{"it":{"id":"W11A23","kind":"artifact","sub":"Authenticated","name":"Dendera light reliefs","place":"Dendera","mat":"sandstone relief","dims":"not recorded","loc":"Hathor temple crypts, Dendera (in situ)","acc":"crypt 1-C (south crypt 4) + room G","find":"in situ","flag":"genuine ancient","src":[102,305,567],"lat":26.142,"lon":32.67,"tags":[],"sum":"In a narrow crypt under Dendera's Temple of Hathor, a carved bulb holds a wavy snake, held up by a pillar. To many it looks like a lamp.","why":"It is the clearest case where an ancient image and its own written caption point in different directions for modern viewers.","nfacts":0,"nsrc":3,"yt":"Read the accompanying hieroglyphic labels in translation.","rel":["EGY-004","W11A02","W11A04"],"hook":"The caption beside Dendera's 'light bulb' gives its size: three palms high, of gold and all precious stones."},"S":{"102":["Wikipedia Dendera light","https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dendera_light&oldid=1380181305"],"305":["Wikipedia: Dendera temple complex","https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dendera_temple_complex"],"567":["Waitkus 1991, Die Geburt des Harsomtus aus der Blüte (Egyptological reading of the Dendera reliefs)","https://www.academia.edu/83237941/Die_Geburt_des_Harsomtus_aus_der_Bl%C3%BCte_Zur_Bedeutung_und_Funktion_einiger_Kultgegenst%C3%A4nde_des_Tempels_von_Dendera"]},"rec":{"id":"W11A23","alias":["ART002"],"ms":[],"lab":[],"eng":[],"ori":[],"gaps":[{"a":"find_circumstances","r":"not in staged/legacy artifact record (free sources)"}],"dat":[],"aa":[{"id":"AA081","a":"Depicts an electric lamp","who":"popular AA literature/TV","main":"Accompanying hieroglyphs describe a lotus/snake motif from creation myth (statues of a djed-supported serpent)","ms":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dendera_light","st":"contradicted","n":"status from artifacts row; no new lab rows this batch","nl":1},{"id":"AA176","a":"Depicts electric lamp","who":"Peter Krassa & Reinhard Habeck (name not verified this wave)","main":"Harsomtus snake emerging from lotus on barge; captions name it; cult-statue depictions","ms":"W11S62","st":"contradicted","n":"","nl":"1"}],"ac":[],"me":[],"ci":[],"cq":[],"sd":[],"art":{"claimed_anomaly":"Depicts electric lamp","mainstream_reading":"Harsomtus snake emerging from lotus on barge; captions name it; cult-statue depictions","provenance_flag":"genuine ancient","current_location":"Hathor temple crypts, Dendera (in situ)","find_circumstances":"in situ","claimant":"Peter Krassa & Reinhard Habeck (name not verified this wave)","status":"contradicted","dimensions":"not recorded","material":"sandstone relief","date":"","culture":"","museum_accession":"crypt 1-C (south crypt 4) + room G","b":"S","s":["W11S62"]},"alias_rows":[{"id":"ART002","v":"Depicts an electric lamp","main":"Accompanying hieroglyphs describe a lotus/snake motif from creation myth (statues of a djed-supported serpent)","b":"S","s":[]}],"sub":[],"src":[{"id":"W11S62","t":"Wikipedia Dendera light","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dendera_light&oldid=1380181305"},{"id":"S0468","t":"Wikipedia: Dendera temple complex","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dendera_temple_complex"},{"id":"S2568","t":"Waitkus 1991, Die Geburt des Harsomtus aus der Blüte (Egyptological reading of the Dendera reliefs)","u":"https://www.academia.edu/83237941/Die_Geburt_des_Harsomtus_aus_der_Bl%C3%BCte_Zur_Bedeutung_und_Funktion_einiger_Kultgegenst%C3%A4nde_des_Tempels_von_Dendera"},{"id":"VW11A23-4","t":"Wikipedia","u":"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dendera_light"},{"id":"VW11A23-5","t":"Wikipedia (de): Glühbirnen von Dendera","u":"https://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gl%C3%BChbirnen_von_Dendera"}],"sum":"Beside one of the carvings in the crypts under the Temple of Hathor at Dendera, in Egypt, the hieroglyphic caption gives, in the Egyptologist Wolfgang Waitkus's translation, a specification: \"Gold and all precious stones, height: three palms\". Another figure is listed as gold, one cubit high. The captions describe statues, and they name the subject.\n\nThe scene that draws visitors shows a long oval with a wavy snake inside, its tail rising from a lotus flower and its body held up by a djed pillar. The text calls the snake Harsomtus, \"who rises out of the lotus flower\". Egyptologists read the oval as a container holding the god.\n\nThe reason the reliefs became famous is how the shape looks to modern eyes. Alternative writers have read the scene as an electric lamp, or as a cathode-ray, Geissler or Crookes tube. In 1894 the astronomer Norman Lockyer passed on a colleague's joke that electric light would explain the lack of soot on tomb ceilings, and that remark is still quoted as support.\n\nThe archaeologist Kenneth Feder replies that a culture with electric light would leave glass, sockets or filaments, and none have been found. Soot, he adds, could have been avoided with mirrors or salt mixed into torches. The texts themselves describe a magical image, not a device.\n\nWhat is left is a question about reading: whether the words carved beside a picture should settle what the picture shows.","qs":["The captions call it a snake rising from a lotus. Do you take the priests at their word, or wonder what older knowledge the image preserves?","If Egypt had electric light, what physical traces should we expect to find, and why have none turned up?","Why carve these scenes in hidden crypts few people would ever see?"],"gal":[{"src":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3c/Dendera_7_977.PNG/1280px-Dendera_7_977.PNG?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dendera_7_977.PNG","title":"Dendera 7 977.PNG","lic":"Public domain","licurl":"","by":"Ijanderson977","cap":"Dendera temple"},{"src":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8f/Aegypt1987036_hg.jpg/1280px-Aegypt1987036_hg.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Aegypt1987036_hg.jpg","title":"Aegypt1987036 hg.jpg","lic":"CC BY 3.0","licurl":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0","by":"H. Grobe","cap":"Dendera Temple complex"},{"src":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/8/8d/Ceiling_of_Temple_of_Hathor.JPG/1280px-Ceiling_of_Temple_of_Hathor.JPG?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Ceiling_of_Temple_of_Hathor.JPG","title":"Ceiling of Temple of Hathor.JPG","lic":"CC BY-SA 3.0","licurl":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0","by":"Fig wright","cap":"The recently cleaned ceiling of the Temple of Hathor at Dendera Temple complex"},{"src":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/9/94/David_Roberts_003.jpg/1280px-David_Roberts_003.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:David_Roberts_003.jpg","title":"David Roberts 003.jpg","lic":"Public domain","licurl":"","by":"David Roberts","cap":"","alt":"Dendera light reliefs: David Roberts"},{"src":"https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c1/Dendara97HathorKiosk.jpg?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail_unscaled","page":"https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Dendara97HathorKiosk.jpg","title":"Dendara97HathorKiosk.jpg","lic":"CC BY-SA 3.0","licurl":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0","by":"Roland Unger","cap":"Kiosk of Hathor at the roof of the Temple Of Hathor, Dendara, Egypt"}]},"img":null,"md":null,"hh":[{"v":"not recorded","h":"Recorded dimensions","s":[206]},{"v":"Sandstone relief","h":"Made of","s":[206]},{"v":"in situ","h":"Where it was found","s":[206]},{"v":"Hathor temple crypts","h":"Held at: Hathor temple crypts, Dendera (in situ)","s":[206]}],"hs":{"206":["Wikipedia Dendera light","https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Dendera_light&oldid=1380181305"]},"lh":{"s":"img/h/W11A23.webp","w":1280,"h":846,"o":"https://thumb.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/3/3c/Dendera_7_977.PNG/1280px-Dendera_7_977.PNG?utm_source=commons.wikimedia.org&utm_campaign=imageinfo&utm_content=thumbnail"}}