Introduction

The temples of Egypt are now viewed as one of the defining characteristics of pharaonic culture. In the ancient Mediterranean world the priests who staffed temples were recognized as individuals with particular skills and access to knowledge (Potter 1994: 183-212). The term ‘‘priest’’ is, however, rather laden with meaning which can mislead the modern reader, particularly as it is a designation of those who perform public religious duties in Christian churches. Ancient Egyptian priests fulfilled very different roles, not least in acting within a non-congregational setting. Priests of the pharaonic era were, of course, more than religious officiants: the careers of some could be easily characterized as political, and even the lower-ranked priests performed a multitude of mundane tasks. For many it was only a part-time profession.

Though Egyptian cult places are present in both the archaeological and the representational record from late Predynastic times (Kemp 2006: 116-35), the explicit evidence for officiants in that cult, as distinct from personal and thus direct expressions of piety, is not possible before the use of writing for a broader range of subjects. Though many early temples should perhaps be re-interpreted as arenas for royal display (McNamara 2008), all such institutions would have needed servicing, whether with part-time or full-time staff. As discussed below, the organization of cult in ‘‘royal’’ temples is rather similar to that in those of‘‘gods,’’ perhaps emphasizing the misleading nature of our terminology. It is clear that in Middle Kingdom Lahun, for example, a cult of Anubis was housed within the Senwosret II temple (Quirke 1997). Priestly titles are already attested in the First Dynasty, with some of the designations for high priests appearing at the end of the Second Dynasty (Wilkinson 1999: 272-4). Explicit evidence for priests in provincial cult centers is not found until the Fifth Dynasty.

The papyrus archives of the same era provide a fascinating glimpse at the micromanagement of temples, a system which is likely to have been in place during the Third and Fourth Dynasties too, when large cult complexes were associated with the royal tombs. Though these complexes provided a setting for the cult of the deceased Pharaoh, many elements of the regular rituals in these cults would become integral to the cult of deities in ensuing periods. Thereafter, the introduction of biographical texts, first upon tomb walls and later inscribed on statues and stelae, expands the depth of information available on temples and the priests who staffed them. Royal decrees concerning temples, and the fortuitous survival of several ritual texts, improve our understanding further. Evidence from well-preserved archaeological contexts can also be used to shed light on priestly activities, though, as is often the case, the evidence from northern Egypt is less well preserved (particularly in terms of papyri, and metal and wooden cult paraphernalia), and our knowledge is mostly confined to the large, formal, cult temples. This chapter largely eschews consideration of the funerary sphere, though many of the rituals and organizational structures were similar.

This chapter will seek to provide a broad characterization of the ritual roles of priests within formal cult settings, but also the organization of priesthoods as attested in many important temples. The minutiae of when individual titles appeared, and in which parts of Egypt, are not appropriate here: an array of detailed studies are available for those interested (see Further Reading). The term ‘‘priesthood’’ creates a modern impression of a uniform, well-organized model for organizing the staffing of temple cult, but variation was undoubtedly prevalent, with practical and political considerations probably as important as the desire to ensure a temple had a ‘‘complete’’ priesthood at any given time. A sense of the variety of priestly positions and roles is hopefully reflected amongst the examples discussed. Furthermore, this chapter seeks to highlight the range of non-ritual activities undertaken by priests. Readers should remain aware that during the two and a half millennia covered by this chapter there are large formal temples (plate 6), small village shrines, chapels dedicated to divine birth narratives, royal ‘‘mortuary’’ temples and sacred places (often natural features) imbued with meaning, both in the Nile Delta and Valley, and in the desert and distant foreign territories. All of these required a cult service, of vastly varying scale and degrees of permanence: some may only have been staffed seasonally, particularly sacred places at, or en route to, mines and quarries. A detailed discussion of religion in society - temples large and small provided the most evident, but not the only, arena for expression - and the subject of temple architecture are not covered here (see chs. I, 27; II, 7).