Magical Bricks

Magical Bricks

in the Oriental Institute Museum of the University ofChicago*

Magical Bricks in the Oriental Institute Museum of the University ofChicago* Abstract: Foy Scalf (Tafel 9-18) This article publishes in full the 10 magical bricks in the Egyptian collection of the Oriental Institute Museum of the University of Chicago, including description, transcription, transliteration, translation, photographs and copies. Their relationship to the corpus of known magical bricks is detailed and their relevance to this corpus discussed. 1 Introduction Among the holdings of the Oriental Institute Museum of the University of Chicago are 10 magical bricks or fragments thereof ranging in date from the reign of Tuthmosis III to the 2Sth Dynasty. I Currently published magical bricks range in date from the reign of Tuthmosis III in the 18th Dynastf to the reign ofNectanebo I in the 30th Dynasty,3 the Oriental Institute Museum examples spanning nearly this entire period. The bricks themselves are not the result of the systematic excavation of the Oriental Institute but derive from art market purchases and shares of fmds made at Abydos by the Egyptian Exploration Society (EES) in 1900--1904.4 Although magical bricks contained portions of spell lSI of the Book of the Dead, none of the objects studied here were published in the edition of Book of the Dead documents from the Oriental Institute MuseuM.

prepared by Thomas George Allen. S Despite such an unusual oversight, the importance of these magical bricks within the known corpus will become clear in the following discussion.

https://oi.uchicago.edu/.../docs/magical_bricks_sak_38.pdf