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Dedication Stele» Dedicated To?1 2012 Varia Alexey K. Vinogradov The Golden Cage: What is the «Dedication Stele» dedicated to?1 καὶ φρουρὰν πλουτοῦντες ἐντιμότεροι δεσμῶται γεγόναμεν. (Heliod., Aeth. 9. 2) One of the most obscure written monuments of the vides the names and positions of fifteen priests of Ancient Sudan is Louvre stele C257, dated to year 3 the temple who witnessed the «deal», and announces of Aspelta, king of Kush (6th century B.C.E.). the particular divine retribution to be meted out The relief in the lunette (Fig. 1) depicts three royal to «anyone who removes the stele (lit. ‘ordinance’, ladies, facing left - («king’s mother» Nasalsa, «king’s ‘decree’) from the temple». sister (and) king’s wife» Madiqen, and «king’s sister The text of the stele is somewhat uncertain, since (and) king’s daughter» Henuttakhebit) – all standing it has many irregularities in grammar, wording and behind the king, who offers a figurine of Maat to the writing. Because many of its statements have been god Amun-Re, human-headed, accompanied by the interpreted differently in the research literature, goddess Mut, his divine wife, and Khonsu, their son, there has been no unanimity among scholars in label- all of whom face right. ling or naming this monument. Thus far it has been The hieroglyphic inscription of 23 lines below called: «Stela of Matsenen»5 (sc. Madiqen - A.V.), the relief reports a visit of eleven of the highest royal «Stele der Priesterinneweihe unter König Esperet»,6 officials to the temple of Amun, «Bull of the Land «Denkstein des Esperet über die Einsetzung einer of the Three-Curved Bow»2 (one of the two hypo- Priesterin»,7 «priestess stela»,8 «Adoption Stela»,9 stases of Amun venerated in the temple of Sanam),3 «Dedication Stela»,10 «Adoption Stela of Aspelta».11 in the course of which it was declared that the allo- This diversity of titles reflects the differences in wance established for Madiqen, at her dedication as scholars’ understanding of the significance of this sistrum-player to Amun by Aspelta’s predecessor monument. Paul Pierret, the author of the 1873 king Anlamani, should thenceforth be transferred editio princeps, took this text as a story how «Onze to Henuttakhebit and her descendants. The text spe- hauts fonctionnaires d’Aspurta viennent au temple cifies the details of the weekly, monthly and yearly d’Ammon présenter de sa part son épouse Maisren ration to be provided to (or by ?)4 the temple, pro- comme prêtresse du dieu <…> et la fille du rois Kheb-ha (sc. Henuttakhebit - A.V.) fait à cette occa- 1 I am very indebted to Dr. Timothy Kendall for reading this sion une fondation d’offrandes <…> qui devra être 12 paper and making stylistic alterations. perpétuée par ses descendants.» Views were set 2 The traditional rendering of this place-name as Ta-Seti is compact, but flat, though anyway preferable to the topo- 5 A.Wiedemann, Ägyptische Geschichte, 2. Teil (Handbücher nym "Nubia", which, from my point of view, is absolutely der Alten Geschichte, I, 1; Gotha, 1884), S. 577, Anm. 2. unacceptable for the period in question. The alternative 6 Urk. III, 101. «Bow-land», suggested long time ago and recently revived 7 H. Schäfer, ‘Die sogenannte “Stele de l’excommunication” in the epoch-making Fontes, is in fact somewhat mislea- aus Napata’, Klio, Bd. 6 (1906), SS. 288-89, Anm. 1. ding. The Egyptian language did not have any abstraction 8 G. A. Reisner, ‘Inscribed Monuments from Gebel Barkal’, for «bow» but used several words for different kinds of ZÄS, Bd. 66 (1931), S. 83, № 51. this weapon, only one of which, referring to the so-called 9 PM VII, 218. «triple-curved» bow (st), came to be associated with the 10 M.F.L. Macadam, The Temples of Kawa, Vol. I: The Ancient Sudan. The problem is discussed in A.K. Vinogra- Inscriptions. Text (London, 1949), p. 126. dov, ‘On the Rendering of the Toponym T3 Stj’, Chronique 11 FHN I, p. 259; cf. C. Peust, Das Napatanische. Ein d’Égypte, T. LXXV (2000), pp. 223-234; see also id., ‘A Rare ägyptischer Dialekt aus dem Nubien des späten ersten Epithet of Amun in the Temple of Sanam: A Comment on vorchristlichen Jahrtausends (Göttingen, 1999), S. 72. the Dedication Stela’, MittSAG, Heft 21 (2010), SS. 97-105. 12 P. Pierret, Études égyptologiques comprenant le texte et 3 Urk. III, 101-08. la traduction d’une stèle éthiopienne inédite <...> (Paris, 4 Cf. H. Schäfer, ‘Die aethiopische Königsinschrift des Lou- 1873), p. 97. The name «Maisren» most likely is a mistake vre’, ZÄS, Bd. 33 (1895), S. 108. of the calligrapher of Pierret’s book (published in facsimi- 105 Varia MittSAG 23 Fig. 1. Lunette of the Dedication Stele (after E. A. W. Budge, Annals of Nubian Kings (Egyptian Literature, Vol. II; London, 1912), pl. VIII). forth later that the stele had been set up in order to (sc. princess Henuttakhebit - A.V.)17 into a priestly commemorate «les dons faits au temple d’Ammon office at Sanam»,18 which, due to the authority of de Napata (sic! - A.V.)13 par la mère d’Aspalout»,14 this edition, might give the impression that a certain «an endowment made by his queen»,15 «le trans- concensus has been achieved among scholars. Yet, fert fait par lui, à sa fille et à la postérité de celle-ci, even in 2000 the view that the Dedication Stele «gives d’une fondation qu’il avait d’abord constituée, dans an account of Madiqen’s induction into the office (of le temple d’Amon à Napata (sic! - A.V.), en faveur priestess - A.V.)» was still maintained.19 Thus it is to de sa femme, lorsque celle-ci était devenue prêtresse be admitted that 140 years after the first publication de ce dieu.»16 of the monument a student of the Louvre stele still has to face three principal questions: One of the most recent renderings, published in a) who was the subject of the action, 1994 in the Fontes Historiae Nubiorum, stated that b) who or what was the object of the action, the stele is «recording the investiture of Queen Kheb c) what was the aim of the action under discussion. le) for the name of the «king’s sister» which is elsewhere rendered by the author as «Matsenen». Since Schäfer’s As for the subject (performer) of the action, there republication of the stele (see note 22 below) this name is are at least four different views, depending on the usually interpreted as «Madiqen», or similar. rendering of the key phrase in lines 8-9, which follow 13 The earliest students of the stele believed that one of the the enumeration of titles and proper names of the temples of the Jebel Barkal sanctuary, usually identified eleven officials who came to the temple of Amun and with Napata, is mentioned in the text. It was not before F.L. Griffith’s excavations on the site of Sanam, situated on precede the statement of the ordinance. According the other bank of the Nile and afterwards for some time to the generally used (Schäfer’s) copy of the text,20 referred to as «Contra-Napata» (‘Oxford Excavations in Nubia’, LAAA, Vol. IX (1922), p. 77), that the real loca- lisation of the temple of «Amun-Re, Bull of the Land of the Three-Curved Bow» was established. Worth noting is 17 The problems of reading of this princess’ name and titula- Griffith’s observation that in Aspelta’s time «the hierarchy ry are discussed in some detail in A.K. Vinogradov, ‘The of Napata and the court in Contra-Napata were not on Dedication Stela: The Name of the Kushite Princess’, BzS, speaking terms» (ibid., p. 79). Bd. 7 (Wien, 1999), SS. 119-127. 14 H. Gauthier, Le Livre des Rois d’Égypte, T. IV (MMIFAO 18 L. Török, ‘Adoption Stela of Aspelta. Comments’, in Eide 20; Cairo, 1915), p. 56. T., Hägg T., Pierce R.H., Török L. (eds.), Fontes Historiae 15 E. A. W. Budge, The Egyptian Sûdân, Vol. II (London, Nubiorum, Vol. 1 (Bergen, 1994), p. 231. 1907), p. 66; cf. id., Annals of Nubian Kings (Egyptian 19 Ye. Ye. Kormysheva, Mir bogov Meroe (St-Petersburg and Literature, Vol. II; London 1912), p. xcviii. Moscow, 2000), pp. 60-61; cf. D.A. Welsby The Kingdom 16 C. Boreux, Département des antiquités égyptiennes of Kush. The Napatan and Meroitic Empires (London, (Musée National du Louvre. Guide-catalogue sommaire, 2002=1998), p. 31. I; Paris, 1932), p. 84. 20 Urk. III, 104. 106 2012 Varia the passage in question, opening the main text of the In 1912 a different interpretation was put forward stele, reads: by E.A. Wallis Budge who thought that the ordi- nance was announced - also on behalf of the king - (8) <…> not by the royal officials to the priests (as Pierret and Schäfer thought) but vice versa: «<...> In all, eleven (9) men came to the temple of Åmen-Rā, the Bull of Ta-Sti. The servants of the god (i.e., priests) and the <…> (text of the ordinance following). divine Fathers of this temple space on behalf of the Majesty Horus Pharaoh [saying]: <...>.»25 Explai- The earliest students of the stele assumed that the ning this reading, Budge set forth a suggestion that «decree» was announced, on behalf of the king, by the officials may have come to the temple «to take the grandees who came to the temple and addressed part in the ceremony connected with the presentati- its priests. Thus Paul Pierret, in 1873, translated the on of an endowment of the temple which the Queen statement as «<...> ensemble 11 hommes sont venus Matisen <…> purposed to offer to the god.»26 au temple d’Ammon-ra, Taureau de la Nubie dire de Still another point of view was expressed in 1994 la part de son royal fils Pharaon aux prophètes et aux by Richard H.
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