Archaeology Magazine - July/August 2001 - 59

the cliffs of Abydos so visible to
travelers approaching from the
Nile may have been intentionally chosen by the architects of
the complex as a substitute for
the pyramid form that had
marked tombs of pharaohs for
nearly a millennium.
Kingdom. The chapels unusual architectural form indicates
that it functioned as an offering chapel like those of the Middle Kingdom pilgrims that enabled their owners to participate in the rituals associated with the Osiris cult for all
eternity. But in this case, the chapel s owner was a king.
A thick, mud-brick wall surrounds the northern chapel,
which is constructed of fine white limestone. The chapels
stone walls still stand to a height of
between three and five feet. Some of the
texts and scenes that once covered the
walls are preserved in situ, but in most
cases the decorated upper parts have been
pulled down and removed, probably
burned for the manufacture of gypsum
plaster, which was a favorite building
material during the Roman period. The
destruction of the chapel seems, however,
to have proceeded with an unusually high
degree of care. The decorated surfaces of
each of the limestone blocks seem to have
been shaved off in place prior to the
removal of the block. This process has preserved the decorative program of the small
chapel to a great extent and will allow for
its reconstruction. Thousands of fragments
bearing very finely carved and painted
relief were recovered in the course of our
excavation of the structure. These fragments suggest that the decorative program
centered around the relationship and identification of the king with Osiris.
lhe chapels plan distinguishes it trom any other
known Egyptian temple structure. Rather than following a
traditional direct, straight-line approach to the sanctuaries
š at the rear of the structure, one must enter the chapel of
i Thutmose III and go all the way to the rear of the struci
¿L ture in order to enter the sanctuaries. The reasons for this
unusual feature are unclear, but it is possible that the
architecture of the chapel represents a dual orientation,
1 simultaneously directed both toward the temple of Osiris
I and toward the gods tomb.
1
The fact that this chapel, unlike most ancient Egypt-

discoveries around the tomb, the major
focus of our current work is the remains of the
Despitemortuary temple and nearby town that housed the
community involved in maintaining the mortuary cult.
Both temple and town were destroyed in antiquity, but the
desert environs and lack of significant later disturbance
have preserved mud-brick architecture as well as organic
remains and objects as delicate as unfired clay seal
impressions in a condition rarely found for a period as
remote as the Middle Kingdom. The recovery of thousands of impressions made with scarab and stamp seals
bearing the names of people and institutions is especially
significant as this evidence allows us to reconstruct instiian cult structures, was never previously excavated has
enabled us to recover a great deal of information from
careful analysis of the accumulated deposits of material associated with it. For example, the remains of two
trees planted in the chapels forecourt enclose artifacts
of the Ptolemaic period in their root systems, indicating that the chapel continued to function as a cult
structure for more than a millennium
after its establishment, a remarkable
continuity of use.
North of the chapel, private individuals from a variety of socio-economic
levels constructed mud-brick offering
chapels much like those of the preceding Middle Kingdom. Their desire to
participate at a direct level in the
Osiris festival, as well as to partake of
the daily cult offerings to Osiris, is
expressed in the inscriptions on the
limestone stelae, which they incorporated into these structures. In a sense
the offering chapels themselves allow
for the fulfillment of this desire by
establishing the enduring physical
presence of the pilgrims at the site
overlooking the processional route.
Our work in the area adjacent to the
temple of Osiris at Abydos is giving us
unprecedented insight into the complex relationship between the religious
activity of the Egyptian state, on the
one hand, and the ritual practice of the Egyptian populace, on the other. The discovery of New Kingdom royal
chapels at the site has changed our perceptions about the
nature of royal patronage and the Egyptian state s role in
the development and maintenance of sacred space associated with the celebration of the Osiris festival.
Mary-Ann Pouls Wegner, an assistant professor of
Egyptian archaeology in the Department of Near and
Middle Eastern Civilizations at the University of Toronto,
is field director of the North Abydos Cultic Zone Project.

Archaeology Magazine - July/August 2001

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