The Image of the Ordered World in Ancient Nubian Art: The Construction of the Kushite Mind, 800 Bc-300 Ad (Probleme Der Agyptologie, 18. Bd.) 9004123067, 9789004123069

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THE IMAGE OF THE ORDERED WORLD IN ANCIENT NUBIAN ART

PROBLEME .. DER AGYPTOLOGIE HERAUSGEGEBEN VON

WOLFGANG SCHENKEL UND

ANTONIO LOPRIENO ACHTZEHNTER BAND

THE IMAGE OF THE ORDERED WORLD IN ANCIENT NUBIAN ART The Construction ef the Kushite Mind, 800 BC - 300 AD BY

LASZLO TOROK

BRILL

LEIDEN · BOSTON· KOLN 2002

This book is printed on acid-free paper

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data Torok, Laszlo. The image of the ordered world in ancient Nubian art : the construction of the Kushite mind, 800 BC-300 AD I by Laszlo Torok. cm. -(Probleme der Agyptologie, ISSN 0169-9601 ; v. 18.) p. Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 9004123067 (alk. paper) 1. Nubia-Civilization. 2. Nubia-Antiquities. 3. Sacred space-Nubia. 4. Temples-Nubia. I. Title. II. Probleme der Agyptologie; 18. Bd. DT159.6.N83 T58 939'.78-dc21

2001

2001037621 CIP

Die Deutsche Bibliothek-CIP-Einheitsaufnnahme

Torok, Laszlo:

The image of the ordered world in ancient Nubian art : the construction of the Kushite mind, 800 BC - 300 AD I by Laszlo Torok. - Leiden; Boston; Koln : Brill, 2002 (Probleme der Agyptologie ; Bd. 18) ISBN 90-04-12306 7

ISSN 0169-9601 ISBN 90 04 12306 7 © Copyright 2002 by Koninklijke Brill .Nv, Leiden, The Netherlands IR. van der Molen

All rights reserved. No part ef this publication may be reproduced, translated, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any farm or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording or otherwise, without prior written permission fiom the publisher. Authorization to photocopy items far internal or personal use is granted by Brill provided that the appropriate fies are paid direct[)! to The Copyright Clearance Center, 222 Rosewood Drive, Suite 91 0 Danvers MA 01923, USA. Fees are subject to change. PRINTED IN THE NETHERLANDS

CONTENTS Acknowledgements ...................................................................... Tables .......................................................................................... Illustrations .................................................................................. Abbreviations and signs ...................... .............. .. ..... .. .. .. .. .. .. .......

Ix xI XII XVII

Introduction ............................................................................... . 1. The sacred landscape of Nubia .......................................... 1.1. Inhabited space, sacred landscape, order in the world ........................................................................ 1.2. The Nile and Nubia's sacred landscape in the New Kingdom and during the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty .......................................................................... 1.3. Royal progress and sacred landscape .......................... 1.4. Urban landscapes in Kush and their theology .......... 1.5. The theology of the relationship between Napata and Sanam ...................................................... 2. Iconography and order in the world .................................. 2.1. The grammar of the Kushite temple .......................... 2.2. The revival of New Kingdom cults in Kush .............. 2.2.1. The revival of the Amlin cult at Napata ........ 2.2.2. The great Amlin temple of Piye and Taharqo at Napata ............................................ 2.2.2.1. Hall B 502 of Piye .............................. 2.2.2.2. Hall B 503 and Forecourt B 501 of Piye .................................................... 2.2.2.3. The constructions of Taharqo and Tanwetamani ........................................ 2.2.3. Other Twenty-Fifth Dynasty temples .............. 2.3. Temple B 300 of Mut and Hathor-Tefnut at Napata ...................................................................... 2.4. The principal Amlin temple (Temple T) at Kawa .... 2.4.1. Taharqo's vow .................................................... 2.4.2. The pylon front ..................................................

7 7 10 16 19 34 40 40 48 48 54 55 65 69 70 75 80 80 83

CONTENTS

Vl

The side fronts Ptah at Kawa The Forecourt .............................................. .. The Hypostyle .............................................. .. The Pronaos .................................................. .. The Naas ...................................................... .. The Re-Harakhte chapel ............................ .. Room H ........................................................ .. The Taharqo Shrine .................................... .. The Aspelta Shrine ...................................... .. Excursus: The iconography of the shrines of Taharqo and Aspelta at Sanam. The cult function of the Aspelta Shrine at Sanam .... The temple of Amun, Bull of Bow-land at Sanam ......................................................................... . Temples A and B at Kawa: building history ........ .. 2.6.1. Temple A ...................................................... .. 2.6.2. Temple B ...................................................... .. An early post-Twenty-Fifth Dynasty sanctuary: temple B 700 at Napata .......................................... .. 2.7.1. Building history. The pylon front .............. .. 2.7.2. Court B 702 ................................................ .. 2.7.3. The barque processions ............................... . 2.7.4. B 703 as hypostyle and barque room. Naas B 704. The cult function of Temple B 700: temple of Amun of Pnubs and barque station of Amun of Napata? .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ... .. .. .. .. ... .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. The function of the Great Enclosure at Musawwarat es Sufra and the iconography of the front colonnade of Hall 101 .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. .. ... .. . The temple of Apedemak at Musawwarat es Sufra ........................................................................ Temple II A at Musawwarat es Sufra ...................... The reliefs of the great Amun temple of Napata in the Meroitic period .................................. Temple F at Naqa ...................................................... Temple M 250 at Meroe City .................................. 2.4.3. 2.4.4. 2.4.5. 2.4.6. 2.4.7. 2.4.8. 2.4.9. 2.4.10. 2.4.11. 2.4.12. 2.4.13.

2.5. 2.6. 2.7.

2.8.

2.9. 2.10. 2.11. 2.12. 2.13.

87 89 92 97 104 108 109 113 118 124 128 134 139 142 148 157 157 160 164

166 173 187 201 205 207 212

CONTENTS

vu

2.14. The temple of Apedemak at Naqa ............................ 2.15. The temple of Amun at Naqa .................................. 2.16. The Court of the Amun temple at Amara ..............

226 241 254

3. Temple and society: historical memory and identity 3.1. From a grammar of the temple to a grammar of the relationship between temple and society 3.2. The temples of Kawa and Sanam ............................ 3.3. The great Amun temple of Napata in the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty and Napatan periods ............ 3.4. The great Amun temple of Napata in the Meroitic period ... .. .. .. ... .. .. .. .. .. ... .. .... ..... .. .. .. .... ... .. .. .. .. ... 3.5. The late Amun temple of Meroe City ......................

259

4. Myth of the state, literacy, and literature .......................... 4.1. Components and uses of the Kushite royal text ...... 4.1.1. The limits of literacy ........................................ 4.1.2. The archives ...................................................... 4.1.3. The "king's novel" in Kush ............................ 4.2. Structure and form, text and recitation .................... 4.2.1. The Twenty-Fifth Dynasty period .................. 4.2.1.1. The modern reception of Piye's Great Triumphal Stela .. .. .. ..... .. .. .. .. ... 4.2.1.2. The Great Triumphal Stela as an historical document ...................... 4.2.1.3. The composition of Piye's Great Triumphal Stela .................................. 4.2.1.4. Written text and oral literature 4.2.1.5. The later Twenty-Fifth Dynasty period .................................................. 4.2.2. Inscriptions from the period between the late 7th and the late 4th century BC .............. 4.2.2.l. Introduction ........................................ 4.2.2.2. The Anlamani Stela .......................... 4.2.2.3. Aspelta's Election Stela ...................... 4.2.2.4. Inscriptions from the late 5th century and the 4th century BC ........ 4.3. Functions of literacy in the Meroitic period ............

259 282 297 306 314 331 331 331 335 342 368 368 368 371 376 395 398 413 413 416 422 439 449

Vlll

CONTENTS

Epilogue

483

Bibliographical abbreviations ....... .. .. .. .. .. .. ... .... .. ..... .. .. .... .. ......... Index of names .......................................................................... Index of places and peoples ...................................................... Index of topics ............................................................................

489 505 512 516

Figures Plates

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Research for Chapter 2 of this book was completed during my stay as Overseas Visiting Scholar at St John's College, Cambridge during the Michaelmas term of 1998. I am grateful to the Master and Fellows of St John's College for providing me with ideal research conditions. I am particularly indebted to Dr John Alexander for making me feel at home in Cambridge. Research for Chapters 1, 3, and 4 was carried out mainly in the second half of the 1990s during my periods as a Visiting Research Professor at the Department of Greek, Latin and Egyptology of the University of Bergen as a byproduct of my work on the historical comments for the volumes of the Fontes Historiae Nubiorum. I want to warmly thank the co-editors of the Fontes, Professors Tomas Hagg, Richard Holton Pierce, and Tormod Eide for providing a uniquely friendly, inspiring, and scholarly environment. I also would like to thank the Faculty of Arts of the University of Bergen and the Norwegian Research Council for supporting our work on the volumes of the Fontes Historiae Nubiorum without the completion of which Chapters 1, 3, and 4 of this book could not have been written. Thanks are also due to the Archaeological Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences for exempting me from administrative duties that might have limited my ability to work on this book. For stimulating discussions in Cambridge and in London I have to express gratitude to Dr Janine Bourriau, Mr. Vivian Davies, Drs Peter French, Dorian Fuller, Pamela Rose, Eleni Vassilika, and Derek Welsby. Preliminary forms of Chapters 1 and 2 were delivered as lectures in August 1998 at the Ninth International Coriference ef Nubian Studies in Boston, in December 1998 at the MacDonald Institute for Archaeological Research, Cambridge and at the Institute of Archaeology, University College London, further in November 1999 at the conference Gegenwart des Altertums organized by Professor Dieter Kuhn at the University of Wurzburg, and finally in August 2000 at the Faculty of Arts of the University of Bergen. I want to give thanks for the discussions which these lectures have generated and I wish to thank Professor Dieter Kuhn, Professor Horst Beinlich, and Dr Jochen Hallof for their invitation to Wurz burg. I also gratefully acknowledge

x

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

a grant from the Soros Foundation, Budapest, which enabled me to attend the Boston Nubian Conference in 1998. A debt is owed to Dr Tamas A. Bacs of the Eotvos Lorand University, Budapest for stimulating discussions and valuable suggestions, particularly for Ch. 3.5. I would like to thank Dr Zoltan Fabian, Janus Pannonius University Pees, for corrections in Ch. 4. I am especially indebted to the anonymous scholar who read my manuscript for Koninklijke Brill, who prevented me from making several errors and provided me with valuable insights. The graphic illustrations are the expert work of Mr. Sandor Osi, artist at the Archaeological Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Sciences. I am grateful for his patience and precision. The plans summarizing the iconographic programs of the Kushite temples (Pls I-XXIII) were designed by the author. The photographic prints reproduced in Pls XXVI-XXX were made after the original glass negatives of John Garstang. For publication permission I am grateful to the late Professor A.F. Shore, School of Archaeology and Oriental Studies, Liverpool University. This has been my second opportunity to work with the superb professional staff at Koninklijke Brill. As with my previous book published by Koninklijke Brill, it has been a great pleasure. I am particularly indebted to Ms Patricia Radder, Assistant Editor, Ancient Near Eastern and Asian Studies. I dedicate this book to my wife Elizabeth without whose support this work would not have been possible. Budapest in January, 2001.

TABLES Table A. Models of titles in the Egyptian hieroglyphic titularies of Kushite rulers ........................................ Table B. "King's novel" elements in Kushite royal texts ............................................................................ Table C. The structure of Piye's Great Triumphal Stela ............................................................................ Table D. Great Triumphal Stela. Opening phrases of the chapters .......................................................... Table E. The presumed structure of the Dream Stela .......... Table F. Dream Stela. Opening phrases of the textual units ................................................................ Table G. The structure of the Anlamani Stela ...................... Table H. Anlamani Stela. Opening phrases of the textual units ................................................................ Table I. The structure of the Irike-Amannote inscription ..................................................................

339 362 377 385 407 408 418 419 440

ILLUSTRATIONS

Figures 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22

Map of the Middle Nile Region Napata, town centre Meroe City Meroe City, town centre Kawa, town centre Musawwarat es Sufra (after Hinkel 1997 fig. 62) Naqa Wad ban Naqa Musawwarat es Sufra, Great Enclosure Naqa, Amun temple, reconstructed ground plan (after Wildung Schoske 1999 fig. 50) Naqa, Amun temple, reconstructed longitudinal section (after Wildung - Schoske 1999 fig. 72) Meroe City, late Amun temple (after Hinkel 1997 fig. 52) Kawa, Temple T, pylon door, south jamb (after Macadam 1955 Pl. XXIII/ a) Kawa, Temple T, pylon door, north jamb (after Macadam 1955 Pl. XXIV/d) Kawa, Temple T, Forecourt, east wall, south half (after Macadam 1955 Pl. XI/ a) Kawa, Temple T, Forecourt, west wall, south half (after Macadam 1955 Pl. IX/b) Kawa, Temple T, Forecourt, south wall, west half (after Macadam 1955 Pl. XI a) Kawa, Temple T, Hypostyle, north wall, centre (after Macadam 1955 PL XIV I a, left end) Kawa, Temple T, Hypostyle, south wall, centre (after Macadam 1955 Pl. XV/b) Kawa, Temple T, Re-Harakhte chapel, north wall (after Macadam 1955 Pl. XXI/ a) Kawa, Temple T, Room H, south wall, between doors to Rooms I and F (after Macadam 1955 Pl. XXII/b) Kawa, Temple T, Aspelta Shrine, left: exterior (after Macadam 1955 PL XVIII/a), right: interior (after Macadam 1955 PL XVIII/b)

ILLUSTRATIONS

Xlll

23 Sanam, fallen blocks from the "north" front (after Griffith 1922 Pl. XXVII) 24 Kawa, Temple B, pylon front (after Macadam 1955 Pl. VI/a-b) 25 Kawa, Temple B, Sanctuary, west wall (after Macadam 1955 Pl. VII/a) 26 Musawwarat es Sufra, Great Enclosure, Hall 101, column 7 (after LD V 72/a) 27 Musawwarat es Sufra, Great Enclosure, Hall 101, column 8 (after Wenig 1993 fig. 179) 28 Musawwarat es Sufra, Great Enclosure, Hall 101, column 9 (after Wenig 1974 fig. 13) 29 Musawwarat es Sufra, Great Enclosure, Hall 101, column 10 (after Wenig 1993 fig. 192) 30 Musawwarat es Sufra, Apedemak temple, column 1, a/ drawing of the Lepsius expedition, b/ drawing of the Hintze expedition (after Hintze et al. 1971 Pl. 79) 31 Musawwarat es Sufra, Apedemak temple, column 2 (after Hintze et al. 1971 Pl. 81) 32 Musawwarat es Sufra, Apedemak temple, column 3 (after Hintze et al. 1971 Pl. 85) 33 Musawwarat es Sufra, Apedemak temple, column 4 (after Hintze et al. 1971 Pl. 89) 34 Musawwarat es Sufra, Apedemak temple, column 5 (after Hintze et al. 1971 Pl. 93) 35 Musawwarat es Sufra, Apedemak temple, column 6 (after Hintze et al. 1971 Pl. 97) 36 Musawwarat es Sufra, Temple II A, interior west wall (after Wenig l 984a fig. 3) 37 Musawwarat es Sufra, Temple II A, interior south wall (after Wenig l 984a fig. 1) 38 Musawwarat es Sufra, Temple II A, interior north wall (after Wenig 1984a fig. 2) 39 Meroe M 250, lower podium, west front (after photographs of the Garstang expedition, Liverpool University, School of Archaeology and Oriental Studies Neg. nos M 221-225, Wenig 1978 fig. 36, and Ahmed M. Ali Hakem 1988 figs 24, 27, 29) 40 Naqa, Apedemak temple, interior north wall, Amun (after GamerWallert 1983 Bl. 11/a) 41 Great Triumphal Stela, lunette (after Grimal 1981 a Pl. V) 42 Aspelta's Election Stela, lunette (after Grimal 1981 b Pl. V)

XlV

ILLUSTRATIONS

43 Incised drawing on bronze vessel from Gemai (after Kendall 1982 fig. 62) 44 Painted decoration on globular vessel from Semna South (after Zabkar - Zabkar 1982 46, fig. b)

Plates I II III IV V VI VII VIII IX X XI XII XIII XIV XV XVI XVII XVIII XIX XX XXI XXII XXIII

Napata, great Amun temple B 500 in the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty and Napatan period, iconographic program Napata, great Amun temple B 500, the abaci of hall B 502 Napata, Mut-Hathor-Tefnut temple B 300, iconographic program Kawa, Temple T, iconographic program Kawa, Temple T, Taharqo Shrine, iconographic program Kawa, Temple T, Aspelta Shrine, iconographic program Sanam, temple of Amun Bull of Nubia, iconographic program Sanam, temple of Amun Bull of Nubia, Taharqo Shrine, iconographic program Sanam, temple of Amun Bull of Nubia, Aspelta Shrine, iconographic program Kawa, Temples A (right), B (left), iconographic programs Napata, temple B 700, iconographic program Musawwarat es Sufra, Great Enclosure, front colonnade of Hall 101, iconographic program Musawwarat es Sufra, temple of Apedemak with the program of the bottom column register Musawwarat es Sufra, temple of Apedemak with the program of the second column register Musawwarat es Sufra, temple of Apedemak with the program of the top column register Musawwarat es Sufra, temple of Apedemak, the crowns in the wall and column scenes Musawwarat es Sufra, temple II A, iconographic program Napata, great Amun temple B 500 in the Meroitic period, iconographic program Naqa, Temple F, iconographic program Meroe City, Temple M 250, iconographic program Naqa, Apedemak temple, iconographic program Naqa, Amun temple, iconographic program Amara, Amun temple, forecourt, iconographic program

ILLUSTRATIONS

XXIV

xv

Sandstone naos of King Amanikhareqerem from Napata, 2nd century AD. MFA 21.3254 (after Wildung [ed.] 1997 Cat. 288) XXV Gilded bronze statue of a king from Tabo, 2nd half of the 3rd century BC. Kh. 24 705 (after Wildung [ed.] 1997 Cat. 270) XXVI Meroe City, the ruins of the late Amfm temple seen from the Naos (Garstang photograph SAOS Neg. M 260 [2]) XXVII Meroe City, late Amfm temple, interior of hypostyle M 270 seen from east (Garstang photograph SAOS Neg. M 252) XXVIII Meroe City, late Amun temple, hall of the offering tables M 269 and main sanctuary M 261 from east (Garstang photograph SAOS Neg. M 286) XXIX Meroe City, late Amun temple, kiosk M 276 from south (Garstang photograph SAOS Neg. M 322) XXX Meroe City, late Amun temple, kiosk M 276 from north (Garstang photograph SAOS Neg. M 321)

XVl

ILLUSTRATIONS

Key to the symbols and abbreviations used in Plates III-XXIII

unbroken blue line

symmetrical association between representations of the same deity dotted blue line symmetrical association between representations of divine "pairs", consorts (in Pl. III also between Queen Mother and King's Wife), or theologically associated deities association between representations of the blue arrow (Pls XIII-XV) same deity in superimposed relief registers blue arrow, dotted association between representations of theoshaft (Pls XIII-XV) logically related deities in superimposed relief registers unbroken red line diagonal/ chiastic association(s) between representations of the same deity diagonal/ chiastic association(s) between repdotted red line resentations of divine "pairs", consorts, or theologically associated deities red arrow, dotted diagonal association between representations shaft (Pl. XV) of theologically related deities in superimposed relief registers unbroken red-greenchiastic associations between representations red lines (Pl. XIV) of the same deities unbroken yellow lines direction of scene sequence red hatching (Pls "cult image" on column

XIV, XV)

yellow hatching (Pls

"cult scene" on column

names with yellow underlining (Pls

figures in investiture scenes

scene titles or names in orange box (Pls

(figures in) temple festival scenes

AT NA TA

AmCm of Thebes Nubian Amun (in PL XXII: Amun of Napata) Amun of Thebes (in Pl. XXII)

XIV, XV) XIV, XV) XIV, XV)

ABBREVIATIONS AND SIGNS Periodicals and series

AA

Acta Arch. Hung. ADAW Aegyptus AJA aMun ANM ANRW

Archdologischer An::;eiger, Berlin. Acta Archaeologica Academiae Scientiarum Hungaricae, Budapest.

Abhandlungen der Deutschen Akademie der Wissenschqften, Berlin. Aegyptus. Rivista italiana di egittologia e di papirologia, Milano. American Journal ef Archaeology, Baltimore (from 1897 Norwood). aMun. Maga::;in fiir die Freunde der A'gyptischen Museen, Berlin. Archeologie du Nil Mi!Jien, Lille. W. Haase - H. Temporini (eds): Aef.stieg und Niedergang der Roinischen Welt, Berlin-New York. Anthropos Anthropos. lnt,emationa/,e Zeitschrifi far Volker- und Sprachenkunde, St. Augustin. AoF Altorientalische Forschungen, Berlin. ASAE Anna/,es du Semice des Antiquites de l'Egypte, Le Caire. AW Antike Welt. Zeitschri.ft far Archdologie und Kulturgeschichte. Mainz. BASP Bulletin ef the American Society ef Papyrologists, New York. BdE Bibliotheque d'Etude, Institut .franfais d'archeologie orientate, Le Caire. BIFAO Bulletin de l'Institut .franfais d'archeologie orienta/,e, Le Caire. Bi Or Bibliotheca Orientalis, Leiden. Bonner Jahrbiicher, Bonn. BJb BMFA Bulletin ef the Museum ef Fine Arts, Boston. Bulletin de la Societe d'egyptologie de Geneve, Geneve. BSEG Bulletin de la Societe .franfaise d'egyptologie, Paris. BSFE BzS Beitrdge ::;ur Sudanforschung, Wien. Cambridge Archaeological Journal, Cambridge. CAJ Chronique d'Egypte, Bruxelles. CdE CRIPEL Cahier de Recherches de l'lnstitut de Papyrologie et d'Egyptologie de Lille, Lille. FHN I-IV see Bibliographical Abbreviations at the end of the volume. GM Gallinger Mis::;ellen. Beitrdge ::;ur agyptologischen Diskussion, Gottingen. Journal ef the American Oriental Society, New Haven. JAOS Journal ef the American Research Center in Egypt, Boston. JARCE ]EA Journal ef Egyptian Archaeology, London. Jaarbericht van het Voora::;iatisch-egyptisch genootschap ,,Ex Oriente Lux", JEOL Leiden. Journal ef Near Eastern Studies, Chicago. JNES Journal ef Roman Studies, London. JRS Journal ef the Society for the Study ef Egyptian Antiquities, Toronto. JS SEA Kemi Kemi. Revue de philologie et d'archeologie egyptiennes et coptes, Paris. Kush Kush. Journal ef the Sudan Antiquities Semice, Khartoum. LAAA Liverpool Annals ef Archaeology and Anthropology, Liverpool. see Bibliographical abbreviations at the end of the volume. LA LD, LD Text see Bibliographical abbreviations at the end of the volume. see Bibliographical abbreviations at the end of the volume. LIMC LingAeg Lingua Aegyptia. Journal ef Egyptian Language Studies, Gottingen. Mitteilungen des Deutschen Archdologischen Instituts Abteilung Kairo, Mainz. MDAIK Meroitica. Schri.ften ::;ur altsudanesischen Geschichte und Archdologie, Berlin. Meroitica Memoires publies par les membres de l'lnstitut .franfais d'archeologie orientate MIFAO du Caire, Le Caire.

ABBREVIATIONS AND SIGNS

XVlll

MIO Mitt. SAG Nubica OA

OIP OLZ Orientalia PEA PM RAC RdE REM SAK SARS Newsletter SNR SPAW StudiaAeg Sudan and Nubia Urk. VA \Vepwawet WZHU WZKMU ZAS

Mitteilungen des Instituts far OrienifOrschung, Berlin. Mitteilungen der Sudanarchdologischen Gesellschajt zu Berlin e. V., Berlin. Nubica. Intemationales ]ahrbuch far Athiopische, Meroitische und Nubische Studien, Koln, Wiesbaden-Warszawa. Oriens Antiquus. Rivista de! Centro per le Antichita e la Storia dell'Arte del Vicino Oriente, Roma. Oriental Institute Publications, Chicago. Orientalische Literaturzeitung, Berlin. Orientalia, Roma. Proceedings ef the British Academy, London. see Bibliographical abbreviations at the end of the volume. T. Klauser et al. (eds): Reallexikon far Antike und Christentum, Stuttgart 1950-.

Revue d'Egyptologie, Le Caire/Paris. see Bibliographical abbreviations at the end of the volume. Studien zur Altdgyptischen Kultur, Hamburg. 7he Sudan Archaeological Research Society Newsletter, London. Sudan Notes and Records, Khartoum. Sitzungsberichte der Preussischen Akademie der Wissenschajten Philosophisch-historische Klasse, Berlin. Studia Aegyptiaca, Budapest. Sudan and Nubia. 7he Sudan Archaeological Research Soeiety Bulletin, London. see Bibliographical abbreviations at the end of the volume. Varia Aegyptiaca, San Antonio. Wepwawet: Research Papers in Egyptology, London. Wissenschaflliche Zeitschrift der Humboldt-Universitdt, Gesellschafls- und Sprachwissenschaflliche Reihe, Berlin. Wissenschajtliche Zeitschrifl der Karl-Marx-Universitdt Leipzig, Leipzig. Zeitschrifl fiir dgyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde, Leipzig-Berlin.

Other abbreviations used in the text and the .footnotes

BM Bar. Beg. N.

Gebel Barkal = Napata, with number identifying a building/a room in a building at the site. Blatt. London, The British Museum (with inventory number). burial in the Barkal cemetery (cf. Dunham 195 7). burial in the Begarawiya North cemetery at Meroe City (cf. Dunham

Beg. S.

burial in the Begarawiya South cemetery at Meroe City (cf. Dunham

Beg. W.

burial in the Begarawiya West cemetery at Meroe City (cf. Dunham

Berlin Brussels

Berlin, Agyptisches Museum (with inventory number). Bruxelles, Musees Royaux d'Art et d'Histoire Collection Egyptienne (with inventory number). circa. Cairo, Egyptian Museum (with inventory number). century. chapter, chapters. centimetre(s). Copenhagen, Ny Carlsberg Glyptotek (with inventory number). Dynasty.

B BL

c. Cairo cent. Ch., Chs cm Copenhagen Dyn.

195 7).

1963). 1963).

ABBREVIATIONS AND SIGNS

XIX

E edn. JE Kawa Kh. Ku.

East. edition. Journal d'Entree (Cairo, Egyptian Museum inventory). hieroglyphic inscription from Kawa quoted from Macadam 1949. Khartoum, Sudan National Museum (with inventory number). burial in the el Kurru cemetery (cf. Dunham 1950). meter. m MFA Boston, Museum of Fine Arts (with inventory number). N North. Nu. burial in the Nuri cemetery (cf. Dunham 1955). OAM Oxford, Ashmolean Museum (with inventory number). register. reg. South. s SAOS School of Archaeology and Oriental Studies, University of Liverpool. TT Theban Tomb (with tomb number). West. w The following signs have been used in the quotations from transliterated and/ or translated documents in the Egyptian language:

[ ]

r

i

( ) < >

{}

Enclosing damaged words or parts of words restored by modern writers. Enclosing words the reading or translation of which is open to question. In transliterations, enclosing words not written by the scribe but probably present in the spoken language; in translations, enclosing words added by the modern writer to clarify the sense. Enclosing words omitted in error by the scribe. Enclosing words to be deleted.

The following signs have been used in the quotations from transliterated documents in the Meroitic language:

*

The uncertain reading of a sign is marked by an asterisk before the sign. The two vertically arranged dots employed as word dividers in AD 1st century and later texts are marked with two commas.

INTRODUCTION In his twentieth regnal year, in c. 728 Bc, 1 Piye, 2 king of Kush, who since his early reign also controlled a part of Upper Egypt, directed a military campaign against Tefnakht of Sais and his allies. Piye's victory over Tefnakht, who was attempting the reunification of a politically disintegrated Egypt from the Delta resulted in a special political formation, viz., the double kingdom of Egypt and Kush. 3 The double kingdom of Piye and his successors united semi-independent polities that were controlled, initially, from outside Egypt, i.e., from Napata, the remote southern capital of the Kushites. For Kush, the cultural consequences of the political unification with Egypt were enormous. The seemingly pure Egyptianness of the cults, state ideology, architecture, arts and material culture emerging in Kush over the course of the late eighth and early seventh century BC completely misled the pioneers in Nubian studies as to the actual nature of what we still call, for lack of a better term, the "acculturation", or "Egyptianization" of Kush. The earlier generations of writers on the history of the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty maintained that the "Egyptianization" of Nubia was, in fact, part of a politicalideological form of playacting by which the Kushite rulers tried to legitimate their kingship in Egypt. The denial of the inner-directedness of the "Egyptianization" of Kush 4 also implied that it amounted to 1 In the following, I give the regnal years of the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty rulers as suggested by Kitchen (Kitchen 1986 148-183, Tables 4, *4). Kitchen dates Piye's reign to c. 747-716 BC. An alternative suggestion is presented by Beckerath 1997 98, who dates Piye tentatively to c. 746-715/713, his Egyptian campaign to c. 726 BC (but cf. note 182 to Ch. II below). Middle and New Kingdom regnal years are in the following according to Beckerath 1997. Alternative suggestions concerning Kushite pre-Dyn. 25 and Dyn. 25 chronology will be referred to below at appropriate places.-For the dating of the post-Twenty-Fifth Dynasty rulers see the survey presented in Torok 1997a 200-206. 2 For the evidence on Piye and for the various readings of his name see J. Leclant: Pi(anchi). IA IV (1982) 1045-1052. In this book the reading Piye is preferred to Piankhi/Piankhy, although remarkable new arguments were presented recently for the latter reading by C. Rilly: Piankhy, a Meroitic Name?-A New Interpretation. Unpublished lecture, Ninth International Coriference for Meroitic Studies, Munich 2000. 3 For the evidence see Kitchen 1986 362-406. 4 The actual Kushite features and context of the royal documents remain neglected by most scholars who investigate Dyn. 25 texts as Egyptian literary works. E.g., in

2

INTRODUCTION

no more than the import of ready-made ideas or of experts and objects, and that this import was rendered possible only by Piye's access to the riches of Egypt after his triumphant military expedition. Confronting the Kushite copy with the Egyptian model, the copy seemed miserably inferior. From Reisner in the 191 Os to Emery in the 1960s, writers on ancient Nubia viewed the Kushite culture of the 8th to 5th centuries BC as an elite pretension that was condemned to decline and aberration from the very moment when contact with the model was interrupted. 5 It was only in the 1960s that, largely under the influence of processual archaeology (i.e., New Archaeology) and American social anthropology, this strongly prejudiced vision of acculturation was replaced by new research paradigms. 6 The discoveries made in Lower Nubia during the course of the UNESCO Campaign provided material for a more balanced investigation of the impact of Egypt on Middle Nile cultures. The patterns of interaction between ancient Egypt as a political rival, conqueror and trading partner and Nubia as a special political, social, and cultural complex which preserves its distinctly African features through all periods of "Egyptianization" begun to emerge more clearly. Research started to make clear political, cultural-historical, and socio-economic distinctions between Egypt and the Middle Nile Region and lay stress on the otherness of ancient Nubian cultural identity. 7

a fascinating study, Christopher Eyre (1996 429) interprets the Kushite "literary" tradition from the viewpoint of social decorum: "Allusion to a classic literary work would create the same reaction as allusion to a biblical or latin author in Eighteenth Century Europe. This is particularly clear in the royal inscriptions of Dyn. 25, where 'quotation' of belles lettres, like contemporary quotation in art, asserted the community, coherence and identity of the ruling class as 'Egyptian"'. The study of royal iconography-similarly to the concepts of the myth of the state-does not seem to support Eyre's suggestion. On the contrary, for the representations of the Kushite rulers, both in Egypt and in Kush, a Nubian type was created (which also owed a debt to an archaising based on Egyptian Old and Middle Kingdom stereotypes). The little that survives from representations of members of the Kushite elite in Egypt similarly indicates the same sort of ethnic "realism". Cf. Russmann 1974; ead.: Mentuemhat's Kushite Wife (Further Remarks on the Decoration of the Tomb of Mentuemhat, 2). ]ARCE 34 (1997) 21-39. For the myth of the state cf. Ti:iri:ik 1995a. 5 For the trends of historical interpretation in Nubian studies see B.G. Trigger: Paradigms in Sudan Archaeology. 1he International Journal ef African Historical Studies 27 (1994) 323-345 and cf. Ti:iri:ik 1995b. 6 For the process see Adams 1977 65-98. 7 For the new trends in research, besides the volumes of Meroitica and the postcampaign studies cited in the next chapters of this book, see especially Leclant 1965;

INTRODUCTION

3

However, we are still far from understanding this otherness in all of its manifestations and we have only a very vague idea of the techniques developed by the ancient Nubians used in the translation of Egyptian culture. In this book, I shall discuss aspects of Nubian culture, the investigation of which belongs within the realm of art history. Neither the following analysis of the relationship between monumental architecture, natural environment, and concepts of the state, nor the discussion of the iconography of the cult temples and the composition of royal inscriptions will, however, be aimed at a history of stylistic developments and changes or an aesthetic evaluation of the results of these developments and changes. Instead, the present study attempts no more (or no less) than to investigate some of the intellectual devices employed by literati and artesans when they tried to articulate Kushite views on Order in the world and the cosmos. I shall also try to analyze the associations between historical identity, ritual, image, and text. Kushite art remains a special province of ancient art on at least two counts. On the one hand, it is iconographically as well as stylistically so close to contemporary Egyptian art that it tempted (and still tempts) art historians to explain it as a special variant or derivative of Egyptian art. On the other hand, however, it differs from Egyptian art in so far as Kushite iconography is not explained by texts accompanying the figures and themes of representation or relating to them in a less direct, but still easily comprehensible way. The virtual closeness to or identity with Egyptian art and the concurrent lack of direct information about the conceptual background of Kushite art may indeed discourage its historian. The way out from the difficulties posed by the special limits of the evidence may, however, be found in a reversed order of investigation. The historian of

E.G. Trigger: History and Settlement in Lower Nubia. New Haven 1965; Hintze - Hintze 1966; I. Hofmann: Die Kulturen des Niltals von Aswan bis Sennar vom Mesolithikum bis zum Ende der christlichen Epoche (Monographien zur Viilkerkunde herausgegeben vom Hamburgischen Museum.far Volkerkunde IV). Hamburg 1967; E.G. Haycock: Landmarks in Cushite History. ]EA 58 (1972) 225-244; E.G. Trigger: Nubia under the Pharaohs. London 1976; Adams 1977; Wenig 1978; T. Save-Soderbergh et al.: Late Nubian Cemeteries. Solna 1981; C. Bonnet: Kerma. Territoire et metropole. Paris 1986; Torok 1986; l 987b; Hagg (ed.) 1987; K. Zibelius-Chen: Die dgyptische Expansion nach Nubien. Eine Darlegung der Grundjaktoren. Wiesbaden 1988; Bonnet (ed.) 1992; Burstein 1993; O'Connor 1993; Bonnet (ed.) 1994; Burstein 1995; S.T. Smith: Askut in Nubia. The Economics and Ideology ef Egyptian Imperialism in the Second Millennium E.G. London-New York 1995; Torok l 995b; Edwards 1996; Morkot 1999, Williams 1999, etc.

4

INTRODUCTION

Egyptian art wants "in order to understand Egyptian art ... to know as much as possible of the elite Egyptians' view of the world" 8-the historian of Kushite art should, by contrast, to know as much as possible about Kushite art in order to understand the elite Kushites' view of the world. Hence, in this book I shall analyse monuments of Kushite art, keeping in mind the questions which we confront when realising the nature of the similarities and differences between Egyptian and Nubian art: namely, the actual relationship between the Egyptian model and its Kushite "copy", and the cognitive reasons for the actual form of "copying". I believe, the following chapters will provide arguments for my principal conclusion, namely, that the Egyptian language of Kushite art9 primarily served the articulation of Kushite concepts. These concepts were, however, parts of a native "Great Tradition" which evolved within the context of a continuous contact with Egypt and her Great Tradition. Investigating the "Kushite mind", we are of course dealing principally, or exclusively, with the knowledge, ideas and way(s) of thinking of the elite. From the 8th century BC, when we start our journey within the Kushite intellectual landscape, to the early centuries AD, when we conclude it, the elite is a priestly one. The priestly elitewithin which we also may include, in terms of their education, the rulers themselves-is a literate elite, probably the only literate elite in Kush. 10 Access to literacy was a most decisive social privilege and divided the ruling elite from the vast majority of the population. It is believed that no more than 1% of the population of ancient Egypt was fully literate. 11 Given the much more restricted range for the

Robins 1997 19. These considerations may also explain why I refrain from any attempt to define Kushite art. It would seem that, similarly to the Egyptians, the Kushites did not have a word or a verbal category for art. It may also be supposed that the functions and status of what we term Kushite art were similar to those of Egyptian art. Cf. J. Baines: On the Status and Purposes of Ancient Egyptian Art. CA] 5 (1994) 69-95; Baines 1997 216 ff. 10 As is indicated, e.g., by the Great Triumphal Stela which presents clues for a, however limited, analysis of King Piye's personality; or by the priestly offices of members of the royal family.-Similarly to the Egyptian rulers, Taharqo is portrayed as being literate in his stela Kawa V on the high Nile (FHN I No. 22, line 8, transl. R.H. Pierce. For the text cf. Ch. 4.2.1.5): His Majesty had the annals of the ancestors brought to him, to see the inundation(s) that happened in their time(s). 11 Cf. Baines - Eyre 1983. 8 9

INTRODUCTION

5

uses of literacy (see Ch. 4.1.1), the figure for the extent of full literacy in Kush was most probably still lower. It would be a mistake, however, to postulate that in Kush or in any similar societal context, elite knowledge was entirely inaccessible to the majority to the same degree as access to literacy was socially restricted. 12 Instead of believing, as many ideologically biased historians did in the last century, that institutionalised exclusion of the majority from elite knowledge is a principal means of political rule, I prefer to regard the Kushite myth of the state 13 as a Great Tradition which served political rule through monumental "codification". Access to the codified tradition must be imagined in context with institutionalised popularisation. Therefore, besides an analysis of the evidence from the aspects named in the foregoing, my principal concern will be to find ways of identifying actual traces of the spread of elite concepts and knowledge. Because of an absence of a non-royal textual evidence from the greater part of the period under investigation and in the absence of a socially and chronologically evenly distributed settlement- and mortuary archaeological record, the hierarchy of knowledge must remain largely obscure. The analysis of the temples as places of historical memory and cultural identity points, however, towards working hypotheses concerning what we usually call "political propaganda" but what in our case, at the same time, is instruction on cosmic and social Order in a religious-moralistic sense. What we may rather clearly discern in our evidence is the spread of institutionalised knowledge from the elite, especially in cases where the elite acts as vehicle for concepts imported from Egypt. It is impossible, or nearly impossible to discern traces of an opposite current in which popular traditions and concepts are carried up into the intellectual workshops of the temples. While the traces of such a process are nevertheless sufficient for stating that Kushite elite culture was to some extent 12 Needless to say, the Kushite evidence does not permit analyses such as that carried out in Baines - Eyre 1983 or in]. Baines: Restricted Knowledge, Hierarchy, and Decorum: Modem Perceptions and Ancient Institutions. ]ARCE 27 (1990) 1-23; J. Ray: Literacy and Language in Egypt in the Late and Persian Periods. in: A.K. Bowman - G. Woolf (eds): literacy and Power in the Ancient World. Cambridge 1994 51-66; DJ. Thompson: Literacy and Power in Ptolemaic Egypt. ibid. 67-83. 13 The term "myth of the state" embraces the less comprehensive terms of "kingship ideology" and "ideology of the state". Cf.]. Bergman: Zurn "Mythus vom Staat" im Alten Agypten. in: H. Biezais (ed.): The Myth ef the Stat,e. Stockholm 1972 80-102; Assmann 1990 54, 200 ff. For the Kushite myth of the state cf. Torok 1995a; 1997a 197-341.

6

INTRODUCTION

(that was not constant in the course of the times) open both as a source of knowledge and as a receiver, for the time being it is impossible to determine the actual social/ ethnic milieus from which informations and impetuses may have reached the educated priesthood. Problems of history and historical chronology will be touched upon from the aspect of the investigations outlined above. Three chronological terms will be employed here, viz., Twenty-Fifth Dynasty, Napatan, and Meroitic. The first refers to the period between c. 747 and 656 BC, i.e., the period of the rule of Kushite kings over Kush and Egypt, the second to the period between c. 656 and the early 3rd century BC, and the third to the period between the early 3rd century BC and the early AD 5th century. 14 The traditional, and rather vague, geographical term "Nubia" covers the Middle Nile Region between the (ancient) Egyptian frontier at the First Cataract and the Khartoum region (fig. 1); the term Nubian is also used in a more general sense in references to cultures and peoples of the Middle Nile Region. The terms Kush, or Kushite are reserved for the ancient Kingdom of Kush between the period of the el Kurru chieftains (early 9th to mid-8th or early 10th to mid8th century Bc) 15 and the early AD 5th century. The terms Aithiopia (for Kush) and Aithiopians (for Kushites) used by Classical authors are used occasionally in the context of references to their works.

14 For chronological and geographical terminology cf. Torok l 997a 1-5.-It must be emphasized that I use Napatan and Meroitic as technical terms for periods of time and not with reference to the traditional and still current belief according to which the capital of Kush was in the Napatan period at Napata and in the Meroitic period at Meroe City. I tried to show in Torok l 992a and elsewhere that Kush had several "capitals" contemporaneously and that the repeated transfers of the royal burial grounds (successively, el Kurru-Nuri-el Kurru-Nuri-Gebel Barkal-Meroe City Begarawiya South-Meroe City Begarawiya North-Gebel Barkal-Begarawiya North-Gebel Barkal-Begarawiya North, for the evidence see Dunham 1950, 1955, 1957, 1963; Wenig 1967; S. Wenig: Noch einmals zur 1. und 2. Nebendynastie von Napata. Meroitica I [1973] 147-160; Hofmann 1978; Torok 1997a 200-206) were not directly associated with changes in government-See also Ch. 4.2.2. 15 For the first dating based on the traditional "short chronology" of the preTwenty-Fifth Dynasty section of the el Kurru cemetery see Kendall l 999a, l 999b, in which he collects arguments against the second dating, i.e., the "long chronology" of the same cemetery section that was argued for by this writer (Torok 1995a 31 ff.). My cemetery analysis was influenced by an earlier suggestion of Kendall (T. Kendall: Kush Lost Kingdom ef the Nile. [Catalogue qf] A Loan Exhibition from the Museum ef Fine Arts, Boston. Brockton 1982 21 f.) but did not rely in any manner on suggestions presented in Ali Hakem 1988 240-255.

CHAPTER ONE

THE SACRED LANDSCAPE OF NUBIA

1.1. Inhabited space) sacred landscape) order in the world Classical scholars have long argued for a contextual investigation of city and countryside. 1 The study of the economic, political and social context of the city with its territory unfolded, however, only with the modern development of archaeological techniques for investigating the countryside. 2 Research moved then in the direction of the study of the relationship between the environment-natural and artificial-and its ideological conceptualisation by the society that inhabited it. Not independently of the growing attraction of the study of Classical landscape, archaeologists became also increasingly concerned about the cognitive relationship that prehistoric societies might have established with their environment. Students of "cognitive archaeology" or the "archaeology of mind", as this emerging research trend is called, tried to identify the archaeological traces of the cognitively determined processes in which prehistoric communities structured, perceived and re-structured their settlements as "places" embodying group identity. The study of the "place)) obviously bears the stamp of anthropological theories, and the models presented by "cognitive archaeologists" also frequently resemble the picture drawn by students of the earliest phases of Greek city development. 3 The interpretation of "place" in "cognitive archaeology" as a location in which a community's past is concentrated, visualised and

For the history of research see Osborne 1987 passim and esp. 9. See Osborne 1987 passim and cf. V. Scully: 1he Earth, the Temple, and the Gods. Greek Sacred Architecture. Rev. edn. New Haven-London 1979; I.E.M. Edlund: 1he Gods and the Place. Location and Function ef Sanctuaries in the Countryside ef Etruria and Magna Graecia (700-400 BC). Stockholm 1987; Alcock 1993. 3 Cf. A. Snodgrass: Archaic Greece. 1he Age ef Experiment. Cambridge 1981; F. de Polignac: La naissance de la cite grecque. Cultes, espace et societe VIII'- VII' siecles avant ].-C. Paris 1984. 1

2

8

CHAPTER ONE

perpetuated, 4 as a node at which activities converge 5 and as the centre of the world, the dwelling place of the people, the island of order in the surrounding ocean of Chaos does not present much novelty for the Egyptologist. 6 Sometimes we have the impression that certain models presented by "cognitive archaeology" actually repeat Egyptological commonplaces. 7 Nevertheless, the interface between the environment-society nexus as described in Egyptology with the sacred landscape as interpreted by "cognitive archaeology" should not be neglected by either party. Although I was not able to directly adopt the manner in which actual prehistorical landscapes are analysed, in the present study I have greatly profited from the courage and skill with which "cognitive archaeology" interprets environmental contexts without the aid of textual evidence. 8 Initially, Nubian settlement history unfolded under the impact of Egyptian settlement history, in spite, or perhaps just because of the fact that the methods of Egyptian settlement geography and spatial archaeology9 could not be adopted on a corresponding scale in Nubia. The special features of the typology, hierarchy and functions of Nubian settlements became obvious only as a result of more recent archaeological work. 10 Recent research also prompted questions: to

4 For the background to the interpretation of the "place" as "history incarnate" see M. Halbwachs: Les cadres sociaux de la memoire. Paris 1925; id.: La topographie tegendaire des evangiles en terre sainte. Etude de memoire collective. Paris 1941; id.: La memoire collective. Paris 1950; P. Nora: Les lieux de la memoire 1-11. Paris 1986; Assmann l 992a 34 ff.; P. den Boer - W. Frijhoff (eds): Lieux de memoire et identites nationales. Amsterdam 1993; P. Nora: Realms ef Memory: The Construction ef the French Past I. Coriflicts and Divisions. Ed. L.B. Kritzman. New York 1998; A. Assmann 1999 130-142, 298-339.For the relationship between memory and landscape see also Assmann l 992a 59 f. 5 Y.-F. Tuan: Space and Pwce: The Perspective ef Experience. London 1977. 6 Assmann l 992a 38 quotes Cicero, De finibus 5.1-2 to illustrate his discourse on the spatial determination of (historical) memory: tanta vis admonitionis inest in locis, ut non sine causa ex iis memoriae ducta sit disciplina. 7 Cf. W. Westendorf: Weltbild. IA VI (1986) 1211-1213. 8 I am especially indebted to D. Loewenthal-M. Bowden (eds): Geographies ef the Mind. New York 1976; Y.-F. Tuan: Space and Place: The Perspective ef Experience. London 1977; C. Renfrew - E.B.W. Zubrow (eds): The Ancient Mind. Elements ef Cognitive Archaeology. Cambridge 1994; C. Tilley: A Phenomenology ef Landscape. Pwces.. Paths and Monuments. Oxford 1994; G. Nash (ed.): Semiotics ef Landscape: Archaeology ef Mind (BAR International Series 661). Oxford 1997; RJ. Nash: Archetypal Landscapes and the Interpretation of Meaning. CA] 7 (1997) 57-69; for the definition cf. also P. Nora: Entre memoire et histoire. La problematique des lieux. in: P. Nora (ed.): Les lieux de memoire I. La republique. Paris 1984 xv-xiii. 9 Cf. K.W. Butzer: Siedlungsgeographie. L4' V (1984) 924-933. 10 See B.G. Trigger: History and Settlement in Lower Nubia. New Haven 1965; id.:

THE SACRED LANDSCAPE OF NUBIA

9

what degree is the traditional Egyptological interpretation of the political and cultic significance of Middle Nile settlements, their temples and their palaces valid? How justified is it, to adopt ancient Egyptian discourses in reconstructing the cognitive relationship between the ancient society of Nubia and its natural and artificial surroundings? From among the numerous more or less theoretical aspects of the "landscape" -society relationship, within the framework of this book I shall investigate the problem of "order". Did the ancient Nubians perceive a meaningful structure within the environment in which they lived? If yes, what sort of structure was it, what sort of meaning did they discover in it, how did they try to articulate and perpetuate this meaning? 11 For an answer to these questions I shall review three sets of data. Firstly, I shall consider the textual evidence for some ancient Nubian conceptions concerning the unity of the territorial constituents of the country (Ch. 1.3). These texts will also be analysed as literary works in Ch. 4. Secondly, some urban settlements will be discussed as "sacred landscapes" 12 and "places" of historical memory and identity (Chs 1.1, 1.4-1.5, 3). Thirdly, I shall discuss the iconographic program and furniture of certain temples from the Napatan and Meroitic periods in order to investigate the "grammar" of the Nubian temple (Chs 2, 3). Though this third set of data would also allow more comprehensive analyses of artistic and theological aspects, here temple decorations will be primarily discussed as manifestations of Nubian concepts of symmetry, equilibrium and order. 13 Nubia under the Pharaohs. London 1976; Adams 1977; T. Save-Soderbergh et al. (eds): 1he Scandinavian Joint Expedition to Nubia Vols 3-9 (published in different places, 1972-1991); D.N. Edwards: Archaeology and Settlement in Upper Nubia in the 1st Millennium AD (Cambridge Monographs in Afacan Archaeology 36). Oxford 1989; Edwards 1996; Torok 1997b etc. 11 For Egyptological formulations and investigations of these and related questions see, e.g.,]. Leclant: Espace et temps, ordre et chaos clans l'Egypte pharaonique. Revue de .rynthese (Serie generale) 90 (1969) 217-239; Reymond 1969;]. Assmann: :(:,eit und Ewigkeit im alten Agypten. Heidelberg 1975; Assmann 1996. 12 For the term cf. H. Cancik: Rome as a Sacred Landscape. Varro and the End of Republican Religion in Rome. Visible Religion 4-5 (1985-1986) 250-265. 13 Finally, it must be noted that, though the definition "sacred landscape" covers the conceptualisation of the interconnections between natural and artificial environments, this investigation will concentrate on the latter. Its extension over the elementary conceptualisation of the natural environment, i.e., the use of hilltops (cf. P. Lenoble: Cones de dejections archeologiques clans !es djebels a cimetieres tumulaires proches de Meroe. BzS 5 [1992] 73-91; Torok 1997a 507) and caves (see below) as cult places, cannot be discussed here because of insufficient fieldwork.

10

CHAPTER ONE

1.2. 1he Nile and Nubia's sacred landscape in the New Kingdom and during the Twenty-Fifth fynasty As source of life, the Nile was for the Egyptians a manifestation of cosmic order, one of the central features of their cosmography. The river also determined the perception of their own land geographically as well as cosmologically. 14 Egyptian discourses on the life-bringing Nile flood combined geographical reality with religious concepts in a remarkable manner. As shown by Marc Gabolde, 15 the "local" inundation at Thebes issued from "beneath the soles" of the enthroned Amun of Thebes, 16 who was represented in a relief of Ramesses II at Karnak wearing a combination of the hemhem-crown supported by ram's horns and the god's usual tall feathers.'7 In the relief the god gazes from the south to the north, indicating that the inundation arrives from the south. 18 Recently, Christian Loeben 19 has called our attention to another contemporary representation of Amun wearing this unique crown superstructure and receiving offerings from Ramesses IL This relief is in the Entrance of the Great Temple at Abu Simbel. 20 According to Loeben, its dominant position indicates a, so far, unrecognised aspect of the Nubian rock temples. Namely, that

14 C( E. Otto: Agypten im SelbstbewuBtsein des Agypters. IA I (1972) 76-78; Lesko 1991 88-122 116 ff. 15 Gabolde 1995. 16 According to Gabolde 1995 this, and related notions (e.g., the inundation issuing from a deity's footsteps) originate from the actual experience of the process of inundation in the convex floodplain of the Nile, where the first (local) stage of the inundation was marked by the rising of the groundwater to the surface in the lowerlying plains between the higher river banks and the desert margins. C( also K.W. Butzer: Early Hydraulic Civilization in Egypt. A Stutly in Cultural Ecology. Chicago-London 1976 12 ff., fig. 1. 17 Karnak, Hypostyle, on the inner side of the Second Pylon, S half, PM II 46 (157 IV/2); H.H. Nelson - W. Murnane: The Great Hypostyle Hall at Karnak Ill. The Wall Reliefs. O/P 106. Chicago 1981 Pl. 36; copied by Ramesses III in his Karnak temple: ibid. Pl. 44 E. 18 Similarly to Egypt, in Nubia the course of the Nile, flowing from south towards the north, defined in antiquity the cardinal points: downstream = north, upstream = south. In the following north, south, east, and west refer to the cardinal points where Nile north and south approximately correspond with magnetic north and south. "North'', "south'', "east" and "west" refer in the description of the temples of the Napata-Sanam region to the cardinal points as they were defined by the Nile, which in this region flows approximately from north towards the south. 19 Loeben 1995 153 £, fig. 1. 20 PM VII 101 (30)-(32). 21 Loeben 1995 154.

THE SACRED LANDSCAPE OF NUBIA

11

the presence of the gods of Egypt-particularly of Arm1n-and of the king performing the rites of their cult in Nubia, i.e., the land where the inundation originates, was also intended to secure the fortunate arrival of the flood in Egypt. 21 Studying the topography of the Nubian rock temples, Irmgard Hein suggested that the rock sanctuaries also functioned as stations in a cult procession of gigantic dimensions along the river and that their geographic situation was co-determined by the potentialities of the journey along the Nubian Nile. 22 The rock temples-together with the other Nubian sanctuaries erected or rebuilt in the New Kingdom period-were thus not only intended to promote the integration of Nubia with Egypt by implanting the principal Egyptian cults there. 23 They also arranged the cult places of Egyptian Nubia into a coherent sacred geography. The overall structure of Nubia's sacred geography was defined by the Nile. On the one hand, the Nile made it evident that Nubia was a natural prolongation of Egypt. On the other hand, the conquest of the Middle Nile also made it necessary to create a discourse on the inundation in which not only the unity of Egypt and Nubia is demonstrated but also the Nubian origin of the flood is adequately interpreted. 24 In this discourse, it was the course of the river and, more meaningfully, its flood that created a synthesis of natural environment, artificial landscape, and movement in space and in time. The Ramessid reliefs at Karnak and Abu Simbel clearly indicate that the interaction between Amlin of Thebes and the ruler, who

22 Hein 1991 129 ff.; I. Hein: Uberlegungen zur Lage der Felstempel Ramses' II in Nubien. in: Gundlach - Rochholz (eds) 1994 131-135. 23 For the political aspect of New Kingdom Nubian cult topography see R.G. Morkot: Studies in New Kingdom Nubia, 1. Politics, Economics and Ideology: Egyptian Imperialism in Nubia. Wepwawet 3 (1987) 29-49. 24 Herodotus' (2.28) account of the Egyptian priestly report, according to which the bottomless sources of the Nile from which the water flowed towards the north to Egypt and towards the south to Aithiopia, were situated in the mountains of Krophi and Mophi between Syene and Elephantine does not mean that the Egyptian tradition would have localised the source of the Nile in Egypt. Herodotus' report is a misunderstanding of the Egyptian belief that there were sources at several sacred sites (at the First Cataract between Syene and Elephantine, at Gebel es-Silsileh, at Old Cairo/Babylon, and at Roda) which contributed to the flood, cf. J. Yoyotte: Nil. in: G. Posener et al.: Knaurs Lexikon der Agyptischen Kultur. Mi.inchen-Zi.irich 1960 181-184 184; K.W. Butzer: Nilquellen. IA IV (1981) 506-507. In _general see D. Bonneau: La crue du Nil, divinite egyptienne, a travers mille ans d'histoire (Etudes et commentaires 5 2). Paris 1964.

12

CHAPTER ONE

appears in the New Kingdom as the image of Hapy, i.e., the inundation, 25 was of a central importance in securing a good flood. As already mentioned, Amun was shown in both reliefs wearing a crown with ram's horns. This special detail points, however, towards the ram-headed Amun worshipped in Luxor Temple rather than to Amun of Thebes. The Luxor sanctuary was built as a "Theban Napata" for the cult of a ram-headed Amun who had been worshipped at Napata in Upper Nubia since Tuthmosis I. Amun of Luxor acted in the course of the Opet Festival as guarantor of the annual regeneration of both the pharaoh and Amun of Thebes. 26 It was argued by Leclant, 27 Pamminger, 28 and ZibeliusChen29 that the special association of Amun of Luxor with the inundation30 derived from the association of Amun of Napata with the Nile flood and fertility. In turn, Amun of Napata must have inherited this feature from his native predecessor. 31 We read in a Nineteenth or Twentieth Dynasty hieratic ostracon that "the water that comes forth, there is Amun in it in the land of Kush". 32 The significance of Amun of Napata in the structuring of the sacred landscape of Nubia and acknowledging there the kingship of the Egyptian conquerors is also manifested by the association of Amun with the southern half of the Ramessid rock temples. This is especially meaningful in the South Chapel of the Great Temple at Abu Simbel, where in the southern half of the double scene decorating the main wall, the god, who is shown receiving Ramesses II's name ring from the king, is designated as Amun of Napata. In the

25 D. van der Plas: L'Hymne a la crue du Nil I. Leiden 1983 105 f.; Grimal 1986 269 f.; Gabolde 1995 237. 26 See Bell l 985a. 27 Leclant 1965 241 ff. 28 Pamminger 1992 113 ff. 29 Zibelius-Chen 1994 5, 1996 198 f. 30 Pamminger 1992 105 ff. 31 For the presumed origins of the ram form of the Egyptian Amlin in native Nubian ram cults of the C-Group and Kerma cultures: G. Maspero: Histoire ancienne des peupf£s de ['orient classique III. Paris 1899 169; D. Wildung: Der widdergestaltige Amun-lkonographie eines Giitterbildes. Unpubl. paper, International Congress of Orientalists Paris 1973; id.: Sesostris und Amenemhet. Ai;ypten im Mittleren Reich. Mtinchen 1984 182; P. Behrens: Widder. IA VI (1986) 1243-1245; Onasch 1990 49 f.; Pamminger 1992. 32 Ostracon DeM 1072. G. Posener: Catalogue des ostraca hieratiques litteraires de Deir el Medineh I. Le Caire 1938 no. 1072; Zibelius-Chen 1994 4 f.; 1996 198 f. -Cf. also the evidence cited by Pamminger 1992 136 note 280.

THE SACRED LANDSCAPE OF NUBIA

13

other half of the scene the king offers wine to Re-Harakhte, the deity worshipped in the Great Temple together with Arm1n and the deified Ramesses II. 33 Arm1n of Napata was also identified with the Nile flood in TwentyFifth Dynasty and later Nubian texts inscribed, e.g., on the pylon front of Taharqo's Kawa temple, 34 the barque stands of Taharqo and Atlanersa, and on a vase of Aspelta. 35 Significant evidence is presented furthermore by Twenty-Fifth Dynasty temple reliefs from Napata and Kawa. Two scenes in the Mut temple at Pure-mountain (i.e., Gebel Barkal/Napata) reveal that Amfm of Pnubs was regarded as the bringer of the inundation and guarantor of the renewal of the world at New Year. On the "south" wall of the sanctuary of B 300, above the door to annex room B 306, there is in the lower register a representation of Amfm of Pnubs as criosphinx on a stand and, in the upper register, Horus as a child on the lotus flanked by two squatting fecundity figures who protect him (?). 36 The representation of the birth of the young sun god on the lotus between fecundity figures is an image of the arrival of the inundation and of the renewal of the world at the New Year. Significantly, this image is associated with the figure of Amun of Pnubs, and the two relief registers above the door are preceded by the figure of Thoth on the main wall register (14 in PL III). Amlin is here obviously a guarantor of the inundation, and his association with Harpocrates is

33 The "geographical" significance of the double scene is underlined by the arrangement of the scenes on the side walls. On the south wall the king appears with offerings before the barque of Thoth on a barque stand and Re-Harakhte; on the north wall before the barque of Re-Harakhte on a barque stand and Ma'at. Thoth, who comes in his barque from his sanctuary at Abu Hoda south of Abu Simbel, is received thus by Re-Harakhte in the South Chapel, which is apparently Re-Harakhte's barque repository (in the interior reliefs of the temple the places where one would expect the representation of Re-Harakhte's barque are occupied by the barque of the deified Ramesses II). See PM VII 98 (3)-(5) where, however, instead of the Re-Harakhte barque, the barque of Amfm-Re is mentioned; for a corrected description and a detailed discussion of the relief program and its significance see Hein 1991 114 ff., 119 f. 34 Macadam 1955 102 f.; the relevant passage of the text is quoted in Ch. 2.4.2 below. 35 Dunham 1970 32 no. 14, Pl. XXIX (Taharqo, partly in situ in B 506); 32 no. 15, Pis XXX f. (Atlanersa, from B 703); Dunham 1955 83 fig. 54 (Aspelta, from Nu. 8); cf. Baines 1985 252 ff. 36 LD V 9; PM VII 211 (12); Robisek 1989 fig. on p. 118 (on the basis of LD and not much clearer). On these reliefs see also Ch. 2.3.

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highly meaningful. Significantly, a related representation of Harpocrates on the lotus receiving offerings from two squatting fecundity figures was engraved on the plinth of a Late Period (?) bronze statuette of Amun-Re. 37 Thoth of Hermopolis is "wrongly" placed on the "south" wall, like his counterpart, Horus lord of Nubia, on the "north" wall. The two deities, who were represented in the sanctuary in their quality as gods crowning the king, changed places probably because in this way the god Thoth could "bring forth" the Nile flood which started on 1 Thoth. 38 The cult of Amun of Kawa was re-formulated in similar terms in Taharqo's new Amun temple. The association of Amun of Kawa, to whom Taharqo specially connected his appointment as crown prince, 39 with the inundation was probably intensified by the extraordinary flood in Taharqo's sixth regnal year. 40 The theology of Amun of Kawa 41 borrowed essential elements from Chnum of Elephantine, lord of the (first) Cataract, bringer of the inundation. 42 At Kawa, Amun was given Satis and Anukis as companions, who were themselves, in their quality as companions of Chnum, bringers of the flood at Elephantine. 43 This particular aspect of the goddesses is further elaborated upon at Kawa, where Anukis appears in two forms at the same time, namely as Anukis nty and Anukis bi44 (cf. Chs 2.4.9-11 ). Cleveland Museum of Art 14.5 78, Baines 1985 fig. 163. For the iconographic combination of Harpocrates on the lotus with Thoth's baboon in the Hellenistic period see D. \Vortmann: Kosmogonie und Nilflut. Studien zu einigen Typen magischer Gemmen griechisch-riimischer Zeit aus Agypten. B]b 166 (1966) 62-112 68 f[ 39 See Kawa stelae IV, V, FHN I Nos 21, 22 and cf. Ch. 4.1.3, 4.2.1.5. 4° Kawa V, FHN I No. 22; for further versions (the Coptos, Matanah and Tanis stelae) see V. Vikentief: La haute crue du Nil et l'averse de l'an 6 du roi Taharqa. Le Caire 1930; J. Leclant - ]. Yoyotte: Nouveaux documents relatifs a !'an VI de Taharqa. Kemi 10 (1949) 28-42 31 f., Pl. II. 41 For the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty developments see in more detail Chs 2.4, 2.6 and also see the naos-shaped bronze seal inscribed for Shebitqo BM 123 [11013] (destroyed in World War II) with the representation of Amlin of Kawa seated in the chalice of a lotus flower and protected by the winged Anukis and Satis, Valbelle 1981 52. 42 Cf. E. Otto: Chnum. Ltf I (1974) 950-954; Valbelle 1981 145; Onasch 1990 54 f. 43 It seems that in Egypt, Anukis was regarded as the daughter of Chnum and Satis, cf. E. Otto: Anuket. L4. I (1973) 333-334. She appears, however, as consort (?) of Amlin of Kawa at Kawa. For the goddesses see Valbelle 1981. 44 Nty refers to the eye of the moon as a pendant of Mut's epithet "eye of Re", while bJ is the manifestation of the power of Anukis as the goddess "bringing forth" 37

38

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15

Until the end of the Meroitic period, the relationship between Amlin of Napata (and other Nubian Amlin gods), the Nile and the ruler remained determined by pre-New Kingdom native concepts. 45 These concepts were, however, continuously re-formulated under the impact of theological inspirations transmitted from Egypt. 46 The Nile remained the central organizing element of geographical cognition and the axis of orientation in the world as sacred space, as is splendidly demonstrated by a small, but significant detail from the lunette reliefs of the Harsiyotef and Nastasene stelae. On both stelae, the lunette is, in a conventional manner, bounded by the winged sundisc. From the extended wings of the sundisc are suspended two uraei. The lefthand uraeus wears the White Crown of Upper Egypt, and the righthand uraeus the Red Crown of Lower Egypt. The stelae being originally erected in the "south" half of the First Court of the great Amlin temple at Napata, the uraeus with the White Crown looked from Nile "south" towards Nile "north"; the uraeus with the crown of Lower Egypt looked from Nile "north" towards Nile "south". It is even more significant that not only magnetic north is superseded by Nile north at a place where the Nile flows towards the south instead of north, but also magnetic east and west are reversed. As we shall see in Chapter 1.5, the Amlin temple constituted together with the Sanam Temple and the royal cemetery of Nuri a sacred landscape modelled on the relationship between Karnak Temple, the Small Temple at Medinet Habu, and the royal tombs of Thebes West. I.e., Sanam Temple and Nuri, in reality

the inundation, cf. L.V. Zabkar: A Study ef the Ba Concept in Ancient Egyptian Texts. Chicago 1968;]. Assmann: Verkunden und Verklaren. Grundformen hymnischer Rede im alten Agypten. in: Loprieno (ed.) 1996 313-334 330 ff.; Torok 1997a 308 f. 45 C£ Onasch 1984; 1990; 1993.-Note, e.g., the blue painting on the legs of the deity at the "north" end of the "east" wall of the Hypostyle at Sanam, indicating the representation of Amun associated with water and the flood, Griffith 1922 105. For the significance of Amun's blue colour see L. Bell: Aspect~ of the Cult of the Deified Tutankhamun. in: Melanges Carnal eddin Mokhtar I (BdE 97I1 ). Le Caire 1985 31-60 41; C.C. Van Siclen: Additional Notes on the Blue Amun. VA 6 (1990) 169-176; Pamminger 1992 113 f. with note 283; R.H. Wilkinson: Symbol and Magic in Egyptian Art. London 1994 114.-For the inundation received by the Kushite ruler from his divine father Amun-Re see Torok 1995 128-131. 46 For the Egyptian evidence cf. Baines 1985 266 ff.; for the Kushite monuments: Torok 1995 128 ff. and see below on the ruler and the inundation.-For the association of Ptah-Nun-wer on the Taharqo Shrine in the Kawa temple with the inundation see Baines 1985 41.

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south of Napata, were located on the "west" bank of the Nile according to the orientations defined by the local course of the nver.

1.3. Royal progress and sacred landscape Napata was still under viceregal control in the reign of Ramesses IX (1125-1107 BC). In the reign of Ramesses XI (1098-1069), however, viceregal administration is attested to only as far south as Buhen at the Second Cataract. So far, there is no textual or archaeological evidence to support the hypothesis47 that organised cult life would have been continuous in any of the Nubian New Kingdom temples during the period between the end of the Egyptian domination and the emergence of the kingdom of Kush, 48 however strongly such a possibility is suggested by the fact that the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty kings revived several New Kingdom cults in their old sanctuaries (see Chs 2.2.1, 2.2.3). The rulers of the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty organised the administration of the kingdom (with the possible exception of the region north of the Third Cataract) around a series of royal palace-Amun temple compounds. Consequently, the land was a sum of equal governmental units where each unit was structured and perceived as an image of the ideal whole of the kingdom. 49 Evidently, here spatial order and social order become equivalents. 50 Although this structure displays, especially on a pragmatic level, the impact of Egyptian governmental models, it was determined principally by the actual political origins of the kingdom of Kush. A number of inscriptions-the earliest one is preserved from the late 7th century Bc51-describe the enthronement of the king of Kush as a series of independent coronations in the Amun sanctuaries of

H. Goedicke: Review of Dunham 1970. AJA 76 (1972) 89. This period extends from the withdrawal of the viceregal administration in the 11th century BC to the reign of Piye's second predecessor Alara in the 1st third of the 8th century BC at latest, for it is Alara whom later tradition credits with the "conversion" of the ruling family to the Arrn1n religion and with the founding of the dynasty which also ruled in Egypt as the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty. Cf. Ch. 4.2.1 and see Torok 1997a 123 ff. 49 For the evidence see Torok 1992a; Torok 1997a 175 ff., 246 ff. 50 On spatial order articulating social order cf. Alcock 1993 174. 51 Anlamani Stela, Kawa VIII, FRN I No. 34, cf. Ch. 4.2.2.2. 47

48

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Napata, Kawa, Pnubs (Kerma) 52 and, from the early 4th century BC onwards, also in the Bastet temple of Tare in the Napata region. 53 The "coronation journey" had a canonical itinerary starting either from Meroe City or from Napata. The legitimation and enthronement ceremonies performed at the individual stations, though they underwent certain alterations during the course of the time, were similarly canonical. 54 The rites of the coronation journey presented a theological and "constitutional" formulation of a federation of originally independent polities which centered around the individual stations of the journey5 5 and from the unification of which the kingdom of Alara and Kashta emerged in the first half of the 8th century BC. The royal progress through the country was repeatedly described, explicitely or implicitly, in terms of Re's journey across the sky. Going far beyond the limits of a poetical allegory, in these and related descriptions, the ruler and his acting were theologically identified with the sun god and his acting. 56 The cosmological interpretation of the royal orbit also implies that the inhabited natural and artificial space was perceived and interpreted as a sacred landscape. Let us briefly survey some texts in which the royal progress traverses the sacred landscape of Nubia and Egypt. The Great Triumphal

52 For the identification of Pnubs with Kerma see Bonnet - Valbelle 1980; Wolf 1990 118 ff.; Bonnet l 999a 4. 53 The epigraphic evidence for the enthronement rites including "legitimation in the human sphere" and the rites performed at the stations of the "coronation journey" (Taharqo's inscriptions Kawa IV, V, VI= FHNI Nos 21, 22, 24 respectively; Tanwetamani's Dream Stela FHN No. 29; Anlamani Stela Kawa VIII = FHN I No. 34; Aspelta's Election Stela FHN I No. 37; Irike-Amannote's inscription Kawa IX = FHN II No. 71; Harsiyotef's Annals FHN II No. 78; Nastasene's Stela FHN No. 84; fragment of a stela of Sabrakamani Kawa XIII = FHN II No. 96) is discussed in detail ;n Torok 1995 65-82; Torok 1997a 216-230; here see Ch. 4.1.3. 54 I have suggested, without being able to prove it, however, that there existed in Kush an actual governmental practice which may be termed "ambulatory kingship" and which repeated the geographical (and ideological!) pattern of the coronation journey. See Torok 1992a.-For the ancient "Reisekiinigtum" see R. Herzog: Staaten der Friihzeit. Urspriinge und HerrschefiifOrmen. Munchen 1988 142-146.-For the changes in the investiture ceremonies over the course of the time see Torok 1997a 220 ff. 55 Tare, probably being a later addition of the itinerary which was included in imitation of the concluding episode (the king's suckling by Bastet or another goddess) of the traditional Egyptian coronation rites rather than determined by a Kushite political tradition, cf. Torok l 997a 227 ff. 56 See, e.g., FHN I No. 8 line 2 (Piye); 22 line 10 (Taharqo); 37 Junette line 6 (Aspelta).

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Stela of Piye presents a combination of three conceptions of the ruler's movements within his kingdom. 57 The text reveals that the beginning of the second stage of Piye's campaign in 728 Bc, 58 i.e., the expedition led by the king himself, was consciously coordinated with the New Year and thus with the Nile flood. 59 The king acted during the course of his northward progress as bringer of the inundation and was, indirectly, identified with it. His journey was, at the same time, a religious pilgrimage throughout which he received legitimation from the gods of Egypt in the same south-north geographical order. Last, but not least, as triumphant warrior he annihilated the enemies of Order and eliminated Chaos from the south to the north. It would seem that sixty-four years later Tanwetamani's progress from Napata to Memphis 60 was timed and/ or interpreted in similar terms, amalgamating the sacred landscape of Nubia with that of Egypt. In the second half of the 5th century BC, Irike-Amannote's enthronement ceremonies at Napata-where he arrived by land from Meroe City-spanned the month preceding the New Year. Performing the New Year rites, he continued the coronation journey along the river "like Re", doubtless also as bringer of the inundation. 61 In the early 4th century BC, Harsiyotef's doubtful legitimacy62 was affirmed by two miraculous events in the Amun temple at Napata. Harsiyotef first received an oracle from the god, then, as an omen, he had the vision of "a great inundation", whereupon he received the crown from Amun of Napata and embarked upon the coronation journey. 63 There can be hardly any doubt that the timing was the same as with Piye's Egyptian campaign and Irike-Amannote's coronation journey.

57 See the comments by R.H. Pierce and L. Ti:iri:ik on FHN I No. 9 and see below Chs 4.2.1.2-3. 58 In this book the conventional dates for the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty are preferred to recently suggested chronologies as L. Depuydt: The Date of Piye's Egyptian Campaign and the Chronology of the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty. ]EA 79 [1993] 269-274); Morkot 1999 202-208. For the conventional dates see Kitchen 1986 Table *4. 59 For the timing see FHN I No. 9 lines 25 ff. ~For this notion cf. also the texts on Taharqo's Quay Ramp in front of the Karnak temple, C. Traunecker: Les rites de l'eau a Karnak d'apres des textes de la rampe de Taharqa. BIFAO 72 (1972) 195-236 232 ff. 60 See his Dream Stela, FHN I No. 29. 61 FHN II No. 71 lines 35-48. 62 Cf. my comments on FHN II No. 78. 5 i FHN II No. 78 lines 12-22.

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1.4. Urban landscapes in Kush and their theology As suggested earlier in this chapter, the royal cities of Meroe City, Napata, Kawa and Pnubs/Kerma occupied a pre-eminent position among urban centres because they probably emerged from the centres of, and/ or were identified with the memory of independent pre-TwentyFifth Dynasty polities. The Kushite Amun cults at Napata, Kawa and Pnubs/Kerma derived from pre-Twenty-Fifth Dynasty and even pre-New Kingdom native ram cults. 64 In turn, the first Amun temple of Meroe City, whose territory was annexed some time in the 8th century BC by the el Kurru dynasty, was dedicated, significantly, to Amun of Napata. 65 Other administrative centres, presumably all possessing royal residences as well, such as Sanam, Tabo (?), Sedeinga, Semna, Buhen, Faras, Qasr Ibrim, and, during the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty, Philae similarly housed local or guest cults of Amun. 66 Before turning to the discussion of urban architecture as determined by theological connections between the buildings in a settlement, the idea should be advanced that royal residences formed equal parts of the sacred landscape and not only on account of the divine features of royal power. Besides the processional movements of the ruler towards the temples, divine processions may also head towards the royal residences, as is indicated by the architecture and the inscriptions of Anlamani's New Year Hall at Napata (see the end of this chapter) as well as by a passage in Irike-Amannote's great Kawa inscription quoted in Ch. 3.1. Given the lack of relevant archaeological data, however, we can only discuss here some of the above-listed urban settlements, especially Napata (fig. 2) and Meroe City (figs 3, 4). At both sites, the residence was coordinated with the Amlin temple in the same manner: the principal palaces of the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty, Napatan and

64 For Kerma cf. C. Bonnet: Kerma. T erritoire et metropole. Paris 1986 45 f.; C. Bonnet (ed.): Kerma, royaume de Nubie. Geneve 1990 90 f.; D. Wildung: Sesostris and Amenemhat. A"gypten im Mittleren Reich. Freiburg 1984 415 ff.; for Kawa and Napata see below. Though the term "Nubian ram gods" is used with great confidence in the literature, in fact, we know next to nothing about them. It remains unknown whether the pre-New Kingdom ram gods presumably worshipped at Kawa and Napata were independent of each other or were local forms of a more "universal" deity. Cf. Hornung 1971 219 ff. 65 For the evidence see Ti:iri:ik 1997b 15-20, 25-30. 66 Cf. Ti:iri:ik 1997a 140 ff. Table L; 250.

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Meroitic periods67 faced the processional avenue of the contemporary Amlin temple and were situated to its right. 68 This relationship was doubtless determined by the Egyptian New Kingdom tradition of the residence being erected on the "starboard side" of the processional avenue. In this way, the ruler could arrive from a position of the highest status when he greeted the divine barque as it emerged from the pylons of the temple. 69 The adoption of this topographical relationship, which was an important element in the Egyptian concept of the divine and royal processions as symbols of cosmic processes, also implies the adoption of other related features of the Egyptian interpretation of the temple building. Indeed, B 500 (New Kingdom, Piye and successors), 70 B 800 (Alara or Kashta?) 71 and B 900 (Piye?),7 2 Taharqo's great Amlin temple at Kawa 73 as well as the late Amlin temple at Meroe City74 (fig. 12, PL XXVI) were built with their floors gently sloping upwards from the forecourt towards the sanctuary. The temple building thus reproduced the primeval hill and presented an image of the creation of the world. 75 The erection of the AD 1st century Amlin temple of Natakamani and Amanitore

67 Not so Natakamani's palace B 1500, the main entrance of which seems to have opened towards the "south", with its back thus oriented towards the avenue of B 500. It cannot be excluded, however, that there were other entrances on the unexcavated "north" front, facing the avenue "from the left side" and/ or on the unexcavated "west" front, looking towards the Nile. For a ground plan of B 1500 see I. Vincentelli: A Group of Figurated Clay Sealings from Jebel Barkal (Sudan). Orientalia 61 (1992) 106-121 fig. 1. 68 Palace B 1200, the building of which was started probably by Kashta, was coordinated with temple B 800 built by Alara (?) or Kashta (see Kendall l 999a 67; for B 1200 see Kendall 1991; Kendall n.d.a, nd.c) as well as, (less obviously, however), with B 500. In later times, the Meroitic palace B 100 was coordinated in a more obvious manner with B 500 (for B 100 see Dunham 1970 Plan II).-The location of the first Amlin temple built under the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty in Meroe City was perhaps coordinated with a palace superseded by the Meroitic palace M 295, while the place of the late Amlin temple M 260 was coordinated with palace M 750 (Torok 1997b 30, 36 ff.).-I am grateful to Dr Timothy Kendall for insight into the unpublished reports on his work at Gebel Barkal (for the reports referred to in this book see Bibliographical abbreviations). 69 D. O'Connor: City and Palace in New Kingdom Egypt. CRIPEL 11 (1989) 73-87 79. 70 Reisner 1917. 71 Reisner 1920 248. 72 Reisner 1920 261. 73 Macadam 1955 70. 74 Torok 1997b 124 (observation without a relevant explanation). 75 Cf. Arnold 1992 40 ff.

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on the slope of Gebel Naqa at Naqa (figs 7, 10, 11, Pl. XXII) may be explained in a similar manner (on the situation of this temple see also later in this chapter). In general, the architecture as well as the relief decoration of the Nubian temples clearly indicate that they were also intended to represent the well-ordered world, the fulfilment of mJ't. The position of the palaces at Napata was determined by the great Amlin temple. In tum, the position of the latter, similarly to the other sanctuaries at this site, was determined by Gebel Barkal, the Pure-mountain of the texts. As indicated by Amlin's epithet nb nst tlwy ~ry-ib l)w-w'b, "lord of the Throne 76 of Two-lands, who resides in Pure-mountain", Gebel Barkal was regarded as the residence of Amlin of Napata. The first half of the epithet, "lord of the Throne of Two-lands'', was borrowed from Amlin of Thebes and indicates that Amlin of Napata was originally considered a form of the Theban Amlin. 77

76 nst Hwy, "Throne of Two-lands" instead of nswt Hwy, "Thrones of Two-lands" is usually believed to be an erroneous writing (cf. Pamminger 1992 107 with note 159), which occurs, however, only in connection with Arrn1n of Thebes and Amlin of Napata. While throne in singular is not regular in the case of the first deity, the latter is designed exclusively with the name together with nst, "throne" in singular. -Kendall 1999a 71 £ offers a different, hypothetical, explanation according to which "throne" in singular refers to Pure-mountain "as the only active font" of the kingship of Piye and his descendants. 77 It appears that the Amlin cult at Napata, similarly to the Amlin cults at Kerma and Kawa, was shaped from the very outset as a dualistic cult of Amun of Thebes and a Nubian deity re-interpreted as a hypostasis of Amlin. The latter always preserved the features of a crioform native local god, a ram god at Gebel Barkal/Napata, Kerma/Pnubs, and Kawa/Gematon. When speaking about the cult of a Nubian Amlin in a certain sanctuary, we are, in fact, always speaking about a dualistic cult of the human-headed Amlin of Thebes and a ram-headed Amlin: this tradition still prevails in the late Meroitic temples, where, however, also other dualisms, as e.g. of an Amlin god and Apedemak, were to emerge. Cf. Torok 1997a 307 £, 500 £ and see below in Ch. 2.9.-For the emergence of the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty Amlin cults see also Yellin 1995.-Amlin of Kawa already occurs in New Kingdom documents (stela of the Eighteenth Dynasty governor of Kawa Panakht, Macadam 1949 1 ff.; Kawa, Temple A, [before?] Tutankhamlin, Macadam 1955 Pis 11/c, V/a) as mJi ~r fJnry, interpreted by Macadam 1949 1, 2 with note 2 as "lion over the South", which would refer to the god's descent from a native lion god. This is doubted by J. Yoyotte: Amon mJl h.r {Jnti a Kawa et a Tehne. RdE 7 (1950) 193, according to whom the epithet is adopted from the Amlin worshipped in the Egyptian fortress of Tehne. It remains to be demonstrated, however, that the fortress already existed in Eighteenth Dynasty times. According to JJ. Clere: Review of Macadam 1949. BiOr 8 (1951) 174-180 175 £ the epithet is of the same type as mJl h.r pri, "lion over the battlefield", kJ h.r fJnry, "bull over the battlefield". See also Wolf 1990 175 f.

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The second half of the epithet may appear, at first sight, self-evident in the above terms. Considering the special features of the cult of the Napatan Amlin and his previously discussed relationship with Amun of Luxor, however, it seems more likely that the epithet "who resides in Pure-mountain" preserves certain features of a native local cult which was amalgamated by the Egyptians with the cult of the Theban Amun. I have suggested elsewhere that the writing on the Nastasene Stela of both the word k3r, "shrine", "chapel" and the placename Napata with a determinative representing a round Africantype reed hut crowned with an uraeus preserved the memory of the "town sanctuary" of this pre-New Kingdom cult. A miniature Meroitic naos, the so-called "omphalos" of King Amanikhareqerem (PL XXIV), seems to hint at the same tradition. 78 In more concrete terms, the notion of the god's dwelling within the mountain seems to indicate that his predecessor was worshipped in a-perhaps natural-rock sanctuary. A Kushite tradition of cave- and rock sanctuaries is attested not only in the small rock niches used in the Meroitic period as cult places at Naqa (see below) and Gebel Qeili, 79 but also, as it seems, by temples B 200 (cf. Ch. 2.2.3), B 300 (see Ch. 2.3) and B 110080 (?) at Gebel Barkal, which may have been New Kingdom and later extensions of pre-New Kingdom rock shrines. 81 The first real rock temples were built in the reigns of Hatshepsut and Tuthmosis III. Considering the theological speculations connected to these rock shrines, 82 it seems very likely that not only the construction of a rock temple of Hathor at Gebel Barkal (for B 300 see Ch. 2.3), but also the amalgamation of a ram cult connected to

78 Torok 1997a 301; for the "omphalos" see FHNIII No. (227). Disregarding its context in the Nastasene Stela, Kendall 1990 10 interprets the determinative as referring to Pure-mountain with the SW pinnacle. 79 For the caves at Naqa see Hofmann - Tomandl 1986 98 f., figs 127-130; for Gebel Qeili (with a painting representing a queen and a prince [?] before Amlin): G.O. Whitehead - F. Addison: Meroitic Remains. SNR 9 (1926) 51-67; M.[H.J Zach: Die Hohlenmalerei vom Jebel Qeili. GM 145 (1995) 105-112. For New Kingdom and earlier Egyptian rock sanctuaries see D. Wildung: Hohlenheiligtum. IA II (1977) 1231-1232. 8° For this unexcavated temple see recently Kendall n.d.b; nd.d. 81 It is tempting to interpret the small, narrow, cave-like "sanctuary room" added in the Meroitic period to B 700 and perhaps also the curious, small, narrow, deep niche-like naos in Shanakdakheto's Temple F at Naqa as architectural allusions to shrines carved into a mountain: both temples stood at the foot of a gebel. 82 On the types and their connection with the cult of the deified ruler see Wildung 1975 162 f.; Hein 1991.

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23

a cave sanctuary at Gebel Barkal with the cult of Amlin of Thebes may have seemed particularly appropriate for the Egyptian conquerors of Upper Nubia. As shown by Kendall, the concept of the god's dwelling in Puremountain also received its iconographic formulation. This iconographic type, which we know from the Hypostyle of Ramesses II's Abu Simbel temple, 83 was also adopted by the Kushite priests of the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty period. It is important to note, however, that the striking rarity84 of the representation of Amlin of Napata enthroned within Pure-mountain-in fact, we know of one single unambiguous case, viz., a relief from Taharqo's Temple B 30085-remains thus far without satisfactory explanation. 86 It appears that the holiness of Pure-mountain was originally inseparable from the god "dwelling" in it, which also determined the epithet given by the Egyptian conquerors to Amlin of Napata. Before long, the situation changed, however, with the building of a separate temple for the cult of Amlin of Napata at the foot of Puremountain.87 This temple became the scene of the god's daily cult and the residence of his resting and processional image(s). Puremountain possessed now a different, less concrete sort of holiness as

W Text V 152; PM VII 102 (39)-(40), upper register; Kendall 1997 fig. 32. In contrast to the frequent Egyptian representation of Hathor emerging from the western mountain of Thebes, this is an iconographic type closely related to the concept of Amun's residence in the mountain. The rarity of the representation is not commented upon by Kendall, and the contrast is not noticed by V.A. Donohue: The Goddess of the Theban Mountain. Antiquity 66 (1992) 871-895, a study greatly indebted to Kendall's interpretation of the pinnacle at Gebel Barkal as a colossal (natural) uraeus image. 85 W V 5 (mountain contour not drawn); Robisek 1989 fig. l; Kendall 1997 fig. 34.-Kendall suggests that similar representations were visible on the N wall of the Aspelta Shrine in the Sanam temple (Griffith 1922 Pl. XLVIl/l) and on a ring from the Amanishakheto treasure (K.-H. Priese: Das Gold uon Meroe. Mainz 1992 fig. 31, left). K.-H. Priese suggested furthermore that Amun enthroned in the mountain was also represented in the Musawwarat (interior S wall W end, Hintze et al. 1971 PL 59) and Naqa (Gamer-Wallert 1983 BL lla) Apedemak temples. It would seem, however, that in the Sanam, Musawwarat and Naqa reliefs a baldachin and not Pure-mountain was represented.-Kendall 1990 6, fig. 9, also interprets a Meroitic (?) graffito in a cave on the west perimeter of the summit of Gebel Barkal as a representation of Amun in the mountain. 86 As also noted by Robisek 1989 54. 87 A fortress at Napata was built by Tuthmosis III and the placename Napata is first mentioned in the Amada Stela of Amenhotep II (Urk. IV 1297). For a "town sanctuary" of the pre-New Kingdom predecessor cult see p. 22. 83

84

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CHAPTER ONE

a mythical place from where Amun of Napata came forth. 88 This holiness, being no longer defined by the exclusive inhabitation of the god, may well have resulted in various interpretations and theological discourses, the reconstruction of which has been attempted by Timothy Kendall in a series of suggestive essays. 89 Let us now briefly discuss some aspects of the interconnections between the sanctuaries of the settlements. Since the majority of the temples known to-day are almost completely ruined, theological connections can be inferred in most cases only from indirect indications such as, e.g., their orientations. The orientation of most temples in Kush, and also at N apata, was defined astronomically9° during the course of the foundation ceremonies. 91 The actual principles of astronomical orientation remain unknown. The small changes in the orientation of the central hall of the Great Enclosure at Musawarat es Sufra which was re-erected several times at the same spot92 indicate that there existed exclusive connections between certain cults or building functions 93 and certain stars or constellations. It was observed

88 For the forms and places of the divine presence in New Kingdom Egypt see Hornung 1971 224 ff. The problem of Amil.n's "dwelling" in Pure-mountain requires further research.-lt is worth noting that not only "Throne of Two-lands" would be used as an equivalent to the toponym Napata, but also the name [)w-w'b, "Puremountain" was to be adopted as the name of the city: "the town named Puremountain", Aspelta's Election Stela, FHN I No. 37 line 2. 89 Kendall 1986; T. Kendall: Discoveries at Sudan's Sacred Mountain of Gebel Barkal. National Geographic 178 (1990) 90-125; Kendall 1990; T. Kendall: Le Djebel Barkal: le Karnak de Koush. Les dossiers d'archeologie 196 (1994) 46-5 3; id.: Kerrna and the Kingdom ef Kush 2500-1500 BC. The Archaeological Discovery ef an Ancient Nubian Empire. Washington 1997 78 ff.; Kendall 1997; Kendall 1999 55-56; Kendall 1999a; n.d.a; n.d.b; n.d.c. 9° For the Egyptian evidence cf. Z. Zaba: L'orientation astronomique dans l'ancienne Egypte et la precession de l'axe du monde. Prague 1953; B. Letellier: Griindungszeremonien. IA II (1976) 912-914.-Considering the adoption of the traditional Egyptian temple foundation ceremonies (see below), it seems highly probable that at the same time the traditional principles and methods of astronomical orientation were also adopted during the early Twenty-Fifth Dynasty. 91 Cf. Montet 1964; Reymond 1969 316 ff. For the iconographic and textual evidence concerning the foundation ceremonies of Taharqo's Kawa temple see FHN I No. 25 and Ti:iri:ik 1997a 292 ff. 92 See the plans published by F. Hintze - U. Hintze: Einige neue Ergebnisse der Ausgrabungen des lnstituts fiir Agyptologie der Humboldt-Universitat zu Berlin in Musawwarat es Sufra. in: E. Dinkler (ed.): Kunst und Geschichte Nubiens in christlicher Zeit. Recklinghausen 1970 49-65. 93 For the central hall of the Great Enclosure as throne room see Ti:iri:ik l 992a. My interpretation of the building is not accepted by S. Wenig: Kommentar zu Ti:iri:ik 1992a. in: Bonnet (ed.) 1992 137-140; S. Wenig- M. Fitzenreiter: Musawwarat

THE SACRED LANDSCAPE OF NUBIA

25

that several Apedemak temples were oriented east-southeast, the alignment being 135 degrees at Musawwarat es Sufra, 132 at Basa, and 120 at Naqa. The slight differences in alignments of monuments erected between the late 2nd century BC and the mid-1st century AD would suggest that the orientation was in these cases determined by a fast-moving star or planet. 94 As it seems, astronomical orientation was always coordinated with other considerations as well. 95 At Napata, it was coordinated both with Pure-mountain and the Nile. At Meroe City, astronomical orientation seems to have been coordinated in the Meroitic period with the position of the royal necropolis with the result that all temples sat with their backs to the river. 96 The significance of astronomical orientation is, however, most clearly indicated by the diversity of orientations observed from settlement to settlement and even within the same settlement, as is also shown by the temples at Napata and Meroe City. It must be added, however, that theological considerations determined a special type of layout in which only one of the temples was oriented in the usual manner. At Kawa (fig. 5), two smaller Amfm temples (Temples A and B) faced the processional avenue of the principal Amfm temple (Temple T), being thus ritually and architecturally "subordinated" to it (Ch. 2.6). As we shall see below, the processional avenue of the late Amfm temple at Meroe City (fig. 4) was flanked in a similar manner by at least five, but possibly even more smaller temples. At Kawa, the centre of the town was dominated by the monumental temenos walls enclosing Temples T, A, and B and their annexes (fig. 5). The temenos walls and annexes were, however, left unexcavated, similarly to the town quarters north, east and south of the temenos walls. Two edifices nevertheless cast some light on the larger context of the Amfm temple complex. East of the north-east corner of the temenos walls, were found the remains of a transitory barque shrine ("eastern kiosk"). 97 Small traces of its relief decoration

es Sufta. Berliner Ausgrabungen im Sudan. [Catalogue of exhibition, Naturhistorisches Museum Niirnberg]. Niirnberg 1994 22 f.-For the problems of the interpretation see in more detail Ch. 2.8. 94 Wenig 1978 75. 95 Cf. also Arnold 1992 42 f. 96 Some of them were probably oriented also towards a (temporary?) Nile channel, but this could not have been the case for M 6, M 70, or M 250. 97 Macadam 1955 53 f.

26

CHAPTER ONE

and insciptions98 indicate a Twenty-Fifth Dynasty or early Napatan date. 99 It has been connected by Macadam with lines 71-76 in King Irike-Amannote's (second half of the 5th century Be) great inscription in the Hypostyle of Temple T 100 where a procession of the barque of Amun of Kawa "around his city" is mentioned. 101 Indeed, it is tempting to identify a transitory shrine with a south-north orientation as a station of a processional route around the town, but it cannot be excluded, either, that it was more concretely associated with a particular sanctuary the remains of which still await excavation. This latter possibility is, however indirectly, supported by the similarly south-north oriented Meroitic (2nd- I st century Be?) sanctuary situated to the east of the temenos wall and labelled, rather misleadingly, the "Eastern Palace" in Macadam's publication. 102 The small brick temple consisted of a stone porch, a colonnaded transverse court/hypostyle, a transverse hall of appearances/hall of the offering tables, a naos, and annexes connected to the court, a second transverse hall, and a naos. 103 The entrance of the naos is in the prolongation of the main axis of Temple T, clearly indicating that there existed a close theological relationship between the deity dwelling in the small sanctuary outside the temenos and Amun of Kawa in his barque sanctuary in Temple T. The layout of Meroitic Naqa 104 (fig. 7) presents a similarly remarkable mix of coordination and independence in the location of its sanctuaries. The structuring role of Gebel Naqa-in which there were, as already mentioned above, two small cave shrines above Temple F, one with one, the other with two lion heads represented in relief-is obvious in the case of both Temple F and the Amun temple. 105 The reliefs of the late 2nd century BC Temple F are espeMacadam 1955 figs 15, 16. Macadam 1955 17. 10° FHN III No. 71. 101 Macadam 1955 53. 102 Macadam 1955 114 f., Pl. 17. 103 For finds from its inventory, including a 2nd-1st cent. BC Hellenistic ivory relief from a casket and a Roman bronze statuette of Zeus see Macadam 1955 115, and esp. PL LXXXV (ivory); LXXXVl/b (bronze). 104 For the topography of Naqa see Gamer-Wallert - Zibelius 1983 passim and Pl. 55; R. Frey - J. Knudstad: Lepsius Reconsidered: A New Architectural Survey at Naga. in: Welsby Sjostrom (ed.) 1996 138-139; Wildung 1998; Knudstad - Frey 1998; Wildung - Schoske 1999; Wildung 1999; Wildung 2000. 105 It cannot be excluded that the site of Naqa was consciously selected for settlement to resemble Napata. 98

99

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27

cially relevant for understanding the Kushite urban settlement as a sacred landscape (cf. Ch. 2 .12). Two scenes are represented on the temple's interior southeast wall (Pl. XIX). In the northeast half of the wall, i.e., closer to the naos end, Queen Shanakdakheto, a prince, and two princesses are represented standing before Amun, Mut, and Khonsu. The deitites, as well as the royal persons, turn towards the canonical directions. By contrast, in the other scene on the southwest half of the wall, the queen and a prince are shown turning towards the entrance to face the enthroned Apedemak and his consort who are turning towards the temple interior. The same dichotomy of directions is repeated in the other temple hal( The northeast scene on the northwest wall shows the queen, a prince, and two princesses before Amun, Mut, and Khonsu, all of whom turn towards the canonical directions. The other scene occupies the southwest half of the northwest wall and the northwest half of the southwest wall and contains the figures of the queen and a prince on the northwest wall turning towards the entrance and facing a deified king and a goddess (?) on the southwest wall. Apedemak on the southeast and the deified royal ancestor (?) on the southwest wall are "guests" in Temple F whose peculiar orientation in the reliefs was determined by the position of the temples in which they were actually dwelling to the south or southwest of Temple F. Indeed, a predecessor of Natakamani's and Amanitore's Apedemak temple was recently archaeologically verified (Ch. 2 .13) and it may well be that the Amun temple of the same rulers (Ch. 2.15) also replaced an earlier Amun sanctuary which was connected in some way with the cult of the deified royal ancestor(s). The reliefs on Temple F splendidly demonstrate the assumption that the sacred space represented a conceptualisation of the inhabited space and that a temple was the image of the cosmos in the way that it also concretely alluded to the geographical space of which the centre was constituted by the actual temple. Returning for a moment to the astronomical orientation, the case of Temple G at Naqa is especially interesting. This shrine has no connection with any of the processional avenues which connected Temple F, the Amun temple, Temple H, the South Temple and the Apedemak temple with each other, 106 indicating that here the urban 106 It turns, however, similarly to the Apedemak temple at Musawwarat, towards the direction from which the water flows into the hafir with which it is associated.

28

CHAPTER ONE

structure was subordinate to principles of astronomical orientation that were probably determined by the cult for which a temple was actually erected. The site of Meroitic Wad ban Naqa (fig. 8) was narrowly bordered on the north and the south by the two branches of the Wadi Kirbikan. The settlement structure was further determined by two basic astronomical orientations which defined two structurally separate settlement units. In the western part of the city stood the socalled "Typhonium", in fact, a temple of Isis, which was approached from the south. The South-East Temple was oriented towards this south-north processional avenue. In the eastern part of the city centre, the palace of Arnanishakheto and a number of sanctuaries defined an east-west running avenue. 107 Though we ignore the early layout of Meroe City (figs 3, 4), circumstantial evidence suggests that the city was not only situated closer to the Nile which had considerably changed its course during the course of the last two millennia, but that prior to the AD 1st century, its individual quarters also seem to have been standing on alluvial islands separated from each other by temporary (?) Nile channels and wadis. 108 It is likely, but cannot be proven, that the first Amlin temple and royal residence were erected on an alluvial island, "representing" the primeval mound. The temple was probably built in the area marked by buildings M 294, 293, 298 and 292, the latter two also preserving parts of its walls, with a main axis running parallel to the Nile. The location of the early royal residence may be suspected in the area occupied later by the Meroitic palace M 295. The complex of the divine and royal residences was associated with the inundation-bringing functions of Amlin and his son the ruler, as attested by a cachette of temple inventory objects and votives discovered in the area of the early Amlin temple under the Meroitic 107 For the topography of Wad ban Naqa see J. Vercoutter: Un palais des "candaces" contemporain d'Auguste (Fouilles a Wad-ban-Naga, 1958-1960). Syna 39 (1962) 263-299, fig. 2; Priese 1984 fig. 5. Cf. Vercoutter's and Priese's approximate sketches with the general plan presented by Hinkel 1997 fig. 48. 108 The evidence for the "islands": Bradley 1982, 1984a; Ti:iri:ik 1997b 23 f., 63 ff. For the history of the city see Shinnie - Bradley 1980; Wolf 1996; Ti:iri:ik 1997b. Several details of the hypothetical reconstruction of the early layout and its AD I st2nd century alterations as suggested by Bradley op. cit. and Ti:iri:ik 1997b 22 £, 38 f. are disputed. Alternatives for the situation of the supposed channels are presented by Wolf 1996 41 f. For the problem c£ also K.A. Ahmed: The Island of Meroe? Meroitica 15 (1999) 457-459.

THE SACRED LANDSCAPE OF NUBIA

29

palace M 294. The votive sistra and ankh signs were offered at the New Year by rulers ranging from Senkamanisken (second half of the 7th century BC) to Si'aspiqo (early 5th century Bc). 109 In the 3rd century BC, concurrently with the abandonment of the early Amfm temple and the building of a new one, a water sanctuary was built close to the site of the deserted Amun shrine. It was apparently connected with the royal residence which stood to its east in the area of the later palace M 295. In the centre of the water sanctuary building stood, overlooked by a kiosk, a basin fed through an aqueduct with the water of the flood, thus functioning as a "symbolic" Nile source. 110 The Hellenising sculptural decoration of the building displays types associated with royal ancestor worship and indicates the impact of the Ptolemaic dynastic cult. 111 The south-north axis of the water sanctuary was determined by the direction from which the inundation arrived, and it defined, in turn, a monumental processional avenue leading to temple M 600 112 in the northern part of the town. The avenue began in front of the main, northern, gate of the water sanctuary complex and led to the northwest gate of the wall enclosing the town centre. 113 Its excavated north section displays a monumental urban design: along the sides of the wide avenue rows of trees were planted. 114 The remains of an early Meroitic 115 observatory, 116 incorporated within the palatial

109 11

Torok I 997b 26 ff., 235-241. the architectural type and its connotations see B. Gessler-Lohr: Die heili-

° For

gen Seen iigyptischer Tempel. Ein Beitrag zur Deutung sakraler Baukunst im alten A"gypten.

(Hildesheimer A"gyptologische Beitrdge 21 ). Hildesheim 1983; for the Meroe City building see Torok 1997b 63-90. 111 F. Vlach: Meroitisch-hellenistische Plastik aus den sogenannten koniglichen Badern. Ein Arbeitsbericht. Meroitica 7 (1984) 5 73-5 76; Torok l 997b 63 ff., figs 75-80, Pis 19-52; L. Torok: Hellenistische Einfhisse auf die Kunst in Kusch. AW 32 (2001 ), in print. 112 The tenninus ante quern of the building of early M 600 is indicated by the votive stela REM 0412 found in its naos and dedicated to Isis by the late 1st cent. BCearly 1st cent. AD ruler Teriteqas. Cf. Torok 1997b 170-173. 113 For the dating of its building to the middle of the 3rd cent. BC see Torok l 997b 41-46. 114 Torok l 997b 193, Pl. 162. 115 For the dating see Torok 1997b 208. 116 It was first identified as an observatory by the excavator John Garstang, see J. Garstang - W J. Phythian-Adams - A.H. Sayce: Fifth Interim Report on the Excavations at Meroe in Ethiopia. IAAA 7 (1914-1916) 1-24 12 f. The identification was not accepted by the present author in Torok 1997b 208 f., but it was convincingly argued for recently by T J. Logan - B. [B.] Williams: On the Meroe Observatory. BzS 7 (2000) 59-84. While the arguments of Logan and Williams are

30

CHAPTER ONE

building M 950 117 on the west side of the avenue, testifies to the quality of astronomical work connected to the timing of feasts, probably especially the determination of the date of the inundation at Meroe City. The observatory was part of a room complex also containing stone tanks and basins which were filled with the water of the inundation through conduits. 118 Similar bathtub-shaped stone basins were also observed in other Meroitic period buildings in Meroe City, 119 and miniature variants of the basin building of the great water sanctuary were discovered in the royal palace M 295, 120 at site M 621, 121 and in building M 922/998. 122 Except for palace M 295, the basins and tanks were associated with houses that may be interpreted as dwellings of the high priesthood. In the AD 1st century, as a consequence of a shift in the Nile bed and the sanding-in of the temporary channels, the water provision for the basin of the water sanctuary had to be provided through some kind of water-lifting device. Remains of a new decoration indicate a modified iconographic program with Apedemak in its centre as god of the life-giving water. 123 By the late AD 1st century, when the water sanctuary had to be abandoned, a new processional axis was already taking shape. It was defined by the late Amun temple which was built in the 3rd cen-

fully convincing as to the architecture of the building, they did not address all doubts expressed in my book concerning the significance of the graffiti in the building which Garstang as well as Logan and Williams interpret as calculations and as illustrations of an operation carried out with the help of a transit instrument by an observer and his assistant. 117 Tiiriik 1997b 207-215. 118 For the necessity of a water-lifting device during the procedure see, however, Torok 1997b 210. 119 M 98 (House D); M 923, see ibid. 56, Pl. 9 and 198, Pl. 3, respectively. 120 Tiiriik l 997b 122, Pl. 127. 121 Ibid. 162, Pl. 145. 122 Ibid. 229. 123 Apedemak's representations in his 3rd century BC Musawwarat temple are interpreted by S. vVenig as referring to a warrior-hunter aspect on the one hand and a fertility-god aspect, on the other (cf. Ch. 2.9). The existence of the latter aspect of the god is contested by Onasch 1990 58, with note 34. The term "fertility god" sounds vague indeed and is thus infelicitous, but it is used with a certain justification on the basis of Apedemak's association with water at the hajirs (the Musawwarat temple also stands by a hajir) and with the reviving water libation (the lunar Apedemak is frequently represented on water containers and cups in burial equipments) as well as with reference to representations in which the god carries a bunch of sorghum (dhura), cf. J. Sciegienna-Duda: Apedemak-dieu de la fertilite. Unpubl. paper presented at the Second International Coriference far Meroitic Studies Paris 1973.

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31

tury BC and extended in the AD 1st century (fig. 12). 124 Its pylons were oriented towards the east, an orientation probably determined by the association of the Amlin cult with the royal (and aristocratic) burial grounds. The processional avenue was flanked by rows of smaller temples and chapels 125 the orientation of which was defined exclusively by the avenue (as already had been the case with the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty Kawa temple complex which preserved, in turn, a New Kingdom layout). 126 The cultus of the individual temples and chapels and, thus, also the actual cult connections between these shrines and the Amlin temple remain obscure. It is not unlikely that the sanctuaries on the avenue were built to "represent" the sacred geography of Kush and to secure the presence of the deities of the land and their cults in the neighbourhood of the Amlin temple and royal residence of Meroe City. Thus, they were part of the city plan as an image of the universe as well. 127 We are somewhat better informed about the cult connections between the Isis temple and the South-East Temple facing its processional avenue at Wad ban Naqa. Three barque stands were found in the three northern side chapels of the latter. 128 Two of these were dedicated to Isis, the third to Hathor. 129 They were obviously the stands on which the processional barques of Isis and Hathor, worshipped in the neighbouring Isis temple, rested when the goddesses visited the deity residing in the South-East Temple. 130 At Kawa, a seemingly simple, yet in fact rather intricate, relationship existed between the main temple dedicated to Amlin of Kawa and Amlin of Thebes and Temples A and B on the southern side of the processional avenue (see Ch. 2.6). Temple A, built by Tutankhamlin and rebuilt by Taharqo, was dedicated to Amlin

Shinnie - Bradley 1980 91 ff.; Torok 1997b 116 ff.; see Ch. 3.5 below. Unpublished. For preliminary excavation reports see Shinnie 1984; Bradley 1984c; S. Wenig: Meroe Joint Excavations. Bericht iiber die Vorkampagne 1992. Mitt. SAG l (1994) 15-18; Wolf 1996. 126 See above and Chs 2.4.1 and 2.6. 127 For these possibilities c( Baines 1997 226 ( They also seem to be supported by the important observation made by Bradley l 984b 280 that each temple represents a different architectural type. 128 LD Text V 337, LD V 55a (Berlin 7261); LD Text V 336-338, LD V 55b. 129 In the inscriptions on the Isis barque stand Berlin 7261 Isis is called nbt igrt, "mistress of the Netherworld". In the inscriptions on the Hathor barque stand (LD V 55b), Hathor receives the same epithet, see Onasch 1990 53 ( 130 Priese 1984 18 and passim. 124

125

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of Kawa (right side) and Amlin of Thebes (left side). Temple B, the dating of which is debated, 131 was similarly dedicated to two Amlin gods, who were presumably identical with the gods worshipped in Temple A. Hence, Amlin of Kawa resided simultaneously in two or even three temples (if the predecessor of Temple T had been, as it would be rather likely, dedicated to the same Amlin gods) in the sanctuary complex, although differences between the nature and functions of Amlin of Kawa in the three temples are indicated by the different iconographic contexts in which the god appears in them (cf. Ch. 2.6). Let us return here for a moment to the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty sacred landscape of Napata (fig. 2). As already indicated, the locations of the great Amlin temple B 500, re-built and extended in Piye's early reign, as well as of B 800, another temple dedicated to the Napatan Amlin, were coordinated with the royal palace B 1200. With the building of the outer court B 501 of the great Amlin temple after Piye's Egyptian campaign in c. 728 BC, the ritual relationship between B 500 and the palace had to be maintained by means of a meandering processional avenue. A winding avenue connecting the temenos of B 500 with temples B 200, 300, and 1100 is indeed known from a later period, while another was found by Reisner connecting B 700 with B 500. 132 Room B 504C, opening in the centre of the "south" side of the Hall of Offerings (B 503) in the great Amlin temple, had been part of the New Kingdom temple. It was restored in the course of Piye's early reconstruction work. In its centre stood a barque stand of New Kingdom date which remained in use in the Kushite temple too: 133 B 504C may thus be identified as a barque repository. A barque 131 Macadam 1955 17, 20 f.: early building Alara (?); ibid. 48 ff.: rebuilding and reliefs late Napatan; Tiiriik 1995 90 ff.: reliefs Twenty-Fifth Dynasty. Kendall (1999a 64 ff.) suggested recently, in agreement with Morkot (1991 217), that the stelae attributed to King Aryamani (FHN II Nos 91, 92) cannot be dated to the late N apatan period. According to Kendall, they were erected under Alara, which also may result in a corresponding dating for the reliefs. For the arguments in favour of the attribution of the inscriptions to Aryamani and their late dating see FHN II No. (90). 132 For the latter see Reisner 1918 112, Pis X, XVII. 133 According to Reisner's ground plan (Dunham 1970 Plan V), the "west", "east", and "south" walls of B 504C were reinforced with outer shells as a part of Piye's first building campaign and again in Taharqo's reign (?) when rooms B 504A and B were built. Finds mentioned by Dunham 1970 57 from B 504A-C seem to attest Napatan period use (see Dunham 1970 5 7, fig. 42).

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33

repository opening from the court of the New Kingdom temple shows that the visit of a deity dwelling in some other temple occupied a prominent place in cult life at the original B 500. With the restoration and extension of the New Kingdom shrine by Piye, the barque repository no longer communicated with the temple court but was approached from the hall of the offering tables. While in all probability it continued to function as the repository of the barque of a visiting deity, its cult context was no longer the same. Situated in the court, the repository served for the brief stay of the visiting deity who received there offerings, sacrifices, and rituals as well as the adoration of the people before entering the interior of the temple where the actual meeting of the visiting deity with Amun of Napata took place. 134 Now reposing in a repository opening from the Hall of the Offering Tables, the visiting deity benefited directly from the offerings brought to Amun of Napata and participated in the rites performed before him (c£ also Chs 1.5 and 2.4. 7). The situation of barque repository B 504C also recalls the layout of the Hall of Offerings in Luxor Temple to which, in the south and north, two symmetrical side chapels were attached, serving as repositories for the barque of the royal ka statue and for the ka statue itself. 135 It is not entirely impossible that the repository in B 500 was connected in a similarly direct manner with the processional visit of the royal ka. 136 As indicated by its iconographic program (Pl. III), B 300, a hemispeos dedicated to Amun's consort Mut and the lion-headed HathorTefnut, was associated with the great Amun temple (see Ch. 2.3). It also seems to have been connected theologically with a supposed predecessor of B 700 (see Ch. 2.7). In the early post-Twenty-Fifth Dynasty period B 700 seems to have housed the cult of Amun of Pnubs and, more significantly, functioned as a repository for the

134 The reconstruction of the Opet festival as celebrated from the time of Ramesses II onwards by Bell 1997 162 ff. is highly relevant for the hypothetical interpretation of B 504C as well as for the analysis of the connections between B 500 and the temple of Sanam (see Ch. 1.5 below). 135 Bell 1985a; Arnold 1992 128 f.-Cf. also the repository (room 14) of the deified Ramesses II opening, perpendicular to the temple axis, from the SW corner of the First Hypostyle of Ramesses Ill's Medinet Habu temple, D. Arnold: Barkenraum. IA I (1973) 625-626 626; R. Stadelmann: Medinet Habu. L;f III (1980) 1255-1271 1264. 136 For the evidence concerning the royal ka in Kush see Torok l 997a 277 ff., 286, 292, 295.

34

CHAPTER ONE

sacred barque of Amun of Napata who paid a visit there during the New Year festival (?). In the late 7th century BC Anlamani built two columned halls in the "south" part of palace B 1200, the smaller of which apparently contained a throne oriented towards B 800 and the great Amun temple. There was also access to the halls from the processional road leading to sanctuaries B 200, B 300, and B 1100. 137 The direction of this access was further accentuated by King Amanislo in the middle of the 3rd century BC when he placed the splendid lion statues of Amenhotep III transferred from Soleb at its sides. 138 Aspelta added a New Year's Hall to the palace, binding it with yet another ritual tie to the great Amun temple. 139 1.5. The theology

ef the

relationship between Napata and Sanam

The barque repository B 504C in the great Amun temple at Gebel Barkal discussed above or the barque stands from Wad ban Naqa indicate processional interconnections between Kushite temples. The actual theological character of these interconnections is hinted at only in general terms by the existence of these monuments. Thanks to the preserved relief fragments from Sanam Temple, we may form a more precise idea of the theological connections between two major sanctuaries, viz., the Sanam Temple and the great Amlin temple B 500 at Gebel Barkal. The importance of ancient Sanam was determined geographically by its situation at the end of the Wadi Abu Dom, the road connecting Upper Nubia with the Butana and with the interior of Africa,

137 The inscriptions on the jambs of the door connecting Hall 1234 with corridor 1237-1238-1239 and with the processional road refer to the coronation chapels pr wr (of Nekhbet, goddess of the White Crown) and pr nsr (of Wadjet, goddess of the Red Crown), Kendall n.d.a. Since the inscriptions are far too fragmentary, it remains undecided if the chapels were in the palace, or in the great Amfm temple, or, as Kendall suggests, in B 1100. The first-named possibility is seemingly supported by lines 37 f. of the Irike-Amannote inscription (FHN II No. 71) reporting that the king received the skullcap-crown in the pr-nsw, which usually designates the royal palace. However, the same term may also refer to a temple, as, e.g., in Horemheb's coronation text where it stands for the Luxor temple. See Gardiner 1953 25. 138 "Prudhoe lions", BM 1, 2, PM VII 212. 139 For the evidence discovered in 1996-1997 by the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston Sudan Mission see Kendall l 999a, n.d.a.

THE SACRED LANDSCAPE OF NUBIA

35

and politically and theologically by its Amun temple and royal residence.140 The Sanam Temple, dedicated to Amun, Bull of Nubia (Pl. VII), was built by Taharqo after the completion of the Kawa temple (Pl. IV). 141 It is frequently mentioned in Napatan texts as one of the important Amun sanctuaries which was, however, not included in the itinerary of the coronation journey as a scene of enthronement rites. 142 The 4th century BC Nastasene Stela mentions a place called Teqi (T-k3) 143 with a temple of Amun on the left bank at the end of the road on which Nastasene travelled from Meroe City to Napata. The place, which can be identified with Sanam, is described m the text of the Nastasene stela 144 as the great rplace1 , r the garden1, in which king Piye-Alara grew up.

It would thus, seem likely that Taharqo's Amun temple was built there because the site was considered to have been the birth-place of the dynasty founder. 145 The Amun-Re called "Bull of Nubia" was represented as a human-bodied and human-headed god wearing the double-feather crown 146 and perhaps also as a colossal cobra. 147 He

140 The latter was associated with monumental magazines where elephant tusks were discovered among the ruins by Griffith (1922 114-124 120). Cf. also R. Morkot: There Are No Elephants in Dongola: Notes On Nubian Ivory. Actes de la VIII' Coeference Intemational.e des Etudes Nubiennes Lill.e 11-17 Septembre 1994. III. Etudes (CRIPEL 17). Lille 1998 147-154 151. 141 For the building history of the two temples see Wolf 1990 162 f. 142 See especially the Enthronement Stela of Anlamani from Kawa (late 7th century BC, FHN I No. 34 lines 24 f.) and the Adoption Stela of Aspelta from Sanam (end of the 7th century BC, FHNI No. 39 passim). For the supposed place of Sanam in the governmental structure see Torok 1997a 249 ff. 143 Schafer 1901 73, 74 locates it at Nuri, which is impossible on account of the route. 144 FHN II No. 84 line 8. 145 But it is also imaginable that the memory of Alara was associated with Sanam temple because the Amlin worshipped there, as we shall see, was associated with Kamutef as a primeval god, ancestor of Amlin of Napata as well as with the mortuary cult of the deified royal ancestors.-The first formulation of the legend of the covenant of Alara with Amlin, i.e., of the foundation of the dynasty, is preserved in Taharqo's inscriptions Kawa IV (FHNI No. 21 lines 16-20) and VI (FHNI No. 24 lines 23-24), cf. Chs 4.1.3, 4.2.1.5. 146 In relief: Aspelta's Adoption Stela, Junette, Schafer 1895 PL IV; Sanam Temple: Griffith 1922 111 f., PL XLVIII/2; in the round: OAM 1922.157, E.R. Russmann: Two Royal Heads of the Late Period in Brooklyn. 1he Brooklyn Museum Annual 10 (1968-1969) 87-108 106 f.; Wenig 1978 Cat. 84. 147 Cf. the fragments of two granite cobra statues found by Griffith (1922 87, PL XIV) in secondary position.

36

CHAPTER ONE

displays features of the Amun-Kamutef worshipped in the Small Temple at Medinet Habu. The identification of Kamutef, "Bull-ofHis-Mother", with the Bull of Nubia is apparently also supported by an incompletely preserved inscription on a New Kingdom statue re-erected in the Sanam temple, viz., the fragment of a royal eulogy, which read originally "beloved of Kamutef" and which was recarved in the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty Period (or later?) into "beloved of the Bull of Nubia". 148 Emphasizing the fact that Shabaqo 149 as well as Taharqo 150 carried out works in the Small Temple and that the latter also erected a granite statue of Amun-Re Kamutef in the form of a cobra in the Luxor temple, 151 it may suffice to mention here only one or two relevant features of the Amun cult at Medinet Habu. The Amun of the Small Temple was identified with the Kamutef serpent, also known as "the Great Ba of Osiris" who was forefather of the Ogdoad, i.e., the eight primeval creator gods of Hermopolis and father of the "Earth-Maker" serpent, the actual creator of the world, who, in turn, was also identified with Amun of Luxor. During the course of the Decade Festival, into which also Taharqo's Edifice by the Sacred Lake of Karnak was integrated, 152 Amun of Luxor visited every ten days the Small Temple as the mythological tomb of Kamutef and the Ogdoad. During the course of these visits Amun "fashioned himself", "was regenerated by merging with his own primordial form, the chthonic Amun manifest in a wondrous serpent", the Kamutef. 153 Subsequently, by performing mortuary services, he was assimilated into the Ogdoad and appeared as "Amun of Luxor the second" also called "Horus son of Isis" who resided at Medinet Habu apparently to initiate the cycle again and again. Thus, the Medinet Habu cult not only integrated Amun into the mortuary religion of Western Thebes: during the Decade Festival Amun of Luxor was also regenerated and the king received new creative powers. 154

148 149 150 151

52 ff.

Griffith 1922 87, Pl. XVI/3, 4. Pylon, PM VII 464 f.; Leclant 1965 145 ff. Leclant 1965 145 ff. M. el Saghir: Das Statuenversteck im Luxortempel. Mainz 1992 (2nd edn. 1996)

Parker - Leclant - Goyon 1979 82 ff. Bell 1997 177 f. 154 In this summary description I followed Murnane 1980 76 f. and Bell 1997 177 f. For Kamutef and the king see H. Jacobsohn: Die dogmatische Stellung des Kb'nigs in der Iheologie der alten A°gypter. Gli.ickstadt 1939 (2nd edn. 1955). 152

153

THE SACRED LANDSCAPE OF NUBIA

37

The Sanam temple is oriented towards the Nile, which in itself is quite natural. In terms of the actual geographical setting, however, the temple stands on the local west bank and is oriented towards the great Arm1n temple at Napata on the local east bank. The connection of the two temples with each other is clearly indicated on a theological level by the Kamutef aspect of the Bull of Nubia. On a ritual level it is attested by the iconographic program of the side front reliefs at Sanam. Traditionally, the reliefs on the outer walls of a temple summarized the most important features of the local cult of the deity (deities) residing in the temple, presenting cult images for popular worship, 155 and visualising certain basic aspects of the god-king relationship. Some outer temple wall reliefs depicted wars in a, more or less, historical style, or represented, in a, more or less, generalising manner, certain cult acts connected to the actual temple, as, e.g., offerings 156 or festival processions. 157 Though the multi-registered reliefs of the Sanam side fronts survive mostly on fallen blocks and only small sections of walls were found standing, this much can be established: Their program centered around barque processions on the river and the land and also included offering procession scenes. 158 All fallen blocks were decorated with sunk relief. Thus, some might have come from the interior of the First Court as well. This is, however, very unlikely not only because Griffith did not hesitate to associate all of the blocks referred to below with the "north" and "south" temple fronts, but also because they fit into iconographic contexts, parts of which have been found in situ. The "north" front reliefs represented the journey to, and arrival at Sanam of the barques of Amlin of Napata, 159 Mut (fig. 23) and C£ Guglielmi 1994 55 ff. C£ B. Haring: Die Opferprozessionsszenen in Medinet Habu und Abydos. in: Kurth (ed.) 1995 73-89. 157 See, e.g., the Opet Festival representation on the east front of Ramesses Ill's (barque) temple in the Forecourt of the Karnak temple, PM II 34 (121); OIP 35 Pl. 84, which may have been one of the iconographical models of the Sanam reliefs. It was suggested earlier that the Sanam reliefs actually represented "a Kushite variant" of the Opet Festival: E. Terrace: Three Egyptian Bronzes. BMFA 52 (1959) 48-53. 158 For the list of the fragments published in drawings and/or descriptions by Griffith 1922 see below. 159 Identified by the aegis on its prow in Griffith 1922 Pl. XXV /2. For the curved horn of the ram cf. the representation of Amun of Napata on the S jamb of the door in the first pylon ofTaharqo's Temple Tat Kawa, Macadam 1955 Pl. XXIII/a. 155

156

38

CHAPTER ONE

Khonsu. The barques, accompanied by the army, are received in a landscape setting in front of the Sanam temple by the priesthood, King Taharqo, Queen Mother Abar, the court and a crowd (?). 160 The divine barques were represented in at least two separate scenes. 161 Only small fragments have survived from the "south" front reliefs. These come from riverside scenes with barques. Two relief fragments include the prow of Amun's barque while on another fragment we see men towing a barque (?) as well as a swelling sail. 162 These scenes were followed by procession scenes including draped dancing figures. 163 It would thus seem that while the "north" front reliefs depicted the celebration of the arrival of the sacred barques of the divine triad of Napata, the "south" front reliefs represented their departure. The boats carrying the sacred barques travelled downstream from Napata. Their voyage was also facilitated by the prevailing northeast wind.

160 In situ between the First Pylon and door to Court: Griffith 1922 93-100, PL XXIV I 1-2-5-3 (bottom register: boats, second register: mule carts, trees); between door to Court and Second Pylon: PL XXIV /4 (second register: mule cart), 6 (bottom register: landscape with hills?); between Second Pylon and door to Hypostyle: PL XXV /I (offerings and offering procession); between door to Hypostyle and end of the wall: PL XXV /2 (Amfm barque, preceded by priest with open papyrus scroll, receiving censing from another priest; trees in front of sanctuary?).-Fallen blocks: Pis XXVII/ 1 (Amlin barque carried by priests and preceded by lector priest with open papyrus scroll; the barque is approached by censing priest); XXVII/2 (barque of Mut [?] carried by priests, two fragments); Pis XXVIll-XXIX (fragments from three registers of priests, musicians, and dancing priestesses receiving the sacred barques; they are led by Taharqo whose figure is lost and by Queen Abar who is identified by her cartouche); PL XXX (walking priests and prostrating men receiving the barques in a landscape setting); PL XXXI (military escort arriving and figures greeting the barques [?] in a riverside setting); procession of mule-driven four- and six-wheeled carts and two-wheeled chariots); PL X:XXIII (procession of soldiers riding mules); PL X:XXIV (temple pylons in landscape setting; mules driven in direction opposite to that of the arriving processions).-Fragments illustrated in Griffith 1922 Pis XXVIl/l, XXXIIl/l, 2: OAM 1922.153-6; in XXVII/2, XXVIII/C I, XXIX/2 upper, XXXII/l, XXXIIl/3, 7: Berlin Agyptisches Museum 7878-84. Cf. PM VII 201 f. (36)-(37).-The Berlin pieces were destroyed in the Second World War, cf. A. Lohwasser: Die Funde aus Sanam. aMun 112 (1999) 4-7, with photograph of the relief reproduced in Griffith 1922 PL XXXIII/ 3 (erroneously as from the interior of the Hypostyle). 161 On blocks discovered in situ in the wall between the hypostyle door and the sanctuary end of the wall: Griffith 1922 PL XXV /2; on fallen blocks: PL XXVII/ I, 2. 162 Griffith 1922 PL XXVl/2, 3, I and 4.-Above the latter scene fragments, Griffith observed fragments from a register with chariots: Griffith 1922 96. 163 Between the E end of the wall and the door to the Hypostyle: Griffith 1922 PL XXVl/2--3-1-4 (?); for the not illustrated procession scenes: ibid. 96.

THE SACRED LANDSCAPE OF NUBIA

39

The voyage back was more difficult: the boats, if a rare southwesterly wind did not fill their sails, had to be towed upstream. 164 The theological and ritual interconnections between the great Amun temple at Napata and the Sanam temple may also provide an explanation for the transfer of the royal burial ground from el Kurru on the "east" bank to Nuri on the "west" bank. Nuri is situated in a distance of c. 12 km above Sanam. While it remains obscure, why this place exactly was selected for the cemetery, 165 it is worth noting that the Sanam-Nuri distance is roughly the same as that between N apata and el Kurru. As determined by the Egyptian theological model previously discussed here, the building of the temple at Sanam must have been conceived concurrently with the plan of a new royal cemetery associated with it on the "west" bank. Similarly to the Amun temple at Medinet Habu, the Sanam temple was also associated with the royal mortuary cult as suggested by the shawabti figures (including a large faience shabti of Aspelta's wife Queen Makmalo) and the moulds for royal shawabti discovered in the temple 166 (for this issue see also Ch. 2.5). Further arguments for the association of the Sanam temple with the great Amun Temple B 500 at Gebel Barkal will be presented in Ch. 2.4.13, where I shall try to demonstrate that the iconography of the reliefs of the Aspelta Shrine in Sanam contains further references to the visit of Amun of Napata in Sanam.

164 The placing of the representation of the arrival of the Napatan triad on the "north", and its departure on the "south" front seems to have been motivated by the geographical relationship between Sanam and Napata.-The association of the "north'', right, half of the temple with Amlin of Napata (see Ch. 2.5) is in contradiction with the geographical reality, which rather determined the association of the "south", left, half of Sanam temple with the god of Pure-mountain. This division of the temple may perhaps be explained by the decoration on its outer "western" wall, the reliefs of which functioned as a sort of Gegente:mpel and represented in a double scene the king before Amlin of Sanam and Amlin of Napata. Logically, Amlin of Napata looks from the "south" towards the "north", which determines his place on the "northern" half of the rear wall. 165 According to a recent suggestion by Kendall (n.d.b), the site of Nuri was selected for Taharqo's pyramid because, if watched from the summit of Pure-mountain, on New Year's Day the sun rose over Taharqo's burial place in the 660s BC. This interesting explanation does not contradict the hypothesis presented here; the question emerges, however, why was a place selected the significance of which could only be perceived from the top of Pure-mountain? On the other hand, visibility is not an absolutely necessary criterium of interrelationships within a sacred landscape. 166 Griffith 1922 87 ff., Pis XVIl/1-4, XVIIl/l-2.

CHAPTER TWO

ICONOGRAPHY AND ORDER IN THE WORLD

2.1. The grammar

ef the

Kushite temple

When we assume that the Kushites adopted the ancient Egyptian interpretation of the cult temple as the image of the world and shaped their sanctuaries to represent the fulfilment of m3't, 1 we argue not only on the basis of architectural similarities between Egyptian and Nubian temples. Other essential similarities may also be noted. The Kushite temple, with its sloping floor, was built to visualize the primeval mound. Furthermore, its relief decoration was, as in Egypt, composed to describe the worship of the gods by the ruler. Temple decoration was, however, not a mere depiction of the ritual acts that were performed in the temple but also magically supported the maintenance of cosmic order. The composition of the individual relief scenes and the manner in which they were connected to each other as elementary "hieroglyphs" of a meaningful visual "text", derived from Egyptian traditions. In spite of their identical general meaning and functions in the life of society (see Ch. 3) and their dependence on Egyptian models, the Kushite temples stand nevertheless conspicuously apart from contemporary Egyptian temples. Their departure from Egyptian norms was frequently, and erroneously, viewed in the earlier literature as a consequence of the Kushites' imperfect understanding of Egyptian religion and religious imagery. But why should we refrain from trying to understand these deviations as determined by different concepts, or by a different accentuation of Egyptian concepts? For the latter possibility, I mention here the case of the Amun temple at Naqa (Ch. 2.15, figs 7, 10, 11). Built at the foot of Gebel Naqa, it symbolized the creation of

1 For the concept of mJ't, Order, Truth, Justice in the cosmos and the world see especially Assmann 1990; for the temple as symbol and representation see, with literature, J.-C. Golvin - J.-C. Goyon: Les batisseurs de Karnak. Paris 1987 28 ff.; Arnold 1992 40 ff.; Assmann l 992a.

ICONOGRAPHY AND ORDER IN THE WORLD

41

the world, exploiting the chance presented by a natural slope which could help visualize the primeval mound in a more dramatic and obvious manner than the slight slope of the Egyptian temple floor (which remained invisible to those who were not allowed to enter the inner rooms). In all probability, the situation of the Naqa temple was, however, co-determined by the closeness of Gebel Naqa as a sacred place in its own right. The twofold symbolism of the temple built on a slope to visualize the primeval hill and associated at the same time with a mountain carrying an independent cult tradition indicates a way of thinking which we also may detect in the iconography of the Naqa temple as well as in the decoration of other, earlier, Kushite sanctuaries. In the following pages we shall discuss the iconographic programs of some better-preserved temples in order to identify the various ways in which Egyptian iconographic types were adopted and re-formulated to articulate Kushite religious concepts. The reliefs of these temples will also be analysed as pictorial documents of a discourse on order in the cosmos and the world as it was currently re-formulated during the course of the centuries between the 8th century BC and the AD 1st century. The principal concern of the following investigation is the context of the relief scenes within an individual room and within the whole of the temple. In accordance with the original models of Kushite temple iconography, the individual scenes were formulated to carry individual meanings. The individual scenes fitted, at the same time, into more than one single context. Representations of isolated episodes of temple foundation, construction and dedication rites, of royal investiture, daily cults, offering rites and temple festivals could stand in one temple for the whole of these complex ritual performances. In another temple, the same themes could be represented in the form of a more complete cycle. Each scene was also symbolic of complex religious concepts. The individual scenes presented theological discourses in an abbreviated form on the god(s) depicted in them. Primarily, however, they were canonically associated with the cult functions of a particular room within the temple. In their concrete association with a certain room and with certain rites, the scenes supported the cult. 2 Yet, while the connections between the function of a room and its decoration are rather obvious, it is hard

2

For the Egyptian temple cf. Arnold 1962.

42

CHAPTER TWO

to decide whether the relief scenes also concretely defined the place of actual cult acts. In his analysis of the Apedemak temple at Musawwarat es Sufra, Steffen Wenig suggested that the interior scenes reflect the actual Kultablauf or cult process where the individual rites were performed before individual reliefs on the temple walls and columns. The meandering routes presented by him as alternative reconstructions of the sequence of rites 3 contradict the principle posited by other scholars according to whom it is impossible to imagine a zigzagging ritual procession. 4 While the problem of the "practical" topographic connection between a relief scene and the performance of a ritual act cannot be resolved here, 5 it will be demonstrated in the following that the individual elements within an iconographic program were indeed correlated with each other as episodes in a ritual sequence, as parts of a theological discourse relating to the deity or deities worshipped in the actual temple, and as parts of a more comprehensive discourse on Order (mft). The correlations were established with the help of certain canonical principles of composition. These principles constitute a "grammar of the temple". 6 Wenig 1993 149 ff. Gundlach 1985. 5 The issue of narrative reliefs cannot be raised here, either. Cf. G.A. Gaballa: Narrative in Egyptian Art. Mainz 1976; for the relationship between narrative text and narrative relief in Egypt cf. H.G. Fischer: L'ecriture et l'art de l'Egypte ancienne: quatres lefons sur la pateographie et l'epigraphie pharaoniques. Paris 1986. 6 Cf. M. Alliot: Le culte d'Horus a Edju au temps des Ptolbnees (Bibliotheque d'Etude 20). Le Caire 1954; H.W. Fairman: Worship and Festivals in An Egyptian T ernple (reprinted from the Bulletin of the John Rylands Library 37.1). Manchester 1954; Christophe 1955; S. Sauneron: Qyatre campagnes a Esna (Esna I). Le Caire 1959; P. Derchain: Un manuel de geographie liturgique a Edfu. CdE 3 7 (1962) 31-63 (introducing the term "grammaire du temple"); Arnold 1962; Winter 1968; E. Winter: Zwei Beobachtungen zur Formung der agyptischen Tempelreliefs der griechisch-romischen Zeit. in: Religions en Egypte hellenistique et romaine, Colloque de Strasbourg 16-18 Mai 1967. Paris 1969 119-125; D. Kurth: Die Dekoration der Sau/en im Pronaos des T ernpels von Edfu. Wiesbaden 1983; S. Cauville: La theologie d'Osiris a Edfu (Bibliotheque d'Etude 91 ). Le Caire 1983; ead.: Une regle de la «grammaire» du temple. BIFAO 83 (1983) 51-84; ead.: Essai sur la theologie du temple d'Horus a Edju (Bibliotheque d'Etude 102). Le Caire 1987; Gundlach 1985; E. Winter: Weitere Beobachtungen zur 'grammaire du temple' in der griechisch-romischen Zeit. in: W. Heick (ed.): Tempel und Kutt. (A"g;yptologische Abhandlungen 46). Wiesbaden 1987 61-76; E. Vassilika: Ptolemaic Philae. Louvain 1989 7 £; Pantalacci - Traunecker 1990; M.-T. Derchain-Urtel: Die Bild- und Textgestaltung in Esna-eine 'Rettungsaktion'. in: U. Verhoeven - E. Graefe (eds): Religion und Philo sophie im a/ten Agypten: Festgabe far Philippe Derchain. Louvain 1991 10 7-121; Arnold 1992 40 ff.; Kurth 1994 23-65; Loeben 1995; Finnestad 1997; J. Osing: Zur Dekoration der Saulen an Prozessionswegen des Amonre. MDAIK 53 (1997) 227-232; 3

4

ICONOGRAPHY AND ORDER IN THE WORLD

43

In the investigation of the "grammar" of the Egyptian temple, the Randzeilen, i.e., the inscriptions 7 accompanying the figures of the relief scenes, play a key role. 8 Due to the bad quality of the Nubian sandstone from which the temples of the Middle Nile Valley were built, the Randzeilen are destroyed or only fragmentarily preserved in the majority of the Kushite temples. Without the Randzeilen, important details of the iconographic programs remain obscure. The loss of the scene legends is all the more regrettable in that fragments of Randzeilen and door jamb inscriptions which are preserved, e.g., in Temple T of Taharqo at Kawa, demonstrate that the subtleties characterising the integration of iconography and text in Egypt were also known in Kush. E.g., at Kawa, signs within the same inscription may change in direction: names repeatedly face in the same direction as the figure of the deity to whom they refer, 9 and on the jambs of the door leading to the Pronaos, the king's names look towards the interior, while the name of Amfm of Kawa faces out from his sanctuary. 10 F1uted or smooth (coated and painted?) column shafts were inscribed in the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty temples at Kawa and Gebel Barkal according to the Egyptian tradition with one or two vertical text bands consisting of a royal titulary and eulogy and, occasionally, an invocation of the deity to whom the actual temple was dedicated. 11

Traunecker 1997b; and cf. also D. Kurth: The Present State of Research into Graeco-Roman Temples. in: Quirke (ed.) 1997 152-158; Refai 2000.-For the perspectives of complex iconographic analysis cf. also J. Lustig: Kingship, Gender and Age in Middle Kingdom Tomb Scenes and Texts. in: J. Lustig (ed.): Anthropology and Egyptology. A Developing Dialogue. Sheffield 1997 43-65.-Arnold 1999 presents a splendid architectural catalogue of Twenty-Fifth Dynasty to Roman sanctuaries (excluding, however, Kush) and also provides an overview of sacred building forms emerging in the Late Period. However, he does not discuss the contexts of architecture, relief, inscription, and cult in the individual temples. 7 Also referred to as "divine legends" and "royal legends". 8 The significance of vertical interconnections in Ptolemaic temples was investigated with the help of the scene legends (Randzeilen) by Winter 1968. See also E. Winter: Weitere Beobachtungen zur "grammaire du temple" in der griechischromischen Zeit. in: W. Heick (ed.): Tempel und Kult. Wiesbaden 1987 61-76; Kurth 1994 52 ff. 9 Name of Amlin: Macadam 1955 Pl. X/b, forecourt south wall, first column of text before the god; XIX/b, pronaos, south wall, in text column between Taharqo and Amlin of Thebes; XX/ c, room E, north wall, text column between king and Amlin; XXI/b, room D, between king and Amlin. 10 Macadam 1955 93, Pl. XV/d, e.-Cf. Kurth 1994 40 f. 11 This type of inscribed column is more common in New Kingdom Nubia than

44

CHAPTER TWO

We shall see in Ch. 2.2.2.1 that the column abaci in Piye's hall B 502 in the great Amlin temple at Gebel Barkal were also inscribed in the manner of New Kingdom column abaci. It is important to note that the abacus inscriptions of B 502 present a more complex program than their New Kingdom models. 12 Rand;;:,eilen also occur together with representations on the columns of Aspelta's New Year Hall in Palace B 1200 at Gebel Barkal. 13 While it cannot be determined whether the column inscription remains from the Apedemak temple at Musawwarat es Sufra were real Rand;;:,eilen (fig. 33), 14 it is interesting to note that in the Amlin temples of Naqa 15 and Amara 16 the Meroitic column inscriptions are not real Rand;;:,eilen since, instead of being connected to the column scenes, they contain an invocation of the Amlin worshipped in the actual temple and a phrase referring to the royal family (cf. Chs 2 .15-16). The principles of composition observed in studies on the "grammar" of the Egyptian temple, viz., the symmetrical, diagonal and chiastic associations between scenes placed on different walls and on the columns of a room, further the horizontal and vertical associations between scenes placed on the same wall or on the same column, can also be identified in Kushite temples. Similarly to the Egyptian temple, the Kushite temple consists of two symmetrical halves along the longitudinal axis. Of particular conceptual significance is the equilibrium between these two halves of the temple. The equilibrium of the cosmos is symbolised by symmetrical correspondences or, even more interesting, by the presence (in the form of complete representations, epithets, or attributes) of deities belonging to the right half of the temple in its left half and vica versa. Badly affected by being abandoned and by the effects of time and climate, incompletely excavated and published, the temples built and adorned by the kings of Kush nevertheless present ample evidence of a sophisticated syncretistic theology. They give us an idea of the

in Egypt, cf. Macadam 1955 32 ff. (on Tutankhamiln's columns in Kawa, Temple A). For Shabaqo's columns in Kawa, Temple B see ibid. 46 ff. and below Ch. 2.6.2; for Taharqo's columns in Temple T see Macadam 1955 81-83. 12 For New Kingdom examples see Christophe 1955 47, 63; H. Brunner: Die siidlichen Riiume des Tempels von Luxor. Mainz 1977 71; Kurth 1983 341 ff. 13 Kendall n.d.a. 14 Column 4, illegible, Hintze et al. 1971 PL 89, here fig. 33. 15 REM 0033, 0034. 16 REM 0084A-D.

ICONOGRAPHY AND ORDER IN THE WORLD

45

manner in which iconographic programs were conceived in Nubia.17 Investigations concerning the metrology of Kushite temples 18 have demonstrated the existence of architectural planning comparable to, and also influenced by, Egyptian practice. Three architectural designs from the Meroitic period, one for the pyramid of King Amanikhabale (AD 1st century) at Meroe, 19 and two for hauses in a Lower Nubian village, also attest the preparation of architectural drawings. Furthermore, a first century BC Meroitic jar from Kerma is decorated with a remarkable graffito incised in two steps. First a pit grave substructure was represented whose depth is indicated by lines around the pit; subsequently, on the drawing of the pit the ground plan of a pyramid superstructure with an enclosure in front was precisely superimposed. In the entrance of the enclosure an offering table is represented. 20 There can be no doubt that the planning as well as the execution of the intricately designed iconographic programs

17 For the Egyptian practice see Kurth 1994 23 ff.-The direction of the figures in the reliefs will not be indicated separately in the following, because the traditional directions of the figures in Egyptian temple reliefs: viz., the ruler (in Kush also the queen and the crown prince as participants in cult acts) turns/proceeds towards the interior of the temple; the deities turn towards the entrance of the temple, were strictly observed in the Kushite temples as well. There are special reasons for the rare exceptions: for Piye's representations in B 502 at Gebel Barkal and on his Great Triumphal Stela see Ch. 2.2.2. l; for Taharqo turning towards the temple entrance in the Hypostyle of Temple T at Kawa see Ch. 2.4.6; for the deities facing the naos in Temple Fat Naqa and in Chapel M 292 at Meroe City see Chs 1.4 and 2.12 and Torok 1997b 149 f. 18 F.W. Hinkel: Pyramide oder Pyrarnidenstumpf? Ein Beitrag zu Fragen der Planung, konstruktiven Baudurchfiihrung und Architektur der Pyramiden von Meroe (Teil A). ,('AS 108 (1981) 105-124; id.: Pyramide oder Pyramidenstumpf? Ein Beitrag zu Fragen der Planung, konstruktiven Baudurchfiihrung und Architektur der Pyramiden von Meroe (Teil B, C, D). ,('AS 109 (1982) 27-61, 127-147; id.: Die meroitischen Pyramiden: Formen, Kriterien und Bauweisen. Meroitica 7 (1984) 310-331; id.: Gedanken und Bermerkungen zum Thema "Meroitische Architektur". Meroitica 7 (1984) 290-309; id.: Oberlegungen zur Bausubstanz, Architektur und Funktion des Gebiiudes Meroe 245. AoF 12 (1985) 216-232; id.: Siiule und lnterkolumnium in der meroitischen Architektur. Metrologische Vorstudien zu einer Klassifikation der Bauwerke. Meroitica 10 (1988) 231-267; Hinkel 1997. 19 F.W. Hinkel: Pyramide oder Pyramidenstumpf? Ein Beitrag zu Fragen der Planung, konstruktiven Baudurchfiihrung und Architektur der Pyramiden von Meroe (Teil A). ,('AS 108 105-124 fig. 4; Torok 1997a fig. 26. 2° For the house plans see J. Jacquet: Remarques sur l'architecture domestique a l'epoque meroi:tique. Documents recueillis sur les fouilles d'Ash-Shaukan. Beitriige ;;,ur A"gyptischen Baeforschung 12 (1971) 121-131 PL 20/3a, 4b. For the Kerma vessel see C. Bonnet: Les fouilles archeologiques de Kerma (Soudan). Gen(JJ)a 28 (1980) 31-62 59, figs 28, 29.

46

CHAPTER 'IWO

required some sort of graphic plans; such plans are, however, unknown so far from Kush. 21 In the following reference to the individual rooms of a multiroomed temple will be made with terms used for the description of Egyptian temples and assuming that, in general terms, the functions of the principal rooms of the Kushite temples did not basically differ from the Egyptian temples. Comparison between the Kushite relief programs and the Egyptian traditions in terms of the context of the relief with the room function will, however, show us that there were also significant differences between the Egyptian and the Kushite temples. The possibility that the iconography of the Kushite temples may reflect indigenous developments as well was not considered by Dieter Arnold in his pioneering book. He regarded Taharqo's Kawa Temple T as a product of a period when the traditional canons of the New Kingdom had already disintegrated, explaining its "anomalies" as symptoms of a general process in Egyptian temple architecture. 22 In the following, I shall try to show that the differences in question reflect different concepts and meaningful deviations from the Egyptian norms rather than gaps in their knowledge. Returning to the terminology, the forecourt, an open hypaethral court, was the scene of festivals and individual ceremonies attended by the people. 23 The hypostyle was a columned hall entered from the forecourt (forecourt and hypostyle could be united within the same hall as in B 502 at Napata, see Ch. 2.2.2.1). Besides other rites, the hypostyle was chiefly the scene of the appearance of the processional image of the deity dwelling in the temple as it emerged from the sanctuary in his divine barque as well as of the oracular "election" of the ruler by the god and his public appearance as king after the rites of enthronement performed in the secrecy of the sanctuary. 24 In the late (Meroitic) Amlin temple at Meroe City the centre of the hypostyle was occupied by a shallow square basin enclosed by light

21 For the meagre Egyptian evidence (designs for a ritual scene in the Edfu temple [on an ostracon] and for a door in an unidentified temple [on papyrus]) see Kurth 1994 65, 334. 22 Arnold 1962 55. 23 Arnold 1962 106 ff. 24 Arnold 1962 94 ff.; Torok 1997a 216 ff.-For the complex functions of the hypostyle of the Egyptian New Kingdom temples and their association with the ruler cf. Refai 2000 215 ff.

ICONOGRAPHY AND ORDER IN THE WORLD

47

screen walls (Pl. XX.VII). The structure may be identified as the place of the ruler's ritual purification. 25 Accessible only to the priesthood, the columned hall ef qfferings or hall ef the qffering tables, also termed the pronaos, was entered from the hypostyle. It was the scene of the daily offering rites. 26 In a number of temples as, e.g., the MutHathor-Tefnut temple B 300 at Napata (Ch. 2.3) or Taharqo's Amun temple at Kawa (Ch. 2.4), the hall of offerings communicates with the sanctuary or naos. Behind its closed doors stood on its stand the divine barque which contained the deity's processional image. 27 The naos was the dwelling place of the deity's "resting" image too. In some temples, such as the great Amun temple B 500 at Napata (Ch. 2.2), a columned barque room, presumably for the processional image 28 of the deity residing in the temple, opens from the hall of offerings. It gives access axially to another group of rooms. The latter may be described as a room complex consisting of room(s) of offerings, the sanctuary of the "resting" image of the deity, 29 treasuries, and other unidentified annexes. The existence of a processional and a "resting" cult image of the same deity in the temples is attested by a remarkable Meroitic period representation which will be discussed in Ch. 3.1. The existence of a "resting" and a processional image is attested in one-roomed sanctuaries, too. The same is true for "native" deities as well, as it is shown by the "throne" of the permanent image in the main axis of the Musawwarat es Sufra Apedemak temple and the separate stand for the processional image in the south-west corner of the temple, 30 or by the wall niche for the permanent image and the stand for the processional image in front of the niche in Temple Fat Naqa (Ch. 2.12). It remains obscure, however, in which rooms the cult images of the .rynnaoi, i.e., the deities with whom the deity to whom the actual temple was dedicated shared his/her house were kept. The foundations of the investigation of the grammar of the Nubian temples from the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty and the Meroitic period were

Torok 1997b 120 f., PL 89; cf. Ch. 3.5. Arnold 1962 42 ff. 27 Arnold 1962 24 ff. 28 On the distinction between the processional (b'i, "in appearance") and permament (~tp, "resting") images of the deities in Egypt cf. Romer 1994 135 ff. 29 Arnold 1962 7 ff., 1992 32. 30 Hintze et al. 1971 Pis 85, 87/c; K.-H. Priese in: Hintze et al. 1993 64; Wenig 1993 119. 25

26

48

CHAPTER TWO

laid down in Macadam's Kawa publication, 31 in Ingrid GamerWallert's book on the Naqa Apedemak temple, 32 and in a series of studies published by Steffen Wenig and Christian Onasch on the temples of Musawwarat es Sufra and by Steffen Wenig on Amara and Naqa. 33 2.2. The revival 2.2.1. The revival

ef the Amlin

ef New

Kingdom cults in Kush

cult at Napata

The earliest known Nubian document on the cult of the ram-headed Amun, a rock drawing at Kurgus, dates from the reign of Tuthmosis 1. 34 At Napata, this form of Amun appears first in the lunette scene of a stela from B 500 representing Tuthmosis III before the ram-headed deity. 35 Though securing Egyptian rule as far south as the Third Cataract region and symbolically marking Egypt's southern frontier between the Fourth and Fifth Cataracts with his Kurgus inscription, Tuthmosis I does not seem to have occupied the Gebel Barkal area. The foundation of the Amun temple of Napata (Pl. I) probably occurred only in the reign of Tuthmosis III, the conqueror of Upper Nubia, and builder of the fortress of Napata. In Ch. 1.2 we have discussed the Amun worshipped there. Here we turn to the discussion of the cult place of this god. The nuclear Amun temple took shape during the period between the reigns of Tuthmosis III and Ramesses II. 36 By the reign of the latter ruler, it consisted of the (Second) Pylon, hypostyle court B 502 (?), the Third Pylon and a hall of offerings with annexes (B 503 + Macadam 1955. Gamer-Wallert 1983; c£ Gamer-Wallert - Zibelius 1983; Zibelius 1983. 33 Wenig 1977; 1981; 1987; 1993 and see also the fundamental studies of C. Onasch: Onasch 1990; 1993; C. Onasch: Kusch in der Sicht von Agyptem und Griechen. in: A"gypten und Kusch 331-336; id.: Zur Struktur der meroitischen Religion. Meroitica 7 (1984) 135-142. 34 Cf. Ch. 3.3 with note 165. 35 From the outer court B 501, Dunham 1970 43 no. 20-2-166, Pl. XLVII/H with representation of the king before striding ram-headed Amun wearing the double feather-crown.--Cf. also Goedicke 1992 52 ff., on the adoption of the curved horn in the royal headdress by Tuthmosis III and his successors as manifestation of the regency in the realm of the Nubian Amun worshipped in Napata. 36 Cf. PM VII 215 ff., 221.-According to Reisner 1917 218 f. the Tuthmosis III temple was destroyed by Amenhotep IVI Akhenaten, rebuilt by Tutankhamun or Horemheb, and enlarged by Seti I. 31

32

ICONOGRAPHY AND ORDER IN THE WORLD

49

504A-C), a pronaos (B 505-7), a naos complex (B 514, 516-19) and the "chapel" of Ramesses II (B 508A-B, 509A-B, 510-11 ). The cult life of the temple-and of the community of which it was the religious centre-may be followed until the late Ramessid period. 37 According to the archaeological finds made by Reisner and published so far, B 500 and the town itself too were abandoned when New Kingdom administration was withdrawn from Nubia and life started again in the temple and the town only in the period between Alara and Piye. Still, Reisner suggested that the cult in the temple was continuous from Ramesses IX to Piye. His suggestion was repeated by others as well. 38 Supposing a hiatus of more than three centuries, i.e., ten generations, it is indeed very difficult to explain, how and why the Napatan temple was reused for the cult of the same god after such a long period of abandonment. It is similarly enigmatic, how and why New Kingdom cults re-emerged in the early TwentyFifth Dynasty period in other places as well. As a paradigmatic example for the context of cultural continuity in parallel with political discontinuty and as a possible analogy, let me mention, however, the case of the household shrine of Meryka discovered in the Lower Nubian fortress of Askut. The shrine was established by an Egyptian expatriate family in the late Thirteenth Dynasty. For over 300 years-between c. 1700-1400 Be-it continued

37 The fragmentary statue (Kh. 1847, Dunham 1970 29, 32, Pl. 28/c-f) of the official Bakenwer (temp. Ramesses IX, 1125-1107 BC) from debris in B 500 and B 700 indicates the presence of Egyptian authority at Napata and the continuity of cult life in the Arm1n temple under Ramesses IX, unless it was brought to the temple in the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty period.-Egyptian regnal dates are in this book based on the conventional chronology. According to J. von Beckerath: Chronologi,e des iigyptischen Neuen R.eiches. Wiesbaden 1994 Ramesses IX reigned between 1123-1105 BC; according to Beckerath 1997 107 f. between 1125/1121-1107 /1103. 38 Reisner 1931 84. Dating the monuments of Aktisanes, Aryamani, Kash (... ), Irike-Piye-qo and Sabrakamani (cf. FHNII Nos [86]-88, [89], [90], 91, 92, [93]-[95], 96) to the period between the Egyptian withdrawal and the emergence of the el Kurru dynasty, H. Goedicke (Review of Dunham 1970, AJA 76 [1972] 89) and R. Morkot (1991 216 f.) indirectly support the same suggestion. In the terms of his "long chronology" of the el Kurru cemetery, this author (Torok 1997a 300 f.) supposes the Egyptianization of elite mortuary religion by c. 940-900 in the el KurruNapata area and thus the existence of an Egyptian-type sanctuary which theoretically may also have been B 500 itself. Kendall 1997 163 and 1999a suggests that B 500 was populated by Theban priests emigrating to Nubia during the Twenty-Third Dynasty. (For a similar view see P.L. Shinnie: Ancient Nubia. London-New York 1996; for arguments against Shinnie's suggestion see R. Morkot's review in Discussions in Egyptology 37 [1997] 133-141 138.)

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CHAPTER TWO

to be used by the same family which stayed on to serve the kings of Kerma, and then the re-conquering Eighteenth Dynasty pharaohs. The Egyptian shrine with the funerary stela of Meryka, venerated as an important ancestor as well as the family maintaining it, survived the sort of political changes which are usually regarded as causes for cultural change. It is also important to note that a Nubian fertility figurine found near the shrine also indicates a process of syncretisation in the realm of the personal piety of the Meryka family. 39 Less hypothetical clues are offered by the el Kurru burials of the ancestors of the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty. Before a comprehensive publication of Reisner's excavations and a re-evaluation of the finds from the earlier sections of the cemetery, we may understand, however, the mortuary religion of the ancestors of the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty only incompletely. 40 The tombs of Piye's predecessors 41 are nonEgyptian both as to their superstructures and subterranean parts. The treatment and position(s) of the bodies, as far as it may be established, reflect non-Egyptian traditions. The cemetery as a whole displays, however, a gradual process of change in which a "reEgyptianization" played a significant, or perhaps central, role. For the time being, while we are unable to reconstruct the native mortuary religion behind the non-Egyptian features, its "re-Egyptianization" is somewhat easier to comprehend. 42 The political motivation of this "re-Egyptianization" is obvious. The emerging el Kurru dynasty needed a power ideology in which ancestor cult, legitimacy, dynastic continuity and social hierarchy

39 For the Askut evidence see S.T. Smith: The House of Meryka at Askut and the Beginning of the New Kingdom in Nubia. in: G. Zaccone - T. di Negro (eds): Sesto congresso intemazionale di egittologi,a 2. Torino 1993 497-509; S.T. Smith 1997 74 f. 40 Dunham 1950; Kendall l 999a, l 999b; differently: Torok l 997a 88-91, 109-130. 41 According to Reisner and Dunham (cf. Dunham 1950), it was the burial place of six ruler generations including four nameless generations of chiefs, plus Alara and Kashta, and dating from the period c. 860-751 BC. Kendall similarly supposes six generations which he dates to the period between c. 890-747 BC. The present writer suggested a revision of the cemetery and its chronology regarding it as the burial place of twelve generations of nameless chiefs dated between c. 1020-780 BC + Alara and Kashta. My "long" chronology is questioned by Yellin 1995 245 and strongly contested by Kendall in Kendall l 999a and l 999b. 42 For the Egyptianization of Kushite mortuary religion as reflected by the el Kurru necropolis see Kendall 1999a; Yellin 1995; Torok 1997a 109 ff.-The first conspicuous changes indicating Egyptian funerary rites at el Kurru occur in Ku. Tum. 6 and Ku. 19, dated by Kendall to c. 865-825 BC, by Torok to c. 940-900 BC.

ICONOGRAPHY AND ORDER IN THE WORLD

51

were correlated in a form enabling their chiefdam, which was in a state of constant growth, to interact with Egypt in terms of equality. Egyptian mortuary religion offered an elementary view of political continuity and, at a more advanced stage in its development, it also presented an institutional model that proved extremely useful in the creation of a governmental structure. For, it cannot be forgotten that in Egypt in this period royal mortuary religion was closely associated with the temple cult of Amfm. 43 In clear terms, the re-emergence of the Amlin cult in Upper Nubia is attested first by the legend of Alara's covenant with Amlin. The legend refers to the times around c. 780 BC but its earliest preserved record dates from c. 685 BC (cf. Ch. 4.2.1.5). 44 In Napata, the first indication of the existence of the Amlin cult occurs in the titulary and name of Queen Pebatma (Paabtameri), sister of Alara and wife of Kashta, who was "Sistrum-Player of Amlin-Re, King of the Gods". Her "beautiful name", "She-Loves-Napata", 45 suggests that Pebatma was "ordained" as priestess in an Amlin sanctuary at Pure-mountain. Temple B 800, which seems to have been built by Alara or Kashta, 46 may perhaps be identified as this particular sanctuary, unless new data coming to light from B 500 attest the use of this latter temple too under the same rulers. Viewed in the context of the process leading to the unification of the native polities existing in the Middle Nile Region after the end of New Kingdom Egyptian domination, the "re-Egyptianization" of first the mortuary religion of the el Kurru chiefs and then of their ideology of rulership, the "conversion" of the Kushites to the Amlin

43

329.

Cf. R. Stadelmann: Totentempel iii. LdA VI (1985) 706-711; Torok 1997a

44 Taharqo's inscription Kawa IV lines 16 f. (FHN I No. 21). Cf. Torok 1997a 124 ff. 45 For the titulary: S. Wenig: Pabatma - Pekereslo - Pekartror. Ein Beitrag zur Friihgeschichte der Kuschiten. Meroitica 11 (1990) 333-352 335. Th.e "beautiful name" was read by H. de Meulenaere: Le sumom egyptien a la Basse Epoque. Istanbul 1966 7 no. I 7 as "She is loved in Abydos", for the reading preferred here see H. Schafer: Athiopische Prinzessinen. ~'AS 43 (1906) 48-50; Wenig op. cit. 335; A. Leahy: Kushite Monuments at Abydos. in: C. Eyre - L. Montagno Leahy (eds): The Unbroken Reed. Studies in the Culture and Heritage ef Ancient Egypt in Honour ef A.F. Shore. London 1994 171-192 182 with note 17. Lohwasser 1997 143 regards both readings as possible, but rejects the identification Pebatma = Paabtameri and, accepting that Pebatma was indeed the mother of Amonirdis I, suggests that, as also supposed by Leahy (op. cit. 187), Paabtameri was the mother of Shepenwepet II. 46 Cf. Reisner 1920 254; Torok 1997a 136 Table H.

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CHAPTER 'IWO

religion and the acceptance of the god as the (sole) source of power were thus, politically determined developments. 47 The special accents of the emerging Kushite Amlin cult point towards the Theban Amlin sanctuary as the most important articulator of the new political-cultural developments in Kush. The new myth of the state-which we first encounter in the legend of Alara's covenant-as well as the re-formulation of the Kushite concept of legitimacy, including the role of the queens, also have distinctly Theban accents. 48 By the middle of the 8th century BC, Kush became involved in the political struggles in Egypt. It is tempting to suppose that the Kushites were encouraged, and then influenced in this by Thebes. Thebes, however, was not the sole font of the knowledge necessary for the creation of a political power that was able to govern the entire Middle Nile Region. Acquainting the Kushites with the cultural behaviour of "archaism" emerging after the fall of the New Kingdom, the Theban priests of the 9th-8th centuries BC not only initiated a political and cultural integration process resulting in the double kingdom of the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty: they also turned the attention of the Kushites towards the past of the Nubian region itself. "Archaism" was characterised by an intellectual pragmatism, which was manifested in Kush by the reinterpretation of ancient native concepts 49 and by an increasing interest in the monuments of the Egyptian domination which were re-used, copied, excerpted and fitted into seemingly eclectic contexts with the aim of articulating the present as the embodiment of the ideal continuity with an ideal past that was created from a selection of normative elements. Though we almost completely ignore the decoration of the New Kingdom temples at Napata, it is certain that at least three of them, namely, the great Amlin temple B 500, the hemispeos of Mut B 300, and

47 Cf. Torok 1997a 109 ff., and, with different accents, Kendall 1997; Kendall 1999a. 48 Cf. Yellin 1995; Torok 1995 92 ff., 114 ff.; 1997a 189 ff.-For archaeological finds from el Kurru indicating contacts with Thebes as early as c. 865-825 BC (conventional chronology) or c. 920-900 BC ("long chronology"): L.A. Heidorn: Preliminary Analysis of Selected Vessels from the Earliest Tombs at el Kurru (Generations A-F). Pre-print of paper submitted at the Seventh International Corifi!rence for Meroitic Studies. Berlin 1992 6, 9; ead.: Historical Implications of the Pottery from the Earliest Tombs at El Kurru. ]ARCE 31 (1994) 115-131 122, figs 2/k-n, 3/a-j. 49 For the royal insignia and certain cults (which will be touched upon in the following pages as well) see Torok l 997a 195 ff.

ICONOGRAPHY AND ORDER IN THE WORLD

53

the hemispeos of Hathor-Tefnut B 20050 were restored by the TwentyFifth Dynasty to their original cults. This also presupposes the study and interpretation of their reliefs and texts. Besides signs of the reinterpretation of the theology of the deities worshipped in these temples, we also find obvious correspondences between their New Kingdom and Kushite iconographic formulations and epithets, suggesting that the "antiquarian" studies were also supported by surviving religious traditions in the local population. It is even more likely that the temple cults of Amun in New Kingdom Nubia integrated local native cults-at Napata the cult of a ram god dwelling in Pure-mountain and associated with water (see Ch. 1.2). Temple B 800, built by Alara and/or Kashta, seems to have copied the layout of New Kingdom B 500 and perhaps also substituted for it during their reign as a sanctuary of Amun of Napata. The royal titulary assumed by Piye at his ascent to the throne in c. 747 BC 51 already indicates a contact with B 500, composed as it was as a clever paraphrase of Tuthmosis Ill's titulary as it could be read on the latter's great stela standing in B 500. 52 When we try to understand the puzzling cultural process leading through a "de-Egyptianization" to a "re-Egyptianization", it must also be realized that both "de-Egyptianization" and "re-Egyptianization" are relative terms. While it seems that the indigenous chiefs who were incorporated into the administration of Egyptian Nubia received an Egyptian education, the original social stratification of the Nubian polities was left more or less intact. Their integration into the Egyptian redistributive system-which resulted in an Egyptianization of Nubian material culture-did not bring about a radical Egyptianization of private religiosity and mortuary religion. Even though we know next to nothing about the role played by the Egyptian temples in the religious life of the Nubian population, we know that important indigenous cults as those of the ram-gods of Napata, Kawa and Kerma/Pnubs were fused with the cult of the Theban Amun (see Ch. 1.2). Similar syncretistic developments may be suspected in other cases as well (on the Nubian lion god see Ch. 2.9). In the New

50 PM VII 208 (as temple of Amlin); for the actual cult see Kendall 1990 7; Wolf 1990 81 ff. 51 Cf. FHN I No. (5). 52 Urk. IV 1227-1242.

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CHAPTER TWO

Kingdom period, these developments favoured the connection between the temple cults and private religiosity, and afterwards they contributed to the survival of the Egyptian features of Egyptianized native deities. In turn, the survival of elements of the native societal structure and mortuary religion and the amalgamation of native cults with Egyptian religion also render the term "re-Egyptianization" relative. The temple cults emerging under Alara, Kashta, and their TwentyFifth Dynasty successors revived, instead of importing the Theban Arm1n cult in its 8th century BC form, the New Kingdom Amun cults together with their indigenous accents. Still, the process of revival, albeit an inner-directed Kushite political-cultural process and not a process forced upon Kush from outside, cannot be imagined without a Theban contribution. 53 Before continuing our review of the relationship between New Kingdom cults and Kushite religion (see Ch. 2.2.3), let us have a closer look at temple B 500 in the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty period. 2.2.2. 7he great Amun temple

ef Piye

and Taharqo at Napata

As far as it can be stated on the basis of data from Reisner's published excavations, 54 restoration works on the great Amun temple B 500 (Pl. I) may have already started under Alara or Kashta. Archaeological evidence is published, however, only from the early years of Piye's reign. Piye first restored the New Kingdom nucleus of the building, i.e., the room complex including Pylon III, hall B 503 with barque repository B 504C, Pylon IV, hall B 506, the chapel of Ramesses II (B 508A-5 l l) and the sanctuary + annexes B 514-519. 55 Communicating with hall B 506, a Re-Harakhte chapel

53 Kendall's (1999a 56 ff.) suggestion that the re-etablishment of the Amlin cult at Pure-mountain was the work of Theban priests who arrived as "political refugees" after the supression of their revolt against Takeloth II (for the Theban revolt and turmoils between year 11 and 24 of Takeloth, c. 839~823 Be, see R.A. Caminos: 1he Chronicle of Prince Osorkon. Rome 1958; Kitchen 1986 329 ff.) entirely ignores internal developments and is closely connected to the dating of the first "Egyptianizing" burials at el Kurru within Reisner's and Kendall's chronology. Cf. Kendall l 999a and Torok 1997a 89 ff., 109 ff. 54 Cf. Reisner 1917; 1931; Dunham 1970. 55 Cf. Reisner 1917 Pis XLI, XLIII, XLIV, XLVI; Reisner 1931 77; Dunham 1970 Plan V. The walls were cased in red sandstone and new lintels and architraves were added. See Reisner 1917 224 f.; Dunham 1970 Plan V.

ICONOGRAPHY AND ORDER IN THE WORLD

55

(B 520) dedicated to the sun-god Re in his morning- and day aspects, a solar manifestation of Arm1n, a deity associated with light, time and regency was added in the "north". 56 It became the model for the canonical Re-Harakhte chapels of Kushite Amun temples. 57 It was probably modelled, in turn, on an unroofed shrine type represented by the Re-Harakhte chapel opening from the north end of the terrace of the great rock temple of Abu Simbel. 58 2.2.2.1. Hall B 502 ef Prye B 502 (Pls I, II) had originally 72 columns in 6 rows of 12 and was at a later time remodelled with 46 columns so that the larger "western" half of the hall has 28 columns in 4 rows of 7 (court half) and the smaller "eastern" half 18 columns in 6 rows of 3 (hypostyle half). Reisner first supposed that the court of 72 columns was built by Ramesses II and altered by Piye. 59 According to Reisner's later reconstruction of the building history, the court was built first with 72

56 Reisner - Reisner 1933 plans opposite p. 76; Dunham 1970 Plan V.-It was presumed by Hofmann 1971 22 and Ali Hakem 1988 185 ff. that these chapels functioned as throne halls. However, the type was correctly identified by Karl-Heinz Priese (Priese 1974 222) as the chapel of Re-Harakhte, a suggestion also corroborated by an inscription in the analogous chapel in Taharqo's Kawa Amlin temple (cf. Ch. 2.4.9). Priese's suggestion is disregarded in the interesting study by Traunecker (1995), who suggests that these chapels in Taharqo's Nubian Amlin temples provided the architectural model for the wabet chapels of the Ptolemaic and Roman temples. Under the assumption that the Nubian chapels in question were the scene of enthronement rites, Traunecker also supposes functional connections referring to the association of the wabet with the New Year and royal cult. Eventual connections between the Nubian Re-Harakhte chapels and the wabet type discussed by Traunecker may, however, also be indicated by the association of the latter with the feast of "unification with the [solar] disc".-Arnold 1999 60 and 277 suggests that what Priese defined as the Re-Harakhte chapels of the Kushite temples may represent the transition between the New Kingdom solar courts and the lost examples of the Saite solar courts and they also may have been functional predecessors of the Ptolemaic wabet. Such an interpretation of the Kushite chapels is not supported, however, by the reliefs and inscriptions at Kawa, see Ch. 2.4.9. 57 In view of their similar layout and identical orientation, the chapels in the Amlin temples of Napata, Sanam, Kawa, Tabo, and the Meroitic Amlin temples at Meroe City and N aqa served closely related cult functions. Sanam: Griffith 1922 PL V D-E; Kawa: see below, Ch. 2.4.9; Tabo: Maystre 1986 fig. l; Meroe City: Torok l 997b fig. 24; for the recently discovered Re-Harakhte chapel with an altar on a podium at Naqa see Wildung - Schoske 1999 70-73. 58 Ramesses II, PM VII 99 (North Chapel); I. Badawy - J. Cerny et al.: Le Grand Temple d'Abou Simbel VI. Lachapelle de Re-Horakhty. Le Caire 1989; Torok 1997a 309 f. 59 Kendall 1990 19 refers to Reisner's diary entry from 19 February 1919.

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columns by Piye, but not long afteiwards, still in Piye's earlier reign before the Egyptian campaign of c. 728 Bc, 60 it was rebuilt with 46 columns, where the columns of the "western" court half were rebuilt from abaci and stones of the first building period. 61 While any detailed reconstruction of the building history remains hypothetical before new excavations are started in B 502, it is obvious that the royal titulary on the column abaci and some preserved fragments of relief scene legends 62 suggest a dating of the architecture as well as of the reliefs 63 to the early part of Piye's reign. 64 The reliefs recorded from the interior of B 502 may be placed in two different iconographic contexts. The "west" half of the court was decorated with battle- and triumphal scenes, 65 the "eastern" half with barque procession(s) and cult scenes. Supposing that the relief decoration was executed as part of the building (or rebuilding) of the court in Piye's early reign, I would connect the battle scenes on the inner faces of the Second Pylon and the "western" end of the "south" wall of the court66 with the expedition of Piye against (a) Delta power(s) in his fourth regnal year, i.e., around 744 BC, recorded in a stela from which now only small fragments survive. 67 While 6° For the early dating see Reisner's comments on Piye's titulary as occurring in B 502 in Reisner 1931 94 ff 61 Reisner 1931 77 f. 62 For the latter (consisting only of parts of Piye's titulary and, on the "south" side, the name of Queen Peksater) cf. Reisner 1931 94 f. 63 Kendall 1990 19 suggests that the major restoration of B 500 started after Piye's campaign of Year 21, because the reliefs of B 502 depict episodes of the campaign "in such a technically superior style as to suggest he now had access to Egyptian sculptors". This suggestion disregards the evidence of Piye's titulary which was altered as a consequence of the campaign: the names in B 502 belong to the pre-campaign, in B 501 to the post-campaign titulary. 64 The B 502 abacus names were wrongly dated by me to the period after the Egyptian campaign of Year 21 under the assumption that the epithet referring to Bastet reflects Piye's victory over Osorkon IV of Bubastis (see FHN I No. (5)). Reisner 1931 97 does not see such a connection and dates the names as they occur on the abaci to Piye's early reign. 65 Kendall (recently in l 999a 75) does not consider the possibility that these scenes may also be associated with a conflict before the campaign described in the Great Triumphal Stela. For such a possibility see below. 66 Recorded by Linant de Bellefonds, Wilkinson, Bankes and Lepsius in the nineteenth century (cf. Spalinger 1981 figs 3-5) and in J.H. Breasted's photographs taken in 1907 (now in the Oriental Institute, University of Chicago, cf. Spalinger 1981 fig. 2). The fragments surviving Reisner's excavation, who left the walls exposed to erosion by wind-blown sand, were documented by Kendall 1986 figs 9, 10. 67 FHN I No. 10. The enemy is described as (m)f' n p(J) TJ m~w, "army of the Land of the North". In Piye's Great Triumphal Stela (cf. Grima! 198la 248 f.)

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greatly relying upon New Kingdom iconographic models available in Lower Nubia, these reliefs also include forms of fighting (e.g., spearing of the enemy with a spear entering the foe's body almost vertically; mounted cavalrymen) which are unknown in New Kingdom war representations. 68 The interior face of the towers of the Second Pylon and the "western" end of the "south" wall were decorated with scenes in several relief registers (originally to a total height of c. 9-10 m; with the roof at a height of c. 11 m). 69 The inner face of the "south" pylon tower was decorated with the figure of the king with a prisoner and with scenes in five registers. The two top registers depicted battle scenes; in the register below, boats (presumably of the army sailing to Egypt) were represented. A broader relief band below these contained horse figures led by grooms; the bottom register shows figures of sacrificial oxen and offering stands. 70 The register showing horses led by grooms continued on the "south" wall. 71 From the "north" pylon tower two registers of battle scenes were recorded. Similarly to the inner face of the "south" tower, a monumental figure of Piye holding a captive was represented at the outer end of the wall. 72 It may thus be inferred that the "western" half (as far east as the transversal axis marked by the "north" and "south" doors) of B 502 was decorated, according to the tradition originating in the iconographic program of Ramessid forecourts, 73 with historic battle scenes and symbolic images of the king as conqueror and universal ruler. Remarkably enough, Piye's triumphant army is shown moving from the outer ends of the walls towards the door. The monumental

from c. 728 BC (FHNI No. 9), lines 17 ff., 19 ff., 107, 110, 113, 149, "Land of the North" refers to Tefnakht's Kingdom of the West and his allies. Cf. Tiiriik 1997a 155 f.-Spalinger (1981 49 ff.), though accepting Reisner's dating of the reliefs to Piye's early reign, cannot decide whether the reliefs refer to the great expedition or to other military expeditions before or after (!) that date. He also sees a similarity between the helmet of the vanquished enemy in the B 502 reliefs and the helmet type worn by the Assyrian army between Tiglathpileser III (744-727 Bc) and Sennacherib (705-681 BC). Though also repeated by D.B. Redford: Egypt, Canaan, and Israel in Ancient Times. Princeton 1992 356 f. note 185, this similarity is not so obvious to me. 68 Cf. Spalinger 1981 49. 69 Kendall 1986 fig. 9; 1990 20. 7° Kendall 1986 fig. 9. 71 Kendall 1986 14. 72 Spalinger 1971 50 f., figs 3-5; Kendall 1986 fig. 10. 73 Arnold 1962 110.

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figures of Piye smiting his enemies stand close to the outer wall ends and turn, accordingly, towards the door. The unusual direction of the ruler and his soldiers emphasize the divine aspect of Piye in a similar manner as it be would be indicated in the lunette scene of the Great Triumphal Stela recording the campaign of c. 728 BC, in which Amun, Mut and Piye look in the same direction and receive together the submission of the Egyptian princes. 74 The "divine" direction of the ruler is further emphasized by the bottom register, in which the sacrificial oxen move towards the interior of the temple and thus towards the king. The "eastern" half of B 502 was decorated with ritual scenes 75 and the "eastern" half of the "south" wall with the scene representing the emergence of the barque procession of Amun of Napata from the Sanctuary and its adoration by a thurifying priest. The priest was followed in this scene by Piye as High Priest and his wife Peksater/Pekereslo 76 and attendants. 77 The cult scene on the "eastern" wall as well as the barque procession belong to the canonical repertory of a hypostyle hall. The arrangement of the columns clearly indicate that B 502 functionally united a forecourt with a hypostyle. The two functions are also reflected in the relief program of the two halves of B 502. 78 This fusion points towards the inner halls of Ramesses H's Nubian rock temples as likely models, something which may well be relevant for the iconographic program too. 79 Accordingly, it seems probable that the "eastern" half of the "north" wall was decorated with another barque procession. 80 As to the probable sources for the iconography of B 502, it is especially interesting to note that the war scenes penetrated the interior of the rock temple of Beit el Wali

Grimal 198la Pl. V. Piye before Amlin and Mut, PM VII 220 (36); Kendall 1999a 75. 76 For the figures of the king and the queen see Kendall l 999a fig. 19.~For the two readings of the name occurring in the forms K-sJ-[-rJ, P-k-r-sJ-nv1; P-k-r-sJ-tJ-'~v and P-k-sJ-l-r see Lohwasser 1997 145. 77 PM VII 219 (32)-(33). 78 For the complex function of New Kingdom hypostyle halls uniting features of the forecourt with those of the hall of appearances cf. Refai 2000 passim and esp. 215-219. 79 Cf. Arnold 1962 110. 80 If this hypothesis is correct, the hypostyle half of B 502 constituted the model of the program of the Kawa Hypostyle (see Ch. 2.4.6). 74 75

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as far as the columned hall preceding the Naos where they alternate with offering- and jubilee scenes. 81 Lepsius 82 and Dunham83 copied the inscriptions from about ten column abaci from B 502. On the basis of Reisner's field notes, Dunham identified the original place of eight of them. 84 My Pl. II shows a tentative reconstruction of the arrangement of the abacus inscriptions made on the basis of Dunham's locations and under the assumption that the position of the abacus as found by Lepsius on the top of a column in the first row from the "east" 85 conformed with the original abacus orientations. The four sides of each abacus were inscribed with different texts, namely, with two royal names in cartouches and two epithets referring to the king as "beloved" of a deity. 86 On five abaci in the inner half of the Hypostyle (B, C, D, E, F), the "front" side facing the entrance of the Hypostyle bears Piye's Son of Re name P-(nb)y with the epithets sJ-Bstt mry-,lmn, "son of Bastet, beloved of Amfm" inscribed in the royal cartouche. Also, on abacus G, the destroyed "front" side was in all probability inscribed with the same name + epithets. The "back" side of these abaci, i.e., the side facing the interior of the temple, was inscribed uniformly with Piye's early Throne name WsrMJ't-R', "Re-is-One-whose-Order-is-strong" (preserved on abaci C, E, F). The abacus sides parallel with the temple axis were inscribed with royal epithets of the type "beloved of god/ goddess NN (residing in X)" (see later in more detail). The "front" side of two abaci located closer to the entrance (H, A)

PM VII 23ff. (6)-(9), (23)-(32); Arnold 1962 110 note 2. LD V 14a-d = Dunham 1970 fig. 40 "I", 14e-f = ibid. ''.J"; LD Text V 271, five abaci, one of them = Dunham 1970 fig. 40 "K"; the rest parallelled by (and perhaps partly identical to?) abaci also illustrated by Dunham. 83 Dunham 1970 fig. 40 "A"-"H". 84 Dunham 1970 fig. 40. 85 LD Text V 271 and fig. p. 268, column "h", abacus in situ on top of the third column from the "north" in the first column row at the "east" end of the hypostyle. It is in the same position in the photograph Dunham 1970 Pl. XLVI/B. However, Lepsius' column "h" is not part of the original Twenty-Fifth Dynasty architecture, for it is built from reused drums placed on top of a tall square pillar. According to Dunham, the abacus belonged originally to the first column from the "south" in the same column row (Dunham 1970 fig. 40 abacus C). The inscriptions on the abacus and their directions fit actually only to the place that was indicated by Dunham (see below). 86 For the appearance of this arrangement in Nineteenth Dynasty temples cf. Kurth 1983 341 f. 81

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was inscribed with a cartouche containing the Horus name 'nb ljrnljt, literally "(long)-live-Horus-who-is-mighty",87 while the "back" side of these abaci was inscribed with a cartouche containing the Throne name nsw-bity nb irt-ljt, "king-of-Upper-and-Lower-Egypt, lord-ofperforming-rituals".88 Though these names do not occur in Piye's documents, 89 it may be presumed on the basis of the apparent architectural homogeneity of the 46-columns Hypostyle and the coherence of the recorded abacus inscriptions that they belonged to the same extended titulary, i.e., the titulary of Piye. The identification of the original place of eight abaci by Reisner allows the pattern of the directions of the abacus inscriptions to be reconstructed. Abaci F and E, which adjoined each other in the "south" half of perpendicular column row III, abacus B in the "north" half and its pendant abacus F in the "south" half, further abaci A and H in longitudinal row 1 and abacus G in longitudinal row 4 reveal that the directions of the "front" and "back" side inscriptions (i.e., the cartouche names) alternated from longitudinal row to longitudinal row both in the "eastern" (hypostyle) and the "western" (forecourt) part of B 502 according to the symmetrical pattern shown in PL II. 90 The epithets with theonyms on the longitudinal abacus sides were read uniformly from the entrance towards the temple intenor (i.e., the hieroglyphs of the divine names looked from the interior towards the temple entrance). 91 In Dunham's reconstruction 92 87 See, however, M.-A. Bonheme: Les noms rqyaux dans l'Egypte de la Troisieme Periode Intennediaire. Le Caire 1987 258 note 4 for doubts as to whether 'nb in the Horus names of the Third Intermediate Period was read or not. 88 For "lord of performing rituals" as traditional part of Egyptian titularies in association with nb tJwy, "lord-of-Two-lands", see Grima! 1986 513 note 346. 89 According to PM VII 219 the abaci "include cartouches of Pi'ankhy and ... ~amakht (?)". The names were not included in the discussion of Piye's titulatory in FHN I No. (5).-ln his extended titulatory in B 300, Taharqo is Horus 'nb Ijr Kl -b'w, "(Long) live Horus Whose-appearances-are-lofty" and nsw-bity nb Tl wy nb ir bt Ijw-(wi)-Njrtm-R', "King-of-Upper-and-Lower-Egypt, Lord of Two-lands, Lord of performing rituals, Nefertum-and-Re-protect-me" (FHN I No. 20). It is more likely that this early titulatory of Taharqo was influenced by the Piye abaci rather than that the B 502 abaci would have been carved under Taharqo. 90 Although it would seem more appropriate that the direction of the royal name on the abacus corresponds always with the (ideal) direction into which the king would look if he were represented on the column, such an arrangement is contradicted by abaci B and F which clearly indicate symmetrical arrangements alternating from one perpendicular column row to the next perpendicular column row. 91 Except for one side of abacus E, which can only be explained as an error by the artisan executing the inscription. 92 Dunham 1970 fig. 40.

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abacus D is placed on top of the fourth column from magnetic north ef row II. It seems that Dunham, who abandoned Reisner's references to local "north", "south", "east" and "west" and changed "north" into south etc., 93 instead of redefining the place of the abacus as fourth column from south ef row II dropped only the quotation marks from "north" in this particular case. There can be no doubt that abacus D belongs to this latter column as is indicated by the direction of its inscriptions as well as the epithet referring to "Isis mistress of Nubia" on its preserved longitudinal side (see later). This arrangement reflects the conceptual homogeneity of the overall structure of the abacus inscriptions. Progressing from the entrance towards the interior of the temple, on the "front" side of the abaci of rows IX to VII one could read the Horus name "~ong)-live-Horus­ who-is-mighty". Row VI remains unknown, while on the "front" of the abaci in rows V, III, II and I, was inscribed the Son of Re name P-('nb)y with the epithets sJ-Bstt mry-'lmn. It would seem that the abacus "fronts" of row IV were also inscribed in the same manner. The "back" of the abaci of rows IX and VII (and probably also of VIII) was inscribed with the Throne name nsw-blty nb irt-bt, "king-of-Upper-and-Lower-E gypt, lord-of-performing-rituals". The "back" inscriptions of rows VI-IV remain unknown. The "back" of the abaci in rows III-I was inscribed with the Throne name WsrMJ't-R', "Re-is-One-whose-Order-is-strong". The "fronts" of the abaci thus seem to have presented an abbreviated titulary of Piye which developed from the entrance towards the sanctuary, marking a movement from the "court" half towards the "hypostyle" half according to the sequence of the complete royal titulary. The "backs" seem to have been inscribed with Piye's Throne name. There are, however, two types, one occurring in the "court", and another in the "hypostyle" half of B 502. Considering the contexts of the "fronts" and "backs", we find that they reflect the sequence of the titulary in the "court" half: "front": Horus name-"back": Throne name. By contrast, the sequence is reversed in the "hypostyle" half, viz., there the Nsw blty name is on the "back" side of the abaci, i.e., closer to the temple interior, while the Son of Re name is on the "front" abacus side. It would thus, seem that titulary elements were fitted into two patterns at the same time. The "fronts" presented in themselves a titulary

93

Dunham 1970 xix.

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unraveling continuously as one progressed towards the sanctuary. Yet, when reading the "fronts" and "backs" together, B 502 falls into two halves. In the "court" half the titulary develops towards the temple interior, the king moves thus towards the sanctuary, while in the "hypostyle" half the ruler, as represented by his two cartouche names, emerges from the temple interior. We may furthermore speculate that the "front" sides present the predestination of the ruler as manifested by his Horus name that gives expression to his being the reincarnation of Osiris' son and by his Son of Re name that refers to the other main aspect of his divine sonship. The "back" sides display two Throne name variants. The ruler receives his Throne name during the course of his investiture. It is thus, of divine origin. Appropriately, it faces the ruler when he emerges from the scene of his initiation into the royal office. It is also interesting to note that the Throne name variant in the "court" half-which is probably not an actual Throne name but an epithet in the form of a Throne name-refers to the king as high priest. The abaci presented monumental "litanies" structured by the royal titulary, first on the general level of movement from the exterior world towards the god's dwelling and, secondly, on a more special level that was defined by the ritual and symbolic significance of the two halves of B 502. The actual "litany" texts starting from the temple entrance and from the temple interior, respectively, consisted of lists of epithets of the type "beloved of god/ goddess NN" which visualized, on the one hand, the king as sustainer of the cults of the land and, on the other, described his legitimation by these deities in a concentrated form. Inscribed on the abaci supporting the roof of the temple, the central theme of these inscriptions was the reciprocity between the gods and the ruler as the builder of their temples. Significantly, New Kingdom and Third Intermediate Period rulers appear as "lord-of-performing-rituals" especially in the context of temple building. 94 The abacus program of B 502, as concerns the role of the royal titulary, recalls, e.g., Ramesses II's temple at Derr where in the Second Pillared Hall (i.e., the hypostyle) the side faces of the architraves were inscribed with the king's extended titulary concluding with the temple dedication formula and the soffits with the Horus-,

94

For the evidence cf. Grima! 1986 519 ff.

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Nebty-, Throne- and Son of Re names of Ramesses II. All these texts start from the architrave end which is closer to the naos. They thus present the titulary developing from the naos end of the hall towards its entrance. 95 The same direction of the titulary is prevalent in the symmetrical building inscriptions in the Hall of Offerings (room B 303) in Taharqo's Mut and Hathor-Tefnut temple at Gebel Barkal96 (see Ch. 2.3). In more general terms, the titulary in the royal Randzeilen (reading from the top towards the bottom of a wall or a column) of the Egyptian temple also plays a similar structuring role, connecting to each other the scenes situated one above each other (see, e.g., the Edfu temple). 97 The arrangement of the epithets with theonyms also points towards other considerations incorporated into the abacus program. On the abaci of the "south" half of the Hypostyle, deities associated especially with Nubia appear, on those of the "north" half deities associated with Egypt. In the "southern" half 98 we find the following epithets: [mry] Jnj-brt bry-ib TJ -Sty, "[beloved-of]-Onuris, residing-inNubia" (A "south"); mry [ . .]nt (?) sJt-R' bry-ib TJ -Sty, "beloved-of[.. .]nt, 99 daughter-of-Re, residing-in-Nubia" (A "north"); mry-Ddwn anty T1 -Sty, "beloved-of-Dedwen, foremost-of-Nubia" 100 (F "south"); mry-'Imn-R'' Gm-itn, "beloved-of-Amfm-Re-of-Gematon [Kawa]" (E "north"); 101 mry-'Imn-R' nb PJ-nbs, "beloved-of-Amun-Re-lord-of-Pnubs [Kerma]" (E "south"); [mry] Jst [ . .} 102 ljnt-TJ -Sty, "[beloved-of]-Isisthe-great(?)103-Mistress-of-Nubia" (D "south"); further [mry]-Sw sJ-R', "[beloved-of]-Shu, son-of-Re" (C "north") and [mry]- 1jnt sJt-R', "[beloved-of]-Tefnut, daughter-of-Re" (C "south"). The following

Blackman 1913 66 ff., 73 f. Robisek 1989 I 0 ff.; FHN I No. 20. 97 See Kurth 1994 59 and fig. 30. 98 On abacus H only the beginning of the "southern" side inscription is preserved: Sw[. . .}, which I cannot interpret. 99 Tefnut? cf. abacus C, below. 10° For Dedwen as Nubian god residing in Pure-mountain see Aspelta's Election Stela line 2, FHN I No. 37.-The epithet anty T1 -Sty appears regularly as an epithet of Amfm of Napata (e.g., FHN II Nos 84 [Harsiyotef], 87 [Aktisanes]) which was modelled on the epithet (nb nswt Ti u:Y) ljnt(y) 'Ipt-swt of the human-headed (Theban) Amlin. 101 Due probably to the sculptor's error, this is the only abacus inscription which is reading from the inner (naos) end of the hall towards the outer (pylon) end. 102 wrt, "the great"? 103 For Isis wrt as divine mother of the king, an aspect probably emphasized within the context of the abacus inscriptions of B 502, cf. Bergman 1968 155 ff. 91

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epithet was recorded in the "northern" half: mry lfr nri.-it=f, "belovedof-Horus-avenger-of-his-father" (G "south"). Three abaci whose positions are not known were also recorded by Lepsius. One of them was inscribed with the cartouche names P-('n/J)y si-Bstt mry-'Imn ("west" /"front") and Wsr-Mi't-R' ("east" /"back") and the epithets mry T mw nb 'Iwnw, "beloved-of-Atum, lord-ofHeliopolis" ("south") and [mry] Mntw-R' nb Wist, "[beloved-of]Montu-Re, lord-of-Thebes" ("north"). 104 Accordingly, this abacus seems to have belonged to the "northern" half of the court (either in row 3 of the "forecourt" half or in row 5 of the "hypostyle" half). Another abacus bearing the inscriptions 'n!J lfr-n!Jt ("west" /"front") and [mry] Jnj-brt bry-lb Ti -Sty, "[beloved-of]-Onuris, residing-inNubia"105 ("north", the other sides of the abacus were destroyed) belonged to row 2 in the "southern" half of the front part of the Hypostyle. Finally, a partly destroyed abacus bore the epithet [mry} Pt1J, !Jnty Ti -Sty, "[beloved-of]-Ptah, foremost-of-Nubia" on the "north" face. 106 It belonged probably to the "northern" part of the court, and was one of the abaci with epithets which established an equilibrium through "cross-reference" between the two halves of the room, placing a northern deity who is called "king of Two-lands" in Egypt 107 into the role of the divine ruler of Nubia. The principal message in the abacus texts concerning the role of the king in the maintenance of the cults and the legitimation he receives in return from the deities is obvious. However, knowledge of the location and texts of eight-in part, badly damaged-abaci from the forty-six columns of the hall does not allow much more than to state that the abacus inscriptions displayed a north-south symmetry in conformity with the general rules of the grammar of temple iconography. It may also be assumed that they were formulated to establish an equilibrium between the two halves of the columned hall. Further conceptual interconnections between the individual abacus inscriptions inevitably remain obscure. The nature of such correspondences is indicated, however, for instance by the association of Amun of Pnubs with Amun of Kawa on abacus E and of Tefnut with her brother-consort Shu on abacus C (and perhaps

104 105 106 107

W V l 4a-d; Dunham 1970 fig. 40 abacus I. WV 14e, f; Dunham 1970 fig. 40 abacus J. W Text V 271; Dunham 1970 fig. 40 abacus K. Cf. H. te Velde: Ptah. IA IV (1982) 1177-1180 1179.

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with Onuris on abacus A). It is also rather likely that Shu and Tefnut appear on abacus C in the "south-eastern" corner of the Hypostyle because they were deities who, in other contexts, "support the sky", i.e., the four corners of the temple roof. 108 It is interesting to note that, notwithstanding the vaguaries of preservation, the recorded abacus inscriptions refer with apparent consistency to deities who would be among the principal figures of the Kushite pantheon as represented in the more completely preserved monuments of Taharqo, Piye's third successor. Besides the highly significant presence of Amfm of Pnubs and Amfm of Kawa in the temple which was the residence of Amfm of Napata, the saviour from the south, Onuris (see Ch. 2.6.2), appears as "residing in Nubia" on two abaci as well. On another abacus, Piye is legitimated by Shu and his sister-spouse Tefnut. The twin children of Atum were associated in Egypt with the kingship in a cosmological sense. In the New Kingdom, the Heliopolitan myth of Shu was developed in similitude to the Onuris legend, making the god bring back Tefnut, the sun-eye from Nubia to Egypt. The Kushite re-emphasis on Shu and Tefnut as gods of kingship would be reflected in the name of Taharqo's son Nesi-Shu-Tefnut which refers to his parents as a divine brother-sister couple. 109 2.2.2.2. Hall B 503 and Forecourt B 501 ef Piye The decoration of the Hall of Offerings (B 503) remains largely unknown. From the two-registered (?) "north" wall reliefs an offering scene (?) with several deities (?) and four priests as well as a procession of priestesses and musicians are recorded. 110 The scenes, which seem unusual in a hall of offerings, may have been associated with the barque repository B 504C opening from the hall. After the Egyptian campaign of c. 728 BC, described in the Great Triumphal Stela, 111 Piye added another columned court and the First

108 Cf. Kurth 1975 79 f. rn 9 Cf. Torok 1997a 256. t to Macadam 1946 62 (with PL IX) notes that the latter scene had the legend four times repeated: dit sp, "giving the time". 111 FHN I No. 9.-Morkot 2000 173 ff. suggests that the Egyptian expedition recorded in the Great Triumphal Stela is identical with the campaign mentioned in the text on stela fragments Berlin 1068 (now lost) and Cairo JE 47085 (FHN I No. 10) from B 500 and that it took place in Piye's 3rd and 4th, and not in his 19th-20th regnal years. FHN I No. 10 doubtless refers to a Lower Egyptian conflict

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Pylon. The slight deviations of the main longitudinal axes of the New Kingdom sanctuary and of Piye's second and first courts are interesting from the point of view of the astronomical orientation of the temple buildings (c£ Ch. 1.4). Judging by the recorded remains, the iconographic program of the reliefs of the new court 112 was more or less conventional. 113 Temple foundation and construction scenes were represented on the "east" half of the "south" wall, i.e., in the right half of the court. 114 From the decoration of the "west" half of the same wall remains of two bb-sd scenes are preserved. One showed Piye, clad in the jubilee costume, in the company of his royal ka 115 being led to meet the gods of Upper Egypt (?). 116 The other depicted the king running with the Apis bull. 117 Before the final publication of Kendall's re-excavation of the ruins of the "south" wall the location of these scenes and their relation with each other must remain obscure. Since the upper part of the wall is destroyed, the actual composition of the jubilee cycle remains unknown. It seems, however, that the "temple foundation" and construction scenes on the "east" half of the wall were also part of the bb-sd cycle, which thus started on the "east" end of the wall. The scene with Piye wearing the jubilee costume as well as him running with the Apis bull, represent later episodes of the festival sequence. 118 in Year 4, but the fragmentary text does not allow a comparison of its course with the course of events described in the Great Triumphal Stela. It is furthermore highly unlikely that at the completion of the Forecourt of the great Arrn'.in temple in Year 21, a stela would have been erected which records a military campaign that took place sixteen years earlier and which does not make any reference to Piye's regency between Years 4 and 21. 112 Dunham 1970 Pis L-LI; Kendall 1986 fig. 8.-ln PM VII 216 and fig. p. 210 both the location and the description of the reliefs discovered by Reisner are erroneous. us Cf. Arnold 1962 106 ff. 114 Kendall 1990 19. II 5 Kendall 1999a fig. 20.-This scene is not mentioned in Kendall 1986 and 1990. 116 Piye is led by a male deity (?) or the sem priest (?) marching towards the interior of B 500 but turning back towards the king and extending a sceptre towards him. The connection between the two figures may be compared to the scene on the south wall (west half) in the Forecourt of Temple T at Kawa in which Taharqo is being led by a goddess into the presence of Amun and Mut. In Kawa, however, the goddess extends two sceptres towards the king. Cf. Ch. 2.4.5. m Kendall 1986 16 f.-This scene is not mentioned in Kendall 1990 and 1999a. 118 Cf. Bleeker 1967 96 ff.; W. Barta: Die Sedfest-Darstellung Osorkons II. im Tempel von Bubastis. SAK6 (1978) 25-42; K. Martin: Sedfest. LAV (1984) 782-790 785 f.; Fazzini 1988 17 f.

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The-longer-"west" half of the "north" wall was decorated in three registers (to a total height of c. 10 m, with the roof of the hypaethral at a height of c. 11 m, and in which the figures of the king rose-similarly to B 502-two registers in height) with scenes of the conquest and tribute given by Piye's Egyptian foes. Standing at the "east" end of the wall section between the First Pylon and the "north" door leading to the court and followed (in three registers) by his retainers, the king receives tribute from the submissive rulers. The tribute scenes are arranged on two registers. The partly preserved lower register shows four vanquished rulers kissing the ground before Piye, including Nimlot of Hermopolis (?) and a chief of Mendes. 119 The four princes are followed by four pairs of horses led up by grooms. 120 Similarly again to the war scenes from B 502, Piye looks towards the temple entrance and thus receives the tribute from the position of a deity. The "eastern" end of the "east" half of the "north" wall was decorated with an offering scene showing Piye, now looking towards the interior of the temple, before a divine couple (?). 121 Since we must ignore the other scenes that originally occupied the rest of this wall, it is not possible to decide whether this scene should be regarded as an episode from the Egyptian campaign or not. The significance of the relief occupying the inner face of the "north" tower of the First Pylon is similarly unknown: it represents the king before a procession of eleven (?) deities. 122

119 The chief of Mendes is smaller in size than the three other figures including Nimlot. According to Kendall 1986 10 the three larger figures and a presumed fourth larger figure in the now destroyed upper register represented the four kings bringing tribute, i.e., Osorkon IV, luput II, Nimlot, and Peftjauawybast. 120 The horses: Dunham 1970 Pl. L/ A-C; L/B also reproduced in W.S. Smith 1981 fig. 390. Reconstruction of the wall: Kendall 1986 fig. 8. 121 According to Kendall 1986 11, the scene represented the king, ten tall offering stands, vessels, a shrine or chest decorated with papyrus blossoms and sa symbols and Re-Harakhte (?) presenting Piye with an amulet composed of a shu-feather, a frog and a shen symbol. According to Kendall l 999a 75, however, the scene depicted the dedication of the tribute to Amlin and Mut. 122 PM VII 236 (10), (11). The two photographs of Reisner published as Dunham 1970 Pl. LI/ A, B do not include the king's figure. They show eight divine figures and the extended arms of two more deities, from "south" to "north": female, male, bull-headed (?) male, female, arms of ? and male, male, female, animal-headed male, arms of ? It is, however, unlikely that the procession would have been led by a goddess in an Amlin temple, thus we must suppose that originally there were more than ten deities represented on the wall.

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CHAPTER 1WO

Considering the triumphal scenes alone, it may seem that the program of B 501 was designed under the influence of Nubian New Kingdom temples, especially the rock temples already mentioned above in connection with Piye's earlier court. 123 However, as Kendall argues, 124 the relief decoration of the "west" half of the "north" wall displays close correspondences with the narrative of the Great Triumphal Stela, which was erected in this court. Consequently, it may be regarded as an "historical" illustration of the concluding episode of the Egyptian campaign of c. 728 BC. Although it cannot be excluded that the now destroyed "east" wall reliefs (decorating what was originally the front of the Second Pylon) represented Piye killing his enemies, thus a symbolic image traditionally belonging to a forecourt program (cf. Ch. 2.4.5), the purely historical character of the tribute scene on the "north" wall is still quite remarkable. It is, however, the reliefs on the opposite wall that provide an explanation for the forecourt iconography as a whole. The "north" and "south" walls of the court associated the demonstration of royal power with the regeneration of the king's divine nature. 125 According to geographical "reality", the scenes of triumph in Egypt are on the "north" side, while the location of the jubilee scenes on the "south" wall indicates that the bb-sd-if it was performed in reality-was celebrated in Kush, most probably in Napata. The confrontation of the triumphal cycle with the jubilee scenes may well have been influenced by the ancient (iconographic) tradition of the association of triumphal motifs with the bb-sd cycle. 126 In the first place, however, the iconography of the longitudinal walls of B 50 l was determined by the theological association of a critical phase in Piye's reign-the destruction of Chaos in Egypt and the subsequent (re-)organisation of the double kingship of Kush and Egypt-with the reintegration of the king with the gods and the renewal of his

123 Cf. Beit el Wali, PM VII 25 (23)-(32); Derr, ibid. 87 (15), (17); Abu Simbel, ibUJ.. 109 (99). For the jubilee scenes cf. Soleb (Amenhotep III), right half of the court, Arnold 1962 112 (with references). 124 Kendall 1986; 1990; n.d.a. 125 Bleeker 1967 121 f. suggests, however, that the central meaning of the &b-sd was the renewal of the ruler's high priesthood. 126 See, e.g., the longitudinal walls of the transversal corridor in the pyramid temple of Pepi II at Saqqara, G. Jequier: Le monument .faneraire de Pepi II II. Le templ.e. Le Caire 1938.

ICONOGRAPHY AND ORDER IN THE WORLD

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divine powers. 127 The decoration of B 501 thus unites a major historical event with a theological discourse in a particularly interesting manner, demonstrating once more how profoundly Piye and his priests must have appreciated the concepts of Egyptian kingship.

2.2.2.3. The constructions ef Taharqo and Tanwetamani With the Forecourt built after 728 BC, B 500 assumed its final form (Pl. I). The temple now consisted, along its main axis, of a hypaethral court (B 501 ), a hypostyle (B 502), a hall of offerings (B 503), a barque room (B 506), and a room complex for the cult image(s) (B 515-519). Re-Harakhte was worshipped in the partly roofed chapel B 520 which opened from the barque room. The cult in the chapel complex built by Ramesses II and opening similarly from B 506 remains unknown. 128 As already indicated above, the decoration of the Forecourt and Hypostyle closely corresponded with the canonical program scheme of the New Kingdom. Points of deviation from it may be explained as partly consequences of the archaising study of Lower Nubian rock temples. Non-canonical solutions also derived from the special features of the cult of Amun of Napata or may be explained as determined by the actual historical situation in which the program of court B 501 was conceived. It may be assumed that the preserved reliefs in the Hall of Offerings were determined by the visiting deity for whom the curious barque repository was (re-)built and who shared offerings with Amun on the feast of his visit. The decoration of the barque room B 506 was completed under Piye's third successor, Taharqo, who transformed the original columned hall (2 X 4 columns) into three separate rooms, with a beautifully carved granite barque stand in the central room. 129 According to nineteenth century visitors, 130 the same stand was represented in a relief on the "north" wall of the room together with four figures of Taharqo "holding up the sky" . 131 These royal images accentuated

127 For this interpretation cf. H. Frankfort: State Festivals in Egypt and Mesopotamia. Journal ef the Warburg and Courtauld Institute 1952, quoted by Bleeker 1967 121 f. 128 In Ti:iri:ik l 997a 322 its layout is hypothetically compared to the Small Temple at Medinet Habu, PM II PL XLV. A cult connection cannot be demonstrated, however. 129 Dunham 1970 32, PL XXIX. 130 Macadam 1946 61 f. 131 PM VII 221 (40).

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CHAPTER TWO

the divinity of the king 132 which is also the central theme of the barque stand decoration itself. 133 Tanwetamani, the last ruler of the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty, erected a monumental barque kiosk in B 502, the decoration of which remains unknown. 134 After the erection of B 501, B 502 functioned as a hypostyle. The kiosk in B 502 was nevertheless the only transitory shrine in the temple until a second one was built in B 501 in the early Meroitic period. It is thus, equally possible that Tanwetamani's kiosk functioned as a barque shrine on the occasion of non-public rites and that it was the shrine associated with the public appearances of Amfm of Napata (for these issues cf. also Chs 3.1, 3.3). 2.2.3. Other Twenry-Fifth Dynasry temples The great Amun temple at Napata was presented in the previous chapter as the principal example of the revival of New Kingdom cults. Here I present a brief survey of other New Kingdom cults reemerging as basic constituents of the monumental state organisation created by Taharqo. 135 I have already briefly discussed (Ch. 1.3) the significance of the Amun temples of Meroe City, Sanam, Kawa, Tabo and Pnubs. Of these, the Meroe City temple 136 was dedicated to Amun of Napata and had no New Kingdom antecedents, similarly to the Sanam temple. The latter was dedicated to Amun, Bull of Nubia, apparently a hypostasis of Amun-Re Kamutef of Medinet Habu (Chs 1.5, 2.5). At Kawa, Taharqo built a new temple for the cult of Amun of Kawa to replace a New Kingdom sanctuary of this god (Temple T, Ch. 2.4) and restored Temple A (Ch. 2.6.1) on the right side of the processional avenue of Temple T. Temple A stood on the site of a still earlier (Amenhotep 111?) 137 shrine and was dedicated by Tutankha-

132 Evidently, this concept is also stressed in the barque rooms of Egyptian New Kingdom temples, cf. Arnold 1962 26 £ 133 Cf. Baines 1985 255 ff. 134 Reisner 1931 79; Reisner - Reisner 1933 plan opposite p. 76; Dunham 1970 Plan V; Hinkel 1984 236 £, fig. 4. 135 Cf. Tarok 1997a 175 ff-For Taharqo's monuments see the fundamental survey presented by J. Leclant: Taharqa. Ltf VI (1986) 156-184. 136 For the early Amun temple and its Twenty-Fifth Dynasty origins see Torok 1997b 25-30, 155-161, 235-243. 137 Macadam 1955 13, 28 ff.

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mun 138 to Amfm of Kawa and Amun of Thebes(?). The Tutankhamfm shrine was carefully incorporated by Taharqo into a larger mudbrick temple which was dedicated to the Amuns of Kawa and Thebes. The building of Temple T and the extension of Tutankhamun's Temple A are no less relevant from the point of view of the "revival" of New Kingdom cults than B 500 at Gebel Barkal, and no less puzzling, either. In Ch. 2.4.1 below, I shall quote an inscription of Taharqo which tells us in clear terms that the New Kingdom predecessor to his Temple T, though in a much neglected condition, was in use when he visited the site as a young prince in 702 BC. We have no reason to suppose that the case was different for the Tutankhamun shrine: its dedication seems to have been maintained similarly to that of the predecessor of Temple T when, probably in conjunction with the erection of Temple T, Taharqo decided its restoration and extension. A column inscription from Temple B which lies parallel to Temple A with its west wall adjacent to its east wall (Chs 2.6. and 2.6.2) indicates that Temple B was built (or rebuilt?) by Shabaqo (716702 BC) as a sanctuary of Anukis, a goddess worshipped as the companion of Amun of Kawa in New Kingdom Kawa. 139 Shabaqo's building activity occurred not very long before Taharqo's visit in 702 BC. Was Shabaqo the first Kushite ruler to revive the New Kingdom cults at Kawa? While this question cannot be answered satisfactorily due to a lack of relevant archaeological or textual evidence, it is interesting to note that the legend of the covenant between Alara and Amun as recorded in two Kawa inscriptions of Taharqo identifies the god to whom Alara "gives" his sister as Amun of Kawa. 140 It should not be forgotten, however, that the story of the covenant was the legend of the foundation of Taharqo's dynasty 141 in the individual renderings of which the "dynastic god" Amun probably always took the identity of the Amun in whose sanctuary the covenant was eventually re-edited. As we have seen in Ch. 2.2, there are indications that Alara's sister was in fact appointed to her priestly office in Napata.

Or perhaps by an earlier king, cf. Macadam 1955 13, note I. Cf. Valbelle 1981 145 ff. 14° Kawa IV (= FHN I No. 21) lines 16-19; Kawa VI (= FHN I No. 24) lines 23-24. 141 Cf. Torok 1995b 25 f.; 1997a 124 f., 144, 234, 263. 138 139

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The appearance and the dedication of the New Kingdom predecessor1 42 of the temple of Tabo on the island of Argo remain unknown. The Twenty-Fifth Dynasty temple is considered to be an Arnfm temple of Taharqo, based on its typological similarities with the Kawa and Sanam sanctuaries. 143 Its identification as an Amlin temple was also influenced by the identification of the site of Tabo with the Pnubs of the Napatan coronation reports. 144 According to more recent suggestions, however, in the coronation reports the toponym Pnubs refers to Kerma. 145 The Twenty-Fifth Dynasty and Napatan temple of Amlin of Pnubs, 146 an Amlin god already worshipped in the form of a criosphinx in the New Kingdom, 147 may perhaps be suspected at the site called Dokki Gel c. 1 km to the north of the Western Deffufa at Kerma (cf. also Ch. 3.2). 148 The local New Kingdom origins of the cults of Amlin of Takompso 149 and Amlin-Re "of the Festival Hall" (of Tuthmosis III in Karnak) attested under Taharqo at Philae 150 remain unknown, while it seems that the New Kingdom cult of Horus of Miam was revived by Taharqo in Faras. 151 142 The existence of which is supposed on the basis of Eighteenth and Nineteenth Dynasty (Tuthmosis III or IV; Amenhotep II or III, Ramesses II) blocks built secondarily into the pylons, Jacquet-Gordon et al. 1969 106, 110, PL XXIII/l; C. Maystre: Les fouilles de Tabo (1965-1969). BSFE 55 (1969) 5-12 8; Hein 1991 63. 143 Cf. Jacquet-Gordon et al. 1969; Wolf 1990 114 ff-For a ground plan see Maystre 1986 fig. I. 114 The identification of Pnubs with Tabo was also accepted by the present writer and the alternative identification was first noticed by him in Torok l 997a 140 with notes 113 and 114. 145 Bonnet - Valbelle 1980; Wolf 1990 118 ff.; Bonnet 1999a 4, and see Ch. 1.3. 146 Representations as criosphinx in Sanam (see next footnote) and in Gebel Barkal Temple B 300 (Robisek 1989 fig. p. 118). In Kawa, Temple T, Room D-E, south wall [' lm]n PJ-nbs, "Amlin of Pnubs" was represented with a human body. Only the legs, however, were preserved, cf. Macadam 1955 98. 147 See the Tutankhamun shrine in Temple A at Kawa, pronaos, east wall, above door, L. Bell: Aspec.ts of the Cult of the Deified Tutankhamun. in: Melanges Gama! eddin Mok.htar I (BdE) 97/1). Le Caire 1985 31-60 31 ff-Twenty-Fifth Dynasty representation: e.g., Sanam, blocks from Room E, Griffith 1922 112 f., Pis XI/5, XXVI/12. 148 Cf. Bonnet 1999a 4; for recent excavations at the site see Bonnet - Mohamed 1999; Bonnet 1999b 70 ff.; Valbelle 1999. 149 F.Ll. Griffith: Four Granite Stands at Philae. BIFAO 30 (1931) 127-130. 15° Cf. E. Winter: Die Tempel von Philae und das Problem ihrer Rettung. AW 7/3 (1976) 3-15 13 f.; S. Farag - G. Wahb - A. Farid: Inscribed Blocks of the Ramesside Period and of King Taharqa, Found at Philae. OA 18 (1979) 281-289; E. Winter: Philae. L4. IV (1982) 1022-1027 1025. 151 Blocks from secondary contexts: J. Karkowski: Faras V. The Pharaonic Inscriptions from Faras. Warsaw 1981 64 f., 341 ff. (supposedly from Buhen); Wolf 1990 24 f., 107 f. (from Faras).

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At Buhen, Taharqo restored and extended the New Kingdom (Hatshepsut-Tuthmosis III) temple of Horus of Buhen, 152 where epithets of Taharqo refer to Horus, "lord of Buhen" and Isis, "mistress of Buhen" as divine sources of the king's legitimacy. 153 In Semna West, Taharqo restored the temple of the deified Sesostris III and Dedwen. 154 The profundity of the revival of ancient cults is revealed by the fact that the restoration of the cult in the Semna West temple was not restricted, as one might expect, to Dedwen, a god regarded traditionally as being of Nubian origin, but also included, as attested by a barque stand of Taharqo, 155 the cult of Sesostris III, i.e., the very pharaoh 156 who completed the conquest of Lower Nubia in the Middle Kingdom. In a highly interesting manner, Sesostris is referred to in the inscription on the Semna stand as Taharqo's father, thus revealing that the deified pharaoh was worshipped in the restored temple as a source of Taharqo's royal legitimacy. The name of Dedwen, "foremost of Nubia", already occurred on one of the column abaci of B 502 as one of the deities whose cults were nurtured by Piye and who in return legitimized him (cf. Ch. 2.2.2.1). A late 7th-early 6th century BC inscription (see ahead, Chs 2.3 and 2.7.5) associates Dedwen with Napata in a manner which seems to indicate the existence of a temple cult of the god at Pure-mountain, perhaps as a consequence of the revival of his cult at Semna. The revival of the most important New Kingdom cult at Napata was discussed above in our survey of Piye's and Taharqo's great Amfm temple (cf. Ch. 2.2), and mention was also made of the significance of the cults of Mut and Hathor-Tefnut in the two neighbouring rock-cut sanctuaries B 200 and B 300. On account of its better-preserved relief program, the latter will be discussed below in greater detail (Ch. 2.3). As to hemispeos B 200, both the identity of its New Kingdom builder and its original appearance remain unclear. It is also uncertain whether Taharqo, whose restoration work, including the reliefs

152 D. Randall-Maciver - C.L. Woolley: Buhen. Philadelphia 1911 17, 50; Caminos 1974; Wolf 1990 26 ff. 153 Caminos 1974 57 f., 85. 154 D. Dunham - JM.A. Janssen: Semna Kumma. Boston 1960 12 f., 32 ff.; Wolf 1990 31 ff., 112 ff. 155 PM VII 149. 156 Referred to by his Throne name b'-kJw-R', D. Dunham - JM.A. Janssen: Semna Kumma. Boston 1960 12, 33, Pis 36-38.

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CHAPTER TWO

recorded from the central sanctuary and the two side chapels, can be identified by a cartouche noted by Lepsius in the central sanctuary, 157 found here a temple also consisting of a forecourt and a hypostyle, or are these latter-named parts his additions. Analogous layouts would speak for a New Kingdom date for the entire building.158 According to a tentative reconstruction presented by Timothy Kendall, there was a c. 3 m difference between the floor level of the pyloned and six-columned Forecourt and the higher floor level of the room complex consisting of the Hypostyle, the Hall of Offerings and the three sanctuaries, so that a flight of stairs on the axis of the Forecourt led up to the entrance of the Hypostyle. 159 The Hypostyle was four-columned and provided access to a small transversal Hall of Offerings. 160 Remains of the relief decoration suggest that the Taharqo temple was dedicated to Mut and/ or Hathor-Tefnut, who were, however, associated with Amfm of Napata similarly to B 300 (Ch. 2.3). In view of the close connection between the cult of Hathor and the rock sanctuary type in the New Kingdom, 161 it may be supposed that the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty dedication revived the New Kingdom cult of Hathor(-Tefnut) in B 200. The north wall relief of the central sanctuary depicted Taharqo before Amfm-Re "lord of the Throne of Two-lands, who resides in Pure-mountain'', a goddess (probably Mut) wearing the Hathor crown, and a lion-headed goddess, probably Hathor-Tefnut, with the fragmentarily preserved epithet [~ry-lb] dw-w ¢::: King ¢::: Amlin of Thebes

Mut=> Amlin of N.=>¢::: King Mut=> Amlin of N.=>¢:::King recto

-

-

-

-

-

-

-

~

-

processional avenue -

-

~

PYLON DOOR

The diagram reveals that the stela was erected secondarily in this place, for both the king and Amun of Napata are turning in the wrong direction. The actors in the lunette scenes are correctly oriented if the stela stands to the right of the main temple axis either in the interior (i.e., in the First Court) of the temple or, less probably, in front of it:

i verso

Amlin of Napata=> ¢::: King ¢::: Amlin of Thebes

Mut=> Amlin of N.=>¢::: King Mut=> Amlin of N.=>¢:::King

I

recto

i temple axis In this case, the scene sequence on the recto is also correct, and the verso relief with the image of the king as High Priest being initiated into kingship by the Amuns of Napata and Thebes turns in a proper manner in the direction of the sanctuary, i.e., the scene of the mystic initiation. If the Taneyidamani Stela stood in a secondary position on the left side of the processional avenue, it may be interpreted, together with Aspelta's Khaliut Stela which was found standing facing the

TEMPLE AND SOCIETY

313

Taneyidamani Stela on the right side of the avenue, 245 as an indication of a post-Taneyidamani rearrangement of the monuments in B 501 and in front of the First Pylon. The re-erection of the Khaliut and Taneyidamani Stelae probably occurred in conjunction with the building of the transitory barque kiosk B 551 in front of the First Pylon. The unpublished reliefs of the kiosk interior represent a ruling queen accompanied by two other persons before the enthroned Amlin of Napata, Mut and Khonsu. 246 Due to a lack of inscriptional evidence, the queen may be identified with any of the queens reigning successively between the last third of the 1st century BC and the middle of the AD 1st century (i.e., Amanirenas, Amanishakheto, or Nawidemak). 247 Some decades after the erection of the kiosk, the coregents Natakamani and Amanitore undertook a major restoration of the temple. While there is evidence for the restoration of the relief decoration of B 501 (see Ch. 2.11 ), eventual changes in the arrangement of the statuary and stelae found by the co-regents standing in front of the temple, in B 501, and in B 502 remain unknown. It can only be established that between Taneyidamani and the reign of Natakamani and Amanitore further inscriptions were added to the collection of monumental royal inscriptions in B 501, as indicated by a long Meroitic cursive inscription 248 engraved in the plaster covering the "south" inner thickness of the doorway between B 501 and 502 opposite an earlier (late Napatan or early Meroitic) hieroglyphic inscription 249 as well as by a granite stela inscribed in Meroitic cursive the fragments of which were found scattered over B 501 and the area around kiosk B 551. 250

Cf. Dunham 1970 Pl. LV/A, B. T. Kendall: Gebel Barkal Temples, Karima, Sudan. 1987 Season, Museum of Fine Arts Boston. Institute ef Art and Archaeology Newsletter (Memphis) 1988 10-18 14 f.; Kendall 1990 21. 247 Queen Shanakdakheto as predecessor of Taneyidamani is not considered, similarly to the AD 4th cent. queens [...]k[...] (?), [.]p[...]nine (?), Pat[.]rapeamani, and Amanipilade who are not attested by any monument except for their burials. Cf. FHN III Nos (287)-(290). 248 Dunham 1970 34 (26), Pl. XXXVIII, REM 1138; I. Hofmann - H.-P. Huber et al.: Die meroitische Wandinschrift REM 1138 vom Jebel Barkal. BzS 4 (1989) 139-156. 249 Dunham 1970 34 (27), fig. 31, Pl. LXIII. 250 The fragments are partly in Boston. Dunham 1970 37 (29), 60 (20-3-127, 163-165), Pl. XLIII, REM 1139. Carved from the Tumbos granite gneiss, cf. Harrell 1999 245. 245

246

314

CHAPTER THREE

The restoration of the temple under Natakamani's and Amanitore's reign in the AD 1st century (see Ch. 2.11) left the kiosk complex in the centre of court B 501 untouched. Piye's Sandstone Stela also remained standing in its early Meroitic socket. Radical changes in the functions of the Forecourt ocurred in the late Meroitic period when mud-brick houses begun to be erected there. The process of "villagization" started for the same reasons and took the same course as in the temples at Kawa and Sanam (see Ch. 3.2), but its chronology and details remain unknown due to the almost complete lack of published documentation. 251 That the "village" in B 501 was rather longlived is supported by the fact that the floor level of its latest (?) phase was 0.8 m above the floor of the Forecourt. Reisner also found evidence for multiple occupation levels. 252 The processional route along the axis of B 501, the interior of the kiosk, and a passage along its "north" side were left free. The continuity of cult life in the temple and the occupation of the Forecourt by dwellings of priests and artisans associated with the temple is furthermore indicated by finds such as a limestone dummy canopic jar, 253 the mould for a Bes statuette,254 and an unfinished grey stone statuette of a god. 255 3.5. The late Amiin temple

ef Meroe

City

Meroe City's first, Twenty-Fifth Dynasty and Napatan, Amlin temple was replaced in the later half of the third century BC by a new Amlin sanctuary256 which is referred to in this book as the "late Amlin temple" (fig. 12).

251 For a general view of the excavated houses from the top of Gebel Barkal see Dunham 1970 PL XLVI/B. 252 Kendall 1990 20. 253 Dunham 1970 43 find 20-2-102, fig. 35. 254 Dunham 1970 42 find 20-1-310, PL XLVIl/j, K. 255 Dunham 1970 48 find 20-3-136, fig. 36. 256 John Garstang's excavations conducted in 1909-1910 at the temple site were published only in a preliminary form in Garstang et al. 1911 11-16. Garstang's records and finds were published and analysed in Torok l 997b 116-128.-In Torok l 984b 355 I have suggested that M 260 dates from the 6th cent. BC and I also accepted earlier suggestions according to which the temple was the scene of coronation ceremonies. Zach - Tomandl 2000 132 maintain this dating and interpretation of the sanctuary, disregarding Rebecca Bradley's reconstruction of the building chronology ofMeroe City's central area after the 1st cent. BC (Bradley 1982, 1984a) as well as the detailed analysis of Garstang's records and finds presented in Torok

TEMPLE AND SOCIETY

315

The existence and the site of the first Amun temple may be inferred from in situ architectural remains 257 and dislocated inscribed blocks found at site M 293 (cf. fig. 4). 258 This evidence is further supported by finds from two cachettes discovered under palace M 294. The first cachette contained two pottery jars contaning gold dust, nuggets, and jewels inscribed for kings Aramatelqo and Malonaqene (first half of the 6th century Bc), 259 the second items of (an) early Napatan foundation deposit(s), pieces of Twenty-Fifth Dynasty260 and early Napatan temple furniture, and a rich collection of various votive objects. 261 Architectural remains unearthed at site M 298 also seem to belong to the early Amun temple. 262 It was supposed that a kind of cult continuity was secured by chapel M 292 which was re-built several times over the walls of a chapel that belonged presumably to the early Amun temple compound. M 292 survived as a cult building until the end of the Meroitic period. 263 The earliest settlement levels of Meroe City, which are supposed to be contemporary with the early Amun temple, were reached during the course of the excavations conducted between 1965-1972 by P.L. Shinnie and RJ. Bradley in the North Mound (fig. 4) c. 7.50 m below the AD 3rd century settlement level. 264 The cachettes under M 294 were discovered by Garstang at a depth of c. 7.30 m below the latest (AD 4th century?) occupation level in the central (Enclosure) area of the city. As this depth was reached by Garstang during the course of more or less random sondages that were carried out under M 293 1997b which confirms Bradley's datings and which results in a different interpretation of "dais room" M 266 which was earlier regarded as a throne hall associated with enthronement ceremonies. Bradley's chronology already convinced me of the incorrectness of my 1984 dating at an early phase of my work with the Garstang records, however, and I corrected my erroneous chronology in Torok 1992a 117 f. 257 Probably from a doorway inscribed for Amani-nataki-lebte, 2nd half of the 6th cent. BC, Torok 1997b 152, fig. 95. 258 Torok l 997b 152 f. 259 Torok 1997b 160 f., figs 119, 140, PL 126. 260 The (now lost) bronze statuette of a Twenty-Fifth Dynasty ruler, most probably Taharqo, was published in Torok l 997b 260 find x-g, Pis 210, 211 as unprovenanced, because I failed to realize that it was photographed by Garstang as part of the metal finds from the second cachette, see Torok l 997b PL 123, 2nd row third from left (described in. p. 159 as find 294-115, erroneously as "bronze statuette of a lion-headed goddess"). 261 Ibid. 25-30, 153-161, 235-243, figs 95, 100, Pis 115-125. 262 Ibid. 16 7 f. 263 Ibid. 145-151. For its AD 1st cent. wall paintings cf. Ch. 2.12. 264 Shinnie - Bradley 1980 figs 12, 13, cf. Torok 1997b 44 f., figs A, B.

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and 294, 265 the actual layout of the early Amlin temple as well as the early structure of the city centre remain unknown. The inscribed finds associated with the early Amlin temple reveal that it was dedicated to the dual cult of Amlin of Napata and Amlin of Thebes. 266 Its longitudinal axis was oriented probably approximately north-south and the royal residence associated with it stood probably in the area of the buildings marked M 295 and M 195 (?) in fig. 4. The reasons for its abandonment around the middle of the third century Bc 267 remain obscure. The building of a new Amlin temple may have had some connection with the emergence of a new dynasty around the middle of the 3rd century BC as a consequence of which the royal burial ground was transferred from Gebel Barkal to the Begarawiya South Cemetery and then, after two ruler generations, to the Begarawiya North Cemetery. 268 It seems, however, that the building of the new temple did not coincide with the creation of a local form of Amlin. The Meroitic text on the late 1st century Be-early AD 1st century Amanishakheto Stela found in the forecourt of the late Amlin temple still mentions Amnp Bedewete, i.e., the Amanapa of Meroe (City). 269 Amanapa is probably the Meroitic name of Amlin of Napata, 270 and his appearance in the Amanishakheto Stela indicates that the late Amlin temple was, similarly to the TwentyFifth Dynasty predecessor temple, dedicated to the cult of Amlin of

265 Considering the quality of the cachette finds and the quantity of gold associated with the foundation deposit (two jars filled with gold nuggets and the three famous golden necklace spacers inscribed for kings Aramatelqo and Malonaqene, cf. Wenig 1978 185; for the original spacers and the confusing copies made for Garstang from his share of the nuggets and dust and presented to the sponsors of his excavations see JD. Cooney: Assorted Errors in Art Collecting. Expedition 611 [1963] 20-27), it is rather surprising that Garstang did not try to excavate larger portions of the buildings associated with the foundation deposit (which he did not identify as such) and the cachette. 266 The Twenty-Fifth Dynasty and Napatan period votives found in the cachettes associated with the early Amlin temple were dedicated to these gods. Three votives, however, were offered to Amlin of Gematon (Kawa) who may thus have been worshipped there as a synnaos. For the finds see Torok 1997b 26 f., 152 f., 155-161, 235-243, figs 94, 95, 99, 100, 118-126, Pis 115-126. 267 The latest datable find from the temple area is a faience votive plaque of King Amanislo, Torok 1997b 168 find 298-2. 268 For the dynastic change see Ch. 4.1.2 and cf. also Chs 2.8-10. 269 REM 1041 B; cf. REM 1003, I 039 (the Hamadab stelae of Queen Amanirenas and Prince Akinidad, cf. FHN II No. 176). 27 ° Cf. Hofmann 1995 2812 f. (contra Torok 1986 111 f. where the earlier identification with Amlin of Luxor was still maintained).

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Napata. Guest cults of the Amanapa of Meroe are attested in Lower Nubia in the late second century BC at Arere (Wadi es Sebua-Wadi el Arab), 271 in the late first century BC at the provincial centre Faras, 272 and in the late Meroitic period at Qasr Ibrim. 273 We find, however, the representation of a ram-headed Amni Berate on the south jamb of the Amlin temple at Naqa (Ch. 2.15, PL XX.II). If Bero is, as repeatedly suggested, a Meroitic form of the toponym Meroe, the Naqa relief would suggest that by the first half of the AD 1st century there existed a cult of a local Amlin of Meroe and that this new cult was fitted into the context of the principal Amlin cults of the land. In Natakamani's and Amanitore's contemporary kiosk M 279 in the forecourt of the Meroe City temple the figures of Amlin of Thebes and Mut were represented on the south wall of the interior, while on the north wall a ram-headed Amlin was represented in the company of his consort. 274 If there indeed existed an Amlin of Meroe in the AD 1st century, the latter relief must have portrayed him. If so, the confrontation of the two Amlins on the kiosk walls indicate that the cult in the temple continued to be a dual one in which, however, the place of Amlin of Napata was taken now by Amlin of Meroe. The building of the late Amlin temple was part of a larger urban development, during the course of which the central area of Meroe City, i.e., the western one of the three alluvial islands where the settlement had originally been built, was enclosed within a monumental masonry wall (Ch. 1.4, figs 3, 4). 275 Within the walls, a water sanctuary complex (M 195) was erected which seems to have been associated with (a) royal palace(s) at the site of buildings M 294 and 295 276 and where the rites of the Nile inundation and the New Year were associated with the worship of the royal ancestors (Ch. 1.4). The streets north of the royal palace(s) and the water sanctuary were flanked by palatial buildings which seem to have been inhabited

In the Taneyidamani Stela REM 1044 (cf. Ch. 3.4). REM 0521, FHN II No. 155. 273 REM 1076.-Also in mortuary inscriptions of priests from Qasr Ibrim buried at Nag Gamus, REM 1076, 1149. 274 Torok 1997b PL IOI; Natakamani and Arnanitore from the same wall: Garstang et al. 1911 PL XII/ I. 275 For the architecture of the wall and its dating see Torok I 997b 41-46. 276 Ibid. 153-165. 271

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mainly by the higher priesthood of the late Amfm temple 277 or associated with the temple in other ways such as, e.g., the observatory in building M 950 (Ch. 1.4). The late Amun temple was oriented towards the east, i.e., towards the royal necropoleis while its original front overlooked a (temporary?) Nile channel. 278 The temple and its annexes were incompletely excavated and Garstang's records and photographs do not allow more than a summary reconstruction of the building history. The plan (fig. 12) shows what may be identified at first sight as the result of several enlargements and modifications of a core building. However, the actual interrelationships between the core and its extensions remain obscure. During a trial excavation conducted by P.L. Shinnie 279 in the south-western corner of forecourt M 271 two floor levels were found, the earlier one c. 20-25 cm below the later one. The columns proved contemporary with the earlier floor level, while the remains of the thick brick wall (which may be reconstructed as a pylon front, see below) between the Forecourt and hall M 270 were associated with the later floor level. 280 It would seem that the irregular layout of the longitudinal colonnades was the consequence of an extension of the court towards the east. Namely, in the building period associated with the lower floor level the Forecourt extended from the east wall of M 270 to the height marked by the break in the line of the longitudinal colonnades. During the course of the extension of the court, the floor level was raised and new pylons were built to replace the ones in front of hall M 270. The ante or ad quern of the extension is indicated by a secondarily used block from one of the screen walls of kiosk M 280 in front of the temple gate. It is inscribed with the cartouches of Queen Amanitore (middle of the AD 1st century). 281 The date of the earlier forecourt part extending from the front of M 270 to the break in the line of the colonnade remains, however, obscure. Transitory kiosk M 279 in the centre of the Forecourt was built by Natakamani and Amanitore in conjunction with the enlargement of

277

Ibid. 37 ff.

For the hypothetical reconstruction of Meroe City's early topography see Bradley 1982, l 984a; for the evidence from Garstang's excavations supporting Bradley's suggestions concerning the (temporary) Nile channels see Torok 1992a 117 f.; 1997b 35 ff.-See also Ch. 1.4 above. 279 In 1967. 280 Shinnie - Bradley 1980 91-95, figs 26, 27, Pis XXIX, XXXV, XXXVII. 281 Garstang et al. 1911 11 f.; REM 0418. 278

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the court or shortly afterwards. 282 The presence of Prince Arikankharor in its reliefs 283 indicates a date in the early reign of the co-regents (cf. Ch. 2.14). The Bes figures on three sides of the kiosk's corner pillars284 seem to point towards architectural influence from Ptolemaic Egypt, 285 yet they may attest the influence of a Kushite architectural form associated conceptually with birth houses as well. 286 The core temple stood in a large temenos whose west wall was formed by the city's enclosure wall. Garstang also discovered the lower courses of a dressed sandstone temenos wall on the north side. With the building and then the extension of Forecourt M 271, this latter wall was lengthened towards the east. The temenos was closed in the east by a brick wall with a thickness of c. 5.0 m which was built in conjunction with the extension of the Forecourt. The wall thickness may indicate the presence here of pylon towers. The main gate was built of sandstone blocks and on the preserved thickness surfaces were observed remains of monumental reliefs. On the south thickness surface, above a smooth base zone of a height of c. 1.40 m, two monumental-size feet and the hanging end of an animal tail could still be seen by the author in January 1989. Judging by the length of the feet (56 cm), the figure must have been about 4 m high. It faced east and was thus a divine figure, i.e., the representation of the lord of the temple or of Amun of Thebes. On the north thickness surface, remains of a similar divine figure (Amun of Thebes or the lord of the temple) are preserved. In the early 1970s A.M. Ali Hakem also observed traces of royal figures facing the deities. 287 Let us return here from the forecourt extension which

Torok 1997b 118 f., 120. Cartouche on a fragment of a relief representing Natakamani and Amanitore in the company of Arikankharor, Liverpool Museum 49.4 7. 723, Torok l 997b 128 find 279~1. 284 The lower part (two masonry courses) with the Bes figures of one of the pillars was discovered, now Copenhagen JE.I.N. 1333, Garstang et al. 1911 PL XIII/4. 285 For the Ptolemaic porch of the Mut temple at Karnak see Arnold 1999 301, fig. 263. 286 E.g., the small temple of Shepenwepet II and Amonirdis II in Karnak North connected to the Osiris cult and Taharqo's sed festival as well as the sed festival chapel of Taharqo in front of Luxor Temple were built with engaged Hathor columns on their main front, thus imitating a colonnaded kiosk of the type found in later birth houses, see Arnold 1999 54. On the other hand, in the forecourt of Taharqo's Mut-Hathor-Tefnut temple B 300 at Napata (see Ch. 2.3) the Bes pillars have Hathor capitals, see W els by 1996 fig. 4 7. 287 Ali Hakem 1988 156 ff. 282

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belongs to the second main building period to the first main building period, i.e., to the core building. The building of the original temple (core building) can be dated only in general terms between the first half of the 3rd and the early 2nd century Bc. 288 It was a fairly small (c. 50 X 25 m) rectangular edifice. Behind the Naos there was the transversal "crypt" 289 M 262 and annex M 268. M 262 opened from M 263 which was connected towards the east with room M 264 and towards the south with the Re-Harakhte chapel M 266. Naos M 261 opened, together with M 264 and the two-columned north side sanctuary (?) M 265 from the four-columned transversal Hall of the Offering Tables (M 269). The Hall of the Offering Tables opened from the six-columned Hypostyle M 273. M 273 opened from the eight-columned transveral hall M 270 which functioned as a forecourt. As indicated in Shinnie's 1965 trial excavation, the east front of the core temple was preserved when the first forecourt M 271 was built, but it was pulled down and replaced by pylon towers when the Forecourt was extended towards the east in the AD 1st century. It may also be presumed that the thick wall dividing M 270 from M 273 was in fact the remains of a second pair of pylon towers. The typological resemblances between the layout of the core temple and Taharqo's Kawa and Sanam Amfm temples are obvious, even if they were somewhat overestimated in the earlier literature. 290 Differences occur especially in the relationship between the rooms along the main temple axis and those opening to the right and the left of it. The Re-Harakhte chapel can be entered not only through a side door opening from the Hall of the Offering Tables but also has its own axially arranged anterooms (unnumbered rooms south of M 269 and 273) which communicated with M 273, i.e., the Hypostyle. Room M 272 is similarly a separate unit opening from the Hypostyle; 291 while the large columned room M 265 north of

Torok 1997b 124. The room is not subterranean, but its function as a "crypt" is suggested by the walled recess in M 262 which in all probability served as a storage place for cult implements, cf. C. Traunecker: Krypta. IA III (1979) 823-830; Ti:iri:ik 1997b 122. 290 Especially in Ti:iri:ik l 984b. 291 In the excavation photo reproduced here as Pl. XXVI no door can be dis288

289

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the main sanctuary has no parallels at Kawa or Sanam. 292 Although in the latter temples, the corridor-like transversal room ("crypt") behind the naos communicates only with the Re-Harakhte chapel, at Meroe City it is connected with the Hall of the Offering Tables and through it with the Naos as well. With its annexes, the late Amun temple at Meroe may be regarded as a functionally determined amalgamation of the Kawa-Sanam type with Egyptian Late Period types as, e.g., the Nekhbet temple of Psamtik I with Hakoris's extension at El-Kab. 293 The Re-Harakhte chapel, room M 272 (perhaps with M 278), and columned room M 265 were not merely scenes of particular rites in the cult of the lord of the temple. Their spatial independence within the temple indicates that they had their own divine dwellers. The original character of the Re-Harakhte chapel, in terms of its cult functions, is indicated by the cult statue base erected presumably for the permanent image of the lord of the chapel and found on the top of the dais as well as by the barque stand for his processional image discovered standing in situ on the north side of the dais. 294 It cannot be excluded that M 272 was associated with the cult of Mut, as may be indicated by King Amanikhabale's votive stela which was discovered here (for the stela see Ch. 4.3). Further architectural- and cult units may be suspected in unexcavated room complexes opening from the north side of M 270 and from court M 277. The multiplication of cults within a temple may perhaps also be reflected, at least partly, in the Meroitic mortuary inscriptions in which priests are recorded as being priests in several cults. The evidence seems to suggest, e.g., that the temple of Amun of

cerned between M 272 and M 278 (left, third and fourth rooms from the bottom of the photograph) and it seems as if M 278 had no entrance at all. Due to a lack of adequate records it is impossible to say if there was a walled-up door between the two rooms on their main axis; if yes, the two rooms constituted the pronaos and naos of a separate cult chapel. If there was no door, M 278 may have been a "crypt" entered from above. 292 See, however, the large columned side room next to the main sanctuary in the Nekhbet temple at El-Kab (Psamtik I, see next footnote) or in the Amfm temple of Arnasis in the Siwa Oasis, Arnold 1999 fig. 46. 293 Arnold 1999 64, fig. 35, plan XII. 294 For the original find situation see Garstang et al. 1911 Pls VIII/ 1, 2, for its subsequent alterations by the excavators see SAOS Negs 256, then: 299 (= Torok 1997b Pl. 91), 251, 260, and still later: Hofmann - Tomandl 1986 fig. 21.

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Napata in Karanog also housed the cults of Masa 295 and Isis 296 while Arrn1n of Napata may have been worshipped together with Apedemak in the temple of Arminna. 297 The rooms of the core temple were paved uniformly with large sandstone slabs (PL XX.VI) and the temple floor gently sloped upwards from Forecourt M 271 towards the Naos. It was also contiguous in all rooms from M 271 to M 261. In the Re-Harakhte chapel, the top of the column bases extended only 2 or 3 cm above the floor slabs. 298 This, together with the contiguity of the floor over all the temple, means that the entire core temple was re-paved in the AD 1st century when Forecourt M 271 was extended and repaved. With the building of Forecourt M 271, the earlier Forecourt M 270 may have lost its original cult function and begun to function as an inner court. On the other hand, the four-columned room M 269 maintained its original function as hall of the offering tables, as shown by the two ferricrete sandstone barque stands 299 standing to the south of its main axis (PL XX.VIII). The halls of the offering tables were in Egyptian as well as in Kushite temples associated traditionally with the cult of "guest deities" (synnaoi theoi) worshipped in the actual temple (cf. Ch. 2.4. 7). Being placed in their barque on these stands, the images of guest deities who also possessed their own naoi in the temple annexes shared the offerings brought to the lord of the temple. Connected to the Re-Harakhte chapel and to annexes in the north (M 272 and perhaps M 278) as well as to the annexes in the temenos (via corridor M 274), M 273 seems to have continued to function as a hypostyle hall. This idea is also supported by a unique feature in the centre of M 270 (Pl. XXVII). 300 It was described by the excavator as "a place specially prepared for sacrifice of larger animals; it was about three metres square, surrounded by a trench and enclosing a central space about one metre square in which stood a dish of stone lined with

295 Probably (Arnun)-Re, cf. the Msmni, Masa-Arnani of REM 0430; Hofmann 1995 2813. 296 Torok 1977 414 ff. 297 REM 1063. 298 T iiriik 199 7b PL 91. 299 Gars tang et al. 1911 13. The larger one (in PL XXVIII extreme left, partly covered by a column) is now in Copenhagen, JE.I.N. 1334. 300 Torok l 997b PL 89.

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glazed [faience] tiles". 301 No temple butchery can be imagined, however, in this part of the sanctuary. 302 The "trench" seems to have served, in fact, as a bed of light (wooden) screen walls enclosing in the centre a shallow square basin which can be identified as a purification basin. In Egyptian temples the purification chapel, i.e., the pr-dwJt was usually situated in one of the annex rooms opening from the forecourt or, in a not-central position, in the second, inner, court303 as e.g. in the Horus temple of Edfu. 304 It may seem, however, that it was not the association of the pr-dwJt with the inner court of the Egyptian temples (with which, after the building of M 271, M 270 doubtless corresponded functionally) that determined the building of a purification chapel in M 270. Its place and character may be better explained in the terms of another tradition connected to purification rites. Namely, during the course of the Opet Festival the king's barque, containing the statue of the living divine king's ka, was carried in procession from Karnak Temple to Luxor Temple together with the barques of the Theban triad. Arriving in Luxor Temple, and after rites performed there in the Forecourt (i.e., the Ramesside Court), 305 the barques of the Theban triad were carried to their chapels opening from the Hypostyle while the king accompanied the barque of his ka to the "Chapel of the Divine King" situated between the Hypostyle and the Offering Vestibule. The barque of the divine king and the statue of his ka were placed in their respective shrines opening from the Chapel. Later the "Chapel of the Divine King" was the scene of the king's purification by water and the repetition of the rites of his coronation by his divine father Amun-Re of Thebes. 306 It may seem quite likely that the late Amun temple at Meroe City was the scene of periodical renewals of royal power during which the king was purified in the inner court before meeting his divine father in one of the

301 ]. Garstang - A.H. Sayce: Second Interim Report on the Excavations at Meroe in Ethiopia. IAAA 4 (1912) 45-71 47. 302 Cf. Arnold 1962 88 ff.; A. Eggebrecht: Schlachten. uf V (1983) 638; id.: Schlachthof. ibid. 640 f. 303 Arnold 1962 70 ff., 76 f. 304 PM VI 120; Finnestad 1997 fig. 89. 305 For the names of the rooms of Luxor Temple referred to here see Bell 1997 fig. 56. 306 For a reconstruction of the whole Opet Festival see Bell 1997 15 7-176; cf. also Bell 1985a 265-272.

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inner rooms of the temple. 307 The royal purification may, however, have been part of processional feasts too when the lord of the temple emerged from his sanctuary and/ or was visited by other deities. In its fully developed form, the temple had numerous features which refer to ritual acts connected to processional movements of the lord of the temple and other deities. Emerging in its barque from the Naos, the image of the lord of the temple rested during processional feasts first in the kiosk in the centre of the Forecourt (M 279), and then in the monumental kiosk in front of the temple (fig. 4) where he received offerings and the homage of the population and delivered oracles. The kiosk in front of the temple may also have been one of the foci of the interconnections between the Arm1n temple and the small sanctuaries flanking its processional avenue. The above-mentioned barque stands in the Hall of the Offering Tables (Pl. XXVIII) testify to small processions within the walls of the temple in which the barques of the guest deities were carried into the presence of the lord of the temple. A rather special kind of barque procession is indicated by a smaller barque stand placed outside the temple at the centre of the rear wall of the Naos 308 (fig. 12) exactly "behind" the permanent image of the lord of the temple, i.e., in the area that may be termed a virtual contra-temple. It is tempting to suppose that, placed in its barque on this stand, it was the image of a deity dwelling in some other temple that "communicated" here with the lord of the temple in his Naos. Another possibility is that the lord of the temple halted here in the procession around his temple in order to realize the purpose of the contra-temple in an unusual manner. Finally, it is also possible that this barque stand was associated with a particularly interesting and unparalleled part of the temple, viz., with edifice M 276 standing between its rear wall and the city's Enclosure Wall (fig. 12, Pis XXIX, XXX). M 276 was a transversally oriented long (c. 10 m) and narrow (c. 2.5 m) room erected on a high podium and approached by flights

307 In Taharqo's Temple T at Kawa, the purification of the king is represented on the north wall of the Forecourt, indicating that it was this part of the temple where the rite was performed. Cf. Ch. 2.4.5. 308 Garstang et al. 1911 Pl. IX/4.-lt stands now, as a result of the excavator's rearrangement of the interior of the Re-Harakhte chapel (see above), on the dais in the latter.

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of steps and doorways at either short side. According to the excavator, "its western wall, which was like a facing of brick added to the stone wall of the city, seemed to preserve traces of stucco and painting, especially in a broad recess or panel" 309 in the centre of the wall. While Garstang's plan (fig. 12) records a simple, c. 3-3.5 m long and 30-40 cm deep recess, one of his photographs (Pl. XXX) gives the impression that it was framed by flat wall pillars (?). With its flights of steps leading to entrances at either short side, the building may be defined as a barque station. 310 Its position behind the main sanctuary doubtless connects it with the lord of the temple. It would be tempting to regard it therefore as the scene of rites associated with the contra-temple area (cf. Ch. 3.1 ), were it not for a detail in its interior that may suggest a different interpretation which was pointed out by Tamas A. Bacs. 311 This detail lies in the recess in its west wall. Though it is unusually broad, the recess has the appearance of a false door. If it was indeed a false door, the barque station M 276 was the place for the mystic communication between a deity--most probably the lord of the temple-who appeared here in his processional barque and another deity who "arrived" through the false door from the area behind the door, i.e., from the Royal Enclosure. The Meroitic royal palace M 294 was situated "behind" the late Amlin temple, suggesting that it may have been the living divine king (?) or a deified royal ancestor (?) who was encountered by Amlin at the false door. The items preserved from the inventory of the enlarged temple include inscriptions and objects from different periods. Some of them may originate from the inventory of the core temple. In the southwest corner of the Forecourt, close to the door of the inner court (M 270), stood a grey granite stela with the Meroitic cursive inscription of the late 1st century Be-early 1st century AD Queen Amanishakheto. 312 Garstang discovered the lower part of the stela in the place where it was re-erected in the AD mid-1st century after the enlargement of the Forecourt. 313 Small fragments of the stela found by

Garstang et al. 1911 14, Pls IX/l, 2. In Torok 1997b 123 I interpreted M 276, probably wrongly, as an Osiris chapel. 311 Oral communication, September 2000. 312 REM 1041; cf. Hintze 1959 47. 313 Garstang photographs SAOS Negs M 308, 311, 312. 309

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Garstang in the surrounding area 314 and other fragments unearthed there by P.L. Shinnie in 1969315 indicate that the stela was wilfully destroyed, although the date of the destruction cannot be established. A stone throne (?) dais the steps and sides of which were decorated, similarly to analogous daises from the great Amun temple at Napata316 and from the Amun temple at Naqa, 317 with the incised figures of bound captives was found between the south colonnade and the south enclosing wall of Forecourt M 271 southwest of kiosk M 279. 318 Provided that its find place, similarly to that of the Naqa dais which is said to come from the area "in front of the temple", is close to its original place, it may be supposed that the Meroe City dais as well as analogues to it were associated with temple festivals where the lord of the temple and the ruler appeared together in the temple forecourt. From M 272, besides Amanikhabale's votive stela mentioned in the foregoing, comes also the fragment of a fine late Hellenistic Egyptian glass cameo. 319 In room M 264 were discovered the lower part of the faience statuette of an enthroned Meroitic ruler, 320 a fragment of a sandstone statuette of a king, 321 and fragments of further multicolored faience statuettes and a naos-shaped object. 322 Various faience votives connected to the cult of Amun 323 are recorded from the same 314 Torok 1997b 126 find nos 271-1 to 3; SAOS Negs M 277, 281, ibid. Pis 95-97. 315 Shinnie - Bradley 1980 91. 316 I. Hofmann: Der Thronuntersatz von Napata und Meroe. GM 80 (1984) 15-21; H. Tomandl: Die Thronuntersatze vom Amuntempel in Meroe und Jebel Barkal. Ein ikonographischer Vergleich. VA 2 (1986) 63-72; I. Hofmann H. Tomandl: Bemerkungen zu einem meroitischen Gefangenentyp. ibid. 101-111. 317 Wildung - Schoske 1999 78 f., figs 82, 83.-Wildung (ed.) 1997 Cat. 275, 276 publishes two dais fragments from the Khartoum National Museum collections (Kh. 24554 and 2455 7) adding that they come from P.L. Shinnie's 1976 excavations at Meroe City. In 1976 the University of Calgary-University of Khartoum expedition directed by Shinnie worked at the small temples flanking the processional avenue of the late Amfm temple. The actual find context of the fragments remains unknown before the publication of the excavations conducted in this area. 318 Garstang photographs SAOS Negs M 306, 307. 319 SAOS C 1132. With the figures of the horses of Nike's or Athena's chariot, late 1st cent. Be-early AD !st cent., Torok 1997b 127 find nos 272-3, Pl. 99. 320 SAOS E 224, Torok 1997b 124 f. find nos 264-3, Pl. 93. In Garstang et al. 1911 Pl. X/5 between two faience animal statuettes, one ram and one lion (?). 321 Torok 1997b 125 find nos 264-8, fig. 89. 322 Garstang et al. 1911 Pl. XI 1; Torok l 997b 125 find nos 264-4 and 5. 323 Faience plaque with representation of ducks in low relief, Garstang et al. 1911 Pl. XXII/4; Torok 1997b 125 find nos 264-6, Pl. 94.

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room, together with votive types that are familiar from earlier (TwentyFifth Dynasty-Napatan?) contexts. 324 Bronze uraei (one gilded) originally decorating the cornice of wooden shrines, 325 as well as a faience relief fragment decorated with sistrum-playing figures 326 and a fragment of a late 1st century Be-early AD 1st century Egyptian millefiori glass dish come from Hypostyle M 273. 327 A detail from the Re- Harakhte chapel indicates the manner in which libation offerings were made before the divine image placed on the dais. The libation was poured into a sandstone tray or basin with a depression in the form of an cnb sign and set into the floor in front of the steps leading to the dais platform. 328 Two similar basins were found in front of the barque stand in the Naas as well. 329 They testify to the same form of libation performed before the lord of the temple. 330 Surprisingly, at the side of the basins a Late Period Horus cippus also lay on the floor of the Naos. 331 The find circumstances do not leave much doubt as to the use of the tablet: the priests officiating in the Naas also libated onto its surface which was inscribed with powerful texts and images. Though such a practice fully conformed with the manner in which the magic-healing properties of the Horus tablets were exploited, the incorporation of a Horus tablet into the rites which were performed in the Naas before the lord of the temple is nevertheless striking and highlights one of the

324 Macadam 1955 186 f., Pis XCV le, CIII/c; cf. also from unknown site in Meroe City: Shinnie - Bradley 1980 fig. 641I066. 325 Torok l 997b 127 f. find nos 273-1 and 2, Pl. 100. 326 Ibid. 128 find nos 273-3, Pl. 100. 327 Ibid. 128 find nos 273-4, Pl. 100. 328 Torok I 997b 125 find nos 266-1, Pl. 91 (in situ); with mention of analogous basins.-An analogous libation tray was found in situ in the Apedemak temple at Naqa (Ch. 2.14). It was inserted into the floor on the axis by the inner side of the threshold of the door of the wooden shrine enclosing the permanent cult image, Hinkel 1997 fig. 56; Wildung - Schoske 1999 fig. 38 (location). The fragment of a more elaborate libation tray with a rosette flanked (?) by two (?) 'nb signs was found on the dais of the Re-Harakhte chapel in the Amfm temple of Naqa (Ch. 2.15) together with a number of pottery dishes and the base and feet of a faience statuette of a deity, Wildung - Schoske 1999 71, fig. 76. An even more elaborate libation tray comes from the Apedemak temple at Naqa, see Wildung (ed.) 1997 Cat. 432; Wildung - Schoske 1999 fig. 45. 329 Garstang et al. 1911 13, Pl. XI 4. 330 An analogous libation basin was inserted into the floor of the court of temple M 720 at Meroe City (cf. my fig. 4) before the doorstep of the second court (or rather hypostyle) in the main temple axis, see Bradley 1980b 280. 3 n Kh. 521; Ibid. 13, Pl. XI; Torok l 997b 124 find nos 261-1.

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points of intersection where official cult met popular piety in Kush. 332 Such an association of the healing power of the Horus tablet with the Amun cult is, howewer, not without antecedents of considerable antiquity: a Twenty-Fifth Dynasty healing chapel in the Mut Precinct at South Karnak seems to have had a cult stela with the representation of Horus on the crocodiles. 333 Other healing chapels were identified in the court of the Opet temple, in the court of the great Amlin temple behind the small Seti II temple; and several Horus tablets were found in the territory of the great Amlin temple. 334 The "crypt" also yielded a remarkable votive object, viz., a goldleaf backed opaque glass paste tablet with a raised relief representation of the striding Amun of Thebes with the beginning of a Meroitic hieroglyphic legend reading Amannote, "Amlin of Thebes". 335 South of the Amun temple temenos stood building complex M 740. 336 Enclosed by its own temenos wall which on the east was contiguous with the AD mid-1st century front of the Amlin temple, the building complex was associated with the temple. Its early period was probably contemporary with the core temple. Garstang excavated a series of long, narrow rooms in its east part (fig. 4) which may be identified as granaries. The orientation of the walls of the granaries corresponded with palace M 750 (see below) and they were built, as indicated by a secondarily built-in relief block, 337 after the middle of the

AD

1st century over the remains of earlier magazine

and/ or granary buildings. 338 A rich variety of various artifacts are

332 It also reinforces, however indirectly, the close connections between the temples and the Horus tablets whose texts and representations display a high level of theological knowledge. 333 C. Traunecker: Une chapelle de magie guerisseuse sur le parvis du temple de Mout a Karnak. ]ARCE 20 (1983) 75-92; id.: Une pratique de magie populaire clans !es temples de Karnak. La magia in Egitto ai tempi dei faraoni. Verona 198 7 221-242 221 f. 334 On these monuments and on Arnfin's appearance in the iconography and texts of Egyptian magical statues and stelae see L. Kakosy: Egyptian Healing Statues in Three Museums in Italy (Turin, Florence, Naples) (Catalogo del Museo Egizio di Torino Serie Prima--Monumenti e Testi IX). Torino 1999 13-17. 335 Formerly in the collection of Martin Kennard, a sponsor of Garstang's excavations, present whereabouts unknown, Garstang et al. 1911 PL X/3; Torok l 997b 124 find nos 262-1. 336 Torok 1997b 179-181. 337 Torok 1997b 180 f. find nos 740-1, PL 147 = Wenig 1978 Cat. 124. 338 For the unexcavated remains of earlier buildings see Torok 1997b 180.

TEMPLE AND SOCIETY

329

recorded from the site, especially fine pottery sherds which probably originate from the temple magazines. 339 South of the processional avenue of the late Amun temple stood palace M 750. It was built with unusual care of dressed sandstone blocks. 340 The preserved masonry courses contain a great number of secondarily used relief blocks originating from temple buildings of Twenty-Fifth Dynasty (?), early Napatan, and pre-1st century AD Meroitic date. 341 While some of them may come from Aspelta's temple at site M 250 (Ch. 2.13), the source of most of them-together with reused early Napatan relief blocks from kiosk M 279 342-is most probably the early Amun temple. As indicated by its orientation which corresponds with the entrance front of the Forecourt of the late Amun temple as well as by AD 1st century relief blocks reused in its walls, 343 M 750 is contemporary with, or postdates the extension of the temple Forecourt. It contained two main parts which were connected to one another by a large transverse hall or courtyard situated in the centre of the building. The northern part seems to have possessed a pylon front oriented towards the processional avenue. Its rooms were arranged symmetrically around a colonnaded court situated on the main axis. The rooms of the southern part of the palace were arranged in two tracts around a colonnaded central courtyard while the remains of two staircases suggest the presence of (an) upper storey(s). 344 The bipartition of the layout suggests different functions for the two building halves: a ceremonial palace in the north, and living quarters in the south. As already pointed out in Ch. 1.4, the palace constituted a functional and conceptual unit with the late Amun temple, with its processional avenue and with the small sanctuaries flanking it, and with the granaries attached to it. The ensemble testifies to the continuity of the governmental structure created during the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty, viz., to the organic unity of secular and temple administration and redistribution. It visualizes the functioning of the Amun temple-royal residence compounds of the territorial centres of the kingdom. 339 Ibid. 181 finds 740-a to h, 741-a to p, 742-a, _743-1, fig. 101; 743-a to o, 744-1, fig. 101; 744-lbis, fig. 102; 744-a to k. 340 Ibid. 181-187. 341 Ibid. 183-187 finds 750-1 to 16, figs 33-39, 47, 49-52, 56, 60, 62, Pis 151-153. 342 SAOS E 8629, 8630, 8641, Ti:iri:ik I 997b 128 find nos 279-2 to 4, figs 43-45. 343 Ti:iri:ik 1997b 186 find nos 750-13, 14, figs 60, 62. 344 Ibid. fig. 29.

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The find circumstances of the libation basins and the Horus tablet in the Naas indicate that the cult practice in the innermost rooms of the temple came to an apparently peaceful end. It remains unknown, however, if the temple was "villagized" in the same manner as Kawa Temple T, the Sanam temple, and the great Amlin temple at Napata (Chs 3.2-3). The early twentieth century excavator failed to record archaeological phenomena and finds associated with the late periods and with the end of cult life in the temple. Garstang recorded, however, several burials in M 262, 263, and 268, and he suggested that the (1.50 m long!) recess in the floor of M 262 was a place prepared for a sarcophagus. The part of a human skeleton recovered in M 262 would indicate the presence of a human sacrifice "at the dedication of the temple". 345 Garstang's suggestion seems highly unlikely and pottery finds from these rooms, 346 especially an imported red ware bottle, 347 indicate that the burials date from the terminal Meroitic and/ or the early post-Meroitic period. It remains undecided, however, whether they are the pathetic documents of the last worshippers of Amlin who wanted to be buried within the still sacred walls of a villagized temple, 348 or if they should rather be identified as burials of a population squatting among the ruins of the city after the collapse of the Meroitic dynasty. 349

Gars tang et al. 1911 14. Ibid. Pl. X/2; Torok 1997b 124-126 finds 263-1, 268-1 and 2. 347 Garstang et al. 1911 PL X/2, top, extreme left; Torok l 997b 124 find 262-2, fig. 143. 348 For similar burials in and around the great Amfm temple at Napata: G.A. Reisner: The Barkal Temples in 1916. ]EA 4 (1917) 213-227 216; D. Dunham: The Barkal Temples. Boston 1970 85 ff. Unfortunately, the archeological context remains similarly unrecorded. 349 Cf. the burial in palace M 255, Torok 1997b 115 f., Pis 87, 88.-In the course of his 1974-1976 excavations at the processional avenue of the late Amlin temple, P.L. Shinnie also observed indications of squatter occupation in temples M 720 and KC I 04 (see fig. 4), Shinnie 1984 50 I, cf. Bradley l 984a 211. 345

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MYTH OF THE STATE, LITERACY, AND LITERATURE 4. 1. Components and uses

4. 1. 1. 17ze limits

ef the

Kushite royal text

ef literacy

Scholars of Nubian history are still especially hesitant when confronted with the question: what exactly is Kushite in the Kushite literacy of the period between the 8th and 3rd centuries BC, i.e., during the period in which the medium of literacy in Kush was Egyptian? The principal concern of those who are interested in the texts of this period is the varying, and with time increasing, extent of the deviation of their language from Traditional Egyptian. 1 Some experts prefer to explain all deviations by suggesting that the Kushite literati lived in growing isolation from Egypt. 2 Others suggest that Egyptian literacy in Kush was, independently from the actual form and extent of its contacts with contemporary Egypt, a tradition which had its own life and the practice of which was increasingly influenced by che own native language(s) of the authors of the texts. 3 The most recent analysis of the monuments of Kushite literacy presented by Richard Holton Pierce within the framework of the Fontes Historiae Nubiorum supports this latter view. 4 Some time in the 2nd century BC, hieroglyphic Egyptian began to be replaced by a new type of literacy in which both writing and language were native, i.e., Meroitic (see Ch. 4.4). It would be tempting to assume that the abandonment of Egyptian as the vehicle of Kushite royal documents and the invention of Meroitic writing were

1 I.e., the Egyptien de tradition of Pascal Vemus, cf. Entre Neo-Egyptien et. Demotique: la langue utilisee clans la traduction du rituel de repousser l'agressif (Etude sur la diglossie I). RdE 41 (1990) 153-208. 2 Cf. Macadam 1949 78; Leclant 1973 133 f. 3 Cf. first of all K.-H. Priese: Das meroitische Sprachmaterial in den dgyptischen Inschrijien des Reiches van Kusch. Unpubl. Ph.D. thesis, Berlin 1965; Priese 1968; id.: Zwei Worter in den "spatathiopischen" Inschriften . .(AS 95 (1969) 40-47; Priese 1972. 4 FHN I, II passim.

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parts of a process that moved towards the definition of a consciously non-Egyptian political and cultural identity. But here, again, we cannot fail to notice that both the hieroglyphic and cursive varieties of the Meroitic script derived from an Egyptian model. 5 Being confronted with the peculiar relationship between Egyptian and Kushite literacy, we must be indeed very circumspect if we want to navigate safely, avoiding both the arrogance of our predecessors who, directly or indirectly, described ancient Nubian literacy as a pathetic case of cultural masquerade on the peripheries of a great civilisation and the apologetic enthusiasm that tends to-day to produce works in which Egyptian influences are reflected in the distorting mirror of a retroactive and a-historical "national" pride. From the times between the 8th and 3rd centuries BC only monumental texts are preserved, namely, (1) texts centred around (a) royal action(s), (2) texts inscribed on temple walls and belonging within the context of their cult/iconographic program, viz., ritual texts, 6 hymns (e.g., on the pylon front of Kawa, Temple T, Ch. 2.4) and royal and divine Randzeilen or scene legends, and finally (3) religious texts associated with royal burials (texts on sarcophagi and the walls of royal tombs). We have briefly dealt with examples of the second category in the chapter on the grammar of the temple (Ch. 2); the third category does not fall within the scope of this study. In the following we shall discuss texts from the first category. Before turning to the monumental royal inscriptions, however, mention must be made of three special categories of texts which were used for the composition of royal inscriptions but the existence of which is attested only indirectly by certain topical features in the inscriptions themselves. Several royal texts describe royal activities carried out over a longer period of time: the Harsiyotef Annals embrace thirty-five years, while the narrative of the Nastasene Stela spans over eight years (cf. Ch. 4.2.2.4). These reports suggest the existence of some sort of annalistic records. As sources for narratives on royal actions or activities ordered by the ruler and occurring over shorter periods of time, such as military campaigns, temple buildings/ donations, and various festivals we may also suppose the exist-

5

Cf. A. Loprieno: Linguistic Variety and Egyptian Literature. in: Loprieno (ed.)

1996 515-529 528.

6 See, e.g., the instruction "[to be recited] four times" in the texts inscribed in the Pronaos of Temple T at Kawa quoted in Ch. 2.4.7.

MYTH OF THE STATE, LITERACY, AND LITERATURE

333

ence of royal daybooks and temple journals. Aspelta's Banishment and Adoption Stelae record legal actions (cf. Chs 4.1.3, 4.2.2.2). Finally, donation lists arranged in an annalistic manner, such as Taharqo's donation lists from Kawa (Ch. 4.2.1.5), the donation records inserted into Harsiyotef's and Nastasene's Annals (Ch. 4.2.2.4), and Aryamani's and Sabrakamani's lists 7 derived from official documents such as e.g. inventory records. It must be emphasized, however, that all these uses of literacy were restricted to the interaction between monumental royal Selbstthematisierung and the temples. The literacy emerging in Nubia in the period of Kashta (?) and Piye was rooted in, and continued to be influenced by Egyptian literacy and literary traditions in subsequent centuries. It must be realised, however, that the manner in which Egyptian conceptual and formal elements were incorporated in Kushite texts was determined by the Kushite cultural milieu in which the texts were composed rather than by the Egyptian context from which these particular elements were borrowed. Since literacy did not play a practical role in the political and economic administration of the land it must have been limited to a very small group of "professional" priestly literati. It seems rather likely, however, that the rulers and the uppermost echelon(s) of the non-clerical governing elite were literate as well. In the royal council described in Aspelta's Adoption Stela8 ~ate 7th-early 6th century Bc) six "overseers of the seal of the king's estate'',9 a "chief scribe of Kush", 10 a "king's scribe and overseer of the granary", 11 an "overseer of the seal of Wa-er of Nubia" 12 (?), a "king's scribe of the granary", 13 and a "sealer of the king" 14 participate. The royal decree concerning the adoption is witnessed by fifteen priests, among them the "scribe of the god's words" of Amlin-Re, Bull of Nubia 15 of Sanam. We do not know, however, whether the eleven governmental/ economic officials were "laymen", or, as is more probable in view

7 8

9 10

II I2 I3 I4

I5

From Kawa, FHN II Nos 91, 92 (Aryamani), 96 (Sabrakamani). FHN I No. 39. imy-r-{Jtmw nt pr-nsw. bry-sf n KS. sf-nsw imy-r-fnwt. imy-r-{Jtm n WJ-r-r nw TJ-sti. sf-nsw n fnwt. {Jtmw nt nsw. sf mdw-ntr n 'Imn-R' kJ n TJ-Sti.

334

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of what we know about the administrative structure of Kush (cf. Ch. 1.3), 16 all dignitaries named in the document were clerical officials. It is less difficult, of course, to identify the sf-md;t-ntr, "scribe of the temple archives" who appears in the company of the prophets of the temple in Irike-Amannote's great inscription from the second half of the 5th century BC as a member of the priesthood of Amlin of Kawa.17 The contexts in which the literate officials are portrayed in the Aspelta stela and the Irike-Amannote inscription reveal their high social status-which cannot be separated from the status of writing and literacy. The traditional formula protecting a royal decree also illuminates the numinous power attributed to writing: 18 As for the one who causes this decree to endure in this templecompound of Amun-Re, the Bull of Bow-land, he enjoys the praises of Amun-Re, his son enduring on his seat. As for the one who removes this decree from the temple-compound of Amun-Re, the Bull of Bow-land, he is (destined) for the knife of Amun-Re, he is (destined) for the fiery blast of Sekhmet, his son not enduring on his seat.

The power of writing is also indicated by a miniature faience stela 19 and a Horus tablet (Ch. 3.5) from Meroe City over which water was poured. Being imbued with the magical power of the hieroglyphs, the water was used for magic and healing. The royal inscriptions exhibited in the temple courts and other texts collected in the temple archives could be read only by a tiny literate minority trained in the Egyptian language and writing(s)by the same minority who was also able to participate in the composition of newer texts. The inscriptions displayed in the temple courts as texts formulating and perpetuating historical memory and identity could fulfil their function only if the learned priests interpreted them for the rest of society (Chs 3.1, 4.2.1-2).

16 See in more detail Torok l 997a 246-254, 488-497; for the Meroitic period see N.B. Millet: Social and Political Organisation in Meroe. ,ZAS 108 (1981) 124-141; Torok 1979. 17 FHN II No. 71, line 97. 18 Aspelta Adoption Stela, FHN I No. 39, lines 15-18, transl. R.H. Pierce. 19 Torok 1997b 246 f. and fig. 126, find x-1.

MYTH OF THE STATE, LITERACY, AND LITERATURE

335

4. 1. 2. The archives We must halt for a moment in front of the workshops where the texts were composed. Though we are unable to cross the threshold of the temple archives, by standing at their doors we may at least try to catch a glimpse of their contents. In Kush, the special limits of literacy in Egyptian excluded the development of an Egyptian-type literature with texts circulating in the society and collected in private "libraries". The production and collection of texts was limited to official workshops belonging to the great temples where the royal inscriptions were displayed. The temple workshops united probably scriptoria with archives: the royal and temple texts could emerge only from institutionalised communities of professional literati who maintained collections of a variety of texts and cared for the training of the next generations of the scribal intelligentsia. It is rather self-evident that the temple scriptoria-and-archives were modelled on the Egyptian New Kingdom/Late Period temple scriptorium, the "House of Life". 20 We have noted in the foregoing that the principal temples-especially the Amlin sanctuaries which were the places for the royal investiture (B 500 at Gebel Barkal, Kawa Temple T, the Amlin temple of Pnubs [Kerma])2 1 and/or the centres of territorial government-functioned as "archives" of historical memory. As we shall see in the following chapters, the texts from Gebel Barkal and Kawa display features that indicate the existence of local literary traditions. Besides the monumental inscriptions exhibited in the same temple, 22 the temple archives must, of course, have contained other texts as well which were used in the composition of the royal and temple inscriptions. The range of these textsof which no single piece is preserved in its original form-is indicated by the quotations inserted into our inscriptions. Besides quotations from literary and non-literary texts imported from Egypt, there are also citations from Kushite royal inscriptions erected in a temple far from the place where the actual citations were used. The texts on

2° Cf. S.G. Quirke: Archive. in: Loprieno (ed.) 1996 379-401 and see also M. Weber: Lebenshaus. IA III (1979) 954-958. 21 Referred to in enthronement records, but archaeologically still not verified. No texts are known which may be connected with the Pnubs temple. Cf. Ch. 3.2. 22 A significant Egyptian example is worth quoting here: according to Josephus, Contra Apionem 1.14,73 and Syncellus (see Waddell [ed.] 1940 208), Manetho used temple stelae as sources for his work. See also Redford 1986 65 ff.

336

CHAPTER FOUR

the granite sarcophagi of Anlamani 23 and Aspelta 24 provide a good idea of the richness of the archives of the great Amfm temple at Napata. They also demonstrate that even in times of political conflicts the archives in Kush continued to acquire texts from Egypt. The sarcophagus texts were composed from spells in the Pyramid texts, the Coffin texts, and the Book of the Dead and a wide selection of texts from Eighteenth Dynasty royal- and Twenty-Fifth and TwentySixth Dynasty Theban priestly sarcophagi. 25 Most significantly, quotations from the Book of Gates appear in them in a unique context that is known only from the inscriptions of the sarcophagus chamber of the Theban chief lector priest Petamenophis, a contemporary of Taharqo (?) and Tanwetamani. 26 This demonstrates the existence of direct contacts between the Theban and Napatan priesthoods during the earlier Twenty-Sixth Dynasty period. The chronological and topical range of the textual material kept in the archives is further highlighted by the royal titularies. The Kushite five-part royal titulary was modelled on the traditional titulary of the Egyptian pharaoh which was from times immemorial the most general and most concentrated manifestation of royal power. 27 As in Egypt, also it presented in Kush a general statement on the most important concepts connected to the institution of kingship and, at the same time, hinted at the religious policy and political goals

Kh. 1868, from Nu. 6, Dunham 1955 58; Doll 1978. MFA 23.729, from Nu. 8, Dunham 1955 figs 58-68; Doll 1978; 1982; Leprohon 1991 119 f. 25 Doll 1978 371 and 1982 279 considers the two sarcophagi the most complete royal sarcophagi known; see also Grima! 1980; S. Doll: The Day Hour Texts on the Sarcophagi of Anlamani and Aspelta. in: Studies Dunham 43-54. 26 TT 33, PM I 50ff.; R.S. Bianchi: Petamenophis. IA IV (1982) 991-992.~A text in the first subterranean chamber of Beg. S. 503, tomb of Queen Khefiuwa, published and interpreted by J. Yellin: An Astronomical Text from Beg. South 503. Meroitica 7 (1984) 577-582, was modelled on texts from the early Twenty-Sixth Dynasty Theban tombs of Montuemhat (TT 34) and Petamenophis (TT 33), cf. 0. Neugebauer - R.A. Parker: Egyptian Astronomical Texts III. London 1969 Pis 18-21; I. Nagy: Remarques Sur quelques formules stellaires des textes religieux d'epoque salte. StudiaAeg 3 (1977) 99-117. Even if the 3rd cent. BC dating of Beg. S. 503 suggested by Dunham 1957 37 is correct, its texts obviously derive from archival models or tomb decorations contemporary with the Egyptian Dyn. 26. 27 For the Egyptian titulary cf. J. v. Beckerath: Handbuch der iigyptischen Kiinigsnamen. Berlin 1984 1-40; P. Kaplony: Kiinigstitulatur. IA III (1979) 641-659; M.-A. Bonheme: Les noms royaux dans l'Egypte de la troisieme periode intermediaire. Le Caire 1987; Baines 1995b 125-128; R. Gundlach: Der Pharao und sein Staal. Die Gmndlegung der iigyptischen Kiinigsideologie im 4. und 3. ]ahrtausend. Darmstadt 1998 17-23 etc. 23 24

MYTH OF THE STATE, LITERACY, AND LITERATURE

337

to be realised by an individual ruler. Consisting of the Horus-name referring to the king as incarnation of Horus, the Nebry- or Two Ladies name referring originally to the tutelary goddesses of the two parts of Egypt and to territorial kingship in Kush, the ljr-nb or Golden Horus-name (originally referring probably to the radiant sunlit sky), nswt-biry or Throne name, and the sJ-K or private/birth name presenting the ruler as son of the sun-god Re, the titulary was composed by expert priests 28 in the great AmCm temple of Napata as part of the enthronement rites. The titulary was widely published, accompanying or substituting royal representations. It was probably also recited by itself or rather as part of eulogies as a genre of royal literature. 29 The 4th century BC Nastasene inscription records the creation of the titulary as the first act of enthronement30 before the king would be initiated into his royal office during the course of a royal oracle: 31 ... I reached the Great House. They r made obeisance1 to me, (to wit)

all the notables and priests of Amlin. They blessed me, (to wit) every

mouth. I had (everyone) go up and opened the great portals. They made for me r- 1 to make my titulary r-1, making Karnak and the House of Gold 32 great. (At the end of this chapter I shall return for a moment to the next sentence of this text.) Several royal names were created independently from any model in the event of a special political situation or in order to articulate Kushite concepts that had no closely corresponding equivalents among the Egyptian royal names. The majority of the Kushite titularies included, however, Egyptian titles that were selected from a large corpus of models ranging in time from the Old Kingdom to contemporary titularies. 33 Independent evidence suggests that the choices

28 In Egypt, the lector-priests, cf. the Wedjahorresnet inscription, 6th cent. Be, M. Lichtheim: Ancient Egyptian Literature. A Book ef Readings III. The Late Period. BerkeleyLos Angeles-London 1980 36 ff. 29 For Egypt see Baines 1995a 10; for the Kushite eulogies see in the following. 30 Which must, however, have been preceded by a ritual purification. 31 FHN II No. 84 lines 13-15, transl. R.H. Pierce. 32 Names of the great Amlin temple B 500. :n For the Kushite titularies see D. Dunham - M.F.L. Macadam: Names and Relationships of the Royal Family of Napata. ]EA 35 (1949) 139-149; FHN IV 1281-1285. For the titularies and their models see Torok 1997a 200-206; for the models of the names in greater detail cf. FHN I-III passim.

338

CHAPTER FOUR

were made consciously. 34 The Egyptian titles that were copied by the priests when they designed the names of a new ruler derived from an archival material which, beyond a collection of names, also contained some basic information about the "history" of the original owners of the same names. 35 That it was indeed, at least occasionally, this information that concretely motivated the Kushite selection is splendidly demonstrated by the titulary of King Arkamaniqo. Arkamaniqo was a contemporary of Ptolemy II (282-246 BC) and he adopted the Throne name Hnm-ib-R', "The-heart-of-Re-rejoices'', from Amasis (570-526 BC) of the Twenty-Sixth Dynasty. Amasis was an usurper who violently deposed his predecessor and who became in his later reign a "lover of the Greeks" (Herodotus 2.1 78). From Agatharchides' Ergamenes-story, 36 which presents a Hellenistic portrait of Arkamaniqo's reign, we may extract37 the features of a dynasty founder who terminated the life of the predecessor dynasty violently, on the one hand, and, on the other, we may learn that Arkamaniqo was a prince who "received instruction in Greek philosophy": The strangest thing, however, is the circumstances that surround the death of their kings. In Meroe the priests who busy themselves with the worshipping and honouring of the gods, the highest and most powerful class in the society, send a message to the king whenever it occurs to them, ordering him to die. This is an oracle sent them by the gods, they pretend, and a command from the immortals must in no way be neglected by a mortal being. They also give other reasons likely to be accepted by simple minds brought up in the old and ingrained traditions and lacking a reason for protesting against arbitrary commands. In former times the kings were subject to the priests, without being vanquished by arms or any force at all, but overpowered in their minds by just this kind of superstition. At the time of Ptolemy [II], however, Ergamenes, king of the Aithiopians, who had received instruction in Greek philosophy, was the first who dared disdain this command. With the determination worthy of a king he came with an armed force to the forbidden place where the golden temple of the Aithiopians was situated and slaughtered all the priests, abolished this tradition, and instituted practices at his own discretion. Cf. Torok 1997a 200-215. No guess can be made concerning the origins and character of these materials. For Egyptian king-lists see Redford 1986 1-64. For the factors motivating historical memory cf. also D. Wildung: Die Rolle dgyptischer Kiinige im Bewusstsein ihrer Nachwelt I. Berlin 1969; L. Kakosy: Urzeitmythen und Historiographie im alten Agypten. in: Selected Papers (1956-73). (StudiaAeg 8). Budapest 1981 93-104. 36 Agatharchides in Diodorus 3.2.6, FHN II No. 142, transl. T. Eide. 37 Torok l 992b; l 997a 420 ff. 34 35

MYTH OF THE STATE, LITERACY, AND LITERATURE

339

Historical knowledge is also indicated by the titulary of the late 5thearly 4th century ruler Irike-Amannote 38 who adopted the Throne name of Psamtik II, a memorable enemy of Kush, presumably to reverse history magically and announce his intention of carrying out a military action against Egypt. Table A below gives an idea of the scope of the archival materials containing information about Egyptian rulers and their names and used between the 8th century BC and the AD 3rd century. 39 The table gives the impression that the archives containing Egyptian royal titularies and founded in the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty period were kept a jour more or less continuously until the early centuries AD. The decision as to whether an ancient or a contemporary Egyptian name would be adopted was determined by political motifs rather than knowledge or ignorance of appropriate Egyptian models. The choice of Kushite models cannot be interpreted in general terms, either. It may accentuate dynastic continuity and legitimacy or manifest the ideology of a "renaissance" as well as indicate periods of hostile, loose, or no contacts with Egypt. The stereotypic appearance of names modelled on Egyptian examples indicates from the late 2nd century BC onward-i.e., from the time Meroitic replaced Egyptian as the language of the royal documents and when a Meroitic titulary type was created which almost entirely replaced the Egyptiantype five-part titulary-that the old archives were no longer consulted. Table A Models of titles in the Egyptian hieroglyphic titularies of Kushite rulers Ruler

Model of title Egyptian OK

MK

D 18 R

Kushite

TIP* LP

ctp

8th cent. Kashta

Piye

Shabaqo Shebitqo

38 39

FH.N II No. (69). For the evidence see Torok 1997a 198-215.

Prye Prye

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CHAPTER FOUR

Table A (cont.) Model of title

Ruler

Kushite

Egyptian OK

MK

7th cent. Tahargo Tanwetaniani Atlanersa Senlrnmanisken Anlaniani Aspelta 6th cent. Aramatelqo •** Malonaqene Analma'aye Amaninataki-lebte Karkamani Amaniastabarqo Si'aspiqo

D 18 R

TIP* LP

ctp

Shebitqo

•?

•?

•?

Shabaqo

Shabaqo (?) Senkamanisken

5th cent. Nasakbma Malowiebamani Talakbamani Irike-Amannote 4th cent. Baskakeren Harsiyotef Akbratane Amanibakhi Nastasene Aktisanes 3rd cent. Aryaniani Kash(... )

Piye, Shabaqo

• (•)

(•)

(•)

(•)

Piye Irike-Amannote Tanwetamani, Anlamani Piye (Piye), (Aktisanes), (Aryamani)

MYTH OF THE STATE, LITERACY, AND LITERATURE

341

Table A (cont.) Model of title

Ruler

Kushite

Egyptian OK

MK

D 18 R

Irike-Piye-qo

Sabrakamani

ctp

(Piye), (Harsiyotef)

Arkamaniqo Amanislo Amanitekha Ssp-'nb-n-'lmn Stp.n-R' Arnekhamani Argamani

TIP* LP

(•)

(Piye), (Aktisanes), (Kash[ . .]) Piye Piye (?) (•)

(Amekhamani)

2nd cent. Adikhalamani

Amekhamani

1st cent. Natakamani Amanitore

Amekhamani Aspelta

2nd cent. Amanitenmomide Amanikhareqerem Ariteneyesebokhe

Amanitenmomide Natakamani

3rd cent. Teqorideamani

Natakamani, Ariteneyesebokhe

Piye monumental inscription is preserved in Kush Tahargo temple building activity attested in Kush OK= Old Kingdom MK = Middle Kingdom D 18 = Dyn. 18 R = Ramessid TIP = Third Intermediate Period LP = Late Period ctp = contemporary * in the case of 8th cent. BC rulers the TIP model is listed under ctp ** First Intermediate Period model (?) (•) occurrences of possible model

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Let me return here to the Nastasene inscription from which I have already quoted a passage earlier in this section. This passage continues as follows: I told him, (to wit) Amlin of Napata, my good father, my affairs, all that was in my heart; and Amlin of Napata listened to me, (i.e., to) my speech. He gave me, (to wit) Amlin of Napata, my good father, the kingship of the Bow-land (Nubia), the crown of king "Horusson-of-his-father" (Harsiyotef), and the power of king Pi(ankh)y-Alara.

The invocation of Nastasene's third predecessor whose crown he receives emphasizes the king's dynastic legitimacy from a closer political perspective, while the invocation of Alara, the founder of the kingdom, emphasizes it from a universal mythical one. The preservation of Alara's memory may also have been supported by archival texts. There are, however, also more concrete references to the awareness and use of texts relating to predecessors in the Nastasene Stela. In the account of various conflicts with Medjay (?) nomads we read that40 They overturned property of Amlin who dwells in The-finding-Aton (Kawa),

and later: 41 Yet another matter (again): They took it, (to wit) the rebel land Mediye (Medjay?), (namely) property consisting of things that come to Bastet who dwells in Tarae, 42 a rfoundation1 of king-life, prosperity, health!-Aspelta. 43

4.1.3. The «king's novel" in Kush The preserved corpus of monumental royal texts discovered in Nubia 44 consists of twenty-eight inscriptions from which eight are too fragmentary to be discussed here, 45 while the date and attribution of one

4

° FHN II

41

No. 84, lines 60 f., transl. R.H. Pierce. Ibid. lines 64 f., transl. R.H. Pierce.

42 Unidentified settlement in the Napata region, according to Hofmann 1971 24 and Zibelius 1972 179 f. probably the same as Bion's (early 3rd cent. BC) Cadata/ Radata, see FHN II 461, 500, 557, FHN III 809. 43 Aspelta reigned in the late 7th-early 6th cent. BC. For his inscriptions see below. 44 The inscriptions of the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty rulers in Egypt do not belong within the framework of the present investigation. 4 ·1 Stela of Kashta from Elephantine, FHN I No. 4; fragment of a stela of Piye from Gebel Barkal B 500, FHN I No. 1O; fragment of an inscription of Malonaqene

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further text (the Kadimalo inscription) is debated. 46 The remaining nineteen texts: viz., two stelae of Piye (c. 747-716 Bc), 47 five inscriptions of Taharqo (c. 690-664 Bc),48 one stela of Tanwetamani (664-656 Bc), 49 one of Anlamani (late 7th century Bc), 50 four stelae of Aspelta (late 7th-early 6th century BC), 51 four wall inscriptions of IrikeAmannote (late 5th-early 4th century Bc), 52 and the Annals of Harsiyotef (first half-middle of the 4th century Bc) 53 and Nastasene (last third of the 4th century Bc) 54 were discussed in the context of the Kushite temples as places of historical memory and cultural identity in Ch. 3 where some of them were also investigated from the standpoint of the "grammar of the temple". Two of the Aspelta stelae 55 have special documentary contents and will be included in our discussion on account of additional literary elements in them. On the other hand, three of the four wall inscriptions of Irike-Amannote 56 will be disregarded because they consist only of the king's names and lists of his donations.

(1st half of 6th cent. BC) from Meroe City, Torok 1997b fig. 125; two building inscriptions of Aktisanes, FH.N II Nos (86), 87 (cf. Ch. 3.3); stelae of Aryamani (FH.N II Nos 91, 92) and Sabrakamani (FH.N II No. 96) from Kawa (see Ch. 3.2). 46 On the fai;:ade of the temple of Dedwen and Sesostris III at Semna West, now Khartoum, Sudan National Museum, FH.N I No. 1. According to R.A. Caminos: Queen Katimala's Inscribed Panel in the Temple of Semna. in: Hommages Ledant II 73-80, further Torok 1997a 126 ff. and the editors of FH.Nthe text is a document of the northern expansion of the emerging Kushite kingdom in the 1st half of the 8th century BC. By contrast, R.G. Morkot: The Empty Years of Nubian History. in: P. James et al.: Centuries ef Darkness. A Challenge to the Conventional Chronology ef Old World Archaeology. London 1991 204-209 216 f. suggests a Dyn. 21 or 22 dating; Morkot 2000 153 assumes that she was the wife of one of the 9th-8th cent. BC Kushite rulers or ruled in her own right. K. Zibelius-Chen: Uberlegungen zur iigyptischen Nubienpolitik in der Dritten Zwischenzeit. SAK 16 (1989) 329-345 341 attributes the inscription to an Egyptian ruler; Kendall 1999 59 ff. suggests a Dyn. 21 dating and an Egyptian context. 47 Sandstone Stela, FH.N I No. 8; Great Triumphal Stela, FH.N I No. 9. 48 Kawa inscriptions III-VII, Macadam 1949 and FH.N I Nos 21, 22, 24, 25. About the badly damaged and incompletely documented Sanam inscription (Griffith 1922 Pis XXXVIII-XL, cf. here Ch. 2.5), we can speak in general terms only. 49 Dream Stela, FH.N I No. 29. 5° Kawa VIII, FH.N I No. 34. 51 Election Stela, FH.N I No. 37; Banishment Stela, FH.N I No. 38; Adoption Stela, FH.N I No. 39; Khaliut Stela, FH.N I No. 40. 52 Kawa IX-XII, FH.N II Nos 71-74. 53 FH.N II No. 78. 54 FH.N II No. 84. 55 Adoption and Khaliut Stelae. 56 Kawa X-XII, FH.N II Nos 72-74.

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Students of Egyptian literature regard the earlier (Twenty-Fifth Dynasty and early Napatan) Kushite royal texts as part of the Egyptian literary tradition and treat Piye's Sandstone Stela and Great Triumphal Stela, Taharqo's Kawa stelae from Year 6, 57 Tanwetamani's Dream Stela, the Anlamani Stela, Aspelta's Election Stela, and occasionally also Irike-Amannote's great Kawa inscription as examples of the Egyptian genre of the "king's novel". 58 This view is just as problematic as the definition of the "king's novel" itself. The concept of the "king's novel" as a literary genre was proposed first by Alfred Hermann59 who defined it as a "form of Egyptian narrative which focuses on the role of the king as recipient of divine inspiration or as protagonist of the ensuing decision-making process". 60 Hermann introduced his influential study with a brief analysis of Tanwetamani's Dream Stela as a paradigmatic example of the genre suggesting that it presents the same structure as the Sphinx Stela of Tuthmosis IV, namely, the event described in the text-here Tanwetamani's successful Egyptian campaign-is preceded or determined by an earlier event-here Tanwetamani's oracular dream. 61 On the basis of the analysis of twenty texts ranging in time from the Middle Kingdom to the 1st century BC, also including the Dream Stela, Hermann demonstrates that the "king's novel" is a narrative focusing on the deeds of the king, around whom as a central figure certain literary scenes are fitted: the annunciation of news to him by messengers or an oracular dream, as well as the royal council, the ensuing royal speech revealing the king's plan, and the successful fulfilment thereof (in the form of, e.g., military actions, temple building). According to Hermann the "king's novel" is a "simple form" 62 that survived throughout Egyptian (and Kushite) history without alteration. The confrontation of the royal plan with its successful effectuation, i.e., the confrontation of an event in the past with an event in the present, was noted in our discussion of the Taharqo stelae in the

Kawa IV, V, FHN I Nos 21, 22. See, e.g., Hermann 1938 where Tanwetamani's Dream Stela is one of the twenty Egyptian "king's novels" analysed as major examples of the genre; and see also Spalinger 1982; Loprieno (ed.) 1996 passim and esp. Loprieno 1996. 59 Hermann 1938. 60 Loprieno 1996 277; see also]. Osing: "Ki:inigsnovelle''. Lflll (1979) 556-557. 61 Hermann 1938 8. 62 Hermann 1938 11-20, cf. A. Jolles: Einfache Fonnen. Halle 1930 (2nd edn. Ttibingen 1958). 57

58

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forecourt of Kawa Temple T (Ch. 3.2). Here, we have observed, however, that the Kushite inscriptions speak first about a present issue which will then be explained as following causally from an earlier issue. It is rather obvious that here the confrontation of the present with the past is not a simple narrative device since it articulates, in fact, a basic concept of kingship ideology, viz., the causal interconnection between the king's deeds and god's legitimating grace. In other words, the overall formal structure of the Dream Stela and related inscriptions is determined by the purpose of these texts, i.e., the textualisation and communication of the discourse on the myth of the state rather than by a traditional literary form that would determine a literary transfiguration of history. The vagueness of the definition of the genre 63 has also been pointed out by Loprieno who notes the lack of reference to this textual form in recent studies on Egyptian kingship as a probable consequence of this vagueness. In order to define the relationship between literature and politics, Loprieno proposes an investigation that would start from the forms in which the king appears in Egyptian texts. In his study he reviews a number of "king's novels" (also including Taharqo's stela on the high Nile, the Dream Stela, and Aspelta's Election Stela) from the point of view of the king as intermediary, as an object of literary reception, and as primary actor in history. Loprieno also confronts the genre with mythological works such as "literary narratives in which gods act as protagonists". 64 An investigation of the genre from the point of view of its uses is also prompted by Nicolas Grimal who states in his study of the Great Triumphal Stela65 that the Stela "offre une structure symmetrique de celle de la 'Konigsnovelle' ". Grimal classes it, with reference to the protocol of the inscription: "A decree which His Majesty uttered", as a royal decree. 66 In a recent book, Irene Shirun-Grumach compares the "king's novel" with the oracular decree. 67 Spalinger's

63 Cf. S. Herrmann: Die Konigsnovelle in Agypten und in Israel. Ein Beitrag zur Gattungsgeschichte in den Geschichtsbiichern des Alten Testaments. W,ZKMU 3 (1953-54) 51-62; W. Helck: Uberlegungen zur Geschichte der 18. Dynastie. OA 8 (1969) 281-327 esp. 288; K.A. Kitchen, review of Spalinger 1982 in: BiOr 44 (1987) 637-641 esp. 639; Loprieno 1996 282. 64 Loprieno 1996 282 ff. 65 Grima! 198la 295-298. 66 FHN I No. 9, line I, transl. R.H. Pierce. 67 Shirun-Grumach 1993 123-145.

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discussion of the "Kiinigsnovelle sections" (i.e., the setting phrases, the royal speech, and the final praise of the king) incorporated in Egyptian military documents provides an insight into the relationship between the war diary and literature. 68 Spalinger's examples reinforce our impression that, instead of a general classification, each Kushite royal text requires an individual analysis concerning the context of its "literary" and "non-literary" components. In this chapter, I present a general survey of the topical spectrum embraced by the preserved texts. Questions of composition and form and the problem of the relationship between literacy and performance will be discussed in Chs 4.2.1-2. Let us start the survey with the earliest preserved Twenty-Fifth Dynasty inscription from Kush, namely, Piye's Sandstone Stela from Year 3. Only the introductory royal titulary and eulogy and fragments of the first words of the actual narrative are preserved from the main text. As the latter can be amended to "[One] came [to say to His Majesty ...]", 69 we cannot doubt that the narrative started with the arrival of a messenger, i.e., a formal topos of the "king's novel". The lunette scene is accompanied by two long speeches, one being delivered by Amfm-Re of Napata, the other by the king. While the god's speech summarizes the concept of the king's divine sonship in a traditional manner, the king's speech presents an entirely original formulation of the policy of Piye who declares himself legitimate ruler of Egypt but, at the same time, also accepts the status quo of Egypt's political map: 70 [The Son-of-Re, lord of diadems, "Beloved-of-Amfm", Piye], says, "Amlin of Napata has granted me to be ruler of every foreign country. He to whom I say, 'You are chief!' he is to be chief. He to whom I say, 'You are not king!' he is not king. Amlin of Dominion (Thebes) has granted me to be ruler of Black-land (Egypt). 68 C£ Spalinger 1982 I 01-119. Spalinger treats, however, the military reports of Piye, Anlamani, Irike-Amannote and Nastasene as Egyptian documents and, perhaps in a slip of the pen, even speaks of the Kushite army of the Anlamani Stela as Egyptian, ibid. 112. 69 FHN I 59. 7° FHN I No. 8, Junette lines 1-7, transl. R.H. Pierce.-For the verse form see Ch. 4.2.1.

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He to whom I say, 'Make (your formal) appearance (as king)!' he shall make (his) appearance. He to whom I say, 'Do not make (your formal) appearance (as king)!' he does not make (his) appearance. (As for) every one to whom I grant my favor, there is no way to seize [his town (even though) it is not in my hand. Gods make a king, men make a king, but it is Amlin that has made me." The Great Triumphal Stela written some eighteen years later is defined by its authors as a royal decree. It may be presumed that copies of the text were kept in other centres of Piye's double kingdom (Thebes and Memphis?) too. 71 The pragmatic political ideology manifested in an epigrammatically concentrated form in the royal speech of the Sandstone Stela is presented here within the framework of a narrative of extraordinary dimensions, formal and topical variety (see Table C in Ch. 4.2. l ). The basic structure is, in fact, that of a "king's novel", though the main text is introduced by the title "A decree which His Majesty uttered". A self-eulogy of the king follows. Then, the text reverts to a narrative in 3rd person singular quoting from the text of a long message on the revolt of Tefnakht and the supplication of Piye's Egyptian allies. The royal decision, to send an army to Egypt is recorded in a similar form, while the king's instructions to his army are presented in the form of a royal speech. The text continues with an account of Piye's military campaign, and concludes with a hymnic praise of the king. The account of the campaign includes several royal speeches and eulogies, as well as a number of stylized or "historical" dialogues, and it also employs a richness of phrases quoted from belles lettres, wisdom texts, political discourses as well as from religious and magical texts. 72 It is based ultimately on royal daybooks, 73 temple annals, and geographical sources. It incorporates various elements of a discourse on Kushite kingship, rendered partly in poetic forms, and information about Kushite manners and customs (see Ch. 4.2.1). The amount and quality of the

71

72 73

Grima! 198la 297 f. Cf. Grima! 1980; 198la 283-294. For a reconstruction of Piye's military daybooks see Spalinger 1982 185-190.

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Kushite material deserves special emphasis because, unlike the Sandstone Stela which was composed in Napata, the text of the Great Triumphal Stela was probably written in Thebes: 74 its conceptual "Kushiticisms" indicate close cooperation of Kushite literati-including, as it may be presumed, the king himself-with the Egyptian authors of the text. Taharqo's stelae in the forecourt of Temple T at Kawa present renderings of the "king's novel" genre that are no less individual. Kawa IV from Year 6 75 starts, after a lengthy eulogy based largely on New Kingdom models, with the traditional setting phrase lst ~m=f m ... "Now His Majesty was in ... " 76 A royal speech narrating Taharqo's vow made when a prince to rebuild the temple of Amun at Kawa and the fulfilment of the vow (i.e., reference to the building activity in progress) follows. A selfstanding section on the covenant between Taharqo's ancestor Alara and Amun is inserted within the narrative: the legend of the foundation of Taharqo's dynasty is rendered in the form of the quotation of a royal speech delivered by Alara. Taharqo's pious temple building activity and the covenant of his ancestor with the god represent the two poles of a reciprocal relationship on which the legitimacy of Taharqo's dynasty as well as the legitimacy of his own kingship rest. Based largely on Egyptian concepts of the divine origins of royal power, the covenant story is nevertheless a Kushite creation. I quote here Alara's speech as it is embedded in Taharqo's narrative: 77 The (fore)mothers of my mother were ordained for him by their brother, the chief, Son-of-Re: 78 Alara, justified, saying, 'O you god who knows who is loyal to him, swift, who comes to him who calls upon him, Priese 1970 30 ff; R.H. Pierce in: FHN I 113. FH.N I No. 21. 76 Cf. J. Schmidt: Ramesses fl· A Chronologfral Structure for His Reign. Baltimore 1973 119 f.; Spalinger 1982 104 ff 77 FHN I No. 21, lines 17-20, transl. R.H. Pierce. 78 This is the traditional translation of Alara's description, suggested first by Macadam in the editio princeps of the inscription. The translation "their brother, the chief(tain)" was rejected by JJ. Clere (BiOr 5 [1951] 179) who suggested instead the translation "elder brother". The same translation is argued for by A.K. Vinogradov: "[...] Their Brother, the Chieftain, the Son of Re', Alara [...]"? CR/PEL 20 (1999) 81-94 who also suggests that Alara was a king (as also suggested by his Son-of-Re title and his cartouche) and not a chieftain. 74

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look upon the womb of my r mothers1 for me and establish their children on earth. Act for them (even) as you acted for me, and let them attain what is good.' He (the god) hearkened to what he (Alara) said about us, and raised me up as king, (even) as he (the god) had told him (Alara). How good it is to act for him that acts, (for) the heart of him that acts for him that acts is satisfied.

Kawa V, the second Taharqo stela from Year 6,7 9 displays a closely related structure. The text is introduced by a long eulogy presenting a concentrated discourse on the myth of the state: 80 Now His Majesty is one who loves god, so that he spends his time by day and lies by night seeking what is of benefit for the gods, rebuilding their temples if they have fallen into decay, giving birth to their statues as on the first occasion, building their storehauses, presenting to them endowments of every kind, making their offering-tables of fine gold, silver, and copper. Well, then, because His Majesty's heart is satisfied by doing for them what is beneficial every day. This land has been overflowed (with abundance) in his time as it was in the time of the Lord-of-all, every man sleeping until dawn, without saying, "Would that I had!", at all, Ma 'at being introduced throughout the countries, and Inequity being pinned to the ground.

This is followed by a narrative on the high Nile and the four wonders which occurred in connection to it. In the next section, the miraculous inundation of Year 6 is placed in a causal relationship with a past event, viz., the visit paid six years earlier by Queen Mother Abar at Memphis as a concluding act of Taharqo's enthronement81 (cf. Ch. 3.2). In Kawa V the traditional opening phrase of the "king's novel" is omitted. The text concludes, nevertheless, with

FHN I No. 22. No. 22, lines 1-4, transl. R.H. Pierce. 81 For the sequence and dating of the events see my comments in FHN I 157 f., contra Macadam 1949 18 f. 79

° FHN I

8

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a hymn to the king which refers in a subtle manner to the precedmg section: 0 King-of-Upper-and-Lower-Egypt, Taharqo, may you live for ever. Beloved of the gods, you are going to live forever by the command of your father Amlin, the excellent god who loves him who loves him, who knows him who is loyal to him, who caused your mother to (re)join you in peace that she may see the beauty he has made for you. 0 mighty king, may you live, and be healthy, (even) as Horus lives for his mother Isis. May you appear on the throne of Horus for ever and ever! As shown in Ch. 3.2, Kawa IV faced Kawa VI from Year 10. 82 The text of Kawa VI mirrors the structure of Kawa IV insofar as its text section on the present, i.e., the description of the new temple erected by Taharqo for Amfm, is confronted again with the covenant story. The texts starts with a long list (fourteen columns) of the temple furniture donated in Years 8-10, which is followed by a description of the temple building and its endowments. The reciprocity between Amfm and the king is explained in the second main section consisting of a description of the covenant that differs significantly from the rendering presented in Kawa IV: 83 His Majesty did this because he loved his father Amlin-Re of "Finding(the)-Aton" (Kawa) so greatly, and because he knew that he (the king) was favoured in the opinion of him that is swift, who comes to him that calls upon him, because of the wonder which he worked for his mother in the womb before she gave birth. (For) his mother's mother was committed to him by her brother, the Chief, the Son-of-Re, Alara, (justified], saying, 'O beneficent god, swift, who comes to him that calls upon him, look upon my sister for me, a woman born with me in one womb. Act for her (even) as you acted for him that acted for you, as a wonder, unpremeditated, and not r disregarded1 by reflective [people. (For) you put a stop to him that plotted evil against me after you set me up as king.

82

83

FHN I No. 24. FHN I No. 24, lines 21-25, transl. R.H. Pierce.

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Act for my sister in this wise (too). Elevate her children in this land. Let them attain prosperity and appearing as king (even) as you have done for me.' He (Amun) hearkened to all he (Alara) said and did not pay heed to his every word. He appointed for him his son, the Son-of-Re: Taharqo, may he live for ever, a king [... ] to com[memor]ate his name, to embellish his monuments, to maintain his statues, to inscribe his name on the temple, to call out the names of his foremothers, to establish funerary offerings for them, and to give them numerous ka-servants, rich in all things. May he be granted all life, like Re, for ever.

Kawa VI was obviously composed as a legal document, i.e., a donation text, which may also explain the lack of traditional "king's novel" devices in the opening ("Now His Majesty was ... ") and at the end (eulogy/hymn). The inclusion of a lengthy description of the temple building and the connection of this description, which is composed in the manner of a narrative, with the covenant story shows nevertheless that the stela was organically fitted within the forecourt context as one of the four inscriptions formulating and propagating the principal concepts of the Kushite myth of the state. The covenant story is presented this time in a fuller and more "historical" form, since it opens with an allusion to an otherwise unrecorded fact, namely, that Alara was compelled to defend his power against plotters. Remarkably, the plotters are mentioned in the context of Alara's coming to power which is referred to with the word biJt, "wonder". This expression provides a clear definition of the origins of his "royal" power. In contemporary texts biJt refers to an oracular decision proclaimed by Arm.1n during the course of the processional appearance of his cult image. Through the oracle, the god "elects" a king and bestows upon him royal power. 84 It may thus, be presumed that the

84 Cf. E. Graefe: Untersuchungen zur Worifamilie biJ. Kain 1971 137 ff.; Romer 1994 142 ff., on Alara's legitimation 148 f.

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plot episode hints either at a resistance to Alara's conversion or at an opposition that disputed Alara's legitimacy, or both. Kawa V from Year 6 faced Kawa VII from Year 10 in the Kawa forecourt. 85 Kawa VII consists, like Kawa IV, V, and VI, of two conceptually interconnected sections, viz., a record of the inauguration of Taharqo's new Amlin temple, and a section recalling the original decision of the king to replace Amun's old brick temple with a new one built in stone. The first section starts with the titles of the inauguration rites 86 and continues with a brief account of Taharqo's temple building activity composed in the manner of an eulogy. In turn, the second section opens with the traditional "king's novel" phrase "Now His Majesty was at the rtown1 [ . . .]". Taharqo's vow is recounted in a royal speech, which is followed by praise of the king. This part of the stela is, however, badly damaged. Tanwetamani's Dream Stela opens 87 with praise of Tanwetamani as a conquering hero. The eulogy, which advances the contents of the main part of the text, is followed by a narrative employing several devices of the "king's novel". The narrative starts with a dream oracle promising Tanwetamani kingship both in Kush and in Egypt88 and is continued with an account of his legitimation in the human sphere: 89 His Majesty saw a dream in the night, two serpents, one on his right, the other on his left. Up woke His Majesty but did not find them. His Majesty said, 'Why has this happened to me?' Then reply was made to him, saying, South-land is yours, seize for yourself North-land. The Two-Ladies 90 are apparent on your head, and the land shall be given to you in its breadth and its length, there being none other that shall share (it) with you. FHN I No. 25. I.e., "Setting up, sprinkling, presenting the house to its owner", FHN I No. 25, line 2. Cf. P. Montet: Le rituel de fondation des temples egyptiens. Kemi 17 (1964) 74-100; K. Zibelius-Chen: Tempelgriindung. Lf VI (1985) 385-386. 87 FHN I No. 29. 88 The dream episode, though following the opening sentence "In regnal year 1, when he was made to appear as king'', precedes the description of the legitimation in the human sphere and the enthronement at Napata. Consequently, it occurred before Tanwetamani's ascension to the throne, cf. FHN I 208, contra H. Schafer: Zur Erklarung der "Traumstele". ,.('AS 35 (1897) 67-70. 89 FHN I No. 29, lines 4-7, transl. R.H. Pierce. 90 I.e., the crown. 85

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After His Majesty had appeared on the throne of Horus in this year, forth came His Majesty from the place where he had been, as Horus came forth from Chemmis. When he came forth from [ - ] , millions came to him, and tens of thousands followed after him. His Majesty said, 'Look, the dream is true! It is something beneficial for him who places it in his heart, (but) makes matters worse for him who forgets it.'

The legitimation in the human sphere is followed by a brief and stereotypic account of the enthronement in the great Amlin temple at Napata. It is probably based on royal daybook accounts 91 which also served as the base of the subsequent narrative of Tanwetamani's journey from Napata to Memphis, the events during the journey, and the events of the period following the re-capture of Memphis. In the course of his victorious progress the king receives hymnic eulogies from "the West and the East" and from submissive chiefs, holds war council, and delivers royal speeches. The king's progress is a process of taking-into-possession the land and creating order in it by fulfilling the ruler's duties towards the gods, their priesthood, and men, whereas the concept of the monarch as source of life stands in the foreground. The structure of the text visualizes the causal interconnection between the king's actions and the restoration of the ordered world, as is also explicitly formulated in one of the eulogies addressed to him: 92 Mark you, this god (Amfm of Napata), he has foretold you the beginning, and he has brought about a happy outcome for you.

The text concludes with an eulogy portraying the king as bringer of a Golden Age. It is stereotypic only at first sight: in fact, it presents a masterfully idealized portrait of the actual political structure of the double kingdom of the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty: 93 (And from that time on) the southerners have been sailing northwards, the northerners southwards, to the place where His Majesty is, with

91 Cf. Ch. 4.1 and see Spalinger 1982 120-176. For the reconstruction of the war diary ofTanwetamani: ibid. 190-192. For the New Kingdom genre of the daybook see also Redford 1986 97 ff. 92 FHN I No. 29, lines 35 f., transl. R.H. Pierce. 93 FHN I No. 29, lines 41-42, transl. R.H. Pierce.

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every good thing of South-land and every (kind of) provision of Northland, to propitiate His Majesty's heart.

Anlamani's Enthronement Stela94 reflects the traditions of the Kawa archives. As indicated by the inclusion of the coronation episode of the Queen Mother's visit, its text was composed to fit into the program of the Forecourt of Temple T (cf. Ch. 3.2). The text employs devices of the "king's novel" as the initial royal council, royal speeches, and eulogies including a final praise as well as common lexical arrangements that derive from New Kingdom military report phraseology. 95 It also includes the brief summary of a legal document concerning the appointment of the king's sisters into priestly offices in the principal Amun temples of the land. This latter section constitutes an important element of the principal theme of the inscription, viz., the discourse on the legitimation of the Kushite king. Though the record of the enthronement process employs traditional Egyptian phrases connected to the concept of the king's divine sonship, we cannot fail to discern the outlines of a post-Twenty-Fifth Dynasty edition of the Kushite myth of the state. The special Kushite accents in the concluding section of the text containing the king's great prayer and the ensuing royal oracle are also obvious: 96 0 Amun-Re of "Finding-(the)-Aton" (Kawa), swift of stride, who comes to him who calls upon him, grant me a long life, without any sickness in it, turn back him who plots evil against me, have regard for my mother, and establish her children on earth. Grant me a great inundation, good in harvest, a great flood without trouble in it, and let this land be good in my time. Amun-Re of "Finding-(the)-Aton appeared as he (the king) stood before him, and this god turned his face to him and spent a long time standing listening to all that he said and gave him all life, stability, and dominion from him (Amun) ...

FHN I No. 34. FHN I No. 34, lines 16 (transl. R.H. Pierce): "(Then) His Majesty caused his army to invade the foreign country Bu-la-h-a-u'', Spalinger 1982 65; 18: "A great blood bath was made among them'', ibid. 80. 96 FHN I No. 34, lines 25-28, transl. R.H. Pierce. 94

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The late 7th century BC edition of the Kushite myth of the state is rendered in great detail in Aspelta's Election Stela. 97 Though its author(s) employed "king's novel" devices, the text has a dramatic rather than a novelistic character (see in more detail in Ch. 4.2.2.2). Three other stelae of Aspelta principally have legal contents, although two of them, viz., the Banishment and the Adoption Stelae are embellished with "king's novel" elements. The text of the Banishment Stela98 starts with an eulogy to the king in verses which are followed by a narrative that opens as a "king's novel": 99 In the second year of his appearance His Majesty being seated on the

throne of Geb, His Majesty proceeded to the temple-compound of his father, Amun of Napata to expell that family which the god hates, called Tm.p.s,y-p.r-d.t.lp,y, saying ... From the subsequent royal speech we also gather the reason for the god's hatred: namely, the family, which belonged to the classes of the prophets and w'b-priests who walk by the god's barque and carry it on their shoulders when the god delivers oracles, conspired to misuse the oracle. After the "king's novel" opening, the narrative continues in prose in the form of a royal decree. Aspelta's Adoption Stela 100 uses the initial setting of a royal council: On this day {of} coming to the temple-compound of Amun-Re, Bull of Bow-land, which the officials of His Majesty did ... 101 This is followed, however, by the protocol of the participating officials, who place before the monarch and the priesthood of the temple the issue of the appointment of Princess Kheb into the office of a priestess which was held before her by Queen Madiqen at the temple of Sanam. The presentation of the proposal concerning the appointment is modelled on a formula occurring in New Kingdom decrees on investiture. 102 The proposal is not answered by a royal speech. Instead, the text of the royal decree itself is presented. The legal character is emphasized by the appended list of the second, third, and fourth prophets and twelve other priests of the Sanam temple

FHN I No. 37. FHN I No. 38. 99 Line 4, transl. R.H. Pierce. 10° FHN I No. 39. 101 FHN I No. 39, line 2, transl. R.H. Pierce. 102 Cf. W. Heick: Arntseinsetzung. IA I (1973) 227-228. 97

98

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who signed the decree as witnesses (cf. Ch. 4.1.1). It appears highly likely that the decree text quoted in the inscription is a faithful copy of a legal document originally written on other material (papyrus?). 103 Aspelta's Khaliut Stela represents a legal document complemented with non-documentary text sections in a different manner. The central part of the inscription, viz., the record of the mortuary cult foundation made by Aspelta for Khaliut, a son of Piye, i.e., a prince who belonged to the generation of Aspelta's great-grandparents, constitutes the concluding section of the inscription and is preceded, as if an autobiography, 104 by (1) Khaliut's "negative confession" based on a radically abbreviated rendering of the New Kingdom and Twenty-First Dynasty versions of Chapter 125 of the Egyptian Book of the Dead. 105 The text continues with (2) a prayer for Aspelta and Queen Mother Nasalsa which summarizes the royal duties towards the gods and the people. The record of the mortuary cult foundation itself, which also consists of a list of the endowments too, incorporates a second prayer for Aspelta that gives us a description of good rule according to New Kingdom concepts. The monumental Irike-Amannote inscription from the second half of the 5th century BC on the east wall of the Hypostyle in Taharqo's Kawa Temple T 106 is composed as a "king's novel" with an inserted military record. It opens in the classical manner: Now it happened in the time of His Majesty that His Majesty was [sitting] among the king's brothers being a recruit, sweet of love, a youth of 41 years, after the falcon went to heaven; namely, king Talakhamani, j, in his palace of Meroe

and continues with a war report containing a setting section referring to a revolt among the desert dwelling Rehrehes, a royal speech

103 For the genre see also W. Heick: Altiigyptische Aktenkunde des 3. und 2. ]ahrtausends v. Chr. Miinchen 1974 114 f.; J.-M. Kruchten: Le Decret d'Horemheb. Traduction, commentaire epigraphique, philologique et institutionnel. Bruxelles 1981 219; E. Martin-Pardey: Tempeldekrete. IA VI (1985) 379-384 380. 104 Cf. A.M. Gnirs: Die agyptische Autobiographie. in: Loprieno (ed.) 1996 191-241 215 f. 105 Cf. literature quoted in M.H. van Es: Stinde und Schuld (Siindenbekenntnis). L{ VI (1985) 108-110; id.: Totenbuch. ibid. 641-643; and see recently Assmann 2000 194 ff. 106 FHN II No. 71.

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to the captains of the army, message reports, and dialogues between "the army" and its commanders. 107 The war record concludes with hymnic praise to the king: 108 Handsome is he indeed. [His] like has not been born. Amlin i[s his father], Mut is his mother. [Isis] is his mother, He is Horus indeed!

The coronation journey is recorded next in a documentary style, based obviously on royal daybooks similarly to the military record which is inserted at the point where Irike-Amannote arrives in Kartan on his way from Napata to Kawa. The section recording the enthronement ceremonies at Kawa is understandably long and detailed and it also incorporates a report on the enthronement rites performed at Pnubs, as well as lists of donations made to Amlin of Kawa and Amlin of Pnubs. The narrative is interspersed with phrases and episodes partly deriving from a traditional discourse on Kushite kingship and partly elevating actual events into the sphere of kingship dogma. I quote two references to the (real or fictive) historical legitimacy of Irike-Amannote's dynasty: 109 May you (Amlin) give me (the king) a long life on earth, after you have given to me as you did for king Alara, [justified]. I (Amlin) shall give you (the king) [every] land, [South, North], West, and [East]. I shall give to you as I [gave] to king [Kashta], justified.

As to the insertion of actual events, let me cite the remarkable episode in which Irike-Amannote cleans the processional avenue of Kawa Temple T: 110 [Th]en His Majesty found the road of this god after the sand had taken it for 42 years, 111 without this god having gone upon [his] road

Cf. Spalinger 1982 29 f. FHN II No. 71, columns 33-35, transl. R.H. Pierce. 109 FHN II No. 71, columns 54 and 116, respectively, transl. R.H. Pierce. no FHN II No. 71, columns 69-74, transl. R.H. Pierce. ni The translation of Macadam 1949 62 is preferred here to Pierce's rendering " ... after the sand has taken it in regnal year 42", for the inscription is dated to the first regnal year of lrike-Amannote in the introductory protocol and the events occurring after New Year's Day are dated to his second year. The "42 years" is 107

108

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[...] this name. Then His Majesty brought ra multitude of hands1, to wit, men and women as well as royal children and chiefs to carry away sand; and His Majesty was carrying away sand with his hand(s) himself, at the forefront of the multitude for many days, staying on the rstairway1 of this god doing [wo] rk before him (even) after he had opened up the road of this god.

Harsiyotef's Annals 112 date from the king's 35th regnal year. The annalistic sections record donations and building activities-which were partly prompted by oracles-, military campaigns, and festivals celebrated in the sanctuaries of the land. The text was composed on the basis of royal daybooks and temple journals and it was written with the aim of presenting a comprehensive picture of Harsiyotef's reign as a paradigm of the reciprocity between Amfm of Napata and the ruler. The traditional discourse on divine sonship, invincibility, and piousness of the ruler is, however, interwoven with realistic episodes and it also displays features of the "king's novel", albeit without the typical formal/ grammatical constructions of the genre. The main text starts-after the king's full titulary-with a royal speech concerning Harsiyotef's enthronement. The king recalls the circumstances of his accession to the throne relating that the kingship was promised him in what can be interpreted only as a solicited oracle, i.e., an oracle received by a commoner. 113 This oracle is followed by an episode in which Harsiyotef asks the god directly for "the crown of the land of Nubia". Now a royal oracle follows, which seems to have been the climax of the actual enthronement in the Amun temple of Napata, and in which the god indeed grants him royal power according to the Kushite tradition: 114 To you is given the four corners of the land in its entirety. I give to you the good water. 115 (I) give you a sky of good rain. (I) give you every rebel under your sandals. The enemy that comes against you will not fare well. The enemy of yours that goes against you, it will not be, (neither) his might (nor) his rfeet 1•

Irike-Amannote's age at the time of the episode, and indicates that the temple had been neglected since his birth. 112 FHN II No. 78. 113 FHN II 459 f. 114 FHN II No. 78, lines 12-17, transl. R.H. Pierce. 115 I.e., the inundation.

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The rightness of Harsiyotef's divine legitimation is proved miraculously by an omen following the royal oracle. As Harsiyotef says: 116 Now I saw a great inundation which ArnCm, my good father, gave to me, while I was standing in the 'lpt-swt of Amlin of Napata, inside his rtabernacle 1.

The uncommon process of legitimation indicates an uncommon, i.e., weak or insufficient, legitimacy. Harsiyotef's titulary 117 conveys a strong connection to the sanctuary of Amlin at Napata which played, as it emerges from the Annals, a greater role in his ascent to the throne than required in the succession of most of his ancestors and successors. At the same time, great emphasis is laid on the concepts of dynastic tradition and continuity. The Horus name repeats the Horus name assumed by Piye, while the Nebty name contains an allusion to the intricate notion of nd?f connected to the concept of the king's divine sonship and especially to lfr-nd(t;)-~r-jtf, "Horuschampion-of-his-father" (Greek Harendotes), the prototype of royal succession and guarantor of Osiris' resurrection, 118 a royal- and solar god. Similarly to Harsiyotef's Golden Horus and Son of Re names, it seems to indicate a difficult case of succession where Harsiyotef was compelled to emphasize his sonship and his status both as heir and incarnation using all the means at his disposal~perhaps against another heir who had a similar descent but who was actually more unambiguously predestined for succession. This impression is further strengthened by the adoption of the Golden Horus name of the king's second predecessor Irike-Amannote: the revival of the Golden Horus name of a king's penultimate predecessor is otherwise unparalleled. The Throne name conveys the concept of divine sonship as well as Harsiyotef's indebtedness to Amlin of Napata. His Son of Re name was obviously adopted upon his ascent to the throne and gives expression to the concept of the king as an incarnation of Horus.

116 FHNII No. 78, lines 17-19, transl. R.H. Pierce.-Pierce translates 'Ipt-swt as "Harem", but the toponym is the name of the Karnak temple of Amlin and not of the name of the Luxor temple. 117 Horus KJ-ngt b'-m-Npt, "Mighty Bull, Who-appears-in-Napata"; Nebty name Nd.ntnv, "\Vho-seeks-the-counsel-of-Gods"; Golden Horus Wfl.j 'djt 7 gJswt-nbt, "Subduer, Given-all-the-desert-lands"; Throne name SJ-mri-'Imn, "Beloved-son-of-Amlin"; Son of Re name /jr-sJ-itf, "Horus-son-of-his-father". Cf. FHN II No. (76). 118 Cf. D. Meeks: Harendotes. LA II (1977) 964-966 965.

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The donations are recorded in a purely documentary style, even if the list is interspersed by stereotypic narrative episodes as, e.g., 119 Whether I ~saw~ a temple complex (or) a small chapel which has fallen into ruin, I inquired, saying, "What is this?" and I spoke, saying, "Behold, (as) king of Egypt, 120 I (re)built (them) for you, and I had divine offering given." The king's enquiry gives the impression of a question addressed to an oracle. This is also supported by later sections in the text where military actions as well as building campaigns are decided or suggested by oracles. The military actions themselves follow one another in an annalistic manner. The naming of the vanquished enemy and the occasional reference to toponyms and booty is embedded in a traditional phraseology. The individual phrases derive ultimately from Egyptian New Kingdom topoi, but they appear in a form which shows that they had already become organic parts of the Kushite literary repertoire centuries earlier, e.g., the message of the submissive chief of the Meded nomads: 121 "You are my god. I am your servant. I am a woman. Come to me" derives from a Ramessid topos of the Nubian enemy, a variant of which had already occurred in Piye's Great Triumphal Stela: 122 Now these kings and counts of North-land came to behold His Majesty's beauty, their legs being the legs of women. 123 The latest completely preserved monumental inscription composed in the great Amfm temple of Napata displays more of the traditional "king's novel" features. The Nastasene Stela 124 was erected in the king's 8th regnal year. It starts with a stereotypic eulogy without any especially Kushite features. It is followed by a setting section and a

119 120 121 122 123 124

FHN II No. 78, lines 61-63, transl. R.H. Pierce. The title nsw Kmt is used in the meaning "king". FHN II No. 78, lines 89 f. Grapow 1924 131. FHN I No. 9, lines 149-150, transl. R.H. Pierce. FHN II No. 84.

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message which announces an oracle of Amun that summons Nastasene to Napata: 125 When I was the good son (= crown prince?) in Meroe, he called to me, (to wit) Amlin of Napata, my good father, saying, "Come!"

after which ensues a colorfully composed narrative of the journey to Napata recounted as a royal speech. During the course of the journey, Nastasene receives another (dream) oracle and visits the birth place of the dynasty founder Alara (cf. Ch. 1.5). The narrative of the journey employs dialogues between Nastasene and various representatives of the people. In a similarly dramatic form, the ensuing description of the enthronement in Napata not only presents an unusual richness of details as to the rites performed but it also contains a further reference to the historical interpretation of legitimacy: 126 He gave me, (to wit) Amlin of Napata, my good father, the kingship of the Bow-land (Nubia), the crown of king "Horus-son-of-his-father" (Harsiyotef), and the power of king Piye 127 -Alara.

The enthronement at Napata is followed by summarily described enthronement ceremonies at Kawa and Pnubs. After these, Nastasene returns to Napata to receive another royal oracle and participate in mystical initiatory rites which were also alluded to in Irike-Amannote's Kawa inscription. The account of the rites performed at Napatawhich would be followed by the enthronement in the Bastet temple at Tare-is interrupted by a lengthy document presenting a list of donations to Amun of Napata. To the enthronement record is attached a second main section that contains a record of the wars fought by the king and lists his booty up to the time of the erection of the stela. As to composition, style, and conceptual background, the connections between Nastasene's Annals and the Harsiyotef Annals are obvious. It seems, however, that for the "historical" part of the narrative, the later text must have been based on a rather poor and incomplete archival material. The wars, in contrast to Harsiyotef's campaigns, are undated. The only dates mentioned in connection

125 126 127

FHN II No. 84, lines 4-5, transl. R.H. Pierce. FHNII No. 84 lines 15-16. Probably used as royal title.

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with the war against ljmbswtii128 derive from the archive of the temple to which the king made donations from the war booty rather than from daybooks that would have recorded the course of the conflict. Like these two dates, the rest of the dates that are recorded in the inscription are also connected to events in temples. It would thus seem that the two main archival sources from which the author(s) of the Nastasene Stela drew their information, i.e., temple archives and daybooks from the royal court, were kept according to different standards. It must be added, however, that the different character of the Nastasene Stela may primarily be explained by its different genre (cf. Ch. 4.2.2.4). It emerges from the above survey, that the authors of the individual texts employed "king's novel" constructions in different ways. Table B below presents an overview. It must be noted that the formal devices of "setting" (i.e., the definition of the place/ setting of an ensuing narrative or royal speech) and "message" may occur not only in the introduction of the text but also in later points in it. Table B "King's novel" elements in Kushite royal texts Text

1.

eul. setting message council journey speech f. eul.

[Piye Sandstone SJ Piye GTS Taharqo K IV Taharqo KV Taharqo K VI Taharqo K VII Tanwetamani DS Anlamani S Aspelta ES Aspelta BS Aspelta AS Aspelta KS (•) lrike-Amannote inscr. Harsiyotef S Nastasene S

(•)

• ?

(•)

128 For the different identifications of the name with historical persons see Tiiriik 1997a 391 ff.

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i. eul. == introductory eulogy f. eul. == final eulogy [Piye Sandstone S] == incompletely preserved S == stela GTS == Great Triumphal Stela K == Kawa DS == Dream Stela ES == Election Stela BS == Banishment Stela AS == Adoption Stela KS == Khaliut Stela (•) == in inserted story

As the table shows, there are three "king's novel" devices that occur persistently in most texts from the beginning to the end, viz., the initial eulogy, the definition of the setting in which the narrative starts, and the royal speech. Although the royal speech form is employed rather often in Middle and New Kingdom "king's novels"129 as well as in Twenty-Sixth Dynasty and Late Period royal inscriptions, its prominent use in the texts reviewed here is a Kushite development. 130 The initial eulogy occurs more often in Twenty-Sixth Dynasty royal inscriptions than in New Kingdom "king's novels". One is tempted to interpret the importance of the introductory eulogy, the definition of the setting of the narrative, and the narrative form of the royal speech as consequences of an archaizing trend 131 which, similarly to Twenty-Sixth Dynasty Egypt, 132 revived and kept vigorously alive traditional constructions that characterized the classical "king's novel". Another possible interpretation would be that the maintenance of "king's novel" devices was a result of the traditionally posited isolation of the Kushite literati. It is more likely, however, that the "king's novel" constructions were, in fact, determined by the origins of certain text components in oral literature and by

129 E.g., Berlin "Lederhandschrift'', Abydos stela of Neferhotep (Dyn. 13), Abmose stela from Abydos, Tuthmosis H's rock inscription at Aswan, Punt inscription of Hatshepsut at Deir el Bahari, Amenhotep II's Sphinx stela, dedication of Ramesses II at Abydos, Kuban stela of Ramesses II, donation stela of Apries from Memphis, Nectanebos I's stela from Naucratis, Bentresh Stela. For literature see Hermann 1938 9-11; Lichtheim 1976, Manuelian 1994. 130 The prominence of the royal speech in the Great Triumphal Stela of Piye is noted by Assmann 1996 366 ff. 131 For Kushite archaizing see Tiiriik 1997a 189-196. 132 Cf. Manuelian 1994 404.

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the use of the texts for recitation. Arguments for this idea will be presented in Ch. 4.2.1.4. By contrast, two elements, viz., the message introducing a royal council and/ or resolving a royal decision, and the royal council itself, occur fairly rarely. The message occurs exclusively in the context of military records, except for the Nastasene Stela where it takes the form of an oracular summons. The council motif occurs in the Aspelta Election Stela in the context of a dramatic performance with speeches, dialogues and choruses, while in the Adoption Stela it derives from the New Kingdom type of investiture document. Hermann discusses the royal journey as a traditional "king's novel" episode: the journey occasions a royal plan/ decision. 133 In the Kushite texts the journey occurs, however, in other contexts and with other meanings, the only exception being the journey of Taharqo to Egypt recorded in Kawa IV. Piye's journey in the Great Triumphal Stela unites a military campaign with the taking-into-possession of the land, with a progress compared to the inundation, and with a religious pilgrimage. Tanwetamani's journey in the Dream Stela invites similar interpretation. Anlamani's, Irike-Amannote's, Harsiyotef's, and Nastasene's movements belong within the context of the Kushite coronation journey. We may thus, conclude that the authors of the Kushite royal texts adopted, as a rule, the eulogy, the setting phrases, and the royal speech from the Egyptian "king's novel" constructions probably because they were better suited for oral performances than the rest of the traditional constructions (cf. Ch. 4.2.1.4). The use of other "king's novel" devices was determined by the actual theme of the narrative or by the special use of the text (e.g., decree on investiture). The independent use of the journey motif shows especially clearly that the Kushite "king's novel" was shaped by its uses rather than by the traditions of the Egyptian literary genre from which the greater part of its formal repertory derived. The earliest Kushite royal texts were formulated under the reign of kings who were, at the same time, rulers of Egypt. What we identify in them as Kushite concepts of kingship were intertwined with a re-formulation of Egyptian kingship ideology. 134 With the end of

Hermann 1938 13. An especially important document for this process, viz., the so-called Shabaqo Stone or Memphite Theology will not be discussed here. Cf. Ch. 2.4.4. 133

134

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Kushite rule in Egypt the political and intellectual symbiosis of Kush and Egypt also ended and intellectual contacts became irregular. The central tools of Kushite political-ideological self-expression were separated from their land of origin: Egyptian in Kush and Egyptian in Egypt had to go their separate ways. The Kushite textual monuments in Egyptian language and writing demonstrate a special process which may be compared with the processes of language and writing in contemporary Egypt only in so far as there were actual contacts in these areas between the two countries. Being destined to formulate Kushite concepts, recording events in Kush and regulating affairs according to Kushite law and tradition, the royal inscriptions of the Napatan period were addressed to a Kushite audience but they fulfilled their functions using a foreign language and a foreign writing. During the course of the 6th to 2nd centuries BC, Egyptian was the official carrier of a complex of concepts and experiences that did not have one-to-one Egyptian equivalents and the textual rendering of which demanded a creative use of Egyptian as it was traditionally known in Kush and/ or an adaptation of contemporary Egyptian as it was imported from Egypt by Egyptian scribes or by Kushite scribes who had learned the language and writing in the neighbouring country. As pointed out by Pierce, the discrepancies between a Kushite text and a contemporary Egyptian one are increased by the way an inscription was created in either country as a result of the cooperation of a scribal author writing the original of the text in a cursive script on papyrus, a lapidary scribe transcribing it from cursive into hieroglyphs and sketching out the hieroglyphic version on the stone, and a stone-mason executing the inscription on the stone surface. Occasionally, these experts may have been one and the same person; or, in an isolated milieu such as Kush had been for long periods of time, the scribal author also played the role of lapidary scribe though he did not sufficiently possess the special knowledge required for the transcription from cursive into hieroglyphs. 135 The isolation of Kushite literacy also meant an increasing dependence on archival material, i.e., on earlier inscriptions and on texts of various, even random, origins. Repetitions of

135

Pierce 1996 363f.; P. Vernus: L'espaces de l'ecrit clans l'Egypte pharaonique.

BSFE 119 (1990) 35-53 35 ff.; K.-Th. Zauzich: Ein Interregnum weniger. in: Luft (ed.) 1992 619-626.

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phrases and expressions must be carefully interpreted within their own actual contexts, since they may have been chosen as having a meaning which differed from text to text and for which there was no adequate Egyptian vehicle available. 136 The royal texts record the whole process or individual episodes of the royal enthronement, describe military campaigns, and particular aspects of the relationship between the ruler and the gods. In the broadest sense, they may be defined (and interpreted) as "historical" texts on account of their concrete coordinates in time and space. 137 Their primary function was, however, not a retrospective documentation in spite of the fact that they eventually mention persons aud events from earlier times and also contain annalistic elements. This is also not contradicted by Taharqo's inscriptions in the forecourt of Temple T at Kawa which formulate the concept of the causal interconnection between a pious act in the past (Alara's covenant with Amfm; Taharqo's vow) and god's grace in the present (Taharqo's continuous legitimation by Amun). As also pointed out in Ch. 3.2, an eternal pattern is presented here rather than a repetition of a formal device of the "king's novel". A royal inscription was destined to formulate the present for future "use" . 138 It was meant to function as a monumental message concerning an actual ruler's secret and magic knowledge which enabled him to fulfill his charismatic duty to secure the continuous functioning of the universe as well as caring for mankind. 139 It presented a theologically com-

Pierce 1996 363 f. I do not address here the issue of historicity of the genre nor the issue of the historical value of the individual inscriptions. From this standpoint, the texts are analysed in Volumes I-II of the Fontes Historiae Nubiorum, where the earlier literature is also reviewed. Cf. J. Cerny: The Contribution of the Study of Unofficial and Private Documents to the History of Pharaonic Egypt. in: S. Donadoni (ed.): Le fanti indirette delta storia egiz:.iana (Studi semitici 7). Roma 1963 31-5 7; W.W. Hallo: The Limits of Scepticism. ]AOS 110 (1990) 187·-199; J.K. Hoffmeier: The Problem of 'History' in Egyptian Royal Inscriptions. in: Sesto Congresso Intemaz:.ionale di Egittologia Atti I. Torino 1992 291-299; S.G. Quirke: Narrative Literature. in: Loprieno (ed.) 1996 263-276 265; Loprieno 1996. ll8 For Egypt see Assmann 199lc 88 ff.; 1992a 91 ff., 229 ff.; 1996 37 f. 139 For Egypt see ]. Assmann: Der Konig als Sonnenpriester. Gluckstadt 1970 56ff.; Asmann 1990 205 ff.; 199 lc 61 ff.; and see also id.: Death and Initiation in the Funerary Religion of Ancient Egypt. in: W.K. Simpson (ed.): Religion in Ancient Egypt. New Haven 1989 135-159 141 f.; for Kush see, e.g., J.W. Yellin: Egyptian Religion and Its Ongoing Impact on the Formation of the Napatan State. in: Actes de la VIII' Conference Internationale des Etudes Nubiennes I. Communications principales. CRIPEL 17 (1995) 243-263; Torok 1995; 1997a 189-341. 136 137

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plex image of the ruler's legitimacy and was destined to act as the most elevated, explicit, and central manifestation of political thought. Eternalised on unperishable stone, the discourse on the legitimacy of royal power as manifestation and guarantee of the reciprocity between god and king and king and men represented an edition of the Great Tradition of the ideology of Order, and was, at the same time, also destined to convey a knowledge of the Order in the cosmos and in the State. In this way, the text functioned itself as a guarantee of Order. Though the Kushite royal inscriptions were unreadable to the people, it would be rather naive to think that they would have been written in a foreign language because the maintenance of royal power would have required a hierarchy of knowledge in which the highest sphere is completely and absolutely closed. On the contrary: while obscure as to language and writing, the Kushite "historical" texts were physically not concealed but were inscribed or, if on stelae, displayed in those parts of the temples which were accessible to the people (see Ch. 3). While not denying the significance of the hierarchy of knowledge, wc should point out the sharp border between the king's secret knowledge and the "open" knowledge in the texts themselves: the texts are silent about the contents of the dialogues between the king and his divine father Amfm while they present an "open" discourse on the ensuing interaction between the king and the god(s) and thus on the conditions of Order. It follows from the above considerations that we should classify the Kushite royal texts as "historical" because they "describe a past for the present, or record the present for posterity". They cannot be classed "political" in the strict sense of the term, because they do not "urge actions or attitudes on the present for the present". Their classification as "historical" does not exclude that, at the same time, wc consider them to be literary, provided that "they have a deliberate artistic form appreciated as such by the audience" .140 Some of their literary features have been identified above; in the following we add others to these.

140 Eyre 1996 432.-The notion of "deliberate artistic form" has been, of course, and continues to be explained in various manners in the Egyptological literature, cf. B. Spuler (ed.): Handbuch der Orientalistik I. Der nahe und mittlere Osten I. Agyptologie II. Literatur. Leiden 1952, 2 1970; for an overview oftbe later literature see W. Schenkel: Agyptische Literatur und agyptologische Forschung: Eine wissenschaftsgeschichtliche

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4. 2. Structure and form, text and recitation 4.2.1. The Twenty-Fifth Dynasty period 4.2.1.1. The modem reception ef Prye,s Great Triumphal Stela Piye's Egyptian campaign of c. 728 BC was commemorated in a stela inscibed in hieroglyphic Egyptian and erected during the New Year Festival in Piye's 21st regnal year in the great Amlin temple of Napata. 141 Egyptologists unanimously acknowledge that, as a literary work, the stela-which is the longest known royal document written in hieroglyphic Egyptian 142-represents an exceptional achievment. Its style, the monumental proportions and balance of its composition, the wide spectrum and finesse of the literary quotations integrated within it display great and sophisticated artistry. 143 Jan Assmann compares its construction to the structure of a Baroque oratorio: 144

Einleitung. in: Loprieno (ed.) 1996 21-38 and cf. recently J. Baines: Research on Egyptian Literature: Definitions, Background, Prospects. Eighth International Congress ef Egyptologists Cairo, 28 March - 3 April 2000. Abstracts ef Papers. Cairo 2000 2-4.For the criteria of the formal analyses presented in this chapter see the literature quoted and cf. especially A. Loprieno: Defining Egyptian Literature: Ancient Texts and Modern Theories. in: Loprieno (ed.) 1996 39-58; J. Assmann: Kulturelle und literarische Texte. ibid. 59-82; Burkard 1996. 141 For the text of the Great Triumphal Stela, the chronology and political context of Piye's Egyptian campaign in 728 BC see Grima! 198la; for the most recent translations see Lichtheim 1980 68-80; Grima! 1981 a; R.H. Pierce in: FHN I No. 9. For a recently suggested alteration of Twenty-Fifth Dynasty chronology according to which Piye's Egyptian campaign would have taken place about 709 BC see L. Depuydt: The Date of Piye's Campaign and the Chronology of the Twenty-Fifth Dynasty. ]EA 79 (1993) 269-274. For arguments against Depuydt's suggestion see, however, Grima! 198la 216 f.-By contrast, the campaign is dated to 734 BC by D. Kahn: The Inscription of Sargon II at Tang-i Var and the Chronology of Dynasty 25. Orientalia 70 (2001) 1-18, who also suggests a revised Dyn. 25 chronology which radically differs from other revised chronologies (e.g., Morkot 2000 passim) that refer similarly to the Tang-i Var text. I am indebted to Mr Kahn for the knowledge of his paper in manuscript form.-For the Tang-i Var inscription see G. Frame: The Inscription of Sargon II at Tang-i Var. Orientalia 68 (1999) 31-57; D.B. Redford: A Note on the Chronology of Dynasty 25 and the Inscription of Sargon II at Tang-i Var. ibid. 58-60. 142 It consists of c. 900 verses, while the second-longest Egyptian royal document, Ramesses H's Kadesh Poem, consists of c. 500; literary works (e.g., Sinuhe) c. 5-600 verses. 143 For the literary quotations see especially N.-C. Grima!: Bibliotheques et propagande royale a l'epoque ethiopienne. in: J. Vercoutter (ed.): Institut Franfais d'Archeologie Orientate. Livre du Centenaire. Le Caire 1980 3 7-48; Grima! 1981. 144 Assmann 1996 356 ff., esp. 366 f.

MYTH OF THE STATE, LITERACY, AND LITERATURE

369

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