DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.55202#0109
GRAFFITI OF THE PRIESTHOOD 89
festival of the “Voyaging to the Valley of Neb-hepet-Ret,” the
Theban king who had united the Two Lands.
It is obvious that Neb-hepet-Ref himself never could have antici-
pated such a pilgrimage, or his architects never would have designed
a temple so ill adapted to processions. We must always remember
that the monument at Deir el Bahri started as a gigantic saff. Its
narrow doors and the forest of columns around its pyramid seem
purposely contrived to make difficult the passage back into the
sanctuary of such an object as the bark of Amun. In fact, the
bark and its bearers could have measured no more than about 350
cm. in length and 90 cm. in width, if they were to negotiate the nar-
row doors and sharp turns in the ambulatory around the pyramid.
This would have meant that one row of bearers would have had to
leave the litter as it entered the first doorway of Neb-hepet-Ref’s
temple if, as seems probable, the earliest bark had three carrying
poles for three bearers abreast.56 The chapel of Se’n-Wosret I at
Karnak and the straight processional way of Hat-shepsut in her
temple at Deir el Bahri both provide room for a bark with three
rows of bearers, who would have needed a passage no more than
three cubits, or about 156 cm., wide.
Clearly in the Eleventh Dynasty the journey of the bark of Amun
to Deir el Bahri was unheard of; in the Twelfth Dynasty it was being
watched for annually, on a day clearly stated in one of these graffiti.
Nofer-ebod fixes the Voyaging to the Valley as taking place on the
first day of Shomu, and in the days of Amun-em-het I that should
have been in the first week of August. The calculation is about as
follows.57 In 2773 b.c. the First Day of Akhet, New Year’s Day,
came on June 23; the First Day of Shomu (241 days later) was then
on February 18. After four years the First Day of Shomu was on
February 17, and so on. Hence, at the beginning of the Twelfth
Dynasty, in 1991 b.c., it was on August 8, working back toward
early June at the end of the Middle Kingdom.
This was not a season of any significance in the ordinary agricultu-
ral life of the Nile Valley, because farming is then at a complete
standstill, while the river has a long way yet to go to be in full flood.
The first of Shomu was, however, preceded in the Eighteenth Dy-
56 Legrain, BIFAO, 1917, p. 12; Chevrier, Annales, 1934, p. 172, Figs. 6-8; Winlock, Deir el
Bahri, p. 219.
57 Winlock, “The Origin of the Ancient Egyptian Calendar,” Proceedings of the American
Philosophical Society, 1940, p. 447 ft.
festival of the “Voyaging to the Valley of Neb-hepet-Ret,” the
Theban king who had united the Two Lands.
It is obvious that Neb-hepet-Ref himself never could have antici-
pated such a pilgrimage, or his architects never would have designed
a temple so ill adapted to processions. We must always remember
that the monument at Deir el Bahri started as a gigantic saff. Its
narrow doors and the forest of columns around its pyramid seem
purposely contrived to make difficult the passage back into the
sanctuary of such an object as the bark of Amun. In fact, the
bark and its bearers could have measured no more than about 350
cm. in length and 90 cm. in width, if they were to negotiate the nar-
row doors and sharp turns in the ambulatory around the pyramid.
This would have meant that one row of bearers would have had to
leave the litter as it entered the first doorway of Neb-hepet-Ref’s
temple if, as seems probable, the earliest bark had three carrying
poles for three bearers abreast.56 The chapel of Se’n-Wosret I at
Karnak and the straight processional way of Hat-shepsut in her
temple at Deir el Bahri both provide room for a bark with three
rows of bearers, who would have needed a passage no more than
three cubits, or about 156 cm., wide.
Clearly in the Eleventh Dynasty the journey of the bark of Amun
to Deir el Bahri was unheard of; in the Twelfth Dynasty it was being
watched for annually, on a day clearly stated in one of these graffiti.
Nofer-ebod fixes the Voyaging to the Valley as taking place on the
first day of Shomu, and in the days of Amun-em-het I that should
have been in the first week of August. The calculation is about as
follows.57 In 2773 b.c. the First Day of Akhet, New Year’s Day,
came on June 23; the First Day of Shomu (241 days later) was then
on February 18. After four years the First Day of Shomu was on
February 17, and so on. Hence, at the beginning of the Twelfth
Dynasty, in 1991 b.c., it was on August 8, working back toward
early June at the end of the Middle Kingdom.
This was not a season of any significance in the ordinary agricultu-
ral life of the Nile Valley, because farming is then at a complete
standstill, while the river has a long way yet to go to be in full flood.
The first of Shomu was, however, preceded in the Eighteenth Dy-
56 Legrain, BIFAO, 1917, p. 12; Chevrier, Annales, 1934, p. 172, Figs. 6-8; Winlock, Deir el
Bahri, p. 219.
57 Winlock, “The Origin of the Ancient Egyptian Calendar,” Proceedings of the American
Philosophical Society, 1940, p. 447 ft.