DOI issue:
Egypt
DOI article:Pawlicki, Franciszek: Deir el-Bahari: Hatshepsut temple conservation and preservation project 1996/97
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.41242#0059
Several fragments or even complete blocks were also
attributed to the lower register of the wall, including one with the
face of Tuthmosis III being led by the god Amun.
THE RE-HORAKHTY VESTIBULE - EASTERN WALL
The rebuilding of this wall was the last stage of the
restoration conducted in the vestibule of the solar chapel. The
northern and southern walls had been completed in the previous
seasons,4 and it seems now that there is not enough original
material for the rebuilding of the western wall of the vestibule,
including the entrance to the solar court. The three plain lowermost
courses of the eastern wall were preserved in place. A few
decorated blocks were fitted in the wall by the Polish expedition in
the 1970s, mainly in the northern comer. Painstaking research
resulted in the attribution to the eastern wall of over seventy
original blocks or fragments.5 All of them had been identified and
attached to the already assembled parts of the wall. The decoration
apparently consists of two antithetical representations of the king
presenting food offerings to the solar bark. Unfortunately, both
royal figures are missing. One block with the representation of the
king's offerings was removed from the hypostyle hall of the Hathor
Shrine (mistakenly put there by Baraize) and replaced in the wall of
the Re-Horakhty vestibule. Both representations of the kings were
accompanied by long texts of a cosmographic and cultic character.
A major problem at the beginning was that both inscriptions were
cryptically conceived to protect their secret and exclusive character.
The text located in the southern section of the wall is related to the
king's secret knowledge concerning the morning phase of the solar
journey of the sun god, while the one in the northern part is related
to the evening phase. Research has proved that at least one passage,
if not more, in the Deir el-Bahari version is not attested elsewhere,
4 PAMVU, 1995 (1996), pp. 69-76, PAM VIII, 1996 (1997), pp. 59-67.
5 PAM VII, 1995 (1996), p. 66, fig. 1.
57
attributed to the lower register of the wall, including one with the
face of Tuthmosis III being led by the god Amun.
THE RE-HORAKHTY VESTIBULE - EASTERN WALL
The rebuilding of this wall was the last stage of the
restoration conducted in the vestibule of the solar chapel. The
northern and southern walls had been completed in the previous
seasons,4 and it seems now that there is not enough original
material for the rebuilding of the western wall of the vestibule,
including the entrance to the solar court. The three plain lowermost
courses of the eastern wall were preserved in place. A few
decorated blocks were fitted in the wall by the Polish expedition in
the 1970s, mainly in the northern comer. Painstaking research
resulted in the attribution to the eastern wall of over seventy
original blocks or fragments.5 All of them had been identified and
attached to the already assembled parts of the wall. The decoration
apparently consists of two antithetical representations of the king
presenting food offerings to the solar bark. Unfortunately, both
royal figures are missing. One block with the representation of the
king's offerings was removed from the hypostyle hall of the Hathor
Shrine (mistakenly put there by Baraize) and replaced in the wall of
the Re-Horakhty vestibule. Both representations of the kings were
accompanied by long texts of a cosmographic and cultic character.
A major problem at the beginning was that both inscriptions were
cryptically conceived to protect their secret and exclusive character.
The text located in the southern section of the wall is related to the
king's secret knowledge concerning the morning phase of the solar
journey of the sun god, while the one in the northern part is related
to the evening phase. Research has proved that at least one passage,
if not more, in the Deir el-Bahari version is not attested elsewhere,
4 PAMVU, 1995 (1996), pp. 69-76, PAM VIII, 1996 (1997), pp. 59-67.
5 PAM VII, 1995 (1996), p. 66, fig. 1.
57