EGYPTIAN REBIRTH SONIC RITUALS
- 432Hz Team
- Jan 30, 2023
- 25 min read
Updated: May 14
BY JOHN STUART REID
Sound has played an important role in all human history andhas fascinated me in a career that has spanned five decades, first as an acoustics engineer, transitioning to that of acoustic-physics scientist in year 2000. Two events led to this transition, both during Great Pyramid acoustics experiments. The first occurred in 1996 and is the subject of this article; the second, which was truly life changing, happened in 1997 and will be the subject of a second article.
Today, my work in unravelling the biological mechanisms by which Frequency Medicine can be applied to catalyze the body’s healing response, is entirely due to my experiences in the Great Pyramid. This, then, is part one of my story.
Other Articles:
We have no way to know how our cave-dwelling, Stone Age, ancestors reacted to the reverberative spaces they inhabited and experienced, but there are many examples in history of people who, without knowledge of the workings of the natural world, ascribed supernatural or magical significance to what they saw and heard. In the archaeo-acoustics book, Stone Age Soundtracks [Devereux], the point is made that “sound in the ancient world was conceived of as a super- natural phenomenon...strange noises and echoes would have been associated by ancient peoples with spirits and the non-physical other- world”. The importance of sound in the ancient past was also poetically encapsulated by Alan C Inman:
“I am music, most ancient of the arts. I am more than ancient; I am eternal. Even before life commenced upon this earth, I was here in the winds and the waves. When the first trees and flowers and grasses appeared, I was among them. And when Man came, I at once became the most delicate, most subtle and most powerful medium for the expression of man’s emotions” [Inman].
Reverberation played an important role in Mediaeval Cathedrals,which enhanced the choir and organ performance and is an essential ingredient in modern day music performance. In the modern world, auditoriums are acoustically designed to have a ‘live acoustic’ and when this quality is missing from an auditorium, for example due totoo many soft surfaces that absorb rather than reflect sound, reverbera- tion is added electronically to the sound system used by performers.In Greek and Roman cultures, the acoustic qualities of a space were designed by choice of materials, shape and dimensions [Vitruvius] and evidence presented in this article indicates that the ancient Egyptians were expert in this art.
Anyone who has travelled in Egypt and visited its many majestic temples, will have experienced their wonderful acoustic qualities, particularly when one is fortunate to visit them alone or with a small, quiet group. Yet, impressive though Egyptian temples are, their acoustic qualities cannot match those of the pyramids. All who have entered the Red Pyramid at Dashur cannot have failed to be amazed by its audacious inner chambers. The lofty, corbelled chambers are reminiscent of a machine, and as soon as one utters a sound it becomes clear to the visitor that this ‘machine’ has a sonic purpose because the acoustics are extraordinary. Although I carried out my research in the Red Pyramid alone, I discovered—and recorded with instrumentation— that singing in the main chamber produces a pitch shift, creating a harmonizing chorus effect, as if a second person is present, which is an eerie feeling, a sense that the spirit of its designer is present. The visitor can be forgiven if they gain the impression that the chambers of the Red Pyramid feel like the interior of an alien spaceship.
But even the chambers of the Red Pyramid pale in comparison with those of the Great Pyramid. After an energetic and stooped-over climb up the ascending passageway, for it is only around 4-feet/1.2 metres high, the visitor is suddenly able to stand to their full height as they emerge into the breathtaking Grand Gallery. And grand indeed it is, telescoping upward at an angle of 26 degrees, and with its beautifully corbelled limestone walls, it is an architectural and engineering marvel.
Above the Giant Step is the entrance to the anti-chamber, a small low- ceiling passage that connects with the King’s Chamber. Its rose granite walls are cut with four arches, which, historically, have been attributed to four portcullises, but whatever the truth of that, those four arches also have a distinct purpose in my model.
You now enter the King’s Chamber, its walls, floor and ceiling all con- structed in rose granite, quarried in Aswan, brought to Giza a distance of 427 miles/ 688 km via the Nile, then shaped to such perfection that they fit together without mortar, so accurately fashioned that not even a pen- knife can penetrate the joints. The pink hue of the granite is not immedi- ately apparent, in part due to the low-level lighting, but also a coating of dust-laden perspiration coating their surfaces, for most people are indeed perspiring when they reach the King’s Chamber, and the millions of visi- tors each leave a small amount of grime, which accumulates with time.
Perhaps you gasp for breath, having climbed the Grand Gallery too enthusiastically, and the sound of your gasp reverberates for several seconds around this astonishing chamber (the actual reverberation time is 4.7 seconds) which makes speech between two people rather challenging, unless you each give permission to be within 30cm/ 1 foot of each other’s noses. But the high levels of reverberation are ideal for chant, particularly vowel sound chant, which we will explore later.
You notice that the walls are not adorned by hieroglyphic texts, a deliberate choice of either the pharaoh Khufu, for whom the pyramidwas built, or perhaps of its architect; therefore, you are confronted by an almost bare chamber, except the enigmatic sarcophagus, positioned close to the western wall. The word ‘sarcophagus’ means ‘stone coffin’, but whether its purpose was that of a coffin is a matter of contention because when the Caliph Al Mamun forced his entry in CE 820 he found the sarcophagus empty. This also recalls the story of The Buried Pyramid, excavated by Zakaria Goneim in 1952, who found an intact sarcophagus complete with funerary wreath on its top, just as the priests had left it. In his book [Goneim] he states: “This sarcophagus chamber in the newly discovered pyramid had clearly never been entered since the day its makers left it”. Yet, when opened in the presence of news reporters, the sarcophagus was found to be empty. Why, then, build a pyramid to enclose an empty sarcophagus? The answer may be to provide a secure ‘rest home’ for the peripatetic ka, a place where the spirit of the pharaoh could rest when he wished to return to earth from the celestial realm.
tubular drills, which I commissioned to have made in a UK foundry.I enlisted the help of my two sons, Richard and James, my father, George, and a friend, Dean Baker, and we worked diligently for three days to saw, and drill rose granite blocks. Our results were pitiful, with only very small incursions into the blocks, leaving me to conclude that
the saws used to fashion the outer walls of the sarcophagus, andthe tubular drills used to hollow out its interior were made from iron, not copper. You might be wondering why no iron tools have been excavated from Old Kingdom tombs? The answer is almost certainly because iron rusts, and within a few hundred years of oxidation, it literally crumbles to dust. In our home we have a large iron meteorite, weighing 33kg, but over the years it has rusted, even in the low humidity environment of our home, and now it weighs about 100 grams less than when we first acquired it.
Now you approach the sarcophagus and with care and reverence you gently climb into it and lie down. This is exactly what I did in early 1996, witnessed by my father, who watched in silence. Closing my eyes,I made a vocal glissando, slowly increasing the pitch and with all my attention on my hearing. I reached a pitch that I later came to call the “Goldilocks note” at which point goose bumps broke out all over my flesh and it felt as though every cell in my body was tingling. I played with that special resonant frequency, now raising my pitch a little above the Goldilocks note, now just below it, and each time I held my pitch steady on that note the orgasmic-like effect in my body returned. At that moment the thought sprang into my mind that this effect was surely the result of design... but before that thought could further develop I heard the expletives of the guardian of the pyramid ascending the Grand Gallery, and I leapt out of the sarcophagus just before he entered the chamber, pointing at his watch and noisily gesticulating to my father and me that we had to leave. It was a rude ending to our visit, but a fire had been lit in me during those extraordinary few minutes in the sarcophagus, and the only way to quench it was to understand, by means of acoustics instrumentation, why my body had reacted so powerfully to my own vocal sounds.
Then came the astonishing moment. At 242Hz the sarcophagus became very excited, emitting powerful sparkling sounds, rich in harmonics, the quartz crystals in the granite matrix acting like an array of tuned circuits. I then raised the oscillator frequency to 268Hz and suddenly the sarcophagus began to powerfully beat, resembling the sound of a beating heart! At this point, the antiquities inspector rushed over from where he had been observing, and was clearly afraid, “You damage the sarcophagus?” he shouted, but I gently put my hand on his shoulder and shook my head in the negative, to reassure him that all was well. Even so, he now observed from close range as I increased the frequency a little higher to 276Hz, and the sarcophagus continued to beat like a heart, throbbing, pulsating very powerfully throughout the King’s Chamber. Looking over at the spectrum analyzer I saw the 250 and 315Hz bands dancing energetically up and down, in synchronous with the beating heart sound. Beyond 276Hz, the beat phenomenon ceased, and a sigh of relief escaped the antiquities inspector’s mouth.
It didn’t take me long to realize that this effect could be created by human voices, one person lying in the sarcophagus, intoning 242 Hz, close to a musical B3, while perhaps four or five others stand around the sar- cophagus and intone 276 Hz, close to a musical D4 flat. I also could
not shake the idea that this extraordinary beating heart effect had been designed into the sarcophagus by the ancient Egyptian priest-scientists, and later I came to realize the significance of the beating heart from the viewpoint of rebirth symbolism. There now follows the story of how
I came to this conclusion.
I had read with fascination the account of the English engineer, Waynman Dixon, who in 1872, accompanied by his friend, Dr Grant, having seen the two small shafts exiting the King’s Chamber, decided to see if there were any shafts concealed in the Queen’s Chamber. History has not recorded whether this amazing figuring was Dixon’s or Grant’s, but in either case, remember that the pyramid had been open since the Caliph Al-Mamoun forced an entry into the pyramid in 820CE, so, for over 1000 years the Queen’s Chamber had been visited by countless tourists, yet no one had had that same thought. Dixon tapped around the walls of the chamber and heard a hollow sound on the southern wall, and with the aid of a chisel he soon discovered a small shaft, 8.6 inches wide and 8 inches high, horizontal for about 39 inches, then rising at an angle of about 39 degrees. Instead of completing the entry of the shaft into the chamber, the pyramid’s builders had deliberately left around four inches of uncut limestone, therefore concealing the existence of the shaft. Tapping the north wall, he found a matching hollow sound, and this time, after chiseling the opening, he found two
![A model birthing set [British Museum]](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/8f8b3e_14b9809f6696432594e5026429fbffbb~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_864,h_590,al_c,q_90,enc_avif,quality_auto/8f8b3e_14b9809f6696432594e5026429fbffbb~mv2.png)
![Flint peseshkef, inscribed for [Khufu]Found by George A Reisner in the Menkaure Valley Temple](https://static.wixstatic.com/media/8f8b3e_4ed2bb0d0eaa430384845d59b4dbf0b7~mv2.png/v1/fill/w_406,h_790,al_c,q_85,enc_avif,quality_auto/8f8b3e_4ed2bb0d0eaa430384845d59b4dbf0b7~mv2.png)
The pesh-en-kef hada handle made of cedar wood, which subsequently became detached, and there is a fascinating story attached to this handle, as it has been missingfor over 150 years and was discovered in 2019in the University of Aber- deen’s Asian collections by curatorial assistant, Abeer Eladany. Its re-discovery allowed the wood to be carbon dated, with surprising results for those readers who wish to take a little interest- ing side alley: https://www.world-archaeology.com/issues/issue-106/lost-dixon-relic/
The questions that arise for me from the discovery of a pesh-en-kefand the small dolerite ball are: Why were these objects placed in the northern shaft of the Queen’s Chamber? And why were the northern and southern shafts deliberately not cut through into the chamber? The degree of difficulty in creating those shafts was significant because at each pyramid course level the cross section of the shafts would haveto be carved into a specially prepared limestone block, at a precise angle, and precisely aligned with the block in the previous course. This represents a huge amount of work and remember that in the order of construction, the Queen’s Chamber shaft blocks had to be positioned and cut before all higher courses, so the ancient Egyptian designers had a very good reason why they did not cut through those last 4-inches of limestone on both shafts. I will soon answer these questions, as well as the purpose of the dolerite ball, after I share with you the story of my acquiring knowledge in midwifery!
Researching the pesh-en-kef tool I came across a model of an “opening of the mouth set” also sometimes known as “birthing set” in the Briish Museum, which includes a stone pesh-en-kef, small model unguent bottles and two stone ‘fingers’. These small stone models symbolize the actual full-size impedimenta used during childbirth, to sever the umbilical and to clear the mucus from the baby’s mouth, and the full-size bottles would have contained sacred oils. The fingers are called “netrwj” blades and there is an ancient Egyptian drawing in a wonderful article titled, Fingers, Stars, and the Opening of the Mouth, by Ann Macy Roth [Roth], showing two little fingers being applied to the mouth of the mummified pharaoh, Amenemhat, to open his mouth and symbolically reanimate him. The purpose of the Opening of the Mouth ritual was, therefore, rebirth. She also discusses the pyramid of Unas, that marvel- ous pyramid at Saqqara that contains the Pyramid Texts, believed to be the oldest religious texts in the world, and she mentions that Unas’ ka, or spirit, was “represented by the placenta in the womb, with Unas preparing for rebirth”.
In my further reading, I came across a highly relevant quote by Professor I.E.S. Edwards in his excellent book, The Pyramids of Egypt. [Edwards]
At this point you may be wondering why there are twin shafts also entering the Queen’s Chamber, does the Sky Goddess have two wombs? My hypothesis is that one element of the rebirth ritual, enacted in the Great Pyramid, focused on the celestial realm, in which the body of the Sky Goddess, arced over the heavens as the Milky Way, and the two fallopian tubes exiting the King’s Chamber were intended to connect with her celestial ovaries. The part of the ritual enacted in the Queen’s Chamber focused on the earthly realm, which is why the two fallopian tubes from that chamber stop around 60 feet short of the exterior of the pyramid. All will become clear at the end of this article.
The southern shaft of the Queen’s Chamber was explored by Rudolf Gantenbrink in 1996, by means of a robot, resulting in the discovery of what has come to be known as, ‘Gantenbrink’s Door’, 200-feet from the chamber, a small portcullis door. Since then, other explorers have used robots to drill holes in the door and peer beyond. Robert Richardson, from the University of Leeds, UK, found some red ochre hieroglyphic numbers, and another barrier to overcome, to see what lies beyond.
The question remains regarding the symbolic purpose of stopping the shaft within the superstructure of the pyramid. One possible answer concerns the ancient Egyptian concept of false doors, a symbolic device through which the ka or spirit body could pass.
Such doors were invariably constructed to normal door proportions, to accommodate a ka that matched the propor- tions of the living pharaoh. However, the shafts are approximately 8 inches square, a dimension that is well suited to the passage of a fetus, or the ka of a fetus, but not that of an adult. This recalls a related aspect of Egyptian culture, which is to depict children in tomb scenes and on temple walls in miniature proportions. The only statue of Khufu, found by the famous English Egyptologist, Flinders Petrie, depicts him as a tiny, seated figure, and has caused me
to consider that this may have been intended to represent Khufu’s fetal state, before he was reborn, although admit- tedly his face does not look childlike. It would be ironic if this only statuette of Khufu, miniature in its proportions and displayed in the Cairo Museum, is one of two, the other behind Gantenbrink’s door, waiting to be reborn.
I became fascinated by the idea that the shafts were symbolic fallopian tubes, so I visited a book shop and tooka heavy tome on midwifery off the shelf and, while standing reading it I came across a passage that caused me to hold my breath. I read, the isthmus of the fallopian tube, the point where it enters the womb, opens only once per month to allow the passage of the ovum in its transit from the ovaries. It then closes and remains closed until the next monthly cycle. The left and right fallopian tubes perform this opening and closing of the isthmus on alternate months.
After reading this I exhaled so rapidly that several nearby customers looked my way to see if I was okay. I was. In fact, I was ecstatic! Deliberate concealment of the shaft openings symbolized the monthly cycle of Nut, waiting for a ritual that
would symbolically open them, a ceremony that was, perhaps, performed in the pyramid each month, northern fallopian tube one month, followed by southern fallopian tube the next month. And when Waynman Dixon physically opened them, he had no way to know that he was triggering the symbolic rebirth of Khufu...
Years later, I found this confirming passage in a scientific article:
“In a woman’s monthly cycle, the isthmus of the alternate tubes, opens each month for one day only, to allow the passage of the egg into the womb. Transport of the egg takes, typically, four days, and for three days the egg is transported through the ampulla. It takes another 24-hours to pass through the isthmus into the womb”. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/abs/pii/B9780123918567000457
Next, we enter the Grand Gallery, telescoping upward at a 26-degree angle. In images of the Sky Goddess, Nut, we see her arched across the sky, often surrounded by stars, her hands on one horizon, her feet on the other. When a woman has sex in this position, her vagina slopes upward at a 26-degree angle, which I checked on an anatomical cross section, a fact that the architect incorporated into the design of the pyramid: The Grand Gallery symbolizes Nut’s birth canal, for pharaoh Khufu’s rebirth. The entrance to the Grand Gallery is narrow, so too is the entrance to the vagina. The walls of the Grand Gallery are corbelled, resembling
Africanus, quoting the lost works of the Egyptian historian Manetho, wrote about the pharaoh of the First Dynasty: Anthonis...built the palace at Memphis and his anatomical works are extant, for he was a physician.”
All of these anatomical features created in stone can be viewed as symbolic features of the Sky Goddess’ reproductive system, and this hypothesis aligns closely with the view of esteemed Egyptologist, Dr Renee Friedman, who believes that the pyramids are “resurrection machines” and that the Great Pyramid is the greatest of them all. [Friedman]. Put simply, the pyramids are places of rebirth.
This was an exciting text to find because it revealed that the ancient Egyptians were using sound, as distinct from the spoken word, and no doubt they were toning their vowels in reverberative chambers, which would have greatly enhanced the euphony. Although the date of this quotation is much later than the Pyramid Age, vowels were consiered sacred throughout ancient Egyptian history and Ptolemaic Period customs invariably had their roots in early or even pre-dynastic times. Therefore, it seems reasonable to suggest that the ancient Egyptians of the 4th dynasty, when the Great Pyramid was built, used vowel sound chant as part of their ritual practise, and to some degree this is sup- ported by King Userkaf of the 5th Dynasty. In her excellent book, Music & Musicians in Ancient Egypt, Dr. Lise Manniche provides confirmation of singing in relation to pyramids with the following quotation:
“Instructor of the singers of the Pyramid of King Userkaf”. (Nikaure, 5th Dynasty) [Manniche]
Incidentally, the idea that only males could become priests in ancient Egypt is inaccurate; there are many accounts of female priestesses. Scholars in the field have been reluctant to admit that women were allowed to participate in the most sacred aspects of worship. However, as early as the Old Kingdom, hundreds of nonroyal women are known to have served in the priesthood of important goddesses, for example, Hathor and Neith. [Sheldon].
R.A. Schwaller de Lubicz in his book, Sacred Science, also believed that the ancient Egyptians used sounds, as distinct from words, in their rituals. In the following passage he quotes from Corpus Hermeticum:
“In a letter from Asclepius to King Amman [he says]: ‘As for us, we do not use simple words but sounds all filled with power.” [De Lubicz]
Schwaller explained, “Sacred or magical language is not to be understood as a succession of terms with definite meanings... the excitation of certain nervous centres (cause) physiological effects (which) are evoked by the utterance of certain letters or words which make no sense in themselves. The Pharaonic texts are rich in examples of litanies playing a magical role through the repetition of sounds...and through word play. The hieroglyphic writings allow us to confirm this although their transcription into our language is impossible since the pronunciation of this language is unknown.” [De Lubicz]
Last in this section is a quote from the Book of the Dead, an extract from Spell 133, translated by R.O. Faulkner. The word, “horizon” refers to a pyramid, shining with reflected light at sunrise. Its “inmates” are probably a group of priest-singers, perhaps of men and women:
“The Mighty One appears, the horizon shines. Atum appears on the smell of his censing, the sunshine-god has risen in the sky, the Mansion of the pyramidion is in joy and all its inmates are assembled. A voice calls out within the shrine, shouting reverberates around the Netherworld.” [Faulkner]
This is suggestive of a ritual performed within a pyramid in which vocally generated sound played an important role. As with the Demetrius quote, this is much later in history than the pyramid age, perhaps around 1550 BCE when the Book of the Dead is believed to have been written, but it is possible that some pyramids remained open for rituals, or perhaps this spell originated in the pyramid age and was recited by rote, even a thousand years later.
In closing, I envision the Great Pyramid exactly as Dr Renee Friedman does: the greatest of all resurrection machines. In my model, its chambers were designed to symbolize the reproductive organs of the Sky Goddess, Nut, and used as a place of rebirth ceremonies, perhaps utilizing the sonic properties of the sarcophagus that I rediscovered in late 1996: the fetal heartbeat of the newborn Khufu. I leave you with a description of the Rebirth Sonic Ritual that I envision taking place in the King’s Chamber, and painted by the talented English artist, Judith Page. Sem priests were responsible for the Opening of the Mouth Ceremony, in which the mouth of the newborn infant, in this case the mummified pharaoh, is symbolically cleared of mucus, allowing it to breath. The Sem priest performed this ceremony in a leopard skin robe, and he holds a “heka”, an instrument of magic, to assist the power of the recited spells.
Witnessing the hieroglyphic properties of the sarcophagus and experiencing the seemingly miraculous healing of my lower back, both of which occurred during my 1997 King’s Chamber experiments, were life- changing events that will be the subject of a future article.
Egyptian Rebirth Sonic Ritual
In the Queen’s Chamber (the earthly womb chamber), the mummified Khufu is stood vertically in the niche, designed for this purpose. The Sem priest, dressed in a beautiful leopard skin, recites magic spells facing the concealed northern fallopian tube, thus allowing thesymbolic passage of the egg into the chamber. Now, turning to the niche, he faces Khufu’s mummy, bandaged from head to toe, and opens Khufu’s mouth by slitting open the bandages in that area with the peseshkef instrument. He enters his two little fingers into the slit to symbolically clear the mucus and reanimate him, then steps back and incants a further series of magic spells in a glorious melodic voice that reverberates around the chamber. Djedefre, the future king, witnesses these acts and now bows respectfully to his brother’s mummy, then quietly leaves the chamber and leads the cortege up the birth canal, lit by many glowing oil lamps on each side. Surmounting the cervix step he enters the celestial womb of the Sky Goddess.
The cortege assembles in the King’s Chamber (the celestial womb), lit by a multipoint oil lamp that creates a phosphorescent haze from two incense burners. Djedefre is helped into the sarcophagus, lies down and crosses his hands on his chest. The Sem priest now instructs the four tonsured priests to stand at each corner of the sarcophagus, and gently rest their fingertips on the granite edge, to sense the delicate vibrations that are about to begin. The Sem priest taps his golden heka instrument on the sarcophagus as a signal to Djedefre to begin toning. Soon the chamber is filled with Djedefre’s powerful intonations, and the priests begin to sense tickling vibrations through their fingertips. They too now begin to tone, initially matching Djedefre’s pitch and power, but then, when instructed by the Sem priest, gradually shifting their pitch upward. The air in the chamber begins to throb, to pulsate, to oscillate, gently at first but with increasing power until the moment of rebirth is upon them: the sarcophagus suddenly becomes the heart of a newborn baby, the beating heart of the reborn pharaoh! As the sarcophagus continues to beat, the Sem priest incants a long series of magical spells and confers these upon the newborn pharaoh, holding his left hand over the sarcophagus. Khufu’s ka travels to the stars, via the northern fallopian tube, and returns to enter Djedefre, the reborn king.
Bibliography
Demetrius. Demetrius on Style, Translated by Doreen C Innes, Loeb Classic Library, Harvard University Press, 1995. ISBN : 0-674-99563-5
Bay. Greek anatomist Herophilus: the father of anatomy, Anatomy of Cell Biology, Noel Si-Yang Bay, PMCID: PMC3026179. PMID: 21267401
Budge. An Ancient Egyptian Dictionary, E.A. Wallis Budge. Volume 1. Dover Publications, 1978. ISBN: 0-486-23615-3
De Lubicz. Sacred Science, R.A. Schwaller de Lubicz, Inner Traditions Bear and Company, ISBN: 10-0892812222
Devereux. Stone Age Soundtracks, Paul Devereux, Vega 2001. ISBN: 1-84333-447-X
Edwards. The Pyramids of Egypt, I.E.S. Edwards. Penguin, 1993. ISBN: 0-14-013634-7
Faulkner. The Ancient Egyptian Book of the Dead, translated by R.O. Faulkner, edited by Carol Andrews. British Musem Press., 1996. ISBN : 0-7141-0946-0
Friedman. Egypt, Vivian Davies and Renee Friedman, British Museum Press, 1998, ISBN: 0-7141-1911-3
Goneim. The Buried Pyramid, Zakaria Goneim, Longmans, Green and Company, 1956.ASIN: B0007J651W
Hamilton. Strabo, Geography, H.C. Hamilton, Esq., W. Falconer, M.A., Ed
Inman. I am Music, a poem by Allan C. Inman. Written in 1920’s and used as a welcome message at the 1976 AGM of the National Foundation for the Advancement of Music, Port Elizabeth, South Africa.
Khufu. Old Kingdom, 4th Dynasty, reign of Khufu, ca. 2551–2528 BC. 18.3 x 2.8 x 0.4 cm (7 3/16 x 1 1/8 x 3/16 in.). From Menkaura Valley Temple. 1908, excavated by the Harvard University-Museum of Fine Arts Expedition; 1911, assigned to the MFA by the Egyptian government. Now in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston. 11.765
Manniche. Music and Musicians in Ancient Egypt, Lise Manniche, British Museum Press, 1991. ISBN : 0-7141-0949-5
Nunn. Ancient Egyptian Medicine, John F Nunn, British Museum Press, 1997. ISBN: 0-7141-1906-7
Roth. Fingers, Stars, and the Opening of the Mouth: The Nature and Function of NTRWJ-Blades. Ann Macy Roth. https://www.jstor.org/stable/3822158
Sheldon. Female Priests: A Sacredotal Precedent from Ancient Egypt, Sheldon L. Gosline. https://www.jstor.org/stable/25002267
Vitruvius. (Marcus V. Pollio) Vitruvius on Architecture, books I-V. Loeb Classic Library, Harvard University Press, 1998, ISBN: 0-674-99277-6
