DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.55201#0094
SEASON OF I922-I923 8l
scribe sent to another a flint valentine on which he had written “For
thy soul, receive food and drink before Amun every day in Djeser-
akhet, O Lieutenant Amen-hotpe, son of Amen-hotpe. Mayest thou
drink water at the foaming of the stream,” and then a crude little
sketch of Amen-hotpe holding a cup to his lips.
Mixed in with all of this rubbish left by the temple builders there
were thousands of ex-votos from this very shrine of Djeser-akhet,
from the Hat-Hor shrine built just before it by Hat-shepsut, and—if
we are not mistaken—from a still earlier Eighteenth Dynasty Hat-
Hor chapel which Hat-shepsut’s must have superseded and from
which the earliest scarabs came. The inscribed scarabs already men-
tioned were among them. Of the little shapeless, uninscribed scarabs
of brilliant blue faience which were strung up like beads and offered
by myriads in the chapels, we got between three and four thousand.
The ground was literally sown with such offerings which had been
left for a while in the chapels, and then thrown out into the rubbish
hole on the periodical cleaning days. Bits of broken blue faience plat-
ters in which food had been presented to the goddess were uncounta-
ble. Symbols of Hat-Hor were everywhere. Sometimes she was the
cow carved on plaques of limestone, copper, or faience; or again she
was represented by the primitive symbol of a post with a woman’s
head atop, which gave the inspiration for the Hat-Hor headed columns
of her temples (pl 45). She was a protectress, and tablets engraved
with a pair of eyes or ears would assure her seeing and hearing a sup-
plicant; and she was a goddess of joy to whom those who were in love
had merely to make a gift to attain their hearts’ desires. Amen-hotpe 1
appears to have built her first shrine here.
A few centuries after the shrines of Hat-Hor were deserted Egypt
went through terrible vicissitudes. Assyrians, and even Libyan and
Ethiopian barbarians, who had once been looked upon as the lowest
of savages, overran the country, long since habituated to rebellion and
civil war. Finally, in 663 b.c. under the dynasty of Sais, Egypt pulled
itself together once more, and for over a hundred years basked in the
twilight of her independence. Men’s memories then naturally turned
back to the great days of the past, and numerous tombs in Thebes
attest to the renaissance of archaic art in the Sa'ite period.4
In 1922-23 we found the tomb of a certain Nesy-pe-ka-shuti, Mayor
of Thebes and Vizir, who not only adapted the decorations of his tomb
from earlier models but, seeing the imposing ruins of the fifteen-
4 The tomb of Pebes described by Lansing (Bulletin, 1920, July, 11, p. 17) is of about
the same period.
scribe sent to another a flint valentine on which he had written “For
thy soul, receive food and drink before Amun every day in Djeser-
akhet, O Lieutenant Amen-hotpe, son of Amen-hotpe. Mayest thou
drink water at the foaming of the stream,” and then a crude little
sketch of Amen-hotpe holding a cup to his lips.
Mixed in with all of this rubbish left by the temple builders there
were thousands of ex-votos from this very shrine of Djeser-akhet,
from the Hat-Hor shrine built just before it by Hat-shepsut, and—if
we are not mistaken—from a still earlier Eighteenth Dynasty Hat-
Hor chapel which Hat-shepsut’s must have superseded and from
which the earliest scarabs came. The inscribed scarabs already men-
tioned were among them. Of the little shapeless, uninscribed scarabs
of brilliant blue faience which were strung up like beads and offered
by myriads in the chapels, we got between three and four thousand.
The ground was literally sown with such offerings which had been
left for a while in the chapels, and then thrown out into the rubbish
hole on the periodical cleaning days. Bits of broken blue faience plat-
ters in which food had been presented to the goddess were uncounta-
ble. Symbols of Hat-Hor were everywhere. Sometimes she was the
cow carved on plaques of limestone, copper, or faience; or again she
was represented by the primitive symbol of a post with a woman’s
head atop, which gave the inspiration for the Hat-Hor headed columns
of her temples (pl 45). She was a protectress, and tablets engraved
with a pair of eyes or ears would assure her seeing and hearing a sup-
plicant; and she was a goddess of joy to whom those who were in love
had merely to make a gift to attain their hearts’ desires. Amen-hotpe 1
appears to have built her first shrine here.
A few centuries after the shrines of Hat-Hor were deserted Egypt
went through terrible vicissitudes. Assyrians, and even Libyan and
Ethiopian barbarians, who had once been looked upon as the lowest
of savages, overran the country, long since habituated to rebellion and
civil war. Finally, in 663 b.c. under the dynasty of Sais, Egypt pulled
itself together once more, and for over a hundred years basked in the
twilight of her independence. Men’s memories then naturally turned
back to the great days of the past, and numerous tombs in Thebes
attest to the renaissance of archaic art in the Sa'ite period.4
In 1922-23 we found the tomb of a certain Nesy-pe-ka-shuti, Mayor
of Thebes and Vizir, who not only adapted the decorations of his tomb
from earlier models but, seeing the imposing ruins of the fifteen-
4 The tomb of Pebes described by Lansing (Bulletin, 1920, July, 11, p. 17) is of about
the same period.