Kingship
The king (pharaoh) was the absolute authority, the ruler for life, and the intermediary between the gods and mankind. Menes is traditionally considered to be the first king of Egypt. However, in the king list inscribed on the Palermo Stone, dating to the 5th Dynasty, Menes is preceded by kings who are shown wearing the double crown symbolizing ruler-ship over all Egypt. The existence of such earlier rulers (the so-called Dynasty 0) is increasingly supported by the excavations of Gunter Dreyer in cemetery U at Abydos, the work of Werner Kaiser in the Delta, and the late Michael Hoffman at Hierakonpolis. The tradition of Egyptian kingship continued into the Ptolemaic period and in part, the Roman era, during which time the Roman emperors adopted the traditional iconography and titulary of the Egyptian king.
Names and titles
The most common form of reference to the king is "his majesty" (hemef) or "king" (nesw). The term "pharaoh" is applied to the king from the New Kingdom onward, when the appellation of the palace (per-aa, "the great house") was transferred from the residence to the king himself, much as the term "Sublime Porte" was used to refer to the Ottoman Sultan and his residence. Each king had a formalized titulary which, from the 5th Dynasty onward, consisted of five great names (Horus name; "Two Ladies"; Golden Horus; prenomen; nomen), each of which associated the ruler with specific attributes and deities. In the earliest period, the king bore the Horus name, which might be enclosed in a rectangular format thought to resemble a niched gateway, called the serekh. This name was probably assumed upon accession and served to associate the king with the god Horus. In the reign of Den (1st Dynasty) the title "He of the Sedge and the Bee" (nesw bit), translated as "King of Upper and Lower Egypt," was added. Under Andjib (1st Dynasty), the title "Two Ladies" (nebty), another reference to the duality of the cosmos and land, was added to the titulary. Although the names of rulers of the 1st-2nd Dynasties were placed in an oval cartouche by later historians, it was Seneferu of the 4rd Dynasty, or perhaps his predecessor Huni, who initiated this innovation. The "Golden Horus Name" of the rulers of the 1st-4th Dynasties is known only from the Palermo Stone, at which time it became an element in the titulary. The last major modification occurred under Neferirkare (5th Dynasty) when the prenomen, the formal throne name taken at accession and written in a cartouche, was added before the epithet "Son of Re."
Representation of the king
Most frequently the king is shown in human form, idealized as if in the prime of life. He is distinguished from commoners by a bull tail which trails from his kilt, the royal sporran, headgear and scepters. The most common forms of headgear are the White and Red Crowns, known from Predynastic times, the striped headcloth (nemes), the Blue Crown (18th Dynasty), the atef and hemhem, all of which may also be worn by various gods. The characteristic scepters are the crook (the hieroglyph for "to rule") and the flail, which may allude to agriculture and the ability of the king to provide for his people. The king was also portrayed in symbolic form, in particular as a sphinx, and he was likened to a lion, panther or bull.
Succession
The living king was associated with the god Horus; his predecessor was associated with Horus’s father, Osiris, the main deity of the afterlife. According to this mythic succession, each king was considered to be the son of his predecessor, regardless of actual filiation. Therefore, the Egyptians considered the line of kings to be unbroken from the beginning of time. Once raised to kingship, the king served for his or her entire lifetime. The well-being of the king and the symbolic renewal of the ability to rule for a period beyond thirty years was ensured by the heb-sed festival, celebrated in the thirtieth year of rule and usually every third year thereafter.
Generally, the eldest son of the primary wife ("queen") of the previous king succeeded his father. However, the succession in the reign of Ramesses II, confused by a myriad of male offspring, indicates that strict primogeniture was not always followed. The idea that the inheritance of the throne was passed through the matrilineal line (the "heiress theory") is disproved by the fact that the chief wives of Tuthmose III, Amenhotep II and Amenhotep III were not themselves of royal blood, yet their sons acceded to the throne. The important role of royal daughters in the succession of the 18th Dynasty may be due to the lack of sons among the chief queens of this dynasty, through whom the royal legitimacy was passed, rather than being a reflection of any matrilineal tradition. From the 12 th Dynasty onward, coregencies were instituted whenever there was a possible cause of instability surrounding the succession.
Potentially disputed succession was confirmed by oracle (Tuthmose III), by a claim of divine birth (kings of the 5th Dynasty in the Papyrus Westcar; Hatshepsut; Amenhotep III; Ramesses II), or by military intervention (Psamtik I and Amasis of the 26th Dynasty). In cases where there were no surviving heirs, the king could be elected from among the highest echelon of the administration (Ramesses I), or from the military (Horemheb), who traditionally married into the extended royal family. Little is known about the actual coronation ceremony, although at least one ruler (Hatshepsut) was crowned in the temple of Ma’at at Karnak. Representations of the coronation reflect divine assistance and approval, for the gods Horus, Seth, Atum, Amen and Thoth, as well as other gods, are shown placing or steadying the crown on the king’s head.
Role and duties
The king was an absolute ruler. He was the final authority over economic matters. In theory, the land and its inhabitants were his personal property, although the existence of land grants and tax exemptions indicate the truer state of affairs. The king was assisted in the administration by one or two viziers who stood over a multi-level bureaucracy. The king served as the highest appeal court in the land, and, in theory, every commoner had access to the king to personally plead a case. The king was the supreme commander of the armed forces and many kings led Egyptian troops in battle.
The king was the highest priest in the land. All cult actions, regardless of the actual officiant, were enacted in the king’s name. He was the intermediary between the gods and mankind who, through the maintenance of ma’at (justice) and through offerings to the gods, ensured the unending cycle of the sun’s rising and setting, birth and rebirth, and justice in everyday affairs. On temple walls scenes of offering rituals are usually narrated by inscriptions that elucidate the relationship between the king and the god. In such scenes, the god pronounces the gift of basic attributes (life, health) which allow the king to live. The king’s action of offering is phrased in the infinitive, making the dedication simultaneous with the action of the donation. The final element of the inscriptions is conventionally translated "may he make given life." This serves as an acknowledgment which, in the 18th Dynasty, is understood as "he [the king] acts for him [the god] who has given life." The grammatical construction of this formula was modified in the
Ramesside period (19th-20th Dynasties) to mean "May he [the god] make life for the donor [on account of the king's offering]." This reinterpretation indicates that the action of the king was thought to influence a future action of the god, thereby creating a cycle of giving and receiving, which is absent in offering inscriptions of the earlier and post-Ramesside periods.
Jan Assmann has suggested that the power of the king declined in the Ramesside period. This conclusion is based on the assertion that the population increasingly believed that all aspects of the future, including judgment in the afterlife, were directed not by acting in accordance with the precepts of the traditional moral code (ma ‘at), which was ensured and protected by the king, but rather by the arbitrary will of the gods. According to Assmann, the influence of the Ramesside king, based on his role as the intermediary between the gods and mankind, was eroded as mankind looked directly to the gods for salvation. This assertion may be countered by the greater incidence of the ritual of the presentation of the goddess Ma’at shown in temples of the Ramesside period, which indicates a close association of the king, the gods and Ma’at, and also by continuing references to Ma’at in Late Egyptian and Demotic texts. In summary, although there was political instability in the Ramesside period, there is little evidence to suggest that the theological power of the king waned.
Divinity of the king
The king may be considered to be a mortal who was associated with deities and hence possessed a dual nature. The royal epithets "the good god" and "the great god," both known from the Old Kingdom onward, are characteristic of the divine element of the king’s nature. Texts and representations in the royal tombs of the New Kingdom closely identify the king with the sun god Re, as they journeyed through the darkness of night. However, this must be balanced against the deification of some kings after their death (Senusret I, Amenhotep I), during their lifetime (Amenhotep III, Tutankhamen, Seti I, Ramesses II and perhaps Akhenaten), or during the celebration of certain festivals (the New Year, Opet), which suggests that under ordinary circumstances, the king was not considered to be divine. This mortality of the king is stressed by the title "Son of Re," which was assumed by kings from the 5th Dynasty onward. Erik Hornung has suggested that rather than being a diminution of the pharaoh’s divine status, the phrase sought to define the king’s relationship with the gods.
Kom Abu Bello
Kom Abu Bello is a small village on the western edge of the Delta, approximately 70km north-west of Cairo (30°26′ N, 30°49′ E). It is situated where the route leading from the Wadi el-Natrun approaches the Rosetta branch of the Nile. The famous prehistoric site of Merimde Beni-salame lies to the south, and Kom el-Hisn is to the north.
In pharaonic times the site was known as "Mefket," which is the (ancient) Egyptian word for both turquoise and the goddess Hathor, who was worshipped here. During the Graeco-Roman period the site was known as "Terenuthis," which was derived from the pharaonic words ta Rennouti (land of the goddess Renenutet). The site was also known as "Terenouti" in Coptic. The modern name of the village, Tarana, is derived from the ancient name of the city. The name Kom Abu Bello refers specifically to the northwestern part of the site, where the Graeco-Roman cemetery is located. This name is probably derived from the name of the temple of the Greek god Apollo, the remains of which were found at the northern edge of the site.
Very little remains of the site today, as it has been explored and excavated for over a century, beginning with F.L.Griffith, who found the temple of Hathor, "Mistress of Mefket’ in 1887-8. In 1935, a portion of the site was excavated during a one-month project, conducted by the University of Michigan under the direction of E.Peterson. The majority of the excavations took place from 1969 to 1974 when a salvage archaeology project was undertaken, necessitated by the construction of the Nasser Canal.
In 1969-70, Shafik Farid conducted work at the southern end of the site, where Old, Middle and New Kingdom tombs were discovered. From 1970 to 1972 the Egyptian Antiquities Organization (EAO) continued excavations under Abdou el-Hafiz Abdou el-Aal, assisted by Zahi Hawass. Ahmed el-Sawi, assisted by Hawass, directed the work from 1972 to 1975, and Hawass was director of excavations in 1975-6. The 1969-1974 excavations covered a 5km2 area, extending from the Kafr Daoud bridge on the north to the edge of the contemporary village of Tarana on the south.
In the pharaonic cemetery the majority of Old Kingdom tombs date to the 6th Dynasty. New Kingdom burials were placed in ceramic coffins with large faces characteristic of this period. Most of the site is covered by the large cemetery of Graeco-Roman and Coptic date, which extends from the Tarana Bridge, just north of the Middle Kingdom cemetery, to the remains of the temple of Apollo, some 2km to the north, and on the west from the area known as "Tomb of the Ruler" to the railroad tracks running along the edge of modern Tarana. Approximately one-fourth of the original cemetery is covered by the contemporary village of Nasr Moustafa, lying to the north of Tarana just across the railroad tracks. The site is one of the richest in Egypt for the Graeco-Roman and early Coptic periods (circa 300 BC to AD 500), when it was an important center of trade for wine and salt from the Wadi el-Natrun.
Mudbrick tombs were found in the cemetery. The superstructure of many of the tombs was rectangular or square, with a barrel-vaulted roof. Some tombs had superstructures shaped like a truncated pyramid. Most of the tombs rested on mudbrick platforms. Stelae depicting the dead were placed inside tomb niches and became known as "Terenuthis stelae." Over 450 stelae, which date from the second-fourth centuries AD, have been recovered. The most common motif on the stelae is the deceased standing between two Egyptian-style columns with Greek pediments. Below him is a short text in either Greek or Egyptian (demotic).
Offerings to the deceased consisted of wine, lettuce and grapes, which were placed on offering tables in the tombs. Lamps were also lit for the dead and one stela even shows a party with music, from which we can infer that such events were frequent at Terenuthis. Hunting and fishing seem to have been the most common occupations, but potters, vintners, jewelers and artisans who carved the funerary stelae were also found in the town. Personal artifacts from the tombs indicate that there was active commerce in wine and salt with the Wadi el-Natrun, only 24km away.
A cattle cemetery, associated with the cult of Hathor, has also been discovered. In a cemetery dedicated to the Greek goddess Aphrodite, dating to the second century AD, many faience statuettes of the goddess were found in niches in the tombs. Statues and statuettes of Egyptian deities, such as Anubis, Isis, Taweret and Bes, were also discovered at the site. They are made of faience and inscribed with hieroglyphic formulae. Statuettes of Greek deities, such as Harpocrates and Hermes, were also found.
Many ceramic lamps were excavated, with impressed designs of olive branches, Nile fish, the frog goddess Heket and Serapis. Other artifacts, such as ivory combs, necklaces, gold and silver rings, gold earrings, bracelets, hair clips and amulets, were also recovered. A great deal of pottery dating from the end of the pharaonic period through the Coptic period was likewise recovered. Many of the vessels were painted in various colors. Amphorae were also found. Pots in the burials were placed around the head of the deceased.
A small section of the settlement of Terenuthis was excavated. The remains of dwellings were uncovered on the east side of the Nasser Canal, immediately southwest of the excavated cemetery and east of the Middle Kingdom cemetery.
Remains of the Apollo temple are located at the northern edge of the site, 0.5km north of the "High Place," at the point through which the Nasser Canal was cut. The temple was completely destroyed, however, and it was not possible to trace its foundations. Immediately to the south of the temple area, two limestone fragments were found bearing the name of Psamtik II. A short distance farther south were two Roman baths, with remains of the characteristic tepidarium and frigidarium, and a well approximately 10m deep where water was obtained for the baths. Blocks were also found from the temple of Hathor, decorated in low raised relief, which date to the reign of Ptolemy I Soter.
Unfortunately, a major part of the ancient city is now covered by the modern town of Tarana and by the surrounding cultivation to the west and south. Evidence for the town consists of mudbrick walls and potsherds on the surface in the area immediately west of Tarana at the place called "Baltous," between Tarana and the railroad track.
The data from Kom Abu Bello have been important for reconstructing the history, culture, religion and social relations in Egypt in a critical period of transition from pharaonic times into the Coptic era.
Kom el-Hisn
Kom el-Hisn (30°48′ N, 30°36′ E) is one of the more important and ancient settlements in the western Nile Delta. The name of the site—literally "Hill of the Fort" in Arabic—is probably a reference to the rectangular mudbrick temple enclosure that was still well preserved a century ago but few traces of which remain today. A large gezira, or sand and gravel mound, which in ancient times contained burials from communities at Kom el-Hisn, is today the most visible aspect of the site. Several small mudbrick villages overlie parts of Kom el-Hisn, and much of the rest of the site has long since been converted to agricultural fields. Only the central area of the Old Kingdom and part of the Middle Kingdom community are relatively well preserved, but these are steadily being diminished by agricultural expansion.
Kom el-Hisn today lies about 90km from the present coastline. In antiquity the site would have been near a branch (now shifted to the east) of the Nile, and the coastline may have been less than 50km from the sea. Kom el-Hisn would also have been very near the desert edge, to the west, and it is likely to have been directly on the route to the Libyan frontier. The site has been visited and described by numerous people since 1884, and the most recent investigations of the site, by American archaeologists under the direction of Robert J.Wenke, have involved excavations of Old and Middle Kingdom areas and re-analysis of a stone tomb.
Much of what we know about Kom el-Hisn comes from texts. The site is thought to have been the ancient locality named "Im3w" (i.e. the plural form of a type of tree), mentioned in texts since the 5th Dynasty. Middle Kingdom inscriptions from Kom el- Hisn identify Hathor as the principal deity of the locality then, and remains of her temple, dating from the 19th and 22nd Dynasties, have been found. Kom el-Hisn is situated in Nome III of Lower Egypt, the same nome in which Egyptian texts list the locality "Estate of the Cattle" Not yet located precisely, the "Estate of the Cattle" was originally one of the oldest state foundations in Egypt. Artifacts of the 1st Dynasty (a seal found in the tomb of Queen Merneith at Abydos and impressions on jar lids from the reign of King Den, in Tomb 6 at Abu Roash) date the "Estate of the Cattle" to this early period.
Various Ramesside statues were found on the site’s surface, as well as large earthen temple walls that have now largely been removed by local farmers. The stone tomb of a man named Hesew-wer, dated to the First Intermediate Period, is located on the main mound of the site, around which at lower elevations are the irregular areas of Old and Middle Kingdom occupation. The last occupation of the site in many areas appears to have been in the Old Kingdom, but other large areas were occupied from the First Intermediate Period into the Late period. The German Egyptologist Hermann Junker found flint artifacts on the surface that he dated to the 1st and 2nd Dynasties, but no substantial remains of this period have yet been located at the site.
The best documented period of Kom el-Hisn’s occupation is that of the Old Kingdom. Radiocarbon dates as well as artifact styles and epigraphic finds indicate that most of the area recently excavated was a large community in the 4th-6th Dynasties, but that some areas of the site were occupied into at least the early Middle Kingdom, to about 1800 BC. Most areas of Kom el-Hisn comprise three distinct superimposed building levels, which constitute up to 2.4m of deposits.
Sterile levels were reached in only about 22 sqm of the site. Studies indicate that Old Kingdom Kom el-Hisn’s environment was, as it is today, well watered and heavily vegetated. However, Kom el-Hisn’s environs were probably more heavily forested than today, after centuries of agricultural expansion. Geomorphological investigations suggest that Kom el-Hisn’s occupations rest on a point bar deposit associated with an extinct water course, possibly a major stream connected to a major Nile distributary.
Most of the main occupational mound is composed of Old Kingdom mudbrick buildings whose upper wall remnants constitute the site’s surface: intact walls are usually found at less than 20cm depth. Many of the buildings and rooms are small structures that contain hearths, storage features, smoke-blackened pottery, burned organic materials, and many other traces of domestic activities. In general, none of the buildings so far revealed exhibits evidence of vastly different construction cost or use. Nor do there appear to be major differences in construction or contents of buildings when comparing the three different building phases.
Although Kom el-Hisn’s floral and faunal remains generally resemble those from other early pharaonic sites, they differ sharply in two potentially important ways: Kom el-Hisn contains far fewer cattle bones and cereal remains than comparable sites. The low frequency of cattle bones is surprising in that the use of cattle dung as fuel was the primary source of Kom el-Hisn’s plant remains. Plant remains are mainly fodder crops (such as clover), as well as the weeds commonly found in fodder crops, and the wastes of cleaning grain. The Kom el-Hisn cattle were perhaps fed in pens, rather than free-browsing, based on the kinds and proportions of plant remains in their dung. Only a few pieces of sheep/goat dung were found in the Kom el-Hisn samples; and since such pellets are commonly preserved in domestic hearth fires, their absence supports the inference that cattle dung was the primary fuel.
Given this botanical evidence, the low frequency of cattle bones in the samples may, somewhat paradoxically, support the possibility that Kom el-Hisn was a specialized cattle-rearing center that sent most of its herds to Memphis and other cult and settlement centers. This interpretation is not contradicted by the artifact assemblage: nothing in the samples would be out of place in a relatively simple peasant agricultural community except, perhaps, the inscribed mud sealings, which probably reflect direct economic ties with the central government.
The Kom el-Hisn ceramics are extremely similar in styles and forms to Old Kingdom ones from other sites in the Delta and from elsewhere in Egypt. Many vessels were crude containers ("beer jars" and "bread molds"); another common form is a round-bottom carinated bowl in a medium-fine clay. Only a few potsherds made of fine clay with very little organic tempering (Nile Silt A) were found; all of them are fragments of the "Meydum" bowls well known at other Old Kingdom sites. Vessels made from marl clays thought to be from Upper Egypt (Qena) comprise a tiny fraction of the overall assemblage.
Kom el-Hisn’s lithic artifacts also generally fit this simple agricultural pattern. The hundreds of fragments of ground stone tools found reflect the considerable importance of stone tools in Old Kingdom agriculture. By far the most common retouched tools were "sickle blades." Many of these appear to have been broken, either through use or intentionally, to fit sickle hafts, and well developed sheen formed by cutting grasses is visible on many of them. The very low frequencies of cores and debitage may indicate that these blades were not made locally, although lithic workshops may well have been concentrated in areas of the site that have not yet been excavated. The raw material for these lithics is common along much of Egypt’s desert margins.
Many fragments of clay sealings have been found at the site, but only about twenty-one have decipherable inscriptions. Sealings were used from at least Early Dynastic times through the pharaonic era, often as sealings on pottery vessels containing commodities, but also on documents and small containers and boxes. The presence of these sealings at Kom el-Hisn no doubt reflects at least some direct ties with the central government. No commodities, however, are named in these sealings and most of the names are ambiguous.
Thousands of graves at Kom el-Hisn were excavated in the 1940s in the sand-gravel mound and in adjacent areas. Most of these burials appear to have been post-Old Kingdom in age, but their contents were never fully described and their present whereabouts in unknown. The more recent excavations at Kom el-Hisn were in occupational areas, and the several burials we have found appear to be intrusive from post-Old Kingdom periods.
In general, the evidence seems most consistent with the supposition that Kom el-Hisn was a specialized government-sponsored, cattle-raising settlement or transport station on the routes to Libya. There is almost no evidence of local craft production. Artifact styles are impressively similar to those at Old Kingdom sites all over Egypt, from Giza to the Dakhla Oasis, implying strong cultural ties to the Old Kingdom state. The inscribed clay sealings probably reflect direct import or export of commodities to government stores. The radical difference between Kom el-Hisn and other sites in cattle bone frequencies, as well as the evidence that cattle dung was a main source of fuel, may reflect cattle raising and export as a primary economic activity. The relatively minor differences in construction costs and contents of the buildings and apparently restricted range of economic activities and social classes at Kom el-Hisn are consistent with a community primarily made up of herdsmen, subsistence farmers, and a few administrators.
