TREASURE:
Alkmene painter
Attic Black-Figure Hydria
Greece, 530 B.C.
terracotta
30-301-1

Western art had its beginnings in ancient Greece. To a large extent the work of Greek painters didn’t survive. What did survive are the great sculptures like the Venus de Milo and Winged Victory of Samothrace. Beside sculptures, kraters, hydrias and other pottery have survived in some numbers. Hydrias are three-handled jars from the word hydor or water. It usually has an oval body and narrow neck, with a flared lip, and was used to store and transport water. The two horizontal handles on the shoulder are for lifting and carrying; the one vertical handle is for pouring. Kraters were mixing bowls (krater means “mix” in Greek) that were used to mix wine with water - Greeks generally believed that drinking wine straight was uncivilized, and that only “drunkards drank their wine undiluted with water.” After the wine was mixed, it was poured into a jug (called an amphora) to serve. A drinking cup was called a kylix.

Since pottery like those described above was used on festive occasions (the symposia), they were elaborately decorated, and the wealthiest hosts hired the best artists to decorate their pottery. It is interesting to note that while women were not encouraged to make sculpture, they could and did create decorative pottery. Generally the scene depicted on a krater or an amphora is religious, what we now call Greek mythology. The scenes show Greek gods/heroes such as Apollo, Mercury, Minerva, etc. going about accomplishing their miracles: the tribulations of Hercules, the heroics of the Trojan War, etc. Scenes are painted in two parts; one event occurs on the front of the krater and the consequent event appears on the back.

After the pottery was constructed, the scenes/events/people were painted onto the clay with a pure black clay (slip). During the first firing, the vents on the sides of the kiln were left open to let air in. This turned the pottery red. In another stage, the vents were closed and this turned the painted-on clay black.

This vase portrays mythological battle scenes of Heracles (Greek; or Hercules, Roman) fighting the Nemean Lion, and Athena and the giant. On the shoulder, the figures of Athena and the giant are flanked by two chariots; right below it, Heracles slaying the lion and at the base, two goats flanking a panther. Dr. Ann Steiner, Associate Professor and Chair, Department of Classics at Franklin and Marshall College, says that this vase is very unusual because Heracles and the lion are usually not shown struggling in this particular way: two usual examples are the standing or reclining fights, of which there are literally hundreds of examples. Most of the time, we see early stages of the fight, here the outcome is a little more certain -- we see that the hero will trounce the lion. There is only one other vase preserved by this Alkmene painter, and it is in the British Museum. That one has Heracles resting after the fight -- it looks although these were made as a set.

TREASURE:
Mummy
Nfr-ii-n (Anglicized Nefer-ii-ne)
Egypt, c 304 - 30 B.C.
30-318-1.3

Did you realize that there is an Egyptian woman of some importance entombed in the Reading Public Museum.  Because the process that was used to preserve this body is called mummification, the woman is now just generally referred to as "the Mummy."

In fact, she has a name and we know what it is: Nfr-ii-n (Nefer-ii-ne), roughly translated, may our coming be good. Her father's name was Irt-Hr-r-w (Irethourrou), and he held honored titles given by cult personnel in the 8th and 9th provinces of Upper Egypt. 

Nefer-ii-ne’s mother was a housemistress and was in the service of the clergy of the god Min, as a sistrum player  -- a percussion instrument with disks that was used in religious ceremonies and temple rituals to keep the beat for the orchestra, which consisted of harps, flutes, oboes, clarinets, tambourines, and trumpets.  Her name is given as Ir (ty)-r-w (Irty-rou).  

We know Nferr-ii-ne is a lady because she was, believe it or not, x-rayed at the Reading Hospital on October 26, 1972.  Dr. George R Matthews, the Radiologist, reported that the bone structure remains in remarkably good condition, and he was able to determine several other things about her besides her sex. He described her as "elderly" (but that could mean as young as 50; life expectancy has grown significantly over the years), she apparently suffered from fairly severe arthritis, and she appears to have had some sort of right hip injury since the x-ray showed a "rounded dense object" inserted into this area (more than likely a scarab beetle - semi-precious carved stone, was used as a healing/curative agent.)

Important people were mummified so that they had their bodies available to them in the "afterlife."  To preserve the body, specially trained priests took approximately seventy days to do what had to be done.  Essentially, they methodically dried out the body so that it would not putrefy and decay.  That process included removing all of the vital organs except the heart from the body.  The organs did not dry as well as the rest of the body, so they were removed, wrapped up separately, and ultimately placed next to the wrapped body in a canopic jar when it was entombed.  The heart was believed to be the center of a person’s being and intelligence.  When everything was dry, the body was carefully and elaborately wrapped with strips of linen.  Fingers, toes, and the head were wrapped separately before the final wrap.

Next to the Mummy in the Reading Public Museum are some of the objects that went into such tombs including a barge by which the trip to the afterlife was made. The sarcophagus (coffin) lid has an extensive inscription that describes the burial eulogy for Nefer-ii-ne. There are, also, next to the Museum's Mummy, several stunning pieces of furniture (one of only three sets produced to replicate those which were found in the tomb of the Pharaoh Tutankhamen). When the great Tutankhamen exhibition toured the U .S. several decades back, the public had an opportunity to see all of the objects, from furniture, food, games, jewelry, etc., that were placed into the tomb with the mummy. The Tutankhamen tomb was discovered by the British archaeologist, Howard Carter in 1923.

In 1893 the University of Pennsylvania acquired four coffin-mummy sets, and one of these sets was loaned to the RPM by the University in 1930, thanks to the efforts and reputation of the Founding Director, Dr. Levi Mengel. The Museum purchased Nefer-ii- ne and her sarcophagus in 1949.  The University of Pennsylvania retains the lovely mummy-mask which accompanied Nefer-ii-ne, covering her head.