The monumental evidence for the period in question is markedly different from that of earlier periods. From the reign of Ramesses III onwards very little in Thebes was built on the same scale as the monuments of earlier Pharaohs, Sety I and Ramesses II
Figure 7.1 Reconstruction by Edouard Naville of the outer face of the Sed-festival gateway of Osorkon II, showing the south side-wall. Courtesy the Egypt Exploration Society.
In particular. With regard to monumental architecture, it appears that little of significance was built during the Twenty-first Dynasty. The most spectacular achievement of the Libyan Period at Thebes is the colonnaded festival court built by Shoshenq I in front of the second pylon of the Amun temple at Karnak. An entrance at the southeastern corner of the court, known as the ‘‘Bubastite’’ Gate, leads to the southern exterior wall of the hypostyle hall, which is decorated with spectacular reliefs of Shoshenq’s campaign into Syria-Palestine. The gate itself was inscribed over a century later by ‘‘Prince’’ Osorkon who chose these surfaces to record his ‘‘chronicle’’ of the struggle for power in Thebes.
It seems greater energies were devoted to construction in the Delta, particularly in the centers of royal authority. The vagaries of archaeologists’ priorities and the unfortunate truth that archaeological remains are generally better preserved in the Nile Valley than in the Delta, where the water table is generally higher, have negatively affected our appreciation of the achievements of the Libyan Period. The great temples of Bubastis and Tanis provide an indication of what once stood, although today they are mere ruin fields by comparison with Karnak which has received much more attention from archaeologists and much more of which has, as a result, been reconstructed. At Bubastis Osorkon I began construction of a new temple of Bastet, the full extent of which has yet to be revealed. Osorkon II added to it a hypostyle hall
Figure 7.2 Plan of the Amun enclosure at Karnak showing the major monuments of the Libyan and Kushite Periods. After B. Porter R. L. B. and Moss, Topographical Bibliography of Ancient Egyptian Hieroglyphic Texts, Reliefs, and Paintings II. Theban Temples, 2nd revd. Edn., Oxford, 1972, plan VI.
And Sed-festival gateway, which remains one of our most important sources for this rite of kingship. At Tanis the great northern temple of Amun was built by Psusennes I and enlarged by Siamun. Much of the stone used in the construction of the temple was re-used, having first been deployed in the construction of a temple of Ramesses II at Pi-Ramesse.
Under the Kushites, as noted above, Thebes was the focus of much construction and renovation. At Karnak, a ‘‘gold house’’ was constructed north of the Akh-menu, a columned entranceway added to the Amun temple just north of the third and fourth pylons, and a gateway was added to the small Ptah temple at the north of the Amun enclosure. At the temple of Luxor a columned entrance surrounding the
Figure 7.3 Reliefs of Shabaqa inscribed on the thickness of the First Pylon at the Temple of Luxor. Courtesy Christopher Naunton.
Obelisks and colossal statues of Ramesses II was constructed and the thickness of the first pylon inscribed with new reliefs whilst at Medinet Habu the small Amun temple was embellished with a courtyard formed of a double row of columns connected by screen walls, and a new entrance pylon was dedicated to Kashta (Arnold 1999: 47). Shabaqa’s successor Shebitqu, a son of Piyi, appears to have left little trace of his reign in Thebes, but his brother, Taharqa, who succeeded him in 690 bc, was responsible for the greatest programme of building in Thebes since the New Kingdom. A dramatic new entrance kiosk consisting of ten enormous columns was added to the first court of the Amun temple at Karnak, and similar structures were erected at the front of temples dedicated to Mut, Re-Harakhty and Amon-Re-Montu elsewhere at Karnak (Arnold 1999: 53-8). An entirely new temple was erected on the site of the Ramesside temple of Khonspakhered in the Mut enclosure and an ‘‘edifice’’ was also erected to the north-west of the sacred lake in the Amun enclosure, its role being connected with creation and the renewal of kingship (Cooney 2000: 46).
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