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#0026
10
Egypt Exploration Fund,
compelled to plant its upper platform, and the shrine of the goddess
Hathor adjoining, right on the top of part of the temenos-wall of the
older temple.
It was in all probability in the course of the building of the great temple
that some of the Xlth Dynasty tombs in the court of Nebkheruras
temple were violated. These tombs must have been practically con-
temporary with the building of the temple: we see it, in fact, as a sort
of Xlth Dynasty Westminster Abbey; the king's courtiers and officials
were buried not merely in the court, but actually in the outer colonnade of
his temple, and the funerary chapel as at Abusir and elsewhere soon became
a burial place. Buried here, Nebkherura became a sort of tutelary
daemon of the necropolis of Deir el-Bahari, and was evoked with Hathor
^ ^ rv^i hr-cib Tjesrei, " in the funerary mountain," and Amen-Ba, to
I I d ' j > j >
give the funeral meats " and everything good or pure on which the god there
lives " to the leas of many pious Egyptians, who dedicated votive figures of
themselves or small sepulchral stelae bearing their names in the deified
king's temple. On one of these, a figure dating approximately to the Later
Middle Empire or the Hyksos period, is a long hymn to B;T containing a
mention of the Land of Bunt. On a fragment of stela we find men-
tion of an XVIIIth Dynasty worthy, Aakheperka, priest of Hathor
in Alih-dsct, c=. © ^__. This is an important reference, for we
know from other sources that the pyramid-temple of Nebkherura was
called ^ j i /\ •* So the name of our temple is identified. Further, it
is certainly the " pyramid-tomb of King Neb-khert-Ra deceased wdiich is
in Tjesret," wdiich was examined and found intact by the inspectors in the
reign of Barneses IX.f The evidence points to a pyramid for Nebkherura,
not a rock-tomb, like that of Neb-hetep.
A large number of small objects were found in the course of the
excavations, besides the workmen's tools already referred to. The most
* Mariette, Cat. Abudos, No. 605.
noticeable that one or two inscribed fragments, apparently of the temple-reliefs,
give the king's name spelt J f^J. This may be due to later restoration ;
the possibility of this must not be left out of account. The name of a Rameses is
found on an Xlth Dynasty column in the hall on the platform, and it is possible
that the first three Thothmes may have repaired the temple at an earlier period.
Egypt Exploration Fund,
compelled to plant its upper platform, and the shrine of the goddess
Hathor adjoining, right on the top of part of the temenos-wall of the
older temple.
It was in all probability in the course of the building of the great temple
that some of the Xlth Dynasty tombs in the court of Nebkheruras
temple were violated. These tombs must have been practically con-
temporary with the building of the temple: we see it, in fact, as a sort
of Xlth Dynasty Westminster Abbey; the king's courtiers and officials
were buried not merely in the court, but actually in the outer colonnade of
his temple, and the funerary chapel as at Abusir and elsewhere soon became
a burial place. Buried here, Nebkherura became a sort of tutelary
daemon of the necropolis of Deir el-Bahari, and was evoked with Hathor
^ ^ rv^i hr-cib Tjesrei, " in the funerary mountain," and Amen-Ba, to
I I d ' j > j >
give the funeral meats " and everything good or pure on which the god there
lives " to the leas of many pious Egyptians, who dedicated votive figures of
themselves or small sepulchral stelae bearing their names in the deified
king's temple. On one of these, a figure dating approximately to the Later
Middle Empire or the Hyksos period, is a long hymn to B;T containing a
mention of the Land of Bunt. On a fragment of stela we find men-
tion of an XVIIIth Dynasty worthy, Aakheperka, priest of Hathor
in Alih-dsct, c=. © ^__. This is an important reference, for we
know from other sources that the pyramid-temple of Nebkherura was
called ^ j i /\ •* So the name of our temple is identified. Further, it
is certainly the " pyramid-tomb of King Neb-khert-Ra deceased wdiich is
in Tjesret," wdiich was examined and found intact by the inspectors in the
reign of Barneses IX.f The evidence points to a pyramid for Nebkherura,
not a rock-tomb, like that of Neb-hetep.
A large number of small objects were found in the course of the
excavations, besides the workmen's tools already referred to. The most
* Mariette, Cat. Abudos, No. 605.
noticeable that one or two inscribed fragments, apparently of the temple-reliefs,
give the king's name spelt J f^J. This may be due to later restoration ;
the possibility of this must not be left out of account. The name of a Rameses is
found on an Xlth Dynasty column in the hall on the platform, and it is possible
that the first three Thothmes may have repaired the temple at an earlier period.