The Ancient Egyptian Temple: House of the God, Island of Creation (China 1995-1996) PDF

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THE ANCIENT EGYPTIAN TEMPLE: HOUSE OF THE GOD, ISLAND OF CREATION Edmund S. Meltzer Presented to Inner Mongolia Nationality Tea her’s College 1995 in a sentia Institute for the History of Ancient Civilizations, Changchun 1996 The temple was a main nucleus or focus of institutional religion in ancien...

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THE ANCIENT EGYPTIAN TEMPLE: HOUSE OF THE GOD, ISLAND OF CREATION Edmund S. Meltzer Presented to Inner Mongolia Nationality Tea her’s College 1995 in a sentia Institute for the History of Ancient Civilizations, Changchun 1996

The temple was a main nucleus or focus of institutional religion in ancient Egypt, and one of the most important manifestations of the presence of the divine in this world. (Another such manifestation was the kingship, or the person of the king.) In ideology, ceremony and practice, the temple ties together many strands of the ancient Egyptian religion and world view. Physically, the standard cult temple (i.e., the type of temple devoted to the organized cult of a deity) familiar throughout most of Egyptian history consists of several elements: pylon (monumental towered gateway), forecourt or peristyle court (open courtyard lined or surrounded with columns), hypostyle hall (large columned hall), and sanctuary or holy of holies, containing a naos or shrine which in turn contained the statue of the god. The entire temple precinct or temenos was often surrounded by a brick wall referred to as the temenos wall. The temple was generally arranged along an axis, which suited the processional nature of many of the ceremonies. The succession of components served to heighten the sense of religious awe: from the forecourt into the awesome forest of columns of the hypostyle hall, after which the ceiling would lower and the light become more subdued as one penetrated into the sanctuary and approached the presence of the deity. As the ceiling lowered, the floor level would rise (a feature to which we shall return). Other monumental elements employed are obelisks (originally particularly connected with the solar cult) and colossal statues of kings and gods. These are often found in pairs or other symmetrical arrangements; columns are sometimes in the form of, or accompanied by, colossal statues. The Eg ptia te ple did t al a s look like this. Most of the ell-preserved examples date to the New Kingdom and later, many to the Ptolemaic and Roman periods. Evidence for the earlier periods is scanty, but we can put it together to

get some idea of the earliest origins of temple architecture at and before the dawn of history. Our knowledge of early temples has been increasing with excavations at sites such as Hieraconpolis, Abydos and Elephantine. In the first two dynasties (c. 3000-2700 BCE), the staple building material was mud-brick. However, this type of paneled brick construction may have been typical of tombs and palaces rather than temples. Carved representations on objects of the late prehistoric and Early Dynastic periods, and the forms of some hieroglyphic signs, suggest that the first temples were made of wickerwork or wattle, mud plaster, plant-bundle columns, reed matting. An actual example has now been excavated at Hieraconpolis. (Very late hieroglyphic texts in the Ptolemaic temple of Edfu suggest that the Egyptians themselves knew that their earliest temples had been so constructed.) With the introduction of large-scale stone architecture at the beginning of the Old Kingdom (c. 2700), we can see early shrine forms copied or modeled in stone in the complex of buildings surrounding the Step Pyramid at Sakkara. Thereafter, stone became the preferred medium for temples, but for reasons of economy many temples or their parts were made of brick (sometimes later rebuilt in stone by a more extravagant ruler). The familiar forms of the cult temple probably had developed by the Middle Kingdom (c. 2000), though remains are few and far between; one reason for this lack of early examples is that later temples were built on the same sacred sites as earlier ones, a d that i ol ed a t pe of e o atio hi h as eally demolition! From the Old Kingdom we have many examples of another important type of temple – the mortuary (or memorial) temple, where offerings were made to the resurrected king. These mortuary temples were adjacent to the pyramids. Another temple in the pyramid complex, the valley temple, was probably where the king was mummified and certain ceremonies ensuring his resurrection were carried out. Another extremely interesting type of temple known from the Old Kingdom is the sun temple, represented by several poorly-preserved examples from the 5th Dynasty in the Memphite necropolis. These were projects of individual kings, apparently closely related to their pyramid complexes and showing strong analogies to them in layout; how closely they duplicated the contemporary form of ‘e s ho e ult te ple at Heliopolis is u k o . The est-preserved is that

of Nywoserre at Abu Ghurab. It has been suggested that the architectural embryo of this type of building was already present in the Step Pyramid complex. Returning now to the cult temple, on the most elementary level it was the house of the god, as is p o lai ed the e o d fo te ple i hie ogl phs, HwtnTr. The god or goddess indwelt in the cult statue and was served by a staff of priests who awakened him/her by singing hymns, washed and dressed him/her, fed him/her with offerings of food, and delighted his/her senses with fine things su h as i e se. The hol of holies as thus the p i ate apa t e ts of the god s o goddess d elli g. But that was only the most basic level. The temple was also regarded as the island of creation, the isi g la d hi h e e ged out of the ate a ss at the beginning of time. Every te ple as ega ded lo all as the p i e al ou d ; the apparent contradictio did t t ou le the Eg ptia s. This ide tifi atio of the temple is made graphic by the decoration, many of them having a frieze of reeds around the bottom, rendered in relief. The plant-capitaled columns were also regarded as indicating the vegetation of the primeval island, and the ascending floor level was in accord with the concept of the temple as the hill of creation. Even that is not the sum total of the significance of the temple to the ancient Egyptians. It was even more; it was a model of the entire universe as conceived by the Egyptians. This is shown by the architectural forms, the decoration, and the names of the parts of the temple. The pylon towers are analogous to the hieroglyph for horizon, a pair of hills between which the sun rises and sets. The ceilings and architraves are often decorated on the underside as a starry sky, and i that i age the suppo ti g olu s a e see as the suppo ts of the sk in Egyptian cosmology. The parts of the structure are designated by words for pa ts of the u i e se; the oof is the sk o hea e , su te a ea oo s o pts a e the ethe o ld. Other Egyptian terms used with reference to temples illuminate the complex significance of that concept for the ancient people. One word for a shrine is aAwy-pt, the doo s o gates of hea e , a d the p iest ho ope s the is wnaAwy-pt, ope e of the gates of hea e . A othe o d fo a hapel o sanctuary is rA-pr. In Coptic, the latest phase of the ancient Egyptian language, rA-pr survives as rpe. Now the element pe can be a late pronunciation of either

pr house o pt hea e , a d the plu al rpēwe shows that in Coptic it was understood as the latter. With the prefixed element p- ea i g the, prpe was adopted into Egyptian Arabic as birba, meaning a ruined ancient temple. (Terminology: P. Spencer, The Ancient Egyptian Temple: A Lexicographical Study, London, 1984.) Yet another term, gs-pr, refers to the temple not merely as a building or sanctuary, but to the administrative and economic establishment of which it is the center. To culminate the process of abstraction, the temple itself could be regarded as a god, personified as a divine being in its own right. The dedication or inaugural e e o ies fo a te ple i luded the Ope i g of the Mouth e e o , hi h was also performed on mummies and statues, and which was enacted to enable the temple to exist and function as a living being. The temple was thus not merely a model, but a working model, or perhaps one could say living machine, which, along with the proper rituals, actively functioned to sustain the cosmos. The priests of the Greco-Roman Period seem to have hoped that the temple itself, with the appropriate scenes and texts carved on and in it, would be able to continue in this function even in the catastrophic worst-case scenario that there would be no living persons to perform the rituals. The decoration of the temple has other important aspects as well. The king – himself a god, and on a rather ad hoc basis the son of any god in the pantheon – loo s la ge, pa i g his espe ts a d offe i g to the deit , also o ue i g Eg pt s e e ies. Thus, te ples o tai a histo i al te ts a d ep ese tatio s of the victorious ruler. But these are not merely self-glorification, or commemorations of real or claimed conquests. They are of religious importance, themselves an act of piety or offering to the god, whose supremacy as well as the ki g s is p o lai ed. Moreover, the representation of vanquishing the enemies magically guards the sacred precinct from inimical influences. By these activities of offering and conquering, the king maintains the cosmic order of Ma at; themes emphasizing his legitimacy as guarantor of Ma at on earth also occur (e.g., coronation or divine birth). Mythological themes relating to the deity worshiped in the temple are also found. Many of the ceremonies – indeed, all of those which took place in the recesses of the temple – were not ope to the pu li , ut e e o l it essed the officiating priests. However, the temple was the focus of public ceremonies and

celebrations as well. On certain important feasts, the priests would carry the shrine containing the cult statue of the god on their shoulders in procession, to the jo of eage th o gs of o shipe s. “o e su h holida s the eautiful feast of Opet, the eautiful feast of the West Valle e e o asio s of pu li festivities (and vacations!) that lasted for days. Moreover, the outer courts of the temple were accessible to the public, who brought votive offerings and inscribed tablets that have been found by archaeologists – unpretentious objects with h s to su h deities as A u of the Hea i g Ea , A u ho hea s p a e , ho o es at the oi e of the poo . Recent insights in the study of ancient Egyptian religion suggest that earlier scholars underestimated the role of the temple and temple-based religion in the life of the community. In an important article, Prof. Edward F. Wente writes: The otio that the te ple o e o l a loose o e tio ith the popula e has been fostered by the survival of large temples, such as Karnak and Luxor, without proper recognition that the Egyptian landscape was dotted with myriads of small temples, often only of mud brick, which have largely disappeared. . . . According to the dedi ato i s iptio s of the Ne Ki gdo , e e a ki g s o tua te ple served as as a place of community worship and prayer. . . . Fo the Ne Kingdom there is considerable information on the participation of the o u it i te ple eligio . The Eg ptia eek as of te da s du atio , with the last day being the day off from work, thus providing the opportunity for people to participate in religio at the te ple. . . . . Eg ptia ‘eligio , ABD II p. 409.) There was another way in which the temples played a vital role in Egyptian society; the cults, divine and mortuary, were the key element of a redistribution economy in which the foodstuffs used as offerings were redistributed as the income/rations of the priesthood, large staff of maintenance people, etc. (reversion-offerings). Looking at the temple establishments in totality – the estates on which agricultural produce used for offerings was grown and raised, as well as the temple complexes themselves – , the temples stand out as one of the most important sources of employment and producers of food in ancient Egypt.

The temple was also an academy in which the pious and learned scholars of the priesthood studies, copied, edited, interpreted, and composed the texts of their tradition; even in the temples of the Graeco-Roman period, this was no mere slavish copying or parroting, but rather a knowledgeable and creative use of texts going back as far as the Old Kingdom. As Jean-Claude Goyon, an authority on late temples and their texts, dramatically writes (Cleopatra’s Egypt: Age of the Ptolemies, Brooklyn, 1988, p. 39): With thei illio s of hie ogl phs, thei thousa ds of di ine figures, . . . . , the temples transcribed faithfully and piously all they could of the sacramental knowledge and words of their sacred patrimony. Ptolemaic temples are the books in which the eternal religion of pharaonic Egypt lives and will live until the dest u tio of the o ld. (Cf. D. B. Redford, Pharaonic King-Lists, Annals, and Day-Books, Mississauga, 1986, pp. 215- 9: te ts a te ple li a i Eg pt of the se o d half of the st Mille iu B.C. is likel to ha e o tai ed . Many of Egypt s te ple sites e e uilt o o e e lo g pe iods of ti e – 2000 years or more. This construction was horizontal as well as vertical. Thus, despite large amounts of demolition, we do have standing remains covering long spans of history from a number of sites, especially of the New Kingdom and later. Perhaps the best-known, hugest and most spectacular site of this kind is Karnak, the Most “ele t of Pla es ipt-swt), at Thebes in Upper Egypt, the cult center of the local deity Amun, who became the state god A e -‘e, Ki g of the Gods. Other sites featuring temple remains covering extensive periods of time include Hieraconpolis, Elephantine, Tod, Medamud and Heliopolis. We know next to nothing of Karnak and little of Amun in the Old Kingdom; some have even doubted that he was worshiped at Thebes during that period. Both the city of Thebes and the god Amun rose to prominence with the rise of the Middle Kingdom, c. 2000 BCE, when Egypt was reunited by a family of Theban rulers. The only standing structure at Karnak dating to the Middle Kingdom, the beautiful little White Chapel of Senwosret I, has been reconstructed by archaeologists. It was not a temple as such, but a way-station (peripteral chapel) in which the p iests ested ith the god s sh i e during the course of their procession. Other,

grander buildings are represented only by the odd block. With the advent of the New Kingdom – when it was again Theban rulers who defeated the Canaanite Hyksos occupiers and reestablished a strong monarchy, c. 1575 BCE – Karnak eall a e i to its o , as a i pe ial e te of Eg pt s sple did os opolita age. The standing remains at Karnak seen by travelers today date from the New Kingdom and later periods. At first glance, the ground is covered by a haphazard, bewildering forest of columns, pylons and obelisks; upon closer scrutiny, however, the apparent hodgepodge arranges itself along two axes, one north-south, the other east- est. The st P lo , he e tou s e te the o ple , is at the western end of the east-west axis. The ten pylons are arranged in a T-shape, 1-6 going west to east, 7-10 from north to south. These pylons form the backbone of a vast accretion of cult buildings to which few kings indeed did not contribute. An interruption in the building history of the great temple came with the reign of Amenhotpe IV, who changed his name to Akhenaten and propounded the e lusi e o ship of the su s disk. Du i g the fi st fe ea s of his eig , he erected several temples to the sun-disk outside the Karnak complex, on its east side. Though these temples were dismantled after his death, tens of thousands of blocks have been recovered from later buildings, and Prof. Redford of Toronto has found the foundations and some in situ decorated blocks of one of them. When these East Karnak temples were completed, Akhenaten moved the capital to Amarna and did not build any more in the Theban area. His temples featured an open court (reminiscent of the poorly-preserved Old Kingdom sun temples) and broken lintels (also seen in temples of very late date). Buildi g i the Ka ak o ple as esu ed Akhe ate s ou g so -in-law Tutankhamun, who restored the traditional religion, and continued up through the Ptolemies and even the Romans. Karnak, along with the rest of Thebes, suffered from the sack of the Assyrian invasion of the 7th Century BCE, but restoration as well as new constructions were undertaken by the kings of the fairly brief independent periods which followed. The east gate is the work of Nectanebo I, one of the last native kings of Egypt, shortly before the time of Ale a de the G eat. While Ale a de s Ptole ai a d ea l ‘o a su esso s continued to beautify the complex, Thebes remained a center of nationalism which rebelled more than once against the foreign rulers. These rebellions brought harsh retribution, and in the Roman period Thebes was an impoverished provincial town notable mainly for its ruins.

I the ti e e ai i g, let s take a look at se e al spe ialized types of temple. Well-represented at Karnak are Festival Halls, distinguished by massive square pillars, which were erected for the Heb-Sed or royal jubilee and thereafter served to commemorate it. The Heb-Sed, usually celebrated after 30 years of reign and the at sho te i te als, as a festi al i hi h the ki g s a date as e e ed or reaffirmed and his youthful vigor restored. Crossing from the East to the West Bank, the site of the tombs, we find the mortuary or memorial templesof the New Kingdom monarchs, the descendents of the Old Kingdom mortuary temples that had adjoined the pyramids. These New Ki gdo o tua te ples s tuall o i e the o se a e of the ule s offering cult with the worship of one or more deities; thus, they are a kind of merger with the traditional cult temples. One of the best known and most breathtaking of the mortuary temples is that of Queen Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahri, across the cliff from the Valley of the Kings. That of Amenhotpe III at Kom elHettan, originally huge and magnificent, is reduced to the two colossi which flanked the now-nonexistent entrance (the so-called Colossi of Memnon). [NB: At the time of posting, over recent years very impressive finds including colossal sculptures and substantial remains of the temple have been revealed by Hourig “ou ouzia s e a atio : http://www.wmf.org/sites/default/files/wmf_article/pg_10-17_memnon.pdf] A description by Diodorus of a fallen colossus in the Ramesseum, the mortuary temple of Ramesses II, provided some of the i spi atio fo “helle s so et Oz a dias. A out a e tu late , Ramesses III. ever eager to imitate his great predecessor, built a mortuary temple at Medinet Habu in which some scenes and inscriptions are copied from the Ramesseum. There are new elements at Medinet Habu, however: the Migdol, an imitation of Syrian or Canaanite architecture, and the texts and scenes of the battles against the Sea Peoples, the invaders who were bringing the Iron Age to the Near East. The temenos wall of Medinet Habu was actually used for defensive or protective purposes when many people in Western Thebes took refuge there during the civil war at the end of the 20th Dynasty. The two temples of Ramesses II at Abu Simbel, successfully rescued from the waters of Lake Nasser, are the best and grandest examples of another specialized type of temple, the rock-cut temple, in which the façade or pylon is carved into

the face of a cliff, and the entire temple structure – duplicating the ground plan of an ordinary temple – tunneled out of the solid rock. Rock-cut temples are the equivalent in temple architecture of rock-cut tombs such as those in the Valley of the Kings; however, rock-cut tombs are far more widespread. The rock-cut temple is perhaps the epitome of permanence in an architectural form that strove for permanence. What has survived of Egyptian temples is indeed remarkable – but it gives hardly a hint of the bustle and activity that filled and surrounded these great structures, and the brilliance and color that covered them. We can visualize that from many inscriptions, such as this one of Amenhotpe III (M. Lichtheim, Ancient Egyptian Literature vol. II p. 46): The ki g ade a othe g eat o u e t fo A u i aki g fo hi a e g eat gate . . . worked with gold throughout, . . . inlaid with real lapis lazuli and worked with gold and costly stones. The like had never been made. Its pavement was made pure with silver, the portal in its front fi...