Welcome to my new monthly installment of Running Through History! I hope to post a new entry on the 1st of each month. These posts will discuss the history of running including its anthropological origins, its ancient history, and even some more modern stuff. I’m both a running dork and a history/archaeology dork so I thought why not combine the two and see what happens!
It would only be fitting that the inaugural post of this series was centered in Egypt, as that’s my primary area of interest. The Egyptians have a long history of running. In fact its about as long as their entire dynastic history, that is, many thousands of years. Way back in what we call Pre-Dynastic Egypt (ca. 3100 BCE), civilization was forming and concepts like kingship and funerary practices were taking shape. It appears that even this early on the Egyptians had notions and beliefs of life after death. Eventually this would lead to a standardized process of mummification, which is quite certainly one of the reasons people find ancient Egypt so fascinating today (who doesn’t love a good Egyptian mummy?). At the same time as these funerary beliefs were coming into play, however, Egyptians were also playing around with another ritual, a running ritual, called the Heb-Sed or ‘Royal Jubilee.’
It doesn’t take an ancient history novice to know that the king, or pharaoh, was an important player in ancient Egypt. Think about it: what are the top 3 things you probably think about when you think of ancient Egypt? Pyramids, the Great Sphinx, and King Tut or another famous mummy. All of these things were built for or relate to the pharaoh. The dude (or dudette in some cases) in charge certainly made sure to leave behind enough crap to let us know he or she existed, and so that later generations would know what’s up. This is of course lucky for archaeologists, who take great interest and joy in digging up this stuff and piecing it back together, trying to figure out just what went on 5,000 years ago.
The so-called first king of the first dynasty of Egypt, Narmer, was thought to have been the man to finally unite Upper and Lower Egypt (the southern and northern parts) to form Egyptian civilization as we think of it today. While he is probably most well known for this piece, the Narmer Palette,
some other cool stuff with his name on it was dug up too, like this one.
The is Narmer’s ceremonial macehead. While it doesn’t look like much on its own, if we take a look at what is actually written on it by tracing the shapes we get this.
Some of the images on this macehead illustrate the Heb-Sed festival, which the king would celebrate after ruling for 30 years. The king would run a course around two ceremonial boundary markers, symbolizing him running around the borders of his dominion and staking territorial claim. The king used running as a sign of power and entitlement, as if to say I’m strong enough to run, I’m strong enough to rule (or something to that effect). The completion of the run would renew and revive his kingship. It would have been completed again every 3 years following the 30 year mark, each time celebrating his continued success. We can see the festival being illustrated on the macehead here, Narmer sitting in his throne while 3 runners are jogging between two sets of boundary markers.
One of the nice things about studying ancient Egypt is that there is great consistency. If you’ve ever looked at any Egyptian art you might notice that there are certain characteristics which do not change, such as the way the figures are drawn in that strange frontal-profile stance or how the king is always wearing a crown and false beard. This is especially impressive when you consider that these traditions remained essentially unchanged for over a period of 3,000 years. They certainly knew what they liked! The same can be said about their rituals. After Narmer celebrated his Heb-Sed later pharaohs followed in his foot steps (quite literally!). Here is an ebony label of a later first dynasty king, Den, found in his tomb at Abydos. This time we see the king in full regalia running between the boundary markers.
Where we can best see this running ritual being played out, however, is in Djoser’s third dynasty Step Pyramid at Saqqara. When Djoser came to power he decided he was going to do things a little bit differently. Previously to him kings had been buried in low, one-story, mud-brick structures called mastabas. Djoser wanted something much grander. His brilliant architect Imhotep came up with a radical design, in which six stone mastabas would be stacked on top of one another, kind of like a wedding cake. And voila! First monumental stone structure built in the entire world, circa 2650 BCE, and the predecessor to the later Great Pyramid at Giza!
But that’s not all. Imhotep also built an entire complex around the pyramid, including a Heb-Sed Court for the afterlife, allowing Djoser to renew his reign forever and into eternity. How great for us that we get to see an actual Heb-Sed course in 3-D! And just in case we forgot how the ritual goes, Djoser also lovingly included an image of himself running the course inside the pyramid. What a guy!
No doubt later pharaohs continued to perform the festival, but there have never been any evidence as nicely presented as Djoser’s discovered. In a wonderful relief of Queen Hatshepsut of the 18th Dynasty, found in the red chapel at Karnak, she is shown running the same boundary markers over 1,000 years later! You’ll notice she doesn’t look very um, womanly. Intentional I assure you. To legitimize her position as ‘king’ of Egypt she had to look the part and, of course, take part in the same rituals as a man would, including the Heb-Sed.
While the ritual continued to be performed into the Late Period, with evidence coming from the twenty-second dynasty king Osorkon II at Bubastis in the 9th century BCE, it eventually fell by the wayside when the Romans took over and further evidence of it is lost.
Interesting that even our ancient friends used running to prove themselves, as we might today when we run a race. Heck, even when we're not running a race we prove something to ourselves everytime we get there for a run. And, just like the king, we use running to keep ourselves young and in our prime. Maybe we're not so unlike the ancient Egyptians after all.
It would only be fitting that the inaugural post of this series was centered in Egypt, as that’s my primary area of interest. The Egyptians have a long history of running. In fact its about as long as their entire dynastic history, that is, many thousands of years. Way back in what we call Pre-Dynastic Egypt (ca. 3100 BCE), civilization was forming and concepts like kingship and funerary practices were taking shape. It appears that even this early on the Egyptians had notions and beliefs of life after death. Eventually this would lead to a standardized process of mummification, which is quite certainly one of the reasons people find ancient Egypt so fascinating today (who doesn’t love a good Egyptian mummy?). At the same time as these funerary beliefs were coming into play, however, Egyptians were also playing around with another ritual, a running ritual, called the Heb-Sed or ‘Royal Jubilee.’
It doesn’t take an ancient history novice to know that the king, or pharaoh, was an important player in ancient Egypt. Think about it: what are the top 3 things you probably think about when you think of ancient Egypt? Pyramids, the Great Sphinx, and King Tut or another famous mummy. All of these things were built for or relate to the pharaoh. The dude (or dudette in some cases) in charge certainly made sure to leave behind enough crap to let us know he or she existed, and so that later generations would know what’s up. This is of course lucky for archaeologists, who take great interest and joy in digging up this stuff and piecing it back together, trying to figure out just what went on 5,000 years ago.
The so-called first king of the first dynasty of Egypt, Narmer, was thought to have been the man to finally unite Upper and Lower Egypt (the southern and northern parts) to form Egyptian civilization as we think of it today. While he is probably most well known for this piece, the Narmer Palette,
 |
| Narmer Palette |
 |
| Narmer Macehead |
Some of the images on this macehead illustrate the Heb-Sed festival, which the king would celebrate after ruling for 30 years. The king would run a course around two ceremonial boundary markers, symbolizing him running around the borders of his dominion and staking territorial claim. The king used running as a sign of power and entitlement, as if to say I’m strong enough to run, I’m strong enough to rule (or something to that effect). The completion of the run would renew and revive his kingship. It would have been completed again every 3 years following the 30 year mark, each time celebrating his continued success. We can see the festival being illustrated on the macehead here, Narmer sitting in his throne while 3 runners are jogging between two sets of boundary markers.
One of the nice things about studying ancient Egypt is that there is great consistency. If you’ve ever looked at any Egyptian art you might notice that there are certain characteristics which do not change, such as the way the figures are drawn in that strange frontal-profile stance or how the king is always wearing a crown and false beard. This is especially impressive when you consider that these traditions remained essentially unchanged for over a period of 3,000 years. They certainly knew what they liked! The same can be said about their rituals. After Narmer celebrated his Heb-Sed later pharaohs followed in his foot steps (quite literally!). Here is an ebony label of a later first dynasty king, Den, found in his tomb at Abydos. This time we see the king in full regalia running between the boundary markers.
 |
| Step Pyramid at Saqqara |
But that’s not all. Imhotep also built an entire complex around the pyramid, including a Heb-Sed Court for the afterlife, allowing Djoser to renew his reign forever and into eternity. How great for us that we get to see an actual Heb-Sed course in 3-D! And just in case we forgot how the ritual goes, Djoser also lovingly included an image of himself running the course inside the pyramid. What a guy!
 |
| Hatshepshut running the Heb-Sed, markers in blue |
No doubt later pharaohs continued to perform the festival, but there have never been any evidence as nicely presented as Djoser’s discovered. In a wonderful relief of Queen Hatshepsut of the 18th Dynasty, found in the red chapel at Karnak, she is shown running the same boundary markers over 1,000 years later! You’ll notice she doesn’t look very um, womanly. Intentional I assure you. To legitimize her position as ‘king’ of Egypt she had to look the part and, of course, take part in the same rituals as a man would, including the Heb-Sed.
While the ritual continued to be performed into the Late Period, with evidence coming from the twenty-second dynasty king Osorkon II at Bubastis in the 9th century BCE, it eventually fell by the wayside when the Romans took over and further evidence of it is lost.
Interesting that even our ancient friends used running to prove themselves, as we might today when we run a race. Heck, even when we're not running a race we prove something to ourselves everytime we get there for a run. And, just like the king, we use running to keep ourselves young and in our prime. Maybe we're not so unlike the ancient Egyptians after all.
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