IFAO

A fragment of a kneeling statue belonging to Dynasty XXVI (greywacke, height 23 cm) displays a declaration on its back pillar very similar to the one inscribed on the back pillar of another kneeling statue, that of Saft el Henna, dated to Apries (New York, mma 66.99.68 + Cairo cg 895). The name of the owner is not preserved, but it is possible to deduce that the monument was dedicated by a daughter of Psamtek II, Merytnebes, to her tutor, in her later years when she settled at Heracleopolis as priestess of Herishef.

Pharaonic inscriptions reused as part of the pavement of the Fatimid gate now called Bâb al-Tawfiq in Cairo were discovered in 2004 and 2005 during Ifao excavations. Three of them dating to the reign of Senwosret I are published here. These quartzite blocks were cut up and removed in the Middle Ages from the Heliopolitan temples’ area as we can deduce from the texts and especially from the dedication to the Bau Iunu, lords of the Hut-aat. The first document consists of a large slab on which 23 columns of originally, more developed royal annals are partly preserved. The text deals with the endowments granted yearly by the king to the Bau Iunu: for the four remaining years are listed the offerings made to the Heliopolitan gods (cattle, vases, offering tables, statues, sphinxes and cultic implements) and the buildings erected by the king (columned hall, obelisks). The text contains early mention of the goddesses Mut-who-is-under-her-mast and Hathor-Nebethetepet. The two other documents are a left doorjamb inscribed with the royal titulary and the upper part of a monumental round-topped stela decorated with a winged solar disk above the king’s titulary, combined with the names of the Bau Iunu and Atum.

According to an examination of the uses of the term bjn, this verb–indicating quality–as well as its derivatives provide an account of a process of degradation. As a major word in the vocabulary of evil, it is probable that bjn shows an important aspect of this concept in Ancient Egypt.

It was in 1974 that Serge Sauneron, then working near the Nubian temple of Wady es-Sebua discovered opposite the temple, on the eastern shore of the Nile an unknown settlement easily identified as a C-group village. It was a fortified agglomeration situated on the edge of a cliff that overlooked the river.

Built on a plateau of Nubian sandstone, the village was protected on its north, east and south sides by a semi-circular enclosure wall, originally three metres in height with a number of loopholes pierced through it: on the western side, the cliff was impassable. Three gates gave access to homes. Built on a slight slope, these houses or huts, generally rectangular and from two to five metres wide, were constructed of upright slabs of sandstone set into the floor, to the height of about one metre and bound with earth mortar or small stones. The floor was made of beaten earth. The layout of the settlement consisted of groups of huts served by a network of small streets radiating out from the main gate on the east.

The villagers possessed a small number of cattle, cows or sheep, and lived by fishing and hunting. This population seems to have been semi-nomadic as the site showed no evidence of permanent activity.

In the southern part of the Suez isthmus, in an area deserted by archaeological missions that had preferred to focus on the military settlements between Qantara and Gaza, J. Clédat unearthed the remains of a Ramessid temple dedicated, according to him, to Hathor and Horus. Examining the blocks of the monument deposed in the storehouse of the museum of Ismaïlia was the starting point of this study to reexamine the material settled in the vicinity of the road to the Sinaï mines and Punt. The monument reveals a shrine housing the great gods of Egypt with a sustained Heliopolitan slant while granting a minor space to an asiatic entity, Rechpou. Discrepancies between real and virtual orientation, between the origins of the divinities mentioned on the stelae in front of the temple and the cultural reliefs, suggest that the monument was designed as a frontier temple between the Orient and Nile valleys.

Le projet de ce volume d'Hommages est né d'un désir commun de remercier Fayza Haikal et de lui témoigner l'affection que lui portent ses collègues et élèves. (...)

Depuis toujours passionnée par les ramifications et les résurgences de l'Antiquité égyptienne dans le monde arabe contemporain, elle a su faire de ce thème l'un de ses axes principaux de recherche, à côté de son oeuvre de linguiste et de papyrologue. Par ses écrits autant que par son enseignement, elle a rendu sensible aux jeunes générations d'Égypte l'héritage qui est le leur, les encourageant à mettre leur propre culture moderne au service des recherches sur l'Antiquité. (...)

Le temple d'Hathor à Dendara, admirablement conservé, est probablement la plus aboutie des réalisations architecturales de l'Égypte ptolémaïque et romaine et la richesse des compositions théologiques qui ornent ses murs est incomparable. Ses inscriptions hiéroglyphiques ont été éditées sous l’égide de l’Institut français d’archéologie orientale, d’abord par É. Chassinat puis par Fr. Daumas, et enfin par S. Cauville. Le cinquième volume, paru en 1952, entame la publication des inscriptions des cryptes du temple, exceptionnellement décorées, par les quatre cryptes est et la crypte sud n°1.

Le temple d'Hathor à Dendara, admirablement conservé, est probablement la plus aboutie des réalisations architecturales de l'Égypte ptolémaïque et romaine et la richesse des compositions théologiques qui ornent ses murs est incomparable. Ses inscriptions hiéroglyphiques ont été éditées sous l’égide de l’Institut français d’archéologie orientale, d’abord par É. Chassinat puis par Fr. Daumas, et enfin par S. Cauville.

Le troisième volume, paru en 1935, poursuit la publication des inscriptions des chapelles entourant le sanctuaire : l’arrière-chapelle sud-est (Demeure du sistre), la chapelle axiale du Per-Our, les deux chapelles ouest et la chapelle au sud-ouest (Per-Neser).

Le temple d'Hathor à Dendara, admirablement conservé, est probablement la plus aboutie des réalisations architecturales de l'Égypte ptolémaïque et romaine et la richesse des compositions théologiques qui ornent ses murs est incomparable. Ses inscriptions hiéroglyphiques ont été éditées sous l’égide de l’Institut français d’archéologie orientale, d’abord par É. Chassinat puis par Fr. Daumas, et enfin par S. Cauville.

Le deuxième volume, paru en 1934, est consacré à la publication des inscriptions de l’extérieur des chapelles donnant sur le couloir mystérieux et des parois intérieures des cinq premières de ces chapelles, à l’est et au sud-est (Per-Nou) du sanctuaire.