The area of the temple in Abydos was levelled during the Twelfth Dynasty.[1] The second levelling took place at the beginning of the Eighteenth Dynasty[2] and the construction works commissioned by Amenhotep I were executed.[3] The activity of Thutmose I in Abydos is known due to the stela of that king[4] and was limited to equipping the temple with precious objects, e.g. processional image of the god and his processional barque.[5] Next kings whose names are connected with the site are Hatshepsut and Thutmose III. It seems probable that the work started by both rulers was continued by Thutmose III after the disappearance of the queen.[6] No blocks decorated with the name of the queen were found at the site, which could suggest that the work was only started during her reign. An adze-blade from the foundation deposit, which is ascribed to Abydos only thanks to its inscription, two mudbricks with the prenomen of Hatshepsut and a mudbrick with the Horus name of the queen can indicate this as well.[7]
Stela CG 34007 of Thutmose I also speaks about the processional feast of the enclosure of Pḳj.[8] It seems highly likely that the festival survived the time of that king and was performed during the reign of Hatshepsut as well.
The objects found in the vicinity of the later temple of Seti I suggest that another procession not yet identified could have taken place there.
To recapitulate, when the building activity of Hatshepsut in Abydos is considered, it must be stressed how wide range of projects it included [It was also emphasised by M.A. Pouls Wegner:[9] the construction of temenos wall, at least part of the main temple, establishing of offerings and donations, as well as the processional route attested by two bark stations and finally the construction of the Osiris bark.[10] The character of the works must be seen as a full restoration of the god’s cult in the area of Abydos.
It seems very probable that the temple which functioned in the times of Hatshepsut was oriented towards the river (on the axis northeast-southeast), which is typical for all Egyptian temples. This direction is also suggested by the row of gates marked on the map prepared by W.M.F. Petrie.[11] The rooms decorated under Amenhotep I were then the side rooms on the left side of the axis, the place reserved in Egyptian temples for the ancestors' cult. The foundation deposits of Thutmose III found in situ indicate the evolution of the temple toward the northeast, i.e. the front part of the temple, which was the usual praxis during the enlargement of Egyptian temples. On the other hand, the remark about the festival of Pḳj suggests another direction of the procession (southeast) which is also very clearly shown by the arrangement of gates. During the reign of Thutmose III there was also another processional axis running northeast-southeast marked by two bark chapels of that king.[12] It is likely that this axis also existed during the reign of Hatshepsut since the small cultic objects (calcite vase and vessel of Hatshepsut and Thutmose III) were found in the vicinity of the temple of Seti I and Osireion.
Footnotes
- ^ Petrie, William Matthew Flinders, Abydos Part II. 1903, Memoir of the Egypt Exploration Fund 24, London 1903, 5; Pouls Wegner, Mary-Ann, The Cult of Osiris at Abydos: an Archaeological Investigation of the Development of an Ancient Egyptian Sacred Center during the Eighteenth Dynasty, unpublished PhD thesis, University of Pennsylvania, 2002, 249.
- ^ Kemp, Barry J., The Osiris Temple at Abydos, Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archäologischen Instituts, Abteilung Kairo 23, 1968, 138-143.
- ^ Petrie, William Matthew Flinders, Abydos Part I. 1902, Memoir of the Egypt Exploration Fund 22, London 1902, 29-30, Pl(s). LXII-LXIV; Harvey, Stephen P., The Cults of King Ahmose at Abydos, unpublished PhD thesis, University of Pennsylvania, 1998, 92-95.
- ^ Egyptian Museum, Cairo CG 34007: Sethe, Kurt, Urkunden der 18. Dynastie. Historisch-biographische Urkunden, Leipzig 1906, 94.10-103.4; Lacau, Pierre, Catalogue général des antiquités égyptiennes du Musée du Caire. Nos 34001-34064. Stèles du Nouvel Empire, Le Caire 1909, 13-15.
- ^ Sethe, Kurt, Urkunden der 18. Dynastie. Historisch-biographische Urkunden, Leipzig 1906, 97.12-98.17.
- ^ This is also the opinion of W.M.F. Petrie (Petrie, William Matthew Flinders, Abydos Part II. 1903, Memoir of the Egypt Exploration Fund 24, London 1903, 21).
- ^ Weinstein, James Morris, Foundation Deposits in Ancient Egypt, unpublished PhD thesis, University of Pennsylvania 1973, 149-151, Fig(s). 14 .
- ^ Sethe, Kurt, Urkunden der 18. Dynastie. Historisch-biographische Urkunden, Leipzig 1906, 98.17.
- ^ Pouls Wegner, Mary-Ann, The Cult of Osiris at Abydos: an Archaeological Investigation of the Development of an Ancient Egyptian Sacred Center during the Eighteenth Dynasty, unpublished PhD thesis, University of Pennsylvania, 2002, passim, esp. 369-370, 416-418 .
- ^ It happened twice, the first mention is found on the stela of Neb-wawy, most probably from the reign of Hatshepsut: Sethe, Kurt, Urkunden der 18. Dynastie. Historisch-biographische Urkunden, Leipzig 1906, 209.16; Frood, Elisabeth, Ritual Function and Priestly Narrative: the Stelae of the High Priest of Osiris, Nebwawy, Journal of Egyptian Archaeology 89, 2003, 66; another reference comes from the tomb of Min, dated to the reign of Thutmose III: Sethe, Kurt, Urkunden der 18. Dynastie. Historisch-biographische Urkunden, Leipzig 1906, 981.
- ^ Petrie, William Matthew Flinders, Abydos Part II. 1903, Memoir of the Egypt Exploration Fund 24, London 1903, Pl(s). XLIX.
- ^ Pouls Wegner, Mary-Ann, The Cult of Osiris at Abydos: an Archaeological Investigation of the Development of an Ancient Egyptian Sacred Center during the Eighteenth Dynasty, unpublished PhD thesis, University of Pennsylvania, 2002, 246-370 and literature there.