Medinet Habu


Medinet Habu is an archaeological locality situated near the foot of the Theban Hills on the West Bank of the River Nile opposite the modern city of Luxor, Egypt. Although other structures are located within the area and important discoveries have also been made at these sites, the location is today associated almost synonymously with the largest and best preserved site, the Mortuary Temple of Ramesses III. It was an important New Kingdom period temple structure in the West Bank of Luxor in Egypt. Aside from its size and architectural and artistic importance, the mortuary temple is probably best known as the source of inscribed reliefs depicting the advent and defeat of the "sea peoples" during the reign of Ramesses III, including the Battle of the Delta. Some of the building
materials were re-used from earlier monuments including the destroyed mortuary temple of Tausret the last known ruler and the final pharaoh of the Nineteenth Dynasty of Egypt. The Greco-Roman period temple to Isis, Deir el-Shelwit, lies
4 kilometers to the south and re-used inscribed blocks from Medinet Habu were found there.
The site of these temples included an inhabited human settlement since pharaonic times, which continued until the 9th century, by which time it was a Coptic center called Jeme. The last remnants of the former town were cleared during the excavations at the end of the 19th century.
Located adjacent to Medinet Habu, north of the outer wall, lies the poorly preserved memorial Temple of Ay and Horemheb. The temple was originally built by Ay and later usurped by Horemheb who removed all inscriptions and images of Ay. A large Quartzite statue of a Pharaoh that was usurped to represent Horemheb was excavated from the ruins of the Ay and Horemheb temple in the 1930s, and is now on display in the Institute for the Study of Ancient Cultures. Traces of previous cartouches on the statue confirm that the statue was originally of Tutankhamun, which was overwritten by cartouches of Ay and later Horemheb when the later pharaohs repurposed the statue for the temple.
Just to the northwest of Medinet Habu the Oriental Institute of Chicago, now called ISAC, excavated a large late Roman period cemetery. Most of the graves had been plundered but a number of artifacts, including 66 mummy tags inscribed in Greek were recovered.

Etymology

The origins of the name Medinet Habu are unknown. The earliest attestations are the ones of European cartographers of the 17th–18th centuries who mention it as "Habu", "Medineh el Habou" and "Medinet Habu", with variants "Medinet Abu" and "Medinet Tabu".
The proposed etymologies include derivation from Coptic name for Luxor or from a name of high official of the 18th dynasty who was later deified known as Amenhotep, son of Hapu,, but neither of them is considered plausible, as they do not explain the final long -u. The folk etymology attributes the name to a mythical king named Habu.
The old Arabic name of the place, Gabal Shama, comes from Djami, which in turn is derived from Ancient Egyptian ḏꜣmwt, of unclear etymology. The Bohairic Coptic form Tchami comes from Demotic Tḏmꜣʾ, which is preceded by a feminine article, as also seen in Sahidic. Whether Thebes should be a phonetic rendering of the Egyptian name is disputed.
In Greek the area was known as Memnonia or Kastron Memnonionos and was associated with Memnon. This name survives in Colossi of Memnon.

Archaeology

The first European to describe the temple in modern literature was Vivant Denon, who visited it in 1799–1801. Jean-François Champollion spent a fortnight and a half at the site, as, in 1829
as part of the Franco-Tuscan Expedition. John Gardner Wilkinson during 12 years in Egypt recording inscriptions and paintings spent a long period at Thebes. A Prussian expedition led by Karl Richard Lepsius worked in Thebes, mainly at Medinet Habu, from November 1844 until April 1845.
Work, under the direction of Georges Daressy, Marius Bonnefoy, and Charles Gabet, on the temple took place sporadically between 1859 and 1899, under the auspices of the Egyptian Department of Antiquities to prepare it for tourism. During these decades the main temple was cleared, and a large number of the Greco-Roman period buildings, including a substantial Byzantine Church in the second court, were destroyed without notes or records being taken.
Theodore M. Davis excavated at Medinet Habu in 1913 focusing primarily on the "Palace" of Rameses III along the southern side of the mortuary temple.
The further excavation, recording and conservation of the temple has been facilitated in chief part by the Architectural and Epigraphic Surveys of the University of Chicago Oriental Institute, almost continuously since 1924. The Architectural Survey, led by Uvo Hölscher, worked for five seasons until 1932. At the
start the complex was "covered for the most part with mounds of rubbish ranging in height from 3 to 6 meters, the remains of houses from the former Coptic town of Habu". At the start of work they reported that the "Egyptian Antiquities Service was excavating Medinet Habu in spring 1925, clearing an area in the south of the precinct, west of the Palace" activity which is otherwise not recorded. The University of Chicago Oriental Institute Epigraphic Survey under the direction of Harold Hayden Nelson also began in 1924 and the program continues to the present day, excepting a closure between 1940 and 1946 due to World War II. In 1948 Richard Anthony Parker became director of the Epigraphic Survey, followed by George Hughes, Charles Nims, Edward F. Wente, Kent Weeks, Lanny Bell, Peter Dorman, and W. Raymond Johnson in succeeding years. The survey has worked on the long process of photographing, recording, and publishing all reliefs and inscriptions at Medinet Habu.

Mortuary Temple of Ramesses III

The temple, some long, is of orthodox design, and closely resembles the nearby mortuary temple of Ramesses II. The full formal name of the temple was "The Temple of Usermare-Meriamon 'United-with-Eternity' in the estate of Amon on the West of Thebes". Many of the inscriptions and scenes are in similar locations and in some cases largely copied. The temple precinct measures approximately. by and contains more than of decorated wall reliefs. The temple contains 48 rooms of which 8 constitute the
Mortuary Suite of Rameses III. The reliefs in the Mortuary Suite were devoted to the funerary process
of Rameses III as Osiride king. The remaining rooms contain reliefs showing the various acts of
the living pharaoh. Its walls are relatively well preserved and it is surrounded by a massive mudbrick inner enclosure wall. A radiocarbon sample from the wall
yielded a date of 1050-1020 ± 50BC.
The area between the temple and inner wall originally held numerous temple outbuildings now mostly lost.
The entire south wall is inscribed with a liturgical calendar containing 1470
lines of hieroglyphs. The Ramesseum of Ramesses II was used as a source for
much of the text though that exemplar is now much damaged. The text is mainly
lists of offerings to be prepared for daily, monthly, and annual feasts. Those
dates are in the civil calendar.
An excerpt from Ramesses Ill's Address to Amon-Re:
The first pylon leads into an open courtyard, lined with colossal statues of Ramesses III as Osiris on one side, and uncarved columns on the other. The second pylon leads into a peristyle hall, again featuring columns in the shape of Ramesses. The third pylon is reached by continuing up a ramp that leads through a columned portico and then opens into a large hypostyle hall. Reliefs and actual heads of foreign captives were also found placed within the temple, perhaps in an attempt to symbolise the king's control over Syria and Nubia.
In the Greco-Roman and Byzantine period, there was a church inside the temple structure, which has since been removed. Some of the carvings in the main wall of the temple have been altered by Christian carvings.
Ten tombs from the 6th to 8th century BC were found in the inner sanctum of the mortuary temple. Three
could be identified including Nesterwy, daughter of 23rd dynasty pharaoh Rudamun,
described as a "Songstress in the House of Amen".

Battle inscriptions

There are four long inscriptions describing the battles and deeds of Rameses III at the temple. The inscriptions cover:
  • Year 5 - First Libyan War. On the temple exterior, second court, south wall, lower register. While dated "Year 5" it also mentions events of the Northern War of year 8.
  • Year 8 - Temple interior, first court, west wall, north of great doorway. Northern War. Well preserved and of great interest to historians as well as the source of endless speculation and wishful thinking by others. The inscription details the invasion from the north, the battle preparations of Rameses III, and his complete defeat of the invaders. The section of most interest:
  • Year 11 - Second Libyan, or Meshwesh, War. The inscription begins south of the main gateway of the temple and continues on the north of the gateway. The Meshwesh were a western Libyan tribe and were apparently prompted by the Rebu-Libyans to occupy the Egyptian Delta, conquering the Tehenu people who lived in the desert there. Rameses III reports crushing them and taking many captives including "chief's son, their women, children, weapons, and domestic cattle". The captives were made slaves.
  • Year 12 - Deeds of Rameses III up to that point. On the temple exterior, face of first pylon, south of great gateway. Badly weathered to the point of making it difficult to properly interpret. Talks about the security of Egypt gained by his defeat of all foreign invaders and his work on the Temple of Amon.

    Military reliefs

The western and northern walls of the mortuary temple contain a number of reliefs detailing the military activities of Rameses III including his conflicts with the Nubians and Libyans.
The combat scenes are accompanied by those showing preparations, for battle and distribution
of weapons, divine intervention, returning victorious from battle, lion hunt, and the presenting of booty to the gods. These mostly follow the standard pharonic formula.
On the north wall are a series of 13 scenes which are viewed as a single military campaign beginning with the Libyans and ending with the "sea peoples". In one relief Rameses III and his troops rain arrows down on opponents in ships. In another he leads his troops in the destruction of feather helmeted opponents who are accompanied by
women and children in oxcarts. Over a century ago Gaston Maspero proposed that these two panels represented the invasion of Egypt by purported "sea peoples" from Anatolia, a narrative which has now entered common public usage.