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Recent Discoveries and newSouthern Place Names at theMortuary Temple ofAmenhotep III, Kom el-HettânHourig Sourouzian and Rainer Stadelmann

Recent discoveries in the mortuary temple of AmenhotepIII of representations of Kushites in the form of boundcaptives are shedding light on relations between Egypt andKush. This is further evidence for the expansion of Egyptto the south as illustrated by the temples built by the king atSoleb and Sedeinga.

The Colossi of Memnon and Amenhotep III TempleConservation Project has undertaken excavation and con-servation work at Kom el-Hettân since 1999.1 Up to now,our mission has cleaned and annually defoliated the templeprecinct; a modern topographical map has been produced,the Colossi of Memnon cleaned and conservation issuesaddressed. The second pylon has been uncovered and twocolossal statues of Amenhotep III accompanied by the queenconsort have been discovered and are under study and res-toration; the peristyle court is progressively being excavatedand thousands of royal and divine statue parts collectedand reassembled. The hypostyle hall is gradually being cleared,revealing older deposits of statues of the goddess Sekhmet.

The scanty remains of walls and columns reveal little ofthe decorative programme of the temple, whereas the statu-ary, even though fragmented and dispersed, exposes fea-tures which enrich our knowledge of temple infrastructureas well as of royal and divine iconography. Moreover, thecolossal royal statuary at the gate of the second pylon andin the porticoes around the great peristyle court bears adecorative programme particularly relevant to Sudan: theplinths of these statues are adorned with representations offoreigners, which include Kush, Irm, Punt and several otherneighbours. Such depictions are numerous during the reignof Amenhotep III, in temples, such as Karnak, Thebes/West and Soleb, as well as in private tombs, where theyappear on the base of the royal statue shown enthroned in

a kiosk. Those deriving from the mortuary temple at Komel-Hettân have been known since the early 19th century, likethe granite statue base today in the Louvre (A 18), a frag-mentary limestone plinth of a sphinx in a Theban store-room, and a series of northern peoples on the bases ofroyal colossi now under conservation in the peristyle court.2The most recent peoples have appeared at the gate of thesecond pylon and in the southern portico of the peristylecourt.

The Colossi of Memnon preceded the first pylon ofthe temple, in the east (Colour plate XXXIX).3 They repre-sent the king seated on a throne and flanked by smallerstatues of the king’s mother Mutemuya on his left and thegreat royal consort Tiye on his right. To the west, 100mbehind these colossi, in the zone preceding the presumedsecond pylon, another colossus of quartzite fallen sinceantiquity was known from older records since the time ofPococke, who visited Egypt in 1734-35. Up to the 19th cen-tury, reports continue to mention this statue, fragments ofwhich appear clearly in the inundated plain behind theMemnon, in a drawing by David Roberts. Our mission firstuncovered this northern colossal statue fallen across thetemple axis, then revealed the façade of the northern wingof the brick pylon and discovered a southern colossus pre-viously unknown.

The preserved remains of the temple lie under a layerof 2.5 to 3m of Nile alluvium, now constantly inundatedby irrigation water from the surrounding fields. Emergingfrom the ground the shapeless mass of the north colossuswas the object of our research in 2002, when we uncov-ered the mass of quartzite for documentation and conser-vation. We were then pleased to discover the submergedright part of the colossus 2m under the actual ground levelof the site (Plate 1). Since then, we have continued clear-ance and conservation, transported the detached parts, thehead, the chest and the knee, into a sheltered temporarylaboratory for conservation, and started planning a projectto re-erect the fallen torso, which weighs 450 tons, replacethe detached parts and erect the reassembled colossus in itsoriginal place. During the season of 2004-2005, we lifted thetorso 3.1m above the level where it had fallen in antiquity; it nowlies on an island of gravel covered with sand, on huge woodenbeams, awaiting conservation and re-erection (Plate 2).

To the south of this monument, we have partly uncov-ered the south colossus of the second pylon, which hadfallen in the same, south-south-east, direction as its north-ern companion. This colossus is more damaged and frag-mented. The right half of the torso is now partly visible,with the broken right leg of the king (Plate 3). From the

1 This project, under the auspices of the SCA and the DAI, startedwork in 1998, with a grant from American Express through the WorldMonuments Fund, after the site was included in the list of the « 100most endangered of the world », by the World Monuments Watch.Since 2000, the project continues mainly thanks to the “Associationdes Amis des Colosses de Memnon”, and recently, through additionaldonations by Förderverein Memnon and ARCE/AEF. We thank theSCA and Dr Zahi Hawass for their kind permission to work and strongsupport.

The aim of the project is to save the last remains of the templeprecinct, which are under threat of destruction by irrigation water,salt, vegetation, fire and vandalism.

2 See Edel 1966; Görg 1989 and n. 9.3 Called Memnon since visitors in the Greco-Roman Period identifiedthe northern colossus of Amenhotep III, which had fallen after anearthquake, with the Ethiopian prince Memnon, son of Eos, who fellat the gates of Troy.

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circular depression around the fallen torso we recoveredthousands of quartzite fragments, which were washed, sortedand stored. The sculptured or decorated fragments, a rathersmall percentage, were recorded and documented for study.They derive from the throne and the base of the colossus.

During all these operations, we have carefully studiedthe nature of the stone and iconography of the king. Likethe ones of the first pylon, these colossal statues at the gateof the second pylon are also sculptured in monolithic quartz-ite, with an estimated height of 12m. They also repre-sented the king seated, hands resting flat on the knees.The king wears a nemes headdress and a pleated kilt witha triangular apron. On each side of the royal legs stoodthe statue of a queen. The throne was decorated withthe scene of the unification of the Two Lands symboli-cally bound by two Nile gods.

The plinths of the colossi are decorated withpersonifications of bound foreign lands, depicted undera one-line monumental hieroglyphic inscription with thetitulary of the king divided into two halves on both sidesof an axial ankh. These representations are displayed onboth sides of a median sema-tawy, which is carved on the

front and back of each plinth. The northerners occupy thenorthern (left) half of the plinth, and the southerners ap-pear on the right half (south) (Plate 4). The northerners arebound with the papyrus plant, as the example of a shavedMntiw-stt, a ‘Bedouin from Asia’, shows on a block derivingfrom the rearmost left corner of the socle (Plate 5); thesoutherners are bound with the water lily, the plant of thesouth (Plates 4, 6 and 7).

Plate 1. North Colossus of the Second Pylon after excavation.

Plate 2. North Colossus of the Second Pylon lifted.

Plate 3. South Colossus of the Second Pylon during excavation.

Plate 4. Front side of the plinth of the North Colossus withsouthern peoples.

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The foreign lands are represented by their head and arms,which are bound behind them. Each head surmounts acrenellated oval depicting a fortified enclosure inscribed withthe name of the corresponding land or province. The bas-tions of these fortifications are rectangular inshape. All texts and decoration are carved indeep relief, but the heads of the foreigners onthe base of the north colossus are more care-fully modelled and extremely detailed, especiallythe ones on the front of the base, where threesoutherners are well preserved. As the base isbroken near the bound heraldic plants, thenortherners are not preserved, except for theface of one, the third on the front.

It is worth noting a peculiar detail in the sculp-ture, observed also on other foreign lists of theThutmoside period in Karnak, as well in everylist known from the temple of Amenhotep IIIhere at Kom el-Hettân. According to a conven-tion of Egyptian art, the buttresses of the for-tifications are rendered in deep relief all aroundthe cartouche except when they are superposedon the chest of the personage, where they arerendered in shallow relief.

The southerners on the front face of thebase are the most striking (Plate 4, Front Cover).Their heads are carved with extraordinary careand skill. Each may be considered a masterpieceof sculpture in its own right. Every one of themreveals individual features. The faces are expres-sive, with elongated eyes incurved noses, highcheeks, and bulging lips. Some have relatively

large jaws, like the example of the Kushite (Col-our plate XL, Front Cover) others have cheeksmarked by deep furrows from their scarification.Their curly coiffure is individualized by slight dif-ferences in form and volume. The majority beara feather in their hair. On all heads a large ringadorns the ear. On the right (south) side of theplinth, and from the back, we have recoveredseveral blocks with the continuation of the south-ern file of foreign peoples. Here the heads areslightly less modelled, nevertheless they bear evi-dent individual features (Plate 6).

The peoples represented on the base of thesouth colossus are more fragmentary, and therecovered fragments derive mostly from the north-ern face bearing northerners with baggy coiffuresand pointed beards; the faces are not modelledlike those of the north colossus, and their facialfeatures are less detailed. However, on the partof the face of the base still lying in situ, brokenshortly after the first figure of the southern fileof people, the personification of the second groupwhich is the land of Irm, shows again excellent

modelling of the face, a detailed coiffure and an earring, aswell as an additional feature in the attire, with a pendantaround the neck (Plate 7). Here, the name ring is againequipped with rectangular buttresses. This particular fea-ture has either a chronological value and could be consid-

Plate 5. Block from the plinth of the North Colossus with northern peoples.

Plate 6. Right side of the plinth of the North colossus with southern peoples.

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ered as a dating crite-rion, or the fragmentswith the circular but-tressed cartouches be-long to the base of an-other monumentfallen here at the gateof the second pylon.

The names of theforeigners as well astheir iconography areunder study and willbe the subject of athorough publication.Our preliminary ob-servations may besummarized as fol-lows.

These impressiveheads surmountingoval name rings rep-resent foreign coun-tries and fortifiedtowns allegedly sub-dued. Inside the ringsare written the namesof these countries ortowns. This kind of a

graphic representation of subdued countries and towns fol-lows an old schema, already attested on palettes of the EarlyDynastic Period.4 At the end of the Old Kingdom suddenlywar scenes appear in private tombs of the Memphite areaat Sakkara in the tomb of Kaemheset within the Teti cem-etery (Quibell and Hayter 1922) and perhaps a little earlier,in a 5th Dynasty tomb of a commandant of the royal for-tress Jnty at Deshasheh.5 In both tombs are found repre-sentations of a siege of a fortified town outside Egypt. Inthe tomb of Inty there are two oval ring names beside thescene of siege partly preserved. In one of these rings akneeling person with tied arms is represented. The namesof the towns are not inscribed in the rings but underneath.This kind of representation continues into the First Inter-mediate Period in private tombs (Jaros-Deckert 1984, 37-44) and in the decoration of royal mortuary temples atThebes and in those of the 12th Dynasty in the north.6 It is,

however, in the 18th Dynasty that these representations onthe walls of temples, on the bases of royal statues andsphinxes become part of the triumphant records of theking.7

In the mortuary temple of Amenhotep III the fortifica-tions on the pedestals of the colossi and those on the monu-mental statues in the Peristyle Court show different formsof bastions: square ones and smaller round ones. The smallertype of bastions we had observed previously from the soclesof the monumental statues of the western portico of thePeristyle Court. On the plinth of the north colossus of theSecond Pylon all bastions are square, while those on thefragments in the immediate vicinity of the south colossusare smaller, and round in shape. Knowing that the smallerround ones were attested on the bases of the statues of thePeristyle, we had thought that the different types depend onthe statue type or are of earlier date. However, we discov-ered the rectangular-shaped bastion to be present also onthe part of the plinth of the south colossus still in situ. Fur-ther finds will perhaps resolve this question.

From the plinth of the north colossus of the SecondPylon only the southern half is preserved, decorated withthe Nubian peoples, the kingdoms of Kush – hsy, the ‘vile’ -and Irm - perhaps a new writing for the old land of Jam.Kush and Irm are both determined with the sign of a for-eign country (Plate 4). Punt is attested among the southernpeoples on the north colossus (Plate 8), but we have not yet

4 For example the ‘Cities Palette’, Late Predynastic Period, CairoEgyptian Museum JE 27434 = CG 14238. See Petrie 1953.5 Petrie 1898, pl. IV. See also Gaballa Ali Gaballa 1976, 31 and pl. 2a.6 Jaros-Deckert 1984, 44-46. Excurs: Die Entwicklung der Kriegsbilderim Alten und Mittleren Reich.

Plate 8. The land of Punt from the plinth of the North Colossus.

Plate 7. The land ofIrem on the plinth ofthe South Colossus.

7 This kind of name ring is attested in the early 18th Dynasty andbecomes common under Hatshepsut (on sphinxes) and Thutmose IIIas decoration on the pylons of the temple of Karnak, see Martinez1993, 74-83; Jacquet-Gordon 1981, 41-46

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found the land of Shat nor the Medjaw. On the south sideof the plinth of the northern colossus there follow the smaller– perhaps dependant – countries or towns, Trrk, Miw Tksr,and Gwrss, partially known from older lists, but not surelyidentified or located (Plate 6).

The same sequence of Kush and Irm/Iam – written herewithout the sign of ‘foreign country’ – and followed bysmaller polities or towns, G3rss (Gwrss?), Tidwa, Miw, Tirwa, isdisplayed on some large granite blocks deriving from monu-mental pedestals and found re-used in a construction eastof the sphinx alley connecting the Temples of Karnak withthe Mut Precinct (Varille 1936, 203-214, pls I, II). Theinscriptions on these blocks mention monuments in alabas-ter from Hatnub in the mortuary temple of Amenhotep IIIon the West bank — the blocks could therefore belong tothe alabaster colossi of the Third Pylon which are understudy. The fortresses surrounding the place names displaysmall bastions in spite of the colossal size of these pedes-tals. Therefore our first assumption that, in the mortuarytemple, ring names with large square bastions could corre-spond to plinths of the greater seated colossi, and that theround-shaped smaller bastions appear on bases of lessercolossi cannot be upheld.

Other representations of foreigners decorate some newlydiscovered statue bases and fragments of bases in the peri-style court, which was surrounded by porticoes on all foursides. All statues represented the king, feet together and leftarm crossed on the chest holding the royal insignia. Herethe royal statues occupied the space between two columnsall around the open court. The statues, in the attitude ofOsiris, were not mummiform but, for the first time in thisattitude in a royal temple court, they showed the king wear-ing the shendyt kilt. The great Peristyle Court is divided bythe east-west axis into a north and south half. In the north-ern half of the court the statues were sculptured in quartz-ite from Gebel el-Ahmar, a northern quarry, and depictedthe king with the red crown of Lower Egypt. On the basesof the northern statues, northern countries are represented:Palestinians, Syrians and Aegeans (see Edel 1966; Görg 1989).In the southern half, all statues were in red granite fromAswan, southern quarries, and showed the king with thewhite crown of Upper Egypt. Their bases were decoratedwith southern peoples.

From the southern portico, we recovered severalfragments of colossal statues in red granite, among them apair of feet resting on a base inscribed and decorated in asimilar way to the known statue base in the Louvre, A 18.Like the latter, it bears representations of southern peopleson all faces, as the statue was placed in the southern part ofthe court. Accordingly, the plants of the sema-tawy bound inthe middle of the front face comprise the southern planton both sides. Converging on this central motive, two tiersof southern peoples are represented by their busts surmount-ing the crenellated cartouches inscribed with their placenames. The buttresses here, as on all of the bases of the

peristyle, are of circular shape. The personifications of theforeigners are slightly different in this part of the temple.They are represented by whole busts surmounting the namerings and not only by mere shoulders as at the second py-lon. Their arms are as usual bound behind their backs. Therope around their neck makes a curve behind each headand ends with a water lily. In spite of the different materialand the smaller size, the heads are carefully modelled andtheir features detailed. Here again, the short round coif-fures are diversified in their size and form; they wear nofeathers. Apart from the characteristic short nose and swol-len lips, the individuals have different facial features andscarifications. All have large earrings.

The back part of the base is destroyed, but the listincludes six personifications on the front; six others are con-served on the left side, and five on the right side, with thehead of a sixth whose cartouche is lost. Of these names,some are well known from former lists, others are com-pletely new and need further study. For the moment thestate of our preliminary investigation can be summarised inthe following points.

On the southern socles subdued peoples from the South,Nubians or Sudanese, are depicted. On a statue base dis-covered earlier in the Peristyle Court of the temple at Komel-Hettân and now in the Louvre,8 the great kingdom of‘vile’ Kush leads the list, followed by Iwntjw-Setj, the Bedouinsof the desert, and the smaller polities, Trt, Ik3jt (perhapsthe land of the gold mines) and R3b3rw. On both sides ofthe base runs a list of 10 ring names preceded by ‘vile Kush’from right to left. On the rear, Kush and another towncloses the list. Irm/Iam seems not to be mentioned! We there-fore think that the statue base Louvre A 18 lists only peo-ples of Kush. The bastions are of the small round type.

In the 2002 campaign we discovered a statue base ofred granite decorated in a similar way to the Louvre A 18socle. The front face is divided by the sma-tawy sign. Thefirst country on the right side is vile Kush followed by Miwand Itrw, opposed by Trkr and G3rss on the left side. Irm/Iam is not depicted (Colour plate XLI). This supports ourtheory that within the south portico these two bases repre-sented maybe only peoples of the Kingdom of Kush. Aslong as the Nubian language remains unknown most ofthese place names will remain uncertain. Some names, likeItrw or itrw-miw, may be even an Egyptian interpretation ofthe names of Nubian towns lying near the river Nile.

A limestone fragment of the plinth of a sphinx statue,found earlier in the fields near Kom el-Hettân, also bears alist of southern peoples, which starts with Ta-sety and Kushand continues with Kari and Irem (Bakry 1968, 68, pl. XVIII).Moreover, a little head in terracotta representing a Nubiancaptive was found in the debris of the West Portico.

8 Socle Louvre A 18. Varille 1938, 161-171. The statue base, togetherwith a monumental head in red granite, were acquired in 1826 fromthe collection of the British consul, Salt.

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According to our observations, the statue bases of theEast Portico were not decorated. We found two undecoratedgranite bases in the south half of the East Portico and twoquartzite ones in the north half. Perhaps there was notenough time to complete the decoration after the enlarge-ment of the whole Peristyle Court. We have now evidencethat Amenhotep constantly enlarged his funerary templetowards the east for every new heb-sed with new pylons andcolossal statues. In front of the third pylon he erected ala-baster colossi; in front of the second pylon the newly dis-covered pair of quartzite statues, and, finally, for his lastheb-sed, he commissioned in front of a first pylon the great-est colossi in quartzite, 21m or 42 cubits high, now knownas the Memnon Colossi.9 The nearly 5m high pedestals ofthese gigantic colossi bear only the royal protocol. Theyprobably would have been decorated with personificationsof subdued towns and countries but this decoration waseither not completed, or was only painted.

As we have seen, these new lists differ from those repre-sented in Soleb, Karnak, and in the wall paintings of privatetombs by a distinct iconography and especially by new names.Within the context of relations between Egypt and the south-ern lands, Kush occupies the first place in these new lists,the land of Irm is second at the gate of the Second Pylon.The double attestation of the land of Punt among the south-ern neighbours, on the south side of the plinth of bothcolossi at the Second Pylon, will be significant when theother place names are identified and located in their exactposition within the list. With a coalition of these southernneighbours now evidenced in the new historic text of thegovernor Sobeknakht of the early 17th Dynasty (Davies2003), the name lists of Kom el-Hettân will shed more lighton the iconography and the rank of these countries andplaces, shown in the mid-18th Dynasty through the eyes ofthe scribes and artists of Amenhotep III. Perhaps, morethan simply a geographical itinerary, they will enhance theimportance of each land vis-à-vis their powerful neighbour,and thus provide a list of lands really conquered by ‘HisMajesty’.

BibliographyBakry, H. S. K. 1968. ‘A fragment of a sphinx found in the mortuary

temple of Amenhotep III’, Mitteilungen des Deutschen ArchäologischenInstituts, Abtailung Kairo 23, 68.

Davies, V. 2003. ‘Kush in Egypt: a new historical inscription’, Sudan& Nubia 7, 52-54.

Edel, E. 1966. Die Ortsnamenlisten aus dem Totentempel Amenophis III.Bonner Biblische Beiträge 25. Bonn.

Gaballa Ali Gaballa 1976. Narrative in Egyptian Art. Mainz.Görg, M. 1989. Beiträge zur Zeitgeschichte der Anfänge Israels, Ägypten und

Altes Testament, 2. Wiesbaden.Jacquet-Gordon, H. 1981. ‘Fragments of a topographical list dating

to the reign of Thutmosis I’, Bulletin de l’Institut Français d’ArchéologieOriental 81, Supplément, 41-46.

9See n. 3.

Jaros-Deckert, B. 1984. Das Grab des Jnj-jtj.f . ArchäologischeVeröffentlichungen 12. Wiesbaden.

Martinez, Ph. 1993. ‘Les listes topographiques égyptiennes : essaid’inertprétation’, Bulletin de la Société d’Égyptologie de Genève 17,74-83.

Petrie, W. M. F. 1898. Deshasheh. London.Petrie, W. M. F. 1953. Ceremonial Slate Palettes. Reprint, London.Quibell J. E. and A.E. K. Hayter 1922. Teti Pyramid, North Side, Exca-

vations at Saqqara. Cairo.Varille, A. 1936. ‘Listes géographiques d’Amenophis III à Karnak’,

Annales du Service des Antiquités de l’Égypte 36, 203-214.Varille, A. 1938. ‘Fragments d’un colosse d’Amenophis III donnant

une liste de pays Africains’, Bulletin de l’Institut Français d’ArchéologieOriental 35, 161–171.

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