Barbara O’Neill

The Cult and the Royal Mortuary Temple in Ancient Egypt

Introduction

In this essay, I will investigate similarities and differences within temples at

Thebes and Abydos, examining ways in which important religious centres may

have been connected architecturally and ideologically by Nebpehtyre Ahmose,

(c.1550-1525.BC), at the dawn of the New Kingdom.

A distinct feature of ancient Egyptian religion was its complexity, (Spencer, 1982

p.163). The Egyptians never held a single view of the afterlife, with ‘conflicting’

views viable at any given time, (Spencer, 1982-p.139,.p.141). Ideology

surrounding the king indicated that in death he would join the sun-god in the

solar-boat on a daily journey across the sky, (Spencer, 1982-p.140). The king

was also identified with Osiris, ‘supreme god of the dead’, who like Re, was a

deity with regional and national significance, (Spencer,.1982-

p.141;.O’Connor,.2009-p.32). The association of kingship with the cults of

important gods, gained particular prominence within New Kingdom funerary

ideology, (Snape,.2011-p.184).

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Although Egyptian temples changed over time in both form and function, the

ontological relationship between deity and king was realised within the spatial

organisation, ritually-charged components and through the decorative

programme of all temples, representing as they did, a vital link between Egypt

and the cosmos, (Wenke,.2009-p.310;.O’Connor,1995-p.264;.Ullmann,2007-

p.12).

For ordinary Egyptians, temples were, for the most part a place of exclusion

unrelated to spiritual well-being, (Manley,.1996-p.78). The temple nonetheless,

offered limited accessibility to the people during festivals and played a vital role in

local and state economies, so in that sense temples functioned as ‘guarantors of

material well-being’ for every Egyptian, (Bell,1997-p135;.Manley,1996-p.78).

The Divine Cult Temple~An Overview

Kings of the New Kingdom endeavoured to fulfill three important tasks; to

prepare a tomb within the royal necropolis, build a separate mortuary temple on

the west-bank at Thebes and add to the divine temple of Amun-Ra on the east-

bank, (Snape,.2011-p184),.Fig:1. The temple form ensured an ordered cosmos,

with architectural elements ritually linked to the earth, the sky and the primeval

mound of creation, (Snape,1996-p.8;.Shafer,1997-p.2). This cosmological role

was maintained through ritual enacted there and through festival processions at

Thebes, when the divine family of Amun-Ra left the main temple on Karnak’s

east-bank in procession to royal mortuary temples on the west-bank,

(Ullmann,.2007-12). Successive kings built in and around the original structure

at Karnak and at major divine temples located at other religious centres,

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extending sacred space as personal acts of devotion, (Shafer,1997-

p.7;Ullmann,.2007-p.12).

The Royal Mortuary Temple~An Overview

In the Old and Middle Kingdoms, pyramid-complexes incorporated a mortuary

chapel where cult to sustain the deceased king could be maintained, (Arnold,

1994-p.187;.Snape,.2011-p.184). By the Eighteenth Dynasty, the royal-mortuary

temple had evolved from an integrated part of the burial complex, adopting a

more fragmented form within discrete structures at western Thebes,

(Snape,.2011-p.184). The mortuary temple’s structure was closely based upon

that of contemporary divine-cult temples, with Hatshepsut’s temple at Deir-el

Bahri exemplifying essential elements of a mortuary temple,.Fig.2:

A. Axial sanctuary for the barque of Amun-Ra

B. Open court for worship of the sun-god

C. False door for presentation of offerings

D. A place for commemoration of royal ancestors, (Snape,1996-

p41;.Haeny,1997-p.95).

Temple organisation evolved and changed through time, with cult for the living or

deceased king not restricted to mortuary temples, (Gundlach,.2009,.pp.64-65;

Arnold,.1997-84;.Haeny,1997-p.90).

Similarities and Differences in Form and Function

In their complex ‘onion-like’ structures, all temples fulfilled a similar, theological

purpose, (Gundlach,.2009-p.51;.Shafer,1997-p.4). Every temple represented the

primordial mound where ‘the first time’ occurred, (Assmann,1996-p.206;

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Wenke,.2009-p.311). The Egyptian geographic concept of ‘cosmos’, was fluid in

nature permitting an ‘other worldly’ understanding of time and place,

(Quirke,.2009-pp.128-129). There could be as many ‘first times’ as there were

temples, ritually synchronised throughout Egypt, (Assmann,.1989-

p.137;.Quirke,.2009-pp.128-129).

Similar architectural elements were found within divine and mortuary temples,

(Spencer,.1984-p.2;.Snape,1996-p.8). Although design varied, most temples

were arranged on a rectilinear axial plan, with focus on the sacred shrine at the

back of the structure, (Quirke,.http://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/),.Fig.3. A place

separated from the human world, accessed only by kings or high-ranking priests,

the shrine was dark, narrow and located at the temple’s most elevated point,

(Quirke,.http://www.digitalegypt.ucl.ac.uk/;.Spencer,1984-p.63).

By the New Kingdom, the temple had achieved a ‘standard plan’, with the main

entrance, the ‘rwty-wrty’ located on the western-axis, (Spencer,.1984-

p.201),.Fig:3. Essential components usually included pylon entrances, the ‘bxnt’,

symbolic of vigilance and of the dawn horizon, accompanied by colossal statuary

and obelisks, themselves often objects of cult, (Spencer,.1984-

p.194;.Snape,.1996-pp.29-33;.Wenke,.2009-p.311). Beyond the temple’s open-

courts, the ground rose at a gradual incline, through zones of ‘increasing

sacredness’, leading to the hypostyle hall, the ‘iwntyt’ or ‘wADty’, (Spencer,1984-

p.27,.p.28). Here, the fecundity of creation was represented through vegetation

depicted on the lower courses of walls and through palm or lotiform-columned

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halls, located before the ‘SH-nTr’ at the rear of the temple, (Spencer,1984-

p.28;.Snape,1996-p.29;.Shafer,1997-p.5). The axial route to the shrine involved

four religious transitions;

• an east-west solar passage reflecting the route of the sun

• an impure to pure passage in approaching the god

• from the light of Re to the darkness of Osiris, ‘les deux principes unifiés de

l’Unité divine’

• from lower to higher elevation, on approaching the shrine, (Wenke,.2009-

p.311;.LeBlanc,.1997-p.55).

Overlaps and similarities occur in temple terminology, with royal mortuary

temples often designated, ‘mansions of millions of years’, while the term ‘Hwt-nTr’

was traditionally used to describe divine-cult temples, (Spencer,.1984-

p.23,.p.55;.Haeny,1997-p.86-89). As all temples served as the locus for sacred

ritual on behalf of the gods, the term Hwt-nTr could also be used for royal

mortuary temples, although in this instance, Hwt-nTr may refer specifically to the

main shrine itself, (Spencer,1984-p.50,.p.55). The term ‘mansion of millions of

years’, is now understood in reference to any structure where royal mortuary-cult

was enacted, including within divine-cult temples dedicated to major deities such

as Amun-Ra at Karnak, (Spencer,.1984-pp.25-26,.p.35;.Haeny,.1997-p.124).

Gundlach, (2009-p.61) refers to four ‘holy localities’, royal architectural settings

where the living king interacted with the gods in cultic performance, (Gundlach,

2009-pp..60-62),.Fig:4. The living king was ritually active in divine-cult and royal

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mortuary temples and within a range of related settings, including temple-

palaces, in festival halls related to coronations and Heb-Sed, and at Windows of

Appearance,(Spence,.2009-p.167,.p.171,.p.184;Haeny,.1997-p.90;

Gundlach,2009-p.67).

The deceased king was ritually active in both mortuary and divine-cult temples,

(Gundlach,.2009-p.61;.Leblanc,1997-p.55). Architectural components, axial

organisation, bilateral symmetry and narrative art within divine-cult and royal-

mortuary temples differentiated the ontological relationship between gods and

living monarchs, and between gods and deceased kings, (Spence,.2009-

p.175;.Gundlach,.2009-p.60;.Assmann,1996-p.202-204),.Fig:5.

By the Eighteenth Dynasty, all temples incorporated a complex ideology of

kingship, combining solar and Osirian elements, ‘Il confirme la reconnaissance

de cette nature divine du roi en tant qu'Osiris, et surtout, en tant que Ré’,

(Assmann,.2001-p.187;.LeBlanc,1997-p.55). The sun god was effectively united

with Osiris through the deceased king, whose control now extended to the

netherworld, (Spencer,.1982-p.152;.Assmann,2001-p.187;Gundlach,.2009-p.66;

Leblanc,.1997-p.55). In order to sustain the solar-cycle of renewal, the king

required cult to be performed at his mortuary temple and within divine-cult

temples; this was the role of his successor, (Assmann,.2001-

p.187;.Gundlach,2009-p.61).

On a practical level, perhaps the most distinct difference between temples was,

‘simply one of tenure’; many mortuary-cult temples barely outlasted their

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founders, while the divine-cult temple endured, ensuring continuance of worship

for kings and for the deities associated with it, (Wilkinson,.2000-

p.25;.Arnold,2003-p.113).

The Temple of Amun in the early Eighteenth Dynasty

The temenos of this vast temple-complex, designated ‘Ipet-isut’ or ‘Most Select of

Places’, incorporates many temples, each in its own right, a ‘Hwt-nTr’, or ‘house

of the god’, (Sullivan,.2010-p.1;.Spencer,1984-p.48;.Wilkinson,.2000-p.154). The

temple of Amun at the heart of the precinct, with a history spanning fifteen-

hundred years, functioned as residence of the supreme god, Amun-Ra and as

the central religious institution of the State,.(Sullivan,.2010-pp1-3;.Blythe,.2006-

p.7).

After the reunification of Egypt, King Ahmose I, (c.1550-1525.BC), made

significant contributions to this temple, forging strong links between the divine

cult and that of the Theban Dynasty, (Bryan,.2000-p.209,.Arnold,.1994-p.267).

Ahmose was the first king for over a century, able to embellish and support major

divine cult centres from Upper and Lower Egypt, following the expulsion of the

Hyksos, (Bryan,.2000-pp.207-209). That the king acted with the impetus of

theocratic reunification, following the political reunification he had already

effected, is perhaps evident from important cultic and economic resources he

bestowed upon this temple, (Harvey,.1998-p.13,.p.57;Bryan,.2000-pp.209-

210;.Wilkinson,.2000-p.154). During the reign of his son, Amenhotep I, the

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temple expanded from its ancient core towards the west and south towards the

temple of Mut, developing into ‘a sanctuary of supra-regional importance’,

(Wilkinson,.2000-p.155;.Arnold,1994-p.17;.Blyth,.2006-pp7-8),.Fig:5a.

Shaped in part by the Eighteenth Dynasty’s close association between Amun and

the ruling monarch, many kings contributed to the temple of Amun-Ra at the

heart of Ipet-isut, adding pylons, statuary, obelisks, chapels, courts and halls, all

of which added to its complex form and to the ritual enacted there, (Arnold,.2003-

p.17;.Wilkinson,.2000-p.155;.Ullmann,.2007-p.12;.Blyth,.2006-p.34).

There are three main compounds within the temple temenos, with the precinct of

Amun at the centre, (Wilkinson,.2000-p.154). To the south is the temple of Mut,

consort of Amun-Ra, with the small temple of the divine son, Khonsu positioned

between the two, (Wilkinson,.2000-p.154),.Fig:6. Amun-Ra, Mut and Khonsu

constitute the Theban Triad, a divine family essential to royal renewal rituals

within festivals of the Theban calendar, including that of Opet, (Bell,.1997-p.157-

160).

By the early New Kingdom, there were two integrated ritual axes representing

distinct branches of cult within the temple; a north-south axis, leading to the

divine sanctuary where a permanently installed cult image of Amun-Ra resided

and a second, west-east axis assigned to the cult of the divine-barque of Amun,

(Ullmann,.2007-p.9;.Blyth,.2006-p.33),.Fig:7. The position of the barque-shrine

indicates a processional way on the north-south axis, connecting the temple of

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Amun-Ra with those of Mut and Khonsu, progressing via a sphinx-lined route to

Luxor temple, two kilometers away, (Ullmann,.2007-p.11;.Arnold,.1994-p.17).

This processional way may predate the Eighteenth Dynasty phase, with

indications that both Karnak and Luxor shared similar axes with the small temple

at Medinet-Habu on the west-bank, (Ullmann,.2007,.pp.11-12). An important

divine cult temple, Medinet-Habu marked the ancient site of Djamet, burial

mound of the Ogdoad creator-gods and locus for Amun-of-the-Opet’s ‘decade-

festival’, (Wilkinson,.2000-p.193;.Bell,.1997-p.178),.Fig:8.

Approximately two-thousand dismantled limestone blocks from the expansive

building-phase of Amenhotep I at Karnak, including elements from barque

shrines and chapels, all bearing extensive relief-work are currently the subject of

investigation by French scholars, (Favro-Wendrich,.2010;.Graindorge,.1999-

p.83-90;.Ullmann,.2007-pp9-12). Continuing work on this early stage may result

in a clearer understanding of varying emphases in the integration of divine and

royal-mortuary cults, which seem to gain heightened significance within Theban-

Abydene mortuary culture in transition from intermediate phases,

(Ullmann,.2007-pp.8-12;.Harvey,.2007-p.344;.O’Connor,1974-pp.17-18).

By the early Eighteenth dynasty, the temple of Amun-Ra had developed

significant axial and theological links with Luxor, a temple dedicated to the cult of

the royal ka and the sacred rituals of the Opet, (Arnold,.1994-p.17;Bell,.1985-

pp.251-259;.Wilkinson,.2000-pp.154-155).

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Luxor Temple in the Eighteenth Dynasty

Land and riverine routes connected the temple of Karnak with the temple at

Luxor, (Wilkinson,.2000-p.167;Bell,.1997-pp.144-149),.Fig:9. Functioning as the

‘place of justification’ in which kings and deities were renewed during the Opet

festival, this temple was dedicated to a manifestation of Amun, ‘Amun-of-the-

Opet’, a self-generating fertility god, vital to eternal regeneration,

(Wilkinson,.2000-p.166,p.171;.Bell,.1985-p.259).

Luxor temple, in its Eighteenth dynasty phase is usually dated from Hatshepsut,

before significant expansion by Amenophis III who created the essential core of

the temple-complex, constructing a triple barque-shrine at the front and a large

colonnaded hall at the northern-end, (Arnold,.1994-p.135;.Bell,1985-pp261-

262;.Wilkinson,.2000-p.166),.Fig:10. Textual evidence however, from the el-

Ma’asara stelae, commemorating the opening of a limestone quarry in Regnal

Year 22, by Nebpehtyre Ahmose near Tura, outline the king’s plan to construct

‘mansions of millions of years’, throughout Egypt, (Harvey,.1998-p.40). The

inscriptions suggest that Ahmose may have been the first New Kingdom ruler to

build at Luxor, 'the Southern Opet', (Harvey,.1998-p.63,.p.72).

There are several significant features within Luxor temple which reflect the

structure’s importance to the cult of kingship, particularly during Opet, a festival

related to the divine-marriage of Amun-Ra, unrecorded before the Eighteenth

dynasty, (Bell,.1985-p.259,.pp.278-281;.Spalinger,.1998-p.244;.Darnell,.2010-

pp.4-5),.Fig:11. The temple’s architectural layout and decorative-programme

enshrined a complex series of rituals culminating in the king’s identification with

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Amun-Ra and his transformation into an immortal ka, (Bell,.1985-

p.255,.p.267;.Darnell,.2010-pp.4-5).

Ka-statues of deceased kings were located within mortuary and divine-cult

temples, however at Luxor, it is the living king who was the focus of cult,

(Bell,.1985-p.260),.Fig:12. Inscribed colossi functioned as cult-statues, with

related architraval inscriptions producing a ‘temporal sphere’, where ritual was

embedded and re-enacted perpetually, in a ‘recurrent festival of renewal’,

(Bell,.1985-p.260;.Grallert,.2007-pp38-39;.Bryan-Dorman,1994-p.xix).

Scenes depicting the royal family and the divine family of Amun-Ra in riverine

procession during Opet, are recorded within elaborate narrative imagery

spanning the eastern-wall of the colonnade hall, (Bryan-Dorman,.1994-p.xix),

Fig:13. At the southern end of the barque-sanctuary, the king was united with

Amun-Ra and with every preceding king; all shared the universal kA, a sacred

element in the chain of divine-kingship, (Bell,.1985-p.258,.p.262), At the

culmination of the ceremony, the king emerged from the chapel as ‘Foremost-of-

All-Living-kas’, making offerings of incense, libations and flowers to the god,

(Bell,.1985-p,281,.pp.266-267;.Spalinger,.1998-244). Amun-Ra had transferred

his powers to the king in a ‘singular event’ of Dt-perfection, manifesting divine

sovereignty, (Assmann,.1989-p.75;.1996-p.18,.p.364;.LeBlanc,1997-

p.55;.Bell,.1985-p.257). The ontological implications of renewal rites enacted at

Luxor temple, assumed ‘extraordinary prominence’ from the early Eighteenth

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Dynasty, directly influencing temple development, (Bell,.1985-p.284,

p.259;.Wilkinson,.2000-p.166-169).

The Mortuary Temple of Nebpehtyre Ahmose at Abydos

Re-excavation work, carried out between 1993-2006 at the mortuary complex of

King Ahmose I at Abydos, is providing insight into the conceptual variability of

intended functions within divine and mortuary cults, following the reunification of

Egypt at the beginning of the New Kingdom, (Harvey,.1998-

p.1,p.273;.Harvey,.2007-p.353). With no evidence of a mortuary temple at

Thebes, the vast mortuary complex constructed by Ahmose at South Abydos,

includes subsidiary structures for his sister-wife Ahmose-Nefertari and their

grandmother Tetesheri, with other cult-components possibly related to ‘Crown

Prince Ahmose’, an eldest son, (Harvey,.1998-p4;.2007-p.349).

Construction of his mortuary complex is believed to have begun late in Ahmose’s

reign between Regnal Years 18-22, following defeat of the Hyksos, an event

recorded on the outer walls of the pyramid-temple, attested through thousands of

carved relief and painted fragments, (Harvey,.1998-pp.150-151). Triumphant

battle-scenes depicting horses and chariots, perhaps the earliest example of this

genre, provide ‘unique historical data’, which may result in chronological revision

regarding narrative art in Egypt, (Harvey,.1998-p.150;.O’Connor,.2009-

p108),.Fig:14,.Fig:14a. Other innovative elements include stamped bricks, the

first ever attested in a royal-mortuary complex, indicating a revised titulary for

Ahmose as Sa-rA-HqAtAwy, and HqAtAwy-mry-Wsir, uniting the king with the

mortuary-cults of both Re and Osiris, (Harvey,.2007-pp.343-346).

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The pyramid-temple of Ahmose, the last to have been built in the Nile Valley by

an Egyptian king, was most likely intended to evoke the successful political and

economic reigns of earlier Middle Kingdom unifier kings, employing monumental

symbolism of pyramid and terrace temple forms, integrating Memphite, Theban

and Abydene, funerary ideologies, (Harvey,.1998-p.135;.O’Connor,.2009-

p.109),.Fig:15.

Constructed along a central north-south axis at South Abydos, the complex

includes a large mortuary temple close to the cultivation, with the subsidiary

temple of Ahmose-Nefertari nearby,.(Harvey,.1998-p.1). There is evidence of

tree-pits either side of the main temple’s northern entrance, approached through

a massive mud-brick pylon gateway before open courts, (Harvey,.1998-

p.143,.p.198;.O’Connor,.2009-p.107). Within the temple, pillars of colonnaded

halls bore scenes depicting Ahmose in the embrace of several deities,

(Harvey,1998-p.196),.Fig:16. Other carved and painted, now fragmented

imagery, attest to an ‘evident preoccupation with offering table scenes’, within

which Ahmose-Nefertari stands behind the king, who is seated before elaborate

offering scenes, served by iwnmwtf priests, clearly the object of

cult,.(Harvey,.1998-pp. 294-298).

Interpreting scene repertoire and the use of cultic-space within Ahmose’s temple

is important at the beginning of an era when significant changes occur in divine-

cult and royal-mortuary temple ideology, (Harvey,.1998-p.273). Enactment of

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ritual evolved from that carried out on behalf of the deceased king, to cult carried

out by the king on behalf of the gods, (Harvey,.1998-p.273). Depictions within the

South Abydos temple-complex and at his Northern shrine, portray Ahmose as

receiver of cult, signifying his divine nature, suggesting, ‘a compelling personal

need’ for deification and immortality, (Harvey,.1998-pp.419-421;.O’Connor,.2009-

p.109),.Fig:17.

The southern-axial placement of the nearby enclosure dedicated to Ahmose-

Nefertari may indicate her cultic role as an incarnation of Hathor, signifying the

prominent role of the queen during Ahmose’s reign, (Harvey,1998- pp.425-

426,.p.462). Further on from the pyramid complex is a shrine dedicated to

Tetesheri, followed by an unfinished, probable cenotaph-tomb, culminating in a

terraced temple built into the cliffs which surround the area, (Harvey,1998-

p.4),.Fig:18.

The elevated terrace temple may represent the rwd-nTr-aA, the staircase of

Osiris, with the related tomb symbolising the Osirian cave and the sacred grove

which surrounded it, (Harvey,1998-p.434). The pyramid and subsidiary

structures represent the Axt, the solar horizon, conceptualising Dt-Osirian time of

permanent perfection and cyclic nHH-time, related to solar renewal,

(Harvey,.1998-p.436;.Assmann,1996-p.18),.Fig:18.

With Osirian ideology, ‘an overarching factor’ in Ahmose’s funerary programme,

solar aspects are also evident in the east-west axis of the complex, referencing

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Memphite-style solar iconography through the pyramid dominating the eastern

end of the monumental axis; its form representing the primeval mound of

creation, (Harvey,.1998-p.435),.Fig:18a.

At North Abydos within the Osiris temple complex, Amenhotep I built a cult-

chapel for his father, where Ahmose’s Osirian transformation appears

paramount, (Harvey,.2011;.personal communication). Ahmose therefore has two

physically separate cult locales at Abydos, with evidence that both were

connected through ritual procession, supported by depictions of the Ahmose

barque within the temples of Ramesses II and Seti I nearby,

(Harvey,.2011;.personal communication). The interconnectivity of Ahmose’s

royal-mortuary cult structures at Abydos, incorporating key funerary traditions

from other important religious centres, notably Thebes and Memphis, reflects ‘a

consciousness late in Ahmose's reign, of the commencement of a new era,

occasioned by the reunification of North and South’, (Harvey,.1998-pp.373-374).

Conclusion

The mortuary complex of Nebpehtyre Ahmose has ‘paradigmatic and extra-

regional significance’ in the development of royal cult from the start of the

Eighteenth Dynasty, (O’Connor,.2009-pp.107). This is also evident in the newly

emergent cult of the royal-ka, as exemplified within the Theban temples of Amun-

Ra at Karnak and Luxor, and within the Southern and Northern mortuary

structures of Ahmose at Abydos,.(O’Connor,.2009-pp.107-108). Modifications

created by Ahmose within post-Hyksos Egyptian royal funerary ideology,

‘profoundly affected the rest of the 18th dynasty’, (Bryan,2000-p.207).

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It was once noted that the reign of Ahmose lacked the time and resources for

significant construction, with his finest ‘monument’, the Eighteenth Dynasty itself,

(Lefebvre,.1929-p.67 in Harvey,.2007-p.352). I would argue that the unique

legacy emerging from investigations into this king’s intriguing mortuary complex

at Abydos, indicates significant architectural and theological innovations which

may have influenced royal and divine-cult ideologies from the dawn of the New

Kingdom, (Harvey,.2007,.p.352;.O’Connor,.2009-pp107-110).

Images:

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