1 Rock Inscriptions and Rock Art in the Area of Aswan: The Rock

Rock Inscriptions and Rock Art in the Area of Aswan:
The Rock Inscriptions and Rock Images on Sehel Island
Report on the Season 2014 / 2015
by
Linda Borrmann (German Archaeological Institute Cairo)
1)
2)
3)
4)
5)
6)
Introduction
Setting
Site
State of Research
Checking and Revising
Epigraphic Survey
1. Southern Bay between Hussein Tagug and Bibi Tagug
2. Bibi Tagug South
3. Bibi Tagug East
7) Perspectives
1) Introduction
From November 20, 2014, until December 01, 2014 and March 01, 2015 until March 31, 2015, a
team of the project “Rock Inscriptions and Rock Art in the Area of Aswan” of the German
Archaeological Institute Cairo (DAI) spent a total of six weeks working on the pharaonic rock
inscriptions and rock images on Sehel Island. 1
2) Setting
Situated between the modern city of Aswan and the Old Dam (“Low Dam”), Sehel Island is located
in the Nile River, c. 2 km to the south of Elephantine. Particularly in its south-eastern part large
granite formations are towering high above the ground and create a spectacular natural landscape.
Cut into the surfaces of these rocks, many hundreds of rock inscriptions and images dating from
the Prehistoric Period to the Graeco-Roman Era, but largely from the New Kingdom, have been
found in this area.
1
Members of the team were: Prof. Dr. Stephan Seidlmayer (head of the mission), Linda Borrmann M.A. (field
director), Anita Kriener M.A. and Elisabeth Wegner. The MSA was represented by Mrs. Asmaa Sadiq Khalil and Mr.
Adel Tohami.
1
Fig. 1: Towering granite formations of Bibi Tagug, a large rocky hill in the south-eastern part of Sehel
Island, view from the west (Photo: L. Borrmann).
3) Site
Most of the ancient inscriptions and images are concentrated in the central valley between the
rocky hills of Hussein Tagug and Bibi Tagug, especially in the western hillside of the latter. 2 That
steep hillside is located directly opposite of a rock niche which is believed to have served as a
shrine dedicated to the local goddess Anukis. 3 Accordingly, among the texts displayed on the rocks’
surfaces prayers to Anukis and/or the triad of Elephantine (Khnum, Satis and Anukis) are rather
common, and various beautifully carved tableaus show the goddess receiving offerings or being
worshipped by the inscriptions’ owners. Besides high-ranking military and government officials
these owners also include officials of the district administration, craftsmen, priests as well as staff
of the temples of Elephantine. In comparison, just a few of the texts report on historical events or
2
See Gasse, A./Rondot, V., Les inscriptions de Séhel, MIFAO 126, Cairo 2007, Carte 2.
Cf. Bouriant, U., Notes de voyage, RecTrav 15 (1893), p. 187-189, and Habachi, L., Notes on the Altar of Sekhemresewadjtowe Sebkhotpe from Sehel, JEA 37 (1951), p. 17-19. Only very little architectural remains of the sanctuary
could be found. Two relief slabs of king Sobekhotep III, allegedly seen on Sehel Island and probably belonging to an
altar, have been published in: Macadam, M. F. L., Gleanings from the Bankes Mss., JEA 32, (1946), 57-64. Furthermore,
HABACHI reports on a few blocks naming Ptolemy IV, which partly had been reused in modern houses of the village
Sehel and partly stored in the Aswan Inspectorate. It is assumed that they originally formed part of a second shrine
which was located near the hill Mussein Tagug and described by de MORGAN in: De Morgan, J./Bouriant, U./Legrain,
G./Jéquier, G./Barsanti, A., Catalogue des Monuments et Inscriptions de l'Égypte Antique, Première Série: Haute
Égypte, Tome Premier: De la Frontière de Nubie à Kom Ombos, Vienna 1894, p. 82-83.
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2
give lengthy accounts of them. A rare, yet famous example on Sehel Island is the so-called Famine
Stela, a Ptolemaic rock stela speaking about a (probably fictitious) seven-year period of famine and
drought that occurred during the reign of king Djoser in the 3rd Dynasty. 4
Fig. 2: A rock niche situated in the hillside of Hussein Tagug is believed to have served as shrine dedicated
to the local goddess Anukis (Photo: L. Borrmann).
4) State of Research
Despite the fact that the texts of the island’s rock inscriptions have already been documented by
Jacques de MORGAN et al. at the turn of the 19th to the 20th century 5 and have later been
thoroughly studied and published by Annie GASSE and Vincent RONDOT of the Institut Français
4
For further information on the Famine Stela see: Barguet, P., La Stèle de la Famine à Séhel, BdE 24, Cairo 1953;
Haiying, Y., The Famine Stela. A Source-Critical Approach and Historical-Comparative Perspective, in: Eyre, Ch. (ed.),
Proceedings of the Seventh International Congress of Egyptologists, Cambridge (3th – 9th September 1995), OLA 82,
Leuven 1998, p. 515-521; Grenier, J.-C., Autour de la stèle de la Famine, de sa datation réelle et de sa date fictive, in:
Gasse, A./Rondot, V. (eds.), Séhel entre Égypte et Nubie. Inscriptions rupestres et graffiti de l'époque pharaonique,
Actes du colloque international (31 mai – 1er juin 2002), OrMons 14, Montpellier 2004, p. 81-88.
5
De Morgan, J./Bouriant, U./Legrain, G./Jéquier, G./Barsanti, A., Catalogue des Monuments et Inscriptions de l'Égypte
Antique, Première Série: Haute Égypte, Tome Premier: De la Frontière de Nubie à Kom Ombos, Vienna 1894, p. 75-103.
See also: Mariette-Bey, A., Monuments divers recueillis en Égypte et en Nubie, Paris 1872, p. 23-25, pl. 70-73; Habachi,
L., Two Graffiti at Sehel from the Reign of Queen Hatshepsut, JNES 16 (1957), p. 88-104; Edel, E., Felsinschriften aus
dem Alten Reich auf der Insel Sehêl, MDAIK 37 (1981), p. 125-134.
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d'Archéologie Orientale (IFAO), 6 while working with their copies, it became evident that in some
cases they needed to be checked and revised. In addition, several further questions arose
concerning the spatial arrangement of the rock inscriptions and their setting within the sacral
landscape of the island, the former cult place of the goddess Anukis. In this regard, crucial issues
like, why and how the epigraphic usage of Sehel’s rocks began and in which ways it changed over
the course of time, remained undealt with. Therefore, the place was visited once again to collate
some of the inscriptions in question.
5) Checking and Revising
During two weeks of the past field season, it was possible to revise the copies of several dozen of
Sehel’s major rock inscriptions and fill in some profound gaps. In doing so, we could mainly add
new names and titles to the existing corpus and, thus, contribute to the completion of a general
prosopography of the personnel employed in the Aswan area during the Middle and New
Kingdom. These data will also help to gain a better understanding of the community of people who
participated in the cult and feast(s) of Anukis and eternalized themselves in close proximity to her
sanctuary at Hussein Tagug.
However, while checking and revising already known and copied texts, it turned out that, in
some instances, new inscriptions or images could be discovered that previous scholars working on
Sehel had missed. Based on this observation, the project’s team started to carefully survey the
prominent hills of Hussein Tagug and Bibi Tagug as well as to record and epigraphically document
the recent finds.
6) Epigraphic Survey
Conducted in spring 2015, the epigraphic survey mainly focused on three areas: the southern bay
area between Hussein Tagug and Bibi Tagug West, Bibi Tagug South, and Bibi Tagug East. In these
three areas we found a total of 24 so far unknown hieroglyphic rock inscriptions (mostly dating to
the Old and Middle Kingdom) as well as 65 dynastic rock images or image clusters depicting in
most cases between one and four standing male figures with different attributes. But whereas the
valley between Hussein Tagug and Bibi Tagug is already known to be the most significant find spot
of the majority of the local rock inscriptions, two completely new large clusters of rock images
6
Gasse, A./Rondot, V., Les inscriptions de Séhel, MIFAO 126, Cairo 2007; Gasse, A./Rondot, V. (eds.), Sehel entre
Egypte et Nubie. Inscriptions rupestres et graffiti de l'époque pharaonique, Actes du colloque international (31 mai –
1er juin 2002), OrMons 14, Montpellier 2004.
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were discovered and, thus, added to the record of epigraphic heritage on Sehel Island. The three
different clusters all have specific features and can be distinguished as follows.
Fig. 3: Area of the southern bay between Hussein Tagug and Bibi Tagug West, view from the east (Photo:
E. Wegner).
1. Southern Bay between Hussein Tagug and Bibi Tagug
Within the southern bay area, between the two main hills Hussein Tagug and Bibi Tagug 7, it was
possible to detect a total of 39 so far unknown rock inscriptions and images 8 that were
photographed, drawn and described. The rock images mainly consist of standing male figures
which can be considered as self-representations of a semi-literate or illiterate personnel who was
employed on the island of Sehel from the Old Kingdom onwards. Moreover, 15 newly found
hieroglyphic inscriptions, dating from the Old and Middle Kingdom, shed light on the early stages
of epigraphic usage of Sehel’s landscape and seem to be connected rather to the island’s function
as an important check point within the First Cataract than to the later established cult of Anukis.
7
Quadrants M-N27, M-O28, K-Q29 and K-N30 shown on the maps in Gasse, A./Rondot, V., Les inscriptions de Séhel,
MIFAO 126, Cairo 2007, Carte 4 and 5/5bis.
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Including 18 images, 15 hieroglyphic inscriptions and six single hieroglyphic signs or small groups of signs.
5
Fig. 4: Granite boulder in the southern bay area between Hussein Tagug and Bibi Tagug West. Besides an
hieroglyphic inscription of the Middle Kingdom (SEH 193; centre) and two standing male figures (SEH 357;
to the right), which were already published in Gasse/Rondot, three further rock inscriptions could be
found: three lines above and two separate lines to the left of SEH 193 (Photo: L. Borrmann).
2. Bibi Tagug South
On the rocks of the southern hillside of Bibi Tagug 9, where the French mission had documented
only four rock images, our team found a large cluster of additional 3 inscriptions and 32 images,
mainly standing male figures holding sticks and staffs. These figures, overlooking the southern part
of the cataract, were most probably carved by semi-literate or illiterate persons who were
employed on the island of Sehel in order to control and monitor the border area - especially the
water ways - south of Aswan. Besides 31 images showing only a single or very few figures, also a
rock shelter could be discovered whose rear wall is completely covered with carvings of at least 30
human figures, partially overlapping and erasing each other. It can be assumed that the personnel
of the check point of southern Sehel used the shelter wall to cut representations of themselves
into the stone. Moreover, some of the depictions (e.g. a man kneeling and offering in front of a
seated male figure holding two sticks, or a standing god wearing a double feather crown) seem to
9
Quadrant W33 shown on the maps in Gasse, A./Rondot, V., Les inscriptions de Séhel, MIFAO 126, Cairo 2007, Carte
14.
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imitate the more elaborate rock inscriptions and tableaus of the Bibi Tagug West area connected to
the cult of Anukis and dating to the Middle and particularly New Kingdom.
a)
b)
Fig. 5: Rock shelter in Bibi Tagug South (view from the west) [a] and rear wall of the shelter covered with
depictions of human figures [b] (Photos: L. Borrmann).
3. Bibi Tagug East
A second large cluster of depictions was found on the granite rocks of a further natural plateau
situated in the east of Bibi Tagug 10 and overlooking the northern entrance of the First Cataract. In
addition to seven images published in Gasse/Rondot 11 a further 14 images each consisting of one
to four human figures were newly discovered. Analogous to the situation in Bibi Tagug South,
apparently the locally employed personnel depicted themselves and their professional routine in
the immediate vicinity of their workplace, in this case the eastern outlook to the north. Although
standing male figures holding sticks and/or staffs form the biggest part among the selfrepresentations, also manned boats and even a man holding and threatening a captive can be
found.
10
Quadrants CC18, DD17-19 and EE18 shown on the maps in Gasse, A./Rondot, V., Les inscriptions de Séhel, MIFAO
126, Cairo 2007, Carte 13.
11
Gasse, A./Rondot, V., Les inscriptions de Séhel, MIFAO 126, Cairo 2007, SEH 122-127 and 230.
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Fig. 6: An unfinished boat and a standing male figure overlooking the northern part of the cataract,
depicted on a granite boulder in Bibi Tagug East (Photo: L. Borrmann).
7) Perspectives
The results of the past field season justify the hope that, when completed, the recent reexamination of the rock inscriptions and images on Sehel Island will allow gaining insight into
various aspects such as the economic function and the evolution of the epigraphic usage of the
island of Sehel, which are not yet entirely understood.
It may be expected that
a) further, so far unknown inscriptions and images can be found and copied,
b) closer analysis of the inscriptions will provide new information on how the island of
Sehel was conceptualized and used as place of worship of Anukis and embedded within
the sacral landscape of the First Cataract region,
c) closer analysis of the content, motif and location of the earlier inscriptions and images
will shed light on the earlier stages of the usage of Sehel island as an important check
point within the cataract region as well as on the beginning of the epigraphic usage of
the island’s granite rocks.
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