Light bulbs from Dendera

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"Light bulbs from Dendera"
(relief on the south wall of the crypt)

Dendera light bulbs (also reliefs from Dendera , rarely light bulbs from Dendera ) is the popular name for depictions of unusual objects on some reliefs in the Hathor temple of Dendera . The temple was founded in the Middle Kingdom , but the temple house visible today comes from the Ptolemaic era, in which the artists increasingly deviated from the formalisms from the time of the Middle Kingdom; numerous representations that are unique in themselves were created. The reliefs are made by Egyptologists in the reign of King ( Pharaoh ) Ptolemy XII. Neos Dionysus (dated around 30 BC).

According to pseudoscientific authors such as Peter Krassa , Reinhard Habeck , Erdoğan Ercivan or Erich von Däniken , the objects depicted represent early Egyptian light bulbs . The reliefs are accompanied by religious texts whose hieroglyphic representations and spellings supposedly do not correspond to the conventional ones . According to pre-astronautics , the reliefs are intended to prove that technologies were known and used at the time that were technologically similar to those of today. In addition, hints should be hidden in the representations and texts, according to which the Egyptian gods visited the Egyptians as extraterrestrials and taught them how to use highly developed weapon technology.

According to Egyptology, the Dendera reliefs show the sunrise of the sun every morning in an allegorical form, as it has traditionally been handed down since the New Kingdom . The accompanying texts contain sayings and phrases that underpin the purely religious and cult statements of the pictures. The murals show the Egyptian god Harsomtus in the form of a snake in the morning sky, who rises from the underworld in the form of the womb of the sky goddess Nut . Harsomtus and the underworld emerge together from an opening lotus blossom . Harsomtus is accompanied by various aerial deities, he is protected by Upu in the form of a knife-armored, upright baboon . The supposedly unconventional hieroglyphs were translated by Wolfgang Waitkus in 1991 and the individual image components of the relief representations were assigned to their functions and figures of gods.

Location

Temple of Hathor at Dendera
Temple of Isis behind the Temple of Hathor

The murals are located in an eastern side chamber (room G) on the ground floor, as well as in a basement room ( crypt south 1 C). The same three similar but slightly different cult objects are depicted in both rooms . A second group of representations is on the upper floor of the temple and a third in the sanctuary of the Temple of Isis at Dendera . While the reliefs in the crypts are worked into bare, polished stone, the reliefs on the upper floors show traces of paint and gold varnish .

The actual, plastic cult objects were very likely kept in the crypts and taken out at the beginning of the New Year celebrations and placed in their predetermined cult place. The crypts for their part represented a kind of decorated magazine store and were assigned to various religious holidays and festivities, based on the respective inscriptions .

content

photos

The reliefs show anthropomorphic gods positioned in front of or behind large, piston-shaped cult objects. The objects in question arise from a lotus blossom , are slightly pear-shaped and are shown standing upright at an angle. Inside there is a snake that looks forward and backward. The objects are mostly supported by Djed pillars , which are provided with arms and in some images support the piston itself, in other images even reach in and carry the snake. One to three figures, depicted much smaller, crouch under each of the objects; they either look together in a certain direction or look at each other. Two of the reliefs show an upright baboon with knives in his hands, who has turned towards the objects. The entire arrangement rests on a papyrus boat . In Egyptology these objects are called "unusual cult objects" or "bubble-shaped containers" or "Hen vessels".

Inscriptions

The inscriptions in the relevant crypts have, among other things, the festivals " Sed Festival ", "New Moon Celebration in the fourth month of the Peret season" and "New Year Festival" on the theme and are exclusively dedicated to the deities Harsomtus , Thoth and Resomtus . In 1991, the Egyptologist Wolfgang Waitkus devoted himself to the inscriptions in his dissertation , translated them and explained their symbolic and religious meanings. Their order and meaning, based on Waitkus' dissertation, is as follows:

Night boat of the sun god
(object 1a on the south wall of the crypt)
Day barge of the sun god
(object 2a on the south wall of the crypt)
Day barge of the sun god
(object 3a on the north wall of the crypt)
Monkey figure with a toad face
(relief on the north wall of the crypt)
  • Text to object 1a (chamber south 1-C; south wall):

" Words to speak of Harsomtus, the great god who dwells in Dendera, who is in the arms of the first in the night boat, the sublime serpent, whose Chentj statue bears Heh , whose crew carries his perfection, because of which Ba the appearing ( Hathor) has appeared in heaven, whose figure the admirers adore, who comes as a unique one, surrounded by his serpentine forehead , with numerous names at the top of the Chui-en-hesen, the power image of Re in the Land- des - Atum (Dendera), the father of the gods who created everything. Gold as its metal, height: four hands. "

  • Text to object 1b (room G, south wall):

“ Harsomtus in the hen container of the night boat, inside of which there are four figures. The figure of Heh is on his (means Harsomtus) front part, while this flower is on his end and the water below him. Gold as its metal, height: four hands. "

  • Text to object 2a (chamber south 1-C; south wall):

“ Words to speak of Harsomtus, the great god who dwells in Dendera, the living Ba in the lotus blossom of the day barque, whose perfection the two arms of the Djed pillar carry as his Seschemu image, while the Kas are on their knees with bowed Poor. Gold and all precious stones, height: three hands. "

  • Text to object 2b (room G, north wall):

“ Harsomtus in his boat. Gold and all precious stones, height: three hands. "

  • Text to object 3a (chamber south 1-C; north wall):

“ Words to speak of Harsomtus, the great god who dwells in Dendera, who rises from the lotus blossom as a living Ba, whose perfection is exalted by the Kematju images of his Ka, whose Seschemu image is venerated by the crew of the day barge, whose The body of the Djed pillar bears, under whose Seschemu image is the primeval and whose majesty the comrades of his ka carry. Gold, height: one cubit .
The monkey figure has the following inscription: Your name is completely as 'Upu', your face is that of a toad . I slaughtered your enemies with the knife and I fell your opponent in the place of execution. "

  • Text to object 3b (room G, north wall):

“ Harsomtus of Upper and Lower Egypt , the Sata serpent that comes out of the flower, which the Hen container contains, on the sides of which are the four figures with human faces, under whose head the figure of Heh on the Serech on the Tip of his bark is. The Juf monkey with the face of a toad and with the knives in his two hands is in front of him, like the two figures that carry the front part of this flower ”

Pseudoscientific Views

Pseudoscientists are of the opinion that the objects depicted on the reliefs are incandescent lamps and that this is evidence of the existence of knowledge and use of the production of artificial electricity as early as ancient Egypt .

As an important argument, they cite that no traces of soot could be found in any of the underground rooms , which would have to be present if the ancient Egyptians had used simple torches. However, Egyptologists have repeatedly pointed out that many tombs and crypts had to be freed from layers of soot, often centimeter thick, and that soot deposits can still be detected in many pyramids and tombs today. In addition, with the help of simple oil lamps filled with palm and olive oil , it is possible to shine almost soot-free and thus an unwanted blackening of the wall decorations can easily be avoided. To support their theory, pseudoscientists refer to the so-called Baghdad battery .

In order to maintain their theory that Dendera's murals are incandescent lamps , Rainer Habeck, Peter Krassa and Erdoğan Ercivan present their own interpretations of the individual elements of representation. They interpret the day and night barges as power lines , the Djed pillars with arms as high-voltage insulators and the writhing snakes as electrical discharges . The small figures under the "light bulbs" are interpreted as positive and negative poles , the knife-armored monkey god Upu is intended to point out the dangers that would arise if handled improperly. The god Ihi , who precedes two of the reliefs, is interpreted as a luminous phenomenon and background noise, as can occur with an electrical discharge, as he holds a sistrum in his hands and, according to the inscription, accompanies the festivities with rattle. The cultic role Ihi was actually intended to play in Egyptian mythology (he was the musician of the gods) is deliberately ignored.

As a further possibility to underpin their theses, the pseudoscientists use ancient Egyptian tombs and prayer texts from all epochs and interpret them in such a way that they are told epics and encrypted radio messages from cockpits between gods who attacked one another as aliens in their airships. The gods are said to have appeared to the Egyptians in person in order to initiate them into their high-tech knowledge, including the manufacture and handling of electrical light sources.

Egyptological exposition

Wolfgang Waitkus initially points out that all pseudoscientific authors repeatedly ignore the religious-mythological content of the accompanying inscriptions and banderoles surrounding the reliefs in their interpretations of the representations in the crypts . These inscriptions refer to the myth of the rising sun in the form of the snake god Harsomtus , who "should come out of his lotus flower and appear in Dendera in front of the chapels of the gods waiting for him ". Waitkus bases his evaluations on similarly structured texts in papyri from earlier epochs , in which the same cultic sequence of the festival of the rising sun is described. The only differences are in the names of the main actors .

Frieze on the ground floor with inscriptions

The type of barge representation makes it clear that in the sequence of images from north to south, first so-called “barges of the night” and then “barges of the day” come into action. The picture event follows the sunrise of the sun every morning. According to Waitkus, the images harmonize perfectly with the ancient sun myth of the ancient Egyptians. For comparison, he refers to the work of Hermann A. Schlögl , who also examined unusual depictions of day and night barges in Dendera on the upper floors. This refers to those images that can be found particularly in the roof chapel of the Hathor Temple. They show the barges transporting large lotus blossoms, from which Harsomtus rises in the shape of a snake. However, the bubble-like spheres around the snakes are missing here. A third form of representation by Harsomtus shows the god as a child and rising from a lotus blossom.

The much talked about, ominous "containers" of the representations in the crypts are referred to as hen in the accompanying texts , which in fact can mean "container", "box", but also "womb". In connection with the solar myth of Harsomtus and the rising sun, the bubble-shaped structures can be identified as the womb of the sky goddess Nut . According to Waitkus, the fact that Harsomtus (in the form of the snake) is still in the womb should indicate that the womb of the groove can partly also be understood as the underworld. Harsomtus, the "shining primordial snake", rises from the underworld and tries to leave it in order to cross the morning sky in his golden day barge. Waitkus draws on religious texts and representations from the New Kingdom as evidence for this explanation . In these, instead of Harsomtus, the resurrection god Chepri is depicted in the form of a scarab as he leaves the underworld during the 5th hour of the Amduat to cross the morning sky in his golden day barge as Cheper-Re . Here, too, the underworld is depicted as a hill-shaped or bubble-shaped structure. Some of these primeval hill images are combined with the figurative representation of the goddess Nut and clearly function as the womb of the sky goddess. The fact that the “light bulbs from Dendera” are depicted like glass bulbs is nothing special, according to Waitkus. The Egyptians liked to show containers that were closed and opaque in the original in cross-section, provided that there was something in these containers (regardless of whether it actually existed or was in a religious-symbolic conception). Such an arrangement was called Seschemu by the Egyptians and referred to a cult object or idol that was hidden in a sacred vessel and should not be seen. It does not necessarily mean that the containers for the cult objects by Dendera were actually made of transparent glass.

Next Waitkus examined the companion figures and objects positioned around the boat. Particular attention is paid to the Djed pillars with arms. The arms mostly visibly carry the piston-shaped Hen container, but in some depictions the arms reach into the sphere and carry Harsomtus. The symbolic statement behind it is that both the underworld, or the womb of the groove, as well as Harsomtu's eternal existence should be guaranteed (the Djed pillar is the symbol of eternity). Some depictions show small, crouching and occasionally facing figures under the sphere. Since these two figures are named in the cult rooms on the upper floors of the temple, they can be identified as the gods Shu and Heh . Both are air deities and their presence underlines the symbolic representation of the spheres as the womb of the groove. The third, most striking element of the Dendera pictures is the upright baboon armed with knives in front of the celestial spheres. The white baboon, called Juf in Egyptian , is demonstrably closely related to Thoth, the god of the moon and time . Since the knife-armored monkey appears in a representation in which a "Bark of the day" appears for the first time, a role as "protector of the newborn Harsomtus (= rising sun)" can be assumed. This also harmonizes with traditional traditions, according to which deities such as Thoth, Khnum , Seth and Horus, as protectors of the sun and their celestial barge, accompanied them on their daily journey and protected them from darkness and chaos .

literature

Egyptological literature
  • Sylvia Schoske , Dietrich Wildung : God and gods in ancient Egypt. 2nd Edition. von Zabern, Mainz 1992, ISBN 3-8053-1409-4 .
  • Bolko Stern: Egyptian Cultural History. Volume 1: Antiquity. W. Niemann, Hamburg 1896, pp. 105-108.
  • Wolfgang Waitkus: The texts in the lower crypts of the temple of Hathort in Dendera. Your statements on the function and importance of these spaces (= Munich Egyptological Studies (MÄS). Vol. 47). von Zabern, Mainz 1997, ISBN 3-805-32322-0 (also: Hamburg, Univ., Diss., 1991).
  • Wolfgang Waitkus: The birth of Harsomtus from the blossom. On the meaning and function of some cult objects in the temple of Dendera. In: Studies on Ancient Egyptian Culture. (SAK) Vol. 30, 2002, ISSN  0340-2215 , pp. 373-394.
Popular and para-scientific literature
  • Erich von Däniken : The eyes of the Sphinx. New questions to the old land on the Nile (= Goldmann 12339). Full paperback edition. Goldmann, Munich 1991, ISBN 3-442-12339-9 (original edition: Bertelsmann, Munich 1989, ISBN 3-570-04390-8 ).
  • Erdoğan Ercivan : The Star Gate of the Pyramids. Secret ways into the cosmos. Bettendorf, Munich et al. 1997, ISBN 3-88498-096-3 .
  • Erdoğan Ercivan: Forbidden Egyptology. Puzzling science and high technology of the pharaohs. 15th edition. Kopp, Rottenburg 2006, ISBN 3-930219-47-6 .
  • Peter Krassa , Reinhard Habeck: The light of the pharaohs. High technology and electricity in ancient Egypt. 5th edition. Herbig, Munich 1999, ISBN 3-7766-1717-9 .
  • Ivan T. Sanderson : Investigating the Unexplained. A Compendium of Disquieting Mysteries of the Natural World. 2nd printing. Prentice-Hall, Englewood Cliffs NY 1972.
Further literature

Web links

Commons : Lightbulbs by Dendera  - collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c d e Peter Krassa, Reinhard Habeck: The light of the pharaohs. Munich 1999, pp. 121, 157.
  2. ↑ a b c d e f g h i j W. Waitkus: The birth of Harsomtus from the blossom. On the meaning and function of some cult objects in the temple of Dendera. In: SAK 30 , 2002, pp. 273-290.
  3. ↑ Erdoğan Ercivan: Forbidden Egyptology. Rottenburg 2006, p. 104.
  4. ↑ a b c W. Waitkus: The texts in the lower crypts of the Temple of Hathor at Dendera. Mainz 1997, pp. 233-243.
  5. ↑ W. Waitkus: The birth of Harsomtus from the blossom. On the meaning and function of some cult objects in the temple of Dendera. In: SAK 30 , 2002, pp. 373–394 ( abstract of the article as a PDF file ).
  6. ↑ a b W. Waitkus: The birth of Harsomtus from the blossom. On the meaning and function of some cult objects in the temple of Dendera. In: SAK 30 , 2002.
  7. ↑ Erdoğan Ercivan: Forbidden Egyptology. Rottenburg 2006, fig. 49, p. 105.
  8. ↑ Erich von Däniken: The eyes of the Sphinx. Munich 1991, p. 215.
  9. ↑ a b Peter Krassa, Reinhard Habeck: The light of the pharaohs. Munich 1999, pp. 121 & 157.
  10. ↑ Emma Brunner-Traut : Everyday life among pharaohs. This is how the ancient Egyptians lived. Herder, Freiburg (Breisgau) 1998, ISBN 3-451-04684-9 , p. 245.
  11. ↑ Charlotte Booth: Ancient Egypt for Dummies. Translated from the American by Tina Kaufmann. Wiley-VCH, Weinheim 2008, ISBN 978-3-527-70421-7 , p. 220.
  12. ↑ Sylvia Schoske, Dietrich Wildung : God and gods in ancient Egypt. von Zabern, Mainz 1992, ISBN 3-8053-1409-4 , pp. 134-138.