Tell el-Rub’a It was site northwest of modern El-Sim-belawein in the Delta. The Egyptians called the area Per-banebdjedet, “the Domains of the Ram Lord.” It was historically listed as mendes.
Tell el-Yahudiyeh It was a site in the eastern Delta, north of el-LiSHT. The hyksos occupied the territory during the Second Intermediate Period (1640-1550 b. c.e.). Pottery from Palestine, Syria, and crete were discovered there. The Hyksos traded extensively and did not maintain eastern borders during their period of occupation of the Delta.
Tell Ibrahim Awad It was a site in the eastern Nile Delta containing five temples that date to the Predynastic Period (c. 3000 b. c.e.). These temples held some 1,000 ritual objects, but little is known of the titular deities worshiped there. A ceramic baboon found on the site links the area to the god thoth, but no documentation confirms this. The five temples were uncovered under a Middle Kingdom Period (2040-1640 b. c.e.) shrine. A tomb dating to the First Dynasty (2920-2770 b. c.e.) and containing funerary objects was also constructed on the site. An adjacent settlement, also Predynastic, has been unearthed as well in the area.
Tem (1) He was a solar deity of Egypt, the offspring of NUN, primeval chaos. He was also called Re-tem and was associated with the cult of re, depicting the setting sun. His name probably translated as “to be complete.”
Tem (2) (fl. 21st century b. c.e.) Royal woman of the Eleventh Dynasty
She was the ranking consort of montuhotep ii (r. 2061-2010 b. c.e.). The mother of montuhotep iii, Tem died young or retired and was replaced by neferu (1). Tem’s tomb at deir el-bahri, on the western shore of THEBES, is large and beautiful. Alabaster slabs form her resting place, positioned on a sandstone base.
Temeh It was a region in nubia (modern Sudan) cited in the inscriptions of harkhuf at abydos. Harkhuf served PEPI II (r. 2246-2152 b. c.e.) as an expedition leader. He was made famous when he brought a dancing dwarf to Pepi II, who was quite young at the time.
Temple models They were miniature stone shrines serving as cultic insignias of the gods. One such model was discovered at tell-el yahudiyeh, dating to the reign of SETI I (1306-1290 b. c.e.) of the Nineteenth Dynasty Temple models were fashioned with pylons, statues, halls, and even obelisks, and were placed in shrines as tributes to the deities. The models were inscribed with the name of the donor and were called the “holy of holies.” Others were blocks built out of stone, with holes that were fashioned to allow the devotees to insert obelisks, walls, pylons, statues, and other traditional temple adornments.
Temple rituals They were the cultic ceremonies conducted at ancient Egyptian shrines and temples over the centuries. Normally the rites began with the offering of incense at the noon hour, although in some eras the rites began early in the morning, especially if attended by the king personally The incense offered in the morning was myrrh when that substance was available. At night the incense was of a type called kyphi. The censer used in the ceremony was a bronze pan, which contained pellets burning in a heated dish or bowl.
A temple kiosk, a unique shrine form used at Philae in the Ptolemaic Period (304-30 b. c.e.). (Courtesy Steve Beikirch.)
The priests dressed and cleaned the god’s statue and shrine each day. Most statues of the gods were clothed in colors deemed appropriate to their particular cult or region. Food was then offered to the god. The trays of vegetables, meat, fruits, breads, cakes, etc., were taken the next day to the various mortuary complexes in the region or to the tombs of the deceased Egyptians who had contracted with priests to conduct daily rituals on their behalf.
When the god’s meal ended, the temple was swept, scrubbed, and then closed. The floors of the temple were normally sanded and washed every day by lesser-ranked priests. At night the god was again saluted and offered gifts and tributes, but the sanctuary, the chamber in which the image of the god rested, was not opened a second time. It was enough for the priests to recite the prayers and hymns in front of his shrine.
When the god was taken out of the temple for a procession or a visit to another temple, the queen or ranking woman of the area escorted or greeted the statue. SISTRUMS, drums, horns, and other musical instruments accompanied the god and were played during cultic ceremonies.
Temples They were the gathering place for Egyptian cultic rites, religious structures considered the “horizon” of a divine being, the point at which the god came into existence during the creation. Temples had links to the past, and the rituals conducted within their courts were formulas handed down through many generations. The temple was also a mirror of the universe and a representation of the primeval mound where creation began.
Originally, temples were crude huts that were surrounded by short walls or enclosures. The emblems of the gods, the totems, were placed on a pole in front of the gateway, and early temples also had two poles, bearing flags and insignias. When the Egyptians learned to batter (or gently slope) walls and to raise up enormous structures of stone, the temples became great monuments of cultic ceremonies. Temples and tombs were the only buildings in ancient Egypt to be made of durable materials because of their importance in society Some temples were created as boxlike shrines, with central courts for statues; at times they were elaborately columned, particularly the massive temples of the various state gods. Still others evolved out of shrines originally made for the barks of the gods.
The basic plan of the Egyptian temple, decreed by the gods themselves, did not vary much in any given area. Most temples had a brick enclosure wall, then a PYLON, the slightly battered or slanted gateway fitted with grooves for the mandatory flagstaffs. The pylons of the larger temples had doors originally made of wood, but in the later eras these were fashioned out of bronze or gold. Before the pylon was the forecourt or reception area. When the temple was opened for the occasional public ceremony, the people would enter through this court. in the early eras such courts were simple squares; in time they became great colonnades.
World History
