Akhenaten's Sed-Festival at Karnak (Studies in Egyptology)

"In Akhenaten's Sed-festival at Karnak, Jocelyn Gohary makes a study of Akhenaten's celebration of the heb-sed or Sed-festival, an ancient Egyptian religious festival that can be traced back to the Archaic Period. Scenes of Akhenaten's Sed-festival were depicted on the walls of his temple at Karnak, and this volume makes available the hitherto unpublished record, with an analysis of Sed-festival scenes carved on the blocks known as the Akhenaten talatat. Originally incorporated in the Aten temple complex at Karnak, the blocks were reused after Akhenaten's death, and are now in the process of being correlated with the aid of computers, an enterprise initiated by the Akhenaten Temple Project. Dr. Gohary compares Akhenaten's Sed-festival with those of other pharaohs and draws conclusions relating to the religious aspects of the scenes and rites enacted and to the art styles used on the talatat. The material indicates that the temple of Akhenaten at Karnak represents an early stage of transition in the development of the cult of Aten, as well as in the innovation of artistic representation. Dr. Gohary's study thus establishes an extremely useful stage in the Akhenaten sequence, and provides an important core of material to which talatat recovered in the future can be related. Dr. Gohary's research also suggests that his celebration of the Sed-festival in a traditional manner lends weight to recent views of Akhenaten as less of a radical than has previously been thought."--BOOK JACKET This book describes about ancient religious festival for which much evidence exists but because of the incompleteness of the evidence, several different interpretations of the festivals have arisen. Many points about Sed-festival has not been clarified, but it is hoped that it will add some information on development and effect of this cult of Aten. Cover 1 Half Title 2 Series Page 3 Title Page 4 Copyright Page 5 Table of Contents 6 Preface 8 List of Plates 10 1. Matched Scenes : 253 I -XIX: The Palanquin Procession 256 XX: The tnt3t- dais 282 XXI: The tnt3t-dais; a Possible Baldachin 284 XXII: The tnt3t-dais ; a Foundation Rite ; The Heb-Sed band 286 XXIII: The Heb-Sed Band 288 XXIV-XXVII: The Palace 290 XXVIII-XXXIX: The Offering - Kiosk Series 298 XL-XLI: The Re ' - Harakhte Altars 313 XLII: Miscellaneous Figures of the King 315 XLIII-XLV: The Lion and Sphinx Palanquin 318 XLVI: Procession Scenes ; Inscriptions 322 XLVII: Narrative Inscriptions 323 XLVIII-XLIX: Homage Scenes 326 L: The ' Kheruef ’ Dancers 330 LI: Dancers and Musicians 332 LII: Cattle 333 LIII-LVI: The offering-with-Libation Ceremony 336 LVII: The Window of Appearance ; Men Carrying Meat 342 LVIII: Miscellaneous Priests 343 LIX: The Window of Appearance 344 LX: The Window of Appearance ; Male Dancers ; The Atef - Crown ; Priests 345 LXI: Ladies-in - Waiting 346 LXII: Ladies-in-Waiting ; Soldiers 348 LXIII: Miscellaneous Officials 350 LXIV-LXVI: Miscellaneous Officials with Titles. 351 2. Individual Blocks: 354 LXVII-LXXVII: Palanquin Procession Scenes 354 LXXVIII-LXXXV: The Offering-Kiosk Series 365 LXXXVI: Miscellaneous Small Scale Figures of the King 373 LXXXVII: Lision-Furniture : The tnt3t-Dais 374 LXXXVIII: Scenes Paralleled in Other Sed - Festival Reliefs 375 LXXXIX: Depictions of Re '- Harakhte; The Re '- Harakhte Altars 376 XC-XCI: Miscellaneous Figures of the King and Queen 377 XCII: The Sinuous wall ; The King and Queen in the Window of Appearance 379 XCIII: The Atef-Crown ; Possible Foundation Rites ; The Hb-Sd Motif Band 380 XCIV: The lion and Sphinx Palanquin 381 XCV-XCVIII: The Offering-with-Libation Ceremony 382 XCVIII-C: Cattle 385 CI: Ladies - in - Waiting ; Miscellaneous Officials 388 CII-CIII : Priests 389 CIV: Miscellaneous Official with Titles 391 CV: Miscellaneous Officials , Some with Titles 392 CVI: Miscellaneous Figures ; Sample Sun - Disks 393 CVII: Dancers 394 CVIII: Parts of Structures ; Inscriptions 395 CIX: Examples of imy hbw - sd 396 CX: Examples of gmt p3 ' Itn and wsht. 397 Abbreviations 12 Part I: The Sed - Festival 14 1. Definition of the Sed - Festival 14 2. Date of the Sed - Festival 16 3. Location of the Sed - Festival 18 4. Evidence of Sed - Festivals 19 5. The Rites of the Sed - Festival 22 Part II: Sed - Festival Scenes of Amenhotep IV on the Karnak talatat 39 1. The Akhenaten Temple Project 39 2. The Number of Sed - Festivals Celebrated by Amenhotep IV 42 3. The Location of the Celebration of Amenhotep IV ’s Sed - Festival 47 4. Wall area Covered by Sed - Festival Scenes 49 5. Size of Figures in Sed-Festival Scenes 49 6. The Identification of Sed - Festival Scenes 50 Part III: Catalogue of Matched Scenes and Individual Talatat 53 1. Matched Scenes 53 2. Individual Blocks 133 Part IV: Conclusion 180 Appendix: Register of Matched Scenes and Individual Blocks 183 Footnotes 218 Bibliography 243 Index 249 Festival,Karnak,Talatat,Akhenaten Temple First published in 1992 as part of the Studies in Egyptology Series. This study looks at the depiction of the Sed-festival on blocks of the Temple at Karnak. According to some studies, Pharaoh Amenhotep IV recorded details of a Sed-festival event in his new temple complex dedicated to the Aten at Karnak. Blocks from the temple buildings which were re-used after the death of Amenhotep IV, were examined and photographed by the Akhenaten Temple Project between 1966 and 1977 in an attempt to analyse, with the aid of the computer, scenes carved on the blocks known as the Akhenaten'talatat'. The author uses the heb-sed, or Sed-festival, an ancient Egyptian religious festival that can be traced to the Archaic period, as the basis for a comparative study for providing insights into the controversial reign of Amenhotep IV - Akhenaten.