Final Report Summary - SOKAR CHAPELS (Sokar and Nefertem chapels in the Egyptian temple of Sethy I in Abydos (1294 1279 B. C.))
Project context and objectives
The work carried out to study and publish the complex of Sokar and Nefertem has consisted of many tasks. The first is an archaeological one, in which study and check missions have been planned. The study mission's goals are to take photos of the decoration and to improve a plan of the chapels of Sokar and Nefertem and their hypostyle hall. The photographs have been necessary as a basic documentation stage to develop the drawings and to establish the study of the whole decorative program. In order to carry out the drawings, I will take photographs with the same dimensions and place them on a graphic table to outline the figures and the hieroglyphics. The three rooms have been measured using archaeological methods allowing completion and verification of the old plan, and to show the situation of the scenes. The drawn hieroglyphs and images have been verified during the check missions.
A second aim of this research was philological consisting of a transliteration (phonetic values for the hieroglyphic signs, used usually in Egyptology), a translation and commentary of the texts of 68 scenes with the help of dictionaries and recent grammars of the ancient Egyptian language. A palaeographic list has also been prepared from the drawn scenes.
A historical analysis has been the third purpose of the study. The king's titles have been gathered in the form of a catalogue and analysed. Some of them that are in form of long cartouche have been compared to other long royal names in different parts of the temple to see the different relations between the king and the gods in each room in this period, particularly after Akhenaton's reign.
The fourth objective has been a literary analysis. The connections between the scenes have been analysed: puns, parallelism, contrast and complementarity by using words, expressions, attributes of the gods and of the king or offerings. The analysis of the stylistic procedures has clarified their semantics and showed how the ancient scribe has created a literary composition through the decoration of each room of the Sokar complex.
The fifth goal has focused on religious analysis divided into two parts. Firstly the epithets of Sokar and Nefertem have been investigated in each scene to understand the particularities of their beliefs and to shed light on their functions and relations according to local and national cults. The second part of this religious study has followed the principle of the "wall theology" (see: the notion "théologie pariétale" in Egyptian temples: Traunecker (Cl.), "De l'hiérophanie au temple. Quelques réflexions ", in: Verhoeven (U.), Graefe (E.) (Hrsg.), Religion und Philosophie im Alten Ägypten. Festgabe für Philippe Derchain zu seinem 65. Geburtstag am 24. Juli 1991, OLA 39, 1991, p. 316-317), concept that refers to new theology invented in a temple or other religious place taking into consideration the situation of the divinities in respect to the others on the wall. The resulting data has been compared to the information about Sokar and Nefertem from their known bibliography to measure their new theology and roles.
The results of the study are numerous. Firstly, the archaeological and philological work have created an accurate plan of the three halls showing that the walls were not straight as in the old ones, the drawings of the scenes and the translation of all texts. These tasks provide the base of the edition of these unpublished rooms.
One of the major contributions of the historical and religious analysis is an interpretation of the long cartouches in the whole temple (this study has been submitted in 2012 as paper for the 'Journal of the German Archaeological Institute' in Cairo). These could be divided into three categories following their situation in the monument. The long royal names of Sethy I in the complex of Osiris are dedication texts that show the duties of the king towards Osiris, Isis and Horus. Although other long cartouches of the same king are in the Sokar complex, they are quite different. These titles in which the pharaoh is the beloved of Sokar or Nefertem have a cosmic frame - made up of the heaven and the earth signs - and cryptography writing. The choice of these unusual glyphs could be explained by the nature of Sokar, who is a funerary god, whose area in a New Kingdom religious book "the Amduat" has the same feature. The name of Sokar appearing before this of the king in these long names is meaningful. It indicates the dominance of the god in his complex that could be therefore seen as a separate part of the temple in which the god is dominant. The same kinds of cartouches with cryptography characters are in the Staircase, but they bear the name of Ramses II. The same stylistic procedure in this part of the temple is probably due to the fact that the complex of Sokar and the Staircase have been one same area before being subject to change during the reign of Sethy I. The entry of the Staircase, that has been firstly a third chapel of Sokar and Nefertem, had previous similar long cartouches as both chapels of this complex, but including the titles of Ramses II who is beloved of Osiris and Amon; the first one is Abydos' major deity and the second one is a national god in this period. Some of cartouches that are in the Gallery of the Lists, the Corridor of the Bull, the Staircase and the Hall of the Barks have shown how Sethy I has subtly conciliated the cults of Osiris, Sokar, Amon-Re and probably Ptah corresponding to Abydos' god, a funerary deity and the gods of Theben, Heliopolis and Memphis: the three big religious centres in Egypt.
A result that concerns the historical evolution of the complex of Sokar and its use in the Late Period has been achieved, as Coptic graffiti are written on the walls of the Hypostyle Hall. A colleague of the Cologne University Dr. Heinz Felber is in charge of this part of the research, since he is specialist of this Late Period and its epigraphy.
Another result of a literary and religious study concerns a category of texts called the "Litany of the Horus' Eye". These inscriptions, which are in the form of a long offerings list, are covering four walls of the Hypostyle Hall of Sokar and the chapels of Sokar and Nefertem. The original form of these inscriptions is the Pyramid Texts (2353-2152 BC). With these old texts, having been compared to those that figure in the Sokar complex, it seems clear that the scribes of Sethy I have not copied old texts, but created new ones following the old structure of these texts, a funerary formula "Horus, take (your eye or another object)", an offered item that has a phonetic pun with the above formula, the number of the offerings and the name of the king in cartouche. The analysis of two lists in the chapel of Nefertem has indicated how the scribe has used and adapted an old list. If both texts have been classified as anomalous (Barta (W.), Die altägyptische Opferliste von der Frühzeit bis zur griechisch-römischen Epoche, MÄS 3, 1963, p. 149, 140-141), their study and comparison with other offering lists indicates that the scribe has used one list "E" and has divided it onto two parts to create complementarity between Min-Re and Nefertem respectively as young god and an adult/primordial one, and to represent the two stages of life.
A major conclusion sheds light on the decoration programme of the chapel of Sokar that helps to suggest its function. The room decoration could be understood as that of a private Theban tomb by taking into account three of its elements. First, two jackals of Anubis guard the entry of the chapel. Secondly, Sethy I is making a libation rite to Geb the earth god and asking him to let plants grow and to guarantee that the cycle of water, vegetation and life will go on. This topic, particularly the access to water in the hereafter is very important in many Theban tombs. Thirdly, two mummies of Osiris and Menmaatre-Sokar-Osiris that belongs to Sethy I as Sokar-Osiris are represented at the end of walls. As the three mentioned features of decoration appear in some Theban tombs (Porter (B.), Moss (R. L. B.), Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Reliefs, and Paintings. I. The Theban Necropolis. 1. Private Tombs, Oxford, 1960, p. 10 (2)-(3), (6): Anubis Jackal; p. 10 (4)-(5) deceased drinking water under a palm; p. 321 (10): Anubis giving some rites to a mummy on a bed.), this chapel had probably a similar function: it could maybe had a statue of the king as mummy on a bed like the one that has been found in Um el-Qa'ab (O'Connor (D.), Abydos. Egypt's First Pharaos and the Cult of Osiris, Cairo, 2009, p. 90, fig. 42.). This king's figure could have gone out in procession during the festival of Sokar.
The social impact of this project was very successful as many students in Cologne and some employees of the Ministry of Antiquities in Egypt have learned the basis of the digital epigraphy and taken part in the drawings. This training has given them a skill that could help them to develop their careers in the field of the archaeology.
The work carried out to study and publish the complex of Sokar and Nefertem has consisted of many tasks. The first is an archaeological one, in which study and check missions have been planned. The study mission's goals are to take photos of the decoration and to improve a plan of the chapels of Sokar and Nefertem and their hypostyle hall. The photographs have been necessary as a basic documentation stage to develop the drawings and to establish the study of the whole decorative program. In order to carry out the drawings, I will take photographs with the same dimensions and place them on a graphic table to outline the figures and the hieroglyphics. The three rooms have been measured using archaeological methods allowing completion and verification of the old plan, and to show the situation of the scenes. The drawn hieroglyphs and images have been verified during the check missions.
A second aim of this research was philological consisting of a transliteration (phonetic values for the hieroglyphic signs, used usually in Egyptology), a translation and commentary of the texts of 68 scenes with the help of dictionaries and recent grammars of the ancient Egyptian language. A palaeographic list has also been prepared from the drawn scenes.
A historical analysis has been the third purpose of the study. The king's titles have been gathered in the form of a catalogue and analysed. Some of them that are in form of long cartouche have been compared to other long royal names in different parts of the temple to see the different relations between the king and the gods in each room in this period, particularly after Akhenaton's reign.
The fourth objective has been a literary analysis. The connections between the scenes have been analysed: puns, parallelism, contrast and complementarity by using words, expressions, attributes of the gods and of the king or offerings. The analysis of the stylistic procedures has clarified their semantics and showed how the ancient scribe has created a literary composition through the decoration of each room of the Sokar complex.
The fifth goal has focused on religious analysis divided into two parts. Firstly the epithets of Sokar and Nefertem have been investigated in each scene to understand the particularities of their beliefs and to shed light on their functions and relations according to local and national cults. The second part of this religious study has followed the principle of the "wall theology" (see: the notion "théologie pariétale" in Egyptian temples: Traunecker (Cl.), "De l'hiérophanie au temple. Quelques réflexions ", in: Verhoeven (U.), Graefe (E.) (Hrsg.), Religion und Philosophie im Alten Ägypten. Festgabe für Philippe Derchain zu seinem 65. Geburtstag am 24. Juli 1991, OLA 39, 1991, p. 316-317), concept that refers to new theology invented in a temple or other religious place taking into consideration the situation of the divinities in respect to the others on the wall. The resulting data has been compared to the information about Sokar and Nefertem from their known bibliography to measure their new theology and roles.
The results of the study are numerous. Firstly, the archaeological and philological work have created an accurate plan of the three halls showing that the walls were not straight as in the old ones, the drawings of the scenes and the translation of all texts. These tasks provide the base of the edition of these unpublished rooms.
One of the major contributions of the historical and religious analysis is an interpretation of the long cartouches in the whole temple (this study has been submitted in 2012 as paper for the 'Journal of the German Archaeological Institute' in Cairo). These could be divided into three categories following their situation in the monument. The long royal names of Sethy I in the complex of Osiris are dedication texts that show the duties of the king towards Osiris, Isis and Horus. Although other long cartouches of the same king are in the Sokar complex, they are quite different. These titles in which the pharaoh is the beloved of Sokar or Nefertem have a cosmic frame - made up of the heaven and the earth signs - and cryptography writing. The choice of these unusual glyphs could be explained by the nature of Sokar, who is a funerary god, whose area in a New Kingdom religious book "the Amduat" has the same feature. The name of Sokar appearing before this of the king in these long names is meaningful. It indicates the dominance of the god in his complex that could be therefore seen as a separate part of the temple in which the god is dominant. The same kinds of cartouches with cryptography characters are in the Staircase, but they bear the name of Ramses II. The same stylistic procedure in this part of the temple is probably due to the fact that the complex of Sokar and the Staircase have been one same area before being subject to change during the reign of Sethy I. The entry of the Staircase, that has been firstly a third chapel of Sokar and Nefertem, had previous similar long cartouches as both chapels of this complex, but including the titles of Ramses II who is beloved of Osiris and Amon; the first one is Abydos' major deity and the second one is a national god in this period. Some of cartouches that are in the Gallery of the Lists, the Corridor of the Bull, the Staircase and the Hall of the Barks have shown how Sethy I has subtly conciliated the cults of Osiris, Sokar, Amon-Re and probably Ptah corresponding to Abydos' god, a funerary deity and the gods of Theben, Heliopolis and Memphis: the three big religious centres in Egypt.
A result that concerns the historical evolution of the complex of Sokar and its use in the Late Period has been achieved, as Coptic graffiti are written on the walls of the Hypostyle Hall. A colleague of the Cologne University Dr. Heinz Felber is in charge of this part of the research, since he is specialist of this Late Period and its epigraphy.
Another result of a literary and religious study concerns a category of texts called the "Litany of the Horus' Eye". These inscriptions, which are in the form of a long offerings list, are covering four walls of the Hypostyle Hall of Sokar and the chapels of Sokar and Nefertem. The original form of these inscriptions is the Pyramid Texts (2353-2152 BC). With these old texts, having been compared to those that figure in the Sokar complex, it seems clear that the scribes of Sethy I have not copied old texts, but created new ones following the old structure of these texts, a funerary formula "Horus, take (your eye or another object)", an offered item that has a phonetic pun with the above formula, the number of the offerings and the name of the king in cartouche. The analysis of two lists in the chapel of Nefertem has indicated how the scribe has used and adapted an old list. If both texts have been classified as anomalous (Barta (W.), Die altägyptische Opferliste von der Frühzeit bis zur griechisch-römischen Epoche, MÄS 3, 1963, p. 149, 140-141), their study and comparison with other offering lists indicates that the scribe has used one list "E" and has divided it onto two parts to create complementarity between Min-Re and Nefertem respectively as young god and an adult/primordial one, and to represent the two stages of life.
A major conclusion sheds light on the decoration programme of the chapel of Sokar that helps to suggest its function. The room decoration could be understood as that of a private Theban tomb by taking into account three of its elements. First, two jackals of Anubis guard the entry of the chapel. Secondly, Sethy I is making a libation rite to Geb the earth god and asking him to let plants grow and to guarantee that the cycle of water, vegetation and life will go on. This topic, particularly the access to water in the hereafter is very important in many Theban tombs. Thirdly, two mummies of Osiris and Menmaatre-Sokar-Osiris that belongs to Sethy I as Sokar-Osiris are represented at the end of walls. As the three mentioned features of decoration appear in some Theban tombs (Porter (B.), Moss (R. L. B.), Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Reliefs, and Paintings. I. The Theban Necropolis. 1. Private Tombs, Oxford, 1960, p. 10 (2)-(3), (6): Anubis Jackal; p. 10 (4)-(5) deceased drinking water under a palm; p. 321 (10): Anubis giving some rites to a mummy on a bed.), this chapel had probably a similar function: it could maybe had a statue of the king as mummy on a bed like the one that has been found in Um el-Qa'ab (O'Connor (D.), Abydos. Egypt's First Pharaos and the Cult of Osiris, Cairo, 2009, p. 90, fig. 42.). This king's figure could have gone out in procession during the festival of Sokar.
The social impact of this project was very successful as many students in Cologne and some employees of the Ministry of Antiquities in Egypt have learned the basis of the digital epigraphy and taken part in the drawings. This training has given them a skill that could help them to develop their careers in the field of the archaeology.