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EGITTO

VICINO ORIENTE
E

estratto

XXXIV
2011
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EVO XXXIV (2011)

THE «SMALL TEMPLE OF ISIS» AT THEBES

IN THE SOURCES OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY
GIANLUCA MINIACI*

During the Nineteenth century a «small Temple of Isis» at Thebes is often named and
used as toponym by travellers and scholars. For example, Giovanni d’Athanasi1 in his ac-
counts for sales of his collection to the British Museum in 1836 and 1837 at Sotheby’s,
mentions «one of the Sepulchral Chambers in the small Temple of Isis at Thebes» in rela-
tion to the find spot of the coffin of Sobekaa2. According to the map of Thebes drawn by
the Savants in the early Nineteenth century and published in the Description de l’Égypte,
a label «petit temple d’Isis» is placed over the Ptolemaic temple of Deir el-Medina3, de-
voted to Hathor4. Again, on the plate 19 of the Description de l’Égypte, the temple of Deir
el-Medina is called «temple de l’ouest ou temple d’Isis». Deir el-Medina temple is also la-
belled «Small Temple of Isis» on a map in the anonymous book, Egypt: a familiar de-
scription of the land, people and produce, London 1839, at p. 88. However, the map in the
anonymous book seems to reproduce faithfully the arrangement of the Theban necropolis
from the Description de l’Égypte. In a plan of the temple of Hathor at Deir el-Medina giv-
en by Gardner Wilkinson, «the mummy pits» are shown in four areas of the temple5; this
information can be linked with the «sepulchral chambers» mentioned by Athanasi in his
account. Therefore, it is reasonably to suppose that in the early Nineteenth century the
temple of Hathor at Deir el-Medina was identified as the «small temple of Isis».

* I am grateful to Marilina Betrò for her encouragement in the study of Rosellini manuscripts, to John
Taylor for discussing many points with me, and to Alessandra Pesante for the permission to publish here
the images of Rosellini diary.
1 Giovanni d’Athanasi, known also as Yanni, settled in Thebes in order to carry out excavations on be-

half of the British consul Henry Salt from 1817 to 1827, see D. MANLEY, P. RÉE, Henry Salt. Artist,
Traveller, Diplomat, Egyptologist, London 2001, p. 202.
2 See G. D’ATHANASI, A Brief Account of the Researches and Discoveries in Upper Egypt, made under

the Direction of Henry Salt, Esq. by Giovanni D’Athanasi. To which is added a detailed Catalogueof Mr.
Salt’s Collection of Egyptian Antiquities, London 1836, pp. 64, 119. See G. STEINDORFF, Grabfunde des
Mittleren Reichs in den königlischen Museen zu Berlin. II. Der Sarg des Sobek-o. -Ein Grabfund aus
Gebelèn, Berlin 1901, p. 1. Discussion in R. PARKINSON, «The Missing Beginning of ‘The Dialogue of a
Man and His Ba’: P. Amherst III and the History of the ‘Berlin Library’», ZÄS 130 (2003), p. 124, see n. 28.
3 Description de l’Égypte, ou Recueil des observations et des recherches qui ont été faites en Egypte

pendant l’expédition de l’armée française, Paris 1809, Antiquités II, pl. 1, Text II, pp. 317-336.
4 PM II2, p. 401.
5 Wilkinson Mss. dep. a 15, fol. 6, Bodleian Library, University of Oxford, UK.

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 However, during the early Nineteenth century the toponym «small temple of Isis» had
been used also to point out another temple in the Theban necropolis. In fact, amongst the
unpublished notes of Ippolito Rosellini kept in the Biblioteca Universitaria di Pisa,
Rosellini refers to a «piccolo tempio di Iside» as being «al Sud dell’Ippodromo di
Medinet Habu»6 (see figs. 1-7). Also Champollion refers to a «petit temple situé à l’ex-
trémité sud de l’Hippodrome»7, noting in one of his letters the preeminent role of the
goddess Isis8. Now, the location of the hippodrome of Medinet Habu is shown in the map
of the Description de l’Egypte, and it corresponds with the remains of the enormous arti-
ficial lake, now called Birket Habu, built at Malqata by Amenhotep III. This small temple
of Isis is farther south of Deir el-Medina and Medinet Habu. The written notes of
Rosellini clearly identify the «small temple of Isis» with the temple of Deir el-Shelwit9.
Therefore according to the tradition amongst the members of the Franco-Tuscan expedi-
tion the small temple of Isis did not coincide with the temple of Hathor at Deir el-Medina
but with that of Deir el-Shelwit. Bonomi in his topographical notes collected in 1830, al-
ready knows the toponym Dêr esh-Shelwît for the «small temple south of the hills, named
Shelwit on account of the man who lived there»10. Neither Champollion nor Rosellini re-
fer to this temple with its toponym but prefer to name it as a «small temple» focussing
their attention on the role of Isis; moreover, Rosellini explicitly calls it «small temple of
Isis». It is worth to consider that the expedition took place in 1828-1829, approximately
in the same years when the necropolis of Thebes begun to be the preferred destination for
most of the cultured travellers, artists, antiquities dealers, and pioneer Egyptologists.
Concluding, it is possible that the label «small temple of Isis» was used for both temples
during the early Nineteenth century, but it is worth to underline the cultural impact of the
Franco-Tuscan expedition over a local reality as it was Thebes in the Nineteenth century.

6 Rosellini Mss. 284, 32r-38r [former 284, D 1-7], Biblioteca Universitaria di Pisa.
7 J.-F. CHAMPOLLION, Monuments de l’Egypte et de la Nubie, Paris 1835-1847.
8 J.-F. CHAMPOLLION, Lettres écrites d’Égypte et de Nubie en 1828 et 1829, Paris 1833.
9 PM II2, p. 530. Cfr. C.M. ZIVIE, Le temple de Deir Chelouit, vol. IV, Cairo 1992, p. 10 and pls. 6-9.
10 P.E. NEWBERRY, «Topographical notes on western Thebes collected in 1830 by Joseph Bonomi»,

ASAE 7 (1906), p. 83, n. 2.

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Fig. 1 - Temple of Deir el-Shelwit - Rosellini Mss. BUP 284, 32r [former 284, D 1].

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Fig. 2 - Temple of Deir el-Shelwit - Rosellini Mss. BUP 284, 33r [former 284, D 2].

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Fig. 3 - Temple of Deir el-Shelwit - Rosellini Mss. BUP 284, 34r [former 284, D 3].

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Fig. 4 - Temple of Deir el-Shelwit - Rosellini Mss. BUP 284, 35r [former 284, D 4].

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Fig. 5 - Temple of Deir el-Shelwit - Rosellini Mss. BUP 284, 36r [former 284, D 5].

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Fig. 6 - Temple of Deir el-Shelwit - Rosellini Mss. BUP 284, 37r [former 284, D 6].

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Fig. 7 - Temple of Deir el-Shelwit - Rosellini Mss. BUP 284, 38r [former 284, D 7].

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