Towards a Better Understanding of the Opening of the Mouth Ritual

Recent work on the funerary chapel of Amenirdis I at Medinet Habu has proved her selections from the Opening of the Mouth ritual to be deliberately chosen and meticulously laid out on the walls of her funerary chapel such that the texts, which were inscribed in retrograde, commence at the doorway to the chapel and culminate on the innermost wall of the corridor surrounding her cella. This interpretation of the layout of OM scenes suggests that the scenes inscribed on opposite walls run parallel to each other and should thus be read concurrently rather than sequentially. While this theory differs from more conventional interpretations of the division of the ritual, it accounts for the scenes\u27 layout, their retrograde direction of writing/ reading, and relates the scenes\u27 textual content to their physical location on the walls of the chapel. A new system for numbering the various scenes of the Opening of the Mouth arose from this particular analysis of Amenirdis\u27s texts. The new numbers incorporate the scenes\u27 physical location on the monument on which they occur

The Pyramid Texts of Amenirdis I: Selection and Layout

Although long recognized to include selections from the Pyramid Texts, not since their original publication in 1901 have the texts inscribed on the walls of the funerary chapel of Amenirdis I been adequately examined. Work on the funerary texts of Amenirdis has revealed her selections from the Pyramid Texts to be both unique and concise. Moreover, these thoughtfully chosen texts were meticulously laid out along the various walls of her funerary chapel such that their physical placement complemented their textual content. The texts, which are arranged along a North-South axis, include several allusions and references to elements of the Egyptian cosmos. Such references indicate that the South Wall represented the Duat, while the texts inscribed on, or close to, the North Wall included references to northern entities. Texts inscribed closest to the doorway equipped Amenirdis for her ascension to the sky. This paper relates the content of Amenirdis’s selections from the Pyramid Texts to their physical placement along the walls of her funerary chapel and argues that the particular arrangement of the texts was intended to guide Amenirdis out of her funerary chapel and to lead her toward the North sky

Coptic Art- What is it to 21st-Century Youth?

Coptic iconographer Fadi Mikhail writes about what prompted him to select an ancient form of artistic expression as a venue for his creativity and talent, while Ayad discusses some of the unique features that set Mikhail\u27s icons apart

Re-figuring the Past: The Architecture of the Funerary Chapel of Amenirdis I at Medinet Habu: A Re-assessment

The funerary chapel of Amenirdis at Medinet Habu forms an intriguing link in the development of ancient Egyptian architectural forms. Utilizing older architectural traditions and later ones, its architecture anticipates several features that later appear in Ptolemaic temples