The Interconnected Theban Landscape and Waterscape of Amūn–Rēc
2020 (English)In: Environment and Religion in Ancient and Coptic Egypt: Sensing the Cosmos through the Eyes of the Divine / [ed] A. Maravelia and N. Guilhou, Oxford: Archaeopress, 2020, p. 155-167Conference paper, Published paper (Other academic)
Abstract [en]
This paper looks at the conceptual landscape of Amūn–Rē at Thebes. It considers the annual cycle of the Nile as the context from which we can understand notions of Egyptian Cosmogony and how they may have played a role in the founding of the Great Temple of Amūn–Rē at Karnak. The paper will consider the implications of the most recent findings ofthe geoarchaeological and geophysical survey conducted by the Theban Harbours and Waterscapes Survey on the West Bank floodplain. This work has identified a secondary channel of the Nile (now infilled) which lay close to the West Bank desert edge during the New Kingdom. This and other findings allow us to reconsider Egyptological interpretations of the floodplain engineering in the pursuit of an interconnected land– and waterscape for Amūn–Rē. It allows us to reexamine the logistics of the festival processions linking the temples of Amūn–Rē at Karnak (Ipt-Swt) and Luxor (Ipt Rsyt) and the Mansions of Millions of Years on the West Bank desert toe slope. This paper will show how the Egyptians intimately understood their environment, how this very environment created them and how they used and adapted it.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages
Oxford: Archaeopress, 2020. p. 155-167
Series
Egyptology Series, 28
Keywords [en]
Egypt, Nile, annual Nile cycle, inundation, flood, landscapes, waterscapes, Africa, climate, climatic conditions, engineered landscape, channels, agricultural activities, secondary channel, Cosmogony, religious rituals, Thebes, Medinet Habu, Theban temples, Theban Triad, Amun–Re, festival processions, Opet Festival, Decadal Festival
National Category
Archaeology
Research subject
Egyptology
Identifiers
URN: urn:nbn:se:uu:diva-547255DOI: 10.2307/j.ctv24trf4k.23ISBN: 9781789696394 (print)OAI: oai:DiVA.org:uu-547255DiVA, id: diva2:1927615
Conference
Proceedings of the 1st Egyptological Conference, Organized by the Hellenic Institute of Egyptology & the Calligraphy Centre of the Bibliotheca Alexandrina at the People’s University of Athens (Athens 1-3 February 2017)
2025-01-152025-01-152026-06-03