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Pharaonic Style Decoration in The Mammis
Pharaonic Style Decoration in The Mammis
Olaf E. Kaper'
' I thank Colin Hope for reviewing my English and for providing the photographic illustrations.
2
For earlier reports on the excavations and epigraphic work in Shrine I see Bulletin ofthe Australian Centrefor Egyptology 2
(1991), 48-9 and 59-67;3 (1992), 45-7; 4 (1993), 19-2.0; 8 (1997), 56-8; Journal of the Society for the Study of Eg,,ptian
Antiquities 19 (1989),8-10 and 15-16;O. E. Kaper 1997a;O. E. Kaper 1997b;and in O. E. Kaper 1999.
218 OlafE Kaper
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Plate 2 The god Heka (magic) from the northern Figure I Schematic plan showing the numbering of
side ofthe vault, second register. haraonic - s ty I e re gis ters.
t he p
Pharaonic-Style Decoration in the Mammisi at Ismant el-Kharab 2t9
The decoration on the rear wall of the shrine (Hope et al. offering scene ofroyal crowns presented by gods.
l992,Plate 10) was centred on a round-topped niche, in Register III: in fragments only; on the left, a long series
which originally a cult statue would have been placed. of deities representing the nomes of Upper Egypt and the
The plaster in this niche was severely vandalized in oases, and on the right Tutu and Tapsais receiving
antiquiry, but traces remain of a modelled shell motif in offerings from a group of gods among whom are the I
the upper section. Below the niche, a cavetlo cornice members of the Hermopolitan Ogdoad; over the third
was originally affached to the wall, which extended the register, a line of large-scale hieroglyphs with the name
floor of the niche forward another 30 cm. This cornice and titles of Tutu and ahymn to the god.
was decorated in classical style with Eros-like figures
combined with a double Egyptian-style lotus flower.
The North Wall and Vault
Register I, left of the niche: still extant, Tutu as a
walking sphinx, approached by seven fecundity figures The wall, below the springing of the vault, still partly
bringing to him the agricultural produce of the oasis. extant, two separate scenes: to the right of the door a
Right of the niche: also still extant, Neith enthroned series of Ltbyan captives facing a deity and perhaps
receiving offerings of unguents from eight male and others. To the left of the door, a group of 27 priests
female deities. carrying offerings to Neith and Tapsais; in front of the
Register II, left of the niche: partly extant on the wall, priests, seven goddesses of the Good New Year.
Tutu followed by two deities receiving offerings of royal Register I survives only in fragments; several scenes
symbols from three male gods. Right of the niche: two preserved. Right of the door, Neith, Tapsais and a
goddesses, probably Neith and Tapsais, worshipped by protective goddess facing six goddesses of the Good
six goddesses. New Year followed by the personifications of the 12
Register III: uncertain; fragments of a figure of Osiris. months of the year. Left of the door, three scenes
Register IV: uncertain. containing gods of the Dakhleh Oasis. Immediately on
the left of the door, the gods Amon-nakht, Khnum-Re,
Isis, and Hathor; central scene, the four sons of Horus
The East Wall
bringing a cloth offering to Osiris, Harsiese, Isis, and
Register I, left of the doorway: surviving in fragments, a Nephthys; scene on the left, against the rear wall of the
seated goddess, perhaps Neith, facing a row of (Libyan?) shrine, the gods Amon-Re, Khons, Mut, Thoth, and
captives. Right of the doorway: still partly-extant, Tutu Nehmetaway receiving an offering of palm ribs from the
as â seated sphinx facing a row of Libyaícaptives. god Heh (Kaper 1997b).
Register II, left of the doorway: uncertain; right of the Register II, reconstructed from fragments: right of the
doorway: fragments of Tutu and Tapsais standing on the doorway, Tutu and Neith facing a group of mostly male
receiving end ofan otherwise lost scene. deities; the exact nature of this group remains to be
Register III: uncertain.
220 Olaf E. Kaper
Neith receiving an offering of incense from the god coronation of the divine child who is declared king:'Ce
Iunmutef; to the left, Neith enthroned and followed by qui distingue avant tout les mammisis, c'est qu'ils sont
another goddess, probably Tapsais. She is approached consacrés à la théogamie, à la naissance divine et à
by a series of gods who include the Seven Hathors, the I'intronisation royale de I'enfant' (Daumas 1958, 52).
four Meskhenet goddesses, Ihy, and others. Over the At Ismant el-Kharab, the location of the mammisi
third register was a line of large-scale hieroglyphs within the temple enclosure is on a parallel axis with the
containing the names and titles of the gods of the shrine Main Temple. This is not an exceptional arrangement,
and other religious texts. as it is also found in the cases of Íhe mammisi of Deir el-
North Doorway, fragmentary, dinall-scale, pharaonic- Medina, which is dated to the reign of Ptolerny IX Soter
style scenes. A cavetto comice over the doorway was II (Daumas 1958, 434), the mammisi of Kalabsha from
decorated with cartouches containing the names of Tutu the end of the Ptolemaic period (Daumas 1958, I I1¿2),
and Tapsais combined with classical-style decoration. the Ptolemaic mammisi at Philae (Junker-V/inter 1965)
and the newly-discovered mammisl at Shenhur dated to
the Roman period (Quaegebeur et al. 1994,207). The
Inscriptions and Colours of the Scenes orientation of the Kellis mammisi conforms with the
The inscriptions in the scenes consist mainly of brief general eastward opening of such buildings towards the
legends providing the names and titles of the gods rising sun. It was dedicated to both Tutu and Neith.
depicted. The two long (12 m) bandeau inscriptions that This is clear from the decoration on the rear wall of the
ran over the entire third register on either side of the chapel, in which Tutu is assigned the right (southern)
vault contained the names and titles of the gods of Kellis half, and Neith the left (northern) half. Neith and Tutu
and some hymns. are mother and son, as is well known from many textual
Astudy of the painters' techniques and the range of references (Quaegebeur 1986, 602). They are depicted
colours they employed has been commenced; on the together in several scenes in the mammisi: for instance,
pigments see Berry in this volume. It is clear that the they are the focus of the def,ile of priests upon the
paintings were drawn with the help a conventional set of southern wall.
grid squares or dots. A wide range of colours was The decoration of Shrine I did not include a scene
employed in the painting, in both pure and mixed depicting the birth of Tutu. In this, Daumas' definition
pigments. The skin colours of the gods in the paintings
of Íhe mamm¿sl does not apply; he stated that the birth
will provide ample scope for analysis at a later stage of scene is ' tout à fait capiÍale' (Daumas 1977 , 47 l), but at
the reconstruction. At this mornent, no obvious pattern
the same time he used the presence of this scene as one
can be discerned governing the distribution of the
colours over the different gods and goddesses, even of his initial criteria in selecting buildings for his corpus.
though it is clear that certain rules did apply. For Subsequently, he narrowed his definition of the mammisi
instance, the falcon-headed deities such as Amon-nakht, to include only this initial corpus of buildings (Daumas
Seth and Harsiese have invariably been depicted with a 1958, 43-4). It is now clear, however, that other
yellow skin. The colours black and blue have so far examples should be included that do not contain a birth
been attested exclusively for the skins of male gods. scene, such as those at Deir el-Medina (Goyon 1989)3
Goddesses have been depicted with either a green, red or and Ismant el-Kharab. A more detailed discussion of
pink skin colour. this issue will be presented al alater date.
3
The identification as a mammisi, which I support, was first presented in B. Bruyère, Rapport sur les fouilles de Deir el-Médina
I 935-l 940, Cairo 1952,32-3.
Pharaonic-Stvle Decoration in the Mammisi at Ismant el-Kharab 221
The southem half of the vault of the westem room of the On the southern side of the vault at Kellis, a number
Kellis mamm¿si carried a depiction of a god, probably of male deities were depicted offering a series of royal
Khnum, fashioning an egg on a potter's wheel. This scene crowns to Tutu. The offering of crowns forms part of
is indicative of the function of the shrine as a mammisi, the rituals of the mamm¿sl carried out in the month of
even though the scene may not be taken as conclusive in Pachons, according to the calendar in the Temple of
this respect.a Behind this divine potter appears a second Esna (Daumas 1958, 249-52); probably the same rifuals
potter whom we may provisionally identify as Ptah,s at and dates applied in Edfu (Daumas 1958,264-65).
least until the name of this god has been found. The bandeau inscription above the third register on
The identity of the shrine is established most the southem side of the vault contains a hymn to Tutu,
convincingly when its decoration is compared to the which describes the god as a ruler and solar deity in
Edfu. The
decoration of the sancfuary of the mammisi at phrases that combine all the elements characteristic of
third register of the northem wall of this mammisi the theology oÎ Lhe mammisi:
(Chassinat 1939, Plate 15) may be profiøbly compared Praise to you, nsw-King,bity-Kingof Kings, the
with the third register upon the northem side of the vault at King of lJpper and Lower Egypt, continually and for
Ismant el-Kharab; each carry depictions of the Seven ever, Tutu [...], the King [...], everyone [rejoices] upon
Hathors in combination with the four Meskhenet goddesses seeing him when (he) appears
and lhy, standing opposite the principal goddess of the The royal person of the god is here equated with the
shrine. The second register of the southem wall at Edfu rejuvenating sun god appearing from the lotus in
(Chassinat 1939, Plate 13) corresponds to the second unambiguous terms.
register on the southem side of the vault at Ismant el-
Kharab; both depict the three main deities of the temple
facing the potter's wheel. The fwo sanctuaries differ Dating and the Later History of the Shrine
considerably in other respects, but these coincidences are The decoration in the mammisi cannot as yet be dated as
significant in that they demonstrate the similar function of its inscriptions provide no historical information
the two rooms as expressed in the decoration. whatsoever. Our provisional dating of the building to
The first register on the southern side of the vault the Antonine Dynasty is based, therefore, only on the
carried a representation of the twelve hours of the night. archaeological context, which at present has yielded no
This theme has parallels in temple decoration only in the evidence predating the reign of Nero (Hope 1998, 810;
mammisi of Edfu6 and the Roman one at Dendera Bagnall et al. this volume) and on iconographic criteria.
(Daumas 1959, 203-6). The scene depicts an ancient The large-scale combination of classical painting with
royal ritual aimed at ensuring protection for the king in traditional pharaonic-style painting is thus far only
his palace, which has been preserved in P.Boulaq VII.7 known from tomb decoration. The tombs in question,
Later, this royal ritual was adapted to suit the rituals especially those in the provincial cemeteries of Tuna el-
carried out in the mammisi for the young god. It came to Gebel and Akhmim, are generally dated to the second
express the cyclic rejuvenation of the god, which is the century CE (Willeitner 1998, 3 18-20).8
central theme and the purpose of the rituals performed in Even though there is no parallel for a temple
the mammisi. The same theme of cyclic renewal is decorated solely in paint, it cannot reasonably be
expressed in Kellis by the depictions of the days of the supposed that its iconographic details would have been
lunar month (south vault, register I) and the months of different had they been executed in relief. Painting and
the year (north vault, register I). The scenes with the relief work have always been complements of each other
priests on the walls below the springing of the vault are in Egyptian arL. They represent a technical distinction
probably linked to the related concept ofthe changing of and never a distinction in style. For this reason, the
the year (Kaper 1991a, chapter 4). details of the paintings' iconography may be compared
a
The Kamak hypostyle hall has a scene showing Khnum modelling the divine child on a wheel in front of Mut-Bastet (?); H. H.
Nelson, W. J. Mumane, The Great Hypos4tle Hall at Karnak, Volume l, Part l: The Wall Reliefs, Chicago 1981, Plate 66 (scene B
106), whereas there is no indication that mammisïtype rituals were ever carried out in this hall.
5
On the basis of parallel depictions of Ptah at the wheel inside the Roman mammisi at Dendera and in the temple of Hibis, see
Daumas 1958,4134.
u
Upon the columns of the peristyle colonnade, Chassinat 1g3g, 112.7-113.6. These reliefs we¡e first associated with P.Boulaq
VII on the basis of a passage from the third hour by S. Schott, Bücher und Bibliotheken im Alten Àgypten: Verzeichnis der Buch-
und Spruchtitel und der Termini technici, Wiesbaden, 1991, 51 (81).
7
Cairo Museum Journal d'Entrée 31080, termed 'Recueil d'incantations pour le salut du roi pendant les douze heures de la
nuit' , in W. Golénischeff, Papyrus Hiëratiques, Cairo 1927, ll4.
8
A comparable mixture of styles is also encountered in the tombs at Alexandria in this period, see M. S. Venit, The Tomb from
Tigrane Pasha Street and the Iconography of Death in Roman Alexandria, American Journal of Archaeolog,t 101 , 1997 , 719, 722 (l
owe this reference to Helen Whitehouse).
222 Olaf E. Kaper
to the reliefs found in the other temples and perhaps in Egypt as a whole, and in the Dakhleh Oasis in
conclusions can emerge as to their likely date. particular. It has already much enriched our knowledge
Unforhrnately, the iconography of the paintings is so of the iconography and theology surrounding the god
intrinsically traditional thaf many details can be shown to Tutu. A monograph in preparation by the present author
have been utilized before in reliefs of Ptolemaic date. will integrate the material from Dakhleh into a full
For instance, the bird that is depicted in the hands ofthe corpus of depictions and attestations of the god from the
naked, youthful gods in the mammisi is a subject that in rest of the country. The decoration of the mammisi has
itself can be traced back to the Old Kingdom, but in the also assisted in reconstructing the religious landscape of
hands of deities it already occurs, for example, at Philae the Dakhleh Oasis (Kaper and Worp 1995, 107-8; Kaper
in the Ptolemaic Period (Junker and Winter 1965, Plates 1997a andb).
101, 103 and 106). Other elements that deserve a more One of the principal characteristics of the pharaonic-
detailed study are the dress-patterns ofthe goddesses, for style paintings in the shrine is their level of sophistication.
instance, for some of which no parallel has yet been The iconography is elaborate, providing many details not
found. A more fnÌitful comparison, however, can be known from elsewhere. For instance, the depictions of the
made on the basis of the rare series of elaborate crowns days of the month, the figures of the Four Kas,e and the
worn by the Seven Hathors. One of these consists of the Seven Hathors are more elaborate than in parallel
top of a sistrum with the face of Hathor flanked by two depictions elsewhere. The deities are depicted with
cobras (Kaper 1999,"70, Figure 2). This crown may be intricate crowns and their attributes are rendered with
compared with a similar depiction of crowns of the more detail than is known from elsewhere.
Seven Hathors in the Roman mammisi at Dendera The scenes on the northem and southern walls below
(Daumas 1959, Plate 92, bottom lett; without cobras, the springing of the vault should also be mentioned
Plate 92 bis). The similar context of the two crowns separately in this respect. They present a new topic in
makes the comparison valid, and it gives weight to the Eglptian temple decoration, which has not been
date of the Dendera relief in the reign of Trajan. encountered in other temples. They depict two separate
In the lower registers of the shrine's decoration, the offering rituals, in which the entire set of temple
pharaonic-style painting had been mutilated before the equipment that was used for the daily ritual in the Main
abandonment of the site. This happened quite randomly Temple and in the West Temple at Kellis is presented.
and without extreme fervour, as is evidenced by the These offerings appear to have taken place in connection
virtually undamaged state of the figures in the upper with the ritual celebrations of the New Year (Kaper 1997e,
registers of the vault. For some unknown reason, the chapfer 4).
north-eastern comer of the shrine suffered markedly less It is estimated that the excavations in the western
damage than the other parts. Most probably the room of fhe mammisi will require yet another two
vandalism is to be dated to the period of reuse of the seasons at least. Reconstruction of the painted plaster
shrine in the late fourth century CE, when the western fragments will then continue for as long as is necessary.
room of the mammisi was used to stable animals. Apart The fragmenfary paintings will have to be reassembled
from extensive stable deposits found during the and suitably stored for future reference. As this is a
excavations on the floor of the shrine, this reuse is also mud-brick building, there can be no question of
known from a dipinto of five lines written in Sahidic reconstructing the painted vault itself, but there will be
Coptic which was left by two goose-herds (Bowen er a/. an attempt at reconstructing some individual scenes. The
1993, 2O). A series of mainly pictorial dipinti on the final publication of the pharaonic-style decoration is
northem wall is also likely to date from this period. foreseen in the form of a full recording of the extant
paintings on the walls and the reconstructions of the
scenes on the vault- These are being prepared as line
The Importance of the Find and Future Plans drawings with a commentary. The current estimate of
The mammisl at Ismant el-Kharab is one of the latest to the total number of divine figures upon the walls and the
be erected in Egypt. Several rare elements in its vault stands at more than 400. No estimate can yet be
decoration make it an important monument for our given of the amount of time required for frnishing their
understanding of the development of the pagan religion reconstruction and publication.
e
The depiction of the Four Kas is rare, but they rnay also be found in the temples of Dendera (E. Chassinat, Le Temple de
Dendara, Volume IV, Cairo, i950, Plate 307,312), Opet (C. de Wit, Les InscriptÌons du Temple d'Opet à Karnak, Volume 1,
Brussels 1958,92), and El-Qal'a (L. Pantalacci and C. Traunecker, Le Temple d'El-Qal'a, Volume II, Cairo, 1998, scenes 176-77).
Pharaonic-Style Decoration in the Mammisi at Ismant el-Kharab 223
with contributions by
Roger S. Bagnall, Michelle Berr¡., Laurence Blondaux, Gillian E. Bowen, Jeffrey S. Church,
Charles S. Churcher, Christine E. Coombs, Jaroslaw Dobrbwolski, Amanda Dunsmore,
Mark A. J. Eccleston, Iain Gardner, Peter Grossmarlrl, Kevin Hickson, Colin A. Hope,
Olaf E. Kaper, Carla Marchini, Mary M. A. McDonald , Caroline C. McGregor, Anthony J. Mills,
J. Eldon Molto, Ryan L. Parr, Andrew Ross, Annie Schweitzer,TatyanaN. Smekalova,
Anna Stevens, John Tait, Ursula Thanheiser, Jennifer L. Thompson, Johannes Walter,
Helen Whitehouse, Andrea L. Woodhead and Klaas A. Worp
r:l
Oxbow Books
Oxford and Oakville
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