DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.41333#0075
Sahure and his Cult-Complex in the Light of Tradition
reservation of the royal offering to Bastet served as
an inspiration,40 though the Old Kingdom statuary
program might well have included statues of sphinxes,
the fragments of which were documented during
BORCHARDT's excavation, one piece even bear-
ing the titulatory of Sahure himself.411 would like to
draw attention to a frequently occurring lion-motive
from the collection of the Baugraffiti, all of which
come from the inner section of the mortuary temple
bordered by the transverse corridor and the pyra-
mid surface, respectively, in other words, from that
particular part of the temple where the suspected
statue cult could have taken place 42 Do they refer to
the presence of lion statues? Whatever may have hap-
pened, a relief with very much the same motif is also
known from the temple of Niuserre in the neighbour-
hood, moreover with a large granite lion-head has
been discovered directly north of the so-called
“statue-hall” with the five niches 43 In my opinion, the
ultimate reason for the late cult of Sakhmet being de-
tected in the temple of Sahure and not in that of
Niuserre should be looked for in the state of preser-
vation. Every visitor is aware of the fact that the cult-
complex of Sahure is still the best-preserved monu-
ment on the whole pyramid-field. At the dawn of
a new era, in the early New Kingdom, the landscape
of the Memphite necropolis was characterised by
hardly visible, sand-buried monuments; where a pre-
vailing building could not escape the eye of the
observer.44 Consequently, it is not accidental at all that
the first New Kingdom graffiti from the reign of
Amenhotep I are made by visitors to the Step
Pyramid.45 The Ptahshepses mastaba, just a couple
Early New Kingdom, Uppsala 1971. pp. 41, 183; D.B.
REDFORD, Pharaonic King-Lists, Annals and Day-
Books. A Contribution to the Study of the Egyptian Sense
of History, Mississauga 1986, pp. 32,137 with extensive
literature.
411 BORCHARDT, Das Grabdenkmal des Konigs S'alhu-
Re, II. Die Wandbilder, Leipzig 1913, Bl. 35,36.
41 BORCHARDT, Grabdenkmal des Sraihu-Re I, p. 111, fig.
141; PM IIP, p.329.
42 BORCHARDT, Grabdenkmal des Sraihu-Re I, pp. 88-89,
91 Graffiti M 23, M 32 and M 60.
43 VERNER, Abusir, pp. 82-83; PM IFF, p. 336.
44 The situation is discussed in detail by MALEK (MALEK,
A Meeting of the Old and New Saqqara during the New
Kingdom, in: A.B. LLOYD (ed.), Studies in Pharaonic
of metres from the pyramid of Sahure, wears an-
other graffito dated to the reign of Thotmes IH which
informs us that visitors came “to see the temple of
King Sahure and speak of its beauty”.46 Despite
rules governing how to compose the so-called
Besucherinschriften, their attestations make it highly
improbable that almost entirely collapsed monuments
attracted visitors and induced their admiration; for
this reason I tend to conclude that, similarly to the
pyramid of Netjerikhet, the cult-complex of Sahure
endured in a quite well-preserved state.
The Early New Kingdom Cult
By way of some sort of introduction, I would like
to remark that both the Thutmoside chapel immedi-
ately next to the ka-chapel of Khaemuaset on the
high desert west of Abusir (currently excavated by
a Japanese mission from the Waseda University)47
as well as the occurrence of the phrase s-pr ri in an
inscription from the reign of Thotmes IV (identified
as the “pool” of Abusir or the Abusir “lake”) empha-
sise the sacred nature of that vast area of Abusir in
the first half of the XVIIIth dynasty, although the
tombs of the upper nobility were concentrated else-
where.48
The emergence of the cult of Sakhmet of Sahure
is not a typical subject of personal piety,49 since add-
ing the cartouche of Thotmes IV to the scene entitled
“Royal offering to Bastet” implies more an official
recognition even at such an early stage, and a new
upstairs was built of mudbrick to give easier access
to the part of the temple dedicated to the veneration
of Sakhmet. It is beyond doubt that the fact that no
Religion and Society in Honour of J.G. Griffiths, EES 8,
London 1992 (hereinafter referred to as: Saqqara during
NK), p. 59).
45 WILDUNG, Rolle dgyptischer Konige, pp. 65-66.
46 J. BAINES, The Destruction of the Pyramid Temple of
Sahure, GM4 (1973), p. 12. (My emphasis).
47 S. YOSHIMURA, Recent Excavations of Waseda Univer-
sity in the Saqqara Area and on the West Bank at Luxor,
in: Eighth International Congress of Egyptologists. Ab-
stracts of Papers, Cairo 2000, p. 198.
48 Urk. IV, p. 1632,2; HOENES, Sachmet, p. 113.
49 Definition with examples in ASSMANN, State and Reli-
gion, pp. 68ff.; U. LUFT, Religion, in: REDFORD (ed.),
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt, Oxford 2001,
p. 144.
69
reservation of the royal offering to Bastet served as
an inspiration,40 though the Old Kingdom statuary
program might well have included statues of sphinxes,
the fragments of which were documented during
BORCHARDT's excavation, one piece even bear-
ing the titulatory of Sahure himself.411 would like to
draw attention to a frequently occurring lion-motive
from the collection of the Baugraffiti, all of which
come from the inner section of the mortuary temple
bordered by the transverse corridor and the pyra-
mid surface, respectively, in other words, from that
particular part of the temple where the suspected
statue cult could have taken place 42 Do they refer to
the presence of lion statues? Whatever may have hap-
pened, a relief with very much the same motif is also
known from the temple of Niuserre in the neighbour-
hood, moreover with a large granite lion-head has
been discovered directly north of the so-called
“statue-hall” with the five niches 43 In my opinion, the
ultimate reason for the late cult of Sakhmet being de-
tected in the temple of Sahure and not in that of
Niuserre should be looked for in the state of preser-
vation. Every visitor is aware of the fact that the cult-
complex of Sahure is still the best-preserved monu-
ment on the whole pyramid-field. At the dawn of
a new era, in the early New Kingdom, the landscape
of the Memphite necropolis was characterised by
hardly visible, sand-buried monuments; where a pre-
vailing building could not escape the eye of the
observer.44 Consequently, it is not accidental at all that
the first New Kingdom graffiti from the reign of
Amenhotep I are made by visitors to the Step
Pyramid.45 The Ptahshepses mastaba, just a couple
Early New Kingdom, Uppsala 1971. pp. 41, 183; D.B.
REDFORD, Pharaonic King-Lists, Annals and Day-
Books. A Contribution to the Study of the Egyptian Sense
of History, Mississauga 1986, pp. 32,137 with extensive
literature.
411 BORCHARDT, Das Grabdenkmal des Konigs S'alhu-
Re, II. Die Wandbilder, Leipzig 1913, Bl. 35,36.
41 BORCHARDT, Grabdenkmal des Sraihu-Re I, p. 111, fig.
141; PM IIP, p.329.
42 BORCHARDT, Grabdenkmal des Sraihu-Re I, pp. 88-89,
91 Graffiti M 23, M 32 and M 60.
43 VERNER, Abusir, pp. 82-83; PM IFF, p. 336.
44 The situation is discussed in detail by MALEK (MALEK,
A Meeting of the Old and New Saqqara during the New
Kingdom, in: A.B. LLOYD (ed.), Studies in Pharaonic
of metres from the pyramid of Sahure, wears an-
other graffito dated to the reign of Thotmes IH which
informs us that visitors came “to see the temple of
King Sahure and speak of its beauty”.46 Despite
rules governing how to compose the so-called
Besucherinschriften, their attestations make it highly
improbable that almost entirely collapsed monuments
attracted visitors and induced their admiration; for
this reason I tend to conclude that, similarly to the
pyramid of Netjerikhet, the cult-complex of Sahure
endured in a quite well-preserved state.
The Early New Kingdom Cult
By way of some sort of introduction, I would like
to remark that both the Thutmoside chapel immedi-
ately next to the ka-chapel of Khaemuaset on the
high desert west of Abusir (currently excavated by
a Japanese mission from the Waseda University)47
as well as the occurrence of the phrase s-pr ri in an
inscription from the reign of Thotmes IV (identified
as the “pool” of Abusir or the Abusir “lake”) empha-
sise the sacred nature of that vast area of Abusir in
the first half of the XVIIIth dynasty, although the
tombs of the upper nobility were concentrated else-
where.48
The emergence of the cult of Sakhmet of Sahure
is not a typical subject of personal piety,49 since add-
ing the cartouche of Thotmes IV to the scene entitled
“Royal offering to Bastet” implies more an official
recognition even at such an early stage, and a new
upstairs was built of mudbrick to give easier access
to the part of the temple dedicated to the veneration
of Sakhmet. It is beyond doubt that the fact that no
Religion and Society in Honour of J.G. Griffiths, EES 8,
London 1992 (hereinafter referred to as: Saqqara during
NK), p. 59).
45 WILDUNG, Rolle dgyptischer Konige, pp. 65-66.
46 J. BAINES, The Destruction of the Pyramid Temple of
Sahure, GM4 (1973), p. 12. (My emphasis).
47 S. YOSHIMURA, Recent Excavations of Waseda Univer-
sity in the Saqqara Area and on the West Bank at Luxor,
in: Eighth International Congress of Egyptologists. Ab-
stracts of Papers, Cairo 2000, p. 198.
48 Urk. IV, p. 1632,2; HOENES, Sachmet, p. 113.
49 Definition with examples in ASSMANN, State and Reli-
gion, pp. 68ff.; U. LUFT, Religion, in: REDFORD (ed.),
The Oxford Encyclopedia of Ancient Egypt, Oxford 2001,
p. 144.
69