Ride in the country
| Ride in the countryside in hieroglyphics | |||||||
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| Predynastics |
Heb-chenet-net-ta Ḥb-ẖnt-nt-t3 ride (as a pageant) in the country |
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| Fixed date |
3ḫt Eighth day of the moon in the third month of the Peret period |
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The ancient Egyptian festival Journey in the Country ( Chenet-net-ta ) has been documented in connection with the Escort of Horus since predynastic times and is one of the oldest festivals in the ancient Egyptian festival calendar.
background
The festival "Ride in the Country"
Originally, the king roamed the country every two years to administer justice and distribute gifts for outstanding achievements of the people. These activities went hand in hand with the festival “Ride in the Country”. In the early days, village chiefs and minor princes were responsible for supplying the king. The standards marched through the country accompanied by army detachments with the king. In this context, the army was also seen as escorting Horus. The associated royal motif of "punishing the wicked and rewarding the followers" persisted in various modifications until the late period .
In connection with the ceremonies, a ship was always depicted in tomb paintings. This form of representation can be found in archaeological finds during the Negade II epoch for all of Egypt. Initially, the ship was mainly used as a "container for presents and gifts". For this purpose, the king's ship "Horus, the king's falcon" represented the king himself as a symbol of God. The gift vessels probably contained ointments and anointing oils that the faithful of the country received as divine gifts. Even in later times, ointments and oils continued to be of great importance as sacred gifts. In return, sacrificial gifts from the population could be stowed in the emptying ship.
The king drove to several stops on the bank of the Nile on the ship on which the escort of Horus stood in the form of statues of gods in small shrines . While the people celebrated on the bank of the Nile, the king exercised his office as divine judge. As a sign of jurisdiction, an alignment post was affixed in the fore aisle with the "Shemsi" execution device, which the king replaced with the "post of the world ruler Re" after the introduction of the cult of Re. For example, the forty-meter-long royal ship of Cheops had a gold casing and served as the “ great judicial house ”.
Al-Lahun papyri
Since the festival is noted for different days in the Egyptian calendar of the month Peret III , the festivities are based on the lunar calendar . In the Papyrus Berlin 10003B VS is for the ninth year of Sesostris III. mentioned a feast day for the 17th Peret III. The reading and assignment is problematic. Rolf Krauss thinks it is possible that it could be the feast day of the “drive through the country”, which falls on the eighth day of the lunar calendar.
literature
- Rainer Hannig : Large concise dictionary of Egyptian-German. (2800-950 BC) . von Zabern, Mainz 2006, ISBN 3-8053-1771-9 . P. 686.
- Rolf Krauss : Sothis and moon dates. Studies on the astronomical and technical chronology of ancient Egypt. Gerstenberg, Hildesheim 1985, ISBN 3-8067-8086-X .
- Siegfried Schott : Ancient Egyptian festival dates . Publishing house of the Academy of Sciences and Literature, Mainz / Wiesbaden 1950.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Björn Landström : Ships of the Pharaohs - 4000 years of Egyptian shipbuilding. Allen & Unwin, London 1970, p. 120.