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Headpiece to the Staff of Ra

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"Take back one kadam to honor the Hebrew God, whose Ark this is."
―Inscription on the Headpiece, as translated by Imam[src]

The Headpiece to the Staff of Ra was a much sought-after bronze medallion which was originally designed as a means to reveal the location of the Ark of the Covenant.

The headpiece was placed atop the Staff of Ra and used in the Map Room at Tanis to reveal the location of the Well of the Souls, the resting place of the Ark.

History[]

Origins[]

The sun-shaped Headpiece to the Staff of Ra,[5] dated from around 10th century BC,[1] was a round bronze medallion with a crystal in its center[5] and a fixture for a staff on the bottom edge.[2] The red crystal[5] formed the eye of a stylized bird in the center.[2] According to Indiana Jones the bird shown on the headpiece could had been the falcon of Horus.[6]

It was created to allow the priests of Ra to catch the sunlight through a portal in the dome of Map Room of Tanis every morning, so that the mistrustful Amun-Ra could know the Ark's location,[4] hidden in the Well of the Souls,[5] without the need to ever look at it.[4]

The actual Staff of Ra, just a simple shaft of wood, was lost but the headpiece contained instructions on how to make a new staff which stated that it should be "six kadams high". The obverse of the relic held an additional direction that the builder was to subtract one kadam out of respect for the Hebrew God.[5]

Ravenwoods' ownerships[]

The headpiece was discovered by the archaeologist Abner Ravenwood in 1926,[3] close to the village of San el-Hagar, but was unsuccessful in discovering Tanis’s Map Room, let alone the Well of Souls.[4] It later came into the hands of his daughter Marion, who wore it around her neck as a medallion.[5]

In 1934, Marion was robbed of the headpiece by a mercenary. She chased the thief to Tibet and teamed up with a member of the Adventure Society she met along the way. Together they tracked the medallion to a monastery where the thief believed the artifact was the key to treasure there.[7] After Abner's death in 1936 Marion sold off most of his collection of archaeological finds,[2] but she hadn't wanted to sell the headpiece, maybe because she knew it was one of his most prized pieces or maybe just because it reminded her of him.[8] By that year there were no pictures or no duplicates of the headpiece.[5]

The Search of the Lost Ark[]

Later the same year, the Nazis under orders from Adolf Hitler started searching for the Ark of the Covenant. The U.S. government intercepted a message from Cairo to Berlin saying "Tanis development proceeding. Acquire headpiece, staff of Ra, Abner Ravenwood, U.S.", which led them to requested Indiana Jones by the government to find the Ark before the Nazis, starting from the headpiece.[5]

Marion with headpiece

Marion Ravenwood holds the Headpiece.

When Indiana Jones arrived in Nepal, Marion reluctantly agreed to part with the headpiece for the sum of three thousand dollars. She initially feigned ignorance about its whereabouts and asked him to return the next day.[5] However Gestapo agent Major Arnold Ernst Toht,[5] sent by the Third Reich Special Antiquities Collection[9] to acquire the headpiece, arrived later and almost tortured Marion for the headpiece before he was stopped by Indy.[5]

In the ensuing figth the headpiece was almost taken by Toht. But the headpiece had become extraordinarily hot having fallen into the fireplace, and the medallion scarred Toht's hand, leaving the imprint of the markings on his palm that later allowed French archaeologist René Belloq to create his own headpiece for the Nazis to locate the Ark. Toht failed to realize the proper headpiece was engraved on both sides. As a result, Belloq's counterfeit headpiece caused the Nazis to build an overlarge staff, which led Indiana and Sallah to discover that "they're digging in the wrong place."[5]

Staff of Ra

Indy uses the Staff to locate the Ark.

Indiana, using the information on the headpiece, was able to locate the Well of Souls, which he infiltrated disguised as a native worker. Foisting the true headpiece atop a properly measured staff, Indiana marveled at how sunlight created a spectrum of red light showing the Ark's correct burial site. After scribbling a few last notes, Indy removed the staff from its slot[5] and returned the headpiece to his pocket.[8] Later, Sallah and Indiana forged deeper into the Well of Souls, braving a colony of asps in order to recover the Ark. Their success was fleeting, however, as Belloq and the Nazis were waiting at the surface, holding Marion hostage in exchange for the Ark.[5]

Legacy[]

At some point the headpiece to the Staff of Ra was found in a box labeled "Jewelry" in Jock Lindsey's Hangar Bar alongside the Peacock's Eye and the Atlantean neclace.[10]

Behind the scenes[]

The headpiece to the Staff of Ra was conceptualized for Raiders of the Lost Ark as being in two parts. While the second was in the possession of Marion Ravenwood in Nepal as in the final film, the first lay in Shanghai, in the private museum collection of Chinese warlord Tengtu Hok.[11]

While the idea of the headpiece being in two was dropped during rewrites of the screenplay, much of the sequence would later be recycled for the opening of Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom.[11] An attempt to reincorporate the discarded Chinese warlord, now based out of Tibet, into the backstory of Indiana Jones and his mentor Abner Ravenwood first acquiring the headpice was made with the Dark Horse Comics story Indiana Jones and the Lost Horizon. However, the book didn't see publication as the company brought a halt to their production of Indiana Jones comics early in Lost Horizon's development.[12]

Design[]

Ra 01

Barry Minot's prototype.

There were two different versions of the prop created by the art department. The first design shown on screen was created at Elstree Studios by Ron Punter and is the sculpt used predominantly throughout the film including The Raven and Map Room sequences. It is also the sculpt referenced for the burn marks on Major Toht's hand.[13]

However, the Punter's resin design didn't give the effect that director Steven Spielberg wanted for close-up shots and so sculptor and miniaturist Barry Minot was tasked with crafting a version of the headpiece that could withstand scrutiny when the film was projected onto a cinema screen.[14] Minot's more detailed version is used during the scene where the headpiece's marking are deciphered at the house of Imam set and includes an image of the cherubs from the Ark of the Covenant within the design.[13]

Ron Punter Headpiece

Ron Punter and his headpiece design.

Despite being implied in the movie to be Egyptian, the writing around the edges appears to actually be Hebrew. The script is related to ancient Phoenician, which was used for both Hebrew and even early Greek, but is called Paleo-Hebrew.

  • Transliterated it reads: "v'amah achat m'al" "kadesh" "kabed YHWH v'hamiskhkan".
  • Translated it reads: "and one amah (Which was a biblical measurement) above/more" "holy/set apart" "honor YHWH and the tabernacle".

This translation goes against how the old man translates it in the movie but explains why Indy's staff was actually taller than the Nazi staff.[5]

The headpiece included a dire warning to not disturb the Ark of the Covenant, giving Indy the knowledge needed to survive the Ark's power later, though this warning was either forgotten, not on the side that was imprinted onto Toht or simply ignored by Belloq and the other Nazis present. In the novelization, the headpiece's warning is expanded on to include not touching the Ark, which explains a moment later when the Ark is discovered; Indy stops Sallah from lifting the Ark out with his bare hands and thus wooden poles are used.[9]

Appearances[]

Non-canon appearances[]

Sources[]

Notes and references[]

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 As Raiders of the Lost Ark placed the capture of the Ark of the Covenant by Shishak around 980 BC, the Well of the Souls, the Map Room and Headpiece were likely created later in the century.
  2. ↑ 2.0 2.1 2.2 2.3 2.4 2.5 Raiders of the Lost Ark Sourcebook
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 The World of Indiana Jones
  4. ↑ 4.0 4.1 4.2 4.3 4.4 Indiana Jones: The Ultimate Guide
  5. ↑ 5.00 5.01 5.02 5.03 5.04 5.05 5.06 5.07 5.08 5.09 5.10 5.11 5.12 5.13 5.14 5.15 Raiders of the Lost Ark
  6. ↑ The Lost Journal of Indiana Jones
  7. ↑ Indiana Jones Adventure World
  8. ↑ 8.0 8.1 Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark junior novel
  9. ↑ 9.0 9.1 Raiders of the Lost Ark novel
  10. ↑ Jock Lindsey's Hangar Bar
  11. ↑ 11.0 11.1 The Complete Making of Indiana Jones
  12. ↑ Interview with Dark Horse artist Hugh Fleming at TheRaider.net
  13. ↑ 13.0 13.1 The Headpiece to the Staff of Ra at IndyGear.com
  14. ↑ User:Barryminot, Barry Minot's Indiana Jones Wiki user page

External links[]

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