The temple complex was situated within the south-eastern part of the irregular town walls. It is in a very bad state of preservation mainly due to the activity of the Roman and Coptic inhabitants as well as the modern agriculture that levelled the surface.[1] The temple was surrounded by two parallel rectangular walls. Some traces of the New Kingdom activity were attested in different places of the temenos. In the west corner of the temenos area, scarabs of poor quality and clay dolls were excavated,[2] in the south-west side numerous fragments of blue painted 18th dynasty pottery were found.[3] A mass of the New Kingdom jar fragments was left in the south-east part outside the wall. The context is unclear, the excavators supposed that the pottery had been thrown out from the well located in the vicinity.[4] Unfortunately, closer dating of those objects is impossible.
Only one scattered foundation deposit from the reign of Hatshepsut and Thutmose III was discovered in the south-east corner of the temple enclosure (cf. plan). The deposit consisted of four small jars, green faience beads and a green rectangular faience plaque inscribed with prenomens of Hatshepsut and Thutmose III and two different forms of Horus: Horus Protector of his Father and Horus of Nekhen.[5] It is possible that another plaque belongs to this deposit, it is stored in the Petrie Museum in London and bears a similar inscription as the one mentioned above.
E. Quibell supposes that blocks of the pylon and a fragment of the basalt statue can be dated to the reign of Thutmose III,[6] the same could be true in the case of a sandstone architrave with the cartouche of that king found between two mudbrick towers of the pylon.[7] He also noticed the constructional details of the pylon which was made of mudbrick and faced with sandstone blocks.[8]
Not much can be said about the cult performed in Hierakonpolis. There is only one clergy title known from that time: the First Prophet of Horus of Hierakonpolis held by Tjeni preserved on his ring with an unknown provenance.
Two viziers from the times of Hatshepsut, User-Amun and Ah-mes Aa-mi-tju bore the title of the Mouth of Hierakonpolis, although it seems likely that in that epoch the title had nothing to do with the place itself and played the role of the honorific title of the vizier.[9]
Footnotes
- ^ 113: Hierakonpolis. Part II - - 1902 - Green, Frederick William, Quibell, James Edward.
- ^ 113: Hierakonpolis. Part II - - 1902 - Green, Frederick William, Quibell, James Edward.
- ^ 113: Hierakonpolis. Part II - - 1902 - Green, Frederick William, Quibell, James Edward.
- ^ 113: Hierakonpolis. Part II - - 1902 - Green, Frederick William, Quibell, James Edward.
- ^ 14: Foundation Deposits in Ancient Egypt, unpublished PhD thesis - - 1973 - Weinstein, James Morris.
- ^ 113: Hierakonpolis. Part II - - 1902 - Green, Frederick William, Quibell, James Edward.
- ^ 113: Hierakonpolis. Part II - - 1902 - Green, Frederick William, Quibell, James Edward.
- ^ Green, Frederick William, Quibell, James Edward, Hierakonpolis. Part II, Egyptian Research Account 5, London 1902, 11.
- ^ 66: Zur Verwaltung des Mittleren und Neuen Reichs - - 1958 - Helck, Wolfgang; Shirley, J.J., Crisis and Restructuring of the State: from the Second Intermediate Period to the Advent of the Ramesses, in: García, Juan Carlos Moreno, Ancient Egyptian Administration, Leiden, Boston 2013, 561.