1^6 



NA TURE 



[June i6, 1904 



eleventh dynasty wns routjh and crude in style. The 

 discovery in the new temple at Deir el-Bahari of hun- 

 dreds of fragments of coloured relief sculptures of the 

 eleventh dynasty compels us to modify this impression, 

 and we see from them that, side by side with the some- 

 what crude and awkward productions hitherto con- 

 sidered characteristic of this dynasty, work of the 

 highest excellence was also turned out. This is an im- 

 portant result, and it is by no means improbable that 

 this improved artistic style is the work of a sculptor 

 who, we know, lived in the reign of Nebkherura, 

 Mertisen by name, and his school. 



These reliefs originally formed part of the decoration 

 of the walls of the main pillared hall of Nebkherura's 

 temple. This hall, only a part of which has as yet been 

 uncovered, stands upon an artificially squared platform 

 of rock, immediately to the south of the Hathor shrine 

 of the great temple of Deir cl-Bahari, and separated 

 from it by a small open court about sixty feet across. 

 The platform is about fifteen feet high. Its sides 

 were masked by a magnificent wall of finely-squared 

 and fitted limestone blocks, built in bonded courses of 



Threshold and Pillared Hall. 



broad and narrow blocks alternately, one above the 

 other, as may be seen from the photograph. In the ex- 

 treme south-west corner of the court this wall is perfect. 

 It is without doubt one of the finest specimens of 

 Egyptian masonry yet brought to light. Entrance to 

 the main hall on the platform was gained, as in the 

 great temple, by means of an inclined ramp, which led 

 up to an entrance gate, no doubt, like that of the main 

 temple, a trilithon of red granite ; the threshold of 

 finely-polished red granite still remains in situ (Fig. 2). 

 The socket in which the door turned (in the usual 

 ancient manner before the invention of the hinge) is 

 clearly seen, and also the small side run, or channel, 

 by which the door could be bodily removed from the 

 socket and replaced when necessary. 



To the north of the ramp a colonnade of small, square 

 sandstone pillars has been discovered, placed on a stone 

 pavement immediately before and below the platform. 

 It can hardly be doubted that a second similar colon- 

 nade originally existed to the south of the ramp. 

 Thus we have the main portion of the temple, consist- 



NO. 1807, ^OI- 70] 



ing- of a pillared, or " hypostyle," hall of octagonal 

 pillars placed on a platform of rock, approached by an 

 inclined ramp, flanked by colonnades on the lower 

 ground level. It will be noticed by all who have visited 

 Deir el-Bahari that, so far as platform, ramp, and 

 colonnades are concerned, this is preciselv the arrange- 

 ment of the great temple of Queen Hatshepset, or 

 Hatasu, to the north. This opens up a new field of 

 possibilities. The curious plan of the great temple has 

 puzzled archaeologists and architects from Wilkinson's 

 time to the present day. Whence this curious arrange- 

 ment of platforms, inclined planes, and colonnades, so 

 totally unlike anything else in Egypt? Various theories 

 have been propounded, but it is only now that the solu- 

 tion has been found, owing to the discovery of the 

 temple of Nebkherura. Colonnades, platforms, and 

 ramps are then a feature of the older temple-architec- 

 ture of Egypt; they were, at the time of the eighteenth 

 dynasty, when the great temple of Hatshepset was 

 built, old-fashioned, archaic, but it is evident that the 

 great temple is, as far as its main arrangements are 

 concerned, a mere enlarged copy of the thousand-year 

 older temple at its side; it is simply a " magnificent 

 archaism." 



When it was built the older and smaller temple was 

 still used as a temple, apparently, and both existed side 

 by side for some time ; this is shown by the fact that 

 the later temple is not placed in the centre of the cirque, 

 but is crammed up against the northern cliff-face ; 

 it could not be placed in the exact centre because the 

 southern portion of the space at Deir el-Bahari was 

 already occupied by the older temple. It was built 

 roughly parallel to the older temple ; it is oriented 24° 

 S. of E. (Lockyer, " Dawn of Astronomv," p. 212), and 

 this must be more or less the orientation of Nebkhe- 

 rura's temple also. This fact is of interest, as the ques- 

 tion might be mooted whether the orientation of the 

 main temple is also an archaism, imitated from that of 

 Nebkherura's temple (m.c. 2500), or not. Sir Norman 

 Lockyer has already postulated (" Dawn of Astro- 

 nomy," p. 218) the existence in the western hills of 

 Thebes of a temple of Hathor older than the shrine of 

 the goddess at Deir el-Bahari, " built to observe the 

 rising of the star fHathor-Sothis, i.e. Sirius] at a time 

 perhaps somewhat later than that given by Biot (3285 

 B.C.)." Nebkherura's date is about 2500 B.C., but we 

 have as yet no proof that in his funerary temple the 

 reverence paid to his spirit was conjoined with a worship 

 of Hathor. We may find this proof in the course of the 

 further excavations, or the older temple of Hathor may 

 have existed further to the southward, perhaps on the 

 site of the present little temple dedicated to Hathor of 

 the Waste at Deir el-Medina, which was originally 

 founded in the reign of Amenhetep III., B.C. 1450. 

 Certain it is that the worship of Hathor in the western 

 hills is far older than the time of Amenhetep III. and 

 Hatshepset, and the foundation of the oldest temple 

 built in her honour at Deir el-Bahari or Deir el-Medina 

 may w-ell go back to very near the date propounded by 

 Biot for the first systematic observation of the heliacal 

 risings of Sothis-Hathor (Sirius). It is to this very 

 period — between 3285 B.C. and 2400 B.C. — that the be- 

 ginnings of the Theban Empire and of the Theban 

 temples must be placed. To the student of the astro- 

 nomical orientation of Egyptian temples the new dis- 

 covery will, therefore, be of the highest interest. 



Among the large number of smaller objects dis- 

 covered in the course of the excavations, the most in- 

 teresting will probably prove to be the series of small 

 ex-votos of devotees of Hathor, found in the court be- 

 tween the two temples. These consist of small cows 

 (the sacred animal of the goddess), and female figures 

 in earthenware and blue faience, votive eyes and ears 



