a female surrogateand was reborn.The use of artifactsand images
relatingto childbirthitself in a mortuarycontexthavebeen investigatedin articlesby Roth4"
and by Dorman.41Since there is a group of four bricks that is clearly connected with the
process of childbirth,the magical bricks most probablybelong to the subset of mortuary
equipmentwith metaphoricalties to birth.It seems reasonableto hypothesizethatthe magical bricks used in mortuarycontexts representthe four bricks of birth.
Bricks were used in childbirthto raise a woman above the groundand to make the child
more accessible to her helpers.This use is attestedin several ethnographicparallelsfrom
relativelymoderntimes. H. A. Winklerhas describedtheiruse in an Egyptianvillage:
37Liischer,Untersuchungenzu TotenbuchSpruch151, 126. Liischernotes that, as with the magical bricks,the placement of the canopic deities and their spells is sometimes irregular.
38C. Desroches-Noblecourt,"'Concubinesdu mort" et meres de famille au moyen empire', BIFAO53 (1953), 7-47;
ZAS94 (1967), 139-50.
W. Westendorf,'Bemerkungzur "Kammerder Wiedergeburt"im Tutanchamungrab',
39G. Robins, 'Some Images of Womenin New KingdomArt', in BarbaraLesko (ed.), Women's Earliest Recordsfrom
AncientEgypt and WesternAsia (Atlanta, 1989), 109-10.
40A. Roth, 'Thepss-kf and the Openingof the MouthCeremony:A Ritualof BirthandRebirth',JEA78 (1992) 11347, suggestingthatthe ps&-kfwas used to cut the umbilicalcord, and 'Fingers,Stars,andthe Openingof the Mouth:The
Natureand Functionof the ntrmj-Blades',JEA 79 (1993) 57-79, arguingthat the ntrwj-bladeswere models of the little
fingers used to clear the mouth of a newbornbaby.
41 P. Dorman,'Creationon the Potter'sWheel at the EasternHorizonof Heaven', in E. TeeterandJ. Larson(eds), Gold
of Praise: Studies in Honor of EdwardF Wente(SAOC 58; Chicago, 2000), 83-99. Dormandiscusses the idea that the
sun, like a child, was formedon the potter'swheel just before its reappearance/rebirth.
130
ANN MACY ROTHand CATHARINEH. ROEHRIG
JEA88
A good sized hole is dug-since the lower story of the houses of the fellahin rests directly on the
ground. Right and left of this hole are set two up-ended basins (magur) or earthen cooking pots (gdlib)
or bricks, either singly or in stacks of two. The mother puts each foot on the pot or brick and crouches.
As a result of this elevation, the midwife can perform her work more comfortably. The hole over which
the woman crouches catches the amniotic fluid and the afterbirth.The mother is supported by several
women.42 [authors' translation]
Four bricks, stacked in pairs, were apparentlythe traditionalsupportfor the birthing
motherin pharaonictimes. The posturemay be representedin a hieroglyphicdeterminative
datingto the LatePeriodandis mentionedin earliersourcesas well.43This traditionclearly
survivedthroughthe Coptic Period44into Islamic times.
The ancientEgyptianspersonifiedthebricksusedin birthas a goddessof birth,Meskhenet.
She can be representedas a brickwith a woman'shead (see fig. 4) or as a womanor a falcon
with a tall split object on her head.45Her name is a noun of place formedfrom the m prefix
and the causativeform of the verb hnj, 'to alight', hence the bricks are 'the place of alight(a)
FIG.4. Depictions of the goddess Meskhenet as a personified brick in Book of the Dead Chapter 125,
from a late Book of the Dead in the Egyptian Museum, Turin (a) and from the papyrus of Ani in
The British Museum (b).
42H.A. Winkler,
1936),188.
AgyptischeVolkskunde(Stuttgart,
43P. Ghalioungui,TheHouse of Life (PerAnkh):Magical and Medical Science in AncientEgypt (Amsterdam,1973),
115. (Thetwo 'bricks'of the late determinative
arepossiblysimplystripedexamplesof the t-hieroglyph,
however.)
citesa numberof referencesattestingto theuse of thesebricks,althoughhe refersto themas 'stones'.In a
Ghalioungui
stelafromDeirel-Medinain theTurinMuseum,publishedby M.TosiandA. Roccati,Stelee altreepigrafide DeirelMedina,n. 50001-n.50262(Turin,1972),94-6 and286 (n.50058),a mansubjectto a goddess'scursedescribeshispain
'I saton brickslikethewomanin labor',accordingto thetranslation
of M. Lichtheim,
AncientEgyptianLiterature,
II.
TheNew Kingdom(Berkeley, 1976), 108.
44In a fragmentary
Copticmagicaltext,themagicianinvokesthenamesof thebricksuponwhichMarywaselevated
whenshe gavebirthto Jesus.W.E. Crum,'Bricksas Birth-Stool',
JEA28 (1942),69. Thenamesof onlythreebricks
and'Akr...';
a fourthnamewasprobablyalsogivenafterthebreak,sinceanoddnumber
survive,'Akramak',
'Waramak',
of brickswouldbe impractical.
45Forexample,sheis shownas humanin PT 1183band 185bin thepyramidof PepiI, in thebirthscenesatDeirelversionsof thesamescene.Therepresentation
as a falconoccursin PT 1183band1185bin the
Bahari,andin subsequent
hasbeenidentifiedas a bovineuterusor,morerecently,as a
pyramidsof MemereandPepiII.Thetall,splithead-dress
specialflintknifeusedto cuttheumbilicalcord(Roth,JEA78, 144-6).
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MAGICALBRICKS
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ing'. In laterperiods,this goddess takes four differentforms, each of which correspondsto
one of the four bricks.Each of these forms is associatedwith anothergoddess: Meskhenetthe-Great(Mshnt-wrt)is identifiedwithTefnut,Meskhenet-the-Grand
(Mshnt-',t)with Nut,
with
and
Meskhenet-the-Excellent
Meskhenet-the-Beautiful
Isis,
(Mshnt-mnht)
(Mshnt-nfrt)
withNephthys.Thesefourgoddessesrepresentthefemaleportionof theHeliopolitanennead,
and thus, in additionto childbirth,are intimatelyrelatedto the creationof the world.46
The use of four bricks in childbirthis attestedas early as the Sixth Dynasty, when they
are mentionedon the northwall of room III of the tomb chapel of Watetkhethorin Saqqara.
There, a scene of female dancersis accompaniedby a song that clearly deals with childbirth.47Among the lines of the song is the phrasejj (j)fd, 'O four', determinedby four
rectangles.This is presumablya referenceto the four bricks of birth, alreadysufficiently
personifiedto be called upon.
One possible additionalOld Kingdom depiction of birthbricks, in this case of a single
brick, is in the determinativefollowing the feminine title jn't, which occurs in the Old
Kingdom.H. Fischerhas suggested thatthis title is to be translated'midwife', and thatthe
determinativedepicts a womanwearinga head-clothandholding a brickof birth.48One of
the rareoccurrencesof this sign is also found in the tomb of Watetkhethor.
PapyrusWestcar,which gives the accountof the birthof the first threekings of the Fifth
Dynasty, dates to the Second IntermediatePeriod, but the story was probablyeither composed in the Old Kingdomor based on Old Kingdomprototypes.49According to the text,
each of the newborntripletsis said to be placed onjfd m dbt immediatelyafterhe has been
cleaned andhis umbilicalcordhas been cut, andhis fate is pronounced.50Because the word
jfd is given a fabricdeterminativein the text, this phrasehas been translated'a cushion on
bricks',51or even 'a pillow of cloth'.52As E. Staehelin53pointed out, the first translation
would requirethe prepositionhr ratherthanm;the second is clearly a furtherinterpretation.
G. Jequier54suggested that the phraserefers to a birth stool made of the birthbricks and
cloth. Staehelin55arguedthatthe brickson which the mothergave birthcould not be meant,
since after the first baby is born and laid on the jfd m dbt, two furtherchildrenare born.
46 M.-Th. Derchain-Urtel, 'Mesechenet', LAIV, 107. There is no clear connectionbetween these goddesses and the
emblems associatedwith the magical bricksin Chapter151 of the Book of the Dead. The djed-pillarand the anomalous
Osirisfigure fromthe tomb of TutankhamunbothrepresentOsiris, who like all four of the goddesses was a memberof the
Heliopolitanennead.Anubis was said to be the son of Osiris andNephthysin the traditionrecordedin On Isis and Osiris,
which would relate the Anubis figure to thatenneadas well: Plutarch,Moralia V, F. C. Babbitt(transl.)(Loeb Classical
Library306; Cambridge,1936), 39. We can suggest no explanationfor the mummiformfigure and the flame. Given the
fact thatAnubis and Osiris are male, the female bricks may have been guardedby male divinities,just as the four male
divinities thatpersonifiedthe canopic organswere guardedby divinities of the opposite sex (Isis, Nephthys, Selket, and
Neith).
47Roth, JEA 78, 142 (fig. 10). The text includes the exhortations'Behold the mysteryof birth!'and 'Oh, pull!'.
48EgyptianWomenof the Old Kingdomand the HeracleopolitanPeriod2(New York,2000), 17-29 and figs. 24-6.
49 The story clearly is a popularretelling of some kind of propaganda,literaryor iconographic,createdfor the early
Fifth Dynasty kings, intended to legitimize their assumptionof power from the FourthDynasty. The only time such
propagandawould have been useful was duringthe Fifth Dynasty itself; there would be no benefit to later dynasties in
concocting a divine origin for a previousroyal line. The details of the birthmight have reflected laterprocedures,however.
50 p. Westcar10, 12.
51W. K. Simpson (ed.), TheLiteratureof AncientEgypt (New Haven, 1973), 28.
52 M. Lichtheim,Ancient
EgyptianLiterature,I. The Old and Middle Kingdoms(Berkeley, 1973), 220.
53 'Bindungund Entbindung',ZAS96 (1970), 129.
54 'Materiauxpour servira l'etablissementd'un dictionnaired'archeologieegyptienne', BIFAO19 (1922), 39.
55ZAS96, 129-30.
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ANN MACY ROTHand CATHARINEH. ROEHRIG
JEA 88
However,the childrencould have been moved off the brickswhen the motherwas readyto
use them again, or differentsets of bricks could easily have been used for each birth,since
brickswere plentiful.Staehelinalso noted thatbricksare an unsuitableplace to lay a newbornbaby;but the ancientEgyptianswere surelyless concernedwith keepingbabies clean
and sterile than modem Westerners,and the immediatecontact with the fertile Nile mud
might easily have had symbolic meaning that would outweigh the baby's comfort.56
Staehelin'sconclusion, thatthe phraserefersto a brick-shapedpillow (takingjfd as 'bed'),
founderson the fact that a single Egyptianbrick would not be large enough to supporta
newbornbaby.57Moreover,otherexamplesshe cites of a brick-shapedpillow are all written
dbtnt dJjw,expressingthe materialsecond, in the normalway.If a brick-shapedpillow was
meanthere, one would expect thatphraseto be used. A far simplersolutionis to readjfd as
the numberfour,translatingthe phrase 'fourbricks', referringto the well-knownbricksof
birth.These bricks could easily have been moved after the birthto make a low platform
upon which the child could be laid.58The goddess Meskhenet(herself a personificationof
the four bricks) would then decree its fate. The fact that Meskhenet's name means 'the
place of alighting', as noted above, may itself referto this custom.The explanationfor the
use of the cloth determinativeis to be found in a confusion with the wordjfd, 'four-weave
cloth'. The associationof cloth with the brickplatformmay have been reinforcedbecause a
cloth was put over the bricksor, more likely, because the child was swaddledin linen after
he was cleaned.59
Like the bricks used in tombs, the bricks of birthassociatedwith Meskhenetare clearly
protective.In the hymn to Khnumfound at the Graeco-Romantemple of Esna, it is said of
the variousforms of Khnumthat 'they have placed their four Meskhenetat their sides, to
repel the designs of evil by incantations'.60Spells are attestedto make the bricks used in
childbirtheffective, althoughonly a few examples survive. One mentions the strikingor
clapping(sht) of a brickfor the sake of Osiris, and seems to be concernedwith fending off
the attacksof anAsiatic womananda Nubianwoman.61Specifying the geographicalorigin
of these enemies from the northand southof Egypt may be a way of indicatingthe cardinal
directions in which the bricks are supposed to offer protection,a parallelto the magical
bricks which are also associatedwith the cardinalpoints. Althoughthe Chapter151 spells
accompanyingthe magical bricks are nowhere exactly paralleledin the magical texts surroundingchildbirth,62thereis a close similarityin at least one of the dangersenvisioned.In
the spell associated with the west brick and the djed-pillar,protectionis made against a
56 Infantcircumcision,for example, is uncomfortablefor the baby,but is practicedin many
places nonetheless.
57 Bricks found in domestic contexts are normallyabout 23 cm long, 11.5 cm wide, and 7.5 cm high. The newborn
babies in the story are said to be a cubit long (about52 cm), so a pillow of brick-like dimensionswould not supportthem.
These measurementsare convertedfrom those given in S. Clarkeand R. Engelbach,AncientEgyptianConstructionand
Architecture(Mineola, NY, 1990 reprint),209-10.
58 Using the measurementgiven in the precedingnote, four domestic bricks, laid out with their long sides adjacent,
would make a platformof 46 x 23 cm, which would easily supporta newbornchild (given thatbabiestend not to lie fully
stretchedout).
59A brickrecentlyexcavatedin a Middle Kingdomhouse atAbydos, coveredwith a thincoating of plasterandpainted
with a scene of a motherand child as well as images associatedwith birthandthe protectionof children,would also tend
to supportthe idea thatthe child was laid upon the bricks (J. Wegner,personalcommunication).
60As translatedby M. Lichtheim,AncientEgyptianLiterature,III. The Late Period (Berkeley, 1980), 114, from Esna
III, 250, 19.
61Erman,Zauberspriichefiir Mutterund Kindaus demPapyrus 3027 des BerlinerMuseums(Berlin, 1901), 14.
62The only other spell mentioningbricks, (Erman,Zaubersprdche,24-5 (=F)) is unfortunatelyvery badly preserved.
It containsthe phrase...hr dbtynt..., '...uponthe two bricksof...', which has been takento referto a birthwhere only two
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MAGICALBRICKS
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demon 'whose steps are backwardsand whose face is hidden'. This demon may be identical to the demon 'who comes in darknessandenterscreeping,his nose behind,andhis face
backwards',who occurs in one of the most vivid spells for protectinga child.63The protective functionof the bricksinvolved in actualchildbirthis thus similarto thatof the magical
bricks in New Kingdomtombs.
It is easy to understandwhy the bricks used for a dangerousand liminal process such as
childbirthmight have acquiredprotectivefunctionsfor rebirthafter death as well, and inspiredthe placementof so-called 'magicalbricks'foundin New Kingdomtombs.Moreover,
the pairingof the birthbricks in the context of their actualuse suggests an explanationfor
the divergencebetween the placementof the brickniches in royal tombs andtheirtheoretical configurationin the Chapter 151 vignettes. The pairing on either side of the coffin
occurredin two of the earliestexamples (the tombs of AmenhotepII andAmenhotepIII),
and perhapsalso a third (that of ThutmoseIV). This pairingrepresentsthe pairingof the
bricks to supportthe feet of the expectantmother.Particularlysignificantis the possible
placementin the tombof ThutmoseIV,wherethe niches for the brickswere actuallystacked
one above another(albeit somewhatinexactly),even more closely approximatingthe position of the bricksused in an actualchildbirth.
The bricks placed on either side of the sarcophaguswere thus placed relativeto the deceased person, waiting in his coffin to be reborn,in the same relationshipthat the birth
brickswould have to a child at the momentof birth.Althoughthe patternwas brokenin the
three reigns after the AmarnaPeriod and a placement was substitutedthat was more in
accordwith the Chapter151 vignette,64laterroyal tombs retainedthe pairingof the bricks,
althoughthe orientationrelativeto the coffin changed.
The bricks, like the canopic organs also depicted in the Chapter 151 vignette, moved
from a practicalposition based on theirrole in humanlife to a more symmetricaldistribution derived from their protective meaning. Furtherparallels can be drawn between the
bricksandthe canopicorgans.Both the bricksandthe canopicorgansaremagicallycharged
objects personified by divinities. Each group consists of four objects (organs or bricks)
personifiedas divinities and a second groupof four divinities,opposite in gender,which is
associatedwith themin consistentpairings.Justas the fourgoddessesIsis, Nephthys,Selket,
and Neith guardthe four canopic organsrepresentedby the four sons of Horus,the male65
amuleticfigures guardpersonificationsof the bricks, which are clearly female, because of
their association with the goddess Meskhenet, with the goddesses Tefnut, Nut, Isis, and
Nephthys, and, more fundamentally,because the word for 'brick', dbt, is feminine. The
opposite-genderamuletic figures associated with the bricks, like the opposite-genderdivinities associatedwith the canopicjars, probablyplayed two roles, protectingthe bricksor
organsthemselves from harm,and simultaneouslyprotectingthe mummyfrom any ill effects that might be caused by theirproximity.
brickswere used. While this accordswith some of the ethnographicparallels,the bricksoccur so often in pairselsewhere
thatit is perhapsmore likely thatthe remainingtwo bricks were mentionedin the lost partof the spell.
63Erman,Zauberspriiche,text C 1. This text does not mentionbricks,althoughit does negatefour threatsto the child:
thatthe male or female demons will kiss it, silence it, injureit, or take it away.
64Chapter151 is well attestedbefore this period, for example, in the tomb of Sennefer (TT 96), who servedAmenhotep II.
65Thejackal is specifically identifiedas Anubis, while the mummiformfigure is called a twt, a male statue.The flame
and the djed-pillar are both representedby masculinewords:tk anddd, and the djed-pillar,of course, is a form thatcan
be taken by Osiris.
134
ANN MACY ROTHand CATHARINEH. ROEHRIG
JEA88
Bricks of birth and the 'Opening of the Mouth'
Roth has arguedthat the ritual of the 'Opening of the Mouth', as it is preservedin the
PyramidTexts offering ritual,representsa ritualof birth,appliedto the analogousprocess
of rebirthafterdeath.66The fourbricksof birthdo not occurexplicitly in the PyramidTexts
ritual,althoughseveral actions are repeatedfour times, and at two points in the sequence
thereare referencesto four deities connectedwith the four cardinalpoints.67These divinities might be relatedto the four bricks of birth,serving as earlierversions of the guardian
figures.Severalrepetitionsof the namesof these gods occurdirectlybeforethe spells interpretedas representingthe birth,just when the bricksused in an actualchildbirthmighthave
been set out and their guardiansinvoked.The four repetitionsof the crucial spells in the
sequencein which the king is called forth68may also be relatedto the bricksandthe correspondingcosmological divisions.69
On several occasions, the fourfold repetitionis applied to the ritual as a whole. In the
Book of the Dead papyrusof Hunefer,70several actions surroundingthe 'Openingof the
Mouth' are said to be repeatedfour times, and the same group (zp 4) occurs afterthe two
earliestreferencesto the 'Openingof the Mouth',in the tombof Metjen71andin the earliest
referenceon the Palermostone.72While these repetitionsmay simply representthe cardinal
directions,they demonstratethe importanceof those directions,which were also associated
with the four magical bricks,in the 'Openingof the Mouth' ritual.
Thereis some tentativeevidence for a more explicit incorporationof the bricks of birth
into the New Kingdomedition of the 'Openingof the Mouth'ritual.In scene 36 of Otto's
analysis of the ritual,four objects called 'bt are offered.73Otto interpretsthese objects as
polishing stones, presumablybecause the word is determinedin the tomb of Seti I with
roundedgreen signs thatmightrepresentpolishing stonesif the contextis statue-making,as
he argues. Elsewhere, however, the determinativeis invariablyfour white rectangles of
brick-likeproportions.These rectanglesmay well representthe fourmagicalbricksof birth.
The name 'bt initially appearsto be derivedfrom the word w'b, a simple referenceto their
purifyingproperties,but it may in fact be the worddbt, which is generallyused for the four
bricks.The normalwritingsof dbt (New Kingdomdbt) and'bt differby only a single sign:
one is writenwith a handandthe otherwith an armandhand,which suggests a mechanism
for the reinterpretation.
The verbsthataccompanythe presentationof the four 'bt in the New Kingdom 'Opening
66JEA 78, 113-47; JEA 79, 57-79. The ritualis normallyinscribedon the northwall of the burialchamber.
67The four divinities, Horus, Seth, Thoth, and Dewen-anwy,who occur in PT 17 and PT 27-8, have been associated
with the four cardinalpoints by R. O. Faulkner,TheAncientEgyptianPyramidTexts(Oxford, 1969), 5.
68 PT 23b. The translation'going forth at the voice', implying a summons, was suggested by J. P. Allen (personal
communication);perhapsthe first occurrenceof these four repetitionsis a summonsto (re)birthaddressedto the dead
king and the second occurrenceis similarly the calling forth of the placentaor afterbirth.In both cases a gap of white
space was left on the wall afterthese importantspells, emphasizingtheir liminal status.
69See, for comparison,the releasingof the fourbirdsto the four winds at the end of the Min festival:E. Brunner-Traut,
'Minfest', LA IV, 142.
70See E. Rossiter,TheBook of the Dead: the PapyriofAni, Hunefer,Anhai (London, 1979), 84, fig. 4.
71LD II, pl. 5.
72As cited in E. Otto, Das dgyptischeMundoffnungsritual(Wiesbaden,1960), II, 3. The referenceto the 'Openingof
the Mouth'here is restored,but it is made almost certainby the presenceof the following phrasem hwt nbw, with which
it regularlyoccurs in laterentries.
73MundoffnungsritualI, 88-90; II, 96-7.
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of the Mouth' ritual are snt and sk. snt can refer to Khnum'sfashioning of the limbs of a
newbornchild and his k, from the same earth as the brick itself,74or it may refer to the
fundamentalmeaning of snt, to 'make a foundationfor' or 'to plan', usually applied to a
building.75The referencemightbe to the use of the fourbricksof birthin templefoundation
ritualsor theirrole in planningthe fate of a newborn,as in the PapyrusWestcarstory.The
other verb that occurs in this scene, sk, is normallynegative, which is not likely here. The
word probablymeans to wipe the mouth, as it does in several PyramidText spells.76It
would thus use the bricks in a version of the principalritualof rebirth,the 'Openingof the
Mouth'.
In Otto'sreconstructionof the orderof these scenes, the offeringof the four 'btis directly
followed by the presentationof the pss-kf-knife.According to the interpretationproposed
by Roth, this knife was used originallyfor the cuttingof the umbilicalcord.77The context
in which the four 'btwere offeredis thus childbirth,ratherthanthe statueritualassumedby
theirinterpretationas polishing stones. If the four 'btrepresentthe bricksof birth,then,they
are here closely associated with the cutting of the umbilical cord, just as they are in the
accountof the divine birthof the kings in PapyrusWestcar.The pss-kf-knifeis also associated with the bricksby the depictionsof the goddess Meskhenet,the personificationof the
bricks, with a pss-kf on her head.78
The use of bricksin connectionwith the 'Openingof the Mouth'ritualcan also be seen in
the temple foundationceremony.El-Adly has arguedthat such bricks are representedin
temple foundationceremoniesin the PtolemaicPeriod, and were also used in earlierfoundationdeposits.79They were placed at each corer of the building,a four-foldvariantof the
cornerstonesstill laid at foundationceremonies today. She arguesthat ritual surrounding
the foundationof the temple had as its centralmetaphorthe birthof a living being, so that
the temple, like a child, was seen as being formed by Khnum on his potter's wheel and
placed on the four bricks (also the productof Khnum'slabours) soon after its birth. She
connects this birthmetaphorto the presence of mammisi.
In his review of el-Adly's work, Goyon relatedthe occurrenceof the bricks of birthto
anotherelement of temple foundationceremonies, which el-Adly overlooked.This is the
'Opening of the Mouth' ritual, which was performedon the temple just before its final
presentationto the god.80He suggests thatperformanceof this ritual,like the use of bricks
in the foundationritual,confirmsthe role of the temple as a model of the cosmos, and thus
74 See Erman,Zaubersprdche,11, where Khnumis said to snt a child's tp, wpt, and 'wt. This action takes place on a
potter'swheel, of course, and uses clay, a more refinedmaterialthanwas used to make the simple mud-bricks.
75 Wb.IV, 177, 10-179, 14.
76 PT 626b, 1627b, 179b, and 286a. This interpretationand the accompanyingreferenceswere pointed out to us by
J. P.Allen.
77Roth, JEA 78, 123-7. In the earliestpyramidtext version of the ritual,the offering of the pss-kf occurs in PT 30a;
five spells earlier,in PT 23b (24 and 25 are omittedin the pyramidof Unas), thereis a fourfold 'Going forthat the voice'
invocation, which may be relatedto the fourfoldnatureof the bricks.
78Roth, JEA 78, 144-6.
79S. Abd el-Azim el-Adly, Das Grundungs-undWeiheritualdes dgyptischenTempelsvon derfriihgeschichtlichenZeit
bis zumEndedes Neuen Reiches (PhD Dissertation,Tiibingen,1981), as cited in a review by J. C. Goyon, BiOr40 (1983),
353 andn. 5. Goyon's summaryof the informationand argumentsfrom el-Adly's dissertationis the sourceof the following discussion, as we were unableto see the dissertationitself.
80 Goyon, BiOr 40, 353. The use of this ritual in temple foundationceremonies is also cited by P. Barguet, 'Les
dimensions du temple d'Edfou et leur signification', BSFE 72 (1975), 23, based on texts inscribedon the facade of the
sanctuaryat Edfu.
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a repositoryof life, which means it must be born and animated.He suggests that the abof templefoundationceremonies
sence of boththeseritualactionsfromearlierrepresentations
does not meanthatthey were not performed;decorummay have forbiddentheirrepresentation precisely because of theirimportance.The ritualmay thus be far older thanits earliest
attestation. In view of the proposedconnectionbetween the 'Openingof the Mouth'ritual
andchildbirth,thejoint appearanceof these two ritualsin the contextof templestakeson an
even greaterimportance.These rites are againpartof a coherentsequencewhich is a ritual
metaphorre-enactingthe actions and events of a humanbirth.
The use of bricksin temple foundationceremoniesmay also be relevantto the problems
surroundingthe occurrenceof magical bricks in the vignettes illustratingChapter151 of
the Book of the Dead. While the bricksareplaced on the four sides of the burialchamberin
the vignette, in contrastto their placement at the four comers in temple foundations,the
symmetricalarrangementof the bricks in Chapter151 (as opposed to their pairedplacement in childbirth)may be derivedfrom theiruse in temples.
Bricksof birth and destiny
It is significantthat both in the PapyrusWestcarstories and in the New Kingdom 'divine
birth' scenes of Hatshepsutand Amenhotep III, it is the goddess Meskhenet who comes
forwardafterthe birthhas takenplace to decree thatthe newbornis destinedfor kingship.
In PapyrusWestcar,this decree comes directlyafterthe baby is cleaned, its umbilicalcord
is cut, and it is laid upon the bricksthatMeskhenetherself represents.
Meskhenet is also attested as a goddess of fate in other contexts. In the Satire on the
Tradesshe is paired with Renenutetas the determinerof a scribe's fate.81Renenutetis a
harvestgoddess, concernedwith nourishment,and ultimately,as her name suggests, with
the nursingof a child. That qualities such as divinity or wisdom or kingship could be ingested from the breast of a goddess is clear from the many representationsof nursingin
Meskhenet'sconnectionwith destinyis less obvious. If Meskhenet
Egyptianiconography.82
was indeed associatedby her head-dresswith the cutting of the umbilicalcord,83it is perhaps the nature of this moment as the first recognition of a new member of society,
independentof its mother,that made it a propitiousone for such prognostications.Unlike
thatof the Seven Hathors,who also appearat the birthof a child, Meskhenet'srole is not to
predictthe mannerof the child's death,buthis or her social position.This is truein Papyrus
Westcar,in the Hatshepsutbirthreliefs, and in the scriballiterature.
Because the Egyptiansbelieved that fate was usually determinedat birth, it may seem
odd that divinities associatedwith fate routinelyappearin the vignette of the weighing of
the heart accompanyingChapter125 of the Book of the Dead. Not only Meskhenet,but
Shai andRenenutetareoften present.Meskhenet,andmorerarelyalso Shai andRenenutet,
can be shown in the form of a human-headedbrick, as well as in humanform.84This brick
is clearly a brick of birth(given Meskhenet'sassociationwith such brickselsewhere), and
is again referredto in a mortuarycontext. Here, however,the bricksare most often shown
floating nearthe beam of the scales, and clearly not servingas protectionor supportfor the
81W. Helck, Die Lehredes Dw >-Htjj(Kleine AgyptischeTexten;Wiesbaden,1970), 146-50.
82See W. Guglielmi, 'Milch', LAIV, 126.
83Roth, JEA 78, 144-6.
84C. Seeber, Untersuchungenzur Darstellung des Totengerichtsim AltenAgypten(MAS 35; Berlin, 1976), 83-8; J.
Quaegebeur,Le dieu egyptienShai dans la religion et l'onomastique(OLA 2; Leuven, 1975), 147-50.
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FIG. 5. Two personified bricks (here identified as Shai and Renenutet) above the balance in Book of
the Dead Chapter 125 from the papyrus of Anhai in The British Museum (most texts omitted).
rebirth of the dead person (see fig. 5; the examples in fig. 4 were taken from such scenes).
An explanation for the presence of the bricks is suggested by the demotic story of
Setne II,85in which Setne andhis son Si-Osirisjourneyto the underworldthroughthe hours
of the Amduat and witness the judgment of Osiris. Before the throne of Osiris, the good
deeds of a man arejudged 'accordingto the measure(?) of his termof life thatThoth wrote
for him',86in other words, compared to the fate decreed at his birth. In his notes to this
story,Griffithcites two othertexts which mentionthis predestinationby Thoth,in each case
statingthat the fate is writtenout on a birthbrick (or meskhenet);87he also notes the presence of this brick in judgment scenes. The meaning then is clear: the social position into
which a person was born, decreed at birth and attested by the presence of a birth brick
personifyingthe divinities connected with fate, was taken into considerationby the judges
in determiningwhether sufficient good deeds had been done to justify admission to the
afterlife.88This humane concept cannot have evolved later than the Eighteenth Dynasty,
when such vignettes first appear.
85P. BritishMuseumEA 604, verso, publishedand translatedby F. LI. Griffith,Stories of the High Priests of Memphis
(Oxford, 1900), I, 41-50, 142-61.
86Griffith,Stories of High Priests of Memphis,I, 155.
87Stories of High Priests of Memphis1, 48-9: In the Rh. Bil. Pap., 11.2(Brugsch, Thes. 898) we have, in the demotic,
mentionof 'the end of his life thatThothhad writtenfor him upon his brickof birth',and in hieratic 'the end of his life that
Asdenu (cf. G. Maspero, 'Notes au jour le jour - V', PSBA 20 (1898), 140) had engravedfor him upon his meskhent'.
88Seeber, Untersuchung,86-8, discusses this connection, and the metamorphosisof the brick into the goddess Maat.
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ANN MACYROTHandCATHARINE
H. ROEHRIG
JEA88
Mesopotamianconnections
In view of the otherconnectionsbetween the Egyptianandthe Mesopotamian'Openingof
the Mouth' rituals (not least of which is an apparentconnection with childbirth),it is not
surprising that bricks occur in the Mesopotamian version of the ritual. According to
P. Boden,89in the 'Washingof the Mouth'ritual(mispi), the waterused in the washingis to
be set upon the 'brickof Dingir-mah',a Mesopotamianbirthgoddess. A variantritualfor
the repairof a statuerequiresthatofferingsbe placed on a 'brickof Belet-ili', anotherbirth
goddess.90
Otherconnections of bricks with birthin Mesopotamiansociety include association of
the goddess of birth,Ninhursag,with a brick, althoughthis brickmay have been used as a
platformfor cuttingthe umbilicalcord ratherthanas a birthstool.91A. Kilmerhas pointed
out that bricks seem closely related to the materialin the womb, both the child and the
placenta,since accordingto some Mesopotamiancreationstories mankindwas first made
of mud, like a mud-brick,and since the placenta is red-brownand shaped like a planoconvexbrick.92Kilmerarguesfor a parallelmetaphorin Egypt,basedon the factthatEgyptian
children and their kas were also believed to be created on a potter's wheel, and hence
presumablywere also made of clay. She cites a passage in the late hymn from Esna, where
pregnantwomen who have passed theirtermare called upon to respectKhnum,who opens
the vagina and makes firm the birth brick.93However,it is unlikely that the brick in that
passage refers to the placenta,since it is desirablein this case for the placentato be loosened ratherthan fixed; it is more probablythe brick the motheris standingon thatis to be
firm.Althoughbricksareclearlylinkedwith birthin both cultures,the connectionseems to
be less closely parallelthanotherelementsof the 'Openingof the Mouth'ritual.In particular, the Mesopotamianbricks seem to lack the protectivecharacteristicsof the Egyptian
bricks and also their fourfoldnumber.
Conclusions
The role of magical mud-brickswas quite complex. They supportedand presumablyprotected a motherduringchildbirthand they formed a platformupon which the infant was
laid while its social destiny was determined. This destiny was then inscribed upon the
bricks by Thoth.After death,the bricks again served as supportand protectionduringthe
metaphoricalrebirthinto the afterlife, and, finally, they bore witness to the good or bad
circumstancesthat had been decreedfor the person at birth,which affected the way his or
her life was judged.
As an extensionof theirrole in humanbirth,the fourbrickscan be seen to have had a role
in protectingtemples, which were thoughtto be similarlyborn. If the bricks also formed
partof the New Kingdom 'Openingof the Mouth'ritual,they may also have been used in
89In an extensive personalcommunicationabouther dissertationresearch,for which we are
very grateful.
90Boden cites E. Ebeling, Todund Lebennach den Vorstellungender Babylonier(Berlin and Leipzig, 1931), nos. 26
and 27.
91T. Jacobsen, 'Notes on Nintur', Or 42 (1973), 289-93, especially nn. 57 and 67.
92A. Kilmer, "'TheBrick of Birth"', Appendix C to G. Azarpay,'ProportionalGuidelines in Ancient Near Eastern
Art', JNES 46, 212-13.
93Kilmer,JNES46, 215, citing R. K. Ritner,'A UterineAmulet in the OrientalInstituteCollection', JNES43 (1984),
215.
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such ritualswhen they were appliedto statues.Alternatively,such ritualsmay have substituted a more appropriatemetaphor,as it has been arguedthat the adze was substitutedfor
the finger in the statueversion of the 'Openingof the Mouth'.94
The use of bricksin these ritualsmay also have had a deepercreativemeaning,since they
were madeof the black alluvialmudthatwas the fertile substratumof the Egyptiancosmos,
emergingfromthe floodwaterswhen theyrecededandforminga partof the primevalmound.
In this sense, the stackedbricks on which a woman crouchedto give birthrepresentedthe
hill on which Re-Atumstood to createthe cosmos. It is hardlysurprisingthatthe Egyptians
wished to invoke the power of such primalobjects in their quest to be rebornafterdeath.
94See Roth,JEA 79, 75.