Abydos trip

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Pilgrimage to Abydos in the tomb of Menna ( TT69 ).

The Abydos trip is one of the last stops in the ancient Egyptian burial ritual . It is a ritual boat trip of the mummy or statue of a deceased person in rowing or sailing boats to the necropolis of Abydos or to a cult site within the necropolis where the burial is to take place.

Details of the ride

The journey is divided into two parts, namely the outward journey to Abydos and the return journey to the necropolis. The ship with the mummy or statue of the deceased is usually accompanied by several cruise ships. However, the representations are not uniform. As a rule, the inscriptions read “Drive upstream by ship” for the outward journey and “Drive downstream by ship” for the return journey.

Mythological background

The mythological background is the Osiris myth or the belief in life after death . The deceased succeeded in continuing to live by taking part in a trip to Abydos with Osiris . Abydos is obviously not the destination of the journey until the end of the Old Kingdom , before that a generally specified place such as rushes is usually mentioned .

Locations

The Abydos journey has been depicted in many private graves since the Middle Kingdom . B. in Beni Hasan (tombs of Amenemhet and Khnumhotep ) and in Thebes-West .

Similar representations

In the grave depictions there is a second form of boat or ship procession, namely that to the cleaning tent . Here the recently deceased is brought to the west bank of the Nile at the beginning of the procession , to be transfigured and washed in the cleaning tent. Only then is the embalming done . The distinction between the two forms of procession can only be taken from the inscriptions if the mummy or statue to be transported cannot be recognized.

literature

  • Jean Yoyotte: Les pèlerinages dans l'Égypte ancienne. In: Sources orientales. Volume 3, Aux Éditions du Seuil, Paris 1960, pp. 19-74.
  • Jürgen Settgast: Investigations into ancient Egyptian burial representations. Augustin, Glückstadt u. a. 1963, pp. 3-15.
  • Hartwig Altenmüller : Abydos trip. In: Wolfgang Helck (Hrsg.): Lexikon der Ägyptologie (LÄ). Volume I, Harrassowitz, Wiesbaden 1975, ISBN 3-447-01670-1 , Sp. 42-47.
  • Dirk Bröckelmann: Visiting Osiris. The depiction of the boat trip to Abydos in the tombs of the Egyptian elite. In: World and Environment of the Bible. Volume 9/31, 2004, pp. 38-46.