The Ritual Landscapes

of the
Field of Hetep
.

Peter Robinson
1 May, 2005

It can be argued that the Ancient Egyptians saw their Afterlife as a continuation of their
living world. Entry to this post-mortem existence was enabled through the use of ritual and
ceremony, and throughout various periods of dynastic history we are given clues and
explanations of the passage through the liminal regions to the Afterlife, in the form of sacred
or funerary literature, such as the Pyramid texts, the Coffin Texts and the Book of the Dead.

The deceased hoped to be sustained throughout his or her eternal existence through the
use of further ritual in these texts, and by ritual provided by the deceaseds descendents,
priests employed by the estate of the deceased, or by the use of words and imagery
provided close to the mortal remains of the deceased, in tomb reliefs or other funerary art,
such as the so-called offering formula or the scenes of abundant harvests and daily life,
which occur in non-royal elite tombs from the Old Kingdom onwards.

With Ancient Egypt being a largely agricultural society, great emphasis was placed in the
various Afterlife texts on the production and provision of food and drink for the deceased.
Indeed, it was vital, as many funerary texts suggest, for the deceased to be furnished with
the correct forms of sustenance rather than its unsavoury waste forms and by-products.
Thus there are explicit references to collecting and consuming these correct food types
within the various funerary texts from the earliest days

0
 The Field of Hetep
. at el-Bersheh

Coffin Text:
Spell 464 To become Hetep...
.
Kom e l- Hisn

Memphis
Spell 465 To be Hetep...
.
El-Lisht Spell 466 Cartographical map of
Field of Hetep
.
Minya Spell 467 I live as Hetep...
.
Beni Hasan
Hermopolis
Meir
El-Bersheh Spell 468 ...I proceed with Hetep
.
Asyut

Thebes
Gebelein

Aswan

In this paper, I will be looking at one possible source of provi sions for the Afterlife the
Field of Hetep. Whilst the Field of Hetep is recorded from the Pyramid Texts onwards, it is
with the Coffin Texts, especially those from the Middle Kingdom necropolis of el-Bersheh,
the cemetery for the nomarchal capital of Hermopolis, that I will be concentrating upon. The
Field of Hetep is a common reference in the Coffin Texts from various parts of Egypt, but I
will be focussing upon the particular spells 464 to 468, which describe in detail the
landscape of the location and give, in a number of cases, a cartographic explanation of the
text.[i] I will not, however, be looking in detail at the Field of Hetep as it appears in the Book
of Two Ways texts, also from a number of the coffins in this study, since they are part of a
different interpretation of Hetep.

[i]

1
 Occurrence of Field of Hetep
. Coffins

Ruling Pharaoh Djehuty- Kay

11th Dynasty
nakht
M F
Mentuhotep II Ahanakht I Lesko Type A coffin
Djehuty- = Kem
nakht III Lesko Type B coffin
Mentuhotep III

Mentuhotep IV Lesko Type C coffin

Khnumiker Ahanakht II Djehuty- = Djehuty- Nehri I = Djehuty-
nakht IV nakht hotep Other family member
B1Bo ? B4Bo ?
?
Amenemhat I
Kay Djehuty- = Djehuty-
B6C nakht V nakht
B2Bo ? B4Bo ?
12th Dynasty

Djehuty- Sathedj- = Nehri II Other Bersheh coffin

hotep hotep owners
Sesostris I
B3C
1. Found in forecourt of Tomb 2
B4C
Iha B12C, B13C
Hathor- = Djehuty- Amenem- Kay = Satkheper- Nehri
hotep nakht hat ka Sen B3L B4L
B15C B9C Sepi B1C

Amenemhat II Gua B1L, B2L

Sepi B2P
Hathor- = Djehuty-
Sepi B1P
hotep hotep
(Tomb 2)
2.Unprovenanced coffins

Sesostris II Sen B1Be

Sesostris III Djehutyhotep VI B5C
Shemsuem- Senwosret - Nehri Nebunet Sathedj- Satkheper-
khauef ankh hotep ka

Lesko identified a number of coffins which included the Field of Hetep we will be looking at,
in his 1972 paper and elsewhere.[i] We can see that though a number of the texts can be
found within the coffins of the nomarchal family in the 12th dynasty, most of those now
known are associated with non-nomarchal, though nonetheless elite, persons, and that
these especially were found in the shafts cut into the forecourt of tomb 2, that of the famous
colossus tomb of Djehutyhotep, therefore they probably fall towards the end of the
Bersheh cartographical coffins.[ii] Furthermore, most of the known examples of the Field of
Hetep text lie within coffins that contain Leskos Type B version of the Book of Two Ways,
found solely amongst the non-nomarchal examples of the text, though the nomarchal
examples are the Type A form of the Book of Two Ways.

[i]
[ii]

2
 The Landscape of the Field of Hetep
.

Inner coffin, Gwa

BM 30840 (British Museum)
3

The textual fragment concerning the Field of Hetep consists of a number of key parts.
Spells 464 and 465 describe activities that the deceased performs in this location I row in
its lakes and arrive at its cities and again he [the deceased] comes and goes at will in
its waterways and towns. Spell 466 is a graphic portrayal of the landscape in what can best
be described as a map of the ritual space and 467 is a written explanation of the
cartography depicted in the previous spell. Finally 468, as Lesko suggests, is a variant of
467 in a couple of examples.[i]

By analysing the textual and cartographic devices employed within the descriptions of the
Field of Hetep it might be possible to gain an appreciation, if not an understanding, of what
the detail of this spell segment meant to the Ancient Egyptians and the role it played in their
conceptualisation of the Afterlife. To do this, we shall first look at the text as a description of
a landscape. The Egyptians tell us that the Field of Hetep was an environment somewhere
in trans-liminal, metaphysical space occupying part of the Afterlife. This environment
consists of a landscape of fields and waterways, towns and regions. The deceased actively
participates in the environment by traversing its byways, and by growing and harvesting
crops, visiting locations and consuming food and drink in effect living a daily life.

[i]

3
 An Analysis of Landscape

Landscapes can be broken down into:

Paths Channels or routes moved along
Edges Boundaries between two districts
Districts Two-dimensional regions with common
identifiable character
Nodes Points or foci entered along a route
Landmarks Points or foci not entered

4 (after K. Lynch, 1961 Image of the City)

Spell 466, as we have suggested, is a graphical depiction of this Afterlife landscape.

Consisting of a number of names of districts, waterways and cities, it seems to encapsulate
an irrigated agricultural landscape similar to that within the Nile Valley. Furthermore, one
can attempt to classify the landscape of the Field of Hetep in much the same way as
geographers can classify our ways of understanding the modern western city or our
perceptions of our present-day environment, through the use of cognitive structures and
concepts. One such methodology sees our attempts to describe the world as a
classification and subdivision of our personal space into 5 main groups: those of paths or
routeways, edges or boundaries, districts or regions, nodes or focal points and finally
landmarks recognised as features visible from elsewhere in the landscape but not directly
visited. Such a system, based on the work of 1960s urban planner, Kevin Lynch, can be
simplified into the three conceptual landscape entities of landmarks, districts and paths.[i]

It is not my aim today to discuss Lynchs system in relation to the Coffin Texts in detail, as I
have done that elsewhere[ii], but I want to use something of that approach from now on to
look in detail at the Field of Hetep map of Spell 466.

[i]
[ii]

4
 Locations with Measurements

V It is 1,000 schoeni long and

1,000 wide
V

X ...it is 1,000 schoeni long,

but its width is not told
X
XVI It is 1,000 long but its width
is not told
XX Its length and its breadth are
XVI
not told to Osiris

XX

So, if we start with depictions of measurements. There are a few places on the map that
include measured distances, either standard 1000 schoeni units, or unknown units. Such
lack of explicitly accurate distances and relationships between locations, however, as
Quirke pointed out in 2003, could mean that distance and relationship between locations
was not important in the ritual landscape of Hetep, or that the metaphysical world of Hetep
was seen as mysterious to all, even the deceased who was expected to use the map in the
Afterlife without the knowledge of distances travelled or contained within the landscape.[i]

[i]

5
 Locations mentioning Regions

IV ( To be Hetep,
. this
Lord of)
IV field...
X The Waterway of the White
Hippopotamus
X
XI ...the length of the
Waterway of Hetep
.
XIV

XI XIV ...the gods estate

XVI
XVI It (is 1,000 long...)
XXI
XX It is the sea of the gods
XXI The birthplace of the gods
XX
is Knknt
. .

Spell 466 and its following description mention a number of regions within the Field of
Hetep. These regions can be split into two classes of landscape fields or estates and
waterways or bodies of water. The fields add weight to the suggestion that Hetep is a food
production area for the deceased, and the waterways reflect the use of irrigation and of
water-borne transport in the Nile Valley. Thus, in Lynchian terms, we see these elements as
regions, as well as routeways within the landscape.

6
 Locations with Divinities

III Great Ladies

III
IX Mistress of the Two Lands
X The Waterway of the White
IX Hippopotamus
X

XII The Mighty Lady

XII
XV
XIII XIII She who unites
XV Mistress of the Winds
XVII Those who row with him are

XVII
Imsety, Hapy, Duamutef and
Kebhsenuf
XXVII
XXVII The women in it

A further class of landscape feature is that represented by locations that contain a reference
to a divinity or divine presence. Although some of these may well be speculative, of course
(She who unites) or oblique (The Waterway of the White Hippopotamus might be related to
the Great Lady, a personification of the goddess Taweret), there are clearly some locations
within the landscape that do have divine associations (Those who row with him are the 4
sons of Horus). It might be significant that many of these locations are feminine
personifications, since linguistically the Egyptian word niwt or town occurring throughout
this textual segment, has a feminine gender.

7
 Amuletic Locations

X Waterway of the White

Hippopotamus
XXV Serpent boat
XXVI Lapis lazuli
X

Brussels (BrE .2676)

XXV
XXVI

Dublin (1892:230)

New York

Three of the locations mentioned in the text of the Field of Hetep could arguably be
described as amuletic. I have already mentioned the Waterway of the White hippopotamus
with its divine association, but we must remember that during the Middle Kingdom there
was a great proliferation of hippopotamus models placed within tombs for ritual purposes.
Whilst the majority of these are made of blue faience, a number are known made of white
faience. Equally, the so-called toys and childrens models, such as have been discovered
at the Middle Kingdom town of Lahun, might well have been used in these contexts,
especially if painted white or made of lightish clay. Lapis lazuli, with its semi-precious status
was a stone used in jewellery and amulets, and might have represented the source of a
ritual location within the afterlife. Finally, the prevalence of barques and funerary boats,
along with many allusions to divine ferrymen within the Coffin Texts as a means of crossing
the winding waterway into the Afterlife were reflected in many models of boats of various
kinds within the tombs of the Middle Kingdom.

8
 Locations with Offerings

II Offerings
II
VI Offering bowls
VII Red cloth
VI VII VIII
VIII Vegetables
XIV Ploughing & reaping barley
XIV & emmer
XVIII Foodstuffs
XXII Milk
XXIII XXII
XVIII

XXIV
XXIII The great field
XXVI

XXIV Baskets
XXVI Lapis lazuli

By far the greater number of locations within the landscape of Hetep are those that might be
expected to represent offerings in some form or other. Thus we have the explicit offerings
and offering bowls. We also have the clearly differentiated foodstuffs, milk and
vegetables. Again there are implied offerings with Baskets. Agricultural activity to
generate foodstuffs for all eternity is implied through the reference to fields and the
ploughing and reaping of barley and emmer. Red cloth might allude to the red shrouds that
begin to appear around images of Osiris at this time, as has been suggested by John Taylor
with regard to New Kingdom coffins.[i] Red cloth may have represented the bindings of the
deceased themselves, or be a forerunner of the Book of the Dead spell 164 which sought to
use a strip of red linen bandage to protect the deceased from the Devourer of Souls.[ii]
Lapis Lazuli might be noted for its amuletic properties as previously noted, or it might be
included to represent the hair of the gods. In all cases, these discrete towns appear dotted
throughout the landscape of Hetep.

[i]
[ii]

9
 Landscapes of Hetep?
.

I traverse the Field of Hetep

.
as Re who is in the sky
(Spell 467)

...he partakes of a meal in the

birth-place of the gods

(Spell 464)

10

So how should we interpret Hetep within the context of the el-Bersheh coffins and the spell
sequence we have just discussed? There are a number of references in spells 464 to 468
to suggest the location of Hetep was perceived as a sky-location and birthplace of the gods
I traverse the Field of Hetep as Re who is in the sky and I am the moon, I have
swallowed the darkness, but like the references to distances, this helps to isolate the world
of Hetep from the world of the living. But the texts imply also that the Field of Hetep plays a
role as a landscape which provides for the deceased: he partakes of a meal in the birth-
place of the gods. Indeed, there are explicit mentions of the deceased acquiring his or her
eternal sustenance in this region I live as Hetep, my bag and bowlI have filled in the
isles, and later on: I know the names of the towns, districts and waterways I eat in them
and move about in them.

10
 B4L Outer Coffin of Sen

BM 30841 (British Museum)

11

The text and image of the Field of Hetep lies within a significant part of the coffin. Of the
coffins that contain this spell sequence, all but one are inner or single coffins, therefore in
direct contact with the deceased. The only outer coffin, that of Sen, B4L, contains just a
text-less map and no accompanying texts 464, 465 or 467.[i] Furthermore, Sen is also
provided with an inner coffin, B3L, which contains the full text and annotated image,
enabling him, like the others who have a copy of these spells in their coffins, to be able to
read the appropriate spells when necessary.

[i]

11
 Hetep,
. Cardinality and the Afterlife

Ritual
World of the Dead Cardinality
Dwat
Sunset W N
OK Offering scenes E
S
H

Bk

F Fr World of the Living

Akhet
Sunrise
OK agriculture scenes

12

The placement of texts, as Lesko has suggested, is crucial to our understanding of the
rituals incorporated within the Coffin Texts.[i] A number of coffins from el-Bersheh are
floored with the Book of Two Ways and roofed with a representation of the sky goddess Nut
for orientation.[ii] In front of the hands of the deceased can be found the text and image of
the Field of Hetep we have been discussing, which suggests that the intention of th e
deceased was to have the image and text close to hand.

The placement of the Field of Hetep close to images of offering tables piled high with food
and liquids also suggests this text segment functioned to provide the deceased with an
eternal supply of life-giving provisions. The orientation of the coffin and its images adds
further weight to this supposition. The image of Hetep on the living, Eastern, side of the
coffin accords well with general tomb orientations and their texts from the Pyramid Age to
the New Kingdom. Hetep is part of Akhet the birthplace of the gods and explicitly
mentioned as a component of that place in Spell 465.[iii] The focus of the deceased is in
this direction, towards the rising sun, the living and the place of daily life scenes in tombs as
Vischak has recently noted.[iv]

[i]
[ii]
[iii]
[iv]

12
 Offering Tables as the Landscape of Hetep
.

EA 980 (British Museum)

Provenance:Asyut
Date: XIIth Dyn .

13

We can take the idea of offerings further, for we have noted that a number of the landmarks
in Hetep may be offerings themselves. This is highly suggestive of the idea that Hetep itself
may have been thought of as an offering table or tray. In this case, the layout of the image
becomes clear the towns are representations of, or markers for the placing of, offerings,
waterways are runnels along which the offering liquids carry the essence of the offerings,
and the collecting basins of the offering table are represented by the lakes and fields at the
lowest part of the image of Hetep.

13
 Offering Tray with Staircase

Placements of
Staircase to
offerings
tray surface

Indications
of burning

Animal head Runnels for

offering? energised fluids
W476 (Egypt Centre, Swansea)
Provenance: Unknown
Date: Middle Kingdom

14

In another example, this time in the Egypt Centre in Swansea, South Wales, there is a
ceramic offering tray with food offerings in relief, surrounded by a wall, from which
descends a flight of stairs, highly suggestive that the deceased was meant to use these to
approach the offerings.

Clearly offering tables and the Field of Hetep share a common theme, and in some
respects, have layouts with common features. We might conclude therefore, that in the
funerary workshops of the necropolis of el-Bersheh, the deceased was envisaged as being
able to shrink down to occupy and wander around the landscape of the offering table in
order to partake of the necessary sustenance that he or she required for an continuing
eternal existence.

14
 The Inhabited Field of Hetep Landscape
.

Chapter 110 of the Book of Coming Forth by Day

Tomb of Sennedjem, Deir el-Medina (TT1)
15

With the arrival of the New Kingdom and its Book of the Dead afterlife texts, the Coffin Text
spells 464 to 468 were transformed virtually intact into Chapter 110 and its associated
vignette.[i] Here, however, the implied function of the landscape of Hetep and the
deceaseds ability to wander upon its surface were made explicit with the portrayal of the
deceased, often with his or her spouse, actively engaged in activities of food gathering and
consumption, as well as the deceaseds ability to travel around within the metaphysical
landscape. Here we see the highly ritualised and provincial conceptualisation of an Afterlife,
finally combined with the role of the offering table, and made available for a wider spectrum
of the elite of Egypt, some 500 years or more after it was first depicted on a group of elite
coffins from Middle Egypt.

[i]

15