An Egyptian lamp will therefore look like any other pot, until the invention of glass, Egyptian lamps were made of stone Sudan as alabaster or ceramic such as terracotta, it seems likely that ritual objects in shrines were lit from below by a bowl containing several floating wicks or possibly placed in a special niche, the wick, made from twisted vegetable fibres is a common hieroglyphic sign. There is an important connection between this sign and Egyptian magik. This is also emblematic of the later magik where for example in Islam the magician is described as the "blower of knots", a reverence to cord magik, this leads to the additional hypothesis concerning lighting technology used by the early Hebrews whose history is usually traced to the foundation narrative of the book of Exodus.
The description of the menorah or sanctuary "candelabra" used by the Hebrews in the Sinai desert is supposedly a new design dictated to Moses on mount Sinai. The original narrative has generated a number of re-constructions.
My hypothesis is that the original menorah ought to be based on the tech of the Egyptians, containing seven floating wicks. The description of the menorah in the bible is compatible with floating wick system and was used in at least one Egyptian synagogue at Leontopolis, even so it is notable that this was not the lighting technology widely used in Israel after the
Babylonian captivity, the fact presents us with perhaps an additional problem for the historicity, th truth of the Biblical narrative.
Examples of the small components used in the floating wick system have not so far turned up in excavations probably
because they are too small, delicate or made of less robust materials.
Other kinds of oil lamp have a distinctive spout to hold the wick.
An Egyptian lamp could look like any other pot, several other sources from Egypt that document the use of lights with
floating wick sm either in freestanding pots, stone or ceramic, or as in later church architecture in glass bowls
suspended by chains from the ceiling,
This later arrangement was also adopted by Egypt's Jewish community, still in residence during the Persian period, this
This report comes from the Jewish Roman historian Josephus who says a menorah suspended on chains from the ceiling
once existed in the synagogue of Onias at Leontopolis, unfortunately this synagogue was demolished in ancient times.
The wick is made of twisted vegetables diners, the Hieroglyphic sign used to represent the phoneme H, the object a wick
This is also the first symbol of the word "Heka" which means "magick" it is well known that cords and ropes perform an
important function within ancient Egyptian magick, this could be in the sense of surrounding something with a
protective barrier as in the rope like cartouche that surrounds the name of the King.
It is also in the use of lamps, which play an important role in the mechanics of magick, many spells in the magical papyri used lamps, there are also special lamps in the shape of protective deities such as the "spitting cobra", deployed to protect the sleeping quarters of the vulnerable, in these lamps, the word used for fire is Nsr.t (anglicised as Nesret) although it is still uncertain whether this refers to the flame or a more genetic burning associated with the protective Cobras.
Jill Smethills, in her recent article "Playing with fire", surveys the 30 or so known terms for the fire in the Egyptian
language,confirming again the curious gap in the archaeological record concerning artificial lighting.
Lamps are also used in various contexts to repel unwanted spirits, we could almost refer to lamp magick as a specialty.
Needless to say all of the extant examples of such lamps come from the late period onwards, ie after 664bce, none
have apparently survived from the earlier periods.
The practice of cord magic of various sorts never dies out, in Koran magicians are referred to as "blowers on knots" this
is interpreted as a reference to practitioners of knot magick, the magicians doing this by reciting incarnations to do
harm on others while they tie "knots" in string. The final two chapters in the Koran, collectively called "Mu'awazatain"
are a refuge against such activities.
The Hebrew Menorah is the seven branched "candelabra" supposedly described in the Biblical/Torah passages.
Modern scholarship in Hebrew studies tell us that the usual English translation is misleading and in fact the earliest forms of this Celtic lamp stand did not have seven branches! This was an innovation of the so called second temple period in Israel when in 539bce the Jews, as they then called themselves, returned from exile in Babylon, rebuilt the ruined temple and reconstructed its equipment, so the Menorah was an oil lamp, which judging by the description of the talent of gold used in its construction would have weighed more than 100bs.
"Candelabra" is written here in inverted commas because candles had not yet been invented. Or if they had been they
we're not widely used, records suggest that the earliest surviving candles originated in China around 200BC, and were
made from whale fat.
European candles of antiquity were of natural fat, tallow and wax. In Ancient Rome, candles were made of tallow.
It is possible that they also existed in Greece.
Perhaps it is naive but one might expect the lighting systems of the early Hebews to mirror those of the ancient Egyptians, on the basis of the famous Bibical narrative of the Exodus, the account of the Hebrews supposed residence in Egypt, eventually declining to a despised ethic minority and eventually seeking to leave , it is remarkable how many scholarly books make little out of this supposed connection, Rachael Hachlili seminal study of the Menorah is fairly dismissive of any Egyptian antecedents,, on the other hand, C L Meyers, whose work is discussed by Hachlili says ,the Egyptian background to the image is striking".
Here's the he Bibical passage in English that describes the construction of the "candelabra" used in the portable shrine
during the suppose forty year sojourn of the Hebrews in the Sinai desert:
"Make a lamp of pure gold. Hammer out its base and shaft, and make its flowerlike cups, buds and blossoms of one piece.
Six branches are to extend from the sides of the lampstand, three on one side and three on the other. Three cups shaped like almond flowers with buds and blossoms are to be on one branch, three in the next branch,and the same for all six branches extending from the lampstand. And on the lampstand are to be four cups shaped like almond flowers with buds and blossoms. One bud shall be under the first of branches extending from the lampstand, a second bus under the second pair, and a third bus under the third pair, six branches in all. The buds and branches shall be all of one piece with the lampstamd, hammered out of pure gold.
Then make its seven lamps and set them up on it so that they light the space in front of it. It's wick trimmers and trays
are to be of pure gold. A talent of pure gold is to be used for the lampstand and all these accessories. See that you make accordingly to the pattern shown you on the mountain" (Exodus 25 31-40).
Attempts to match Egypt and Bibical history remain speculative, thus far at least.
The Menorah should be based on an Egyptian design but all surviving examples are all post Babylonian exile, second temple reconstructions. The new equipment used in the second Jerusalem temple show more the influence of Mesopotamia and the archaic Greek world. This is to be expected. Hence a great deal of their later technology, lighting, cake dries etc has lost any Egyptian patterns it might have had, it's almost as if the ancient Hebrew sojourn in Egypt has never happened.
Blower of knots
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