Sunday, March 29, 2009

The Kings Staff

Mark A Cella is a world renowned archeologist and professor of Egyptology at Santa Monica College in Santa Monica California. He’s led over a dozen digs and expeditions to the pyramids and the Valley of the Kings over the past fifteen years.
A scepter or staff is one of the most ancient symbols of aut
hority. The hieroglyph for "nobleman" or "official" shows a man carrying a long staff of office in front of him. A grave found at the Predynastic site of el-Omari in Lower Egypt contained the skeleton of a man buried with a wooden staff, and a fragmentary wooden staff, carved to resemble a bundle of reeds, was found in an early First Dynasty mastaba at Saqqara.

An actual example of a royal scepter, purely ceremonial in purpose, was discovered by Flinders Petrie in one of the chambers of Khasekhemwy’s tomb at Abydos. The scepter was fashioned from polished sard and thick gold bands, all held together by a copper rod.

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