MAY PHOTO COMPETITION

Post by **crazycat** » Fri Jun 05, 2009 9:49 pm

In one of my books on Egypt I'm sure it refers to these marks as fertility gouges, it might even be in one of Kent Weeks' books.

Post by **Horus** » Sat Jun 06, 2009 6:52 pm

Another interesting theory CC

it would be interesting if you have a reference for us to look up

Post by **crazycat** » Sun Jun 07, 2009 8:59 pm

will try and find it Horus, give me a couple of days though

Post by **crazycat** » Sat Jun 20, 2009 1:33 pm

sorry it's taken a while to get back about the fertility gouges.......I forgot

In Kent Weeks book 'The Valley fo the Kings' pg 80 he talks about Seti I's temple....'So-called fertility gouges at the bottom of the nearest column were made by pilgrims seeking to harness the temple's magical powers, especially women wanting to become pregnant.'

the books isbn no is 88-8095-712-0 and is published by white star

great book but not one for carrying around, it's massive

Post by **Horus** » Sat Jun 20, 2009 2:38 pm

Thanks for that CC

Yes I have read similar explanations myself but although it may be true in some cases, I am not convinced that it accounts for all of those marks, they are just too numerous and on virtually every building. I am sure that it must be a combination of many things accumulating over thousands of years, maybe it starts out as a 'good luck' scrapping below a particular hieroglyph then it becomes eroded out over the millennia into the smooth gouges that we see today. Or some other factor such as erosion of the actual hieroglyph itself or the sharpening of tools.

What is noticeable is that they are usually vertical but the shape always has me wondering exactly what sort of tool was being used to create that type of indentation as it is almost crescent shaped, being deeper in the center than at the start and finish. One could imagine that the back edge of a sickle was being sharpened rather than the inner cutting edge, which had me speculating that the only thing requiring a sharp edge on a outer curve was the Egyptian sword such as the Khopesh
shown below. So maybe they were made by soldiers idling away their time by sharpening their weapons on the temple walls.

Post by **crazycat** » Sat Jun 20, 2009 3:18 pm

interesting thought Horus, there are certainly plenty of these goughes around Egypts temples, I guess we'll never know for sure.

Post by **LivinginLuxor** » Thu Jun 25, 2009 9:37 pm

I think that the general consensus is that they were made by superstitious people over the centuries since the temples weren't used for their original purpose. If they were sharpening points, surely they would appear on loose blocks of stone, that lay around the countryside?

The fact that they often appear close to certain hieroglyphs might suggest that symbols refer to some sort of power that the stone scraper was trying to gain, for health reasons or some other reason.

Even today, women from the Habu area visit the temple at night, to take water from the sacred lake (which is bright green at the moment) to assure a safe childbirth, or a good conception or to find a good husband. The West Bank is still an area steeped in ancient magical traditions.

Post by **Horus** » Thu Jun 25, 2009 10:45 pm

I would tend to agree with the magical use theory, although, most of them do look really weather worn so I would say it was an older rather than a modern practice. I am still intrigued as to what implement they were using to make the gouge marks.

Post by **Grandad** » Sun Jul 26, 2009 5:06 pm

What happened to this idea Horus?

It seemed to generate a fair degree of interest and much more stimulating than 'Where can you get REAL Branston Pickle' or whatever....

Post by **Horus** » Sun Jul 26, 2009 7:14 pm

I have to agree with that Grandad

but sometimes it is hard for people to generate interest, so pickles may be a popular topic with some people

As you say it did generate a bit more interest than the previous ones, but I think it was because we all went off topic and started talking about my lost pictures and the scrape marks on temples.

I don't have a problem with that at all, in fact that is what I originally intended to happen, that people would broaden out the topic based upon the posted picture

so I guess the last one worked OK

I will dig out another one to post for July, even if it is a bit late

Post by **FABlux** » Mon Jul 27, 2009 9:10 pm

How about making it the August one then you can claim to be one step ahead of the game;)