by Frauke Pumpenmeier (edited by Jessica Izak)
The dedicatory inscription on the east wall of the northern pylon wing was first recorded by Mohammed Chabân in 1901 and published in 1907. Today it is badly damaged by salt erosion and barely recognisable. The depiction flanked by two flagpoles is 3.22 metres high and 2.65 metres wide. The rest of the wall is undecorated.
The text extends over 26 lines and is a hymn to Merenptah of Thot and the Ogdoad, which was written on the Thot festival while Thot was resting in the temple of Amun. Thot praises the king for his feast sacrifices and his general wisdom and grants him eternal rule as a sign of recognition. The Ogdoad join in the song of praise like a background choir. This is followed by a description of the materials of the new temple and the luxuriousness of the garden surrounding it, and finally the god Amun enters the temple.
The scene above the dedicatory inscription illustrates the content: King Merenptah, with a Cherep scepter and Anch sign in his hands, as he hands over the temple to Amun. However, the ibis-headed Thot with a lunar crown is depicted as the recipient, who presents the king with numerous reign anniversaries in the form of an annual garland with the signs for Hb-sd, 100,000 and Sn-ring as thanks for his donation. The temple can be seen as a schematic representation of a gate with a hollow between them, inscribed with ‘dj(.t) pr n nb=f’. It is further described as ‘Hw.t (n.t) k3 n Jmn Mrj-n-PtH Htp-Hr-M3a.t’, i.e. as a Ka temple for the Amun of Merenptah.
Six other deities are depicted in two sections behind Thot: Amun at the top, presumably Shepsi and Ra-Horakhty behind them, Horus-in-Hermopolis, Thot of Ramses II and Nehmetaway at the bottom. On the side, the names of Horus, the crown and Merenptah’s birth are inscribed on a raised frame about 40 cm wide, followed on the left by ‘mrj-DHwtj, nb-Xmnw’ and on the right by ‘mrj-Jmn nsw-nTrw, nb-p.t’. The lower end is formed by an approximately 25 cm high relief of alternating palace façades and Rechyt birds with Upper Egyptian and Lower Egyptian plants (lotus and papyrus).
The dedication of the temple to the ‘state god’ Amun and the confirmation of the king’s rule did not coincidentally take place during the Thot festival on 19 I Achet. It was deliberately staged to confirm royal power, as later sources show.
Bibliography:
- M. Chabân, Fouilles à Ashmounéin, ASAE 8, 1907, 216–218, Taf. I
- G. Roeder, Zwei hieroglyphische Inschriften aus Hermopolis (Ober-Ägypten), ASAE 52.2, 1954, 319–357, Taf. I–VI
- KRI IV, 27–30