DOI Artikel:
Naville, Edouard: Egypt Exploration Fund, [7]: Transport of Obelisks, as illustrated by a Bas-Relief in the temple of Deir el Bahari
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.10056#0019
Transport of Obelisks.
7
" terrasse de l'Est." The lowest row of boats is still in situ; 1 but tlie
majority of the blocks had been carried to the upper part of the temple.
A great number of them were discovered mixed with brickwork in walls
of the Upper Platform. The Copts had made use of them for the rude
partitions of rooms which evidently belonged to the kitchen of the
temple. Some of them, covered with hieroglyphs, are still built into
the retaining wall of the Court, where they may be seen nearly all
upside down.
The blocks were not all found at the same time. The point of the
obelisk was discovered in the first winter, the rudder of the boat in the
second campaign, and all that remains of the shaft of the obelisk only
last year, among the rubbish of the Lower Platform. Paper squeezes
have been made of all the sculptures, and these have been drawn and
pieced together by Madame Naville. These plates show how large are
the gaps still to be filled, especially in the vessel that bears the obelisk.
Nearly the whole of the upper part of this is wanting, and we should
not be able to understand its construction if it did not occur as a " deter-
minative sign " iu the inscription, where we see it in full on a reduced
scale. It is to be hoped that by taking down the wall in which some of
the inscriptions are inserted we shall be able to recover a few more of
these precious fragments.
The inscriptions show that it was Queen Hatshepsu, by whose order
the obelisk, or rather the obelisks (since there were two), were quarried
at Aswan and taken down to Thebes. We have the titles of the queen in
full, but her cartouches have not been preserved ; the lines where they
were engraved are destroyed. If they were still extant we should cer-
tainly find the cartouches erased, and probably replaced by those of
Thothmes II., as we see on the pavilions of the great tugs in front of the
boat, where the cartouche of Thothmes II. is not original; it is engraved
over that of Hatshepsu.
There have been other erasures, viz., of the name of Anion Ea, and
his title of " father of all the gods." These erasures are due to the
heretic King Khuenaten. As for the restorations, I believe they are
the work of Rameses II., who says in numerous inscriptions that " he
renewed the buildings of his father Anton." It is the same king who in
many cases, not considering Hatshepsu a legitimate sovereign of Egypt,
caused her name to be replaced by that of Thothmes II., who had
reigned with her for a short time, in the interval between Thothmes I.
and Thothmes III.
1 Mariette, Deir el Baliari, pi. 11.
7
" terrasse de l'Est." The lowest row of boats is still in situ; 1 but tlie
majority of the blocks had been carried to the upper part of the temple.
A great number of them were discovered mixed with brickwork in walls
of the Upper Platform. The Copts had made use of them for the rude
partitions of rooms which evidently belonged to the kitchen of the
temple. Some of them, covered with hieroglyphs, are still built into
the retaining wall of the Court, where they may be seen nearly all
upside down.
The blocks were not all found at the same time. The point of the
obelisk was discovered in the first winter, the rudder of the boat in the
second campaign, and all that remains of the shaft of the obelisk only
last year, among the rubbish of the Lower Platform. Paper squeezes
have been made of all the sculptures, and these have been drawn and
pieced together by Madame Naville. These plates show how large are
the gaps still to be filled, especially in the vessel that bears the obelisk.
Nearly the whole of the upper part of this is wanting, and we should
not be able to understand its construction if it did not occur as a " deter-
minative sign " iu the inscription, where we see it in full on a reduced
scale. It is to be hoped that by taking down the wall in which some of
the inscriptions are inserted we shall be able to recover a few more of
these precious fragments.
The inscriptions show that it was Queen Hatshepsu, by whose order
the obelisk, or rather the obelisks (since there were two), were quarried
at Aswan and taken down to Thebes. We have the titles of the queen in
full, but her cartouches have not been preserved ; the lines where they
were engraved are destroyed. If they were still extant we should cer-
tainly find the cartouches erased, and probably replaced by those of
Thothmes II., as we see on the pavilions of the great tugs in front of the
boat, where the cartouche of Thothmes II. is not original; it is engraved
over that of Hatshepsu.
There have been other erasures, viz., of the name of Anion Ea, and
his title of " father of all the gods." These erasures are due to the
heretic King Khuenaten. As for the restorations, I believe they are
the work of Rameses II., who says in numerous inscriptions that " he
renewed the buildings of his father Anton." It is the same king who in
many cases, not considering Hatshepsu a legitimate sovereign of Egypt,
caused her name to be replaced by that of Thothmes II., who had
reigned with her for a short time, in the interval between Thothmes I.
and Thothmes III.
1 Mariette, Deir el Baliari, pi. 11.