Landgrafova TSP Spojene 2

7/27/2019 Landgrafova TSP Spojene 2

1/7

The Oldest Known Scene of the Purificationof the King

Renata Landgrfov

When I was a third year student of Egyptology and was searching for a theme

for my masters thesis, Professor Verner suggested me to analyze the large

corpus of faience inlays and fragments of Egyptian Blue discovered during the

excavations of the funerary complexes of King Raneferef and Queen Khent-

kaus II of the 5th Dynasty. Back then, I did not realize how vast and complex theproblem was and how grateful I should have felt for having been awarded and

I use this word intentionally such a task. Now, after almost six years of hard

work, the results are finally coming to publication and I am very happy for this

opportunity to express my immense gratitude to Professor Verner for having

enabled me to enter the thrills and mysteries of Old Kingdom archaeology at

such an early stage of my Egyptological career. I hope he will find this small

study, which of course draws from the faience inlays, enjoyable, and I wish

him many happy and productive years in the midst of our Prague Egyptolo-

gical community.

Generally, the scene of royal purification is characterized by several featu-

res. It is centered on the figure of the king, wearing only a wig on his head. On

each side of the king there is a god, who faces the king and holds a Hs-vase

over his head so that either a stream of water, anx-signs, or alternating anx- and

wAs-signs flow from the vase over the head of the king.

Royal purification was depicted as a ritual accompanying the coronation of

the king. In his article from the year 1950, A. Gardiner1 listed the 36 then known

royal purification scenes. The most ancient of the scenes included in this listcomes from the reign of Hatshepsut. The deities associated with this scene in

the preserved examples include almost exclusively either Horus (facing the

king) and Seth (behind the king), or Horus (facing the king) and Thoth (behind

the king).2 According to the quantitative analysis of the occurrences of either

Seth or Thoth, Gardiner concluded that Thoth had been the primary deity as-

sociated with purification, and that after some time he could have been re-

placed by Seth. A similar conclusion has recently been reached by Aaron

Smith.3

These conclusions appear valid in view of the evidence available tothe authors. However, there exists a much more ancient example of the scene

of royal purification.

Among the fragments of faience inlays discovered between the years 1982

and 1997 in the funerary temple of King Raneferef,4 two small fragments were

found (F1185 and F1187) that were identified as fragments from the royal pu-

rification scene. The fragments (cf. Fig. 1) show a stream of small anx sings

T I M E S , S I G N S A N D P Y R A M I D S

162


2/7

falling down around a pair of hands, oriented the same way. A careful exami-

nation shows that the only possible reconstruction is that in which these frag-

ments show the hands of the king (of whom also a part of the ceremonial tail

is visible), standing between two gods who hold Hs-vessels and pour streams ofanx sings, i.e. life, over him.

Considering the fact that the oldest example that we hitherto have of this

scene comes from the reign of Hatshepsut, we have here the stunning evidence

of the scene of royal purification from the Old Kingdom, about 1000 years before

the reign of this queen. In question of the discussion pertaining to this scene, it

is interesting to examine which gods were involved in this scene, since it is

most likely that in this Old Kingdom scene, it was the original, and not the sub-

stitute, deities that were represented.The two fragments themselves do not allow for reconstruction of the dei-

ties, however, the evidence of the other about 1000 fragments of faience inlays

is important here, as well as that of other Old Kingdom royal reliefs.

Firstly, the faience inlays of Raneferef include many representations of Horus

and Seth (at least 9 and 19 cases respectively), but none of Thoth. Therefore, we

may presume that also the scene of royal purification also included Seth, and

not a totally unique Thoth.

Secondly, the arguments of Gardiner5 and Smith,6 that the royal purifica-

tion scene was part of the coronation ritual,7 appear persuasive, and since in all

(admittedly New Kingdom) scenes, where both coronation and purification are

depicted side by side, the same gods crown and purify the king, we may con-

sider the preserved coronation scenes for our present argument.

Again, no such complete scene has been found within the inlays. Fragment

F0020 (Fig. 2) has preserved only the head of the king and part of an arm of

a figure placing the crown on the head of the king. This fragment, together

with a second one depicting the feet of two of the figures involved (F0024), can

be reconstructed into the coronation scene, where two gods put the crown ontothe head of the king (Fig. 3). Unfortunately, no traces of the identity of the gods

involved can be found on the fragments, and no fragments with any deities

have been found in sufficient vicinity so as to guarantee their association with

the coronation scene. The argument of the absence of Thoth from the corpus of

the inlays is, however, valid here.

Moreover, in the only known Old Kingdom coronation scene, preserved in

the funerary temple of King Unas,8 the figure of Seth is clearly present, as his

ears and title nb sw, Lord ofsw, indicate. Luckily, the block numbered Doc. 47preserves the ears and hand of Seth, which rests on the crown, and thus clearly

shows that in this scene, it was Seth who partook at the coronation of the King.

And, since the purification scene may be associated with coronation and in-

cludes the same deities, we may once again opt for Seth rather than Thoth as

Horuss partner in the purification of the king.

In view of this (admittedly indirect, but on the whole rather persuasive) evi-


163


3/7

dence, it is very likely that the purification fragments can be reconstructed

into the purification scene, where Horus and Seth pour anx signs over the king

(Fig. 4). It would thus also appear that Seth, and not Thoth was the original

deity associated alongside Horus with the royal purification scene. Conside-ring royal ideology in the Old Kingdom, this appears very likely.

Horus and Seth were deities closely associated with Egyptian kingship. In the

Pyramid texts, Horus and Seth assist the king in his journey to the afterlife.

Horus and Seth also represent Upper and Lower Egypt, as does the Double

Crown that the king assumes at his coronation, and thus it appears likely that

the process be carried out by deities representing the two parts of the country.

In the reliefs of the royal funerary temples of the Old Kingdom, Seth again

functions alongside Horus as one of the deities associated with the two parts ofthe country. In the relief decoration of the funerary temple of Djedkare-Isesi,

Seth appears as a deity assisting the embrace and giving life to the king.9 In the

funerary temple of King Pepy II., Seth appears among the deities bringing of-

ferings to the king.10 Moreover, in the Sun Temple of King Niuserre, Horus and

Seth reach the king the arrow that he sends to the four directions as a symbol

of his divine rule.11 Thoth, on the other hand, appears only in one of the royal

funerary (or sun) temples of the Old Kingdom, namely in large and rather ge-

neral processions of deities in the temple of Sahure.12 Thus, it would appear

that13 in royal relief decoration as well as in the purification scene in general,

Seth is perceived as the counterpart to Horus, acting together with him as

a guardian of the Egyptian king, who stand by him from the day of his ascent

to the throne on and together give the King their blessings in the course of

royal festivals.14 This function of the two deities is also reflected in the scene, in

which Horus and Seth tie together the smA-tA.wjsymbol and thus, as represen-

tatives of Upper and Lower Egypt respectively, unite the Two Lands. This

throughout positive aspect of Seth (in association with Horus) in the represen-

tations in temple reliefs is not limited to the Old Kingdom, Seth can throug-hout Egyptian history be found in the scenes of the Unification of the two lands

and Coronation.15

The question we thus must ask is not why Seth deputizes for Thoth in three

out of 25 New Kingdom scenes, but why Thoth to such a great extent replaced

the original Seth. A glimpse into the Pyramid Texts suggests yet another solu-

tion, though. In PT Spell 35, purification is clearly connected with four deities,

Horus, Seth, Thoth, and Dwn-anwy: Your purification is the purification of Horus,

your purification is the purification of Seth, your purification is the purificationof Thoth, your purification is the purification ofdwn-anwy.16 Thus the purifica-

tion ritual is indeed connected with the four cardinal points, and through this

connection Thoth appears to come in play for the scene as a suitable substitute

for Seth.

Thus, I believe Seth to have been the original deity connected together with

Horus


164


4/7

to the scenes and Rituals of royal purification and coronation. Seth served this

role due to his being one of the two deities most tightly connected with Egyp-

tian kingship. At a later stage, Seth could be replaced by Thoth, and this was

made possible by Thoth being one of the gods of the cardinal points, since alsothe idea of the four cardinal points was connected with the ritual of coronation.

The search for the reason why Seth seems to have been replaced in a wide ma-

jority of cases remains outside the scope of this small tribute to Professor Mi-

roslav Verner.


165


5/7

/Landgrfov_poznmky/

1 A. H. Gardiner. The baptism of Pharaoh, JEA36 (1950), pp. 312.2

The exceptions include the purification of Hatshepsut from her temple at Der el-Bahri, whereAmon and Re-Harakhti are shown, and the purification of Amenhotep III., enacted by Montu

and Atum; as well as two scenes, where the king is purified by a single deity, Horus (Seti I) and

Atum (Ramesses III); for details see Gardiner, JEA36 (1950), pp. 45.3 A. Smith, Kingship, Water and Ritual: The Ablution Rite in the Coronation Ritual of the

Pharaoh, in A. Amenta, M. M. Luiselli, M. N. Sordi, LAcqua nellantico Egitto: vita, rigenera-

zione, incantesimo, medicamento, (Roma 2005), pp. 329336.4 R. Landgrfov, Faience Inlays and Tablets of Egyptian Blue in M. Verner et al., The Funerary

Complex of Neferre at Abusir, Vol. I. [Abusir IX], (Prague 2005), pp. 161 183; R. Landgrfov,

Faience Fragments from the Funerary Temple of King Neferre: Neferres Substitute Relief

Programme[Abusir XIV], (Prague 2005).5 A. Gardiner, JEA36 (1950).6 A. Smith, Kingship, Water, and Ritual.7 This is of course not to say that the idea of royal purification was exclusively connected to

coronation, but its depiction was limited to this context, cf. S. Schott, Die Reinigung Pharaos in

einem memphitischen Tempel(Berlin P 13242), (Gttingen 1957), pp. 67ff.8 A. Labrousse, J.-P. Lauer, J. Leclant, Le Temple haut du complexe funraire du roi Ounas, (Cairo

1977), p. 96 fig. 73.9 D. Stockfisch, Untersuchungen zum Totenkult des gyptischen Knigs im Alten Reich: Die

Dekoration der kniglichen Totenkultanlagen, Vol. II. [Antiquitates: Archologische

Forschungsergebnisse], (Hamburg 2003) doc. 5.8.1.10

G. Jquier, Le monument funraire de Pepi II, Vol. II, Le temple, (Cairo 1938), pl. 46.11 F. W. von Bissing, Das Re-Heiligtum des Knigs Ne-woser-re, Vol. II, (Leipzig 1907), pl. 18/9.12 L. Borchardt, Das Grabdenkmal des Sahure, (Leipzig 1913), pls. 20, 21 and 25.13 Contrary to Smith,Ablution Ritual.14 H. Bonnet, Reallexikon der gyptischen Religionsgeschichte, (Berlin 1952), p. 706.15 H. Kees, Horus und Seth als Gtterpaar, (Leipzig 1923), pp. 826.16 R. O. Faulkner, The Ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts, (Oxford 1969), p. 7.


78


6/7

LANDGRFOV

Fig. 1 Fig. 2

Fig. 3

Fig. 4


7/7

(after: Junker, GzaXI, Fig. 7)

Fig 3 The granite sarcophagus of the Vizier Minunefer in Leiden (Inv. No. AM 106)

(after: Leemans, Mon. Eg. III, Pl. I)

Fig. 4 The granite coffer of Akhtihotep (after: Ziegler et al., Akhethetep, 165f., Figs.2225)

Fig 5 Typical limestone sarcophagi of the Fourth Dynasty (top) and the limestone

sarcophagus of Seneb (Leipzig Inv. No. 3695) (below) (after: Junker, GzaI, Fig. 5 and

idem, GzaV, Fig. 30)

Fig. 6 The sarcophagus of Seneb within a hypothetical granite sarcophagus showing

how the limestone lid was set in place

Pl. 1 The lower part of the assembled inner sarcophagus from the tomb of Sekhemka

(1929) (Photo No. 5169 Archive of the Institute of Egyptology, University Vienna)

Pl. 2A, B The limestone sarcophagus of Seneb (Leipzig Inv. No. 3695) shortly afterrestoration showing its fragmentary and smashed state ( Courtesy Museum Leipzig)

/Kanawati_popisky/

Fig. 1 False door of Qar of Saqqara

Fig. 2 The unfinished condition of Qars false door: a) a view of the false door jambs,

b) Qars figures at the bottom of the right jamb

Fig. 3 The architrave of Qar of Edfu

Fig. 4 The slab stela of Qar of Edfu

/Krej_popisky/

Fig. 1

Fig. 1

Pl. 1

Pl. 2

/Landgrfov_popisky/

Fig. 1

Fig. 2Fig. 3

Fig. 4

/Mynov, Coppens_popisky/

Fig. 1

/Myliwiec_popisky/

Fig. 1 Saqqara, Polish-Egyptian excavations west of the Netjerykhet pyramid. Late OldKingdom shafts in square 2104. Drawing by Beata Baszczuk

Fig. 2 Burial nr. 393 in the burial chamber connected with shaft nr. 41. View from the

north, i.e. from the shaft. Photo by Maciej Jawornicki

Fig. 3 Shaft 41 and burial 393: 1) Cross-section A-A (N-S) through the burial chamber

with view of its east wall. 2) Plan of the shaft and burial chamber. 3) Cross-section C-

C (E-W) through the shaft with view of the burial chamber. 4) Cross-section D-D (E-


21

Fragments F1185 an F1187 excavation no. 892/I/84 .

Fragment F0020 (excavation no. 100/I/82).Reconstruction o t e coronation scene wit ragments F0020 an F0024Reconstruction of the purification scene (with fragments F1185 and

F1187).

Landgrafova TSP Spojene 2

Documents

Transcript of Landgrafova TSP Spojene 2