1 00:00:03,320 --> 00:00:05,640 Speaker 1: Welcome to Stuff to Blow Your Mind, a production of 2 00:00:05,640 --> 00:00:11,160 Speaker 1: I Heart Radio. Hi, my name is Joe McCormick, and 3 00:00:11,280 --> 00:00:14,880 Speaker 1: this is the Artifact, a short form series from Stuff 4 00:00:14,920 --> 00:00:19,119 Speaker 1: to Blow Your Mind, focusing on particular objects, ideas, and 5 00:00:19,239 --> 00:00:24,680 Speaker 1: moments in time. If you look at ancient Egyptian artwork 6 00:00:24,840 --> 00:00:29,400 Speaker 1: starting around the early New Kingdom period so about b c. E, 7 00:00:30,080 --> 00:00:34,760 Speaker 1: you might notice a weird recurring feature. Sometimes people have 8 00:00:34,880 --> 00:00:38,360 Speaker 1: little cones on top of their heads. They don't look 9 00:00:38,360 --> 00:00:42,320 Speaker 1: like hats exactly. They're a little small for that, usually 10 00:00:42,360 --> 00:00:45,520 Speaker 1: about the size of a drinking cup, but turned upside down. 11 00:00:46,320 --> 00:00:49,000 Speaker 1: When I see them, I think of a huge, rounded 12 00:00:49,040 --> 00:00:54,680 Speaker 1: alligator tooth. Sometimes they're white all over. Sometimes they're pale 13 00:00:54,760 --> 00:00:58,840 Speaker 1: with red and brown colorations that look like inverted flames. 14 00:00:59,760 --> 00:01:03,520 Speaker 1: In paintings and ba relief spanning more than a thousand years, 15 00:01:03,920 --> 00:01:06,839 Speaker 1: you can find them in all kinds of scenes. People 16 00:01:06,840 --> 00:01:09,959 Speaker 1: wear the cones when they're worshiping the gods or playing 17 00:01:10,040 --> 00:01:13,520 Speaker 1: musical instruments. Cones appear on the heads of men who 18 00:01:13,520 --> 00:01:17,520 Speaker 1: are being prepared for funerary rituals or receiving a blessing 19 00:01:17,600 --> 00:01:21,160 Speaker 1: from the king. Sometimes they show up in scenes of 20 00:01:21,240 --> 00:01:25,720 Speaker 1: childbirth or on guests being welcomed and served at a feast. 21 00:01:26,400 --> 00:01:28,839 Speaker 1: People are even shown with these head cones and other 22 00:01:28,920 --> 00:01:32,880 Speaker 1: planes of existence, for example, while hunting or fishing in 23 00:01:32,920 --> 00:01:38,679 Speaker 1: the afterlife. For decades, Egyptologists have debated what these objects were. 24 00:01:39,360 --> 00:01:42,520 Speaker 1: One of the most popular hypotheses is that the cones 25 00:01:42,560 --> 00:01:48,520 Speaker 1: were actually lumps of perfumed ngwent. So imagine a softball 26 00:01:48,600 --> 00:01:53,480 Speaker 1: sized conical mound of animal fat infused with a fragrant 27 00:01:53,520 --> 00:01:57,360 Speaker 1: resin like mirr. As the cone melted under the sun 28 00:01:57,560 --> 00:02:00,080 Speaker 1: or from the body's heat, it would turn into an 29 00:02:00,120 --> 00:02:04,720 Speaker 1: oozing bath of sweet smelling grease that infused the hair 30 00:02:04,840 --> 00:02:08,240 Speaker 1: and the scalp. This fragrance was meant to cleanse the 31 00:02:08,240 --> 00:02:11,800 Speaker 1: person both physically and spiritually, to make them fit to 32 00:02:11,880 --> 00:02:17,560 Speaker 1: interact with the gods. The Danish egyptologist Lisa Manicky discusses 33 00:02:17,600 --> 00:02:23,760 Speaker 1: evidence for the unguin interpretation in her book Sacred Luxuries, Fragrance, 34 00:02:23,800 --> 00:02:28,960 Speaker 1: Aromatherapy and Cosmetics in Ancient Egypt from Cornell University Press. 35 00:02:29,760 --> 00:02:33,000 Speaker 1: Quote paintings and reliefs from the beginning of the New 36 00:02:33,080 --> 00:02:35,840 Speaker 1: Kingdom and On show men and women with a lump 37 00:02:35,880 --> 00:02:39,200 Speaker 1: of solid unguin perched on top of their head either 38 00:02:39,280 --> 00:02:42,240 Speaker 1: on a bald skull, on the hair, or on top 39 00:02:42,280 --> 00:02:45,239 Speaker 1: of a wig. There is little doubt that the material 40 00:02:45,360 --> 00:02:48,840 Speaker 1: is supposed to be scented matter, for in some contexts 41 00:02:48,840 --> 00:02:52,720 Speaker 1: we see servants carrying bowls of the same white mass 42 00:02:52,760 --> 00:02:56,000 Speaker 1: streaked with red or yellow, whilst at the same time 43 00:02:56,400 --> 00:02:59,680 Speaker 1: they position it on men and women seated at a banquet. 44 00:03:00,160 --> 00:03:03,359 Speaker 1: She writes that these images are sometimes accompanied by texts 45 00:03:03,360 --> 00:03:06,440 Speaker 1: that mentions placing a scented resin on top of the head. 46 00:03:06,960 --> 00:03:10,560 Speaker 1: But one difficulty with any physical explanation of the cones 47 00:03:10,680 --> 00:03:13,919 Speaker 1: is that, despite how often they appear in art, no 48 00:03:14,000 --> 00:03:17,400 Speaker 1: one had ever found physical evidence of one. In the 49 00:03:17,480 --> 00:03:21,840 Speaker 1: absence of physical examples from archaeology, some experts came to 50 00:03:21,880 --> 00:03:26,640 Speaker 1: a different conclusion. Maybe the cones never existed as three 51 00:03:26,680 --> 00:03:31,840 Speaker 1: dimensional objects at all. Instead, maybe they were an artistic convention, 52 00:03:32,480 --> 00:03:36,680 Speaker 1: a symbol like the halos of saints in medieval Christian artwork. 53 00:03:37,320 --> 00:03:39,800 Speaker 1: There was no need to assume that Christian saints and 54 00:03:39,880 --> 00:03:44,880 Speaker 1: martyrs literally wore wide brimmed gold hats. Instead, the halos 55 00:03:44,960 --> 00:03:47,880 Speaker 1: told us something about the hidden qualities of the person. 56 00:03:48,600 --> 00:03:51,440 Speaker 1: A holiness that was invisible to the naked eye was 57 00:03:51,520 --> 00:03:55,000 Speaker 1: revealed in painting. Could it be that the cones served 58 00:03:55,000 --> 00:04:01,280 Speaker 1: a similar purpose within Egyptian religious psychography. But Incember twenty nineteen, 59 00:04:01,720 --> 00:04:05,720 Speaker 1: a report was published in the journal Antiquity by Anna Stephens, 60 00:04:06,040 --> 00:04:09,800 Speaker 1: Karina E. Rogi, Yolanda E. M. F. Bosch, and Gretchen 61 00:04:09,880 --> 00:04:13,760 Speaker 1: our Dabs, and this report added interesting new evidence to 62 00:04:13,840 --> 00:04:17,680 Speaker 1: help answer the mystery of the cones. This evidence takes 63 00:04:17,720 --> 00:04:21,120 Speaker 1: the form of two recently excavated graves from the ancient 64 00:04:21,160 --> 00:04:26,039 Speaker 1: city of Akatatum, now known as Amarna. Amarna plays a 65 00:04:26,120 --> 00:04:30,359 Speaker 1: strange and interesting role in Egyptian history. It was something 66 00:04:30,400 --> 00:04:34,520 Speaker 1: of a religious boom town created by the eighteenth dynasty 67 00:04:34,600 --> 00:04:39,200 Speaker 1: pharaoh Akatan, who tried to change the official religion of Egypt, 68 00:04:39,600 --> 00:04:44,280 Speaker 1: forsaking its long time polytheistic pantheon and replacing it with 69 00:04:44,400 --> 00:04:49,720 Speaker 1: what is sometimes considered an early example of monotheism or monolatry, 70 00:04:50,440 --> 00:04:53,880 Speaker 1: the special reverence for and worship of only one god, 71 00:04:53,920 --> 00:04:58,200 Speaker 1: in particular, in this case, the Sun deity Aten. When 72 00:04:58,279 --> 00:05:01,880 Speaker 1: Accinatin struck out to cement his new religion, he founded 73 00:05:01,920 --> 00:05:04,720 Speaker 1: a city to become the home base of the Otton cult. 74 00:05:05,360 --> 00:05:08,600 Speaker 1: This city was a Marna. One of the reasons a 75 00:05:08,680 --> 00:05:11,719 Speaker 1: Marna has been important from an archaeological standpoint is the 76 00:05:11,800 --> 00:05:15,120 Speaker 1: quality of its cemeteries, where we can find evidence of 77 00:05:15,120 --> 00:05:18,080 Speaker 1: how common people of the time, and not just rich 78 00:05:18,120 --> 00:05:22,080 Speaker 1: elites with elaborate tombs, were laid to rest and commemorated. 79 00:05:22,800 --> 00:05:25,800 Speaker 1: It's two of these common graves from a Marna that 80 00:05:25,839 --> 00:05:29,440 Speaker 1: are the focus of the twenty nineteen study. What Stevens 81 00:05:29,440 --> 00:05:32,120 Speaker 1: at all described in the report are the graves of 82 00:05:32,160 --> 00:05:36,719 Speaker 1: two fourteenth century b C. Egyptians who were buried wearing 83 00:05:37,040 --> 00:05:41,320 Speaker 1: head cones, the first three dimensional head cones ever discovered. 84 00:05:42,360 --> 00:05:45,920 Speaker 1: The more intact example measured about eight centimeters in height 85 00:05:46,000 --> 00:05:50,799 Speaker 1: and ten centimeters across. The cones were cream colored and brittle, 86 00:05:51,160 --> 00:05:55,440 Speaker 1: with what the authors described as a silky feeling exterior surface. 87 00:05:56,360 --> 00:05:59,520 Speaker 1: They were ridden with little tunnels made by insects over 88 00:05:59,560 --> 00:06:03,520 Speaker 1: the cent trees. The cones were not solid, but hollow, 89 00:06:04,160 --> 00:06:07,240 Speaker 1: and criss crossing patterns on the inner walls indicate that 90 00:06:07,279 --> 00:06:10,799 Speaker 1: the wax domes were probably shaped around an inner core 91 00:06:10,920 --> 00:06:15,600 Speaker 1: made of textile Spectroscopic analysis revealed that the cones were 92 00:06:15,640 --> 00:06:21,600 Speaker 1: made of biological wax, almost certainly bees wax. These discoveries 93 00:06:21,640 --> 00:06:25,600 Speaker 1: didn't seem perfectly consistent with either of the two interpretations 94 00:06:25,640 --> 00:06:31,560 Speaker 1: we've previously discussed. Obviously, these were physical, three dimensional objects 95 00:06:31,839 --> 00:06:35,839 Speaker 1: and not merely an artistic convention like a halo. As 96 00:06:35,880 --> 00:06:39,920 Speaker 1: for the unguint interpretation, Stevens and co authors found no 97 00:06:40,080 --> 00:06:43,480 Speaker 1: chemical or physical evidence that these cones would have melted 98 00:06:43,520 --> 00:06:47,920 Speaker 1: into the hair and released perfume. They seem more like tiny, 99 00:06:48,200 --> 00:06:53,080 Speaker 1: rigid wax hats. Speaking to Colin Barris for an article 100 00:06:53,120 --> 00:06:56,920 Speaker 1: in Science, Lisa Manicky mentioned the possibility that the cones 101 00:06:57,000 --> 00:07:00,520 Speaker 1: worn by the people in these graves were dummy cones. 102 00:07:01,279 --> 00:07:04,560 Speaker 1: If the true cones were in fact melting lumps of 103 00:07:04,600 --> 00:07:09,880 Speaker 1: animal fat infused with expensive perfumes, it's possible that less 104 00:07:09,880 --> 00:07:13,840 Speaker 1: wealthy members of society could attempt to imitate the appearance 105 00:07:13,880 --> 00:07:18,440 Speaker 1: of the cones without the olfactory function. It's also possible 106 00:07:18,520 --> 00:07:21,400 Speaker 1: that the kinds of cones worn with the grave clothes 107 00:07:21,440 --> 00:07:24,880 Speaker 1: would be different from what was used in life. So 108 00:07:24,920 --> 00:07:28,080 Speaker 1: what can we conclude from this discovery? A lot of 109 00:07:28,160 --> 00:07:30,920 Speaker 1: questions remain, but the authors of the study claim that 110 00:07:31,160 --> 00:07:34,240 Speaker 1: at the very least, the analysis of the Amarna graves 111 00:07:34,360 --> 00:07:38,640 Speaker 1: quote confirms that three dimensional wax based head cones were 112 00:07:38,760 --> 00:07:42,040 Speaker 1: sometimes worn by the dead in ancient Egypt and that 113 00:07:42,200 --> 00:07:45,679 Speaker 1: access to these objects was not restricted to the upper elite. 114 00:07:46,360 --> 00:07:48,960 Speaker 1: Beyond that, they say that the cones may have had 115 00:07:49,000 --> 00:07:53,040 Speaker 1: religious significance related to fertility, and that they could reasonably 116 00:07:53,120 --> 00:07:55,960 Speaker 1: be interpreted as part of quote a suite of personal 117 00:07:55,960 --> 00:07:59,920 Speaker 1: accouterments deemed appropriate for use in a range of cell 118 00:08:00,000 --> 00:08:04,119 Speaker 1: librations and rituals for and involving the living, the dead, 119 00:08:04,560 --> 00:08:08,720 Speaker 1: the autun and other deities, which, as they acknowledge, doesn't 120 00:08:08,760 --> 00:08:12,400 Speaker 1: narrow things down too much. In his article for Science, 121 00:08:12,560 --> 00:08:17,200 Speaker 1: Barris also quotes run Njord of Emory University, who raises 122 00:08:17,280 --> 00:08:20,480 Speaker 1: the critique that sometimes modern scholars can read too much 123 00:08:20,520 --> 00:08:25,160 Speaker 1: religious or afterlife significance into artifacts from ancient Egypt. It's 124 00:08:25,160 --> 00:08:28,800 Speaker 1: worth keeping open the possibility that these were just little hats. 125 00:08:34,960 --> 00:08:38,480 Speaker 1: Tune into future editions of the artifact each week, hosted 126 00:08:38,480 --> 00:08:41,800 Speaker 1: by either Robert or myself. As always, you can email 127 00:08:41,880 --> 00:08:55,480 Speaker 1: us at contact at stuff to Blow your Mind dot com. 128 00:08:55,600 --> 00:08:58,079 Speaker 1: Stuff to Blow Your Mind is production of I Heart Radio. 129 00:08:58,440 --> 00:09:00,800 Speaker 1: For more podcasts my Heart Radio, visit the i heart 130 00:09:00,840 --> 00:09:03,600 Speaker 1: Radio app, Apple Podcasts, or wherever you listen to your 131 00:09:03,600 --> 00:09:04,280 Speaker 1: favorite shows.