The Coffin Texts of Ancient Egypt - Spell 5

Selected sources: B1P; B2Bo; B3Bo; B4Bo; B4C; B6C; S10C

Ho N!⁽¹⁾
Take possession of the sky,
Inherit the earth!
Who is he

who shall take away this sky from you as this fair young god⁽²⁾?

You are vindicated

against your foes, male or female.

Notes

1. Only written in B6C and B15C which led to Faulkners interpretation of Spell 5 being a continuation of Spell 4.
2. S10C changes this phrase to "(...) by the means of Re, the eldest of the gods [...]".

Bibliography

A. de Buck, The Egyptian Coffin Texts I-VIII, OIP 34, 49, 64, 67, 73, 81, 87, 132 (1935-1961).
L. H. Lesko, Index of Spells on Egyptian Middle Kingdom Coffins and Related Documents (Berkeley 1979).
H. Willems (ed.), The World of the Coffin Texts. Proceedings of the Symposium held on the Occasion of the 100th Birthday of Adriaan de Buck, Leiden december 17–19, 1992, EU 9 (Leiden 1996)
R. van der Molen, A Hieroglyphic Dictionary of Egyptian Coffin Texts, PÄ 15 (Leiden / Boston / Köln 2000).
J. Assmann, Totenliturgien in den Sargtexten des Mittleren Reichs. Altägyptische Totenliturgien 1, Supplemente zu den Schriften der Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philosophisch-Historische Klasse 14 (Heidelberg 2002).
L. Gestermann, Die Überlieferung ausgewählter Texte altägyptischer Totenliteratur („Sargtexte“) in spätzeitlichen Grabanlagen, ÄA 68 (Wiesbaden 2005).
R. O. Faulkner, The Ancient Egyptian Coffin Texts. Spells 1-1185 (Oxford 2007). 

The Coffin Texts of Ancient Egypt - Spell 4

Selected sources: B1P; B2Bo; B3Bo; B4Bo; B4C; B6C; Y1C; S10C; T9C; Theban Tomb TT 319

O NN,
The earth opens its mouth for you,
Geb⁽¹⁾ throws open his jaws⁽²⁾ on your account.
May you eat your bread and
May you receive your plenty.
May you go to the Great Stairway,
May you come to the Great City,⁽³⁾
May you kindle your warmth upon earth⁽⁴⁾,
May you occur as this fair young god

who is yonder.

May you have power

over your foes, male or female,

(over) those, who would harm you, male or female,

(over) those who hate you, and

(over) those who would have judgement against you on this day.⁽⁵⁾

O NN,
Their great ones stand up for you,
The scribes on their mats tremble at you in your presence,
And you have knit on⁽⁶⁾ the heads of the bright-coloured snakes⁽⁷⁾ in Heliopolis⁽⁸⁾.

Notes

1. The god of Earth, father and predecessor of Osiris on the Egyptian throne.
2. To release the deceased from his/her tomb which is in the earth.
3. Compare CT 515 for a similar text.
4. By standing in the sunshine and enjoying its warmth.
5. B1P, B2-4Bo, B6C and B15C omit these verses entirely and shorten them to "may you occur as Osiris".
6. Some sources add "for yourself" after this.
7. For the sAb.wt-snakes, see PT 519, CT 686; also J. F. Borghouts, The Magical Texts of Papyrus Leiden I 348, OMRO 51 (1971) excursus no. II; J. Assmann, Totenliturgen I, pp. 82-83.
8. The city of the Sun(god), for archaeological work done there, see this website and the post from July 2017 on this blog.

Bibliography

A. de Buck, The Egyptian Coffin Texts I-VIII, OIP 34, 49, 64, 67, 73, 81, 87, 132 (1935-1961).
L. H. Lesko, Index of Spells on Egyptian Middle Kingdom Coffins and Related Documents (Berkeley 1979).
H. Willems (ed.), The World of the Coffin Texts. Proceedings of the Symposium held on the Occasion of the 100th Birthday of Adriaan de Buck, Leiden december 17–19, 1992, EU 9 (Leiden 1996)
R. van der Molen, A Hieroglyphic Dictionary of Egyptian Coffin Texts, PÄ 15 (Leiden / Boston / Köln 2000).
J. Assmann, Totenliturgien in den Sargtexten des Mittleren Reichs. Altägyptische Totenliturgien 1, Supplemente zu den Schriften der Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philosophisch-Historische Klasse 14 (Heidelberg 2002).
L. Gestermann, Die Überlieferung ausgewählter Texte altägyptischer Totenliteratur („Sargtexte“) in spätzeitlichen Grabanlagen, ÄA 68 (Wiesbaden 2005).
R. O. Faulkner, The Ancient Egyptian Coffin Texts. Spells 1-1185 (Oxford 2007). 

The Coffin Texts of Ancient Egypt - Spell 3

Selected sources: B1P; B3Bo; B4C; B6C; B15C

Ho NN!
Take your staff⁽¹⁾, your garment⁽²⁾ and your sandals⁽³⁾,
Go down to the Tribunal⁽⁴⁾,

that you may be vindicated

         against your foes, male or female,

         against those who would harm you, and

         (against) those who would have judgement against you in the Tribunal⁽⁴⁾ on this happy day.⁽⁵⁾

Notes

1. The mdw-staff (Wb 2, 178.1-14; Lesko, Dictionary I, 257), a sign of dignity and an element of the object frieze drawn on the inside of many coffins. 
2. A dAjw (Wb 5, 417.5-7; Lesko, Dictionary IV, 121), some kind of linen garment for men.
3. Sandals are also found in the object frieze, often, but not always drawn near the feet.
4. B15C has "every Tribunal", B6C has "every Tribunal of Osiris" - not to be confused with the judgement of Osiris in the Book of the Dead; see also Coffin Text Spell 7.
5. The theme of the second spell is repeated here with a different beginning emphasizing the dignity of the deceased with the help of clothing and costume.

Bibliography

A. de Buck, The Egyptian Coffin Texts I-VIII, OIP 34, 49, 64, 67, 73, 81, 87, 132 (1935-1961).
L. H. Lesko, Index of Spells on Egyptian Middle Kingdom Coffins and Related Documents (Berkeley 1979).
H. Willems (ed.), The World of the Coffin Texts. Proceedings of the Symposium held on the Occasion of the 100th Birthday of Adriaan de Buck, Leiden december 17–19, 1992, EU 9 (Leiden 1996)
R. van der Molen, A Hieroglyphic Dictionary of Egyptian Coffin Texts, PÄ 15 (Leiden / Boston / Köln 2000).
J. Assmann, Totenliturgien in den Sargtexten des Mittleren Reichs. Altägyptische Totenliturgien 1, Supplemente zu den Schriften der Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philosophisch-Historische Klasse 14 (Heidelberg 2002).
L. Gestermann, Die Überlieferung ausgewählter Texte altägyptischer Totenliteratur („Sargtexte“) in spätzeitlichen Grabanlagen, ÄA 68 (Wiesbaden 2005).
R. O. Faulkner, The Ancient Egyptian Coffin Texts. Spells 1-1185 (Oxford 2007). 

The Coffin Texts of Ancient Egypt - Spell 2

Selected sources: B1P; B2Bo; B3Bo; B4Bo; B4C; B6C; B15C; S10C; Y1C; Theban Tomb TT 319

GEB⁽¹⁾ has commanded,
RUTI (the Double Lion)⁽²⁾ has repeated,

that you be given your Ba⁽³⁾

         which is in the earth,

(that you be given) your shadow

         which is in the hidden places⁽⁴⁾.

Ho NN!
Raise yourself,

that you may be vindicated 

         against your foes, male or female,
         against those who would harm you, male or female,
         against those who hate you, male or female, and
         (against) those who would have judgement against you on this day.

Notes

1. The god of Earth, father and predecessor of Osiris on the Egyptian throne.
2. Wb 2, 403.11; LGG IV, 654 ff., a deity venerated in Letopolis and with strong connections to the solar cycle, also an epithet of Shu and Tefnut, the children of the primeval creator god Atum.
3. Wb 1, 411.6-412.10, in older translations rendered as "soul" although this does not hit the mark.
4. Aka "the tomb".

Bibliography

A. de Buck, The Egyptian Coffin Texts I-VIII, OIP 34, 49, 64, 67, 73, 81, 87, 132 (Chicago 1935-1961).
L. H. Lesko, Index of Spells on Egyptian Middle Kingdom Coffins and Related Documents (Berkeley 1979).
H. Willems (ed.), The World of the Coffin Texts. Proceedings of the Symposium held on the Occasion of the 100th Birthday of Adriaan de Buck, Leiden december 17–19, 1992, EU 9 (Leiden 1996)
R. van der Molen, A Hieroglyphic Dictionary of Egyptian Coffin Texts, PÄ 15 (Leiden / Boston / Köln 2000).
J. Assmann, Totenliturgien in den Sargtexten des Mittleren Reichs. Altägyptische Totenliturgien 1, Supplemente zu den Schriften der Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philosophisch-Historische Klasse 14 (Heidelberg 2002).
L. Gestermann, Die Überlieferung ausgewählter Texte altägyptischer Totenliteratur („Sargtexte“) in spätzeitlichen Grabanlagen, ÄA 68 (Wiesbaden 2005).
R. O. Faulkner, The Ancient Egyptian Coffin Texts. Spells 1-1185 (Oxford 2007). 

The Coffin Texts of Ancient Egypt - Spell 1

Selected sources: B1P; B3Bo; B4C; B15C; BH5C; S10C; T1L; T9C; Y1C; Theban Tomb TT 319

HERE BEGINS THE BOOK OF VINDICATING A MAN⁽¹⁾ IN THE REALM OF THE DEAD

Ho NN!
You⁽²⁾ are the Lion,
You are RUTI (the Double Lion)⁽³⁾,
You are HORUS, Protector of his father⁽⁴⁾,
You are the fourth in this quatrain⁽⁵⁾ of gods,

who are powerful and useful(?)⁽⁶⁾,

who bring water⁽⁷⁾ and

(who) create the Nile⁽⁸⁾ through the power of their fathers⁽⁹⁾.

O NN!
Raise yourself on your left side,
Put yourself on the right side!⁽¹⁰⁾


Notes

1. T1L adds "and of not going upside down".
2. B4C, Y1C, S10C and the text in TT 319 omit the first verse and render the following four in first person sg. with the deceased as the speaker: "I am the lion, I am Ruti, I am Horus, protector of  my father, I am the fourth in this quartet of gods."
3. Wb 2, 403.11; LGG IV, 654 ff., a deity venerated in Letopolis and connected to the solar cycle, also an epithet of Shu and Tefnut, the children of the primeval creator god Atum.
4. T9C adds "You are Thoth the vindicated". 
5. Very metaphorical translation of the original alluding to the four written verses here and the deceased as the "fourth of this quartet of gods".
6. jtpw - Meeks, AL 78.0546. The word seems to occur only in one source from Illahun(?). R. O. Faulkner translates "strong" with question mark and derives it from a word meaning "doubtful".
7. Two sources add "who make inundation".
8. B1P changes Hp - "Nile" to HkAw - "magicians". Several others add jrr hy hnw - "who make cheers of jubilation" and T9C inserts jrr baba - "who burble" like the river (Wb 1, 447.1-4).
9. Atum, who first rose from the primeval ocean (Pyr. 1587), and Osiris are both connected to water and the annual flood (Pyr. 589; 788; 1360). In Ptolemaic times this idea evolves into the myth of Osiris being the Nile and having its source in the Netherworld (Fig. 1), although the idea of the river emerging from between the granite bolders at Bigge or Elephantine is an ancient one. B4C changes "their fathers" to "their divinity" and Y1C has "the children of their fathers".
10. The complete spell is reused in the New Kingdom as the first stanza of Book of the Dead chapter 169 titled "Formula for setting up the embalming-bed".

Fig. 1 Osiris as Nile in a cave on
the island of Bigge (lower left corner),
on the right Isis making libation to the
Ba of Osiris sitting in the sacred grove -
from a relief in the temple of Philae

Bibliography

A. de Buck, The Egyptian Coffin Texts I-VIII, OIP 34, 49, 64, 67, 73, 81, 87, 132 (1935-1961).
L. H. Lesko, Index of Spells on Egyptian Middle Kingdom Coffins and Related Documents (Berkeley 1979).
H. Willems (ed.), The World of the Coffin Texts. Proceedings of the Symposium held on the Occasion of the 100th Birthday of Adriaan de Buck, Leiden december 17–19, 1992, EU 9 (Leiden 1996)
R. van der Molen, A Hieroglyphic Dictionary of Egyptian Coffin Texts, PÄ 15 (Leiden / Boston / Köln 2000).
J. Assmann, Totenliturgien in den Sargtexten des Mittleren Reichs. Altägyptische Totenliturgien 1, Supplemente zu den Schriften der Heidelberger Akademie der Wissenschaften, Philosophisch-Historische Klasse 14 (Heidelberg 2002).
L. Gestermann, Die Überlieferung ausgewählter Texte altägyptischer Totenliteratur („Sargtexte“) in spätzeitlichen Grabanlagen, ÄA 68 (Wiesbaden 2005).
R. O. Faulkner, The Ancient Egyptian Coffin Texts. Spells 1-1185 (Oxford 2007).  
 

Heliopolis – City of the Sun God

The website of the German-Egyptian joint mission in Heliopolis launched a few days ago, so I decided to compile some useful information on this particular ancient Egyptian city.

Introducing Heliopolis

The remains of the ancient city are situated under the modern district el-Matariya in the north-eastern part of Egypt’s capital Cairo.

The original name for the city was Junu, which means “Pillar” (or “City of Pillars”) and during the Greco-roman times it was also called pet net Kemet, the “heaven of Egypt”. The modern name Heliopolis derives from Greek and translates to “City of the Sun”, a very appropriate name for a place where the sun was worshiped for more than two and a half millennia. It was also the capital of the 13th lower Egyptian nome (or province) and one of the most important religious centres of the country. The temples of the sun-god Re-Horakhty and of Atum stood there within an enclosure wall 1100 m long and 475 m wide, but the city also consisted of administrative and residential buildings as well as a necropolis for the officials and servants of the temple and city and a sanctuary of the sacred bull of Heliopolis called Mer-wer or Mnevis (you know, the one from the movie Gods of Egypt, albeit with lots of artistic freedom). The cemetery of these bulls is located to the north of Heliopolis, in El-Khusus, with two of their tombs discovered in 1902 and 1918 respectively.

Short History of the Site

The place’s history began as early as the third dynasty when king Djoser (ca. 2600 BC) erected a chapel there for the Great Ennead of Heliopolis, a consortium of nine Egyptian gods that are featured in one of the most prominent creation myths of the realm. Fragments of this chapel were found by Ernesto Schiaparelli and are now housed at the Egyptian Museum in Turin.

Model of a Votive Temple Gateway at Heliopolis
(Brooklyn Museum, Charles Edwin Wilbour Fund,
Inv.-Nr. 66.228

Building activities continued through the Old Kingdom. King Teti (ca. 2340 BC) erected an obelisk there that was very small (around 3 m) compared to the two over 20 m tall obelisks provided by pharaoh Senusret I. some 370 years later. Senusret erected them alongside a new temple for the sun god to mark his heb sed jubilee, i.e. his 30-year-long reign. One of those obelisks is still standing and forms the central part of the open air museum. Many other famous pharaohs raised obelisks at the temple proper in worship of the sun god – Thutmosis III., the nephew of Queen Hatshepsut, Sety I., the father of Ramesses II., and his son Ramesses as well. Even the Amarna king Akhenaten was active in Heliopolis. He built a temple there made of small limestone blocks measuring 52.5 x 25 x 22 cm. These blocks were only used during his reign and are called talatat. They were later reused in the medieval architecture of Cairo. Many of the obelisks were dismantled as well during Ptolemaic and Roman times and are now scattered around the globe.

The temple was furbished with statues and shrines of kings and gods over more than 600 years after the reign of Ramesses the Great. One of the latest addition to the sacred area was a temple of Atum built by Nectanebo I. in the first half of the fourth century BC. Basalt blocks of this temple were excavated by the German-Egyptian joint mission in 2012. They showed a geographical procession of fertility gods representing the nomes of Egypt. The fourth century also marked the last time of prosperity for the temple. After that the site was neglected according to archaeological finds and the records of the Greek geographer and historian Strabo (64/63 BC – c. 24 AD).

Archaeological Missions

The obelisk at Heliopolis,
ca. 1900-1920 (Library of Congress)

Scientific clearance of the site started early in the 20th century. Italian archaeologist Ernesto Schiaparelli excavated parts of the so-called “High Sand” between 1903 and 1906, a flat hill, which formed the centre of the cult area. Shortly after that Belgian Egyptologist Jean Capart undertook work there on behalf of the founder and financier of modern day Heliopolis Édouard Louis Joseph Empain. At this time Heliopolis consisted largely of fields and some small villages with the remains of the pharaonic city scattered about the countryside.

Capart’s famous teacher Flinders Petrie investigated the temple area and its ring wall in 1911/1912. Also in 1912, another Belgian team under the leadership of Albert Daninos and financed by industrialist and collector Raoul Warocqué continued earlier excavations by Jean Capart. Old reports and letters of these early investigations often speak of “finding nothing”, which is not true. This term translates to “finding nothing of import aka worth buying”. They found architectural remains, burial pits, and much more. In one of Daninos’ letters to his financier he wrote: “Unfortunately, all of the funeral pits that I have explored up to now (...), have produced nothing of interest, with the exception of broken human mummies, and the bones of sacred animals and birds, as well as some fragments of Roman and Arabic vases and pottery.” The construction of modern Heliopolis was well under way by then.

Further work was done in the second half of the 20th century by the Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities and the Cairo University in the administrative quarters of the temple and the necropolis of the high officials. Since 2012 the German-Egyptian joint mission is working at Heliopolis under direction of Dr. Aiman Ashmawy (Egyptian Ministry of Antiquities) and PD Dr. Dietrich Raue (University of Leipzig, curator of the Egyptian Museum Leipzig), although a first season was already undertaken in 2005 by the Supreme Council of Antiquities and the German Archaeological Institute Cairo. In march 2017 the mission discovered a giant over-life-sized statue of pharaoh Psametik I. (7th century BC) made from silicified sandstone, a very hard metamorphic rock from the Gebel el-Ahmar stone quarry in Cairo. Shortly after the discovery the three statue fragments were transferred to the Egyptian Museum at Tahrir Square. They are now at display at the museum's garden.


Sources:
M. Abd el-Gelil/R. Suleiman/G. Faris/D. Raue, Preliminary Report on the work of the Egyptian-German Mission at Matariya / Heliopolis in Autumn 2005
A. Ashmawy/D. Raue, Report on the work of the Egyptian-German Mission at Matariya / Heliopolis in Spring 2012
A. Ashmavy/M. Beiersdorf/D. Raue, The Thirtieth Dynasty in the temple of Heliopolis, in: Egyptian Archaeology 47
J.-M. Bruffaerts/M-C. Bruwier, Belgian archaeological excavations at Heliopolis. 1907 campaign (Jean Capart), 1912 campaign (Albert Daninos) (2010), pp. 35-38
Georges Daressy, La tombe d'un Mnévis de Ramsès II, in: ASAE 18 (1918) pp. 196-210
Georges Daressy, La tombe d'un Mnévis de Ramsès VII, in: ASAE 18 (1918) pp. 211-217 W. R. Dawson/E. P. Uphill, Who was Who in Egyptology (London 1995) L. Kákosy, Heliopolis, in: LÄ II, col. 1111-1113
H. Bonnet, Lexikon der Ägyptischen Religionsgeschichte (Berlin 2000) pp. 468-470; 543-545

The Tomb of Userhat - Excavated in 2017

The Ministry of Antiquities has excavated the tomb of Userhat, an official who lived during the 18th Dynasty. The tomb is situated in Dra Abu el Naga North, next to the tomb of Roy (TT 255). The Ministry announced the "(re)discovery" today on facebook. 

Map showing part of the necropolis of Dra Abu el Naga North with tomb TT -157- aka the tomb of Userhat (from Kampp, Frederike.  Die thebanischen Nekropole. Zum Wandel des Grabgedankens von der XVIII. bis zur XX. Dynastie (= Theben, 13), Mainz 1996)

The tomb was numbered TT -157- during the extensive survey by Friederike Kampp-Seyfried, now the head of the Egyptian Museum in Berlin, during the 1990s. At that time only the courtyard and part of the entrance was visible. The inner chambers were buried under thick layers of rubble and debris. She also provided a careful dating to the times of Thutmosis III.

The Egyptian excavation revealed it to be a T-shaped tomb with a rectangular open courtyard, a broad hall, a corridor and an inner chamber. According to the Ministry of Antiquities a 9 m deep shaft was discovered in the broad hall with two chambers at its bottom, one to the east and one to the west. 

The excavation of the Egyptian team revealed massive finds from the Third Intermediate Period: decorated wooden coffins with their mummies still inside, about a 1000 shawabtis made of clay, wood and fayence, as well as a significant amount of pottery and human remains.

It may be possible that this is the tomb of one Userhat who owned TT A17. He was the head of the measurers of the granary of the estate of Amun. His tomb, A17, is mentioned in Porter/Moss I.1, p. 452 and was already known to Robert Hay at the beginning of the 19th century. His wife was named Hathor. The paragraph in Porter/Moss is rather short and only mentions two scenes, one with the deceased and his wife before Osiris and Hathor in a kiosk and another one with them adoring the Theban Triad.