THE FORMATION OF THE THEBAN NECROPOLIS -HISTORICAL CHANGES AND THE CONCEPTUAL ARCHITECTURE OF THE CITY OF THEBES- Jiro KONDO* I. Introduction Thebes (the ancient name of Waset) had developed into a great city that is comparable in scale to Memphis in the North since the time when Mentuhotep II of the 4th Nome of Upper Egypt unified Egypt in the 11th Dynasty and placed its captial in Thebes. Amenemhat, a vizier under the reign of Mentuhotep IV (later Amenemhat I), took over the throne after a coup d'etat and established the 12th Dynasty. The capital of the 12th Dynasty was built in Iti-Tawy in Fayyum. However, Thebes had acquired its importance as the sacred land of Amen and developed into the central Necropolis by the 18th dynasty. The present paper attempts to show the changes in the structure of the city of Thebes by looking at its development through history, and by doing so addresses the question of how the development of the city as a whole influenced the nature of the Theban Necropolis and determined the conceptual and symbolic architecture of Thebes. II. Before the 18th Dynasty, the New Kingdom 1. The 11th Dynasty Thebes acquired its importance in the history of ancient Egypt in the 11th Dynasty. After the decline of the Old Kingdom, the central government had lost its power and a number of local nomarchs grew their power resulting in the state of anarchy. Among the most powerful clans, the one that had its centre in Herakleopolis (the 10th Dynasty) and the one that developed in Thebes (the 11th Dynasty) started to divide the nation into two. At the time of Mentuhotep II of * Lecturer, Department of Archaeology, Waseda University Vol. XXXIV 1999 89 the 11th Dynasty (ca 2042 B.C.), the government of the 10th Dynasty was defeated and the land of Egypt was unified marking the beginning of the Middle Kingdom. As the name Mentuhotep suggests, the chief god of the 4th Nome of Upper Egypt was Montu, the god of war, who had its centre in Armant. It is generally considered that the centre of the 4th Nome moved from Armant (the ancient name of Iunwt) to Thebes in the north. However, the precise period and the situation of this move is not clear. Considering the fact that the royal cemetery of the 11th Dynasty kings was situated in al-Tarif (to the north of Thebes) and the tomb of Mentuhotep II, who reunified Egypt and established the Middle Kingdom, was situated in al-Deir al-Bahri even before the development of Thebes, it seems that the move of the centre of the 4th Nome from Armant to Thebes was not a simple change of centre that accompanied the shift in power from the worship of Montu to Amen. Rather, the West Bank of Thebes seems to have had an important function as a necropolis from older times. In fact, the Mastaba tombs of the 4th dynasty of the Old Kingdom have been discovered in the area around al-Tarif. The rock-cut tombs of the 6th Dynasty were also dispersed around al-Khokha within the precinct of the Theban Necropolis. These facts suggest the importance of the West Bank of Thebes as a necropolis before the start of the Middle Kingdom. Al-Tarif is an important area in the study of the Theban Necropolis. Unfortunately there has been little work on this area, but among the few works that had been done, the study of Saff tombs by Arnold (1976)(1) shows the importance of this area. Concentration of large scale royal tombs in Tarif is seen, and the area functioned as the royal cemetery of the 11th Dynasty. Further, in al-Deir al-Bahri where Mentuhotep II built his own tomb, there are a number of royal tombs and rock-cut tombs of the nobles of the 11th Dynasty. It seems that the fact that Mentuhotep II selected al-Deir al-Bahri as the place of his burial had greatly affected the subsequent development of the structure and the layout of Thebes. 2. The 12th Dynasty Amenemhat, a vizier during the reign of Mentuhotep IV, took over the throne through a coup d'etat and started the 12th Dynasty of the Middle Kingdom as Amenemhat I. From this period, the worship of Amen grew 90 ORIENT THE FORMATION OF THE THEBAN NECROPOLIS stronger, and Karnak, the sacred centre of Amen, became the geographical centre in the plan of Thebes. There is also a possibility that the choice of Al- Deir-al-Bahri as the tomb of Mentuhotep II determined the position of Karnak as the sacred place of Amen as will be discussed below. The tomb of the 12th Dynasty that had been identified in the West Bank of Thebes is limited to TT 60 (the tomb of Antefoker)(2) in Sheikh Abd al-Qurna. It is the only tomb among a few rock-cut tombs in the area that is known to belong to the reign of Senwsert I. The kings of the 12th Dynasty built pyramids on the west bank of the Nile between Fayyum and Dahshur as the capital was moved to Ity-Tawy (near present day Lisht). Funerary monuments belonging to the kings of this period had not been discovered on the West Bank of Thebes, but a life- size statue and stele of Senwsert III were discovered in the temple belonging to the royal tomb of Mentuhotep II in al-Deir al-Bahri(3), and a kiosk of Senwsert I and the royal statues of the 12th dynasty kings have been discovered in the Temple of Amen in Karnak. Also, the foundations of the 12th Dynasty buildings are reported to have been uncovered from under the Temple of Karnak, but the overall view is still not clear. The important question here is how the role of al-Tarif, the funerary area of the 11th Dynasty, had changed in the subsequent period of the 12th dynasty. Why was the royal tomb of al-Tarif cut off from the precinct of the Theban Necropolis? One of the possible explanations is the relationship between Montu and Amen. It is conceivable that the area was divided into that belonging to Montu, al-Tarif, and that belonging to Amen, Dra Abu al-Naja on the West Bank of Thebes. In other words, it seems that there was necessity to establish the sacred area of Amen, who was the late comer, within the area of the original local god Montu (it is likely that this area was "pr 'Imn," the later estate of the Temple of Amen). This shows an interesting resemblance to the establishment of the sacred territory of Aten by building the boundary stelae in the new capital of Amarna when Akhenaten (Amenhotep IV) built the Palace of Amarna (Akhet- aten) at the end of the 18th Dynasty. The fact that the Temple of Mentu was built to the north of the Great Temple of Amen in Karnak supports this interpretation. As Montu and Amen divide the West Bank into al-Tarif and Dra Abu al-Naja districts, the two temples seem to symbolically divide the East Bank of Thebes into the sacred area of Mentu and that of Amen in Karnak. An important question arises from this view: i.e., why was al-Deir al-Bahri where Mentuhotep II and other royal members and nobles of the 11th Dynasty Vol. XXXIV 1999 91 were buried cut off from al-Tarif and placed in the sacred area of Amen. In fact, al-Deir al-Bahri developed its importance as the religious centre of Amen in the following period. Another question is how, when and under what circumstances Karnak, the sacred territory of Amen, was established. Had Karnak existed before Mentuhotep II constructed his royal tomb in al-Deir al-Bahri? Or had Karnak developed as a consequence of the construction of the tomb of Mentuhotep II on the West Bank in order to keep the balance of power? In the stela of Senusert III that was discovered from the temple that belonged to the tomb of Mentuhotep II, the king (Mentuhotep II) is deified along with Amen- Re'(4). Also, another stela, discovered at the same time, belonging to the 18th Dynasty shows Mentuhotep II praying before the three gods of Thebes including Amen-Re'(5). 3. The 17th Dynasty In the Second Intermediate Period, people called Hyksos invaded the Delta area of the Nile from West Asia, and the whole of Egypt was under the control of foreign people who were based in Lower Egypt. In Upper Egypt, just as in the First Intermediate Period, the local clan that was based in the 4th Nome had gained its power gradually and had started to fight against the central government of Hyksos. They are the 17th dynasty kings described by Maneto. At the time of the reign of Amosis, the brother of King Kamose of the late 17th Dynasty and the founder of the 18th Dynasty, the Theban clan finally defeated the Hyksos and expelled them out of Egypt. Some of the tombs belonging to the 17th Dynasty were discovered in the Dra Abu al-Naja district to the north of the Theban Necropolis in the 19th century(6), but they have been lost and their exact location is not known today. The coffins belonging to this dynasty are rishi coffins with their characteristic patterns of feathers. The 17th Dynasty tombs are also found in the Valley of the Queens(7). II. Thebes in the 18th Dynasty 1.