4,000-Year-Old Depiction Of Egyptians Demons Discovered

The ancient Egyptian world of belief was inhabited by a huge number of entities with supernatural powers. These creatures could play both malevolent and benevolent roles, as threats, maladies and dangers, or as protectors, helpers and defenders. They were significant to ancient Egyptians in ordinary life as well as afterlife.

Experts studying ancient Egyptian supernatural entities in texts and objects have now come across the oldest depictions of ancient Egyptian demons dating back as far as 4,000 years ago.

“Wael Sherbiny, an independent scholar who specializes in the ancient Egyptian religious texts, found two demons on two Middle Kingdom coffins about 4,000 years old.

The third was portrayed in a 4,000-year-old leather roll the researcher had previously discovered in the shelves of the Egyptian museum in Cairo, where it was stored and forgotten for more than 70 years. It was the oldest and longest Egyptian leather manuscript, “Discovery News reports.

The demon Ikenty represented as a large bird with a black feline head on a Middle Kingdom coffin. The same demon appears as a large bird on a much older leather roll.

WAEL SHERBINY

“These three demons are already familiar to scholars from ancient texts. However, the depiction of two of them was unknown until now,” Sherbiny told Discovery News.

“The drawings show them in either a purely zoomorphic or anthropomorphic representation,” he added.

Two demons, called In-tep, pictured as a dog-like baboon, and Chery-benut, depicted as unspecified figure with human head, appear as guardians at the entrance of a complex building, possibly a kind of temple that contains several chambers guarded by other demonic entities.

“The texts link this building to the moon god Thoth and the bark of the sun god,” Sherbiny said.

Aprt from their names, no accompanying textual elements refer to the tasks of these two demons.

“The name of the first demon, In-tep, may denote his dangerous role in severing heads as a punishment to any intruder of the sacred space,” Sherbiny said.

The third demon, Ikenty, was the guardian of a fiery gate that led to a restricted area concealing a divine image. The demon’s appearance was already known as it was portrayed on a Middle Kingdom coffin (1870-1830 BC) in the form of a large bird with a black feline head.

The images represent a rare opportunity to witness how the ancient Egyptians imagined the invisible.

Source: locklip