Ancient Egyptian retainer sacrifices
Encyclopedia
Ancient Egyptian retainer sacrifice is a type of human sacrifice
in which pharaoh
s and occasionally other high court nobility would have servants killed after the pharaohs' deaths to continue to serve them in the afterlife. In Egypt
, retainer sacrifice only existed during the First Dynasty, from about 3100 BC to 2900 BC, slowly dwindling, and eventually dying out.
. The ka believed by the Egyptians to be ones' life source, essence, and soul. Egyptians believed that after they died, their ka would continue to live as they had lived on earth in the afterlife. It would enjoy the same activities the individual had enjoyed on earth. Egyptians also believed that the ka had to have a body to return to, and because of this belief they would mummify
their dead. Egyptians also took precautionary measures, in case their body did not survive, by commissioning ka statue
s; statues of the deceased that were buried in the tomb
, along with the body, and would serve as a replacement if the body decayed beyond recognition. It was especially important to ensure the comfort of the king’s ka in the afterlife, due to his prominent position both in politics, and religion.
Egyptians looked at the afterlife as a continuation of this life, and believed that they would be able to enjoy many of the same activities. They also held the belief that they would be able to maintain the same social hierarchy. Egyptians, especially upper class Egyptians, were very preoccupied with making sure their life to come would be as comfortable, if not more comfortable, than their life on earth. They took every precautionary measure to ensure that they would enjoy the same comforts. Excavated tombs were found to contain food, painted murals, statues, jewelry, and various other items.
in human form. Ellen F. Morris, a professor in Columbia University’s Department of Anthropology, suggests that pharaohs used retainer sacrifices as a way to flaunt their power. She also argues that pharaohs would have to have significant power, in both a political and religious sense, to convince their subjects that it was worth sacrificing their lives on earth for the pharaoh and his comfort in the next life. In addition, their families would have to be convinced that the pharaoh’s comfort in the life to come was important enough to allow their loved ones to be sacrificed. This would not be possible if those being sacrificed did not have a very strong belief in the life to come. Egypt’s government had to convince the people that the king was a god, and what belonged to him in his life on earth, belonged to him in the afterlife also. Dr. David O’Connor, from New York University Institute of Fine Arts
, proposes that subjects of a king being willing to escort him into the afterlife demonstrates that a change had occurred in the way the Egyptians
viewed their king.
While there is some disputation as to the authenticity of retainer sacrifices, due to less than substantial evidence, most Egyptologists believe that retainer sacrifice did exist. Normally, people in ancient Egypt were buried at different times, while in the graves believed to contain retainer sacrifices, the individuals were buried simultaneously, suggesting these retainers were sacrificed. The archeologists claim that since the roofing is continuous, the burials had to be made at the same time.
. Once the pharaoh died, he became the god Osiris
, the king of eternity. While some retainers’ deaths appear to have been taken for granted, other sacrifices appear to have raised the status and wealth of some retainers in the afterlife. This can be inferred from the wealth they were interred with and their graves’ position in relation to the king’s grave. This also suggests that the retainers agreed to be sacrificed to raise their social status and wealth in the afterlife. Matthew Adams, an archeologist from the University of Pennsylvania
and the associate director of an expedition
made by New York University
, Yale
and the University of Pennsylvania, suggests that the ancient Egyptians may have viewed being sacrificed at a king’s death a sure way to reach eternal life. For a civilization so centered on the life to come, a guaranty of eternal happiness and security would seem a likely motivation for a retainer to agree to be sacrificed.
s, and even dogs, as denoted by the stelae buried in the tombs. However, there was a variety in the demographics of those retainers that were sacrificed.
During the First Dynasty, pharaohs were not the only individuals that had retainer sacrifices carried out. Servants of both royalty and high court officials were “slain to accompany their master in the next world. The number of retainers buried surrounding the king’s tomb was much greater than those of high court officials; however, again suggesting the greater importance of the pharaoh.
, the second pharaoh of the first dynasty of Egypt, was also known as King Hor-Aha. According to Ellen Morris, he had thirty-five retainer sacrifices in his tomb, and twelve in three surrounding tombs enclosed in his funerary complex. Two other accounts from popular sources are given regarding the number of sacrificed retainers found in King Aha’s funerary complex. One account found in The New York Times
, was given by an archeological team organized by New York University, Yale, and the University of Pennsylvania. These universities began a project to excavate the funerary complex of King Aha. They found six graves near a mortuary ritual site of King Aha. Five of the six graves contained “skeletons of court officials, servants, and artisans that appear to have been sacrificed to meet the king’s needs in the afterlife. Another account is given by National Geographic, in an article entitled "Abydos: Life and Death at the Dawn of Egyptian Civilization." In this account, six retainer sacrifices were buried inside of Aha’s tomb with him, and thirty-five were buried in surrounding tombs inside his funerary complex.
, Aha’s successor and son, had 318 retainer sacrifices buried in his tomb, and 269 retainer sacrifices buried in enclosures surrounding his tomb. Dr. O’Connor believes that the more than 200 graves found in King Djer’s funerary complex contain retainer sacrifices, as well. According to Ancient Egypt: A Social History, King Djer was buried with over 580 retainers. It is highly unlikely that all these retainers died of natural causes at the same time, suggesting that these retainers were sacrificed upon the death of King Djer. According to the National Geographic’s article, however, 569 retainers were sacrificed for King Djer.
had 174 sacrificed retainers buried around his tomb at Abydos
and sixty-two retainers buried around his tomb at Saqqara
.
, about 230 individuals died simultaneously for “something or someone of extreme importance.” Once again, it is highly unlikely that such a large number of individuals would die all at once of natural causes and it can be inferred that these individuals were sacrificed to serve King Den in the afterlife. Perhaps this reflected the varied court positions in the pharaoh’s kingdom, possibly including family members, noble court members, and servants.
.
Of the twelve sacrificed and buried in the three surrounding tombs of King Aha’s funerary complex, all identifiable retainers “were all male and around twenty years of age.” Morris suggests that these retainers, due to their gender, youth, and how they were buried, “regimented alignment in straight rows,” were possibly a military guard, buried with the king to protect and serve him in the afterlife. Dr. Laurel Bestock, one of the archeologists on the New York University, Yale, and University of Pennsylvania team, recalled that the people buried in King Aha’s complex were not just lowly servants, but were also rich nobles.
Most of the retainer sacrifices in the surrounding tombs of the funerary complex of King Djer at Abydos were female and probably consisted of “the king’s subsidiary wives, concubines, relatives, or maidservants. The retainers sacrificed during King Den’s reign were “not a homogenous group, but…included a number of individuals of varying duties and statuses.”
can cause blood cells inside their teeth to rupture and stain the dentin
, the part of the tooth just under the enamel”. Matthew Adams proposed another method of sacrifice. He stated that since no trauma was found on the skeletons, poison was probably the cause of death.
. Shabti-figures were crudely fashioned mummified-looking forms, meant to replace retainer sacrifices; “…the responsibility for carrying out tasks on behalf of the deceased was transferred to a special kind of funerary statuette, known as a shabti-figure.” These shabti-figures were believed to carry out a wide variety of tasks, including everything from cultivating fields, to irrigating canals, to serving the deceased. Engraved on the shabti-figures was a “magical” text that was meant to ensure they would carry out their assigned tasks.
Human sacrifice
Human sacrifice is the act of killing one or more human beings as part of a religious ritual . Its typology closely parallels the various practices of ritual slaughter of animals and of religious sacrifice in general. Human sacrifice has been practised in various cultures throughout history...
in which pharaoh
Pharaoh
Pharaoh is a title used in many modern discussions of the ancient Egyptian rulers of all periods. The title originates in the term "pr-aa" which means "great house" and describes the royal palace...
s and occasionally other high court nobility would have servants killed after the pharaohs' deaths to continue to serve them in the afterlife. In Egypt
Egypt
Egypt , officially the Arab Republic of Egypt, Arabic: , is a country mainly in North Africa, with the Sinai Peninsula forming a land bridge in Southwest Asia. Egypt is thus a transcontinental country, and a major power in Africa, the Mediterranean Basin, the Middle East and the Muslim world...
, retainer sacrifice only existed during the First Dynasty, from about 3100 BC to 2900 BC, slowly dwindling, and eventually dying out.
Egypt’s beliefs about the afterlife
Egyptians, like many cultures, believed in an afterlife and much of what remains of their civilisation reflects this because only the temples, tombs and other religious structures survive well. One belief that was at the center of Egyptian beliefs about life after death was the belief in the kaKa
-Language:* Ka * Ka * Georgian language, ISO 639-1 code ka* A glyph in the Brahmic family of scripts-Media and entertainment:* Ka * Kà, a Cirque du Soleil show* Mister Mosquito, a video game, known in Japan as Ka...
. The ka believed by the Egyptians to be ones' life source, essence, and soul. Egyptians believed that after they died, their ka would continue to live as they had lived on earth in the afterlife. It would enjoy the same activities the individual had enjoyed on earth. Egyptians also believed that the ka had to have a body to return to, and because of this belief they would mummify
Mummy
A mummy is a body, human or animal, whose skin and organs have been preserved by either intentional or incidental exposure to chemicals, extreme coldness , very low humidity, or lack of air when bodies are submerged in bogs, so that the recovered body will not decay further if kept in cool and dry...
their dead. Egyptians also took precautionary measures, in case their body did not survive, by commissioning ka statue
Ka statue
A ka statue is a type of ancient Egyptian statue intended to provide a resting place for the ka, or spirit, of the person after death. The ancient Egyptians believed the ka , along with the physical body, the name, the ba , and the šwt , made up the five aspects of a person.After death, the...
s; statues of the deceased that were buried in the tomb
Tomb
A tomb is a repository for the remains of the dead. It is generally any structurally enclosed interment space or burial chamber, of varying sizes...
, along with the body, and would serve as a replacement if the body decayed beyond recognition. It was especially important to ensure the comfort of the king’s ka in the afterlife, due to his prominent position both in politics, and religion.
Egyptians looked at the afterlife as a continuation of this life, and believed that they would be able to enjoy many of the same activities. They also held the belief that they would be able to maintain the same social hierarchy. Egyptians, especially upper class Egyptians, were very preoccupied with making sure their life to come would be as comfortable, if not more comfortable, than their life on earth. They took every precautionary measure to ensure that they would enjoy the same comforts. Excavated tombs were found to contain food, painted murals, statues, jewelry, and various other items.
Power of the pharaoh
Egyptian pharaohs held the highest positions in Egyptian society, both in religious and political spheres. Kings were reverred as godsEgyptian pantheon
The Egyptian pantheon consisted of the many gods worshipped by the Ancient Egyptians. A number of major deities are addressed as the creator of the cosmos. These include Atum, Ra, Amun and Ptah amongst others, as well as composite forms of these gods such as Amun-Ra. This was not seen as...
in human form. Ellen F. Morris, a professor in Columbia University’s Department of Anthropology, suggests that pharaohs used retainer sacrifices as a way to flaunt their power. She also argues that pharaohs would have to have significant power, in both a political and religious sense, to convince their subjects that it was worth sacrificing their lives on earth for the pharaoh and his comfort in the next life. In addition, their families would have to be convinced that the pharaoh’s comfort in the life to come was important enough to allow their loved ones to be sacrificed. This would not be possible if those being sacrificed did not have a very strong belief in the life to come. Egypt’s government had to convince the people that the king was a god, and what belonged to him in his life on earth, belonged to him in the afterlife also. Dr. David O’Connor, from New York University Institute of Fine Arts
New York University Institute of Fine Arts
The Institute of Fine Arts is one of the 14 divisions of New York University . It offers a Master of Arts and a Doctor of Philosophy, the Advanced Certificate in Conservation of Works of Art, and the Certificate in Curatorial Studies...
, proposes that subjects of a king being willing to escort him into the afterlife demonstrates that a change had occurred in the way the Egyptians
Egyptians
Egyptians are nation an ethnic group made up of Mediterranean North Africans, the indigenous people of Egypt.Egyptian identity is closely tied to geography. The population of Egypt is concentrated in the lower Nile Valley, the small strip of cultivable land stretching from the First Cataract to...
viewed their king.
Evidence for retainer sacrifices
As is common with most Egyptian archeology, the plundering and destructive excavation of tombs, both in the past and the present, for tomb riches, has hindered the ability to gain as much knowledge about retainer sacrifices as would be available if the tombs were intact. Dr. O’Connor does believe that retainer sacrifices were the exception, instead of the norm, in ancient Egypt.While there is some disputation as to the authenticity of retainer sacrifices, due to less than substantial evidence, most Egyptologists believe that retainer sacrifice did exist. Normally, people in ancient Egypt were buried at different times, while in the graves believed to contain retainer sacrifices, the individuals were buried simultaneously, suggesting these retainers were sacrificed. The archeologists claim that since the roofing is continuous, the burials had to be made at the same time.
Pharaohs’ and nobles’ perspective
The purpose of retainer sacrifices was “to enable the wealthy noble[s and pharaohs] to enjoy the same kind of life-style after death as [they] had during [their] lifetime. The thought was that the next life without that kind of luxury and ease was unthinkable. They also wanted to maintain the same social status they had enjoyed on earth; a social hierarchy that was based upon being served by others. Pharaohs used retainer sacrifices to reinforce the power of the position of the pharaoh, by showing the control they had over their subjects. Pharaohs also used retainer sacrifices to help communicate the idea that the state was literally worth dying for.Retainers’ perspective
Pharaohs’ subjects viewed the pharaoh as a living god, the god HorusHorus
Horus is one of the oldest and most significant deities in the Ancient Egyptian religion, who was worshipped from at least the late Predynastic period through to Greco-Roman times. Different forms of Horus are recorded in history and these are treated as distinct gods by Egyptologists...
. Once the pharaoh died, he became the god Osiris
Osiris
Osiris is an Egyptian god, usually identified as the god of the afterlife, the underworld and the dead. He is classically depicted as a green-skinned man with a pharaoh's beard, partially mummy-wrapped at the legs, wearing a distinctive crown with two large ostrich feathers at either side, and...
, the king of eternity. While some retainers’ deaths appear to have been taken for granted, other sacrifices appear to have raised the status and wealth of some retainers in the afterlife. This can be inferred from the wealth they were interred with and their graves’ position in relation to the king’s grave. This also suggests that the retainers agreed to be sacrificed to raise their social status and wealth in the afterlife. Matthew Adams, an archeologist from the University of Pennsylvania
University of Pennsylvania
The University of Pennsylvania is a private, Ivy League university located in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, United States. Penn is the fourth-oldest institution of higher education in the United States,Penn is the fourth-oldest using the founding dates claimed by each institution...
and the associate director of an expedition
Exploration
Exploration is the act of searching or traveling around a terrain for the purpose of discovery of resources or information. Exploration occurs in all non-sessile animal species, including humans...
made by New York University
New York University
New York University is a private, nonsectarian research university based in New York City. NYU's main campus is situated in the Greenwich Village section of Manhattan...
, Yale
YALE
RapidMiner, formerly YALE , is an environment for machine learning, data mining, text mining, predictive analytics, and business analytics. It is used for research, education, training, rapid prototyping, application development, and industrial applications...
and the University of Pennsylvania, suggests that the ancient Egyptians may have viewed being sacrificed at a king’s death a sure way to reach eternal life. For a civilization so centered on the life to come, a guaranty of eternal happiness and security would seem a likely motivation for a retainer to agree to be sacrificed.
First dynasty retainer sacrifices in general
Graves around royal tombs often contained harem members, minor palace function members, court dwarfCourt dwarf
Early dwarfs, whose histories were recorded, were sometimes employed as Court Dwarfs. They were owned, exploited, and traded amongst people of the court, and delivered as gifts to fellow kings and queens. Ancient Egypt saw dwarfs as being people with significant sacred associations, so owning a...
s, and even dogs, as denoted by the stelae buried in the tombs. However, there was a variety in the demographics of those retainers that were sacrificed.
During the First Dynasty, pharaohs were not the only individuals that had retainer sacrifices carried out. Servants of both royalty and high court officials were “slain to accompany their master in the next world. The number of retainers buried surrounding the king’s tomb was much greater than those of high court officials; however, again suggesting the greater importance of the pharaoh.
King Aha
King AhaHor-Aha
Hor-Aha is considered the second pharaoh of the first dynasty of ancient Egypt in current Egyptology. He lived around the thirty-first century BC.- Name :...
, the second pharaoh of the first dynasty of Egypt, was also known as King Hor-Aha. According to Ellen Morris, he had thirty-five retainer sacrifices in his tomb, and twelve in three surrounding tombs enclosed in his funerary complex. Two other accounts from popular sources are given regarding the number of sacrificed retainers found in King Aha’s funerary complex. One account found in The New York Times
The New York Times
The New York Times is an American daily newspaper founded and continuously published in New York City since 1851. The New York Times has won 106 Pulitzer Prizes, the most of any news organization...
, was given by an archeological team organized by New York University, Yale, and the University of Pennsylvania. These universities began a project to excavate the funerary complex of King Aha. They found six graves near a mortuary ritual site of King Aha. Five of the six graves contained “skeletons of court officials, servants, and artisans that appear to have been sacrificed to meet the king’s needs in the afterlife. Another account is given by National Geographic, in an article entitled "Abydos: Life and Death at the Dawn of Egyptian Civilization." In this account, six retainer sacrifices were buried inside of Aha’s tomb with him, and thirty-five were buried in surrounding tombs inside his funerary complex.
King Djer
King DjerDjer
Djer was the second or third pharaoh of the first dynasty of Egypt, which dates from approximately 3100 BC. Some scholars, however, debate whether the first pharaoh, Menes or Narmer, and Hor-Aha might have been different rulers. If they were separate rulers, this would make Djer the third pharaoh...
, Aha’s successor and son, had 318 retainer sacrifices buried in his tomb, and 269 retainer sacrifices buried in enclosures surrounding his tomb. Dr. O’Connor believes that the more than 200 graves found in King Djer’s funerary complex contain retainer sacrifices, as well. According to Ancient Egypt: A Social History, King Djer was buried with over 580 retainers. It is highly unlikely that all these retainers died of natural causes at the same time, suggesting that these retainers were sacrificed upon the death of King Djer. According to the National Geographic’s article, however, 569 retainers were sacrificed for King Djer.
King Djet
King DjetDjet
Djet, also known as Wadj, Zet, and Uadji , was the fourth Egyptian pharaoh of the first dynasty...
had 174 sacrificed retainers buried around his tomb at Abydos
Abydos, Egypt
Abydos is one of the most ancient cities of Upper Egypt, and also of the eight Upper Nome, of which it was the capital city. It is located about 11 kilometres west of the Nile at latitude 26° 10' N, near the modern Egyptian towns of el-'Araba el Madfuna and al-Balyana...
and sixty-two retainers buried around his tomb at Saqqara
Saqqara
Saqqara is a vast, ancient burial ground in Egypt, serving as the necropolis for the Ancient Egyptian capital, Memphis. Saqqara features numerous pyramids, including the world famous Step pyramid of Djoser, sometimes referred to as the Step Tomb due to its rectangular base, as well as a number of...
.
King Den
After the death of King DenDen (Pharaoh)
Den, also known as Hor-Den, Dewen and Udimu, is the Horus name of an early Egyptian king who ruled during the 1st dynasty. He is the best archaeologically attested ruler of this period. Den is said to have brought prosperity to his realm and numerous innovations are attributed to his reign...
, about 230 individuals died simultaneously for “something or someone of extreme importance.” Once again, it is highly unlikely that such a large number of individuals would die all at once of natural causes and it can be inferred that these individuals were sacrificed to serve King Den in the afterlife. Perhaps this reflected the varied court positions in the pharaoh’s kingdom, possibly including family members, noble court members, and servants.
King Qaa
The funerary complex of King Qaa helps illustrate the decline of retainer sacrifices. It is estimated that only thirty retainers were sacrificed after the death of King Qaa.Demographics of sacrificed retainers
S.O.Y. Keita and A.J. Boyce, authors of Variation in Porotic Hyperostosis in the Royal Cemetery Complex at Abydos, Upper Egypt: A Social Interpretation, examined forty-four skulls from the funerary complex of King Djer and discovered that those buried outside the tomb enjoyed better health than those in the actual tomb. This can be interpreted in two ways. First, those buried outside the tomb were believed to have enjoyed better health because they were wealthier, and consequently, had better nutritional standards. The second is that those buried inside the royal tomb could afford to take care of their illness-ridden children. Whichever explanation is correct, there is such a statistically significant difference that these two groups most likely did not share the same social statusSocial status
In sociology or anthropology, social status is the honor or prestige attached to one's position in society . It may also refer to a rank or position that one holds in a group, for example son or daughter, playmate, pupil, etc....
.
Of the twelve sacrificed and buried in the three surrounding tombs of King Aha’s funerary complex, all identifiable retainers “were all male and around twenty years of age.” Morris suggests that these retainers, due to their gender, youth, and how they were buried, “regimented alignment in straight rows,” were possibly a military guard, buried with the king to protect and serve him in the afterlife. Dr. Laurel Bestock, one of the archeologists on the New York University, Yale, and University of Pennsylvania team, recalled that the people buried in King Aha’s complex were not just lowly servants, but were also rich nobles.
Most of the retainer sacrifices in the surrounding tombs of the funerary complex of King Djer at Abydos were female and probably consisted of “the king’s subsidiary wives, concubines, relatives, or maidservants. The retainers sacrificed during King Den’s reign were “not a homogenous group, but…included a number of individuals of varying duties and statuses.”
Methods of sacrifice
Two different theories were proposed for the way retainers were sacrificed. Nancy Lovell, a physical anthropologist, believes that the retainers were strangled to death, due to the pinkish stain on their teeth (12). “When someone is strangled, increased blood pressureHypertension
Hypertension or high blood pressure is a cardiac chronic medical condition in which the systemic arterial blood pressure is elevated. What that means is that the heart is having to work harder than it should to pump the blood around the body. Blood pressure involves two measurements, systolic and...
can cause blood cells inside their teeth to rupture and stain the dentin
Dentin
Dentine is a calcified tissue of the body, and along with enamel, cementum, and pulp is one of the four major components of teeth. Usually, it is covered by enamel on the crown and cementum on the root and surrounds the entire pulp...
, the part of the tooth just under the enamel”. Matthew Adams proposed another method of sacrifice. He stated that since no trauma was found on the skeletons, poison was probably the cause of death.
Reasons for dwindling of retainer sacrifices
Retainer sacrifice was abandoned almost immediately after the end of the First Dynasty. One theory posits that retainers of the pharaohs after the First Dynasty were not convinced of the immediate need to die to serve a leader in the next life, and instead believed that they could serve the pharaoh after they died when their time came. Another probable reason for the decline, and eventual end, of retainer sacrifices is the creation of shabti-figuresUshabti
The ushabti was a funerary figurine used in Ancient Egypt. Ushabtis were placed in tombs among the grave goods and were intended to act as substitutes for the deceased, should he/she be called upon to do manual labor in the afterlife...
. Shabti-figures were crudely fashioned mummified-looking forms, meant to replace retainer sacrifices; “…the responsibility for carrying out tasks on behalf of the deceased was transferred to a special kind of funerary statuette, known as a shabti-figure.” These shabti-figures were believed to carry out a wide variety of tasks, including everything from cultivating fields, to irrigating canals, to serving the deceased. Engraved on the shabti-figures was a “magical” text that was meant to ensure they would carry out their assigned tasks.
See also
- Retainer sacrifice
- Funeral of a Norse chieftain (especially Human Sacrifice subsection)
Sources
- Galvin, John. "Abydos: Life and Death at the Dawn of Egyptian Civilization." National Geographic Apr. 2005: 106-21. Print.
- Garstang, John. Burial Customs of Ancient Egypt. 1st. Great Britain: Kegan Paul Limited, 2002. 16-17. Print.
- Grinsell, Leslie V. Barrow, Pyramid and Tomb: Ancient burial customs in Egypt, the Mediterranean and the British Isles. 1st. Great Britain: Thames and Hudson Ltd, 1975. 39. Print.
- Morris, Ellen F. "Sacrifice for the State: First Dynasty Royal Funerals and the Rites at Macramallah's Rectangle." 15-37. Print.
- Skinner, Andrew. “Ancient Egyptian Obsession With Eternity.” Brigham Young University. Harold B. Lee Library. 22 Oct. 2009.
- Spencer, A.J. Death In Ancient Egypt. 1st. Great Britain: Penguin Books Ltd, 1982. 68;139. Print.
- Stokstad, Marilyn. Art History: Ancient Art. 3rd. 1. Upper Saddle River, New Jersey: Pearson Education, 2009. 52-55. Print.
- Trigger, B.G., B.J. Kemp, D. O'Connor, and A.B. Lloyd. Ancient Egypt: A Social History. 1st. Great Britain: University Press, Cambridge, 1983. 52-56. Print.
- Wilford, John Noble. "With Escorts to the Afterlife, Pharaohs Proved Their Power." New York Times 16 Mar. 2004, Late: F3. Print.