Six Temples at Thebes 1896/Chapter 1
CHAPTER I.
THE CHAPEL OF UAZMES, AND THE EARLY XVIIITH DYNASTY.
6. This chapel or small temple lies immediately beyond the road south of the Ramesseum. It was discovered and cleared out by M. Daressy in 1887; and a plan of it was published as Pl. IV in "Le Musée Égyptien," of which only "Tom. I, Liv. I, Fasc. I" ever appeared, so that the promised text which was to come in Fascicule II has not been published. As this exploration bared the whole site it might seem needless to say more about it; but a small further excavation gave important results.
The present state of the chapel is given in Pl. XXVI, where the solid black shows the remaining brick walls, the open outlines at the doorways show the stonework, and the open outline of walls show what has disappeared since the uncovering in 1887. Several details shown on the earlier plan cannot now be traced out; but in one respect—the skew of the south side of the forecourt—the later plan is the more accurate. This skew was specially noticed as affecting the question of estimating the mean axis of the building.
Some few matters yet waited to be examined. At A the sandstone sill of the entrance pylon remains in place. The two lines crossing it show where the sides of the doorway stood. On tunnelling beneath it there was found a blue glazed ring of Amenhotep III of a fine colour (Pl. III, 26). From the position it does not seem at all likely that this can have been introduced after the building, and hence we must attribute a restoration of this chapel to Amenhotep III. What his object was in thus working here we may guess when we see that he took the temple of Amenhotep II, and largely altered it for a temple in honour of the Princess Sitamen, daughter of Amenhotep III. Probably therefore he made a similar re-appropriation of this chapel for some divinity or for some other princess of his family. At B, at the head of the low steps leading to the court, at 28 inches deep, upon the gravel, were seventeen little dumps of blue glazed pottery, about ⅓ inch across. At C was found a fine green scarab of Amenhotep II (Pl. III, 25) apparently beneath the brickwork of the door sill. And at D were three more blue glazed dumps and a flower, rather like that of Merenptah's foundations (Pl. III, 30). Along the west side of the building is a thick bed of rubbish and pottery, and on digging through part of that a piece of a blue glazed bowl was found (Pl. III, 27) which is broken at a tantalising point after the title of the "Divine wife of Amen," so that the name is just lost. The colour and drawing of this piece are like works of Amenhotep III, but very different to the earlier style of Hatshepsut. So this again shows that the activities at this place belong to the later date.
On looking at the sculptures found here in 1887, and published in Pls. I, II, III, V, VI, of "Le Musée Égyptien," about half of them belong to the earlier age, down to Tahutmes III (Pls. I, II, V a, VI b, d); while others are of the later part of the XVIII dynasty (III, VI c) and probably early XIX dynasty (V b, d; VI a). The official of the cemetery Pa-shed who adores Uazmes on the stele of Pl. III is very probably the same as the cemetery official Pa-shed of the Belmore altar No. 8, and the tablets 261, 262, 264, 282, 341 of the British Museum. (The numbers here given are those in the Synopsis of 1850, the only available list of that Museum). It seems therefore that this chapel was in use for the adoration of Uazmes, and perhaps of other persons, down to the XIXth dynasty; and that it was largely restored under Amenhotep III.
7. Some other remains of the early part of the XVIIIth dynasty were found in various sites: we here notice them in the order of the drawings.
In the temple of Tahutmes IV blocks of earlier sculpture had been freely used up: some of these appear to have been from tombs, as they bear figures of servants (Pl. I, 1, 2). The date is shown by the cartouche of Tahutmes I and the name Aa-kheperka-ra-senb. These slabs are of coarse brown sandstone painted in body colour, without any sculpturing.
A tablet (Pl. I, 3) of limestone shows a woman named Bakt, making a meat offering and a drink offering to the cow of Hahtor, for the benefit of her husband, the engraver of Amen, named Amenemhat. The three hollows at the top are apparently for two ears, and perhaps the sign of a hide; it seems as if some inlaid objects had been inserted, of glass or metal.
A portion of an altar (Pl. I, 4) of sandstone dedicated by a chief priest of Tahutmes III named Ra, was found in the temple ruins of Amenhotep II. This priest was the husband of the nurse of Amenhotep II, and his tomb is one of the finest in Qurneh, published partly in Lepsius "Denkmaler" III, 62, and Prisse "Art," where the glass and stone vases are figured.
A large wooden ushabti (Pl. II, 1) was found in a high heap of ashes upon the top of the brick galleries behind the Ramesseum: how it can have come into such a position cannot be traced. It belonged to the tomb of the great viceroy of the Sudan under Tahutmes III, named Nehi; he built the temple in the island of Sai, and carved the S. grotto of Ibrim. The work of this ushabti shows the taste of that time in the slender, delicately carved, and finely formed hieroglyphs.
A limestone Osiride figure (Pl. II, 2) of Tahutmes I was found in the ruins of the temple of Amenhotep II; the work however seems to belong to the time of the earlier king, and it seems as if it might well have been brought from his tomb, and be an early type of royal ushabti.
Behind the temenos of the temple of Merenptah, we found at the base of the wall a patch of sand with small vases (Pl. IV, 1–8) of rough pottery; and it appears that these belonged to the foundation deposit of some earlier building, which was cleared away by Merenptah. These seem on the whole to be rather earlier in type than the vases of Amenhotep II, figured next below them: but no positive date can be assigned to them.
On clearing a building in the outer court of Tahutmes IV, a part of an earlier stele was found used up in the threshold (Pl. IX, 1). It represents a man named Min-mes, making offerings to his father Athu-usir; and from the work it is probably of about the reign of Tahutmes III.
These comprise all the remains earlier than Amenhotep II which were found in the course of the excavations. The later remains we shall notice in dealing with the temples of their respective periods in the following chapters.