DISTRIBUTION OF LIFE FORCE IN THE FESTIVAL OF THE VALLEY -A Comparative Study with the -

Masashi FUK.AYA *

Among known festivals celebrated in ancient Thebes, many Egyptologists agree that the Festivals of the Valley and of Opet are the most important. This is verified by many historical documents, which juxtapose the two festivals in texts and pictorial depictions on a great scale. Thus, it is significant to compare the two festivals to obtain better insight into their detailed religious context and new perspectives for further research, which has not been pursued, particularly for the Valley Festival, since the 1950's. This article intends to shed light on the Valley Festival, focusing on the socio-religious function by an analogy with the Opet Festival, research of which has gained modest but not negligible progress in the last two decades. The most distinct feature of the Valley Festival was that it supplied not only a formal setting for the renewal of kingship and royal ancestral cult, but also a private setting for the common people to hold a banquet in their family tombs. These two dimensions were closely linked through the figure of Amen, who distributed offerings to convey his godly power in both spheres. According to records from the private tombs, the people received various offerings from the temples where the procession of Amen made a stop during the Valley Festival. Yet the distribution of temple offerings is not attributed only to the Valley Festival, but also to many other festivals. What distinguishes the Valley Festival then? By focusing on the differences in ideologies between the Valley and the Opet Festivals, this paper will explore how the god (or king) and the people were interrelated during the festivals in different manners. Keywords: Valley Festival, Opet Festival, Thebes, Amen, offering distribution

* Ph. D. Student in Philosophy, University ofTsukuba JSPS Research Fellow

Vol. XLll 2007 95 1. Introduction 1 We know that Egyptians celebrated a number of festivals since the dawn of their civilization, but records give us few details about these early festivals apart from their names. 2 Among them, festivals held in Thebes draw attention on account of the better state of preservation of their historical documentation. Because these festivals were celebrated for the supreme god, Amen, in the most influential religious city, Thebes, they were held on a great scale and left a relatively large corpus for us today. Since the initial work by Foucart in 19243 and the following study by Schott in 1952,4 the Festival of the Valley has been neglected until today. This also applies to the Festival of Opet. 5 Although these two festivals have been regarded as very important for their scale, references to them usually rely on classic works written over half a century ago. Of course these works are still very useful especially for their meticulous documentation, but they provide no more than a basic framework. No effort has been made in a long time to understand the festivals in their own context by focusing on their functional and religious meanings. In the last two decades, some scholars have tried to obtain better insight into the core religious elements of the Opet Festival. In 1986, Murnane presented two reliefs depicting the rituals which seem to have been performed before Amen in the sanctuary of the Temple, the final destination of the Opet Festival.6 Bell examined the important function of the king's royal in this temple in 1985.1 In 1998, he made remarks on the religious meanings of the Opet Festival and on the presence of common people in the temple vicinity during the festivals. 8 This progression in research is primarily due to the publication of reliefs depicting the Opet Festival in the Colonnade Hall of the in 1994.9 This was published by the Chicago Oriental Institute in full detail with commentary, which greatly helps a comparative study with the Valley Festival. Other recent publications contribute reliable textual data and clear iconographic material to renewed research on the Valley Festival. Volumes of the Archaeologische Veroffentlichungen series (AVDAIK), and the Theben series, which have been published by the German Archaeological Institute, since 1970 and 1983 respectively, have both included documentation about private tombs in western Thebes. 10 In addition, a series of publications by Norman Davies and Nina Davies, between 1913 and 1963, 11 complement these new publications. With this material, it has been established that people once held celebrations in their ancestor's tombs during this festival. An allusion to the ideological

96 ORIENT DISTRIBUTION OF LIFE FORCE IN THE FESTIVAL OF THE VALLEY connection between the common people and the god (or king) is a very distinctive feature of the Valley Festival (see below in Chapter 3). In 2000, the Polish-Egyptian team completed the restoration project of the temple of at Deir el-Bahari, final destination of the festival. Karkowski points out that the depictions of the Opet and Valley Festivals are juxtaposed on the east wall of the upper terrace in this temple. 12 The scenes of the Valley Festival continue on the north wall depicting the return trip of the bark procession and are an unparalleled pictorial example on a large scale, which will hopefully be published by the team in the near future. This is another reason to warrant a reassessment of the Valley Festival. This article will not focus on the core cultic matters of the Valley Festival, instead it intends to clarify the human-god relationship of this celebration, and its social and ideological function in comparison with the Opet Festival. This is therefore in line with the later work of Bell (mentioned above), drawing attention to how common lay people could have been able to participate in the state festivals, which are traditionally thought to have been very exclusive in nature.

2. Historical Development of the Festival of the Valley and the Religious Landscape of Thebes The Festival of the Valley is first attested in the Middle Kingdom, from the reign of (1938-1908 BC). 13 Its first textual reference, discovered in western Thebes, is simply ~b=f tpy smw wbn=f ~r n llni r int Nb-~pt-r : "His festival on the first day of the third season. He rises when crossing the river to the valley ofNebhepetre (Mentuhotep II)." 14 This is quite possibly an allusion to the later "his beautiful festival of crossing the river" or "his beautiful festival of the Valley." 15 Mentuhotep II (2010-1960 BC) was the first who built a funerary complex (named llj-swt) in the western valley, now called Deir el­ Bahari (Figure 4). 16 It is not known when the blueprint of the city of Thebes was first developed. According to a pillar recording the names of Amen and Intef II which was discovered in the Temple (now in the }, this temple was already present in the early Eleventh Dynasty. 17 The Karnak Temple and Deir el-Bahari were apparently a pair of landmarks facing each other, located at the east and the west ends of the city respectively. 18 The two were probably connected by the canals which ran into the . According to Hatshepsut's Red Chapel, there were once canals leading to the mortuary temples of Tuthmose I and III, and perhaps to her own. 19 Along this geographical axis between Karnak

Vol. XLIT 2007 97 and Deir el-Bahari are the Middle Kingdom cemetery at Dra Abu el-Naga,20 the memorial temple of Ahmes-Nefertiri, and the memorial temple of Sety I, of which the last is often described in inscriptions as "being constructed in front of (/:ift-l]r) the Karnak Temple."21 In the time of Sety I, the festival procession during the Valley Festival was performed along this east-west axis, and stopped at the memorial temple of this king and the bark chapels on the way to Deir el-Bahari.22 The memorial temple of Sety I is generally supposed to have functioned as a way station to provide a resting place for the festival procession. 23 It is true that this axis marks the northern border of the city area, and Thebes developed southward from here in subsequent times. 24 It is most likely that the Festival of the Valley was celebrated from the Middle Kingdom period using this northern border, so it can be assumed that the above mentioned graffito from the time of Amenemhat I refers to the Valley Festival. Indeed, the graffito was found on a cliff at Dra Abu el-Naga, from where one can easily look over to Deir el-Bahari as well as across the Nile to Karnak. The festival was, however, later celebrated in the second month of the harvest season, not "on the first day of the harvest season." The date and duration of the festival will be discussed in the last chapter. On the other hand, it is difficult to draw a decisive conclusion on when the southern border of Thebes was first formed. This is mostly due to the Luxor Temple whose construction date and period of architectural development are unknown, although the earliest mention to this temple is from the time of Sobekhotep II in the Thirteenth Dynasty.25 The origin of the Opet Festival has not yet been verified either. The festival is first attested on the relief of the Red Chapel but this does not necessarily mean the festival did not exist before Hatshepsut's reign. 26 Since the Festivals of the Valley and Opet were always juxtaposed in textual references and iconographic depictions in reliefs, they seem to be the most prominent state festivals. 27 In both festivals, the Karnak Temple was used in the first stage of a series of ceremonies, and the portable barks of the were brought outside this temple to make the processional festivities both on land and on the Nile.28 When the river procession was organized, a huge sacred barge of Amen, named U serhat-Amen, was used to convey his portable bark and the king himself along with his dignitaries. It is noteworthy that this barge does not appear on any other occasion, except for the Festivals of the Valley and Opet, and its use and construction are in most cases mentioned in texts recording both festivals. 29 As a counterpart of the Valley Festival, the Opet Festival, or at least its archetype, may be traced back to the same period. If this

98 ORIENT DISTRIBUTION OF LIFE FORCE IN THE FESTIVAL OF THE VALLEY assumption is true, then the ideological juxtaposition of the two festivals should be better understood.

3. The Festivals of the Valley and Opet: An Ideological It was recognized by early Egyptologists that the temples In western Thebes once operated as cult places for royal funeral rituals and certain practices were conducted in the festival form. 30 Unfortunately, there is no material which provides a good insight into the rituals conducted in the temples, or their exact mythical function. Yet their primary intention are inferred by a pair of reliefs depicting the scenes of the Valley Festival from the memorial temple of Ramesses III at , one of which is captioned as follows: 31

l]r nb Jbwt mi nswt lf=f m [l]wt ntr mitt] r wn=f r=f !lr Ow n ri.Jyt r sr-nb idbwy m By=f r ", lord of the appearance like the king. He appears from [the temple like] Re, and opens his mouth exhaling (!lr .tJw) to the people in order to give life to by his word."

Here the king is identified as a young sovereign, Horus, and at the same time manifested in the form of Re, sun god. In reality he seems to have made a declaration before his people as an authorized heir of ancestral kings and gods. The relation to Re is further supplemented by other texts from private tombs at Sheikh Abd el-Qurna. The inscription in the tomb of Chanuny (TT74), for example, reads: 32

dwJ r m wbn=f m Jljt Bbtt nt pt in ss nswt mJr' mr=f mr ssw mY V-n-ny mJr- brw dd=f ind l]r=k r m wbn=k 'Imn sbm n.trw wbn=k sl]q=k tJwy rJ.r-i=k l]ryt m l]tpw ib=k Jww m mr-nqt swJy=k l]r .tsw n mr nljJwy sljr IJ[tyw=k iw=k ljr-.ty m l]wt sw l]tp.ty m Jljt imntt ssp n l]m=k imJijy r'wy mwt=k m sJ l]r=k !lrt hrw nt r nb mJ(= i) tw m l]b=k nfr m !lnt=k n dsr-qsrw di=k l]tpi m l]rt irt.n(= i) m l]swt nt ntr nfr mi irrt n mJr tp tl "Praise to Re, who rises from the eastern horizon of the sky, by Chanuny, true of voice, king's true scribe, his beloved, and overseer of scribes of the army. He says: Hail to you, the sun, as you, Amen, mighty one among the gods, rise, illuminate the two lands, cross over the sky in satisfaction of your heart in the day-bark, and pass on the sandbank of the sea of swords. You appear from the house of the sun

Vol. XLII 2007 99 to be satisfied in the western horizon, as you receive praise and your mother's arms embrace you everyday. May I witness you on 'Your Beautiful Festival of Bringing You to -djoserw (Deir el-Bahari).' May you give offerings in the tomb where I dwell with praises of the good god, as justice is made on the land."

Here Amen is clearly identified as Re, who comes from the east, and this image is related to Amen-re coming over from the other bank of Thebes at Karnak. The Valley Festival was a kingly celebration clearly connected with the people's activity in their ancestral tombs. This is one of the most distinctive features of the Valley Festival when compared to the Opet Festival. The Valley Festival not only provides a formal setting for the king to legitimize his rule over his subjects, but also for lay people to conduct very private funerary activities in the ancestral tombs. The funerary activity was also performed for the royal cult. The king visited his father's memorial temple with Amen from Karnak, as depicted in the memorial temple of Sety I at Qurna. Depicted in the south half of the portico is Ramesses II conducting the procession of barks of the Theban Triad, his father (Sety 1), and Ahmose-nefertiri (wife of the founder of the Eighteenth Dynasty, Ahmose ). 33 Almost the same type of depiction is found in the famous relief at the of the Karnak Temple, which gives us a suggestive and complementary view to that of the aforementioned Ramesses III inscription:34

wnn nswt nb tlwy nb irt bt Mn-m~('t-r l]r smsw ity 'Imn-r m l]b=f nfr n int l1nm=f IJ('=f m t~w=f "The king, lord of the Two Lands, ritual conductor, Menmaatre (Sety I) is following the father, Amen-re, on 'His Beautiful Festival of the Valley.' He himself is united with his breath."

Again the king is related to l~w (breath), which this time is to be shared with the supreme god Amen. And for the people, the breath is a form of the manifestation of life, attributed to the king. Yet the manifestation could be successfully realized only when this attribution goes beyond the capacity of terrestrial existence.35 Whatever it is called, this 'power of life' was received from Amen­ re through the king, who was regarded as the manifestation of a god up to the Ramesside period, and afterwards came to be venerated as a god. 36 In another text, Amen-re is identified in the context of a funerary cult. The text in the tomb of Userhat (TT56), who lived in the time of Amenhotep II,

100 ORIENT DISTRIBUTION OF LIFE FORCE IN THE FESTIVAL OF THE VALLEY reads: 37

ib=k ndm ~r sms n[r pn nfr Wsir ~~l tit di=f ssp=k snw m bll]=f m hrt hrw nt r nb ~sy=f tw n 'Jmn-r JJft l}tp=f m ~b-lljt m l]b= f n int imntt "You should rejoice when following this wonderful god, , lord of eternity. May he make you to take offerings before him everyday. May Amen-re praise you when he is satisfied at Ab-akhet (the memorial temple of Amenhotep II) on 'His Festival ofthe Western Valley'."

Amen-re here seems to be identified with Osiris, whose nature is of death and resurrection in the myth in which his kingship is inherited by his son, Horus. 38 Thus, it is without doubt that in the Ramesses III inscription, mentioned above, the father-son relationship is intentionally implied in order to legitimate the succession of the kingship, and to show the people the continuity of the power of life without a break (Figure I).

Ancestral kings Osiris ~ "powetof life .. ( Supreme manifestation atthe entity of the world Earthly father-son ~ Mythological father-son relationship~ ~ ) relationship

"power of life,. King t Horus

Figure 1: Manifestation of Amen and His Relation to the King

All the texts cited so far have the common ideological focus that Re (the sun) is the foremost and original manifestation of the power of life. It is by this deity that the relationship of the dead king and his successor is formally created and the succession of power can first be achieved. Indeed, a series of statues of the deceased kings is found on the north wall of the upper terrace of Hatshepsut's temple at Deir ei-Bahari and on the south wall of the antechamber in TT65, both of which depict the scenes of the Valley Festival. 39 In this regard, it is noteworthy that Deir el-Bahari is located where the founder of the Theban Dynasty Mentuhotep II built his funerary complex, and that it is also the closest

Vol. XLll 2007 101 place to the . On the other hand, the Opet Festival seems to have a different paradigm for the same purpose.40 The Opet Festival was also held annually for Amen-re and the king, and was intended for the renewal of the kingship under the authority of the supreme god. However, Amen-re as the rising sun is not mentioned in relation to Osiris, but to the flooding Nile. A text in the relief from the Colonnade Hall of the Luxor Temple reads: 41 "(The Luxor Temple) is the primeval place where he (Amen-re) gives life and kingship to the son, , who makes good things for his parent (Amen-re)." The relief, also depicting the Opet Festival, on the western exterior wall of the temple of Ramesses III in Karnak reads:42 "from there (Karnak?) I (Amen-re) appear at the Luxor Temple, my primordial site, in order to make my beautiful sailing on the annual festival," and "the king makes Amen to be satisfied as the rising sun at the Luxor Temple." The Luxor Temple as the primordial place is represented in detail by the relief of the Hypostyle Hall at Karnak. In the lowest register of the south wing of the west wall there is the depiction of the river procession scene made by Ramesses II. 43 The first part of the scene is the depiction of the king and the Ennead adoring the Theban Triad. What makes this scene very unusual is the depiction of water running out from under the legs of Amen-re. The inscription before the Ennead reads: "The water comes out from under your legs, and you give nourishment to the Ka of your son, Ramesses." Another inscription above the prow of the Userhat barge clearly identifies the water surrounding the Ennead as nw, "the primeval water." According to the Hymn to Amen-re, the sun god is the one who created himself first of all in the primordial time from nw.44 Amen was introduced in the myth to replace the status of the old demiurge, Atum.45 The inscriptions of the Opet Festival evidently show that the ancient creation myth became interwoven with the story of the festival, and was intended to celebrate the festival for Amen formally within the mythological context. The water from Amen runs all the way through the river procession scene, and becomes the Nile itself on which the barges are depicted floating. The overall iconographic layout, in describing Amen as the origin of the Nile and the power of life, obtains a symbolic meaning in the annual inundation of the Nile. 46 By the same token, this image overlaps with the renewal of kingship, which was dramatically and symbolically conducted in the form of the Opet Festival and celebrated in the inundation season. This positive attitude towards the natural cycle has two major impacts on the Opet Festival. Firstly, it is the essential

102 ORIENT DISTRIBUTION OF LIFE FORCE IN THE FESTIVAL OF THE VALLEY reason for this festival to be celebrated near the beginning of the year, in the second month. The transfer from one year to another and from a low water level to a high one, was the renewal of the king's deteriorated power at the same time. The emphasis on the succession of kingship from the ancestors, in the case of the Opet Festival, is not as clearly evident as in the Valley Festival, but what is consistently addressed is the theological father-son relationship between the god and the ruling king. The inscription of Ramesses II also reads:47

ity n I:Jpr mitt=/ mw ntrt pri m ~~w /pnl nswt n!rw '/mn sw iw=f m sw~t r irt nsyt=f "King, the unequaled, semen of the god, has come from the god's flesh. The king of gods, Amen, created him (the king) as an egg in order to make his sovereignty."

Secondly, the sun was meant to rise from the south in the stories of the Opet Festival. The above mentioned inscriptions from the western exterior wall of the temple of Ramesses III in Karnak are followed by the statement, "the king makes Amen to be satisfied as the rising sun at the Luxor Temple." And the inscriptions in the Colonnade Hall at Luxor mention Re as traveling to Luxor in the night bark (msktt).48 The sun rises from the Luxor Temple at the south of Thebes during the Opet Festival, not from the Karnak Temple as normally mentioned in the texts of the Valley Festival. It does not matter if the sun rises from the south, because what should be stressed here is that it is not merely a correspondence with a natural phenomenon, but that the sun and the Nile are to be identified as the same manifestation of the new world order and the emanation of the life force. Thus, the Opet Festival has a strong stress on the origin of the Nile, which runs from the south, and the Luxor Temple was intentionally chosen as the destination of the festival, which is to the south of Theban residential area. Here again, these two festivals present a sheer contrast between their processional orientation and axes: the Valley Festival has an east­ west axis and the Opet Festival a north-south axis. At the same time, this geographical distinction - west for the domain of the dead, and south for the domain of new life - reinforces the conceptual distinction between the festivals: a funeral and a celebration. The contrast between "death" and "life" in the stories ofthe Valley and the Opet Festivals is now easily understood (Table 1).

Vol. XLll 2007 103 Table 1: Analogy ofthe Valley and the Opet Festivals

The Valley Festival The Opet Festival Ideology Renewal through death Renewal through life Form Funeral Celebration Axis East-West North-South Orientation West (domain of the dead) South (origin of the Nile) Date Harvest season Inundation season Mythological Resurrection of Osiris Creation from the primeval water Background

4. Parallelism in the Valley Festival: A. An Analogy of Private and Royal Funerary Architectures in Theban West In this chapter and the next, it will be discussed how the ideological setting of the Valley Festival was used in reality for lay people. We have already seen how the formal and royal facets of the festival are determined by an ideological requirement to manifest the king as a representative of heavenly existence and as an authorized heir of the former kings. When it is seen how the people are involved in the royal ideological system on the same occasion, some interesting aspects are revealed. The focus of this chapter will be the shared architectural and structural elements between the tombs of the common people and the mortuary temples of the royals. In the following chapter, it will be discussed how, and in what form, the people received benefits from the upper beings (god, king and temple) by taking part in the festival. Apart from the royal activities that took place in the darkness of the temples on the occasion of the Valley Festival, the people banqueted together with their relatives in their family tombs. This, however, was not a completely independent event for each family, but in some aspects it was a closely inter­ related event for all of the people, including the royal court. The aforementioned inscription of Chanuny is accompanied with the depiction of Chanuny himself with his wife adoring the sun. This depiction on the doorway of the tomb is not a mere figurative representation of a hymn to the sun, but also a good example of the actualization of an action. The doorway is the first place which the rising sun hits each morning, since the door was always supposed to be oriented to the ideal east, if not to the due east. This is why there are many examples of doorways, or related walls, depicting a tomb owner in

104 ORIENT DISTRIBUTION OF LIFE FORCE IN THE FESTIVAL OF THE VALLEY adoration of the sun found in a number of private tombs. Some of them are closely associated with certain aspects of the Valley Festival.49 In Chanuny's tomb the depiction of the Valley Festival continues on the sidewalls of the antechamber, following the doorway (Figure 2). To the south of the east wall is a scene of offerings from Amen described as: 5°

wdn n=k sb~w wn iw ssp irt n=k rwy=k wrb ~r irt ljt 'Imn ~r ssp st di=f n=k rny wei} snb nqm-ib ~swt nswt n k~=k m r~rw nfrw V-n-ny "Offering to you. The doors are opened when (you) take what was made for you. For your arms are pure enough to receive Amen's offerings. May he give you life, prosperity, health, joy, and love of the king. To your Ka on this wonderful day, Chanuny!"

Amen's offerings were brought from somewhere else to the tomb, and the tomb was opened to receive them. These offerings were in reality brought to the deceased by his children, as depicted in many cases. Ideally the deceased was also thought to move freely in and out his tomb. The tomb owners ofTT75 and 85, from the reign ofTuthmose IV and III respectively, are described as follows:

prt m dwlt m im~t r m~ 'Imn JJft yr=f m l)sr-r,lsrw "Coming out from the tomb of the Necropolis in order to see Amen when he appears from Djoser-djoserw (Deir el-Bahari)."51

r If m ljt prt r ~tp m }Jrt-ntr b.nm tp~t imyt n~~ m b~~ r n Wn­ nfr JJft ii ~r mll '/mn m ~b=f n l)sr-r,lsrw "Entering after going out in order to be satisfied in the Necropolis. Entering to the grave of eternity in front of Wennefer (Osiris) after coming out to see Amen on 'His Festival of Djoser-djoserw (Deir el­ Bahari)' ."52

The inscriptions above refer to the deceased as if he were alive, 53 and it was believed to be possible for his family members to interact with the dead at the threshold of the netherworld on the occasion of the festival. 54 The architectural structure and decorative art of the antechamber of the tomb are in this respect very operative, and show a unique feature when compared to the inner room. The most common private tombs during the Eighteenth Dynasty consist of an antechamber and an inner room, forming a

Vol. XLll 2007 105 noticeable T-shape - the antechamber joined in the middle by one end of the inner room, of which the other end orients to the west, making the innermost part of the tomb (Figure 2). 55 In this type of tomb, scenes of festivals, such as the New Year's Festival, the Sokar Festival, the Harvest Festival56 and the Festival of , are usually found in the antechamber,57 as is the case for the Valley Festival.

I loner rlom I (destroyed) ~N

l_ .. ,l I Deceased offering to ::. False door

Deceased officiating t Deceased inspecting Antechamber F. ofValley F. of Valley Osiris cult Deceased in rituals J --·~ ~ -< ~ Deceased.leaving t Deceased returning

Figure 2: Tomb ofChanuny (TT74)

Once again Chanuny's tomb seems to be a well-suited example for the current discussion because the tomb was not subsequently reused. Aspects of the Valley Festival are attested on both sides of the east wall. 58 Depicted on the south half of the wall is the aforementioned offering scene. Opposite this the less-preserved west wall conveys the more secular affairs of Chanuny, which he completed during his time as a high-ranked official serving the king. 59 Represented on the south half is a military scene with soldiers holding standards, two of which are inscribed as "Tuthmose IV, the Festival of the Victory. "60 The north half displays scenes of the chiefs of foreign countries bringing tribute to the king and the assessment of land property.61 The scenes on the west wall clearly describe Chanuny's profession as a king's scribe and as an overseer of the army scribes. 62 On the south and north walls of the antechamber there is a false door in the former and a stela in the latter, both of which are framed with the representations of six figures of Chanuny, which are typical of this sort of depiction. 63 In general the stela records the wishes of the dead and intentions for his tomb after his death. The intense indication of his presence in the antechamber is evident if we

106 ORIENT DISTRIBUTION OF LIFE FORCE IN THE FESTIVAL OF THE VALLEY recognize the false door as a channel through which the deceased was meant to return from the next world. This is more conceivable when a pair of statues of the deceased replaces the false door and the stela in some tombs from the Ramesside era. 64 The presence of individual expression in the antechamber can be seen as a necessary element for the deceased and his relatives when holding a reception on certain occasions.65 This is why the scenes of the Valley Festival are found only in the antechamber. The topic of everyday life was chosen for the decoration of the antechamber for the same reason, while in the inner room we find the strong symbolism of death and afterlife as the pilgrimage to Abydos is the most favored and common topic, if not the dominant one. 66 It is not within the scope of this article to provide further detail concerning the inner room or a comprehensive examination of several cases. However, one generally finds the separate functions for the two rooms in the Theban private tombs. That is to say, when compared to the inner room with afterlife scenes, the antechamber provides a place for cult practices related to the dead. The concept of providing a gathering space for both the dead and his relatives beyond the boundary between this world and the next world is clearer when one observes banquet scenes depicting many guests along with the deceased and his wife in many tombs. The juxtaposition of the next and this worlds, seen in the scenes of the private tombs, might be paralleled with the royal cult institutions. 67 From the early Eighteenth Dynasty onward, the kings' tombs and their cult places were built in separate locations, and tombs of the kings were hidden in the Valley of the Kings just behind the magnificent rock cliffs at Deir el-Bahari where the funerary complex of Mentuhotep II had been built. The main theme of the scenes inside the king's tomb is the netherworld and the cycle of life being symbolized in the form of the sun. On the other hand, the funerary cult places for the king were still built around Deir el-Bahari, facing the floodplain of the Nile: the memorial temple of Tuthmose I possibly near the later memorial temple of Ramesses II, the temples of Hatshepsut and Tuthmose III at Deir el­ Bahari, the memorial temples of Tuthmose Ill, Tuthmose IV and Amenhotep II to the east of Sheikh Abd el-Quma. 68 The most distinctive and favored topic for the decoration of the memorial temples is the king's successful career featuring victories in war and the celebration of festivals. The escarpment looking down Deir el-Bahari was virtually a separation point to divide the former funeral complex for the king into two parts. It is possible to say that the antechamber of a private tomb and the memorial temple of the king have the same function as a cult place and that they are opened for certain occasions such as a festival day to interact with the

Vol. XLIT 2007 107 outside world. On the other hand, the inner room of a private tomb and the tomb of the king are meant to be inaccessible, and the scenes found in them illustrate ideological matters concerning the next world. The private tomb and the royal institution are therefore parallel and comparable for their distinction between terrestrial and otherworldly functions.

5. Parallelism in the Valley Festival: B. Socio-Religious Bonds between the People and the God As mentioned in the previous chapter, people received offerings when they had banquets in their tombs during the Valley Festival. Though often described as merely "offerings," "all the good and pure things," or "offerings on the alter of Amen," the most common offerings mentioned in detail are bread, incense (sntr), cloth (s.flJ), and bouquets. A bouquet is surely the most frequent among them, and there are several banquet scenes with bouquets offered to the deceased. In the tomb of Menkheperraseneb (TT112), from the time of Tuthmose III, it is mentioned that a bouquet was brought from a temple: 69

n k~=k rn/.1 n 'Imn nb nswt t~wy /.1nty ipt-swt [ ] JJft l]tp=f m l]nJstJn/.1 l]sy=f tw swll]=f tw "For your Ka, a bouquet of Amen, lord of the thrones of the Two Lands, presider of Karnak [ ], when he rests in Henkhet-ankh (the memorial temple of Tuthmose III). May he praise you and sustain you."

The bouquet seemed to have been brought from the memorial temple of Tuthmose III where Amen visited and made a temporary stop during the festival. A scene in another tomb of the same Menkheperraseneb (TT86) shows that bouquets came from three temples: the memorial temple of Tuthmose III (l]n/ft­ c-n/.1), the temple of Tuthmose III at Deir el-Bahari (r.i.sr-~bt), and an unknown temple.70 Basically, offerings seem to have been delivered from the memorial temple of the reigning king to tomb-owners who enjoyed a close relationship and the favor of the king (Table 2). If this was not the case, the valley temples at Deir el­ Bahari are mostly mentioned as places where offering supplies derive from. What then made the offering of a bouquet the most esteemed offering? A very revealing example shows the implicit meaning of the devotion of flowers. On the north half of the west wall in the antechamber of Djehuty (TTll 0) there is a depiction of a long bunch of flowers and vegetables offered by the tomb owner

108 ORIENT DISTRIBUTION OF LIFE FORCE IN THE FESTIVAL OF THE VALLEY Table 2: Offerings from Various Temples on Theban West Reign Tomb No. Textual Reference Tuthmose Ill TT79 "Amen's bouquet from ljn~t-rnb" 71 TT84 "Bouquet and bread of Amen and from ~n~t-rnb," 72 "Arrival of all the things on the alter of Amen when he rests in IJn~t-rnli' 73 TT86 "Bouquet of Amen from ~n~t-rnb," "Bouquet of Amen from d.sr- ~IJt," "Bouquet from st-[ ]" 74 TTI12 "Amen's bouquet when he rests in ~n~t-rnb.'' "Amen's sistrums and Men its from d.sr-rbnv" 75 TTI29 "Offerings of Amen-re when he rests in ~n~t-rnlJ" 76 TT343 "Arrival of all the things on the alter of Amen-re when he rests in ~n~t-rnb" 77 Amenhotep II TTI7 "Arrival of all the things on the alter of Amen when he rests in d.sr- ~bt" 78 TT56 "May Amen-re bless you when he rests in rb-~bt" 79 TT95 "Offerings from the alter of Amen ofrb-lbt" 80 TT96 "(Amen) coming from the Karnak Temple to rest in ~n~t-rnlJ" 81 Tuthmose IV TT38 "Bouquet of Amen from tbr-d.srw" 82 TT75 "In the morning to see Amen when he appears from rbr-rbrw" 83 TT49 "In order to smell incense of offerings from ~n~t-rnb," 84 "Amen resting in b.nmt-rnb" 85 Ramesses II TT217 "Bouquet from the temple of Amen of Karnak" 86

* ~n~t-rnlJ (The memorial temple ofTuthmose Ill), d.sr-llJt (The temple ofTuthmose III at Deir el­ Bahari), rb-llJt (The memorial temple of Amenhotep II), d,sr-d.srw (The temple of Hatshepsut at Deir ei-Bahari), b.nmt-rnlJ (The memorial temple ofTuthmose I) to Queen Hatshepsut, who sits in a kiosk (Figure 5). 87 Interesting enough, a symbol of life (ankh) hangs over the middle of the bouquet. Djehuty holds the bouquet with one hand and the ankh symbol with the other. Moreover, the ankh symbol is anthropomorphized with human arms attached to the middle of it, and it holds another small bouquet towards the nose of the queen. This artistic duplication is easily understood when one realizes that the unusual expression was created in order to give rise to a subtle word play. Although the scene does not seem to be related to the context of the Valley Festival, a bouquet of this sort is normally called "ankh" as those mentioned in the scenes of the Valley Festival. Here the ankh symbol and the bouquet share the same notion in order to convey the same force, "the power of life."88 This may be clearer when one goes back to the inscriptions from the memorial temple of Ramesses III and the temple of Karnak. These describe the king as a young sovereign giving life to the people and the land of Egypt with his breath (.t.lw). It is quite likely here that the king's breath is identified with the life force

Vol. XLll 2007 109 conveyed by bouquets. The offerings from the temples played an important role as a medium to transport the life force to whomever needed it. The inscription from the tomb ofMenkheperraseneb (TT86) reads:

n k~=k sswt mnit nt 'Imn m dsr-U:Jt nt.r ~tp ~r st wrt imntt m rs rs sms=k nb=k ~Wi ------Wn ~~ m s~=f snbb=f l~W r fnd=k "For your Ka. The Sistrums and Menit of Amen from Djoser-akhet (the temple of Tuthmose III at Deir el-Bahari) when the god rests on the great throne of the west in joy. May you follow your lord with a full heart. ------Millions of years are with him (Amen) and he will inhale breath to your nose."

An inscription in another tomb belonging to Djehuty (TT45), from the time of Amenhotep II, describes his wish to obtain favor from Amen when he receives a bouquet during the Valley Festival. 89 Even after death, people hoped to be blessed by the supreme god through his mystical power which was conveyed through bouquets. And some temples on the west bank of Thebes operated as the focal points where the power of life accumulated when Amen visited, and was thereafter distributed to the people. The distribution of the power of life was not only done for the deceased, but was also carried out by their children, both male and female. The children were the priests and singers of Amen and allowed to pass into the temples to receive offerings from Amen in place of their deceased parents. This does not necessarily mean that the children were solely mediators, but they were also recipients of the power of life. For this vital force was ideally to be distributed to everyone in the form of the king's breath in order to renew the world and legitimate his kingship. This is envisaged more explicitly if one recognizes that the bouquet offering was not made only for the deceased but also for the guests of the banquet party in the tomb. The guests are always depicted smelling a flower presented to their nose, as shown in the scenes of TT42, 52, 75, 82, 112, 131, 194, 217 and so forth. 90 They were also major recipients of the power of life, and this very inclusive distribution system was intended for the Valley Festival. The power of life originating from the supreme god, Amen, ought to be supplied first to the king in order to give him the manifestation of the sun that comes from the horizon, more precisely from where the Karnak temple on the east bank of Thebes lies. Thus, he gains legitimacy above all as an authorized heir of the previous kings, who had also undertaken the same mythical

110 ORIENT DISTRIBUTION OF LIFE FORCE IN THE FESTIVAL OF THE VALLEY identification with the god. Yet the injection of the god's power into the king's family tree would have been repeated every year. This is because the king not only had to follow the formal ritual tradition, but in both reality and ideology, he had to secure the world in perfect order, which required constant renewal. 91 The inscription ofMenkheperraseneb cited above continues as follows:

dwJ m pt hnw m l]wt_rJ ihhy ljt tJ [n 'Imn-r m wsr]-I]Jt l]r !1nt r rj_sr-Jijt ib=f Jwi pt tJ b.r rswt n mn ity swJI]=f pJ it-ntr m l]wt= f r nl]l] "Praise in heaven, chanting in the palace, and jubilation throughout the land [to Amen-rein User]hat on voyage to Djoser-akhet (the temple of Tuthmose III at Deir el-Bahari). His heart is in joy and heaven and earth are pleased with the stability of the sovereign. May he give long life to the priest in his eternal home (tomb)."

"The stability of the sovereign" provides the people with protection and a guarantee of life, and they gain the benefits of a regular inundation and the growth of crops, as depicted on the same wall. 92 It was then necessary for the king to declare his intention to be an order­ keeper for his people, and by the same token for the people to accept the king's proclamation through something credible. Therefore the public stage was prepared for the divine king and the people to communicate in the form of a festival. The sacred offerings, which were distributed, conveyed the life force to be shared among all human beings by the god's will. We have abundant historical records referring to the distribution of temple offerings during many festivals throughout Egyptian history. According to the calendar on the south wall of the of Ramesses III at Medinet Habu, 1,150 portions of bread and forty vegetable offerings were consumed in the Festival of the Valley during its festive days. 93 Yet this is not a surprisingly large amount, when compared to the Sokar, the Opet and the Coronation Festivals: 7 ,003, 11,341 and 3,000 loaves of bread were consumed respectively during their festive days. 94 What makes the Valley Festival unique then? Is it possible to single out a distinctive feature of the offering distribution system for the Valley Festival? In the next chapter, the specific structure of the ideology of the Valley Festival will be examined. It must be made in comparison again with the Opet Festival, but from a different angle. The duration and oracular ritual of the festivals will be examined in order to focus on the peculiarity of the Valley Festival.

Vol. XLll 2007 111 6. Festivals As a Distribution System of the Power of Life: Re-distribution of Offerings and Oracle Giving As we have already discussed, the procession of Amen made a temporary stop at some of the temples on the west bank before it arrived at Deir el-Bahari. It is not certain what sorts of rituals took place in these temples and at Deir el­ Bahari, or how long they were. 95 The temple calendar of Ramesses III indicates that the festival was only two days long. This is a single example recording the duration of the festival, but it is certainly reliable in so far as the calendar allows each festival to be allocated quite a large amount of space for the entry of various offerings by day. Although the amount of offerings consumed during the Valley Festival is not huge, as shown in the previous chapter, the priority given to this festival is conspicuous when one sees that the introductory part of the . calendar is primarily concerned with the Opet and the Valley Festivals.96 Yet a two-day duration seems to be humble for one of the great festivals of Thebes. Since the Opet Festival was celebrated at most for twenty-seven days, 97 and the Sokar Festival for eleven days,98 both in the reign of Ramesses III. This may indicate core religious rituals made for the Opet Festival in the vicinity of the temples required several days, or that processional activities outside the temples were conducted very slowly. The latter assumption can be speculated from the documents of the Twentieth Dynasty where the ritual of giving oracles during the Opet Festival is recorded. According to the papyrus in the (BM 10335), the Opet Festival functioned as one of three occasions of petition for the farmer, Pachawemdiamen, in the reign of Setnakht in the Twentieth Dynasty. During the procession he was singled out among the people and found guilty of the theft of royal linen by Amen. After this, he visited another manifestation of Amen to proclaim his innocence, but was again guilty. He then went before Amen for the third time during the Choiak Festival in Thebes, but here again was guilty. He confessed his crime at last in front of the people. 99 A stela of Merimaat from the reign of Ramesses VI 100 and the oracle texts of Djehutymes from the time of Pinedjem 11 101 also record oracles given by Amen when a procession occurred on the occasion of the Opet Festiva1. 102 From these historical documents, it is supposed that the practice of oracle givings during the festival procession was a good opportunity for people to obtain juridical decisions. 103 However, there is no reference to giving oracles during the Valley Festival. This is probably due to the fact that Amen made a longer journey for the Valley Festival than he did for the Opet Festival, and a number of rituals had to be

112 ORIENT DISTRIBUTION OF LIFE FORCE IN THE FESTIVAL OF THE VALLEY performed within a short period - two days. In fact, there seems to have been no intended arrangement for a public display of the god or any direct communication between the god and the secular sphere during the Valley Festival. Since a god was not usually supposed to physically show himself in public, he resided in a closed shrine on a portable bark shouldered by a group of high priests. When he gave an oracle during the festival procession he had to indicate his judgement in a very subtle way. The god was supposed to declare his will through a yes-no answer by the movement of the priests carrying the portable bark. 104 Whatever form it may have taken, the oracle giving would have needed a formal setting and some time for processing and judging an inquiry. 105 If there were many cases to be handled, it would have been considerably time­ consuming and could have possibly taken many days. It probably explains the great duration of the Opet Festival. As the largest and one of the most important festivals in a religio-political respect, the Opet Festival provided the most prominent and reliable juridical opportunity for pious residents in Thebes, and possibly for a great number of pilgrims. By the same token, the Opet Festival was one of the most effective systems to distribute the god's power via oracles. 106 On the other hand, the distribution of the god's power was conducted in a different manner for the Valley festival, that is to say the distribution of the god's offerings (Figure 3). The question to ask here is if the system could have supplied offerings enough to be allocated to all of the individual families for the

Ivalley Festival I IFestival AI IOpet Festival I IFestival B I I Festival C I t t t ~ t Offering ttribution J Oracltiving J J

C People ~ ------~ Figure 3: Distribution of "Power of Life"

Vol. XLll 2007 113 banquet in ancestral tombs and whether the offering was merely symbolic, temporary and of minimal capacity to carry the god's power or was enough to meet the people's needs to maintain their regular life. It is still very difficult to draw decisive conclusions without examining a contemporary economic and calendrical system. Recent research on the economy of New Kingdom Thebes has revealed that the temples played a significant role in the accumulation of taxes in the form of various materials. 107 Temples operated as huge granaries to feed the people and meet their daily needs through the re-distribution of daily rations. 108 Some festivals may have been introduced specifically for this purpose. According to the temple calendar of Ramesses III, which records sixty festivals, some festivals were held at a regular interval of ten days.' 09 In the first season, for instance, the New Year's Festival (celebrated on the first day of the first month) is followed by the Wag Festival and the Festival (on the eighteenth and nineteenth respectively), and subsequently by the Victory Festival (on the twenty-eighth). These festivals were usually held at the end of the week, which conventionally consisted of ten days in . The same applies to the Eve of the Opet Festival (on the eighteenth of the second month), the Amen Festival (on the seventeenth of the third month), the Festival (on the first of the fourth month), and the Sokar Festival (between the twentieth and thirtieth of the same month). Later in Ramesside times a festival called "the Festival of Every Ten Days," or "the Decade Festival," emerged and seemed to gain popularity. 110 What is unique about the Festival of the Valley then? Though the true scale and nature of the offering distribution are not known, one can hypothesize that the Valley Festival as a funerary cult had the advantage of involving all spheres of existence. The festival entails the participation of not only living beings but also of the dead, and not only the lay people but also the royals. Every person had a chance to join the festival because it was held to welcome dead family members, without whom no one could have been born into this world. This capacity to allow all beings to take part in the same activity under the guise of funeral rituals seems to be the most important aspect of the Valley Festival. It was the ideal that all the dead should be able to come back and that the living would welcome them during the Valley Festival, no matter how wealthy the family was or whether they could afford to keep a family tomb large enough to hold a luxurious banquet. On this basis, the distribution of the "power of life" down to the lowest social strata by the allocation of Amen's offerings could have been perfectly achieved on funerary occasions. By the same token, the renewal of kingship proclaimed on the same occasion was able to obtain a

114 ORIENT DISTRIBUTION OF LIFE FORCE IN THE FESTIVAL OF THE VALLEY rigid consensus from all spheres of existence, thus creating the perfect legitimacy. 111

7. Concluding Remarks The Festivals of the Valley and Opet were the most prominent religious events in ancient Thebes. Given that both were held for Amen, they played a strong role, as state festivals, in legitimating kingship. However, the Valley Festival supplied not only a formal setting for the renewal of kingship and royal ancestral cult, but also a private setting for lay people to meet with their dead family members in their tombs. These two dimensions were closely linked within a socio-religious structure under the authority of Amen, who was supposed to be the most prominent origin of divine power. The divine power was conveyed to the people through the distribution of various temple offerings, of which the most favored by the Egyptians was bouquets. The word "bouquet" has the same spellings as the word "life," and bouquets were distributed as a "life force" from the memorial temples of kings where Amen made a stop during the Valley Festival. This was key to how the spheres of the royals and the common people interrelated through a religious event. Yet there might have been various manners for each festival to actualize interrelations among the different strata of society, because the distribution of temple offerings or the giving of oracles in some religious festivals are not always as evident as during other festivals. Some records of the Opet Festival, for example, indicate that oracle giving was one of the most important events for the people to witness and communicate with the god. This may explain the unusually long duration of the festival. On the other hand, the Valley Festival was held for much shorter period, but had a perfect function as a funerary event to involve not only living beings, but also the dead. The inclusive nature of the Valley Festival mobilized all spheres of existence in the world. By the same token, the king (or god) could ideally act as a perfect order-keeper when he was given authority in front of"everybody."

Notes 1 The abbreviations used in this article follow E. Otto and W. Heick, Lexikon der Agyptologie, 7 vols., Wiesbaden, 197 5-1992. 2 A1tenmii1er 1977. 3 Foucart 1924. 4 Schott 1952. For a short introduction of the festival, see Graefe 1986. s Daressy 1892; Wolf 1931. Though not detailed, a comprehensive study by Murnane in 1982 is also very important especially for the newer list of iconographic material than the work

Vol. XLll 2007 115 previously done by Gaballa (1976, 153, n. 82). 6 Murnane 1986. 7 Bell 1985. 8 Bell 1998. 9 The Epigraphic Survey 1994. I o Volumes on Theban tombs were published by Arnold ( 1971) and Assman ( 1983 ). II Seventeen titles for Theban private tombs by Mr. and Mrs. Davies from 1913 (Five Theban tombs, London) to 1963 (Scenes from some Theban tombs, Oxford), including an article in 1932. 12 Karkowski 1979. 13 The chronological references in this article follow J. Baines and J. Malek, Atlas of ancient Egypt, Oxford, 1980. 14 Winlock 1947, 84, pl. 40. IS For another inscription from the Middle Kingdom, which without doubt refers to the Valley Festival, see Lange and Schafer 1902, vol. 2, 73f., vol. 4, pl. 33. 16 Arnold 1974; Stadelmann 1978, 172. As rulers in the Eleventh Dynasty were called Mentuhotep, Mentu had been a major deity worshipped in Theban area before Amen became more popular. Mentu was already combined with Re as Mentu-re during the Eleventh Dynasty. The name of Amen-re is also attested from the time of Intef II (see n. 17). A solar element was necessitated by a number of gods, who gained power throughout Egyptian history. In other words, all prominent gods in Egypt ultimately became manifestations of Re. 17 Sethe 1929, II; Le Saout 1987, 314, pl. 1; Franke 1990, 124f.; Gabolde, Carlotti and Czemy 1999, 48. 18 Weeks 2000, fig. I. 19 Nims 1955, ll4f.; Chevrier and Lacau 1979, 116-135, pl. 4. 20 Winlock 1924. 21 LD 3, pl. 132a; Stadelmann 1978, 175, n. 42. . 22 For the terminal destination at Deir el-Bahari, see Haeny 1998, 95; Bietak and Reiser- Haslauer 1978, vol. I, 19ff. 23 Stadelman 1978, 177. 24 Kondo 1999. 2s Borchardt 1896, 122. 26 Bell maintains the possibility of the Opet Festival being celebrated before the reign of Hatshepsut (Bell 1998, 161 ). 21 Inscriptions from the calendar of Ramesses III (The Epigraphic Survey 1934, pl. 128, I. 36; Nelson and Holscher 1934, 12) and TT85 ( Urk 4, 897; ARE 2, 809). For iconographic examples, see the upper terrace of the Hatshepsut's temple, the Red Chapel (Chevrier and Lacau 1977-1979, vol. 2, pis. 7, 9) and the Great Hypostyle Hall in Karnak (Nelson 1981, pls. 36-38, 52f., 76). One may obtain a clear idea for the case of the upper terrace when referring to Karkowski 1979, 359-364. 28 The first attested material depicting the presence of the Theban Triad during the Valley Festival is from a relief of the tomb of Amenmose (TT 19) from the time of Tuthmose III. This is also the first evidence of the The ban Triad in Egyptian history if Hatsheput's reliefs on the east and north inner walls of the upper terrace in the Deir el-Bahari temple are excluded, as they were possibly later addition by Tuthmose III (Naville 1895-1908, pl. 122; Karkowski 1976, fig. 1). 29 The first textual evidence of Userhat is attested in a stela of Ahmose discovered near the eighth of Karnak (ARE 2, 32), but possible iconographic material from the Middle Kingdom has been attested {Foucart, 1924, pl. 9). For the barge construction text, see ARE 2, 888. 30 Brugsch 1862-1885, vol. I, 65; Brugsch 1879-1880, vol. 2, II 03f.

116 ORIENT DISTRIBUTION OF LIFE FORCE IN THE FESTIVAL OF THE VALLEY

3l The Epigraphic Survey 1940, pl. 239B; PM II, 495 (78). 32 Brack and Brack 1977, 23f., pl. 19a; PM II, 144 ( 1). 33 PM II, 408 (5-7). 34 Nelson 1981, pl. 53; PM II, 47 (158). 35 Bickel 1998, 170. 36 Nelson 1914, 145, n. 49, pl. 5; Bickell998, 171. 37 Beinlich-Seeber 1987, 53ff., pls. I, 40. 3S For the connection between Amen and Osiris, see Haeny 1998, 102. 39 PM II, 358 (83); PM 11, 130 (4). Depictions of this type are also found in the reliefs of the memorial temple of Ramesses II and that of Ramesses III, both depicting the Festival of (The Epigraphic Survey 1940, pis. 196 A B, 213). These depict statues of a series of kings from the New Kingdom. In the temple of Ramesses II, the scene begins with those of and Mentuhotep II. The same kind has not been verified in the depictions ofthe Opet Festival, but one example in the Great Hypostyle Hall in Karnak depicting a portable bark of Ahmose-nefertiri on the deck of Userhat barge may be worth paying attention (Nelson 1981, pl. 152; PM II, 44 (152)). It is, however, uncertain if this depiction can be treated in the same context as the Valley Festival. 40 Haeny 1998, 103. 41 The Epigraphic Survey 1994, 7, pl. 17. 42 The Epigraphic Survey 1936, pl. 90. Also see Herihor's relief (The Epigraphic Survey 1979, 7,pl.21). 43 Nelson 1981, pis. 36-38; PM II, 46 ( 157); Gabolde 1995. 44 Gardiner 1905, IV 3, 13f., V3. 45 Bickel, 1998; Gardiner 1905, II 26-28, III 23-IV 11. 46 Gardiner 1905, III I, V 17-VI I. 47 Nelson 1981, pl. 37, II. 15ff. 48 The Epigraphic Survey 1994, 7, pl. 17. 49 TT24 (9), TT36 (23), TT49 (3, C), TT64 (2), TT69 (1, 8), TT75 (7), TT76 (Bb), TT82 (9), TT86 (1), TT98 (1), TT106 (Dd), TT147 (8), TT224 (7), TT263 (3, 7), etc. Some of these include pillars standing by the doorway. so Brack I Brack 1977, 31, pl. 23a, b; PM 11, 144 (2). 51 Urk 4, 1216; Schott 1952, 109 (74); PM II, 149 (7). 52 Urk 4, 919; Schott 1952, 108 (67); PM II, 173 (Db). 53 Other references such as "(The tomb owner) follows this august god, Amen, in the Festival of the Valley" are found in TT49 (Davies 1933a, 36, pl. 53), TT86 (Davies 1933b, 13ff, pl. 17), TT96 (Virey 1900, 85) and TT263 (Schott 1952, 96). Schott reckons that a statue of the dead was actually prepared to take part in the procession of Amen (Schott 1952, 32f.). 54 Fitzenreiter 1995, I 02, 112ff. ss Tomb type V, VI, VII, VIII by Kampp 1996. 56 Harvest festivals may have been closely related to the Valley Festival as the latter was held in the harvest season. The scene from the south half of the east wall in the antechamber of TT86, which no doubt depicts the Valley Festival according to the inscriptions, represents the deceased receiving offerings together with a harvest scene (Davies 1933b, 14, pl. 17). The funerary cult with the harvest rituals is also attested in the Festival of Min, which was also held in the harvest season. 57 For other rare occasions, see TT46 (1 ), TT93 (Ga) and TT345 (2, 3, 5) for the Festival of Nl]b-Hw (or K~-1]r-H); TT31 (4-6) for the Festival ofMontu; TT82 (16) and TT216 (6-8) for the Festival of Hathor; TT82 ( 17) and TT 112 (6) for the Festival of Epagomenal Days; TT341 (8, 9) for the Festival of Bubastis. 58 Brack and Brack 1977, 30, pis. 20f. 59 Hermann also mentions that the west and the east walls in the antechamber of private tombs depict official and private activities respectively (Hermann 1940). On the other hand,

Vol. XLII 2007 117 Fitzenreiter points out that collective cult place is located in the south of the tomb and the presentations of official work are located in the north (Fitzenreiter 1995, 115). 60 Brack and Brack 1977,42, pls. 28, 35. 61 Brack and Brack 1977, pis. 28f. 62 The same decorative scheme is found in TT63 (Dziobek and Abdei-Raziq 1990). 63 Brack and Brack 1977, pis. 41 f. 64 Kampp 1996, 114fT.; TTl 57, TTl 58, etc. 65 Hermann 1940, 132ff. 66 The contrast is generally demonstrated in tombs from the Eighteenth Dynasty, rather than those from the Ramesside era when the functional dichotomy between the antechamber and the inner room seems to have collapsed, or even reversed in some examples such as TT41 and TT178. 67 Bacs 2001, 95ff. 68 Nothing is testified for the case of the founder of the Eighteenth Dynasty, Amenhotep I. For the case ofTuthmose I, see Kondo 1997, 121-125 (the article is in Japanese). 69 Davies 1933b, pl. 24. 70 Davies 1933b, pl. 17. 71 Schott 1952, 118; Guksch 1995, 158fT., pl. 36. 72 · Schott 1952, 1 18. 73 Schott 1952, 121; Urk 4, 955. 74 Schott 1952, 118; Davies 1933b, 14, pl. 17. Davies and Schott reckon that the last bouquet was from d.sr-st, the Eighteenth Dynasty temple at Medinet Habu. If this is true, the delivery is very exceptional. For we have no other material recording an offering from a temple close to the southern border of The ban West. 75 Schott 1952, 118; Davies 1933b, 2 1, pl. 24. 76 Schott 1952, 122. 77 Schott 1952, 122; Guksch 1978. 78 Schott 1952, 122. 79 Urk4, 1479; Beinlich-Secber 1987, 53ff., 72, pis. 1, 8, 40. 80 Schott 1952, 108. 81 Schott 1952, 108; Virey 1900,85, fig. 19. 82 Schott 1952, 118; Urk 4, 1640. 83 Schott 1952, 109; Urk 4, 1216. 84 Schott 1952, 95; Davies 1933a, 53, pl. 36. 85 Schott 1952, 95; Davies 1933a, 62, pl. 53 (c). 86 Schott 1952, 118f.; Davies 1927, pl. 25. 87 Davies 1932, pl. 40. 88 Sugi 2000, l03f. 89 Many examples of the same kind are attested in TT56, 74, 85, I 12, 21 7, etc. Urk 4, 1416; Davies 1948, pl. 4. 90 Fitzenreiter 1995, 113, n. 65. 91 Bickell998, 169. 92 See note 52 above and Bickel 1998, 169. 93 The Epigraphic Survey 1934, pl. 142. 94 The Epigraphic Survey 1934, pis. 152-1 60; Schott 1934, 58. The relatively small offerings at Medinet Habu during the Valley Festival may be explained by the fact that other temples on the west bank, if not both banks, supplied offerings probably at the same time. It is also possible that the temple of Medinet Habu was not a focal point at any time during the Valley Festival. The same can be said of the Min Festival at Medinet Habu, although the scene of this festival is represented in the temple on a large scale. The Min Festival was surely a very important event, but the amount of bread offerings is no more than 299 at Medinet Habu. The festival is thought to have been celebrated on the east bank (Ricke 1954, 38).

118 ORIENT DISTRIBUTION OF LIFE FORCE IN THE FESTIVAL OF THE VALLEY 95 A few rituals are attested during the Valley Festival, such as sword fighting and wrestling depicted in TTI9 (Foucart 1935, pis. 13, 15; Decker 1992, 81; Haeny 1998, 99). Yet these ritualistic games are found in the Sed and the Khons Festivals too (Beck 2000, 12, fig. I 0; Decker 1992, 87). The presence of the portable statues of the deceased kings such as Amenhotep I of wbl and Tuthmose III in front of a lake in a depiction of the VaiJey Festival in TT 19 is also very interesting (Foucart 1935, pis. 6-8), but the ritual for Amenhotep I again seems to have been held on other occasions too (for instance, on the twentieth day of the fourth month in the first season- the Sokar Festival? See KRI 5, 531f.; Cerny 1927, 179f.). The combination of depictions of a portable statue of the king and a lake is also found in TT51 (Davies 1927, pl. 16) and TT3 I (Davies and Gardiner 1948, pl. I 5). It is, however, difficult to identify these representations as depicting one of ritual elements in a certain festival, or as the Festival of the king itself. 96 The Epigraphic Survey 1934, pl. 128, I. 36; Nelson and Holscher 1934, 12. 97 Erichsen 1933, 17 a, 5; ARE 4, 237. 98 Schott 1950, 89-92. 99 Blackman 1925, 250, pl. 35; Cerny I 962, 40f. too Vernus 1975. tot Kruchten 1985; 1986. 102 In the case of Pachawemdiamen, the date is given on the first day of the third month in the first season. On the other hand, the Merimaat stela gives the eighth day of the third month. Among the other historical evidence recording the date of the Opet Festival, both of the first day and the duration of the festival are attested in only three documents. A stone block found in from the time of Thutmose III records that the festival began on the fifteenth day of the second month in the first season, and lasted for eleven days. The other two documents from the reign of Ramesses III (calendar of his memorial temple and Papyrus Harris) put the initial day on the nineteenth day, and give twenty-four and twenty-seven days for the duration respectively. This means the Opet Festival came to be celebrated for a longer period across two months. The first day on the nineteenth day seems to have become standard in subsequent times because a record from Karnak in the time of Pinedjem also makes the nineteenth the first day (Kruchten 1986). This record also testifies an oracular procession on the sixth day of the third month, which shows quite a similar date arrangement to the case of Merimaat. Whilst the duration of the festival is not clarified in these cases, one can assume that days one, six and eight of the third month were half the way of the festival, or almost the final stage, where the procession of Amen was to come back to Karnak. I 03 Cerny 1962, 40ff. 104 Cerny 1962, 43ff. tos The open air courts of the temple of Karnak between the third and the tenth pylons might have been a location for oracle givings. For several relifes in this area, some of which are now in very bad condition, depict festival processions (PM II, 178 (528f., 532f.), 179 (517, 519), 180 (538f.), 184 (556-559). Murnane identified some of these as depicting the Opet Festival (Murnane 1982). The relief from the time of Pinedjem mentioned in note 102 above is also found in this area (PM II, 183 (553)) as well as a few graffiti depicting the barge (or bark) of Amen (not published yet: the west wall of the eighth pylon; the north exterior wall of the chapel of the Tuthmose III in the Court II; the western exterior wall of the Court I; also see Gordon 2003). These open air courts were probably called pl tl n ~d. "the silver floor" (Kruchten 1986, 62). Nims suggests that the silver floor was once located around the third pylon (Nims 1955, I I 6; ARE 2, 888). It is very important in this regard to observe that the gateway of Ramesses IX, which connects the third pylon and the open air courts, is said to be related to the Opet Festival (Amer 1999). 106 Horemheb celebrated his coronation during the Opet Festival (Gardiner, 1953). Tuthmose I, Amenhotep II and Ramesses II may also have co-celebrated the Coronation and the Opet Festivals (Spalinger, 1995). Contrary to this, it is not verified for the Valley Festival, except for

Vol. XLII 2007 119 the third Festival of Victory held at the same time of the Valley Festival (?) during the time of Tuthmose III ( Urk 4, 741 ). This may, however, be very suspicious because of a possibly unsuitable reconstruction of the inscription. Breasted left the name of the Valley Festival untranslated (ARE 2, 552). 107 As Bleiberg rightly points out (Bleiberg 1995), it is very difficult to gain an overall picture of the contemporary economic system throughout Egyptian history. However, many scholars seem to agree that "re-distribution" system operated most effective under a centralized government, which was able to keep stable governance, like New Kingdom Egypt (Janssen 1975; Janssen 1979; Haring 1997, 79f.). 108 Haring 1993, 47; Spalinger 1998, 255f. 109 Schott 1950. 110 Doresse 1971; 1973; 1979; Vandorpe 1995, 225; Cooney 2000. 111 "The power of life" could appear to the king as "the royal Ka," as argued for in the case of the Opet Festival by Spalinger 1995, 279. Also see Gordon 1996 for the very clear definition of the Ka as an animating force. In the Hymn to Amen-re, the Ka is described as an attribute of Amen, who feeds even other gods (Gardiner 1905, 11113).

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120 ORIENT DISTRIBUTION OF LIFE FORCE IN THE FESTIVAL OF THE VALLEY London, 35-48. Chevrier, H. and P. Lacau 1977-1979: Une chapelle d'Hatshepsout a Karnak, 2 vols., Cairo. Cooney, K. 2000: "Edifice ofTaharqa," JARCE 31, 15-47. Daressy, G. 1892: "La procession d' Ammon dans le temple de Louxor," MMAF 8, Paris, 380-391. Davies, N. 1927: Two Ramesside tombs at Thebes, New York. Davies, N. 1932: "Tehuti: Owner of tomb 110 at Thebes," in Egypt Exploration Society (ed.), Studies presented to F. Ll. Griffith, London, 279-290. Davies, N. 1933a: The tomb ofNefer-hotep, New York. Davies, N. 1933b: The Tombs ofMenkheperrasonb, Amenmose, and Another, London. Davies, N. 1948: Seven private tombs at Kurnah, London. Davies, N. and A. Gardiner 1948: Seven private tombs at Kurnah, London. Decker, W. 1992: Sports and games of ancient Egypt, Cairo. Doresse, M. 1971: "Le dieu voile dans sa chasse et Ia rete du debut de Ia decade," RdE 23, 113- 136. Doresse, M. 1973: "Le dieu voile dans sa chasse et Ia tete du debut de Ia decade," RdE 25, 92-135. Doresse, M. 1979: "Le dieu voile dans sa chasse et Ia tete du debut de Ia decade," RdE 31, 36-65. Dziobek, E. and Abdei-Raziq, M. 1990: Das Grab des Sobekhotep: Theben Nr. 63, AVDAIK 71, Mainz am Rhein. The Epigraphic Survey 1932: Medinet Habu 2. Later historical records of Ramses III, OIP 9, Chicago. The Epigraphic Survey 1934: Medinet Habu 3, The calender, the "slaughter house, " and minor records of Ramses Ill, OIP 23, Chicago. The Epigraphic Survey 1936: Reliefs and inscriptions at Karnak/, Ramses Ill's temple within the great enclosure of Amon, part 2, and Ramses Ill's temple in the precinct CJ.f , OIP 35, Chicago. The Epigraphic Survey 1940: Medinet Habu 4, Festival scenes ofRamses Ill, OIP 51, Chicago. The Epigraphic Survey 1979: The temple of I. Scenes CJ.f king Herihor in the court, OIP 100, Chicago. The Epigraphic Survey 1994: The festival procession CJ.f Opel in the Colonnade Hall, OIP 112, Chicago. Erichsen, W. 1933: Papyrus Harris 1: Hierog/yphische Transkription, BAe 5, Brussels. Fitzenreiter, M. 1995: "Totenverehrung und soziale Reprasentation im thebanischen Beamtengrab der 18. Dynastie," SAK 22, 95-130. Foucart, M. 1924: "Etudes thebaines: La belle tete de Ia vallee," BIFAO 24, 1-209. Foucart, M. 1935: Tombes Thebaines: Necropole de Dirti Abu'n-Ntiga: Le tombeau d'Amonmos, vol. 2, MIFAO 57, Cairo. Franke, D. 1990: "Erste und Zweite Zwischenzeit," zAS 117, 119-129. Gaballa, G. 1976: Narrative in Egyptian art, Mainz. Gabolde, L., J. Carlotti, and E. Czemy 1999: "Aux origines de Karnak: les recherches recentes dans Ia 'courdu Moyen Empire'," Societed'Egyptologie 23,31-49. Gabolde, M. 1995: "L'inondation sous les pieds d' Amon," BIFAO 95, 235-258. Gardiner, A. 1905: "Hymns to Amon from a Leiden Papyrus," ZAS 42, 12-42. Gardiner, A. 1953: "The coronation of king Haremhab," JEA 39, 13-31. Gordon, A. 1996: "The Ka as an animating force,'' JARCE 33, 31-35. Gordon, H. 2003: The graffiti on the Khonsu temple ro!J.f at Karnak, OIP 123, Chicago.

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122 ORIENT DISTRIBUTION OF LIFE FORCE IN THE FESTIVAL OF THE VALLEY Thebes, OIC I 8, Chicago, 63-90. Schott, S. I 950: Altiigyptisc/ze Festdaten, Wiesbaden. Schott, S. I 952: Das schone Fest von Wiistentale, Wiesbaden. Sethe, K. I 929: Anum rmd die aclzt Urgo/ler von Hermopolis, Berlin. Spalinger, A. I 995: "The calendrical importance of the Tombos stela," SAK 22, 27 I -28 I. Spalinger, A . I 998: "The limitation of formal ancient Egyptian religion," JNES 57, 24 I -260. Stadelmann, R. 1978: "Tempel und Tempelnamen in Theben-Ost und -West," MDAIK 34, 171- 180. Sugi, A. 2000: "rnu : An archetype model for the semantics of iconography in New Kingdom Egypt," in A. McDonald and C. Riggs (eds.), Current research in 2000, I 03- 11 0. Vandorpe, K. 1995: "City of many a gate, harbour fo r many a rebel," in S. Vleeming (ed.), Hundred-gated Thebes, Leiden, 204-239. Yernus, P. 1975: " Une tcxte oraculairc de Ramses VI," 8/FAO 75, I03-1 I 0, pl. I 3. Yirey, P. I 900: " La tom be des vignes a Thebes," Rec. trav. 22, 83-97. Weeks, K. 2000: Atlas ofthe Valley ofthe Kings, Cairo. Winlock, H. 1924: "The tombs of the kings of the Seventeenth Dynasty at Thebes," JEA I 0, 2 I 7- 277. Winlock, H. 1947: Tlze rise and fall ofthe Middle Kingdom in Th ebes, New York. Wolf, W. I 93 I: Das sclzone Fest von Opel, Leipzig.

Deir el-Bahari Ora Abu ci-Naga

Kings' Valley

Queens' Valley

Figure 4: Theban Map

Vol. XLII 2007 123 Figure 5: Djehuty Offering a Bouquet to Queen Hatshepsut (Davies 1932: pl. 40)

124 ORIENT