oi.uchicago.edu THE ORIENTAL INSTITUTE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO STUDIES IN ANCIENT ORIENTAL CIVILIZATION JOHN ALBERT WILSON & THOMAS GEORGE ALLEN • EDITORS ELIZABETH B. HAUSER & RUTH S. BROOKENS • ASSISTANT EDITORS oi.uchicago.edu oi.uchicago.edu THE COREGENCY OF RAMSES II WITH SETI I AND THE DATE OF THE GREAT HYPOSTYLE HALL AT KARNAK oi.uchicago.edu THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS * CHICAGO THE BAKER & TAYLOR COMPANY, NEW YORK; THE CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY PRESS, LONDON; THE MARUZEN-KABUSHIKI-KAISHA, TOKYO, OSAKA, KYOTO, FUKUOKA, SENDAI; THE COMMERCIAL PRESS, LIMITED, SHANGHAI oi.uchicago.edu THE COREGENCY OF RAMSES II WITH SETI I AND THE DATE OF THE GREAT HYPOSTYLE HALL AT KARNAK BY KEITH C. SEELE THE ORIENTAL INSTITUTE OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO STUDIES IN ANCIENT ORIENTAL CIVILIZATION. NO. 19 THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO PRESS. CHICAGO ILLINOIS Internet publication of this work was made possible with the generous support of Misty and Lewis Gruber oi.uchicago.edu COPYRIGHT 1940 BY THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. PUBLISHED DECEMBER 1940. COMPOSED AND PRINTED BY THE UNIVERSITY OP CHICAGO PRESS, CHIC AGO, ILLINOIS, U.S.A. oi.uchicago.edu TO GEORGE STEINDORFF oi.uchicago.edu oi.uchicago.edu TABLE OF CONTENTS PAGE LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.. LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS.Xii I. PRELIMINARY REMARKS.1 II. THE VESTIBULE OF THE SECOND PYLON.......... 7 III. THE SECOND PYLON UNDER HARMHAB AND RAMSES I ...... 12 IV. SETI I AND RAMSES II AS COREGENTS..................23 V. THE HYPOSTYLE HALL AT KARNAK...................50 Ramses II in the North Aisle...................50 Reliefs of Seti I and Ramses II on the Second Pylon........52 The South Wall: Seti I and the Significance of His Epithet mac irw 60 The South Wall: The Barque of Amon and the Feast of the Valley 66 The South Wall: A Chronological Ohservation..........75 Prohlems of the Construction and Decoration of the South Aisle 83 Questions Answered and Unanswered........ ..... 88 VI. SUMMARY..............................92 ix oi.uchicago.edu oi.uchicago.edu LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS FIGURE PAGE 1. CARTOUCHE OF HARMHAB USURPED BY RAMSES I AND RAMSES II. KARNAK. 8 2. UNUSURPED CARTOUCHES OF HARMHAB. KARNAK . ....... 8 3. RAISED CARTOUCHES OF HARMHAB USURPED BY RAMSES II. KARNAK . 8 4. RAISED CARTOUCHE OF SETI I USURPED BY RAMSES II. KARNAK . 10 5. TRACES OF A SCENE ERASED AND PARTIALLY REPLACED BY RAMSES I. KAR- NAK.14 6. TRACES OF AN ERASED PROCESSION OF BARQUES, THE FOREMOST EQUIPPED WITH OARS, NOW OVERLAID BY SETI I'S VERSION. KARNAK ..... 16 7. SCULPTURES OF RAMSES II OVER ERASED SCENES. KARNAK.17 8. THE BARQUE OF AMON ATTENDED BY SETI I AND A SON, PRESUMABLY RAMSES II. KARNAK..24 9. THE CORONATION OF RAMSES II IN THE PRESENCE OF HIS FATHER SETI I AND THE THEBAN TRIAD. QURNAH TEMPLE OF SETI I. ....... 28 10. DOORWAY BEARING NAMES OF SETI I AND RAMSES II, LATTER WITH BOTH W~r-m3c.t-Rc AND Y;tsr-m~c~t-Rc-iwcw-RRAS FORMS OF PRENOMEN. QURNAH TEMPLE OF SETI I.31 11. RAMSES II, WITH PRENOMEN Wsr-mc.t-Rc, BEFORE AMON-RE-KAMUTEF. QURNAH TEMPLE OF SETI I.42 12. SETI I BEFORE AMON-RE. QURNAH TEMPLE OF SETI I..42 13. QURNAH TEMPLE OF SETI I. ENTRANCE TO VESTIBULE BEFORE SANCTUARY OF RAMSES I, INSCRIBED BY RAMSES II IN MEMORY OF RAMSES I, SETI I, AND HIMSELF.43 14. SECOND PYLON AT KARNAK. SOUTH END OF NORTH TOWER. THE LOWER FOUR SCENES WERE USURPED BY RAMSES II FROM HIS FATHER SETI I; THE UPPER TWO AND THE FRIEZE AT TOP ARE RAMSES' OWN WORK.............51 15. SETI I OFFERS TO AMON-RE CAKES INCLUDING THREE SHAPED LIKE THE HIERO- GLYPHS COMPRISING HIS PRENOMEN. IN THE SECOND SCENE RAMSES II (ORIGINALLY SETI I) PRESENTS CLOTH TO AMON-RE. KARNAK ... 54 16. THE BARQUE OF AMON IN FESTIVAL PROCESSION. KARNAK..............55 17. DIAGRAM OF WALL DECORATION IN SOUTH HALF OF HYPOSTYLE HALL AT KAR- NAK........ ........................................... 59 18. RAMSES II OFFERING LIBATION AND INCENSE BEFORE HIS DEIFIED FATHER SETT I. KARNAK................................63 19. RAMSES II POURING A LIBATION TO AMON-RE AND THE DEIFIED SETI I (AL- TERED TO RAMSES II). KARNAK........................65 20. RAMSES II BURNING INCENSE BEFORE AMON-RE AND THE DEIFIED SETI I (AL- TERED TO RAMSES II) . KARNAK........................65 21. RAMSES II CENSING THE BARQUE OF AMON ON ITS PEDESTAL. KARNAK . 67 22. RAMSES II CENSING THE BARQUE OF AMON, WHICH IS FOLLOWED IN PROCES- SION AT THE FEAST OF THE VALLEY BY THE BARQUES OF MUT AND KHONSU AND BY SETI I OR HIS STATUE. KARNAK....................69 23. SKETCH PLAN OF CERTAIN FEATURES IN THE HYPOSTYLE HALL AT KARNAK . 84 xi oi.uchicago.edu oi.uchicago.edu LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS AZ Zeitschrift filr gyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde (Leipzig, 1863 ). JEA The Journal of Egyptian archaeology (London, 1914 ). OIP Chicago. University. The Oriental Institute. Oriental Institute publications (Chicago, 1924 ). SAOC Chicago. University. The Oriental Institute. Studies in ancient oriental civili- zation (Chicago, 1931--). xiii oi.uchicago.edu oi.uchicago.edu PRELIMINARY REMARKS § 1. While investigating the sources of certain inscriptions employed by Ramses III on the walls of his temple in the precinct of Amon at Karnak, re- cently published by the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago, 1 I ob- served that one of those which is located on the front of the temple pylon is virtually identical with a text of Ramses II which stands directly opposite to it on the south wall of the vestibule of the second pylon of the great Karnak temple.2 My interest was thus directed to the vestibule; since the latter com- prises the entrance to the great Hypostyle Hall, the subject of my study soon became extended beyond its original intent. Starting at the vestibule in the first court at Karnak, first I moved on into the Hypostyle Hall; there I found urgent reason for a trip to the rock temple of Beit el-Wali in Nubia, thence to the temple of Seti I at Qurnah, the temples of Abydos, finally again to the Hypostyle Hall at Karnak. The problems which unfolded and a few of my thoughts concerning them, many perhaps erroneous, are in consequence set forth in this study, that others may observe what I have found and help to an- swer questions which remain obscure. § 2. In view of the ruinous state of the Karnak group of temples, it is not surprising that Mariette's splendid historical plan 3 contains a few errors not only in its architectural details but more especially in its attempt to trace the historical development of the temple. What is more surprising, however, is the fact that, in spite of the excavations which have taken place since Mari- ette's day, some of his errors are still current. § 3. Mariette and most of the scholars who followed him attributed the sec- ond pylon at Karnak and one of the columns of the Hypostyle Hall4 to Ramses I. Engelbach, however, in discussing the date of the Hypostyle Hall,5 states 1 Reliefs and Inscriptions at Karnak I-II (QIP XXV and XXXV [Chicago, 1936]). 2 I intend to discuss in another place the origin of this and other inscriptions, many of which go back at least as far as Seti I and Thutmose III. 3 Auguste Mariette, Karnak. Etude topographique et archeologique (Leipzig, 1875). 4 No. 81 in the plan given by B. Porter and R. L. B. Moss, Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Reliefs, and Paintings. II. Theban Temples (Oxford, 1929) p. 10. R. Engelbach, "Origin of the Great Hypostyle Hall at Karnak," Ancient Egypt, 1924, pp. 65-71. oi.uchicago.edu 2 THE COREGENCY OF RAMSES II WITH SETI I that he "vainly hunted for hours for the cartouche, or other name, of Ramesses I," and he is "convinced that it does not occur" on any of the columns. He suggests that numerous writers subsequent to Mariette slavishly copied his conclusion that it was Ramses I who originally conceived the plan of the great hall and even erected one column before his death. § 4. Legrain, too, who knew Karnak so intimately, was not of the same mind as Mariette. He observed more accurately in the Hypostyle Hall than any of his predecessors, and he definitely declares: "Aucune colonne ne porte le car- touche de Ramses Ier ."6' Legrain's work appeared too late to be available for the correction of the old attribution of one column to Ramses I in the latest edition of Baedeker's Egypt.7 § 5. Since the time of Mariette, the similarity of the central two rows of gigantic columns in the Hypostyle Hall to the great colonnade of Amenhotep III in the Luxor temple has tempted various Egyptologists to conclude that the same king might have been responsible for both. But lack of direct evi- dence, afforded by the presence of royal cartouches, has prevented them, with the exception of Engelbach,8 from expressing more than a cautious opinion in that direction. § 6. Numerous scholars, on the other hand, have, likewise without direct evidence, attributed the design for the great Hypostyle Hall and the second pylon to Harmhab, and the completion of the two structures to his successors, Ramses I, Seti I, and Ramses II.9 Their reason for dating them prior to Ram- ses I, whose cartouches certainly occur in five scenes on the east face of the north tower of the second pylon and on the east thickness of the north projec- tion of the south portion of the vestibule before the pylon, 0 is that this pharaoh in his reign of a little over one year could scarcely have planned and built such an ambitious structure as the great Hypostyle Hall (but cf.