THE TEMPLE OF QUEEN HATSHEPSUT RESULTS OF THE INVESTIGATIONS AND CONSERVATION WORKS OF THE POLISH—EGYPTIAN ARCHAEOLOGICAL MISSION 1972-1973 $Abu BL Youn El Barakt ‘A PRIMARY DESCRIPTION OF A NEW TEMPLE OF QUEEN HATSHEPSUT IN QURNA In April 1970, the Antiquities Department in Bgypt decided to provide the restora- ‘tion works, going on at the temple of Queen Hatshepeut in the area of Deir el-Bahari and carried out by the Department in co-operation with the Polish Archaeological Mlasion, with a water-pump. The machine was to be installed some distance from the monument, on the edge of the cultivated land, ahd the water was to be piped to the temple fromtnere. A oite to the east of Assasif was selected. GUIDE PLAN OF LUXOR Waen the digging to lay the pipes began, the workers come across the base of a sandstone column about a metre below the surface of the ground, The Inspectorate was ine fored about this discovery. Further work on the trench was discontinued, and a request was made for the Department to supply extra means for clearing the site, The Department allocated a cum of B /E/ 250.0, I was entrusted with the job. I began ay work ty making some soundings at the si- te where the water pump was originally planned, This was at a distance of about 200 me- trea north’of the mud-brick pylon of the temple of King Thothnes IIT, called Hnkt-°np. It lies to the south of the foundations of another temple, dating from the Raneaaide pe- vod, and about 250 metres from the tomb of Sheshonk /no. 27/ in the eastern part of As- sasif, The cultivated land stretches to the east, and the lower slopes of the hills of Qurna - to the west, A well, called Bir el-Hashashin, used by the inhabitants of Qurna is situated exactly there, where the site is. 103ral CULTIVATED LAND oodabDoo — “TH CYLTIVATED LAMP ooo°o I AMD STORE WALL STATION IL44 vp RICK WALL T chose the above-mentioned base of the column "A" as the central point /sce fig. 2/. Clearing of the site began first to the north and the west. Six sandstone bax ees, all in situ, were sebsequently found to the east of the base. They were about 1.5 m, in diamater each, with intervals of about 2.5 m, soperating one base from the next, A ‘fragment of the trunk of the column, about 0.36 m, high was preserved om one base, It was shaped identically as the "protodoric" colume in Hathor and Anubis chapels in the temple of Queen Hatshepsut at Deir el-Bahari. Just beside the first base found by the workers, a headless kneeling statue in Black granite was discovered, This statue represented a man, in an offering position by the name of Ken-Amun, It algo bore another masculine name, that of Rek /see fig, 1 and 2/, 104To the south, the footing of a sandstone wall wae found, about 1.8m. thick and bout 7m, Long. Another four sandstone column basea were found in sita to the north of he site, At the westernmost ad, of it, a mud-brick wall, which was perhaps wall of the temple was discovered I, myself found some statue heate of black gra- ite. One of them probably represents Hatohepsut or king Thothmes III. The other of lime- tone and sandstone were found in the debris, some of the: infortunately, before the High Dan was constructed, at 1e enclo- with well prese: 1e tine of the innudation, this rea was regularly flooded, and the majority of these fragments strongly affected y hunidity. The decoration on the limestone fragments was in bas-relief, but some of he sandstone pieces were carved in sunk-relief, A few fragnents bore the cartouches of ings Thothmes I, Thothnes II and Thothaes I The roofs were composed of sandatone s: hie could suggest that the outer walls, the do: ile the inner walls were of limestone, 8, painted sky-blue, with yellow 9: r jambs and lintels were of sandstone The excavations "@ continued in the next 1972-75 season, and were aimed at clea- ing the other parts of the site. Digging in the west part of the temple revealed an on- rence, placed in situ, On the north side of this entrance, the base of a san umn was found. Foundations of another sandstone column were ol: santetone ¢o eription, ¢ south of it, f hieroglyphie in- ntaining the mane of Queen Hatshepsut. The Horus name of the Queen was car= ed also on the fragnent of a column, found in the surrounding debris. Pa: ranite royal statue, with the face on tof the shoulders, were ound. The cartouche of king Thothnes tn served on Lhe right shoulder. Limestone base of a different statue, with remains of the feet, was subsequently pred, This base was inscribed horizontally on three s: Ne name of the person, whom the statue represented vas Neb-A: sre that of a royal coribe and physician. Two small pieces of limestone stalae were found in the debris, th bearing remains of scenes and hieroglyphic inscription: r lintel was alec discovered, with a horizontal line of a black and p °, was pi mile htp-di-nsw, and among his titles ee wi the upper parts of The represents on of thesacred barque of the god Seth on the Iumette of one of them 1a certainly most interes. ting, because of ite rarity. Moat season’s work was over and it was to be resumed the coming year. Dut fron what was cleared, 1t became evident ‘that the discoveries made on the site vere remnants of a tenple or a chrine. At that point however, we were not able to eatablish either ‘the period or its foundation’s date, We could only guess 41 clated back to the tines of Hatehepout or Thothnes IIT, Te plan of the temple could not be ascertained either, except for the part which hhad boon cleared /oco pl. 2/. Tt was even rather aifticult to imagine how the building had looked in tho past. Sone atteupts were made to picture the layout of the teaple and on the basis of the information that had teen gathered, To the east, in the cultivated land, about 50m, avay from the aite, some large sandstone blocks were found. Tt was possible to conaider these fragments as the remnants of the entrance or the pylon. These fraguents bore no inssriptions. As for the éLepoai- tion of colum bases 1t was Observod that the intercoluania between the first and the ee cond bases counting from the south aa well as between the two axial bases and tetweon the two northernnost ones are larger than in renaining cases, An examination of the tvo axial ocluan bases revealed that their facing aurfaces each other had been cut away to enlarge the axial passage. This change was apparently introduced in a later tine, ant could result from an enlargeaent of the portative barque of Amin which wae taken from Earnak and car~ sled Sn procesaion during the greatest Theban Zogtivalo to te placed in other texples. We could thus consider this larger space between the axial oolums as the entrance t0 the secont hall of the temple, 1f, an we suppose, the oultivated fields cover the firet hall, Te second hall however was not ite breadth, since neaourement of the latter vas not yot possibie then, The foundations date of the temple also remained an open question. It must be men- tioned, hovever, ‘taat the mazes of some ganctuaries do oxist, which are attested in the ‘time of Hatshopout and Thothmes III , e.g., Der-nnw and j°-3ht, which have t111 now not veon ddentified with any of the etmuctur velonged to the discorered temple. In the Metropolitan Museum of Art there extets a fragueat of a wooden board, covered with etusco, with a part of an archtteoturel plan for a building on a water-edge. Tayes had already suggeated that this plan should be connected with one of the barque stations wult elther by Hatshepeut or by Tothmes IIL on the edge of the Mle flood plain, to rve ‘ point of arrival for the varque of Amun during religious festivals.” This plan can depict one of the Valley Teaples of either of the rulers, but can eventually repre- present another bullding. Pron the Anacriptional aaterial fount at the site 1t seene that llatshepout was the founder of the Dullding, and thet it vas stil] in use under the reign of Thothaes ITT. One to tempted to apply the nane of §P-2yt to this newly discovered otructure. H°-sht 4s mentioned {n the List of tenyles in the tomb of Pulnre, between tho tenple of” atehe- peut and Hnkt-ny, the name given to the mortuary temple of Thothnes IIT, It also ap- peaze in four other docunenta: the "pearl of Senmut" which cane from the foundation depo= ait, the gouoalled stele of Yorthanpton, in the Hatshepsut eanctuary in Karnak, and lest, excavated.’ It wae possible that one of then 106on a status of Senmit found in the teaple of king Thothmes IIT at Deir el-Behert, in 1963/64, From these records, 1t was known tint there existed a chrine or a temple on ‘the west bank, built to serve aa a station for the rest of god Amn. In accordance with the List of Pulmre, the new temple was situated between the roy- a1 temple of Queen Hatshepout and the mortuary tomple of Thothnes III /see fig. 1/. The Fefore, the new temple could be considered as the one referred to as yP-2yt, built in the tine of Hatshepaut. Te finding of the nane of the Quoen aeant that this temple had been erected before ‘tho upper tonple of Thothmes III at Deir el-Bahari, because that temple vae founded much later, at the end of the King’s reign, long after Hatshepsut ’s death. The nanes of Toth ues I and Thothnes II which were found on soxe fraguents are original and vere not the a= tor substitutions, Tis find provided us with an alternative - either these mazes had been ordered by the Queen herself to comenorate her father and her husband, or that the temple was constructed in the time of Thothmes IT and completed by the Queen after the death of her hustand, It aeencs also probable that the temple had existed in post-Anarna tines, The name and figure of god Aun, which are preserved on some of the fragnents had been erased and restored again, Te black granite head of a otatue - of a noble or a priest - found in the exenvations is an example of the sculpture style typical of the tine of king Amenhotep III, ‘the clue for that association teing the narrow, dreany eyen. The temple way have veon demolished in the time of king Ramesses IY, who tegan to vutld hio own tomple only @ short distance from the structure described in this article, and could have been used as a quarry. The history of the tenple is however very unclear, and no doubt only further exeava- tons can provide more detailed and fuller infromation on its founder and ite fate. Annotations 1 otto B, 2 Hayes, Scepter of Egypt, vol, IZ, pp. 175-176 and fig. 97 3 Of, P, Taoan and others, Une Chapelle d’Hatchepaout & Karnak, Gare 1977, pp. 7% and 75 with notes 2-4 and M, Maroiniak, Une nouvelle statue de Senenmout récement dé- couverte &-Deir el-Bahari, BIPAO IXITI, 1965, pp. 201 - 207. Topographie des Thebanischen Gaues, Berlin 1952, pp. 14, 24. 107