After reunification, Mentuhotep II supported the construction of a number of temples, mainly in Upper Egypt, which was made possible by his long reign. Kings of the 12th Dynasty continued to construct cult temples, and although most of these temples were removed in the New Kingdom or later, elements of the earlier temples have been found.
An example of the many phases of temple rebuilding can be seen in the temple of the god Montu at Medamud, about 5 kilometers northeast of Karnak. The temple was excavated by the French Archaeological Institute, Cairo, first under the direction of Fernand
Portico and enclosure wall of Late Formal temple (Graeco-Roman)
Figure 7.2 Plans of the Montu temple at Medamud, dating from the Old Kingdom to the Greco-Roman Period. Source: B. J. Kemp, Ancient Egypt: Anatomy of a Civilization, fig. 22. London: Routledge, 1989. Copyright © 1989, Routledge. Reproduced by permission of Taylor and Francis Books UK
Bisson de la Roque (1925-32), and until 1939 by Clement Robichon and Alexandre Varille. Buildings of the last temple were constructed throughout the Ptolemaic Period, and several Roman emperors had reliefs carved on temple walls. Beneath the Greco-Roman structure, a New Kingdom temple had been built probably during the reign of Thutmose III, whose name was on an artifact intentionally buried in a ritual deposit next to the temple’s foundation platform.
The best preserved part of the Middle Kingdom mud-brick temple complex at Medamud consisted of rows of priests’ houses and storerooms, and part of a rectangular mud-brick enclosure wall (5.5 m thick!). This temple is an example of what Barry Kemp calls “Early Formal” architecture (see Figure 7.2). Some stone architectural elements were built into the mud-brick temple walls, however, including an inscribed gate and several doors reused in the later foundation platform. Other Middle Kingdom blocks were reused in the threshold of the Greco-Roman temple. Cartouches on the reused blocks are those of Senusret III and several 13*h-Dynasty kings, including Sobekhotep III, who usurped the works of earlier kings by having his name carved in their cartouches. A granite gateway from Senusret III’s reign was still standing in the Greco-Roman structure.
To make the archaeology even more complex, beneath the Middle Kingdom temple was a First Intermediate Period one, dated by its ceramics. Although there are problems with the interpretation of this evidence, which was incompletely published, this temple seems to have consisted of two oval mounds (20 m x 15 m) in each of which was a small chamber entered by a serpentine passage from a court. The court was blocked off by a gateway (possibly a pylon, known mainly from temples of the New Kingdom and later), and the whole complex was surrounded by a polygonal enclosure wall. This design is unlike that of all later Egyptian temples, and Kemp believes that it is the best example of what he terms “Preformal” Egyptian temple architecture.
Thus at Medamud the same sacred site was in use for over 2,000 years, with much disassembling and reuse of earlier material, some of which had been usurped by later kings, and decoration of Roman emperors on earlier Ptolemaic walls. Sorting out all of the different phases of architecture and decoration makes the excavation and study of Egyptian temples a very complex task.
Under the Middle Kingdom kings a considerable amount of temple building took place in the Theban region. Another Early Formal style temple, also for the cult of the god Montu, was built at Tod, about 20 kilometers south of Luxor. Work on the Middle Kingdom temple began under Mentuhotep II and Mentuhotep III, with the main part built in the early 12*h Dynasty. In 1936 Bisson de la Roque found the Tod Treasure under the floor of this temple. The treasure consisted of four bronze boxes inscribed with Amenemhat II’s name. Inside were many rich artifacts in gold, silver, and lapis lazuli, including imported vessels from the Aegean and cylinder seals from Ur (3rd Dynasty), in southern Mesopotamia.
Possibly the most elegant cult building known from the Middle Kingdom is a shrine of Senusret I that was disassembled and reused in the 18*h Dynasty as fill in the third pylon of the Temple of Karnak. The small limestone shrine, which was built for the king’s sed-festival, was reassembled at Karnak in the mid-20*h century (see Plate 7.4). Consisting of 16 pillars erected on an elevated base, the shrine had ramps on two sides. In the center was a pedestal for the bark of the god Amen when it was carried by priests along a ceremonial route. The beautiful raised relief of the detailed hieroglyphic inscriptions and figures that are carved on this shrine represents the renewal of court-centered traditions of elite art - and royal patronage of the highly skilled artists who decorated such monuments.
With the increasing importance of the cult of Osiris, Abydos became an important pilgrimage site in the Middle Kingdom. At the sector of Abydos known as the Kom el-Sultan, about 2 kilometers northeast of the Early Dynastic royal tombs, are the remains of a mainly mud-brick temple of Osiris and, before the Middle Kingdom, a necropolis god named Khentiamentiu, which means “Foremost of the Westerners” (ruler of the dead). Excavated artifacts and inscribed evidence from the temple, which dates from the Early Dynastic Period onward, include the names of kings of the Old, Middle, and New Kingdoms. A large temple was built there in the early 12th Dynasty, and during the Middle Kingdom the great festival of Osiris was celebrated along the route from the temple to the Early Dynastic tombs, one of which was believed to be that of Osiris (see 5.6).
Also at North Abydos are a number of royal ka-chapels, excavated by Flinders Petrie. Four of these probably date to the Old Kingdom; later chapels in the Middle and New Kingdoms were superimposed on these earlier ones. The Abydos fca-chapels were miniature temples, separate from the royal tomb and not a place of burial, which could be several hundred kilometers away. They were serviced by fca-priests and endowed with a pious foundation to support the offerings and cult of the dead king’s ka.
In the early 19th century, many stelae of private individuals from non-royal ka-chapels (without tombs) at Abydos were obtained by antiquities dealers, and hundreds were later excavated by Auguste Mariette. More recently, the context of such stelae has been revealed by David O’Connor’s excavations of several private ka-chapels beneath Rameses Il’s small Abydos structure (called the “Portal” temple by Flinders Petrie).
Private individuals were also buried at North Abydos in the Middle Kingdom, in a huge cemetery, probably more than 80 hectares in area. This cemetery has been investigated by Janet Richards, who has identified two types of non-elite burials. The simplest ones consist of shallow pit graves. Most of the shaft graves and some of the pit graves had surface chapels with inscribed stelae. The more elaborate shaft graves frequently occur in pairs, some of which had superstructures of large multi-room mastabas. Associated grave goods demonstrate that a wide range of Middle Kingdom society, not only elites, had access to craft/grave goods in costly imported materials.
At South Abydos, Senusret III built a mortuary complex within a 170-meter-long enclosure at the base of the limestone cliffs. A rock-cut passage that led to the tomb, which had no superstructure, was designed with dummy rooms and blocked and hidden passages. The subterranean burial chamber was lined in red quartzite, and both the sarcophagus and canopic chest were concealed behind walls. It is not known if the king was buried in his Abydos tomb - or much farther north at his Dahshur pyramid. Also associated with Senusret’s Abydos complex was a large mortuary temple next to the valley edge which was connected to the tomb by a road ca. 750 meters long. The mud-brick temple was designed with a pylon gateway, but its central structure had a limestone court. Reliefs that decorated the temple include scenes connected with the cult of Osiris.
The temple was first investigated in 1899 by David Randall-MacIver, and since the 1990s by Josef Wegner (University of Pennsylvania). Sealings found in the recent excavations have titles which provide information about different priests and officials associated with the cult. Wegner’s excavations have also uncovered in situ evidence for the organization and functioning of an Egyptian temple. To the east of the temple (East Block) were storerooms for ritual equipment and materials, such as incense and oils, and offerings, especially bread, beer, and meat. Residences and administration rooms for the temple staff were located in the West Block. Outside the temple to the east was a production area where bread and beer were made. Tools for butchering meat (mainly cattle) and processing fish were also found there, as were tools for cloth production.
Janet Richards’s theoretical work on the conceptual landscape at Abydos offers a better understanding of the ancient Egyptians’ perceptions of this sacred space. At Abydos there were layers of meaning in the physical symbolism of the place and its political, mythological, and historical associations - beginning with the burials of the earliest kings and the much later cult of Osiris, the mythological dead and resurrected king whose cult was important to the afterlife of all Egyptians (not just the royal dead). With a broadening of monument building and rituals/festivals there in the Middle Kingdom, the sacred landscape of Abydos came to be shared by a national and not just local population.
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