With Amun now the King of the Gods, his earthly consort came into her own wealth and authority in a way that would ultimately shatter the glass ceiling of Egyptian politics, at least for a while…

When studying religious and political institutions in ancient Egypt, very rarely can we point to a specific person, time, and place and say “that is where it all began.”  The God’s Wife of Amun is unique in that aspect.  True, the genesis of the title and its original purpose are lost in the murky traditions of overlapping and often contradictory provincial religions.  And true, we are not 100% certain of who the first royal God’s Wife may have been.  But there are some things we do know.

We know, for instance, that the office of God’s Wife of Amun underwent a complete restructuring in the early years of the New Kingdom, when it was endowed with wealth and status that elevated it to one of the most powerful institutions in ancient Egypt.  We know the individual who set these changes in motion was none other than Ahmose I, Hero of Thebes and Champion of Amun.  And we know that the first person to hold the reinvented office was his queen, Ahmose-Nefertari.

As with both Thebes and Amun, the story of the God’s Wife is a tale of upward mobility.  Just as Thebes began as a backwater county seat, and Amun began as an abstract creative principle, the God’s Wife started out as just one character in a cast of many in the creation dramas of Egypt’s temples.  But also like her patron city, which rose to become the capital of all Egypt, and her divine consort, who was raised to the status of King of the Gods, the God’s Wife of Amun became the quintessential case study in power politics.

Before we look at what the title of God’s Wife came to entail under the auspices of Pharaoh Ahmose, let’s first look at what it meant in its more humble years.  The details are scanty, but there is enough to lay a foundation that will enable us to place her in her historical, religious, and political contexts.

God’s Wives in the Middle Kingdom

The first mention of God’s Wives occurs in the Middle Kingdom Period, particularly in the Tenth and Twelfth Dynasties.  Although they were not royal women, having a daughter or wife who was a God’s Wife, Divine Adoratrice, or temple musician or chantresses was a sign of prestige.  The daughters of priests, relatives of the royal family, and influential nobles and courtiers were prime candidates for these posts.  Offices of this type were often exchanged for favors and were part of the capital with which the temple bartered.

A priest leading a procession of temple chantresses (Photo by vxla)

God’s Wives during the Middle Kingdom were an order of priestesses who performed special rites associated with their patron deity’s role in creation.  In addition to the God’s Wives of Amun, who was worshipped almost exclusively at Thebes at this time, there were God’s Wives of Ptah, the creator god revered at Memphis, and God’s Wives of Min, also a god of fertility and creation.  As with Ptah and Min, Amun was associated mostly with his role as creator during the Middle Kingdom Period, and the God’s Wives were just part of the temple staffs rather than a specific person associated only with the cult of Amun.

Twosret, a God’s Wife from the Nineteenth Dynasty, playing sistrums for Amun (Photo by John D. Croft)

Specific details of the God’s Wives duties and functions are practically non-existent, but based on what we know from other aspects of temple liturgy and ritual we can make some pretty informed guesses.  Just from her role as the wife of the creator god, we can logically presume that she would have symbolically performed the role of consort in the act of creation.  The later God’s Wives of Amun, for example, would dance and play the sistrum before the god’s statue to arouse him to the act of creation.

God’s Wives probably carried out other duties such as singing hymns and presenting food offerings before the god.  Chanters and musicians were ubiquitous to religious processions, and God’s Wives undoubtedly participated in these public and private aspects of worship.  During the New Kingdom Period the God’s Wife of Amun assumed many of the duties of the High Priest, but there is no evidence to conclude that her station was so elevated during the earlier years. 

Musicians and chanters in adoration of Montu, from a Middle Kingdom temple at Madu, near Luxor

God’s Wives in the Second Intermediate Period

It is not entirely clear whether or not there were God’s Wives during the Second Intermediate Period, as there are no attestations that date from that time.  This was during the era of the Hyksos occupation, and the office may have been altered or phased out in many places.  But if it survived anywhere, it would make sense that it would have survived at Thebes, where native Egyptian traditions were maintained by the local nobility.  There is some evidence that this may have been the case. 

A scene from Khabekhnet’s tomb depicting his mummification (Photo by Helmut Satzinger, courtesy of Lenka and Andy Peacock)

The suggestion that there may have been God’s Wives during the Second Intermediate Period comes from a scene in the tomb of Khabekhnet, a Nineteenth Dynasty artisan who was himself a tomb worker in the Theban Necropolis. 

One of the privileges of being a royal tomb worker was that you had the tools and skills to craft for yourself a tomb fit for a king.  Khabekhnet left a beautifully decorated tomb in which he pays homage to deceased members of the royal family, who frequently had local cults in which they were revered as gods. 

Four God’s Wives from the Tomb of Khabekhnet—Are two from the Second Intermediate Period?

One scene in Khabekhnet’s tomb depicts four royal women whom he calls God’s Wives.  One is named Kamose, thought to refer to a known Eighteenth Dynasty God’s Wife named Sitkamose, whom we will examine in depth later in this series.  Another name is illegible.  But the other two, Sit-ir-bau and Ta-khered-qa, may have lived during the latter years of the Second Intermediate Period, and do not appear on lists of God’s Wives from the Eighteenth Dynasty (See Anneke Bart, Ancient Egypt:  God’s Wife of Amun).  Could they have been God’s Wives—royal God’s Wives no less—from the Seventeenth Dynasty?

This comes with the caveat that Khabekhnet lived during the reign of Ramesses II, some 250-300 years after the time in question.  It was also not unusual for the title of God’s Wife of Amun to be conferred posthumously, although this was typically done by pharaohs and had to do with exalting their mothers and legitimizing their own succession.  But this fragment of evidence hints that the office of God’s Wife may have been reformed rather than revived, and keeping the position active may have been another way in which Thebes remained faithful to Amun during the occupation.

Reformation:  God’s Wives at the Dawn of the New Kingdom

The woman who would be king—Hatshepsut (Photo by Keith Payne)

Beginning with the New Kingdom Period the office of God’s Wife of Amun becomes something entirely different from anything that had ever existed before.  Ultimately, her authority will surpass that of the High Priest of Amun (Taylor, p. 338) and will come close to that of the pharaoh himself (p. 360).  These particular developments did not occur until the Third Intermediate Period, but even as early as the New Kingdom her power was such that a particularly determined God’s Wife used her influence to actually become a pharaoh.  More about her later.

Many lists of God’s Wives of Amun place Ahmose I’s mother, the celebrated Queen Ahhotep I, as the first royal woman to hold the office.  But as with Sit-ir-bau and Ta-khered-qa, there is a lack of corroborating evidence from Ahhotep’s lifetime attributing the title to her, which calls into question whether she ever actually held the position.  In fact, the only place where she is called a God’s Wife is in the inscriptions on the lid of her coffin.

The first royal woman we can say with near certainty was a God’s Wife of Amun was Ahmose’s queen, Ahmose-Nefertari.  With Nefertari we have not only an abundance of attributions from her lifetime, we have the actual legal document that confers upon her the newly reconstituted office and all rights, privileges and properties contained therein.  For these details we shall resume with the story of the Hero of Thebes and the founding of the New Kingdom.

Ahmose I:  Hero, Champion, and Benefactor

Champion of Amun, Hero of Thebes—Pharaoh Ahmose I (Photo by Keith Schengili-Roberts)

AhmoseOur story picks up after Ahmose I’s defeat of the Hyksos and their allies, and the corralling of the remaining dissidents.  As detailed in The Rise of Thebes, The Rise of Amun, Ahmose then began a program of construction and restoration funded by the opening of trade routes with Syria and copper mines in the Sinai, not to mention the gold that came out of Nubia.  The newly-founded Eighteenth Dynasty was cash rich and well-placed to repair the misfortunes war had inflicted on Thebes.

The specifics of Ahmose’s reconstruction of Thebes, as well as his investments in the Temple of Amun at Karnak, are provided by three stelae recovered from the temple complex. 

The stelae appear to chronicle a devastating flood and Ahmose’s response, although reading between the lines leaves the impression that the flood may have been a cover story to excuse the destitution of the temple following the wars.  But flood or no flood, the picture that emerges is one of the Estate of Amun desperate for a benefactor and a pharaoh willing to open the coffers.

The first stele, discovered at the Third Pylon at Karnak, is called the Tempest Stele.  It describes a catastrophic storm sent to punish Thebes for her neglect of one of Amun’s major statues, and details Ahmose’s expenditures in repairing the tombs, temples, and pyramids that were damaged. 

Based on how the king’s name appears on the stele, it is believed that it dates from before his twenty-second regnal year (Claude Vandersleyden, as cited by The Thera Foundation:  “A Storm in Egypt during the Reign of Ahmose”). 

It has been proposed that the storm described in the Tempest Stele was the result of a volcanic eruption that destroyed the Aegean island of Thera (also called Santorini), which is believed to have occurred early in Ahmose I’s reign.

Since the stele was erected to commemorate the repairs at Thebes, some time must have elapsed between the storm itself and the erection of the stele upon completion of the repairs. If the storm attested by the stele was caused by the Thera eruption, a date in the reign of Ahmose before year 22 would support the traditional chronology…”  (Source) 

Ritual objects such as this solid gold bowl from the tomb of Djehuty, an Eighteenth Dynasty General, may have been handed over to fund the war during the Third Intermediate Period (Photo by Jon Bodsworth)

Another stele, discovered at the Eighth Pylon and which we will call (unofficially!) the Benefactor Stele, dates from the eighteenth year of Ahmose’s reign and again describes the king’s magnanimity regarding the Estate of Amun.  Of particular interest is the nature of his gifts, which included items such as gold and silver ritual vessels and jewelry that, on the one hand, would have been important to the functioning of the temple, but on the other hand would have been valuable to support the war effort.

The objects donated by the king to Karnak are the most essential cult furniture, and their dedication may indicate that the temple was utterly without precious metal objects at this point.  It is impossible to say whether this would have been due to the action of a great storm, as the king asserts in the Tempest Stele, but temple cult objects…might also have been important financial resources for the Thebans during the arduous years of the Seventeenth Dynasty.  (Bryan, 2000, p. 221)

Ahmose I makes an offering to Amun in a scene from the Donation Stele

The third stele, also discovered at the base of the Third Pylon, is called the Donation Stele.  Again we have an account of the pharaoh’s largess, but this time there is a clearly stated quid pro quo.  Ahmose is not just making a donation, he is actually purchasing something, a temple position called the “second priesthood of Amun,” which is to be granted to his wife, Ahmose-Nefertari.  The queen had already been installed as the God’s Wife by this time, making this in effect a conjoining of two previously separate offices within the temple hierarchy.

The fact that Ahmose-Nefertari was already the God’s Wife raises its own set of questions, since it is not known when she was conferred the title, only that it was not simultaneous with the creation of the New and Improved God’s Wife, as detailed in the Donation Stele.  If Nefertari came to the office completely independent of its amalgamation with the second priesthood of Amun, then there is no reason to presume that she was the first royal woman to hold the title.  Perhaps there were God’s Wives during the Second Intermediate Period after all, and Ahmose-Nefertari was simply the next in line.

But the Donation Stele does not just combine two offices, it lays out the schema for a new institution that was a lot more than the sum of its original parts.  Recall that Ahmose was the same tactician who defeated the Hyksos by superior planning.  He took advantage of the seasonal floods, bypassed the targets that were braced for his attack and seized strategic positions that cut Avaris off from both assistance and escape.  If anything, the Donation Stele reflects a similar amount of forethought and nothing, including having the queen already installed as God’s Wife, should be considered superfluous. 

From the Law Offices of Ahmose & Co.:  The Donation Stele

The Donation Stele describes not only the fusion of the God’s Wife and the second priesthood, it also details the endowment of an estate attached to the new office that was separate and independent of both the Priesthood of Amun and the pharaoh himself. 

These assets, called the House, or Estate, of the Adoratrice (not to be confused with the Divine Adoratrice, a distinction which we will explore in the very near future), along with the office itself were the domain of the God’s Wife, to be passed on as she saw fit, to whom she saw fit, without interference.  The ancient contract is very clear on this matter:

Done in the presence of [the council?] of the lands of the city and the servants of the temple of Amun.  What was said in the majesty of the palace, (life!, prosperity!, health!), in… [saying]: …[I have given] the office of the second priest of Amun to the god’s wife, great royal wife, she united to the beauty of the white crown, Ahmose-Nefertary, may she live!…

I have given to her male and female servants, and four hundred oipe of barley and six arouras of inundated land as an excess over the 1,010 shenau.  Her office will be at the value of 600 shenau.  The office is completed for her, it being endowed…

Then the majesty of this god said: “I am her protector.  A challenge to her shall not occur forever by any king who shall arise in the following of future generations.  But only the god’s wife Nefertary.  It belongs to her from son to son forever and ever in accordance with her office of god’s wife.  There is not one who shall say, ‘Except for me’. There is not another who can speak.”  (Bryan, 2003, pp. 3-4)

The final paragraph leaves no doubt as to the intent of the contract—the combined office of God’s Wife and second priesthood belonged to Nefertari and could not be touched by any present or future king, period.  To add extra weight, the paragraph comes in the form of an oracle from Amun himself:  “Then the majesty of this god said…”  The stele also contains a very specific legal proviso which guaranteed her right to name her successor, and that this right would carry over, with all other rights and properties, to that successor.

The clauses pertaining to heirship were drafted under the aegis of a legal device known as imyt per, which was a means of “transferring property outside the normal lines of inheritance” (Bryan, 2003, p. 4).  Imty per allowed a benefactor to transfer property while still living or as part of a will, and contained stipulations that nullified traditional inheritance.  So instead of following convention and going to her eldest son, all properties of the God’s Wife associated with her title went to a successor of her choosing.  Imty per also allowed her to confer her title and properties while she still lived and could personally see her succession through.

Ahmose-Nefertari—First New Kingdom God’s Wife of Amun and possibly the most powerful woman in human history up to that point.

At this point it would be fair to ask regarding this unprecedented compact, cui bono?  It would be noble to think that after the example set by his own mother, Ahhotep, Matriarch of the Revolution, that Ahmose was merely assuring that there would always be a female sovereign to check the power of kings and priests.  Another somewhat less noble but more probable motive was the projection of royal authority into the temple hierarchy that the office provided.  But these two motives are not mutually exclusive, as Bryan notes:

The king was able to purchase the second most important priesthood and further endow its title holder in concert with the position of god’s wife. This not only assured the god’s wife direct involvement in the Amun priesthood, but it also guaranteed a similar connection for the king who sponsored the god’s wife.  (2003, p. 5)

Ahmose had restored wealth and dignity to the Estate of Amun and in so doing had secured for his dynasty the gratitude of the priesthood and an implicit and explicit covenant with Amun.  But the combining of the God’s Wife with the second most powerful office of the temple, the second priesthood, and endowing the new office with an estate which guaranteed independence from priest and potentate alike, assured that at least some royal women would have a voice of their own in how the politics and religion of the New Kingdom unfolded.

Many of Ahmose I’s reforms would be watered down in the coming decades, but his intent was clear—he sought to create a sovereign office for the queen and her heirs which carried its own inherent spiritual and secular leverage.  Regardless of ulterior motives, not the least of which were the obvious implications of being able to say that your mother had coupled with the King of the Gods, the liberties bequeathed on the God’s Wife of Amun by the Donation Stele are undeniable.

In the next installment of this series, The House of the Adoratrice:  Demesne of the God’s Wife of Amun, we will take a specific look at what properties and privileges the Donation Stele granted to the office of the God’s Wife and how they constituted a sort kingdom within the kingdom.  We will also examine what her duties and functions were within the temple, and how these related to another position of power for women within the Estate of Amun, the Divine Adoratrice.

Works Cited

Bart, Anneke.  Online:  Ancient Egypt:  God’s Wife of Amun.

Bryan, Betsy.  “The Eighteenth Dynasty before the Amarna Period.”  The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt.  Oxford: Oxford UP, 2000.  218-271.

—–  “Property and the God’s Wives of Amun.”  Paper from the conference “Women and Property,” organized and collected by Deborah Lyons and Raymond Westbrook.  Boston:  Harvard U, Ctr for Hellenic Std, 2003.  Available for download here.

Davis, E.N.  Online:  The Thera Foundation:  A Storm in Egypt during the Reign of Ahmose.  1990.

Taylor, John.  “The Third Intermediate Period.”  The Oxford History of Ancient Egypt.  Oxford: Oxford UP, 2000.  330-368.

Copyright by Keith Payne, 2010.  All rights reserved.

Images “Min” and “Ptah”, based on originals by Jeff Dahl, and photograph “Twosret” by John D. Croft are used in acordance with the GNU Free Documentation License, Version 1.2.  Photograph “Temple Chantresses” by vxla is used in accordance with the Creative Commons 2.0 Generic License.  Photo “AhmoseI-StatueHead MetropolitanMuseum” by Keith Schengili-Roberts is used in accordance with the Creative Commons 2.5 Generic License.   Photographs “Ahmose Nefertari” and “Medamoud (Medu) Procession” are in the public domain, as is “Four God’s Wives from tomb of Khabekhnet” by Lepsius (See also Anneke Bart, God’s Wife of Amun).  Photographs “Gold Bowl”, and “Judgment papyrus of Hunefer” (which was sampled for the “Ahmose & Co.” graphic) are by Jon Bodsworth, who has kindly released them to the public domain.  Photo “Tomb scene from Khabekhnet” by Helmut Satzinger is provided courtesy of Lenka and Andy Peacock.

In Edfu Part One:  Ancient Djeba we will look at the history of this ancient mid-sized town that shattered the myth of Egypt being a “civilization without cities.”

Aerial view of Tell Edfu and the Great Temple (Courtesy of Google Maps)

Edfu is the modern name of the ancient capital of the Nome of Horus in Upper Egypt, and it has long been sacred to that deity, particularly in his role as Horus of Behdet.  For those familiar with Egypt, the name Edfu usually conjures up an image of the majestic pylons fronting the Great Temple of Horus that was constructed there during the Ptolemaic Dynasty.  But the town itself has a much older history. 

The Tell Edfu Project, headed up by Dr. Nadine Moeller of the Oriental Institute of Chicago, has shown that a thriving town once existed on the site, with roots going at least as far back as the Old Kingdom. 

Long before the Ptolemies built their grand temple, Edfu served as an important political, religious, and economic center throughout much of ancient Egypt’s history.  In a future article we will look at the Great Temple of Horus in detail and explore what we know of the beautiful and complex rites performed there in honor of Horus, Hathor, and Harsomtus.  But in this article will be focusing on the ancient town, particularly as it has been revealed by the Tell Edfu Project. 

The pylons of the Great Temple of Horus as seen from Tell Edfu (Photo by Gregory Marouard, Tell Edfu Project)

In ancient times this capital city was known as Djeba, which means “place of retribution,” a reference to the justice meted out to the enemies of Horus, who fought his mythical battle with the god Set at this location.  By the time of the Copts the name was pronounced as Atbo, which has been handed down to us as Edfu.  The sacred name of the city was Wetjeset-Hor, which means “the place where Horus is exalted.”

Tell Edfu—Layers of Egyptian History

The archaeological site, known as Tell Edfu, lies just to the west of the Great Temple of Horus.  In archaeological terms, the word “tell” comes from the Hebrew tel or the Arabic tall, and refers to a mound that forms over time as a result of the by-products of human habitation.  In the case of Tell Edfu, much of the mound is a result of mudbrick structures being built, eroding, and replaced with more mudbrick.  Of course, that is an oversimplification—there is also a thick layer of ash resulting from early industry and a variety of other detritus.  But the layers of the mound at Edfu conceal evidence of occupation from the Byzantine Period all the way back to the Old Kingdom, possibly earlier.

Located at the crossroads between the prosperous mines in the Eastern Desert, Nubia in the south, and the great Oasis of Kharga in the west, Edfu was as much a center of commerce as it was a religious center.  The work of Dr. Moeller, as well as those who preceded her, shows an ancient urban center where foreign and domestic trade was conducted, taxes were paid, and social services were rendered. 

Dr. Nadine Moeller, director of the Tell Edfu Project (Photo by Gregory Marouard, Tell Edfu Project)

The Tell Edfu Project is engaged in what is called “settlement archaeology” which shows more of an everyday view of ancient urban life as opposed to the lifestyles of the rich and famous we normally get from tomb and temple archaeology.  For many years Egyptologists tended to think of Egypt as a “civilization without cities.”  Of course, we knew of Thebes and Memphis, but outside of the major population centers Egypt was thought of as either farmland or desert, with no medium-sized cities to speak of.  But nothing could be further from the truth.

The earliest part of the tell excavated thus far is the Old Kingdom enclosure, which extends from the western walls of the Great Temple into the lower part of what is called the North Quarry.  The North and South Quarries are sections of the Tell that were stripped down to the natural bedrock in the last century by local farmers who used the soil and mudbrick remains to bolster their fields.  Fortunately much of the Old Kingdom part of town was left intact, including remains of the old city walls that run along the west side of the Old Kingdom section and then angle east in the direction of the Mammasi (a much later addition associated with the Great Temple).

View of Tell Edfu and the Great Temple of Horus from the South Quarry area (Photo by Gloria Euyoque)

In the northern part of the Old Kingdom enclosure five walls were exposed and left in place by the farmers who quarried the area in modern times.  Ceramic artifacts found in the vicinity allow these walls to be dated to the time of the Fifth and Sixth Dynasties.  Additional pottery fragments found in a nearby structure show that administrative functions were carried out from the Old Kingdom Period through the Middle Kingdom Period without interruption.  In fact, seal impressions recovered from this area indicate that this part of Tell Edfu served as an administrative center well into the Second Intermediate Period.

The excavation area showing the layers that make up the tell (Photo by Gregory Marouard, Tell Edfu Project)

Great Chief Isi:  From Excellent Leaders Come Happy Citizens

One of the beloved city patriarchs of the Old Kingdom Period was Isi, the “Great Chief of the Nome of Edfu,” whose career spanned the rules of Pharaohs Djedkare and Unas of the Fifth Dynasty and Teti of the Sixth.  His long rule was apparently happy times for the people of Edfu, which was not the case elsewhere in the country.  Isi’s legacy was a city prepared for rough times, which earned him the adoration of his people for centuries to come.

Isi constructed a large mastaba for himself in the Old Kingdom Cemetery that lies in the southwestern section of Tell Edfu, just beyond the Middle Kingdom enclosure walls.  By incorporating elements of already-existing mastabas into his own, Isi created for himself a nice little complex complete with a courtyard and a corridor that led to a cult chapel where he would be worshipped as a god much later.

Isi’s tomb seems to have been repaired and possibly renovated during the Seventeenth Dynasty, when his mastaba became the center of a local cult devoted to him.  The presence of devotional stelae in the corridor and courtyard show that his cult thrived until well into the Middle Kingdom Period.  There is also a Middle Kingdom addition to the Old Kingdom Cemetery, possibly added so his faithful could be near him in the afterlife. 

One may infer that some of Isi’s popularity may be a result of his policies.  When the prosperity Isi’s constituents enjoyed is compared to the national situation, it is clear he was a highly effective administrator.  Edfu was a robust little city at a time when much of the rest of Egypt was in serious decline.

The late Fifth and Early Sixth Dynasties were a time when Egypt was hurtling toward the First Intermediate Period.  But even as famine and warfare were destabilizing most of the country, Edfu was entering a boom period.  Provincial leaders throughout Egypt were enjoying increased power and independence at the expense of the pharaohs, but the decentralization of pharaonic power alone cannot account for Edfu’s growth and stability.  Chief Isi clearly exemplifies a line of local rulers who knew how to wield their new powers.

As the bottom was falling out everywhere else, Edfu was expanding.  City enclosure walls built during the First Intermediate Period stretch from the northwestern corner of the tell all the way to the southwestern corner, in the vicinity of the Old Kingdom Cemetery.  Although most of the architecture from this period was destroyed by the quarrying of the last century, the enclosure walls alone show that Edfu nearly doubled in size during First Intermediate Period.

Looking west across the north quarry toward the First Intermediate Period enclosure wall (Photo by Girolame)

In addition to the enclosure walls, Dr. Moeller’s team discovered pottery shards, fragments of administrative seals, and jar stoppers in the Old Kingdom section of Edfu showing that commerce and government continued unabated through the First Intermediate Period.  Judging from the abundance of ostraca related to accounting alone, in Edfu it was always business as usual.

The Administrative Center

The Tell Edfu Project has spent a great deal of effort carefully excavating the area within the Old Kingdom enclosure walls because that was the least disturbed section.  As fortune would have it, this area seems to have been the administrative center of town, and remained such even after the expansion of the Second Intermediate Period.   One of the most dramatic finds was a great columned hall dating from the late Middle Kingdom Period, another monument to Edfu’s confidence when facing an approaching storm.

Column bases from the late Middle Kingdom administrative center, with Seventeenth Dynasty silos partially visible (Photo by Gregory Marouard, Tell Edfu Project)

The hall appears to date from the Twelfth Dynasty at end of the Middle Kingdom and the Thirteenth Dynasty at the beginning of the Second Intermediate Period.  Showing again Edfu’s propensity for stability during times of trouble, the Tell Edfu Project found discarded scarab seal impressions, evidence of sealed papyri, and ceramic jars and stoppers and boxes from this time.  The court of Edfu remained a hive of civil and economic activity from the Middle Kingdom straight through the Second Intermediate Period.

The columned room measured at least 30 by 40 feet and contained sixteen large wooden columns mounted on sandstone bases, five of which have been located in place (the bases, not the columns).  The hall was probably a part of the governor’s palace, and Dr. Moeller thinks it was probably in use for a considerable period of time.  Even after the administrative center was moved elsewhere, the courtyard was converted into a granary that shows continued prosperity.

The Granary

Built in the area once occupied by the columned hall, the Tell Edfu Project discovered the remains of eight very large silos, the largest discovered in any Egyptian urban center to date.  Built of mudbrick and sunk slightly lower than the floor of the courtyard, the silos were between 18 to 22 feet in diameter and probably stood over 25 feet tall.  Despite the thinness of their walls, which were only one to two bricks thick, there is no evidence of any of the silos having collapsed while in use.  The silos date from the Seventeenth Dynasty, toward the end of the Second Intermediate Period.

Did these disproportionately large silos serve as a depot for Theban royalty during their conflict with the Hyksos? (Photo by Gregory Marouard, Tell Edfu Project)

It is thought that the silos would have stored barley and wheat, which would have been collected as taxes and used in trade to support the local economy.  However, it seems that there may have been more going on at Edfu’s granary than storage of local stock.  Granaries were common in Egyptian cities, but the size and number of silos at Edfu are out of proportion for the town’s size. 

Dr. Moeller’s team speculates that part of the Theban royal family of the Seventeenth Dynasty may have had its roots in Edfu and that locals may have used this clout to expand their operations during this time.  The Edfu granary may have served as a depot, being in a strategic location for Thebes during this tumultuous time.

Dr. Moeller with some of the grain silos of Tell Edfu (Photo by Gregory Marouard, Tell Edfu Project)

When the granary was scaled back, some of the silos were used for collecting rubbish—always a treasure trove for archaeologists.  In one of the abandoned silos, the Tell Edfu Project discovered thirty ostraca which included ration lists and the names and titles of various Edfu officials and administrators of the Second Intermediate Period.

Changing Times, Changing Neighborhoods

The New Kingdom Period marked a time of transition for Edfu, and it appears that during this period the granary in the Old Kingdom enclosure was decommissioned and administrative functions were moved elsewhere.  The New Kingdom town center has not been identified yet, and we can only hope it did not lie in either of the areas quarried for their soil and minerals. 

What is clear is that no new construction took place in the Old Kingdom neighborhood, which appears to have served as a dump.  There is also a heavy layer of ash, in some parts of the courtyard as much as 8.5 feet thick.  The quantity of ash does not seem to be indicative of a catastrophic fire, but rather as the result of industrial functions, such as ash from the ovens of bakeries.

There is evidence that Seti I, Ramesses II, and Ramesses III may have done some building in and around Edfu during this time, and shards of imported Mycenaean pottery indicate that trade continued during the New Kingdom Period.  For the most part, however, the archaeological record for this period is either still awaiting discovery or has been destroyed.

Pharaohs Shabaka and Nectanebo II commissioned some work in the Edfu area during the Late Kingdom Period, but the most interesting discovery from this time is what could very well be the ruins of an Osiris chapel build by Psamtik I.  In the 1921-22 digging season, Henri Henne of the Institute for Egyptology in Lille excavated what appeared to be a small chapel which he dated to the Late Kingdom or Ptolemaic Period.  Dr. Moeller believes that the remains may be those of the Osiris Chapel.

During the Late Kingdom Period baboons, such as these depicted at Karnak, were associated with the god Osiris (Photo by Rick Manwaring)

The site Henne excavated contained two large stone door jambs, two sandstone baboons, a uraeus frieze and other decorative stone architectural elements.  A large number of Osiris bronzes were discovered in the area, which together with the baboons, seem to indicate an Osirian motif for the chapel.

Unfortunately, Henne did not leave good records of his work in the chapel area, making it difficult for the Tell Edfu Project to resume where he left off.  Making matters worse, there are no foundations or walls remaining to demark the chapel proper, so an accurate reconstruction will require more excavation, if it is possible at all.

The Tell Edfu Project has not only revealed much about the history of Edfu, but has forced a re-evaluation of the nature of ancient Egyptian urban centers.  Far from being a civilization without cities, ancient Egypt had mid-sized towns that served much as modern mid-sized cities do today.  As a crossroads for ancient interstates, a junction for domestic and foreign trade, and a depot for larger cities, Edfu was a vital element of the Theban economy, an important trading partner with Nubia, and a cultural center for Upper Egypt.

The Great Temple of Osiris as seen from the area of the north quarry, near the First Intermediate Period enclosure walls (Photo by Daniel Csörföly)

In Edfu Part Two we will pick up with the Ptolemaic Period and the wonderful temple built during that time.

Additional Online Resources

The Tell Edfu Project

The official website of the Tell Edfu Project has all the Annual Reports in pdf format, along with 360-degree panoramic displays using Microsoft’s Photosynth.

Egyptian Monuments

The articles Hierakonpolis, El-Kab, and The Temple of Horus at Edfu, by Su Bayfield, all have excellent information about Edfu and the surrounding area.

Talking Pyramids

Administration Building & Silos found at Edfu, Vincent Brown’s coverage of the Tell Edfu Project.  Vincent also has some wonderful photography related to the Ptolemaic Temple, but that is more relevant to Edfu Part Two, now in the works.

 Tour Egypt

Edfu, by Marie Parsons.

Copyright by Keith Payne, 2009.  All rights reserved.

The photos “080701 TellEdfu-print,” “080701 silos-print,” “080701 excavationarea,” “080701 columnedhall-print,” “080701 moeller1_print,” and “080701 moeller2_print” by G. Marouard are available in larger and higher resolution format as downloads from The University of Chicago.  Photos “Temple of Edfu” by Girolame, “IMG_1136” by Gloria Euyoque, and “2009-09-22 at 17-52-46,” by Rick Manwaring are all used in accordance with this CC Attribution 2.0 Generic license.  Photo “EdfuHorusTempleEgypt LeftSide 2007feb7-84 byDanielCsorfoly” by Daniel Csörföly is public domain.  Satellite image of Tell Edfu is courtesy of Google Maps.

Seventeenth Dynasty

Thebes in Turmoil Rediscovers its Egyptian Spirit

1650 to 1550 BC

The Seventeenth Dynasty co-existed with the Fifteenth and Sixteenth.  They were a collection of Theban nobles who exerted some limited control over the surrounding area, but who for the most part were under the subjugation of the Hyksos.  This situation would change under the rules of Tao II and his son Kamose, who would organize resistance culminating in the defeat of the Hyksos, the reunion of Upper and Lower Egypt, and the end of the Second Intermediate Period.