Religious Practice and Cultural Construction of Animal Worship in Egypt from the Early Dynastic to the New Kingdom

Ritual Forms, Material Display, Historical Development

Angelo Colonna

• Publisher: Archaeopress Archaeology
• Year: 2021
• Topic: History
• eBook ISBN:
  9781789698220
• Subtopic: Archaeology
• Index: History

Religious Practice and Cultural Construction of Animal Worship in Egypt from the Early Dynastic to the New Kingdom presents an articulated historical interpretation of Egyptian 'animal worship' – intended as a segment of religious practice focused on the mobilisation of selected animals within strategically designed ritual contexts – from the Early Dynastic to the New Kingdom, and offers a new understanding of its chronological development through a fresh review of pertinent archaeological and textual data. The goal is twofold: (1) to re-conceptualise the notion of 'animal worship' on firm theoretical and material bases, reassessing its heuristic value as a tool for analysis; (2) to demonstrate, accordingly, that 'animal worship' did not represent a late degeneration of traditional religion, socially (popular cult) and thematically (animal mummies and burials) restricted, but a complex domain of religious practice with a longer history and a larger variety of configurations than usually assumed.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Contents page
• Preface and Acknowledgements
• Dedication
• Abbreviations
• List of Figures
• List of Tables
• Introducing Animal Worship
• Figure 1.1. Diagram illustrating the conceptual background of the Egyptological ‘Standard Model’ of Egyptian ‘animal worship’.
• Figure 1.2. Historical development of ‘animal worship’ according to the ‘Standard Model’. Slightly modified from Colonna 2017: Figure 1.
• Figure 1.3. Diagram illustrating the conceptual background of the ‘Alternative Model’.
• Part I Presenting the Evidence
• Part I Presenting the Evidence
• Figure 2.1. Sealing from Tomb 414, Tarkhan (Cairo JE 43798). After Petrie 1913: pl. II.4.
• The Early Dynastic
• Figure 2.2. Inscription on the Michailides Bowl. Graphic elaboration by F. Iannarilli (after Simpson 1957: fig. 2).
• Figure 2.3. Wooden label of king Aha from Umm el-Qa‘ab B18/19 (Philadelphia Penn Museum E9396). After Petrie 1901: pl. X.2.
• Figure 2.4. Sealing from Tomb 3035, Saqqara. After Emery 1938: fig. 26.
• Figure 2.5. Painted limestone ostracon from Tomb 3035, Saqqara (Cairo JE 70149). Photo by A. Colonna.
• Figure 2.6. Ivory label of king Den from Umm el-Qa‘ab T. After Petrie 1901: pl. VII.8.
• Figure 2.7. Wooden label of king Qaa from Umm el-Qa‘ab Q (Ab K 1440). Graphic elaboration by F. Iannarilli.
• The Old Kingdom
• Figure 3.1a. Relief from the Valley Temple of the Snefru’s bent pyramid, Dashur. Graphic elaboration by F. Iannarilli (after Fakhry 1961, fig. 96).
• Figure 3.1b. Relief from the Valley Temple of the Snefru’s bent pyramid, Dashur. Graphic elaboration by F. Iannarilli (after Schott 1972, 32).
• Figure 3.2a. Block from the pyramid temple of Sahura, Abusir. After Borchardt 1913, 47.
• Figure 3.2b. Fragments from the mortuary temple of Unas, Saqqara. Graphic elaboration by F. Iannarilli (after Ćwiek 2003: fig. 76).
• Figure 3.3. Fragments from the solar temple of Niuserra, Abu Ghurob: a: visit to the chapel of the Apis bull (fr. no. 251); b: procession (fr. no. 252); c: inscription fragment (fr. no. 255). After von Bissing-Kees 1928, pl. 15.
• Figure 3.4. Hypothetical sequence of episodes according to Kees’ restoration of fragments 251, 255, 255.
• Figure 3.5. ‘Scene of the pelicans’ (Berlin, ÄM 20037) from the so-called ‘Room of the Seasons’, sun-temple of Niuserra, Abu Ghurob. Graphic elaboration by F. Iannarilli.
• From the First Intermediate Period to the Middle Kingdom
• Figure 4.1. Passage of the biography of Henqu II from Tomb N67, Deir el-Gebrawi. After Davies 1902: pl. XXIV.
• Figure 4.2. Relief Relief scene from the funerary chapel (B1) of Senbi, Meir. After Blackman 1914, pl. XI.
• Fig. 4.3 Relief scene from the tomb Ukh-hotep son of Senbi (B2), Meir. After Blackman 1915, pl. XV.
• The New Kingdom
• Figure 5.1. One of the New Kingdom ‘Isolated Tomb’ as shown in Mariette’s reconstruction. After Mariette 1882: 117, fig. 1.
• Figure 5.2 Mariettes’s drawing of the Greater Vaults of the Serapeum. After Mariette 1882: 119, fig. 3.
• Figure 5.3 Wall painting from Tomb D (Horemheb) showing the Apis bull and the four sons of Horus, Saqqara. After Mariette 1857: pl. 3.
• Figure 5.4. Wall painting from Tomb G (Ramses II) showing the king and prince Khaemwaset before Apis. After Mariette 1857: pl. 8.
• Figure 5.5. Relief from the Red Chapel of Hatshepsut showing the ‘Running of the Apis bull’. Graphic elaboration by F. Iannarilli.
• Figure 5.6. Detail of the donation stela of Thutmosis III (Cairo JE 65830), Heliopolis (?). Graphic elaboration by F. Iannarilli (after Moursi 1987: abb. 4, taf. 9.4).
• Figure 5.7. Stela München ÄS 14000, acquired in Cairo. Graphic elaboration by F. Iannarilli (after Moursi 1983: abb. 2, taf. VI).
• Figure 5.8. Fish stela (Field No. F 137+169), Mendes. Graphic elaboration by F. Iannarilli (after Redford 2004: pl. XXIX, CAT#425).
• Figure 5.9. Fish stela (Field No. Q 8), Mendes. Graphic elaboration by F. Iannarilli (after Redford 2004: pl. XXIX#450).
• Figure 5.10. Ramesside stela Berlin 19594, Asyut. Graphic elaboration by F. Iannarilli (after Durisch 1993: fig. 2).
• Figure 5.11. Ramesside stela BM 1430, Asyut. Graphic elaboration by F. Iannarilli (after Durisch 1993: fig. 6).
• Figure 5.12. Ramesside stela Louvre AF 6949, Asyut. Graphic elaboration by F. Iannarilli (after Durisch 1993: fig. 1).
• Figure 5.13. Ramesside stela from Al Mahamid Qibli. Graphic elaboration by F. Iannarilli (after Bakry 1971: taf. XXVIIb).
• Figure 5.14. Ramesside stela dedicated to Sobek Lord of Sumenu, unknown provenance. Graphic elaboration by F. Iannarilli (after Fazzini 1972: fig. 23).
• Part II Synthesis and Reconstruction
• Modelling Animal Worship
• Figure 6.1. Historical development of ‘animal worship’ according to the ‘Alternative Model’. Slightly modified from Colonna 207: Figure 2.
• Bibliography
• Index
• Back cover