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The Cult-Topographical Text of Qasr El-Zayyan

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The Cult-Topographical Text of Qasr El-Zayyan 92794_RdE_60_02_Klotz 17-06-2010 14:43 Pagina 17 THE CULT-TOPOGRAPHICAL TEXT OF QASR EL-ZAYYAN [PLANCHE III] PAR DAVID KLOTZ Institute for the Study of the Ancient World, New York University 15 East 84th Street New York, NY, 10028 USA I. Introduction* The small temple of Qasr el-Zayyan in Khargeh Oasis has only recently begun to cap- ture the interest of Egyptologists1. The temple essentially consists of an entrance pylon, a stone paved approach, an inner mud-brick structure, and a sanctuary. According to the Greek dedication on the lintel of the pylon, the sanctuary and the pylon were rebuilt in the third regnal year of Antoninus Pius (140 CE)2, and the hieroglyphic inscriptions also date to this reign3. The Greek and hieroglyphic texts both indicate that the temple was dedicated to Amun-Re Lord of Hibis (Greek: ˆAmen±biv). * The author would like to thank John C. Darnell for many valuable comments and suggestions, as well as for support- ing the author’s visit to Qasr el-Zayyan and the British Library to check the R. Hay’s Manuscripts. The author would also like to thank Michinori Ohshiro of Komazawa University, who kindly answered many inquiries about Qasr el-Zayyan and the work of the joint Japanese-Egyptian expedition. 1 PM VII, p. 293-4; see also G. Schweinfurth, “Notizen zur Kenntniss der Oase El-Chargeh”, Mittheilungen aus Jus- tus Perthes’ Geographischer Anstalt 21 (1875), p. 391-392; G. Wagner, Les Oasis d’Égypte à l’époque grecque, romaine et byzantine d’après les documents grecs (BdE 100), 1987, p. 166-167; S. Aufrère et al., L’Égypte restituée, III. Sites et temples des déserts. De la naissance de la civilisation pharaonique à l’époque gréco-romaine, 1994, p. 102-103; D. Arnold, Temples of the Last Pharaohs, 1999, p. 267-269; I. Guermeur, Les cultes d’Amon hors de Thèbes. Recherches de géographie religieuse (BÉPHÉ – Sciences Religieuses 123), 2005, p. 446-447 (then quoted as I. Guermeur, Cultes d’Amon); G. Hölbl, Altägypten im Römischen Reich. Der Römische Pharao und seine Tempel, III. Heiligtümer und religiöses Leben in den ägyptischen Wüsten und Oasen, 2005, p. 47-49, 52, 54, 55-59 (fig. 81-86); J. Willeitner, Die ägyp- tischen Oasen. Städte, Tempel und Gräber in der Libyschen Wüste, 2003, p. 42-45; M. Valloggia, Les oasis d’Égypte dans l'antiquité: des origines au deuxième millénaire avant J.-C., 2004, p. 175 and 181, fig. 215-216; H. Kamei – K. Kogawa (eds.), El-Zayyan, 2003-2006, 2007 (the author would like to think Michinori Ohshiro for providing a copy of this report; then quoted as El-Zayyan, 2003-2006). 2 For a translation of this famous dedication (OGIS 702 = CIG 4955 = IGRR 1264 = SB 8443), see G. Wagner, op. cit., p. 166; the Greek text appears between two scenes of Antoninus offering to Amun-Re of Hibis with hieroglyphic texts, just as on a lintel from Akhmîm from the reign of Trajan, now destroyed: K.P. Kuhlmann, Materialen zur Archäologie und Geschichte des Raumes von Achmim (SDAIK 11), 1983, p. 43, fig. 8; similar Greek dedications on the gates of Egyptian temples are fairly common, e.g. the temple of Imhotep at Philae (LD IV, 18-19; D. Wildung, Imhotep und Amenhotep: Gottwerdung im alten Ägypten [MÄS 36], 1977, p. 154-6, pl. 30). 3 For the considerable amount of temple construction and decoration during the reign of Antoninus Pius, see Chr. Thiers, “Un protocole pharaonique d’Antonin le Pieux (Médamoud, inscr. no 1, C-D)?”, RdE 51 (2000), p. 269, n. 30. Revue d’Égyptologie 60, 17-40. doi: 10.2143/RE.60.0.2049272 Tous droits réservés © Revue d’Égyptologie, 2009. 92794_RdE_60_02_Klotz 17-06-2010 14:43 Pagina 18 18 D. KLOTZ Very little is known about the temple and surrounding settlement because they have remained for the most part unexcavated and unpublished until the last decade4. From 2001-2002, a joint expedition of the National Research Institute of Astronomy and Geophysics (NRIAG) and Tokyo Institute of Technology conducted geophysical surveys to the west of the main temple5. In 2003, a joint Japanese and Egyptian mission began excavating the town site west of the temple and documenting the temple’s architecture and inscriptions6. Qasr el-Zayyan is located about 30 km south of Hibis Temple in Khargeh Oasis, slightly east of the Khargeh extension of the Darb el-Arba‘yyin connecting Hibis to Dush7, and the temple has a north-south axis roughly parallel to the Darb el-Arba‘yyin8. The temple occu- pies the top of a small mound/hill in the middle of the Zayyan depression9, the lowest por- tion in all of Khargeh Oasis, around 20 meters above sea level10. Many temples in Khargeh Oasis, including Qasr el-Ghueita, Nadura, ‘Ain el-Labakha and Dush, were constructed on the summit of large hills with excellent views of traffic on the oasis and desert roads11. Qasr el-Zayyan, meanwhile, sits precisely in the middle of the Zayyan Depression, the spot closest to the water table of Khargeh Oasis. The Greek dedi- cation calls the temple, or its surrounding village, Txonemuriv, a name apparently derived from Egyptian *t-Ìnm.t-wr.t, “the great well”12. A large well actually features among the structures surrounding the temple, but it has not yet been excavated and is of uncertain 4 The SCA cleared and restored the temple in the 1980’s and 1990’s; the CEDEA announced plans to copy the hiero- glyphic inscriptions in 1981, but these copies never appeared; cf. A. Sadek, “Le relevé des textes des temples de Nadoura et de Qasr ez-Zayan (Survey épigraphique du CÉDAÉ)”, in N.-Chr. Grimal (ed.), Prospection et sauvegarde des antiqui- tés de l’Égypte. Actes de la table ronde organisée à l’occasion du Centenaire de l’IFAO, 8-12 janvier 1981 (BdE 88), 1981, p. 216; coll., Recherches sur les temples de Nubie, histoire de la Montagne thébaine, du Ramesseum et de la Vallée des Reines: exposition au Centre culturel français du Caire du 3 au 18 mai 1982, 1982, p. 14. 5 H. Kamei et al., “GPR and Magnetic Survey of the West of Al-Zayyan Temple, Kharga Oases, Al-Wadi Al-Jadeed (New Valley), Egypt”, Archaeological Prospection 9/2 (2002), p. 93-104; idem, “Complementary Integrated Geophysical Investigation around Al-Zayyan Temple, Kharga Oasis, Al-Wadi Al-Jadeed (New Valley), Egypt”, Archaeological Prospection 12/3 (2005), p. 177-189. 6 See the preliminary report El-Zayyan, 2003-2006. 7 Cf. M. Ohshiro, in El-Zayyan, 2003-2006, p. 1-2. 8 For the precise north-south alignment of Qasr el-Zayyan, see J.A. Belmonte – M. Shaltout – M. Fekri, “The Ancient Egyptian Monuments and their Relationship with the Position of the Sun, Stars and Planets II: New Experiments at the Oases of the Western Desert”, ASAE 80 (2006), p. 73 and 76, Table 1. 9 See the topographic map in El-Zayyan, 2003-2006, p. 8, fig. 5, and pl. 26. 10 H.J.Ll. Beadnell, An Egyptian Oasis: an account of the Oasis of Kharga in the Libyan Desert, with special reference to its history, physical geography, and water-supply, 1909, p. 59 and 117; El-Zayyan, 2003-2006, p. 62. 11 This was also true of the location of Roman Fortresses in North Khargeh, for which see M. Reddé, “Sites militaires romains de l’oasis de Kharga”, BIFAO 99 (1999), p. 377-396. 12 G. Lefèbvre, “À travers la Moyenne-Égypte. Documents et notes. §IX- La dédicace du temple d’ˆAmen±biv - Les noms de ville ÈJbiv et Txonémuriv”, ASAE 13 (1913), p. 5-9; the prefix txon- occurs in other names of Khargeh wells, cf. P.J. Parsons, “The Wells of Hibis”, JEA 57 (1971), p. 175. RdE 60 (2009) 92794_RdE_60_02_Klotz 17-06-2010 14:43 Pagina 19 THE CULT-TOPOGRAPHICAL TEXT OF QASR EL-ZAYYAN 19 date13. Altogether, the evidence suggests that Qasr el-Zayyan was a precious water source in central Khargeh14. For the ancient Egyptians, the verdant environs of the temple of Qasr el-Zayyan may have also evoked the primeval mound emerging from the chaotic waters of Nun15. H.J.Ll. Beadnell discovered lacustrine deposits found throughout Khargeh Oasis and concluded, based on the location of the Late Period monuments, that remains of an earlier lake still existed in the Roman Period, although by then “the lake had very much contracted, and probably only existed as a marshy swamp occupying the lower portions of the depres- sion.”16 In other words, the ancient lake would have survived in some form at least in the Zayyan Depression, and thus the temple of Qasr el-Zayyan atop its small mound would have appeared to rise out of the verdure at the edge of a glistening sheet of water. The tem- ple and its marshy appearance would have recalled both the primeval mound of creation and the aquatic environment of Chemmis17. Although the Greek dedication securely dates the renovation and decoration of the tem- ple to the reign of Antoninus Pius, nothing is certain about the earlier stages of temple con- struction at Zayyan. Although the communis opinio holds that Qasr el-Zayyan was origi- nally built in the Ptolemaic Period18, there is no evidence for this date besides the general architectural appearance of the earlier structures19, and this temple could conceivably date 13 H. Kamei et al., Archaeological Prospection, 9/2 (2002), p. 96, fig. 3b; El-Zayyan, 2003-2006, p. 53, fig. 36, 61-62; J. Willeitner, op. cit., p. 45, fig. 57.
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