DOI Artikel:
Naville, Edouard; Hall, H. R.: Egypt Exploration Fund: excavations at Deir El-Bahari
DOI Seite / Zitierlink: https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.12053#0025
Excavations at Deir El-Bahari.
i)
Punt, but simply imitated the older building which already existed at
Deir el-Bahari. She chose, instead of building in the style of her time,
to imitate an Xlth Dynasty temple. The great temple of Deir el-Bahari
was then, when it was built, a magnificent piece of archaism : its peculiar
style is a revival of the older temple-architecture of Egypt.
Since Hatshepsu copied her temple from one of the Xlth Dynasty, a
further interesting possibility presents itself. Hatshepsu's expedition to
Punt is the chief one known to us at the comparatively late period of the
New Empire ; relations between Egypt and Punt seem to have been most
developed in the period between the Vtli and VI th Dynasties. Mentuhetep
Sankhkara, a follower of Neb-kheru-Ba on the throne, sent an expedition to
Punt. It may well be that Hatshepsu's expedition was merely an echo of
those of Sankhkara and his predecessors; she copied the Xlth Dynasty
in her temple building, and carried her archaistic tendencies so far as to
imitate them also in sending an expedition to Punt.*
The new discovery explains why Hatshepsu's architects, instead of
building in the exact centre of the theatre of Deir el-Bahari, crammed the
new temple up against the northern slope of the cliffs, leaving the great
space to the south which had seemed unoccupied until this season's work.
We now see that they were compelled to do this by the presence, which
we moderns had hardly suspected, of the older temple at Deir el-Bahari.
This temple, the newly-discovered one, certainly existed side by side with
the new temple of Hatshepsu throughout the XVIIIth Dynasty, and did
not fall into ruin until the Bamesside period or later. One of the pillars
of the hypostyle hall bears the royal label of a Barneses. The relief-slabs
of the hall and the pillars of the colonnade are covered with Bamesside
graffiti, both written and incised, and the colonnade seems indeed to have
been used as a sort of school or practice-ground for young scribes and
decorators. This last proceeding would hardly have been tolerated if the
building had still been in good repair, so that we can date its decadence
with some certainty to the Bamesside period.-]-;
In order to obtain room for their temple, Hatshepsu's architects were
* [A further possibility may be adumbrated. Did Hatshepsu's expedition ever
take place at all'? May not her Punt-reliefs be merely beautified copies of reliefs
(which have not been discovered) in the older temple depicting a Punt expedition of
Nobkheruras ? This idea, which I expressed in writing to Professors Naville and
Maspero when the colonnade and ramp were found, has also occurred to others,
e.g. to Mr. Hogarth, who in a letter to me has noted its po-sibility.—H. H.]
f Attempts had at one time been made to support the roof of the colonnade by
square pillars and pyloniform erections of brick, some of which still stand. [It seems
probable that the colonnade was used as a studio for the artists engaged on the
restoration of Hatshepsu's temple by Rameses II.—H. H.]
i)
Punt, but simply imitated the older building which already existed at
Deir el-Bahari. She chose, instead of building in the style of her time,
to imitate an Xlth Dynasty temple. The great temple of Deir el-Bahari
was then, when it was built, a magnificent piece of archaism : its peculiar
style is a revival of the older temple-architecture of Egypt.
Since Hatshepsu copied her temple from one of the Xlth Dynasty, a
further interesting possibility presents itself. Hatshepsu's expedition to
Punt is the chief one known to us at the comparatively late period of the
New Empire ; relations between Egypt and Punt seem to have been most
developed in the period between the Vtli and VI th Dynasties. Mentuhetep
Sankhkara, a follower of Neb-kheru-Ba on the throne, sent an expedition to
Punt. It may well be that Hatshepsu's expedition was merely an echo of
those of Sankhkara and his predecessors; she copied the Xlth Dynasty
in her temple building, and carried her archaistic tendencies so far as to
imitate them also in sending an expedition to Punt.*
The new discovery explains why Hatshepsu's architects, instead of
building in the exact centre of the theatre of Deir el-Bahari, crammed the
new temple up against the northern slope of the cliffs, leaving the great
space to the south which had seemed unoccupied until this season's work.
We now see that they were compelled to do this by the presence, which
we moderns had hardly suspected, of the older temple at Deir el-Bahari.
This temple, the newly-discovered one, certainly existed side by side with
the new temple of Hatshepsu throughout the XVIIIth Dynasty, and did
not fall into ruin until the Bamesside period or later. One of the pillars
of the hypostyle hall bears the royal label of a Barneses. The relief-slabs
of the hall and the pillars of the colonnade are covered with Bamesside
graffiti, both written and incised, and the colonnade seems indeed to have
been used as a sort of school or practice-ground for young scribes and
decorators. This last proceeding would hardly have been tolerated if the
building had still been in good repair, so that we can date its decadence
with some certainty to the Bamesside period.-]-;
In order to obtain room for their temple, Hatshepsu's architects were
* [A further possibility may be adumbrated. Did Hatshepsu's expedition ever
take place at all'? May not her Punt-reliefs be merely beautified copies of reliefs
(which have not been discovered) in the older temple depicting a Punt expedition of
Nobkheruras ? This idea, which I expressed in writing to Professors Naville and
Maspero when the colonnade and ramp were found, has also occurred to others,
e.g. to Mr. Hogarth, who in a letter to me has noted its po-sibility.—H. H.]
f Attempts had at one time been made to support the roof of the colonnade by
square pillars and pyloniform erections of brick, some of which still stand. [It seems
probable that the colonnade was used as a studio for the artists engaged on the
restoration of Hatshepsu's temple by Rameses II.—H. H.]