At Sneferu’s temple, female personifications of estates in Upper Egyptian nomes face northward (rightward) along the western side of the entrance corridor, while their nome numbers run southward (Fig. 17a, b). Upper Egyptian nome numbers moving in one direction while their personi-ied estates literally face another recall the Menkaure Upper Egyptian nome standards that face one direction while their personifications glance in another. he Sneferu estate personifications from designated nomes ofier provisions to the king, just as the triads’ nome personifications give offerings to Menkaure from estates in designated nomes.37 But what the Sneferu example makes clear — as probably did the triads, in their original arrangement in the valley temple court—is that a circulation of offerings is at work here (Fig. 17b). For the Upper Egyptian nome numbers start not at the entrance corridor but west of the pillared hall and run south to the entrance of the temple where they end with nome 22, the northernmost of the Upper Egyptian nomes; while the Lower Egyptian nomes, on the other side, start
36 Discussion of this subject was begun in Friedman in Gundlach and Spence (eds), Palace and Temple, forthcoming.
37 hat the Menkaure offerings, if only symbolically, came from Hathor temple estates in the triads’ nomes is suggested in Friedman in Gundlach and Spence (eds), Palace and Temple, forthcoming.
At the entrance, probably with Lower Egyptian nome 1, and run north to higher numbers through the Delta. Six engaged statues of Sneferu of different sizes365 stood at the north end of the temple in statue shrines.366 he king thus literally stood between the descending and ascending nome numbers, creating a circulation of offerings directed to him from his estates around the country.
But Sneferu does not just passively stand and receive offerings in this temple; he moves — and it is movement through and out of his temple. I previously thought that he should be understood to walk from those statue shrines and move south toward his temple’s exit (our entrance),367 which I think still obtains; and we can see from a west wall fragment from directly inside the doorway368 that when he stands facing a god, he is orientated south toward the exit (Fig. 18a; king with a tail). But I now think that, in addition, he should be understood as running out of the temple in the sed festival. Most noteworthy in this regard is the fragment of the king’s raised heel from a wall register above the file of Lower Egyptian estate personifications on the east wall of the entrance corridor369 (Fig. 18b). While the file of women is orientated north, the raised heel of the king in the register above is orientated south. he heel was part of a large image of the king running the sed race, the heb sed being the subject found in fragments throughout Sneferu’s statue shrine images, wall reliefs, and especially pillar reliefs370 that depict him both standing in shrines of the type known from earlier Djoser sed-related panels, and running with the mekes (Fig. 19).371
As Sneferu walked or ran south through his exit, he had Upper Egyptian nome 22 on his right and, probably,
Fig. 17: (a) Detail of Sneferu’s statue cult (‘valley’) temple entrance corridor, modified from D. Arnold, in Egyptian Art in the Age of the Pyramids (New York 1999), 85, Fig. 49, with added magnified view of west wall relief (after Fakhry, he Monuments of Sneferu II, Pt. 1, Fig. 17). Personified estates face north on both sides of corridor (only west side of corridor shown). (b) Redrawing of Fakhry, he monuments of sneferu II, pt. I, 18, Fig. 8. Only nomes Fakhry found in situ are circled. Arrows show direction in which nome numbers run: Lower Egypt nome numbers run north; Upper Egypt nome numbers run south. Statues of king stood in six statue shrines at north facing south
Fig. 18: (a) West wall of Sneferu entrance corridor with magnified view of relief, after Fakhry, he monuments of sneferu at Dahshur II, pt. I, ; (b) East wall of corridor with magnified view of relief, after Fakhry, he monuments of sneferu II, pt. I, Fig. 25; from east wall, location unknown (p. 55)
Monuments of Sneferu at Dahshur II, pt. I, , Figs 120, 48, 43
Fig. 20: (a) King exits temple to south: Upper Egypt nome 22 to his right and (probably) Lower Egypt nome 1 to his left places him east (b) in the Memphite area. Temple plan after Friedman, JARCE 32 (1995), Fig. 21, after Fakhry, he Monuments of Sneferu II, pt. I, Figs 1; 119
According to Fakhry, Lower Egyptian nome 1 on his left (Fig. 20a). Transferring the king to a map, these coordinates orientate him east and place him at the juncture of Upper and Lower Egypt, which is the politically and cosmically charged region of memphis (Fig. 20b), the capital where in real life Old Kingdom heb sed festivals were celebrated. Dual orientation, south and east, has been achieved in Sneferu’s temple through an integration of the architectural and relief programmes of the temple, the purpose being not only to provision the king through an eternal circulation of offerings from around the country, but also, and, most importantly, to accord him the eternal benefits of celebrating his heb sed in his capital.372
46
World History
