Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Author(s): H. E. W.
Source: The Metropolitan Museum of Art Bulletin, Vol. 4, No. 11 (Nov., 1909), pp. 199-203
Published by: The Metropolitan Museum of Art
Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/3253047
Accessed: 08-10-2017 18:07 UTC
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BULLETIN OF THE METROPOLITAN MUSEUM OF ART
dations in Greek and Roman times, no On the exterior of the temple the reliefs
further additions were made to it. It is
were confined chiefly to the western end
where
built entirely of fine-grained sandstone, is the King was shown making offer-
ings and performing ceremonies before the
rectangular in plan, 44-5 meters (146 feet)
gods (fig. 6).
in length from east to west, and 19 meters
The entire temple is in an unusually
(62 feet) in width from north to south, and
good state of preservation. Because of
its walls rose about 8.5 meters (28 feet)
above the ancient pavement level. the dryness of the climate in the oasis the
colors on the walls inside the structure
The main entrance in the eastern facade
have
led into a large hypostyle hall, the roof of been preserved intact in many places
which was supported on twelve columns and the whole site has suffered but slightly
with palm and campaniform capitals. Thiseither from the iconoclasm of early Chris-
tians or the vandalism of Arabs. With the
hall never having been finished, the walls
exception of the roofs of the three col-
remained undecorated except at its western
end where a row of four columns, rising umned-halls and of a few of the smaller
out of a screen wall about 4 meters high,
chambers, the main structure is standing
separated the hypostyle hall from thealmost
of- complete, buried inside to a depth
fering hall (fig. 3). These columns, of from two to five meters with wind-
and
blown sand. The first purpose of the ex-
the single row of columns in the offering
hall, had campaniform capitals with an
pedition during the coming season will be
unusual ornamentation of palmettes and to remove these drifts and clear the temple
buds, the screen wall and the offering to pavement level. Then the copying and
hall
photographing of the inscriptions and
being decorated with religious inscriptions
reliefs will be undertaken and plans and
and colored reliefs showing the King mak-
ing offerings to the principal gods ofdrawings
the of the architectural details made.
Egyptian pantheon (fig. 4). Two of the The portico, the gateways and the ave-
texts are long hymns in praise of the nuegod are also buried to a depth of two or
Amon, one being of unusual interest three
be- meters in sand and earth, the more
cause of its half mythological and halfeasterly structures being at present situ-
philosophical character. ated in a grove of date palms. It is hoped
also that a beginning can be made of the
From the offering hall a doorway in the
clearing
axis of the temple led into the pronaos, a of this part of the site and that
small hypostyle hall with four columns.the foundations can be found of the brick
Through doorways on the north and southinclosure walls and of the outlying build-
sides one entered five small store chambers,
ings connected with the temple, traces of
a crypt and a stair which ascended to which
the can be seen here and there on the
floor above them. On the west side in the surface. H. E. W.
center was the door of the sanctuary, a
long narrow chamber in the axis of the
building. The bas-relief decorations of its THE OLD MARKET WOMAN
walls gave an epitome of late Egyptian
mythology, showing, as they did, practical-
ly all of the gods worshiped during the
period in all the different forms which they
THE Museum hasfromrecently
chased, with income the
Rogers Fund, an extraordinary
pur-
assumed (fig. 5). To the right of the specimen of original Greek
sanctuary was a chamber with walls in-sculpture, which is now on exhibition in
the Room of Recent Accessions, and is illus-
scribed with religious texts, and to the left
a doorway leading to a second crypt andtrated
a in the accompanying plate. This
stairway by which one reached the two is a marble statue, somewhat less than life
rooms dedicated to the Osiris mysteries.
size, of an old peasant woman who is offer-
The decorations here were inscriptions and
ing the products of her little farm for sale.
Those who are familiar with only the
scenes relating to the myths of Abydos and
Koptos. nobler creations of Greek sculpture will
201
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